The Dark Materials

by Amanda Churi

  “Nonsense!” he exclaimed, walking away from Seek and over to the closest stone pillar. “They are ready to try.” He took a deep breath and placed his hand into a well-disguised imprint, closing his eyes and focusing on the task before him. In an instant, a series of beeps attacked my ears. Gears whirled and hot steam from pipes began to flood the room. Fans roared as their blades sliced the air apart, the balls of white energy atop the dangerous pedestals growing in size and beginning to buzz as they reached out to one another with white, electrical arms, causing the air to hiss and pop.

  A strange electric field took the odd course prisoner. A blue hologram designed as a coordinate plane shot across the floor, diverging around the stone beams and stretching as far as the eye could see. The air above the advanced graph rippled, creating a very hypnotic mirage.

  “Uh…” I tried to speak, but my voice decided to scurry away.

  “What do we have to do?” Mabel asked, evaluating the battlefield closely. “I don’t see enemies or a goal of any sort.”

  Virgil smirked, taking a step back from where the blue, net-like floor began. “Step in and find out.” He turned his focus to me, picking up on my apprehension. “Both of you.”

  Well, that didn’t exactly seem fair considering that I missed his whole lecture!

  I glanced down at Coruscus; its swirling essence was tightly compacted and hardly glowing, making me feel like an even bigger chicken than I already thought I was. I guess my battle anxiety still decided to strike whenever it thought it had the best chance of killing me.

  “No weapons,” Virgil stated. Mabel and I turned to him with shock.

  “What?” I asked, mystified by his absurd request. “Why?”

  “You have powers,” he answered gruffly, pursing his blood-red lips. “Use them.”

  Mabel scoffed. “Fine, piece of cake.”

  “…We’ll see how long you think that,” Virgil chuckled darkly.

  Mabel looked like she wanted to slug him. Taking a shaky breath to push her anger aside, Mabel unsheathed Miho, placing her dagger next to her feet. She looked towards me expectantly, a nervous sigh radiating from the depths of my heart as I placed Coruscus next to Miho.

  Mabel and I faced the course together. She held herself high, but I shuffled forward as a nervous wreck until we stood at the edge of the battlefield. I cast Mabel an unsure glance, trying to gain control of my anxiety. She didn’t look at me, denying me the comfort I yearned for as she set her foot down on the obstacle course.

  The sharp screech of a dog whistle shot through the room. The blue hologram beneath our feet expanded, rising behind us as a flickering, electric wall. I spun around as the grid enclosed us; the air pressure rapidly intensified, and the temperature spiked, immediately bringing a red tint to my pale cheeks.

  “The heck?” Mabel wondered, gawking as the plane finally closed overhead, trapping us.

  I said nothing for a moment, staring at Seek’s broad, fearful eyes through the technological boundary. Virgil stood with his feet apart and his arms folded; his expression was unreadable.

  A loud crack made the hair on the back of my neck shoot up. My eyes darted towards the tops of the stone pillars, noticing just how violent the energy had become. The orbs of electricity could hardly hold themselves together; their arms flew high and low throughout the battlefield, recklessly diving towards us. I quickly snatched Mabel’s hand, yanking her aside and narrowly avoiding a perfectly aimed bolt of lightning.

  The electricity intended for our heads exploded against the holographic wall, the force throwing us to our knees. I gasped, hardly catching myself as my body surged with shivers. What the heck was this?!

  “Hey, what the hell?!” Mabel screamed, snapping her furious gaze to Seek and Virgil. “That could have killed us!”

  Virgil simply smiled, taking another step back, while Seek looked down in shame. They would be no help to us.

  The crackle of static began to crescendo once more, the balls of light gaining strength and preparing for another blow.

  “Come on!” Mabel screamed, standing up and dragging me deeper into the stone forest just as a thunderbolt crashed down behind us, electrifying the surrounding air and choking the adjacent pillars.

  We moved so fast that we hardly avoided face-planting several large slabs of rock. With nearly every step, we had to change our direction and shift our weight, ducking our heads and circling around beams to escape the never-ending rain of lightning. Each pillar we passed by seemed to sense us, immediately charging up and shooting its destructive fire at our heads, hoping to make a direct hit.

