X
Mission No. 47
Cerinia
Altaira Valley Outskirts
The Id
X
A roaring buzz split Fox's head in half when he came to. Slowly his eyes flitted open to grey light. His vision remained blurry, but his heart leapt when he saw the smear of a blue-furred fox looking down at him.
"Krystal…?" he groaned, hope waking inside him.
"Ko koe bonpai, Rāgata?"
His spirit sank. That wasn't her voice…
Concentrating, Fox squinted until the woman's face came into focus. It certainly was a Cerinian, but it wasn't Krystal. Her fur was darker, and she wore the robes and mask of a full-fledged Kaitaki, though she kept the facial covering down for the moment.
He moaned, struggling to get up. "Where's Krystal? How long have I been out?"
"Quiha?" she asked, not understanding. Apparently she didn't trust him enough to communicate telepathically.
When Fox didn't answer she scrutinized him for a second before offering a hand up. He took it and let her help him to his feet. He swayed in place for a moment, during which the woman kept him steady. Something on his head felt warm and sticky. He looked around, realizing he'd fallen unconscious right at the exit of the mountain pass. As he feared, Krystal was nowhere in sight – but a thin trail of warriors and elders lead down from the pass, outside the valley.
Ignoring the cries of the Cerinian who helped him, he took off. He followed the others down the hill, across the shallow river, and up the dune on the other side; his wet sandals and shendyt hem getting caked in sand. It was a steep hill he climbed, and towards the peak he found himself scrambling on all fours in his haste.
When he reached the apex he found Mother Namah with a small force of elders and warriors standing there, gazing out over the desert. The afternoon horizon was darkening, and thick clouds had settled over the violet sky. A sandstorm ravaged the wasteland, beginning where the mists from the mountain ended. The dense haze obscured whatever lay within its cloud.
Fox doubled over, panting. "Where's Krystal?" he demanded.
Namah and the other Cerinians turned to look at him in surprise.
"Ah, so you're awake," the matron observed.
"I said, where's-"
"She left," Namah cut him off, pointing to some tracks in the sand. "She lead her monster away; into the desert."
Fox looked down, observing the vixen's sandal prints leading down the opposite side of the dune into the wasteland. But Krystal's weren't the only tracks. His eyes alit on giant, clawed prints that tore through the sand, stalking behind the smaller set of footprints. He felt shocked. He'd always been under the impression the monster was just a metaphor or a subconscious figment, not something physical and external. Not something real.
Which meant there was no way he could let her face it alone.
At once he bolted through the crowd of Cerinians, intent on following Krystal.
"Wait! Where do you think you're going?!"
Without explanation his ankles locked up, and he tripped forward into the sand. He tried to crawl down the dune, but it felt like swimming through molasses in a nightmare. Realizing what had happened, he growled and gave up, sprawling on the side of the hill in defeat.
"That's not fair…" he groaned. He struggled to his feet but made no effort to continue; instead he turned to face Namah. "Let me go already! You have no right to keep me here."
"You foolish boy! Hasn't your previous encounter with Krystal taught you anything? It's lucky you survived with your life! Next time she may actually kill you."
He snarled at her. "And how is that any concern of yours? Why do you care what happens to me? I know you hate me! From the moment you laid eyes on me, you've always hated me!"
That shut the matron up for a second. She went silent for a time, but a storm raged in her eyes as they stared at him.
"Fox…when I volunteered as a subject for the Cerinia project, Vixy was my overseer." She held out her azure-furred wrist, displaying the white number '3' on it. "In the beginning, we became close friends – despite our differences and roles. After the Anomie, however, I never really forgave her for her hand in Cerinia's destruction, no matter how unintended or how little her part. I hated your mother and everyone who worked on the project, but when Andross brought her back to me I did everything in my power to save her. I didn't forget my friend. Before she transformed completely, I promised her I'd take care of you or your father if you ever came searching my way. It seemed so silly back then – so unlikely – it was an easy promise to make at the time; but I fully intend to keep it."
Now it was Fox's turn to go silent, surprised by her candidness and the secret care she harbored for him, even after all the ways she'd mistreated him. Perhaps it was all to keep him safe; safe from his own recklessness in the past, and now, safe from Krystal. But it didn't change his mind.
"I'm no stranger to risking my life. Comes with the job, you see. At the very least, I can help Krystal kill the monster following her."
Namah shook her head. "You don't understand any of this, Fox. The only one who can kill that monster is Krystal. It's invisible, intangible to everyone else. She is the only one who can see it and touch it. But even if you or I did manage to kill it, we would destroy Krystal too. Kill the monster, and you kill her as well."
"But that doesn't make any sense. What even is this monster? Is it real, or just an illusion, or-?"
"It is a manifestation of the subconscious; our irrational, instinctual desires. It knows only to consume, fight, fly, or multiply. It is the unconscious; the shadow of ourselves. It's everything we pretend to reject about our identities, yet secretly embody. It exists in all of us, whether Cerinian or Lylatian. Yet for psychic Cerinians, it is ten times more powerful. Normally our unconscious desires are bound by our own physical limitations, and the rationalism of our consciousness – but if you remove those barriers from someone, if you give them the tools to do anything, their unconscious will break through and do as it pleases.
