by Jani Griot
“Anyone else feel as if we are missing something vital?” asked the brunette, out of breath and still running for her life.
“Yes,” roared the twins as their black hair dashed between the tall trees. The redheaded ruse boy slipped but was not allowed to fall as the blonde scooped her up in one arm and kept running.
“This is lion shit. Let me go and I’ll kill everything in this backward swamp,” yelled the redhead. The blonde looked over her shoulder at the amassing crowd of animals clawing and scratching into one another behind them and tightened her grip, “I’d rather not!”
The group was vastly outnumbered by the dense animal population. Creatures closed in from every angle, forcing them to stop and fight as they were swarmed. The blonde quickly gave orders and their defense was pulled together in a handful of breaths.
“What in Ark’s name is happening?” yelled the blonde. She sliced through a snake the moment it lunged at her, cutting the reptile in half. The terrain was a mixture of jungle and desert-like qualities that allowed for a savage mix of predators to live within the environment. So the group went from killing snakes and alligators, to panthers and even jackals in the blink of an eye as if they had angered the jungle itself.
They hacked and cleaved their way through the growing horde. The herd of animals slaughtered each other all around the ruse boys, never leaving enough of an opening for the girls to make their escape.
“Do not break formation,” yelled the blonde as the twins spun to either side of a charging panther. The attacks landed simultaneously, killing the beast instantly. Blades swirled in lavish patterns as the group of girls rotated around one another in their defense.
Each of the girls received new cuts and bruises. Taken by the madness that could overwhelm the senses during combat; the girls roared in protest. Their lives and the temporary control they had been given were slipping away from them as fast as creatures charged them, leaving them desperate as the herd grew.
The blonde enacted her ability to analyze the auras of univers and was blanketed in a storm of aggression. She did not know exactly what was happening around her and her team, but red energy spiraled around them like tendrils. The energy punched into the animals, filling them with an enraged vigor. The blonde followed the energy back to its center and nearly froze.
“Son of the Sandmaker,” cursed the blonde. Ochloc’s hawk sat fifty yards away perched on a tree limb, staring directly at her as she momentarily stared back. The bird emitted the chaotic energy, pushing the inhabitants to rampage.
She looked away as fast she could, hoping she hadn’t been seen using univers to look past the jungle to find its dangers. But a fear unlike any other seized her regardless.
“We have to kill the hawk,” said the blonde. The others around her barely had time to understand the orders the girl had given before she hurled her weapon at the bird. She took off in a dead sprint toward the hawk as her blade spun through the air. The bird’s vision was true to its name. It spotted the weapon and took flight. This action both took it out of the immediate path of the blade and stopped channeling whatever form of univers was affecting the jungle.
Beasts collided around the ruse boys as the animals seemed to have their puppet strings cut all at once. The animals instinctively scattered and fled as the roaring energy left their bodies.
The blonde stood as the hawk circled the skies, just above the canopy of trees. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. That bird had seen her using univers. Thus, so had its master.
She hung her head, chin to chest. There was nothing she could do to escape what was to come even if she wanted to. They could be followed by that bird indefinitely. Having recklessly allowed it to see her using univers, all their lives were at risk.
“What’s wrong?” asked the brunette as she and the other girls surrounded the blonde. The girls shared a look between one another. Confused as to what had just occurred and their leader’s disposition after surviving what they had. The blonde just continued to hang her head.
“I’ve killed us all and I can’t take it back,” said the blonde with a distinct note of finality in her voice that gave the brunette chills. The twins grabbed for one another’s hands in an absent-minded gesture at each other’s side, growing nervous. The redhead gripped her axe more tightly before asking a question of her own.
The redhead inched closer to the blonde, her steps light and cautious. “Whatever you did saved our lives, right? I saw you launch an attack against the king’s bird. They wouldn’t possibly kill you for that, let alone the rest of us, right?”
The brunette stomped forward. “You were using magic, weren’t you? Or at least you did to save us.”