  I could hardly breathe. Everything was happening so fast that I could only be pulled along; my mind could not settle down, making Mabel our eyes and ears.

  “W-where do we go?!” I gasped, throwing my upper body forward as lightning surged past where my skull resided milliseconds ago.

  “How should I know?” she cried above the deafening explosions, swerving between the solid stone trunks that stood in our path as strong, valiant warriors, protecting whatever lay far beyond.

  “Well, we can’t just keep running!” I yelled back.

  Mabel whipped her head up, focusing on the robust energy levitating above each rock beam. “Maybe we can destroy them?!”

  I processed her logic, though I didn’t respond. They loomed so high above us—at least fifteen feet; how could we possibly reach them?

  I glanced up, noticing something beginning to swirl on the ceiling of the blue cage. Their abundant atoms of white code spun, molding into a single, indistinguishable creation. I watched them out of the corner of my eye; they followed us, traveling directly above and never straying.

  Mabel noticed as well. “What is that?”

  I groaned, not knowing myself, though my body was reacting strangely. My skin tingled, and the pressure in my skull closed in on my brain; something was shifting.

  Mabel sharply pulled me to the side; I was so entangled in my thoughts that I did not pay attention to the storm of energy continuing to fall around us, and I had nearly gotten struck. “FOCUS!”

  “I-I’m trying!” I exclaimed tensely, looking back at the ceiling. A face—I could see a human face forming, staring at me with flickering white eyes.

  My body jolted in alarm. I could not part with the piercing, electric eyes as flashbacks overtook me: the white web of lightning that struck me when I was taken from Raddison; when I was on my way to the altered future; and even when traveling to Lyüna—the mysterious entity who continued to appear in dreams and visions, watching, taunting… Hunting me.

  It was them.

  A tremendous weight crashed into my ribs, and before I realized what was happening, I was on the ground, staring up at Mabel. Several arms of electricity fell towards us, Mabel standing over me and bracing herself.

  “MABEL!”

  My heart did not beat as the lightning bore down on her, colliding with her chest and shooting Mabel back through the air. Her back slammed against one of the stone pedestals, her head knocked forward and hair thrown over her face as she crumpled to the ground with her hands held to her steaming heart.

  I stared at her, gasping, sobbing. Slowly, she raised her head, her eyes dark and vicious, while the skin above her teeth lifted in a furious snarl. Like a robot, she stiffly raised herself back up, first siting and then standing. The lightning did not kill her; it did not even come close. Instead, the cracking, hissing, screaming ball of electricity that tried to take her life circulated in the palms of her hands.

  “H-how did you do that?!” I screeched, unable to move. She didn’t conjure the power herself, but she captured it, tamed it… Controlled it.

  She huffed angrily, her eyes broad and pupils tremoring. Wailing with fury, she opened her palm wide and pushed out one arm above her head, releasing the captive lightning as it raced out from her body, clashing with the ceiling of the hologram and causing it to violently flicker as its power stream was disrupted. The air screeched in agony, spa
rks crashing around us as the two forces of science battled it out in midair, each at a stalemate with the other.

  The pillars did not cease their onslaught for blood. As Mabel directed her energy at the boundary between us and the real world, more lightning flew her way. As though someone stood behind her, protecting her at all costs, Mabel threw her other arm out beside her. All lightning within a certain radius was pulled into her skin through her hand; her entire frame was nothing but a lightning rod in disguise.

  The lightning entered through one arm and traveled right through her heart before being pushed back out of her opposite hand with energy greater than before. The air was steaming; her hair was cracking, and her body trembled with the wrath of God, her quaking legs hardly able to hold her up.

  I didn’t know how she was doing it, but she needed help. With the face of my disguised enemy now somewhat disrupted, I felt my bearings return. I stood up, quickly thinking about what I could do.

  I turned my attention to my hands. My elongated fingers began to convulse and my nails turned black, sharpening and growing just as they did when I felt the need to attack. This time, though, I was not controlled by rage; I was just… Empowered.

