Chapter 237: The Future
Going home was hard, because the worlds here were very messy and Kestrel had wandered really far. In here, numerous warped doors and worlds inside worlds made it hard to find the path she took when she looked back. She could get lost in the big psychic landscape anytime.
Were she alone right now, Kestrel wouldn’t be able to find her way home in this colorful, ever-changing world, but she was holding little Kaworu this time.
Kaworu, who used to be grown-up, smart, and all-powerful, was now just a two-year-old, delicate and tiny, leaning on her, depending on her. That gave Kestrel courage. She was sure she could find a way home in this intricate world.
She paid close attention, like never before, and her tendrils worked hard to help, dodging the creatures that chased her non-stop in this strange world. She ran fast, her feet touching the hovering ground.
This reminded Kestrel of being a kid, when her mom ran with her through the blazing field. Back then, she didn’t get how her mom could move so bravely through the raging fires, but now she got it.
It was because her mom was guarding something precious, someone dear. People turn bolder and more focused when they feel such feelings.
Each door Kestrel crossed, the wild winds during the space shifts would slice her tendrils.
The creatures trailing her formed a long queue, many times the dark claws nearly grabbed Kestrel’s long hair, but she held Kaworu and continued running without doubting.
She had run in this kind of place for quite a while.
Little Kaworu was wrapped in the wriggling tendrils. The tendrils were really soft, the glow was faint, making him feel really safe.
Between the small openings in the tendrils, Kaworu could see the shaking shadows outside – evil creatures looking like cows and pig-faced monsters holding machetes.
This felt like a bad dream, similar to the dark place he had been in for a really long period. He didn’t know who was holding him, why there were such cozy arms, but he could hear the heartbeat, loud and rhythmic like drums.
In those sounds, Kaworu suddenly recalled his shattered past: he had been badly mistreated and disrespected, lost all he cherished, felt weary, hurt, and even considered giving in to a deep slumber.
He witnessed the scary monsters and the splashing red blood. The soft tendrils shielding him got hurt, they swelled and shook briefly, before another one covered him again, protecting him once more. They sustained wounds and bled for him.
Kaworu stretched out a finger, pointing ahead. The finger was small, barely having any power.
Under Kestrel’s feet, a soft, light green glow appeared suddenly. These were tiny moss signs in the nighttime, sketching a slender path in the dark realm, winding through the warped doors as if showing the direction.
They were guiding Kestrel to her home.
Kestrel followed the pale green path.
Out of the blue, the scene in front of her became much brighter.
Midday sunrays seeped through the green leaves above, lighting up the earth where four groundhogs, a couple of confused wild ducks, and a golden cat arching its back, meowed.
Kestrel’s heartbeat quickened when she saw Locky’s big, round eyes open wide.
Kestrel began to laugh, feeling happy and at ease, escaping the turmoil of the psychic landscape and coming back to her true home.
Her tendrils unfolded, uncovering the young version of Kaworu.
The little boy was holding a clay flower pot, staring at the sunny sky, a bit shocked. His grey, serene eyes mirrored the brightness, looking like calm rivers with a silvery stream.
Sunbeams and foliage, flowers bobbing in the garden, a tiny groundhog lifting its head clutching its front legs, and a girl with tousled hair weeping - all were greeting him home.
In the flower pot, a fragile young plant emerged from the damp, plush earth. Two fresh leaves stood upright, radiating life under the sunlight.
Locky, who had been suppressing her tears, finally let them flow freely. Her wails were loud, crying without holding back, big tears soaking her round face.
"I’m so glad I brought Kaworu home," Kestrel thought, "or else, the garden would have truly turned into a sea from Locky’s tears."
Only when the sun went down and the sky turned into deep evening shades did Kestrel retrieve the Verity Vault in her loft - it was actually concealed deep beneath the ground, where the Erdtree had fallen apart.
After the fierce confrontation, the intruders seemed to back off quickly, failing to find the box in the end.
Kestrel had glimpsed snippets of that conflict in Kaworu’s memories.
She was unclear about the identity of the invader who had infiltrated her home. It wasn’t a psychic incarnation any human would possess, more like an entity, or a bunch of entities combined into a strange creature. Those appendages didn’t fit together, joined forcibly, hideous and bulky. It looked like a huge sticky substance, slowly emerging from past the wall of the yard adorned with roses.
It let out a hurtful cry, covering the sunlight and filling the sky over the yard, with numerous dirty arms reaching down towards the Erdtree positioned in the yard. At that moment, the tall golden trunk moved with a whispering beat, facing the approaching foe.
Two strong psychic incarnations clashed in the small yard, producing a mental wave so strong that it reminded Kestrel of the Queen who always stayed in the Tower.
For a bit, Kestrel found it hard to accept that the Queen, who governed the human Empire, had such a distorted and hideous psychic incarnation.
Softly, Kestrel stroked the Verity Vault in her grasp.
Whether retrieved from the deep ocean before, or recently dug up from the deep earth, this hand-sized wooden box managed to keep its looks, appearing ancient, worn, and seemingly ready to crumble at any moment.
