Endless Online: Oblivion's Promise

by M. H. Johnson

  Gregor's eyes widened. He slowly blinked. "So we are going to keep him?"

  Now it was Sten who smiled, though Val could sense the pain hidden underneath. Val grimaced, recalling how close he and Elise had both come to death. "Of course we're keeping him. He's more than a partner of convenience. He's proven himself to be a friend."

  Halvar nodded. "And he's carrying a fortune in Silbion and Elementium in some pocket dimension accessible only to him."

  Sten chuckled ruefully. "He most certainly is." His gaze turned serious. He reached over, squeezing Val's arm in gratitude. "And he saved our Elise. More than once." Sten swallowed, looking away. "I'm a damned fool. I should never have exposed her to this. To any of this."

  Halvar sighed. "Save for Valor here, she's the only one who had a chance against the paranormals we faced. As useful as they are, blasters don't do much good against specters and undead apparitions. There is no way we could have known what would happen in the foremost chamber. Once we were sealed in, our fate was sealed as well. We're incredibly lucky that Val's existence was catalyzed the moment we found him, or perhaps I should say his suspended animation come to an end, conveniently, right when we needed him the most."

  Halvar flashed Sten a teasing smile. "It's your wild luck coming to the fore once more, Captain."

  Gregor paled and looked away, and Val noted that none belittled him for the impulsive act that had catalyzed the trap in the first place. They had long ago forgiven him and moved on, valuing him as a friend despite his rough edges, all of them simply working together to escape. That showed their character and class like nothing else, and Val was honored to have adventured with them, even as his heart was filled with bitter sorrow for a lost race capable of such beauty and wonder, now down to its last five members, struggling just to survive.

  He turned to the captain. "How is Elise?" Soft words, echoing through the suddenly silent chamber.

  Sten smiled, helping Val to his feet. "Next chamber. The girl, Ava, is with her even now."

  Sten led them to the hallway and into the adjoining room, their status now apparently that of guests, Sten's crew no longer barred to the one room. Val blinked and swallowed, heart skipping a beat as the powerfully built young woman glanced their way, her exquisite features lightening in a brilliant smile.

  Val all but floated into the room, gazing down at Elise, Sten beside him, his worried hands stroking her brow. Her breathing was steady, though she was covered in bandages and horrid bruises both.

  "How is she?" Val asked, the care and concern coming through perfectly in Dwarvish.

  Ava smiled. "Your friend is exhausted and injured, but the internal bleeding has stopped. Her bones are set, and she is now on the mend." She gave a satisfied nod. "Her body responded to my compulsion, and has best organized itself for repair.

  Brilliant blue eyes locked with Val's own. "It is... humbling. I so wanted to hate. I so wanted to see humans as monsters, but we are actually quite similar." Powerful fingers caressed Val's cheek. A silver-blue tear streamed down her own as she smiled. "Just another branch of the same great tree."

  Val nodded, never having felt such a connection as he did with the beautiful doomed girl gazing at him at that moment. The last flickers of a dying race.

  Val did not analyze it. He did not care that Sten was watching. He pressed his lips against Ava's own, her breathless cry like any human girl's. His heart pounded in furious rebuttal of fate's cruel hand. He would take the flickering embers of this lost tribe and see them rekindled with a brilliant flame.

  Her arms wrapped tightly about him, squeezing him close. "Val. You were so still! Your companions, I couldn't speak to them. I assumed they were grieving. I thought... I feared you were dead!"

  Val flashed a teasing smile. "I got better."

  She nodded, cheeks flushing like palest roses upon her grey skin. Her beauty had never been so strange or exotic as it was at that moment, and Val heard such a roaring in his ears as Ava gently stroked Elise's face before smiling at Sten. "She is on the mend. I can tell this one cares for her deeply. I will leave her in his care."

  Val quickly conveyed Ava's instructions to a distracted-looking Sten who nonetheless nodded at all the right places, refusing even to look away from Elise, sleeping peacefully as she was at that moment.

  "Are you going to be okay, Sten?"

