3; A Requiem of Lost Souls

The bright yellow sun was the very thing that finally woke him up. With his eyes still closed, Aster felt his body aching in several places. At first, his mind was blissfully empty until the terrible memories resurfaced. The blood and gore, the beast and his savoir, of what he has done with his own hands. All of it crashed into him, forcing him to abruptly open his eyes, only to be burned by the harsh light. Desperate to make sense of what had happened, Aster tried lifting himself up from the ground, only for his vision to swim. Struggling to collect his bearings, it was then that he realized he was in the same groove—the very place where he had taken a man's life, the very place where he had almost lost his.

Looking around, Aster immediately noticed the difference. The body of the hunter was gone; proof of what had happened was nowhere to be found. There was none of the blood on the ground and leaves, and the groove bore none of the scars that would have marked the battle that had taken place last night. Instead, if anything, everything around him was oddly serene. The grass covering the ground was soft, and the expansive canopy of golden leaves and twigs that stretched out above him like a hand grasping for the skies shielded him from the worst of the blazing sun. He would have thought he was still dreaming if it weren't for the familiar figure resting on one of the large roots, seemingly enjoying the whispering breeze. A moment of silence passed until he eventually broke it.

"You took your time, child." He spoke, one of his eyes peering at him before it closed, almost as if he couldn't be bothered to move from his cozy position.

At that moment, Aster was floored. He had so many questions to ask and so many words he could say. Instead, what came out of mouth was the same obsession that had brought him here in the first place, the same desire borne from the spark of hope within him.

"T-the lullaby?" he stammered. "How do you know the lullaby?"

At his question, the lone man in robes of white and gold glanced at him before he sighed. Perhaps it was Aster's faltering conviction that moved him, or perhaps he saw something else, but it never mattered. What Aster truly cared about was obtaining the answer he wanted from the man in front of him, and he was willing to do anything to get it.

The eerily robed man, the shade Aster had to remind himself, took a deep breath before he replied.

"What you heard was an ancient spell song, a forgotten piece of lyrical music famously known as A Requiem of Lost Souls. As its name suggests, it was a song that followed each battle and war; its notes and magic used to lull the restless haunted souls to slumber."

A note of sadness crept into his voice.

"But times have changed since then. Although the song was meant for the dead, even back then, it was known that there were a few among the living who could register its notes. But just as it was for the departed, the living would not hear just any song. They would hear a melody manifested into what mattered most to them, of what their soul yearned for come day and night, of what they deeply lost as they still live and breathe."

His golden eyes fully opened to stare at him.

"Just as you have heard of what you have already lost," he sighed again before he continued. "When the requiem was made all those years ago, it was meant for the dead, not the living. What you heard or might have thought you heard was nothing more than a mirage. What was once truly lost can rarely ever be regained."

The little bit of hope—the little spark that Aster had nurtured ever since he heard the first lyrical note—was shattered into pieces. His face paled, his hand shook, and suddenly he found himself weak, his mind grasping for straws.

Somewhere deep within him, a part of him knew it was hopeless to hold on. For truly, what did he expect to find? His beautiful mother, hale and hearty, waiting for him with open arms? Or perhaps a part of her legacy, as it took for the day of the invasion to happen for him to realize her mother was a powerful blood mage at that. There was only one remaining truth. His parents and his family had all died at the hands of their enemies, and he was all alone in the world with no one to rely on.

No one at all.

The man in white and gold might have expected a lot of responses but silent tears were definitely not one of them. He was instantly aware that by telling the child the truth, he might have shattered the little bit of hope he clung to. His forceful foray into the mind of the leader of the hunters had only given him snippets into the events themselves. All he knew was that the little boy was a stubborn survivor, as he had been pursued and hunted for days throughout the forest of the endless glades until he finally arrived to his lair. Even without the soulscour, it was easy to infer the young child had something those rotten souls wanted and it was worth the trouble of facing the dangerous beasts in the glades to get it

It took hours for Aster's emotions to finally calm down. His chest felt hollow, and his heart was filled with despair. Steadily staring at the falling sun with swollen eyes, Aster opened his dry throat to ask the questions he was supposed to ask in the first place.

"Who are you? And why am I still alive?"

The eerily man smiled as he changed his pose, now fully facing him with his back still rested upon the large root like it was a throne.

"You have finally asked the most important question." Raising his hands, he wildly gestured towards himself.

"You, my lad, are in the presence of the greatest caster to have ever lived. A former Vizier to the First Monarchy, a Chosen Disciple of the Ordained Forefather, The Origin Seeker of All Paths, The Only Wielder of All-Light, The Head Grandmaster of the Circle of Markings, The Prime Magi of the Golden Council, and the only known Spellmeister in the whole of Shorelands. You are looking at the one and only Eiseldawn, the once humble boy turned into a Saint prodigy in just under a century."

