by Rae Nantes
"World domination," I said to myself.
"No. World peace. There would no longer be political infighting between countries, no rivalry between peoples, no war. Countless lives would be saved, countless lifetimes of serenity. All for the cost of six months of war."
"I'll think about it."
"There isn't much to think about, Alex. We aren't giving you much of a choice."
"And I don't like being forced to choose. Why don't I choose to just turn us both to cinders right now?" A heavy hand dropped on my shoulder. I looked up to see the messenger again. His soul was reaching into mine, but I pulled my eyes away. I knew he would crush me before I could get the first syllable out. "Just let me think about it," I said.
She furrowed her brow. "Very well. Take her."
"Sleep," the guard said.
{" This is an enforcement of my will upon reality. Lifetimes of knowledge built upon lifetimes of research. Spells built upon spells. We can slice through the fabric of spacetime. "}
"Awaken!"
I shot open my eyes and groaned in pain. The constant sleep spells were giving me a headache. I looked toward the voice that still echoed around me.
We were outside now. Six riflemen stood at the ready just a stone's throw away. Behind them, the woman from before, the messenger, and some priest guy - he was old, and his chin was falling out of his white robes. They stood on a wood platform.
"It is time for you to decide, Alex," the woman said. The echo carried her authority.
The smell of the sea lingered here. I heard the gulls caw and the wind blow across the buildings. I recognized them. Around us, various shops and vendors lined the place, creating a perimeter around an open square - with us in the center. This was Nisa, and I was in the market square.
I tried to move, but my arms clinked against the pole behind me - handcuffs.
"She's not paying attention," the priest said.
In the corner of my eye, I noticed something to the right of me - another metal stake with a person chained to it. Dirty black boots, camo pants, a black shirt, five-o'clock shadow, and a bald head. It was Trell - motionless and hunched over. My heart stopped, and I yanked my head to the other side.
Red hair, freckled skin, shredded clothes stained with dried blood. My heart sank into my stomach. "Leila," I croaked out. "Leila, are you okay?" Her body was limp against the chains. Her eyes were closed, likely from the same sleep spell.
I brought my attention to those in front of me. "Why did you do this?" My heart was pounding, and my voice grew desperate. "Why did you take them?"
They didn't answer. Behind them, more guards were milling about, some whispering to each other while others watched the rooftops. A crowd was beginning to gather - both nipsies and passing players.
"Answer me!" I demanded. My scream drug through the dryness of my throat and reflected off the buildings.
"You have one last chance, Alex," the officer said. "What is your decision?"
She wasn't answering me. I looked back at Leila. "Did they hurt you? Are you okay?"
"They won't answer you," the priest said.
Leila's arms were scarred and bruised. I used what mana I could muster and whispered, "Heal." The cuts on her arm reconnected, her scabs started to fall away, and then a gunshot. I jolted in my chains as a flash of scarlet erupted from her, shaking her against her binds. She slumped over.
"You fucking bitch!" I shrieked. My metal binds clanked hard against the stake as I yanked against it like a rabid dog on a leash.
The officer holstered her smoking pistol. "Make your decision, Alex! You are either with us, or you are against us."
"I'm gonna skin you!" I turned feral in my rage.
She turned at the ones beside her. "She's too dangerous."
The handcuffs were digging into my wrists as I tugged, hoping they would shatter, hoping I could sprint and sink my teeth into their throats. "I'm gonna boil you alive. I'm gonna fuckin' melt the skin from your faces."
"Enough!" the priest demanded. "Firing squad, make ready!" The riflemen near him clicked the safeties off their weapons and lifted them at me.
"Kill me, you fucking rats. I'll come back, I'll find my way again, and I'll take everything dear from you." The rage and fury consumed me like a baptism of hatred. It pulsed through me with every beat of my racing heart. In my mind's eye, there was a flash. Words, countless words and numbers and symbols that had no meaning to me. Lines upon lines raced by, before finally resting on a single one: meteor(). A spark of déjà vu struck me, and I knew what it was. I've cast it before!
