by Peach, Hanna
“Sometimes… maybe it does.”
He laughed. “You don’t like cool, calm, collected Jordan?”
“Cool, calm, collected Jordan is too ‘together’. I have wondered sometimes if you ever feel anything at all.”
He looked uncomfortable. “I feel.”
“I’m just saying, I like you like this. It makes you… less untouchable. More real.”
In the dim of the tunnel, sharing this space, sharing this air, she felt that the distance between them disappearing. She felt closer to him now than even yesterday. How a day can change everything, she thought.
“Come on,” he said as he gently nudged her. “We have a lot to tell the others.”
* * *
Tobias called a meeting as soon as Alyx and Jordan had returned to the underground station. It was almost like their meetings back in Aradale in Tobias’ office. Except they were sitting in one of the larger carriage compartments that had once been a dining compartment, now turned into a sort of all-purpose room.
Alyx looked around the compartment. Several of their group were missing: Marin was still recovering, Israel was lying in his compartment, Lukas had refused to leave Ana’s side for the moment. Only she, Jordan, Tobias, Vix and Dianne were left.
Jordan opened the meeting by relaying the news about Florence community and the deaths of Fernando and Rosa. Even though she barely knew them, Alyx found herself being hit with sadness at the loss of these two FreeThinkers. And she felt her sadness for Ky swell up once more. Had this all only happened a day ago? It felt like so long ago. When Jordan finished speaking, he was met with a morose silence which was only broken when Dianne let out a small cry.
“God help us all,” Dianne whispered, the tears evident in her voice.
Tobias looked pale. “I need to check with Saudi Arabia… Omniya…”
He didn’t have to finish his sentence. Alyx knew what he feared, what they all feared… that that the Saudi Arabia community had been destroyed, too.
Tobias cleared his throat. “Where are the Florence survivors now?”
“They are trying to seek refuge with the other communities but most of the other communities have shut their gates claiming that they are all almost full. Full my ass, those lying bastards. Those cowards are scared that the Darkened will follow them there.”
Tobias sighed. “Their fear is an understandable reaction, Jordan.”
“I don’t damn well understand it. Aren’t we all supposed to be the same race?” He took a deep breath and continued, “Anyway, some are hiding out in their various safehouses. Most are homeless and are squatting in nearby abandoned buildings,” Jordan said.
“Okay,” Tobias said. Then he took a long breath in and it all came out in a large sigh. “I had hoped that we could disperse our Aradale survivors into the other surrounding communities. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we have that option anymore. We cannot stay here for long. We have to start looking for a new place to rebuild our community, but I need to talk with the other Chiefs first. Alyx?”
Alyx looked up.
“How is Israel doing?” he asked gently.
“He’s slowly getting worse. He doesn’t have long unless we can find a cure. Adere is unintelligent at the moment, so she’s no help. Jordan and I DreamWalked Mayrekk as we thought that he may be able to help. But he’s in such a bad way. Michael has been,” she choked a little, “torturing him using a Black Stone blade so his wounds aren’t healing.”
More gasps went up around the room.
Alyx continued, “When we asked him about the demon poison, he said something about the Dark. That we had to find the Dark. I don’t know what that means. We have to free him and not just because he can help us cure Israel. He’s not going to last much longer in there.”
Alyx noticed Vix frowning and mouthing silently to herself. “What is it Vix?”
“Tell me word for word what Mayrekk said about the Dark.”
Alyx closed her eyes and fixed the memory in her mind. “Mayrekk said, ‘What is in the Dark can save him… The Dark. You must find the Dark.’”
“The Dark…” Vix mumbled. “He can’t possibly mean…”
“What?” Alyx’s eyes flew open and she leaned forward, a spark of hope flaring in her stomach. “What is it? You know something.”
“It mightn’t be anything but… could Mayrekk be talking about… the Threads of Dark?”
“The Threads of Dark?” Alyx had never heard of it. She glanced around the table looking for a sign of recognition on anyone else’s face.
“Isn’t that just a legend?” said Dianne.
Vix pursed her lips. “Perhaps not.”
“Where can we find the Threads of Dark?” Alyx asked.
Vix shook her head. “I don’t know. I have never seen it but… I know someone who has.”
“Who?”
Vix looked pained. “I can’t say who or where he is. I can only take you to him.”
Alyx near flew to her feet. “So let’s go.”
“Hang on, Alyx.” Vix turned to Tobias. “Can you spare me?”
Tobias nodded. “Of course.”
“Before you both run off, we have one more thing to talk about,” Jordan said. “Alyx and I came across a Darkened nest. Eleven of them had taken over a bar named Hell’s Fire downtown. We managed to kill all but one.”
“What happened to the last one?”
Jordan and Alyx shared a look. He nodded at her to continue.
“The demon sent itself back to hell leaving the mortal alive, but unconscious,” she said. “It admitted that the demon soul doesn’t die when we kill the Darkened. They just get sent straight back to Hell.”
The room erupted in gasps and protests.
“That’s not possible,” said Dianne.
“It is,” said Jordan. “I saw and heard it as well, Dianne. You may not trust Alyx, but you trust me, don’t you?”
