Concordance

by Cameron Hayden

  Before I could get to her on foot, the pale man was at Annora’s side. In her exhaustion, Annora wasn’t able to do much. He didn’t threaten her, but didn’t dare approach.

  “I was wondering when I’d get to meet you, Professor Rycroft,” the pale man said. Considering what I’d just done to his men, his voice was remarkably calm.

  “Xalaxis,” I said, staring him down.

  He put his thin, white fingers to his chest. “I’m honored you know my name. I do hope you will forgive our bare accommodations, we were not expecting to host a person of such esteem.”

  “Is that supposed to be an attempt at flattery?” I said, mostly just to buy time to think.

  “I should hope I could flatter you, Professor. It is truly an honor to have one chosen by the Corelight, a future Lightborn, stand before me. It was my understanding that all of the Corelight fragments had been hunted down by the dragonkin. Apparently, there was a fragment unaccounted for, and what’s more, a human capable of bonding with it. Simply extraordinary.”

  “You seem to know a lot about the Corelight,” I said.

  “I do. More than any other human on Arkos. I’ve long sought after it, but as I’m sure you know, the Corelight as a whole is deep within the Sunken City of Vor’aj, protected by impenetrable magics. Only a fool would dare venture there, wouldn’t you say?”

  I kept my expression carefully blank. “I completely agree.”

  “But imagine my surprise in finding a warship full of Celosans, all headed toward Vor’aj. And shortly thereafter, Endrans. I have to admit, it makes me wonder.”

  “We were performing military exercises,” I said.

  Xalaxis sneered. “You’re a poor liar, Professor. Mind you, I’ve already questioned several Celosans, and know a great deal about you. The terrible ordeal you had to go through—threatened and imprisoned by your own countrymen. Oh dear, what’s a man to do?”

  “I made my decisions,” I said.

  Xalaxis held up one bony finger. “Now that’s the truth, isn’t it? And a wise response. Too often people blame their circumstances on others, but we all make our own choices in the end. Would I be right to guess that you have no particular inclination toward the Endrans, though?”

  “I’ve grown quite fond of a few,” I tried to keep my eyes away from Annora when I said this, but a knowing smirk curved on the High Priest’s face.

  “You’re not going to believe this, but I’m a fair and reasonable man. I’m willing to let you and all of your friends go this very moment, if you give me the Corelight fragment.”

  I looked down at my palm. “It’s fused into my hand,” I said.

  “I can remove it, if you’re willing to cooperate. Then I shall send you on your way, with my promise that neither you nor any other will be harmed. You have my word.”

  I wiped sweat from my forehead. “I can’t trust you.”

  “You can’t trust the Endrans either, yet it seems you’ve cozied up to them quite nicely. I assure you I’m far less likely to double-cross you than they are.”

  I laughed wearily at this. “You’re a cultist.”

  “What a nasty word. ‘Cultist.’ Do you know what the difference between a cult and a church is? Numbers. And there was a time when millions visited this temple every year.”

  “Until Nuruthil tried to wipe out humanity.”

  “So the lie goes,” Xalaxis said. “The greatest lie ever propagated. Nuruthil didn’t want to destroy Arkos, he wanted to restore it. To make it better, more pure. To save what could be saved, and cast away the corruption that had been festering at the heart of it all.”

  Xalaxis gestured at the room around us. “This was his seat of power. This was the Throne of Nuruthil.” He pointed to the huge, jagged chair nearby. “Centuries ago, we would be standing in the presence of a god. The Corelight is a mere echo of his power…but with it, I could build an empire worthy of his return.”

  At this point, it should be clear that I was stalling. Having a pleasant chat with a lunatic wasn’t particularly high on my priority list, but it helped me in two ways. The mere fact that he hadn’t tried to force the Corelight away from me seemed to indicate that he wasn’t particularly strong. It was possible, therefore, that something mundane might be able to harm him.

  While we’d been talking, my hand had found my right pocket. Inside was the signal flare that I’d been provided back at the wreckage of the Trinitus. The fact that it was still on my person (and hadn’t been taken by the cultists) made it likely that Magister Annora still had hers, too.

