by Jani Griot
“Good to see your long-awaited prized possessions are functioning as you thought they would,” said Aemillious. The glimpse the blonde had taken showed her visible strands of univers leaving the plants and flowing freely throughout the room.
“Yes, yes, yes, production on my ship has quadrupled since I haven’t had to use my students to power the vessel,” said Dara excitedly. The blonde tried not to make noise as her head struck the first step, but her grunts didn’t seem to bother Dara nor Aemillious as the two ascended the stairwell. Their conversation continued without pause as the blonde was dragged through the dragon ship to the upper levels.
“It’s made entirely of lion steel?” asked Aemillious, rapping the wall with a knuckle as he walked by. The blonde saw her captor nod back at her nephew; she no longer cared if she was seen looking about after being dragged up multiple flights of stairs.
“There are thousands of runes all activated simultaneously to make this possible, as well as some advanced engineering and mechanics and now, as you will see, we are fully functional now that we have the diamonds.”
They’d passed multiple hallways and large open areas filled with people both working and experimenting. She even noted the sound of clashing blades as she was pulled past a closed off area she assumed was used for training.
Finally, they crested the last stair, arriving in a room with a balcony and an operation table. She had seen the style of room once before when her previous lord, Avery, was fatally wounded by his father. The man nearly bled out on the table as his old friend Dara operated with the steady hand of a medical practitioner.
Dara dropped the leg of the head Ruse boy, before bending over her and fastening the collar she still held around the blonde’s neck. The girl tried again not to make noise throughout her treatment, but the collar was drawn tight under Dara’s grip and the pressure made her gasp as she stared the woman down. She was then pulled to her feet and directed to a corner of the room with a gesture.
The blonde took in the room and would have gasped once her eyes fell on the remains of the son of the Sea King, but her collar seemed to be hindering her ability to breathe with ease. She stared, open mouthed, until the magic imbued within the collar triggered, forcing her to move against her will as surges of electricity pushed her muscles to move. She was in the corner and sweating before she’d truly realized what had happened to her.
Avery’s body was missing multiple limbs, alongside the awkward green bruising that muddled his purple skin he looked more like a dead sea creature than a man. His state left him looking as if he were dissolving from the inside out. Slowly.
“This is why my father kills their kind,” said Khalif softly as he landed. He touched down on the balcony that lead into the room, silently heading toward the table side. He glanced in the direction of the blonde before looking toward Aemillious.
“So there truly is more than one of your kind here. I’m honestly surprised how many of your kind has unlocked the trait of the Omni,” said Khalif. Aemillious nodded and smiled as he looked toward the corner she stood in.
“She will be useful, just like Ochloc’s favored slave will be if Ochloc hasn’t killed him already,” said Dara with an eye roll.
“He shares our father’s ideals on the matter of old blood. It seems both our fathers had at least that in common,” stated Dara without emotion.
“Regardless, I’d like to see how his power differs from my young Aemillious here. I knew the slave was special but—”
“Are you saying the slave with the sun heart is an Omni?” asked Khalif.
“Sun heart?” asked both Dara and Aemillious. Khalif’s jaw tightened, before he cocked his head to the side slightly and opened his eyes.
“That explains how he used the energy from the chaos realm and killed a godling,” said Khalif more to himself than the others in the room.
The blonde caught a slight change in him before he left. As Khalif passed the people training for battle, and those shackled at the walls of the ship, he paused for a moment. He turned. He looked at the boy. Looked away from him. His face was stern, but slowly, a smile spread all the way from his lips to his eyes. Joy. Though she’d scarcely felt it herself, she recognized it in him. It didn’t last too long, though. He mumbled to himself a few more times then walked to the balcony and flew away.
The other two stood in stunned silence for a moment and then returned their eyes to Avery’s body. A question sat unanswered within the room. The one word spoken that the three left behind did understand.
“Avery claimed a piece of trinity before he died?” Aemillious’s question left Dara stunned. The woman opened her mouth and could only shake her head.
“Maybe the immovable structure, but then all the destruction to his body shouldn’t be possible, right?” said Aemillious. The woman across from him nodded.
“He won the Sea Sun Games. It is entirely possible that he gained a boon from his father, and we never knew. He may not have been aware of it himself,” explained Dara. Aemillious’s features tightened at his aunt’s words.
The young man exploded into a rant before Dara could say anything further.
“Aunt, I know what you’re going to say and I’m not going to do it, I’ll be forced to fight either Ezra or my father and I will not. I refuse outright.”
Dara placed her palm outward toward the boy with a bowed head, stopping him from letting lose another torrent of words. “How many times do I have to tell you, your father is a godling already. He cannot compete, and in the case of your sister, even if she qualified by surviving the opening event, she is too young and will most likely bow out after seeing what real power is,” said Dara.
The prince only looked away, responding with a sigh. “The Slave Games are every cycle, but this only comes every two hundred and fifty cycles. You won’t have another opportunity like it, and that’s if you survive that long, with this being forced on the realms by the gods, you’re practically expected to compete because of your ancestry. Don’t fear things that haven’t occurred. You will bring them into the realms, and they will be as alive as you and me,” said Dara in as comforting a tone as the stern woman could manage. The family members met eyes across the table from one another, somber faces making the blonde wonder if they were feeling the loss of Avery.
