Ward

by C Bilici

  “You must all surely be aware,” the Mhyrr man said, “of the growing threat from the Umbra?”

  His voice was lyrical and sweet and Stacey couldn’t help but think of siren song.

  “What has that to do with this girl?” One of the bugs spoke up angrily.

  She’d expected it to have a weird, insectoid cadence to it’s voice, but it was oddly human if a little high pitched. She wondered what they would sound like in their native tongue, and whether they even had tongues or just some sort of acid spitting proboscis. She stopped once she started contemplating what that meant for oral sex.

  “I do not know what the state of the other four realms are,” another male Mhyrr said, his speech confiden, even haughty, which seemed odd given their transgression. “The Umbra activity on Mhyrr, however, has been extreme to say the least. We thought it to be an isolated surge, but have been suffering losses at a steady rate.

  “Yes,” a red haired female Mhyrr said. “The Umbra have grown in both force and cunning.”

  “And you didn’t think to warn the rest?” One of the reptilians spoke up, waving their hand across the table.

  “It was decided against,” the other Mhyrr women said. “Because—” She was interrupted by angry voices and had to raise her voice to be heard. “Because,” she continued loudly, “recently we found we had been infiltrated by Umbra agents from other worlds.”

  The voices died down to be replaced with chaotic banter and questions, both on and off the table.

  Stacey leant near Komi’s ear. “There are people helping the Umbra now?”

  “Not just people,” Fenton said, overhearing her, his eyes still locked on the Cardinals. “Wards.”

  “Is that even possible? And why would anyone do that? It makes no sense.” Stacey shook her head, trying to imagine what would make a sane person join those creatures.

  “Silence, brothers and sister. Silence please!” Gary called the unruly group to order. “This is indeed a grave matter. But first we must attend to the question of the Mhyrr agent on Earth.”

  “Agents,” the red-headed Mhyrr Cardinal said. “We sent several to each region of the four realms to monitor.” The other cardinals looked about in outrage. “We could not allow the betrayals to continue unchecked.”

  “Betrayals?” One of the red men spoke now, his voice a deep gravel.

  The table again broke into cacophonous arguing.

  Could it be true? Wards, the people she had been told had sworn their lives to fighting the Umbra, joining the same monsters that had torn them from normal lives? Would that mean they became monsters themselves? Fenton had talked about Justin and Tammy becoming infected. Is that what the Shadow Man was? A rogue Ward turned into an Umbra?

  Gary called the room to order once more.

  “We captured an Umbra who had disguised itself as Mhyrr,” the red-head said. “Or so we’d thought. It was in fact a dual deception. The culprit was one of our own Wards who had somehow been transformed into Umbra.”

  “That’s nothing new,” Despina said. “They have taken on the forms of the fallen for centuries.”

  “This was no mere form. This ward had willingly accepted the change. Retained all of their identity and knowledge. None of us knew what they truly were until they made an error. Had it not been for that…” The Mhyrr woman shook her head.

  One of the Mhyrr men spoke again. “That is why we acted in secrecy. We did not know who to trust in our own midst let alone in the other realms. But we had to act. To investigate. Not just for our own sakes but for all.”

  “Your agent, this girl, Jasper,” Despina said. “Could she be one of these traitors?”

  Stacey glared at Despina.

  “No,” the other Mhyrr woman said. “She affected an emergency escape, both from the Umbra and your world. She is currently on Mhyrr, recovering from her ordeal.”

  “Is she all right?” Stacey yelled, unable to help herself.

  Despina turned to scowl at Fenton, who shrugged in return. She beckoned them forward, Stacey practically running.

  “This girl was close with her,” Despina said, the anger in her voice wavering.

  “They were lovers, yes,” The redheaded Mhyrr woman said. “We were provided with regular reports.” The woman looked Stacey over. “Moorna is well, do not be alarmed. She suffered some injuries at both the hands of the Umbra and in making her escape, which itself almost killed her. She is gathering her strength as we speak.”

