by Riley Tune
I looked around as I tried to catch my breath. I stood up so fast that I knocked my chair over and hit the table.
“What—what was that?” I asked him. Sweat, for some reason, ran down the side of my face.
He was sitting down again. “That was history. That, at the end, was the future. I’ll admit the future is harder to see, because it’s not fixed. It can be changed. But I have seen one outcome that is certain.”
“What is it?” I asked him. It sounded more like a plea than a simple question.
“It’s not important—” He was about to continue, but I interrupted.
“Not important?” I shouted.
He didn’t seem to like this. He didn’t react; he just looked at me, and I could feel those same waves of energy washing from him. It reminded me of the feeling I got when Jolin used his ability, but amplified.
“Sorry,” I said.
He smiled. Then he allowed his face to become blank again, as if something else was bothering him. What bothered a god? Was I accepting that he was a god now?
“You will need to liberate your friends. Then we will speak again.” He stood up from the table— a boy, only a little bigger than Luka. He seemed too frail to have such power.
“You’re a god?” I said. It was more a question than a statement. “Are you? A god? Are you really, The Keeper?”
He clapped his hands together once, kept them together, and nodded to me. “The fact that you are even asking that means you are starting to believe. Now, before you try to free your friends and seek the vengeance I’m sure you will be after, warp across the room.”
I looked at him, and then to the area he was pointing to. “You want me to warp?” I asked.
He remained passive. I looked across the room and reached inside myself to touch that power again. I felt it, and it was there, but this time, it wasn’t alone. There was more. The power felt different. It felt stronger. It wasn’t just in me—it was me. It pulsed over my body. I could feel it in my limbs, all the way to my fingertips.
I didn’t move. I simply looked at him. “What did you do to me?”
“What is it the people of the kingdoms say now?” he asked. “Blessed by the Keeper.” He shook his finger in the air. “I have augmented your abilities.”
Nasium Suro. The Keeper. God. He shook his head and laughed a little under his breath.
“You are now the only person in the kingdoms able to both inwardly and outwardly warp. You can, like me, even warp another person along with you now.”
I looked down at my hands as I turned them around. I didn’t move, but I placed my eyes on a dagger near Nasium Suro. The same one that had cut him before. I reached inside myself once again, feeling that new energy. The air changed around the dagger only slightly before it vanished and appeared in my hand.
The dagger felt different than it had before. I turned it around in my hand. I could feel the smile grow on my face. “Why? Why me?” I asked as I continued to look at the dagger.
“I needed a hero,” his voice replied faintly.
“Thank you,” I said under my breath as I looked to the table, but he was gone now. Nasium Suro was the Keeper. God. Our god was real. He may have been a mere boy, but he was real, and he had just given me the ability to save my friends.
I warped my belongings to me. A simple gesture that I took pride in. If only Ember could see me now. I didn’t know if he was alive or not, but at least I knew there was a god who could possibly watch over him.
I adjusted my armor and checked my blades. I looked outside and watched the snow fall. It was an impossible thing I needed to do. Impossible, yet I was the only one able to do it. The only one strong enough. I put my cloak hood up and looked out the window.
“Thank you, Keeper,” I said once more, and then I warped.
28
As usual during the day, the city was alive with activity, but this time it was different. I had warped a few times and found myself not on a tall building, but on the streets of Thera. As the snow fell, people continued to grow restless.
I couldn’t stay here on the streets long. I had to alternate from the streets to the rooftops. Surely by now Rema and her people were looking for me in the city, but the added chaos was making it hard.
News seemed to have traveled fast of the Emperor and Empress’ death the night before. This wasn’t a reason for people to panic, for they believed the Emperor would return from the dead as he had before. More panic was spread by the idea of the Emperor's family being murdered in their own home.
The previous deaths had always happened outside of the palace walls, or on the battlefield, but certainly not where the family was supposed to be at their safest. Homes were being raided, people were being beaten, and anybody who was even thought to be a threat was being handled accordingly.
Some people of Thera were not against their new ruler. Naturally, the people didn't know that Rema intended to rule permanently; they assumed she was only acting Queen until the Emperor was reborn. But they saw her wave of vengeance and quick rally to action as a sign of strength. Strength that they thought Thera needed, in case another kingdom tried to attack before the Emperor’s return.
Besides my friends and Remy, only I knew the truth. I was the only person who knew that the Emperor would not be returning, but I had no idea what Rema’s end game was for the discovery of people beyond the water.
I warped, finding myself on a building crouching down and looking around. I wish it was nighttime. It would have been easier to remain invisible under the protection of the night and the rain. My friends didn’t have much time, and neither did I.
I warped a few buildings more, and was surprised to find guards positioned on the roofs. They were spread out, and all had their swords already drawn. Rema may have seen this as a smart move, but she had her men spread out. It would be easier for me to handle them one at a time instead of all at once. She also hadn’t accounted for me having met with a god, and having been given new power.
The guards seemed to be spread out in a circle. No surprise there. The council building was located directly in the middle of a few surrounding buildings, all of which formed a circle of sorts around it. The guards were positioned so that they could see the council building at all sides.
