cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39019256
Excerpt:
That Place
“Let me introduce myself again…” — Rakai’s voice broke the silence inside the ship, the rain still dripping steadily against the metal hull. “My name is Shin Rakai, and yes, I’ll say it once more… I am the adopted daughter of Dante Lorian, the Supreme Deity of Darkness.”
The tension hung thick, like the damp steam rising from their soaked clothes under the cabin’s heat. Lorian sighed with an air of icy arrogance before replying.
“Shin Lorian. ‘Biological’ daughter of Dante Lorian, Emperor of Exquema. And I assume you already know the rest.
”She crossed her arms and turned her gaze toward the hatch, as if looking directly at Rakai were beneath her.
Rakai raised an eyebrow, smirking with equal arrogance.
“Now I see why you talk like that… little princess.”
Lorian’s red eyes flared, cold as frost.
“Huh? Don’t call me that.”
She straightened slightly in her seat, as if about to lunge. Rakai, however, coughed to ease the tension, settling back calmly and crossing one leg over the other.
“Whatever… I told you I’d explain, so listen.”
Her golden eyes locked onto Lorian’s, carrying a weight that allowed no distraction.
“One of those things opened in space. My uncle and I—” she gestured toward the dragon, making Lorian arch an eyebrow but remain silent—“flew out to close it before anything could come through. And just when we finally managed to seal it… you shot out from inside, crashing near a lake. We rescued you.” Rakai sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “Now we’re at the castle.”
The word seemed to ignite something in Lorian. She rose from her seat with barely contained energy, almost furious.
“Castle…? But in Elisium there wasn’t a single castle left standing.”
“We’re not in Elisium. We’re in Exquema, in the imperial capital.”
Lorian’s lips curved in a strange mixture of relief and anxiety.
“You should have started with that…”
She walked toward the exit.
“At least this is a place I know… and I hope he’s here too.”
“Hey, wait!” Rakai tried to stop her, but her counterpart slipped through her fingers.
Lorian stepped out into the rain, standing before the ruined colossus that had once been the pride of her lineage. Her eyes were lost, empty of certainty.
Rakai sighed and caught up with her. She could see something beyond anger on her face: a deep, barely contained pain.“I wonder… if Exquema’s fate is to fall… and ours as well…”
Lorian’s murmur hung in the freezing air. Her steps carried her toward the destroyed castle, pulled by an instinct she couldn’t resist.
“I want to hear it… everything.”
Her voice sounded broken, heavy with repressed grief.
Rakai nodded. Together they walked toward what remained of Exquema’s ancient throne.
The gigantic doors gaped like decayed jaws. Inside, the damp darkness was broken by puddles reflecting lightning flashes. Lorian ran her fingers over the wet stone walls, as if searching for a hidden memory in every crack. Rakai mirrored the gesture, with the same reverence she always felt when walking through those ruins.
Her voice shattered the silence, soft yet weighted.
“When I was a child, my father used to tell me about Exquema. About these walls, and what they meant to him.”
The echo of their footsteps accompanied every word.
“About how he freed his people from the tyranny of the gods, from blind devotion, from offerings and the rotten power over mortals. About how he sought a place free of all that.”
Lorian listened in silence, her shadow cast against the walls torn open by the storm.
“That’s how Exquema was born. A place with no gods, no religious chains. Where men and women govern themselves, placing their destiny in their own hands and strength. A paradise. He made it sound like a paradise. And I… I could see the light in his eyes when he spoke of this. Of what this castle once meant.”
They reached the throne room. The roof was open, letting the rain fall like a wound that never healed. The throne, reduced to collapsed stones, still bore an inscription on its back. Rakai stopped at the foot of those ruins.
“His ideal spread quickly throughout the entire system… I suppose that confidence was what led him to attack the Republic in Elisium.”
She sighed, looking straight at her.
“That’s when the imperial ideal died, barely born. That’s when Exquema fell… and left us this.”
The rain struck the stones like ancient tears.
Lorian looked up through the hole in the ceiling, her eyes glowing a muted red.
“In the previous reality I fell into… the Shin from that place also said everything began in that battle. It was in Elisium where her story and mine split. What happened in this reality?”
Her voice was calm, but tinged with melancholy.
Rakai spoke in a tone that cracked with memory.
“Dad fought the Supreme Deity of Light in Elisium. The first and last clash of the Two Divinities.”
She paused, breathing deeply.
“That collision tore open the first rift. A tear in reality. The one that swallowed him, condemning him for years in the Nexus.”
She approached the inscription, tracing the letters with her fingers.
“Without him, Exquema was left leaderless. His ideal collapsed. The Republic took control. This castle… ended up as you see it. That’s how Exquema was born and died in a single battle.”
Silence weighed between them like a gravestone. Their gazes met for a moment: two reflections of the same wound, two destinies marked by a father’s fall.
“And you?” Lorian crossed her arms, her tone challenging. “Where do you fit into this story, Rakai?”....
--Read more in its original Castilian language at fictograma.com , an open source Spanish community of writers--