Elpis

by Aaron McGowan

  “We still need to heal you though,” Terico said, helping Turan roll over so he lay on his back. “Where do you hurt?”

  The airship turned hard to the right, then shook violently. Terico fell backward and slid a couple meters before managing to grip a seam in the metal flooring. Suran grabbed on to the floor beside Turan and helped him hold on, even in her weakened condition.

  What’s Lanek doing? Terico thought. The airship shook again, and Terico realized the ship was descending. The Brotherhood airship was landing attacks on The Finest Hour.

  The ship stabilized slightly, and Terico turned back to Suran and Turan.

  Suran stood up and turned her head back to check on Terico. “Are you—”

  Turan stood up and stabbed Suran through the chest.

  “No!” Terico screamed.

  He ran straight for Turan, who pulled his gray blade out of Suran’s chest and shoved her to the ground. Turan stood still, staring at Terico wide-eyed, as if surprised by what he had just done.

  Then he grinned.

  Terico swung his blade at Turan, ready to hack him to pieces. At the last moment, Turan leaped backward, letting himself fall out the hole in the airship. He had his green Nexi again, Terico realized.

  Through the window, Terico saw the Brotherhood airship, flying by only a dozen or so meters away. It fired several cannons straight at The Finest Hour, but a barrier of earth appeared to block most of them. One connected, however, and the ship began to descend more rapidly.

  Terico looked out the hole in the airship to find Turan far below, hanging on to vines connecting him to the Brotherhood ship. A part of Terico wanted to use the Elpis and go after him, but right now Suran needed him.

  Suran. The moment she was stabbed, Terico’s entire body had seemed to freeze over, and yet he still reacted. His heart stopped, but still he forced himself to move. He ran back to Suran’s limp form, almost falling over amidst the shaking of the airship. He knelt down beside Suran and looked over her bloody wounds. The blade had pierced all the way through her chest, and on out her back. She was still managing to breathe, however—a frail hyperventilation, terrifying in the fragile balance it held.

  Tears streamed down Suran’s face. “T-Teri...co...”

  He took out his Elpis pieces and accessed their power. His body surged with the violent energies flowing through every pore of his skin. The transformative effects quickly took hold, but the power building up in Terico felt far greater than he imagined. With two fragments of the Elpis, Terico’s power was many times greater than it was with one.

  I can heal her, Terico thought. He knew from experience there was healing energy in the Elpis—he had healed himself in the underground city, and was strengthened when fighting Ganto and Delkol. The pain was almost unbearable, but he survived. He could survive again.

  Suran looked up at Terico, a frightened look on her face. Seeing Terico in this form must have been shocking.

  “It’s the Elpis,” Terico said. “I’ll use its power to heal you.” He placed a hand over the bleeding wound in her chest, wincing at the grisly sight. Focusing all his concentration on Suran’s wound, Terico shut his eyes and willed the Elpis power to shift to healing energies.

  Terico’s body turned boiling hot, then freezing cold, then tight and constricted, then overwhelmingly weak and nauseous. With each passing moment, the plagues of the various Nexi powers swept through his body. He struggled to seek out the healing energy, the pain of the Elpis far greater than it was the last two times he used it.

  Hot tears slipped from Terico’s eyes, and the blood spilling over his hand turned frigid, icy. He cried Suran’s name, exerting every bit of his mental focus on healing her of this wound.

  For just a moment, Terico felt as if his pains were erased, his entire body lightened and free of of the Elpis’s agony. The pain of a blinding headache afflicted him immediately afterward, but Terico forced his mind to latch back on to the previous energy. He felt the healing return, and quickly willed the energy to flow from his arm to Suran’s wound.

  Suran fell into fits of convulsion, screaming at the top of her lungs. Terico’s immediate reaction was to pull away, but he knew with a certainty this was the energy that would heal her.

  “I’m sorry, Suran!” Terico yelled above her cries of agony. “Hold on just a little longer!”

  Suran arched back and reached out with her arms, struggling to break away from the torment the Elpis inflicted on her. Terico held her down to keep his hand firmly over the bleeding injury.

