Shardless

by Stephanie Fisher

  Taly’s chest felt uncomfortably tight. Her mother had died for her—sacrificed herself for a child that hadn’t even remembered her name.

  Before Taly could even begin to respond, Breena growled, and her magic flared around them. “Stay down, Vaughn!”

  Looking behind them, Taly saw Vaughn dodge the blast of rapidly expanding aether. His body was streaked with blood, but his wounds had already healed. He dodged again, rolling off to the side. There was an arrogant smile on his face that made Taly’s stomach turn.

  “Come now, Breena!” he called, a low chuckle shaking his shoulders. “It’s been such a long time since we sparred. I think I’m owed a rematch!”

  He hadn’t even finished the sentence before he charged. He moved too fast for Taly’s eyes to follow, his trek across the wide expanse that separated them nothing but a blur. She tensed, but her mother seemed unperturbed. A few moments later, she realized why.

  A crack of static followed by a yelp of pain and Vaughn was suddenly stumbling backward. He had run into a wall of electricity. Streaks of blue lightning rippled up and over their heads, creeping across an invisible barrier that shot up into the night sky.

  “By the way,” Breena said, her voice cocky as she met Vaughn’s enraged, silent stare, “I reactivated the palace’s defense systems.”

  Vaughn said nothing as he stepped cautiously along the barrier, matching their pace. The crystal shard was still clutched tightly in one hand and snaking tendrils of shadow magic coiled between his fingers as he raked his other hand along the barrier.

  After a few steps, he seemed to grow tired of this game. With a savage roar, he abruptly slammed the shard into the barrier. Taly felt a tremor as the invisible wall of energy shuddered.

  A chilling smile distorted his features as he raised his makeshift mace once more and began attacking the wall in earnest. Growls and snarls punctuated each strike, and when the crystal in his hands cracked, he began beating against the shield with his bare hands. Burns and cuts marred his fists, but the flesh was mending itself too fast to allow even the barest trickle of blood.

  The gates of the palace were just up ahead now, but Vaughn was already starting to break through the wall, the barrier flashing more feebly with each strike. “A little help here!” Breena yelled into the night sky as she increased their pace.

  As if on cue, a flickering blue orb drifted down from above. Its soft glow felt warm on Taly’s face as it danced in front of her, as though inspecting her features. “F-fairy fire?” Taly stuttered. Shards, she had been right! All those years ago, she really had seen fairy fire outside her window! If she ever saw Skye again, she was going to make him eat his words. “Fairy fire is real?”

  “Yes!” the orb chimed, its voice delicate, almost bell-like. “We here now! We help!”

  More blue orbs began to materialize in the air around them as Breena continued to half-drag Taly towards the palace. Their forms were hazy and indistinct, little more than translucent shimmers of mist that zipped through the air as they chased each other in a game that didn’t seem to have any rules. Their laughter sounded like wind chimes, and a tinkling cheer rang out when Breena held up a hand to release more violet energy that she waved toward Vaughn. Bright flares of shadow magic rippled in her wake as a series of concussive blasts sounded from behind them. Each detonation was followed by an enraged howl from the shadow mage, but it was just a distraction—a ploy to buy time. Because even though the explosions slowed down his assault on the barrier, he was dodging Breena’s attacks easily now.

  Breena swatted at a wisp that flew too close. “Blasted pests. Make yourselves useful!” she commanded forcefully. “Cover our escape! Attack him! For Shards’ sake, do what you stayed here to do! Take your revenge!”

  “Aye!” they all chimed in unison. “We help! We kill…”

  The group of wisps scattered, their shimmering forms dissipating into mist as they sunk into the ground. Metal clanged against metal, and Taly tripped as the half-buried scrap at her feet began to tremble. Pieces of ancient, long-discarded armor ripped from the ground in a shower of dirt, shuddering as the threads of blue energy tugged at them, reassembling the rusted shells.

