Year 783 Octavus, day 25 of the seventh month of Domorus
“No,” Sidastir said, shaking his head,”I refuse.”
The Mayin rolled his eyes, “This isn’t your decision. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Damn the forgotten gods if it hasn’t! You are not entering my consort’s mind.”
“Calm down,” Akana said, feeling increasingly tired by the minute. “I want to know more details before I decide.”
“Rumors has it that you have been out of control lately, glowing white eyes and changing personality among others,” the Mayin cocked an eyebrow like to accuse him of withholding information, Akana just ignore the obvious question laying underneath the statement.
“So?”
“Don’t you want to know more about it?”
“How does entering Akana’s mind going to accomplish that?” Sidastir said.
“Because the answers of who he is and what he can do are inside of him, not outside-” the Mayin’s looked into Akana’s,” and certainly not in a distant land.”
“So you are saying-“ Akana ignored Sidastir’s pout,” that the answers I seek are inside the cave with Sen.”
“Who is Sen? What cave?” the Mayin leaned closer, his eyes sparkling with eagerness.
“Sen is my brother, he looks like me but… With emotions and he speaks with a voice sounding like a thousand people speaking at once. He is inside of me, living in a cave with wall paintings and a prison where the dragon is locked up. I enter there every time I sleep, sometimes Sen likes to come out to take over my body as I do.”
Leaning back with a triumphant smirk, the Mayin nodded. “As I suspected. Do you know what Sen is?”
“I assumed he is me, if I were to have emotions. Because Auons live without them for so long I theorized that we create a second personality, one that can handle the emotions.”
“Not a bad theory, but it doesn’t take all the facts into account, does it. Tell me, has he said something that made you wonder if he knows something you don’t. Like he has knowledge that you doesn’t?”
The atrium fell into silence, only the servants' chatter in the distance could be heard. Too many, it might have been silence, but to Akana it was loud. Sen was whispering. Words. Memories. Things Akana couldn’t understand.
“He has, hasn’t he?” the Mayin said, watching Akana.
“He keeps saying a word. I don’t understand it, but… I have a feeling like I should know it. Like something scraping in the back of my mind.” Akana said. “A remnant.”
“What is the word?” Sidastir asked with a frown, leaning closer as to hear every letter being uttered.
“Kairoh.”
The word felt both foreign and familiar to Akana. Like he should know it, but his mind told him that he has never heard the word before.
“Do you know the meaning?” asked the Mayin, suddenly looking serene like he had expected it all along.
Akana shook his head, “It sounds like the old lisanian language. But my people have developed its language to suit us better over the years and many of the old words have been forgotten.”
“It means devourer,” the Mayin said,”And I’m not as sure you want to hear about the race the words speak of. You won’t like it.”
“I want to know what I am.”
“What you was, might be a more accurate description. I can tell you what the Kairoh was, but I think you already know so I want to help you remember. To do that, I need to enter your mind.”
“Is it harmless?” asked Sidastir.
The Mayin shrugged, “As harmless as magic can be. His mind will want to throw me out so I can’t enter for long but just a few minutes will be enough to teach him how to read his memories.”
“Do it,” Akana said, interrupting the incoming argument from Sidastir. “I want to know. Ignorance has helped no one.”
“I would argue against that but in this case, I think it might be better to know,” the Mayin said, pulling up his sleeves, showing tattoos of runes circling his arms. Laying his hands over Akana’s face, with the thumbs above Akana’s forehead he started to chant. The strange language Sidastir had claimed to be magic formed from the ancient people called Vans, sejd. To Akana it just sounded like monotone singing, but he could feel his mind growing still.
Feeling himself slip into deep water, his body growing heavy with each word. Something was pushing him down under the water, holding him down. He wanted to struggle, but Sen’s voice whispered for him to be still.
Then he gasped, air hitting his lungs and he opened his eyes to stare into the Mayin’s glowing ember eyes.
“Welcome to by humble abode,” said Sen’s voice and they both turned to the grinning Sen, clearly more interested in the Mayin than his brother. Twirling around, the Mayin watched the cave with open wonder.
“It’s a bit primitive,” Akana said looking around, though… He did notice that the cave’s floor seem to have flattened, almost looking like a floor now. Was that there before?
“Of course it does. This is your inner territory. It’s where your magic and deep-rooted memories reside. Neither has been used so the inner territory will take on the most primitive room your mind can think of,” the Mayin said walking around, watching the paintings on the walls. “It will change the more you use it. It can take any form you want.”
“So, it’s Akana’s fault that I’m living in a cave,” Sen said, cocking an eyebrow at Akana who tried not to grimaced. He didn’t know of this place until a year ago, Sen can’t blame him for not giving him better living conditions.
“Basically, I would recommend shaping it to something easier to navigate. Mine is a castle, with each room having its own purpose. The library holds all my memories while others hold my secrets. That makes it easier to pull out a memory from five hundred years ago. I would suggest you do something similar, since we mortals aren’t meant to live for long. After a while, you will forget old memories if you don’t store them properly.”
Akana did make a note of that, considering that he will live far longer than normal because of his marriage with Sidastir, since it most likely will come in handy in the future. A growl interrupted his thoughts though, as Rafabik moved in his cage. Fangs flashed but Akana saw nothing but darkness beyond the bars.
The Mayin walked over, narrowing his eyes to try and pierce the darkness. “Too bad, I have never witnessed a dragon in its full glory. I would have wanted to see your face, Rafabik.”
