He stood on the edge of the village, scanning the horizon. Low sun, now casting that nice goldish hue on the distant mountains. But life was busy going on in the village, and oblivious to the dark shadow looming over them, ready to engulf it all. Kael knew. He felt it-a ripple in the fabric of existence, a tremor in the energy flow through everything.
It was silence, an eerie silence, over the Legacy of the Cosmos-the whole cosmos held its breath, waiting for Kael's first move.
"The Harbingers of Dissonance," Kael whispered as if the very name said it was ominous enough. "Closer than I'd thought," he continued.
Kael could feel them, a bad element behind the walls of reality, at play pulling strings that nullified proper power. They were more than a breakaway faction of destruction; they embodied a concept, one that if unleashed held the potential to unfurl the very fabric of the balance of the world.
"Are you sure?" Legacy finally spoke up, its voice soft but ringing in Kael's head. "You know what this will lead to."
Kael nodded, his eyes still set determined. "If I stand and do nothing, they will shred everything apart to get at me. I won't let them."
The Legacy breathed approval, a tang of unease in its voice. "Then prepare yourself. This journey will test more than just your strength.".
And in a fit he curved space around him. The village slid away leaving just sweep of wilderness that stretched beneath him. But in a moment he had travelled greater distances than any town's extents; and he had no desire to hurry forward. Something wished him to walk rather than soar, to see rather than to push.
He walked through a dense forest with trees that seemed to touch the sky-high, their upper limbs knitting into an elaborate canopy above. The air was so thick with moss and earth that every stride Kael took rang like energy pressed beneath his skin.
But as he walked forward, Kael thought of his intention. Given what he had received-from power without equal to modify the contours of worlds and bend reality to his will-and here he was, walking through a forest, musing on what he would do next, as if he were an ordinary mortal. The thought humbled him, even invigorated him: to recall, in a word, how much balance had to be maintained between his omnipotence and the world's fragility.
A figure had him soon to move forward. At the river's edge stood a man with his back turned, hooded and in dark robes. There seemed something about him-a faint sense of the Harbingers, at least.
"Just another piece of their puzzle," Kael whispered and continued forward.
He turned and showed a scarred face and eyes which shone with knowledge far beyond his age. He smiled like he had been waiting for Kael.
"You must be the one we've been waiting for," the man said, though with an air of smugness. "The one who thinks he can stop the inevitable."
Kael took a step back. He looked at the man expressionless. "You are part of the Harbingers."
The man snorted. "Part of them? No, I am merely a servant. But a servant knows when to recognize the winds of change."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Why are you here? What do the Harbingers want with this world?"
A grin spread wide over the man's face. "It has nothing to do with what we want. It has to do with what must be. Your being. your strength. it upsets the rhythm of things. We are here to place order, no matter what that takes."
"Balance?"
Kael's voice had hardened. "By killing the innocent?"
The man spread his arms wide as if Kael had said something insignificant. "There is no such thing as innocence. In order to build anew, one must first tear down."
Kael's patience thinned, but he resisted the urge to act. There was still more to know here. "And your leader? The one pulling the strings—what does he want?
He seemed to flicker with something dark in his eyes. "You will see soon enough. He waits for you beyond the veil. He has been waiting for this moment for so long now."
Kael did not bat his eyelids open. "I'm ready."
The man laughed low in his chest, his head shaking. "No. You do not. What is coming is not something you just overpower."
He didn't say a word, only stepped forward, closing their space in one moment. Brought a hand up, the air crackling at the ends of his fingers, but instead of releasing his power he simply looked at the man.
"Go," Kael said, low and commanding. "Tell your leader I am coming."
For an instant, he paused motionless. His bluster stammered before the unyielding stare of Kael and he regained his composure quickly. One final flash of a grin and the man disappeared leaving only the smoke to serve as memory.
Kael took a deep breath, the tension seeming to seep out through his pores. At the very least, it was a reminder that he was walking into something that felt worlds more profound than a simple confrontation. The Harbingers had an agenda, one tied to the very nature of existence. But the worst of it was their assumption that his omnipotence was part of the problem.
"You handled that reasonably well," the Legacy said, finally speaking. "Just so you know, though, it only gets ugly from here."
Kael pushed on, the earth around him shifting as he forced himself closer and closer to his goal. The trees grew thinner, and the landscape folded away to empty, cracking plains, the sun pounding hard overhead.
With each pace he took, Kael's mind envisioned all that could be. The Harbingers were no abstractions in his mind; they were a force whose philosophy seemed to reach right down into the very essence of the universe. Their ways, however, were destructive, and so Kael could not turn a blind eye to what had already been wrought by them on the world.
Hours passed, or possibly minutes alone. Time melted to liquid and none existed as Kael ventured through realms that bowed and twisted under his fingertips. He came at last to a desolate plate where the air thrummed with some odd energy.
A sprawling fortress stood at the far end of the plateau, jagged walls like a crown of thorns piercing into the sky. Dark clouds spun above, and Kael could almost feel the weight of the Harbingers' presence upon him.
"This is it," Kael said, more to himself than to the Legacy.
"Yes," said the Legacy. "Their leader awaits within. But be cautious. There's more at play here than raw power."
Kael nodded, staring at the fortress. He could feel the power of the Harbingers; it was a chaotic pull, making him want to go forward with an almost sensual pull, beneath that something more - a cold, calculating presence that crawled over his skin.
Kael took a deep breath in, the smell of determination. He had gone too far to change his course now. Whatever it was inside that fortress he was going to face head-on.
And then, in one long stride, Kael crossed the edge of the plateau, hurtling onward in his final approach toward the strongholds of the Harbingers. The wind shrieked past him, full of whispers of fate and destiny, but Kael did not heed. This was his goal, single-minded in purpose.
It was not yet that day of reckoning, though it would come soon enough. Today, he'd watch, learn, and prepare.
As Kael reached the gate to the fortress, he slowed, looked up at the looming shape before him. Behind those fortress walls waited the leader of the Harbingers. The inevitable clash was gonna be unavoidable-but Kael was gonna see it through on his terms.
With such a final thought, he stepped forward, and the gates of the fortress creaked open with a desire to invite him into the heart of the storm.