The Monolith

by Stephen Roark

  “Magic son of a bitch!”

  “Follow him!”

  Bodies hit the water and I looked back to see a line of them topple over each other and spill into the river. A dock collapsed beneath their weight, dropping more of them into the waves. I swam hard downstream with no idea where I was going, but trying to put as much space between me and the terrible men as possible.

  “Tarnation!” one of them screeched. “I can’t swim!”

  His voice was panicked, and I glanced over my shoulder to see him disappear beneath the current. And he wasn’t the only one. Others thrashed with panicked strokes as they desperately fought to stay above the surface. They sputtered and cried out hopelessly as they began to sink, their heads disappearing as the river’s grip took hold and pulled them down into its depths.

  High above the docks, standing at the edge of the balcony, was Gunter, his violet scarf flapping in the wind as he gazed down at me with a look of something like pity, as though I’d just fallen into some inescapable situation that would surely spell my doom.

  Just think your way home, I thought as the frigid waves pulled me downstream, sweeping me beneath ramshackle bridges made from salvaged wooden planks, cobbled together with bent nails and bolts and slabs of metal doing their best to keep the things from collapsing as parades of horrible creatures made their way across them.

  Two-headed dogs covered in scales and spines, dripping putrid green phlegm from their crooked jaws. Men with wooden legs, gasping and growling at each other as they walked, slapping their way through the throng with canes of bone. Some kind of harpy screeched and swooped down from a buttress above, its hooked claws aimed for my neck.

  Think your way home!

  The urge to escape was palpable, almost overwhelming, but I pushed it back down inside me. I had to go on. I could feel it. I was growing closer to whatever it was—the spider, the pull of the monolith—and there was no going back.

  I gulped a lung full of air and plunged myself beneath the waves to avoid the clutches of the winged beast. I heard its talons strike the surface above me and managed to open my eyes and look up as its enormous shadow obscured the moonlight, then swept up and away to the upper reaches of the city.

  Bzzzzzt!

  The chill of the river burst in my skull, mixed with the flash of lightning that spread across the back of my eyelids.

  I knew what was coming next. I expected it.

  The monolith appeared in my vision, the tortured crowd of bodies swarming towards it as though drawn by some mysterious power.

  Lightning popped, rolled across my spine and up my neck, ticking across each vertebra on its way. I shuddered, spat into the cold river and fought for the surface.

  “SEEK THE MONOLITH!” the voice roared, the sound reverberating through every bone in my body.

  I’m trying! I wanted to scream as the vision shook me, the cold black slab of destiny calling out to me with terrifying purpose.

  Bzzzzt!

  I shook again, coughed and inhaled the frigid water. My lungs cried out as the icy chill clutched them.

  -18

  I’m drowning!

  “SEEK THE MONOLITH!” The voice scraped my brain like claws tearing through stone.

  -23

  My chest heaved, roared with pain. I kicked hard for the surface as the monolith attacked my vision.

  -26, -31

  No! I’m too close!

  My hand struck something hard, blunting my knuckles with a dull pain. My foot found some kind of rock ledge and I kicked hard, propelling myself towards the surface.

  -34, -41

  I burst through the waves like a missile breaking through the atmosphere and gasped, sucking clean air into my chest. A crowd of voices spilled over me and I looked back to see a massive wooden bridge collapse beneath the weight of a horrible crowd of diseased men and mutated beasts, their eyes fixed on me as though they were tortured by some kind of perverse addiction and I was the only cure.

  They hit the water and started swimming, or at least trying to. The men yelled. The beasts squealed. The entire city seemed alive with violence, horror and deadly intent, as though Quelan itself was a living organism, fueled by a cruel heart intent on swallowing me whole. In fact, based on what happened next, I couldn’t have been closer to the truth.

  The waves shifted beneath my feet, sucking at my skin like a set of hungry lips. The water began to swirl and my head was pulled beneath the surface again. I fought against it, but the current raged, tugged at me with unspeakable force pulling me down, down, down into the depths.

  No! No!

