Nestled within the cocoon, Eden solidified their resolve. Eden didn't know how much help they could be, but the effects of the bursts would have amazing benefits. Since it was just the three of them, they'd need every advantage they could get.
Eden strengthened the tethers, carefully weaving the roots together and into the surrounding root system of the forest, anchoring Eden and Sorcha firmly in place. Ok, it was now or never. The little gemstone cautiously opened their wooden cocoon and exposed the two to the Cloudburst. Eden and Sorcha's feet left the ground, but the harnesses held steady.
What Eden didn't account for was how fast the wind speed would rise. Inherited memories or were helpful, but it did not replace experience. Eden bit their lip as they focused on weaving the fraying pieces together, and for a while, it worked. Eden could feel their energy deplete bit by bit. Tears of liquid gold slipped down their cheeks as they drew on their reserves. If they stopped here, then what would happen to Sorcha? Eden frantically wove the ends back together.
They were running out of time, and Eden knew they would not be able to hold on for much longer. This had been a mistake. They had been overly confident and now not only were they going to pay the price for their foolhardiness, but Sorcha suffer too. Eden reached both hands out for Sorcha. Just a little more. Almost there! Their fingertips grazed each other once, nails lightly clacking, but before Eden could angle themself to get a decent grip, the vines snapped and howling gusts swept little gemstone into the mountain range, past where they had hidden.
---
Sorcha let out a terrified scream as she went airborne, leaving behind a trail of frozen mist from the ice that wrapped across her flailing figure. Below, the forest blurred as she flew, and the powerlessness of her unwilling flight caused her to panic. Sorcha wanted to ball up and cry. She wanted to hurl, but most of all, she wanted Io, Dagan, and Eden. The girl took sharp shallow breaths as she fought to hold on to her reason. This time, she could do it. She'd be strong. Sorcha desperately grabbed at branches and while it slowed her down, ultimately they'd break. Eventually, the branches grew thicker, and Sorcha tenaciously kept grabbing at them.
At first, it did her no good, her hands slipping or her bumping into the ever-thickening canopy. Finally, Sorcha ended up dangling a few meters off the ground. Tiny orbs of ice slid down Sorcha's temples as she panted. She did it! Sorcha let out a hurrah and gave a fist bump. Above her head, the sound of cracking announced another problem. Sorcha wanted to scream.
Wasn't it enough that Dagan turned into a fire monster? That Eden was taken, who knows where, and now this?! Sorcha's pale blue lower lip stuck out in a pout as she kicked her feet up. She pulled herself up and swung a leg over the cracking branch. Sorcha could feel a twitch develop and her eyes narrow. No. Not doing this, she decided and finished hefting herself up and scrabbled ungracefully towards the trunk.
Now to get down. Sorcha stared down at the ground below as if it somehow had the answers to her dilemma. After some time passed, she slumped against the trunk. No such luck there. Sorcha stared idly at her delicately clawed toes for a moment, idly wiggling them. She knew now wasn't the time to goof off but, maybe there she could...
The little ice cube's eyes brightened. Yes, that'd work. Sorcha's face scrunched up as she pulled deep from within herself, searching for ah-ha! There it was! Sorcha gave a tug, and ice wrapped around her hands and feet. Sorcha opened her eyes, hopped to her feet, and let out a squee of delight.
All traces of joy were wiped away in an instant as she tilted to one side. No! No! No! She screamed and sunk her icy claws into the trunk. No! She had done so well, and she was. Not. Going. To. Mess. This. Up. Now, she just needed to get climb down and figure out where she was and how she could burst as well. Sorcha slowly climbed down, intent on completing this task without any more near misses. Once she was on the ground, Sorcha took a moment to get her bearings together. She looked up at the canopy where a trail of frozen broken branches had followed her impromptu flight and started the trek back.
That way it is. Sorcha shook her hands out and did a little dance to ease the ache in her feet before she got going in a light jog. She didn't know how far she had flown, but if she kept this up, she'd get back before the light crossed the sky. Fifteen minutes in, Sorcha noticed something off. The surrounding shadows had grown deeper, and the forest had grown silent. Her pointed ears twitched, and Sorcha dove between a prickly bush and a fallen log that was bigger than she was tall.
