by A. K. DuBoff
I shot another blast, which seemed to do nothing other than annoy the dragon. To take it down, I’d need to hit it in a vulnerable place, and I’d need more than a weapon that only went skin deep.
The orange glow beneath the dragon’s jaw caught my eye. Having watched how the creature moved, I could tell it was guarding that part of itself—its one weakness.
But I’d have to get close, and the heat would be a major issue. I hoped my magical blade would be able to withstand it, but my hands would be burned to a crisp before I ever got close enough. I’d need protection, and normal armor wouldn’t do.
Toran was only three meters away where he still lie unconscious. I dashed over and grabbed his gauntlets from his hands; the magical items just might be enough to withstand the heat without melting. They were far too big for me, but I could still grip my sword through them.
I was about to turn back to face the dragon when Kaiden caught my eye next to Toran. He was starting to stir.
“Take it,” he murmured.
“Are you okay?” I asked, crouching down.
He winced. “Take it,” he repeated with a motion toward his head. “The circlet.”
“It’s useless to me.”
Kaiden shook his head. “You’re a caster, Elle. I saw what you just did.”
My heart skipped a beat. “I am?”
“The three disciplines. That’s what this was always about. But not three distinct people—three in one.” He managed to remove the circlet from his head. “Take it!”
The dragon roared.
“Stay here.” I took the circlet from him and placed it on my head. A surge of energy flowed through me. My hands tingled, and my senses were sharp. I felt like I could tackle anything.
I charged toward the dragon, raising my sword for a strike. Two strides from it, I leaped into the air, jumping higher and faster than I ever had before. I drove the blade into the dragon’s throat and used my momentum to rip downward.
The orange fire liquid flowed from the wound, burning the dragon’s flesh everywhere it touched.
I fell free of the splatter zone only centimeters from the edge of the cliff.
The dragon sputtered and it fell into the depths.
I panted and it turned into a laugh. “Is that it? Did I do it?”
“I think so.” Kaiden staggered to his feet behind me.
Toran and Maris began to rouse.
“What happened?” Maris moaned, gripping her head.
The red light beyond the cliff consolidated and began flowing toward me. I couldn’t help tensing as it wrapped around me. It seeped into my skin.
Images flashed before my eyes and my head pounded.
I saw the Darkness snaking its way through a world, permeating everything in its path. The matter morphed to fit the image of the Darkness, becoming twisted to its form. But there was more behind it—not a mindless infection, but design. The beings born from the native wildlife were hybrids, a mutation combined with the genetic makeup of the alien beings behind the Darkness. The worlds weren’t being consumed, they were being transformed.
My eyes shot open. I realized I was lying on my back on the cold stone. Kaiden was bent over me.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I sat up, bringing my hand to my head. My gloved fingertips clinked against the circlet. “You can have this back now, thanks.” I handed it to him.
“What are you doing with that and my gauntlets?” Toran asked, coming over.
I smiled. “Just saving the day.”
Kaiden helped me to my feet. “I think Elle got something of a special treatment when she was formed—a little of everything rather than just one discipline.”
Toran’s eye widened. “Oh, really?”
I shrugged. “A matter for future investigation. The important thing now is that the dragon is dead.”
“What about sealing the Archive?” Maris asked.
“Still trying to figure that part out.” I looked around the dark cavern. “There has to be a path, or monument, or something.”
“Unless we’re too late,” Toran said. “I know none of us want to consider that possibility, but we are surrounded by darkness right now. Whether it is the Darkness, I don’t know.”
“You’re right: I won’t consider it.” I removed the gauntlets and thrust them toward Toran. “There’s something here.”
I retrieved my flashlight from my pocket and followed the edge of the cliff toward the left and it dead ended in a rock wall. I went the opposite direction and found that it continued. After fifty meters, the ledge narrowed to a two-meter-wide path.
“Elle, where are you going?” Maris asked, running up behind me.
“We’re about to find out.”
“They certainly make this complicated,” Kaiden said.
“Nothing worthwhile is easy,” Toran told him. “I only hope our efforts will pay off.”
The path widened again after thirty meters to a seven-meter-diameter platform, which was surrounded on all sides by blackness. At the center of the platform was a solitary two-meter-tall crystal.
“Together,” I said, motioning to Kaiden and Toran.
We each extended our right hand and touched the crystal.
A soft blue glow rose throughout the cavern. As it got brighter, the shapes of crystals began to take form. They blanketed every surface for as far as I could see, with no bottom or ceiling in sight.
I took it in, awed. “This is incredible!”
“Wow.” Maris shook her head with disbelief next to me.
“Greetings, Chosen,” a voice said from all directions in a warm, neutral timbre.
“Hello?” I replied.
“You have made it past the trials and proven you are pure of heart. Why do you journey now to the Master Archive?”
“There’s a Darkness spreading. It may already be here, but the Archive needs to be sealed.”
