by Jae Vogel
"Look at me."
I grabbed him again, and held him close to my face.
"I won't be able to protect you once we're out there. We need to get to that portal, and you need to get your head together. Do you understand?"
The whole library shook as we stood there. I saw focus come back into his expression, and a nod come from his head.
"Good. It's time to go now. Just follow my lead, and we'll do what we can."
I let out one final exhale while we stared at one another. I wanted the eye contact to be significant; to provide him with the help that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to provide once we got outside.
"Those men downstairs are ready to die. I've seen it in the eyes of men before. You can join them, or you can follow me, but I'm not going like that."
With that, I spat on the floor, and set my brow into a glare. Blood and adrenaline returned to my entire body, and I sank into a predatory state of consciousness. Anything I had left in the past was now called to the present. There was no more room for dispossessed states of depression or powerlessness.
I broke out into a sprint, and didn't look back. I had given him the only warning he would receive, and that was more than most would have received. The rest was up to him.
The rush of the wind whipping past my face as I ran toward the door brought a sensation of elation. The doors themselves slammed to the side, as though the environment itself was frightened of my approach. The blue lights underneath the surface of the hover discs wavered eerily on the ground beneath them. In the distance, I could see the darkness approaching; it was headed straight for the Capitol.
"The portal!"
I hopped on the hover disc, and ducked down toward the ground to reduce the drag on my body. They didn't make these things to go extraordinarily fast, but if you knew what you were doing, there was an override switch available on the bottom of the disc. The switch is pressure sensitive, which means that if you want to get going, you have to be in a position to physically handle yourself. Most of the populace doesn't engage in risky behavior like this, but there are a number of youth that have caught onto the secret, and hold races in the older, more abandoned districts.
My hair whipped behind me, and I watched as debris flew beneath my transport. I thought about Erol, but I couldn't risk looking backward to see if he was all right or not. The environment was moving by so quickly that I had to keep my eyes on the road. To divert my attention for only an instant would mean a fall. At this speed, it would not only be painful, but I might actually do some serious damage to myself.
Narrowing my eyes, I squinted into the distance. Everything around me was growing darker, with the storm. The darkness that came out of the skyline and moved toward the portal held the same qualities as the tentacled creature from the hell realm. This time, it was projected against a sky that was only lit by faerie fire. The resulting atmosphere was a soft glue glow coming up from the Capitol. The light pushed upward through gradients of darkness into the stars of the sky. Between the stars, and the ground, a clear outline of inky black tendrils stretched toward the Capitol building.
The sight was so awesome, that I nearly ran into the side of the hedge which outlined the garden courtyard of the capitol. The hover disc spun wildly in the wrong direction, and I ducked down and clutched at both sides of the disc with my hands. I lowered my gaze and stared at the nearest fixed point possible. The fixed point in my vision was a bright source of blue light just outside of the Capitol building, some twenty yards away.
The portal was there, but something was wrong. Two figures were outlined by its light, and the approaching darkness from behind. My wild crash was so taxing that I couldn't be sure who was there, or if I had seen anything at all. Keeping track of the details around me was low on my list of priorities.
Spinning still closer, I slowed, and stumbled off the edge of my disc. My body hit the ground, and I skidded toward the outer ring of the Portal's light. My body burned once more from the scratches and burns that seemed to perpetually cover my skin. I bit my lip, and struggled to focus my eyes. I was acting on impulse. There was no room for forethought any longer.
To keep the portal open seemed to be an invitation to destruction of unknown magnitude, but to allow it to close would mean the end of the Fae Realm -- or at least the complete destruction of the Capitol.
A pair of figures walked over toward me.
Though my vision was blurry, I was still able to see the two of them approach. The details were lost to me, but seeing the gait of one of them, I knew it was Thane. Worry and fear consumed my body.
"Thane!"
The ground quaked once more beneath my body, and as I stood up, a thunderous crack sounded through the air, as a marble edifice broke into pieces and fell to the ground. Struggling to my feet, I sprinted the final distance toward the portal. Thane received me with open arms, and I dove into him.
"Thane, I heard that most of the officials are over with the Wilder Fae. I don't know what to do, but we should find a way to warn them."
"Shh..."
He stroked my hair, and held me against his body.
"Don't worry about a thing. You did great."
"Great? Thane. I had a dream about you. I think something really bad is happening. We really need to get out of here. Come on, if we all work together, I think we may be able to unweave the magic of the portal before it expires."
"Expires?"
"That's what the Wilder Fae said, when they scouted me. I thought you knew about that."
I pulled him toward the portal, but he resisted. Then it became clear to me; Thane did not want to close the Portal. I shook my head back and forth and made eye contact with him.
"This place is going into the Abyss, Thane. Take a look around; your idea isn't going to work. Not like you had hoped anyway."
Thane pulled his hand away, and the other man that was with him came up behind me. I saw Thane's eyes narrow at him, and the man stopped, just short of my body.
