‘What would you know?’ Aviti snapped.
‘You may succeed in setting them free, but what then?’
‘What do you mean?’ Aviti asked.
‘With this wrong in the world, you may set these trapped ones free, but more will follow.’
Aviti swore. She did not have time to think about that right now. She had to prepare herself.
‘I have a plan,’ she lied. Maybe she would after she had done this? But this she knew she needed to do, no matter how painful.
The stars’ singing intensified as the moments passed. Aviti’s body ached and every muscle cried out to her, telling her to lie down and rest, but she would never get up if she did.
‘We are ready,’ said the multitude of voices. Amongst the throng, she could hear doubt and uncertainty from many of them.
Aviti took three deep breaths, as deep as she could manage with this chill air, and then she began. Gripping the oversized staff in her hand, she let the magic flow through her and out into the world.
What she sensed snatched the breath from her lungs. Thousands upon thousands of motes of light swarmed before her, and tethering them to the earth were slivers of moonlight.
‘Father, if you have anything to say, please do so now,’ Aviti said, but there was no response. She was glad she could not see Sevika.
Anger rose in her and, rather than shake it off, she allowed it to build. She let it grow until she could feel the metal reform itself in her hand. She knew how to control her anger. Her anger was a gift.
Aviti turned her attention to the blade that had appeared in her hand. It had an edge that could sever flesh, but it was not sharp enough for what she intended to do, therefore, she focused on the cutting edge. Through the lens of her anger, she applied pressure to the edge of the weapon.
This would never work, she told herself. She would fail.
The more she berated herself the finer the edge became. Inside of herself, the magic made her nerves spark with pain, but she ignored it as best she could. After a few more minutes, the blade was ready. Aviti could have cut daylight with it, had she been able to see.
Then she gathered the tiny strings in her hand, using a whisper of magic to hold it there. Balancing the passive gentling effect of the staff and the needful demands of the blade was too much for her abused body to handle, but she bore it all the same.
She flashed the blade through the stings. As it touched the slivers of moonlight, they vanished, recoiling instantly. Released from their bondage, the stars fired upwards, and without a word of thanks, they fled from her.
Then the pain came for her, but with the staff in her grip, she found she could channel it away and out into the world. Soon, she found she could breathe without the pain overcoming her. She thought about lying down, but her job was not done. All of the stars were gone. All of them, but one. It danced before her, pleading for release.
‘Father, I– ‘she began to say, but she knew that if she spoke again her resolve would fail her.
Forgive me Tyla, my Chaeto, she said into the silence of her own heart. Then she swung the blade one final time, and then she screamed until her throat was raw.
She had forged the bond with Tyla. In her darkest, desperate need, she had found the severed end of Tyla’s bond, and grafted her soul to it. They had not been joined for long. It had only been a blink of the eye compared to Tyla and his Pair Faric, but it did not lessen her grief. He was not dead, but now he was lost to her.
‘Aviti,’ said Sevika.
‘Aviti,’ the Intoli repeated again and again until she responded.
‘Leave me.’
‘Aviti my daughter,’ said another voice. A deep resonant voice that she knew as well as she knew her own.
‘Father!’ she cried. She wanted to hold him, but she knew he was not there. Not in person.
‘You have done so well my child. You are your mother’s daughter, and stronger than I could ever have imagined, but Aviti, your task is not done. It is as the Intoli said.’
‘Father, no.’ She felt like she was a child again, defying her father’s wishes.
‘If you do not complete this, it will happen again.’
‘I… I know,’ she admitted. ‘But I do not know how to do so.’
‘You have the tools already, and you have the intelligence to figure out how to use them.’
‘I cannot stay my daughter, my time on this world is done. Do not give up on love.’
‘Goodbye,’ Aviti said with tears in her sightless eyes, but he was already gone.
The wind howled once more, showing her again just how ineffectual her clothes were. She flexed her hands; the staff in one and the blade in the other.
‘I do not have the strength left in me to do it,’ she said. This time it was not despair talking, it was fact. Without the staff for support, she would fall over. She could not do it.
‘Then use me,’ said Sevika.
‘What?’
‘Use me,’ said Sevika. ‘This is my purpose. I was created to protect the world against darkness, against wrong.’
Even without her magically enhanced sight, Aviti could feel Sevika in her mind. The Intoli was pure energy wrapped in a physical form.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I cannot.’
‘It is not your choice. It is mine. My people have achieved the ruination of this world. I choose to set right some of what we did.’
‘Sevika,’ said Aviti, but she had nothing else to add. Instead, she dropped to her knees, sliding her hand down to the base of her staff as she did. Then Sevika’s hand joined Aviti’s
First, Aviti opened herself to the magic and accepted the familiar rush. She had learned to control her need for the magic as it was only power. Aviti only just managed to maintain her control when she felt Sevika’s presence. It brought back too many memories of her time as her prisoner. It was all she could do not to thrust the blade into the Intoli. Using all her will, she suppressed that urge and the Intoli’s power started to flow to her – through her. It gave her what she needed. So, she pushed her mind outward again, but this time she sent her sight downwards and into the earth. Down through the rift in the world, down through the layers of strata she went, and the further she pushed, the more overwhelming the stench of wrong became, but with the help of the Intoli, she could endure it.