  “When can I see her?” Stacey blurted.

  “Quiet,” Despina snapped. “You have your answer. You most likely won’t be seeing her ever again.”

  “I have to disagree, Despina,” Gary said.

  Despina looked over to him in surprise. “Oh?”

  “The Mhyrr have been observing our worlds for some time it seems. I think it only fair we all have a chance to inspect the position on Mhyrr and collect our own information.”

  “Is that wise?” Despina looked to the other two Earth Cardinals, an Asian man and a Middle Eastern looking woman.

  “I agree with Gary on this,” the woman said, her accent strong but her English perfect. “We need to know the lay of the land in all five realms.”

  “Agreed,” said the Asian man, giving a nod.

  “And what of the other Mhyrr agents on Earth?” Despina said, trying to contain her anger.

  The redhead Mhyrr addressed her. “We can not divulge their names or locations.” Despina made to speak. “But we will recall them all and welcome your delegates to Mhyrr.”

  “I think we can agree to that,” Gary said, and looked to Despina.

  She stared at Gary before giving him a reluctant nod.

  “Then it’s settled,” Gary said, looking around to each of the Cardinals in turn. “If we’re all in agreement, we’ll make preparation?” The Cardinals of the other realms nodded in return. “The girl and her master will accompany two enforcers. If you can spare them.” Gary directed the last to Despina. “If not, I can supply a few able bodies.”

  Despina smiled thinly. “No need, but thank you, Gary.”

  “Very well then. Let us speak of our preparations.”

  With that the Cardinals began to plan and talk amongst themselves.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Stacey said in shock.

  Fenton sighed, unable to contain his anger. “It appears we’re going on a trip.”

  * * *

  Being watched over by the Cardinals of Earth and all their avatars was the strangest thing Stacey had ever experienced. Her own and Fenton’s avatars together had been enough with Komi’s spider earlier, but now joined by these others, the scene was almost beyond comprehension.

  Gary’s avatar was some sort of comic book, all American hero type, part commando, part spandex warrior. The Asian man’s was an almost demonic looking samurai in full body armour, armed to the teeth but with swords, a bow, and some sort of bladed staff. The Middle Eastern woman’s was a beautiful but evil looking woman with great wings, flowing hair and little clothes. Stacey wasn’t sure what was going on there, maybe some sort of genie? She wasn’t sure if she was stereotyping after the gun toting soldier and samurai, but she didn’t have any other name for it.

  Then there was Despina’s avatar. Medusa. There was no mistaking the snake haired, serpent tailed woman. Beautiful and deadly, her eyes speckled gold with black slits, glistening black serpent hair like living dreadlocks. Her upper body was toned and luscious, skin pale. The tale was what you would expect but still somehow retained a sense of sensuality.

  Added to the mix was the avatars of the enforcers going with them, Komi being one of them. The other was the Scandinavian, Arnoald.

  “Nice Viking,” Stacey said. Arnoald puffed his chest and smiled, his avatar fixing a long moustache.

  “We’re ready,” Gary called out for them all. He motioned his hand into an imaginary circle cast by himself and his three colleagues.

  The others walked into the circle. Stacey followed, l
ooked about nervously. The others looked just as apprehensive as she did. “I thought I was the only virgin here,” Stacey said, trying to break the ice.

  Arnoald turned to her and gave her a nervous smile. “None of us have ever crossed.”

  She frowned. “Never? None of you?”

  Arnoald chuckled. “I don’t even know someone who has.”

  Komi shook his head. “It has been banned for longer than anyone can remember for precisely the reason it has caused trouble.”

  “Jesus, fuck.” Stacey had no idea if this was even safe. She turned to Fenton who was looking more serious than usual. He wasn’t agreeing with the others. “You?”

  The thin smile he gave her barely moved. “Why would I have ever crossed?”

  For some reason she didn’t believe him, but didn’t push the question. The Asian Cardinal, who Stacey guessed from the samurai avatar to be Japanese, began to explain to them what would be happening.

