A Story Of A Trapped Soul

Chapter 3

Why is it so dark?
That's my first thought as I woke up. I couldn't see a single thing. I couldn't feel a thing. I....I was floating in... in darkness. And the darkness wasn't the usual, friendly kind I'd grown to like. This was.... abhorrent. But where is this place? What is this place. And just then, I remembered the events of that last night. Was it even last night? I sat up. It's so weird sitting here. I can't feel or see a floor, and yet I was sitting. How long was I out? And where was I?

A pair of fiery orbs lit up in the darkness. Eyes, the eyes of the ponlae. "Hello, little hunter" A rather cold voice for beings of flame.
"What are you doing here, what happened?" Jeez, my own voice sounded weird. How long had it been since I last spoke.

His smooth hairless face became visible as my eyes adjusted to the sudden light. He had red gold hair that fell just above his shoulders. "I'm trapped here just like you. You should have listened to me when I told you to run. Your kind has always been so vain." He said as pushed himself into a sitting position.
"Oh, shut it, I still wear my blades."
"What? You're going to kill me? I don't think you will when you still don't know what happened."
"Last I saw you, you were trembling with fear. Where did you find your balls now?"
"I was never frightened of you. It's not knowing that frightened me. And anyway, considering that we're gonna be here for a long while, I'd suggest you keep those blades sheathed."
"I'll keep 'em sheathed." I said with a pointed look to his chest.

"But I'm afraid you're right, I'll have to get out of this place. And what place is this? You said you are trapped too."
"We're in the Void, the zeroth dimension." He said waving his hands, indicating to the nothingness around us.
The Void? The zeroth dimension? What was that? "You mean we're in a parallel universe?"
He only blinked. And then blinked again. "You don't know about the Void? Or the Synith?" He was giving me a blank expression, as though I ought to know.
"No... Why, what are they", I asked slowly.
The ponlae only shook his head. After a long moment, he asked, "How old are you, kid".
"Fifteen, and don't call me kid."
"And you have absolutely no idea about what you are?"
"Look here man, you want to make a point, then make it. Stop droning. And I know damn well who I am." Woah. For all the stories about the ponlae, I'd thought they spoke very little.

"You may know who you are, but you still don't know what you are. Okay then. You, kid, are an Aethari."
"Aethari?" Okay, he was certainly out of his mind. Calling me aethari, what even. "You know that aethari are just bedtime stories, right?"
The ponlae scrunched his brows, "Either you're an orphan who no one found, or someone's played with your memory. Considering that we have no idea how long we're going to be here, I think I'll indulge you. The aethari are not a bedtime story. Well, they are, but they're not just a bedtime story. You see, this world has several dimensions to it. The Void is the zeroth dimension where nothing exists, unless you deliberately put something into it. Time and space do not exist here, so we could be here for an eternity or for a plank time. The first and the second are the Flats, which is more or less the same. The Syniths are the third dimension, where life actually exists. And the Asimat, our world is actually the name to the fourth dimension.
"Now those of the Synith do not possess any considerable energy in them and therefore cannot manipulate it. We, of the Asimat, possess variable amounts of energy in our very blood and bones. These different dimensions exist in concomitance. The Synith is just a different version of our own dimension. Everything that exists here exists in the Synith, but without the innate energy. There is a you and me in the Synith, a different form of you and me. There is a three dimensional counterpart for each and every living thing. Most however cannot access their three dimensional counterparts. The psyche of most cannot traverse the aether that separates the dimensions."

What he was saying, it was crazy, and yet....it sounded possible. And it was true. Probably. "But I can......"

And I did. In those last moments before I got trapped. When I speared a piece of myself deep into myself. "So.... I exist here...and there? Then why haven't I ever known. Why aren't there others like me?" I had to know more about this. There had to be others.
"Of course there are others like you. But if you did not know about yourself, then you must of been isolated from the others. That girl with you the other night, for how long have you known her?"
"She's my sister, I've known her my entire life. Why?"
"Oh."
"How can you tell, anyway?"
"I just know, all ponlae do." I only lifted my brow at that. "We ponlae, unlike you are not made of ordinary flesh. We are flame given form. When an aethari is in the vicinity, the aether around you goes.....volatile, as though it's readying to let you pass through it. And beings like me, beings of pure energy, can sense that shift in the aether."

Interesting.... How would the Synith world be.... I had to know more about this. If my Asimat form was trapped, maybe I could direct my Synith form into freeing this form. The ponlae was only soothing his ankle. For now, I needed to know everything I could, even if it meant admitting I didn't know much. And this ponlae wasn't like the one's I'd learnt about. Maybe I could use an otherworldly ally. He was probably an outcast if he was roaming in my world, running in my world. And that remained too, the reason I was there in the first place.

"Why were you there?"
"What?" He asked, suddenly jerking his head up.
"Why were you there the other night? Your kind has been thwarted from my world ages ago. What were you doing in those lands?"
The ponlae gave me long look, as though considering if he could tell me. And then looked down at his feet again. He kept silent, his eyes downcast for so long that I thought he wouldn't answer. "Things are changing, situation in my realm is....unstable to say the least. The aristocracy is planning something big. I disagreed, so I left."
He still didn't look up. There was more to it. Lots more that he wasn't telling. "What's your name?"
He slowly looked up at that, "Najakc."
"Well Najakc, I'm Enn", I said extending my arm to him. He just raised a brow. "I thought we were to keep each other company till we figure out how to get the hell out of here." I said.
"Fine then." He reached out and grasped my forearm. And I jerked it back as he sent a lick of flame through his arm.
"What the hell, man?!" That hurt.
He was grinning, showing all of his teeth. "I thought you had a taste for fun."
Definitely not like the ponlae I've read about.