by Skyler Grant
Zealous Blow
I let myself be filled with fury and swung my sword in an overhead blow towards the robot’s head. It sank deep, fire exploding from the wound even as sparks leapt up the length of my sword to fling me backwards to the ground.
Overload
The rifle that had been thrown away exploded. I hadn’t realized it was even a threat. Neither, it seemed, had Walt given he was standing right on it. He exploded into meaty bits. I hoped he would be fine—I’d died on Atlantis and came back. But we didn’t have time to worry about it now. We were suddenly one man down in an increasingly dangerous fight.
The marine that I and Ashley were fighting was down to nearly a quarter health, but that still left one up. I was blocking a lot of the bullets coming my way, but those making it through were still steadily decreasing my health bar. We were in rough shape.
Sensor Grid
Spheres fired into the air from the back of the shooting marine and coated the area with beams of spinning light. Ashley faded from stealth.
“Fuck,” Ashley said, right before the shooter switched his target to her. It was an amazing sight as she dodged bullet after bullet with fluid movements, but one finally caught her in the shoulder taking out a massive chunk, sending her spinning to the ground.
I charged forward putting my shield between her and the gunfire.
“Can you take out the injured one?” I asked her.
Ashley’s health began to tick up as she drank a health potion and that mess of a shoulder began to knit itself back together.
“Yeah. We’ve stripped the armor. Just keep me guarded for a moment to line up the shot.”
Ashley aimed her hand-crossbow, waited for precisely the right moment and then let fly. The bolt flew and caught the head, which remained split open.
A massive shower of sparks erupted and the marine’s frame began to jerk violently before collapsing.
One down. That left us with only one to go and us down. Hopefully Walt was on his way back even now from his own death.
“Any ideas for how to handle this last one without stealth?” I asked.
“If you can’t be invisible, make sure you are seen,” Ashley said. I looked back to see she’d pulled up the man she had earlier knocked out. Ashley had a knife to his throat, the blade already digging in enough to draw blood.
The marine’s sensors swept over Ashley, taking in the situation. Its rifle was aimed, but it wasn’t taking the shot.
“I think you need to leave or I kill him,” Ashley said. What was it with her and taking hostages? I guess it was a strategy that kept working for her. Maybe I should try it sometime.
“Release him,” the marine said, in a voice mechanical and cold.
“Drop your gun,” Ashley said.
He didn’t. She didn’t. Stalemate.
“Perhaps we can come to some sort of compromise,” I said.
“Surrender and you will not be harmed,” the marine said.
I let my eyes do the talking as I gave a pointed look at the bloody chunks of Walt.
If it was possible for a robotic marine to look sheepish this one did.
I said, “You killed one of ours. We killed one of yours. That’s equivalent. We can walk away.”
The marine considered this. “Release the hostage and go.”
“You could shoot at us as we walk away.”
“I was shooting at you moments ago.”
Well, that was true. At worst, it seemed we were back in the same position as before.
“You’ll just let us go?” I asked.
“You took down XG-317 there, but we can fix him up. I’d rather you not kill your hostage, but frankly he’s a bit of a dick. The higher-ups would like to have a talk with you. You’d be better off going with me, but I’d rather walk away and have them send a bigger strike force next time.”
Something to look forward to.
“I’m thinking we should take that deal. Ashley?”
Ashley took a moment and then kicked her hostage free to send him sprawling face-down in the dirt.
The marine kept his rifle leveled in our direction as I got between him and Ashley with my shield and we backed away.
As soon as we were over the ridge and out of sight, I said, “We need to get to the palace. They’ll already be calling more reinforcements.”
“What about Walt?”
“He’s more mobile than either of us. Hopefully he will figure things out and find a way to make it on his own.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
We could see how large the battleground had become. The lands around the palace were scattered with broken fragments of metal that surely came from marines, as well as blood and fluids from the local horrors unleashed.
In the distance I could hear the whine of weapons fire or the savage roar of one beast or another.
“Seriously, Liam. Fuck you for all of this,” Ashley said, as she carefully made her way down a hill of glass.
I was feeling quite guilty enough without her reminders.
“Look at this way, lots of things to kill and loot?”
Ashley gave me an unamused look. “I don’t just mean this. Us, still being here. It was fun at first, but this is grim.”
“It’s not all bad.”
It really wasn’t. Things kept getting worse, but there were bright spots, too. People that I cared about, for instance. And while the world was kind of horrific right now, it was also badass.
“Maybe not for you. You’re sleeping around and wearing a crown. Think how bad this sucks for the rest of us.”
“You have Bull.”
Ashley went still and motioned me to do the same. I felt a presence nearby, and the tremor of the earth as something massive came close. We were silent for several minutes until the thudding beneath our feet indicated it was moving away and Ashley signaled we could start again.
