Several more creatures poked their heads from the quicksilver behind the diver. They didn’t push all the way through, yet Glissa noticed the ones trapped in the air pocket with them continued to attack. It was odd. They must react on instinct, thought Glissa. They could survive in the air, at least for a time, but they weren’t willing to leave the quicksilver on their own. Glissa stepped up to the first half-eel and kicked it toward the side of the bubble. It landed short of the quicksilver wall but bounced into it. Once it hit the quicksilver, the eel retreated into the liquid and didn’t return.
Glissa kicked three more times, sending the eels flying through the air bubble into the quicksilver wall. It was sort of fun. Two left. She turned. The last two merged back into one large eel. She kicked at it anyway. But it had enough mass and length to collapse around her foot. When the two ends met behind her ankle, the eel began to constrict. Her foot went numb as blood stopped flowing past her ankle. She fell down into the muck. She couldn’t cut the eel for fear of slicing her own leg. The creature’s mouth opened up and snapped at her hands as she tried to grab it. She needed Slobad.
“Glissa!” called Slobad.
“What?”
“We got problem, huh?”
Glissa glanced over her shoulder at Slobad and Bosh. The goblin had burned most of the eels off of Bosh. The golem’s ash-covered hands pulled at the remaining eels wrapped around his head. Glissa couldn’t see what had spooked Slobad. Then she saw the quicksilver beyond Bosh move towards them. She thought Bruenna was losing her concentration until the mass of quicksilver grew tentacles.
“What the flare is that?” cried Glissa.
She had no time to deal with the eel on her leg now. Glissa reached down. When the eel snapped at her, she slammed her fist down its throat. The eel slammed its jaws shut, digging its teeth into the invisible metal of Glissa’s forearm. She spread her claws inside the beast, puncturing through its neck. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Glissa pulled her arm up and away from her legs. The eel ripped apart, but the mouth continued to chew on her arm. Glissa scrambled to her feet and kicked the squirming mass at her feet into the quicksilver wall. She ran toward Bosh, half an eel still attached to her arm.
The quicksilver monster loomed in front of Bosh. It was a huge blob of silver at least ten feet tall with tentacles waving out in front of it. She could see Bosh and Slobad reflected in the silvery skin of the creature’s body. The ends of the tentacles disappeared as it moved forward. The air must extend past the invisibility bubble, thought Glissa. She’d better attack it before it disappeared completely. She slogged through the muck as fast as she could.
Slobad wavered behind Bosh. He looked as if he wanted to run, but he wouldn’t leave the golem’s side—his self-preservation at odds with his love for Bosh.
“Slobad,” she called. “Come here.” She moved forward, waving her eel-clad arm at the goblin. “Burn this off and I’ll take care of that thing.”
As she approached, the monster lashed out with its tentacle arms. Bosh was still pulling at the eels wrapped around his head. He didn’t see the attack coming. Neither could Glissa. The tentacles disappeared before they reached the golem. But the tentacles didn’t retract. Glissa saw Bosh’s ash-covered arms pulled away from his head. Then the golem was moving forward, only his legs weren’t moving. Bosh dug his feet into the muck and tried to pull back.
Glissa screamed. She looked down to see Slobad burning away the remains of the eel attached to her arm. Ash mixed with blood from dozens of puncture wounds on her invisible arm. More tentacles snapped out from the quicksilver beast and disappeared into the invisible air surrounding Bosh. Glissa slogged forward to attack, but the monster stepped back through the silver curtain and from the air bubble.
A moment later, the beast pulled Bosh out of the area covered by the invisibility spell. He was completely wrapped up in tentacles. They encircled the golem’s torso like the leather rope that tied Bosh to the diver. The golem waved his bound arms, trying to free them, but more quicksilver poured into the tentacles, thickening the ropes around the golem. Before Glissa could even scream, the tentacles pulled the golem through the quicksilver wall, leaving a furrow in the muck behind him.
Glissa looked down at Slobad. He had followed her and was now staring up at her. She could see tears streaming down his cheek.
“I couldn’t save him,” said the goblin dully. “I saw it, and I couldn’t move, huh?”
