Chul Asclepius
'Tell me, Chul Asclepius,' Wise Avicenna said, pulling me from my meditation in the Dance Stage.
The scorching fires from my recent usage of Suncrusher surrounded me, their golden tongues licking at the edges of my vision like the memories of a thousand battles fought and won.
The warmth of the flames that hugged the walls of this chamber of the Hearth cradled and tempered me as if I was one of Evascir's weapons being forged in the hottest of fires: shaped, tested, made stronger through the very pain that sought to break me.
"Yes?!" I asked, the word bursting from me with an eagerness I couldn't quite contain. I was glad to be hearing Wise Avicenna desiring to ask me something himself.
Usually, I was the one with the questions, the endless stream of curiosity that flowed from me like water from a spring. Wise Avicenna knew how to answer my questions in a clear and engaging way not even Grandfather, renowned as master of all Samsara, had ever been able to.
'From everything I have heard of your parents, Chul Asclepius, I do have a theory I wish you to confirm,' Wise Avicenna said, his voice carrying that particular weight of careful consideration and bottomless knowledge. 'If you know about it, of course.'
My parents? Wise Avice na was asking me about Mother and Father? I loved talking about my parents!
Their memory was a flame I kept burning in the depths of my heart, a light that guided me through the darkness of my solitude. Maybe in all his wisdom, Wise Avicenna had discovered something even I didn't know!
"It would be my honour!" I shouted, the words echoing off the walls of the Dance Stage. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic rhythm that matched the roaring fire around me.
'Dawn Asclepius... she was a Djinn once, right?' Avicenna asked. 'All you ever told me about your mother proves it, and "Dawn" is not a new name in the history of the folk of calm currents.'
I frowned, the flames around me flickering in response to my confusion. "Really?" I asked, tilting my head. "What do you mean?"
'Dawn was the name of the greatest prize in old Focularsa, named such after its creator—an historical figure heavily studied during my time,' Avicenna said, his voice taking on the measured cadence of a scholar sharing a precious discovery. 'Aisha Zuretta of Breskan, called Sage Dawn by the other Sages her peers.'
I hummed as I pondered the Djinn's theory, the flames around me baking my thoughts, making them swirl like the embers themselves.
Mother told me that she was different from all other Phoenixes, and the rest of the flock told me that too: Dawn Asclepius had always been unique—more unique than the already unique flock that was my Clan.
But Mother was undoubtedly a Phoenix. I had seen her in her true form, her Dharmakaya, with my very own eyes!
"Why do you ask?" I pressed Wise Avicenna, only to immediately clamp a hand over my mouth with far too much force, bruising my own lip in the process. "Forgive me! What I meant to ask was: might I inquire as to why you seek that information?"
'If my suspicions are well-founded...' Wise Avicenna replied, his mental voice adopting a quiet, surgical gravity, 'I may have unraveled the true origin of your ailment. And the path to healing it.'
"My Mother is different from other Phoenixes..." I said slowly, the words tasting of uncertainty. "But I don't know if she had ever been a Djinn, true and true. Couldn't it have been just her Narmanakaya?"
'An Asura that becomes an historical figure in Djinnic society?' Wise Avicenna pondered, and I could hear the doubt in his voice. 'I can hardly see it, not even the Vritra Clan started to interact with the folk of calm currents until the later centuries of our history.'
"I know who we can ask!" I exclaimed, the idea striking me like a bolt of lightning. I stood up and heavily stomped my foot on the floor, the displaced air choking the flames and returning the Dance Stage to its usual appearance. "Evascir! Or Soleil! We need to find one of them!"
'If I remember correctly, Chul Asclepius,' Wise Avicenna said, his voice now tinged with a note of gentle caution. 'The Justiciar has prohibited you from leaving the sanctuary of your Clan until you have mastered yourself.'
"Then it's time to make an experiment!" I declared, a grin spreading across my face. "It's time to put all our hard work to the test! To the Portal Chamber it is!"
