Chapter Seven: The Threshold of Destiny (I1B0C7)

 Chapter Seven: The Threshold of Destiny

 

“As the demon falls to rest, it warps the fabric of the universe in a way we cannot understand. When the Interfectus sleeps, it ceases to exist in this world for as long as it remains at rest. It is because of this that they are untraceable and also invulnerable.”

Though he watched through half-open eyes as he traveled west, Hatasuko sensed that this voice came from the tempest. It sounded ominous and alluring but also familiar. It was not the voice of Sokaido or Adishina, though he had heard it once before. His golden eyes glanced at the narrow space between Vaida’s hair and the bottom of the sail, but his conscious mind waded through the screaming tempest in search of this voice.

“Who said that? Who are you?” Hatasuko asked the storm of souls.

“I can sense the Interfecti’s movements because that is the privilege of the damned. Every single one of us in here—every lost soul that was claimed by the forces of darkness—we can detect the Interfecti, even as they sleep. It means we have a unique ability needed by the living, but we cannot communicate. You are our only bridge. You are the only one who can save them. You are the only one strong enough to uphold the weight of the tempest,” said the voice of the unknown woman.

“Do you know about the next attack? Please, you have to tell me! This is very important. Countless lives hang in the balance,” Hatasuko demanded.

“Yes. The Interfectus will not awaken for a few more days, but when it does, it will besiege the city of Sentia. Will you protect them?” she asked.

“Of course! Up until now, I thought you somehow understood who I am, but a question like-”

“I know exactly who you are, Hatasuko. I know that you’ve raced across Agrideī ever since your mother died, desperately trying to save people from the Interfecti. The only thing I don’t understand is why. Anyone else would have realized how hopeless this is. Anyone else would just become an ordinary rescuer. But I am lodged in your head and surrounded by lamentations—both their screams and yours. I know you still believe you’ll be the one to slay the Interfecti. I just don’t know why.”

The southern air carried a humid breeze. Hatasuko glanced up and saw the starlit silhouettes of buildings on the western horizon. These buildings stood on the outskirts of Bones City. He knew that Lazaro and Vaida had plans for their day in the city by the sea, meaning he would have to completely wake up in the coming minutes.

“If the Interfecti are allowed to live, then there will always be misery in this world. There will always be screams, and there will always be pain. It is my dream to build a world without misery, so eventually I will have to wipe them out. I just want to make the world like it was, before they ruined everything,” Hatasuko explained.

“You’ve got a dream to get everything back to the way it once was, but what would happen then? What would that mean? The privilege of a dream is that it’s a fantasy, but if it happens, then it was never truly a dream to begin with.”

As they rolled into the quiet streets of Bones City, Hatasuko let out a quiet sigh into the abyss that roared in his tired mind. People in the streets stared at their sail-ranae with intrigue, but he did not glance back at them. He stared disinterestedly ahead as he sifted through the silent screams.

“I have to ask one more time. Who are you?”

“I am Madeline, and I once served the most powerful man in this world. He may be strong, but he does not deserve his power. It is your destiny to save everyone, not his,” she whispered from the edge of the tempest.

The other screams in the tempest grew louder from a sudden rush of unrest. They could detect the pressing approach of an Interfectus. Hatasuko feared that Madeline’s voice would somehow be swallowed by the storm of screaming souls, so he yelled out into the tempest, “How do you know that? Who is the most powerful man?!”

But there was no response.

“Listen, boy. I need you to come with me today while I run some errands. I know you still got a lot of practice to do, but I need to make sure you can act in my absence in case I get injured,” Lazaro yelled from one sail-rana to the other.

Hatasuko answered, “Yes, sir. I will join you. By the way, I just learned the location of the next Interfectus attack.”

            Several heads turned toward Hatasuko. He realized that he had spoken too loudly, though he quickly dismissed his concern. He had always wanted to announce the locations of the attacks so that people could evacuate, but he knew that no one would believe him. Even now, the bystanders watched skeptically. Vaida, on the other hand, turned around with a curious gaze.

