by Clayton Wood
Fascinating.
Sabin grimaces as the pain in his left forearm flares up, rubbing it briskly with his right hand. It's no use, of course. He reaches into his pants pocket, retrieving a clump of leaves from it, and pops them into his mouth, chewing vigorously. The bitter taste of the narcotic within numbs his tongue, and he swallows, already starting to feel the pain in his forearm abating. He feels a wave of nausea, and ignores it, knowing that it will pass soon. A Reaper crawls onto his boot, then stops, seemingly to stare at him. Sabin stares back, his head swimming slightly as the narcotic kicks in.
Immortality.
He sighs, running a hand through his thinning hair. All white now, seemingly overnight. Though in his mind he is still a young man, his body tells him the truth. With every betrayal, it shows him that his time is running out.
He stares at the Reaper, then gently brushes it from his boot, turning away from the pond and its silent Queen.
That the Queen is sentient, even intelligent, is almost certain. While her brood is undead, she is alive, guiding her children with her wisdom, for the protection and betterment of the colony. There is no dissent, no possibility of civil war or strife. The Queen lives for her children, and her children obey the Queen.
If only humanity could be so wise...so unified and peaceful.
Sabin walks back the way he came, sliding under the gap between the floor and the wall above, then flying upward through the narrow shaft to the tunnel above. He limps back to the entrance of the cave, feeling the sunlight bathe his cool skin as he emerges from its shadows. He barely feels it, his mind too preoccupied to notice its gentle warmth.
Immortality, he muses.
The thought of it sends a shiver down his spine. The Reapers – even the undead ones – are mostly autonomous, he believes. The Queen can control them, but it would be far more efficient if she didn't need to do so constantly. No, they had to be autonomous. Which meant they were immortal, and possessed of their own minds.
He thinks back to his two thousand pages of notes on the tiny crystals that granted the Reapers their never-ending lives, and feels a burst of motivation strike him. If it is possible to grant immortality to a simple insect, then it might just be possible to do so for a human being. And perhaps even to allow two people to communicate their thoughts to each other, to understand each other in a way never possible before. A society of men and women, able to know each other in this way, would be incapable of the atrocities of Nespo and Gunthar.
Sabin limps back into the woods toward his laboratory, walking faster now, feeling the weight of Time on his shoulders. There is so much work left to be done, and so little time left to do it. He can no longer afford to kill time. For it is slowly – but surely – killing him.
* * *
The muted shriek of the wind blowing past Petra's gravity shield assaulted Kalibar's ears as they flew through the air toward the Spine of Grimore, their feet only a few yards above the treetops of the Barren forest. The ever-present white mist hanging there swirled into the vacuum created by their passage, leaving a contrail behind them. Kalibar hung on to Petra's back, his arms around her shoulders, acutely aware of her body pressed against his. He shifted his weight, feeling growing discomfort at the sensation. It had been a long, long time since he'd been this close to a woman...and he'd never been this close to a woman like Petra.
The curse of men, he thought wryly, that I would think of such a thing at a time like this.
It wasn't long before they neared the bottom of the Spine, an almost vertical rock wall extending from the base of the mountain to the ledge they'd faced the Chosen on. Kalibar closed his eyes, trying to recall which side of the Spine Ariana had fallen from. The Chosen had been facing Mount Grimore's peak, and had been holding Ariana with its right hand...which meant that they should see the peak to their right, and fly to the leftmost end of the Spine.
“Over there,” Kalibar yelled, pointing to that very spot. Petra complied, flying above the treetops toward it. Kalibar scanned the wall of the Spine, searching the occasional rocky outcroppings for Ariana's body, but saw nothing. “Set us below the trees,” he ordered. They reached the sheer cliff wall, then descended through the swirling mist to the forest floor below. Kalibar disengaged from Petra then, turning in a slow circle, searching the forest floor and the tree branches above for any signs of Ariana's black uniform.
Nothing.
Kalibar caught Petra staring upward, and frowned at her.
“What's wrong?” he asked.
