Starbearer

by Rock Forsberg

  ‘You think so? You haven’t seen the next world. With me, you could have transcended your puny existence.’

  With Re-Stem, Belinda had already transcended death. Provided she had access to enough energy, she could live and thrive indefinitely. But she was still a human, and Jill wondered what drove her. At least it wasn’t anything Nenetl could offer her.

  ‘Your black creatures and their binary existence is nothing compared to the richness of this universe,’ said Belinda.

  ‘Perhaps, but do you think this is all there is, and all there ever will be? The Ver and the Remolans are instruments to play the song of the next world—’

  Belinda interrupted her, ‘The Remola was a peaceful race before you turned them into your slaves.’

  ‘I,’ Nenetl boomed, ‘gave them an opportunity to become glorious.’

  ‘It will never work—’

  ‘Quiet!’ Nenetl said, and waved her hand, silencing Belinda. She turned to Jill. ‘You are a curious one. You know she loves you? She would give the universe for you. Yet you are confused, thinking it should be someone else you love.’

  Nenetl turned, and suddenly Tredd was standing in her place, wearing a black coat, brown trousers, and double gun belts on his hip. ‘Won’t you come home with me?’ He asked.

  Tredd’s sudden appearance startled Jill. Even though he was a projection of Nenetl, he seemed real, as if he actually stood there. Jill missed him, and wanted to embrace him, but she resisted. ‘You’re not real.’

  ‘I’m as real as anything,’ he said, and glanced at Belinda. ‘Seeing you in love with her breaks my heart.’

  ‘I’m not in love with her.’

  ‘That’s what you say,’ Tredd said, ‘but deep down you know you are.’

  ‘That’s not true.’

  ‘It is true,’ he said, and pressed his hands on his chest, and gagged. He raised his hands, now dripping blood. Blood also gushed from his mouth, and it stained the front of his shirt. He gurgled, ‘Your actions brought us here. You killed me.’

  ‘You’re not real!’ Jill yelled. Seeing Tredd suffer like that was painful, and she had to remind herself it wasn’t him, but Nenetl’s vision of him.

  The two Ver struck Tredd with their talons from both sides, and he screamed. They pulled the talons out with a squirt of blood, and he fell in a heap on the floor.

  Panting, her heart racing, Jill took a deep breath to calm herself with the knowledge that it was only Nenetl’s show. And when she glanced back at Belinda for a moment, Nenetl was back and Tredd was gone.

  ‘This happened,’ Nenetl said. ‘And it was all because of you. You killed him.’

  ‘No. I don’t believe you,’ Jill said, but even if she tried her best, she couldn’t hold back the tears. Just as Belinda had noticed, Nenetl was jealous of Jill.

  ‘What do you want of me?’ Jill asked.

  ‘First, I wanted you out of my way, but then I realised that you could be a useful ally.’

  ‘Never!’

  ‘Now, now,’ Nenetl said. ‘You do understand who I am, and what I can do. Of course, I would rather see you use your own motivation. But if that’s not available, with just a little push I can provide you with the motivation you need.’ She raised her hands towards Jill, as if casting a spell.

  Jill cowered, expecting a blast of something, but nothing happened.

  ‘See you later,’ Nenetl said, as she waved and disappeared.

  Jill went over to Belinda.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Belinda said. ‘What did she do to you?’

  ‘I don’t know—nothing?’ She said with a shrug. ‘You know, I don’t think Tredd is dead.’

  ‘Me neither.’

  Jill helped Belinda up. She seemed to be unscathed from the encounter, even the curls of her hair falling perfectly on her shoulders as she stood before Jill.

  ‘But you know what I realised when I saw him there?’ Jill said, with a sudden clarity of thought. ‘There was a reason why I left him, and I thought I might go back, but now I don’t have that anymore. I’ve a reason not to go back.’

  ‘You do?’

  Gazing at her alluring eyes, Jill hesitated. She had been playing the coquette, but there was no need for that now, no need to pretend. She took Belinda’s hands. ‘I realise how blind I’ve been.’

