Epilogue - Part 1

[AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your support so far! I apriciate each and every one of you. You are loved and cherished <3.

This chapter will have three parts and it also notes the ending of my book "Remberance of Self" - I know it ends quite abruptly but rest assured that more will follow in the second book.

After this chapter ends I will mark the book as complete and I will take a small break for editing the contents and readying it for publishing. I will let everyone know as soon as it's available in case you want to support me. The edit will imply not only grammar checks but also updates in the content, characters, events, as well as tons of worldbuilding as I turn it into a final draft which will not be available on wattpad. Look out for my announcement when the book will be available in e-book format, if you're interested.]

Dear Mira, my love, I have been praying daily to the Great Father for our reunion to be joyous and in good health. I come bearing incredible news for our future family to be, I, Scry Ele'ch,your faithful husband and lover, have faced the Trials and came out victorious above all others. The Highbloods have witnessed my strength and bestowed upon us an amazing opportunity. As I write this, I hold in my third arm a letter of recognition stamped with the stamp of Isay'ah Lo'tur, the very man that recruited me a long time ago. I hope you understand how great of a chance this is, we cannot afford our distaste for the highbloods to cloud our judgement. Not everyday a lowblood like us can move within the great city of Gah. We shall not starve ever again. I'm filled with happiness that I now can provide for you and our family alike.

I am now on my way to Al'mh'al in one of those new cargo freights that fly! It might be a bit cramped but I have never rode in such luxury before. I can't wait to experience the lush life that awaits us in the city of Gah.

With eternal love,

Scry

I finish the letter with a flourished scribble of my name and fold the piece of paper neatly. I extend my fourth arm, being the only free one at the moment, and place it neatly in my palm. I feel the surge of static from deep within my soul as I envelop the letter with my power. The space above my arm crumples within itself, with geometric bends it distorts light like a bad reflection. The moment the last fold collapses the letter completely vanishes from my hand.

A little tingle in my gut tells me that it arrived. I smile as I wait for the immediate reply I always receive but nothing comes. My skin around my third eye crinkle in annoyance. I crossed all four arms around my torso and my index finger from each hand tapped nervously on my arms.

I try to distract myself from the absence of a letter from my beautiful Mira. The vast fields of bubble lilies of the Ur'du plains stretch for miles. Now and again I see a slave, a mere Humh'ine with black hair and red skin burnt from the scorching sun. I pity their kind as I too felt the scorn and prejudice of the highbloods. I shake my head free from any troublesome thoughts back to the more important matter.

"Where is that damned letter?" I ask myself out loud as one of my restless arms flicks a metal crate with a loud ding. I soothe the skin and pain immediately and sigh. I wonder for a brief moment if my beloved was caught up in one of her many chores or helping our old neighbor as she always does. "No, she knows how important today is. Something is wrong." I begin to get agitated at the thought and shift across the tight space filled with crates of produce. Regardless how much I try to rationalize the wrenching feeling in my gut never disappears.

Two days have passed without a letter from my Mira. My skin is starting to change from my usual pale blue to shades of violet from worry, soon it will begin to rash and flake off like it did when I was a younglin. The stress and bad thoughts are getting to me. For five cycles I have been gone, entertaining the highbloods in their foolish Trials, fighting, risking my life...our life, to get a better one, and not one day has passed until these past days in which I have not gotten a letter from my beautiful Mira. I am currently pondering the use of fold jump, just as I do with my letters, but sanity quickly settles in and stops me from doing such a foolish act. There has never been a successful fold jump with living material, and it certainly is not today. If I die, Mira dies. I have to keep that in mind at all times. My only thought that kept me alive during my battles.

The inertia of the cargo freight stopping sends me right into a crate, stopping my foolish train of thought. The speeds at which the new freights fly was nothing I have witnessed before. Not even the Great Ruler himself can achieve those speeds. It takes me a while to regain my composure after the blow and I quickly look over the small window. I have arrived, only two hours from the village. This gives me hope as I quickly disembark, making sure to grab my sole bag of small treasures I gathered, during my five years of being away, to show Mira.

"Oi! You'ain 'sposed to be'ere!" A tanned blue man yells at me, waving around his two right arms and his face formed a disapproving frown.

I show him my pass that was signed by a Lo'tur. The man apologizes and backs away whispering something to his crew, of a similar variety of shades of tanned blue. They all step away from me, giving me enough space to move with an army before beginning to move the metal crates carefully through the air, one at a time.

I pay them little mind and focus on the road ahead through the station. The road was flanked by a few buildings, a small little produce store and a guard's box at the end of the small settlement. I could see the end without any enhancements.

My feet leave the paved road as I float in mid air. I love being weightless, only time where the shackles of my blood are not felt around my six members. I feel true freedom as I soar like a bird through the air, feeling its resistance push against my will and overcoming it.

"Mira! Wait for me!" I scream from the top of my lungs as I zip past huge trees that touch the blue sky, going along the paved road. My dark hair flew back in a braided ponytail along with my robes. Soon the treeline broke and the road turned into a dirt one. It didn't take long before I arrive at the gates of my village, Al'mh'al.

