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Chapter 214 - In the Starlit Sea
🕑 Added 2022-01-04 00:01:01 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
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Serenity stood on a completely flat surface that stretched as far as he could see with no variation, surrounded by people who didnāt pay him any attention as he stared at the spot where Death vanished. He didnāt even remember what happened; heād been unconscious due to drugged darts. How was he supposed to be more cautious?
Well, perhaps he shouldnāt get into that position in the first place. Definitely he shouldnāt. Still, heād had no reason to believe there would be crazy ninja dart-shooters! Heād thought he was having a nice conversation with an admittedly fanatical ritualist, but heād had no reason to expect a physical attack. If anything, a magical attack would have made sense, but any attack at all was nonsensical.
Serenity still didnāt understand why-
āI always assumed Iād be killed by a ritual I messed up in casting, not by the person I cast it on. Or maybe I was; it certainly wasnāt supposed to do what it did.ā A man stood in front of Serenity, not far from where Death had stood moments before. The flat, emotionless voice reminded Serenity of Liam, but the face was nearly featureless. It looked more like the impression of a generic face than any particular person.
āLiam?ā
āI was. If I were still alive, I think Iād be angry with you.ā Liam simply stood there.
āWhy arenāt you?ā Serenity knew heād been justified to kill the man - no matter what, human experimentation wasnāt acceptable; it was self defense. He also knew that being justified often didnāt make the opponent less angry.
āI havenāt felt anything since I died. Perhaps a body is necessary? I donāt know.ā Liam didnāt sound like he cared, either.
āThen why are you here? Talking to me, I mean.ā Serenity didnāt know why anyone would do anything if they truly didnāt care.
Liam seemed to freeze. It was a completely unnatural moment; normally, someone who was still would still be moving a little, breathing and blinking if nothing else. Liam didnāt move at all; he simply stood there with his eyes open like a marionette.
When he unfroze, it was like life coming into a statue; still disturbing, but in a different way.
He didnāt directly answer the question Serenity asked, yet somehow it was clear it was an answer in its own way. āThe River of Souls keeps souls until they have met the requirements they need to move on. This is usually forgetfulness, but it is always set by the soul itself. Some souls need to confront someone or see something; others simply need to stoke their anger or fear so that it will carry to the next life - or to their next destination in a godās domain. It is not as straightforward as setting goals to achieve in the future, though that is also possible.ā
It wasnāt Liamās voice.
If anything, it sounded like his own, as heād heard it when it was recorded and played back.
āRuss have told you that the Guardian Sea always gives a gift to new Guardians. What he didnāt tell you is that it is truly you giving one to yourself. Here is yours: You will bring a piece of the River out with you when you go. It will contain no souls; any souls that end up in it will be swept into the full River. That is not its point. Instead, you will be able to use it to cleanse yourself as a soul normally does between lives. To gain it, you must first figure out how to use it. That is also required if you wish to leave.ā
āWho are you?ā Serenity felt like his first guess - that it was himself - was correct, yet it was saying things that sounded like it was something else.
āI am but a shadow of what-might-be, of what you could become in the future. Time magic is a strange thing, and possibility can change reality in ways that certainty will not. I do not believe that you will choose my path, but Iāve been wrong before.ā
Serenity hated riddles like that.
The other being laughed. āWhoever or whatever I am, know this: the only ways out of the River for you now are coming to terms with what you are ā¦ or death. I know which I expect you to choose. You only need one, for now. I recommend Liam; recognize yourself in him but also see where you are not the same. Choose what to keep, what should fade, and what you do not need. The human memory is fallible, and the memories you want may not be the ones that he had etched the deepest.ā
Serenity stood there staring for a long time after the other being vanished, taking all of the moving automatons with it. What did it mean?
How could he get out?
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Serenity walked for days or perhaps only minutes. Nothing changed.
He sat and rested, though he did not feel in need of rest. Nothing changed.
No one came. No one spoke to him.
Serenity remembered the Final Reaperās final years. They had seemed much like this. He could travel to different sights, yet they were all the same destroyed places he had been before. Here, it was simply the same featureless plain.
He stood up and walked again. With nothing else to do, his mind ran over the words spoken by someone who might have been what he could become.
You only need one, for now. I recommend Liamā¦choose what to keepā¦
Somehow, he was supposed to do something with Liamās memories, but no matter what he tried, he couldnāt remember. He remembered telling Russ the candles were in the closet under the stairs, but not how heād known that.
He tried every angle he could think of, but none brought the memories of any of the three men heād killed to mind, not even what little of the strange dream he thought he remembered.
Serenity felt slow when he realized there was something he hadnāt tried. Heād never used Take Form. He didnāt want to, but heād long since learned that reality didnāt conform to what he wanted. It was something to try that he hadnāt tried.
