Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Four days off.
It felt like an eternity, yet it passed far too quickly.
There she was again, sitting in the classroom, listening to the professor’s endless discourse. Alderian was by her side, seemingly more focused on the lecture than she was, or so he tried to portray.
Over the last few days, she’d seen Alderian struggling with himself. She didn’t know what had caused such a change in his attitude, but she wouldn’t let him run away from her so easily.
“Is the theory of conservation of energy truly that fascinating?” she wrote in a corner of her notebook, leaving the message visible to him. Alderian glanced at her with a smirk but remained silent.
“Tell me something!” she scribbled, smiling discreetly. Alderian looked at her, then returned his gaze to the professor with renewed interest.
A vibrant buzzing alerted them both, along with all the A’aruin present in the room. The Silver Threads of all the humans suddenly turned red, including Augustine’s.
Alderian stood up immediately; the classroom became a scene of chaos that the humans were completely ignorant of.
Augustine witnessed the A’aruin taking defensive stances and saw spirits manifest abruptly—those who, until a few moments ago, had been in A’aru—still not understanding the danger threatening them.
That was when Augustine saw it. A dark fissure, barely perceptible, split one of the classroom walls.
From it slithered a semi-liquid shadow, moving with the grace of a serpent, and then thousands of them.
The crack widened, now visible to all the A’aruin who immediately rushed toward that point.
In a matter of seconds, it ceased to be a mere fracture and became an overflowing conduit from which that strange shadow poured.
A scream tore through the silence of the room.
One of her classmates had fainted, blood seeping from his ears.
Augustine looked around anxiously; all her classmates, even the professor, seemed affected by a sudden malaise.
A classmate sitting nearest to the wall lost consciousness, while another retched in distress.
And then she saw it. A black Thread.
Her own Thread.
Alderian suddenly unfurled his wings, interposing himself between her and the dark mass expanding through the room.
It was no longer a simple formless stain; it was taking on a shape that Augustine could not identify.
She leaped to her feet.
In that instant, Elarión manifested with his majestic wings spread wide, shielding the flank that remained unprotected. “Alderian, take the Herald! It is her they want!” Elarión urged in a raspy voice.
Alderian looked at him for barely a second and, after a fleeting evaluation of the situation, shrouded Augustine in his own wings. The last thing she saw was Elarión, enveloped in a white light, flinging himself against the darkness.
“Alderian! What is happening?” she asked, her voice struggling to remain calm. When he opened his wings again, Augustine realized they were no longer in the classroom. They were in one bathroom on the third floor of the adjacent building, which was almost always vacant.
Her Thread had regained its silver brilliance, but Augustine felt panic parching her throat. Noticing that Alderian remained silent, she realized his figure looked translucent, almost invisible.
“Alderian!” she cried out, her breath hitching. He spoke, but his voice failed to reach her ears. Before she could grasp what was occurring, he was gone.
Panting with anxiety, she peeked into the hallway to scour the surroundings. Since it was class time, it looked deserted and there was no sign of anything similar to the crack they had just left behind.
“Herald,” Elarión’s voice came from behind her.
Augustine startled at the sound. She retreated into the bathroom, bolting the door shut.
“What is happening, Elarión?” she whispered frantically. “What was that shadow? Where is Alderian? My classmates… How are they?”
Elarión raised a hand signaling her to be silent. “I have no answers; I have come to protect you in case anything else occurs.”
“What happened to Alderian?”
“He is in his palace, far from here. Physically displacing a human from one place to another requires an extraordinary expenditure of energy and will. Few A’aruin are capable of such a feat, or of moving a human more than a few inches.
Alderian moved you across buildings and floors.
Impressive,” Elarión admitted with a subtle gesture of approval.
Augustine felt a flicker of warmth in her chest at Elarión’s praise. “And that... thing? What was it?”
“It was a Shadow, unlike any I have ever encountered. I cannot be certain, but the gravity is undeniable—the Guardian of Order has already manifested at the scene. Soon, the Guardian of Oblivion will surely arrive to ensure no human keeps any memory of what transpired.”
“That’s a relief—”
“It is not,” Elarión replied, his voice hollow.
Augustine looked at him, her confusion deepening.
“Alderian took you from the room in front of fifty A’aruin.
Surely the Guardian of Oblivion will seek you out to erase your memory.
That will be enough to suppress your anomaly and restore the original Oblivion.
I am sorry, Herald. I cannot protect you if that occurs.
But before your memory vanishes, I wanted you to know that I will continue to serve you from a distance—even if you can no longer see or hear us.
