The Abyfage slowly turned its abstract gaze toward Shaï-Thaêl. It had no face, nor a voice in the strict sense, but what emanated from it resonated like a cosmic decree:
Abyfage:
"Very well. I will observe you. But if I ever sense that primordial void emanating from you again... I will erase you. Without hesitation."
A heavy silence fell, as oppressive as the skies of a dead world. Niyus lowered his eyes slightly; Shaï-Thaêl remained motionless. The Abyfage added, implacably:
Abyfage:
"However... I find it unfair to leave a creature like you without guidance or purpose.
Although our logic is subject neither to the laws of Delzluhûd nor to the giant dimensions, we are aware of their existence.
Your void is still woven into the summit of these Meracloxian structures.
But mine rises where even laws and concepts cease, at the peak of the giant dimensions, where they themselves become transcendent voids.
You are my fragments. And I cannot leave you without a role."
Space itself seemed to lean toward Shaï-Thaêl, as if to listen to its verdict.
Abyfage:
"Your role from now on will be this:
You will prevent any host from willingly surrendering to their Myophore. You will intervene. You will divert their will.
We do not want your case to repeat itself."
And without waiting for a reply, the Abyfage disappeared. As if it had never been there.
Niyus, his chest marked by a gaping wound, fell to his knees in the ethereal dust. Shaï-Thaêl, meanwhile, remained standing. Something shone in her empty gaze.
Shaï-Thaêl (trembling):
"Is it true?... Now... I exist?"
Niyus raised his head toward her. He smiled faintly, with the weariness of those who understand too late.
Niyus (whispering):
"You don't live, strictly speaking... but yes. It's something like that."
A thought pierced his mind. An ancient memory. Texts about the Myophores. Their nature.
He then remembered what few dared to write aloud...
"The Myophores, beings of the Void, do not kill.
When a doubt within you becomes greater than yourself, they intervene.
And if you die, they become a karma.
They will follow you into the next life, inheriting your weakness to better guide you again."*
But Shaï-Thaêl had not become karma.
She had survived.
Why?...
Niyus (inner thought):
"The priest... He wanted to be devoured. But she didn't expect him to truly die.
So she remained, emptied... filled with his emotions. Not her own.
But now... now she speaks. She acts. She cries.
It's no longer just an echo..."
And he remembered an old forbidden treatise:
"Esoteric demons are born from belief.
The idea of a monster is enough to make it real.
So why not her? Why not Shaï-Thaêl?"
Niyus opened his eyes and asked, this time aloud, his tone firm despite his fatigue:
Niyus:
"Why can't we regenerate? This hole is getting tiresome..."
Rivhiamë (inner voice):
"She struck our being.
We are not yet at the level of being.
That's why we couldn't heal."
Niyus (exhausted):
"This is unbearable..."
Niyus staggered, sat on the ground, giving in to the weight of the past confrontation. His chest, split by a gaping hole, still bled-a painful, palpable void, not just a physical wound. His very being had been touched.
He panted, his gaze lost, until he felt... a gentle warmth. Unexpected. A caress in the cold air.
When he looked up, he saw Shaï-Thaêl. Silent. Her arms extended before her. A pale, vibrant light emanated from her, like a contained sacred fire, burning without consuming.
This light was not that of a demon. It was... that of forgiveness.
Shaï-Thaêl (voice trembling slightly):
"Niyus... stay calm. Let me do this..."
The light condensed around her hands, then slowly slid toward Niyus, fitting the shape of his wound. As it touched him, the pain faded. Not abruptly, but as if every fiber, every fragment of suffering was recognized, understood... then gently erased.
Shaï-Thaêl (sincerely, almost in a whisper):
"I'm sorry... I'm truly... sorry, Niyus.
I didn't want to destroy you down to your being. I didn't know what I was doing."
Her eyes closed. A tear fell. Not for herself. For him.
Shaï-Thaêl (voice now more assured):
"We, the Myophores, are capable of reaching the being of our host.
And if he dies, then... we are reborn with him. As karma.
But I don't want that for you.
I want you to live... And for what I've destroyed, I want to repair it."
