They got back to work.
I reloaded my rifle.
“Micah.”
At the sound of a name I hadn’t worn for a thousand years, I looked down at Oraniquitis—laying beside me, previously unconscious—with widening eyes.
She hazily met my gaze. Dark veins wriggled up her neck, climbing to the sides of her face. “In my pocket.”
I reached into the right pocket of her ash and blood-streaked coat, retracting a folded parchment note. I marveled at the paper, seeing as we had never used anything remotely like this. “Give it to Qaira.”
“He’s a little busy, love.”
“After,” she gasped, battling consciousness, “this is over.”
I had meager faith that he would still be alive when this was over, but didn’t voice that opinion. “Is this the favor that you’re calling in, then?”
Oran said nothing, closing her eyes. Out again.
I slipped the paper into my pocket and resumed post at the window.
***
Qaira Eltruan—;
I collapsed on the bridge, gasping for breath. My wings shuddered, shaking blood and feathers across the ground. Half of the mezzanine was gone from the fight with Jii.
She was dead.
Soon I would be, too.
I picked myself up and staggered toward the cephalon. My scythes retracted and I placed a regenerating hand against the wound across my stomach. Warm blood spilt through my reforming fingers, splattering in a trail as I fought to keep one foot in front of the other.
To my utter horror, everyone was still here. Not a single pillar was activated.
“Why aren’t you gone yet?!” I screamed.
“We can’t turn them on!” Yahweh screamed back. “He’s shut them off!”
He.
I looked out the window, a tingling sensation felt.
Calenus and Zira approached the cephalon, side-by-side. They walked across the courtyard in a relaxed gait, obviously having no need to hurry. Both of their eyes were raised toward the window.
I dipped below the window, pressing my back against the wall. My fingers clenched tighter around my stomach, trying to slow the bleeding. This had been made by a scythe.
Yahweh had noticed the growing pool of blood around me and knelt at my side, looking down at the wound that I was trying to hide. Then his gaze met mine. “We need to get out of here.”
I laughed, but there was no joy in it. “Time’s up, kid. There’s nowhere left to run.”
“Qaira, please, let me help—”
I shoved him away. “Help yourselves. They’re not interested in you. Get back to the hangar and take a transporter to Avernai. Don’t stop until you’re there.”
Yahweh looked like I’d struck him. “No.”
I forced a smile. “You’ve got a war to end. I can take this from here.”
My smile was met with a crimson tear that rolled down his cheek. Yahweh knew the only way out of this was to leave. I reached for Oran, but couldn’t move.
“Give her to me,” I said, haggard. Belial scooped her up and dropped her into my lap. I cradled her, pressing my cheek to her cold, damp forehead.
Leid. I just had to hold her one last time. I was so sorry, for everything.
I peered up at the others, ashamed of the pity in their eyes. “Get out of here,” I snarled. “Now.”
They fled the cephalon, disappearing around a winding corridor. Yahweh looked back before he too faded from view. It was now just me and Oraniquitis, awaiting our death sentence. I thought of Adrial and shut my eyes tightly, guilt clenching at my insides.
Bring her down, Qaira, Calenus called, invading my head.
I didn’t respond, intent on making them work for it.
And then something else invaded my head. Oraniquitis’s voice—;
That song.
Her black eyes were open, fixed on me. “I can save us,” she murmured, trembling. “All you have to do is let me in.”
Let her in.
That had been her play all along. She had never planned on storming the Court of Enigmus beside me, but as me. I was her chosen skin.
I exhaled, coming to terms with everything that could happen if I played into her hand. But there was no other choice now; she’d seen to that.
My response came in the form of a passionate kiss.
I relinquished myself, leaning down and pressing my lips against hers. She was cool and bitter from blood, but then something warm entered my throat. It filled my chest with razorblades, punching my gut from the inside. My mind reeled with memories that weren’t my own; happenings in places I’d never seen.
I pulled away and curled inward, holding my face as every nerve ending roared and images too dark for words ravaged my mind. I wanted to die.
Right before I started screaming, everything ceased. I gasped, staring dumbfoundedly at Leid. Had she really held all of this in?
My chest heaved and I felt… her.
The power Oraniquitis held was immeasurable. My eyes viewed the world in a much different light; particles flew by my sight like confetti. Violet and red waves arranged in what appeared to be script flickered in and out of existence. A tingling sensation washed across my stomach. I could feel Jii’s gash begin to heal.
Leid had really held back. Only now could I know of the true power she’d hidden.
Qaira, surrender now and we won’t kill you, warned Calenus.
I grinned as my sight inked over, allowing the Scarlet Queen to taint my resonance with her own.
He was right.
It all ended here.
XXVIX
RISE
Calenus Karim—;
JII HAD NOT RETURNED. When I called to her, she didn’t respond.
“She’s dead,” said Zira, fury dancing in his eyes.
“Yes, it seems that way.”
“Leid is permanently on the bench. How did Qaira kill her alone?”
“Not alone,” I said, watching figures move across the bridge. None were Qaira or Leid, so I didn’t pursue them. Qaira’s resonance pulsed violet through the tower wall, like a beacon emitting light repetitiously. Vel’Haru couldn’t conceal their identities from each other.
