by Simon Archer
I didn’t want to believe it. I already hated the bastard Khaba, but this was too much. I don’t know how, but he was the reason I never knew my mother, why I could only see my father sparingly, and why he was practically gone by his death. Sure, I had Reggie, and I was incredibly thankful for him, but I would have given almost anything to take that time back. I was going to wring payment for every second I’d lost with them out of his hide.
“Speak to me, man!” Reggie slapped me across the face. “Can you hear me, Master William?”
“Ow!” I said, rubbing my cheek. “Yes, I can hear you! I’m not deaf.”
“Then speak up a bit, you blasted fool!” He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. “I don’t know what was happening, but I felt my heart in my throat when they surrounded you. I thought you were dead for sure.”
“I’m fine now, Reg.” I squeezed him tighter. “I’m more than fine.”
“Do you know what happened to you?” Reginald asked me. “Was it your blood? Your mother?” He released his hold on me.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said, releasing Reg from my grip. I walked over to the other citizens, see if we were missing anyone. It looked like we had a few injured, but nothing the healer couldn’t handle. Thankfully, the bulk of them was trying to fight me, and when I’d disintegrated half the army, the other half had fled. We were fortunate today.
“I’m going to check on the girls, make sure they weren’t hurt in all this.” I started walking towards the hill the mayor’s house sat on.
“Once you do that, you need to rest,” Reginald said, coming up behind me. “The dwarf helped me with my revolver had a theory that they won’t stop sending people until we’re all tuckered out. They’re going to try to outlast us, and it seems they have the manpower to do it.”
“But that’s… a strategy,” I rebutted. “Do you think that savages could come up with that, even if it were coming from the Baroness?”
“That’s the alarming thing,” Reggie said with a slow nod. “Even this level of organization, coming in these swarms, suggests a mind behind these attacks. The rapid succession of strikes suggests a tactician.”
“Khem,” I said, pulling the name out of me like it was a poison. “He’s controlling the swarms.” When Reg gave me a curious look, I continued. “Think about it. He’s the head of the Black Runes, and he wants us dead. It makes sense that he has some kind of hold on the Baroness. And he’s trying to keep us from her by keeping us exhausted.”
“That bodes ill for us,” Reggie grumbled. “This sorcery doesn’t sit well with me. If I were in charge of the rules of engagement, magic would be cheating!”
I chuckled. Even in these times, I was glad we could still find some humor in all of this. We came to the base of the hill and began our climb up. Khaba had more soldiers than us, he had more powers than us, and he had more time than us. We couldn’t depend on me bringing out my Divinity Form again to bail us out. I had no control over it, and I didn’t have time to learn about it with these constant drone attacks.
We needed to bring the fight to them, but that would take an army. We didn’t have an army. We had two villages.
As we reached the mayor’s house, I looked in to see my girls chatting. My legs almost gave out in relief. They were perfectly safe, and they were being taken care of by one of the dwarves, who had fresh food prepared for them as they sat in a circle. I could only assume that the large explosion from my transformation had managed to wake them up.
At our approach, Shikun stood up immediately and ran to me in a straight line, smashing through the wooden wall in front of us and ignoring the perfectly open door, crashing into me before I could take a step on the porch. It wasn’t long before Petra was doing the same, using the door this time, and I was surrounded by women kissing me as they clung to me. This lasted for a second before we were all pounced on by our favorite sphinx and sent rolling down the hill. When we finally stopped at the bottom, all of us laughing until our sides hurt, I sat up from our pile of limbs and bodies to kiss each of them personally in my thankfulness that they were alright.
“You have no idea how worried I was,” I told them. “I’m so glad you’re all doing well.”
“Dwarven food is very filling,” Petra said, getting up herself. “I feel like I could take on another ten swarms of drones now. When we heard that explosion, we thought the drones were attacking, but our caretakers told us to rest and that everything was fine.”
