In Eden's Shadow

by Amanda Churi

  She stretched her fingers wider. The puppet exploded into a windmill of panic. “HEY! WHAT—?!

  “Oh, again with the monologues,” she grumbled. “You all don’t know when to sew your mouths shut and attack, do you? If there’s anything I hate, it’s listening to a bunch of half-ass threats and confessions when actions could speak just as loud.”

  “Now holddd up!” it exclaimed, quickly trying to reestablish its footing. “Just who do you think you are—?!”

  “Mabel. Mabel Green: Flame of Hope; Receiver of Maeve; and legendary prophet, who is seconds away from lighting up the rest of you if you don’t cooperate. I’m on a tight schedule, and my first passing appointment happens to be with that trinket you’ve got there.”

  The puppet pressed Coruscus into its flat chest, staring up with wide eyes. “N-no! It’s mine!”

  “No, you stole it.”

  It stuttered, one foot trying to tread forward while the other remained bolted down. “But I—!”

  Her extended palm broke open with an ocean of red. The flames roared and screamed, slithering past her cheeks and rushing through her bangs that began to produce a robust heat of their own. “Do you want me to make you a bonfire?! GIVE. IT. UP. NOW.”

  The puppet stared long and hard. It spat acutely from the corner of its mouth—a slimy ball of knotted threading—and the arm which imprisoned Coruscus shot out to their side. The crushing fist opened, letting the ax clatter down.

  Maeve’s aggression peeled back, but only slightly. The fire continued to gorge on her rage, but her eyes moved off to the side and met mine, motioning for me to retrieve my prized possession. I leaped onto the perch beside her, and the moment I reached for Coruscus, the thief laughed.

  I froze instinctively. Their smirk was pulled up to their ears, and their raised hand found their neck, resting upon the deadly needle sticking straight through. “On second thought… Daddy may have made your minds superior, but your bodies… Oooh, they are oh-so-fragile, so why would I listen to you?!” They yanked the sword out of their neck and flew at me with an enraged scream.

  Maeve blasted, but the angle of puppet’s cat-like lunge sent it whizzing a hair over its head. I whipped my arm forward and hardly seized Coruscus by its cord before they were already upon me, ramming me in the gut and plowing me off the stone.

  Coruscus instantly flashed a blinding gold, my intentions speeding from my brain to the crystallized slice of my core as we fell. Its head soared over the mutant’s back and shot under their chest, lassoing them before aggressively pulling and tightening, compressing the creature and displacing its mushy insides.

  I crashed down with the deformed doll landing on my chest, but with their crushed waist came buff legs and powerful thighs. They quickly propped into a squat, and with a hurl, their puny body shot out of my hold and back to their feet, causing Coruscus’ cord to fall slack on my pecks.

  “HOW RUDE! Do you know how long it takes to symmetrically displace myself?! I’m going to—!”

  Their head was there one moment, and the next, it went soaring across the room and crashing into a mountain of assorted pillows. Korbu’s katana took the skull’s place, nearly covering the entire width of the mutant’s abandoned neck before their body crumpled. “And I’m supposed to be the definition of creepy,” Korbu mused softly. “I can’t compare to this dancing doll.”

  Even though I would have won in the end, a puny sigh pushed open my lips. “And I thought I’d seen it all. Guess you still have some skill, Korbu.”

  Korbu slightly bowed, accepting my shallow thanks.

  My golden daggers ran at Maeve next, who caught them with such force that she nearly tottered off the rock. “And you are utterly pathetic—missing your target when it’s practically breathing on your face. Why don’t you go live with the blind when we get to Earth? You’d fit right in.”

  It was a rarity to find her so caught off guard by my insults, but her expression told all. “I-it was a surprise attack! Not to mention how much you’ve been making me exert—!”

  “PA—THE—TIC. You hesitated to set a chew toy on fire, yet you were eager to take my head off the other day!”

  “Because I don’t mind killing you! Maybe that’s the way to get my Eero back!”

  I’m sure I looked just as distraught and offended as her. “How cold for a flame.”

