The Doorway God

by Tom Early

  In the span of a moment, both of us were right at the door reaching it at the same time, and then the door vanished, and it was simply a hole in the wall that both of us fell into, slamming into each other and landing hard on the ground. There was a flash of movement, and then Winter’s arms pinned my own to the ground, and their face was inches away from mine, baring teeth made of ice at me. Frost coated their skin, and I could hear the slight crackling it made every time Winter moved.

  “You,” Winter hissed, “have caused me entirely too much trouble. You served your purpose, host, and in return I have let you leech off my power. Can you not see I am called to a higher duty than you could ever comprehend?”

  In my years of being Sam’s friend, she had concluded that I was awful at close-combat fighting of any sort, but she was determined to hammer a few basic tips into me, and one of them stuck—the importance of using your head. So I let Winter growl and get even closer, and then I slammed my head into theirs as hard as I could manage. There was a terrible cracking sound, and I felt my face freeze as a layer of ice tore across it. I couldn’t scream from the pain—I couldn’t move enough to manage even that. Then the ice shattered, and I fell to the floor, panting, and glanced up to see Winter staring at me with hatred, with a face that now looked like a fractured mirror. A good half of their face had caved inward, revealing the hollow recess of their body, and the remaining eye and cheek was covered in cracks. They raised a hand and pointed at me, and a swarm of icy shards materialized out of nowhere and threw themselves in my direction. I countered with another Ward, this one made out of ice, not air. All of a sudden my body felt lighter, stronger, and I glanced down to see that I had one foot across the threshold. I laughed then, and when Winter summoned a swarm of shards, I answered with a hurricane. I took another step forward, and another, and my power grew. The cracks spread across Winter’s body, and for the first time I saw fear on their face instead of hate.

  “You cannot do this!” they screamed, holding up a hand that was missing its fingers. “I am a Season! I am eternal! You are just a wretch, doomed to die at my hand like all the others!”

  “Sorry,” I said and pointed a finger at them, feeling the power waiting to be used. “Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.” I lowered my hand in a sharp gesture like a guillotine, and Winter shattered, their last grating scream echoing into the air. I stood there for a moment, surrounded by the destruction Winter’s last efforts had left, and then something inside me prompted me to take a deep, steadying breath. I inhaled and felt the air in the room twist and swirl toward me, picking up every last bit of icy debris until I was breathing it all in. Behind me, I felt the wall come crumbling down, shimmering and disappearing in blue-white light. When I finally exhaled, it was with the sense that I was the only one left, and I had won.

  I opened my eyes, and saw Sam running toward me, scooping me into a hug before I had a chance to say anything. “You idiot!” she said, glaring at me with suspiciously watery eyes. “Do you have any idea how much you scared me?”

  I blinked slowly, getting used to having an actual body to move around again. “Uh… no?”

  “It’s been an hour, Polar Bear,” Sam said, a little calmer now but still glaring. It was an affectionate glare, though—I was good at figuring out the difference. “You’ve just been floating in midair, surrounded by an ice storm for a whole goddamn hour. Sekhmene barely got beaten back by Janus, but I couldn’t even get close to you without risking getting turned into mincemeat. Never do that again.”

  I let out a shaky laugh, feeling the luxurious stretch of power inside of me that was finally mine, and mine alone. Something else had changed too, something I couldn’t put my finger on, but it didn’t seem important. “I don’t think I’ll have to, Sam,” I said, grinning. “I won.”

  “Winter’s gone, then?” Sam asked, looking me up and down suspiciously. “I don’t have to worry about you suddenly going superpowered and homicidal anymore?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. It’s just me now.” Sam helped me to my feet, and then I noticed the change in the room’s occupancy. “Hey, where’d Janus go?”

  “Mr. Two-Faced Giant, and I mean that in a good, fond way, muttered something about a violent revenge and then just sort of disappeared, taking Sekhmene with him,” Sam said, grinning. “I’m thinking Didas might be a bit busy right about now.”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s trying to figure out how to deal with all of his plans just sort of collapsing right now,” I said, smiling at the thought. “He deserves it.”