"For Cerinians under the most emotional distress, their shadow can become so strong it manifests and takes form outside of them, seeming to act independently. You can outrun it for a time, but not forever. Eventually you must face it, either by conquering it, or bowing to its will and relinquishing your hold on yourself.
"Andross sought us Cerinians for our psychic powers, as the unconscious was a gateway to many abilities we couldn't understand with our rational minds. But at the same time, those powers couldn't always be bound to our rational wills. This was the cause of Cerinia's destruction. For some, their internal conflicts were too much to control, and they let them take over. Each Cerinian must fight themselves to become the ruler of their own powers. If they win, they become the master. If they lose, they become the slave. Right now, Krystal is facing that battle for herself; but I'm afraid it's a battle she may lose."
"But…why didn't you teach Krystal about this? Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"
"I did, though I spared the exact details. But what purpose would that serve? Would it change how Krystal controls her desires? What would she do that she isn't already doing to fight them? All my telling her about it would accomplish is giving her cause for more grief and worry, perhaps bringing out the monster even earlier when there was a chance she wouldn't have to face it at all. The monster is a self-perpetuating cycle; the more you learn of its stranglehold over your actions, the more power it has over you. Worrying about it begets more worry, and the cycle never ceases; it only grows and strengthens it. Believe me, Fox, I tried all I could. I tried to help your mother contain her powers, and when Krystal came under my care, I tried to help her as well."
Her eyes darkened, and she began to glare at him. "But you made it difficult. You have to deal with so much less trauma than she does, yet you still let it control you. You are to blame for what happened to Krystal; you made her dwell on her past, dredging it up again while she tried to forget it; you reawakened her suppressed memories, and you encouraged her to use her powers. Because of your recklessness and your selfishness, because you lead her away from my teachings, it may be too late for Krystal – just like it was too late for your mother."
Fox stepped back in shock, the sand giving way beneath his heel. "No…" He shook his head in disbelief. "No, it couldn't have been me. I did nothing wrong! I gave her all the comfort I could in the short time we had together. It's your fault! Your philosophy is all wrong! Rather than finding healthy ways of blowing off steam, you forced her to bottle all her emotions inside! You said the shadow was all the negative aspects of ourselves we try to hide, right? Well that shadow wouldn't exist at all if you hadn't forced her to hide them! Now you made her push those parts of herself so far away they turned into something else entirely, and now I don't recognize her anymore!"
The lines in Namah's face creased, and the more he made accusations against her the more she sneered at him.
"You silly child; you know nothing of how people think, much less a species so different than your own. That is easy for you to say – one who has never faced such trauma nor had to deal with such dangerous powers. You are nothing but a youngling, lost in a world you don't understand. We have lived with the Curse for many years. It is folly to think someone like you knows more of it than we do."
"No, maybe not…" Fox acquiesced, "but I know Krystal better than you, and this isn't her."
Namah folded her arms, trying to soothe the anger on her face and slip back behind her mask of neutrality. "We shall discuss this no longer. You will not be allowed to leave the village for a week's time, at which point you may choose to stay here or leave Cerinia altogether. But I will not permit you to chase after Krystal to die or risk revealing the valley's location to another Cerinian."
Fox clenched his fists and barred his fangs at her. Now more than ever he wanted to rush at her. He wanted to beat her face in, strangle her neck, and tear her silly robes to pieces – and he'd fight his way through every warrior and elder that tried to stop him. Why, if he was psychic, he would…he would…
Fox blinked, only now noticing how fast his heart was banging in his ribcage. His fists loosened and unclenched, and he let his fingers hang at his sides. The desire was in him; he couldn't deny that. The only thing keeping him from acting on it was his lack of power. Maybe if he was psychic, the situation would have turned out much uglier.
His ears flattened against his skull, and he turned his back on Namah. Without saying a word he stormed away, leaving the group of Cerinians to stand on the dune as he headed back towards the village.
Maybe, if he couldn't go after Krystal now, he could find more answers in the village – answers about his mother, and the truth Namah was still hiding about Altaira Valley. He always sensed she was keeping something from him and the other Cerinians, but if she wasn't going to tell him, he'd have to find out for himself.
X
In the desert outside the valley, Krystal walked head-on into the storm. The winds blasted coarse sand against her from all sides, as if grating her arms and legs with boards of splintered wood. The afternoon sun dyed the sandstorm a wash of gold and purples, but the density of the grains made it impossible for her to see more than a few feet in front of her – and even then the sandy landscape kept disappearing around her feet, blowing away in the fierce wind. The grains stung her eyes, and she had to squint, shielding most of her face with the sleeve of her gown.
She tried her best to move away from the village, following the direction of the setting sun, but it was difficult to even walk in a straight line. The powerful winds buffeted her around mercilessly, first one direction, then the next, just as the emotions raging inside of her battered her soul.
