TO CUT A TURNING TAIL

31). ONE LAST TIME: II

Everyone's still asleep. The man lying in front of Larriel is lost under ikshana. A lot of red colored graph-designed holographs are covering the sewer. Amidst these twinkling holograms is a very lively animated hologram of a woman in her mid-thirties. She looks younger than that and has a lively face. She is wearing a Nicosia gown designed in different shades of blue. A laptop in her hand and drops of falling down her eyes, "you promised me you won't waste your life. Then why are you provoking rallies? Do you want to waste it like I did? Or do you want to go out and have all the freedom?"

The hologram comes forward and hugs the man, "you have gone fatter, I am barely able to hug you. Please come back to your normal tasks and don't waste your time imposing your beliefs over others. They will contradict forever but don't blunt your energy over that. Otherwise, I'll never come back to you even if your phoenix requests me to. I know besides Randy no one was willing to come rally with you, it's just you and him who bargained this energy to everyone. But for what? Imposing the belief that someone you don't know was great? That is the most foolish thing I ever heard! Who cares! Do you even know if Aan (the blue phoenix) leads the week or strong? And do you even know what am I in reality, weak or strong? No, you don't, of course you don't! Even I don't!"

The woman throws the laptop on a plate that lies on a fictitious table next to her, "now send it back to repair!" she bellows at him with reference to the broken plate. She starts walking away from the man. "Wait!" he shouts. She turns back and harangues, "if those people want something else, let them have something else! You know what I believe, Aan and Ann (the pink phoenix) came together just to end the world where their disciples started fighting each other, I believe that that was how our world was born! They used up all their energy in bringing an end to those powerful followers so a world of normal people can exist. And our ancestors help build up that world. And if you don't even know who led whom, how can you say who is who? Maybe they were allies of creating a world. And it's been years since Zenith's end, at least stop with that as well!"

She trots to her lover and places her hand on his cheek, "don't waste your life debating who was more powerful amongst two people who someone saw in the past and started spreading stories about. And hey, let's phrase it this way, the two phoenixes survived because they didn't take part in war, they were smart in my opinion. So be the survivor and please don't waste your life like I did".

[this isn't a flashback but something that man is experiencing under ikshana. But i still used italics, please omit kind reader.]

Larriel opens her eyes, there is Ariel sitting in front of her as well, Larriel looks at Acker, he nods in approval. She makes the signs; her left wrist starts burning and as she twists her hands and makes spiders in the air with her fingers. The back fur of her robe gets an impression of the words, untied Ikshana. Everyone who was sleeping till now falls into ikshana, a vibration in the air confirms it. Acker himself falls into ikshana.

He is back to the sewer, his Shridgaar looks a lot like a feline one, it has long hair and a curvy body. It is wearing a shirt with an orange-green patched design, two swords harnessed to its back and a grin on its face though it's hung to a group of threads and looks unconscious. The grin changes to a bleak frown. Acker gets startled by this sudden change of expression. Shridgaar has a lot of wounds and there are tons of crates with "medicine" written on it but nobody is there to help Shridgaar unlock the chains or heal those bruises. Is it a boogie trap to see how empathetic Acker is?

Something similar is happening with Kamaya, his Shridgaar is wrapped to a ton of light blue threads rather than his typical metallic black ones. The Shridgaar looks very weak and is blood ridden. Scratches all over it's entire body, altogether making the look undecipherable at all costs. It is lying by the walls support at the elevated stage by the end of the sewer. Kamaya shyly smiles and looks around, "why back to this place?" he thinks. He tensely checks at his waist straps, they're meekly teared apart due to an overuse. He slowly starts walking towards Shridgaar. Its badly blood ridden and black as ashes, its eyes are visible for the first time, they are big and intimidating, suddenly, their size starts looking smaller and hooded; either way so, they look unisex.