  The metal suits looked like great hulking beasts—far bulkier than the sleeker, streamlined models that Skye had shown her in the rare glamograph he had bothered to bring back from his trips to the mainland. The joints and crystal settings whirred as the wisps somehow revived the rusted wiring, and fragments of bone dropped to the ground as the metal soldiers shook themselves off and pulled themselves together. Staring at the towering, haphazard, multicolored amalgamations of suits, Taly couldn’t help but think that 200 years ago, when they were still new and whole and polished, they would have been dazzling.

  The fragmented suits of armor were striated with streaks of blue energy as the wisps attempted to mimic the living, their movements jerky and uncoordinated. They had managed to restore a couple dozen suits, and as they took giant lumbering steps towards the shadow mage who was now almost through the barrier, he finally backed away, the slightest glimmer of fear flaring to life in those yellow eyes.

  The wall yielded to the reanimated soldiers, its electrified tendrils slipping past the corroded metal surfaces like water. There was a sense of recognition there—Taly could feel it, even if she couldn’t quite understand it.

  The revived Mechanica surrounded Vaughn, and the cannons built into their mismatched greaves began to hum. Rows of air, water, and fire crystals winked and glittered in the dim light as the startup sequences completed.

  A pause, barely a breath of silence, and then…

  Explosions lit up the night sky as bursts of magical energy rocketed through the air. Each blast sent up a plume of rock and smoke where it collided with the ground, but Vaughn was too fast to get caught in the salvo. He zigzagged across the field, easily dodging each discharge and tearing apart the rusted soldiers with his bare hands. He was bleeding now, the skin taking slightly longer to mend itself as he redirected his aether, but Taly could already see that the diversion wouldn’t last long. His blows were too accurate, too fierce, and he’d already managed to take out two of the suits. The dislodged wisps buzzed around him, but he paid them no mind.

  “Here we are,” Breena finally announced as they came to a stop in front of the main gates, dozens of the blue fairies still dancing around them. The wrought-iron structure looked sturdy despite the delicate filigreed designs woven throughout, and a heavy padlock hung from a thick, coiled chain. Grasping at the lock with her free hand, Taly’s mother didn’t even flinch when a sharp crack of defensive magic lashed out at her.

  “It tickles a bit,” she said in response to Taly’s wide-eyed stare. “But defensive wards don’t work very well on those with no physical body.” She gave the lock a sharp tug, and the links of the heavy chain snapped and warped like they were made of clay.

  “It’s time for you to go with the fairies. They can take you to where you need to be.” Breena wiped at a stray tear as she placed both hands on Taly’s shoulders, waiting for her to find her footing before she completely let go.

  “What? No!” Taly protested. “First of all, I’m not going anywhere with a bunch of homicidal spirits. And second, I’m not leaving you.”

  Another crackle of energy split open the starlit sky, and... Shit!? What to do, what to do?! She could already see that Vaughn had nearly wiped out the group of animated Mechanica suits.

  “You must, dear,” Breena replied, pushing a stray lock of hair out of Taly’s eyes. “Even if we worked together, we wouldn’t stand a chance against him. You have no aether left, and me? I still have a few tricks, but I’m just a shadow of what I was when I was still alive. I can’t kill him, but I can make sure that you stay safe. That is my duty—both as your mother and as a Crystal Guardian.”

  “No, I…” Taly fumbled for the right words. This couldn’t be the end. Not yet. There were so many questions she wanted to ask Breena. So many things she wanted to tell her
. But now, with Vaughn raging in the background and the wisps already tugging at her clothing, she felt paralyzed. “Will I see you again?” was all she managed to ask. The orbs were pulling at her more insistently now, but she resisted.

  Breena shook her head sadly. “No. Now that the spells have been broken, there’s nothing left to bind me here. I’m already starting to fade.” She held up a hand. Faint wisps of smoke were starting to mix with the violet glow of her magic.

  “Then come with me,” Taly insisted, waving away one of the fairies. “If you want me to go along with these things peacefully, come with me. I won’t go without you.”

