The Beginning After The End

ARTHUR LEYWIN

From the cover of the trees, I watched Tessia walk a hundred paces in the sun-bathed clearing. Except she wasn't Tessia anymore. More really. No more now. Tess was there, buried beneath a freshly reincarnated and still confused Cecilia, but it was Cecilia who was piloting Tessia's body as she walked, with her head down, her lips constantly shaking as if she were repeating something.

The isolated corner of the village of Eidelholm seemed empty with the exception of Cecilia, but it had not been left alone in that precarious moment. When I arrived, I had found several Arcyan mages wearing emblems who stood guarding the edge of the trees. One of them was cooling the body within three meters of my observation point, and the others had all been eliminated in the same way. More problematic was the signature of vitriolic mana that I could feel nearby. Despite my rushing through the Relictombs to reach this point before the impending attack on Aldir, I was confident that I could defeat Nico if necessary, but it would waste precious time and could make me lose my chance to talk to Cecilia.

It had taken me several attempts to cross the Relictombs in a way that would allow me to return to Dicathen with sufficient time to pierce the mystical fog of the Elshire forest and the Alacryan influence that was spreading. Because of the vortex effect that captured the momentum of my passage through the time line of the keystone, every life had to be lived at least a little bit inside each moment; I was not looking forward to being forced to start all over again if that conversation went wrong.

If only there was a better way to meet this challenge, I thought for a moment before I focused on Cecilia again. Given everything I had already changed to get to that point, I couldn't afford to be decompressed, otherwise I might forget my overall goal again and sink into this new life without having achieved my most important goal.

Inspiring to stabilize myself, I came out of the forest's shadow and walked outwards. Cecilia turned my back and walked back from a vast Elvish domain. Arriving at the end of her way, she turned her heels, took two steps, then stopped abruptly at seeing me, her distant gaze again focusing on me.

It was not the Cecilia that she had been when we fought in the empty ruins of the Exeges Palace. In the present of this time line manifested by the keystone, it was freshly reincarnated, confused and barely able to manage the new power that had been given to it. And yet, in a few hours, she will be neck-to-shell with an asura next to Nico. It was not hatred or even acceptance that I saw reflected in his eyes this time. On the contrary, I have seen confusion and fear. And perhaps even a little spark of hope.

“Cecilia.” I pronounced his name calmly, as they speak to a frightened animal. "My name is Arthur. I'd like to talk to you."

His eyes narrowed slightly and his hands rose to his waist. The mana is shaking around them. “Arthur Leywin. I... know who you are. But...” She closed her eyes and turned her head, a painful expression drawing on her features.

I approached timidly a few steps. "You saw the memories of the woman whose body you dwell. Tessia Eralith.”

Cecilia made a sour grimace by showing her teeth, her eyes still closed. "You were... promised to each other. Stop it. Stop it." These last words were sharp, almost painful, and seemed to be directed inwards.

"She's fighting you."

"She thought... you were dead..." Cecilia's eyes opened and she stared at me. "You're our enemy. You fought Nico."

"There's more than that," I replied, keeping my voice soft and not threatening. “You have been reincarnated from another world, a place called the Earth. Nico too. And I too."

She froze, looking into a vacuum. “What?”

I was relieved by his obvious surprise. I knew that Agrona had used--or rather, was currently using the freshly reincarnated Cecilia to convey a message to the elves as Tessia, and I had guessed that they would not have had time to start manipulating her memories or poisoning him with Nico's hatred towards me.

"I don't know if your memories of this previous life are clear, but I hope you'll remember me." I stretched out my hands to the side, with the palms turned towards her to show that they were empty. "In this world, I'm Arthur Leywin. But in the last one, I was called Grey."

Cecilia jumped, her own hands falling as the magic around them dissipated. "G-Grey? But... how?"

"Agrona," I said simply. "Nico and I were the anchors of your own reincarnation. Our relationship with Tessia turned it into your ship."

Cecilia's mouth opened, and her eyebrows suddenly kissed, but she did not find the words she was looking for. After a while, his mouth closed. She turned half and glanced over her shoulder in the direction of Nico's mana signature.

