The Dark Materials

by Amanda Churi

  Regaining her tough posture, Laelia stepped out farther onto the bridge, staring down at the ground and into what appeared to be the courtyard.

  “Whoa…” Sybil gawked.

  “Ey, I’ve never seen this,” Justus noted, focusing the lens of his camera to get a closer look.

  The snow plunged from the clouds, the harsh gale continuously changing direction and forming a small blizzard. Dead, petrified oaks grew randomly about the circular enclosure, their abused branches hardly hanging on. Metal and stone stables were erected throughout the acres of land, possibly a hundred Elites walking the poisoned earth.

  They led many ghoulish horses by chains, turning them in circles and ordering them to perform certain commands. These skeletal horses were nothing like those that she had seen at the entrance to the empire; while identical in appearance, holding the same rotten bones that were connected by dark magic, they did not act the same. These were far more rowdy, bucking and snapping their teeth at the soldiers who tried to break them in.

  “Falkas,” Sybil whispered in awe. “W-why are they here?”

  “Falkas?” Laelia repeated, peering down at her little companion who she could not see.

  “They’re possessed horses,” she replied, mystified by the sight. “A type of demon. How…?” She could not complete the tracks for her train of thought.

  From the shadows, other beings gradually warped their way into view. Laelia went rigid, hardly able to comprehend all of the creatures that she began to take note of. Some were nearly identical to Sybil, others sharing many similar traits to that of Eero. Then, there were some that Laelia did not even know how to describe—so many mutated lifeforms walking about that it numbed her mind. One thing that was the same for all of them, however, was that no matter which species they came from, they were shackled in some way, shape, or form, keeping them from wandering too far from the supreme Elites.

  “What are those…?” Justus wondered, echoing Laelia’s exact thoughts.

  “They’re all… Demons…” Sybil answered in a tiny, frightened voice. “All different kinds. How did they… Why did…?”

  “They’re slaves…” Laelia added, noticing that the whips that the Elites used were not only for the Falkas. “That’s probably why Pinion doesn’t trust Eero entirely; demons stand with the enemy, even if it’s against their will.”

  “…So, we weren’t created…?” Sybil mumbled, a hiss beginning to part from her fangs as her anger grew. “We were caught…? Bred…?”

  Laelia closed her eyes and forced herself to turn away from the suffering of those in the courtyard. Demons weren’t good, that much she knew, but some demons like Sybil and Eero… They had a dark side, sure, but they were nothing like what holy mythology depicted them to be. Perhaps there were demons formed by nothing but darkness, but from what she had seen, there were also those who sought to follow a different path; maybe that percentage was small, but it was there.

  Not wanting to dwell any longer on something that she knew she would never quite understand, Laelia proceeded to cross the bridge, heading closer to the tainted heart of the world.

  The speakers placed at Laelia’s ears suddenly burst, the mechanical work ringing and buzzing as the contraption began to malfunction.

  Laelia pressed her hands to the sides of her helmet, grunting painfully as invisible pools of blood formed in the depths of her ear canals. “What the Pluto, Justus?!”

  “LA—LIA!” an urgent, choppy voice blared through the breaking speakers. “Y—GET—TY—!”

  “What?” she called back, squinting her eyes as her brain began to throb.

  “H—GE—O—!”

  There was a loud pop, a shock of electricity stinging the ring of Laelia’s ears before the speakers burned out and went silent permanently.

  Laelia stood there for a moment, cautiously pulling her hands away. Her movements were slow and hesitant, her eyes at least double their size as she processed the only thing that Justus’ last words could have possibly meant.

  Her breathing slow and hoarse, Laelia looked over her shoulder, only imagining what was there. The Elites and Haxors around her immediately halted, looking in the same direction that Laelia was.

  A man created by the very essence of Hell loomed in the opening of the tunnel that Laelia had come from. Purple smog filled the air around him, his blood-red eyes pumping with temptation as he locked his pupils with Laelia’s that were shielded by the thick visor. He stood in a wide stance with his feet spread and arms folded, his violet fedora tilted in such a way that it concealed one eye, but it could not mask the yearning shooting towards her.