  Can’t lose her now... Not now... Not when we’re so close... Not when we’re finally together again! Not when I’ve already lost everything else!

  Suran’s screams grew louder, and her limbs contorted into painful, disjointed positions. The Elpis energy continued to flow to Suran’s body, the process draining to Terico’s mind and soul. He slowly felt as if his very existence was leaking away. For a moment he felt as if continuing this would cause him to disintegrate from the inside—to crumble apart and fade away forever. And yet he kept pushing himself to heal Suran, to do whatever was in his power to save her.

  Perhaps a minute of this passed before blood stopped leaking from the thick opening in Suran’s chest. Terico’s body trembled from the rush of energy flowing out of his body, but managed to lift his hand away to look over the wound. Using his sleeve, he wiped away as much blood from the wound as he could.

  The incision was gone—there wasn’t even a scar left. With his clean hand Terico felt only smooth, healed skin, and noted the steady beat of Suran’s heart.

  He put away the Elpis stones and cut off his access to their power. The sudden release of energy gave him the overwhelming urge to lie on his back and die, but he kept his focus on Suran and her injury. She writhed in pain for a few more seconds before settling down. Her screams faded to gasping cries, and within a couple minutes she was breathing normally again.

  Terico looked her over, and as far as he could tell the wound was gone. He checked her back and saw the slit there was gone as well. The fact Suran was breathing normally again seemed to imply her lungs were healed, and Terico felt her pulse to check her heart was still beating properly. He wasn’t sure if she had been stabbed in the heart, but without the Elpis Terico doubted he would have been able to heal her in time.

  “How are you feeling?” Terico asked. He felt terrible himself, struggling to even sit up at this point—but he had to be certain Suran was fine before he could worry about himself.

  “I’m okay,” Suran said, her eyes half-open. “But Turan... stabbed me.”

  “Does it still hurt?” Terico asked.

  Suran looked up at him a few seconds. “No... I feel fine... I’m just tired... So very tired...”

  “That’s all right,” Terico said. He knew Suran had exhausted herself already from Nexi use, and the strain of the Elpis energy would have certainly worn her out even further. “You can rest all you want now.”

  He looked out the window and saw the airship was still descending. The machinery of the ship had grown louder, and it was clear there wasn’t much chance of it staying airborne much longer.

  Terico lifted Suran off the ground and carried her with him down the hallway. It strained him to carry her, despite how light she was—but he wasn’t going to leave her alone for even a second at this point. He needed to get Suran to Lanek, then find a way to save the airship. Terico wondered if he would be able to find a way to fix The Finest Hour with the power of the Elpis. It would likely take a lot of effort to figure out a way to do so, and by then he would have exhausted himself far too much to be able to fight Delkol.

  The third piece is at the castle, Terico remembered. I can fly there with the two pieces I have, and then the third fragment will give me even more power. I’ll be able to take Delkol down easily then...

  Terico stumbled to the bridge, where Lanek was frantically working with several different levers. He turned back for a moment, quickly noting it was Terico and Suran ente
ring the room. He returned to his controls and pulled on a rope as hard as he could, working to stabilize the drifting airship. “What happened to Suran?” he yelled as he went back to a lever.

  “She was hurt, but I healed her with the Elpis,” Terico said. “She should be fine.”

  “You let her get hurt?” Lanek screamed. He was absolutely livid, yet continued to operate the controls as if he were having a friendly chat. “I’d kill you, but we’re probably all going to die in just a minute anyways.”

  “The ship’s going to crash?” Terico asked.

  “Too late to save it,” Lanek said. “There were far too many jets of water to defend against while piloting the airship.”

  “Get on my back and I’ll fly us out of here,” Terico said.

  Lanek turned around and looked up at Terico in callous disbelief. “You fly.”

  “I fly. Now come on.” Terico turned and ran back down the hallway. He heard Lanek’s footsteps following behind him, and continued to the gaping hole in the entry room. The airship tilted backward, making it easy for Terico to run down while carrying Suran. He gripped his Elpis fragments tight and accessed their power upon reaching the edge of the hole.

