by C S Vass
Despite the oddness of her situation, she felt at ease with herself. Not peaceful. She knew there was so much that was still not right. But rather she felt drugged, like when Shifter used his godling magic to ease her into a sense of comfort. Somehow, the thought worried her. She didn’t want to be drugged. She wanted to know what was next.
Things seemed to be going quickly in the opposite direction. Rather than getting closer to any source of light, or any solid objects, Fiona seemed to be getting farther and farther away from them. The already extreme darkness was growing ever more black. A sense of desperation was growing inside of her and before long she couldn’t even see the outline of her own arms anymore.
The terror fell upon her like an avalanche.
There was a massive grey body, a leviathan floating through the void. Something from within the beast illuminated its body, made it stand out in the surrounding darkness. It seemed to have skin rather than scales, grey rolling slabs that churned in roiling waves of fat. It was enormous. Bigger than Fiona by a hundred times. A thousand. Infinitely.
The creature floated by her, some primordial ancient destroyer that she was never supposed to see, never supposed to know. Power radiated from it. Its very presence electrified the water, penetrated her skin, and made her think of things she was never supposed to ponder.
Floating naked in the water she was helpless. This was a realm of monsters and she had no place here. The creature seemed not to notice. It moved slowly, and even precisely despite its massive form. It was so near she could reach out and touch it, but she couldn’t move away. She was frozen stiff with terror. Her blood had turned to ice and her skin was petrified. She was surprised she didn’t sink, for she thought she had been turned to stone.
The leviathan continued to move, but its size was so great that now she couldn’t see the end of it in either direction. A humming filled her ears, though she could not have said where it was coming from. It was soft at first, but grew louder. As the sound increased she felt a strange sense of safety, and a tingling warmth running through her body.
To Fiona’s astonishment she realized that she could see her hands again, and that they were glowing. Her whole body was glowing with ethereal red light. She knew this was odd, but she couldn’t tell why. She couldn’t remember who she was, or why she was there. She could move again, and for that she was grateful, though uncertain what to do. Still, the massive creature moved endlessly on.
Grab the monster.
She didn’t hear the words so much as feel them. How bizarre. She realized what she had to do. The prospect terrified her more than she could have imagined, but she knew it was the only way. It was as if there was some small voice deep inside her, whispering to her so low she couldn’t here the words but subconsciously she could receive the message. All she wanted to do was swim away, but there was something mesmerizing about this massive being and she could no less swim away than she could leap upwards and land on the moon.
Touch it.
The voice was so small, more of an echo than a voice. A shadow of an echo even. But the thought was decisively there. Perhaps because they were the only words that were in her head. She seemed to have lost any ability to form language in her mind. She existed solely on feelings, a creature of emotion, not logic.
She moved her hands cautiously towards the monster. Its knotted grey flesh was covered in splotches. She felt as if whole worlds existed inside that body. Whole universes. There was nothing else to be done. Steadily, she reached out and placed her hands on the creature.
* * *
When Fiona woke up she remembered nothing. It drifted back to her slowly, the meeting, the Beast. All of it up until he crushed her with his sword. Somewhere towards the end of the battle it became fuzzy again, and simply faded away as if she had fallen asleep in the middle of the fight.
As she opened her eyes she was surrounded by anxious stares and open mouths. She realized that she was on the cold floor of her house. She sat up. Her tongue felt thick and fuzzy.
“Are you alright?” Martin asked. He spoke slowly, as if he were worried that if talked too quickly at her he might knock her out again.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, feeling embarrassed. How was she going to explain what just happened?
“You were convulsing,” Sasha said. “You were thrashing around on the ground, and your eyes were rolling.”
“I…just got a bit lightheaded,” she said lamely. “Really, I’m fine. I promise.”
The room was quiet, and nobody seemed quite sure where to put their eyes.
Donyo chuckled, but it came out flat and awkward. “Would have thought if someone were to pass out it would have been me.” His voice was weak and his face was full of concern.
“Let’s just drop it,” Fiona said. She stood up, and tried to put on a strong face.
“If one thing is clear,” Shifter said, as if to save them from the moment, “It’s that we all have a common interest two things. Removing the outside forces that are trying to meddle with our city, and finding Rodrick. I hope it’s clear that we should be helping each other. Any differences or arguments that have happened between us are irrelevant.
“There’s little else we can hope to accomplish tonight. Rodrick is after something, and whatever it is you can bet it won’t bode well for any of us if he get it. You should all get some rest, and then we can try to sort our way through this mess.”
They all nodded in agreement. When the meeting started the room had been so tense and angry, but now everyone just seemed weary. Fiona had the feeling that they weren’t telling her something, and she didn’t appreciate being left out.
“Sasha,” she said. “You should stay here with me tonight.”
“No.” Shifter spoke before Sasha had a chance to answer. “That would not be wise. Sasha, I’ve arranged a safe-house for you to stay in. None of you need to know where it is, so it’s better if you don’t.”
“How are we supposed to work together if you don’t trust us?” Fiona asked angrily.
