Chapter 40: Where Kn∞wledge Leads

Urianger stopped at the edge of the water, nodding to himself. "Aye, this place shall serve."

"Is it the spring that you wished to investigate?" G'raha asked. Echo'a looked it over, curious as well.

"Pray forgive me, my friends, but there is naught to investigate. Twas but a pretense to speak in private."

G'raha glanced his way but all Echo'a had to offer was a shrug. "You have our undivided attention," G'raha said.

"As we have established, here in Ultima Thule, those denizens of ruined stars are recreated in their twilight days. Yet one question doth arise in my mind. So faithfully formed are the simulacra, they believe themselves yet amongst the living. How dost thou suppose this is possible?"

Echo'a frowned, not sure where this was going. "Meteion made contact with them while they still lived," he said tentatively, wondering if it had been some sort of trick question or if Urianger was just seeing what they understood.

G'raha's head came up, eyes focusing on him. "Of course! She must have visited the stars of the dragons and the Ea before either race perished in their entirety. Thus could she make their emotions her own, and with them create more faithful simulacra than had she relied on any historical account."

"So too did I theorize and, upon that assumption, consider how those two races may have met their demise." Urianger looked to Echo'a. "According to thine own tale, Meteion perceiveth the emotions of those nearby as her own. A heightened sense of empathy intrinsic to her nature as an entelechy. In the course of her star-faring journey, if she encountered beings who strongly desired a cessation of their existence…"

G'raha finished in Echo'a's stead, the words as heavy as Echo'a's own would have been. "She would be powerless before that desire."

That was, unfortunately, the last part Echo'a was able to track. Urianger and G'raha spoke of quite a few things but both said oddly little that Echo'a seemed to understand. He was certain something significant was said as Urianger set off ahead of them - G'raha was so quiet, so sedated as the elezen walked away - but all he was left with was a thick weight of concern settling on his shoulders and confusion that seemed to make whatever pressed against his chest almost burn.

He touched G'raha's shoulder, his concern evident in his voice. "G'raha?"

There was a long moment before G'raha shook his head. The smile he offered Echo'a was incredibly weak. "Let us be off too. To Elegeia."

Worry churned through him much as his thoughts did in his head.

What had he missed?

Echo'a was not surprised Y'shtola stepped forward to counter the Ea. She seemed quite set on doing so, even. Echo'a pressed the heel of a hand against an eye, not sure if he was trying to stave off a headache or exhaustion. Since they had rejoined the others and had started hearing the Ea's tale, an odd fog had crept into his head, making tracking any of the story difficult. His thoughts kept drifting to Thancred and Estinien, back to his time helping with the different blasphemies at the request of the different leaders, to darker memories that he did not want to put his mind to ere they swallow him whole and snuff out his aether with dynamis. The Ea voices did not help, grating against his ears in an unpleasant way he hoped he was the only one to suffer through.

"Y'shtola, no!" Alisaie called out, drawing Echo'a's wandering attention back into the moment. "You mustn't!"

Any chance Alisaie had to dart forward and stop her was dashed by Urianger's outstretched arm cutting off her path forward.

Y'shtola, alone as she was before the Ea, stood strong and proud. She knew exactly what she was doing and what was to come. Echo'a wondered idly if he should feel as torn about her decision as Alisaie was rather than the neutrality he felt about it. "The most important lesson I've learned is that learning isn't simply passing one's eyes over words. Nay. Tis when understood for oneself that knowledge attains its true value. This is what has sustained me. Driven me onward in joy and wonder. In anger and sorrow." Conviction filled Y'shtola's voice, growing stronger as she continued to speak. "The universe may end, and all may be for naught. But I will live as I always have. I will always seek out new knowledge. And no conclusion of yours, no matter how grim, can dampen my desire."

It took a few seconds before the Ea responded. The forward most Ea shook itself as it would a head, a dynamis aura manifesting. Echo'a winced when it started talking. "I suppose it is only to be expected. Their feeble minds cannot fathom the terrifying gravity of it all."

The one to the forward most's right started to change as well, speaking out as the remaining two were quick to follow suit. "But worry not. We consider it our duty to enlighten you, and we will not stop until you grasp the full extent of our despair!"

All four stretched in unison as they became masses of dynamis before bursting, the residual dynamis swirling around aggressively before condensing and shaping into a now all too familiar bird. Just like the one with Estinien, the bird sent out a storm of dynamis, engulfing Y'shtola. Alphinaud and Alisaie hurried closer but thankfully remained some distance away.

Y'shtola's voice cut through the rushing dynamis, a slight quake to her words that Echo'a couldn't decipher. "Keep calm, and listen well. Though my body will soon dissipate, there may be a way to restore it." He clenched his jaw, already knowing the answer. "Azem's magick. So long as our souls remain, you can use it to summon us back. But you mustn't, for it would mean losing our way forward. This, I only reveal so that you can promise not to invoke the magick."

Indignation burned through him and it was all he could do to hide it by adjusting his stance. He already knew that, had been under the impression everyone knew that. He couldn't bring them back until they were done but that didn't mean he wouldn't bring them back. They had to know that.

Y'shtola kept talking, heedless of Echo'a's offense. "We came here knowing what victory may cost, so press on. Press on, and do not look back."

When Urianger stepped forward and into that storm of dynamis, Echo'a figured out what he had missed when Urianger had spoken with him and G'raha.

He had missed the warning Urianger had given them of doing what he was doing now.

The indignation gave way to doubt incredibly fast as his thoughts turned back to that conversation and how G'raha had been so quiet afterwards, to Alphinaud's reaction to Estinien's disappearance, to Alisaie's constant voicing of her distraught at each one of them stepping forward so willingly to face off against Meteion. There was no way any of it was permanent. Right?

But, then, summoning them with the Azem crystal was just a theory, untested even if it has merit. Hydaelyn's gift should guarantee it but, at the rate they were going, the chances of him being forced to use it for something else leaving them in those scattered states…

Meteion's voice should have snapped him out of his thoughts but the odd fog in his head had soaked up the doubt like a sponge and it coiled thickly first in his thoughts before seeping down to add to the pressure against his chest.