by Mark Cole
A young man in chainmail saluted Terra. “Guardsman Wright, Nexus, The crystal was destroyed as you ordered,” the soldier told her.
“Good. We can’t let the master crystal fall into their hands. Get some rest, they will return soon,” Terra said. She watched the young soldier walk away.
“You have to get some sleep, my love,” Michael told her. Sweat dripped from his matted blond hair. He looked like a wild man with his hair in disarray and large rends in his chain mail armor. His war hammer hung in its hanger at his hip. “You haven’t slept in the last four nights. Even you have limits, Terra.”
She had linked Michael Stormbringer, a northman from beyond the Great Range, last year, just before her fiftieth birthday. They were married last month. It had been a month of bliss she had never thought she would have. Then, the invasion came. “I’ve gotten a couple of hours here and there, Michael. It is my job to defend this world, this Realm. I can’t do that if I’m asleep.”
He punched his fist against the wall of a building. “We wouldn’t be in this predicament if the Claw had shown like they said they would.” Blood dripped from his split knuckles.
“Calm down, my heart. There is nothing for it now.” She clenched her jaw tightly. “They will be called to account in time.”
Michael took a slow breath, fighting to keep his temper under control. “Terra, I can feel how tired you are. We have pushed them back for now. Rest at least, sleep if you can, I will wake you if anything happens.”
He led her to a building that had been converted into a barracks. Michael told some soldiers the Nexus needed a room. Having seen her cut down wave after wave of enemy combatants, they were happy to give her theirs. She wasn’t sure if it was because they were grateful or scared.
Michael lifted her up and placed her on the bed. She fell asleep before her head hit the pillow.
The spirit of her mother visited Terra in her dreams. “Mother?” she asked in confusion. “What are you doing here? How is this possible? You died.”
“The Life Wardens allowed me to send a message. I saw it, Terra. I saw the Libram of Fate in Bara.” Her mother had a pained look on her face. “Your city will be overrun. There is nothing you can do to stem the tide of darkness that now sweeps the land.”
Terra shook her head. “I refuse to believe that. There has to be something I can do.”
“The only chance you have is to travel to Earth and find the Guardian. Only he will be able to prevent the destruction of all life.”
“I will find him after my city is safe!” Terra shouted.
“You cannot save the Arcane City. If you stay, you die.
“But if I leave...” Terra trailed off, not wanting to say that many of her people would die.
“The city will fall, the whole planet may fall, but you will live. And, as long as you live there is hope.”
“Mother, are you certain there is no other way?”
The spirit looked at Terra. “I’m sorry, but all other paths lead to oblivion.”
Terra’s eyes snapped open as Michael put his hand on her shoulder. “They are massing outside the walls,” he said. “It is time.”
“We need to go to the Guardian’s Sanctum,” Terra said, catching Michael off guard.
“But that’s in the center of the city, near the gateway arch. If the walls are going to hold, we need to be on them.”
“The city is lost,” Terra said. Michael looked at her in shock. “My mother came to me in my dreams. I know what to do.”
“Are you sure, Terra?” he asked. She nodded.
Michael clenched his jaw and swallowed down his anger. He hated the idea of abandoning the city he had grown to love. “Let’s go then.”
A massive explosion shook the inn. They heard screams from outside. Michael drew his war hammer. “They have breached the walls.”
The two of them ran outside into complete chaos. Demons of every shape and size swooped down from the sky to snatch people into the air and shred them in a rain of blood. The elderly, women, and children stood side by side with soldiers trying to fight back the undead swarm. Halfman shamen hurled bolts of lightning and fire into the defenders, killing them in droves.
Terra felt Michael’s desire to jump into the fight but pulled him away. “We have a job to do,” she said. They turned from the fighting and ran toward the center of the Arcane City as fast as they could.
A winged demon that seemed to be nothing more than a ball of fur and teeth swept down at them. Michael blasted it from the sky with a mighty throw. He caught his enchanted war hammer as it flew back to him. The two of them didn’t even slow.
They made it to the Guardian’s Sanctum without being attacked again. “We need to hurry,” Terra said.
Michael pushed against the large iron doors. “Locked,” he said.
“Not for long. Move back.” As soon as he got clear, Terra blasted the doors from their hinges with an explosion of fire and air. The doors sailed through the inside of the darkened sanctum, clanging as they went. She turned to Michael. “Hold the entrance, I’m just getting the sword on the lower level then coming right back.”
Michael pulled her to him and kissed her. “Hurry,” he said.
Terra created a ball of flame and charged into the dark building. The ball of fire cast flickering shadows into alcoves that held busts of previous Guardians. Light reflected back at her from pieces of armor that had been crushed by the flying doors.
She heard the sounds of fighting from outside and, through the link, felt Michael get cut badly on his right arm and left ribs. He began to draw more magical power. She made the spiral stairwell and sprinted down the steps three at a time.
The Guardian’s Blade rested on a pedestal of marble in the center of the large room. Terra snatched it from the plinth and rushed back to the entrance.
She heard Michael’s roar before she could see him. Terra passed through the entrance and beheld the gory sight. Bits of bone and flesh were plastered to the walls on either side, staining the white marble red. A semi-circle mound of corpses lay around Michael. She scanned his injuries through the link.
