by Brindi Quinn
“Ad’ai is here!?” she cried dramatically. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner?!”
“Go to her, my Heart,” said Lusafael, setting her down. “Until she gives in, you have free reign to kill her on your own. I shall keep the beasts from harming you. They are under my control.”
“Leave it to me,” she told him. Then, in her sing-song way, she cried, “Oh, AURA!” and charged at the barrier.
Before setting off in a sprint, Nyte threw a blast at her from over his shoulder, intending to knock her down, but the attempt failed. Even without Rend’s body, Illuma was pretty agile. With a song on her lips, she ran around the blast and continued after us.
Nyte readied himself to shoot a second at her, but another scream from the direction of camp made him stop and yell, “We must make haste!”
Thus, reaching the others became our first priority. Scardo kept to the back of us; Ardette, Darch, and Rend to the front. As a mass, we ran to Kantú and Trib’s aid. The feros clicked all around. Their hum was alive in the air, but there were none coming after us. It could only mean that Lusafael really had sent all of them to Kantú and Trib. How stupid it had been of us to leave them unguarded!
I was worried about them, but I was also worried about me because the Song of Salvation had yet to move. It was ad’ai, but I couldn’t feel it stirring inside of me yet, and not knowing when it was going to happen was killing me. I didn’t know what to expect. I was going to die soon, and it was making me jittery.
It’s happening. It’s really happening.
There was no stopping it. One way or another, everything was going to change tonight. Ad’ai was upon us.
The pink moon was there, full, hanging low in the sky above us, but a slight change in its presence made that jittering sensation increase tenfold. I almost missed it in lieu of everything else that was going on, but thanks to Scardo, I was able to catch the strange phenomenon just as it happened.
“What’s it doing?!” he hissed, pointing.
We looked up, and before our eyes, the moon swelled, growing slightly bigger. And that wasn’t all. There was something forming around the outside of it.
I squinted. “Is that a ring!?”
Yes, it was a ring. A semi-transparent, multicolored ring was beginning to take shape around the moon.
A moon with a ring? What was it for?
“Is that-” started Scardo.
“Just concentrate on shooting The Mystress!” ordered Nyte.
“She can’t be killed but by his hand, you idiot!” yelled Ardette. “It’s part of their beloved pact!” He pushed Darch from behind to hurry him.
Ardette was right, and that was precisely what made her so dangerous. It wasn’t that she posed any sort of physical threat. No, now that she was without Nyte’s magic, any one of the guardians could’ve taken her on solo and pinned her down. The problem was that while in her pact with Lusafael, none of them could truly defeat her. What was more, she already had some sort of song started, and whatever it was, it was most likely something nasty.
“So we’ve got an unstoppable lunatic coming after the Pure Heart?” cried Scardo, frantic.
“I wouldn’t say unstoppable!” said Darch. “She can’t be killed, but she can be stalled! Knocked out, injured, BOUND!”
Rend shot a severe look of criticism at Nyte. “Cousin, can you not hit her?!”
“I am trying, but with Aura in my hands-”
But he didn’t finish because we’d just hit camp.
I let out a cry because the scene before us was even worse than I’d imagined. Not only was the campsite under attack; it was swarmed with the clicking ‘pets’. They weren’t docile like the last time we’d encountered them, either. They were rabid.
“GLAD YA FINALLY DECIDED TA SHOW UP!” Grotts was single-handedly fighting off a dozen or so of the creatures.
Well, not quite single-handedly, I guess. Trib had his knife, and she was stabbing at the mantis-locust hybrids with short, unpracticed stabs. Kantú was cowered next to Sowpa, whimpering and covered with small wounds from the beasts’ pincers.
“Kantú!” I cried.
“Aura?! Is that you?!” She didn’t look up. Her intense fear of bug-like things kept her immobilized. “W-what’s going on?!”
Nyte set me down next to her and drew his sword. At once, he and the others began to fight.
“You could untie me, you know!” I yelled.
