He scoffs as he places me on the steps of the temple. ‘My Lady Pulsar, I guarantee you’ve only ever known the bright colours of life.’
A moment passes before I turn to him. ‘I know the colours of sorrow, Korren.’
My words have surprised him, because he looks at me curiously again, curiously, but something else, too—with empathy. The presence that stirred between us when we first met kindles, and I understand a little of what it is now: both he and I have faced an unwavering sorrow, but what his sorrow is, I’ll probably never know.
_________________
At night, I sneak to Korren’s shed. He looks at me as if I’m something dirty and rotting, and I give him a big ol’ grin that seems to irritate him more. We briefly discuss my meditation experience. I say discuss, but it’s just me who does the talking. He sits looking out of the small window, probably trying to tune me out. The wind pushes against the shed so harshly that for a moment I wonder if it will tumble down. I sit on the edge of his bench and Korren shuffles to the other end.
‘What’s with your father?’ he asks me.
‘Oh, he’s always been protective to the point you want to commit murder.’
‘That’s not what I mean. Why is he the only one with you?’
‘Ah… don’t know much about it, but when I was real young my mum bailed on us.’
‘Was she Chosen?’
‘No, or at least Dad says that. I always feel like he’s keeping secrets from me.’
‘He probably is.’
‘He can see the future,’ I say, staring up at the small, swinging light.
‘Then why did he never tell you what you are, what you’d become?’ he asks.
‘Huh? Oh. I don’t know for sure; he hasn’t answered me properly yet, but he said something along the lines of him wanting me to enjoy life while I could, pretending I was normal or whatever. Not much else I know but that.’
‘And you just accepted that?’
I shrug my shoulders. ‘No, but I can’t force it out of him, and it’s not that important. I’m here now, right?’ The wind begins stirring outside again. ‘Dad, he showed me his abilities once. He put his hands on my head like this, and then I was standing before a whole shining city—beautiful, futuristic almost, with complex skyscrapers and metal wonders—being consumed by fire. The sky was red like it had been cut, the world folding in on itself.’ My hands begin to tremble. ‘I… I saw myself standing there in the middle of all that chaos, but I was different somehow. I was very different to how I am now.’ I remember the lifelessness I saw, the sheer despair I felt, and the will to end it all, everything. Dad couldn’t explain why I was there. Neither of us talked about it much; he said only that there are many paths, and that the one I saw isn’t necessarily significant. I know it is, though, and despite not speaking of the vision after that, both Dad and I are aware that there is one path in my destiny where I no longer harbour faith in this world, and where I have the power to destroy it.
‘You said a “shining city”,’ Korren says.
‘Yeah.’
‘It sounds as if the place you’re talking about is…’
‘The Imperium.’
‘Was it?’
‘I’ve never been there, but my dad saw the vision, too. He said it was the Imperium.’
His face pales.
‘You OK?’ I ask.
‘Yes.’ He says it too quickly.
‘Don’t let it worry you. Dad said destiny has many paths, or some philosophical mumbo-jumbo like that. I mean, I hardly think I’d be there if some sort of disaster happened.’ Unless, you know, I’m causing it. I don’t say that to him. Not that it would matter: he’s not listening—he’s staring at the floor.
‘Um, daydreamer, you sure you’re OK?’ I ask.
He says nothing.
‘Hey, don’t, like, worry your head over it or anything.’
Still nothing.
‘So, it’s getting a bit cold now; I’m going to go back to my room.’ When he doesn’t reply I sigh and leave the shed, but as I walk back to the temple, I realise maybe it’s not a matter of his worrying over the Imperium’s destruction but rather his hope.
Well, looking at the vision I saw with some optimism, at least there’ll be one person who’ll be happy with my obliterate-the-world tantrum.
I hear snow crunching behind me and swirl round. There’s no one there, but I’ve learnt from my horror movies that there’s always someone there. I wait for a moment, looking around, then head towards the temple entrance.
My eyes widen. Standing at the top of the steps of the temple facing towards me is a man wearing a black cloak, his face concealed. Rebel is my first thought, and I find myself unable to move from fear. He was the one before, I remember, the man who was stood staring up at the fake stars when I snuck out for the first time.
