The Last Shade VI: Illusory Dream

Chapter 20

From that city, it was not long before Kiel could see the island that had a large pale blue dome right at the centre- his final destination. Once part of the mainland, the land that held the kingdoms had broken off hundreds of years ago and was now swathed with stretches of water at every side. That dome and it's all-too-familiar shade of blue brought back a wave of unpleasant memories, Kiel clutching his right upper arm, the symbols and patterns on his back suddenly itching.

An old man hobbled up the path, his gnarly hand clutching his white cane. As he reached the top of the hill, the sun reflecting off the waves below sent a blinding ray of light right into his eyes, the man shielding them with his other hand as his steps faltered. As he slowly uncovered his eyes, the wind rose, sending the hair and clothes of the teenager standing before him flying.

The old man's eyes widened, for before him stood his granddaughter, her white dress buffeting in the wind, long black tresses tossed by the strong gale.

"Grandpa," she said, raising a hand to point to the blue dome in the distance, "I am going over there, I feel it calling me and can resist no more."

"No, don't go!"

The cane clattered to the ground, the fog before the old man's eyes clearing. His hand was locked on the arm of the girl before him, which faded away like a mirage. The wind slowly died down, and Kiel turned towards the gaping elderly man, his unfocused eyes regaining some spirit as they fixed on him.

"What's the matter?" Kiel asked plainly.

"Are..." the old man fumbled over his words for a bit, then burst out, "are you going over there?"

Kiel tilted his head, then glanced at the blue dome. "Over there? Yes, I am."

"Can you help me find my granddaughter? She took my only boat three years ago and never returned. Tell her... 'grandpa is still waiting for you'."

Kiel's gaze travelled from the hand still tightly holding his arm, to the man's equal parts desperate and hopeful expression. Finally, he nodded.

"Thank you! Thank you, young man!" The man babbled out, tears forming in his eyes as he clasped his hands together, muttering under his breath some sort of prayer.

When he had regained his senses and looked up to ask for his benefactor's name, Kiel had already vanished without a trace.

                     ———~~<~>~~———

Kiel alighted at the edge of the island, spotting the rotted end of a long rope trailing in the clear waters. The end of it was tied to a tree, Kiel surmising that this should be where the granddaughter had tied up the boat. The vessel was nowhere to be seen, however, but he found the owner a short distance away.

What remained of her was seated beneath a tree, hands folded on her lap and head leaning to one side, as though she had fallen asleep and never got up again. Kiel laid a splendid white ice lily atop her hands, stepped over her empty pack covered in leaves and continued further into the forest. Reaching the dome, it let him in easily, almost like a slap to the face with how much the barrier had troubled everyone back then.

Somewhere in him, Kiel held the ridiculous notion that perhaps everything had been a lie, that some remnant of what he once knew still existed. This little hope was snuffed out when he laid eyes upon the great walls of the kingdom he had cared so much about, the great snowflake motifs carved into the crumbling walls unmistakable.

In a trance, Kiel walked over, picking his way over the rubble, his gaze fixed beyond the remains of the wall and on the buildings that were now nothing more than scattered walls and heaps of broken bricks, the occasional pillar standing tall, strangled by vines and marred with the scars of war.

The hollow, dead bodies of automation lay in streets permanently silenced and on pathways deserted for thousands of years. So much time had passed that any skeletons were long gone, Kiel only spotting a few bone fragments scattered here and there. Brushing a layer of dirt away from a flag on the ground, Kiel could just about make out the kingdom's emblem, one he did not recognise.

To think that while everything was going on above on Malikayn and Nephilim, the humans that we held a duty to had torn one another's throats out.

Despite his surroundings being near-unrecognisable, Kiel's feet remembered where to go, automatically carrying him to the most prominent building in the kingdom, which once had four great pillars standing before it, where the Frost Servants would perch and announce when a Shade had descended to select a king or had something important to impart.

He remembered his first selection- the buildings throughout the kingdom had been decorated with brightly coloured flags, flags with the new dynasty's emblem hanging at every doorway and out of windows, fluttering in the cool spring wind. The people cheered as he descended from above, the lavish white and ice-blue robes he had worn that day falling in layers and pooling across the white marble floor. Raising his hands, Kiel greeted the populace, their smiles shining as bright as the sun that beckoned leaves from branches and buds from the ground.

Kiel's face felt oddly wet, and touching it, his fingertips came away damp, the Shade staring down at them wordlessly. Unbeknownst to him, he had started crying at some point in time, though he didn't feel sad at all, just rather nostalgic.

Ascending the cracked stone steps to the open doorway, Kiel entered the ruined remains of the building, walking into the most intact room where he knew all the kingdom's records were kept. Calling it a room was more like an understatement- it was more like a library, with three circular floors connected by a single staircase that had broken in many places, the rest of the severely rotted structure barely hanging on.

Kiel's hand hovered over a desk, caked in a thick layer of dust and dirt, the remains of the collapsed roof at his feet. The sun shining down on the destroyed room illuminated a pile of what looked like files on the floor. Squatting, Kiel touched the topmost one, made of thick plastic. Carefully flipping it open, dirt tumbled to the floor, producing a miniature dust cloud.

Inside the file was a thick stack of plastic sleeves- thinner and more transparent than any he had seen. But it was what the sleeves contained that made Kiel inhale sharply, quickly brushing away the dust on top to stare in disbelief at what was before him.

It was a rectangular piece of paper with a picture on it- that of a huge fully coloured mecha, lifting its hand high as terrified people ran away, their mouths open in soundless screams. The next picture showed bleeding and broken bodies, the blood soaking into the dirt so vivid, it was like it was happening right before Kiel. He turned the sleeve over, and inside a magnificent chapel, people grovelled on their knees with hands clasped tightly in prayer, pleading to the unmoving stone statue atop the altar.

That same statue was then shown scattered in pieces on the floor, a despairing man captured near it, clutching a mallet as two people struggled to restrain him, tears and mucus pouring down his face.

Angry people from the other kingdom were locked together with the citizens of Nephilim's kingdom, both sides having weapons drawn as smoke poured out across the photograph, lumps of flesh blown off from unfortunate victims lying about, a discarded children's toy sporting a distinct footprint as it laid forgotten at the base of one of the decorative fountains.

Kiel's hand continued turning over sleeves till his knees throbbed. With a stuffy chest and blurred vision, he picked up the file and dropped it onto the desk, a few sleeves breaking free and sliding out the file. Standing over the desk, Kiel pushed the sleeves back and continued flipping and pausing at each photograph, the hours quietly passing by.