A swoosh left a breeze where Sorcha had been moments ago and though Sorcha strained to see what was stalking her, she couldn't make out anything. Sorcha crouched, waiting, when something grabbed her ankles and jerked her off her feet. From the time when Sorcha had awoken here, she had never felt cold, which was new for her, but now? She couldn't help but shiver. Sorcha kicked at the thing's icy grasp, but her legs passed through. She tried pulling more ice from deep within. Nothing. Tears of frustration fell from her eyes as she turned and grasped at the moist earth below her, her claws grasping for purchase as she was dragged deeper into the forest.
Sorcha's eyes watered as the shadows took her away from her family. Various ideas flitted through her mind like the reel of an old movie, but nothing seemed to stick. She'd even tried injecting ice into the watery form, but there was no effect. Sorcha gritted her teeth and tried again. She squeezed her eyes shut and went deeper within. Nothing but darkness. No, that wasn't right. There had to be something here. Sorcha searched the world outside, fading away.
There! A pebble-shaped ball of ice drifted through the dark. Sorcha gave a shark-like grin and pulled the ice, drawing it over her shoulders and down her arms. She sank her hands into the ground, claw-like shards of ice growing over them to stop her descent into shadows. The shadows tugged, but the ice held firm. Sorcha grinned once more, her shark-like teeth giving the angelic little monster a feral appearance. If this worked then, Sorcha focused on lengthening the icy anchors when the shadow jerked her hard.
CRACK!
Sorcha screamed as both shoulders popped out of their sockets, the pain breaking her concentration and the ice. Agony consumed her ability and Sorcha hissed out a deep breath and tried to shape more ice, but the twin points of pain were like when she had seen the lights in the sky for the first time. Her breaths picked up once more as panic sought to take control. Sorcha grappled for a moment. With herself. The hopelessness and weakness that she was experiencing. Just why couldn't she get things right? Why was it that when she got so close, she faltered? even worse, the fear that always lurked at the back of mine made itself known, taunting her with her flaws. She wasn't strong like Dagan or fierce like Io, or even resourceful like Eden. It was so frustrating! Sorcha clenched her jaw as a grimace contorted her face.
A memory surfaced, one from Earth towards the end, Io had overheard a massive hunt gathering for twin wildings in The Ruins. As soon as she returned to the library, Io armed herself heavily in her bone weaponry and packed as much food as Dagan and Sorcha and she could carry. That night they ran into the Wastelands, leaving the city behind.
This had not been something that Io had taken lightly. The Wastelands were just that. Nothing lived there. No trees. No plants. No animals. Just dust. At any point, a sandstorm could occur, but that wasn't what made it so dangerous. It was easy enough to hunker down for the day, but days? Many people had tried braving the sandstorms but lost their way. The skeletons that lined the canyons, was a testament to those hidden dangers and an ominous warning to those who ventured out of the city.
Dangerous as that was, trying to survive in the Wastelands was a better option. Twins were a priceless commodity, practically unheard of, and exotic meant obscenely expensive. Especially if it could expand a reigning family's power, repopulate their house, or curry favor. That was if Dagan and Sorcha were lucky. There was also the chance that after a family harvested Sorcha and Dagan's reproductive organs, they would then dump the twins in one of the many pleasure houses or gladiator rings that littered the outskirts to continue to bring a profit to the family.
This was accomplishable through a sizable bounty. It guaranteed a lifetime of opulence to whoever brought in the twin wildlings. When Io had heard the stakes, she knew the masses would stir into a maniacal frenzy. That nothing would stop them until they had overturned every rock, nook, or cranny and the city coated red from violent outbreaks.
Io gave the twins thirty minutes to grab as much as they could before leaving. While their part of The Ruins was desolate, it would not be long before it would crawl with people. They made it to the wall and Io shifted a rusted panel just enough for the twins to crawl. On their way, Io instructed them to stay just on the other side of where they came out and be sure to cover themselves in the grey cloak that was brought with her.
Sorcha and Dagan sat as close as they could, backs pressed against the wall, wrapped in that cloak to keep the grey dust that seemed to cover everything from getting into their eyes. While they waited, Io backtracked, erasing their tracks and killing any who had been following them.
