55 Aovialutre's Story

"Come find me, wanderer."

What happened?

"Wanderer."

We were fighting centipedes, and then…?

"You finally came."

Did we win? When did I lose consciousness?

"You finally found me…Videre."

I open my eyes, startled at having my name spoken, despite the soft intonation.

Where…?

My eyes roam around the extravagantly lit chamber. Oddly, I don't feel cold despite having laid on the cold floor that sported a similar formation as that of the one in the ceremonial all back in Lumea. I jerk back when a hand reaches out to touch my face. I stare eye to eye with the same blue-haired lady that haunted my conscience; the very reason why I put my friends in danger, and yet, here I am dreaming of her again.

Yes, isn't this all a dream again?

She smiles kindly at me. "You're right. This is a dream."

My eyes widen in surprise. How can she conveniently read my thoughts? Is it because she is a fiction of my imagination?

"This may be a dream, but I am not a fiction of your imagination, child", she scolds, flicking a hand on my forehead, making me flinch at the pain.

Once again, I am unconvinced this is a dream. Pain doesn't exist in dreams, unless the one walking inside the dream is a Djinn-kind. I could be Wraith, or a Satori, but never a Djinn. So how?

She reaches a hand out to me, urging me stand up. I do not stand in ceremony as I take it to pull myself up. Although she looks so dainty, she is astonishingly firma and powerful, something I noticed when our hands touched. She releases my hand and walks out of the chamber and into a small ground balcony that opened to a garden. The white railings were filled with various colors as the vines and flowers of various plants littered and crept up here and there, making a harmonious atmosphere, if not for the deadly stillness of everything.

Looking up, I see the building behind us, and an emotion flashes through my eyes.

This…Isn't this the temple? Then…this is the temple's garden? That same garden?

I glace around quickly to see if the beast had come, but there is no sign of it.

"First and foremost, thank you for coming. It has been so long since I have spoken with another. Forgive me if I am wrong, but you are a Wraith? No, a half-Wraith it seems. I feel the presence of a Satori bloodline in you, albeit not as strong as the other."

I freeze, turning all the more cautious upon how easily she knew.

"You don't have to be so vigilant of me, I mean no harm. It's not like I can go ahead tell anybody other either. Other than you and a few others, nobody can hear me, much less see me", she says ruefully. "But of course, that doesn't mean I don't know you. You're quite important to me after all." She smiles, her half-lidded eyes making it impossible to guess her true emotions.

"Who are you", I ask the question that had plagued me for so long.

"I have a lot of names", she starts, walking towards the garden path as I follow behind her to the familiar little pathway I once saw her trekking. "My old friends used to call me Blue or Ao, my lover called me Via, but you guys", she glances at me, "you probably know me as Aovialutre."

My lips feel parched, my heart drumming wickedly fast.

"…Then, then why me", I trail off.

"Why do you think it was you", she answers my query with another question. "Why did you think I chose you?"

"…Because I'm a surface-dweller?" Unsure, I shift on my feet, yet I couldn't think of anything else that could be more apparent.

"Partly", she replies, turning back to face me. "To be honest, I merely have a soft spot for injured, incorrigible creatures. But the biggest part of the reason is that I don't want your spirit to haunt the entrance of Inferis if you did die by the Lycan-kind's hands", she jokes.

We had arrived at the corner, one turn and we should arrive at the pond I used as an entrance before—assuming that this isn't a dream.

"…Why did you bring me here?"

Instead of answering, she observes me, giving me the feeling of standing on a tight-rope.

"Let me tell you a story—There was once a merry little Encantado who had been prophesied by another of her kind; that if she used her life to bear the burden in this life, she'd gain a lifetime of happiness the next. This was a promise to her, seemingly left by God, himself."

She laughs a bit.

"As a race that is closer to nature, Encantados understood the inner workings of the world as this is where they get our power from and, of course, she knew not to fight it", Aovialutre spoke as if none of this concerns her. "It was already predestined. So quickly, she set forth and left the comforts of her home after reaching adulthood to travel aimlessly as she was instructed to do by her elder. As you know, Encantados don't have parents, nor individual families, and must to live on our own, as two or more Encantados living together for a long period of time messes up the nature the surrounding environment. Maybe it's because of our own power, or the accumulated strength in our souls that withstand the trial of death and reincarnate without losing our memories. Who knows?

"We are simply born one day. And then, we simply die to reincarnate the next. How can we have parents when we are born with previous memories? Can you guess how many 'parents' one Encantado may have? Your sister could be your mother in the next life, or your uncle now could have been your previous lover. In the end, Encantados try to live as long as they can to stay in one life to avoid such complications, and live only for the present. We remove ourselves from the feelings of the past.

"This little Encantado is just the same. She met all kinds of people, saw all kinds of things—strong people, greedy people, weak people, beautiful but atrociously ugly inside kind of people… She had seen them all. But then, one day, she discovered an underground forest, and met a wounded little creature that lived in it, in one of her travels." A smile blooms upon Aovialutre's face.

