The Beginning After the End: Book 7: Divergence

by TurtleMe

  “I’m never eager to leave you, I wish I could be by your side every second of the day,” I said, reaching out toward her but stopping when I saw her posture go stiff. Slowly, I pulled my hand away. “I’m one of the few mages powerful enough to turn the tide of this war, and one way to do that is by bringing back Tess’s parents. Only then will we be able to muster up the forces necessary to eventually take back Dicathen.”

  My sister paused as she absentmindedly reached for another rock to throw. A lone tear fell from her chin, disappearing into the stones below.

  “I love Tess, I do. But you, Mom, and Sylvie are my family.”

  Boo let out a deep groan from the side.

  “And you too, Boo. You’re family too,” I added, smiling as Ellie stifled a laugh. “I’d do anything to keep you all safe, and if that means I have to be away from you all to do it, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

  Ellie quickly wiped at her tears before getting back up. She turned around and threw the stone in her hand. “I know. It’s just… I wish you were around more.”

  I picked up another flat rock and threw it. “I wish I was too—more than anything—but I don’t want you and Mom living in an underground town below a desert for the rest of your lives, and to do that, I need to get off my butt.”

  “I don’t mind it. I know Mom won’t mind it, once she gets used to it,” she said, watching my rock skip on the water. “I know you’re doing this to keep us all safe, but it works both ways, you know.”

  Ellie turned around, pouting, her eyes red and cheeks flushed. “We just want you safe.”

  I reached out and entwined my arm with hers; there was no resistance this time. “Do you know what my dream is, after this is all over?”

  “What?”

  “For us to live together in a huge house by the ocean. Me, you, Mom, Sylvie, Boo, and Tess.”

  “Wait, why do you get to live with your girlfriend? What about my future boyfriend?” she protested.

  I looked at her blankly. “You won’t have a boyfriend.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “Because if you do, I’ll get rid of him,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “That’s not fair!” she huffed.

  I only shrugged. “Big brothers are never fair.”

  Ellie puffed her cheeks for a moment before breaking out into laughter, causing me to laugh as well.

  “Fine,” she relented. “But in exchange, you have to teach me how you do that.”

  I raised a brow. “Do what?”

  “That thing where the rock bounces on top of the water! Are you using magic?”

  “I’m not using magic at all,” I said, skipping another rock.

  Ellie tried as well, mimicking my motions and failing. “Lies. You’re totally using magic.”

  “No, I’m not, just watch…”

  Three days passed by in the blink of an eye. Tess came to terms with Virion and the two made up. Despite being stuck in a dreary underground town, in hiding and on the losing end of the war, everyone seemed to be in good spirits, smiling and laughing with each other, enjoying each other’s company, even if only for a short while—everyone except for Bairon.

  When Virion and Bairon weren’t resting, they were meditating and trying to cycle mana throughout their bodies to hasten their recovery. It was a slow and arduous process for any of us to meditate in this place due to the absence of ambient mana.

  Despite the disadvantages of having little to no ambient mana, the underground village had a large benefit for me and Sylvie.

  “Happy training,” I teased, sitting cross-legged on the hard ground.

  “It’s amazing to me that you haven’t gotten sick of this,” Sylvie said, sitting down across from me in the same hallway we had arrived from. “I’m making progress, but you’ve yet to even take a step forward. How are you not discouraged at all?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve had things too easy up until now. Besides, if these damn ancients were able to learn it to this extent, I’m sure I’ll eventually get the hang of it.”

  “Honestly, I’d think you were full of it if I couldn’t actually feel your optimism,” Sylvie said, closing her eyes to concentrate.

  Still seated, I ignited Realmheart. Color faded away from the world, leaving only the motes of purple either swaying rhythmically in the air or clustered together on the walls to produce the soft light around us.

  At the same time, my bond opened up her consciousness completely to me so I could sense every little thing she was doing. This was the training system that I had devised.

