by DM Fike
“Try breathing through your nose.” James soothed as he hovered over her. “Let the tenseness in your muscles go.” He lightly stroked her arm.
She jerked away from him as best she could while shackled to the table.
James tilted his head to one side. “You must be upset.”
“U-upset?” The word seemed tiny, a toddler’s temper tantrum, compared to the horror that filled her.
James nodded. “Having been to Llenwald, you now understand your greater purpose, your fate, and it is not wholly yours to control.” He clasped his hands together. “I understand exactly how that feels. I, too, once felt adrift in a sea of loss.” A hint of sorrow crept into his normally even tone.
Avalon’s head pounded as she tried to comprehend James’s thought process. “Should I feel bad for you?” she asked incredulously.
James shook his head. “I am past such emotions. This is action for my people.” He went to a cupboard and took out a bowl, filling it with amber liquid from another jar on the shelf. “With your help, we can extract the Indulia. The Indulia will right the wrongs and perform miracles as Gaea always intended.” He brought the oil-filled bowl onto a surgical tray next to Avalon.
Avalon’s clenched fingers cut into her palms. “‘For purity?’” Avalon repeated the phrase Scawale had used at the fortress. “You want genocide.”
“Not genocide,” James said. “Not under my leadership. Just a fair separation. Enough power to keep the murderers away from the innocent.”
“And you’ll kill anyone who stands in your way.” Avalon snarled. “How noble.”
James shrugged. “I do not regret killing my enemies.”
“Was my mother your enemy?” Avalon spat.
James bowed his head. “I am truly sorry for all the pain I caused you, your mother, and all the other people whom we injected with the statue. I never foresaw Miasmis or the innocent deaths that would come from our experiments. But in war, a few innocents will die. Sometimes we must trade one life for many others.”
“There is no war. I’ve been to Llenwald, remember?”
James’s head snapped up. “You have not seen what I’ve seen.” His purpose renewed, James typed his password on the computer connected by wires to the dome on her head. A buzzing whirred in Avalon’s skull.
Avalon realized she would soon be put under the Entelegen. “Whatever you think you have to do, you don’t,” Avalon pleaded. “Please, James.”
James dipped one hand into the bowl, covering it with a greasy liquid. “I know you don’t believe me.” He lifted her sleeve to expose the green bruise. “But I swear, I will do everything in my power to save you from extraction.”
“You don’t have to do this!” Avalon cried as the buzzing crescendoed. “You don’t have to do what Bedwyr tells you.”
James placed his glowing, oil-soaked hand over the spot. Her arm surged with pain. As she struggled to stay conscious, his face creased with worry lines of compassion. He leaned so that his lips almost touched her ears.
“Dear Avalon,” he whispered. “I am Bedwyr.”
The world stood still.
James was Bedwyr.
How was that possible?
Then the lights went out.
In the darkness, a beacon of light surged inside the room. Avalon focused on it. The light revealed two oily hands rubbing together. Healer’s hands, like Digs’s.
“One hundred,” James’s voice floated into the darkness as he counted. “Ninety-nine. Ninety-eight…”
“James,” Avalon breathed. “Bedwyr…”
James’s glowing hands distorted from view as Avalon slipped under the Entelegen’s energy.
CHAPTER 44
AVALON OPENED HER eyes to Mt. Hornley. The grass tickled her bare legs as a wind swept through the valley, wildflowers swaying erratically.
A sharp pain slashed through her right arm. She hissed and lifted her shirt sleeve, finding the Miasmis bruise spreading from her shoulder to just above her collarbone.
“You should not be here,” a voice accused
Avalon yelped to find Ladybug, cloaked and standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with her. “Don’t scare me like that.”
“How did you get here?” Ladybug demanded. “I do not sense Kay or Nobody nearby.”
“Bedwyr,” Avalon spat out the name, “is experimenting on me again.”
Ladybug paled, trembling with fear.
The valley floor suddenly rumbled. That ominous pounding reverberated through the field. Avalon crouched low to the ground, both feet planted firmly in the grass to keep from falling over.
