The Bearer's Burden

by Chad Queen

  “Okay, this is the place,” said Ashlyn.

  “Has anyone thought about how we are going to actually get this thing on the train?” asked Jace.

  “It’s not that hard. I’ve done it many times!” Beatrix exclaimed.

  “Really? How many times?” he asked.

  “Okay, I haven’t actually done it yet. But it’s simple. The supply trains that run along this track go straight to Rynth. You’ll see,” she said as they continued to push the large steel cart down the dark tunnel.

  “I don’t like this. The whole point was for us to use your Order of the Phantom to charter a railbus for us,” said Jace.

  “After the factory, we must assume anyone could be a double-agent,” Elon said.

  Like Rynth, Toltaire had its share of underground tunnels the Ancients had created for their mining operations. Beatrix had purchased a home above the tunnels to aid in the recreation of her lab.

  They guided the bomb from the system of ropes and pulleys Beatrix had rigged and onto a rusted steel cart. Ashlyn found herself holding her breath as she helped unhook the bomb from the ropes. Working together, they managed to push the heavy cart down the short tunnel until they came to a large clearing. Ashlyn saw the unmistakable silver tracks of a railbus waystation crisscrossing throughout the large underground room. A long railbus, one without windows, was already stopped at the interchange. It was the type of bus that was used to help move goods rapidly between cities. A low pulsing sound echoed inside the chamber, indicating to them that the railbus was charging.

  “This Pathway line leads to Rynth. Let’s hurry,” Beatrix told them,

  With an encoded push, Ashlyn helped move the cart’s wheels onto the tracks. They hitched the cart to the end of the railbus, and the cart snapped into place.

  “That thing is heavier than it looks,” Jace panted.

  Beatrix looked around. “Good. I don’t think anyone saw us. Transport trains like these only keep one or two conductors onboard, and they’re usually sleeping.” She peeked into the last car. “This is the supply car. You should be able to find a place to hide inside. Hurry before it finishes charging!”

  “It’s locked,” Jace said, trying the handle.

  “No problem,” Beatrix said, pulling a crowbar out of her bag and handing it to Jace.

  “Ashlyn, a word?” Beatrix pulled Ashlyn aside as Jace set upon the door with the crowbar. “I know my son acts like he knows everything, but his, ah, optimism, if you want to call it that, gets him into trouble a lot. Can you promise me to look after him?”

  Ashlyn smiled. “I will.”

  Beatrix nodded at this and took a deep breath. She pulled Ashlyn in for a hug. “Thank you.”

  Jace popped open the door, the three filed into the cramped storage car, and the train started to move.

  Ashlyn pressed a button in the front of the car, which opened the door to the next car.

  The commuter car was darker than what Ashlyn was accustomed to. It had an earthy smell, like wet mud. She wrinkled her nose.

  She heard Elon whisper behind her, “Why is it so quiet in here?”

  Ashlyn squinted as she reached the first row of passengers. When she saw them, she gasped.

  “Hells,” she heard Elon mutter.

  “What’s going on? Why are we whispering?” Jace said as he walked up. “Whoa!”

  Rows of Skex, standing at attention, filled the car, their metallic heads reflecting the lights from the tunnel. If the Skex had noticed them, they made no show of it.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Elon as she rolled in next to Ashlyn. She approached the closest one and waved her hand in front of its metal face. It continued to stand, motionless.

  “Fascinating,” Jace said, getting a closer look. “I’ve never seen one up close before.”

  “Why aren’t they moving?” Ashlyn asked, walking down the aisle.

  “No idea,” Jace said.

  “I don’t like this. Let’s keep moving,” said Elon as she wheeled down the aisle.

  They walked in silence, moving from car to car, each filled with unresponsive Skex. In the first car one Skex sat at the front of the car, clutching some sort of metal chest.

  “What do you suppose that is?” asked Ashlyn.

  “Why don’t you open it?” said Elon.

