by A. K. DuBoff
Kaiden cracked a smile. “Couldn’t have done it without all of you.”
The glow of the crystal behind us intensified, and I turned to face it. The light appeared to pulse, beckoning.
Kaiden approached it, transferring his staff to his left hand. With his right, he reached out to place his palm on the smooth crystal.
The light intensified, and with a blinding flash, the crystal shattered into fragments no larger than a grain of sand. The silver circlet within floated to the ground along with the fragments, coming to rest atop the shimmering pile.
As Kaiden reached out toward it, a purple gem affixed in the front of the circlet began to glow. Indigo light flowed from the gem and momentarily wove around Kaiden before it absorbed into him. He picked up the circlet and placed it on his head, the gem resting at his hairline. “Do I look ridiculous?”
I smiled. “Well, you might draw a few strange looks in a bar, but it goes with the whole cloak vibe thing you have going on.”
Kaiden beamed. “It’s doing something. I feel… stronger.”
Toran nodded. “I had a similar experience when I got my own artifact.”
“I can’t wait to—” I cut off when the ground started to tremble.
Water lapped at the edge of the stone path leading to the island. The stones were sinking.
“Run, hurry!” I shouted. I swung my backpack over my shoulders and dashed toward the mainland.
The stones seemed even slipperier underfoot than the way out, but I did my best to run at top speed. If the path sank before we made it back, it might be impossible to swim the rest of our way with our gear; I didn’t want to try to navigate the swamp without a map or weapon.
The water level was up to my ankles by the time I reached the halfway point of my run to safety. I glanced over my shoulder to check on my companions, and I saw Maris struggling on the slick stones while Kaiden tried to help her along using his staff. I ran back.
Toran turned back, as well. I motioned for him to keep going, and he complied after a moment’s hesitation.
“Go, Elle!” Kaiden urged. “We’ll catch up.”
“No, we need to balance together,” I insisted, wrapping my hand around Maris’ other side.
The three of us splashed down the path as the water reached our knees. It was as cold as it was dark, chilling me. With water sloshing over the top of my boots and pooling inside, each step was heavier and more difficult than the last.
Only a dozen meters to go. The water eddied around my thighs, and I was soaked past my waist from the splashing.
“We might have to swim it,” I said.
“No.” Kaiden stopped suddenly, gripping his staff.
My skin tingled as a strange energy surrounded me. The crashing water crystalized to either side of the path, and I quickly jumped up on it before my feet were frozen in position. Maris scampered up next to me, and we steadied each other on the slick ground.
The purple gem on Kaiden’s circlet was glowing brightly as he joined us on the strip of ice. “Hurry!” he shouted.
Taking each other’s hands for balance, we ran toward the shore as the frozen water slowly turned to mush underfoot. With a final surge of speed, we made it to the ramp’s upward incline just as the final ice remnants melted away.
I released Maris’ and Kaiden’s hands then leaned against the fallen column. “That’s a neat new skill.”
“I like this new circlet,” Kaiden said with a weary smile. The glow in the purple stone had faded; it looked like the more powerful magic had taken a lot out of him.
“Glad you’re okay,” Toran said. “That was quite a feat freezing part of the lake.”
“I’ll need to play around to figure out what other new abilities I have thanks to the artifact,” Kaiden replied. He brushed his fingertips along the silver circlet.
Maris took several panting breaths. “Lesson learned. As soon as we get back to the Evangiel, I’m getting some shoes with better traction.”
I laughed. “The things you don’t think about, right?”
Toran gazed out at the island slowly sinking into the lake. “What caused the path to fall apart?”
“I think whatever magic allowed us to raise the stones vanished as soon as the Spirit artifact was claimed,” I said. “Without that magic to hold it in place, everything returned to how it would naturally be.”
“Pretty incredible to think about,” Kaiden said, taking one final look at the lake.
Maris nodded. “We get to control a piece of that ancient power.”
“And we have a lot we need to do with it.” Kaiden tore his gaze away from the water. “Come on. We should get back to the ship.”
17
We made good time on our slog back to the shuttle, now that we had a better sense of how to navigate the waterways with minimal backtracking. Plus, since we were already wet, we waded through some channels that we would have otherwise found a way around.
I felt grimy and sensed that I probably smelled like rotten fish by the time we made it to the shuttle. The craft was one of the most welcome sights I could imagine after the miserable ten kilometer hike.
“First order of business when we get back is a shower,” I announced as we approached the shuttle.
“Definitely,” Kaiden agreed.
We tried to clean off our mucky boots as best we could before boarding, but we tracked muddy footprints up the ramp despite our efforts.
I sighed. “So much for Tami warming up to us.”
“In all fairness, it’s probably more unusual that we brought it back last time clean and intact,” Kaiden said.
“May as well set reasonable expectations,” Toran agreed.
We climbed aboard the shuttle and dropped our dirty bags in the common room. As I feared, as soon as we were in the enclosed space, a decidedly fishy smell filled the cabin.
