I still need to figure out what exactly we’re doing here though… there’s got to be more to the story than I’m hearing.
Lyght glanced over at Mikael as they approached the lift, and his friend just shrugged back, apparently with no better ideas than Lyght had. Lyght clinched his fists; he couldn’t help but notice the sword still strapped to Mikael’s back. Largely disarmed himself, Lyght was only left with a knife on his right hip, and a much smaller knife – ineffective against all but vital points – hidden in his right boot. Not much to work with, especially if their break-in turned into a fight. He couldn’t see how Lyaness was so sure it wouldn’t – they had to run into guards at some point, didn’t they? If they were caught breaking into the King’s stronghold at night, especially since Lyght and Mikael had the King’s trust… it would be a bad, bad situation.
They got in the lift, and Lyaness hit floor ninety-five, the highest button she could hit without the special crystals that Lyght had seen the Legends use to gain access to the higher floors. Lyght frowned, hoping the girl had some plan to get them up to the top, where they apparently needed to go.
As the doors slid shut, Lyaness exhaled and leaned against the wall as they rose through the soaring diamond tower, “OK, we have a minute to talk in here if you guys need to. Once we come out, we’re going to have to be completely silent so we don’t get detected. It will be difficult, but if you follow my lead and stay focused, we’ll be alright. I’ve done this before.” A duller BOOM now accented her words as she spoke, pulsing with that bone-jarring deepness every five to six seconds or so. It wasn’t as loud in here, but Lyght could see the dark steel walls of the lift vibrating at each titanic beat.
But Lyght would have to get to that point in a second…
He turned to his sister, intent on asking the question he’d wanted to before, “How can you be sure that the Dark is actually sourced through this building? I mean, let’s actually think this through, that sounds a little far-fetched, doesn’t it? Why would the Dark be sustained by the King’s palace? I’m not sure that the Dream Syndicate really is objective about this issue, or could be trusted to give you accurate information. These are just those types of things that nobody knows about.”
Sky put a hand on her older brother’s shoulder, “Look, I don’t have time to tell you all the information that Troy told me right now, but believe me when I say that nothing is as it seems. I still don’t know everything, but from what I heard, almost everything we grew up being told was real is actually just a distortion of the truth. The Dark is actually created, sustained, and manipulated by the King for his own selfish purposes. The Dream Syndicate knows how things were before Decimader’s reign, and so they want to end it. It’s the King who is somehow so powerful, his influence and power – the Dark – compels everyone to need to fall completely asleep at a certain time each and every night. To him, everything is about his rule, not his people. I mean, we should have realized this! ‘The Hero’? He gave himself that nickname!”
Sky looked back and forth between Lyght and Mikael. Lyght was still skeptical, but he could see Mikael looking very interested. Lyaness seemed to be taking Sky’s words for granted, like she already knew them somehow. She did look… impressed, however.
Sky checked the floor indicator – they were halfway up, “Believe me, I know his past now, and the last thing Decimader Vuruman has ever been is a hero. I wish, I wish I had time to explain it all to you right now, but I don’t. Just… have a little faith in me, okay? Remember back on the Joy the day of your eighteenth birthday? When you told me you wanted to destroy the Dark, I trusted in you then. It was a hard thing for me to do, so I understand what you’re feeling now, but just trust me. Alright?”
Lyght hesitated for just the slightest second before giving in, “Okay. I trust you.” Mikael nodded, “Same here. You’re a good kid, Sky. We do trust you, always remember that. Your brother here believes in you, he just wants to make sure you understand your path before taking it.” Lyght looked at his friend in amusement.
Can he really express my feelings better than I can now? He knows me too well.
Mikael kept speaking, a bit hurried as they approached the top floor now, “Lyaness? This may be more your area of expertise; what’s that huge… pulsing that’s been going on since we got here? It’s so loud, I can’t believe we didn’t hear it outside. You’re in Triumph all the time. Does this usually happen? And if so, what is it? Is it connected to the Dark somehow?”
