Timeline: April 2012
Word Count ~ 1.8k
TW: Blood, injury, violence, death (imlpied)
Author's Note: The dialogue in this chapter is all spoken in Galactic, however, none of it is written/translated as such.
The night sky was a beautiful sight.
It was rare that the vast and tenebrous fog of the End would clear away, allowing its inhabitants a glance at the myriad of realms and universes that illuminated the sky above them. Each was a world of its own, a world full of living creatures and unfathomable opportunities.
Someday, Xisuma told himself, he was going to live on a world like that.
He was suddenly grabbed by the arm, pulled out of his trance as it was vigorously shaken with excitement. He glanced upwards, grinning a little as he looked into scarlet eyes shining with childlike wonder. Of course, he wasn't going anywhere without Ezra. Xisuma's twin had remained by his side since the very beginning, and he was intent on doing the same.
"Xisuma!" Ezra gasped, extending a hand out towards the stars as if he could hold them in his palm. "Do you see that constellation there? The one that looks like a dragon?"
"Dragon?" Xisuma repeated, tilting his head ever so slightly to mimic the way Ezra was tilting his own. He followed his brother's gaze, eventually noticing the constellation in question. "I think it looks more like an endermite wearing a hat."
"Well if you look at it this way-" Ezra began, adjusting the position he was lying in to turn himself upside down and observe the stars from a better angle. "-It's actually two people trying to sit on the same chair."
Xisuma also turned himself upside down, and couldn't help but laugh. "Remind me how old we are again?"
Ezra scoffed sarcastically, shoving his elbow into Xisuma's ribcage. "I don't care how old I am, just because I'm 19 doesn't mean I need to be stuck-up like you."
Ezra had a point. Not that Xisuma was stuck-up, (at least, he liked to think that he wasn't) but it seemed like far too many people neglected the world's many curiosities in favour of being busy... or whatever it was adults did all day. That was the kind of person Xisuma refused to let himself become. No matter what life decided to throw at him, he would always take the time to love and appreciate the things that others didn't.
"Do you have a favourite one?" Xisuma asked, deciding to ignore the comment on him being stuck-up. Ezra frowned, staring at the sky for a moment, before glancing back over at his twin.
"A favourite what?"
"I don't know... any of them." Xisuma shrugged, gesturing back towards the sea of stars, planets and galaxies. It was like a rainbow, or at least the closest thing the End would ever get to a rainbow. Not that Xisuma knew that, he'd never seen one.
Ezra went quiet for a few seconds as he examined the stars. Their reflection shone in his eyes, illuminating them just as they illuminated the sky itself. "I don't think I'd be able to pick one, to be honest." He admitted after a while, before pausing again. "...They're too different to compare."
"That's what I thought too." Xisuma agreed, both twins going silent once more as they watched the sky. Neither needed to talk, they were both perfectly happy in each other's company, and they always would be.
That is, until the stars began to disappear.
"The fog is back already?" Ezra questioned, watching as dark, ominous clouds rolled in and obscured the stunning view. Xisuma frowned, sitting up and looking around. "It's supposed to be gone all night."
Xisuma's eyes followed the darkness, which seemed to reach down towards the ground, as if it was coming from the nearby town. Xisuma's heart plummeted in fear as he realised that something was very, very wrong. "Ezra... that's not the fog. It's smoke."
Seconds after the words left his lips, the sky exploded into a bright flash of purple light. But this wasn't the good kind of light, not the one that had come from the stars just moments prior, and the deafening boom that swiftly followed seemed to be a very good indication of that. Xisuma looked back over towards their town, back towards their home, but he only saw fire.
It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, a purple storm of destruction engulfing the buildings in mere seconds. Screams of pain and horror came from the town, and before Xisuma could even question what was happening, Ezra was on his feet sprinting towards their home.
"EZRA!" Xisuma yelled, bolting after his twin. The thick smoke was already burning his lungs , and he wasn't even near his brother yet. The fire raged on, the pained, terrified screams only becoming louder as he grew closer to the town itself. "EZRA COME BACK!"
"MUM AND MAMA ARE STILL THERE!" Ezra shouted, almost disappearing into the black clouds before them. Xisuma was struggling to run, unable to call his brother's name without choking on the smoke. "WE NEED TO FIND THEM XISUMA, THEY-"
The brightest flash of light yet blinded the twins, and before Xisuma knew it his head hit the ground and he wasn't able to hear anything but a high pitched noise that seemed to rattle his skull. He could feel a warm, sticky puddle pooling beneath his head, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move. That's when, through blurred vision, he saw the first.
