by Kyle West
“We’ll find a way,” I said. “If not, we can always back out.”
“Through the city it is, then,” Isaru said. “Besides, I might have a chance to learn about it this way.”
“It will be an amazing opportunity,” Isa said.
“We aren’t here to do archeology,” I said. “And it might be dangerous. After all…we’re walking into the center of a reversion.”
The feeling of absence still hung in the air, and from Isaru’s and Isa’s nods, I could see they still felt it, too.
“Let’s move.”
We started down the slope for the city.
* * *
Now that we were finally here, everything was a bit surreal. As night fell, we passed the first of the buildings and found ourselves on a wide, ruined thoroughfare. The tall trees lining the bare meridian were dead, and likely had been since the city’s fall. A giant crater had been carved from a large chunk of the street just ahead, obviously from some sort of impact. It went deep into the ground, and on the other side the street continued, as straight as it had before.
Buildings towered on either side. I had to crane my neck just to see the tops of them – and in some cases, I couldn’t see them, because they were lost to the haze and darkness. The city that had been so bright and alive in my dreams was now withered and dead. Empty windows stared out like eye sockets, and there was a feeling that a nameless evil lurked the streets, even if there was no physical sign of it. I told myself it was just the reversion, but this reversion didn’t seem to be like the one that had opened north of the Sanctum two months ago. Yes, there was an emptiness, but there was something else behind that. Something that could only be described as malevolent.
We followed the wide avenue, and after a few minutes, we stopped gawking at all the buildings. While the main streets appeared to be laid out in a basic grid pattern as I had originally thought, the upper bridges and tiers seemed to go every which way. Staying on the ground was probably the fastest way to get where we were going without getting lost.
The street widened into a large square, in the middle of which was a strange-looking building, the tops of which spread and connected to all the surrounding buildings. In fact, it looked more like a pillar than a building. It took me a moment to see that there was a wide space between it and the street itself, and that a deep chasm completely encircled it. The only thing between that chasm and the street was a metal railing.
“What is it?” Isa asked, staring up at it.
Certainly, it was like no building I had ever seen, even by Hyperborean standards. In fact, it seemed less like a building and more like a sort of hub that connected to all the others. Staring down into the chasm, the pillar could be seen descending until it was lost to darkness. There was no telling how far down it went.
It was Isaru who came up with the answer. “This must be the Xenofont.”
Of course. From how far it apparently went underground, it could be nothing else. I had imagined it more like the fountains in Colonia, which created pools of water for people to draw. The Xenofont seemed to be more like a pump, perhaps in the way a tree drew water with its roots.
I peered down into the chasm, but of course, there was nothing but vast emptiness. This was where they had tapped into the Sea of Creation, far below. I wondered if the Sea could have been seen down there in the past.
“For as long as the city existed, this is what powered everything,” Isaru said. He paused, considering. “But as we know, it came at a cost.”
His words seemed to take in the city in its entirety. It reminded me of what Shal said – that the Xenofold here had been split, and one side of it wanted to see humanity dead. Pruned, as Shal had put it.
If this Xenofont, and others like it, had drained the Sea, then it wasn’t hard to see why the Xenofold considered us a threat.
“We should move on,” Isaru said.
We left the Xenofont behind and continued north along the street.
* * *
From the outside, the city had seemed big, but inside, its scale was all the more evident. There must have been room for hundreds of thousands of people to live here. Perhaps even more than a million. Such a number was unimaginable. All those people couldn’t have been just Elekai, although Aether had allowed at least some non-Elekai to be imbued with Gifts, as was the case with Shara. The world today, by comparison, was a far emptier place.
We switched streets to avoid a building that had collapsed in front of us. As we continued, the devastation only grew worse. In this part, the city was mostly leveled, consisting of mountains of rubble with the occasional broken tower that had escaped mostly unscathed. There had been a war with the Shen, long ago, and the Mindless Wars afterward could have produced just as much destruction.
And of course, time is perhaps the worst enemy.
Then, as we reached the top of yet another pile of rubble beneath a star-filled sky, I saw it.
Across the devastation, past a final line of broken buildings, was a tower far larger than the others…still distant behind a rise across a bleak plain, but still visible against the backdrop of stars.
“That’s it,” I said. “It has to be.”
“Just as you said,” Isa stated.
“You prophesy…often?” Shara asked.
“It’s an uncommon Gift,” I said. “But yes. It happens.”
We continued our trek across the city ruins. Despite how late it was, how far we had traveled, how little we had eaten, and everything we had been through…I felt strangely energized. I noticed everyone else seemed the same way, walking as if we hadn’t been traveling nonstop for days on end. We worked our way methodically across the rubble, and it took the better part of the night before we were past all the buildings. I looked back at the city, hardly believing we had gone through it all without a break.
And still, we continued on, not stopping until the sun crested the eastern horizon, a line of mountains far in the distance that could be nothing but the rim of the Crater itself. Even in this desolate place, there was beauty. The golden rays shone across the pink trees, just as the forest ended along the craggy plains.
