Chapter V

Days has past since the events of the funeral and finally, the Unsealed have returned to Halo City. Feeling something horribly wrong has occurred, the Ascended waste little time confronting them.

Atop Angellius Sight, Lius stares up at the four suspended halos, watching the dawn of a new day quietly rise and delicately shimmer against them. His straight grey hair lay uncombed and angled in all directions as the tips bounce wearily past his shoulders. The creases in his slightly aged face are more noticeable this early morning, revealing a bit of sleeplessness. With wearing only the bottom half of a maroon tunic, he lets his mind drift.

Roen takes in his surroundings and permits his thoughts to take form of one sole image, his wife.  He envisions her standing intimately close behind him. Her round full lips pressed softly against his ear, kissing him. He feels the warmth of his wife’s breath lower to his neck, her soothing hands pressed firmly against his wide bulged chest. In this moment, he can feel her quieting violet aura flow around him, connecting to his own energy as if they were one.

“I miss you, Nura,” Lius exhales, in a yearning whisper. “So much.”

He feels her lips return to his ear. “Hurry home to me.”

“I will, my love,” Lius breathes. “I swear it.”

The lips of his longing wife press passionately behind his ear, and her hands constrict around his chest. Strands of her long wavy black hair gently slap his face. He aches to return to his patient wife, to his young keen energetic son whom he has named after his closest friend Nil, and to the familiar home he has created for them in the Orihine demesne.

Soon though, his thoughts, feelings, and needs are interrupted as he hears the footsteps of his pupils approach. He does not turn to them, but instead, gazes back up at the four halos above him and his mind returns him to reality.

Liisor is the first to speak. “Guide Lius, you wanted to speak with us?”

Their Guide nods greatly concerned. “This is the third sunrise since the funeral march, and only now do they finally return. I am highly alarmed.”

“I have had similar distress,” Kale confesses, his sea blue eyes are shallow from anxiety. His normally combed cropped hair is spiked and frizzy. His thick hands slightly twitch with a sense of tension and his palms are profuse with sweat.

“We all have,” Jhene adds as she, Prince Quintence, Princess Florsza, and Dilith emerge from the entrance.

As they walk over to Guide Lius and Prince Kale, their worrisome appearance becomes more evident. Their maroon Ascended robes sway heavily through the stressing winds. Even their breathing, each of them, is of a stressful pant and everything about them right now exemplifies strain.

“Dwelling ever so slightly within this dispassionate nonchalant breeze, which surrounds us, there is a sense of horridness… of tragedy,” Guide Lius tells. His tone is cutting and drenched with caution. “Can you feel it?”

Lius’s pupils nod, as they stand closer to him.

They all reach out with their existence. Their energy fill the damp troubling breeze and follow well inside of it, eventually touching the approaching many. They soon feel an unwanted catastrophe, a shroud of wrongdoings, and a tremendous sense of calamity.

“What has happened?” Dilith asks, his voice trembling.

“Something terrible, I sense,” Prince Quintence ensures his friend. “Something gravely terrible.”

Everyone firmly agrees, each of them swallowing hard as the air around them thickens.

Princess Florsza walks over and stands in front of her Guide, forcing him to meet her intensely  eyes and match her seriousness. “What shall we do?”

“I do not sense Rune Roen’s energy among them,” Guide Lius replies in a tone that is just as serious. “Something tells me that our answers toward this terrible happening we all feel, begins with finding out where our Rune is.”

“Then let us all gain answers,” a familiar voice responds, behind them. It is the voice that Lius knows most and is capable of distinguishing even through the noisiest of scenarios. “Together.”

“Nil,” Lius reacts, his voice filled with glee.

Lius turns to his older brother and presents him with the greatest of smiles for this is a voice he has not heard in quite awhile.

“I have missed you, brother,” Nil shares, warmly as he pulls Lius into a meaningful hug.

These two are the definition of loving brothers. They are immensely attached to one another and protect the other without question. Nil, being the older sibling by a couple of years, has always made sure to be everything his younger brother needed him to be. Even if it meant for him to demean himself, Nil has always made sure to place Lius above everything and everyone.

            “Guide Lius,” Dilith calls, gaining his Guide’s attention.

