The Bearer's Burden (Phantom Pact Book 1)

by Chad Queen

  He opened a thick leather book on the table and pointed to a faded sketch.

  She furrowed her brow. “A railbus?”

  He leaned in close, eyes sparkling like a child’s. “A starship.”

  “A starship…?” She heard the front door creak open, and Cade walked in. He seemed off-balance and almost tripped on his own feet when he crossed the threshold. He looked at her and then at Jace. “Uh-oh, what stories are you telling her? You’ve got that look you get when you tell stories.”

  Jace frowned. “I have no such face.”

  Ashlyn saw Cade smile. How can this man smile after all he’s done? she thought, keeping her expression even. Cade continued, “I’m looking at it right now. You’re talking about the Nexus again, aren’t you? You still haven’t given that up?”

  “Every riddle has a solution, my friend, and the challenge makes the discovery all the sweeter.”

  Cade snorted and sat down in the chair next to Ashlyn.

  The machines in a crate next to him began to whir softly and light up, as if reacting to his presence.

  Jace raised an eyebrow. “Wait. How did you do that? I’ve never managed to get these artifacts running.”

  Cade shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s been happening to me a lot lately.” He pushed the crate away with his foot, and the machines deactivated. “As much as I’d like to speculate on the mysteries of Rynth, there is a matter that I’d like to discuss with you, but we have to keep the conversation just between us.”

  Jace nodded, the expression of child-like wonder fading. “This is a big city, but I’ll help you as much as I can.”

  “There is a woman, Karessa, from an organization known as the Foundation. She said she was coming here to see you. Do you know why?”

  Jace’s face paled. “So Rolan is dead.”

  Cade raised an eyebrow. “How do you…?”

  Jace sighed. “I’m with the Foundation.”

  12

  The Traveler’s Legacy

  Chipcoins are by far the most ubiquitous artifact left behind by the Ancients. The small discs were so prevalent during the settlement of Chalice that archaeologists began using them as a form of currency. Though the makeshift currency has been officially displaced by the Chalician dollar, the coins are still used as a recognized currency in most Pathway towns.

  —From Chalician Archaeologist’s Quarterly, Vol. 2

  “You’re a spy?” Cade was incredulous. He would never have imagined his most trusted friend could hide something like that from him, and he realized the secret hurt a bit more than he wanted to admit. He was having a hard time collecting his thoughts; it felt like his mind was a cooking pot that had boiled over. He had just taken a good dose of Nocturne, so it couldn’t be his phantoms.

  “Allow me a moment to explain.” Jace sat next to Cade and Ashlyn and took a deep breath. “As I’m sure you are aware, it’s been harder and harder for archaeologists in Rynth to lay claim to any artifacts. As soon as a discovery is made, one of the corporations in Toltaire would find out and steal the artifact for themselves. In order to continue our research, a group of us banded together and formed a secret society of sorts to act as counterintelligence against these corporation-controlled spies.”

  Forever my song will play, a distant voice chanted, as if lost in a storm. Why can I still hear them? he thought. Perhaps the Nocturne was diluted or had been cut with something else. He shook his head to shake out the voices and turned his attention back to Jace.

  “The thing is, we got really good at it. Mostly because we could employ spectacularly good agents. You see, when spies in Toltaire come to know too much about their employers, their lives become expendable. The best ones see the writing on the wall and take up residence in Rynth, since there is a rather healthy demand for their skill-set. Our counterintelligence gave us all the protection we needed to find and retain our artifacts so we could continue researching. From there we took the next logical step: we started collecting our own intelligence.”

  Cade had already heard about corporations stealing from the scientific community, even though they performed all these actions covertly. Anyone who could read between the lines knew what was really happening. “Who did you spy on?”

