The Infinite Chronicles

Act 6: New Winds

Eyo all, I'm back and ready to write again!

Came back with some fresh ideas to put in.

Chapter 16

"Alright, so where are we headed now?" I asked Avalon. "The second cube is located in Ischyros, the birthplace of both Luke and Jackson." he replied. I leaned against the railing on the main deck. A normal ship would have the deck in the open air, but as this is a submarine, it was encased in glass strong enough to resist the pressure. It was past midnight by now, and everyone was asleep.

"Can't sleep either eh partner?" a voice said behind me. "I'm thinking too much to sleep Ace." as he walked next to me. We admired the dark ocean in front of us for a while. "What exactly do you fear?" he saw right through me.

"How do you know I'm scared?" I turned to face him. "I've known you for a long time, even though I was your 'stalker', you were an actual friend to me." he met my eyes. "I'm scared of what the future may bring, what if we fail to reach the Surface? What if we can't beat Silverius?" I asked. "So you fear failure?" he asked.

I sighed "Yes, I do fear failure. I am in possession of the world's most powerful weapon and I can't control it! You saw what he did to Pseta, that power scares me." He smiled "I trust that he can control himself, and I hope you can understand that the fear you carry will only hold you back. Goodnight Hazel.".

I woke back at my room onboard the ship. I opened my hand just to make sure I still had the cube. It appeared in the middle of my palm and just floated. Up close, it had very intricate golden designs and a sort of cross in the middle on all six faces. Someone knocked on the door "Hazel, are you awake yet?"

"Yeah gimme a second, Jess" dragging myself to get dressed and went down to meet everyone in the meeting room.

"We are now approaching Ischyros," Atlas announced. We passed through the ether membrane, which is a part of a titan. Interestingly, they can be controlled on what goes in and out, most commonly seen in docks, only letting ships pass through it while not letting the water in and flooding the entire titan with sea water.

"Woah, that really is quite a sight" Jess marveled as we all stood on the deck. If we were inside a titan, the glass covering the deck could be retracted and we could feel the wind on our faces. Ischyros was a beautiful titan. It had marvelous trees that had golden petals and stunning landscapes. In the distance, a lively town could be seen and the dock was rather modern, having automatic logging systems capable of taking pictures of your ships in various angles and recording it in case it needed to be tracked down.

We disembarked and told Atlas to come with us for a change instead of him staying on the ship most of the time. "I would rather stay on the ship Mistress Hazel" he complained. I shook my head while grabbing his arm "It would be a better change of scenery than seeing all those panels and numbers! C'mon let's have some fun!". He let out a robotic sigh "Very well, I shall comply with your wishes.".

We walked through the beautiful landscape, amazed at how stunning a land under the sea could be. "It never gets old," Avalon laughed. "I'm thinking, since it's very nice here, how about we take a rest and relax for a day here in Ischyros.". We all agreed and made our way to the town. The town was bustling with activity, there were people haggling over trade, buying food and playing card games.

"We're going to that big house over there" Avalon pointed to a large house on a nearby hill located outside the city. "Why that particular house?" I asked. He just grinned and said "Just trust me on this one Hazel.". We eventually did make it to the house on top, after a lot of whispering from the locals noticing my and Avalon's split core crystals. Avalon knocked on the door and it swung opened. What happened that day shocked me forever. A woman in about her late 30s answered the door. She had similar golden-brown hair like mine and the same amber eyes as I did, she wore a simple yellow dress with butterfly designs. "Hazel?" she asked "Is it really you?". "Uh I'm sorry i don't really know yo-" she hugged me suddenly "It's been 19 years since I last saw you.". "19 years?" it suddenly hit me "are you my mother?" I looked at Avalon for confirmation.

"She is indeed your mother, this is your family's ancestral home." He patted one of the pillars of the house.

She looked behind and saw our party "Ah yes, come inside, come inside!" she ushered all of us inside. The interior of the house was one of a hunting lodge. Great wooden pillars supporting a tall wooden roof. A fireplace burned cozily in the background.

"Oh this is a great place you have Mom" I stared at the vaulted ceiling. "Please, call me Emily, I am your mother after all.". A man came into the room, visibly confused "Emily, what's going on?" and then he saw me.

"Hazel?" he stared me dead in the eyes. This must have been very emotional for him, me on the other hand was trying not to look uncomfortable from his piercing gaze. He had interesting blue-green eyes and brown hair and wore a simple green shirt with light brown jeans. "Uh yeah thats me..." I said. He laughed and hugged me as well "It's been so long since I saw your beautiful eyes and hair.".

"Oh and I forgot! You have a sister!" I wasn't sure I heard him right "A sister?". A squeal drew our attention, a brown blur tackled me. "I've been waiting to meet you forever!" it said. "That's quite enough Rose" my father pulled her off me. I got a better look at her, she had brown hair just like our father's and pale skin like all of us but the most interesting part was that she had light pink eyes.

She wore a green blouse tucked into her long black skirt and was about the same height as I was, 5,7. "So you're my sister?" I asked. I had always wanted a sibling who wanted to look up to me, and now I had one! "Yep, one annoying as hell sister coming atcha!" she said in a high cute voice. "Let's show our guests to their rooms first shall we?" Emily interrupted. We all walked down the hall and were shown to our rooms.

I shared a room with Rose, which was very exciting. We put down our items and headed downstairs to discuss further. "Long ago, I made the decision to take Hazel away from this house for her safety," Avalon began "Too many people were watching out for you, both good and bad, so I decided to send you to Crimsona, to be under the care of both Atlas and Vyssini, where I knew you would be safer.". We all listened with intense curiosity, "Silverius, no doubt, knew you existed and that's why he decided to hire you, the empire was also watching you" he gestured at Ace.

"Hold on," I interrupted "Why me? And wouldn't people also look at this house?". Avalon sighed "This house has had some serious protection, no one without Luke's blood can come in or see it, however, having both of you in the same spot made it easier to find the house, it was raided like 3-4 times right?" He looked at my mother for confirmation.

She nodded "Eventually, it got harder to defend both of you as we got older, so we made the hard decision to send you away.". I was flabbergasted you could say, I thought I never had parents, and now they were in front of me, it was...interesting to say the least. "Well that wraps that up" Avalon clapped his hands while standing up "You can all do what you want, it's our day off.".

Ah yes, character development, that's one thing I'm struggling with, so the next chapter is probably going to be about it.