The night was quiet, save for the lapping of the waves against their boat. Even Marine's chatter had died off as her earlier energy waned. Now she was slumped against Blaze, her eyelids drooping, though she kept startling upright and shaking herself in a valiant effort to stay awake. They were still heading east, driven by a warm wind. The longer they sailed, the more threatening the red glow on the horizon looked to Blaze. So instead she kept her eyes on the stars above or the sea below, only looking ahead occasionally to check they were heading in the right direction.
Next to Blaze, on the opposite side from Marine, Black leaned over the edge of the boat, staring at the water with quiet fascination. Blaze shifted to watch as he tugged off his glove and leaned forward to dip his hand in the water. He jumped slightly at the cold, then dipped his hand in again.
He murmured something in a language that sounded familiar. She perked her ears. It was… Mandarin, wasn't it? Jian and her siblings spoke it, learned from their father. She cast her mind back to the lessons her cousin had given her. Blaze admittedly hadn't expended as much energy learning Mandarin as she had Arabic and English, since Mandarin wasn't widely spoken in the Sol Empire, but she'd always had a fascination with languages and, according to Aurora, a natural knack for learning them.
"{What did you say?}" she asked, careful to get the pronunciation right.
Black looked up at her in surprise. "{You speak Mandarin?}"
"{I know a little. My cousin taught me.}" Blaze nodded at his markings. "{You're green.}"
Black looked curiously at his hand, then shrugged and dipped it back in the water again. "{It feels nice.}"
As he trailed his fingers in the sea, all his markings glowed a steady emerald, the same color as his eyes. The moon mark on his hand cast the water in a cool greenish light. A few colorful fish swam up to nibble curiously at his fingers, and he smiled. Blaze smiled, too, leaning forward to look down into the sea. Marine stirred at the movement and rubbed her eyes, peering blearily at them both.
"What's goin' on?" she mumbled in English. "What are you two talking about?" She leaned forward to look into the ocean. "What's that, down there?"
Blaze frowned and leaned forward to see what she was looking at. Her eyes widened as she saw a distant purple glow far below in the ocean's depths. Black startled and drew his hand from the water. The glow faded.
"What was that?" he asked in English. Now Blaze knew he spoke Mandarin, she understood why his accent was familiar. It was similar to her uncle's, though not exactly the same. It made her wonder again where Black had come from.
"Lunaris's lights," Blaze murmured, looking down at the water. She couldn't see any trace of the purple glow. Black looked at her in confusion, and Blaze clarified, "It's a rare phenomenon, usually only talked about in sailors' stories. I've only seen them twice before. Once, when I was a child, I went swimming alone at night and was swept away by a current. I might have never made it home, but the lights appeared and showed me the way back."
"What are they?" Black asked.
Marine gasped excitedly. "Tell us the story, Blaze!"
"I suppose we have nothing better to do," Blaze agreed.
Marine squealed happily and wriggled into Blaze's lap. Blaze started gently untangling her hair—loose from its usual pigtails—as she tried to remember the story as her mother and Ebony had told it to her long ago. She smiled faintly as she remembered the two sisters alternating who told what bits, interrupting each other constantly and punching each other in the arm whenever one of them got something wrong. Blaze had sat in her mother's lap, staring up at her and Ebony with wide eyes. That was only the first time she heard the story; after that, she too would break in with interjections and corrections, much to her mother's frustration and Ebony's amusement.
"Blaze?" Marine prompted, twisting in her lap to look up at her expectantly. Blaze shook herself from the memories and started speaking.
"Long ago," she began, remembering the way her mother would say it, making her voice sound old and ancient, like the sea itself was speaking through her. The words sounded different in English, but maybe that wasn't a bad thing. "Lunaris, the moon, and Solaris, the sun, were equals. They divided the sky between themselves: Solaris had the day, and Lunaris, the night. For times, times, and half a time, this was the way the world was. Together they watched over the people of the ground, guiding them and protecting them. And the world was in balance."
Black was still looking at the ocean, but his ears were swiveled towards her attentively. Marine listened to the story with wide, enraptured eyes, even though Blaze knew she'd heard it many times before.
"That is not to say Lunaris and Solaris were at peace with each other," Blaze continued. "They fought often, as siblings are wont to do."
"What does 'wont' mean?" Marine interrupted.
"It means customary. Like a normal way of doing things," Blaze explained. "Siblings normally fight." Black nodded at that; had he had siblings, back wherever he came from? "But most siblings are mortals, and their fighting is not likely to endanger the entire world."