—
I stood in front of the gateway that connected the Hearth to the external world by aether, linked to an elven city by Uncle himself.
All the times I have tried to leave the Hearth in the last centuries, I have tried so by the main entrance, the one sealed by Evascir when we realized Grandfather and everyone who went with him to bring justice to Agrona Vritra would never return.
But thanks to Uncle dearest, now I had a far easier way to reach the outside world.
Secured on my back, threatening to flatten me to the ground with its gargantuan weight, was Suncrusher. On my left hand instead was the Vaultlamp containing the consciousness of Wise Avicenna.
With my free hand, I touched the portal, but it did not respond. The surface was cold, unyielding, as indifferent as the stone walls that surrounded me.
"Wise Avicenna, how do I activate the portentous portals of your people?" I asked the great sage, my voice carrying a note of frustration.
'It is very easy, Chul Asclepius—'
The portal flared to life, the gateway filling with bright light as a figure emerged: Evascir in the elven Narmanakaya he used to live in Uncle's kingdom. He stepped into the Portal Chamber only to find himself face to face with me, who was barring his path seeing how close to the portal I was.
"Chul," Evascir greeted, staring at me right in the eyes. The Titan was the only person I knew as tall as me, his presence as solid and immovable as the mountains he was named after.
"Evascir, you appear just in time!" I shouted, raising Avicenna's Vaultlamp high. "I and Wise Avicenna are in need of answers!"
I tilted my head then, looking past Evascir's shoulders as the portal deactivated. There was no Lugano with the Titan.
"Evascir! Where is Lugano?!" I asked, shock colouring my voice. In centuries, I have never seen the Guardian Bear leaving the Titan's side!
"Lugano is in the humble abode I reside in in Azellio," Evascir said, his voice as steady as ever. "With the Highprince's own Guardian Bear."
"And where has Uncle gone?" I asked, wanting to know everything about my uncle's endeavours. As soon as I would be able to leave the Hearth, I had to become the best aid he could ever dream of.
"The Highprince's many duties are none of my concern," Evascir replied, taking his leave from the Portal Chamber, taking the wide tunnel toward other areas of the Hearth. I followed, my steps quick to keep pace with his long stride. "My role is to be Lidayoz Sartobel, take care of Berna, and provide the Highprince with everything he needs forged."
"And what might be the reason for you to return to the Hearth without Uncle, Lugano, Berna, Soleil, or the rest of the flock?" I continued to ask, my curiosity a burning fire that refused to be quenched.
"I wish to deposit these books in the Library Lobbies," Evascir said, showing me the many books he was carrying. Their covers were made of different types of bark, each one a treasure of knowledge from the world above. "Mordain would have loved modern elven literature to fill the shelves of the Hearth too."
"Yes... I agree," I said, thinking about Grandfather's love for elves. A love so great that his own son was a half-elf. The Djinns he respected and considered as peers to the Asuras, so much that he even named himself after their sun: Mordain.
But elves... Mother often told me how Grandfather left the Hearth often to watch over elvenkind, even after the death of Uncle's previous incarnation.
My nostalgic thoughts were interrupted by Evascir and Wise Avicenna at the same time.
'Chul Asclepius, I think you are forgetting what you wanted to ask,' the Sage said.
Evascir, instead, asked: "Didn't you and Wise Avicenna have a question for me, Chul?"
"Right! Evascir, my Mother was a Djinn, right?" I finally asked, the words tumbling out of me in a rush. "Aisha... ehm... Zuretta of Breskan."
Evascir turned, stopping his walk through the tunnels of our underground sanctuary. He had an expression of shock on his elven, hairless face, before it returned to the usual stone-like expression of his. The transformation was subtle, but I had known him long enough to see it.
"Avicenna proves himself to be a Sage indeed," Evascir sighed, the sound carrying the weight of centuries. "That was the name Lady Dawn was more widely known in her previous life."
"So Mother didn't use a Narmanakaya to be a Djinn?!" I asked, stupefied. "Like you right now with this Lidayoz Sartobel."
