Books of Forsake Futures: Future's Sake Passage 10: What Leaves Us Behind

[Rudy: What Leaves Us Behind]

We step out of wherever this place counts as, myself and the gentleman who brought me breakfast. The exit looks more like a stone building buried in a mound of sand. I am not sure what this mission he has referred to involves. Yet, I am honestly just happy to stretch out and have space to move. Of course, this Bluuhd fellow insists that if we can solve the issue of my form, I might not require as much space.

I tap his shoulder to get his attention and sign “What are we doing?”

He responds in echoe “You really need to learn to use echoe there Rudy. Not only would it make things easier, but having you tap my shoulder to get my attention isn’t exactly pleasant. To your question, there was an unusual energy just before all of you arrived. Hayloskien says someone used the voices of chaos other than him and that could be dangerous.”

I go to sign something and he chuckles “I am aware of your run in with Maranboe. That was your blood I was reading from earlier.” I go to ask him how he got my blood with all of this armoring. He points to his head. Can he summon blood from someone’s body? No, he is talking about the head within my head. He echoes “Best I can figure, you are not Amedeus in the traditional sense, but you somehow are Amedeus trying to protect his body. You are the armor, his power given life somehow. But that is just a guess.”

Outside the door we exited, by not much more than a few meters, sits a metallic turtle that appears to be built into a large wagon. Bluuhd sees me looking at it and echoes “You were all riding around in that when you came to save Colline, we really do need to return it to Nute at some point. But, even if you could fit in it, we really won’t be going far enough to need it.”

[Hope: What Leaves Us Behind]

Jessie has been helping me pack Colline’s things, after we got past the whole hangover thing anyway. I wasn’t sure what more we had to add to the conversation once Cardinal Cortez figured out what I had to find a pregnancy test to realize. But far be it for me to judge her, given everything going on. I don’t think she intended to drink that much anyway off a single bottle of wine. My powers not withstanding.

I fold some uniforms that she had in the laundry tent the night she left and ask Jessie “So, about this Hayloskien guy.”

Jessie shrugs, as she folds and sorts clothes, interrupting me unintentionally “He isn’t the Hayloskien we all knew. Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cut you off. we’re you asking?”

“I was going to ask what you thought of him, but perhaps I should have you start from the beginning.” I say, placing the folded uniform in a suitcase and grabbing what turns out to be underwear out of the laundry and begin to fold it.

She folds and shuffles, my request making her uncomfortable. She tries to start multiple times and the eventually find her words “He was originally Hale’s Auk Mentar personality, back in the mid 90s. He had been training with Arlo Dien, a legend in his own right. He was eager to prove himself and a bit of a show off as light magic attacks are rather effective against Vampirials.”

“So vampires were real?” I ask a little shocked, continuing “With all the things we fought, I never seen any and had wondered if they were real.”

“Well, that is what happens when we killed them all.” Jessie says with a shrug then freezes, looking at me with a guilty look, similar to a child with their hand in the cookie jar. I return an equally guilty smile and I think we come to an unspoken understanding. Then she continues “So anyway, we killed off the Vampirials as ordered by the council and we got punished for it. Marked unforgiven and given the binder to make us human.”

“There was an incident with some other kids Hale’s age, which resulted in an argument and Hayloskien going on a rampage. I am not entirely sure of the details, but the chaos gate was broken during their argument.” She seems to get lost in thought for a second, then Jessie continues “He was always a good person. A bit of a show off, but not bad, even if a bit moody at points. That whole chimera thing and Hatjorfnin, I have like no clue about anything after those. Still seems like him.”

“And Lyla? She was your Auk Mentar personality, wasn’t she?” I ask, neatly placing the clothes I was folding in the suitcase and grabbing something out of the basket.

“Yeah, she is quite the character. But she seems to have mellowed with motherhood or at the very least seems happy.” She shrugs.

[Conner: What Leaves Us Behind]

I am not going to pretend to understand where we are or what he intends to do. But we are definitely in some kind of lab. Two glass tubes by the wall, one holding the body of a man with a metal helmet and gauntlets, tubes running from the helmet to the gauntlets and several points on his body. The other tube holds a body, one that though clearly a human male, is otherwise featureless.

Someone else enters the room, a young man with feminine features and long silver hair. He looks at Rywho and asks “Are you ready? Did you tell him what we are doing?”

Rywho laughs “Yes and no.” He drops me into a chute and everything goes dark.

[Colline: What Leaves Us Behind]

After a hectic breakfast, I go for a walk. The amount of sheer activity here alone is going to take getting used to. I am surprised that none of the children have followed me out here, but I suppose they are all still preoccupied. What is that sound? Is there a child crying?

