Chapter Text
Beautiful.
Dancing, velvet lines of purple converged with a silky, shimmering green, twisting around each other in a romantic dance and inviting the stars to be alongside them in this eternal, mesmerizing waltz along the night sky. The rounded mountain peaks were jealous of this spectacle, longing to join in; and the sky welcomed them. Small white dots came from above, thrown down by the same power that kept this entrancing, moving painting of a sky. They enveloped the peaks, enlarging them and making them seem smaller simultaneously. It seemed like how one would think a siren’s song should sound, one that should have no onlookers. However, a poor one was witnessing this at the peak, the ultimate moment. The heavens asked him,
“What do you seek from us?” in a sweet, echoey voice, over and over again, but he was too entranced to answer. Before he could attempt, darkness blanketed his vision, and he laid there in the dewy grass, gladly accepting everything.
What he did not know was that at this very moment, another onlooker was watching, but the heavens had rejected him.
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“Sunday! Sunday! Hey, wake up!”
“Is he… dead?”
“Oh come on, I doubt it! There’s no way, Sunday!”
A flash of light, the sky, the push against the Earth, the heat of the fire, a headache, toothache, stomachache, all at once, and then his torso lifted itself off the ground with a heave of an inhale.
“See, I told you! No way he’s dead!”
The blurred specks of his vision slowly converged to form an image of Stelle sitting by him, and Dan Heng standing above. Further observation revealed the Astral Express cart in calm, smoking flames across from them.
“Agh…” he slowly sat up, addressing his companions, “I’m alright… I’m alright. The…”
“Yes. the cart is destroyed.”
He was hoping that that wouldn’t be the answer. His first expedition and it’d already gone south!
“How, exactly?” Sunday stood up to get closer.
“Oh yeah dude, you passed out first. A meteor, or… rock, or something hit the train, and you hit your head on the wall when it flung you.” Stelle responded.
“...Ah. That’s… slightly embarrassing. I hoped I could be of some help.”
“Oh it was. It-”
“Stelle.” Dan Heng interjected.
“Ugh, fine… wait, how are we gonna leave now?”
“Good question.”
Sunday stood further from the cart than the others, one hand folded across his hip, the other pincer-grasping his chin, inspecting it from afar. Stelle stood next to Dan Heng, who crouched in front of and inspected the cart. She seemed to be deep in thought, before her eyes widened with realization- without warning, she suddenly leaped inside the cart, only to be grabbed by the waist with both arms by Dan Heng.
“HEY! Are you an idiot?”
“My hat!”
“You have your bat and lance, relax! It’s aeonic anyways, Xipe will bring it back to you!”
Sunday’s eyes suddenly flicked to them, before going back to the train.
“No… my dancing skills….” Stelle went limp on Dan Heng’s shoulders, “Uuughhh…I gotta ask Mr. Yang…”
“Oh my god, everything unknown you ask him, the poor man…”
“It actually wouldn’t be such a bad idea to contact them.” Sunday interjected, pulling out his phone as Dan Heng looked towards him.
“We might have to, to let them know what happened. Pom-pom is… really going to be mad, though.”
Sunday opened the group and typed,
“The cart crashed due to an unidentified rocky object colliding with it before we managed to land. It’s caught on fire and looks fairly irreparable, we all apologize deeply. Is there any other way to leave?” Send.
He waited… and waited… and nothing. No signal?
“Mine didn’t send.” “Me neither.”
“But my haaat… Xipe’s gonna shun me…”
“Stelle.”
Footsteps resounded from nearby, slow and strong. Every step was similar to a mallet being brought down, the echo resounding throughout the air. One could imagine it would leave a small crack in the stone ground itself from the sheer strength of the vibrations- this couldn’t be a human. They all looked at each other for a small moment, before glancing back at the entrance.
“...Was that statue there?”
For a few seconds, it was a firm game of a staring contest between all four of them. Stelle swallowed briefly, and slowly moved her hand to her bat.
A few seconds of silence followed, before Dan Heng drew his spear- The statue shed its rock skin, holding a gigantic bat lined with metal spikes and charging at them. Stelle drew her bat, the ground stretching and time slowing as the creature charged at them. Sunday’s halo glowed as gold plant vines swirled from under his wide sleeves. The bat of the enemy glinted under the moon’s glow, glimmering for a moment, before it was brought down like Qlipoth’s hammer- onto empty ground.
