by Kyle West
I realized the truth then. “You’re real. You’re really real.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
* * *
We sat that way for a long time, talking. Isaru knew some of the things he had done above, but not everything. Meanwhile, I explained everything those of us above had gone through. As we talked, the sun never shifted position in the sky.
“I didn’t know I’d find you here,” I finished. “I never would have known to look here. I thought you were lost, that I was responsible for everything that happened to you . . .”
“It was all an accident,” Isaru said. “Shal himself said something like this would happen if one who wasn’t strong enough entered the Hyperfold, at least through the way he devised with the key. Ever since that day, I’ve been stuck in this place. It’s like the real world. Only . . . lonelier. Even now I’m not fully convinced you’re real.”
“You’ve been in here alone?” I asked. “This isn’t just a vision of some sort?”
“Like the Hyperfold, the Xenofold has its own reality,” Isaru said. “Only it was never meant for the living. Since I didn’t truly die, I’m stuck in limbo. I can go either way . . . to the place of the dead, or back to the land of the living. It depends on what happens up above . . . if Shal can be expelled from my mind.”
“How is that even possible?” I asked.
Isaru smiled sadly. “It would be difficult. I have seen Rakhim. I have felt his power. I have tried to repossess my body, but I’m not that strong.”
“What would it take?” I asked. “If there’s a chance, then I want to take it. If we can get you back, it would change everything!”
“I must be brought into direct contact with the Xenofold,” Isaru said. “My physical body.”
“You mean, I’d have to get you to enter a reversion.”
Isaru nodded. “Not easy, especially considering that it’s not me controlling my body, but Rakhim. Assuming a connection is made between myself down here, and my body up there . . .” Here, Isaru pointed up above. “There may be enough strength in the Xenofold to drive Rakhim out for good.”
“And then you would be back.”
Isaru nodded his assent. “I think so.”
In my mind, I couldn’t see how it was possible. Isaru would need to be subdued, and the only way I knew of was to create a bond that had enough power to make him go catatonic. We had done it once before in our desperate attempt to escape Ragnarok Crater, but would it work again, with him surrounded by his army and his dragons?
I thought about that a long time.
Perhaps the Xenofold was showing me what it needed me to see. Perhaps it was showing me the direction to go. And if we could bond with Isaru and bring him to a reversion, then yes, I decided, it would be possible to bring him back.
But it would by no means be easy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
WE SAT IN SILENCE FOR a long while. I looked out into the desert. The heat emanating from the sunbaked rocks was as real as anything I’d ever felt.
What would it be like to exist in this place, all alone?
“How are you?” I asked. “Are you holding up okay?”
Isaru took a moment to answer. “Like the Hyperfold, time here moves differently. I don’t know how long it’s been, but it also doesn’t bother me.” His face remained neutral. “Some days, I wonder if it would be better to join the Xenofold. To give up a life above. If I do that, then there’s no chance I could ever come back.”
“We’ll find a way,” I said. “Now that I know it’s possible, we’ll find a way.”
“How did you know to find me here?” he asked.
“I didn’t,” I said. “I came here looking for Elekim.”
Isaru nodded, as if this made sense. “I’ve also been seeking Elekim.”
“Any luck?”
“I’ve been to the shores of the Sea of Creation in this place. We could go there now if you’d like.”
I nodded. “Isn’t it far?”
“Distances don’t matter here,” Isaru said. “Grab my hand.”
I did as he asked.
“Close your eyes and follow me.”
Before I could ask, the desert heat was gone along with the bright sun, both of which were replaced by dimness and cool, dank air. When I opened my eyes, I gasped upon seeing the glowing Sea of Creation.
Or at least, what was left of it. The Sea had retreated miles from where I had last seen it. Though I had never seen the Sea in the physical world, I had seen it in visions. While this was no less a vision, I got the feeling that this was a true representation of what the Sea was like in the real world, as the world within the Xenofold was no more than a physical mirror of the surface.