I'm hesitant to open the gates as the feeling in my gut never went away, but push through the feelings of dread. The moment I open the gates with a flick of my hand the feeling grew tenfold.

There was nothing particularly different; the buildings were intact, no sign of struggle, but as I'm advancing forward into the main market, I notice the stalls were not as full as they once were, but that was not the only thing. The more I approached my home, in the back of the village, people I knew avoided their gaze away from me. I wondered what I had done to deserve such treatment, I did not have time to stop and ask why; Mira was waiting for me. I hastened my step, eager to see my beloved.

The second the old modest home that was passed down to us for more than five generations, made of clay and dried hay, came into view, my heart swole with love. I was too blind to even see the scorch marks on the walls. The chickhog's pen collapsed and the door was unlocked. I burst through without thinking, screaming my lungs out for my wife.

"Mira! Mira, I'm back!" I searched every room, which didn't take long. There was no trace of her.

That dreadful feeling I once had in my gut has taken over my whole body. I try to calm myself but it only makes it worse. Every scenario I create in my mind turns dark and full of horrible things.

I didn't even notice when I had collapsed on my knees. Only now I have noticed the state of disarray the house was in. Food was left on the dable, rotting away. The fire had scorched the wall from being left unattended. As I followed the trail of evidence of a struggle I saw the signs of battle. All three eyes of mine open wide and static washes over me, feint, but there.

The trails connects to every crater in the walls of the house that I have missed when I first entered my home, every scorch mark and every crack.

I look around frantically for any more signs, but there are none. The energy is too old for it to hold its shape, to get any more information from it other than the sign of a fight, a struggle. I witnessed as the energy faded into the ambient, that tells me it was three days old. Around the moment I had received my last letter from Mira.

Rage begins to bubble inside me. I turn around the way I came and flew as fast as I could to the the old woman across from us. Her home is even older than our own, looking decrepit and run down. Her offspring had long forsaken her in the favor of moving to a bigger settlement, with more prospects for work.

I open the door without knocking, taking the woman by surprise. She jumped in fright as a bowl flew away from her. I sent a bit of energy and stopped the bowl and its contents in mid air, then placed everything neatly within before reaching out to give it back.

"Scry! May the Great Father forgive me, dear, but I thought I had seen a sprit." The old woman said and with a shaky hand she felt her heartbeat.

"I apologize for scaring you, aunty Rim'in but Mira is gone!" I say with despair in my voice. "What happened!?" I demand. "Who destroyed our house like that!?"

The old woman's wrinkly face darkened as she focused her gaze on the floor. She takes a deep breath, shaking her head. "You better sit down, dear. Only the Great Father can save her now."

My legs give in while tears swell in the corners of my eyes. I feel the trickle of heavy drops form my third one. Mira used to make fun of how much watery my third eye always was. I fall into a small chair and look up at the woman, waiting. A smidge of home was smeared across my soul, hoping that I had just heard wrong and the woman will say something completely different.

"If I had at least a shred of power I once had, Mira would still be here. I'm sorry, dear. The woman raised her robes showing her abdomen. Her saggy skin was stretched in an ugly wide scar that was sewed together. "I don't have power to heal even myself, dear. I had to make due like in the olden days, before the Great Father."

I shake my head from the sight and look the woman in her eyes, with irises of pure black. "Where is Mira?" I ask with the last of my strength.

"An envoy from the Great Commander, came -"

"No! No no no. You're mistaken, but that's....that's....NO!" I shake my head in disbelief.

"Scry, listen to me. You don't have much time left." The woman grabs one of my hands and squeezes as hard as her frail five hundred year old bones allowed her. "They came. I don't know what we ever did to deserve an envoy but it came. four days ago. They took a whole day to scan for a suitable Yeva'Ah, they quickly became angry after they hadn't found anyone." Aunty Rim'in shook her head, pain apparent on her face. "The envoy realized we were hiding our people that had come of age. They began killing indiscriminately until someone spoke. We couldn't take it any more, they took two good people and three younglings. The very next day they had found Mira. She was a perfect match. Poor girl." Rim'in sighed. "She didn't leave without a fight, that's for sure. I tried to help her, of course." The woman said as if trying to justify why my wife was taken and she was alive. "The moment I raised my voice I found myself on the ground with a whole on my torso. I'm sorry, Scry."

I broke into an ugly sob, as confusion and rage flared within the very depths of my soul. How could this have happened? I cursed myself for taking so long. I begged the Great Father to return her, asking Him what did I do that was so wrong to deserve this, but as expected. No answer came.

The woman wraps her arms around me as my tears flow. "No time for tears, now dear. You have work to do." She whispered gently. "The envoy left two days ago with Mira through the northern pass. Someone overheard them speak of the city of Mah'ator being the next location, it's where the Great Commander Lo'tru has taken residence. You need to -

"Find Volo," I say softly.

"Yes, dear. Mira's brother will help, you know he's strong. Now go! They have vehicles I have never seen before. You need to hurry!"