25 A Message From The Black Rider (2/2)
”What is it?” My voice trembled.
Pesti answered with a tighter embrace.
”Famine,” he whispered my name.
High pitched shrieking smashed through the cabin's window and brought an onslaught of snowy winds and near-blinding blue flashes inside.
]---
Bone splintering pain broke me out of my memory revisit. I heard my own voice cry out from the pain. My vision went dark, so I was seeing black.
”The four Hana would bud in the Age of Apocalypse; one each not of each other, from the four corners of the world.” A deep voice reverberated around my consciousness. It felt keenly familiar yet not of Sol.
I became aware of myself as the pain eased into a floating sensation. I opened my eyes and frowned. Grey s.p.a.ce surrounded me. I glanced to my feet and saw a ma.s.sive image of a lotus flower in full bloom on dark, formless, waters that was as infinite as s.p.a.ce of a Chiorntex.
”Pesti!” My heart picked up with hope.
I sprinted; my feet skimming across the surface of the water.
”Pesti!” I called out again, feeling desperate to hear his voice, to see him.
My heart raced with hope at the silhouette of a man walking towards me.
”No.” A deep voice resonated in my eardrums.
My hope faded when I saw his image clearly. He was not Pesti.
”WHERE'S MY BROTHER!?” I shouted, but I knew the answer.
The black figure walked closer. I could see his robes that covered his body from his neck to just below his knees, revealing his st.u.r.dy legs in black leather rider pants. His face was hidden beneath a hood, covering his head. His feet were clad in heavy black metal boots that clinked across the solid ground he walked on from the small star-wheel spurs jutting out from his heels.
He raised his black metal gauntlet hands to me. I felt a dark energy wrap around my being to weigh down my thoughts.
”Wh-Where?”
I felt my heart in turmoil when he stopped a few meters from me, across the center of the lotus flower.
”The unbreakable moon pillars will become breakable by the fire of ages.” His prophetic voice continued to wrap the Zaldizko prophecy around my consciousness.
”Pesti.” I huffed, lowering my eyes to the dark formless ground.
He walked closer until I felt his presence keenly; a feeling of nothingness. No breath of life nor warmth.
”The golden sickle will drive the Hana apart.” His voice overwhelmed my mind.
”Famine.”
I felt my life rush through my vision and move my heart with a million emotions at once, reverting to the beginning of when I was aware of myself at Gat s.h.i.+em.
”Better?”
I frowned and faced him. His countenance was black and formless like the ground. Yet he had a sense of being that felt solid and familiar.
”What are you?” I gasped, feeling my self will return to me.
”We are the Black Rider.” He answered.
”Where is my brother?”
”The golden sickle will drive the Hana apart.” He deflected my answer.
I sighed.
”Why are you here?”
”Three seals are broken. The Zaldizko Prophecy will become a truth.” He continued to answer without expression or care of his words.
”Seals?”
”We are the Zaldizko. We come to the Age of Apocalypse. Sol balances itself on a choice. When the seals break, Sol must face its final fate.”
”Sol's final fate?”
”See. They watch. They know too. They have seen what we have seen.”
My vision warped into a scene of the Stasis Theatre. I saw the audience of knights seeing what I was seeing.
”Solkind will choose. We will choose. We Judicators will ensure Solkind knows the consequence of Death, War, Famine and Pestilence.”
The Black Rider stepped closer and placed a gauntlet hand on my head.
”We are. We will be. The Zaldizko is ready to ride.”
I felt myself moving through the Chiorntex's s.p.a.ce without moving, seeing the blackness that was nothingness. After a moment of unfeeling, I realized it wasn't s.p.a.ce of an infinite universe I was sensing, but the s.p.a.ce of a human heart. I felt unbalanced. swaying on a point of being one way or another.
Understanding came upon me.
”Solkind faces many paths to the choices. The first comes in the form of a weak heart. Tread well, Solkind.”
My heart felt like breaking as the Black Rider stepped away to retreat to the shadows.
The grey s.p.a.ce swam out of focus. I lost my sense of self again.
<script>