The Sea was more of a lake now, and a small lake at that. Where once the ichor had touched the cavern walls, there were now miles between it and those same walls. The glow it provided was barely enough to illumine my hands in front of my face. The xen which grew along the walls was dimmer than I remembered. There was a faint, foul odor, like rotting vegetation. The xen dying, perhaps.
“This is it,” Isaru said, stepping forward just inches from the ichor. “What’s left of it, anyway.”
I stepped beside him, and could see clear across what was left of the Sea, at the far shore. Halfway across, the pink ichor abruptly turned dark, almost black. This black part of the Sea was frothing and violent. I remembered all those years ago, when we had been here to destroy Askala and save the world from the Radaskim. The Sea certainly hadn’t been doing that. Right in the center of the Sea came a glow, less feeble than the rest of the Sea, and not far from that was a long conduit, exiting from the cavern ceiling and delving deep into the Sea.
“The Xenofont,” I said.
Isaru nodded. “It still draws from the Sea, and whatever is drawn is diverted straight to the Hyperfold.”
“Destroying it here would affect nothing?”
“This is just a vision of how it is in the real world,” Isaru said. “It would be like trying to change the real world through a dream. It’s no more than a mirror.”
Though it was unmentioned by Isaru, dreams did have power. It was through dreams, my dreams, that Shal had been able to gain control of Isaru in the first place.
“Is Elekim here?”
“The entrance to the center of the Xenofold is there, in the middle of the Sea,” Isaru said. “I tried to swim out there, but the Sea rejected me on three separate occasions.” He looked at me. “Perhaps it would be more accepting of you.”
“I can try,” I said.
As a test, I stepped forward until my boots were a few inches under the ichor. The liquid brightened around me.
“That’s a good sign,” Isaru said.
I nodded. “I need a definitive answer. I need to know if the time of the Xenofold has passed.”
“That was the hardest part of your story to hear,” Isaru said quietly. “Let’s pray that it’s not.”
I went forward a few more steps, until the ichor was up to my waist, before turning around.
“I promise I’ll come back for you, Isaru.”
He nodded, but something in his gray eyes seemed to doubt me.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll be waiting.”
I nodded. “No goodbyes, Isaru. We’ll be seeing one another soon.”
I turned back around, reaching out to the ichor. I felt myself connect with it and, on my command, it drew back into two walls, creating a path that led directly to the bright shining light, just as it had done in the real world.
I went toward that light, walking through it without hesitation, entering the heart of the Xenofold.
* * *
When I stepped on the other side of the light, I was in the same place I was before – the Sea of Creation. I walked up the path made in the ichor sea until I reached the shore. A figure stood there, but it wasn’t Isaru.
I felt my heart beat faster and my throat clench once I realized who it was.
“Alex?”
He turned with a smile, dressed in plain pants and a white T-shirt – the same kind he might have worn four hundred years ago.
In that moment, I wasn’t Shanti, but Anna. I couldn’t control myself as I ran forward and threw my arms around him. For the first time in four hundred years, I could feel him, even smell him. He was real.
I felt myself shaking and crying, and didn’t even care. He kissed the top of my head and pulled me tighter.
“It’s good to see you,” he said. “To hold you.”
“You too,” I said, my voice shaky. “Please tell me this is real.”
I didn’t want to let go, but his grip loosened, and I pulled back to look at him. He smiled. His hair was brown and long, falling halfway across his brown eyes, just as I remembered him. His arms were long, but strong. I put my head against his chest, feeling safe for the first time in years.
Was this me, or her? Was there even a difference.
He took my chin and tilted it up toward his face. He leaned forward and kissed me while I closed my eyes. I felt the kiss not just on my lips, but every part of me. I kissed him back, hard, unable to control myself, with centuries of pent-up desperation.
This wasn’t Elekim, the god of the Elekai. This was Alex, and I was his wife, Anna.
