Chapter 124: Forgotten Guardians
"A-ancestors," Hauke said, his voice trembling as he saw the translucent shades of the five figures arrayed around him. Without a conscious thought, he dropped to one knee, just as he had when he visited the ancestral cave with his father so many years ago.
"My name is Hauke," he said, staring at the icy ground of the cave, unable to raise his head to meet their heavy gazes. "In the name of my father, Lord Ritchel, I apologize that no one has visited the ancestors in so long. There is no excuse," he said, lowering his head in shame.
Since his first visit to the memorial atop the island, he’d been taught that these ancient ancestors were to be respected and revered but never disturbed. All his life, he’d thought that it was all but impossible to visit them, but here he stood and they sounded so very alone.
"Good descendant," the gravelly voice said. The shade of his body was more complete than any of the others, extending from his waist to the tip of his head and including both of his arms. "The son of the current lord," it mused.
"Your father," the clear, feminine voice said. Her figure stood strangely on one leg but half of her body was missing, as though something had cleaved her in two from shoulder to waist. "Iridescent? Like you? Like me? Like us?"
"No," Hauke said with a shake of his head. "I, I’m the only one."
"Only one," the bright, crystalline voice said, sounding confused. The voice came from an apparition that appeared even younger than Hauke and was little more than a floating head and shoulders. "But, if Lytle Brōþor is only one, then..."
"Silence," the frail-voiced apparition said, interrupting the younger one. The figure speaking was stooped with age, paler, and less visible than any of the others with one hand that clutched a ghostly cane. "We decide not. He commands, we only follow," she said, pointing the tip of her cane at the tallest, most complete apparition among them.
"Impossible," the weary, heavy voice said. Unlike the others, this one seemed to possess all four of his limbs but had no torso to connect them to his floating head. "Too young, too weak, impossible."