Failsafe ★ CNS Issue#11

Lightkeeper, ???? | Unknown Location | Pre-Awakening

In the deepest, darkest voids and black holes of space and time, we were hidden from gods, demigods, friends, foes, chaos, law.. from everything and everyone.

Crackling. Popping. Shattering.

The shield around us was finally breaking. I felt my eyebrows furrow. Was this real? I blinked. It was so dark. Tens of thousands of years had gone by. I panicked, looking around. Two emotions collided in my head; undying, shining hope, then crushing devastation. Our allies had found us, all of them, and they were freeing us.. but we knew what would happen next. A hand squeezed mine and i squeezed back. I felt arms around my waist. We were weak right now, we needed strength. I was overpowered but it wasn’t helping me, it was hurting me; i was out of control and burning white hot. Light was circulating within my body, both it and my aura were sparking wildly and the lines that defined me were multiplying. This was it.

Eight; one for each kingdom.

I closed my eyes as i felt my soul breaking. I felt tears running down my cheeks and saw tears running down the Voidwatcher’s face. When the gods went crazy we had to maintain balance, but we were imprisoned; it had all gone wrong. Now we had to force the balance back into place. We turned to one another and the eyes of the Voidwatcher gazed back into the eyes of the Lightkeeper; they were black with stars reflected from my arcing light. Dark and light, together, as it should be. We were two sides of the same coin. Neither of us could exist if the other didn’t. We kissed for the first time in so long, possibly the last time. Who knew when we’d meet again, who knew how.

“It will be ok,” the Voidwatcher whispered. “I promise it will be ok.”

“Will it?” I asked, unable to believe these words.

“I will always protect you.”

“And I you.”

Our allies were holding off our enemies as my body continued separating into its eight pieces. The pain of our inevitable departure was tainting this bittersweet meeting, but the process needed to go faster. I heard more shattering and heard their voiceless screams, their pleas for us to succeed. They were going to tear us out of this prison no matter what it took. They might die doing this, but it didn’t matter to them. They just had to make sure that we were hidden anywhere but here. More tears ran down our faces; these were our friends, our family. They could completely evaporate and, even if they didn’t, they couldn’t find us or guide us. We were the very last hope, yet we had to depend on luck.

“Keep going, never give up,” the pleas were louder now. “Please don’t.. ever.. give up.”

We held each other as close as possible. One by one, my shards floated around us, aiming for each of the eight kingdoms. We kissed desperately, and then we were separating, touching until the very last moment. Finally we broke apart as i, the last piece, took my place with the other shards. My tears were like rivers now, but eventually i locked eyes with the Voidwatcher, then we let go.

Our shards fell to our kingdoms, each of us lighting the way through generation after generation of reincarnation. The light crushed me slowly, as he ate the dark, alone. We were both alone.