The Bones of Titans

by B. T. Narro

  She nodded, gave a look devoid of emotion at Andar, then turned and left as if irritated.

  She can’t possibly be bothered that I was looking at her just now. She was being spoken to by KRenn!

  A silence fell upon them after the door was shut. Andar felt his mental guard rise up as KRenn regarded him with even more annoyance than Siki had shown. KRenn had the same look for Leo, before the mage turned and walked to the other side of the small room. He put his hands on the wall and bowed his head as if it was too heavy for him to hold up.

  “What you feel, Leo, is called Taesitry. It’s Artistry and Esitry that have bonded to one another to form something similar to both Artistry and Esitry. However, it is different enough that it cannot be controlled by Ascendants.”

  “I’ve never heard of it,” Leo said. “Taesitry?”

  “Yes.” KRenn turned and looked at Leo. “It’s what my stalwart link has become. I made a cocoon of Artistry when I had to jump into the rift. It took a day, but eventually it bonded to the Esitry in the dark realm and created a wall around me.”

  “What bonded, sir?” Leo asked.

  “The cocoon of Artistry. Pay attention!”

  Leo went still. “I apologize.”

  “You weren’t clear,” Andar told KRenn.

  KRenn glared at Andar for a moment. He seemed to breathe out some of his anger as he relaxed, though.

  “Let me try to be clearer. The cocoon of Artistry acted as a shield from the Esitry when I entered the rift. Over time, the two energies bonded together across the shield. It changed into a dense wall of Taesitry around me, and it’s still there now.”

  Andar wondered if KRenn made up this word, “Taesitry.” He seemed to have made up others as well, like “Esitren” and certainly “kasigerr.” It could be that no one else even knew of Taesitry. Or if they did, they called it by another name.

  “Taesitry can only materialize when there’s a continuous source of Artistry and Esitry for it to feed upon,” KRenn continued. “However, Taesitry is dangerous.” He eyed Andar as if checking to make sure he was listening.

  “Dangerous like Esitry?” Andar asked.

  It was Esitry that led to the death of anyone who put even a limb into a rift. It poisoned both human and Analyte bodies. Apparently, Artistry poisoned creatures from the dark realm, but these creatures were resilient. Short trips to the light realm could result in a tolerance, allowing these creatures to visit more often and for longer periods of time. It was Andar and Leo’s aunt who had taught them this, along with a few other things about Artistry and Esitry before they’d left Jatn to join the army.

  “Taesitry can protect us from Esitry when it’s in the form of a stalwart link, such as a cocoon around me. The two of you should be able to form similar cocoons because of the stalwart link you share. More about that soon. Taesitry can also be found in something solid, such as what you may call a testing stone.”

  Andar was excited at the idea he would finally have some real answers from this brilliant mage. “I’ve never heard anyone able to tell me what a testing stone is made of,” Andar said. “You’re saying they are all hardened Taesitry?” He had many more questions following that one, but KRenn was shaking his head.

  “No, rift stones are never made of a hardened energy. It is a shame you were not given proper instructions. You and your brother at least are strong with links, I hope?”

  Andar fought back frustration. “We are.”

  “Our instructor focused solely on linking and sword fighting,” Leo informed KRenn.

  “For how long?” KRenn asked.

  “Forty months,” Leo answered.

  KRenn scoffed. “He must know nothing of the complicated nature of energies, or he is a cruel man and withheld his knowledge.”

  “He is not cruel,” Leo said.

  “As far as you know.”

  “It’s easy to tell that he was kind,” Andar countered. “Because we dealt with him for years, and not once did he act like you.”

  KRenn seemed surprised by Andar’s statement. He let out his breath and suddenly looked very tired.

  “I do apologize for my behavior. I’m still adjusting.”

  “So you weren’t always like this?” Andar asked.

