The Dark Materials

by Amanda Churi

  The queen entered first, two large bandages now covering each shoulder. She said nothing as she walked alongside the empty row of metal seats closest to the door, taking her place at the head of the table, much like Calla used to. She remained stiff, making a strong effort to avoid all interaction with us. Guess all leaders were stuck up in one shape or form.

  Three more entered after her.

  The first man who sat across from us made my spine shiver. He had rich black skin and a brown trench coat cut at the shoulders so that one could marvel in his large muscles. He wore a simple black muscle shirt and similar looking jeans under his coat. A chain was wrapped around his waist, a silver club about the size of a baseball bat slipped between the cloth and metal. His black hair was short and spiky, but his eyes were unforgettable. The pupils were no casual color; his were a deep blood red, along with his lips.

  If there were one word to describe the man who took a seat next to him, it would be “nerd.” He looked roughly eighteen, a pair of large glasses resting on his face with a small chip attached to the frame that reflected ever-changing diagrams and code in his lenses. He was very pale and had short brown hair, two brown eyes watching every picture on his screen with mass interest. He wore a black jumpsuit, a belt hugging his thin waist that was filled with wrenches, hammers, wires, and many more things along the lines of engineering. I’m not even sure if he knew we were there; he was far too absorbed in what he stared at.

  The final person who entered was someone in which the word “person” could not adequately describe. Judging by their features, I could tell they were female, but she was no human. Her body was cast out of polished titanium, reflecting light every which way she turned like a beautiful prism. Her metallic hair had been shaped into a tight braid which wrapped around her head like a crown; nuts and bolts held the frame of her body together, while iron balls served as joints, allowing her to move any limb 360 degrees. Even though she had no genitalia, per se, a dress of metal encased her torso, fanning out above the knee like a ballerina. A flexible, silver strap was slung around her waist, a steel violin with glistening white strings and a glass bow attached. Her eyes were the only thing to human to an extent; the sclera was white, but her pupils were purple with swirls of silver racing through them in an ever-changing pattern. She also seemed capable of making expressions with her solid face—definitely, a creation which left me baffled.

  “I suppose I should begin by welcoming all of you to the Encryption,” the queen began invitingly, though I knew her sincerity was nothing more than an act. “I do hope that you will forgive me for my initial reaction towards you, but it was simply based off of fear. This rebellion has been going on for decades, and I’m not about to throw it away.”

  “Perhaps recycling it would be considered the better choice,” I sneered tauntingly, “especially considering your limited resources.”

  Mabel elbowed me harshly in the side. “Stop it,” she scolded me under her breath, “unless you really want her to give you her all in a fight.”

  I blinked, not sure if I heard correctly.

  “Smart girl,” the queen praised. “Very observant…” She cleared her throat. “Moving past the pathetic manners of this asswipe—”

  Alright, I couldn’t not growl at that.

  “Allow me to introduce some of the most important members of the rebellion,” the queen continued. She pressed a hand to her chest, dipping her head. “I am the Queen of the Encryption: Queen Pinion, or Pinion of Time.”

  “Pinion of Time?” Griffin echoed.

  “Yes,” the queen answered. “It is my code name. You will come to have your own as well; it is essential that our actual names be kept hidden from the enemy.” She paused, looking about the room. “Well, go on, people; you have mouths for a reason.”

  “I’ll begin,” the dark man with red eyes started. His voice seemed to come from the pit of his chest, so deep and deceptive it churned like a tiger’s growl. “I am Virgil: Prelude of Chaos—head tactician of battle.”

  “Justus: Manipulator of Steel,” the nerd next to Virgil snickered as he pushed up his glasses and flicked the small chip on the end, causing the holograms on his lens to vanish. His voice had a sassy, wheezy kick to it; I certainly didn’t expect that voice from the body I was looking at. “If any of you need something fixed or are interested in something that has to deal with mechanics, I’m your guy.”

  “Steel is a great inventor,” the queen input. “He is young, but we would be nowhere near where we are now without him.”

