by Brian Fuller
Helo undid it. A pool of light spread outward as if someone were pouring it through him and out his feet. In moments it encapsulated the Sheid, then enveloped his Sicarius Nox squad mates. He had no idea what it would do to a Sheid, but as it washed over the fallen Ashakaz, she howled in pain. Someone’s shot had blown her right arm off and another had punched a hole in her abdomen.
Did Shedim feel surprise? Helo hoped so, but the creature of evil—who was morphed to look like some absurdly beefed-up gym rat in fatigues—showed no emotion. As soon as the hallow swallowed it, Vexus billowed off it like smoke from burning tire rubber.
It ran. Helo followed. He couldn’t let it escape the hallowing field. He knew maintaining hallows drained Virtus quickly, and he had no idea how long he could keep it up.
“Shujaa, Faramir, on me!” Goliath yelled behind him, sounding a little dazed. “Aclima, stay with Argyle and detain Ashakaz.”
The Sheid chase was on. Helo couldn’t chance a look behind him. The forest floor was an enemy to running feet, especially in the waning light of day, and he couldn’t risk tripping and losing ground. He had to catch the Sheid. But then what? He had no sanctified weapon, or any weapon for that matter. But the Sheid had to be lessening, the Vexus billowing off it with every step.
A tree branch slapped his face, and he ducked another. Shujaa and Goliath sprinted past him, their Speed Bestowal propelling them forward in a blur. Then the Sheid grabbed a tree branch and lifted itself free of the hallowing field, letting loose with another torching blast as awful as the first. As before, Helo cut through it, something about him repelling it. He grinned. Cassandra continued to bless him, and freedom from the sucking horror of torching was the best gift he could imagine at the moment.
Shujaa and Goliath stumbled and went to their knees under the torch’s power. Then one of the Sheid’s arms transformed into a smoking column of unholy fire and shot straight at Helo like a lance. He tried to hold up and flinch to the left, but the burning appendage plowed into his right rib cage a hand’s breadth below his armpit. While it seemed made of smoke and fire, it hit him like a molten hammer of lead, driving him backward into the ground so hard his left shoulder buckled and snapped, head whipping onto the ground. He skidded through the leaves for at least ten feet before grinding to a stop.
There was no hanging on to the hallow. Before he could even think about reigniting it, the Sheid dropped to the ground and Desecrated it. It didn’t hurt him, but the Sheid probably hadn’t figured that out yet.
Gunfire erupted. He was sure his comrades were unloading everything they had. Helo tried to roll to his elbow. If it used its Speed, it could escape. He had to Hallow!
Boom!
It sounded like Shujaa’s massive gun, the Sheid de-forming for a moment and then throwing a fiery tentacle outward. Helo couldn’t see what happened, but a second later, Shujaa let loose a howl of pain. Then Faramir was beside him, grabbing his arm, trying to pull him up. Faramir could heal! Helo just had to Hallow the ground around him.
But it wasn’t going to happen. Before Helo’s hallow had spread two feet away, a smoking tentacle slammed into Faramir, crumpling his leg and driving him backward. Helo struggled to his feet and pumped his hallow, driving all his Virtus into it to extend it as far as he could.
And it was enough.
The hallow engulfed the Sheid. It turned to flee, but a shot from Goliath pounded it in the back of its meaty leg. The thigh evaporated into a dark vapor, and the Sheid crumpled to the forest floor. Helo had seen a Sheid reconstitute after being hit with an explosive bullet. It was quick, but inside of his hallow, it was as if the tendrils of darkness were confused about how to reassemble.
“I’ve got a sanctified weapon in my pack,” Goliath yelled. “Keep that hallow going, Helo!”
Helo ran toward the Sheid, his left arm hanging useless at his side. Shujaa was trying to get to a sitting position nearby, one of his arms missing completely. The Sheid crawled toward a tree, arms like machines, moving fast, kicking up leaves as it slid across the ground. If it could crawl up the tree, it would escape the hallow and incapacitate them all. It grasped the trunk, pulling and clawing hand over hand, clearing the ground and the hallow.
