PROLOGUE
From the outside watching them, the two beings were little more than glows of light, soft tendrils snaking through the air around them, painfully bright to see and impossible to comprehend. However, the two beings appeared to each other in what had been their corporeal forms.
Their footsteps left no trail behind them in the sand. They cast no shadow. Their forms were as light as air and as brilliant as the sun. The taller of the two smiled down at the being she had taken to as a son. Or perhaps as a grandson. He looked up at her with a neutral expression, though his eyes were filled with emotion.
"Are you certain?" he asked softly even though he knew the answer was not necessary. She was Oma. She knew and understood things long past his comprehension. She'd had thousands of years to perfect her insights, after all, and he was a mere infant, toddling his way through it all.
Her hand reached out and she brushed the back of her knuckles across his cheek briefly. "It is time, Shifu. I can only keep your disappearance hidden for so long. The Others will notice if you are gone too long and you may not be able to rejoin us. You know what to do if that happens."
He nodded.
He was Harsesis. If he did not return, the dark bits of knowledge scraping at the barrier around his brain would leak through and he would be a danger to those he watched over. Worse, he would be hunted down for fates worse than bearing witness to the torture and death of innocents. No, not returning was not an option. However, not going at all was equally unattainable. He would need to make peace with his past before he could concentrate on his future.
He turned, casting a last glance over his shoulder back toward the closest thing he had to family. Was he betraying her by seeking knowledge of his actual family? The family of his flesh and blood body that he no longer required or inhabited? No, he could tell she understood. A faint smile wafted across his lips as he faced away from her and began to walk, his mother's name on his lips as he sought out any who were so close to her that they would pick up on the name being held in the winds and sand.
As time meant nothing, he had no way of telling how long he had been walking when a figure finally stopped, his old grizzled head turning and lifting in an attempt to catch the wind's offering. Sha're. Yes. This man knew her. Knew her well. Shifu felt he should be more familiar, but already his memories of being with The Others were beginning to fuzz and fray. It was a safeguard. It was irritating. But he somehow knew the word grandfather and that it was applicable to this figure. The father of his mother. There. He caught the tendril of thought and held onto it, wringing out the memory from it like braille against fingertips. Sha're.
The old man seemed spooked and began to call out, asking who was there. It was a cruel joke, he scolded the wind, voice dripping with grief. There was no Sha're. Not anymore. Not for some time. The others near him paused and cocked their heads to listen, some going pale as they heard the disembodied voice as well. They all turned to the old man for an explanation. After all, he had been their leader for some time. They were used to him having the answers. But this time, he did not.
He scurried away across the sand and Shifu remained there, not wanting to veer too far from the spot. The old man was someone who could give him knowledge, but he felt that he was not the one he had been seeking.
He settled in to wait.