Aetheral Space-Chapter 469 - 15.23: Potentate (Part 2)

Bruno was dead.

Serena could feel it, right down to her very core. This brain was void an occupant. The body that had housed both of them now felt an empty box. A hollow shudder ran down her spine. She was skydiving, and her parachute had failed. The ground had vanished from beneath her. There was no air in her oxygen tank.

None of that even came close to how Serena del Sed felt in that moment.

Kill you. Kill you. Kill you.

A passionless mantra, a matter of obligation more than anything else. She couldn't muster rage. She couldn't muster hatred. Even so, if she didn't find something to hold onto, she knew she would fall forever.

So… she looked up at Erica with empty, hopeless eyes.

"I'll kill you," she said.

Erica just looked down at her, not even glancing at the stump of her own arm as it gushed blood down onto the floor.

"Okay," she replied.

Serena leapt at the other woman. She still had the sword she'd struck Erica with, but now she had one in her other hand, too. Had she made that one? When had she done that? She felt like an alien watching her own body from far above, not understanding exactly what was going on.

But when Erica raised a finger on her remaining hand and pointed at the incoming Serena, she surely understood that.

I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die.

Her pounce became pathetic in an instant. Her swords slipped from her grasp, and she just fell onto the floor right before Erica. Her cheek pressed against the metal floor.

"Now that there's only one of you," Erica observed. "It seems you've lost a good deal of your resistance to my abilities."

The floor was cold. That was the only coherent thought that was able to trickle through Serena's brain at that moment.

"You shouldn't feel too bad," Erica continued, stepping around Serena's prone form. "Even if you'd reached me, I doubt Skin of God would have let you actually land another attack. You've already hit me once, after all, remember?"

She waved her bleeding stump in the air to illustrate her point.

"The fight basically ended at that point already. Like I said, don't feel too bad."

Her expression softened, just a tiny bit.

"You'll be with your brother soon."

Bruno del Sed existed.

Beyond that, he couldn't be sure. It was like trying to wake up from a dream that was doing its best to hold you down, a haze of anti-consciousness spreading out as far as thought could travel. No vision, no touch, no body, no luck. He tried to breathe, but he had neither a mouth nor lungs to do it with.

What had happened?

You died.

Yes, that was it, wasn't it? He'd taken Erica's killing blow in Serena's place, allowing his consciousness to be destroyed so that she could live on -- if only for a little longer. If he thought back, he could remember it. He could remember the sensation of pitch-black death piercing his being.

A shudder went down his spine.

Wait… his spine?

Yes. Your spine. Imagine you have such a thing.

If he tried, if he really tried, he could. A spine winding through a back -- and so he could imagine a back, too, and with that came the front. In an instant, Bruno went from nothing to a silhouette of implication. He opened his mouth and took a breath.

What was this?

His mind pushed itself through the question, straining against the delirium that threatened to scatter him once more.

Was he dead?

How can you be dead? You're thinking. You are thinking.

That wasn't him, that other voice, that other sentiment. It was similar, but not quite the same as him. He wasn't alone in this place. Who was it? Who was speaking to him?

Why don't you open your eyes and find out?

He didn't have eyes, though.

That's easily fixed. Just fix it.

That was right. If there was another person here, then there were things here, then this was a place, and a place could be observed. The only reason he couldn't do that right now was because his eyes were closed. And if his eyes were closed, all he had to do…

…was open them.

Bruno didn't know what this place was, but he understood immediately that it was far more important than him. For the first moment, it seemed like pure nothingness, a sea of black that stretched on in every direction. But no -- no. There was light. There was light here!

There were far too many to count. Shining strings ran across Bruno's vision, each blazing a different colour -- red, blue, green, white, some more esoteric, some more bizarre. The web of light spread out in every direction, in every angle, in every avenue of existence. The light of the mind was nearly blinding here.

Was this… Aether?

That's right.

Bruno del Sed turned to see who had spoken.

Yakob del Sed smiled back at him.

Bruno blinked. "Is this real?" he asked, voice low.

Yes, said Yakob. This is real.

"And…" Bruno swallowed. "Are you really Yakob?"

No. I'm just a shadow. A footprint on the beach.

"What does that mean?"

From the moment a person's Aether first shines, it begins to reflect the sentiments of its user. The clean slate cannot help but be written upon. Sometimes, this goes far enough that the Aether comes to believe it is the user, and keeps going after their death. But for most people… for me… we just leave lonely echoes behind in Aether that will never be used again.

"And that's what you are?" Bruno asked quietly. "An echo?"

That's right. I'm a very poor impersonation of Yakob del Sed.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Why are you here?"

I wanted to see you again. Even for a caricature, the most important qualities remain. If I didn't share such an obvious trait with Yakob del Sed, then I might as well not exist at all.

It was strange. Bruno felt like he should be reacting differently to this. Yakob was standing in front of him. Even if he said he wasn't Yakob, the presence was unmistakable. Shouldn't he be happy? Shouldn't he be anguished?

Instead, a dead calm kept his invisible heart beating slow.

"I'm dead," Bruno said softly. "Aren't I?"

In a way, yes.

"What do you mean?"

In a way, yes, you are dead, Yakob replied unhelpfully.

"No, but… what do you mean 'in a way'? Is there a way where I'm not dead?"

Yakob smiled.