  I kicked with everything I had, but it was no use. I activated Shadowstep. My body wraithed but didn’t move. Whatever it was that had me, it was more than a simple whirlpool. It had a hold of me and was not letting go.

  “SEEK THE MONOLITH!” the voice cried out again, as if to taunt me while the river clutched me in its impossible grip.

  My head popped, flashed, exploded inwards like a collapsing star as I sank, down, down, down into the black, like a starship caught in the pull of a black hole. I thrashed against its unbeatable force, but I knew there was nothing I could do. The force on my legs was too great. I was going down—to wherever that might be—and that was all there was to it.

  Something touched my ankles—something soft, almost furry. It caressed me as though to comfort me before the end. I wasn’t drowning, but I knew whatever lay beneath me was beyond my abilities.

  Something continued to tug at me like a thousand tiny hands, but I kept plunging deeper into the dark. I thought about Rey. I thought about Jacob and as I sank, thought about just how truly lost I was.

  59

  Blackness and Brambles, Shadows and Doubt

  “Curious, curious, curious…the curiosities never end. Although I know my purpose, I know not why! W-w-why do I do what I do? Am I a p-p-puppet? The thoughts are mine. When I laugh they are my laughs, but there is more at work…and ol’ Sluck doesn’t like it!”

  —Sluck

  I was spat out like a throat full of mucus from a terribly sick person, a torrent of water slapping me down against the ground with such force that all the air escaped my lungs.

  -550

  My health was desperately low but the force of the waterfall blasting down on my back had been pinned in place, its roar so loud in my ears that I felt dazed, almost hypnotized by its power. I groaned and curled my right leg at the knee, bringing it slowly towards my chest. The sheer power of the water caught the crux of my leg and spun me around, giving me the momentum I needed to roll onto my side and away from the never ending deluge.

  Sharp angles of stone stabbed into my chest as I spun. The ground sloped away from me and I felt myself starting to slide. I gripped frantically, searching for something to hold onto. My fingers found a crevice and slipped inside. The force felt like it was going to tear my hand off, but I held tight and pulled myself up, managing to get up on my knees. I took a moment to catch my breath and look around to try and get my bearings.

  I was in a cave of black stone with high ceilings and hexagonal patterns of odd rock formations beneath me that looked more like something someone had created than something that had formed naturally. To my right, the falls poured steadily into a trench that cascaded down into the darkness as the cave sloped down into nothing. There was no obvious light source, but there was somehow still just enough light to see by.

  Deep shadows clung to the walls in every direction, but a narrow path seemed to have been cut from the ground that led away from me and uphill. As I peered into the black, I saw the outline of a tunnel that looked as though the wall had been blasted open by a cannon. Despite its appearance, the place somehow felt alive, like the walls were breathing around me, and the sense of gravity, like I was on the cusp of the event horizon leading to the unknown singularity, was overwhelming. My legs almost moved on their own, propelling me forward, guided by the path cut through the stone towards the mouth of the tunnel that seemed to beckon
me like an old friend.

  I didn’t even bother popping a Soothing Syrup.

  What’s the point? I thought. Whatever’s waiting for me in there is far beyond my skill. This is not the time for battle. This is something else.

  I thought back to the base of Mount Jadanus as I approached the Fortune Teller’s altar, Rathborne’s words of warning and advice in my ears. This was somehow similar, but in a way I couldn’t explain. I felt as though I’d ventured beyond the borders of the game’s universe and stepped into something off-limits, old and never meant for players. At least, not all of them.

  But this is where I’m supposed to be, I thought as I ducked to step into the passage. The roar of the falls grew quiet, and as I progressed, a strange bramble-like substance began to creep out from the walls, slick and glistening as though it were alive, but hard to the touch. It thickened as I continued on, clogging the throat of the passage and forcing me onto my hands and knees to make any progress.

  The sense of destiny, of gravity grew as I continued on and I couldn’t help but feel as though I was crawling deeper into some kind of living being, as though the entire city of Quelan itself was alive.

  The Bowels of Quelan, I thought as the bramble tugged at my arms and legs, scraped the skin of my face, as if doing everything it could to impede my progress.

