Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  “Because, if there is to be war with Korshalemia, Mathorn is either our greatest asset or our greatest liability. It’s in our best interests to make sure that, at the very least, he’s not a liability.”

  Curetes seemed unconvinced but unwilling to challenge his master. “We have a probable destination for Raquel’s next stop.”

  “Oh?”

  “Felix sent a distress signal,” said Curetes. “He’s only a few days’ travel from their last reported location.”

  “Excellent! They will definitely go there to rescue him,” said Henrick.

  “And Marcus.”

  “And Marcus,” added Henrick with a smile.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Zah’rak,” said Crivreen, “we’ve located Felix’s ship.”

  “Excellent!” I said. “Where is he?”

  “In a stolen fast attack cruiser, in orbit around the third planet.”

  “Get us there as soon as you can, but don’t raise him on the comm. until we’re close enough to help if there’s trouble,” I said.

  “Okay,” he replied and laid in our course.

  “What’s he doing way out here?” I asked.

  “Looking for us, I assume.”

  “I thought he was finished with us,” I commented.

  “He thought so, too. He tried going back to life as it was before,” said Crivreen. “He wanted to open a robotics shop and live life as a merchant. We used to talk about opening the store together when we got out of prison. For me they were just idle thoughts, but for him it was a childhood dream, one he lost when he became a magus.”

  Raquel was sitting nearby, paying close attention to the conversation but saying nothing.

  “That’s kind of sad,” said Ragnar. “I wouldn’t have guessed that of him.”

  “Prison changes you,” said Crivreen quietly. “You have to learn to be hard or you won’t make it. In there, you make deals and do things that you’d have never have thought you were capable of.”

  “I can imagine,” I said. As a former slave, I could do more than imagine it. Life in the slave pits can’t be much different.

  “Zah’rak,” said Crivreen. “I’d like to know: will you let him back among us?”

  I hesitated before answering because I hadn’t yet decided. I wanted him back, but he’d run away the first chance he got and had only called us now because he was in trouble. “That depends on him, Crivreen.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means let’s rescue him first and worry about those details later,” I said. “He said his buddy was badly injured, so head to sick bay and prepare whatever you might need.”

  “Good idea,” he said and took off.

  It wasn’t long before we were in orbit. We flew the Night Wisp above Felix’s craft and lowered the docking hooks. Once the two ships were interconnected and the computers linked, we extended a pressurized gangway between the two craft.

  “We’re ready to come over,” I said via the ship-to-ship comm.

  “Okay, please send Ragnar first. I’ll explain when you get here,” Felix said.

  I looked at Ragnar, who shrugged and climbed into the chute. It only took a few minutes for everyone to cover the distance between the craft, but when we arrived Felix wasn’t there.

  “I assume you’re Marcus?” I asked the stranger who greeted us.

  “No, that’s Felix,” said Ragnar.

  “What?” I exclaimed.

  “I can explain later. First, please help Marcus,” said the man.

  “Sick bay, I assume?” asked Crivreen.

  “Right this way,” he said.

  Raquel and Crivreen followed him quickly down the corridor while I pulled Ragnar aside. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, that’s Felix; no question about it,” said Ragnar.

  “How?” I asked.

  “He wanted to disappear, so I guess he found a disguise,” he said.

  We caught up with them in sick bay in time to see Raquel pull Felix aside. She said, “We’re losing him. I need you to make a hard choice. Leave him in there and we’ll try to get a message out to Master Kellyn, who can save him, but he’ll almost certainly be dead before she arrives. Alternatively, we can pull him out of the pod now, and I can try to save him with the few skills I have. If I fail, he probably won’t last the hour.”

  “We have to try!” he said.

  “Okay. Crivreen, prep that bed over there and get ready to open the pod when I give the word,” ordered Raquel. She looked into the pod again and was quiet for a moment.

  Behind her, a gate opened and Shira came through holding a couple of bottles I’d not seen before.

  “Great! Stay by that table, ready to assist. We’ll have to work very fast, but don’t spill a drop of that. It’s priceless,” said Raquel. I was asking a question when Raquel cut me off and said, “Zah’rak, I’ll need you to lift him out of the pod and place him on the table. We’ll have to remove what’s left of his armor so I can get at the wounds. He’s heavier than he looks, but I doubt you’ll have a problem.”

  “Understood,” I said, deciding this wasn’t the time for questions.

  “Everyone ready?” asked Raquel. We all nodded, then she punched the controls on the pod and the lid popped open.

  I reached in and lifted the inert body out of the pod. He was quite a bit heavier than most humans, and far too heavy for his size. Even with Raquel’s warning, the weight caught me by surprise.

  He was in bad shape, so I placed him on the table as carefully as I could. Once his clothes had been removed I could see the full extent of his injuries. There was little doubt how dire the situation was, and I was surprised that he was still alive.

  His wounds were very strange. They were filled with some kind of electronic or robotic parts. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Had he been too close to a ship which exploded, or had something else occurred?

  Raquel said, “Shira, pour very small amounts into his major wounds.”

