by Ren Garcia
“If you’ve come for Taara’s soul, you cannot have it,” he said.
The figure giggled. “We are here for a soul, but it’s not hers.” It paused. “We’re here for yours.”
It revealed its face: a huge, smiling mouth all over the disk of its face. A great tongue sticking out.
Soul Devourer!!
It cringed and wrung its hands. He raised his NTHs, ready to fire.
“No, no, wait . . .” it said. “We’ve your friends. I’ll let my companions kill them, eat their souls, consigning them to oblivion.”
“Where are they?”
“Not far.”
“Show me.”
The Soul Devourer led Stenstrom down the corridor. It danced around him, savoring his smell, wringing its clawed hands. It was just barely containing itself.
“Why didn’t you just take me on the bridge while I slept and been done with it?”
“Safe on the bridge, couldn’t get to you . . . But your friends . . . ahh . . .”
“How do I know they’re still alive?”
“Their souls are tiny and bland, hardly worth the trouble, but yours … ah, yours shall make fine eating.”
It tittered and reached with its hands, opening and closing its fists. “Took us on a merry run, did you? Think you could get away from us forever?”
“My mother is gone, and her spells are finished. You ought to go back to where you came from and leave me in peace. You can have my soul once I’m done with it.”
“We’ll have your soul now! Understand? We’ll have it now!!” The Soul Devourer pushed him up against a bulkhead and put its clawed hands at his throat. It lost whatever patience it had and pawed at him. “They promised us your soul; it belongs to us! Give me your soul!! Give it to me!! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!”
Stenstrom pushed his NTHs into its chest and fired. Green light emerged from the Soul Devourer’s groaning mouth, and it fell, collapsing into smoking ash.
Panting, feeling the familiar tug in his chest caused by the infernal grasp of the Soul Devourer, he took a moment to compose himself.
Footsteps came running down the corridor!! A tooth-filled, smiling face and reaching hands. “YOUR SOUL!!”
He aimed and fired. Its body fell in the dark.
Behind him!
Fire! Two green globes surged out. Did he hit? He wasn’t sure. He cocked his hammers and waited.
Laughter came from down the corridor. “We have your friends. You cannot kill us all. We are ready for you. Keep us waiting and we’ll savor their souls in your place.”
“Leave my friends out of this!” he shouted. “My soul for theirs!”
“Then come, come to us …”
Mother’s demons had finally caught up to him, and now they had his friends. He searched for the Chromatic Holystone, finding it down the corridor, still rolling slowly. Steeling himself and determined to save Taara and A-Ram, he continued on.
3 Lilly??
Down the corridor was the Sisters’ Priory, a cloistered set of small rooms where the Sisterhood of Light stayed when aboard a Fleet vessel. They often came and went from the Priory and often times disappeared into it, vanishing even when the ship was out far away in the deep sea. Many times, new and unfamiliar faces emerged from the Priory only to vanish back into it just as quickly. Stenstrom thought it was a mystical gateway of some sort. His sorcerous training told him such things could exist.
The Chromatic veered in the direction of the Priory entrance and stopped.
Taara was somewhere inside, A-Ram as well probably, along with who knows how many Soul Devourers.
Within was a small abandoned anti-chamber with an innocent door leading into the interior. All that lay beyond the door was forbidden to any but the Sisters—even the captain of the ship was not allowed past it. Stenstrom himself certainly had never set foot in one. NTHs at the ready, he opened the door; it swung open with a mild squeak.
Musty darkness lay ahead. He entered.
Inside were a confusion of modest rooms and chambers littered with overturned chairs, beds, dressers, and other forgotten bits of furniture once used by the Sisters, all rather sparse and unassuming, now dark and abandoned.
His arcane protections and warning devices were all sounding off at a steady rate, the interior of his HRN vibrated and squirmed as though it were infested with mice. There was danger all around.
“YOUR SOUL!” came a Soul Devourer out of the dark at a run. He shot it down.
