HTG - Chapter 177

Kalon

Chapter One-Seventy-Seven: Lon - Part Two

Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

Ruling Government: Republic of Hekate

Solar System: D-2,946

Planet: Ravena Minor

Location: Ara Continent, Ravena’s Temple

Time moves too swiftly when I am with Luna, I wish that I could hold it for eternity in the moments that she smiles. I could get lost in those moments. She walks with a practiced grace as we stroll through the colored leaves toward a body of water. There are tall trees that surround the shoreline on one side, I can see nests in the upper branches. Small insects thrive even in the chill of autumn becoming winter, they hum a peaceful melody in the fading tall grass on the shallow side of the water.

“Are you worried about Arrum?”

My eyes lower for a moment, “He is strong, time is what he needs to heal the wounds of his heart.”

“Will you go to him?”

“When he is ready.”

She doesn’t speak for a time, there is peace in the silence, even though I find myself missing the sweet melody of her voice.

“What of Adona?” she asks, turning to me fully, “What of Riza?”

Kotina had confirmed to me that she was Riza earlier, it still feels strange to know it though. There are many thoughts that swirl in the churn.

“She must find the will to thrive.”

“Will you help her find it?”

I stare down at my hands, these cruel things have never been good at anything except killing. They close slowly, “If I can, I will.”

She does not reach her hand out, but I can feel she wishes to. In the distance there is a group of ten knights on the hill. Her shadow, they are never far away.

“This is my second favorite place on the Ara continent,” Luna smiles, pushing back her snow white hair, the streaks of black add a beautiful contrast to it. She leans down and picks up a single leaf, admiring the shades of colors, “My mother used to take me here, and I always stay in a room that has a view of it.”

“It is, peaceful.”

Luna smiles, “Yekka used to try and teach me the Kuwathi language here as she braided my hair, when I was a girl. Keyword, try, I was never very good at it.”

“I remember you mentioned her before, she raised you with Kotina after your mother passed.”

Luna nods, then smiles, “Do you want to teach me some words? It’s been a while since your last lesson.”

“Do you know the meaning behind her name?” I ask, putting my fingers in the water, it is cool but not cold and there are small fish swimming near the underwater grass. They seem timid.

“Yekka’s name? I didn’t realize it had a meaning.”

“All names have meaning among my people,” I pause, remembering her mother’s heritage, “Our people.”

“Well, go on then professor,” she smiles, turning to look out over the waters.

“Her name, Yekka, it means bonded to the rain. There are old Kuwathi tales that speak of naming your child this to bring them luck, as water is life. It is an uncommon name among my people, one that speaks to the hope of a brighter future.”

“That’s sweet, why is it uncommon though?”

“Because it is so similar to one of our curse words. Vekka.”

She pauses and raises an eyebrow, “That makes sense, what does that word actually mean though? Fennec just said it was versatile. And Yekka told me it wasn’t ladylike to use it.”

“It depends on the usage. In its shortened form, Vek, it is similar to your word, fuck, or shit.”

“In its long form?”

“Bonded to shit. Like they are the embodiment of shit itself.”

“Oh, that makes sense, but I thought that Vekka meant bitch?”

It makes me smile a little to hear her say these words so innocently, “It can, in a way.”

“Kuwathi words are versatile,” she says, then with a curious expression, “What does it actually mean though? Because Fennec told me that Sekat also means shit and some other things.”

“Vek is the inverse of Yek. Where Yek is the rain, Vek is the drought, which is why it can be interpreted to mean shit depending on the context. Because after the body takes the rain, it relieves it.”

“I think I understand, but it feels overly complicated.”

“Many things in life are.”

She smiles, her hand almost reaches again, but it curls instead, gripping the fabric of her attire. She wears strange clothes, ones that remind me of a mix of formal and informal. There are elegant lines of sheer purple fabric that hang on her shoulders, but there is also thin metal around her vital points that blend with the design.

“Are you enjoying the view?” she asks playfully, seeing me eyeing her.

“I am trying to understand if what you are wearing is practical in a fight.”

“It’s… versatile,” she smiles.

The purple hue of her eyes is entrancing, so much that I get lost in them for a time.

“What does your name mean then?” she asks as her eyes travel to my lips for a few breaths, she holds up a finger, “Kalon, if I break it down… Ka… bonded to something?”

I look out across the water as the breeze creates ripples, “In your tongue the name can have two meanings.”

“Are you going to make me guess?”

“Lon is the thing that exists between destiny and fate. It is choice, the free will to choose.”

She turns and examines me, her eyes measuring my words.

“The literal translation for my name means, bonded to choice.”

“What is the other meaning?”

“The balance.”

“That’s a strong name,” she says with a warm smile.

