The deeply apologetic gaze and tone of Terrianis lingered in Aurelithae’s mind as she slowly pulled up her lids at the first rays of the Illius. They shone brightly through the windows, in the opulent shades of platinum, opal that captured the essence of the sky during a cloudless day and reds and gold attuned and diffused by the presence of winter. In any other day, Aurelithae would have found them wondrous, soothing even yet on this day, she cared not for them, her mind was occupied by the experience and the faint hints of Terrianis’s dread.
In the end, Aurelithae chalked it up to hallucination. Afterall even if her body was enveloped and healed, it was deprived of its most important essence for the span of two to three years. Who knows what effects the return of a lost soul could have on the vessel of its returning tenant? Crippling exhaustion and gnawing hunger may have been paramount woes dragging her towards the precipice where the Solemn Shepherd and her Gray Husband awaited, but a hundred other followed as they were hastily solved by a lavish repast and a sleep lasting two days.
And nearly more if not for the knocks upon her door, the soft creaking that followed as it opened, and the gentle, cold whisper–what she often likened to the nightly winds sent by the swirling of the Lunarius at the center of the black sea seldom empty of gleaming stars as far as she remembered.
Now that she felt… evolved, ascended even. Aurelithae thought back onto the old tales of her ancestors when the stars refused their luminosity to aid the Lunarius in alighting the darkness. She envisioned staring at the seamless blackness stretching beyond like a protective veil, yet its fulness of uncertainty shivered her soul. And for a moment, she recalled a strange sound, possibly a song she hasn’t hummed in decades. But now the urge came over her as she opened her eyes, and met Akaerith’s in which she noticed the diminishing of momentary worry.
“…just lean a bit forward my lady!” A yelp nearly escaped her lustrous, wide lips when Akaerith pressed her cold palms against her back whilst two other handmaidens gently and slowly pulled off the piece of garment adorning her form for the past few years. The headache she awakened with slowly subsided, whilst the dark folds began to fade from beneath her eyes still paler than they looked, slowly regaining their myriad shades. Akaerith gently guided her out, a maternal mien highlighted most in her eyes–yet her feeling focused more on what lied beyond the deep red locks hanging in a controlled mess around the pale white visage.
Slowly, the primary handmaiden pulled her out from pulling embrace of the bed, hushed words accompanying the tender effort whilst the coldness about her back spread, spread across her spine and no longer felt uncomfortable. It was as if an old feeling returned and a nostalgic smile spread across her lips that warmed the hearts of her second mother.
“I’ll be fine from here.” Aurelithae said to reaffirm the niuvhe handmaiden whose worries were masked vainly; the youthful princeipstir easily saw through them.
Aurelithae saw this faux expression many a times during the many decades she walked the cold, uncaring yet pleasantly seamless floors of the Radiant Keep and its vast arboretum. Many a times she climbed aloft on trees without the necessary care, many a times she stepped on the wrong branches that lacked the strength, gave in to the pull of duress and her meager weight. The weightlessness felt just as pleasant as the climb, until the impact brought pain and fear as her bones cracked, her tender flesh blemished and those around her rushed with their voices raised, anger and worry mingling in each cadence and intonation laden word.
The same expression adorned Akaerith’s mesmerizing visage, tears gathering and pulled back in her glistening eyes, her words forceful and husky as she struggled holding the burst of emotions–joy and sorrow, relief and unease chief amongst the other lurking on her lovely countenance. Her refusal manifesting in a barrage of questions betrayed her efforts as her tender yoke remained around Aurelithae who smothered the urge to utter venomous orders to leave her be, to allow her to stand by herself. Instead, she released them as a sigh, and looked for aid at his brother Albrion and younger sister Calaviril who matured into an adolescent beauty herself. Though she was still a head shorter than her.
Neither came to Aurelithae’s aid, instead watched with banal smiles that trampled on her hope. Deep down she was aware the two wrestled with the same feelings as Akaerith, hence why neither aided her and instead of mulling further on the matter, she began to look around her room, searching for any changes that may have occurred during her journey across time in a space afar from mortal soles. Accompanying the gently kiss of silk, a dread stirred her heart, empowering it with a strength and resolve to break through its ivory cage when her eyes wandered onto the cabinet and she noticed the slight change of order within its wide, lit confines.
An abrupt tide of perspiration poured forth her skin, covering it slowly, surreptitiously as Terrianis’s stern gaze and commandeering words entered her mind. Though at that moment, because of its apologetic nature, she paid little mind to it, now she felt like a spy whose cover had been blown and was led further into a trap instead of simply being eliminated outright. “From this day on, we shan’t allow further incursion to the city. The dangers that slipped past our sight are graver than we thought. Until the woes are gone or until you blossom into a true dragon, you shall remain within the walls of our nest my little, dearest whelp.”
