Chapter -69: Light and Darkness

"A-Aaaah...!" Sarajin moaned as Auris applied her aura's healing touch to his penetrated legs.

He had barely made it back here without collapsing from exhaustion but now, in her presence, he can feel some of that vigor being pushed back into him.

Nothing had been spoken yet. Her eyes were part way shut on contemplation, analyzing the depths of his wounds and in turn, the other changes that had occurred beneath his body.

She wanted answers but so did he. The only way to really make any progress...would be if one of them finally mustered up the courage to say something.

Auris withdrew her hands, the glow dispersing to fill his wounds where over time, the aura would be pushed out when the membranes stitched back together.

"You're lucky they didn't reach the bone." She whispered in a dull blend of frustration and curiosity.

She kept avoiding his gaze and looked at the wounds once more. Her hand glided down the length of his leg, gently hovering her ring finger over the deepest wound. It was a perfect match in terms of size.

"...What need would a Tribe of Light have for assassination daggers?" She murmured aloud.

She then closed her eyes and with a husky sigh finally pulled herself up to sit beside Sarajin. His sweating had calmed down a lot and he finally felt relaxed enough in his body to let out one deep breath.

He then sank into the couch and turned his attention towards his caring wife as she helped prop up his posture.

He then jumped straight to the point by asking, "How much do you know about Caimanabel?"

"Little, if barely anything at all," She said, slowly succumbing to a perturbed tone, "It has always been the most guarded of the Ten Tribes, because anyone who has ever gone in has never come back out."

"...I-I saw a huge city there. Hundreds...thousands of people from or descended from other Tribes were leaving in harmony. They were happy, they were...at peace." Saying that last part left Sarajin feeling emotionally compromised with a sense of inferiority...

"Hmmm," Auris folded her arms under her chest and after drawing her gaze around in an arc she settled upon his face and then gestured a hand up, "Start from the beginning. Tell me every detail of your time there."

Sarajin did so, even managing to describe the foggier parts in a concise manner. And all throughout Auris nodded along, becoming increasingly more drawn in and concerned as it neared the end until finally...She stopped him right before the part where he had to escape the city.

"Y-You encountered the Titan of Light inside the leader's tome?" She uttered.

Sarajin rubbed the side of his head and wondered, "I don't know. If it was them, it didn't...feel like them anymore. It was like...a fragment of the greater whole."

Auris briefly closed her eyes in pondrance and then pushed her hand out, applying her palm to his chest with a faint glow surrounding it.

He moaned at her warmth, which penetrated down to his soul. Auris' hand quickly recoiled with a spark hitting them both, lingering in the air with a glint of white.

She then pushed her eyes partway shut and murmured, "You acquired the Wellspring fragment of the Light element, that is unquestionable. But for that to be possible..."

"Mother Divine is siphoning off the power of the Titan?" Sarajin pondered.

"Or worse, has supplanted the Titan entirely." Auris added with a dash of grimness in her voice.

Sarajin shivered, then in his wayward confusion wondered aloud, "Shouldn't the other Titans...know about this?"

"Perhaps they do, but simply aren't allowed to meddle in the affairs of other Tribes," Auris closed her eyes and laid her hands on her lap, "It's a fool's errand to try and comprehend the rules that gods abide by."

Though talking about this did make Sarajin look back and reflected on what he's seen the Titans do and so far, not a single one has acted against matters involving other Tribes.

Tremorterra could have stopped Pulsa Minoria when their weapons were scarring the land.

Perhaps Twinbeak could have attempted to dull Magmankey's foolery with their wisdom.

ANY of the other Titans could have intervened against Ophelia.

...But they didn't.

Thus what could have been an easy solution to this problem now rested solely on the shoulders of Sarajin and Auris to figure out.

"You're probably right," Sarajin said with a hint of melancholy in his worried voice, "But why would anyone do this?"

In the brief pause they took to think it over, Sarajin immediately let his paranoia take hold, "Could it be the Sage in that area?"

