The night sky spread in a wide dome, across whose entire surface, in the cool windless air, burned a dense scatter of stars, pulsing with a steady, barely perceptible shimmer.
"Dad, tell me that story again." A quiet child's voice drifted through the room.
"I've already told it to you many times, my little one." A man's voice answered with a warm laugh.
"Pleeease! It's my favorite!"
"All right, but only on the condition that you go to sleep after, agreed?" The father replied, laughing softly.
"Yes, commander!"
The child's room was immersed in the soft glow of a little yellow crystal standing on the nightstand by the bed, and the father had settled right on the edge of the mattress, watching his daughter in that dim, warm light.
"All right then. So... once upon a time... long, long ago... when our Republic did not yet exist, on this land lived our ancestors... who were divided into many different tribes. And despite this, they all called themselves Sanns, which in the ancient language meaaans..." The father spoke, deliberately holding the pause.
"Children of the sun!" The daughter answered loudly.
"That's my girl." The father replied with a warm laugh, then continued.
"And the children of the sun lived right by the Shining Forest... but life was hard, for the desert is a harsh place, and there were far too few resources for the people to grow... But the Sanns did not give up, and kept praying to our great sun god."
"And there's a sacred lake in the Shining Forest too!" The girl added.
"That's right, and what is that lake's other name?"
"Lacus Lucis!"
"Well, I see my daughter is quite the smartypants!" The father said, and started tickling her, which made her burst into bright, ringing child's laughter, after which he let her go and continued with a smile.
"So... Lacus Lucis... every Sann knew that this lake was so powerful that anyone who touched it would be burned, and anyone who plunged in would never rise again... and so this lake was used only for burials. The people immersed the bodies of the dead after the sacred rite, and to this day we all know and believe that in that moment the souls of our kin join the others in the waters of the sacred lake."
The girl went quiet, dropping her gaze to the blanket, before quietly asking a question.
"Is my mom there too?..."
The father breathed out slowly, watching her in silence for a moment.
"Yes, Eveline... she is there now... and in the end, all of us will find ourselves there... and meet your mother again."
"What happened next?"
"One day... the son of a very righteous woman fell gravely ill. He was a kind, honest and just boy, but weak and frail in body. And one day illness took hold of him. Many tribes knew him, because he never refused to help and often kept ties with each of the tribes, even when the Sanns quarreled among themselves... but this illness drew many together, making them try to find a way to save this boy... But since none of the Sanns had any ability for magic, unlike the other peoples who lived beyond the desert... no one could help the boy, who was dying slowly and painfully before their eyes."
"His mother must have cried so much..." Eveline said quietly.
"Oh... certainly... as a father, I don't even want to imagine it... and yet, his mother understood that she could no longer watch her child suffer. And since she was very righteous and had very strong faith in the sun god, she prayed day and night, until at one moment, as scripture tells... a divine sign descended upon her."
"The sun god himself spoke with her?"
"That, my little one, nobody knows... but they say that in that moment, it was as though her eyes were opened, and she knew clearly what to do... She took her child in her arms, and despite the heavy weight of a teenager, she would not let anyone take him from her, carrying him alone all the way through the Shining Forest... and many even tried to stop her, thinking she had gone mad with grief."
"Can that really happen?..."
"Oh yes, my daughter. When a parent watches their only child die, not everyone survives it. And so you must always understand why your father is sometimes strict and always worries about you."
"I understand..."
"Now you do, but when you're older, much of it won't seem so obvious."
"Let's keep going..."
The father laughed quietly, tossing his head back for a moment, then continued.
"All right then... so... the boy's mother came to the sacred lake, while the crowd of Sanns standing behind her tried to talk her out of it, because they were horrified that she was about to plunge her still-living, only child into the sacred lake. But no one tried to stop her outright, because they also understood that the boy could no longer be saved, and watching his suffering was even more terrible... and besides, the boy's mother had said that the sun god himself had commanded her to do this, so that his blessing would come down upon her son and upon all of them."