I warped a few feet over and set my eyes on the first guard. I went to draw my dagger and then stopped myself. “Let’s see how this goes,” I said under my breath as I moved my eyes from the guard to his sword.
I reached inside myself, just as I had always done, and looked for that new power. I found it as easily as if I had been using it for years. The air around the guard's sword warped, and then the sword vanished.
He looked down and around, but it was too late. In an instant his sword reappeared in my hand. I warped from where I was standing to him in a blink and impaled him in the stomach with his own sword. His body shook as the sword went upward through his stomach and out his upper back. I was afraid for a moment. Not of the guards, but of the feeling I got from killing him.
It felt good. I felt good. I felt powerful, stronger than ever, and almost unstoppable. I didn’t know if it was the curse kicking in, or if it was just this new power, but I went with it. In less time than it took for me to get dressed, all the guards were dead. The first impaled guard got off easy compared to others.
Others lost limbs, and some lost their heads.
The rooftops of Thera were splattered in crimson now, and for some reason it made me wonder who would have the unfortunate job of having to clean it up.
I positioned myself on the highest building so that I could see the council building.
Luckily, the building wasn’t grand in design, so, in theory, it would be easy to find my friends inside. I certainly couldn’t go in through the entrance, and I couldn’t really see inside the windows. I needed a plan. Then it hit me.
Rema had gotten to know me and Ember over the time we'd spent together planning. She knew how we thought. She knew that it would be cr
azy for a Warper, a person trained to kill and move unseen, to come strolling through the front door like normal. That would likely be the most unguarded area.
I warped to the front of the building. Everything seemed quiet. As I clasped my hand around the large handle, I looked around one more time and silently prayed to the Keeper that this was the right thing to do. Once I would have thought praying to a god was pointless; now I knew better.
The door opened slowly, and creaked so loudly that it echoed around the entrance. The council building was larger on the inside than expected. Not only was it large, but it was, in fact, grand. Large pillars, thicker than trees, stretched from the shiny floor to the domed ceiling. It seemed like it had been deserted or unused for a while, judging from the thick layer of dust on some of the tables and bookshelves.
The good thing was that this wasn’t a prison. There were no dungeons here—simply holding rooms used more for debates than lock-up.
A streak of black rushed by me. It was fast, fast enough to collide with me and knock me down as it moved. I warped quickly to a nearby table, and ignored the voice I heard calling to me from that unknown place.
This center table gave me a focal point and kept me off the floor. Even with my new abilities, I could feel my heart beating faster than normal.
There it was a again. A blur, or something like it, that seemed to be a figure of blackness, moving. It darted back and forth around the room. I drew my dagger, and tried to keep up with it as it moved around the room. I had to wait for it to stop, or I’d never be able to touch it.
Before the blur could stop, I heard a noise behind me of something scraping. Something dragging.
Turning around, I could feel tension rise within me as I saw the female Battle Born walking towards me. The sound of something dragging was her axe. The same, larger-than-ever, double-sided axe that she had had before. Her purple eyes fixed on me as she let out that deathly laugh from an unseen mouth.
Before I could react, the blur began to slow down and found itself circling the female Battle Born. Finally, it stopped moving. What I had thought to be fear earlier couldn't compare to what I was feeling now. Another Battle Born, this time a male one, was standing beside his female counterpart.
Two of them. Two Battle Born stood in my way now. Ember had said the males had enhanced reflexes and were fast, but he had never gone into details on just how fast.
The two sets of glowing purple eyes locked on me, and for a second, they seemed to glow brighter. I had begun to think that the male didn’t have a weapon, but just at that very moment, he showed his hands. Both were wrapped in what seemed to be some sort of metal. He flexed his hands and moved his fingers, revealing that the metal on his hands led down to his wrists.
When he flexed his hand into a fist, however, sharp spikes sprang from his hands. For a second, I found myself wishing that he had a simple axe.
They began to move closer to me. They moved as if they knew how powerful they were. You could see it in their body language. Confident, and cold. As they moved, they slowly went from walking side by side to spreading out, positioning themselves on either side of me. I knew it was pointless, because they blocked a person's abilities, but something told me to try anyway.
I reached inside myself, searching for my power and expecting it not to be there—but it was!
Strong and pulsating, like a second heartbeat. Not only was my warping power there, but my new warping abilities, too. Both were still there, seemingly unaffected by the Battle Born. I didn’t understand why, and I didn’t care.
What I did do was warp the axe from the female Battle Born. It appeared in my hands and almost dropped me to the floor with its weight.
She stepped back and looked at me. I couldn’t see her mouth or any normal features at all, but judging on how she was looking at her hands and then to me, I could gather that she hadn't expected that to happen.
The male Battle Born beside me didn’t move. He seemed as surprised as her. I wrapped both hands around the axe and began to spin around to gather momentum. As I did so, I warped, appearing in front of the female Battle Born, still spinning. My arms had begun to feel like string, and my shoulder, the one I had been shot in, had begun to hurt again—but the axe found its mark.