Another came, and then another, his NTH shots sending them away one trigger pull at a time. They came at him with no fear, faster than he could cock and fire his NTHs.
One reached out of the dark. He aimed and fired.
Pfft!
Misfire! His cinnabar striker cracked and the NTH didn’t fire. He was tackled in the mid-riff by the tittering Soul Devourer. They struggled for a moment as the monster wrangled to get at his soul. He plunged one MARZABLE after the next into its wiry body, burying the silver daggers up to the hilt, doing nothing. The monster wore a headdress of his daggers as it got its hands to his throat. He felt the tepid beginnings of his soul being siphoned away.
A fast, whirling cone of gritty wind plowed into the both of them. The Soul Devourer was lifted up and pulled away in a roar into the dark where it disappeared.
Stenstrom stood and readied himself for the next wave of them to attack.
Silence. It became very quiet in the corridor of the Priory. No groans, no moans or other hidden sounds, just blessed silence.
His waiting NTHs shook. He sashed the one with the bad striker and waved up three MARZABLES ready to go.
“Bel!” he heard from ahead. He saw a point of light emerge, strong and clear, threatening to blind him. He didn’t wait. He fired his NTH and let fly with his MARZABLE. The corridor lit up in emerald green as the deadly globes shot out into the dark. He cocked his hammer and conjured up more daggers.
“Bel, how could you?” he heard a hurt-sounding voice reply. He squinted to see.
The point of light grew to a blinding beam Someone approached in the dark. “Bel, it’s me.”
“Who are you?” he asked shielding his eyes.
“It’s Lilly.”
“Lies,” Stenstrom said, trying to keep his head. He took aim.
All around him came the hissing of grit rubbing together, like course sand whipped up into a whirling storm. He blinked and covered his eyes with his sleeve.
A lilting form emerged from the gloom ahead holding a lantern. Tall and regal, inviting pink gown, and blonde hair done up in pins and curls, a little parasol resting on her shoulder. It looked for all the world like Lilly, his love.
Lillian of Gamboa.
He stepped back, weapons at the ready.
“Bel . . . it’s me. It’s Lilly,” she said smiling. His danger detectors rattled. His heart pounded.
He struggled to maintain his bearing. “You are not Lilly,” he said. “You cannot be Lilly.”
“But why?” Her eyes glittered in the lantern light.
“Why? Because I am in the middle of open space on a dead, abandoned ship. Lilly is thousands of Stellar miles away, home on Kana in Esther.”
She blushed a bit and raised the lantern. Her blue eyes sparkled. “But, Bel, don’t I always arrive when you need me most? Am I not always there to help you?”
She took a step forward. “Stay back!” he cried.
She set the lantern down, reached out, and placed her delicate hands on the barrel of his NTH. “Perhaps you should fire your gun then. Perhaps you should just kill me.”
He struggled. This apparition was a Soul Devourer—it had to be.
“Remember our first meeting in the Chalk House? Remember me drawing my MARTIN on you? Seems so long ago, doesn’t it?” she said.
“You are a Soul Devourer come to deceive me.”
“How could I know about the Chalk House if I were a Soul Devourer?”
“You could have read my thoughts, peered into my memories, and regurgitated them bac
k to me.”
Lilly puzzled a moment. “I don’t think Soul Devourers can do such things, always so hungry and driven, they are. They really aren’t much into planning things; they just eat.”
“How do you know about such creatures? They are spirits of the arcane and not generally known outside of Tyrol.”
Lilly gave a small smile. “I know lots of things, Bel. Remember me giving you the idea to become a Fleet Paymaster? Remember me talking you into bribing people and doing questionable things in Calvert? Remember shopping for your coat with me? How happy I was. . .how happy. I remember all those things, because I was there with you. Do you remember the afternoon I gave you the locket with my portrait? How hard I worked on it, it had to be perfect. Remember me offering you five years to explore your heart? Remember that? I sat there and had to watch you fall into the arms of one woman after the next; your ‘puppy dogs’ I called them. How jealous I was.”