All at once, Sunday’s thorny vines wrapped around the creature to restrain- and maybe choke it if it breathed- as Stelle and Dan Heng struck it silent. They all regained their breath slowly, not out of exertion but surprise.
“...Should we expect more of those?” Sunday asked, warily.
“Probably. Let’s get moving before we have an answer for that.” Dan Heng responded. Stelle looked like she wanted to say something, but decided otherwise as they made their way out of the ruined temple in which the cart had collapsed, the flames still as they were.
The journey that followed stretched on long- soon enough, they found out small talk didn’t help, and trudged on to the ambient sounds surrounding them. Every once in a while, upon finding a nice river or tree, Stelle would take a picture for March, wishing she could send them at the moment.
Every now and then they’d come across these strange patches of odd reddish-black material in cubes, almost as if the area around it was glitching. None of them dared get near.
Sunday found his thoughts returning to the earlier spectacle. Unrelated,a small ringing sound had started to sound in his ears- he thought nothing of it and automatically assumed it was just due to the crash- which he was astonished he didn’t arise with injuries from- or just lack of sleep, food or water.
“Are you all okay? From the crash, I mean.” Sunday inquired out of curiosity, looking to the right at both of his companions.
“I’m alright. Had a slight burn and a few scratches, but nothing permanent.” Dan Heng responded.
“Meh, according to this guy I passed out with a ton of blood, but whatever it was closed up quickly, so it doesn’t really matter.” Stelle added, shrugging.
“We should probably still get you checked out when we get to any civilized part of this world, just in case.” Dan Heng said firmly.
“Ugh, I’m finee…” Stelle whined, looking back ahead of her and pouting.
The terrain switched through grass, stone and sand fairly quickly- every 10 system minutes or so. It was fairly odd, but this was a new world, so oh well.
The walk continued for a few more minutes, but it wasn’t exactly boring. In a sense, the silence and the uncertainty was relaxing, even though they were all a bit alert in case they encountered a strange enemy like before.
A voice came from somewhere, startling them all together.
“Ah! Travelers in this area are certainly unexpected!”
The 3 members turned at once to address the new voice- a tall, white haired man with a fairly big sword and blue eyes.
“Apologies if I startled any of you!” He said, a wide smile on his face, “I’d only like to let you know that you’re about to enter a restricted area.” The amount of people in there seemed to contradict his statement.
Sunday, sensing danger, put his cloak up to hide the glow in his eyes as he tried to learn more about his actual meanings, his thoughts- he could only hope this strange man wasn’t too physically susceptible to the Harmony.
As if hearing their internal inquiries, the man added, “These people are original residents of the area. Everyone else must have permission to enter.” A lie. The air around him glowed red in Sunday’s eyes. “May I ask where you’re coming from?”
“South.” Dan Heng responded swiftly. “Not very far south.”
“Ah,,, so, the ruins?”
That fit the description of where they landed- they all nodded.
“Well, do you happen to be lost? I could escort you to Okhema.”
“The city, you mean?” Stelle asked- asking if it was a city straight up would be way too obvious.
“...Yes, the city.” The man answered warily, “Oh! By the way, I’m Phainon of Aedes Elysiae. Pleased to meet you three.”
“Stelle! Pleased to meet you too.” “I’m Dan Heng.” “Sunday.”
“Well, we should be on our way, shall we?”
“SNOWY! BEHIND YOU!” A high pitched, seemingly a young girl’s voice sounded from behind Phainon, before three of the earlier statue-not-statue creatures charged at him- though this time, one was much shorter and thinner, and held a bow and arrow instead of a bat. Another was slower behind them, holding a chalk and a book, and the third was almost a replica of the one they’d seen before.
“Agh, these titankin are everywhere…” Phainon drew his sword, and all 3 Astral Express members drew their respective weapons, readying for battle.
Together, they handled the enemies swiftly, rendering them no longer a nuisance. Breathing a bit heavy, Phainon turned to them.
“Huh… you’re all good fighters… pretty good. Where the hell are you all from?”
They all looked at each other, before Stelle spoke up. “Well, you’ve heard of the Astral Express, right?”
Phainon looked at them for a moment. “...Jog my memory.”
“The sky train? The trailblazers? The nameless?”
“...Ah. I think I remember now.”