"The creature was ferocious and terrifying, it's claws long and sharp enough to pierce right through your chest, it's fangs hard enough to break boulders, it's eyes vicious and distrustful of every other soul as if it held all the malice in the world. But the Encantado was enthralled. It was her first time seeing true malice, something that Encantados never harbored as they were always in the middle to balance the world. Do you know what she did?"

I shake my head a little, unsure.

"She determinedly showed love, kindness and care for that creature, something the creature never knew before from a two-legged being, and something the little Encantado would regret in the future. It wasn't easy at the start when trust was rare, but the more she cared for the poor thing, the more she realized that it was not as evil as it seemed, and yet, regrettably, it did not have long to live. Decidedly, she tied her powerful soul to the poor dying thing, trying to save it, knowing fully well that after healing and regaining mobility, it wouldn't be surprising if it killed her, after all, all beasts are led by instinct in the end. Would this be where her journey ends? Was this what was meant for her to experience? But she didn't regret any of it as she faced the creature head on" Aovialutre sighs as she turns her head to the pond. "You should know, tying another's soul to an Encantado so they don't die is possible, but is considered a taboo of sorts. The essence of our bodies are like natural converters that take the recessive, hidden, or even excessive energy of the world and convert it into our own elemental power; into a life energy that nourishes the world in balance to the many human-kind that destroy it, thus our souls must be strong enough to handle that kind of quirk. If we were born without our memories, wouldn't we just be easy manipulative weapons for the powerful?" She breathes out in bit of disdain.

My eyes travel to the direction her eyes sought. I draw breathe in at realizing that there's another person lying by the pond, unconscious.

"But that wasn't the end of course. The creature did not kill the little Encantado, and instead, protected her and never left her side, even sacrificing its own beast core to pray to God to let it be human; pleading and pleading to repay the sin the little Encantado did by sharing the burden of the Encantado's prophecy. And by God's grace, the creature learned to walk on two feet, and speak the language of man, all just to accompany his little Encantado lover. It should've ended in a sweet romantic note, but it never did. War started brewing among the races."

Clarity came so quickly that I was not able to comprehend it, until belatedly, I realized I could no longer move. Like a statue, I can only stare at Vera lying prone by the pond, drenched and still. The urge to run and check her breathing is so heavy that I could barely pay attention to Aovialutre's story.

Is a story more important than a life?

A little bit angry, I try to call for my shadow, but none come as I remain immobile.

"To make a safe-haven for the peace-loving races, the little Encantado was finally enlightened upon her role in everything; why she had met a lot of people and friends, roamed far and wide to aid in the war, and found the underground forest. With tears running down her face and reluctance born in her heart, she broke her soul into three; one to guard the entrances and exits of an underground forest—the home of her lover, one to sacrifice for the stability of a formation that will bring forth protection and nourishment for dozens of millennia to come—Aovialutre's light", Aovialutre's smiles in utter melancholic irony. "And one to guard and maintain the peace among the people the couple saved, albeit the third soul forgetting every memory she used to have…until recently."

Aovialutre throws a quick unnoticeable peripheral glance at me.

Slowly, terror grips the bottom of my heart as I see the beast closing in on where Vera lay. I look at Aovialutre to plead of her to let me go, but when I turn to her, she does not even offer me a glance, her eyes never straying from the beast.

"Sorrow after sorrow kept piling up for the little Encantado. Since the creature was tied to her soul, the creature's soul also broke in half, that which made him forget his hard-earned humanity. He reverted back to his beast form, forgetting all his memory of his lover. And that little Encantado, whose second part of a soul resided in the innermost temple that protected the underground city, could never leave, could never die, nor reincarnate with her lover; forced to yearn for the next life of promised happiness day in and day out, hoping God would forgive her taboo of loving someone…"

She abruptly turns to me.

"Yet it seems that God did not truly forsake her, for He sent the little Encantado her key to salvation. She was told in her dreams that she'd bear the burden until an apposite vessel, and wanderer from the surface comes to continue the journey in their place. And only now does she realize, what everything the prophecy truly means."

Her bright eyes shone with a hidden emotion.

"You really do deserve my gratitude, Videre. One who has known both freedom and repression, I can't find a more suitable wanderer than you", she says as takes blue tear-drop-shaped necklace from her neck and places it on me. "I know this might seem unfair to you, and a bit selfish of me, but I need you to trek the surface again and guide my vessel. Do not worry, I will not let harm come to you, but you must forgive me if I may be forceful at times."

She moves backwards, her eyes lingering at the pendant.

"I'll give you a day to bid your farewells." She points to Vera and says, "Bring the vessel I've chosen back to Lumea", and then points to the necklace on my chest, "and my soul to my elder. Without the third of my soul stabilizing the formation in this temple, the city of Lumea will undoubtedly fall but not immediately. This vessel will harvest the remaining the remaining two souls in Lumea, and together you must go to my elder's home. She'll know what to do."

A hand pats my chest. Aovialutre smiles, and then as if pushed backwards, I fall endlessly in the real between consciousness and reality.

"You must stay together until then…"