“I don’t know.”
The woman stared at the kitten for a little while before saying, “I have to get me one.”
The moment she said this, the table began to tremble very lightly. Bryson looked at his glass as the water’s surface began to ripple. Making sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her, Lilu grabbed hold of the table as it shook harder.
Bryson glanced up and noticed Rhyparia’s parents were already out the door, but he couldn’t think about that. It was getting worse. The table’s legs began cracking and the wood’s surface was splintering. Then the glass plates and mugs shattered, and Lilu screamed.
Himitsu gawked. “What in the world …?”
The air around them felt thick, and the floorboards underneath them were vibrating violently. The wooden supports that held up the building were also cracking.
“Let’s get out of here!” Bryson shouted. But when Bryson tried getting up, it was like he was stuck to his seat. Even Olivia, whose physical strength he had never seen outmatched, was barely able to stand, and was hunched over from the strain at that. Lilu was in fetal position on the booth’s seat and crying.
“I can’t breathe! My bones hurt!” she gasped.
Bryson tried to pick her up, but it was like lifting a mountain. He could barely stand himself. Olivia stepped over and slung the princess over her shoulder, her expressionless face a subtle red from the effort. Bryson turned to see Rhyparia still seated at the table. As the staff and other customers shrieked in fear and pain, she hadn’t moved at all.
“Help me get her out of here!” Bryson screamed at Himitsu. They grabbed her by the arms and started dragging her across the floor.
Bryson followed the stumbling Olivia through the mess of bodies and rubble. Sections of the ceiling were caving in and the wooden supports were buckling. And the pressure bearing down on them was only getting worse. The two boys collapsed to their knees and crawled toward the exit. Even while carrying Lilu, Olivia was somehow the only person still standing.
Bryson climbed over people who were either screaming in pain or not breathing. He wanted to help them all. It was his duty as a Jestivan, but he just wasn’t strong enough yet. Something hit him on the head and he almost blacked out. The debris wasn’t falling at a normal speed. It was as if it had been shot out of a cannon.
He glanced to his right and saw the host pulling himself across the floor. A ragged chunk of wood ripped itself from the ceiling and hurtled downward, cleanly cutting the boy in two. Bryson tried to look away, but he was too late. He had just witnessed the most horrifying thing he had ever seen in his life.
Olivia and Lilu made it out of the building. But he still had two teammates, and friends, to worry about. Craters were being blasted into the floor. As he tried to crawl around it, the entire front side of the restaurant collapsed, walling them off.
He dully stared at the rubble. It was too much. He was exhausted and his lungs felt flattened. Himitsu had also stopped moving, accepting the same fate. Rhyparia blankly stared into the cloudy night sky through one of the many holes in the roof. Then everything around Bryson began to fade as his eyes slowly shut.
***
In one of the most crowded intersections in Dunami, a young red-headed boy sat high above everyone else. He gazed across a sea of heads as he enthusiastically shifted on the person’s shoulders he was sitting upon.
Observing the buildings surrounding the street, his eyes landed on a rustic one. He squinted in effort to read the tiny sign above the door: bows & arrows.
His face lit up with joy. “Director!” he yelled above the noise as he looked down at the Intel Director who was carrying him.
“Simon!” Debo playfully yelled back.
“Archery store northbound!” He pointed in its direction. “Move, move, move!”
Chuckling, Debo played along with the charade of Simon acting as a captain. “Yes, sir!”
Debo darted through the tangled web of people, causing Simon’s small arms to wrap around Debo’s forehead as he held on for dear life.
In an instant, the duo found themselves in front of the shop. Debo crouched down to allow the boy to jump off. Simon looked through the window in awe. Pristine crossbows and traditional bows were gleaming in the glass display.
“One day I’ll be the greatest archer in the world!” he exclaimed as he pretended to hold a crossbow on his shoulder, staring down its sights. “Pew-pew-pew!”
Debo smiled and put his hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Perhaps today is the day to get started.”
