by John Hook
“I appreciate that you avoided saying ‘dumb enough.’”
“I thought of it.”
“Me too.” I slapped Izzy on the back and walked through the doorway. Blaise shook his head and laughed and all followed me in.
The chamber we entered seemed almost industrial. It was actually a very large cavern hollowed out of the side of the mountain. The only light came from a large irregular opening in the rock at the far end that looked over sky and sea. A flow of water, maybe from an underground spring somewhere, entered the chamber from high up. It probably once flowed down the wall and out where the gap in the far wall was. However, it had been redirected by an overhead aqueduct made of wood. It carried the water across the chamber and then formed a trough that carried the water down to exit at the bottom far corner of the chamber.
Towering in front of us was an elaborate scaffolding assembled by meticulously lacing together wooden poles made of very hard wood. They were quite thick and were neither round nor rectangular, but irregular, suggesting they were used as-is and not specially tooled. Massive ropes and a few metal chains rigged the scaffolding structure to both rocks on the ground and secure holds on the walls and ceiling. Despite the crude materials and design, I was pretty sure this was an impressive piece of engineering. A quick glance at Izzy’s face taking it all in confirmed that for me.
It was hard to see what was in the middle of the chamber suspended from the scaffolding. First, the light was odd. Second, the trough bearing the hot alloy directed the flow so that it hit the large, dark shape near the top and cascaded down. As it did, it lit up different features of the dark object. There seemed to be metallic strips arranged in patterns and metal plates in others, but it was hard to get any kind of gestalt from the peek-a-boo lighting as the hot metal cascaded down. Some of it would just bounce off and land on the floor outside a low stone wall that curved around, suggesting that the shape might descend below the floor.
At the same time, where the aqueduct carrying water passed high over the object in the scaffolding, holes had been cut into the wooden trough and some of the water fell through onto the molten metal. Steam rose everywhere, creating a fog-like effect in the chamber which, with all the other strange lighting, made everything seem ghostly and, well, hellish.
We couldn’t get close enough to the wall to get a close look and see down into the pit because of the fragments of hot alloy that fell on the rock floor. It wasn’t a lot and they were quickly cooled by all the water splashing over everything, but if even one landed on you, it would be a very painful experience. Instead we climbed up the scaffolding. It was a little further back, but we climbed above the vapor mists floating along the floor. This gave us a pretty clear view.
At first it was hard to tell exactly what we were looking at. Suspended in the middle of the scaffolding was a large, very intricate vertical structure that appeared to be made of metal, but it was hard to be sure. It was as if someone had created a shape by weaving together strips of metal banding that they then curled around in elaborate patterns all the way down. It was hard to determine if all the weaving of these bands was decorative or needed to maintain structural integrity for such a large object, but it was fascinating to look at in either case. It really looked like a physically constructed wireframe like you would see in a computer animation project, a shape waiting for textures to be applied.
As the alloy hit the object, one of two things happened. If it hit a surface where alloy had previously cooled, forming a plating over the “wireframe”, the hot substance would slide down. When it hit an open part of the frame, it would cling more and start filling in the shape. That would keep it stationary enough for water to hit it and begin the cooling process and a new section of solid metal began.
This wasn’t a neat process that filled in the frame starting at the top and making its way to the bottom. It was a hodgepodge of metal and gaps being filled in or left open almost randomly. They had no process for specifically guiding the falling and cooling of the alloy. They were leaving luck and gravity to do the slow work, almost like they were building a metallic stalactite. Thus even the top of the object wasn’t completed, showing spiraling concentric bands that almost had an art nouveau feel, waiting to be filled in.
The framework was quite large. I estimated it at maybe six stories including what was below us. It descended down into a cylindrical, stone-lined chamber that appeared to be four stories deep and looked more like a missile silo than anything else. Hot alloy that didn’t get captured by the metal ribbons splatted down to the bottom like sparks, followed by the constant drip shower of water that splattered through until it hit bottom. At the bottom was a drain for water that we could see occasionally in the flashing light of the hot alloy.
My eyes traveled down the shape and then back up, trying to get a sense of what it was. It had a narrow vertical shaft pressed thin at the edges. It rose up to a circular shape that had concentric circles built into the ribboning. I was thinking it might be a sun symbol. Then rounded, much thinner projections came out from the round portion at the top. The one that projected straight up was thicker and more rounded than the two vertical projections that were arranged on the right and the left. They were flatter, almost like wings.
The more I looked at it, the more I started thinking it was a cross. This startled me. Despite the fact that we all referred to this place as Hell, there were no indications that this place had any ties to Christian mythos. To have such a powerful symbol appear on such a grand scale in this place was somehow bothersome, even though I had no idea what it would even mean.
None of us had said anything, but now Kyo was the first to speak and she cleared up everything for me.
“It’s a sword,” she said. There was no doubt in her voice and as soon as she said it, I saw it too. A frame for making a giant metal sword, sheathed in the stone well.
“Yes, a sword. A sword to make the world weep.”