Already feeling tired, she slowed to a stop and turned back, allowing herself one last look at the fading valley. The mountains loomed like dark, pyramidal shadows in the distance, their forms barely visible through the thick cloud of dust. Compared to the wide-open wastes, the valley had seemed so safe – but of course she brought her own curse along with her wherever she went, meaning no place was truly safe with her in it.
Forlorn, she began to turn her back again, but something on the ground caught her eye – something that hadn't been there when she first passed it.
They were prints, but not her own; the impressions of her sand-caked sandals were small in comparison. This new set of tracks seemed a dozen times larger, and were unshod. They could barely be referred to as prints, even; they looked more like scars torn by claws through the soft sand.
Realizing what they belonged to, Krystal's heart began pounding in her chest. It had to be nearby if she could see its tracks. Frantically she followed them, expecting to see them curve off into the storm…but they lead all the way up to her. She stumbled back, glancing around for any sign of the monster. But when she checked the tracks again she found they continued on in a straight line, disappearing in the direction she had been walking.
But now a shadow fell over her. She looked up, finding a dark shape looming in front of her. Its hulking form blotted out the sun, but the rays of fading gold silhouetted its outline against the swirling sand. Slowly the storm pulled back. Its arms, limbs, and spikes began to protrude from the blanket of dust, as if tearing through a curtain raked over them.
Finally the storm parted around the two figures and held its distance, as if a protective bubble had surrounded them. The monster revealed itself in all its layers of horror.
It was a clusterfuck of near indiscernible features, welded together with no rhyme or reason. What seemed like dozens of arms hung down in a labyrinthine tangle, some clawing the sand with dagger-like nails, while other pathetically-short ones could barely escape the forest of their brethren to see the light of day. Ridges ran alongside its limbs; crests of gleaming scalpels, cruel hypodermic needles, and pairs of scissors with hungry, gaping blades. Hundreds of bug-like eyes peered out from between the crooks and armpits, each one staring unblinkingly at her. They watched her every move, scrutinizing her every detail so callously.
…And yet, under the spiderlike bolus of grasping, spindly appendages, an eerily-vulpine shape seemed to be holding it up; like Atlas keeping the world aloft on his back. Most of the creature was charcoal-black, but the lower half showed hints of a dull cobalt. It skulked on two thick legs, long, knife-blade toes digging into the sand to support its weight. Its spine was bent and malformed under the crushing weight, but many of the spider-portion's arms were hooked into its chest and back, hanging on like a parasite. She hadn't even noticed the lower figure before now. Its head was so low down their joint torso she didn't think it was a head at all. Most of its face was hidden from her by long, tangled locks of hair, but its mangled, pointed ears and scarred snout protruded forth from the curtains, and she could clearly see its long teeth gnashing sardonically at her.
So this was the being that attacked the Kaitaki at the valley entrance. It was a good thing they couldn't see it, or its sight alone would haunt their nightmares for the rest of their lives.
Krystal swallowed. Being unable to see it for song long made the monster horrible on its own; she thought her mind had filled in the gaps to make it more frightening than it could possibly be in reality. But now that she faced it in the flesh she realized her wild imaginations had fallen far short. It was even more terrifying now that she could see it, and knew exactly what it was.
But the worst part was she recognized it. Every claw, every spike, every eye and every tuft of fur. It wasn't horrifying because it was so different; it was horrifying because it was so familiar.
Still, she stood her ground. She had come this far to lead it away from the village, and the people she loved. She intended to face it right here and now. She'd been waiting for this moment. So she planted her feet in the sand, not planning to back down. One way or another, she would destroy it. Tearing it apart would be a good place to start.
Tentatively she reached out with the fingers of her thoughts. She wanted to grip the monster and rip it limb-from-limb. But her mind recoiled as soon as she touched it. There was nowhere safe to grab. Every inch was covered in needles, spikes, and scalpel-like blades, each one representing a painful memory that had cut her in the past, and was ready to slice the wound open again.
Withdrawing her thoughts into the safety of her head, she held out her hands, deciding to attack it indirectly. She lifted clumps of sand into the air, leaving crater-sized holes in the ground between them. She concentrated, heating the grains until they glowed white-hot. After a time they melted together into a blinding, magma-like liquid. At this point she flung the clumps at the monster, then waited to see their effect.
The burning liquid splashed over the creature like a wave over a rock. The air above it wavered, distorted from heat, and the burning caused a crackling noise. Yet when the bright liquid ran off and spilled back onto the sand, the monster beneath was left untouched.
Incensed, Krystal raised more piles of sand and flash-heated them. She didn't wait to turn them into magma, but fired the sizzling grains straight at the monster like shrapnel. She hoped she could penetrate whatever eldritch material it was made out of, but it was no use. She heated and flung more and more of the desert at the creature, but her efforts were fruitless. If anything, the monster seemed to grow the more energy she expended on it, and the more desperate she became.
Up until now the beast had just stood there, tolerating her assault as it fixed her with its many eyes. Now that she had exhausted her attack, and it made its statement of indestructability, it began lumbering toward her.
