Aries

Aries POV: Lyra

"What are the others saying?"

"Most are in shock," I said. "They cannot accept the fact."

Polaris hummed. "Happens."

When she asked a question via the link, I could not help but ask Polaris. "Libra has a question."

"What is it?"

"You said Ecthos was a race before Cosmos," I said. "Then how come some Ecthos are born even after Cosmos and Chaos took over?"

"If I answer that," he said. "I will be breaking a promise and not to mention Cosmos will be pissed off and since she cannot harm us, she will end up harming the ones you love."

"Ones I love?" I echoed. "What do you mean by that? Do you mean Antlia?"

Polaris closed his eyes and sighed. "Cosmos and Chaos did a huge mistake of separating the stars and the pulsars, creating an imbalance. To rectify that, twelve pulsars live in Origins, under Cosmos, without anyone's knowledge. Since a star is posing her a lot of problems, Cosmos realised her mistake and she sent the twelve pulsars on earth with no memory of their pulsar life. Until they regained their memory, they are vulnerable. Cosmos could potentially kill them."

I had a mix of emotions bubbling in me. Twelve pulsars like us were living in Origins? While I had not met them, I already felt a bond of kinship among them. It has been ages since I actually met a pulsar if one excluded Seren, Veiya and Moros.

"What does that have to do?" I asked.

Polaris looked into my eyes and for the first time since the beginning of this conversation, I felt exposed. Naked. "You will tell me the answer to this question in three months time. Wait until then."

I withheld myself from asking further questions. I did want to know the answers, but I could respect that only when I waited for it. And waiting for a matter of three months was not a big deal. After all, with this long life, one learnt the virtue of patience.

"I understand," I said.

Polaris smiled. "You must go tomorrow night, Aries. While I can see the fate of everyone like Qamar and write it, I prefer not to. It reminds of the time when Cosmos sat on her throne newly. I keep to my business and him to his. Only if he needs help, does he come to me. But I cannot help but meddle with this. Go tomorrow and tell my daughter about this."

Before I could ask another question, Polaris vanished not even leaving a trail of his scent. What did Polaris meddle now? What was awaiting me tomorrow night in the dungeons?

********

The last time I was here, I met Zircon and that was over three thousand years ago. A good friend, but quite serious with what he did. Humming a song that I heard in the cafe this morning, I went to the lower floors.

Instead of the usual stench of filthiness and malice, there was a strong scent of freshness hitting my nose. I just paused for a moment to breathe that scent in. Never in my life had a scent affected me so much.

Greedily gulping in that smell, I cautiously made my way to Alioth's cell. Surprisingly, the strength of the said scent was getting stronger with each step I took. Who was thrown here?

Apart from stars in this part of the universe, only the Hunters and Huntress had the power to throw people here apart from the Royals. No Warrior threw a criminal here. And the Hunters were rarely being chosen nowadays. So... who threw that person with this amazing scent here? Just by that scent, I could tell how pure the soul was.

Or did that appear to me like that? This person could have destroyed an entire civilisation and I would worship that person.

The darkness shrouded me, greeting me like an old friend of its. But then again, when did I need light to see?