Darklight 6: Darkbirth

by Forrest, Bella

  “Of course. And you’ve proven yourselves worthy of being treated like legitimate beings,” she answered, then followed it with a wistful sigh. “I only hope the rationality of such an idea will finally dawn on my stubborn fellow arbiters. They’ve been playing by their own logic for far too long…”

  I frowned. And their logic can’t help with our quest.

  “You don’t have hope.” Sen’s words were pointed, but she was right. I didn’t have much hope right now. I finally admitted it to myself as I scanned over the few allies who’d stuck around. How could we ever convince arbiters like Un and his supporters, both those who had joined him in this intimidation stunt and those I knew existed in the crowd that had been clamoring at the Games, that Dorian and I were worthy? It seemed ridiculous…

  How do you convince the beings who shaped your ancestors that you have worth?

  I considered it a cruel trick of fate that everything had ended up this way, but it just meant Dorian and I had more work to do on several fronts. And perhaps succeeding at more Games would do something to convince Un and his supporters. Standing around having a pity party wouldn’t do much for our mission to get back to the lower planes.

  Dorian crossed his arms, staring at Sen, Xiu, and Pik. “While your aid just now is appreciated, why aren’t you three, and any others who hold similar views, willing to do more to stand up for us in situations like this? It would mean a lot to us.”

  I knew he meant that we needed support on more than just a friendly level. Our lives and the future of the lower planes might depend on their support.

  Xiu finally spoke. “That’s just not the way things are done in situations like this.” Her tone turned somber as her light faded a shade. “Anyway, our opinions would be struck down in a majority vote. I can already sense that.”

  A freaking awful democracy they’ve got here.

  “Train well for the next Games,” Sen said. Her voice, unlike many of the arbiters, carried a note of genuine emotion. This heartened me somewhat.

  All three of them left, and our strange little quartet was finally alone. The red swirled overhead, and I tilted my head back to glare up at the sky, feeling emboldened rather than wary of Ruk’s anger now that we were on our own.

  “Those jerks,” I muttered.

  “Jerk is one word for him.” Ruk shook his head. “Un is willing to stop at nothing to bring down the judgment he seems to think I deserve, and now I know that he has Aurora. I tried to keep myself from shouting it out… I don’t want our plan to be ruined. Thank you for restraining me.” His face was filled with layers of conflicting emotions that muddied the air above him.

  We had won the Games and solved the problem of our debt, yet Un had somehow managed to reverse everything. I let out a sigh of frustration as Ruk paced rapidly in a circle, mumbling less than complimentary things about Un. I couldn’t blame him.

  Dorian and I took a gentle step back, herding Jia away from Ruk’s fury. He needed to vent his emotions before he would be ready to strategize; having the cathartic moment was essential for his wellbeing, and demanding he stop lashing out was fruitless. Let him release his emotions for as long as he needs to. It’ll only make things easier for us in the long run if he works some things out now.

  After several minutes of angry cursing and raving, Ruk stopped and took a deep breath before guiding us away from Jia. The red above us settled to dark pink. His body began to shake, and for a moment, I thought he was crying. Instead, a bitter laugh erupted from his throat as he spoke in a low voice.

  “I guarantee Un is only holding back information about Aurora from the other arbiters because he’s planning something larger. He wants to hang it over my head in order to squeeze favors or contrition or endless energy payments from me. God, I should’ve shoved him in a portal between the planes a long time ago and sealed both sides.” He exhaled sharply and gave Jia a quick glance before lowering his voice even further. “I know you picked up on how he wants me far away from the Games. He’s planning something, but him wanting me away works to our advantage. I wasn’t able to go search the estates before because he had some of his supporters keeping an eye on me, but now I should be free to go straight to his estate. We need to find Aurora and leave as soon as possible because it’s clear to me that Un is on the verge of trying some other strategy to keep me here. And who knows what he’s been doing with her in the hundreds of years I’ve been gone.”

