by Kyle West
* * *
It didn’t take long for the darkness to swallow me. Small lanterns on the corridor’s side were the only illumination, and the only sound was my footsteps as I walked deeper into the Temple.
After a couple of minutes, I looked back to see the entrance had become a small, semicircular point of light. Ahead I could only see the hallway diverge left and right. When I reached it, I took a left turn. Unlike the first time I came here, I wasn’t concerned about going the wrong way.
I knew that all paths led to Shen.
I wandered the building, my footsteps the only sound. I went upstairs, I went downstairs, I turned left, and I turned right, passing through empty rooms and passing through dark archways. All the visions I’d received on my first visit were completely absent now. The Temple was barren, its vast spaces filled with nothing but empty air and darkness.
After an indeterminate amount of time, I turned into an archway that seemed to lead to something different from the other rooms I’d passed through. I entered a large, empty space in the shape of a perfect cube. There was no ornamentation; only the doorway leading in and out. I walked a few steps forward when a sudden sliding sound from behind caused me to turn.
There was no longer any way out. A door had closed, so closely fitting that it was impossible to separate it from the wall.
I calmed my nerves by seeking Silence. I was grateful for the connection when I found it, though it felt weaker than usual, probably due to my distance from the Red Wild, or perhaps because Anna had departed.
“Shen, I’m here. Show yourself.”
My words echoed off the walls, but a moment later, a light shone on the opposite end of the room. A door was opening.
I walked forward, allowing myself to become bathed in the light. I held a hand up to my face, shielding my eyes from the glare. As I walked though, the light slowly dissipated.
I was in the same audience chamber I’d met Shen more than three months ago.
“Welcome, Shanti,” Shen said, his voice sounding out clearly in the confines of the room. “We have much to discuss. As with last time, it seems you’ve passed through the Hallways of Always without giving yourself to madness.”
The name for this place was apt. “There were no visions this time.”
“The visions were a test. I didn’t find them necessary this time.”
For that, I was thankful. A long silence lingered between us. Like before, I noticed that there was no placing the direction Shen’s voice was coming from.
Shen was the one to break the silence. “The Novans are pouring over the Selvan into the Red Wild, having taken the Makai citadel of Larre. Even now, Isaru the Fallen marches for Colonia to cement his legitimacy as the Xenofold’s chosen champion. The dragons hide in their mountains, debating whether the world, which has rejected their ways, is worth dying for. The Eastern Kingdoms war and fragment, wasting themselves on a war that will undo them before even the Radaskim can.” Shen paused. “And so it is that Anna finds her way here, ostensibly to seek my aid.”
Shen had summed up the situation fairly accurately. Even if his tone was neutral, I couldn’t help but feel he was mocking me. “So, Shen. Since you’ve figured everything out, will you help?”
“Gladly. If you are willing to place the Elekai people under my protection.”
“You can protect us,” I said. “But you cannot rule us.”
“If not me, then who?” Shen asked. “Would you have Isaru? We both know that isn’t an option. Or what about King Arius? Well, he rules the kingdom of the Makai, but does he wish to rule all of the Elekai? Does he have that ambition? Or, last of all, shall it be you, Anna? Are you willing to take that on?”
“I don’t know what would be best,” I said. “Does one person have to rule everything? That’s neither here nor there, though, because I have concerns.”
“I see,” Shen said. “And what are your concerns, Shanti?”
Here it was, then. “The Nameless One told me your eventual goal. Perhaps you can elucidate things a bit further, because I don’t trust him. Let’s just say I trust him about as much as I don’t trust you.”
Shen gave an eerie chuckle. The chuckle was eerie not because it was inhuman, but because it was exceedingly human. “I understand your trust of me is very little, but I’m glad that your trust of the Nameless One is just as much.” There was a pause. “What did he have to say?”
“He says that you seek the end of the Xenofold. He said you tried to destroy it when your armies took over Hyperborea one hundred and fifty years ago.” I waited for a response, only continuing when none was forthcoming. “Is that true?”
