Fault woke up after fifty-three hours. He's supposed to leave for Aleon through a gate within seven more hours.
He found himself in Gate castle's infirmary. White curtains around his small, white-sheeted bed. He heard walking outside, some people walking back and forth, talking.
Fault looked around after waking, leaning up in bed. His hands darted for his left eye, searching for the silk.
He felt it across his fingertips, the silk was as malleable as it usually was, and it still felt cold, just like usual.
His eye was wide, his expression still as he gazed around the small room he found himself in.
"I'm alive…"
He swallowed his saliva.
He took deep breaths, assessing what had transpired in the memory he had visited. He closed his eye, and fell back on the pillow.
Fault had experienced what Trinity did to Cronus.
His hand clenched into a fist at his side as he lay still on the white bed.
The memory he experienced only validated his feelings towards gods.
He hated them.
The reason he lost his infusion, the reason Tenna was gone, the reason everyone but Hale and himself were dead.
He hated gods.
The memory he visited only proved that further.
"Make them weep…" Fault whispered to himself.
He grit his teeth and shook his head. He planted his feet back on the ground off the side of the bed and took another deep breath.
He needed to become stronger.
He needed to keep Hale safe, and whoever was close to him.
Fault decided on it.
He'd stay back, and try to avoid any affairs with people outside of his little brother. He'd keep Hale and whatever friends he has safe.
He swore to it, as much as he swore to make the gods cry.
*****
I held a scowl on my face as I put my clothes back on. I was wearing some little gown in my sleep, and it was really uncomfortable.
Slipping my loose black blouse on, I fit myself into some brown trousers and my normal boots.
'I need to tell the others I'm good to leave.'
What I experienced in Cronus's memory. It was what Trinity did to the stray beast after it took my eye out.
I saw it all.
Their game and how Cronus thought Hale was that source for reasons I don't know yet. Then when he tortured me in that wine cellar and ripped out my left eye.
None of that was bad. I saw it all from Cronus's mind, but it was mostly gone already since I woke up, like a bad dream.
However, the worst part was what happened after Cronus lost. I felt my sanity disappear in the beast's body, I felt him tear me apart and reshape my organs…
It only felt dull as I recall it now, but I remember experiencing it.
"Kh…" I grit my teeth.
I'm not sure how long I was asleep for, but I assume I should get ready to go to Aleon.
I'm gonna avoid talking to Terrick or anyone else until then.
I have no use for it right now.
I need to focus on getting into Ayen so I can watch over Hale, at least.
In other words, I have more important things to worry about than my mental state.
I step outside, adjusting the sleeves on my black shirt as I hear my feet click against the stone floors.
'Looking for Duke Lynel.'
I need him to send me to Aleon, now.
Exiting the unfamiliar halls and entering into the ones I knew, like the garden, I turned left.
A right, and one more turn.
The big doors to his office.
I walk up to it and knock with the back of my hand.
"My Duke."
A rough voice comes from inside, "Come in."
I open the door gently and see Lynel still sitting at his desk.
'He hasn't been getting much sleep.'
I wish I could say the same.
His eyes widened a bit as I entered, "Fault? I thought you were… unconscious in the infirmary."
"I was." I reply.
"Do the others know you're awake?"
I shake my head, "No."
"Then, you need to-"
"No."
He stopped speaking and his eyes sharpened a bit, his mouth falling to a close.
"You get one free pass, Fault, interrupt me again and I won't be so kind."
"Aleon."
He kept his scowl but his head reeled backward a bit, "What of it?"
"Send me there, now, please."
He only stared at me.
I can't tell what he's thinking, but he certainly doesn't like how demanding I am currently.
He only sighs and grumbles after a few more moments.
"No goodbyes to anyone?"
"None."
"..."
"..."
We stared at each other.
"I won't ask what you experienced while you were asleep, but it must have steeled you for something, kid."
He stands up and opens a drawer from his desk.
A grey rock large enough to fit in his palm, he pulls it out and shows me the top of it. A light blue carving of some sort of rune seems to be there.
It resembles a beam of lightning, jagged and ending in an explosion at the bottom.
"This is the one I was saving for you to go."
He walks over to me and grabs my wrist, forcing it into my palm.
