Lore of Sanctum Omnibus

by Elaina J Davidson

  A sense of urgency set in as both Erin and Jimini failed to check in as the twentieth hour closed, followed by grateful release when both did so not long after. The net was activated and ready. The time to use it approached.

  Lowen, her face stiff with tension, could no longer speak or think. She paced endlessly, repeating her duty at centre over and over in her mind.

  Tianoman, as tense, stood nearby, hoping he lent her the support she required.

  The minutes ticked by at an ever-slower pace.

  The Path of Shades

  DARKNESS. SOUNDLESS. No sensation.

  They fell without sound, sight or feeling, except the terror within.

  Smack!

  Elianas crashed into something solid, and his leg snapped. He screamed, and released his hold on the Siric.

  Declan slid away and came to a motionless stop, a pool of blood under his close-cropped head.

  Smack!

  Torrullin collided nearby and yelled as his arm broke, crushed under him. Saska landed on top of him and he gargled, and then ignored the agony to grip her with his good arm.

  She rolled, lay still and barely breathed.

  Blue vagueness everywhere.

  They were in the colour of sky upon a transparent ellipse as hard as rock; below, above and all around was the blue, and nothing else.

  Elianas’ whimpered, “Broke my leg. Declan is dying.”

  Torrullin managed to sit. He surveyed the great space and glanced at Elianas, lying with his right leg at an odd angle. He gaze flicked to Declan, noting the blood and pallor of the Siric. He gazed down upon Saska and saw how her life-force seeped away.

  He cradled his broken arm and shouted, “WHY?”

  Chapter 29

  One should not catch a butterfly in a net.

  ~ Unknown

  Sanctuary

  THE SKY LIGHTENED and the pressure inside Lowen reached maximum strength.

  As the new sun tipped the eastern mountains, she met it with every sense and wit she possessed within.

  Tianoman stood behind her counting down to the moment of output. She barely heard him and yet her senses kept time to it.

  As one, came the shivers of a living force from many worlds, many sites, many minds. Lowen drew a shuddering breath and sent it out at the Path of Shades.

  Massive sonic booms sounded universe over.

  The Path of Shades

  TORRULLIN CRAB-WALKED to Declan.

  Feeling cautiously, he established the Siric had torn open a flap of skin behind his ear on impact. It would not kill him; the Path of Shades did so, as it was Saska. He had made her as comfortable as he could.

  Shuffling to Elianas, he met glazed eyes. “Stay awake. We have to help each other.”

  Elianas nodded.

  “Sit, brother, even if it hurts and get my tunic off, I need to see the break.”

  Elianas, biting down, positioned himself until he could sit. He leaned over and helped Torrullin. With swearing and groans, they had it at last.

  “Two places,” Torrullin muttered. “Upper and lower arm. Fuck.” Using his teeth, he tore the tunic into rough lengths. It took long, even with Elianas helping. “Can you reach my sword?” he said when done. Elianas manoeuvred behind him and removed the blade. “Good, now straighten my arm.”

  Elianas blinked. “That’s going to really hurt.”

  “Less than if I leave it like this. Do it.”

  Biting back pain, Elianas took the arm and swiftly moved the bones.

  Torrullin passed out.

  Grim, Elianas laid the flexible arm upon the sword’s blade and carefully wrapped the torn lengths of material tightly around it. He rested the jutting hilt under Torrullin’s armpit with the pommel sticking out past his shoulder blade.

  The blade would cut skin if Torrullin moved too fast or did not give heed to its presence, but would certainly keep the bones moving too much. About pain or healing, he was not sure.

  He prodded. Torrullin groaned. “Careful, your arm is bound, watch the edges.”

  Torrullin sat up, bringing his stiff arm around to rest at an angle. “Thank you. Gods, it fucking hurts.”

  “My turn.”

