by JM Guillen
The swarm fell upon her, a tide of malevolent, insectine darkness.
I caught a glimpse of the woman’s face—
“Larisa!” the large man screamed.
Garret tried to step forward, but his partner caught his shoulder.
The sound of her flesh being ripped, while the bulbous, droning horrors tore into her living organs…
“Oh no.” Baxter’s piteous whimper sounded like the smallest thing in the world. “Oh fuck no.”
She screamed longer than I thought possible, her agony like shards in my mind.
The swarm fell upon her with a will and devoured her as she wailed, gagged, and gurgled in what sounded like anguished Russian.
The large man had his hand on Garret and tried to pull him back. No words passed between them, yet Garret finally gave in.
“Fine. Fine, God damn it.” He looked up at the large man. “If we can’t go get her, that’ll have to satisfy the Primary Protocol.”
“Fuck.” The man with the rivet gun shook his head and spat.
The creatures swarmed around the corpse of the woman, seemingly driven mad by her blood and the smell of flesh. Horrific to look upon and awful to listen to, though I couldn’t help but be happy for one thing.
They didn’t seem to be interested in us.
“You’ve got injured.” Garret nodded at Baxter.
“We’ve got more than that.” I fingered the earring and nodded at Alicia. Even if I hadn’t been able to see her face in the azure light, I would have imagined the slight frown on the edge of her lips.
But, the ember of brilliance burst above her head. Both Assets flinched, although I couldn’t tell if from shock at the light or concern that she might attack them.
“We’re on our way, Simon, hold on,” I half whispered, half thought the words, and they echoed around me. As the Wind gently caroused through my hair, a silver thread appeared, outlined in Abriel’s light.
“What’s that?” Garret asked me.
“It leads to the man I’m looking for.” I nodded at him. “After I find him, we are out here.”
“Out of here?” The larger man laughed. “Honey, I think you’re a bit optimistic.”
“If we do get out of here, you’re coming with us.” Garret poked to me in the chest, not hard enough to be painful, but hard enough to make his point. “We didn’t come here to get all caught up in your bullshit.”
“We had an agreement.” I held Garret’s gaze and felt the eyes of my friends on me.
“I never agreed to anything. Especially not,” Garret gesticulated all around us, “all of this. You tricked us into coming here.”
“Even if I did, you deserved it,” I hissed. “Every time you show up, you’re all bound and determined to Shanghai me off for your own purposes.” I gave him a smug look. “You just don’t like it when it gets done back to you.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” His eyes were hard as he repeated himself. “When we leave here, you’re coming with us. You tricked us into running in here. Assets aren’t typically geared to be this far adrift. We’re like fish in a barrel.”
“No.” I had a flash of inspiration along with a whisper of intuition. “That’s not how it happened.”
“No?” Anger seeped into Garret’s voice.
“What now?” The large man cocked his head.
“The moment I brought up the Gaunt Man, she—Larissa—became very interested.” I glanced at the bear-like Asset and then back to Garret. “I stood there while you all did your—” I cut off to twitch my head violently and roll my eyes back in my head.
“Ha!” The bearded Asset shook his head, ruefully.
“So no telling me you didn’t choose to come in here.” Now, I poked Garret in the chest. “I don’t know where you get your marching orders, but you can’t entirely lay this at my feet.”
“No,” Garret sighed. “I suppose you’re right.” He paused for a moment and his tone softened. “We’ve lost three people in here, Liz. It’s been a trying three days.”
“Three days?” Rehl limped over to us. “It’s been three hours.” He paused in thought. “Maybe.”
“Our system time—” The large man paused as Garret shot him a look. For a moment they were both quiet.
“It’s been longer for us,” Garret clarified. “Time flows differently here.”
“Larisa said the laws of physics were different in the different aisles,” the large man muttered.
“Hello.” Rehl put on his most endearing smile and extended his hand to the large Asset. “Please ignore my rude friend. My name is Rehl.”