  “Annora,” I called to her. Her eyes opened, and she looked at me, then toward the High Priest.

  “Professor…you have to run. Just leave me, get back to the ship.”

  I spoke my next words slowly and deliberately. “We’re separated from the group, Annora. Do you remember what you said to do if we got separated?”

  Her eyes lit up so quickly, that I was glad Xalaxis’s attention was not on her. I saw her hands slowly moving toward her pockets, until her left hand rested on what I hoped was her flare.

  Xalaxis wrinkled his nose in a horrific smile. “If you think you’ll be rescued in this place, you’re mistaken. The dragons themselves could not breach our defenses.” He reached out and put his hand on Annora’s shoulder. “My patience has reached its end. Surrender the fragment, or watch her burn.”

  To Xalaxis’ utter astonishment, I smiled wide from ear to ear. He was so confused by this, that he did a double take. At the same time, Annora had retrieved the flare from her pocket, and pointed it straight at the man’s face.

  “Only one of us is going to burn, you son of a bitch,” she said through clenched teeth. She pressed her finger into the switch, and the flare ignited, shooting directly into the High Priest’s cowl.

  It exploded like a firework, throwing molten-hot shards of glowing debris in all directions. Some scorched Annora, and some even made it to me, but Xalaxis got the brunt of it by far.

  He screamed in a wretched, unnatural way, like a screeching, dying animal, as the skin on his face burned from the flare. It lasted only a moment, but it was enough to cause him tremendous pain, and it stunned him long enough for me to dash toward Annora and guide her out of the throne room. As we passed one of the guard’s bodies (still melded into the walls), I retrieved one of their swords.

  I didn’t use the Corelight to jump away, even though I probably could have. I needed enough strength left to rescue Titus from his cell, and escape Azror’jir.

  “Can you keep up with me?” I asked Annora after we made it to the hall.

  “I… I think so,” Annora said, panting.

  I put my hands on the sides of her head. “You can do this?”

  She nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. “I can do this.”

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Creatures of the Void

  “WHere are we going?” Annora asked as I pulled her through the temple corridors.

  “Back to my cell,” I said. “A friend of mine from the Acamedria is there, we have to get him out of here.”

  “I heard Xalaxis say there was only one Celosan left alive,” she said as we ran. “He’s going to expect us to head there, and by now he’s alerted his guards.”

  “I think there’s only a skeleton garrison here,” I said. “If we’re careful, we can avoid being caught.” We turned a corner, and I saw the holding cells in the distance. “This way!”

  As we neared the block, a guard appeared, blocking our passage. He was lightly armored in chain mail and a metal helmet. He was actually the most human person I’d encountered among the cultists thus far, but even so, there was something off about his eyes—they had a reddish tint to them. He stared us down, and drew his longsword.

  I clenched the Corelight and stepped toward him. “I think I can handle him.”

  “No,” Annora said. “Stay here, Professor.”

  “But your arm,” I said.

  She looked straight at me, and I saw a fire behind
her eyes that I hadn’t seen before. “I’m a soldier of the Sun King. I don’t need magic to fight.” She reached toward me, and I set the sword I’d taken into her hand.

  Weary and wounded, she marched toward the man, unafraid. He jeered at her and swung hard, missing her, but striking an obsidian statue with such force that it shattered, and pieces went gliding across the smooth floor.

  Taking advantage of the man’s mistake, she lunged forward with her blade, slicing him across the shoulder. It glanced off his chain mail, not wounding him, but it did take him off balance.

  She swung again, striking him hard, this time at his more vulnerable neck. Again, the blade did not pierce the chain mail there, but the blunt force of the blade was so great that it nearly broke his neck. He fell sideways, choking and sputtering, and Annora used this moment to plunge her blade down, directly at the opening between his helmet and chest armor, slicing his throat.

