Numenera

by Monte Cook

  “There’s a forest up here,” he says. She watches him wonder at it all. The forest that isn’t a forest. The various doors. The weird textures. The book and the map that isn’t a map. She realizes that it feels weird to have had this all to herself. She shares everything with Kyre, and not being able to share this was like being forced to have a secret. She’s glad they’re here. Together. Even if they have work to do. Maybe especially because they have work to do. She loves him all the time, but she thinks she might love him best when they’re doing that thing that they do, together.

  It doesn’t take long for him to soak it all in and say, “And Delgha got us here. How do you feel?”

  She checks her body. Back of head. Stomach. Lungs. Eyes. The usual places that she’s come to think of as pain points. She feels fine.

  “Me too,” Kyre says. “What’s our first step?”

  “Figure out why Rillent needs this place. I mean, we know he wants power, so it has to do with that. This is the missing key. But what is it the key to? And how does he plan to use it? I think we start with what he’s doing wrong.”

  “Wrong?” he asks.

  She flips through the book to the images of the destriatch. Complete and deadly as they were the first time she saw them. “He’s missing a piece of this. Knowledge? Access? Something that is keeping him from fully achieving his goals.”

  “If that’s what they’re supposed to look like, I’m glad he’s missing pieces. Those would wipe out the whole forest.”

  She traces the edges of one with her finger. Frills and scales. Not crackling energy and half-bodies. “Right, but look at this. They’re defending the base. Not attacking.”

  “So maybe Rillent doesn’t want to make them like this, because that would screw up his plans.”

  She shook her head. Rillent was never able to hold back from gaining what power he could. “I don’t think he knows this is what they’re supposed to do. How could he?”

  “So he doesn’t know what they’re supposed to be and he’s botching it…”

  Kyre’s flipping through the pages, using the same movements she’d been using a moment earlier. It’s one of her favorite things about him; how quickly he grasps a thing and starts running with it. There’s no one she’d rather be saving the world with.

  Kyre stops on an image of the kubrics. Studies them. She stays quiet, lets his brain fill in the holes. “These aren’t our kubrics,” he says after a moment.

  “What does that mean?” She leans back, trying to see what he’s seeing.

  “They’re the opposite of ours… Look, if you put this image…” He moves the pages in a way she hadn’t known they could move, bringing two together, like folded paper. “…with this image, you get two sets.”

  The image is two stars of buildings. Bridges of energy between them. This star in the middle.

  “What does that mean?” She’s trying to wrap her brain around it. “There’s another set of kubrics somewhere in the world?”

  “Not in this world,” Kyre says. “I think it’s transdimensional. I remember seeing something about that…” He shakes his head. “Somewhere in Rillent’s possession. But I can’t remember why or what it was exactly.”

  She understands transdimensional, thanks to listening to her mother and the other Aeon Priests. Other worlds. Held apart from this one by a barrier of light or energy or space. Her mom had believed in these faraway places, but Aviend had never been sure if they were real or just something that people hoped were real. Wasn’t that true of herself too, of the Night Clave? They were real and they were something that people hoped were real.

  “So, two worlds.” Her brain is catching up to whatever it is that Kyre and the book are trying to show her. “Two sets of kubrics. One star between them. An energy bridge that connects them all and does… something.”

  “Whatever it was designed to do, I’m sure it wasn’t to give power to someone like Rillent.”

  She has a sudden, horrible thought. “Do you think there’s a Rillent in the other world too?”

  “Let’s hope not. That’s more than even we can take on, I think.” Kyre leans in, runs his finger along a shimmering line. “Ghostfell.”

  He means it, she sees, as both the swear and as information. The shimmered line is full of ghosts. But not ghosts. They’re…

  “People,” she says. “Kyre, what if the ghosts are people from the other world. Dimension. Place. Something.”

  “Are they trying to come here?” Kyre asks. “The ones we see? Is that why they’re becoming solid?”