As we kept walking, the tower grew all the larger in our vision. It had to be taller than even Haventree. Whatever it was made of, it glowed like burnished bronze under the sun, even as the surrounding landscape radiated with pink luminescence. A ring, defying gravity, was suspended in the air encircling its top.
It did not seem like something humans could build.
“What was it for?” Isa asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just know it’s where we’ll find this Orb. Shal said it was at the very top.”
“Of course,” Isaru said. “Where else would it be? It will take an hour or more to climb this thing.”
“An hour goes by quickly,” Shara said. “We’re nearly there.”
I realized Shara was right. And now that we were close, and I could very well have the Prophecy in my hands in hours, even in the form of a memory…it was time to be more careful. Shara wouldn’t be able to kill me, but that didn’t mean Isaru and Isa were safe.
I didn’t know what he wanted with the Prophecy, and I didn’t know what he believed it would give him. The Covenant and the Elekai believed vastly different things about what it contained, so if it ended up being something he didn’t expect, he might end up rejecting it.
Then again, perhaps he had an idea of what it was, and he just needed to know the details. Maybe he knew it was what no one expected.
Whatever the case, we would all be finding out soon.
CHAPTER FIFTY
AT LONG LAST, WE WERE over a final ridge and standing at the base of a rounded staircase leading up to the tower’s arched, open entrance. Every part of it was of ichorstone that was coppery in hue while still having a pearlescent sheen, only enhanced by the light of the rising sun.
The stairs themselves led quite high, and we wasted no time in getting started. A few minutes later, we were standing be
fore the tower’s cavernous entrance. We paused only a moment before walking inside.
The interior of the tower was almost completely hollow. In its middle was a pedestal, the purpose of which I couldn’t begin to guess, that made a perfect circle and reached as high as my waist. A staircase circled around the outer wall, following it until it reached the very top. I lost count on the amount of times the steps went around and around, and the very highest stairs were lost to view. It was dizzying to even look at.
“This is the strangest place I’ve ever seen,” Isa said, her voice echoing in the cavernous space.
“I don’t see how these thin walls can support a tower this size,” Isaru said. “It should be impossible.”
“We’ve seen many things that should be impossible,” Shara said. “But that’s neither here nor there.”
So, we started up the steps. Even though we had walked all day and all night, I still wasn’t fatigued, and never found myself short of breath going up the stairs. The floor below fell away, little by little. There was no railing on the side, but the steps were wide enough that there wasn’t any danger in falling.
As we climbed, I could see that the tower wasn’t as unbroken as previously thought. Some of the steps had been chipped, and others even had cracks in them. We passed an opening in the wall that appeared to have been blasted from some sort of impact, giving a view of the vast, broken city in the distance, basking in the golden light of dawn.
Some half hour later, we stopped, arriving at a final archway leading into a final room, at the center of which was a pedestal identical to the one on the bottom floor, only without the hole. The walls here were almost completely broken, to the point where it was hard to tell whether we were inside or outside, while a cold wind blew across the expanse.
On the pedestal was the glowing, pink Orb, just as Shal had said.
It shone bright, and despite the size of the room, was able to cast the broken walls in bright hues. It was almost too bright to look at directly. We gazed in awe for a moment, and I was the first to step forward, entering a bright pool of light radiating outward.
Touching that Orb would send my mind to the Hyperfold.
“Shanti…” Isa said. “I won’t try to stop you. Just…be careful.”
I nodded. I couldn’t bring myself to speak, because I felt there was nothing to say. We all knew what I had to do.
Still, I found myself waiting. I just wanted a minute more with my friends. Even Shara, strangely enough.
“It is made from Aether,” Shara said, looking at the Orb. “Only in a solid form.” She took a few steps closer, examining it, but taking care not to touch it. “I didn’t know such a thing was possible.”
When I looked at her blue eyes, they were bright and glowing. She looked at the Orb the way a starving person looked at a feast. Could she feel something the rest of us couldn’t?
“Shara?”
She blinked, and the trance was broken. “There is great power in that Orb,” she said. “It’s like ten doses of Aether in one.”
Ten doses of Aether, if Shara was right, would be lethal to anyone. Anyone, but me, if it was true that Anna would be immune to its effects. Something I was not even completely sure of.
For all I knew, I would die as soon as I touched it.
“There’s no other choice,” I said. “People have used this thing before, however long ago.”
I turned to look at Isaru and Isa. Both were watching me, worried, but otherwise powerless to keep me from doing what I needed to. Even if they could have come with no danger to losing a part of themselves, I would have done everything I could to convince them not to.
“Be careful,” Isaru said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “If you ever feel in danger…find a way out. We’ll figure out the rest.”
I nodded. It was unsettling to see him so nervous. He looked as if he wanted to stop me, but couldn’t. Usually, he had been in the thick of danger with me, but this time, he couldn’t be a part of it.
There were unshed tears in Isa’s eyes as she came to hug me. “We’ll be here, waiting. Isaru is right. If you’re being tricked, find a way out. Shal said you were a link, so perhaps you don’t even need him to escape, if it comes down to that.”