Eyes widening, Krystal stumbled back, giving ground for the first time. She retreated to a safer distance, than turned. She tried to buffet the monster with a wind of her own, but it did nothing to slow its progress; no force of hers could stop it, unless she risked touching it with her mind and exerting her power over it directly. If she didn't move now, it would run her down and gore her where she stood…
Turning, Krystal fled. She didn't pay attention to where she ran; she just knew she had to get away from it. She'd run for the rest of her life if she had to, staying on the move and finding safe places to hide, until she could figure out how to defeat it once and for all.
Fear was overpowering her, shooting adrenaline through her veins. It made her legs scramble across the sand and her heart beat at an even faster pace. As she looked down around her, she realized she was destroying the landscape once again. Her feet burned through her sandals and melted the sand beneath her heels, turning the impressions to footprints of glass. Cacti shriveled up, desert flowers wilted, and dried grass burst into flames. Insects and serpents crawled out of the ground around her thudding feet, where they writhed in pain till they moved no more. It reminded her that she was the only danger here, but she couldn't forget the monster close on her heels; its bounding shadow seemed to grow larger around her, stretching farther and farther over the sandy path ahead and swallowing hers up, though whether it was the monster feeding off her fear or merely a trick of the setting sun, she could not tell.
Krystal lost track of how far she ran, and for how long. Every step she took sent her deeper into hysteria. The barren desert landscape had no discernible features, merely a sea of ups and downs as each dune increased her nausea. The winds swept her to-and-fro, gusts of dust and sand sending her down a spiral of delirium. She couldn't tell which way was north, south, east, or west anymore, and as she fell and tumbled down the side of each dune, she began losing track of which way was up.
Finally her psychotic sprint brought her to a river; the surface frothed with mud and sickly-brown bubbles from the sandstorm, but she ran straight through it. She slipped at one point and fell, soaking her clothes and covering herself in more dirt, but within seconds she was up and running again.
The sandstorm seemed to fail as it buffeted the sides of the slope on the shore opposite her, allowing Krystal a clearer view. She looked up and down the bank, her eyes happening to land upon a small cave opening in the mountainside.
At once she dove into it, taking refuge in the darkness. Her foot slipped in an outflow of water she didn't expect, and she fell and skinned her knees. She sat in the stream pouring out of the cave, regaining her breath for a moment; her desperate gasps echoing in the enclosed hallow. She twisted round, looking at the bright circle of the entrance. Outside the wind howled over the doorway, but failed to blow any grains of sand inside; for now the cave protected her from the storm. She could see the swirling eddies billowing outside, continuing to discolor the river, but at least there was no sign of the monster.
Struggling to her feet, she began climbing deeper into the cave, following the source of the water upwards. For the moment she felt safe; the entrance was much too small for the beast to fit through and pursue her.
…But when she disappeared far up the passage, a shadow fell over the circle of light escaping through the door, completely blotting it out. Razor-like claws hooked into the inside of the walls, and a hunched figure squeezed in after her.
X
When Fox returned he found the village in disarray. Cerinians wounded by Krystal's outburst were still receiving treatment, Kaitaki were on high alert, and villagers whispered amongst themselves darkly. Many of the other warriors and Kaumatua had gone with Namah to ensure Krystal left the valley safely. Because of this, Fox found it easy to slip through the village and the Hall of the Matrons undetected. In a few minutes he reached the Garden of Tears, the Cerinian burial ground. At the far back, right at the base of a steep cliff, he found his mother's statue waiting.
Once again he knelt down in front of it, grieving. When Namah had first told him the story of his mother's death, he didn't believe it. Now more than ever he understood why she had to take her own life. But why did it always have to be this way? Everyone he loved had to die because fate demanded it. His father died chasing after Andross, alone and surrounded by enemies. His mother died on some alien planet, far away from her son and husband. And now the girl he had fought so hard to protect had been taken away from him as well, by some cruel twist of fate. Since the moment he was born it felt like the universe conspired to fuck him over every way it could. What good was saving the world if you had no one in it you still loved?
He fought hard to keep the tears from springing to his eyes, and he pushed the lump forming in his throat down. With no one else to turn to, he bowed his head and spoke aloud.
"Hey Mom, it's me again. Been a while since we last talked – or at least, I talked. I really wish I could hear your voice again, even if…even if it was just in my head."
He shifted on his knees. "Last time I came to you, I was so lost. I was doing things for reasons even I didn't understand. Everything I did felt wrong. I didn't have any purpose or direction. I didn't know what to do. I was at the end of my rope…
"Then, when I was at my lowest, I found someone else right next to me. I found a purpose again: a reason to live. I got my life back in order. I started caring. I started working on myself as a person.
"But now all that's fallen apart. I lost that purpose I just had. I'm back to where I started, the same place I came to you a month ago, and the worst part is, I think it may be my fault. Somehow, I managed to fuck things up again."
He sighed deeply, ashamed to admit the next part to her.
"I feel like our family is cursed. There's something wrong with the name "McCloud". I wish I could break free from it. I don't want to be Fox anymore; not when everyone in our family ended up this way. I want to leave it behind and become someone else. Maybe I can return to Lylat and give myself up, accepting whatever prison sentence they have waiting for me. I deserve it. Or I could become an outlaw, hiding on the fringes of the system under a fake identity. Part of me wants to go back, but I know they won't have me. I squandered any good will they still had towards me.