  She was panting heavily, holding the bloodied sword at her side, and looking down at the man’s body. She looked a bit shaken when I approached her, and jostled her to her senses.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She nodded absentmindedly. “I… yes, I’m fine. ”

  “Let’s go,” I said, nudging toward the cell blocks. “We’re not far from—”

  Before I could finish my sentence, a noise broke my concentration. It was no human sound. I knew for a fact that the man at our feet was dead. His throat had been slit. He was gone. Nevertheless, when I peered down, his body was jerking and moving, as if a writhing mass inside him was trying to escape. Ink-black shadows enveloped his corpse, and his flesh began to expand and contract in horrific ways.

  Whatever was happening to him, I knew it couldn’t be good, and I tried to will my body to move… but I was frozen in place, terror running through my heart. My mind was yelling at my body: Run. Move. Hurry. You mustn’t stay here. But I couldn’t get my body to respond.

  Shadowy tendrils pooled from the man’s body, and a creature appeared from it. “Creature” is the best descriptor I can use, though it was no animal. It was an amalgamation of flesh, tendrils, eyes, and teeth—but it had far too many eyes, far too many mouths, far too many twitching limbs. It was an aberration of nature, a snapping, snarling monstrosity unlike anything I’d ever encountered before.

  We had no time to muse on exactly what it was, and fortunately Annora wasn’t frozen with fear as I was. This time, she pulled me along, until I could find my senses.

  “The cell, Professor!” she shouted to me. I could hear the creature in the distance, gurgling and snarling.

  “Cell?” I said in a stupefied daze.

  We stopped for the briefest of seconds, and she shook me hard. “Your friend!” she shouted. “We have to save your friend!”

  “My…” Some of my wit finally came back to me, and I suddenly remembered Titus. My glance darted around the block, and found the proper cell.

  “Take my hand,” I said, holding it out. “We’re going to jump inside.”

  She did so, and within seconds, we’d passed through the metal door. Knowing that there was now a solid plate of iron between us and the creature did a lot to alleviate my anxiety…though I could feel my limbs shaking.

  Titus was momentarily startled upon seeing us appear out of thin air, but upon seeing Annora, his mood improved. He stood up excitedly.

  “Titus, I presume?” Annora said.

  “My lady,” Titus said, bowing slightly.

  Suddenly, the door to the cell rumbled, and it was apparent that the creature was ramming the door. The first hit did little but shake it, but the second one nearly broke the hinges.

  “Take my hands!” I shouted to them. They each did so, clutching hard.

  “We can’t go out there,” Annora said.

  “I know. We’re going to have to go somewhere else.”

  “Where?” Annora said.

  “Hopefully somewhere outside of the temple,” I said.

  “Hopefully?” Titus said.

  “If I can’t see where I’m going, there’s a chance we’ll appear inside of solid matter.”

  “I’ve seen what that can do,” Annora said.

  Again the door rumbled, and bent inward under the creature’s thrashes.

  “Let’s go!” Titus shouted.

  Despite the creature only a few feet away, despite the shouting, and despite my fear of materializing inside of a wall or a tree, I did my best to clear my mind of all distractions. I closed my eyes, and tried my best to picture where I wanted to go. Somewhere safe from harm. I held that hope in my mind like a precious jewel: safety.

  The cell door burst off its hinges, falling inward, and the void creature stepped over it. I opened my eyes to meet it, still holding my destination in my mind. It had grown much larger, and its tendrils had extended to encompass the entire doorway. Its thousand eyes blinked and turned independently, zeroing in on us.

  The beast lunged forward, but just before the seething mass of flesh could get to us, the Corelight fragment activated, and we were gone in a flash of light.

  I cannot tell you exactly where we ended up, and to be honest, the next few hours are a blur even to this day. My prolonged use of the Corelight had drained me in ways that I couldn’t quite fathom at the time. I could feel that I’d materialized somewhere, but I couldn’t actually see anything. Wherever it was it was warm, and humid.

  I’d learn later that this was a state called “aftershock.” Something that magisters experienced if they taxed their templars too far. Apparently, the Corelight had opened and expanded my own templar in ways that I could only begin to understand.

