Burning Star

Light…

Eric had always found light to be a peculiar thing. It had no form, and most of the time it had no color. But he knew that wasn’t true. If a person had a keen eye, that person would be able to see thousands of colors in something as simple as light. It was a sign of hope—a proof that nothing is what it appears. It’s a reminder always to look beyond what’s meets the eye, and most of all, it’s the thing you can’t live without.

It was also the only thing around him. Eric couldn’t see anything. No form and no colors, only the brightness of the sun.

Astronian people worshipped the sun. They called it Solem, the creator of all. And right now, it was easy to believe he stood in front of Solem. His surrounding blinded him whenever he tried to open his eyes. The pores on his skin tightened from the heat, and he had no choice but to cover his face with his arms.

Where am I? Eric couldn’t remember anything. Something had happened to him—something important. Nevertheless, he had no clue of what it might be.

A gleeful laughter resounded around him. Jerking up, he tried to see if there were any threats nearby. “Who’s there?” he shouted, groaning from the pain to his eyelids. “Reveal yourself!”

Blinking rapidly, he tried to moisten his burning eyeballs while still being on the lookout. There was no reply, and he sighed, giving into the temptation to cover his eyes again. He couldn’t fight like this. If whatever it was out there proved to be an enemy—he was doomed.

“Why can’t it be simple for once?” he muttered. Whenever he was involved, there was no easy way around. It had to be the hardest way possible.

“Are you preparing to fight me?” a female asked.

Eric gasped and tried to open his eyes, the bright light burning his poor pupils. Clenching his jaws, he tried to take a fighting stance. He balled his fists, and mentally prepared for whatever may come. With his nail digging into the palm of his hands, he exhaled. “If I have to,” he said.

“You’re not going to succeed without your eyes,” the female voice said. “However, I do wonder why you would consider fighting me.”

“State your name,” Eric demanded.

“I have many names,” the voice replied, a slight giggle following. “What do you wish to call me?”

“Solem,” he muttered. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”

“Where would the fun be in that?” she asked.

Eric couldn’t argue with that logic. It was foolish, and there’d be no point. He sighed. “Could you maybe turn off the lights, then? I’d like to be able to see who I’m conversing with.” He frowned. “Why do you have so many lights anyway?”

“They soothe me,” she replied. “Alright. I can’t remove the light, but I can give you visuals. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” he said, and then he remembered his manners. “Please.”

The air around him shifted, his skin loosened up, and he could swear that there was even a slight draft around him. Slowly, he opened his eyes, readying himself for the burn of the brightness once more.

Then he gasped.

Where there before had been only light, a rainbow of colors now spread all around him. It was astonishing, and he’d never seen anything quite like it before. It was a painter’s dream, all the beauty in the world combined, and he had nothing to say to it. There were no possible words to explain his gratitude for being allowed to experience such vivid colors.

“It’s so beautiful,” he muttered. Whomever the female voice belonged to must be divine. No human could possess such a magnificent piece of art, and not gloat about it. The more he looked around, the more he noticed. It was everywhere, up and down, to his right and left. There were colors everywhere—and he even spotted a shade or two he’d never seen before.

He laughed, a bubbly sensation spreading from his stomach. Looking around, he said, “This is amazi—“

There was nobody there. The colors stretched on. Even the floor beneath him was made of a beautiful combination of shades. However, he was utterly alone. His heart sank as his last memories surfaced. Errai had attacked him, taking his appearances.

Was he dead? He gulped. Maybe he’d gone insane.

“In a way, you are,” the feminine voice said, startling him.

With a hand on his heart, he spun around. “Who’s there?” Taking a few steps back, he tried to spot any place where a person could hide. “I won’t hurt you.”

“I know that,” the voice replied. “I’m just trying to find a suitable form to present to you.”

A suitable form? What is this madness? he thought.

The answer to his questions came when he saw a feminine form walking towards him. His mouth dropped when he recognized the body belonging to Amelia walking towards him. He must be dreaming because there was no way this could be her. Especially not with such an extremely low-cut dress. Covering his eyes, he hissed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Excuse me?” she said, the voice sounding wrong. “I thought you preferred this form.”

“Why would you think that?” he shouted. “Go change. You’re not a prostitute.”

