Aurelian Daydreams

Universe: Kalazus

Location: Finnelan, Aula

Time: 508 Years, Pre-Human Industrialization, Pre-Parons

Kikira exhaled into the halcyon air. Beams of light danced on the shell encasing her. She had taken a human form, of dark black skin and bright blonde hair, contrasting the autumnal leaf-like walls around her. Her yellow eyes reflected the golden ray that sung silent songs as she laid curled on the concave floor.

“Mother kekeri,” she whispered as the glowing eyes of the fairy goddess slowly opened behind her. Her thumb gently slid along the fluffed wings of the creature; Kikiras eyes in a distant melancholy. “I know they’re coming for me.” The spherical entity behind her chirped and hummed, tightening the burnt orange walls of its wings. A tear left the girl’s eye as she retracted, her arms wrapped around her knees.

Engulfed in an anxiety both unrelenting and unforgiving—it ate at her heart and filled the atmosphere around her. A bitter dysphoria wafted through Kikiras mind in a quiet crescendo. A small flaxen hand slipped through the tiniest opening in the wings. It breathed like living liquid; its glistening ocherous form gently pressed against Kikiras forehead.

She huffed, turning herself away from the being. It tapped her once more, wrapping its viscous hand around her arm—shackling Kikira to it.

“I’m coming,” she said to the hand, rolling over to see it dripping ethereal syrup into her enclave. “Let me go, mother Kekeri.”

The wings of the creature peeled back and left the girl on the gilded grass below. She stood up, seeing the fairy and her floating children behind her; their wings folding and overlapping into a tranquil infinity. The sod seeped between her toes, and her eyes wandered along the sticky path of the pestering ligament. Peering up, Kikira saw the hand reaching down from a cumulus high above.

Surrounded by the aurelian steppe, she considered fleeing. The golden elks cried out as six-winged white birds set their course in the realm above. Kikira lifted her hands, analyzing the creases of her palms—wishing they had been imbued with the power to take her anywhere. Anywhere other than here.

She placed her palm in that of the viscous limb, waving goodbye as she was gently lifted towards the coronal cumulonimbus. The mountains and hills below quickly grew faint as she was enveloped by the mist.

Kikira breathed in the light, moist air. “Hello Kansa.”

“Hello Kikira,” the cloud responded, “your mother would like to see you.”

She stood silently, “I assume I cannot leave until I take my normal form?” The mist did not respond, and Kikira released an indignant sigh. Blinding yellow light poured from her body like a brilliant star as she arose with spiraling golden horns and pallid skin. Her fingers had twisted into jagged edges and her body reflected a smooth golden aura.

“Well done,” Kansa replied, “now we may leave.”

Touching the misty floor, Kikira felt as if the bastard cloud had grimaced—mocked the lack of authority she had. Stomach knotted, her face tucked into a slight frown as Kansa began to move through the sky. She separated the floor below her, laying on her stomach to watch the world move beneath her. The steppe looked much flatter from the sky, although she had obviously known a much different landscape than this. Kikira stuck her head out, watching the distant mountains slowly approach before her head was pushed back by the cloud.

“Why can’t I look?” She questioned, tone rising.

“They cannot know you are leaving,” Kansa began, referring to the creatures of the steppe, “they care just a little too much. “

As the mountains neared, Kansa began barreling through the sky—the high altitude wind howling as Kansa pushed against it. The silence of the surrounding void enveloped them both as bits of black seeped through the semi-transparent mist. Kikira sat, bearing distant eyes and a still expression as she looked deeper into the encroaching darkness.

The steppe distanced into a mere outline before the mountains became distant white spots. Kansa hovered in the seemingly infinite darkness, in what appeared like the stillness of thought.

“Why are we here?” Kikira asked the cloud.

They were enveloped in silence. A brisk, amber light emerged from the still mist. Both miniature and vibrant, the lantern revealed itself; appearing in the shape of a mirrored temple, its corners sharply folding and its center pointing towards the dark heavens. Moving towards Kikira, its light illuminated the dull inside of the cloud as it placed itself into her hand. She began inspecting it, and as the detailed cupola came into brighter view the lantern began gently dragging her.

