Fulfilled destinies do not always bring the good.

The sun was starting to set behind the row of tall, sharp mountains that formed the teeth and canines of some godlike mouth. The ochre sun gave rays of fiery red, dividing the sky into flames and night. Dark purple skies stretched across the red as the sun set and disappeared behind the jaw of mountains.
The wind blew delicately, as if hesitant to run any faster on the ground. Everything was calm. Barely anything stirred, every diurnal creature and being were already at their homes, huddled up. The nocturnal ones stood defiantly against the looming obscurity, their glistening eyes as eyes to spot as a splatter of white ink on a sheet of black paper.
Two eyes, one yellow one blue, crawled up the side of the mountain. A tall, dark figure stood, walking to the top. It wobbled, and walked in a fairly hurt manner. One arm curled around its other, which was limp, showed that this being had been wounded.
The bright eyes flashed for a mere second as it sighed and the silhouette itself lay back against the decaying trunk of a tree, dead since long. The being's arm fell to the ground, the weapon attached around the forearm clanging against the rock. The figure lie there for a while, as if dead. The yellow-blue eyes gleamed intensively in the dark as they stared at the ground.
The entity's rags had been cut up into shreds, some only hanging by a mere piece of string. A low voice coughed out of the creature's lungs, melodiously pronouncing of a language yet not spoken. It was a prayer. The words were slow and hurt, but they traveled far before disappearing.
"Li'eth arel adeth n'ar elios... Li'eth arel adeth n'ar eliras..."
It lifted its head, from its shoulder to the trunk, gazing at the stars as they started to appear.
"Kaera..."

Raven glided through the air on her soul-self wings, her eyes closed, letting the wind take her where it wanted. The feel of the air under her wings lulled her into a feeling of relaxation and comfort, something lost to her life for the last few months. Vrael had returned to the clan, but he was somewhat distant, prefering to spend most of his time outside, away from the rest of his family. Raven wondered what was going through his mind.

The wind started to drop, leaving Raven to glide gently to the ground on steady wings. She dropped to the ground, morphing back easily. Then she stopped. There was something close by, something that had spoken. She remembered the voice from somewhere, but she couldn't remember where. Her eyes narrowed and her hand on the hilt of the sword at her side, she looked around, searching for whatever being had made the noise. Then she spotted something. A dark figure leaning against the trunk of a fallen tree.

The being's eyes kept unsealed, as they slowly traveled along the earth and pebbles of the ground to the tall figure that stood in the darkness. The position of the said figure was ready, as if expecting an attack of some sort. Blue-black blood stained the being's hand as it clenched on the open gash. His eyes beamed with color, forming a faint green light on his body.
Val Keshra paid no attention to the silhouette. He knew exactly who it was. He had no intention whatsoever to speak to the Raven Roth. He kept his mind concentrated on his prayers, not moving an inch from the black trunk.
"Arel Elirien n'tor elreal," he murmured silently to himself, giving out a silent sigh, showing his grief and anguish. Layers of mourning hung over him as he lowered his head, slowly closing his eyes.

Raven remembered the song of the person, she recognised it from a battle she had put to the back of her mind. Then she recognised something else, a slight metallic small in the air. She frowned. It was the smell of blood. Raven dropped her aggressive stance, moving closer.
"Val Keshra," She murmured quietly, bowing shortly with one hand fisted over her heart. "you are wounded, do you need help?" She asked. Raven had changed quite a bit when she had found herself head of a clan even temporarily. She moved closer to him, wondering why the being she had seen to be tough now seemed to defeated.

Val Keshra's eyes seemed to be harsh and aggressive as he turned them to Raven's violet irises. His breathing was sharp and coughing, but he manages to pronounce the words.
"Raven Roth," he hissed. His voice then gradually became more gentle, as if he changed his mind as he continued talking. "I am wounded, yes, but I am as marble; we are enemies in the past, and it is the Redeaming way that we do not change alliance until the death of one of us."
He turned his eyes back to the ground, shifting both bleeding arms to a slightly more comfortable position on his legs. "You have no intention to cure me of the wounds I carry," he whispered lowly, his face unchanging.

Raven crouched a couple of metres away from the wounded warrior.
"Times change people, Val Keshra," Raven said softly. "I have every intention of helping you if you wish me to,"
The demoness observed the being before her. He had obviously been hurt in a fight, and the fight had also hurt him emotionally. How, she couldn't imagine, but she sighed silently. She didn't think that he would let her heal his wounds, but she still offered.