            Lius turns to Dilith, so too does Nil, and they both see the reason behind his calling. Draped across Dilith’s arms is a perfectly folded maroon robe with the gold embedded words Ascended Guide of the Angellius Demesne, Lius Zathos. Lius walks over to Dilith, his older brother close behind, and appreciatively takes his prominent robe from the arms of his beloved student.

            Liisor also comes over to stand next to Dilith and in his hands, he holds Amaranthine’s Pen. “Just in case.”

            The moment brings a sense of surreal nervousness. For Lius, he finds that needing his weapon while speaking with those he has cherished above himself is unnecessary. Yet, part of him is so uncertain of what he should be prepared for that he feels most comfortable with having his weapon at hands reach. His uncertainty becomes more stable as he looks around and notices that all of his students are fully robed, their weapons also at hands reach, and their auras are enclosed protectively tight around them.

            Lius is convinced to do the same.

            As he sheathes Amaranthine’s Pen, Lius ignites the bright blue energy of his existence. His aura exudes a sense of unmistakable devotion and unfiltered wisdom. He is one who is known to possess a genuine literature’s mind, continuously diving further into his own personal depths to gain soulful truths and expressing them in the most abstract of ways.

            “Let’s go,” Lius commands, walking past his students with his brother close to him.

            Everyone nods in agreement and they hurry behind Lius and Nil, uncertain of what will happen next but resolved enough to gain discovery….

 

            “I sense them,” Lady Emilia tells, stopping and signaling everyone behind her to do the same. “They are coming. And their purpose is clear… they want answers.”

            Lady Emilia sighs a heavy sigh.

She did not wish for any of this, and especially not toward those she cares so deeply for. Within an events time, she has lost a husband, a dearest friend, and before she can permit herself to process any of it, she must bring an end to those that have been forced to pursue an unfortunate truth. She is very aware of the attachment and loyalty the Ascended has toward Roen Angellius and is not naïve to the fact that they hold his existence above all others.

            One, out of the many, walks over to Emilia. A broad younger man with a seemingly great sense of things looks over at her, cautiously. “Are you certain this is the only way? By showing them the truth.”

            The broad younger man is the newly anointed Crown of the Ayriel demesne and father to Prince Kale. Although he knows he is one of the few that are to protect the seals, Araude is torn in his responsibilities. He loves his child wholeheartedly and loathes all of the events that has and will come. Because of this, he is at a loss for words or feelings and is left with a sense of regret and tremendous sorrow.

            A beautiful and aged lady takes a comforting stance next to Crown Araude. She places a soothingly cool hand on Araude’s tense shoulder, while her sea blue eyes shift from left to right then left again with strategic purpose. Her small thin lips part and tells what must be told. “My husband… we cannot afford to display anything other than the truth.”

            Showing displeasure toward his wife’s unfortunate resolve, Araude sighs. “But that is our child, Maniida… our son.”

            “Yet, our purpose in life dictates something larger than our child.”

            Tears fall emphatically down Araude’s cheeks. “I cannot do this. Not to our only child. I am his father as you are his mother.”

Lady Emilia turns to Crown Araude and also places a hand on his shoulder. “If for any reason they survive, if your child survives, then everything we have protected and kept sealed to preserve peace will be threatened with disastrous repercussions.”

            “I am aware of the gravity to it all,” Crown Araude assures, hinting frustration as he slides his fingers through his long and wavy graying hair. His light brown eyes narrow with unease, contemplating over what the next definitive actions should be. “But surely you have taken into consideration that two of the Ascended you wish to eradicate are your own children?”

            “So too is your one and only child,” Lady Emilia, reminds. The notification makes Araude straighten with ill-fated reality. The tone from the lady of the Angellius demesne is much more stern than any previous speech. “Then again, we all have some form of strong attachment to them all.”

            Their conversation takes an earnest pause.

They all contemplate the soul-rooted words that are being expressed. How could such discussions take place toward their own children? Is this what their destiny is suppose to entail? No obstacle before has been so trialing, yet here they are… having to answer such questions. Unfortunately for them, they have little remaining to answer them.