“I know,” said Glissa. She looked at the wall of silver. “I’ll get him.”
“How?” asked Slobad. “Can’t see in there, huh? Can’t even breathe. How you survive?”
Glissa pulled the vial of serum from her boot sheath. “This will help me see.” She uncorked the vial.
“You need serum, huh?” said Slobad. “Need it for Learning Pool.”
Glissa smiled. “Bosh is more important.”
“How you breathe, huh?”
“I’ll hold my breath,” said Glissa.
“How long you hold breath, huh? How long?”
“Long enough.”
Glissa brought the vial to her lips and poured the thick, blue liquid into her mouth. It tasted sweet, salty, bitter, and sour all at once. The serum activated all of her taste buds as it spread through her mouth. She felt the liquid seep down her throat, coating and burning like a smooth hot drink.
As the heat spread through her body, it seemed to coat every inch of her in a warm embrace. Glissa became acutely aware of everything around her. She could feel Slobad standing next to her, his heart beating quickly, his breath shallow in the compressed air of Bruenna’s bubble. She could sense the mage in the diver behind them. Her hands continued their intricate rhythmic dance, but sweat poured down her face. The area just outside the bubble teemed with eels squirming around each other. Ahead of her, Glissa could “see” Bosh and the monster, just outside the bubble. The quicksilver monster had completely enveloped the golem.
“Hand me your fire tube,” she said to Slobad. She could hear her own voice both in her head and reverberating through the air bubble. It was disorienting. “Take my sword back to the diver. Tell Bruenna to collapse the bubble.”
“What you do, huh?” asked Slobad.
“Get Bosh,” said Glissa as she took the invisible fire tube from Slobad. “I’ll be back.”
The elf moved off toward the quicksilver curtain. She could sense the soft spots in the muck and avoided them. She held the fire tube in front of her as she reached the edge of the air bubble. The flame burned a hole in the swirling surface and caught the eel Glissa knew to be squirming inside.
She took a breath and followed the fire tube into the quicksilver. She had to push her body into the viscous liquid. It enveloped her like water and pushed against her like a stiff wind. The sensation was far more intense than the sudden rush of air from Bruenna’s spell. Her entire body felt compressed by quicksilver. Glissa fought back an urge to gasp for air. Her ears felt as if they would pop. Her chest tightened.
She focused on the eels and the monster. The fire tube cut an ashen swath through the quicksilver in front of her, melting any eels that dared swim near. She could feel Bosh kicking and punching inside the beast but knew the golem’s attacks were having no effect on the monster. It simply stretched and reformed after each assault. The monster was just a few feet farther, but Glissa was moving in slow motion. The creature stayed just out of reach. The elf began to drift up away from the sea bottom as swirling currents pushed her body around.
She tried to swim forward, waving her arms and kicking her legs in the quicksilver, but all that did was create an intricate pattern of ash with the fire tube. The current seemed to have a mind of its own. It shifted Glissa back and forth and turned her around. She twisted back around, then concentrated on the currents between her and the monster. She could sense it ahead of her. The sea floor was close beneath.
Glissa shoved her legs out to push against the sea floor. She jetted up a few feet into a current she d
etected above her. The current swept her along toward the monster. She lifted the fire tube above her head and pointed her toes as she approached. The current dragged her deadly fire across the shoulder of the beast. The quicksilver quaked as the monster screamed in pain. Glissa heard the scream more inside her head than through her ears. The vibrations resounded through the sea.
The current threatened to sweep her past the monster. Glissa reached out and grabbed a silver tentacle. Glissa could sense where the sea ended and the beast began. It had a solidity of being the amorphous sea lacked. She held on and brought the fire tube back around to drive it into the monster. It howled again. Glissa’s head began to ache from the pounding echo of the monster’s wailing and the lack of oxygen.
The quicksilver monster spat out Bosh and poured quicksilver into a dozen tentacles. Arms flailed at Glissa through the sea. With her enhanced senses, Glissa saw the monster’s attack almost before it came. She swung the fire tube in a slow arc through the quicksilver and cut off three tentacles before they reached her, but she was too slow in the thick liquid to bring the fire back around, and the other tentacles wrapped around her.