“How indeed?” Shifter asked airily. “It would seem we have more than one obstacle to overcome. In any case, the arrangements have already been made so it’s best not to worry. And don’t give me that look, Fiona. There’s an escort waiting to take Sasha there.”
Sasha took Fiona’s hands, and the look she gave her caused Fiona’s heart to ache. So much was still unresolved between the two of them, but Fiona had not had proper time. She hadn’t expected Sasha at all, let alone in the condition she was in. “Thank you, Fiona. I’m glad to have seen you again. I look forward to putting this all behind us so we can…move on.”
Fiona smiled sadly. They embraced, and Sasha left.
“I guess it’s you and me,” Fiona said to Donyo.
The Master Architect had a slightly guilty look. “Well, actually…”
“Donyo will be staying with Martin,” Shifter said flatly. “If anyone is looking for him he will be harder to find in the house of the Captain of the Guard.”
“I see.” Fiona press her mouth into a tight line. She could not have said why, but she suddenly felt very irritated, as if everyone was abandoning her.
“Until next time then,” Martin said stiffly to her. Donyo gave her a sympathetic look, and followed him out into the early dawn.
When the room was empty but for the two of them Shifter turned to her. “Do you understand what forces you deal with?” the secret-keeper asked bluntly.
“We’ve had this conversation,” Fiona said stubbornly. “Just let me worry about it.”
“The manjeko is no toy.”
“I’m no child to treat it as a play thing.”
Shifter walked up to her, and to Fiona’s surprise put a hand on her stomach. “It’s growing. The power is swimming within you. The process is likely too far along to stop now even if we wanted to stop it. Fiona, there will be consequences. I’m sure you already have some experience with the side-effects.”
“I do,” she said. “So I
don’t need you to let me know about them. I’m capable of handling this, Shifter. I needed to do it, so I did.”
“It’s not my place to stop you. But even if the manjeko doesn’t end up killing you, which in all likelihood it will, what do you think will happen when word gets out that somebody has gained this ability? Do you have any idea how many people died as a result of the contest of power over the Moonwood. You won’t be able to hide this, and they will come for you Fiona. I just hope you’re ready when they do.”
“You’ve heard what I have to say, Shifter. I expect we will see each other soon.”
“We will.” The godling turned and left her alone in the house. Shifter did so not a moment too soon, because as soon as the door closed Fiona ran to a chamberpot, and emptied to contents of her stomach. It had been a long night.
Chapter Twelve
That morning Fiona slept. She dreamt of a strange forest where the trees were razor-thin and glowed with blue light and the moon was red as blood. The forest itself was shrouded in darkness, but she could feel beasts moving about, stalking and hunting. It was no nightmare though. She felt at home, peaceful even. Fiona was one of the beasts.
She awoke to a tingling sensation all over her body. It was pleasant, euphoric even. She felt energized, and shot out of bed, stretching her body indulgently. It was a good day to be alive. She drank some water, and ate dark bread with butter and an apple. She hadn’t felt this good in…maybe ever. She was so in-tune with her body that she could practically feel the blood pumping through her veins, bringing life to every crevice within her.
Even her house seemed better than usual. Her bedchamber, a normally dingy room with just the smallest vertical hole in the wall to serve as a window actually felt cheerful. And her body…it felt so good. Something was opening up inside of her. Something that was stretching her out, expanding her presence.
Fiona erupted from her body.
It was incredible. She was like a ghost floating above a grey city with an open red sky above her. She drifted along and everywhere people stood frozen like statues. Beggars with their hands out, housewives caught in the middle of bargaining at the fish-markets, carriages with wheels frozen mid-roll.
So this is the manjeko, Fiona thought with wonder. It was incredible. She didn’t know how she knew how to use it, but it came to her naturally. She simply willed herself to go in a direction, and her field of vision took her there. She had no body, no form. It was as though she was looking through a crystal ball.
As she became more used to controlling the magic a thought grew within her. It was troubling, like being reminded of work one has to do when lost in some leisure. But she didn’t acquire the manjeko for pleasure. She did it to find Rodrick.
Her thoughts shifted towards her brother, and strangely enough she could sense him. She felt that he was in the city, but it was as if she could smell the scent of him without being able to tell which direction it had come from. He was there, but there was no clear path to find him.
But the manjeko was supposed to be better than that, wasn’t it? The old Laquathi priest believed that it would be able to take her to Rodrick without a problem. Deciding to try an experiment she changed her thoughts from Rodrick to Donyo. Again, without fully understanding the sensation she was experiencing, she felt Donyo in the city. Only this time, it was much more precise.
Melting through the air Fiona peered into Martin’s house, and surely enough Donyo was there laughing loudly at something with the Caption of the Guard, his hands frozen mid-slap on his large round belly with a half-empty mug of beer on the table in front of him.
Martin looked happy too. He wasn’t laughing, but there was a wide smile on his face and his hands were gestured in the air. Clearly he had just told some kind of joke. Fiona felt a twang of jealousy at the sight. It felt like such a long time since people had openly laughed and joked with her. Then the jealousy was replaced by guilt. Was it right to just peer into people’s lives without a just reason to? What if they had been doing something private?