Eveline gripped the blanket tighter with both hands, not taking her eyes off her father, whom the dim light of the yellow crystal on the nightstand softly lit from the side.
"And finally... she decided to do it... slowly releasing her boy's body into the water, burning both hands down to the bone in the process... but then nothing happened... the boy's body sank in the water, and it seemed everything had ended as usual... the body dissolved, and the child's soul merged with the lake... and then, what did the boy's mother do?"
"She kept believing..." Eveline whispered, barely audible.
"That's right. She stood there, despite the noise and words behind her. Hands ruined, eyes full of tears... but she kept looking at the lake, murmuring prayers with her lips and believing in a miracle... and then..."
"The water began to churn!"
The father laughed, watching his daughter with a warm smile.
"Yes... suddenly... the water churned, and all those standing behind the woman froze at once... and they saw a man rise from the water... his hair was so long it cascaded down to his heels... tall and powerfully built... and his face... the woman recognized her son at once... even though the boy had already become a grown man... and so appeared the first..."
"Great Archon..." Eveline whispered.
"Clever girl. And what makes him so great?..."
"He gave the Sanns the magic of light... and taught them how to use it... and he united all the tribes and created the Helios Republic..."
"And in doing so, he accelerated the rapid growth of his new republic, unlocking the possibilities of technologies that run on light magic." The father added.
Eveline looked thoughtfully out the night window, not saying a word, while the father slowly rose from the edge of the bed.
"All right, we've already lingered here long enough, and you should have been asleep long ago." He said.
"Okay, Dad." She answered, pulling the blanket tighter around herself.
The father touched the crystal with the tip of his finger, and the yellow glow faded, plunging the room into quiet darkness, after which he leaned over his daughter and kissed her on the forehead, brushing her snow-white fringe from her face with his palm.
"I love you. Good night, my little ray."
"I love you too, Dad. Good night."
The father rose, crossed the dark room with silent steps and walked out the door, pulling it carefully closed behind him.
Eveline peeked out from under the blanket, shifting her gaze to the dark window, beyond which, in the cool night, the stars still burned.
Chapter 43 - Underdog.
13 years later
Eveline opened her eyes, seeing before her that same window, through which the morning sun filled the room with steady light.
For a few seconds she simply lay there, staring at the ceiling, before shifting her gaze to the mechanical clock on the wall, then sitting bolt upright in bed.
"DAMN IT!" She cried, leaping out of bed.
A few minutes later she burst from her room, ran through the living room and dashed into the kitchen, where yellow crystals stood in the corners serving as lamps at night, then stopped in front of the mirror.
She had a piece of bread clamped in her mouth and was using her free hand to fix her snow-white hair, which barely reached her shoulders, while the other smoothed the lapel of her tunic, whose snow-white cloth was covered entirely in a dense pattern of golden embroidery, baroque swirls and heavy ornamentation layering the fabric from shoulder to hem.
Under the tunic a high ribbed collar lay neatly fitted, a small stud earring glinted in her earlobe, the golden buttons of the front placket were fastened precisely to shape, and the trousers of the same golden color sat without a single crease.
The amber-gold of her eyes still held the haze of recent sleep, but she confirmed the uniform was sitting right, then reached for her bag and threw it over her shoulder.
She already had her hand on the door handle when her father's voice came from behind her.
"Dry bread? Did you even take water with you?"
Eveline turned around, bread still in her mouth, checked the bag, and wordlessly ran to the sink, touching the crystal sticking out of the wall, which immediately lit up, sending a hum of triggered mechanisms through the wall, and water began flowing from the tap.
She filled a glass bottle and dropped it into the leather bag.
Her father stood leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching his daughter hurry with a smile.
"I think this is the third time this month you've slept in... Won't that cause you trouble at the university?"
"Noproblmzillsortitout." Eveline answered, bread still in her mouth.