Lyaness shrugged, “As for that last part, I don’t know. I know there’s Dark upstairs in the apex, but I’ve never heard of Triumph being a ‘source’ of the Dark or anything like that. I’ve never actually been up to the very top floor, so I’m not sure what all is up there – I’m pretty sure you need to be a Dreamcaster to get in. Since I’m no Dreamcaster myself, I’ve never been able to get in. So we’ll see for ourselves if what Sky’s saying is true.” They reached the top floor now, but Lyaness held her finger on the “close door” button to finish her explanation.
“As for the pulsing, yes, it’s always like that. But tonight, it’s much, much louder than usual. I wish I knew why… It seems to me that the building makes the sound internally, so you wouldn’t hear it from the outside, if that makes any sense. Sometimes I feel like Triumph is actually more of a living thing than anything else. That’s a good way to understand it, I think.” No one said anything at this, but Lyght was admittedly surprised to hear such a claim from Lyaness, who spent so much time here. What did she mean by that?
Lyaness still had one more thing to say before they went out, “OK, usually the ninety-fifth is deserted, but there’s typically guards – Legends, especially – up on the top few floors. We’re going to have to be very stealthy, because Legends exclusively will be up here, since it’s a Dark night. As you guys probably know, the Legends are the elite of the elite, and if you make the slightest sound out of turn, they will detect you, and we will all be in very big trouble. Understand?” They all nodded, and Lyght had to say he was glad for the group he was in. He and Mikael had trained in stealth tactics in the Legion Academy, and Sky was as sneaky as they came – a product of her troublemaking habits. Lyaness seemed to be as well. They should be alright. Or so Lyght hoped.
Lyaness let her finger off the button and motioned for them to follow her, heading out of the lift and left down a hallway Lyght had been in before. There was a huge set of double doors that led to the place he’d met with the First Legend, as well as the social rooms like the ornate ballroom where he’d dined with the King. There were no guards in front of the doors as usual, but there was an odd… chain of sorts on the door that looked to be made of pale blue light. He guessed it must have been placed there by a Legend; which meant to maintain the lock, at least one Legend must be somewhere within the next few floors. Lyght crept along, imitating Lyaness in front. When she went back against the wall and crept up to a corner, Lyght did the same behind her. Apparently hearing nothing, she suddenly darted around the corner with insane agility – especially for a non-Dreamcaster. Lyght, caught entirely by surprise, burned a little spirit as he spun around the corner to keep pace.
Lyght looked up and down the empty, shadowy hallway with its pale blue carpet and walls, crystal chandeliers hanging unlit from the ceiling. He frowned, having lost Lyaness for a second. Lyght caught a flash of movement in the lower left hand corner of his vision, thankfully, and saw Lyaness motioning to him from a small little fissure in the wall. Lyght turned sideways and, with some degree of difficulty in his armor, slid into the little crack and inched along sideways, trying to make as little noise as possible.
They emerged into an identical hallway on the other side – so similar that Lyght looked around frowning, ensuring that they hadn’t somehow come in a circle. Apparently Lyaness knew where she was going, however, as she crouched down and hurried along the hallway, silently sliding open a door with great care and ducking inside. They climbed a set of winding stone steps to a heavyset iron
door, with another of those pale blue chains of light on its handle. Lyght felt a sinking feeling, thinking Lyaness’ route was blocked off, but she pulled him forward and placed his hand on the lock. She nodded to Lyght, and he understood the command. He channeled the shortest burst of spirit through his right hand, and the blue light chain dissolved and dissipated. Lyaness placed her back against the door and looked at the three of them.
She spoke in a low voice, “Good job so far, guys. This room in front of us is the toughest part. There is a sort of ‘Dreamcasting web’ of light crisscrossing the room, of such a wavelength that it is invisible to the naked eye. If any part of your body even slightly grazes a beam, the Legend who set the line will be alerted, we’ll have the whole Legion coming down on us. As many as they can get over here, anyway. Follow my exact movements. It took me years of experience to figure out the exact placement of these things – don’t waste that now. If I’m caught, I’m never getting in here again. And we’ll all be in huge trouble if they do find us.” Lyght, Mikael, and Sky nodded affirmatively, showing they understood.
