The Veil

by Stuart Meczes

  The chamber within was a perfect circle – a wide stone staircase had been built against the sides, spiraling all the way up into the darkness high above our heads. Iron candelabras were seated on the steps at intervals, the self-lighting candles creating an eerie glow and sweeping shadows that spread across the room. It was impossible to see the actual walls because every inch of them had been turned into bookshelves that were crammed with dusty, identical books. They were filmed with thick cobwebs and some were falling apart, their pages slipping free from their old bindings. All were the exact same size and brownish colour. Thousands upon thousands of the same thing – as if a mad collector had gathered up every single printed version of a single book that had ever existed. A sinking feeling curled through my stomach as I looked around at the almost infinite number of tomes that were laid out in front of us.

  How the hell are we supposed to find what we’re looking for here? Even with an army of people reading what’s written on those pages every day, it will take decades to go through all of it.

  We all walked forward, craning our neck to try and see the top, but even with the countless candles lighting the way, it was impossible. It was like standing at the bottom of a giant well, so far into the depths that light couldn’t reach it.

  “This place must be almost as tall as the Tower of Ascension,” said Vendal, his voice full of wonder. We all walked forward and were bathed in the shadow of yet another statue of a Reaper, this one so tall that we could only see the lower half of it. Something was written on the floor at its feet, crudely carved into the stone. I walked over to it, staring down at the weird symbols of an ancient language.

  “Felogh Oh’a deerah toonu’l zei Fidiah,” I muttered under my breath. “The birthplace holds all knowable truths.” Gabriella appeared at my side, reading the words herself.

  She frowned and turned to Vendal, pointing down at the cryptic message. “Any clue what this means?”

  The Lightwarden shook his head. “No idea, I’m afraid.” He turned slowly on the spot, taking in the archives. “Sabrien, secure the entrance. Everyone else, let’s split up and search the place, make sure it’s clear.”

  We nodded and broke apart from one another. Sabrien took up guard at the threshold and the other two wardens started to climb the stairs slowly, pulling the cobwebs gently away and scanning the books. Gabriella and I stayed on the ground level, moving towards the back of the room that was bathed in the darkness of the great statue.

  “They’re all dated,” said Lightwarden Vendal, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. “This one is from three hundred cycles ago.” He was only a few feet up the staircase, kneeling down and running his fingers along the stone shelf that housed the books.

  “This one is five thousand cycles old,” said Hendhal from much higher up. “This is incredible; they must have the entire history of our world stored in here.” I glanced up and could just make him out. He had pulled one of the books from the shelf and held the weighty tome in both hands.

  “Don’t open it!” shouted Vendal, but he was too late. The warden had unclasped a bind on the front and let the book fall open. Instantly the leaves crumbled to dust as they reacted with the air. Hendhal stared down at the ruined binding in his hands and a choking sound escaped his throat.

  “You fool!” shouted Vendal, marching up to the warden and snatching what was left of the book from his hand. “You have just lost everything that was written in here! How can you be so ignorant? These must be opened in a vacuum where they can’t corrode.” He pointed towards the entrance. “Replace Lightwarden Sabrien on guard, lest you destroy any more invaluable information.”

  “Sir, I…”

  “Now!”

  The warden slunk down the stairs, walking out of the huge doors and slumping down on the steps, his head hanging low in shame. A pleased Sabrien replaced him, climbing up the steps after Vendal.

  “I thought I wouldn’t have to say this, but don’t touch anything,” said Vendal to everyone. “We can’t afford to lose any more of what is written here.” He kept climbing the stairs with Sabrien until they had both vanished from sight. Gabriella and I kept moving along the huge expanse of the ground level, until we were moving around the side of the giant statue.

  “I can’t see properly,” I said as we curved around the back. “My eyes aren’t adjusting.”

