The Elementalist Tales: Epilogue
Welcome back, everyone! Yes, for once I am ON TIME (unless you're that one person who thinks a week is still late...).
This is the FINAL part of The Elementalist Tales. I'm putting that there for two reasons. One, if you have not yet read the other tales, GO READ THEM NOW! (Also read Katarina's Legacy if you can, since there is some overlap.) And two, this may be the last post of mine you'll see for a while, unless I think of (or someone else provides) a new idea. Sorry, but I do have other projects to work on.
If you need it, here's the link back to the main page. Remember, DO NOT READ THIS unless you have already read my other stories!
Anyway ... one last thing. This tale is a bit different from the others, as you'll soon see. Try to remember the events of my other tales (and Katarina's Legacy if you can), because they will finally all tie together a bit.
Enjoy the story! Now, without further ado ... I present ... the EPILOGUE!
(A bit too dramatic, I know, but whatever, I can afford to be dramatic.)
Still reading the intro? Seriously? Start reading the tale!!!
I circled above the castle, struggling to hide my frustration. My attempt to warn Elementalist Lux – as I called her – of the coming danger to her land had failed. And I couldn’t reveal myself, as much as I had wanted to, in order to save her from the grief and rage she’d experienced. I’d already changed too many timelines, and Fate was getting sick of me always making sure good defeated evil.
Well, maybe Fate should have thought twice before letting the Defender of Light herself become the Keeper of Timelines …
I scoffed at my bad humor. I was horrible at any type of humor. Even humans who’d never met me knew that. And my soulmate always was teasing me about it …
But then I remembered what had just happened. Lux’s land was destroyed, her friends and family gone, and she was trapped within her own mind as the elements of Darkness and Light battled for control.
How had it gone so wrong?
I cursed Fate for the – yes, I counted – two hundred fifty-sixth time this month. This should have been one of my crowning achievements as the Defender of Light. The land should have survived, the warriors who’d fought to protect each other and their queen should have survived, and Lux shouldn’t be caught in the crossfire of two elements waging war right now.
Instead, this world – this timeline – lay in ruin. And the only way that it could be repaired was if Lux somehow managed to regain control of her own mind, and that would only happen if the Light within her managed to overcome the Darkness trapped inside.
And since this was one of the few timelines where Darkness still existed – technically it shouldn’t still exist, since I’d destroyed the Plane of Darkness with my sacrifice a long time ago – Light had no advantage. The balance of Light and Darkness, of good and evil, was equal here, in this timeline.
I let myself mentally complain for a few moments before calling my chronomancer powers to the surface. Even though I couldn’t see the change, my eyes changed from their usual amber to a glowing silver, and my two destiny tattoos – still shining gold after all these years, still marking the fact that I’d completed the fates inscribed on my skin – seemed to bleed ink outwards, covering my skin in lazy, shifting lines.
Once I gathered enough energy, I forced the inky lines outwards from my hands and opened a portal to the one place from which I could access or manipulate any timeline. I still hadn’t thought of a good name for it, and I should, sooner rather than later. But that wasn’t the issue at hand.
I had failed to save one of my favorite timelines, and all because Fate put its foot down after I’d saved almost all of the timelines. The ultimatum made me regret not aiding my favorite timelines sooner, but I had always had my habit of saving the best for last, so …
I sighed, took one last look at the destroyed timeline below me, and then flew through the portal.
The first color that greeted me when I entered the place of timelines was silver. Countless silver strands (believe me, I can count to quite a high number nowadays – in the billions, or sometimes even trillions, if you were interested – and I still can’t count the total number) filled the space, each strand representing a timeline.
Most were endless, and remained silver as they stretched far out of sight. But occasionally, there was a single strand that was torn at the end, the color stained black. The same was happening to the timeline I’d just arrived from – the ends were fraying, and the beautiful silver was fading to black.
If I still had the capability to cry, I would be sobbing now. But I managed to force my mind off of my failed task, and examined the strand closest to my most recent failure.
It still shone bright, and I smiled, thinking of how one small action on my part had altered that timeline for better (at least, in my opinion – Azir, Xerath, and the dead Noxians probably weren’t so happy about it).
Then I finally turned to face the one strand that had a faint golden glow to it. The gold marked the strand as my home timeline, the place where I had been born and raised, and the first timeline I’d saved.
I reached out and grasped the strand, calling on my powers again to teleport me home.