Therefore, a grief-stricken husband is left to turn his attention to destiny-resolved wife and accept any form of response she gives. “It comes down to merely two scenarios, my husband. We either permit them, including our child, to live and bare witness to them all succumbing to a calamitous destiny? Or we end it now, and continue our sealed peace. But you know there is no choice in this matter. They reflect his resolve. They are not of us, my husband, but of Roen Angellius. We must be strong, swift, and fully committed to our purpose as well as our resolve. This is our unfortunate truth.”

Araude’s breath is heavy but with a sense of ease. His mind is a blur but filling with one particular image. His body begins to relax with an understanding of what must be done without bias. He is at a loss no longer, and his soul becomes quiet from this fact.

            “Our son… I am honestly broken by the thought of losing him,” He admits, staring completely into his wife’s eyes. “But Roen’s antagonistic ways flow deeply through his existence and I must not be naïve to this. I must not react as a father but as he who’s destiny is attached to the greatest purpose… preserved peace.”

            “You are not alone in your shattered burden, my love,” Maniida tells, removing her hand from her husband’s shoulder and returning her attention on those that near. Her sea blue eyes narrow into his as she gives a confident smile. “We will get through such horrors with the gratifications that every morning our demesne, all demesnes, wake to a remaining peace.”

            Emilia’s exuding poise and his wife’s fearlessness gives Araude all the motives he needs to currently be without doubt. He returns his own sense of poise and fearlessness through an expressing inhale. His stature is plainly committed as the winds soothe over his broad posture, supportively.

            “Then I am firm in the decision,” Araude exhales in the smoothest most promoting tone. “Let us continue our current peace through acceptable means.”

            “Thank you for your decisiveness because time has expired for us to debate,” Emilia appreciates, arranging herself to take hold of what’s to come. “Now all of you, the unsealed, prepare yourselves… The Ascended are here.”

            The Ascended approach.

            Their eyes gaze over those in front of them, trying desperately to make sense of things. They notice the stern resolve and callous demeanor of the people they have known and loved all their lives. They wish to ask question, plenty of questions, but for the Ascended… there is only one question that burns most wildly for them.

“Lady Emilia, where is Roen?” Guide Lius asks, quickly and without nervous form. “We would like to speak with our Rune.”

His question raises the hairs upon Emilia’s entire body. She is shaken, just that quickly, from the unfamiliar tone from which Lius speaks. But she is also strong and comforted by her own resolve and therefore, she refuses to show soulful concerns.

“I must apologize, Lius,” Lady Emilia tells, plainly and unattached in her tone. “Rune Roen is no longer with us.”

The children of Lady Emilia step in front of their Guide so that they may address their mother. Son and daughter are completely confused and fatigued by overbearing questions. Their concerns for the current are evident through frustrated strides. Consequently, they are left with only one option… be fluent in their existing requests.

“Please mother, speak plainly,” Princess Florsza begs, her eyes fill with water. “Where can we find him? Did he return home?”

Lady Emilia shakes her head compassionately, but with very little regret. She is stern in what must happen and is firm with the destiny that has been bestowed upon her. Even as she watch her loving husband die, Emilia knows that his death was to ensure that all things remain the same.

The Written Emptiness must never return.

Lady Emilia takes a threatening step toward her daughter, utterly willing. “You will not be able to find him.”

Noticing the threatening step in the direction of his sister, Prince Quintence moves in front of her and addresses his mother. “Why will we not be able to find him?”

“He betrayed us, Quintence… all of us,” Emilia detests. “He is the one who ended the life of his own mother, the Glass Being… Sera Angellius.”

Although truth speaks from her tongue, son and daughter can sense the secrecy. There is an underline to Emilia’s words and they are quick to question it. Nothing about this moment seems right to them, to any of them, and now is the opportunity to realize those unwanted truths.

“And what of our father? Where is he, mother,” Princess Florsza questions, her whitish energy exemplifying her defying existence. “Or will you tell me that our Rune, the one who loved my father just as much as you, ended his life as well?”

Lady Emilia takes a second to digest the words of her children. Her emotions are strong and have no fear in regards to reminding her that she is a mother. But one thing is certain, she knows of her duty and destiny tells her that she must speak appropriately.

