Zaldizko - Chapter 45 The Map Of A Hear

Flickers of gold light and dark shadows moved past my line of sight. I stared at my belt pouch. I didn’t know if I would survive what I was about to do with Death, but I wanted Small Cap to have a chance.

“Hey, Sire, can you take care of Small Cap for me?” I raised my gaze to Brystagg; his hazy bodydue to the trunk’s gold lightmoved towards me.

“I’ll treat him well.” he reassured me when he gently received Small Cap’s sleeping body in his hands.

I sighed when he carefully placed him in his breast pocket. It was the first time I saw the high prince smile gently to another living creature.

“Okay, let’s do this.” I returned my focus back to the task at hand.

“While you were under with that man, I deduced the next course of actions,” Death said.

He rephrased the analogy of playing a record on a gramophone.

“I’ll be able to hold the events of this fate, but you need to revert all the changes and disruption to time.”

I frowned, wondering how I was going to do that.

“We have to first set the labyrinth’s point of origin back to a zero.” Death frowned. He whacked my shoulders to make sure I wasn’t zoning out, which made him wheeze for breath.

“I was listening. Return to zero, got it!” I grumbled, rubbing my fresh ache better.

“Famine, you’re the only one with power to revert.” Death’s frown eased. His eyes fluttered, fighting to stay awake.

“Death, start the process.”

“Wait. You need a fixed return point.” Leinard’s weak voice entered my mind. “Trix’s mapglass.”

“Colonel, I, you, please.” My mind fumbled for words.

Leinard’s eyes were fighting to stay open, so they could continue to see me.

I gulped and nodded. “Colin, pass me Trix’s mapglass.”

Colin carefully removed the monocle patch from Trix and handed it to me.

Gold light danced about the lens, casting fractured rainbow patterns on the silver-glass surface. Of course, dermaleeches.

I fitted the mapglass to my right eye and nearly stumbled out of the primary core trunk at the sudden disorientation I felt. So, this was the world that Trix saw within his right eye.

The Lotus Bridge inverted to a luminous blue-white light, running smoothly across the space. Every dust particle twinkled as blue-white or black starlight against blaring orange space. Near-blinding bluish lightening sliced through white clouds. Every movement transitioned extremely fast and smooth. It felt like life was moving a picture frame at a time.

“Eek!” I yelped at the sight of Death’s face.

“What?” Death looked worried.

“You look like a demon,” I commented.

I further explained on how I was able to see every line and dark shadowy patch of his skin like someone had picked up a paint brush and drawn thick black outlines all over his features. His eyes were the freakiest hellish orange.

“You know I don’t look like this.” Death complained. I noticed the aura around him flash bright red before calming to a muddled yellow.

I shook my head free from irrelevant thoughts and focused on what I wanted to see.

“How do I connect to this mapglass?” I asked aloud.

“Trix mentioned he entered a state of mushin in order to see all.”

I nodded my head, closed my eyes and entered a state of mushin with steady breaths.

A rush of tunnel paths looped, turned and got tangled about each other in my head.

The flow of time tugged and pulled at my senses, making my nerves twitch with impatience. The paths moved in random patterns, smashed into others and broke down pivot landings.

I saw shadow impressions of the tunnels previous, current and should be positions. One path that should have moved to the top-left grid of the South Wing was moving towards the bottom of the West Wing. All paths were not where they should logical flow to or their past position had been forcefully altered, making it difficult to get a fix on where to restore.

I delved deeper into my consciousness, connecting to the mapglass. I saw scrawled black lines on a white canvas looping, crossing and connecting to each other to form big labyrinth patterns. Maps. I sieved through a number of maps, but none felt like they were for the time prior to the moment the hiruda had started changing things.

“The time we found you. Go… back,” Leinard answered for me. “Two full moons.”

“How’d I know it’s the right one?”

“Listen to your heart… like you did… before.” Leinard’s voice drifted into silence. He had reached his limit of consciousness.

I gripped Death’s hand tight. We gave each other encouragement before we closed our eyes and opened up our hearts.

I focused on the timing of Death’s pulse to still my own movements. Quiet both in sound and emotion, my heart opened. Pain became irrelevant as I transcended to a place outside of myself.

My inner eyes opened and saw through the mapglass, the world as it was and how it should be. Two full moons of time wounded back until I saw myself lying on a shining blue floor. I turned my head to change the pattern of fractured rainbow light. A new image was reassembled before me. I was standing next to Trix on the Lotus Bridge, surrounded by a fence of white light from the hexagon piped edges.

Trix called upon a spell to wrap his hands and feet in gold light, which attracted an amount of gold coins to him. He used his body to move the coins about the air, manipulating them to form a pattern of pathways. A map of Hell’s Labyrinth. This map was a pattern of a six pointed star within another six pointed star of a different rotation. The map of a heart.

Power tugged at my worldly consciousness, pulling me back into myself. I opened my eyes and refocused my vision within the mapglass on that six pointed star map pattern.

