Darklight 6: Darkbirth

by Forrest, Bella

  "Your win was unjustly gained," Un cried. The crowd of arbiters waiting behind him cheered in unison. Light waves of red and purple drifted through the sky above the group, the most emotion I'd seen any of the arbiters release into their surroundings.

  "You have no right to be here," Ruk fired back. "This is utterly juvenile. Debt Keeper said it herself: my team won." A stormy lightning bolt of crimson streaked through the sky just above Ruk’s head, but he didn’t flinch.

  Un snarled as he stepped forward. "The win was a setup. Nobody understood these little lower beings’ powers, so we couldn't possibly have prepared appropriately. If you recall, this isn’t the first time—at the first games, back when Gam tried to scam us all with his clever hustle of presenting a weak proxy with out-of-bound restrictions—and Debt Keeper didn’t catch that. Gam is still paying off his debt and hasn’t been able to show up at a game since. I was the one who noticed. And now, I demand there be a reconsideration, because I suspect cheating." His white eyes narrowed. "Dissolve the whole of your estate immediately to pay the rest of your debt, Ruk. I will not leave until I see justice done.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ruk dragged an exasperated hand down his lean, tired face. The same arguments, again and again, with these guys. He exhaled slowly, like a bull warning someone to stay back.

  "Has there ever been such a display of poor sportsmanship in this forsaken realm?” He pointed at Un. “There were no strict rules, certainly nothing that says my team did something illegal. You were the ones who underestimated them."

  Ruk was on top of his game for challenging the arbiters, but I knew Un wouldn't be easily swayed. Despite his usual rigorous adherence to the rules, it seemed his personal vendetta was getting in the way of his logic. Everyone has their exceptions to their own rigid rules, is that it? He truly did hold some grudge against Ruk. Maybe it was because Ruk was the greatest rulebreaker in this realm.

  Un's taut face threatened to rip into an intense expression of anger, pulling his unnaturally tight skin over his strange, skeletal structure.

  "You coached them before they came to propose the challenge," he said nastily. "You told them to downplay their intelligence and abilities. There's no other explanation. Who is really the bad sportsman here, I wonder?"

  "Exactly," a spirited orange orb said behind Un. A few of the arbiters cheered, rallying in agreement. Krysh watched the exchange silently. Where was Debt Keeper? Surely, she had the final say on these arguments. In fact, hadn’t she already made a ruling? Why were all these arbiters ignoring it? God, if they made us do another trial, I'd scream.

  Ruk rolled his eyes. “Of course we trained before the Games. You do the same thing for all your proxies. In fact, you all go further, tweaking and reforming your contestants on a physical level, perfecting them to be the best version of themselves for competitive purposes. I did no such thing.”

  "But you didn't actually bring the flame to the temple, you just set fire to the building," added a periwinkle orb hotly.

  Ruk simmered with rage. A low rumbling storm of red rolled in over him, casting a demonic glow over Dorian, me, and Jia. He was right to be upset. Debt Keeper had given what I thought was the final decision, yet Un refused to accept it. I wondered if I could possibly send a message or summon Xiu with the limited capacity Ruk trained us with. Would she be in range to receive a message? She seemed to be the other most influential arbiter of the bunch, outside of Un.

  I stepped forward to join Ruk, and Dorian followed suit. Even Jia joined us, either in a show of obedience to Xiu or in newfound solidarity with us.

  "What's your excuse for hounding him, anyway?" I asked Un. "Debt Keeper ruled that things happened fair and square."

  Dorian let out an annoyed growl. "If you are concerned about your debt being paid, there have been multiple layers of reassurance that payment will occur. I suspect, however, that your ire is driven primarily by the fact that you and your little fanclub bet an enormous amount on your spider-dog, and you lost it all. But the facts are simple. We won. End of story."

  Un seethed. "It's hardly the end of the story. You didn't follow the rules—"

  My rage lit up inside me like a bonfire. "The rules?" I echoed. "Will you stop whining because you didn’t get exactly what you wanted? I know you arbiters are used to a particular way of doing things, but doing something a slightly different way is not the same as breaking a rule. You're running around in circles trying to prove you're right when you know that you're just plain wrong."