"Maybe I'm finished with Lylat. Maybe I remain on Cerinia for the rest of my life, standing by my choices. I could stay here in the village, protecting this one last garden of life in a wasteland of ash and sand, hoping to one day be recognized as an honorary warrior…
"And yet, I don't feel much like a Cerinian, either. This feels so fake, like playing dress-up; I don't belong in these robes, or these tattoos, or this stupid hairdo. I only did it to fit in, and this act is quickly coming unraveled. Without Krystal, there isn't a point. It's not like the people here will ever accept me, either.
"I don't belong in Lylat, and I don't belong on Cerinia. I feel caught between them; a bastard of both and a child of neither. I have nowhere to go, nothing left. I'm coming to you now because I need your guidance again. Please, tell me what to do. Where do I go from here? How do I fix this…?"
He trailed off, unable to come up with anything else to say. He'd said his peace. He could only wait.
The silence of the garden met him at first. But when he listened patiently, it did answer him: slowly he heard running water from the springs and fountains, the leaves rustling in the cold wind, the branches creaking as they bowed, and the calls of insects feeling safe in his silence. If he listened close enough, he could even hear the sound of falling blossoms as they landed on the grass.
Then, when he'd nearly given up, a whisper tickled his thoughts. It didn't seem to be from anyone in particular, just an ambiance of…life.
Looking around he saw no one. He was beginning to worry it was the spirit of the dead Cerinians contacting him. It was…thoughts, but without message or language.
Concentrating, he zeroed in on the source. It was hard to tell, but it seemed to come from the direction of his mother's statue.
Curious, and getting his hopes up, he approached. He stopped, bringing his head level with hers – but the buzzing originated from somewhere behind the statue, to his disappointment.
Moving on, he came across the broad, circular stone object that lay against the near-vertical cliff face. He planted his ear against it, listening. The stone felt cold against his ear – colder than it should have been in the muggy valley. Unless it had something cooling it from the other side…
"Fox?"
Startled, he pushed off the stone and looked back. Standing at the clearing's entrance was another Cerinian; one with wine-red fur and the two-pieced silk raiment of a blacksmith. It was his sparring partner and personal trainer.
"Kaia?" he answered. "What are you doing here?"
The vixen stepped forward sheepishly, rubbing one of her arms and glancing around – anywhere but Fox. Usually she was so confident and encouraging around him when it came to their routine, but right now she seemed out of her element.
"Fox, I…I heard what happened with Krystal. I just wanted to say…I'm sorry."
Fox looked away as well, unable to look her in the eye either. He certainly hoped she hadn't been there long enough to hear him talking to…himself.
"If there's anything I could do to help, just let me know. I don't really have any important tasks right now, so if you wanted to…get your mind off things, we could. If you want to spar or work out, or…or even just talk, I'll be there for you."
When he didn't respond she became afraid she'd just made things worse. "But if you want some time to grieve and be alone with your feelings, I understand too. I don't want to rush you or force you into something when you don't feel like doing it."
Finally he looked back at her. "Thanks Kaia, I appreciate it. I just…I don't know what to do right now. I want to go after Krystal, but she could hurt me – or even kill me. And even if I made up my mind to, Namah and her little cabal wouldn't let me. I just feel so powerless."
She nodded, keeping her head lowered. "I understand. I feel that way too sometimes, when I think about being rejected by the Kaitaki. It helps to do things with my hands and remind myself that I am powerful in other ways. You're powerful, too. You've learned a lot since we started training, and you've grown strong. I've seen how hard you've worked to improve yourself to please Krystal. I confess I don't really understand love, but to me, that's what love is. If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it's right for the elders to keep you separated like this."
The large woman stood there awkwardly, shuffling on her feet. She didn't know how to respond, but even her mere presence – and the fact that she cared to talk to Fox at all – made him feel grateful. It was more than nearly anyone else in the village would do for him.
"So…what are you doing here? Why are you standing in front of that stone?"
Fox turned and looked up it again. "Oh, I…I just came here to be alone, but…I thought I heard something behind it. I don't mean a sound, though. It was more like a thought without any words. A feeling that something was behind it."
Kaia raised an eyebrow. "A feeling? You know, for being a Lylatian without the Curse, you sure are receptive to thoughts."
He shrugged. "I guess it's just from being around Krystal and all of you so much – or maybe it's just from being on this planet."
Kaia hiked up into the garden, joining him on the terrace beside the stone. She placed her palms against it, feeling and pushing slightly. Then she went silent, listening.
"It's not just you…" she murmured. "I hear them too."
"What do you know about this stone?" he asked.
"I think the Kaitaki put it here, at the behest of the elders. Only the warriors have the strength to move it, and even then it has to be done with their minds. No one else in the village can move it alone – not that they'd ever defy the elders and try."
Fox glanced around the garden, looking for something. "I can't explain why, but…I feel like there's something behind that stone. Whatever it is it's driving me crazy!"
