Chapter fourteen: The Revelation of us

My vision is-it looks like everything is scratched up. I can barely make out anything with this... Who's that in front of me? They have short blonde hair and blue eyes... Mom?... Whose hands are reaching out to her? They look so small-like an infant...

The darkness consumes me again-but-I feel awake this time, conscious... Someone is breathing, I think that's me-it's so quiet here... A fuzzy screen appears in front of me. It takes me a while to understand what's happening on the screen. I can see the sky darkening and flashes of black slash around. What's going on here?

"My, you're putting up quite the fit there child."

My head turns to the familiar voice of Vensen as he walks over to me. I feel like I should be cross with him, no, more like pure wrath, but for some reason, I feel so calm. What happened?

He brings my attention back to the screen as he speaks, "Getting your tsavi to work was a little more difficult than I anticipated, took me about four times, but at least this last visit did the trick. Supposedly, that's a sign for a stalwart person, a strong person in other words."

"I'm sorry, my what?"

"Your tsavi," he takes a moment to think of a way on how to answer me as he releases a blank-minded sigh. Vensen then directs me to the screen to show something new.

I see-myself-screaming; murky soulless eyes, and blackness just destroying what's left of Erekinxon around me. "How-"

"That's your tsavi being awoken for the first time," he explains by interrupting me.

I look at him still confused about this.

"Tsavi is a blood trait that connects the void with your entire being. You could say it acts much like a bridge. At the moment, your body and soul are two separate entities, which would explain your collectivity here. The two of us are a couple of spirits standing here in the void."

"Wait, may I ask a couple of questions?" He makes less sense than Kakashin-kan, at least that guy didn't make up words like tsavi.

He looks to me with soft eyes and a calming smile, almost like a father would to his kin, and then speaks to me with a charming tone, "Of course child."

His sudden change in personality almost stuns me, but I go on with my questions. "You said there were four particular instances when you tried to help me activate this- 'tsavi,' but I only remember encountering you three times." I count off the visits with my fingers as I say them out loud, "There was the time when you were at my lav with Kakashin-kan, then you came to kai and fought us, and lastly was this visit; I think." My memories might be starting to come back a little. "My second questions is about what you just said with having a blood trait; what do you mean by that?"

He just continues his human-like and gentle stare at me. "If you let me finish, then some of your questions may be answered."

I see that he still has that jerk side to him. He has my attention and I quiet myself for him to speak.

Vensen goes on, "This blood trait for tsavi is very crucial and quite uncommon, so rare that it only formulates within members of one particular family, the Stuki clan."

The realization smacks me in the face and I try to exclaim it, "Wait, does that mean-"

"You and I are members of this family, Vila."

I can't believe it; I'm related to this-person!?

"Vila," his deep voice has a demeanor of a father having a serious discussion with his offspring now, "This family is not exactly made up of humans."

"What do you mean?"

He looks away as he contemplates some more for his words. "I am the one who started this clan, which means all the members have my blood flowing within them, I am the head." Another pause impedes his speech before he continues, "I guess a way to put it is-I am the manifestation of the void, the place where we stand at this moment."

"Okay?" I elongate my word while I'm still not getting this.

"I am the void, and the void is nothing."

"So-you're nothing?"

Vensen turns back to me with a new aura of excitement to teach like a professor. "Those who are conscious of themselves and others aware of them exist. If I was nothing then neither you nor I would be aware of me."

"What?" This guy's a loon.

He creeps up closer to me to get his point across. "Acknowledging that I am nothing gives me the power to be anything."

Okay, I guess that made a little sense... I think I'm connecting some pieces here. "So-you're the void, the void is nothing, but you are aware of yourself so you become something, and we're related; so that means I can also be the void, which means I can be anything too?"

Vensen stands straight and goes back to his serious self. "To an extent. Unlike me, you have some human blood flowing through your veins from your father, and your mother was born of me."

"My father, so does that make me a half-breed?"

His voice stays slow and calm, "Don't be alarmed my dear, everyone in the family has a certain amount of human blood inside of them, everyone except me."

We both stare at each other and I feel a sense of empathy creep into my being before he says more without his kind grin.

"In order to reproduce, I needed a sample of a human in my offspring by-" He stops himself from giving up too much information that would probably bewilder me even more. "It's a-complicated process..." His smile returns with his compassion as he dictates the subject again, "Let's get back on track shall we? I can be anything, yes?" He then starts to list off the things he can possibly be at a quick pace, "I can be a man, a dragon, an ant, a table, a cow, even a mountain-"

"A floating piece of cheese?" I interrupt, wanting to have some fun.

He pauses to look at me with his frozen happy face. "Uh, yes, I suppose." Then a comforting chuckle from his lips causes his broad shoulders to rattle.

A giggle forces its way out of me as well until I start to think over the concept again. He can be anything. This is when I start to truly examine his figure in detail... He looks awfully a lot like that thing I saw when I fell from the hill back in Kai. That reminds me of the wound I'm pretty sure I got from the fall. I feel the back of my head and notice that it doesn't hurt anymore, like it never happened. Can he be a thought as well, a hallucination? I remember feeling someone push me down that hill; who was that anyway? No wait, I recognize those features from before then. His thin and tall figure. His charming aura. "Vensen..." The words slip out of my mouth slowly like molasses.

His smile dims as a preparation, like he knows what I'm going to say. "Yes dear?"

I'm not sure how I should even say this. "Can you-be dead?"

A reassuring smile appears on his face. "Of course my child, I never even had my own soul to begin with."

It's all coming back to me now. My eyes widen to the realization as a look of guilt befalls his face. I barely manage to utter the one word I thought I would never have to say again,

"Gonma?"