In my shock, in my desperation, I whispered. "Meteor." The words coursed through my body, slipped up my throat to hang in my mouth. "Meteor." It resonated within me, within the space between me and those who wished me harm. In my mind's eye, a flash - a starry night sky. "Meteor," I ordered. I could see the dents and craters of its rocky surface as it orbited elsewhere in space. I just needed to bring it here somehow.
My chanting and thrashing put the guards on edge. Whispers, worried looks reflected back and forth between them.
"Meteor!" I yelled. A flash of red, a flash of destruction - but it wasn't real. Was my mana not enough? Was my will not enough?
"She's starting to remember," the priest said. "Hurry! Firing squad, take aim!"
"Meteor!" I begged. Tears fell down my face.
Nothing. Had I been lied to? Had even these memories been fake? This was the result of my life, the end of a short month lived doing nothing, the pain and uncertainty of my identity only to be revealed for the dice to be thrown again. I had lost everything, and I had failed myself. I eased my eyes shut.
"Firing squad, open fire!"
"Provoke!"
My eyes shot open as the rolling fire pierced the sky. As if in slow motion - a knight had landed in front of me, shield out to parry the rounds. Dark skin, white tattoos - it was Simone! "Vanguard(holy)!" Pale, glowing wings thrust out behind her, enveloping the space around me. She was no longer just a knight - she was a paladin. Every guard in the vicinity was emptying their rifles at her, the bullets sparking against her shield and armor, thumping into the pure mana of her wings.
Adrenaline coursed through my body and filled me with resolve. I stood straight and threw my will out into the heavens. "Meteor!"
An explosion behind me rattled through my body. The shockwave tossed my hair and took my breath. Did it work? I looked back and into the smoke. Beyond the rolling, popping gunfire and shouting, a dull ripping noise snapped behind me. There was a figure holding a wand out.
"Pyrolize!"
I followed the cast to the riflemen and guards. Their weapons turned to ash and slipped through their fingers. Shouts, yells, screams. The officer and the priest looked around in shock at the fighting, the priest barking orders and commanding them to land the killing blow. The riflemen started to flee, and new ones were taking their place. A group of mages cast high-level spells - infernos, flurries of ice daggers, and tremendous lightning strikes - not at Simone or me, but at the smoke behind me.
"Reflect!" an old voice echoed.
A shimmer pulsed out, catching the spells with a dull thump, and throwing them out in every direction. The crowds nearby were pelted with a rain of ice knives. A nearby house exploded.
"Alex!" It was Willow, with her the other outlaws who were already locked in combat.
My eyes welled up with tears, a lump lodged in my throat not in sadness, but of hope. "You came for me," I squeaked out. She smiled and turned to the person behind me. It was the priestess.
"Protect(nullify)!" she yelled. The reflective shimmer morphed into a prismatic one. The stray spells that made it past Simone's aura sizzled out with a ripple. "James, get the binds off," the priestess said.
The huge guy tried to cut the chains but to no avail. "It'll take time," he said. "They're enchanted."
Gunsmoke and sulfur choked me. My ears were ringing from the constant fire and shouts and clashing of swords.
S
imone looked back and saw the extent of our protection, the extent of our reinforcements, and the escalation of conflict around her. Her aural wings flashed off, leaving trails of feathers as she rushed over to intercept a group of melee. Knights and swordsmen and guards - all a much higher level - clashed against her. She was losing.
Yun stepped around me and spun the cylinder of his revolver. Like a cowboy, he whipped it out and raked his hand over the hammer - tak tak tak tak tak. The bullets sparked off their shields and armor, and plant growth exploded out from the wounds, rooting them in place. Simone backed away and over to us.
"Alex," she said. "I'm so sorry. You're the world quest, and I couldn't find my resolve to take you there."
I looked away and spoke with a hollow voice. "Thanks." She returned an empty smile. Our eyes fell on boot-hat man as he walked by. He was smoking a long pipe and walked further out into the battle.
