Salt of The Earth: The Fall of Barcelona

by Vlada Asta

  She could get out of the room, but she wasn’t doing it. On the contrary, when the creature tried to push her out, she jumped to the other side of the hall. Robert was confused by this at first, but he understood her strategy soon enough.

  If she left the room, the twisting body would continue to grow, taking the whole house gradually. Then Aeterni would have to move outside, which would make defeating her all too easy: the predator would simply have to push her into the dark salty waves.

  The creature itself could avoid dying by sacrificing only part of its huge body for it, and even if it had to give more… Was it truly that important to Nuria? She just wanted to get rid of Aeterni at any cost!

  Black tentacles were cutting the air noisily. They attempted to reach Robert for a couple of times, but the flow of salt water was a good protection, melting them off quickly. Nuria learned her lesson soon enough, concentrating on Aeterni.

  The smaller Hente was more agile and graceful than her opponent, and when some tentacles managed to reach her, she just tore them off. Nuria’s body was slowly disappearing, while Aeterni didn’t receive a single scratch so far.

  Time was on her side. It was clear that she had been preparing for this: she studied Nuria’s fighting technique and learned to suppress it. Her opponent didn’t have any trump cards left! The monster understood that, but could do nothing to change it, and its attacks were getting more chaotic and clumsy with each moment.

  Robert was so mesmerized by it he watched the two Hente closely, completely forgetting about their surroundings. And Aeterni, who was busy with the fight, made the same mistake…

  What they didn’t notice was the fact not all of the torn tentacles were falling into ashes. Some of them continued writhing on the floor without trying to get back to the main body. They had been waiting – only to attack when their Mother commanded them to.

  They surrounded Aeterni from all sides, bounding her legs. She didn’t manage to escape on time, and she had to deal with the result of that delay. She was actually strong enough to break her way out of the living web with minimal losses – but only if her opponent wanted to survive this battle.

  And to Nuria, survival of a separate body wasn’t too essential. The goal justified the means.

  She dragged Aeterni into the puddle of salt water created by the geyser that was protecting Robert. Aeterni realized what her enemy was doing and managed to twist her body at the last moment, demonstrating greater strength that could be expected from such a fragile girl. The tentacles holding her turned into ashes, but the main body of the larger Hente had already engulfed her completely – and they fell into the salt water together.

  Nuria was the first to dissolve. She was pressed into that puddle, and the low density of her body was playing against her, her tentacles were melting off even without touching the water directly. But before the life of this body was over, she managed to pull Aeterni closer, and the salt swallowed both of them.

  ***

  Sebastian tried not to think – at all. Because when he opened his mind, he didn’t like the thoughts that were overwhelming it. He couldn’t shake the bad feeling off…

  He didn’t want to lose anyone again, he just couldn’t. When he first saw Gabriella’s corpse, he felt like her blood was reaching under his skin, burning him. That memory was already inside his soul, and he would never get it out. But Aeterni… nothing like that would happen to her! She was strong, she could handle anything… but then where did this nagging feeling in his heart come from?

  He didn’t believe she was right in not telling him the truth. Sebastian wasn’t mad at her, rather, he was upset. Why did she do this? She didn’t want him to let Mikael escape – or she simply considered him too weak to help her in fighting against Nuria?

  They could’ve done everything differently! If she knew that Alberta was that Hente all along, they could’ve gathered a squad of warriors and make it a mass attack… Many soldiers would agree to help!

  But something extremely important had already happened, and there was no going back from it.

  It wasn’t easy to get to the platform where Laas’s mansion stood. The ferry remained beside the building, and all the guest boats were missing. That was strange… Sebastian suspected it wasn’t a coincidence.

  He had to borrow the police boat. He had the legal right to do it, even though he’d spend hours explaining his actions later. That didn’t concern him now. He had to see Aeterni, had to make sure she was alright.