“Why, hello there, Rehl.” The large man extended his hand. “I’m—”
In the labyrinthine darkness, horrific laughter echoed and cut through the shadows. That sound could be the cackling of no sane and whole mind.
It hurt my ears. The deepest portions of my heart quailed at the noise.
“It’s him.” Garret turned and gazed at his friend. “Fuck. Not again.”
The large man struck a few keys is on the crescent-shaped keyboard on his hip. “I’m afraid we need to haul ass, Rehl. Introductions later,” he apologized.
“Simon, we’re still coming.” I cradled the earring in my hand, and as I whispered, that slender filament of magic shone again, outlined by Abriel’s light.
“We ready?” Garret turned to me.
“That way.” I nodded at the Assets. “We’re hauling ass that way.”
6
The passageway wound forward, twisting and turning past old furniture, stacks of clothing, and racks of magazines. One aisle held a collection of old dressmaker dummies and manikins.
The moment we turned down that way, Garret had his pistol out, and blew one of their heads off.
“Thank you for protecting us,” I said softly. “That was a close one.”
Garret shot me a look, but said nothing. His buddy snickered.
The two Assets remained out in front, with me just behind them. Alicia and Baxter hobbled along behind while Rehl watched the shadows at our back.
Every few moments that laughter cut the air again. I had never heard a sound so cruel, so maliciously viscous.
“He’s been toying with us, the whole time,” Garret explained. “Doesn’t show his face, because he doesn’t have to.”
“He’s got things trapped in here,” the bear-like Asset explained. “Just sets ’em loose on us. Then he stays out of sight while we get tore up.”
I started to contribute, thinking to tell them about the creature that had attacked Baxter. However, before I could, we heard the cackling another time. It came quieter, far closer.
“You surprised me, to be certain.” The Gaunt Man chuckled quietly from the far side of the aisle. He stood wreathed in the sable shadows. “You’ll have to forgive me. I haven’t had the opportunity to entertain your kind in several hundred years.”
The Assets stopped in place. The large pack on the back of the one Asset, whirred as he tapped at the keys.
“I never in all my days expected to again meet any of the deputies of the rosy cross.” He drawled, “It’s been a true delight.”
“Rosy cross?” Baxter asked. “I hope that confuses everyone else too,” he whispered to Alicia. “Because I’m lost.”
“I’m not,” she muttered darkly.
“I’m pleased we’ve been entertaining.” Garrett had his monster of a handgun pulled, aimed straight at the creature. “If you step out here, perhaps we can be better introduced.”
Why doesn’t he just shoot? I bit my lip, letting my mind fall backward into the susurrus of the Wind. Kill it. End this now.
“I think not,” the Gaunt Man teased from behind us.
I blinked and realized the shadows I thought I’d seen hadn’t actually been Mister Lorne at all.
“I hope you won’t consider me rude. I’ve simply chosen to savor this situation.”
Garret and the other Asset had turned to our left, I saw. Had they heard the voice from that dire
ction? I glanced back at Baxter and Alicia and noted their wide eyes, though not turned in any one direction. Rehl paced behind them, keeping a keen watch on the darkness.
“I won’t consider you rude, if you’d just step forward.” Garret slowly turned, as if he tracked something in the darkness. “I’d appreciate the opportunity to better introduce myself.”
I suddenly understood why the Assets weren’t firing. They’d been dealing with Lorne’s trickery for days. I imagined that more than one of the shots we’d heard the darkness had been them firing at him, only to find him not be there at all.
“Perhaps soon.” The voice sharpened, became cold. “Perhaps I shall allow you Templars to tire a bit yet. Then, in witnessing your agonies, my sweet Ms. Shepherd shall receive her education regarding what happens to those who displease me.”
“Or,” Alicia’s soft voice came from behind me, “we could do another thing.”
I turned to stare at her, and noted that she had taken a step away from Baxter. Her brow furrowed with determination. Not a trace of hazel remained in her eyes; they positively radiated silver-white.
“’Licia?” I took a step closer.