“I’m keeping an eye out for Chosen,” she replied, lowering her gaze to look at him. “If we see one, we run.”
“Agreed.”
“We should look for broken branches on the ground,” Petra proposed. Kalibar nodded. It made sense; Ariana would have snapped off quite a few branches from the dense foliage above on her way down. They got to it, walking along the edge of the sheer rock wall of the Spine's base, keeping their eyes peeled. They walked silently for several minutes, until Petra stopped, turning her head to stare at Kalibar. He stopped as well, frowning at her.
“What is it?” he asked.
“How did we end up at the bottom of the Spine before?” she asked. “I don't remember.”
“You attacked the Chosen,” Kalibar answered. “After you faked your own death.” He paused then. “You took your time, you know.”
“I would defend myself,” Petra replied a bit tersely, “...if I remembered anything.” Kalibar had to give her that.
“The Chosen knocked you out cold, then threw you at me. We fell off of the edge of the Spine.”
“What happened then?” she asked. Kalibar paused, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. He turned away from her, continuing to scan the surroundings as he walked. He felt her hand on his shoulder. “Tell me,” she pressed. He sighed.
“I didn't have much magic left,” he admitted. “I...sensed magic coming from your necklace, and used it to slow our fall. But there wasn't enough magic in it.”
Petra blinked, putting a hand to her upper chest, clearly realizing that her necklace was no longer there.
“Where is it?” she asked, appearing alarmed.
“Probably somewhere near where we landed,” he answered. “I must have dropped it after being impaled.”
“You're being fresh,” Petra noted, glaring at him. Her glare wavered, however, and she nodded at him. “My grandfather would have been happy to know that his gift saved my life.”
“Indeed,” Kalibar murmured. Petra frowned then.
“I didn't get badly injured from the fall,” she realized, stopping suddenly and turning to face him. He stopped as well. “But you did.”
“Well, yes,” Kalibar replied, suddenly feeling uncomfortable again. Petra stared at him, then folded her arms under her breasts. Kalibar kept his eyes on hers only by virtue of his considerable will.
“How?” she pressed.
“I knew I didn't have enough magic to save both of us,” he admitted. “So at the last moment, I created a large gravity shield around you. It slowed your fall.”
Petra's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. She stared at him for a long, silent moment, then snapped her jaw shut with a click.
“You saved me,” she stated bluntly.
“I did.”
“Because you knew you could heal if I woke?” she pressed. Kalibar shrugged.
“To be honest, I'd forgotten about that,” he admitted sheepishly. Petra arched one eyebrow.
“So you sacrificed yourself to save me,” she repeated. Kalibar paused, then nodded.
“Yes, I suppose I did.”
“Why?”
“I don't know,” Kalibar admitted, rubbing the back of his head. It still felt strange to not feel any hair there. “I didn't have time to think it through. I just did it.”
“Yesterday you spared my life, trusting me not to kill you,” Petra stated, her tone strangely flat. “And today you saved my life at the expense of your own.”
Kalibar sai
d nothing, but he felt his cheeks grow warm, a sensation that he hadn't felt in a long, long time. He found himself unable to meet her gaze, and turned away, staring off at nothing in particular.
“You flirted with me last night,” she accused, putting her hands on her hips. Kalibar sighed.
“True,” he admitted. “Not well, I admit. It's been a...long time since I've...well...” He trailed off then, and Petra arched her eyebrow again.
“How long?” she asked.
“A long time,” Kalibar admitted. “Over thirty years.” Not counting what had happened at the Arena, of course. Kalibar grimaced, pushing the thought out of his mind.
Petra stared at him, her eyebrows rising.
“I was married once,” Kalibar explained, resuming his walk forward. Petra strode quickly to catch up. “My wife lost my son in labor, and she...blamed me. She killed herself, and that was that.”
“I'm sorry,” Petra murmured. Now it was her turn to look away, although it was impossible to tell if she was blushing. Kalibar sighed; it was peculiar that some wounds never fully healed. Even after decades, the memory still had a terrible power over him.
