by Brandon Barr
His life is just beginning to hold joy and hope; my vision cannot come to pass. It mustn’t.
Her thoughts trailed off into dreamlike images. Vague, wistful. A scene from their childhood. Aven laughing under a canopy of trees. Him sitting and talking with her in her room as she weaved a crown of twigs together under candlelight.
Blood gushed and spattered on a metallic floor.
Two legs, severed at the thigh, fell from a hulking shadow.
Winter’s heart pounded, and her mind raced awake but it wasn’t a dream to be chased away.
The massive head lowered to the floor and gingerly pinched one of the legs between its lips, then spasmed forward, the leg disappearing within the cavernous mouth. The creature’s sagging throat rolled as it swallowed.
Winter grabbed her stomach and was vaguely conscious that she was vomiting, but her vision held her mind’s eye on the monster. It stared at her. She wanted to turn away, but it was not possible.
Slowly the monster faded from sight, and she had a sense of being pushed, then plummeting down toward a thick canopy of green. The ragged outlines of giant leaves like serrated saws rushing up to meet her.
She screamed.
The roar of the wind in her ears grew deafening, then she hit the fronds and her head made a sickening crack.
All went dark and silent.
CHAPTER 30
AVEN
“This is what my sister will be doing to train?” asked Aven.
Arentiss and Daeymara sat around a small circular table in the Missionary enclave, the late morning light piercing through the windows along the outer wall. The vid screen hung from the ceiling behind them, only now there was just a dark mirrored reflection. No moving images of distant lands and peoples.
“Yes,” said Daeymara. She pressed her thumb against the pages of a thick book and fanned through them. “Six-hundred and forty-seven pages of procedure and case studies.”
“I look forward to assisting your sister in her training,” said Arentiss. “Where is Winter now?”
“Asleep,” said Aven. “She’s not feeling well.”
He wished it was just a sickness, and in a way it was. She’d had another vision, though Winter wouldn’t tell him of it. He’d stayed by her bedside until her breathing became calm, and she fell asleep.
Aven felt a slight touch on his right knee, then another. He put his hand under the table and found small, slender fingers waiting for him. They slid softly into his.
Arentiss wasn’t smiling, but there was a warm glow on her face that made Aven smile.
“I wouldn’t mind training your sister either,” said Daeymara. She looked at Arentiss. “What do you say we split our time with her?”
“You only have a matter of weeks before your mission. It makes little sense for you to start her training, only to leave her. Besides, I am more than capable to handle assisting her myself.”
Aven found himself strangely conflicted inside because of Arentiss’s words. Sad that Daeymara would be leaving soon. She had made an impression on him. He barely knew her, though. Perhaps in her remaining weeks, they could spend more time together.
And Arentiss, he was glad to hear she wanted to help train his sister. Her soft fingers were beginning to feel comfortable in his. She peered at him now, her blue eyes, though beautiful, were difficult to read. He felt certain her needs weren’t purely practical. He saw an underlying passion beneath the surface of her well composed face.
He squeezed her hand and watched the corners of her lips curl up ever so slightly.
The door to the enclave opened, and Karience entered.
“Aven, I am in need of your assistance,” said Karience. “Are you ready for your first duty as an Emissary?”
Aven let go of Arentiss’s hand and stood. “If you believe I’m ready.”
Karience chuckled. “Considering all you have to do is walk through the portal, I think you are proficient enough.”
“Who is he taking?” said Daeymara.
Karience placed a hand on her chest. “He’ll be taking me. I must talk with the Magnus Empyrean on his homeworld, Core 9. Are you ready to go now, Aven?”
“Yes,” he said. “How long will we be gone?”
“A matter of three or four hours,” said Karience.
Her answer relieved him. He didn’t want to be gone from Winter too long, not in the state she was in. And also, tonight he was going to get his farm. Just the thought made his chest burn with pride.
Aven came alongside Karience as she turned for the door.
“May I have permission to go along?” asked Daeymara.
“And may I also?” chimed in Arentiss.
Karience pivoted around. “I suppose one of you can join. Arentiss, you accompanied Aven last time, so come along Daeymara, and quickly. I want this to be a short trip”
Aven looked back at Arentiss as he passed through the door.
Arentiss held a gaze as sharp as an arrow tip. It was aimed with precision at the back of Daeymara’s head.
CORE
…top of her class, astute, analytical, ambitious. Her strengths far outweigh her flaws, of which I know of only one. She was diagnosed as a child with a mild social inversion disorder. Far from hampering her talent, I believe it has caused her to excel, with but a small price to her relationships. In her pursuit of joining a Missionary enclave, Arentiss has my highest recommendations.
-Jeund-Rue, Instructor of Psychology, (Transmission to Higelion, Magnus Empyrean of Sector 54, per Bridge Missions Director, Missionary enclave placement)
…Winter is a grave threat and Karience may not like the outcome of the Sanctor’s visit. If the Oracle is not delivered, we will be forced to remove her by other means.
Let us hope for deliverance. But if it is out of reach, or if the Sanctor feels it will require too much time, then we must be ready for the alternative.