  Laelia remembered him; there was no way that she could not. Immediately, Justus’ words became clear to her haunted mind.

  GET OUT!

  Before Typo could initiate the hunt, Laelia acted. She spun around as fast as she could, her feet flailing and scraping the stone floors as she frantically ran off in the opposite direction of the henchman.

  “GET HER!” Typo roared, his scratchy voice making all jump as he bolted past his stunned, incompetent counterparts, beginning his enthralling chase.

  “Laelia!” Sybil screamed horrifically. “Run!”

  “What do you think I’m doing?!” she cried back, reaching over her shoulders and hastily unhooking the machine gun with fingers that would not stop trembling. She positioned it in her hands the best that she could, keeping her eyes straight ahead. Her adrenaline was threatening to break through the walls of her veins, especially when the Proxez both ahead and behind her made Laelia their target.

  They began closing in on her, Laelia’s finger shaking around the trigger as she tried to raise her artillery. The Elites sprinted towards her at speeds far greater than the Haxors, their chains swinging as blue mist exploded from their winter encrusted eyes, petrifying the atmosphere around them. Battle cries blared in the ears of all, a deafening siren echoing Typo’s call for action as red lights began to flash about the perimeter of the castle.

  Despite knowing nothing but the basics of the weapon, Laelia knew that it was try or die. Screaming furiously, she slammed down on the trigger, a large, powerful bolt of lightning immediately shooting from the barrel of the gun and towards those coming at her from the front.

  The gun kicked back and almost knocked Laelia to the floor, but she kept a firm hold and refused to release the trigger. The lightning shot in all directions, spreading like a cobweb through the air and striking any who were too close. Shouts for blood turned to agonizing screams as the arms of electrons cocooned each and every enemy that it could track down, melting them from the inside and rupturing uncountable organs as the robust energy became trapped in their armored bodies. The Elites fell as well, but not to the same degree as the Haxors. They were simply stunned, and after a few short seconds, they got to their feet once more.

  The Haxors behind Laelia raised their own weapons to counter her assault, holding down the trigger as well so that an endless barrage of lightning rained around her.

  The numerous veins of electricity made a direct hit with her back, Laelia grunting in agony and stumbling forward, though she did not fall. Her finger refused to let up on the trigger in spite of the electricity that she could feel encasing her body. Her skin burned, and her legs became weak, but the lightning did not break her. It had nothing to do with her physical strength; it was her special armor.

  “Thank you, Justus,” she exclaimed through a breathless gasp as she continued to race forward, electrocuting everyone in sight. Just as the Elites got up, they were shot back down, and the Haxors did nothing but writhe on the floor, internally begging for mercy.

  “Laelia, what can I do?!” Sybil meeped in panic, digging her claws into Laelia’s stomach as she braced herself against her ally, steering clear of the steaming armor that trapped her inside.

  “T-try to fix the speakers!” Laelia told her as she raised the gun slightly, shooting an upcoming door in hopes to stunt the wires and keep the passageway open. “W
e need to get in contact with the others and figure out how to get out of here!”

  “B-but I don’t know anything about technology!”

  “FIGURE IT OUT!” Laelia snapped, swinging the gun sharply to one side and decking an Elite in the face who attempted to rise beside her.

  Scared out of her mind, Sybil obeyed, grabbing the lively wires and squealing as she attempted to repair the machine before it was too late.

  Typo was the fastest of all, peeling towards his prey with the agility of a spirit, but Laelia was so scared that her legs were moving faster than they ever had in her entire life. He released a violent wail from his smoldering lips, the air around him steaming in anger as the very pitch of his cry caused pieces of ice to collapse around them.

  With the last of those standing in her way mowed down, Laelia stopped firing, dashing through the sparking metal doors and into another hallway.