She bounced off Bosh. The golem grabbed at Glissa, but she knocked his hand away. They couldn’t escape the beast, not in its element. She had to kill it. She had to do it now. She allowed herself to be drawn toward the beast’s silver body.
The monster squeezed her mercilessly, constricting her chest and forcing the air from her lungs. Bubbles escaped from Glissa’s mouth and combined around her head in a small pocket of air. The beast squeezed even tighter, making it impossible for Glissa to draw another breath, and pulled Glissa closer.
Now was her chance. Glissa fought to bring her arm up. Tentacles slid, little by little, up her body. She got her elbow free and jammed the fire tube deep into the chest of the monster. The creature screamed and tightened its grip around Glissa. The pressure in her chest mounted, while the creature’s screaming pounded in her head. The monster tried to slide its body away from the fire. Glissa pushed back. She held her hand—and the fire tube—inside the beast.
The melting fire spread through the beast’s body. Glissa watched the beast’s torso turn to black ash. The Quicksilver Sea flowed in to displace the ash. The creature’s head soon followed, which finally silenced its head-splitting wail. The fire spread into the tentacles last, which dissolved around Glissa, releasing their hold on her.
With the pressure gone from her chest, Glissa’s instincts betrayed her. She immediately tried to draw in a breath of air. Instead, she drew quicksilver into her lungs. She choked uncontrollably. Every choke ended in a gasp, forcing more liquid into her lungs. She dropped the fire tube and grabbed her neck. But there was nothing she could do. Glissa’s enhanced senses closed down around her. The world began to go black. The last thing she saw was a looming dark form above her.
LUMENGRID
Glissa walked through the forest, basking in the warmth of bright sunshine filtering through the leaves. A squirrel skittered up a tree as she passed and shouted at her from the lowest bough. She felt free and alive. The morning dew squirted through her toes as she walked, barefoot, through the grass and moss.
Rays of light glinted off dew-moistened flowers, turning into rainbows that jumped from blossom to blossom. Her life was perfect. The forest provided everything the elves needed and protected them from the wars and ravages of men and gods. Her people existed to protect the forest. She knew that now. When had she forgotten? The forest existed to protect the elves. It was a truly symbiotic relationship. The elves would have it no other way.
A cloud drifted across the sky, blocking the sun and casting a shadow over the forest. She glanced up to watch for the warm light to return, but the cloud darkened and began to grow. Soon a charcoal mass of roiling storm clouds threatened to blot out the entire sky. Lightning played across the bottom of the turbulent cloud. The air became charged with raw power and lightning crackled across the sky. Glissa could feel the forest’s energy surge as the storm built. Was the storm feeding on the mana of the forest or bleeding off excess energy into the forest? She didn’t know.
A bolt of lightning shot down from the cloud into the forest ahead of her. The thunder deafened Glissa, and the force of the shock wave knocked her to the ground. She jumped to her feet and ran toward the impact. Lightning often brought fire to the trees. The forest must be protected. That was the law of the elves. Nothing else mattered.
She ran through the dark forest. No rain fell from the storm clouds, and the lightning seemed content to stay in the sky for now. Glissa smelled something burning ahead of her, but the odor was not wood turning to charcoal. It was more primal, more powerful. She broke into the clearing where the lighting had struck and was surprised to see a large body of elves already gathered there, as if they had all been drawn to this spot by the lightning.
In the center of the clearing, Glissa saw a black patch of grass at least twenty feet across that had been turned to ash by the lightning. A glowing sphere of energy hovered above the ash. The elves who crowded around seemed to be hypnotized by the sphere. They didn’t move closer to investigate, but neither did they make any attempt to flee from it. She wanted to look away from the sphere and knew she would be lost if she didn’t escape the clearing, but she couldn’t make her body move.