"I don't blame you for what happened on Earth," I said firmly, trying to bring his attention back to me. "You took the only path you saw. I regret everything that has happened, but we have both been used by greater forces than us. And Cecilia, that's why I'm here now. Because it starts again."

His gaze slowly turned to me, with suspicion infiltrating his features. “Tessia. His mind is cloudy and distant, his thoughts incoherent. She remained silent until you arrived. She's... confused. She's suffering. You lied to him."

I trembled inwardly, while trying not to let the ticble appear on my face. My goal here was not to try to sort things out with Tessia. It had to wait until I had solved the keystone and found a way to remove Cecilia from Tessia's body without killing Tess. But I didn't expect Tessia to interrupt this conversation or deflect her from her class.

"I'm sorry, Tessia, both for the lie and for the fact that you discovered it this way," I said, speaking through Cecilia in his half-was awakened mind that is underneath. "But if you always have love for me, you must let me talk to Cecilia without intervening."

Cecilia's gaze turned downwards, almost as if she were looking at herself. "She has become silent. She... trusts you." She focused on me again. "What do you want, Grey? How do you do that again?"

Taking a deep breath, I sat on a large rock at the edge of the clearing. "What do you know about Agana and why you were reincarnated?"

She hesitated. "Nico only told me that Agana is our benefactor. It gives us a new chance to live in exchange for our help. Nico has already lived in this world for almost twenty years.”

"Why does he want you, precisely?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

Cecilia's features shrunken themselves in distress. "Because I am the Leier."

I acquiesced, letting a slight sigh escape. “Agrona is a master of mental manipulation. He can even erase and replace your memories. He's already done it for Nico, and he's going to do it for you too. What you have experienced on Earth will seem very soft to you in comparison."

Cecilia stepped back by half a step, looking at me as if I had attacked her. "Nico wouldn't do that to me. He knows what I've been through, better than anyone."

I sadly shook my head. "It's not the same as before. This is partly because of the manipulation of Agana. But he kept living after you killed yourself with my blade, Cecilia. And all the while, he thought I had murdered you just to be king. This hatred has escalated in him for the rest of his life. Then, after his reincarnation, Agrona fed this rage, turning Nico into a weapon.”

"No, it is..." Cecilia stopped, looking again towards Nico's distant mana signature. "Why are you here, Grey? Why are you telling me all this?"

I knew I was doing too much. But if I wanted to get something useful from Cecilia in this conversation, I needed her to be ready to tell me anything. "If he hasn't already, Agrona will promise to send you and Nico back to Earth. Not in your old lives, but in any life you want." When I finally escaped the keystone, I had to face Cecilia. The truth was that I didn't know how to defeat her without destroying Tessia. “This promise is a lie. Agrona uses you, and he has no intention of rewarding you, neither of you."

His eyebrows frown, and his gaze sharpens. "How can you know all this, Grey? You seem very well informed to an enemy of Agana."

"I know a lot," I admitted, crossed his gaze. "But I need to know more. That is why I am here. I need your help. If you can tell me what I need to know, I'll help you too."

“How?”

"What do you want, Cecilia?" I stood up and took a few shy steps towards her. "You've been given a second chance in life. I was a king on Earth, but here I was given what I always wanted: a family. It may sound like a strange exchange, but it is an exchange that I would be happy to do, no matter how many times I would live this life. But what about you?"

Cecilia passed one hand over her face, sinking slightly. She recoiled a clumsy by a few steps and swintered on a bench leaning against the rear wall of the Elven Estate. "I don't know."

Taking the risk, I carefully reduced the distance that separated us and knelt down a few meters in front of her. "I know you already have a lot to deal with, and I show you all the colors. But I need to know this, Cecilia. If you could do something about this new life, what would it be?"

She thought for a long time, and then finally said, "Normal, Grey. I want to be... normal."

I remained silent, leaving him free to keep talking.

"I'm not the Legacy. It may be a trait I have, but it is not me. I just want... well, I'd like someone, somewhere, to see me like someone else." His eyebrow frown turned into an ironic half-smile. "I guess it's Nico." The brief smile disappeared, and she raised her eyes through Tessia's hair, which had fallen on her face, to pierce me with a viscous gaze. "I'll protect him, Grey. If you intend to fight it, you will have to fight me too."

