by Jeff Sproul
"What do you see?" came Minara's strained voice.
"Nothing, just darkness," said Chaxin. He pulled his hand away, and his vision rushed back. He blinked rapidly and looked back to Minara. "There was nothing, only darkness."
"Touch it again," said Minara. "Think of the Graymos. Think of other gates. Then, think about a gate further away than all the others."
Chaxin took a breath and placed his hand back to the stone. His vision went black, but just as Minara had said, he thought of the Graymos. When he did, small white dots filled his vision. Various symbols appeared over each dot.
"I'm seeing… dots, with symbols above them," he said. He turned his head and realized he could look around at them. He wanted to see more of them, and at such a thought, the dots became smaller, but more numerous.
"Think about the farthest gate," Minara spoke before coughing for several seconds. Then, she continued to speak. "It'll be farther than all the others. Alone."
Chaxin visualized a solitary gate, far away. Slowly, the dots became increasingly small. There were more dots than he could ever count, and the dots were still appearing. But those dots kept getting further from his vision, until he saw a single white dot with a symbol above it. The symbol looked like the letter U with a larger upside-down U right above it, closing it in.
"I think I see it," said Chaxin.
"Connect with it," Minara coughed.
In that instant, upon wanting to bridge the gap between that dot and where he was now, a sudden bright white light appeared like a screen in the gate before him. His vision shifted. He could still see the white dot with the two U letters, but he could also see a white screen in the shape of a square.
"Before you go through," said Minara. "Think about releasing all restraints on the gate. Think about lifting all restrictions and settings. Think of refreshing it."
Chaxin took in a slow breath. As he considered the things Minara had told him, and sought to apply them to the gate, a myriad of different words appeared before him. At first, they were in strange symbols, but then, they became readable. They flowed so quickly, he couldn't truly read what they were saying. White words were streaming by, row after row.
The word 'protocol' appeared on numerous occasions, as did 'unlocked' and 'unrestricted.'
Then, the words all disappeared, but the white screen remained. He pulled his hand back. "I think I did it," he said.
His vision returned, and he was able to see the gate without the dark haze of whatever was happening to his vision. He stared at the white screen. It looked just like it had when Minara had activated the gate back in Kamber. His gaze ran to the top of the gate. Inlaid in the top, much like scrawl, was a symbol. From top to bottom, the symbol looked like an upside down V above a flat line, which was above a regular V. Was that the signifier for this gate?
He turned his head. "What should I say when I get there?" he asked, looking at Minara.
Minara's head lay upon the stone floor. Her eyes were open, her hands unmoving.
"Minara?" Chaxin called.
There was no response.
"Minara!" Chaxin shouted as his chest tightened. He turned to face her, but stopped before he could take a step away from the gate. He grit his teeth and looked to the gate. Reinforcements. Help. He couldn't do anything for Minara, but maybe… maybe he could help others if he brought reinforcements from wherever he was linked to.
He walked to the white screen, standing mere inches from it.
He didn't know where Verun was. He wasn't sure if he was alive.
Cynthia was probably still alive. He hoped. But had she managed to save anyone else? Was there anyone else to save, in Grittin?
The faces of the bodies of the strike force flashed before him. Boru. Hurim. There were so many.
But there was also Nessa, and Senna, and others still in Kamber. There were certainly others that were hiding in Grittin, and places in Wake. He had to keep moving. He had to. For those that were still fighting for survival. He took in a deep breath, and stepped through the white screen.
Chapter 34: Remember
In an instant, Chaxin appeared in a room. He blinked the haze from his eyes as they adjusted to the difference in light. Where he'd just been had been lit by burning torches and sconces. But now he was surrounded by intense white light, emanating from panels on the ceiling. He squinted, slowly looking around.
The air was what he could only describe as 'cleaner' than what it had been in Grittin. He breathed in slowly, thankful that there was actually air to breathe. If this was indeed another sphere, then it was likely that there might not always be breathable atmosphere.