“Oh yeah? Where’s that? Any clue when it’ll happen?” Lazaro shouted back as they rolled through the street.

The sail-ranae rolled noticeably slower through the streets of Bones City. The homes and buildings interrupted the flow of the powerful northwest wind. The wind was still strong enough to pull their sail, but they only moved at a jogging pace.

“The Interfectus will attack in at least three days. It might be more. The demon is going to strike the city of Sentia, from what I understand.”

“That’s one crazy ability you got there, boy. Alright, we’ll spend the night here and then sail north tomorrow. When we reach the river, we’ll have to go with the current all the way east. I don’t know yet if we’ll turn south or go all the way to the ocean. We’ll see. That’s the worst quadrant of Agrideī, at least if you’re trying to sail somewhere,” Lazaro groaned from up ahead.

The streets slowly became more crowded with people and market stands. It did not take long for Lazaro to pull down the mast and fold in the sails. Vaida did the same, and then shortly after, both vehicles rolled to a stop. The onlookers seemed mystified by the sail-ranae when they first entered the city, but the people here showed a lot less intrigue. The three friends piled out of their boats, and then Lazaro grabbed the handle on the front of his vehicle. He rolled it over to a large building on the west side of the street, so Hatasuko grabbed his boat and did the same.

“Hey! It’s me, Lazaro! I’m in town for the night; I’ll be leaving the sail-ranae here!” Lazaro announced as soon as he stepped in.

Hatasuko walked inside and saw two other sail-ranae on the first floor of this building. Candlelight brightly illuminated the space. The other sail-ranae were smaller and had different designs. Vaida ran over to the boats and carefully studied their designs; she beamed as she ran her scarred hand across the wood.

A creaky staircase stood in the corner of the room. Before Vaida finished assessing the sail-ranae, a heavyset man stepped down the staircase with several pillows in his arms.

“Glad to see you’re still alive, Lazaro! Come on in and take a rest upstairs. A room opened up just before you got here,” said the large man with a big smile.

“That’s good luck, but I sure as hell can’t rest now. The boy and I’ve got a lot to take care of around here! Not sure what the girl’s gonna do,” Lazaro answered the friendly innkeeper.

“I promised someone I would see them when I came back to Bones City. I’ll be back before we leave,” Vaida said with her quiet voice and a shy smile.

“Take your time, Vaida! You know you’re all welcome here any time. We’ve been busy lately, but I’d give you my room if I had to!” said the innkeeper with a big smile.

Vaida smiled again, and this time her mouth opened to reveal her white teeth. Even when she glanced out the closing door at the outside city, Hatasuko saw a shimmer of joy in her eyes. But since Lazaro was uninterested in the pleasantries of conversation, he grabbed a sack of gold coins from his sail-rana and headed for the door. Though he never had the chance to greet the innkeeper, Hatasuko ran out and followed his mentor since he certainly wouldn’t wait.

When Hatasuko stepped out into the starlit air, he saw Lazaro buy a small bag of viridipomus fruit. Right in front of the vendor, Lazaro took a huge bite of a fruit, spit it on the ground, and then took a second bite. Hatasuko sighed and walked toward his mentor. He and Lazaro then quickly walked toward the north end of the street. Before they turned the corner, he looked over his shoulder and saw Vaida step out from the inn. He struggled to see far through the starlight and candlelight, but excitement radiated from her dead eye. She had a spring in her step.

“We’re about to meet the girl who handles all the Interfectus predictions. I want you to come with, but you don’t have to pay attention. I need to keep relations good with these guys just in case you get yourself killed. You’ll never need a forecaster yourself since you have that crazy power,” Lazaro explained.

Hatasuko retorted, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Lazaro scoffed and knocked upon a door on the right side of the street. After many sounds of papers folding and footsteps rushing, the door opened to reveal a red-haired woman. She had equations written all over the walls, countless papers, and even her own arms. The papers that littered the floor were simply hand calculations, though she kept the results organized on her desk. There were several maps of Agrideī on the walls, all with countless notes and ink strewn across them.

