Fractures

by Nicholas Olivo

  Keep him talking, Corinthos, I thought. Buy yourself some time. “How did you get here?” I demanded. “Reality’s been reinforced.”

  The purple man brushed at the shoulders of his trenchcloak. “Reality is being reinforced,” he looked disapprovingly at Cynthia, “but the barriers between your realm and mine had become so thin they might as well have been made of paper. Given time, your little friend there would restore those barriers to their original strength, but alas, that is not to be.”

  Sakave grimaced as a bullet bounced off his temple and splintered a dead tree nearby. While Sakave had been speaking, Jake and Xavier had retrieved their weapons. Jake fired off two more shots before a pair of nirrin materialized on either side him and held the big man in place. “Ah, the guardian. It’s a pity you opposed me; you would have made an effective enforcer. You shall be tried, found guilty, and executed. But not yet. You need to be made an example of so this world knows what to expect from me.” His gaze paused on Xavier. “That one is insignificant. His death need not have any fanfare.”

  Sakave turned back to me. “As for you, Vincent Corinthos, my patience is at an end. I had sincerely hoped you would come around. You will be executed as well. It is a shame that I have lost the Urisk. I had hoped to recover them. Their deaths will be on your conscience, as well, I suppose. What you failed to understand, godling, is that law is not some abstract concept. Law is simply consequences defined, exemplified, and demonstrated. When people understand what exactly it is they need to be afraid of, they will not live in fear.”

  As I pondered that entirely contradictory statement, Commander Courageous’s last words went through my mind. “Don’t give in to fear.” He’d stood there, in his “I’m a hero, dammit” pose, the document describing all his tachyon-related findings behind him. He’d wanted me to see that document, he’d wanted me to know about it.

  And then I knew what I had to do.

  Of course, doing it was something else entirely. It’s like saying, “I need to be able to bake a cake,” when you’ve never used an oven or a measuring cup before. No point in dwelling on that, though.

  I stretched out with extradimensional energy and created an extradimensional bubble around Sakave and me. The hazy green bubble was maybe thirty feet in diameter, with a swampy floor. Sakave glanced around. “A curious tactic.”

  “Just a trick I learned from your nirrin, Sakave,” I said. “No outside help. No one to save you in here.”

  “Save me?” Sakave asked, raising his eyebrows. “You are naked, weaponless, and powerless. I have nothing to fear from you.”

  I smiled at him. “You’re right on two counts, Sakave.”

  He shook his head at me. “Do not embarrass yourself any further, Vincent Corinthos. You should strive to die with a measure of pride.”

  “You get one chance,” I said, holding up a finger. “One chance to walk away from this realm. Leave its people be.”

  “The people here are a lawless lot who need to be controlled. You claimed earlier that people needed to be given chances to change their ways, but we both know better. People cannot change. Their natures are fixed. Someone who steals will always steal. Someone who kills will always kill.”

  “That’s not true. People can change.”

  “Only if they want to, Vincent Corinthos, and it is my experience that precious few do. Those few are not worth the danger that the rest represent. And now, this conversation is at an end. Surrender now, and I promise you a swift, painless death.”

  I Opened a small portal just to my right, with the exit appearing behind his left earlobe. I flicked. Sakave snapped his hand up to his ear and glared at me. “Such juvenile tricks,” he said. “You disappoint me.”

  He drew a cylinder from his pocket and aimed it at me. It looked just like the one I’d Glimpsed, the flame-throwing weapon Sakave’s mother had used to try and fend off their attackers. “Goodbye, Vincent Corinthos,” he said as he fired a cone of purple flame. I Opened a portal right in the cone’s path, placing the exit level with Sakave’s temple. The flames rolled across his head, and he fell to the ground, screaming. His hands were over his face, the sound and scent of sizzling flesh filling the air. Then he was back on his feet, his skin regenerating in front of me.

  “That will cost you dearly,” he snarled.