“Yes,” Shen said, his voice somber. “Humanity was never meant to bear the Gifts of the Xenofold. They were only given to you – and to all your friends in the past – because it was necessary to defeat Askala. The Gifts can be used to elevate humanity. But in the hands of those who seek power and destruction – like Rakhim Shal – it spells doom for all. You have seen what these Gifts have done. It would be more accurate to call them Curses.”
I felt as if Tiamat and Shen would get along quite well. “What’s your point?”
“The time of the Xenofold is past. And ending it is the only way to stop Rakhim Shal and the Hyperfold.”
“What about the Radaskim?” I asked. “Without the Xenofold, Earth is open to invasion. As long as the Xenofold exists, we are safe from them. How do you answer to that?”
“I answer thus: Earth will never be safe from the Radaskim so long as the Xenofold exists.”
“No,” I said. “It’s our protection.”
“That is where you are wrong,” Shen said. “The Xenofold is a gateway. Where the Xenofold exists, so does the entrance to the Xenomatrix, the web that connects all the Radaskim’s worlds. Nothing physical can pass through, but thoughts can. This is where the Nameless One resides, in the shadows of his web. It was through the Xenomatrix that he allowed Odium to enter your world, Odium who was able to enter the mind of Rakhim Shal and poison his thoughts. Rakhim Shal is not himself . . . just as your friend Isaru is not himself. Odium possesses Shal, just as Shal possesses Isaru.” Shen waited for this to sink in. “The only way to stop Odium from destroying the world from the inside out is to destroy the Xenofold, and to entrust its defense to me. If there is no Xenofold, there is no entrance to the Xenomatrix. This world will be safe from alien interlopers.”
“And you think you could successful defend us? Somehow, I have trouble believing that.”
“Yes,” Shen said. “Ever since I’ve learned of these things from my first attempt to destroy the Hyperfold, I’ve been doing the work, preparing for the eventual invasion. One hundred and fifty years, Shanti. The only missing piece was you. Without you on my side, we cannot stop the Radaskim.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will find out soon enough. The invasion is near, Shanti, and there isn’t much time. Will you join me in defending Earth from the invaders?”
“When will they be here?” I asked. “I know less than two years, but when exactly?”
“It has remained well-hidden,” Shen said. “But the observatories in the Shen homeland have spied vessels around one of the moons of Jupiter, called Europa in older days. Only once did we glimpse them; they could have moved on by now, and space is so vast that we may never find them again, even with all of our observatories. Needless to say, the invasion is coming soon, if it isn’t already on its way.”
“You’re missing the most important point,” I said. “If the Xenofold is destroyed . . . even if such a thing is possible . . . it would leave the world defenseless against the Radaskim. You say you’re enough of a defense, but you don’t know that. You can’t know that. We need the Xenofold. I don’t know the reason, but I know it’s too important to destroy.”
“As I said before,” Shen said, “The Xenofold feeds the Hyperfold. The Hyperfold will only die if the Xenofold dies.” Shen paused to give me time to understand. “Don’t
you see? Odium will win if you allow the Xenofold to continue existing, as the Hyperfold gathers more power and eventually supplants the Xenofold. Destroying the Xenofold gives us the chance fight at the very least.”
I still felt as if something were missing. Shen was hundreds, if not thousands or millions, times more intelligent than me. Somehow, I had the feeling this exchange of information was more for my benefit that his.
“Just tell me your plan,” I said, seeing that Shen was waiting for me to say something else.
“Isaru must be stopped,” Shen said.
“I know that,” I said.
“Killed,” Shen said, quietly. “Without a host, Rakhim cannot touch the world. He would be trapped in the Hyperfold, as he was before. He would be unable to control his dragons, which are the key to his power. This buys us time to enact the second solution.”
“Which is?”