  It wants me to turn back, I thought as I reached forward and snapped one of the hard vines that threaded its way across the tunnel before me. It cracked and spilled white fluid from a hollow that run through it, liquid bone marrow or some kind of sap that carried life through its tangled web of angry ivy that seemed intent on swallowing me up.

  My elbows scraped against the hard stone of the tunnel. Sharp edges of the spider-like brambles scraped my body. My hat fell from my head. I lifted it up and slid it into my inventory. I tried to Shadowstep, but it was no use. An unseen force stopped me in my tracks like an invisible hand knocking me back until my body solidified again.

  “Shit,” I grumbled as I tried to wriggle forward. I felt my shoulders stick and my heart rate rise as a slap of claustrophobia hit me like a bucket of cold water in the face. The unseen chill gripped me. I felt my veins start to sweat and my tongue try to force its way out of my throat. Tight spaces had never bothered me, really, but this was different. I could hardly see where I was going, and as I dug my elbows in and tried to push myself back down the tunnel from where I’d come, the brambles caught my clothes and pushed back.

  I’m stuck!

  Terror began to raise its ugly head within me, causing me to gasp thick, panicked breaths. With each one, my lungs expanded and the vines pricked me like a thousand heavy needles intent on piercing my chest. Each breath caused me to stick more, plugging the narrow passage with my body like a cork slipping down the throat of a wine bottle.

  “H—help!” I shouted stupidly.

  Who are you calling out for, you idiot! There’s no one here! Everyone else is gone now! It’s just you!

  Lonely despair was my only friend now and I felt the single last line of glowing hope within me begin to fade like the last rays of sun fighting against the inevitable darkness. I tried to peer ahead through the darkness and the branches, my eyes searching for a spot of light signaling the end of the tunnel, but all I saw was more black.

  Okay, it’s time to accept it, Clay, I thought as another gasp of air pained my lungs as the walls of the passage pressed back against me. You’re done. It’s over. Think your way home, NOW!

  “NO!” I roared, the force of the breath searing my body as the sharp points of the brambles stabbed into my flesh. “NO, I WON’T DO IT!”

  Rey’s lifeless eyes filled my vision. Jacob’s face as whatever it was inside him that made him him was overwhelmed by the sickness, whatever it was. Everyone else who had helped me get here—given themselves so willingly to my foolhardy crusade to “seek the monolith,” whatever that meant. They didn’t even know what I was talking about, but they’d believed in me and they’d helped me.

  “I can’t just quit now!” I roared, expelling all the air from my lungs until I felt I was ready to suffocate from lack of it. I kicked, wriggled and elbowed myself forward, dragging myself through the thorns and sticks, every inch of my body pressing against the impossibly tight passage that led into the darkness. I had no idea where I was going or what I’d find when I got there, but I knew I had to go. It was the task I’d been chosen for. I didn’t know why, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was I made it. People were relying on me.

  But are they, Clay? I thought as self-doubt rebelled against my determination. Are they relying on you? What can you do for them?

  The monolith. The spider. What did any of it mean? I was on a crusade with an unknown destination and an unknown reward. Maybe the whole thing was a trick—some bizarre random quest that would leave me holding some epic in-game item that offered me no answers and no hope.

  Yeah, but maybe not!

  I sipped impossibly small amounts of air as I pushed on, snapping off pieces of the horrible plant that seemed intent on my destruction.

  -12, -18

  With the way I was all balled up, I wouldn’t be able to get a Soothing Syrup to my mouth. If this tunnel didn’t end before the brambles did me in, this all would have been for nothing.

  I bet you wish you’d healed now, huh? Idiot.

  It was like a second Clay had formed inside of me—an evil, spiteful Clay that only saw my faults and failures and completely overlooked anything good I’d done. The gravity and pull of the place had shifted into a feeling of dread and self-doubt, as though some great invisible organism was feeding off my soul, sucking up any feeling of confidence or hope it could find. Even the air I breathed felt tortured and decayed, like something barely capable of keeping me alive.

