The Spark

by Taylor Gibson

  Larou and Bradel decided to stay behind with the nilt guardians. George and I looked into each other’s eyes from out of our peripheral vision. I waited for him to say something to me, but he remained silent, as we stared at each other back to back. Minutes later, I heard Larou’s voice enter into my head. I assumed it made fair sense that George could hear him as well, “I want to let you know that Bradel and I will be seeing you very soon. We’ll miss you while you’re gone, but hey, there’s always tomorrow.”

  These words were enough to allow my mouth to curl into a little smile, as I faced his direction. From the corner of my eye, I saw George giving them a grin as well. Looking back up at the portal over our heads, I noticed that Äbaka was certainly hiding from someone, as he continuously peeked around the corner and jumped back into the shadows when he got a view of something hunting for him. The elder studied the image of a shaded Äbaka and gasped with an expression on his face that was half excitement and half panic. Not knowing how to react to his shifty reaction, I remained silent and anxiously awaited to be sent through the wormhole back to Imga I. After a moment, the nilt frantically rushed through the ritual and shouted things at us that made absolutely no sense. Of course, since he was old and frail, you could imagine his vocal cords could only give off so much volume and his weak body wasn’t able to move very swiftly.

  “Take care of whatever is over there, Sui! I need time to think back here in the cave because this could be it! Are the gods answering us finally? Regardless, as soon as you make it there, do not make a sound, both of you! Understood?”

  “Yes,” I said calmly, without a bit of understanding of what was going through his mind, “but what’s happening?”

  “Elynbeard,” he said, calm now, “my name is Elynbeard. I have done my part in this tale. I have given you the reason why Aloli-Ta did what he did to your minds. And to answer your question, you’ll just have to find out for yourself when you join him there in Shi Shii.”

  And with that the nilt slammed his staff down on the ground, causing a tremor under our feet that lifted our now weightless bodies into the air, through the tubular gate, which led to the city. The walls of this tunnel were like static on a television set, having extremely brilliant waves of color running through them as we passed through the narrowing wormhole.

  In an instant, we found ourselves in the golden streets of Shi Shii; however, we were not in the same section of the city that the wizard was in. We could not see him anywhere at all. But what we did see before our eyes, I would much rather forget. The foul smells, the dreadful sounds, the gruesome images; these were all too much for my senses to bear, even after all I’d been through with George these past few weeks.

  The city had been overrun by Jobik’s elite forces, and countless lives had been taken for the cause of finding my forefather. Smoking buildings, burning chariots and wagons, mangled bodies from all social classes mixed together, and grotesque jaqae, scavenging the city for curious goods, could all be witnessed in this tragic scene that I could not stand for. Why, even George of all people, considered this act of violence an outrage, and he had good cause to hate this city above all else. No matter how evil a man could be in his life, no one deserved to die by the clutches of The Black Beast and his servants.

  I knew that it would be unwise to draw attention to ourselves, so I grabbed George and led him to a wall that we could crouch by. It was better than strolling down the bombarded streets at any rate, so we quietly crouched down low and snuck across, until we could find the man we were looking for. Though I was uneasy with the thought of learning more about my past after realizing I had committed a murder not that long ago, I still remained confident and open minded about what good there had to have been before my brainwashing.

  Chapter 11

  My daily bread and water shall be turned to my daily pork and wine; my sword and bow shall become the agents of order; my love of this world shall be long missed some time soon. Everything I knew about myself was an illusion that overlapped the actual events in my past. The future is what I had to hold on to now that my true journey was soon to resume, but in order to fulfill my destiny, perhaps some lessons I had previously learned would aid me in the hellfire of war that was marching into the Fancore.