  Torrullin clambered to his knees, jarring his arm. He swore and nearly passed out again. Furious, he loosened his belt, manoeuvred his arm to a position along his side and tightened the belt around the lower section. It hurt more, but it ceased flapping like a useless wing. He looked Elianas over.

  “Get it off, my brother.”

  Elianas managed a weak laugh. “I imagined this moment somewhat differently.”

  He undid his breeches and pushed them down to his thighs, dragged his good leg free and Torrullin helped him remove the other. Strips were torn and Elianas took his sword out to lay it alongside his skewed left leg, hilt facing him.

  Pasty-faced and sweating, Torrullin leaned over his leg, took it in hand, gritted, and moved it into a more normal position. A moment later Elianas was flat on his back, unconscious.

  Torrullin, swearing, managed to get that leg on the sword, but could not tie anything. He called out, but Elianas did not move. He hung his head to breathe slowly, attempting to still the pain.

  A few minutes later he jarred the unconscious man until he sat up. “You must finish it,” he said breathlessly. “Then we can pass out.”

  Elianas slowly tied the strips, pulling them as tight as he dared.

  They passed out then, and time moved on.

  One man lay naked below a loincloth, sword strapped to one leg, one boot discarded, and the other was naked from the waist up, sword strapped to one arm, wearing a ragtag, shortened pants.

  Nearby lay a pale, white man and a woman with blue hair. It seemed, then, as if no one would ever wake again.

  As if time would preserve them that way forever.

  Sanctuary

  “ANYTHING?” LOWEN SHOUTED over the buzzing in her ears.

  “How would we know?” Tianoman asked.

  “I don’t know! You’re the one with power!”

  “Why are you shouting?”

  She pointed at her ears. “Can’t hear!”

  He raised a hand and gestured she should wait, and transported away.

  Rose, the one he wanted, was in the garden. “Rose, do you hear results on the chain?”

  “A traveller crashed on Xen, a power station blew up on Ceta and two hospitals report a surge in heart failures among their patients, and that’s only the first report.”

  Tianoman rubbed at his cheeks.

  Rose looked away. “Cassy reports the network reacted as expected.”

  “Did it have the result we hoped for?”

  Rose stared into the distance, listening. “I hear nothing. One of you must do the checking your way.”

  Tianoman swore. “Quilla! He will know if Torrullin is out. Can you reach him?”

  She nodded and long minutes passed in silent communication. “Quilla says Torrullin hasn’t exited.”

  Tianoman slumped.

  “Cassy says we go again in half hour.”

  Tianoman swore profoundly and transported away.

  Rose turned away to find an ashen Teroux standing nearby.

  They clasped each other and prayed.

  HALF AN HOUR later the network surged anew and Lowen used every ounce of her strength to direct it, and then sank down with naught left.

  Tianoman lifted her and took her to the villa, where Rose reported on Beacon’s communications crash, another spaceship downed, this one on approach to Lax, and various other accidents. When totalled, the loss of life would not be small. Beacon’s entire system would be in disarray for months.

  One by one the others came in, downcast and exhausted.

  Tristan said, “We are doing it again.”

  Tianoman, firm, replied, “We are not.”

  Tristan glared at him, but Tianoman stood his ground. Tristan went outside and Caballa knew it would be a long time before he recovered from this disaster.


  “We had to try, didn’t we, Caballa?” Cassy whispered.

  “Yes, we had to try,” she sighed, and followed Tristan.

  Path of Shades

  ELIANAS WINCED AS sharp pain lanced through him.

  He shook Torrullin and waited impatiently while the man focused. “Torrullin, I felt a surge of energy, a pull to source.”

  Torrullin ignored his aches. “Can you track it?”

  “I have a rough idea.”

  “Good …” Torrullin’s voice stilled. He stared down.

  Declan, last Siric, was no longer breathing.

  Elianas shouted, “What the fuck are we doing this for, if good people die for it?” He inhaled and then smacked his hand down once, twice, and was still.

  “Elianas, look at her … please.”

