The Dark Materials

by Amanda Churi

  “To see if we can fix what I destroyed…”

  Eleven

  Pieces

  The stronghold had been in much distress for days now. The warm aura that always filled the hidden chambers seemed to be weakening, and even though the temperature remained the same, the ambiance itself felt cold. Something was off—something that the guardians couldn’t distinguish. They had held the caverns at bay and watched over them since their master had been called on by the Receiver, and they had yet to hear a word since. It wasn’t unlike Maeve to go silent and retreat into hiding due to a possible threat, but what the guardians found odd was that her presence suddenly felt like it wasn’t there—as though the tunnels and spiritual lake had lost their magic and connection to the embodiment of hope who had dwelled there for thousands of years.

  Yet they remained where Maeve ordered them to stay. Guardians flew through the humid air of the caverns, keeping a lookout for anything suspicious. Others took constant watch—aligned in rows, levitating protectively over the stone bridge leading to the source of the spirit’s life. Even more guardians flowed with the current of the mystical waters, staring at the white ball of energy settled on the lake floor, looking to one another anxiously as they watched Maeve’s life source become fainter with each passing day, fearing the worst for their leader.

  Through the labyrinth leading to the crumbling home of the fire mage, a group passed through a narrow concrete passageway in single file, silent. A tall, lean, pale woman took up the rear, glancing behind her frequently to make sure they had not been followed. Her black hair was tied in a tight braid and thrown over her thin shoulder as the shards of ice embedded in the strands slowly shrank in size due to the rising temperature. The dress made out of pure ice clanked noisily against her withered calves, her white feet leaving small impressions of frost in the soil with each step she took. Two ice-blue eyes stared ahead placidly through the holes in the horse skull across her face, the glare from her orbs being the only light source they had. Her snowflake irises honed in on the child at the front, led along by the conniving man who kept the child’s arms behind her back at all times.

  Tah was forced to lead the group even though she had never once walked these walls. Desmond held her wrists tightly with his murderous hands, shoving the distraught girl onward. She wore the same clothes as she did in the final battle—a black shirt and pants which had seen constant abuse for well over a month now. There were rips and scuffs across both, stains ranging from blood to tears. Tah, however, would not be rid of them; to her, her clothes were the source of her own flame burning through the ice shell she was trapped in—a constant reminder of who the real enemy was and that her true self was still buried deep down no matter how hard they tried to break her.

  “Why do I lead?” she asked weakly, keeping her head low. “I do not even know where to go.”

  “Ever heard of a meat shield?” Desmond wondered smugly, his ugly scar creasing with the mischievous images flocking his brain.

  “It’s nothing against you, Deceiver,” Reeve cooed gently, pretending she actually had sympathy for Tah. “We are approaching Maeve’s stronghold. Her guardians won’t blindly attack when they see a helpless child at risk; they would never harm the innocent. Times like this, I am very happy to have such a soft-hearted rival.” She turned her piercing blue gaze to Desmond as his hand suddenly jolted, Desmond shoving it into the crook of Tah’s spine, ignoring her moan of discomfort as he tried to control his hand which began to twitch savagely. “Besides,” she added, “his blackened heart has been playing tricks with his body lately.”

  Desmond hissed in disbelief, casting a dark look over his shoulder at the ice spirit. “It’s not my fault,” he mumbled as he tried to regain control of his hand. “Someone is tampering with my body; I can feel it.”

  “I thought you reburied your skeleton in a secure location?” Reeve implored.

  “I did,” he responded, shifting his black eyes over to his hand as it slowly began to submit to its master once more. “Which is why I’m confused; and it’s just my hand which has been acting strangely. Nothing else.”

  “The blood you carry on your hands finally became too much to bear,” Tah snickered sinisterly, snatching the opportunity to insult the low-life.

  Desmond gave an aggressive tug on her wrists, Tah shrieking in pain as her bruised hands gave way to his ragged, filthy nails that sliced her thin skin. “Shut your trap.”