I started to cry at the realization that this was all a vision and not real, and it could only last for a few minutes before it went away.
Alex looked at me with concern. “What’s wrong, Anna? Tell me.”
I sat down on a nearby rock, where he joined me, holding me close while I stained his shirt with tears. After a minute, I finally managed to speak. “This isn’t real. You can’t come back with me.”
Alex laughed. “What do you mean? Of course it’s real. I only had to wait until you found me.”
I sniffled. “What do you mean?”
“You were the key, Anna,” Alex said. “I’m here. This is real.”
I looked up at him, unbelieving. “No. That can’t be. I entered the reversion, and now I’m here. You mean . . . this place is real?”
“When you entered the Xenofold, I felt every question you had to ask, every desire of your heart. I heard what was on your mind . . . and you were right.”
“Right about what?”
“You need me. The world needs me. We must fight with everything we have left, one last push by the Elekai to stop the Radaskim for good. We’re too weak to last for much longer. And after we save this world, we’ll have to leave it. You and I together.”
Now I was sure this was a dream and not reality. “But how?”
“The time of the Xenofold is coming to an end, but not like you think. We will last long enough to fight and protect this planet for the final time. Only then can it end.”
“But we would be leaving this world to Shen,” I said.
“Yes,” Alex said, surprising me with that answer. “There is little we can do about that. Humanity, and Earth, will be as safe as it can ever be when entrusted to him.”
“You’ve spoken to him?”
“Yes. The Xenofold has peered into his thoughts, his intents. Under him, humanity can once again rise from the ashes, becoming greater than it has ever been before. Even if we wanted to stop him somehow, he cannot be attacked. There is no central point, and more than that, it would be detrimental to humanity.”
“Then it’s over,” I said. “Shen has won.”
“No,” Alex said. “If Shen wins, humanity wins.”
“When will it happen, then?” I asked. “When will the Xenofold end?”
Alex looked at me seriously. “It ends when I say it ends. And I will only say it’s over when the job is done.”
“You could stop the Hyperfold if you ended it now,” I said. “You could kill it all right now.”
Alex nodded. “There are a few concerns, though. There is your friend, Isaru, and Elder Isandru. They need to be saved first.”
“Of course,” I said.
“It is not just a matter of mercy,” Alex said. “It’s a matter of winning the war.”
“What do you mean?”
“Odium of the Dark has three champions. The first is Rakhim Shal, who is the chief of the three. Shal controls Isaru, Odium’s second champion.”
“And the third?”
“Elder Haris at the Sanctum,” Alex said. “But there’s nothing we can do about him right now. We have to focus our efforts on Rakhim Shal right now, since he’s the chief of the three. And if we do nothing to stop him, Shal will kill Isandru inside the Hyperfold. All three Champions must be freed from Odium’s grip before the Xenofold can pass away. If we don’t do that, then they will become fully Radaskim and have enough power to challenge the Xenofold directly. It would create a situation like the first Ragnarok War, with the Radaskim in control of the Xenofold again.”
“So, we have to save them first,” I said. “But how can we do that. You can’t be serious that this is reality, not the Xenofold.”
Alex laughed. “You still don’t understand? This is the real world. It took a lot of my power to do but I’m physically here, just as you are physically here.”
“Then I’m fully Anna,” I said.
And for the first time, I realized that Shanti had sunk deep into my mind, the watcher as Anna had been the watcher before.
It won’t be long, I thought. I just need your body for a while. You’ll have it back, my friend.
“It’s only temporary,” Alex said. “We exited the Sea of Creation together just now. There, you can see it behind us.”
I turned to look, and as Alex said, it was there, just as it had been in the vision.
It was all a bit overwhelming, but something told me time was of the essence. “What now then, Alex?”
“We get out of here,” he said. “And we help Isandru.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“SO HOW DO WE GET to Isaru? I left my friends at the reversion. They’re probably still there . . .”