Far crickets were heard as Aster stared at the impossibly dead-but-alive man in front of him.

"You are him?" he dubiously asked.

A little deflated at his response, Eisel assured him. "Yes, it is I."

"The legendary founder of the Dawn Academy..." Aster hesitantly whispered.

"That is I," he replied, a little proudly this time, "I'm glad after all this time the Academy still stands."

"The Golden Witch of the Wild Woods..."

"Yes, that is me."

"The Spearpoint of the Monarchy's Conquest"

"It is me,"

"The Magical Nightmare of the Old..."

"Yes…yes…I am all of the above and more. I'm surprised my records are well kept after all these years. I would have thought that barbaric nickname would be long forgotten by now.

Aster looked at him for a while before he vomited the first thing that appeared in his mind.

"B-but that would be impossible. The ancient records say the spellmeister courageously died at the Sundered Valley, fighting against the remnants of war." 

He scarcely finished his words when a cold sensation suddenly erupted throughout the groove like a storm. Aster's senses screamed at him as the bright light from the moving sun dimmed. All around him, he could sense nothing but death as the terrible pressure emanating from the archaic man sitting before him constricted his chest, paralyzing his whole body. It could be that he was suffocating or that his sanity was finally breaking after all of the terrible things he had gone through, but when his sight landed on the shade, it was almost like the light around him bent in the wrong directions. On the same place, the man shimmered between two forms: one, a young archaic figure he was already familiar with and another, an older version, one that was almost too terrifying to look at, with burning molten gold eyes and a much longer beard and hair. His whole visage was twisted into a terrible rage, one that threatened to shatter any living thing that dared stand on its path.

"HOW DARE THEY?"

A deep roar shattered the very air, unleashing another tremor throughout the meadow. Aster's eardrums burst in the process, engulfing him in sudden pain and shock, and he screamed as he desperately held his head with his hands, a long ringing thundering in his ears even as powerful bouts of dizziness threatened to overwhelm him. In his panic, he was unaware that his cry was the one thing that finally snapped the shade out of his anger. With his eyes watering and his senses tumbling all over the place, Aster barely saw the man returning to normal with a regretful smile on his face. He became horrified when he found out that he couldn't register any of the words the shade uttered. When the strange shade finally realized the same thing, he waved his hand, and Aster felt himself unwillingly plunged into the darkness again, this time without the strength to even resist.

** ** **

The night had settled in by the time Aster opened his eyes again. The grove shone in a soft, mystical light under the mother moon, its pearly radiance illuminating the concealed garden in various shades of silver. But that wasn't what pulled him awake this time. It was the mouthwatering scent of roasted meat that tore at his empty stomach, forcing him to inadvertently hunt for its source. When his eyes finally caught up, he saw the one named Eiseldawn a few feet away from him. He was seated on raised ground beside a large bonfire that had somehow manifested when he was knocked out. A beast of some kind was roasting over its flames and all around him were various condiments and herbs floating in the air. 

Blood flooding his veins, Aster scrambled back in terror. His heart palpitated as he stared at the shade, watching his every move while his mind desperately tried to come up with ideas on how he could get out of there alive. It was then that he noticed something. Touching his ears, he became aware there was none of the pain or the ringing that had bothered him only a few minutes ago. Well it wasn't minutes any longer, as several hours must have passed for the light to set and the moon to stand high above.

Eiseldawn took a deep breath.

"Forgive me, child," he began as he further stoked the fire. "It has been a long while since I have been in the company of another mortal. I should have known better than to lose my temper, but your words have pierced through some old wounds."

Aster did not say a word, as he was busy struggling to calm himself while watching the strange shade for any sudden movements. It was his stomach that ultimately betrayed him as it helplessly groaned in hunger. The sound was so loud that Aster was sure it could be heard all over the meadow.

"Come, eat…I prepared this feast especially for you. Judging from the bare bones on you, it seemed it has been a while since you had a good meal."

Still frozen in place, Aster made no effort to move even as a plate appeared in his vicinity and a slab of the well-cooked meat drifted to it. His hunger had no such compulsions and it slowly overpowered his fear until Aster felt compelled to break the strange silence.

"You really are him, aren't you?" he barely whispered but it seemed the shade heard nonetheless.

"It is I." this time he replied with none of the theatrics.

A wave of protest rose almost unbidden in Aster's throat until his mind recalled all of the impossible things he had witnessed from the moment he had set foot into the groove. The time the world stood still under his command, when he summoned the terrible creature from the pond, and finally his latest outburst, where he seemingly lost control because of his words and the whole world burst into a shower of pain and ringing that had knocked him out for several hours. This was a man or shade that possessed such strength that he could never hope to fight against. It also helped that his hunger was strong enough to gnaw his common sense to shreds. Only a flimsy shred of self-control stopped him from getting what his body wanted, regardless of the consequences.

