Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading our tale to the very end. After all of Sryine’s prompting, I felt like it would be my responsibility to ensure there was an accurate record of everything we had gone through to bring our world forward into the future. If we were going to open the path to the stars, there would need to be records left behind, both in the world we were moving away from and to wherever our future would pave us towards. I expect a record like this could then travel an unforeseen distance too, far greater than I could imagine right now.. there is no telling where this story could end up, maybe even beyond the reach of the veil? I guess that might be impossible, but really the future is so uncertain right now, it’s hard to be so confident in any predictions. Leaving Celese behind, there is no telling what there is to find once we travel beyond.

Technically, at this point, we’ve actually been a bit beyond, travelling so far as the moon and back again successfully. It had taken us three years of work after losing Liyuzhe, but we finally made it. Since then, we’ve made even more progress, everything is almost ready for us to go, we’re only about a lunar cycle or two away from being ready to leave the world for good. For having only five years of memories, the anniversary of the fifth year having just passed today actually, that’s probably pretty impressive, but I really can’t assume all of the credit for such work. Without the help of all my friends, those closest to me, those who took us in when we were barely able to take care of ourselves, and those who are now lost to us.. without everyone, such a vision would remain simply a fleeting dream instead of a reality. It is true, all of life is truly precious.

Sryine has been the one bugging me the whole time, pushing me to keep making such records, and yet she still slips up on occasion with her typical witty remarks. Something about such a story of essences being essential, about how our strong destructive feelings were held in animus while animating our otherwise fallen selves. Maybe that was where she had gotten the idea for such a name, Essentia Animus, though I haven’t the faintest where she might have gotten the idea from. If I had to guess, I would have to assume she had probably been inspired by those books she reads from the Terran Mythos or something. In truth, having finished records of everything, it isn’t hard to see this as being yet another tale to add to the mythos, the whole thing rightfully seeming unbelievable for anyone who might not have lived it for themselves.

It hasn’t been as if the time has passed with all of our attention invested in reaching the stars, everything has actually remained busy in other ways as well. Sryine herself had needed to spend a lot of time away as things stood, and not just making a business case for all of our accomplishments. Having successfully started a family of her own though, we did at least learn that our traces of the flame will end with our lives, the flame not being passed down to any descendents. That would be for the best, it would be much better for people to live regular lives untainted by the source. Even without a flame, it was all too obvious that Sryine’s son will still grow up capable of accomplishing whatever dreams he might someday face. I also expect Sryine won’t be alone in her parental responsibilities for too much longer, Vwyx’s own wedding having recently gone very well. Vwyx’s descendents would certainly also carry on that family legacy too, even if such a child didn’t share the family appreciation for instruments.

Instrumentation had changed immensely in such a short time too, because of our efforts. Instead of having a ton of gift-powered instruments causing problems for people, things were now running off of the elements instead. The easiest element to harness for such a purpose still remained fire, its flame fully capable of being harnessed to shape and control the other elements. From table lamps to community trains, everything now appeared to be manipulated using an elemental converter crystal. The cell I’ve got now is even flame-powered too, no longer then depending on having any focus invested upon it, a fact Vwyx’s husband has been countlessly thankful for.

Such was not the only place Vwyx had invested her attention when it came to cell innovation. Schorlwood Village itself was now part of the same communication network, all in a massive project to advance the village into the modern age. The rough winter the village was left with, the serious amount of help they needed to deal with the massive risk of starvation, it was enough to make them realize that change was needed. Sryine’s brother had been at the forefront of that change, himself finally getting the mantle of leadership passed down to him, though it has been Vwyx’s sister who had become the village’s lead expert in the adoption of instrumentation into their lives. Really, I can so totally see the impacts left upon those two from their siblings.

Vwyx actually hadn’t stopped there either. With my time so completely devoted towards research, both in star travel and in elemental manipulation in place of the gift, I actually was left with little opportunity to devote towards the hunters. To compensate for my absence, Vwyx actually took over full authority over the hunters, becoming a true member of their group too in the process. However, she had been so efficient in her work, she had actually ran them out of a purpose. It only took two or three years for her to completely obliterate any remaining beast presence, and normal wildlife had since taken their place in the mountains. I really expect it was a long term exposure to residues of the flame that had changed the original wildlife into such beasts, but such knowledge was then enough to ensure the fire mountain would be watched, to ensure no more mistakes in the future.