  That’s not quite right, but she can’t wrap her mind around why. The ghosts don’t act like travelers. They act like people who aren’t where they expect to be. Bumping into things. Falling down cliffsides. Surprised travelers.

  “No,” he echoes her thoughts. “That’s not right. We’ve been thinking that ever since Rillent started using the kubrics, the ghosts are getting more solid. But what if they already were solid?”

  She sees where he’s going. “So it’s not that the ghosts are getting stronger. It’s that the barrier is getting weaker.”

  “Right. It’s the kubrics. They control the barrier. There’s five on this side, and five in the other world.”

  “No,” she shakes her head. It’s like she can sense the pieces of the puzzle settling into each other, with almost audible clicks. “I think the star does that. The star is in the middle, and controls the whole thing.”

  “But even without the star to control the process, Rillent has found a way to draw power. And with Rillent drawing that power, the barriers are weakening. We’re seeing into another world.”

  “We’re seeing into another world,” she echoes. “Their world.”

  The world that built this device? she wonders. Or was that someone else, in a different place entirely, who wanted to come here for–

  All of the pieces keep on sliding together. Brain puzzle taking shape. “This isn’t a star,” she says. “Or it is a star, but it wasn’t designed for that. It’s a way to travel. Or it was. From here to there…” She snaps her fingers. “Like that. If we could master these controls fully, we could bring down the barriers instantly, build a sort of bridge, cross over, and then close it up again.”

  “It would take a long time to figure all that out,” he says, closing his eyes. “Even with Delgha helping. Rillent would probably find this place way before then.”

  She’s the one flipping through pages now, looking for something. The back of her brain is active but the front needs to stay busy so that it doesn’t interfere with her thinking.

  “But Rillent doesn’t care about travel,” she says. “He doesn’t want to go to another dimension. He wants to rule this world, right here, right now. Not some faraway place where he can’t–”

  “Right.” They’re talking faster now, ideas humming into the air with a power of their own. “He’s not traveling, he’s drawing power. Like I saw in the temple that time. The stars – the lights – dimming. Rillent’s got a way to use the kubrics to draw power from the other universe. Maybe it’s that implant he has in his head.”

  She nods. Kyre’s thinking is right in line with her own. She keeps flipping through the diagrams in the guidebook-thing. “But whatever he’s doing, it’s a half measure. His destriatch aren’t complete. He’s jury-rigged something, but what he really needs–”

  The answer is coming to her just as Kyre says it. “Is a huge conduit. He’s using the kubrics to get a trickle of power, but with this star? Complete control. Lots of energy. All the energy. He doesn’t know or care that this can be used to travel to another world. Back when I was… there, he was always talking about energy. Power. As if the kubrics were big generators or something. But look at this stuff. That’s not what the kubrics are at all. The whole thing is a conduit. Maybe whomever built it originally didn’t even care about travel either. Maybe they just wanted a whole universe to convert to energy. Who knows?”

  “He’ll suck it up until there�
�s nothing left,” she says. “Would that destroy it? The other world?” She knows the answer, in her heart, and Kyre’s short nod confirms it.

  “Dormant for so long, under the soil,” he says. “In the sky. And then we went and dug it up.” She can hear the strain, sharp as a knife blade, along the edge of his words.

  “Someone would have.” It’s true, she knows it is, but it helps her to bring the words to the light, to make them, and what they carry, more real. For once, she can’t tell if her words make him feel better or worse. He’s watching her hands flip the pages, not looking at her.

  She finds the diagram she knew she saw earlier, does the thing that Kyre did to move the pages around. Only now does she realize its importance. It looks just like the thing that Kyre had described was hidden under Rillent’s headband. His implant. And in the schematic, it’s associated with the controls here in the star like it is some kind of key.

  “Look, Rillent can’t destroy anything yet,” she says. “He might have the key, but he doesn’t have this place. Or the temple. Not yet.”

  “Not yet.” Kyre taps the image she’s stopped on. She can tell he’s got ideas brewing. It shows up in the tiny lift of his cheekbones. Not a smile, but a rising.