“You must enter the Xenofold,” Shen said. “And convince its consciousness to leave this world for the greater good.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IF such a thing was possible. I just stood there and tried to think of my options, but all I succeeded in doing was feeling overwhelmed.
“There has to be another way,” I said. “A better way than that.”
“It is the only way,” Shen’s voice answered, clear and strangely calming. “Humanity was never meant to bear the Gifts of the Xenofold. It was an unfortunate necessity. Without the Gifts, it would have been impossible for Elekim to supplant Askala as High Xenomind. But once victory was achieved, the Gifts were no longer necessary. Alas, what was given by the Xenofold could not be taken back.” Shen paused. “Thus, came the Xenofont, Hyperborea, the Hyperfold . . . all of it.”
Explained in this way, I understood Tiamat’s point of view, who said humanity used the Gifts of the Xenofold for corrupt ends. Perhaps humanity was never meant to bear the Gifts, and ending the Xenofold would be a way of returning things to how they were supposed to be.
However, that gave Shen unrivaled dominion over the planet . . . and it wasn’t a real choice for me to make. Alex was still at the center of the Xenofold, and nothing happened to it except by his leave.
“It seems I’m out of options,” I said. “What makes you think you can protect us where the Xenofold can’t? If the Radaskim are as close as you say they are, then how will you have time to stop them?”
“As I said before, I’ve been assembling an army for decades,” Shen said. “But if the Hyperfold continues to exist, my army will be worse than useless. If the Radaskim come while the Hyperfold is still operational, then it will be in much greater power than otherwise.”
“But what happens to the Elekai if the Xenofold ends?” I asked. “You’ve said humanity would lose their Gifts, but what about the dragons? Wouldn’t that render them Mindless?”
“Sadly, yes,” Shen said. “But this would come to pass anyway by allowing the Hyperfold to continue existing. Eventually, the Xenofold will grow so weak that it crumbles under the Hyperfold’s pressure.”
There had to be another way. Shen was just giving me the solution that worked out best for him. Maybe it would work, but I didn’t want to see a world that was controlled by him, and I couldn’t betray the dragons by destroying the Xenofold, supposing it was within my power to do so. Without the Xenofold, dragonkind as we knew it would perish from the Earth.
“How much time?” I asked. “How much time until the Hyperfold is strong enough to overcome the Xenofold?”
“There is no telling,” Shen said. “Weeks, months, or even years.” There was a pause. “Perhaps even days. A tipping point is coming, Shanti. I would not waste time, if I were you.”
Unless Isandru found a way to end the Hyperfold on the inside, I didn’t see any other option.
“We tried to destroy it from the inside, and failed,” I said. “Isaru rescued Rakhim before we ever had the chance to kill him.”
“And supposing you return to the Hyperfold, you know what will happen,” Shen said. “Rakhim Shal has power to stretch time as much as he pleases. Any attempt to kill him gives him plenty of time to await rescue.”
“But is it possible to kill him?”
“Many things are possible,” Shen said. “Many things are also improbable. Fighting Shal in his own world can lead to nothing but your destruction. But if you go to Elekim, you will have the ability to end the Xenofold once and for all. It is the only sure solution.”
Was speaking directly to Alex even possible? I couldn’t imagine asking him to end the Xenofold. It was basically asking him to end himself.
It would be betraying everything I stood for.
Shen continued. “I know this is difficult for you. I don’t expect you to accept everything. Not all at once. But I have thought this over a great deal, Shanti. Anna returned to save the world from the Radaskim. Did she not?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Does the manner of salvation matter, so long as the world is saved?”
Now that was a question. “I don’t know.”
“If you fulfill your role, then I will dutifully fulfill mine. Over the centuries, I’ve marshaled the power of almost the entire planet. I’ve redeveloped the old technologies while incorporating new discoveries from the Xenofold. Millions of men and war machines stand at my command, and all will act in tandem, obeying without question. I stand ready to defeat the Radaskim who threaten my charge: humanity. I am not the leader of humanity, Shanti. I am its eternal servant. There is no better hope than me when considering the question of humanity’s future.”
