Beyond the Boundary

Oracion's POV

The iridescent colours flood around us, swamping our feet and materialising further to the walls and ceiling. Whilst we all remain speechless, I can't help but notice Argus' unbothered response as if he'd seen it a thousand times.

"Continue on" He advises as we all follow behind him.

"You know of them!?" Mousai quickly runs beside him.

He grumbles before responding, "Stories, not much else." He blatantly remains cryptic. 

"Is there a reason I'm unable to feel the blood within you?" Eragon asks him.

"Is there a reason a shadow has no opposite?" He asks back. "If there's light for dark, life for death and right from wrong. Why is it nothing opposes a shadow?" He genuinely sounds intrigued. 

But his question was left unanswered as we leave it without an attempt. "And how long was this meant to take?" Ira's impatience revealing itself.

I stop him, holding a hand out. "Enough time for me to question, when are you going to take the cure, Ira?"

He brushes it to the side, "I said I'd keep it on me, just so you don't have to go around protecting me every two seconds, alright?" He argues.

"We're in a pretty damn safe environment now-" I answer but Argus interrupts me.

"That man has no intention of taking it, I've felt just how comfortable he is in his new skin. But be weary of your thoughts within the Boundless, as it may lead us to somewhere unknown." He waits for Mousai to lead, "I've never been to this Veil, so I'm unable to imagine it. Hold it dear to you and the Boundless should respond." He advises.

"Ira, what does he mean you're comfortable in your skin?" I walk behind him.

"It doesn't mean shit, I'm here, living and breathing. What's wrong with you accepting that for how it is?" He snaps back.

"You liked it, didn't you? Controlling all those vampires and humans back there?" I ask with worry.

He turns to face me properly, getting into my face. "Yeah well maybe I did, maybe I did like feeling safe with my own power and not having to rely on someone else for once!?" He yells.

Eragon shuffles again as he attempts to speak, "Child, you have yet to master even a slither of what the blood's capable of. I fear for it swallowing you whole as it did to me once long ago."

"Then teach me." He asks Eragon with confidence.

I look down at the head, waiting for his lips to move as he releases the next response. "...No." He deadpans, clearly infuriating Ira as he attempts to lay a hand on me.

But the very image of light between us warps as if reality itself was touched instead, "You're thinking of different places..." Argus informs us. 

"I can't go any further!" Mousai suddenly shouts back at us.

"We act as one here, if our goals don't align then it'll be forced to split us. Focus. Your. Thoughts." Argus walks to us both, turning his back to Mousai.

"What's it going to be, Oracion. Can you accept the new me for who I am?" Ira asks me.

I wipe away sweat that's beginning to form on my head, "Ira...can you even live like you used to? Hiding from the sun, eating the food others eat...sleeping next to Requis?" 

"What are you implying? That I can't control it?" 

Reality warps once again as a weight's applied to our heads as if something's trying to keep us still.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." I confidently answer him. "I don't think you can, Ira."

"I-" He attempts to speak but Mousai accidentally bumps into him as she continues facing forward. "Watch where you're going?" 

"What is it?" Argus sounds intrigued.

But all Mousai does is point as a response. Pointing at the girl walking down the hall. All so effortlessly. Her long hair swinging past her eyes with each phasing stride as with each blink, she progresses closer and closer to us.

"Impossible...how are you manifesting yourself amongst all this chaos?" Argus walks closer to the woman, someone who can't be any older than myself.

The weight piles on more as she gets ever so closer. Phasing through Argus as she looks for her real target.

"In all my years of life, I've felt the presence of many...many people, gods, creatures. But none have yet to be this controlling...this intoxicating." Eragon's voice is audibly shaken.

Mousai falls to the floor, sitting down as she now stares up at the girl. Her eyes still hidden but her smile as obvious as the sun. She tilts herself down, plucking Mousai's necklace from her before phasing into another direction.

"WAI-" Mousai realises what just happened, quickly scampering to her feet but the gravity can't help but force her back into the floor. 

"Tsk tsk tsk." She sounds out, extending her hand only to me as she gradually disappears into a different part of the Boundless.

I look around between them all before finalising my decision. "DON'T YOU DARE FOLLOW WHATEVER THAT IS!" Argus bellows from his deepest stomach, but even so I ignore it. 

Grabbing the woman's hand as I'm pulled through one of the disguised walls.

-

"You actually followed me through?" A voice talks over the faint chirps of birds.

I tense my hand, feeling a warm grasp of grass within it as I lay on my back. I quickly draw my sword, pointing it towards her as she faces the sunrise along a cliff far above the ocean.

"Not quite as scary as the first time I had met you, but scary nonetheless." She giggles to herself.

Eragon's voice steadily comments, "I'd advise you put your sword down, for this woman could devour the both of us even with my own body in tact." he warns.

"It had taken me a long time to do it, but here I am. Both within my own time, and within yours. Oracion...it's been so so long."

I hold my sword directed at her even despite Eragon's warning, "Are you one of the gods Mousai was telling us about?" 

"Haha, I'm lots of things at this point in all honesty. But I never quite got to get my fill of it. I could of even surpassed you if things didn't go the way they did. But I guess luck isn't a skill of mine." She kicks her legs off the cliff, bouncing them up and down as she continues to eagerly face away from me. 

"Who..."

"Am I?" She completes my sentence.

Her laughter sounding honest and pure as she stands up, patting herself down from the dirt. Now looking straight up at where the moon openly resides even spite of the sun's rise. Holding her hand up and covering it from her vision, causing it to vanish from the sky itself for the sake of amusement.

"Are you one of the Fae?" I question again.

"Seriously? You can't even tell who I am despite my appearance?" She looks down straight at me. A pupil of gold, and a pupil of violet. "You-don't have them." She appears shocked for some reason.

"I went back...too far." She murmurs to herself. "You have to go back, before Akul notices." She throws Mousai's necklace to me. "If you're ever lost...again. I'll be here, waiting for you. We'll be here for you." She stretches out her arms to something, now resting them upon something furry. 

My eyes trail this beast of a giant as his black fur delicately blows within the wind, his two pure gold eyes swirling with a wise look as he gazes upon my body. Teeth that would make carnivores jealous and a snout long waiting to hunt in the dark.

I feel something pulling on me, attempting to remove me from the world. But even so I have to know. "Who are you!?" I shout.

Tears drop from her face, "It's me...your best friend, Eden."

A weight falls on my shoulder, forcing me to turn around and face Argus briefly.

"Oracion, we need to leave." He tries to pull me away from Eden.

But I take my hand from him, reluctant to leave so soon. "And why's that? What aren't you telling me?" I ask him.

With the shifting of light, we look back at her. Stone, water and the mountain itself begins to rise as she glares daggers at Argus.

"The world isn't born equal, those with power have something to sacrifice whereas those who don't, cannot." He explains. "Oracion, if your name is strong enough to reach different worlds and force the dead to dream. Then think of her as your name, except an entity in itself. Eden, the woman who was denied her existence, the mother who was forgotten by her children. If what she's saying is true then you'll meet her later on, however that may be, but most certainly not today."

A physical hand extends out of him, much to my surprise as he begins tugging me aggressively towards the end of the world, a wall that seems painted onto. Even as he warns me though, I can't help but notice just how sad she looks. I want to know...more.