            Madeline said from the edge of the tempest, “I’ve decided that you’re ready to learn a truth known by very few people. Do you remember earlier when I said I once served the most powerful man?”

Hatasuko was amazed that he heard her clearly while fully awake, but he welcomed this surprise. As the red-haired woman spoke to Lazaro at length about her prediction, Hatasuko let himself travel to the edge of the tempest in the depths of his mind.

“Yes, of course I remember. Is he someone I could somehow meet?”

“I think not. It would be a meaningless visit with a meaningless man. Hatasuko, what exactly do you think about the concept of a god? I know that many people would hate him for letting this happen. Some even believe that he’s responsible for the Interfecti—that he unleashed them upon us as a punishment. What do you think?” Madeline asked.

Hatasuko answered, “I’m afraid I never really put any thought into this. I know some say they can speak to a god or feel his presence. As for me… I’ve never felt anything but the tempest. I don’t know if gods are real. I don’t know if they care about our plight, and I don’t even know if they could stop it. Sometimes I want to believe, since it could validate my destiny in some roundabout way, but I can’t say anything with certainty.”

The voices and screams in the tempest quickly faded. Other than the sound of Lazaro speaking to the red-haired woman, the world fell completely silent. Hatasuko could not even hear the footsteps of people walking outside.

Madeline penetrated the silence and said, “There does exist a god, but he does not live in any special dimension. The truth is that he actually has a physical body. His name is Caelicola, and he lives in silence at the corner of this world. He sees all things, knows all things, and can transfer himself anywhere at once. He can create or destroy anything he desires. When I was alive, I was his servant until I realized that he does not want to intervene. When I got sick of watching people die, I left. As fate would have it, an Interfectus killed me shortly later—alongside a few thousand people. I believe that that happened for a reason; I believe that destiny chose me to enter the tempest and guide you.”

“Come on, Hatasuko, we have to get going,” Lazaro declared with a firm voice.

Hatasuko nodded and ran over to the other side of the room. He walked cautiously to avoid stepping on papers, though he doubted that the red-haired woman cared about the scratchwork on the floor. She had already returned to her desk where she sifted through a stack in silence. Lazaro and Hatasuko both stepped out into the luminous streets as countless civilians walked by. When they entered the crowd and began marching west, he realized that his mentor carried fewer gold coins than before. This meant that Lazaro had actually paid money for information that he did not need. That payment would only be worth anything if Lazaro lost Hatasuko and his Interfectus-finding talent.

            “But Madeline, what are you guiding me to? Why won’t God, or Caelicola or whoever it is, end the nightmare for us? He sounds like he’s omnipotent. You said he can destroy anything, but I can’t even scratch an Interfectus. How am I supposed to save anyone?”

Madeline answered from the edge of the tempest, “It has to be you. You are the only person who has ever withstood being touched by the darkness. You have a heart strong enough to endure the tempest. No one else in Agrideī can wield the ultimate weapon.”

            Hatasuko’s conversation came to a pause when Lazaro knocked on the door to another building. This part of Bones City stood on a small hill, and therefore they stared out over the city as they waited. Hatasuko narrowed his eyes and gazed to the west. The starlight forced the sea to shimmer. The waves looked small from this distance, but they continuously rolled ashore while glistening from the lights in the sky.

The door finally swung open. A thin man stood in the doorway with an apathetic stare; he did not seem to care that Lazaro had shown up for the first time in ages. The man simply turned and walked toward his desk at the far end of the room. When Hatasuko stepped inside, he realized that this place resembled the red-haired woman’s house, albeit significantly more organized. There were papers and calculations everywhere, but the man organized them in piles and stacks.

“What would you like to know?” he disinterestedly asked.

“I need a four-day forecast for Sentia and the whole journey there. I believe I’ll take the river to the intersection, follow the next river south, and then we’ll row the rest of the way through the ocean,” Lazaro said.

“Alright. I don’t receive many requests for the weather that far away, so this will take a moment. You can wait here,” said the thin, tired man as he stepped into a second room.

