Chapter Text
Saturn had felt it all.
From the break of dawn overshadowing the tumultuous thing in the horizon, to actually flying over it within a chorus of spirits and her own people. What felt like ages were spent on repeating that cycle, if only to reach out evenly throughout the observable land.
By her twelfth birthday, the black-caped Sky child named Saturn had completed the constellation of the realms and ascended every spirit. Their memorabilia filled her once spacious wardrobe and she had a mind to master songs that the lands had not heard of in thousands of years, despite being unable to read even the title of a partitur.
So, why was it that her most recent visit to Mother Bird's realm had the Elders absent?
----
After mulling it over since her most recent rebirth, Saturn had suspected that the Elders were, like their longsuffering subjects, tethered to the world by some sort of unfinished businesses. Though she sought out answers in the halls containing memory cubes of those she felt were closest to the Elders in life, it bore little fruit and bored her much.
Memory over memory, Saturn figured she must have spent at least a week searching for the answer to her questions. The thought of intruding the spirits' most private memories and stirring them from their peaceful rest was unsavory to her, but the urgency of the matter clouded her sense of morality.
The visiting fellow kids to the Vault helped much, reading to her what she could not relive, and even then came the tedious process of discerning which kids told lies and which told the truth.
Each answer from the spirits and each part of history she discerned led to more questions, seldom bearing an answer, until...
"Woah, there were Sky children during the time of the Kingdom?" Yekayos gasped, their sense of wonder rich in their voice.
The words of the tall and helpful friend nearly made Saturn topple over from the pile of memory cubes she had relived a dozen times. Her agility did not betray her though, as she shifted her weight and slid down to sit beside them.
"Well, the Elders and the King are basically overgrown versions of us," Saturn said with a shrug, "But I personally never knew if any more of our kind fell after them. What'cha reading, pal?"
"Uh, it's a letter from the Backflipping Champion." Yekayos waved the paper in front of Saturn's blank eyes, before flusteredly returning it to their attention. "He was writing about Sky children visiting the Citadel more often once the flying races were open. Something about... A friend inviting them?"
"Masters Samekh?"
Yekayos shook their head. "I don't think so. You said yourself they'd refer to the Elders as Masters-- Emphasis on the plural. The friend was a kid, possibly of the Sky kind."
The thought of a Sky kid inviting more of their kind to see who was fastest among them seemed common enough in present times, though Saturn giggled at the idea of a crowd raving wildly at the sight of "holy beings" acting like competitive children.
"Oooh, oooh! Saturn, get this!" Yekayos' excitement took Saturn out of her daydream. "The Champion wrote that this Brother Kurio kid invited other Sky children to fly with him! He really was a Sky child!"
"Brother? Like, a monk?" Saturn tilted her head. "What's a monk doing at a place like the Valley?"
Yekayos shrugged, answering, "Not sure... But, to think that there were Sky children even back then... I wonder if there were any of us right now who still remembered the old days."
The sound of Saturn coughing, made Yekayos jump. Their white furry vest bristled in concern, as the black-caped moth slowly turned to meet them eye to eye. Just as slowly, her eyes began to narrow in giddiness and her joy became increasingly harder to curb.
"Yekayos, you're a genius!" Saturn jumped in celebration. "All I gotta do now is to find this Brother Kurio and ask him some questions!"
"I appreciate your enthusiasm, but wouldn't finding him take up a ton of time?" Yekayos smiled, though still concerned for their little friend. "It could be like finding a needle in a haystack... Assuming the guy's not petrified at the Eye of the Storm, of course."
The effort of going through the Seven Realms killed a bit of Saturn's enthusiasm, but she quickly began to look for a solution to the idea.
"You know how the spirits tend to let us know their most profound memories, yeah?" Saturn asked, to which Yekayos nodded in confirmation, "What if the guy just tends to hang around the Valley a lot, given his history there? I just need to wait for him there, then."
"Well, true but--"
The sound of hard clay footsteps going increasingly further from them distracted Yekayos from finishing their sentence. With a sigh, they simply allowed Saturn to run off on her own and returned to their reading of the materials she had gathered.
----
Valley of Triumph.
The cold, crisp air of the realm contrasted greatly with the slight warmth of the Vault, but Saturn welcomed the change of pace; She was about to have someone who might be able to answer her countless questions, after all.
Despite her lack of vision and the winding nature of the Citadel, Saturn had no difficulty navigating around its twisting vertical pathways. The light reflected off the world around her gave her a rough yet reliable idea of where to go, though her goal was the youthful voice preaching atop the highest peaks of the grand tower before her.
"The act of flight is freedom, movement in all directions, and primarily a silent praise towards Mother Bird."
Saturn recognized those words. The Manta Whisperer's memories had those words plastered all over the events of their life, either by their own voice or the word of the Elders.
"We Sky children are blessed to have such a means to praise our Mother, but it would be much better if one remembered to honor Her as the flightless Ancestors did."
Sounds like a quiet crowd. Or nobody at all, judging by the billowing of only a single cape. Quietly, Saturn stepped off a flight of stairs and used the warm winds to rise up.
"For it is Her that allowed us to occupy the emptied Horizon, and it is Her that beckons us to return when the time is right. Isn't that right, my child?"
The black-caped moth nearly jolted as she landed next to the preaching kid. From the warmth he emitted, he stood slightly taller than her and bore the light of nine wings on his tattered cape. A shaved head, save for a fluffy 'hawk, and an attire consisting almost entirely of ripped clothing, his most distinguishing feature was the cracked mask he wore beneath a weathered helm.
This must be him.
"Are you Kurio?" Saturn asked, her blank eyes meeting his glowing ones as formality.
"That I am, my child." Kurio beamed with a smile. "Brother Kurio of the Citadel. What's your name?"
"At-- I-I mean, Saturn... From the Vault." The black-caped moth bowed, which the monk returned. "I've been looking for you... I believe you may have answers to questions I harbored for so long."
Immediately, Kurio's cheeks flushed behind his mask and he threw his hands up defensively. Saturn tilted her head in confusion at the sudden change of his behavior.
"I-I didn't break the coliseum walls, if that's what you're asking!" He stammered. "It was Yukar, I swear!"
"Yukar? What in the Bird's name are you talking about?" Saturn questioned, placing her hands on her hips, "That's not what I'm here for, dingus."
"That's Handstand-- Did you just call me dingus?" Kurio stood gobsmacked by the black-caped kid before him. "You have a foul mouth for someone so tiny."
The commentary on her height made Saturn puff her cheeks in annoyance. "You're not exactly King Resh yourself Brother, but I need help that only you are capable of giving me."
Kurio's inner light shivered at the mention of the name. That was a name he had nearly forgotten, yet there was no avoiding the terror that grips at his soul whenever he was reminded of the old King's looming presence.
"...You okay?" Saturn's question grounded him. Though she sounded annoyed, there was a hint of concern in her voice.
"...Yeah, it's just-- How did you know about... Him?" Kurio asked, lighting a triad of red candles before sitting down. "I have never met a child who still remembered him, but even then my own memory is fragmented."
Saturn joined the monk in sitting down. Deep in thought, she found comfort in the warm winds of the Citadel summits as she looked for a way to explain herself without appearing intimidating.
"I'm glad you're sitting down, because it's... A long story."
[TO BE CONTINUED]