“You wanted the five years, Lilly.”
“Did I? Did I really, or did someone else make me say that?”
“Who? Who made you?”
Lilly smiled and held her hand out for him to take. “I’ll show you.”
Mesmerized by her beauty and used to submitting to Lilly’s wishes as a matter of habit, he nearly took it. He shook his head, remembered where he was, and stepped back. “I have to save Taara and A-Ram.”
“Your friends? No harm shall come to them. I promise.”
“How can you make such a promise?”
Lilly came in close; he could feel her heat and smell her perfume—the same scent she always favored wearing. The Soul Devourer wearing her image certainly left nothing to chance.
“Come now, Bel, when have you ever known me not to keep a promise?”
She held her hand out, lit up in the yellowish light of the lantern, impatient for him to take it. He sashed his pistol and shook his hands, producing his various kit of protective Holystones, prisms, and his Astral Plane detector. “Do you mind?” he asked showing them to her.
“Of course not.” She gestured to a nearby side room. “May I sit?”
“Of course.”
Lilly picked up the lantern and walked into the room. She waited for Stenstrom to offer her a chair. He picked one up, dusted in off, and set it down. She then placed the lantern on the table and properly seated herself, sitting with the same grace and shape Lilly always sat with. She looked up at him, waiting for him to begin the examination.
He hoisted his prism to his right eye and carefully looked her over. If Lilly was a Soul Devourer wearing a disguise, she should appear fuzzy and indistinct, possibly tinged with red. He saw none of that. He switched prisms; again she appeared normal.
He set the prisms down and picked up his silver pyramid, moving it up her arm past the wrist. “What is this one?” she asked.
“Astral Plane detector. If you’ve been to the Astral Plane, it will react.”
“I see. Are you expecting such a thing?”
“Possibly. I’ve encountered it before.”
His detector remained inert. He put it away and ran his crimson Holystone down her arm, rolling it along her skin. “This one should detect the presence of Soul Devourers.”
“Oh my. Is it reacting?”
Stenstrom took the crimson Holystone and held it close to his face, examining it for damage. “No. It’s not.”
“Well then,” Lilly said happily, tapping her fingers on the table. “It’s settled, per your instrumentality. I’m no Soul Devourer.”
He held the crimson Holystone to the lantern lens, dousing it in the strong yellow light, further inspecting it. This apparition had to be a Soul Devourer; she had to be.
He noticed the lantern. It wasn’t just an ordinary lantern one might see anywhere, it was exquisite. It was made of beaten copper, molded and inlaid with lapis, gold, silver and garnets. Its lens was some sort of flawless crystal, and the light coming from it wasn’t produced by a conventional power source, like a battery pack and a filament or nano tech; nor was it a candle and mere flame; it was some sort of arcane glow.
“What is this?” he asked in wonder.
Lilly stood and put her arms around him. “I borrowed the lantern from home. I’ll need to have it back soon. I think it’s called Paramel. It illuminates much.”
He moved his olive Holystone along the lantern’s copper face. It rattled steadily.
“What is that?” Lilly asked.
“This Holystone detects the presence of the arcane. See . . .” the Holystone created steady noise next to the lantern. He took it and moved the olive stone along Lilly’s arm. It continued to rattle.
“Ah,” he said, “look here!”
“It seems to be making quite a bit of noise,” Lilly remarked.
“Yes, it does. That means you are of the arcane as well.”
He expected her to protest or make some plausible argument against her being of the arcane.
“But of course I’m of the arcane, Bel,” she replied, smiling.
“Lilly, my Lilly, is not of the arcane. She is a sweet, wholesome girl of Esther. She is rooted in the mundane.”
She laughed. “Oh Bel, can it be you have never put things in the proper perspective all this time? It’s really rather shocking considering your training. I should think you’d have an eye for such things.” She rolled her eyes back in fond remembrance. “I remember seeing you as a little boy as you walked down Tyrol Lane, running away from home. Remember that? I fell in love with you right there and then, I think.”