The boy’s posture sunk. “I don’t have that kind of money.” He thought about it for a second and reiterated. “I don’t have any money. I’m eleven.”
“I do,” the director said. He rustled Simon’s long red hair. “Let’s go in. You can pick whichever bow suits you best.”
Simon’s face brightened. He bolted toward the door, but as he reached for the handle, a loud crashing sound stopped him in his tracks. Clouds of dust were billowing in the distance, but they weren’t rising. His smile vanished.
Debo was also concerned. The sounds of destruction weren’t coming to an end, and he could hear screams. He scooped Simon onto his shoulders and grasped tightly onto his ankles.
“Hold on like your life depends on it,” he commanded.
Debo plunged forward as Simon’s head viciously yanked back from the instantaneous acceleration. Holding on was the most difficult thing Simon had ever tried to do in his life. But, somehow, it got worse.
The crowd was impeding Debo’s progress, so he took an alternate route that involved no streets—up the side of a tavern. They were now parallel with the ground below as the director ran along the walls, jumping from building to building. Simon had learned in school that this kind of speed existed—speed that defied gravity—but it was so rare, nobody really believed it. His fingers dug into Debo’s chest as he closed his eyes to calm his fright, but it was over very quickly.
When Simon reopened his eyes, it took him a second to make sense of the catastrophe. A collapsed restaurant lay before him. Window panes were shattered and missing, piles of wood were strewn on the ground, and bodies were smashed and bleeding in the rubble.
Debo’s heart dropped as he saw Olivia was carrying a motionless Lilu away from the havoc. “Was there anyone else with you?” he asked.
The girl looked at him plainly and pointed behind her. “Bryson, Rhyparia, and Himitsu.”
Debo knew Olivia very well, but he was still surprised to hear the blandness in her voice. Not even an event like this could drag any emotion out of her.
“Stay right here,” Debo ordered Simon. He made a hasty sprint toward the wreckage and he was caught off-guard by the sudden shift in gravity. Instantly, he recognized that this wasn’t an accident. But it didn’t do much to slow him down. While everyone else twitched feebly, Debo searched through the wreckage. He found them fairly quickly. None of them were moving. Only Rhyparia’s eyes were open. But when he touched her face, she continued to blankly stare into the night sky.
Debo was gathering the three of them in his arms when something above him cracked. He looked up to see a gigantic chunk of ceiling crashing down. He dropped the Jestivan and braced himself for impact. The ceiling slammed into him, but he caught it with his upper back and both hands.
His body began to tremble under the added pressure of the gravity and the ceiling, but he refused to give in. Even when his knees buckled, he still held it up. A roar escaped his mouth as he heaved the mass of wood to the side. He swiftly picked up his charges and walked through the weighted atmosphere. Although they were covered in blood, Debo could feel their shallow breathing. There was hope.
When he finally reached the street, he collapsed to one knee. The gravity was back to normal, but he was exhausted. It had been a long time since he was forced to exert that much effort.
“There are still more people barely alive back there,” he said through heavy breaths to Spirit Director Neaneuma, who had joined
the crowd. “Where is the kingdom’s rescue department?”
His question was answered as a couple dozen horses galloped toward them. The mass of onlookers split apart to make way as the riders jumped off with torches in hand.
As the rescue squad took over, Debo noticed another one of the directors. It was the short and balding Archaic Director—Director Senex. His face was grave.
Debo sighed. “It’s exactly what you think it is.”
14
Hardship
Bryson awoke to a faint beeping sound that gradually grew more piercing. When he opened his eyes, they were assaulted by something just as loud—a room painted in entirely stark white. It took him a moment, but eventually he realized he was lying inside of a hospital room. He also knew which specific hospital he was in. The equipment was all too telling. There was not a single place in the world of Kuki Sphaira that had technology this advanced. In fact, nowhere else could even come close.