As the clouds grew darker, Io finally appeared. It had been half a day since the twins had seen her. Sorcha remembered Io grinning at them, blood speckling her face and long white hair. The silver scar that crossed her face only highlighted her high cheekbones and bright blue eyes.
They traveled through the night on foot into the next, then the day after that. Barring relieving themselves, they never stopped walking. They even ate and drank as they walked. That first night they didn't sleep, too intent on getting as far as they could away from the city. The second night, Io wrapped the twins using the grey cloak she had left them. Sorcha on Io's chest and Dagan, Io's back. Io did that the second and third night while the twins slept. The morning of the fourth day, the twins forced Io to lie down and sleep because she could not keep them safe if she wasn't alert. When Io woke up that night, they ate slowly, cuddled together under that grey cloak.
They continued their journey for three weeks. More times than not, Io would carry twins for hours when they grew too tired to rest and sleep every two nights. Sorcha had grown more and more worried as the dark circles under Io's darkened and she grew thinner. Throughout their trek, the twins ate one time a day. Never missing their rations, but Io?
Sorcha remembered one night. Dagan had fallen asleep early and Io was standing guard. Even though they had run into the wasteland, determined bounty hunters had eventually followed. When she asked Io how she had gotten so strong and brave, Io had simply smiled, gently patted her head, and said, "It isn't that I am strong or brave. Rather, I am terrified. I don't want to lose you or Dagan. So I am going to do everything that I can do to keep you both safe."
Sorcha didn't understand. Io had killed time and time again. She had tricked, played, and murdered others to keep Dagan and her safe and never backed down from doing what needed to be done. How was that fear that enabled Io to keep them safe? If Io was scared, then why didn't she run away?
Io noticed her confused look and clarified, "I fight because the fear of leaving you alone in this world is my motivation to stay alive. Fear itself isn't a bad thing. It is when you give in to fear that you lose." Io grinned as she tucked a strand of Sorcha's short, black hair behind her ear as she explained.
Sorcha clasped onto Io's hand, bringing it to her cheek, "But fear isn't bad. Fear is good. Fear makes you think before acting." Sorcha looked up at Io for confirmation.
Io's other hand found Sorcha's cheek, and she clumsily pinched them. "When you let fear drive you, you are no longer in control. Might as well sell yourself to another's dream of what you should be, because you are no longer fighting for yourself. By letting fear overcome you, you have become a tool to be used. It doesn't have to be that way. No matter what monster may come your way, there will always be a way out. You have a choice. Even when it seems like there is none. Sure, it may not be easy, but every step you take is a win, so all that's left for you to do is to struggle."
Io let go of Sorcha's cheeks and patted her head. "Look, you have to fight. Fight every step until you break free, even if you feel you aren't changing you are. Just don't stop, keep moving forward. No one else can do that for you. I will always try to keep you safe. Always. If you are in danger, I will do my utmost to get you away from it, but until you decide to fight for yourself, to fight for what you dream of and what it is to live. You will be stuck. It is your determination to step-by-step change your fate that will light even in the darkest of places."
Sorcha stared down at her hands. They were white from the strength of her grip. She didn't know if that was possible. She didn't know how to change, but…
"Teach me." Sorcha sniffled, "I-I wanna help, too."
Io rubbed the tears from under Sorcha's eyes and gently pulled her hands into her own. "You have already changed." Io bonked her head softly against Sorcha's. "The moment you decided, you started to change."
Sorcha blinked slowly, letting the memories go. Io was right. She was a survivor, and it was time she acted like one. Nobody was here to save her, but so what? Sorcha was just as capable as Dagan and Eden. Io was out there and she needed all of them. Eyes glittering with determination, Sorcha let go of the tree root that she had been clinging to. She had everything she needed to survive this. That night was one of the hardest and warmest Sorcha had ever experienced, and it was those very words that became Sorcha's lodestone as the shadows grew around her, blocking out all light, and drowning her in the abyss.
---
"They're all gone!" A howl erupted the quiet night, but the wind swiftly carried it away.
"What now? What now! I c-can't, breathe. They were fine before but now... Now I, I..."
The haunting sounds of a grieving beast echoed eerily through the darkened forest. A predator the size of a horse took offense at the maddened creature that had come into its territory and decided to make an example of it. The predator stood aggressively, baying its dominance. It took one step and had its head ripped off.