  I considered this. We would definitely need to compete in a rematch, but Ruk would be free to go and find Aurora, our search made inadvertently easier by Un’s guarded admission. I looked at Dorian and shrugged. “I don't want to drown in a metallic puddle, but I think going along with Un’s proposition is our best shot. Plus, I honestly want to show the arbiters what we’re really made of. Sure, the Games are dangerous, but they’ve belittled and dismissed us over and over again. We’ve won once, and they’ve decided that doesn’t count. I guess we’ll have to do it again and just prove how determined we are.”

  “So how are we going to do this?” Dorian asked, giving me a look of pride.

  “I need to store up all my energy.” Ruk’s brow pinched together as he flicked a quick glance at Jia, making sure the proxy wasn’t paying too much attention to us. “If we want the maximum chance of finding another one of my loopholes in the barrier, then I’ll need all the energy from my estate. We don’t want undue news to come out to anyone about this.”

  Aka, Jia needs to go so we can actually discuss things. It sounded like Ruk at least had a solid idea forming in his head.

  “We just need to get through to the lower planes before anyone notices,” Ruk whispered to himself, so quiet that I almost missed it. Jia certainly would not have heard it. A shadow of guilt passed over his face. His lavender eyes looked up at Dorian and me sheepishly. “I have to confess that I need to ask you for another favor.”

  I lifted a brow. “A favor in addition to competing in the Games again?”

  “It is a favor that might mean you don’t need to compete again,” Ruk said quickly and leaned in. “I need you to use those newfound skills. I want you to be the ones to go to Un’s estate and rescue Aurora. After your display in the recent Games, I know you can do this. This is the perfect time. He won’t be expecting an attempt on her so soon after he revealed the information. I will no doubt have eyes on me that I’m not aware of, but as I’ve said before, as mortals it is a little more difficult for the arbiters to keep track of you, since you are not of this plane. If Jia is not in your company, that is.”

  For a moment, I had no words. I exchanged a doubtful look with Dorian. It was risky, but it did make a lot of sense, especially if we were more difficult for the arbiters to track. But did we really need to add another favor to Ruk’s growing tab? On the other hand, it was all to get us out of the Higher Plane. This wasn’t a favor; it was just being teammates. Plus, if we weren’t going to compete in the Games and take the pot of energy, then he needed to be here dissolving his estate so he could punch a portal in the barrier as soon as we returned with Aurora.

  Ruk saw our look and bowed low, sweeping his robes smoothly in front of him and bending his bald head. “Please.” His voice wavered. “She is all I have. I will be fully in your debt this time. If you can do this for me, I’ll owe you yet another favor… and you can cash in at any time, as soon as we make it out of this awful place.”

  I stepped up and put a hand on Ruk’s lean shoulder. “We’ll do it, and you won’t owe us a favor. Because we’re teammates, and our help is freely given.”

  Dorian stepped up beside me in solidarity. “We’ll bring Aurora safely back to you, but she’s not all you have anymore.” He clapped a hand onto Ruk’s other shoulder. “You have us now as well.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  At my core, I had always been someone who wanted to help.

  That's why Dorian and I ended up in Ruk's laboratory. It was clear Ruk desperately wanted Aurora to be saved, and so of course Dorian and I were
willing to join him. After Dorian and I showed so much promise, he was confident that we would be able to break into Un's estate.

  Okay, and maybe I do want extra revenge on Un for his cruel behavior toward us.

  “You’ll have to forgive the state of my lab,” Ruk noted bitterly as he glanced at the broken bits of glass. A shelf of half-filled jars had been toppled and never cleaned up. It was fairly clear that much of the mess was new, probably from when Ruk was in the throes of his anger and despair. Dust didn’t exist in a place like this, but I was sure if it did this place would be coated in the stuff.

  My eyes were trained on something other than jars, though. Ruk’s long fingers held three objects, so small that they could have easily fit in the tiniest pocket of my Bureau fatigue pants.

  “These are from my workshop.” Ruk lifted the first, an emerald-green device. It struck me that it almost had the appearance of a remote, but there was only a single shiny pearl button on one side of the narrow rectangular device. “This one will allow you to break Aurora out of any stasis chamber that she’s in, provided she is… alive. Although she isn’t in the same chamber that I built for her, my design was likely copied by Un, since I’d connected the stasis chamber here to the fabric of the tower, and he wasn’t able to take it with him.”