“It was a long time ago,” he muttered.
“And you haven't been with a woman since?” she asked, her tone incredulous. Kalibar cleared his throat.
“I kept myself busy,” he countered, more defensively than he would have liked. Petra smirked.
“You must have.”
“Focusing on my career,” Kalibar clarified with a wry smirk.
“Becoming a warrior?” she guessed. Kalibar nodded.
“That and...other things.”
“So you were like me,” she observed. “You lived alone, and devoted your life to learning magic.”
“For a long time, yes,” he agreed. Petra mulled this over, then glanced at him sidelong as they walked.
“Do you regret it?” she asked.
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “Mine has been a lonely life.” He turned away from her. “I suppose I never realized that until I met Kyle and Ariana.” He felt Petra’s hand on his shoulder.
“I'm sorry.”
“Me too,” Kalibar replied.
“We'll find them,” Petra promised.
And then her head jerked up and to the left, and her eyes widened.
“Run!” she cried.
She grabbed Kalibar's hands, turning around and draping them over her shoulders, then bolted up into the air, flying upward around the tree branches. Within seconds, they burst through the white mist bathing the treetops, accelerating into the blue sky. Petra shot high into the air, aiming toward the smaller mountain they'd come from – Mount Kress.
“What's wrong?” Kalibar shouted over the shrieking of the wind.
“Behind you!” Petra shouted back. Kalibar twisted around, peering over his shoulder. He saw dozens of black shapes flying through the air over the Spine of Grimore, toward the peak of the mountain beyond. At first he thought they were birds, but then he realized they were men in rippling black cloaks.
Chosen.
“I don't think they saw us,” Kalibar exclaimed. None of the Chosen seemed to be flying after them.
“We'll wait for them to pass,” Petra stated. “We'll circle back for Ariana later.”
“Agreed,” Kalibar replied. As eager as he was to find Ariana, he knew that facing so many Chosen was tantamount to suicide. He turned forward, relaxing against Petra, and allowed himself to be carried away.
I'll come for you, he promised silently.
And then he felt something slam into him from behind.
Kalibar heard Petra shout, felt himself tear away from her back. The world spun crazily around him, the wind shrieking as he tumbled through the air. He reached into his mind's eye instinctively, and found it utterly devoid of magic.
Panic seized him.
Suddenly he felt something slam into his back, felt arms wrapping around his torso. He looked down, seeing black-clad arms hugging him from behind.
Petra!
The spinning stopped, and then they were flying through the air above the treetops, weaving from side to side. Kalibar looked over his shoulder, spotting two cloaked figures flying after them, not a hundred feet away...and gaining fast.
Chosen, he realized. They'd been spotted after all!
He cursed under his breath, then gripped Petra's hand.
“Stream magic to me!” he shouted over the howling wind. He felt Petra flinch, then felt a vibration in his skull as magic poured into him.
And then he felt it drain away.
He cursed again, turning back to look at the Chosen. They were a dozen feet away now, a stream of blue light traveling from Petra and Kalibar to the exposed white crystals in one of the Chosen's forearms. He heard Petra swear, then realized they were falling toward the mist-shrouded treetops below...and fast.
“Pull up!” he shouted.
“I can't!” Petra yelled back. He felt his left foot get yanked backward as it struck a tree branch, felt his head lurching forward and downward.
“Gravity shields!” he cried.
His foot struck another branch, and then he was cartwheeling through the air, the world a spinning kaleidoscope of blue and green. He saw gravity shields appear around him, heard the sharp crack of branches snapping. Then the awful sensation of free-fall took him, followed by a sickening crunch, and a scream.
Chapter 34
Ampir's magical light sent white rays down and across the twisting, black tunnel that Kyle had followed down into the bowels of the earth, Ariana at his side. They'd long since gone silent, lulled into a kind of hypnosis by the never-ending maze of tunnels they'd passed through. Ampir had led them from one forking path to the next, until Kyle had lost count of how many times the tunnel had split. His only focus now was staying close to Ampir; without his grandfather, there would be no hope of him ever making it out of these tunnels. Even Ariana's incredible memory might not prove worthy of the task.