I bit my lip and stepped out to the side of the two of them.
"What's going on, Thane?"
I watched as he put his hands to his face, and took a deep breath to compose himself. When he had finished, he had attained full on political composure once more. He could have been going to a press release for the wedding of the minister's daughter. Seeing him change so drastically within the context of the deteriorating environment around us gave me chills.
I began to back away from him, unconsciously moving toward the portal.
My movement toward the portal seemed to put the other man on edge once more, but Thane held up a firm palm.
"That won't be necessary, Xavier. Our Agent-in-the-Field is an experienced Veteran. She knows how to handle herself. Likely even better than you."
Thane's vote of confidence was a nice thing to experience, but I was still caught behind the wall of bullshit he was busy erecting with his pretentious attitude. Looking forward into the future, I was entirely uncertain as to the intentions that Thane might have, but I could be certain of two things. Firstly, he was resuming his position as a militaristic expression of the Fae Government.
At this point, I couldn't be certain whether or not this was a sanctioned activity or not, but knowing Thane, it probably wasn't. His newest boy toy, Xavier, was likely in this for whatever prestige Thane had managed to convince him existed for him at the end of some rainbow of service. For all of the care that I felt for him, I fucking despised Thane. However, now was not the time or place to proclaim whatever mixed feelings I had for him.
Secondly, he wanted the portal to remain open, which made him a very dangerous man.
The fact that he wanted the portal to remain open meant that he was willing to sacrifice any and all life in order to achieve his goal. If the portal required any form of regular sacrifice, that also meant that he would be willing to kill, or order the death of people in order to pursue his goal. Likely he would have Xavier here to that work for him.
My mind was spinning out at a thousand miles a minute in an effort to get a hold of every aspect of the situation. I was in the middle of processing all of this information when Erol showed up on his hover disc. He was scratched to hell, and obviously had taken a number of falls himself on the way over. Thane caught my line of eyesight first, and then followed my gaze to Erol's approach.
"You know him?"
"He's a researcher... from the library."
Thane shook his head, and smiled.
"I could always tell when you were lying. You know that's a skill you really ought to either brush up on or forget all together."
His smile was smooth as silk as he walked out to greet Erol.
"So the man of the hour approaches... I don't believe we've met."
Fucking Thane. All I could do was sit and stare.
The apocalypse was nearly approaching, and yet here he was, practically sitting down for tea with some fucked up human who couldn't even manage to operate a hover disc.
I walked over toward Erol to try and position myself in such a way that I might be able to protect him if something went wrong, but Thane already had me beat.
"Erol, is it?"
He nodded, guileless and far too honest for his own good.
"I just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate the efforts that you have made in come over here. You must feel like a very brave explorer."
Even Erol was having a bit of difficult swallowing what Thane was dishing out. I watched him look over his right shoulder toward the approaching storm. Rain was already falling down over us, and the wind was picking up to a point where the rain actually stung my skin almost as badly as the abrasions left from the ground.
"Don't you think we ought to talk more once we go through the portal?"
Erol's words rose high over the sound of the wind.
I tried to cut him off, or to redirect the conversation somehow, but Thane had already leapt at the opportunity. I watched as he offered Erol a hand so he could get off of his hover disc, like a princess descending out from a pumpkin.
"Right you are my friend. This place is in grave danger, and we need to do everything in our power to amend the situation. I just want you to know that the whole Fae Realm owes you a debt for your unflinching service in the face of this most perilous situation we face."
There was nothing to be done.
Thane would slaughter him right there and leave him bleeding on the steps of the capitol.
Whatever elder gods ushered forward from the depths of the abyss in the form of this storm would approach, and the rest of the dimensions would fall into chaotic disarray. I knew that I had to act out, but the end was already in sight.
"Did Aria tell you about the sacrifice?"
I watched helplessly, as Thane's teeth gleamed in the bright light of the portal. He walked Erol over to the portal with one hand around his shoulder, and the other hand at his side.
"Why she did mention that."
"The portal took my blood in the beginning," Erol offered. "I don't have anything more to live for at this point. I see this as the culmination of my life's work, and I know that the ripple effects into the Human Realm are going to be absolutely crucial."
I saw him wince, and then stand up straight, as though trying to regain his composure and nerve.
"I think you should take my life and use it to sustain the energy of the portal."
"We couldn't possibly do that!" Thane interrupted.
That clinched it.
Erol was hooked now by his own damned heroic impulse. The two went back and forth again for a minute, before I heard Erol make his final proclamation.
"I'm going to do it myself, regardless. I know we don't have time for this any more. You're very kind, and I know you care about the welfare of your people. Otherwise, you wouldn't have sent Aria to reach out to me. I want to help, and this is the best way I know how."
"Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."
With the theatrics done, Xavier moved forward and drew a blade as he headed toward Erol's body.
