Mourning Ember

by Odin Oxthorn

  “Are you ill?” one asked.

  “I need to speak with Savant Elam immediately!” He took in controlled breaths to stop the rush trembling in his throat.

  “If you can tell me the issue, I will forward a message—”

  Garrett flailed his arms in dismissal. “Bring her here. Now. It is a matter of life and death.”

  “Please remain calm,” the guard insisted. “I will get your message sent if you describe what the issue is.”

  “No. I need her here.” He jabbed a finger at the desk. “Now. It’s about Abberon.”

  The guard raised an eye in suspicion, folding their arms sternly. “Where did you hear that name from?”

  He stood his ground, slamming a fist on the table. “Get her. Now. I will NOT answer any further questions.”

  “Savant is incredibly busy.”

  “I know that, which I why I am asking you to go get her.”

  “I assure you, she will be here as soon as it is convenient.”

  I’m not getting anywhere here. He looked around the room, frantically searching for more convincing ammunition. The only item that came to his attention was the shining tablet sitting on the desk. Drastic needs require drastic measures. “If you do not assist me at once…”

  He picked up the tablet and slammed it against the desk, sending tiny shards of glass scattering across the room.

  “There is no need for destruction of property,” the guard assured huffily.

  Garrett ignored the remark, digging his fingernails into the largest split. He wrestled with the glass until he pulled out a razor-sharp chunk. He then raised the shiv at the guards, who exchanged glances at the perceived threat. “Then tell her I will be at the hospital.”

  “Ahm’Serr, please put—”

  Ignoring their words, he rammed the point into his shoulder. His hand froze as he broke through the skin, and the glass shard snapped in his grip. Ow. Okay. Self-mutilation is hard.

  “Stop!” the guard barked and slammed open the door control.

  This isn’t convincing enough. He inhaled and ground his teeth, pushing the slice deeper, cutting into his fingertips in the process. Blood drained from his head as the pain distracted him from his task, the swirling sensation filling the void as his own mind screamed, What the fuck are you doing!?

  He barely heard the guards rush into the cell as he collapsed, his senses numbing as he tried to stay afloat. Time flickered away from him.

  When he blinked, he was in a bed with the seething face of Nara looming over him.

  “You are such a shit, you know that?”

  Garrett groaned and sat up, a cooling sensation caressing his shoulder. He looked over to find a patch of fabric covering the evidence of his rebellious act.

  “You wouldn’t have come here otherwise,” he spat.

  “All right then, what is so pressing that you clumsily cut a superficial wound into yourself with a broken tablet screen?”

  Superficial? Well, at least I got her here. He lowered his voice and leaned in. “Bellanar is in trouble. He said to tell you it was Abberon.”

  Nara’s eyes stopped, lit with an icy fire. Garrett leaned back at her reaction, wincing as she collected her thoughts.

  “You’d better not be fucking with me.”

  “Look where I am, for fuck’s sake. Does it appear like I am fucking with you?” he snarled. “I have a beacon for his location. Do you still have your NetComm?”

  “Yes.”

  Garrett passed her a log report, revealing details of Bellanar’s coordinates and general vital levels. Nara scrutinized the information, her brows furrowed in contemplation. She then swiped the display away and grabbed her temples, slinging obscenities between grumbles.

  “Of course he is on the other side of the planet. Where else would he be?”

  Garrett looked up at her. “What are you going to do?”

  “There is nothing I can do. Not without disrupting the balance of heated temperaments in council.” She heaved a sigh, her knuckles whitening with each passing second.

  “You’re just going to leave him there?”

  “That’s not what I—"

  “Wow. I’ve never seen this side of you.” He stared in disbelief. “Normally, you’d be cutting off your own limbs before abandoning someone else like that.”

  “It is not as simple as that.” She flung her hands up in the air. “Look, I—”

  “You what?” He glared at her accusingly.

  Nara stood and turned away, unwilling to face his scrutiny. “He made his own choice when he went there against my advice.”