  “Indeed not.” He faced the door and stared at it. “I’d wanted to return to the light realm for an entire year as I suffered in the dark realm. I’d anticipated many things when I would finally have the chance to return, but I was not prepared to have missed twenty-three years. I missed the passing of my son…as well as a good friend of mine, your grandfather. I have a grandson who probably will look to me for guidance, and yet I am…”

  He paused as he noticed Andar and Leo watching. “It’s unimportant to our task. I will try to behave better, for my behavior is starting to distract us. Let’s continue.”

  “Wait,” Andar said. He couldn’t let this opportunity pass. “My brother and I encountered a testing stone only twice in our lives, once about four years ago before we knew anything about Artistry and then again later, after we’d learned a lot. Both times, we lost ourselves to the pull of the stone. I have to know why.”

  “The answer to that is the same answer as to why Taesitry is so dangerous. The testing stone itself is made out of a substance that has the ability to create Taesitry, but the material of the stone is something else entirely, which is not important right now. The stone absorbs Artistry and Esitry, condensing the bonding energies until Taesitry, in its solid state, is made. It’s the Taesitry that you feel when you are near a testing stone. It disrupts Artistry and Esitry in a way that feels…curious. Mages who can feel Artistry more than others are most affected by this. To them, a testing stone seems to have a presence as it were a living animal. It alerts a sense of ours that we’ve only used for Artistry. That is why a curious person, like the two of you are, will immediately become interested when in contact with the Taesitry from this type of stone.”

  Andar asked his brother, “Do you feel like you’re near a testing stone when you’re this close to KRenn? Because I don’t feel anything.”

  “It’s not like a testing stone. It’s like I can feel the Taesitry itself, not the effect of it.”

  “Which we will use later,” KRenn said. “The cocoon of Taesitry around me is not of the same magnitude that is in a testing stone. Its strength is waning. I worry what will happen when it is gone.”

  “But you’re used to the Artistry of this realm, right?” Leo asked. “Shouldn’t you be fine now that you’re back?”

  He let out a sigh. “I suppose there’s no reason to keep this to myself any longer. I might not be fine for many reasons. One is that my body has become used to the wall of Taesitry and how it modifies Artistry around me. Another is that I’ve lived off a very low amount of Artistry, even none at all toward the end of my stay in the dark realm. A third possibility is because of an incident, unimportant to our task, that caused my cocoon to crack for a moment. Now that I’m back, living in this realm is equivalent to stuffing my body with rich foods that I have not eaten for some time. Hopefully it will pass. Now let’s consider that matter settled and move on.”

  He continued before Andar could express one of his many worries. “Regarding Taesitry, the fact that you feel it, Leo, tells me that we might have hope for an evacuation plan. I’m going to explain something to the two of you that you should not share with anyone because we don’t want to create a panic.”

  Andar supposed KRenn didn’t care about making the two of them panic.

  “We won’t speak of it,” Leo said.

  Andar nodded.

  “The real chance of us destroying the rift is small.” KRenn spoke the words calmly, as if this wasn’t one of the most terrifying things Andar had ever heard.

  “How small?” Andar dared ask.

  “Small enough that we must plan for failure. The rift is likely to take over the entire continent of Aathon. In that unfortunate scenario, we must bring all the survivors to new land. We can
not rely on boats if we hope to bring even a quarter of everyone to safety. We have to rely instead on Taesitry.”

  Andar couldn’t hold his tongue. “Skyfire and ash! What in the hell are you saying? Aathon is really that likely to be completely consumed by this rift, no matter what we do?”

  “There is an answer to that, but I do not know it yet. It could be possible to destroy a rift this size, but it might also be impossible. We have to prepare for it to be impossible, so all humans and Analytes do not perish.”

  Andar cursed. Why are we the only ones here with KRenn? Shouldn’t there be other mages planning to destroy this rift? This can’t only be on us.

  But then he remembered the stalwart link between him and his brother. What’s more, he remembered KRenn’s advise not to tell anyone this because they would panic.

