by Matt Dawson
Gessich scurried to the corner and huddled. The fox stood panting and trembling, looking Leiel in the eyes. She raised her sword as high as she could muster. She held it there. She glanced to the fox, “You too,” her voice distorted, becoming deeper.
The boy crawled on all fours, grabbing the fox with both hands before worming back to his corner. The mass of metal in Leiel’s hand fell. The entire building shook. Gessich found himself no longer sitting in the corner, but on the ledge of the fourth floor. The blast of wind sucked out the hot air, and the child immediately began shivering from the tumultuous wind. He felt a warm blast of air hit him, turning to see Leiel deeply huffing at him.
Leiel was able to pull her head above her shoulders, and her back straightened. With skin still bright orange on the edges, she turned her sword around, gripping it by the tip and side of the blade. She pointed the haft at Gessich. “Climb on.”
Gessich looked down at the sword, blade turned away from him. He stayed curled up against the wall, shaking his head.
“We have to go.” Leiel insisted.
Chapter 5
Soldiers flooded into the ruined space with weapons drawn. Leiel bobbed the sword grip at the boy. The fox wriggled out of his grip, sitting on the flat end of the blade, looking at Gessich with a worried look. The child switched his gaze between the Esperitus and Leiel. He scurried onto the flat of the massive sword, gripping the hilt with one hand, and tucking the fox beneath his arm. Leiel looked at the ground below. Even at this height, and with the state her legs were in, she wasn’t sure that there was any hope the landing would be safe. With no escape any other way, she didn’t have much of a choice.
The brass soldiers closed in, striking at Leiel’s back. She lifted the sword, flat end up, over her head. She took two bounding steps, leaping from the giant hole in the wall. They had cleared the courtyard and the outer wall, but were still ascending. Gessich let out a wail, his knuckles purple from his grip on the sword. The bite of the cold air was negated by the rising heat of the sword beneath him. Gessich closed his eyes, clenching up against the fox and bracing for impact.
Gessich felt a gentle bump, and then the crack of thunder just beneath him. The sword began to list as it descended. He clenched tighter, pulling the fox into his chest, bracing for impact. He felt a gentle shaking towards the ground, and he pulled up towards the hilt. Still pinning the fox against his chest, he gripped the handle with both hands now. The blade began to wobble back and forth, like a ship in the sea.
“Come now, child. We have bought ourselves some time, but now is not a time for rest.” Leiel said in a soft tone.
Gessich opened his eyes, throwing his head around in all directions violently. His toes were just barely off the ground, with the sword resting on its edge. The fox wormed its way out of his grip, hopping to its feet and preening for just a moment. He let his legs slide down, then struggled to get to his feet. With a nudge, Leiel propped the boy up before swinging the sword around and resting it on the sheath on her back.
Around them, the grass laid flat and wilted brown. Further out, the fields remained green. The two trees that were nearby had been ripped from the ground. Their roots pointing straight up in the air had pulled soil up with it when they tipped over.
The fog in Leiel’s head lifted almost as soon as she hit the ground. She was still fatigued from the ordeal, and the cool evening breeze was a welcome change to the inferno that her cell had become. She anticipated the garrison would send scouts as soon as they could to track them down. She started off for the Midlands hoping she could catch the Rangers and Myrmidon marching. The sound of only her footsteps rustling grass made her stop and turn around. She saw the boy still looking at the fortress, the fox sitting next to him looking on.
“Time is short. They will be after us soon. We must go.” Leiel said to Gessich.
He looked up to her, shivering, hesitating before trudging over. The spring evening cooled quickly as the sun set, the sharpness biting into his frail frame. He was only in a dirty sleeveless tunic, short pants, and barefoot. Leiel took off her short cape and wrapped it around him, giving him a hearty smile and nod as she did so, careful not to touch her skin to his. The now bare skin of her shoulders glowed a dull crimson, more so than her limbs.
She was careful to stay upwind of him as they pressed on in their brisk pace through the sparse forest. The boy stopped shivering. The dim orange and purple hues faded from the sky leaving only the glimmer of the countless stars above.
The night slowed Gessich down and to Leiel’s surprise, the fox as well. The dancing moons were high in the sky. One half of the large green moon, Meridian, and the opposite side of the moon co-orbiting it, Taver, were shrouded in crescent darkness.
Leiel stopped. The boy was struggling to put one foot in front of the other. He was shivering violently, gripping the short cape as best as he could, with small gusts threatening to tip him over. The fox fared no better. There was no more than a hair’s width between its snout and the ground. Its gait, clumsy and uncoordinated, wasn’t enough to keep up with Gessich. Leiel approached the boy, who stumbled and fell at her feet. The fox, unable to continue walking, collapsed beside him.
Leiel looked to her side, and found it strange that there was no one there. She turned around to see the boy shambling, and the Esperitus struggling to keep at his heels. Standing still, he still hadn’t made it much closer to her. In unison, the boy and fox collapsed. She rushed over to him, propping him up. She yanked off her glove before blowing on it and wagging it at her hip frantically for a moment, then placing it over his forehead. It was on fire.