Auris was quick to cast doubt on that theory, "Lilith may be strict and a little off-putting at times, but among the Sages she's second only to my father in embracing what it means to be a Sage."

"That doesn't mean she's not involved..." Sarajin said with a bite of sourness to his tone.

Auris flicked her fingers out and remarked, "I'm not discounting the possibility, but we're not going to confront her over an assumption, especially since she's Atrax's sister and so far at least, he's been cooperative with us."

"...Right." Sarajin eased up on the aggression a little following a curt grumble, which earned him his wife's tired gaze for a moment.

She then folded her chin against the top of her chest and remarked, "We now know something is going on in Caimanabel. The best option for us right now would be to warn all the other Tribe leaders to not let Mother Divine recruit more people to her city until we can be sure they're safe there."

"T-That's just it though..." Sarajin said, a little shaken up inside, "They ARE safe there, and they're free to be themselves without fear of their emotions being shackled away."

He threw his head against the back of the couch and groaned, "I don't get it..."

Auris pulled herself away from speculation and assumptions and homed in to the true grit of this matter hovering over Sarajin's body.

"You feel...guilty for having these thoughts?" She said, waving this at him with a gentle brush of her fingertips towards his face.

Sarajin groaned internally and then sat up, hovering a shaking hand out before his face, "...If I'm right, then I'm going to be disturbing the peaceful lives of the people living there. If I'm wrong..."

Sarajin drew his katana out in such a way that the blood dried on the tip was visible to them both. He then grit his teeth and started trembling like he was about to cry, "T-Then I just drew blood on an innocent person."

Auris pushed her hands down on top of his hand holding the sword and forced the blade out of his sight until he had no choice but to look into her strong-willed gaze.

"Listen. No matter who Mother Divine is, she cannot be innocent."

Sarajin closed his eyes and upon reopening them he was staring out in the distance with his face moping, "I know, but I'm supposed to be better than this..."

He then sheathed the blade and Auris withdrew her hands. After a prolonged state of silence between them, she chose to fracture it by being a little more upbeat in tone.

"Look on the bright side, Sarajin. You got the power of Light. Isn't that what you were after in the first place?"

Sarajin's eyes widened as though he was finally awakening to the reality of the moment, and with that, a bit of his optimism was restored.

"R-Right. That's right. I did succeed in what I was after but..." He laid a hand on his chest and felt the tiniest bit of warmth coming out from his soul, "The Light element is different from the others. I could only use the Conduit Form for a few seconds and when it was over, I was exhausted."

"Light must be stronger than the other elements. Ergo, your body has to acclimate to the strength." Auris suggested though not with much certainty.

Still, it got a dry laugh out of Sarajin, who proceeded to lay back and mutter aloud, "So I'm too weak to get stronger."

Auris put an assuring hand on his shoulder as she whispered, "We'll figure it out together."

Sarajin turned to her with his usual smile back to its full strength and said, "I know we will!"

Auris flinched, still having to lambast herself for being so vulnerable to something as disarming as a simple smile.

She then pulled away, leaving Sarajin to take in his accomplishments of the day and look towards tomorrow, "All that's left is...Darkness."

But at that moment he stopped and thought. Auris gazed at him with her eyes half-shut and a little sense of dread swelling inside her heart.

"..." Sarajin lowered his hands and head and whispered, "Will Xiark be willing to give up a Wellspring fragment now?"

He was about to rise to his feet, a victim of his own wants and whims, before the pain in his legs forced him to moan and fall back down on his rear.

"Ghhh...!" He groaned.

"Sarajin, please try and slow down for one day," She urged, her voice cracking as she reached out to his face and rubbed his cheek, "It's been a long week. Rest. Tomorrow will still be here."

"Heh, alright. You know best." Sarajin said with a smile back.

Auris then helped him up onto the couch, covering him in a knitted blanket and softening his headrest with pillows, where he quickly fell asleep to heal.

She was left to tend to their child throughout the rest of the day, a task she adored but also worried for, given today's circumstances.

Because even though she strove to get him to stop focusing on Mother Divine and the mysteries behind her, that was the one thing she couldn't stop focusing on.

