by S. J. Wist
21: FALL OF THE FALLS
Kas braced himself to dodge a direct hit from Mersael’s gun, but his chances of surviving looked slim.
“If you kill Kas or myself, a mere thought from me will set the power generators to self-destruct. For I will not leave my city to a monster. I should have put you down the moment you opened your cold eyes to the world,” Exoir threatened Mersael.
“Always the loving father, aren’t we? But your somn will do you no good when it is very much gone.”
Kas looked to the wall as two other energies came at Exoir’s somn in the thick wire and collided with it, snuffing the spark out. Then they raced through the wire and took out the somns of Exoir’s two assistants. Kas didn’t waste a breath charging at Mersael after Exoir collapsed in his chair. The griffin somnus fired on him, striking him in the shoulder with the bullet. Before Mersael could get another shot off, a different spark collided with the two in the wall. Both were snuffed out like Exoir’s and Mersael’s soldiers dropped to the ground. Then the spark expanded and hurled itself like a ribbon of electricity at Mersael, throwing him across the room.
“Kas!”
Kas didn’t believe he heard right until he saw Gwa when the door opened. His friend ran into the room and kicked the weapons away from Mersael and the dying griffin somnus guards. “How did you…?”
“Find you? Get in here? It’s a long story.” Gwa went over to pick up one of the guns, and after looking at Exoir’s body, he took aim at Mersael.
“You wouldn’t shoot…your own father,” Mersael said with certainty in his yellow eyes.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t shoot someone who I considered a ‘father.’ But the monster who shot my mother has to be put down.” Then he fired on his heart, and Mersael collapsed to the floor.
Kas wasn’t sure the real Gwa was before him now.
Gwa went over to Exoir as the old griffin still breathed. Countless wires and sparks dangled over him, and Gwa dodged to the side when a wire fell. Exoir’s eyes suddenly opened and looked directly at his grandson.
“Gwa…”
“Grandfather.”
Exoir smiled a toothless smile, but even in his decaying state, it didn’t stop Gwa from hugging him. “You have…your mother’s spirit. How…miraculous.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner—I should—”
“There was no way for you to know. I am…the one at fault for trusting Mersael. I was wrong…now this moment is all I get with you. But it is…enough.”
Gwa forced himself not to cry as Exoir closed his eyes and stopped breathing.
“Hold it right there!” Five guards appeared at the door and aimed their guns at them.
Gwa turned his fury and sadness on them, as his somn sparked angrily through the wires and shut the door on the guards, locking them out. Then he sent it around the room in search of another mechanism to channel his anger through.
“Gwa, is there another way out?” Kas asked.
The griffin somnus looked around the room, before looking at the body of his father. He reached into Mersael’s pocket and pulled out a mini version of his own panel. After Gwa had turned it on, his face turned a paler shade of white.
“What is on it?” Kas was answered in part when the whole volcanic crater shook.
“Exoir was telling the truth—he must have had something hooked up to his vitals. This entire place is going to blow. We have to get out of here.”
Kas picked up a blade from one of Mersael’s guards, then stood on the side of the door. He used the moment to take out the bullet from his shoulder with his nails. Then he healed the wound with his aeri before he could lose anymore blood. “Take cover and open it.”
“That’s a lot of guards,” Gwa said, unsheathing his own blade.
“Open it!” Kas shouted this time, both from the pain and anger he felt.
Gwa used his somn to move the mechanisms that opened the door.
The first two guards were met by the full speed and power of the blade Kas weld, as Gwa took out two on his own. The remaining one fled down the shaking metal walkway.
Kas grabbed the banister when the shaking got worse. He looked down to the water below that glowed red. The generators hadn’t exploded yet. Hell, it would seem, was in the minds of the builders of this dead volcanic city that would very soon come back to life.
He looked to the side as three griffin somnus soldiers came to a stop on the walkway and cocked and aimed their guns at him. Gwa appeared behind them and cut them down with his sword, and Kas focused his attention upwards. A thick net of metal trapped them all inside. “Any way you can shut off the electricity in the net?”
Gwa looked up with him. “The generators have to blow, or I need another griffin somn—there’s too many wires to it.”
Kas began to think quickly. “Four generators. We each take two.”
Gwa touched a panel on the wall, pulling up a map. Just as he did, one of the generators exploded and the cries of those caught in range followed. “Seems like everyone is trying to do the same thing to escape.” They split up from each other then, and raced towards their targets below before the lava could catch up to them first.
