Starfall (The Fables of Chaos Book 1)

by Jackson Simiana

  Lynn gulped, drawing her lips to a thin line.

  Tomas felt bitter towards her, sure, but he questioned whether he would even follow through with the threat.

  “I have something like that myself, you know?” Tomas said, thinking of the key he carried with him, taken when Gharland had first had him apprehended.

  “Believe me, you don’t have anything like this,” Lynn said.

  “Mine is a key. I’ve carried it with me most of my life. I never take it off.”

  “Then where is it now?”

  “Captain’s got it. It was confiscated when they arrested me.”

  Lynn nodded, her tension easing. “What’s the key for?”

  “You tell me about yours, I’ll tell you about mine.”

  Lynn played with the vial between her fingers. The viscous, black substance within sloshed around.

  “Our Magister Prime, Impatus Rumanos, is a very old man. He oversaw the Imperium for most of his life. He researched other worlds and different dimensions, starting long before you or I were even born. He became drawn to it, and eventually I believe he became obsessed. Other Magisters were tasked within this field of research, under his command,” Lynn said, before holding out the vial. “This was one of the many findings the Imperium made.”

  Tomas raised an eyebrow, suddenly curious. All the talk of research and other worlds seemed outlandish to him, yet he was curious to hear more.

  “It’s called Blight,” Lynn began, her eyes locked to the vial. “The Magister Prime believed that consuming it could trigger powerful changes in our bodies. However, most who drank the fluid became afflicted with terrible ailments. The more you drink, the worse the reaction, and the quicker your death.”

  Tomas gulped. It truly sounded frightening to him. “So, it’s a poison, then?”

  Lynn shrugged. “More like a disease, but I don’t know for sure. The Magister Prime told us all that drinking a few drops caused strange, powerful… unpredictable changes in his own body. So, it may depend on the host, and the dosage of Blight that one drinks.”

  It was a tough story to hear. Tomas wanted nothing more than to shake it all off as fiction, yet the truth he heard in Lynn’s voice, and the things they had seen, were impossible to deny.

  “How did you come into possession of a vial?” Tomas asked.

  “I earned the right to hold a vial when I became a Disciple under Magister Aymeir. All Disciples, as well as the Magisters, receive a vial.”

  “Why?”

  “To preserve the future of our research,” Lynn said sharply. Tomas could sense a slight unease in her voice, however. Almost as if she were not so sure of the answer herself.

  “It is a substance from another place entirely.”

  “What, like from Avarwyth or something?” Tomas said.

  Lynn shook her head. “No… from another dimension. Blight does not exist on Eos naturally. That’s why we needed the…” She finished speaking mid-sentence, lowering her head in shame.

  “Needed the children?” Tomas said, inhaling sharply, “What did you need them for?”

  Lynn ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, before staring directly into his piercing eyes through the candlelit darkness.

  “Tomas, I believe we are still in great danger; so are your friends. We need to leave as soon as possible, before…”

  “Before what?” Tomas interjected angrily. It came bubbling up from within once again, just as it had before.

  “Before something worse comes for us.”

  Tomas shook his head before leaping to his feet in frustration. “What are you talking about?! You speak in riddles! All this nonsense! I can’t trust anything you have to say, can I?”

  “I have told you nothing but the truth. I have no reason to lie.” Lynn adjusted her hat so she could look at Tomas directly.

  Her wide eyes had a hint of beauty and spoke of a mind filled with knowledge. He felt captivated by the way she spoke yet could not deny the pain she caused him.

  Tomas closed his fingers into a tight fist to try and contain his outburst. He felt confused, angry. Was she speaking honestly?

  “Why should I believe any word you say?” Tomas said.

  “What have I got to gain from lying?”

  “Escape from this cell? Getting away with heinous crimes?”

  Lynn nodded. “Fair point… well, what do I serve to lose by lying to you?”

  Tomas thought for a moment. “Gharland will probably arrest you.”

