A Binding of Echoes

by Kalyn Crowe

  A Binding Of Echoes

  Kalyn Crowe

  A Binding Of Echoes by Kalyn Crowe

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Kalyn Crowe

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  For more information, contact: KalynCrowe@gmail.com

  Cover and book design by Kalyn Crowe

  Ebook ASIN: B081SVMC5L

  Paperback ASIN: 1671284097

  https://www.KalynCrowe.com

  I want to thank my partner for being with me through the hard times and the healing ones. He's the guardian of my heart.

  In memory of Peach, I'll see you on the Rainbow Bridge.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 - From Darkness

  2 - A Chance

  3 - No Return

  4 - Cloaked

  5 - Art

  6 - Shadows and Dust

  7 - Nieces

  8 - First Promises

  9 - Within Shells

  10 - Names

  11 - Coming and Going

  12 - Strange Pairs

  13 - Hubris

  14 - Between Isles

  15 - Passing Memories

  16 - What I Must

  17 - True of Everyone

  18 - Storms

  19 - Consumed

  20 - Skin and Skeletons

  21 - Buried Secrets

  22 - Duress

  23 - Prisons

  24 - Where Souls Are

  25 - Rediscovered

  26 - To Animate

  27 - Return

  28 - Mirrors

  29 - Above

  30 - And Below

  31 - Between

  32 - Confluence

  33 - Comes Light

  Thanks for reading!

  1 - From Darkness

  I inched along the school's empty hallways. Each step softer than the last. Tarnished sconces dotted the cold stone and mortar walls with candlelight.

  No one else collected their mail at this hour, let alone anything else.

  Luck had it the mail clerk already left, and that meant freedom from any eyes. Even Kepi waited back in my dorm. A choice I debated, but she wouldn't want to see me crushed. I'd at least get her some sugar cubes and collect myself before I returned.

  I searched the wall of dingy brass squares for my number. I rarely received any mail. On my tiptoes, I struggled to fit the key but unlocked my box in the top row. The little metal door creaked open. I had barely wrapped my fingers around the lone scroll when a vibration shook the hatch on its hinges.

  A sudden gust of air sucked into the school, almost as if it took a breath. The exhale carried a faint scent of sulfur.

  It took only a moment before I bolted for my room, back to Kepi, but the hallways were no longer empty. Students and resident faculty rushed from the dorms in the wake of strange rumble.

  "Make way," a woman's voice boomed from behind.

  All the other students and teachers shuffled off to the sides of the hallway.

  I saw the blur of two women pass through. One wore a long white coat which billowed behind her, the other a tailored black jacket.

  They wore the uniforms of the Order of Zirore. Strangely, instead of fear, my heart skipped. It was the pinch of happy anxiety when you see old friends after many years. Except, I didn't have any. I couldn't even understand why I knew the feeling.

  They turned at the intersection ahead.

  People filled the hallway again, but I edged around the corner.

  The one in white, an Order of Zirore Invoker, spoke to a small group of guards.

  Numerous neat layers of thin silver ropes on both shoulders indicated her very high rank. One too lofty for this backwater town. Her perfect chin-length dark hair accented the Order's symbol. The Rays of Zirore shone across her upper back as five arrow-straight metallic lines. Each fanned away from the center, and tallest, Ray. The bottom two formed a horizontal line, the uncompromised foundation.

  I looked down at my threadbare coat and old boots. Mud still crusted their soles from this morning's courtyard walk in the rain.

  The guard looked cross. "They only sent you and this hunter?" he shouted over the din of the disorder.

  He referred to the woman in the black jacket, the signature attire of an Order Hunter. Cleanly cut, it flared at the waist and hit just below the knee. She too wore the Rays, but a smaller set of ropes.

  The guards, who were low-ranked templars employed by the school, barely gave her glance.

  Still, the Hunter said firmly, "See to evacuating the students."

  When the Templar didn't budge, the Invoker raised her voice and said, "I did not hear her ask you."

  The templars bowed their heads to the Invoker. "Yes, of course, Lady Sybil." They disbursed and attempted to gain control of the hallways.

  Other students hurried by. That much wasn't unusual. Their conversations usually quieted as they passed. But tonight they must not have noticed me. They warbled on about what could have happened. One person even bumped my shoulder with theirs.

  The Invoker touched the wall, and in the old tongue, she said, "Iltgene."

  The archaic invocation for 'seek.'

  A red glow shot through her veins and concentrated in her hand. It absorbed into the mortar first and then seeped into the cut stone like water. In a burst, the light rushed through the walls and flowed down the hallways.

  So she was a Formist. An invoker who read, or traced, magical residues from Animas in any material, even blood or bone. They weren't rare, but I had never seen such a substantial Form trace before. The delicate vessels in her face lit with the same red. They fueled her sight as she darted her eyes side to side, up and down. It was as if she navigated the school grounds on foot but at rapid speed.

  Then her eyes stilled. She said, "A portal is open, and a disk is here." Her mouth glowed as she spoke.

  The Hunter adjusted her collar and long braid of rusty hair. "Are you sure?"

