Beacon

by Kyle West

  “Still, you do not recognize me? Well, that shall now be remedied.” The man gave a small smile. “They called me Rakhim Shal.”

  As soon as he said that name, recognition dawned on me. It was the same face I’d seen in the throne room of the Cloud Palace, the man Mia had hated so much. He was a bit different, here. He seemed more powerful and commanding, and the beard had thrown me off.

  “You’re evil,” I said. “Why would I trust you?”

  “Well, I would contend that vile word. But the truth is, without my help, you will never find the Prophecy. The city of Hyperborea will be closed to you. And you will remain asleep where you are…and never awake.”

  “What happens then? I stay…here?”

  The man nodded. “You will be like me. Here, I have passed beyond death’s reach. But that state might not be as amenable to you…or your friends. Or those others who might depend on you.”

  Unbidden, the thought of my parents came to mind. I pushed it away. Who knew what this man could do in this place? If he was as powerful as he claimed, he might be able to read my thoughts.

  “But you are dead,” I said. Even as I said it, I wasn’t quite sure of that. “You lived one hundred and fifty years ago.”

  “My body passed from this world long ago, true,” Rakhim said. “But my consciousness endures. Mine…and others.”

  “How is that possible? How can anyone live beyond death?”

  “A complicated question. One which I sought the answer to all my days. I succeeded, in the end.” He gave a smile, somewhat bitter. “If this could be called success.”

  “Just tell me what it is you want. And the location of the Prophecy, if you know it.”

  Rakhim’s stare intensified; it was as if his gaze was seeing right into my thoughts. “What I want is simple. Hyperborea…what is left of it…lies not far from here. North of the city, there is a tower, called long ago the Tower of Shal. A…creation of mine. At its very top, you will find an Orb – it sits on a pedestal, glowing pink, and remains untouched, even to this day. I…have seen it. I dream of the waking world, and in my dreams it remains as it was when the city finally fell. You will take this Orb, and it will send you to the Hyperfold.”

  “That’s what this place is, isn’t it?”

  “This is not the Hyperfold proper; more like a dream that exists within it. The Hyperfold is a complex entity. But yes, this is one of its many manifestations. The Orb is a transdimensional object. It exists both in the real world, and here. One can travel from the real world to here just by touching it.” He looked at me seriously. “And one can return, provided they have a body to return to.”

  “Which is why you can’t leave,” I said. “Why do you want me to do this? It sounds dangerous.”

  “It will not be for you, Anna. Who you are gives you an advantage. Your blood is of perfect Elekai purity, not seen in the waking world since the life of Mia Farl. Her brother, Isandru, might have been strong enough. Anyone else, however, would have great difficulty transitioning back without losing a part of themselves along the way.”

  “What do you mean, losing a part of themselves? What might happen to me?”

  “I will say again; there is no danger to you, Anna. But none of your friends should attempt the same journey. Here, I can give you the Prophecy. Here, I can help you remember that which you have forgotten. The Orb will allow me to reach the Prophecy for you. Your presence here will forge a link between this place…the Hyperfold…and the Xenofold itself. With that link, I can give you the Prophecy.”

  “What will this link do?”

  Rakhim paused; whether to gather his thoughts, or for effect, I couldn’t say. “You are the only one to whom I’ve told this. I…made a grave error.” Rakhim’s eyes became sorrowful. “I want out.”

  “What do you mean? You want to be reborn?”

  “No. That…is not possible. I had…hoped for that, in the beginning. But it was a foolish delusion of a living man. I have moved beyond that, and now I desire only freedom. The Hyperfold is a prison for me. With the Orb…with you…I can gain absolution. I can return to the Xenofold using the link. I, and others. With no one here in the Hyperfold, it will cease to exist. When it is switched off…I will be free. And it will stop using the ichor of the Sea of Creation, allowing it to regenerate. For it is the Hyperfold that is keeping it from coming back. This place has a consciousness of its own…and it demands satiation.”

  “Wait,” I said. “You’re saying the Hyperfold is what’s causing the Sea to remain empty? If it’s gone…then the Sea will return?”

  Despite myself, I felt excited. This could have been what we were looking for, the solution to almost everything. If the Hyperfold could be turned off, like Rakhim said, the Sea would return. With the Sea, it might be enough to stop the reversions, preventing a second Mindless War before it even started.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” I asked. “It seems too good to be true.”

  “I am not a good man,” Shal said. “I never said I was. In this case, however, our needs line up. You see, Aether had an effect I could have never predicted, but an effect that makes perfect sense in retrospect. It connected us to the Hyperfold, the way ichor does to the Xenofold. Only…it locked us here. Taken for too long, it binds us to the Hyperfold. When I died…I came here, rather than the Xenofold. I…believed that the Hyperfold would be better. But it has only become hell. And now, I am trapped here, along with thousands of others.”

  “What others? Who else is there with you?”

  For the first time, Shal’s stony demeanor softened. When he looked at me, his face was twisted, filled with horror and revulsion. “Everyone. Everyone who ever lived in Hyperborea and used Aether.”