  He points at the diagram right next to hers. It shows a particular connection between two kubrics. But one lies on one side of the barrier, and the second is on the other side. The key between.

  “We don’t have to spend all that time figuring out how the whole system works,” she says, looking at the connection.

  “It wouldn’t matter even if we did. We don’t have the key.”

  “Right. But if this is going to work,” she says, pointing at both ends of that connection, “it’s going to take both of us. On each end. At the same time.”

  They study the images in silence for a long moment. A plan is forming, almost tangible, a thing of its own making between them. She feels like if she reached out, she would actually be able to touch it.

  “We don’t know how to get there,” he says. “To the other… world.”

  “Yes, we do.” She flips the book. Points.

  “The ghosts,” he says. “Of course. They carry us through the barrier somehow. Or, almost.”

  “But I think we need a lot of them, all in one place, for it to work,” Aviend says. “And that means…”

  “We have to send a message to the other side and ask for help.”

  “Can Delgha do that, do you think?”

  “If anyone can, Delgha can.”

  “I think we have ten-tenths of a plan,” she says.

  “I think it might even be better than that.” He smiles with a confidence she hasn’t seen in a while. It makes her heart leap, just a bit.

  “Let’s go tell the others,” she says.

  He nods, and taps the device at the side of his neck to connect with Delgha, and she swears she can hear him singing under his breath.

  “The two of you are going to have to split up,” Delgha said. “In order to move fast enough to make everything work. Quenn’s in…” She looked at her notes.

  “Nalloc,” Aviend said. She lowered her finger to the map floating in the middle of the room, held it there so they could all see it. She’d updated the device, using what she remembered from the map in the star. It looked to Kyre like home, but also not.

  “Right,” Delgha said. “North. And Thorme’s contact for the psychic lure is to the southeast, on the opposite side of the Stere border.”

  Now that they’d come back from the star with a great understanding of everything and the start of a plan, the team had a bustle of energy about them, a sense of purpose. Funny how closely purpose and action tied together to create hope. Or maybe it was purpose and hope that worked together to create action. Whatever it was, the room was practically buzzing with energy. It was different from before their last plan.

  It was different because of the killing. Last time, their plan was to kill a person. And even though no one had said it aloud, it was like they had all understood the consequences of that. Of using Rillent’s own methods to try to take him down. It weighed. Blacked their ability to believe in the plan. He wondered, in the end, Quenn aside, if that was really why it hadn’t worked. Either way, he was still grateful. He was still himself.

  This plan was simple. No, it wasn’t. Not in the least. It had so many steps that he had trouble tracking them. Not because he’d forget one, but because any one of them could go wrong and it would all come tumbling down.

  “Someone can make it to Nalloc in half a day and back, with a quick foot pace,” Delgha continued. “The south side, though. We’re going to need transport for that.”

  “That far,” Kyre said, looking at the distance from Aviend’s finger to the base. That would take days with walking. Maybe more, depending on the trails, or lack thereof. “Too bad the star can’t take us to other places.”

  “Be careful what you wish for,” Aviend said, laughing. “You don’t know where we might end up.”

  “Fair point,” he said. “What do we have for movement devices set up?”

  Delgha winced.

  “That doesn’t look good,” he said.

  “Thorme knows a supplier who knows a supplier who’s selling her–”

  “Trading me,” Thorme said.

  “Trading her – a time dilating windrider first thing tomorrow.”

  “Yes!” Aviend said. “I want to use the time dilator. I’ve always wanted to try one of those.”

  “It’s all yours,” Kyre said. He had no desire to strap himself onto one of those machines and leap forward through time and space. He didn’t mind the dispatcher so much, and he was… all right with traveling back and forth to the star. But actually screwing around with time? That was one of his big no thank yous.

  “Has to be Kyre,” Thorme said.

  “What? Why?” Aviend glared at him. It was mostly, he thought, in jest. “He always gets the fun stuff.”