The blonde let the tears she was holding back flow free as she sunk to her knees. The group felt an intensely rudderless tension for the first time since coming underneath the young girl’s direction.
The brunette took the blonde’s silence as confirmation to her question. The twins spoke up at once, “They’ll kill us for knowing you.”
The blonde finally looked up, her anger flaring to life underneath a blanket of tears. She was tired of hiding, and even more tired of a life of servitude. She clenched her teeth at the thoughts bursting to the surface of her mind. No longer trying to hold back the ferocity she felt for both her master and his peers.
“By the waves and water of the sea father, I refuse to die here!” The girl slowly rose and tightened her grip on the blade at her feet from the failed attempt on Ochloc’s hawk. The others looked at her with a mixture of fear and unwanted hope brimming beneath their chests as they took deep breaths in anticipation.
“I do not care if we must run, hide, kill, or even sacrifice ourselves for our freedom,” yelled the blonde to the sky. She put one hand in front of her chest in a closed fist around the blade she held, speaking to her friends and followers as if she would never again have the opportunity.
“I’m truly sorry I wasn’t strong enough to get us through this all and understand if going back to your masters…” she trailed off temporarily before she was able to continue. “Is what, what you feel you need to do.” The words put pressure on her chest and directly between her temples. She waited for others to respond, to flee. Her stomach dropped when the girls around her smiled back at her.
“Univers or not, I’ll kill anyone who touches you,” grumbled the redhead as she looked away.
The blonde was forced to take a moment to collect herself. After completely letting her emotions flow down the side of her face, she felt weak. Not wanting to let the display discourage those who looked up to her, she turned her back to the group that surrounded her and wiped her face. Silence fell upon the area and she took a deep breath before mustering the strength to speak.
“Let’s go before the sands claim our souls.”
Master's Task
The bag I had dropped before fighting the ruse boys fell through the ceiling and hit the ground with a dull thud. Food spilled onto the floor and it wasn't long before I found an apple bobbing in the sandy water. It wove down one of the many, winding channels before making a single circle around the center of the room and disappearing, pulled away by current and gravity, along with many other mechanisms I didn't understand.
My stomach was empty and gurgling, so I tracked down the wayward food. I quickly ate a hand full of sandy grapes and a bit of lizard jerky. Of all the things I had tried for the first time on that day, the jerky was certainly the most interesting.
I wanted nothing more than to rest, but my lord would take few excuses, least of all exhaustion, for not performing my duties. Whenever there was a celebration or event in Vassilious Manor, we would spend days upon days scrubbing and burning away rubbish and discarded materials, hoping we wouldn’t have to sweep it all up again if the wind kicked up.
Still, I yawned as I came to my feet. The click of my sandals was soft against the lively hum of the room as I approached the sleeping boy. I set the remainder of the food on his belly before
I turned toward the center of the room. I nearly slipped into one of the many of trenches that punctured the entirety of the floor. I didn’t quite notice it, but a pattern was there.
I stood at the edge of the grassy inlay, fixated on the flowers in the middle of the room; they glimmered, their light reflected upon every solid surface, setting the field alight with their brilliant petals. There must have been hundreds of the things. Growing in a spiraling design, the naturally occurring growth system. Long before Ochloc even, the flowers had been rare. Was it because they were hidden underground?
I jumped over the wider channel of sand and water that lined the flowerbed. The room grew brighter. The vibration at my feet trembled up the length of my legs as if I had just dipped both my feet in ice cold water.
I bent down slowly. Plucking a single flower filled me with a sensation I'd never felt before. Pride maybe? I had completed my master's task.
The flower was beautiful. Golden petals opened to reveal the pure, diamond bud nestled inside. I spun it in my hands, and it hummed, whispering a single, sweet note into the air of the room.
That's when I saw it. The only thing in the room more beautiful than the flower I held. I hadn’t seen it before because the tunnel on the far side of the room’s edge was draped in darkness. Flickers of light in my periphery called to me.