"I'll do it," I announced, grabbing ahold of the soldier's back collar and shoving him roughly to the side. "I met him. I brought him here, I’ll take his life."
Thane's eyes narrowed like a cat focusing in on his prey.
"Interesting Development, Aria."
He drew his own sword and then bowed toward me theatrically.
"Do continue…”
Chapter 20
I hadn't properly thought about it before starting. All I knew was that I had a minute to express myself, and if I didn't Erol was going to meet his swift and deluded end at the hands of the new tyrant in training.
Thane wouldn't dare dirty his hand on something so menial. That's why you get thugs to carry around a weapon for you. The sword was meant for me; likely everyone except for Erol knew that much.
I turned to the side, and snubbed my nose at Thane. I didn't need to give him any more reason to believe he had power over me than he already had. There was something different about me. He had sensed it. Things weren't business as usual. We were at odds, and there was no way around the fact.
I strained my mind to think of a way that I could persuade him otherwise. All the while drawing the blade that the Wilder Fae had given me and stalking toward the portal.
"Hold him."
I shoved Xavier in the back, pushing him toward Erol.
"I've seen what a coward this guy is when push comes to shove. I don't want to bother cutting him twice."
"Seems like a sorry excuse to me..."
I narrowed my eyes at him, and then turned to Thane as though Xavier's presence itself was insignificant. In the meanwhile, the wind and rain abused our skin with its ferocity. Thane himself seemed to be more than a bit amused by my slight on his assistant. Xavier on the other hand didn't take the slight very smoothly.
I turned my back on him just as a test to see what he would do, and was rewarded with a sharp shove for my efforts. I ended up being pushed straight into Erol, who caught me before I fell into the portal itself.
"I say if the portal is hungry that we feed it until it's sated."
"Might be some time before that happens," Thane replied in a predatory fashion.
"Ha! Such a charmer."
I laughed, and then abruptly turned around to lash my dagger out toward Xavier. A lesser man would have fallen there on the ground. My arc was perfectly directed to slice his jugular and leave him nothing more than a puddle on the ground. He brought up his arm, and deflected my blow just before it struck home. Xavier himself was terribly angry, though Thane did little more than smile with surprise at my action.
I couldn't wait any longer. The moment had come when we needed to take a chance with the portal. I couldn't fly here, which meant that I would have been mismatched in an honest fight. The evasive maneuver was quick.
All I did was dive backward and shoulder Erol in the chest. He doesn't have a sense of balance to save his life, and the two of us toppled backward into the portal. The escape wasn't clean though. I got tagged along the outer thigh by Xavier while I was passing through the portal.
Blood sprayed downward from the hit and was absorbed into the ether of the gateway. The sight of the blood floating around me brought a lapse in my thinking. I wasn't able to focus my intention in any consistent format. I had planned to lure them both back into the human realm, but fear seized a hold of me, and I was pulled downward into the darkness.
Looking up over me, I swear I saw Thane laughing while the Void approached the portal.
* * *
We landed a decent ways away from one another, on ground that appeared to be closer to dust and rock than anything else.
Looking up at the sky, I searched for the telltale sun, but there was no sign of the orb of fire. Sure enough, we made it to the hell realm, but the storm that had been present in the Fae realm was worse in the Hell realm.
At least the Capitol had been somewhat sheltered by trees and buildings.
Dust and mud kicked upward into my face, and pelted against my skin. On a more positive note, the physical adaptation made it so that the wind spraying debris didn't hurt as much. Still, it was a pain in the ass to get my bearings. I can't say that I was happy to be there, but it was better than at least two alternatives I could think of in the moment.
Focus.
The command was imperative, as I knew there would be an encounter to follow. I had only enough time to avoid immediate onslaught, but there was no cover except the sheer rock face behind me. Coughing and sputtering, over to the left of me by thirty feet was another demon. I could only assume it was Erol, though had he arrived any later than myself, I wasn't in a position to be able to determine.
I ran over to the wreck of a creature, and looked at him. He was different in this realm. He didn't look like I did. He looked altogether separate from the nature of this reality. He was weak, and an interloper.
"This isn't good. Get over here."
I grabbed him by the robes that now covered his body, and threw him backward into the wall behind us. His body hit hard, and he slumped to the ground. I regret throwing him so hard, but I was glad to know that he appeared to be little more than a bundle of rocks that appeared too soft to mesh into the rest of the scenery.
Just then, Xavier arrived alongside Thane.
There was no strict portal per say, as much as there was a blast of light followed by an expulsion of two forms. The portal itself flashed and then faded, leaving only a trace of itself in the outline of the storm.
Taking my chance, I sprang into action and sprinted low toward Xavier. The hit connected strong, and I pushed my dagger viciously upward into his gut. As I stabbed him, he hugged me and raked at my back with his claws. I did not miss the fact that Thane immediately positioned himself behind the two of us. He was willing to see how the conflict worked its way into completion, and I was all right with that.