Niyus felt his breath return. His skin was closing, but more than that, something within him was realigning. He was being stitched back together not only from the outside, but deep within the invisible layers of his being.
He lowered his eyes. A moment of silence linked them. Then he murmured, a faint smile on his lips:
Niyus (exhausted but sincere):
"It's nothing... As long as you heal me... all the pain fades away."
Silence. Still that silence. But this time, it was not heavy. It was suspended.
Shaï-Thaêl continued to heal Niyus, without a word. A pale light slid from her fingers, stitching up the invisible cracks of his being. Niyus, meanwhile, remained motionless, absorbed in his thoughts.
"The Abyfage... a being who claimed to be above. A void, located at a level where laws and concepts fade away... Does that mean that... at the summit of the giant dimensions, there is so much transcendence that the upper layers become something else? Transcendent voids?... Is that the ultimate truth?"
His gaze drifted for a moment. "It is so vast. What do you think, Rivhiamë?"
Rivhiamë (internally, lively):
"I don't even know what you're talking about!"
Niyus (amused thought):
"Oops. That's true... you didn't have the form of existence I had before. You might still be unaware of a lot..."
A slight inner silence.
Rivhiamë (reflecting):
"Shaï-Thaêl is a fragment of the Void. Abyfage is a void beyond what seems to exist and be subject to laws and concepts... That would mean that... Shaï-Thaêl is a fragment of Abyfage, who is himself the void she comes from. So why don't you ask her directly what you want to know?"
Niyus:
"Hm... Maybe you're right..."
He emerged from his inner dialogue. His eyes rested on Shaï-Thaêl, still busy closing the invisible breaches.
Niyus:
"Shaï-Thaêl?"
She turned her head slightly.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"Yes?"
Niyus:
"I'd like to know... since the Abyfage is a void... and you are a fragment of that void... So, you would be a fragment of the Abyfage?"
She nodded, peacefully.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"Yes. That's the case."
Niyus raised an eyebrow. Inside, Rivhiamë almost exclaimed:
Rivhiamë:
"I was right!"
Niyus:
"So... do you have the same level of existence?"
Shaï-Thaêl stared at him, a little intrigued.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"Why do you ask that kind of question?"
Niyus (with a disarming smile):
"Ah... I'm just a bit curious, you know?"
A short silence.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"I don't have the same level of existence as the Abyfage, not exactly. I'm a highly branched void from him, located above the 7th Meracolxes. From that level, I observe everything in the inner universe without missing anything... well, so to speak."
Niyus:
"And how do you reach the central universe without your level of existence blocking you?"
She replied almost with an implicit wink:
Shaï-Thaêl:
"The principle of existential self-regulation is the key!"
She stopped her healing. The light faded, then went out.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"There. You're healed. As before."
Niyus (gratefully):
"Thank you so much..."
But his mind kept spinning.
A creature like Shaï-Thaêl can directly affect my being... yet her existence is limited to the Meracloxes. Jin Muleo and Lingyin, with a much higher existence, can do the same without ever reaching this level...
He stopped. An idea stuck in his mind like a thorn.
*Could it be that the Abyfage is the source of the levels Shaï-Thaêl can affect?
To know, one would have to understand if they are much more strictly linked than she lets on...*
Shaï-Thaêl was watching him, frowning slightly.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"Niyus? Are you okay?"
He emerged from his thoughts.
Niyus:
"Yeah, don't worry. I have one last question..."
Shaï-Thaêl (tired smile):
"Again?"
Niyus:
"Don't worry, it's the last one. If we could destroy you here... would you disappear? Would you return to the summit of the Meracloxes? Or...?"
She stared at him for a moment, suspicious.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"Don't tell me you're planning to try killing me?"
Niyus (quickly, panicked):
"No! Not at all! I swear, it's just... curiosity."
She scrutinized him again, then looked up at the sky.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"It's never happened to me. But if it did, I would simply return to the source."
Niyus:
"Return... to the source?"
She nodded.
Shaï-Thaêl:
"Yes. I would return to the void I came from. The fragment of the Abyfage. Then I would be reborn, as if nothing had happened. I could manifest again... It's a very quick process, you know? A few seconds, at most."
Niyus widened his eyes.
