Chapter 4 PastFuture #2
He forced himself not to look back to see if Vex still stood there.
He told himself that even if the Night King did not kill him now, the elf did not love him either.
And the part of him that ached–just a little–at the thought of that quieted as he continued to walk.
There were others in this life that loved him and he must be there for them.
He would be there for them.
The crater’s surface was strange. Glass-like.
Potentially from great heat. Declan could only imagine the type of power it would have taken to have created this wound in the Under Dark.
That Vex had ever thought it could be him seemed ridiculous in the extreme.
And that he had done this to kill Lady Ashryn?
Even learning that she was his mother and that she had left him to the tender mercies of Vulre and the belief that he was jadir would not have been enough for him to lose control and do this.
Even though he had been younger then–and potentially more volatile and less able to control his emotions–he knew enough about himself that he would not have done this to her.
But what happened here? He wondered. Something cataclysmic. Something that destroyed the wards maybe?
That thought disturbed him greatly. Had he been here when the wards that separated the Under Dark and Earth were shattered?
Had his very presence here caused that to happen?
Was he in some small or large way responsible for Earth being invaded by the Leviathan?
For the death of billions? He nearly stumbled at the thought.
He put a hand over the center of his chest. Feeling the Adiva there.
Neither cold nor hot. Neutral without any Sun to protect him from.
Yet it centered him to touch it. If he had played some role in what happened here, he could not undo it.
He could only go forward. He could only try to protect what was left.
Or will I blame Vex for this too?
It had been cruel on some level to blame the Night King for Ashryn’s death.
She had made decisions, too. Bad ones though maybe for good reasons.
Vex’s personality was a known quantity when she’d conceived him and decided to keep him.
It had been a desperate game she’d been playing.
Maybe one that had always been destined to fail.
But why did we come here? He wondered.
He’d heard often enough from the others as they battled their way through the dark of the Pedway that none could find Illithor–let alone enter it–except Vex.
So maybe the wards were simply weakened over time.
Or maybe Ashryn’s knowledge of Vex allowed her to find what was hidden from others.
He supposed he would never know. Unless he remembered…
But his mind was a locked box to him. And now knowing she was dead, he had no desire to open it again.
Rahven?! Someone called his name.
His head snapped up. Ardreth appeared in one hand and Krith in the other. He dropped low and slowly spun around. It was not Vex who had called his name. It was a… a woman.
“Rahven, I told you to stay back in the city,” Ashryn’s voice sounded full of affection and frustration too.
Declan’s lips parted in wonder. He stared about him, looking for the Kindreth woman. But he saw no one and nothing. He was near the very center of the crater from what he could tell. The center of the blast. But there was no one there, but him.
“But I don’t want to be away from you,” his own voice–but younger–responded.
Declan spun around towards where his younger voice seemed to be coming. He thought he heard footfalls as if a young boy was jogging towards him. But there was no slender figure there. He was still alone.
But not.
“I do not want to be away from you either, my darling,” Ashryn answered. Her voice thrilled with love. Then it became concerned once more as she added, “But it is dangerous out here. The wards are tricky and I need to keep my full attention on them.”
“I will protect you while you work,” Declan’s younger voice was filled with sullen determination.
“I see. How did you get past Vulre?” she asked. “I told him to watch you.”
There was a pause, “He stays away from me these days.”
“I… yes, I suppose he does. It was wrong for him to… to do what he did,” her voice dropped low with grief and censure. “I told him to train you, not to…”
“He hates me. He always has. He always will,” Declan’s younger voice said. “Maybe he’s right to.”
“What?” Ashryn’s voice rose in distress. “No–”
“We’re only here because of me. We only had to leave home because of me–”
“No, my dearest. It wasn’t because of you. You have done nothing wrong,” she said and her voice sounded closer somehow as if it was being spoken in his ear.
He could hear the rustle of her clothes. She was holding him. She had been holding him when she said those words. His heart lurched in his chest. He swore he smelled her perfume. Night flowers. Incense. His eyes closed and tears flowed for a moment.
His younger voice was thick with emotion as he said, “But we’re only here because Vex–”
“Don’t say his name! Not here! Please, my darling son, please,” she whispered in alarm.
Declan swore he felt her arms tighten around him as if a vise.
“I’m sorry! I–”
“Don’t be sorry. Don’t be. This is all my fault.
I should have left long ago. I should have…
Well, where we’re going you’ll be safe,” she murmured against the side of his head.
He could feel the heat of her breath in his hair.
More of her perfume filled his nostrils.
“The Sun King Ailduin has been reborn. And he will keep you safe. I know it.”
