Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  Tane brought his energy ax to bear…

  S’Wraathar was on him in moments. That black ax swung away, moving so fast it was a blur. Tane countered as best as he could. Entirely on the defensive, he simply wasn’t skilled enough with the weapon to do more than parry with the haft and dodge backward.

  Tane weaved between the different desks and counters and conveyor belts as he retreated beneath the onslaught. S’Wraathar was quickly forcing Tane toward the far wall. If Tane wasn’t careful, and he allowed the dweller to pin him, he doubted he would survive. He was only able to parry half the blows that came at him, while he leaped away to avoid the remainder.

  As he continued to counter and dodge those blows, he sensed something strange in his blade. Something he had never really noticed before. A vibrational energy of some kind that passed down through the haft and into the hilt whenever the Dark touched the White.

  Tane compartmentalized his mind just as he did earlier when Siphoning two works at once, and reached out with that partition, seeking the strange energy as he fought, trying to pick it apart, determine what it was.

  The Dark pole-ax sliced downward, and as Tane caught its blade between the dual bits of his own White ax, he found the source. And before the Dark pole-ax could bounce away, Tane grabbed that source tightly and squeezed.

  The Essence blades that composed his dual-bitted ax enlarged, curving around the black, trapping S’Wraathar’s fiery weapon.

  The dweller clattered something incomprehensible, sounding outraged. Then the two blades on S’Wraathar’s ax vanished entirely, leaving only the pole: the alien slid the bladeless haft free of the trap. A moment later the blade returned, larger than ever.

  Tane leaped back, avoiding the angry blow that followed, and parrying the next one.

  Lyra had spoken of the ability to change the shape of the Essence blade the hilt produced. From what he had gathered, it was a skill that could only be attained at a much higher level of beam hilt control, but because of the nature of the current fight, with White interacting with Dark, he had short-circuited that learning curve and accelerated his access to the ability.

  He realized that the vibration in the weapon had been there all along.

  He tried squeezing the source again, and once more the dual blades curved inward. That seemed to be the only shape he could form: he wasn’t sure how useful the ability would be considering that S’Wraathar knew Tane could trap his blade now.

  Tane had been spending too much time pondering as he fought, because he hadn’t noticed how close he’d allowed the dweller to come. Without warning a tentacle swept Tane up and drew him toward the protective environment that surrounded S’Wraathar. Tane took a last gulp of air before he found himself bathed in liquid hydrocarbons. His eyes burned, and he was forced to close his eyelids. If he didn’t have Essence Sight active, he wouldn’t have seen anything at all.

  He tried to unleash an Essence Missile at close range, but he couldn’t form the work. He tried again, still nothing. He guessed that the dweller must have placed a Disrupt work upon him, preventing him from creating anything new with either Essence until the Disrupt effect expired.

  He tried to swing downward with his ax, which was still active despite the Disrupt, but the dweller caught his arm with another tentacle. S’Wraathar brought the tip of his own black energy ax close to Tane’s neck, so that Tane was sure he was done for, but then the creature paused.

  S’Wraathar’s maw twisted until it was almost horizontal, and then a multicolored tongue slithered forth. It shifted in hue, and Tane felt a presence in his brain. The temptation to gaze into Tane’s mind, now that the dweller had him firmly in his grasp, was apparently too tempting for the Graaz’dhen side of S’Wraathar to resist.

  Tane’s Essence Sight faded, and he was inside the darkness of his head. Conversations and images flashed through his mind of their own accord. He saw Tiberius, teaching him via the reflection in the polished rock. Sinive, as Tane made love to her. G’allanthamas, as the dweller launched attacks against the Amaranth on Kharikhan V.

  Seeing his alien friend reminded Tane of the trick G’allanthamas taught him to deflect psychic attacks. He filled his mind with even more chaos than he needed to Siphon the Dark, imagining a cacophony of sights and sounds. He focused on images of his most recent sparring with the dweller, of parrying that Dark blade, because it helped remind him that this was just as much a fight for his life as that was.

