by Kyle West
The Warrens were a literal maze, but she felt the pulse pulling her stronger than ever — the pulse that compelled her to the Sea. For the first time in four years, outside of dreams, she saw him. Alex wanted to speak to her, and he could only do it if she came here.
She had been putting this off for months. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him. She did.
It was just she didn’t want to see a version of him she wouldn’t recognize.
She knew Alex would never Call for her if it wasn’t important, so in the end, she had asked Quietus to take her. Finding the dragon had been a challenge in and of itself. The dragons little associated with humanity these days, preferring to tend their gardens in the Great Blight. She had heard reports of people going out there — humans that were calling themselves Elekai as well. Apparently, the Xenofold had chosen them for some purpose...whatever that meant. And more strangely, they thought of Alex as their god, not calling him by his name, instead using Elekim. Anna supposed that he was a god, in his own way. He controlled the entirety of the Elekai consciousness on Earth, and if that wasn’t being a god, then what was?
Anna entered one of the many dark tunnels riddling the surface of the Crater. During the war, these would have been the tunnels the crawlers used to access their pools deep below the surface. Now, though, they were empty, but a strange musk still clung to the air, despite the extreme heat.
Anna made her way down — always down — in silence. She had brought a massive flashlight with far more batteries than she would ever need. She wasn’t afraid of getting lost. Alex wouldn’t let her get lost down here. She trusted in her own sense to guide her.
As she descended, the air cooled, though it was still overbearingly warm. Anna was already down to a loose shirt and shorts, and she splashed some water on her face to keep cool. She knew she shouldn’t use her water like this, but she also knew that water could probably be found somewhere below.
Hours passed, and the rocky tunnel began to transition into xenofungus-covered walls. The fungus kept things cool, somehow, and it was when she had entered a wide, xenofungal cavern that she decided to stop for lunch.
She was halfway done with her sandwich when the sound of quick, scuttling feet put her on alert.
She dropped the sandwich, stood up, and held her blade in front in a basic defensive posture. From around a rock wall came an unwelcome sight — a large, insect-like creature that was evocative of a scorpion.
A crawler.
Its tail twitched, as if sensing Anna’s presence, and its white eyes blazed brightly in the gloom. It made a strange cooing sound — something Anna had never heard out of a crawler before. The crawler seemed relaxed, but Anna still held her blade in front, just to be sure. She didn’t think it would hurt her, but all the months she had spent fighting these creatures made it difficult to feel at ease.
In time, though, she lowered her blade. She picked up her sandwich and continued eating, even as she watched the monster. The crawler lowered itself to the ground, closing all three of its eyes. Anna had a thought.
Can you hear me?
The crawler responded instantly. It felt...different...from talking to a dragon. It was dumber, for sure. But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be of use.
She ate the last of the sandwich and walked forward while toting her pack, completely sure that the crawler was not there to harm her. She paused a moment by its side, but the crawler remained still. Then, Anna threw her pack on its back, and hopped on its chitin shell. It was a bit unwieldy, but she tightened her legs around the crawler’s form while shimmying her bag on her back. She held tightly to the armor plate directly in front of her, and connected her mind to the beast’s.
Take me to the Sea of Creation.
The crawler chortled, then scampered forward at a fast clip. Anna had to lean forward to keep from falling, and she bit back a scream. Then, she smiled. She was positively flying across the cavern, and the air whipped her hair behind in a stream.
She might reach the bottom before Quietus after all.
THE CAVERN ENDED AT a cliff, a cliff which fell what seemed thousands of feet. Anna could see the bottom far, far below, illuminated only by the surrounding xenofungus and a lake of pink ichor.
“End of the line?” she asked.
The crawler cooed once more, seeming to respond to Anna’s comment. She was about to get off when the crawler started forward.
“Wait, no...”
And then, they were going straight down. The crawlers many, spindly legs lodged into the cliff’s face, finding plenty of hold where there was xenofungus, and it seemed to do well on the rocky bits, too. The challenge was staying on. The crawler’s armor plate in front of Anna flared up, keeping her from falling to her death far below. Her heart raced as she tried not to scream.
It was going to be a long way down.
“You didn’t even ask, did you?”
The crawler ignored her, seeming to concentrate instead on the task at hand.
It took thirty minutes for the crawler to reach the bottom, and when it did, Anna wanted nothing more than to hop off. It was still a long way to the Sea yet, so she stayed on as the crawler bounded away, not even needing to rest from its descent.
They wove between rock spires, silver xenotrees, and giant mushroom stalks, and far above the crystalline ceiling glowed and cast a pearly light. Anna remembered this place — a massive, underground cavern that would end with the Sea itself. When she and the crawler had entered the first of a series of canyons, Quietus swooped overhead. By the time the crawler rounded the next bend, Quietus was waiting on the canyon floor.
Stop, Anna thought.
The crawler stopped, and Anna jumped off, stretching her stiff legs.
Sensing that it was no longer needed, the crawler scuttled back in the direction from which it had come.