When she spoke, her words felt like poetry in my heart. They eased the tension from my brow. With two syllables, she wiped away the darkness in my mind.
“Yehi 'Or!”
My mind burst, like a ripe piece of fruit. I felt peeled back, separated from every fear, every piece of worry. In that moment, I scattered across infinite worlds. Alicia’s voice echoed, those two words reflecting and refracting against the darkness around us. Each echo came back differently, and yet each one meant the same thing.
Genēthētō Phōs.
Fiat Lux.
Let There Be Light.
Beautiful. That was the only thought that made any sense. Only the idea of reveling in the brilliant wonder of that beatific shine.
Eternity cascaded down upon us, torrents of infinite light shining from Alicia’s brow. It was light and it was fire. It was the light that sunlight dreams of being. Everything it touched, every piece of shadow it came to rest upon, burst into brilliance.
It sang.
It shone on into forever. No dark corners lay within Lorne’s labyrinth, not while Abriel stood.
I wanted to fall before it, wanted to weep for every small and petty thing I had ever done.
Somewhere, in a place so far away from me that I couldn’t even conceive its existence, something screamed. A cry of furious agony, a wailing of such pain, such wrathful fury, that I knew the sound alone might break my mind.
Yet it could not. Not while that light shone.
In one instant, I looked upon Alicia. A Seal burned upon her brow, and I saw everything she had ever been. I saw her seeking for truths, saw how desperately she had wanted, her entire life, to have something real—
—Rehl spun, and I saw him written in every angle, every line of his face. I saw the fear he held, the softness he hid, the walls he built. I saw how happy he had been, just in the past few—
—looked weak, but Baxter still burned, still shone. His gaze met mine, and in that instant, I understood how he felt, how he’d always felt—
—aimed at where Lorne had stood and fired. Garret’s bravery shone in his eyes, and I knew then that he’d throw himself in front of us, in front of all of us, to keep that thing—
—kindness. A savage friendliness and a fierce protectiveness of those he cared for. He had a rebel’s smile, the large man did, and I felt certain that someday he’d smile as the world around him fell into hell—
I blinked, drunk on the wondrous brilliance of the light.
My hand rose to the earring, cupping it as I wrapped myself in the wonder of the Wind.
“Simon,” I half whispered, half thought. “Soon.”
In the light of Abriel’s brilliance, the thick silver strand of the Simon’s magic burned brightly. It stretched into the distance.
“So you think me rude.” The voice clashed with the wondrous peace of Abriel’s truth. “You prefer a proper introduction.” Those words seethed with condescension.
I clenched my knives and turned toward the sound. It sang in disharmony with the radiant purity that shone around us, so much so that the horror hid no more.
I knew exactly where Lorne stood.
“Fair enough,” Garret bit off. I thought for a moment he might say more, yet he chose to speak with the weapon he held. He fired again and again, each shot like a cannon echoing around us.
WHUF. WHUF. Crack!
I did not see the large man fire his weapon, nor did I see Rehl shoot. I heard both of these things, but in the instant I did, my mind felt frozen, seized in the horror of what I saw.
Lorne.
In the brilliance of that light, the Gaunt Man frenzied. It became a shadow gone mad with discordant convulsions. Lorne’s features became disfigured, immaterial. The Gaunt Man stretched high against the ceiling, still corpse like, still cadaverous, yet now its fingers and teeth had grown sharp.
The Gaunt Man’s gaze festered. It oozed. When it fell upon me I felt odious desire burning from those eyes, deathless and infected with wretched delirium.
And it laughed. It vomited unnamable, corrupt mirth.
“Fuck. Me,” the large man said, and fired.
WHUF. WHUF. WHUF. WHUF.
“Liz,” Alicia’s voice came so softly that I almost didn’t hear it at all. She sounded fairy-like, her words a tinkling bell.
“What?” I turned toward her, half expecting to see some grotesque horror looming up behind us.