“You must go!” Ladybug insisted. The pounding intensified, and a bright light formed above their heads, making it hard to see.
“I don’t know how!” The bruise on Avalon’s arm throbbed as if someone were kicking it over and over again. She winced, pulling it to her chest as a flooding noise washed over her ears. She closed her eyes against the pain and the bright light. Angry pupil-less eyes stared back from behind her eyelids.
Subject #1.
Avalon gasped and opened her eyes. The light exploded as the pounding came to a crescendo. A ghostly figure emerged in the glaring aftermath, only a few yards away from Avalon, its phantom shape forming out of thin air.
Ladybug whimpered.
The figure materialized into solid form. A young woman with frizzy red hair wore a green tunic that stopped mid-thigh. Her skin glowed with a soft green light, semi-transparent. Pointed ears jutted out on either side of her head, marking her Aossi heritage.
But her face. Avalon stared in disbelief. The woman’s face was like looking in a mirror, down to the fierce green eyes and freckled cheeks.
“Braellia,” Ladybug whispered behind Avalon.
“The true Child of the Statue, unlike you.” Braellia’s angry gaze turned to Avalon. “And you brought reinforcements from another imposter hoping to siphon Indulia from Gaea.”
Avalon held her hands up to placate Braellia. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Do not speak to me!” Braellia flung a wrist toward Avalon, creating a fierce gale that knocked Avalon to the ground.
Ladybug surrounded herself with a counter-barrier of wind, keeping the attack at bay. “We don’t want to hurt you!”
“Be quiet!” Clouds converged overhead, thunder rumbling and bits of light flashing from inside. “I am the true Child of the Statue! Only I can control the Indulia!”
The lightning struck Avalon, seizing her whole body into one rigid ball of muscle. Sound evaporated, replaced with an eerie silence as she hit the ground. She could see Ladybug screaming for her, tears streaming down her face. As the outskirts of her vision faded, Avalon wondered if she might be dying.
Then she felt him. Kay.
Somehow, she knew with certainty that he was nearby. Her mind reached toward him. She thought she could feel his hand slip into hers.
The lightning inside her reacted. It sizzled along her nervous system, not an inch spared. She gathered it all up and forced it into her gut, where she could collect it. Her hands flung out, redirecting the energy back at the original source.
Lightning sparked and struck Braellia in the chest. Pure rage marred her face as she slammed into the grass.
“Avalon!” Kay’s voice echoed through the fields. Mt. Hornley flickered like a hologram for an instant, as if attempting to fade away.
Ladybug bent over Avalon, her voice a cry of hope and longing. “Nobody.”
Avalon felt the void too. “They’re both here.”
Ladybug helped Avalon stand. She was about to thank her when she saw a fireball hurtling toward them.
Avalon didn’t have time to duck. Instead, she grabbed Ladybug’s forearms and willed their bodies out of the way. Her stomach lurched. They shifted through a weird fog and reappeared many feet from where they once stood, just as the fireball struck there, singeing the grass.
Braellia bellowed in rage. “Dark magic trickery! It is unholy!”
“I can’t leave you here.”
Ladybug grabbed Avalon, barely dodging a shower of ice shards as they teleported to a safer spot. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. You must trust me. She is unwell. The world would suffer if she were released.”
“Avalon!” Kay’s voice seemed stronger now. The entire landscape flickered in and out existence for a moment.
“Tell Nobody it’s not his fault.” Ladybug gave Avalon one last crooked grin, then rubbed her hands together, black goo hissing on the ground where it dripped and dribbled. With a rallying cry, she flung herself toward Braellia.
Avalon attempted to follow but found she could not move. She looked down at her body, surprised that she could see straight through herself to the wildflowers below. As she watched, Mt. Hornley and the two clashing Aossi faded away from view.
CHAPTER 45
AVALON FELT AS if someone had stuffed her with lead. She blinked, but the world remained out of focus. She tried to lift her arms, then her legs, but couldn’t do either.
“Avalon!”
