literature

Redeemer Ch. 12

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Following the Sleepers' departure to the afterworld to bring Sky back home, the queen of Lights had resolved to rest finally. Arthur and Madeisus recognized the great danger in the young queen's inability to sleep and rest quietly, and brought her to a stone-made bench in a private chamber of the old fane. Arthur practically had to carry his wife in his arms, she had been able to only drag her feet with all of her exhaustion. Madeisus cleared some old sticks and dried leaves off of the surface of the stone bench seat, and Arthur lay Ixora flatly down on her back only to see that the weary girl had shut her eyes and appeared to doze off into sleep.

"Let's just let her be." Arthur quietly whispered to Madeisus followed by a confident and assuring wink.

Madeisus had accepted the premise that Ixora needed to rest, but her undying fear that the queen was going to try to take her own life just to see her son again would not rub off. Like a recurring nightmare, the thought had become almost hardwired into the servant's brain like second nature, and it had only been a few short days since the prince had died. Finally the servant stood quietly and began to not only give Light prayer for the deceased prince, but for the struggling young queen whom Madeisus had practically reared since birth. After the prayer, Madeisus looked at Arthur wondering what to do next.

"What'll you do now, your highness?" Asked Madeisus.

"I don't know." Arthur replied frankly, shrugging his shoulders very subtly and with little idea what direction to take.

"She can feel his pain." Madeisus mentioned.

"Another one of those psychic quirks she has?" Asked Arthur with a stern look of disbelief.

Madeisus and others have spent the last twelve years trying to convince Arthur that Ixora was psychic and growing more powerful as she aged. Arthur did not believe in such a thing, even if evidence were to smack him directly in the face. He was stubborn, and he saw no reason to change his beliefs— not yet at least.

"Not a quirk. It's something her father had that she obviously was passed down." Madeisus tried to explain. "But I won't mention it again."

"He's here, I can feel him." A suddenly awakened Ixora mumbled quietly, with her eyes opening. "My Sky."

And from a short distance away from his family and in the same chamber of the fane, Sky watched his enervated and depressed mother spring back to life feeling his presence. Sky was invisible to everyone, everyone but Ixora obviously. He stood by Kryklair with his hand held by hers. The boy let go of the Herah's protecting hand and started for Ixora, only to realize that no matter how many steps toward his beloved family that he took, no matter how fast, he was still in the same corner. Only when Ixora stood up with sad eyes glaring right at him, did anything change. And while Sky could not get any closer himself to Ixora, she indeed got closer to him by just taking a few steps.

"What's wrong, Ixy?" Asked Arthur, confused about the situation as he tightly grasped his wife's hand.

"My little Sky is here. I feel him." Ixora insisted.

"Mom!" Sky exclaimed, repeating it even louder a second time: "Mom!!"

Sky's voice went unheard by everyone however, except for by his mother who instantly reacted to his voice. When the queen herself got about halfway between from where she rested to where Sky stood, she stopped and turned to face the others. Sky meanwhile watched helplessly knowing that he was nothing but a ghost, a wandering soul watching the present world.

"I can hear his cries for me. He cries from beyond." Ixora said trying not to sob or get too emotional.

Then suddenly the queen reached her hand out toward Sky, and Sky reached forward with his own hoping to grab it. Not surprisingly, her reach did not extend all the way to him and only seemed like they were miles apart. Right before their hands seemed to make contact, everything that Sky had been seeing disappeared in whiteness, rising as clouds souring high above him and well below him.

"Why?" Sky asked himself.

Kryklair now put her hand on Sky's shoulder and she stepped in closer to him. Now as the clouds began to form into a vague image of a sky world, Sky felt weightless.

"Everything must come to an end, Sky." The snake upon Kryklair's helmet said. "It is now time to face that end, something that few souls have ever had to do."

Sky had been showed the real world of the living briefly before his departure to the fourth and final afterworld, the one in the sky. Kryklair was probably not bound to explain to Sky why this happened, only that it was meant for him to figure the meaning of it out, and the reason, for himself. Even so, it would have little consequences, Sky thought, in the short term once he arrived to the final afterworld. Soon Sky found himself staring down a cloud-filled horizon beneath a bright sun— that surprisingly was not blinding to him— and full of massive stone structures that moved slowly through the sky like frigates on the sea.

"This is the afterworld in the sky." Kryklair herself introduced the world.

"What happened to the Sleepers?" Asked Sky as he looked around him trying to figure out to where they had disappeared.

"Nevermind that." The snake upon Kryklair's helmet insisted as the Herah moved forward down the cloudy path toward a sprawling shrine in the hilly clouds ahead.

Sky obligingly followed the Herah he trusted through a field of white vapor clouds and unrelenting chill toward the shrine— which had a facade of massive columns from floor to roof, and several large steps leading into it. And as Sky figured would happen, the Herah rather mindlessly led him up the steps to the shrine, which in all reality, was a mirror image of a famous structure in Light history.

"What is this place?" Asked Sky.

"The Fane of Origin." Said Kryklair herself as she continued to ascend the steps, looking to her right when she called back to Sky who trailed behind him. "Come."

With great faith in the Herah, who had protected Sky and whom he had so much profound trust in, Sky entered the Fane of Origin with Kryklair, amazed at the beauty of the stone work, the pillars, the gargantuan stone statues of the Lighten deities that lined the walls on every side and the one that sat derelict of the others in the very center. Their eyes seemed ever-watchful over the fane's interior, and somehow powerful. The statue of Ygin, god of life was situated in the center of the fane, overlooking anything and everyone before him and beyond fabled sixteen steps leading up to the interior of the structure.