The father studied his daughter for a long second, then smiled hopelessly.
"I hope that means no."
Eveline nodded with an awkward look, then turned sharply and ran out into the street.
The father watched her go and for a moment stared at the door she had left not quite shut.
"Could've at least said goodbye... sleepyhead..." He said with a sigh.
She ran out onto the wide terrace, from which Midar opened in one vast, overwhelming view, from one edge of the horizon to the other, white stone and gold, with thousands of towers and domes pierced by morning light, making the whole city burn with a steady, diffused radiance.
At its very center the Temple of the Sun rose high, its snow-white spires climbing far above the other buildings, while smooth flying buttresses stretched in curving arcs from tower to tower above open gardens and cobbled squares far below.
On the domes with their blue sheen, golden frames scattered morning light across the surrounding rooftops, while at the very center of the huge facade a broad stained-glass window blazed from within with multicolored light, breaking it into a bright mosaic against white stone.
A small creature came flying toward her, with bluish-white fluffy fur and wide-open blue eyes, fussing through rapid circles with the frequent beat of four transparent wings, sending tiny blue sparks scattering all around it, while threads of living bluish light streamed from its large pointed ears.
"Hi Rexy! I overslept again, so we need to hurry!"
Eveline pulled from her bag a small device shaped like an elongated hexagon with a yellow crystal of the same shape at its center, sent a slight energy pulse into it and threw it down.
Before the device hit the ground, dense yellow energy matter snapped sharply outward from it, and within seconds a wide levitating surfboard formed around it, hovering a few centimeters above the surface.
Eveline stepped onto it sideways, while Rexy clung to her shoulder, then she pushed an impulse into the board and shot forward, instantly gaining speed.
Midar rushed past in a swift stream of white stone and golden cornices, busy streets and canals along which light flat-bottomed skiffs glided.
On the pavements below, citizens moved with magical pets on leashes, awnings piled high above market stalls, and morning crowds gathered at the wide bridges over the canals.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Eveline sharply tilted the board, banking into a steep turn and nearly knocking over a group of pedestrians, before an indignant shout rang out behind her: "HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE FLYING!"
She swept through turns, ducked under bridge spans, burst out onto wide avenues where rows of trees in stone-lined pits divided streams of pedestrians and mechanical carriages on wide wheels.
The Temple of the Sun loomed from the side, blocking for a few seconds a good half of the horizon with its snow-white towers and blazing stained-glass facade, before the board banked and its silhouette dissolved behind the dense rows of city blocks.
The capital didn't quieten for a moment, alive and humming, as the high spires of the university towers appeared ahead above the roofline.
A wide square spread out before the university, filled with students talking in groups and checking schedules against papers in their hands.
Eveline jumped sharply off the board, which instantly collapsed back into its compact device, then she picked it up from the ground, tossed it into her bag and ran toward the entrance, leaving Rexy to circle outside.
The university rose before her in several tiers of white-stone Gothic crowned with a dense cluster of domes of dark teal glass in golden frames, following one after another from the lower galleries to the highest levels.
On every cornice and balcony railing, bushes with heavy golden flower clusters pressed together thickly, while thin threads of waterfalls ran down the white faces of the facade into a wide reflecting pool at the base, bordered by living hedges and flowering trees.
Tall pointed windows with teal-blue stained glass pierced the walls from floor to vaulting, while the broad colonnades of the first level opened into galleries from whose depths poured warm golden light.
Inside, the building opened into a high white nave flooded with light passing through the stained glass, making the air above the wide staircase landings shimmer with teal and gold.
The main staircase climbed upward in wide flights framed by railings of white stone with golden inlays, while in niches along the walls stood elongated crystals casting a steady warm light across the polished marble steps.
Eveline climbed quickly, passing open galleries on the intermediate levels that with each flight opened wider views of the upper vaults, rising toward the glass ceiling of the dome overhead.