Kay’s faraway voice focused her attention. She squinted in his direction, through the blur of colors. Shapes formed into the fairy fighting across the room, sword drawn, sweat covering his brow. His frantic gaze locked with hers for only a second. Then he jumped backwards to avoid getting hit by a fireball.
Avalon had returned to the lab, the lights fully on. She was still strapped to the table. She jerked her limbs but couldn’t get past the restraints. Across the room, a battle between suits and sparks of magic was well underway.
“Are you awake?” a surprised voice asked beside her.
A bright light seared her pupils, shining intently in one eye, then the other. When it moved away, the outline of a familiar face appeared. James.
No, Bedwyr.
Anger exploded in her chest. She wanted nothing more than to blast him out of existence. She frantically combed inside herself for her lightning magic, feeling it sizzle deep within her core, but she couldn’t hold onto it. It kept slipping away.
James rubbed her forehead affectionately, checking a screen at her side. “Your magic is focused inside your dreams while under the Entelegen. You cannot use it here. Please relax.”
Avalon did no such thing, struggling against her restraints. She saw Kay again, his wings spread full within the cramped confines of the room. He danced around the attacks Desert Rose flung at him, barely keeping one step ahead of her ice shards and fireballs. Not far away, Nobody engaged in his own dance against Boxer and his team. He teleported in and out of range of beefy hands, narrowly escaping each time. He would aim a goo splatter at them occasionally, but the men attacked as a coordinated unit, easily dodging each blast and keeping Nobody on the defensive. Vimp held onto Nobody’s neck for dear life, sending up a bubble shield with his paws to block the occasional attack.
James concentrated on the computer as he entered parameters into the program running the Entelegen. Yellow triangles popped up onscreen, warning him of dangerous levels of exposure with the new settings.
James overrode them without hesitation. “Once I extract the Child of the Statue, your life can return to normal.”
The image of a rage-filled Braellia passed through Avalon’s mind. “Please don’t bring her out here. She’s crazy.”
James set his lips in a thin line of concentration. “Don’t let your father’s work go to waste.”
Rage flashed over Avalon at the mention of her father. The Entelegen revved above her, lights pulsating, a whirring lawn mower sound filling her ears. A wave of nausea overcame her, and she swallowed a mouthful of bile.
Kay saw her struggling with pain. “Avalon!” he shouted. Distracted, he did not see the ice Desert Rose created under his feet on the linoleum. He slid hard onto his back, legs in the air, sword falling harmlessly to his side. In that split second, Desert Rose rushed forward, gun pointed at his heart as he lay spread eagled on the floor.
“Don’t even twitch.” She swallowed a gulp of air. “Or I’ll shoot.”
Kay glared upwards, a pleading expression on his face. Desert Rose flinched but did not look away.
“Kay,” Avalon whispered. The looming outline of Mt. Hornley streaked before her eyes, but she fought it back, concentrating on the fairy. She forced the dream to the back of her consciousness.
James studied Avalon with a furrowed brow. “The fairy’s keeping her grounded here. Kill him.”
Desert Rose faltered, her normal composure completely gone. The gun in her hand shook.
“No,” Avalon heaved. She tried to summon her lightning magic or bring forth a gale of wind. She could not feel anything, nothing but an all-consuming dread as Desert Rose nudged the gun closer to Kay’s face.
“Marcus,” the mercenary’s voice broke.
Kay remained motionless, like the statue she had once created. “You don’t have to do this,” he said.
“Kill him!” James repeated. He growled when Desert Rose hesitated again, shoving his hand deep into one of his coat pockets.
“I am so sorry,” Desert Rose whispered down to Kay. “For everything.”
She shifted the gun’s barrel toward James.
James shot her in the chest before she could pull the trigger.
Horrible dark blood stained the folds of Desert Rose’s white shirt. Her gun clattered to the floor as her mouth formed a surprised “O,” eyes wide with shock.
“I knew you would turn eventually,” James said flatly. “I’ve been waiting for it.”
He pulled the trigger again.
Kay let out a primal scream as he flung himself forward.