"Ygin, the god of life, welcomes you into his dwelling." Kryklair said to Sky before she stopped in front of the statue and took a knee before her god.

Sky did the same.

"Ygin, god of life, I Kryklair have been tasked by Jaka to bring this boy here. I have completed my journey as Herah, and pray that I shall now be given my rightful place in the afterlife, as this boy shall be returned home to his living family." Kryklair said while staying knelt down and looking up at the statue.

Sky also looked up at the statue of the god which did not move or make any utterance— oddly to his surprise. And the he turned and saw that after Kryklair had finished speaking, she looked different. She was no longer wearing he black uniform and armor with red wings— instead she wore a dark blue dress that one could only describe as very traditional from an age long since passed. Her short black hair was now long and black, that climbed down her back and nearly to the floor. The snake-laden helmet was gone also, and Kryklair's bright yellow eyes continued to stare up at Ygin, as if she hadn't realized her transformation.

Sky thought that Kryklair was so beautiful.

"Well done, and peace be with you Kryklair." Called a voice from behind the two.

Kryklair had not turned to look away from the statue of Ygin, but Sky did. And behind him and Kryklair just at the landing of the sixteen steps stood tall and proud a woman that looked somewhat similar to Kryklair— certainly wore the same black uniform with gold and red accent, red wings, and a helmet that actually had no snake upon it. Her hair was short like Kryklair's had been and was a deep smoky gray. Her faint green eyes barely shown with the glare of the bright sunlight, but they were evidently focusing on Kryklair.

Standing beside the woman were the Sleepers who apparently followed the Herah-looking woman into this afterworld. They wasted no time in walking over to Sky, and to his surprise, even Osmus was with them. Osmus was the first to reach Sky, and he stood up to greet her once more, her hands and arms wrapped around him an embrace. Lastly, a small old man in ragged clothing stood beside the woman in uniform. His back hunched over, a long grayed beard hat was half as long as his body, and long grayed and frayed hair down his back. His clothing looked as though it had been once presentable, a sort of cloth from their ancient civilization upon this land. Now it was tattered and barely its original brown color.

"What's going on?" Sky asked.

"You did it, Sky. And now you get to return home with us." Osmus told Sky with a happy smile on her face.

"And most importantly yet, you've helped a Herah." Said the woman in uniform as she too came close to the group with the old man by her side. "And I know that in the afterlife, in all of her joy, Kryklair will always remember what you did for her, Sky."

"Kryklair." Sky said looking to where she had been kneeling, only to see that she had by now vanished.

"Sky." Said the woman. "Kryklair had been waiting for over sixteen thousand years for you to come and give her the one chance to cross over and be happy."

"And just who are you?" Asked Sky.

"I am Opalius Ysyperus." The woman introduced herself. "I am the head Herah, tasked by Ikyr, the god of death, to appoint certain souls to be Herah. And it was all those years ago that I told Kryklair, who had been brought unexpectedly to our world from her own volition, that a young and beautiful boy who needed to be with his mother would give her that chance to leave uncertainty." Said Opalius. "How many of those who take their own life would give anything to have that chance is unfathomable. And for helping Kryklair, I am going to grant you a return back to life, a power vested in me by Ygin himself."

"Kryklair is free now?" Asked Sky.

"Almost." Said Opalius. "A Herah who completes their task must return to the realm of the living and die once more." She explained.

Sky felt proud of what he had done for Kryklair, even feeling emotional about it but even still unable to tear up.

"Sky, we are going home now." Osmus told the boy.

"We?" Asked Sky.

"That's right. You and the Sleepers, Osmus even." Opalius claimed. "But, the god of death demands that I be returned as one with Osmus, also."

By now the old man that was standing beside Opalius the whole time had taken out an old book, a brown and bound book that looked so ancient that the papers would have to fall out when it was opened. Yet as he opened the book, it remain in tact and he read from a page to himself before looking to the boy.

"You must be the old Emissary that my other told me about." Sky said, recalling that his mother once told him of the encounter she had with him. "I am ready."

"Son of Golbi, your return is already agreed upon by the gods, but you must faithfully live your life and you must see to it that Kryklair dies by the blade, same as she did many ages ago." The old Emissary commanded. "Do you accept?"

The Sleepers were looking at Sky, Osmus was the only one smiling, having watched the young boy mature so much in his adventure in the afterworld.

The truth was, Sky missed his mother more than anything else.

"I- I want to go home." He said. "Please."

"Blessed you are, child. I will see you again." Said the old Emissary as he closed his book and smiled.

"Hold out your arms straight out, and close your eyes." Said Opalius, demonstrating to the others by outstretching her arms to the sides and shutting her eyes slowly. "It's going to be a long drop."

Everyone did as the supreme Herah instructed, holding their arms outstretched and with their eyes closed. The afterworld in the sky then seemed to become a gigantic hole in the clouds, and as if their weight had been brought back to them, Sky, the Sleepers, and Opalius fell backwards through the clouds and without uttering anything, they all fell back toward the realm of the living.

But then Sky had to open his eyes when he felt someone grab his left wrist. He instantly looked and saw that it was Kryklair who herself was falling toward the living again.

Even in her fall from the ultimate grace, Kryklair was protective over Sky. She

"It'll be okay, child. I'll see you soon." Said the beautiful Kryklair.

"I'll see you soon..."
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TheTitanOfGeek's avatar
And it was all a dream! The end!