  “Uh huh!” he boasted proudly, snorting to clear his sinuses. He leaned to his right, resting a hand on the shoulder of the robot. “This here is Embry: Song of the Heart. She’s a wonderful assistant to my studies, as well as being our eyes and ears in battle.”

  “Really?” I said, surprised.

  “Oh, ever so, yes,” she said softly, her voice smooth and delicate as opposed to robotic like I expected. “I am of much assistance to the perilous endeavors that all must fight with neck astrung! Steel forged a very valuable addition.” She smiled, cocking her head to the side and closing her eyes.

  She just shattered the whacko-meter.

  “And you all know me,” Kaitlyn began in a somewhat agitated tone. “No need to go through formalities again.”

  “You should know me too!” a hypnotic voice came, my head turning to the end of the table where Flye sat. She leaned forward, smiling as her black eyes expanded with fascination. “I’m Flye: The Vengeful Rebel.” She chuckled uncomfortably, adjusting her strand of purple hair. “And, I mean, until now, I’ve never been at one of these meetings, so I don’t know exactly what I’m in charge of, but I can land a killer headshot!”

  “She’s obviously not in charge of anything,” the queen said briskly. “She’s too fucked up, though, even I have to say, she is an essential member of this rebellion. Flye is by far the most successful assassin in the Encryption.”

  Flye smiled, basking in the praise. “Thank you.” She leaned forward, directing her sight towards Seek. “And you know her, but that’s Seek: Seeker of Light.”

  Seek smiled tensely, giving a shy nod of approval. “Yeah.”

  “Seek is your real name?” I asked.

  Seek was silent for a moment before reluctantly shaking her head. “My birth name is Prysm.”

  “Oh…!” Mabel exclaimed. “Because of your connection to light?”

  Seek’s face fell flat. “My power does not come from light,” she grunted. “It’s from souls.” She paused, continuing in a darkened tone. “And no, I was named Prysm because it sounds like ‘Prison.’”

  The tension in the room ballooned in the blink of an eye—not that this had been a happy meeting in the first place.

  “Seek had a damn hard past,” the queen said. “Only refer to her as Seek.”

  “Do you always find a way to sneak a curse word in every sentence?” I asked, a bit surprised by the language choice of a respected leader.

  Her pupils shrunk. “Do you ever find a way to shut the hell up?”

  And I thought Laelia was awful when I met her… I recalled, wishing to be a mere idiot again as I slightly shrank down in my seat.

  “Well, nice to meet our new allies, I guess,” Griffin input awkwardly.

  “…Yes, allies,” Pinion hissed. She looked back at Mabel and me. “So, now, I ask the question that has been on my mind and, likewise, everyone else’s. Where are you from, and what the heck do you want with us?”

  Seek opened her mouth, the queen immediately raising a hand to silence the insubordinate. “I think they’re big enough to answer on their own.”

  Our group shifted wary glances to one another for a moment, knowing we had no other choice. Laelia was the only one who did not partake in our silent discussion, her head and eyes drooping as she tried to fend off the urge to fall asleep once more.

  “We don’t want anything from you…” Mabel began, her eyes widening as her she tried to plead with the queen, who
looked rather unfazed. “We just want to help…”

  “Bullshit! No one simply wants to ‘help’ unless they would like something in return.”

  “Madam,” Kaitlyn spoke up, providing us with much needed assistance. “They didn’t find us; Seek led them to us.”

  “They essentially forced us to come with them,” Griffin corrected, a slight trace of disbelief in his voice as he recalled the initial attack.

  This came as news to the leader. “Oh, really?” she prompted darkly.

  “My dear queen, only because you yourself saw the incredible display of power they can wield!” Seek chirped. “I sensed their extraordinary presence, and that’s why I lured them to Pikë. I think—!”

  “Seek… Please…” the queen said, her face growing somber as she registered what her subject was about to say. “No, I can’t deny their access to the forces beyond, but to imply—”

  “They’re from the past, Pinion,” Kaitlyn interrupted her, the queen’s eyes enlarging upon the informal address—that, or the information she just heard. “They claim to come from a time far from here.”