  “This will be nothing like using the Nexus to travel. What we are doing is sending you across reality itself to another world, or if you believe as others, another universe. Your atoms will be pulled apart, flung across the universe or time and space, and rearranged to accommodate Mhyrr’s conditions.”

  “Peachy,” Stacey muttered.

  He didn’t react. “Once on Mhyrr you will essentially be Mhyrr. You will be able to breathe their atmosphere, their water, and have all of their other traits. On your return you will revert to your human forms. Any questions?”

  There didn’t appear to be any.

  Fenton looked as if he was readying himself for execution.

  “Yeah,” Stacey said. “Is this going to hurt?”

  “Like hell,” Despina answered, looking at Stacey then all of them. He gaze held on Fenton, though, and a sad smile formed on her lips. “Be careful,” Despina added, her eyes not moving from him.

  “Let’s begin,” Gary called out.

  From the corner of her eye, Stacey saw Fenton’s muscles tense.

  The Cardinals aligned themselves to the positions they held at their table, and to Stacey it looked like they had nailed it perfectly. She saw just how perfectly when they began to send out their power, just as they had in the temple. They held their hands out palms down. Blackness crept to the skin there, building until a tarry substance dripped to the Nexus floor. When it touched the white, each line sprang out in an arc between the four, drawing in a circle.

  At first, Stacey thought the ring was changing colour. Then it rose.

  It grew until it touched their hands, enclosing Stacey and the others. Each of the Cardinals eyes was a turbulent black galaxy, and Stacey had a moment to wonder if that’s how she looked when she used her new powers.

  Then a tight constriction squeezed her chest.

  A column of solidified air now encased them, the same diameter as the ring surrounding them. The light from outside it refracted, bending the image of the Cardinals and all the avatars.

  Another jolt went through her, like she was being pulled in all directions at once. It made her teeth ache and she shuttered her eyes a moment to adjust. When she opened them, her avatar, and all of the avatars of the people inside the ring, were gone. Their giant funhouse mirror visages were there one moment, gone the next to leave only the four Cardinals’.

  Movement above drew her attention. A swirling cloud of particles was being siphoned to a singularity. Was that the avatars? What was going to happen to them? Her stomach twisted at the thought.

  Another jolt made her skin prick all over. All the hairs on her body stood. Her skeleton seemed to ache. Not any individual bone, but all of them at once, throbbing in some sort of resonance. The pressure on her body was like nothing she could describe.

  Two more jolts came in quick succession, turning her bones to electrified iron that sizzled her flesh from the inside. She looked about at the others who were all in the same situation.

  Except Fenton. He was on the floor in utter agony.

  In a foetal ball, he seemed to be doing his best to bear through it. Sigils burned furiously all across his skin. Turning her own shaking hand over, her own sigil wasn’t showing. None of the other Wards seemed to be showing theirs either. When she looked again, it wasn’t all his sigils, only those strange lines across his body.

  A sonic boom exploded through her system that brought a stop to all rational thought. Sense of direction, sanity, and self, blew into dust.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  THEY ARRIVED AS they went, in the Nexus and in pain. Stacey heard screaming and turned to see Fenton rolling about. The release of the agony had been instant for her. One moment every part of her body was burning, the next she was crying out without her body knowing why, disoriented from the memory of the sensations. The same sentiment she felt was on the others’ faces.

  Except Fenton’s.

  As the lines over his body slowly faded, he managed to crawl to hand and knee. Then he pushed himself up to kneel with great effort and looked around at the faces staring at him.

  “I don’t like to travel,” he said dryly, struggling to stand.

  Stacey went to his side and offered him her hand which he gratefully took. She started to pull him up but her skin seemed to slip and he with it, dropping back to his knee with a gasp of pain. She clasped her other hand over his and managed to pull him up on the second attempt.

  Once he was stable, she peered at her hands, which looked alien to her. The familiar lines of her palms and fingers were faint, mostly erased, her skin skewed on the hand that had slipped, slowly sliding back into place as she watched. It was disconcerting but fascinating at the same time. As it normalised the lines of her palm reappeared.