Another lie detected by Sunday, though this time it had an undercurrent of… happiness? No, that was excitement, definitely. What could he be excited about?
A red-haired young girl swooped in through the air, her disproportionately small wings flapping wildly on her back as she paused next to Phainon.
“Ah, Snowy! Are you alright?”
“Yes, Trianne, I’m fine, I promise!” He said as she flew around him, before pausing next to him.
“Okay, well-” She paused. “Who are these people?”
“These are Dan Heng, Stelle, and Sunday. They’re from the sky train.”
Trianne gave him an odd look, before nodding and looking back at the three with a big smile.
“Well what are you dawdling for! Shouldn’t you be escorting them off? It isn’t safe around here!”
“Alright, alright… I was going to… why don’t you report back to Aglaea? I bet she’s worried sick right now.”
The young girl nodded with a thumbs-up and flew off, leaving Phainon to escort the three.
“So… how exactly do they speak our language? Or know about the express? It doesn’t make sense taking into consideration how isolated they are from other worlds.” Dan Heng inquired, assuming Phainon couldn’t hear them since he was so far ahead.
“Perhaps other travellers have come before us? But having this much influence on an entire civilization would mean they’d had to have come a long, long time ago, and it would be on Akivili’s trail… Not to mention the strange spectacle with the cart earlier.” Sunday thought out loud.
“Maybe it’s a trick? They’re keeping themselves hidden for some reason or other, as if they can see the outside but the outside can’t see them.” Stelle added.
“Plausible, but why? There isn’t any record of any incident happening from an unknown planet, or even a destroyed planet near the coordinates of this planet, so the universe wouldn’t be hostile towards them. Maybe a possible link to Aeons? But still, other factions would know, and every faction we know of is in the data bank, it… none of it makes sense.” Dan Heng added, supporting his chin with his fingers from a hand balled into a fist.
“Perhaps they’re just a… very new planet? Time adjustment or something…” Stelle added.
“The data from the express showed that they were here from a very long time ago, and there weren’t traces of the finality here… so it doesn’t make sense.
Before their brainstorming could reach any solution, they reached these gigantic purple, dinosaur-looking creatures.
“Alright! We’ll use the dromases to get to Okhema. Hop on everyone!”
Sunday rode with Phainon, as Dan Heng and Stelle rode together.
The ride was long, the silence calming aside from the sounds of the dromas’ feet hitting the ground. Sunday thought them curious creatures, though beautiful. The cool air gently brushed against his skin and swirled through his hair as they cut through it, holding his chin and gently, but firmly, keeping him in place just enough so that he didn’t have to try not to fall off. It was calming, relaxing… and it didn’t take long for him to be lulled to sleep.
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That stage of sleep when you can hear but not see or move didn’t last long. The world of dreams welcomed him hastily, and he found himself in a long field of grass and blue flowers arranged neatly with small tilled fields of soil, wet enough for the plants but not enough to ruin clothes, being the barrier between these fields. Small butterflies, shades of white and pastel blue or green, landed on the flowers occasionally, kissing the nectar out of them, before flapping their wings- small works of art attached to the backs of each of them- and leaving the flower to continue its course. Whenever a flower wilted, another flower bloomed in its place, a recurrent cycle that never broke.
A pastel green butterfly landed on Sunday’s mouth, and the scent of nectar still lingering on its legs found its way up his nostrils, a puff of heavenly smoke dissipating through his ears and brain. He found his back was amongst the flowers, and that they bloomed on either side of his legs. His hood had been pushed up, even though he hadn’t noticed, protecting his hair from the soil. The clouds passed overhead, casting shadows over his face.
“The same dream?”
Sunday jumped at the noise, turning to look, but a force held him in his place.
“Don’t look.”
He complied, staring up at the clouds once more, that began to adapt to different shapes quicker, the sun almost greyish as it spilled through their cracks. The voice sounded like a man’s- very unfamiliar, no accent he could identify.
They didn’t talk again. Sunday didn’t look in that direction, but he could feel the strange man’s presence gone. The skies parted, sending down a warm ray directly onto Sunday’s face, dispelling any cold that lingered on his pale skin.
