by Matthew Ward
Everyone kept referring to this job as necessary to save Talamir, but it had been abstract up to now. The phrase creeping death sent chills through him. It made it seem real and urgent in a way it hadn’t before.
Drystn asked, “What? I don’t understand. What is it?”
“Like I said. You’ll see it soon enough. Then you’ll probably wish you’d never seen it, so be grateful you haven’t yet.”
The guy’s voice had changed; a seriousness crept into it. He finally looked up. Drystn watched the eyes go from head to toe. He felt like a fish being examined at market.
The guy said, “You’re not so bad. What did you say your name was again?”
“Drystn.”
“That’s a strange one. Mine’s Prydr. You ever notice how most names end with that ur sound? I find it interesting when someone doesn’t have that.”
“Actually, no. I’ve never noticed that. I’m not even sure it’s true.”
“Yeah, well, a lot of people believe a lot of things that aren’t true. Why let a little thing like truth get in the way of a good theory?”
Drystn’s head started to hurt. This was who he had to spend all his time with? How could someone like this have graduated as the top herbalist of the year? He had such a loose and scattered way of speaking. Surely his brain couldn’t work like this and still be focused enough to be a great herbalist. The mark of a great spiorist was both focus of mind and a commitment to knowledge. This person exhibited neither—it had to be a posture.
Drystn realized he’d been standing in the middle of the room this whole time with all of his things draped over his shoulder. He plopped his pack down next to the empty grass bed on the other side of the room and sat down. The bed must have been freshly made, because it still had a springy softness to it that old, crumpled bunks lose.
He laid back and kicked his feet up. The exhaustion from travelling hit him, and he really didn’t want to concentrate on whatever this Prydr person was trying to say. But Drystn couldn’t hold back. He wondered if he could probe deeper about the creeping death and finally get some answers. Drystn pulled himself together to focus. What had he last said? Something about truth getting in the way of theory?
Drystn said, “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Well, spior for one.”
Drystn laughed. Now he knew the guy was putting on a show to shake up the new recruit. Drystn opened his eyes and rolled his head to the side to see Prydr. He hadn’t laughed with him. Prydr’s expression remained serious.
Prydr asked, “Why did you laugh?”
“You’re trying to tell me you think spior is a good theory, but it isn’t true?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Drystn laughed again. He said, “But you’re literally one of the best spiorists in all of Talamir. It’s why you’re here.”
“No. I’m an excellent herbalist. That’s different.”
Drystn said, “No. It’s not. Being a great herbalist means being great at manipulating spior.”
Prydr’s tone became more combative. “I know that’s what you’ve been taught, but it’s not true. Have you ever felt or seen spior?”
“Yes.”
“Be honest. You just visualize it, right? And you probably spent a year not being able to feel it. Isn’t it possible that spending every day trying to sense some imaginary force would eventually lead your mind to feel it, even if it doesn’t exist?”
“No. I don’t see how that’s possible.”
Prydr got up and seemed genuinely interested in the conversation for the first time since Drystn had entered the room. He paced along the floor to deliver his lecture.
Prydr said, “What if I told you that I’ve never believed in spior? I spent my entire education pretending. I faked it. The professors didn’t even notice. They still thought I was the best even though I didn’t once move spior. I just picked the right herbs, made the teas, and graduated top of my class.”
Drystn rolled his eyes. He said, “I’d say there’s a higher chance that you’re making this up to spook me than that being true.”
“Whatever. You go on believing whatever makes you feel good. I’ll continue being an aspiorist.”
Aspiorist. Drystn had always heard that word and cringed. He probably hadn’t even heard someone say it out loud since his schooling began eight years before. The word spit out of Prydr’s mouth like a sharp stone. Drystn didn’t know anyone who considered themselves one. He didn’t even know someone who would joke about it. It was too serious an accusation. How could this person say such a thing about himself so casually?
Drystn didn’t believe any of what Prydr said. There was no way he was an aspiorist and also a top herbalist. Even if he had never felt or experienced spior, there was too much evidence that it existed. How did he explain the grass that died after removing the spior? It had to be a ruse.
The long two days of travel did not fatigue the anxiety in Drystn. He would learn in the morning about a creeping death that threatened Talamir. He had to live in the foreseeable future with a professed aspiorist. In two days, his life had been turned upside-down in ways inconceivable only four days previous.
Nightmares ruled the dark of his sleeping imagination. Drystn awoke twice to find himself drenched in sweat. A large, black creature with wings chased him through the night. Sharp talons tore at his flesh, and he died many times a terrible and painful death.
The uncertainty was the worst part. If he knew what he faced, he could confront it. Instead, these dreams were all he had to go on. Each time he awoke, anxiety overcame him that the creeping death wouldn’t be so clear a foe as a winged creature. It had to be more nefarious to get such a name.
Morning brought relief though no comfort. Drystn wished he could go through the day well-rested, but he had to deal with what he got. His roommate was gone when he looked over, and he decided to wander the halls to look for his friends. All the halls in the building were either part of concentric circles around the central room or rays straight out from the center of the lake.