  "You arbiters talk all day long about your rules," Dorian said, with a snort in Un's direction, "but maybe you should follow them yourselves for once. You remember the original mandate set for you by the universe, right? You were supposed to watch over and manage the lower planes, but you couldn't even deal with that and decided to do things differently. That’s all Lyra and I did… we did things differently."

  Un's white eyes widened with rage. "Be silent, you bothersome little pets."

  "They are not pets," Ruk said suddenly. Thunder rumbled violently, and an angry rusty red seeped into the gray mist above us. "They are their own sentient creatures with minds and emotions and abilities. You talk too much, Un, and the worst part is that you've managed to trick people into listening to you. You have been out to get my companions and me from the beginning. I publicly accuse you of being irrational. There. Are you happy now? Your judgment has been clouded by a deep, unjustified, and inappropriate attachment to this particular cause, a grudge against me."

  A twitter of gasps rippled through the crowd. I tensed upon hearing them. Surely, the arbiters shouldn't be that surprised by this accusation? It was obvious Un had something against Ruk. Un had been aggressive toward us since the beginning. But from what I had observed of the arbiters, an accusation of irrationality, especially one presented so formally, was a big deal. Like slapping someone with a glove to challenge them to a duel.

  Un lifted his chin. His white eyes lapsed into a blank deadness that reminded me of an animated corpse. "It's not about emotion." Un managed to rein in his anger and frustration, his tone returning to something cool and reserved. "It's about the rules. Your accusation that I'm out to get you is ignoring the fact that you flagrantly violate the rules and you never intend to stop. The rest of the arbiters may have been tricked by your little song and dance about paying off your debt, promising to be a good ally after that. I am decidedly not convinced. I know that these two lower beings of yours aren't the only creatures from the lower planes that you have brought here, and I have evidence."

  Blood rushed to my head as Un finished his biting monologue. We might have had our suspicions for a while that Un had been the one who had taken Aurora from Ruk’s estate, but he had now clearly implied it in front of other arbiters. I stared at Ruk, seeing his shoulders stiffen. The next crack of thunder was deafening.

  “You.” Ruk’s body shook with fury. A volcanic orange spatter of light erupted into the sky, burning into embers above us. The reflective ground beneath our feet trembled. I sucked in a sharp breath and took a step away from Ruk.

  “You are not worthy of calling yourself a higher being,” Un said to Ruk, and his smug silence following the statement was all the provocation Ruk needed.

  Ruk let out a roar of fury, and his grief split the sky open with deep violet pain. “I’ll rip you apart particle by particle. I’ll undo every tiny strand of energy from your body until you’re nothing,” Ruk snarled, lunging forward.

  Dorian and I instinctively jumped to restrain him. The sky shook with Ruk’s agony. Twin tornadoes threatened to touch down from the swirling mass of red above, which looked far denser than what I’d produced during the game. The whipping winds carried a substance like red dirt, reminding me of the Canyonlands of my home plane.

  “Calm yourself,” Dorian said softly, his muscled forearm wrapped across Ruk’s neck. “Don’t let him rile you. Don’t let your emotions overcome you—not here, not now. There is too much at stake to lose the
high ground to his needling.” He dropped his voice to a low, soothing murmur. We couldn’t remind him of our plan in front of our most significant obstacles, but I held onto Ruk’s side.

  “Please,” I pleaded gently. “Un wants you to lose control.”

  “If he wants a fight, then I shall give him one,” Ruk roared. He nearly succeeded in throwing Dorian and me off, but Jia latched onto Ruk’s right leg like a small child and refused to let go. The winds from Ruk’s emotions buffeted us from all sides. Un took Aurora, but if we challenge him, then our whole plan might go out the window. We can’t afford that.

  As the tornadoes lowered toward the ground, Un’s posse fanned out around him. Those in humanoid form eyed Ruk’s estate with obvious greed, but they cast wary looks at the tornadoes. They were clearly willing to fight to obtain the energy they felt entitled to. I pulled on Ruk as hard as I could, but a sharp breeze slammed into my face and stung my eyes.