“I have a fix.” A voice that sounded like my own broke my trance.

“Retrieving the zero point.” Death’s voice added, breaking him out of his own trance.

His chi flowed through my hand, making my skin tingle with a delicious warmth. My head slowed and became sluggish as the Power of Preservation wrapped a layer of white light around my thoughts of the Lotus Bridge until all movement in my thought was suspended.

“Reverting.” I closed my eyes again and opened them to the star-map visible within the mapglass view.

The star-map burned with fierce intensity, causing an impending combustion to occur.

I sieved through images in Death’s mind until I found the tiniest one that had the most significance. The image of the time that matched zero point of origin for the labyrinth. I overlaid the image the burning star-map to form a perfect fit.

Noise banged and thumped against my eardrums. My body sped through sensations of burning, reforming, changing, expiring and moving; threatening to rip my heart out, shatter my bones and tear off my skin. It was pain, blinding unbearable pain!

Still my heart. Still my thoughts. Breathe!

Cold air soothed my worldly aches. I pushed past the pain and saw a bird’s eye view of the labyrinth tunnels reforming to the star-map, easing into place with solid clicks. The destroyed pivot platforms had reverted to how they were. Electrostatic energy was reset to balance the chaotic, free roaming clouds of blue-white or black starlight particulars until their energies had wane. A calmness and balance had resumed, placing a stop to minor contentions and unrest within the area. The out of place and escaped prisoners and demons were forced back to their cells. Darkness obscured Zyon’s view, so there was no possibility of a tsazcuth into Sol. The demons’ images were gone from the grey space. Hell’s Labyrinth was restored.

My heart pounded with a crushing ache to close off the Power of Null. Darkness claimed the star-map view within the mapglass.

I felt myself falling out of the primary core trunk.

“I have you.” I heard a voice say.

My sensation of falling became a cosy, trustful feeling of being caught.

After a moment of stillness, I was able to open my eyes and frowned at the sight of Colin’s tear stricken green orbs.

“Idiot.” I groaned.

I allowed Colin to hug me tight with his thanks. Brystagg sat back and grinned to the stable grey space.

“Famine.” Death’s voice made me pull away from the hug.

Tears were streaming down his face, which glowed with relief and heighten pride.

He knelt next to me and joined in with the hug. Colin yanked Brystagg in so the four of us were laughing and crying together like one big man ball.

Our joy increased when Small Cap groggily climbed out of Brystagg’s pocket and jumped to my shoulder.

Death gently patted his tiny tuft of hair. “Good to see you, my friend.”

We pulled away to recompose ourselves.

Small Cap resumed his place back in my belt pouch.

I focused on Leinard’s unconscious body, stretched out on the ground.

A crude wolf whistle drew our attention to the intruding party that had landed on the Lotus Bridge.

Hearty laughter, joyful slaps on the back and stoic sighs of relief was heard and felt around the platform, which had assumed a moment of peace.

“Death.” War stepped before him.

I was doing my best not to cry at the sight of my big brothers sharing a banter. It had been so long.

I felt a hand tug at my sleeve and looked to Leinard, who had returned to consciousness.

“I’m glad we saved your brother,” he whispered.

“Don’t speak. Rest.”

“No, I want to see your good work.”

Leinard forced himself to sit up with an awkward wobble; his eyes glistened with a smile. They widened when he came face to face with Brystagg next to him.

“You.” He swallowed the rest of his words.

Trix groaned to consciousness with Saku fussing over him. His face went into an expression of shock when he saw Brystagg. He stumbled like he was about to collapse back to unconsciousness.

“You.” Trix said, repeating his brother’s word.

My heart felt light and full of fluffy happiness at the reunions all around me. No doubt, there was a lot of catching up to do.

I glanced to Lyra and Ryoko having a talk with Wilfred and Lita next to them. Brystagg speaking to his sons who were still trying to fathom what they were seeing.

A sharp pang struck my head. I lowered my eyes, realising my final task. Black energy particles swirled around my fingertips.

I rose to my feet and approached the primary core with a heavy feeling dragging my steps.

Sounds of cheerful laughter and casual conversation made me pause.

“Famine. Do what you need to do,” Brystagg said at my back.

I faced him with sad eyes.

“I’ve made peace with my regrets.” Lyra reassured me with side-wards glance to Ryoko. “Thank you for fulfilling your promise.”

I stared at my friends and family, taking in their resolve.

“It was an honour, Young Lord,” Buru said as he stepped up to me. He pulled out a bundle of cheese cloth from his pocket.

“For the road.” He handed me the bundle and stood before the primary core trunk.

Brystagg and Lyra followed. The three of them stood together, looking back at us.

I glanced to my blackened fingers, to the Aueralius Brothers and back to Brystagg.

It had to be done.

I closed my eyes and called upon a spell that only the Power of Null could apply.