I’ve looked at Karience’s psych file. She is intuitive and intelligent. No matter how good our assassin, she may suspect the truth, and it will be your duty to assuage her questions.
In other words, if Winter is to have a funeral, you will need to attend.
-Sentinel Cosimo, (private transmission to Higelion, Magnus Empyrean of Sector 54)
CHAPTER 31
DAEYMARA
It was Daeymara’s first time on Core 9. After following Karience through the portal to her homeworld, Night 2, they’d gone to Bridge and acquired a Core 9 Emissary to take them to the place they were now.
Daeymara followed close behind Aven, as Karience lead the way through the security zones. Core, like all the upworlds, had a wide swath of land cut out around their portal, which was on the side of a mountain. The mountain was completely barren; the natural growth of the surrounding peaks had been cut down and exterminated, leaving only rock.
A sheer path led down from the portal to the city below. Portions of the jungle-entwined metropolis rose out of the dense green foliage. Spires jutted up half as tall as the mountains, cylindrical, and plated with windows.
The wind on this barren rock tore into ones ears. Daeymara watched it whip Aven’s short hair about, and couldn’t help but wonder what her own hair would look like by the time they reached their destination below.
Aven looked back at her, checking to make sure she hadn’t fallen behind. He gave her a quick smile before turning around.
His smile was so kind. So strangely kind. And his reservations about sex were…affecting her. The peculiar feelings she had surrounding him excited her. She’d heard about similar things happening when upworlder’s traveled to primworlds. The unique traits to primworlds—their traditions, their way of life—they often echoed in a primal way within an upworlder’s soul, beckoning them back to a time when their own people had held to such ways of life.
Loam hadn’t been especially endearing. She had never been to a primworld until joining the enclave there, and though she’d been on Loam for well over a year, she hadn’t met anyone like Aven and Wint
er, farmers from beyond Anantium.
The farmers seemed very different than those who dwelt in the Royal City. Both shared the monogamous family structures, but in the city, she’d seen and heard enough to know that these were mostly a facade. Brothels and prostitutes and mistresses…infidelity abounded in both the men and the women. This was the odd byproduct of a culture beginning to break free from the old structures of marriage and family.
In Aven, however, she had glimpsed the genuine thing—something that existed outside the cities, in the distant rural territory. And against her own superior knowledge, she found it fascinating…attractive even.
She was on the verge of leaving for her mission. It was less than two months away. She understood herself well enough. The psychological stresses and pressures she was experiencing. Once Hark, she, and Zoecara stepped through the portal, there was no telling where they would arrive or what would happen?
It was a gamble with her life that she’d chosen to live out. The Guardians had saved her world from destruction long ago, when a Beast’s army entered through her peoples’ portal. Ever since hearing the stories of the Guardians as a child, she’d felt drawn to the Missionaries. They were so few, and so crucial. And the thought of finding a world like Loam, whose people hadn’t even known the dangers they faced, she felt called to reach out to them.
But now this alluring boy walking in front of her was messing with her head. She didn’t care. It felt right, what she was thinking. Maybe it was…
It was strange, what a few words from Aven had done to her. She’d wanted a night of exciting sex and companionship. His body was strong and muscular from farm work, and he had such a sweet disposition. And his mouth, his eyes, the curve of his jaw—he had exceptionally handsome features, which would have made the sex all the more exhilarating.
But after what he’d said, he stirred in her a deeper longing. A longing she had never felt strongly enough to truly consider its possibility.
Faithfulness. Stability.
She recalled her question: “What do you do when you want to be intimate with someone other than your mate?”
“We train our mind not to want that,” he had said.
“So you just shut off that desire?”
She remembered the sincerity in his voice when he said, “We turn that intimacy toward our mate…”
“…a mate for life,” as he called it.
There was something powerful about that statement. The safety that could be found in permanence. Though sexual desire was like an animal, those within Aven’s farm culture were taught to tame it. To concentrate it on one person for life.
On the cusp of her mission, she found it irresistibly sensible. Her culture called Aven’s way a form of bondage. But for the first time, the freedom her people esteemed so highly felt hollow.
She’d had many thrilling nights in her life, but now she found herself thinking about a home, in the Loamian sense of the word. A place where a family lived together.
Yes. Her head was not right. The nearness of her mission. The possibility of death. It was just like the psychological case studies that the Missionary training had covered. A heightened need for deep relationships just before the mission. To belong to someone. It was normal.
Normal to have these odd desires for family, for a home to return to.
A farm hovel sounded cozy.
Maybe she would consider it, if she had more time.
But then, Aven had been so understanding two nights ago in her bedroom. He might understand this turmoil inside her.
A simple request came to mind. She hoped he would not say no.
_____
AVEN
“Is my sister still in danger? Is that why you’re meeting with the Magnus Empyrean?”
Karience gave Aven a reassuring look. “That is part of why we’re meeting. As far as any danger your sister is in, I believe she is safe while she is on Loam.”