  And then he was outside of himself once more, looking down at his body via Essence Sight, held by the tentacles of the dweller, the fiery blade of the Dark ax threatening to end his existence at any moment.

  The dweller apparently hadn’t realized that Tane had broken free. That multicolored tongue floated in front of Tane, shifting hypnotically. Tane tried to create an Essence Missile once more, but still the work wouldn’t form. The Disrupt effect was still active. Yet Essence Sight worked.

  Tane struggled against those tentacles as his lungs began to burn nearly as badly as his eyes. He hoped the dweller cut off his head soon, if only to end this misery.

  The tongue retreated, and the head twisted upright. The dweller clattered something that sounded eerily similar to a human laugh within that liquid environment. S’Wraathar retracted the Dark blade.

  As the burning in his lungs and the desire for air became unbearable, Tane understood: the dweller intended to watch cruelly as Tane drowned. That was to be his ignominious end.

  Just when he thought he must give in and inhale that deadly environment, someone fired into the dweller from the side. A powerful plasma burst struck the carapace between two legs—S’Wraathar would have had to lower any shield to pick up Tane, and had probably exhausted any Deflect reserves by then.

  The dweller released Tane instantly after the impact, and staggered to one side before dodging for cover behind a conveyor belt as more plasma bolts came in.

  Tane gasped, frantic for air now that he was free of that poisonous environment.

  Sinive. She had saved him.

  She was on the receiving end of dweller fire as energy launchers pinned her behind a nearby console. The surviving members of the TSN in the terminal were currently occupied by two of the rock creatures, and couldn’t offer her aid.

  Tane knew all of this only because of Essence Sight. He kept his burning eyes closed, unable to open them. Tears flowed constantly as his lachrymal glands attempted to flush the liquid hydrocarbons away. He staggered backward, putting some distance between himself and the dweller, and dropping behind a counter as other aliens fired at him.

  The terminal darkened as a black shape blotted out the sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, most of which were smashed out by now. A pincer ship hovered above the TSN troops just outside. Either the dwellers had already repaired their existing ship, or more likely, they had another waiting in orbit.

  Was it here to drop off more reinforcements?

  Local police craft orbited the vessel, firing at the hull. A large gunship made a flyby, launching a salvo of plasma bolts. The dweller vessel returned fire.

  Most of the TSN troops out there had diverted their attention to the ship. Mechs unleashed missiles. Scepters engaged with plasma and laser rifles.

  Point defenses in the alien ship returned fire as a wide ramp opened underneath the vessel.

  S’Wraathar rose from cover upon eight wobbly legs.

  Tane tried to create an Essence Missile and it worked this time. He released it, but S’Wraathar managed to dodge, crab-walking to the side; even so, the Missile passed through the dark sphere that enveloped the alien and grazed one of the legs, searing it. The dweller screamed in outrage. S’Wraathar obviously had no more works of Deflect in reserve, nor did any of his Amaranth friends—if they did, they were saving the Essenceworks for themselves.

  S’Wraathar turned toward Tane and raised the black pole-ax.

  Tane readied his beam hilt for the assault he knew was coming. He decided he’d hold off creating any mo
re Missiles until the alien closed, when the chances of scoring a hit were that much higher.

  An Amaranth behind a counter near the far side of the terminal began to clatter and shriek wildly. S’Wraathar paused. Though the alien didn’t turn to look, Tane had the impression S’Wraathar was surveying the scene behind him via the Dark equivalent of Essence Sight. Tane wondered if he should release an Essence Missile, but decided to wait a little longer.

