by Isaac Hooke
“Hmm,” Tane said. “That means he removed the Restrainer. Even though I specifically told him not to do it.”
“Lyra gave him permission,” Muse said.
We’ve only just gotten her back and already she’s undermining my authority, is she?
Well, he didn’t care anyway.
He was through with that World Bender stuff.
He checked his overhead map. Sinive’s dull indicator was still in the cargo bay.
He was hoping it had been a bad dream.
“However, you’ll be glad to know that according to the last communication received from the Red Grizzly, the Mancer is wearing the Restrainer once again,” the Mosaic’s AI continued. “Lyra has instructed him to remove it only for jumps.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Tane said. “By the way, why is the Red Grizzly so far away from us anyway?”
“Our ships have no ability to link distortion tunnels,” Muse said. “As such, when we jumped into the system we appeared in random locations.”
“True, but I would have thought our two ships would’ve closed the gap by now,” Tane said. “It’s been at least, what, five hours since we arrived in this system, I’m guessing?”
“While that is correct, there is no point in closing the gap, as you say, considering that when we jump to the final system, we’ll appear in random locations once again,” the Mosaic’s AI said.
“Yeah, except I’m supposed to board the Red Grizzly sometime to neutralize Nebb’s control chip,” Tane said.
He glanced down at himself for the first time and realized someone had removed his armor while he slept, leaving him in his ordinary clothes. He still wore his gauntlets, necklaces, and all the other Chrysalium gear, however.
He sat up. His storage pouch and beam hilt rested on the stand at the head of the bunk, and he attached both to his belt.
“What happened to my armored robe?” Tane asked.
“Gia took it,” Muse said. “About five hours ago. You’ll be glad to know her leg is fully healed.”
“I am glad, of course,” Tane said. “But why did she take my armor?”
“She intends to repair the damage with the on-board 3D printers,” the Mosaic’s AI said.
“Oh,” Tane said. “Nice of her.”
“Not really,” Muse said. “The Volur Lyra is paying for the repairs.”
“Ah.” The notification icon in the lower right of his HUD was still flashing. Tane was feeling rested enough to review the alerts, so he pulled up the window.
Level up. Your overall level is now 10! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.
Level up. Your overall level is now 11! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.
Level up. Air Current is now Level 2. 90% chance of successful creation. Created currents are 25% more powerful.
Level up. Essence Missile is now Level 3. 95% chance of missile creation. Upon success: 35% more damage is inflicted, and impacted objects are repelled 30% farther.
Level up. Essence Sight is now Level 3. Without any other Siphoning bonuses, you may place your perspective up to a maximum of fifty meters away from your body, in any direction, without disorientation.
Level up. Dark and White Mixing is now Level 3. You may now master more complex mixed works. Branches and Timelines are created 30% faster. You may create a single, additional work of the White at the same time you are occupied with a Dark and White timeline, assuming you have access to enough Essence.
Level up. Beam Hilt Control is now Level 3. 30% more damage is inflicted with each blow. 25% more damage dealt with any launched Essence bolts.
New sub-skill received.
Beam Hilt Control — Blade Manipulation. Level 1. You can now slightly alter the shape of your blade.
Level up. Dark Artifact Control is now Level 1. 10% greater chance of controlling the artifact.
Level up. Darcanium Siphoning is now Level 2. 8% added bonus to Chaosworks when Siphoning through Darcanium.
Level up. Chrysalium Siphoning is now Level 3. 12% added bonus to Branchworks when Siphoning through Chrysalium.
Level up. Learning is now Level 3. Learn 10% faster.
Attribute up. Endurance +1. Current Endurance: 20 (41 with Beam Hilt I, Chrysalium Star Rings, and Endurance Necklace I equipped)
Attribute up. Intelligence +1. Current Intelligence: 15 (28 with Beam Hilt I, Chrysalium Star Rings, Feral Necklace, Finger of Malevolence, and Nova Bracelet I equipped)
That was interesting how he had gained two levels in Air Current. Though he supposed he had certainly put the work through its paces.
He really didn’t care all that much about the listed gains. What did any of it matter in the overall scheme of things? He only wanted one thing right now. To get to Aegean Tetragon, and to find the archaeoceti.
He had two attribute points to allocate. He put the first into Endurance, which would allow him to last longer the next time he Siphoned. The second he put into Dexterity, mostly because he thought that maybe if he had been faster, he might have been able to save Sinive. That left his Dexterity at fourteen, and his Endurance at twenty-one, or forty-two with all his gear equipped.
He glanced at the overhead map and noticed that Jed was still in sickbay, while Gia was in the cockpit with Lyra.
“Update me on Jed,” Tane said. “Lyra hasn’t healed him yet?”
“She has, actually,” Muse said. “About eight hours after making the second jump, Lyra healed him. There was some debate before she made the jump, actually, about whether she would heal Jed before or after the jump. Jed convinced her to make the jump first, since it was important to put as much distance between ourselves and the TSN as possible.”
“If Jed is healed,” Tane said. “Why is he still in sickbay?”