  “Agreed. Why do I always get the ‘fun’ stuff?”

  “Quenn,” Thorme said.

  “Thorme, every once in a while, it would be useful if you said more than four words at a time, you know.”

  “Oh,” Aviend said. “She’s right.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Quenn might come back for you,” Aviend said. “But he might not. If he’s going to come back, he’s going to come back for me.” She winced too, as if saying that about herself didn’t agree with her. It probably didn’t; after Rillent, she shied way from being special.

  Kyre didn’t disagree with her, but he didn’t like it either. “Skist. You had to find somebody at the far reaches of the world, didn’t you, Thorme?”

  “Yes,” she said simply. He didn’t want to let her make him laugh, but he found himself doing so anyway.

  “Fine,” he said. “I’ll take a ride on the time-warping, Kyre-killing machine of doom. This is starting to feel like a theme, and it isn’t one I like. Don’t be surprised if I come back broken in the head or drive myself off a cliff with it.”

  “Try to get everything we need first, at least,” Aviend said. Her voice was wrapped up in tease, but her hand had taken his, and was squeezing. She swiped her thumb to her chin once. You’ve got this.

  “Everyone, tell me your roles again.” Delgha was pointing at Aviend.

  “I go get Quenn and convince him to come back with me, so he can show us how he got out of the kubric.”

  “And thus how we can get in,” Delgha finished. “Kyre?”

  “Go with Thorme to get the Kyre-killer and then ride said Kyre-killer to the far reaches of the world to get Thorme’s slistovile lure.” He turned to look at Thorme, who was busy writing something up on labels that she was then sticking onto vials and tubes. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  Thorme lifted one shoulder without looking at him. “What ever is?” As if she sensed that Delgha was about to point at her and say her name, she continued. “I’m going to get the Kyre-killer–�
�

  “Nice that that’s its official name now,” he said. He could feel Aviend shaking next to him as she started laughing.

  “Get the Kyre-killer, go find…” Thorme glanced at Aviend and Kyre.

  “Nitar,” they both said in unison.

  “Nitar for making disguises. Let Toev know about the plan. Get the runners running. Keep everyone alive.”

  “That seems about right,” Delgha said. “I’ll work on getting a message to the other side – if we can’t make that happen, all of this is for naught. After that, I’ll tackle the time trackers for Kyre and Aviend, and the rest of the cyphers.”

  “Those of you traipsing through the woods, take care,” she added. “The runners won’t be back before you need to leave, so you’ll be flying blind. Rumors are that Rillent’s eyes are still elsewhere.”

  “Makes me nervous,” Aviend said. “Even though we’re pretty sure he’s not looking for us. Still.”

  Kyre squeezed her hand back as she talked. Hoped his touch helped her as much as hers did him.

  “We’ll all need to balance fast with quiet,” Delgha said. “It’s a race, but it’s a race we don’t want to get caught at.”

  “Weird to think that getting into the kubric is going to be the easy part of this plan,” Aviend said. “The real question is: how do we end Rillent without also ending the Stere? Without killing off the very thing, the very people, we’re trying to protect?”

  It wasn’t a rhetorical question, but no one answered it. No one had an answer yet. Kyre had some ideas, but most of them were tucked somewhere between a very, very long shot and absolutely untenable.

  Aviend played with the pendant, round and round. “One thing we know is that Rillent’s power grab is set on something far larger than the Stere,” she said. “If he comes into his full power, he won’t stop here, in these woods. He’s going to try and keep going. If it comes to a sacrifice of those within these trees and the whole rest of the world… worlds…”

  She let her words trail away. They were pointed at everyone, but Kyre knew they were for him. She was asking him what he thought. He wanted to tell her, but honestly, he didn’t know. He understood the concept – sacrifice a few for the greater good. And it was fine as a concept. On the page or in your brain. But as a real-world plan? One that involved the deaths of untold people who shared this part of the world? He couldn’t say yes to that. Not after everything they’d learned with Rillent.