  With his own Essence Sight, he too examined the terminal: there were only three Amaranth left alive, and a handful of ordinary dwellers; a group of mechs, scepters and Essence warriors crouched near the entrance behind the wreckages of robots from both sides. The crumbled shapes of a few of the rock creatures S’Wraathar had unleashed were strewn between them. On the street just outside the terminal were more of the destroyed rock beings, next to the wreckages of mechs, and the corpses of fallen dwellers. Only two rock creatures remained standing out there, bashing their way through the TSN positions. One rock being was struck by a missile as Tane watched, and half of the creature was blown away. Another missile struck an instant later, destroying it entirely. The second being fell a moment later.

  No more alien troops were forthcoming from the pincer ship outside. A few dwellers and their spider robots had gathered near the top of the ramp, and fired suppressively into the fray, but they seemed to have no intention of rushing into the waiting deathtrap. Those dwellers defending the ramp all wore environmental suits, Tane noted. If there were Amaranth aboard, they were staying close to their jump chambers.

  As Tane watched, another TSN transport landed next to the dweller ship, and more robots and mechs began to flow outside. It quickly became apparent that the dwellers had lost here.

  S’Wraathar must have finished his survey, because he grunted some curt response and then approached Tane, as if unconcerned by what he saw.

  The nearby Amaranth shrieked again, and then rose from hiding, as did the others. The aliens began to retreat through the smashed glass panes; the waiting ship outside continued to lay down covering fire for them. As they fled, the routed dwellers fired at the Essence warriors and robots that took cover near the entrance, and otherwise attacked anything that stood in their collective paths.

  S’Wraathar howled in outrage at the apparent betrayal. The alien spat some odd mixture of clatters and moans at Tane, as if promising they would meet again, and then turned to go.

  The alien’s energy shield activated as someone fired at S’Wraathar from the right. It was Sinive again.

  The dweller turned toward her, and cocked that sideways-oriented head.

  “Sinive, run!” Tane said.

  The dweller darted toward her.

  Tane frantically unleashed three Essence Missiles in a row at S’Wraathar, the biggest, most powerful he could muster in his current state, but the alien avoided them all. In moments the dweller had reached Sinive.

  She launched a weak Essence Missile at the alien; it hit squarely in the carapace, but S’Wraathar shrugged off the blow and scooped her up in long tentacles, dangling her outside the liquid hydrocarbon environment. The dweller rotated her toward Tane so that she acted as a shield, then S’Wraathar deactivated the pole-ax and held the hilt behind her so that the weapon was ready to explode from her chest.

  The alien spoke for the first time, via a voice box that hung underneath that sideway-oriented head. A box Tane hadn’t even noticed had existed until then.

  The voice warbled in that liquid environment, but the frequency modulations Tane had previously programmed into his chip compensated so that he could understand the words.

  “A parting gift for you, Doomwielder,” S’Wraathar said.

  35

  Tane ran toward them. “No!”

  “Tane, I—” Sinive said.

  The pole-ax activated.

  What happened next, he hardly saw. He was vaguely aware as the dweller dropped her lifeless, gore-covered body to the floor. Vaguely aware as incoming fire from the TSN struck the dweller, and the alien fled, joining its brethren.

  Tane had fallen to the ground when she did. He couldn’t get up. He tried, but it felt like the entire planet was weighing him down. Both Essences were completely gone. Unreachable. Even Essence Sight went away.

  He crawled toward her in darkness, his beam hilt forgotten somewhere on the floor behind him.

  Have to get to her.

  And when he found the spacesuit, and the still warm body it contained, and felt the blood covering her lifeless form, he tried once more to step into the Essence, wanting to heal her. But he couldn’t find it.

  I can save her. I must.

  He forced himself to calm down and finally managed to step into the White. He threw out his Essence Sight lifeline and he could see once more. That wasn’t a good thing. Gazing down at her mangled form sickened him anew, and he nearly lost the Essence once again.

  He forced himself to be impassive. He told himself this was some random person that needed healing. Not Sinive. It was the only way he could do this.

  Then he created a work of healing, allowed it to partially set in this reality, and cast it inside her for completion.