I had really honestly expected at first that I would be travelling the stars on my own, because bringing people into such an unknown would be too much for anyone who didn’t share such a vision, but I guess it hasn’t just been Vwyx and Sryine who have left their impact on others. Even with the idea of starting a new family, both girls were saying that it would be important to bring life along with me, to discover a new expansion for society, and there was no way I could do that without them. Thus, they would come too. Not just them, but all of the hunters decided that this was just the next expansion of their responsibilities, they would simply become hunters for a new world. It didn’t just end there, the simple inspiration and idea of reaching out beyond, of being a part of this change, attracted the attention of thousands, millions. I actually had to consider evaluating who I couldn’t bring with me, instead of who I might be able to go with.

The growing demand for a place to contain a growing population brought a challenge of its own, our current idea being far too low capacity for such requirements. In the end, we actually had to start remodelling the fortress itself into a giant space colony, the only thing on hand that was large enough to contain such a massive sample of civilization. Both Sryine and Vwyx really didn’t like this idea, but when left with the only alternative of not coming along.. such concerns became a bit more fleeting in comparison. I had actually found the storage capacity of the place to be amazing, enough to hold a small city comfortably enough.. even if the layout remained perplexing. There were even a lot of oddly portioned storage containers through many of the halls that were perfect for storing ersatz into.. like they were designed to hold something inanimate but shaped like a person. The whole thing was so self-contained, I couldn’t think of anything more perfect, and it was something Liyuzhe had left for us.

Liyuzhe and the others.. we had managed to arrange for a funeral for all three of them.. even if it had taken a while to get everything organized. We had even taken the time to track down the family of both Ieqyisa and Fhyernx, though Liyuzhe herself had nothing at all. It was strange, having no records of Liyuzhe’s family show up like that. Liyuzhe had always been a bit of a rogue, but it was suspicious that she still had nothing at all. Since there wasn’t anyone else there for her, I made sure to represent her myself at the funeral.. somehow that just felt right. Friends count as family, right? All three of them got some of the credit for our discovery in processing elements for instrumentation, it was their motivation that made everything happen, after all. Besides, having failed to save the three of them, I owed them at least the accomplishments of their greatest dream.

But on the matter of not knowing family, I also realized that the flaws of my memories would also mean not knowing some of my own heritage. Sure, Khyzae is only a part of myself, but that still counts, and it’s not like I could research it later. I found a family book covering the whole family tree thing, though I was drawn somehow to a certain strange blank section of the tree, starting about three generations prior. It was like someone just forgot to fill in the details there, like things had been lost to time. The strangest part was when I just felt naturally compelled to write in a crescent moon into that blank, like it was something important for future generations to find. Such strange compulsions were actually weird, I could only hope I didn’t subconsciously fill in anything similar into the records of our accomplishments too. It was like I was keeping secrets from even myself or something.. definitely not something that would be beyond me. Khyzae had always been like that, and even if she was still alive within me.. or had left me to carry on without her.. that was still one thing that would always remain a part of me.

On that note, Khyzae was always someone who made sure to plan for the future, so I should be certain to note some of my own ideas in that area. Celese is in for another dramatic shift, with new options available thanks to such new discoveries.. but all of that is stuff I’ll be leaving behind. Making use of the flame I’ve still carried within me, my body still even glowing purple from the flame those many years ago, our voyage to the stars will be with sufficient supplies to bring life to such a distant horizon. Vwyx has made sure I don’t underestimate the journey though, the cold of space and everything. Certainly, she’s demonstrated the potential of the frost well enough, I’m not going to doubt the threat possible from its chill. Even accounting for such, the flame we bring will certainly last until we can arrive at our destination, even if it is going to be a star cluster or two away. That’s going to make for a really really long journey, one that might not even end within my lifetime, but I’ll still bring with me all the fuel we will need to forge even life in desolation. We’ve always been told that our flame was destined to destroy worlds, but I’ve always been certain that this feature was reversible. Rather than bring destruction to a world with life, I dream of the opportunity to bring life to a world of destruction. Really, with my friends at my side, I even think such a thing is all too possible.

Khyzaxliehriyxia Ymheqxhya