I looked up at it. The room seemed to grow brighter. I stalked over to whatever it could be, completely losing focus on my task, trampling a handful of flowers on my way. It drew me like a winter bird to the equator.
When I reached the room's edge, there was not one, but two discarded items there. An old shield and the hilt of a broken sword—pieces that were gilded from top to bottom—glittered in the light of the room. Three large diamonds formed a trinity on the hilt: two on either end of the guard and the third on the pommel. Where the blade should have been, sat a thin ruby that emitted its own light.
The front of the shield portrayed the countenance of a ferocious creature. Its wild mane was a sandy gold and completely encircled its visage; every detail was finely etched into the shield’s metal. There were holes where its eyes should have been, and a larger hole at the center of the beast’s rows of teeth and fangs. It was the most beautiful monster I'd seen.
The lights in the room played tricks on my mind, filling the shield’s eye sockets, lending it a foreboding presence. I dropped the Sun Lion Diamond in my hand at the rim of darkness, so I could pick up the items.
The lion on the shield soundlessly roared at me. Soundless to others, I assumed. I had only ever held a wooden sword and shield. I liked the weight and feel of practice weapons in my hands. The other slaves who were sent on this journey had all grabbed the lesser weapons of my master. Rusted swords and shields, unbalanced from age and use.
I learned, through cleaning the practice grounds at Vassilious Manor, that my build wouldn’t accommodate such weaponry. Cleaning up the heavy metal equipment was hard enough. The men who used such equipment were far stronger than a solitary slave.
I hesitated to touch the shield, stopping a few inches from it. Sometimes I wish I’d never picked up that damn relic.
As my fingertips touched the artifact, it felt as though I had been struck by lightning. Images filled my mind of places and things I'd never seen, as well as people I didn't know. Things without names, so beautiful the fluttering in my chest quickened tenfold.
A young man who looked like Ochloc fought along with another man donning the cloak. One like I wore. They looked as youthful as I was, but they were stronger and deadlier. Images of the two taking on perilous odds flickered about like pictures in a fanned textbook.
I don't know how long I sat with my finger touching the shield, but when I removed it, the flood of images stopped. I looked around the room. Everything seemed unchanged. The boy slept, gears spun, and sand fell. I touched the shield again, and more images came, taking over my every sensation. I don't know how long I was there before they stopped coming.
When I picked it up from the floor, it was lighter than the wooden shield I had been holding earlier. Confused, I did what any youth would do. I tested it.
Clang!
The noise echoed down the long hallway near where I stood. It was fit for a man three times my size, but the weight of it was comparable to paper. I think I might have even put a chip in the wall.
I bent down to pick up the sword haft. I hesitated, assuming it would have the same effect as the shield. What else could I be shown? I took it into my left hand. The ruby glimmered and pulsed, emitting dense light particles that collected until the frame of a blade was there. Sand twirled up slowly from the ground, filling gaps in the blade here and there.
Once the longsword was complete, it emitted another pulse, turning the sand and light of the blade into a red mirror. The three diamonds in the guard and pommel vanished, reappearing in the openings of the shield. They stretched until they formed thin, defensive sheets over the holes, completing the shield’s form. When complete, a violent roar was cast out like a beacon from the shield, I felt it. Pure rage filled me until I roared with it.
It was as if master were yelling fury into my mind over and over. As if I were hearing it a hundred times at once. As if the only thing I could hear or would ever hear was the word fury. I tilted my head so that I faced the ceiling of the room and howled upward, my chest heaving. I was losing control. I looked at the sword once more before dropping it.
I couldn't breathe. I took a moment to pant and gasp for a lungful of air. I looked down at the sword, which was once more back to its original form; a glimmering, golden white handle. Not knowing what else to do, I quickly grabbed it and put it inside the cloak. The boy seemed to stir on the other side of the room.
