by Azalea Ellis
“That was probably wise. We need to take time to explore your Skill, but we should be careful since it might be dangerous.”
She leaned toward me. “I was thinking, what if his spirit is still around, on Estreyer? Maybe it would be kind of, like, an imprint of him? Maybe…I could feel it, if we went back there once all this is done.”
I took a deep breath. “It wouldn’t hurt to see. But don’t get your hopes up too much. Like you just said, spirits and ghosts aren’t the same thing. Maybe Torliam would have a better idea what you’re likely to find.”
Torliam’s head turned at the sound of his name, and he rose as if to move toward us, but something caught his attention. His head snapped around to stare into a seemingly empty spot in the woods.
I’d searched out the surrounding area with Wraith when we stopped, but I pushed my awareness out again in alarm. Dead space encroached on our camp in a slowly shrinking circle, an area where Wraith pushed and got no feedback, like trying to sense through a feather pillow.
—Incoming. Using a Skill. Likely hostile.—
-Eve-
I sent out the Window to the others even as I withdrew my awareness. I gritted my teeth and lashed out with a mental lance, all my energy focused on one point. This time, I pierced through into the dead space and caught a brief glow of power, shining so brightly I never would have missed it without the concealing effect. I’d never met a Player that strong.
—It’s an Estreyan.—
-Eve-
I used the same trick to puncture through the encroaching dead space in other directions, and found at least two more Estreyans walking within its protection. None of them seemed to be the source of the effect, so either it wasn’t a Skill, or there was another of them I hadn’t found yet.
—Did Queen Mardinest send them to capture us?—
-Zed-
—I don’t know. But if they were friendly, they wouldn’t be sneaking up on us.—
-Eve-
A vibration in the air ripped through the surrounding dead space and into our camp. The sound was like an explosion that just kept going. I dropped to my knees, my hands pressing into the sides of my head as I tried to protect my ears, and maybe my brain, from the sound attack.
It went on and on. I threw up. Wraith was useless. I couldn’t get it more than a foot away from my body before getting so dizzy I couldn’t hold my awareness together.
Still, our attackers were close enough by that point to see with my own eyes as they converged on our camp.
Torliam’s power settled over the ground like a low-hanging mist and thrummed. For a moment, it brought relief from the sound. But one of the Estreyans lifted his arms, and the sound was back again, jumping around frantically, changing too often for Torliam to nullify it with opposing waves.
The blue mist thickened. This time, he didn’t bother to try and nullify the sound. Torliam turned the air around us into a molasses-like barrier that I could feel against my skin, impeding the movement of the sound waves.
I drew my hands away from the side of my head, trying to ignore the blood on my palms from my burst eardrums.
—Zed, get us out of here!—
-Eve-
Zed managed to pull himself off the ground with the help of a tree trunk, then opened a rip in the world.
I took a single step toward him, and the world bent around me, like a lens coming into focus. He’d only been a few feet away, but suddenly those feet had stretched. I ran, but barely got anywhere.
I turned away from him, and without the effect of whatever Skill was playing with the physics between us like warm toffee, I found myself all the way across our campsite in half a second.
Two four-legged creatures made of old bones, little pieces of shredded animal hide, and bug carcasses attacked one of the Estreyans.
The sound-creator was locked in his standoff with Torliam.
Zed was gone, probably in the Other Place.
Jacky was trapped by the physics-bender, running but barely inching forward. She stopped, crouched down, and then shot herself into the air before he could change the direction of the warp.
One of the Estreyans stepped into the camp across from me, wielding what looked like a literal whip of fire.
I tried to run toward him but couldn’t. I jerked to the side instead, but only got a couple feet before space stretched again and trapped me. I raised my hand and Chaos shot forth, but the misty tendrils lost coherence before they got to him, instead nearly clipping Adam, who was busy shooting out flying ink constructs in all directions.
Fire-whip guy snapped his weapon toward Sam.
Sam caught the lash around his forearm and yanked back to disarm his opponent, screaming as his armor, and then his flesh, sizzled away. As soon as the whip left the Estreyan’s hand, it disappeared, but Sam stumbled and almost fell, cradling his useless arm as steam and smoke rose from it. It had been almost severed. A second or so more, and we’d have gotten to see if Sam could regrow his limbs.
Jacky shot out of the trees, landing atop the last Estreyan, who was distracted fending off Birch, but didn’t seem to be doing anything Skill-wise. He’d probably been the source of the null-space.
Zed’s torso appeared as he tore open reality to shoot his gun at the sound-creator from behind.
The fire-whip reformed in the hand of the one who’d attacked Sam.
I kept running at an angle, but raised my arm again, focusing harder on exactly what I wanted Chaos to do. The dark tendrils writhed out from my hand, this time staying closer and building up substance till they glistened like floating tar. It lunged for the fire-whip guy with an audible, almost sticky-sounding snap. It pulsed like blood vessels as it built upon itself like a spider web, keeping coherence as power rushed from within me outward through the whole structure. The movement from hand to enemy took less than a quarter of a second.
