Starfall (The Fables of Chaos Book 1)

by Jackson Simiana

  Gharland took a step forward and stopped. He peered down at his boot. He had stepped in a pool of thick, blackened blood. It stuck to the bottom of his shoe like glue.

  The blood stank of rot; it wasn’t fresh. Gharland took a step back and wiped his foot against the floor, grimacing.

  “Not good,” Landry said.

  “Ser, I don’t think stickin’ together is such a good plan. Too much ground to cover. It’ll take us days to search this place,” Ref said.

  Ref’s face was still swollen and bruised. Each time he spoke, Tomas had to avert his eyes lest he be filled with a near-uncontrollable amount of rage.

  Not now. Not now. He clenched his fist.

  “Alright, we are going to split up to cover more ground,” Gharland said, turning to face his men. “Ref, Styna- take three men with you and try to find the Magister Prime’s quarters. He’s the one in charge of the Repository. John- you and I will go search the other dormitories over there. Everyone else- start searching this sanctum. Call out if you find something.”

  As everyone separated and began moving out, Gharland approached Tomas and Landry. “I want you two to go investigate the basement levels down there. Maybe the Magisters took refuge down there.”

  The captain pointed to a set of stairs nearby, nearly hidden in the dark, which descended down into the floor.

  “Aye, ser,” Landry said.

  “And squire?”

  “Yes?”

  “Keep an eye on him. Don’t let him out of your sight.” Gharland was looking directly at Tomas.

  Landry nodded, before taking Tomas by the arm and walking to a set of stairs along the side of the circular sanctum which sank into the earth.

  Landry handed Tomas his torch. “Here.”

  “You sure you can trust me with this?” Tomas asked sarcastically.

  Landry rolled his eyes. “Now’s not the time.”

  They descended beneath the ground floor. The air immediately grew colder, danker. The stairs ended and turned into a long hall, shrouded in dark. There didn’t appear to be much to find as they went further down the main hallway. There were rooms full of old supplies, piles of rotting books and scrolls.

  A small drainpipe blocked by a rusted iron grate sat beneath their feet. Chilled winds blew in through the pipe from outside at the far end, creating a sinister howling noise.

  Everything down in the basement appeared dead.

  Then they heard it.

  There was a shuffling sound up ahead, kind of like footsteps. Both the boys froze upon hearing it. Tomas used the torch to light the way as Landry kept his sword out, ready for anything that may come.

  They heard it again. There was definitely something moving in the room ahead. Then they saw a source of light from behind the door.

  Someone was alive back there. But was it a survivour? Or an Imperial soldier?

  Tomas’s heart raced as they reached the door. He took the handle with one hand, torch held in the other, ready to swing it open for Landry. He nodded to the squire and pushed against the door with all his strength before stepping back to allow Landry to immediately jump in to surprise the person on the other side.

  Inside the room stood a young woman, no older than Tomas, holding a torch of her own. She wore a brown, floppy tricorn hat on top of her head and a sleeveless dress stained and covered in dirt. Around her neck hung a small vial of black liquid.

  Upon hearing the door slam open, she jumped with terror and screamed as the boys entered, swinging her torch at them.

  “Who are you?!” the girl shouted, brushing her long red hair out of her wide-eyed face. She waved the torch at them defensively.

  Tomas held out a hand to try to get her to calm down. “Easy, easy. We aren’t going to hurt you,” he said.

  Landry, however, kept his sword pointed directly at the girl. He was not as sure.

  “Answer me- who are you?!” the girl repeated.

  “My name is Tomas; this here is Landry.” Tomas put his hand on Landry’s outstretched sword, urging him to lower it. “We are soldiers of the king’s army, sent here on a rescue mission.”

  The girl’s fearful expression suddenly turned to relief. “Oh, thank the heavens above!” She lowered her torch, breathing a sigh of relief.

  It was then Tomas realised what else was in the small room they had just entered. Behind the girl, scattered across the floor, were shadowy figures and lumps with long chains connecting them to the stone walls.

