The Arcana ~ The Requiem of Lost Memories

XIX- The Sun

1. Chasms in our hearts

When my vision finally clears, I'm looking up to the ceiling of...
My shop?
I shake off my vertigo and sit up.
It does look like my shop, but... It isn't.
Everything is cold, jars and books covered in frost.
However, most importantly, I'm awake.
Everything is crisp, cold, but real.
Julian is beside me, slumped against the counter. He groans weakly.
"Are you alright?... Julian?"
His eyes fly open and he bolts upright.
He lurches forward, cupping my face in his hands and studying it intensely.
The relief painted on his face is almost painful.
"You're here... It's you, it is really you, you're here... You're... You're-"
His voice breaks on the last words. He is trembling all over, from more than just cold.
I wrap my arms around his shoulders, pulling him close.
With a choked gasp, he wraps me in a hug so tight I can feel the frantic rushing of his heart through my whole body.
I bury my face against his shoulder. His solid, very much real shoulder.
"Akiko, you're safe, you're safe-"
Julian crumples against me, shaking.
Holding him tightly, I run a hand through his hair, murmuring soft reassurances in his ear.
"Yes, I'm safe. I'm here. You're safe. It's okay, Julian, everything is going to be okay.
It was only a dream. It wasn't real."
Shuddering, he slightly lifts his head.
"Did you... Did you have them too? The nightmares?"
I shake my head, continuing to run my hand through his hair.
"...No. The chains only took you. That was... Terrifying."
Julian looks a little less tense.
"Well... I dreamt about... The Storm."
Huh?
The Storm?
"Ah, I never told you, did I? When Pasha and I were little, we were shipwrecked in the storm of the century.
We made it out alive, washed up near Nevivon, and the rest is history."
I sense a brief spark of curiosity rising up within me, but... This isn't really the time for questions. Julian doesn't look like he's finished either.
"But in this dream... The storm ripped Pasha from my arms... And I woke up alone at the beach.
I was looking for her, searching everywhere, but I couldn't find her.
Her cottage was abandoned, everything overgrown, the roof fallen in, nothing left. I went inside, and then...
Somehow, I was in the palace dungeon. I..."
He falters and I cup his cheek. Julian takes a deep breath before he continues.
"I... I thought I saw you, the real you, at the end."
"It was me."
He laughs shakily, wiping tears off his cheeks.
"Seems like that's becoming a running theme, hm?
How... How much did you see?"
"... Everything in the dungeon, and... Lucio's room.
I- I'm so sorry, Julian, I tried to break through, but..."
"It's alright, Akiko. I... I broke through on my own in the end, didn't I?
...There was a time I wouldn't have been able to break free. The time before I met you. For the second time.
Those things they said.... These terrible things. ...I know where they come from.
I used to tell myself these things, and I... I started to believe them."
I smooth my thumb over his cheek, wiping away the tears. His smile is genuine, but wobbly at the sides.
"But I'm not the same man I was three years ago.
I've changed. I really have. Thanks to you, Akiko."
I lean forward, resting our foreheads together. Julian closes his eyes, bending close to me.
We hold each other, saying nothing more.
We don't need to.
Julian's hands and heart rate are steady when he finally stirs, mumbling something under his breath.
"Huh?"
"Thank you, Akiko. I, ah, I feel better. Do you?"
I feel drained, but not as shaky as I woke up.
"I'm fine."
"Then we, um, should probably figure out where we are."
We climb to our feet, looking around.
"...I think this here was meant to be a trap for us, Julian."
This place has a strange, cold feeling to it. It's almost familiar.
The sound of magic rings through the shop.
Julian casts glances around.
"What was that?"
...It came from the backroom.
"Stay close, Akiko."
We approach the backroom door together, cautiously.