  Typo lifted his lips in a snarl, his eyes turning to slits. “If that’s how you want to play, fine!” With an enraged hiss, Typo pushed his neck forward, his red eyes flaring up with a hue of blood that was so deep it was almost black. He directed his energy at Laelia’s head, and although nothing shot from his pupils, the invisible link of energy between he and the hunted had been made.

  The ground beneath Laelia began to fizzle away as she ran down the passage blinded by red lights, Haxors and Elites swarming towards her with their weapons raised.

  The stone floors gave way to blood-washed tile once more. Her armor fell like the peels of fruit, revealing her tattered and torn clothes. Her blonde hair was matted with fluids of all kinds, sticking to her skin and face as she ran for dear life. The marble pillars laughed as they trapped her in the disguised prison, the setting sun shedding beams of potent, foreboding scarlet light down on her scarred skin covered in plasma and dirt.

  Her child was slung around her body in a sling, crying pitifully as Laelia desperately tried to flee her prosecutors. She needed to get out now! She needed to save them both!

  She held an ivory idol of Jupiter in her injured hands, her teeth grinding against each other as she charged the servants of her house and the members of the Senate that were waiting for her ahead, twisting swords and knives in temptation as they prepared to finish what they started.

  “Leave me ALONE!” Laelia screamed, the many scars beneath her clothes suddenly reopening and granting her excruciating pain.

  But she would not give in. She was not lost nor a nothing like she had always been told—

  She had never been stronger.

  She ran into their blockade, tears blinding her as she swung the idol from side to side, trying to get away from it all as she bashed faces in and broke skulls. Blood went flying, along with pieces of ivory and skin, all while Laelia’s wounds continued to deepen, her pain intensifying as they landed their fair share of blows on her as well.

  They just kept coming—people who she thought she had vanquished appearing perfectly unharmed once more and begging for round two. Her survival instincts were on overdrive, and no matter which hall she took or what room she ran to, they never went where she hoped; it was as though pieces of the home that she had come to know every inch of had suddenly been chopped up and placed down elsewhere, leaving her incapable of finding the exit.

  “Laelia!” her child cried.

  “Just hang on!” Laelia screamed. “I will make it up to you! I promise!”

  She slammed the idol into the gut of a Senate member who blocked a door, and as soon as he was down, Laelia threw open the door and slammed it behind her.

  There were no enemies in her bedroom. She appeared to be safe.

  Sighing, Laelia’s knees buckled, and she leaned against the door, gasping. Her familiar bedroom began to disappear and reappear, flickering before her like a screen until it finally vanished, the future becoming her home once more as she escaped Typo’s mind games.

  Large chunks of her armor had shattered and caved in, the electricity no longer coursing through the black glass. Sections of her skin were exposed, hunks both missing and frozen, while the majority of her body’s first defensive line suffered extreme burns. It hurt to move… It hurt to think.

  It hurt to exist.

  Exhausted, she dropped her gun that was steaming from overuse. She forced herself to catch her breath and regain what strength she could; she knew that it would not be too long before she would fight again.

  Sybil peeked out from the busted armor, crawling out on shaking hands and legs. Her purple eyes were filled with black tears, her irises sparkling a deep, longing purple as she looked to Laelia for guidance.

  “You’re bleeding…” she said quietly, crawling up Laelia’s injured bone house and licking her cheeks for comfort.

  Laelia’s throat screamed when she tried to answer. “It’s fine,” she chortled in a hoarse pitch. “You don’t worry about me…”

  Sybil continued to sob, her tears staining her face black. “Laelia, d-did you have a baby…?”

  Laelia weakly opened her eyes, her vision blurred by blood and permanently injured cells. “Hm…?”

  “You… You told me to hang on…” Sybil squeaked shyly. “That you would make it up to me…” Her voice trailed away as her ginormous eyes found Laelia’s bloody stomach. “…And… You have a terrible scar across your belly…”

  Laelia didn’t respond immediately; she wasn’t sure that she wanted to.

  Sybil tucked her small mouth under her wings, a lost, blood-wrenching frown capturing her face. “When we met, I was evil… I should have killed you. But you convinced the others to spare me… Is that why…? Because I was a baby? Because I reminded you of your baby?”