Kas jumped several broken walkways and stairs, as everything continued to be shaken free from the sides of the crater. Before he could decide what to do with the soldiers that demanded his surrender before him, Aragmoth did first. The first of the dozen of waterfalls that powered the city of Tech began to flow lava. The soldiers lowered their weapons and turned and fled, as their cries were matched by the civilians who ran from and through the white domes of the falling buildings. Many were no longer under cascading waterfalls—but liquid fire.
Kas reached the hallway that led to the generator and quickly unsheathed his blade. Looking around at the wires connected to the giant box of a Tech, he found the ones that Gwa had instructed him to cut. He ran for them and struck his blade through them, one by one, until they sparked and the machine began to overload. Then he ran for his life and ducked to the side of the tunnel when the explosion followed him.
Kas ran back the way he had come as Gwa was already in the air. The griffin grabbed the netting that shielded the city with several other griffins and with enough force they were able to bring it down. Kas stepped back and pressed himself against the wall as a piece crashed down, crushing several griffin somnus who weren’t expecting it in the process. Then he looked back up as the griffins flew from their cage of a home like an ascent of white angels, while their falling feathers were burned and drowned in the blood of Aragmoth.
“Kas, let’s go!” Gwa shouted at him.
Kas looked across the walkway, and he ran to the edge of it as it fell. He jumped off the side and Gwa caught him in his talons, then followed the rest of the masses out of the volcano. Once they were clear from the destruction, Gwa set him down on the ice. Or what was ice for now, as the lava from the Falls continued to spread and melt it.
Kas looked up into the dark sky as it was both star and moonless, which meant that Aragmoth didn’t so much as have the strength left to keep his illusions visible to his world. There were no more illusions now just as very soon there would be no world left.
Gwa ducked when another loud explosion sounded off from the direction of the Falls.
“There is very little time—” Kas stopped when he felt a stabbing pain go through his chest.
“Kas?” Gwa quickly unsomned and caught his friend before Kas could hit the snow.
22: EMBRACE
Sybl looked at the broad sword in the armory of Toria for a long while, as she recognized it as Lintrance’s. She guessed that they had brought his possessions back to Toria, including all of his weapons, and added them to their current armory. Possibly even Loki had done so himself. A memory flash went through her mind with him attacking her while infected with the Aeger, and she turned her head to the side, trying to get it to leave her mind alone. She hadn’t killed Lintrance, but she might as well of with how her pr
esence had brought his somn into the physical so that Kenshe could. She had sat down to try and think of other things when the door to the armory opened, and Cirrus walked in. He closed the door behind him and then leaned against it. He looked upset, and she had a good idea why.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sybl looked back at the stone floor. “About what? The part about you being King, or my inability to give you an heir?”
Cirrus opened his mouth to speak, but stopped and looked away. “We don’t know that. But I’m finding out all this now when I’ve come back here utterly blind to find everyone addressing me as ‘Your Highness.’”
“There was no way to tell you without hurting you.”
“We just came from a funeral of a dragoon who I thought was my father. At what time would you have thought it appropriate to fill me in that I was the only one who didn’t know? That my real father could very well still be alive on your world?”
Sybl didn’t answer.
Cirrus clenched his fist, before taking in a long breath to calm himself. “It’s more common than anyone will say aloud. The Line of Solar has always had trouble having children. Usually when alternate arrangements for having a child are made, it’s kept quiet. When it gets out, then it can get as bitter as it did when Yri had Kayla. I’m just another case of such. Dyaus would have wanted my mother to be happy. At least I can’t blame him for her death anymore.”
Sybl pulled her courage together to speak again. “We should split up.”
He walked over and knelt before her, pulling her hands into his. “No, Sybl. I love you, and nothing can ever change that. I won’t let you leave me.”
She held back her tears. “Toria can’t have a King without the hope of an heir.”
“Then I will give the title to someone else. We don’t have to be here. I don’t care about ruling when I have you.”
Sybl shook her head. “I won’t let you do that. There are too many who believe in you—who have believed in you before all this. I would just get in the way. Like my own mother did…”
Cirrus pulled her against him so fast that she didn’t have a breath to react. “Don’t you dare say that! Your mother was a wonderful person—without her—I don’t know. I just know things would have been a lot worse, for many including myself. So don’t you dare let a word that traitor said stay in your head.” He loosened his grip and caught her face in his hands. “Sybl, look at me. Please just look at me.”
She did, and feared that his eyes might drown her in the perfect future that he alone saw.
“Say it. Tell me you love me, or so help me I won’t let you go from this spot.”
There was no way she could not say it, though she let the idea of him holding her forever linger for a while. “I love you.”
He ran his hands through her hair and hugged her again. “Don’t you ever forget that I love you even more, not so much as for a moment. There is nothing on this world or yours that will ever change that.”