"Players!" the officer shouted. "Player squads report in!” Some of the bystanders started to rush in, the less skilled ones already vanishing into scarlet mist by the most brutal spells the outlaws could invoke.
As boot-hat man walked into the fray, miniature portals were ripping and snapping around his body. Arrows and bullets and spells would fly into one, then out another. When he made it to the center, he hung the pipe in his jaw and lifted his hands in the air to grasp at the sun. "Skies(open)."
A deep, distant thunder fell on us, and the fighting stopped to bear witness to a miracle. High in the air, just beyond the clouds, a massive black disc swirled into existence like a stain on the sky's canvas. The world dimmed. The disk held an almost infinitely black surface - but there were sparks, no, stars beyond and constellations. It was a portal to deep space, and the clouds were pulling into it, pouring upwards and scattering into its void. A terrible, low hum rattled through us as we felt the wind pull upwards, strong enough only to take bits of debris and roof shingles. A general panic swept the city.
Boot-hat man took one last puff of his pipe and let it go, only for it to float upwards with the rest. He lifted up his hand and gripped it into a fist.
"Heavens(fall)."
The disk's window of the stars shifted its view. The constellations slipped by, a smattering of stars racing across as the portal's exit was arranged elsewhere, before finally resting at a colossal rock - a meteor. This was the spell I had envisioned, the spell I failed to cast. The meteor eased through the portal and caught the escaping air. It's rocky, pitted surface glowing hot. The sky lit on fire, and it bathed the world red.
"You have doomed us all!" a voice shouted. Screams of terror and panic struggled to pierce through the unearthly trembling, the otherworldly roar, and the hellish red tint that drowned our vision.
Boot-hat man shuffled back, and I felt the binds on my hands crack apart. I could only marvel at this creation, humbled by the sheer size of this falling mountain as it roared down on us. The wind tugged at my hair as it raced upwards, pulling the air from me.
"Escape!" the priestess yelled.
The world dimmed. My body became limp. Hands caught me in the fall.
"Scatter!"
I returned to darkness.
Chapter 26
The New Sky
I woke with a start - out of breath and starving. I calmed myself and glanced around at my surroundings. I was alone in a cabin of sorts, like the belly of a ship or the basement of an old wooden home. The walls and floors creaked with age, bits of dust caught the light of the port window beside my bed. My blankets were a bit rough to the touch, but they smelled like flowers. I looked out the window but saw nothing but blue. Had everything just been a dream? Did I somehow die and respawn and this was a new start? I knew that couldn't be the case.
I kicked off the sheets and stepped out onto the floor, almost losing my balance. My entire body ached and throbbed. The cabin was moving, rocking, vibrating. Was it a ship? I traced my hand along the wall's wooden studs as I struggled up the steps. I needed to find out where I was, where I had been taken, if I was safe here - and if I was, to get something, anything to eat.
The next floor held a long hallway flanked by dozens of doors like the hallway of a hotel. Down the creaking, tilting hall, a smell hit me that latched onto my core. Something was being cooked, sizzling on a grill somewhere, and the scent of carefully seasoned meats made my stomach cry out. It whined and growled at me, and before I could realize it, I was walking, stumbling, running in its direction.
I found it. Just beyond a small dining area of a single table, the door to the kitchen was left open, beckoning me inside to loot what food I could, and looting is what my instincts had resolved to do. Like a creeping lizard, I slithered inside and found the cook. It was the huge guy. He stood like a king, looking over his triumphant lands, watching his hissing meats with absolute authority. He was shirtless, as usual, and wore a frilly pink apron that struggled to mask his bulging muscles.
His head snapped over at me, and I jumped back in shock. He read my expression and a hint of a smile formed under his mustache. He grabbed a nearby plate, tossed something on it, and handed it over. "When's the last time you ate?"
I didn't answer. I stood right there in the kitchen and thrust my face into it, ripping and tearing the meal like a hungry wolf. It might've been chicken or steak or even fish, but it didn't matter anymore. All that was left was stuck on my hands and face. I was already out of breath. "Thanks," I let out.
