Chapter 15: Shadows of Dissonance

A great, ornate door creaked open, and Kael stepped into a great chamber filled with a faint, otherworldly glow. Jagged obsidian-like material made up its walls, pulsing with raw, chaotic energy; the air was heavy, oppressive in its weight, like a felt presence pressing down on everything it reached. It was as if the room itself was alive, feeding off the dissonance swirling through the air.

Standing at the far end of the room was the figure Kael had come to confront, standing at the edge of an abyss that stretched out into darkness and seemed to stretch endlessly. He was leader to the Harbingers of Dissonance, dressed in a long flow of black and red, his face hidden by a hood. Kael couldn't see the man; he felt, though, the weight of the Harbinger's gaze: equal parts filled him with power and unease.

The leader hadn't shifted an inch as Kael strode into the room, his footsteps echoing through the quiet. Kael was loose-limbed but so on high alert for whatever that might bring now. Harbingers live off chaos, and this leader was the epitome.

"So you finally arrived," the leader said, and his voice was deep and resonant, full of a strange mix of weariness and authority, "I've been waiting."

He stopped a few paces ahead of him, the silence stretching between them. "You knew I'd come," Kael said quietly, even tone.

The leader let out a soft chuckle, and it sounded very far from humorous. "Of course. You are the one who stands at the pinnacle, after all. It was inevitable.".

Kael studied the figure in front of him, going over all his options. The leader of the Harbingers would know that Kael's power far outweighed anything he could bring to the table, and yet there was no fear in his voice. There was only a sense of grim acceptance.

"So what's the point of this?" Kael broke in, his voice cutting through the tension. "Why snoop around in this world? What do you and the Harbingers stand to gain by sowing dissonance?"

The leader said nothing for a moment, as if weighing the question. When he finally spoke, there was a heaviness to the words that Kael hadn't expected.

Now do you really believe that the universe is as simple as order and chaos? Harmony and discord?"" The leader shifted a little to face Kael. "You, with all your endless power, must surely see that creation and destruction each are but sides of the same coin. We are not here to foment discord for the sake of chaos. We are here to remind the universe that nothing is ever truly in balance.".

Kael raised an eyebrow. He was only faintly interested in this reply. "You really think the cosmos cannot hold any harmony unless it contains some dissonance?

The leader's hooded face tilted up, like a human looking into some bottomless abyss. "I think that without strife, without discord, there is stagnation. And without challenge, without grit, then how can one grow? Only through the testing of order can it be truly reached; only by being forced to the breaking point can it prove its fortitude. We are the Harbingers, not to destroy, but to disrupt; we are an impetus for the universe to evolve.".

Kael crossed his arms, looking at the leader as a kind of twisted logic crashed against his ears. Not even close to right, but so odd that in this new world, he found some sense from it. He saw how stagnation killed, with decay coming from the threat of being uncomfortable. Challenges brought growth, at least to some degree. But that didn't say he found himself some believer in the tactics used by the Harbingers.

And how do you think the lives you have put at risk sit with your philosophy? Kael said his voice steady, but firm. The village you nearly destroyed, the innocents whose lives you have turned to ruin? How does that all fit into your plan?

The leader's shoulders flexed back in his pads, as if the words had disturbed him. He turned now, to face Kael fully, his eyes showing under the visor of the hood, glowing bright and otherworldly, like Seraphine's.

"Innocence," he said softly, almost to himself.

Kael said nothing; he waited for him to continue.

What I do not want is to kill without cause, he went on. His voice was softening, now melancholy. "Sometimes, though, in the name of a greater truth, sacrifices must be made. It's all connected-the village and its people-part of a web that goes far beyond this particular world, beyond this universe. All that we do here resonates across the tapestry of existence.".

Kael's gaze narrowed. "And do you think it's within your right to choose who lives and dies for your ideology?"

He didn't respond, though. He walked ahead of them, the cloak billowing behind like a dark flag, the unnatural wind pushing back from the darkness below seeming to cup around him. His voice was low and musing when he spoke again.

I believe the universe is cruel, Kael. Power through I think the greatest power actually lies in making impossible choices. And you know better than any that this is true. You, who stand atop creation, know how such vast power comes with great responsibility. And sometimes, responsibility means making choices others can't.

Kael's face hadn't changed, but his mind was already racing. The leader hadn't fibbed: he did know the weight that feeling carried-the power and the weight of responsibility that came with it. It was different, though: guiding the universe toward a better life was somewhat different than letting chaos rule as an end for the sake of letting it be.

You go on and on about responsibility, Kael said slowly. "But the way you use your power leads me to believe otherwise. If you indeed believe in challenging the universe to grow, then why seek dissonance instead of balance? Why fight against the order of nature instead of with it?

For the first time, his voice sounded almost as if it contained a hint of accepted emotion—something that sounded like a tone of regret. Again, the leader was turning his face to Kael.

And he spoke softly, "Because, Kael, balance is an illusion. It is one of those fleeting moments in an ever-changing world. Always in motion, the universe is constantly shifting between creation and destruction. To seek balance is to deny the true nature of existence. That is what We Harbingers know. And we embrace the chaos because in that chaos we find truth.

Kael moved forward, with that movement the feeling of power flowed from him; a feeling that could not be denied. "And what if I stop you? What if I were to end this cacophony?

The leader did not flinch under Kael's gaze. "You could," he admitted. "You are powerful enough to wipe us out with a thought. But even if you do, others will rise in our place. Dissonance will always exist, Kael. It is a part of the universe's cycle."

Kael merely sat there. The words of the leader inserted into his skull, a challenge in themselves. He could burn the Harbingers, wipe out their influence on this world and re-balance it. Then what? Would that be another cycle, new forces rising again to threaten the balance he sought to stabilize?

The Legacy of the Cosmos, still a voice unheard, whispered to Kael in his innermost mind, "This is your choice, Kael. A leader speaks of cycles, but it is you who decides the future. Which way will you go?

Kael refused to blink, keeping his stare fixed on the leader's face. For a moment, all the weight in the world felt like it had come crashing down around him. This was greater than a war between two beings of unimaginable power-being more truly, a conflict of ideology, of disagreements over the basic nature of reality.

"I'm not going to kill you," Kael said finally, his voice hard. "But I am not going to allow you to continue putting innocent lives at risk any longer."

The leader's eyes seemed to flicker with a glimmer of respect. "Then we'll see what the future holds, Infinite Ascendant."

And out into the dark, he stepped, disappearing from view, as if he were never really here.

Kael stepped into the darkness beyond the rift in the earth but over him still churned the Dissonant Realm's turbulent energies. Not just yet was the fight done, but for now that was his decision.

Kael stepped out of the tower, though it led him away from the gulf, he had already thought of so many challenges that were to come.