Eventually his eyes landed on a fallen branch – one that hadn't been cleaned up from a recent storm. He grabbed it and returned to the stone, wedging it between the base and a rock.
"Here, help me!"
Kaia blinked. "Wha-what?"
"If you want to see what they're hiding from you and the rest of the village, give me a hand! I can't do this on my own. Physically we're the two strongest people in the valley. One Kaitaki might be able to do this with a single thought, but it'll take all we have!"
Kaia hesitated, watching as Fox threw all his strength against the makeshift lever. She felt caught between obeying the Kaumatua and helping her friend in need. But Fox had successfully planted the idea that the psychic Cerinians were intentionally keeping something from her, and that ignited her resentment.
Giving in, she joined Fox on the other side of the branch and pressed down on it with him. It was no easy task; their muscles flexed and their limbs trembled. They gritted their teeth and pushed on the branch as hard as they could. Just when the wood seemed about to snap, the stone shifted from its resting place. Doubling down, they threw themselves at the task even harder. Their work eventually paid off, as the lid rolled a foot to the side.
At that point all of the foxes' limbs gave out at once, and they fell in a heap. They quickly extricated themselves from one another and sat up, gasping for breath. Fox's hands were raw from grasping the branch so firmly, and his arms felt heavy and tired, but it was worth it. They looked up, admiring their handiwork.
So it was a door after all; a seal meant to block off a cave in the cliff face. They had only displaced the lid by a foot or so, but it looked wide enough to wiggle through.
Fox turned to look at Kaia. "I guess all that training was worth it, huh?"
She stood and gave him a hand up. "Glad I could help you defeat a rock."
The todd went first, sucking in his gut and squeezing through the newly-created gap in the rocks. Kaia followed close on his heels, though she felt a little more reluctant than he. The cave's interior was nearly pitch-black, besides the crescent sliver of light escaping in through the entrance. It lit the sides of charcoal-colored walls, glistening with water. It certainly was moist for a cave that spent most of its time sealed off from the outside…
As they travelled farther in, they felt themselves gradually moving downwards. Leaving the light of the sun behind, they entered a portion of the cave that was black as tar. They couldn't see the ground beneath their feet anymore, much less each other. Walking blind now, the pair had to feel their way along the slimy cave walls, which doubled as support to supplement their unsure feet.
"Really wish I brought my flashlight," Fox muttered, his voice echoing in the cramped passage.
"Quiha?" Kaia asked.
He waved his hand even though neither of them could see it. "It's like an electric torch. Electricity meaning – aw forget it."
They continued on for some time in darkness, occasionally stubbing their feet on rocks or slipping on smooth, wet stones. But as long as they stayed together both had the courage to continue.
After a time Fox noticed a strange glow coming from up ahead: a dim amethyst light painting the walls. Descending farther, he noticed purple fungi growing in the nooks and crannies – the same kind that grew along the edges of Altaira Valley's creek. Here they were much more abundant and grew to larger sizes; their caps and stems seemed to glow even brighter, though that may only have been because they didn't have to compete with the outside stars.
Fox's foot unexpectedly stepped in a pool of water, and he hastily pulled it back out.
"What's wrong?" Kaia asked.
"There's water at the bottom of the cave – I just stopped because I was surprised is all. It's probably safe?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"
"Yeah…"
Fox put his foot back into the water. He watched as ripples catching the purple light expanded outward, revealing half the mushrooms to be merely reflections on the surface. The liquid was warm against his skin, as if it had come up from some subterranean, thermal spring. It felt nice, though it reminded him of the cooling lake he used to play in as a child; one used for a local nuclear power plant.
Deciding he wasn't scared of a little warm water, he waded in. At first it only came up to his ankles, but the farther he went the higher it rose, till it passed his shins. Kaia was right behind him; he could hear her sloshing through the water in his wake.
Finally the passage opened into a wide cave roughly the size of the house. The water filled most of the floor, now coming up to their knees. It was much warmer, too, feeling pleasantly like a hot spring. He shouldn't be surprised; he knew there were such springs within the northern mountains.
At the far side of the room was the largest cluster of mushrooms yet. They grew even taller than Fox, with thick stalks surrounded by terraces of smaller fungi all the way down to the water. Their stringy, mycelial roots wavered beneath the surface of the spring. But what captivated the foxes' attentions most was the display at the center, brightly illuminated in their purple aura.
It was a shrine; one carved from the same black stone as the rest of the cave. At the center stood a carving or sculpture of a mandala – the kind Krystal and other Cerinians drew to help in meditation, and the kind he had tattooed on his back. At its base, submerged halfway in the water, sat a perfectly-round, polished black sphere – one so large the two of them would struggle to put their arms around.
But since it had no discernable features on the outside, his attention shifted back to the shrine above it. It was as intricate as the finest mandalas, with the purple light glinting off the many curved surfaces and sculptured edges. But the shape was…odd, to say the least. It wasn't a circle like most mandalas, but more ovular, made from two distinct lobes or halves on either side.
