Starbearer

by Rock Forsberg

  Belinda was gone.

  Tredd was gone.

  Everything would be gone.

  She had been alone with a monster that portrayed itself as a beautiful woman. She was helping the monster get its way.

  Do you hear me? a man’s voice said.

  She turned around. ‘Excuse me?’

  One of the workmen glanced at her with a dumbfounded expression.

  We don’t have much time, the voice said. She didn’t recognise it, but it wasn’t any of the workmen. She turned around. I’m right above you.

  She looked up, but there was nothing there. Only the black obsidian buildings and, between them, Grangar. ‘I can’t see you. Who are you?’ she whispered.

  A friend, he said. I’m inside Grangar. She’s holding you spellbound, and we don’t have a lot of time. You don’t need to speak.

  Jill had to fight to keep her head up, and her face as neutral as possible, so that Nenetl would not sense that Jill had suffered another flare-up.

  I’m sorry if this is painful. Grangar’s powers are crude. Also, she might be able to find out about us. I’ll keep it short: you must get yourself out of her spell. Then, the only way to defeat her, is to overpower her with E. I’ve got some, you’ve got some, your friends have got some… and the Shades have a lot, but they must be released first. Release them and release Belinda Killock. Only by working together can you defeat Nenetl.

  Jill listened intently, focusing as much as she could through the pain. She could grab Henning and Sofia, and Berossus was already there. Who else? Aino was back at Dawn Central, and Tredd and Eddie… who knew where they were? ‘I might be able to get three people to help me.’

  Even with Grangar, that won’t be enough, came the voice inside her head.

  ‘What do we do then?’ Jill said, and clenched her jaw against the pain.

  We should free a Shade, but Aalto is too weak. Best to go with Efia, Shinzaburo, or Warrigal.

  ‘Sounds good, but how?’ Jill was getting impatient. The throbbing headache didn’t help, and it was getting worse.

  Get close to her, then use your power on one of her rings.

  ‘Could I really break a Shade free?’

  I don’t know. But it just might work.

  ‘How do I know which ring holds which?’

  Efia is green.

  ‘Who are you?’

  I’m a friend, but you should go. I will release you to go to her—you won’t remember this discussion, but when you’re close, I will connect with you again by breaking Nenetl’s spell for enough time for you to remember and to destroy the green stone.

  ‘Thank you,’ Jill said, and her headache vanished.

  Someone, a different voice right beside her, said, ‘Are you all right, madam?’ It was one of the repairmen.

  Jill straightened herself, pushed the stray stands of her hair back behind her ear, and said, ‘Better than ever. Just go back to your tinkering.’

  ‘No need to be rude, I was just concerned—’

  ‘Concern yourself with something else,’ Jill said, turning her back on the man. People wondered too much about other people’s business. This was the problem with humanity. But soon, it wouldn’t be a problem anymore. She walked out of the bridge and continued on the walkway through the building: Nenetl needed her.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  While waiting for the Momentum 6’s systems to crunch the data, Berossus sat on one of the chairs in Gus’s den, surrounded by technical apparatus. It reminded him of the time Aino had made Gus roll on the chair across the room.

  Naido lay still on the operating table, resting, chatting with Evie. Gus sat before his systems set-up and worked on the large screen in front of him.

  A sudden gust of cold wind blew through the room, flapping Berossus’s trousers. He had a bad feeling about it, and before he could say anything, Nenetl was already there, in the form of a beautiful woman.

  ‘You think you could destroy my universe like that?’

  She raised her arms and from the tips of her fingers shot out a stream of black and purple. It hit the machines in front of Gus and sent him flying backwards in his chair. As he grunted on the floor, his computers buzzed and crackled with blue and white lightning.

  Nenetl laughed as the fireworks gave way to grey smoke. As if from nowhere, dozens of flying Ver appeared all around the room. They screeched and circled above.

  ‘You only destroyed my terminal,’ said Gus. ‘The data transfer continues inside Momentum 6’s decentralised servers as we speak.’

  Nenetl gave him a wicked eye. ‘That will be fixed, too, but before that, you will perish.’