  “Still bargaining, I see,” Breena murmured with a small smile. “It’s nice to see that not everything has changed.” Bringing both hands up to cup Taly’s face, her mother whispered, “I’m sorry, dear. Where you’re going, I can’t follow. So, since this is the last time…” Her voice broke slightly, but she kept talking through the tears that were now streaming freely from her eyes. “I love you, my darling daughter. I have always loved you, and I will continue to love you even after I finally pass through the gates of Moriah. Never doubt that. And no matter what, always be proud of what you are—what you can do. I was, and your father will be too. I’m sure of it. Now go!” With that, Breena gave Taly a gentle shove.

  Thrown off-balance, Taly stumbled. She grabbed for the swinging metal gates as her knee once again buckled beneath her weight, but the wisps pulled her off her feet before she could find her equilibrium. The spirits cushioned her fall even as they began dragging her past the fence line.

  The next time Taly found her mother’s eyes, the sadness had melted away, softness replaced with steel as she prepared to face Vaughn. A warrior—her mother had been a warrior. “Farewell, child. When you see your father, tell him I’m sorry I never got the chance to say goodbye.”

  Vaughn was almost through the line of Mechanica. There was only one remaining soldier, but the shadow mage had already brought the hulking metal warrior to its knees. “You can’t keep her from me!” he howled as he crushed its helm beneath his boot. “You can’t keep her from my master! He will find her!”

  Breena turned away from Taly and assumed a defensive stance, her sword at the ready. Taly tried to push herself to her feet, but the orbs of fairy fire had started to coalesce around her—the cloud thickening and expanding with each passing moment. She struggled to remain upright as a torrent of unfamiliar magic slammed into her. “No!” she screamed desperately. “Mom! Please, not again!”

  The wisps had formed themselves into a swirling vortex. They obscured her vision and filled her ears with the rush of wind. Taly reached out a hand, desperately clawing her way back towards the gate. “Please!” No one else could die because of her. Even if her mother could never come back, even if she was already dead, that shadow mage could still hurt her. Fey souls were made of aether, after all.

  A wave of shadow magic engulfed Breena’s form, and the ground around her erupted in a spray of gravel. Vaughn ducked to one knee, raising a single arm as he bore the brunt of the blast head-on. He was bruised and bleeding now, and his shirt was little more than a few tatters of silk that hung from his burly shoulders. His lips moved as he stepped through the shattered barrier that used to surround the palace, and he eyed Breena in irritation. She widened her stance, ready to face him, but instead of turning to fight, he attempted to sidestep her and run for the gates. For Taly. As he passed, Breena lunged, bringing down the edge of her spectral blade across the back of his knees and forcing him to the ground.

  Her bloodied sword still in hand, Breena turned to Taly one final time. She was almost gone now. Her body was already beginning to break apart and disintegrate even as she sent out blast after blast of shadow magic at Vaughn, who was attempting to regain his feet. The older woman’s mouth moved as she tried to say something, and although Taly could no longer hear her mother’s words over the deafening roar of the magical vortex that threatened to consume her, there was pride mixed with another, unmistakable emotion in the woman’s eyes.

  That was enough to convey her final parting message.

  Her mother loved her.

  The ground was trembling now. A great rumbling, almost like an extended peal of thunder, sounded from deep beneath the surface, and the gates squealed as they chaotically swayed on their hinges. Cracks and fissures, small at first but then large and gaping, wedged open, spiraling out from her body in a chaotic web and shining with a golden light that illuminated the night sky.

  “No!” Taly was still reaching, struggling to see through the vortex of swirling magic that was starting to pull her down. Not yet. After all these years, it couldn’t end like this.

  “Mom!” she screamed, praying her mother could still hear her. “I love you too! This is not goodbye! You have my word—this is not goodbye!”

  The ground finally gave way just as Vaughn managed a step past the gates, but Taly had already disappeared, the world growing black around her and finally fading entirely from view.

  Epilogue

  Taly could feel an uncomfortable crick forming in her neck, and even in her languid state, she could tell that she was resting against something hard. None of that mattered, though. She was having the loveliest dream, and she wasn’t nearly ready to return to the waking world.

  She was back at the cottage in Vale, but for the first time in her life, there was no fire. She barely would’ve recognized the place had it not been for that strange vision in the woods. The sun felt warm on her face as she lay on the ground, staring up at the sky through the leaves of an old oak tree. If she strained her ears, she could just make out the sounds of birds chirping in the woods outside the garden wall. It was the kind of summer day that poets might’ve described as idyllic.

