A Hero in the Dark: 2nd Edition

Chapter 61: Tale of the Loric

It's an overwhelming sensation, like someone coming off a roller coaster that had extreme loops and turns—not that I would know. It's disorienting, overstimulating, intoxicating, but it doesn't make me nauseous, dizzy, or sick. For a split second, I worry I'll die, but I don't. I'm okay. Something tells me I'm okay; I can trust MV. It won't fail me.

All the blue, strangely, is like my Legacy. I like it. I land on rocky ground with a thud, and everything turns from blue to black.

Suddenly, I'm in a literal void, like the universe I've been trapped in for days, weeks, or months—feels that way—except there aren't any stars. It's pitch dark. I wonder if I've gone blind. But I still hear Many-Voice echoing in my head: We are one.

It's as if I'm as much aware, as much entity as this Entity is itself. It's sort of cool—incorporeal. My body's light, and I can see through it. I'm glowing! "Now what?" I ask.

Gather the others, it says, as millions of sparkling blue blobs surround me. They look like stars, but I don't think that's what they are. It's time they knew the truth.

Somehow, I know what to do. I know because it knows—Lorien. It guides me in the strangest of ways—from inside! I focus in on a blob, and in doing so, I see who they are, like I'm zoning into what they're seeing and feeling, in the present day, wherever they are in the world. This one's in New York, running along crowded streets and burned buildings, smelling smoke. They're frantic and hurt. They run with a limp. My heart aches for them. I breathe him in, pull him into my core, hold him there, try to give them some sort of spiritual hug before moving onto the next.

Next is a girl in Japan, I think—I've never seen the place before, but I recognize the language as either that or Chinese. She's in a room with an older man, calm, like she's meditating, though I don't know why. I breathe her in too just the same as every other.

But the final bunch... I recognize who they are without even needing to zone in. John. Setrákus. Six, Marina, Eight, Nine, Ella, Henri, Lexa. Even Adam, Sam, and Sarah. Most of them are in New York, like John. I think they're on an island. Liberty Island? They're fighting a giant dinosaur! I've never seen anything like it. "Will they, um, die if I pull them in too?"

No, MV says. All will pass in the blink of an eye.

I pull them in, one by one, but feel a resistance from John, like he's fighting me, or trying to keep fighting in general. "If I talk to him, can he hear me?"

Yes.

Zoned into John's world, I touch him on the shoulder. He doesn't look, but I know he's holding his breath. "It's ok," I whisper. "It'll only take a second or so." Like I hoped, it works, and soon, every blue blob is in my telepathic embrace. "What now?"

Watch.

***

Once the vision ends, and the darkness returns, there are starbursts of energy all around me. Again, I'm floating in a void without stars, a surprisingly warm space that I know is Many-Voice.

"What—? Why did you show us that?" I ask. "I already know."

I know you know, it says, but you needed to see, and so seeing, now you will meet.

"Meet who?"

All. Be ready. He will try to escape.

I only understand when Setrákus Ra pops in beside me, in a seat like my own, his eyes glazed black, but not for the sake of that being the colour of his eyes, but because I know he can't see. He flinches and thrashes, and I reach out and grab him with a big breath of air, not physically, but mentally. I restrain him with my mind because with Many-Voice, I know I can.