Interesting use of that creature, Quietus mused.
It got me here and that’s what counts, Anna said.
Quietus unfurled her wings, allowing Anna to mount her. With a running start and a few flaps, she was rising above the network of canyons, and Anna could see the shore of the Sea about half a mile distant.
Upon seeing it, the past rushed to join the present. A horrible choking feeling clutched Anna’s throat, and it seemed as if they had gone back in time four years, to the day Alex had died and the world was saved. He wasn’t really dead, though. He existed in the Elekai consciousness, a consciousness he could never escape.
In a way, that might be worse than death. But he at least seemed peaceful when he and Anna last spoke. Anna steeled her heart for whatever was to come.
Before long, she was setting down on the rocky shoreline. The glowing pink ichor stretched as far as the eye could see, and rippled against the shore in tiny waves. That pulse came from the maelstrom in the center, the Point of Origin — the very entrance to the Elekai consciousness and its beating heart.
When Anna thought about going inside that consciousness, four years ago, she could hardly remember what it was like. She could only remember the terror of being pursued, and the terror of losing the one she loved. She had escaped, in the end, her body recreated by the Sea. But for Alex, there could be no escape.
She walked to the shore of the Sea, not sure how to begin communicating. She assumed it was Alex who would speak first. He was the one, after all, who spoke to her in dreams.
She took off her boots and socks. The journey she had expected to take a couple of days had only taken a few hours. She had hoped for more time to mentally prepare herself. Nothing, however, could prepare her for this.
She stepped into the Sea, hoping that her touching the ichor might spur Alex to know that she was there. She closed her eyes.
I’m here. Whatever you need...I’m here to help.
She kept herself from saying anything more, and she fought the urge to cry.
Presently, she felt a presence in her mind. It wasn’t Alex, though — that much was clear.
She o
pened her eyes and stepped out of the Sea.
Who are you?
I am the one who Called you.
Anna looked at Quietus, but Quietus wasn’t privy to the words entering her mind.
You aren’t Alex.
Would you have come had you known I wasn’t?
Betrayal stabbed Anna’s heart. She had been cheated of seeing Alex, and a burning anger consumed her. Alex couldn’t have known about this.
You used me.
I do what is necessary.
You still haven’t answered me, Anna said. Who are you?
I am the only hope for the human race, the mysterious voice said. I have seen the future, and it is grim. Without guidance, the people of Earth will fall when Xenofall comes again.
That gave Anna pause. The next Xenofall was not for another almost four hundred years. It would take that long for the Radaskim to send their new invasion force, if Quietus’s past revelation was true.
How can anyone know the future? Anna asked.
Perhaps I can just show you?
Before Anna could say anything else, all went dark.
ANNA STOOD IN A FOREST. Trees with straight, silver trunks shot into the sky, what seemed to be impossibly high. Despite their height, their boughs grew in such a way that blue sky could clearly be seen above. The blue sky shocked Anna most of all. It had been years since she had seen one, and to see it from the earth took her aback. A thin veil of mist hung over the shadowed forest floor, interspersed with patches of xenofungus.
A stream trickled nearby, and in front of her, the land sloped downward.
Anna followed the stream, and it wasn’t long before she came to a trail. The trail was well-worn, though its narrowness told her that it was only used by people and not any sort of vehicle.
As she walked down the trail, the serenity of the forest flowed through her. Birds sang in the trees, and the sound of the wind was calming. The aroma of nature was thick and deep, a smell she had been denied almost all of her life living in the Wasteland.
What was the voice trying to show her?
Ahead, she could see a break in the trees, and somehow, she knew what he wanted to show her was beyond them. The last of the trail passed quickly, and soon, she found herself out of the forest.
And gaping in awe.
Before her spread a vast city, dominating her entire field of view. Towers and turrets made of a strange, luminescent material shot into the sky, gleaming silver and green in the sunlight. Interspersed with the buildings were giant trees, even larger than the ones of the forest. The trees and the buildings seemed to perfectly complement one another, and arched bridges connected the buildings like lacework. Surrounding the city were fields that grew rich, bountiful crops — there were grains, vegetables, orchards of fruits and nuts.
There was something strange about the city, though, and it only took Anna a moment to realize what it was.
It was empty.
It stood to reason that she couldn’t see anyone inside the city itself, but on the single, wide road leading out of it, there were no people, either. Neither were there people working the fields, nor the orchards.
“Is this it?” Anna asked. “Is this what you wanted to show me?”
This is the city of Hyperborea, the voice said. The heirs of Samuel will construct it, two hundred years from now, in Ragnarok Crater.
Ragnarok Crater?
They will use the Sea of Creation to create their fields, their gardens, their buildings that reach the sky. But in the end, it will be their undoing. And perhaps it will be the undoing of the Elekai.
How do you know all this? How can you see the future?
I know many things, Anna. The power of the Xenofold can work outside of time...though admittedly, its methods of prediction can be inaccurate. Although, you can take this vision for truth.
