Arrival

by William Dickey

  Lilith hoped this would be enough to spare him. Best of all, it was even the truth, so no one would ever suspect why she was trying to help a human.

  “That’s quite… unusual,” the projection agreed.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Lilith continued. “But if the ancient intellect has bonded and I kill the traveler, won’t it be damaged.”

  “It could be,” the command representative agreed. “If they’ve bonded. Are you sure the intelligence has attached to this human?”

  “I believe that’s what had happened, but only an expert in soul magic could be certain. My talents lie in elemental manipulation,” said Lilith.

  “I’m aware of your abilities,” sighed the representative. “Just a moment, I must confer with others.”

  “Please hurry. I’m exposed here and don’t have long,” Lilith warned.

  The cube shut down, cutting off communications. Lilith waited patiently for a response. She wasn’t sure how long it would take command to get back to her, but she had made it clear she didn’t have long. They would get back to her soon.

  After half an hour, the cube silently flashed twice.

  “Cube, answer call,” Lilith said. The cube flickered to life, bringing back the cloaked man.

  “Lancepesade?” the man said.

  “Yes, I’m here,” Lilith answered.

  “Change of plans,” said the man, bringing a faint smile to Lilith’s lips. “An ancient intelligence bonded to a human presents a unique research opportunity. You are to capture the otherworlder and bring him to the research outpost in section 37 grid 123.” Lilith’s smile broadened a bit wider. Not only was Isaac safe but she was getting a trip to a research outpost. Lilith had always been interested in magitechnology but familial obligations had prevented her from her dream of becoming an artificer, she had been fortunate that her assignment in the reconnaissance division let her work in the field in a roundabout fashion.

  “Any questions?” the cloaked man asked.

  “No. I’ll report back as I near the research outpost,” said Lilith.

  “Very well, Lancepesade,” finished the man. He closed the connection and the cube turned off, returning Lilith to darkness. Lilith got up and returned the cube to her bag.

  She thought about what to do next. She only had a day before they reached Crystalpeak. Already they had started crossing paths with the occasional traveler. The closer you got to the city, the busier the roads got. It was a good thing it was winter. In spring, the roads would be packed.

  Lilith knew what she had to do. She would restrain Isaac now and move them off the road. The longer she waited the greater the risk they’d meet people that could disrupt her. She reached into her bag for a slave collar. The collar would let her safely paralyze the wearer at a snap of her fingers and prevent him from getting more than a few yards from her even while she was sleeping. It would take several weeks to walk to Section 37.

  Lilith made her way back to the campsite, collar in hand. If she did this right, her approach would go completely unnoticed and she could make off with Isaac without having to go through the motions of a fight.

  She approached the campfire. Time and a lack of care had reduced it to a pile of embers, making it difficult to see. Lilith squinted over to where Isaac lay only he wasn’t there. His bedcovers were there, but oddly, he wasn’t. She panicked for a moment, head swiveling around to see where Isaac could have gone.

  Lilith calmed herself down. ‘He must have gone to the restroom,’ she thought, but just on the safe side, she cast a simple spell. Magic flowed in from the rest of her body focusing on her eyes. This spell expanded her vision into the infrared, letting her detect all warm-blooded animals within a few miles. She looked around again, but even with her magically upgraded vision, she couldn’t find him. He must have been beyond her detection. Isaac was gone.

  Rage spilt out of Lilith, shattering the spell she kept constantly on, revealing her true form. Fire burst forth from her flesh, scorching the earth and reducing all the vegetation to ash. A vicious shriek tore through her throat expanding the ring of destruction outward. Hell hath no fury like a daemoness scorned.

  Chapter 20: Run

  I was in a primal state. My unconscious mind focused on a single purpose, run. I ran through grass and bushes. I crossed rocky terrain and tree roots with only the faint twinkle of the stars to guide me, the comforting light of the moon noticeably absent as I stumbled my way through the all-encompassing darkness.

