by D N Meinster
She had to find Versil. Ghumai could stand united, but there weren’t enough soldiers or advanced weaponry to achieve victory. With the populations of Terrastream and the Twilight Islands diminished, it was up to Belliore and the peacekeepers to make up for them.
There was only one place to start: Versil’s laboratory. She shifted from the hearing room to a darkened location that was evidently abandoned. Lights shot out from her channeling crystal and illuminated the former home of the third immortal.
It hadn’t been that long since her last visit, but little of the lab matched her memories. The cylindrical tanks that lined the walls had been emptied. Machines once alive with blinking indicators and projecting images were now dead.
“Versil?” she called out. “EDat?” There was no response from either.
The lab had evidently been abandoned, and the only positive result was that Versil had been good on his word. His awful experiments on mages had ceased.
She crept through the rest of the lab, her footsteps forming the only sounds. Rikki wasn’t sure what she expected to find here, but she’d been hoping for a clue to track where the former Project Head had gone. There were no other leads to follow or locations she knew he frequented.
“Think, Rikki,” she said aloud.
What did she know about him? He was Valal, sure. But all she knew about Valal had come from Hatswick. Maybe there was more information stored on the eDat, but it wasn’t responding.
Nothing was responding.
Everything in his lab had been powered off. She could fix that.
A jolt of static escaped her staff and struck the nearby equipment. It sprung to life, along with the adjacent machinery. All of his technology was returning to life, including the electric lights above. Rikki extinguished her own lights so as not to blind herself.
“Intruder detected,” the eDat’s voice rang out.
Rikki raised her staff defensively but did not strike out. “Request authorization.”
“Contacting Versil Talap,” the eDat replied.
Did the eDat know where he was? Could she convey to it how important it was that she find him?
“Versil Talap unreachable,” it said. “Preliminary access to main floor granted. Further admittance will require express authorization.”
So even the eDat didn’t know where he was. Did that mean he might not be in Belliore?
“Can you tell me the last known location of Versil Talap?” Rikki asked.
“Information restricted,” the eDat replied.
Rikki was ready to lash out at the ethereal voice. She needed to find him. Without the peacekeepers, Ghumai would easily be overrun by the Massku. Could she compel the eDat to tell her with magic? She could alter her voice, but wouldn’t it find Versil Talap asking for his own location rather odd? Maybe if she knew where the eDat was, she could directly target it rather than try to trick it.
Rikki searched the nearby area, but could hardly distinguish one machine from the other. She’d have to settle for a different line of questions.
“What can you tell me about Valal?”
“Valal Sipter was the Coordinator of Belliore from approximately 1252 B.N. to 1183 B.N. His work in magical theory led to the distribution of channeling crystals to mages.”
That couldn’t be all the eDat knew about him. “Please elaborate on Valal and his magical theory.”
“Valal Sipter’s hypothesis was that crystals mined in Terrastream could work as a magnifier of extraneous sources of energy. His first experiments focused on the manipulation of light through the crystals. After early success, he was contacted by the Grand Mage of Kytheras to look into alternative uses.”
“Cranford,” Rikki muttered.
“Collaboration between Valal and Grand Mage Cranford led to the theory that magical energy could be channeled and enhanced by these crystals.”
Rikki knew the rest of that story. How was it that the eDat didn’t know any more than Hatswick? Valal participated in those experiments. He should’ve conveyed every detail for the historical record.
“When did Valal die?” she asked.
“Valal’s recorded date of death is 1183 B.N.”
So he’d fabricated those records. “What was done with his body?”
“Unknown,” the eDat answered.
“Did he have any relatives? Children?”
“Several subsequent Coordinators claimed to be related to Valal Sipter, but those records are incomplete.”
Rikki suspected that they were all actually Valal. “Do any of them have birth records?”
“Those records have been lost.”
She sighed before heading toward the exit. Versil had covered up his tracks in the past and present. She could try shifting blindly, though she absolutely despised the thought of doing so. The Goddess might point her true, and she might find him immediately. Or she might end up inside a wall or accidently self-immolate. Was it worth it?
She kept it in mind as she exited the lab. The battle was already lost without the peacekeepers. There wasn’t a league of mages or an army with enchanted weaponry this time. The only way to…
Rikki caught sight of a man standing with his back to her at the edge of the platform. He’d wrapped his woven ponytail around his right bicep, and his floor-length black coat concealed his other features until he turned around.
His fiery eyes sent chills through her as he examined her. “Rikki,” he croaked.
She grabbed her staff with both hands, but it began to tremble along with the rest of her.
“I thought I’d be rid of you,” Neanthal said. “But you and your friends are more resourceful than I could’ve predicted.”
She was alone. She didn’t have anyone here to help her. She had to leave. But she couldn’t. Was he preventing her from shifting away? Or was her own fear paralyzing her?
He elevated one of his hands. “One instant, you are locked away in the same prison I was.” He closed his fist. “The next, you are free and reuniting all of Ghumai. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” His raised arm fell to his side. “It was a mistake to leave you all alive. I can see that now. Magenine will continue to work against me through her vessels. She will even perform the improbable for them. But She will not bring you back to life. I am sure of that.”