  “You remember earlier, when we were talking in the swamp, and I was trying to convince you not to come to my plane? You kept telling me that you’d heard it all before. Well, you know what? I’ve been hearing ‘I’m going to kill you, Corinthos’ and ‘That will cost you, Corinthos’ and ‘You will be destroyed, Corinthos’ for so long now that the threats don’t have any meaning. So do me a favor and shut the fuck up and fight.”

  “I think you’ll find I am a more formidable opponent than you believe.” He rushed at me. He was so fast that I barely even saw his fist before it connected with my mouth. I dropped to the ground, stars in my vision. A kick caught me across the jaw, sending me spiraling to the side. Jesus Christ he was fast.

  I tried to get my bearings, but it was getting hard to focus on anything other than holding the pocket dimension together. Three more strikes connected with my head, and I couldn’t even tell if they were punches or kicks.

  Damn it, I thought. Slow down, you asshole.

  And that was all it took. Sakave suddenly seemed to be moving in slow motion. I really needed to learn how to control this accelerated thinking better. Okay, what do we have? Sakave had planted his foot, bringing his other knee up to connect with the bridge of my nose. I Opened a portal, causing him to fall through the ground and then crash back into it. Time returned to its normal speed, and Sakave was back on his feet in a flash, a series of open-handed strikes lashing out, but a few well-placed portals caused him to hit himself in the kidneys.

  I Opened another portal below him and dropped him from higher up.

  “So this is how it goes, eh, Vincent Corinthos?” he asked, sitting up. “You have no weapons. You can continue to redirect me, but you will tire eventually. At some point, you will need to sleep or eat. You can’t hold this pocket dimension forever. And when you falter, we will be back in the swamp. My soldiers will lock onto my location, and then your world will be brought to order. It is only a matter of time.”

  “Yeah, see, that’s the funny thing,” I said. “Time and I have this neat little relationship. Turns out that I have control over these nifty particles called tachyon. They aren’t flashy like lasers or pyrokinetics, but you know what they can do? They can age things.” I concentrated, swirling tachyon around Sakave. He took a step toward me, but I portaled him back a few feet. His legs buckled and he hit the ground. Lines appeared in his face.

  “You’ve been alive for far too long, Sakave.” His hair began to fall out. “Maybe I am naïve. Maybe I am idealistic. But unlike you, I am not a tyrant. And I’m going to stop you here and now.” He lunged for me. Concentrating as I was, I couldn’t spare any energy to portal him again. His hands closed around my throat, trying to crush my windpipe. I sped the tachyon up, willing him to age faster. I was doing to him the same thing that the Tempus had done to Commander Courageous. Courageous’s notes described this process in detail. It seemed the Commander had needed to do this once or twice before, but he didn’t say to whom.

  My vision began to narrow and dim as Sakave choked me. I had to keep focused on the tachyon, couldn’t spare any energy for fighting. Sakave’s breathing became ragged, then turned to wheezing. His grip lost some of its strength, and then he let go. As I gulped down air, I found he’d been reduced to a feeble old man. He reached up to me with a gnarled hand. “Mom,” he whispered. Then he died. I kept the tachyon pulsing past him for another minute, until his body collapsed into ash. Then I released the extradimensional bubble.

  I reappeared in the swamp not too far from Jake and Cynthia. Xavier and the
nirrin were nowhere to be seen. I staggered over to them and looked at the Electrical Infant. “How we doing, kiddo?” I asked.

  “Reality is being reinforced, Vincent Corinthos,” she said. “Sakave’s forces cannot enter this realm using this locus, but I need another hour to complete the process. The nirrin de-evolved into alligators and slunk away into the swamp.”

  Well, that was good news. “Any chance I can make a portal of my own?” I asked, hoping I could duck back to my apartment and grab some pants.

  Cynthia shook her head. “Reality is still too weak for that.”

  Damn. It’d been worth a try. “Okay, let me know when you’re done,” I said. I turned to Jake. “Sakave’s dead.” I gestured to the pile of ash lying on the ground. “I think he was acting as the beacon for his soldiers to follow. Without him, they won’t be able to find us.” Jake nodded.