  “Desmond, hush,” Reeve demanded.

  Desmond looked behind him, curious. “What?”

  Reeve tilted her head back, raising a finger to her gray lips for silence. Her illuminated blue eyes cut clear through the darkness, aimed at the concrete ceiling that loomed approximately a meter above her head. Inscribed in the weathered stone were odd symbols that Tah had never seen before, though she had seen ones similar. She faintly remembered being able to read and write in the language of the Devil. A large portion of that reason was because of her connection to Reeve, but she could not decipher this scripture.

  “The language of God,” Reeve spat bitterly. “Go figure that good for nothing brat would have something like this.”

  “Can you read it?” Desmond asked.

  Reeve grunted uncertainly. “Not well,” she admitted. “But…” She lowered her head and turned to her right, the harsh hue from her irises shooting down a hidden passageway, having nothing within reach to bounce back at her from. “But enough so that I could tell it was giving direction,” she finished with a sly smile. “This is it. Lead the child forward.”

  “Let’s go,” Desmond cackled, giving Tah a rough shove forward and releasing her hands, knowing for sure that there was now nowhere she could possibly escape to.

  Reluctant, she obeyed, holding her hands protectively. Silent, she walked down the hall, taking only a few steps before she detected the thickening air, also noticing that the light from Reeve’s eyes was not what she saw in the distance.

  She suddenly diverged from the walls, coming to a staggering halt when she stood in the middle of a large cavern. The cavern was lit up naturally by stalagmites and stalactites, each with a faint blue, swirling aura in them. Small sparks of white light flew through the air, tiny whispers winding throughout the cavern as the small beings communicated with one another in their never-ending work. In the far distance, there lay a humongous lake with a ball of white light emanating from the depths, creating a sphere of light on the surface and illuminating the parts of the cave that the spiritual gems could not. The tiny lights danced above the surface; a rock bridge reached out across the expanse of shimmering water, dropping off just before it could reach the pure light that slept peacefully in the middle.

  A part of Tah’s heart was entranced upon seeing such a beautiful sight, but she was more scared than anything. A place as sacred and holy as this… She didn’t have to be a part of Reeve to guess what she planned.

  The lights took note of her presence. The ones who floated through the air slowly stopped moving, shifting their glimmering rays in Tah’s direction, puzzled.

  Run, she whispered in her thoughts, hoping they would hear her.

  Desmond emerged from the labyrinth next, standing beside the tiny girl with Reeve following, a smile filled with deceit and destruction on her face.

  Screeches erupted—cries unlike anything Tah had ever heard before. The sparks of light began to shake, turning a ghastly shade of red and changing the entire hue of the cavern. The blue auras within the rocks were immediately extinguished. The water turned to blood, and the lights within the waters shot up from beneath the surface, beaming red as well as they joined their allies who shielded the stone bridge with their tiny bodies.

  Reeve chuckled. “What a petty defense system,” she mused, taking a step forward and approaching the few lights that remained in the air, distorting beyond recognition as they became blinded by rage. “I would have thought your queen would have had much better guardians than some ancient Eyla. You must like your weakl
ing ruler if you chose to remain here instead of entering the Spirit World like your counterparts.”

  Leave! the guardians screamed furiously as the saturation of red became thicker in the cave.

  “Oh, don’t be such bad hosts,” she scoffed humorously, walking past the few stray guardians and in the direction of the stone bridge. Tah looked on, stunned. How and why was she so cocky in enemy territory? This was Maeve’s home; who knew what traps there were?

  Entranced by what she was doing, Tah followed her blindly, staring at her ice dress as the crystals turned red from her surroundings, making Reeve look all the more evil.

  “What’s that light in the middle?” Desmond questioned, walking right beside Tah, his face fixed straight.

  “Maeve’s life source,” Reeve explained as they advanced, ignoring the guardians who continuously screamed with protest, flying past the trespassers and joining the wall of guardians to protect their master at all costs.