He stepped forward onto metal flooring. It was chrome and sleek. His boots made hollow footfalls as they landed upon it. He turned his head and saw the gate behind him. The white screen was there for several seconds longer, then dissipated, showing the metal wall behind it.
He turned back around, and on the far end of the room, he saw two doors. One to the left of the wall, and another to the right. His gaze rose, and he noticed that the upper half of the wall was a dark glass. Not quite black, but dark in a way that he couldn't see through it.
Upon looking at it, he couldn't help but get the sense that he'd seen it before. This room. This air. It felt familiar, as if he'd been in this place. But he couldn't bring any of those memories to the fore of his thoughts.
He checked himself over with a glance, making sure that he still had his mage-caster and saber. He held his spear low and slowly stepped across the room, which was easily a hundred feet across and at least half as wide.
He made it halfway across the room when both doors flung open.
One after another, four soldiers rushed into the room. At least, they appeared to be soldiers. They wore black and gray boots, pants, and vests, and helmets that covered their heads, but not their faces. They looked human.
They raised weapons he wasn't familiar with, black devices with barrels like those of the Jari ranged weapons. Were they a form of ranged weapon?
The four soldiers raised those devices at him and stopped.
"Halt!" one of them barked out.
Chaxin hadn't even moved an inch since the doors burst open. He continued to grip the spear, but he didn't raise it. Minara had said that these people were friends and potential reinforcements. He didn't want to alarm them. He swallowed and took in a slow breath, then released it. "My name is Chaxin, I've come seeking aid. We need your help. Who's in charge?"
None of them moved for several long seconds.
Chaxin's brow furrowed. "I'm not a threat," he said. "Minara sent me."
Another second passed and then another.
The soldier on the far left lowered his weapon, then grabbed something on his hip.
Chaxin could only watch as a smaller device was raised and aimed at him.
"What are you doing?" Chaxin gasped as he tensed. He raised the gun spear in a futile attempt to shield himself from any oncoming attack.
As Chaxin watched the soldier with the smaller device, his vision suddenly blurred, as if the space between him and the soldier became distorted somehow. His head swam, and his fingers lost their grip on his weapon. He felt himself falling forward, then, darkness.
Before he could even open his eyes, Chaxin realized he was sitting on a hard chair.
When his eyes opened, the intense lights felt even brighter than what he'd dealt with in the large room with the gate. The fog in his vision cleared and he saw that he was seated at a table, with three individuals across from him.
"There you are, ‘bout time," said the man seated on the right. He had dark skin and short black hair which was starting to gray at the roots. He was wearing various emblems and ornaments on his shoulders, as well as his chest. "How're you feeling?"
"Um," Chaxin murmured, swallowed dryly. "Dizzy."
"Sorry for all of that," said the decorated man. "Your presence here is quite a surprise. Do you realize that?"
Chaxin slowly shook his head
. "I, uh, I guess not? I came here to find help." His head was clearing more by the moment. The headache assailing him was gradually alleviating, but not as quickly as he would've liked. It was then that he realized he was missing his gear. His weapons, the ammo pouch and quiver, and the glove he'd gotten from Minara.
"You came through the gate," said the man seated in the middle.
Chaxin's gaze shifted to the fair-skinned man with wrinkled cheeks and short gray hair. He didn't have any of the ornaments that the other man wore, but his clothes were just as sleek, even if they were different. Their clothing wasn't as rugged and loose as what Chaxin was wearing.
"Yes I did," Chaxin responded. "Minara sent me."
"Yes, you said that when you arrived," said the man in the middle. "And you claimed to be Chaxin Daijon? What proof do you have that you are who you say you are?"
"Daijon?" Chaxin asked, his brow furrowed. He shifted in his chair, sitting up straight. "What's that?"
The three individuals exchanged looks.