“What?” She thought aloud. The lantern yanked again, this time bringing her with it. “I…” just as the words left her mouth Kikira was dragged into the void, shouting as she descended with her eyes tightly shut.

She waded through blades of silver wheatgrass, a violet and orange sunset ablaze overhead. A glowing auric limb grazed her shoulder as she ran giggling. Bristles of grain and kernels of argent tones glistened in the setting sun. She was scooped up by the glowing appendage and placed the cusp of the knights’ fused palm. With skin still marked by the mold of his creator, Kikiras placed her infantile hands upon the clay-like flesh of the grey being. The dusk illuminated her spiraling horns—reflecting golden light upon the stretching field.

A thin veil of yellow mist encroached upon the two, quickly spreading from unbeknownst as the dim specks of stars emerged in the vesper sky. The figure began to melt as Kikira was lowered to the ground; now wading in the molten mud—she cried as the fog cackled back.

“A princess does not merely play with her knights without the queen's permission”, the fog hummed. Kikira sat, face in her palms, as the grey mud bubbled into the yellow oblivion.

In a flash of white light she opened her eyes, wind now howling in her ears.

The ladder-like nature of the realms revealed themselves. Stacked, hovering like worlds interlocked by some invisible sorcery, Kikira watched as her home distanced, awed by the once intricate shapes morph into vague details; she had never seen Aula like this before.

Peering downwards, as the lantern slowed, the woman saw a sea of similar objects floating below her. Gently ceasing its movement, Kikira raised herself—carefully balancing atop the tiny sloped tiles so as to not fall into the blackness below. Leaping across the candelabra sea one by one, she headed towards a light outshining the ocean of lanterns.

The forms perpetually realigned themselves as Kikira pushed off of them one by one. Their size grew gradually larger as she grew closer to the still-distant light. Her hand came to rest inside on one no larger than her head—and as she briefly took a rest her eyes wandered into its gleaming golden light.

Images of a war befell her mind as she shut her eyes. Massacres, weaponry, murder; a quiet humm murmured as if from behind her head; the onslaught of terror consumed her imagination. Coated in an encompassing golden hue, the scenes unfolding before her were muted, though sorrowful in taste. Without discrimination, she had seen every species she could imagine endure these plights of waging wars, both ancient and modern, with weaponry old and new. Black tears ran down her face as she retracted her hand for the inside of the pagoda-lantern. A vision of a figure, clay-skinned like the knights of her world, enveloped her vision. Her eyes blinded by the glow of its golden diamond, she tripped—grabbing hold of a now-horizontal lantern and pulling herself back to the brilliant sea.

Kikira continued, wandering among the lights that now stretched in every direction—the dull hum following her through the void. She contemplated the traumas ladden in her own beating heart, having witnessed the horrors of life that had unraveled before her inside the lantern. They had followed her, much like her mother and her servants, to the stretches of this timeless journey.

Kikira now approached a hovering pagoda far larger than any she had seen—topped with a glowing beacon. Its pillars carved with popping immaculate imagery of beasts from the now far-flung realms.

Bearing black scars and three rings carved into its head, a figure of gray skin wrapped in winding tubular light revealed itself; it sat, meditative and cross-legged. A glowing prism floated in a ring extending from its head.

“Cee…” Kikira softly spoke.

The figure moved to face Kikira, eyeless and unwrinkled. It gestured its large pewter index finger towards the lantern fields it faced. A gelatinous, dragon-like creature sifted through the lights—bulbs reflecting within its translucent flesh, capturing Kikiras attention.

Bells of brass rung quiet tones—the cacophonous calls of the lantern beast echoed across the void. Her heart twisted, confused with the anxiety of escape—a syndromic throb permeated through her body, the misted hues of Kansas clouds still reckoning her mind.

“Yes, Kikira?” the figure said towards the staring girl; its words echoing within the recesses of her head. Before she could speak he quietly interrupted, “I froze Kansa for you, he knows better than to tread in the void, dragging you along.”

“Mother is looking for me again,” she blurted out.