Stenstrom froze. He remembered that event from his childhood. The terror it still inspired in him, how alone he felt. “That . . . was just a dream.”
“No, no it wasn’t, Bel, and you know it.”
“Then that means you’re the Lady in Gray, the woman in the hat who tried to kill me.”
“I’ve never worn gray in my life, Bel. And I would never try to kill you. If I would have stayed and witnessed what transpired that night in the park, I would have helped you. There would be no Lady in Gray today, for I’d have killed her.”
“Are you a killer, Lilly?”
She seemed stung a bit. “No! No . . . but . . .” Lilly took a moment and composed herself. She moved onto another topic. “And then … and then there was that time during your training in the culvert under your manor grounds when you walked away from your mother … I was there with you, Bel.”
“I didn’t know you then.”
“But I knew you. And then there was that time at the university . . .”
He stood there staring at her. “What are you, Lilly?”
She held out her hand. “Come, let me show you. Come see.”
He went to take her hand, and then stopped himself. “But, Taara, A-Ram?”
“They’re safe, I swear it.”
He stood there, wondering if he could actually trust her or not.
“Bel, I swear your friends are safe.”
Finally, Stenstrom took Lilly’s hand. With her free hand, she picked up the lantern, and they went deep into the Priory following the penetrating yellow beam of the lantern. Very quickly, he no longer felt like he was on the Seeker. He felt the temperature change from the cold staleness of the ship to the cool humid of early night. Leaves crunched under his boots; overhead, he saw familiar evening stars in a clear azure sky.
“Is this Kana?” he asked.
“Where else?”
“How can we be on Kana?”
Lilly didn’t answer. She skipped along and hummed, swinging the lantern with its eternal beam panning back and forth. They seemed to be moving through a dense, needle tree forest. The lantern cut a clear path through the murky trees. Lilly was invigorated and child-like. The Lilly he knew was reserved and composed.
“Ah, home. Home!” she cried. “It feels so good!”
“This landscape doesn’t look like Gamboa,” Stenstrom said.
“I’m not from Gamboa, Bel. I went there once out of curiosity and didn’t like it much. S
o stony and closed-in. Too overcast.” Lilly twirled around, enjoying the cool, damp air, the lantern rattling in her hand. “This is where I’m from.”
She beamed. “Oh … you must have so many question for me, and, at long last, I’m going to answer. I’m going to properly introduce myself to you, Bel, all of me, and nothing will be left to chance.”
They crossed a shallow creek flowing with cold water and came into a clearing. Far off to the north was a tumbled barricade of massive gray mountains frosted in snow. Only one place possessed a mountain range like that on Kana: Vithland, the lands of his friend and mentor, Captain Davage.
“Are we in Vithland, Lilly?”
She laughed. “Come on, just a bit farther.”
Continuing through the clearing, Lilly became more and more excited. She giggled and bounced on the balls of her feet. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to share this with you!”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because they make me tell you lies. I don’t like lying. It doesn’t seem right.”
“Who? Who makes you tell lies?”
Again, Lilly didn’t respond. They entered into a small glade. The ruins of some ancient Vith structure sat in the center of it. It was mostly down to the foundations, sunken into the ground and mirror-like with a coating of cold shallow water. The ruins continued on to the west and were apparently quite extensive.
“This is an old Chapter House where the people used to meet. There’s still a little left of them here in this water. This is where I come to find things out when they won’t tell me what I want to know. This is where I’ve watched you from.”
Watched him? Lilly’s been watching him from afar? The thought gave him a rather uncomfortable feeling. He was square with the notion of looking in on other people, but not being looked in on himself.
“I do not like the idea of you spying on me, Lilly,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she replied, rather perfunctorily.
Lilly approached a protruding buttress and placed the lantern on top of it. She then pulled off her shoes and waded into the shallow water, savoring the feeling. “Come on in, Bel. The water feels so good.”
“Lilly, I’ve not the time.”