The lecture hall spread from the lectern in tiers and broad rows of multi-level desks climbing up the steps of a gently sloping amphitheater, behind which about a hundred students sat.
All of them were white-haired, with skin of a silvery hue, making the hall feel like a single unified picture.
The professor was a tall, severe woman with her hair pinned in a neat bun, in a white fitted suit with gold trim, similar in cut to the student uniform but free of the heavy embroidered decoration.
The lecture hall door swung open, cutting the professor off mid-sentence, and the students turned their gazes toward the entrance.
Eveline stepped in quietly, shoulders drawn in, saying "I apologize," then hurried to the center row and dropped into a free seat at the end.
The students seated nearby immediately shifted away, opening up space around her.
Among those present she was the only one with a beige skin tone, standing out sharply against the general silver of the hall.
Eveline carefully unclasped her bag and began laying textbooks and a notebook on the desk.
The professor kept her eyes on Eveline while the only sounds in the hall came from the things being pulled from her bag.
She straightened in her chair, catching from the corner of her eye the gazes of several nearby students watching her with cool arrogance, some of them talking in low voices, barely holding back laughter.
The professor shifted her gaze back to the hall, breathed out slowly through her nose and resumed the interrupted lecture.
"So... ordinary photocytes are unsuitable for use in Heliographs, because as we know, what matters to us above all is several factors at once, namely: signal purity, range and stability." The professor was saying, simultaneously drawing with a glowing stone on a board of dark teal stone, across whose surface glowing golden inscriptions appeared.
"Can anyone tell me why a plain photocyte is unsuitable for this task?"
The professor swept the hall with her gaze and settled it on Eveline.
"Perhaps our special student, who arrives halfway through a lecture, will explain it to us?" She said.
Eveline glanced back at the students watching her alongside the professor, then stood uncertainly.
"W... well... a plain photocyte can absorb magical energy without losses... but the output energy... especially over long distances, cannot be stable or precise enough... for the receiving heliograph to accurately convert the transmitted information... Such crystals are used more for less precise and cruder tasks..." She said, constantly looking away from the professor.
"And how does one solve such a problem, Eveline?" The professor asked sharply.
"Using... a stabilizing component... that limits the output energy and focuses it in a single range... such as a covering mesh of alfarium alloy..."
The professor narrowed her eyes, then replied with the same coldness, turning simultaneously to the board and making notes on it.
"Correct. Alfarium stabilizes the output signal, converting the powerful but wasteful and excessive energy flow into a stable, long-range signal capable of transmitting written information with far greater precision."
Eveline quietly sat back down, resting her hands on the desk, while from the corner of her ear she caught muffled voices behind her.
"Bookworm loser. Probably does nothing but sit with her nose in books all day." A guy a few rows higher said with a smirk, speaking to the girl sitting next to him.
"Of course, what else would she do? She's helpless, no different from the Zeros. I'm surprised she can even use photocytes at all. No wonder she has nothing else going on in her life, though frankly she'd be of more use doing what the zeros do, rather than sitting here pretending she's one of us." The girl answered with an equally arrogant smile, barely holding back laughter.
Eveline pressed her lips together and stared at the open page of her textbook, trying not to listen to them.
When the lecture ended, Eveline walked out into the corridor and headed toward an open arch, from which Rexy shot toward her with a sharp snap of wings.
She paid it no attention, walked up to the railing and leaned on it with both hands, fixing her gaze on Midar spread wide from this height.
Rexy circled nearby, but gradually slowed the beat of his wings and settled on the railing beside her, stretching his neck and peering into her face from the side with a worried look.
From the corridor behind her came a familiar voice.
"Evi!"
She turned and saw Ilau running toward her, slightly chubby, in round glasses, with white hair and silvery skin.
"I've been looking for you everywhere... did you sleep in again?" He asked, concerned.
Eveline breathed out heavily, shifting her gaze back to the city spread below.