  Elianas swallowed. With great reluctance he looked at Saska and then heaved a sigh. “She breathes.”

  A moment, two, ten, while Torrullin struggled to find equilibrium. “Can you bridge to the source?”

  “Yes, but we cannot take them with us.”

  “Then we stay here.”

  Elianas nodded. Until Saska breathed her last, yes. The only act of respect and love remaining now. When the next surge came he marked it, and said not a word.

  They waited.

  Sanctuary

  THE KAVAL DISPERSED to the aid of those who suffered due to a failure they had a part in.

  Cassy and Caballa returned to Valaris, and Rose left for Xen to help the farspeaker chain.

  At the villa the three cousins started to talk together as the leaders they now were and made far-reaching decisions and choices. Many hours later Tristan went to the Dome, Tianoman to Torrke and Teroux to Mariner Island.

  They began immediately to act on choices made.

  Path of Shades

  TORRULLIN CRAWLED AWKWARDLY to Saska when her eyes opened.

  She smiled up at him, and then stared at his arm.

  “Broken.”

  “Declan?”

  “Declan died a while back.”

  She closed her eyes. A tear squeezed out from under her lids. “He didn’t deserve it.”

  “No.”

  “He is sure to be in Aaru.”

  “He was the one pure soul I knew, yes.”

  “Then we should be happy for him.” She opened her eyes.

  Torrullin breathed deeply. “Later, yes, but right now losing him hurts too much.”

  “Yes,” and she sobbed quietly.

  He sat next to her without words. A single silvery track, he noticed, had dried on Elianas’ cheek. He drew a shuddering breath and covered his face with his hand.

  Saska pried it away not long after. She kneeled before him. “I am next, Torrullin, and you need make peace with that.”

  Fury suffused him.

  She took his face into her hands. “You must, or you and Elianas could wander here forever. You two get out, you make our reality whole.”

  “Saska, please …”

  “Torrullin, you cannot lie, not now. These are the last moments of truth.”

  His head sank to her shoulder and she stroked his untidy hair.

  “I fell in love with contrary Rayne - how special he was - and loved Torrullin the new Enchanter with all my heart.” She lifted his head to see his eyes. “Rayne is gone, the Enchanter is all but gone, and I don’t know Elixir and I can’t understand the lure of Elianas, but I love you still. I have loved you through pain and betrayal, through abandonment and war, and that will never change.” She put a finger to his lips when he made to speak. “Shh, let me say this. I know you love me, and that is all that counts, Torrullin. Love survived. It wasn’t enough, but it survived, and it is true blessing.”

  “I do love you.”

  “I know, and now you must accept it is my time. Death is not an ending, and I take your love with me.”

  He stared at her, the power of speech removed.

  “Go now, please, and leave me.”

  “Good god, never.”

  “What are you to do? Wait until I die? I would rather you leave before that. Declan has been a friend for a long, long time, Torrullin. I do not mind sitting with his body.”

  He gritted out, “I am not leaving you.”

  She touched his face again. “You still think there is hope.”

  “There is always hope.”

  “Ah, now there’s the Torrullin inside, the one who, despite all he is, trusts to the spark of goodness.” She ran a hand over his good arm and smiled. “It is kind of fitting that you sit here before me like this - half-naked, injured, dirty, powerless. This is the real man. The veneer is stripped away, kind of like Rayne now.”

  “Rayne is gone.”

  “No, he’s not. He is right here.”

  He stared at her. “Honesty, Saska?”

  She blinked. “Of course.”

  “Then know I say this because I love you. Rayne fell in love with you, hugely, largely, majorly in love, but even he knew it would not last. Do you remember that time we walked with Vannis through the market at Linmoor, when we left renewed Tor behind?”

  “Yes. You had withdrawn from me.”

  “Because I was at the beginning of understanding what I am. But that is not what I mean. Something happened there neither you nor Vannis noticed. I saw a face in the crowd, a young man with dark, straight hair, and I thought I knew him, and knew I thought about him in dreams.