Still onward and downward the tunnels went.
The air was cool here, even frigid, but though he could feel the cold, his Battle-Runic armor kept him quite comfortable overall. Their footsteps echoed through the tunnels in a mind-numbing cadence, and Kyle found himself counting their steps until the numbers got too big, then starting over again.
One-oh-one, one-oh-two...
Then he blinked, realizing that something had changed.
He looked around as he walked, realizing that the tunnel had gotten much larger, so wide now that all three of them could have walked side-by-side with room to spare. In the distance, at the edge of Ampir's light, he saw a huge glittering ring nearly as wide around as the tunnel itself. He heard a clunk, and then another, and looked down, realizing that he was stepping onto a metallic platform that angled upward, then leveled off some seven or eight feet above the Reaper vine-covered floor. It was only wide enough to accommodate him and Ariana single-file, and he was forced to let go of her hand. She motioned for him to walk ahead of her, and he did so.
They continued forward, and it soon became apparent what the glittering ring ahead was. A ring of white crystals jutting out from the tunnel walls, ceiling, and floor, forming a tube that extended as far as the eye could see. Each crystal was over three feet wide at the base, and seven feet long, tapering to a razor-sharp point. Each crystal pointed toward the center of the tunnel, leaving just enough room for Ampir to pass through without stooping.
Kyle felt a chill run down his spine; he slowed, then stopped, feeling Ariana bump into him from behind.
“What's wrong?” Ariana asked. Of course she couldn't know; the Dead Man had never shown her the Void. But Kyle knew what it meant. What it had to mean.
Sabin was near.
“This is the Void,” he whispered back. He explained how the Dead Man had brought him to a similar place back in the Arena. Ariana stared at the huge crystals all around her.
“What do all these crystals do?” she pressed.
“Drain m
agic,” Kyle answered. Ariana seemed to accept that, continuing forward behind him. Then she stopped suddenly, with a sharp intake of breath.
“He sees us!” she whispered harshly.
“What?”
“Sabin's watching us,” she clarified, putting a hand on his shoulder. She scanned the crystal-studded tunnel with her eyes. “I can feel him watching us.” Kyle tensed up, peering up and down the narrow tunnel, but saw no one. The Void crystals refracted the rays of Ampir's hovering light, sending a brilliant kaleidoscope of shifting white shapes across the tunnel.
“How?” Kyle asked. Then he saw Ariana turn to one of the crystals beside her, and stop cold, her eyes narrowing. She leaned in a little, peering into the crystal, then lurched backward as if she'd been struck. “What's wrong?” he asked.
“Look,” Ariana replied, pointing at the Void crystal. She looked terribly shaken. Kyle turned to the crystal, seeing its white, translucent glittering facets.
“I don't see anything,” he admitted.
“Look deeper.”
He did so, refocusing his eyes, and stepping to the side a little so he wasn't looking at the crystal dead on. He stared at the base, seeing the shadowy darkness there, then followed that darkness up to a foot before the crystal began to taper. He saw...something there.
“What is that?” he asked. He shifted to the side, seeing the shadow shift as the crystal's facets refracted the light. The movement gave shape to the shadow, defining two legs bent back at the knees at the base of the Void crystal. Kyle shifted his weight again, and followed the legs up to an emaciated torso, two thin arms by its sides, and a head tilted back at an impossible angle. He saw a face there, pale and sunken, a white diamond-shaped crystal embedded in its forehead.
With eyes staring right at him.
Kyle lurched backward, feeling the sharp point of the Void crystal behind him jutting into the small of his back. He turned and ran forward down the metal walkway toward Ampir, who had stopped and was watching them. Kyle ran up to the Battle-Runic, rubbing the spot where the Void crystal had poked him, and felt only cool metal there. His armor had allowed him to feel the sharpness of the crystal's point, but it had protected him.