Kaiden wrinkled his nose. “I’m really glad it’s not a long flight.”
“Please, let’s get out of here.” I rushed to the bridge.
We went through pre-flight checks as quickly as possible, then strapped in and were on our way. By the time the Evangiel came into view, I no longer noticed the scent, but I had no reason to believe it had diminished.
We made it to the ship and slipped through the electrostatic field into the hangar. As soon as the shuttle had come to a rest, we filed into the common room to retrieve our bags. Toran dropped the ramp.
Breathing in the filtered air of the hangar, I realized how foul an atmosphere we’d been in for the last day.
Tami rounded the shuttle, then quickly brought up a hand to cover her nose and mouth when she saw us. “Stars! What happened?”
I sighed. “Marsh monsters.”
She lowered her hand, but her nose remained wrinkled. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d spent the last month in a bio reclamation tank.”
“Oh, I’m sure the swap was on par with a decades-old waste bin,” Kaiden replied. He rubbed his shoes together and some of the drying mud flaked off in a clump on the deck.
Tami frowned. “Maybe you should strip down before you go through the ship.”
I looked down at my own filthy self. “Solid plan.”
We removed everything but our white base layers, which were now closer to a light taupe, and left the other soiled items piled on the deck.
“I’ll reach out to the maintenance crew and get all this cleaned up for you,” Tami told us.
I flushed. “Sorry about the mess.”
Tami shrugged. “I think I have it easy compared to you, considering what you must have gone through to end up looking like that.”
We thanked her again and then headed up to our respective quarters—pausing to acquaint Maris with her own room in line with ours.
I’d never experienced such a glorious shower in my entire life. While I’d spent plenty of time playing in the dirt as a kid, most of Erusan was dry, so dust was our biggest prob
lem. This mud was sticky, and the scent of decay lingered even after two thorough scrub-downs. If I never had to traverse another bog in my life, I’d be happy.
As I exited the shower, I realized that I’d neglected to check for clean clothes; there was no way I was putting on my old shipsuit until it had been thoroughly laundered.
I wrapped a towel around myself and went to investigate the wardrobe. Inside, to my relief, were three white suits and undergarments. It was generic sizing, unlike my other custom-fitted suit, but I’d take anything clean and dry at that point.
After dressing, I exited my cabin and wandered down the hall to the room we’d designated as our combination hang out, planning, and rendezvous place. Toran was the only one present, and he appeared to be absorbed in an inspection of his magical signature locator device. With only a generic shipsuit at his own disposal, he had the top portion of the suit folded over with the arms tied around his waist.
“Hey,” I greeted when he didn’t appear to notice me enter. “Looks like a trip to the equipment room is in order.”
“Oh, hello, Elle.” He looked down at his bare chest. “Yes. Feeling better?”
“Much.” I moseyed over to him. “What are you working on?”
Toran set down the device and frowned at it. “I was wondering if there might be a way to have the device tap into a nearby signature rather than needing direct physical contact, so Kaiden or Maris wouldn’t need to remove their pendant each time.”
“That would be handy.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to make any quick modifications.” He sighed.
“Well, bright side is that we only have one more world to visit to get the remaining artifact.”
“Yes, very true. We can always work on it more depending on what our future missions entail.”
I leaned my hip against the table and crossed my arms. “I still can’t believe they want us to go up against the Darkness.”
“It would be like any other task—break it up into steps and take actions that progress toward that end.”
“This isn’t just a random project. We’re talking about maybe dealing with advanced alien tech here. You at least have training. I don’t know how much I can offer.”
Toran smiled. “Don’t sell yourself short, Elle. You’ve held your own quite well. I seem to recall many of our successful ideas coming from you.”
I dropped my gaze, blushing. “Maybe.”
“Feeling better?” Kaiden asked from the doorway, stepping inside.
“Much, aside from a draft,” Toran replied, running one hand down his other exposed arm. “I was just telling Elle that she has no reason to doubt her worth on our team.”
“Oh, stars no!” Kaiden exclaimed. “Using peat in place of firewood was a stroke of genius.”
My lips parted in a bashful smile. “Thanks.”
“Not to mention, you’re getting pretty good with that sword,” he added.
“That part is weird,” I admitted. “I haven’t really practiced with it, but these new forms just come to me in my mind, and it’s like I have muscle memory of doing things I’ve never done before.”
“I think it might have something to do with how our bodies were re-formed,” Kaiden said. “It’s like that with the magic, too.”
“Same.” Toran leaned against the table next to me. “I’m thankful for the help, wherever it came from.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” I sighed.
“Speaking of help, what are you working on there?” Kaiden asked Toran, gesturing to the device the other man had been fiddling with.
“Nothing that matters at the moment—”
Toran cut off when an announcement sounded on the central comm. “Jump in T-minus ten minutes.”
I pushed off the table. “Back at it again.”
“So much for getting a night’s rest in our own beds.” Kaiden headed for the door.
“The only consistency is that nothing is predictable,” I commented while following him out of the room.