Qaira, I called, surrender now and we won’t kill you.
“But won’t we?” Zira eyed me, cocking his head.
“No, not if he surrenders.”
Zira was scathed. “Ixiah is dead because of them, and now Jii.”
“And Zhevraine, and Adrial, and soon Leid. How many more of us do you wish to see dead? Will there be any court left after your thirst for vengeance is satiated?”
He met my gaze only momentarily before looking aside in concession. Zira placed his hands into his pockets and said nothing else.
Something shifted; the air grew heavy.
Zira and I looked in unison toward the cephalon tower.
Qaira’s resonance was gone. There was no way that he could have escaped without detection. We took a step back, also in unison.
The gravity shifted in the courtyard below the spires and bridge. The air rippled like the surface of water. The shadows from the spire above obscured my sight, but not my senses.
“What’s happening?” Zira asked, hushed.
“He’s here.”
My guardian only looked at me in confusion, and then something rolled from the rippling shadows. It came to a stop several feet from where we stood.
Jii’s black, petrified head screamed up at me.
“There’s another one for your collection,” said Qaira, emerging into view. He was alone, having left Leid at the cephalon.
I said nothing, feeling my expression harden. His resonance sang a different tune than usual; its frequency was amplified. This phenomenon would have left me fumbling for answers, but his frequency suddenly shifted colors.
Scarlet.
Zira had felt it, too.
“You’ve made a terrible mistake,” I said, coolly. Underneath the surface, I was terrified by the idea
of Oraniquitis thriving inside a man with barely a soul already.
“You’re projecting,” said Qaira.
Without taking my eyes off of him, I said, “Zira, return to Enigmus and summon the others.”
Zira whirred away without a response, acknowledging our time-sensitivity. Qaira didn’t take chase, knowing the hour-glass was just turned. If he wanted to kill me, he’d have to do it soon.
Just as Zira retreated, Qaira phased.
A fraction of a second later, he was right in front of me. I leaned to the side, avoiding his scythe by a hair. He swung again, and I stepped back.
My right scythe unsheathed. It had been so long since I’d used it; the pain was sharp, fresh. Qaira lunged and my scythe cracked against his, a battle of strength commencing. He was putting up a very good fight but noble power was all very new to him still.
I pulsed, and it knocked Qaira off his feet. He landed across the courtyard on his side.
I phased, reappearing mid-leap, scythe aimed at his head.
Qaira rolled, pulsed.
I pulsed again, pushing back against him. Another battle of strength commenced. Around us everything crumbled; pillars holding the courtyard mezzanine were reduced to rubble in our wake.
Both of us relented simultaneously.
This dance continued for a while. We were getting tired, and our power seemed equally matched. In Leid I would have stood little chance against any scarlet resonance; but Qaira was a weaker guardian who muffled Oraniquitis’s strength. Lucky me.
Qaira staggered, losing stamina. I went in for the kill.
But he phased just as I had, reappearing slightly out of reach. The side of my head caught his elbow.
I stumbled, dazed.
Qaira’s wings released and he shot into the sky. He flew circles overhead, like a buzzard waiting for carrion. It was only a matter of time until the others arrived. All I had to do was stave him off until then.
I emitted a thought. Every intact window within one hundred yards blew out. The shards collected in a whirlwind, shooting at Qaira with the force of a hurricane.
This interrupted anything he’d planned to do, and little could deflect it. He attempted a pulse, but it only gave him a few seconds more before falling from the sky in sprinkles of blood and black feathers.
As he descended, the buildings around me collapsed like demolition. Every piece of debris flew across the courtyard.
I phased, reappearing on the street.
Qaira had disappeared—;
But not for long.
Cylinder lamps framing the street began uprooting from cement. I observed this with a knowing frown.
The first lamp I pulsed away.
The second, I phased.
On the third, I rolled.
There was no fourth.
A northern spire had begun to collapse. I quickened the process and levitated the wreckage, leaping from platform to platform. The ground was dangerous.
Qaira reappeared, pursuing me.
I released my second scythe as he landed on the platform.
“Am I lesser to you still?” he spat with blood tinged teeth. He had invoked Oraniquitis, wearing her sable eyes. “I’d say the odds are evened out.”
He didn’t deserve a response.
Our dance continued. The plan was to wear Qaira out.
We were blurs across the floating sea of debris, the sounds of our scythes colliding echoed thunder over the deserted demon city.
But, again, he was a weaker guardian. The Scarlet Queen was foolish to have chosen him. Within several minutes his attacks grew slower, sloppier.
I knocked Qaira off balance, ramming into him with my scythes crossed. He managed to raise his own, interrupting decapitation.
I pulsed and he was flung into a barely-standing high-rise, tearing through it like a wrecking ball. Upon impact the rest of the building came down. A mushroom cloud of debris and smoke fill the air.
Qaira was dragging himself out of the rubble when I arrived. One wing was completely torn from his back. He was covered in filth and blood that oozed from lacerations on the side of his head. His leg was bent in the wrong direction, crushed at the ankle. He panted as pink drool strung from his lips.