Core, as Karience called this world, was a place Winter would have adored. Aven had never seen such lush, dense forests in his life, if they could be called forests. Jungle, was the term the VOKK gave to it. Ferns and large flowery plants covered the ground outside the paths that led from building to building. After descending the mountain, they’d entered the city, which seemed intertwined with the jungle itself. Ancient trees with thick trunks rose alongside buildings of glass. Vines with pink and red flowers hung down from the trees and laced itself over much of the glass on each building.
Karience stopped beneath the shadow of one such covered building, its top seeming to reach out of sight, into the sky above.
The courtyard they stood in was full of movement. People hurried in and out of the massive building, and with only a few exceptions, they had sun-darkened skin and wore little clothing. Aven found his amount of clothes, and his lighter brown skin, standing out, along with Daeymara’s, while Karience’s dark skin seemed at home on Core.
“Wait there,” said Karience, pointing at a fountain in the middle of what looked like a garden carved out of the jungle. “That fountain. I shall meet you there. Hegelion is a busy man, I doubt I will be long.”
Karience joined the throngs entering the sky-tall building, and Aven found himself alone with Daeymara amidst the frantic flow of people rushing by.
“I’ll lead the way,” said Aven.
Daeymara nodded with a grin. “And I’ll gladly follow.”
CHAPTER 32
KARIENCE
The moment she entered, Higelion rose from his seat at a large rectangular table. Eight others stood at his lead.
“Ah, Karience! So glad you’re here, safe.” He turned to the others. “Please excuse us, I must have a word with my Empyrean from Loam.”
Karience bowed her head, “Magnus Empyrean, it is good to see you.”
As soon as they were alone, Higelion moved close and briefly took Karience’s hand in welcome. “Tell me, how are you? I heard all that happened. Remarkable…and terrifying.”
“My fondness for Bridge will never be the same, but I am fine.”
Higelion’s face was pocked with deep shadows where a childhood disease had left scars. Deep lines of concern cut through his marred features, and his eyes looked troubled.
“How is the Oracle?”
Karience frowned. “She is doing as well as one might expect. However, I know you’ve kept a beetle feed going on her, so I might ask you the same question. How is Winter?”
Karience found the continued use of a beetle feed distasteful. Studying Winter as if she were a disease that needed a cure. The girl was as sincere and open, and Karience wanted nothing more than for the young woman to be left alone.
Higelion shrugged. “The Oracle seems unstable. And why shouldn’t she be. She inadvertently killed a Sanctuss.”
Karience heard how easily the word Sanctuss rolled off of Higelion’s tongue.
“Why didn’t I know about the Consecrator’s order before Winter joined us?” said Karience.
“Many Empyreans do not know of them. They are few, and they only exist to help the occasional Oracle that we come across.”
“You say Winter is unstable, what do you mean by that?”
“That is the word the Consecrators used. They are the ones observing her feed. They feel she is struggling with her trust in the gods. And this is good. They will be sending out a Sanctor and his apprentice to you in five days. At the very least, they will help put Winter at ease, and, if all goes as hoped, they will free her from the grip of the gods.”
Karience had never come to a personal conclusion to whether the gods were cruel, or simply indifferent, but having her life spared because of the gift they had given Winter, she found herself quite grateful toward them at present. Something about Higelion’s certitude on the matter gave her pause. He clearly was not undecided on the issues regarding Oracles. Why the need to remove the gift? What did they fear?
She would find other, less direct ways, to ask her questions.
“I strongly u
rge you to move the Consecrator’s visit back. Give Winter time to work through this issue on her own. I don’t think pushing her into another interview with a Consecrator is good for her right now. Five days is far too soon.”
“I’m afraid that is out of my control,” said Higelion. “Your Oracle’s case is under the direct review of one of the Sentinels.”
Karience stared at Higelion. It couldn’t be. It made no sense. How could this girl from Loam be of such importance as to bypass the authority of the eighty Magnus Empyreans and then even the ten Arbiters?
One of the three Sentinels was taking a personal interest in Winter?
“Why?” she demanded, concern spilling over into her voice.
Higelion closed his eyes. “What I am about to tell you is of such a confidential nature, that you must swear never to repeat it.”
“I swear,” said Karience.
Higelion’s heavy brows lifted and he sighed. “Loam is part of an ancient prophecy called The Contagion. It has to do with three worlds that make what is called, The Triangle. Loam’s sun is one of The Triangle’s equilateral points. Hearth and a third, unknown world’s suns are the other two. Each star forms the head of the spear within the Huntress constellation”
“Since when do the Guardians concern themselves with prophecies?”
“Since the beginning, Karience. All the way back to our origins. But that is another matter. We pay attention to prophecies because they tell us things that are true. The gods may have largely abandoned our galaxy, but they have not left it without their fingerprints. Oracles, prophecies, the portals, they are remnants of the gods’ design. If we ignore them, it is to our own peril, for the Beasts know of their importance, and, we fear, they may even know of The Triangle.”
“So what is The Triangle?”
“A portal, unlike any other. According to the Consecrators, this portal leads outside our galaxy, to one of the other seven.”
Karience realized how hard her chest was pounding. She took a long breath. “That truly is amazing. How does it work?”