  “Your core temperature is dropping, Vincent Corinthos.” Cynthia said. “I suggest you find some clothing before you catch cold.”

  “Good idea,” I said.

  Jake looked at me in confusion. He tapped his head and then pointed at me.

  “Can’t do that anymore, big fella,” I said, spreading my hands. “I’ve got no psychic powers. Gave ’em up to fix time. Can I borrow your coat? It’s suddenly chilly out here.”

  Jake shrugged out of his jacket, which, though somewhat shredded, was considerably warmer than running around stark naked. The thing was practically a trench coat on me, and I cinched it shut as best as I could. I gestured at the Legion of Doom. “So what about that place?” I asked. “Could it still serve as a locus in the future?”

  “No,” Cynthia replied. “Its power has been negated.”

  “It used to have a death field around it,” I said. “Anyone Sakave didn’t want going inside would drop dead. Is that still in effect?”

  “It is not,” Cynthia replied.

  I spent the next twenty minutes going through the building, but didn’t find anything. I supposed it was too much to ask for that hunk of celestial metal to conveniently be lying here. I did find the suit that Treggen had been wearing when he’d disintegrated after the meeting I’d eavesdropped on. The guy was a little bigger than I was, but a baggy suit was much better than walking around naked. The shoes were a bit big and uncomfortable, but you know what they say about beggars and choosers. When I got back out, I found Jake standing guard over Cynthia.

  “Where’s Xavier?” I asked, giving the big man his jacket back.

  Jake made like he was shielding his eyes and mimed looking around.

  “Looking for something?” I asked. “Oh, right, Croatoan.” Jake nodded. In all the confusion, I’d completely forgotten about the sentient bowling ball. “Which way’d he go, Jake?”

  Jake pointed to the north, roughly where the thunderbird had taken off. That Xavier had gone off on his own after losing his hand like he had meant the man was either brave, crazy, or stupid. Or maybe all three. I sloshed my way through the swamp after him, listening to the kobolds’ prayers as I did. It was only enough to restore my faith reserves a tiny bit, but I’d take it. There was a hole in my mind where the Urisk had been. I knew that was going to impact me later, but for now, I did my best to ignore it. If you’ve ever lost a close friend or family member, and done your best to shut out that feeling of loss so you can get something done, you know what I’m talking about.

  I heard raised voices ahead and quickened my pace. One of them was Croatoan. The other was Treggen.

  I burst into a clearing, elemental fire at the ready, and found Treggen clutching Croatoan at eye level. My old foe was shaking the sentient bowling ball, a look of rage on his face. “That’s enough,” I called out. “Set Croatoan down and put your hands behind your head.”

  Treggen ignored me, continuing to shake Croatoan. Xavier appeared from the trees, raised his 9mm, and put a round into Treggen’s leg. Treggen gasped, collapsed, and then turned to ash. Croatoan toppled into the remains of Treggen’s clothes.

  Xavier frowned. “I thought a wounding shot rather than a killing blow might not trigger that… whatever that was.”

  I nodded and scooped up Croatoan. Thunderbird talons had scored his… well, skin, I guess, but overall, he looked undamaged. I rapped my knuckles against him. “Hey, you all right in there?” A few of Croatoan’s lights flickered in response, but he didn’t say anything.

  “He’s expended a lot of energy in the last few days,” Xavier said. “It’s possible he needs to recharge. I’ll get him back to Dublin and see what my artificers can do for him.” I nodded and nestled Croatoan back in the briefcase. Then I took a moment to gather up some of Treggen’s remains into an evidence bag that the inquisitor provided. That done, I scooped up Croatoan’s briefcase, and Xavier and I walked back toward Jake and Cynthia.

  “Corinthos,” he said, putting his good hand on my shoulder and stopping me. I turned to face him, and he paused, as if uncertain about what he was going to say next. He held up his stump. “Thank you. If you hadn’t intervened, I would have bled to death. I didn’t give you cause to help me, in fact, if I’m honest, I’ve been a rat bastard to you and your colleagues.” He looked at the ground, and I could tell this was painful for him. “You know, normally, I’d lecture you right now. You offered the nirrin a sort of amnesty in this swamp, and you weren’t authorized to do that.” He rubbed at his stump. “But that was the right thing to do. And I am sorry for what’s happened in Boston. Galahad is right. If we hadn’t diverted so many resources into the Ashgate Reformation Project, things might be different.”

