But when the morning comes
And the sun begins to rise
I will lose you
Because it's just a dream
When I open up my eyes
I will lose you
-Wherever You Are
"Aeons?" Harry repeated the words, turning them over in his mouth, wondering at the way they seemed to strike a chord in his subconscious. "You are…Aeons? What are they?"
*We,* sent the great gray eagle, Quetzalcoatl, and Harry suddenly realized that he could tell from whence each sending came from, and he knew not how, *are Aeons. We are…well, we are like spirits.*
*It is more appropriate, perhaps, to say we are something like forces given sentience. We give power - of various aspects - to the one who masters us* Shiva sent.
"Master? Why do you need a master?"
*Does fire burn without a starting spark? Does lightning strike without a point to attract it? Without someone to give us a link to the plane of existence, we are as mere formless potential. We exist that way, we were made that way.*
Harry frowned. He didn't like the sound of these beautiful apparitions subjugated to someone else. It sounded too much like slavery.
*You make the mistake of thinking us like humans. We are not – it is no shame to us to need masters. And it is not like any passing human can just pick us up – it needs a certain type of person, and even then we do not give ourselves meekly over to them. They must first prove worth to us. If they prove worth, why then, it is pride to be associated with one such.*
*Your wand is powerful magic,* Quetzalcoatl put in, *yet it does nothing without you wielding it. Without someone to use it to cast spells, any wand – even one as magical as yours – is nothing more than a piece of wood.*
Harry had to laugh at the eagle's description of wands.
*Perhaps* Quetzalcoatl mused, *perhaps we have used the wrong word to introduce the concept. Harry, do you know what a symbiote is?*
Harry said, sheepishly feeling a little like Hermione, "I read about it in science class, in Muggle school. It's two or more organisms joined together for the mutual benefit of both, isn't it?"
*Correct. The word describes the Aeon-human relationship better than anything else I can think of. We benefit; the human benefits. It's a…how do you say it…a win-win situation.*
*You've been studying human idioms again, haven't you, Quetzy?* Shiva sent, teasing coloring the sending. Harry wondered how he could tell, at how he could discern such things of the sending.
A thought crossed his mind, something so hopeful he dared not concentrate too much on it. It was becoming clear to him that Quetzalcoatl and Shiva were not omniscient spirits. Despite Shiva's earlier admonition of not to think of them as humans, they seemed very human to Harry. Very much like humans who could be friends.
*Be quiet, Shiva. Anyway, there is a certain amount of mastering to be done – but that merely refers to improving the skill and efficiency with which the human accesses the Aeon's powers. The Aeon cannot tell the human what to do; the Aeon, in turn, if given a command he –
*Ahem* Shiva sent, imitating a person clearing his throat.
*…or she disagrees with, can break off the joining.*
"Okay…" Harry said slowly. "But what about…"
The eagle and the lady both threw up their heads, as if listening to some far-away sound. *Harry…it is time for you to leave. I'm sorry…there is still so much to tell you,* sent Shiva. *We haven't even told you your part in all of this.*
*Tomorrow,* promised Quetzalcoatl. *Tomorrow you will return here, and we will speak with you. Now that you have found your way here, we shall have more time.*
"Tomorrow? Found my way…what do you mean?"
*We can only speak to you while your soul is at its freest – that is, in sleep,* explained Shiva. *And you've spent most of this night's sleep getting taken through the path to the garden. Tomorrow, we can bring you directly here.*
*Tomorrow…*
…tomorrow…
…tomorrow…
***
Harry woke up to the sounds of his alarm clock – really Dudley's old one, which the fat boy had replaced when the cartoon characters on it ceased to hold his interest – ringing the time. Sleepily, he slapped a hand on the snooze button.
He yawned, blinked his eyes…and grabbed for his glasses once he saw what was hovering in the air just above him.
Etched into the air, like words painted in gold, were the strange calligraphy-like letters from the black stone in his dream.
Cunae non sunt
Excitate vow e somno, liberi fatali
Somnus non eat
And then the words changed, the lines of each word shifting to form new letters to spell new words.
Invenite hortum veritatis
There was a brief moment of…dizziness, like the world spun around him once, and then settled down. Harry found himself standing, though he couldn't remember getting out of bed; he looked at his arm. On his upper arm, just below his right shoulder, were dark lines against his skin, as if he'd just gotten a tattoo. The flowing black lines formed two distinct characters – somehow the word described the markings better than 'letters' or 'pictures' – that looked like a cross between the weird spiky shapes of Hermione's Runes homework and the intricate artistry of Japanese kanji.
Slowly, he traced a finger over them. As he touched one, a single image of Quetzalcoatl suddenly appeared in his mind, illuminated as if by a bright flash of lightning. He blinked, a little startled at the intensity of the vision. Cautiously, he touched the next marking. This time, he saw Shiva, her pale white-and-blue body obscured by what seemed like a whirl of snow.
He sat in bed for a long silent minute before he got up slowly, stretching to get rid of the sleepy feeling in his limbs. He stared at himself in the mirror, taking oddly careful note of what he saw in the silvered glass. He saw a thin, slender boy, with more bone than anything else on him, especially since he had gone through a bit of a growth spurt in the last months of his school-year - he now stood taller than Dudley at 5'10. A bare-chested boy, because he had discovered, early in the summer, that in his sleep he always managed to toss and turn enough to make shirts bunch up around his neck and convince himself that he was about to suffocate to death, but without much of a chest to display. Jet-black hair that stuck up in stubborn spikes all over his head. Green eyes that looked somewhat unfamiliar, without the usual black frames around them.
And the markings. Silver lightning on the forehead; knife-slash on his left elbow; black runes on his right arm.
Harry sighed, and pulled on a tee-shirt. It had been Dudley's; thus, the shirt was so huge that its sleeves engulfed his arms past his elbow. And then he went down to breakfast.
***
Aaaaaaand up comes chapter 2 of Liberi Fatali. I hope the Aeons' explanations make them sound plausible instead of just boring. Thank you to Neverwhere: Chaos Mode whose review as always inspires me to write more. (PS: guilt-stricken due to your review, I have begun writing the last few chapters of 'This Kiss' ^^;;) Thanks man. Don't know what I'd do without you. And have you been playing FF8? If so, I writhe in jealousy. Can't find my copy. *sulks*
Muchas gracias also to Erica, Shadow Star, and Ashley who reviewed my humble attempt.
Invenite hortum veritatis
means
Seek out the garden of truth
The markings on Harry's arm were inspired by the markings Recca got as he summoned his Dragons on the show Honoo no Recca (or Flame of Recca), one of my favorite anime series, and one that deals with a young dark-haired, green-eyed boy with a significant scar on his face who has a strange control over fire, and summons spirits to help him. Hmm. Coincidence?
As Obi-wan Kenobi put it: 'There is no such thing as coincidence'.
Please please please review. This is my first Harry Potter fanfic and I would love to know if it's up to standards.