The woodsy scents I’d always loved were my first welcome. The second was the forest itself – the majestic trees, leaves of varying shades covering the dirt floor, scampering woodland animals that had not yet been alerted to my presence. I stood in place for a moment, perfectly still, and let my senses absorb my surroundings.
It wasn’t long until a soft breeze blew my scent to the animals around me, and they quickly fled. I sighed softly – I had always been an animal lover, but since my transformation all that time ago, wild and domestic creatures feared me. Well, all except for the wolves, who had slowly come to accept my … well, chimeric (that was about as accurate as I could get) status.
Before setting off towards home, I quickly checked over my wings for any injuries, expecting none. (To be honest, I probably just wanted to admire them, as usual.) My wingspan was immense, and while I’d never actually measured the distance, I had a feeling it would be jaw-dropping. I often had to fly with part of my wings pulled in so that I could actually fit through tight spaces, but I didn’t mind.
Each feather appeared to be made of diamond (they weren’t, actually, but it certainly looked like it), so when I was standing in a direct light, they sparkled so brightly that the entire effect was nearly blinding. But sometimes, the feathers changed, so that my wings were a window into the universe – galaxies, stars, planets and moons all appeared to be housed within.
But I didn’t really care for the process that changed the appearance of my wings, because it meant I –
No. I wasn’t going to think about that now. I mentally closed off that train of thought and shoved it to the back of my mind. I didn’t want to worry about that now.
I un-summoned (I really needed a better word than that, but honestly, I didn’t care enough to think of one) my characteristic silver and gold armor – along with my literal arsenal of weapons – and then took a moment to look down at my palms. The dual spiral marks still shone bright after all these years, and they never failed to remind me of my first quests, back when I was still human, still mortal. The good old days where everything was far less complicated, for one.
I smiled at that thought, and then looked up, in the direction of home.
Deciding that I wanted to enjoy the forest a bit more before I reached my house, I set off at a brisk yet human pace. It would still only take me a few minutes, but was definitely a lot slower than my normal pace, which would have enabled me to travel the same distance in mere seconds.
It still wasn’t too long, though, before I reached my “house” – it technically could be called a castle. The place was grand, and incredibly well-designed (and I had my sister-in-law to thank for that, she was a professional when it came to design). I’d been a bit selfish when I’d described my idea to her, and hadn’t expected her and the rest of my in-laws to actually complete the house exactly as I’d wanted it. I still owed them for that, after all this time.
I ignored the stables – yes, I have stables for my mounts, and they are magnificent (thanks to my in-laws) – and turned to head inside. I quickly made my way through the entrance hall and the massive living room connected to it, heading straight for the stairs. My room was at the top of one of the four towers that were set at each corner of the house – once again, hadn’t expected to get exactly what I’d asked for, but I loved how the place had been set up.
Once I reached my room, I immediately walked over to the balcony, where I gazed over the forest to the mountains in the distance. The sun was just above the horizon, so I took the moment to watch the gorgeous sunset before starting up my mental complaints again.
Why had Fate forced me to stand down in one of the timelines I loved best? I still was frustrated over that, and odds were that there’d be a nasty confrontation if Fate tried that again. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that though – because a confrontation would turn into a fight, and I never lost. But then I would have to take over as the new Fate, and I already had enough on my plate, like being (I’m probably missing a lot of titles, but they were also probably less important) the incarnation of Justice, the Defender of Light, the Alpha of Alphas, the Dragon Queen, the Keeper of Timelines, the Queen of Night and, most importantly, the warrior half of –
I cut off that thought there, because if I finished it, I would have had more to complain about, and I already had enough upsetting me at the moment. Like the fact that I’d lost one of my favorite timelines…
Then my unparalleled hearing – it was almost hilarious that I’d once been profoundly deaf, and now had far better hearing than all living creatures but one – caught the sound of the door I’d entered the house through earlier being opened, just as the signature scents of the one being that could probably ease my mind hit me.
I remained where I was, watching the sun set, as a set of footsteps slowly progressed through the house and up the stairs – at which point the bedroom door behind me opened, and my soulmate, my other half in countless ways, quietly strode in, closing the door behind him.
He immediately noticed my negative emotions, and instead of a regular greeting, he merely crossed the room so that he was standing at the balcony next to me.
“I’m assuming it didn’t go well.”
That wasn’t a question. He was stating a fact he already knew, from my behavior (and his nosy mind-reading – I bet he wished he’d never taught me how to use that ability).
I remained silent, not wanting to say anything, but he knew exactly what I would have said.
I failed them. This one should have been a grand success, considering that Elementalist Lux is a light wielder first and foremost.