Lazaro nodded and took a seat on the couch beside a stack of papers. Hatasuko wondered how this man planned to predict the weather, but then his mind drifted back to Madeline.

He asked, “Madeline, what is the ultimate weapon? I don’t think I have ever heard that phrase. I was always told that we are hopeless and defenseless.”

“I learned about it in the days I spent with Caelicola. It is a truth unknown to the human world. Though we cannot see it and we cannot sense it, everyone has a unique power that exists in their core; this power is the essence of the human soul. It has never shown itself in this world because we as people do not possess the right fuel for this power. That said, I will teach you how to create this fuel. I will teach you how to access this power. Hatasuko, are you ready to step onto the path of your own destiny? Are you ready to shed your humanity and become the first Astrodeus?” she asked.

“Please, Madeline, you must tell me everything! If there is any strength or power I can use against the demons, I must know about it!”

“Then keep the door to the tempest open. I will tell you everything as the time draws near.”

***

In another part of Bones City, Vaida sat quietly at a table outside a small restaurant. She watched without a word as people walked through the streets of her hometown. The customers spoke quietly to each other, and she eavesdropped as she waited for her friend. Since she faced the southeast, the strong wind pulled her hair behind her head, exposing her scars to the other customers. It revealed the burn scars on her right arm, her neck, her face, and even her dead eye, but no one seemed to notice.

“Vaida! Vaida, is that you?” yelled an enthusiastic voice.

Vaida looked to her left and saw her old friend standing in the street. The starlight reflected on the white walls of nearby buildings and illuminated his brown hair, but his smile delighted her more than the shimmering light.

“Harvey! I’m so glad you found me,” Vaida said as she jumped up from her seat.

Harvey ran over to her, dropped his bag on the ground, and wrapped his strong arms around her. She closed her eyes and smiled widely as he held her. The wind forced her hair to flap against his face, but then he reached over and grabbed a handful of her hair. She felt his fingertips gently dig through her scalp, so she opened her mouth and smiled. Nearby customers watched her, but for the first time in a long time, she did not care.

“Vaida, you’ve changed so much! You’ve gotten so strong, and you’re prettier than ever! You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” he raved as he held her in his arms.

Vaida opened her eyes with surprise, but she said nothing. Her cheeks started to redden again, and she reciprocated his embrace while hiding her face with her hair.

“Thank you, Harvey. You don’t know how much that means to me.”

The shadow of a memory pressed upon her brain, unleashing a small rush of adrenaline. Vaida let go of him and threw herself into her seat so suddenly that every head turned to face her. The wind pulled her dark hair into a flurry, but she narrowed her eyes and focused on the friend before her.

Vaida remembered the first time that Harvey had embraced her. It was many years ago when the southern side of Bones City was in a state of total wreckage. An Interfectus had leveled a tremendous section of the city, and countless people had died in the attack. Harvey had stumbled into a makeshift hospital in the heart of the wreckage; she saw him from her hospital bed as she clenched the pillow in her little hands. Half of her body looked unrecognizable; she had been burned so completely that she did not look human. The young Harvey cried as soon as he saw her. He ran over and embraced her in that makeshift hospital because there was nothing he could say.

            Shaking her free from her memory, Harvey stammered, “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I promise I didn’t mean to scare you!”

“It’s alright! It’s not your fault. I’m just, um, not used to interaction. I haven’t exactly been the most social person,” Vaida said with a forced laugh.

Harvey smiled and sat in the seat across from her. At the outdoor table behind him, a young couple stood up and walked away from the quiet restaurant. Vaida stared at the couple as she stabilized herself, but he did not seem to mind. Instead, Harvey sat across from her with a handsome smile. His dark blue eyes gazed softly at her face.

“I know it’s a little late, but um, thank you for calling me strong. It’s certainly been a long journey. You’re looking strong as well! You’ve always been pretty built, but never like this!” Vaida raved, motioning toward his arms with her blue eye.

Harvey grinned and flexed his right arm. Every muscle on his arm bulged, but his biceps looked especially impressive. Vaida shyly smiled and reached out with her scarred right hand. She felt the powerful muscle with her fingers, but she timidly retracted her hand when she saw an onlooker watching.