She was a knowing hypocrite who was playing into her own selfishness, but if anyone could see what was happening behind the scenes...It was her.

But as she tried to recall what the future had told her about today, all she remembered seeing was a blanket of white blurring her vision. It was as though Mother Divine was so radiant, it blinded the future.

"My clairvoyance still isn't enough by itself. I need to see more, my sight...needs to be stronger."

And so, late at night, when her child was safe in bed and Sarajin so deep in slumber that not even the end of the world could wake him...She snuck up to his side and gently reached into his pocket to claim the stone that housed her dear sister.

And, taking her to the comfort and sanctity of her bedroom, she sat upon the bed and poured her aura into the stone to awaken the soul within.

"Can you hear me, Temporis?" Auris whispered.

"Mmm, aah, oh hey sis...It's been a while...I think? I don't know, time's kinda become irrelevant to me anymore. Ironic, I know."

The pink-haired girl talked with her usual spunk and it left Auris with a crack in her voice as she tried to speak pleasantly towards her, "I-It's good to hear your voice again. But...I wish I could talk longer."

"Yeah, this must be pretty urgent. What's up?"

"The clairvoyance you gave me has been growing in strength over time. But it's not enough. I'm still too blind to many things, and Sarajin-"

"You want me to give your clairvoyance a boost? Sure! Easy peasy!"

"W-Wait..." Auris sputtered out with a loss of composure, "Like that? That...that easily?"

"Well golly sis what else am I gonna do in here but train up my powers?" Temporis replied with a curt scoff, "You just sit there and stay focused. I'll give ya exactly what ya need!"

Auris blinked a few times and then slowly closed her eyes and felt Temporis' presence seeping into them. Her expression twitched as she was left making herself feel confident in her decision, "I can't be blind to the future anymore. We need to stay ahead of our enemies, no matter where and when they'll strike."

The next day arrived and Auris had managed to return Temporis' stone to Sarajin without him ever knowing. The effects of the added clairvoyance strength would show themselves over time, so Temporis claimed.

Thus all Auris had to do for now was be the supportive partner to his whims until she could use the future sight to better alleviate his concerns.

Unfortunately, after becoming relaxed and renewed from his good night's rest Sarajin was immediately jumping at the opportunity to get on over to Obscura.

Nobody needed clairvoyance to see this wouldn't end well.

Her only objection would be a brief, husky sigh as he headed out the door following breakfast, and a warning to keep his senses keen, "Your legs still need to recover a little more. Don't push yourself."

"Right," He said with a smile and thumbs up, "I'll fly over instead! I should be back before lunch."

"Yes, and then we'll try to test out the Light element after we put Zeno to bed for a nap." Auris nodded and the next thing she knew, he was blowing her a kiss and going along his merry way.

She felt heavier seeing him leave upon an inevitable road to failure, and was left wondering aloud, "You're too eager to achieve greater heights, Sarajin. You should focus on what you have now, instead of overwhelming yourself with new information..."

She then closed her eyes and whispered, "Haaa, why couldn't I have said any of that to your face?"

Sarajin flew towards Obscura with a feeling at the back of his neck that he was being talked about but was quick to shake it off.

It only got easier and easier to enter the ghastly forest and venture into the abstract lands beyond. Having witnessed Caimanabel first hand though, Obscura now felt...familiar, more comfortable in comparison.

Which wasn't an easy pill to swallow, as Sarajin knew he'd be confronting Solomon for some time, even if the intent wasn't to ask him anything...this time.

Sarajin stood at the base of the hill and peered up at the palace. He had left his sword behind, feeling he needed to be seperate from it for now.

This was going to be handled only with words. No confrontations, and no insane tests of proving oneself.

Upon climbing up to the door he slid it open and looked inside. There sat the king of darkness atop his throne, the Titan at his left and the parasitic demon jarred up on his right. But this time the Vizier was out in the open, having been curtly interrupted from their speech by his untimely, unwelcome arrival.