“He is under observation by the medical robots,” the Mosaic’s AI said. “Lyra’s orders.”
“I see.” That was some relief, anyway.
Tane got up off the bed and made his way through the passageways to cargo bay two. Muse didn’t want to let him in at first, but he finally got approval from Gia to open the hatch.
Tane went inside and approached the stasis pod. Ordinarily those units were used to place living things into a temporary state of suspended animation for long journeys, emergency medical transportation, and so forth. The pods weren’t really meant to store the dead, but by having Sinive placed inside, at least Tane prevented decay from taking hold.
When her serene face came into view beyond the glass pane, all the grief he had been subduing up until that moment came to the fore and threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling, and he gently rested an open palm upon the glass.
“My Sinive,” Tane whispered. “Forgive me.”
Tane stared at her for a long time. Jed had been right. Those Tane loved could be used against him. That big dweller had essentially used Tane to raze a good portion of the city, after all, by killing Sinive. He couldn’t think of any other reason why S’Wraathar would have done it. Then again, perhaps there hadn’t been any purpose behind her death at all, other than to spite Tane. He remembered S’Wraathar’s last words to him, words that were burned forever into his mind: “A parting gift for you, Doomwielder.”
How could such a thing ever be considered a gift? How?
He felt the despair give way to burning rage inside of him, and Tane swore he would hunt down that dweller and exact vengeance at some point. Just as soon as he was done paying a visit to these archaeoceti.
If he survived the encounter.
Tane had already decided that if the cost for her life was his own, he would gladly pay it. A life for a life.
Tane called G’allanthamas.
“Greetings, Doomwielder,” the alien said.
“What’s in Aegean Tetragon?” Tane asked.
“Ah,” G’allanthamas replied.
“Tell me,” Tane pressed.
<
br /> “You never were one for preamble,” G’allanthamas told him. “In truth, I don’t really know, other than in Aegean Tetragonal there is a means to reach the archaeoceti. Tiberius spoke of the system often. He called it the Gateway to the archaeoceti. He said you would have to go there before you were truly ready to face your destiny.”
“Face the Gravity Born, you mean?” Tane asked.
“The Z’Antamaraan living at the core of the galaxy were unknown in the day of Tiberius,” G’allanthamas said. “But even then he was so in tune with the different universes that he must have sensed their threat. Whether or not confronting them was what he meant by ‘your destiny,’ I cannot say.”
The hatch opened behind Tane, and he dismissed the connection without a word more. He glanced at his overhead map and saw Lyra’s indicator.
In moments the Volur was standing at his side and gazing into the window of the stasis pod with him. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m not. Not really.” He squeezed his fists, released them. “I go from despair, to rage, and back again. Over and over. There is no middle ground. One moment I want to cry my eyes out. The next I want to kill every last dweller. Except Gall, of course.”
Lyra nodded sadly. Her eyes were wet. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Tane said, his voice steel. “The fault is mine, not yours. I could have—” He shook his head. He wouldn’t allow himself to go there again. He glanced at Lyra. “You went offline during the battle. I thought you had died. What happened?”
“I shut down external broadcasts for a time,” Lyra said. “So the TSN wouldn’t be able to track me down.”
“What happened when I left you in the forest then? With the aliens in pursuit?”
“I did my best to stop them,” Lyra said. “With the Essence boost provided by the Mancer’s armband, I faced off against their leader, a Graaz’dhen Amaranth. We battled with the Essence, and with energy blades, Dark versus White. He got into my head… distracted me. Almost struck me down. I managed to break free of his hold and deflected the killing blow in time, but the dweller bashed me into a tree with one of his legs and ran off, leaving other Amaranth to deal with me. By the time I defeated them, he was gone. So I retreated, and joined Gia and the others at the edge of the park, where the hacked robots had delivered them. We waited for the Mosaic to return, and you know the rest.” She paused. “I’m sorry for striking you down with an Essence Missile. You were... not yourself.”
Tane nodded absently. “Don’t be. I deserved it.” He gazed into the glass pane, at Sinive’s peaceful face. “If there’s a chance I can bring her back, even a small one, I have to try.”
“I know,” Lyra said softly.
“And like I told Gall, I don’t care what the cost is,” Tane said. “I really don’t. I’ll pay anything. My life. The lives of you, all my friends. Even the destruction of an entire homeworld, if it comes to it.”
Maybe even the whole universe.
That last thought made him shudder.
Would I really destroy the universe to save her?
And yet, what would be the point of saving her if there was no universe for her in which to live?
He gazed at Lyra, and saw her searching gaze upon him. Her expression was unreadable.
“Does that make me an evil person?” Tane asked her at last.
For once, Lyra seemed at a loss for words. The great teacher, who always had an answer for everything, had been stumped by the student.
Tane looked away. “There is a darkness inside of me, I know that now. I’m not sure... not sure I can beat it.”