“I don’t expect that to change any time soon,” he replied.
“There you are!” Maris exclaimed from down the hall as soon as we left the room. She ran over.
“Hi,” I greeted.
Her dark hair was still damp from a shower, and she fluffed it with her fingertips. “Jumping again already?”
“Final artifact world,” Kaiden replied.
She looked to me. “This one’s for you?”
I nodded. “That’s the plan.”
“Then back to the Archive.” Kaiden continued toward the pod room to get prepped for the impending jump.
As much as I hated jumps, the thought of this one didn’t bother me nearly as much knowing that the end was in sight—at least, I told myself it was. I recognized that the situation with the Darkness wouldn’t be resolved when we sealed the Archive, but at least I would have a sense of security once a backup of my world was safely sealed.
We strapped into our usual pods and endured the stomach-churning jump. When it was complete, I sat up in my pod eager to face our next challenge. This one would be on me, but I was ready to prove myself.
“Ugh, I hate jumps,” Maris moaned across the room. She popped up above the lip of the pod then lie back down.
“You all right?” Kaiden asked.
“Yeah,” she said, though her tone indicated otherwise. “Just gimme a minute.”
“Any bets on what the Valor trial might be?” I asked the group while her stomach settled.
“Hmm.” Toran got a ponderous expression. “Something requiring strength and courage.”
“Um, yeah—” I stopped when I noticed him smirking. “You don’t say?” I finished, smiling back.
“It’s probably fair to assume something will try to crush, suffocate, or eat you,” Kaiden chimed in.
I grinned. “It will be sorely disappointed when I disembowel it instead.”
“Let’s get a look at the world,” Kaiden suggested.
Maris was just hauling herself out of her pod. “I’ll be right there.”
We left her to finish getting her bearings and headed down the corridor to our staging room. Kaiden removed his pendant and placed it on the device.
“I hope finding this location is as straightforward as the last,” Toran murmured while he activated the device.
The characteristic soft blue light illuminated in the pendant. After a moment, readings appeared on the touch-surface tabletop.
Toran frowned. “That’s strange.”
“What?” I asked.
“This isn’t showing anything.”
“Like, no magical signatures?”
“No, as in nothing,” Toran clarified. “It’s like there isn’t a proper planet here.”
My brow furrowed as I looked out the viewport, but there was only a typical starscape. That didn’t mean anything, since the room was often orientated away from any planet we may be orbiting. “Did we jump to the right place?”
Kaiden backed away from the table. He pressed behind his ear. “Commander, we—”
“Please come to Central Command,” Colren replied over the general channel through the comms in our ears.
“We’ll be right there.” Kaiden ended the link. “I don’t like the way this is going.”
“Yes, agreed.” Toran removed the pendant from the device and handed it to Kaiden.
The three of us returned to the hall. Maris was still in the pod room as we passed by on our way to the lift.
I poked my head through the door. “Maris, did you hear that? We need to go to the bridge.”
“Yeah. Is something wrong?” she asked.
“The planet is giving some weird readings. We need to get a visual on it,” Kaiden replied.
Maris frowned. “What about getting back the rest of our clothes? I feel naked in just this shipsuit.”
“It’ll have to wait,” I said, though I could relate to how she wa
s feeling. Before she could protest further, I strode toward Central Command.
We were buzzed inside, and Colren greeted us in the center of the bridge. “I trust you tried to use your device to examine the planet?”
“Yes. Are you having difficulty getting readings, as well?” Toran asked.
The commander gave a grave nod. “We hadn’t prepared for this contingency.”
“What contingency?” I questioned. My stomach twisted. Things were just started to go in our favor; it figured something would go wrong now.
The commander beckoned us closer to the viewscreen on the forward wall. I gazed out at the beautiful spacescape, drawn in by the stars, but then I noticed something at the bottom of the view. There was a planet there, except it was dark.
The tension in my gut spread to my entire chest. “Wait, is that…?”
“This world has already been consumed by the Darkness,” Colren stated. “We’re too late.”
18
“Too late for what?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. If the planet had been consumed by the Darkness, that meant the final artifact we needed to open the Master Archive was now beyond our reach. We had failed our mission.
Kaiden’s brow furrowed. “Is that it? There’s nothing we can do?”
“Perhaps there is an alternative way to seal the Archive,” the commander suggested. “We need to explore every available option.”
“But, why can’t we just go down to the planet?” Maris asked.
“Look at it! It’s been almost completely consumed,” I said, pointing at the depressing image on the screen.
The reddish world was cross-crossed with dark smoke-like lines, and the tendrils were continuing to expand. I had no idea how long it took a world to be overrun, but based on what little I’d seen, we only missed our window by hours. If we had been able to land closer to the Spirit icon and hadn’t lost a day, or if we hadn’t slept, then maybe—
I stopped myself. Thinking in those terms wouldn’t change what we were facing now. It’s not like we could reset across multiple star systems and do it over again.
“But, that doesn’t matter, right?” Maris continued.
