Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  In mere moments, her map became a useless writhing squiggle.

  Alex blinked.

  She must be seeing things.

  This could not be happening.

  She closed her eyes and opened them again.

  The sabotaged map stared maliciously back at her.

  Alex continued running, but in her heart, she knew there was no chance she could escape, not without her map.

  There were three paths on the most recent turn, and she thought that the leftmost one might be correct.

  But there were four turns on the split path after that and then a whopping nine different choices on the next one.

  For one horrible moment, the hopelessness threatened to suffocate her until she suddenly realized what she had to do.

  The answer surfaced fully formed from her battle-mind, appearing just like a sudden seam in an enemy's otherwise dogged defense.

  The librarian started running as fast as she could, sprinting without any hesitation. The most important thing was to create a distance between herself and her pursuers. The strange silence of the book-corridors kept her from talking or messaging, but she could call for help in other ways.

  As she ran, she dialed Emile with her tablet. The line connected, but of course, there was only silence. It was a relief her friend was still awake.

  Emile and Mrs. T must still be working late into the night. Or maybe it was already the next morning. Alex had no idea what time it was. She had no idea how long she'd been wandering around in the forever darkness.

  After five seconds on the line, she hung up and dialed again. She continued sprinting deeper and deeper into the tunnels, calling Emile and then hanging up again. Emile knew about the silence. After seeing so many calls, she'd guess that Alex had encountered some sort of danger in the tunnels.

  Alex called over and over again, continuing long after her friend stopped picking up.

  The next split in the path only had three gaps, and that was when Alex knew she had taken a wrong turn. She distinctively remembered six paths the last time down. Her heart momentarily sank, but then she shook her head and pushed herself forward, reminding herself that the most important thing was to get away from the staring screaming thing that was not a woman.

  Alex ran and ran until she was completely out of breath.

  Then she kept running after that.

  Sometimes she could hear footsteps echoing along the halls, but couldn't tell if it was the sound of her pursuers or merely the echo of the steps she'd just taken.

  The screams rang in her ears.

  "Kill her!"

  "Burn her book!"

  "Give me her body!"

  At other times she felt like the silent woman was watching her. It was a strange and eerie feeling Alex felt in her bones. The monster was peering not out of the shelves but from the rotting pitch-black pages themselves.

  Alex whirled this way and that, half expecting to see the woman crawling out from the walls.

  But all she saw was darkness.

  No matter how far she ran, all she saw was the forever black, the darkness that was deeper than space. The corridors should be growing lighter. She seemed to remember the walls going from gray to black when she descended.

  But all she saw were black shelves stuffed with black books drenched by black ink.

  Alex sniffed.

  The ink smelled fresh.

  A hand slid out of the wall and grabbed her by the throat, faster than she could even scream.

  ____

  Alex let out a mangled cry of pain and revulsion.

  The boy's sickly gold hand was marred by shiny pink burns and drenched in dried blood and ink. Strange black lumps trembled beneath his skin.

  The boy pulled. First, an arm emerged, then his head.

  The pain in his charred hand must have been terrible, but the boy's face was fixed in a fierce look of calm and determination.

  Alex's thought she could hear her jawbone cracking under his grip. She lashed out with her elbows, smashing them against the boy's thin chest. He didn't budge at all.

  Alex jerked forwards to build up more force. Her sudden move yanked the boy further out the wall. Her eyes widened.

  Despite his absurd strength, he was still very light and very skinny.

  Alex smiled grimly as she realized what she had to do.

  Alex took three quick steps back and jerked her head forward as hard as she could. The boy was pulled clean out of the wall.

  The librarian whirled around, twisting her entire body with vicious speed to land the hardest blow possible. Her haymaker collided with his face right as it twisted into an incredibly satisfying look of surprise.

  She expected a loud crunch.

  Instead, she got a splash and a playful laugh.

  What?

  Her hand went straight through his face. Black liquid spurted wildly towards her like she'd crushed a giant boil. Alex instinctively closed her eyes, but when the fluid splashed over her, she felt nothing at all.

  When she opened her eyes again, the boy was gone.

  Something hard and round smacked her in the side. Purple and gold light flooded the hallway. Eternium sang. Alex stumbled and crashed into a shelf.

  The lights flashed again.

  Then the entire wall moved, tossing her forwards and slamming her to the floor. A hand emerged, and Alex caught the briefest glimpse of a purple shield, identical to the one that'd been held by the boy's machine. The kraken hurtled towards her.

  There was a tremendous crack.

  Alex screamed as her ribs shattered. When she touched her left side, all she felt was mush.

  "Kill her!"

  "Burn her book!"

  "Give me her body!"

  Get up.

  Get up.

  She couldn't just lie here on the floor. She had to get up. She had to escape and tell people what she'd seen.

  "Alex?! Alex?! Alex, are you okay?"

  She froze.

  Loud and heavy footsteps charged through the tunnel.

  Her eyes jerked open.

  "No! Stay outside! Get help..."

  Speaking was agony. It hurt so much to take in air to shout. It hurt so much just to open her mouth.

