Utopia of The Infinite [C]

The wind changed. Again.

But this time, it wasn't the kind that stung the skin or bent the trees backward. It was gentler. Circular. As if the sky were inhaling after generations of holding it's breath.

They ascended a rocky ridge, and the terrain revealed an unexpected sight. Two huge towers, both ancient and shattered. 

One stretched high into the skies, it's apex split open like a broken bone, and vines grew down it's flanks. The other leaned toward the water, partially submerged, with waves softly pounding against it's base.

"A matching pair"

Wen stated, pausing to examine the construction. 

"Built with the same core architecture… but something split them"

"Not something" Mira mumbled. 

"Someone"

They moved slowly and reverently. Even the air felt hallowed, laden with the weight of memories.

Carvings adorned the inside of the sky tower. Swirling feathers. Wind spirals.  Winged creatures are locked in arcs of motion. Auri traced one with her finger and did not speak.

Then she felt it. A subtle crush in her chest. Like an idea she hadn't had yet, waiting behind her beating.

The others also sensed it. Lyra moved ahead, her starmap crystal shining softly on her chest. 

"The sky's shaking"

Lightning flashed through the clouds, silent and white, branching like veins.  The upper tower rang like a bell as something sped through the air above them quicker than sound.

A shape appeared, enveloped in mist and current, too huge to belong to anything still alive. Wings spread wide like horizon lines, with each beat pushing the clouds into spirals.

He plummeted slowly.

An entity composed of both storm and structure. Wingtips feathered with vigor, face covered but eyes impeccably clear.

Aeris, Guardian of the Skies.

He hovered above them, wings extended, poised between light and space.

"You bring her presence"

He whispered, not audibly but directly to their brains. 

"You carry her trace"

The ocean responded.

The sea swirled in a perfect circle beneath the collapsed tower. Another figure emerged from beneath the surface, long and serpentine, covered in translucent scales that refracted light like memory.

Nerion is the Guardian of the Sea.

His look went deeper than the ocean itself. Two sides of a lost truth confront each other after lifetimes apart.

Mira stepped forward.

"You know Zephyra" she remarked softly.

Aeris dropped her wings slightly. The glow behind his eyes diminished, not with threat, but rather with sadness.

"She is my blood" he explained. 

"I have a twin. Torn from me during the storm age"

Nerion stepped near him, his voice having a deeper resonance, like waves on stone. 

"We believed her light had shattered"

A pause.

"I believed I had failed her"

Mira gulped hard. 

"You didn’t. She is alive. She found us"

The wind stopped. Absolute quiet. Then came a single sound. A faraway wail carried by the breeze.

A shadow passed over them, and a familiar shape appeared from the upper sky. Pale gold wings, a body that cut through the clouds like breath through silk.

Zephyra.

She plummeted gently, then quickly, her wings shaking. She halted in midair, only meters from Aeris, hesitant. Her body shone brighter with each wingbeat.

Aeris moved first. He soared to her effortlessly, meeting her with a rush of wind and light.

When brother and sister connected, something in the sky burst open.

The clouds separated in a wide spiral.  Energy radiated outward in concentric rings. Light pulsed across the ocean, like a heartbeat across the sea's surface. A tower of air and water rose between them, connecting sea and sky.

And in the midst of it all, the two guards hovered, unified. Whole. Sera knelt immediately, hand pushed against the ground.

"The balance" she muttered. 

"It isn't merely restored. It is remembered"

Zephyra glided down first, barely touching the ground before folding her wings. Her eyes met Mira's calm and relieved.

Aeris landed alongside her. No longer imposing or illegible. Simply...present.

"I searched for her for lifetimes" he added gently. 

"I thought time had erased her shape"

"She didn't vanish" Mira explained. 

"She waited. She protected us. Even before we learned her name"

Nerion coiled alongside them, big and silent. His voice sounded like a tidal returning.

"She hid herself in the space between storm and sea. To avoid being used again"

Auri came forward, her tone low. 

"Used by who?"

"The ones who turned weather into war" Nerion remarked. 

"The ones who thought control meant peace"

The sky shifted again, but gently this time. Zephyra extended her wings in invitation rather than defense.

Aeris leaned into her, a simple yet sacred gesture. They did not say anything after that. They did not have to.

Later, when the sun set and the towers cast a golden shadow, the girls sat near the coastline. The sea was calm. The sky is gentle.

"They weren't symbols" Lyra explained. 

"They were siblings"

"They were a loss" Mira said. 

"And now… they're found"

Wen stopped beside a flat stone carved with luminous symbols. 

"The core is stabilizing. The world is reacting to their reunion"

"Then it wasn't just about fixing the balance" Auri told me. 

"It was about healing it"

Before they went, Zephyra looked out at the water. Nerion coils around her once.  Aeris raised his head, eyes fixed on the girls.

"We do not follow orders" he stated.

Auri nodded. 

"Good. We do not give them"

"We follow the truth" Nerion added. 

"And those who remember how to hold it"

As they walked beyond the twin towers, a gentle breeze brushed against their back.

The stars above them reconfigured in slow motion. A new shape emerged. Three spirals connected in a triangle of light.

Lyra raised her hand, whispering.

"They wrote it into the sky"

And behind the cliffs, the next road opened into the depths.

Into the core.