Rikki finally stopped shaking. She was not truly alone. She never was. The Goddess was always with her.
“She follows silly rules, and Her commitment to them was how I made inroads here to begin with. I can offer this realm a new way outside of any rules. But look at this place. The Bellish are on the verge of conquering death themselves.”
Neanthal was clearly hoping for some response from her, but Rikki would not indulge him. She glared at him, keeping her staff pointed right at him, but said nothing.
“I know your eyes. I have seen them before. I remember their glint as I was locked away. But, tell me, did Hatswick help you escape from my prison?” He waited for an answer that never came. “I bet he did. Because you may have her eyes and her staff, but you are not Amelia. And I can prove that right now.”
Neanthal extended an arm toward her, and from it, a red flame burst forth and shot forward to consume Rikki.
Rikki summoned a curved barrier from the ether to protect her from his attack. When he finally let up, she remained intact.
“You are skilled,” he said. “So I cannot let you live this time.”
“Come and get me,” she taunted him.
As he began to grin, Rikki smashed her staff onto the platform. A crack spread through the entire structure, and it began to crumble away from the point of impact, moving towards where Neanthal stood.
But even as the platform broke apart and fell to the streets below, Neanthal remained where he was. He was standing on air.
“Can you do this?” he asked.
Neanthal pulled at the air, but it was the floor beneath Rikki’s feet that reacted to his motion. The rest of the platform began to collapse, and Rikki went down along
with it.
She pulled her staff in tight and shifted to the rooftop of a nearby building. Before Neanthal spotted her, she summoned a green fireball as large as an engorged denhare and flung it at her enemy.
The fire enveloped Neanthal, but he emerged from it without a scratch. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared within feet of her.
“Watch this,” he said. Both of his arms rose simultaneously, and the rooftop liquified and encased Rikki.
The wing of Rikki’s staff sliced through the spherical prison, and she tumbled through the opening.
Rikki’s eyes locked onto an empty AGT, and with her staff, she directed it from its normal flight path and put it on a collision course with Neanthal.
The Beast emerged from the fiery wreck with several lesions, but they faded from his body like they’d never been there to begin with.
“My turn.” He brought the entire parade of AGTs under his control, and a rush of them flew toward Rikki’s location.
She shifted to the top of an AGT within the incoming procession and swiftly redirected it toward Neanthal.
Before they could make contact, he stalled the entire lineup and the vehicles began to plummet downward.
With a spin, Rikki returned to Neanthal’s side. She was close enough to rest her staff on his chest.
As he glanced down, an entire ray of green energy surged through his torso. Neanthal fell to his knees, but when he looked back up, he was laughing.
Rikki made to take a step back, but he was able to reach out and grab hold of her staff.
“Do you think you can win?”
It suddenly felt like Rikki’s fingers were burning, but when she looked down, there was not a single flame. Instead, the skin appeared to be melting off her bones. From her fingers, to her palm, and then her wrist, suddenly her skin was goop and the white of her bones was in plain sight.
Rikki’s head went fuzzy at the sight, and she was on the verge of losing consciousness. But she couldn’t allow that. If she did, she knew she’d wake up in the Bastion.
Instead, she yanked her staff back into her possession and placed what was left of her hand on the channeling crystal. The skin reformed almost instantly.
Neanthal was startled by her healing. “Magenine?” he asked, sensing the Goddess within her.
A bolt of green lightning shot from Rikki’s staff and ejected Neanthal from the roof.
Rikki wasn’t about to prolong the fight. She needed to leave before he returned, but she didn’t know where to go. Could he follow her wherever she shifted? What location was safe?
It was at moments like this she wished Aros was around. He could hear Magenine, and she critically needed direction from Her.
Aros. She would go to him. There might even be another mage around to help if he was with Azzer.
With a spin, she shifted to Terrastream and hoped that the Beast would not follow.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tree of Remembrance
An avalanche of broken rock began to descend from the ramparts of Valiant Keep, and Loraya Lette hopped on top of the rubble and rode it as it plunged back to the ground. On the way down, she scooped an arrow from her quiver and loaded it into the stringed branch she used as a bow. The monarchists waiting for her below received arrows in their necks, one of the few places their crystalline armor left exposed.
She skipped off the debris before crashing and set her sights to the top of Valiant Keep once more. The rock castle appeared to have been grown into the peaks of the Enduring Mountains themselves, but she knew that it had not been a natural growth. The mages under the orders of King Kahar had warped the landmark, twisting its fine formations into walls and turrets. And they remained well-guarded, even after the King’s death.
Two monarchists had rushed to her prior position, flaming arrows nocked in their bows. She set two arrows in her bow while they took aim at her.
Before any of them could fire, a massive white beam struck the top of the keep, obliterating the monarchists and sending another piece of broken stone tumbling downward.