  The door opened behind them, and Jill Faith stepped in.

  ‘Jill!’ Evie shouted in glee. Berossus was also glad to see her. She could channel E like no one else.

  Nenetl turned to look and, upon seeing Jill, she smiled. ‘What took you so long?’

  Jill walked in towards her, and said lightly, ‘I took the scenic route.’

  Evie’s joy turned into a frown. To Berossus, it almost seemed as if Jill was with Nenetl. ‘Jill, what’s going on?’

  As she walked to Nenetl, the Shade adjusted her size so that she was a little taller than Jill. She put her arms around her shoulders, and they shared a kiss.

  ‘Faugh,’ Evie said. ‘For real?’

  Jill pulled back and smiled mischievously. ‘I was lost, just like you are, but she showed me the way.’ She held Nenetl by the waist and leaned against her.

  ‘She’s taken over her mind,’ Gus said.

  Berossus felt a lump in his throat. He had thought Jill would be able to help them.

  ‘I know you’re in there!’ Evie shouted.

  Jill laughed. ‘Little Evie, always so feisty. Of course I’m here. If you, too, were here in this moment, you would also see the beauty of what is to come.’

  ‘What’s gotten into you?’ Evie spat.

  Gus coughed. ‘What is the beauty that’s going to come? All I see are slithering black creatures flying all over.’

  Jill seemed as if she was about to say something, but Nenetl cut in.

  ‘You people lack perspective. It’s understandable, given your short lifespans. But these folks,’ she said, showing her rings, ‘the four Shades, remember Esse, the world you replaced with this… Now it’s your time to give way for a better world.’

  ‘I don’t believe you!’ Evie shouted.

  ‘It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. It is the natural course. As the day follows the night planetside, the seasons change, a baby is born, grows up, and dies—the cycle of life as you know it. It applies to everything, even the universes themselves.’

  Berossus recalled her mother’s words about the impending entropy, and the only thing that could reverse it. Love, she had said, but Berossus never understood what it meant in practice.

  ‘If it is a natural course, why does it need you?’ Evie asked. ‘Why then have you trapped the other Shades?’

  The Ver had receded to the corners of the room, making the shadows seem alive.

  ‘Every natural action needs an actor that moves things forward. For this change it is me. Last time, it was Aalto, when he wiped Esse away before this universe.’

  Berossus flinched. Evie stared at Nenetl, mouth agape.

  ‘Don’t look so surprised,’ Nenetl said, and rubbed one of the rings on her finger. A faint smoke emitted from the object, and it twirled around and flew to the floor between them. From the smoke, a figure emerged. ‘Maybe he should tell you about it himself.’

  The faint figure of Aalto appeared in the middle of the room, as a frail old man. He seemed disoriented, looking around the room and down at his ethereal form.

  ‘Aalto, why don’t you tell us what you sacrificed for the birth of this universe?’

  He spoke in a heavy voice. ‘You want to talk about Esse?’

  ‘Tell us what you did to that world.’

  Aalto glanced at Nenetl with tired eyes and shook his head
. ‘I’m not proud of what we did, but it had to be done.’

  ‘See, your lawful-good Aalto did exactly the same thing millions of years ago.’

  Berossus couldn’t believe it. Aalto had been the one who helped them—he had been in it for humanity.

  ‘It’s not the same thing. This universe is still—’

  Suddenly Aalto’s form began to disintegrate from the top of his head, and soon he flew like dust into Nenetl’s ring on her outstretched hand.

  ‘Enough of the old fool,’ Nenetl said.

  Henning appeared in the doorway, Sofia behind him. They stepped in with determination, but as they looked around the room, with Nenetl and the swarms of Ver, they began to worry.

  Nenetl regarded Henning and Sofia, and the doors behind them slammed shut. ‘It just became a proper family reunion, I see. Better late than never.’

  ‘What is she talking about?’ asked Henning.

  Nenetl continued. ‘Your father, Julius Dal, aka August Tierna.’

  Henning stared at Nenetl in disbelief.

  ‘It’s true,’ Gus said in a low voice. ‘I’m your father.’