His shirt soaked up her tears and she let his kisses on her hair and scent of lavender ease her to sleep.
23: LAST WISHES
Sybl woke to find that she had fallen asleep against Cirrus’ chest, and that they were on his bed. She remembered the first time she had awoken in his arms as it still sent a flash of heat through her.
“It looks like you’re feeling better.” Cirrus rested his chin on her head. “And you have had just enough sleep to give me the time I needed to sort things out.”
“Huh?” Sybl asked sleepily.
“It seems that there should be little trouble handing my title to Cecil, which would be the best choice as his mother was supposed to be High Priestess a long time ago. We just need you to make it official.”
“Why me?”
“Well…um… There’s just the question of Rose.”
“Ugh,” Sybl said, fully awake now as she got to her feet.
“Sybl…”
“I told you I don’t want you to give up your title. Can’t you just leave Cecil in charge till we get back?”
Cirrus didn’t answer.
“We are going back to the Suzerain Continent, right?”
Cirrus still didn’t answer.
“Oh no, we are not doing this. Damek has to be stopped. Everyone agrees on this. The last Gate may very well be on the Suzerain Continent. On top of that, I promised everyone I would come back.”
“Alright, if that’s what you want. But I won’t leave Cecil temporarily in charge. We leave my title with him.”
Sybl shifted her weight to her other foot. “Are you trying to keep me here with the promise of being Queen?”
Cirrus sighed with his hope for it, then looked to the door when someone knocked. He went over to open it and to his surprise, Kenshe was there. “I wasn’t aware you came along…”
“I belong to the Caelestis, why wouldn’t I?”
“No, you belong to the new Order with Kas and all of them on the other side of the world. Do they not have enough for soldiers to do over there?”
“Might I speak to Sybl?” Kenshe asked, avoiding his question.
“What’s wrong?” Sybl asked, walking to the door.
“The escort that was supposed to return from the Efereal Mountains made it back to the Atrum, but Nephena turned on Kas and he was taken.”
“Taken? By the chimeras?”
“No, by the Falls. They attacked in an attempt to kill us all off at the same time, unfortunately for them, Nephena made one hell of a mess of their plans. Gwa went after Kas after reaching me in the city, and they’re here now.”
Sybl pressed her fingers to her temples as she tried to think straight, but she was too worried about Kas. She walked past Kenshe and towards where she could sense her soultwin.
Kas could feel Sybl’s thoughts search him out, and he sat up on the bed in the room they had loaned him in Toria. Just being inside a castle of dragons felt unreal.
Sybl didn’t knock on the door as she opened it and stepped inside. “Kas, are you alright?”
“I have felt better,” he answered, leaning his back against the dark wood headboard.
“How did you get captured by the Falls? Is Xirel and the others alright?”
“From what I know, yes. We will not have to worry about the Falls anymore. It was destroyed when the volcano it was built into erupted.”
“What? I didn’t even know there were volcanoes on Aster that could erupt.”
“Aragmoth is fatally injured, Sybl. The world is freezing, the Keol is overheating, and the volcano is just the beginning of the end.” He knew he was upsetting his soultwin even more and pulled back the rest of what he was going to say.
“There was a Gate at the Falls, wasn’t there?”
“I did not see it myself, why?” Kas asked.
“Because there is something you aren’t telling me about the Gates.”
“What Gates?”
“I have to get to Earth, Kas.”
“Why?”
“What…?” Sybl shook her head to make sure she had heard him straight.
“There are millions of Sentry on Earth. If you pass through one, you will be defenseless against any number of them who have sided with Damek. Moon will disintegrate if he gets near the sunlight as well as your dragoon. I have seen where this ends, sister. It ends with you destroyed, and me left here without you. I will not endure that kind of pain again.”
“There won’t be a world left if Damek isn’t stopped now.”
“Once Damek has the festra, he will take the three thousand names bound to it and go to Earth. What happens to that world is not out concern. If anything, we have bought Earth more than enough time to prepare for his arrival.”
Sybl paced back and forth, frantic. “And when Earth is dust and ashes, where do you think he’ll come back to? Kas you aren’t making any sense. I need you to help me.”
“No, you do not. You will always do what I think is wrong. If I tell you to stay, you will go. If I tell y
ou to stop, you will only become more determined to move forward. It is over, Sybl.”
“I don’t believe that! We can still save Aster.”
“No, sister. We cannot. It is…too late.” Kas stopped as everything went dizzy for a moment. He didn’t want it to end like this; his last words to his soultwin that of anger and mistrust. “Aragmoth is almost dead…and soon…I will not be able to exist in the realm of the living.”