  “And he counted on you to help him out, obviously.”

  She started pacing about the room, shoulders hunched over as she tightened her arms around herself. “If the Council finds out what he did and I get involved…”

  What is going on here? Why is she acting so weird? The solution is obvious, so why is she being so belligerent? Garrett scrunched his face in disapproval. “Who said the Council ever had to find out? I thought you were the greatest agent of espionage the Undercity could buy.”

  “There are different rules here.”

  “And apparently, no morals,” he countered huffily.

  “What would you have me do? I can’t just break into a compound in enemy territory and risk getting captured myself.”

  “That is literally what you did day by day when we were together. Why are you suddenly getting cold about it?”

  “Because it is not only MY life that is threatened. Or haven’t you gotten that just yet, human?” She slammed a fist into the wall, shuddering the railings of the bed. “There is an entire community hanging over the edge of a precipice, and I have the power to destroy it. This isn’t Arcadia. The actions of one are not inconsequential. You can’t just stomp your way to action and expect immediate results.”

  Garrett sank in the bed, wounded by her words. “If you don’t plan on using that power for good, then why bother acting at all?”

  She didn’t have an answer for him. Not one she wanted to reveal. Abberon was only part of the equation. Even if she could remove his poison from the universe, another would replace him. It was the way of life, running in a tireless cycle of maintaining order and peace.

  She was exhausted. She no longer wanted to fight. Just dissolve and drift on a steady course of nothingness. But her mind would not let her, and the chance of facing Abberon again left ice in her veins. She wasn’t ready. But then again, when would she ever be?

  “He trusts you. He needs our help. No one else can. Or will, it seems.” Garrett interrupted the turmoil in her thoughts. “I’ll be there too.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “You?”

  “I assumed I was going to be hawking for you.” He shrugged.

  “Do you even know the systems here?” She scoffed, shaking her head admonishingly.

  He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “I can guess?”

  “Wonderful.” She sank back into her seat, glaring at the floor between her knees. Guilt nagged at her. The human was right. It was partly her fault for letting Bellanar go, even though her implications told him her hands were tied.

  She was also living her most self-destructive life because of her exile. Why let those habits die on the same archaic system that had cast her aside? Mental conditioning can only reach so far.

  “Fine. Let’s go.” She stood up and walked out of the med bay, leaving Garrett to stew over his apprehension.

  ##7.2##

  The vibrations of the aircraft engine countered the rattling of her nerves. It was only a few hours to travel across the globe, but Nara wished the journey were years longer.

  This is it. The start of it all. She fidgeted with the armor badge in her hand, tracing every seam and facet of the jewel-like buttons with a fingertip. Every fiber of her being wanted to turn back, to flee from this fool’s errand. But her guilty conscience and her ingrained sense of duty planted her there. She had a role to play in this mess, and sel
f-pity would not absolve her from it.

  She looked out the window, watching the clear oceans stretch across the horizon. Ripples of white streaked through the surface as a squadron of behemoths rose to the surface. Their giant forms elegantly stretched across the waters in an arrowhead formation, their sail-like arms fluttering beneath the currents. Jets of water quenched the air as one by one, the winged beasts breached.

  Their white carapaces protected their soft bluish flesh, points of articulation that helped them skim through the icy liquid. Pointed chitinous beaks at the crest of their heads guided their flight, slashing against the curling waves. A soft melodic hum bounced between them, the calls gently kissing the aircraft with its harmonious melancholy.

  Before long, the entourage slowly descended, signaling their goodbyes with arcing tailfins. Off to hunt for their next feast.

  Nara stared glumly at the peaceful creatures. Another complication to the choices she was forced to make. Society had been built alongside the ecosystem, the scientists striving to reduce the impact on nature, electing to cohabitate so both parties could thrive.

  But she witnessed the destruction and chaos that other galactic powers enforced over what they considered home. Arcadia was an empire built on a corpse, the bulk of the surface uninhabitable by the populace. Then there was Abberon. Fighting against him always proved to end in unnecessary casualties. But not in his mind.