  Worrying for her was nothing like grieving over Gabriella’s death – it was stronger! He didn’t know why he was reacting this way, but it wasn’t the best time to analyze it. Deep inside, Sebastian knew that if something happened to her, everything would be over for him too.

  When he reached the platform, he discovered that the main doors were left wide open. It had to be Alberta, she had a key! Not thinking about his own safety, Sebastian entered the house; he had to know what happened here.

  The place was quiet; the air was filled with ashes and smelled of the sea. There were no signs of life and no tracks of a fight.

  It could be a trap, but Sebastian no longer cared.

  “Aeterni!” he shouted.

  She didn’t answer – but someone else did.

  “Sebastian, is that you?” Robert’s voice sounded from the living room. “She’s here!”

  The ashes were spreading through the house from that room. Sebastian entered it – and was shocked by what he saw. Wet ashes on the floor and black jaws showed the place where the Hente had died – and it was a large one, much larger than Alberta! Or maybe that was because of all the water?

  That stopped bothering him when he saw Aeterni.

  She was lying on the couch, and it was clear that Laas moved her there, because she couldn’t move on her own. She was dying. Her right arm was nearly gone, the muscle dissolving to the shoulder, leaving only bones in its place. Half of her face was covered in black scabs that looked like a bad burn, and her eye was closed by swollen eyelids. A huge wound gaped on her chest, showing naked ribs…

  But the worst part of it was the fact the destruction continued, slow and inevitable. The borders of the wound were widening, filling the air with new ashes. Laas sat beside her with a lost look on his face, and it was easy to understand his condition. Just like Sebastian, he had never seen a Hente with bones and internal organs. But they were different from human ones, and he didn’t know what to do to help her. Humans had been developing weapons against Hente for years, but no-one ever created a medicine for them!

  When Sebastian came closer, Laas moved away, giving him some space. Sebastian went down on his knees beside her – just like he had been kneeling beside Gabriella’s body. And he felt useless once again.

  “When did that happen?” he asked.

  “About twenty minutes ago… The Hente she was fighting was suicidal, it fell into the water and dragged Aeterni along with it. I pulled her out, wiped the salt away, but, as you can see, that didn’t stop the process…”

  “Nothing will,” Aeterni smiled weakly, opening her only remaining eye. She looked at Sebastian. “Hi… I knew you’d come.”

  “How can I help you?”

  “You can’t…. It’s all over… A Hente from a different Clan would be long since dead in my place… But I’m more complicated… That’s why it’s so hard for Mother to make us… Each of us has a skeleton, made from the same cells as jaws… It’s not affected by salt… She made it so we can rebuild ourselves…”

  “Then do it!”

  Sebastian didn’t want to scream at her. It just happened.

  “I can’t, the damage is too great… and I gave most of my energy to this battle… I can only slow it down… I just wanted to see you one more time…”

  The bone that used to be her right arm lifted a bit, shaking. A human could never do it, but Hente… they were different. Sebastian didn’t move away when her fingers touched his face. He felt the cold of her bones instead of the warmth of
her flesh, he knew she was in pain, and he hoped she would understand the thing he didn’t dare to say even now.

  “You can make it!” he insisted. “Look, you’re moving…”

  Another flake of ash rose into the air. Bony fingers left his face to catch it.

  “It’s too late… I didn’t expect things to end like this, and I’m sorry to lose this body… But I can’t…”

  “You’re not dead, so there is a chance! What would you do if this wound was smaller? How would you heal it?”

  “I need materials… for new flesh… A life core… I would go hunting Hente to get it… Because I can move with the kind of wound I can heal… Look at me! I can’t get up… I can’t even stabilize what I have left! But I don’t regret coming to this city… Because I met you. A chance to know you means more than an eternity in the wild lands…”

  “Stop it!” Sebastian interrupted her. “Keep your goodbyes for later!”

  He took off his leather jacket, which was part of his uniform, and cut the black shirt that was under it on his arm, up to the elbow.

