PROLOGUE
Year of the Eclipse
«The fact that there was no answer to the question he screamed, “Why do I suffer?” Man, the bravest animal and most prone to suffer, does not deny suffering as such: he wills it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering».
Maybe its our duty to keep suffering. Perhaps, that’s the meaning of life.
Kai opened his eyes, stood up, and looked around. The tall, green grass that had covered the field long ago had been reduced to ashes. Only that and the corpses adorned the bloody and devastated battlefield. The scorched ground was partially illuminated by shiny remains of burned coal, still glowing on the ground.
How much time had passed? A few hours? The young man looked up and observed the ring of fire in the sky: the eclipse.
When the planet Tekk blocks the light of the star for half a year in Nivara, plunging the planet into darkness, They emerge from it.
—We knew it since the last century, damn it, haven’t we prepared enough? —said a distant voice—. He’s delirious...suffering...delusions —said another sharper voice, interposing itself with the previous one—, flower...of blue sage...boiled...and alcohol.
The boy looked confusedly around.
It’s not the wind... where are those voices coming from?
Kai made his way through the corpses and looked at the small village that was nestled at the foot of the mountain, beyond the valley. He saw with perplexity how tall and fierce shadows rose from the ground, darker than the very blackness of the Eclipse. They headed towards the flames that lit up the village and the screams of horror that were fueling it in its last moments. The Walkers of the Void were staggering towards it, burning the earth in their wake. Kai wanted to run and stop them, but the boy was paralyzed by fear, and at that precise moment, all the monsters slowly turned and looked at him as if they could see him.
The dark amalgams covered in molten stone armor remained still. The black bodies swayed slightly in place as if their bodies were gelatinous; they seemed to be alert, as if sensing something.
The boy began to tremble, his heart leaping out of his chest as those beasts ran towards him in disproportionate shapes, tripling his size. They slid across the ground, leaving the little vegetation that was still alive burnt. They launched themselves at the boy, propelling themselves from the burning ashes.
He couldn’t move and then...
«Find your brother», he heard in the wind.
The war trumpets sounded, tall and melodious as if the skies were screaming the name of all the winds at once. Kai was attractive and young, with a sharp face but covered with some scars, several of which were hidden by his messy black hair.
The boy woke up as soon as he heard the thunderous noise, but he could barely move due to the multitude of wounds he had. His left eye was bandaged, his forehead was beaded with cold sweat, and his chest hurt as if a hundred small needles were piercing him right there, following the rhythm of his heartbeat, and he immediately felt a burning sting on the soles of his feet: burns under the bandages. He could feel his heartbeats concentrate in that same painful spot. But even with all that, the young man immediately sat up upon hearing the majestic trumpets, as if that piercing noise awakened something in his subconscious.
—Esteemed? —he heard the surprised voice of a child beside him and immediately turned around, seeing the small blond boy with blue eyes holding a shiny blue plant in his trembling hands. The other children, who were attending to the other agonizing wounded in the campaign by giving them the same analgesic, turned around, astonished—. We thought you wouldn’t make it...
—My brother. Where is my brother?
—Your brother... —the boy leaned back, trembling—. The Esteemed Khalhen... —The child turned and looked across the field, as if seeking the gaze of others, not knowing what to answer.
The awakened and confused young man also looked across the field of wounded, thinking his brother might be there; the strong, pungent smell of melted candles and medicinal flowers pierced his guts. He searched for his brother with his eyes and, not seeing him, shouted desperately:
—Khal? —The young man woke up many of the dying wounded and immediately got out of bed, covered in bandages—. Khal! —he shouted, staggering back, his chest throbbing with pain—. So he’s not here? —he asked, panting.
—No... he’s not... —The young man ran out of the field, leaving the child babbling something unintelligible to the ears of the young man, blocked by blood or perhaps calcined earth.
He made his way through the crowd with his arms and hands bandaged and looked into more than one shelter for injured soldiers. There were more people inside the black tents (wounded) than outside them. Being outside made it hard to breathe the concentrated odor: the smell of war.
Yes, war has its own smell, a smell that is only hers. It’s an unpleasant mix of the stench of rotten meat and old burned remains.