Nyte ignored me. He circled his sword around his body and slashed at a crying insect, chopping one of its legs from its torso. A burst tan, bland liquid shot from the severed limb.
Illuma hadn’t been far behind us, and she reached camp only moments after we did. There was an ariando’s wind already beginning to form around her ankles. Whatever thing she’d cast, it was about to reach fruition.
“Bind her, COUSIN!”
Luckily, Nyte’s reflexes were at full strength, and before her song could take effect, he hit her with a red blast that knocked her to the ground. He’d been distracted, though, and his discharge hadn’t been a full binding spell. Illuma jumped to her feet, sprang behind a tree, and restarted the song. From that point on, Nyte’s focus became divided between keeping Illuma down and avoiding the feros that struck at him.
Scardo wildly started firing into the largest mass of them. With each arrow he sent through his bow, he made contact, letting no stray ones fly. The feros’ bodies were hard, but not as hard as the dargons’ had been. Thus, he managed to puncture a few, and with every piercing, a new squirt of fero liquid spurted into the air. One such blast sprayed Kantú in the face.
“EEEW!” she screamed.
“Just keep yer eyes covered, darlin’!” said Grotts. “Just keep ‘em covered!”
Rend no longer had magic, but she used her legs to kick at the creaking things. Her objective was to land hard blows to the sides of their heads that would slow them enough for the others to finish them off. Eventually she found, however, that her energy was best served guarding Kantú, Darch, and I, the three of our group that couldn’t contribute anything. She took stance directly in front of us and kick-blocked any feros that got too close.
I hated having to be protected like that.
“Ardette, can’t I just sing something weak?!”
“NO!” he yelled. “Absolutely not!”
“Yeah, Aura,” said Darch. “Don’t do it. Trust me.”
“Ugh! This stinks!”
While I sat, tied and sulking, Scardo continued to fire arrows like crazy. Grotts’ hammer was pulsing with mystic blue. Ardette was moving around the creatures like he were dancing with them. He sprang forward and stuck one of them below the pincers. It cried out in rebellious retaliation, and three of its brethren, who had had been waiting atop the trees, bounced down to come to its aid.
I reared against my ropes. No matter how many they defeated, more of the beasts just kept filling in the space! The guardians were all skilled fighters, but there wasn’t a single one of them that wasn’t wounded by this time.
“Mr. Ardetto!” said Trib, ducking low to dodge yet another stabbing insect leg. “You should unbind your brother! He can help us!”
“He’ll turn on us in an instant!”
“But if I give him a little light?”
“Impossible! Your energy must be saved! I’m sure you understand why!”
“Isn’t there some other incentive for him, then?”
“For him? No! Without his . . . you know, he’s nothing but darkness!”
I watched all of it take place like an outsider. There was nothing I could do to help them. More feros kept coming. If Lusafael’s plan was to distract us until the end of ad’ai, it was working. The pink moon now had two rings around it, but a third was forming. How much longer would ad’ai last? I didn’t even know.
I bowed my head, and it was at that moment, in the midst of all of that fighting, that I felt something inside of me wiggle. I feared that I’d imagined it, so I held my breath. It wiggled again.
It wiggled a third time, and it was confirmed.
Yes, it was the Song of Salvation, and it was about to come out of me. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. I just did, and I was overcome with joy because Nyte was preoccupied and the pendant was still in Ardette’s pocket.
Nyte wouldn’t be able to take my place. I was going to become the sacrifice.
I’ll do it. I’m sorry, Creator. I know it’s wrong, but I’ll do it to save him.
I loved Nyte more than anything. It was a love that was irresponsible and reckless and not at all fitting for a savior. But then, I wasn’t savior. If I went through with this, I was just selfish. But that was okay. For Nyte, I’d be selfish. I closed my eyes, trying to behave discreetly, and whispered to the moon,
“Do it.”
But something happened that put an end to any hopes I had of saving Nyte’s life.
“Ardette!” yelled my Elf suddenly. “Something is troubling me! I cannot-! I cannot feel it!” He frantically searched the ground for me. “Why can I no longer feel the pact?! Aura, what have you done?!”