The Vexus of the lost leg re-formed immediately, the Sheid whole again. But Helo was there. He killed the now-useless hallow, flaring his Strength instead. He had to knock the Sheid off the tree and get it back on the ground so he could Hallow it. Helo punched it with everything he had, but it was almost like there was nothing there, his fist passing through the Sheid’s body and pounding a hole in the tree trunk behind it.
But the Sheid exploded, its Vexus bursting away from the tree and then being sucked backward and into Helo. He could feel his Virtus being depleted as his body burned the Vexus away. Hagathaath was gone. Helo turned to see that Goliath was just behind them, a glowing spike in her hand, raised as if to strike, a dumbfounded look on her face.
Helo looked at his hand, then at the hole in the tree trunk, and then at his hand again. Then he looked around. The Sheid was gone. The Vexus was gone. He had killed it. But how?
“What just happened?” Goliath said, lowering the spike.
“He killed a Sheid without a sanctified weapon,” Faramir said, struggling to straighten his mangled leg. “How did you do that?”
“I . . . I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on,” Faramir chided. “Using Bestowals inside desecration fields, shrugging off one of the most devastating torches I have ever felt, killing Shedim with your bare hands. I mean, you killed a Sheid without a sanctified weapon. Nobody’s done that. Ever. What happened to you?”
Shujaa walked toward Faramir, his severed arm in hand. “He is the sanctified weapon, Faramir. Can’t you see? Heal my arm.”
Goliath checked Helo over, pulling open his jumper to reveal a hole in his side, organs glistening. Her brown eyes took him in like someone staring at a puzzle they thought they should be able to solve but couldn’t.
“No, really, Helo, what is it with you?” she asked, voice tinged with awe. “That’s five Bestowals. I’m with Faramir. I think it’s time for you to start talking.”
“Let’s get back to camp,” Helo said. “And I will tell you what I know.”
“Faramir,” Goliath said. “Heal Shujaa and he’ll carry you back. Argyle can heal your leg.”
“Great,” Faramir said. “Get over here, Shujaa. Don’t make me hop over there on one leg.”
“No,” Shujaa said, stepping back and pointing his severed arm at Helo. “He goes first.”
“No, go ahead,” Helo said. “I’m not that bad off.”
“No,” Shujaa said, eyes firm. “You are first.”
Something about Shujaa’s tone let Helo know the matter wasn’t up for debate. In moments, Faramir had closed the hole in his side and fixed his busted shoulder.
After Shujaa’s arm had reaffixed itself under Faramir’s power, they returned to the clearing, Faramir slung over Shujaa’s shoulder. Aclima sat on the log with her face in her hands. She didn’t even glance up as they returned. Argyle had apparently removed Ashakaz’s heart and was stuffing it into one of the backpacks.
Argyle looked up at Goliath. “Ashakaz has been neutralized and is about thirty yards from here. I’ve geotagged the location just in case.”
“Good,” Goliath said. “Can you help Faramir with his leg?”
Helo sat by Aclima, who leaned into him without lifting her head. The torching had hit her hard. He could only imagine how bad it had been for her. She had six thousand years of guilt to draw from, and this torch had a lot of kick to it. He put his arm around her and pulled her in tight. Maybe if she got torched a few more times, she would realize she had about as much business in the field as he had when Cassandra had tried to train him.
“Sheid gone or destroyed?” Argyle said as he cinched a buckle on the pack.
“Destroyed,” Goliath reported.
“Excellent,” Argyle said. “The engagement was nois
y, so we’d better clear out. They’ll pick up the heart in two hours on the road west of here. We’ll head there and wait. Command is trying to decide what to do. If what she said about thirteen Shedim is true, we’ll need more than the one sanctified weapon we have left.”
“We still have two,” Goliath said.
Argyle cocked his head. “It is still sanctified? I thought a powerful Sheid like that would have drained it.”
“No,” Faramir said. “We didn’t have to use it. Just wait for the rest of the story on this one, Argyle. You’re going to love it, I promise.”
“Let’s move,” Argyle said.