” Elarión spoke with a heavy seriousness.
“How did you know I was in danger?” she asked, her voice thinned by fear.
“I simply knew... isn’t it miraculous?” Elarión smiled sadly.
At that moment, a child of about twelve years old manifested in the room, flanked by two warriors serving as his escort.
“Is this the human?” he asked.
His voice was soft, yet laden with an overwhelming power. Her feet felt as heavy as lead, but Augustine made a monumental effort to maintain a neutral expression on her face as she slowly approached the sink and washed her face.
Elarión watched in silence.
“What are you doing here, Elarión?”
“Greetings, my lord. Alderian asked me to watch over his human while he remained in A’aru.”
“What is that foolish boy doing?” the child huffed. “What was he thinking, displacing his human in such a manner? And at such a risk to himself, besides. Does he not know that moving a human in that way is perilous?”
“Guardian of Oblivion, Alderian is known for his devotion to his human. It has been so in every life in which I have encountered them. Faced with an inexplicable danger like the one we just witnessed, it seems he simply acted on instinct.”
“Yes, likely,” the Guardian of Oblivion conceded. “Let us clean up his mess.”
He brought his hand close to Augustine’s Thread and the color changed immediately. An intense lilac surged through the strand toward the young woman, lingering there for several seconds.
“It is done,” the child concluded. “Escort her to her house until Alderian returns. And stay out of trouble. If anything of this nature occurs again, simply go to A’aru and report it immediately.”
“Yes, my lord.”
A few seconds later, they were alone again. Elarión looked at her with unfathomable sadness and followed closely as she returned home. Augustine gave no sign of seeing or hearing him.
“Herald, I will fulfill my promise,” Elarión told her solemnly. “I will protect you so long as it does not conflict with my duty to Ana.”
“What are you talking about?” Alderian was suddenly by his side. Augustine was walking ahead of them, her back turned.
“Are you well? How were you able to return so swiftly?”
“Tell me what happened. I felt the touch of the Guardian of Oblivion. Don't tell me that—”
Elarión looked at him in silence and nodded. Alderian’s face twisted in an expression of agony. He collapsed into a crouch, his hands reaching for the ground as if searching for a point of support that was no longer there.
“What matters is that you saved her,” Elarión said, his voice steady despite the chaos. “Had you not taken her out, Augustine would be dead.”
Alderian was unable to respond, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
“I must have a problem,” Augustine said at last. “How can it be that, having received the Oblivion treatment directly from the boss, it still didn’t affect me?
” She looked at them head-on, smiling even though her legs were trembling.
“Forgive me, Elarión. I did not wish to deceive you. I was afraid someone was watching us, with so many eyes lurking.”
It took Alderian only a second to reach her side. Augustine could clearly see that he was weeping, his beautiful face bearing the sweetest expression she had ever seen in her life.
“You’ve done so well,” Alderian was saying, still shaken. “Keep walking home as you have been; we are nearly there.”
Augustine obeyed in silence.
“This exceeds my understanding, Alderian. This anomaly defies all logic. I worry about what might happen if the High Council finds out about this,” Elarión said. “I don’t even think they would consider reassigning her.”
“It’s no longer just about seeing or hearing us. It’s that Oblivion didn’t affect her,” Alderian mused aloud. “Augustine, take out your phone as you did before and answer us through it.”
She took her phone from her pocket and brought it to her ear, still trembling.
“What did you do when the Guardian of Oblivion touched your Silver Thread?” Alderian asked.
“I’m not sure... I was so nervous,” she replied. “I wouldn’t say I did something, but I yearned for something with such intensity. Perhaps I simply clung to that wish.”
“What did you wish for?” Alderian asked softly.
Augustine did not answer at once. Finally, she whispered, “Not to forget you.”
Elarión stopped in his tracks. “Forgive me, I must return to Ana now,” he said, his voice hollow, and he vanished before a word could be spoken in return.
“You know? I truly felt afraid today,” Augustine continued. “For a moment, a thick fog clouded my mind. I could remember your name, but not your face or your voice. I felt your memory slipping away like water through a broken glass... slowly, yet inevitably, I was losing you.”
Alderian listened with his eyes closed, his brow furrowed, as every one of Augustine’s words gripped his heart.
“Thank you for clinging to me,” Alderian said. “At this moment... there is nothing I yearn for more than to be able to touch you.”
Augustine let her hand drop, the phone falling to her side as she turned slowly to face him. Alderian opened his eyes and, without a second thought, tried to cradle her face in his hand, even knowing he could never reach her.