The Rising Sun: Episode 5 by J Hawk
And then, dousing his blade, Ion slid it back into its sheath, turned and walked off as the rest of the blazing structure came tumbling down around him…
He stopped at the entrance, and turned to glance back at the body lying under the wreckage.
“You killed my brother,” he whispered. “I killed yours. Consider us … even.”
And with that, he turned and walked out the entrance…
15
All that remained of the hut less than an hour later, was ash and debris.
The crack of dawn was awaiting over the skies above: the dark blanket of the night was illuminated with the faintest trace of arriving warmth. On the expanse of the ground below, a charred pile of wreckage released thin streams of smoke into the night. The debris lay in a large, burnt clutter next to a group of parked vehicles.
Though no longer on fire, the ashen residue of the blaze that had ripped the hut apart survived, leaving trails of black vapour emitted into the air.
There was nothing alive within the pile of blackened wreckage. Everything inside of it was dead and torn…
But a few hundred metres from where the remains of the hut stood, a faintly moving body could be seen. A body that had crawled all the way from the burning wreckage earlier on, all along fighting to stay conscious…
Left to die inside of the hut, Vonayz had done all he could to escape certain death before the hut came crashing down over him. Wrestling off the dizzying, unconscious feeling, he had wriggled out of the portion of the hut that had landed on him. Injured and weakened, with burns all over him, he had struggled to crawl out of the hut. He was now lying with his head on a small rock a few hundred metres away from the hut…
Unconsciousness was closing in on him, leaving his vision flickering. But Vonayz kept the struggle up, heaving off the weighty, spinning sensation. But he knew it was futile. He had expended every bit of his reserves trying to remain conscious all along. He would have to give in soon…
But even now, as the restful silence loomed over him, ready to claim him, Vonayz felt no peace … no calm.
Only a burning sense of hatred and fury.
Ion would pay for it … Vonayz promised himself that he would.
As darkness seeped into his vision, the thought slowly sank into the deepest layer of his mind. Where it ingrained itself with the force of steel…
16
A million miles away, in a plane far off, a youth sat at the top of a large plateau with a hover bike next to him. Spreading out on all sides of him was a coarse hilly terrain.
Ion had his eyes on the horizon as he sat there, his world gone mute … He wanted nothing more than to tear out his innards and scream with all the might he owned … But he knew it would be of no use. None at all.
For what was done was done.
As desperately as he tried to push it away, he memory came rushing back to him … to haunt him with a fresh new surge of horror each time. The memory of his brother dying in his arms.
His stomach seemed to have stayed knotted for the stretch of a few hours now, and Ion wondered if it would ever unknot. He had killed his own brother. And only now, after all of it, did the truth rise to his vision. The truth of what he had become…
Eol’s last words survived as an unfading echo at the back of his mind. One that would haunt him forevermore…
“You killed them … you killed our parents.”
Feeling his eyes blur in tears of frustration and disgust, Ion shook his head. What have I become?…
Almost unconsciously, he slid a hand into his pocket and pulled out the poster that had him in it. As he unrolled the poster, a shiver raced down his spine.
An evil smile … glowing red eyes … a maniacal, dead look…
The creature he saw in the poster didn’t look anything at all like him … but Ion knew it was him. This was what he was.
This is what the spectrum views me as … this is the image I have carved for myself … and now, I’ll take it to the grave with me.
As it occurred to him, Ion felt a smothering feeling grip him from within. A helpless, tormenting sense of guilt and pain. He felt as though his very soul bore a blotch, a taint that would now forever linger upon it…
Suddenly, disgust unlike anything he’d known came gushing up within him.
“I’m setting everything right, dear old friend.” He had told Vonayz. But that was where he was mistaken … he wasn’t setting everything right at all. Something that was horribly wrong still remained.
Him…
It felt as though he was opening his eyes for the first time. And for the first time, he saw the inhumanity of what he was. The wretchedness of the things he had done…
He had murdered his own brother.
Without knowing where the impulse came from, Ion rose, and began walking down the large plateau. He felt ghost like, strangely translucent to the world now. He trotted across the length of the plateau, seeing what now needed to be done. The only escape from the horror of his past. The horror that was him.
Arriving at the edge, he took a deep breath. And then, in one fluidic motion, he hurled himself off the edge … and into a fifty metre fall towards the merciless ground below.
He felt himself twist about in mid air to catch view of the cliff above him, shrinking in his vision as he plummeted. The cliff he had fallen from…
He spun about in mid air, whizzing like an arrow towards the ground. His fall rapidly gained speed and momentum. His heart seemed to have jammed in his chest, and the sensation of wildly accelerating freefall hollowed his insides out.
