by Ren Cummins
The image-Rom turned and leaped away from the image-Ian and image-Mulligan. Suddenly, all the movement on the walls stopped.
“It’s all my fault, Kari,” Rom whispered. “If he hadn’t come back to teach me, Artifice wouldn’t have found him, and Molla wouldn’t have killed him.”
Kari stepped around the dais to kneel by her friend. Rom’s eyes were reddened and puffy; tears were mostly dry on her cheeks.
“No,” Kari said softly. “Don’t say that, Rom. He loved teaching you.”
Rom’s lips parted, but she couldn’t find the words to speak her grief and guilt. She shook her head and new tears fell.
Leaning closer, Kari drew her arms around Rom and held her. The two girls cried in the silence of the seer-room until the tears had gone, like the clouds beneath a summer sky. The walls retained the image of Ian, staring over Mulligan towards Rom, who was several buildings away, and preparing for her first steps in her new understanding.
* * * * *
“So,” Rom said, clearing her throat and trying to slip past the sense of despair that was poised on the edges of her mind, “did you figure out that thing in our room?”
Kari grinned. “Does anything ever stump me?”
Laughing, Rom responded, “Only Cousins.”
Her eyes widened and her cheeks blushed deep crimson; Kari punched Rom on the shoulder. “Oooh! Shut up about that!”
The two girls laughed, and slowly stood up. “Okay, but we should get back before he worries about you,” Rom teased. “He loves to worry about you.”
“Shut up,” Kari warned again.
Sighing dramatically, Rom balanced herself with one hand against the dais while pretending to examine the shine of her boots. Her voice was playful as she continued to poke fun at her friend. “I’m just saying, at least you know he’s going to be the love of your life one day. I just wish I knew what my life had in store.”
The tiles responded with a flourish of sound that caused both girls to jump back from the dais.
On the walls around them, the view was of the fields; then moving into a perspective through the streets of Oldtown, finally rising to an image of the Wall. Out of nowhere, a small girl with a long curving staff jumped into the picture, landing at the base of the wall and striking it with the end of her crook. The Wall cracked, the split widening further and further, until it all rained down in large chunks, tiny pebbles and dust that choked the sunlight.
As the dust settled, the city of Aesirium could be seen in the background while the tiny Rom-image raised the staff above her head. And at last, with a single sweep of her hand, the city fell.
Rom could not breathe, could not blink. She merely stood in the center of the room with those haunting images searing their way into her mind. And when it could no longer bear it, she lowered her hand from the dais, turned and slowly walked away.
Kari, transfixed by the weight of the message, turned back just as her friend opened the door, and ran after her.
Chapter 22: The Life of a Reaper
Back up their room, the two girls sat and watched Mulligan as he slept halfway rolled onto his back, paws in the air flinching randomly.
Kari’s eyebrows came together in a wrinkle. “Rom,” she began, her voice quiet so as not to disturb Mulligan’s sleep, “you know, I’ve never asked you about…” Her voice trailed off as Rom’s eyes rose to meet hers. Kari lifted a finger to her own forehead, tapping it once before returning to her lap. “What is it? What’s it like, being…well, being… you?”
Her friend shrugged with a sigh. “I don’t know, I don’t really think about it as much as you would,” she teased, attempting a bit of levity she didn’t really feel inside. “It’s just…” She looked back at Mulligan who lay near her. “At first, it just seemed like it was going to be a lot of fun – even the scary parts like fighting monsters and stuff.”
Rom crossed her hands in her lap, her fingers curling around – but not touching – the black stone embedded in her silver bracelet. “But then, Ian… died.” She took a deep breath and bit her bottom lip. “And then it all just became so much more serious. I guess it was always serious, but I never really stopped long enough to think about it.”
Kari waited for several moments to pass in silence before speaking. “You never really told me about it, or what happened,” she said. “Like Yu, and all the others. How does that all work?”
In spite of the heaviness she felt, Rom smiled at her friend. “You’re such a scientist,” she chuckled. She took a deep breath and shook her head again. “I don’t know how it happened. It was when we were out with Cousins that time with the lightning, remember? I woke up in this other place – it’s where all the spirits go when they die, to kind of get ready to go on or come back or whatever the spirits are supposed to do. I met others who’d been Shepherds – Reapers, whatever – before me, and that’s where I met Artifice, too – the one who’s been trying to kill me.”
“They kind of taught me what to do – they crammed Mully’s head with a lot of information, and he’s able to help me learn things that I would’ve been taught by the other Sheharid. There’s always two – when one dies, another is born, that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
“But you were born before Ian died,” Kari said.
Rom nodded. “I think I was born when Artifice took his spirit gem – he used to have these, too,” she said, pointing to the purplish gems that were part of her, gleaming through the white hair that curled down around her forehead. “These are what connect us to the world of spirits – they’re what make us what we are, I think.”
“Why do you have two of them?” Kari asked, “I’ve always wondered about that.” Kari and Rom were both smiling now, something about the conversation lightening both their moods.