  She peeled her hand from the wall, and the light faded. "Kat, truly, how could I be wrong about such a thing? Let us go." Out of nowhere, the Invoker glanced over her shoulder at me and rushed away.

  The Hunter, Kat, followed.

  I lifted my foot to do the same, but what was I doing? I looked down.

  There, next to my boot, sat Kepi. The size of a small cat, she looked up and cooed. Her owl-like face didn't show one drop of fear.

  I bent over and stroked her feathery head and along the stripe of dark copper fur down her back. I avoided her necklace of little poofy yarn balls, adorned with a single silver charm.

  My gaze rested on it's curved, shiny surface a moment. My reflection, distorted, looked back a moment before I said, "Kepi, how did you get here?"

  She preened one of the necklace's pompoms and turned her attention down the hallway. When I didn't respond, she wrapped her fluffy golden tail around her talons and paws and waited.

  "Do you know them? I feel, well, I don't know."

  She cooed a short, high pitched note and took off.

  I barely kept up.

  She scurried down the hallway and around the bend after Sybil and Kat.

  The tower bells rang in a quick rhythm. It seemed the templars finally sounded the alarm.

  Everyone el
se ran the opposite way toward the open side of the dorms and to the streets off-campus.

  "The doors," I tried to catch my breath, "at the end of the hall there, they lead to the courtyard."

  Kepi cooed but ran on.

  The dorms surrounded the tiny patch of outside. It was small, confined. Sybil mentioned a portal, if one was out there, it was a trap.

  Sybil and Kat pushed open the doors and ran outside.

  Kepi and I stopped short a few moments after. We stood on the flagstones that surrounded the courtyard and supported decorative pillars. Usually, this was a place for fresh air, but this evening, sulfur stung my nose.

  A deep blue, misshapen circle hovered as a void in the middle of the small, grassy courtyard. The sun hung low beyond the dorms, but the shadows were too thick. It was as if the dark rip in the world sucked in the light. The air lurched toward it as well.

  My breath caught in my throat, and I scrambled to pick up Kepi.

  Sybil and Kat stood in the grass near the portal and scanned the area.

  I ducked around a nearby pillar and hid from sight. Part of me wanted to run back and leave with the other students. Something else inside needed to stay and see what happened, it ached to help those women, but I couldn't.

  Cold sweat soaked through the scroll still in my hand. I tucked it away in my coat before I peeked around the pillar.

  Sybil said, "We must close it before one of the creatures on the other side notices."

  "Why open a portal to Abyss and not call an Abyssite out?" Kat circled the portal.

  "Perhaps merely as a demonstration."

  Dim shadows crept around the circumference of the courtyard.

  Kat stopped and squinted into them.

  I almost couldn't see her anymore.

  She said, "Where did you sense the disk?"

  "Here," replied Sybil.

  The courtyard's unnatural night grew even darker.

  "They are here. There is but one doorway." Sybil said to the shadows, "You think removing the movement of light with your Abyss magic will save you? You can suck out all the Conduction from the air you want, and I will find you."

  The air stood still as the light continued to die.

  Kat pulled a singled-handed crossbow from within her jacket and thumbed a switch on the side. Its arms unfolded without a sound.

  Everything grew quiet — the kind of silence which points out how loud everything once was.

  As the calm came, so too did the storm. An ear-piercing howl split the silence. It rattled across the immeasurable distance between Abyss and here.

  A slosh of acid spilled from the portal.

  Sybil scowled at the ground as it sizzled only a few steps away.

  Kat aimed her bow at the portal.

  "You will not kill it with that, my dear," Sybil said.

  Kat kept her bow level. "Then why didn't you bring reinforcements?"

  "It will not arrive." Sybil threw open her jacket, lowered to her knee, and pushed her fingers to the dirt. "Dagakh."

  The red of her invocation didn't flow out as before. Star-like sparks ran down her fingers and dashed through the dirt. In the darkest corner of the courtyard, they lifted, converged, and formed the outline of a man.

  He stood statue-like, his face hard and filled with anticipation. In his hands, he held a round metal shape.

  As Sybil's trace sparks drew around it, the man closed his eyes and collapsed.

  Kat ran forward and sheathed her crossbow. She barely caught him under the arms before he hit the ground.

  The portal bent and pulled the world around it into strange shapes. It drew into itself before it snapped from existence altogether.

  Sybil stood and walked wide around the acid while it burned a hole in the ground. She approached the man.

  His sunken and pale features made a completely different expression, one sad, and kind. Almost as if he wasn't the same person.

  All the spell use cost him dearly. His whole body trembled, but he seemed to shake his head side to side with purpose. He tried to speak but only coughed.

  Kat steadied him. "Easy now." She held his hand.

  Sybil touched her shoulder and shook her head.

  In these moments, he grew motionless, peaceful. Then his head rolled back.

  Kat laid him down gently and lifted what I assumed was the disk they sought, clutched in his other hand.

  Sybil touched his forehead and traced him as she had the hallway. "Apex and Abyss Anima are present, Abyss much more so."