"No, your Mother was a Djinn in flesh and soul. She has always been in soul, actually," Evascir said, his voice dropping to a lower, more serious register. "Mordain... he reincarnated her into an Asclepius."
"Grandfather... made Mother an Asura?" I asked, disbelief colouring my voice. "How?"
"That is a secret even I don't know, for if that knowledge somehow reached the ears of Kezess Indrath or the Lord Legislator... not even the great friendship that once existed between the Dragon and Mordain would have saved the Asclepius Clan," Evascir said with a grave tone. "As you know, I am very well aware of what happens to a Clan declared 'heretic' to the Indrath's dogma."
I didn't say a word. Everyone in the Hearth knew the harsh fate that befell Evascir's Clan: total annihilation by the forces of the Great Eight, led by the Vritra Clan under the order of Kezess Indrath. The memory of that tragedy was carved into the very stones of our sanctuary, a wound that would never fully heal.
"Are you satisfied with my answer?" Evascir asked, returning to his walk toward the Library Lobbies.
"Yes, I am!" I shouted, already thinking of a way to lighten the mood of the ancient Titan. Uncle often commended me for how I was able to make light of things, to cheer the mood and I perfectly know how to make Evascir feel better.
"I have another request, Evascir!"
"And what may it be?" The Titan asked, not turning back.
"I want to have a fight with you!" I declared with a wide grin on my face. "On the Dance Stage! The Samsara of the Asclepius against the Brahman of the Gigante!"
"Some things never change," the Titan commented, meeting my challenging gaze. "I will be happy to satisfy your request, Chul."
—
The lights of the Hearth blazed across the Dance Stage, this small arena where my flock had sparred and danced for centuries to pass their time in exile.
Now, it was set to host the greatest duel the sanctuary had witnessed since my own bitter humiliation at the hands of Grandfather's peerless martial prowess so long ago.
"Do not dare to hold anything back, Evascir Gigante!" I declared, arms crossed around my chest and chin held high. The words echoed off the walls, carrying the weight of my determination. "The Highprince of the Asclepius Clan tasked me with awakening my Solidarity. Holding back in a spar that will certainly prove useful for my goals can be considered an insult to Uncle himself!"
Evascir was back in his Asuran Sambhogakaya. Gone were the elven ears and softer features, and back was the limestone-like visage I was most used to. His form was as solid and unyielding as the mountain he was named after.
"You know that can't be arranged, Chul," Evascir said, his voice sounding like Mount Geolus as Grandfather told me about it—unsurmountable, eternal, carved from the very bones of the earth. "To fight to my fullest would be to fight with my Real Physique. Something I do not wish to do within the Hearth."
My mind went wild with imagination, my mental image of Evascir's truest form—his Asuran might fully unleashed—flashing before my eyes.
Me challenging the good old reliable Titan, putting my strength against his, feeling the weight of his full power pressing against me.
How tall? How massive? How truly Titanic? How powerful could he be in his Dharmakaya?
Suncrusher's head flared with hot golden flames as I felt a shiver of pure, undiluted ecstasy running down my spine.
"I fear what you are thinking about will remain in your imagination for a lot while longer," Evascir said, almost as if he was reading my thoughts. "But I promise you—only if the Highprince gives his consent—that I will show you, one day."
Evascir has never been so sociable since I have known him. How amazing was my Uncle's influence.
"Enough chatting!" I declared, hoisting Suncrusher in my arms, its weight already making me sweat with fatigue. The familiar ache spread through my muscles, a pain I had grown to love. "Do your best, Evascir!"
I knew I had no chances against the powerful Titan, but that meant nothing. The Vritra shouldn't have been able to desecrate my Clan that way: taking from me Mother, Grandfather, and all our fighters and adults! They had stolen everything from me, and I would never forgive them.
With a bold grin spreading across my face, I channeled mana from my core, igniting Suncrusher's golden head in a mantle of scorching, sun-bright fire that made the warmace's already shining gold gleam like a true star, a true sun.