I take a step back, preparing to run to Korren. The wind gently billows the man’s cloak, and he turns his back on me, vanishing into the temple.
It takes me a few moments to move towards the temple. Inside, though, all I see is Magen, heads bowed in silent prayer, either walking around or knelt before a statue of a stargod. I glance around, but with so much black around me, I can’t distinguish the man from the Magen. Maybe he is a Magen, I think. But everything about him screamed not-Magen.
I go to my room and find Pegasus sprawled out on my bed. I cuddle up next to him, trying not to think of the ominous stare of the stranger.
KORREN
FALLING SPIRES AND CRYING GODS
My dream begins in a war zone.
‘…I was standing before a whole shining city…’
Melted silver oozes through the crumbled streets, circling around my feet.
‘…being consumed by fire.’
Bright orange flames dance around me, blossoming out as they eat away the majesty that was once the Imperium.
‘The sky was red like it had been cut…’
This is a dream, words brought to life by the girl’s words, but if Orin Woodville’s prediction is right, then it’s not just a dream, it’s the future. I know there are many paths we can take, but the fact that one of them, one of those long, dwindling paths, leads to the Imperium’s destruction, is far too surreal, improbable—tantalising. My dreams are intoxicated by the girl’s revelation, each word she uttered bursting into a beautiful, distorted image of falling spires and crying gods. Even the sky is crying blood. I find myself watching the Imperial Founder, a large statue in the centre of the Imperium, crumbling and dispersing into bits of ash.
And I smile.
When I wake I’m not disappointed it was just a dream—it encourages me. Orin Woodville showed his daughter a vision of the Imperium’s downfall, and that means there’s a chance I can be free, that even if I’m soul-bound to the girl, there is still a chance for liberation.
These thoughts immerse me as a Magen escorts me inside the temple. When I was placed in the arena, all I wanted was to go back to Aris. However, there is something more now: a rebellion, a cause for kytaen I thought could never exist. I don’t know if the vision will be a result of a kytaen rebellion or some civil war, or even an uncanny natural event, but any disaster will benefit my kind, give us the opportunity to strike when the Imperium is at its weakest.
I find my keeper-to-be in the Ceremony Room having breakfast. She’s dressed in a woolly white jumper that makes her appear more rounded, like a child. Her copper hair is tied up. I prefer it free, wiping around like a flame. She glances at me and smiles. I return her a glare, and she glares back. I’m thankful for it. It makes me uncomfortable when she says ‘good morning’. It makes me uncomfortable when she notices me.
Later, O’Sah takes her to the Temple of Thaula for her next meditation session. She’s quicker to connect herself to the stream of magic—if quicker is two hours instead of four. When a Chosen mediates, their aura comes to life around them, and as with the last time, the aura surrounding her grows in darkness the longer she meditates.
My curiosity is stirred: what occurred in her past to cause her aura to reflect such pain? After she finishes, she declares she wants nothing more to do with meditation, but O’Sah reasons that she’ll have to contend with all her thoughts, good and bad, in order to find her inner peace. Without finding it, he says, she will never be able to use her magic accordingly. ‘Spiritual balance is imperative.’ She scowls at him.
I watch her as the day passes, wondering how I can free myself from her. If all else fails, there’s the vision of the Imperium in flames, I remind myself. Surely I can hope for such a future. If I stay here, if I remain with the girl, I know it will mean immense frustration, but if I can bear it for a little longer, then maybe that longed-for future will occur. Seers are sometimes wrong, that’s been proven hundreds of times. There is always a catalyst, though, an event that will occur and span several paths. At the end of one of them is the Imperium’s downfall—if only I could find it—and maybe I’m closer to it than I thought. The girl is the one who will stand before the burning spires, and so I will probably be there, too. Whatever occurs to make the Imperium fall, the girl has something to do with it.
Something. I just don’t know what yet.
LEONIE
OUR FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW
‘Urgh! I’m bored!’ I throw my PS Vita on the floor. ‘What should I do, huh, boy?’
