Beyond the Void

Chapter 85, Power that is not my own

ANDARIS

Five moons and three tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

"These voidstones are a broken reflection of something beyond you. Bound to something else entirely and not enough to achieve what you desire. That's what they are." Andaris crossed his arms and adjusted himself in the chair. "Even I do not know their complete story. Yet."

"Becca?" Sarah and Lenna began, but the girl interrupted both.

"He is wrong!" She was looking straight at Andaris. "That void inside those stones is the same as the nothingness beyond everything. It was no accident! They are a perfect piece of the flow that runs through the Mark of the Other One and the world engines. They are all connected! What he told you, is wrong! Trust me! What the humans thought then, is wrong! They thought they failed, but they succeeded, by accident. They just did not know!"

"I don't even know where to start. What is this?" Robert exclaimed.

"Are we about to mess with nuclear physics? Origin points? What are those?" Lenna shouted.

Suddenly everyone was shouting at Andaris, Becca and each other. But Andaris looked at the girl and his thoughts turned inward.

-How could she know?- There was a demand from the guardian.

-What does that veil remind you of?- Andaris growled at her. -You have my memories, tell me.-

-It's not quite the same. The one responsible for this could not have been in your mind, I would know to look for the signs.- The guardian pondered.

-Similar enough. Bits and pieces are coming back. The smell of last autumn's leaves rotting beneath a great tree has always been there, in my mind.-

"How do you know? How could you have known the truth about the voidstones?" Andaris growled. The brat only angered him further.

"Hold on!" Eric shouted as soon as a very puzzled Mai had stopped translating. "You said truth. What she said, is true? Did he use the word truth?" Eric demanded from both Mai and Andaris.

"I think so." Mai looked at Andaris and he nodded in response.

"Then how do you know it to be the truth?" Sarah stood up. "If you knew? Did you lie to us?"

"Of course I knew, you twat." Andaris spat. He was angry now. "When I broke the idiocy that had been conjured in Yalthar, I accidentally bound the soul of the last person still holding the voidstone back. What I spoke of before were her memories. How she remembered the voidstones."

"Wait. You have someone inside you? A woman?" Kauri had stopped eating his food, Andaris noticed. This entire time, Kauri had been the only one who had been eating.

"Should this really surprise you?" Andaris demanded. "We are casually having a conversation about harnessing the flow running through everything this world is made of and this surprises you. It is not important."

"But you kept things from us again!" Jess shouted. Everyone was looking cross. All eyes were on him again.

"None of it matters!" Andaris bellowed and stood up. He marched towards Sarah, who was still standing. "Most of my knowledge comes from her. From the guardian inside me. But there are fragments of something else. Something else was in this head before her." Andaris hit the side of his own head with a flat palm.

"Something else?" Sarah sounded nervous, and she backed away from Andaris' path.

"Maybe that cold thing we let out. That Becca said, went everywhere. Maybe that something was constantly there. Playing with us. Something that pulled a veil over my head and took my thoughts! Maybe it has pulled the veil over you. Or helped lift the veil off others? Something that has pulled a veil over this entire mansion and its lush gardens, perhaps?"