It was then that Chaxin took notice of the third figure, a woman with deep black hair drawn back into a bun. Her clothes were neat, but whereas the two men wore blacks, grays, and blues, she was dressed in a white coat overtop some sort of green shirt. She was younger than the two men, but Chaxin could just make out the faint wrinkles forming in the corners of her eyes as she looked at him.
"Daijon," said the man in the middle. "It's a surname. A last name. Your last name, apparently. If you are indeed Chaxin. There has only ever been one man by the name of Chaxin to go through the gate, at least. And you look like a younger version of him. Which makes some sense, I suppose."
"None of this makes any sense!" Chaxin spoke up, only becoming more confused by the moment. "I have no idea who any of you are, or what you're even saying. I came here looking for help. A nameless has assailed Grittin, Minara is dead, and people are dying. Karnith abandoned the city and went elsewhere. But there are still people who need saving in the city and I need your help. Do you have soldiers you can send to aid us?"
The two men gave each other a sideways glance. Then, the man in the middle spoke up. "My name is Director Garns. This here is General Damond," he said, gesturing to the dark-skinned man beside him. "And this is Professor Talia."
"Just Sarah, if you don't mind," said the woman.
Garns gave Sarah a glance, then looked back to Chaxin. "How about you tell us what you know? Start from the beginning."
Chaxin's brow seemed almost permanently furrowed at this point. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Minara said nothing about all this. But fine, I understand that you don't know me, and that I probably need to earn your trust. But can we please make this quick?"
"Of course," said Director Garns. "Please, enlighten us on the situation."
"Well," said Chaxin, “I've only been alive for about seven days, as best as I can figure."
He told them about how he woke up on the shore. About Kamber, about the merfolk and the cyclops. He told them of the people he met, and then of his run-in with a spectre.
"A spectre?" General Damond spoke up. "Can you describe this entity you saw?"
Chaxin went into detail—as best he could, describing the creature.
"Sounds like a Dijori," General Damond spoke, looking to Garns.
"It sounds exactly like a Dijori," Sarah spoke up.
"You know of the spectres then?" Chaxin asked.
"Do you know anything more about the Dijori?" asked Sarah.
Chaxin shook his head. "I don't. That was the only time I encountered one."
"Please continue with your story," said Director Garns.
There wasn't a whole lot to tell until he got to the part of his death. He told them further of Daxar and Karnith, and how he and Kaiz were killed and sent to Purgatory.
"You were killed?" asked General Damond.
Chaxin nodded. "I was. I ended up in Purgatory after."
"How is that possible?" asked Sarah. "You're saying your life ended and you appeared somewhere else?"
Chaxin was perplexed as he looked between the three people before him. "I'm sorry, I'm even more confused that you don't know about Purgatory. I thought everyone did."
Chaxin told them what he knew of Purgatory and described his time there. He left out the minor detail of allowing himself to die at the hands of the arena combatant, and simply told them that he'd been killed in the fight, only to awaken again in another part of Purgatory. At this point, the three individuals across from him all had raised brows.
He went on to tell them of Verun and their escape from Purgatory.
"Wait, speech magic?" asked General Damon. "How does that work? We have no information of that."
Chaxin shrugged. "I'm not too familiar with it myself, other than it's apparently very dangerous. Verun would know more, but he's back in Grittin, which… I would like to return to, hopefully with my gear and your help."
"Yes, yes, we can get to that shortly, please tell us what else you know," said the director.
Chaxin paused for a moment, trying to recall the events afterward. He described Trillin. And with knowledge now of what he and Verun might've seen, he told them of the potential mimic threat. He told them of Keldara, and of Nessa and her ship, and their arrival back to the Kajura continent, where they fought Vracnid and met with Cynthia.
"Peculiar," Sarah murmured, when Chaxin described what Cynthia was capable of. "This Keldara… I don't even know how that's possible either. We only have limited knowledge of the possibilities of humans being able to use scrawl. But speech magic, and these other individuals, I don't even know where to begin to—"
"We can muse upon the ramifications of such things later," said Garns. "What else do you know?