  “What are you doing?” Aeterni frowned. “Why?”

  “Remember you told me your Clan doesn’t eat people? But later, when we were already working together, you confessed that you can feed on human blood. You can use it now!”

  “Sebastian…”

  She tried to move his hand away from the blade, but he didn’t let her.

  “It has to work!” he insisted. “I don’t want you to die! Not now, not like this…”

  “Your people believe I’m a monster… Maybe they’re right?”

  “I have no people. I am me, I’m on my own, and no-one can decide what’s better for me! I don’t want you to disappear, I want you to stay with me!”

  Tears just fell from his eyes on their own, without any warning. It had never happened before, and Sebastian didn’t know how it was possible. But Aeterni’s death filled his soul with horror – the type he had felt only on the day his mother was killed.

  He wasn’t ashamed of those tears and the fact Laas was watching them. He didn’t care. His world depended on one creature, and this creature was dying.

  Sebastian moved the blade over his wrist, cutting the veins open. Blood burst out of the wound, and he hurried to bring his hand to her lips.

  “Sebastian, I’m not a vampire… It won’t save me, it’ll just win me some time… Bandage your wound and let me go in peace…”

  “No!” He pressed his wrist to her lips. “You’re talking too much. I won’t let you die! We need to win that time, and then I’ll get you a Hente! I’ll bring those life cores to you, anything you need… Just don’t leave me!”

  She didn’t answer, but he saw her throat move slightly as she made the first gulp.

  By the moment his blood clogged and stopped flowing so freely, Sebastian felt slightly light-headed, but that didn’t worry him. He was triumphant: her wounds stopped widening, even though they didn’t heal, and there was no ash left in the air.

  “See, it’s working,” he whispered. “I was right!... Aeterni? Aeterni!”

  There was no answer, but Laas hurried to calm him down:

  “Don’t wake her, she’s fallen asleep... Or passed out. She’s tired. I think that would be enough blood for one day… Here.”

  Sebastian took a white bandage from the owner of the house and wrapped it around his wrist. He couldn’t take his eyes off the Hente’s face. That burn must’ve hurt so much… But he’d make everything right!

  He tried to get up sharply, ready to go for a hunt, but the world around him started spinning, and he barely kept himself from falling.

  “Where are you going?” Laas asked in surprise.

  “I need to get a Hente, I promised her!”

  “There aren’t any of them left in Barcelona, and you are too weak to go out of the city! How are you going to capture it alone?”

  “I don’t know, but I must! We can’t leave her like this!” Sebastian pointed at the black bones sticking out of the Hente’s body.

  “I know… It’s the first time I’m witnessing this… A skeleton! Basically, she could’ve passed the test at the border without even cheating! That’s amazing…”

  “Can you marvel over it later?” Sebastian asked in irritation. “We have to help her!”

  “There’s a healing capsule installed in my house. We can put her there…”

  “It will probably do her no good!”

  “We don’t know what can heal her,” Laas noted. “I care for her – in a different way than you, but still! She saved my life today. And I want to keep her life! But I don’t want you to do anything stupid. You are her connection to this world, and by losing you we’ll lose her for sure!”

  “I’ll contact my friends,” Sebastian finally gave up. The sword in his hand felt unusually heavy. “I’ll ask them to catch a Hente… if they can…”

  “That will not be necessary.”

  The voice that sounded from the door caught them both off guard. They didn’t hear any footsteps approaching, as well as the sound of a motor boat. Though they should have!

  Sebastian turned around and saw the man he least expected to meet here – one of the beggars from the streets. He had seen this guy for a couple of times when patrolling the city. The blind artist would normally sit on the pavement and entertain his audience by drawing portraits.

  He had changed. He was moving confidently without his cane, even though he actually had no eyes – the bandage was off this time, allowing the world to see two gaping holes on his face. But he was walking through the house as if he had owned the place for many years.