Deeper her mind raced, until she reached the point where it all emanated from. A single point deep in the world was the cause of all this ill. It shone in her mind like a huge ruby; dark red and pulsing. She had expected it to scream of hatred and bile, but it was… this thing was afraid; terrified. It was more than that - it was terror incarnate, and the thing was terrified of change. Beyond it was the damage it had done to the bones of the earth. This was where the corruption originated, but it was also where the Dhuma had been given the strength to enslave the Waren.
Aviti withdrew from it. There was no terror in her heart, she just needed another tool. When she returned to herself, she grasped the handle of the blade she had fashioned.
Before she started, she said, ‘Sevika’.
‘No more words,’ said the Intoli. ‘Do not be afraid to take everything from me.’
Aviti took a final breath and embraced the Intoli. Before she could regret what she was about to do, she released Sevika and nodded her head. Then she gathered every drop of her will grasped the staff and sent her mind downward, back towards the source of the ills of the land. She pushed harder this time, steeling her determination.
The waves of abhorrence and self-hatred assaulted her as they had before, but she had learned to accept them; to let them pass over her and through her, without it touching her soul. She could see the deep red glow in the distance, but she knew she had to push beyond it this time. The power flowed from Sevika to her, thick and fast. She would need it for what she intended to do.
An intense barrage of loathing battered her as she approached the blood red stone, but she ignored that. She pushed herself past the horror that lay bef
ore her, using her memories of pain to armour herself. Behind the stone was the terrible wound the world had suffered. It both repelled and attracted her. Even with the stone destroyed, this corruption would linger, and perhaps it would still grow.
Then she was there, feeling her way along the huge tear in the fabric of the world. Reality warped itself around her in this space.
Images of her mother and father – young and vibrant - flashed into her mind. Images from her past and images from other lives flooded her consciousness.
No, she told herself. No. Focus on what she must do. She was Beira, Queen of Winter, just as Decheal had dubbed her.
She pushed her mind into the fibres of the world and left a part of herself there. Then she stabbed the blade in her hand down into the earth and let the metal flow. She sent a part of her mind ahead of the coursing metal. The last of it slipped from her grasp, but the metal still obeyed her control. The further it got from her, the more power she needed from Sevika.
Down and down, the spear of metal passed, blasting through rock and lava. Even with the Intoli’s energy, she struggled to keep it under her control.
As it went on, the rock grew harder. She smashed her way through it with the spike of lightning. Perhaps, she could have done this with power from the heavens, if she had chosen to call it down, but it would not achieve the end she needed.
She drew close to the end now. The ethereal clouds of wrong that they passed through grew overwhelming. Thoughts of her own loss battered her mind. Memories of her lost past cried out, telling her that she should never have left home. She should have stayed with her brother. It would all have been well if only she had not taken the risk.
But she knew it for the lie it was, and despite her fears and self-hatred, she forced herself and her missile onwards.
Then Sevika started to fade in her mind. ‘Not yet,’ she said somewhere in the depth of her heart.
Then Aviti received a burst of strength and she threw herself, into the effort. The golden bolt hurtled at its target. Nothing could stop it now, but she pushed it as hard as she could.
The concussion threw her physical form backwards, but her mind held firm, deep below her.
She was not done here.
She had to seal the rift, the tear in the world that lay behind the bloodstone. Without it mended, who knew what unnamed other horrors could seep into this world?
So, just as she had done in the Hylobs’ cave, Aviti grasped the edges of reality around where the blood red canker had been. Then with the last of Sevika’s essence, she began to stitch the torn surfaces together. This time the task was easier. The surfaces, although imperfect, were matched. Only the sheer size of the task daunted her.
So, she imagined that she was working with metal again. Just as she had with the eight-pointed star she had fashioned for Decheal, she weaved in and out of the fabric of reality, using Sevika’s essence as her thread. She repeated the motion again and again.
A mark for Nikka, so brave and true. A mark for Dregan, proud and loyal. A mark each for her mother, her father and her brother, whom together had helped her to become who she was now.
A mark for Faric, without whom she would never have left Tapasya. One point for Decheal and Oinoir together, the bold Giants. A single point for Wist, Tilden and Enceladus, whom in reality had been one and the same.
At each of these eight points, a thread of argent fire connected to the others.
Then she summoned the burning ends and pulled, drawing the fibres of reality together and meshing them like molten metal, creating a shrinking star.
Aviti heaved on the strings with all of her will, until the star vanished. Then she released the magic.
She may have passed from consciousness for a while, she was not sure. When she returned to herself, she was alone. Aviti did not need sight, magical or otherwise to know that Sevika was gone. She had spent herself to give this world a chance at life. Tears would not come, not yet. She was too tired, too broken to weep.
She lay on the frozen plateau motionless and awaited the end. Then she laughed when she remembered that Oinoir had predicted that she would never see the sun again. He had been right about that after all.
‘Ah, my girl,’ came a voice in the darkness after an eternity of isolation.