  Jill pulled Belinda close, feeling her warm body through the uniform and Belinda’s hands at the small of her back and on her hip. Their legs intertwined.

  Belinda pulled back and bit her lip. ‘Are you sure about this?’

  The question sparked a concern that her feelings might have been because of something Nenetl had done. But looking deep into Belinda’s dreamy eyes and feeling the warmth of her hips against hers made her insides tingle in a way she didn’t want to stop.

  ‘I want you just the way you are,’ Jill murmured, running her hand through Belinda’s hair. Belinda hesitated no more; she opened her lips and kissed her.

  Later that day, down in the City of Dawn Central, Jill walked a stone path through green grass, lush trees and bushes. Before her stood a building that resembled a castle of the past age: the Mercury Heritage School.

  Everything was clear now. She had been so worried about Nenetl. She had been scared of her, but now she realised it was the other Shades she should have been concerned about. How had she not seen it? How did the others not see it? The others were still blind to it. Mesmerised by the Shades to do their bidding. They were fighting Nenetl, but for what? Maybe it was just classic resistance to change. They wanted to keep everything as it was and let other options slide slowly away. In comparison, Nenetl wanted things to move forward.

  She had been wrong about so many things, including Belinda. Perhaps it was true that once you were inside a paradigm, you couldn’t see it.

  Belinda had opened her eyes; she made her see what was real. Even now, her sweet scent lingered on Jill’s skin, and just thinking about it made her tingle all over. Whatever she had been afraid of was gone. There was no shame or regret. Instead, she longed for the next time they could be alone together.

  She walked on the cobblestones, through the massive gate, and entered the inner yard. A clock, high up on the tower and visible from everywhere in the yard, indicated five minutes to three in the afternoon.

  She had a problem to fix. She had given Henning access to restricted documents, and now he was using it to work against her down in Spit City. How wrong had she been, trying to help him out? She had to stop him from interfering with their plans.

  The clock ticked to the hour and a bell rang out. In seconds, children started pouring out from the doors on all sides of the yard.

  Though she hadn’t seen her for a while, it was relatively easy for Jill to spot Aino with her curly blonde hair and pale rounded face. She chatted merrily with two other girls.

  Jill followed her at a distance. She didn’t want Aino to see her; she just wanted to be there if she was needed.

  Jill couldn’t find Belinda anywhere—she wasn’t in the command centre, neither was she in the lab, so she went up to her quarters in the upper wing of the Spire. Her door was locked, and she pressed the doorbell.

  Soon enough, the door swooshed open. Belinda wore a white bathrobe and her hair was wet.

  ‘What’s up?’ she said.

  ‘Well, you should know,’ Jill said with a wink.

  Belinda’s face was a question mark.

  Jill said, ‘About last night…’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘What we did,’ Jill said, and walked up to her. She touched the lapels of Belinda’s bathrobe. ‘I liked it, very much.’

  The expression on Belinda’s face remained one of wonder. ‘Last night?’

  Jill chuckled. ‘Yeah, last night, in the Render cage.’

  ‘I don’t…’ Belinda took a few steps back, pressing her palm against the side of her head. ‘After we talked, I tried to connect with Nenetl, but she never responded. I never left this room.’ />
  A wave of chills ran up Jill’s spine. ‘Are you absolutely sure?’

  ‘Yes, why? What did you think happened?’

  ‘Umm,’ Jill said, a headache coming on. She was sure Belinda had been there. Though now she wasn’t so sure anymore. Her behaviour had been different. Nenetl was there, too. Where did she go? How did they get there? It was all such a blur, but she vividly remembered being with Belinda. ‘We kissed.’

  ‘Yes, and?’

  ‘Are you playing with me?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘We went further, much further.’

  ‘Oh,’ Belinda said, a blush spreading on her cheeks. ‘Was it…?’

  Jill grinned. ‘What do you think? Nothing short of amazing.’

  Belinda bit her lip. ‘You know, I’ve had a similar encounter. I thought I was asleep, but I was in some kind of trance. She came to me in the form of someone else. A perfect form, someone I could not resist—’

  ‘You think the same happened to me?’

