by Ramy Vance
Alex stepped away from the cadets, unsure if she had just ordered everyone to their deaths. It didn’t matter, though. Death had come for them. It was time to find out if they could postpone it for a little longer.
The cadets split up. No one said a word. They were all driven by the urge to find their dragons. Alex thought it might have to do with the binding. Maybe it was more than just the words Myrddin had said. The binding was obviously something far beyond Alex’s understanding.
Alex forced herself to stop thinking. She shoved away every thought that crept into her mind. There was only one thing to focus on—finding Chine. She reached out again, shouting in her mind, Chine! Where are you? Chine!
Chine’s voice came screaming through Alex’s head. She nearly fell over from the force of his thoughts. Child of Dust! Chine shouted. I have been trying to find you for hours. Are you okay? Please tell me you’re well?
Alex stopped running and stood still. Chine had been worried about her. He had known something was going wrong. And he was alive. Most importantly, he was alive. I’m okay, Alex thought to him. The Nest is under attack. Where are you?
We’re hidden. Some kind of magic of the Nest. You can turn it off. Find the central switch. Release us. There was fire in Chine’s thoughts. The dragon wanted to fight.
Alex scanned the stables, trying to see where the central control system was. Everything was rubble. It was impossible to see anything. It’s not impossible, Alex thought. I can do this. I can do this.
An explosion rocked the stables. Alex and the other cadets who were searching for their dragons turned to the doors of the stables.
Holmorth stood on the threshold, his staff raised, the orcs at his back. “Kill them!” Holmorth shouted.
The orcs poured into the room as the cadets shrieked and sprinted off. If she left the cadets, they were all going to die.
Manny went flying toward the orcs, his eyes white and filled with fury. The walls of the Nest bent to his will and shards of crystal flew, impaling six orcs and nailing them to the wall.
Behind Manny, Gill and Brath pulled out their rifles and fired at every orc they could see.
An orc slipped past the plasma fire and grabbed Brath by his red cap. The gnome screamed and fired a bolt of hot plasma point-blank that ripped through the orc’s face.
Manny was floating in the air, all of his tentacles flailing wildly. A concussive force shot out of him, pushing all of the orcs and Holmorth back toward the doors.
Alex started to work her way through the rubble. She had no idea what the control system looked like. She had never seen it through Manny’s eyes and had never touched it. This was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. At least most people know what a needle and a haystack looked like.
Alex ran through the throng of cadets who were dispersing through the room as Manny continued to push the orcs and Holmorth back. Brath and Gill, now at his side, were shooting any orcs who managed to get past Manny’s psychic powers.
As Alex was running, her foot hit a large stone. She toppled over and fell into a pile of crystals and computer parts. When she sat up, she saw a computer screen. Could this be it? Alex thought. She scrambled to the computer screen and tried to find the keyboard. It was shattered, along with the CPU.
There wasn’t time to be concerned with what else was going around her. The dragon stables were filled with the scent of hot plasma and the screams of cadets and orcs. To look at it would have been too much. The only thing Alex could do was find the central computer switch. That was the important thing.
Alex picked herself up from the rubble and continued to search, grabbing anything in the crystal and dust that looked like it could help. Her mind was racing. Every possible scenario of her death played out in her head, but she kept searching.
“What are you doing in my stables!” a voice shouted over the cacophony.
Alex looked over her shoulder toward the source of the voice.
Tribble and Primerose were at another door in the stables. Primerose was carrying a gun or sword in each of her hands, reminding Alex of the god Kali. Tribble held two plasma machine guns, the straps over her shoulders. “These are my stables!” Tribble shouted as she started firing.
Primerose leaped at the orcs in front of her. Her hands were moving faster than Alex could see, slashing at orcs and firing at the same time.
Alex made herself look away. She was overwhelmed by all she was seeing. She had to focus. She had to find Chine and the other dragons. Alex pulled herself to her feet and ran through the stables, stopping to check any computer she saw.