Dianne opened her mouth as if to speak. Then, appearing to change her mind, she closed her mouth and nodded lightly to him.
“When we went inside the bar…” Jordan continued. “God, it was awful. It was some kind of feeding frenzy. There were close to fifteen mortals… all dead.”
“It was nothing like I’ve ever seen before on patrole,” Alyx said. “They usually hunt in two’s or three’s, no more. Too many of them become too conspicuous. And normally they don’t want to reveal themselves to the mortals any more than we do. But this… fifteen dead in one bar… it’s like they’ve stopped caring whether or not they get discovered. It’s like… they want to be discovered.”
There was a silence as this sank in around the room. Before this, there had been an unwritten proprietary that kept everybody involved in this terse war in line and stopped things from getting too messy. But now… it seemed the unspoken rules, the silent boundaries, no longer existed.
* * *
As soon as Tobias dismissed the meeting, Alyx was at Vix’s side. “Let’s go.”
Vix shrugged on her jacket. “Alyx, before I take you, you need to promise me that you’ll do everything I say when I say it.”
“That sounds… ominous.”
“I made a promise to this Seraphim a long time ago that I wouldn’t tell anyone about him. When we get close to where we’re going, you need to let me go ahead and just make sure that he’s okay with you being there. If he is, I’ll come back for you.”
“And if not?”
Vix turned the full force of her crisp blue eyes onto Alyx. “I made a promise, Alyx. I don’t break promises.”
Alyx matched Vix’s stance. “So you’d let Israel,” and me, “die because of some stupid promise?”
Vix rolled her eyes. “God you are one for dramatics, aren’t you. I’m not letting him die. If we can get this information without me having to break my promise, let’s do that first, okay?”
Alyx deflated as she let out a breath. What was she doing turning on Vix? Vix was on her side. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wr
ong with me lately.” She blinked back tears, realizing that under her anger was a sadness that was welling up from the pit of her soul.
Vix’s face softened and she placed a hand on Alyx’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. You have a lot riding on this, I get it.” She sighed dramatically. “Men. Just bigger-sized boys who still just need saving.”
Alyx attempted a smile.
“That’s better.” Vix slung an arm around her shoulders. “Now, let us girls go save the world.”
Chapter 9
Alyx picked at a leaf of the tree she was sitting in and glanced again around this mountainous forest in China. Nothing had changed in the last twenty seconds since she last studied the area. Around her the air was crisp and fresh with a soft woody smell of bamboo. Vix had been gone for at least an hour now.
She saw a movement in the leaves ahead. Was that Vix?
It was. Finally. With her was an older seraph. Alyx straightened up with interest. Then floated to the ground below to greet them.
“This is Alyx, the girl I told you about,” Vix said as they approached each other.
The seraph took Alyx’s hand in both of his own. “The Guardian, and so young in mortal years. It is an honor to meet you. You did not bring Israel?”
Alyx frowned as she took her hand back from him. “You’ve met Israel?” Then everything clicked in her head as the pieces fell together. This was the Elder who had begun to train Israel to use his demon-powers.
“You’re the Elder,” she exclaimed.
He nodded. “Yes.”
All the questions Alyx wanted to ask bubbled up. Who were you before? Which city were you from? Why did you leave? How long ago?
Evidently, he could see all these questions flashing across her face. “It is best that this is all you know about me.”
Alyx narrowed her eyes at him as a root of mistrust burrowed into her mind. “How do we even know that we can trust him?” she said to Vix.
Vix looked horrified. “Alyx, how—”
“She is wise to question everything,” the Elder cut her off. “Even me.” He turned back to Alyx. “I can see why you were chosen as Guardian.”
“Flattery isn’t going to make me trust you any more.”
He didn’t seem bothered by her words at all. “Before this is all over you will have to make more choices about who you can and can’t trust with less information than what little you know about me. Consider this a free lesson.”
Alyx appraised the seraph. Could she trust him? Vix had told her little of him, only that she had known him in a “past life”. But what if his alliances had changed since then? Logic wanted to argue back and forth about trusting him.
She supposed there wasn’t much she could do right now but to trust him. If he knew something about the Threads of Dark, Alyx wanted to hear it. “Let’s see what you have to tell us first.”
He nodded in approval. Then his face became serious. “Vix tells me the circumstances are dire.”
“Israel has been poisoned,” said Alyx, getting straight to point. “A demon-poison, but we don’t know what kind. We don’t have much time. We were led to believe that the Threads of Dark may help us with a cure. And Vix seems to feel that you may be able to help us locate it.”
“This isn’t good news.” The Elder rubbed his chin solemnly. “Yes, the Threads of Dark should provide some answers once you know what poison it is.
“What is the Threads of Dark?”
“When we were first earthbound, the Elders put together all that we knew about the demons into the Threads of Dark; demon species, demon magics, demon myths… and demon poisons. It was once stored in the Archives of the past city of Atlantis.”
Alyx remembered hearing about the once only Seraphim city of Atlantis − the city built upon an island in the Atlantic sea − in Michaelea lectures. The lectures were always brief.
“Where is it now?” Alyx asked.