  I took the green device and tucked it securely away. Dorian examined the next remote in Ruk’s hand—it was the color of glittering amethyst, with another pearl button embedded in it. This one, Ruk explained, would allow us to create a new, mobile stasis spell around Aurora’s body. It would keep her stable so we could transport her safely back to his estate, where he would have another stasis chamber prepared.

  The last device was the color of a red brick. Ruk held it higher than the rest, his eyes hard with urgency.

  “The most important.”

  It was a tracker. It was absolutely vital for us, since it would lead us to Aurora—the device would lock onto the stasis spell that Ruk had cast on her. He explained that the device only worked over a short range, which was why he hadn’t been able to use it before; it wouldn’t be able to find her in the span of the whole plane.

  “Note that the tracker will find my spell on her aura, and not her aura itself, which will be as muddled here in the Higher Plane as your two auras are. And, while it unfortunately only works at close range, it should quickly lock onto my spell work, which only I can identify, as soon as you get into Un’s estate.”

  The memory of Ruk’s desperation when he asked for our help with Aurora’s rescue flashed through my mind, the emotion still clear in his eyes as he passed me the tracker.

  We’d leave as soon as we found her. I had to believe it. No more distraction and games for this journey, since we’d already had our fair share with the actual Games. But we had accomplished something there, which the drama in front of Ruk’s estate illustrated clearly enough.

  Dorian and I had sown the seeds of doubt and discord among the arbiters and had distracted them enough that they were unlikely to be expecting an escape attempt, at least not so soon. Ruk was especially pleased with Xiu’s display of support.

  “That was huge,” he had assured us before we jumped into rescue plans in the lab. We had a few arbiters on our side, and their opposition would stir the pot, particularly Xiu’s insistence on providing consequences for Un, leading to more confusion and chaos in the Higher Plane. The more distracted the arbiters were, the better for us. And while Ruk seemed to count their bitter disagreement as merely distraction… the last shreds of hope inside me suggested that perhaps we could actually manage to get the arbiters to eventually turn to our side, save for Un and a few of his stubborn allies. It could make all the difference in our overall mission to heal the tear, but I wished I had more reason to hope. Especially considering the fact that Dorian and I were set to take an even greater cosmic risk with this proposed heist and rescue of Aurora. Was she truly still in this plane?

  Still in the lab, Ruk took us over to a high and wide table. It was littered with various trinkets and pieces of old experiments. He shoved them to the side and picked up a piece of chalk. Ruk drew a large rectangle on the table, using its stony surface as a chalkboard.

  "Let's pretend this is Un's estate. I know you’ve seen it briefly, but you need to have a more detailed idea of what will be awaiting you there. He has various proxies around his home to serve him, not just that spider-legged monstrosity. Some proxies serve a purpose, while others are merely for decoration. Breaking into another's arbiter's estate is simply not done, which means there won't be much security for you to bypass, but there will likely be proxies who will report to Un in the same way yours does to Xiu."

  I nodded. Earlier, we'd asked Jia to stand outside the lab. Had he shared anything with Xiu yet? I knew it was a little suspicious that we were keeping Jia out of sight and out of hearing range, but since Jia said Xiu didn’t always ask for reports, I was hoping it wouldn’t catch her attention. If necessary, we could tell her we were planning for the Games and didn’t want our strategy to be overheard by any other arbiters.

  Ruk drew two figures, one with a smiley face and another with fangs to represent me and Dorian. "At the risk of pointing out the obvious, your biggest goal is to not get caught. I can't remember Un's estate very well after all this time, and he has likely changed some of it regardless, so I'd recommend making a sweep of the outskirts to find your best entry point." He drew a circle around the rectangle and pointed to our avatars. "You just need to avoid being seen. While you investigate, I will dissolve my entire estate to gather the energy necessary to temporarily fix Aurora and to create a brief one-way portal to the Immortal Plane. I'll wait near the tear where the cliff dips into the vortex. The barrier will be thinner there, so it will require less of my energy."

