My remaining senses returned one by one as I waited in the rain: first was the sensation of water trickling down my face and neck, followed soon after by the familiar weight of Lia’s body in my arms. The acrid taste of smoke layered over iron-rich blood coated my tongue, and I coughed up a lungful of ash. My sight returned last, though what I found before my eyes was an empty landscape entirely unfamiliar to me. The world was barren as far as I could see in every direction, barely visible beneath the dark storm clouds overhead.
A bolt of lightning cracked across the sky and lit the world in a dazzling flash of light. The strange earth that spread out around me was perfectly flat and appeared to be made of reflective black glass, with flecks of gray and white peppered throughout. I ran a hand along its surface in wonder, marveling at its alien smoothness. What is this place?
My wits suddenly returned to me, and I looked down frantically at Lia’s face. Her eyes were closed against the falling rain, and her face looked as if she were simply resting peacefully, held tight against my chest. Did I...? With an abundance of caution, I looked into her core, terrified of the ocean of darkness I expected to find. Instead, I found almost nothing at all; the vast stores of mana she had once held were gone, save for a single droplet of pure, glittering amber energy. The death...it’s gone. I stopped it.
I raised a trembling hand to her face and rested my finger beneath her nose. An eternity passed in the second that I waited, but in a moment, I felt a gentle puff of warm air across my skin. “You’re alive,” I whispered breathlessly, unable to believe the words. “You’re alive. You’re actually—”
You never fail to entertain, Elden. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight as Amaya’s voice echoed in my head, casual and condescending. Though I have to say, you’ve really outdone yourself this time. Bravo.
I clenched my jaw and held Lia closer to my chest, shielding her from the invisible threat. I don’t want your congratulations. This is all just some game to you, and I’m not playing anymore. Whatever help you think you’re giving me, I don’t want it, so just fuck off.
Oh, Elden, she sighed, if only you knew what—
Maybe you didn’t hear me. FUCK. OFF.
If that’s what you really want, she answered sarcastically. I’ll warn you, though: You’ll regret refusing my help soon enough. There was a long pause as I sneered at the empty air. Until next time, love.
A growl rumbled out from my chest as the voice imitated Amaya’s speech, but true to its word, I felt the presence withdraw from my mind. Another bolt of lightning brought me back to my senses, and I scanned the strange landscape around us for a second time. “Where are we, Lia?” I wondered out loud. Taking care to find secure footing on the wet obsidian ground, I stood and looked out to the horizon. Though it had grown continually darker since I had awoken, I could make out dark trees at the edge of the glass expanse, miles away in every direction.
I sent an instinctual pulse of mana down my legs to fully survey the area, but the energy stopped suddenly at my feet and refused to spread. It was a different feeling than the choking aura of the beasts that painfully blocked any attempts at Detection; the mana simply recirculated back up to my core as if there were no ground for it to suffuse into. My brow furrowed as I attempted the simple technique again to the same results. “I guess we’ll just...start walking.”
I picked a direction at random and set off across the glass plains, holding Lia tightly against my chest. The rain increased from a gentle pattering to a heavy downpour that soaked through my cloak and into my underclothes, but I welcomed the storm; the cool water washed my hair and face, purging me of the ash and dried purple blood that coated my skin and armor. As the storm grew stronger, it continued to darken the reflective field around us to the point where even my enhanced vision struggled to catch sight of the forest ahead without aid from the increasingly frequent flashes of lightning.
The towering trees at the edge of the clearing were unmistakable as I arrived beneath their dense, red leaves. Emberwoods. I turned to look back over the path I had walked and pursed my lips. While I had already known the answer to my questions somewhere in my subconscious, it had been easy to suppress the ideas and focus on Lia’s revival instead. Standing at the border between the glass field and the emberwood forest forced me to face the ideas head on. We’re exactly where we were before. Whatever this black glass is, I made it. I burned the forest down...and made this. As I stared over the empty expanse, I noticed the rainwater consistently ran back towards the center of the space where I had awoken.