Curious about the display, he drew closer. He placed a hand on the side of the sphere, and another on the stalk of a mushroom, giving himself a grip to climb up with. In truth he was loathe to touch either of the strange objects, but his curiosity about the shrine outweighed his misgivings. Once he'd lifted himself up high enough, he peered closer through the dark at it.
"Fox, I don't think you should…" Kaia trailed off. She waited further back, not wanting to go anywhere near the strange relics.
Fox squinted at the shrine, beginning to make out individual forms. He could see them clearly now. They were tiny likenesses of people: Cerinians. They twisted and contorted in different poses, some reminiscent of the meditation stretches Krystal had showed him. The Cerinian figurines were attached end-to end, limb-to-limb, like giant chains of people. They formed the intricate lines making up the mandala so seamlessly they'd be impossible to make out from far away. Only now did he realize the overall shape wasn't a botched attempt at a circle, but was intentional; the lines formed the outline of a brain, with the labyrinthine Cerinians creating a network of what looked like neurons.
"What do you see?" Kaia asked.
"It's…a brain…" Fox murmured. "I don't know what it means-"
"FOX!"
The todd jumped, nearly losing his grip on the sphere's slippery surface – if it wasn't for his foothold on the mushroom, he would have slid right off into the water.
Twisting around, he saw Mother Namah standing at the edge of the room, the hem of her robe carefully lifted away from the water.
"M-Mother Namah!" Kaia exclaimed. She clasped her hands and bowed in shame, avoiding her glare. "I'm sorry, I-"
"My child…I am disheartened you would defy your elders and lead a rāgata someplace he doesn't belong!"
"And you shouldn't hide secrets from your own people!" Fox pushed back, interceding on Kaia's behalf. "Why did you seal this place off from the rest of the village? What don't you want them to know? And what does my mother have to do with this?"
Namah bit her tongue for a second, deciding how best to respond. Eventually she looked back at the blacksmith.
"Leave us."
The vixen's head hung. "I'm sorry Fox, this was a mistake," she said to him only.
"Not at all," he thought back. "You're helping me get the answers I've always wanted. I should be sorry for getting you in trouble."
"In that case, I hope it wasn't a waste…"
She waded through the water past Namah, her ears flattened in shame. Once the sound of her footsteps faded up the passage, there was no one else in the chamber besides them. No fellow warriors, elders, or villagers; just the two foxes, face-to-face again.
"Only a few elders know the truth: those who were involved in the Cerinia Project like myself, and those I deemed necessary to tell." She spread her arms wide, gesturing to the cave around them. "This is the Fountain of Life. It's a spring dedicated to the ancient Cerinian deity after which this star system is named: Lilith. It is the source of most life-giving waters this side of the planet, fueling rivers and streams far outside Altaira Valley not only with its springs, but with the waters that run off the mountains from our many storms."
"What's this shrine-looking thing, then?" Fox asked. "And what's this…sphere?"
"The sphere is…not of this world," she began with difficulty. "It did not originate from this planet, nor even from anywhere else in the Lilith System. It came from without."
"…From Lylat?" Fox guessed.
"Quite possible, but given there are trillions of stars visible to us, it could have come from any one of them. We simply don't have the answers, only educated guesses at the riddles we were presented."
"Who's 'we'? You and the other Kaumatua? Or the scientists before the Anomie?"
"According to the staff working on Corneria's Cerinia project," she clarified. "As a mere test subject I wasn't told anything. I simply came in every week for them to monitor my progress. What I learned I overheard during my visits, or your mother told me afterwards. The scientists – Vixy, Andross, and the other Lylatians – they thought it was a vessel of some sort; perhaps a probe, but it seemed to have a grander purpose than merely exploration. We think it's one of many sent to planets around the galaxy; planets suspected of harboring intelligent life. It specifically sought out this spring in Altaira Valley knowing that, once macro-organisms evolved, they would come here for water. Whoever or whatever sent it needed to ensure it would be found by intelligent life – by us.
"You may have noticed it has no discernible features on the exterior. As far as we could tell, it has none on the inside, either. They tried X-raying it, and the Kaitaki have tried sensing the interior with their minds, but the shell keeps its contents hidden. Nonetheless, over time it dispenses a substance called krystal lysergic acid: the chemical that produces these mushrooms, and more importantly accelerated the evolutionary process of Cerinian's psychic powers. By distributing it into the waters our species drinks around the world, it ensures we receive constant doses."
"You mean…the pod thing was sent here to make the Cerinian race psychic? But why? What's the purpose?"
"The purpose is to give birth to Lilith."
He raised an eyebrow. "Give…birth?"
Namah pointed at the sphere. "That vessel contains the seed: the krystal lysergic acid. The Cerinian race, to put it bluntly, is the egg. Together we were meant to spawn a new organism of a higher order than our own; a superorganism, if you will. Our species shares a common soul, called the mauri. But it's more than a lifeforce; it's all of our combined souls, memories, experiences, feelings, senses, desires, and dreams working in tandem. It possesses a higher identity than all of us, an intelligence separate to ours, and above it. Its name is Lilith.
