Absalom’s Fate

by J. D. L. Rosell

  I hadn't come to a decision still when the sound of an iron gate grating open echoed through the dungeon. Fearing time was up for us, I rose to my feet, jaw clenched against the throbbing in my head, and prepared to throw everything I had at whoever came for us. But when I saw yellow eyes gleaming out of the darkness, even though there were guards behind her, I waited.

  The Naiads, holding odd torches that had sun-pearls on the end instead of flames, opened up the door to our cell, and I braced myself once again. But I was surprised to find that instead of taking Farelle and myself out, they threw Sheika in with us, then locked up behind. I stared at those feline eyes as the sound of the guards faded away.

  Sheika grinned mischievously at me, sharp teeth showing. “Sorry about all this.”

  “Sorry? Sorry?!” I took a step towards her, the act not quite as menacing as I'd hoped. “Why did you turn me in? And make me faint? What the hell is this all about anyway?”

  She held up her hands. “Hold on, Marrow. I'll explain.” She paused. “Congratulations on reaching level 9 by the way. That's got to be the fastest anyone has advanced.”

  I ignored her praise, as well as Farelle's confused expression. “You're not worming your way out of it this time. Clearly.” I gestured to the bars. “So how about you start talking.”

  She raised an eyebrow, but nodded in acquiescence. “Okay. I can tell you. But honestly, we won't have to wait long for you to see everything yourself.” She grinned again, and I could see she was genuinely, incomprehensibly, insanely excited. “The Valyn are coming for us.”

  I stared at her, then at Farelle. The Satyr’s confused expression matched my own. “The sky elves?” I asked skeptically, sure I'd misheard her.

  But she nodded. “The very ones. I'm sure you already knew, but they're not just a myth. And they're coming to get us.”

  “Why?” I asked, my incredulity only increasing. “What would make them show themselves now?”

  Sheika winked at me again. “You, of course.”

  24

  Ascension

  Sheika was right; we didn't wait long. It was only an hour before the metal gate grated open again and footsteps came echoing down the dark corridors. I expected it to be the Valyn themselves, but they were only Naiad guards, come to fetch us for our next captors.

  As they escorted us back up into the palace proper, I thought over everything Sheika had told me in the past hour. Though she'd promised me an explanation, her statements remained nearly as enigmatic as before. Still, I knew at least somewhat where things stood.

  “You,” she’d said as we sat cross-legged on the cell floor, “are being used to provoke a war.”

  “I thought I was trying to win one before it started.”

  She shook her head. “The war was always going to happen. It's just that King Fredrick and his compatriots wanted an advantage. So instead of just sickening Nali’s priests, they wanted them dead, to provoke the Sea Empress into attacking.”

  That made sense. I wished I'd seen it before. “Okay. And since I was a new recruit, the Noble Ignobles really didn't care if I survived or not.”

  She nodded. “Exactly. But that's just the window dressing. The more important game is beneath that.”

  “The game of the gods.”

  Sheika winked at me. “You're a quick study. Yes. The Night Sisters also wished to issue a provocation, to Nali herself. Because yes, as you might have also guessed, the Pantheon of gods and goddesses exists as well, and rules over the lands in very direct ways.”

  I tried pulling this all apart, which was made all the more difficult by the throbbing wound on my head. “Why were the Night Sisters provoking Nali? Just because that's what they do?”

  Sheika shook her head. “Not just. There are two opposing sides in the war of the gods now. Everyone has been forced to choose where they stand.”

  She'd mentioned this before, but I still didn't understand. “But what are they fighting for?”

  Sheika’s yellow eyes bore holes into me. “Absalom.”

  I wasn't sure I'd heard her right. “Absalom?”

  “I won’t be able to explain this fully, but Absalom — he's the newest god to the Pantheon. And apparently, some want to protect him, while others wish to do him harm.” Sheika shrugged. “I don't know why. That's exactly what I want to find out.”

