Chapter 73
(GIN)
I did not get very far.
That is another thing I remember clearly.
When I left Pylore, I thought I would keep walking until the smoke disappeared behind me.
I didn't.
My body decided before I did.
Several hours after sunrise, I reached a stretch of forest beyond the western hills. There was a narrow stream nearby, barely deep enough to cover my ankles, and an old tree whose roots had pushed through the earth like crooked fingers.
I stopped there.
Only for a moment, I told myself.
Drink.
Wash the blood away.
Then keep moving.
I knelt beside the stream and looked at my reflection.
For several seconds, I didn't recognize the man staring back.
Ash covered half my face.
There was dried blood beneath my nose and along my neck. My hair had burned slightly on one side. One eye had swollen enough that opening it completely took effort.
I put my hands into the water.
Red moved away from my fingers.
Some of it was mine.
Most of it wasn't.
I washed again.
More red.
Again.
It didn't seem to end.
Eventually, I stopped trying.
The Beast Stone rested inside the cloth beneath my shirt.
I could feel it against my chest.
Warm.
Not hot.
Just present.
I had expected carrying something so important to feel different.
Heavier, maybe.
Instead, the Stone seemed almost weightless.
I hated that.
Pylore had died for many reasons.
The Beast Stone wasn't one of them.
As far as I knew, the army that destroyed us didn't even know it existed.
Yet here I was, carrying one of the most powerful things in the world beneath a torn shirt like stolen bread.
I leaned back against the tree.
Just for a minute.
That was what I told myself.
I don't remember closing my eyes.
I remember opening them.
And knowing immediately that I was not awake.
The forest was gone.
The tree was gone.
The pain was gone.
I stood barefoot on black earth beneath a red sky.
There was no sun.
Still, everything was visible.
The ground stretched endlessly in every direction, perfectly flat except for pools of dark liquid scattered across it.
Blood.
I knew before I touched it.
Something moved behind me.
I turned.
A beast stood several steps away.
At first, I thought it was a wolf.
Then it raised its head.
Too large.
Its shoulders nearly reached mine. Dark fur covered its body, but red markings moved beneath it like veins visible through skin. Two long horns curved backward from its skull, smooth near the base and jagged toward their ends.
Its eyes were pale.
Almost human.
It watched me without moving.
I reached toward my weapon.
There was nothing at my side.
The beast noticed.
"You do that even in dreams."
Its mouth had not moved.
The voice simply existed around me.
Low.
Calm.
Male.
I stepped back.
"What are you?"
The beast tilted its head slightly.
"That is not the question you truly want answered."
"I'll decide what I want answered."
For the first time, something resembling amusement entered its eyes.
"You are Keldor."
"I know my name."
"Yes."
The beast took one step forward.
The blood beneath its foot did not ripple.
"But you no longer know what that name means."
My hand tightened.
"If you're trying to irritate me, you're doing well."
"I am not."
"Then answer me."
It stopped.
"My name is GIN."
The word settled strangely into the space.
"I am the spirit of the Beast Stone."
I stared at it.
"The Stone has a spirit?"
"Everything that carries enough power eventually develops a will."
"That's convenient."
"You don't believe me."
"I watched my home burn last night. Forgive me if I'm not immediately trusting the talking beast inside my head."
GIN lowered himself onto his front legs.
Not submissive.
Comfortable.
"If I wished to control your mind, Jake Keldor, we would not be having this conversation."
That didn't make me feel better.
My eyes narrowed.
"You know my name."
"I know the hands carrying me."
"The Stone showed me something."
"Yes."
"Was that you?"
A pause.
"Partly."
My jaw tightened.
"What does that mean?"
GIN looked past me.
The red horizon shifted.
And suddenly I smelled smoke.
I turned.
Pylore stood behind me.
Burning.
Again.
My breath stopped.
"No."
Flames rolled across the rooftops.
The eastern gate collapsed.
People ran through the streets.
I heard screaming.
Exactly as I had heard it hours ago.
I stepped toward the village.
"Stop."
GIN remained where he was.
"I did not create this memory."
"Stop it."
"It already happened."
"I know that."
"Then why are you afraid to see it?"
I turned toward him.
"Because I was there!"
My voice tore across the empty world.
GIN did not react.
"I know."
The simplicity of the answer made something inside me snap.
"You know?"
I pointed toward the burning village.
"Then you know what they did."
"Yes."
"You know how many people died."
"Yes."
"You know that Liora…"
Her name stopped in my throat.
GIN's eyes remained on me.
"I know what you believe happened to her."
I didn't notice the wording.
Not then.
I was too tired.
Too angry.
Too empty.
I looked toward Pylore again.
The flames had reached the training field.
Victor wasn't there.
Of course he wasn't.
My fists tightened.
GIN spoke again.
"I don't like war."
I laughed.
