by Sophia Sharp
Nora didn’t know what she would find in the elders’ dreams. She knew how corrupt the Vassiz were, how scathing and manipulative the majority of the race was. Even if, thanks to the torrial, the elders did not have full control of their dreams, they still would know the landscape better than any of them. How much of an advantage was it, really, to have the torrial on their side?
Of course, Nora knew that without it, their slim hope of success would have wilted away to nothing. The torrial was essential, and yet not even she understood how it worked. Madison said it had been both feared and revered in her pack’s history. Was it because it annihilated the control one had over their dreams? Because it could suck others into the dream realm and leave them there, helpless? Or was there an even more sinister side to it? What if, no matter Gabrielle’s best intentions, the torrial malfunctioned and brought them into the elders’ dreams but left the elders’ powers unchanged? A swift death would be the best outcome. But that was not within the realm of reality. Nora knew the elders would squeeze every drop of life out of her and then string her out as an example to all Vassiz of what happens to those who do not conform.
She couldn’t let that happen. She had her whole life yet to live. She wouldn’t let it be cut short on somebody else’s watch. There was so much she hadn’t done, hadn’t seen, hadn’t experienced…and there was only one way to ensure that she could do those things. Win.
Nora climbed the final flight of stairs leading to the vault. It was only a matter of minutes, now, before they would begin their inconceivable fight against the elders.
She looked around. The room was quiet, and everybody looked solemn. Gabrielle was sitting cross-legged on the floor by the torrial, eyes closed, focusing on it. The female angel he had chosen as his partner in activating the torrial was across from him. She was just as focused. It was the first time Nora had seen any of the angels not standing up.
The other angels were off to one side as a group. Their bodies were still, but their eyes flashed from one another rapidly. Nora wondered if it was a way of communicating.
Madison, Alexander, and Hunter were standing around the small collection of torrial that Gabrielle had picked out. Nora went to them.
Hunter noticed her and squatted down on his heels. He reached over to pick up a torrial – one of the three dancing figurines. Seeing them for the first time close up, Nora realized the depictions were not clothed. But, the way their hands and hair streamed around their bodies made them look exactly as they were meant to me. Free. Free in expression and in flight.
“Gabrielle said one of these allows you greater control over the dream,” Hunter said. “All three, and there will be nothing that can touch you. We spoke—” he motioned around himself to Madison and Alexander, “—and want you to have them.”
“All three?” Nora asked. “What about you?”
“You are the least experienced of us,” Alexander explained. Then he added quickly, “No disrespect. You may be the strongest, due to the circumstances of your feeding, but we know the dream realm far better than you.”
“Not only that, but you are important to us,” Madison added. “Without you, the prophecy fails.”
“And I need you to be safe,” Hunter said earnestly. “These won’t guarantee it, but they can help.”
“No,” Nora said calmly. “The three of you should take them. One for each. Like Alexander said, I am the strongest. You need them more than I.”
“It’s already been decided,” Hunter said strongly. “You will take all three.”
“Well un-decide it. None of us will succeed if another fails. If I take all of them, it’ll be like—”
Nora cut off as Hunter rose to loom over her. His dark eyes shone with a fervent intensity. For the first time in a long time, Nora actually felt small. “You will take them, Nora. You promised me that you would let me guard your well-being. If we’re going to be separated out of necessity, this is the best I can do!”
Nora had not seen such intensity from Hunter in a long time. She was about to open her mouth to refuse, when she found a hand placed gently on her shoulder. It was Madison’s.
“We all agreed it’s for the best,” Madison said soothingly. “Hunter means no harm. He cares for you – we all do.”
Nora looked at Madison and then back to Hunter. With a sigh, she nodded. “If that’s what you’ve decided,” she relented.
Hunter smiled and picked up the other two torrial to hand to her. “Trust me, this is for the best.”
“Thank you,” Nora said, managing a weak smile. Alexander nodded with approval.
“Anyway,” Madison added, once Nora held the three torrial, “there are other torrial Gabrielle put aside.” She motioned to the gold bracelet, the ivory sword handle, and the dark glass bottle.
“Do you know what they do?” Nora asked.
“The bracelet is supposed to be a way of linking two people together,” Alexander said. “One person puts it on, and his mind is linked to the person who was closest to him when the bracelet settled onto his wrist. Gabrielle says it will be a way for us to stay in touch with him. The sword hilt can make you move faster. But only for a few moments. And it takes a lot out of you. The wine bottle? There’s supposedly something inside that is very precious, but Gabrielle is unsure of what it is. And the glass itself is not glass but Allurvai, so it is impossible to break open. ”
“So who gets what, then?” Nora asked.
“Gabrielle will wear the bracelet himself,” Alexander answered. “The sword hilt, we had thought to give to you, but I doubt you will want it after the way you reacted.” He chuckled. “Which is to say, I don’t know.”
“You should take it,” Nora said without hesitation. “Your shoulder still bares traces of the wound.”
“She’s right,” Madison said earnestly. “The angels healed it, but you never know if the elders will find some way to exploit it nonetheless.”
