by Ben van Eijk
“Don’t need it, water’s fine!” Seth said quite loudly, the distance between them increasing. She was still holding the vial, scrutinising it once again.
“Don’t worry, you get the scroll, I’ll get the water, I live closer than you, it’s no problem.”
Seth really didn’t have time to argue anymore. He shouted “thank you” towards Mrs. Scutt, catching the attention of the head of the University. Seth gave him a thumbs up in response to his puzzled look, and sped homewards.
***
The two winged men held out their hands, directing the blue plasma energy flow towards each other to form a triangle.
“Well this just looks cool! See, we can work together to make something beautiful!” The bearded men shouted, voices in synch. The woman screamed, the pulsating beams shooting out of her hands growing thicker in diameter.
“Would you just shut your stupid mouth!”
The two men were pushed back by the beams until they couldn’t be seen anymore. The woman stopped firing her blue plasma and began searching the area with darting glances. She knew he wasn’t dead, but they were both at the point of giving up. They would soon either vanish for a while until they inevitably ran into each other again or stop and talk. The latter almost always ended in more fighting, so she hoped he would just disappear.
Far off in the distance, she saw one of the mountains rising from the ground, and knew it wasn’t over quite yet. The mountain disappeared into the clouds, another following, and then nothing. The clouds above her began to open with unnatural speed. Just as quick, a familiar looking mountain appeared above her. As it started to get closer, the female’s body turned into liquid, then vapour; it twisted across the surface of the mountain now thundering towards the ground. The vapour easily slid around the mountain and avoided being crushed. The vapour began to retake the form of the cloaked woman, becoming liquid and then solid.
The second mountain came down on top of her even faster than the last one, but she was prepared; she had already created a solid wall of metal above her, blocking the mountain’s descent.
The force of the flying mountain was easy for her to hold back, but then something else as big as a mountain hit her gigantic metal shield, and another. Gigantic chunks of moon were raining down on her metal shield, each piece shattering and spilling over the sides. The bombardment pushed her closer and closer to the ground until she was hovering only metres away from it. Her shield was cutting off her visibility, inviting surprise attacks. But if she couldn’t see the bearded men, then they couldn’t see her either… she let the huge shield drift to the ground. Celestial matter continued bombarding it, bending it inwards. Before she was crushed under her metal shield, she pointed her open palm at the ground in front of her and it disintegrated, forming the mouth of a tunnel. She flew into it with her hand extended, pushing more dirt and rock out of the way as she did so.
She could travel swiftly like this and was already well out of harm’s way as more bits of moon rained from the clouds. The cloaked woman ended her subterranean journey and emerged from the ground unnoticed. She waited, patiently hovering at a safe distance, watching the humongous chunks of rock flatten her metal shield even further and compact the dirt beneath it with kilotons of force. It was quite a sight to see — but she had seen grander things than a moon being taken apart piece by piece and hurled into a mountain valley. Still this was an exceptional scene. Eventually the bombardment stopped — or maybe there was no more moon left for the bearded men to throw. She saw a black dot descend from the clouds. She began flying towards him at a speed, but the second bearded man came down on top of her, elbow first. She shouted in surprise as the first man flew in to help push her down even faster. Suddenly from all over her body, metal spikes extended outward with lightning speed, impaling both bearded men. A shower of blood erupted from both men and the spikes became molten inside them.
They screamed as metal coated their insides and poured back out through melted holes in their flesh. The two men began to fall from the air, a glowing viscous liquid spewing from their bodies. While falling, one of the men lifted his hand and a piece of liquid metal starting dripping upwards out of a hole in his palm. The stream then grew into a gooey column of molten liquid aimed directly at the cloaked woman hanging in the air above him. She reacted quickly and fired an even larger beam of white-hot energy back at him, pushing the molten liquid aside and bathing the bearded men in pure plasma. The white beam hit the ground and a humongous shockwave expanded from its centre, travelling so fast it cut straight through a range of mountains without hesitation. The shockwave didn’t show any sign of slowing when it disappeared over the horizon.
The woman was panting now. She knew it was finished. The bearded man had been melted and then completely incinerated. He could still come back, she knew, but it would be a long time before she would see him again.
The rumble of the shockwave echoed across the now barren landscape. Their fight had destroyed everything; a huge layer of the ground had been ripped up, exposing the bed rock. The rock was hot to the touch and had exploded where super-heated pockets of air had expanded. All that could be seen was rubble, smoke coming from small cracks extending across the landscape. The desolate scene continued to tremble as the shockwave made its slow journey across the surface of the planet.
Chapter 2
Seth was already panting during his short run; by the time he reached his front door, he was ready to collapse. Seth opened the door and searched around frantically for the scroll. His desk — originally his workspace — had slowly turned into a storage area as more and more clutter began occupying the surface. Once he was certain the scroll was not among that mess, he turned to scan the room. Then he heard a low rumble, getting louder quickly, and the room around him started to shake.