  ~Sui Bane Ozborn

  Down the streets of the ransacked city, George and I searched every alley to see if we could find my forefather. With George’s anger toward the jaqae starting to overcome him, I had to make sure that I kept him stable-minded enough to maintain our undetected presence. I also had to keep my own temper and avoid a fight that I knew we would lose, as we were severely outnumbered. I counted hundreds of thousands in the city, if not more outside the walls that had been partially taken down by magick blasts of dark energy; their searing black and purple radiation billowing off of the stone. Sadly, there appeared to be no survivors, but my forefather was out there somewhere. I could feel his unstable presence lingering in the air. I stood optimistic that he in turn could sense us around one of these many alley corners.

  I knew I looked extremely noticeable with such a huge sword strapped behind my back, so I cast an enchantment on the weapon that made it completely invisible. As we snuck past many purple skinned soldiers, I caught their words that suggested that this was a “cleaning” operation. To top this off, multiple soldiers mentioned the words “path for Jobik” repeatedly amongst themselves. Getting past the armed forces was simpler than I expected it to be, but for all I had done to get through, it was only to face a larger problem. My optimism sank when I laid eyes upon the next few blocks. There were two demons who appeared to be the leaders of this “cleanup operation,” as they were calling it. I could assume their higher position based on the fact that they weren’t even jaqae, and they wore better crafted armor and carried unique weapons that made jaqa bone swords and stone clubs to look like child’s toys.

  One of them I had never seen before in my life with her stretched, green hair; yellowish skin, with a few green freckles in different places; tall, thin legs; and spiked, provocative armor. She was carrying a long-poled flail of thorns in her right hand; the ball of spikes dangling from a chain that constantly swayed with each long step she made. The other leader, I knew exactly where I had originally seen him. Or rather, I recalled his voice. In my nightmare, nearly half a year ago, there was a deep, growling voice ordering the goblins to take George and me to Jobik in Shi Shii; the one who decapitated one of the goblins right above me while I was in the sack. I could hear him speaking with the other demon and his voice was exactly the same as I recalled from my nightmare. What was more unnerving than his voice was his appearance. He had blood-red skin like Asteroth; ram’s horns curled upon his head; a pair of piercing, red eyes above a small, ape-like nose; and a mouth full of long, dagger-like teeth. His armor was thick and black made of various strips of scarred metal and worn leather. He carried a great many sheaths and belts to holster a large amount of weapons; mostly swords, with a few axes, hammers, daggers, and a small, one-handed crossbow. Like the female leader beside him, this demon needed to be eliminated.

  The city square where the leaders stood was unquestionably the shortest route, but it was risky due to the likelihood of being noticed. As there were several different routes we could take and remain unnoticed, I concluded that entering through the closest alleyway to circumvent around the square would be the safest path onward. But before I could even give him my thoughts, I noticed George already following his own route, giving me a bulge in my throat as I saw him crouched in the city square, ready to either live or die, without the question of which one was more probable on his mind. He snuck straight out into the open, where hundreds of eyes could see him if he made any noises or sudden movements. His shortcut method was a swift way to get us both killed if we were spotted by a jaqa, but I couldn’t allow him to go out there alone in case he was spotted. Even with how insane I felt following this madman I loved, I prepared to enter into the open c
ity square, ready to draw my invisible weapon if anything were to go awry.

  There were hundreds of jaqae barricading the passage to the southern sections of the city, where my forefather was likely held up, but I saw that there was a gap between two crowds that led to a one-way road. If we could get past them, then we could reach my forefather undetected and unscathed. After I discovered the gap, I was amazed by how far George and I had already made it through the square, concealed by extreme stealth I never knew either one of us had. The two leaders continued to converse with one another and nothing about the jaqae’s actions indicated that they had seen us. By the time we came close to the two crowds, I realized we needed a new plan. Before I could think of anything, George created a diversion by throwing a gemstone off the ground and into a building window. The sound of shattering glass herded every last one of the jaqae into a single cluster that moved westward where the stone had landed.

  “Find out what that was right now!” shouted the flail-wielding leader with a deep voice not belonging to her feminine body. “I want everyone in this city dead!”