  He was not surprised when he noticed terror on his brother’s face. Andar had to be strong if this was going to work. He faced his brother. “We’ll do everything we can no matter what happens, right?”

  Leo looked braver with each breath he took. “This is bigger than us.”

  “Good,” said KRenn. “In theory, we might be able to make a portal of our own if we fail to destroy the great rift. But Taesitry has another use that is far less dangerous than making our own rift, a use that should help us destroy the kasigerr if an assault fails. I will wait until the testing stones arrive, for a demonstration should explain everything, and I’m already very tired. In the meantime, the two of you must begin your training. I brought you here not just to indulge my theories of Taesitry and rifts. We need to figure out how we are to enter the rift without transporting through to the dark realm.”

  KRenn was going too fast again for Andar to follow everything. The man clearly had mentioned being able to make their own portal. Was such a thing really possible? And why did they need to enter the great rift without transporting through to the other realm? But there was something else more important to know.

  “We?” Andar asked. “All of us are entering the rift?”

  “If we all can, yes.”

  “How do we begin training?” Leo asked. He seemed more ready to accept all of this than Andar was.

  “We need to stay grounded to our realm while within the rift. In theory, all we need is a strong link to something that remains outside the rift.”

  “Why do you say in theory?” Andar asked. “You aren’t sure of any of this?”

  “I cannot be sure. It is a theory based on what I’ve seen from the kasigerr. It can remain inside the rift, and it is probably powerfully linked to something. I assume the link is what keeps it grounded. This link has changed its properties to allow it not to be transported. It must be linked to something that was there before the rift opened, something that might be alive like the kasigerr. We will need a name for this.”

  KRenn looked to be in thought for a moment. “Fraaa-laaaeen, no. Rissssfaaa, no. Something simple and scientific will be best. That’s it. We will call it X. X is what the kasigerr is linked to, and X must be destroyed. In fact, destroying X is likely the easiest way to kill the kasigerr. One of you, likely Andar, will need to enter the rift and find X. Then you will have to destroy it.”

  Why me? Andar wondered, not that he would send his younger brother in his place.

  “Because Leo can feel Taesitry, which means he will be needed for our backup plan in case you fail.”

  “You mean die, right? To fail is to die?”

  KRenn didn’t reply.

  “You might as well be blunt about it,” Andar said.

  “Yes, in case you die.”

  Andar and Leo shared a look of fright. Andar could sense his brother gathering his courage, so Andar did the same. He turned to KRenn.

  “How do we begin training?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Hurry up and do it again! And do it right this time!” KRenn yelled.

  “It’s impossible!” Andar shouted back.

  Leo could feel that his brother was just as exhausted as Leo was.

  KRenn stomped into the sphere of Esitry and lifted his hands. “You see? I’m inside and still maintaining a three-way link to both of you. Yet all you two have to do is hold a two-way link between yourselves. This should be easy!”

  KRenn had pulled Esitry from the dark realm into their sealed room, gathering so much of it that Leo had been able to see the light blue energy slowly circling around them. After a bit of straining through grunts and sweating, KRenn had formed a dome of dense Esitry that was taller than Leo.

  Leo and Andar had asked many questions before obeying KRenn and attempting to walk inside.

  “Isn’t Esitry like poison?” Andar had asked.

  “Yes, but this amount will have no permanent effect on your bodies. In fact, it will strengthen you in case Esitry of the great rift manages to get through your shield of Artistry.”

  “Why do we need to hold a link between each other?” Leo had asked after. “We already have a stalwart link between us.”

  “The stalwart link does not modify the nature of your bodies like a normal link of Artistry does.”

  KRenn had become increasingly angry as they asked more questions, but he really turned red when he found out Leo and Andar had never made a link to each other before. There had been no reason to practice, they’d thought. And linking one person to another—an entire person—was incredibly difficult.