Helo glanced at Aclima, who didn’t seem ready to march yet. “We’ll catch up.”
Argyle frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but Goliath grabbed his arm and pulled him away, whispering to him.
After the sound of the team’s footsteps faded into the darkening woods, Aclima raised her head and dropped her hands, her tear-soaked face somber, scared, even.
Helo let his Inspire gift flow into her. She closed her eyes, soaking it in.
“It sucks,” Helo said. “I know it. First few times I got torched I could hardly move. Dawn will come, and it will pass.”
She nodded and used her fingers to wipe away the wetness around her eyes as if trying to dig the sadness out. Helo kept the gift flowing for a few more moments before letting it fade. While still somber, some of the defeat had drained from her expression, and she stood. Helo helped her with her backpack and handed her the BBG she had carried.
“Thanks, Helo,” she said. “There’s a flashlight in the side pocket.”
Helo grabbed it and turned it on, and together they set out into the dark.
After a few steps, she exhaled roughly as if to expel some pollution out of her soul. “So what was Faramir going on about? Using a Bestowal in a desecration field is quite a trick.”
“Avadan said I was something Micah called ‘angel born,’” he said.
“Why would he think that?” Aclima asked.
“I saw an angel. Since then, I’ve been different.”
Aclima stopped. “An actual angel?”
“Didn’t the Medius tell you?” he said. “I reported it just before I got pulled into Avadan’s prison.”
“No,” she said. “They left that out. We were focused on finding the prison. You were a second priority. So you’ve finally got a story a six-thousand-year-old woman is eager to hear. Out with it.”
As they began walking again, Helo related his escape and brief encounter with Avadan in the woods, his visit from the angel Cassandra, and how Avadan had discovered that desecration didn’t work on him anymore. When he told her about killing the Sheid with just a thrust of his fist, she pulled up short.
“Impossible!” she said, though in a way he could tell meant amazing. “Helo, I’ve been living this afterlife for an eternity and I’ve never heard of anything like what you’re describing.”
“Avadan said it was rare,” Helo said. “But it must have happened before, or Micah wouldn’t have written about it. We really need to get the book Avadan stole from him—Mysteries of Light, he called it. I get the feeling there’s information in it that could help us.”
“This is wonderful,” Aclima said, setting out again slowly, picking her way through the uncertain ground. “But if it had to happen to someone, I’m glad it’s you. I will say this, though. You are a sucker for hard-luck cases. Please remember there are no hard-luck cases among the Dread Loremasters. None of them deserve your compassion or pity.”
“Seemed to work on you,” he said, remembering how his defense of her in the Hammer Bar and Grill had set her on the path toward becoming an Ash Angel. “Besides, people who deserve compassion and pity don’t appreciate receiving it as much as those who don’t.”
She laughed softly. “Wow, that was deep stuff, Helo. Listen carefully. Don’t make me chop your head off on this one. Do not try to redeem any of the Dread Loremasters.”
“But—”
“You should have killed me, too,” she said sharply. “What happened to me was a fluke. That is all. I’m glad it happened, but it was a fluke.”
“Not a fluke,” he said. “And you can keep arguing all you want, but it won’t do any good. You are an Ash Angel because there was good in you, and that is no fluke. You chose it.”
She was silent for several moments. “So when do I get to feel good, Mr. Angel Born?”
“Well, an angel once told me to quit staring at the dark part. I think that applies here.”
“How?” she asked.
“That is for you to answer,” he said, tone light and mockingly sagacious.
She bumped his shoulder lightly. “Thank you, O wise one. I think I understand your meaning. Easier said than done.”
“Believe me, I know.”
Argyle’s voice, strident in the otherwise peaceful woods, led them the rest of the way to the team. Goliath and Faramir lounged on a fallen trunk in a small clearing close enough to the road they could hear the hum of cars slipping by in the late evening. Shujaa leaned against a tree, rifle propped against it.
Argyle was the center of attention, his phone to his ear, his expression exasperated as he listened to something he didn’t want to hear. Helo crossed to Goliath, and she shifted to allow room for him and Aclima to sit.
