Ode to Eternity [Eteru/Iammelon]

People often underestimate the scope of time.

It may feel like it’s slipping through their fingers. But that’s an illusion of a mind yearning for the ‘good old days’.

Time is long. So much can happen in so little time. Take a decade for instance. A ten whole years worth of time. Enough time for the paradigm to be flipped on its head. For wars to begin and end. A teen to become of age. The fabric of society to undergo rapid change.

Now, imagine two decades. Three. Four. Five. Till we reach the triple digit. This is the point that the mind struggles to comprehend what it must be like to live a full life, save for those who already had. They sit on their wicker chairs out on the front porch, watching the sunset on the horizon.

What if we were to expand the number to beyond the triple digits? Say over a millennium. What must that be like? Do they feel the same as people in their twenties who view the last ten years as a abstract cloud called ‘The Past’? Or is it something different?

Perhaps the answer will come from one individual who's lived for a very long time.

Very long.

Amongst the breathtaking canvas of stars that is Hoshizora. Is a place where someone began to open their eyes for the very first time under the radiance of these stars.

Her name is Linka’Ran. And she’s not from Hoshizora. No, she’s from across the sea of stars. A young, seemingly human woman.

Her thoughts were distracted with a plethora of emotions. One that largely dominates them is the fact that her journey came to an end. She was still comprehending that fact. Elation was beginning to take over.

She could finally [s]be free[/s] meet her mistress in the flesh. Embrace her. Kiss her. Worship her. Normally she was on top in keeping her emotions in check. But this was an extraordinary moment. So much so that when she stood up and began waking around, she didn’t notice it at first.

It didn’t register to her that she can’t sense her mistress. That the base is oddly quiet. Or how no one is coming to greet her. No, she couldn’t when she’s thinking about how far she came to reach this point.

Her last thoughts before everything turned white were the last years leading up to this. Memories like photos bleached by the sun.

There she lay on the floor, knocked out. Ready for whoever ambushed her to extract her out of there to someplace else. A location fit to contain someone like her.

Assuming the protocole, when someone begins to make a first scan of her mind to get an idea of who they’re dealing with. They get a general idea of the path she took.

She was human once. Raised in a human world they’ve never seen before. Had a large family of brothers before a great trade guy came. And they went to a shore that she can never reach. Time pass and a Star feel from the sky.

Coming to the fallen star, she discovered that it was some semi-intelligent entity named the ‘Benefactor’. It had chosen her as someone to undertake a great voyage. Linka accepted its offer.

All was well in the first decade. Then something unexpected happened. Corrupting her in the process. The one to have done this was none other than Nilana’Ran. After coming to understand how to influence the random nature of the voyage. She made it so for the next seventeen decades she was trained.

Simply put, Nilana’Ran loved her for being a source of entertainment. To use an analogy, she was her 24/7 TV channel that she could tune in to whenever she was feeling bored. At first she treated Linka like a player avatar in a video game. She would say something and Linka would do it in a heartbeat. Like ‘His monologue is annoying. Punch him in the mouth.’ and ‘Watch those wrist rockets!’

But it wasn’t always like this. No, Nilana became more of a backseat gamer as time went on, then a moviegoer who calls out ‘cliches’ and ways to solve a ‘plot line’ that she finds boring. It was when the Psion Invasion began that Nilana’Ran checked in less at an increasing frequency.

By then, Linka was already different from the raging nympho that she was centuries ago. A change that Nilana’Ran approved of for obvious reasons. However, in her arrogance she believed that Linka had been conditioned enough that she could leave her be for long stretches of time.

Nilana’Ran wasn’t there in those two ‘blocks’ that make up the last portion of her travels. Linka didn’t have her voice to comfort her in those darkest hours. And she certainly wasn’t around in the last forty years.

But Linka’Ran loves Nilana’Ran. So very much.

Nilana’Ran was her mistress. Linka’Ran is a extension of her will.

Or at least…

That’s the reason she alway gives to people who ask.

Ignoring them when they press for more. Saying that it wasn’t the reason. But something else that drives her.

A more selfish reason, one could say.

Whatever it may be, perhaps more can be learned from her through discourse. Little time have passed and she was beginning to stir awake.

The first thing she felt was the pressure. The weight equivalent of an ocean entirely resting on her mind. Everything felt like mud. Her limbs were bound. And she could feel something coursing through her veins. Likely drugs. Essentially every precaution that can be made to contain someone like her was done.

She opened her eyes, trying to make out her alien surroundings. Confusion prominent in her thoughts.

When she awoke, Linka would find she was strapped to some form of medical chair, with all her limbs restrained in some rather strong metal clasps. She had small medical tubes attached to her as well, likely to inject chemicals and medicine through. And finally, while she was firmly strapped to the chair, she was also contained in what seemed to be a large glass sphere. Various machines were attached to it, their purposes hard to specifically discern, but she could feel everything was somewhat dampened.

