Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  “That's good news,” I replied. “I wonder why his people didn't do that in the first place when they came here.”

  “Data on that period is limited, but records indicate that all post-mortem combatants were designated invaders and therefore not able to tap into the planet's mana supply. Further records also indicate that the planet's mana supply was in low capacity during that time period.”

  Huh. That was another thing to look into. When I had time. Which meant I might never look into it.

  Right, time. I had a little bit of that now.

  “Well, little guy,” I decided. “Let's try talking again. Do you remember having a name?”

  “Di-rec-tive?” The top of the little ball cocked sideways.

  “I'm going to take that as a no. Where exactly did you come from? I mean I know where I found you.” The little ball shuddered, so I quickly moved on. “But I still don't know what you are other than that you keep asking about healing people, are mostly harmless and know exactly one three-syllable word.”

  “Di-rec-tive!” It bobbed.

  “That's cute. I think,” I replied. Its speaking pattern would either stay cute or get annoying real fast. I wondered why it talked that way, and then I realized that despite its limited intelligence, it had a concept of purpose, and of a job to do.

  Which meant it was designed.

  “Who made you?” I asked. “And again, where did you come from?”

  It scrunched up and didn't answer immediately.

  “Di-rec-tive,” it mumbled, as if it was trying to think. “Di-rect...tive....Di-rec...tive...Di-rec...tor! Di-rec-tor!”

  It began bobbing up and down enthusiastically.

  “Guineve,” I finally decided. “I'll just ask Guineve. She looked like she knew something about you.” I started to sigh, and then I realized I actually didn't feel like doing so, because I felt pretty good. “You know what, I'm going to stop griping because this is really good stuff.” The super happy fun ball bounced again when I praised it, and after another moment I found I could stand, if I moved slowly and carefully.

  Now that I was up, I took another moment to think. That meant I immediately realized I wanted breakfast, but before that I had to make sure I wasn't missing anything else important. Which just made not thinking about breakfast that much harder. But I persevered anyway, and remembered how I had wound up with happy fun ball in the first place.

  “Pit,” I said out loud. “What happened to the people we rescued from the pit?”

  If small orbs and smoke-figures could still be counted as people.

  “Care!” My little gelatin bounced again. “Fix! Heal! Live!”

  “Avalon is updating records and parameters based on the discovery that Horde Pit victims can live again. All subjects are currently in the care of the newly discovered organism currently rejuvenating the Challenger and Starsown's Satellites. The Horde Pit victims are recovering in the northwestern enclosure of this facility.” I looked over and saw a thicker patch of blue mist in the corner of the enclosure farthest from me. “Subjects are slowly returning to corporeal state. Estimate 48 hours of recovery needed for the four semi-corporeal subjects and an undetermined amount of time for the subjects reduced to orb-resource state. Attributing success of the operation to Universal Law All is Not Lost.”

  That... should have been impossible. If I had been less tired, and desperate, yesterday, I would have paid more attention to the fact that rescuing people who had already been reduced to that state should have been impossible. I would have also paid more attention to the fact that it's supposed to be impossible to turn people into balls and body-smoke to begin with.

  But I didn't have enough time to think about the impossible, because I'd been too busy battling primordial nightmares, resurrecting ghosts, and throwing lightning bolts around. So there.

  “How stable are they?” I asked Avalon. “Can I see them right now?”

  “Conditions are stable but contact is not advised,” Avalon answered. “Patients should require plenty of rest as well as contact with sun, moon, and starlight.”

  “Rest!” the little jelly-ball added, seeming to agree. “Heal! Sleep!”

  “Okay, noted,” I replied. I wasn't sure I had the mental energy to process another massive miracle anyway. In fact, I really hoped there would be a way to take today easy. I had already gone through enough battles and impossible situations yesterday to Rise twice. In fact, after killing all those Horde and destroying that Pit I should probably check to see if I could Rise again—

  At that thought, something in my chest heaved, and I fell to my knees. It felt like the weight inside me, the weight that I needed to push against to Rise, had slammed into something vital inside of me, making my insides shudder and almost rupture.

  Something twitched in my throat, and I coughed. Then I coughed again, and found I couldn't stop. I hacked and heaved my throat raw, until finally I spit up something all over the grass.

  It was blood. And my throat wanted to cough up more of it.

  I clutched at my own neck, somehow thinking if I applied pressure my insides would bleed less. But squeezing one's own neck brings its own set of problems.

  “Care!” the little blue guy squeaked as it bounced over to me. “Heal! Help!”

  “Danger,” Avalon intoned. “Challenger has exceeded his physical and mental limitations. Changes are occurring too rapidly for his body to keep up. Attempting to provide assistance. Engaging corrective rituals to save Challenger's life.”