The prince finally nodded at his aunt. Their words made the blonde feel the dread of potentially having to watch her friends be killed one by one, as she was most likely not going to be able to retrieve the Sun Lion Diamond.
“Good. Let’s make you into a godling.”
Frozen Peace of Existence
When I opened my eyes, I was floating. The water that kept me adrift was frigid. My fingers were like thin icicles, seconds from snapping free of my hand. My left hand refused to let go of the golden hilt. I had no rage to fill my nearly dead body. My shoulder bumped a shore of sorts, and I threw my shield arm on a marble surface. Sliding down a trench, I floated until the shield caught on a divot in the ground. Those two pillars of light glowed before me.
The rushing water threatened to take me away once more, pushing against my chest as I shivered. I heaved my sword arm up, leaving only my feet in the water. This was my last effort not to drown. I began to convulse. I rolled across the blade and felt I had gutted myself. But the pain seemed to awaken the blade and shield in my hands. The bright, parallel lines still shone, and I reached for the swirling black center of them, using what little was left of my strength.
My mind went dark, momentarily. My body felt as though it had diffused into millions of pieces that had then been hastily placed back together. The air was different. That much I understood. I’d found a gateway in that trench.
I laid on my back in the dark as drops of water occasionally fell from above onto my face. The sword's rage slowly knocked away the frost that locked my mind, while the shield heated dramatically, warming the marble floor until steam arose from the cloak.
It took a while before I felt comfortable moving
my neck to view my surroundings. The place was so dark, I wondered if my eyes would ever shift back into a useable state. I hadn’t eaten in so long, the moment I sat up, I was instantly dizzy.
My senses returned to me one by one. There was what sounded like a small waterfall behind me, and glimmering light so far in front of me it was barely visible.
It took longer to get to my feet than it had to get out of the water. I was forced to use the marble walls for balance, which was harder than I would have liked. The walls were slippery and, at some points, were more enemy than friend. I walked back toward the sound of water, disappointed to feel nothing but a dead end where the sound originated. The waterfall at my side flowed into the trench with such force. There would be no chance to climb free of the hole it spewed from.
Looking back at the light in the distance, I felt my heartbeat. I did not want to see what the light held. I stood, frozen, at the beginning of the long trench of marble and flowing water, hoping to see anything above me. All I could make out was darkness and endless marble wall. No roof or ledge within arm’s reach. I wanted to jump with all my might, but understood that if I did, I would chance smashing into something for which my body was no match and from which little could protect me.
A difficult choice confronted me. And the echo of the lapping waves, distant though they were, brought only one thought to mind. I didn’t think of the shield, the cloak, the sword. I thought only of the vast emptiness around me. Nothing. No one. Not a soul. My chest grew tight as I struggled to get air out of my lungs.
Confusion swirled in my mind. Why had Ezra been so sad? Why had she helped me? And why did the knowledge of that cause within me a longing, stinging pain? The memory of her damp, red eyes was etched into my mind. She’d saved me. Then tried to kill me. Why?
I curled into a ball. The shield and the sword didn’t matter. They were not friends of mine. Aside from Ezra, where was the boy? He always followed me. Why had he been absent from my side for so long?
My eyes stung and watered. A salty taste coated my throat and tongue. Water. But not the water from the trench, or the rain.
I felt a pressure rise in my chest. Not like I would be ill. A different pressure, like the many times I’d screamed in fury. But this time, no sound emerged.
That stinging feeling built in and behind my eyes. I fought it. I didn’t want the shield. I didn’t want the cloak. I didn’t want the sword.
In that moment, all I wanted was…
After cycles of never speaking aloud, the words that erupted from me held the cadence of a practiced tongue; in fact, it held the qualities of hundreds of voices, all speaking as one. But still, they were mine.
“HELP ME!”
The boy glanced at the Dragon princess. She sat next to him, heavy shackles on her hands and feet. Same as the ones he wore. Briefly, he felt as though the invisible wall between them, his hatred, rage, anger—those had dissipated. Because now, they were Dara’s prisoners. They were aboard her ship. Reduced to the same fate. Aemillious was somewhere aboard as well.
The shackles were heavy, and any time the boy moved, they made a scraping sound against the lion steel flooring. The boy tried to avoid looking at that mass of ever-changing metal, as it spawned a headache. The only other thing to look at was the girl next to him, who usually, also created headaches. But she was a pleasant enough distraction. Slightly better than the nauseating steel.
The boy thought back to when Khalif had visited the ship. The boy knew his brother had seen him, but the Thinker hadn’t thought to speak a word to him. He’d only mumbled to himself after a quick glance at his imprisoned brother and flew off into the sunset. Oh well. What had the boy expected after all? That his brother would save him? Never.