  “That all you’ve GOT?!”

  I sharply looked back at where the puppet’s head had landed, and sure enough, there it remained, but the eye was wide open, a grin branded within. “Daddy gave me life, and in turn, I give death!”

  A blur out of my peripheral vision reclaimed my attention, and when I turned, the headless body had already reacted, plunging their hand through the elaborate threading beneath their perching rock and snatching up a white light before charging toward me.

  I could merely lurch back as they flew and I froze, blinded and impaired. My eyes were engulfed by the weapon’s robust, swirling magic; the moment I saw it, I knew just what my form would soon resort to.

  The light was lifted above their head, gathering the strength for a fatal strike, and from the light, the face of the person I hated most of all came to life to make a mockery of my final moments.

  But then it was more than her face. It was her body—whisked away from the top of the rock and thrown down with a torrent of twisting, raging hair blowing past her scalding, crimson eyes.

  Maeve went straight for the sword and latched on tight in midair, hands eating into the blade as she went soaring over the puppet’s shoulder. She landed solidly on her side, still holding on and bringing the doll down with her. They writhed and tried to steal it back, hurling all sorts of pathetic curses at her with frustrated kicks, but she did not move—not even her eyes. Her bleeding hands kept the pulsing ivory sword close to her heart, all while her eyes were fixed forward in a trance. Her cheeks were stained red, the globs dripping from her hands running down the blade as oil, setting the weapon ablaze with hues directly from His hand.

  It was so bright that my eyes literally burned looking at it—Korbu’s too. Neither of us could stare; it was far too dangerous and detrimental to our decrepit souls, but that glance only made my brain fester more. I recognized that sword—the one that beat at Maeve’s hip long ago. That was the proof right there.

  She wasn’t my enemy, but my damned enemy’s successor—and that meant she was my enemy as well.

  “Give meee!” the puppet wailed, vainly trying to take Maeve’s sword. “I found it down here! All alone, all dirty! I took it in! It’s mineee!”

  A fatal button had been pushed. Maeve’s pupils broke from their entrancement and barreled hatefully toward the creature. “Well, I’m the Receiver, so it’s mine!”

  Air flew into their headless neck and puffed out their chest in protest, preparing another pitiful bleat when Korbu took them apart at the waist.

  Stunned, they hit the ground in two pieces, each half thrashing their extremities while the head in the far-off corner screamed. Korbu had enough, looming above their chest with the tip of his blade pointed down. “Sorry not sorry, but we’ve got places to be.” He hurled it downward, first tearing apart their stomach, then arms, fingers—everything he could until the puppet had been torn to smithereens; he did not stop slashing nor stabbing until there were no more screams or movement, only a mountain of stuffing nourished by a gentle rain of lint.

  With a sigh, Korbu shoved his katana back into his chest. “You’ve got your ax, and now you’ve got your sword. Let’s keep it moving; we’ve lost valuable time.” He immediately began his trek back toward the open hole in the ceiling, knocking my shoulder along the way. “Pull your head out of your ass, Eero. You were wrong about her. Try to hurt the girl, and you’ll find it a three versus one.”

  His threat made my head spin, but he never looked my way, beginning to yank intestines down from the roof and tie them into a lasso to escape. If there was anything that pissed me off about Korbu, it was his all-too-often compo
sed self. How was I ever supposed to bait him to his fall if every challenge I shoved in his face, he merely brushed away?

  He had to die first.

  A soft, comforting heat source touched my back. Maeve was not threatened, confidently standing beside me and refusing to part. With her bloody sword in hand, she discovered a lost strength, as did her entire body. There was now a godly aura enveloping her—faint, but her skin held a dull sparkle, entrapping the lost world around her in hope, as did her crimson eyes. They would never take the real Maeve’s long-gone amber hue; they would remain as they were now, a representation of her new form.

  I didn’t know whether to smack her away or move on my own, but I ended up doing neither. The heat easily permeated my hardened skin, loosening my tense muscles, and trying to head deeper—into the bones and organs they protected—but it wasn’t strong enough.