“Your father attempted to reason with his dearest friend… his better half,” Lady Emilia explains, quickly. “Roen refuted Quince’s pleas.”

“Are you suggesting that Roen cared nothing for his mother, ignored his most absolute friend,” Lius jumps in, obviously becoming aggravated from the telling conversation thus far. “I find it extremely difficult to believe that he would do such a thing without a legitimate cause.”

The prince and princess of the Angellius demesne stomp over to their mother. Words from Princess Florsza’s lips escape before thought. “Are you trying to tell us that our father is dead?”

Prince Quintence shifts further in front of his sister, forcing his mother to meet his troubled eyes. “Why were they fighting mother? Please tell us, what happened? None of this makes sense.”

“You all are more concerned with the reason behind his actions as oppose to the fact that he did the action,” Lady Emilia rebuttals.

“Then explain, why would Crown Quince even needed to reason with Rune Roen? Even you said that they were each other’s better half,” Lius questions, showing irritation to the entire conversation. He wishes to believe wholeheartedly in Lady Emilia’s words but his mind does not permit him to. “Why would Roen contest Quince? I am at a loss.”

Lady Emilia sighs with dishearten.

“Your quiet reaction furthers the sense of falseness,” Jhene blurts, candidly. Her face exudes frustration and utter defensiveness as she slides in front of the Prince and Princess. What are you not telling us, Lady Emilia?”

Liisor, seemingly the calmest out of everyone, walks over and places a relaxing hand around Jhene’s waist. “None of this needs to be. All we wish is to know the truth.”

 Kale walks over to his parents with flush cheeks, watery eyes, and nervously shaking hands. He is absolutely distraught and his mind trying to grasp all of what has been told thus far is unbearably apparent. “Father… mother… what did you all do? Please, just tell us the truth.”

A mother places soft assuring palms upon the flushed cheeks of her loving child. She gently removes the tears that are filled from her child’s eyes. Then, she slides her hands down to his nervous hands grab them firmly. 

“My son,” Lady Maniida… the Lady of the Ayriel demesne, stares at her son with emotionless unblinking eyes and speaks in a tone that is just as unattached. “We had wished for a different outcome to all of this.”

A father turns to his child and grazes the back of his warm hand against his son’s cooled cheek. It is his eyes now that are filled with tears. It is he whose face is flushed and has an expression of regretful sorrow.  

“To be honest, son, none of this should have happened,” Crown Araude… the Crown of the Ayriel demesne swallows hard and his tone resounds grief. “But it did.”

“Father,” Kale mouths, completely wrapped in a feeling of nothingness.

With every emotion that can describe this moment, father and mother hug their only begotten child. They tighten their embrace around him and their son can do nothing but do the same.

“I am sorry,” father and mother express, simultaneously, barely capable of speaking.

“We want to hear the words, Lady Emilia,” Lius presses, uncaring toward the emotionally filled atmosphere. “Our Rune, he who has devoted his entire existence to this demesne, the one that made us his extensions… where is he right now? We will learn the truth from him.”

Lady Emilia closes her eyes and tears fall heavily upon weighted cheeks. “You will not learn anything from him.”

Even through the robe, Lius’s chest raises and falls greatly. His heart race with ill intent for the answer toward the simple question he is about to ask next forms into his mind. “Why is that?”

Everything around Lady Emilia and Guide Lius, quiets.

“Because your Rune,” she shares with her Guide, finally with a tone that mimics her saddened eyes. “Like his mother and dearest friend… is dead.”

The Ascended are immediately overwhelmed with wrecked emotion.

Nil is unmoving, completely still from thought, and is in disbelief… unable to speak.

Lius clutches his robe with a violently trembling hand in front of his quickly beating heart, showing his agony. “My Crown… my Rune… this cannot be!”

Liisor collapses to his knees, catching himself with his hands as he falls forward, fully soul broken. “Why is this happening? I will not accept any of this.”

The weight of Jhene’s shattered heart pushes her to fall on top of Liisor. Her face entirely buried into his back, sending shrieks of mourning up his spine. “This hurts Liisor. I am hurting so much.”

Dilith blankets his face with his hands, unable to show his destroyed image. Tears find their way through the creases between his fingers and little yelps escape noticeably. “Crown Quince cannot be dead. It’s not possible!”