  The main takeaway is that I collapsed immediately, and blacked out. To this day, I do not know exactly how long I was out. When I awoke, I found it incredibly difficult to open my eyes. I could hear sounds all around me: the hiss of steam, the clanking of gears, and rumble of engines. I heard people talking indistinctly, but couldn’t make out individual voices, or specifically what those voices were saying.

  I found the strength to crack my eyes open, and the hazy room came into view. To my utter relief, I was aboard the Concordance. Specifically, I was in the infirmary, on one of the beds. When one of the medics saw me stirring, she hurried to my side, and shone a light directly into my eyes. I winced, but she held one of my eyelids open and moved the light from side to side.

  “Can you hear me, Professor?” she asked.

  I found my voice, though it was hoarse and weak. “I… I can.”

  I tilted my head to the side, and saw several familiar faces were near the infirmary door, speaking amongst each other. Amelia Ross was among them, and she was the first to notice that I was awake. With her were Commander Talthis and Dennith Crissom.

  “It’s good to have you awake, Professor,” Ross said. She looked to the nurse. “Will he be okay?”

  The nurse checked my pulse and nodded. “Aftershock is a tricky thing, but he’ll live. Thanks in no small part to Magister Annora. She says she was able to stabilize him. If not for her, it’s unlikely he would’ve survived.”

  I leaned up in the bed. “Annora, is she okay? And Titus?”

  Crissom made a calming gesture. “Fine, they’re both just fine. Don’t strain yourself.”

  Commander Talthis was the only one that didn’t approach me, instead staying back with his arms crossed. “Annora’s told us quite a tale,” he said.

  “It w-was…” I stammered, looking for the right words. “It was dreadful.”

  “I can only imagine what you’ve been through,” Ross said. “And by all accounts, you performed heroically, and saved the life of one of my magisters. You have my sincerest thanks.”

  “I should be thanking Annora,” I said, looking around. “Where is she?”

  “Her physical wounds were superficial,” Ross said. “As for her mind… she’s shaken. She’s strong, though. Hopefully she’ll be back to her old self in time.”

  “And Titus?”

  She gave
me a curious look, then mouthed an ah. “Professor Mettius, yes. He’s going to be our guest for the time being, along with the gentleman you rescued from the Trinitus.”

  “They’ll be questioned a great deal, of course,” Talthis said bluntly.

  Ross gave him a dissatisfied look. “Nothing too barbaric, I assure you. Just a few questions so that we know what they know.”

  “Their safety and wellbeing is our top priority, in fact,” Crissom said. “Simply put, without them, Celosa might blame their vessel’s destruction on us. Having a few Celosan witnesses to report the real story is in our favor.”

  Magister Ross patted the bed. “We’ll have a debriefing when the nurse says you’re well. I have several questions about these cultists… and this ‘void apparition’ that Annora mentioned. Conjuring magic of that sort is not something to take lightly. In the meantime, we’re continuing our course to Vor’aj at quarter speed.” She gestured at the others. “Gentlemen, if you’ll join me.”

  It took twenty minutes for Tiffin and Decan to learn that I’d regained consciousness. Apparently, the nurse had to kick them out more than once while I was out. When they found out I’d come to, however, the nurse didn’t even attempt to shuffle them out.

  I got a big hug from both of them, and a kiss on the cheek from Tiffin.

  “I was so worried about you, Professor,” she said through watery eyes.

  “I knew you’d be okay,” Decan said with a smile.

  Tiffin shoved him. “Don’t lie, you were as worried as me.”

  “I admit I was… concerned,” Decan said.

  “He was bawling,” Tiffin said, wiping her eyes.

  I gave them a very sincere smile. “You’re both incredible. You shouldn’t have worried about me, though. I’m tougher than I look.”

  “They wouldn’t let us off the ship to help search for you,” Decan said.

  “Good,” I countered. “I’d be furious if they did.”

  Decan crossed his arms. “All I could do was pace around the ship, and finish reading The Dragon King.”