  I made sure that the coast was entirely clear before we moved on, but even though I saw no other jaqae presently in the area, I had a feeling that we were going to have to pay the penalty for such phenomenal luck in the end. We made it to the southern one-way road, but certainly didn’t escape potential danger from being caught. We continued to crouch by walls, peek between alleys, and make turns, but it seemed that Äbaka was nowhere to be found. George seemed to have calmed down a bit from everything that had transpired, but I was still unable to believe the jaqae’s action against the city and its people. What was this “cleaning exercise” really about?

  I feared that Jobik’s forces weren’t just tearing down the city to “cleanse” it, but I felt they were searching for someone in particular. Maybe they knew where Äbaka was even before we did and were knocking the place down just to find him. I should have realized this; he had that kind of effect on his enemies. In their eyes, he was an immortal wizard that was worth leveling a city to find. Tens of thousands of men and women were slain, and this was the capital city of Shimbia! This was literally the destruction of an entire nation. Regardless of how corrupt, prejudice, and hypocritical its monarchy may have been, there could be no forgiveness for these demons who took their lives.

  If any jaqae were to spot us, I had a plan set to lose them in a chase. But George and I were going to try our best to move trough undetected by the scum that surrounded us. We drew closer to the energy that I was sensing to be my forefather’s; I could feel he knew that we were here because of what I was sensing. He was letting me know that he wasn’t far ahead when we reached the perimeter of the aero-docks. It was within one of these alleys that the wizard was hiding, and there were several jaqae stationed here. I counted somewhere between seventy and eighty total, holding heavy weapons on their side, ready to strike anyone who entered their line of vision.

  George and I split up in opposite directions by the buildings that surrounded the aero-port. My weapon was still invisible upon my back, so I didn’t have any reason to worry about Soba giving me away. For some reason, however, I sensed that something else was capable of revealing me. Besides the fact that I didn’t know how to make myself invisible, I felt nervous and uneasy about not knowing what it could have been that was risking my stealth.

  I continued checking between the buildings, and not once did I find my forefather. It was clear now that he was probably hiding on the side that George was checking. In time, I heard George’s whisper flow faintly through the wind. He was several yards away from me on the other side of the aero-docks. If I could hear him, the jaqae between us obviously heard him, but their reaction to it was slow and hardly in attendance. I carefully directed myself around to George’s side of the street and managed to get by without being caught. When I squatted next to George, I found my forefather in the dark alley, tightly gripping his staff in front of him as though he was ready to preemptively strike the monsters from behind.

  “Sui,” he whispered to me in a relieved, yet disappointed tone, “where have you been? I was just through scolding George and now-”

  “Forefather,” I calmly interrupted, “I can explain everything, but we must find a way out of the city before we consider our punishment. George and I both have much to question you about as well, but can we save all of this talking for when we’re safe at home?”

  Amusement came over my forefather’s hairy face as he smiled at my maturity. His expression quickly sank into a frown though, as he replied to my suggestion, “Yes, Sui. Let’s get ourselves out of here before we wind up like those poor corpses piled over there.” He pointed to a burning heap of dead bodies piling up by the thousands, nearly as high as the twelve-story building that lay in ruin beside it. “We need to climb over the middle of the southernmost wall in order for us to leave. But I wouldn’t doubt it if we were to fall on top of the jaqae patrolling the exterior. We will need to glide over them when we reach the top.”

  I nodded and told him that I suspected the very same thing. More than likely, there was another massive army of jaqae guarding the walls and blocking all access to the sewer systems, secret passage ways, and ladders. Obviously the main gate facing north had to have been closed off as well. He didn’t seem to be worn out from a struggle, so I assumed that he recently showed up in Shi Shii just before the assault.

  “The only way we can effectively get over them,” I started to suggest, “is by using the gravity manipulation augmentation. We can then glide right over their heads and make for the jungles.”