“More importantly, what about you?” Shikun said, looking me up and down as she got up. “There was this light, we heard a boom, and then a lot of buzzing, and we saw through the window that the swarm was flying away. What scared them off?”
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Amalthea said, coming up beside me. “Because you discovered your angelic powers.”
“How could you possibly know that?” I said to her.
“Sphinxes do not sleep in quite the same way the other races do,” the sphinx explained. “We dream within the confines of the Khalati Record, and so I used this time to research a few things. With the terrifying light, which I assumed was you, to narrow my search, I found several instances of angels possessing similar powers in ancient times. In these texts, it says the angels could call upon their full divine blood in times of need to enhance their abilities and senses, see the spirits within living things, but most uniquely, to place emotions magically into the hearts of others. Their very presence can be calming, charming, encouraging, or even terrifying to any who would hold emotion. Even the savage drones wouldn’t be able to resist your powers.”
“You learned all of that in your sleep, huh?” Petra said.
“No,” Amalthea bluntly stated. “I learned that after we all woke up. I learned how to keep the drones at bay in my sleep. It seemed wise to consider protecting ourselves, even in the short term, from those soldiers for as long as it took for us to recover properly.”
“Oh, Amalthea, you’re a genius!” Shikun said, hugging her large neck. “I wish I was as smart as you.”
“Honey, you breathe fire,” Petra said, hands on her hips. “You’re practically invulnerable, you have super strength, and you fly. Giving you the Khalati Record would just be unfair at this point.” Petra hugged the other side of Amalthea.
“Do not forget your considerable flora magic,” Amalthea told her. “I’ll be needing it for my plan to work.”
“What is your plan, anyway?” I said, finally putting myself in the conversation.
“I suppose now is a good time as any to start building,” Amalthea said, walking towards the fairway. “We’re going to be up all night, but when we’re finished, we can sleep the day away.” She swished her tail as she headed out.
“Oh, I’m terribly excited,” Reginald said, popping in seemingly from nowhere. “This suspense is thrilling, wouldn’t you say?”
“I think I’ve had enough thrills for a little while,” I said, breathing a heavy sigh. “Let’s just get this whatever-it-is built so we can all take a nap.”
We all headed out to the fairway, past the buildings that I had cut the circular shape into, towards the edge of town. Under the moonlight, I saw the Solspire’s gleam from here, remembering what it looked like when I could see it in my angelic form. It was beautiful, and it would be even more so when we took it back from Khaba. Amalthea stopped at a flat patch with a perfect view of the Marches. She turned around to address us as we formed an audience around her
“On this very spot,” Amalthea started her speech, “we will be building the saving grace of this town. With it, our victory is assured. We can gather as many forces as we need without fear of interference from the drones. Petra, are you ready?” She was exercising a surprising amount of theatricality, and I was enjoying every bit of it.
“Um, yes, I suppose,” Petra answered, stepping forth beside Amalthea.
“Shikun?” Amalthea called out to the draconian.
“Yes!” Shikun called back as she glided over to Amalthea’s si
de. “What are we doing?”
“Rock wyrms and gentlemen,” Amalthea said, talking to me, Reggie, and especially Silver, “we shall be creating the world’s most unique plant!” She waved her paw up to prompt us to clap, which we obeyed. Silver even barked in approval. We let out hoops and hollers for a little bit before it died down as we realized something.
“How is a plant supposed to help us against the drones?” Reggie begged the question.
“I’m so glad you asked,” she said as she dramatically explained her plan. “You see, these drones, being so far away from their anthophilan queen, will operate based on the last command that she gave, which will presumably be to kill us. They are also under the savage influence, so they will be very single-minded in that goal. That being said, this curse also decreases their intelligence and awareness, making them susceptible to traps and tricks meant for animals, like most insects. In that spirit, we can trick these drones as simply as if we were tricking any common flying insect.”
“Were the theatrics really necessary for this, Amalthea?” Reggie asked, giving her a puzzled look.
“No,” she answered with a grin. “No, they weren’t.”