  Shira was holding a glass bottle containing a fairly clear, reddish liquid. I’d never seen the bottle before. She nodded and went to work, slowly tipping the bottle and allowing a few drops to fall. As the liquid hit the wounds the flesh around them slowly but visibly grew back, and the metal receded. When about half the liquid was used up, Raquel stopped her.

  “Okay, we need to get the rest inside him.” She lifted his head and tilted it back, forcing his mouth open. “Pour it all in. Don’t worry, it’s not possible to choke on this stuff.”

  As Shira poured in the rosy fluid, color started returning to his face and worked its way down his body.

  “Crivreen, hook up the medical monitors and let’s see what we’ve accomplished,” said Raquel. “Shira, please help me splint this arm so the bones can grow back correctly.”

  The metal parts continued to recede and his skin continued to grow. It was the most amazing thing I’d seen in my life.

  The three of them continued to work on him for another hour, using both mundane medical treatment and the potions. Finally Raquel said, “That’s all we can do for now.” She pulled a cover over his body and leaned back against the wall, obviously drained from the procedure.

  “Will he make it?” asked Felix.

  “I think so,” said Raquel. “The damage was severe, and if he were a normal human there’s no way he could have survived.”

  “What do you mean, ‘if he were a normal human’?” asked Felix.

  “You saw for yourself: he’s a Cyborg,” said Raquel. “That’s why the pod wasn’t working for him. His implants were attempting to regrow in the same manner as his body and were interfering with the pod. The problem was that his central nervous system had mostly shut down, so there was nothing coordinating the repairs.”

  “What would’ve happened had we waited?” he asked.

  “The Cyborg implants would have continued to grow out of control and eventually destroy what was
left of his body,” she said.

  “But now?” asked Felix.

  “Now his brain is actively in control again and the implants are correcting their growth. Hopefully in a few days he’ll be strong enough to wake, but for now we’ll keep him sedated here in sick bay.”

  “What was that stuff?” I asked, pointing to the two empty bottles.

  “Gifts from Shea. She’s an alchemist, one of only two known to exist in our realm,” said Shira.

  “They’re known as greater healing potions,” supplied Raquel. “It’s not as good as having Master Kellyn here, but far better than all of us combined could achieve. He should be fine for the moment, but we need an around-the-clock watch in case something changes.”

  “I’ll take the first shift,” said Shira.

  “Great! In an hour, send all the data we have on his condition to Hospital Station and ask for advice, please,” said Raquel. “My training is only in battlefield care, not long-term recovery; not to mention that I’m way out of my league with those implants.”

  “Good idea,” said Shira.

  With Marcus stabilized, it was time to get some answers. “Now, Felix, let’s go to the mess hall and you can tell us what’s been happening.”

  We gathered around a table in the mess hall and Felix told us how he had hired himself out as a robotics mechanic, but had been attacked and was now on the run. “So that’s that. I still don’t know why Resden is after me.”

  “Can you describe the old man at all?” asked Raquel.

  “Last time I did it was very painful, so I’d rather not try,” he said.

  “What you’ve described sounds like a memory block,” she said. “At some point when we’re near Hospital Station, we can stop in and get that removed.”

  “But you still haven’t explained why you look and sound different,” I said.

  “It’s still me,” he said. “Actually, this is the real me. The name I was given at birth is Purwryn.”

  “But you don’t even come close to matching any biometric scans of Felix. How is that possible?” asked Crivreen.

  “Zah’rak, how many fake IDs do you have?” asked Purwryn.

  “I don’t know; a few dozen, maybe,” I said.

  “And they all have the same biometrics associated with them. Correct?” he asked.

  “Yeah. It’s a big problem. Sooner or later they get matched up and we have to abandon them,” I said.

  “Right,” he said. “Well, I was born with the ability to modify my appearance and voice. I don’t know if it’s related to being a magus, or a natural ability of whatever species my ancestors belonged to. Either way, that skill plus some tricks and technology allows me to completely change the way scanners receive me. The only problem I’ve always had is creating new IDs to match my new identity. Purwryn and Felix are the only two valid IDs I have, and Purwryn is suspect, since I disappeared decades ago and only recently reappeared.”

  “It would’ve been easier for you to have donned your Felix disguise before we boarded,” said Crivreen.

  “I thought of that, but if Marcus woke up I wanted him to see a familiar face and I knew Ragnar wouldn’t be fooled,” he said.

  “So what’re your plans now?” I asked.

  “Raquel,” he said. “If you’ll still have me, I’d like to take you up on your offer to join the Wizard Kingdom, as Purwryn rather than Felix.”

  Raquel looked at me, then back to him. “What about Felix?”

  He sighed deeply. “I thought a lot about him over the past couple of days while I was alone. As I mentioned, I even considered retaking his form to make the meeting with you easier, but in the end I came to the realization that Felix was a cold-hearted mercenary. I want him to stay dead and never be resurrected.”

  “And Marcus?” I asked.

  “He has no place to go,” said Purwryn. “I hope that you can extend him the same offer.”

