by S. J. Wist
“Calm down. Just think about Sybl. If we don’t get to her now, they’ll force her through the Gate!”
Sybl… It worked and he could feel his soul again. He took on his human form just as several mer soldiers came charging through the door. Their guns cocked and aimed, then opened fire. He vanished from their sights just in time to avoid being shot and snuck quietly behind them for the advantage.
“Switch to infrared,” one of the mer soldiers said.
Cirrus didn’t know what they were talking about when they touched and adjusted the black helmets of their armor, all that he knew for sure was that they could see him through his camouflage. He met one of their chest’s with his blade as they opened fire on him again. Two bullets struck Cirrus’ side and sent him to his knees in pain.
“Don’t kill him. Lord Vanir wants them both alive.”
Cirrus’ face was pushed to the ground as his only kill fell to the floor, ignored entirely. Before they could tie him up, Lintrance was on them with his sword. He cut through their flesh and black armor with a speed that he had forgotten the old dragoon had.
“What the hell are you doing? Get up!”
Lintrance didn’t wait for him to heal before grabbing his arm and hauling him back to his feet. Then he stabbed his side with his fingers and pulled the bullets out.
Cirrus bit down on the pain and forced himself not to strike the dragoon, knowing full well Lintrance would retaliate. The bullets dropped to the ground in a splatter of blood, and he was able to heal properly. “How…did they see me?”
“It’s called Tech, it keeps evolving.” Lintrance handed Cirrus back his sword, before looking to the hallway as more mer could be heard coming for them.
Cirrus didn’t take any chances this time as he felt for all the air in the hallway and pulled it to him, sending the mer to the floor gasping for breath. Then he cut down the ones who refused to stop as he hastily followed Lintrance towards where Sybl was.
37: THROWN BACK
Sybl couldn’t stay in the laboratory any longer as she felt sick at the sight of the half-dead mer. But before she could follow Vanir out, she stopped as someone called her back.
“He ruined that chance when a mermaid took his love and swam away with it. Can’t have a bastard kid from Mer City showing up one day to lay claim to Toria.”
“Fevre?” She was answered when she looked up at the cylinder next to her and found the mermaid within it looking down at her, conscious. Her bright red hair moved with the estus energy emanating from her body, before she unsomned and her tail split to form into two legs.
Vanir walked back to her and looked at the cylinder, as the cold, black eyes looked back at him. “Interesting. What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything…”
‘Asil.’
The name resonated through Mer City like an alarm of its own, drowning out the sound of the current one. It was enough to stop the pain in Sybl’s head as well.
I’m here.
‘Do not leave us again. You must forgive him!’
Vanir’s focus fell entirely on Sybl with a malicious intent.
I can’t… How can I forgive him? He destroyed an entire world!
‘A world that would forgive him, has forgiven him. We are not outside the understandings of love. He has not forgotten that it was that love that brought about the destruction of the first Aster. It was his love that saved this one.’
Vanir’s hand went for his sword, but before he could completely unsheathe it, another Nova went out that sent the phelan Lord to his knees in pain.
Sybl was unaffected by it as she ran for the controls to find a way to release the mermaid. She hit a few buttons, until one drained the water from the cylinder. Then it opened, and she caught Aleste as she fell from it. Then a pair of stronger hands took the weight from her. “Lintrance?”
He didn’t say anything as he held Aleste against him on the floor, as if he feared saying her name would make her vanish.
A part of Sybl was relieved to see that they were both reunited, but when Lintrance’s orange eyes met hers, she didn’t see any gratitude from him—only sheer hate.
“What are you doing? You’ll kill her!”
She didn’t understand why he was so mad with her, until she caught a glimpse of his thoughts through his fear. “You were there when they took me?”
Lintrance didn’t answer, as he shook in fear from being unable to heal Aleste’s estus body.
Vanir recovered from the Nova and grabbed Sybl, holding her arm with an immovable strength. “Do you now see the futility of your hope?”
“Let me go!” But it was no use as Vanir dragged her off against her struggles and down the hall. The Nova ceased altogether, and the mer returned to their orders from the Atrum Lord. Tears ran down Sybl’s face when she felt Lintrance’s thoughts. She may have saved Aleste, but he hadn’t saved her the first time they sent her to Earth, and he likely wouldn’t now.
They reached another room as the soldiers who guarded their way opened fire on the hallway. She couldn’t see who they shot at as the heavy metal closed and locked behind her. Only then did Vanir let go of her. She ran back to the door, but nothing she hit would open it.
“This is where you return to your world, Asil.”
She looked behind the Atrum Lord to the ring of metal that had begun to fill with a strange gel. “I’m not going back.”