Take Form: Liam Brown
It felt more like stretching than the discomfort he remembered from shifting into a dragon. For a moment, he knew he was without a shape, then he was back in a solid shape. He had a moment to glance around and see that the place he was in was a dark plain with a lighter sky lit by many minute dots of different-colored lights that did not shed much illumination before he was overcome by memory.
So many memories.
Most of them slipped into his mind and right back out like water through a sieve, but some stayed. Those were the ones where he had to make a choice.
However long he spent sorting memories, Serenity would never remember it. The process didnāt make new memories, so it was lost.
All he remembered afterwards was the outline of his decision. He wanted to keep what Liam knew of Earthās rituals ā¦ and he wanted to know who Frank was. Everything else could go. Liam was dead; there was no changing that.
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Serenity stood up. He was done here. As he stood, he realized he was back underwater, but this time he could see through the light-flecked waters surrounding him. Directly in front of him was a pillar that reached towards the sky; he swam up. When his head breached the surface, he realized heād been breathing underwater.
Whatever it was, it wasnāt water. It was beautiful, though; that was appropriate, given what it was.
Ahead of him, Serenity saw the oval platform holding Helena and Russ above the water. They faced away from him and seemed to be visually searching the water; Serenity was surprised by that. Heād assumed Russ would watch him. Couldnāt he see through the water?
Serenityās normal sight - well, Liamās normal sight - didnāt seem to have any issues.
As he pulled himself out of the water, Serenity realized that he was far stronger than he should be as Liam but also far weaker than he was as a chimera. He must still be getting the benefits of his increased attributes but not whatever invisible aid he received outside the Status panel from simply having a better body to begin with.
Russ whipped around and stared at Serenity. āWho-ā
āSerenity. There was a trial to leave. I had to - resolve some things.ā Serenity didnāt want to be too specific. He realized as he said that that he should have shifted back to his chimera form before climbing on the platform; heād expected Russ and Helena to see what had happened, so it hadnāt occurred to him that theyād be surprised or that he could keep the shapeshifting a secret. āShould I shift back?ā
He was terrible at keeping secrets. He always had been; whenever he tried to do better, something like this would happen where heād realize there was a way right after he did the wrong thing.
Russ thought about the question before he answered. āNo. Stay that way for now.ā
āHeās a shifter who can imitate humans? And youāre letting him not only get near your daughter but marry her? I thought you hated shifters.ā Helenaās voice broke any pretense of a quiet moment between Serenity and his prospective father-in-law.
Russ rounded on Helena. āHeās not a shifter. Or didnāt you notice? Heās wearing completely different clothes. He was wearing armor; now he isnāt.ā
Helena seemed taken aback by Russās shift in tone.
āI can change what I look like here, too. So can you.ā Russ sounded more sad than angry. Serenity wasnāt sure if he actually felt that way or if he was just watching a masterful performance. āIs it so hard to believe that Serenity can?ā
Helena sighed. āYouāre right. I need to stop jumping to conclusions, and not just about your latest trainee. I should get going; if youāre right and itās a minor demon infestation, thatās not nearly as bad as I was afraid, but I need to take care of it before it gets worse.ā
Russ smiled. āGood luck, and do call if you need help. I know things are a bit crazy right now.ā
āTheyāre only going to get worse. I donāt have the backing you have; I still have to hide everything, and theyāre watching strange things a lot more closely these days.ā Helena shook her head and vanished.
āSo what do you think of her?ā Russ sat back down in the water. He seemed a lot more open and less guarded now than he had in front of Helena; it was probably a body language thing, but Serenity wasnāt sure exactly what made the difference.
Serenity shook his head. āShe seems kind of inexperienced and excitable?ā
āOh, sheās experienced. Sheās older than I am, actually; she just ā¦ shaped herself to fight, and actually stole from her mental capabilities to boost her physical ones faster. She didnāt think she needed them. It was a bad time for us, right after the second World War. We lost a lot of people then; we still havenāt recovered. She was chosen as a Guardian to replace one who died during an emergency, and her training was slapdash at best. So she took the fastest route to the power she could, and damaged herself.ā Russ was definitely saddened to say that.
āIt doesnāt help that all three of the people sheās Guarded have been the controlling type; they havenāt wanted her to think for herself, and theyāve just treated her as a tool to be taken out when they needed something killed.ā Russ paused for a moment, clearly gathering his thoughts. āIāve known her for forty years now, more or less. Sometimes I think sheās recovering and other times sheās definitely worse. This was not one of her good days.ā
Serenity gave Russ a moment, then realized he had a very important question. āHow long was I down there? I know weāve been in here for a few hoursā¦?ā
Russ shook his head. āTime doesnāt really mean anything when youāre in the Starlit Sea. I expect weāll find that they took us home and put us to bed; a trip like this usually ends up in normal sleep, so weāll wake in the morning.ā
Serenity looked around. The water glowed with an inner light, brighter than the dark sky. āIn that case, can we spend a little more time here? I can see it. In color. And itās beautiful.ā
Russ grinned. āTake all the time you want.ā
