A horn sounded from below, drawing her attention to a bus passing by on the street. A bus. How did she know what it was called?
Semira knew the names of everything now. Yet moments before, she hadn't. Searching her mind, she found many memories not her own and felt urges she'd never felt before but could put names to. Passion, unburdened love, a feeling of belonging and serenity.
She found herself smiling. These emotions felt so good. Where had they come from?
"I have brought you here for a purpose," a voice said. "You must see the past, as it will drive your future."
Jumping, Semira spun around to find a wizened old woman with long wispy hair and deep wrinkles standing before her. Semira backed against the short wall. "Who are you?"
The old woman smiled warmly, like a kindly old grandmother. "My name is Ahnna."
The feeling of wellbeing left Semira and she felt her normal self again. Her mood darkened. Who is this old woman? What does she want with me?
Ahnna continued to smile at her. "Don't fear. One day, you will know those feelings again and they'll be yours and only yours."
"What are you talking about? Why am I here? The last thing I remember—"
"Was a log cabin, burned hands and being attacked."
"How did—"
"I know?" Ahnna moved to stand beside her and gazed out over the city. "I know everything that transpires here, for I am the heart of this world. The place your kind calls the visiondream."
Semira fingered the toy egg in her pocket, relieved to find it still there. "What does that mean? How can you be a heart of a whole world?"
"Watch," Ahnna said, making a hand gesture.
Instantly, Semira found herself standing in a park, with green grass and rolling hills in the distance. Children climbed on play equipment, laughing and calling out to one another. Their parents sat at picnic tables, talking amongst themselves. Nearby, a woman breastfed a baby on the grass, staring down at it lovingly while her male partner prepared their noonday meal.
It all felt natural to Semira, like these things were a part of her upbringing—yet they weren't. Her upbringing was one of darkness, cold, dripping caves and horrific monsters that wandered the lonely, primordial passages, deep under the earth.
"Several years ago, I put his knowledge inside your head, so that you will understand all that you are going to see."
Semira turned back to her. "What do you mean? How did—"
"The scar on your back. A loyal servant of mine implanted you with his genkey. A device your sister once called the passkey."
"What...?" Semira's mind spun and she reached around to touch the scar. Somehow, she'd forgotten it was there. It hadn't hurt like it used to since she'd entered the visiondream. "Why? Why did you put it inside me?" A red haze descended upon her. She put Dwaycar in me. She ruined my life!
Ahnna waved a hand and Semira's rage was gone. "You will listen to me now. There is much you must learn and time is running out."
Semira tried to grasp hold of the anger that had burned so bright a moment before, but it was as if it had been sucked out of her and replaced with a calm detachment. A most unsettling state of being for one who existed in a seething cauldron of rage, self-loathing and guilt. She didn't know how to deal with it.
"Fear not," the old woman said. "I will let your rage return once we are done here. It has its uses."
"Tell me why. Why did you implant me with Dwaycar's genkey?"
"His name was Dressen when I was made, and this was once his world. A world you need to understand, so you can comprehend what I must show you."
"Aisha said Dwaycar was here." Semira glanced around. "How did he leave?"
"He was here with Ryhana, the one your father called Aisha. The two of them lived inside me for many years. And for many of those years, they were happy. Then I began to see what was happening in the real world and I knew the time had come. I set the events in motion that led you and your sister to where you are now. Dressen had to return and Ryhana's heart had to be broken."
Thoughts came unbidden to Semira, shifting like loose rocks in her mind. "You... You made Sasha so Ryhana wouldn't be alone."
Ahnna nodded. "Indeed. Ryhana loved Dressen like no other, and he loved her too. But he needed to leave her and return to the real world." Ahnna paused to take in a deep breath, her face taking on a grave look, her wrinkles deepening. "I tell you this because it leads into the reason you're here. Dressen left with the knowledge of what needed to be done so that my plans would come to fruition. He went to confront his twin sister."
"His sister... You mean Imogen."
"Yes. Imogen was much like her brother, but smarter, more driven and willing to do things few others would. I will speak more on this when Kara wakes from her visiondream, as there are things you must both know."
One of the playing children kicked a ball and it rolled to a stop in front of Semira. She backed away as the boy ran over and picked it up. He turned and kicked the ball to another boy, seemingly not having seen the two observers standing before him.
"Is this real?" Semira asked.
Ahnna shrugged. "As real as anything is in this world. Scenes like this were once an everyday occurrence. Children playing their games, their bright little faces aglow with laughter and merriment."
Suddenly, the park was replaced by a rowdy scene of teenagers tormenting a lone figure who cowered amongst them. They shouted insults, spat and threw punches at the figure, who didn't try to defend itself. Semira squinted. The figure wasn't human. Instead, it appeared man-like but made of metal and painted an innocuous white.
Fear twisted in her stomach, but it was not her fear. It haunted the memories that now filled her mind.
The memories of Dwaycar.
The jeering of the teens faded to a background din. Their mouths still moved, but it was as if someone had muted the sound. "The past, before the ruin that set upon it, could be a violent place," Ahnna said. "Though as you saw in the park, it could also be bright and jubilant too."
