Chapter Text
The stars are a beautiful thing.
Each one represents a different story. A different journey.
Where one may look up and see the unknown hidden in the dark, another can see the shining light as they reach for the sky.
At one point, he was the one reaching for a glimpse of that dark abyss.
A young boy, trapped behind bars in the depth of the sea, was left with only his books to learn of what lay beyond his walls.
But in time, the words on those pages would transform into a silver rail leading him to freedom.
The Nameless man now wanders the Imaginary Tree's branches for his family.
On the other side of the wall, she wakes up to nothing. No name, no identity — only a path forward. So she reaches for the light igniting the sky.
Once she grasps onto the stars, she will never let go — she merges it with her being and uses it to light up the path forward along the silver rail.
A blank slate she once was, her identity is that of a Nameless.
Dan Heng arrived on Pegana, a planet with so much history yet nothing to show for it in this day and age.
To learn more of its existence, he joined various schools; none had the answers he was looking for.
After that, Dan Heng scoured book after book, article after article, even following the minuscule clues left through word of mouth.
That last clue had led him to the conclusion that the planet was lost to the erratic rhythm of the Qlipoth's hammer strikes.
Except that it wasn't lost. That was evident from the War of Aeons.
In the last moments before Nanook and Akivili had ceased to exist, Pegana revealed itself to the Nameless of the Astral Express. But it appeared for only that split second — not enough for the express to mark its location.
But now, Dan Heng had followed that trail north to Pegana.
One issue, though.
Dan Heng stared at the wreckage he called his ship. It seemed that just reading about how to pilot did not make one cut out for the task…
If only H̶̡̝̫͂̇́̎̉̉͑̎͝ḯ̷̧̝̭̮͔̖̱̼̌̐̈͂̒͛̚͠ͅͅͅm̸̛̭̹̞͍͇̯̐̉̂͑̌̓̆̍̂͛͘̕͝ȩ̷̬̮͔̞̥̻͖̮̘̗͗̋̕̕͝k̴̨̰̠͇͑͑̏͗͛͛̎̀̈́̚͘̚͠ö̶̫̲͕̗̠͖̦̻͖̙́͋̓̉̿͑̈̇̑̅͆̀̚͝ were here.
"How do I get home now?" He ran a hand through his short locks.
No matter. If he truly did find Akivili here, he could just ask THEM for help.
…
Right?
Right??
Dan Heng sighed before moving forward.
It wasn't like him to rush forth without a plan, that was more of M̴̨̡̛̳̗̼͚̫̋̈̈́͌͂̑̄̊̀̚̚͘a̷̼̼͍͉͎̬͉͈̗̪̘̗̟̻͌͌̉́̋͑̋̇̌͊́r̴͕̼̫͕͙͖̭̝͗͐̉̈́̓̚c̸̥̤͔̱͒̎́̇̇̆͆͛͌̈́͌̏͜͝h̴̛͕̜̮̼̮̣̳͒̓̀̑͐͘͝'̷̯͇̰̾̈ș̵̘̱̲͈͂̇ thing.
The planet itself looked like any other uninhabited place. Different biomes had their place on Pegana: forests, deserts, oceans, tundras. It was all here and beneath it, Dan Heng could see signs of an ancient civilisation.
He saw it when flying above the atmosphere. Each biome had a soft cross into each other — typical of most planets. No sign of erosion: just nature taking over.
"Rumours really are rooted in truth…" He brushed a hand against what looked like chiselled quartz. It had vines and moss covering it, but he could still make out the shape and symbols carved into it.
Dan Heng went back to the remains of ship, digging out any equipment that had survived. Some of it was still usable, with a little maintenance needed. The problem was that he could not do that maintenance here.
'Can't make a charcoal rubbing, there's too much in the way. No pictures since my phone isn't turning on, either. I guess the old fashioned way will have to do.'
So he took out a small booklet and started drawing the symbols he saw along his way. Many followed the same concept — a sun standing behind a star or pillar. There were many variations of it, but they all had one thing in common. None had been seen outside of Pegana.
Soon, Dan Heng saw that the trees were thinning out, 'A clearing up ahead?'
Indeed, he did see an area devoid of trees when he was circling above the planet. He had originally aimed to land there, but we all know had that ended.
M̸͙̩̤̻̥͔̀̄ͅr̵̢̨̰̘̬͉̜̫̮̹̲̱̪̗͍̄̑̀.̴̢̜̼̙̳̦̞̄͋͆̏͗́̈́̀̒͝ ̸̣̣͇̹̰̖̀͛̌́̈́͒͠͠Y̷̳͇͓̳̓̓͌̃̌̽̔̈́̒̒́̈́̔̕͜à̶̻̬̺̠̻̝̑n̶͖̱͙̪̖̰͓͋̏͐̈̚̚͠ͅg̴̡̗̼̬̯̪̥̫̜̱͍̳̟̤̈̈̀̆̇͒̆͋͋̔ would've told him it was okay.