  She softly smiled in spite of her failure, massaging behind my shoulder blade with a single finger. “You may not be Eero, but still… I would have loved to see what your wings looked like.”

  Her words made her incoming heat melt right through me, anchoring my feet as she moved on to assist Korbu, leaving my baffled self behind.

  I twisted my large arm and just barely touched one of the scars upon my back, reminiscing in those few words she dared to speak. The fact that she knew where they came from brought back too much… Her very existence was causing too many sealed off entryways in my brain to crumble. They were nothing but the oldest of dreams—no, nightmares now, and they very well should have died long ago with me.

  I pushed down slightly, still feeling the fragment of a broken appendage lodged comfortably between muscle and skin. Died… That was what happened when I fell. But here I was, feeling uncomfortably alive in spite of it all.

  Stop, I ordered myself. Stop… Thinking about it…

  My sharp nail broke my skin, but I felt no pain but that in my head. The heat escaped through my open wound, replaced by Death’s chill as I dug out that small, dastardly fragment of the past.

  Korbu first. Mabel second.

  Eleven

  Human

  To say that they were anything but starving was simply not true; but as for the Encryption’s demonic allies, well… It wasn’t the entire truth.

  The scarce rations collected during the frantic evacuation were long gone, as was their hope. The strong warriors who vowed to give life and limb to serve the revolution were quickly being faced with the most horrendous task they had encountered yet. Their hardened fighting spirits were breaking under the weight of their malnourished bodies and paranoid brains with every name called, wondering if they would be next—and even to those who knew that their skills secured them a place on the hierarchy, it was clear that their ranking meant nothing to those hungrily lurking above. The shadowing, thick branches were not soundproof; the motors of aircraft and impending destruction continued to blanket the sky day in and out, and the warriors were forced to sit there and cower in the dark like mice until the threat passed.

  But, of course, it would be back soon enough. And when they had a handful of minutes to spare, they had to move.

  Fast.

  “They have this device...” Seek explained sullenly, the eyes of the chosen giving her their full attention. Her already shriveled body continued to cave in on her bones, her tattered dress so loose that if she moved the wrong way it would fall around her. She was a scared, abandoned child as she spoke, tucked far back into the exposed roots of a Returned like it was her mother’s womb. “The fact that they’re actively using it… That thing… I don’t know how much longer we can evade them. It can find any human, no matter where they are.”

  “How?” Griffin wondered. “We were out here before; you were too. They never came for us.”

  “They usually have no reason to use it out here,” she elaborated tiredly. “In the slim chance that a human can squirm their way over Devil’s Divide, what’s past the rift for them? Maybe a fallen Pikë bombarded with deadly radiation; perhaps even a frozen forest with a clan of ravenous demons; and then, if you make it that far without dying from sheer exhaustion, you just keep walking. And walking. And then crawling. Past ruins of ancient civilizations that all met the same fate—past bodies preserved endlessly by icy death. The only thing left to do is to find a semi-decent grave and lie down.”

  “Unless you reach the barrier.”

  A rustle in the creaky branches commanded the soldiers to lift their heads to a set of trickery purple eyes beaming down on them. “But even then, it’s not like you can leave, so I guess you’re still right.”

  “Where exactly is the barrier, Merritt-sama?” Seek wondered.

  “Couldn’t give you specifics…” She looked into the far distance toward the thinning graveyard of Returned. “Demo… I know it’s beyond the forest. And I’m sure it’s past what a normal human could travel to so that no one would find it. And if someone ever did by some chance, and they wandered through it… Well, you’re a goner with the first step.”

  “So, it’s permeable,” Griffin noted. “That’s good to know.”

  “Permeable or not, death is on the other side,” Merritt snarled. “There’s no use in going through it. Sad as it is, one’s best chance is staying inside.”