Now those words gained a new meaning within Aurelithae’s mind, now she felt like Terrianis was testing her loyalties, suspecting whether she still aimed to return into the folds of the New Dawn. She swallowed hard as the notion evolved. Yet the choking feeling did not sprout into fear, instead she began to ruminate on whether it was someone else who went through the contents of her wardrobe. There were small signs of things being moved, which only their kind could spot thanks to their near perfect memories.
She pondered as the figures of Calaviril, Albrion sharpened in the corners of her vision. Calaviril quickly fell out from the possibilities as she was quite meek when it came to the belongings of others. Many a times she turned into a little whelp with begging eyes, uttering the same question of whether she was truly allowed to see into her siblings’ drawers. Like the time Aurelithae asked her to fetch one of the grimoires she brought back into her room after one of the studies with Priscaerith after she leapt over a thorny bush at the arboretum–or tried and instead fell right into it. She refused bringing it, until even Aurelithae had to raise her voice, accompanied by a stern look as the thorns felt not too pleasant lingering in her flesh. Though she apologized later, as Calaviril was too dearest even by then to her heart.
Albrion on the other hand was an unknown in this regard. Whilst she never caught him peeking into her drawers, he often retrieved stuff upon visiting her after an arduous training day. One time, Aurelithae asked him to fetch one of the healing crystals she keeps in her drawers for such days, and without betting an eye and as if he himself put it in the drawer where chaos ruled unabated, Albron brought him the small, overgrown crystal that captured the warm, soothing shade of the Illius during the chosen season of Iuanorh the Dawn Father and Patron Deos of the Empire.
The thought broke in the moment one of her handmaidens–a young aurhe with fair golden complexion–pulled on the straps of her thick, silken shirt of a bright golden before etheric tendrils swiveled about her hands, connecting into the piece of lavish garment. When they did, the creases ceased their existence, and the liquid silken surface turned seamlessly smooth even after she folded her arms before her breasts. As her gaze passed through each of the handmaidens, the notion of one of them working for Mirayroth, for the New Dawn and who truly was behind it manifested as another possibility.
In the end, Aurelithae ceased following the trail and when her long skirt draped her finely shaped legs, she walked towards her two siblings with a translucent azure cloak fitted, clasped over the rest. “Shall we sister?” She held her arm out and two left, arm entwined. Though as the door creaked softly behind them, fear reared its head. With great effort she banished it, and looked excited whilst listening to Calaviril regaling about her day, and the joy at the prospect of the two meeting with Drussaev after so many years since his departure from their shared nest. A first meeting with a brother, whom even Albrion held in high regard. A rarity in itself.
*****
It was one cold night near the end of 1269 of the First Age, when grays, ceruleans and blacks stole into the clouds and the rays of the Illius, overpowering the golden and crimson, that Aurelithae could not find sleep in her beloved bed. Shadows danced upon the ornated walls of her room, formed accentuating lines about the figures painted upon the ceiling, whilst a strong cerulean glow parted the rest from the center. With a sigh, she propped herself up, still a bit weak in body, and a little tired at soul. From the cool hues, she deduced a long and slow night awaited her as the great divine spell faltered the stream of mortal realms.
Aurelithae slipped out from under the silken blankets, smiled when her soles touched the warm, hardwood floor, polished and carpeted here and there. Including the lofty carpet, she received from a distant uncle from the far-east. Halfway through to fetch a drink left on her desk, Aurelithae paused, sensing another presence, familiar and one she hated and distrusted with her whole being.
“I cannot understand how you fail to sleep in this silken embrace.
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Unlike Aurelithae’s long, lustrous red hair which flown smoothly and in regal waves with a fringe before her narrowing forehead, grazing the even her softly arching thin brows, Dumath’s hair parted like curtains revealing the forehead with the scales forming an elliptical shape in its center, whilst the rest cascaded upon her sultry form in tousled waves. Bold purple paint lined upon her luscious lips with defined contours, the upper lip bearing the outline of a bow. And whilst Aurelithae wore properly her night gown of a deep bluish-purple piped in silver at the edges, its collar narrow and kissing her neck and scales upon them, Dumath’s wore a dark dress of fine velvet, black as the shadows skulking on the walls and in the corners, parted above the her bust letting the voluminous collar of cheek height stretch, incline towards her shoulders. The sleeve themselves appeared as ethereal as the glow of her phantasmal hair, made from a see-through fabric, coated in a layer of film.