  I let that slide, since she didn't know herself. But there was still one piece of the puzzle missing. “Okay. So why did you turn me in for the poisoning? You did turn me in, right?”

  The feline avatar nodded. “I did. And I also helped you along the way, to help you do this task, just so I could turn you in.”

  I might have been angry, except for one thing. “But you turned yourself in too. I can't see how that would advantage you.”

  She grinned mysteriously. “But I’ve already told you the answer.”

  I took a stab in the dark. “You wanted the sky elves to take you as well as me.” And as well as Farelle — I glanced over at my silent companion in the corner.

  “Right again. If I'm correct, the sky elves know where Absalom is, and can reach him. And yes, we can actually find gods,” she said, heading off my question. “You've already met the Night Sisters. They're all scattered throughout the Everlands kind of like that, except, I think, during momentous occasions.”

  I had to chew on that for a moment. It was starting to all make sense though. “Alright,” I said begrudgingly. “I guess you didn't betray me, even if you did use me.”

  She patted my leg. “Only for your own good. Because Absalom has everything to do with us not being able to log off.”

  I sat up straighter at that. “What? How?”

  Sheika’s eyes bore holes into me. “For me, it’s pretty straightforward. I’ve been poking around business that I shouldn’t. But for you… You've been in the game of the gods since you first logged in. For some reason, they each chose you to try and use as their pawn. Perhaps it was random.” She smiled her sharp-toothed smile. “Perhaps it was fate.”

  I snorted, even though I did wonder. Why had this happened to me? Could it really just be random? But of course, people made the mistake of thinking random things were fate all the time. Just because I wanted something to be pre-ordained to make me feel special didn't mean it was. We were talking about a world procedurally generated by AIs. You didn't get a more random set-up than that.

  Though, actually, now that I thought about it, maybe it was the opposite. You didn't get a more intentional world than that. That was the draw of the Everlands after all, wasn't it? That everything had meaning, and ramifications, and purpose.

  And somehow, I'd ended up with the greatest purpose of all.

  The guards brought us up to the highest tower of the palace, but even that wasn't high enough. “Move,” one of the stoic guards said, pushing me towards the balcony.

  I wondered if they were going to push us off instead of deliver us to the mysterious elven race, but considering this was the only way to get where Sheika said we needed to go, I decided to comply. Standing out on the balcony, cold wind whipped against my face, and I stared out over the city laid out below us. The mountains embraced J’anteau, leaning in on either side, like overprotective sisters. Beyond that, the alternating marshes and forests could be seen, the haze of the miles quickly swallowing the end of them. There were worse views to die from.

  Sheika and Farelle were shoved to either side of me. My Satyr companion wouldn’t meet my eyes, and had barely talked since Sheika had arrived at our cell. I worried my lies had driven an impossible wedge between us, but I held out hope that we could mend things. Sheika, on the other hand, was in an unjustifiably good mood. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” she observed, nodding at the landscape spread out before us.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re awfully cheerful.”

  Her expression went sober. “Marrow, you don’t know how long I’ve been on this. Almost since I started in the Everlands, I’ve suspected there was something bubblin
g beneath the surface. To be coming so near the answers…” She shook her head and closed her eyes, a small smile curling her lips. “It’s a dream come true.”

  We were suddenly shoved from behind so that we stumbled into the railing. Thankfully, it wasn’t as flimsy as it looked. “Silence,” barked one Naiad guard behind us.

  I shared a look with Sheika, and she shrugged. We both kept our lips sealed.

  We didn’t have to wait long, and not for a sudden death at the end of a long fall. I first heard it, then craned my head up and squinted. Descending from the sky was a golden speck, buzzing almost like a hummingbird. But as it came closer, I saw it was much larger than that, more like the size of a helicopter, with two sets of flapping wings at the tail and one at the prow. It almost looked like some sort of steampunk flying machine, except the wings weren’t metal — they looked as real as a bird’s with feathers and bones and muscle. The vehicle wasn’t empty, either. A pilot, wearing a sort of glass helmet, was at the front of the flying device, staring down at us as his ship came level with the balcony. I couldn’t see many features on him, but I could see the silver wings folded up along his back. I was seeing my first sky elf.