‘Father?’ she asked. Had her father returned for her? It could not be.
‘Aviti,’ said the voice and then hands were under her, lifting her skyward. The hands were huge, warm and gentle.
‘Haumea,’ she managed to say. ‘I told you to wait. I would have returned.’
‘I never doubted it,’ said the Giantess. Aviti pushed her face into Haumea’s clothing and let it comfort her. Then Haumea took the first steps that would lead them from the mountainside and back into life.
-*-
Glossary
Agniraz: Hylob delvers
Angi-Prasada: The Intoli palace of the light. The prelude to the Dhuma
Arkasona: Intoli name for the gem unearthed at Dilsich
Athadh: Town in Northern Pyrite
Aviti: Companion of Wist
Bohba: Port city in Tapasya
Brathoir: Giant warrior (deceased)
Brach: Member of the Hylob council
Buralo: Large wolves found in northern Pyrite
Cambo: Member of the Hylob council
Buralo: Large wolves found at the far north of Pyrite
Cairn: Aviti's brother (deceased)
Cerni: Race of dark dwarves that dwell on a mountain in Tapasya
Corozon: Herd beasts of Tapasya
Corb (white and black): Rivers that flow past Mashesh
Creidas: Town in southern Pyrite
Damned: Soulless animate dead.
Dearg Fola: Giant's name for the gem unearthed at Dilsich
Decheal: Warrior Giantess and Brathoir's wife
Dhuma: Intoli prison for the Waren
Dilsich: Mining town in northern Pyrite. Site of battle for the bloodstone
Dionach: Title bestowed upon Wist by the Giants
Dochli: Mountain range in Western Pyrite.
Dregan: Mage and companion of Wist (deceased)
Durach: King of the Giants (deceased)
Eliscius: Wist's mentor, slain by Tilden (deceased)
Enceladus: Powerful sentinel
Eu-Dochas: River in the west of Pyrite
Faric: A Lyrat. Tyla's pair. Murdered by Tilden (deceased)
Ghosa: Town in northern Pyrite
Ghria Duh: Giantish name for the black sun.
Glaine: Rank in Intoli Army, sometimes shortened version of Prime Glaine
Gorgoth: Brutal, distant kin to Giants
Great Desert: Southern desert in Tapasya
Haumea: Companion of Wist, Giantess and Prime Glaine
Hillfolk: People who live on the Northern continent of Prasad.
Heirn: Religious sect in Tapasya
Hoolab: Senior Hylob
Hylob: Race of subterranean humanoids from Prasad
Intoli: Race of beings from Prasad which waged war on the Giants for the bloodstone
Intrach Ocean: Body of water between Pyrite and Tapasya
Ionracas: Prime Glaine of the Giants(deceased)
Jerel's Tower: Castle in Bohba, site of Tilden's failed attempt to kill Wist
Kalsurja: Intoli name for dark sun.
Kar-Iktar: Lake in Tapasya.
Kerk: Leader of Lothrian church.
Kloss: A young Hylob
Krowen: Reptilian desert creatures
Krura: Second Sakti of the Intoli (deceased)
Lar: One of the Hylobs
Lothria: City in the south of Tapasya
Lothrians: Religious sect in Tapasya
Lyrat: Desert nomad dwellers in Tapasya
Lyrat Pair: Two linked Lyrats
Mabon: Aviti's mother(deceased)
Mage: One who excels in the use of magic
Matheir: Warrior Giant. (deceased)
Mashesh: Aviti's home city,
located at the south of Great desert in Tapasya
Medicaut: Ancient city in north-east Pyrite
Molock: Leader of the Hylob council.
Muoll: Member of the Hylob council
Mpah: Ocean west of Tapasya
N'tini: Father of Aviti and seer(deceased)
Nikka: Cerni companion of Wist (deceased)
Northern Desert: Great desert in the north of Tapasya
Oinair: Giant, sister of Oinoir(deceased)
Oinoir: Companion of Wist. Giant, Prime Glaine
Plains of Uram: Grasslands in the south of Pyrite, Home of Haumea
Potter's Field: Graveyard outside Tapasya
Prasad: Icy wastelands to the north of Pyrite
Prime Glaine: Most senior rank in Giant army
Progera: One of the Hillfolk of Prasad.
Raktata: High ranking Intoli
Rathou: Mountain in Tapasya, previously home to Nikka
Ravan: High ranking Intoli
Sakti: term of reverence used by Intoli to refer to their leader, Vigopa
Sevika: Companion of Wist and former captor of Aviti. Intoli
Sordir: City in Tapasya, home of Nikka.
Tapasya: Southern arid continent
Tilden: Wist's twin brother
Treibhreas: A Prime Glaine of the Giants
Tyla: Lyrat and Pair of Faric
Ulfar: One of the Hillfolk.
Urams: Mountain range at the extreme western edge of Pyrite
Uram: Grasslands in the south of Pyrite
Verdasco: Leader of the Hillfolk
Vigopa: A Sakti of the Intoli
Volni: Light-skinned, dwarfs that live in the catacombs under the Rathou
Waren: Animate darkness, allied to Tilden
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 90