A dark chuckle came from the other side, sending shivers down Akana’s spine. Rafabik rarely speaks to Akana though he has conversed with Sen before. He could feel the presence on the other side though, dark and menacing, feeling like if he entered too close to the bars, he would be ripped to pieces. Akana had no idea if that was even possible but he had no intention of trying.
“I smell you… Creature. Crawling out from the bodies of your people. Are you alone? Have any of your vermin survived the changing of times,” the rumbling voice said on the other said. “Your foul smell, I know it. I know what you are?”
The Mayin was not smiling anymore, without giving the dragon an answer he turned around and focused on the wall paintings. Sen just tilted his head, watching the man with a curious expression while Akana’s eyes narrowed.
“So, you aren’t human?” he asked, not willing to let it go without uttering his suspicions.
The Mayin just shrugged, walking along the walls. “That much was apparent.”
“Are you a demon?” asked Sen eagerly. The Mayin sent him a piercing look, but a smile was plastered onto his face.
“No, I’m not the demon in this room.”
“A Van?” Akana asked quietly, and the Mayin’s smile faded. His body growing stiff.
“Van? The ancient race. Why would they look human?” Sen snorted but did watch the Mayin closely.
“Is Kara Vasin even your real name?” Akana asked.
A sigh escaped the Mayin, his body relaxing in resignation. “No, I took the name along with the shape from the student of a mage close to the Keiser. Frankly, I think he knew. He always treated me differently after that though I suspect he believed me to be a demon,” the Mayin said, laying his hands on the walls. His fingers following the lines.
“How old does that make you?” Sen snorted, clearly trying to count the years. “30 thousand years?”
“That was the dawn of my race, We have already ruled our part of the world for at least 3000 years when I was born.”
“How can you look human?”
“That is what they do,” answered Rafabik from the shadows. “Taking the form of the dominant species in the area. Watching, touching, stealing.”
“Do you have a name?” asked Akana, not listening to the monster in the dark. The Mayin had saved him several times. He had no intention of doubting his intentions now.
“Many. All changing over the years. It was tradition to translate my name to the language of the place I visited. Anguis un Valles, Yilan, Shue, and Coatl have been some of them. In your language, I would be called Ahas.”
“Snake?”
“Yes, Anguis un Valles means the snake of the valley,” the Mayin’s smile was back. “Though we did not come here to speak of me. Take a look at the paintings.”
Akana frowned, but walked closer, watching the primitive paintings. Much of them looked like sticks rather than people. “Why?”
“Because they are memories. All inherited from your ancestors. Carved into your mind to be accessed and remembered. A warning to the descendants, though it is ironic that you would forget the warning.”
Akana let his finger run down the painting looking like a centipede with red eyes and horns. It started to move, entering a human who suddenly was enveloped in white light. The human with the white aura encountered a normal human, suddenly embracing each other and a child was born. A little human with white hair and glowing eyes.
Then more humans moved in, with spears and angry gestures, trying to kill the child. The human with the white aura stopped them, allowing the child to run away. Soon more and more, children with white hair were born, as more humans with white auras were created by the centipedes and mated with humans. The story was the same, the humans tried to kill the children and they ran away when the parents protected them.
Akana walked further down the wall, seeing an army of white-haired humans killing the ones with spears. Devouring them. Continuing, until suddenly there was a divide. One group suddenly seemed to distance themselves from the white-haired humans with glowing eyes, refusing to devour humans. Their eyes stopped glowing and they walked away while the other side faded into darkness.
“This is?”
“The story of the Kairoh, your ancestors.”
Looking at the terrifying centipede that had to enter the humans, Akana’s mouth went dry. “What is that?”
“I don’t have a name for the species but I know where it came from,” the Mayin said. “It came from the other side.”
“Other side?”
“Another world, where demons reside.”
“A demon?”
“A parasite, taking over humans. The Kairoh was the children of the possessed humans and ordinary ones. The first half-demons to be born in our world. Maybe the only ones though I have met some other likely candidates.”
“So the Huzhidi was correct. We are demons?”
“No, you need to have pure blood to be a demon. It is more correct to say that you are a descendant of demons, though the demons themselves would not call you as such. The only ones allowed to be called demons, or daemons as they call themselves are those born in their world,” the Mayin explained.
“You knew? You knew all this time?”
“No, I suspected. When the demons attacked seven hundred years ago, coming out of the volcano of Paat’lumil, they went as far as the desert of Auone, but they never entered. I was curious to know why, and noticed that they never dared step foot on your land. A land they seem to respect. Demons are considered evil by mortals because of their horrid appearance, but I have met kind and gentle ones north of Noterra in the lands of Irkalla. All demons share a trait, they are protective of their children. Children are valued highly in the demonic society.”
“And as a descendant of demons we would be considered children,” Akana sighed, rubbing his temples. If this were to come out, the Huzhidians would get the justification to kill off his people. All that they ever wanted was to eradicate them, and with this, they could.
Akana’s eyes suddenly went wide as he watched the paintings of white-haired humans with glowing eyes. He turned to Sen, “You are a Kairoh.”
“He is the demon part of you, or at least the more prominent demon part of you. Your ancestors decided to stop devouring mana, noticing that you became unruly and violent when you did so. In order to do so, they shut the gates to their pathos. Their emotions, and effectively locked the Kairoh inside of themselves.”
Akana’s felt the cave quake, the spell keeping them there is crumbling. “And in doing so, created my people. The Auons.”
Darkness engulfed them, Sen’s eyes glowing as they met Akana’s. Had he known? It felt like he had always known. Like a remnant hiding away inside of him, waiting to once again surface when he was ready.
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