  White and blue mist started swirling around me. Some kind of diagram glowed under my feet.

  The weight inside of me kept slamming around for another painful minute. It felt like someone was swinging a hammer at me from inside my body.

  Finally, though, the pain subsided and I could breathe without coughing. The weight inside of me stilled, as if it was wrapped up in steel cable and duct tape. I was back on the ground, curled up into a ball.

  And someone else inside of me was trembling.

  What was that? the new guy asked me. Why did that hurt? He paused then, and his uncertainty was so thick it brushed up against the edge of my own consciousness.

  What... what are we?

  Alive, I answered back. No clue where you came from, though.

  I was always here, FNG answered me. I just wasn't ready until you had enough pain. By Aegrim, you needed so much pain to let me out. Father was furious.

  No he wasn't, I argued. I just talked to him. And he's dead.

  Not him, FNG retorted. My father. My... oh no.

  What? I demanded. What's wrong now? And what kind of pill can I take to help me deal with you guys?

  This isn't funny! Scaley Dragon-Guy snapped back. He's doing something! Something terrible.

  The sky rumbled above me.

  For the first time ever on Avalon.

  “Foreign contaminant detected. Classification Unknown. Exact Location Unknown.”

  He's coming, FNG said inside of me. He...

  He lied to me.

  Who, dammit! I snapped. I'd had it up to here with all of this internal drama. The inside of my head was not supposed to be a reality TV drama.

  I was supposed to be a prince, a king, the voice continued, not answering me. But it was all a lie. He used the both of us.

  “Foreign contaminant detected near Avalon. Attempting to restrain entry. Attempt failed. Reason for failure unknown.”

  “Avalon,” I snarled. “Where is he coming from? Where is the contaminant's portal? And I thought the portals were closed anyway!”

  “Contaminant is not using portal technology for entry.”

  That left the pathways, then, I remembered. Stell had mentioned something about travelling between worlds via certain pathways.

  “Avalon, which pathway is the contaminant coming from? How do we stop its entry? Or fight it when we get here?”

  “Contaminant is forgoing the use of pathways and attempting to force its way through the atmosphere directly. Cont
aminant appears to be able to travel between atmospheres and gravity wells.”

  Space, I realized. That meant the contaminant could literally travel through outer space.

  That was bad.

  “Guineve,” I muttered, trying to focus. My recent episode had done a number on me. “Can we get Guineve back up? Can she help me fight this thing? Do we even know what this thing is yet?”

  “Acquiring data on foreign contaminant. Confirmed that contaminant is a piece of a larger organism. Larger organism currently classified as deceased. Species currently classified as extinct. Correcting records to show otherwise. Recognising contaminant as piece of the organism known as Aegrim, the Cosmic Dragon of Affliction. Dragon type contains the following elements: Blood, Fathom. Species is the previously-thought extinct Linnurm-class dragon. Age classification is Primal. Threat level is Apocalypse-Class. Power level of Aegrim's remnant is significantly less than that of the complete body but is still several orders of magnitude greater than that of the Umbra Cavus. Estimates show that Avalon will likely not survive contact with foreign contaminant.”

  “What do you mean you won't survive contact with the contaminant? Do you mean your intelligence? The mist and the magic it powers? The planet itself?”

  “Affirmative for all conclusions,” Avalon replied in what I swore was false calm.

  The sky rumbled again.

  I shook my head and swore.

  “He's supposed to be bound,” I muttered bitterly. “My father promised.”

  YOUR STUPID FLESH-SIRE WAS WRONG, Pain's voice pounded into my mind.

  MY FREEDOM CAN BE SECURED BY POWER, BLOOD, AND PAIN. YOU HAVE FINALLY PROVIDED ENOUGH OF ALL THREE, THOUGH YOU HAVE SHAMED ME GREATLY IN THE PROCESS. BUT I AM COMING TO ERASE YOU.

  Aegrim's words in my mind drowned out every other sensation. I couldn't see or hear when he last spoke, and even afterwards my vision was stained red. There was a ringing in my ears. Then the red in my eyes changed to a vision, of something large, red, and coiled somehow moving through space with powerful flaps of its wings. It felt linked to me, like it was traveling along a thread that led from a blue-and-white planet straight through space and directly into my heart. The Freaking New Guy inside kept screaming about how we were all doomed.

  “No,” I finally said. With a groan, I heaved, and for the ten thousandth time in my life, I pulled myself back to my feet. “Not gonna let you just have your way.”

  STOP RESISTING, the voice shouted inside my skull. STOP ANGERING ME.

  “No,” I repeated, shaking my head. “Nothing left to lose. Not gonna let you have your way.”

  Agony returned to me. All of my muscles felt like they were aflame. My vision went white.