Pegasus, who is sitting ‘unallowedly’ on my bed, looks at me with mild interest.
‘Think we should be daring and pay a visit to our dear friend Korren?’ I ask. ‘I don’t think he’d appreciate it. I get the feeling he doesn’t like us, Peg, with the whole I-hate-you-and-myself-and-this-life-and-everything-in-it thing he has going on.
‘I’m trying to be nice, really I am… OK, sometimes I’m deliberately insulting and rude and malicious, and it gives me a little bit of pleasure to see him gritting his teeth. Just a little, though, I swear. But he’s just so… so frustrating! I mean, d’you see the way he looks at me? Sometimes I feel like his eyes are going to burn me alive. I guess, to him, being Chosen makes me his involuntary Enemy Number One.’ I shuffle. ‘But he also has this way of making me feel like I’m just a kid, y’know? To him, I’m just a kid. I’m not a kid.’
Pegasus barks.
‘OK, so I am a kid, but I wouldn’t be one if I didn’t say I wasn’t.’ I sigh. ‘Just think about it: he’s seen so many things. So many that you and me, Peg, you and me couldn’t even imagine.’ I lean towards the bed. ‘Y’know, yesterday, when he looked at me as if he knew how I was feeling, like he knew the same pain, I saw him, Peg; I saw Korren for the first time. I saw all that hurt and pain he carries with him, and I didn’t feel like I was staring at a mindless thing; I felt like I was staring at someone in torment. And somehow, Peg, that made me feel like I wanted to get to know him.’ I sit straighter. ‘Yeah, I want to know him better. He’d give old misery-guts Scrooge a run for his money, but, still, I want to know Korren, just a little.’
Pegasus begins to lick his butt.
‘Oh thanks, yeah. Know I can always count on you for words of inspiration.’
Though I’m in my pyjamas again, I decide what the heck? I’m going to visit my broody non-friend kytaen and ruin his night. Not ruin intentionally, of course, but he’ll certainly see it that way.
I grab my duffle coat and take a peek through my open door. There’s no one there, but I know for sure there are Thrones down the hallway. Good thing I’ve sneaked out before without them noticing, so I easily get by them and outside. I feel worried that they didn’t even hear Pegasus scampering after me in pursuit. What kind of security is this? Maybe they know what I’m doing and are just acting as if they don’t so I think I have some freedom. Though if that’s true, I can’t think why they would play a weird game like that.
It’s not as cold tonight, the moons brightening the landscape in silver and white. I hurry to the shed anyway, telling Pegasus to shut up when he begins barking. To be polite, I knock on the shed before opening the door.
Korren is lying on the bench with his eyes closed tightly, lips pursed. Hell, this guy even frowns in his sleep. I observe him for a moment, taking in his perfection. The perfect nose. The perfect lips. The perfect face. I can’t help but be struck by his otherworldly beauty. I am a somewhat reluctant girl, and being so close to someone like him is a bit overwhelming. He looks like a sleeping angel, and that pisses me off. I find myself determined to find some flaw on his stupid face, but that would require staring at him for a while, and staring at him for a while would certainly be classed as weird and stalkerish, which I’m pretty sure I’m not. Anyway, the more I gaze at him, the more I want to punch his stupid, infuriating, impeccable face in retribution for us long-suffering plain-faced ones.
The respectable thing would be to leave Korren to his slumber. Yes, that would be the kindest thing to do. So I scoop up some snow from outside and throw it at him. He jumps up into a fighting stance, and I grin at him when he realises it’s only me. He doesn’t grace me with a glare, but rather a face of indifference.
‘What do you want?’ he says.
‘An adventure!’ I reply.
‘I’m going back to sleep.’
‘Aw, but it’ll be fun.’
‘No.’
‘Don’t make me assert my keeper authority now.’
‘You’re not my keeper.’
‘Yet.’
‘Get out.’
‘I’m a stubborn person, y’know. I recommend you just come out with me and get it over with, or else spend hours with me annoying you.’
He gets up.
‘Wow, that didn’t take long,’ I say.
