story 4 (1/2)

Copypasting old translations sure is riveting...but I guess it's better I have everything backed up here.

Everything was still there: the feeling of a definite connection between two ends, their voices overlapping, the sound of someone calling him, but...

“...I feel it’s getting weaker.”

Len muttered with a sigh as he stared absent-mindedly at the firewood bursting with a dry sound.

From the deep darkness created by the trees of the forest, an owl’s cry could be heard; above, the stars spread across the heavens. The air was full of the coldness of the night; his fingertips grew colder as their temperature was s.n.a.t.c.hed away. Len opened and closed his hands, moving them several times as he breathed on them.

Barely escaping from a slumber, his consciousness was hazy and began to slip again naturally towards sleep.

But Len shaked his head.

“Can’t sleep?”

Though that was more like an attempt to repel drowsiness, the voice then said.

“...No, I’m just not that sleepy.”

Len, laughing weakly as he answered, turned his gaze to the man greeting him.

The young man, probably keeping watch, was making notes on a small book on his hand, and turned to look at him from across the fire.

“Is something bothering you?”

The imperial scholar had an air of calmness due to his extensive knowledge. Even though he was hard to approach, you could also feel at ease with him.

“Just....a bit.”

Len had learned many things from him since their meeting. About the world, about the Diva, about the internal state of the Empire; in summary, everything he was told about was unknown to Len, and surprised him.

“Kamui”

“...hm?”

Len opened his mouth, internally grateful for the concern shown by the scholar, who never pried into other people’s business.

The sound growing weaker: a premonition of loss, as if the thread that connected one end to the other since birth was going to break.

His twin had been taken just after birth as the dragon’s Diva; and he could feel the bonds that kept a definite connection between them, despite the distance, growing weaker little by little.

He remembered crying, when he first learned the name of the girl, his twin, through their shared consciousness, a link between the edges of their hearts.

“Rin’s voice, her sound, I feel it growing weaker.”

“Weaker?”

Len looked down at his hand as he made a fist, and nodded at Kamui’s questioning voice.

“I’ve come searching for Rin to this day but, little by little, I feel her voice growing weaker...”

The sound he could feel in their linked consciousness, the voice he could hear, was losing strength little by little.

Not only that gentle voice, like the love of suns.h.i.+ne, but also the tender will he sensed in it seemed to be gradually going away. It was a difficult feeling to convey in words; he was closing the distance between them for sure, yet it seemed she would slip through his fingers if he stretched his hand.

It is rare for the consciousness of people that are independent and separated from the start, to be potentially shared.

Rin, the older sister taken away as Diva, and Len, the younger brother brought up normally.

To know each other’s name and voice; to call each other from places far apart; perhaps it was a miracle, born of the mysterious bond as twins.

“...This is one of my theories, but...”

“What?”

“When Meiko-dono heard you sing, she said Light.”

“...eh?”

“Len and the current Diva, if you are linked together by the edge of your consciousness as twins, perhaps your abilities may also be split halfway.”

Like your souls, your powers are also linked.

“What do you mean?”

“Originally, the songs of the Diva hold together Light and Darkness. Light and Darkness, that represents all things in nature.”

“Light represents the sun, the day, protection and judgment. Darkness represents the moon, the night, fear and peace.”

“If there is Light, there is Darkness, and because there is Darkness, we can recognize Light. With these two that represent everything in the world in her possession, the Diva binds down the being called dragon.”

“Yeah.”

“The Diva must be one person, but there may be more than person with the abilities of a Diva. If Meiko-dono said she could feel Light in your song, that is probably true.

“If we say I am Light,...If the power is split halfway, is Rin Darkness?

“There is such possibility.”

After nodding and closing his book, Kamui looked up to the skies.

Again the sound of the firewood bursting tickled their ears, and silence fell.

“Light and Darkness, if having both is the power of the Diva..., if Rin only has Darkness, wouldn’t she be unable to become the Diva?”

“I don’t know many details about the abilities of the Diva, but that doesn’t seem to be it.”

I don’t get it, thought Len. If she is to chain down the dragon by reflecting all the elements of nature using Light and Darkness, wouldn’t it be necessary for the abilities of Diva to hold them both?

“The songs of the Diva convey her will to the dragon, and have to power to make it obey...since ancient times.”

“To make him obey?”