The Intel Kingdom originated technological advancement. The people of its kingdom were studious and innovative, and this is what caused it to be a power above the Light Realm’s four other kingdoms—although in recent decades, the others had slowly began to catch up. With these advancements came wealth, and with that wealth came more advancement. It was a self-feeding cycle.
There was a hierarchy to the kingdom’s spending, as three categories sat high above the rest. Third most important was technology. The machinery surrounding Bryson was evidence of that.
But there were two categories that far outweighed anything else in terms of expenses. And honestly, they could have been grouped as one: science and medicine. More money was put into these two departments than everything else combined, and the Dunami Hospital was a perfect display of that dedication. All of the equipment ran on Intel Energy, which sounded simple enough, but learning the complex methods of weaving Intel Energy had taken centuries of study and trial and error.
Stepping into the Dunami Hospital was like stepping into the future. Most people wouldn’t even know what they were looking at. Some of the equipment didn’t have proper names. That’s how new a lot of it was. Let’s be honest, people still struggled with the concept of an intelight.
Noticing none of the medical devices were attached to his body, Bryson concluded that he was simply recovering.
“Hey, buddy,” a familiar voice said.
Bryson looked to his right and saw his lanky teammate in a hospital bed of his own. “Hey, Himitsu.”
Himitsu appeared to be in decent shape. His knees, hands, and arms were heavily bandaged, but he was sitting up and eating noodles. Bryson looked down to see that he had the same areas wrapped.
Himitsu informed him of their injuries. “We both were fortunate,” he said with a trail of noodles dangling from his mouth. “Cuts and scrapes, that’s all. Our internal organs, bones, and mental state are all perfectly fine.”
Bryson flopped back in relief.
“This place is insane,” Himitsu said. “It definitely deserves its reputation. The fanciest medical center I’ve been in was two stories high and constructed of wood.” He looked at the equipment surrounding them. “And there was none of this . . . just a doctor.”
“This place is why my kingdom’s life expectancy is so much higher than everywhere else,” Bryson bragged. He then paused before admitting, “But it also puts people in some massive debt.”
He caught a glimpse of another person to his left. It was Olivia and Meow Meow, who were sound asleep in a chair. She had no signs of injuries at all.
Himitsu looked at the girl too. “I only woke up an hour ago, but the doctors said she sat by your side the whole night. She was the only one who got out of that mess uninjured.”
Seeing her made Bryson smile. Through thick and thin, he knew that Olivia would always stay by his side. And he would do the same for her.
He observed her resting face. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he had always felt he could see a tiny hint of emotion when she slept.
Then realization dawned on him. “What about Lilu and Rhyparia?” he asked, practically jumping out of his bed.
Himitsu stopped slurping his noodles. “I don’t know. They won’t tell me. All I know is that they’re still in the E.R. … whatever that is. It sounds bad though.”
Emergency room. Bryson put his head in his hands. The sequence of events from the night before rushed through his head, reminding him of how useless he was. Rhyparia was in the E.R. because of his weakness, and Lilu only made it out because of Olivia. Come to think of it, Bryson was at a loss for how he got out. He had no memory of escaping.
His thoughts were put on hold as five people walked into the room. The first four were familiar faces, but the fifth was a stranger. Grand Director Poicus and Directors Buredo, Neaneuma, and Venustas wore somber expressions. The face of the fifth person, a man cloaked in deep burgundy with jet black hair, was inscrutable.
“Good afternoon,” Poicus said. “I’m glad to see you’ve recovered well.”
Himitsu gave a half-nod. Bryson simply looked at him.
Passion Director Venustas walked over to the girl and whispered in her ear, “Olivia, sweetie. Wake up.”
As Olivia’s eyes slowly opened, her peaceful face was instantly replaced by a brick wall. Meow Meow, on the other hand, responded with a hiss, causing Venustas to jump back a bit.
“A lot needs to be explained to you three,” Poicus said, “but before we get to that, I will ask you to turn your attention to this gentleman here.” He waved his hand in the direction of the stranger. “This is Vistas. He was once a subject of the Dev Kingdom.”
