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Here I commit the chronicles of the traveler, shepherd to the stars in the dark.
Though the world be sundered and our souls set adrift, where you walk, my dearest friend, fate shall surely follow.
For yours is the Fourteenth Seat—the Seat of Azem.
Had Emet-Selch known that his words would be true in perpetuity? All those thousands of years ago, a bitter, hurting man went against the rules of the Convocation and his remaining comrades to record memories of his friend. His dearest friend. Fate certainly followed her everywhere, in every life, causing spectacular events and never letting her rest.
It was an unassuming crystal. Orange, but something more like the sweet fruit or sunsets rather than something blaring and assaulting on the eyes. In its center was a circle with another dot, which even thousands of years later was the symbol for the Sun. The Sun, which traversed the sky every day.
The current form of Azem—on the Source, that is, with most of her soul intact rather than a small sliver of it—placed the crystal on the table and stared at it. Memories were held within, as well as the power to summon champions to her side. A very helpful power, that. It had saved Moonflower’s life on multiple occasions, starting with her clash against Elidibus.
She clenched her fist against the table, remembering that fight and the truth that was revealed afterwards. A boy. He was just a boy. They made me fight a child. Oh, sure, he did it out of his own free will and whatever other excuses they’ll come up with—but I know the truth. Themis was too young to be given such a heavy burden. She hadn’t been able to get that image out of her mind, not even when she met him in the past.
Themis was an adult, fresh-faced and young. He was the youngest of the Convocation and she knew, from memories granted to her by the Echo, that he saw them as his family. His family had betrayed him, and the thought made her scowl. Of course Elidibus would have offered to sacrifice himself to be the Heart of Zodiark. He would have done anything to save his family and friends.
Just like I would have done. Just like I have done.
Moonflower slumped back in her chair, her tail twitching. As much as she would’ve liked to claw out the eyes of the Convocation, they were dead. Elidibus had made his choice and he was in the lifestream, waiting to be reborn—and he wasn’t really a child even if his soul made him so much smaller than any other Ancient she had seen.
Yet there was one member of the Convocation who hadn’t betrayed him. Who hadn’t asked him to sacrifice himself. Who had tried everything to prevent disaster. And that person had nearly been wiped from history, if not for Emet-Selch’s one, single act of defiance. Her memories were here, in this crystal.
For yours is the Fourteenth Seat—the Seat of Azem.
The words echoed in her mind as she remembered hearing them for the first time. The Seat of Azem, the Traveler. What sort of adventures had she experienced? She touched the crystal again, hoping to hear something of that past.
“Hey!”
The voice shocked Moonflower so much that she flung the crystal to the floor as she jumped out of her chair. Thankfully she was alone in her room, with her family elsewhere in the house, so no one saw her panic. She took a moment to calm down and picked up the crystal again. Apparently, poking it makes it work.
Feeling a little more prepared this time, she prodded the crystal again, hoping that she hadn’t wasted her chance to hear memories of her past self.
“What do you think, Hades? A perfect, fluffy little lamb.”
“You keep saying ‘perfect’ like that means something.”
Azem laughed, and something in the memory bleated. “He’s going to love it.”
“When are you going to introduce him to us, Azem? You can’t keep hiding him. Hythlodaeus and I want to meet him.”
“Maybe someday. And hey, why do you keep calling me that? We’re not at the Convocation right now.”
Emet-Selch muttered something and sighed. “Fine. Selene, can we please meet this perfect man of yours?”
Azem, Selene, only giggled.
Moonflower couldn’t help but laugh, a hand covering her mouth. “Even in a past life, I loved someone enough to be annoying about it.” Not that any of her friends would ever admit to it, but she knew that she could be a bit much to be around when she talked about her beloved.
Selene… Her name was Selene. Hythlodaeus commented to Emet-Selch that she, Moonflower, looked just like her. It made Moonflower wonder if that was true. Did she have purple hair? Was she tall? Were her eyes green? She knew that those in the past didn’t have tails, horns, or ears at the tops of their heads. In fact, they looked most like hyurs. So Selene wouldn’t have looked exactly the same. Yet the similarities were enough that Hythlodaeus knew she was a part of Azem immediately.
She decided to poke the crystal again, hoping that it would tell her something else. How many memories were stored on this device? Did any of them have images to go with them? Themis mentioned something about how such crystals were meant to chronicle the works of those in the Convocation, so little of their personal lives before they became members was known. What about after? Or was hers special because Emet-Selch was the one trying to remember his friend, not his coworker?
“Themis, come outside with me.”
“I have work to do, Azem.”
“Elidibus, there is a time to do all that work later. You’ll work yourself to death, you know. Come outside and eat with me.”
Elidibus sighed rather boyishly, which made Azem giggle. “I should have known better than to try fighting against you.”
They were walking somewhere, and a door opened. “You should have. Just like you should have looked up.”
“I didn’t think it would be so literal. But your shooting star was lovely.”
Moonflower let go, cutting off the memory. They were talking about her! It was so strange to hear them talking about her, a person in the present, while they were in the past—or to them, a person in the future, and they were in the present. Azem liked to tease, she thought. I wonder why she was willing to use titles with him but not with Emet-Selch? Her eyes widened. Elidibus was working, so it must have been the Convocation. She didn’t want to use titles outside of the Convocation, which is where she was with Emet-Selch. If that were the case, it was rather daring of Azem to first speak to him by his personal name rather than by his title.
She wondered who the man Emet-Selch mentioned was. It wasn’t Hythlodaeus, and it didn’t sound like it was Themis either. It definitely couldn’t be Lahabrea, considering that Emet-Selch wanted an introduction (and perish the thought of her past self being in love with that horrible man!). It probably wasn’t Hermes, because he would have reacted to Moonflower’s appearance differently if she looked so much like Azem and he were Azem’s lover.
So whoever it was, he was unnamed. But not unwanted, nor completely forgotten. For some reason, Selene had created a lamb for him. He was important enough to her to go through the effort of getting everything signed off by bureaus and whatever else people had to do back then.
Despite her curiosity, Moonflower didn’t reach for the crystal to see if she could coax a memory about this man out of it. It felt… too invasive, at least at that moment. Surely her past self deserved some privacy with her beloved. She had enough on her plate, since Emet-Selch made a point to mention fate.
Fate, something that dogged her even now, centuries and several faces later. Though the world be sundered and our souls set adrift, where you walk, my dearest friend, fate shall surely follow.
“It has, Emet-Selch. It has.” Moonflower picked up the crystal and slid it into her pocket. “If only you knew how much.”
It was time to face fate yet again, and make her way to her next adventure.