“Fine,” she said. “I’ve changed. You may look now.”

When he opened his eyes again, he saw another woman in front of him. Instead of Amelia’s brown hair, she was now blonde, taller, and with green eyes—he didn’t recognize this woman. However, she was still wearing that skimpy dress.

“I meant your clothes,” he muttered. Heat rushed to his cheeks, and he looked away.

The woman sighed. “Enough! We have things to discuss. I suggest you work through your issues on your own—and do it fast.”

Eric gave a small nod, standing up straight. He couldn’t bear to look straight at her, and instead, he opted to stare above her shoulder. “My apologies.” Out of his peripheral vision, he saw the woman roll her eyes.

“I’m starting to get why I don’t get human visitors that often,” she said.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I have many names,” she replied. “You normally refer to me as Solem, though.”

Eric dropped to his knees as her word registered in his mind. “I beg forgiveness, almighty one,” he said. “I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t.” She walked closer. “I didn’t tell you.”

Eric looked up again, surprised to see her smile. “Am I dead?” he asked.

“In a way, yes.” She tapped her chin with a finger. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Is this how it always goes?” He gestured to the surrounding colors. “Is this where you decide if we die or not?”

Solem shook her head. “No. I don’t usually mingle with human affairs to be honest.”

“Why not?”

Solem glanced at him. “Because humans are only a percentage of the universe, I can’t be expected to do everything.” She smirked. “Besides, I know that Vega has been having fun with you people.”

Eric didn’t know how to respond to that. Instead, he folded his hands behind his back and stood still.

“I’m not sure how you came here,” Solem continued. “My suspicion tells me it has something to do with Vega, but I can’t be sure.”

“I thought you knew everything,” Eric blurted.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I do know mostly everything. Problem is that something is shadowing my view of your world.”

“Could it be the black holes?” he asked.

“They might have a finger in it, but I can only focus on very few things—that’s not a power any of the Black Holes possess.”

“What can you see?” he asked. Part of him wondered if the Tome of Lyra might be what was causing her blindness.

She waved her hand, and the light moved to form a picture. Eric could see Amelia, Vega and Joshua kneel by the side of his burned body. A lump formed in his throat as he saw tears glistening in his friends’ eyes. He saw Amelia muttering words he could not hear. Solem, he wished he could hear them.

“Ah! That’s why you’re here,” Solem said. “Should have known they’d find a way.”

“What is it?” he asked.

She pointed to his displayed body and circled her finger around his chest. “The three pendants. My pendants, to be exact. They have infinite power.” She stared at them. “There are seven more than those. But they’re… indisposed.”

“What does that mean?” Eric frowned. “What does any of this mean? Did Errai kill me?”

“Errai…” Solem stared at Eric. “No… Errai didn’t kill you.”

“Then who did? I saw him take my body, and now I’m here.” Darned Black Holes. Couldn’t they simply stay in their own form?

“It is complicated.” Solem started pacing back and forth. “The man you know as Errai is in fact not the Elder he’s posing to be. He took the form to smite me in the worst way possible, and he almost succeeded. Vega was sent to earth in the first place to collect him for me.”

“W-what?” Eric wasn’t following. He couldn’t make sense of anything she was saying.

“The enemy you know, and speak of, as Errai is doing all of this to punish me.” Solem stopped, turning to Eric. “I couldn’t help him, and he chose to betray me.”

“I mean no disrespect, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Eric scratched his head.

Solem sent him a small smile, and with a wave of her hand, she made two chair appear. They looked out of place, but Eric wasn’t one to complain. On her request, he took a seat, folding his hands in his lap.

“A long time ago, I hand selected a few Stars to be my trusted ones.” Solem sat down, and continued, “One of them was named Messier. He was a lovely young star. I treated him as if he was my son—and in a way he was.” She smiled at the memory. “He wanted to reunite Nemesi and me. At first, I allowed him to speak his mind, but then he became manic and more persistent in his ideas.

“I trusted him, of course. But I couldn’t with good conscience place any star in danger simply because he felt it was worth the risk.” Solem sighed. “His obsession drove him into madness, and I didn’t stop it. When he died, he came back as a Black Hole—a burnt out Star.”

