Through the Mirror

by D C Tullis

  “Very well,” Eldevui replied unfazed. “Then, do we have any who wish to join in on our journey.”

  “We will,” a voice rung out from the center of the crowd. Enell, the Fae of royalty we had met prior, rose to his feet and forced his sister Anairen up with him. A gasp of surprise escaped Anairen’s lips as she turned to glare an angry gaze at her brother. He picked up on this and gave her a reassuring smile. “Come on, these two humans have risked their lives for us, so we might as well return the favor. Furthermore, Anairen, the Great Plains is one of the safest areas left. The Eldritch have hardly even touched it. We shall be out of there in no time at all.”

  “But why?” she childishly whined.

  “I have already made up my mind that I’m going to do this,” Enell replied. “If you wish to go along with the others, be my guest.”

  The very thought of separation from her brother seemed to bring a spark of primal fear to her eyes, so she bottled her frustration and kicked at his left shin as she sat down.

  “Very well. This concludes our final meeting. I wish you all the best,” Eldevui declared before stepping down from the pedestal and joining us. ”Come on now, we should check up on Khail.”

  ✽✽✽

  The halls that had been empty fifteen minutes prior were now filled with occupied Fae. They shuffled quickly up and down the halls packing personal items, detaching equipment, and grabbing firearms. We passed Jorghil and Dennyk as they assigned tasks to the scurrying Fae with rapid fire precision. When one smaller Fae dropped a rather expensive looking seafoam green sphere, Jorghil nearly struck the poor guy in a flurry of rage. Ellie shot me a concerned glance, but we carried on and quickly found our small group at the door to the Medical Lab. The greeting we received wasn’t surprising in the slightest. Khail leaned back in a levitating chair holding a half empty glass of a brown amber liquid with the scent of bourbon in his right hand while a shiny, sinuous bastard crossbreed between a sewing machine and the symbol for a treble clef operated on his mostly reattached left arm.

  “I must say, I have not the faintest idea where this bottle came from, but I love it,” Khail declared to his onlookers.

  “Now where did you find that?” Eldevui asked him as he approached and studied the liquid.

  “Behind the counter over there,” Khail replied before wincing a little as the alien sewing machine began stitching at a level closer to the surface.

  “Really? I knew that bastard Dennyk had always seemed shifty. That is his station over there,” Eldevui announced as he pointed in the direction Khail had. “And this… this came from one of the bottles I had found down here when I first explored this location several moons back. It had been ‘stolen’ from my lab recently.”

  “Well, I can firmly commend you on your tastes in liquor, Eldevui,” Khail replied.

  “Anyway, gentlemen and ladies,” Irithril spoke with specific emphasis on the ending. “We are in the same boat as the rest of the survivors here. We have got to leave as soon as possible.”

  “We’re probably not actually,” Ellie chimed in. “We should leave before then if you all want to get to your gate safely. They’re a fair distance apart, right?”

  “The little lady is right,” Khail said as he rose from the machine letting the force of the act remove the nanite needle from his flesh. “It is time to gear up and leave posthaste.”

  Ellie winced when she heard the comment about her height. I knew her well enough to put my hand on her shoulder and wink.

  “We will certainly need weaponry,” announced Eldevui.

  “We’re already covered on that,” I replied as I held up my blade and pointed to Irithril’s staff and Ellie’s pistol.

  “We are not sufficiently equipped,” added Enell. “Although if I might suggest, it seems best if we are only minimally equipped as to not lengthen the journey unnecessarily.”

  I had nearly forgotten Enell and his sister Anairen were tagging along, but having some extra guns could come in handy if we encountered any straggling Eldritch.

  “I will take you two and Eldevui down to the armory. Irithril, please escort our human companions to the entrance chamber. We shall reconvene shortly,” Khail announced as he finished the remnants of his drink and wiped the liquid from his lips.

