Awaken.
My eyes opened and I found myself in a cave, lit only by a luminous, floating sphere suspended in midair. My feet were still in the water, and looking back, I could see that they were submerged off the edge of the cave floor. The cave was small, covered with pink, glowing xen on all sides. There was no sign of the crawler and no sign of the Nameless One.
But, staring at that strange light, I came to a startling realization.
“You’re him,” I said.
Yes.
The voice entered my mind, strong and sure. It was understandable but didn’t sound human.
I stood. My clothing was damp, which told me I had been lying there for a while. “You have a message for me.”
The Xenomind Odium offered you a bargain, the Nameless One said. Did you accept?
“I refused,” I said. “And I refuse it now.”
I waited for the Nameless One to speak again. When there was no answer, I realized I was going to have to take the initiative.
I felt silly just talking out loud, so I switched to speaking with my thoughts. You wouldn’t see me before. Why?
The time wasn’t right, the Nameless One said. The power of the dragons had to first wane in the Hollow.
And as soon as it did, you called me.
Yes.
I waited a moment for this to sink in. I felt I had no choice but to believe it.
What is your role in all this? I finally asked. Who are you, exactly? What did you talk to Alex about all those years ago, and how can you help me now? I hesitated. At least . . . I’m under the impression you can help me.
Many questions, the Nameless One said. Leading to yet more questions.
And you have answers, I would assume.
You have met my nemesis.
Your nemesis? You mean, Odium?
No, he said. Shen.
That came as a surprise. Shen. He’s your nemesis, why?
Almost two hundred years ago, he launched his war against Hyperborea. His goal was not only to destroy the Xenofont and the Hyperfold . . . it was to destroy the Xenofold itself, unrealizing of the horrible consequences.
Not according to him, I thought. He told me he wanted to save it.
He lied, the Nameless One said. His purpose is to restore the world to how it was before Ragnarok. That means destroy the Xenofold, which would kill all life that depends on it for survival.
All life that depended on it. That wouldn’t just be the plants and the xen. It also meant all the life forms that had evolved to make use of it, along with the dragons. Perhaps even human Elekai.
You are Anna, are you not? he asked.
Don’t you already know the answer to that?
I don’t, the Nameless One said. I sense two identities of equal strength. There is Shanti, the talker. And there is Anna, the watcher.
Does it matter? Can I not be both?
Shanti cannot save the Xenofold, the Nameless One said. Shanti was not born to save the Xenofold. The light resonated as it spoke. Does Shanti understand?
Anna is more powerful. I understand that much. How can Anna save the Xenofold?
You have two enemies. There are the Radaskim, who seek to conquer and appropriate the Xenofold for themselves. Then there is Shen, who seeks to destroy it in its entirety.
Why would he do that? I asked. It would make the world defenseless against the Radaskim.
Total hegemony is Shen’s eventual goal, the Nameless One said. He needs the Elekai still to have a hope of stopping the Radaskim. Once, and if, the Radaskim are repulsed, Shen will turn on the Elekai, as he did two centuries ago.
Why? I asked. It makes no sense.
It makes perfect sense, the Nameless One said. I have spoken with Shen, and there is no reasoning with one such as him. Shen is who he is. He wants to rid humanity—all humanity—of all impurity. This includes all the parts of a human Elekai that make them Elekai. Long ago, during the Ragnarok War, you and your friends were gifted with the powers of the Xenofold. In the following years, your children and select others chosen by the Xenofold, spread their progeny, until tens of thousands could trace their genealogy to an ancestor with the original Elekai blood.
I was familiar with that part. He sees Elekai blood as an impurity?
Yes, the Nameless One said. This proclivity cannot be unchanged. Not without destroying Shen himself, an act which, if even possible, would no doubt kill millions, most of whom live on the other side of the ocean.
But according to you, he wants to kill us. That makes him an enemy, right?
He is your ally until the Radaskim are defeated. If they are defeated.
And after that . . . there will be another war? One where he tries to eliminate us?
Yes, the Nameless One said. As he tried with Hyperborea.
He wasn’t successful then, I thought. Why would he be successful against us?
The Thought Dome, the Nameless One said. It wasn’t built just as an alternate world for the people of Hyperborea to flee into. It also guarded the Point of Origin from outside tampering. While it saved the Sea from destruction at Shen’s hands, its energy needs are so great that it is destroying the very thing it was created to protect. It guards the only pathway that will reach the Point of Origin.
When I entered the Hyperfold, there was a path through the palace, I thought.