As much as I hated it, I began to see Shen’s point. How could the Elekai stand alone against both Isaru and the Novan Empire? And how was I supposed to defeat Rakhim Shal when he possessed godlike powers in his own world?
Perhaps this was the only way. I was too young for this, too weak. Shen was probably right.
No, came a thought. Don’t give up. Seek answers. You’ll find them.
Anna? I thought she was gone. Or was that my voice talking to me, telling me that deep down, I knew that there was more to this?
I heaved a sigh. “I’ll promise you this much, Shen. I’ll find a way to speak to Elekim. But only if he’s willing to listen.”
“I think he will be,” Shen said.
I didn’t know how Shen came to that conclusion. “How do I find him?”
“I think you already know that answer.”
I thought back to the few encounters I’d had with Elekim . . . with Alex. One thing was common about almost all of them; I had been immersed in ichor, or somehow under its influence. I’d spoken to an older version Elekim, a man by the name of the Wanderer, the first time I entered the Xenofold.
Was it as simple as entering another reversion? There was only one way to find out.
“I’ll give it a try,” I said.
“I think you’ll come around to my way of thinking,” Shen said. “But you must be careful.”
“As long as you trust me to choose what I think is best.”
“Then choose well, and chose carefully,” Shen said. “The fate of the world depends on it.”
As if I didn’t already know. “I think I’m ready to leave. Unless you have something further to discuss.”
“There is one more thing. Something quite important concerning Pallos.”
“Yes?”
“By my orders, Pallos has hidden his true identity. He is actually a Guardian, and I tasked him with keeping watch over you.”
“I figured that out a long time ago. Anything else?”
“I deduced that you probably already knew. If we are to trust each other, then at least that has to be out in the open. Let me explain my reasons. I couldn’t predict how you would act around him if you knew the truth. If we are to be working together, it must be in the spirit of honesty. As a first sign of my growing trust, I’m revealing that I’ve given you one of the most powerful people in my domain, and that his loss would not be insignificant.
After all, he’s the prodigy I trusted with the repair of Odin.”
Shen’s voice sounded almost . . . sad. As if he truly cared for Pallos. How much of that was real, and how much was simulated?
“Thanks for telling the truth, then,” I said. “Finally.”
“Think about what I said, Shanti,” Shen said.
A sudden light was revealed, rising from the floor in the wall next to me. I recognized it to be a door opening. I supposed our audience was over.
I entered the light and followed the hallway out of the Crystal Temple. The hallway ended in a balcony set high over the sprawling metropolis. As soon as I appeared, an ovoid airship floated in my direction, drawing up alongside the balcony. Guardian Mian stood in the open doorway as a boarding ramp protruded from the craft.
I stepped aboard and watched the massive temple fade away as the ship drifted toward Odin.
* * *
When I entered the ship, the crew was waiting for me in the wardroom.
“I spoke with Shen,” I began. “First things first.” I looked at Pallos. “Pallos. Shen confirmed what all of us knew, that you’re spying on us for him.” I paused to look at him directly, to make sure he knew I was serious. “He also said you’re a Guardian, which none of us knew.”
Pallos’s eyes opened slightly, his only betrayal of surprise. His face quickly assumed a neutral expression.
“He told you that?” Pallos asked.
I nodded. I wasn’t sure if Shen had told me everything about him, but it was better that Pallos thought he did. I might learn more that way.
The rest of the crew looked at him suspiciously.
“Very well,” Pallos said. “Yes, I’m an engineer. I’ve never lied about that. I personally oversaw the repairs of this ship and directed the effort. But my Guardianship I’ve kept hidden, by orders of Shen.” He sighed. “By proxy, that means I’m to reveal something else to all of you. I have orders from Shen that if he were to ever reveal that bit about me, then I was to reveal the full truth to you.”