  The burst of torment erupting in the very center of his chest made him cry out in pain, but he managed to stop and bend to one knee so Lanek could climb on his back. Terico felt his body transform, and he filled with the pain and energy of every Nexi in the world. For a moment Terico felt he would utterly collapse beneath the weight Lanek placed on his back. Lanek was about as thin and light as his sister, but carrying both him and Suran was too much for Terico to handle in this state.

  He strained himself to seek out the orange Nexi energy within the constantly shifting powers rushing through his body. For a moment it felt like his mind was going to shatter, but just as he was about to collapse he managed to grab hold of the strengthening Nexi power bursting within him. Suddenly carrying Suran and Lanek was a simple matter, and Terico was able to concentrate on levitating off the ground.

  “Hang on,” he said to Lanek. Terico looked down to Suran’s tired face, straining to keep her bloodshot eyes open. Though he had saved Suran’s life, Terico still felt uneasy about her.

  She’s just worn out, he thought. He forced himself to concentrate on the task at hand.

  The airship shook more violently, and tilted even further backward. Terico let himself fall out of the hole, jumping forward to make sure Lanek didn’t hit the edge of the jagged flooring.

  The three plummeted out of the airship, falling only a little faster than the quickly descending airship. The ground was much closer than Terico expected, and he needed to start flying immediately. This ability was much more second-nature, apparently an inherent aspect of the transformation the Elpis brought him.

  He flew down to the green fields below at a safe speed, then glided a good distance from where the airship would crash. As soon as Terico reached the ground, he stopped using the Elpis power, regaining his normal form once again. He knelt down so he could lay Suran down gently, and so Lanek could get off of his back.

  “Are you okay?” Terico asked Suran.

  She barely managed to nod in response. Too tired to speak, she shut her eyes and fell asleep on the spot. Terico and Lanek watched to make sure she was still breathing, and checked for any further signs of injury.

  “She seems fine,” Lanek said, “but I’ll want to take her to a clinic to be certain. Wearing herself out this badly probably warrants a visit in and of itself.”

  Terico agreed, and sat down beside Suran so he could recover himself. His whole body was worn out, and the fact his best friend had stabbed the girl he loved was painful to think about. And in the end Turan managed to slip away, still vengeful and blind with hate. Terico wanted to believe it was all Augurc’s fault, but the fact Turan wanted Terico to suffer because Terico left him back during the attack on Edellerston... There was a sense to it. And a part of Terico felt he couldn’t really fault Turan for wanting revenge.

  Turan didn’t want to simply kill Terico, though. He wanted to kill everyone Terico loved. He wanted Terico to hate his very existence. This was how Turan felt, Terico realized. Turan’s life was a constant hell. Surely Augurc did experiment on Turan, but Turan was able to recognize what he had become. Turan still knew what he was doing—he wasn’t mindless—and yet to some degree he had lost his mind to the lust of revenge.

  Terico thought over Jujor’s and Areo’s words on the subject. How different was Terico’s quest for revenge?

  I can’t just stop, Terico thought. Not now. Not when everyone is depending on me to bring Delkol down. He’s still out there... He’s probably in one of those airships, heading for the castle. I have to get there before him.

  Terico turned to Lanek, who was watching his airship crash into the ground. It collapsed in a tremendous heap in the distance, loud and terrible.

  “Rest in peace, Finest Hour,” Lanek said. “What a short, unfortunate life you lived.”

  To Terico it was just an airship, but to Lanek and Suran it was something they had spent a great deal of time and effort on. It was also a treasure of their parents, as well as a symbol of their past, long lost to the cruelty of Delkol and his Brotherhood.

  Everything goes back to him, Terico thought. Delkol. The man who killed my parents. Destroyed my home town. Wreaked havoc in every land he stepped foot in. And through his Brotherhood, he has hurt the lives of every living person I know. Suran. Lanek. Areo. Borely. Kitoh. Turan.

  It will never end. It will never end until he’s dead.

  I have to find him now!