A green switch, set apart from the rest of the tech around, sat in a pile of crystal dust. Alex saw it, ran toward it, and scooped it up in her hand. Please let this be it, she thought before flipping the switch.
There was a rush of air. Alex looked around. The Nest was gone. She was standing in a field of flowers. A blue sky filled with clouds was overhead. You found me, a familiar voice said.
Alex spun around and saw Chine sitting comfortably in the field. Where are we? Alex asked. Why aren’t you helping us?
Chine stood and shook himself, his scales rising as if he was a cat. We were put here, he explained. As soon as the attack happened. But you can bring us out.
How?
Chine pointed upward. Alex stared up at a portal in the sky. Through there. I’ll follow, and the rest will as well. Are you ready?
Alex hardly heard what Chine was saying. She leaped and landed on Chine’s back, then raised her dragon anchor and felt it connect. “Let’s do this!” she shouted.
Chine roared loudly as Alex pulled back on her anchor and leaned forward, urging Chine toward the portal.
The two of them passed through the portal and came out in the Wasp’s Nest. Manny was still holding off as many of the orcs as he could.
Holmorth had forced his way to the front of the fight. Lightning and fire shot from his staff as he pushed to get closer to Manny.
Chine landed in front of Manny and shot a jet of ether fire toward Holmorth.
The wizard pulled his staff back and covered his face, casting a barrier around himself that split the black fire around him. It engulfed the orcs who surrounded him.
Alex pulled her rifle from her back and started firing. The closest orcs fell.
Chine shot another plume of ether fire at the orcs surrounding him as Holmorth raised his staff, speaking in the old infernal tongue, preparing to conjure a creature.
Manny screamed, “Alex, don’t let him finish!”
Alex leaned forward, pulling her dragon anchor toward her. Chine charged toward Holmorth. That was when Alex understood the binding. What had taken place between her and Chine did not exist in a place of words, sight, or anything else. They were connected.
As Holmorth raised his staff to cast his spell, Chine grabbed the wizard. Alex could feel the adrenaline racing through the dragon’s body.
The dragon chomped down hard, trying to separate Holmorth’s body and seeking to swallow the top half. Before he could, the wizard disappeared, evidently choosing retreat over death.
The orcs were still screeching, firing their plasma rifles as dragon after dragon poured from the portal at the top half of the stables. The dragons found their way to their riders, each rider leaping atop their dragon.
It did not take long for the stables to be full of fire, lightning, and ice. The cadets did what they had been trained to do, each of them falling into their own pattern.
Alex flew above them all, watching the dragonriders drive off the orcs, burning or skewering any who were not wise enough to flee.
As Alex and Chine were flying, the doors of the stables burst open. A dragon ripped through the crystal, but it was not like any dragon Alex had seen before. It was a mech, yet almost indiscernible from the real thing.
The chest of the mech dragon opened, and Roy leaned out. His face was covered in blood and he shouted, “We rally here! If it’s an orc, it dies!”
Roy’s mech rampaged through the orcs in front of it, tearing them apart as its fire engulfed the rest. The dragonrider cadets followed Roy’s order and converged on the orcs.
The orcs fired plasma rifle blasts, but it was not enough. They fell. The dragonriders had won.
Chapter Seven
The funeral started around noon.
It had only been a day since the invasion. Nothing felt normal, if it had felt normal to begin with. Once the last of the orcs had been cleaned up, the remaining instructors and Myrddin had ushered everyone back to their rooms. No one had wanted to talk about anything.
Alex had spent the night staring at the ceiling of her room. She had spent countless nights in her life staring at her ceiling but had never actually seen it. The darkness she had known before would have been preferable.
Sometime during the night, as she was struggling to sleep, she opened the message she had received from her parents.
It was a video of them sitting next to each other, encouraging her to quit trying to fit in with everyone. They said that if people were worthy of her time, they would make themselves evident.
