Dragon Aster Trilogy

37: CAT'S CRADLE



The Sanctus had become a ghostly silent. Only the psi Threads that matched the thoughts of the Falls crossing their Border vibrated. Kas had no words or thoughts to the matter of his father’s death. His only concern was to keep Kira’s people alive. But even if he could successfully command the True, there would be no saving his mother’s home. It was now nothing more than a deathtrap against their enemies.

“You fear for a temple of stone, when it is the bodies and souls of its people who make it real.”

Kas looked up through the golden spider-like web of the Chamber of Light, as the white Iynx stood in its center. “I need your guidance.”

“You have your soultwin, Kas. You do not need me anymore.”

“I thought I had her, now...”

Gei sat down on his chosen Thread. “No matter how much you both fight, she will come back to you. She will always come back for you when you need her the most.”

“You need to leave with everyone else.”

“This is all that remains of your mother. I will not be leaving it.”

“There will be fire—”

“Kas,” Gei said, interrupting him. “Just what illusion weave would you have me sew to continue to exist on this world? This,” the white cat said as he looked around the webs he had sewn by his memory Threads around the room, “is the only reality I want. I cannot exist as an illusion of what I truly am. And this world has no more need of me.”

“So you will go back to Earth?”

“Solar’s Phoenix is proof that something is not right on Earth. The Sentry should have destroyed a monstrosity like that, but they have not. I wish to find out why, and if there are any further threats that will come. Perhaps I can be of more use there. Your destiny lies not here, but in the Atrum.”

“You mean with my father’s legacy,” Kas replied, bitterly.

“There must always be light and darkness. Only then can the Sylvan Aur rise again and hope to remain up. If you do not take the Atrum, then Damek will, and the light of your soultwin will once again die from the world. Then the madness of the Aeger will completely overtake everything. Balance must be returned before there is no saving Aragmoth, and his nightmares of death consume us all.”

“It will not be a balance if I become the monster my father was.”

“You are your mother’s son, first and foremost. I have faith that you will be strong enough to take the right path when the shadows of your past appear to block your way. Only regret can stop you. But for now, call the darkness that you command. Use it to surround and protect the light I see in your heart, and you will succeed.”

Kas nodded, and then looked at Gei more closely, as he could see the Sentry form of the Iynx. He guessed that Gei had used every last Thread he could to sew the Threads of this room, including his faint illusion weave.

Gei tilted his head to the side, amused by Kas’ reaction. “‘Strange angel’ Serena called me once, yet you don’t so much as have a word for me at all.”

“Angels are depicted in Earth’s Texts as having wings.”

“Very true. I must contemplate where I left mine,” Gei said, before climbing up to the nest of Thread in the center of the room.

Kas, with nothing more to say to him, turned and left the Chamber of Light for the last time.