  “No, they’d soon spot us in the distance where we land.” Äbaka pointed out in a discouraged manner. “I shall adopt a paradigm for what we’ll do once we make it up the wall; that is our first priority. We need to get moving; daylight is fading away from our benefit.”

  With that being decided, George was the first one to take action, creeping towards the wall, as my forefather and I closely followed behind him. I was still feeling edgy about what hellish things awaited us behind the fortification facing our home. A sensation that we were being watched by a dark essence came over me all of a sudden, but none of the jaqae around us were making any suggestion that they detected us.

  When we made it to the edge, where the wall sat in wait, George leaped up and stuck his daggers into the stone, using them as rock-climbing utensils. Since they were just simple iron, he had to enchant them with a hardening charm so they were strong enough to pierce the wall. Much to my misfortune, daggers were tools that I did not possess in my inventory at the time. My forefather made an example of a broken shard of diamond lying on the ground and split it in two with a splitting spell. He then used the two halves to climb up and meet George at the top. Since I was unfamiliar with the spell he cast, I had to invent my own way up that wouldn’t create too much noise.

  As I tried to find two shards of gemstone that I could use to climb up, George and Äbaka impatiently gestured to me to come up, but finding the right mineral was harder than it seemed. There were all sorts of colors and grades scattered about, but none of them were strong enough to pierce the stone wall without an enchantment. Having to abandon my lust for being unique, I eventually gave up and decided to do as the wizard did and augment two ruby shards for sturdy climbing tools. I climbed to the top of the wall and joined the two men. Making it through the city and up the wall was just the easy part; for when I saw the jaqa guards below us, I knew this was the awful gathering that I kept anticipating. The spark of a fire across the entire Fancore.

  The only way I knew we were going to escape was by soaring far out into the rainforest where we would land in the trees and become safe from the jaqae’s sight. The jungles did not appear to be too far away from us, but the reality was that they lay a full mile and a half in the expanse of grassy fields. Our main ordeal was that there wasn’t a way of getting that far without something to ride on like a crossicut
e or an enchanted gargoyle statue. This thought in turn led to the most obvious answer.

  “I’ve got it,” whispered George, standing up as quickly as the thought came to my forefather and I. “We’ll- woah!” with a gasp, George slipped on the stone and fell off the wall, causing my heart to race as I looked down to watch him tumble several meters toward the army of jaqae. I screamed in fright, but a second after I did, I realized that he landed safely on a wet, moldy, thick woolen sleeping roll that broke his fall. Äbaka had that look in his brightly green eyes that indicated he knew this fight was going to be hell. Gathering around George, struggling to pick himself back up, the jaqae drew their weapons and prepared to end his life. I looked to my right and saw that the wizard had vanished from my side!

  I shifted my gaze back down to where George was getting up on his feet and saw my forefather thrust the blade of his staff through the armor plating of a jaqa who cried out like a banshee from the impact. All the other jaqae around him focused on the famous wizard when they recognized his beard with panic. I had to make my way down there to assist them, so with as much faith as I could conjure up in this desperate moment, I took a leap off the wall and cast a gravitational augment on my body just before I rolled into the grass. Soba was visible again, and I drew the mighty blade from the strap on my back and flung its weight at the nearest jaqa, cutting down more and more as they came along with pitiful defense.

  I was immediately attacked by several panicking demons who couldn’t even balance their sword arm right. It was obvious that these jaqae were undertrained and inexperienced for real battles. Wherever jaqae came from, this army was definitely full of new recruits. I took out roughly fifteen of them in less than five minutes while George and Äbaka stood their ground. Because George lacked efficient weapons, he picked up a smaller, jagged sword that belonged to a female demon I had killed. He swung the blade around and around while flinging balls of freezing water, ice chunks, and electricity at every surrounding jaqa. I did the same, but instead of storm elementals, I used flames, magma, acid, and fiery explosions to deal quick, long-range casualties to the enemies spread around us. My forefather was using just about every spell in the book, with style in every cast from his staff and open, sweaty palm.