Val Keshra's eyes sinistrally moved to Raven's, lowering a stern glare on her. His face seemed to cringe with anger as he scowled back.
"Raven Roth," he began calmly, his voice intensifying in severity, "my wounds are none to be healed by one of my former enemies. I have finished what I was supposed to do. I could now perish for what all the others would care for."
He lowered his voice at the last part, delicately turning away once more. His hand unclenched from a fist which he had not intended, to drop on the ground limply afterwards.

Raven frowned slightly.
"Well, this former enemy says that you're talking a lot of rubbish. I don't think you're quite in the right frame of mind to be making life threatening decisions like that..." She said in a level voice, the same one she used when trying to talk sense into the younger generation of the demonic clan. She hadn't moved from her position cross-legged on the mossy ground a couple of metre away from Val Keshra, where she could see the wounded warrior clearly, but not close enough to be a threat.

Val Keshra let out a quiet sigh, closing his eyes. He thought for a second, before opening them again, letting the yellow-blue light flow from the opening of his eyelids. He glanced at the demoness, before speaking in a fairly calm yet desperate voice.
"Kaera Tsuni," he began, "has finished her mission. Her priority. Exactly two days and fourteen hours ago. I knew it was going to happen, but I did not think that Kaera had this kind of potential. For these said two days and fourteen hours, we fought. Kaera was merely at my ankle before it happened. But at that moment, she had become stronger than me, in a way scientifically impossible."
Val Keshra turned his head to Raven. "Raven Roth," he murmured, "Kaera Tsuni has taken her path. And my fear is greater than you think for the direction she is going."

Raven sighed, sitting back on her heels. She knew the world of prophecy better than she ever wanted to know it. Shadow had come back, in regal glory, but the rest of her clan still refused to admit her existence. After all, Raven hadn't been there at the time of her death, and she was the girl's twin. One would know their twin off by heart, and Raven knew that there was at least a part of Shadow in that being, even if she wasn't all there.
"Then the choice is Kaera's. There is nothing more you can do about it," Raven said simply. "The only thing you can do is be prepared for any possible futures."

Val Keshra stood silent. He lifted his head to the twinkling stars above, gazing over at them. He remembered the endless nights where he used to count them. He had managed to count more than tens of thousands on cleared skies.
Val Keshra stuck his blade into the trunk of the tree. He violently pulled on it, getting himself up to his feet. Staggering, he stabilized himself. "I am a Redeamer," he murmured, "and the way says that if you find an enemy stronger than you, die in front of them. It'll be your last attack."
Swiftly pulling his blade from the trunk, and loomed over the demoness. "Raven Roth, you are correct," he whispered, "time does change someone. Heal my wounds so that they won't be on my mind."

Raven smiled slightly, getting to her feet and moving closer to Val Keshra. She inspected the wounds briefly before taking a vial from her belt, a disinfectant. Vrael and Shadow knew how to interweave a disinfecting spell with a healing one, but Raven didn't. She had never undergone the appropriate medic training. She gently tipped a few drops into each wound before laying a hand over them and murmuring something under her breath. The skin beneath her hand knitted together, leaving only a neat scar to show that there was a wound.

Val Keshra stood as a statue as Raven healed his wounds which he had gained throughout the intense fight with the said Kaera Tsuni. Once the wounds knotted and healed, his eyes gleamed of a renewed strength, blaring yellow and blue.
"Raven Roth, I shall be grateful for this help, especially from the part of a former enemy, now a comrade," Val Keshra thanked her, turning his eyes to the demoness, "but now that that is done, I hath no knowledge of what I am going to do next. I cannot locate the Kaera Tsuni; her mind is blocking itself from anything else. I have a hard time to imagine that her telekinetic level rose to a far better line than mine, in such a small time."

Raven cast a last critical look over the scars before stepping back. She bowed shortly, one hand fisted over her primary heart.
"Maybe she gained some of her father's power," Raven suggested, remembering how, the last time she had seen Shadow, the princess had somehow gained a new level of magic to theirs and a new level of control. However, they weren't sure if this was because of training she might have been undergoing in Aspheri or because of the prophecy.

"Kaera's father has nothing telekinetic," Val Keshra uttered, turning a blue-yellow stare to Raven, "Kaera was only able to access that domain thanks to me." Val Keshra turned his head to the darkening sky. He frowned. It had taken him a lot of time to understand how one frowned. Kaera had taught him how to move his face muscles to be able to frown, and the paticular meanings of the gesture he did not quite understand. But he fully knew now.
"Kaera is out there, suffering from a fatal wound. She won't be going far, but there's a nearly impossible chance for her to succumb. I am still wondering if I should try to give her sense..."