  “Me? I’m not touching that. You open it,” replied Ashlyn.

  “Settle down, settle down. I’ll open it,” said Jace. He made his way to the chest, and keeping one eye on the Skex, opened the lid. Inside lay a smooth dark purple orb. “I’ve never seen an artifact quite like this. I can’t tell if it is Ancient-made or not.” He reached out to touch it.

  The Skex snapped to attention.

  “Jace…” Ashlyn said, worried.

  The Skex started looking around frantically, as if confused. Others began chittering and screeching.

  “Jace, what did you do?”

  Jace’s face went slack as he stared into the orb, which began to glow.

  38

  Enslaved

  Why do the Skex wear those helmets that cover their heads? They have no discernible way to see, yet collectively they move like water through the bed of a stream. What gifts do they possess that allow for such graceful coordination?

  —From First Contact to First Combat: The One-Month War

  The world around Jace dematerialized, like reality had been nothing more than a drawing, an exquisite false rendering. He stood before a plain of darkness, but he was surrounded by wisps of lights, shifting like sand in a storm.

  Before him he saw one such light. He understood that it was the orb. It seemed to swirl and then stop, as if it were regarding him.

  He could hear a voice, but it was faint, as if from far away. He strained to hear it.

  What you?

  The voice was raspy and labored. Are the Skex talking to me? he wondered. “I, um, I am Jace Exile. I am a human.”

  Not Wraith.

  “No, I am not a Wraith.”

  Help us.

  “Help you? What do you mean?”

  Skex slave. Stop Wraith.

  “You want me to stop the Wraiths? How?”

  Need…champion. Good control.

  “You need someone to control you…a champion?”

  Yes. The vortex of smoke seemed to swirl at this. Will you?

  Jace was taken aback. These creatures, the ones they had fought for so long, were reaching out for help. What else could he say?

  “I will.”

  Jace gasped and whirled around the carriage of the train car, disoriented. Ashlyn grabbed his hand. “Jace, it’s okay. What happened?” He looked at her, eyes wild. She could see his nose was starting to bleed. He turned around, breaking from her grasp, and retched.

  Ashlyn bent down next to him, face riddled with worry. “Jace, are you okay? What happened?”

  “I talked with them,” Jace said.

  “What did they say?” asked Ashlyn.

  “They…want to help us.”

  39

  EonTal

  There are those, while publicly decried by the scientific community, that have taken to the dissection of Ancient artifacts. As not all artifacts are protected by the crown, this is not illegal. But it is a waste. All dissection methods have revealed little as to the workings of the artifacts.

  —From Chipcoins to Levitating Trains: Artifacts of the Ancients

  “Dammit,” Cade growled as he found himself back in the same hallway he had been in only minutes before. The passageways in the Thread wound about in many different directions, and he was struggling to navigate. I’d never thought I’d say it, but I’m starting to miss Eos. He didn’t like having his mind read, but saving the world was a bit easier when you had an all-knowing machine to help you.

  Cade turned down a hallway and noted that he hadn’t seen a single Skex since escaping from the reconditioning room. It was more evidence that something big was happening. Cade hoped the Wraith was still nearby;
he knew he needed to get Eos back. And where the Wraith was, Eos would be as well.

  Cade stepped through the hall when he noticed the ninth door where he and Eos had encountered the army of Skex. It was where she had told him the distress signal was originating from. If there was an Ancient imprisoned there, perhaps they could help.

  He walked up to the door and took a deep breath, bracing himself for anything. He pushed the button and the door opened. Inside, not a single Skex remained. He surveyed the room and found no other signs of life.

  In the back of the room a metal arm projected a white sheet of energy across an odd-looking artifact. The artifact’s markings were like the other Ancient-built artifacts Cade had seen before. As he drew closer, the artifact began to hum, and the lights that dotted its surface pulsed with a bright green light.

