Chapter Text
There is War in Heavens and the Abidan are losing.
Eithan's prolonged absence, the Abidan's unchecked expansion and the Vroshir's unanswered crimes have culminated in enough chaos in the system to finally tip the delicate balance between Order and Chaos, the balance necessary for Existence to exist.
Things That Cannot Be Named, because they defied classification, categorization and conception, things that cannot be killed, sealed or banished, crawled out of The Void to unravel The Way.
Eithan knows that this is not truly the end, just as Fragments of Dead Worlds survive in the Void and eventually merge together to birth new worlds, so will some fragments of the Way will survive and regrow, but that is a poor consolation for what he is going to lose now.
Looking at the bloodied, battered and crippled forms of his last surviving friends, his only friends, Suriel and his Reapers, Eithan considered a desperate, audacious plan and reached out to the dying Way between the Worlds.
Just as desperate as Eithan, the Way agreed.
They settled on a new Pact, Power in exchange for Survival.
Ozamanthus Tiberian Mereithan Arelius, Ozriel, the Judge of Destruction, Reaper of Worlds, Eithan for his friends, swung his Scythe and killed the past so that a new future may be born.
Suriel breathed in, almost gasped, as she clenched the right fist she had lost to a Thing That Cannot Be Named in the very first days of War in Heavens, and found a small marble. Ozriel's voice softly whispered in her mind, 'I am sorry. I used some of the principles of the Origin Shroud to obscure a cluster of possibilities of your Fate from everyone. You can break that veil by crushing the marble, but I hope you won't. It is a node in a network and breaking it will weaken the whole working. Please, trust me.'
Suriel focused on the marble, it is much like the one she would have given Lindon in thirty years, instead of blue flame of Restoration of the Phoenix at its centre, it has a void pulsing weakly in it's centre. That weakness alarmed Suriel, there are only two reasons for the that void to be so weak, either the Way itself is weak or Ozriel's very Origin of Existence is damaged, since the Way is so wonderfully healthy as it should be, then whatever he did to accomplish this miracle, this second chance, it has hurt Eithan more profoundly than even the vilest horrors risen from the deepest pits of the Void during the War in Heavens.
Suriel concentrated on the fragment of Ozriels power in the marble and found the metaphysical thread connecting the marble to its creator, ripped open a path into the Way and followed that thread.
Orthos shook himself awake from a nightmare that rapidly slipped from his waking mind, memories that did not make any sense battered at his psyche, but his Blackflame damaged spirit and body urged him to give into the rage, to revel in destruction. Orthos pushed down those impulses with a willpower that momentarily surprised him. But just as Orthos stomped down his destructive impulses, he was mentally bowled over by a rush of memories.
Lindon, his brother, his friend, his confidant, Little Blue, his little sister, Yerin, Mercy, Ziel, and Eithan. At the last name, a dissonance rose with in himself, his own memories insisted that there is no such person as Eithan Arelius in Blackflame Empire, the only Arelius he was close enough in this generation is Cassias Arelius, even that relationship is strained by sheer disparity in their power. Cassias has reached Highgold only three years ago, a part of Orthos snorted dismissively, three years since becoming High Gold and it will take Cassias another three years and a heaven sent opportunity to reach peak True Gold, Lindon advanced enough to paddle the bottoms of Monarchs and slap around Dreadgods in roughly the same time.
That last thought was uncharitable of a gracious dragon like Orthos, Cassias is a good man and a talented Sacred Artist, it is Lindon who is a freak of nature. But none of it is the point, Orthos only vaguely remembered his time in the Heavens, there was a war and Abidan were losing, but he could not remember who they fought, or even how they fought, Orthos has no understanding of what he remembers, not just his memories of Heavens, he did not even clearly remember his memories after reaching Underlord, at-least he remembers the events, the people, but only thing clear about anything to do with Sacred Arts after Truegold is how he reached Underlord.
Irritated and annoyed at his own conflicting memories, Orthos angrily took a bite out of the rocky ground out of habit and immediately crunched down on something hard enough to hurt his teeth, shocked, Orthos spat out a mouthful of wet gravel and looked down at it more carefully, only to find a marble almost exactly like Eithan's, from his vague memories of his time in heavens, he knew it to be a token granted by high level Abidan, a memento and a beacon both. Orthos knew from Lindon that messages could be sent though such a token, if not in words then atleast in feelings, so Orthos cautiously nosed the marble and immediately got a sense of regret and confidence alongside the impression of Eithan's crooked grin.
So, Orthos thought, from my conflicting memories and the feelings from the token, Eithan did something, something possibly incredibly reckless and suitably impressive. Eithan might not even be in Cradle, he would have come for us, if he is here. Very well.
Orthos's tongue snaked out, retrieved the token, and held it between his teeth and cheek. And lumbered out of the caves, he knows these cave systems well enough to get out unmonitored and he is practiced enough in his veils to sneak out of Serpent's Grave city.