‘I can already appreciate your capacity to annoy.’
‘How can you appreciate that in only, what, two days? I can’t be that annoying.’
‘You underestimate yourself.’
‘Look at that, you do have a sense of humour,’ I mutter.
I turn my back on him and walk away from the shed. I don’t expect him to follow. When I turn around he’s behind me, though, ignoring Pegasus who is vying for his attention.
‘D’you like the sea, Korren?’ I ask as we walk through the open field.
‘No.’
‘So you’re a land lover?’
‘No.’
‘Perky thing, aren’t you?’ I look to the moons that hang above us. ‘Dad told me there’s an old legend here. Every night, a land-walker would sit on the shores not far from here and sing, and every night the sea would calm itself and listen to him, and as time passed fell in love with him. Yeah, it went something like that. They were always parted, though, because the tide had to return to the ocean. When the land-walker grew old, he went to the sea, singing of his love for it, and the sea breathed in and took him away. Not exactly the greatest happily ever after, but it’s a start, I guess.’
‘Reckless,’ I hear him say.
‘What?’
‘That emotion.’
‘Um… love?’
‘Yes. Reckless.’
‘Elaborate.’
‘Isn’t it illogical to stand by a love that you’re forever being parted? Isn’t that a form of insanity?’ OK. Note to self: Korren is not a romantic. ‘To be parted relentlessly for all time; who would want that?’ I can tell that this is a rhetorical question.
I answer it anyway. ‘Abnormal, reckless people—that’s who. Abnormal, reckless and brave.’
‘Brave?’
‘Yeah, brave.’
‘You think it’s brave?’
‘I think it’s wonderfully brave,’ I confirm. ‘That’s my logic.’
‘If that’s logic, thank the stargods that we kytaen can’t feel such troublesome emotions.’
‘I consider your lack of emotions to be a kytaen’s impair-ment.’
‘I consider it to be a kytaen’s salvation.’
OK, here we go; time for an inspiring comeback. ‘Feh.’ You own, Leonie.
‘Where are you taking me?’ he asks.
�
�I’m not taking you anywhere,’ I say. ‘You decided to follow me, like some puppy tailing its master.’
‘You just threatened me to come with you!’
‘What, annoying you constitutes as a threat? That makes things easier for me. Anyway, I did give you a choice—’
‘I’m forced to follow you.’
‘As you pointed out, I’m not your keeper yet, and therefore you’re not forced to follow me anywhere.’ I look back at him. ‘Or are you that desperate to be my kytaen?’
He narrows his eyes.
We continue walking, up and down the rolling hills.
‘Should you be going out this far?’ says Korren.
‘We’re still in the temple’s vicinity,’ I say.
‘That’s not what I meant. The Thrones wouldn’t—’
‘Concerned about my safety, are we?’ I tease.
‘I just don’t want to be killed by the Imperium for any accidents you may have.’
Pegasus runs over to a rock conveniently placed in the middle of the field, gnawing at it like an idiot.
‘No, Pegasus, rocks aren’t for eating,’ I tell him.
He rubs himself against it.
‘Or for molesting!’ I sigh. ‘Rabbit! Look, Peg, rabbit!’ At that word, his eyes focus and he looks around intently.
As we walk, I tilt my head back, staring at the vast starlit sky. Tonight the clouds have dispersed, leaving a whole galaxy to ponder.
‘There must be so many worlds out there,’ I say. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the constellations, and their stories of other worlds and’—I laugh—‘dimensions. I mean, look. That star you see right there, it’s probably destroyed now. It probably doesn’t exist, but to us it does. To us its light is still bright enough to reach us.’ I shake my head. ‘It’s a wonder. Think about it: revolving around that sun could’ve been millions of people, and even though they’re gone, even though they don’t exist anymore, to us they’re still there, still living, still laughing and crying and just existing.’
I look to Korren to see if he’s listening. He is.
‘When I heard about Duwyn I was happy, y’know? It made me think, wow, there is something else out there, and there must be so much more, too.’ I watch the sky, eyes full of longing. ‘I wish I could see it all. Everything.’
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