That’s in the Hyperfold, the Nameless One said. Inside there, there is no physical Hyperfold dome as there is in the real world. In the real world, the path is under the Thought Dome itself. The outside veil cannot be entered by anyone without a connection to the Xenofold, and it cannot be destroyed by any conventional means.
Not even a nuke? I asked, remembering the awesomely powerful weapon from the Old World.
No weapon can destroy it, the Nameless One said. It is built from alien technology stored within the Radaskim collective mind—knowledge given to Rakhim Shal by Odium.
But it must be destroyed, I said. It’s causing the Wild to turn against us. If we don’t stop it, then we will be too weak to resist Xenofall.
Therein lies the conundrum, the Nameless One said. To destroy the Hyperfold is to destroy yourselves, in the form of Shen and his machines. To leave it be is to give the Radaskim victory. The middle is—accepting Odium’s proposal—which will see the Radaskim ruling this world and absorbing the Elekai Xenofold. That option would be the most merciful of all.
That option is off the table. I will not sell the Elekai into slavery.
And yet, I am here to act as arbiter, the Nameless One said. Any deal agreed to would be enforced by me.
What power do you have? You exist in this cave, but other than that . . . you do not touch our world.
That is where you are wrong, Anna. Deeply wrong. Perhaps I do not have a host at my back, as does Odium of the Dark, but that is because I do not need one.
Who are you, then? I asked. A being to which Elekai and Radaskim are beholden to. Where do you come from?
I was there from the beginning. I am everywhere Elekai and Radaskim are present. Before the two sides split, I was High Xenomind of all.
I knew a Xenomind to a be a powerful entity that controlled all life forms connected to it on an entire world. Askala had been one before Alex destroyed her and in turn, he became one. But what the Nameless One was talking about seemed to be different. As I understood it, he had power over all Xenominds.
You could destroy the Radaskim, then, I said. Why don’t you?
Even gods cannot bend the rules, the Nameless One said. I would be destroyed if I did not do my utmost to preserve the balance of the two sides. Just as any Xenomind would be destroyed should it break faith with any contract I oversaw.
You are High Xenomind of all, yet you have no name.
Because I was first. There was none to name me.
You’re like God, then.
That word is . . . adequate, if incomplete. When the aberration occurred—the split between Radaskim and Elekai—I did all I could to mend the gap. Mending was impossible, the two sides were so diametrically opposed that the only solution in the end was for one side to defeat, and absorb, the other. The Radaskim have the numbers, physically, and can enforce their will through brute force. The Elekai, on the other hand, have the power of choice and rational thought amongst all its sentient members. It is a war that has been fought for eons over hundreds of worlds, one of which is yours. All those worlds but one fell to the Radaskim. Yours.
Why?
Because Elekim prevailed. He found me, and I gave him the answer as to how to destroy Askala. In the end, his death cost his humanity. The Xenofold became the purview of the Elekai . . . for as long as the Sea of Creation remained.
The rest was history. Hyperborea used the Xenofont to draw ichor from the Sea of Creation to power its city and advanced technology. They drew on its power for decades, and there was a golden age the likes of which the Elekai had never seen. But as the Sea lowered, problems started to occur. Small pockets of the Red Wild reverted to their previous form. The crawlers and dragons became Mindless, attacking people on sight when they had previously been docile. When the Shen War occurred, the Sea lowered even further as the Hyperboreans used it to power their weapons and armies. By the time the war was over, the only solution was for its surviving citizens to withdraw into the Thought Dome, abandoning their earthly bodies in exchange for a false reality—a perpetual dream where they lived in the city at the height of its power and glory.
Rakhim Shal presided over that dream; Rakhim Shal, who was a willing vassal of Odium of the Dark. And now through Isaru, he could directly touch our world.
The Nameless One continued, The Sea is now so weak, so low that the Hyperfold is the world’s only hope of protecting the Point of Origin. If the Hyperfold is destroyed, it leaves the Point of Origin open to attack by Shen. And he will attack it, given the chance.
It will kill us, though, I said. The reversions are getting out of control. It’s allowing Rakhim to take control of the Mindless, turning them to the Radaskim side. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Then the time of the Elekai on Earth is passed, the Nameless One said. All the life that depends on the xen—the crawlers, all the species that have made use of it, even the dragons, will cease to be. They will become Mindless aberrations should Shen succeed, at least until the Wild dies out completely and they run out of food. Of course, some will survive, feeding off wild animals or even people. I, too, would pass from this world as Earth’s door to Xenomatrix winks out like a dying star.