Time slowed to a crawl. Kay transformed, his body blurry as if moving too fast, although he gained only inches. Nothing else moved—not Boxer, the men in suits, nor Nobody—who had all turned when the shots were fired. Not Desert Rose, staring in horror at the bullet wound. Not James, smoke frozen in place and gun still pointed at Desert Rose. Only the second bullet crawled lazily in a straight line, already halfway across the room traveling toward Desert Rose’s head.
Kay pushed onward, swimming through the air. He reached the bullet and pushed it with great force to one side, as if moving a boulder. He managed to reposition its trajectory so that it would pass harmlessly by Desert Rose’s head. He then forced his hand toward James, his face contorting into rage, and a shimmer of energy formed in front of him, aimed at the doctor.
Then time resumed.
The second gunshot rang out. The bullet whizzed by Desert Rose, embedding into the wall behind her instead. She crumpled into a heap on the ground.
The wind gust Kay had created knocked James backward. He jerked to the floor, the gun skittering underneath a gap in the cabinets along the wall.
Kay appeared normal once more, although ashen white. He dragged himself over to Desert Rose. Once at her side, he pulled his tunic over his head and crumpled it into a ball. He rolled Desert Rose over gently onto her back and pressed the rumpled cloth over the bullet wound, whispering soothing words at her side.
Nobody teleported next to them, a panting Vimp teetering precariously on one arm. “You guys done with your lover’s spat?” he joked. Then he saw the extent of Desert Rose’s injuries. “Great Omni!”
The men in suits came storming after them, backing them all in a tight corner of the room, far away from Avalon. Nobody rushed forward, throwing out his hands and creating a dark bubble around the four of them. Vimp jumped on his shoulder to add support, his hands also glowing. The suits hit the barrier full force and bounced off, rubbing their slammed foreheads.
Boxer growled. “I am sick of this wretched dark magic!” He beat away at the bubble with his meaty fists. The see-through material bent and flexed like plastic but never broke. The men in suits mimicked their leader’s example, stretching and pushing the bubble around. Nobody and Vimp grunted and str
ained, obviously under a great deal of pressure, but kept their enemies at bay.
“This is a band-aid for a bullet wound!” he yelled at Kay. “Sorry! Pun not intended!”
Her friends wouldn’t last long. Avalon struggled against her restraints, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not harness the lightning magic inside her.
James suddenly reappeared, hovering above her. His hair had rumpled from the fall.
“Let me go!” Her wrists ached raw from straining against the metal bindings.
“You told me you wanted your life to have purpose.” James snatched a vial on a metal tray. Her blood ran cold as he showed her the emerald green liquid within, the Miasmis treatment he had injected her with for many years.
Fragments of the Jaded Sprite Statue.
“Your life always had purpose. Because of you, an Aossi way of life will be restored.”
Avalon struggled as James plunged the needle into the vial, filling it up to easily triple the dosage she had ever received. He rubbed alcohol over the enormous bruise now completely covering her right arm and upper torso.
“I am so close to the Indulia,” he whispered to himself, a crazed glint in his eyes.
Avalon paused. Indulia, the culmination of all elemental magic. She had been reflexively going after strongest magic, lightning, which flowed from Gaea herself. The Child also had Indulia. But light and dark magic originated within one’s own body. Braellia had called dark magic ‘unholy.’
Braellia feared dark magic.
A void filled inside Avalon. She tapped into it, drawing it throughout her tired, weak frame. She concentrated it on the wrist closest to James. With the needle inches away from her skin, she howled and released it with a jerk of her arm.
Her wrist phased through the metal cuff. She ducked out of the needle’s path. James jumped back in surprise. Avalon used that split second to move the rest of her restrained limbs through their shackles. She slid down the metal slab onto the floor.
James gaped as she struggled to her feet. “Dark magic?”
Avalon tried to run away from him, toward her friends, but James caught her, one arm wrapping around her throat in a choke hold. The syringe hovered inches away as James held her back against him. His hands glowed with his healing light, but instead of making her feel better, she felt feverish and light-headed. He got a better hold of her as she fought an overwhelming faintness.