  Both Elder Rinia and Sylvie had agreed that it was impossible for them to teach me how to use aether. While Elder Rinia was limited by what she could tell me, Sylvie used aether so naturally she didn’t have the tools to describe it. For her, it would have been like trying to teach me how to use my eyes to see, or my ears to hear. Instead, I watched and listened to my bond’s thoughts as she meditated and slowly refined her control over the aether arts.

  From what little I’d learned through this process, it felt like the aether was more or less teaching Sylvie; it was nothing like mana at all.

  Shaping and controlling the power within my body had been ingrained in me since my previous life, while learning to utilize aether seemed as if it would be more akin to learning how to control a new body entirely—one with a different number of appendages and senses.

  It remained a mystery to us how these ancient mages had managed to trap aether into the artifacts to light them up. The very nature of controlling the aether in this way was paradoxical to what my bond was doing.

  I sat with Sylvie for hours, yet had no progress to show for it. Frustrated and impatient, I once again walked back to our camp alone while my bond continued to strengthen herself.

  On my way back, I stopped by one of the adjacent hallways where Elder Rinia was working. I found the old elf drawing runes on the inner mechanisms of an ancient portal, her hands glowing purple as she worked.

  “How’s the teleportation gate coming along?” I asked. “Maybe you should take a break.”

  “I’m nearly finished! I think I—should be done—in a few hours,” she said in between heavy breaths.

  It was obvious that utilizing aether was taking a toll on her body. “We need you to take care of your health, Elder Rinia. You look like you’ve aged another century since you got here.”

  “If I wasn’t so tired, I’d walk over there and slap you…” she grumbled, not bothering to look at me. “Besides, Lady Sylvie has been helping me out by providing the raw energy to power this old thing up.”

  “Should I call her over?” I asked.

  “No, no. Just a last bit of tinkering with the runes to set the return point,” she replied, waving me away.

  I stuck around for a bit, watching her draw runes in the empty center of the teleportation gate.

  The rune was a complicated shape stemming from a center pentagon that branched out into sharp angles creating a rigid, vortex-like pattern. I found myself following her hand movements as she carefully traced over the rune until the faint purple shape faded and spread out to the outer structure of the gate.

  “You should get going. Tessia came by earlier. She was asking for you,” said Elder Rinia.

  “Oh.” I scratched my head. “I wonder what she wants.”

  After reminding the old elf not to overdo it one more time, I returned to the main base. Near the flowing stream that cut through the cavern, I saw Ellie and Tess playing with each other. Tess was conjuring tiny orbs of water above the stream while Ellie shot them down by firing mana arrows from her bow.

  I was about to call out to them when I had an idea. A mischievous grin spread across my face, and I ducked around the corner of a small building.

  Just as Tess raised another sphere of water, I flicked my wrist, willing the orb to dash left. The glowing arrow of pure mana whizzed by, missing its mark entirely.

  Hearing Tess exclaim in confusion made me snicker, and I con
tinued to mess with my sister. I willed the orb of water to dip and dodge, avoiding Ellie’s arrows and even squirting a stream of water at her face, until finally my sister screamed out in frustration.

  “We know it’s you, Brother!” my sister yelled, stressing the word as if it were a curse.

  “Couldn’t even land a single hit? Tsk tsk tsk,” I teased, laughing aloud.

  Ellie fired a mana arrow directly at my face, but I continued laughing as I easily caught it in my hand.

  “Ellie! Don’t fire arrows at your brother!” my mother’s voice echoed from the second floor of the building, just behind Tess and my sister.

  “He started it!” Ellie retorted, pointing her finger at me.

  Tess covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter as my sister turned bright red.

  The three of us eventually headed inside. I continued to make fun of my sister as she, in turn, continued to throw fists and bolts of pure mana at my face.

  “Oh, Tess, Elder Rinia mentioned that you were looking for me earlier?” I asked Tess while dodging and deflecting my baby sister’s attacks.