The young man forgot the pain the moment he breathed in the air impregnated with that stench. He passed by a few tents and heard screams of pain, prayers, weapons resonating, the clinking of soldiers’ armor running outside... all in a mix of inconsistent noises. He reached a light yellow military camp: it used to be white. The two guards who had always been in front of the yellow military shelter were no longer there. The young man entered without thinking twice and immediately saw three people dressed in shiny gold armor gathered around a circular stone table.
On the left side, a young and slender but sturdy woman sat with her hands on her head; she seemed about to lose her composure. In the middle, a tall and robust man, with a tired expression. On the right side, another man who seemed more cared for and younger than the previous one, had a smirk and clicked his teeth frantically.
—Father —said the young man, gritting his teeth to endure the burning pain in his feet.
The three present people looked at him. Each one differently.
The man he addressed, situated in the middle of the table, with a scarce beard, a prominent and sharp face accompanied by a hard and exhausted gaze, turned towards him with a somewhat somber but hopeful expression. The young woman who was sitting turned as well and gave him a prominent and beautiful smile.
—Kai, brother, you woke up! —The young woman got up slowly and dropped her black sword, which hit the ground with a dull thud—. Kai... —She hugged him tightly, trembling. Her voice broke and her safety and control mask shattered into a thousand pieces at that precise moment.
—Yes, I’m here, I’m fine —the young man told her, returning the embrace, while trying to remain calm himself as he saw her like this: It was the first time he had seen her cry.
Without a doubt, all of this was mentally overwhelming for her, but who could blame her? None of them were born prepared for this. The other man who was not his father but his uncle stopped clicking his teeth and gave him a brief and unconcerned greeting with his head, and the young man greeted him back, bluntly and with the same gesture.
—I can’t do it anymore, Kai... —the girl whispered to him, still clinging to him, hiding her tear-streaked face—. It’s been almost seventy days, and we’re only losing... damn it! —she exclaimed, pushing away from his chest. The girl went to the table, then hit it with anger, causing Kai to flinch back slightly; the blow broke the stone from which the table was made, perhaps meant to withstand outbursts of uncontrollable fury like this. The other two men were unfazed by the blow; they either tried to remain level-headed or were already accustomed to it—. We predicted the unfortunate eclipse almost fifty years ago, and yet we’re not prepared enough to face it! —she cried out hysterically, grabbing another cup that smelled strongly of calming herbs—. No... we were never prepared: we can’t fight against the unknown...
The golden ring on her finger, belonging to her bandaged and trembling hand, jingled repeatedly against the thin bandages as it collided with the glass filled with herbs that she held.
—Iahsiel, you should retreat to clear your mind while we discuss our new strategy; I also need to discuss a matter with your brother. Alright? —her father said, placing a hand on her shoulder, which she suddenly pushed away as she left the camp in silence, the trembling glass still in her hand.
The three men remained silent, which Kai broke once more.
—Father, where...?
—Kai —his father interrupted with his hoarse, tired voice—, I don’t know what to do... —he said, placing his fingers on his temples—. We’re trying to think of something... there must be a solution. We can’t afford another retreat —he said, sighing heavily as if it were difficult to breathe—. We need a new strategy. You could help us with the task since Iahsiel... she seems to be out of her mind.
The man seemed mentally exhausted, but the other didn’t seem tired at all, rather desperate.
Or even scared.
—It would be an honor to help you with this, Father —Kai said—, but first I need to know where Khal is... —he urged.
—Oh, he’s probably dead —his uncle suddenly said without any resentment, and his father closed his eyes tightly at such an assertion—. Although we haven’t found him, maybe he’s still stranded somewhere in the Valley of Ashar.
After hearing those words, Kai ran out of the camp.
—Kai, wait, don’t go! —his father called out, but he didn’t stop—. Kai, please!
He sneaked through the soldiers who were preparing to fight, took provisions, a sword from the sawmill, and put on the minimum but necessary armor to be able to run without being completely unprotected. He ran down the hill as fast as he could, and when he reached the bottom, at the foot of the majestic mountain, he looked up. The red and white flag waved in the camp, seeming small from down there. He ran without stopping until he reached the river, where he began to see bodies being carried away by the uncontrollable, reddish current.
—Khal? —he called out—. Khal, brother!
The echo of his voice resounded through the rocky and dark valley of the mountain, illuminated only by the thin ring of fire from the eclipse. Along the way, there were too many wounded, still alive: some whispered prayers, others spoke to themselves aloud, many shouted for help or because of the pain of their burns. The valley, in a dark sense of the word, was alive.