A bald woman with brown skin and slick golden armor rushed to her side. “No need to thank me.”
Loraya gave her the foulest look her pink eyes could muster, but eventually transformed her expression into a grateful grin.
“We’re gonna have to retreat soon,” M’dalla warned. “We’ve lost two mages already.”
“Two?” That was one more than they’d agreed to prior to today’s attack.
A cacophony of screams interrupted any further conversation. A plethora of monarchists, some armored, some not, emerged from Valiant Keep’s central gate. The ensemble expanded as more streamed out, all of them bandying some form of weaponry.
“Where’s our reinforcements?” Loraya whined as a band of monarchists came charging at the two women. She emptied her quiver into the approaching assembly, dropping several but failing to slow them down.
M’dalla raised her arm and emitted a white ray that seemed to overtake half her body before it burned through the vicious pack. The high casualties finally brought them to a halt.
“What are you two still doing here?” a shirtless mage with blue hair inquired. As he observed the wreckage of one of the keep’s turrets, he said, “Your objective’s complete.”
“We didn’t hear a horn,” M’dalla replied.
“Sorry, I evacuated everyone already,” Azzer stated. He extended his blue staff to them. “Grab on.”
Loraya and M’dalla touched their hands to the staff just as a barrage of arrows and axes filled the sky above them. The projectiles faded away, along with all of Valiant Keep, as they shifted back to their new home.
The tall grass and mutated trees alongside Restoration River were less robust than in any other area of Terrastream. The plant life hadn’t thrived once the river went still, but the waters provided enough for them to keep existing.
That’s what the Streamers in the area were trying to do as well. Keep existing.
There were more than two hundred of them gathered there, all seeking to restore the Enduring Mountains by eliminating the monarchists and destroying Valiant Keep. It was a larger group than the Revolutionaries had ever been, but they were still outnumbered.
Thousands still lived in the keep, trusting that King Kahar would return to them and leaving a steward in his place. The others that had left, they sought a peaceful return to tradition and let the monarchists be. Loraya never could. They’d betrayed Terrastream. They’d taken her family. They had to be defeated, not left to prosper.
“Less than ten losses, and two turrets and part of a wall restored,” Azzer informed them. “I’d call that a success.”
“But we’re down two mages,” Loraya reminded him. They could not replenish any of the mages they lost.
“And they’re down to zero,” Azzer retorted. “They can’t repair what we’ve done. Valiant Keep will fall.”
“My brothers used to say that,” she replied, walking away.
Loraya didn’t mean to sound so pessimistic, but she was still disheartened by the loss of her brothers. Her family was down to one.
She knelt down on the edge of Restoration River, cupped her hands, and drove them beneath the waters. As she sipped from the refreshing liquid she drew out, her mind began to wander to a boy she hadn’t seen in nearly a deck. What exactly had Aros been up to?
As she lowered her hands back into the water, the ground beneath her began to tremble.
Her eyes bulged as she recalled the old story about the quake that preceded Neanthal’s arrival. He couldn’t be back, could he?
She stood up and searched for the arrows she may need, but a harsh light blinded her before she spotted any. She pressed her hands against her eyes and begged the Goddess not to allow Neanthal back into their land.
It was only a minute later when she dared to lift her hands off her face. The light was gone, but what had caused it? Was it Neanthal? Or could Aros and his friends have been responsible for it?
She took a single step away but no more, as a familiar sound reached her ears. It was the trickle of water.
Loraya glanced at Restoration River and saw the slightest movement of the top current. The longer she held her eyes there, the more the river picked up speed, until a steady stream rushed between the banks and journeyed to the nearly dried-up Avalanche Pond.
A gaggle of her comrades took note of the rushing river and joined her at its side, murmuring about this phenomenon.
“How is this happening?”
“Did a mage do this?”
“Do you think it’s safe?”
Loraya was ready to test her theory and jump in, but someone beat her to it.
Azzer swept past the group and dove into the river.
She watched him flap about in the current until finally hurrying in after him, brown vest, skirt, and all.
Loraya held herself beneath the waters, floating with the current as it completely soaked her.
When she broke back above the surface, she saw that more Streamers had occupied the river. They swam about, splashing water at each other or dunking their friends’ heads beneath the surface. Even M’dalla had ditched her armor to enjoy the new activities.
Loraya tried to swim over to the ones formerly known as Roamers, but there were too many other Streamers in her way. So she lay atop the river, floating, and content to ask them about the strange event that heralded their fun later.
The waters turned rough as the mages used their magic to create waves and drench those that refused to join them in the river. Loraya ended up between a rather wild pair that were creating cyclones atop the water. She shot them an unpleasant glance before retreating to the river’s banks.
That’s when she saw him. Standing in a yellow cloak, confused look beneath his short spikey hair.
Loraya pulled herself out of the river and rushed at him. He didn’t even notice her until she had her arms wrapped around him. She was drenched, but the waters seemed to slide right off his cloak without leaving a single stain. Only her green hairs seemed to get him, as they dripped onto the sides of his face and down his neck.