  “Stupid manipulative bastard.” Sam scowled. She looked back at the stairs. “Well, there goes any chance of staying at the university. What do we do now?”

  “Now?” I frowned. “I’m… not sure. The Seasons are waiting for me, I guess. I think that being the new Winter comes with some new job requirements. And I’m pretty sure I don’t get much choice in the matter.”

  “Bullshit,” Sam said. “The whole reason we went this far was because Didas wasn’t going to give you any choice. He would’ve kept on manipulating you until you were no better than one of those creepy homunculi. You don’t have to pick the lesser of two evils. Now you get to be you.”

  I looked at Sam, unable to keep the smile from creeping across my face. “You know, when you put it like that, you almost sound smart.”

  “Yes, well, we already knew I was the smart one,” Sam said with a smirk. “But seriously. From now on, the only person who dictates what you do is you. Don’t let anyone else do that for you.”

  “Thanks, Sam.” I grinned. “I think I have to go to the Seasons anyway, though. At least for a while. There’s still so much I don’t know about the old Winter, or my powers and, uh, responsibilities. I don’t want to feel like a loose cannon, and I’m pretty sure the other Seasons are the only ones who can teach me what to do.” I tilted my head slightly. “Maybe I can treat it like an internship or something.”

  “Much better,” Sam said approvingly. “I, meanwhile, have a mom to track down. I got approached by a private investigations group after my last match—I’m thinking it’s time to see if they have any job openings I can start with.”

  I huffed out a laugh. “Not gonna stop to catch your breath, huh?”

  Sam waved her hand. “I leave that to people who don’t keep finding themselves in the middle of world-shaking events. At least this way I get to choose my next big trauma moment.”

  “I don’t know whether to be proud or worried about that.”

  “Excellent. I need to keep you on your toes.” She glanced at the stairs. “So. Ready to face the shitstorm?”

  I shrugged and sent a shower of snowflakes flying with the movement, then frowned. “Shoot. That wasn’t on purpose.”

  “Only you would get magical dandruff.” Sam’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, wait, does this mean you can make it snow whenever you want now?”

  “I’m pretty sure I’d need to figure out how, but once I do I can manage that, yeah.”

  Sam rubbed her hands together with glee. “How do you feel about skiing in summertime?”

  “Like I have a choice in the matter.”

  “Exactly.”

  And just like that, whatever nerves I’d been feeling about what had happened were gone. I had no idea if Sam did it intentionally, but she always seemed able to reset the mood, simply by being herself. I was somehow able to recognize that by freeing myself of Winter, my life was about to take a turn for the even weirder, and yet Sam made everything feel normal again. I grinned at her once I was sure her back was turned. Her ego didn’t need the help, and besides, I was pretty sure she already knew how grateful I was. She always did, after all.

  I took a special pleasure in setting up the Wards I had gotten so accustomed to using during the Trials again, and this time making them a hell of a lot stronger. I had a better power base to draw from, now that Winter wasn’t holding most of it back, and now I actually knew what I was doing. Before, my Wards would have stopped mo
st basic attacks for as long as I had the energy. Now I was pretty sure someone could set off a bomb five feet away from me, and I wouldn’t even feel the heat. I draped one casually over Sam as well and set it to draw from me whenever there was an attack. Even if Janus was out causing trouble for Didas, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

  As we emerged from the darkness of the lower levels of the library, I started to hear faint noises echoing down that reminded me uncomfortably of the Trials. Someone, no, several someones, were fighting with magic. Sam and I glanced at each other, and then Sam’s ercinee appeared on her shoulder and Minor Orbs hovered around her person. I surrounded myself with a living shroud of ice and tried to call Tyler to me, but something was messing with the familiar bond. I had a brief moment of fear—what if my fight with Winter had broken the bond? But no, it was still there, just muted. It might have been the university’s defenses.