Alex almost laughed when she saw the message. The whole situation seemed so hard for her to understand now. She wasn’t concerned with a gnome picking on her, not anymore. There were orcs who wanted her dead, an army at the Dark One’s orders. What were bullies compared to that?
For a moment, Alex thought about sending her parents a message to let them know what had happened over the last twenty-four hours. She thought more about it and decided it wasn’t a good idea. Even she didn’t quite understand what had happened over the last day.
There had been lunch, a joust, and then an invasion by orcs and a dark wizard. That wasn’t something you sent in a casual message.
Instead, Alex pulled up her HUD visor and said, “Hey, Mom! Hey, Dad! I just got your message. Things have been going a lot better. That bully I was talking about? We’re not friends, but we also don’t hate each other anymore. And I have a really cool roommate. Also, there’s a hot dark elf. Hope everything is going well. I love and miss you guys.”
Alex ended the recording and sent the message. That was probably the most her parents were going to be able to deal with. She did say there was a hot elf.
Next was getting out of bed and getting ready for the funeral, the real part of the day. Jollies still hadn’t come back from breakfast so Alex had the room all to herself. It didn’t matter, though. She didn’t feel like enjoying her solitude.
The door opened, and Jollies fluttered into the room. She went straight to her bed and laid down. “Hey, dude, everything okay?” Alex asked.
Jollies rolled over and said, “Breakfast was hard. There were a lot of people missing.”
That was one of the reasons Alex hadn’t wanted to go to breakfast. She didn’t want to know the extent of how many cadets had been lost during the battle. It was ultimately unavoidable, but seeing it would hurt.
Jollies sat up and wiped tears from her eyes. “Almost time to get going, right?” she asked.
Alex came over to Jollies’ bed and rested her hand next to it, palm open, for the pixie to climb onto if she wanted. “Yeah, it’s getting to be about that time.”
The funeral took place in the Great Hall. The Wasp’s Nest had repaired itself, and It looked like nothing had happened. But the cadets knew.
Caskets were lined up before a podium, each of them open, each of them honored.
Myrddin stood behind the podium, his face grim and settled. The rest of the instructors sat behind him, all of them wearing black. Toppinir and Roy sat close to Myrddin, looking uncomfortable.
Alex filed into the hall with the rest of the cadets, trying to ignore how few there were now. She remembered it had almost been impossible to count how many cadets there were in the mess hall. Now she could put them all in her dorm room.
It felt like a defeat to see how many cadets she hadn’t saved. The hall felt bare, empty of souls.
At the front of the hall, Myrddin stood. He cleared his throat, and when he spoke, his voice was magically amplified to a soft boom, a resting thunder in the ears of the attendees. “Today we are gathered to honor those who have fallen.”
“The simple reality of what we face is death. There is no easy way to say this. Each and every one of us must face it. That being said, there are noble deaths, and there are cowardly deaths. Those who rest here today went down the noble path. They died in service to the realms. They died trying to keep the Dark One from destroying our lives.”
“I know this doesn’t make it easier for any of you. These were your friends, your family, and now they are gone. There is nothing I can say that will take away your pain, and I will not try to. The simple truth is, we were attacked. For seemingly no reason, the Dark One struck the Nest. Why? Intel? To cull our ranks? Maybe, but we believe the Dark One saw an opportunity to strike fear into our hearts, an opportunity to dull our resolve. New magics and technology are in place to prevent this from happening again. Security has been increased. We will not be caught off-guard again.”
Myrddin hung his head for a second as he gathered his words. “I have asked a great deal from all of you. I understand that, and I want you to know I understand. None of you has to be here. I will not hold you prisoner to agreements made previously. Now that you have seen war, seen loss…”
Myrddin’s voice cracked, and he stepped away from the podium. Roy stood up and took Myrddin’s place. “I think what Myrddin is trying to say is that we ain’t asking y’all to die. None of us are. What happened was terrible. We didn’t see it coming. I wish we had, and honestly, these deaths are on our heads.”