“Bull is nice. I like him, but it’s too little for too much abuse. Aren’t you getting tired of being hurt all the time? Of that feeling of being torn apart and put back together?”
I knew what she was talking about. But with my passives that sheer rush from taking damage was intoxicating. It was a high to almost die and come back. It hurt, but it was also addictive. I wasn’t cowering away at the thought of the next fight. I was waiting for it. That was pretty sick.
“I think I’m made for this, Ashley. I know that sounds strange, but I feel real here in a way I never did back home. There, I was always searching for something and never finding it.”
Ashley stared at me and for an instant I saw concern in that gaze. “And you think you’ve found it here? In her?”
She thought it was all about Yvera. I understood that, I’d thought the same thing at first. I was starting to understand things differently now. I loved Yvera as I loved Mellaise, utterly and completely and without any trace of logic or reason. Mellaise was a Siren and I knew my love for her came from that. The fact that I felt the same about Yvera likely meant that love was also something inflicted upon me, rather than springing from within.
It might seem that should cause me conflict. I’d understand, if others thought so. Who among us doesn’t want to be free? Understanding the strings that made you a puppet was the first step to becoming free.
“It’s not all about her,” I said, as I knelt behind a pillar of glass to avoid a slowly oozing lake of blackness crawling past us. “I’m in over my head. Every day is a new challenge that I don’t know how to deal with and a new problem I don’t know how to fix.”
“You like that,” Ashley said quietly. “You actually like being in over your head. You like fighting to keep your head above the waves.”
I did. So help me, I did.
“Don’t you?” I asked, trying to make out her features in the dark. “I’ve seen something come alive in you here.”
“I hate the flailing,” Ashley said, followed by a bitter laugh. “The things that I’m finding make me happy here scare me. I like hurting those that deserv
e it, I like taking. I did even before Atlantia got into my head, and now it’s just a roar.”
“Is it really that bad for you?”
Ashley reached up a hand to brush back her hair. “The ocean is greedy, Liam. It loves to drown the careless and to take all they have. I was a bit greedy and murderous before her.”
I stared at her.
“Fine. More than a bit. But I was in control and now I’m not. At first I could tell where she started and I began, and struggled against it, but after whatever happened in that cell… now it isn’t me and her. Now it’s just us. What is it like for you?”
It had never seemed that much of a fight for me, but then I knew I had changed. I might have been kind of a tool back in the real world, but I wasn’t as foolish or successful as I’d proved myself here.
“Because I was her Paladin, I think she started slipping into me a little bit almost at once here. It’s been more gradual, but I think I’m just as transformed.”
“Doesn’t that terrify you?” Ashley asked. I knew she wanted it to—she was searching for something to cling to. Some bit of control to help her build back up who she was.
“It did at first. Now it concerns me, but mostly I’m happy it happened. Happy that I’m changing. I’m accomplishing things I never would have before.”
Ashley let loose a long sigh and shook her head. “You would say that. You don’t care at all, not really. You’d have me just give in to my worst impulses and become a psychopath.”
“I don’t think Yvera is building upon anything that wasn’t already in me. You were already kind of a scary bitch. Atlantia is magnifying that. Just don’t let her replace you. You are Ashley and not Atlantia.”
That sentiment earned me a quiet nod. We were drawing close to the walls of the palace now. Behind us jump-jets filled the sky. They’d sent quite the force to find us.
“I can keep the scary bitch part of me reserved for those who really deserve it,” Ashley said. “What about Walt? You saw what was in his head. We’ve connected a will to destroy the world with a creator of world-destroying toys.”
Walt was our ally and Mela was a part of Yvera’s pantheon now, but Ashley was right. That pairing was going to be a problem. My connection could make me an idiot, Ashley’s could get a few people killed, Walt’s could blow up the whole damned world.
“Don’t be so maudlin. It’s not as bad as you make it out to be,” Yvera said in my head.
“What do you think is going to happen then?”
“Walt’s people never wanted to destroy the world, they wanted to change a world where progress was cast aside in the name of peace. Mela does not want to destroy the world, she feels the biological must merge with the mechanical to be worthy of survival. They are a deadly combination, but not to us,” Yvera thought.
Those arguments made sense. They wanted to remake the world, not destroy it. Yvera wanted the same thing.
We finally came to the wall surrounding the palace. The runes were glowing brilliantly in the night air.
“Don’t suppose you had any plans for getting inside?” Ashley asked.
“Liara, I know you are incredibly pissed about the whole spaceship crashing down on your head thing. I own that. It’s my fault, but you need friends now more than ever and that means you need us. Please let us in,” I said.
