Xoris

The Battle Yet to Begin

When had he started crying?

Xoris had never felt so small as he lay curled up on the Higher Beast, for that's what it was. That's what everything ever was. Sobs shook him as he continued to stare at his home. Nothing made sense to him, but everything finally did. Even concepts that he'd always taken for granted were starting to connect. Stained blood was the colour of water, or had water always been Stained blood? Were the waves around him what was correct, or what he had always known? He couldn't tell. He could only clutch his head and scream, trying to cover the sound of the wind that he knew now to be the breathing of a monster.

"Listen, child of mine. It is important I speak with you."

"No!" There was a wild, unhinged tone to his voice as Xoris shouted, trying to silence the whirlwind of thoughts in his mind. "I don't want to talk with you! You ruined everything!" Right? Everything is their fault. That's the Higher Beast that wants the Humans and Fae dead, but... why? Do I even want to know anymore?

"As rebellious as every other eye before you, I see. I suppose I should have expected it by now." The concept of annoyance was pushed into Xoris' mind like a sigh.

Other... eye? Do they know my ancestors?

"Of course I do. You're my eye, or at least, the descendant of it. That's why I need you."

"No!" Xoris shouted again, fear coursing through him at the idea of the Higher Beast being able to read his thoughts. He came here to fight against them, to not have to choose between the Humans or Stained, not cater to their wants anymore. But as the ball of fire in the sky continued to beat down on his skin, he could only stand there, legs shaking under him. His mouth opened, but the words caught in his throat, his mind shutting down as his ability to reason fled. What could he ever hope to do against a god? There was no better term for the entity before him, beyond his capacity to ever hope to fathom. He was just the Thing of Eyes and Teeth. Another Stained. He was small. He was nothing.

"I do not have the capacity to argue with you, child, nor the time left to work with you. Either you will listen to your purpose, or I will revoke your power, and we will die. Do you understand that?"

"I don't understand anything!" Tears streamed down his body as Xoris continued to lay there. "I don't know why you want the things you do, or why you are calling me your child or... anything!" I just wanted to be a hero. Make the right choice, save people... But how can I do that? What... is happening?

Instead of speaking, Xoris heard a slow release of air, the ground faltering beneath him for a moment before the haziness of the Higher Beast's Will invaded his mind. Once again, flashes of times he'd never seen filled his thoughts, and yet, it felt so familiar. The feeling of his body left him as he watched a sky filled with glowing lights, a lid running over his body, for that was his perspective, the eye of this Beast. It was quiet, peaceful as the entity reached up, pulling the ball of fire across the sky, arranging the smaller, white dots to form pictures for places far beyond his imaginings. 

And then, a single one tipped and fell, careening down towards him. He wanted to move, dodge, something, but it collided. Xoris screamed as his body burned, feeling as though it were melting as the line between the vision and a memory not of his own blurred. The centre of him felt numb, as if his tissue were slowly peeling away, dripping down as soft white blobs that would eventually make up the dirt of his home. A larger piece of himself fell, while the rock that had fallen crashed into the empty hole it made, shattering into pieces.

"It's called a star. It betrayed me, and corrupted your ancestor." Words seemed to be hard for the Higher Beast as their voice dropped away again, the scene continuing to play in his mind.