Lyra remained quiet for some time. Finally she said: “There is a darkness inside us all. As much as we like to pretend we walk always in the light, it’s simply not true. This shadow is a part of what makes us human. We have learned to control it to varying degrees. Not all of us succeed fully. It’s why we have laws for those of weaker will and temperament, those who would act on their darker impulses were there not consequences. If the majority of human beings did not restrain their inner shadows, there could be no civilization.”
Tane sighed. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better, or worse.” He looked at her, and when she met his gaze, he noticed a slight tremble to her lip. A micro tic.
His chip told him that she was afraid of him. Why?
And then he understood.
“You believed every word I just told you, about destroying an entire homeworld to save her,” Tane said.
“I did,” Lyra said. “I pray, if it comes to the choice between ten billion lives, and one, you would choose to save the ten billion.”
“I hope so, too,” Tane said softly.
“I would readily take her place,” Lyra said. She folded her arms around her chest as if to fend off a sudden cold. “All of us who follow you, and fight for you, would. We know we could die at any time. You’re the Bender of Worlds. The Doomwielder. The TSN wants to capture you. As do the dwellers, though some of them also want to kill you. Being near you is one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy. And yet we choose to serve at your side. Sinive knew this, and she chose it, too.”
Tane looked back at Sinive, and once more set down his palm on the glass. Jed’s piercings had been removed, he noted, leaving only her pale, flawless skin.
Lyra rested a hand on his shoulder. “Gia will be making the next jump in three hours. She and I are both fully rested... we’re waiting on Chancery to recover aboard the Red Grizzly.”
“Could you take the Grizzly Cub to the ship?” Tane asked. “And perform the jump immediately?”
“We’d have to wait until the Red Grizzly closed with us, which will take three hours anyway,” Lyra said. “Besides, if I jumped, I’d be useless to you when we arrived. The Mosaic could, however, jump alone if you prefer, with the Red Grizzly arriving in-system three hours later.”
Tane shook his head. “No. As much as I want to reach the archaeoceti quickly, I have no idea what we’ll face in that uncharted system. We might need every ship we have. A three hours delay isn’t going to make much difference. Not now.”
Lyra nodded. She glanced once more at Sinive, touched the glass as if to say good-bye to the dead woman, and then left.
When she was gone, Tane idly pulled up his HUD interface and accessed the rolling video archive stored in his chip. He went as far back as the archive had recorded, and found one of his lovemaking sessions with Sinive.
He considered saving it, something to treasure for the rest of his days in case he wasn’t able to revive her after all, but it seemed wrong somehow to remember her in that way. As if she were some mere object for his pleasure.
She was more than that. So much more.
But what about saving some other moments? Her fighting on the field of battle, for example? So he could remember her courage at the very least.
No. He decided he would let the entire archive lapse. He would remember her in his memories, and there alone. Just as he would remember the carnage he had inflicted in the aftermath of her death in his head and nowhere else.
The words of Tiberius came to him, spoken while Tane learned the imprint for Repel Nanotech on Kharikhan V.
I’ve stared into my shadow and seen the darkness there. You will do the same, eventually. And you will either emerge on the other side and find enlightenment, becoming whole with yourself, or you will get lost in that shadow and never return to the way you were.
Tane had seen his shadow, but had not yet emerged from the darkness. He wasn’t sure it was even possible. But if he could save Sinive, that would certainly set him on the right path. The only path.
Three hours.
He squeezed his fist and slammed it down on the metal portion of the stasis pod.
“I’m coming for you, Sinive. I once swore that nothing would stop me from doing so. That I’d fight for you, die for you if I had to. That I’d travel to the darkest depths of the Umbra to find you. And now it looks like I’ll be journeying to the ver
y gates of hell itself to retrieve you. But I tell you plainly, I look forward to it.”
He smiled grimly.
Yes, not even hell could stop him.
If I succeed, I’ll truly become the Bender of Worlds. Not only of this world, but the next.
What was it G’allanthamas said the archaeoceti called him?
He Who Crosses Death.
Thank you very, very much for reading.
I hope you enjoyed Bender of Worlds.
Get The Next Book
Tane Ganeth
Tane’s current attributes, skills, and equipment
Attributes
Name: Tane Ganeth (Spoofed: Jerry Maharashtra)
Race: Human
Level: 11
Class: Warmancer (Spoofed: Augmented Reality Specialist)
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 15 (28 with Beam Hilt I, Chrysalium Star Rings, Feral Necklace, Finger of Malevolence, and Nova Bracelet I equipped)
Dexterity: 14
Endurance: 21 (42 with Beam Hilt I, Chrysalium Star Rings, and Endurance Necklace I equipped)
Charisma: 9
Armor Rating:
- 37 (with Armored Robe I reduced for layering underneath Spacesuit II; and Nova Bracelet I, Osmium Gauntlets I, and A3 Personal Shield system equipped)
or
- 42 (with Armored Robe I alone; and Nova Bracelet I, Osmium Gauntlets I, and A3 Personal Shield system equipped)
Skills
Bargaining. Level 0.
Chip Database Upgrade. Level 2.
Crop Gene Splicing. Level 2.
Cycling. Level 2.
Electrical Engineering. Level 1.