“My mother told me that she almost named me Kale.”

“I think I can translate that one, Leora means light of hope, then… bonded to the light?”

The name Leora bites at the peace of the moment, but I nod. It reminds me that I must speak with Luna about what Solara told me. About the horned woman, Zarae, and the apparent prophecy that Luna will become her vessel.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

My brow furrows, there has been enough sadness and worry today, I will tell her soon, but today, I wish to see her smile. That is enough to bring life back into my weary soul.

“You said this place is your second favorite, where is your favorite?” I ask.

She frowns for a moment but it passes and she says, “There is a waterfall a few hours to the south by shuttle… would you like to go?”

I nod and she smiles before giving a wary eye back at her shadow of knights on the hill.

“Something tells me that they will not be keen on that?” I say without looking at them.

“No, I don’t think they will.”

She is still musing it, which I know she shouldn’t be, so I say, “Perhaps another time you can show me.”

She sighs but nods, “This is going to be frustrating, isn’t it?”

“It will not last forever,” I say, giving her a smile.

“I know,” she says, meeting my gaze, “You will soar, Kalon, I can feel it.”

The breeze catches the loose strands of her hair. In this moment I would give almost anything to hold her close, but it would be a fleeting feeling. Resolve builds in me as I see the sun marches toward the horizon.

My eyes focus back to Ravena’s temple, “Come, there is work to be done.”

***

The halls are so silent that all I can hear are the whispers of prayers for Ravena. There is solace here for the pilgrims as they are called. Those who have traveled the stars of this house’s domain for the chance to pray before her altars of chiseled stone. There is beauty in their reverence, even if it is to a selfish goddess. I remember how she tried to fight against me healing Fennec.

Still, I remember there was not hatred in her eyes, only curiosity. The golden eyes found peace in her presence as well. Unlike the sisters Leora and Krotha.

“Are you sure about this?” Luna asks with a furrowed brow.

“I am.”

“Do you not follow Amara now?”

My eyes lower as we walk toward Ravena’s inner sanctum, “There are things that she has kept from me.”

“Should you not at least ask her opinion first?”

My feet stop as I turn to Luna, weighing my words before I speak, “There is reverence in me for her, and appreciation for when she helped others when your goddess would not.”

Luna flinches at my disparaging Leora, but not as much as she would have before, perhaps she begins to see the truth about her.  

“Still though, if she is your goddess…”

“I have blindly obeyed for a lifetime. Now my eyes are open and I am no man nor god’s property. I am as my mother named me, the choice that lies between my own destiny and my own fate.”

“Ravena will expect you to worship her if you join…” she says with a strained voice, “Are you prepared for that?”

“What she expects and what she will accept are two different things,” I say, walking again toward where the map shows.

“Kalon, she may not even come if you call, and if she does, it may take months, for me it was years.”

I look at one of her statues as I say, “She will have this night from me, if she does not speak then I will try again when I finish my time with the Republic’s army.”

“You will leave so soon?” Luna asks without trying to hide her dismay, “Kalon, it’s been less than a day since you’ve been awake… and… and…”

“Every day that I linger pushes back the day that I will take your hand in mine.”

My stride is swifter than before.

“Kalon, you should rest and recover first, you’re entitled to a year, you should take it.”

My eyes find hers as we round the next bend in the stone walkway, “I have already lost too much time to sleep, I will not lose more to idleness.”

“What is driving you? If it is me then…”

“It is not just you that drives me to rise,” I begin, but my words fall short as I see a massive figure standing before the colossal stone doors that guard Ravena’s inner sanctum. It is Arkon, Luna’s father. The knights that followed ten paces behind Luna immediately bow and turn, venturing back down the hall.

“Father,” Luna says, approaching him and giving a courteous bow. She is about to say more, but Arkon is staring at me.

“Why have you come?” he asks, his voice is deep and ebbs power.

My feet do not faulter as I approach closer, my head tilts an informal bow as I say, “I have come to speak with Ravena, Lord.”

“You have weighed your options?”

“There is only one path I seek to take.”

His eyes narrow as mine rise to meet his, he asks slowly, “How will you rise to find this path?”

“I will become a soldier of the Republic and then the house of Ravena and climb the ranks. Becoming a Knight Commander and climbing over Kotina.”

His eyes measure as he says, “And if that is not high enough to claim her hand?”

I do not faulter as I say, “Then I will climb past the stars, until even you must look up at me.”

Luna’s eyes grow wide as she swallows. Arkon looks me over slowly as though he is appraising every fraction of my essence. He nods slowly as he says, “We shall see, boy.”

He turns and opens the doors toward her most sacred sanctum and then steps slowly to the side, motioning with his arm for me to enter.