Raven sat back on her heels with a silent sigh.
"I'm no stranger to the world of prophecy and destiny, but I don't know which path you should take here. All I can say is keep out of her way and find something else to focus your mind on, find another fight to join or something." The demoness said quietly.

"Only wise words seem to escape your lips since you've 'changed', Raven Roth," Val Keshra answered quietly, turning his eyes to the demoness, "They speak only of truth. Now that I have altered fate itself, I can only contemplate the idea of meeting my kin once more..."
Val Keshra stood silent for a moment, then dreamingly lifted his eyes to the sky, wondering about his homeplanet. He thought deeply for a long while.
"The only link I have between my brothers and sisters is the Divine Armor, Raven Roth," he continued, "I will only be able to establish some sort of connection between them with it. But the events that have passed since my arrival on these grounds have twisted my memory. I cannot remember where I lost my Divine Armor, against your twin sister, Shadow Roth."
Val Keshra's blue and yellow stare turned to Raven's violet eyes once more, sending into her a gaze of seriousness. "But I know all too well that you and those of your own race have the ability to travel infinite distances. All this against one memory of a unique pattern which is described in each location. And that pattern, it clenches to my memory only all too well."
Determinedly laying a hand on Rvaen's shoulder, Val Keshra continued to stare at her. "Raven Roth, I remember the song you need to know to get me to the place of my Divine Armor. Will you aid me in getting there?" Val Keshra didn't want to admit to Raven that his energy had left him in the battle against Kaera beforehand, fearing that he might pass for the ridiculous warrior.

Raven smiled slightly.
"I have been given responsibility and pain. It is enough for anyone to look for something more than what they knew." She said quietly. A small smile flashed across her face as she remembered Shadow mentioning in passing a battle against the foreboding Terax warrior. She bowed shortly, one hand fisted over her heart.
"I would be honoured to aid you, Val Keshra."

"...Thank you," he murmured, the words spilling with difficulty from the toothed holes at the side of his jaws. He lay one hand nearly abruptly on Raven's hair, flattening it gently under his palm. He transmitted through his contact the exact same song which repeated itself in his head when he thought of the Divine Armor. After the giving of the song, Val Keshra nodded once.
"Lead the way, Raven Roth."

Raven flinched slightly at the sudden prescence in her mind, but she focused on the song, committing it to memory. She closed her eyes to concentrate briefly, to make sure she knew where she was going. She then laid a hand on Val Keshra's arm, and teleported them to the mountain where the battle had taken place.

The vision of the mountain seemed only all to remarkable and familiar. The trees, the rocks and the smell of the dirt, humidified by the recent rain. The faint whispering of the trees through the gentle blowing of the wind, singing a song that Val Keshra's mind concentrated on. It was that song on which he had locked his mind upon, and that song which he had given to Raven.
Without any further ado and with the determination of a warrior storming into the battlefield, Val Keshra did not waste any time expecting or hoping. His telekinesis was instantly attracted to the cold metal surface which was hidden.
Val Keshra took one step towards a very large boulder. He placed one hand on it, and with effort, made it budge. The rock slid on the ground with a cracking noise, revealing a glimpse of the shattered armor. Val Keshra shoved the boulder away, crouching in towards the armor.
The Terax reached in with one hand and picked up one of the golden metal pieces, having darkened with time. With the other hand, he grabbed a black object into his hand. He gazed at it for a long time, turning the crystal-like shape in his palm.

Raven looked around, taking her surrounding as Val Keshra strode off straight away. She then followed the warrior at a more sedate pace, casting a violet eye over the black crystal. She wondered what it did exactly, and why Val Keshra had said it was broken.

"Just as my mind had told me before, now that the memories are coming back," Val Keshra answered quietly, lowering his eyes, "the crystal's been permanently damaged. All the energy has seeped out of the cracks, and there is none left." Val Keshra's eyes closed in disappointment and defeat.
"With low hopes I came to this place, where I thought I could somehow establish a contact between me and my kin. Now with no hopes do I stand... The life-crystal's damaged, and I do not have the Teraxian knowledge to repair it. It is impossible to repair on Earth... Humans don't even know the Terax exist nowadays."

Raven frowned slightly.
"You say the energy's gone?" She said, but didn't expect an answer. She rubbed the jewel between her eyebrows as she thought. "I know someone who may be able to repair the crystals, but they don't live in this dimension.."

"I highly doubt anybody can repair that crystal," Val Keshra answered, his eyes opening, "that object is purely made of Teraxian hands. It wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Terax. It's one gem made by the Teraxian knowledge. And only the Teraxian knowledge and hands would be able to repair an item such as this."