  “Oh, uh, it was nothing. I just wanted to check in on how everyone was doing,” she said, quickening her pace to beat us up the stairs.

  When we arrived upstairs, I could see a row of flame-grilled fish skewered on branches.

  “Wow!” I said, my mouth already beginning to salivate.

  “I managed to catch quite a few fish today,” my mother grinned proudly, tapping her flexed arm. “Eat up while I go retrieve Commander Virion and General Bairon from their meditation.”

  I immediately grabbed a skewer and took a bite, surprised by the richly-seasoned flavor. “How is this fish salted?” I asked through a mouthful of fish.

  My mother turned back as she was leaving through the door. “Elder Rinia packed it in one of her dimension rings.”

  “‘One of’?” Tess repeated, handing a skewer to Ellie before taking one for herself.

  “Mhmm. Elder Rinia has at least eight dimension rings full of things necessary to live here. She’s even brought various seeds so that we can start growing our own fruits and vegetables down here,” my mother answered, smiling. “We’ll all have to help out so we can start accommodating a lot more people here.”

  Tess and I exchanged glances, both no doubt wondering the same thing: How long had Elder Rinia been preparing for all of this?

  Eventually my mother returned with Bairon and Virion. Though still incapacitated, they were looking better every day. Sylvie joined us for food as well, talking and smiling with Tess and Ellie. Elder Rinia had come back and, after a quick bite to eat, immediately fell asleep in her bed.

  My mother had done a fantastic job of making the desolate building seem comfortable, almost homey. Most of us only got a blanket in order to save resources, but with curtains set up in front of the doorways of each room and small decorative touches here and there, the place didn’t seem so much like a refugee shelter anymore.

  I found myself comfortable and content as I drifted off to sleep after dinner. In a way, being together with the ones that I cared about the most—it was what I had hoped for. I wanted to bring the Twin Horns down here as well; I knew my mother and sister would be happy at that.

  I was eager to start the new day.

  If only I’d known what I would be waking up to.

  247

  On the Surface

  TESSIA ERALITH

  I looked back at the softly-lit corridor stretching into the darkness behind me, back toward my grandfather and Arthur.

  “Sorry, Grandpa,” I muttered under my breath, looking down at the white medallion in my hand. “I swear I’ll return this.”

  I turned and faced the ancient gate in front of me and mentally prepared myself for whatever would happen once I crossed.

  Grandpa had already killed off Mother and Father in his mind, I could see it in the look he always had when I mentioned them. I knew what that look meant; to him, my parents were no longer family, but traitors.

  Grandma Rinia wasn’t as bad, but I knew that she had given up on trying to save my parents. Just from overhearing the plans she and Virion made together with General Bairon, I knew that my parents were nowhere on the list of people they intended to save.

  But they didn’t know—they weren’t there. They didn’t see how hard Mother’s hands trembled as she held onto my hand and pulled me away. They weren’t there to see Father with tears rolling down his face as we stepped through the portal.

  Pulling the hood over my head, I steeled myself. They may say I was acting rashly, that I was letting my emotions overwhelm me, just as they had after the battle in Elshire Forest. Whatever anyone thought of my actions, it didn’t matter. My parents deserved a chance, and if their own daughter wouldn’t give that to them, who would?

  Admittedly, I had been tempted to ask Arthur to help me, but that was too selfish. I knew the dangers ahead, and if anything happened to him because of me…

  I’m dispensable, he isn’t.

  Holding the medallion out in front of me, I walked through the glowing gate. The soft purple light undulated at the medallion’s touch and I felt a slight pull. Rather than resist the foreign sensation, I accepted it and stepped further into the gate until my entire body was immersed.

  Immediately, I was pulled across a whirling funnel of light. It felt different from the normal teleportation gates, more… nauseating.

  I stumbled out the other side on paved ground, still a bit disoriented from the trip. From somewhere nearby I heard a voice yell out, “The gate! Someone used the gate!” There were four Alacryans standing guard around the teleportation gate through which I had crossed.

