I was only partially able to recall that Siever was holding me in his arms while we simply fell without equipment back to the ground. I had read about it on some planets, but it was very few, was possible to find people with magic control enough to fly. But until I realize that... SHIT!! WE'RE FALLING!!!
Even finding people with master degree in magic was a extremely difficult task. I was convinced that the extreme atmospheric cold that was making me clap my teeth wildly, and the air flicking through my skin as we went down did not help much either. I tightly gripped my arms around Siever. I hoped that this crazy man did not went after me, just to kill me from that fall!!!
We quickly crossed the breathable atmosphere and landed gently back in the garden, but even after Siever put me down and I realized the cold was not fading. Instead, it seemed to be increasing more and more... it came from inside my body, sucking any heat like a bottomless hole.
"What... just... hap-p-ppened???" I asked as I rubbed my arms trying to warm myself and trying to control the teeth that were shaking violently "You... were f-flying!!!"
Henry fall of, sitting on the floor and hided his desperate face in his palms.
"Did he show you the reliquary?" He asked, with his voice muffled by his hands.
"Cold…" though I heard what he asked, I could only babble in an inaudible whisper.
I still tried again but could not answer. I was feeling really bad right now. This tyrannical cold was getting more and more unbearable. When Siever looked up for the answer he had not yet received, he could see me finally losing strength in my knees and falling in the middle of the strong tremors.
He sighed in disappointment. That tyrannical cold that I felt seemed to be the answer he needed. He got up and approached me again.
"I'm sorry... I tried to avoid... said that you would not be prepared for this... but he did not want to know…" Siever said as he knelt in front of me.
" w-w-w-what d-d-do you did with m-e?" my voice came out little almost without sound.
"The cold will not fade. Never. You will have to live with it. But there are ways to mitigate this situation... It was already very strong when it entered you, so this why your reaction is so violent."
" W-wh-what? I d-d-don't und-ders-tan-tand." I tried to say. The cold was so intense now that it hurt. It looked like it would turn into a statue of ice if one day I could stop shaking.
"Give me your hands" Siever said quietly, extending his own. But he did not wait for an answer. He untied my fingers, and squeezed them tightly between his palms.
I did not realize it right away, but soon I felt. A heat came in waves from Siever's hands. It warmed my entire body as if he were bombarding a soft and pleasant flame to finish this terrifying cold.
I allowed myself to enjoy the heat for a long time, and I caught a glimpse of the ship parking next to us. Marco got out of the ship and strode toward us with heavy steps, but before he reached us, he was intercepted by a droid messenger who came stumbling out of the palace.
I ended up looking at him again, and I felt that he was struggling in an internal conflict between coming to us, or attending to the call of the bent messenger. Eventually he gave in and followed the clerk through the dark corridors, seeming very angry.
Siever remained there, hand in hand with me until dawn. Was he right. The cold had not passed. I felt relatively better, but every warm breeze seemed like a icy wind against my skin.
"What do you did to me?" I asked again.
"It's a long story... I'll explain on the way! Come on, we have to go while the palace's shield is still open."
He ran to the ship and seemed to be mending the damage. When I accompanied him, I saw that the broken glass was whole and the body of the ship was no longer dented. But what kind of creature is he? Before I could decide whether I should really trust him or not, he, without wasting any more time, he took me in his arms and put me back in the passenger seat, took the pilot's seat without further interruption and started.
We had already left the orbit of the planet when I pressed on questions:
"What's going on? Where are you taking me? What are you going to do to me?"
"Before answer your questions, I'll tell you a story" he started by putting the ship in cruiser mode "And this story explains what happens to you."
"Countless ages ago, still in the formation of the universe, three stupendous primordial powers formed and began to wander through the empty space. These primordial powers had condensed itselfs in a way that is impossible to explain scientifically yet. Something that can't be explained was always called as superstition, magic and stuff like that. I can guess that you don't know, but it has been thousands of centuries that the existence of souls, the flow of energy between living beings and magic have been proven and accepted by academic communities, but before that, souls were talked as nonsense." I could only nod in agreement with my head, I had seen things about it, but that was very little considering where I came from.
"Well, that's it: it's magic I'm talking about. A very old magic. And after learning what these magics were, the ancestors decided to call them: the power of Creation, the power of Transmutation, and the power of Wisdom. These three powers have been condensed into unique, usabe relics, and each corresponds to the one thing that makes up the origin of the universe: matter, energy, and gravity, respectively.
"I still do not understand where you want to go with this all." I asked confused.
"Thousands of ages ago, at the beginning of the expansion of the human race, there were some people who had access to the relics" he continued without paying attention to the question "and they belatedly discovered that these powers should be controlled to prevent them from collapsing and destroying everything. And the most efficient way to do this was to give these powers to some chosen guardians, who would give up their lives to protect and control those powers. Over time, the information of their existence has also been erased from the minds of ordinary people. It caused a lot of discord and sometimes wars to control the guardian. In the end, it was also decided that the three relics would be guarded only by two guardians, after all it is a secret of common governments, armies and anyone who wants to enjoy them in an attempt to subdue the others. Nowadays only a small association of Jomons has knowledge of the relics and their guardians. But nearly eighteen years ago, the last guardian of one of these relics did not bear his burden and ... well, this guardian died.
I shuddered, feeling the fate of this conversation. The cold and the idea of what he was trying to tell me already ferociously lurked around me.
"Since then, Marco has been trying to find a new guardian who could control this immeasurable energy. But the relic eagerly refused to accept anyone. It seems to have a mind of its own, you know... Or it did not find anyone worthy…" he paused for a moment as he turned on the autopilot "Since the relic was without a guardian, periodically it was necessary for someone else, myself, to try to balance the energy levels it exuded before it exploded everything. The last attempt was... four months ago."
"Miss Latrell... Alésia.... When that happened, the energy that flowed from this attempt to control the relic somehow aroused a call in you, in your soul, and made memories of the old guardian come up in your mind, these memories have created a magical bridge of your home to the place where the relic was being protected. Tonight, you did not see it, you do not remember, but you told us how you had come to the palace. That time you were possessed by a kind of spirit mark left behind from the last guardian. Apparently you were born just to occupy this place. The dates even seen to combyne. It was not a question of truths or lies. You are a new incarnation of this guardian, and all you had to do was show yourself to the relic and the relic itself would decide what was right, and that's what that bastard Marco did. You are too weak and can not bear that responsibility, so I was against it. I tried to take you away before he forced anything, but he was faster.
"Me... you... HE wants to make me a guardian of this "whatever" of yours?" Suddenly I felt as if some huge weight had been thrown into my stomach. I vaguely remembered being offended that he had insinuated that I was weak and irresponsible, but I could not answer. How could I account for something as impossible as what he was talking about? Even more as the reincarnation of a former guardian? What did I have to do with a past life?
"In fact, he already managed to do it." Siever spoke taxactive. "The moment he showed you the relic sealed inside the reliquary, the relic reacted to you, chose you, and possessed you. Proof of this is the cold you are feeling, it is the most noticeable side effect. Now it will be tied to you now, to your soul as long as you want to live, and there is nothing that can be done to change that."
"How could he do this to me? He should had at least asked my opinion! If he is the emperor, he simply has ALL the human population of the empire to look for someone strong enough…" I could only complain, feeling the weight of despair. I somehow felt the truth in his words. The same way I could also knew that Marco really was the emperor. If those guardians were away from the politicians, then what did he want minding with this all? But one part of the explanation suddenly startled me. "Side effects... and what other effects will this have?"
"Well... summing it up... this will kill you."