  Laelia smiled painfully. Instinctively, she rested a hand on her stomach, her eyes drooping. “I had to do some terrible things when I was a child, Sybil,” she began in a strained voice. “My innocence was taken by uncountable men, and well…” She scoffed, finding it so ironic that her real life was a complete inverse of what everyone originally believed it to be. “I got unlucky… Blessed and cursed with a child at the age of thirteen.”

  “I-I bet she was cute!” Sybil chirped through a sob, desperately trying to bring up their spirits as the pounding of footsteps grew closer. “She probably looked just like you!”

  Laelia exhaled slowly. “He or she; I never knew what they were. I took care of my pregnancy.”

  Sybil’s eyes widened. “You killed your baby…?”

  Laelia nodded. “I would never allow my child to suffer like me—I wouldn’t take the chance.” She grunted, forcing herself to stand up as Sybil grabbed her torn clothes so that she remained close. Laelia shook the remains of armor off of her, standing in enemy land now more bare and helpless than ever.

  “What are you doing?” Sybil asked. “What about Justus?”

  Laelia groaned, leaning down and grabbing the powerful gun with one hand before handing a small, nearly microscopic camera to Sybil as she ripped it from the infrastructure. “What about him? We’re on our own from here on out.” She motioned towards the camera in Sybil’s hands. “Hang on to that; Justus still might be able to retrieve the information.”

  Sybil nodded, flying up and perching on Laelia’s shoulder before tying a stray wire from the camera around her neck so that she did not lose it.

  Laelia turned her back on the armor, limping down the dark corridor that they had trapped themselves in. This region of the base was darker than any previously. The walls were sheer ice, and the floor was blocks of snow. Shivers dominated Laelia’s body almost immediately, Sybil, who was far more resistant to the cold, catching the chills as well. All was silent as they passed into the shadows, Laelia carefully placing one foot in front of the other to make sure that she did not fall as darkness became the host of the two refugees.

  They did not speak as they pushed through the dusk, both trying to gain strength with the other’s presence. Not even the sirens rang here, and it wasn’t until after what seemed like an eternity of pushing forth di
d a blue light creep around the corner, slowly banishing the shade that tried to drag the pair down.

  “L-light!” Laelia heaved, stumbling the moment that she tried to make herself go faster. She dragged her feet forward, her weak heart pounding in her stomach as the light of the outside world loomed before her.

  She turned the corner, freezing immediately.

  She was not outside. She didn’t know where she was, but it was clear that she was far from finding a way out; if anything, she had now sealed their fate, but she wasn’t sure if that was because of their location or because of who awaited her.

  A large stalagmite of ice stood in the middle of the ice caverns. It was several times the width of Laelia, reaching so high that the very tip made contact with the ice-layered ceiling twenty feet above. The ice here was not gray and sickly like most in the land; it was one of the purest blues that Laelia had ever seen—shades of orphan blue, sea green, royal blue, and wisps of white light circulating within the stalagmite that emitted its own luminance.

  Her mind faltering, Laelia walked forward like a ghost, her face looming inches away from she who was trapped inside.

  “…Tah…” Laelia whispered, her voice breaking as she recognized the famished face of her old friend that she had not seen in forever. Her eyes were closed, and her jaw was open, her short brown hair frozen around her and blown upwards to clearly reveal her face. She was dressed in the poorest of rags, her bruised and beaten body preserved by the magical ice. Right where her heart should have been, there was a hole. Her heart was pulled out from her body, suspended in the ice several inches out in front of her, but still attached by the thin veins and arteries of her frozen vessel.

  “Who’s that?” Sybil wondered.

  “My old friend…” Laelia replied weakly. How could this have happened? Nearly a millennia beyond Phantome, and here she was.

  The ground began to shake beneath them, Sybil immediately whipping her body in the direction of the approaching noise. She released a high-pitched scream, pulling on Laelia’s sleeve as she tried to pry her away from Tah. “We need to go! They’re coming!”