  A woman sat next to her. The same woman she had seen night after night in her dreams ever since she was a child—her mother. The older woman’s clothes were plain but well made, and her golden hair spilled down her back in long waves. She leaned against the trunk of the tree, humming to herself as she wiped down the blade of a black rapier. The sweepings of the hilt, crafted to look like the tentacles of a kraken, gleamed so brightly in the afternoon light that Taly couldn’t help but reach out and run a finger along the lustrous metal.

  “Your father gave me this,” the woman said, smiling as she ran a hand through Taly’s hair. Taly leaned into her touch, clinging to that feeling even as the dream started to fade around her. “On the day I passed the rites to become his Guardian. I told him it was too expensive, but the man never would listen to reason.”

  “When will I meet him? Father?” Taly asked. Her voice sounded childlike and far away.

  The woman shook her head. “Not for a while yet, I’m afraid. Not until the Aion Gate opens.”

  Taly fiddled with a stray leaf, holding it up so she could see the light shining through, illuminating the intricate pattern of veins. “Do you think he’ll like me?”

  “Of course, my darling girl,” the woman replied simply. “In fact, I have it on very good authority that he’s going to love you. Now then,” she said, standing and shaking the grass and dust off her trousers. “I should go check on the stew before I burn it.” She grimaced slightly as she turned to walk away. “Again.”

  As Taly watched the woman disappear behind the blue door of the little cottage, she felt a twinge of sadness. The dream was ending. She was about to wake up. But even with the landscape crumbling around her, she couldn’t help but smile. For as long as she could remember, she’d always felt an inexplicable sense of loss for a woman whose name she couldn’t recall. It had plagued her, more easily dismissed as she made the transition from child to adult, but never completely gone.

  As she tipped over that edge that would plunge her into wakefulness, she knew that a part of that wound had somehow mended itself. Something inside her, something that she hadn’t even realized was empty, had finally been filled.

  Because now, no matter what, she would always know
, would never again forget, that her mother had loved her—and that her name had been Breena.

  Taly felt a little disoriented as she cracked open her eyes. The storm of magic surrounding her had dissipated, and only a few wisps still lazily drifted above her. Their soft blue glow almost blended into the cloudless sky.

  What the hell had just happened? She had been falling and then... nothing. Her mother—she had met her mother, or, the ghost of her mother. Shards. What had happened to her, to Breena? She had been facing off with Vaughn before the wisps had completed their spell, but Taly had no idea what had happened after the ground gave out beneath her.

  Pushing herself into a sitting position, Taly took stock of her surroundings. Instead of the worn, unkempt path she remembered, she found herself sitting on a perfectly manicured gravel road in front of a securely locked gate. The filigreed wrought-iron had been scrubbed and polished till it shone in the bright afternoon sun, and on either side of her, artfully clipped bowers of wisteria in full-bloom arched up and overhead, covering her in a fragrant veil of dappled shade.

  Behind her, Infinity’s Edge glowed in the soft light of a late summer day. The structure was no longer crumbling, no longer wasting and withering. It was resplendent, and even from this distance, Taly could see that the crystal roses that decorated the façade were lit from within.

  “They’re time crystals,” she murmured softly. But these looked nothing like the dark, lusterless stones Ivain had shown her once. No, these crystals were shining, brought to life by the roiling eddies of time magic swirling beneath the faceted surfaces of the carved flowers. It almost made the coiling vines that crept across the giant edifice look alive.

  “Taly?” came a soft, lilting voice.

  Taly whipped her head around only to be confronted with one of the loveliest creatures she had ever encountered. The woman was tall, perhaps as tall as Ivain, with hair as black as the night sky. The inky blue of her dress perfectly complemented her milky skin, and the fluttering chiffon of her bustle floated out behind her like a dark cloud. Her lips were painted the perfect shade of petal pink, and right now they formed a tiny “oh” shape as she stared at Taly with wide, unblinking golden eyes.