  “If not hang me.”

  She was right, Tomas realised. This girl had everything to lose by lying to them about what had happened at the Repository. She would be better off coming forward and taking responsibility for her part in it. The evidence against her was rather stark.

  However, Lynn appeared so innocent and honest to Tomas, despite how her felt about her. Could it be that she was the victim of circumstance?

  Could she really be speaking the truth?

  “Then tell me, Lynn Jhono,” Tomas said, leaning up against the rough wall but not taking his eyes off her, “why do you believe we are still in danger?”

  “The Magister Prime conducted incredibly dangerous research for years. If my hunch is correct, given everything that has happened already, then what he has triggered will only get worse. And fast. We need to find the tome he had been using- it may contain the information we need to figure all of this out.”

  “All this talk of magic, Blight, tomes-”

  “It sounds ridiculous, I know. But you saw those bodies of the children in the cells down the hall,” Lynn said. “You saw the way their bodies were affected. Nothing on Eos has that sort of power over flesh.”

  Tomas stood firm and sceptical, scratching his shaking head. “It’s nonsense, all of it.”

  Lynn sneered before tugging the vial of black fluid from the chain around her neck, holding it out in her open palm. “If it’s all nonsense, then drink this.”

  Tomas glared at the liquid as it sloshed around the glass vial like black blood. He instinctively wanted to grab it from her and swallow the whole thing… but a part of him was hesitant.

  “Prove me wrong,” Lynn said.

  Tomas recalled all the stories he had heard growing up about the Magisters and their diseases. He thought of those decrepit bodies in the cell.

  This can’t all be real, can it?

  Tomas did not accept nor refuse the vial. He simply stared at it before Lynn closed her slender fingers around it and attached it back to her neck chain.

  “Help me find the tome and I can prove all of this to you,” Lynn said.

  Tomas scoffed. “We’re in the world’s largest library- how are we going to find one book? And besides, have you forgotten that we are locked up in a cell?”

  “What about your friend? The other one who was with you when you found me?”

  “Who, Landry?”

  Tomas did not know if he could rely on Landry as much as he once felt, given everything that had happened. Landry was a soldier, first and foremost. He had the captain to serve and his family name to uphold.

  “We need to get out of here, Tomas. The state of the world may depend on it,” Lynn said sternly.

  Tomas rubbed his forehead. “We won’t be getting out anytime soon, I don’t think. So enough of the theatrics, please.”

  “Ugh. This is what I get for trying to explain myself to a lowborn,” Lynn huffed with a roll of her eyes.

  Tomas did not even have the will to retaliate, simply averting his gaze and running his fingers nervously through his hair, unsure of how to feel about the enigma of a woman he was locked in the cell with.

  He was exhausted. His mind was strained, his muscles were aching. He could barely muster up a hint of strength, even if he wanted to.

  Tomas slowly fell back down to the uncomfortable floor, shutting his eyes. He saw the night sky behind his eyelids, dark and infinite in its expanse.

  He could see the millions of white stars shining like diamonds,
dotted across the black. He saw Rea, glowing a blueish white, and Ixo spread out in the night like a broken dish. Eos’s two moons were so extraordinary to behold.

  Then, Tomas saw the red star. The star he had been watching each night for months as it slowly grew larger and more astonishing with time.

  The falling star took up his entire focus. Its crimson fire, its long tail. It shimmered like a hearth.

  Tomas opened his eyes and looked to Lynn who had removed her tricorn hat to rest her head in her arms. Within seconds of imagining the red star, Tomas had remembered what Lynn had told Gharland earlier.

  Tomas broke the silence. “You said something before about… a light, to the captain.”

  Lynn lifted her head, nodding. “Kyzon’s Light, yes.”

  “What is that?”

  “The bleeding star in the sky,” Lynn said.

  Tomas’s hunch was correct. “It’s called Kyzon’s Light? Why?”