I have family to find.
She knew her name is Little Blue, she knew this marble with a hole in it is a gift from a friend. She knew nothing else, understood nothing else, but for one more immutable truth, her family is coming for her, until then all she needs to do is play and dream and wait.
Yerin came awake in a snap, her madra instinctively cycling in a pattern needed to unleash the Endless Sword technique. At the feel of sword and ice aura in her environment she instantly dismissed her not yet formed technique.
Yerin felt weak, incredibly weak, her spirit felt no stronger than a Jade, she tried to stretch out her perception and it felt clumsy. Yerin focused and she barely managed to stretch out her perception a few dozen yards.
As she focused on her spiritual perception, a flood of memories crashed around in her head, she let them, eventually they settled on their own.
Yerin is in Frozen Blade school, her Master is alive, tears streamed down Yerin's cheeks as that point hammered home. Her memories of life in Heavens and her days past lord stage were vague, but she dismissed that as irrelevant. Yerin knew enough. There are some discrepancies between her two lives, for one, she no longer has her Blood Shadow and for another they should have been in Sacred Valley by this point.
The root of these discrepancies seems to be Tiberian Arelius. For some reason, the Monarch of the Raging Sky, the Storm King, Patriarch of House Arelius, is still alive and worked out a different deal with her Master, Sage of the Endless Sword, part of the deal seems to be the removal of Blood Shadow from Yerin. Yerin felt a pang of disappointment, but not a big one, Yerin is Ruby, and Ruby is Yerin, even if she still had a Blood Shadow and grew it once again, it would not be Ruby, it would be just a copy of Yerin as she is now.
Yerin levered herself from the bed and felt a round object beneath her hand, even as she brought the object in front of her eyes, she already knew what it would be, a transparent sphere with a pulsing void in its centre, about the size of a marble.
Yerin's heart longed for Lindon and for her friends, but she knew she is not getting anywhere near them without her Master's blessing. Yerin considered telling her Master about what she knew to be coming, but dismissed the thought, even if she no longer has the understanding she once did, she still knew the basics of Fate, even her intentions would influence Fate, it was best not to make any big plans even in her own mind.
Yerin knew Lindon well enough to know the very first thing he would do is to retrieve Little Blue, Orthos and Dross, then he would start looking for her and others, advancing all the while. Lindon trusted them and knew them enough to anticipate what they will do.
The best thing Yerin could do for them at the present is to advance.
Lindon came to himself as he looked up into the purple leaves of the orus tree. Unconsciously his hands clenched into a fist and he felt the marble, even though the texture was the same, even without looking, he knew this would not be Suriel's candle. Eithan's voice whispered softly, 'I am sorry. This is the best I could do. You can sense the others with this. I hope I will see all of you again.' With those words, Eithan's love, regret and hope flowed through Lindon. Washing away the turmoil of suddenly gaining additional memories of ten years of life.
Lindon let the tears stream down his cheeks for a few moments before he wiped them away.
Even if he did not have the madra channels and the core for it, Lindon is still has a better understanding of Pure Madra than almost anyone in Cradle, a brief flex of will, a bit of concentration and he has a rudimentary Soul Cloak and jumped, he barely jumped ten feet high, but he has a secure grip on the tree and this basic Soul Cloak cost bare trickle of madra, he climbed and finally reached the branch with the wizened white fruit.
Knowing what is to come, Lindon veiled himself, not that there is any real need, neither he nor the unwelcome intruders under this tree had enough power for spiritual senses.
The snowfox and Lindon's cousins came and went. After Lindon was sure that he would have no more interruptions he bit into the orus fruit and cycled, Lindon would need six or seven more of those to clear his madra deficiency.
It seems Lindon needs to indulge in light robbery against Fallen Leaf School, he wants his problem of madra deficiency gone. Lindon would plan out his next steps during it, then execute the plan as soon as he returns to his house in the Wei clan.
All in all it took only little creativity to rob a bunch of Jades, even if Lindon himself is only at Foundation stage, a few scripts, judicious use of veils, occasional use of rudimentary Soul Cloak and Lindon gathered an even dozen of orus fruits, he was a bit tempted to loot more, but these are enough for his purposes.
Lindon returned to his house within the clan compound and got to preparing, with in the hour he had his pack ready, filled with essentials, and his pouch filled with the halfsilver chips, saved from his allowance.
Now he just had to wait for nightfall. During the wait Lindon wrote out letters to his family, all three said the same basic thing, that he was going away to find a path of his own, and that if did not return in two years, consider him dead and move on. Under the light of Samara's Ring, Lindon crept into his sister, Kelsa's, home, dropped the letters and two orus fruits and his wooden Unsouled badge on Kelsa's kitchen table, if he is ever going to wear a badge with the ancient character for Empty again it would be forged out of Wintersteel, and left.
Lindon's destination, the Heaven's Glory School.