Ailduin? Declan felt like he’d been struck dumb for a moment. Vex kept calling Aquilan by that name. He played it off as a mistake, but…
“But I thought the Aravae hate us,” Declan’s younger self sounded uncertain.
“Not Ailduin. Long ago, he was our greatest protector. Our king as much as… He will help us. He will protect you with all he has. I promise, my son, that you will live a life under the Sun. A good life. A brilliant life. Where you will be loved. I do not know if it can make up for everything that has come before, but–”
“Mother,” Declan’s younger self breathed, “so long as we are together, it will be more than enough.”
Declan’s tongue clove to the roof of his mouth.
They had not been together. He had not even remembered her until this year.
How long ago had she died? How could he have forgotten her so completely?
Not even when he had looked at his beloved adopted mother Alexia had he imagined another face over hers.
There had been nothing. His mind was a blank slate.
“Oh, Rahven, I do not deserve you. But I will give everything to try and earn your love,” she murmured and he felt the press of her lips against his forehead and cheeks as she kissed him again and again as if to make up for all those times she had held back and not done so in the past.
“You already have it, Mother. I have always loved you. I always will,” his younger self sounded so calm and certain in that moment.
Declan swayed. Tears ran down his cheeks. His heart felt sick in his chest. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe. Something bad was going to happen. Ashryn had died.
Here.
He couldn’t remember how.
But it was going to happen.
Would he hear it?
Would he feel it?
“Why did we have to come to Illithor?” Declan’s younger self asked. “Won’t V… he be able to find us here better than anywhere else? It’s his city, isn’t it?”
“Ailduin had a secret way to get to the Under Dark from the Lieran Plane near here. It is the only way to get there without… Well, without great danger. I just need to adjust the wards a little to let us slip through,” Ashryn explained.
“But if I adjust them too much, he might know we’re here and… come.”
“Oh. So the wards are to keep the rifts closed from here to the Lieran Plane?” his younger self asked.
“Not exactly. There is another plane that separates the Under Dark from the Lieran Plane,” she explained.
“Ear-rath?” his younger self said uncertainly.
Earth, he corrected internally.
She laughed. “Close. Earth. It’s been some time since I went there, but it was… pretty. The people were interesting. Mortals. Living just a brief candle flicker of time. But they make the most of it!”
“Mor–tals?”
“If I cannot adjust the wards soon… we may go there. For a time. There are ways to reach the Lieran Plane from there. Though it is… Well, let us not get ahead of ourselves. We try this first and then–”
“Mother, what is that?” Declan’s younger voice was full of alarm.
“What–”
Then he heard it.
That familiar hiss.
Leviathan!
“Mother–”
But then the hiss and slither really were there.
Not a dream. Not a memory. Not whatever this was.
The darkness that had been nearly absolute as he had walked was now lighter.
And he could see… see coils shifting ahead of him.
And long gray strands of what looked like spider silk stretching up to the ceiling.
A nest. A Leviathan nest.
He had never seen one on Earth, but he knew that’s what this was. And it was huge. Massive. Unbelievably large.
How many Leviathan could be bred in there?
An army.
And then he knew something else. Aquilan was somewhere in that nest. He could feel the Sun King. His lips parted in horror. Aquilan was in danger. Aquilan…
“Mother!” his younger voice drifted up from behind him as he had already started to move towards the Sun King.
He knew that if he left this place, he likely would not discover what had happened here. But that didn’t matter. The past was the past. The present and the future were the only things that could be altered.
“Forgive me, Ashryn,” he whispered as he started to run towards the Leviathan that was emerging from the nest. “I must leave you to death… again.”
Ardreth was singing as he swung it through the air.
The Leviathan didn’t even see him or its death coming as the Niri blade cut it in two.
The clank of the fang was the only sound.
This Leviathan was not alone. Half a dozen others were coming up behind it.
But they, too, stood no chance as Declan flew through the air.
Now when he wasn’t plummeting to the bottom of a crater, he could fly all he wanted.
The hiss and slither were cut off and silence reigned after the clangs of fangs hitting the ground died away.
This side of the crater did not have the sheer cliff-like drop off of the other side.
Perhaps the Leviathan had smoothed it for some purpose.
Maybe the nearness to the remnants of the wards here attracted them.
Perhaps the memory of the death of a Night Elf by the name of Lady Ashryn Zinsadoral did.
Whatever the reason, Declan was able to move up the almost gentle slope easily.
He felt the press of his memories receding as he did so.
But he did not turn back. Just like with Vex, he was moving forward, towards Aquilan, towards the sunlight.