Tylu Monastery
Otebah [planet], Sytrihl [star system]
13 June; 21:22:12 Hours
Perched on the side of Taiboor, the oldest and highest mountain on Otebah, nestled within the giant evergreens, lies a serene monastery. The ancient stone corridors lived silently as monks, donning pure white robes, moved silently with their every step a graceful move with reality. Nuns cohabited amongst their brethren, their faces softly obscured by delicate long white veils, as they tended to Mon’to garden and meditated by the birthing river of the Goliath of the world. The aura that emanated from this pure anchor in the universe was a honing point to those searching for themself, while a deep and powerful sense of justice loomed as an unspoken shield.
“Hiiiii-toe bae-nah vay-gaaaah,” chanted within Mon’to where the young boy, Jaes sat at the center of five monks who levitated while they meditated upon him. “Gah-tay buhhhh-til vay-gaaaah!”
Just beyond the circle, standing with several nuns was Vhael who too was wearing a long white veil as she watched her son with tears in her eyes. She, along with everyone in the garden and even breaching the walls of Tylu, could feel a deep consuming pressure that was being revealed as the meditation continued. The singing of birds which was thunderous mere moments ago, was now silent as a bitter cold swept over everyone. Vhael held her hands in front of her chest with her knuckles white as she bit her bottom lip, watching with a growing familiar feeling of an indomitable hand closing upon the back of her neck.
“Ret-goyt wuh-ho del-mah bae-taaaaaaaah,” the Grand Monk led the chants as he held his left hand out to his side with his index finger and thumb touching while extending the remaining three fingers, and his right palm extending out toward Jaes.
It was then, when one monk after another collapsed from their meditation and the pressure was becoming undeniable. Vhael’s eyes grew large as she saw the first drop and then the second, and when the third followed, she attempted to go for her son though the nuns grabbed her arms and held her back. She briefly struggled to break their grasp, though everyone then went silent when the Grand Monk’s eyes shot open wide and their sereneness was gone as an inkiness fogged them black.
“<He has been marked! He cannot escape the grasp of,>” the Grand Monk’s voice called out deep and reverberated as he spoke in a tongue none had heard before, “Aem’Shihaev!”
He too then collapsed to the stone altar floor within Mon’to as the thick pressure sucked away in a blink, and the beautiful singing of birds returned.
“Jaes!” Vhael screamed as she pulled free from the nuns and hurried over to her son, hugging him tightly as he looked up to her with tears running down his face and he softly said to her.
“Mom… I’m scared!”
“I know, Baby! I know!”
Monks who were watching on now quickly tended to those who collapsed, while several and the three nuns helped the Grand Monk to his feet. He was an older man, his head bald though he possessed an excessively long gray beard, and he pointed to Jaes and Vhael as they both looked at him. He warned, “<You have been marked, my child. They are a darkness who seeks revenge for what you will do. There is no avoiding them as they will not stop until your light is extinguished.>”
Vhael’s ears perked up and her eyes narrowed as she stepped slightly in front of Jaes. “What he will do?”
The Grand Monk took his wooden staff from one of the nuns and steadied himself with it. He took in a deep breath before simply nodding to her, confirming her catch, though Vhael’s concern and confusion were not relieved by his acknowledgment. She was just about to push further when they all stopped as a haunting caw broke free, and the group slowly turned their attention to one of the evergreens where they found three crows perched and watching.
“<We will not lie to you like the others, my children,>” the Grand Monk then explained as he slowly turned his attention back to them, “<Darkness cannot be outrun… No matter to what beyond you go, to seek refuge from it.>”
***
Later that night…
“Uuuuuuh!” Vhael gasped as she shot up on her shikibuton, where she tossed the blanket off herself and scanned the small bedroom before she turned her attention upon Jaes.
He lay there clutching his blanket tight while he smiled in his sleep.
Vhael let out a sigh of relief as a small smile took over her face, knowing her son was alright for once, and she sat there on her bed with legs crossed while she ran her hand back through her hair. However, that relief she just gained and took the moment to sit in was snatched from her as her ears instantly perked up at the subtle sound of the floor out in the hall creaking. Her heart skipped a beat; the air went cold; Vhael’s attention slowly shifted as it panned across the tiny bedroom to the sliding door, and her eyes quadrupled.
Vhael quickly shot up to her feet before she carefully tiptoed over to the door. Her chest puffed out large and then ever so slowly contracted as she leaned forward and placed her ear up to the door, and she listened. Thirty seconds went by and then a minute and a half before she was standing there for nearly five minutes, and Vhael finally started to chuckle to herself for overreacting. She ran her hands over her face as she stood up straight, turned around, and headed back over to her bed, but halfway there she whipped back at another creak and ran to the sliding door.
Vhael, without hesitation, yanked the door open to her left expecting to find a Shade armored assassin who was sent for her son, but instead found nothing but a dark empty hallway. Vhael’s lip quivered and she breathily said to herself, “Ohhhh, my, my nerves,” and she turned around only for Daemus to be standing in front of her inside the room.