  Sheika looked like a girl getting ice cream as she grinned a wide feline smile at me. Farelle’s eyes were wide, but she looked scared and awed more than excited. My own jaw was slack as I studied the ship and its pilot.

  The wonderment was shattered when the guards shoved us again. “Move!” one of them shouted over the humming of the wings.

  I wondered how exactly we were supposed to move to it when a flexible ramp unrolled from the machine’s side like a long tongue. Farelle was made to step on it first, then Sheika. I was loaded last. My heart was in my throat as I crossed the narrow landing to the ship, all too aware of the wings buzzing just above me, and the long drop below. But I made it to the ship, where two other sky elves in sleek armor were waiting to haul me in and put me down on a bench. Farelle and Sheika were already seated on the curved bench in the rear of the ship, and the Valyn guards shoved me next to them.

  Then something like glass, but as malleable as water, began to form over us, almost like a force field from Star Wars. I couldn’t have been any more thrilled to be a captive as I watched it seal us against the noise and cold, rushing air. When it had finished, the flying ship lurched, and the balcony moved away, then the mountain peaks. We were rising, rising, rising into the sky.

  One of the Valyn guards apparently didn’t like my grin, for he reached over and cuffed me on the ear. “Do not smile,” he said with a heavy accent. “You will know pain.”

  The smile slipped from my face. The sky elves were a beautiful people, if these three with us were any indication. Between the silky feathers on their wings, to the gold and silver hues of their skin, to the striking colors of their eyes, which were all bright violets and blues. But beauty didn’t translate to not being a dick, and I could tell that held true here.

  I tried catching Farelle’s eyes, but she stared out the bubble and into the passing clouds and golden sky. Sheika, when I glanced at her, just shrugged. So I settled into my seat, letting my head fall back, and watched the sky unfold above me. Eventually, my eyelids started to droop, and I drifted off into dreams.

  I dreamed I was back on Earth, in my own bed, scheming up ways to get into the Everlands. I had lain there countless hours, both thinking and trolling the web for ideas, before I landed on the idea for infiltrating the VR parlor. Then, I’d had only an inkling of what it would be like to come here. It was strange that now I was here in the game, I dreamed of the mundanity of Earth. I didn’t mind it, though. They were nice memories, made nicer by circumstances not allowing me to return.

  Though even with the rose-tinted glasses of memory on, I didn’t fool myself into thinking my life had been exciting. It was nothing like what I experienced here. Back home, I was kind of a loser, even if I had friends and didn’t get picked on or anything. It wasn’t a bad life; it was just ordinary, normal. But I was supposed to want normal. And part of me did, and enjoyed being comfortable.

  But, half-asleep, another part of me wondered that if I couldn’t ever log off, if I had to stay here, if that would really be so bad.

  I was shaken awake. Disoriented, it took me a moment to focus on the face leaning down in front of me. Too long, apparently — a slap from the sky elf guard woke me quick enough.

  “Wake,” he said. It was the same one as had spoken before. He had a thin face with a sharp chin, almost bird-like with its petiteness, and pale skin that was almost luminescent. But though his features were fair, his smile was angry and malevolent.

  “I’m awake,” I muttered, sitting up straighter and looking to my fellow captives. Sheika looked alert already, and was watching me with her steady yellow gaze, while Farelle seemed to have received a rough awakening like I had.

  Then I looked up, and I gasped.

  Though it was now night, there was enough silver moonlight to see that looming out of the misty sky was a dark, monolithic shape. An impossible island, unmoored from the land below. We’d reached the homeland of the Valyn.

  The guard’s wicked smile grew wider. “Welcome to hell,” he said. And though his laugh was pleasing as bells, it sent a spike of fear through me.