I stood, looking for the flower I had dropped earlier. It was nowhere to be found. There was nothing but sandstone and more sand at my feet. I spun around, wondering what could have happened to it, but quickly gave up and returned to the center of the room. The boy stirred and sat, grapes and apples falling off his chest. His eyes snapped open when he saw me.
“Holy Ark’s Lightning! You found it,” he said, jumping to his feet.
I pulled another flower from the bed. It hummed up at me, dancing in the light. I stared at it as I walked over to the boy and picked up the bag Almarine had given me.
The boy looked from the flower to the wider area in which we stood. “Where in the jungle of Vassilious are we?”
He walked slowly around the room, looking at the flat lights that lined the walls. He dipped his fingers into the flowing sands. He also put his ear to the ground. I didn't know what he could be up to, but there was no reason to stop him.
“This is the most advanced irrigation system I've ever seen,” he said. “This would take even Dara's people one hundred cycles to make. Even with Elementalists!" He looked up and saw the hundreds of spinning gears there, rotating behind a glass ceiling. “Make that two hundred cycles… and that's if they could even understand all its mechanics,” he corrected himself. He continued strutting around the room looking at everything intently.
I walked toward the tunnel, flower in hand, ready to go on. I was exhausted, my muscles ached, and my eyelids drooped. As I started down the hallway, the smooth stem in my grip became gritty and dry. When I looked, I could barely tell in the darkness, but it seemed I was no longer holding the flower. I wondered where the Sun Lion Diamond’s glow went.
I turned around and walked back into the light of the room. The flower was gone. Instead, sand fell through the small spaces of my closed hand. I walked and jumped into the center, grabbing another. Then walked it back. The same thing occurred, this time after I’d only taken a few steps into the dark.
“Hey, what are you doing?” the boy asked, watching me.
He walked over to my side and continued to stare as I wandered toward the darkened entry. I reached into the shadows with the flower and, before both our eyes, it turned to sand.
“Now that explains quite a bit,
” the boy said.
He darted back to the flowers and grabbed a handful before returning. I was now the one observing as he ran back and forth throwing diamond flowers into the darkness, just to watch them turn to dust.
I sat, exhausted, and drank from one of the water skins in the bag. It wasn't water though. The liquid was sweet and tart. I drank it so fast it made me hiccup and burp. I tried to stand but fell over. The boy stopped at my side, picking up the skin I had dropped.
"Lionsblood. Damn, Fury, how much of this did you drink?" the boy asked.
I swayed as he spoke to me. Lolling from side to side as I sat in the sands.
I had failed my master’s task, and now I could barely sit upright. I looked at the boy through slanted eyelids as I fell over.
“See you in the Luminescence of Ark, my brother.”
Silence is Golden
Almarine had not followed a single command since a vision of light had revealed to her, her own son. Eaten by the sands. Endless tears had streaked her face from that moment. The sun had been high in the sky while she stood, frozen, staring over the shoulder of her master as he yelled. But time had passed. The sun had long set and even her master’s seemingly endless rampage had ceased.
She knew her place was at her lord’s side, but after what she had seen, she could imagine no punishment strong enough to fill her with fear. She was numb to everything but the pain of her loss.
Earlier that day, Almarine turned from the king’s side, walked away without a word, and roamed the innermost sections of the keep until she arrived in the kitchen. The center of the large home somehow comforted the woman, likely due to the amount of time she’d spent there. It was the only home she’d truly known for many cycles. She was much more familiar with the kitchen than any other area of the keep. The king rarely sauntered in, and the other servants were pleasant enough.
She now stood facing the large opening that led out into the night air of the home’s arena. Ochloc walked circles around her, periodically coming into her view while she cried. She was surprised at how unaffected she felt by the man’s large presence as he grumbled to himself—something he frequently did when he was angered. Only, for the first time, she knew that the man before her—a man with more power than any mortal could dream of possessing—felt powerless. It didn’t matter what he said to her. She would not move.