  Okay. Avoid being seen by any pesky proxies. Find Aurora. I remembered those annoying cherubs Un had for greeters, so we'd have to be crafty. Get in, get out. It wasn't the worst mission Dorian and I had ever received, right? I cast a glance at him, and he met my gaze with a solid nod. We could do this; we’d managed to best Un once, and we could do it again. Still, worry scratched at the back of my mind. Jia stood just outside this lab. Would Xiu try to stop us if he reported back to her what we were doing? Since we had her support, she might not interfere, but… I wasn't willing to take that risk.

  I lifted a finger, catching Ruk and Dorian’s attention, and gestured to the hallway. I found Jia waiting patiently as he stared blankly ahead. He looked up, but I stooped to meet him at his own level. A plan had formed in my mind based on the revelation that Jia had given us about the light energy creation.

  "Hey, there," I said gently, trying to think of how best to phrase my words. "You know that I sometimes ask for private time with Dorian. Well, do you think that you could really give us some time alone? I want to create more of the… energy we talked about earlier. And that requires privacy. I hope you can understand that."

  "Privacy," he repeated, as if testing the word.

  I nodded with a pleasant smile, although guilt pinched me hard. "Yes, privacy. I'm going to transport with him to be alone so that we can create that energy again, but I would appreciate it if you didn't accompany us this time, even to stay at a distance. It's hard to explain, but for lower beings, it's incredibly intimate. Private. Sacred." I laid it on thick.

  Jia wrinkled his barely existent nose. "Intimate."

  "Yes, something that we want to do alone, because we like each other." I rested a gentle hand on his shoulder and peered into his confused eyes. "Can you do that for me?"

  He paused. "I do not understand the logic of your request, but I can respect your wishes."

  "Thank you, Jia." My heart stung with shame for lying to him, but it was for the greater good. Dorian and I had a mission to accomplish, and we couldn’t risk being blocked by the arbiters’ rules. I gathered myself before going back to the lab with Ruk and Dorian. The green device felt like it was burning a hole into my pocket.

 
It was time to find Aurora and get out of the Higher Plane.

  * * *

  Un’s estate looked as gaudy and freakish as I remembered. Traveling to his estate was much harder than simply imagining us standing in front of it, because we needed to land several yards away in the complex gardens surrounding the estate. We managed to concentrate on the lavish gardens we had seen a slice of, and now the bright green and flourishing flowers loomed around us.

  "Maybe it's our lucky day, and those floating babies will be getting their wings groomed or something," Dorian muttered bitterly as he scanned the area. "Those cherubs were definitely his greeting proxies, possibly counted among decoration proxies, but I wonder how many he has besides that annoyingly strong spider-dog. Some of them must be designed to do surveillance. Un seems like someone who would actually have security."

  I pulled the devices Ruk had given us from my pocket. Red for tracking, green for breaking her out, and shimmering purple for transporting her safely to Ruk. I scanned the Gothic fairytale castle in the distance. There was no telling. Un appeared to have energy to spare to create such an elaborate estate, a fact that made me more than a little resentful that he wouldn’t help us get home. He was more ambitious than many of the other arbiters, that was for sure… or perhaps just more cutthroat when it came to winning the Games and collecting on debts.

  Gargoyle lamps flickered at the edges of his garden, dotting the entire rectangular boundary of the estate. Dorian and I moved forward a few feet, careful to watch for any action in the innumerable windows. All the curtains were drawn, though, from what I could see. Crushed pastel pink fabric covered the windows, an interesting contrast with the black bricks of the castle. As we drew closer, I wondered why the other arbiters had allowed Un to decorate the pathway to the amphitheater. It was clearly the same style of landscaping. We inched closer to the edge of the garden, where dark green hedges with splotchy purple edges to their leaves had been cut into the shape of two great serpents curled around each other. From a distance, the giant twin serpents flanked an archway entrance to the gardens from either side, like slumbering beasts protecting their master within.