The voice came from the ceiling. I looked up, startled. At first all I saw were eyes. They were alien eyes, like polished gold with a red center. Then she started moving, crawling at first, using the stalactites, then spread her wings and landed on the scaffolding just slightly above me.
She was the figure I had seen only briefly back at the Keep with Saripha. The Black Angel. She was both beautiful and alien. Her skin was a rich blue-black with a powdered texture that kept it from being glossy and gave the surface a soft, almost violet blush. Her hair was black, but was an exotic mixture of hair and feathers that hung like ringlets around her shoulders. Her body was mostly humanoid, thin but muscular, her movements precise and graceful. She was wrapped in a gossamer fabric almost like a sari, but much tighter and higher up on the legs. Her wings, like the other angel’s, were feathered, but they were more articulated and had small clawed hands that resembled bird feet at the tips. She used these wings to help her balance and grip on the scaffolding instead of her human arms.
I looked at Saripha.
“Saripha? Is that...?”
“You had best ask her yourself.”
I looked back up into the face of the Black Angel, into her eyes, and I knew the answer without any doubt.
“Rox.”
For a moment, I thought I saw a look of such compassion it caused my heart to feel like it was expanding.
“Once I had that name.”
“This must be what Gerod saw in you when you first connected with him. Rox, I’m sure Saripha can find a way...”
“Stop. You can’t rescue me. I don’t need it. I am, for the first time in a very long time, who I really am.”
“And who is that?”
“I am Rox. It is as good a name as any. Come.”
She held out her hand. I took it. As alien as she was, I felt the rush of energy I always felt when I touched her. I noticed that I turned fully blue in response to her touch.
We climbed the scaffolding, she using her wings mostly. At the top was a horizontal shelf with a carpet of grass rope wove
n to form a surface. It allowed one to walk out to the handle of the giant sword and was high enough that the hot alloy didn’t even splatter it. Rather than crawl up onto the shelf like I had to do, Rox pushed off the scaffolding and rose up with her wings and then landed gracefully on her feet, fanning her wings for a moment. I climbed up and stood next to her. I realized Saripha had followed and was climbing onto the shelf as well. However, she stayed back and said nothing.
I looked at Rox. As different as she looked, I sensed what I had always sensed with her, a deep and unyielding connection.
“Rox, if this is now you, how you are to be, that’s fine. At last I’ve found you and you are no longer suffering and we can be together.”
She put a hand over my mouth.
“Stop.” It was whispered and, yet, its intensity was unmistakable. “Things are different now. Yes, I still feel love for you, but there is no love in this world, there is only pain. And it will be that way as long as the Idiri are here.”
“Were you one of them?”
“Come.”
She stepped over next to the sword handle. It was made of very tightly wound grasses and leather strips that had then been rosined over by some substance to make it rock hard. I could look directly down and see the entire length of the sword with the hot alloy hitting it, filling in more and more of the sword, but very slowly.
“The alloy is a blend of pain and metal, an unholy metal formed by sinister alchemy and with only one purpose.”
I looked at Rox (Rox Angel, I found myself thinking). There was a golden teardrop at the edge of one eye.
“What purpose?” I asked.
“To shatter and remake the world.”
“Remake the world?”
“The Idiri lost their world. Their world was a flaw in the fabric of the multiverse. They existed without any life force in a world hostile to life.”
“That sounds like an oxymoron. How can you have life without life?”
“I can’t give you answers about that. I have no idea. All I know is that the flaw that created their world couldn’t be sustained and their world was shattered. Instead of perishing in the multiverse of the living, they came to covet life force. However, they want to return to the conditions they need to flourish. Until then, they steal bodies and planets to harvest what they need.”
“The angels are stolen bodies.”
“You’ve sensed their true forms.”
“And they are harvesting pain.”
“A type of alchemy transmutes it into an element. Pain and metal.”
“And the sword?”
“Shatters the world and reforms it to their liking.”
“And I assume that will truly be Hell.”
“You cannot begin to imagine.”
“Then we need to destroy the sword.”
“No!” It was said with such quickness and power I stepped back as if slapped.
“Rox?”
Saripha spoke for the first time. Her voice was even, measured, quiet, and yet it had authority.
“Rox, it doesn’t have to be this way. Let us work together.”
Rox turned and looked at Saripha. Her expression softened.
“Saripha, I am grateful to you beyond all measure. Without your help, I would not have survived my reemergence. But there is no choice. You will never stop the Idiri. You can elude them, but you cannot stop them. They must be stopped. This is the only way.”
“This?” I looked back and forth between Rox and Saripha.
“Rox, do you trust me?”
“Yes, Saripha, but it makes no difference. This is my purpose.”
“And if you are wrong?”
“The risk if they succeed is greater. If I am wrong, it won’t matter.”
“Then I failed in one respect,” Saripha said with a bit of sorrow. “It always matters. Everything matters.”
“Okay, back up a minute. What are we talking about?”
Rox fanned out her wings and rose up into the air away from the scaffolding and then she grew until she was a giant, large enough to maybe grasp the sword and wield it.