  “It’s not too late to change things, Xavier,” I said. “Get Boston the resources it needs, and the agents to protect it, and we’ll be on our way.”

  He nodded. “I will speak to the Care Taker when I return.”

  “While you’re at it,” I said, “how about disbanding that Corinthos Contingency Committee?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “You understand, we have to be careful. There are lots of people who are afraid of you.” He shook his head. “I was one of them. Still am, if I’m being honest. Christ, son, you turned into a fucking dragon and ate a nirrin. That sort of power unchecked is terrifying.”

  My shoulders slumped. “What would make it not scary? You know I’m on your side. I’m here to help people.”

  “That’s going to take some time to accept,” he said. “But I’ll try.” He put out his good hand and I shook it. “It has been good working with you, Corinthos.”

  We walked back to Jake and Cynthia in silence after that. Once reality was reinforced, I portaled the three of them back to HQ, and then I went to my apartment. I was still wearing Treggen’s suit, and all I could think about was taking a shower to scrub the asshole off of me. Twenty minutes and nearly an entire bar of soap later, I stepped out of the shower. I stood in my towel in front of my dresser, staring at the Commander Courageous action figure.

  “I did it,” I said to the toy. “I fixed it so the Urisk didn’t die. And they don’t follow me anymore, so time’s healed. Your crazy gamble paid off.” I was hit with an overwhelming urge to go see the Urisk right then. I got dressed and portaled into the Urisk city.

  It was midday, and the twin suns of the Bright Side shone down in all their splendor. Ahead, my cathedral—check that, Lotholio’s cathedral—stretched up into the sky. I smiled at the Urisk that passed me, and they responded with polite nods of the head, their eyes flickering in a pleasant greeting, rather than the bowing and scraping I was used to. In a way, it was kind of nice. I felt like a huge burden had been lifted from me. At the same time, I missed it. Not the power, not the worship, but that feeling of being connected so intimately to an entire people.

  I still had that with the kobolds, but they’d only been worshipping me for a short time compared to the Urisk. I gave myself a shake. Focus, Vincent. I’
d come here to see Lotholio.

  I found him in the cathedral, talking to a very excited young priestess named Talyana. While I was their god, I’d charged Talyana with figuring out how to use telekinesis to slow down the movements of molecules, effectively turning telekinesis into cryokinesis. Of course, now she believed Lotholio had given her that charge, and she was positively beaming as tiny crystals of ice formed in the air above her palm.

  Lotholio’s eyes flickered with pride, and he made a few gestures, which I took to be congratulations and praise. It struck me then that I couldn’t hear his thoughts. Urisk and human psyches aren’t compatible, and Loth hadn’t been able to communicate with me back in the old days until I’d taught him how to write. Telepathic communication had only been possible after he’d started worshipping me. He turned to me then, his eyes revealing surprise and happiness at my visit.

  Silver text appeared in the air in front of him: Vincent. This is a pleasant surprise. To what do we owe the honor of your visit?

  “I just wanted to see how things were going, Lotholio,” I said. “It feels like a lifetime since I visited the Bright Side.”

  He nodded, and new text appeared: We endure. Daimin’s settlement is taking root, and the expansion efforts are well under way.

  When I changed the Urisk to worship Lotholio, I also rewrote a bit of history for them. They believed now that Lotholio had asked Daimin to set up a new encampment, to expand the Urisk’s territory. The Urisk were going to seek out alliances with other members of the Bright Side, instead of being the recluse people they’d once been.

  “How is Daimin?” I asked.

  Lotholio hesitated before more text appeared in front of him: Unfortunately, he still blames you, my old friend, for the death of his wife and children. I do not think him capable of forgiving you.