Qaira saw me and froze, defeat replacing fury. He hung his head, wheezing for breath. One of his scythes was retracted, the hand already in mid-regeneration.
I raised my scythe, preparing to strike.
And then he phased.
Impossible. How could he have garnished that much power with so many injuries?
Qaira rematerialized behind me. I turned as his arm blurred toward my—
***
Qaira Eltruan—;
“He reached into her chest, somehow expelling Oraniquitis’s resonance, and then forced it back into the statue.”
While everyone had revered this tale, enough for me to have heard its retelling twice, I’d been working through some theories of my own.
Leid was almost dead when Calenus had torn the Scarlet Queen from her body. This suggested that upon near-death of her host, Oraniquitis might release her grip on their resonance. Susceptible.
Now here I lay, damaged beyond any quick repair. Calenus stalked across the smoking ruin, raising a scythe with my name on it. It was a harrowing feeling, knowing you were about to die.
Oraniquitis felt it, too.
Something in me clacked, like the sound of chains breaking away. I could feel Oran’s anger and sadness. Her fear, too.
Fear. Clack.
I was lighter. I was free.
Oraniquitis could only act of her own free will within guardians, not nobles. Leid was a guardian when she’d contracted the scarlet disease. She’d been a noble the second time, but the lore said that Oran fed on darkness and weakness of the mind. By the time we had arrived to Collea, Leid was well beyond damaged. My company probably hadn’t made matters any better.
True nobles lacked the ability of a weakened mind. They couldn’t be poisoned by her malevolent whispers in their ear because they were paradigms of moral nihilism. But, if Calenus was able to physically touch Oran’s essence then obviously he was some kind of inert conduit. There was never a better time to test this hypothesis than now.
Calenus loomed over me, raising his scythe even higher. I closed my eyes and lowered my head, awaiting his execution. I felt the air break as his arm moved.
With the last of my strength, I phased.
As Calenus turned, I placed my palm against his face. He froze as blue sparks flitted where our skin touched. I clenched my jaw as I turned inward, giving Oran a nudge. She had broken her constraints and so I willed her out of me.
We both collapsed across the wreckage. I struggled to stay on all fours as Calenus retched. He kept coughing up blood and dark, gelatinous puddles. When he looked at me, his black eyes were wide with confusion.
“Qaira… why?” he breathed, and I knew it wasn’t Calenus who was speaking to me. Being inside of him was a toxic situation for them both. Oran trembled, shock and betrayal etched across her face.
I didn’t respond, only curled my upper lip into a vicious sneer.
For Sanctum.
For Leid.
I lunged atop her as she screamed. It was disturbing to see an image of Calenus so animated.
My scythe plunged into his chest, three times. When Calenus’s body wouldn’t bleed out quickly enough, I hacked off his head. It rolled a few feet away, coming to a rest beside a dented ceiling beam. Within seconds it began to petrify.
I lost track of how long I watched his statue-head stare at the fake, demon sky.
***
Yahweh Telei—;
Beyond the cephalon there waged a war for Leid’s life, yet her final moments were spent alone.
She was strewn across the ground with a glassy, distant stare. Every visible portion of her skin was afflicted by wriggling black veins; each breath a wet clap.
I knelt beside Leid and cradled her shivering body against mine. She
whispered my name and I told her it was going to be alright. Around us tremors shook the ground and I winced, knowing any moment their fight would get too close.
She exhaled, and her body grew limp.
I closed my eyes and swallowed sadness, knowing she may never wake up.
But I’d promised I would try.
I set her down and took several steps back, removing the pistol from the belt concealed beneath my coat. With shaking hands, I loaded two sedatives into the chamber. I raised the gun, breathing heavily, and waited.
Leid’s eyes remained closed. She was still.
Don’t move, please don’t move.
The silence became deafening, and then I realized that the commotion beyond the cephalon had ceased. My attention strayed toward the window.
Leid stirred.
My attention returned as her body flinched.
Her eyes shot open. They were not black like Oraniquitis’s, but cloudy and gray. Leid rose to all fours, her movement stiff. She looked up at me, tilting her head. No emotion was worn.
“Leid?” I whispered, gun shaking in my hand.
“Activating sequence,” she said. Her voice sounded robotic.
“…What?”
“Codebreaker sequence, activated,” she said, seemingly to no one. And then she stood, unleashing her scythes.
I pressed my back against the wall, firing a shot. The tranquilizer pierced Leid’s neck but she only looked at me. I fired another one, this time nailing her in the lower abdomen. As the second one hit, her eyelids fluttered. I hadn’t known if the tranquilizers would work on expired Vel’Haru. Now I did.
Leid slumped to the floor, seizing. Her scythes retracted.
I lunged for the broken window. Qaira!
***
Qaira Eltruan—;
Adrial took a seat beside me.
I looked at him in shock.
“What?” he demanded, shrugging. “Haven’t you ever seen a dead person come back to life before?”
The Antithesis- The Complete Pentalogy Page 105