The Forsaken Hero

Our room was small and cramped, with two small beds and a single large wardrobe. The two widows were shuttered, leaving it lit by only a single light crystal in the ceiling that left it feeling dim and gloomy. The moment the door was shut, I waved my staff, and the shadows recoiled as a shimmering circle flared open. Fable burst through the portal in a dance of starlight, filling the small room with his presence.

My lips parted, a relieved sigh on the edge of my breath, but my lungs hitched as his eyes locked with mine. Before I could protest, he pounced toward me, a joyous whirlwind of silver and starlight. I barely had time to flee to a bed before he pinned me down with a massive paw, the tips of his fur brushing my skin, sending tingles racing through. It felt rough and sudden, yet somehow gentle, and his assault avoided igniting the Sunpurge.

I should have been ready, yet I still squeaked as his rough, wet tongue rasped across my cheek. Korra’s laughter echoed from her bed, where she sat watching the show with an envious expression.

”Aren’t you glad to see me too?” She asked, swallowing another fit of giggles.

Fable paused, raising his head just enough to give her a sideways glance. I used the distraction to squirm free of his smothering weight and wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him tight. He let out a soft, happy whine as I buried my face in his fur, but that was far from my mind. He couldn’t lick me if I did that, right? Also, we had only been gone for a few hours, yet I couldn’t bring myself to let go yet. Fable’s presence and bond were close and comforting, and my eyes grew wet as I rubbed my cheek against his fur.

”I’m glad you’re here,” I whispered, then drew back to meet his golden gaze. ”But a little warning next time?”

Some of my vulnerability must have leaked because he didn’t lick me again. His head tilted with a low whine, and he nuzzled my cheek with his nose. Once I was satisfied he was finished greeting me, I let him curl onto the bed and leaned against him, looking at Korra.

”Feel better?” she asked, lips curving in a playful smile.

My tail twitched, but I kept my composure and nodded. ”Yeah. It’s hard to be unable to understand anything, especially when we’re so far into dangerous territory. And just having him here...” I trailed off, stroking Fable’s neck with an idle hand.

She nodded slowly, her eyes not leaving the silver wolf. ”And why is that?”

”Hmm?” I tilted my head in confusion. ”Why is what?”

She rolled her eyes, the sign that it should be obvious, and I colored slightly. ”Why is it that you can use the heroic blessing of Tongues when Fable is nearby? If anything, shouldn’t it be your staff that enables it? That’s the thing that carries Fate’s divinity, right?”

I blinked. ”Oh, that’s because...I mean, you know...” My tail flicked across the sheets as I came to the realization that I had no idea, so how could she? When I first discovered the phenomenon, I’d been too relieved to find a friend and be able to understand everyone I didn’t linger on it. Now, months later, it had resolved into something that simply was, as normal and unremarkable as the sky, or my ability to see mana.

”I...I think I lost everything when Fate fell. The starless night...” I muttered sadly, rubbing my horn. ”When I was freed, I couldn’t understand anything other than the language the Beast Kingdom used, just like before I was awakened. When Fable found me, I could understand and speak anything again.”

”And you have no idea why?”

I shook my head, and she pursed her lips, thinking. After a few seconds, her eyes lit up.

”Just out of curiosity, what was Fable like before you healed his corruption?”

I glanced down at my wolf, smiling faintly at the memory. ”That was the first time I ever managed to cure someone’s corruption. Well, cure isn’t the right word. He still had the horns and-” My jaw clicked shut as my eyes widened in shock. I reached out and laid a tentative hand on Fable’s horn, stroking it softly. ”No, no he didn’t. He was just a regular wolf. I had no idea what I was doing with his soul, but the only reason I managed to succeed was because there wasn’t any permanent damage yet. Levin was the first soul I managed to heal scars on. So why...?”

”...does he have horns?” Korra finished, looking at him thoughtfully. ”I’ve always thought they were a little off, not like most infernal monsters. If anything, they resemble yours, Xiviyah. Almost exactly, in fact. Just like his eyes.”

I nodded slowly, fingered playing over my wolf’s silver fur. Sensing our gaze, Fable yawned wide and opened a single, golden eye, staring at Korra first, then rolling up to stare at me.

”How exactly did you heal him?”

I rubbed my forehead, thinking back long and hard. ”I tried a whole bunch of different spells, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, I just kind of filtered the infernal mana out. It wasn’t very efficient, and I improved the technique before using it after the Ice Gate, to heal the Last Light Company.”

Korra stared at me, eyes questioning as much her words. ”You ’filtered’ it out? How?”

I shrank back from her intensity, swallowing hard before answering. ”I just took his mana in my soul and purified the infernal taint out by cycling it through and replacing it with my own.”

Her eyes widened in shock. ”You replaced Fable’s mana with your own? Is that even possible? How the hell did he survive that?”

”I...I don’t know. Now that I think of it, we almost didn’t. There was a second where both of our identities blurred together, when I was him and he was me. We survived more from luck than anything, and when I improved the spell, I came up with a way to purify the infernal mana without bringing it into my soul.”

”That answers a lot of questions,” she breathed. ”But there’s another thing we need to be sure of. What happened when Fate fell?”

It was a hard question, forcing me to relive the horrors of that day. Tears gathered in my eyes as I recalled the intense sorrow I felt shortly before she appeared, when I cried tears that weren’t my own. There had been such a great sense of loss, overwhelming any mortal emotion I’d ever experienced. I’d lost a part of then, a shadow on my heart that hadn’t been lifted until I embraced Fable for the first time. But was it really just my heart that was wounded?

”That’s not possible! She’d never do that to me!” I sobbed, my voice cracked and trembling. ”She wouldn’t cut me off! She wouldn’t!”

”Xiviyah, it’s alright,” Korra said soothingly. ”I think Fate did what she had to. In my status, I have the title of ’Fallen Hero,’ which still allows me to access things like Tongues and the rapid recovery of a hero. But you don’t. It gave your title as ’Forsaken Hero,’ remember? Forsaken, without love or support. Who do you think forsook you?”

I shook my head, sending curls of crimson bouncing around my shoulders. ”Why though? Why would she do that? Why did she leave me all alone?”

”I think she had to,” Korra answered slowly. ”I don’t pretend to understand it all, but she might have foreseen them putting a usurper in her place. If you had still been a hero, he would have owned you, in a sense, but more importantly–”

”My staff,” I said, staring down at the crystalline staff leaning against my bed. ”She put the Fate divinity into the staff and cut me loose so they wouldn’t be able to have it.”

”I think so,” she agreed. ”But back to what I was thinking. If she really cut you off, that means she altered your soul to remove the heroic title, right?”

”And with it my abilities,” I said, nodding.

She took a short, excited breath. I was beginning to get an idea of what she was saying, but it was almost too preposterous to even say.

Yet she said it anyway. ”Then you must have literally overwritten Fable’s soul with your own. Your soul before it lost the blessings. That’s why he grew horns and a tail. That would explain his strange Fate powers and the link you two share. What’s more, is that he bears your soul before the Soul Binder was ripped out and your soul shredded beyond understanding. He’s like a picture, a reference, of the original model!”

Her words set my heart pounding, threatening to break out of my ribcage. My hand fell still on Fable’s head, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind. I hesitated to look at him, to really look at him, but when I did, the truth was evident, so clear I wondered why I hadn’t seen it before. It took a fresh perspective like Korra to see what had been there the whole time, just waiting for me to notice.

My breath caught as tears welled up in my eyes, and I pressed a hand to my chest, fingers curled in a partial fist. ”If that’s true, then I can...I can heal my soul!”