  “When Maeve was killed,” Reeve continued on, “she locked a piece of her soul within her sword so that she and her powers were preserved. She hid the sword in a cave the night before she was exterminated, and after her death, she began the works of this place. She retained her conscience; she became the sword, God merely destroying her mindless body, and after much effort, she was able to separate from her sword into power and life.

  “She made the sword the source of her powers while her spirit went on to create these safe caverns. Eventually, she decided she would one day need a Receiver—a child selected from birth, who was worthy enough to unlock her mysteries and powers when a perilous threat would rise. When she did this, she defused herself for the final time. Her sword held her powers; as long as it existed, so would her magic. However, she split her spirit into two. Half would merge with the soul of her Receiver when they were born, trapped until death. Once her Receiver perished, that half of her soul would disperse, and Maeve would have little to no more influence, but this was a bargain she valiantly took to serve the world one last time. And the other half, well…”

  Her voice trailed off as she approached the base of the stone bridge, staring down into the lake of bubbling blood before turning her eyes back to the source of white light—the light which was hardly able to shine through the thick liquid. “The other half was her life itself—the part of her soul residing here and allowing her to walk the Earth as a spirit.”

  “What about you?” Tah spoke up. “Do you have anything like that?”

  Reeve scoffed, looking over her shoulder at her Deceiver. “Why would I need it?” she remarked. “It’s safer in the end, yes, but it only made Maeve weaker. She lost half of herself—half of her abilities and potential, and because of her stupid sword, nearly all of her powers when she transferred them to the Receiver.” She chuckled. “With the influx of Maeve’s fire interrupted while entering the Receiver, both of them lost; the Receiver cannot control fire unless she were to use the sword again, and with Maeve no longer having a claim to her powers, she cannot control them properly either. After seeing such a failure with Maeve and her Receiver, I decided against splitting myself as well. The only things I am responsible for are my own spirit and your life.” She raised her eyes, shifting her focus to Desmond. “Get ready.”

  I will warn you once more! the guardians threatened in unison, advancing quickly up the stone bridge as a wall of shimmering red light. Leave now, Reeve, or we will end you here!

  Reeve faced them, cocking her head to the side. “I’d like to see you try,” she provoked, a thin layer of ice secreting from her eyes and encasing her pale skin, causing the skull on her face to crack slightly as her pupils narrowed in the empty sockets. “I don’t even have to fight you to beat you.”

  Then it’s your life! Instantaneously, the wall of light began to change shape, the guardians pressing themselves closer together until they were one large mass of red light. They began to move as one until they were pushing here and pulling there, morphing into their own figure which rapidly grew in size until it towered over the group.

  “You underestimate me!” Reeve screamed as she watched the guardians shift form. “I’m not the same spirit I was thousands of years ago!”

  Immediately after finishing her words, Reeve slammed her bare foot to the ground. Tah shrieked fearfully, taking a step back as lines of bright blue ice shot across the rock floor like lightning, congregating into three large patches on the floor—one on each side of the spirit and one in front. Through her crazed laugh, Reeve curled her bony, claw-like fingers, raising her arms as a loud, devastating crunch answered the call of her dark magic.

  From the congregations of ice on the floor, the rock broke open, creating three pits large enough for several people to fit in. A robust expulsion of cold air shot out from the trenches, and from them, three soldiers leaped forth, each one a being of solid ice to the point where neither features nor gender could be distinguished—nearly identical to how Tah looked when Reeve saved her. They stood in front of the ground which they had been called from, the earth closing up once more as they spun their grapples, prepared to fulfill the task they were needed for.

  The guardians made themselves a weapon; however, the features were unclear just as the soldiers’ were. They loomed thirty feet over the group as one large human—a giant. A smoldering red sword was held in their cruel hands, each guardian belonging to the titan screaming battle cries and curses so loudly that Tah could hardly hear herself think.

  “Elites!” Reeve yelled above the guardians. “Destroy them!”

  The three Elites nodded in unison, tightly gripping their weapons before, in a massive surge of energy, leaping up from the ground and flying towards the monster, attacking it from all angles.