You’ve never told me who you were. How can I trust you when you baited me to travel all this way?
The voice went quiet, seeming not to have an answer for once. Anna waited for what seemed an eternity for him to respond.
Your husband trusted me, the voice said at last. And it was because of me that he learned that he must accept the mantle of godhood to defeat Askala.
Anna remembered what Alex had told her — that defeating Askala was not simply a matter of infecting her with the Elekai version of the xenovirus. In a sense, he had to become her. Maybe he hadn’t meant to become her, exactly, but he had certainly meant to supersede her and become what she was — essentially, the Xenomind of the Great Blight.
“You’re the Nameless One,” Anna said. “You were the one who helped us enter Ragnarok Crater in the first place. Why didn’t you just tell me who you were to begin with?”
Because I knew you would come to that conclusion yourself.
Still... Anna thought. What was it you wanted to show me?
Many aspects of this future cannot be changed. But some still can. If the people fail to remember the past, then Earth will fall. I wish to give the Elekai — the only Elekai who gained a victory — a fighting chance when the Radaskim Reapers come again.
It was supposed to be four hundred years. That means we have three hundred and ninety-six left. That should be enough time to stop them...right?
It should be, the Nameless One agreed. But for one thing.
This city? What do they do that’s so bad?
The power of the Xenofold is housed in the Sea of Creation and the Sea of Destruction. The two Seas, working in tandem, produce the Point of Origin, and within it lies all Elekai thought, memory, and power. But the Hyperboreans — the heirs of Samuel — will commit a grave error. They will tap into the Sea itself, and use its ichor to build their city.
The ichor that composes the memories of the Elekai?
That is correct. And unless they are stopped, the Heirs of Samuel will destroy the entirety of the Great Blight. The Elekai will be defeated long before the Radaskim ever arrive.
If this is all true, Anna thought, then what do you expect me to do?
What do I expect you to do? I expect nothing. I am merely unveiling the future of humanity and the dragons before you. Do with that information what you will.
Anna looked at the resplendent city and could only wonder how to change the course of the future. Indeed, looking at the city, it did look like something out of the future, but instead of being based on metal and machines, it was based on xenolife itself.
I’ll do what I can, Anna said, but I still need more information.
More will be revealed in time. It takes time for even my power to gather future viewings such as this, and I hope that you can find a way to preserve them. I hope you can become an intermediary between myself and the Elekai. You must do all you can to preserve what you have seen here and write it down to be kept in perpetuity. If humanity fails to remember the past, then your doom is self-sealed.
The vision of the great city shimmered, then faded.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I WOKE TO FIND IT still dark. More of Anna’s past was the last thing I needed — I didn’t want any additional stress after the massacre at Nava Village.
The startling revelation of my dream only compounded my anxiety. Through Anna’s eyes, I had seen the city of Hyperborea. Already, the image of it was fading, as dreams so often do, but Anna knew about Hyperborea before it had even been built, and the Nameless One had revealed it to her. Though he had warned her about it, the city was built, anyway. If Anna had written of it, could they really have not heeded the warning?
Could it be that the Prophecy of Annara contained Anna’s viewing of Hyperborea? I still didn’t know enough, but I did know that Isandru would need to be told, but that might be hard given the present circumstances.
Because it was still dark, I went back into a dreamless sleep.
WHEN I AWOKE, THE FIRST of the morning light streamed through the upper window. Isa and I got ready before heading down to breakfast. The mood was quiet and grim. I noted that many of the
Champions, including Garin, were absent; likely, they were either guarding the Sanctum or the village. Elder Tellor was absent from the Elders’ table.
Breakfast was served as usual, and as everyone ate, they kept glancing up at the Elders, expecting some sort of announcement.
At last, the Great Hall quieted as Chief Elder Arminius stood. Despite everything that happened last night, his wrinkled face was stoic, and his gray hair and beard made him seem almost grandfatherly. The only sign of distress was the tiredness in his brown eyes.
“We don’t know why we were attacked,” he said, at last. “The Mindless are only known to attack settlements close to their aeries. This tells us one of two things: either the normal behavior of the Mindless has changed, or that there is a Mindless aerie nearby.”
This comment was greeted by distressed murmurs, but they were soon dispelled when Arminius continued speaking.
“We have our finest Champions scouting for any possible location of an aerie, since that’s the most likely option. To believe that the Mindless would raid a village hundreds of miles from their usual habitat is beyond reason, bypassing even the northern Samalite holds on the way. When we find the aerie, we will destroy it, of course, using the full power of the Sanctum. The Sanctum and its environs are ours, and have been ever since its founding. With our Champions guarding the skies, there is little reason to fear. If only three dragons attacked, the power of this aerie cannot be great. We regret the loss of life among the Navans, and even now, our Clerics work tirelessly to tend to those who can be saved. As such, your normal lessons might be canceled if your instructors are otherwise occupied. I encourage you to use this time to focus on your studies, and to help where it is necessary.