She unsheathed her sword, placing it on the ground, and laying them upon it. Hoisting it on her shoulder, her head tilted pretty well all the way over, she shrugged it level, and burst into a sprint.
The sun had just begun to rise as she closed in on the sleepy Midlands village. The houses built of hand-placed stone foundations and dark wood frames, were hidden behind rough hewn wooden palisades. The light of the lone watch tower in the North danced as the winds picked up.
Leiel, still sprinting, approached the gate. The guard had nodded off, his head resting against crossed arms placed on the edge of the watchtower.
“Hey, wake up!” Leiel shouted.
The tower guard startled awake. His metal cap smacked him in the face as he roused from his slumber.
“W…who’s there?” He said in a weak, nervous tone, reaching around for the torch. He froze at the sight of Leiel’s dim orange outline and two green dots peering at him.
“Please let us in, this boy is very sick. He will die if he does not get shelter soon.” Leiel shouted to the guard.
The guard snapped out of his stupor at the sound of Leiel’s voice. He looked over, grabbed the torch and held it out of the window, far up over Leiel’s head, revealing her in dim light.
“Priestess? What has happened to you?”
“Please work quickly.” Leiel said, hoisting the blade on her shoulder, adjusting it with a bump.
The guard looked down at the child and the animal huddled together on top of the massive sword. He rushed down from his post and opened the gates.
“He is very sick, be careful.” Leiel said to him as he emerged from the gates. “Alert the innkeeper.”
The guard nodded and rushed off to the center of the village. She entered to see the guard and innkeeper approaching. The innkeeper snapped awake at the sight of Leiel’s glowing form. As she walked into the luminance of the guard’s torch, the innkeeper immediately focused on the boy. She reached for her pouch of money, and the innkeeper shook his head, whisking the two inside. Leiel turned, sheathing her sword. “I will return,” bursting into a sprint once more.
Leiel found herself atop a foothill nearby the village. She scanned the area for any sign of light in the distance. Frustrated, she rustled through the pouches on her hip: a small cylinder and a wick. She rummaged a stick from the ground and jabbed it through the cylinder, then fed the wick
into a small hole on the underside. She pressed the wick between her fingers firmly, waited, and snapped. A spark ran up the wick, and within moments, a burst of red light came from the cylinder. It launched high into the air, floating for a few moments before before starting to descend.
She scanned in every direction, hoping to find a similar response but didn’t think it likely. The formation was on a forced march, and there was a very high chance that they had already crested out of view. She continued to scan around. Far North from their original anticipated position, Leiel saw a flickering red light hugging the horizon. Such a response was almost as bad of news as no response at all. It would take them a day, maybe more to reach her, and setting off towards them would do the boy no good.
Chapter 6
The sun rose as Leiel descended from the hilltop. The Rangers had gotten the message, all she had to do was hold out and wait for them to arrive. The sun’s rays lacking any sensation of warmth upon her skin threw Leiel into a slight confusion. It was then she realized she still felt hot, with brown spots of grass where her footsteps were.
She looked around and spotted a small pond nearby. She waded into it, clothes and all, and as she did so small bubbles formed around her. They’d burst into steam as they surfaced, clouding her in an eerie fog like a cloud sat atop the pond. She soaked for a while, the orange hue of her skin fading. Eventually she’d emerge, the steam pouring off of her as she did, quickly fading as she was almost entirely dry before her feet left the water.
On the way back, she picked various herbs and flowers to make the boy a remedy. When she returned, the gates to the village were now open and the townsfolk were freely moving through the fields. She returned to the inn, her purse readied to pay the innkeeper.Leiel once again felt the strange feeling arise when the innkeeper was nowhere in sight.
She wandered upstairs. All of the doors closed except for one, a faint glow of a flame flickering against the wall. She crossed the doorway threshold and rounded the corner. The bed, while unmade, was empty. Leiel continued forward, looking around. As she looked around the next corner near the bed, she found herself staring down a massive scaled maw, with long, thick fangs dripping saliva.
Leiel dropped the handful of plant matter she was holding, and reached for her sword. Out of the corner of her eye, a giant coiled tail twitched, and slammed into her, sending Leiel through the wall behind her, and cratering into the ground outside.
She looked up from where she fell, her sight fading in and out. A bipedal lizard with an elongated tail, and a snake that had a maw stretch from its stomach to its snout crowded the hole, peering out at her. The lizard grew closer each time her vision faded back in, she noticed a square bronze plate over its chest, and it was wearing a red scarf.
Containment engaged.
Sensor hub failure.
Visual cortex offline.
Auditory cortex offline.
Tactile cortex offline.
Olfactory cortex offline.
Vestibular cortex offline.
Proprioceptive cortex offline.
RAM disk Checksum failure, reverting to last known good snapshot.