Desiring to make myself as threatening as possible, I knelt down, then I sat on my heels and crossed my hands on my lap. "I understand that. And Agrona too. You may not believe it now, but I want to help you, Cecilia. You, Nico and Tessia. But I don't understand enough what he did to you. Do you know anything that might help me free yourself from this prison?"

Cecilia seemed to be folding up on herself and pressed her face in her hands. "I'm so confused, Grey. I don't know... what's going on? I was dead. I remember the darkness, the relief after so much suffering. But I had barely closed my eyes and then... a white light and a broken heart. My God, she's suffering so much."

My jaw clenched until my teeth grinded while I imagined Tessia trapped in her own body, tied up and gagged by the runic tattoos running along Cecilia's arms to her neck. As a member by member, I bend my muscles until they hurt me, and then relaxed the tension. At last, my creaky teeth separated and I let out a calm breath. “How do you free yourself from each other?”

Cecilia shook her head, her hair wavy around her face. 'I don't know. Nicoi.” She suffocated herself by pronouncing her name and swallowed before continuing. "Nico said she wasn't really there. She's dead, and I feel an echo of her memories. Agrona can calm them down, and even make them disappear if necessary.”

“That’s not true,” I said, making sure to keep a soft voice. “Nico may not know it, but he only conveys Agana’s lies.”

“Really?”

Cecilia rose by a leap, searching around her for the source of the voice, but I rose more slowly. Nico had removed his mana signature by approaching, and with Realmheart still limited in that lifeline, I was not sensitive enough to have noticed his approach. It stood in the shade of the trees, a black silhouette in the greyness.

"Nico, Cecilia." I have put a warning in their names. “Today, your speech will be interrupted by an attack by Epheotus. Two asuras. They will destroy all of Elenoir and everything you've built here. You will fight them, lose and flee. Then I'll find you. In a month from today in the city of Victorious.”

"What bullshit," Nico wrath, advancing in the light of the clearing. "You're a murderer, Grey. I wouldn't believe you if you told me that the sky is blue and the water damp. You were stupid to come, and even more stupid if you think I'm going to leave you."

“Nico, he didn’t murder me,” Cecilia interrupted, quickly passing by me to join him.

Her eyes turned to her, but something trembled on her edges. "You don't know what you're saying. You're confused, Cecilia. I was there. I saw it..."

“I remember,” she insisted, cutting it back into its momentum. “I pushed him to act, I pushed him harder and harder, and then lowered my defenses at the last moment. It was perhaps his sword that struck the blow, but I did it.”

Nico stepped back as if he had been struck, his already pale face becoming ghostly white. "It's not possible, it's..." He looked away from her to put it on me. "No, you killed him. I saw it with my own eyes."

"The city of Victorious," I repeated. “One month.”

Then I turned my heels and ran into the forest. I felt that Nico was beginning to follow me, but Cecilia intercepted him. When I felt that I was at a safe distance, I used the short-range warp tempus with which I had run away to teleport again to the nearest Relictomb gate, buried and broken in the heart of the Great Mountains, but now repaired by the Aroa Requiem. I had already thought of Ellie, but I knew she had escaped alive, and in addition, it was not real anyway.

Taking a final look at the rocky roof in the direction of Elenoir, which would cease to exist within the hour, I returned to the Relictombs to begin the next phase of my plan.

- -

The city of Victorious was sweeping under my feet like a huge anthill who had just been kicked. Not only was it used as a military center for the west coast of Alacrya, with a steady flow of soldiers entering and leaving the city, but its inhabitants were also preparing for the Victoriad River. That's exactly why I chose this place: I didn't think it would be difficult for Nico and Cecilia to invent an excuse to be here on this particular day.

Technically, I could not know for sure whether they were going to arrive, but after my warning about the asuras turned out to be true, it was hard to imagine that they would not come.

Not releasing any mana signature, it had been easy for me to move around in Alacrya without being noticed. From the top of a central bell tower – an old alarm system that has long been replaced by more effective magical artifacts – I would be able to feel their powerful mana signatures as soon as they arrive.