"Yeah... missed half the lecture..."
Ilau sighed with an understanding smirk, not taking his eyes off her.
"Were you up late again?"
"Yeah."
"If this keeps up, you'll have trouble..."
"I know."
"You know, but you still—"
"Ilau. Enough. I'm not in the mood for your advice right now."
Ilau stopped mid-word, silently dropping his shoulders and staring at the floor.
"Sorry... I just wanted to..."
Eveline gave a short growl and a sigh, dropped her head, pushed sharply off the railing, adjusted her bag on her shoulder and walked quickly down the corridor, after which Ilau looked at Rexy, who flew up from the railing, and both hurried after her.
"Why are you reacting like that?... I'm just worried about you!"
"I told you, I'm not in the mood. Just don't bring it up. That would do me far more good."
"Okay..."
They came out onto the main square, where Ilau asked:
"Don't you have any more lectures?..."
"I do. The next one's in four hours, so I'm going for a walk."
From the crowd to the side came a familiar mocking voice.
"Well, look at that, the loser has something else to do besides sit at home burying her nose in her books?"
Ilau and Eveline turned around at the voice behind them at the same time. Standing before them was the same guy who had been sitting behind Eveline earlier and talking about her.
He was in the same light university uniform, in the company of two other students and a small group of girls watching Eveline with arrogant, mocking smiles.
"What do you want from us, Gray?" Ilau asked with displeasure.
"From you?... I was speaking only to our bookworm over there, but I see you, fatty, are also hungry for our attention?"
"The one hungry for attention here is you, Gray." Eveline replied coldly.
Gray smirked condescendingly, slowly turning to his companions.
"Did you hear that? This idiot dares to be clever in front of someone who is an actual conductor. A real one. And she is... a pitiful imitation."
"A powerful pandorum can still come paired with a feeble mind." Eveline answered.
Gray's companions raised their eyebrows, bringing hands to their mouths and watching for his reaction.
Gray smirked, stepped closer, let his gaze slide over Ilau, then over Eveline, then sharply drove his fist straight into her stomach.
She doubled over from the blow, coughing up onto Gray's shoes.
"Filth... got my shoes dirty." He said, shoving her to the ground.
"EVI!" Ilau cried.
"Shut up, fatboy." Gray snapped.
"Take one step, and I'll do the same to you."
Ilau didn't move, watching Eveline as she got up from the ground, while a muffled buzz of voices spread across the square.
Rexy dove from above, lunging straight at Gray, but he caught him with one hand, gripping him tightly by the throat.
Eveline shot up from the ground, and her expression turned hard and focused as she yanked her bag open.
She pulled out a small photocyte crystal and clenched it in both palms.
"LET HIM GO! RIGHT NOW!" She cried.
"Or what?" Gray said with a sneer.
Eveline squeezed the crystal and began pumping energy into it, but all she managed to draw from it was a dim, trembling flicker, too weak even for the photocyte to form so much as a small blade.
A sharp, mocking laugh burst through Gray's whole group.
"See? You're a pathetic first level, and worse. You can't even form anything... and your photocyte puts out less light than a candle." He said.
The next second, Rexy closed his teeth directly on Gray's hand.
Gray cried out in pain, jerked his hand back and opened his palm, after which Rexy shot upward and settled on Eveline's shoulder, directing a low growl at Gray.
Gray looked at the blood on the back of his hand, then shifted his gaze to both of them and was already raising his hand to his lips, ready to whistle.
From the direction of the university's main doors came a faint hum of voices.
Everyone turned, and a group of professors emerged from the doors, moving across the square. Gray immediately dropped his hand and assumed an indifferent look, barely managing to hide what had just been burning in him.
The professors walked past in silence, talking among themselves and not lingering their eyes on the group of students.
When they disappeared around the corner, Gray turned his gaze to Eveline, standing in a tense stance.