"When Cornerian scientists came to Cerinia to study our species, we brought them to the source of the KLA. They learned its intended purpose and eagerly studied its effects among our species, though they chose some subjects like myself to speed up the process in. The vessel dispenses the seed at a gradual pace, slowly evolving the host species so they can learn to cope with their psychic powers over generations of time. But Dr. Andross was too impatient. He wanted to see a fully-psychic race in his lifetime, and usher in the superorganism himself. Without authorization he secretly ordered thousands of barrels of KLA created and dumped into these springs, which spread through the water supply to be consumed by Cerinians in this hemisphere. This, as you know, is what caused the Cerinian apocalypse."
Fox blinked; it was admittedly a lot to take in at once, but it sounded accurate.
"Back when Andross was exiled," he interrupted, "he experimented on lifeforms, sometimes creating his own. I wouldn't be surprised if he intended to weaponize this 'superorganism' in some way."
"He certainly could've tried," Namah scoffed, "but it would be folly on his part. Lilith cannot be controlled by one individual, nor even comprehended. Each Cerinian is to Lilith as a single neuron is to your brain. An intelligence running on a network of Cerinians would have all the knowledge of our entire species at their disposal, not to mention the thought-processing power of millions of individuals. But it would still need a host; a vessel to carry it; a single Cerinian to act as the locus, focusing her stimuli in a nucleus at the heart of the species. That Cerinian would have to be powerful beyond imagination to act as such a nucleus worthy of Lilith."
Fox's eyes widened. "Is that what's happening to Krystal? Is that what happened to my mother, even though she was Lylatian?"
Namah looked away. "Yes. When exposed to enough KLA, and used as the core of a satellite even for a few moments, your mother became nearly as powerful as Krystal is now."
Fox shook his head in disbelief. "This superorganism…is it malevolent? What would it have done to my mother? What could it do to Krystal if it…chooses her as its host?"
"I have the feeling that, if Lilith were born now, she would be a pained and tormented creature. The Cerinians she would be made of are troubled, angry, sad, and scared. We want revenge, though we do not know where to direct it. If all of her cells are crying out, I am sure Lilith would reflect their pain.
"To a certain extent, Lilith already exists in all of us. If we listen quietly to our hearts, we can feel the pain shared by the one Cerinian soul inside. But Lilith lies sleeping, dormant until one powerful enough can activate the network. It very nearly happened with Vixy; her time spent in the satellite, and her concentrated dose of KLA accelerated her psychic awakening even further than most Cerinians. Her powers continued to grow and take her over. Like Krystal, she faced her own monster in solitude; a representation of her own suffering. Her anger and stress and worries unleashed her newfound powers in ways she couldn't control. She entered this cave, and for a dangerous few moments became the locus for Lilith. Your mother shouldered the burdens of every Cerinian, connecting us together for a short time. But rather than let Lilith take over and feed off her pain, Vixy used her power to turn herself to stone, ensuring that would never happen.
"It was an honorable sacrifice, and for an instant, every Cerinian who connected to her felt a fraction of her selfless love." Namah smiled sadly at Fox. "If Lilith had been awoken then, she would be a cruel and merciless tyrant, even in her infancy. But if every Cerinian were as good and as pure as your mother, I think Lilith would be the same. But Cerinia is not ready for her."
Fox shook his head again. "No, that's not possible; my mother was always so happy around me and my father. She'd never let grief take her over like that; she was too kind, too…strong."
Namah nodded in a placating fashion. "True, she was strong. Perhaps the strongest person I ever knew. But everyone has things that make them suffer in life. No one's life is perfect, even those who seem to have everything together. You must understand, your mother felt immense guilt for her involvement in the Cerinia project. Moreover, she was cut off from her friends, her mate, and her son."
Fox released a broken sigh. He hated to think his mother's final hours were spent with so much strife. But that was in the past; the same events could be happening all over again.
"And Krystal…will the same thing happen to her?"
"It very well could. Her powers have awakened to a level more advanced than your mother's, or even mine, though she possesses no control over them. They may consume her, but whether or not she becomes a host for Lilith? Who can say. Unlike Vixy, she was never used in a Bolse core, so her full potential remains untapped and undrawn upon."
Fox swallowed. He knew Krystal was special to the Cornerians, but he never knew the full extent of her importance.
"Do you think Corneria wants to wake Lilith up?" he posited, afraid of her answer.
Namah opened her mouth to speak, but a splash sounded at the far end of the room. Turning, they saw a Kaitaki messenger had waded into the pool after them.
"Matae Namah, te rāgatas ko tomo te vinga!" she informed her.
"Quiha?!"
They continued conversing in Cerinian, excluding Fox for the moment. He swiveled his head helplessly between the two women, unable to understand their words – but their agitated tones alone made him feel anxious.
Finally the Kaitaki bowed, then hurried back up the passage.
"What's the matter?" Fox asked worriedly. "What's going on?"
Namah turned back to him, stone-faced. "We may find out the answer to your question very soon. It's your friends, the Cornerians.
"They found the valley."
X
A/N: Um, finally?
If all goes according to plan, Act II will conclude in three more chapters, ending with #50.