Now, the decaying wood was adorned with mystic designs, giving off a hidden glow beneath the dark sky.
Kestrel brought out the necklace she got in Mantidale and placed its green stone into a notch on the box.
A sound like a key turning rang in the air, indicating something had unlocked.
Green light gently spread over the wooden box’s surface, finally reaching the top of the box cover. The illumination moved from the markings of the Mary, to the Erdtree’s Polluted Zone designs, to the Eyehole designs, and then to the Mantidale designs, lighting up every side of the small wooden box.
Ultimately, the gradually moving light occupied the last vacant notch, and above the box, a holographic representation of the Tower appeared.
The holographic representation of the Tower manifested above the Verity Vault, slowly turning within a softly glowing beam.
The Tower, admired and venerated for centuries, was not a blessing from the gods, but was built from mutant bones, embodying evil intentions.
The Tower served as a jail for mankind - this was the harsh reality of their world, a truth that Kestrel had felt deep inside, so it didn’t surprise her too much.
As she extended her hand, the instant her finger brushed the glowing wooden box, the old and deteriorated wooden box began to change under her touch.
The map-like enigmatic patterns that decorated the box started to shift, the rotting wood changed its look under Kestrel’s watch. The dark, frail box was now encased in a layer of chilly white shine, turning solid, sleek, and flawless.
The substance seemed somewhat golden, but wasn’t. Kestrel held it, feeling a gentle warmth, akin to a living being. It didn’t match any substance found in this world, nor did it appear to be something humans could create.
At that time, the glowing image of the Tower, floating above the box, suddenly became smaller. Quickly, all of Kestrel’s psychic energy was pulled by a very strong force, getting sucked into a weird space along with the light.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a place full of stars where many slow streams of psychic energy gathered together in the huge sea of stars.
The place looked like a really huge tree. Among the many stars, big and small flows of psychic energy moved like calm little rivers towards that tree, joining and coming together to make a peaceful existence.
Kestrel couldn’t see the top of the tree and couldn’t reach the roots below, this huge tree covered the sky and spread through the space, representing forever, the past, and what was to come—it was the psychic universe, a place made from the mixing of everyone’s psychic powers.
Kestrel couldn’t remember when she had first heard these words. Maybe when she was younger, around the time she became a beta, talks about Yggdrasill, the World Tree, and the psychic world had been carved in her mind without her knowing.
People said that there was a spot that was beyond time and place, where the psychic energies of beings from many worlds met. It was a really big space, an endless huge tree where even powerful beings seemed very small in front of it.
Under the huge holy intention of Yggdrasill, souls would experience a cleansing. Most beings couldn’t handle the strong flows from the never-ending energy, since even one look could make their soul fall apart.
But, nobody knew where to see this or where to look for it.
Others mentioned it was the greatest dream for all strong psychic beings, because it was a door to the whole world’s knowledge, a place of never-ending learning and where one could explore the mysteries of the world, learn about the past and see what the future held.
Kestrel didn’t know that the Verity Vault would take her psychic self to such a place. Luckily, by this point, she had turned into a strong and steady psychic being through hard practice, letting her stay there, even if only for a little bit.
Even so, even though she only got to see that huge and beautiful place for a short time, when she opened her eyes to come back to her body, she was covered in cold sweat, her heart beating really loud.
Kestrel took her hand off the wooden box. The Verity Vault sat quiet in front of her, the green stone lying on the bedsheet. The shining light slowly moved around the small box’s four sides, with an empty notch at the top.
Its calm appearance made it completely hard to believe that it had taken the user to the biggest and most beautiful psychic world in this universe.
Outside, it had turned dark already.
Kestrel had only taken a short look, but that quick peek made her feel like she had been purified under the never-ending stars. It seemed like she had seen human history in the vast river of time, and caught tiny visions of what was to come.
She had only seen a small part of the future, but that little part was more than enough.
Kestrel raised her head to look through the window. The sky outside had no signs of the sunset; the night was coming, deep and dark, like a black sheet slowly falling from the sky.
The scary tower built from stacked bones stood quiet in the foggy night, spookily white.
Kestrel looked at the tower, and it seemed like the Tower was looking back at her.
"Did I just witness the actual future? What will happen to humans?" Kestrel wondered, her forehead wrinkled in thought.
...
In a wet and shadowy lane, a young girl was huddled in a corner, holding a picture album tight in her arms. She heard footsteps getting nearer from a short distance away, then slowly going away, the kind of noise made by the hard bottoms of the alphas’ army boots.
Those people went away without spotting the girl.
The girl breathed a long breath of relief. With her skinny back against the cold stone wall, she slowly sat down.
She had run really far, feeling both exhausted and thirsty. In the chilly and dark nook, she opened the album she had in her arms — it was a keepsake from her friend. Every page of the album had pretty sketches, but the person who made them wasn’t around anymore.
Under the soft light of a streetlamp, the girl flipped the pages with her dirty hands. When she got to the last page, her small hands softly touched the bright colors in the drawing.
"Is this what’s coming?" the little girl in the corner muttered quietly, her head hung low. "Pelí, is this the future you saw?"