  Eos? he thought. He wondered if Eos was trying to communicate to him through the artifact, as she had done before. Intrigued, he reached out to touch the artifact.

  “Ah!” he yelled as an arc of electricity jumped from the shield of energy, coursing through his hand. He rubbed his hand, which felt like it had been stabbed with a thousand tiny needles.

  Looking at the metal arm, he encoded diamond and twisted it, which sent sparks flying before dematerializing.

  Cade turned to the artifact and reached out his hand.

  Hello, Cade, a voice said.

  Cade jumped and spun around, leveling his caster at the entrance, but the door was still closed.

  A man’s voice. “…Tal?”

  I see you are still alive. Without the energy shielding you have destroyed, we can now speak freely.

  “You’re not a rogue phantom after all.”

  Tal laughed. No.

  “So you’re a machine…like Eos?”

  It is difficult to explain. I am a consciousness within a machine.

  “How were you able to communicate with me from so far away?”

  Before the Wraiths locked down my access to this facility, I could transmit myself over great distances using the communications tower here. I knew Eos was trying to reach you, so I did what I could to help you.

  “What have the Wraiths done to you?”

  When they discovered me in the system, they managed to isolate parts of my consciousness within this device.

  “Why? What do they hope to find out?”

  The Wraiths have stolen every piece of Ancient computing they can find. The walls you see here are evidence of that. They repurposed all of these machines to solve one problem.

  “The Ascension Drive.”

  Correct. The Wraiths…they are suffering from the madness of immortality.

  Cade remembered his conversation with the Wraith. “Is that why they are using us? To help them escape from immortality? That’s the purpose of the Ascension Drive?”

  Yes. The Wraiths have figured out how to use the phantoms to open a gateway to the Ascent itself. A shortcut to the final plane of existence. But they will need a lot of phantoms to engage it.

  “Tal, I need your help to stop them. They took Eos.”

  I know. I took the liberty of locating her while we are talking. Without the shielding, I can access the internal network, including the surveillance systems.

  “Where is she?”

  I will tell you where, but I need you to patch that cable in front of you to the port on that wall.

  “You mean this one?” Cade plugged the tapered metal spike on the end of the cable into the opening on the wall. Above it, a square on the wall lit up.

  “Is this…a map?”

  Yes, that will lead you to where Eos is. I will buy you some time, but not much. But before you go, I have one more request.

  Cade raised an eyebrow.

  I need you to destroy this machine.

  “But…won’t that kill you?”

  Quite the opposite. This device restrains me, chains parts of me to this system. If you destroy the machine, you will free me.

  Cade nodded. “What do I need to do?”

  The central core is based within the Firmere, so you’ll need a caster shell to eliminate it.

  Cade drew his caster. He loaded a dummy bullet into the chamber and leveled his caster at the machine.

  Until we meet again, Bearer.

  Cade pulled the trigger. He turned to leave the room, casting one last look at the remains of the strange machine.

  He was thankful to leave the Forgotten Hells behind. He committed the route Tal gave him to memory, which led him by the containment room he had been held in earlier.

  As he passed the room, Cade heard the gentle notes of music, as faint as an old memory. He paused, hovering at the threshold. The Second Door, he recalled from an old scary story, the Hell of the Broken Mind. Acolyte Reconditioning, Eos had called it. They were all men and women once. Good ones.

  He closed his eyes. The music became louder as he focused upon it, breathing it within him.

  He spoke the words, sealing the Pacts of the wayward Acolytes.

  40

  The Nexus

  What lies within the belly of the Nexus? It towers above Rynth, an ever-present reminder that the greatest mystery of Rynth still waits to be discovered. With no entrance or explosive powerful enough to penetrate its walls, one can only surmise the entrance lies hidden underground. Perhaps within our lifetime, its elusive seal will be revealed, and we can finally claim the greatest glory of the Ancients.

