by Kunego, Chad
I wonder how long I could keep that pace up before I got tired…
>That’s a silly question.<
The sudden pain lanced through his mind, causing him to stagger into the wall before completely losing his balance and falling on the ground.
>What’s wrong with you?<
“Amitiel, talk out loud! I told you before that he’d been injured. Mind talking to him is causing him pain.”
“But I can hear him fine!”
“Whatever the damage is, it only appears to be a one-way issue. We can hear his thoughts, but when we project, it’s hurting him.”
As Samuel’s thoughts cleared again, he glanced back down at the blue dragon on his left arm.
“You’re Raguel, right?”
Samuel felt a little uneasiness as the blue dragon’s head swung around to look up at him.
“Yes, I’m glad you’re starting to get your memories back. The surge of energy from the bonding must have helped you heal more.”
“Bonding?”
“Yes, that surge of energy you felt when Amitiel here,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the other dragon, “was caused by your life energies joining together. It would take a long time to explain, but the short answer is, without the bonding, you would slowly weaken her over time and you wouldn’t benefit from the symbiotic link.”
Samuel scratched the back of his head, trying to make sense of what Raguel was telling him.
“I don’t understand… Why would she get weaker? And what’s a symbiotic link?”
Samuel almost smiled as the little dragon gave an exasperated sigh.
“Okay, since the short answer won’t work, let’s try a slightly expanded version. You are a Syphon. That means you absorb and are sustained by Aether. In layman’s terms, magical energies. That’s why you’re always hungry no matter how much you eat. There’s not a lot of energy left in cooked food. Your body has to convert it into Aether before your body can use it. What your digestive system does… it’s technically classified as a form of alchemy.”
Raguel squirmed around a bit, trying to get a better position to see Samuel before huffing again.
“This is ridiculous. Hang on a sec.”
Samuel jumped as Raguel uncoiled himself and leapt off his arm, landing silently on the pavement. He shook himself out before glancing up at Samuel.
“Going to give myself a kink in my neck at this rate,” he said before his body shimmered. Suddenly, he expanded in size, growing until he was about the size of an English mastiff.
“Ah, much better. Now I can talk to you eye-to-eye, so to speak.”
Samuel could only nod quietly as he tried to process what he’d just witnessed.
“So as I was saying, you absorb Aetheric energy. Food doesn’t have very much left in it by the time you eat it. So your body breaks down the food and converts it into magical energy. A very inefficient process I might add.”
“So what does this have to do with the bonding process?”
“I was getting to that. Since Amitiel and I are both magical creatures, if she didn’t bond with you, you would have unconsciously started feeding off her. If your memories were back, you would be able to control that urge, but you’d still feel the need constantly at the back of your mind.”
Raguel paused to scratch himself behind the ear.
“Anyway, when we bond with you, we blend our life energies together. You’ll also get a significant boost to your abilities once you remember how to access them. Hopefully the added energy boost will help you get your memories back sooner.”
“Why?”
“Really? You haven’t put two and two together yet? That bullet really did a number on you. Basically, you’re using ambient Aetheric energy to heal yourself. If you had been in a safe place, you probably would have been fine by now. As it stands, you’ve been unconsciously using your abilities to shield yourself from discovery, at least you were until you bonded with Amitiel. That takes a lot of energy to maintain. Hence why you’ve been so hungry and why your memory isn’t b—”
The weird tingling feeling coming from behind him caused Samuel to snap his head around toward the alleyway opening. Raguel’s head stretched up to look over Samuel’s shoulder at the same time. As the tingling got stronger, Samuel saw several heavily muscled guys slowing making their way down the alleyway toward them. As he stared, the weird tingling sensation continued to wash over his body. The feeling was becoming strong enough that he suspected he could determine their exact position even if he closed his eyes. He suddenly experienced the odd superimposed image effect again, seeing the men turn into hulking, eight foot tall creatures.
“Trolls.”
Samuel glanced back at Raguel before glancing back at the creatures. As they neared, he could just make out their conversation.
“Is dis da guy we were suppos’d to find? He don’t look like much.”
“He sure looks like what da boss said he’d look like.”
“Can we eat ‘im?”
“Boss didn’t say, jus said ta deal wit ‘im.”
Samuel caught a whiff of the stench rolling off them as they continued to approach.
“Uh, what do we do? Do we run for it?”
Without warning, a strange guttural hissing noise started filling the alleyway from somewhere behind him, causing the creatures to pause. As soon as the hissing started, a frigid blast of air blew past him. Turning around, Samuel almost took a step away as he saw the glint of cold blue light glowing in Raguel’s eyes. As he watched, a coating of frost and rime started forming on the dragon’s scales before slowly spreading away from his clawed feet across the alleyway floor. The dragon started clawing at the pavement, leaving deep furrows behind. As the air temperature continued to drop, fog started rolling off him, almost like steam coming off snow on the first warm spring day. Slowly, his tongue flicked across his lips as he turned toward Samuel, a wicked smile forming on his face.