Now they had Bryson’s full attention. It was the first time he ever encountered someone from the Dark Realm. It made sense that the man was wearing burgundy. It was his former kingdom’s color. Bryson had never seen one, but he was aware that there were roughly a hundred slaves from the Dev Kingdom inside of Dunami. They were captured a couple decades ago mostly by the hands of his father, Mendac.
Vistas gave a bow as Poicus explained, “Intel King Vitio is addressing the public in the main plaza today about the scenario that unfolded yesterday. Jilly, Toshik, Yama, Agnos, and Tashami are already attending it, but you three obviously can’t attend, so we needed a way for you to view it.”
He looked in the direction of the well-dressed slave before continuing, “This is when Vistas comes in handy. As someone from the Dev Kingdom, his Dev Energy and psychic abilities will bring the king’s speech into this hospital room.”
A large holographic image appeared, and its source was Vistas’s eyes. Pictured was the burly Intel King Vitio, as he addressed a crowd that stretched for miles. His speech had already begun.
“—happen unless something catastrophic occurs. Therefore, for me to address the kingdom on such a large scale can only mean the worst. Before I explain what happened last night, which most of you already know about, I would like to say that it was not an act of terror. It was a mere accident caused by a building’s aging foundation.”
“Are you kidding me?” Bryson exclaimed.
“Shush, Bryson,” Grand Director Poicus said.
“There were …” The king paused and sighed before finishing his sentence, “… many deaths. As of right now, the accident area is being cleared by workers. That spot will soon serve as a memorial to the people who lost their lives. There were two high-ranking officials, a few children, and many exuberant parents and couples who were just enjoying a night out.
“Five people made it out alive. They were five of the ten people who were to be our esteemed guests for the Generals’ Battle tomorrow. This announcement was supposed to be a surprise, but with this catastrophe, it no longer matters. The second coming of the Jestivan was to stand guard tomorrow, but now only the five who weren’t in the wreckage will fulfill that duty. The others are currently recovering in our hospital, which, as all of you know, has the best doctors in all of Kuki Sphaira. Thus we expect them to be perfectly fine.
&n
bsp; “With that said, no Jestivan will meet with the public tomorrow. As for the Generals’ Battle, it will be held as planned. I spoke with relatives of the deceased this morning, and they wanted the celebration to continue. They explained that this was the one time every year that the Light Realm gathers together in camaraderie. I greatly respect these families and I admire their fortitude.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t ask for you to ignore what happened last night. I ask you to do the best you can in enjoying the battle tomorrow, for that’s what the fallen would have wanted. Good day, residents of the Light Realm.”
With the conclusion of his speech, the hologram disappeared. Bryson was furious.
“That wasn’t an accident! It was Rhyparia’s parents!”
“Hold on there,” Director Poicus said. “We’re aware it wasn’t an accident, but it works out better this way. As for your accusations, let’s not make hasty, irrational conclusions.”
Bryson’s face reddened. “Rhyparia has told us enough about how awful her parents are, and it was proven last night! The moment even the slightest tremble occurred, they left the building.”
Grand Director Poicus sighed. “Bryson, you’re angry, and I understand that anger, but I’m telling you to—”
“People died!” he interrupted with a shout. “They were slaughtered!”
“And you think I don’t realize this?!” Poicus shouted back, causing Bryson to quickly shut his mouth. Even the other directors were aghast at the Grand Director’s unusual loss of composure.
Poicus took a deep breath. “You three will be spectators during the Generals’ Battle tomorrow. Lilu might join you, but that is only because she is demanding to do so. She is in no condition to leave this hospital. Now, as for Rhyparia … she is incapable of attending.”
Bryson started to say something, but Poicus cut him off. “You have noticed Directors Debo and Senex are not here. That is because they are staying by their respective student’s bedsides in the emergency room. I’m sure you’re wondering how you made it out of the collapse. You have Director Debo to thank for that.”
The Jestivan (Erafeen, #1) Page 13