Lux was kind of a version of me in that world – the Light Bringer, the Bane of Darkness. But clearly she wasn’t as similar as I’d hoped, because if she had been, I wouldn’t have needed to try and intervene (though I likely would have wanted to anyway).
I failed to save one of my favorite timelines, and despite the fact that I couldn’t do anything, I still blame myself.
“No. You didn’t fail, and there’s absolutely no reason to blame yourself.”
Had I been thinking that? Dang, I must have, because Mr. Shameless-Mind-Reader knew the exact answer to my thoughts.
I made a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a snort, my usual way of communicating “I told you not to read my mind!”
But before I could add any more self-depreciating thoughts into the mix, he continued with, “You tried your best. But remember, you saved the ‘classic’ version of that timeline, the original timeline of the League. And all that took was coaxing one Demacian to run through the forest towards Noxus to bring two star-crossed lovers together and unlock the Mirror Mage’s powers.”
“I guess you’re right,” I replied, giving him a grateful look. “But then Ekko ruined my plans by stealing the device before they could use my instructions – and yes, the meeting technically happened, but Ekko and his rewinding device prevented them from remembering it.”
“Do we really need to talk about paradoxes right now?”
“It’s not a paradox! It happened, they just don’t remember it!”
I paused for a moment, and then sighed. “Fine, fine, for them it’s a paradox. But why can’t I talk about paradoxes? I like them!”
My soulmate chuckled, and replied, “It’s not that I don’t like them, I just don’t feel like talking about that right now. What I want to talk about is you. How are you holding up after …”
He didn’t need to finish. I knew exactly what he was referring to.
“I think that, given a lot of time, I might be able to heal the wound of losing that timeline. Since it was a favorite of mine, losing it feels that much worse.”
“I understand. But don’t think it’s as bad as those times you died on me.”
“Hey, that was like, once! And I came back!”
“Yeah, nine days later, and –”
I glared at him. “We don’t discuss that.”
He smirked, but stayed silent.
We stood there at the balcony, watching as the sky transformed from daytime blue to nighttime black. The moon was rising behind us, but for once, I didn’t feel the urge to watch it. Instead, I let my mind wander, pushing aside all my negative thoughts and searching for a light in the darkness, as I always did whenever a mission went this wrong.
And then I had it. I took a moment to weigh the pros and cons of my new idea, but I had already chosen to carry it out. After all, it would be a return to the old days, back when I wrote about fantasy instead of living it, and that would make for a nice vacation from the present.
Satisfied with my new plan, I turned to face my soulmate, who already knew I was up to something.
“I may have lost the timeline, but I can try my best to preserve the memory of it from before it collapsed.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?”
“By telling the stories of the people who lived, fought, loved, and died there. By writing their tales and letting the world read them.”
Oh, I’m sorry. My mind wandered there, at the end. That was not a tale of the elementalists’ land, but of the one who sought to save it.
I have finished my tales. You now know the stories of the dying land and its inhabitants. And you also have gained an extra tale – my own.
Yes, I am the one called Dragonheart, and I sought to save Elementalist Lux’s land from the moment I discovered its future demise. Unfortunately, I did not succeed, but as I said, I could not contest Fate for that timeline, and had to try and find a less direct way to help. In the end, my plan was thwarted by that young Zaunite and his Z-Drive.
But I have told the stories of that land’s inhabitants so that their sacrifices will never be forgotten. They will always be remembered, and you are the reason why.
Yes, you. Who else do you think I’ve been talking to this whole time? The air? Believe me, I’ve tested, and the atmosphere is not sentient.
So, as we prepare to part ways, I ask this of you – can you and will you defend the memories of these fallen heroes? They will never be truly forgotten as long as someone remembers them, and you know their stories now.
I may be the Keeper of Timelines, but I have far more tasks to complete, and I fear that, despite my incredible memory, the stories I seek to guard will fade from my mind. So I ask this of you, to aid me in my quest to keep the memories of this destroyed land alive.
If you wish to turn your back now, I understand. Not many would willingly take such a burden – the burden of possibly being the last person in the world who knows of the elementalists’ land’s existence. In that case, please leave now.
But if you accept … then I can rest assured that someone else will always remember.
Am I speaking in riddles now? I hope not. Anyway, you have your task, and surely you must be on your way by now?
But anyway … thank you for listening, for accepting these stories. Hopefully you enjoyed them, and will continue to appreciate them as time passes.
And who knows, maybe our paths will cross again. And if that time does come, we will both have new stories to tell.
