Miyoshi Seikai "The Iceman"

"The (very) Naked Truth"

Part Twenty-One

After bounding about, more like a 3D digital toy fox, including throwing such expressions as 'devastatingly adorable', Kasaiko Lexx, the Nexas Fire Fox, finally fell to a slow step beside Akh-Enkiri, The Ascended.

It was a strange picture these two created as they travelled within the Hall of Relics, not just because the corridor had an upper atmosphere before a ceiling, but more the ratio of scale.

Akh-Enkiri wasn't necessarily short, but her slender frame, deep set, large eyes and shimmering blonde hair, gave her a rather 'doll like' appearance, and definitely the countenance of an offworld being. (Although she could pass as human…just…in a limited way at least)

Lexx, by the same token, in this form, also was quite obviously not native to the planet, even by folklore standards. His coat of fine hair had its own animation, with the same shimmer as The Nexas he padded beside. His coat, however, threw stripes of dark red against the fine gold, offset by dark blue tufted ears, and natural eyeliner any New Romantic, or Goth, would die for.

And he was big. The sort of dimensions which by comparison would make a large wolf seem more like a small dog.

Just as their appearances were deceptive, so too was the place they were in. From the outside, The Hall of Relics had a museum type of architecture; tall, graceful columns, wide, sweeping steps, leading to imposing and anciently ornate doors.

But within the Sanctuary itself, it was little more than a facade, set into the craggy mountainside, because it was, for all the grandeur of its entrance no more than a gateway. A seamless entry point to an independent and very unique timeline.

To say it was vast could only be accepted if it was being described alongside every grain of sand on every beach being the size of a planet. In that idea, yes, The Hall of Relics was comparable. But from within, to walk its halls, the scale wasn't that apparent. Lofty, yes, impressive, certainly, but to travel distance wasn't an adventure quest of gaming proportions.

It had been created by the hand of Shai herself, and the Lady of Time had set it outside the Laws, notions and theories of what is understood as Time, across all the realms and universes.

It was known in some realms as "The Anomaly" and it housed a diverse range of artefacts, many from timelines which no longer existed. Countless objects, collected over eons, from powerful tomes, to weapons, to strange inventions, right through to the very ordinary and mundane.

For Atreya Riverchime, the 'youngest' of the Nexas imbued with an Element, and resident at The Sanctuary, she felt quite like the storybook character Alice in Wonderland as she sat in one of the Hall of Relics' reading rooms. (Kizen had brought her the book from the human realm, and there my have initially been a small joke in the giving…Atreya was quite tiny afer all, but she found she adored the writing, immediately thinking the gift in fact was quite apt)

The Hall of Relics was one of her favourite places, and even if she was the Nexas Water Element, and it was possibly the driest, there was just so much to learn.

You may be forgiven for thinking that studying the erased remains of history had no value, but Atreya did it out of honour, that someone should remember. The Nexas themselves existed as a collective conscious, a sea of energy, which from time to time chose to take an individual 'Path of Uniqueness', but at the end, each returned, the uniqueness was shared, as a cup of water from a tap would join the ocean, the uniqueness of one blending molecule for molecule with the other.

This was Atreya's first path, so invariably there was a part of her which felt comforted by the idea of absorbing knowledge which was unique. And eventually, the Nexas would expand their understanding expidentially when she decided, or circumstances forced her return to the more 'oceanic' state.