She assured herself that it was alright. It was only just this once, to see if the manjeko really could lock in on people so that she could find them. But that opened a whole new puzzling dilemma for Fiona. If she could find Donyo so instantly, why couldn’t she find Rodrick?
She decided to keep looking. After all, she had all the time in the world didn’t she? Moving back outside Haygarden appeared so simple in its frozen state. Snowflakes were suspended in the air on their way down to blanket the earth, the red sky loomed above. Then there was the simple joy of being there without the Beast and all of the terrors that he brought. Perhaps her ordeals had been worth it.
She continued on like a bloodhound in the woods tracking a fox. He had to be somewhere, after all. His scent—no, his essence—was heavy in the air. She could feel it so clearly. But it was obscure. Perhaps he had learned some way to hide it?
She focused even closer. As the magic became fine-tuned through her efforts she noticed that the red sky deepened in color, and the world became even more grey. It was as if she were trying to move a very heavy boulder, and was starting to feel it budge. She needed to find him.
And suddenly something broke through to her. It wasn’t just an ordinary feeling of Rodrick, it was something more solid. A thought. A thought that screamed. A thought that bordered on the obsessive. It was coming from him. She could feel it.
Concentrating with all of her effort Fiona tried to zero in on what she was feeling. There were words behind it, but it was like someone shouting from far away. She couldn’t make them out. She couldn’t locate the source. But the thought was intermingled in the essence of her brother that she felt as she floated through Haygarden. It was being repeated over and over again. But how? Rodrick would be frozen like everyone else, wouldn’t he?
Fiona continued to focus. She was getting closer. The thought was definitely coming from Rodrick, though she still couldn’t tell which way that she should go. That’s when she heard it.
Tome Vaenti
She was sure of it. Those were the words, and they came from Rodrick. But what did it mean? As she continued to use all her efforts guided by the magic of the manjeko she heard it again and again. Tome Vaenti. Tome Vaenti. Tome Vaenti.
It wasn’t just a thought. It was a complete obsession. The thought had consumed him. Perhaps that’s why it was powerful enough to break through to her.
But she couldn’t stay and search much longer. In her desperation to find some sign of her brother Fiona had not noticed just how much of a toll using the manjeko had taken on her. She felt herself slipping, and she didn’t have the energy to keep from falling.
The sky gradually began to lose its redness as the world around her gained color again. Resigning herself to leaving, Fiona slipped away and back into her own body.
When she came returned to her house the exhaustion was crippling. She fell to the floor and was breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. She would have to be more careful in the future. How she felt using the manjeko was completely disproportionate to how tired she felt now that she was done. It might have been dangerous if she fought harder to stay. Her limbs were heavy and there was a strain on her chest.
But still, the success of what she had accomplished easily made up for that. Smiling, she realized that she has taken an enormous step towards mastering the manjeko and finding her brother. She even confirmed that he was in the city, and now had a new piece of information. Though she didn’t quite know what it meant.
Tome Vaenti. She had never heard those words before, and she didn’t have the slightest clue what the meant. But she could find out. Now that she had the manjeko, nothing could stop her. Rising to her feet she decided that it would be wise to spend the rest of the day in rest. It would do her no good to completely run herself down when she had just made such an important step. Looking forward to an afternoon of sleep, she walked into her living room to fetch a water jug, when she saw Brandon standing there in a black tunic, sm
iling malevolently.
* * *
“Hello Fiona,” Brandon said. “It’s been so long since I’ve heard from you. I thought I’d check in and see how you are.” His brown eyes glittered maliciously above his curved nose.
“How kind of you,” Fiona said. Internally she was afraid. She was far too exhausted to get into any kind of confrontation if things went south with Brandon now. Knowing the Forgotten if things did go badly then surely he would have plenty of help waiting just outside.
“So, my friends tell me that you’ve met with Donyo Brownwater, more than once even. How exciting. I’d be so happy to hear about what exactly it is that the master drunkard is working on.”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Fiona said, trying to stall for time. “Donyo keeps his secrets well-guarded.”
“Don’t we all. But unfortunately I’m hearing some disturbing rumors from my superiors. They seem to be under this bizarre impression that you’re not actually too motivated to share Donyo’s plans with us. They seem to think that you’re using us to put pressure on your brother without any intention of paying us for our hard work. Crazy, isn’t it?”
“You of all people should know that these things take time,” Fiona said. She took a step back, and then internally cursed herself for it. Now was not the time to look weak or scared.
“Me, of all people?” Brandon rubbed his hands together as if he were pondering something. “I can’t imagine what you mean, Fiona. All I ask is that you hold up your end of the bargain. We had a deal after all, didn’t we? Is it too much to ask that you remember us?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t call yourselves the Forgotten then.”
The words were out of her mouth before she realized she said them. Fiona’s eyes widened with shock. She was so tired that she just seemed to not be able to filter herself. She eyed Brandon curiously, wondering what exactly he would do. He didn’t strike her as the type to appreciate a jape.