  I found myself struck speechless. An entire city. An entire city of Elekai locked out of returning to the Xenofold, as all Elekai were supposed to do. Instead, they had come here, to this place Shal had described as hell.

  At last, I found my voice. “Who are they? Mia? The king and queen?” I almost mentioned Isandru, but of course, Isandru was still alive, after all these years. Somehow, he had never died and entered the Hyperfold as others had.

  Shal nodded. “They are…here. All of them. Unlike myself, however, they do not remember their former lives. I have created a world for them, such as they might remember, and they live their lives here, oblivious to the truth. Mia…suspects. She has always suspected that something wasn’t right, and yet, she cannot place her finger on it. How can she? But if I were to tell her…she just might believe me.”

  Another question crossed my mind; if everything in the Hyperfold was as it was in the real world, then what of Isandru? Did he simply not exist in the Hyperfold, or was there another version of him, created from Shal’s memories?

  My curiosity was too great; I had to ask. “What about Prince Isandru. Is he…here?”

  Shal looked surprised. “You know of him, then. Yes. He is here, as is everyone else.” He frowned. “What of it?”

  I did my best to hide my own confusion. For some reason, I got the sense that Isandru still being alive while not being in the Hyperfold was an important detail to keep to myself. I needed to find out more. Either Shal was right that Isandru was indeed in the Hyperfold, or the Isandru of the real world was not who he said he was.

  Both possibilities were frightening.

  “Nothing,” I said. “I’ve…had dreams of them.”

  “I see,” Shal said. “None of us can be freed until you come here. But I need the Orb, and I need you to come here in the flesh, and not merely in a dream.”

  I had no idea how much to believe, if anything at all. Much of what Rakhim said rang true, but at the same time, the best lies are ninety percent truth.

  The hard part was figuring out which part was the lie.

  Whatever the case…it didn’t seem like I had much choice. For all intents and purposes, Rakhim wanted me to believe that he was doing this for his freedom and the freedom of others. It was strange that he
felt the need to hold my death over me to get me to comply.

  As it stood, though, I had very little choice but to agree. “How will it work, should I agree?”

  “Upon you giving me the Orb, it won’t take me long to use it. You will wake up in the same place you left. As far as myself and the others here…the dream will end, and there will be nowhere left to go but the link you created…the link to the Xenofold.”

  It made a strange sort of sense. I didn’t understand how these things worked, and there was as good chance I was being lied to. All the same, I couldn’t find any flaw.

  I would have to explain everything once I woke up. Perhaps the others would see something that I didn’t.

  “I will do as you say,” I said. “But I need the Prophecy before I give you the Orb.”

  “Of course,” Shal said.

  “And how can I take it out of the Hyperfold?”

  “As a memory,” Shal said. “Using the link to the Xenofold, I can help you unlock your former memories. Or at least, the memory you want in this case: the Prophecy you yourself wrote, centuries ago.”

  I wasn’t sure Valance would be convinced by “memories.” The best I could do was make up a lie about the Prophecy getting destroyed, but having time to read it. Which I wasn’t supposed to do, anyway.

  “I’m going to need something better. A physical copy.”

  “I doubt such a copy exists,” Shal said. “In the ruins of the city, perhaps. Though all of our important artifacts were taken by the Shen. If anyone has it, it is they.”

  The Shen. It made sense, although I didn’t know how far I could trust Rakhim. If there had been a war between the Shen and Hyperborea, then it would make sense if the Shen had somehow looted the Prophecy. Only, it was said the Shen lost the war, in the end, even if Hyperborea’s victory came at a heavy price.

  “Do you know that for a fact, or is it just conjecture?”

  “The Shen, at least in my time, knew many things that had passed out of all human knowledge. It is knowledge of the past that they seek above all, and the Prophecy of Annara would be something that they would highly prize. No, I do not know it for a fact. I only know that if you seek a physical copy, that is your best course. Otherwise, all I have to offer is your memories.”

  I didn’t like it, but it was better than nothing. It wasn’t like I had much choice, anyway. “That will have to work, then.”

  “I am glad we are agreed. The way to the city will be clear, and you should reach it by tomorrow. By tomorrow night, you can reach the Tower, provided the city is passable. Until then…I will be waiting.”

  A sudden brightness blinded me…and the vision of the Hyperfold was gone.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  WHEN I AWOKE, THE FOG was gone and it was early morning. I looked around the campfire to see that everyone was still asleep, oblivious to the fact that the fog had ever come.

  I hurriedly got up and fed the dying fire. If anyone else got up, they would guess that I had fallen asleep on the job and let the fire go out. Once everyone else was awake, I could tell them about the fog, along with what Shal told me.

  Once the fire was going strong, I woke everyone up. There was no breakfast today, and there wouldn’t be anything unless we found it. With luck, though, we would be through the city by tonight and be done with everything within a couple of days.

  After that, we could find food. Perhaps if we were lucky, we could find some near the road on the way north.

  Once we got going, I related the details of my dream, along with the fog that had caused it. At first, everyone was alarmed that it had happened without their knowing; apparently, they hadn’t dreamed as I had. But as to whether Shal was telling the truth or not, they were as clueless as I was.