“I don’t know. Mully said it’s got something to do with showing how a Sheharid grows or becomes better at being a Shepherd - - the first one appeared after I came back from being dead or whatever, and the second one happened after I found Yu.”
“Will you get more?”
“Maybe. Inertia has a few of them – or at least he did when he was alive. I guess he can look however he wants, now that he’s in the spirit world, I don’t really know how that part works yet.”
“So when Yu isn’t here…?” Kari began, not sure how to phrase her question.
Rom pointed to the gem. “He’s there, in the world of the spirits. When I touch this, I think of him and he appears. He’s not alive or anything, he’s made of up energy – but he can get hurt, so I always send him back if he gets beat up. But Yu’s special. I’ve fought a lot of monsters, and only a few have ever stayed. Most feel bad about what they’ve done and go on, but I think it takes a special kind of spirit to be able to come back and stay with me.”
“Yu’s so beautiful, but he’s scary, too. I’m glad you don’t have to fight against him.”
“I did, just the one time. But I think even then, he was fighting the poisons that made him into a monster. I think that’s the only reason I was able to beat him, back then.”
“Will he always be with you?”
Mulligan twitched enough that he woke himself up, interrupting the conversation. He rolled up onto his paws and stretched out his wings, shaking himself awake. He glanced from Kari to Rom.
“It’s a difficult question, Kari,” he whispered. “It’s up to him how long he stays – until he believes he has atoned for his deeds in life.”
Rom nodded slowly. “There was one I found a year ago – he stayed with me for only a couple of weeks, and decided he wanted to be dead, after all. That was really sad.”
“It’s nothing you could do anything about, Rom,” Mulligan replied, placing a comforting paw on Rom’s knee. “If you could remove their will, you would be no different than the poisons which trapped them in life.”
“I know,” she said, though the tone in her voice betrayed her implied conviction.
Mulligan continued, “All things have their time,
Rom. Wherever we find our destinations to be, it has only been by each step we have taken that we have arrived there.”
He looked out to the window. “But these things are best spoken of beneath the sun; stars only give them an air of darkness and melancholia. Sleep, I will keep watch.”
Rom and Kari gave no rebuttal, but sleep did not easily find them in spite of their closed eyes.
Chapter 23: Opposing Forces
“You’re certain he tells the truth, Memory?” Inertia asked. The olive-skinned man smoothed his black hair from his face and shook his head slightly. Force sat with the man – who said his name was Jondal – and put on her best efforts to seem well-mannered and polite, two concepts which were typically foreign to her. But whenever he wasn’t looking, she looked past him to observe the whispered conversation between Inertia and Memory.
The latter placed one hand atop Inertia’s other hand and nodded softly. “I have seen his memories. Yes, he was indeed tainted in life by the Queen’s poisons, but he was sincere in his intentions to help. And Yu,” she added, pointing to the window through which the great blue mundaline could be seen, “has confirmed that Rom brought his soul through the veil. She even charmed him so that his memories would be retained – no others in this world know my charm but her.”
Inertia nodded, though he had clear reservations about this one. His mind did not lend itself easily to trusting others – events in his own mortal life had emblazoned that habit into him at an early age – and though he might play the role of the cavalier gentlemen, any who knew him well saw it for the façade it was.
Force stood up, excusing herself from the newly arrived spirit and former sandman, and stood beside Inertia. “There is only one way we can be certain he tells the truth,” she said, a familiar fire burning in her eyes.
Memory sighed. “Even with his information, the way will be dangerous.”
“Agreed,” Inertia said. “But now that we know for certain Artifice has some machination in place, we must know it for what it is. Only through inaction are we truly blind,” he quoted.
Shaking her head, Memory corrected the quote: “Only blind actions are worse than no action at all.”
Force’s lips curled in a frown. “I’m not going to sit here and just wait for her to bring her plan to bear,” she said in a heavy whisper. “If she’s building an army, we need to know how to destroy it.”
Silence filled the room for several moments. At last, Memory lowered her head. “You are both right, of course.”
As they both turned to leave, she held them both by the hands, pulling them back closely to her.
“Do not be seen; and if you are seen, do not be remembered,” she said, her voice lilting in a vague melody as she bound the spell around them.
They lowered their heads, accepting her blessing upon them. When her song was finished, they turned and left without another word.
The two spirits who had been Sheharid in life stood in the wild swaying grasses in front of Artifice’s castle.
“Seriously,” Force muttered. “Why does she need such a big building? It never rains here, no one ever attacks her; there’s not really even much of a reason to build a home at all, except for the spirits who just need a bit to sort out their feelings about their lives.”
Inertia nodded. It had been bothering him too, since they’d first heard about this construction. It definitely did not make sense.
He pointed to the parapets and buttresses. “See? She’s got an army of people walking around - - -wait a moment…” his voice trailed off. He squinted, trying to better see the soldiers.
“Let me help,” Force said. She curled her fingers together into a two-fisted tube. Breathing through it, she twisted her hands in opposing directions. When she opened her hands again, she held a narrow crystal cylinder – she handed this to Inertia, who nodded gratefully.