  I would have been lost without Mai. She corrected my vision, brightening the terrain well enough that I wasn’t tripping over my own feet. Mai remained next to me, running through the shadows by my side. I later asked her why she did this, she wasn’t a physical being and didn’t really run, I was carrying her with me regardless, but she simply replied that she didn’t want to leave me alone. She wanted to remind me she was there.

  I still couldn’t believe what I had seen, Lilith with a mysterious holographic communication device chatting casually about killing me, or rather cancelling the killing and instead enslaving me. Not that that detail really mattered. Either way, it was a remarkable betrayal. But was it a betrayal, from what I heard of the conversation Lilith had been playing along the whole time, she was always against me. She hadn’t betrayed me, she’d deceived me. I had simply learned of her true self, a being that horrified me.

  Twenty minutes into my run, a massive eruption came from behind me. I knew what it was. Lilith took out the 100-foot juggernaut, only she could have created that level of destruction. She must have discovered I was missing so I redoubled my efforts, pushing forward as I tried to ignore the terror inspired by the growing warmth at my back and the faint whiff of sulfated ash.

  I ran for hours, fear and anger driving me farther and faster than I would have believed possible. My body wore itself ragged. Small cuts blanketed my body as I scraped through trees. Blisters formed and burst as my feet spun like blades of a propeller, sputtering madly as they thrusted me onward regardless of the pain. It wasn’t surprising when they finally gave out. I tripped over the root of some tree and fell head over heels bashing my body in several places before coming to a stop on my back.

  Each breath was difficult, not because of the sharp pain in my side, indicative of cracked ribs, but because I was the type of tired where even the subtle heaving of my chest seemed like a thankless chore. I squinted, the glare of the rising sun burned into my eyes. I had run all night and a new day was, too soon, beckoning. I rested there, collapsed in the dirt for several minutes. Even when my breath caught up, I remained lying.

  Mai came over and looked down on me. ‘Come on, let’s go. We can’t wait around here all day. You’ve made good time so far, surprisingly, but given what Lilith is it won’t take long for her to catch up.’

  “Why? What is she?” I questioned half-heartedly, I was still too tired to care that much and only asked as an excuse to remain there.

  ‘She must be a daemon. They were the only things that ever used those holographic communication cubes,’ Mai answered. ‘I thought the Travelers had defeated them… well, nothing we can do about that. Get up, we don’t have much time.’

  “What’s the point? It’s hopeless,” I said softly.

  ‘What do you mean? You’ve escaped for now and if you make it to Crystalpeak, she won’t be able to get you. It’s far from hopeless,’ said Mai.

  “No, not the escape, me, my life. It’s hopeless. Even before, on Earth I was always alone, shunned by my peers because I was weird, because I saw the world in a different way. When I arrived here, on this world, I was euphoric. It was a… fresh start, a… another chance. And I took it. I dove straight in. This time I made friends, bending myself, going against my nature to try to fill that piece of me that has always been hollow. I thought they were good people, we had so much in common: a shared crucible, a home lost and a new world gained. But, they stabbed me in the back and left me destitute. I was again alone.”

  “I d
idn’t let that get me down. I thought it wasn’t me, or the world, but the people from my world that were wrong. I insisted that they were… unfit. So I tried again, this time surrounded by people of this world. I worked hard creating marvels the likes of which were unseen in this world. I earned friendship and respect from everyone deserving of it. I found peace, but it didn’t last. In a single day, it all went up in smoke. I was again alone. Again that hole filled my chest.”

  “Finally, in recent days, someone came to me. Someone tried to be a friend. She helped me, mentored me, she was there for me. Again, that emptiness that hunger in my heart was sated. And for a moment, I thought things were better. But it was all a lie. She was never with me, on my side. I am alone again. No, I was always alone and always will be. Regardless of what I try, it’s hopeless,” I finished.

  Despair filled me, removing my will to continue my flight, removing my will to do anything really, anything but lie there in the orange glow of the rising sun and wait for whatever came next. It was a great fog stopping everything save the rhythmic motions of my breath and beating heart.