A chill ran down my neck as I pictured what the inferno I had created looked like from the outside. They would have seen it from Mayaan, maybe even Lienna. I hope nobody was on the road to the Mountain Gate; that would have…
A memory pulled itself from the fog that obscured my recollection of the fire. Marin. My stomach dropped as I watched her run off into the forest in my mind. She was close by. If she wasn’t fast enough, she could’ve...I could’ve…
I doubled my pace towards the treeline and forced the emotions down. Get Lia out first. Everything can wait until then. The glassy fields came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the forest, and I realized that the expanse was actually an enormous crater; a three-foot high wall made entirely of glass stood before me, where my flames had somehow compacted the earth and everything on it down into the bowl-like depression I had just crossed. I blinked at the wall in awe for a moment, then shook my head. Everything else can wait.
I leapt out of the crater and landed in the soft grass of the forest. As soon as my feet impacted the dirt, pent-up mana rushed out in all directions, and a neon map blazed to life behind my eyes. The world spread out before me in vivid detail, but the crater behind me remained entirely blank; the hole in my Detection was perfectly defined, mapped up to the point where the forest floor met the black glass in crisp, jagged definition. I allowed myself a single second of curiosity while my mana continued to reach out in all directions. Whatever that material is, it completely blocks mana from passing over or through it. That could be useful. Or dangerous.
The moment of reflection passed when my Detection found a point of reference to orient myself in the world. The main road from Mayaan to the Mountain Gate ran parallel to my current position, two miles to the south. I turned my head back to the crater one final time, observing it from my place of elevation on the forest floor. Based on the rough dimensions I held in my head, the space was nearly four miles in diameter and sat only a few hundred yards from the road at its closest point. I looked back down to Lia, lying unconscious in my arms, and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. It was worth it. Anything would have been worth it.
I dove into the forest at full speed and began my trip back to safety. While the journey would have been much easier on the main road, I chose to run through the gnarled roots of the emberwoods instead. A procession of carts and foot traffic lined the southern road, all heading towards an expanding crowd that gathered at the forest’s edge nearest the crater I had left behind. Even as night fell over the pitch-black forest, my Detection revealed the path forward, and I was more than happy to sacrifice speed in order to avoid the curious eyes of the townspeople.
The sound of rain on the trees overhead quickly faded away as I left the lingering storm behind, and the forest fell into silence, leaving me without distraction from my thoughts. What have I become? I scanned the woods around me with Detection for signs of Marin’s retreat, watched the crowd begin to pick through the forest towards the crater, and listened intently to Lia’s heartbeat, all in a futile effort to ignore the question in my head. We would have made it out of that encounter unscathed if it weren’t for me. My darkness infected her. It was my fault she…
I fought back a sudden wave of shame and sadness as the image of Lia’s unblinking eyes haunted me. I’m a ticking time bomb. I can’t just keep pretending life is normal if it means the people I love get hurt. The idea forced me to stop running and rest against a twisted embe
rwood. I can’t stay here anymore. I looked down at Lia’s peaceful face, and I immediately felt my frantic heartbeat begin to slow. I can’t live without her, either. After brooding over the conflicting thoughts for a long moment, I pushed off from the tree and continued my journey, moving forward with a slower, more unsteady gait.
The leading edge of my Detection found the path to the Corells’ home sooner than I expected. I let out an audible sigh of relief as my mana revealed Elise and Bella sitting on the front steps of the house, both of whom had an arm around Marin’s back. The trio gazed out into the darkness of the forest with tired, drawn faces. Hana and Marten waited inside, sitting hand-in-hand on the couch in their living room as they stared blankly at the opposite wall. I rushed ahead, finally breaking out onto the Corells’ driveway from what felt like a never-ending forest.
Marin spotted us first as we entered the flickering lamplight of the clearing. She leapt to her feet, startling both Elise and Bella, then dashed a few yards towards us before skidding to a sudden halt. While her face was hidden in shadow beneath her thick mane of hair, I could feel her emotion clearly through her aura: she was afraid of me. “Lux?” she asked, her voice uncharacteristically meek. “Is Lia… Is she…?” she mumbled, swallowing hard as the final word failed to come.