  “Mine either,” said Gabriella. I could no longer see her, only hear her voice in the darkness. “Hold on.” There was the sound of shifting leather as she searched for something in her uniform. I took another step forward and cried out in surprise as my feet touched nothing but air. My stomach lurched as I fell, followed by pain that shot up my ribs as I landed on pointed stone. I let out a groan as I fumbled around, trying to stand up.

  “Alex? Alex, are you okay?” shouted Gabriella, her voice full of panic.

  “I’m okay, just don’t move forward!” I called back.

  Light bloomed in the darkness and the harsh unnatural glare of a Biomote torch bathed me in its LED glow. I looked around and realised that I had fallen over the lip of a second staircase that ran from the other direction, counterclockwise to that of the main one, running deep into the floor below. Gabriella jumped down the good fifteen feet that I had fallen, landing on the step above to me. She held out a hand and pulled me to my feet. “Are you okay? Do you need me to help you heal?”

  I shook my head as I caught my breath. “Nah, just a couple of bruised ribs. I’ll be fine in a minute or two.”

  “The strongest Chosen in the world, and you fell down a flight of stairs.”

  “Yeah, let’s keep that one to ourselves,” I replied.

  She squeezed my arm in an affectionate way and then scanned the Biomote into the looming mouth of the downward spiraling staircase. “Looks like you stumbled on something interesting here.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Very punny.”

  As we looked down at the shadowy path, the humour drained from me and was replaced by an uneasy feeling in my gut. It was my Chosen instincts kicking in, the way they always did when I subconsciously sensed a threat. Gabriella turned to look at me, her face glowing blue in the light from the Biomote. “Do you feel that?”

  “Yes. Super quiet mode?”

  She nodded.

  We crept down the staircase, taking care to mask our footsteps. The staircase kept sweeping down and around, until it felt like we were heading into the depths of Pandemonia itself. The further down we went, the more my unease grew. It reminded me of the feeling I’d had in the Brazilian jungle right before I’d had my council with Lafelei – the sense of something powerful and otherworldly that made me feel small and pathetic, but this was somehow different. This was every inch of my body telling me that I was moving towards true danger. My palms started to sweat and my heart was thudding so loud that it sounded like a drum beating in my ears.

  My right arm started to twitch.

  “Wait,” I whispered.

  Gabriella paused on the step behind mine, and I unzipped my jacket, exposing the tattoo in its entirety. My mouth fell open as I saw that it had shifted on my skin, turning into some kind of joined up symbols – words that I couldn’t translate. It was also glowing brighter than it ever had before.

  “What the hell?”

  Gabriella stared down at my arm, not even needing the light from the Biomote to see it. She placed a hand under my wrist and lifted it up to see clearer. “Alex, I don’t like this…we should go back and wait with the others for backup.”

  I shook my head. “No. This can’t be a coincidence. This must be something to do with the tattoo. I need to know, Gabriella.” I looked up. “Don’t you?”

  “But we don’t know what’s down there.” she paused. “What if…what if you react to something?”

  She means what happens if something makes me lose control, and I go all Dark Alex again.

  “Then you run back as fast as you can and get the others to come and knock me out.” I placed a hand on her
arm. “But I don’t feel like that’s going to happen. I’m in control now Ella, trust me. Nothing is going to happen to me down there.” I hope.

  Gabriella was silent for a moment, and then she conceded. “We look, but that’s it.”

  “Okay.”

  We kept moving down the staircase. After what felt like an age we reached the bottom. My mouth fell open as we took in what was in front of us. A rocklike antechamber was spread out in front of us, dimly lit by a few candelabras. Beyond was what looked like a red version of the Veil, shimmering like a colossal wall of bubbling blood.

  And strewn around it were the skeletal remains of hundreds of Reapers.