Pot plants began falling off shelves, smashing as they hit the floor and scattering dirt and stones across the ground. They must have started the ritual already, Seth thought. He started to sweat as anxiety combined with his physical exertions. He placed his robe on the chair by his desk to cool down a little — and noticed the scroll sticking out of his pocket.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Seth slapped his forehead in disbelief.
He quickly picked up his robe, grabbed the scroll, and tucked his robe under his arm, still warm from his sudden burst of activity. He ran out the door and noticed something odd; things had changed, but he wasn’t sure what. He turned and ran towards the central segment, where the ritual was already beginning. Seth stopped himself just in time; there appeared to be a gap of three metres between his segment and his neighbour’s.
He flailed his arm frantically trying to stop himself going over the edge. He stretched out his hand holding the scroll and a panicked burst of water went flying down towards the cloud beneath him. It made a hole in the cloud and he thought he saw the brown colour of soil through the gap, but more water vapour quickly crept back to fill the breach, blocking his vision. The kickback from firing his pulse of water pushed him back onto safe ground, stopping Seth from being lost to the abyss… which was apparently the same colour as soil?
Seth was cursing in surprise. He had almost died in the worst way imaginable, and now he realised he was slowly floating away from the rest of the city. He ran to the other side of his plot and saw other segments slowly detaching from the main bulk of Swevender. He could try a bit of water wielding to help him leap from one segment to the next until he was back in the centre, but the distance already looked nearly impossible to jump. Seth had at one time taught himself to create a propellor of water he used to hover several metres above the ground. In an effort to outshine Kurt, he had flown well outside the border of Swevender to show off to his classmates. Seth’s impetuosity led him to fly a little too far where the cloud was too thin to provide sufficient water for a propellor and almost fell to his death. The cloud between him and his neighbouring segment already looked much thinner now but, memory multiplying his fear, he ran towards th
e edge anyway. He moved with the thought of gaining enough momentum to fling himself across, assisted by his propellor, but he skidded to a halt inches away from the edge, too scared he might actually fall to his death this time.
Shouting was coming from the direction of the central segment. Seth tried shouting too, but so many voices at once just became a muddled noise. The situation needed no further deduction. It was clear: Swevender was falling to pieces. Seth thought he could bind his piece back towards the centre using the spell on his scroll, but now he noticed that the scroll was gone, most likely shot through the clouds along with the water burst that had spared him from the abyss. He could see the underside of Swevender’s segments through the fog of its cloud foundation now, and was fascinated. They looked like lots of small, concrete hills, all ending in a rounded peak. It was a sight that had been only metres beneath him for his whole life, but still, he had never seen it, never thought about it.
The sight of the bottom of the other segments alerted Seth to the fact that he was sinking. His panic rose as the cloud and other segments were suddenly swept away from him by an invisible force. He could see the ground now; the abyss was shades of brown and grey, coming towards him slowly as he continued sinking. Seth looked up and saw the circular central segment of Swevender, the only piece of the city without any corners, still higher than any other segment. Seth surmised they had already cast the levitation spell, so the central segment would be safe from sinking. But he was supposed to cast the cloud cover spell, the spell that provided the source of energy for all other magic in Swevender. What would everyone do now?
Seth noticed water vapour begin to accumulate beneath the central segment. Of course — a lot of people know how to cast Io’s spell from other rituals, Seth thought, feeling a little relieved the only person he had to worry about now was himself. He looked down again, knowing that soon the entire city and population of Swevender would just be a cloud to him, but he needed to focus on solving his sinking problem. The great brown and grey abyss was getting awfully close, and he couldn’t see any other segments in the distance now.
Seth scanned the approaching landscape around him for anything other than what he now assumed was dirt and rock. He noticed a tall figure in the distance walking towards his descending segment. Its movement was very halted and awkward. Seth held up both of his hands as if clutching an invisible staff. Water flew out of the ponds in his small garden, eager to fulfil the idea of the shape Seth envisioned in his hands. He held the shaft of water up to his eye, using it as a telescope. The water had been bent into the shape of a lens inside the scope and allowed Seth to see this creature more clearly. Green particles of algae floated lazily across the lens of his liquid telescope.
The creature’s head was about forty percent of its whole body. Its eyes were as big as fists and its mouth was hanging open, dribbling an excessive amount of silvery fluid to the ground. It had extremely skinny limbs for something with such bulk. Its massive elephantine feet dragged slowly, pushing dirt aside while its long gangly legs lazily shuffled forward. It left four massive trails in its wake, its huge knuckles also scraping across the dirt. The skin of the creature seemed to be made of dirt too, with bits constantly cracking and repairing themselves all over its body.
Above him, Seth could see the central segment floating away, now surrounded by a huge cloud as other segments trailed behind. Seth remembered seeing a few lines of Stacey’s scroll and was desperately trying to remember the rest when he saw one of the other segments sinking towards the creature. Seth stood motionless while he watched the creature raise its hand in a swinging motion and bat the segment away with one of its gigantic hands. The segment split in half where the massive hand had violently struck it. Both halves hit the ground at speed, sending rubble flying at all angles until they skidded to a halt in the distance.