“When Atlantis fell it was relocated to a secret chamber in Urielos.”
Alyx started. The city fell? “But we were always taught that Atlantis was abandoned because—”
“—because it became too small to house our growing population? Yes, that was the official recorded history. The reality… well, let’s just say that what really happened was something akin to a civil war.” The Elder looked thoughtful. “But this is not the time for history lessons. If you are both willing, I can show you where the Threads of Dark is.”
* * *
The Elder took Vix and Alyx to a small cave on the dark side of the mountain. It was colder here and the air seemed stiller.
“We should not be disturbed here,” the Elder’s voice began to echo as he moved in through the dark entrance. “I come here to meditate and as a safe place from which to make my journeys.”
Alyx gave Vix an apprehensive look. But Vix didn’t seem perturbed at entering this cave in the middle of nowhere with this mysterious seraph. Alyx followed them with one hand on her sword handle. The tunnel flowed into a small cavern with a flat floor. When Alyx stepped into the cavern, the Elder was already lighting candles that stood stubby and overflowing with wax all around the edges. In the center was a thick, woven rug.
“What are we doing here?” Alyx asked, her eyes flitting back and forth between Vix and the Elder.
“I am a DreamWalker,” said the Elder. “Please lie down on either side of me.”
“Do you mean to lure us into a DreamScape and then kill us while we sleep?”
The Elder smiled. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.”
The Elder and Vix lay across the rug. They both looked expectantly at Alyx. This was the moment when she had to decide… did she trust him?
Alyx weighed the balance of probabilities and decided that she was better off trusting the Elder. “Okay,” she said as she positioned herself on the rug. “But if you double-cross me and I end up dead I’m going to come back and haunt your sorry ass.”
She heard Vix tsk at her as the Elder chuckled. She felt a pulse of power travelling out from the Elder, which consumed her body in a blinding light.
* * *
Alyx was standing on the grassy outcrop of a huge cliff with Vix and the Elder. The mirrored surface of the ocean stretched all the way into the distance. Below her, clusters of pastel-colored homes clung to the land. A section of the cliff jutted out to a tip, and on that tip stood a lonely turret that stretched up towards the pale blue sky.
She felt the Elder’s presence beside her. “This is Urielos, as I remember it,” he said quietly. “It has been a long time since I have been here.”
“Do you miss it?” Alyx asked.
The Elder nodded. “Some of it.”
“What is that structure?” Alyx pointed to the turret.
“That was our warning tower. A small fire could be lit within and shading moved back and forth across it to communicate messages to the other warning towers in a series of light signals, similar to the mortals’ Morse code. If completely lit up, it served as an evacuation warning. There is a tower on the other side of the city, in the edges of the village of Lavina.”
In her head, Alyx went through what she knew about Urielos from her lectures. The city of Urielos was spread out over four smaller villages, each village clinging to a separate part of this cliff. Each village had its function. Along the ocean line far below, Alyx could make out the golden strip of beach dotted with clusters of thatched buildings making up the fishing village of Josef. Alyx turned, only noticing now the buildings behind them in the village of Savinion, the agricultural hub. Around the Savinion buildings, the land looked lush and ripe and was nursed into neat rows of gold and green. Even further beyond Savinion would be Lavina, where the warriors lived and trained. She couldn’t see Lavina from here, only the tip of the other warning tower could be seen in the distance, poking up from the roofline.
Finally, Alyx swept her eyes across the village directly below them. Uria wasn’t the largest village, but it was the grandest. T
he buildings shimmered and ebbed with brightness from the extravagance of crushed pearls, corals and shells that were mixed into the paints. Hanging off the roofs of the buildings were ornate metals arms draped with glowing seaweed, off which hung large glow pearls, no doubt to light up the paths at night.
Vix was gazing around as well, but her face was hard and solemn. “I haven’t set eyes upon this Godforsaken place in a long time.”
Vix came from Urielos, Alyx remembered.
“Come. We must travel through Uria to get where we need to go.” The Elder started to float down to the village. Alyx and Vix followed him.
As she floated down the slight slope, patchy grass and rocks gave way to paths under her, and open air reduced to the spaces between buildings. It was unnerving to walk through a village with no Seraphim around.
Alyx brushed her hands against the walls of the building as she passed. Her fingers came away with what looked like grains of salt on them.
“There's so much detail here,” she said. “I could almost believe that I am actually here.”
“Say what you want about these physical bodies, but they really were made amazingly well. The subconscious part of the brain captures every single little detail about the world around us even if our conscious part doesn't remember all of it. When we DreamWalk we access the subconscious, hence you can see everything here in great detail. If we tried to walk into a building that I had never been to, I would have to have to make it up. That’s why you would notice a difference in detail or inconsistencies, or you may notice that the edges of things aren’t clear.”
They passed through a large, dusty square edged with buildings. Small colorful stalls lined the marketplace. The Elder stopped them on the roof of a building near the center of Uria so that Alyx could see how the village stretched out around them.
“Uria is the main village and the center house of the city. This is where we all meet, where the Elders live, where we trade our wares in the Uria markets.”
“Except,” said Vix, “things have changed since you were last here, Elder.”