Chapter 17C: Cycles and Sinewaves

As I walked away from the body which had burned in black fire, I remembered that monsters just like her had haunted the world which Aeliana wandered for years before we met. She had lost everyone she ever knew to an early death. To some extent, I think that we as people are programmed to see each other as ephemeral after we have experienced enough death. Only someone with experience truly understands the fragility of the human body, so they soon enough see how easy it is to lose everyone they love. For that reason, I think we as people are endeared to the eternal whether we realize it or not. Someone who has only seen death is therefore cursed to cling onto anything they think can defy it. For Aeliana in all her tragic suffering, this drove her to swim across the sea just for a shot at a love she could not lose. We fell in love immediately, due in part to the way that she and I knew we were eternally bound. In a world where all is lost to time in the end, we are driven to chase anything immortal. At the very least, that’s my theory.

And on that basis, I made a promise to myself that the next time I found Aeliana in her future life, that time would be the last. I would dedicate all I have to ensuring her eternity. But until that day, it is simply a matter of setting the stage. By the time I find her, I’ll have stolen so much power from the stars that no force could oppose us. There will not be enough people from which she even could catch some plague, despite that I already have the power to cure it. There will be no chance for any righteous do-gooder to strike her down. They will be unarmed, powerless, and too terrified to take a single step against us. The name Asivario will haunt all that remains of this hollow world and echo in the hearts of the few fortunate to hide in the hell I’ve created. I may even duplicate this diary and send it into other worlds so that their people understand that they cannot fight against me. Everyone in all these worlds will understand that they are nothing more than an ingredient, a steppingstone to the future we will forge when I find Aeliana in her next life.

I wrote this journal for myself in the guise of a life I can dream when the stars sway. Because my memory will inevitably collapse under the weight of eternity, it will at the very least serve as a partial record of the way in which I made a monster of myself. Each conversation is transcribed from memory to the best of my ability, but the passage of time has already robbed the words of their order. Not every word was spoken exactly as it appears, for my memory has already begun its gradual descent at the time that I am writing this. This diary serves as an imperfect roadmap of a perilous past. It was in the process of my slow walk across the badlands that I first decided I should transform my memories into one last notebook filled with nonsense.

But that train of thought ended when I reached a sandy hilltop and saw the silhouettes of towering treetops in the distance. They climbed forth from the sand and scraped the starry sky. I wondered if perhaps my subconscious had led me there as if it were a dying ember up ahead in my hollow tunnel, but I pushed myself onward regardless of the reason. I remembered that I had first ventured into this forest when I was at my weakest. But as I crossed from the badlands onto the forest floor, I stood stronger than any entity to ever exist in this world. The only actual similarity was that in both cases, I wandered into the forest broken-hearted, searching for any reason to keep going.

I said to her ghost when I found her by a patch of sand, “Where do you think it will be when I find you again? I miss you so much that I can think of nothing else. I miss you so much that I have dreams of killing myself. I want more than anything to just somehow have you back.”

But her ghost winced quietly and said, “I do not know how long I’ll be dead. I know you said that we met here once before as lost lovers and we glimpsed our eternity, but I cannot see the future or the past. I do not know when or where we will meet for the next time. I suspect my previous incarnation burned a part of herself as fuel just to somehow see that truth, but the only power I possess is the one to freeze time. The only thing I know for sure is that you and I will meet again. Even if we have to wait centuries for our paths to cross again, I will burn bright with love when I find you. We will not pass as strangers on the street. We will fall into love as passionately as before and incinerate anything in the way of our eternity. It’s exactly as I said before! We are twin flames dancing in an endless spiral.”

I nodded slowly and said to my love, “You are the only thing I could ever dream of. I would wait any time and cross any distance just for you. Galaxies could collide and not stop that from being true. There is no crime I would not commit, no victim I could not make submit.”

But she said as she slowly started to fade, “I vow to honor every promise I made. But if we are to stay too long in this ethereal place, we could both find our minds permanently lost to the fog of a fake world. We cannot stay here—at least not until we return to conquer this land and everything else.”

I whispered to Aeliana the words she already knew, “I could spend forever in a dream as long as I’m with you.”

We shared our final words of love as if that could in any way hold me over until the day I find her again. In the end, I chose to heed her wishes and leave the forest behind. I had a world to conquer, and I could not do it there. I slowly made my way across the continent as if I were fighting just to catch my breath. But as I walked away from the forest and away from Bones City, I still stared at the life I left behind from time to time. While darkness devoured distant skies in all directions, I saw an occasional flicker of fire to the west. I thought it at first to be a phantasmagoria conceived by my heartbreak, but I could see the glimmer even as I faced away. My rational mind declared that this fiery flicker emanated from offshore volcanos erupting into life. Even in the bright flashes, a curtain of smoke shadowed the sky.

But in my heart, I knew that this volcanic lightshow was just reality’s way of conforming to my mindset. The fire and smoke were not a manifestation of my guilt showing the destruction of Bones City. It instead epitomized the love I had that burned in death. It served as a premonition of the perfect future which would be built by my hands—a future where all this world will burn as fuel just to light our march into eternity itself.

It is a dying fire which was once ablaze with heat, but now it flickers weakly like a love left incomplete. The embers which remain give a faint red glow, locked in a shadow of their former glow—whispering of a future I do not yet know. But like a lost life which fell astray, the flickering fire faded to gray. The flames once burned bright, blinding, and blue! But now, the flames struggle just to make it through. Cinders and embers burn as if they’re barely there, left by a fire which once danced in the air. I could practically feel her life slipping away, but she warmed my life until our last day. So even if she’s trapped in both the future and past, the aftertaste warms like a wound sure to last. Though these ashes are all I have left from before, we will rise like a phoenix and blaze as we soar. Just like the flickering embers which still remain, our lost love will reignite again. I will fan the flames and force them to rise; I’ll burn this world just to see the light in her eyes.

But in the end, this journal is more than just a treatise to my own heartbreak or a manifesto of my malevolence. It is more than a diary of pain or a talisman of ephemerality. These pages serve as the emblem of the star-crossed lovers, and as a promise with Aeliana to dance beside her as twin flames in an endless spiral.

I hope you enjoyed this book! This was the story of Asivario, who goes on to become a major character in the Interitus universe. You can find me on Instagram, or you can find the Interitus Multiverse series on blogspot at . Please join these characters on their journey!