  “They’re very active this time of year, aren’t they?” Kestra’s voice poked through her sulking as they piloted the craft, their fingers occupied with monitoring the systems in the cockpit.

  “Yeah,” she responded meekly. “I can’t remember the last time I saw a full wing of them together like that.”

  The ocean disappeared in a swirl of purple-grey fog as the aircraft headed deep into cloud coverage. Flashes of green light crackled into view as they ventured further, the control panel bleeping and ticking to compensate for the forces bombarding the hull. The inside of the craft remained steady, isolated from the battlements outside.

  “I hope this escapade won’t get you into trouble,” Nara commented.

  “Why would I ever get into trouble?” Kestra smirked. “I’m off duty, just sharing my hobby of joyriding in military-grade aircraft with a friend.”

  “You know I will cover for you.”

  “I don’t think we shall need your strings, Savant.”

  Nara couldn’t help but smile at them. They certainly had grown since they were under her command. It was nice to see that some of her teachings had rubbed off on them. But she had to wonder if the universe even needed more of her misguided coaching.

  A jagged peak of rock broke through the clouds, signaling their destination nearing. More spikes speared the fog as they continued through the mountainous region. Soon, they began their descent, and the rocky chasms engulfed the craft.

  Kestra took the ship through the maze of peaks, homing in on a lip of rock several miles from ground level. The craft rocked and dipped as they eased it down, delicately planting on the crusty shelf. As the engines wound down to a halt, the winds began to kick up, scraping bits and debris across the hull.

  Kestra flipped off settings and initialized last landing checks. “The storm should provide decent cover for an hour or two, depending on how tightly their sensors are tweaked.”

  “If they decide to act on them at all…” She stood and placed her armor badge on her throat, pressing the center button. On her command, the liquid metal slipped around her body, coating her in its fluid embrace. Moments later, it hardened, forming a shiny metallic skin over her. She flexed and stretched inside the cloak, taking comfort in the familiarity of its weight.

  “That thought had also crossed my mind.” They turned their seat to face her. “Are you okay with feeding Abberon leverage?”

  “I haven’t been okay since I stepped on this rock,” she remarked as the armor snapped over her face. “But if it doesn’t happen now, it will later.”

  Kestra bowed their head knowingly, opening the bay door for her. “You have my contact line when you need extraction. Safe journey, Savant.”

  “I appreciate your assistance,” Nara said and stepped off the platform to the icy, unforgiving atmosphere.

  The wind threatened to pummel her down the mountain, and she smacked a hand against the aircraft to maintain her footing.

  COMPENSATING FOR EXTREME ENVIRONMENT, the armor chirped in her ear, the internal temperature rising inside the suit. A graphical thermometer shifted colors with the adjustments. Her boots solidified in the rocky earth as the gravity enhancers steadied her legs from the harsh gales.

  She made her way forward, one labored stomp after another, until she reached the shelter of an outcropping, settling down in the powdery lavender snow gathering around her ankles. Data icons and charts manifested into view as she fidgeted settings with her HUD, poking at shield regulators and communication networks in the area.

  “Can you hear me?”

  “Barely,” Garrett said from the safety of his prison cell, having been recently discharged from the hospital. “Might have to depend on speech-to-text for this one.”

  Despite the circumstance, he was relieved to be a hawk again. It gave him a familiar focused task, something he desperately needed for a change, plotting out maps and menus, sliding configurations selections until they are at a comfortable reach, and sliding viewports around Nara’s armor to gain a perspective of her sight.

  “Can you see anything yet?” He involuntarily shivered as he watched the snowstorm, the harsh beauty of the torrent bestowing him an unconscious sense of empathy.

  “Give me a second,” Nara said and tapped a few settings.