There on the table is a single card.
"...Huh. Care to do the honours, Akiko?"
I flip the card over.
"Death, reversed."
The card is cold and distant, and all I can hear is the fading echo of some faraway bell.
It is the same energy of this shop.
"We're in Death's realm."
"My, my, my."
I jump, looking around frantically.
"Who's there?!"
Julian scowls.
"Show yourself!"
"If you insist."
I whirl around to confront the stranger, and flinch back in surprise.
Quaestor Valdemar stands in the open doorway. They step inside, and the door slams shut behind them.
"You are both awake? And in possession of all your faculties?
... Disappointing. My little welcoming gift should have snapped your minds like twigs. Maybe it needs further refinement."
Julian clenches his hands to fists.
"Valdemar! What are you doing here?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You are in my realm, after all."
"You- You are the Death Arcana?"
Julian's shock seems real, but to my ear, it is a little hollow.
Like... He's fishing for information.
"Oh, don't be silly. If I were one of them, I would never be able to leave.
Well. I suppose technically it's not my realm. But Death can't do much anything, these days, so I've taken over."
"But if you aren't an Arcana... What are you?"
"Oh, good question. Any guesses, magician?"
They turn to me, a frosty smile on their lips.
Using my magical sight, their aura is still a void. No presence, just cold and endless void. Death is nothing like that, but... I still think they're connected somehow.
And there is more... A malicious feeling beneath the void. Endlessly evil, making the hair at my arms raise in alarm.
Asra told me about this feeling inside of the aura of someone.
It indicates that they bargained with someone powerful, so often, that they lost their humanity.
He called them... Daemons.
I examine the card in my hands, before parting my lips to speak.
"Death, upright, is about change. Transformation, endings and beginnings.
But reversed, it means resisting change. Stagnation."
"Goodness, magician, you say that like it were a bad thing! Why would I want to change?
Humans are so very fragile. So very easily breakable.
But I'm not. Not anymore."
I step forward, taking a protective stance in front of Julian.
"You... You are a Daemon."
"Oh? I'm impressed. So very few people know anything about the process.
He's made sure of that."
I scowl.
"He. The Devil."
A cold chuckle from Valdemar sends chills through my body.
I remember The Devil and Valdemar standing side-by-side in the secret ritual room under Lucio's bedroom.
"Precisely. Maybe you aren't as retarded as other human beings."
Julian steps in closer behind me.
"So it was the Devil who tricked us? And sent me here?"
"Did you only just figure that out?"
"So you actually are one of his servants."
"Don't be crass. We're colleagues."
"And the other courtiers you've been working with? Volta, Vulgora, Vlastomil? Are they 'colleagues' too?"
"Hm. They might think they are on the same level as me, but no, oh no.
It takes a long time to become that powerful, and none of them managed to accomplish that."
Julian looks provokingly into Valdemar's eyes.
"But if you're so powerful, why does the Devil have you doing the dirty work? Is he afraid of us?"
"Afraid? Whyever would he be afraid?
You can't possibly kill him. Not with your pathetic human intact.
If you were like me..."
Valdemar pauses.
I get the feeling they've said too much.
"...I tire of this. I suppose we should wrap things up.
I must admit, I'm curious. I've never killed someone separated from their bodies before."
Adrenaline and Magic alike surge through my veins, in response to Valdemar's threat.
"Are you planning to fight back? Oh, please do! It is more fun this way."
"Akiko, no! You can't fight them!"
I shake my head, magic rousing deep within me.
"I have to try!"
A strange, buzzing rasp rings through the shop. It's coming from... Valdemar?
When I look at them, I flinch in horror.
Valdemar's body wavers uncertainly at the edges, in a shadowy form I cannot even begin to understand.
It is like their human form was just a veil to cover something... different.
My mind struggles to make sense out of what I'm seeing. A fierce, sharp pain blossoms behind my eyes.
I hear that strange rasping again.
Is Valdemar...laughing?
Julian grips my arm, and I tear my eyes away from what formerly was Valdemar with an effort.
"Akiko, I believe in you. Do what you need to do."
Somehow, he musters up a grin.
"Kick their ass!"
I concentrate, pushing past the pain, searching for the voice.
It suddenly rings loud in clear in my mind.
It's ...mine.
It's a promise of a faraway horizon, a flash of sun in the ocean, the discovery of something new.
A breath of freedom.
Magic builds inside me, surging through and flowing into my hands.
When I look at Valdemar again, a sharp pain lances my head, as if it is impaled by a spear.
A crinkly mass twitches and jitters in front of me, their outline fluctuating unevenly.
Their surface boils, clusters of eyes and teeth and rib bones emerging from within the mass, and dissolving back into it.
But there is something else.
Shadowy chains, wrapped all around Valdemar's form.
...The chains the Devil uses.
Valdemar reaches out one (or maybe more?) long, terrible, blade-like limb towards us. Closer... Closer...
Until they're close enough. I lash out, grabbing hold of one of the chains.
For a moment, it is almost cold.
Then it burns, flaming hot agony searing up from my hand to my body, driving all other thoughts from my mind.
Julian catches me as I stumble backwards, steadying me at my shoulders.
Suddenly, the agony lessens. I can breath past the stabbing pain in my chest.
At the same moment, Julian doubles over from an echo of the same pain I feel.
But he doesn't let go. He still is holding on.
A link of the chain in my hand snaps.
Valdemar goes suddenly, totally still.
Then, they roar, their voice reaching an otherworldly pitch.
"What are you?! No one can stand up to me!"
They spasm violently, as a part of their shadowy body dissolves into thin air.
...How am I...?
I don't hesitate, grabbing hold of the other chains, and pull.
Valdemar let's out an agonizing scream, flailing their limbs around.
One after another, the chains burst in my hands, crumbling to dust.
Valdemar hits the ground, shaking, while I stagger backwards, slumping against Julian.
This... Took a whole lot out of me.
Valdemar, now whole and completely human, stares unbelievingly at their trembling hands.
"..."
Looking distressed, they flee, vanishing into thin air.
Death's realm is silent for a whole five seconds, before Julian lets out a triumphant yell.
"Akiko, that was amazing!"
He kisses me and spins me around in a circle, but we both wobble and stumble, nearly falling.
"...Oof. This took a lot out of us, I suppose.
But you did it! You beat Valdemar, made them turn tail and run!"
That's... True enough. I somehow was able to... De-daemonize them? But... If we came across them with them being prepared...
"We got lucky. This could have gone badly for us."
He sobers up for a moment, considering the possibility, but then shrugs slightly.
"But it didn't. It didn't, and we're both safe, thanks to... to...
That. Uh, what was that, anyways?
For a moment, I thought I saw you grab something. Chains?"
I nod.
"Yes. The very same chains that sent you away back in Vesuvia."
I can still feel a shadow of that searing heat on my hand. That oppressive, claustrophobic energy...
It was the same as the Devil's.
"These chains... Are part of the Devil's power."
"And you broke them."
I nod, struggling to find out why I could.
Asra's parents said something about my aura. But... This can't be the only reason... Can it?
Julian opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again.
"Hey... Uh, if you can break the Devil's chains...
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I can use this against the Devil?"