The boy cleared his throat, attempting to get the attention of the girl next to him, but she merely stared straight, her eyes unfocused. The light of the Sun Lion Diamonds illuminated her face. That’s when he noticed; the glow was missing from her flesh. Her face was taught, as though she were clenching her teeth. And she appeared much paler than the last time he’d noticed her skin tone.
The boy sighed. He lifted his left arm, which was shackled to her right. She didn’t budge. Though her eyes indicated she’d returned from wherever she’d been in her mind.
“Oh, for Ark’s sake!” the boy exclaimed. “Are you… are you scared?”
The princess scoffed. “Of course not,” she replied, still not looking at him. Now she seemed to have zoned in on something and was watching carefully.
The boy followed the direction of the girl’s stare. She was looking at the blonde ruse boy who was sat alone in a corner. A restrictive collar around her neck. The boy understood the princess’s fears. Perhaps she, too, would be reduced to an instrument of Dara’s whims.
As he scooted his hand nearer to the princess, he noticed the slightest of trembles in her fingers. He lifted his hand. Every instinct within him told him no, don’t bother. But he did.
He placed his hand atop hers, their white-gold manacles clanked together, the two rubies shone in the light of the ship. The princess jumped at the sound and swiftly turned to look at the boy. There was, indeed, fear in those red eyes. She jumped, but she didn’t move her hand from beneath his.
He gripped her fingers with his own and looked into her eyes.
“Everything’s going to be okay. I promise. We’ll get away from them. And then we’ll kill them all.”
A slight smile formed at the lips of the girl. Her eyes dampened. The boy squeezed her hand tighter.
I did not want to go toward the light, but it was my only option. The path took me far downhill, and the water grew shallow, frosted. I pushed through the slush. There was nowhere else to turn. Either back to the depths of the water, or ahead toward the light encompassed in a tunnel of dark. Neither option seemed ideal. But only one ensured certain death. So, I looked ahead. The walls were so cold I had to lift my arm and stand still while the shield warmed feeling back into my limbs.
As the light grew, so did the beating in my heart. The sensation I felt moments before the tsunami, released by my former masters, emanated all around me. Power in the walls and floor. Power in the air, and in the frosty water at my side. Power in the light coming from further down. Every piece of my body was aware, and alert to danger.
I finally came to a giant room, larger than the inside of Sand Mountain. The marble trench split into seven paths that diverged throughout the room, forming an intricate sun pattern, before each single line of water broke away, leading down other, identical marble halls. Each had an entryway large enough to hold men nearly fifteen times taller than myself. In fact, the shortest of them all was the one I had come from.
This room was like the spinning room, illuminated on all sides by light coming from flat panels of wall. I struggled to find the source of the light when I saw them. Twenty-one Sun Lion Diamond gardens, placed in a pyramid formation, with the largest at its center.
From my elevated position, I could nearly see across the entire room, even the words atop the centermost path. There were many giant wooden bridges connecting each side of the trenches. The lights from the walls bounced from the flowers, sped underneath the arching bridges, just to find itself thrown to another garden.
Once they struck the centermost garden, the largest group of flowers sent a massive beam of light toward a large crystal above. A monumental red jewel, exactly like the arrow that had pierced my shoulder. The structure of it like a circlet I had seen the princess wear. At three points, again in a pyramid formation, were holes that exploded with a constant stream of sand that flowed down, directly into the water mixture below. The pattern was like three pillars supporting the massive structure.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My heart shut out any will to explore. The Lady Ezra, with teary, crimson eyes, appeared to my mind’s eye, blinding me to the dazzling landscape before me.
I slowly made my way to the center of the room. The massive bridges I had
to cross were like trekking up hills. I didn't notice the handrails forty feet above until I crossed the final bridge. My limbs tensed in suspended fear; my skin was riddled with bumps barely bigger than my pores. I realized I was sweating intensely.
The large garden of flowers was set in a circular pattern, with a cross path at its center. The soft hum of the flowers rose as I got closer. Petals inhaled the light until they exploded in a burst of hues, not unlike the wings of the Dragon’s Heir.
My skin prickled with energy as I came to the garden's center and looked up at the ceiling, where the symbol on my chest was mirrored above me in pure diamond. When I finally looked down, toward the other half of the room, I saw the words above the doorway.
Letters came together and formed sounds, images, sentences. I understood them. I understood the letters, the words, the sentences. I understood the images that popped into my mind as my eyes hungrily scanned them.
I read for the first time in my life, in a language no longer spoken. The Arcana flowed through my mind with ease; an ability granted to me by the chest piece.
Gate to Endless
Final city of Luminous
All the power did was confuse me further. Words so powerful they were themselves a symbol.
The large, looming shadow blotted out the light that surrounded me, swarming over me, as its form swelled.
When I turned around, the sand had arisen to sculpt a monster of pure dread, its limbs pulled down by gravity. Some other-worldly energy must have been influencing its limbs to move. Grains, rushing down in a landslide toward me as I ran for my life.
The sound was like a hundred bears roaring in concert. The moving mountain needed no eyes, nor ears, to search. It hunted me by sensing my movement. It grabbed and reached toward me before smashing down its heavy earthen fist.