  LIDAR CAMERA ENGAGED

  Just then, the world shifted to shades of red and the cloud coverage dissipated, revealing a fortress settled inside the valley. Her vision zoomed into the structure, an ice-capped monolith of metal and rivets, isolated from the main continent.

  “Odd…”

  “What is?” Garrett examined the building, finding nothing out of place.

  “This isn’t a base of operations or even a prison,” Nara muttered. “It looks like a miniaturized gaming arena.”

  There were no military fortifications, and the only hangar bay housed a small scattering of local transportation vehicles, no munitions or even outdoor weapons grounds. A med bay and a barracks were annexed to the main training ground. The overall facility could house no more than fifty individuals.

  “No one’s patrolling the grounds, either,” Garrett pointed out. “Either they’re taking shelter from the storm or they are truly not expecting visitors.”

  “Yeah.” Nara drummed her fingers on her knee. I don’t like this one bit.

  She stared down at the mountainside, pointing her finger at the air. Dots manifested on her screen as she poked and prodded at nothing, her armor tracing out a linear path down the side of the cliff.

  “So how are you going to get down the—” Before he could finish his sentence, Nara leaped off the precipice. A blast of lavender powder marked her landing, stretching across the screen as she zoomed down the face of the rock. The soles of her boots warped into slickened blades, forming shovels around her feet.

  The lines of light on her HUD zipped through her vision, each waypoint passed with an authoritative bleep as she crossed it. Nara reacted quickly as the environment unfolded beneath her, hastily shifting her weight as she mapped out a new trail of waypoints to follow. Numbers skyrocketed as her acceleration increased and she became a blur of snow racing down the mountain. Faster and faster she prodded the air, the dots becoming more chaotic as she careened through the treacherous garden of spires and clefts.

  Garrett clenched the arms of his chair, eyes widening as he fixated on the world speeding away.

  ENGAGE DECELERATION MANUEVERS

  “Yeah, yeah,” Nara grumbled.

  She turned her heels at a sharp angle, sweeping a leg to the side to adjust her speed. She arched her side
, brushing a hand across the rock above her to gain friction against her descent.But a pang jabbed her ankle as her foot stopped short, the shovel of her boot catching a divot in the earth.

  “WHOOPS! “

  She was flung off her feet, arms flailing as she caught the face of a jagged outcropping square in the chest. Inertia not sated, she bounced backward, her head colliding with the ground as she landed. Gravity yanked her down as she twisted to right herself, the movement sending her tumbling down the plane.

  IMPACT. IMPACT. IMPACT. The armor screamed, limbs on the miniaturized model image of her body flashing red as each bounce slammed her into a new surface.

  “Shut it.” She snarled as she clawed for the nearest rock, clutching onto the anchor. The muscles in her shoulder yanked against the socket as it violently stopped her, legs swinging violently back and forth. She glanced down to find the foot of the mountain taunting her from a few meters below. With an annoyed grumble, she let go and rolled into the pillow of snow.

  “Ugh.” Nara flipped over on her side, taking in breaths to slow the rush of adrenaline pounding through her head. No worse than an Uppercity High-rise…

  “I am getting very uncomfortable flashbacks, I will have you know.” Garrett released his grip on his chair, his jaw cramping from the tension.

  “I didn’t hear you offer smarter options,” she shot back.

  “You didn’t give me the chance!”

  “The network open for you?” She ignored his protesting, checking in on the connections herself.

  “I… located it.” Garrett buried his fingers in the technological goo of the code. “I have yet to determine the best way to enter it.”

  “So, when you said you would be helping…”

  “I mostly meant moral support.” He offered a timid laugh.

  “Great.” Nara scowled beneath her helmet as she approached the structure.

  “I’ll keep trying.”

  She hurled a sigh and a grunt, pressing her hand against the fortress’s barrier. With the assistance of her armor, she hefted herself up the wall, her palms sticking against the smooth surface. Her toes padded beneath her, barely audible over the sounds of the swirling storm. She hesitated before reaching the top, peeking over to search for activity on the rooftop.