  Mai moved toward me, leaning over me to ensure my eyes met hers. She gave me a faint smile and said, ‘How foolish you are? You are not alone. I’m here, with you. I’ve been here helping you, guiding you, warning you. I know you didn’t choose it but we are bound together.’

  Mai lay down in the dirt next to me and moved her hand to meet mine. I couldn’t feel it in my hand but I felt it in my heart. ‘Where you go, I go. What horrors you suffer, I suffer. What marvels you see, I see. I will be there and you will never be alone again,’ Mai finished.

  It’s strange isn’t it how a few simple words, at the right time and place, can change everything. I let Mai’s words sink in, filling me and, without a word, I got up, dusted myself off, turned my back to the light of the rising sun, and continued.

  Lilith was frustrated. She still hadn’t caught Isaac. She had her original orders revised to spare him and this was how the human repaid her. He runs off and makes a fool of her. Lilith knew she had to catch him before she reported back to command. If word got out that she let a pathetic human escape, she would be the laughing stock of the barracks, no, the laughing stock of all Gehenna.

  Recasting all the spells that concealed her appearance and provided life support in this hostile environment were a serious power hog so she was forced to delay the pursuit until her mana had recharged.

  By the time she’d regained her strength, the sun was up. She cast a tracking spell and a set of glowing purple footprints appeared leading from Isaac’s abandoned bedroll to where she had made the call to command. It then led west, off road, but in the general direction of Crystalpeak.

  Lilith bolted down the fluorescent purple trail, casting wind magic to reduce air resistance and earth magic to enhance the strength of her thighs as she accelerated to over 50 miles per hour. At this speed, it wouldn’t take long for Lilith to make up the head start Isaac had on her and after only a few minutes, she spotted him climbing the final hill before Crystalpeak.

  “And you thought you could get away,” Lilith sneered.

  My feet were sore, my lungs burned, and my knees could give out any second, but my will kept me going. It wasn’t hopeless. I’d found a reason to continue. Around noon, I climbed a large hill and got my first look at one of this world’s major cities.

  While Mill Valley was what I expected of a medieval town, log buildings with thatch rooftops, Crystalpeak looked like something from science fiction.

  The heart of the city held a score of tightly packed 50 story skyscrapers that would have looked vaguely reminiscent of Earth cities like New York or Chicago if they’d obeyed the laws of physics. Large substructures holding gardens or observatories hung off the sides of several of the towers by support beams so narrow it looked as if they were levitating and the ‘supports’ only existed to act as walkways leading to the main building.

  Surrounding this cluster of surrealism was a heavily fortified circular wall, protecting it on all sides. The wall was 50 feet tall and nearly half that thick.

  Outside the walls, the buildings were more like what I’d expected. Small one or two story wooden houses with either thatched or shingled roofs, reminiscent of the buildings I saw in Mill Valley.

  On the western side of the city was a narrow channel that started at the wall and ran ten miles out to the ocean. This mage-crafted canal was created at the cities founding to allow ships for trade to move directly in and out of the city. On Earth, the city would have been placed closer to the coast to spare the need for such a massive undertaking but on Tautellus, it was more important to be at the nexus of several ley lines.

  “We made it,” I sighed, stopping at the top of the hill to catch my breath.

  ‘Looks like it,’ Mai agreed. ‘Now keep moving. You’re not there yet.’

  “I’m going…” I groaned as I forced one of my aching feet in front of the other. I was just getting back up to speed when Mai interrupted.

  ‘Behind you,’ Mai warned too late.

  I turned around just in time to see a dark blur crash straight into me. The hit was straight to my gut, forcing the air from my lungs as I was hurled down the hill. Pain jolted up my spine as I landed harshly on my tailbone.

  I was still trying to catch my breath when Mai started yelling in my ear, ‘Get the exsilver!’

  “Eghhh,” was all I managed to choke out as the blur rushed to stand over me. It was only then that I saw who it was.