With one last swipe of his hand, he shifted the vines to the side to reveal an unnatural glade. The width to the other side must've spanned at least 100 metres, but that wasn't the unusual part — and neither was the fact that it was a perfect circle. The strangest part was the statue in the middle.
"Out of everything that survived… a statue?" He thought to himself out loud.
He scouted the area, looking for shadows prowling on the edges of the clearing, but having found nothing, he sped forth towards the central statue.
If S̵̢̪̿̇͑̽ù̴̡̡͎̙̦̻̩̹͚͉͆͜ṅ̸̢̧̨̯̝̼̫̃͒̒͋̍͑͐͊̈̿̕͝d̵̛͖̱̫͇̪̰̈̽́̐̏̊̚͝a̵͈͙̮̜̗̹̞͗̏̑̉̃̏̔͛͘ỵ̷̨̨̛͓̰̥͚͙̩͓̠̝̬͙͙̽̈́͐̎̇͆͑͆̇̈́̐̉͘͝ͅ were there, he would've been the first to know if anyone was on the planet.
The statue depicted a person, but it had been greatly eroded by time with greenery growing over it. In some areas, butterfly weeds had sprouted — they looked more recent. From what he could tell, this had been a depiction of a Nameless or even Akivili THEMSELF as there was a badge carved into the clothing near the top of the statue.
His gaze finally fell onto the face. Um, there was nothing there. The head likely crumbled away… How unfortunate. Dan Heng took out a sketchbook and started drawing the statue's remains.
It wasn't until his gaze reached the bottom that he saw an engraving. Dan Heng knelt down, ripping the pink camellias obscuring his view.
"Whatcha you doing?"
His very high-pitched scream echoed across the glade. Before he could fall over, Dan Heng grabbed onto whatever he could, bringing his sharpened nails over the engravings and scratching a good chunk out.
He turned around to see a girl, likely his age, kneeling beside him.
'When did she sneak up on me…' His eyes were wide open.
The woman had grey hair, ashy like the clouds, and golden eyes that sparkled like the stars. Her clothing was quite simple: an off-shoulder top tucked into her skirt and adorning a black coat. The inner lining was gold like her eyes.
The coat looked to be stitched with another — one that had a secondary colour of red rather than gold. The wear and tear on the surface was minimal, as though that jacket was more precious than the person herself.
But that was only a guess.
"Are you just going to stare or are you going to answer my question?" She asked.
"Wha… Who are you?" He calmed himself down. No ordinary person could make it here.
But she shrugged her shoulders and stood up. She took a step towards the statue, brushing a hand against the rock as she circled it.
"This is pretty cool, wonder who it was." She had a smile, not quite as carefree as she might've thought it was. Perhaps the years of life had worn her down.
Dan Heng stood, joining her as he rounded the statue, but as he placed a hand against it, the rocks broke apart. He was spooked back a few steps.
Did this statue hate him?!
"Oh, you broke it." The girl hide her mouth, presumably laughing at his actions.
"It can't be helped. Whatever civilisation lived here was clearly older than our currently-known history." But with that said, he turned back to the woman, pausing as he thought of how to address her, "Would you like to explore with me…?"
"Stelle, just call me Stelle." She looking away from the statue, a smile gracing her expression.
"Stelle." He tested the name on his tongue. There was something familiar about that name.
"So, where are we gonna explore?" She brought Dan Heng's attention back.
Right, his main reason for being here, "I'm writing a paper on Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze. I'm here to find THEM."
"Oh, that's pretty cool. Are you from the Intelligentsia Guild or something?" Stelle rounded the statue's remains to stand in front of him. She was practically the same height.
"No, I'm from the Xianzhou Luofu. I, um… ran away from home." He coughed into his fist.
He could tell she was stifling a laugh.
"I left the Luofu to fulfil my research." He crossed his arms, choosing to stand strong.
Finally, she laughed. But, rather than making fun of him, it was closer to amusement that Dan Heng would be embarrassed about a small thing like that.
Moving on, the two decided to venture further into the forest. Dan Heng stopped every now and then to sketch out the plants and trees. He was quite happy to find one cut down as he counted the number of rings on the inside. Strangely enough, there were hundreds of rings on the tree, but each one was as thin as paper — almost non-existent.
'Logically, these trees should be as old as the planet's ecosystem… And yet evidence shows they're only as old as the current Amber Era… Even if these were grown recently, there should be evidence of the older trees that were here before.'
Seeing his confusion, Stelle ushered him along — no use pondering over something like that, she said.
They found a river and decided to follow it. Dan Heng made sure to map its course and collect samples to study later. They also seemed to be around the middle course as there were many meanders, some even becoming ox box lakes.
"I heard the Luofu has someone who can part the seas. Is it true?" The girl skipped along the side of the river.
"The High Elder of the Vidyadhara. Her current incarnation is working at the Alchemy Commission as a doctor." He let a small smile slip as he remembered the times he helped her as a volunteer in his spare time. "An incident a few Amber Eras ago caused the High Elder's power to dwindle, but these days, she is training very hard to regain her lost power."