  “We have nothing else to go on,” Isaru said. “I’m only worried that you’ll be by yourself in there. It’s the perfect opportunity for a trap.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Isa said.

  “What other choice is there, though?” I asked. “Shal had control over the fog, somehow. He could have made it kill us.”

  “You said that the fog was a product of the Xenofold,” Isaru said. “Or rather, he said that. If he’s not part of the Xenofold, then he might have had no control over the fog.”

  It was possible, and if that was the case, then Shal’s threat was moot. At the same time, I didn’t know his capabilities. If I backed out now, he might just bring it back.

  “I won’t risk it,” I said.

  “But you would risk yourself,” Shara said.

  I looked at her. “Wouldn’t you, for the Prophecy?”

  She shrugged, neither confirming nor denying what I said.

  “It’s not in the city itself,” Isaru said. “That was the most surprising part. It’s in the Hyperfold, or at least it is according to Shal.”

  “It sounds dangerous,” Isa said. “You can’t go alone.”

  “I’m the only one who can do it,” I said. “Even if Shal is lying…I won’t risk either you or Isaru losing a part of yourselves.”

  “He’s lying about something,” Isaru said. “Only I don’t know what.”

  “I intend to find out,” I said. “But unfortunately, to discover what the trap is…I have to walk right into it.”

  “By then,” Shara said, “it will be too late.”

  * * *

  At long last, we started to see signs of the city. Stones were poking up through the xen, half-decayed manses barely visible through the trees. Other than this, though, there was no sign of the city itself.

  Still, we followed the path, knowing all the while that it couldn’t have been the main road leading to Hyperborea. A city of its size would have longer avenues leading toward it, so we were perhaps on a minor road that had become overgrown with time.

  With every break in the trees, I expected to see the city at long last, but it always turned out to be another estate. The clearings in which they were situated must have once held farms, or even animals, but now they were overgrown with trees.

  We traveled all day with a sense of expectation, going faster than we would have normally, despite the lack of food. The hunger gnawed at my belly, but hunger was something I had known. The secret to getting through hunger was to ignore it. Of course, that only worked for so long, but I was hoping it would work for long enough. Enough time to get to this tower Shal spoke of and to find the Orb.

  After that – supposing all went well – we could head back.

  We walked all day with a sense of expectation. At last, we were going to set eyes on the city that I had only seen in dreams. Of course, I had tried to describe what it looked like, but my words could never do it justice because I didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe a city like Hyperborea. I didn’t know how much of it would remain the same, and how much would be different. But so far, up to and through the afternoon, there was only the thin road, almost overgrown, and the forest.

  And still, we walked, even as the daylight diminished. I was beginning to wonder if we were going in the right direction when there was another break in the trees. I didn’t let myself expect the city, because the last ten times this had happened, it had only been another estate. But Shal had said we’d reach the city at night, and we had walked quickly in expectation of that.

  Perhaps this was finally it.

  The trees ended in a final rise, and this time, they ended for good. We walked until we were above the crest of the rise, and there it was…Hyperborea.

  It was like my dreams, and at the same time, it was devastatingly different. Its thousands of towers were still there, only now they were dark with the onset of evening. Most of them were cracked and broken, its bridges severed, and it was surrounded by vast depressions where its ichor lakes had long dried. Other towers looked as if they were decaying rather than destroyed, rotting slowly from the inside out over the decades. There was no xen in the valley leading up to the city; it was just bare, black rock that had the appearance of being sc
orched. Its thousands of towers stood bleakly in the dusk, having truly looked abandoned for a full century and a half.

  And yet, there it was. It was real. It wasn’t just crazy dreams I was having. If conventional wisdom was correct, then we were the first people to lay eyes on it since the Mindless Wars.

  All of us, even Shara, stood there, staring and breathless. Not a single tower was left untouched, unbroken, unscarred, while the surrounding terrain was riddled with fissures and small craters, as if it had been blasted from above. A thin haze overhung the city, casting a pall that made it difficult to see into the distance. Wide roads, not just on the ground but also in bridges with hundreds of arches, ran into the city from all sides. Not too far from where we stood was another such elevated road, leading down the slope for a couple of miles or so until it entered the actual city.

  And still, everyone just stared. Even Colonia couldn’t compare. Colonia could have fit into Hyperborea ten times with room left over.

  “This entire time, I thought it might not even be real,” Isa said. “It’s hard to imagine how such a place was made.”

  “It’s almost as hard to imagine how far we’ve fallen,” Isaru said, quietly. “We’ve lost so much, to the point where most don’t even believe it exists. And yet…here it is.”

  We couldn’t just stand here all night and wax philosophical. “We need to get to the other side. That’s where Shal said the Tower will be.”

  “Do we go through the city, or around it?” Isaru asked.

  On both sides, the city looked all but impassable. Many of the bridged streets had crumbled into piles of rubble, and it would probably just be quicker to go through the city itself, assuming we didn’t get lost or run into roadblocks on the way. From my dreams with Mia, the streets were mostly laid out in a basic grid pattern, along with the canals, so as long as we could keep going north…

  “We’ll go through the city,” I said. “Trying to walk around it would take longer.”

  “Assuming we don’t get stuck,” Isa said.