In fact, it was clear she was still drugged, as her sight would remain hazy, and she would not feel her fingers. Fortunately on observation, she still had her hands, but they and much more simply felt numb. Notably, her powers would not avail her either. It was too difficult to focus, to make anything happen. The machines attached to her spherical containment unit clearly had some effect, as if she stared at them she would begin to get a small headache, but there was something more to it as well. Her very mind refused to concentrate on any process to begin casting a spell, as if that information was simply blocked from being accessed.

Through her hazy vision however she would be able to see out of the cell, and though her hearing was muffled it still gave her the ability to listen. After taking a moment for her eyes to get as focused as they could get, she would be able to realize she was in some form of fancy lab. Various pieces of equipment were strewn about, sitting atop a number of desks, alongside a number of large diagrams and screens, although her vision would be too weak to make out the specifics of the words on them. But most importantly, she was not alone here.

To her left, she would hear a voice speak out, "Are you quite certain that cell will be enough? The sedatives will be able to handle her just fine, but our work isn't something we can do with an unconscious subject. And we can't keep her half-aware forever either..." This voice belonged to a jackal-like woman, who was currently working on some vials with liquids in them, seemingly mixing them together to try and make something.

Her words got a scoff from another voice, this time on the right side, "The suppressors are active and they are quite advanced, I assure you. Combined with your drugs, we can render her inert at any time we please so long as she is within the containment unit. You need not worry. And even then, those are mere backups to our main defensive mechanisms." This voice, more mechanical, belonged to a robed individual. Her voice was slightly muffled by the gasmask-like mechanism of her facemask. It was still identifiable as female, although she was seemingly a bit irritated. She was the shortest in the room, although not by much, but it was a bit difficult to discern any other features thanks to her mask and robes. She was experimenting with tools, working on a small mechanical cube. What it was specifically however was still impossible to make out.

And then, a third voice. This voice was utterly different from that of the other two, as it was not muffled by her impaired senses. It struck directly into Linka's mind, as well as those of the others in the room, "She is correct. Our greatest defense from any powers she once had is the simple fact that all the power in the galaxy means nothing if you are unable to wield it. And I have done my work well. She is disconnected from the Psion's grasp, and I have placed blockers on practically every power she could call upon. I can open them up at will, and close them again, so it will not interfere with our work, if you were worried about that." This voice belonged to easily the most alien individual in the room. He was tall, with distinctly alien appendages. And clearly, he was quite psionically powerful. Linka would get a strange feeling when looking at this one, an odd calming sensation. And yet also an amplified feeling of being watched, even as his attention was clearly elsewhere like it was now, that make her primitive human senses drift closer to a flight response.

A final voice cut through, fortunately another vocal one instead of telepathic, in a harsh tone, "All your defenses mean nothing if you three are too busy staring at your workplaces to notice that the lady's eyes are open! Observe." The final individual in the room, now pointing at Linka, was a winged woman who blended into the shadows. She was the second tallest in the room, after the odd alien, but she was also quite stealthy. It was likely that if she had not spoken, Linka's already impaired senses wouldn't have registered her presence at all. Her voice however, despite the sassy tone, betrayed her as likely the youngest in the room, still having a distinct youthful energy. Her purpose was harder to distinguish, as she wasn't doing much that Linka could see in comparison to the other two more scientific women and the psionic alien.

Regardless, everyone in the room was now aware that the one they had captured was awake. The tall alien would be the one to step forward and speak to Linka, his voice again piercing through the mist that surrounded her normal sense of hearing, "Good morning, Linka. Do not be alarmed, and try to calm yourself." His voice had shifted now to resemble something of a concerned father, and he got close to the glass to let Linka get a good look at him.

He put a hand to his chest, "My name is Envos. Do not be scared. My allies and I are only here to help you. We are your liberators, and we will free you from the shackles that currently bind your mind. This can be much easier if you are willing to help us." His aura still had that strange contradiction to it, of both waves of calm and waves of primal anxiousness, which both got stronger as he got closer. But she would feel like a small lock in her mind was opened. She had regained the ability to speak, which she would only realize at the moment it was unlocked. The power this creature had over her mind was strong. Very familiar in a way, but she would unable to place why it was so familiar. All the same, she was now at liberty to speak.

The final thing for her to notice was that although all of her magical senses were taken from her, and the machines and drugs impaired those senses of her body, she would be able to hear the faintest whispers in the very back of her mind. Somebody was trying to reach out to her, but was repulsed. This silent presence however was fully snuffed out, at least temporarily, when Envos got close.