Niyus:
"Wow... that fast..."
He was sure of it now.
Shaï-Thaêl was the Abyfage, in a way. A portion of him. An active, stable projection, an intelligent fragment.
She could not disappear as long as the fundamental void existed.
Even he... even with Rivhiamë... would have no way to truly kill her.
He smiled at her. Sincerely.
Niyus:
"Thank you. That's it, I got what I wanted to know."
Shaï-Thaêl replied with a weak but genuine smile.
And Niyus understood.
Shaï-Thaêl, the Myophores, the Abyfage... might be one and the same spirit.
A vast being. Ramified. Present everywhere. A mind superior to simple minds.
A void that thinks.
After being healed, Niyus slowly stood up. He let out a long sigh. The air was lighter.
Shaï-Thaêl, for her part, gazed at the horizon. There was a new glint in her eyes-curiosity. Desire.
Niyus noticed it.
- Life still has so much to show you... Now that you are... alive, so to speak, you can finally learn from it.
The Myophore turned her head toward him, her eyes shining with sincere excitement.
- If you hadn't been there, the Abyfage would have swallowed me... and restructured me into pure nothingness. Thank you, Niyus. Truly. I can't wait to discover what the world has to offer me now that I no longer need to hide.
Niyus swallowed, embarrassed. A drop of sweat beaded on his temple as he couldn't help but stare at the Myophore's strange silhouette: curved horns, red eyes with black sclera, skin white as a forgotten corpse, and that wild fur covering her hips and arms.
She noticed immediately.
- What? Why are you looking at me like that?
He grimaced.
- Well... Shaï-Thaêl, your appearance. Maybe you should... change it.
- My appearance? she asked, intrigued, glancing at herself. What's wrong with it?
- You might... scare people.
Her gaze darkened suddenly. It was as if she had been shot.
- ...Animals too?
He nodded gently, almost sympathetically.
- And even... insects.
- Alright, that's enough! she grumbled, crossing her arms. No need to rub it in!
Niyus burst out laughing.
- Sorry, I didn't even realize!
She stared at him, calmer now.
- But you... you're not afraid of me. Not of my appearance.
- Meh. You know, it's not the first time I've met beings that aren't exactly "natural." It's kind of my daily life now.
The Myophore gave a faint smile.
- You know what, Niyus? You're... nice, actually. I think I like you.
A light wind lifted Niyus's brown hair.
- It's not every day the void tells me that...
Shaï-Thaêl turned her eyes to the clouds.
- Do you have a family?
He nodded.
- Yes. My wife... The one who kept you sealed in the necklace, remember?
- Yes... She stayed in the nearby village, right? She must be worried sick about you.
He remained silent for a moment, his gaze distant. She was right. If the fight had gone wrong, what would have happened? Would he have abandoned the one waiting for him, for another?
In his mind, Rivhiamë's voice echoed.
- Shaï-Thaêl... She's become more human than she seems. It's incredible.
- I assure you, Niyus replied in thought. She came into this world without emotion, without feelings, just as a projection of the void. And now... look at her.
- You know, that's evolution. You didn't do wrong to save her. She didn't lie. The priest's emotions... became hers. It's beautiful, really.
- Hahaha, Rivhiamë, you're really a funny demon, you know?
- Huh? What? Do you think demons are all brainless brutes who want to sow chaos?
- A bit... I read that demons can corrupt minds and force them to obey. Isn't it the right time for you to start?
- Pfff... nonsense...
And she disappeared in a vexed mental sigh.
- Wait, Rivhiamë! I was joking! Niyus called out softly, laughing.
Then he refocused. He looked at Shaï-Thaêl.
- So... you're going to discover the world?
She smiled. A red light suddenly enveloped her, soft and peaceful. Her body slowly transformed into a small crimson bird, with fine, sparkling wings.
- Yes. Goodbye, Niyus. I hope we'll meet again...
And she flew away. Toward the sky. Toward the unknown. Toward her new life.
Niyus remained still, eyes raised. The clouds stretched out, pierced by the light of a radiant sun.
He sat at the foot of a tree, a peaceful breath in his throat.
- I really should stop putting myself in so much danger... I have a wife waiting for me, after all...