Vhael went to scream when she saw him but he snatched her by the mouth and jaw, lifting her off her feet as he carefully sized her up with his eyes narrowing and teeth gritting. “<What is it about you? Why does He want you snuffed out so desperately?>”
“<Daemus,>” Gael called as she stood at the foot of Jaes’ bed, watching him sleep before glancing back to Daemus and Vhael, “<Perhaps it’s not her… but her offspring?>”
Daemus looked Vhael up and down for a second time before he turned his attention to Jaes, unsure of what to believe as the Shade would not speak to him as it had a year prior.
Thump. Thump. Thump as the room slightly trembled with Haertrus walking up to Jaes where he began to reach his gigantic hand toward the little boy. Vhael began to panic, she tried clawing at Daemus’ forearm and Haertrus bellowed, “<Then he’d make great bait—”
“<WAIT!>” Daemus hissed as he raised his other hand. “<Something… Something has shifted within the Shade!>”
There between Daemus, Gael, and Haertrus as the room had become thick with Shade, arose out of the floor was a petite Being who was engulfed in a transmorphic skin-level armor of Shade. Her head tilted slightly to Her right as She looked at Vhael with the burning-white voids that were Her eyes, before to Daemus and then shifting completely to Jaes beyond Gael and Haertrus. Haertrus slowly pulled his hand back from the boy while he kept his eyes locked on Her, though Gael growled before quickly drawing her twin short tanto sabers and moving on the Being.
A sharp whistle screamed out as Gael swung her left saber down at the Being, though She quickly raised Her right forearm and blocked it with ease before She then rolled forward with a slight right twist. She twirled through, moving in almost a blur before She delivered a ferocious kick to Gael and then seamlessly landed on her feet. Gael was struck on the right side of her face, she stumbled back into Haertrus who without a second thought spun around her and charged forward himself.
Daemus, all the while watched the Being closely. His eyes were narrowed while they pinged around as She not only effortlessly countered his fellow Crows’ attacks, but Shade would suck around and in on Her before doing the reverse as She appeared in the perfect position and struck the two. Daemus growled, “<Interesting…>” before tossing Vhael out of the bedroom and nearly halfway down the hallway.
Slowly, Daemus places his hand upon the wall with Shade pulling to his blackened fingertips as the Shade of his eyes expanded out through the skin around them. He felt a deep and distant call that he’d faintly heard for the past year, but now it was that of a thousand voices louder. Daemus’ connection to seeing that which would through the Shade grew fainter in the pull he was exerting, and only could he see vividly the Being exerting Her effort upon Gael and Haertrus.
It was at this moment that Jaes awoke, the boy’s immediate sight was the burning-white eyes of Her as she drew a straight blade-like construct of Shade from the darkness of the room around Her. He let out a shrieking scream that cut through what seemed to be silence compared to that. Her attention then instantly shifted to Jaes, and as Gael came at her with both tanto blades swinging down, She blocked them with Her blade before pushing off and shuffle-kicked Gael so hard that she flew back into the wall behind her. The Being then disappeared within the Shade as Haertrus came swooping down on Her with both arms only to emerge from the wall behind Jaes.
“JAES!” Vhael screamed as she stood up and reached into a pouch on her belt, and he looked right at her past Daemus who yanked his hand free from the Shade.
The Being loomed over the boy as She began drawing two more blades, but something changed that Daemus noticed; Her continuously moving armor of Shade ceased, the burning of Her eyes flickered out and gold irises broke free, and then She looked around the room from Haertrus to Daemus and then Gael before Jaes. At that moment, she muttered, “Luushika…” but then the Shade armor started to crawl upon her again and her eyes ignited with furious intensity.
Jaes out of a panic during the moment of stillness shot up from his bed and began to run for his mother, and Vhael simultaneously squeezed the small metal orb she pulled from the pouch and waited. A high-pitched chirping sounded from the orb with it speeding up in stride with Jaes, and when he neared the doorway, Vhael tossed it down the hall and into the bedroom.
Haertrus saw the orb as it flew past Jaes who pushed by Daemus and out into the hallway, and his eyes opened wide. “<Daemus! Gael… Shine charge!>”
Daemus heard the ping of the charge hit the floor off to his right before the hollow echo of it rolling toward the center of the room. However, he briefly looked to the Being whose attention was honed on the boy who was now running away with his mother. Daemus and the two then quickly turned into the Shade, just a second before the charge released a white flash that consumed everything in the tiny bedroom. A thunderous shrieking whistle followed the flash as the charge erupted and highly uncontrollable Shine exploded with the force of a sun.
A blazing white fire raged on in the distance, illuminating the giant evergreens in the night while the entirety of that small cottage was consumed. There came a cracking of branches as Haertrus and Gael walked up behind Daemus, who watched on from the mountainside and he let out a deep growl.
“<Bait…” Daemus glanced at Haertrus, saying, “Yes, yes that is exactly what they’ll be, Haertrus!>”
The fire continued, it of Shine which ate away at even the stone, though within the bedroom was a shifting bubble of Shade. It was blacker than black while the burning white of the flames kept their distance. The bubble slowly appeared to shrink inward on itself before stopping, only to then in an explosive display itself, the bubble exploded with the Shade blowing out the white fire consuming the room, leaving the Being untouched. She tilted Her head to the left before slightly to the right, but then Shade pulled in upon Her and She was gone in a blink.