  “Well, I’m going to bet on the fact that the Proxez are oblivious to our knowledge about the barrier, so I’m sure they’re not expecting us to head toward it. Still…” Seek bunched her fist, staring at her shimmering knuckles. “They know without a doubt that we made it into the forbidden land. And they know that we are no humans overcome by ‘delusions’ that run in search of Eden and God. They know that we’re serious in our word to overthrow them.” She lifted a finger toward the veiled ashen sky. “They pass over our heads repeatedly, knowing that we are somewhere near. They will continuously scan the badlands beyond the rift and continue checking this area in intervals of forty-five minutes until they catch us.”

  “Hence why, unless you are trained, you don’t move,” Flye grumbled, nibbling on a fingernail in search of nutrition. “You don’t twitch. You hardly breathe. One false move and that device knows—they know—and then they will swoop in and finish us off before we can blink.”

  “Thank goodness for Justus’ wristbands,” Seek praised. She turned her wrist, marveling in the throbbing root hair. “What a smart idea—a great way to warn us that they’re coming.”

  Flye blew a raspberry. She eyed up Justus who had his back to a tree, tinkering with a box. “Yeah, he has the brains, but I was the one who had to talk the Returned into it, you know!”

  “And yet, somehow, Merritt survived centuries out here without ever being caught,” Griffin said. “And she had nothing.”

  Merritt hissed. “Rude! How many times must I tell you? It’s Merritt-sama.”

  Griffin did not shield his frown. “Sorry, but so far, you haven’t proven to me that you are worthy of being ‘honored.’”

  Her thin eyes stretched tight, making her gaze that of a feline in wait, but she said no more.

  “As ridiculous as it may seem, a sorceress doesn’t make the same vibrations as a human,” Seek offered. “Neither does any supernatural who stands with a foot outside the mortal realm.”

  “Why?” Griffin pressured.

  Flye reached over and punched his shoulder, nearly knocking him down. “Clean the wax out of those big ears, would you? They literally stand in two worlds at once. Get the picture?”

  With wide eyes her way, he painfully began massaging his beaten skin. “Can you please try a different explanation method? You know, one that doesn’t always involve beating me up?”

  Flye retracted her fist, casually returning to her nail-buffet. “It’s best to get the point across in one go.”

  Griffin rolled his eyes—a motion now used so often that it was practically a reflex. Unbelievable.

  “At least their thermal sensors are useless here,” Virgil broke in. He did not sit with the others; instead, he stood with
his back to his soldiers. His well-defined face had lost its sharp edges to the shaggy black scruff growing along his jawline, and his muscles had taken a hit with the lack of food, but he by far remained the strongest of all, for neither his posture nor stance on the current situation ever faltered.

  …But his mental health was up for debate, especially as he looked ahead at his distant impending order.

  “Another…?” Seek whispered to herself.

  She spoke loud enough for Virgil to hear, but her concerns were thrown to the wind; instead, he continued with his paused explanation. “There are so many lerials in the forest that a thermal sensor cannot accurately separate a mass of demon bodies from that of a single human. We’re extremely lucky that lerials are such a family-oriented species.”

  Merritt dropped her head down from the treetops and swiveled around. “Speaking of siblings, where is my Sybil?”

  “Making proper amends with sir Vasili,” Embry chimed in. She handed a set of pliers off to Justus.

  “For what?” Griffin wondered.

  Embry tenderly touched her prosthetic heart. “Her emotions are not as clairvoyant as your own, but I have the utmost certainty that it pertains to the current conditions of our alliance. Perhaps an amendment and acceptance back into the clan?”

  “…You do realize that you could literally shorten everything you say into a single, uncomplicated sentence, right?”

  She giggled and hid her mouth with her fingers. “I do not tell you how to speak, Scourge! Please, allow whatever word which desires to surface flee my tongue without ridicule following.”

  Griffin did not respond. Instead, his eye wandered over to Justus who lurked in the darkness, sitting on the opposite side of Embry’s tree and isolating himself from the conversation. Griffin looked closer, trying to determine just what Justus was doing with that small mechanical box in his lap. The mechanic’s focus hardly seemed to be on anything else nowadays…