Holding the makeshift spyglass to his right eye, he looked again at the soldiers. “There’s something wrong with them,” he said. “They’re not quite all here, so to speak. Here,” he added, handing the crystal back to Force.
She looked through it and he pointed up towards the soldiers. “Yes, you’re right, they’re semi-transparent, but it comes and goes. Like they’re mostly here, and…”
“Somewhere else?”
She nodded. “Exactly. But there’s really only one ‘somewhere else’, right?”
Inertia took a long breath through his nose, exhaling it in a low whistle. “Do you think these are tied to the ‘sandmen’ that Rom’s been confronting?”
Force collapsed the crystal into air molecules, dusting off her hands. “Let’s get a closer look,” she said.
“Memory told us to be careful,” he warned.
Force grinned. “I invented careful.”
Inertia walked after her, shaking his head. “If you invented ‘careful’, why did I have to invent ‘cleaning up’?”
“Don’t be a baby,” she chided, lowering her voice. “Now hush, or you’ll break Memory’s spell.”
Inertia frowned, uncomfortable with Force’s knack for being both right and wrong at the same time.
The grasses stopped as they approached the base of the castle; the ground here became much more hard-packed, and soon changed to cobblestones and, in turn, to actual paving stones. The path turned quickly into a broad road, and then rose to eventually become the ramp that led up to the portcullis.
Inertia nodded appreciatively at Force, clearly grateful for their good fortune. They slipped through and paused to determine the best route inside. A few soldiers passed them, but none seemed to notice them. The men they saw were all wearing the same uniform; white robes and a simple white mask. Force pointed a thumb at one as it passed, and drew her other hand down over her face. Inertia nodded.
He indicated an opened door deeper within the courtyard. Several of the soldiers in white were passing through this door; it was blocked open by a triangle of wood beneath the doors. Force agreed silently, and they moved quickly enough not to risk damaging the distraction spell Memory had cast upon them. The spell itself worked well enough so long as only the subjects of the spell do nothing to interact with people or objects outside of the spell effects – doing so draws attention to them and then gives others’ minds a chance to unravel the delicate threads of the charm.
Inside the doorway, Inertia and Force came into a larger foyer, with additional soldiers milling about. These other guards within the castle did not entirely appear in phase with the rest – they all seemed to be lost in some other perception, looking in the direction of things which were not there, et cetera. It wasn’t until one of them stood from a chair which was not present and walked through a wall that it dawned on the two of them that these spirits were most likely more present in the living world, and only casting a sort of shadow into this one.
They moved quickly on, exploring several hallways which were of no use until they found one that ended in a sealed gateway that appeared to block a set of stairs leading downwards. They waited beside the door for several minutes, but no other people passed them to open the doorway.
Inertia sighed quietly, then nodded and pointed to Force, and then to the gate. Force nodded, understanding. She pointed to him and to her own eyes, flipping her head back down the hallway. He agreed, turning around and watching behind them.
Force cracked her knuckles and shook her hands, slowly inhaling in preparation. It was a simple enough use of her power, but channeling it so that it only extended within the range of energy she wanted and to do so without being noticed; it was like casting ten spells at once.
She extended the first two fingers of her right hand, placing them against the keyhole of the lock. Closing her eyes, she brought the friction of her shoes against the stone floor up through her legs and into her chest. It pounded there within her heart, even as her controlled breathing formed a protective shell around it to ensure no energy might escape. Then, once she was certain, she sent the friction and the concealment t
hrough her arm and out through her right hand, smiling in satisfaction at the dull clack of the latch as it released from the plate.
Inertia sent a small but focused gust of air along the hallway to let the gate swing gently inwards. The two moved quickly inside.
Halfway down the curving staircase, they could feel it; pulsing, emanating a thick and easily-remembered wave of energy that exhilarated and saddened them. Sheharid Is’iin magics were at work down here, at the bottom of these stairs. Inertia placed a warning hand on Force’s shoulder, but she shook it off and continued to descend. He grimaced. The two of them could not face Artifice alone. They had only their own mortal magics, while Artifice held the combined energies of all three of the captured Sheharids, for so long as she could hold them within the world of spirits.
And, as Artifice maintained the only way to move past this world, they were at her mercy.
The finally reached the bottom, stepping down into a single room which was likely as large as the entire castle itself. Supported by hundreds of granite columns, this room was nevertheless filled with a variety of beds and machines, all connected by cables and tubes to a central machine.
As they watched, soldiers sporadically appeared out of nothing to coalesce upon the beds. Other individuals – also wearing the white masks but with more loosely-fitting white clothing – placed white masks upon their faces and helped them to stand. Once these ministrations were done, the soldiers simply vanished.
Inertia nudged Force, but she simply shrugged.
Within a latticework of fine metal wiring inside the machine that stood in the middle of the room, floated a single, small white gem. Clearly, this gem powered the entire array. Inertia recognized the gem; he realized whose gem in fact it had been.
He pointed to the gem, nudged Force again, and mouthed the name: “Ian.”
Force looked more closely, and her eyes widened. Her mouth curled in a scowl, and, before he could stop her, she began to walk straight towards the machine.