by Mark Russo
“Oh, Emma. Do you really think this will help you?” She did not do anything I could see, but I became visible again, and all my doubles were gone.
“How can you do this? You are Path of Time.”
“But I am not,” she suddenly said in Vihkan’s voice. “Look at her face. She does not know what to do.”
“Did you let that monster in your body?”
She laughed, with two distinct sounds escaping her mouth.
“You disgust me. You just suck!” I cried, with both my eyes and my vocal cords.
“Uh, you get all judgy when someone doesn’t do what you want. You’re just like me; you want power. I have it.” She teleported in front of me and lifted me by my neck. It all happened so fast I couldn’t react. “Look at you. I could kill you right now,” she whispered in my ear then looked at me.
I spat in her stupid face.
She threw my body as if I was weightless. I tried using my skills, but something blocked them. I landed face first. My lower lip got pinched between my lower arch of teeth and a rock. It tore almost completely, and a couple of my teeth broke. My ears rang loud as my mouth filled with blood, dirt, and broken teeth. I managed to get up somehow, and I found the fall had scratched my pants so deep that bruises covered my legs. A light shade of red appeared on what remained of the fabric covering my knees.
Maria appeared in front of me again.
I managed to trigger my mind blast, but she effortlessly fended it off. My hurting bag of bones unsteadily rose, just to be hit again.
She punched me in the throat, and I fell on my left elbow, but not as badly as I had before. “I’ll kill you, Emma. Just, it’ll take us a little time,” she said as her eyes looked dead. She pulled her sword again, showed it to me and stabbed my right shin.
When the blade pierced my flesh, it burned like lava had flowed in my leg. I wanted to scream as loud as I could, but my voice broke even before I could start.
Maria twisted the blade in the wound.
I barfed a little in my mouth, and my sight blurred.
“Look at you. Are you in pain, Emma?”
I was about to pass out, so I slapped my face. My arms were too weak for it to be effective. I tried to talk, but my broken lips got in the way, and all that escaped my mouth was a disheveled series of sounds. My eyes closed, and my head bent backward. I didn’t know if I was dying, but it sure looked like that.
“Emma …” a voice in my head said while my eyes were closed. “Emma …”
What?
“I froze time again. You’re dying, Emma.”
Am I? I can’t feel a thing.
“You’re unconscious. Do you want my help now?”
What can we do?
“I haven’t done this in a very long time, but Vaim and Valu are insisting.”
Can you save me?
“No, your body is too damaged. I can give you a new life.”
I don’t know what that means, but I don’t want to die. I was sobbing as it all went black.
*****
A blinding light shined all around me.
“Emma,” the voice spoke from somewhere, “can you hear me?”
“I think I can, but I do not know how. What happened to my body?”
“We had to leave that behind. It could not be saved.”
“What-What am I now?”
“Think of yourself as a sentinel, a guardian,”
“That doesn’t sound all bad, but I don’t feel my body.”
“You do not need one anymore. Come, I’ll show you something.”
“How?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.”
“What happened to Maria?”
“I had to end her. She became too dangerous for us all.”
The space around me moved, and the light dimmed, turning to many shades of color. I had never seen anything like it; it was like I was travelling through color itself. I no longer had eyes, but I had never seen so clearly in my life.
We stopped in an unfamiliar place.
“Look, Emma, this is the space-time continuum.”
“Are we, like, outside of time and space?”
“Yes, have a look.”
I looked down and saw a long, seemingly endless cylinder that bent left and right for as far as I could see. Inside were disks of all sizes and colors.
“This is what time and space look like from the fourth dimension.”
“A long cylinder?”
“Not exactly. Look all around yourself.”
I saw a serpent-like shape, but it bent in many points all around me. In some parts, it split, creating other streams that, in turn, extended infinitely. Layers of an intricate fabric moved in all directions simultaneously. “It’s beautiful, but I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry about all this. You just need to know it exists.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“You need the knowledge first. Just a second.”
It became very warm, and my mind expanded and enlarged. I saw a world crowded with many people, a temple, a stone giant, and I knew it was James. I saw a creature made of fire, then he disappeared. Then I realized I knew everything. “What is happening in Plane R?”
“It was going well, but something happened. James and Vagras are already there. Akko and I will reverse the planar merge. You’ll ensure every piece falls into place. We want our multiverse to keep existing.”
“I know we do, but who am I?”
“You are the essence of Plane R. You are the plane itself and its guardian. You are the Speaker.”
The End
Find out more about the Speaker and James, in The Islands in the Sky.
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