Cee sat silently for a moment. “I like watching these creatures that wander into this space,” he rested his hands atop his lap. “They come and go, unharmed by the fire of the comet that entraps us. Isn’t that something? To be free is a luxury we can only bear as distant witnesses.”

“I suppose,” her eyes swole with sadness as the words left her mouth.

When have I been free?

When have I ever left this comet?

Will I ever leave this comet?

The thoughts raced through her mind.

“I watch your world, as an outsider.” Cee spoke, the pagoda rotating to face the realms. “Sometimes I wonder why your mother created them with such… hierarchical divination. As if divinity was not meant to be shared equally.”

“She never was one to see anything as equal to her own majesty.”

Cee huffed, chuckling, “that’s right. She created me much as she created you—to serve as placeholders in the only arena she has ever felt in control.”

“When have you seen her last?”

He pondered. “Maybe when we passed the Great Cyana, I’m not quite sure.”

Kikira's eyes followed the realms downward, from Sirvex to Verces, “I wonder what she’s been up to…” as the words left her mouth she was struck with an idea. “Cee,” she began, “can you throw me into Inore?”

“Inore?”

She pointed to the sixth realm downward. Its regions gleamed violet, standing out from the realms above and below. “I’ve never been to the final three realms.”

“That’s because they are ripe with your mother's purest hatred!” Cee nearly shouted.

“Throw me into Inore,” Kikira stood up, wiping the remnants of tears from her eyes. “I will return to see you if I can.”

Cee sat silently in contemplation once more. Gesturing his hand, a lantern gently floated towards the pair. “Take this along with you, divine daughter,” he handed Kikira the miniature pagoda lit with a vibrant wick. “It will serve to light the darkness of her wicked heart”.

With a flick of his fingers, Kikira was cast through the void towards the realms. As they grew closer a world of mauve sand revealed itself as she cascaded through its thin veil, crashing into the ground below. The void was no longer.

Kikiras body morphed into her dark skin once again, her features moving and metamorphosing as she cradled her head with her hand. Arising to her feet, bruised but living, she began to trudge through the dry, dark realm. The ground beneath was cratered and ice cold against her bare feet as the smoldering air pushed against her skin.

She continued dragging herself through the barren hellscape, wishing Cee had given her a greater warning before casting her into this realm. Cees lantern now hovered beside her as she carried on—sigils flowing from its shining core.

Kikira tripped, hitting the ground with a soft thud as she landed in the sand. “Damnit,” she groaned, brushing herself off the sands. Looking towards the ground below, a rope revealed itself—leading further into the darkness. Hesitant, she began to follow its path along the lifeless floor.

Kicking against soft flesh, she peered down to see a man bound to the rope by the base of his neck. His body submerged beneath the dunes, he was unconscious; scrappy facial hair coating his pale face.

“Hello?” Kikira shook him by his hair, appearing to be bound by the neck—the taught line stretching opposite from where she stood. The man loosely awoke, his eyes fluttered. “Are you alright?”

He revealed his black irises and raised his brow, “can you not see them?” He turned his head, “they’re screaming, the black fire rises.”

“Who’s screaming?” Kikira leaned in closer.

His bruised palid lips quivered in shades of the sand below, “Our queen punishes us for our sins.”

Kikira peered into the stretching blackness, the thinning air around her grew warmer. She slowly peered around; a floating yellow rhombus revealed itself floating in the darkness beyond. “Shit…”

“She is here,” the man cackled, “our queen!”

The diamond flew towards Kikira, knocking her through the encroaching dark as she slid along the cool dunes—sand upheaving in a flurry of blinding purple. Shocked by the light of the shape now hovering above her, a hazy yellow silhouette came into view.

“Oh Kikira,” a voice echoed as the faint glow of a yellow mist began surrounding her, “you thought I wouldn’t find you here?” A woman, gaunt and towering, wrapped in a dress of fumes, hovered over the girl.

“Mother… I…”

“Do not speak to me,” the queen began, “now I will have to punish you and that soft bastard.” She peered at the back of her hand.

“No!” Kikira shouted. “Cee had nothing to do with this!”

“Really?” the woman chuckled, “Have you forgotten my power?” She grabbed Kikira by the neck with lanky fingers and lifted her—the queen's body a perpetually undulating flaxen fog.

