Xynar's reality

constellations forming out of scar lines

Depiction of the cosmic strider



Part III: Conjunctions

He went west then into the waters, he swam with Xynar and the eight Guenara rocks he took, since Ecaura had a lot of old ones with no use in her Queendom, which he could still benefit from by using Tribakwiyan magic. As he advanced into the water, a ledge of a cliff of Neris started appearing, and when he looked back, the Nocturnal island totally disappeared in fog.

He kept advancing until he reached the shoreline, he wanted to perform Kawazma to levitate but he remembered that he couldn't, so he just swam around until he found a low land to get up to. And there he was, he just entered, the Neris Island.

Neris had really, really long large trees, and from what he was able to observe, above the trees were houses, he slowly walked to a tree, fully expecting a cosmic strider to just lacerate him at any given moment.

When he reached the tree, he realised, there was no way up, no ladder or tree vines or anything, then he remembered his vision, they have wings, they fly, it makes sense for there not to be a way up because they already have one.

Although he was scared to do it, he screamed "heyyy, cosmic striders, can anyone hear me?" nothing happened, but shortly after he felt a presence behind him, and before he could make a full turn, a cosmic strider swiftly bumped into him and knocked him out.

He woke up with his mouth closed with fabric and his hands tied to a wall, he thought about how this was the same thing that happened in the Queendom the first time, apparently only Tribakwiyans don't tie every stranger up immediately, but he quickly shifted his focus on the striders, they were... so unique: a strider is a dark shade of emerald green, she has two big blue eyes, all of the eye was blue, no white part, the eyes are a dark shade of blue with white dots all over them, her hair and wings matched the color of her skin, and she had gorgeous elf ears, she looked so nightly and ethereal.

"Throw him into the depths of the ocean, he shall not exist with us, or else we would get harmed" said one of them.

When Alan heard that he freaked out,  but he stayed calm and just closed his eyes

"Making them panic

Is not my drive

Peace, knowledge, and magic

Is to what I strive

Help them see the truth, I'm not satanic

The ropes shall wither, and I shall remain alive"

After chanting the spell in his mind, the ropes around his hands withered,  he was able to quickly take the cloth out of his mouth, and he said "please listen to me first, I.."

He got interrupted by the striders about to attack him, but before they or he could do anything, a Guenara rock created a shield around him, and prevented them from getting close him, this wasn't the first time a Guenara rock did this, this is actually the third time this has happened, and he is eternally grateful for all three.

"Okay now that there is no way I can get thrown out, can you listen to me for once,

 please?

-you... a man.. can do magic?" Asked one of them in utter shock

"Of course, I can do a lot of types of it as well, but I'm not meaning any harm, I promise, I just want to introduce myself" Alan confirmed. After a long pause where the striders silently looked at each other and nodded, one of them said "We're listening" and Alan told them everything, from his origin, to his ability to perform different types of magic

"[...] and now, I'm here, in the Neris island, hoping you teach me about your people, your backstory, and most importantly, your magic, so I can continue my journey of acquiring knowledge"

After he finished the last sentence, the Guenara rock deemed the shield as no longer necessary, and it removed it.

"Okay.. maybe you're not the regular man we're used to

-you guys have men? I thought this Island only has you in it"

The strider smirked and huffed, then she went and picked Alan in between her hands, she did it very effortlessly, Alan knew right then that they were really strong. After she took him she got out of the house and swiftly flew with her other sisters forward and up, until they reached where the island stopped from behind, but... a few kilometers away, was another island, and Alan noticed that every chisel, indentation and missing part from this island's rock formation perfectly aligns with the extended parts of the other island just like two puzzle pieces, as if... they were once one and got split. Then they flew down, to that edge, which is where the strider pointed out an extremely thin extension linking them together

"this is the bridge between the islands, it is long as a ship, thin as a strand of hair, rigid as brick and sharp as a dagger

-wow... what's.. on the other island?

-the men, they're not human like you though, they're called barterschzepos

-why are you guys separated? What happened.

-we'll take you to the oldest cosmic strider alive, she'll explain to you what happened"

They flew to another house, where a strider with wrinkles in her face was on her bed, she didn't look sick at all, she just looked old and weak. After a brief introduction between the two, Alan asked

"So, would you mind telling me about.. what happened between you and the men?

-one thousand three hundred and fifty seven years ago, was when the island split up. Long ago, the Neris island was one, it contained two creature groups, there's us, the cosmic striders, and them, the barterschzepos. Striders can fly, and they had the ability to perform magic, barterschzepos however had none of those things. We took care of them, nurtured them, protected them, and remained consistently cordial.

The men have always felt weaker and incomplete due to our clear differences, and although we loved them dearly, they always thought we belittled them, so over the years, they became more and more distant and hostile.

Although they did not master the arts of magic, they did master the art of crafting, they created all sorts of gadgets and machinery, we were always really happy with that, because we couldn't do it, our kinds were supposed to be complimentary, we do what they can't, and vise versa. Unfortunately, they never saw it that way, and one day, everything broke down, and they revolted against us, killing and cutting our bodies mercilessly,  constellations forming out of scar lines, and broken hearts dreading this ugly revolution. Although they did all of that to us, our mothers refused to kill back, the cosmic woman of the time had said "an eye for an eye would leave all of us blind", so we hid above the trees, and in the meantime the island got split, not literally like today, the land was still in conjunction, but we got split naturally due to the events that had happened, half of it got occupied by them, the other half by us, we quickly went and called out for Gwaxys and Guens for help. During the next few days, they spoke with Goddess Qyn and returned, the Goddess' rules were very clear..