It came out ugly.
"You're a Blood Beast."
"Yes."
"Your kind fought the Souls for generations."
"Yes."
"And you're telling me you don't like war?"
"Do you believe every human enjoys what happened to your village?"
I didn't answer.
GIN continued.
"My kind has killed. Your kind has killed. Souls have killed. Kings have killed. Clans have killed. The shape of the body changes very little."
He looked toward Pylore.
"The reason remains remarkably similar."
"Power."
"Fear."
"Land."
"Pride."
"Survival."
His gaze returned to me.
"And afterward, everyone explains why their killing was necessary."
The fires vanished.
Pylore disappeared with them.
The black field returned.
GIN rose.
"You lost everything because powerful people wanted a world shaped according to their desires."
I felt the Beast Stone against my chest even though my body wasn't truly there.
"My clan."
"Yes."
"My home."
"Yes."
"Liora."
GIN was silent for a moment.
Then he said, "Yes."
"And Victor wasn't even there."
There it was.
The bitterness.
I hadn't intended to say his name.
GIN heard it anyway.
"He chose another battlefield."
"He chose a king."
"He believed he was protecting something larger."
"Don't defend him."
"I am not."
GIN walked past me.
I turned to follow him.
"You hate him."
I said nothing.
"You love him too."
"Shut up."
"That is why hatred hurts."
I stepped toward him.
"I said shut up."
GIN stopped.
For the first time, his voice became softer.
"He was your brother in every way except blood."
I couldn't breathe properly.
"And Liora?"
My eyes lowered.
"What about her?"
"You never decided what she was to you."
My head snapped toward him.
"Don't."
"You had time."
"Don't talk about her."
"You assumed you would always have more."
I moved before thinking.
My fist struck GIN across the face.
Or tried to.
My hand passed through him.
His body became red mist for an instant before reforming.
I stumbled forward.
GIN did not retaliate.
He simply watched.
"You are angry because I am wrong?"
He paused.
"Or because you know I am not?"
I stared at the ground.
I didn't know what Liora had been to me.
Friend.
Family.
Something else.
I had never needed to choose.
There had always been tomorrow.
A mission tomorrow.
A meal tomorrow.
An argument tomorrow.
Another chance to say something tomorrow.
Until there wasn't.
GIN walked around me.
"Humans worship time as if it has promised them anything."
I closed my eyes.
"What do you want?"
At last, the question that mattered.
GIN stopped.
"Nothing."
I looked at him.
"I don't believe you."
"You should not."
At least he was honest.
GIN sat again.
"I want the Stones reunited."
My body went still.
"The Beast Stone."
"Yes."
"The Life Stone."
"Yes."
"And the Soul Stone."
"Yes."
I remembered Dominus's stories.
Kelma.
The Origin Stone.
Three worlds born from one.
"You want to undo what Kelma did."
GIN's expression became unreadable.
"I want to correct what division failed to solve."
"He separated the worlds to stop a war."
"And did war stop?"
I looked away.
GIN continued.
"The Human World fights itself."
"The Beast World fights itself."
"The Soul World fights itself."
"Separation changed where conflict occurred. It did not remove the reason conflict exists."
The black ground beneath us began to shine.
Three lights appeared in the distance.
One green.
One crimson.
One pale white.
They rose slowly into the red sky.
The Stones.
Or images of them.
"The Origin Stone was divided," GIN said. "Its authority became incomplete."
The three lights moved toward one another.
"If one person gathers all three and combines their power, the authority becomes whole again."
My eyes followed them.
"What authority?"
"To shape the worlds."
The lights touched.
The sky changed.
Red became blue.
The black ground beneath my feet turned green.
Grass spread in every direction.
Mountains rose from distant plains.
Rivers carved themselves through land that had not existed a moment earlier.
Then people appeared.
Humans.
Souls.
Beasts.
Together.
I took a slow step forward.
"What is this?"
"A possibility."
There were no walls.
No armies.
No banners.
Children ran beside creatures I had only seen drawn in Keldor records.
Souls walked among living people without fear.
Nobody attacked them.
Nobody reached for weapons.
I saw markets where all three worlds traded.
Fields stretching beyond the horizon.
Cities without fortifications.
No border towers.
No soldiers standing at gates.
No graves beside roads.
GIN walked beside me.
"One world."
I looked around.
"That's impossible."
"You are carrying impossibility beneath your clothes."
I had no answer.
The scene changed.
A village appeared ahead.
My legs stopped.
Pylore.
Not destroyed.
Not repaired.
Exactly as I remembered it.
Before Victor left.
Before Dominus died.
Before everything changed.
The western well was whole.
The market was crowded.
Someone shouted over the price of grain.
Children ran between the houses.
I heard a familiar laugh.
My heart stopped.
Liora stood near the training ground.
Alive.
She turned.
Saw me.