The curve of the circular halls was barely noticeable with the large radius in the dormitory section. Most of the rooms had open doors, and he glanced in to see that each room was identical except for the number on the door. Eventually, he found open doors about twelve down that contained Loegr and Ninml. They all embarked together to find the mess hall.
The unmistakable scent of boiling fish led the way. They found a large hall with tables of people eating, and they sauntered in. Drystn picked a table, and in no time, each were presented with a steaming bowl of fish soup. He wrinkled his nose in protest. Drystn hated eating fish at breakfast, but he wasn’t about to complain on his first day.
Drystn said, “Hey, you’ll never guess what my roommate told me.”
Ninml scooped the soup into her mouth and seemed pleased with the quality.
She asked, “What? Did he tell you about the bairsgn?”
“No. I mean, maybe a little, but he said he was an aspiorist. Can you believe that?”
Ninml laughed. “He’s just messing with you. Don’t worry about it.”
“No. That’s what I thought at first too, but I don’t think he was joking.”
They argued about it some more but neither Ninml nor Loegr could believe it. Drystn began to wonder if maybe he had been tricked. They finished their soup, and the bowls were quickly scooped up from under them. Drystn hadn’t even noticed the servers watching. It gave him an uneasy feeling about the pervasiveness of being watched in Talamir Center.
They made their way back toward the central cluster of rooms where all the leaders had their offices. They needed to find the director of research for the project they were on. The labeling system made this easy. The first number referred to the circular hall number, and the ones after were in order going around the circle. The Ruler occupied Room 0-00. They were looking for Room 2-37. Unlike the living quarters, all these rooms had closed doors.
The thre
e new recruits knocked on the door when they found it. A short, fat man answered, also in a silver robe.
He said, “Hello. My name is Teutr. You must be Drystn, Loegr, and Ninml. I’ve heard so much about you. Please come in. You must be excited to hear what you’ll be working on.”
It was only at this point that Drystn realized Loegr and Ninml probably were excited. They had no idea this thing destroying Talamir was referred to as the creeping death.
Teutr continued, “We’ll get started right away. Sorry about making you travel so soon after arriving here, but we have to go to a specific place between the Second and Third Rings. It isn’t too far. We’ll be back by lunch.”
Now that Drystn felt sharper, a claustrophobic sensation overwhelmed him as they wound their way to the outer hall to leave the building. He hadn’t realized how difficult it would be to get out of the building quickly in an emergency. He had no idea what such an emergency would be, but this rationalization didn’t alleviate the phobia. He had spent his whole life only a few steps from being outside.
As if on cue, a short quake shook the building. The others barely stopped, but Drystn panicked. He tried to act casual, but Ninml stalled to stay back with him. She gave him a worried look. He mouthed, “I’m okay,” and they caught back up to the others.
Talamir Center was as busy as the previous day, but being out in the open made him feel better. They continued on a straight path outward. The tension rose in Drystn as they got closer to the Second Ring. He shook with a weak terror when they left the Second Ring and were in the dead zone before the inner edge of the Third Ring.
He saw where they were headed. It was a simple and small mianl building. He would have thought someone lived in it due to its shape and size, though no one lived in the dead zones.
He couldn’t believe Teutr was able to stay this calm. Surely something called “the creeping death” was dangerous. As they neared the building, the door seemed to open on its own. A person walked out. There were people in there? What was this place?
The mianlist walked by them. He said, “Good day, boss. The place is all yours.”
“Nice to see you. Looks like you’re working hard. Want to meet the newest recruits?” Teutr didn’t wait for a reply and introduced them to the researcher. The guy scurried off after the introductions. “As you see, you’ll probably make trips out here quite frequently.”
They entered the building, and Drystn noticed a change right away. They moved toward a door in front of them. Teutr opened it. A large hole resided in the center of the room. It was deep enough that Drystn couldn’t see the bottom from the entrance to the room.
Teutr pointed and said, “Look down there, but be very careful. It goes without saying that anything you see or do in this building must be kept secret.”
Drystn sidled up to the edge of the hole and looked in. Some sort of black sludge flowed underneath. He couldn’t tell if it was a solid or a liquid. It shined as if wet but looked solid. It flowed along like some contaminated underground river.
“What is that?” Drystn asked.
Teutr said, “That’s the bairsgn.”
“What does that mean?”
“Before I tell you more, sense the spior, and tell me what you feel.”
Drystn sat back on the floor, away from the thing, and closed his eyes. He got a good sense of the spior around him, and he understood Teutr’s point. Ninml said it out loud first.
“It’s pulling spior from everything.” She let out a quick scream. Her voice shook now. “It’s pulling spior from me.”
Teutr acted as if this was nothing out of the ordinary, even though this was the most terrifying thing Drystn had ever heard. The consequences of this statement didn’t occur to Drystn at first. All he kept thinking was: what type of monster can violate a law of spior? How powerful would it have to be to do such a thing?
Teutr spoke with an unsettling calm. “Yes. I’m afraid so. Talamir is dying. This creature is sucking the spior out of it.”