  “It was first described by an ancient scholar named Kyzon. It is an astronomical anomaly.”

  “Meaning?”

  Lynn huffed, forgetting she was not surrounded by people of science anymore. “Meaning, we do not know what it really is, other than it returns to our skies once every eight-thousand years or so. The last time it appeared in our skies, Eos was practically decimated.

  “It is said that when the bleeding star appeared, Rea collided with our moon, Ixo. Most of Eos was swallowed by the ocean as the tides shifted. It caused the Tekawa people to become nomadic. That’s why it is called the Cataclysm- our world nearly ended.”

  Tomas remembered Hila, back in Winterglade. It felt like so long ago. He recalled what she had said about the star.

  “Father says the bleeding star is an omen… a sign of something bad to come. ‘A celestial warning of blood and death’, he claims.”

  Tomas scratched his head. Could the bleeding star really have something to do with all that was happening?

  “You said that you Magister Prime was obsessed with it. Why?”

  Lynn shrugged, unamused. “I have no idea. Now, will you let me rest?”

  It did not sit right with Tomas. Ever since the red light in the sky had first appeared, he had been suspicious of its meaning, and everything had gone wrong.

  “Could it have something to do with what’s going on?” Tomas asked.

  Before Lynn could formulate a response, there was a sudden tremor in the cell. The floor and walls shook as if a giant were jumping up and down next door. Dust fell from rocky ceiling as Tomas and Lynn held on to what they could for stability.

  The floor vibrated then shook; the door groaned on its hinges as the wood warped. Cracks appeared in the walls, then the floor, like fracturing glass.

  The sound was terrible, like stones breaking and lurching all at once. A deep rumble came from far away.

  And as quickly as the shaking came, it vanished.

  “What was that?” Lynn said, catching her breath. “It felt like some sort of quake.”

  Tomas was lost for words. What could make the side of a mountain shake so violently? He did not even want to imagine an answer.

  Then came the fear. He realised that they were trapped in a locked cell…underground. He stared at the cracks that had appeared in the walls and floor. Many of the stones had shifted; some rocks were groaning.

  The entire cell could collapse at any moment.

  “We need to get out of here,” Lynn gasped, realising their predicament. Her voice sounded more panicky than before as she ran for the door, trying to pull it open and banging for help.

  Tomas realised that she must have come to the same conclusion as he did. They were in immediate danger and had to get out. He joined her side, knocking on the wood to try and get one of Gharland’s company to hear them.

  “Help! Landry!” Tomas shouted.

  “Please, let us out!” Lynn cried.

  End of Act III

  Interludes III

  Interlude - Doom

  Grata clung to Kasda’s hand with all her strength in the panic. She knew that if she lost her grip, even for a second, her small son would be lost forever in the chaos.

  Their hands were sweaty; it was becoming tougher to hold on.

  Kasda had felt overwhelmed with dread and anxiety as they reached the docks of Nightenvale, and Grata could not blame him. He had never seen so many people all at once gathered in such a small area.

  The silhouettes of the dark, spire-like buildings of Nightenvale were haunting, their stone overhangs and pointed peaks like being trapped in a rocky gulley.

  The night was intensely cool and the sea breeze strong. Lanterns guided the way towards the correct piers for the crowd, like beacons in the dark.

  The people of Nightenvale took everything they could carry. Some brought more than others, but most had remembered to bring warm clothing for the freezing weather.

  Grata kept trying to claw her way through the rugged-up people with her free hand, pushing forwards step by step with Kasda in her shadow.

  “Mama, please wait,” Kasda begged as she pulled him along. He was still crying.

  “Come on, my son. Keep walking,” she said back to him over the sorrowful shouting and wailing of the surrounding strangers.

  Only minutes earlier, they had fled from their home, leaving behind every possession they had. Grata did not even think to bring food or extra clothing for the voyage.

  The time had come to leave Nightenvale, and she did not waste one moment second-guessing it.