"I hope Bailu isn't too troubled by those Preceptors." Stelle said with a smile.
But Dan Heng couldn't help, but pause in his step, "How did you know her name?"
"I met her a few times."
They didn't say much else. Just a question here and a question there. Most of the time was spent examining the remains of the ancient civilisation.
Eventually they came across a split in the river. The main stream followed on north while the other travelled west. Stelle grabbed Dan Heng's hand, leading him on the course of the distributary.
Once they walked along its side, they found that it dropped off a cliff. A beautiful waterfall.
"We seem to be nearing the end of the river — we're already at the upper course." Dan Heng commented as he assessed a way to get down from the waterfall's edge.
"Should we jump down?" Stelle looked over the edge as she stretched her legs.
"What? Did you come here to die?" Dan Heng pulled her back from the edge before she could try anything drastic. "I have a rope, we'll climb down."
She looked at him as though the rope offended her entire ancestry, "Boring."
And with a strength Dan Heng did not expect, he was pushed into the water while the grey-haired woman jumped off the cliff with a laugh. Crazy!!
He soon went with the flow, no pun intended, as the river pulled him down.
At the bottom, Stelle seemed completely fine outside of her soaked clothing.
'I didn't hear a splash. How did she end up soaked?' He decided to ignore the thought, given that he valued his sanity.
"You sure took your time. Too tired to keep up?" She grinned.
But that left Dan Heng with another question, "We've been walking all day. When is nightfall?"
Since he landed here, the local star lighting the sky had only moved 12°. Doing a bit of math, a full day would be 60 system hours, give or take, considering that they had been walking for 4 system hours.
In the meanwhile. Stelle had fallen notably silent. He didn't expect an answer from her anyway.
"Time is an iffy concept here." She paused, looking up, as though yearning for the sky beyond, "But if you want, we can rest."
Ignoring how she could possibly know that, Dan Heng nodded.
And so, Stelle left to gather some food, seeing as the provisions Dan Heng brought with him had been, mostly, destroyed in the crash.
With one obstacle gone, Dan Heng rose from the ground and took off, heading north.
If he hadn't seen Stelle jump off a cliff and walk away perfectly fine, Dan Heng might've felt bad about abandoning her to the planet's will.
Now that he thought about it, had he even seen a single sign of life since landing here? Was Pegana truly abandoned to the point where not even bones were left behind?
He wrote down his speculations before moving forward. The land seemed determined to keep him away from his destination as earthquakes echoed the moment he left the forest. Ravines would end in landslides, river eroded the ground beneath him, and more outrageous coincidences.
When he tried to cross the oceans, it further protested by raising its temperature well past boiling. But that was an easy problem to solve.
Soon, the weather dropped below freezing. He was entering the colder biomes.
The trees grew sparser while the grass slowly became snow crunching beneath his feet.
The strange part, though, was that the snow was sustained in mid-air.
"What…" Dan Heng raised his finger, gently tapping the snowflakes as he walked — it reacted by drifting away slowly.
He could feel it, too, at that moment — the waters of Pegana were frozen in motion. It was though time ceased to flow.
There were too many things on this planet he had to ignore for the sake of his sanity. He documented it as he moved on, lest that woman catch up.
The trek through the snow was tough, especially for someone so accustomed to warmer temperatures. Each step forward felt like his last as his consciousness faded. He wanted to sleep so badly.
But he had to find ████. Dan Heng would not leave until he found that person.
Through what felt like hours of trudging through thick layers of snow, Dan Heng finally saw a structure on the horizon line. Its shape resembled a castle.
"Are you there…?" His heart seemed to flutter at the thought of ████ waiting there for him. But then again, how did he even know to come here?
With one final push, Dan Heng took off towards the castle with relief sinking into his bones the closer he came to it. He could feel tears spilling over as the pressure finally left his shoulders.
At that moment, Dan Heng had a feeling of deja vu. Perhaps in another life, he spent a millennia searching for his person.
As he came closer, the colour of crimson stood out in the white snow. Not the crimson of blood, but of anemones.
He kicked the door to the castle open with an unknown strength before rushing in. It was warm. No, warm was a heavy understatement. He felt that he might melt if he didn't strip right there.
He wandered further in, following wherever his feet seemed to take him as he ignored the rising temperature int he castle. If he were to describe this feeling, it was like leaving himself to the mercy of some long-forgotten instinct.
His mind felt foggy, absent, empty.
'Find ████… Find ████. Find ████!'
He made it to the top floor, standing before one final door.
"Push it open and you'll find your answers, Dan Heng."
In that moment, the waters seemed to flow once more. Dan Heng turned around to find Stelle standing there.
"Should I call you Dan Heng? Or do you prefer Long?" She smiled, that same smile from the first time they met.
Dan Heng's mind told him that they had met before, but he knew in his heart — this was a different person.
"Terminus."