"Here."
I looked down at the rock and smiled just a tiny bit, "Thank you, Duke Lynel."
He waves his hand back at me, "If you're leaving now just be careful, it's in the early, early morning, or late night, whatever you call it."
He turns around and goes to sit back down at his desk.
"Take it to the garden, that's the highest point that you have access to."
I nod and turn to leave.
"Goodluck in Aleon, Fault."
Pausing at the door, I turn to the darkness of Lynel's room, "Thanks."
Tak.
I close the door behind me, and pick up my pace toward the garden.
'Ayen. Ayen. Ayen.'
My heart pounded a bit.
I was excited to go, at first, but now I think it's more of a way for me to keep watch over Hale. Over my little brother.
He's taller than me, certainly smarter than me, with his infusion he'll definitely be stronger than me, even if I'm stronger now. He has an insanely bright future.
He'll probably become nobility, or even found a new royal domain.
I'll see through that he does without a single step of danger laying a finger on him.
Arriving at the garden, the stone sparks in my hand.
It makes me look at it scrutinizingly.
I squint my eyes down at the rock and notice that one of its patterns was the same as the large stone circle overhead.
The Gate.
The one that matched the stone in my hand was the one that faced from an angle. Somewhere a little to my right.
It's night, so I can't tell if it's north or south, but I remember seeing that Aleon is northwest of Gate, toward the center of the human territory.
Astor.
I look at the stone again and hold it up high, as far as my arm can reach above my head. I hold it up at the symbol that matches it, and a spark ignites brighter.
I close my eye and look away before staring at it.
Brighter, brighter.
The blue lightning shone even through my eyelid as I turned my head further from it.
The Gate reacts to it, and shoots its own spark toward the one in my hand.
I felt it react as well, getting hotter in my palm.
Then-
I was pulled toward the circle faster than I could blink.
"Wh-"
I spun in place hundreds of times a second as I felt my body heat up. My organs were visible under my bones as I looked down, it was like even my eyelids became see-through.
Every lit up blue inside me, making me shine bright.
It was like I became the blue lightning…
Then…
VWOOOM
I was fired. I shot into the direction I guessed the Gate was pointing.
I grit my teeth as I blasted. I was moving incredibly fast.
I could hardly see the ground beneath me, but little lights of what I could only assume are homes shot post me like shooting stars.
'It's getting faster…!'
I felt myself speed up in a second boom behind me.
I can't hear anything and my vision is getting darker.
My head flew backward and it felt like my body expanded.
VWISH
I came to.
I can see again.
My hearing came back too as I looked down.
Rays of lights beneath me, all of varying colors.
My eye widened at the sight as I slowed, but still kept flying over the buildings.
Hundreds of them, maybe even thousands.
'Holy…'
So many people, even this late at night.
I was high enough to see what they were wearing, but couldn't see their faces. I was just above one of the medium sized buildings, continuing to fly over the city toward the center.
I looked around some more and saw even taller buildings, they had lights on a few of the floors, as well.
Off in the distance though… is a huge castle.
It looks like an insanely large fortress, it held its own town inside as well.
I swallowed as my floating slowed to a stop, and I began to slowly descend.
A building with an open roof was underneath me, my body was returning back to normal and I touched the ground, planting my feet on the wooden floor softly.
"W-woah…" I caught my breath a bit after the experience of transporting.
More people were walking around me, paying me no mind.
Desks and some people in what seemed to be uniforms made up the corners of the large room I was in.
Red curtains and covers colored a good portion of the walls, and beneath the curtains were large doors where many people were exiting and entering at once.
I noticed someone in a uniform walking toward me.
She had light brown hair, the uniform she was wearing was a nice, velvet red, linings of white and black buttons made up the center of it. Below her waist was a skirt with some white frills.
'Kind of weird for a uniform…?'
The lady smiled, "Hello, you must be… Fault, yes?"
I blink, "How do you…?"
"Duke Lynel shared the description of you appearance with us over a letter."
"I-I see…"
"Good! Well, then, while we may not be able to hand anything over to you for free…"
She presents the land behind her, even if it was just the other side of the building.
"Welcome to Aleon, The First City!"