I round the corner, where a little girl is crying. About the same age as the others, with long and curly black hair. I kneel down and wipe a tear from below her green eyes and say “Hello there. I don’t think I’ve met you yet. I’m Colline.”

Her eyes go wide and she says “The new Auntie?” She tries to run off, but I catch her off hand and return her to being in front of me. She seems scared as she says “It’s nothing, please don’t tell Father or the other moms!”

I smile at the little girl and respond “Tell them what? That a girl who didn’t even tell me her name told me nothing and ran off? Hardly sounds like something to tell anyone.” I wipe another tear away with the back of my hand and ask “Now, let’s start at the beginning and tell me your name and how much nothing am I telling the others?”

She blinks a bit, processing what I just said. Then she smiles through the tears, revealing those same sharp teeth and says “You’re funny.” She giggles and says “My name is Gaea, but the others call me Giggles.”

“Alright little girl who didn’t tell me that her name is Giggles.” I say, messing up her hair “So why were you crying?”

She tries to smile, to not return to crying, but it is clearly a struggle as she says “I don’t want to die with the non first-borns.”

“Woah wait.” I say placing both of my hands on her shoulders. “What is this about?”

“Well” she says, swiveling her foot on the ground. “I wanted to come meet you this morning with the other first-borns, but Erris said that I am technically not a first-born and should just stay out of the way and wait for the culling. My mother was already pregnant when she taken in by Father and neither knew. But mother gave up Mia when she was born as she almost immediately got pregnant with my siblings and I. And even though I was the first born of my clutch, I am technically not a first-born.”

I nod my head and try again as she didn’t answer the question I asked. “What is the culling?”

“I can answer that.” A voice responds behind me. I turn around and a red haired chimera woman stares down at me. She looks similar to Nova and to Tony, more so Tony. Yet she isn’t. She motions for me to get up and follow her as she says “Gaea, you shouldn’t let Erris get to you. And don’t let them exclude you either. You are a first-born and shouldn’t worry about such things. Now go check in with your siblings.” She kneels down and lightly pushes her and says “Shoo now.”

Gaea giggles and says “Okay Miss Endda, bye bye.” She skips her way down the hall and Endda turns back to me.

She signals down the hall, in the direction I was originally heading. I go ahead and follow as she begins “Chimera are born in clutches of ten, the first-born of each clutch is presented to Hayloskien to be named. At least in terms of those fathered by Hayloskien. The culling is one of multiple answers to a certain problem.”

“What problem is that?” I ask, almost as worried as I curious.

“Genetic diversity. Though as chimera, we shouldn’t have to worry about side effects from inbreeding, it can be a bit of a moral issue.” She answers softly, then pauses so I can reply.

I say “Then why does Hayloskien keep taking on more wives? I am certainly not going to let him kill even one of my children.” Great, I don’t even have kids and I protecting them.

“Part of it is the concern of competition. Like a pride of lions, male chimera don’t tend to get along when females are involved. Only one can lead the pack. Even then, the males are going to have to leave when they become adults to try to start prides of their own. The other part goes back to genetic diversity. At least if there is only a few paternal donors, at least there will be those born of different mothers.” She says running her hand over her own stomach, as though reliving a memory.

“But you aren’t married to Hayloskien.” I say, probably more meaning to ask.

“No, no I am not.” She says,returning to our conversation and away from her thoughts. “Buulk or should I say Adam, he and Hayloskien are on good terms. They have an understanding and part of that is that I will be Adam’s only wife and thus my children are not including in the culling, should it happen. Also, we get our own wing of Purgatory.”

“Purgatory?” I ask, now wondering if I have made a mistake in judgement.

“No one told you yet?” She asks, then shrugs “Well, it can’t be helped. This place is actually a very large and very ancient Leviaten. A space ship of sorts, or as a Gigas Class, I should say a colony.”

That not being the hell I was worried about walking into, I ask “So, what are the other options, rather than the culling? Surely the children can just be taught to avoid inbreeding.”

“Not that simple” She says, now pointing to my stomach and saying “Once you become a chimera yourself, you will see. The urge to breed will be all you can think about when you go into heat. Which for you will be instantly. As for the children, it is theorized that they took will go instantly int heat when they reach adulthood. So that leaves few other options.”

She lifts her finger from pointing at my stomach and holding it up to now show the number one. “First option, would be to sterilize all the females. The males may go a bit batty, may try to breed them anyway, but it wouldn’t work. There is no telling what could happen or what health issues may be involved. And that is depending on the possibility of their regeneration not reversing the process.”