  Tomas held out his torch to illuminate the strange-looking shapes.

  They were bodies. About a dozen of them. All small, only the size of children.

  Both Tomas and Landry gasped in horror. “What…the fuck?”

  Landry raised his sword once again. “What the fuck is this?! Are those kids?”

  The girl dropped her torch to the ground, realising she was in danger. She raised her hands. “Wait, I can explain-”

  Tomas pushed past her. He used the torch to further inspect the corpses. The smell hit him first like a wall of intense rot, almost sweet-smelling. Their skin was all blackened, their eyes were missing. The children’s faces were all unnaturally mangled and misshapen, their postures contorted.

  It looked like they died screaming.

  They were long dead.

  “Answer him!” Tomas shouted, pointing the torch at the girl. “What is this? Did you do this?”

  “No, of course not!” the girl said. “Please, if you will calm down, I can explain.”

  “Explain, then.” Tomas could feel the sting in his eyes as sweat dripped down his face. He was enraged. Who were these children? Who had done this to them?

  “My name is Lynn Jhono,” the girl said. “I’m a Disciple with the Magister’s Imperium.”

  Tomas shook his head. “A ‘Disciple’? What is that?”

  “It means I’m training to become a Magister one day.”

  Despite the situation, Lynn’s tone was gentle, and she appeared well-spoken. She had a calmness about her, and she was desperately trying to get Tomas and Landry to remain calm as well.

  “Who are these kids?” Landry demanded to know.

  “They…they…” Lynn stuttered, struggling to come up with a response. “Look, it’s not all that easy to explain to an outsider, come to think of it.”

  “Well start figuring out a way to explain, and fast.”

  “Landry,” Tomas said, “She’s unarmed. She’s not going to hurt us. We are here to help the Magisters, not kill them.”

  Landry glared at Tomas, still breathing heavily at the sight and smell of the dead children. He struggled to calm himself.

  “What happened here, Lynn?” Tomas asked, trying to sound a little less confrontational. “Where are the Magisters?”

  Lynn fell motionless as her gaze went blank. “They’re… they’re all dead.”

  “Excuse me?” Tomas asked.

  “They came each night, like scavengers to carrion,” Lynn said, shaking her head. “They broke us down. We tried to barricade ourselves in, but it was no use. They took us one by one until there was no one left. Only me.”

  “The Akurai? Was it soldiers who attacked you?” Landry asked.

  “All the Magisters…dead?”

  “Creatures of the night,” Lynn said, almost unresponsive to the questions she was being asked. Her hands were twitching with fear. “I know not what they were, only that they were unstoppable and always hunting. We stood no chance.”

  “What were they, Lynn?” Tomas asked.

  Almost like reading from memory, Lynn recited a detailed description of what had attacked the Repository. “Large, about the size of a carriage. Hyena-like body shapes. Quadrupedal with elongated forelimbs. Pale, almost translucent skin. Some form of spiked osteoderms on their rear.”

  Tomas did not understand many of the words that Lynn recited. But he was able to pick up on enough to recognise the features of the creatures that had attacked their squad several nights earlier.

  “Whatev
er they were, they were not of this world. And they were built to hunt and kill,” Lynn said.

  Tomas looked to Landry solemnly. He too recognised what she had spoken of. “We are familiar with the… things, that attacked you. They attacked our squad as well. Kill half our men. Killed my best friend.”

  Tomas could feel the deep, bubbling well of rage and hurt in his stomach, so visceral that he could sense his throat choking up at the thought of what had happened to Rilan.

  This girl before him, with her fire-red hair and tricorn hat, was the reason for Rilan’s death, he realised. If the Magisters had not requested aid, they would have never been sent to the mountain.

  The girl appeared differently to him, all of a sudden. She was not so innocent anymore, not so much a victim.

  There was an air of dishonesty around the strange girl. Tomas could practically smell the deceit behind her words like the foul stench of death which hovers over a corpse.

  Lynn sighed, bowing her head in sorrow. “I’m sorry. I know how you feel.”

  “No, you don’t know how I feel.”