“Do you really think that the dragons will save you now? Your deception of making everyone believe you are not Asil has paid off. But now there is no more hiding the truth. There is nowhere you can be on Aster where you will not be hunted.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then show me your hope. Your faith. You can save one mermaid from the Aeger, but thousands more suffer. You cannot save them all. One human Fay cannot save the world. You have no allies here. You are as alone as the death you sought to try and free yourself from it all.”
Sybl froze as she saw through Vanir’s eyes to her past. They had been watching her on Earth—of course they had been. She looked to the door as something massive struck it hard enough to put a dent inwards. Cirrus. “I’m not alone. Not anymore!”
“Believe what you will. But one Fay will not get in the way of the change I will bring to this world. To my world.”
Sybl had nowhere to run as the mer soldiers grabbed her against her struggles and dragged her to the Gate. “Let me go!” They picked her up and threw her through the gel like she weighed and meant equally nothing.
Vanir looked at the metal door as the battering from the White Death continued. “Enough of this nonsense. Set the Gate for the Atrum and destroy them after.”
The mer complied, and the settings for it were changed. Vanir stepped through as the battering ceased.
38: BREATHLESS
Cirrus sat in the room where they had found Nafury’s body months before. It was empty for the most part now, as if the spirit of the Prince’s ghost haunted it empty. He had failed him. He had failed to protect Serena’s daughter, and now he was left with nothing. No home to return to. No miracle. Not so much as a prayer of hope for a future.
“Cirrus, we have to go,” Loki said as he entered the room they had been backed into by the mer soldiers. He stopped and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with a hand. “We can’t hold them back forever.”
“Just let them come.”
“Dying won’t bring her back.”
“Neither will fighting.”
“She is still alive! I’m sure Aleste, with some time, can help with a Gate.”
“And then what Loki?” Cirrus snapped back. “We can’t rescue her on Earth without its sun turning us to ashes!”
“You coward,” Lintrance said from the other side of the room. “Listen to yourself. If Dyaus were here and your mother was—”
“I’m not my father. And you have some nerve to call me a coward after you let Vanir take her a second time!”
“What would you have had me do? By
the time I came out of shock on seeing Aleste, he had already taken Sybl as his hostage.”
“It is possible for a dragon to exist on Earth,” Aleste said and joined the discussion in hopes it wouldn’t ignite further. Another explosion struck the wall of fire that Loki’s somn had made to slow their attackers, and the dragoon buckled in pain. “But you would only have a matter of minutes before the radiation killed you, or a Sentry.”
“Let me guess. I would be hunted down by a faint resemblance to what Nafury came back looking as?” Cirrus asked.
“That didn’t stop you from being his friend before,” Lintrance said.
“No, it didn’t. Even when his body was possessed by a demon who is now responsible for all this!” Cirrus hit the ground with an angry fist, before getting to his feet. He didn’t care if he lost his mind now. It was the right place and time to tear everything around him apart.
Loki looked back as his somn caught the attention of someone or something making a lot of commotion.
Cirrus and Lintrance tried to see what he did, and it proved to be a mermaid taking out the other end of the fight in the hallway.
“Aleste?” Lintrance asked.
“It is Nyx. Vanir’s High Caller.”
“Why is she killing his soldiers then?” Loki asked confused, before heading out of the room.
“Because she isn’t alone,” Aleste said, and followed him into the hallway.
The dragoons helped the mermaid to take out the soldiers, even though she was having little trouble handling the situation. She had killed half of the mer before they confirmed she was a traitor and acknowledged that they should fight back.
Cirrus took front against the mermaid, very curious to know what her deal was. She lifted her blood-soaked katana-like blade and pointed it at him as if he were next.
“If you want the Caelestis back, you will come with me,” Nyx said.
“Just who are you?” Cirrus asked.
“I am Nyx, the sea caelestis you know as Tenu.”
Cirrus was short of words to reply with, and looked back to where Aleste seemed to confirm the fact with her saddened eyes. He looked back at Nyx. “What exactly did you have planned?”
“My plan is simple. Give me him,” Nyx said as she pointed her blade to Lintrance, “and I will lead you to Asil.”
“What do you want with me?” Lintrance asked in concern.
“Your life, for killing my son.”
Cirrus went a deathly pale and looked at Lintrance. They had found the mermaid of Moon’s bloodline, and the mother of Fevre and Trista. Trying to stay calm, he looked back at her empty eyes. “You can’t have him.”
“Then as the Caelestis is assassinated by Vanir’s Earthly minions, you will die here.”
Aleste held tighter onto Lintrance’s arm as the underwater compound began to shake.
Cirrus had heard stories of the sea caelestis’ somn, but all of them failed to grasp just how big it was.
“If it tears down Mer City it will take out the last of the Gates too,” Lintrance stated.
