[Part 11] Advent of Polaris - Continue
The labyrinth seemed endless. Turn after turn, rock-hard sand caked into walls underneath the perpetual dunes. Every now and again, a small hole would cast light into the halls, but the sand was too strongly stuck together to make the holes larger. Even if it were possible, the chances of bringing the tons of sand down upon them was far too high to risk doing it.
Polaris:Â âWeâve been walking for what feels like hours...â
Lu:Â âYeah, Iâm feelinâ mighty tired... Maybe itâs time tâtake a break?â
They both agreed to rest alongside a wall with numerous pores, filling the area with the sunâs fading light. Before long, itâll be nighttime. The temperature will take a heavy toll, so theyâll need to set up camp soon. Thankfully, Lu planned ahead and began to start a small fire, safe from the dry winds.
Lu: âHey, Cor, how âbout a story? Or tellinâ us somethinâ neat? Youâve been âround a real long time, so you gotta know somethinâ!â
Cor: âAs you wish, then. I will tell you the story of the âcursed childrenâ. At the brink of Caladbogâs destruction before the Combine, there were five children, each had an age ranging from ten to sixteen. As with all children, the end of the world inspired them to do all they could before the final tick. Together, they began an adventure throughout Caladbog. Their journey interested the Goddess of Chance, Sygnette, and she had granted them her favor. However, when the world had ended, the children thus became trapped in limbo. The Creator was unhappy with Sygnetteâs interference in their journey, but didnât want to rob the troupe of their futures. He sent them to the new world, but not without a cost. Each one received a special curse.â
Polaris:Â âA curse for a godâs interference...? Why not just punish Sygnette rather than a bunch of children who probably didnât know she was helping them?â
Cor:Â âThe Creator is a sadistic, unruly man. Every action you take comes with a cost. Even the legendary heroine who saved Caladbog and the human world by fusing them together received a dreadful curse... Forgotten, but remembered, for all of eternity. But thatâs a story for another day.â
Lu:Â âThatâs darn-right rude! Creator or not, he ainât gotta right to do that tâ bunch-a kids!â
Cor:Â âHe acts as he pleases. Back to the story, however... Each child had received their own curse.
The first child, who had been eleven years old, had been cursed back to infancy, and with perpetual life, yet not with immortality. She went from family to family, each widdling their lives away as she never grew in age. On one dreadful day, her newest family began to think she had been cursed. The child had not grown in over twenty years in their care... Afraid of whatever malevolent curse may be inflicted upon the child, they abandoned it inside of their old home, setting it on fire before fleeing and never returning. She cried, and cried, and cried, unable to escape the hellish fires that consumed her infantile life...â
Polaris:Â âThey burned alive a child?! Cursed or not, thatâs terrible! Why isnât the Creator punishing them?!â
Cor:Â âAlas, we donât get any say in what he does or does not do. Itâs time to continue the story, however...
The second child, who had been merely ten years old, had been cursed to old age. Forever trapped in the body of an eighty year old man, he lived forever at the edge of the world, on an outlook over the sea. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century... On his four-thousandth year, he finally had enough. Solitude, senility... The pain of it all went over the edge, battered by stalagmites at the seaâs depths.
The third child, who was but fourteen, had received the most unique curse. She had been cursed with immortality, and a perpetually unaging body. She neednât eat or sleep, nor could she ever die. She wondered the world for a thousand years, then fell into a deep slumber... In early 3000, she awoke from her slumber, and was invited to attend St. Amaran, two years before the Amaranthine Incident. During her year there, a group of students had been trapped inside, forced to investigate an endless string of murders. The one behind it all was never discovered, nor could the answer be extracted from the child, who had been sent into a forceful deep rest until the late 7500s. The time from then to now had been spent between rest and prolonged life. To this very day, she continues to live. You may have heard of her in the news, for possessing what some call the âmiracle bloodâ, capable of perfect transfusion with any subject, human or not, regardless of blood type. Though immortal, sheâs still susceptible to illnesses and diseases, so she canât simply live a careless life.â
Lu:Â âImmortality? Thatâs a pretty nice curse yâgot there...â
Polaris:Â âImmortality is the worst curse you can inflict upon someone... Forever forced to live, no matter what happens to you, forced to watch everyone you know and love die, time after time... it would be so dreadfully lonely... Everyone from her era is gone... All long, long dead... She wouldnât even die if she were just a head...â
Lu:Â âWhen yâput it that way... I donât think itâs that great anymore...â
Cor:Â âImmortality is the Creatorâs second greatest curse... The first has yet to happen, but I know, it will be far worse. Now, let our story continue.
The fourth child, a stark 16 years of age, was cursed to live for a thousand years. Her life was damned to infinite perils, from start to finish. Hellish misfortune stalked her every step, binding her shadow with the shackles of death. Death was her greatest fortune...
The fifth child... Was the Creatorâs own son. Having been sent to the world to monitor the worldâs end, he had been split into two. His now twin sister was sent to live in a realm in which he had not existed, cursed with sealed memories of her previous life. She became the greatest thief of mankind, living in the late 5000s. When his sisterâs life was at list for annihilating existence itself, he and his doppleganger twin were forced to work towards rescuing her. The god who ruled over existence itself neglected to step in and save his own child from obliterating existence itself...â