  STOP, STOP, STOP! someone screamed.

  Mabel refused to back down, pushing her arm out farther to increase the intensity of her strike.

  I decided to stand by her—I always would.

  My body had a mind of its own. In an instant, I sprinted towards Mabel, charging the stone pillar that her back was against and leaping into the air. Like magnets, my claws sunk into the concrete, my limbs pulling me up towards the top with ease. The lightning was not a threat since it continued to be drawn towards Mabel, and when I reached the top, I focused on the ball of energy. I grunted, smacking it to the side with the back of my hand, surprised when I felt my bones collide with a solid.

  I watched as the glass ball fell through the air and exploded across the floor, all energy immediately rushing into Mabel’s body as it was freed from its restraints, the voltage in her body reaching terrifying levels.

  I SAID STOP! HE CAN SEE YOU!

  Continuing to ignore the voice, I stood on top of the pillar, eyeing up the buzzing, frantically distorting hologram. I focused, the energy behind my legs building, and then, I jumped. I soared through the air with a massive spring, swiping out with my claws as the nails flashed a bright gold.

  My claws tore through the electric current, the hologram sparking and faltering out, taking the evil face with it. I fell through the air, landing in a squat with one hand out in front of me, unharmed. The light atop the pillars calmed down immediately, evolving once more into nothing but a light source as the frightening scene that took us in its arms decided to take its leave.

  Losing her source of power, the last of the lightning exited Mabel’s body. Immediately, she took a shaky breath, lowering her arms and hunching forward as she grabbed her gut painfully. Before she could stop herself, she was retching profusely, traces of blood surfacing in her bile.

  I did not comfort her. I just watched, silent, feeling my own wave of fatigue shatter my bones. I lowered my head, tucking it in close to my chest and trying to recuperate. My claws were not retracting; they stopped glowing but nothing more.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” a furious voice boomed. My head weakly rotated towards Virgil and Seek, who were pounding through the labyrinth towards us.

  They came to a halt, Seek pressing a hand to her mouth when she saw Mabel’s physical state. She scampered over to her through the puddle of vomit, kneeling beside her prophet and resting a glowing hand on the back of her neck, trying to calm her down with reassuring touches and whispers.

  I kept my eyes on Virgil, who remained one with my sight at all times. A growl churned in his throat, the tall, buff man stalking towards me and grabbing me by the collar of my shirt. He gave it a small yank as he kneeled down so that he was eye-level with me, making sure he had my full attention.

  “What was that for?!” he snapped, giving my neck a rough jolt. “I tried to tell you to stop!”

  I stared at him for a moment, hardly making the connection that he had been the one calling to us. I couldn’t even tell that was him. “I’m sorry,” I grumbled, though inside, I was not. Mabel and I could have been killed in this mess! We had to fight to defend ourselves from his crazy form of entertainment!

  “Sorry doesn’t fix what you just did!” he screamed, his red eyes filling with such hostility that it frightened me to look at him. “Do you—?!” He paused.

  “What?” I prompted impatiently.

  He didn’t speak, directing his eyes to my side and reaching down with his free hand. I followed him closely, slightly scrambling back when I saw what lay next to me.

  A tail. A thin, wire-like, gold tail, thickest at the top and thinning the closer it got to the end. A neat tuft of golden hair shimmered at the tip of the tail like a sparkler, the hair follicles connected to the base stiff and unmoving.

  I closed my eyes, exhaling before reaching behind me as my shaky hand wrapped around a thick and cold object. My heart surprisingly did not sink; it did feel a bit heavy, but as I grabbed my tail and ran my hand across the entire length, a fragile smile crept over my lips.

  “When did that happen?” Virgil asked, making no sudden movements.

  “I’m not sure,” I said, almost allowing myself to laugh at the absurdity of my transformation. No one could deny it, especially me. I knew that demons were a part of me, enough so that they had joined together and created a single demon unlike any before them—a demon that had their strengths, talents, and traits but one who also had a heart and motives of his own—one, who right now, in the midst of it all, had a firm handle on their control and did not lash out.