He saw the rough brown ground zoom upwards, waiting to engulf him.
And then … a sickening, loud crash that echoed across the place.
The impact of the fall, that left a web of cracks over the ground, would have killed anyone else on the spot. But Ion withstood it without dying for the fact that he was a mystic … unfortunately.
He would have screamed, if not for the fact that all breath had been scoured from his lungs, and he gasped in helpless, slight hisses to re gather it. The fall had definitely broken a fraction of the non vital bones in his body.
It was pain beyond pain. Excruciating. It seemed to split him from head to toe.
He would lie here, helpless, in the middle of a deserted, uninhabited region and watch himself die slowly and painfully … he could feel the life slipping from his veins. But he knew that he would endure an hour or so before he would finally die … and every second that passed seemed to last for a century.
Ion was facing hell itself.
All sensations had ceased, except for the mindless, throbbing pain all over. Ion couldn’t move. Couldn’t twitch a nerve. He could blink without leaving his eyes streaming…
Nothing at all mattered except for the fact that he was lying in a lifeless region with half the bones in his body broken. And no one to even cling his hopes to … he never would have imagined that this would be his way of exiting … no one would have imagined.
He felt himself drift … floating between consciousness and unconsciousness. It sharpened the pain cracking open his body ten fold. And Ion yearned for it to stop. The world seemed to flicker on and off, and lights popped up over the back of his closed eyelids.
And suddenly, the swishing of cloaks shrouded what remained to be relayed of his vision. He thought he was surrounded by someone … or some people. And before he knew it, as his consciousness slipped, he was being hoisted upwards painfully. And he was then gliding … flying … or was he dreaming? The sensation of leaving the ground and gathering speed…
And before he knew it, he was on a soft, mattress like surface. And the world seemed had fallen to a blissful tranquility. And it almost felt like the pain had uncoiled from his limbs … the agony had melted away, sparing him. Silence, peaceful and serene, enveloped all. And he felt as though all dreams had come true in the silence. But where was he? Was he even alive?
And a voice slit the silence from above him.
“Son, can you hear me?”
Ion’s eyelids fluttered open. But he immediately closed them to shield from a blast of light from in front. But in that split second he had opened them, he had seen a figure, a man in a black cloak, standing in front of him.
His eyes still closed, he groaned, “Where am I?”
“It doesn’t matter where you are.” came the voice of the man in front. “What matters is that you’re alive. And your body is intact again.”
A jolt passed Ion as he heard it. As if on cue, the sensation of his bodily control returned full and new to him. He realised that his limbs were moving perfectly. Completely tended. He opened his eyes again: this time the bright sunlight streaming in through the window opposite to him was bearable.
He was lying on a straw cot, in the middle of a small hut. He sat straight and looked at the man in front of him. He was a tall, thin man dressed in a black cloak. His smile radiated warmth as he gazed down on Ion. His sharp Elfling eyes were of a rich green colour, and his long black hair fell over his shoulder behind him.
“My name is Jedius,” the man said. “You’re lucky to be healed from that nasty fall you’ve had.”
Groaning feebly in pain, Ion stood from the straw cot he’d been lying on, looking outside of the window opposite to him.
“Where are we?”
“Vanodar.” replied Jedius. “It’s a rainforest planet. Don’t worry you’re perfectly safe here. Even from the Naxim.”
Something in what Ion heard registered a second late. Then he looked at Jedius and asked, “You know I’m a mystic?”
Jedius turned and walked over to the side of the hut, bending down to pick up one of two sheathed, long swords that had been lying there. He tossed it to Ion, who caught it and recognised it as his own sword.
Oh. He’s seen my sword…
But little did he know that there was a deeper, hidden reason for Jedius’s known he was a mystic. A hidden reason for why the two of them were now in this hut … with their paths intertwined. And this reason was the Nyon. One he would come to discover in two years.
“So you’re one too?”
Jedius nodded. Ion’s partially healed bones throbbed uneasily as he stood there. With a stifled groan, he sank back to the bed.
“I’ve done all I can to treat you.” said Jedius. “I’ve mended your bones as best as I can. But you’re still to be fully healed, and a few days’ rest here would do you good. You can stay here with me.”
Ion looked at him quietly, before nodding. “Thank you … for everything.”
Jedius’s smile faded, replaced by a look of grim seriousness.
“When I found you, I thought it was a rather strange situation for a person to end up in.” A weighty pause fell between his words. “If I may ask … how did it happen?”