Maybe so. I pulled away, because any more of this then I was going to start crying, too. I turned around, where Shara was still standing, only instead of the Orb, she was now looking at me, her blue eyes weighing and calculating.
It was time. As I approached the Orb, its glow intensified. I shielded my eyes and felt completely swallowed by light.
But, there was sudden movement.
“What…?”
Shara cut in front of me, reaching for the Orb and grabbing hold. Before I could even respond, a giant shockwave radiated out from the Orb, sending me reeling backward and crashing to the floor. I scrambled up only to find that Shara had remained standing, an aura of light surrounding her features, with the shining Orb held in an outstretched hand.
And then, she fell to the floor, as if struck. The Orb landed on the floor and rolled away, toward a gap in the wall where it would fall hundreds of feet to the ground below.
Even as I ran to Shara, Isaru went for the Orb before it could fall. He dove, managing to grab it. Another shockwave shot outward as soon as his skin made contact, blasting him through the air even as the Orb slipped from his hand and rolled toward me.
Isa screamed and ran to Isaru as he crashed, even as I stood, completely shocked. As if mocking me, the Orb lightly touched my boot, then went still. I ran toward Isa, who was crying and shaking Isaru, whose eyes were closed and his silver hair fanned out on the floor.
My hands shaking, I knelt down and felt for a pulse. It was slow, but it was there.
“He’s alive,” I said.
“He should have let it fall,” Isa said, through her tears. “I knew it was dangerous. I knew it.”
Isaru probably didn’t have the time to use his cloak to grab it.
“He’s not going to die, Isa,” I said. “He’s in the Hyperfold, just like Shara is.”
She looked at me, and it was clear that through her emotions, that hadn’t connected with her. “He’s in there?”
I nodded. “They both are. Isaru…is strong. He might escape unscathed. As for Shara…”
“Who cares about her?” Isa said bitterly. “She’s ruined everything!”
I grabbed her face, forcing her to look me. “Isa, look into my eyes. He is not going to die. He is not. I’m going after him, and I need you to stand watch here while I do. Can you do that?”
“But…”
“I need you to be strong and do this. I don’t know what’s going to happen up here, but you’re going to be by yourself while the three of us are as good as knocked out. Whatever happens, you have to make sure we’re safe. If I do this, and neither of us are awake after a day’s time…”
“Don’t say that,” Isa said, the tears coming again. “Don’t say you’re not going to wake up. The last time you made a promise, you didn’t come back.”
“I don’t know what waits for me once I touch that Orb…but it’s not going to be death. I’m going to find Isaru, and yes, I’m going to find Shara, too. Even if she did cause all this…”
Isa nodded, finally seeming to accept that. “I’ll stay here. Nothing will happen to you, or Isaru, while you’re gone.”
I noticed she left out Shara, but there was no reason to point out the fact.
I looked behind to see the Orb exactly where I had left it.
I walked over and knelt down, knowing that I was probably going to get knocked out, anyway, from touching it. Knowing that would make reaching for it all the more difficult.
I looked at Isa one last time. She was still kneeling beside Isaru.
“I won’t be long,” I said. “And if I am…”
“Do what you must,” Isa said. “I’ll guard you with my life. For what that’s worth.”
“It’s worth far more than you kn
ow.”
I turned back around. There was no point in waiting. I closed my eyes, and reached out to touch the Orb.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
I OPENED MY EYES TO find myself in a forest. I recognized it as the forest just outside of Hyperborea, only now, it was different. The plants and trees were more colorful, and the forest floor wasn’t so overgrown. There was nothing dead or dying; everything was thriving and well cared for. The sky above was the purest of blues, while a small stream trickled downslope nearby.
But most of all, I could hear the sounds of life. The chatter of squirrels, the singing of birds, the buzzing of a nearby dragonfly.
This wasn’t the forest as it existed today, but as it had been over a century ago, at Hyperborea’s height. It looked exactly like the forest of my dreams. It was as if I had stepped backward in time, only this was the Hyperfold.
Even if this place wasn’t reality, it looked and felt as if it were. Still, I couldn’t help but make sure it actually felt as real as it looked. I walked toward a tall Silverwood, reaching to touch its shining bark. Everything about it felt real under my hand. There was a hint of moisture in the air, laden with the earthy aroma of soil joined with the sweet scent of the xen. I could see why Mia had so loved these woods. There was a sense of peace and contentment here that was beyond words.
I had to snap myself out of it. I was here for a reason, and that reason was to find Isaru and Shara. After that, I needed to find Shal.
He had said the Orb would travel with me, but so far, there wasn’t any sign of it. I searched the glade, and it wasn’t long before a shining pink light caught my eye, not far into the trees. It was the spot from which I had originally come; I just hadn’t noticed the Orb there, because I was so transfixed by the forest.
It was small enough to fit in my hand, but obviously, I couldn’t just carry it around. I was afraid of actually touching it, because doing so might just send me back to the Tower in the real world for all I knew. Shal had implied that he would help me return, so touching it would probably have no effect. In the end, I reached down to pick it up. Nothing happened.