  As soon as the battle had been initiated, Desmond quickly reached for a sheath on his side. A flash of white light shot through the caverns, Tah rapidly looking over to her side and staggering backward with shock as Desmond hastily wrapped a black cloth around a glowing entity before shoving it into Tah’s malnourished hands. Her fingers seized it the second it was in her clutch, Tah frightfully looking down at the legendary weapon shining dimly through the cloth. When did they steal it?! How?!

  “Put the sword in the center of the lake!” Reeve screamed violently, her head fixed straight as she watched the ongoing fight with hungry eyes. The guardians swung their sword aggressively at the Elites, leaving a streak of red light in the wake of its travel as it tore the air apart. The Elites were fast, however, narrowly tumbling out of the way before they could be struck, lashing out with their ice-borne chains. Each strike they managed to land on the guardian hardly made a scratch; the sharpened grapple would slice through multiple guardians, enshrouding many in ice and turning small sections of the giant blue, but it was nothing close as to what was needed to take down Maeve’s best defense.

  Tah stood there, shaking, as slowly, more and more of Maeve’s guardians fell. She didn’t want to listen to Reeve; she didn’t want to be involved with her ever again!

  She looked down at the sword and then back up at Reeve who was engrossed in the battle. One strike… That was all it would take.

  She twisted the sword slightly in her hand, her legs ordering her to race forward and end this before it was too late, but the moment she even raised the blade an inch, her heart stopped as the consequences bombarded her. What if it didn’t kill Reeve? What would Tah’s punishment be? They already tortured her mentally and physically; what other extremes would they trample?

  What if it did kill Reeve… But since they were bound, Tah died too…?

  The fight continued to spiral out of control as she contemplated the possibilities. One Elite charged the guardian head-on, running towards the gap between its massive legs while swinging their chains and preparing for a deadly strike. Just as they were about to lash out, the congregation of Eyla shifted its focus away from the other threats, swinging its weapon as hard as it could in the direction of the caught out Elite. The flat face of the blade h
it the ice shell of the Elite with so much force that they were sent flying off of the platform of stone, screaming as they landed in the blood-filled lake. Immediately, they began to melt, steam rising from their body as the ice about them was brought down once and for all, revealing a child who was screaming and crying, begging for help as the blood crept up his face before pulling him down into the depths where he could not escape.

  “NOW!” Reeve roared, snapping her gaze to Tah as a beam of blue ice shot from her eye, missing Tah’s face by a fraction of an inch.

  “You heard her!” Desmond bellowed, shoving her onward. “GO!”

  Terrified, Tah abandoned ship, bolting away from the evil duo and running across the stone bridge towards the raging fight. She took a deep breath when she neared the battlefield, holding the sword close and steering sharply to the left before she entered the line of fire, springing off of the platform and diving into the ocean of blood.

  She exhaled in terror as her head became submerged in the warm liquid, refusing to open her eyes. She held onto the Sword of Maeve tightly, feeling her hands burn even through the cloth which kept her from making direct contact with it. Struggling to hold her breath, Tah swam to the surface with her feet, her head breaking the layer of blood and entering the humid air. She panted without restraint, quickly blinking as the blood streamed down her face, trying to infiltrate her eyes.

  Out in front of her, a few strokes away, Maeve’s soul shined through the thick blood, turning the center of the lake pink as opposed to red.

  The guardians were struggling, the giant’s swings becoming weak and sluggish as the two remaining Elites continued to attack; over half of the guardian force was now petrified by ice.

  Tah shifted Maeve’s sword to her left hand and swam out to the center of the lake as fast as she could, her stomach twisting repulsively as the stench of blood smothered her. She stopped just as she arrived at where the blood changed hues, Tah slowly moving her legs as she stared downwards, faintly able to see a ball of shimmering white light circulating beneath the surface. She looked over at her hand, clutching the blood-drenched cloth tightly and taking a shaky breath. Of course, they made her be the one to do this… She was the only innocent one…