  —From Secrets of the Ancients

  “This a bad idea,” Ashlyn said as they pressed forward. They had been able to ride the train all the way to Rynth from the underground station in Toltaire. The Skex that had occupied their car seemed to somehow be controlled by Jace via a strange purple orb.

  “We have no better options,” Elon stated. “Unless you would like to push the cart yourself.”

  They were surrounded by a cluster of Skex in Rynth’s underground station. A phalanx of the armored brutes, under Jace’s control, pushed the heavy cart with the missile in front of them. Occasionally, one would stumble and fall as if it were still learning how to walk. But the longer they pushed forward, the more in sync they seemed to become. Jace now sat upon the cart with glassy eyes, his hands glued to the dark purple orb as it pulsed its mysterious light. Ashlyn did not like the color, or lack thereof, of his face. What is it doing to him?

  All around them, more Skex continued to file in from the arriving railbuses. The new arrivals were controlled by a power other than Jace, and Ashlyn noticed dozens of Skex which held chests like the one they had opened earlier. Those orbs must be how the Wraiths can communicate with and control so many Skex at one time, she postulated.

  “I wonder what happened to the Foundation agents. You don’t think…” Ashlyn said, not wanting to finish the sentence.

  “I don’t know. We may be too late,” Elon said with concern. “Let’s keep moving. Do you remember where you were told to meet the Foundation’s team?”

  Ashlyn nodded. “They should be at the north end of the station, but we’ll have to wind through the side tunnels to reach it.” She caught herself holding her breath each time one of the insect-like brutes walked past her. “Why do you suppose the other Skex are not attacking?” Ashlyn asked, fighting the urge to hold her nose. She did not like the way the Skex smelled. They reeked of an unkempt horse stable.

  Elon shrugged. “Tough to say. Perhaps Jace is telling the others to ignore us. I’m just happy we’re being left alone.”

  They followed the endless stream of Skex through the twisting underground labyrinth until they came to a clearing the size of a large stadium. On the opposite end towered a curved metal wall. It wasn’t the normal brushed steel Ashlyn had grown accustomed to seeing. Instead, it was marbled with black lines, like the rings around the trunk of a tree stump.

  “Invelium,” said Elon.

  Thousands upon thousands of Skex congregated inside the underground tunnels. Ashlyn thought, How long have they been hoarding them here? She looked at th
e cart behind her. The bomb, which had once seemed so impressive, looked inadequate given the sheer immensity of the army. Was the explosive on the cart big enough to take out the Thread itself?

  Jace’s group of Skex came to an abrupt halt in the clearing. Ashlyn looked around to see why they had stopped and noticed a group of human bodies strewn across the floor. They bore the deep telltale gashes of Skex claws. She recognized the face of one as the team leader Carlon had introduced her to. Ashlyn’s eyes grew wide with both horror and revulsion. She covered her mouth to keep in the scream that had stuck in her throat. Their plan had failed.

  The wall in front of them began to shift by some unseen force. A deafening rumble shook the underground room as the wall rotated in place, revealing an opening.

  “I don’t believe it,” Elon said, eyes narrowed and alert.

  The other Skex began to march once more, streaming through the opening.

  Jace’s Skex remained unmoved. Ashlyn, still trying to gather herself, heard coughing and turned to find it was Jace. He had set the orb down and was staring at the entrance that had appeared. She rushed over to him.

  “Jace. Are you okay?” she asked. His face was pale.

  He nodded. He looked at Ashlyn with a faint smile. He pointed at the doorway the Skex had opened. “Welcome to the Nexus.”

  “Impossible,” Elon said, shaking her head.

  Jace, regaining his composure, pulled out the codex from his coat pocket. “If you look at the diagram of the underground tunnels, this is the location that would lead to the base of the Nexus tower,” said Jace, tapping a page in his codex.

  “It doesn’t matter what it is. We need to leave immediately. We have to abort the mission,” said Elon.

  “But we can’t. We’ve come so far,” pleaded Jace.