Spirit Gathering: Part 2 [Legendseekers]

The inscriptions on the stone shrine began to glow gently. Every spirit present fully materialized into view, surrounding the shrine and the xyns.

Their faces were no longer aghast with apprehension, fear or longing. They seemed much calmer now.

The first spirit that had appeared was also the first to speak. “Thank… you…” they said.

“Our pleasure! What do you think the living are for?” Pantalaimon winked with a smile. “But can you tell us what happened here? What is this shrine for?”

The spirits gathered around the first one, and one-by-one, each spoke. More spirits materialized to join in their chorus, as if each sang their part of a song:

“We are memories… never forgotten… if someone sees us, and remembers…”
“We came… from different times…”
“Cleff compasses… showed the way… guided here…”
“Soul songs… sung… from all of us…”
“Shrine… led to.. A special place…”
“Many crossed…”
“Many  returned… with special gifts…”
“Many  came back again… and again…”
“Kept it safe… with magical barrier…”
“We were told… a beautiful world… beyond our own…”
“They sang songs… just like us…”
“Sang of joy… love… hope…”
“Eternity… peace… ”

Their voices fell. The first spirit stood up to sing again, and one-by-one each spirit’s voice echoed across the clearing around the shrine to whisper their beautiful song again.

“But one, day two moons fell…”
“Only one moon left…”
“Magical barrier… couldn’t remain… without power…”
“Corruption came…”
“The barrier shattered…”
“Wingfell lost…”
“Living xyns left…”
“Our shrine… overtaken…”
“Strange Corruption…”
“Unnatural… crackled like lightning…”
“Too powerful for the living…”
“Ruined everything…”
“Nothing was spared…”
“No moonlight… to protect…”
“We watched… powerless…”
“We are memories… can only do… so much…”
“Spirits… Cannot cross… the shrine…”
“Spirits… Cannot cross… the other world…”
“No living… have crossed… since the fall…”
“We hear faint songs… on the other side…”
“No joy… full of sorrow…”
“Their songs… becoming quiet…”
“Soon… silence…”
“Everything… lost to time…”
“Just like us…”
“Just like our world…”
“Fading memories… so…. Precious…”

Pantalaimon nearly stepped away, taken aback by their words. The spirits fixated their gaze on them, watching, silently. Everyone else in the crowd, Troia, Chiptune, and Bravura too, looked at them. It was of no trouble to have the living, even animals, turn their eyes on them- but it was another for memories of the past to do so themselves…

This was exactly like what Yin had told everyone when they Moongazed with the Queen herself. There absolutely was no doubt about it.

But if there was another realm that the spirits were speaking of, Yin did not see it, or tell them of it. Was it because this other realm the spirits spoke of would befall the exact same fate Lunerest would…? 

But they remembered the vision that Athens had shown them- that hauntingly beautiful song. Perhaps…

“What they are telling us must be true,” said Pantalaimon. “A xyn with Astral magic predicted a future in which I heard a beautiful melody, just like this… Perhaps, if I can cross over now… then…”