“Why manifest now and here? Couldn’t you just remain in your dark pit?” Aurelithae felt ashamed, even knowing only she could look at Dumath tainting her form.
“Don’t be rude. You are sleepless, and it would be a waste of time to just sit and glower at the stars until Oneiron beckons.No, it is the perfect time of studies, of learning so when the time comes, you shan’t be a sheep, but a lion amongst the trembling herd.Or do you fear, the little boy shall see you like this once you fell asleep?
Aurelithae quivered, a cold shiver ran through her and she nearly raised her voice instead of talking within the confines of her own mind. “I fear nothing!” Her voice came calm in the ethereal channel, whilst her eyes glazed with the anger of dragons. Which had little effect on Dumath who playfully raised her hands in surrender.
“Calm my dear princeipstir. I was merely jesting, to help mending our relation.
“There shall be no mending. It is not needed, I shall beseech Grimslaukh to send you back to your pit.” Aurelithae folded her arms and stared with hate searing furtively in her eyes.
“Afraid, that won’t be possible my dear princeipstir.Unlike with your late brother Rhenathorhia, this is no simple business of me lurking in the recesses of your soul. No, we are partially now one and the same. You hate me and I do hate myself, you love your brother and sister, I do too held them dear in our shared heart. Well, not wholly, but I shall more and more with each passing year, decade and century, however long it shall take.
Aurelithae choked her reply, trembling as she now shared the understanding of their shared condition. “Shall I lose myself?” Aurelithae asked feeling a surge of confidence vanish the dread of realization.
“You already had.There is no point mulling over it. As you were the victor, you are the dominant, I concede that.
“Awfully nice of the Corruption of Pride.” Aurelithae said and moistened her throat at last. Dumath chuckled at her sardonic reply, at first, she understood not.
“Oh, my dear, I am no corruption of pride, confidence. No, I am simply all those and more, without the restriction of rigid Laws, as my Father, the Sprawling Chaos had intended me and my myriad siblings so.Now, but it is time for you to learn, the basics of us Higher Beings, and of our Authority over our aspects of existence.
*****
Dumath seemed retreated after their long lesson. Though previously she somehow tapped into what the Outer Intelligence called Authority, her mind ached from all the knowledge whilst bringing no drowsiness to deliver her to Oneiron.
Still Aurelithae understood most of the voluminous basics all Higher Beings operate on. How unlike mortals who imposed their wills instinctively upon the elements of existence, they enter a semi-state of dreaming, attuned to the elements, for instance allowing them to traverse time and space without the former surreptitiously betray them, or beseech the most ancient of particles lurking in the astral wastes to construct their own realms detached from the mortals. Whilst also realizing they had their own limits–which to her were not really limits themselves–of forced in the cages of their Aspects.
In Dumath’s case, it meant the Self, though whilst during the lesson she perjured parts of the truth, Aurelithae realized Dumath owned not the whole spectrum of Self, only the parts which mortals associated her with. Though, she had a guess whom owned all spectrums, facets of Self as now she understood more of the realms and their history. As she mulled on the small snippets which most magusos would even kill to possess, she also realized it was what brought her no sleep. The excitement was too great, it even made her forget about loathing Dumath.
“” Knowing sleep won’t come at her, Aurelithae crawled out from under her silken sheets and headed to the new hidden compartment under her desk. Though it seemed, entering the quasi-state of dreaming was possible as the desk disappeared from front of her, manifesting upon the rug in the middle of the room.
From it she retrieved not the Black Book nor Moirstyria’s journal, but the one she could no fully decipher as Terrianis cast great spells to veil its contents. Confident in her new powers, she teleported the desk back into its place and sat upon the chair creaking softly under her weight.
Aurelithae opened the book, and skimmed through the first few pages. Mostly what she witnessed in Oneiron were penned, not quite beautiful, but each chapter, the letters with crisp and thick dashes like of runes bettered as Terrianis’s penning improved during the first few decades of his life. The first kill of an Atoning orkh, she read with a cold gaze, still recalling the thrill imported upon her in the land of dreams, followed by how he trained with the blade, spear and axe similarly on the atoning races. Orkhs, gobokhs, even a few of their darker cousins who now live solely in Dhaugruz. Though unlike with the dreams, no feelings were conveyed upon the pristine white and gold trimmed pages.