  Sten swallowed and nodded. "We will be fine, Val. Please, thank your friend for taking such good care of Elise. Tell her I'm grateful."

  Val did so and Ava smiled at the compliment, gently clasping Val's hand and leading him into the hallway, softly closing the door behind her before gazing into Val's eyes. "I cannot put into words, the feelings surging through my heart at this moment. Will you let me show you instead?"

  Trembling, Val nodded.

  Ava's gaze was soft, strangely vulnerable. She gazed into his eyes with a look that echoed the roaring in his own heart. The caress of her lips against his own was like fire and honey, Val desperate for more, and he minded not at all that her powerful arms held him upright as they lost themselves in the sweetest of connections, their kisses long and deep. After they broke off she squeezed him tight, her breath as ragged as his.

  For a timeless moment they stood like that, Val in a state of awe, sensing her desire just as keenly, as sharply, as he felt his own. She tilted her head, piercing his heart with her solemn gaze. A tentative hand gently squeezed his own, her fingers soft and warm. He swallowed his parched throat, heart hammering as she led him down the hall to an adjoining room, and Val caught sight of what looked to be a scientist's workstation, covered with pieces of mushroom, plants from their automated farming trays, and what was perhaps some sort of distillery.

  And Val paid the room no more heed as soft hands brushed his cheek, leading him to the only piece of furniture that mattered, her soft, plush bed covered in exotic fabrics. She turned away, trembling, and with slow, deliberate movements slipped out of her dress, removing a golden hairpin, letting her chestnut curls fall free. She slowly turned around, her figure lush and full, her shy, vulnerable gaze setting his heart on fire. Val was enraptured by the swell of her hips, the bounty of her breasts, her waist padded with a woman's softness and exquisitely proportioned to the curves of her body. Never had he hungered for a woman like he did Ava at that moment, her growing smile making it clear that she could see all too well how deeply he desired her.

  Gently she clasped his hands, leading him onto the bed and into her arms, delighting him with enticements far beyond what any lab could ever produce as soft, tender kisses became so much more. Val cried out with joy to embrace wonders both sweet, profound, and infinitely precious, sharing his treasures in turn with a girl he already cared for fiercely, the daughter of a dying tribe he now desperately yearned to save.

  Valor?

  Yes?

  Did I make you happy?

  He held her tightly to him, enjoying the feel of soft, sensual flesh, and the powerful physique just underneath. Very, very much. I will treasure this memory always.

  She sighed sadly, and Val could just make out the tear trailing in the light she had somehow dimmed the moment they had embraced. He kissed her tear and she smiled. "I had given up hope, you know."

  He peered down at her, caught breathless by her suddenly solemn gaze.

  "I had given up all hope of seeing my city alive with wonder and growth, the simple joy of discovery, of mastering our world, and one day, exploring the stars."

  She sighed, gazing at sights only she could see. "And then we found that someone had already figured out how to traverse the gravitational rifts between stars. People first happy to colonize, to trade, yet those who came soon after..." she shuddered. Val held her tight. "Were content only to pillage and plunder. That which they couldn't take, they destroyed. Monsters I hated so fiercely, so bitterly, before I entered the long sleep lasting for so very many years."

  Ava rested her cheek against Val's chest. "I had given up all hope of seeing wonder upon the
faces of my people ever again. Then I slowly began to lose hope of my city ever blossoming again. I feared that the madness above had not ended, that the Highlords had not wiped themselves out, not even after a thousand years."

  She stifled a soft sob, so like any human girl's. "Then I began to give up hope of my race ever blossoming at all, of us ever being more than a lost tribe."

  She sighed even as Val held her close, kissing her softly, feeling her warm up against him once more, desperate to distract her from the pain he could see in her soft blue eyes.

  "Then, when the spiders ambushed me, I gave up hope of any life at all." Her beautiful gaze speared his soul as she opened herself to him once more, and she cried out with a poignancy that shook him to his core.

  "Then you saved me, Valor Hunter. You gave me life, hope, love."