"Uh oh," Marine mumbled, and Blaze gave her a warning look. She sheepishly ducked her head. "Sorry. I won't interrupt."
"I'm sure," Blaze said drily. "Lunaris and Solaris fought often. Each wanted to have more of the sky to themselves, and so they battled for more space. Each was always looking for an advantage over the other, but for a long time they were evenly matched, so their fights always ended without any true victor. Sometimes Lunaris would seem to gain the advantage, and the night would creep into the day. But then Solaris would press back, and the day would grow long again. They fought on and on this way, pushing and pulling against each other like the tides. The cycle may have continued forever… if not for the visitor."
"The Phoenix," Marine whispered, wriggling excitedly.
Blaze nodded. "You see, mortals were not unaware of the struggle between Solaris and Lunaris. The wise knew that balance must be had, but some foolishly believed it would be better if the world was in eternal day, without the darkness of night. This hardly mattered, since no creature could reach the heights of the celestials to interfere with their battle. No creature… except one."
Black was looking at her now, leaning forward with interest, while Marine wriggled in anticipation.
"Lunaris and Solaris were not the only celestials. The stars, too, watched over our world, though only from afar, never interfering. But one star spirit was not content to just watch. It saw the lives of the mortals, unbound to distant orbits, free to live and work and play in their world, and it longed to be one of them." Blaze looked up at the stars overhead. This was always the part of the story that had drawn her most: a powerful but lonely child, kept away from the world, wishing for nothing more than to be like everyone else. She went on, voice soft and solemn. "The star child broke away from the rest of its kind, ignoring their warnings, and came to the world of the mortals in a fiery comet. It walked among them, listened to them, and heard their wishes for eternal day. The star child heard, and it thought to give the mortals a gift."
"Don't do it," Marine whispered, pressing her knuckles to her mouth worriedly as if she didn't already have this story memorized.
"The star child visited Lunaris first. Because Lunaris and Solaris were always fighting, they seldom got to visit with other celestials, and Lunaris, despite her wariness, was soon charmed by her new conversation partner. But the star child betrayed her." Black's ears flattened at this, and he glanced down at the ocean. Blaze went on. "The star spirit stole a piece of Lunaris's strength while she was sleeping and brought it to Solaris.
"'Your sister is weak now,' the star child said. 'You can defeat her, and give the mortals eternal day.'
"'I want nothing more,' Solaris said. 'But I cannot enter the realm of night, and if I wait till dawn, my sister will rouse and flee.'
"'Then let me go for you,' the foolish star child said. 'I am a star. The boundaries of day and night do not hold me.'
"Solaris thought this a good plan, and he filled the spirit with his power, transforming it into his herald, the Phoenix. The Phoenix returned to the realm of night and attacked Lunaris while she slept. Lunaris woke and tried to flee, but Solaris was waiting. His weakened sister stood no chance. The moon was struck from the sky, falling to the depths of the ocean below. Without his sister to oppose him, Solaris brought about the eternal day, and as they burned without reprieve, the mortals realized how foolish their wish had been." Blaze followed Black's gaze to the water. "Some say Lunaris still lies in the depths, regaining her strength to strike back against her brother. Others say she will never rise again, and has been banished to the bottom of the ocean for all time."
"And the Phoenix?" Marine asked sleepily. Her earlier burst of energy from the excitement of the lights had faded, and now she was drooping in Blaze's arms.
"Some say the Phoenix still serves Solaris, and will strike down those who speak against the sun. Others say the Phoenix fled to the stars, seeking to atone for its sins. And still others say Solaris killed the Phoenix himself once he had no more use for it." Blaze sighed and looked up at the stars, still stroking Marine's hair. "Whatever happened, the end result is the same. Solaris rules, and even at night his flames glow on the horizon. The moon has not been seen in almost three hundred years. Some doubt it ever existed." She looked at the ocean, dark waves lapping gently against their boat. "Others believe it is down there, in the ocean. They say those lights are Lunaris, watching over those she cares for, or warning those she considers enemies." Blaze shrugged. "The stories vary. Who is to say what's true and what isn't?"
Black nodded, looking thoughtfully out at the sea. Blaze glanced down at Marine and smiled at the sight of her sleeping soundly. They floated in silence for a while, and Blaze was almost falling asleep herself when Black spoke.
"What about the other time?"
"What?" Blaze blinked at him.
"You said you saw the lights twice. Once when you were a kid. What was the other time?" Black's voice was soft in the darkness. It felt natural amidst the lapping of the waves.