  If there was a golden Nexi that could lead people to what they sought after, Terico could access that power via the Elpis. He already knew he could see great distances with the power of the Elpis—if he could combine that ability with the golden Nexi energy, he would be able to find Delkol.

  Upon activating the Elpis fragments, the instantaneous surge of energy tore through his body. Terico nearly collapsed to the ground, but managed to keep to his feet.

  “What are you doing?” Lanek asked.

  Terico gripped his forehead and shut his eyes tight. An all-encompassing white light was surging within him, blinding his eyes—blinding his entire body. He screamed uncontrollably. One moment an icy wind blew through his bones, and the next moment he felt as if his blood were turning hard—solid and heavy. Just standing up was difficult, but Terico pushed himself to access the power he would need to find Delkol.

  He opened his eyes and still felt blinded for several seconds. A Brotherhood airship came into focus for a moment, then turned blurry and fragmented. The sky split apart, and for a second Terico felt his own body was being ripped in half, tearing from his left shoulder to his right hip.

  He gripped the Elpis pieces tighter and turned around, facing toward the capital city. His vision went dark, then turned into an image of the castle. It was blurry at first, but once it cleared Terico felt as if he were standing just outside the castle grounds. He noticed something flying past one of the red towers. Terico gazed at it, and his vision focused in on what turned out to be some kind of giant hawk. It was difficult to tell at first, but Terico quickly realized the demonic creature was made entirely of bones and bloody strands of muscle. How it was able to fly, Terico couldn’t imagine—but it flapped its skeletal wings vigorously, propelling it from the castle and toward the area where The Finest Hour fought the Brotherhood airships.

  Terico stared closer at the gruesome bird, bringing his vision closer to it. There was someone riding on top of the reigned beast.

  Delkol.

  And as Terico focused a little more, he could make out the gleam of Nexi stones in Delkol’s hand. Two stones—and they continually shifted from one color to the next.

  The airships were just a diversion, Terico realized. While Rilv’s units were scrambling to prepare the city to defend against the approaching airships, Delkol sneaked to the castle with the help of his secret agent and obtai
ned the Elpis piece hidden there.

  I can’t let him get away, Terico thought. He forced his mind to let go of the golden Nexi power and shut his eyes for a few seconds. His head was ringing violently, and a part of Terico wanted to fall to his hands and knees and retch out all the organs in his body. His insides quivered and turned soft, as if they were dissolving into liquid.

  He forced himself to fly into the air. Lanek was yelling something at him, but he sounded distant. For a moment Terico wondered if Lanek was dead, then wondered why he was flying away. Something snapped in the back of his head, and he clawed at it, screaming from the pain erupting in his mind. His vision turned blurry for a few seconds, and once it cleared Terico realized he was lying on the ground, his clothes and body torn up in bloody gashes.

  His body was suffering from Elpis poisoning. Even with half the Elpis, it was too difficult for him to use it too much, especially when he was completing difficult tasks. Saving Suran from death and pinpointing Delkol’s location were taxing on Terico’s very being, it seemed.

  He cut off his mind from the Elpis energy and fell into a violent coughing fit. The agony struck at his heart and lungs the hardest, but at the same time his mind felt like it was being stabbed with a thousand tiny needles all at once.

  As Terico drifted to unconsciousness, his thoughts somehow remained coherent, focusing entirely on Delkol. Terico could see the man’s smug expression perfectly. His short, light brown hair flapping in the wind. His icy blue eyes, gleaming wide and eager. The macabre scar running across his right eye, from his forehead to his cheek. And that smirk. That all-knowing, pretentious smirk.

  You think you’ve won! Terico thought. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.

  He fell unconscious, all his thoughts sinking deeper and deeper into a thirst for revenge.

  10

  His Entire Heart

  Terico woke up to find himself lying in a bed. He stared up at a ceiling painted a dark blue, about the same color as his hair. His whole body ached, even worse than it had after using the Elpis in Vursa. It strained his eyes to glance around, and he had to wince when he looked too far to one side or the other. He was apparently in a clinic, one quite nicer than the one in Edellerston. The green blankets he lay in were light and cool, and he was dressed in clean clothes—a loose, white shirt and trousers.