Quickly, moon! Take me! PLEASE!
“Ardette, there has been a change large enough to ruffle the course of things! Quickly, the pendant!”
“NO!” I screamed. “Please, Ardette! NO!”
But Ardette ignored my plea and threw the loathsome thing to Nyte. Nyte dropped it around his neck.
I had to think of something!
Nyte started to me, but I forced the distraction that wouldn’t have otherwise happened.
“Get Illuma,” I yelled at him. She was still up, and she was fluidly skating around the other fighters. Nyte kept his course for me, but hit another halfhearted blast of red at her. Again, she was hit, but not bound. He realized his mistake and ran to tackle her. I only hoped he’d be distracted by her long enough for me to deliver my intentions to the moon.
Hurry up, mother moon! Hurry up!
I got my wish. Just then, there was a booming voice that was neither male nor female.
“What is your intention, my daughter?” it said.
The others halted their fighting for but a moment and were immediately punished for their distraction. Grotts was slashed across the arm by one of the things. Scardo was thrown against a tree.
“My intent is to keep the land separate!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Hurry, please!”
“NO, AURA!” Nyte was still wrestling Illuma.
This was perfect! My sister’s interruption had produced a miracle. I was confident, now, because my Elf could no longer feel the Thulian Pact. It meant that he’d be spared. It meant that he’d be saved from death’s sacrifice!
I opened my lungs and threw back my head, and in an instant, I could feel it. All of the goldness in my body – from the top of my head to the joints of my fingers and through the bones of my toes – started to move. Flakes of gold Song slid through the invisible corra paths of my body like tiny pebbles being swept along a current.
Yes! This is it!
In no time, the goldness was taking over, forming a block in my throat. I couldn’t hold it back. I couldn’t stop it. It was releasing itself.
But Nyte had finally successfully bound Illuma, and he was back on his feet. He was racing to me at full sprint.
Get back, Nyte!
“I will not allow you to die!” he shouted.
My mouth opened, and the song started to pour out in a strange singing. Singing? As if could be called that. It wasn’t a voice. Not really. Or if it was, it wasn’t a person’s voice. It was like a murmur. A murmur of nature? Or a murmur of the sky, maybe? No, perhaps coined best, it was a murmur of celestial intent.
And it was the most powerful thing I’d ever felt.
Had I been standing, I’d have fallen to my knees. However, tied like that, I was forced only to lean back even more than I already was. My neck hurt from being stretched so far.
Nyte continued at me with the pendant in place. I opened my mouth to protest, but it was already open. I couldn’t speak. That murmur was streaming out of me, blocking my words.
Get him away from me!
I’d thought I’d won. I’d thought the Song would be over before Nyte could get to where I was. But I’d only been deceiving myself. When Nyte reached me, the murmur was still going strong with no apparent sign of ceasing.
My emulator grabbed my wrist, and it was the worst thing that could have happened. The thirst that dwelled deep within me started to claw at my veins again, and I instantly started to suck from him. More strongly than ever before, I drew him in and fed it to the hungry gold murmur.
What are you doing?!
It’s time to kill him.
No! I love him!
This is how it has to be.
Please! STOP IT!
I fought myself for control, but there was no way I could win against such strong desire. Nyte was the thing I wanted most in the world, and his returned desire for me seeped through his flesh into mine. Love really was the most powerful emotion. It was the emotion fitting to fuel a world-splitting song.
Someone, help! Please help me!
I called out to the others in my head, but they were still fending off the fero. And they wouldn’t have stopped it anyway. Nyte was going to die. The sudden absence of the pact had been a fluke. This was the end of him. Tears streamed from my eyes.
Rend?! Grotts?! Trib?! Kantú?! Scardo?! Darch?! ARDETTE?!
I tried calling out again, and surprisingly, this time, something happened. The person who’d so desperately fought to make sure things ended up this way – the person who’d made sure that the emulator’s flesh would make contact with mine – the person who was last on my plea – was the person to put an end to it.