  “What the hell?”

  “The Mhyrr can change their skin,” Fenton said, voice hoarse.

  “What? Like… Were-fish?” Arnoald grunted a laugh. “Well that will take some getting used to,” she said, pinching her arm and pulling the skin.

  “As will this.”

  She turned to look at Komi who was staring at his avatar. At least she assumed it was his avatar. The once spider thing now looked more crustacean, but unlike any she’d ever seen, though Anansi retained his general appearance. She looked at the others’. The humanoid avatars were largely unchanged, their clothing however had changed to reflect what she assumed was Mhyrr fashion. Stacey inspected her own still unnamed avatar, who now looked like some sort of aquatic Amazon and seemed to approve.

  The greatest difference was to Godfrey.

  Fenton looked up at the knight, who smiled back. He was no longer undead. His sword had been exchanged for a trident and his thick armour and shield for light skins of some description, but he was whole.

  “Well met, Godfrey,” Fenton said, bowing his head slowly, obviously still in pain.

  The avatar bowed his head in return.

  Looking around her, Stacey couldn’t make out any difference between the Nexus of Earth and Mhyrr. She couldn’t imagine dropping out of this whiteness and it not being home, though the thought that at least one of her lovers was here and they would soon be reunited brought a smile to her lips.

  She turned and her smiled lessened. Arnoald was pulling a face of utter concentration and strain. It reminded her of when the younger kids from her work used to crap their pants.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  He wiggled his hips about, smiled a satisfied grin and readjusted his crotch. “I like these new powers.”

  Stacey shook her head. Arnoald, now newly equipped, seemed ready to move on.

  “If we transfer ourselves as if we were travelling to our own Enclave we should find the Mhyrr’s. Or so I was told,” he said, smug grin on his face growing. “If you’re all ready?”

  Arnoald looked to his avatar, then was gone. Komi left shortly after, leaving Fenton and Stacey to follow.

  “Ladies first?” Fenton offered.

  “What? You’re not going to hold my hand?”

  “At this moment I fear
I’m the one that needs a helpful hand. But you go ahead,” he said. “I want to speak to Godfrey a moment.”

  “Sure thing.” With a sigh, she felt out for the Enclave and found it. It was familiar, yet strange. She hoped that didn’t screw up her travel.

  * * *

  A rush of water hit her from all directions and Stacey flailed in panic, holding her breath before remembering she should be able to breathe. She saw Komi and Arnoald floating calmly and relaxed, took a tentative breath. The gush of water down her throat made her mentally want to cough and flail to find air, but her body didn’t react. Her top billowed at her sides and she lifted it. Flaps in her skin opened and closed over her lower ribs and the water flowed between the bones.

  Gills. Now that they laboured to keep her alive, she felt them, but earlier in the Nexus she hadn’t even thought to look or ask. As her fingers brushed the delicate edges of one, she felt a chill run through her body. They were sensitive. She felt each breath as it passed, but touching the things brought a much different sensation.

  With the threat of drowning passed, she wondered why they had landed in water and gazed about. A curved, stone surface stood a short distance away, glittering with light. It was the Enclave core. Arnoald saw where she was looking and gave her a thumbs up, then pointed in the opposite direction.

  Now they knew where the Enclave proper was. She kicked and swum, the feeling of moving through the water and not feeling like she was out of her element strange. Water rushed into her mouth as she switched her usual breathing, finding her nostrils were not large enough for the required intake and collapsed. The instant rush through her gills tickled the thin in an oddly pleasant way. Not noticing before, she saw that her skin clung tighter to her flesh and had darkened in tone to an olive-green. She looked at the others around her and saw the change in them and wondered how she looked.

  Her eyes had also undergone some change, feeling thicker under her eyelids and she wondered if there was now a protective film over. Whatever the case, she could see as well as if on land, picking out all the details of the core and the Wards floating about her.