  “Get on your knees and take off your hood!” one of the guards ordered, aiming a condensed sphere of wind in my direction. “Now!”

  I dropped low and slammed my palm on the ground. Before the spells from the Alacryans could reach me, however, a gale of wind surged around me.

  Keeping one hand on my head to keep the hood in place, I muttered another spell. I willed the protective barrier of wind to expand, pushing away the enemy mages, who were caught off guard.

  Using this brief window of opportunity, I dashed forward to the nearest alleyway, a hundred feet to the north.

  I heard the barking of orders and soon another pair of Alacryans were coming at me from either side. Keeping my hood down, I rushed towards the Alacryan to my left, shooting a blade of wind at him.

  Almost immediately, an armor of ice enveloped his body, protecting his neck from the sharp crescent of wind that would have slit his throat. Though I was initially surprised by the deviant magic, I reminded myself that the Alacryans used magic differently than we did; a higher form of magic didn’t necessarily equate to a stronger mage in their case.

  The ice-clad Alacryan had managed to defend against my attack, but the force of the wind-blade knocked him off balance. It was tempting to use my plant magic or beast will to escape, but I resisted. Using deviant magic like that would draw too much attention to myself. I might as well have a herald walk before me proclaiming that the former princess of Elenoir was here.

  Conjuring a condensed surge of wind below my back foot, I propelled myself to within an arm’s length of the enemy. He brought up his longsword to block whatever attack he thought I would hit him with, but instead, I grabbed his arm and used a classic overhead toss that my grandpa had taught me.

  With the aid of wind magic, I tossed the Alacryan up into the air, which opened up the path to the nearest alleyway.

  “Don’t let him get away!” a voice screamed from afar.

  Comforted by the fact that they thought I was a man, I sped away from the pursuing guard, who couldn’t keep up with my wind-assisted sprint.

  I sped through the narrow passage. Buildings towered over me on either side, the road barely wide enough to allow two men to walk shoulder to shoulder.

  Most of the human cities looked so similar to one another that it was h
ard to tell exactly where I was until I could get a better view of the city as a whole, but I knew that I had at least arrived in one of the major cities of Sapin.

  My eyes constantly scanned the road and even nearby rooftops in case an Alacryan was keeping track of my whereabouts from above. Taking a quick look at the sky confirmed that I hadn’t landed in Xyrus City. The clouds were well overhead and there was no translucent barrier that could be seen protecting the floating city.

  After some time had passed, I carefully made my way towards one of the larger roads. I peeked out from the narrow passage; there were quite a lot of people still walking the streets.

  I kept out of sight and studied the pedestrians passing by. While they were mostly adventurers and soldiers dressed in armor or protective leather, I spotted many children and housewives as well. Everyone seemed to be moving in the same direction…

  They all have such lifeless expressions, I thought to myself, my chest knotting in guilt. It was stupid to feel personally responsible for everything that had happened, but there was an icy voice in my head that kept saying it was largely my fault that the war had turned against us.

  I shook my head, pushing the voice away. I couldn’t afford to be distracted.

  After wrapping my cloak tightly around me and making sure that most of my conspicuous hair couldn’t be seen, I jumped out of the alleyway. Blending in with a horse-drawn carriage that passed close by, I walked beside it until a large cluster of pedestrians offered me a more natural veil to hide my presence.

  A few people gave me passing glances, but no one seemed to take too much notice.

  “Do we really have to go?” a middle-aged woman a few feet ahead of me whispered to what looked like her husband.

  The plump man answered in a hushed tone. “Those damn Alacryans are already beginning to chase people out of their homes. If we don’t go now, it’ll only make things worse.”

  The woman looked at her husband as if she was about to say something else but stopped, her eyes turning toward the ground. I could see her shoulders droop, though she still held tightly onto the hand of their daughter.