And smiled.
"Jake?"
I couldn't move.
It sounded like her.
Not an imitation.
Her.
She walked toward me.
"You're late."
My eyes burned.
GIN's voice came from somewhere behind me.
"It could be like this."
Liora stopped in front of me.
I wanted to touch her.
I was terrified to.
My hand rose anyway.
My fingers reached her cheek.
Warm.
I broke.
Not loudly.
My shoulders simply gave way.
I pulled her into my arms.
She laughed softly.
"What happened to you?"
I couldn't answer.
I held tighter.
Then another voice came from behind her.
"Seriously?"
I froze.
Victor stood several steps away.
Younger.
Smiling.
The way he used to smile before Dominus's funeral.
The Sun Sword wasn't at his side.
He folded his arms.
"You disappear for one morning and come back crying?"
I stared at him.
Victor grinned.
"You look terrible."
I laughed.
Actually laughed.
I hadn't thought I still could.
Liora stepped away from me.
Victor approached.
I wanted to hit him.
I wanted to hug him.
I did neither.
"You idiot," I whispered.
Victor frowned.
"What did I do?"
Everything.
Nothing.
Both.
Behind him, Dominus stepped out from the Aran grounds.
Alive.
People filled the streets.
Every face I had seen lying beneath smoke and ash was here.
Walking.
Talking.
Living.
My clan elder passed me carrying a bundle of training weapons.
He stopped.
"You took your time."
My throat tightened.
"This isn't real."
GIN appeared beside me.
"No."
The village continued around us.
I looked at him.
"Then why show me?"
"Because it can become real."
I stared.
GIN's pale eyes did not leave mine.
"Not this exact past."
Something in me sank.
"But a world where you never lose people to violence again."
The scene expanded.
Pylore became one small part of something enormous.
Cities.
Forests.
Soul lands.
Beast territories.
All connected.
And then darker shapes appeared among them.
Men raising weapons.
Beasts lunging toward civilians.
Souls gathering power to attack.
Every violent figure froze.
Then vanished.
No blood.
No screams.
Gone.
The peaceful remained.
I watched families continue walking as though nothing had happened.
"What happened to them?"
GIN answered calmly.
"They were removed."
"Removed where?"
"Does that matter?"
I looked at him.
"Yes."
"Then you are still thinking like someone raised in an imperfect world."
His tone was not cruel.
That made it worse.
"In a peaceful world, Jake, those who exist only to destroy peace cannot be allowed to continue destroying it."
I remembered the soldiers in Pylore.
The man whose blade nearly took my hand.
The arrows.
The burning houses.
The dead children.
My jaw tightened.
GIN moved closer.
"You know this already."
"People can change."
"Some."
"Then who decides who doesn't get that chance?"
GIN's eyes settled on mine.
"You."
I said nothing.
"You will hold the authority."
The world around us shifted in response to his words.
A throne did not appear.
A crown did not fall onto my head.
GIN was smarter than that.
Instead, I saw myself standing in an ordinary field.
Nothing grand.
Before me were families.
Behind me, the three Stones burned like stars.
"No king," GIN said.
"No clan elder."
"No Soul King."
"No Beast ruler."
"No one above you deciding whose suffering is acceptable for a greater future."
Victor appeared in the distance.
Older this time.
At peace.
Liora stood beside him.
She was alive.
I walked toward them.
GIN's voice followed me.
"You could give him the peace he tried to create."
Victor looked at me and smiled.
No anger.
No distance.
No king calling him away.
"You could give Liora the life she was denied."
She reached for my hand.
I let her take it.
"And you could finally have what you wanted."
I looked at her.
"What did I want?"
GIN's answer came quietly.
"Home."
The word hurt more than everything else.
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, Pylore remained.
Victor remained.
Liora remained.
This time, I understood the offer.
Not resurrection.
Not exactly.
Control.
Enough power to create a world where the things I loved could exist without anyone being able to take them away.
A perfect world.
My perfect world.
I looked at GIN.
"What do you get?"
His expression shifted slightly.
Perhaps approval.
Perhaps he had been waiting for me to ask.
"The worlds become whole."
"That's all?"
"For now."
I almost smiled.
"At least you're still suspicious."
"I'd be disappointed if grief made you stupid."
I looked toward Victor and Liora.
"What happens if I collect the Stones?"
"You combine their authority."
"And then?"
"You decide."
"Who lives?"
"Yes."
"Who doesn't?"
"Yes."
"What kind of world remains?"
"Yes."
My stomach tightened.
It should have sounded horrifying.
Maybe on another day it would have.
But I had just walked through a village filled with people who had not been allowed to decide whether they lived.
Kings had decided.
Generals had decided.
Soldiers had decided.
War had decided.
Maybe the world had always belonged to whoever possessed enough power to force their decision onto everyone else.