“What’s this about?” Helo asked.
Goliath shrugged. “The Medius is pissed we haven’t found the prison yet. That’s about all I can make out at this point. Argyle just got done explaining about finding you and Ashakaz. Not sure what’s got his face all like . . . that.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one reporting in?” Helo asked.
“Maybe,” Goliath said. “But you know how much Argyle loves sitreps, so I just let him do it. So, you want to explain all this new awesomeness of yours? I mean, damn.”
“Let’s wait for Argyle,” Helo said.
“Yes!” Argyle said into the phone. “I said yes. Right here. He’s fine. Okay.” Argyle walked over and thrust his phone toward Helo. “They wish to speak directly with you. It’s Archus Mars and Archus Magdelene.”
Helo took it. “This is Helo.”
“This is Archus Mars and Acting Archus Magdelene.”
Helo almost fell off the log. “Acting Archus Magdelene? Acting Archus of what?”
“The Gabriels,” Magdelene said. “We’ll get to that. First, are you all right? We need to assess your mental state. I want to call you back in for an eval, but Mars wants it left up to you. I know you’ve had troubles with being torched in the past. I assume the Dreads used that on you.”
“I’m not coming in. Torching doesn’t work on me anymore,” Helo said.
“If it’s powerful enough, it can,” Magdelene said. “It gets to the most experienced of us if done strongly enough.”
“No, it—”
Goliath grabbed the phone. “This is Goliath. He’s serious. He can use Bestowals in desecration fields and can kill Shedim without a sanctified weapon.”
She handed the phone back. Shujaa grinned from ear to ear.
Helo pressed the phone to his ear and got nothing but silence. “This is Helo again. I’m not coming in. I am ready to go. Just need some gear. I can lead the team to the prison. We’ve got to do this fast, or Avadan will bail, if he hasn’t already. He’s probably discovered that I left with Ashakaz’s heart hours ago.”
“Is what Goliath said true?” Magdelene asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Avadan called it being angel born. It was Cassie, Magdelene. She came to me, changed me somehow. She told me her angel name, just like Rachel did.”
Goliath inhaled sharply.
Faramir stood up. “No way.”
“That . . .” Magdelene stammered, voice full of emotion. “But . . . are you sure?”
Magdelene had been Cassie’s closest friend, had tried to help Cassie through her troubles.
“You would have loved it, Magdelene,” Helo continue
d. “To see her like that. She was happy. You know what that means. It was . . . well . . . you know.” He didn’t have the words.
“Look,” Mars said. “If you say you’re good to go, then I believe you, son. The Scholus is going to want to hear about this angel born business, but you can report to them on the way. Right now we’ve got to get the team out of there.”
“Out?” Helo said. “But the prison! Avadan might still be there. Even if he’s not, there are people trapped there and probably more intel.” Now he knew why Argyle seemed ready to blow. What could possibly be important enough to pull them away from the prison?
“We can get what we need about the prison’s location and defenses from Ashakaz,” Magdelene said, her voice still sounding like half her brain was busy processing his news about Cassandra. “And the Medius agrees Avadan is probably smart enough to have cleared out, though we’ll be searching the area. No, we need your team elsewhere. Put us on speakerphone so the whole team can hear. You’re not going to like this.”
Helo put the phone on his knee and tapped the speakerphone button. “You’re on.”
“This is Archus Mars. I know the prison was the mission, but priorities have changed. We have two situations we’ve been monitoring closely. The first regards the singer, Tela Mirren, whom we’ve been protecting. Due to recent developments in her situation, we feel she is in imminent danger.”
“What changes in her situation?” Helo asked. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something awful had happened to her.
Magdelene piped up. “Besides the Gabriel agents you are already acquainted with, we have other agents watching her perimeter. The Dreads don’t know where she is exactly, but they know roughly. The number of Dreads out searching has doubled. And her dreams. They are . . . dark. We can go over those later. But that’s not the worst news.”
“It’s Ramis, isn’t it?” Helo said, understanding now why Magdelene had returned. “What’d he do?”