  “Stop!” A commanding voice rang out. The force of it carried a clear stream of pure wind straight through the sky overhead. It was a knife of clarity slicing through the arbiters’ stormy colors and pushing Ruk’s tornadoes back into the sky.

  Xiu had arrived. Her blue orb form floated toward us, leading a parade of several other arbiters. I picked out Sen and Pik among the first few behind Xiu’s form; it was a relief to finally have the intervention of a cooler head. Still, I held firmly onto Ruk’s arm, and Dorian also maintained his grip. Ruk, between us, still seethed with fury, glaring pointedly at Un.

  Xiu spoke so quickly, her words lashed out like a whip over all of us. “This is completely inappropriate. What nonsense is this?”

  Blue caught the corner of my eye. Jia had looked furtively up at me, then averted his face. Had he summoned Xiu here? If so, I was more than thankful to the proxy.

  Xiu darkened to a murky aquamarine, her ire apparent. “Un, you are entirely out of line to unilaterally discard Debt Keeper’s verdict. And Ruk, release your storm. This behavior will get us nowhere. We may have all the time in the world, but we will use it efficiently.” She rounded on Un. “Explain yourself. Now.”

  Un trotted out his previous arguments, contending that we did not fulfil the technical rules and therefore did not complete the game as required. This was unjust, Ruk must’ve cheated somehow, on and on until it felt like a family of jaspeths buzzed in my ear.

  “You say this confidently,” Xiu noted dryly. “Yet can you prove that Ruk is breaking the rules by producing evidence in front of a gathered jury? Why didn’t you bring this up earlier?”

  Un, for the first time in my experience, floundered. “I have brought up that there has been a mistake before. I thought it might be better if I tried to get Ruk to admit it in another environment.” The story fell with a fizzle between our groups, but it wasn’t completely implausible. If he didn’t want to insult Xiu or Debt Keeper, he was better bringing it up with Ruk directly. The posse is too much, though…

  Un’s fervent gaze flashed briefly to Ruk’s estate behind us for a microsecond. Xiu made an annoyed sound, but there was an edge of hesitance to it.

  “I will restore logic to this discussion,” she said firmly. “The original argument has clearly not been settled, despite our Debt Keeper’s verdict. I stand by my assertion that no stated rules forbade the methods used by Ruk’s team. Thus they won the Games fairly. I’m growing irritated that this logic continues to be questioned without substantive reason. Un, you’re being irrational. You need to prove Ruk has broken a rule of the Games, yet you either cannot or will not. This vendetta of yours is clouding your judgment.”

  My grip instinctively tightened on Ruk’s arm from the shock of Xiu’s words. We had just witnessed someone else take Un down a peg. Ruk’s muscles slowly relaxed beneath my touch. Had he suspected she would be on our side, or was this a surprise? At least on this subject. Xiu’s support emboldened me. I noted a satisfied smile on Pik’s lips, who had offered her support earlier. We might just be gaining some allies. Maybe this would turn out better than I had hoped.

  “Vendetta is a harsh word for merely insisting that a debt be paid fairly,” Un said. He was still composed, speaking with a stony coldness that sent a shiver of dread down my spine. What was his next move? “I actually believe there may be a way to settle all this, Xiu, if you will listen to my proposal.”

  Xiu refused to back down, earning more of my respect. “Then make your proposal and make it good.”

  “While Debt Keeper has given a pronouncement, there are enough arbiters who are concerned about the ruling or that disagree with it that I posit that in order to rule out the possibility of cheating or manipulation of the system, this win must be proven to be legitimate.” Un laced his fingers together. “Ruk must be kept far away from the Games to ensure he isn’t secretly aiding the lower beings somehow. If these mortals are truly as good as they claim to be, then they will have no trouble winning again. This win will be counted as valid and the pot awarded to Ruk as his rightful earnings. His debt will be considered mostly paid, as the Debt Keeper decreed.”

  Pik scowled behind Xiu. Annoyance rose up inside me as well, but I tried to keep it under wraps. There was already enough anger from Ruk in the air. The sore loser wanted us to prove ourselves again. Something about his suggestion set off alarm bells. He wanted Ruk far away, not just absent from the Games. Why?