He nodded. "You, uh, want some more?"
"What happened? How long was I out? Did the others—"
He held up his hand to stop me. "Save it. Willow will be here soon. Grab a coffee and sit."
I didn't want to sit down. I wanted to run around the ship like a lunatic, searching for the others, searching for Leila and Trell. The memory of what happened was still foggy, but I hoped beyond hope that they were here, that they were somehow pulled and kidnapped to safety. I wiped my face and hands on a napkin, poured a coffee, and sat down at the table. Though I was so incredibly sore, so incredibly wounded, I couldn't relax. The stress of uncertainty was gnawing at me.
"Alex," a girl said. It was Willow. She looked at me with relief, but there was still worry in her eyes. Her robes were off, and bandages wrapped her torso. "Are you well? Uninjured?"
"What happened?" I asked. "We were in Nisa and—"
"Nisa doesn't exist anymore," she said almost with pride. "A meteor fell on it. All that is left there is a sea-filled crater."
"But what about the people? The innocent ones? I thought you didn't kill nipsies."
"We don't." She walked over and dropped into the nearby chair. Her emerald eyes were tired as if she still hadn't slept. Bits of ash still stuck to her hair. She smelled like wood smoke. "The priestess scattered them."
"What?"
"A spell," she said. "She used escape to bring us here and scatter to, well, scatter the people away to safety. Only the nipsies. They were probably super confused to wake up dozens of kilometers away, but—"
"What about Leila and Trell?" I demanded. "Are they here?" I stared into her with desperate eyes, grasping at her soul for an answer.
She looked away. "No."
I felt the sting of defeat again. I dropped my head. "Why?" I croaked. "Why didn't you save them?"
"Alex," she trailed off.
Huge guy spoke around the corner from the kitchen. "Don't sugar coat words, Willow. She needs to get it out of the way."
My eyes widened, and I searched her for an answer. In my heart I already knew it.
"Those spells," she said, "only work on the living."
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no." I shook away the accusation. "There was no way you could've known that. Maybe you messed it up somehow. Maybe they were scattered, too, right? Right?"
She didn't reply.
The tears returned. "This is my fault, all of it. I should've never told them to leave, or I should've gone with them. Maybe I could've saved them." I glared back at her. "Maybe you could've come sooner. Why didn
't you get there earlier? Why did it take so long—"
"Alex," she stopped me. "I'm sorry we didn't make it time." She dropped her gaze to her lap. "And saving you was the highest priority."
"I didn't ask to be saved!" I cried out. "You should've just let me rot!"
She cringed at the words as if I were throwing daggers at her. A shout hit us from the hallway. "Stop bein’ such a child!" Yun was standing at the corner. He stomped over at me, and I jolted back, knocking over my chair. My coffee cup spilled to the floor. "You’ve no idea what we've sacrificed for this," he shouted. "No idea what we were willin’ to."
"Yun! You don't have to be so harsh," Willow said.
"No." His voice was like thunder. His hazel eyes dug into my soul and gripped me with scorn. "If she is the one, she needs to grow up. She needs to stop snivelin’ like a coward."
His words burned deep. I was a coward. I was a child. I was not fit to be the leader they wanted me to be, and I wasn't even fit to be a friend of those I cared about. I wanted to vanish.
"You need to figure your shit out." He pulled his piercing glare to Willow. "I will never bend my knee to such a crybaby." He walked away.
I cringed as a door slammed shut down the hall. "I'm sorry, Willow."
She sighed. "Don't be. You're still young in this world, you haven't lived a life the same way Lord Gaia did."
"I'm not him," I said. "I'm just a nobody."
"You will be." She chuckled. "I mean a great leader, not a hairy man."
I smiled for the first time in days, it felt like. I was glad to at least be in good company, glad to still have friends I could count on and make dumb jokes with. The twinge of sadness returned at the thought of us having tea with the priestess. Trell and Leila were gone from me forever. Relce probably went his own way. Simone likely would've been arrested, her avatar locked away until bail could be made. "Is the priestess here?" I asked.