  ✽✽✽

  Ellie, Irithril, and I had been waiting patiently for nearly twenty minutes before the others re-joined us. I’d nearly memorized every speck of chipped paint before heavy footsteps awoke me from my trance. It wasn’t the people I noticed first though, it was the weaponry Enell was packing. It was a badass floating massive gun, levitating with the assistance of four curvy translucent plates underneath its base. Enell was grinning wildly at his loadout when he entered the room with Anairen who was loaded down with four rifles. Irithril shot a look towards Khail who only shrugged in response. The floating gun was a shade of gunmetal black. It had two barrels, one over the other, and each must have reached nearly four feet in length. Accompanying the barrels were two large boxes, one beneath it and one extending to to the right hand side. On the back end, it was operated by what looked like brass knuckles. How it functioned I had no idea, but I was divided on whether I wanted to actually see it used. Who am I kidding, I definitely wanted to see it used.

  “So, how does it work?” I asked Khail.

  “An absolute beauty, is she not? This is a double barrelled crew served gun with an over-under configuration. The top barrel fires darts like Ellie’s pistol, only much larger. The lower barrel is part of a hypersonic railgun assembly. It can only fire about four rounds per minute, but the impact of a single round has the kinetic energy equivalent of around 1 ton of what you Earthers call TNT,” Khail replied.

  “Talk about overkill,” Ellie declared.

  “Oh yeah,” I nodded.

  “It is time to get a move on,” Eldevui called as he let his new gun drop to his hip. It appeared the size of a submachine gun with a short stubby barrel and an awkwardly long, plated stock. “I am not getting any younger in moons.”

  Anairen came forward and handed a rifle to Ellie and I. The other two she carried were for her brother and herself.

  Khail said, “We cannot leave via the trapdoor exit up the ladder that we use for scouting since the heavy weapon is too large to fit, plus it cannot float that high. We will go via the loading dock.”

  Irithril gave Eldevui a nod and we all headed towards the exit. We entered a loading bay holding various equipment, crates, and vehicles. Khail moved ahead and unlatched a heavy door, sliding it to one side.

  On the opposite side of the door, the sky had begun to darken. I was unaware how long a day lasted on this planet. It could have simply been the darkening of the clouds or it could have meant that nightfall approached. The thought made me shudder a little. Horrific, ferociously violent monsters lurking in the shadows waiting to turn our entrails to sushi. Even under two pink moons, we’d still be at a massive disadvantage.

  After everyone was out, I helped Khail slide shut the door behind us. Everything had happened so fast over the day, but there was a slight sense of relief in the knowledge that we were about to leave for home. I placed my arm around Ellie’s shoulders and we walked towards the porch of the dilapidated building. Several of the other Fae had already arrived at the building and were sitting around a portable heating unit warming their hands and eyeing us. Nim sat among them. His beady eyes followed our every move. We moved to the gliders and decided it was best that we only took three.

  “One last thing before we all head off into certain death,” Eldevui announced as he raised a finger. “I have set up a number of precautions which in theory should decrease the certain chance of our deaths by at least a little.”

  “What do you mean by ‘certain death’?” I asked.

  “Just attempting to lighten the mood,” Eldevui replied.

  “And just when I was starting to get my hopes up,” Ellie mused.

  “Shh,” Irithril hushed.

  “Yes, s
o as I was saying. I have in fact developed a technology over the course of the last few weeks… well, really modified, but… anyway it is a set of drones which scan our surrounding area for any Eldritch presence. Think of them very much as birds with radar,” Eldevui said.

  “And you did not think to give us these when we almost died on our last excursion?” Khail snapped at Eldevui.

  “Well…,” Eldevui rubbed his neck awkwardly. “They are not well suited for an environment of tight corridors. I did not want them aimlessly damaged. Further, I may have been giving them some… finishing tweaks at that time.”

  Khail rolled his eyes and removed a four inch metallic cylinder from his pocket. He snapped his fingers, lit it, and reclined against a crumbling wall.

  “Anyway, they function well now and that is what is truly important,” Eldevui finished.