In one swift movement, Ardette flicked Nyte’s hand away from my arm. Previously, it had been incredibly hard, even for the tricky Daem, to get our flesh apart during these moments of warm ecstasy, but something was different this time. Ardette’s eyes were black, and the separation had been as simple as that flick.
“Darch!” boomed Ardette. “You once said that only one being is powerful enough to stall the moon! You were wrong, you know-it-all Magir! There are two beings with the power to stall the moon . . . angels and me!”
Ardette flickered his hand to shadow and plunged it deep into the bound Sowpa’s chest. With his other hand, he pulled the broken whistle, which he must’ve retrieved from the ground after his tantrum with Sowpa, out of his shirt and gave it a hard blow. His eyes were still fully black, and after the blow, the veins below his skin matched that same darkness.
The rings circling the moon paused. So, too, did the warmth’s call. And that wasn’t all. The murmur stopped. My voice was freed.
“ARDETTE?!” I yelled, more confused than I’d ever been. “WHAT IS THIS?!”
Nyte was enraged. “What have you done, Daem?!”
Ardette ignored him. “Change your intent, Aura!” he said, anxiously watching the stalled rings. “Change it now, or Nyte will die! There’s a better way! Trust me!”
“What?!” I was shocked. “But-”
“You’re really going through with this, Ardetto?!” cried Darch.
“Of course he is!” said Trib. “It’s the best way!”
What in Farellah is going on?!
Scardo, Rend, and Grotts were now the only ones fighting the fero. All three of them looked as confused as me, but with the beasts still just as rabid, they hadn’t the luxury of stopping the battle.
“Hurry, my pit! The whistle’s power is almost out! You’ve got to do it now! Either change your intent, or your boy will die!”
I couldn’t let that happen.
I understood now. I understood the reason Ardette that had so strongly willed things to be this way. He’s wanted Nyte to become the emulator so that I’d have no choice but to save the Elf in an act of desperation by agreeing to Ardette’s unknown alternative. He’d known that I wouldn’t freely choose to give
up magic. He’d known that I’d never agree to something that would possibly usher in war, and he’d been counting that my love for Nyte would be the only thing to make me forfeit that belief.
He was about to get his way.
“Fine!” I yelled. “Can you hear me, mother moon? I choose to kill Lusafael! I change my intent! I revoke it or whatever, and I now choose to use the Song of Salvation to kill Lusafael!”
“Very well,” said the voice of the moon.
There was a cracking noise, and the whistle in Ardette’s hand shattered to pieces. Tiny fragments of black fell to the ground. The moon’s rings started to circle again. Both the murmur and the warmth continued where they’d left off. I started sucking again.
“Nyte! Take her to Lusafael! NOW!” ordered Ardette.
Nyte didn’t move. His energy was flowing out of his skin and into me at a distressing rate.
“Concentrate, you gluttons!” said Ardette. “Nyte, if you love her, then GO!” Ardette shoved Nyte from behind. “I SAID GO!”
This time, Nyte obliged. Saying nothing, and with eyes that were turning murky, he scooped me into his arms and took off in a slower-than-usual dash.
The others remained and continued to fight what was now at least the fourth or fifth wave of fero. Only Ardette followed us, and since Nyte’s pace was lagging, the Daem managed to keep up easily.
It was just the three of us.
Or so I thought – until I realized that there was one fero, who’d taken Illuma in its mouth and left the fight, that was bouncing along the treetops in pursuit.
But I didn’t really care because the golden Song was still streaming, and that meant that my veins were still swimming with Nyte’s warmth.
He ran on, and I sucked from his spirit as much as I wanted until we reached the border of the marsh where Lusafael was standing on the line in the dirt that he couldn’t cross. It was hard to see through the warm daze, but as far as I could tell, he didn’t seem mad or upset or affected in any way by what was transpiring.
The fero set Illuma at the angel’s feet. He placed another open palm of resurrection on her forehead, and she awoke from Nyte’s spell.
“What’s happening?!” she demanded, livid that their plan was failing.