  “They killed all the Magisters. Everyone I have ever known is dead.”

  “Everyone but you,” Tomas hissed back. “Why is that?”

  “I won’t lie to you. I hid for days down here in the basement like a coward. After they got in, I saw Magister Krainos slaughtered before my very eyes in the kitchens. The beast ripped him in two. I fled, and I hid.”

  Tomas recalled the fear he had felt upon seeing the creatures. He could not empathise with her. The woman standing before him was the cause of Rilan’s death in his mind, and he lacked the strength to see it any other way.

  He stared at her, trying his very hardest to not grimace or sneer, or even to lash out. He fought with every muscle to control the outburst that was eager to escape.

  She stands here before me, while Rilan lies in the dirt.

  “You still haven’t explained this,” Landry barked, gesturing to the dead children around her feet.

  “This…” she began, “this, I’ll admit, is not so easy to explain. It was a Magister’s doing, not mine. I had no part in it.”

  Landry shook his head from side to side, unsure of what to make of any of it, unsure of how to react. “Come speak with our captain. You need to explain to him what happened.”

  Lynn was not all that sure about leaving the dungeon they had found her in. She was visibly nervous as they exited back out into the corridor, eyeballing each and every shadowy space for danger.

  “They don’t seem to be around here anymore, don’t worry,” Landry said.

  The trio got back to the rest of the squad who had reconvened by the entrance to the inner sanctum. The soldiers had expressions of shock on their face, after having found many of the Magisters’ bodies decimated and brought some back for the captain to see.

  The smell was atrocious. Their guts hung out through slashed, blackened skin. Limbs had been twisted and mangled. It looked as though they had been mauled to death by savage animals.

  Captain Gharland spotted Lynn immediately as they returned. “Who is this?”

  “Ser, we found this woman in the basement. She says she’s the sole survivour. Her name’s Lynn Jhono,” Landry said.

  Gharland raised an eyebrow. “Where is the Magister Prime, girl?

  Lynn looked at each and every pair of eyes gazing upon her, seeking answers from the strange, dirt-covered woman. It must have been intimidating for her, but Tomas did not, could not, offer any words of reassurance.

  He stared at his feet, clenching his jaw so tight he thought his teeth would shatter.

  He should be here with us, not you.

  “Well? Explain yourself- what happened here?” Gharland requested.

  Lynn scratched her head, unsure of where to even begin. “I don’t know where the Magister Prime is. I think… I think they’re all gone.”

  “That does not help us. We were sent here to find the Magister Prime and protect the Repository,” Gharland huffed.

  “Landry here told me that you that came under attack from some strange beasts? I think that the same creatures that attacked your squad attacked the Magisters, captain,” Lynn said.

  “All the Magisters we have found so far are dead,” Gharland said coldly.

  Lynn nodded. “Their screams stopped days ago.”

  “Why?” Smiling John shouted. His burned face remained too ghastly to even look at. “Where did these things come from anyway?! Why attack here? Why attack us?”

  Lynn choked on her words, shrugging.

  Landry stepped forward. “Ser, I feel we need to tell you. We found Lynn in the basement, surrounded by… well, there’s a dungeon down there full of dead children.”

  The men went silent and appeared shocked. They then anxiously whispered amongst themselves.

  Gharland glared at Lynn with raised brows. “What the fuck is going on in this place? You will tell me now, or we will leave you here by yourself to rot, girl!”

  Lynn clutched at the black vial around her neck, holding it tightly. “Please, ser, I am not a Magister, I am a Disciple. I had nothing to do with what was done-”

  Gharland stormed forward and struck the girl in the stomach so hard that she doubled over. Her hat fell to the ground.

  “Enough! Half my men are dead, I nearly lost an arm to one of those beasts, and now I’m halfway up a freezing mountain and all I’m getting are piss-weak answers!”

  Lynn gasped on the ground, clutching at her stomach. Tomas had to look away; he did not like watching anyone suffer.

  But he did not step in, either. Why should he help?

