I really want to explain this realm as best I can. I'd never seen anything quite like it. The nursery of trees were so uniform. Every two rows a different type of tree. Two with red bark and orange leaves. Two with blue bark and purple leaves. Two with dark pink bark and bright pink leaves. I felt that was a bit repetitive. The trees continued on in this pattern for as far as I could see. To my right sat the giant hut. I only call it a hut because of the ancient look of it. The stone base easily towered above me, and the canopy made of an intricate web of spore covered twigs hovered above it. I was in awe to say the least.
Any excitement I felt for exploring the inside were extinguished when a wolf big enough for my to ride came rushing towards me. It's tail waved vigorously with each stride it took towards me. I felt the wind come out of me as it collided with my chest knocking me to the ground lapping it's fresh tongue on my face.
"Hey! Gigi get off of him!" A voice laughed as the dog retreated away from me. I sat up and was met by a tall shirtless blue skinned man, golden leaves danced across his skin. First the man before The Root Down, the Isadora, and now this man. Who were these people?
"Sorry about that, she always introduces herself this way."
"It's cool. I like dogs."
"Dog is a funny word for her. Dog. My name is Enzo, this is Gigi. Welcome to my nursery."
After helping me off the ground, he led me to the front of the hut.
"J'baki right? I'm sure you have plenty of questions for me but I think I'd rather ask a few of you."
"What if we each asked each other a question? You can go first?"
Enzo laughed deeply at my suggestion.
"Why not." He replied walking past the front door of the hut.
"I thought we were going inside?"
"Nah only family's allowed in there."
"So then where are we going?"
"Ah ah J'baki. I get to ask questions first remember."
Enzo radiated such a pleasant aura around him. I could tell he was genuine. He led me to the other side of the hut with a grand gazebo furnished with a table and benches all along its hexagonal shape. In the middle of the table was a chess game still in progress.
"Oh don't mind that, I had another in here right before you, he beat me down to a stalemate. Still technically not a loss."
I wanted to ask who he'd been playing, and why, but he had to ask questions first. What would I even ask to start with?
"So, J'baki. Big question. What does life mean to you?"
What the hell kind of question is that?
"Life? I never really gave it a thought. My whole life I'd been chasing after something, but I never knew what."
"Ah the old chase, that makes perfect sense. Did you ever want to know why?"
"Of course. Things just keep happening and- wait no it's my turn to ask a question."
"Right you are." He chuckled as he stood and walked to a cabinet in the gazebo. "Ask away."
"Well I guess my first question would be. Who is Adrian?"
"A good question indeed." Enzo came back with a thermos and two cups he fetched from the cabinet. "You've got to try this tea. I brewed it just this morning."
He took a sip from the piping hot tea. I fought desperately to swallow it the hot taste of citrusy earth singed it's way down my throat as I listened to Enzo speak.
"Adrian. That's the one. I remember when I created Adrian. He was going to be my heir. Perfectly created in my image. I gave him skin as hard as the Vivabor tree, a Beo carefully cultivated for a millennia. Adrian was a seed of life, J'baki. Something that could have brought so much of it. Alright then, my turn for a question. How is your tea?"
"Really? That's your question?"
"It's as an important question as the others. Well, how is it?"
"Well it's scalding hot for starters. You can barely taste it past the heat."
The face Enzo gave me reminded me of my first time seeing the square in Kenryu City. Such pent up excitement, waiting to explode.
"Ahh that's just brilliant J'baki. Fantastic!"
"Want to let me in on it?"
"Nah. I'll tell you a secret though."
"What's that?"
"You're dead."
Wait dead? No no no, I just passed out. I can't be dead. That's when every vile thing that had happened to me flashed back into my head. Waking up at the bottom of the pit. My friends. Akachi injecting me with some burning virus. I passed out after that. Maybe I am.
"Dead?!"
"Yes, dead. Or rather, you've served your purpose, the vessel is no longer needed. Adrian brought himself back with a new body, so now you're just. Without purpose."
"No! I still have purpose. My brother and sister! I have to help them. I can't be dead."
"Oh yea, that's the other thing. None of that matters. If Adrian and everyone succeeds today, everything you know or have known will be erased."
"What do you mean, erased?"
"Here, finish your tea and ill explain everything."
I slowly sipped the lava in a cup as he explained everything that was going on. Shedding is much light on the situation, I couldn't help but see it.
"When Adrian was born, Yara felt it immediately, we all did. Kind of my crowning achievement, my creation sent ripples through the network. That clever girl was always too clever. Before anyone could do anything she corrupted him intending to use his seed of life for the Petyans. We of course sent out a way to combat this, and when Yara came to claim her prize, she won. Adrian would rather have died than be taken by Yara, so he did. Destroyed his body in the process. Came to a different from that the only thing me asking for a new one. A vessel for his plan, and that vessel, is you."
"So you're telling me, my whole life I've been a
vessel for your plan?!"
"Well that's how your life started. A vessel is supposed to do everything it's user wants it to. That night you've been replaying everyday in your head. You made a choice a direct decision that threw all of our plans off course. That's unheard of. You have so much emotion
lol J'baki. Such loyalty that you alone changed that."
"Well what does that mean for me?"
"What does it mean for you?"
I let my thoughts marinate, finishing the last sip of my scalding hot tea.
"It means I really am unimportant. What have I been doing all this for? What was the point in me caring? If I'm just a vessel, what do my siblings even really think of me?"
"J'baki, it's okay if you don't know what it means." Enzo chuckled. "You could never be unimportant J'baki."
"So now I'm significant? You're really throwing me some mixed signals."
"Perhaps you're right." He burst into laughter. "Fine I'll get on with it I suppose. Walk through the nursery with me."
We walked though a row of orange leaves trees as I listened to him spell it out for me.
"I've told you all of this because you're going to have a very important choice to make. One that only affects you, no one else."
"And what choice would that be?"
"Representative, or Rebirth."
"What?" I said as we stopped in a nearby clearing.
"Ah yes you see. Normally vessels are recycled for Rebirth. Thought I'd give you a choice however. What do you say?"
Huh, if I was reborn, where would I go? I guess the same question could be asked if I were to choose Representative.
"What exactly is a representative?"
"A watcher, the ones who manage and engineer the spores of our network. Unfortunately I can't tell you more information unless you agree to it."
Enzo floated above the clearing he'd left me in.
"I'm afraid our time together in this life is over."
His voice carried over the nursery as the clearing started to rapidly produce spores until I was wading in a sea of them.
"Don't fight it!" He yelled out at me "if you use all your strength fighting, you won't have energy for your destination!"
Those were the last words I heard from Enzo as the sea of spores gobbled me up. No, not gobbled, integrated. The first to go were my legs, then my torso and arms until I felt as if I was the pool itself. So many voices. So many different personalities trying to keep me down. I had to be the one to speak over them all. I had to make all of the voices one, Lest the constant chatter drive me insane. However this road may go, at the end of it, I will stand tall and victorious. J'baki Diallo, until the end of Time.