She lifts another finger and says “Second option, exchanging males between the families, which aren’t many as we weren’t starting out with many chimera males. But that will only work so many times.”

“Third option, bringing in outside people to expand who we have available. But that is not as easy as it sounds. Though we have plenty of space here, we run the possibility of competing males if we aren’t careful. Hayloskien had told Buulk that he was going to offer to let become a chimera, even give him the girls that came with him to save you. Except for Jessie, because Bluuhd wants her, assuming she hasn’t bonded to his former counterpart, Brandon.”

“Why not try to talk to the different settlements? Surely they have people that don’t want to be humans, trapped in the camps. Even if Hale is protecting them there.” I ask.

“Think back, if we had approached you before showing you what we have to offer, would you have listened?” She asks, looking over her shoulder at me.

“Good point.” I respond, following her further. “Maybe if we talked to Nute, maybe he has an answer. A way to calm or delay the heat?”

“Wouldn’t count on him, he has already declined to help. I don’t think he can.” She says.

“So, where are we heading anyway?” I ask.

“To introduce you to your future.” She says with a shrug.

[Rudy: What Leaves Us Behind]

We have walked for a quite a bit into the chaos ravaged wasteland, but nothing is familiar. Except for maybe that, yeah, that sword planted into the ground is quite familiar. I believe it is called Faith, a great sword with the blade overtaking the hand guard. Almost like someone were trying to… Like I was trying to…

What had I been trying to do? Was I trying to fight someone or something? A voice echoes around us “Come back to fight us again? To see if your great tree of light had managed to finish us? You lack the ability, for we are many.”

I kick away a black sludge that tries to wrap around my leg. Still not able to echoe in response, I flip the sludge off instead. Bluuhd does not fair as well, quickly engulfed in the black sludge. I hear him laugh in echoe as he turns to face me. The tar like sludge balloons out until a bubble, then grows. Then the bubble pops, revealing a crimson behemoth form with dark fur running down its back. He roars and the sound forces the sludge back, creating a wide circle around us.

I draw the sword from the ground and though it is rather small in this form, the white first from my hands makes up the difference. Bluuhd and I get back to back as the first wave begins, a wave of black sludge humanoids. I slash the lot of them away as they close in. Meanwhile, I see from my peripheral, Bluuhd bites into the ankle of one and smashes several with him.

He continues his swing, smashing into several, including the ones I just sliced. Only the are all reforming. Luckily, I jumped over the swing and stab the sword into the forehead of a monstrosity that they are merging into. I ride the massive fusing body down as it goes to the ground, but it tries to reform as a standing figure behind me. And it goes right into a downward strike, swatted away by the tail of Bluuhd in his behemoth form.

Meanwhile, another one not part of the original group glides down out of the sky. I interrupt its dive, stabbing at it with the sword. Yet it isn’t the sword that makes contact, but a jagged wall of swords that carry it back. Though I could not say that I did it intentionally, I do know that in that second I thought “Wall of Swords!” Or perhaps I echoed it as I felt like I spoke it more than I thought it, with my mind.

“Good work” echoes Bluuhd “I think we are making progress. Keep fighting!”

The black sludge from both entities swirls under our feet and reunites between us and take the form of a human like entity. But he has three eyes and wings that look more like Venus fly traps. Using his bare hands, he catches my sword and an incoming claw from Bluuhd. Then one of his Venus flytrap wings snap at my face.

I hit it aside as it comes sat me, much like Bluuhd does with his tail. Then, at the same time, we punched the head of the new being. It is smashed back into the sludge and it tries to escape in liquid form, but I am not going to let it this time. Again in an unintentional echoe I announce “Smyte Maranboe!” At the same time, I stab into the sludge.

The being for the first time makes noise, an animalistic scream. Something scared and primal that struggles to escape, as the white fire surrounding my sword spreads across his surface. His voice screams in my mind “You will not defeat me this way. This isn’t over! Next time, you won’t win!”

Bluuhd returns to human form as the last of the sludge tries to escape into some kind of portal. He reaches out his hand and echoes “I don’t think you will Maranboe. The Voices of Chaos bleed into the destruction and they shant have yours.” Instead of making it into the portal, what remains of the sludge burns away in the white fire. Bluuhd smiles at me and says “Let’s head back, bring that sword back with you.

I sheath it, though I don’t entirely understand where or how. If I had to guess, I sheathed it in the base of my neck. I look at Bluuhd and give a thumbs up, but I also find myself echoing “Sounds good to me.” I am not entirely sure that I did that intentionally, but I am sure that is progress.

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