  We cleared the top of the spiral staircase, and the noise of battle only grew louder. I could hear sharp cries and what sounded suspiciously like explosions and the soft rush of countless bodies brushing against each other in a swarm. I could see the faint flash of movement through the stacks, and glimpses of the sky. It appeared that the front of the library had lost its wall.

  Then one of the shadows cast by the shelves flickered, and without even thinking, I sent a blast of chilling cold out like a whip, coiling around the source of heat instinctively and dragging it forward. I could feel the Ward the person threw up in defense, and I shattered it with barely a thought. Then Aiden stumbled forward, hands bound to his chest, struggling madly and unable to move. He looked at me with wild eyes, and it took a moment for me to register the mess of his hair and the blood trickling down from his scalp. I blinked and removed the coil of ice.

  “What did you do?” Aiden hissed, staring at me. He was jumpy, looking around desperately for any signs of movement. Sam dialed her power all the way up to battle-ready in response. “Feayr, what on Gaia did you just do?”

  “I got what I came back for,” I said, frowning. “But I get the feeling that’s not what you’re talking about. What’s going on?”

  “Did you free that monster?” Aiden asked, dark eyes burning. “Did you free Janus?”

  “How do you know who Janus is?” I asked, instead of answering. “I didn’t think the giant guy imprisoned beneath the school was common knowledge.”

  “Back off, Aiden,” Sam snarled, advancing on him.

  For a moment Aiden stared at us, mouth working as he sounded out what looked like it might have been a very impressive slew of swears. Then he took a deep breath and regained some of the composure I’d come to expect from him. “If it were not so abundantly clear that the two of you clearly have no idea what you have done, I would kill you,” he said finally, his eyes flashing.

  Sam bared her teeth. “You’d be welcome to try.”

  “That Didas has kept Janus imprisoned beneath the university is knowledge only shared with the highest members of the Families and the other people of import on Gaia,” Aiden said, ignoring her. “The entire history of the Imprisoned God is considered forbidden knowledge, and all record was struck from the history books.” He shook his head. “Had I suspected that you would have come across him… I should have warned you.”

  “Aiden, what happened?” I asked, trying to focus. The sounds of battle were really getting worryingly loud. As was a deep, unnerving laughter, that sounded like it was coming from two heads at once.

  “Janus is the enemy of humanity,” Aiden said. “It was Didas’s job to keep him imprisoned and turn his power to our benefit instead.”

  “But… Didas is a manipulative asshole! He’s like a machine! He wanted to use me like a weapon and nothing else!” I shook my head. “There’s no way he’s the good guy.”

  “I’m not defending Didas,” Aiden said, taking a step away from me. I was suddenly aware of the frost spreading out across the floor from my feet. “Nobody would claim him to be a good person. But he is still an ally of humanity. Janus is not.” He jumped as a particularly loud explosion echoed out from nearby. “Enough. If you do not believe me, you just have to look. The homunculi have returned to their master.”

  Sam and I shared a look, and then we rushed out to the front of the library, Aiden in tow. Once we left the shelves, it was easy to see what he meant. A giant of towering purple was standing at the center of the green, laughing as thousands upon thousands of black-suited shapes poured out from his body, crashing like a living ocean against the bulwark of students forming a defensive line by the three houses. I could see them beating the homunculi back with spell after spell, but they just kept coming—Janus continued opening doors from thin air on all sides of the students, and more and more homunculi poured through. Coruscating purple energy surrounded one boulder-sized hand, and he threw the energy at the center of the students with a thunderous bellow, sending all bodies not fast enough with their Wards flying. A silver streak of light cut through crowds of homunculi as fast as it could, twin blades flashing as the Argent Sphinx went to her bloody work. The other Speakers were also by the front lines, throwing waves of power at the tide of bodies, holding their ground as best they could. I saw Alferon with many of the Verdant students, holding another position by the Garden of Solace. As I watched, he made a motion with his hands, and a tree bent over and swept the homunculi off their feet with one massive branch. Lastly, I could see Didas himself, arms raised as he directed the defense from the top of Sol House, throwing orbs of pulsating gray light into the swarm of homunculi. There was a pause like an indrawn breath every time one of his orbs landed, and then every homunculus within a twenty-foot radius was pulled in and compressed into nothing as the orbs imploded.