  "Like the recent attacks in the capital."

  "It would seem so. These disks cause the rapid onset of spell sickness. We have seen it with less strenuous casting, let alone opening a damned portal."

  "We're lucky only the acid came out." Kat closed his eyes. "May Zirore guide your soul, lost one." She looked at Sybil.

  There was a long pause before Sybil said, "We must report this." She stood and turned.

  I dipped back behind the pillar.

  "After what you saw, you plan to hide from me, girl?" Sybil called out.

  Kepi pulled away and peeked her head around.

  I bit my lip.

  "Kepi?" Kat's voice said.

  She cooed back.

  I shut my eyes and sighed.

  Kepi wiggled.

  I tried to hold on to her, but she slipped free. I came out from the shadow of the pillar in reflex only to watch her scurry.

  She ran across the courtyard, jumped over puddles of acid, and lighted only a few steps from Kat and Sybil. She didn't look at them, or the body, but at me.

  I folded my unsteady hands. "Lady Invoker, Lady Hunter, I'm sorry for my intrusion."

  "Do not be so formal. I know who you are." Sybil frowned and looked away toward a pool of acid. "I remember the baby with sea-colored eyes and pale hair all too well."

  Kat bowed her head to Kepi. "Lady Tempest, it's been nearly four years."

  She cooed a short little note.

  Kat stood and looked at me. "Since your exile from the capital."

  I swallowed. I couldn't help but look at the disk in Kat's hand, and then the dead man again. Suddenly the letter from college mattered less. I saw something I shouldn't have. Something I couldn't explain.

  Kat frowned and seemed about to speak.

  But Sybil said, "Why are you out here?"

  I said, "Kepi, she followed you."

  "I see." She turned to Kat but kept me in eyeshot. "May I hold the disk?"

  Kat handed it to her.

  "Iltgene." Sybil squinted as her magic's red light pooled in her hand's veins. "This came from the capital." The glow faded again, and she coughed. "I think."

  Kat touched Sybil's shoulder. "You need to rest."

  "In a moment." Sybil walked toward me, so confidently, she appeared not to care if her hem grazed any of the melted grass. She held up the disk. "Do you know what this is, Meredith?"

  "No, Lady Invoker."

  She stopped within arm's length. "Kat, test her."

  She walked away from the body and stood behind Sybil. "I would guess the templars will have all the students out of the building by now. They will be here any moment."

  Sybil glanced at the open doors and then turned over her shoulder. "Then we had best be quick."

  The two shared a look. A stare loaded with statements from each side, but in a language that I didn't understand.

  I caught how clenched I held my jaw. "Um, Ladies, the Formist here recently traced my ward, I can't use any Anima magic, you can see the records here."

  Sybil snapped her face back. "I am obviously not interested in your ward; otherwise, I would do this myself."

  "I have an imbued Spirit pendant. She wants to know if you're lying." Kat pulled out one of several simple amulets. "Take my hand and tell me what you know of what Sybil showed you." She reached out, rings on nearly every finger, and a thick bangle on her wrist.

  They couldn't all be imbued items. I took Kat's hand.

  She sai
d, "Unen." A soft teal glow formed between our fingers.

  The trigger word of "truth" suited such an imbuement.

  I said, as steady as possible, "I only know it's what the Order calls a disk. I've heard the term before. The rebels from before the Abyss war used Anima boosting disks in their attacks."

  She nodded, but the glow continued.

  I added, "Of that specific disk, I have no idea. I don't even know who that man is."

  The glow ended, and she said, "She's not lying."

  Kepi sat beside Sybil's foot.

  "Not about that, then." Sybil looked down, I thought at Kepi, but her gaze caught on the charm. It laid on the white feathers of Kepi's chest.

  She knelt and lifted the charm carefully in her fingers.

  I squeezed Kat's hand in reflex. I hadn't pulled it away yet.

  Kat let go. "Sybil?" She looked confused.

  She paid the question no mind and ran her thumb over the surface.

  Kepi sat on her haunches and flicked her tail.

  Sybil said to Kepi, "And you, Lady Tempest, why were you so keen to see me of all people again?"

  Kepi twitched her ear. She was a brilliant animal, an Apexial, rare and not from this Plane, but she couldn't talk. Not like we could.

  Sybil knew as much, but at least she spoke to her as she would a person. Kepi very much listened and watched as one would.

  With a sigh, Sybil held the Abyss disk next to the charm. They were the same shallow dome-shapes, the same silver-like metal. Only the disk was at least three times the size.

  Templars rushed into the courtyard.

  Kat flung open her jacket. The long tail eclipsed Sybil and Kepi.

  Sybil stood and slipped the disk into her jacket. "Keep them busy."

  "If they'll even listen to me."

  "Hunter or not, you outrank them. Act like it, and even templars will listen to the shoulder ropes."

  She left in a sweep of black and stopped them before they were two steps further onto the grass.

  Sybil whispered, "The charm Kepi wears, what is it?"

  "I," I was about to lie, "I don't know, she's worn it since your Order released her to me." I kept my voice as quiet as hers.