  Fortunately, Leo and Andar had figured out how to hold a link between them shortly after KRenn had started to yell. It was a good thing Andar was even stronger than Leo, because Leo had to focus intensely to keep the link together. If he or his brother were any weaker with Artistry, it would be impossible, but just holding the link wasn’t the most difficult part about this ordeal.

  The link itself was one of the most rebellious links Leo had ever dealt with. Artistry liked to link things together that were similar, but it objected to being forced to link things that were different. Leo had a lot of similarities to Andar, but there were more differences between them. They had surrounded each other with Artistry. Then they’d forced a line of Artistry between them to connect the two of them together. Whenever one of them moved, the other would move in the same way.

  The main issue was that the energy would not remain intact for long, and especially not once Andar walked into the simulated rift of Esitry.

  The Esitry bonded with the Artistry, distorting the link so that it instantly broke every time they tried to hold it while Andar walked into the dome. Andar was sweating, like KRenn. Andar had gone pale as well, which made Leo realize just how white KRenn’s skin was. Both appeared to be losing color fast.

  This isn’t working.

  A servant had come and gone with bread and water, but it hadn’t helped KRenn’s mood or sickly appearance.

  Leo could feel his brother’s anger after KRenn walked into the rift while maintaining a link to the both of them.

  “If you can do it so easily,” Andar said, “then why do my brother and I even need to train? You and I will go in the rift while you maintain the link.”

  “Because something might happen to me while we’re inside.”

  Leo asked, “Isn’t it going to be a problem that we cannot move individually while we are linked?”

  “We will be able to because the link will be emotional.”

  Leo and Andar had heard of emotional links from their trainer, Farns. Andar was the first one to become comfortable with them, using one here and there to find out things about the shared, or not-so-shared, affections of the girls he was involved with. These experiments had never ended well for Andar, though.

  “Why don’t we use an emotional link now, then?” Leo wondered.

  “Because I already checked,” KRenn said. “We do not share an emotion we can use.”

  Andar asked, “So what will we use when it comes time to enter the rift?”

  “Fear. Now focus and go again.”

  Leo looked at his brother with worry. Andar had the same ex
pression.

  “Come on,” KRenn urged.

  But Leo and Andar were still recovering. The strain on their minds and bodies of holding this type of link was like trying to run while solving a riddle. If they couldn’t even maintain the link for a moment inside the dome of Esitry, what would it be like near Jaktius Perl?

  It was the term the Analytes had come up with to describe what KRenn called “the great rift.” It dawned on Leo that no one had called the rift Jaktius Perl around KRenn yet. He would surely hate it, for it did everything a name shouldn’t, according to him. It meant “World Destroyer” in the Analyse language, promising a terrible fate for Aathon and instilling fear in Leo every time he thought of it.

  Leo knew his brother needed a few more moments, like he did. But he and Andar seemed too afraid to tell this to KRenn, just as Leo was afraid to mention the name for the rift the Analytes had come up with.

  “I said go!” KRenn yelled. But then he stumbled a bit. Andar and Leo ran over to help as KRenn collapsed, the dome of Esitry breaking and spreading around the small room.

  KRenn was obviously exhausted. He didn’t even try to stand as he sat hunched, gasping for breath.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  Siki called out from behind the door, “I’m coming in unless told otherwise, KRenn!”

  After a moment, she opened the door and stepped in. She closed it immediately to keep the Esitry from escaping. “KRenn! What happened?” She ran toward them, a bag of rift stones in her hands. Leo could feel an abundance of Artistry from them.

  “I’m fine, just need to rest,” KRenn said. “But first I must sort through these stones. Give me time to concentrate.” He reached for the bag.

  Siki nervously handed it to him.

  “Move away,” KRenn said. “The Artistry from your bodies is distracting.”

  They walked over to the other side of the room. Siki glanced at Andar and muttered something in Analyse. He looked over at her. Leo thought for a moment they would start bickering as usual. He was glad when they were quiet instead.