Instead, I saw her brilliance, her beauty. Above her, swimming through the air, something cavorted. It didn’t look like a cat or like an otter, but something between the two, a whisper in my mind.
Abriel?
“He’s close.” She nodded toward the strand of magic that hung in the air. “See how wide it is? How thick?”
“Close,” I repeated. I glanced back over my shoulder at Lorne, where the creature dove down upon the Assets, its claws gleaming. “You mean Simon.”
“You’ve got to get him.” She spoke firmly.
“Leave you?” I shook my head. “No. Absolutely not. Rule one is ‘Don’t split the party.’”
“Gotta be reasonable, Miss Lawson.” Rehl chuckled. “Consider yourself the scout.”
“Are you going to stay and fight? Do you think your knives are going to do much good?” Baxter coughed. “Against that?”
As if to prove the point. Lorne roared, savage wickedness in the sound.
“No,” I whispered. I shook my head and felt a touch of shame. “We thought we prepared. We were wrong.”
“So go find Simon.” Rehl stepped close to us and reloaded. “You’re faster than we are, and that’s when we’re not dog tired and wounded. Sooner we have him, the sooner we can leave.”
In this light, I could see the truth in Rehl’s eyes.
He didn’t think we’d ever leave. He just wanted me out of the fight.
“I doubt your being here truly increases our odds, at this point,” Baxter pointed out. “The next part of the module is about rescuing Simon, not killing this asshole.”
“I still have Simon’s lighter.” Alicia added. “I can use that to protect us.”
“We could use some help here!” Garret barked over one shoulder.
“Go.” Alicia nodded.
Damn it. I felt sick at the thought that they were right. “I hate this.” I frowned as I took the earring off and placed it in her hand. “Can you keep the light going for a while? So I can follow this back?”
“Yes.” Exasperation dripped through the word. “Use it quickly, and refresh the strand. Then go.”
“Simon. We’re close.” I half whispered, half thought the words, completely bone-weary. The Wind came for me. It brushed my lips as it gathered my words, a soft kiss.
The earring pulsed with the color of the sky in winter.
I took one last look at all of them, bathed in
the purity of that light. I gazed at everything they were, and everything they could be in a world of perfection.
This might be the last time I ever saw them.
“Go!” Rehl turned, and went to stand with Garret. “We’ll keep them off of Bax and Alicia.”
I smiled. Then I turned away. I took a deep breath.
I ran. I ran into the awfulness of that labyrinthine place. I ran with the Wind behind me, urging me forward. Occasionally, I directed it before me, to clear my path.
I ran as if I’d been born to run.
I ran for Simon’s life.
7
Without my friends at my side, I certainly did move faster through the twisted passages. Mystically exhausted thought I might be, I still had some oomph for running, it seemed.
Abriel’s light proved more than bright enough to see by, although only in the beams that shone through the stacked detritus.
“And that can’t last forever,” I realized. The further I went from Abriel’s light, the more garbage would block it. To make matters worse, the strand of Simon’s magic also only shone in places that were lit by the Watcher’s light. That meant that sometimes I might travel several feet before I saw the strand again, as in places of darkness it faded to nothingness.
“Close.” I smiled to myself, nodding. “He’s close.”
I wound my way past suits of armor, past old timey coats of arms. I ducked beneath a set of shelves that held glassware, and wriggled through a set of stacked chairs to another aisle. More than once, I had to kong vault over something, just to get to the next aisle.
I grasped the Wind, and as I ran, it coursed along with me.
Occasionally, I heard gunfire, or the tell-tale WHUF, WHUF of the Asset’s weaponry.
“Too far away.” I muttered as I trotted beside what looked like an old golf cart. I’d expected to find Simon quicker than this, and now that I ran further from my friends, I had begun to feel—
The strand stopped. It stopped in a mahogany display case, right in front of me.
I stopped also, halted dead in place.
The case held several different vases, all quite old. A many-hued sheen to them gleamed, and almost glowed in the reflections of Abriel’s light. The case itself looked stout, and one door hung slightly open.