  "That's unnecessary," Xiu said coldly. “This team has already won fairly. I do not wish to set a precedence for undermining Debt Keeper’s authority.”

  Un's crowd broke out in low mutters of disagreement. The corner of Un's mouth lifted victoriously. "If we put it to a vote, I'm sure I can convince a jury of our fellow arbiters that I have a logical reason to request a rematch," he said.

  I really wanted to punch him in the face. His stupid spider-dog proxy had knocked me off a floating island to my potential death, and now he was going to force us to participate in more Games?

  "The majority will stand by my side, Xiu, and you know it."

  Xiu paused. A gnawing sensation ate at my core. Unfortunately, Un had a point. He knew how to get the crowd on his side. We’d seen his charisma and power during our trial. Dorian let out a low growl of annoyance, and Ruk stared at Un with pure hatred.

  “I cannot disagree with your point that if you call for a vote, you have a large number of the arbiters on your side,” Xiu confessed. “So I will not challenge you on that score. But if you are to challenge Debt Keeper’s ruling, there must be stakes if you are proven wrong. If the mortals win once more and prove there has been no interference from Ruk, then not only will the energy go to them, but you will be banned from participating in all future Games for trying to undermine Debt Keeper’s authority.”

  Un took a pause, but apparently, he believed so much in his position that he soon nodded. “I agree to this. The stakes seem fair.”

  “Very well,” Xiu pronounced. “Can you send the message to the other arbiters? Anyone and everyone you can reach. Have them report back to me.”

  I heard it in her tone. She would make Un do the work, but she believed he was right. My heart sank with disappointment.

  “Fine, we’ll put on another show,” Dorian said, his voice dripping with resentment. Just moments before, Dorian and I had been celebrating our victory and looking forward to having a significant roadblock removed. And now? Un had swept in and stolen it away from us, setting us right back where we’d started. I took a deep breath, feeling my body shake from the frustration.

  “Satisfied?” Ruk asked icily.

  Un responded with a haughty raise of his chin. “Completely.”

  He turned on his heel, and he and his other arbiters left on their bitter way, disappearing into the gray distance. I glared at their fading forms. Un and Irrikus were currently neck and neck in the competition for the face I’d most like to punch.

  As Un’s group retreated, Xiu and a few other arbiters remained behind.

  Pik’s reptilian hands fluttered in the air, her
webbed, mottled green skin a welcome splash of color in the gray. “I’m sorry about all this. It’s a shame we can’t expect more equanimity from our peers.”

  Xiu hovered nearby, silent for the moment. Jia released his hold on Ruk, and so did I. Dorian withdrew his restraining arms last. Ruk heaved a tired sigh but still sounded on edge. Dorian watched him, his hand still hovering by Ruk’s shoulder. Dorian made a point of looking up at the chaotic sky above; it was still stained red, like diluted blood. A tiny tornado occasionally drifted down from the swirling mass of clouds, only to be sucked right back up.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to send a tornado tearing across the entire plane,” Ruk muttered. “Although I wish I’d dropped one on Un when I had the chance.” Yeah, part of me wishes you had, too…

  “It’s unfair. And I’m sorry he continues to make our lives difficult.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say to make him feel better. Un had been a thorn in our side since we set foot in this plane.

  Sen floated closer to us. “You’re right. It’s not even that they really think you cheated. They’re more upset that lower beings won the Games than anything else. Their talk about fairness… well, it’s all talk! I suppose nobody likes to be reminded that they were wrong about someone else’s importance in the universe when they feel superior.”

  Her blunt statement, giving a brief insight into the mindset of the arbiters that I hadn’t seen before, both surprised and intrigued me. I tried to imagine myself in Un and his peers’ shoes for the first time. What would it have been like to shape creatures and beings and worlds and then set them loose, closing yourself off from them and thinking yourself superior all the while? Only to then have your ideas turned on their heads. It might take some time for all the arbiters to adjust, not just Un. I appreciated Sen’s honesty.

  “Do you think the universe finds us important?” I asked point-blank, figuring I’d take advantage of the moment of openness.