  “It was not Elianas, know that, not that day, and Rayne had not a clue what it meant and neither did the angry man who found himself irreversibly immortal, the one who saw other faces in other crowds and wondered what it meant. Rayne halted in the noise to stare at that young man with shortened breath and then slowly looked at the beautiful woman with blue hair.

  “He did not know consciously, but subconsciously mixed-up Rayne somehow stumbled upon a truth that haunted his buried self for many ages. I pushed it away, Saska, and went where obsession took us. I loved you then and I love you now, but Elianas was first. In duping you and in duping myself, I betrayed love, and I cannot betray it further by leaving you here while you live and while there is hope. Please understand.”

  She glanced at Elianas. Elianas, who missed not one word. Elianas, who stared at Torrullin as if seeing him for the first time. She did understand. If Torrullin left now, he would belittle whatever chance there was to be normal with Elianas.

  She sighed. “I understand.”

  Torrullin enfolded her in his good arm and held her close. Whispering in her ear, he said, “What is really scary is I believe you do understand and he does not.”

  “Talk to him.”

  “The time for that passed with Nemisin. He will get it, I hope, eventually.”

  “You tied yourself in knots a long time ago, didn’t you?”

  He held her tighter. “And then tied you in knots with me.”

  “I didn’t mind.”

  Torrullin laughed and buried his face in her neck. “That’s why I always came back.”

  Saska leaned against him and felt him wince. She withdrew and smiled. “Trust men to do half jobs. Sit still now, so I can do your arm properly.” She took her undershirt off and tore it into decent strips and then undid Elianas’ handiwork. She wrapped the blade carefully and tut-tutted. “Uh-uh, give me the scabbard.”

  When she had it she forced it into a bend and then laid his arm carefully within that strut and bound him firmly. Thereafter she strapped his bent arm across his chest where he would not jostle it and it would not impede general movement.

  “Hell, that feels better.”

  “Good, but you need to get out of here to fix it.”

  “I am aware.”

  She laid her lips to his. “Contrary, beautiful man. I regret nothing.”

  “How can you say that? I hurt you.”

  “But I was alive, Torrullin, truly alive, and achieved so much to be proud of. How do I regret that?”

  He smiled.

  She shuffled over to Elia
nas, taking Torrullin’s freed sword with her. “Come, let me do this right.”

  Elianas did not move or speak while she undid the earlier handiwork to lay a blade on either side of the break and rewrap the whole far better than he had managed.

  “Thank you,” he said when she was done.

  She leaned closer. “He loves you.”

  “I know.”

  “No, I mean he loves you, not power, competition, brinkmanship, the line, the lure, temptation or an ancient companion. You, the Elianas that is pure soul. The part of you that is original, unique and real.”

  He stared at her. “That person does not exist.”

  She smiled sadly. “Find him before you lose him, Elianas.”

  “And then, Saska?”

  “Then you will understand you need not submit or dominate, for it has nothing to do with sex or power.”

  “You can know … how?”

  “I know what obsession is, my friend, and I now know what reality is, too. There is a huge gap between the two.”

  “Are you suggesting he is so noble he does not really play the game?”

  “No, he plays, he knows obsession also, he knows how intense it is, but he has a goal beyond it. I hope you may find it, too.”

  “How can you say that, you who loves him?”

  She cupped his face. “If only men would feel rather than think, and think before you act.” She stroked his cheek. “You are astonishingly beautiful, Elianas, more the idea of perfection than what can be real. You are perfect. Worlds should bow to you. I bet how you look influenced who you became.”

  He stared at her, wordless.

  “You became tough, strong, individual, and sought power to show them beauty wasn’t weakness also. And lost yourself.” She kissed his forehead. “Find him again and you will find peace also.”

  She moved away then, halted at Declan’s body and sat there with her hand on his cold chest. She closed her eyes and her lips moved soundlessly.