They were tall, elegant, and almost angelic. Pale grey skin contrasted strikingly with deep purple hair and dark black robes, decorated with the tiniest, ornate details in the brightest violet. Their eyes were hidden behind a simple white mask, bearing a glowing symbol that Xisuma couldn't make out from where he was. Their violet halo and void-black wings were what seemed to make them so angelic, yet everything else about them told Xisuma to run for his life and never turn back.
And Xisuma was right, because moments later, the being unsheathed a sword of smooth, pristine obsidian... and began to kill.
He wanted to scream but couldn't, forced to watch as people he knew and cared about fell at the hands of this beautiful yet merciless stranger. More of their kind appeared with each flash of light, slaughtering any they saw without hesitation. He looked around, terrified to move, but could see Ezra or his parents anywhere.
One approached him, but with eyes half closed and a pool of his own blood beneath him, Xisuma was presumed dead. It was then that he caught a glimpse of the symbol on their mask, and although he thought it was impossible to feel more fear than he did now, his heart only seemed to drop further.
A single rectangle, broken up by two circles replacing two of its corners.
The Watchers' symbol.
It couldn't be real... they couldn't be real. Xisuma had heard many stories of the Watchers and their unfathomable wrath, but never in his worst nightmares had he believed that those stories could be true. Merciless, godlike beings with the power to destroy entire worlds, heart-set on feeding off of the despair and anger of others to gain more power for themselves... If even a fraction of what Xisuma had heard was real, he was in grave danger.
He needed to leave. Now. He didn't know where to go, and the mere thought of leaving his family behind in this chaos hurt him, but if he wanted a chance at helping them then he needed to stay alive first. He waited, each second of hesitation like agony to him, until most Watchers were finally out of view and Xisuma pushed himself to sit up.
His entire brain seemed to roll forwards inside his skull, and he felt blood drip down the back of his neck and soak his shirt. Yet he kept pushing, forcing himself to stand on shaking legs, and allowing himself a final glance around him in the hopes of seeing his family. When he inevitably didn't, Xisuma began to run. He ran faster than he ever had before, sprinting past burnt buildings and the bodies of his friends, companions and neighbours. Tears stung his eyes, but as he heard the Watchers' shouts come from behind him, he knew he'd just have to keep running.
Xisuma didn't even know where he was going, but any chance at survival was better than none. As he passed by a ruined stall, he grabbed as many pearls as he could and threw one over the edge of the island he once called his home. His heart skipped a beat as it flew over the deadly void, but managed to clear the gap between islands and land on the next one. His body felt like it flipped upside down and back again, but when Xisuma opened his eyes, he was face-to-face with the cold stone of the next island.
Getting up once more, Xisuma could see a gateway in the distance. He'd never been beyond this part of the End before, but if he could make it to the main island and the central portal, he would almost certainly be safe from the Watchers if he made it to the Overworld. He glanced back at his home, thinking of Ezra and his parents once more. Who was he kidding? They were already long gone, Watchers never left survivors in their wake. Xisuma had nothing to lose but his own life by now.
He threw another pearl, watching it pass through the gateway, before he was thrown forward onto the ground of a new island. Ten towers of obsidian, each of varying heights, surrounded him, and in the centre was the portal itself. For a moment Xisuma hesitated, wondering should he really go through with this, but then reminded himself for the final time that he had no other choice.
He ran towards the portal, climbing up onto its bedrock encasing and staring down into its depths. He had to stop for a moment, taken away by its ironic beauty. A black void glowing with a myriad of lights and colours, each as bright and unique as the last. Funny, Xisuma thought to himself, as he stepped closer to the portal's edge and prepared to jump into the unknown.
They almost looked like stars.
Hello! Sorry to follow an incredibly angsty chapter with one of my usual, friendly author's notes, but I think a brand new book is worth acknowledging.
If you didn't read the TW in this chapter's description and were disturbed by the contents of this chapter, I apologise, but I'd like to clarify that there will be a continuation of the angst and heavy topics seen in this chapter throughout the entire book. That said, Xisuma's story is also admittedly worse than most of the others, and although it therefore might not have been the best one to start with, we needed to start somewhere.
I hope you enjoy this book, as I'm already enjoying writing it!
- Xan