I stifled a laugh as Reggie shook his head and bit back a retort I was sure would net him an extra hundred and fifty “very good kitties.” Silver clucked and barked gladly on his shoulder as he soaked in the light atmosphere.
“Amalthea seems to be enjoying herself,” Libritas said to me. “There’s more to these girls than one would think when meeting them.”
“I think she’s feeling freer to express herself,” I mused, gripping Libritas’ handle twice. “They know they’re safe here.”
“Petra, I researched several plants to find the exact abilities we need for this to work.” Amalthea began to conjure something in her paws as she spoke. “Can you make a plant that can meet these specifications?” Between her paws, a schematic of light showed a picture of a strange-looking plant, with diagram markings all over the separate parts. From what I could see where I was standing, it looked something like a giant wine glass.
“I’ll try.” Petra squinted at the diagram. “I’m familiar with all of these plants, but I don’t know if I can mix them as well as you would like.”
“Petra, you can make trees run across the land, grow armor from yourself, and create a giant tree that kills people.” I walked up to the magical botanist. “You can make plants do anything you want.”
“Yeah, but those are singular things,” Petra explained, grabbing her shoulders to hide as she slouched. “Creating a multi-functional one is delicate work. If something goes wrong--”
“We can find another way,” Amalthea finished for her. “I made several plans to stop the drones from attacking. This one just requires the least amount of maintenance from us while also being the most fun.”
“If I can fly, you can make this plant.” Shikun grabbed Petra’s hands from her shoulders, holding them in her own. “You’re a hero, Petra.”
“Okay.” Petra took a deep breath. “I’ll try.”
“You’ll do it,” I told her. “And it’ll be amazing.” I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and she blushed.
Petra spread her feet out, taking a wide stance as she shook her hands out and popped her neck. The fire in her eyes matched Shikun’s flames as she shoved both of her feet into the ground, rooting herself in place. She held out her hand, and a single dark brown seed grew out of her palm to match its size.
“Can someone plant this a bit aways from me?” Petra asked any one of us. “This thing’s going to be big, and I can’t move out of the way.”
“Sure thing, Petra.” Amalthea took the seed in her paw and made her way to the perfect planting spot a dozen or so feet away. She placed the seed down and began digging a spot for it to grow.
“Do you need water or something?” I asked our fearless plant magician.
“Yes, water would be excellent,” she said, breathing hard to psyche herself up. “Just pour it in the ground by my feet, I’ll get it.”
I began to walk as I felt Shikun tap me on the shoulder, and as I turned toward her, she pointed to where Reggie was already jogging towards town to do the same.
“Hey, there isn’t a chance you could get me some sun, is there, Amalthea?” Petra asked the magical sphinx. “It would have been better if we did this during the day, and I just want to make sure both I and the trap have the energy we need to work.”
“I can provide a sunbeam, to be sure.” Amalthea placed the seed in the hole she dug before she walked over to provide sunlight to Shikun. “Could you take over covering the seed for me, Shikun, dear?”
“That’s actually perfect,” Petra said. “The seed needs intense heat to crack open and grow, so you can begin the festivities!”
Petra dug her hands into the ground as she squatted down in preparation. Shikun walked over to the seed and began breathing a small gout of fire over it as she knelt down. The seed began to crack as the little roots wormed their way to the dirt below it. I ran back to town to assist with the water gathering.
Over the next couple hours or so, we all pitched in to help Petra grow Amalthea’s giant plant trap. Reggie and I provided water, Amalthea created some sunbeam glyphs, Shikun kept the plant warm enough, and Silver jumped around as we all watched the plant slowly rise from the ground.
As it grew, the top unfolded into a wide fan that rounded outward, becoming like a wine glass cut in half. When it reached its full height, it was several dozen feet tail, overshadowing all of us as it covered the sky above. Its wide fan-like half-basin started about ten feet up and stretched out, covering the width of the town’s fairway behind us. Inside the half-basin, glittering beads of sticky substances dripped down to the hole at the top of a large sack growing off the side of it. The base of the plant trap must have been twelve feet wide, if not more, standing firm and solid.
