by Riley Tune
“My sister and I have never seen eye to eye. You know that. If you think back to when this all started, in Pradeep—I told her she didn’t have to do this.” He was right. I did remember him saying that to his sister, but I had thought he was talking about everything that was about to come.
“Lox, you have to believe me. I want to stop her as much as you.”
“Then tell me the truth. Tell me what’s really going on,” I said as I stepped back from him, dagger still raised. “Believe me when I tell you—if you try anything, I will kill you, Remy.”
26
“I suggest you start by telling me how you even knew where to find me,” I said as Remy moved to sit down. He was followed by Sprits, who leaned on his leg. They seemed to be getting along better than ever. As everything had been going on, I had forgotten about Sprits. At least he was being taken care of.
“I’ve known where you lived from the moment Ember brought you to us,” Remy replied. “When you showed up with him, you were an unexpected addition to our ranks, and I wanted to know as much about you as I could. Just to be safe.”
I glanced at the door, and then to some of the windows in the room. He seemed to read my mind and knew what I was thinking.
“I didn’t tell anybody where you were from. You don’t have to worry about that,” he said as he leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “A man should feel safe in his home. I wouldn’t take that away from you, Lox.”
“If only your sister thought like you did,” I said as I sat down at the table. “So what’s going on out there?” I asked him. “Was any of it true? Or was your sister just stringing us along the entire time?”
He turned from me slightly. He looked odd as he searched for the words to say. His hands kept moving, as if he was used to holding something that wasn’t there now. A book, I was sure. This was one of the rare times I had seen Remy without a book in hand.
“Yes,” he said suddenly. “Some of it was true. There was a person who arrived in our lands from beyond the waters. He had others with him, and traveled in something called a boat.” He paused as he tried to calm his hands. Remy began to clasp them together to keep them from moving.
“Then there were parts that weren’t true, and parts that were left out.”
“Well, explain,” I said as I locked my eyes on him.
“First, the few men that arrived in our lands in a boat. They claimed they had traveled across the waters in a larger boat that they called a ship.
“When they arrived, the Emperor didn’t discover them, but some of our workers did. We owned the land they landed on and, before we notified the Emperor, Rema spent days talking to them and learning from them. Then she killed the few she had talked to, and turned the others over to the Emperor.”
“So why all of this? Why go kill the Emperor?”
“Rema has always had a lust for power.” He laughed a little. “When she found out there were other lands beyond ours, she urged the Emperor and Empress to use these people and to spread our control. Naturally, they declined her, and it was then that her plan was put in motion. To overthrow the Emperor, and to secretly venture out into this new world.”
I opened my mouth, but he raised his hands.
“There is more.” He looked almost afraid now as his eyes got wide, and his leg began to shake a little. “These people, from beyond the water, said they didn’t find us by accident. They told us that their god had sent them. A god other than the Keeper.”
“That’s it?” I said as I laughed. Remy looked at me with a flat expression, mouth open slightly. “I don’t believe in all that. So let’s not fear them just because these people have decided to believe in unseen forces.”
He nodded, but still looked at me in surprise. Clearly he had expected me to be afraid, as he was, at the idea of a god outside the Keeper.
“What does she intend to do to Vida and Jolin?” I asked him.
He stood up and waved his hands as he moved around. “I don't know. She is spreading the lie that all of you were involved in an elaborate plot. A plot where Jolin was the mastermind.” That was unexpected.
“How is she going to make people believe that? What reason would Jolin have to try to have the Emperor killed?” Remy exhaled and looked away from me. “Remy,” I said, following him when he walked away.
“Jolin,” he said, “is a noble. Well, he was a noble, anyway.”
I shook my head as I laughed slightly. “Jolin is a lot of things. Good at patching you up if you’re cut. Unusually polite. But he isn’t a noble.”
“You’re right and wrong. Jolin’s family was originally of high noble status. Higher than that of mine, I’m afraid.” I could tell from his face that Remy was serious. There wasn’t a flicker of laughter or a hint of a smile. “Jolin’s family was stripped of their status, wealth, and possessions, before he was even born, by the Emperor’s father. Jolin’s family, disgraced as they were, fled from Thera to start a new life in Galcon. It wasn’t until Jolin realized that he was a Tongue that he began collecting secrets, hoping to find a way to restore his family's name. My sister promised him that his family's name would be restored when this was all done.”
I hadn’t expected this. Jolin, a noble? If this was true, it made him an easy person to place the blame on, and to take the fall for Rema’s plan. Jolin would never be allowed to speak out against the accusations.
I could feel myself begin to panic. “What about Vida?” I asked.
“She is likely to face the same outcome as Jolin,” Remy replied. I looked at him silently. “Execution,” he said slowly.
“Execution?” I repeated. “How soon?”
“Tomorrow morning. In front of the council, and the upper classes of Thera. They are being held at the council’s building under heavy guard, so when the time comes, there won’t be a long wait. Rema’s idea.”
