The End of the Fantasy (Book #6 of the Sage Saga) (17 page)

“I don’t know, we could make a small place work.”

“If you’re serious, then I’ll do more than burn the pancakes. I’ll set the cabin on fire.”

“At least the breakfast will be done,” he chuckled. His laughter waned as he furrowed his brow. Lily stood to her feet.

“What is it?”

“I think I might have found it. The Yama homeland. There’s a lot of people in this direction. Large landmass. It’s worth a shot.”

“I think you’re right,” Lily said, stretching her hand forward, matching Bastion’s stance with his eidolon. “That’s too bad. I was kind of hoping that we would find a brand new world altogether. That wouldn’t be so bad. We could start over.”

“And leave everyone behind?” Bastion winced. Lily scowled at him.

“I’m confused. Leave
who
behind? There’s no one back there.”

“I don’t want Tyuin and the others to be killed.”

“I don’t either…but I’m just wondering why you care so much. We just met them.”

“I think…I think,” Bastion sighed. “I just wished I had someone looking out for me when I was younger. Tyuin and the Prattlians, the remaining Langorans, the Allayans…even the Quietus…they’re all counting on me in their own way. I know I shouldn’t care. Especially with how I’ve been used…but I want to be better than that. I’m finally in a position where I can be the one who decides how everything turns out. I have control over my fate, and I want to show them that being selfish isn’t the answer.”

“You wouldn’t be selfish,” Lily whispered. “You would just be letting them find their own way to survive. Why do you have to be the one to save them all?”

“Getting cold feet?” Bastion said suddenly. Lily nearly jumped at the change in his tone.

“What do you mean?”

“Now that we might have found the Yama world…you’re thinking about being shut down, aren’t you?”

“It’s crossed my mind,” she whispered. Bastion turned to her for a moment.

“Don’t worry. I’m afraid of being shut down too. Just because I’ve survived this long…it doesn’t mean I’ll make it today.”

“Not if I’m with you,” Lily said with confidence. “If I’m with you, you’ll have all the power you need.” The winds around them began to thin as they neared the mountain in front of them. Bastion took a deep breath and sheathed his eidolon as the sphere began to descend. 

Bastion was about to make one last joke, just to hear Lily’s laugh again, but when he turned to face her, she had already transformed back into her stone form. He sighed, picked her up, and held her close to his chest.

“Welcome back,” Tillian said happily as Catherine, Daisy and Talia walked through the clay door and into what they knew to be the “Yama Headquarters.” Catherine darted her head back and forth, looking around the room.

“Where’s Veer?” she asked.

“Preparing for Bastion’s arrival,” he said, nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

“He’s on his way now?”

“Yes!” he said, clapping his hands together. His red hair was bouncing around so much that it looked as if it was going to pop off at any second. “I think you know what this means.”

“The completion of your work.”

“Yes!” he shouted, his excitement echoing off the walls. “But quickly, before he comes…have you made a decision? If you are to be Delilah, we would love for you to help us with persuading Bastion to our cause. Any way you can.”

“About that…there are two things. First, either we all become Delilah or none of us will.”

“I already told you that—”

“—if Bastion’s on his way then how do you think he’ll react when he finds out that Daisy was going to be killed by you and your Yama?” Tillian’s mouth dropped as Talia nodded her head slowly in approval. She didn’t even see that coming.

“Fine, fine,” he said quickly, glancing at Daisy as if she was a disgusting insect. “I guess we can bend the guidelines a bit. What is your second request? Quickly.”

“We want to see the bridge between the worlds for ourselves. To know that they actually exist.”

“Oh, that’s an easy one. I’ll be more than happy to show you. But can we wait until Bastion arrives? I would love for him to see it as well.”

“Of course,” she replied. “But before we go out to meet him, what happens if he hears everything you have to say and he still decides that he doesn’t want to be the bridge controller?”

“I don’t know…I hope that doesn’t happen. But worse comes to worse, we may have to force him.”

“Force him?”

“It’s a complicated process, but if we can get him harnessed to the machine that acts as the conduit, then we can use his massive amount of energy to run it. Someone else can decide who goes to Paradise and who goes to Oblivion from here.”

“So in essence, you really only need Bastion’s body.”

“Yes, but we would prefer if he could do the job completely by himself.”

“I see,” Catherine said, catching a concerned look on Talia’s face. “Well, we’re going to meet him outside. Feel free to join us at any time…and Tillian?” His eyebrows perked up at the sound of his name. “Thank you so much for this opportunity.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, beaming from ear to ear. “And I’ll be right behind you. I just have to perform a couple tweaks on the machine first.”