  “Raquel, what are you thinking?” I sent privately.

  “Grandmaster Vydor is very keen on second chances. I can’t really turn Purwryn down,” she sent. “And, although it goes against my training and upbringing, I think in this case I agree. I suggest we give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  I reached out, put my hand on Purwryn’s shoulder and said, “Welcome back.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “I think we should make this unanimous, and all become wizards,” I said.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I was awake. After eons of sleeping, I had finally woken. A daughter of light had brought her staff and awoken me, but was nowhere to be found. Patiently I waited for her return.

  The sun was setting over the hills when I climbed up out of the pit, which used to hold the building I called ‘home’ in ages gone by. My mind was sharp, but my memory was dull. I remembered that the end of the world as I understood it had forced me into hiding, but I couldn’t remember what the problem had been or what action I should now take.

  I stretched out my old joints and climbed up a section of wall near the tower I had been sleeping under when she came. When I first awoke, all around the field I saw signs of a great battle. It looked as if she had been forced to fend off an army of undead attackers in order to reach the tower. A section of the wall was blackened all the way around as if it had been set aflame, and there were piles of bodies wherever the eye could see.

  A ring of debris around the wall told me that she must have cast a ring of fire in an attempt to defend her position there. I tried unsuccessfully to figure out how she could possibly have fought off so many enemies alone. She must be a powerful warrior of much renown.

  In the sky overhead, a skeletal dragon flew by without noticing me. I could hear the nightwalkers stirring in the woods as the world came alive around me. This seemed wrong, but I couldn’t remember why. Ever since I awoke the world had been the same. I had a vague memory that the ruins around me should be a fortress so, as I had every night since waking, I worked on cleaning out the debris and bodies.

  Several more skeletal dragons continued their flight overhead, but these were watching me. They didn’t like what I was doing, but I had no reason to fear them. Howls continued to come from the forest around me as the nightwalkers protested against my work, but they dared not approach the ruins.

  For the past three months I had done the same and the work was slow and hard, but I had nearly finished clearing the ruins and was almost ready to begin reconstruction. While I desired to meet my savior, I was grateful for the delay so that I could get the place ready for her. I wondered what she looked like. I hoped she was big and strong like myself, but I couldn’t remember ever knowing others like me.

  As I dragged the final body out of the ruins into the forest, the nightwalkers attacked as they always did. They punched and kicked at my stone body, doing harm to themselves rather than to me. I ignored them and dragged the body through the forest.

  After about an hour I reached a large pit that I had been filling with the bodies. I briefly wondered for what purpose it had previously been used. There seemed no reason to have a large open pit out here, but I was grateful for somewhere to dump the trash. I tossed the corpse in with the others, briefly disturbing the vultures and other scavengers, and turned back. The nightwalkers continued their stubborn but useless assault on me. I picked up a large boulder and rolled it down the path in front of me, knocking some of them aside so that I could make my way more easily back down the path.

  I plodded through the forest back to the ruins, wondering when I might learn what had happened and why I still existed. As I approached the ruins, a group of skeletal warriors armed with swords and shields formed a line against me.

  Batting aside the nightwalkers, who were still trying to stop me, I walked towards this line. I did not understand why they all kept attacking me. All I wished to do was to rebuild my home and make it presentable for the return of the light-bringers.

  The warriors charged and swung
their swords at me. Sparks flew as the metal blades scraped across my stone chest. I picked up one of the warriors and attempted to use him as a club, but he fell to pieces as soon as he hit the first skeleton, leaving me holding only a pair of legs.

  The others pressed their attack, but their swords could not harm me. I decided to waste no energy on them and kept walking towards the ruins. One of them ran at me, pushing his shield in front of him, and slammed into my body. The shield held up, but he did not; he fell to pieces from the shock.

  I walked through the line and finally reached the ruins. It was nearing mid of night and the undead were louder than ever. They were not happy that I was rebuilding this fort, but I knew not why. I wished they would climb back into their graves and rest.

  When I had returned inside the ruins the attacks ceased, as they dared not enter the property. “I should make a wall first,” I decided.

  My princess, the one who woke me, had made a stand on the stone wall; therefore I started growing rock in that section. It would take a long time to grow all that was needed to encircle the property, but I did the best I could to encourage the wall to grow. Since I didn’t know how much time I had before she came home, I wanted to work quickly.

  I worked until the sun came over the hills. The light from it burned my stone skin, so I made my way back to my pit. It had been another good night of work. I liked working; it gave purpose to my life. I hoped the light-bringers would be proud of my work when they came, and that they would begin to reconquer this world and set things right again.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Three days after Purwryn rejoined us, Raquel said, “It’s probably safe to wake Marcus now.”

  “Probably?” asked Purwryn.

  “Well, I’m not a doctor, but his vital signs are strong and stable,” she said.

  “Why not wait till we hear from Hospital Station?” I asked.

  “Zah’rak, they probably won’t even get our question until tomorrow,” she said. “It could be almost a week more before we get an answer. I know enough to realize that it’s not good to leave him sedated like this for so long.”