Tomorrow. That was soon, but it did give me some time to try to get them out. I had no idea how to rescue them. This wasn’t what Warpers did, and we certainly weren’t known for our ability to halt murders.
I put my belt on and placed my dagger and throwing knives on the table.
“If you really want to help, I need you to talk to as many people as you can and tell them what is really going on.”
Remy didn’t seem too keen on this idea. “Rema has many supporters, and those that don’t support her still accept bribes from her,” he replied.
“Many isn’t the same as all,” I said to him as I began to sharpen my dagger.
“Tell as many people as you can, and try to halt the execution. I don’t need you to really stop it, because I’m going to get them out.”
“How?” he asked.
It was a good question. One which I had no answer to. There wasn’t enough time to research the council building thoroughly enough to make the plan work, but I needed to figure out something.
“I’ll figure it out,” I told him as I pointed to the door.
“You just head there now and convince as many people that you can that Rema was behind it all. Give them proof if you have it.”
He looked at me blankly one last time, as if he was waging an internal battle in his head. Then he slowly nodded as he picked up Sprits and went for the door.
“Remy,” I said as he opened the door. He was almost out, and had to lean around the door to see me. “Your sister.”
He shook his head in agreement. “She’s done horrible things. Do what you must. I hold no grudges.” He left my home, and gently shut the door behind him.
I continued to sharpen my blades. With what was coming, and the sheer amount of people who were going to die, the last thing I wanted during this insane rescue attempt was a dull blade. I was almost done when I heard a knock at the door again.
I jerked it open. “Forget something?” I said, in a mocking tone. But when the door opened, I found that it wasn’t Remy at all. It was a child. I had seen this child before, but I couldn’t remember where. He had on dirty clothes, and l
ooked up at me and smiled.
“Hello, Lox,” he said as he flashed those white teeth. Then it hit me—he was the child on the street that I gave the yolar to as the fight broke out.
I looked at him with a grimace on my face. “How do you know my name?” I asked him. “Better yet, how do you know where I live?”
I slowly put my hand behind my back to reach for my dagger and found nothing. I cursed to myself. They were still on the table. Sharp and ready to go.
“I know many things,” the boy said.
His voice didn’t match his body. He sounded older than he appeared. “Maybe this body wasn’t the best choice, but it was in this body that you were the nicest to me, so I thought it would make it easy.”
He stepped back some and changed. This time, he was in the form of the extremely large man that had been asleep outside The Clarkton.
I could feel my brow rise. “You’re a Changeling?” I said in shock.
He shook his head. “No. They are me,” he replied, in the same voice, which now sounded too young for his body. “May I come in?”
“No. It’s better if you tell me—”
My words were cut off as this boy, this changeling boy, now in the form of a man almost larger than my house, did something that should have been impossible. I knew it was coming, as I saw the air around him shift into a haze.
He warped.
Heart pounding, I turned and warped to my table, and grabbed a dagger. The boy was already inside the house, but in a different form. He stood before me with a smile on his face, those same unusually white teeth on display. He was a little shorter than me now, with smooth, light brown skin, and hair that was curly and unnaturally dark.
“What are you?” I asked as I kept my dagger on him. I tried not to, but I was beginning to panic. He was a Changeling, yet he was a Warper, too. Was that even possible? Just when I had thought this scene couldn’t get any more complicated, I was proven wrong.
The boy, standing with a smile on his face, spoke as he waved his hand. “We don’t have much time. I’ve seen what’s to come, and you need to be ready for it. Even I can’t change it.” As he spoke, and moved his hand, my dagger warped from my hand and appeared in his.
“How?” I said as I felt sweat on my brow and my heart fell to my stomach. I looked at my empty hand. He was an inward Warper, and an outward Warper? Plus he was a—no. This couldn’t be. I backed away slowly, trying to position myself near a window so that I could see a way out.
“You asked me what I was,” the boy said casually as he sat down at the table and pulled another chair out for me. “The better question is who am I. An answer you will find hard to believe.”
He looked at me as he propped his feet up on the table. I didn’t move, and I surely wasn’t about to join him at the table, but I asked anyway.
“Okay,” I said slowly. “Who are you?”
“I have been called many things over the centuries, but long ago I was a simple farm boy who just wanted to play with his friends. In those times I was called Nasium Suro. My mother named me, don’t insult it.
“Nobody has called me that for a long time, not since the beginning.”
“So what should I call you?” I asked him. “Because you seem to know a lot about me.”
He exhaled slightly and looked at me as he gestured for me to sit. I didn’t.
“Most people these days refer to me as The Keeper.”
27
“The Keeper?” I asked with a bemused grin on my face. I wanted to laugh, but, whether I believed him or not, he was powerful, whoever he was, and I had to choose my response carefully. “Not to insult you, but I’m having a hard time believing that—well, that you’re a god.”
He clasped his hands together as he sat at the table. He looked like a child waiting for more food at dinner.