The sphere flashed, engulfing the gathered elves in a bright white light. Glissa screamed. It felt like her skin was burning, as if the light was consuming her. She fell but didn’t hit the ground. She couldn’t see anything but light and sparkling motes flying past her eyes as she fell into a white nothingness. Then she was on the ground, crumpled into a fetal ball, hugging her knees to her chest. Her eyes were closed, and there was a blessed darkness behind her eyelids.
After a time, Glissa dared to open her eyes. She expected to find black stalks where the trees had once stood. She feared there would be dozens of burnt and misshapen corpses surrounding her. She wondered whether she was truly still alive or had passed onto Gaea’s reward. Nothing she could have imagined, though, prepared the elf for what she saw when she opened her eyes.
Elves lay all around her. Most curled up as she had been. None were burnt or scarred from the flash. A few had pushed themselves up off the ground or sat and surveyed the damage to the forest. But the forest was gone. The trees, the flowers, the sun, even the black cloud had all disappeared. Glissa looked down to see bare metal beneath her. She looked up and saw great towers of twisted metal surrounding the elves. In the sky, there was nothing but stars, but even those were unfamiliar.
Glissa felt sick inside. The metal world swirled around her as she tried to get to her feet. A wave of nausea overtook the elf. She rested on her hands and knees, and closed her eyes to make the world stop spinning around her. She hoped it was all a dream that would be gone when she opened her eyes. The elf looked again, but the metal world was still there. She dropped her head down between her arms and vomited.
* * * * *
Glissa kneeled on the bottom of the diver, puking. Her chest and neck convulsed as a torrent of silver liquid erupted from her stomach and lungs. The spasms stopped a few moments after the last drops of quicksilver dribbled from her mouth and nose. She stayed there, hunched over a silver puddle, and just breathed, spitting excess quicksilver into the puddle every so often. Finally she crawled toward the front of the diver, feeling her way along the invisible metal, and sat down.
“I think that’s the last of it,” she said as she wiped her mouth and nose. “What happened?”
“You tell us, huh?” said Slobad. “Bosh dump you in diver. Think it was Bosh. Couldn’t see him. You not breathing. Not breathing at all. Human make spell and you start hacking. Spit up entire sea, huh?”
Glissa looked back at Bruenna. The mage was still concentrating on her air spell. “You saved me?” she asked.
“I put air in your body,” said Bruenna. “Bosh saved you.”
“Thank you,” said Glissa. She looked around. “Where
’s Bosh?”
“Out there,” said Slobad. He pointed past Glissa. “Pulling to Lumengrid, huh? Just start pulling again like nothing happen, huh?”
Glissa looked out the front of the diver. She could see the severed ends of the ropes hanging over the sea floor, right above Bosh’s muck-covered feet, which continued to trudge through the sea.
“Any sign of eels or other monsters?” asked Glissa.
Slobad shook his head.
“We are near Lumengrid,” said Bruenna. “I feel it.”
Glissa nodded. There was nothing to do now but wait. She sat and thought about the flare she had experienced while she was … dead. It had been so intense, so real. She had seen things she’d never seen before. Had the serum opened up her mind to a different time and place? Or was it just a hallucination caused by flirting with death? With Chunth dead, her only chance to find out the truth was the Pool of Knowledge, and now she had no serum to activate it.
Her musings were cut short by a loud clang from ahead of them. Glissa looked around to see what happened, and was worried when she saw the ropes floating down to the bottom of the sea. But then she noticed the golem’s feet trudging back toward the diver. The feet banged into the side of the invisible diver, then climbed the side, leaving muddy smears behind. The elf heard Bosh’s voice boom from above her. He must have climbed up the iron tube and stuck his head through the opening.
“I am glad you have recovered, Glissa,” said the golem’s disembodied voice.
“Thank you, Bosh,” said Glissa. “I owe you my life.”
“As I owe you. I believe we have arrived. I have struck a metal wall. How shall I proceed, Bruenna?”
“Pull us around the base,” said Bruenna. “You will see a tube. Take us in there.”
“How will he be able to see the tube?” asked Glissa.
“Good question,” said the human mage. “I haven’t worked out all the problems with the diver yet.”
The Moons of Mirrodin Page 25