  “Mama, we can’t go without Jeks! Please!”

  In their rush to leave, Grata had not considered what to do with their cat, Jeks. She had simply left it in their home. The realisation hit her that she had probably left their beloved cat to die.

  Grata turned to her son and knelt to meet him at eye level. “We cannot turn back, my love. I am so sorry, but we must leave now, or we will miss the boats.”

  She could see how petrified the poor boy was through his blank stare. But she did not wait for a response. Grata took Kasda’s hand once again and continued pushing through the desperate crowd, trying to flee the city.

  Please, let there be a boat for us. Please.

  Guards were positioned throughout the crowd in their black-and-green spiked armour, trying their best to direct the people. But it was futile, as the scared residents of Nightenvale were panicking.

  Children separated from their parents wept. An elderly couple had fallen and were unable to stand back up as the rush of people trampled them.

  Grata eyed the masts of several ships over the sea of people- she knew she was heading the right way. Kasda was still wailing from behind, tugging for his mother to stop.

  If only Fera were there to help her with their son. Her bondmate Fera was on the mainland, fighting with the invasion force. She had not seen him in weeks. For all Grata knew, her bondmate was dead.

  Grata repeated the words Fera had told her before he had left. “As soon as the message is given, take Kasda and run. Do not look back. Do not hesitate. You must survive.”

  Grata had to trust her instincts, and her instincts told her that once the announcement was made to leave, to grab nothing but Kasda and flee at once. Just as Fera had said.

  Along the huge pier ahead of Grata and Kasda, the crowd was being parted into multiple groups for the different vessels by overwhelmed guards in plate armour.

  They were trying desperately to keep control of the mob, but already Grata could see panicking civilians barging their way forwards to the edge of the pier and jumping onto the sides of the boats, rather than waiting to board orderly along the ramps. Some made it, others were pulled back by angry guards, and others still fell.

  One boat, with its deck full of terrified people huddled together, started leaving the pier to head for the mainland.

  There were only a few ships left. And hundreds of people still to ferry.

  Please, wait for us.

  Grata feared what would happen to them if they wer
e left in Nightenvale with no transport.

  On the opposite side of the pier to Grata and Kasda, people shrieked as one of the wooden ramps began to groan under the weight of the fleeing people before snapping in half. A dozen women and children dropped into the frigid waters below.

  “What was that, momma?” Kasda said with an expression of concern.

  She shielded his eyes and some of the guards ran to pick the people from the dark water.

  “Nothing, my sweet.”

  “It was loud.”

  “It’s alright, my sweet.”

  Grata picked the boy up to carry him. He had grown so fast; it made Grata’s body ache to even lift him. But she did not want to risk losing him in the mess.

  “Focus on me, alright? We must find a boat now.”

  The boy nodded with an unsure smile, sinking his face into his mother’s neck to escape the noise.

  Grata spotted a boat which had just began taking passengers. She shifted her position in the crowd, edging closer and closer.

  At the side of the pier, the cold waters sloshed against the stones beneath their feet.

  Grata gazed down for a moment, and something caught her attention.

  The water… it appeared red.

  Blood red.

  Grata squinted her eyes to try and clear her vision in the dim light, sure of what she had seen but unable to believe it.

  A guard pulled her firmly from her suspicious gaze through a group of people, bringing her and Kasda closer to the ramp.

  “You have a child, get on, quickly,” the guard said.

  “Thank you, thank you so much. Diosa bless you,” Grata said with relief.

  From her rear came verbal protests and angry shouts.

  “She cut the line!”

  “We were here first! Let us pass!”

  Grata could not work up the courage to look back at their desperate faces. All she could do was focus on Kasda’s wellbeing.

  With Kasda in her arms she boarded the sturdy Akurai vessel, already near its capacity of refugees. Strewn across the deck were close to a hundred frantic people, eager for the ship to leave the harbour at once. Some had brought bags of belongings and valuables.