The voice echoed, not in the void around him, but directly within the confines of his mind. It was calm, ancient, and distinctly feminine.
"Welcome, my child."
Aurelion recoiled, not from fear, but from the sheer audacity of the intrusion. A surge of irritation washed over him. He scanned the swirling chaos around him, then his gaze settled on the massive white sphere of light where the lightning guide had led him.
The feminine voice spoke again, its tone laced with a gentle, compassionate patience. "Approach, my child."
"It can speak directly into my mind" Aurelion realized, a fact that angered him even more.
He glided forward, propelled by a silent pulse of his own energy, stopping just before the brilliant white sphere and the root extending from it.
"Touch the root, my child," the voice commanded.
Aurelion remained still, his caution overriding his curiosity. He speak his own thought back at the entity. "Are you... Primordia?"
The voice offered no answer, only a repetition of its command, a soft but relentless wave against the shores of his consciousness.
"Touch the root... Touch the root, my child..."
Aurelion stared at the massive, glowing white structure. This entity would not be questioned. It would only command.
"Fine, have it your way," he thought. "Let's do it and see what happens."
He reached out and pressed his palm against the smooth bright surface of the root.
The moment he made contact, the kaleidoscope of colors around him vanished. He found himself in a new space, an endless expanse of pure, sterile white. It felt like the Void in its infinite scope, yet it also didn't. The familiar, cold loneliness of true emptiness was absent.
As he was taking in his new surroundings, a swirling sphere of vibrant, multicolored light approached him, pulsing gently like a living heart.
Aurelion turned to face it as the compassionate, feminine voice emanated from the light itself.
"Not many beings can discover this place. Welcome, my child."
His annoyance at the familiar address returned, but he focused on the logic of the situation. "Doesn't everyone who touches the tree come here?" he says.
"When a being touches the tree, they are drawn into a world within their own mind, a place where they feel most comfortable," the light explained. "But you... you were able to see beyond that. Into the void where nothing exists. It is... interesting... that you feel comfortable in such a place."
"Because the void is not something unknown to me," Aurelion thought to himself, the memory of his timeless existence before this life surfacing.
He then ask his next question. "It's also interesting that Primordia is speaking to me personally."
The light seemed to consider his statement for a moment before the compassionate, feminine voice replied. "Yes and no. I am not Primordia. I am but an extension of its will. I am her, and I am not." The voice paused, then added, "And Primordia cares for all its children. You were simply able to see beyond the veil. That is why we are able to have this conversation."
Aurelion's analytical mind took over, trying to rationalize the impossible. "I am her, and I am not. Is Primordia's consciousness separated and distributed?"
The light sphere flickered, its colors swirling a little faster, a direct reaction to his private hypothesis. "That is not something you can fully understand right now."
Aurelion froze.
The direct response to his silent thoughts was all the confirmation he needed. The entity was simply reading his very thoughts as they formed. A surge of pure rage flared within him at this ultimate violation, but he crushed it with an iron will, recalling his harsh training with Roric.
He shut it all down. The analysis, the anger, the curiosity. He built walls within his consciousness, a technique honed through discipline, silencing the noise until all that remained for the entity to see was a surface of pure, blank, impenetrable calm. He would not give this entity another opening.
Aurelion held the blankness in his mind, a silent, unbreachable fortress. But he could feel the entity's attention on him, a gentle pressure against his mental walls.
"Why are you so tense, my child?" the compassionate, feminine voice asked. "I can see the tension in your soul."
Aurelion ignored this question, forcing the conversation onto his own terms. "That is not important," he says. "I am here to make a deal with you."
The swirling sphere of light pulsed gently. "Speak, my child. Speak, so that I may be able to help you."
"There is a female lizardman near the World Tree," Aurelion stated. "I want you to heal her. In return, her friends will provide whatever you ask."
The light was silent for a long moment. "I can help you too, my child, if you wish."
"I don't need help," Aurelion retorted instantly.
"I know, my child," the voice said softly. "I know you are here for your friend, who was wounded in the battle with the goblins and the Gulper. I know." The light drifted closer. "But I can heal the darkness in your eye."
Aurelion didn't respond. He focused all his will on maintaining the blankness in his mind, but the entity's offer was a targeted strike against his greatest failure. It was becoming a battle to keep the surface of his mind a perfect, placid lake, and the effort was making him more angry.