“A protocol is in place,” the voice replied. “Before the act is complete, you must understand what it means for the worlds connected to the crystalline network. When the Archive is sealed, no new records can be added until it is unsealed. The crystals on the worlds will be useless until then.”
I looked to my companions. “Not like they’re doing us a lot of good now.”
They nodded.
“We understand. Proceed with the sealing.”
“Acknowledged.”
The crystals flashed briefly, and then the light dimmed to dull gray.
“Sealing complete,” the voice stated. “The Archive will remain in this state until the Chosen return.”
“All right, so we should probably not die,” Kaiden quipped.
I raised an eyebrow. “I would have hoped that was the plan, anyway.”
“Is there anything we must know to unseal it?” Toran asked.
“Only purity of intentions,” the voice replied.
“What of the Darkness?” I asked. “Can you tell us anything about it? We heard that the Archive might contain information about events that haven’t happened yet.”
“It is true that this place exists outside of time as you know it. But truths must be discovered in their due course.”
“Not even a hint?” Kaiden asked.
“You have already been given the knowledge you need.”
“Those visions!” I said. “That was you? I thought the Darkness had infected it.”
“The challenge is designed to prey on your fears to test what is in your heart. The Darkness is your greatest threat, and so that is how it manifested. This place is safe, and so it will remain now that you have completed your task.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Hopefully, next time we meet it will be under better circumstances.”
“You will never be far.”
The crystal column at the center of the platform flashed, and a shard the size of my thumb flaked off.
“A gift to aid you
in the trials ahead,” the voice said.
I picked up the shard; it was opaque white and glowed slightly with a soft blue light. I placed it in my pocket. “Thank you.”
“Go now. The entry will re-seal behind you.”
“All right, Dark Sentinels! Mission number one: accomplished.” Kaiden grinned.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I expected to feel more excited, but there was still so much ahead. A backup of my world was now safe, but the world itself was lost until we could restore it. We had scored a victory, but it was only the first step.
We walked back single-file along the narrow path.
“Why don’t you look happy, Elle?” Maris asked when we reached the wider area near the entry. “It’s over.”
I shook my head. “It’s not over. Yes, the Archive is safe now, but the Darkness is still out there and we need to figure out how to stop it.”
“About that… I saw things. Right after the Spirit challenge,” Kaiden murmured.
“What did you see?”
“Ships,” Kaiden replied. “Alien ships. They were traveling to the worlds consumed by the Darkness.”
“And I saw the Darkness spreading through the crystals,” Toran added. He turned to me. “What about you, Elle?”
“The Darkness was transforming the worlds.” I gave them an account of my vision.
“Hmm. So, maybe the Darkness is like some sort of advanced preparation for the aliens?” Kaiden posited. “Transform the world to their specifications.”
“And, based on your vision, it would seem that the creatures we encountered may have been transformed by the Darkness,” Toran stated.
“If those are hybrids, then what are the beings behind it?” Kaiden wondered aloud.
“Evil, whatever they are,” I muttered. “This is a war. A full-on invasion.”
“But we did it,” Maris said. “We sealed the Archive. It’s safe. Our worlds can be restored.”
“Not until the threat is gone,” Kaiden countered.
I crossed my arms. “Yes, but how do we do that?”
“Not sure, but I suspect it will be up to us to figure out.”
“And we won’t do that standing here.” Toran gestured toward the exit.
We took the doorway to the crystal corridor, which had embedded in the back wall of the cavern, and trudged out of the Archive, exhausted. When we reached the column at the end of the stone tunnel leading from the cave mouth, the cleaning supplies were waiting at the base of the monument.
“I know we’re tired, but I think we should put this back how it’s supposed to be,” I said.
“A few extra minutes won’t kill us,” Kaiden replied.
“I can help with the tiredness.” Maris waved her hand and a rejuvenating wave washed over us.
Kaiden helped me clean off the crystal, returning it to its natural milky white. Though no magical being appeared to thank us for cleaning the ancient artifact, I felt in my heart it was the right thing to do.
When we were finished, the four of us returned to the shuttle.
The mood for the ride back was lighter than it had been in recent days. I suspected that would change as soon as we debriefed with the commander, but it was temporary relief.
We docked on the Evangiel in our usual berth.
Tami came to meet us as we exited the shuttle. “Did you do it?”
I grinned. “Archive sealed.”
She placed her hand on her chest. “Thank the stars!”
“The Darkness is still out there, but the backups are safe. We’ll find a way to restore the worlds,” Kaiden said.
The engineer nodded. “I have no doubt you will.” She took a shaky breath. “The commander is expecting you.”
“We’re on our way.” Toran headed for the hangar door and we followed.
We took the lift up to the bridge level and walked down the corridor toward Central Command.
When we passed by the entry to an ancillary pod room, Kaiden motioned to me. “Elle, hang back a minute.”
Toran looked back questioningly.
“We’ll be right there,” Kaiden told him.
When the others had gone ahead, and Kaiden motioned me inside the pod room.
“You were amazing today,” he said when the door had closed. “I don’t mean to say that in private because I wouldn’t say it in front of them. It’s not that.” He stepped closer to me.