Blaze sighed and shifted, looking out over the sea. "The other time was a year ago, when I first met Marine." She glanced down at the girl sleeping in her lap. "We were traveling with two friends of mine from a… another place, Sonic and Tails. It was Sonic that triggered the lights, I think. Like you did, by putting his hand in the water." She smiled softly at the memory of his awed expression.
Black cocked his head. "Another place?"
Blaze frowned, trying to think how to explain. "It's… another world, another dimension. Similar to this one, but… different."
"They have a moon," Black guessed.
Blaze smiled. "Yes. And the night sky is pure, without Solaris's light on the horizon. The air doesn't smell like ash. Their world is in balance."
Her smile faded as she remembered the last time she'd visited Sonic's world. The days growing longer and longer, the scent of burning stronger and stronger. Sonic, twisted by Light Gaia. If they hadn't defeated Light Gaia, would Sonic's world have become like hers?
"Sounds nice," Black murmured.
"Yes," Blaze smiled, thinking of all her friends in the other dimension. "Yes, it is. You'd like it there."
Black smiled back at her, soft and sincere. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't think what.
They traveled on in silence. At some point Blaze drifted off to sleep along with Marine. Her dreams were vague snatches of memory, veiled by a soft purple glow. Someone with green eyes looked at her somberly, called out to her, but she didn't know who, and she couldn't make out their words beyond "help" and "Blaze". She woke with a start to Black gently shaking her.
"What is it?" she asked, jolting upright. Marine shifted in her arms, mumbling irritably.
"We're almost there," Black said.
Blaze raised an arm to shield her eyes from the rising sun. "Almost where?"
"The mainland," Black answered simply.
"That's impossible." Blaze carefully moved Marine from her lap to the bench so she could stand. She couldn't make out what was ahead of them with the rising sun in her eyes. "We can't have traveled that far this quickly."
"Maybe Lunaris helped us," Marine mumbled sleepily, sitting up and yawning.
Blaze glanced down at the ocean, unsure what to make of Marine's theory. The current did seem to be with them. "Maybe."
Marine rubbed at her eyes and squinted at the horizon ahead of them, silhouetted by the rising sun "What do you think it's going to look like?"
"I don't know," Blaze murmured. No one had ever ventured to the edge of the sea before, or at least if they had, they hadn't shared what they'd seen. She leaned forward, squinting against the sun as she tried to make out their destination. She could see a mass of land, bigger than any island, but she couldn't pick out any details.
The sun continued to climb higher and higher in the sky as the wind and the ocean together carried them rapidly towards the land. As they drew closer, the sun rising above them instead of in front of them, Blaze could finally see their destination clearly. Harsh sandy cliffs loomed above their little boat, jagged and unwelcoming, and the boat drifted slowly into their shadow, the wind and the current alike abandoning them to the land's embrace. Marine silently guided the boat into a cove and tied it to a rock, even her usual chatter silenced by the severity of the cliffs.
"Wait here," Blaze said. "I'm going to see what it looks like." For once Marine didn't argue.
Blaze hopped out of the boat and started climbing the cliffs, glad she had opted not to wear her high heels. She finally reached the top of the cliff and climbed over the edge. She stood and dusted herself off, looking around at this first sight of the world beyond the sea. Her eyes widened at the landscape that stretched before her. She didn't know what she'd been expecting; green grass, maybe, or a lush forest. Something like what she had seen on the mainlands of Sonic's world. Certainly not… this.
As far as the eye could see, a vast desert stretched. It wasn't a desert like what she had seen in Sonic's world, either in Mirage Road or Shamar. Both of those, though hot and arid, had at least felt alive. There had been manmade structures and desert plants. Those deserts had been natural. This… this wasteland looked scorched, like it had once been a lively plain or green forest until it was blasted and burned by fire. Even the sand was tinted ashy grey, and she could see bones jutting from the ground and lying bleached in the sun. The smell of smoke and ash was overwhelming, making it difficult to breathe. And somehow, though it was the same sun she had stood under at home, the light here felt far hotter, far harsher as it beat down on her and the desert sand. The message of the wasteland was clear: go back. You aren't welcome.
Blaze turned slowly in a semicircle, but as far as her eye could see, the land was all desert. Unending sand and burning heat. She took a breath, and regretted it as the ash seemed to clog her lungs. She was used to heat, but the sun here beat down relentlessly, and even with her resistance to extreme temperatures—one side effect of her powers she was grateful for—she could feel this. She would last longer in the heat then someone without her gifts, true, but not forever
The desert looked endless. To walk through it would be a trial unlike any she'd faced before, but she had no choice. If Blaze wanted to find the Sol Emeralds and answers, she would have to step into the wasteland. The only question was whether she would survive.