  “That is acceptable to me,” Irithril replied. “Remember all, turn on your comm links and set them to channel fejh-ket, otherwise this will be one boring ride.”

  I nodded and turned mine on. It sent a sharp little buzz through my ear before returning to radio silence. Ellie quickly followed suit. With nothing left to do we rationed off the gliders. Ellie and I took the one Irithril piloted, Enell and Anairen rode on the back of Khail’s glider, and Eldevui rode solo with the heavy gun, boxes of ammunition, and his three drones piled on. I was quite surprised he could even lift off with the heavy load, but within a minute of boarding he demonstrated a surprising amount of tact for the unwieldy vehicle. We put on our helmets, lifted off the ground, and a few seconds later began our journey towards the gate to Earth.

  About a mile on Khail signaled a halt.

  “Listen up,” he called over the comm link. “It would be wise to stop for a moment. I have been thinking…”

  “That is certainly a first,” Irithril chuckled under her breath.

  “...If we are to encounter danger out there, it would be wise that these children actually know how to use the weaponry. I would sleep easier knowing that I’m not about to be hit by friendly fire.

  “I don’t need it,” spoke Ellie as she sat down on the levitating glider and allowed her legs to hang from the right wing.

  “She might not, but we would appreciate the knowledge,” Enell announced as he stepped forward with Anairen at his heel.

  “What about you then, Jason?” Khail asked me.

  “I’m down,” I replied. “What’s an hour or two anyway to the potentially incoming horde of bloodthirsty Eldritch?”

  “That’s the spirit,” Ellie added caustically.

  “Gather around and look here,” announced Khail presenting his rifle. “This is a D’Los 352-Ank medium rifle. It fires darts like Ellie’s pistol, except the darts are heavier and we have many more magazines on my sled. So first things first, this right here is a magazine eject. It is on both sides of the rifle so you can use it right-handed or left-handed. It will release the magazine. You have to pull it back to unlock the magazine. You then grab the magazine, pull it down, and it is gone. After that you can insert a new magazine, push up, and it locks in place. All of you do that now.”

  I took my rifle, pulled back the eject lever, and pulled out the magazine. Ellie did the same.

  “Alright,” said Khail, “Push it back in until it locks.”

  I did so, and so did the others.

  “Time for some target practice. You see that tree stump over there? Put the butt of the rifle firmly against your shoulder and aim the rifle. Align the front sight with the rear sight so that you see a line from your eye through the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. Do you have that?”

  “Roger,” I replied, already growing bored with the lesson.

  The two other heads quickly nodded yes.

  “Next, see the toggle above the trigger on the left side? It has 3 positions. Down is for single shots. In the middle it gives a burst of five darts. On top it fires darts until you release the trigger or the magazine is empty. Position the lever in the middle, that is, the horizontal position,” Khail said.

  “It would be wise to speed this up,” Eldevui called out with hint of anxiety in his tone.

  Khail ignored the remark.

  “Now,” Khail said, “Sight in as I told you on that tree stump. Practice firing until your magazine is empty.”

  Enell, Anairen, and I stood there and fired five round bursts at the tree stump. Anairen had a surprising aptitude for weaponry. She hit it every time no problem, but in the beginning neither I nor Enell were doing so well.

  “Jason, remember to align the rear sight with the front sight and the target,” Irithril exclaimed.

  I did that and then it went better. Nearly every shot hit where I wanted.

  “Excellent work,” Khail said. “Now, this is the most important thing to remember. Shoot when you have to, but if you shoot me I will leave you naked and tied to a tree.”

  “Yeah, and what if you shoot us?” Ellie asked mockingly.

  “Well then you will be dead…,” Khail spoke softly as he lit his smoke cylinder.

  A silence fell over our group for a moment before Irithril redirected us, “We must keep moving. We are losing valuable time.”

  “That we are,” Eldevui added. “Onwards.”