“She’s alive, Marin,” I answered softly. “Alive, but unconscious. She just needs rest now.” I believed the words as I spoke them, but a small voice in the back of my head whispered in doubt. Or, she’s in a coma, or paralyzed, or her mind’s been burned out by that dark presence.
“Thank the Primes,” she whispered as her whole body slumped, shedding its tension. I took a step towards the house, and Marin reflexively took a step backwards, her body instantly drawn taut again. I froze in place as we warily stared each other down until Elise and Bella reached us. Elise rushed past Marin and hugged me tightly with one arm, cradling the other beneath Lia’s head. Bella waited a few steps back with her hands clasped tightly in front of her.
“Primes bless you, Lux,” Elise said fervently, her hand grasping at the cloak behind my head. “We’ve been so worried. When Marin came back alone, we didn’t know what to think.” She pulled her head up from my chest and looked back to where Marin stood, watching us intently. “She wouldn’t say what happened when she returned, just that we needed to wait for you to come back.” Marin took another step back and turned her eyes to the ground. “It looked as if she’d seen death itself.”
She did. With both of my arms already occupied, I gave her a gracious nod. “I told her to run, and she ran. She did the right thing.” My stomach roiled as I watched Marin recoil at the sound of my voice. “Things were...too dangerous for her to stay.”
Elise took a step back and brushed a stray strand of hair from Lia’s face. “And Marly? She’s okay?”
“She just needs rest,” I repeated. “She’ll be okay.”
“Good.” Elise cleared her throat and stepped back to stand beside Bella. They remained a few feet apart, each clearly resisting the urge to drift closer together. “Thank you again, Lux. And you too, Marin. You’ve saved a lot of lives today.” Marin jumped at the mention of her name, mumbling a small acceptance of her praise. “You should get back inside. Hana and Marten will want to see you, too.”
“Of course,” I answered. As I moved to follow them inside, Marin gave us a wide berth, keeping her eyes lowered. I paused, waiting for her to look up at me. “Marin,” I called out when her face remained turned away. Her eyes snapped up as she took another step back, and she watched me with wide eyes. “I think Lia and I are going to stay here for a few days, until she’s recovered. If you’re feeling up to it, could you grab a few of her things from our house?” She blinked at me silently as if she hadn’t heard the question. “I can do it if you’re not—”
“No!” she interrupted suddenly. “I’ll do it.” Without waiting for a response, she turned and ran off into the dark forest. “Thank you,” I murmured after her, biting my lip. She’s terrified of me. The last image of her face before she ran away from my burning visage in the woods filled my view. She’s one of the only people alive who’s seen who I really am and lived. Of course she’s afraid; anybody would be. I frowned as I repositioned Lia to a more comfortable position in my arms. Even you.
Marten and Hana met us at the door. “She’s fine!” I called out to them before they had a chance to ask. “Unconscious, but fine!”
The reassurance did little to assuage their fears as their daughter’s unconscious form appeared before them. “Oh, dear,” Hana said softly, brushing Lia’s cheek, “what happened?”
Calling on my memories to assist me, I put on my best apologetic smile and attempted a nonchalant chuckle. “I’m afraid she’s learned a little too much from me; she overexerted herself out there and passed out. Lucky for her, she doesn’t have to sleep in a tree like I did, back when we first met. If you don’t mind, I’d like to let her rest here.”
Marten took a step forward and blocked the entrance to the house with his stocky shoulders. “You’re sure that’s all it is, Lux?” he asked suspiciously, looking over his daughter's limp body in my arms. “She just needs rest?”
“I’m sure,” I lied. “It might take a few days, but Lia will be up and just as energetic as ever. I promise.”
He stared me down for a long moment, then sighed and stepped aside as his concern trumped his frustration. “Alright. You know where the bedroom is.” I walked past him into the house, and the rest of the group followed close behind.