“Run…? Never…”
Raguel suddenly leapt at him, causing Samuel to swing his arm up reflexively.
“We destroy.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
As Raguel flew at him, he spit out long flowing stream of clear liquid. Samuel flinched to the side as the spray passed by his head, frost instantly forming along the side of his face. As the dragon reached him, his body rippled and contorted, shrinking down to his normal size. Latching on to Samuel’s arm, he flowed back around into position. Winking up at him, a cruel toothy smile spreading across his face, he chuckled.
“You didn’t think I was going to hurt you, di— Behind you!”
Samuel spun around. He barely had time to notice one of the trolls was encased in a sheet of ice. What filled his vision was the sight of the largest one swinging his clasped hands down at him with an overhead strike. He swung his arms up, trying to brace for the impact. As their arms made contact, he sensed the force of the impact, even dropping down to one knee as the pavement turned to dust under him.
A strange tingling sensation started flowing up his arms from the point of contact. It slowly changed to a feeling of warmth as he realized that he wasn’t hungry for the first time since he woke up. Pushing back against the trolls arms, he suddenly lashed out with a right palm heel strike. A loud crunch echoed off the walls as the creature flew back several feet through the air before crashing noisily into a dumpster, crumpling the side like it was made of paper.
“He’s a Syphon! Boss never said he was a Syphon!”
Samuel wasn’t sure, but it sounded like there was a tinge of terror creeping into the speaker’s voice.
“It doesn’t matter. The boss’ll kill us if we don’t take care of ‘im. Get ‘im!”
Samuel felt the itching sensation building up on his left hand again. He reached out to wrap his hand around the pommel that formed. Yanking the sword free, he dropped into an aggressive stance. As the trolls cautiously approached, he could feel the encouragement and excitement flow from Ratuel. The slight prick o
f pain the mental encouragement generated was forgotten as he felt the adrenaline release throughout his body.
Here we go!
The thought echoed in his mind as he launched himself at the next troll, the sound of tinkling glass trailing behind his sword as he swung it forward through the air.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Samuel’s legs gave out on him. The adrenaline started flushing out of his system as he glanced around at the carnage. The nerves from the battle left him shaky and weak, making it hard to concentrate on what to do next. He started to ask Raguel what they should do with the bodies when he noticed a faint glow coming off them. As he watched, they slowly started evaporating, almost like dry ice. He could feel something coming off the bodies, but he couldn’t quite describe it. Glancing down at Raguel again, he gestured to the bodies.
“What’s happening to them?”
“Their bodies are slowing dispersing. Shouldn’t take more than a couple hours or so.”
“Why are they…”
Samuel tried to think of the words to describe what he was seeing. He waved in their general direction.
“Why are they evaporating though?”
Raguel let out a small sigh.
“Because… Their life force acts as the glue that holds them together in this realm. When it’s extinguished, they fall apart at the cellular level, if not smaller. If they were back in Aerth, it wouldn’t happen.”
“Aerth?”
“Oh for the love of God. I’ll be so glad when your memory returns. Yes, Aerth. The best way to describe it is that it’s a mirror image of here. The main difference is that this place is based off science and technology while Aerth is based off magic and aether.”
“Sorry I’m being such a bother after being shot in the face. I’ll try not to annoy you anymore.”
Amitiel animated and glared at Raguel, smoke and small jets of flame coming from her nostrils. Samuel could almost sense the argument going on between them. The feedback alone was starting to cause a migraine. Finally, Amitiel glanced up at him. He felt the concern emanate from her before it abruptly stopped. She glanced back at Raguel.
“You can be such a jerk sometimes. From what you just told me, it’s not his fault he doesn’t remember any of this. A little understanding would be in order.”
Glancing back up at him, she continued.
“I’m sorry I keep forgetting to talk to you audibly. It’s been so long since I actually spoke, it’s taking me some time to relearn and get used to it again.”
She glared back at Raguel, who hung his head dejectedly.
“Don’t pay any attention to him. He can be insensitive sometimes. Once we’re done sharing information, if you have any more questions while we wait for your memory to come back, you can ask me instead.”
Samuel started to open his mouth when he noticed Raguel sticking his tongue out at Amitiel when he thought she wasn’t looking. After the fight, the completely normal, almost human reaction caught him completely off-guard. He burst out laughing.
“It’s fine, I’ll survive. I know I’m probably a pain in the ass with all my questions, but I don’t know how else to figure out who I am.”
Glancing one more time at Amitiel, Raguel looked back up.
“Let’s get out of this smelly alleyway before ghouls show up to try and snack on the bodies before they completely evaporate. That’s all we need to deal with.”
Samuel nodded before standing up. Getting his bearings, he turned away from the direction the trolls had come from. Unconsciously sheathing his sword, he took off at a jog. He wasn’t sure where he was headed. All he knew was that he needed to keep moving before someone else found him.
Chapter 32
“So what you’re telling me is that I’m some sort of guardian appointed by God?”