  ✽✽✽

  Our journey led us through varied sets of terrain. The city backdrop faded from view and we were greeted with lush meadows full of wildflowers and strange fruit trees. This land, however, was not as beautiful as it might have been. Patches of Eldritch blight disfigured the otherwise captivating landscape. Dead fields of grass and the decaying carcases of wildlife gave away what parts of the land had seen the Eldritch menace. Their touch seemed to distort and maim much of natural creation. Eventually the meadows and fields of grass began to fade into massive open plains of strange flora. The terrain was alight with colors dancing between puce and neon purple, twisting and swirling in ways I had never thought possible. It was truly a sight. What made this change of scenery even more beautiful was the absolute lack of Eldritch presence, or rather the absolute lack of animate presence. It was completely still beyond the whirring of the winds above, the hushed humming of our levitating gliders, and the buzzing of insects flying through the plant life.

  “Goddamn, that’s beautiful,” Ellie declared through our communications network.

  “Yeah, not a sight you see every day,” I replied.

  “This?” Irithril asked. “This is nothing. Where I grew up, far beyond the city’s limits, we had gushing waterfalls and glimmers of light that at times would fall from the sky and rest among the endless meadows.”

  “Where is that?” Enell chimed in with a question.

  “...Gone,” Irithril replied hesitantly

  “Oh, my… my apologies,” he replied sorrowfully.

  “How much farther are we?” Ellie asked realizing the need to redirect the conversation.

  “A fair distance, child of the first Earth,” Eldevui replied.

  “Whew, I do love me a good road trip,” Ellie said.

  There was a momentary pause before I entered the conversation.

  “So… Eldevui, how are you even familiar with this gate? Is there some map of all of the gates on Aos?” I asked.

  He chuckled before replying, “In a sense, yes there is a map actually. Or, more accurately, was a map. You see, travel is important in our society. We Fae are scattered across many realms and worlds, some quite far away actually. These gates are how we stay in touch, trade, convene, and travel. I had to know nearly all of the gates and their locations on Aos. I mean, it was part of my job to service them. As for this gate in particular, this one was used quite commonly by our cultural historians.”

  “Cultural what-now?” Ellie asked.

  “Isn’t that someone who studies foreign cultures?” I asked.

  “Just about. They would travel to Earth and study the various cultures and their current stages. This has in fact been a long running process, one that your government has
recently been quite happy to facilitate. We have tomes and texts detailing all of your wars and voyages and strange habits,” Eldevui responded.

  “Yes, you humans keep animals in warehouses of cages. They’re called zoos, I believe. Quite irrational, I must say,” Irithril added.

  “I totally agree,” Ellie said. “It’s really inhumane actually. Just propping up a bunch of wild animals like circus freaks for money.”

  Irithril chuckled.

  “No, child of Earth, that is not what I meant. I find it silly that you humans put captured creatures on display instead of testing weapons, machines, and chemicals on them. For us, they have aided a great number of medical advancements,” Irithril said.

  “Oh yes, your waste of animals is quite boggling to us in the scientific community,” Eldevui added.

  Ellie shut up after that comment and we continued further along on our journey through the massive plains. Just as the terrain was slowly changing, so was the weather. The sky had continued to grow darker and strange clouds dipped in a hue of sickly clover green had begun to suffocate the sky.

  “Is that normal?” I asked as I pointed upwards. I immediately realized they wouldn’t be able to turn around so I added some clarification, “The sky?”

  Khail looked up and quietly mumbled a curse I couldn’t quite make out.

  “No, no that is not,” Eldevui replied. “It seems a bad sign. We have not had a serious storm in several moons, but at this rate it appears near inevitable.”

  “Fellmirin!” Irithril angrily spouted.

  I hadn’t the slightest idea what it meant initially, but judging by the way it was spoken I was pretty sure I had just learned another Fae curse.

  “Fret not,” Eldevui announced to our party. “Look before us, past the coming rain forest there are a set of mountains. Within those mountains sits the gate in a small canyon. We have completed half of the journey already.”