The creature walked slowly past the dead beast letting out whimpers from its newly torn wounds and the weight it had placed on its two broken legs. It made it a few steps before the strain of bearing its own weight was too much and the beast fell down. The beast shoved itself up before it fell once more. It lay there whining in despair and agony.
"I don't want to remember anymore! They're gone. All gone! I hate myself. Why! Why?"
Slowly moonlight peeked through the forest, casting its pale light upon the dying creature mixing and clinging to the shadows that coated it, creating a macabre display of life and death upon its ragged scales. 'How did this happen? Why was this happening?'
"What was I doing…? Why am I so cold?. I can't…. I ca- ..." In absolute silence, the only thing to be heard was a heartbeat, until the beast forgot the sound of even that.
It seemed an eternity went by, stretching on until it thought it'd go insane from the nothingness. It was consumed until there was not even a minuscule shred left of who it once was. It became nothing. Just there with no purpose. Existence itself at its most basic.
'What is, what isn't. Nothing changes. I no longer have the substance to change. I simply am.' The beast thought. "Wait, beast? What is that?" The soul had no further time to ponder over this when something caught its attention.
Soundless explosions occurred at the random around the soul, flashing again and again. It battered the soul until it was when it was just a speck of light; it was blasted back into the nothingness.
"Even though there is change, I am banished. Unwanted. Unneeded." The soul dimmed. "What's the point? Those flickering lights are naught more than wisps of dreams, fragments of something intangible. Trying to touch those lights… In hopes of what? I don't even know. I can't change, I know that. I am complete. Yet…. Why do I reach for those lights?" The soul curled up like a child grasping their knees in a darkened closet, waiting to be allowed to come out.
Light bloomed violently in breathtaking flares of color, followed by invisible forces exiling soul deep into the abyss once more. After a time, it noticed that there were incomplete lights. They'd bloomed in a savage display of beauty, but it did not last. Unable to bear their incomplete state, the withering lights would go berserk, destroying themselves and those around them, devouring everything around them in a fury.
"What is the point of all this? I am nothingness. I just am. No more, no less. It is better to just be than to desire- desire? Is that what it's called? I desire? What? No, no… It is better to just be… Yes, it's just better to be. Better than losing." The soul paused in its explorations. "Lose? Did I lose something?" The soul struggled to remember what it had lost, but there was nothing. Nothing? Right, I am just am. I exist. I do not need to change, I just am."
Time had frozen. At first, there was no change and time went by, but wait long enough and what goes from one second stretches out to an eternity. But then again, maybe time had not frozen, but the soul had simply discovered eternity within a second.
The soul could feel itself tearing apart as its existence stretched to the utmost capacity. Like a rubber band snapping, the soul forcibly gathered itself. Enough! This was not where it wanted to be or how it wanted to be. Wait. How it wanted to be?
Change starts with the thought of wanting to change, and just like that, the soul grew. After an endless amount of time spent on introspection, simplification begins. To exist to be. Different from stagnancy. The simplification of one's self is not closed off, but just focused on just being. It is here that the deeper one delves into the state of oneself, the further one walks in the pursuit of knowledge.
Everything is broken into its simplest form. The rose glasses called society taken off and clarity achieved. Previous outside expectations are now gone. One thing leads to another. Unabashed curiosity nurtures the mind's cleared perception of eternity, reality, and the natural world. Such complex concepts are mirrored and imprinted on the soul, like a blank slate cultivating wisdom in its purest form.
The soul felt... Frustrated? Frustrated and something else. Something was hurting, or maybe there was something else that was trying to pull it back? The soul shined brightly for briefly before it dimmed once more. What was it? That feeling of emptiness was like an incessant itch. Nearby, a flare of light erupted, and the soul observed its flaring arcs as it pondered over its itch. As the light grew more brilliant, the soul let go of its train of thought.
"Something there." The soul thought as it floated closer, almost melding into the core of the bloom light. 'There's something there.' It thought. Blurry images came into focus slowly, the imagery blurring at times whereas others, like a slow movie reel. None of it made sense. The soul dimmed, backed away, a feeling of wrongness pervaded it leaving the soul bewildered.
"What is this?" The soul wondered as images began appearing. A metallic creature towered over the soul in one scene while disapproving sounds made by two pale-skinned beings sounded from nearby. In another clip, it was crammed into a metal box.