Ion unconsciously stiffened. The horror of the past few hours suddenly rushed back to him, everything he had done. Everything he needed to have undone…
A helpless, suffocating feeling wormed its way through his stomach. He couldn’t trust anyone with the truth of what had happened. But as he looked at Jedius slowly, he found the Elfling gazing at him with a softened look in his green eyes. A measure of peace found his turmoiled mind.
He had just saved Ion’s life…
A strange, invisible connection seemed to form between the two of them…
Jedius walked up beside Ion’s cot, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Something in his eyes seemed to have grasped the pain within Ion.
He smiled warmly, and said, “I’m a wellwisher, son. By now that much should be evident to you.”
Without questioning himself, Ion drew out the folded parchment in his pocket. Unrolled it. And handed it to Jedius.
Jedius studied the picture in the poster, the absurdly drawn face. For a long moment of silence his eyes scanned the poster, and then moved over to Ion. “What does this have to do with you?”
Ion took a deep breath.
And then he told the man everything.
Jedius was quiet for a long time. His expression was inscrutable, and the silence between them, after Ion had told him the whole story, was rigid and unpleasant. Ion longed to know what the other was thinking, as he gazed out the window opposite to his cot.
Slowly turning to him, the Elfling said, “And you decided to … end your life?”
Ion nodded slowly, without taking his eyes off the opposite window.
“I normally wouldn’t bother questioning another’s choices,” said Jedius. “And the reasons motivating them. But for this one occasion, allow me to make an exception … a well needed one.” He turned and looked at Ion. “Would ending your life have been the solution you wanted, Ion?”
“What do you mean?”
Jedius was quiet for a long moment again, a deep silence filling the hut as he gazed at Ion.
“You wanted to amend the dark deeds of your past…”
“Of course I did.” said Ion.
“And you thought ending your life would do that?” Jedius gave a warm chuckle. “We all brave struggles in life, young one … and all struggles come with a solution. Yours does to. And you know it. The solution to what you’re going through. Can you tell me what the right thing would have been, for you to do, after all you’ve done till now?”
Ion gave the question a moment’s thought, then felt his eyes widen. “Turn myself in?” It was hardly a bad option. If anything, it was rather easy for him to contemplate.
But Jedius shook his head.
“If you did that, the punishment you would have faced would have been the same: death.” He chuckled again. “Again, that would have been nothing short of having yourself disposed of, and reaching a convenient end to your woes. No.”
Ion stared. “I don’t see any other solution … I’ve never felt worse pain having to live with myself.”
Jedius smiled. “The solution is to endure the pain … and to go on living. To do what must be done.”
“What must be done?” he asked softly. “What more can I do, after the terrible life I’ve lived? And how can I ever redeem myself?”
“Only you can answer that.” replied Jedius. “But know this, and keep it within you: life has chosen you. All of us have a place in this world, and your is yours alone to find … no matter how bad a scoundrel you may have been, you are still a scoundrel placed in this universe for a reason. Our universe is one of tolerance and forgivance. And no matter how dark a position we may be, it shows us our path, like the stars do in the night time sky. Our place is in following its light.”
Ion looked out the window again, inwardly broiling with guilt and sorrow. If he was honest with himself, he knew that forgetting the past and living with himself was the one thing he couldn’t do … But a small voice inside of him told him that as heavily stained as his past was, he still had a future. And the voice reminded him of the mission his parents had left with him … the mission of nobility and goodness that they believed their twin sons were destined for.
He had failed them…
But his failure was not permanent. He was still here. And he had another chance … He had an awaiting future. However painful moving through it would be, living with the memories of his deeds, Ion knew it was the right thing to do. He had failed to live the life he was supposed to have. But now, he would. The pain of guilt and grief that came along with it would certainly be the greatest punishment he knew he could face…
But he would face it. For them. For Marion and Selia…
And for Eol…
A fiery surge of tears rushed to his eyes again. Straining to keep himself steady, Ion rose and walked to the window across the hut, his limbs searing painfully. He stood there, gazing at the beautiful forest spreading beyond for a few quiet seconds. Slowly, he turned to face Jedius. As he met the warm smile in the Elfling’s eyes, he found a new calm settling within him.
17
The present
Star system 328 was located at the deepest section of the outer spectrum. It was a solar system consisting of eleven planets. The seventh planet from the sun in this star system, Fernox was one of the smallest planets in the entire spectrum. It was an ice planet, with more than two thirds of its land area enveloped in snow and ice.
Somewhere within the tiny planet in a mountainous region where it was still day, a frosty wind cut through the air. The mountains rose tall and proud over. They were all buried in a thick layer of snow that coloured them in a dull white.
Overhead, the sun could be seen through a dull, orange glow, enshrouded behind cloudy fogs.