“I expected as much from you. You are one of the few people who has never believed in me. Despite the amount of faith those close to you have. Your mother and Ember believe. Even you father believes in me.”
“My father,” I said.
He nodded slowly as he looked over the knives on the table. He rubbed his finger along one of the blades and winced for a second. Blood appeared on his skin.
It was there only for a second as the cut healed itself.
I could feel my face frowning as I watched him inspect his finger. “Gods bleed?” I asked him.
“I’m immortal, but not invincible. There’s a difference. Now, please, sit down. A lot must happen in a short time, and it’s easier if I show you some things instead of telling you.”
He gestured for me to sit down once more as he displayed both fully-healed and scar-free hands. It was odd, hearing a child talk to me with such a demanding tone. He appeared to be younger, but had eyes of a person who had lived a hundred lifetimes. They were cold and deep eyes that seemed to look inside of me. These eyes were not those of a normal person.
He seemed to have a lot of knowledge about me, but even Remy had known where I lived, so any person with enough time could figure out private details about a person. Ember and I had done it time and time again. I couldn’t explain the powers, though. How could he do some many things? It shouldn’t have been possible, but then again, what did I know? Up until a few days ago, I hadn't even known Tongues and Changelings existed.
Against my better judgment, I sat down at the table anyway. As soon as I did, he warped. I found him standing behind me now, and for a second I reached for a knife on the table. Before I could get to the knife, I felt a hand on my shoulder, followed by a blinding light across my eyes and pain in my head.
Then there was nothing. No light, no pain, no sound. I could feel my eyes looking around, but I could see nothing. It was just darkness. Never-ending, unmoving darkness. I could faintly feel the hand on my shoulder still. It tightened, and then everything around me exploded to life. It was as if I was watching the world and the people living in it from outside a window.
I felt like I was moving with what I was seeing. As if I were there, but invisible. Everyone was moving at an increased speed. The lives I watched seemed to flash before me. For a second I saw a boy that looked just like the one who claimed he was The Keeper. He was wearing the same clothes, but his face was different. His eyes were different. They were youthful, full of happiness. He was running with three other children. Another boy and two girls.
I couldn’t make their features out, for some reason. All four of them played in what seemed to be a field. The image changed quickly; the four children were now looking at what seemed to be a ripple in the air. Similar to the ones Warpers created, but on a larger scale. It was large, swirling, and black.
My nose suddenly burned. I could smell something. I was inside the hole in the air. It smelled of smoke, yet faintly of something sweet, too. I could hear a voice from one of the children—a girl, I thought—but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. One of the four walked towards the hole and stretched his hand out. Something shot from the rippled air and surrounded his entire body, lifting him off the ground. The other children ran towards him to help. Their muffled voices grew louder as they faded away.
The image changed quickly again; now the four children stood atop a hill, looking at legions of people. No. It was less a hill, and more a mountain. More people than I had ever seen stretched across the land, all looking to them. The legion of people was chanting something, all in unison, but once again, I didn’t know what. The air was cool on my skin up here. I could feel the energy from the four children as I stood with them. It radiated from them like ripples coming from a focal point in water.
Again I could see the face of the boy in my home. He looked worried as he glanced at his peers and then back to the land full of chanters. His peers all had smiles on their faces, but he seemed worried.
The scene faded away with another flash, this time revealing what seemed to be a war. I could smell the air again now. It was foul. A smell of death and blood. The odor was so strong that
it seemed to be in my mouth.
It was snowing. Snow. I hadn’t seen snow or rain in the previous images. Everything in front of me flashed again, and again I saw Nasium Suro. His face was different now. He looked tired. He stood alone on the shores with water behind him. Where were the others? He slowly turned and warped away, but I seemed to follow his warp as he reappeared. Now he was in a field. How had he warped so far without being able to see where he was going? From what I had seen seconds ago, there was no field to use as a warp point.
He looked around him and smiled for a moment, and then the snow came again. He looked up to the sky and frowned some, as if the snow was at fault. Nasium Suro placed his hand on the ground, and it became alive. What was once dark and lifeless became something more. It was grass. Lush, green, and vibrant, and it seemed to flow from his hand, growing on the ground around him. Not just grass, but trees, and flowers as well. He warped again, this time appearing in a different location. He closed his eyes for a moment, and something happened. He glowed for a moment. His entire body became a faint purple glow, and then he returned to normal.
Another flash. Now I could tell where I was. This was Thera, and I could see Nasium Suro, simply walking the streets in the rain. The rain—I could feel it on me. Cool, making my clothes cling to me. He continued to walk as he looked at the buildings and people walking by. He seemed happy, but his eyes were becoming more hollow. He stopped walking and seemed weak for a second; he had to lean against a wall for support.
Another flash, and then there was darkness again. When the darkness left, I saw some things all at once. They kept flickering and flashing so quickly that I couldn’t make them out, and then I felt the hand move from my shoulder. As the hand lifted, so did the images, and I was back in my kitchen again.