“What does this have to do with Vega?” Eric asked.

“My little protégé is a fighter,” Solem said. “When Messier turned evil, I watched him for centuries. At one point, he found a way into the human world. Vega was sent to prevent his plans.”

“And the prophecy?”

“It’s a fun thing to be a God. You can change the small things, even long after greater things have occurred. As it was, I could easily place the prophecy within the boundaries of Astronia without people noticing that I’d interfered.” Solem frowned. “The only one who ever came close to figuring me out was Messa—Messier’s brother.”

“Ahh… Blake…” Eric recalled Errai talking about that—wait no. Not Errai—Messier.

Gah, this is giving me a headache.

“I’m afraid I can’t offer you much more information than that, Eric Malcolm.” Solem smiled. “Some things are too big for the human mind to comprehend.”

“I understand.” He bowed his head. “What is it you wish of me?”

She tapped her chin. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to go back to Amelia!” he blurted. When he realized his mistake, he widened his eyes, and muttered and apology.

“Amelia is a special girl. Related to me, in a sense.” Solem cocked a well-formed eyebrow. “Are you sure you’ll be able to handle that?”

“Does it matter if I’m able or not?” Eric asked. “I won’t know if I don’t try—and I want to try.”

“Spoken like a true man.” Solem grinned. “I should hang out with humans more often. I like it.”

“So I can go back?” he asked.

“Not empty handed—I need you to see something,” she said and waved her hand.

The colors in front of them made another screen, and Eric leaned forward to get a better look. He recognized the Star temple in Yildun.

Vega and Joshua was sneaking towards the holy room, hiding behind marble pillars and large ferns. Joshua gestured to Vega, to be quiet and they set out to move closer. Both of them halted when a booming voice resounded throughout the room, “She should have been dead years ago!”

“I don’t know w-what happened,” another voice answered. “I ordered them both killed.”

Eric recognized the second voice as Garnet. Joshua had told them of this scene, and he tried to remember what the point was back then. Something caused Errai to flee.

“Please keep your eyes on Messier,” Solem said. He must have looked confused because she sighed. “I mean Errai. Keep an eye on the man you know as Errai.

“They were not killed, Garnet,” Errai shouted. “You’ll regret this.”

Vega and Joshua skidded closer to the man, and they both gasped silently when they saw Errai threatening Garnet.

The friendly Elder was scared, he held up both his hands, surrendering early, while pleading for his life. “E-errai, don’t do this… What… what a-are you doing?”

Errai’s form shifted into a black mist, slowly disappearing, and replacing itself with a dark fog.

Vega ran forth. “Stop!” she yelled, but it was too late. Errai wasn’t turning back to his past form.

Instead, he turned towards Vega and stretched out his hands. As he disappeared in a silvery smoke, he yelled, “The Rising Star will die; the Black Holes will make sure of it!”

Eric saw Vega run over to help Garnet, and he turned to Solem. “What was I supposed to notice? That he ran from Vega—I already knew that.”

“Look closely to the picture,” Solem said.

Eric obliged, and he narrowed his eyes. Where Errai had been standing, shimmers of the silvery smoke remained, and then it moved. “He was invisible in that form?” Eric asked. “He’s such a coward.”

Solem shrugged. “Errai was never much of a marksman—he didn’t fight. Instead, he was the one to make devious plans, and then see that they were pulled through.” She looked at the screen. “But he’s clever.”

“So he can’t teleport?” Eric asked. “Vega said he flashed away in an instance.”

“Vega didn’t know his weakness. Errai has only one extraordinary powers—his silver mist.” She stood up from her chair, and then she gestured for him to rise, as well. “Now you know his weakness, use it wisely.”

Eric was surprised. “You’re sending me back to earth?”

She nodded. “It’ll take a while for the magic to work, but when you wake up again, your body will be healed.”

“Thank you!” he exclaimed. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Oh, and Eric?”

“Yes?” He raised his head.

“Don’t break her heart, or wait until the last minute to tell her how you feel.” Solem stared into the colors. “The Stars’ magic thrives on love, and you’re going to need every last bit of it to defeat Errai.”

He nodded. “I will remember that.”

“Good. Then may the Stars have mercy on your soul,” she said and kissed his forehead.