An unknown amount of time, the metal creature hauled the box into a white room where other metal creatures wandered up and down the aisles, checking and rechecking on other tiny little beings. The creature picked up the soul of its box, placed it in a container, and connected a tube to the clamp on its belly. Once finished, the creature slid an appendage along the side and white goo, its energy supply, the soul guessed, disappeared from the tube into the small being.
More and more images flitted by. The tiny being learning to walk and talk. Beaten for failures. In several of the memories, needles were shoved into its arms and red was liquid drawn. In another memory, the then medium-sized being was told that it would never contribute to society because it was flawed.
On and on it went until one day the medium-sized being was told that it was to be sent to a facility 'for the better.' The soul paused over this memory, its light flickered in agitation. It replayed the memory and watched as the medium-sized rampage and murder until it successfully escaped. How it learned to use its own madness to survive.
After the being escaped from underground, it trekked through tall and short structures. Once it had removed any threats, it lived like it was just waiting to die until one day it heard a cry. The sound was barely audible, but the impact was huge. The soul flickered rapidly, as if it were in a frenzy.
"I know that noise, I know..." The soul drew closer, its entirety enthralled by the two small beings. The soul paused the memory and stared. It slowed the progression of memories, carefully examining each one as it searched for a hint of why this image tugged at its core. The light grew more and more radiant until it resembled a star. Then it clicked.
That's... SORCHA! DAGAN! The star went supernova blooming magnificently as it drew nearby lights into its core. The memories began playing again faster and faster as it, no she, remembered. How grey her life had been. Filled with smog and dust. A physical representation of the craven ideals that humanity had grown to love. Io had just existed there.
The weight of what their world had become had been the yolk around her sanity. Egotistical. Unwilling to learn from mistakes and unable to adapt. For what is change if not a variant form of adaptation, or even evolution? The pursuit of desire for self instead of community. The pursuit of knowledge, yet the inability to learn. They failed miserably, and it was killing them.
All that greed and hate. People killed left and right for foolish reasons. Their species had already died, but just didn't know it. Io watched impartially over images of the city burning as people hunted for her and her siblings. The blood, the cries, and pleas for mercy that would never come.
Io knew that a part of her should feel sorrow, but it was like a wall had erected itself around her heart. It was them or Sasha and Dagan. That was the choice, and her family was worth fighting for every time. Her stoic form was unchanging until the images changed and memories that did not belong to her revealed themselves. It was here that the stone around Io's heart broke. That she wept and raged.
In the memories, an older couple led Dagan from the small hovel where he and Sorcha were kept and taken into a gaudy building. There, the boy was cleaned and brought to a room where demons clad in human skin waited. The blank look in his eyes afterward. Dagan not allowing Sorcha to touch hug him.
Io could feel her sanity slip as her fury grew. What she wouldn't give to go back and slaughter them all again. To stretch out the days into years. Her mind plunged into madness as she became the incarnation of wrath.
The black hole grew larger as it devoured more and more lights, ripping them apart in violent bursts, a physical manifestation of Io's mental state. Until an image appeared. In it, Io was reading to her siblings, who had snuggled up on each side of her. Simple or not, this memory was the first time that the twins had wanted to be close to Io.
The massive black hole that Io had become turned into a pinprick so dense that everything froze. Memories of them getting to know each other, the awkward pauses and stilted conversations. Times when Dagan took Sorcha out of the room to avoid being near her. The afternoon that Dagan finally cried. The first time, Sorcha laughed. That was right. Those terrible nightmares were not Dagan's or Sorcha's reality anymore. Io had made sure of it. The day they'd woken up in this world. Finding Eden. How brave Dagan, Sorcha, and Eden had looked even though they were so scared when Io left to take on the behemoth. They were waiting for her.
Io let go of her fury, and the pinprick disappeared, leaving nothing but a dim glimmer of light. It was time to go. Dagan, Sorcha, and Eden were waiting for her and she would not be bound to this place anymore. Io could feel her soul solidify as she let go of the past and moved forward. One step, then another, and another. Io grew faster until she was shooting through the heavens, leaving bits of nebulae curling behind her. She broke through the clouds and in a blinding light; Io crashed into her ruined body, breaking it apart and forming it anew.