I blink and open my eyes, and as I do I find myself standing on the surface of the moon. It's just like it was in my dream...except this time, I'm certain I'm awake. I guess the Guardian activated Kieran's Arcanic and teleported us back to the moon.
Without needing to look over my shoulder, I feel Kieran behind me. And in front of me, Rylin.
"I'm glad," she says as I appear before her. She's standing in just the same way as she did in my dream. Wearing the same clothing.
"Kieran was a better choice of Vessel than me, anyway."
"Rylin," I start, but she interrupts me.
"If I'm being honest, I always felt like the third wheel with you two. August and Kieran. Not August and Kieran and Rylin."
Kieran is silent.
She looks toward Little Moon Town in the distance. The place seems to be standing but the barrier is nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, there are also no Encephalim around either.
"Follow me. Both of you."
We walk through the static sand of the moon and enter the cobbled streets of Little Moon Town. It's quiet. Quieter than I've ever seen.
Kieran doesn't say a word. Rylin doesn't say a word. We just walk. Past Kieran's house. It looks abandoned. Has it really only been a day? Past my house. No lights on. Nobody home. We turn to corner and head south.
And south we continue. Past Rylin's house. Through Memorial Park. Into Springtide Square and before long, standing outside the House of the Shaman.
"This is how it was supposed to be," Rylin speaks quietly. "On the day of your awakening. Kieran and I were supposed to bring you here. As you know, the Encephalim interfered. Come with me inside."
I follow her into the House of the Shaman, Kieran in tow. As we enter, I am shocked. While it appears as a small, inconspicuous hut on the outside, the inside is brimming with visual magic. The moment I step into the hut, it's like I'm standing above the clouds on earth at sunset. I look at my feet. It's like we're floating. I turn around and sure enough, the door we entered is floating there too.
"I'll let my guest go first," Rylin says, turning her head away from me. Again she's embraced this coldness that just isn't like her.
"Your guest?"
As I say that, something catches my attention out there in the drifting field of clouds. A little yellow light zips up from the earth and soars through the air to me.
"Hiya".
I recognize the voice immediately.
"Sola? Is that you?"
"Ooh! So you do hear me! Wonderful. Kieran is a compatible Vessel, just as I thought!"
Kieran scratches his head and puts a hand on his hip. "This is your Guide?"
The yellow light begins to gather into a large sphere, slowly shifting and changing shape until it morphs into something of a worm shape, and then it sprouts a pair of beautiful fluttering wings. A butterfly, made of yellow light. So this is Sola's form?
"It is now time for me to fulfill my duty as your Guide, and reveal to you your destiny, August. Of course, some of this you may already know."
The space fades to darkness and flashes back in an instant, but it is as if I am floating somewhere else.
A voice echoes out through the shifting scenes that are playing out before me. It is not unlike Sola's, but there is something different to it. It is more stilted than Sola. Colder.
"August Madera. Your fate."
I see an image of Rylin. I turn around to face her, but I see I'm the only one in the room. Either Kieran and Rylin have been transported somewhere else, or they're in their own vision world.
"You will seal the door to the House of the Shaman with Rylin inside. This is the only way Rylin can re-create the barrier. The only way the people of Little Moon Town may have life."
So that's how they want me to do it, huh? Just leave her in here? It's better than killing her or putting her in a hole in the ground. But this is not what I want.
"You will return to the earth, and you will never return to the moon. Your duty is to kill the one known as the Flamekeeper. You must do this by the last day of August, three years from now."
I'll be twenty years old. Gives me some time to prepare, at least. And I'm well-equipped for it. After all, Adma is in charge of hunting the Flamekeeper and his associates - she'll be a useful ally to me.
"If you can do this, you will have saved the moon and all life upon it. You will be allowed to spend the rest of your life in leisure, to do as you please. But you must never return to the moon."
All I see now is the darkness of space. And one final message rings hauntingly clear. "Should you defy this destiny in any way, Sola will have no choice but to end your life. This is the rule of a Guide."
"If the Encephalim are eliminated from the moon, Rylin doesn't have to be sealed away," I protest. "If I must defeat this Flamekeeper, then so be it - but why must I stay away!?"
"We do not want the Encephalim on the moon to be eliminated."
I grit my teeth. "And who are 'you' anyway? You said 'we'. Are there multiple of you?"
Suddenly the room lights up, bright. Brighter than anything I've ever seen. I'm forced to close my eyes. Even closed, with my arm over my face, the light is disorienting. Too bright.
"We are the will of the universe."
Where have I heard that before? Didn't Adma say something about that? Isn't the 'will of the universe' what the Flamekeeper is following?
"We are conflicted. We have not decided if the Nephilim of the moon should live or die. The outcome of your battle with the Flamekeeper will be what determines this."
I see. So this is a test, then? A battle of wills, and if I lose, everyone I've ever known is destined to die...
Then I am resolved. I will take out the Flamekeeper. I will not let my home be reduced to ruin. But that doesn't mean I am going to sit idly by after. My destiny after the Flamekeeper is mine to decide. And I will return to the moon. I will cleanse it of Encephalim. And I will return to the House of the Shaman. Free Rylin from her shackles. And then...then we can...
"Do you still believe in the folly of your juvenile romance, even now? You cannot return to the moon. You cannot defeat the Encephalim. You and Rylin cannot have a life together."
I open my eyes against the blinding light. I might not be able to see anything, but perhaps 'the universe' can see me. And I want to make my intentions perfectly known. "I'm not your puppet. If this is my fate, then I will re-write destiny. I'm not going to let Rylin spend her whole life locked away. As long as she's fighting to maintain the barrier, I'll be fighting too. For her."
If there was ever a sound that I could describe as the 'will of the universe' laughing at me, then that is what I hear after I speak.
"Ignorant child. If this is what you must tell yourself to have the strength to press on, then so be it. But you shall never have that which you desire. It is unthinkable."