What about the Elekai dragons? I asked. They cannot exist without the Xenofold. Humans can . . . right?
Your powers would cease to be, along with every other Elekai human’s. You were before the Xenofold, and you will be after. Of course, many people would die. People who have lived for generations in the Red Wild or those who would starve and die rather than flee. The dragons, however, were wild beasts before the Xenofold took them in. They will return to their wild state after, as they are doing now.
I can’t betray them like that, I said. I can’t bring about the end of the Xenofold.
Shen wants to protect humanity . . . at least, those he views worthy of protection. He sees the Elekai human as tainted, unwittingly and unknowingly, by an alien host. The Nameless One paused, He would not be far wrong in that assessment.
How do I stop the Radaskim then? You gave Alex the answer on how to stop Askala. What is my answer?
There is a reason Odium is attempting to undermine Earth before his host’s arrival. A healthy Xenofold has intrinsic defenses that protect it from outside attack invasion. Without those defenses, the way is open for invasion.
What defenses?
It’s the Xenofold itself, the Nameless One said. It acts as a shield that no Radaskim can pass without being severely weakened and open to assimilation. But the Hyperfold keeps the Sea from renewing itself. There was a pause. Do you see the problem, Anna?
I did. Destroying the Hyperfold meant leaving it open to be attacked by Shen. If Shen destroyed the Xenofold, the Elekai would die out from Earth while leaving it open to future invasion. At the same time, allowing the Hyperfold to exist would keep it safe from Shen, while the shield would be too weak to guard against the Radaskim.
A strong Xenofold, then, will act as a shield to the entire planet. Surely, Shen can be convinced of this?
Perhaps you will succeed where I have failed. Perhaps Shen believes that his two centuries of preparation are enough to defend against the Radaskim.
Why are you telling me this?
It is your right to know, Anna, he said. Odium has spoken with me far more than you and has received far more answers than you. Who do you think it was who told him how to conquer Earth?
You play both sides.
I am both sides, Anna. They are me . . . and they are not me.
You left out a third option.
And what is that?
Destroy the Hyperfold, I said. And defeat Shen.
A bold option, the Nameless One said. But one that is impossible.
But you will help me. If he is your adversary . . . then why not?
Destroying Shen is beyond the capabilities of the Elekai. His empire stretches around the world. Everything outside his core lands in China is industrializing rapidly, using all the pre-Ragnarok knowledge stored in his memory. His world is one of metal and machines. Yours, Anna, is one of tradition and memory. Should you defeat the Radaskim, these worlds cannot coexist . . . not for long.
But you would stop him, if you had the chance?
A pause. Undoubtedly.
Why do you hate him so much?
Shen is young yet, but his power is limitless. If allowed to grow, his reach will extend to the stars themselves.
Sounds like the Radaskim, I thought.
But unlike the Radaskim, the Nameless One said, I cannot check his power. Long ago, I made the mistake of ignoring a being like Shen. By the time he was stopped, it took practically all the might of the Radaskim combined to destroy him. While Shen is relegated to just Earth now, if allowed to spread, his power could grow to be unstoppable.
That can’t be for many, many years, I thought.
You forget, Anna, that we Xenominds are not as frail as humans. So long as the Xenomatrix exists, we go on for eternity.
I realized then what it was Anna wanted to protect. In the past, she knew the Radaskim could never threaten Earth so long as it remained strong. She saw in the future that it would be weakened, and planned to come back at the right time to restore the Xenofold to its former strength.
But that only raised another question—why not return before Hyperborea could cause so much damage in the first place?
I know your thoughts, the Nameless One said. And it is an important question. It’s probably the most startling revelation of all.
What happened? I asked. Why didn’t I come back earlier?
I am that reason, Anna, the Nameless One said. I saw that you would never have a chance, no matter what future I chose to believe. So, you returned at the time and place where you had a chance . . . the present age.
I could speak to Mia back in the past, I said. Not just through the Hyperfold, but in reality.
Yes. She was the only prophet of that age that could still receive such revelations. As such, few enough believed her. The one who did, Prophet Marius, ended up founding a second Order of Seekers, an order dedicated to remembering all that the original order had forgotten. So not all was for naught.
I need to speak to them, I said. Perhaps I’m trying to get the wrong Seekers to follow me.
I had to speak to Shen, too. Even if the Nameless One said there could be no peace between him and the Xenofold, I still had to try.
Even if I learned a lot here, I still hadn’t learned what mattered most—how to destroy the Hyperfold.