Julia

  22nd September, 2024

  The sun dipped behind the hills, bleeding amber and violet across the horizon. Julia leaned against the window, watching the city fade into the emptiness of the open road. At some point, she had asked about Curl — his real name, Theron; what he wanted, what bound him to Arion. And Arion had told her everything.

  Now, she knew.

  Arion and Theron were not just men from a forgotten past. They were two forces caught in a battle that had outlived their own world; faith and progress, belief and ambition, a struggle that began beneath the burning towers of Aetheria and had somehow survived the death of their age.

  And now, fate had brought them both here to her world, where the past should have been nothing but dust and legend. And at the heart of it all was Aether. The thing that should not exist. Something that defied time itself.

  Julia turned her gaze from the darkening sky to Arion, who was gripping the wheel with practiced ease. She had spent her life chasing the past, piecing together ancient civilizations, trying to understand how they lived, what they believed, what had driven them forward —but never had she considered that the past could reach back for her.

  She inhaled slowly.

  She had seen enough to know it was real. The crystal flowing through Arion, him conjuring fire and air at his will, summoning tendrils and roots from the ground. The impossible things that had unraveled before her eyes.

  But how? She thought to herself silently as none of it still made any rational sense to her.

  "So... you said” Julia began, turning her head toward him “the Aether was everywhere. How? I don’t quite understand."

  Her voice was quiet, careful—not doubting, just searching.

  Arion turned his focus to the road, his gaze distant. “The flow of Aether, it’s everywhere. We can’t see it, not really. It’s behind the veil, just outside of our perception, but it’s there—like subatomic particles. Invisible, but all around us, feeding everything.”

  He paused, his brow furrowing as he tried to express the weight of his own understanding.

  “But it doesn’t work like science here, Julia. The particles it controls don’t obey the laws you know. They’re not just energy; they’re alive, in a sense, and they respond to the will of the custodian it has bonded with.”

  He glanced at Julia briefly. “The Aether doesn’t give itself freely. The more it trusts the custodian, the more power it grants. But… there are other ways to connect with it too.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  His gaze sharpened with the weight of the revelation. "Even after centuries, no custodian—not a single one—has ever understood the full potential of it."

  Arion exhaled, shaking his head slowly, the weight of his words still pressing against him.

  “I still don’t fully understand it. Not with all the knowledge from my world, along with even your modern science.” He paused, as if the words themselves were too much to articulate. “A lot of it still feels unexplainable.”

  The silence stretched between them, heavy with the enormity of what Arion had just said. Julia’s thoughts were still swirling as she spoke, trying to piece together what Arion had said.

  “Why didn’t you use its flow before the museum? Or... did you?” Julia asked.

  Arion slowed the car slightly, his mind drifting back to that moment. “I had but one broken piece of Aether. It pulsed faintly at times, like it was coming back to life... but it never really did. I thought it was either dying or dead… until…”

  “The museum,” His voice trailed off as he turned onto a less busy stretch of highway, more focused on their conversation now. “Until both parts were in the same vicinity.”

  “I felt it,” he continued, voice quiet but intense. “As soon as I entered the museum, after all this time, I felt the flow through me. Not as strong as when I ascended, but... strong enough.”

  Julia recalled the disoriented look on his face when they first met at the museum, but she didn’t bring it up. Instead, she thought about his words.

  “Maybe the Aether sensed its other half, connected to it?” she asked, her tone unsure but curious.

  “Maybe…” Arion’s voice softened, the weight of the idea settling in. “I don’t know what it means, but... this gives me hope.”

  Julia took the Aether from her bag, its glow casting faint shadows in the car’s dim light. The hum of the crystal was almost imperceptible, but it felt like it was communicating something.

  “Do you know where did this stone come from originally?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper. “What was the temple’s theory?”

  Arion was silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the road.

  “According to our oldest scriptures, in the beginning of it all, God created Aether. And through it, He made everything,” he said, his voice low. “Our scholars believed Aether is the first of all creation—the foundation of the universe itself.”

  Julia absorbed his words quietly, trying to process it all. It felt like a weight—something far beyond the science she knew. It wasn’t something she had the answers to, nor could she grasp it all at once.

  She stayed silent for a beat, then asked a question that had been lingering in her mind.

  "If everything came from Aether,” Julia thought out loud, “And God created the Aether…”

  After a moment she continued, “If there is a God, why does the world feel so broken? Why is there so much pain, suffering, and injustice?"

  Arion’s grip tightened on the steering wheel, his eyes narrowing as he kept his focus fixed ahead. But his voice was steady, unwavering.

  “Because life is a trial by design. I would blame us, humans, for most of the evil, suffering and injustice. We all have a part to play in it. Maybe He expects us to play our part to stop it, yet most of us turn the blind eye.”

  Julia’s mind raced for a moment, a thousand unspoken thoughts swirling. But in the end, she remained silent—not because she didn’t have more questions, but because the silence between them felt like the only thing that made sense in that moment.

  He paused before continuing, his tone taking on a deeper, more resolute edge.

  “Besides, God never promised us absolute bliss, but he did promise justice. So don’t be mistaken,” Arion said with certainty, “now or later, there will be reckoning.”

  The words hung in the air between them, and Julia felt their truth settle in her chest. There was no more to say. She nodded, looking down at the Aether crystal in her hands, her thoughts heavy.

  The answers weren’t simple. But to hope that for those like Theron, There will be reckoning. That, at least, made sense to her.

  ***

  Action Drama Grimdark Fantasy