  Some had been torn apart as if by the hands of some giant beast. Others had been burned beyond recognition, their robes reduced to cinders and their metal masks scorched black and melted to their faces. Some had died on their knees, bowed as if in prayer and others with their hands raised up in positions of pleaded mercy from an unknown threat. Where the masks had slipped from some of their heads I could see the skulls beneath, which were nothing more than smooth mounds of flat bone with a single slit that seemed to have been how they breathed. They had no remnants of other features at all – no eyes, ears or noses. They were like humans who had been created by some god and then cast out unfinished into the world.

  Nausea rose in the pit of my stomach as I looked at the fallen humanoids. By the way they had fallen around each other, they had died quickly – in a matter of seconds it seemed – and that meant that whatever had killed them had been some creature, or creatures, of immeasurable power – maybe even stronger than The Sorrow itself. As we looked at the fallen Reapers in stunned silence, my arm started to vibrate intensely.

  “Aggghhh!”

  The sensation was so powerful that it bought me to my knees.

  “Alex!”

  Gabriella crouched down to check on me, but I wasn’t looking at her. I was looking at the blood veil. It had started to react, long tendrils reaching outwards, like the demonic limbs of some blood creature trying to break through the wall and catch me. A piercing noise filled my head, and I heard a screaming sound. After a few moments I realised the sound was coming from me. Whispers filled my mind – not from inside like before – but from the shimmering wall itself. Some unknowable language that seemed to beckon me, like the world’s most powerful Siren call. I acted automatically – my rational mind slowing to a crawl.

  Rising to my feet, I took a few unsteady steps forward.

  A girl said something muffled and tried to stop me, but I nudged her away, and she tumbled to the floor.

  My feet moved forward without me commanding them.

  I walked towards the blood Veil.

  My arm shimmered so brightly it was as if the sun had been stitched into my skin.

  That girl came close again; her eyes squinted from the brightness.

  She tried to stop me again.

  Her fingers were feathers on my skin, soft and weak.

  The girl was shouting at me.

  Her words were muffled and distant, and I couldn’t make out what they were.

  I reached out my tattooed arm as the ancient words beckoned to me and the tendrils reached out to greet them, wrapping themselves around my arm and tugging me towards them. I felt warm liquid envelope me and darkness replaced the glow as the suffocating barrier pulled me into its embrace. A deep pounding began at my head and spread into every part of me until my whole body shuddered. Then I felt myself shoved forward as if something had pushed me hard from behind. I stumbled forward, gasping as air filled my lungs once again.

  My mind became my own once more, and I turned to Gabriella. The portal had become translucent and I could see her beyond – a red-tinged ghost pounding against the shimmering veil. She was frantically trying to get to me, but the barrier wouldn’t allow her access. She was screaming my name, but I could hear no sound, the portal swallowing all of her words. I moved close to it and she looked up at me – her eyes wide with terror.

  “It’s okay,” I mouthed.

  She kept beating on the wall, but her movements slowed until she gave it one final, desperate smack with her hand and then fell still.

  “I’m okay,” I said.

  “Come back,” she mouthed back.

  “I will. But I need to see first.”

  She shook her head. “Please.”

  “I promise I will come back. I have to see. I have to know.”

  Slowly, I turned around and once again my mouth fell open.

  I was no longer inside the archives. I was standing underneath a shallow overhang of rock. Beyond, rain thundered down in a monsoon of water, which splashed hard against ground that shone a rainbow of colours, as if it were coated in oil. The area was a vast space, ringed by spiked black rocks that resembled giant needles. The sky above was a dark storm of red clouds that spiraled and rolled around each other, looking like an extreme version of the Red Storm that had settled over Chapter Hill and preceded the arrival of The Sorrow. The area beyond was nothing more than an expanse of mist that poured around the distant peaks of dark mountains far below. But none of that really grabbed my attention. I was focused on what I could see some twenty feet ahead of me. A hulking, contorted thing stood in the centre of the bizarre place. It was like the twisted roots of a gigantic tree that had wrapped around itself and then splayed open at the centre, as if something had burst from within. The walls inside the thing were organic and fleshy and filled with hanging strands of sinew, and organ-like valves spilled out of the wound.