  But she had to warn him.

  What was Jared doing here?

  The burnt hand emerged from the shelf again, silencing her with a surgical chop to the throat.

  "Silence!"

  The word echoed in her mind.

  She tried to scream again, but the voice sounded again in her head, so loud that it blanked out her mind.

  The word became an endless booming chant.

  "Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence!"

  All she could get out was a feeble cough.

  The command echoed again as soon as she opened her mouth.

  "Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence!"

  Jared shouted again.

  "Alex! Where are you! Emile said something happened! Alex!"

  The young Noble emerged from the wall. He stood calmly on one end of the tunnel, the brilliant purple and gold shield blazing in his hand.

  "Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence!"

  Alex got to her feet and turned the other way. She had to escape. She had to warn Plenty about what was coming. She had to find Jared and tell him to get the hell out of the book-corridors.

  The woman emerged from the other side of the tunnel, drifting out of the forever darkness. Her legs dragged limply behind her, not even touching the floor. Jagged cracks, just like those you'd see on a broken plate, marred her right cheek. Something gray and rotting shifted beneath what must have been a mask.

  The thing that was not a woman pirouetted in midair. Her movements were sharp and graceful. Her arms twisted backward, faster and more nimble than any human's ever could move. At that moment, Alex suddenly realized it wasn't limbs hidden beneath those sleeves.

  The precise hands quickly undid the knot at the back of the dress and pulled the beautifu
l cloth apart.

  A monster looked down on her, an undulating mass of writhing tentacles and jagged fangs held together in a rough humanlike shape. The tentacles were pitch black. They reached out in every direction, smearing black ink all over the walls and books. The wickedly curved teeth were so white they glowed.

  The woman's false face and body jutted high into the air, bobbing up and down like the prow of a sunken ship. The cloth of the undone dress flapped back and forth.

  Alex couldn't scream.

  "Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence!"

  The boy's voice rang out from among the endless tunnels.

  "You were an honorable opponent Spire Guardian, but you have no chance against a Lord and his goddess. I promise not to hurt you. I would never harm such a worthy foe. But I need you to Forget."

  Alex stared at the creature. Her hand formed instinctively around the cheap plastic trigger she loved using in the simulator pod. Her battle-mind gushed through her brain.

  Alex had no idea what the boy was talking about, but he was right about one thing. She was the Spire's Guardian. No matter what magic or monsters he brought to bear against her, she would go down fighting to protect it.

  Alex laughed.

  The adrenaline must have made her giddy.

  The mass of tendrils and teeth surged forwards.

  Alex glanced behind her and saw the boy dive back into the shelf. The Eternium flared purple and gold before splashing like water.

  Alex planted her feet in the center of the tunnel and raised The Familiars high in her hands, reminding herself it was useless to put her back against the wall. It was the only weapon she had. The boy was scared of it. The goddess wanted him to burn it. That had to mean something.

  The goddess halted midair so abruptly that the tendrils jerked loosely forwards.

  The creature screeched with rage.

  "Kill her!"

  "Burn her book!"

  "Give me her body!"

  A thin and bony arm glinted out of the corner of her eye.

  Time stood still.

  It was just like in the simulator.

  Everything had to be perfect.

  The librarian took a precise step backward. The fist whirled past her, so close she could feel the whistling wind from the blow. She caught the boy's wrist with her left hand, digging her heels hard into the ground. The boy squeaked in surprise as she yanked him out of the wall again.

  Putting the entire force of her body behind the throw, Alex twisted and slammed the boy into the wall so hard that he bounced against it. The Eternium shelf sang, but the blow didn't faze him in the slightest. When Alex stepped forwards to hit him again, he grunted and smashed a bony fist hard into her broken ribs.

  Alex let out a wheeze of pain as her brain convulsed in her skull.

  Her side felt like pudding.

  It was suddenly getting very hard to breath.

  More out of desperation than anything else, Alex swung her right hand in a wide and frantic arc. He was scared of The Familiars. Her parents' book was her only hope.

  The pamphlet sliced clean through his head.

  ____

  The gaunt head bounced along the floor of the book-corridors. The boy let out a long yelp of surprise and pain, revealing a line of cracked and missing teeth.

  The goddess joined her voice to his.

  They wailed together.

  High and low.

  High and low.

  Blood gushed out from the stump where the boy's head used to be. The scarlet liquid sprayed along the entire corridor, illuminating the dark books with an eerie burnt glow. His blood contained something soft, black, and spongy, something Alex had never seen before. The black things stirred feebly as the blood drifted along the floor.

  Blood gushed all over her body, but the book in her hand repelled it by some invisible force. Her hands were scarlet, but the pages remained clean and pearly white.

  Alex stared at the body, completely horrified.

  He was just a boy.

  She stammered, yet no sound came out.

  The command from before still echoed ceaselessly in her mind.

  "Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence!"

  The headless corpse's chest was still rising and falling, like it didn't realize it was dead.

  What had she done?

  He was just a boy.

  She heard Jared's voice again.