  But for all the damage the university and its students were doing, there were more and more homunculi. They poured out like an endless stream, as Janus just laughed and seemed to grow ever larger.

  “The Families have already sent reinforcements,” Aiden said grimly. “But every teleportation system in use is no longer safe. The university is cut off and crippled, now that Janus has taken back his doors, and Limbo. There is a chance that we will not make it until they arrive.”

  “Hell with that,” Sam said, stalking forward. “I knew there was a reason I always found those things so fucking creepy. Fay, you in?”

  I thought back to how I’d dealt with the Librarian on our way down to Didas’s office. “I might have a plan, yeah.”

  Aiden stared at the two of us. “You do realize that Didas will punish you for this, yes? Staying here may be effectively signing your own death warrants.”

  I flinched at the reminder, but that didn’t matter. Not when it was my fault. I wasn’t going to be helpless this time. “To be fair,” I said, “we did cause this mess.”

  Sam grinned. “Really, it’s just good manners to help clean it up. Aiden, mind taking me to the front lines? I’d like to pitch in, and something tells me Fay’s plan won’t work if I stay in enemy territory.”

  I matched her grin. “Damn right.”

  “I….” Aiden was at a loss for words. He sort of stood there blinking for a few seconds, and then a smile slowly crept over his face as well. “Well, if you’re determined, then I suppose it’s my duty as the floor advisor for Obsidian to make certain you get back to the hall safely.” He made a gesture with his hands, and the shadow cast by the library warped and opened like a gate. “Come, Samantha.” He looked back at me. “Are you certain you can do this?”

  I considered trying to put what it felt like to have full access to Winter’s power into words, and then decided that no, that wasn’t something I could do. I settled for a shrug instead. “I’ll do my best.”

  Aiden gave me a measured look. “Then good luck to you.”

  “Attaboy,” Sam said and stepped up to Aiden’s portal. “See you on the other side, Polar Bear. Try not to wreck everything too much.”

  “Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?”

  “
True.” And then she stepped through along with Aiden, and the shadows closed around them. I was alone.

  The second I felt them get out of reach, I pushed out the breath I’d been holding in since I opened my eyes and felt my power expand out of my skin. I hadn’t told Sam—I’d freaked her out enough with the almost-possession thing already—but I could almost see how much I’d need to hold back for it to be safe for her. I glanced down, looking at the ice-encrusted ground and the frozen tomb of the library behind me. Cracks were already running up and down its walls—I gave it maybe a minute before the entire thing was destroyed just by being near me. It had felt like someone had taken a knife to my stomach, holding my power in, but Sam would be dead if I hadn’t. But now that she and Aiden were gone, I could finally let it out.

  I took a single step forward, and the winds began to grow, and the ice beneath my feet spread out in racing fractal patterns, covering buildings and grass alike in seconds, leaving shattered remains behind. Another step, and the dusk-purple sky was slowly covered in roiling, storm-gray clouds. The first few flakes of snow were already falling, hail coming soon after, driven to incredible force by the winter winds. I held out my hands and felt the air tremble as thousands of razor-sharp splinters of ice formed out of nothing. I could hear the howling behind me, but my wolves would wait their turn.

  I advanced toward Janus with slow, measured steps, taking pains to keep control over my steadily building power. It felt like I was trying to hold back the tide with only my arms, however—there was only going to be so long before any control I had was washed away. I walked through the center of campus, and the buildings were encased in a glacial mass, and the cobblestone path leading to the Houses was already glimmering blue-white. I followed it, and the first of Janus’s homunculi finally took notice of me. Unlike the Librarian or the homunculus who had tested me for my ranking, these weren’t pretending to be human. Their exposed skin had taken on a distinctly waxen cast, and the suits they were wearing seemed more carved into their strangely proportioned bodies than actual fabric. One of them spotted me, almost twenty feet away and still walking slowly, and charged.