“Lux, please let me know if there’s anything we can do to help,” Elise said, putting a hand on my shoulder before I left the living room. “I can get anything you might need. If there’s something you need to help Marly recover faster, or a specific—”
“Elise, I appreciate the offer, and I’ll certainly let you know if anything comes up,” I said, shrugging out from beneath her grip, “but I promise you, Lia just needs sleep.” She gave me a small nod, and I took my leave of the roomful of inquisitive, doubting eyes. I made it to the end of the hallway before I stopped suddenly, turned on my heels, and returned to the living room. “Actually, Elise, I could use a quick word, if you don’t mind,” I said, tipping my head towards the bedroom.
She followed me to the room and closed the door behind us, waiting patiently as I wrapped Lia in the lush homemade quilt on our bed and fluffed her pillows. “I’m sure this goes without saying,” I started, my back to her as I continued to watch Lia sleep, “but I hope our involvement in today’s events will remain...confidential.”
“It will,” she said, her head bowing deeply. “Other than the families of the men I lost today, nobody will know there was even an incident.”
I flinched. “About that,” I said, turning to her. “There is some...aftermath from the battle. A rather large amount of it, in fact. I’m sure the entire town of Mayaan is already aware that something happened today.”
Elise hid her shock well, but not well enough to escape my notice. “I see,” she murmured after a moment’s pause. “I won’t mention your involvement, of course, but...what else can I do?”
“Gossip,” I replied. “People are going to be talking about what happened today, and I’d like to know what they’re saying: what they know about the monsters, what they’re saying about the incident, and what they think really happened.”
“And what did really happen?” she asked warily.
“We killed the monsters for you,” I answered flatly. The idea that we owed an explanation to anybody while Lia was still unconscious irked me, and I began to regret asking Elise in.
My harsh reply hung over the silence for a few tense seconds before she bowed her head again. “Of course.” She turned to leave but paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Bella and I will be leaving at first light tomorrow. I’ll send you a message as soon as I can.”
“Good.”
Elise turned to scan the room with a final, sad look, then left and closed the door behind her
. “Thank you,” I added as the door latched, leaving me to wonder if she had heard me. I fell into the chair at our bedside with an annoyed sigh and rubbed my face. My hand darted out to find Lia’s, and I wove my fingers tightly between hers as my anxiety flared. What am I doing, Lia?
I sent out a pulse of mana to distract myself from my thoughts. The forest around the Corell residence was quiet and dark apart from a single beacon of Marin’s pink energy bobbing its way towards us. She froze as she reached the edge of the clearing, shuddered, then shook her head and continued to the house. After exchanging a few words with Hana and Marten that were too muffled for me to hear, she crept down the hallway and waited at the bedroom door. Her hand raised as if to knock, but it trembled a few inches away from the wood, hanging there until she took a sudden step back from the door. She removed the pack from her back, set it carefully against the door, and retreated to her own bedroom.
And now there’s this, too, I thought bitterly. My fingers squeezed around Lia’s as I ground my teeth. I could really use your help right now, Lia. I watched her face with a vain hope that she would suddenly awaken to answer my call, but she remained peacefully asleep. I don’t know what to do about Marin. I’m not sure there’s anything I can do. She knows what I am. I shook my head and trudged to the door, cracking it open just wide enough to grab the backpack before shutting it again. It doesn’t matter. We can figure it out after you wake up.
I unpacked the clothes Marin had picked out, folding them neatly on the dresser in the corner of the room. Along with an array of nightgowns and sundresses, the bag had held three additional items: two extra hair clips for the end of Lia’s braid and the small leatherbound diary she had brought with her on all of our adventures. I eyed the book reverently, turning it over slowly in my hands. My thumb slipped in between two of the pages at random, and I nudged the book open to reveal neat rows of Kaldanic runes written in black ink. I couldn’t stop my eyes from reading the words at the top of the page.
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 38