“Then let’s go,” Cirrus said as he led the way out to stop it.
“No, we can’t fight her.” Lintrance looked to Nyx. “My life is yours. On the condition that I don’t die unless Cirrus brings Sybl safely back.”
“What—no!” Cirrus shouted at his cousin as Aleste began to cry.
“It’s my fault she was taken to Earth both times. If she had remained here, our Prince and Queen would still be alive,” Lintrance said.
“We don’t know that.” The compound shook harder, and they all looked out from the glass hallway to the massive, black sea snake that passed overhead. Cirrus’ eyes shot to the side when one of the metal braces that held the glass walls together cracked.
“I agree to your terms,” Lintrance said in surrender.
Nyx looked at Cirrus and then led the way out of Mer City.
Cirrus couldn’t move.
“You have to go. Save Sybl and bring her back here. I am already a dead dragoon. There’s no point in dragging my life out when it can be used to save someone I care about.”
“Aleste, stop him. This is insane!” Cirrus exclaimed.
“She will still have to get through me,” Aleste said as she wiped the tears from her dark eyes, “and I do not fear from her snake.”
“And me,” Loki added.
Cirrus looked to Lintrance as if for the last time.
Lintrance unsheathed his sword from behind him and handed it to Cirrus. Then he took off its sheathe and strap and tied it to his back. “If it threatens her, kill it with this.”
Cirrus sheathed the blade behind him. Unable to find anything else to say, he followed after the mermaid.
39: OUT OF BOUNDS
Sybl opened her eyes to the rays of sunlight piercing through her lids. Before she could open them all the way, she had already started to cry.
“His blood is the water.
His anger, storms of fire.
His wings are the mountains.
His breath whispers through the chasms.”
Sybl looked for the source of the familiar psi as she sat up. It could have only been Daath’s. He had brought her to Aster, so he might be here again on Earth. But it was him who handed her to Vanir as well, so it didn’t make any sense.
She was drenched in water and covered in mud; as if something had dragged her across the bank from the pond. Sybl was right back to where she had started; at the back of her old foster home. But the woods were a dead silent.
The still pond was heavily layered in green algae. But that wasn’t what held her attention, as she lifted her eyes to the cougar on the other side of it. The glowing brightness of its green eyes betrayed its appearance as any normal animal of Earth.
It stood up on all fours, then walked over the pond to the center of it. The ripples it made killed and sunk the algae. Then it sat down and simply stared quietly at its reflection, tilting its head to the side as if to listen to the sound of falling death. Then Daath began to speak to her psi again,
“His dreams fortify life.
His nightmares channel death.
His waking brings absolution.
He is the darkness from where all emerge.
He is the darkness from which only light can escape.”
Daath’s green eyes looked to her then. “Fayless, he is the void of space that will reclaim it all.”
When the pluma spoke, there was no denying that it was him, only wingless. She could see now how his cougar-like appearance was handy. But under his newly grown brown fur, that was as puffy as new cub’s, was a devil of flesh woven solely from the pain and death of others. His whole being was thrown back in Time to before she was so much as ever born.
The part of him that Sybl had healed three hundred years ago into Damek was now lost deep within Aragmoth. The part of his soul that was reborn as Nafury. Lost forever. Or maybe it was here, where Hino quietly held his victory.
“When we go forward in Time, we learn. When we go back, we remember. But when we are lost in-between it all, we forget. When our memories stop moving, then are thawed afterwards, they shatter just like fallen ice. Everywhere and nowhere. We can lose all of what makes us who we are. It is not Hino who holds the soul Asteria gave me. It is Aragmoth who holds it. Should he release it, I will return.”
“So what you’re saying is it was all for nothing? Your memories as Nafury—as Damek for that matter? The world doesn’t go on oblivious of those who just disappear or die.”
“Wishes send you forward, regret sends you back in Time. If I am to avoid falling victim to the Aeger again, I must continue forward. I am not a puppet to be had by those who would stumble on the shattered pieces of my memories. My life as Nafury was made into such a puppet, as was yours. I am a Death Cael; one promised to Asteria. I am not bound to the festra that stands a chance at saving the other Eminor, I was its master. Now you are destined to have it. If I am to have a chance at regaining what Asteria gave me in
the past, I must find the future she wishes for. It is her call that summons my being more than anything now. You will not feel regret in my leaving.”
Sybl staggered mid-yell at him. She could lie, but he would feel every inch of it. The truth was that she didn’t miss him. Not only had the Aeger freed him of his past, it had also destroyed all his connections to her. What she remembered of him was not from her own memories of experience. She was different now. He was an Awl. He was from Earth and a time before the Bible. He was a soldier that served war, only to closer serve death. In taking the lives and souls of others, he was able to exist. “Send me back to Aster.”