The Vizier snarled her teeth and muttered aloud, "You can't keep yourself from barging in places without an invitation, can you?"

Solomon was clad in black hostility and his eyes narrowed a deep shade of red, a growl rattling his insides.

Before this could escalate on either side Sarajin swiftly swung his hand up and attempted disarmament, "I'm not here to talk to you, Solomon. I'll make it quick, and be out of your hair."

Solomon laid back while the Vizier loosened with a miniscule curl of their lips, "Eh? Then who are you here for?"

The demon in the jar chuckled, "Me, perhaps?"

The Vizier raised their right arm in bemusement to zap the demon with purple lightning.

Sarajin ignored the pointless squabble and focused his attention towards Xiark, "Hey, can I have your attention for a bit?"

The Titan laid on its paws and napped away, the only movement coming from the whipping of its twin tails.

Sarajin took a couple steps closer and leaned in with a raise of his brow, "Uhhh, Xiark? Hello?"

It continued to nestle it's face into its paws.

"...Are you really sleeping?" Sarajin remarked in an unamused tone.

Xiark turned its head a little to the right and grumbled, "Yes. Ignoring you takes a lot of energy out of me."

Sarajin slanted his brows and muttered, "Can I just have a few minutes of your time? Then I'll go. Promise."

"Haaa..." Xiark shifted its body forward and continued to lay sloppily upon the ground, "Fine, make it quick."

Sarajin smiled and with a respectful stance he waved his hand out to ask, "I was...hoping you'd be more open to letting me have a fragment of-"

"No." Xiark said with a quick, dull tone and then burrowed it's face down behind its paws.

"Why not?" Sarajin said with his voice raised.

"I refuse."

"That doesn't answer anything." Sarajin mumbled with a partial glare.

"Oh?" Xiark perked his head up slightly, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were the boss of me. Pray tell, when did this change in management occur?"

Sarajin stopped himself from lashing out by reeling back and taking a deep breath, "Look...It's not like I'm asking for everything you possess. You don't have to be so rude."

"You'd say that after all the times you've barged in and disrupted my nap?" Xiark chuckled, and then lost enthusiasm quickly with his sigh, "Really, what possible reason could you need Darkness for anyways?"

"You know what I'm trying to do." Sarajin said.

"I am old but I am not senile," Xiark grumbled, then pointed their ears towards the attentive Solomon, "Loathe as I am to enable your disruptions, if you seek to bridge the gap between Tribes, work on appeasing the lazy king in black."

Solomon turned to the Titan with a disruptive, hostile glare.

Sarajin put his best foot forward and remarked, "Ok, Darkness isn't immediately useful, but now that I have a fragment of the Light Wellspring, I'm very close to realizing the power to revive the-"

"WHAT." Xiark sprang on all fours and suddenly the air in this room warped towards his presence, consuming all but the faintest sensation of warmth.

"HOW did you come about that ancient knowledge?"

The Titan's sudden shift into action threw Sarajin's mind for a loop and he couldn't put a name to his tongue.

It didn't take long for Xiark to settle down, planting his rear on the cold floor and letting out moist coughs. He then glared at Sarajin so deep that it was like his soul was getting twisted.

"Hmm, so you're not deceiving me. Luminesca's Light somehow now lingers inside of you."

"Somehow?" Was what Sarajin picked up, a sense of dread welling in his gut, "So was Auris' theory right? Is Luminesca..."

This train of thought came to an abrupt end as Xiark laid into Sarajin with surprising remorselessness, "This was an act of selflessness, no? You didn't merely save a fraction of her essence to use as a bartering chip, no?"

"I-I don't even know what happened with her. I was fighting someone in Caimanabel and the next thing I knew, I got the Light Wellspring fragment...Honest." Sarajin said, keep his stature unflinching in the face of Xiark's wild accusations.

The Titan snarled and garbled internally, parts of his outer layer unraveling to let his slimed limbs through, "Then don't be greedy. It is lucky that you even have that."

"Do you even care that I got this?" Sarajin wondered.