Erica del Sed deactivated you, he said. Your manifestation was torn away from the world. But that's not the same thing as dying. It's because of where you came from.

"Where I came from…?"

Yakob cocked his head slowly. You and Serena both. I just explained the whole thing to you. Aether is written upon by its users, resulting in personalities like the one talking to you now. Yakob inscribed himself upon his own Aether inadvertently.

With you, two, however… you are stories writing yourselves. Information so alive that it has conjured Aether of its own. There is no distinction between yourselves and your abilities.

You are lights of the mind.

Bruno slowly blinked, looking down at his hand. Yes, he had a hand. He asserted that upon the world.

He knew this already… deep down, he knew this, in the same way a newborn turtle knew to escape into the ocean… but to know and to understand were two different things.

Bruno del Sed clenched his fist, and beckoned sensation.

What will you do now? Yakob's shadow asked.

"There are still things I can do?"

You are an ability that has been deactivated, Yakob said. That's all. Should you wish it, there's nothing stopping you from reactivating yourself, from establishing an existence of your own.

"You mean… becoming an Awakening?"

Do you feel asleep right now?

Bruno blinked.

Bruno smiled.

Bruno grinned.

"No," he admitted. "I'm already wide-awake, aren't I?"

This place, this nexus of Aether, was like the bottom of the ocean. Darkness and light in every direction, but no ocean truly went on forever. Tearing his gaze away from the proudly smiling Yakob, Bruno snapped his head upwards --

-- and kicked off to freedom.

Erica dealt with her injury promptly. She tore out a length of her own hair, infused it, and wrapped it tight around her stump to stop the bleeding. The whole time, she didn't so much as blink.

Serena made no move to stop her. She just stayed on the ground, cheek pressed against the cold metal, her eyes wet with despair. The doors to the Prince-Regent's chambers slammed shut far ahead of them. She would die out in the hallway, but that was fine.

She'd failed to protect Bruno. This was what she deserved.

I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die.

Vaguely, she wondered how much Erica's ability was even affecting her. Was this the Claw of God that was whispering, or just her own despair? The misery that trickled through her bones and kept her pinned against the ground… it didn't feel like a foreign body.

That was hers, to be sure.

"You're going to die, because you're a threat to us," Erica said, standing over her. "And Annatrice is going to die, because she needs to for the plan. But don't worry. I'll keep all the others safe. Every other child of the Sed… I won't let anything happen to them ever again."

Erica blinked, slowly pointing a finger down towards Serena.

"Big sister promises."

I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die.

"Do it…" Serena said weakly.

"Okay. Claw of --"

THE WORLD CHANGED

Something appeared.

In the middle of the hallway, behind Erica, a bolt of purple lightning danced in place -- like a seam slowly being opened in the surface of the world. Crackles and snaps resounded like gunshots, and the metal all around the phenomenon creaked. The striking Aether was inexorable.

It was impossible to know whether Erica understood what had just happened or not. More likely, it was the result of animal instinct. The moment that purple aurora consumed the hallway, she swung around, pointing her finger at it instead.

Even as she pointed at the lightning, however, she looked down at Serena.

"What is that?" she demanded coldly. "What did you do?"

Serena didn't know for sure. She didn't know where this thing had come from, what it was doing, or what it wanted. There was no way for her to tell any of that. But…

That colour…

That presence…

That feeling…

There was no way for her to know for sure…

…but she still knew.

And so she was smiling.

I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die. I need to die.

Shut up, she told herself. I'm busy.

The purple lightning was changing shape -- no, manifestation was occuring, tiny purple scales appearing in the air one after another, slowly but surely forming a shape, a humanoid shape.

A shape with eyes of pale light.

A shape with hair frozen mid-breeze.

A shape that smiled back at her.

Bruno del Sed stepped out of the lightning. Those weren't scales at all, Serena realized, but shields. Bruno had constructed himself a body out of his own miniature shields.

Did that mean… was this an Awakening? No, it felt different from the others Serena had seen, but…

Erica permitted herself no surprise.

"Claw of God!"

Too late.

Once it was fired, that attack could not be dodged, to be sure. But Bruno del Sed could see with things better than eyes, now, and so he had seen the attack coming. In the moment before Erica had struck her killing blow…

…Bruno had brushed right past her as a smear of light.

Serena blinked.

One second, she was lying down on the ground, her cheek pressed against metal and misery. Then, the light passed over her -- and by the time she'd finished blinking, she was up in the air, being carried in Bruno's arms. He glanced down at her with his eyes of white light.

Are you okay?

At first, the words were silent -- mouthed. But then, he tried again, and -- accompanied by a sound like an electrical buzz -- she heard him.

"Are you okay?"

"Bruno," she whispered. "What is this?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Bruno replied, looking up at Erica. "Beyond that, does it really matter?"

Serena thought about it for a second.

She guessed not.

Twin flashes of purple and violet illuminated the hallway for a moment. Grinning, Serena pointed a blade of steel at Erica. Smirking, Bruno conjured a sword of his own -- formed from countless shields -- and mimicked his sister.

Erica just glared back at them, her eyes narrowed. She wasn't smiling anymore.

"Fine," she said. "Let's finish this."

Serena opened her mouth. "We couldn't…"

Bruno opened his mouth. "...agree more."

And the two of them moved as one.