  I was Eero Resem: a boy nearing manhood from a now extinct future—one who had borne uncountable scars, endured torture, and tackled any and every obstacle. And while I had evolved and grown in ways I didn’t know I could, I was still me, and nothing could change that.

  “Eero,” Virgil tried again, pulling me back into reality. “Look at me. Do you have any idea what just happened?”

  “No,” I replied simply.

  Virgil sighed with exhaustion, looking over at Seek, who continued to comfort Mabel. “Seek!” he barked sharply, Seek looking up immediately. “Come on, we need to get them out of here and address Pinion. They need to be inaugurated and prepped for battle as soon as possible.”

  Seek’s neck tensed, but she did not protest.

  Her reaction worried me. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

  Virgil turned back to me, serious. “I tried to tell you to stop because that face was nothing we made. It was someone breaching our electrical system. Not only might they have possibly pinpointed our coordinates, but they more than likely could see everything you did, Eero… You and Mabel both. You just blew your cover.”

  My shoulders shuddered, fear closing in on my very being. I forced myself to say what I did next. “Who are they?” I was finally ready to know just who and what had been lurking in the shadows since this journey began.

  Virgil focused on me for a second, his eyes distant and unsure. He ran a hand through his short hair, brushing away traces of sweat before finally giving me an answer.

  “The Lord of this world…” he mumbled darkly. “Leader of the Proxez; King of Ice… Gannon Revere.”

  Twenty-four

  Wolf and Sheep

  Some things are better kept a secret… If she knew what he did, Daisy would never come to trust Cecil, and that was something he desperately needed if he was to ever have a chance at regaining his status and glory amongst the others, who, at the moment, saw him as nothing but a traitor.

  He sighed as he leaned his forehead against the mantle of the fireplace in Daisy’s bedroom, staring at the flames. He didn’t have too much time, but he knew he needed to use it wisely. Daisy needed to take over for him… And prove that their species needed to stay; if she failed as he did, their fat
e was sealed.

  “UGH!” Daisy grunted loudly. Cecil opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder just in time to see Daisy fly back through the air and slam against the foot of her bed. A growl reverberated in her throat, the young teen shaking in disgust at the thought of her incompetence. A week—a whole dang week she had been at this, and Cecil had been useless!

  Cecil smiled, hearing her thoughts. He casually turned around, leaning against the rock and folding his arms in amusement. Daisy’s eyes narrowed when she heard Cecil chortle under his breath, determined to keep it hidden. “Yeah, yeah!” she exclaimed heatedly, standing up on her wobbly legs and readjusting Sagey, who now had a permanent home in an old dagger sheath on her belt. “Keep laughing! It’s your fault I can’t get it in the first place!”

  Just for kicks, Cecil continued to laugh, even though her blunder was expected. Invisibility took next to no skill to master, but drawing forth the ability to use your powers in multiple ways? That took lifetimes for those born naturally to get down pat, especially with their diverse uses. Of course she wouldn’t be successful anytime soon; he just needed her to get a light handle on as much as she could while they still had time.

  “I didn’t do nothin’,” he corrected briskly. “Ya just can’t focus enough to get anythin’ done.”

  “What?!” she bellowed angrily, throwing her fists down by her side as her eyes flashed pink. “Of course I can!”

  “Then show me.”

  Daisy scoffed, opening her palms and allowing two spheres of churning, rippling pink light to be born from her skin. Cecil shook his head, pressing a hand to his face. “Without usin’ anger as yar fuel! Honestly, Daisy, many a time when ya use yar powers, ya have to make yaself not feel anythin’ at all! Ya gotta learn to power it solely from yar thinker!”

  “Then why don’t you show me how to do something instead of sitting back like a lazy lug and watching me fail over and over again?!”

  “’Cause ya gotta develop self-discipline sooner or later.” He walked away from the fireplace, approaching his apprentice and looming above her. He placed his hands on Daisy’s shoulders, his irises softening to calm her down. She sighed, embarrassed by her outburst.