Intermission 10: Crystal Song
Place~ The Blue Planet
Time~ 169 human years before present time.
“I don’t know if I can do this Father,” the young Crystal Master’s hands were shaking as they hovered over the soft, pulsing light. It reflected along the shimmering sides of the dim stone cave.
-You can, Klu. We have to… we’ve talked about all this before,- came the gentle reply within his mind.
“But talking isn’t doing,” KluYa grit his teeth. His green eyes were focused on the flow of energy as the Crystal drew in the Blue Planet elements.
-This is true. Now is a time of doing.-
It was hard to believe that his father was so stoic. Afterall, Father’s essence would be broken, sealed within the Crystal stones and scattered throughout the nations of the human world. Perhaps he was trying to set an example through the lack of his own hesitation.
It was still hard to go through with. The kindly mind-voice was his father, and now KluYa was going to seal him away. He would be divided from the guiding hand and loving encouragement, and lost without another known soul upon the Blue Planet.
“If I do this, then you’ll be gone.” As KluYa voiced his feelings, they sounded childish and conceited to his ears. Afterall, was it more important that he was comforted… or that the Blue Planet was protected from the dark powers that hung threatening, just out of sight?
He waited in the moment of silence, wondering if his feelings would be chastised. Wondering if Father would be disappointed in him for coming so far only to let emotion wedge into the cracks of their plan.
Instead, there was a soft curling light that rose about him. The closest that Father could get to offering a sympathetic hug.
-Klu… I will never be gone. I will always be here with you. Within you. And when the danger has passed, there will be a day when I will be released again. Perhaps, in that time, I will once more be what I was before.-
KluYa’s eyes shifted down in attempt to hide the sorrow. Father was trying so hard to encourage him. To convince him that what they were going to do was right. But he knew. He had seen the visions… there would be a day when the Dreigiau returned to the Blue Planet. But by that time, KluYa would not be there to greet his father’s return.
-You know what will happen if we do not do this.-
KluYa nodded grimly, “The Crystals on the Red Moon will only hold Zeromus and Luccious for a short time. We worked hard to place those seals but…”
-They need reinforcement. Yes. And the best way we can do that is to reinforce those Crystals with a second set on the Blue Planet. Just like the Red Moon is in orbit within the power of this world, connecting the flow between the two will make the seal nearly unbreakable.-
“I just don’t understand why you have to be a part of this. Why can’t we just make a second set, redirect the Blue Planet’s energy to amplify the seal and be done with it?” the young Lunar gave a frustrated huff. But his gaze never left the glow of the forming Crystal between his hands.
-The Blue Planet is strong… and the Crystals have a certain amount of awareness. But it has never held back the wrath of a Dark Sygnus or Chaotic Arweinydd before. I’m fairly sure of that. It’s going to take more than just Crystals to see this through.-
KluYa knew that his father spoke the truth. How could he argue against the vastness of it all? Against what history had played out. Against what had led to the destruction of Runne… and of the Nefolian lands, now lost to time.
He knew the danger first hand. And he knew that he had to do everything in his power to protect the Blue Planet from feeling the same darkness and despair.
He just wished that the price wasn’t this high.
As if in reaction to his sorrow, Father’s light shifted and circled around his shoulders, capering through the young Lunar’s long white hair.
-This is not the end, Klu. It is not goodbye. It feels a lot like it, I know. But there are some things that transcend beyond all the rules of life and death that we think we know.-
KluYa looked up slowly, back to the Crystal between his palms.
-We have to grab a hold of the hope of the unknown. Have faith in what is beyond us. In what we cannot see. And go forward with what we know to be right… even if it is the most difficult thing we have ever been asked to do.-
As the words fell upon his mind, the young Lunar couldn’t stop the tears that brimmed over. Though his face was hot and wet, he forced his hands to stay sure and steady ahead of him. He drove his focus upon the gentle, warming light. The final Crystal was now complete.
“Father…” his voice cracked.
-You’ve done well, Klu… It’s my turn now.-
The young Crystal Master released the final stone, watching as it hovered next to its brothers and sisters. There were eight in total – four of the Light and four of the Dark. One for each element of the Blue Planet.