“Just a couple weeks after the last time I saw you, I actually got a job down at the market! It’s nothing special, but Spencer and I’ve been lugging these huge piscileo back and forth. We have to carry them one-by-one from the factory to the market! It’s hard work, but we’ve gotten pretty big because of it,” Harvey explained.

“…You wouldn’t happen to have any, would you? I’m really hungry. I love raw piscileo,” Vaida said with a famished look.

“But you’re always eating! How are you still hungry? Where does it all go?” Harvey asked with a laugh.

“Well, I’m like constantly exercising so I have to eat! It’s not my fault!” she laughed.

“Ha, fine! I’ve got some piscileo back at the house. I don’t know if Spencer’s working, but if not, he might want to eat with us. Is that alright?” Harvey asked as he stood up.

Vaida smiled and lifted herself to her feet. She picked up his bag with her right foot, passed it to him, and said, “Yeah. Let’s go!”

After walking through two blocks on streets that shone with starlight, Vaida and Harvey arrived at the door to his one-story home. The walls were white, and the glow of candles illuminated his windows from inside. Harvey opened the door and peered inside to see if Spencer was home, but the house looked empty. Candles flickered from the pressure of the opening door, so Vaida stepped inside and closed the door.

Aside from exercise equipment and a large icebox in the corner of the room, the house looked barren. Vaida was surprised by its emptiness. When she used to live in Bones City, Harvey was the liveliest person she knew. He was very social; his many friends seemed to follow him everywhere. He could step into a room and make it feel brighter just with his presence, but now there was only the dim glow of a flickering candle.

            Harvey confessed with a quiver in his voice, “I missed you so much, Vaida. I’ve always heard them say that you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone, but I never really knew what that meant. Not until you left. Everything was just so mundane without you. Every day’s just the same useless thing. I don’t think I ever realized how much you meant to me. I never got the chance to tell you before you left. I was so afraid you would die before I ever got the chance, but now you’re back! Now I can tell you how much I care about you, and then you won’t have to run away! You can stay here with me.”

“Harvey… I had no idea. I, um, I can’t imagine what you see in me. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you miss me this much. I guess, well, I mean, I didn’t think I meant anything to anyone,” she nervously said.

“Vaida, you’re the most important person in the whole world to me. You’re so pretty, you’re so strong, but you’re so wounded. I know that you hate yourself, I know that you regret waking up; I know that you cry yourself to sleep, but I want to change that. Every day when you were gone fighting monsters, I knew you were in pain. I knew that you were cold and alone, and I hated myself for letting you do that. Vaida, please stay here in Bones City. Please just stay with me. Please don’t go back out there. When we’re apart, we’re just cold and alone. We just hate ourselves and wallow in misery. But if we’re together, then-”

“I cannot stay with you.”

Harvey glanced away from the candle and gazed at her with his intense blue eyes. A rush of timidity caused her to look away. He walked over to her and placed his left hand on her scarred shoulder. She gazed at his hand with her shy eyes.

“But why not? Wouldn’t it be better than feeling the way I know you feel now?”

“It’s, um, because this is bigger than me. The Interfectus, that monster… that’s more important than my happiness! I know I knock myself down, but standing back up is the most important thing. I want to spend what little I have left of this life saving people. When the demon attacks, um, a lot of people need me there. I want to be there. I can’t stay here,” she whispered.

“They don’t need you more than I do. How could you possibly help them anyway?” he demanded. Vaida glanced up and saw that his face looked solemn. His blue eyes stared more intensely now than ever. The flicker of candlelight reflected on the light surface of his skin in a way that made him look threatening, so she took a small step backward.

“I can guide people to safety. Hatasuko and I save as many people as we can! A lot of lives, well, a lot of lives, um, they might be lost if I stop trying now. I’m sorry, Harvey, but this is important to me. It’s the only thing that lets me justify staying alive when I feel like this,” she confessed with her quiet voice.