"The others would. All I care about is a decent nap, but you and your little friends get merry when you keep disrupting me."

Xiark displayed a little of it's true self out the cracks in its face, distorting its voice as it pronounced one last point, "I shouldn't have to remind you what can happen when I'm awake."

Sarajin gulped and Xiark finished the point off, "Like the shadow at your feet, I am immovable. So you and cry, and cry, until your cheeks are red with tears of blood, but I will not partake of your sanguine dribbles to seal an oath I would soon regret."

Xiark then clamped itself back together and let out a groggy yawn, nestling back down upon the floor.

"Now you promised you'd go. So go. Bye-bye. Farewell. Ciao."

Sarajin wanted to put in another word in his favor but everything from his surroundings to all the eyes visibly pointing at him with an unwelcoming air helped him to reconsider, fast.

"Ha..." Sarajin put his arms down and then turned away, leaving without another word and his shoulders in a slump.

The Vizier then positioned herself between Solomon and the door to remark, "What an intrusive little pest...Next time, can I have permission to smite him out?"

When she turned to look at Solomon she found him unresponsive, his eyes glued to the silhouetted man leaving his palace.

All other noise existed in a vacuum. His voice rang within his black clad helm, "...He seeks greater strength?"

For that moment, heat flickered in his vacant chest.

The demon laid beside the throne, grinning within the confines of his jar.

With a hefty sigh, Solomon sank back into his chair, only then hearing the desperate cries of that Vizier of his.

"Lord Solomon, speak up!"

"You order me?" He murmured, making her freeze and shiver at the knees.

"No...of course not, I merely...want to make your life easier by removing that pesky skyrat, should he soil your presence again."

Solomon then armed his gaze forward and remarked, "I will not be quick to judge him again."

"Eh?" The Vizier blurted up.

She would get no answer, for Solomon remained silent in her presence.

Instead, he turned to Xiark and indulged in his minimalistic sense of curiosity for the moment, "There's something that was said that grabbed my attention, beast. The Titan of Light, Luminesca...Are they still alive?"

Xiark dragged his head up from the ground and murmured, "Their presence is still established in the world order. That's all that matters."

"Hrmmm..." Solomon groaned.

A vague response, meant to divert from the true answer to Solomon's curiosity...

"Can Titans die?" Whispered his quivering heart...

As the world felt something had shifted over the last twenty-four hours, the shadow known as Atrax wormed his way between the cracks and made his way to chambers unknown, filled to the brim with prism stone.

The light that once filled these chambers was gone and it's place dust collected over the pillars and aged the pristine value to little more than rustic ruins.

At the back end of this room sat a monolithic couch once laid over with gold findings and wide enough to fit a creature many buildings long.

Atrax's footsteps rang about this hollow domain like tiny bits of rock clattering inside of a jar. He made his way over to the couch where a woman with silver hair laid upon hands and knees before it, her laughter echoing, her disposition broken and her hair draped in many directions. But it was more accurate to say that the hair was slanting off, struggling to stay in place.

Atrax stopped a few feet off, even airing on the side of caution as this figure dug their fingernails into the unbreakable ground, leaving scratch marks and bits of blood to fill them in.

It seemed his presence sparked a brief flicker of sanity, dragging the woman to rant in a coherent tone, "Was it Borealis...? No...no...my machinations have laid undetected for YEARS...There's no way he could know...! Was it that sniveling BITCH Torren, thinking she could rise up from under MY heel?! Who...who dares...?!"

She curled her fingers together until her fists were the pillars that supported her rise, upon which she pulled her head back hard and the false drape of silver slid off the scalp, revealing ebony hair beneath.

"Oh. Brother...I did not notice you..." She whispered, her voice deprived of any sense of humanity.

"Heh heh...!" Her teeth could be seen biting down into a smirk as her body shivered. Then, dully slipping into a neutral expression, she drew her finger up at him and remarked, "I want to know...Tell me..."