He could feel each one. A living and breathing stone, awaiting the final modification.
As the Crystals began to line up in hovering formation, Father’s light whispered away from the safety of KluYa’s shoulders. It took every ounce of resolve he had to stop himself from reaching out. From pulling the light back, keeping it from vanishing forever.
As he watched, it divided. Then divided again. Until the light took on four forms, smaller forms instead of the one large. Very faintly, the smaller lights gave the appearance of tiny translucent Dragons. But that was only when KluYa squinted hard enough to make it out.
Then, ever so painfully, the little Dragons glided forward, rising above each pair of Crystals, both dark and light. As they came closer, they began to change, taking on a different color. The tiny cave was suddenly lit with great fountains of multicolored lights – reds and blues and golds and silvers and everything in between.
KluYa threw his hand up before his eyes as the Dragons and Crystals began to fuse, the stones welcoming Father’s light. Drinking in his spirit. His being.
“FATHER!!” the cry ripped from his mouth. KluYa couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stop the emotion welling through him. The grief and the loss, knowing that he was wrong to feel that way. Yet unable to release the rending within his heart.
-I will always be with you, Klu…-the soft, coaxing voice responded. But it was growing fainter. More distant.
The light of the Crystals had swelled to envelop the entire cave. Like fingertips of gentle energy, the Lunar could feel tingles trace down his cheeks where the tears ran. Somewhere within his heart, he wanted to believe it was the gentle touch of Father.
-We must move forward. Do not let our work go unfulfilled. Promise me.-
KluYa’s voice was hoarse as he forced the words between his lips, “I promise…”
-There are others that need your strength and protection,- Father’s voice was hardly a whisper now above the rushing of power. –Be their guardian as my Dragons will guard these Crystals. And know that I will always love you.-
The light of the Crystals began to fade, leaving the cave somehow darker and colder than before. The young Lunar had fallen to his knees, palms flat against the cool stone floor. For a long time, he wept. Images shifted through his mind – of the living world of Runne and his mother… of how both were violently ripped from him. Of his brother that he had abandoned, leaving him to stand watching alone on the Red Moon. How he had left under such bad terms.
How he felt so very alone on the strange alien world. The world that had once called to him in promise and hope. A place that had seemed so much better than the lifeless moon years ago, before he came. Before the Whale had been put to slumber at the ocean floor. Before he had spent years wandering alone, dodging dangers and finding what he needed to construct the Crystals.
Which all led up to this very moment. And though he knew it would happen — he had known from the time he began to create his first living stone that his Father would gift the Crystals of the Earth with his very soul. Knowing had not made the pain any easier to endure.
A soft keening sound rose in the air, echoing from the dark cave wall. It was soft and harmonious. And as KluYa knelt, weeping bitterly at his loss, the sound grew louder. The cave began to illuminate from the inside.
The Crystals had begun to sing.
The sound was unlike any music he had heard before. Not the soft voice of his mother’s lullaby or the bawdy baying of humans in their tavern revelries. It was a song that swelled around him, touching the depths of his soul, leaving his breath caught up in his throat. Gentle. Hopeful. Comforting. The eight drew their light and love over their maker.
For a moment, KluYa felt as if Father was still there with him. And though all of the pain could not be washed away, it somehow became more bearable.
He sat, bathed in the light of the Blue Planet Crystals. Their shimmers reflected from the depth of his eyes. Their song resounded through his core, rousing something that tickled the back of his mind.
Maybe Lunar. Maybe Dragon. Maybe Sygnus.
“Father…”
KluYa realized in that moment that he was Ap’Dreigiau – the Son of the Dragon. And it was time that he started acting like it.
“I will protect them.”
His hands shook as he pulled the creased and faded parchment maps across the floor. He scrubbed at his misty eyes as he squinted to make out the Common Language writing in scrawled dark ink. The places that they had marked. The Nations of the Earth.
The places he would deliver the Crystals.
The next step in their plan to secure the Blue Planet people from the threat of the darkness that lay in slumber in the core of the Red Moon.