Prince Quintence and Princess Florsza turn to one another, crying hysterically into each other’s necks. “Father! Roen! No!”

Prince Kale pushes himself away from his parents, absolutely distraught. His breathing is suddenly so sporadic that it is almost as if he is hyperventilating. “I can’t.”

The sounds of mourning are defining. The cries of the Ascended are emotionally filling. Even the rays of the sun, dim with depression.

Until finally, one person speaks.

“You, all of you, killed the two who defined our definition,” Lius says, his voice reflecting his immeasurable feelings of betrayal. “They were most faithful to the destiny of the Angellius demesne… you took them both away from us.”

“I am sorry, but it was necessary,” Lady Emilia replies, resolve firmly travels through her tone.

“You are wrong,” Prince Quintence assures, growing anger rising through his voice. “And father knew the error. That is why he was okay with dying.”

“It is not Roen who is at fault for father’s death or Sera’s. It is you, mother, who is at fault,” Princess Florsza yells, maliciously. “All of you!”

Lius glances back, over his shoulder, revealing a gaze of fierce resolve to his pupils. He has come to realize that his mentor, the one whom embodied everything he had wished to be, and the most devoted soul he has ever known… is dead. His intent swells sternly within his expression. Soon his entire appearance is of one that is broken hearted and a devastated soul. His mind is no longer tied to the ones who surround him currently, but is instead attached to every learning and attentiveness of he who has been forever taken away from him. He is not broken but he cares nothing to ascend, but to fall, and become part of ruin.

“We will not betray either one of them,” Lius assures in a tone that demands calamitous incitement. Just as intimidating are his unforgiving eyes; rich with unshakable seriousness, his hands move and hold Amaranthine’s Pen without hesitance. “You refuse to tell us the full truth, you are trying to protect something, Roen found out of this. We will do the same.”

With weapons suddenly in hand, each and every pupil of Lius’s is quick to mimic his demeanor. Obviously agreeing with his consequential decision.

 “No longer the Ascended… steadfast, they are, into becoming the Fallen,” Araude mutters, almost to himself. He drops the persona of being a normal being. He is part of the seven sealed seals and is the true embodiment of the Astrological sign Aries. In this moment, his existence reveals the red fire aura of his represented house; showing that he is not a husband, not a father, nor the Crown to the Ayriel demesne. His eyes rest solely on one person of the Ascended. “Including my child.”

The others of the Unsealed cautiously shift around the Ascended, surrounding them. One by one, they slowly dissolve their ordinary persona and show their true selves. The joyous rays of the engulfing sun heighten the truth of the Unsealed for the Ascended to see. The Ascended witness the twelve astrological houses come to life in glorious colors of spite, five points of the sealed star connect threateningly, and an unfamiliar elderly woman in the far distance whom stands wearing a very old tattered robe forebodingly holds an array of just as tattered scrolls.

“We are certainly left with no other choice,” Lady Emilia tells as she is the only to not show her true self. Instead, she raises her right arm into the air, palm fully extended, and closes her watery-filled eyes immediately in deep meditation.

All of the Unsealed beings take notice of her action and they all raise a palm-opened extended arm into the air as well.

The Ascended care nothing for the display. They are deeply rooted in their resolve. Angry and appalled, almost, by the display… they create a perfect circle.

 “You say that you are left with no other choice,” Lius exhales, his emotions clearly rising. “As are we.”

The Ascended simultaneously close their eyes, and they meditate. Their minds hold the image of their Rune and Crown lovingly, their bodies relax in unison, and their souls exude an energy that only they can describe. Soon, they are not individual beings but one entity of committed energy, reflecting their own colorful definition of resolve.

Tears flow uncontrollably from the eyes of Lady Emilia and her mind tells the words from a non-vocal voice. “I look at them, just as I looked at their Rune, completely saddened. While at the same time, furiously in awe. The sheer strength and devotion to their own purpose, I am beside myself as to how everything changed so drastically and with such haste. I am deeply sorry for what we must do because this shared destiny reminds me that I am ill afforded to have attachments… even to my own children. So our killing of them all must be swift and unquestionably out of love… Farewell!”