Leiel’s memories fast-forwarded through seeing Gessich, him eating. The fear on his face when she awoke again and the guards rushed in. Him passing out.
Validating…
…
…
…
Snapshot checksum validation success, booting RAM disk.
Cerebrospinal uplink establishing limb connections…
Leiel tried to move, but couldn’t. She couldn’t feel any of her body parts, every part of her was numb.
Cerebral link received response.
L-R Upper Limb Pair received response.
L-R Lower Limb Pair received response.
She could feel her arms, legs, body, and head again. She tried to move them, but failed. She tried to open her eyes. They were already open, she was blind. She tried to listen for any sort of sound, but could hear nothing. She was deaf. The green hue of her eyes extinguished.
Reinitializing sensor hub…
…
…
…
Sensor hub online.
Visual cortex online.
Auditory cortex online.
Tactile cortex online.
Olfactory cortex online.
Vestibular cortex online.
Proprioceptive cortex online.
It was hard for her eyes to focus on any one thing. She could see a blurry image of the gate. The lizard dragging her towards it. What she could make out in the distance, the snake creature had wriggled ahead, curled up, and was poised to strike.
Combat systems recovered from a fatal error.
Emotion emulation recovered from a fatal error.
Combat promoted to real-time priority.
Emotion promoted to medium priority.
Proximity warning: Category 1 Esperitus extremely close range, suborder Lacertilia, count one.
Proximity warning: Category 1 Esperitus close range, suborder Serpentes, count one.
Proximity alert: Uncategorized Esperitus medium range, taxonomy unknown, count unknown.
Estimating full assault collateral damage… 33.18% chance of bystander casualty.
Containment disengaged.
Leiel’s irises lit up again. Her eyes focused. The lizard had picked her legs up and dragged her towards the palisade gate. A crowd had formed in the field outside at the sound of the commotion. The snake aimed at the group, their faces in shock.
She slammed her hand into the ground. The lizard slipped forward onto its face trying to drag her. It looked back with wide eyes. Without using her hands, Leiel rose to her feet. She drew her sword.
The snake whipped around to face Leiel, and lunged. She slammed the blade down, shielding her body behind the bulk of the blade. Yanking on the hilt of the sword, a small, slender double edged long blade emerged. The bottom half of her giant blade now a tower shield that snapped to Leiel’s arm.
She struck out at the snake Esperitus still in flight. The snake’s head bounced off her shield, the body coiling up and rolling at her feet, a blast of bright red blood running between her toes. She stomped through the growing puddle of blood towards the lizard, still scrambling to get to its feet.
Standing on all fours, the lizard charged at Leiel. She raised her shield, ready to plow into it. The beast swept around her, its tail wound up. It leaped and struck downward with its tail. Leiel swiped across her chest with her shield. The lizard fell backwards, separated from its tail. It cried out as it rocked, flipped over, then sprinted away.
Leiel followed the drops of blood that lead out of the village. They tracked back in the direction of the fortress. She stopped at the gates, turning around and entering the inn. She searched each room, one by one. Leiel found the innkeeper hidden behind a night stand in one of the rooms, battered, bruised. “Th…they took him…”
Leiel started to shut the door, but paused. She spoke through the crack, “It is safe, now,” then latched it gently.
She recovered her cape, which was still laying on the bed. It was in this moment, Leiel found the fog in her mind had lifted. She recalled an argument she once had. Leiel was so certain Esperitus were humans lost to their basic primal instincts, lacking any will, impulsive to the core.
This boy, this creature…was he the symbiote she had heard rumors about? Would she just leave him to his fate? With the Manus Dei in their hands, she estimated the chances of total failure were almost certain.
But, she still remembered the yaps of the fox in the sterile prison they held her in, the knowing look in his eyes when she saw him after waking up. It would have been a mistake to take him for naive. She flipped the cape around her back, and tied it across her neck.
Outside, the crowd had migrated over to the pieces of the dead snake, gawking and clamoring over it. Leiel followed the tracks of blood. While frantic and wavering North and South, the direction was clear, it was headed back
towards the fortress. Storm clouds rolled in.
Winds whipped with vicious fury. Rain fell from every side, even from the ground. As she approached the fortress gates, she could feel the pull of the Manus Dei. It tried to cloud her thoughts, lower her guard. She pushed back against its presence within her mind.
It played upon the chaos the weather brought, emulating it within her. When the wind blew, it stirred. When it stirred, she stilled her thoughts. When it calmed, she was the tornado against the lone tree.
“Begone, witch! Your presence is no longer welcome in this hallowed sanctuary!” The guard shouted to her.
“Give me the child.” Leiel shouted back.
The guard stood in silence, taking the punishment from the unrelenting wind and voracious rain.
Cooling alert, reactor load at 35%. Active cooling engaged.
Leiel continued towards the retracted drawbridge. From beneath her cape, two long shafts emerged from each side of her back, near shoulder blades. From each of those, three smaller cylinders extended in a staggered formation, no two next to each other.