  Something was different. Ordinarily, when using that particular work, he felt warmth press against the cold stellar wind, but this time there was only more cold. He struggled, trying to get the work to take hold, but it seemed futile—there was no life to hold on to. He began to realize she was truly lost.

  After several failed attempts, he released her and slumped over her body in exhaustion, letting her blood smear him. He couldn’t see anymore without Essence Sight, his eyes still burning, unable to open.

  He heard a roar outside and realized the dweller ship was departing. That meant the TSN would soon be closing in to capture him.

  He didn’t care.

  Let them capture me. Let them chip me.

  No. He wasn’t done here yet.

  There might still be a way.

  He clambered to his feet.

  He would save her.

  He threw out his Essence Sight lifeline so that he could see again and hurried to the closest gate. He rested his hand on the Chrysalium surface. He stepped into the Essence through it, and with the aid of the Dark, he shaped a massive work of Air Current. It failed to take the first few times, since his level in that particular Branchwork was low, but on the fourth try, he finally succeeded.

  He directed the incredible currents outward, toward the edges of every single gate in front of him, and turned them all ninety-degrees so that they were facing one another. He did the same with the gate he was touching, taking care to move with the circular object as it turned.

  Then he directed a powerful gust outward, to the far wall on his right, and shoved that Essence-born wind onto the top portion of the gate there, toppling the structure. It fell into the Chrysalium circle next to it and that gate toppled, too, hitting the next, and so on, so that the gates fell in turn like giant dominos. The air filled with their clangs.

  Tane stepped back and stayed inside the Essence so that he could watch the twenty gates collapse in front of him. When it was done, the top portions of each touched the thick bases of those immediately next to them, so that they were all connected.

  He knelt to touch the closest fallen gate. Since they were all joined, he was able to step into the Essence through all of them at once, as though he Siphoned from a single large source of Chrysalium. The White Essence howled inside of him like a hurricane: the amount of stellar wind scraping across his bones was comparable to the hull of a small Chrysalium ship.

  Siphoning bonus. All White Essenceworks are enhanced 1180% due to Siphoning through combined Chrysalium objects.

  It was impossible to control the raging ribbon of Essence that flickered before him—he couldn’t draw enough of the Dark on his own.

  Tane retrieved one of the dark artifacts from his storage pouch and expanded it so that it stood towering beside him. Then he touched it with his free hand, and the c
onflagration of the Dark exploded inside of him. He knelt there, arms outstretched like that, one hand touching the White, the other, the Dark.

  Siphoning bonus. All Dark Essenceworks are enhanced 570% due to Siphoning through Dark Artifact.

  Now he had more than enough blazing Dark to contain the frozen White.

  With his Essence Sight, he spotted energy nets flying in upon him from the direction of the terminal entrance. He easily deflected those nets with gusts of air, and then sent more works of Air Current outward. He struck the mechs, robots and Essence warriors near the entrance, as well as those lurking in cover at various spots throughout the terminal, and flung them all through the broken glass panes and onto the street outside like rag dolls.

  Then he turned all of his attention upon Sinive. His Sinive.

  He poured healing into her.

  It was most likely futile, given his low level in the Branchwork. Given that he hadn’t even been able to heal Jed of his microcrillia infection. Yes, Tane knew these things, but he had to try.

  Perhaps he could achieve a miracle.

  He formed his most important work of the Essence yet, creating a massive tree of healing that filled the extents of the entire terminal, and when he partially set it into this reality, placing the bottommost Branches and Leaves inside her, still there was no warmth to meet his cold.

  But he pressed on, searching the gaping, bloody hole in the chest assembly of her spacesuit. Ever seeking for a modicum of warmth.

  A modicum of life.

  He remained fixed like that, constantly creating White and bolstering it with Dark for what seemed an eternity, but in truth, perhaps a minute passed.

  He achieved nothing.

  Sinive was gone.

  He could not heal death. The huge hole remained untouched in her chest. For all the power he had, he could do nothing—not a thing—to help her.

  He released both Essences, slumped to the floor, and vomited.