Then at last came first of the pages and chapters Aurelithae’s gleaming eyes could not decipher normally or before, no matter what spell she tried to unlock them. Still, she was a little hesitant to break the spell, fearing the will parted and hiding the contents would return into its owner. First, she pondered upon a good reason, a lie to tell in case, but a wave of confidence came over her, and at once entered the quasi-dreaming state for the third time. Unlike when mana channeled through the anima veins, into her arkhaine points, no euphoria accompanied, she was simply confident, could not imagine failure and even a reason and a lie formed in her head.
Aurelithae’s mind tapped upon the maghiath (magical) composition of the veiling spell, attuned herself to the prima materia of Dusk which prevented a path of understanding; of Dawn which blinded her sight from the letters, the strokes; and of Mind which altered the perception so her eyes seen nothing but blank pages, each combined into a greater spell, yet what articulated them into one, seemed older and greater than the arkhaine arts bestowed upon the mortals.
Frustration quivered her hands holding open the book in her lap, and Aurelithae nearly snapped it out the window in her growing anger. Instead, she seemed cooling without noticing, all her feelings bereft of confidence, assuredness of triumph became prominent whilst every expression faded from upon her diamond lined face, and at once the spell crumbled into ethereal dust, the veil lifted, words penned even more beautiful then the previous pages held were revealed before her in the cerulean darkness.
She nearly cried out from the wave of success flooding her in the moment, but remained calm upon her seat, content with looking out triumphant. Then Aurelithae’s gaze moved back to the pages, and moved from right to left.
Long-faced, Aurelithae read the first few pages realizing her father hid mostly memories he felt ashamed of, minor hiccups Primuinis reprimanded him off, the few times his brothers and sisters pranked him, giving him false answers for their tests, leading to beatings and lost hours in their eternal lives he wished to spend with one, Umbreniel whose name often came up. Yet Aurelithae could not recall ever hearing it, not from Terrianis nor from Augermil.
Though as she skimmed page after page, Aurelithae understood the reason beyond just one of the hundreds, thousands of siblings they gained and lost throughout the ages. Even she rarely talked of her own lost siblings who perished in the lands of Vhalleryon, and wondered if she shall ever talk of Albrion or Calaviril once they pass. But beyond that, Terrianis seemed to love her the most, thanks to the many adventures the two took down in the half-finished city, where they confronted ruffians already nestling in the shadows, battled beings stealing in from the outer realms as they relented not to accept loss in the closed War of the Siblings. And he loved her so much, Terrianis pondered, envisioned the children she would bear for him, how strong and resilient they would be, and hoped the next Elhyrissiar would be amongst them.
Aurelithae repeated the words in her mind and felt a bit of disgust, not quite of her own.
Then came the end of the name, with only a few words.
Deep down, Aurelithae wished to stop for the night, but her fingers moved not in accordance of her will, but of Dumath’s who remained illustriously away. A morose air settled on Aurelithae, who believed Terrianis loved only her mother, hence how she became the inheritor of the Elhyrissiar’s title and power. A na?ve notion she realized in hindsight. But now doubts budded in her heart wished nothing more than to sleep, or close her eyes and drift into nothingness where calm awaited. But calm and guilt awaited on the last few pages, mentioning her mother.
Aurelithae said, confounded at whether it was Dumath proving her kindness existed, or simply doubts and mild sorrow was not to her tastes. Which she felt was the likely option. And though it went against her manners of reading, curiosity led her to the last page, where a single sentence interspersed the page.
Another week, another story. And the second arc of the story, beginning not long after Aurelithae's awakening, though skipping a few beats. Otherwise this may have been an six thousand word chapter.
Just a little bit of trivia, tying to Aurelithae storyline, but when I started reworking Aurelithae's story, I was playing Cyberpunk 2077, maybe third time, when I started brewing this idea to have a similar storyline. Though at the time, I wasn't sure she would get it, but by the time I reached where her story ended, I went with this route. A primordial, demonic tumor, a relationship with a somewhat rocky start.
Which was also a good way of reintroducing Authorities. The magic of the gods, which had a different name originally, I think I used it once back in one of the northern stories. But this was a nice way of adding an interpretation of how this system works. And to expand a bit on the Infaernis, how Dumath doesn't have a monopoly on pride, so I can have other arrogant demons/devils in the future.
And lastly, the journal of young Terrianis, that got introduced way too early in the first volume, in a hindsight. At the time, wasn't wholly sure about his character, so I benched it and it came handy. Especially because certain elements got expanded regarding dragons, draevhei and the Elhyrissiar.
Thank you for reading this, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Next one will focus on Terrianis, in a somewhat similar vein. Have a nice Tuesday folks and take care!
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