I must have looked startled. She smiled, but there was mostly sadness in her face.
“You can do this too. Our glamours will respond to how we think of ourselves. It is dynamic, not static, if you let yourself be open.”
I just went with it. I leapt off the scaffold. I heard Izzy shout in concern, but in the next moment I too was a goliath standing next to her. I hadn’t taken her word for it entirely. I had seen it with Janovic.
“You are going to use the sword, aren’t you? To do what?”
“The Idiri want to shatter the world and remake it in a way that supports a life energy but no life. That’s all life is to them, an energy source.”
“Okay, I got it. We won’t be happy if they get to use the sword. So what’s the alternative?”
“There is only one way to destroy entities that don’t have life.”
“Wait a minute, you don’t mean...”
I tripped on the thoughts racing through my head. I knew what she was going to do faster than I could put words to it.
“It is the only way.”
“You are going to wield the sword...”
It was just a gesture while talking, but my hand reached for the hilt of the sword. Suddenly blue bolts of energy came off my hand before I could grip it and white bolts of energy shot from the hilt. I could feel sharp pain and something pulling at the energy within me. Rox grabbed my arm and pulled it away roughly.
“No, you don’t want to touch the sword. It will absorb your power, as it will absorb mine. To use the sword is to die, for your power drives it.”
“You plan to shatter the universe and leave it that way.”
I looked into her eyes. She did not look away. She was determined, set in her course.
“They cannot survive nothingness. Nature is supreme. Something else will eventually form out of the dormant cosmic debris, but the Idiri will not survive it.”
“I’d like to point out that no one else will, either.”
“Work with us,” Saripha pleaded. “There has to be another way.”
“I am saddened by what I must do, but all sentimentality has been burned or tortured out of me. There is no other way. And there is no other who can do it.”
“You are wrong, Rox!” I said with confidence I wasn’t sure I had a right to feel.
Rox looked at me and a momentary sweetness came over her face. She wrapped me in one wing and kissed me lovingly. Then she spread her wings, rising up as she shrank to normal proportions. She retreated into the darkness above us until, at last, only her eyes were visible.
“This is my purpose. This is what I must do. And I will protect this sword with my life until it is ready.” She paused. “I will always love you, Quentin. Please don’t make us enemies.”
“Rox. I can’t let you do this.”
“Please understand. You cannot stop me.”
And then the eyes were gone. Maybe she just shut them, but I suspected there were other caverns back up through the ceiling and I no longer felt her presence. There was a deep and heavy sorrow in my chest as I shrank down to normal proportions and waited for the others to join me.
None of us felt like discussing it when we didn’t know if she was listening, so we walked back through the double doors of the smelting room and finally into the caverns that would take us back out. As our eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of the caverns, I realized there was a figure standing in the darkness. I motioned the others to stop.
The figure stepped forward.
While Rox had appeared alien in an exotic sort of way, this was truly alien. It was a five-foot-tall biped cat. Not a human with cat-like features or, like the Manitors, a human with a cat head. Standing before us in the dark was a creature with thin legs that came down on small padded toes. It had a slight turn in the hip structure and a curved rather than flat chest. It did have webbed hands at the end of its short arms and
the head was flatter but more elongated in back than a human head. The fur pattern suggested that this creature was Rooni.
Saripha stepped forward.
“Is this your true form?” Saripha asked.
“No, but it is the best I can muster in a gravity environment. It does make communication easier.”
Rooni turned to me.
“You understand the stakes now. The Idiri must be stopped, but the sword must not be used.”
“And you are? Oh, wait, I got it. You are another magical being trying to tell me what I have to do.”
“Listen to me...” Rooni started.
“No. I don’t need to listen to anyone. I will be back to destroy the sword.”
Saripha looked at me.
“You understand what that means?”
“Yes,” I snapped more harshly then I intended. “It means my girlfriend and I are going to have a helluva fight.”
I stormed out of the cave.
23.
We stood on a wooded rise overlooking the pain farm, the collection of towers that we had followed the pipe from. The towers where, in one of them, an empty glamour of me was still trapped. I assumed he was an empty shell, but I actually didn’t know. It was what I was coming to most hate about this place. I stood on a precipice most of the time between rationality and magic, between existence as I knew it and an alien multiverse of which I had enough glimpses to know it was real but had no understanding of it. I wanted to just be left alone, to go back to being Quentin Case, writer of pulp fiction. That wasn’t about to happen.
“So, what’s the plan?” Blaise said quietly.
“I’m going to disrupt their pain supply for now.”
“They probably have other farms,” Kyo noted in a matter-of-fact tone.
“No doubt. And Guido too. But it will at least slow them down to take out this one. And that will give me a little time to figure out what else I can do.”
“You’ll destroy the sword?” Kyo asked.
“I keep hoping I might stumble on another solution, but yes, I expect that’s what I will be forced to do.”
“How?”
“I’m guessing the explosive rocks,” Izzy interjected.