“Now, Shikun,” Petra said, breathing a bit heavy from the intense work needed to grow such a tree, “there should be a half dozen little stub-like wicks up there. If you could light those for me, that’ll finish Amalthea’s design.”
“Wait, you want me to set this plant on fire?” Shikun asked, somewhat incredulous. “I know it needed heat to grow, but what if it burns up?”
“I already thought of that in the design,” Amalthea said. “It should all be taken care of, even the sustenance necessary for its survival.”
“It’s a plant, dear girl,” Reggie said, confused. “Would it not just need the light from the sun?”
“It’ll need more than that if it wants to keep the fires from dying out,” Petra explained. “Drones will be drawn in from afar by the fires, then drawn to the half-cone by the smells the plant puts off. When they touch that, they’ll be stuck to the dripping beads as they roll down the side of the cone from the top. When they fall through that hole into the sack, they’ll be digested and turned into more fuel for the fires and more sticky beads.”
“So, like a giant venus fly trap?” I said, maybe stating the obvious.
“Yes, that was one of the plants I used in my designs for this Petra Drone Trap,” Amalthea said, christening the new plant as we beheld it. Petra blushed a bit as she playfully bumped the flattering sphinx.
“Does it work?” Shikun asked, hopefully not jinxing it.
“We’ll just have to wait to see that.” I yawned as I started walking back. “Someone should set up an alarm for the townspeople to wake us up quickly in case of an emergency. I’m heading to bed.”
“Right behind you!” Petra said, walking up to my arm and leaning on me like a crutch.
“I could use more sleep, I suppose.” Amalthea came to my other side as I scratched her back.
“Hey, wait for me!” Shikun glided on her wings to meet up with us, hanging onto my back as we all headed to the mayor’s house to sleep.
“Looks like we’ll be bunking, my crypto-reptilian friend.” Reggie picked up the dancing Silver, placing the drake on his back. “I won
der if Figert will help me tinker some more before we head to bed.”
Now that the day had officially ended, and the next would start in about an hour, we all collectively hoped that the day to come would be less exhausting. I knew we still had a lot of work ahead of us, but tonight, I was going to sleep like I was in a coma.
18
My dreams featured a small island. On this island, a single weeping willow stood, glowing a bioluminescent emerald hue onto the sands of the island. The waters that calmly caressed the shore stretched out, only stopped by the horizon. The starry sky reflected upon this endless ocean, creating a feeling that the spit of land was floating in space. And I could see myself from the outside, propped up against the willow, sleeping peacefully.
In the next moment, I opened my eyes, and I was on the island. I became the one sleeping on the tree. I shook off the sand on my clothes and stood up, looking out towards the infinite starry expanse. There wasn’t a single mass, another piece of land, not even a fish, anywhere in sight. Just an eternity of little lights as far as I could see.
I picked up a stone to skip. The stone I found was perfectly smooth and flat, and I sent it flying across the boundless ocean. As it bounced, it made no ripples or sound, as if it was skipping silently along glass. I took a step into the waters, finding them cold, almost deathly, to the touch. But I passed through the water’s surface as I walked deeper and deeper into the ocean of night. My feet, then my legs, became submerged in the dark abyss. Then my waist, followed by my chest. I let my arms lay at my sides as the water reached my neck. When I couldn’t keep my head above the water anymore, I began to swim. I flipped over to my back to look at the island I left behind.
There was no island.
I panicked but thought I simply had to keep moving forward and hopefully find more land. When I turned back around to swim, a colossal leech awaited me. The creature rose from the waters, towering several dozens of feet above me. Its mouth dripped with a sizzling acid spit, housing thousands of spike-like teeth crawling deeper into its maw. Its long body was somehow dry and haphazardly wrapped in bandages from its mouth to where the ocean met it. It lunged at me, swallowing me whole before I could so much as scream.