Hiraeth: The Rise of Sol (Book One)

ℌ 3 ℌ

When Kaizer opened his eyes again, the sky was pitch black except for a few luminous stars where the charcoal clouds had failed to cover them. He had heard the stories, of course; everyone has. The stories of a mythical planet far, far away from Solysium where the stars not only shined but actually twinkled as well. How he had dreamed of seeing it with his own aqua-hued eyes when he still had his childhood innocence. A paradise where oceans of the clearest blue and land masses of the most verdant green stretched as far as the eye could see, all under an infinitely beautiful sapphire sky. Fabled to be the birthplace of all humanity, it was said that if you could see it in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon. He had desired to visit this magical planet so badly that it was one of the main reasons why he decided to become an Ancillia pilot so many years ago. Kaizer chuckled at himself for ever having believed in such a ludicrous fairy tale, but deep within, he longed to see such a paradise; an eden far away from the horrors of his warmongering reality. He sighed and pondered if he would have joined the Cardinal Fleet if he knew what laid in wait for him down the road.

Kaizer mused what the Hearth's moon looked like, and gazed up towards the obsidian sky to find Solysium's moon. However, a sudden realization froze him dead in his tracks. The moon he found in the dark raven sky did not belong to Solysium. At the very least, it did not belong to the Solysium he remembered for a very long time. The circular moon he spotted hovering ever so resplendently amongst the fading darkness of the stars was not shattered like the one he was accustomed to seeing every night as he lay awake in his pod. 

Impossible, thought Kaizer. 

The last time the moon remained whole was almost six years ago before he joined the Academis, and right before the Akari invasion that blew it into fragments which formed a debris belt around Solysium.

Out of nowhere, the familiar voice whispered into Kaizer's ear once again, touching the very essence of his hardened soul.

"Kaizer..." echoed the voice, "do you remember?"

Kaizer's blood turned to ice as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise and saw the goose bumps materialize on his auburn skin. He spun around as quickly as he could to find the source of the voice, that voice had to belong to this Desylia person, but he saw nothing except darkness around him underneath the glimmer of the quicksilver moon.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Kaizer demanded as he scanned the environment for any sign of the face behind Desylia's voice.

"Don't you remember how we used to look up at the night sky and you'd tell me stories about the planet with twinkling stars? You promised me that you would take me there one day."

Her voice appeared as if it had him surrounded from all sides, and she giggled as he continued to look around confused. Kaizer had not the first clue what she was referring to, but he was determined to find the girl behind the voice who haunted him beyond the slippery realm of whatever explanation he could think of. Kaizer knew that it could not be anything paranormal as the Solis Republic had long disproved the existence of any spiritual entities. His future belonged to himself through the choices that he made, not some almighty being playing god with his destiny. Granted, he didn't understand everything in the vast universe, but Kaizer knew enough to understand that the arcane belief in spirits was as useless as the panic he began to feel rising in his chest.

He took out his communications device and requested that Artimus locate his current position, but all that responded was static. Stashing away the device into his chest pocket, he took another look around and realized that it was no longer dark. In fact, he was no longer on the flight deck at all. He was in the middle of a grassy veranda on a skyscraper high in the Solysium sky. Kaizer could hear the busy air traffic of the express lane a couple floors below him and saw the twilight sky above him that glittered with the thousands of Republic Stella Primus navy vessels. It still smelled like the sweet chrysili from the wet flight deck, but this time he could see the yellow-tinted crystalline petals of the flower reflecting and refracting the dazzling lights of the cityscape onto the lush green grass. However, what caught his attention was not the breathtaking beauty of the landscape laid out like a painting before him. He stared at the same quicksilver moon from before that continued to hover in the sky, unaware of its shattered future. 

This can't be real, Kaizer reminded himself, It has to be a dream.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten who I am already, Kaizer!"

A door slid open on the other side of the terrace and a young girl with long blonde hair that flowed down to her waist appeared. She was silhouetted by the brilliant light exuding from the door behind her and for a second, Kaizer's heart leaped into this throat as he thought he saw an angel that the Republic said didn't exist. If angels were real, this girl was the perfect embodiment of it.

"Des... Desylia?" Kaizer asked incredulously.

"Kaizer!" she squealed. Desylia picked up her ridiculously long white dress and ran towards Kaizer with what he thought was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Kaizer was so captivated by her enchanting smile that he could hardly regain his focus until she crashed into his chest.

"Kaizer! I've missed you so much! Tell me, how is it at the Academis? Do they teach you how to fly the Ancillias yet? What about Hearth, did they say anything about that? It probably doesn't even exist, huh. Oh, I wanted to go there so badly some day. You promised to take me, remember!" Desylia seemed so excited to see Kaizer, and she buried her face into his chest. She hugged him so tight that he couldn't breathe and looked up longingly into his aqua eyes. Suddenly, he remembered why the little Akarian girl, Ellie, reminded him of Desylia.

Kaizer pushed her back to arm's length and locked his gaze with her beautiful magenta eyes that glittered with tiny gold specks.

"Desylia, what are you talking about? Forgive me, but I don't even understand why or how I know your name." Kaizer said as he shook his head that made Desylia give him a questioning look. "I don't think we've met before, so how exactly do you know me? I'm also a Pilot already. In fact, I'm a Warrant Officer now. I graduated from the Academis over four years ago."

"What in the heavens are you talking about Kaizer? I've known you all my life, and you just left for the Academis a couple months ago! It's your first break, and we were supposed to spend tonight and tomorrow together!" Desylia laughed as she brushed Kaizer's silver hair away from his eyes.

A week ago? That can't be possible. This was supposed to have happened over six years ago. 

Suddenly, as if he had finally broken free from a chain that had constrained his mind for the past six years, he started to remember fragments of who Desylia was. The Kexis' Curse outbreak had just begun while he was away at the Academis, which explained why she had the purple and gold eyes. But most importantly of all, he remembered that she was not a stranger. Far from being a stranger, she was his beloved Desylia.

As soon as he came to this realization, the sky turned obsidian once more, and Desylia faded away into the darkness while she continued to smile at Kaizer with adulation. Kaizer frantically looked around to try and find her, but all he could see was the same cursed moon again. He thought that the moon seemed as if it was taunting his misfortune, and Kaizer fell to his knees upon the cold terasteel flooring of the dark flight deck. He still couldn't remember the specifics, but he remembered enough of what happened that he threw his fists into the air as an overwhelming sadness consumed him. Kaizer raised his head towards the derisive moon and unleashed a pain-riddled howl that shook him to his very core.

"Do you remember now?" inquired Desylia's voice again, "Why did you abandon me, Kaizer?"

"Desylia! Don't go!" screamed Kaizer as he got up to look for her again. "Don't go!"

"Good bye, Kaizer." His name echoed around the dark flight deck, and he felt as if his soul was smashed, forged back together, and then crushed to smithereens again by the brutal and unforgiving hammer that is his life.

"I'm so sorry, Desylia. I'm so sorry!" cried Kaizer. However, he could not bear these rampant emotions flowing through his fractured soul any longer. Kaizer felt himself fall to the cold, unwelcoming deck but he did nothing to stop his descent as his world dissolved into black nothingness around him.