  She kissed him fiercely, passionately, entwining so tightly to him, his heart swearing to never ever let her go.

  And time passed, sweet bliss turning to gentle susurrations as the beautiful girl holding him slipped into soft slumber, and never had Val felt so happy as he did at that moment, in the dark upon a bed of padding and stone, entwined in the arms of a beautiful dwarf who had claimed him as her own.

  4

  Val found himself awaking to an odd itch in the back of his mind, the taste of strange magics permeating the air. An old habit, he allowed himself to waken fully without opening his eyes, smiling in sudden warmth as he caught a certain floral, feminine scent that brought the day before together in striking detail. He opened his eyes, gazing at the powerful shoulders of the most beautiful girl to have ever kissed him, more real than any dream. Her nut-brown hair had been tied back into a tight, serviceable bun, her dexterous hands currently adjusting several silver levers as she whispered words Val could almost taste the magic of, alien and strange to the traditions that had come so naturally to him since arriving at this planet.

  They were subtle too. Nothing flashy or explosive as the spider sack currently trapped in glass and tongs at last gave up its prize, a milky blue liquid with the faintest hints of a silvery sheen. Val caught the corner of Ava's intent frown as further gears were adjusted and she placed a vial under the contraption in her hand, allowing the milky blue fluid to drip into a beaker she then attached to what looked like nothing so much as a 19th century mad scientist's laboratory of vials, glass tubing, and countless beakers.

  She nodded to herself, slowly adding various powders to the mixture, and Val's eyes widened in alarm as Ava stood there, gazing so intently at a golden cube in her hands, displaying a holograph of the multidimensional chart-like tomes her tribe used to compile information. Val quickly looked away, lest his eyes helplessly sink into the matrix and he suffer a nauseating headache, so beyond him he feared their knowledge was.

  It was like she didn't sense the danger.

  "Ava?"

  She startled, eyes widening, turning around, favoring him with a gentle, surprised smile. A pretty pale flush came to her cheeks, as if still amazed to find her lover staring back at her.

  Val shook away the daze he wanted to slip into, getting up with a speed that surprised him, though trying not to startle her.

  He frowned at the massive assortment of beakers and vials. "Um, Ava? Is there any way you can slow the reaction down?"

  Warm greetings died on her lips. She frowned. "The reaction is within acceptable parameters, what is your concern?"

  All business, the shy adoring lover of the night before had been replaced by a woman as professional and self-possessed as any Val had known. Val couldn't help admiring her verve even as his worry grew. Then his eyes widened. "You have Elementium in there. Lots of Elementium. And Altersian as well." He wasn't sure what role the ruby-like mildly magical mineral was supposed to play, but he was certain that the Silbion he sensed in the spider's sack mixing with all of that would be an extremely bad idea.

  Ava furrowed her brows. "Yes, Val. It is within acceptable parameters. Only with significant Silbion stores would there be any danger. With trace amounts, this technique allows us to draw out the Silbion, trap it in our base diluent, and remove the solution before it can catalyze with the Elementium, the Altersian acting as a buffer, just in case it's necessary."

  Val gave a sudden shake of his head as he sensed the danger grow. "But what if there are more than trace amounts of Silbion?"

  Ava blinked, surprised at the thought, her frown making it clear that she was taking him seriously. "Then that means..." Her eyes widened. "Val, get out!"

  She yanked his shoulder and there was no way he could resist her panicked strength, but he didn't let it break his focus, sensing, tasting the differing elements as they began to boil and froth, desperately clamping his will upon the out of control reaction. The roiling boil became to calm.

  Stabilization successful! Thanks to your intervention, your newest lover has managed not to blow herself up, or otherwise meet her maker just hours after seducing you. Congratulations! (Is this a new best?)

  Val shook the prompt away, focusing only on stabilizing and then separating the various elements, resisting his first instinct to draw them into himself, settling instead on placing each into a separate vial that he carefully stoppered before handing them to a wide-eyed Ava.