"Eat child. All will ultimately be answered. For now, put some meat inside of you. You seem to faint way too easily for a child." A chuckle escaped his mouth as he tended the roaring flames, seemingly painting a picture of a docile young grandfather taking care of a child under the spread of stars.

But Aster knew that was a lie. Still, his words somehow felt like an order, one he wasn't about to go against. He jumped at the meat almost like he was afraid it would disappear and ravaged the succulent flesh with fervor of a drowning man gasping for air.

He almost blacked out from the taste, his mouth moaning loudly as the perfectly seasoned meat teased his tongue while his hands overworked themselves to fill the void that was his stomach. When he finally finished the meal, he didn't question when a goblet appeared out of thin air beside him, filled with golden syrup that he downed in one gulp. The moment he was done, he felt his body seize up, turning to lead almost immediately. His thoughts slowed down to a crawl, and he lay upon the ground, staring into the clear skies, almost like he was paralyzed. Time quietly passed, with the sizzling of the meat over the fire and the rusting of leaves over the groove, until a soft laugh escaped the golden man.

"Well, aren't you a hungry one?" He lightly shook his head as he summoned the empty plate towards him. With agile hands, he quickly cut another piece before he deftly placed it on the floating wooden plate, which immediately soared back towards Aster, settling in front of him. If he was impressed by the casual magic, then he definitely couldn't show it, as his body felt as if it were filled with mud. He could only stare helplessly at the meal beside him, eliciting another chuckle from him.

"Be patient, child, as your body is currently in shock from suddenly receiving nutrients it sorely needs. Take your time this time. Your body will slowly adapt."

Cautiously, Aster pulled the plate steadily towards him, heeding his advice to take his time to enjoy the meal. When the shade did nothing else other than take care of the fire, his apprehensions slowly bled away until another thought snapped into his head, forcing him to look around in panic.

"The beast... where is it?"

Eiseldawn almost rolled his eyes. "Now you remember! You must have really been starved."

When he saw his reply wasn't helping at all, he theatrically sighed.

"It's not just any beast; it's a crystal-stoned snake, a very rare breed with none of the venom its brethren are so well known for." He stared at him before he airily pointed towards the lake. "Only to quell your worries, the creature you just asked for is busy resting. Dire beasts such as them have to hibernate for longer periods not only to stem their hunger but also to slowly accumulate their strength."

Aster gulped before he slightly scooted away from the waters. He definitely did not forget his food behind as he carried it with him, slowly nibbling at the delicious meat while his mind was filled with the terrifying visions of the snake awakening at any moment.

Eiseldawn was silent for a while before he spoke again.

"I know there is a reason why those hunters were after you. All I gained from their leader were snippets of their quest to hunt you down for all their worth." He sneered. "which has ultimately proved otherwise."

His ethereal eyes looked him over.

"All they were told is that you are in possession of a priceless item. A treasure their proprietor went far and wide to get hold of, such that he promised them the Void stone in your hands in return."

Almost like he was visibly slapped, Aster instinctively pulled back, his hands seeking the void stone in his frayed robe, dropping his meal in a fluster.

Eisel's golden eyes only bore at him.

"You do know, if I had wanted to, it would have been easy for me to pry it from your grasp when you were unconscious. I was the one who saved your life, and so, as they said, you have incurred a debt to me. Now tell me your tale and leave nothing behind. Lies are very unwelcome in this part of the forest."

Aster only stared at him before he closed his eyes, trying to still his rapidly beating heart. Taking some deep breaths, his weary emotions finally caught up to his logic.

First, he had to acknowledge some truths.

The foremost was that he had nowhere to go. He was perhaps in the presence of a long-dead figure so unimaginably powerful that he didn't even have to breathe for him to die. A part of him despaired at his helplessness, but there was nothing he could do. He had been saved and fed and now he was even given a chance to talk. When compared to the dreadful process Raz had gone through, it made it clear he was in favor. He had to make sure that whatever had been done to him was something he would never experience. Seeing a grown man scream in such pain was enough to sear such memory deep into his mind.

He became quiet for a while, the warmth and light from the flickering flames chasing away the creeping coldness of the night. For the past few days, he had never dared to allow himself to linger over what happened that day without fearing he would fall apart. He only had thoughts of surviving, so he had no choice but to clamp up his emotions over and over again in order to keep his wits about him.

But now, there was truly no one after him. All of the pursuing hunters were dead and his mortal enemies would most probably have to delve deep into the endless glades to find him. When he finally realized such a thing, all those bottled emotions burst forth, tears spilling from his eyes like an endless dam.

"They came at the dead of the night," his voice cracked. "Like thieves out to steal and rob. I knew something was strange that day, but when I finally got it, it was too late."

The spellmeister waved his hand as he willed another log to him.

"Child, I know this is hard for you, but for the tale to make sense, why don't you start at the very beginning?" He said as he picked up a dead branch and settled the new log into the bonfire properly.