  ‘Yeah, because I know I was here and can prove it,’ she said, and pulled up a data visualisation on the wall. ‘My sleep data shows I went to sleep just before midnight and slept with a normal pattern until the morning.’

  ‘So, I was under Nenetl’s spell?’ Jill said, pressing her temple.

  ‘Perhaps,’ she said, and took the data away from the screen. ‘But I’m still glad you liked it.’

  ‘She’s right, you know,’ Jill said. ‘This world is due for an upgrade. Aalto and the other Shades want to continue putting us down, enslaving us, and Nenetl is the only one who wants to set us free. You and I, together with her, can be the gods of the new world.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree with you more.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ Jill wanted to tell her about Henning, so that they could do something about it, but she couldn’t find the words. Instead she said, ‘Something is going to take place in Spit City.’

  ‘I know. Henning went there. His assistant bumped into someone interesting—Evie Yeoh—and if I’m not mistaken, she has something that could tip the balance of the universes.’

  ‘Evie, huh? Shouldn’t be too difficult,’ Jill said, reminding herself not to underestimate her. ‘And as for Henning… if need be, we can use her daughter.’

  ‘Indeed. We also have Sofia on the ground to make sure nothing will compromise Nenetl’s plans.’

  ‘Oh, that’s clever.’ The more Jill thought of it, the better a plan it seemed to be. She would be in a unique position to capture the trust of Henning and Evie and make them reveal their plans. ‘They trust me. I could get in.’

  ‘You could,’ Belinda said, and turned back towards the wall. Every wall in the room turned into a calming night view of a rainforest, and from the speakers all around came the soothing sound of water. This time, though, it reminded her of the growing headache.

  Belinda spun around. ‘I chose this for you.’

  ‘You should get ready,’ Jill said, even though she now seriously doubted what they were doing. How did I end up helping Nenetl? Her head throbbed, and she pressed her temples.

  ‘I will,’ Belinda said.

  Fresh from the shower and free of make-up, she was naturally beautiful. Looking into Belinda’s eyes, Jill’s headache disappeared, and she had no reason to worry.

  Belinda untied the belt on her robe. ‘But won’t you first show me what you thought we did last night?’

  Jill bit her lip, pushed Belinda’s bathrobe back over her shoulders, and let it fall to the floor.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Berossus was still trying to get to grips with the fact that Gus was Jilius Dal, Henning’s father and the founder of Avalon, and that his father Oberen and Jilius had been partners in hunting monsters around the universe. It was all too much, and his head was spinning as he followed them through the corridors.

  ‘How’d you end up working here?’ He asked.

  ‘I had done some things for Daler, and Puissance knew it, so he used pressure tactics to get me to work for him. When he explained what he was doing, I immediately understood that I had to be involved—not to help him, but to work undercover and plan a counter-revolution.’

  ‘Revolution?’

  ‘Well, it’s a small word for what they’re trying to achieve.’

  Berossus gulped. The weapon weighed heavy on his arms.

  Efia and Gus led the way, with Berossus right behind them alongside Daler and Shosana, with Oberen watching their back. They returned to the room in which they had found Gus.

  As opposed to the dark corridors, this place looked more like a research facility, with people going about their business in lab coats. The tower seemed to be everyone’s focus as they worked in the glass rooms on the side.

  But there were guards, too. One spotted them, and was immediately joined by a colleague in light armour and carrying a pistol. They asked for ID.

  Just like before, Efia stepped forward with raised palms. In a calm voice, she said, ‘You’ve already seen our IDs.’

  Their eyes seemingly relaxed, the guards nodded, and started moving away.

  ‘You’re good,’ Daler said. ‘How do you do that?’

  Before she had a chance to reply, an alert blared out, and everything started flashing red. A number of guards, most with heavy motorised armour and rifles, came in through the doors, and in a moment, they found themselves in a standoff.

  They were surrounded by the guards pointing pistols and rifles at them. The machine they were going to neutralise was so close.

  Someone whispered behind Berossus’s ear, and he flinched, expecting the voice of the darkness. But it was Oberen, who said to Jilius, ‘I thought you knew what you were doing.’