"Aurelion," the voice said his name for the first time, its tone now impossibly gentle. "I am a reflection of this world's consciousness. I know what happened to you. There is no need for you to be angry or tense. I want to help you, my child."
Aurelion finally broke his mental silence, his logic lashing out like a spear. "I fought the goblins you blessed. They died, and I was wounded. This is a simple balance of nature. Why would you now offer to heal my eye?"
As he posed the question, a cynical thought escaped his control. "Is it trying to bless me now because I killed the ones which It's bles-" He caught the thought, crushing it before it could fully form.
But it was too late.
"Not because of that, my child," the light answered the thought he had tried to hide. "I blessed those goblins because I wanted life in this place to grow stronger. I do not offer to help you because you defeated them. I offer to help you because I interfered with the balance of nature, and because of that, you were wounded. I want to help you because you were wounded because of me."
The light pulsed with a sincere, resolute energy.
"Do not resist my light, my child," the voice urged, "and allow me to restore the light to your eye."
From the heart of the multicolored sphere, a stream of pure, light green energy, the very essence of life he had sensed earlier flowed out and moved slowly, towards him.
"IT IS NOT!" Aurelion roared, his voice a raw projection of pure will.
A violent tempest of golden energy erupted from his body. From the dark void where his left eye once was, tendrils of pitch black lightning lashed out with a vicious hiss, striking the advancing green stream.
The life energy was overwhelmingly powerful, easily suppressing his golden aura, but it could not get past the corrupted, hateful energy of his scar. The incessant, seemingly limitless black lightning energy met the green life force in a stalemate, a war of opposing concepts.
After a moment, the light sphere withdrew its energy, the green stream receding back into its core.
"Why?" the feminine voice asked, and for the first time, there was a clear note of surprise in its compassionate tone. "Why won't you let me heal you?"
Aurelion let out a short, cold laugh. "Because it is not your failure," he said, "but it is mine."
He met the swirling light with his single, unwavering eye. "Do you truly think my eye was wounded just because you blessed a damn goblin? Let's go further. Even if you had filled those goblins with your own energy, even if you had controlled them like puppets, it still would not have been your fault."
The light sphere just vibrated, silent. Aurelion took a step closer.
"Do you know why?" he continued while his voice hardening. "Do you think I am someone who would cry like this is unfair just because my opponent has an advantage? I lived you cannot imagine, you... manifestation of Primordia. I have seen true power and true weakness. And I know this. No matter who stands before me, if I am wounded, it is my fault, because I am strong! This darkness in my eye is my failure but not yours. And only I can cover this wound."
He paused then, the intensity in his single eye softening as the clarity of his own conviction washed over him, the storm in his mind calming into a cold, serene resolve.
"And even if this is a failure," he went on, his voice was now steady, "I am strong enough to accept it and continue on my path. If this wound is ever to be healed, if this failure is ever to be covered, it will be by me and me alone." He stared at the light, his challenge was absolute.
"My child," the voice said, and now it was tinged with a deep, unmistakable regret, "you... you truly are a special soul."
The note of regret in the entity's voice confused Aurelion. "What did you say?" he projected.
"You have only increased my desire to help you," the light clarified. "But knowing that I cannot... it saddens me."
Aurelion was still suspicious, but he decided not to press the matter. There was nothing more to be gained here. "If this topic is behind us," he projected, his tone once again cool and detached, "then let's continue with my reason for being here."
The light spheres colors gently swirling. "As you wish, my child," the feminine voice conceded. "I want to heal Zura. I have tried. But I have failed."
"Why?" Aurelion projected.
"Zura's consciousness is closed off," the light explained. "To reach her, my energy needs a conscious mind to act as a bridge, a channel. I tried this with Rokar, and then with Krum. But the energy required was too much for them to bear."
Aurelion didn't hesitate. "Then use me," he projected, his tone was unwavering and confident. "I can withstand it."
"Yes," the light replied. "You would likely withstand the energy, my child. But my own energy would be tainted by yours. It would not heal her. Your very nature, mixed with mine, would kill her."
Aurelion's voice was flat, without a hint of surprise or denial. "Probably, yes."
"Time is running out for her, Aurelion," the entity pressed, a new urgency in its voice. "She cannot last much longer. At this moment, there is only one way to save her."
"And what is that?" Aurelion asked.
The light pulsed, gathering its resolve. The final offer was made, a statement that was both a plea and a terrifying violation.
"I must place my will into your body."