“But I can stop you from feeling like this! Vaida, if you understood how happy we could be, you would give this up in a heartbeat! The whole world’s doomed anyway. There’s no saving it. But if I can stay with you at the end of all things, then that would be enough to make this life worth living.”

“But those people, Harvey, they need me,” she said as she looked down.

Harvey reached out again and touched the smooth part of her face with his hand. Because of the emotions roaring in her head, Vaida stood up and stepped back. When she glanced up, she saw an anger ignite in his blue eyes.

Harvey demanded, “And how the fuck do they need you?! You can’t do anything!”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Vaida, you’re afraid of everything. You might have some muscle on you, but you’re the weakest person I’ve ever known. Weak on the inside. You can’t save anyone—not by yourself. People don’t even want to be saved by you. You should just stay with me,” he said with a snarl.

Vaida looked away from her friend and walked slowly toward the door, but Harvey grabbed her shoulder before she got far. Because of his strength, the grip of his hand hurt her. Her eyes started to well up with tears. This was not how she remembered him at all.

“Do you know how stupid this is? I lost everything because I couldn’t fill the hole in my life that you left behind! I let everyone slip through my fingers; I just couldn’t bring myself to care about anything else. I’m gonna be dragging piscileo back and forth for the rest of my life! And how is that fair? How does that even happen? How did I let my life get ruined by a girl as flighty and ugly as you?” Harvey yelled while squeezing her shoulder.

Vaida felt a shiver shoot down her spine. Her whole body felt like it became unresponsive other than the quivering of her lips. Her dark hair swayed slightly from the shaking of her head. She tried to pull herself out of his grip, but he overpowered her. With a quiet, breathy voice, she said, “But you always said that I’m beautiful.”

Harvey let out a scoff and pulled her toward the corner of the room. A small mirror hung from the wall, just above a flickering candle. Harvey forced her forward so that she stared at her own reflection as the candlelight flashed upon her face. The light shone on her right side, so the fiery glow accentuated her darkest scars. She stared for a second at the reflection of her dead, sea-green eye, but she quickly looked away.

“You’re burned and disfigured. You will be stained forever. I know you ran away because you couldn’t face the stares and gawks of the people here, but you’ll never escape me. You and I are meant to be, Vaida. You’re cursed to carry your scars in a place the world can see, but I am the only one who can bring you happiness. And don’t you want to be happy? If you stay here with me, then-”

“I don’t want to stay with you!”

Vaida suddenly slapped her hands onto Harvey’s arm, dropped herself to a crouch, and threw his heavy body over her shoulders so that he slammed against the wall. She let go and ran toward the door as he fell onto his knees. She opened the door quickly and swerved to face him with her good eye, but she struggled to see through the candlelight as tears rolled down her cheeks. His face revealed an expression that was somewhere between anger and misery, but she dashed out the door.

Vaida ran out into the street and raced toward the inn. Since she sprinted so quickly through the dirt streets, everyone turned to watch her run, so she slapped her left hand over her face to hide her scars. She felt that she probably looked like a laughable clown, running through the streets with her hand on her face and tears flowing from her eyes, but anything was better than letting them see her scars. Her tears obscured her vision, so when she sharply turned a corner up ahead, she accidentally crashed into a person.

She stammered, “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you. Please don’t-”

“Vaida? Vaida, what happened?” asked a familiar voice.

Vaida quickly wiped the tears from her left eye and realized that she had crashed into Hatasuko. His golden eyes looked sad when he saw her, but he reached out with both hands. Vaida jumped back and dodged his embrace, still hiding her face with her hands. With a silent look of concern, Hatasuko pulled his hands back to his side, but then Vaida wrapped her arms around him. With a breathy series of sobs, she buried her forehead into his chest and dug her fingers into his back.

As she covered her blind eye with her scarred hand, Vaida said, “I never listened when he said he loved me because I hate myself so much. He said that I’m blind if I can’t see it, but I can’t accept my own reflection. I am revolted by the girl in the mirror; her scarred face haunts me every day. So how am I supposed to move on? I want to gaze into the future. But every time I try to look ahead, one eye can only see the past.”