  ‘I don’t know what happened—’

  Then a booming voice blasted out from every loudspeaker. ‘Daler Tait, you never cease to amaze me.’

  ‘It’s Marc Puissance,’ Daler whispered, a scowl on his face. He stared at a nearby camera and shouted, ‘Come down and fight like a man!’

  Puissance laughed. ‘I’m right here for you—I’ve been watching you for a while. You want more suffering, just keep it coming. But your friends have to go. My business partner doesn’t like their meddling. And, August, it pains me to see how you’ve betrayed my trust. Well, it’s your choice. The Thaqaran are on their way. They are suddenly very interested in you, but you already know that.’

  ‘How does he know?’ Jilius mumbled.

  Again, someone whispered behind Berossus’s ear. He thought it was his father, but instead, it was the darkness.

  These are but scum; kill them for glory.

  Berossus pushed it down. There were others around him. If he turned now, his internal demon would kill them all.

  Efia said something behind him, but it was difficult to concentrate. Daler shouted. Laughter echoed around. The red lights pulsed. Weapons dropped to the ground, and the guards, still holding theirs, approached from all directions. The darkness rose within Berossus like a tidal wave, and he faded into the background.

  The dark magic is the wicked call for the soul of the beast… I am the killing rage in demon blood incarnate, and I will begin.

  When he came to, he found himself floating, maybe five metres above the floor. The guards lay splattered around him. Efia stood beside Shosana, Daler and Jilius, and once Berossus met her eyes, she waved her hand and he descended.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘You went down—’

  His feet touched the floor. Oberen lay there, his eyes closed. Berossus’s big heart skipped a beat. ‘What happened to him?’

  ‘He’s fatally injured,’ Jilius said.

  ‘Wha—’ Berossus found it hard to speak. ‘How?’

  ‘It wasn’t you,’ Jilius said. ‘But before Efia could summon a shield, a shot was fired… the one who shot him was your first kill.’

  Berossus crouched over his father. Oberen seemed calm and content, as if sleeping, but the other side of his face was charred black and bleed
ing. He was unconscious and his breathing was shallow.

  ‘I’m not going to lose you.’

  Jilius knelt beside them and spread some healing paste on the side of Oberen’s head. ‘That should stop the bleeding,’ he said. ‘He’s stable, but he’s suffered a severe trauma. We have to get out and get him to treatment.’

  ‘Where?’ Berossus asked.

  ‘We’ll go to Spit City, and before that, do as much damage as possible. That tower, that machine, is the hub that allows Nenetl to move darkness into our universe.’

  ‘I’m not leaving without Puissance,’ Daler said.

  ‘There’s no time to look for him. There will be more guards here any moment, and he’s probably long gone.’

  ‘No. He’s here, he wants to see me suffer,’ Daler said, and turned the weapon in his hand as if inspecting it. ‘I came here to get my revenge over him, and I’m not going to back out now.’

  ‘You really think you stand a chance?’

  He said nothing.

  Then as if from nowhere, a tall woman appeared in front of them in a long purple dress, with black hair and pale skin.

  Shosana screamed, ‘It’s her, it’s her!’ and cowered behind Berossus.

  Berossus had never seen her before, but her appearance matched the description perfectly. ‘Nenetl.’

  Jilius and Daler raised their weapons.

  ‘Now, now,’ Nenetl said. ‘Please put those things away, or you’ll hurt yourself.’

  Efia stepped out from behind them and motioned for them to lower the weapons. ‘She’s right. Let me deal with this.’

  ‘Efia, old friend,’ Nenetl said softly. ‘It’s so good to see you again.’

  Efia winced. ‘Why do you do this?’

  Nenetl eyed her with a smile. ‘Wrong question. The right question is, what’s going to happen now that you and I are the only Shades free to roam across the worlds?’

  ‘Well, I have a proposition.’

  Berossus flinched. Everyone else seemed to follow Nenetl and Efia’s discussion as if glued to it. Behind Berossus, Shosana muttered to herself, ‘This is not good… it’s going to end just like… this is it.’