  “We’re a community of scholars, and we couldn’t help but have…theories about what is happening in Chalice. If we were going to protect our interests going forward, we decided we had to dig deeper.” Jace leaned in closer, smiling. “This is where it gets interesting. One of our theories is centered on the Thread. It acts as a power plant for us, as you already know, but I do not believe that is its primary purpose. I have reason to believe it is, in fact, a transmitter to the Wraith ship parked in orbit around our planet.”

  Cade was incredulous, but he couldn’t help but recall the dreams he’d been having about the Thread. “If they are giving power to us, then what are they transmitting back to the ship?”

  Jace ignored Cade’s visible disbelief. “We had one of our team monitor the Thread and record any abnormal activity. We also had agents throughout Chalice record approximate timings of the last few villages that have disappeared over the last year. We discovered that shortly after those disappearances, the Thread’s energy would reverse course. It was only for a few minutes, but we are almost certain there is a correlation.”

  “They’re sending…the people they take?” Cade asked.

  “That’s the, uh, prevailing theory.” Jace did not meet Cade’s gaze as he spoke.

  Ashlyn interjected. “How are they sending them? Are they taking bodies through the Thread itself?”

  Jace shook his head. “We believe they somehow are able to capture the phantom from someone who has recently passed. There is just too much we don’t understand about the Wraiths and their technology.”

  “But the phantoms are left behind. You know that.”

  “Yes, but what if the phantoms that are taken are the ones that chose to ascend? Not the ones that chose to remain in the Firmere.”

  Cade paced the room, lost in thought. According to the Book of the Traveler, there are three known planes of existence: the Veris, the Firmere, and the Transcent. The Sigh represents the life force of a person and exists within our bodies inside the Veris, the physical plane. The Song, more commonly known as a phantom, exists in the Firmere, the ethereal plane in between the Veris and the Transcent. When a person dies, their Sigh travels to the Transcent, the highest of the three planes. At that point, their Song can choose to persist in the Firmere or rejoin with the Sigh in the Transcent.

  Ashlyn looked confused. “But to what end?”

  “We don’t know. This is all just speculation. From what we have translated of the Ancients’ language, there are clear mentions of the Sigh and its connection to the Betrayers in the first war. Partner that with the fact that villages are being systematically taken, with not a single clue left behind. That in itself should tell us something.” Jace had stood up and was pacing around the room. “I don’t believe what we are seeing with the taken is a simple genocide by the Wraiths or some other unknown enemy. The collection of the taken has a distinct purpose.”

  Ashlyn turned to Cade. “What did Karessa mention earlier—the Ascension Drive? It has to be related.”

  Cade rubbed his chin, considering. “But where does this really get us, Jace? I’ve known, along with everyone with two wits to rub together, that the Wraiths are somehow behind the disappearances. Even with intelligence like this, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re powerless to move against them.”

  Jace held up a finger. “Ah, but I haven’t got to the best part yet. The Ancients’ technology on Chalice, as you know, shows three generations of distinct evolution. Now, the architecture of the Thread has always stood out, because it doesn’t match any of the three generations of technology. Some archaeologists refer to this as fourth-generation technology, but others, like me, don’t agree. You see, I believe the Thread isn’t Ancient technology at all.”

 
Cade raised an eyebrow; he had not heard this theory before.

  “Part of the Accord was to allow the Wraiths use of the Thread, which they would in turn use to provide us with power. Why do you suppose they wanted to use the Thread, of all places?”

  Cade shrugged. “So they could steal the technology for themselves.”

  “Perhaps. But perhaps the Thread was the original forward operating base for the Wraiths during the Battle of the Betrayer.” Jace paused, looking at them expectantly. “Don’t you see? The technology was their own. After they were driven out so long ago, they regrouped and came back to claim it. By signing the Accord, we gave them the very thing they had come for.”

  And with you my heart will stay.

  Cade rubbed his temples—his headache would not subside. “The Betrayers…you’re saying that they are the Wraiths? Let’s say for a moment that you’re right. There’s still no way we can get anywhere near the Thread to find out what they are up to.”