She turned with a weightless feeling to her body and her grin snarled up in an inhuman shape, her right eye caked over completely in cracking, pitch black blood while her other eye opened wide with a piercing, needle-sized pupil glaring deep into the robed shadow.

"Why was a RAT...in MY paradise...?"

Atrax took a couple steps back and put a hand upon his chin, letting out a wry chuckle, "Something looks different about you, sister, but I can't quite...see it."

"Ha...! HA HA HA...!" Lilith dropped her hand down to her waist and pulled her other hand up to cover her eye, using it to drag her head back until it looked like her neck would break, and yet more and more her voice would grow in volume.

Until suddenly, it ceased with her eye widening beneath her hand and the intensity coming off so strong that the saber of golden light she drew from her palm upon Atrax came off as a mere firefly in comparison.

Atrax stood at ease and waved his hand down with a feathery feel to his movements, "I thought that 'rat' was of no concern to us?"

"He WAS...His PITIFUL idealism should have kept him wasting away among his fellow savages," She then bit her teeth down and growled hastily, "But he came HERE...! He scarred ME...! In one day...Stole away...what I took YEARS to claim as my own!"

She dispelled the saber with a tight squeeze of her fist and then pressed both fists down against her eyes, dragging out the pain so that her anger could only become stronger.

"GRAAAH! I will not STAND for this...S-Some filthy, ill-blood RAT...Will not steal MY throne out from under me! I have worked too hard to reach this peak! I will NOT be denied my birthright!"

Atrax kept still and gestured his hand up to urge along his sister's...outburst with a little curiosity, "So, shall we deal with him like we do everything else that gets in your way?"

"No...nononono..." Lilith's voice trailed off along a path of sadistic glee as she turned her head aside and grinned as wide as her teeth could allow, "Killing him swiftly is the act of a savage."

Her eyes widened, draining the color from her face and putting all of it into the frenzy in her cold, penetrating glare as she whispered, "I will pick them off...Every last ONE of his little rat pack...Tear down everything he's built up...Heh heh heh...Steal it all away, just as he DARED to steal from me."

"And then, when he's repentful, put upon his hands and knees before me..." She unfurled her fingertips before her mouth and dangled her tongue behind them, "I will cut off his head. One. Centimeter. Per. Second."

Atrax shivered, mostly out of a desire to chuckle that he kept at bay, "You're welcome to try, but Auris will take your head. And she won't even require a second."

"Why should I kowtow to that...pampered princess? No no no...!" Lilith sneered and ran her face dangerously close to Atrax's mask, growling in a husky tone just to remind him of who should be listened to, "I...am NOT weak...!"

Atrax pulled away slowly and murmured, "I...never insinuated you were, sister."

"That's right...! Ha ha...!" Lilith stood tall but her demeanor was disheveled, "I have felled every obstacle that stood in my way through careful planning and control over my pawns...! Even a GOD laid itself at my feet, whimpering, BEGGING for a swift death I would never grant it!"

"I...am not weak...! I...AM the righteous...! I am the Light...who will be looked upon and WORSHIPED!"

She then dragged herself past her brother with her stature taut and her gaze perpetually facing her path forward, "And anyone who gets in my way...are evil."

She sunk into the shadows, and kept alone in to his own amused thoughts, Atrax put his hand back on his chin and chuckled.

"Sarajin wounded you, Lilith, and you will wear that scar of defeat upon body and soul unto eternity. Hmmm...but this has been an interesting turn of events."

"Sarajin, Lilith, Borealis, all seeking to claim the power of the elements for themselves. Yes...a great clash is sure to unfold from their ambitions."

"But right now, your placement in this conflict is tenuous at best, Lilith. Will this setback prove to be your undoing? Or can you recover? Hmmm..."

"Heh heh heh, I doubt it. Sarajin is making great strides towards his goals, and I feel confident in saying...So long as I stand by his side, we will finally return this world to the way it was meant to be."

"But in order for Sarajin to succeed, another must take part. Yes...I think it's time I help the King get off his throne." And with that final remark, Atrax sunk away into the shadows, just as he always has...

Next Time: Whispers of Dark Demise