The sound the axe made as it sliced through her midsection was hollow and empty. There were no normal sounds of liquid and organs being touched. There was nothing, not even any blood. I tried to pull the axe from her stomach, but I couldn’t. It was buried too deep. She fell to her knees and then landed on her side.
She wasn’t dead. Her hands still twitched some as she tried to reach for the axe that now called her stomach home. The blur of black was on the move again. I spun around the room, trying to find him, but I couldn’t. There was a glimpse of black, and then I could feel a fist hit my chest..
The spikes on the hand stung as they entered my skin, and they seemed to make the wound larger as he drew his hand back. I warped away from him, trying to regain myself, but he was on me in an instant. I couldn’t take many hits from those spiked fists. He punched me again, and I was just barely able to get out of the way by leaping to the ground and rolling.
As I rolled, I stretched my hand out and warped the Battle Born's glove away. It would have appeared in my hand, but I had to keep rolling. I couldn’t afford to stay still. As soon as I stood up, I could feel another fist collide with my face.
I wiped my nose and spit some of my own blood from my mouth.
“Die,” the Battle Born male said as he threw his body at me like a weapon. He, much like the female, had a hollow dead voice that escaped from behind that mask. It was a stretched-out voice, as if he was having trouble breathing as he said the single word.
As his body collided with mine, I was sent flying into one of the large pillars in the room. My head hit it hard as I slumped down to the ground. As I moved, I could hear the thick sticky sound my head made as I moved it. I let my fingers find the back of my head and winced at the pain. It was tender, and blood was on my fingers now.
The female Battle Born was still on the ground, trying to remove the axe. I didn’t know what to do, but the male Battle Born was approaching. Before he could use his speed, I sucked up the pain in my head and warped beside the female on the ground. I stood over her as she paused to look up at me. Her eyes glowed fiercely, as if she was trying to shut my powers off again. She wouldn’t be able too, though. The Keeper had made sure of that.
I warped the axe from her stomach and let it appear in my hands as I held them up. Just as I remembered, the axe was extremely heavy, and its own weight did all the work. As it appeared in my hand, gravity allowed it to fall down with speed that my muscles alone couldn’t muster. It made a loud thud as the axe passed through her skull and stuck to the ground.
A good half of her head was still attached to her body. From the nose down it was still attached. The upper part of her head just rolled away a few inches. It reminded me of a yolar that had been dropped.
Just like the inside of her body, the Battle Born's head didn’t bleed. There wasn’t even a brain there. Instead, a thin line of smoke or ash escaped from the Battle Born and faded away in the air. I had seen this smoke-like vapor before, but I couldn’t remember where.
He was standing there, just looking at the head of the fallen Battle Born. The eyes were no longer purple on the upper part of the skull. Instead, they were a jet black color. Two lifeless orbs.
He was a blur of speed as he came at me. I was ready for this, and, with impressive speed of my own, I drew my throwing knives and sent them his way. I only threw two, both of which he blocked, but as he did so, I warped them both back to myself from out of the air and threw them again.
After throwing them for a second time, I warped in close to him, dagger drawn, and slashed at his neck. Letting those enhanced reflexes show, he leaned back as my attack missed, and he delivered a kick to my stomach. I stumbled, but didn’t fall. I warped again to the side of him and sent
a punch with my free hand, but again he dipped low under it, and landed a kick to my back that sent me spinning to the ground.
I couldn’t stop moving. He was fast, and staying still would be the death of me. As soon as my body touched the floor I warped again, finding myself near a wall and pulling myself to my feet. I warped to him, slashing and stabbing again with my dagger while sending punches with my free hand. Nothing landed. He was so fast, and seemed to jump, dodge, and flip like some sort of animal.
In a last effort, I did the unthinkable, but I had to slow him down. I dropped my dagger to the ground and looked at those glowing purple eyes.
And then I warped them.
The Battle Born male screamed as the purple orbs vanished from his head and appeared in my hands. He must have felt some sort of pain, because that ghoulish scream was still coming from behind the mask.
I looked at the eyes in my hands as they faded and turned black. They fell to the ground. I warped my dagger to myself and then leapt at the Battle Born. He side-stepped the leap, but he almost fell. I spun around, dagger in hand, and sliced at his throat., but nothing really happened. I had forgotten these creatures didn’t have blood or internal organs to worry about.
Running to the Battle Born at full speed, I jumped on him, sending us both crashing to the ground. He reached up to me. He may not have been able to see, but he was still able to grab my neck. My shoulder, as well as the rest of my body, was on fire with pain. My head was spinning, and I could feel what I assumed was blood running down my neck.
As his hand began to tighten around my neck, I slashed my dagger again and again on his, hacking away at his neck until my dagger found the ground. The grip on my neck relaxed as his head became detached. It seemed, as with most things, chopping the head off a Battle Born did the trick.
I stood up, just barely. I had to use one of the pillars for support. I could hardly move, and only hoped that no other guards or Battle Born stood in my way. I didn’t have the energy to fight anymore, and I could only ignore so much pain.