“You…” An echoey voice sounded, “Shall… Not…”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simultaneously, the warmth intensified and stopped, the flowers grew and suddenly shrivelled, there were 0, 2, 10 butterflies on his face all at once. He sprang upwards into a sitting position and found himself on the dromas once more, galloping quickly through the city. The first thing he noticed was that Phainon’s sword was drawn low. Sunday’s gaze flicked around him, noticing small fires, women, men and children screaming for help alike. The vines started to loop from below his sleeves as his eyes widened, adrenaline rushing through his veins as his eyes flicked to his companions, their weapons drawn.The enemies from earlier- titankin, if he remembered correctly- running rampant through the streets, striking anyone and anything.
“Hey! Hey, we should probably stop!”
“What? We’re almost there!”
“Almost where, do you see thi-”
Once he attempted to gesture to the disastrous scene below, it was as if it had never existed. The skies were as clear and blue as they had always been, people buying, selling and talking as if everything was normal, kids running around with paper airplanes, kites and pinwheels. There was not a single crack in the ground, nor a single enemy in sight. Fruits at merchants’ stalls glowed their respective colours in the sunlight, and when he snapped out of his surprise, he saw his companions staring at him with a skeptical look.
Immediately, he felt fairly embarrassed and cleared his throat. “Ah, um… apologies. A mistake on my part. I must be tired.” He half-believed that- what else would cause him to see hallucinations on this scale or have dreams this incredibly vivid?
His companions gave him a look that ensured they’d ask him about it later, but didn’t inquire further.
“I’ll take you three to meet Lady Aglaea first, if that’s okay with you all. It’ll be a hassle to explain everything right now, so I hope you’ll be patient enough for her to do all of that.
Not a long ride after, they found themselves at a bathhouse- a gigantic one at that- it held many people with space left, fruits adorned around the area, beautiful architecture found in the pillars, ceilings, and every nook and cranny of the place. It must’ve taken such a long time, so much effort to erect such a building. They followed the white-haired man to a strange podium, which he stepped on, followed by the three.
“So, is this a- oh! OH! IT’S AN ELEVATOR! Ha, a circle elevator with no walls! What if someone wanted to just jump off, it-” Stelle said, attempting to stick her arm far out before being stopped by an invisible wall. “Ohhhh. Huh, that’s cool.”
At the top of the elevator were a series of almost connected baths separated by walls and slight elevation, and in one was a gold-haired woman, her eyes glazed over but somehow with a fixed gaze.
“Ah, Phainon. I trust these are the ones?”
“Yes, Lady Aglaea.”
“Thank you greatly. You may be dismissed.”
Phainon excused himself, and they all had a very long talk with Aglaea- where they learned the titans, the titankin, and everything. They learned about this world’s connection to beyond the sky, learned about the Chrysos Heirs and their battle, about the Council of Elders. This talk stretched long and far, encompassing a large chunk of time- but the light did not move, dim, or begin to set- shortly after explained by Aglaea’s recounting of the tale of Kephale and the dawn device. The talk was summed up by a strong deal, an oath that they would have to follow, not to mention any worlds beyond the sky to absolutely anyone due to Aquila’s judgement. They were put under the golden threads, forcing their oath to be certain, with a strong reprimand if they broke it. Sunday secretly wondered whether if one broke the oath, the others would be reprimanded as well, but quickly brushed away that thought from his mind, believing he should try to trust his companions more. They also understood from her that right now, they would not be able to leave, but they would try their best to help them in exchange for their help with completing the prophecy they’d newly learned about.
“Of course, due to your special standing and the help we hope you’ll offer us, we;ve prepared a room in a building nearby that Tribbie will escort you to. I’ve learned you’ve met Trianne, correct?”
They nodded.
“Alright then. Thank you all very much, again.”
They found their way to the rooms pretty easily with the help of Tribbie, and on their way, They examined the city further. It wasn’t that different from being on the dromas, but being amongst the people gave a better, warmer feel to the city.
The room was fairly decorated- it wasn’t a work of art, but the chairs were nice, the pool that Tribbie assured they’d explain later rippled beautifully when it reflected the light, and the beds looked very comfortable. Not to mention, the balcony gave a beautiful bird’s eye view over the city and part of the gigantic body of water near it. All of them, being thoroughly beat from the day’s events, laid down to get at least a nap, closing the curtains to try to filter out as much of the bright light from outside as physically possible, even though it wasn’t near enough. They all simply accepted they’d have to get used to it, as there wasn’t exactly any other choice.
Sunday laid back on his respective bed, and relaxed as he plunged into a world of dreams once more.