  It was Lilith, looking mostly the same as she ever did, her well-formed figure made clear by her tight black leather tunic cut too low for this weather. In contrast to her normally immaculate appearance and flirtatious demeanor, sweat beaded down her brow, her hair ran twisted, and her mouth turned in an eerily cheerful grimace that matched her fiercely barbed stare.

  “You thought you could get away from me,” Lilith seethed. An uncomfortable amount of heat radiated from her, wilting the grass around us and singeing the hair on my eyebrows. “I don’t know which makes me angrier, that you ran away or that you got me to save you. Maybe I could revert to my original orders and kill you. Let’s see if you like that.”

  She snatched my throat with a vice grip like hand, that felt eerily hard like I was being choked out by steel rather than flesh.

  ‘Quick, you need to retrieve the exsilver rods from your inventory,’ Mai exclaimed. ‘The exsilver is imbued with holy magic and naturally repels Lilith’s demonic nature.’

  Exsilver was a constituent of the metal rods I’d salvaged from the automatons. Mai said the holy magic imbued silver was used because it was a perfect conductor but apparently, it held the added benefit of repelling daemons.

  “In-ven-tory,” I coughed out amid Lilith’s tightening grip, summoning the list of icons representing all the items stored inside. My eyes started glazing over as I reached for the tiny grey bar image and tapped on the screen.

  ‘That’s not exsilver,’ Mai exclaimed as a couple of the purple artichokes I’d found in the mountains rolled into my hands, a costly mistake I couldn’t afford.

  I tried to summon the inventory again but found no breath. All I could manage was a stifled grunt that failed to do anything.

  “I’m going to make you suffer….” Lilith continued, tightening her grip to ensure I didn’t slip away. With no other choice, I used the only thing at my disposal, the mysterious artichokes, and shoved one in Lilith’s jabbering mouth.

  “Gwakk,” Lilith choked as the purple artichokes slid down her throat. Her rosy complexion started to fade and her grip on my throat loosened as the effects of the purple artichokes took hold, allowing me to break free. Blissful air filled my lungs but I didn’t have time to celebrate. I didn’t know how long the vegetable’s mysterious effects would last.

  I scrambled away and back to my feet as Lilith’s condition worsened. She collapsed to the ground and her visage faltered. Her complexion turned grey and her eyes acquired a fiery red glow that f
luctuated in luminosity every couple of seconds.

  The strangest thing was the air. It grew chaotic, temperature quickly flipping from arctic to inferno and back again, like there were two great opposing forces doing battle just feet away while I was simply a hapless spectator, forced to endure the waves of collateral effects as everything within a dozen feet of Lilith disintegrated, rattled apart by thermal stresses.

  Eventually something gave out and Lilith’s appearance shattered, revealing her true form. Her skin shined like it was made of solid steel and her hair burned an exotic shade of crimson that stood in fierce contrast to two twisting ebony horns and a long dark forked tail she had wrapped several times around her waist. In terms of form, her body was as shapely as ever and would have been able to pull in any man if they didn’t burn up from the intense heat she generated.

  ‘Quick, the exsilver,’ Mai reminded. ‘Ice hearted artichokes won’t hold her for long.’

  “Oh, right,” I said, reaching into my inventory for a second time. This time I was careful in selecting the right item.

  “What do I do with these?” I asked gripping a couple of the exsilver rods I’d harvested from the broken down sentinels. Even though we called them exsilver rods, very little of the material was exsilver. Only the small lustrous veins inlaid in the bars were exsilver, the rest was plain steel.

  ‘Just toss them on her,’ Mai commanded. ‘It hasn’t been crafted into a weapon so the best we can hope for is that the special nature of the material can tie her up long enough for you to escape.’

  I did as Mai said and tossed the bars onto Lilith’s still writhing body. Powerful waves of heat still radiated from her demonic form, so I couldn’t get close enough to try to use the bars to build a cage and entrap her, but as it turned out, I didn’t need to. Within seconds of having touched her, the exsilver bars liquefied. The mixture of steel and exsilver seeped into every nook and cranny, conforming itself about Lilith’s body, half cocooning her in metal.