Drystn opened his eyes with impatience. His earlier question had not been answered. He heard the edge of anger in his voice. “But what is it? Is it alive?”
Teutr said, “We still don’t know the answer to either of those questions. That’s part of why you’re here. We think it is a large creature that continues to grow as it gains spior. One theory is that it has been here forever, and it is what caused the extinction of the First Age. Maybe it’s a cycle. That’s one popular theory. It sucks enough spior out of everyone, so people don’t live long enough to reproduce. They go extinct, then this thing somehow gives birth to people again.”
Loegr replied, “That makes no sense. How could this thing give birth to us?”
“It’s only a theory. Another theory is that it’s going to destroy us forever and not give birth to us. That’s what this project is mostly about. We have to destroy it before it destroys us.”
Loegr sounded angry now. “But how? What could destroy this thing?”
Teutr continued to keep his calm. “No one knows. That’s why we need the best and brightest working on this. Your job as researchers on this project is to use your skills as spiorists to find a way to kill this thing. It will probably require a new combination of all the focal points. When you get back, you’ll be filled in on everything that has been tried so far.”
Drystn crawled back over to the edge of the gaping hole and looked at the bairsgn again. “Has anyone ever touched it? Is it liquid or solid?”
“You can touch it. It’s wet but solid. We don’t actually know if there are ill effects from touching it, so I wouldn’t do so if I were you.”
“Why do people call it the creeping death?”
Teutr’s voice cracked for the first time since they had arrived. “Where did you hear that? No one is supposed to know about this.”
Drystn quickly replied, “My roommate used the term, but don’t worry, he didn’t tell me anything, just the name. I think he was trying to scare me.”
Teutr explained, “Well, it is creeping in the sense that the more spior it takes in, the bigger it gets. The bigger it gets, the faster it takes in spior. So if you recall your basic math from third year, Talamir is losing spior at an exponential rate. This means we probably don’t have much time to solve the problem. Talamir may be gone before your life naturally ends.”
Ninml asked, “How big is it? I mean, if it’s growing, what size are we talking about?”
“We’ve dug these holes all over Talamir. It is now outside the Fifth Ring in all directions. Our guess is that if it reaches the Ninth, we’ll all be dead.”
Drystn shook at the thought. He couldn’t imagine any single thing being that large, and it was still growing.
Teutr continued, “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the quakes have been getting worse throughout your life. So we think the quakes are caused by the bairsgn moving or growing or doing its own version of rolling over. There is no way to know for sure though.”
Drystn succumbed to the helplessness that washed over him. Even when he had first arrived at school, the amount of information he didn’t know seemed within grasp. He saw the student’s years of knowledge accumulate through his time at the school. What he didn’t know was quantifiable and finite. He thought that when he graduated, he would know everything about spior and herbology.
This one thing turned that all around. Now he realized how much he didn’t know, and it scared him. It also left him hungering to find out the answers.
The information about the quakes was somehow the final straw. He had grown up with quakes and never questioned them. They were a part of life. He didn’t ever think to ask what caused them.
Now he wondered what else he took for granted—what else had causes he had never thought to ask about. It was terrifying that any such thing could exist. How could anyone be so ignorant of what they knew that they didn’t even realize there was a question to be asked about it?
The trio had all they could take for the day and
sat next to the hole in silence. Finally, Teutr broke their meditation. “Okay. Well, if you have no more questions for me, we have to be getting back. You have a lot to learn before you can start to make progress on this.”
Drystn thought: that’s for sure. They slowly ambled to their feet, and Drystn had to will himself forward. He didn’t think his week could get any weirder or more disturbing. Then it did.
VII
“It’s pretty trippy, huh?”
Prydr leaned against their doorframe, one leg up so that his foot rested flat against the wall. Drystn wondered if he ever did anything productive. It seemed like his entire life revolved around annoying his roommates. Drystn stopped outside the door and glared at him. Prydr pushed his head forward in a subtle motion asking: are you going to answer?
Drystn didn’t want to deal with these antics. He needed to learn about the bairsgn, so he could get on with solving this insane problem. His head already hurt from the journey and the new knowledge that they might all be dead in a few years and the weight placed on his shoulders to save all of Talamir. A wild crack shot through Drystn’s head, and his vision blurred with red. He never got angry, but this had been a bad day so far.
Drystn snapped, “What’s it to you? You claim to not even believe in spior, so you can’t be afraid of it destroying us.”
Prydr didn’t take the bait. He just laughed. “If that’s what you’re worried about, you missed the point. There’s a giant creature living under us that we don’t understand! It could suck us in and eat us at any time for all we know. And you’re worried about the spior part?” He laughed again, but it had a menace to it this time.
Drystn didn’t need anything from his room. He had only returned for a brief rest, so he stormed in the opposite direction to find the place he was supposed to report to next.
Prydr called out. “Hey. Where are you going?”
Drystn turned. “I’m going to learn about what you people have tried so far to defeat the bairsgn, so I can actually get some work done.”