I grinned savagely.
Fire-whip guy lunged to the side, and Chaos followed, growing an offshoot to follow his movement.
I was just about to reach him when someone else yanked him away from my power’s grasp, moving so fast my eyes could barely track them. Within a second, the four attacking Estreyans were gone, along with the noise attack and the space-bending effect.
I’d been running but barely covering any distance, and when things went back to normal, I almost ran into a tree before I could stop myself. I pushed Wraith out, looking for the fifth attacker who’d just saved his friends.
Instead, I found a group of eight more Estreyans. Our assailants were on the ground between them, unconscious. They had a human with them. I hadn’t noticed her till she moved, because the glow of the others’ power was too strong.
“Oh, shit,” I said aloud, my voice sounding like I was speaking through water due to the damage to my eardrums. I turned toward the new group.
One of their number raised his hands high into the air and began to walk toward us slowly. “Do not attack,” he called in barely accented English. “We mean you no harm.”
The human woman walked beside him, stumbling a little, because, for some reason, she was wearing high heels.
They came into physical view between two trees, and my eyes narrowed.
Zed’s muffled voice cut through the forest. “Mom?”
Her dark hair was piled high in an uncharacteristically messy bun, and she wore only a little makeup. “You’ve gotten so big!” she said, smiling tearily at Zed.
He looked at me, who had grown a foot since I’d last seen her, and snorted.
"I'm so glad to see you," she said. "I've been so worried about you."
Torliam looked between the woman and us, and back again. "Is this surely your mother? Shape-shifting is not unheard of, among my people."
She had no glow of Seeds, and, as far as I could tell, none of the Estreyans were using a Skill. “It’s her.”
"Where have you been?" Zed asked, making no move to go towards our mother.
She shared a look with the man hol
ding his hands in the air beside her. ”I’ve been with your father.”
My eyes darted over him again, moving jerkily. "My…father?" I said, the words sounding strange on my lips.
"I am Eliahan, of the Remnants, once of the line of Matrix.” He nodded to Zed and me. His slightly curly hair and the line of his jaw resembled Zed’s a little.
I took a step backward and bit down on the inside of my lip, the pain of the bite a throbbing ache that quickened my thoughts.
Eliahan stepped forward, passing Zed with barely a second look. He stopped in front of me. “Hello, daughter.” His gaze tracked over me, catching on the gifts from the Oracle, the crystal at my throat, and the extra finger on my left hand.
There were too many of them for us to hope to win in a fight, but I found myself almost hoping they were hostile, because at least I would know how to deal with that. “What do you want? If this is some sort of blackmail attempt—”
His laugh cut me off. “You are very untrusting. That will serve you well, in the path ahead of you. Cultivate your pessimism. But no, as I said before, we are not your enemy.”
Torliam moved up beside me, taller than Eliahan by a few inches. “Please explain your presence and your intentions. I have not heard of the Remnants.” Even Torliam’s accent was more prominent than the other man’s. How long had these Remnants had to learn English?
“That is because we have been trapped on Earth for millennia, now, after the doors of stone were locked and forbidden.” Well, that answered my question.
Zed and our mother moved over to join us. “They’ve taken in the parents of the whole group, to keep them safe from NIX,” she said.
Sam took a single step toward her. “My parents, too?”
She nodded. "Yes, both of them. Your father is there," she said to Adam.
He grimaced, turning to Eliahan without acknowledging her words further. “And those guys?” He gestured to our unconscious attackers. “Do you know them? It seems kind of coincidental that you show up to save us exactly as we’re being attacked.”
Eliahan looked Adam over, eyes lingering on his five-fingered hands. He raised his eyebrows in obvious dismissal, and turned back to me. “I regret to say they do call themselves part of the Remnant, but their actions do not represent our group as a whole, or even the majority of us.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why did they come after us?”
He shifted his weight slightly and paused before answering. “They believe you and your team will find the God of Shaping and Molding, and, with him, attempt to defeat the Sickness. They believe that if this is done, the world will…destabilize. They wish to keep what they believe to be the lesser of two evils.”
Torliam’s voice gained an edge of anger as he spoke. “Perhaps they feel the danger of upheaval or even war is greater than the Sickness because you have been sequestered on Earth, where you are safe from its spread. But it has found its way to this world as well, now. Let me assure you, there could be little worse than the total annihilation the Sickness promises if allowed to continue.”
Eliahan nodded, “I agree. As do the majority of my comrades. We do not wish to continue on as we have been. We wish to return to Estreyer, and see the Sickness returned to the abyss from which it came.”
This seemed to deflate Torliam’s building ire.
Zed met my eyes, and then looked at the other Remnants standing somewhat awkwardly in guard around their murderous peers. “You didn’t explain how you found us. Or how you discovered our parents were in danger from NIX. Were you…aware of everything NIX has been doing?”
Beside me, I felt Torliam stiffen again. Every eye was turned toward Eliahan, awaiting the response of this man who called himself my father.