  "Alex! Alex! Where are you?"

  She could hear his footsteps thundering against the Eternium floor as he bungled his way down the corridors. Somehow he kept coming closer and closer. She was shocked he hadn't gotten lost already.

  "Alex! Alex! Please! Say something! What happened? Who is yelling? Are you okay? What's going on?"

  She couldn't answer him.

  "Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence!"

  Something slammed her viciously onto the ground.

  Hands surged to her right arm with the speed and desperation of starving sharks. There was a loud snap as her right wrist shattered. The Familiars slipped from senseless fingers and fluttered to the floor.

  The headless body clambered over her, pinning her to the floor. The boy held his head aloft by its stringy golden hair. It gazed down on her, swaying back and forth like a lantern. Specks of blood dripped onto her with every rotation. The red blood was warm, but the strange black lumps were icy cold.

  The head was staring so intently it was like he could see right through her. The flaring golden eyes blinked. The goddess floated elegantly behind him, an endless void of snapping teeth and whirling tendrils held in a loose human form by the woman-like shell.

  "No. You did not know."

  The boy spoke with an authority far surpassing his age, surpassing even his command earlier in the Library. Alex couldn't believe that'd only been earlier that day. This didn't seem real. The boy was holding his head in his hand.

  His words rang with judgment.

  Jared screamed for her again.

  His voice vaguely stirred her brain from the all-enveloping terror.

  She struggled to speak, fighting desperately against her tightening throat, her stubborn mouth, and the endless command echoing through her mind. She had to warn Jared. The boy was going to kill her and if Jared wasn't careful he'd kill him too.

  Nothing came out, but a long and messy gasp.

  "You can't warn your friend. You've been Silenced."

  The charred golden hand flourished, and an aged piece of parchment materialized before her. The paper was rotting and old, blackened and burnt. The boy dipped his finger deep into the stump of his neck, and it emerged soaked in spotted red and black. He began to scrawl giant spiky letters onto the paper.

  "I won't hurt you. And I won't hurt your friend. I brought him here to collect you. But I can't have any witnesses. If you want to help him, the best thing you can do is Forget."

  His voice shifted and became strangely solemn. Alex shuddered. He sounded like a Security Force officer reading out a captive's rights.

  His head swung gently from side to side, gripped tightly in his burnt right hand. He used his left for writing.

  "You are under no physical duress. You enter this Contract out of your own free will. You will not break it without my leave. Do you agree to these terms?"

  He lifted the rotting parchment high into the air.

  Three words stared down at her.

  SLEEP AND FORGET.

  Alex blinked.

  What was he going to do? How was he going to make her forget?

  She would tell everyone what she saw her tonight, even if it meant her death.

  The swinging head smiled guiltily.

  "You are very brave. But you don't understand. To my people and our gods, your kind will only ever be prey or subjects. You cannot cheat me."

  Jared shouted again.

  "Alex! Alex! Where are you!"

  His steps were coming closer and closer.

  The boy drew his finger over the
stump of his neck, and his voice became solemn again.

  "On my honor as a Truthspeaker, I swear I won't hurt him if you sign. I would never harm one of my people without cause. As I said, I brought him here to collect you after we're done."

  Alex pulled her pen out of her pocket and signed. Her signature looked tiny and insignificant beneath the blood-red words. The page was so dark she could barely even see what she wrote.

  The boy stretched out a bony hand, and they shook as his head peered back up at her.

  "It's best for you to Forget. You'll see the great changes and believe you were seeing them for the first time. You'll never have to know how close you came to stopping them. If only your kind hadn't forgotten."

  The boy's dangling head turned, murmuring not to Alex but to the monstrosity looming behind him.

  "Everything has changed now."

  Alex's mind was still whirling when he released her hand.

  But then she SLEPT AND FORGOT.

  CHAPTER 6: THE BOY KING

  The false sky shone high above him, through the window built into his ceiling. The light brought power, filling his body with holy strength. The lying light was ecstasy.

  Falo raised his arms high into the sky, soaking in every inch of warmth. Power gushed through his limbs.

  His blood bubbled happily in his veins as the black frolicked back and forth. Under the light of the false sun, a Truthspeaker was practically invincible. Falo begrudged his father many things, but he never resented him for leaving. It was a terrible thing to trap any man in the dark of The Wastes, but it was extra cruel to do so to a Truthspeaker. Plenty, from its false name to its false sky, was a place of power, a place built for Falo's people and their sinful gods.

  His people had created the false sun in the days they and their gods ruled the colonies side-by-side. The projectors constantly displayed clear blue skies just like those found on Old Earth. It was a comforting lie, and he wasn't surprised the Ignorants had been foolish enough to keep it there. The void of space was an ominous sight, and just like with everything else, they'd forgotten the false sky's purpose.

  Only Falo remembered.

  The boy king stretched happily and turned to stare at his headless body. His skin was returning to the appropriate hue, the one he'd seen in photographs. He was now bright gold with a menacing undertone of black, but it was even stranger seeing himself with a chopped off head.