I wake up - or rather, I am thrust into lucidity. But this isn't the real world. It's a dream.
I look in front of me. In all its glory, the earth engulfs my field of view, swallowing all of the empty space I can see. I recognize this view. It is the view of earth from the surface of the moon, beyond the barrier.
"I was wondering if this would work."
I jump. The voice - it's so familiar. I turn around. I know who I am going to see.
Long black hair falls over her face, soft and straight, shimmering in the reflected light of the sun. Long strands of red highlights mixed in the cascade of impossibly dark hair. Sparkling eyes peer at me, a flirtatious and shy smile forming as she tilts her head to get a better look at me.
I feel my eyes widen. I can tell they begin to emit their soft amber glow as I soak in her beauty. A face I wasn't sure if I'd ever even see again.
But this is just a dream, isn't it? A memory of the girl I love. Even now as I look at her, I can see the sumptuous smile she's always had fading into something darker and more obscure. The light in her vibrant, rosy eyes seems to dull.
It's so still. Within the barrier, a warm wind blows through Little Moon Town. I've always loved the way her hair flutters in the wind. Headwinds always seem to blow her way, never away from her - as if her destiny were to charge into an arduous path. Here, on the quiet surface of the moon, there is no wind. Only stillness.
"August."
My name on her sweet, full lips. How many times have I heard her speak my name, and it made my heart flutter just as it does now? My soul aches. Before she became my Vessel, I planned to tell her how I felt. Before the depths of my heart and soul were fully revealed to her. Now, it seems an impossibility. Just a dream, like this one.
"You're dreaming."
She takes a step toward me, and another, and another. I don't move a muscle. I'm spellbound.
"I'm dreaming, too."
She stops, just inches away from my face. Close enough for me to hold her. And yet it's just a dream. The Rylin I love is a world away. Her warmth, an incomprehensible distance away. And I feel so, so cold.
"I know what you're thinking," she says, giving me a smile I've never seen her give anyone else but me. A mix of worry and care. It's tender. A smile that sees me for who I am.
"Tonight, we can dream together. One of the perks of my Moon Magic, I've come to learn."
My mouth opens to speak, but I'm not ready yet. I want to hold her and listen to her voice. To bury myself in her hair, let out all these tears and emotions I've been building up over the last twenty-four hours, and when I finally pull away, to be standing back in Little Moon Town, under the barrier.
"I'm so selfish." The only words I can get out. All I want is her. I'd doom this planet and the moon both just to save her from her destiny. Rylin, and Kieran. I need them. Tears begin streaming down my face. I look down, to the still, hushed pink dust below our feet. I'm shaking. I -
It's as if all the wind is knocked out of me, as Rylin pulls me into an embrace and holds me close to her.
"August, you're anything but," she says. Always so sweet. Always so supportive, and caring.
"Is it really you?" I mumble, her warmth flooding into me. Sending life back into my tortured soul.
"It's me."
She pulls away from me, pressing her forehead to mine. Closing her eyes. Our breathing aligns. It's calm. My arms wrap around her. I don't want to let her go.
"I've always known," she says, and I know what she's referring to - how I feel about her. "You have no idea, August. How much I wanted this, too."
She pulls away from me only slightly and brings her hand up to my face. She cradles my cheek as we stare into each other. The reflection of the earth visible in her starry eyes.
"But this is all that was ever meant to be. A dream. Not reality."
My body convulses. Words I didn't want to hear.
"Rylin...?"
She pulls away from me, slowly. My arms are weak. They can't hold her. She takes my hands in hers and speaks again.
"I have known, August, since I was a little girl, that one day you would travel to the earth, and when you came back to us, it would be the end of my time. Maybe I was the selfish one, for keeping it from you. For letting you get close to me. Entertaining a life I knew we could never have."
I stare at her as I feel the world shatter around me, but there is no fanfare. No calamity. Just stillness. Silence.
She lets go of my hands. My arms fall to my side, limp. I'm looking at her, but it feels like I'm staring back at a stranger. Her expression turns cold, serious. She can't help but turn away from me.
"I'll seal you when I return to the moon. If that's really what you want." I turn away from her as well. I can't bear to look at her and speak these words. "That's the only way to regenerate the barrier, right?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll kill every Encephalim on the moon if I have to. I'll build a world where we don't need the barrier. And...and then I'll break the seal. And you can be free again."
Rylin laughs. "If only." Her voice quivers. "Even if it were possible, who's to say there'd be anything left of me by the time you finish?"
Sola refuses to be direct with me about my destiny. Is this why? Was my destiny something I had to discover for myself?
"I'm going to do it, Rylin. Even if I can never have you back. Even if it's futile. Even if it costs me my life. I will destroy the Encephalim. I will guarantee that nobody is ever lost for the sake of the barrier again."
"What if your Guide disagrees? What if this isn't the path you are supposed to walk?"
"I'll find a new Guide."
Rylin starts to walk away. "That's what I've always liked about you, August," she says, her voice trailing away. "Your passion. It almost makes me think what you say is possible."
The world around me begins to darken. The dream is ending. As I fade into the abyss of dreamless sleep, I hear Rylin one final time.
"Kieran is at the Ferin Village. He is waiting for you there."
Those words sear into my mind, and the darkness swallows us.