  Immediately, Sybil perked up, her large ears twitching and rotating towards Kaitlyn curiously. I was on guard instantaneously.

  Seek must have been able to sense my anxiety. “Don’t worry,” she whispered into my ear. “She won’t attack; that hit on the head messed with her instincts. She won’t be comfortable, obviously, but she won’t be overtaken by her programming.”

  I swallowed, thankful that the stars had slightly aligned.

  The queen was quiet, the only movement being the faint rise and fall of her shoulders as she tried to digest this news. Eyes broad, she shifted her sight throughout the room, Virgil, Justus, and Embry in the same, shocked state. “And… Where would this time be, exactly?” she pressed.

  “Well, Laelia is originally from Ancient Rome,” Griffin said, glancing at his friend who fluttered her eyes open upon hearing her name, “and Eero is from a different future or something… Mabel and I are from Phantome, Italy; that’s the access point that all of us took to get here.”

  A spark of recognition flashed through the queen’s eyes, banishing all previous hostility. “How?”

  “A sorceress,” Mabel told her. “She opened a dimensional rift.”

  The queen slowly inhaled, leaning back in her seat and staring at us with a new set of eyes as she reevaluated the situation. “That… Happened nearly a thousand years ago,” she mumbled in awe.

  I was shocked. “How would you know that?”

  “Phantome was where this insanity began,” Virgil enlightened us, pressing his cupped hands to his red lips. “Nearly all recorded history has been desecrated by the Proxez, but ancient stories allowed the name of that small kingdom to survive.” He paused, his eyes skimming our ragtag team. “As have the names of those who caused it to fall.”

  “Wait!” Flye exclaimed, her eyes darting wildly to each of us as she made the connection. “So that means you’re…?” She looked at me first. “Eero Resem…” she breathed in admiration. “And Mabel Green… Griffin de Vaux, and Laelia Caesar.”

  “So, it wasn’t just wise tales, after all,” Virgil mumbled resentfully, his neck twitching as his face twisted in disgust. “You’re the ones who abandoned us for the dark…”

  Justus rested one hand on Virgil’s shoulder, hoping to keep him from rising. “Ey, calm down,” he cooed like a mother.

  “Don’t tell me to calm down!” Virgil screamed, yanking his shoulder away from Justus as he dramatically rose to his feet. He pointed a finger accusingly at Mabel and me, his pupils shaking with rage. “Do you have any idea what you all did?! You ruined us! You caused this madness by being so—!”

  “PRELUDE!” the queen screamed at the top of her lungs, the jewel on her forehead lighting up as a warning. The air around her began to fold and churn, the air pressure rising and causing my head to throb. It affected Virgil much worse, causing him to slam his hands to his head and take a seat.

  The queen stared at him for a moment longer until she was sure his display of aggression had passed, allowing the jewel on her head to dull, bringing the environment back to normal. “I think we can all agree today has been overwhelming,” she said tiredly, a hint of anguish in her voice. “We all just need to sit back and think about what to do with this sudden revelation of events.”

  “Well, they definitely need protection,” Seek spoke up.

  “No shit,” the queen spat. She looked at Mabel and me, her pupils thinning. “I hope you two don’t mind being kept apart from the rest,” she informed us coldly. “Not to say I don’t trust you—”

  “Even though that is one hundred percent true,” I scoffed.

  “Nevertheless,” the queen rambled on, “judging by what I witnessed, it is obvious that neither of you have control nor know how to access your powers to the best of your ability. An experienced demon or mage would have been able to put up a better fight.”

  Her cockiness surprised me, especially considering the good injury I gave her.

  “You didn’t give me the injury,” the queen rounded, my body stiffening in shock. “Your powers did; you let your dark side take over and do what it wished. My injury was mere luck; in a real one-on-one battle, I would smash you to smithereens.”

  I chuckled tauntingly. Somehow, the ego of this successor reminded me a lot of Desmond, bringing out my normally hidden brashness that I kept reserved for the fruit loops of society. “Could have sworn I saw you break a sweat,” I noted smugly.