  By the bare luminescence of the moonlight, the guard pointed out where we were going to land. We’d risen above the main portions of the island — or islands, as I began to make out of the gloom — and looked down on our destination. “The Citadel,” he announced with unsuppressed glee.

  I couldn’t see much of it, but I saw enough to know it was large and ominous. I shared a look with Sheika. It wasn’t exactly a name usually associated with good things.

  Our flying ship descended towards the Citadel, and soon after, we were falling below the many pointed towers, looking so sharp I wondered nervously if they were intended to gore unruly prisoners. I could see my evil captor having all too much fun throwing my body out to try and hit one of the spires, like a sick game of target practice.

  But he didn’t try it today, and the ship soon landed, to my relief. Though I probably shouldn’t have been relieved yet — there was still that promise of pain to consider.

  The guards hauled us to our feet. As the bubble above us disintegrated, a severe cold pressed in. I gasped with the sudden force of it, as hard as a hammer blow to my chest. Farelle similarly curled into herself, but Sheika took it in stride, her stance tall and haughty. I could tell from the look of the guards they didn’t like that, but strangely, they didn’t try and beat her into submission, but took her by the arm and escorted her in. I wondered if it was a high level of charisma or what. Whatever it was, I wanted a piece of that as soon as I could.

  Only the two guards went with us, and as soon as we’d stepped off the flying ship, the pilot saluted to his fellows and took off, becoming a distant hummingbird again as he headed towards the looming silhouette of the main island. But though there were three of us to the two sky elves, we all had manacled wrists, and were unarmed. Our possessions, I trusted, were in the two bags carried by one of the guards. He carried them easily, even though they must have weighed a ton each just from Farelle’s and my gear, not to mention Sheika’s. Perhaps they were enchanted to reduce weight.

  Three more guards came from within the dark cavity leading into the Citadel, squashing any chance of our rebelling. The one in front snapped, “This way,” and turned on her heel. I noticed she had metallic wings rising off her pauldrons, and her armor seemed slightly more ornate than the others. She had to be a captain[ She’s the final person they encounter when trying to escape here.] or someone of authority around here.

  The other guards not carrying the bags each seized one of us captives, and they followed after their captain. I swallowed as we entered the darkness, but was relieved at least to be out of the blustering cold. It wasn’t exactly warm within the dark stone halls, but at least wind wasn’t cutting through my clothes.

  It didn’t ha
ve the stagnant smell I expected of a dungeon, and I soon saw why. Cell after cell was empty, their barred doors hanging slightly ajar. Had they expected to need more space, or had recent vacancies opened up? Either way made my stomach turn with anxiety.

  I received at least a partial answer when we ascended a flight of stairs and turned down another hall. Here were the smells I’d expected, of filthy bodies and their waste. I could almost taste the hopelessness and despair on the air. The guards shoved us forward, all three of us — Sheika included — suddenly resistant to go forward. “Now you see,” hissed the guard holding me, the same as had antagonized me. My lips curled into a snarl, but I remained silent.

  The people in the cells, who seemed to be of all sizes and every race, rushed to the bars. “Mercy!” one Devalyn woman pleaded. “Please, mercy!” The nearest guard drew a slender rod and casually slapped the arm extending through the bars. The autumn elf cried out and drew back, but her eyes watched us the whole time we passed.

  We came near the end of the hall, and just as I was hoping we’d keep going past it, we stopped in front of the last cell, which appeared to be empty. But when the guards cautiously opened the door, their weapons all at the ready, I saw I’d overlooked a hunched over figure in the corner, only the dirty feet visible from the mounted torches. “Do not move,” the guard opening the door warned, then motioned urgently for us to step inside. My guard shoved me and sent me sprawling to the dirty dungeon floor. I heard the clutter of Farelle’s hooves stumbling in behind me, and of course heard nothing from Sheika. Then the barred door squealed shut.