“That’s fine by me,” Hunter added.
Alexander looked uneasily from Nora to Hunter to Madison. Now he knows how I felt, Nora thought sarcastically. Finally, he nodded, and picked up the ivory handle.
“Nora. It is time.”
Gabrielle’s voice rang in her head like a hammer striking an anvil. She spun around on the spot. She noticed, in her peripherals, the others doing the same.
Gabrielle had stood up from where he was sitting. The dark glass of the spherical torrial before him was no longer opaque. It was transparent as the clearest glass, and inside, Nora could see a dizzying array of thousands upon thousands of tiny white dots, bathed in a pale blue light. The light was characteristic of torrial. Between each of the dots was a darkness that even Nora’s Vassiz eyes could not see through. The darkness did not just swallow the light from the dots. It simply rejected it. There was nothing that existed in between the dots; nothing that could penetrate the dark or be within it.
The female angel who had worked with Gabrielle was still sitting on the floor, concentrating on the torrial before her. The other angels had all moved closer, and none looked uneasy anymore. They were prepared.
Nora wished she could say the same. While she thought she gave the appearance of being ready, her insides were bubbling with uncertainty and emotion. What if she would never see any of the others again? Was this the final goodbye? Would stepping through the torrial and into the elders’ dreams be the first step to her death? To all their deaths?
Hunter stepped beside her, gave her a quick smile, and took her hand. She locked her fingers between his and held on tight.
“This torrial represents rebirth for us,” Gabrielle began. “With it, we will be able to usher in a new age writ forth by prophecy. We have come full circle, from being trapped by the elders in their mad use of this device to using it against them. It is a poetic type of justice when the device used to imprison us will turn out to be the same one leading to their downfall. The origins of this new age began when we were freed from our eternal prison by the one destined to do
so. Nora Cubus. It is thanks to her that we have gotten this far, and to her we owe our freedom. For that, we are forever in her debt.”
Nora knew Gabrielle was not just speaking to her, but to all of them. He was a natural leader, and Nora stood in awe of what he was doing. Of how he was doing it.
“Let the activation of the torrial represent our first foray into the quittance of our debt. Nothing we may do shall ever match our gratitude, but it will not be so for a lack of effort. And so, Nora Cubus, we offer to you first use of the device, so you may begin what you were prophesied to do.”
Gabrielle inclined his head toward Nora. All the other angels did the same. She felt oddly uncomfortable with the gesture – she hadn’t even accomplished anything yet! All the same, she acknowledged it with a tight smile.
“Thank you, Gabrielle,” she said. “Thank you, to everyone for coming this far with me. None of you had any obligation to do so…” She looked back at Madison and Alexander to let them know she especially meant them, “Yet, you did. It is not something I will ever forget.”
“I would not leave you for the world,” Hunter whispered beside her. Nora started to blush, but forced it down.
“Good.” Gabrielle raised his head. “Nora, who should be the first to enter the torrial?”
“I will,” Nora answered. She was their leader, and she had to lead. No leader would ever gain the confidence of her followers by shying away at the most important time. “I will be the first to go.”
“Nora, no,” Hunter said beside her, but she had already made up her mind. Unlinking her fingers from his – which, she had to admit, was one of the most difficult things she’d ever done – she stepped forward.
“What do I need to do, Gabrielle?”
Gabrielle smiled and drifted over to her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently led her forward. Positioning her in front of the torrial, he stepped back.
“Nora,” he said, “you are the only one who can hear me now. I will tell you how to use the torrial to achieve what you want. Listen well, for it is imperative that nothing go wrong.”
Nora gave a curt nod to acknowledge him.
“Look into the sphere, Nora. Do you see the lights? Each of those lights is a representation of every living body in existence. Everyone is there. There are none omitted.
Nora leaned closer and could see deeper into the torrial. Whereas before she thought all the lights were contained within the sphere, now she knew different. The lights appeared to extend out forever. There was no other side to the globe when she looked in. It just extended indefinitely. It made her dizzy just thinking about it.
“Every star is the representation of a single person. The light you see given off is their life energy. It is what makes them who they are, what allows them to feel pain and happiness, sadness and pleasure. It is what gives them life. The torrial allows us to see all the people of the world represented at once. And it allows us to enter their minds – their dreams – or bring them into our own. It is what we will use to find the elders.”
“Do you see the black surrounding the stars? That is the sub-ethereal matrix, the nothingness that exists to give structure to our world and to all of life. Without it, nothing could exist. But at the same time, there is nothing that exists within it. It is bleak and barren and devoid of life, and yet gives rise to the physical dimensions of our worlds.”
“That matrix is where the torrial will take you, Nora. When you’re inside, you will see the billions of stars that represent every living body on the earth. Time and space become meaningless there. You will find the elders’ stars, and go into the first one.”
“But how can I possibly pick out the right star?”
“The torrial operates on need, Nora. It will take you to where you need to be more than anything in the world. Feel the need, and the torrial will respond in kind. Do you understand?”
“I…yes, I think so.”