  Ref crawled over to the girl, smiling like a ravenous dog. He ran his twitching fingers through her dangling red hair before taking a strand and sniffing it. “Gimme ten minutes with this bitch, ser. I’ll make ‘er talk.”

  Lynn, still in pain, froze up as Ref slithered closer to her on his hands and knees.

  Tomas stepped forward; it was there he drew the line. “Back the fuck off.”

  Ref, still crawling, peered up at Tomas. He smirked, revealing those foul, rotten teeth.

  Come on, you animal. Say something smart. Tell everyone what you did to Rilan.

  Ref took a second to say anything back. “And what’re you gonna do ‘bout it, Tommy?”

  Styna, built like a boulder, approached the girl. Smiling John, standing by Ref, laughed sinisterly with a lick of his lips.

  Tomas could only imagine what they’d want to do to Lynn. He thought back to Winterglade and how they had treated Hila. He remembered when they had attacked Rilan in the woods. He knew what the right thing to do was, yet a dark part of him questioned if she deserved it.

  Rilan died for her.

  But despite his rage, Tomas knew it was the right thing to do. He charged at Ref, pushing him away from Lynn. Ref fell backwards, landing awkwardly on his side. Styna, in retaliation, shoved Tomas back.

  “You fuckin’ cunt, I’m gonna rip your insides out!” Ref shouted, climbing back up to his feet and snarling.

  Landry, followed by the captain, ran into the mix, pushing them apart before a fight broke out.

  “Cut it out, all of you!” Gharland commanded, placing himself in-between Tomas and Ref. “Stand up, girl, now.”

  Lynn nervously got to her feet, not moving from Tomas’s side after having him defend her. She adjusted her tricorn hat atop her red hair.

  “One last chance- you will tell us what the hell is going on or I’ll be leaving you to this lot,” Gharland threatened. His face never emoted as he spoke so coldly.

  Lynn nodded, before considering her words and taking a deep breath. “I was taken to the Imperium when I was twelve. They took me from my home, claiming I had a ‘gift’ because of my intelligence and my ability to remember things that most people couldn’t. I became Magister Aymeir’s Disciple, studying biology and sociology.”

  Tomas remembered the stories he had grown up hearing about the Magisters snatching children fro
m their families. Perhaps there was some merit to them after all.

  Lynn continued. “Many of the other children the Magisters brought to the Repository were… not so lucky.”

  “The ones we found in the cell?” Landry said.

  Lynn nodded, staring down at her shoes. “They are some, yes. The Magister Prime, long before I ever came to this place, had his Magisters find children across the kingdoms and bring them back to the Repository. Some like myself, who were talented and had something to offer, were given placements and training. The others were used for his experiments.”

  Gharland grimaced, distraught by the notion of such dark actions taking place in the Repository, the supposed beacon of knowledge and science in Alyria. “What kind of experiments?”

  “The sort that had to be kept secret, lest the kingdoms of Alyria abolish the Imperium,” Lynn said. “Magister Prime Impatus discovered an ancient text many years ago about the Cataclysm of Old and used this book to guide his experiments.”

  “The ‘Cataclysm of Old’? What is that?” Tomas asked. He recognised the name, perhaps from old stories or myths? He couldn’t remember.

  “It was a time of great devastation that occurred while our world was still young, when the fabric of the Dimensional Plains was ripped open. It nearly decimated all the peoples of Eos.”

  “But those are just fables,” Landry said. “Stories that my mother told me growing up.”

  “Like how you thought the stories about the Magisters stealing children were fictional, too?” Tomas said.

  Landry drew his lips to a straight line, acknowledging Tomas’ point.

  Gharland shook his head in dismay. “None of this explains the dead children, Miss Jhono.”

  “One of the experiments that Impatus had the Magisters carry out had to do with… with Blight.” Lynn was becoming more nervous as she spoke, probably worried that she was incriminating herself.

  “Blight?”

  “It’s a substance from another Plain. It causes great illness to people who consume it,” Lynn said. She held out the vial chained around her neck, filled with black, viscous liquid for the men to see.