Seth’s segment hit the ground with a thump and a totter, he heard the mess inside slide across his floor and collide with the wall. Steadying himself, Seth ran to the edge of his segment. It was now angled so that the ground on which it had landed was just within reach, if he stretched. He poked the ground with his foot, confirming it was solid, then stepped slowly onto it. The monster was only a hundred metres away from him now and was holding a piece of concrete from the segment it had just decimated. The monster swung its arm towards Seth, releasing the makeshift projectile to send it flying towards him. Seth stumbled backwards in trepidation, losing his footing. As he was falling, Seth’s surroundings suddenly went out of focus.
It didn’t get darker, like he was losing consciousness — it just changed. When he hit the ground, he felt grass beneath him. Strange — the only grass he remembered being in the vicinity was on his small segment of Swevender. But there was no longer any evidence of his home, and he was surrounded by what appeared to be graves.
He heard a high-pitched nasal voice behind him.
“It’s about time you fell here.”
He turned to see a slight, humanoid creature, with bright red skin. It had small horns sticking from its head above two glowing orange eyes and an ear-to-ear smile revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth. It looked like a skeleton wrapped in red skin, its anatomy unobscured and similar to a human’s. It spoke again.
“Are you alright?” it asked, with genuine concern in its voice.
“Uuuhh yeah, I think so… where am I?” Seth was looking around now. He appeared to be inside a translucent dome, about fifty metres in diameter. The surface of the dome was constantly rippling, making it impossible to focus on what was going on outside. But ‘outside’ was hard to judge too; the scenery seemed to change to a completely different location every second. One moment Seth could see a desert infested with giant snakes that could swallow Seth’s house whole. The next second there was a dark landscape illuminated only by strobing flashes of lightning, revealing a completely metallic world with trees made of smooth, flawless metal.
Seth was completely in awe. He barely had enough time to absorb what was happening in each world. The next scene was completely made of a strange organic material, with structures made of dripping viscera. He thought he saw a being shuffling along, made of the same weird substance — but then it all changed into a barren, underwater world with small lights in the distance.
Inside their bubble, the light was constantly changing as different suns shone through its dancing surface. The graves surrounding them all seemed to be extremely intricate. Some were twice as tall as Seth, and the constantly changing light sometimes gave the impression that the grave’s surfaces were moving. There was also a large statue in the middle that stood out for some reason… — its surface didn’t reflect light the same way the surrounding stone did. The statue portrayed two cloaked people in dramatic poses: a tall woman with a long braid hanging past her waist and a handsome man with slicked back hair.
The small imp creature raised both its arms in a welcoming gesture.
“This, young man, is the Restyard.”
It perched on small grave to keep him roughly eye level with Seth, who was now standing up and rubbing his bruised backside.
“That doesn’t really explain where I am. A second ago there was some… thing trying to kill me, and my home was literally falling from the sky, and now I’m inside this rippling bubbly joogle!”
“Ah yes, I guess I should explain things or you’ll keep pestering me with questions for the next year.” The imp grinned, his pointed teeth making Seth slightly uncomfortable. Seth’s eyes widened in surprise.
“For the next year? I have to go back” he exclaimed. The imp’s grin disappeared.
“I’m afraid that will prove to be quite impossible for you, lad. You’re in the Restyard now.” It raised its hands again, indicating the current surroundings. Seth sighed as he realised he should start making his questions more direct.
“What is ‘the Restyard’ then? It looks like a graveyard to me.”
“It would be a graveyard if anyone here was dead, but we are all very much
alive. Believe me, if we could die, we would be dead. But then, I wouldn’t be here to help you,” replied the imp.
“You see, we are failed familiars. Our masters created us, but then improved their skills — as someone who constantly practises should, of course. But they learned how to make more powerful and efficient familiars, so we were made obsolete and banished to spend the remainder of our ‘lives’ here.”
Seth looked thoughtfully at the ground.
“So all these graves are occupied by living people? They can hear me talking now?”
“No, most cannot. It’s possible Old Five Ears can, but he sleeps in an open casket. He likes to watch the sky.” The imp pointed to a square hole bordered with stone bricks.
“Most of us have seen everything happen a million times over, said the same words in every different combination, have been known by every name, and never encounter anything new. As you get older you realise everything — everything — repeats itself, and being alive to constantly rewatch it all is torture.”
Seth held his hand out in a stopping gesture.
“Wait, wait, before you tell me any more: who are you? And could you please let me out of here?”
“Oh, apologies. I am Red. Like I said, I have been known by many names, so now we just use descriptive terms to avoid confusion.” The small imp pressed his hands together and bowed politely.
“And you are?”
Seth held his hand out to shake the small imp’s hand as he introduced himself.
“I am Seth Cost. It’s good to meet you, especially since you seem to have saved me from death by flying rock!” Seth peeked back over his shoulder and now saw a grey, mountainous landscape saturated with rain. As his glance returned to Red, he saw the imp inspecting Seth’s hand curiously.