  Jace had a devilish look on his face, the one he got whenever he had a wild idea, which also meant it was probably something dangerous. “I think it is time for us to visit the Foundation itself,” he said.

  Cade looked at Ashlyn. She had been through a lot in Solak, and there was no telling where they would end up next. “Ashlyn…”

  Ashlyn shook her head. “Not that again. Rolan was the closest thing to family I had after my mother died. He died for this information, and I will find out who killed him. I will continue his work.”

  Cade looked at Jace, who grinned. “Aren’t archaeologists supposed to be reading dusty old tomes and studying artifacts?”

  Jace’s grin faded. “It’s no longer safe here. More of my friends, Rolan included, have either been mysteriously killed or have vanished.” He gestured to the crates. “I was already planning on leaving. You told me yourself that Barnage was recently taken. That’s not even considered part of the Ends! Something is about to happen, but I don’t know what. I can’t help but feel we have to do whatever we can to try to stop it.”

  Cade sighed. “You’re both crazy as far as I’m concerned.” He stood to get up, and the throbbing in his head returned tenfold. He could hear voices. They seemed very far away at first but continually grew louder, throwing him off-balance.

  Forever my song will play.

  And with you my heart will stay.

  Jace rushed over to him. “Cade, are you okay? You don’t look well.”

  “I’m fine. Just a headache,” Cade said, rubbing his temple.

  Jace looked at Cade’s chest and his eyes opened wide. “Cade, that necklace…”

  Cade looked down to see the ring around the necklace was stuck to his shirt. Jace leaned in closer to the ring. “It’s as if you’re—”

  “I’m encoding with it?” When Cade focused on it, the ring released itself and the headache dissipated. “I wasn’t even trying to.”

  Jace, fixated, continued to look at it. “May I have it for a moment?”

  Cade nodded and handed it to him. “It’s the ring passed down from Grandmaster to Grandmaster. It is called the ring of the Traveler, but it’s more a symbol than anything else. A simple ring of iron. We stopped encoding with iron once we could forge with tungsten.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Jace sat down at a well-used workbench of rough-hewn wood. He pulled out a series of bound lenses and peered at the ring. “Ah. Mm-hmm. You see that? There’s a scratch right there.”

  Cade leaned in and saw the scratch. “So?”

  “There’s something underneath. It’s not iron,” Jace said, looking up. His eyes grew wide and sparkled once more. He leapt up from the workbench, sat down at an old pedal-driven grinding wheel, and began to pedal, spinning the small wheel at increasing speed.

  “Hey! What are you doing? That’s priceless!” Cade rushed over to him.

  “Don’t worry,” Jace said nonchalantly. Orange sparks flew from the ring as it ground against the wheel. “I assure you there is nothing I can do to harm this ring.”

  Cade looked at Ashlyn, who just shrugged.

  “Ah-ha!” Jace exclaimed as he stood up, the wheel still spinning. “Look at that,” he said triumphantly. He held the ring up to Cade and Ashlyn, who had moved up closer.

  The aging iron veneer had been stripped away, and in its place was a metal of gleaming gold, marbled with folded wisps of bright silver.

  Cade’s jaw dropped. “That’s…”

  Jace nodded. “Pure Rynthium. The most valuable substance on the planet.”

  Cade took the ring from Jace, still in shock. Rynthium, named for its initial discovery in Rynth, was an ore that large Ancient-built machines ran on. Even the best modern mining equipment had only managed to mine individual grains of it. And the most skilled metallurgists did not know how to form it into anything of real substance. He took the ring and held it over his finger. The artifacts in the room all activated at once, lights flashing and beeping as if possessed.

  “Cade, maybe we should—” That was all he heard as he slipped on the ring, and his vision broke into innumerable motes of light and disappeared, leaving him stranded in darkness.