Chaxin looked to Sarah. The woman's eyes narrowed as she glanced at Garns, but Garns's attention was still on him.
"Not much left," said Chaxin, as he then told them of Minara in Kamber and what she had prepared for. Then, all that was left was to describe the events that transpired after he arrived in Grittin. The presence of the nameless as well as the transformed humans, and then finding Minara, who had obtained the Dijori glove.
"A nameless," Sarah murmured. "We'd only heard partial references to such creatures."
"But from the sounds of it, there could be more than a single such entity," said the General.
"So this glove that you were given," said Director Garns. "That's how you were able to activate the gate to get here?"
Chaxin nodded. "That's right."
"How many other gloves exist?" asked General Damond. "You said it was obtained from the Dijori?"
"I don't know. I only saw one of those gloves on the spec—I mean, on the Dijori that escaped. I imagine in the second sarcophagi there was another Dijori, which also had a glove. Which is the one Karnith and then I ended up with. But for all I know, Karnith has others, or even the knowhow to operate gates without it."
"Is there anything else you've left out?" asked Garns as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms against his chest.
"That's everything I know," said Chaxin. "Now please, can you help us? Where's my gear?"
The director turned to the general. He gestured with his head in the direction of the door.
The two men shifted and slid their chairs back. They got up, and without another word, the two of them left.
"What's going on?" Chaxin asked Sarah, desperate for answers.
Sarah sat there, her hands clasped together on the table. "I'm sorry, Chaxin," she said. "But they have no intention of helping you."
"What do you mean? I was told to come here for help! You're just going to abandon us? People are being transformed into monsters!"
Sarah held her hand up, as if to calm Chaxin, but he didn't feel calm in the least.
"Please," she said softly. "You have no idea what the situation is. There's a lot to explain." Sarah glanced to her right without turning her head. "Do you know where you are?"
Chaxin shook his he
ad. "No."
Sarah let out a slow breath. She glanced to the door, then looked back to him. "You're on Earth."
"Is that the name of this sphere?" asked Chaxin.
"It's not a… well, I suppose you could say that," said Sarah. "When you came through the gate, you crossed dimensions, not just worlds."
"Dimensions?" asked Chaxin. "Am I still in the Graymos?"
Sarah shook her head. "What we call the Graymos is another dimension. I'm sure it's hard to understand, and I don't have time to explain the entirety of it, but things function differently in the Graymos. For one, there's a sort of… gamification effect. You can grow stronger by doing things. You can collect the essence of other beings and use that as magical potential. There are a number of other differences, but where you're at right now, none of that happens. When we die here, our lives just end. There’s no leveling, or experience."
"There's no monsters?" asked Chaxin.
"Actually, there's still monsters," said Sarah. "That's how this whole thing started. Some five hundred years ago." Sarah reached down and pulled a small, flat device from her pocket. It had a black rim and was transparent in the center. She tapped at it and looked at it for a few moments, before looking back at Chaxin. "I'll try to bring you up to speed."
"Alright," said Chaxin, hungry for answers.
"Over five hundred years ago, Earth—our planet—was assailed by a species we knew nothing about. We called them demons. They were hellish creatures that killed and abducted humans all over the planet. They were powerful, ruthless, merciless. Much of the population was lost in the ensuing years. But luckily, we managed to hold out. There are several facilities all over the planet where we've bunkered down. We try to continue life as best we can, working little by little to take back portions of the planet. But the demons are still here, in force." She paused for a second, taking another glance to her right.
When she did, Chaxin slowly turned his head, noticing a black device with a piece of glass at the end. It wasn't very large, about the size of his hand. It was attached on the ceiling, directed down at them. He had no idea what its purpose might be. It didn't look to be a weapon. But then again, how would he know?