“Take your time,” Catherine replied, walking behind her two Sages. They exited the compound and Talia began laughing as soon as the clay door shut in their wake.

“So how much did it hurt to thank him like that?”

“Surprisingly, less than I thought it would,” Catherine laughed.

“As soon as Bastion gets in that harness he’s talking about, he’s cooked,” Daisy said, gritting her teeth. “They just need him alive, that’s it.”

“Whoa, calm down,” Talia said, patting Daisy on the back. “We’ll do whatever we have to do to save him if it comes to that, but it’s up to Bastion to make the choice on whether he gets in or not.”

“Are you crazy? Why?”

“Because if he believes everything Tillian tells him, we’re certainly not going to change his mind. We might break him out and find ourselves at the wrong end of an eidolon. We’ll have to hope that he makes the right decision from the beginning.”

“But then what’s our job here? I don’t understand.”

“We’re not supposed to,” Catherine said with a satisfied sigh. She smiled warmly as her Sage robes began to form over her from toe to neck, spiraling around her clockwise as if the winds were dancing and clothing her at the same time. “The only way we’re going to interfere is if Bastion refuses the job, and they try forcing him into it. Otherwise, we see how this plays out.”

“But that doesn’t make sense!” Daisy exclaimed. She looked to Talia for approval but found none. Only a sly smirk and a Sage robe staring back at her.

“At this moment in history,” Catherine explained, “Bastion is in a sense, our King. And we are his Sages, here to carry out his biding. He’s the one that has to decide how the three worlds carry on. His decision is law. And not one of us can stop him if we disagree. The best we can do is support him and help him make the most informed decision. If he asks for help, we give it to him, but otherwise, we don’t interfere. He’ll think that we’re only looking out for our own self-interests if we do, and that might make things worse.”

“Fine,” Daisy huffed. “I’ll keep quiet until I’m spoken to.”

“Just perform your duty,” Talia said. “And all we be okay.”

“There,” Veer shouted from behind them, opening the clay door. He shut it behind him and began powerwalking until he was at their side. “There,” he repeated, pointing to the sky. “There he is.”

Catherine, Veer, Talia and Daisy looked up in unison. The wind sphere shed as if it was made of hair, with strands of dirt and sand flying off onto the air currents. From the middle of the once solid sphere was Bastion, hanging for a second in mid-air. Daisy couldn’t help but notice the disapproving scowl on her old friend’s face.

*              *              *

As they fell, Bastion was surprised to see Catherine, Talia and Daisy on Yama land, waiting for him. A flood of memories came to him, with not any of them being good, and suddenly he was overcome with a wave of anxiety. Whatever was to happen next, he was sure he wasn’t going to like it.

“Who are they?” Lily asked from inside him as his feet hit the dirt hard. Bastion grunted and whispered as low as he could.

“Catherine and her Sages.”

“Are they friend or foe?” she asked, and he didn’t have an answer for her. Why were they here? Or was that even them at all? Were they just illusions meant to give him pause? Were they Yama in disguise, waiting for him to get close?

“What are you doing here?” Bastion asked them as he slowly approached. Before any of them could blink, his black Sage robe was draped over his shoulders and billowing behind him. Though his eidolon wasn’t yet unsheathed, they knew that it would be in his hand just as fast.

“We came here for answers,” Catherine said, keeping her arms as close to her sides as possible so she appeared non-threatening. “We thought that we might be able to stop the threat by going to where they lived.”

“I thought the same,” he said, focusing on Veer in particular. He had noticed Daisy, but he couldn’t gaze at her for too long. The last look she gave him back in Languor still haunted him.

“This is the Yama headquarters,” Catherine said calmly. “But things are not what you think. The Yama are just drones. The Delilah use them to carry out their fighting for them.”

“If that’s true, then why are you just standing here? Shouldn’t we be fighting the Delilah?”

“It’s a lot more complicated than that. Maybe you should listen to Veer,” Catherine pivoted to the side and let Veer step forward. He offered a hand to Bastion but the young Sage refused to take it. He looked at it as if he had been offered garbage.

“So you’re responsible for the Yama? You’re the ones that sided with Seeker?”

“The Yama were given a mission. We have no control over them once they’re sent out.”

“Then call them back and when they’re here, you can tell them to stop.”

“We have,” Veer said quickly. “Now that you’re here.”

“To fight me?”

“No, it’s because everything we’ve worked for has culminated to this. Please, let me explain.” Bastion reluctantly followed Veer inside the “Yama Headquarters” and Catherine and her Sages were close behind. Once they were inside and the door was closed, Tillian quickly introduced himself, but once again, Bastion was reluctant to exchange pleasantries. He merely listened, as they explained everything that they had told Catherine earlier. When they paused to gauge his reaction, they weren’t sure what to make of the smile that came upon his face.