The morning passed without hindrance and I had a breakfast consisting of fresh fruit. As I stowed off the seed of the last fruit, Regis crossed the floor of the tower in its spectra form. “Alaric’s men confirm that there was no agitation among local soldiers. They seem to have kept silent on this meeting, whether they intend to be here or not.”

I contented myself with acquiescer and throwing a lamella of dried wogart, which he tore toat with a dry blow. In silence, we have resumed our monitoring.

It did not take more than twenty minutes before the air changed and two powerful new signatures appeared in the city. They left the warp tempus platforms and moved away with determination. I waited. They changed direction, then again, and I relaxed. "Go get them."

Regis melted again into the mass, descending through the tower and rushing into an interception trajectory of the two powerful signatures.

I did not have to wait long before they came back.

Instead of taking the streets and stairs, Nico and Cecilia flew over the roofs. I was standing by the belfry, waiting. They stopped at about 15 metres, hovering in the open air. Their expressions were hard to read, but they immediately seemed distant and suspicious to me.

Regis came back right behind them, solidifying by my side. His hair was bristled.

“I’m glad you survived the Aldir and Windsom attack,” I said, folding my arms on my chest and looking at them with a stoic air.

It was Nico who responded. "What you said turned out to be true. Both on the asuras and on the Earth. So the real question is what you want, Grey."

I had been thinking for a month and an end at that time. I didn't see the point of making the conversation last or turning around the pot. “How can I convince you to leave Agrona?”

They exchanged a subtle glance. "Is that really why you got so hard to meet us, not once, but twice?"

"It's not my only question, no." The naked hairs were bristling, but I didn't know why. "How did Cecilia's reincarnation work? Does Agrona know how to cancel it without killing any of the minds in the body? What is Agrona’s true goal for the Inheritance?”

I still didn't know what kind of power Fate would give me when I escaped from the keystone, but I had to find a way to take care of Cecilia and Nico without killing Tessia in the process.

As they didn't answer, I focused on Cecilia. She hadn't been in this world for as long as Nico, and Agrona had had less time to corrupt her. “I cannot promise you to fulfil all your wishes, but I can promise you both that Agrona will never respect its share of the market. As long as you value him, he will keep you, and as soon as you have none, he will reject you."

I felt frustrated that the two people kept looking at me without answering. It was almost impossible to see them as Elijah and Tessia now. Even though they had the same faces, they were Cecilia and Nico firmly.

That was when the click occurred.

I closed my eyes and let my head hang. "A trap."

Suddenly, the tower sunk into the ground, like a sword in tender flesh. My feet left the floor and I hit the ceiling. Next to me, Regis glapi and became intangible before flying in my chest. I extended my hand to God Step, but a wall of horrible noises fell on me, throwing me against the still-moving ground, loud enough to make it shatter. The miserable and strident screelation has taken all meaning away from me.

In the distance, I realized that I was falling to the center of the bell tower, then that I suddenly stopped, and that several tons of stone and earth were collapsing around me, crushing me. The screeching remained, as if glass splinters were rubbing against each other inside my brain. My body tried to heal, but it was largely crushed and many steel bars pierced me. I should have suffocated, but I could not escape the agony of breathing only from the earth.

Fortunately, I remained insensitive, and the worst of the pain was stifled by the fate that at the same time drowmed my ability to think clearly. It took time, but my conscious mind began to make its way through the noise. I knew this because the pain intensified as I became aware of the situation.

The weight on me moved and I returned to me just in time to see half of the roof of the berry detach and float in the air.

Agrona was floating in the space left behind, made visible by a glowing star that gravitated around Cecilia. He looked strangely displaced in his urns amid the rubble of the tower, in the depths of the city of Victorious.

He was shaking his head. "Bold, Arthur. Too bold. A sad end to our game." He glanced at Nico and Cecilia. "They're mine. Did you really expect to conquer them so easily?" He made a gesture of his hand and the debris of my body came out of the crater. Pain hugged me at every tendon, at each joint, with every limb and with each organ. "Well, your story is not yet written. We can still learn a lot from your body."

I closed my eyes and let slip a truly amused laughter. The sound was interrupted when I started spitting blood. “Indeed. I'm... interested to see what we can still learn. Together.”