"I see you didn't learn your lesson at the last competition... but that's fine... the next one is coming very soon... and there I'll teach you a more proper lesson."
Then he shifted his gaze to Rexy, sitting on Eveline's shoulder.
"Hah... look at this... Her and her companion... what a pitiful sight..."
Gray brought his fingers to his lips and cut through the air with a sharp whistle. Several seconds later a winged lion with four eyes descended from the sky, fitted in engraved golden armor with a saddle on its broad back, letting out a low, drawn-out roar as it landed.
The others called their own pets, and out of the specialized sections of the campus came large magical creatures, while others descended from above.
Everyone mounted up, all eyes turning down at Eveline and Ilau from above at once.
"Prepare yourself, scum. Soon you'll regret staying at this university, insulting those who are truly permitted to study here."
They all rose into the air one after another, lifting heavy clouds of dust from the ground, leaving above the square only a slowly settling trail.
Rexy watched them go with a low growl, not taking his eyes off them.
"Calm down. There's no point reacting to the words of people whose tongues are better developed than their brains." Eveline said.
"Evi... are you okay?" Ilau asked.
Eveline glanced in his direction and immediately looked away.
"Fine... same as usual."
"I... I wanted to..." Ilau began.
"Don't. Don't explain yourself. I know perfectly well why you talk to me and... you did the right thing. I didn't need them to start despising you because of me."
She pulled the device from her bag, instantly activating the board.
"Evi, I'm sorry... I really..."
"See you later, Ilau." She answered, then shot forward, leaving him behind.
She climbed block by block, gaining height above the familiar streets of Midar, while the houses below grew denser and the panorama of the capital stretched wider above their rooftops, spreading in every direction to the horizon.
The outer wall of the polis rose ahead in several tiers of polished white stone with watchtowers at regular intervals.
On its crest, warriors in heavy white armor with fused light crystals stood watch, glowing patterns running in threads across their breastplates and pauldrons.
As Eveline approached, one of the sentinels raised his head.
"Ah, Eveline, early today." He said.
"Hello, Maron. I have a long gap between classes."
"Understood. Be careful."
"I will. See you."
Maron waved to her as she continued flying above the crest of the wall.
The sentinels grew fewer the farther she went from the main gates, until the crest stood empty entirely, leaving behind only the long white stone and an open horizon ahead.
Eveline touched the board, and it collapsed back into its device, then she sat down on the very edge of the wall, dangled her legs over the outer side and laid her bag beside her.
Ahead, beyond canyons stretching for kilometers whose sheer walls dropped into brown scorched rock, a wide desert spread out, giving way at the very horizon to the foot of a mountain range.
There, pressed between the mountains and the open plain, stood the Shining Forest, from which at that distance rose a barely perceptible steady glow, quiet and constant against the daylight sky.
Midar behind her continued to hum with every voice it had, but here its noise reached her as a muffled background, barely distinguishable through the long wind pulling from the side where the forest darkened.
Eveline took the glass bottle from her bag and drank several sips, not taking her eyes off the distant forest.
The wind blew warm and dry, arriving in infrequent waves that stirred the snow-white hair at her temples.
Rexy sat beside her on a stone merlon, turning his large blue eyes after birds trailing somewhere high above the city.
Thoughts moved slowly, carrying her back to the day's lectures, then to the words spoken behind her back, then to her father with his warm voice telling the story of the mother carrying her sick son to the shore of the lake that stood somewhere there, deep in the forest.
From the wall, from the desert and from that unhurried wind came a rare calm that couldn't be found in the lecture hall or tracked down in the walking crowds below.
Eveline spent a good while there before returning to the university grounds for the second lecture.
The next lecture ran its course while Eveline neatly filled the pages of her notebook in small, precise handwriting, focused on the professor's explanation and deliberately ignoring the muffled laughter behind her that inevitably arose whenever the teacher turned to the board.
During the break she found a free table in the farthest corner of the canteen and settled there, setting her tray down in front of her.