“They’ve left,” Alex said. “They were forced to when some crawlers overwhelmed their position. I saw them fly off, but can’t say more than that.”
“Are they okay?”
Alex nodded. “They got out just in time.”
I wanted to ask just how he knew that, but I realized that wherever the Xenofold reached, Alex knew what was happening.
“What now, then?”
“There are various points in the Wild that can be used to travel wide distances, to someone who has the power to do it,” Alex said. “The Xenofold’s Point of Origin is such a place, acting as a hub that connects to any concentration of ichor large enough to recreate our bodies. That’s how you traveled from the reversion you entered into, and how you exited out of here.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “So you’re saying we’re going to travel by going back into the Point of Origin?”
“That’s right,” Alex said. “If you follow me, we can travel to the forest on the surface.”
Already, he was walking down the path I’d created in the Sea of Creation, the ichor forming two walls on either side. He offered his hand, and I took hold of it as I followed him. We walked toward the light, until reality bled into a dream. We were somewhere at the bottom of the Sea, yet didn’t seem to be completely present in the world. Alex was swimming up now, the pink Sea seeming infinite in all directions. Various points of light shone within the Sea, and it was to one of these points that we were going. I kept myself just inches behind him, so that I wouldn’t lose him in this strange place.
It was hard to tell just how much time passed. It could have been thirty seconds, or it could have been thirty hours. All I know is that when we surfaced, it wasn’t in the Caverns of Creation, but in a forested glade cloaked in darkness. The air was harsh and cold, though the pool of ichor we had surfaced from was warm.
As we walked out of the pool, the ichor clung to us, shining. I realized the ichor would shape itself to whatever I wished.
Pants and a shirt, I thought. Remembe
ring the cold, I added, and a jacket.
I felt the ichor move along my body, shifting and morphing, until the light completely dimmed and revealed perfectly fitting silken clothing that felt warm. Though I hadn’t specified, the ichor had also formed warm boots and socks as well.
Alex had similar same clothing, tailored to his long and lanky form. The color was dark, which would blend in perfectly with the surrounding forest.
“This is amazing,” I said.
Alex gave a small smile. “You don’t know the half of what is possible.”
Seeing him standing there, I think I realized fully that Alex was here, in the flesh, and that this wasn’t just a dream. I ran forward and embraced him and was unable to hold back my tears of joy. I held him tightly. If I let him go, he might disappear.
“We have this moment,” Alex said, sadly.
“This moment?” I asked. “Only this moment?”
“There’s little time,” he said. “Isandru needs us.”
I knew that. Reluctantly, I let him go. “Just where are we?”
“North of Hyperborea,” he said. “The entrance to the Hyperfold is only a few miles away. Isandru’s done his part, but if we don’t hurry, it could be too late for him.”
“Let’s hurry, then.”
Alex ran off into the trees, somehow knowing which direction to go. I followed him, hardly able to keep up. Part of me still couldn’t accept that this was real, but deep down, I knew this was reality. Alex was back, and with him on our side, there was nothing that could stop us. He seemed different, older and wiser, though his body was much the same as it had been when he left the physical world four hundred years ago. I couldn’t wrap my head around what this meant.
I could only follow him and hope the answers came.
We ran quietly for thirty minutes nonstop. The ground was rough, but Alex seemed to know the way.
“Almost there,” he called.
As good as his word, the trees came to an end and we stood before the dead city, its thousands of broken towers milky in the light of the full moon. Alex didn’t spare the city much of a glance, instead opting to climb down the cliff that led to the plain outside the outskirts. Once we had carefully picked our way down, we ran forward into a depression that had once been one of Hyperborea’s seven fabled lakes. A long time ago, these lakes had surrounded the city, forming a protective barrier while serving as a reservoir that supplied the city with ichor. The lakes had been dry ever since the fall of the city a century and a half ago.