Awakening

by Hayden Pearton

  *

  Time passed, although Alza could not have said how much. She passed dozens of memories, some barely there, others almost untouched. She saw Barsch in every age and scenario imaginable, from his very first steps to his numerous fights with his father. She saw the worst and the best of his life, all laid out along the lane of memories. She watched as he fought beside Maloch in the cóyotl filled town, and felt the burning pain of each raking claw and bloody tooth. She watched him cry in the rain, as the despair and guilt from taking so many lives threatened to consume him. She watched as he struggled, alone, through the vast desert. She felt his fear, his desperation, as he dragged his broken leg through the lifeless sand.

  And then, with no warning or indication, the road ended. The last memory faded into the nothingness behind her, leaving her stranded in empty space. She turned around, intent on heading back to search for another way. But she saw only darkness, as the grey road fell away into the void. She was left on a section of road no more than ten feet wide, with nothing but the endless vacuum ahead and below.

  “Greetings, daughter of none.”

  Alza spun round, startled. She began to search for the voice, which had seemingly come from all directions at once. It had been a voice unlike any she had ever heard, and even if asked, she would not have been able to describe it. It was like a feeling, an emotion, given voice and form. If Alza had been forced to explain it, she would have said that it felt... old... and immeasurably empty.

  With nowhere to run and nothing to hide behind, she decided to answer the bodiless voice. “Who... what are you?”

  Alza waited for a reply, as her violet eyes tried to look in every direction simultaneously.

  “I am Nothing. I am the Darkness Before Dawn. I am the Shadow in the Night. I am the Watcher. I am the Watched. When man stares up at the starless skies, I am what stares back. I am Everything, and I am Nothing.”

  Where? Where was the speaker? Anything could be hiding in the darkness that surrounded her.

  “I am the first thing you see when you take your first breath, and the last image in your mind when you breath your last. I am the darkness in every man's heart. I am the fear of the unknown. I am the Hated One. I am the Defiler and the Defiled. I am Formless, and I am Eternal.”

  Maybe she had been wrong? It wasn’t that the speaker was hiding in the darkness…

  It was the darkness.

  “However, these are just words used to describe me, by men and women who knew no better. They gave me life, through their fear and their reverence, but they were not the ones who made me. My Father is Time. My Mother is Space. My Brother is Matter. My Sister is Light. You asked me what I am? For you, and for Him... I am something altogether different. Who am I? What am I? They are one and the same. My true name... my true nature... both are well known to you, O' Awakened One. For Him, and for you... I am Darkness Incarnate. For you and for Him... I am The Void.”

  It’s voice was hollow, barely audible and yet at the same time, it was almost deafening. It came from the darkness, the empty black space that made up what was left of Barsch's mind. She could tell, somehow, that it had been there a for a very long time. It had left its mark on him, changing him in ways she did not fully understand. At the very least, it had been with him since birth, and from the way it had become seamless with his mind, she very much doubted it would ever leave him.

  However, despite her curiosity about this unknown entity, Alza knew that she did not have the time to stay there and discover it's true form. Barsch was barely holding on, and with every second she wasted, he fell further away from her.

  “I'm sorry, but I cannot stay here any longer. If you would show me the way forward, I would be grateful... but if you cannot, then I will find my own way.”

  “Such impudence from one so small. Have you forgotten? You are a stranger here... a guest. And it is common courtesy for a guest to obey the host's rules. And it is my rule that you shall proceed no further.”

  “You are not my host. This is Barsch's mind, and it is you who do not belong here!” Alza listened in horror to her own, traitorous words, which had escaped from her lips without her consent. She could not afford to be detained any longer, and yet she had gone and provoked the only thing that could help her.

  “You would argue with Me, little girl? For a race that has only been around for a few millennia, you are awfully brave. You stand before an entity older than Creation, and you think to question my place here? I had thought about letting you go, but it seems that you are in need of a lesson in humility. I will teach you, through pain and suffering... the difference between us!”

  Alza thought back, to her fight in the desert, when Ion had conjured up illusions for her to fight. The voice reminded her of Raigan, and although The Void's words were less demeaning, they were no less hostile. From that encounter, she could already predict what would come next, and so she was able to move first. She threw herself down to the tarred surface of the road, landing on her side. A split second later, a tendril of pure darkness struck out from the void, impaling her after-image. Had she not have dodged, the midnight-black lance would have pierced her heart.

  “Over here, quickly!” The voice that called out from the darkness was not The Void, so Alza, without thinking, leapt towards it. Something about the words, which had been bursting with concern, had caused her to act on impulse. She sailed through the emptiness, wondering if she had made a mistake. A moment later, the platform she had been standing on was destroyed by a dozen inky-black tendrils. Had she hesitated in her decision by even a second, she would have died then and there.

  “Are you okay?” With a soft thump, Alza was stopped in mid-jump. Looking around, she found that she had landed on another road, with this one being made of a transparent glass that allowed her to see the void below. A woman with shoulder-length black hair and grey eyes was standing in the middle of the path, with her right arm extended towards Alza.

  “I'm fine, I think. Thank you... for saving me.”

  “Don't mention it, He would have done the same for me, had he been able.”

  Taking the kind woman's hand, Alza stood. As she did so, she noticed something strange about the woman. Where her right leg should have been, there was a transparent shimmer, like a heat haze on a hot day. Alza took a step back, and noticed that other areas had a similar shimmer: her left arm, her right shoulder and a portion of her neck.

  When the woman noticed Alza's questioning gaze, she explained, “This is how I was when he met me, so this is how I look in here. He never knew my name, so he just called me the Unknown Woman. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Alza, we have heard so many things about you.”

  “We? Exactly how many things does Barsch have hiding in here?”

  The Unknown Woman let out a short chuckle, as her pretty face received a dazzling smile. “Don't worry, He isn't crazy. Barsch is just... special. Although I don't think I have to tell you that.”

  To herself, Alza silently agreed with what the Unknown Woman had said. She thought back to when she had first met Barsch, and chided her past self for thinking that he was nothing but a simple boy. And in the weeks since then, she had come to realise just how wrong her initial judgement had been. “He is indeed... unique.”

  “Right? Come, walk with me. It's been so long since I've been able to talk like this.” The Unknown Woman began walking along the transparent path, beckoning for Alza to follow her.

  “Where are we going?” Alza asked, her curiosity temporarily overwhelming her caution.

  The Unknown Woman pointed at something in the distance, which was still too far away to make out. “The Core,” she said, with another of her radiant smiles lighting up her face.

  Suddenly, a thought occurred to Alza, “What was that thing back there? It called itself The Void.”

  The Unknown Woman glanced back nervously, her smile fading. “We don't like to think about it... but, whatever it is... it's been here a lot longer than I have. We just
try and stay out of its way, and it leaves us alone...”

  “I... see. Well, it isn't chasing after us, and I don't think that it means to harm Barsch, so I suppose I can just let it be...”

  The Unknown Woman nodded in approval, clearly believing Alza's declaration. However, Alza had not been entirely truthful, as a part of her knew that someday, she would return... and force The Void to tell her the truth. But for now, Barsch's health was more important, so she placed The Void in a secret place in her mind, before sealing it off from her thoughts.