“It’s nothing serious,” he lied as blood pumped freely from the gash in his ribs.
“We’re almost out of here. We’ll get you a doctor on Earth,” Terra said, not pressing the point. “To the gateway arch.”
The two of them ran on to the moonstone arch. It was imbued to make inter-planar travel possible without almost killing the spellcaster. They didn’t see another living human being on way to the arch.
Corpses and gore littered the streets as demons and undead had made their way through in small groups, wiping the rest of the living from the city. Every monster they encountered was either felled by the blow of a war hammer or blasted into nothingness by magic.
The run to the gateway arch was a long blur of Michael shattering bone, and Terra hurling balls of flame and impaling anything that rose against them with spikes of earth.
They spied the milky white arch through the haze of smoke rising from fires all over the city. “There it is!” she shouted.
The two remaining defenders charged to the elevated platform. The raised granite dais was clear of invaders. “I need you to protect me,” she shouted. “This will draw them like moths to the flame.”
She closed her eyes and reached deep for the energy needed to open a gateway. The air began to thrum with the energy being funneled into the arch. She lost herself to the timeless flow of power.
Michael watched as a pillar of light shot into the air as the gateway began to glow with a milky white light. “They’ll definitely see that,” he muttered.
A trio of hellhounds came into the square running at full tilt. They bounded toward him and Terra. Michael threw his war hammer, killing the closest one. The remaining two split and came at him from opposite sides.
He killed the second with another throw, but the third leapt at him before he could call his weapon back. The hellhound slammed him to the ground as
they collided. The beast’s teeth were inches from his face, but he caught them in his hands, holding the jaws open. Its fetid breath was hot on his cheek.
He saw more demons come into the square. “I don’t have time to waste on you,” Michael yelled in the hellhound’s face. His massive arms bulged and turned red with the sudden rush of blood to them. Bone cracked as Michael ripped the bottom jaw from the demon’s head.
He threw the beast aside and regained his feet. He called the war hammer back and used it to crush the demon’s spine. Michael set himself to receive the oncoming horde.
“Almost done,” Terra said.
“Hurry,” Michael implored.
“Going as fast as I can.”
The mass of demons began to scramble up every side of the platform. Michael swatted down as many as tried to climb up. He took hits from every side as he did his best to keep them from Terra. Blood ran freely from dozens of wounds, but still he didn’t relent.
Not a single finger or claw touched Terra in those three minutes of frenzied combat. “It’s done,” she shouted over the screech of demons and Michael’s roars. Terra suddenly felt the depth of Michael’s injuries. The pain of it nearly dropped her to her knees. A wall of fire exploded to life around the platform, holding back the tide of demons and undead.
Michael slumped to a knee. “Good,” he panted. Blood ran from his mouth as he talked. “Go through. I will keep them from following you.” The wall was starting to sputter in places as opposing magic was thrown against it.
“But, if you stay, you’ll die,” Terra said, her voice becoming weak.
He stood on unsteady feet. “I’m already dead, Terra. The only thing keeping me alive is the link. I’ll destroy the arch behind you. Hurry, I won’t be able to do it after the fires are gone.”
“But,” Terra protested.
“No,” Michael said. He put a bloody hand to her cheek. “You have to go, my love. You must find the Guardian and bring him back.”
Tears began to roll down her cheeks. “I can’t…”
“You must.” He took a deep breath and winced in pain. “I love you, Terra.”
She took his face in either hand and kissed him one last time. She knew there would be no more hugs, no more kisses, no more whispers in the night after this. She could feel his love like a palpable thing through the link. Her shaking hands left his face. “I love you, Michael. Good bye.”
A look of rage crossed his face as his eyes shot to the side. A tentacle shot through the wall of fire, striking Terra hard on the arm. She dropped the Guardian’s Blade just as Michael pushed her out of the way, knocking her through the arch.
“Michael! The sword!” she screamed before she went backwards through the gray gateway. She landed heavily in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in the mid-western United States. She watched as Michael scooped up the sword and tossed it through the gateway. It clattered to the ground next to her.
She saw Michael mouth goodbye as he slammed his enchanted war hammer into the arch. Cracks appeared across the length of the gateway as if it were shattered glass. He hit the arch a second time, more cracks. A third, more cracks.
“Behind you,” Terra yelled, but Michael couldn’t hear her through the gateway. She watched in horror as a sword burst from his chest. He coughed up blood as he looked down at the foot of steel sticking from his chest. Terra felt a mighty pull on her remaining power, she swooned with the draw of it. Michael looked through the gateway at her and smiled.
She watched as he brought his war hammer up above his head and slammed it down on the top of the arch. With a crack like thunder, the gateway vanished. She felt the link break as Michael died.
Terra reached over blindly and pulled the sword to her. She curled into a ball. “No, no, no,” she cried. “Michael, I love you.”
Terra opened her eyes. “Always.” She stepped away from the door. She wiped her tears away and continued to put one foot in front of the other, as she had since that day.