"Why are they attacking that metal man? What did it do?"
"It didn't do anything. Many of its kind were treated thus. Perhaps it is why they would go on to do what they did..."
The vision faded and Semira found herself before a great statue of a proud-looking woman being carved out of a huge block of granite by more of the metallic figures. These metal men looked different to the one being beaten by the crowd. They were thinner, with spindly arms and legs suited for climbing. Each had four arms, two to chisel and two to grip the rock, their legs dangling below them.
"What are they doing?" Semira asked.
"They are forming the rock into the likeness of their mother. The woman who would become known as Imogen, Mother of Steel Children."
"Why would they make such things?"
"Imogen created them that way. She wanted her children to venerate her over all others. They have built statues to her all over the earth, thousands and thousands, all buried in snow."
Semira watched the figures work as they lovingly shaped the facial features of the statue. The details were meticulous. "I saw things much like these machines at a Stelemian city called Deep Cave."
"They have been woken from their ageless sleep by the activation of Imogen's genkey by Kara—who was the one fated to become her host."
And my father and Wrynric were the ones to force it upon her. Semira almost felt sorry for her sister, but couldn't quite bring herself to. Not after all the hateful things the half-blood had said back at the cabin and all the times she'd hurt or threatened Semira. She doesn't care about me and I don't care about her.
"They destroyed Deep Cave and moved to another city and destroyed it too, bringing down gigantic mushroom towers. Many died."
The old woman slipped an arm through Semira's. "That is only the beginning of what they will do if they are not stopped. Now I will show you the end of the old world to serve as warning of what may come if you and Kara fail in the tasks I will give you."
A
new scene appeared before Semira. She stood in a room with the body of a woman frozen face down on the floor. The dead woman looked like she had been there a long time. Her clothes were bleached but her flesh remained remarkably untouched by decay, under the layer of ice that had formed over her.
Beyond the dead woman, light streamed in through ice-crusted windows. Some of them were cracked or broken, letting in freezing air from outside. The cold didn't seem to touch Semira or the old woman beside her.
Ahnna led her over to the windows and peered out. "This represents the real world as it is now. A frozen, blighted waste where only Imogen's children dwell."
The hairs on the back of Semira's neck stood on end. Something was here!
Spinning around, she found the dead woman no longer there. Instead, she saw her sitting at a terminal speaking into a radio. Outside, the sun was high in the sky, shining over a large concrete runway.
"This is from moments before the end," Ahnna said, her face twisted as if in great agony. "I had to watch it all, seeing everything, feeling the pain and terror of every being connected to my whole. My torment, my horror... my screams. This is what began the corruption."
She lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. "I've refused to generate these images for many years, and sent them to redundant sections of my memory to slow the spread of the decay. Before I knew the corruption was linked to my horror, I used to play these images over and over; trying to understand how my creators, the people who once numbered in the billions, allowed their own technologies to turn against them." She leaned closer to the window. "I will watch here with you, for you must see what happens so when you fulfill your life's purpose—you will ensure this never happens again."
Everything had gone still; even the woman behind them had fallen silent. Holding her breath, Semira braced herself. Something big was about to happen, though she had no idea what it could be.
Then it came. A distant boom, and a slight tremor running through the ground.
The woman's voice behind Semira rose in intensity. The glass rattled in its panes. At first, Semira had no idea what was happening, then all at once the light outside began to dim as dark, impenetrable clouds rolled over the horizon. They quickly spread like mold over old mushroom bread. Soon the warm glow of the sun had been replaced by a deep cold that came on suddenly.
Semira could no longer see out to the runway, though inside the building where she stood, the electric lights still lit the room. But the windows and walls were not enough to keep out the worst of the cold. It took less than a minute for the woman sitting at the terminal to begin shivering uncontrollably. She kept at her posts until she breathed no more, her limbs turning rapidly to hardened ice.
The electric lighting dimmed, then went out altogether. A deep darkness settled over the room. A darkness that seemed to have no end.
"And so it was," Ahnna intoned. "And so it was."
"I don't understand." Semira searched the darkness outside. "What happened to the sun?"
"Imogen's children did this. They took the most destructive war technology humankind had made and unleashed it against them." She turned away from the frosted glass. "Use Dressen's knowledge to understand everything I tell you now. It is of the utmost importance you do, so when I give you your task, you understand what is at stake."
The scene changed back to how it had begun. Ice, the frozen body and shattered glass. Semira turned to the old woman. "What happened? Tell me."
"Imogen's children sent countless weather-altering nanoparticles into the Earth's atmosphere. The particles blanketed the planet, blocking out the sun and unleashing catastrophic weather conditions that turned the surface into a frozen wasteland. Only those who fled underground survived."
"How long did the darkness last?"
"Generation upon generation upon generation. Humanity left one darkness and entered another. People were never meant to live underground."
"Will the darkness on the surface ever end?" Semira asked, fascinated. Her people had a legend that spoke of the Ancient Enemy and the darkness they'd brought down upon humankind. The darkness that had exiled humanity from the Light of the Lost Sun. It had been part of her covenant's core beliefs, as was humankind's return to the light.