  In his hand the blind man was holding a bag leaking with black blood.

  Aeterni, who had seemed asleep until now, opened her eye.

  “Finally,” she grumbled.

  “You are stubborn,” the blind man said. “And lucky, I guess. This body shouldn’t be saved, I’m surprised by Mother’s order.”

  “It’s not for you to decide! Did you bring them?”

  “Of course. Two of them, but that should be enough to restore your body’s basic systems. I’ll get you more tomorrow.”

  He took a bloody life core out of the bag and handed it to Aeterni. Before taking it, she looked at Robert and Sebastian.

  “I want you to wait outside. Rebuilding muscles isn’t pretty. I’m not going to die, don’t worry…”

  Shaken by what he had just felt, Sebastian was too exhausted to argue. They left the room together, all of them – including the blind man.

  That guy was perfectly calm. He went to the kitchen and got a bottle of water out of the fridge; he didn’t look worried at all.

  “Do you… see everything?” Laas asked in astonishment.

  “In a way, but not like you see the world. I’d want to, but it’s tricky without eyes. To put it simple, I feel what’s going on around me. I needed that to get to the peninsula.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The blind man opened his mouth and took out the fake white teeth that were hiding his black fangs.

  “It’s easy to disguise those things,” he explained. “But it doesn’t work with eyes, no lenses can help here. I had to sacrifice them to pass for a human. So I went through the trial at the border easily.”

  “Are you from Teresa’s Clan too?”

  “Sure. Why else would I help Aeterni?”

  “But what about blood?” Sebastian interfered. “It’s tested in Toulouse too!”

  “It’s easier than you think,” the blind man chuckled. “All I had to do was to create a small capsule under my skin and fill it with human blood. And getting this amount of human blood is laughably simple. I could’ve passed the border secretly, but I needed to make it official so I could observe the city without hiding. Although I wasn’t happy to have my eyes removed.”

  “It’s unbelievable!” Laas declared. “All this time you remained beside us, and we didn’t know…”

  “He not only remained, he
helped us,” Sebastian stated. “You’re the one who saved Ulmanas, aren’t you? And you killed Mikael?”

  “That’s right. Basically, I have the same goal as Aeterni, I just prefer different ways to achieve it. That was our Mother’s decision. Aeterni’s mission is more important, because it involved talking to humans directly, while I was sent here to support her. Things got complicated because of Nuria… I didn’t think Aeterni would survive this. But this mission hasn’t been going by our plan from the beginning.”

  “Hey, who wants to visit the patient?” Aeterni’s voice sounded much stronger. “I look more like a human than a corpse now, but you should still bring me a blanket!”

  She seemed happy and cheerful, as before. She most likely didn’t feel that way, but she didn’t want to upset them. And Sebastian didn’t want to leave her alone. Even if things looked stable and safe now, he had been too close to the line that could mark the end of her existence. He had to believe she would stay with him again.

  He was about to return to her when the blind man stopped him.

  “Do you understand it?” he asked quietly. “The main part of it?”

  “What’s the main part?”

  “She shouldn’t have survived,” the blind man pointed at the room where Aeterni was waiting. “She accepted death, but changed her decision because of you. She wasn’t saved by your blood, but rather, by your desire to be with her. That’s what you should remember all the time.”

  Chapter 14

  Sebastian had never attended such events before, and he wasn’t happy to be here now. Any kind of holiday seemed grotesque for those who knew what was going on outside the city limits.

  He would simply ignore the invitation if it wasn’t for her… Many things in his life had lately been about that – “if it wasn’t for her”.

  The event was organized by Robert Laas. He wanted to celebrate Aeterni’s achievements and apologize for the way the city had been treating her. Cardinal Jeremiah supported that idea, and the party was held in a cathedral close to the monastery where the warriors lived. However, there were only a few representatives of the Сhurch here, and they kept to themselves. The majority of the guests were from the city elite.