“So you’re saying there’s three worlds. But we can’t survive on the other two until our shells are shed, is that it?”

“Being born into this world gives us the shell we need to survive, but once we die physically, our souls go back to the atmosphere it can survive best in. The bridge controller, whom we call the Emissary, determines where the souls are to go when someone dies. Whether it’s to Paradise or Oblivion.”

“And how does he decide that?” Bastion asked. Veer and Tillian glanced at each other and then back at the young Sage.

“That’s up to the Emissary,” Veer replied.

“But how does he know?”

“I don’t understand the question.”

“He’s just like us, right? I mean, he was picked out of a pool of people, so what makes him any different? Just because he has a lot of power? That shouldn’t mean he gets to decide where one soul goes. He might not even be qualified to do it. Everyone I’ve met with great power had issues, even me. Not one was worthy of such a position.”

“But even so, someone has to make that decision. A King or a Queen is human, but they still have to make decisions that will affect the lives of generations to come. None of us are infallible, but that doesn’t mean a leader is not placed in that position. For you, Bastion, we tried to teach you all we can, and we think that it was enough.”

“Me?” Bastion asked in disbelief. “What do you mean?”

“You are destined to take over as Emissary. The current one is getting old and losing his power daily. In an estimated four more years, he will be too weak to keep the bridge and gates between the worlds charged. You, and only you, are strong enough to take over for him. It is your destiny. Without you, the gates will break. The bridge will be destroyed, and the three worlds will converge. The atmosphere will kill everyone in this world, those in Oblivion will be freed to wage war against those in Paradise, and all that die will cease to exist altogether. It may be the very end of humanity. A complete genocide.”

“And I was chosen…only because I have the power to keep the gates closed?”

“More than that,” Tillian broke in. “You have a strong sense of justice that few people on this planet have. You understand the pain of suffering but yet you have the compassion to have mercy on those that have wronged you. You innately realize the difference between what is right and wrong. These strong principles are what helps makes you the destined one.”

“But that’s not completely true, is it?” Daisy spoke up to everyone’s surprise. “He has the right to know, doesn’t he?” Tillian took a big gulp and turned back to a suspicious Bastion.

“I was going to get to that,” he said, wiping his brow. “You see, we’ve been using the stones, the Yama, and the Quietus to guide you into becoming the man you are today.”

“The Quietus?” Catherine asked in confusion. “What does that mean? You didn’t mention them earlier.”

“Once we identified Bastion as a potential Emissary, we had him captured, along with a number of other individuals to be…um…I know this sounds terrible, but we had him tested.”

“Experimented on,” Bastion said, staring directly into his eyes. “You had kids cut up and ripped apart. You had me broken down so that you could know for sure that I was the one you were looking for. That I could take the pain…didn’t you?”

“It was for the future of all. You had to suffer so that we may all live on.”

“And what happened to the Quietus you used?”

“They were killed,” Veer said. “But it’s because we couldn’t have anyone else finding out what we were doing.”

“And then you used the stones,” Bastion said, shaking his head.

“The stones were created to have the Kingdoms divided and to keep the wars to a minimum. Without a macguffin to fight over, they would have massacred each other.”

“Or actually came to a long lasting peace. Why do you get to manipulate their lives like that? And the Yama. What are they? Who are they?”

“Using a combination of human flesh, and the technology that helps to create the stones, we amassed an army to carry out our biding. The army was used to give you someone to fight. See, you needed a threat that would make you question your purpose in the world and whether you should interfere or not. If you had chosen to just let everything play out, we would have deemed you unworthy of becoming the Emissary.”

“And then what? You would have just left me alone? Doesn’t sound like it.”

“We would have been forced to find another,” Veer lied coolly. “We can’t have someone who isn’t worthy making such tough decisions.”

“Let us show you all that this is real,” Tillian butt in, waving for them all to come into the first room on the left.

“I’ll stay here, if that’s okay,” Talia said. Tillan nodded nervously and then averted his eyes from hers. Catherine, Daisy and Bastion followed him into the room while Talia stayed back with Veer.

When they entered, it was the same bare room as the last one they had gone into, except this time there were no pulleys on the far wall. There was no real wall at all. It was as if the entire back had been replaced with empty space. A black mass of nothingness that seemed to ripple like the skin of a Quietus. Catherine saw that Bastion was just as surprised. Once he saw the living black curtain before him, he stopped in his tracks.