“Then why?” I searched his face.
“Because when I was lying there looking up at you, thinking it was all over, all I could think about was that we’d left things at a ‘maybe someday’. But we have no idea what’s coming tomorrow or a minute from now, so what’s the point in waiting?”
“There might always be a ‘next mission’.”
“Exactly.” He continued toward me until we were only centimeters apart. Slowly, he brought one hand up to my shoulder and then gently slid it upward to cup the side of my face.
His touch warmed me, sending an excited tingle to my core. I gazed into his radiant blue eyes. “Then let’s not wait.”
Our lips met and he wrapped his arms around me. I returned the hug as we shared the tender moment, forgetting our troubles in the universe beyond. We had each other, and in those seconds that was all I wanted.
When we parted, I gave him a bashful grin. “I have to say, that was worth the wait.”
“I heartily agree.” He gave me another soft kiss.
I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in the bliss, but I knew others were waiting on us. I pulled back slightly and entwined his fingers in mine. “What now?”
He laughed. “I have no idea.”
“Should we say something?”
“Seems like a formal announcement would be weird.”
“Yeah, so…”
He cupped his other hand around our interlaced fingers. “Maybe we just drop a few subtle hints and let them figure it out for themselves?”
“I like that approach.” I placed my free hand over the crystal shard in my pocket. “We should probably go debrief with the Commander.”
“Right.”
Hand-in-hand, we walked up to the conference room in Central Command.
Our comrades gave us a questioning look when we entered, but we casually dropped our hands to our sides like there was nothing to see.
“So, you did it? The Archive is sealed?” the commander questioned, romance clearly the last thing on his mind.
“Yes, and we learned some things in the process,” Kaiden began. He gave a recap of our visions and what we’d been able to piece together, while we interjected anecdotes as seemed appropriate.
Colren shook his head with amazement when we finished. “That explains so much.”
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help us know how to stop the Darkness and whatever beings are behind it,” Toran replied.
The commander nodded. “Well, it’s a start. And now we know this was a first wave and ships may be coming next. That’s more information than we had before.”
Maris crossed her arms. “But still, all of that and it didn’t give us any other hints about what to do next? For a place that supposedly holds all the answers, we didn’t get much.”
“There was nothing else?” Colren asked.
“Well, there was one other thing,” I said, pulling the crystal shard from my pocket.
The commander gingerly took the crystal from me. “Where did you get this?”
“It broke off from a crystal within the Archive,” I replied. “The voice said it would aid us in the trials ahead.”
“Stars!” Colren exclaimed. “Could it be…?” He stared with wonder at the tiny crystal fragment.
“Does that mean something to you?” I asked.
“If I’m not mistaken,” he began, “this might be a shard from a Master Crystal. I didn’t think we’d ever get access to one.”
I tilted my head. “What is it, exactly?”
/> “If legend holds, it’s connected to the Master Archive,” Colren explained. “Such a shard provides a direct tether to the only storage medium that allow backups beyond our inhabited worlds.”
Kaiden crossed his arms. “That sounds fancy, but how does that do us any good?”
The commander’s eyes lit up. “Oh, it changes everything! This gives us a control point.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You mean…”
Colren nodded. “This will allow us to access the Master Archive from anywhere.” He held up the crystal. “With this, we can perform a universal reset.”
“That’s great!” Maris exclaimed. “Now you can do a reset and save our worlds.”
Toran drooped. “No, having this tool doesn’t eliminate the underlying threat.”
Colren nodded solemnly. “This gives us hope, but it’s not a magical fix.” He activated the desktop and brought up a holographic recording of four worlds marred by incremental stages of Darkness infection. The dark clouds swirled around the planets, devoid of any signs of life. “This is what’s become of your worlds.”
My stomach turned over, realizing that I hadn’t even recognized my home of Erusan.
“This is only the beginning,” the commander continued. “The aliens will just come back if we do a universal reset now. We need to stop them.”
Kaiden’s gaze hardened. “We have some special abilities, yeah, but how are we supposed to go up against that?”
“I don’t have an answer, but we’ve exhausted all of our other options,” Colren stated. “You may have viewed your last task as a fun adventure, but the real invasion is coming. We currently have no way to stop the aliens’ advance. What’s happened to your worlds,” he motioned to the holograph, “will happen to every world in the Hegemony if we don’t find a way to fight back. You four are our best hope.”
“How long do we have?” Toran asked.
Colren shrugged. “Weeks? A month, maybe? The rate of infection is accelerating. I didn’t want to distract you from your task of sealing the Master Archive, but the truth is that we’re past desperate. Though I wish I could send you home and say everything is going to be okay, that’s not the reality.”
I fought back a wave of guilt. I’d spent the last week living a super-charged version of my dream to be a Space Ranger, ignoring the unpleasant facts of my circumstances. The Hegemony was at a critical juncture, and I had the chance to make a difference. I couldn’t shirk that responsibility when it mattered the most.