  He had once again returned to the Firmere, but not by using Nocturne. The ring was doing it. He had encoded to it without thinking. It was connecting him here somehow, allowing him to see the Firmere. His vision of the realm seemed to sharpen, and he discovered he was not surrounded by perfect darkness. He looked at his hand, which was now made of blue, shimmering smoke. His heartbeat quickened as he found he could not see his own body. It had been replaced by a churning vortex of the luminescent blue smoke. Wisps of it ebbed and swirled around him in mesmerizing patterns. Watching them was somehow comforting, and he found he could anticipate its movement and flow.

  Just breathe, he told himself. Looking down, he saw that both of his casters were also made of the bright smoke, although the smoke’s movement was alien to him, its pattern geometric where his own was more unpredictable and organic. The illumination from the bullets across his chest was almost blinding. Each of the bullets had the same smoke compressed within their casings, and when he looked closely, the fine wisps churned, flowing back and forth, like the rolling waves of a miniature sea.

  This connection to the Firmere was different than when he had visited with Nocturne. He was more in control, like he still was rooted within the physical reality of the Veris. He looked up and could see another two concentrations of the light. That’s where Jace and Ashlyn stood, he thought. Rather, that’s where they still stand.

  “Cade,” a voice called out. It sounded distant, distorted.

  The voice was familiar; the doppelgänger’s voice. “You again,” said Cade. “Who are you?”

  The man’s features materialized before him and became sharper. “I am known by some as EonTal, but you can call me Tal. I am glad you have found the ring. I can talk to you here, but my time is short. They will soon discover my transmission.”

  “What is going on? Why do I see these plumes of light?”

  “That is the encoding property of Rynthium. It allows you to see the Firmere as well as the energy of the phantoms and technology that resides within it,” Tal responded.

  Cade looked down again to see the wisps that radiated where he stood. “This…is my phantom?”

  Tal nodded. The face came into focus, and Cade could make out a grave expression upon the man’s face. “Cade, you must find Eos. Time is running out.”

  Cade shook his head in exasperation. “Yes, so you’ve told me. But I still don’t know who or where this Eos is.”

  “Eos is…a failsafe. She can protect you, protect your world from the Wraiths. But we must find her first.”

  A failsafe? “But where is she?”

  “I have traced a signal to Toltaire, but it is faint, and my location prevents me from pinpointing her location. Her connection to the network is tenuous, but she has been trying to communicate with you through the devices in Toltaire. At least the ones not under Wrai
th control.”

  “Where are you? And what are you, exactly? Are you a phantom?”

  Tal shook his head. “Those are questions I also seek the answer to. I remember fragments from time to time. They’ve secured my memories, my past. Taken them from me. I fight them where I can, from the here.”

  “Them? You mean the Wraiths?”

  Tal nodded before becoming almost unrecognizable, his image degenerating into luminescent dust.

  “What are they using the taken for?”

  “Find Eos,” was all the voice offered.

  Cade pleaded to the fading light before him. “But how?” No reply came.

  The darkness returned as he released the encoding. His other senses crashed back down like a bucket of cold water. Almost losing his balance, he caught himself and took a deep breath.

  As his eyes focused, he could see the concerned faces of Ashlyn and Jace.

  He looked at them for a moment and then spoke. “We’ve got work to do.”

  13

  Burdens

  From the ore of the universe I have fashioned a ring,

  It can see as far as the fallen sing.

  —Excerpt from The Book of the Traveler, Amended Edition

  Ashlyn shut the door to the bedroom after she checked on Cade, who was now fast asleep. The use of the ring had seemed to take a toll on both him and his phantoms. Jace had insisted to Cade that with Ashlyn’s help they could do the research on Eos without him.

  Jace was poring over an old codex of bound notes and diagrams Ashlyn had seen out on the table. Next to him sat the ring of marbled dark gold. It wasn’t like any jewelry she had seen before, and she had seen quite a lot. The royalty and aristocracy in Toltaire were nothing if not well decorated. Jewelry was the tried and true way to display one’s prosperity, or at least to try to convince others of it. Information and disinformation, the keys to survival in Toltaire.