“We do not interfere with the actions of the humans,” he said. It was answer enough. Maybe he felt our hostility, because he continued quickly. “We have our own duties to fulfill, of great importance. We enter into the world of the humans only when it is necessary to replenish our numbers with children of new blood, or to ensure our own continued survival. As to how we found you, we have scryer of some capability who took interest in your return.”
“Children of new blood?” I looked to my mother, whose lips were pressed tight together.
“Neither of you showed the signs of dominant Estreyan genes, so I got to keep you,” she said. Her eyes flicked down to my left hand. “That’s changed, now, I see.”
Zed and I shared another look. I’d had six fingers and toes as a baby, and the faint scars to prove it after they’d been surgically removed.
Eliahan shifted again, clearing his throat uncomfortably. “As I mentioned, we have duties, and cannot be away from our home for long. Our strength is needed in these difficult times. We must return.”
A muscle in Torliam’s jaw pulsed. “Will you not aid our quest against the Sickness?”
“We have our own responsibilities. Perhaps one day, you will understand. We cannot spare the strength to aid you, but we offer hospitality, if you would visit us after your quest is done.” He turned to my mother. “Let us go, woman.”
She glared at him. “Give me a moment alone with my children. A few more minutes away from the safety of the compound isn’t going to change anything.”
He huffed. When she made a shooing motion with her hands, he nodded to me, his eyes lingering, before he walked back to the other Remnants.
She reached out and touched my arm, her hand seeming small against it. “Sweetie, you’re in danger. Both of you are, if you keep trying to find this…god. I don’t know the details, but I’ve heard them talking about some sort of prophecy. Which is apparently a real thing, with whatever…alien powers they have. I’m worried something will happen to you. Why can’t someone else deal with this disease? Someone more qualified? Live quietly, I always say. No need to go looking for trouble. Come back to the compound with us. There’s a war going on out there. I’m sure I can convince Eliahan, if he knows you want to come, Eve.”
Zed’s lips pressed together, not so unlike our mother, but his expression indicated pain rather than disapproval.
I resisted the urge to glare over his shoulder at Eliahan, who’d barely acknowledged him. They were far enough away that a human wouldn’t be able to overhear us, but I knew if any of them were listening my mother’s words would be clearly audible. “We know about the prophecy already, and we can’t go back with you. It’s not so simple as to leave it to someone more qualified. We are that ‘someone.’ I know you haven’t seen us in a while,” I ignored her derisive snort and continued on. “But we’re much more capable than you imagine.”
She opened her mouth, most likely to argue, but Eliahan called out for her again. “Come, woman!”
Torliam turned to glare at him. “Where is your respect, for the mother of your children? Have you been gone from Estreyer so long you have forgotten your sense of propriety?”
Eliahan raised his chin, somehow managing to look down on Torliam, though he was shorter. “I could ask a similar question of you, Torliam of the line of Aethezriel. I have seen more of you than you know. Is it not appropriate that one in blood-covenant to the line of Matrix treat their master with respect and deference?”
The line of my mother’s lips thinned even more as she looked between Torliam and Eliahan. “I should go. Be safe.” She squeezed my arm and Zed’s hand, as if to impress her words on us, then hurried over to him as quick as her impractical footwear allowed.
Eliahan lifted her in his arms, his touch more gentle than I expected from the glower on his face. “We will see her unharmed,” he said to me. “As well as all the others members of your families. Farewell, daughter. Until we meet again.”
My team stood and watched as the Remnants gathered up their unconscious members and disappeared into the forest with an inhuman blur. They were gone within seconds.
“Does this mean we’re half alien?” Zed said. His mouth twitched halfheartedly, failing to smile properly. “When I was a kid, I would
fantasize about our dad coming back and getting to meet him. I always imagined that meeting going differently, you know?”
I snorted. “I always figured he’d be an asshole.”
Chapter 13
Time in hours, days, years,
Driv’n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov’d; in which the world
And all her train were hurl’d.
— Henry Vaughan
Adam decided he’d rather rely on Torliam than spend the rest of the night in the woods where yet another thing might go wrong, so, after a break to eat, we continued on to our old base, dragging Adam on a low-floating, glowing stretcher. We walked with the light of the moon and stars filtering through the trees to guide our way, the smell of leaf mulch and moist dirt overcoming the residue of smoke we left behind.
“I’m glad to know my parents are alive,” Sam said. “But…those Remnant guys really suck.”
Chanelle grunted, jumping a little to get a better grip on Birch, who had demanded she carry him in her arms after he got tired. “Maybe, if they had tried, they might have stopped NIX before they became a problem. NIX would have never managed to bring the Sickness to Earth, and I would…actually, I’d be going to school with China. None of this would have happened at all.”
Torliam hummed in agreement, and I heard him take a deep breath and release it. He was probably thinking something similar about his own experience with NIX.
The sun hadn’t yet risen when we arrived at Blaine’s house. On the outside, it looked no different, except for a few plants that had become even more overgrown. We keyed in the entrance code and I let the security system scan me, since I’d been given access when we first allied with Blaine and began to use his extensive basement as a base.