  And lying right in front of it was the empty robe of a single Reaper.

  I didn’t know what I was looking at. I couldn’t understand. All I knew was the feeling I had. The thing seemed to call out to me, somehow linking to the marking on my arm and drawing me forward. Even though my unease had grown from palpable to all-consuming and bordering on an almost Lovecraftian terror of the unknown, I didn’t turn back. The desire to move closer was so strong that I couldn’t have fought it even if I’d wanted to.

  And I didn’t.

  I knew in the deepest part of me – perhaps the part of me that was connected to the supernatural tattoo – that it wasn’t the books that held the answers; this was what I had been looking for. The strange structure ahead of me held the answers that we had been seeking.

  I have to know.

  I took one final look at Gabriella, who was staring at me in fearful silence, and then stepped out from underneath the protection of the overhang and was instantly drenched by the rain. It slewed sideways, beating against my uniform and flattening my hair against my forehead, sending thick beads streaming into my eyes. With each step that I took – each one carrying me further from the familiar and towards the unknown – everything began to shrink into fading echoes, until all that I could see was the preternatural casing. The closer I got to it, the brighter my arm shone. My arm rose of its own accord and my fingers stretched towards the unknowable as I moved forward in the conscious but trance-like state. Every sound apart from my own breathing was dialed down to zero.

  Then a slow roll of whispers came to me, the guttural words of that language I had heard many times now, but still could not understand. They grew louder the closer I got, until they were almost deafening. I drew up close; the colossal structure appearing so much larger than it had when I’d crossed the blood Veil, dwarfing me with its vast size. The whispers pounded within my brain, calling to me as I moved my hand towards the surface of the thing. I could feel the energy in my arm vibrating, could feel my fingertips buzzing as if each nerve was an exposed electrical cable.

  I placed my hand down on the shell’s surface and it gave up its secrets.

  16

  Alex

  I understand.

  The memories rushed through my mind and then disappeared, like the final flash of a blown light bulb. I woke with a dry mouth and a pounding headache that rivaled the one I’d had after my Awakening. Confused and clueless, I sat up slowly, trying my
best to ignore the dizziness that rolled through my head and the dull thuds that knocked at my temples.

  Where am I…?

  I’m in the archives. The Reaper Archives.

  Specifically I was back in the creepy antechamber, lying among the decimated bodies of the Reapers.

  Gabriella wasn’t there.

  “Ella?” I croaked, my voice dry and hoarse.

  No response.

  I climbed to my feet and stumbled forward in dizziness, slumping into the wall. Taking a deep breath, I composed myself and pushed upright, keeping my eyes closed and palms pressed against the rock until the sensations began to subside. Using my tongue to moisten my dry, cracked lips and swallowing as best I could, I called Gabriella’s name again.

  No answer.

  Turning, I saw that the blood Veil had become a solid red wall, appearing like the world’s largest ruby, partially excavated. I tried to recall what I’d seen on the other side, but all I could catch were the ghostly snippets of something large and twisted, and the bloodied folds of some robe.

  What happened…what did I see?

  The more I tried to think about it the worse my headache became. Let it go…it’ll come back. Right now I have to work out where the hell everyone is.

  I retrieved my Biomote and activated the torch function. A bright light sprang from the front, dwarfing the glow of the candles around me. Checking my feet were sturdy enough to keep me upright, I started up the dark stairs. My energy came back to me as I climbed, and I broke into a jog, then a sprint, bounding up two steps at a time, calling Gabriella’s name the entire way.

  Every time there was no response.

  Unease filled me up. Not the odd supernatural unease I’d felt before going through the blood Veil, but one of human instinct. The feeling you get when you sense something is very wrong.

  I reached the crest of the stairs and burst out from beyond the statue. “Hello?” I shouted, my voice echoing and repeating as it swept up the levels.