  "Please be careful. That could have killed you!" He held her close, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat, feeling her shudder against him. "You embrace such danger, but just from what I've seen, your race is brilliant and thorough. Never prone to rash impulse! Why?"

  She lowered her head, as if ashamed. "I thought the amounts would be so slight, the risk justified, but what you say is the truth. Not even my father knows, though I can hide nothing if he asks." She swallowed. "We are dying, Val."

  There it was. The cold, hard truth. Val grimaced, unable to bear Ava's agonized gaze. "You are right. It had risk. Perhaps unforgivable risk. But we need desperately to procure Silbion. Its lack is our doom, and we are down to our last drops!" She sobbed, Val suddenly holding her tightly to him, dizzy with her words, the depth of her desperation, the irony of what she was saying. "We sacrificed a precious amount trying to bring back several of our wisest elders, to embrace their insights for how to bring our civilization back from the brink of oblivion, but it wasn't enough! Only two fragile souls could it bring back, those children even now learning our ways under my father and grandfather as I care for your injured and try desperately to find a way to harvest even trace amounts of Silbion from those awful spiders!"

  Her eyes filled with sudden wonder. "But you... what you did... stabilizing a reaction in ways not even a master could, drawing it out into these flasks as if you could control the flow of the very elements straight out of the distillator?" She trembled, a professional no longer, just a girl gazing at her beau with strange intensity. "What are you, Val? How did you do that?"

  Yet Val could hardly hear her for the roaring in his ears.

  "Ava," he said breathlessly, "take me to the garden."

  Gazing at him in confusion and wonder both, they left what had perhaps once been a barracks yet was now serving as their domicile, midway between what was left of their automated multi-tiered hydroponic farm and the mushroom cave that had become the source of so much of their nourishment. But not before Ava made sure the spray of flowers and leaves she had pinned to him the day before was in place and intact.

  Her hand squeezed his own as they dashed towards the cove of trees serving as tall green sentinels for the treasures of life and growth laying near dormant in its heart, and no automaton rolled their way even as Val heard them clink and clamber or softly tread throughout other areas of the once glorious city.

  "Val?" Ava, gazing at him so curiously as he approached the towering structure of clear crystal panes and golden bronze that was the arborium, honing his Arcane and Psionic Perception deep into the vast complexity of the structure, shivering in wonder and horror, at fantastic possibilities and cruelest irony as he gazed into its depths and at last thought he understood
.

  "This thing uses Silbion to harness lifeforce itself, doesn't it? Somehow, it is made to glow like light. The most nourishing of light, far more than the feeble flickers still feeding the quiet grove around us, and the cluster of plants blossoming still in that tiny corner you were tending to, just the other day."

  Ava smiled and nodded. "That is correct, Valor. Properly maintained, even a small quadrant can last many, many decades. If It is fully operational and the reverberators are properly attuned, the Silbion's fluxes will be stabilized, and it will last potentially forever." She shook her head sadly. "Alas, the damage it had suffered while we were in cryo-sleep, though minute, was enough to disrupt its homeostasis." She shook her head sadly. "A singular flaw in their construction, combined with the series of automaton robots we were forced to shut down while there was still sufficient power throughout the network was all it took to doom our entire city. We did what we could, but the damage was done. To all the arboriums." She shook her head sadly. "Of course we repaired them while we could. While we had working power on those levels. It was the reason for the matrix to awaken the three of us so early. But it did not matter. Almost all the Silbion had already boiled away, the Silbion sustaining the matrix itself also falling to critical levels, and it had not even detected its own peril."

  Ava began to tremble, tears leaking freely down her cheeks. "Soon it will be so low that all those currently suspended will perish. All their brilliance, their hopes, their dreams will slowly wink out, chamber by chamber, my race slowly dying until only our tiny group remains. The death of my people, just heartbeats away."

  Val held Ava tightly as she broke down and sobbed in his arms. Heart hammering so fast he was dizzy. But first, he had to know. First, he had to be sure.

  "Silbion? Your city, your people, will fade into the dark, just for lack of Silbion?"