“You have to be sure, Nora. Are you sure that your need to find the elders is stronger than anything else on your mind? That your desire to see justice done, to ensure that you can live your life in peace, supersedes everything else?”
“Yes,” Nora answered strongly.
“That your anger for what the elders have put you through makes you want to seek revenge? That your passion for seeing it done fuels the very fires of your heart?”
“Yes!”
“Then your need is the right one. Close your eyes.”
Nora did so. She felt reality distort around her. It was as if a cleave had been made right through the air, opening into nothingness. She felt a pull from it, and she was plunged inside.
Chapter Eleven
~A Reunion~
Nora floated through the darkness. She knew she was above ground, but could not feel her body. In fact, she could not even tell which way was up and which was down. She floated, like a leaf traveling down a meandering creek. She did not know where she was going, only that she was in motion.
She opened her eyes. Darkness filled them. It was overpowering, fighting to swallow her up. She was an intruder, and not welcome here. But she was here. How did she get here? She fought to remember, but catching a memory was like grasping at water. It was like trying to recall a dream of a dream.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the darkness receded. In its place, Nora saw shapes forming. Small shapes, far in the distance. The darkness still existed in the interval, but where the shapes were, it did not. A thousand years seemed to pass as the darkness continued to ebb away, revealing the intricate shapes that surrounded her. They were everywhere, now. Close and far, left and right, down and up. Every one of the shapes was different, but every one was perfect in its own right. Nora could see the lines that made up the shapes like bars of streaming light. The shapes all called to her, all demanded her attention. There were so many of them it would take a thousand lifetimes just to get started. But Nora did not want to wait.
She reached out toward one, but it scampered away. She tried again, extending herself toward another. It reacted the same way. She was like a drop of oil floating in a pool of water. Skimming at the top, but repelling everything around her.
Nora blinked, and the shapes changed. What were previously angular figures became glowing balls of light. And the darkness ebbed away. Paradoxically, it threatened to swallow everything up. The little spheres around her fought back, shining with increased fervor, and the darkness did not advance. An equilibrium had been reached.
Nora moved forward, and the equilibrium shifted. The darkness became more powerful. The little lights contracted. She felt a pulse of terror come out from all of them.
She stopped in place. Had she done that? Had she upset the balance somehow? Carefully, she shifted herself back. The lights expanded outward instantly, and the darkness shrunk in on itself.
She had done it! But why? And how? What did any of it mean? She felt like she should know, like she should recognize the place she was at, but her memories were fuzzy. Thinking of anything in her past was fuzzy.
She felt an itch between her shoulder blades, as if she were being watched. She turned around, careful not to disturb the delicate balance of the place. And for a heartbeat, she saw the panel of glass that separated the abyss she was in from the outside world. On the other side, she spotted Gabrielle, towering a thousand times larger than her. The image lasted for a second and was gone. She was alone in the darkness.
But the momentary viewing awoke all the memories she had lost. She knew where she was again, and knew the orbs of light around her were ethereal representations of all humanity. She was here to find the orbs that belonged to the elders.
How could she do it? She could see millions of lights all around her, and any movement she made seemed to threaten to upset the balance that held them in place. Picking the right ones out of the mass would be more difficult than finding Atlantis in the ocean.
Gabrielle had told her she could do it based on need. If she felt the need, the right spheres should r
eveal themselves to her. She closed her eyes tightly. Need.
Swish.
She opened her eyes, and knew instantly she had been transported thousands of miles away. Space was meaningless here, but she felt the spatial difference of where she was. The stars shining around her were different from the ones before. There was no order to them, neither here nor earlier, but Nora could tell they were arranged in a different array. There were still millions of them everywhere she looked. She closed her eyes again. Need.
Swish.
This time, she opened her eyes before the movement took place. It was not movement, really – one second she was in one place, and the next, another one far away. It was as if she had not bothered with the intervening space. With her eyes open, she saw the blurring of the stars as they sped away and were replaced by new ones. This time, the stars around here were a little sparser. She could still see millions of them, of course, but now the spaces between them were a little bigger, a little broader. Was she getting closer? Not bothering to close her eyes, she did what she did before. She felt need.
Swish.
The stars did not blur as they sped away this time. Instead, Nora was pushed forward with the force of a tidal wave. She plunged deeper in one direction, where stars became even sparser. Over to her right, a cluster of them shone with a slightly different intensity than the rest. She knew that was where she needed to go. Need.
Swish.
The movement of the stars brought her face to face with that cluster. There were eight stars in total. They did not share the same bright blue light of the others. Instead, they were yellowing, and shone only weakly. Yet the darkness stayed away from them. Out of respect, or fear, Nora could not say, but she knew if any other stars were as weak as these they would have long since disappeared. She knew instinctively that those eight stars belonged to the elders.
So, she had found them. But how to get inside? She reached out, and immediately the stars scurried away. Much as the last time she had tried to move. Darkness moved in, becoming more menacing and looming all at once. While it did not move closer to the cluster of eight stars, it had no reservations about pressing in on her.