  When my eyes went clear again, I noticed that everything other than myself had gone completely still. The little ball was scrunched up, as if it had been frozen pre-bounce. Guineve and Breena, lying a few yards away, were completely still, not even breathing. Even the mist seemed to hang motionless in the air.

  Challenger's Defiant Heart has engaged, my mind-screen beeped at me. Challenger's Will has also engaged.

  INSUFFICIENT! Aegrim snarled inside my head. TOO LATE AND INSUFFICIENT! YOUR WILL IS NO MATCH FOR MINE!

  He holds fast, the quiet voice said inside me. Therefore he is mine, though he curses and rages against me. Deed is stronger than blood, stronger than words, stronger than vows. And Deed offers a much greater inheritance than the Curse will ever understand. Awaken, Vinclum. For he is of your line as well.

  Out of the stillness, another voice answered inside of my mind, at least as loud as Aegrim's, though not nearly as painful.

  I WILL OBEY, it said, and not to me. FOR YOU ARE GLORIOUS.

  The sky rumbled again. I caught another vision of a massive shape rising from the blue planet, flapping its way through the void between stars. This shape was also winged, but bulkier, and with a molten, golden color that reflected starlight off of its body, brightening the darkness all around it. It seemed to fly along a thread that led directly to my soul, not my heart. I can't explain how I could tell the difference.

  WHAT IS THIS? Pain bellowed, inside my mind as well as in the silent void of space. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! HE IS MINE, AND I HAVE DECLARED SO BEYOND EARTH! I HAVE DECLARED SO BY ALTERING HIS VERY FORM! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!

  YOU AND I ARE BOUND BY MY VERY NAME, the second mighty voice answered. AND YOUR OWN TIE TO HIM IS NOT THE STRONGEST. ONLY THE MOST PRONOUNCED.

  The red form sped away from the golden one, and as they grew closer their shapes could be seen more clearly. The red shape was a color that invoked blood, heat, lava. Its dim glow gave off the impression of hidden, smothered fire. It was long and sinuous, possibly even long enough to wrap around the giant blue planet it had flown from several times over. Long, angular claws trailed from under its coils, and great smoky wings flapped and glided impossibly through airless space.

  It was either a dragon, or something that dragons descended from back in the most ancient of times.

  The golden shape was also a dragon, and not as long in neck and tail. Its body was broader, with powerful muscles, four mighty limbs, and gold-tipped wings that glowed blue within the membrane. Its body looked like molten metal, except for where it was reinforced with additional, armor-like scales along the torso, head, and limbs. The reinforced portions were a dark color, like burnished bronze, but the whole body glowed like a second star.

  Second Outsider detected, Avalon intoned in my mind. I was surprised, because everything had gone still save for myself and the vision in the sky.

  “Acquiring data on second outsider. Confirmed that outsider is a projected remnant of a larger organism. Larger organism currently classified as deceased. Species currently classified as extinct. Correcting records to show otherwise. Recognising outsider as remnant of the organism known as Vinclum, the Cosmic Dragon of Honor and Bonds. Dragon type contains the following elements: Orichalcum, Zenith. Species is the previously-thought extinct Sunwyrm-class dragon. Age classification is Primal. Power of remnant is estimated to be several magnitudes above that of the Umbra Cavus. Recalculating Avalon's estimates for survival.”

  The blood-and-magma dragon finally gave up its attempt to escape and twisted itself back around to face the gold-and-sunfire wyrm. It opened its mouth and inhaled, once again showing contempt for its vacuum environment. As it exhaled, giant nebulas of smoke, glowing red in the center, billowed out from its mouth and toward its pursuer. The armored wyrm did not slow in the face of the nebula-lava, opening its mouth to flaunt physics as well. A dazzling bright pillar of white-and-indigo plasma swept out from its mouth, slamming into the burning cloud breathed by the Dragon of Affliction. The impact of the two breath weapons was like a supernova to my eyes, and I saw the cloud cover of Avalon's sky suddenly animate and thicken, as if to shield the planet from the effects of the blast.

  NO! NO! Aegrim roared in my mind. I WAS FREE! I WAS FINALLY FREE!

  The light began to fade in my vision. The scarlet dragon was writhing in a cloud of its own smoke, while bands of white plasma constricted all around it.

  THERE WAS NEVER ANY DANGER OF YOU GETTING LOOSE, the other dragon's voice said in my mind. YOU SAID SO YOURSELF. HE HAS RESISTED YOU TOO WELL, AND FOR TOO LONG.

  I WILL BREAK HIM! Pain shouted through empty space and my mind. I WILL DESTROY HIS BRAIN AND BONES AND BLOOD UNTIL HE IS NOTHING BUT A GIBBERING HUNK OF SOGGY MEAT!