At least I knew what I would choose.
Peace.
GIN stepped beside me.
"You would not need to rule them."
"What?"
"You misunderstand control."
The landscape changed again.
People lived.
Worked.
Loved.
Argued.
Built homes.
Children grew.
No one bowed toward me.
Most did not even know I existed.
"You could create the conditions," GIN said. "Then allow peaceful people to live within them."
"No wars."
"No wars."
"No massacres."
"No massacres."
"No one losing their home because two rulers want the same land."
"Never again."
I looked toward Liora.
She smiled at something Victor said.
The sight hurt.
"You can give yourself back to them?" I asked.
GIN corrected me.
"I can show you the path toward a world where loss does not control you."
I turned toward him.
"And the price?"
"Find the Stones."
"That's not the price."
For the first time, GIN smiled.
A Blood Beast smiling should have looked monstrous.
Instead, it looked almost tired.
"The price is that the world will hate you before it understands you."
I thought about Pylore.
"They already destroyed everything I cared about."
"Then what remains for them to threaten?"
Silence.
GIN came closer.
"You are afraid that wanting this makes you cruel."
I looked at him.
"It probably does."
"No."
His voice hardened for the first time.
"Cruelty is watching suffering repeat because changing the system would require dirty hands."
The words struck somewhere deep.
Victor had chosen the future.
He had killed for peace.
The king had killed for unity.
Everyone claimed blood was necessary when they wanted to build something better.
So what made their dream acceptable and mine monstrous?
Because mine was larger?
Because I intended to finish what they only attempted?
I looked at my hands.
They were clean in the dream.
I could still see the blood.
"What if I become the same as them?"
GIN answered immediately.
"Then remember Pylore."
The village appeared around me again.
"Remember why you started."
Liora stood beneath the afternoon sun.
Victor was arguing with her.
Dominus laughed nearby.
My clan was alive.
GIN's voice softened.
"You do not want conquest."
"No."
"You do not want wealth."
"No."
"You do not want worship."
"No."
"What do you want?"
I watched them.
My answer came before I could think about it.
"I want this."
GIN waited.
I swallowed.
"I want people to stop taking everything from each other."
The Beast Stone began glowing beneath my chest.
Even inside the dream, I felt its heat.
GIN lowered his head.
"Then make a contract with me."
I looked at him.
"What kind?"
"I will lend you the Beast Stone's guidance."
"And in return?"
"You will gather the other Stones."
"Life and Soul."
"Yes."
"And when I have all three?"
"You will unite their power."
The air around us trembled.
"And you will build the world you believe should exist."
I stared at his offered paw.
It seemed absurd.
A pact that could decide the fate of worlds beginning with something so simple.
I hesitated.
Not because I suddenly saw the danger.
I wish I could say I did.
I hesitated because I looked at Liora one more time.
She was talking to Victor.
Victor said something stupid.
She struck his shoulder.
He laughed.
I could hear it.
Exactly as I remembered.
Maybe I knew GIN was manipulating me.
Maybe some part of me understood that he was placing every wound in front of me and offering himself as the answer.
But manipulation only works when the lie is stronger than the truth.
GIN didn't need to lie much.
Pylore really was gone.
My people really were dead.
Victor really had chosen the king's war.
I really had walked away believing Liora was buried beneath a ruined building.
And I really would have done almost anything to never feel that helpless again.
I knelt.
My hand rested against GIN's paw.
The Beast Stone burned.
Not painfully.
Deeply.
Something passed through my arm, spread across my chest and settled behind my heart.
GIN's eyes glowed crimson.
"Then our contract is made."
The world shattered.
I woke beneath the tree.
Night had fallen.
For several seconds, I couldn't remember where I was.
Then my body hurt again.
The cuts.
The bruises.
The exhaustion.
The ruined clothes.
Everything returned.
I sat up slowly.
The forest was quiet.
The stream continued moving beside me.
Pylore's smoke was no longer visible through the trees.
My hand moved beneath my shirt.
The Beast Stone was warm.
This time, when I touched it, something touched back.
Not physically.
A presence.
GIN.
I closed my eyes.
Liora's face appeared immediately.
Then Victor's.
Then Pylore.
Whole.
I opened my eyes.
"Life Stone."
The forest gave no answer.
"Soul Stone."
Still nothing.
I stood.
My legs were unsteady, but they held.
I did not know where either Stone was.
I did not know how long finding them would take.
I did not know how many people would stand in my way.
But for the first time since leaving Pylore, I knew where I was going.
I placed the Beast Stone securely against my chest.
Then started walking.
Behind my eyes, GIN's promise remained.
One world.
No war.
No one strong enough to take another person's home.
Victor smiling again.
Liora alive.
Everything where it belonged.
I told myself I was going to create peace.
Years later, I would understand how dangerous that sentence could become.
That night, I believed it completely.