Toppinir nodded as Myrddin took a seat next to him. “We all lost friends,” Roy continued. “Those friends died heroes. That don’t make it any easier, though. Not at all. So, we’re here to honor them. Here to honor their sacrifices, and those who stay will make sure those sacrifices were not made in vain.”
Roy sat back down, and Toppinir stood and walked to the podium. “Now we will allow a viewing of the departed. Please feel free to pay your respects,” he said softly before sitting back down.
It took a while for the cadets to rise from their seats and approach the coffins at the front of the hall. Most of the cadets were teenagers, and it was the first time they had been confronted with death. Alex was the first amongst them. She stood and marched straight to the front.
Alex wore her blindfold during the service, but she pulled it off as she headed toward the bodies up front. The light was blinding, but she forced her way through it until it felt normal. Then she looked upon the dead who had fallen for the sake of Middang3ard.
At first, Alex didn’t recognize anyone, but that didn’t matter. They had all been living and breathing individuals with goals and fears and loves, and now they were gone. That was what mattered.
Then Alex’s eyes fell on Primerose. She was laid out with the cadets, her scales shimmering in the crystal light of the Nest. Her eyes were closed, a golden coin laid upon them like the rest of the dead. Her many arms were folded over her chest. She looked peaceful.
Alex leaned over and kissed her forehead. She didn’t know what else to do. She’d had no idea Primerose had been killed in the battle, and that knowledge rocked her to the core. Alex felt like she needed to sit down. It was all becoming too much.
Alex made her way back to her seat and watched the rest of the cadets pay their respects. She saw Gill, Brath, and Jollies make their way past the cadets and instructors they knew.
Once the living cadets had paid their respects, they returned to their seats. At the podium, Myrddin stood and cleared his throat as he wiped away his tears. “Even amongst the horrors we experienced, we will always have reasons to live, to celebrate, to continue forward,” he said.
“Bravery does not come easily and often is never commended. I would like to take a moment to do just that. Many of the people here are indebted to Alex Bound.”
Alex’s heart j
umped in her chest. She stared at Myrddin, who was looking right at her. “Alex Bound,” Myrddin continued, “organized a party that rescued many of our cadets. She also freed our dragons and led the final stand against the Dark One’s forces.”
“She was accompanied by Jollies Dust, Gill Lowborn, and Brath Gimbel. These four individuals showed bravery and valor beyond their years.”
Myrddin started clapping, quickly joined by Roy and Toppinir and the rest of the instructors. The hall broke into cheers as the cadets stood up, clapping, and grabbed the four named cadets if they were close enough.
Someone hugged Alex tightly and thanked her. She didn’t know what to say or do. She just stood there blank-faced, trying to determine how she felt about what was going on around her.
“Alex the Boundless saved us!”
Alex didn’t know who had started the chanting. The hall was echoing her name.
Alex pushed the person who was hugging her away, then turned and ran out of the Great Hall.
Back in her room, Alex sat on her bed, trying to find words. She couldn’t understand why anyone would praise her. She had just done what she should have. And so many cadets had died. Who was she to be praised?
It hurt—all of it. There was nothing she could do about it.
Alex leaned over and clutched her stomach. A searing pain had started in her bowels and was working its way through her chest up to her throat. She ran to the bathroom in her dorm and knelt over the toilet.
Boundless—that was what they were chanting, the name she used in VR. But this wasn’t VR. Nothing about this was virtual. It was reality, plain and simple, and the reality was too much.
Dead orcs flashed in Alex’s mind, her knife stabbing one of them—the knife that was still on her side. That knife had killed. She had killed. The Great Hall was full of dead cadets.
Alex’s body convulsed as she threw up. Stomach acid burned her throat as she coughed and tried to pull herself up. It didn’t work. Her legs were too weak, and her entire body was trembling.