Ilau took the seat across from her, immediately opening his notebook with its annotations and leaning back in his chair with a confused look. Eveline explained calmly, her cheek resting in her hand and a fork in the other, occasionally jabbing it into lines in the notebook for illustration.
When she finished, Ilau stared at the notebook for several seconds, trying to absorb Eveline's explanation.
When the sun began to set, casting long shadows across the cobbled streets, the facades of buildings and lamp posts lit up one by one with the yellow pinpricks of light, gradually turning Midar into a scatter of flames across a dark plain.
Eveline said goodbye to Ilau, activated the board near the entrance and glided forward, vanishing into the evening city, golden and quiet at sunset.
Night had fully settled over Midar by the time Eveline sat on the roof of her house, knees pulled up to her chest and chin resting on them.
Below, thousands of yellow photocyte fires traced the outlines of streets and the facades of buildings, and at the very center of Midar the Temple of the Sun rose as a white silhouette, glowing even in the dark and casting soft golden reflections across the nearest rooftops and domes.
Rexy slept beside her, curled into a tight ball with his wings folded over himself, while the wind slowly stirred Eveline's snow-white hair.
"Oh great sun god... thank you for this beautiful day... thank you for the roof over our heads... for food... for the health of those I love... for your help in my studies... for your support... and love..." She said quietly, her gaze on the temple silhouette in the distance.
"Today was not the easiest day... people are still mocking me... they see in me... a freak... a weakling... a failure... but I'm trying not to listen to them... though, honestly, I don't always manage..." She continued, squeezing her elbows tighter.
Eveline drew a trembling breath, and her voice wavered on the words that followed.
"I know... I believe that you made me this way for a reason... I'm more than a zero... and a conductor only by the most generous definition... and yet... I believe there is a reason for everything... and I believe that one day... I'll understand..."
Eveline sniffled and buried her face in her knees, while Rexy woke and raised his head, watching Eveline, whose shoulders trembled gently.
"But now... I ask you... give me strength... guide me... as you guided the mother of the Great Archon... as you guided him... I ask you... protect me and give me even more faith... even more knowledge... even more... possibilities..."
Rexy slowly rose, making a long, soft sound, then rubbed his muzzle against Eveline's thigh.
She continued in a trembling, hoarse voice.
"Mom... I know you hear me too... you're with him right now... living in the heavens... and are you proud of me?... I believe you're happy... and waiting for Dad and me..."
She slowly raised her head, lifting her gaze to the moon with a face wet with tears, then pressed both palms together in front of her.
"Oh sun god... Mom... I ask you... give me a sign... guide me into a new season of my life... and let all of this... finally come to an end... let there be people in my life... who look at me and simply see me... who will stand with me in sincerity, trust and love, with no pity or loneliness behind it... I beg you... I beg... let my life... finally change... and my dreams come true."
The stars burned overhead in sparse, motionless fires, while far below the city breathed in the soft golden light of photocytes, and at its very center the Temple of the Sun continued to glow in the darkness with a steady, unchanging radiance that had not gone out since the moment the first builders lit the very first crystal there.
Her prayer continued quietly and unhurriedly, dissolving in the night wind that carried the words somewhere out to where the Shining Forest lay beyond the mountains, its glow lost in the dark.
Rexy sat beside her, pressed against her side, not moving.
While she prayed, tears flowed slowly down her cheeks, while under that same open, star-filled sky, far to the northwest, beyond the desert and the mountains, on rolling plains beneath a solitary tree sat a dark-haired young man covered head to toe in runic tattoos.
Aren sneezed, and goosebumps broke out across his skin, after which he began rubbing his arms, trying to bring back at least some warmth.
Before him lay a handful of broken wooden sticks, worn and frayed at both ends, over which he had spent an entire hour in fruitless attempts to make fire by friction.
He stared for a long time at the pitiful results of his efforts, then said quietly:
"Fuck..."