The temperature rose in the Dance Stage, and I engaged in close combat with the Titan my adversary.
I let out a war cry as I brandished Suncrusher with a fervour and energy that surpassed my every training in the last centuries. The sound tore from my throat, raw and primal, a declaration of everything I had lost and everything I still fought for.
With Grandfather's treasured warmace, I traced an arc above me, the muscle fibres in my body howling as they helped me hoist this incredible golden artifact. The strain was exquisite, a pain that reminded me I was alive, that I was still fighting.
While spouting gilded flames like the hottest of furnaces, Suncrusher fell toward Evascir as I lunged for the Titan.
But the dutiful guard of the Hearth wasn't shaken.
He steeled himself and raised his arms in a simple guard. Before Suncrusher connected with Evascir, a body glove of stone covered the already limestone-like skin of the Titan from head to toe—a tight armour wrapped around the ancient being who met my weapon with the resolve and impassivity he was so great at.
A deafening boom echoed through the entire Hearth as Suncrusher slammed into Evascir's raised guard, engulfing the Dance Stage in scorching flame.
My flawed core throbbed with pain, straining like a tendon pushed past its breaking point, but I refused to yield.
"What do you think about that, Evascir!" I shouted to the scorching air, and the built-in defenses of my Clan's sanctuary activated and extinguished the fire.
As the flames died out around me, I saw Evascir Gigante standing tall in the middle of the battle stage. Not a single crack in his armour—only dust surrounding the Titan like smoke from a fire.
Evascir explained it to me once: that was a defensive technique of Brahman, transforming the incoming attack of your opponent into rock dust that was almost indistinguishable from pure earth mana.
But that was generic Brahman! Not the Brahman of Evascir's Clan!
"You strike well, Chul," Evascir commented, undisturbed by everything. "And you are still standing, which means you are not wasting your limited mana anymore."
"I am not done! I will force you on the offensive, Evascir!" I declared, placing Suncrusher to rest on my back, its back-breaking weight keeping my body doing everything to keep me going, ignoring the failure of my mana core.
I went for a low kick to Evascir's legs, the Titan meeting it with the side of his knee. Then the same on the other side, all while my muscles blazed with fire.
Going to the floor, balancing myself on my palms, I spun my legs in the air, moving across the Dance Stage while kicking Evascir, who moved his guard to parry my kicks aimed at the upper part of his body, while he kept everything below his waist protected by short movements of his legs.
When I asked him, once, Grandfather explained to me that fighting Titans was like fighting mountains.
They rarely attacked, relying mainly on defense, their Guardian Beasts, or whatever other constructs they created. But once they took on the offense? Their blows came with the fury of all Asuras, like avalanches of mana and war.
I danced around Evascir, trying to find a weak spot in the defensive stance of the Titan, but the guard of the Hearth—entrusted with the safety of my Clan for centuries—was harder than every material I knew.
I returned to my feet, jumping back, and straightening my posture. My footwork never stopped as I kicked and kicked, each time a different part of one of my feet hit Evascir.
Shockwaves of pure, non-elemental mana so powerful they were visible to the naked eye exploded outward, booming and making everything shake.
And Evascir was impassive, every hit from my "Breakdance"—as Uncle called it—futile.
That was until Evascir decided to strike.
I was aiming for a new kick toward his flank when the King's Force of the Titan awakened, washing over my senses and pressing on my body and soul. I gritted my teeth, fighting my senses from failing me and causing me to faint.
I jerked my arms backward and reached for Suncrusher on my back, my hands soon wrapping themselves around the golden shaft of the warmace.
"Show the famous Green Gemmancy of your Clan, Evascir!" I cried out, going for a hammer blow with Suncrusher right against Evascir's bald head.
Suncrusher hit the forehead of the Titan, who didn't even make a single step to avoid my blow. Was he crazy?!
But if I won against Evascir, I wouldn't have had the pleasure to know, as my mana core finally gave out. My muscles alone were not enough for the effort of wielding Suncrusher.
Mana left me, and so did my senses.