Ahnna smiled. "Yes. Some years ago, in your reckoning, the nanoparticles ceased their work and drifted out into space. Now the sun can be seen once more, and the ice and snow has begun to melt."
Semira looked outside. "But this place is not the real surface, is it? This place exists..." She hunted Dwaycar's memories for the right words. "This place exists out of time and space. It is a construct made by people like Imogen and could be anything they wanted it to be."
"Indeed. That is how I showed you these things. They are simulations within simulations." The old woman peered out at the gray sky. "In the real world, I live far above the surface in three orbital facilities containing the circuits and codes that make me whole."
Closing her eyes, Semira gave herself a moment to take it all in. Without Dwaycar's memories, much of what she saw and heard from Ahnna would be beyond her comprehension. "So tell me why you wanted me to see this. Why are we here?"
"First you must wake from this dream and stand with your sister before me. Then I will tell you both all you need to know." Ahnna sighed deeply. "The final battle that will determine the future of humanity draws close. And you and the one called Kara will each play a part in it. Now wake, bring your sister and come before me. There is much you must do."
"Before I wake, tell me. Why did the ancients make such powerful weapons? Why create them if they could destroy everything?"
The old woman's answer was simple. "Because they could."
CHAPTER 29
AEMON
"Please do not go. Not yet." Aemon was close to falling to his knees and begging Captain Royce and One Eye. "Help me take her genkey. That is the only way we can stop her."
Royce studied Aemon as his soldiers prepared to march over the bridge and return to Jalarfed. "You should have told me your concerns earlier. My hands are tied now." The captain glanced up at the sacred lights shining on the wall of the temple. "The Order believes her to be Divine Ibilirith and want me to spread the message of her return. Who am I to question them?"
One Eye smirked. "I could answer that for you, if you like."
Royce frowned at her. "Melody, stop, please."
"But she is evil." Aemon threw his hands in the air. "Just... can you stay a little longer? I have a plan for how we can get it."
"Do what you must, Lord Aemon. I will have no part of it." Royce gave him a hard look. "Patriarch Lucien confirmed you went into the Great Dark to find the very things that would save us in this war. Now you claim it is all lies and expect me to believe you? We are speaking about the word of the third most powerful person under the Priest King here, and the word of Radashan the Founder. The Founder!"
"But they are lying." Even Aemon knew how he must sound. He must think me a pathetic fool.
"People lie all the time," One Eye said dismissively. "Half my command lies to me on a daily basis. I honestly think the whole of Stelemia is built upon a foundation of lies." She patted him on the back, winking her missing eye at him. "But I'm a cynical old bat; just ask Benton."
Royce glared at her. She blew him a kiss. Turning back to Aemon, she said, "I give you this, Pulmard. I for one don't trust Ibilirith."
Aemon studied her, his gaze lingering on her empty eye socket. "You do not trust her? Then you believe me? Will you help me take her genkey?"
She stepped back. "Eh, I didn't say that, now did I? Frankly, I don't care what she is, as long as she doesn't get in my way." She put an arm over Royce's shoulders. "Benton here is one of the few people I do trust. To me, there are no divines, no heaven, no—"
"Melody, you know not to speak that way." Royce swiped her arm from his shoulder as he watched a group of monks praying near the doors to the temple. "Especially not here."
"Oh, you worry to
o much. No one can hear us." She gave Aemon a lopsided grin. "We have a war to fight and peasants to save. There's nothing either of us can do here except sit around and get drunk. And I've done that already." She lost the grin. "Here's an idea for ya. After the Order evacuates the temple and you arrive at Jalarfed, bring your concerns to the not-so-high commander. I'm certain he'll give them the full attention they deserve, in between gorging himself on food and mushroom beer."
Is she mocking me? It was hard to tell.
Royce sighed. "Please leave, Melody. I will deal with this."
One Eye straightened her back and gave him a perfect military salute, then strode over to her motley band of soldiers and began berating them. Royce reached out to shake Aemon's hand, but Aemon refused to take it.
"Fair enough. Goodbye, Lord Aemon, and good luck." The captain winced. "I wish there was more I could do. You seem a respectable sort and live up to your grandfather's noble legacy." He stood there a few moments more, studying Aemon. Then, shaking his head, he spun around and walked away.
Aemon watched him lead his soldiers over the bridge and disappear back up the road to Jalarfed. Leaving, just as the Reformers—the breakaway faction in the Order—had.
When Aemon turned away, he sobbed. He was alone in a temple full of insane zealots and a woman who would likely kill them all.
AS AEMON WALKED PAST a metal door on the way back to his room, a hand reached out and dragged him inside. Before he could see who had gotten hold of him, the door slammed shut and he was engulfed by fel red light.
"Aemon, my beloved."
Imogen.
He pulled out of her grip, hoping to leave, but found her blocking the door. "What do you want?" he demanded.
She had taken off her armor and wore a regal white gown that accentuated her figure, her bust almost spilling out the top of it. A thick golden chain hung from her neck, rings adorned nearly every finger and the genkey burned bright. Aemon tried not to show any sign of attraction toward her, even though his male instinct lusted for her beauty. Not hers. Kara's beauty. I hate you, Imogen.
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