“Mother, enough!” Kikira choked out.

“Mother?” She said, her eyes wide as a rotten grin spread across her face, “I am more than your mother, I am the queen of Aula!”

The queen's head recoiled, now wrapped in flamboyant golden glyphs. One by one the sigils erupted, shocking Gebashta in a frenzy. She collapsed, the glowing gilded rhombus lowered itself into the sand—dimming and resting upon the ground. The lantern fell and tumbled from its position afloat, clacking as it hit the ground.

Kikira arose. She approached her mother, horns now ablaze in a flurry of golden flame. Her hand grasped her mothers platinum hair as it molded from the fog. “You are no queen,” Kikira whispered in her mothers ear, “divine enslaver.”

Gebashta grasped her daughters neck. Her aura reignited, hair now fuming into a mist. “No…” she chuckled, “queen?” Recoiling the arm that held Kikira, Gebashta hurled her daughter into the raptured sky.

The violet flames of Inore retreated as Kikira smashed through a ceiling of bedrock. Casted into the stretching sky of the golden steppe, she entangled herself in the ever-moving wings of her fairy friend— who brought the girl to the ground. Beaming through the sky, Gebashtas mist arose in a glowing spiral before she hovered down towards her stammered daughter.

“You ungrateful child!” Gebashta screamed, “How can I even call such a thing my daughter!,” ichorous spit flew from her mouth as it gnarled in fury. “You don’t even pride yourself in the skin I gave you!”

Kikira grabbed her mothers wrist, throwing her towards the distant mountains—and straightening herself. Her eyes lit ablaze; horns shimmering in their rekindled flame. She glanced towards the rising foothills, her skin tinted like shattered darkness. The dust cleared and the two faced.

“This is my realm, Kikira,” she chuckled. Kansa began to form in the sky behind her as the crackle of wet thunder ensued.

“Stop the bloody melodrama and fight me!” Kikira shouted.

The clouds of Kansa high above deepened into a sickly blonde as a slew of goopy hands rained in a flurry from the nebulaic being. Droplets slid from their thin, gelatinous arms; raining onto the ground below, blossoms of tumultuous vegetation erupted—springing towards the girl.

Kikira leaped across the spiraling hands, lunging towards her mother—the vegetation coming to obscure every inch of her vision. Rustles of the surrounding munjes catalyzed like crashes in her ear—Kikira remained vigilant.

From between the roots of the towering grass snuck a thin digit, dragging the girl by her ankles and through the golden field. She was beholden before Kansa and her mother—held up by her ankles.

Atop a mountain of golden mist, Gebashta neared her daughter. “What were you thinking, Kikira, avoiding me again?” She grabbed Kikiras horns and held her upright.

Kikira spat, the saliva landing on her mothers face. “I am not your fucking princess.”

The queen frowned, wiping the spit off of her face with disgust—her incorporeal fumes turned sour shades. She dragged her long index finger along the bottom of Kikiras chin, “you were never my heir.”

Tensing her neck, the Kikira slammed her head into her mother—cracking the diamond set above her as the queen recoiled.

“Kikira!” Gebashta screamed, “If you shall defy me so, then you shall know the power of your monarch!” With a fist of crackling yellow lighting, Gebashta flung her fist into her daughter's torso; the divine realms shook as she crashed.

ა

Through quiet dunes she flew; through bitter ice she shattered; through silver plains she ripped; in the white city, she awoke.

ა

Her back rang against the cold concrete–it’s miniature exposures rupturing in sharp pains. Holding a hand to her wounds, she shifted to sit upwards and clenched her eyes before opening them. Towering in cracked clay above the princess, a creature eyed her; its head covered in a plate of glowing yellow as a vibrant amber tentacle dangled on its left arm. She placed her hand to its cold rocky chest, “thank you.”

A breeze frigid as ice rose up her spine as she realized where she stood. The whistling of the worlds beyond laid behind her and she turned and faced the chasm. Inhaling the air, Kikiras lungs bruised as she breathed. Her cares dwindles as she confronted hope; the universe beyond her aurelian daydreams.