However, among all those incessant voices and screams of agony, Kai’s voice stood out in frustration, impatience, sadness, anger, and... fear. The wind blew, retracting some of the distant voices, and suddenly: “Kai...?” asked a distant voice, carried to him by the wind. The boy stood in the middle of the barren landscape.
—Khal?! —he shouted even louder and coughed, staggering but kept his balance. Some of his bloody bandages were coming undone, exposing his deep and serious burns.
—In the... Well... —one word echoed in the wind and Kai holded his breath, as if that would help him to hear better those words—, below... the hill...
Kai ran towards the direction of the wind that carried the words back and forth. After standing on a small hill, he saw a tiny stone well and there, a shining armor ringed with the eclipse. He ran to the stone well and found a boy with gray eyes and black, blood-stained hair, a round face, and seemed to be younger than Kai, even his soft voice showed it.
—Brother! —exclaimed Kai and helped him stand up.
—Kai is that you...? —His eyes lit up and he smiled—. You’ve come... for me? —The wind blew his words, making them louder—. Thank you... —the dying boy couldn’t stand.
He had two huge burns: one on his leg that prevented him from walking and another on his chest; the little boy staggered when trying to stand and breathe.
—Wait, don’t move —Kai said, helping him sit down but the boy fell asleep, losing consciousness for minutes.
—They’re coming... —said the little boy, shivering with cold—. I can feel them, Kai. They’re already here —he affirmed before losing consciousness.
—Khal!? Wake up, Khal! —Kai checked his pulse—. He’s having hallucinations... —he said to himself, placing the little boy in his bandaged arms.
The wind swept away more painful voices, prayers, moans, complaints, murmurs and... no. That wasn’t a hallucination of his dying brother. Kai knew it immediately when the other scattered wounded in the valley began to scream infused by pure terror: They are coming. Kai, using his teeth, tore some of the bandages that remained above his wounds, without touching them, and bandaged his brother’s severe burns, who remained unconscious. After that, the boy left the scorched plain carrying his brother in his arms. The screams grew louder as he advanced, and in front of him, horrible shadow patterns began to form, deformed creatures that doubled and even tripled their size: they emerged from the ground. They had no eyes, nor ears.
The stone adhered to them, and as it melted from the heat of their skin, it formed a kind of armor with all of it.
They walked, scorching all the earth or grass that was in their path, leaving everything scorched, inert. They were the Void Walkers.
They incited fear with their presence: the dying wounded began to scream in horror as they saw how the monsters of humanly incomprehensible shapes and sizes approached them closer and closer, and these, without the sense of sight or hearing, turned and annihilated them one by one without fail, jumping over the corpses as if they were trampolines and putting their scorching claws in the chests of the dying. The creatures dedicated themselves to extinguishing the screams of men one by one.
They did not see Kai; however, they felt him.
The boy, with his brother in his arms, stopped a few meters from them; they blocked his way.
—And now what...? We are surrounded... —thought the young man, staggering.
He was already seeing blurry: a consequence of the gradual loss of blood from his open wounds.
The little that was left of Khal’s golden armor shone in the night of the eclipse ring, and Kai’s untied bandages swayed strangely triumphantly with the passage of the Wind, which spoke aloud the following words:
«What sets apart those who triumph from those who are destined to fail?»
The boy swayed with his brother in his arms as he saw the Walkers a few meters away from him, yet he did not stop walking with his forehead beaded in sweat and blood.
«Those who have faith from those who don’t need it?»
The agonizing screams were becoming louder and clearer as the young man approached the creatures.
«Those who are weak from those who don’t want to remain so?»
Kai passed and looked at the tall, robust monster that was stabbing one of the men who was dying in pain for the last time.
«Those who are monsters from those who are human?»
The Walker turned towards Kai after finishing his work, as if he sensed him nearby, and the boy stopped and looked at him with condescension.
Kai also felt it: the monster gave off heat and a particular scent of scorched stone.
«Fear».
Kai looked up at the hot shadows that rose before him, swaying with inhuman shapes and sizes.
«Some have it».
—Get out of my way —The Wind amplified his determined words.
«And others instill it».
The wind ceased, and the monsters moved aside from Kai’s path.
The young man, carrying two beating hearts with him, one in his chest and the other in his arms, passed through the scorching earth left behind by the Walkers and left the already silent and dead Valley.