Lyaness continued, “There’s a trapdoor that leads to the apex in the center of the room. It looks like a symbol painted on the ceiling, but that marks its location.” She paused, ear to the door. Silence. “Alright, ready?” she asked, and Lyght and Sky nodded, Mikael giving her the thumbs-up. Lyaness slid the door open swiftly and silently, stepping ahead into the next room. Lyght followed her, giving a quick glance around the room – noting a simple, circular structure complete with furniture and even a piano – before locking his gaze back onto Lyaness. Interesting… so they’d even gone to lengths to make this look like a normal room. Well, it definitely wasn’t that.
As it turned out, the going was very slow, and Lyght couldn’t help getting frustrated. Lyaness spent more time standing and looking, a look of intense concentration on her face, than she did actually moving. Lyght made sure to follow the moves she did make to a tee, moving and stepping in the exact manner that she did – knowing that if he tripped an alarm it was all over for them. Lyght took every step with dread, thinking that this time, he or one of his friends was going to mess up the slightest amount, and end their chance to ever get to the apex.
After twenty grueling minutes, Lyght took a careful step sideways over what he knew was an invisible beam of light, and came to a stop as Lyaness grabbed his wrist. They were all in the center of the large room now, once Mikael and Sky stepped over the final beam. Lyaness indicated for Lyght to raise his hand up to the trapdoor on the low ceiling above, otherwise plain looking but with an odd twisting, circular symbol painted on it that Lyght didn’t recognize. He channeled spirit as before, but was frustrated to see that it didn’t work. Lyaness nodded to herself, than motioned for Mikael to place his hand on the symbol next to Lyght’s. This time, when Lyght sent a burst of spirit through his hand, the black symbol glowed a sudden, blinding white, and the trapdoor swung open. Lyght looked upward, tense with anticipation, but couldn’t see much other than darkness. That had to be where the Dark blocked out the windows – there was no light getting through up there.
Lyght clambered up through the door after the other three, feet hitting a dusty floor as he crouched in anticipation with a hand over the knife on his right hip. He was in an enormous room, he could tell that, but it was taking awhile for his eyes to adjust. Before he could make out much of his surroundings, he did suddenly become aware of the fact there was someone standing in the room with them, near the center. A large figure, glinting with some dark color that Lyght couldn’t make out through the gloom. The figure turned around as he heard the trapdoor close, and spoke in a voice that stopped Lyght in his tracks.
“So… you came.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
At first, Lyght was sure he hadn’t heard right. That somehow, his injuries from before were affecting his senses. Or maybe it was something else… but he was sure that he’d somehow made a mistake. No… he definitely hadn’t heard what he thought he’d heard. It wasn’t even possible to hear that voice anyway, because that voice was dead.
And had been for ten years.
Lyght inched forward cautiously, his friends at his side, still with his right hand on the knife at his hip as he prepared for the individual in the center of the room to attack him. The figure spoke in the voice again, and now Lyght really had to believe there was something wrong, “Long time no see Lyght… wow, you really grew up.” The figure moved with such sudden speed it blurred, and Lyght tensed, glad he’d thought to keep his hand on his knife. The shadowy figure flashed right in front of him and Lyght unconsciously took a half step back, waiting for the blow to fall. It never came.
A hand fell on his shoulder, and Lyght looked up…
And looked into his father’s face for the first time in ten years.
Lyght froze in shock, unable to believe what he was seeing. It just wasn’t supposed to be possible; Lyght had seen the attacker’s swords pierce his father’s heart on that fateful night ten years ago. He’d felt the agony burn deep inside himself as he’d exploded with anger and lashed out at the assailants with his newfound Dreamcasting power, potent even as a ten-year-old in his rage. However, even Lyght had fallen under a vicious attack from the numerous attackers.
He’d never been able to prove it, but Lyght had always had the strongest feeling that the Dream Syndicate had carried out the attack. Lyght hadn’t known for years who the mysterious figures in black were, but years later he began hearing of the Dream Syndicate, a criminal organization in the north who were essentially rogue Dreamcasters. Lyght couldn’t say why exactly, but he’d begun to think in recent years that it had been the Dream Syndicate who had killed his father. This suspicion had been underlined when the King had recently revealed that the Dream Syndicate was the sworn enemy of the Legion. Lyght had figured that taking out not just one, but two Dreamcasters with future potential of joining the Legion was just the kind of thing this group would do. Again, he never could prove it, as the attackers had been cloaked in all black without markers. But he’d always hated the Dream Syndicate for what he felt they’d done to him.