Amitiel glanced up at Samuel while they ran across the rooftops, heading toward Blythe’s building.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Samuel mulled over what she had told him. At some point in the past, God had split Earth and Aerth apart, and appointed him to be the guardian of both, along with the rest of the realms. That’s why he’d been bonded with Raguel and Amitiel. It still didn’t tell him the reason he’d been shot at that warehouse, but now it made more sense why he’d be in a place where it could happen. A thought suddenly occurred to him. Now that he knew the dragon was alive and could talk, maybe Raguel could tell him what happened. He glanced down at the dragon again.
“So why was I at that warehouse, anyway?”
Raguel glanced up at him with a sad look on his face.
“I knew this question was going to come up eventually. I just wish I had a good answer for you.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah…” Raguel said, trying not to meet Samuel’s gaze, “about that. Honestly, I only know fragments about what you were doing. Since taking my vow of silence, you’ve tried to talk to me less and less over the years. Eventually, other than the subconscious communication we have when in battle, you just sorta locked me out of your head. Don’t forget, today’s been the first time we’ve really talked in a hundred and eighty centuries. Quite a long time to go without sharing our thoughts with each other.”
Samuel thought about what he wanted to ask Raguel next. He picked up a little speed as he leapt through the air and landed on the roof of the next building, tumbling forward before springing back to his feet to keep up his momentum.
“So what do you know? You had to have some idea about what I was doing there.”
“All I know is that you’ve been trying to track down rumors over the past fifty years about Genevieve having resurfaced. Something big was supposed to happen at that warehouse, some type of ritual that you were trying to break up when that shot hit you in the face. I had to draw a lot of the aetheric energy out of the environment in order to keep you alive and to drive off the last few stragglers that remained. If the humans hadn’t shown up when they did, you might have died.”
Samuel slowed to a stop at the edge of the building next door to Blythe’s apartment. Slowly glancing over the side, his vision adjusted to the reduced visibility. He’d been running a random pattern for the past few hours, slowly making his way back here. He wanted to make sure the sun was down before he arrived to make it easier to try and sneak in if possible. He wasn’t sure what type of surveillance the police were going to set up, but he hoped he’d be able to get around it. He wasn’t looking forward to sleeping outside tonight.
After several minutes of looking around, he’d been able to spot a few people that he suspected were undercover cops, but he couldn’t be sure. Trying to figure out his next move, he looked down at Raguel.
“I don’t know if I should chance it. I can’t be sure if I spotted everyone. You got any ideas?”
Samuel jumped a bit when Amitiel spoke up.
“I can help.”
“I’d almost forgotten you were there. You’ve been so quiet this whole time.”
“I haven’t been around anyone for eons. At least he’s been around to hear people talking.”
Amitiel gestured toward Raguel with a wingtip.
“I’m just not used to having conversations and talking is all. But to get back to your problem, I can help.”
“How?”
“Like this.”
As she said it, Samuel felt a tingling warmth course up his arm, then his neck, and finally coming to a stop behind his eyes. As he focused on the sensation, his vision started to take on a rainbow effect.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Sharing my thermal vision with you. You should be able to make out thermal changes in the environment once you get used to it. We used to do this all the time.”
Samuel glanced around in wonder. The world looked so different when you could see heat patterns in the environment. The roof he was standing on was a yellowish color while the alleyway below was various cooler blue shades. As he looked around, he noticed a few more people than he’d n
oticed originally. With some focus, he realized he could actually make out the outline of their gun on some of them. After studying the area for around ten minutes, jumping between a few buildings to check out all the directions the alleyway went, he came to a decision.
“I think I’m going to chance it. There’s nobody on any of the other roofs. Nor is there anyone actually in the alley itself, just at the different entrances. I think if I jump over there and climb down the fire escape quietly, I can get to her apartment without anyone noticing. What do you two think?”
“It’s a pretty big risk. I think we should just go somewhere else instead. Maybe there’s another homeless shelter you can sleep at.”
Amitiel glanced over at Raguel.
“Homeless shelter?”
“Yes. Think of a monastery without the preaching.”
“Okay,” she said as she glanced forward. After a moment, she looked back over.
“What’s a monastery?”
Raguel shook his head.
“Never mind.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
After one more look, Samuel got a running start and leapt over to Blythe’s building. He slowly climbed down the fire escape, pausing every few steps to listen and look around. After several minutes, he finally reached her window. He gently put his ear up to the glass to see if he could hear anything. He lightly tapped on the glass, but didn’t hear any response. Looking around again, he checked to see if the window was locked. Silently sliding it open, he quietly slipped through the window before turning around to close it again. As he started to turn back toward the main area, his world erupted into fire as something splattered into his face, followed by a blinding light. Samuel let out a yelp of pain as he fell backward, knocking stuff over in the process.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!”
Through the burning pain across his face and lungs, he heard stuff getting knocked around before he heard the water start running in the sink. A moment later, something wet was shoved in his hands. It took him a moment to realize it was a wet cloth.
“I didn’t know it was you. I just saw someone coming through my window and reacted.”