Chapter Seven - Imprinted Souls
“Don’t you think this is a little much?” Alex asked. He was standing in front of a full length mirror. He wore a black leather tunic over a white shirt with black pants and a white cape. The nine connected circles that represented the Realms were inlaid on the front of the black leather tunic in gold.
“It is the Guardian’s tunic,” she said. “Now everyone will know who you are.”
“Where did you find something like this? There wasn’t enough time to have it made,” Alex commented.
“A couple of years ago I was able to send a message to Silvia and a few others here. They had this, and a few other things, made in preparation for your arrival.”
“How did they know my size?”
Terra laughed. Alex smiled at the sound. Her laughter always brightened his mood. “I used a little magic to make it fit you.”
“Thanks.” He pulled on the black leather boots.
She still wore the white silk dress she had on earlier. “Are you ready?” she asked. Alex nodded.
Terra led him back to the entrance to the manor, to the hallway opposite the double doors. They walked down the corridor, flanked by busts of rulers, delicate pieces of art on marble pedestals, and suits of armor and weapons from heroes past. Terra froze as she glanced at the last pedestal on the left.
Alex saw her stop and looked at her. He watched as she stepped closer to it and reached out a hand. Alex walked next to her and read the plaque as she ran her hand down the metal handle.
War hammer of Michael ‘The Bear’ Stormbringer, it read, Champion of the Grand Arena, Husband of Terra Duval, Last Defender of the Arcane City.
Husband? Alex thought. She could have told me that, too. Alex glanced at her through the corner of his eye. A tear ran slowly down her cheek. A flicker of dim light by his waist caught Alex’s attention. The fifth ring on the Guardian’s Blade was glowing faintly. The pale gray light intensified when Alex grabbed the hilt.
Still holding the hilt, Alex looked up to see if Terra had noticed it. The same gray light now enveloped the war hammer, but by Terra’s non-reaction, he knew she didn’t see anything. The light intensified in the head of the war hammer.
His hand reached out to touch the glowing block of steel of its own accord. His fingers touched the cool metal. The world went white.
Alex spun around, but there was nothing but impenetrable white mist all around him. “Terra!” he shouted, his voice swallowed by the emptiness.
“So,” a man’s voice from behind said. “You are the Guardian.”
Alex turned and saw a thickly muscled blond man. He was tall and wore gleaming chain mail. The war hammer hung at his hip. “I am,” Alex said. “My name is Alex Zane. You must be Terra’s husband.”
“I was but not anymore. My spirit passed from this life some time ago. My name is Michael Stormbringer.”
“Yeah, that’s what the plaque said. If you’re dead, how am I talking to you?”
Michael lifted his war hammer. “I carried this weapon for many years and through many battles, part of me has become imprinted on its magic. The same as how previous bearers of your blade live on, in a way, in it.”
“The voices,” Alex said. Michael nodded. “So, why are you talking to me?”
“To help you understand the woman I loved.”
Alex tensed. “What do you mean?”
“I will show you.” The thick mists cleared and revealed a group of children at play in a grass courtyard. Boys and girls were kicking a ball around and laughing. Michael walked to a little girl with short red hair and sad hazel eyes sitting on a marble step. He crouched to the girl’s left and studied her. Alex walked to her and faced Michael from her right.
“The children never understood her,” Michael said. “They never took her in and cared for her.” The blond man looked up at Alex. “Half-breeds are more than frowned upon, Guardian. They are outcasts. They are hated.”
“This is Terra?” Alex asked. Children’s laughte
r rang from where they played across the courtyard. The little girl looked at them with a hopeful gleam. The look persisted a moment before becoming dejected and downcast.
“It is.”
“How is this possible?” Alex pointed to the children. “Were you one of those kids?”
The Bear shook his head. “No, Guardian. Terra told me this story. She said it was the first time she realized she would never belong. I’ve built this place. You can’t touch anything or anyone, but there’s not much to do when part of your mind is locked away in a weapon.” He laughed, but there was no mirth in it.
Alex nodded. He went back to watching Terra. The ball bounced across the courtyard and hit Terra’s leg. She picked it up and stood. The children came over, and they formed a semi-circle around her.
“Give us the ball,” the oldest girl said.
Terra looked at her with apprehension. “Can I play?” she asked in a timid voice.
The biggest one of the boys laughed. He stepped up and tore the ball from her grasp. “No, you freak,” the boy said as he put a hand in the center of her chest and shoved. Terra tripped on the step and hit the ground hard. The children ran back across the yard, laughing at their triumph.
Terra scrambled to her hands and knees and ran off crying. The children laughed harder. Cruel laughter and the sobs of a lonely girl faded as the thick fog rose again.
Alex had not spent much time with children when he was younger. “How could they be so mean?” he asked.
Michael shrugged. “Children are often the cruelest people. They do not realize the power in a few simple words.”
“I think I understand now,” Alex said. “Take me back.”
The Bear shook his head again. “There is still more to show you, Guardian.” The white walls faded away again and a young girl just beginning to blossom into womanhood walked between them. Terra’s red hair swayed with her steps as she walked up steps of white marble. She wore a simple white dress in the summer heat. Alex and Michael fell in step behind her.
“When is this?” Alex asked.