  Bzzzzzt!

  My brain flared. Popped. Thought retracted, cowered beneath primal fears. I shuddered as the voice shouted.

  “SEEK THE MONOLITH!” it bellowed.

  “I’m TRYING!” I shouted back as a pulse of high charge twisted through me, bending my body into the walls of the tunnel.

  -17, -8, -12

  I screamed in pain. My health was falling and there seemed no end in sight.

  “SEEK THE MONOLITH!” the voice called out again.

  “LEAVE ME ALONE!” I howled back, tears breaking free from my eyes and splashing down my cheeks. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

  And then—light. Unbelievable, brilliant light.

  White flames spilled through the tunnel like water breaking through a dam. It raced towards me, washing the walls clean as it went. The brambles dissolved out of existence and I braced myself for the inevitable.

  This is it, I thought. I blew it.

  But to my surprise, the flames didn’t kill me. I didn’t take a single point of damage. In fact, I watched with utter amazement as my health bar filled to max and fluttered there as though I could have been healed for more if only I’d had more HP to gain.

  “C-c-c-come on!” a voice shrieked out from ahead of me. As the flames passed over me, I looked up to see a familiar face peering through the passage at me. “Young Seeker! C-come!”

  “Sluck?” I gasped in confusion. “What—what are you doing here?”

  His misshapen visage warped into a crooked grin as he motioned towards me with a clawed hand that seemed frozen or possessed by some kind of palsy. In his other hand, he clutched a parcel of black feathers bound together by what looked to be strands of red human hair. Whatever it was, he’d used it to cast the spell that had freed me from the clutches of the cursed burrow.

  “N-n-no time for that now, Seeker!” he stammered, twitching awkwardly as he beckoned to me. “Come! Come, come, come!”

  My head was spinning, but I didn’t need to be told twice. Free of the horrible hands of the spider-like shrub, I scrambled forward as quickly as possible, ignoring the scrapes and pain in my elbows as I pulled myself across the rough stone. The end of the tunnel wasn’t too far ahead of
me, and without the nettles and thorns to hold me back, I reached it within seconds.

  I spilled out of the mouth of the passage like a rag doll, slipping down a muddy embankment that stank of wet dog and rot. Clumps of dirt and filth clung to my body as I rolled over and struggled to my feet, but the ground was soft and gave way, causing me to stumble back.

  Sluck’s hand, surprisingly strong, caught my right arm and held me up while I got my balance in the ground that seemed ready to collapse beneath me at any moment.

  “Ea-ea-easy now, young Seeker,” Sluck chortled. “It is n-not an easy place, this!”

  “Where am I?” I snapped. “What are you doing here?”

  “The B-B-Bowels of Quelan, of course.” Sluck smiled, finally releasing me from his grip. “Where else w-would you be?”

  “This is it?” I asked, looking around at the high, arching walls of dark brown that stretched high above us like some vaulted gothic chamber beneath an old cathedral.

  A tomb, I thought as my eyes fell on rows and rows of strange indentations in the walls, rectangular and precise, each large enough to house the body of a man. But no, it wasn’t that simple. There was something more to this chamber—something I didn’t understand and doubted I ever would.

  Ahead of me were shadows, perhaps concealing the passage forward. A sickly wet sound, like flesh pulling apart or tissue being stretched to its breaking point seemed to creep forward from the black, causing my skin to crawl. When Sluck’s voice rang out, I almost jumped out of my body.

  “This is it!” he shouted, slathering spit across his lips as he looked around. “G-glorious, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know if I’d use that word exactly,” I muttered. “Sluck, what are you doing here?”

  “Old Sluck gets around!” he laughed, snorting snot from his nose and wiping at it with a sleeve. “Old Sluck knows his way around! The question is—what are you doing here, Rand?”

  “I’m—I’m looking for the spider,” I finally told him, waiting for the inevitable blank stare that would follow. But instead, Sluck froze, cocked his head to the side and stared at me with eyes like lasers. They were filled with such intensity that I felt as though any second a set of spears would leap out from them to pierce my chest.