But anymore… he didn’t know what to think of them. Sky had been traveling with their leaders, and swore their mission was really to destroy the Dark – which, according to her, was sourced by the King to cement his rule over an ignorant people. Seth and Iri were apparently Dream Syndicate leaders as well, and they didn’t seem like the type of people who would sanction his father’s murder. Lyght just felt so… confused at the moment. Nothing made sense
And to underline that sense of confusion, here was a face from Lyght’s past, a dead past, coming up again in the most bizarre of circumstances. It almost felt too good to be true; Lyght half-thought it just had to be an imposter. There was no way his father had survived the strike to the heart that Lyght had watched happen, and he knew that no art, Dreamcasting or otherwise, could bring back the dead. Lyght studied the man’s face, trying to look for the giveaway that he was an impostor.
He found nothing, however. It was indeed Lucent’s face, complete with the same hair and eyes that had been passed down to his son. No one Lyght knew today had known both him and his father; but if they did, they would’ve had to note that they looked scarily alike. Indeed, Lucent looked almost exactly how Lyght would imagine he’d look at that age – the same messy black hair, the same light brown eyes, and the same athletic build. Lyght couldn’t help but feel like he was looking at a reflection of himself in the future as he stared into his dad’s face.
And then, the man did something that Lyght was sure no impostor would ever do; he reached an arm out and pulled Lyght into a one-armed hug, messing Lyght’s hair up with his other hand just like he used to do when Lyght was a kid, roaming the land with his father and searching for the Legion. This gesture, more than anything else, brought the reality crashing down like a thunderbolt through Lyght’s mind – this was no fake. Only Lyght’s real father would’ve known the gesture, and thoug
ht to use it at a time like this. It was the exact sort of thing Lyght’s dad would do after not seeing his son for over ten years.
Pulling back, Lyght’s father Lucent stood up straight, looking at his now eighteen-year-old son with fascination, “Wow, you’ve gotten tall! Almost my height now. You don’t know how old that makes me feel”. Lucent laughed, and Lyght found he couldn’t quite return the favor. It was like there was some sort of knot in his throat preventing him from speaking. He could see comprehension dawning on Sky and Mikael’s faces off to the side, as the realized who this must be. Although, like Lyght, they seemed wildly confused about how this could even be happening.
After a few moments, Lyght swallowed hard, finally gaining the ability to speak, albeit in a pretty weak voice, “Yeah – it’s… right… Um, how –?” Despite Lyght’s mangled speech, his father clearly understood the meaning plainly enough, “I’ll explain it in full, I promise. But what I say won’t make any sense without the explanation from my friend here first.” Lucent motioned behind him, and Lyght looked over his dad’s shoulder, now making out another three shadowy figures in the darkness – two giant, one much smaller. They stepped forward at the mention, and Lyght was surprised to see Seth and Iri flanking Lyn on either side. Apparently, they must’ve successfully freed the hulking Legend.
Lyn wasn’t wearing his Legion armor or cloak now, however. He sported a tattered white shirt and black shorts – it was clear he’d just been in prison. Although from Lyght’s understanding, the term hadn’t been longer than a few hours; Lyn still looked completely healthy. He was unarmed, however. Lyght had to admire the Legend’s bravery in sneaking up here, to surely the most high-security location in the Dreamscape, as a wanted man who’d just broken out of prison. The fact that the Legend had been teaching Lyght and working in the Legion the whole time while simultaneously acting as a double-agent the whole time for the Dream Syndicate was apparently, according to Sky at least, the reason for his arrest. And if Sky was to be believed, Seth and Iri had also been leaders of the Dream Syndicate all along. And the fact that they’d been in the heart of the King’s Dreamscape the whole time, training at his Legion Academy without being found out for who they really were? Incredible.
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