  Henning shook his head and took a deep breath. He didn’t say anything, and Berossus understood; in his shoes, he would have been stumped. Now, they were facing none other than Nenetl the Radiant, the Shade gone rogue.

  ‘All one big happy family,’ said Nenetl. ‘But you are in my way.’ She raised her arms and a waft of black and purple smoke appeared around her fingers, but before she could shoot it out, a burst of blue light hit her in the chest.

  Jill yelped, and looked towards direction of the shot: Naido sat on the operating table, holding a big plasma rifle. He fired again.

  Nenetl took another shot in the chest, and grimaced. ‘You think you can kill me with that? No, but it’s annoying.’

  Dark vapour flew from her fingers and engulfed Naido. Then the fumes retreated back to her, and Naido was gone. She pointed her fingers towards Gus, and with a gust of smoke he was gone too, pulled in by Nenetl.

  Evie cried out, ‘What did you do to them?’

  Another burst of purple left her hands, this time engulfing Evie.

  Berossus said, ‘No!’ as the haze took her.

  ‘All right then, you’re next,’ Nenetl said, and a sudden flurry of smoke filled Berossus’s eyes before everything faded away.

  Henning tensed. Sofia squeezed his arm as the purple smoke covered Berossus. Nenetl had said Gus was his father. He couldn’t be—Gus was too young, and Jilius had been tall and lean, the complete opposite of Gus. He wanted to believe his father was there, but his intelligent mind convinced him Nenetl was playing him. And now she had pulled him away.

  The smoke retreated to Nenetl, and Berossus was gone, but in his place, there was a massive Thaqaran creature, bigger than any they had seen before.

  ‘She turned him into one of them,’ said Sofia.

  Henning recognised the monster before them. ‘I think she only uncovered the other half of who he has been all along.’

  The monster in Berossus’s place spoke in a gnarly voice, words that Henning didn’t understand.

  Nenetl regarded the monster and responded with what sounded like the same language, but more softly spoken. They exchanged a few more words, none of which Henning understood, during which both Nenetl and the monster seemed to grow agitated, and their argument became evident when the monster cried out in a growling voice.

  In the dark corners of the room, the Ver began flapping their wings and shrieking in response to the Thaqaran’s call. Their noise became more voluminous, filling the room just before they all flew forth at the same time. In a moment, they engulfed Nenetl in a black cloud of beaks, wings and talons. Jill fell on the floor under the teeming swarm of Ver.

  ‘The monster is in control of them,’ Sofia said.

  ‘Indeed,’ said Henning. The Ver were tough, but so was Nenetl. He thought of ways to help them and came up with one thing. ‘This could be our chance… Could you draw E from me, and supercharge a bolt on her like you did with the three Thaqaran?’

  ‘Maybe, but I’ll pass out.’

  ‘I’ll make sure you’re OK.’

  ‘But is it enough?’

  ‘It’s worth the shot.’

  They looked each other in the eye and held hands. Sofia raised her right arm. Henning felt the pull of E through his hand into his core.

  Suddenly something hit them hard, stopping their concentration, and they fell back.

  Jill followed as her goddess removed the blocks in their way. She was radiant, and she always knew what to do. She was driving change, while the other Shades, like Aalto, were about the past glories. They were blocking natural progress, and the people they had mesmerised helped them without knowing any better. They had been Jill’s friends once, and she wished they could understand, that Nenetl could make them see. But even if they didn’t, the new world had to move forward. Nobody was going to stand in their way, not now, not ever.

  Jill had her arm around Nenetl’s waist as she spoke to the humans. When she shot purple energy from the tips of her fingers, Jill, too, felt the energy coursing through her, her body trembling in sync with its beat, exhilarated as they got sucked in by her powers.

  Then something surprising happened. The big Andron mechanic, as he got sucked into Nenetl’s ring, left behind a monster, one of the Thaqaran.

  The monster cried out, in a language Jill didn’t know she understood: ‘I am the Wragh. We, the mighty Thaqaran, and the line of Ver, have followed a false god.’

  At the same time, a sharp pain flared through Jill’s head. It struck her so hard, she fell.