  She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, turning her attention to Seek. “Smartass recruits,” she said. “I hope you have a fun time handling them because they’re your responsibility.”

  Seek’s light faltered immediately. “W-what?”

  “Yours and Kaitlyn’s,” the queen continued, standing up from her chair. “You brought them here; you obviously have ample trust in their capabilities.” Her eyes darkened. “But I do not. I do not deny their power, but I will not pin all of my hopes on them.”

  “But queen!” Seek interjected. “Judging by the information and circumstances—!”

  “There is a chance, yes,” she interrupted nonchalantly. “But magic has come back to bite us many times.” She scanned both mine and Mabel’s body, shaking her head. “I will look into it more, but I’m not getting my hopes up. For now, I leave them in yours and Kaitlyn’s care. They are not allowed to interact with anyone who is not in this room, and you will not speak a word more about them to any of the normal Encryptors. I want all of this to die down for a bit until we figure out just what to do.”

  “What about Laelia and Griffin?” Kaitlyn asked.

  The queen pondered on it for a moment. “Well, Griffin, you obviously cannot fight given your physical condition…”

  Griffin looked down at the nub of his left arm, ashamed to have yet again been classified as useless. The circumstances never seemed to matter; he was always less than we were, even though his strength and cunning made him equal.

  “I can take him under my wing!” Justus exclaimed in excitement, his brown eyes sparkling in Griffin’s direction. “I can always use more help behind the scenes.”

  Embry gasped, slowly clapping her metallic hands. “Extravagant!” she exclaimed joyously. “Friends! More peers to exchange our glee with!”

  “Laelia can be mixed in with the average trainees,” the queen announced. “I see no reason why—”

  “Actually…” Kaitlyn intruded, flashing Griffin a stern gaze, whose face flushed at those words. “Queen, if I may, Laelia needs to be confined to the medical ward, stat.”

  “What?” Sybil asked, turning to face her adoptive mother.

  Our eyes rotated to Laelia. She rested one elbow on the table, her hand caressing her face, not even registering the fact that she had been acknowledged. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing was labored. She had fallen prey to slumber once more.

  “What’s wrong with her?” the queen
wondered.

  Seek exhaled heavily, very disappointed. “We had a run-in with Typo,” she explained. “Laelia was struck by his curse directly in the head. She is not fit to be taken on as a normal case; she seeks medical attention ASAP if she is to have a chance at recovering.”

  “I was about to say,” the queen grumbled, staring at Laelia, stupefied. “The tales made her out to be a haughty child, not silent.” She huffed, directing her attention to Flye. “Well, I suppose you have just moved up in rank, Rebel,” she told her, Flye’s eyes brightening as her jaw hit the table. “I want you to keep watch over Laelia. And…” She paused. “How long ago was this attack?”

  “About two days ago,” Kaitlyn replied.

  The queen groaned in distress. “Much irreversible damage has already been done, then… You have to help her regain her ways, Rebel. Can you do that without making a mess?”

  “Well, duh!” Flye jeered.

  “What about me?” Sybil whimpered, her ears falling behind her head. “I don’t want to be separated from Laelia!”

  “They have developed quite the bond,” Seek informed her queen.

  The queen waved her hand dismissively. “Do you think I care? I want that lerial studied and reworked until we know she is no spy or threat.”

  “But—!” Sybil protested.

  “No buts!” the queen exclaimed, turning her back on us so that she faced the wall. “My decisions are final!”

  No one spoke for a moment. I looked down at my hands resting on my lap and then at Mabel’s. I didn’t know what was happening with us; I had no explanation for any of it, but the queen definitely saw more than we did. As unhappy as I was with the way we were addressed and treated, hardly even given the opportunity to explain ourselves, I did not speak up. Where did we go from here…? How much longer did we have to remain the foe before we could finally start helping, start fighting back, and start having a say in our futures, which we should have had complete control over by now…?

  …That was what Calla promised us… And it hadn’t happened.