  A wave of awareness washed over her, and she could see again. She lay on the floor, by a pair of beautiful legs, under a mob of furious flapping creatures. Looking up she recognised that the legs belonged to the evil goddess Nenetl, who was swiping away at the onslaught of the Ver on her.

  Jill had been spellbound.

  A voice called to her. Jill, it’s Tommy. Now’s the time.

  Everything came back to her in a flash. Nenetl had taken Belinda, she had taken Evie and Berossus, and she was about to take over the world with her dark contraption. She had someone talking to her. Tommy, he hadn’t said his name before.

  ‘Tommy Huckey?’

  He didn’t respond. But it made perfect sense. He was inside Grangar. He had awoken her before, and just like then, her head hurt.

  It helped her remember: now was the time to strike. Nenetl was disturbed, and unable to put the spell on her. The green gem on Nenetl’s finger held Efia; Jill had to break it to set her free. Efia was their only hope in defeating Nenetl.

  Just a few metres behind Nenetl, Henning and Sofia were holding hands. They were going to strike her with E. It wouldn’t help. They wouldn’t have enough energy. They needed Efia with them. If they wasted their energy now—

  Jill made a split-second decision to get on her feet and rush at Sofia. She tumbled down, Jill on top of her.

  ‘Get off me!’ Sofia shouted, and pushed her.

  Jill whispered, ‘It’s me. I’m on your side.’

  She wasn’t sure if Sofia had understood her as Henning staggered beside them and pulled Jill up. Getting up by herself, she glanced at Nenetl and whispered, ‘I’ll get Efia, then let’s join forces.’

  A sliver of a smile visited Henning’s face just before he gasped.

  A booming purple blast threw all the Ver off Nenetl in a perfect sphere. Nenetl stood poised with her arms to the sides as dozens of Ver rained down around her, leaving them scattered and motionless on the floor.

  ‘You think you can command my troops against me?’ she said.

  ‘They aren’t your troops,’ said the Thaqaran that had appeared in Berossus’s place. ‘I am the Wragh, and they respond to me.’

  ‘They won’t,’ said Nenetl, and spun around, emitting purple smoke from her palms.

  The smoke seeped quickly between the Ver, and through their line-shaped nos
trils, inside them. Their eyes opened with a purple glow, and they got up, flapping their wings. With a wave of her arm, Nenetl directed the flapping cloud of Ver at the Thaqaran.

  She cackled as they surrounded the monster, like a swarm of flying ants over a downed wasp, and took it down.

  This was Jill’s moment. She stepped back to Nenetl’s side, trying to show a happy face despite the piercing pain in her head. She wondered how long Tommy could keep her awake like this before Nenetl’s spell took over. Or how long she could take the pain.

  Nenetl took her by her side. The jewels in the rings on her fingers gleamed under the cold lights above, and one of those bore a green jewel, the one on her left index finger. If Tommy was right, that was Efia.

  While Nenetl was preoccupied with controlling the Ver, Jill put her left arm around Nenetl’s waist and drew upon the energy gathering inside her core. She looked up at Nenetl and opened her mouth. With her right arm, she took her hand, feeling the green jewel under her thumb. Nenetl leaned in to kiss her.

  When their lips met, the tingle rushed through her body, gaining strength as it spiralled inside her into an uncontrollable frenzy. She squeezed her harder and let herself past the point of no return.

  And once she couldn’t hold it in anymore, she directed all of it through her thumb.

  Henning took a step back as a bright bolt of lightning flashed around Jill and Nenetl, a momentary flash, after which Jill fell at Nenetl’s feet.

  Nenetl, seemingly surprised, also took a step back, as another figure appeared before her.

  The figure in an archaic green dress was unmistakably Efia the Mediator. She seemed calm, surveying her own body and her surroundings.

  Jill had pulled it off; she had freed the Shade. Henning had doubted that Jill had spoken the truth, and even if she had, he hadn’t believed she could actually break one of Nenetl’s rings and free a Shade. But she was more powerful than he had thought. Perhaps Nenetl had bestowed some of her powers onto her.

  ‘Efia is here,’ Henning said, and grabbed Sofia’s hand. ‘Now’s the time.’