I figured on a war footing some magic would be monitoring these walls and I could only hope that my words would find their way to the right destination.
It didn’t take long for the runes on the nearest section of the wall to fade to black for a moment and we were teleported.
I hadn’t seen the throne room of the palace before. Half was perfectly black and half white, the dividing line cutting right through the center of the room and the throne itself.
Not so the Queen. It was no surprise, given the hour, that upon the throne sat a familiar figure in an unfamiliar hue. Liara might have been carved of obsidian now, her position a half-slouch that had an indulgent and sinister cast.
“Your Majesty,” I said. “I’m not sure if we are familiar with each other or not.”
“I know her,” Ashley said, spitting out the words. “She liked to come in and watch as I hurt myself. She’s sick.”
“So very true,” said the Black Queen. “And I know you as well, Liam. Through my other half.”
“You didn’t,” Ashley said, turning to look at me. “Really?”
Apparently, I had. Sort of. Why was the Queen two people? Everything really was simpler when people weren’t plural.
“I wasn’t sure how that worked exactly. So, are you going to kill us?” I asked.
Liara looked us up and down. Somehow, I could feel the tortures running through her mind. “Tempting, but no. While I’d love nothing more than to spend a few decades making you scream there are times and places and rules. My more foolish half gave you the key. I assume this mess is Mela’s doing?”
“She was a little pissed about being locked up,” Ashley said. “So am I.”
“Muzzle your dog, Liam or I will,” Liara said with bored contempt. “A rock full of mechanical monsters seemed her style. They nearly breached the castle. Opening the cells has kept them busy.”
“I’m surprised they’re still alive. I thought your cells were filled with the worst horrors the world held,” I said.
“Potentially. Few were captured at their peak and of those, time has not been kind,” Liara said, drumming her fingers on the throne. “Honestly, they’ve been something of a disappointment. Why is it collectibles never hold their value?”
“This is what you find hot?” Ashley said.
“The other her is different,” I said. It was a weak defense. We both knew it. I’d sleep with this one too, given the opportunity.
“Much harder to find in a snowstorm,” Liara said. “I allowed you in, because you suggested you can help. How?”
I didn’t know how much I should reveal. I didn’t want to proclaim that we were from the same world as those on the starship, and that knowledge only helped a bit anyway. Walt knew some about the operation of the ship. There were other cards I could play.
“We have divine backing. We have a castle not under siege. You can’t stay here, Liara. Not here in the middle of all that has been unleashed,” I said.
Liara gave me a look that made every instinct I have prickle with fear. She was a predator at rest, dangerous and cruel. “You suggest I flee to Castle Sardonis?”
“I suggest that your position here is not tenable and is too much for you to deal with alone.”
“I suppose with the city gone I have no people to hold me here,” Liara said.
Awkward.
“We already moved your city to the castle,” I said.
That look returned and I thought she might fling herself from the throne and rend me asunder. To my surprise she laughed.
“You stole my city and unleashed havoc upon my castle,” Liara said. “With your effort to kill me having failed, you now wish to have me a monarch in exile. It is an interesting game you play, King Liam. I wonder if it ends in courtship or murder.”
I hadn’t really been planning on either. I’d be damned if I wasn’t learning from all my experiences though. When a woman is laughing and seems intrigued, you don’t disabuse her of her notions.
“Find out,” I said.
“Gross,” Ashley said.
Liara wasted little time in thought. “Galea recently connected with the transport network again. I’ll send you two along first so that your people know they are not being invaded. I need to set defenses here and then I’ll begin to send my people through.”
Great. I got to tell Elsora we were having guests moving in after having already dropped a city on her head. I wondered if unleashing Armageddon counted as starting another war.
“We have a friend out there somewhere. A wizard. You had him locked up as well,” I said. “If he should show up, please allow him in as well.”
“Fine,” Liara sa
id. “Although if he is out there it is unlikely he is still alive. It was a surprise that you made it through to the walls.”
Liara made a curt motion with one hand and a servant came up to guide us to the portal. It wasn’t far from the throne room, a polished stone arch filled with crackling energy.
Stepping into the portal resulted in a moment of intense disorientation and, in an instant, we were back at Castle Sardonis. There were surprises waiting for us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Walt was on the other side of the portal, leaning against the wall and looking bored.
“Did we find Walt’s evil doppelganger?” Ashley asked, with her hands slipping towards her daggers. “Wait. Other way round. Did we find Walt’s good doppelganger?”
“I’m not sure,” I said.
“I’m not my good doppelganger,” Walt said. “I died. A lot. Die enough, and you get to respawn at your home location.”
That made sense. I’d only ever died the once.
“And your home location is the castle,” I said.
“Obviously. I figured if you two were going to make it back, it would be through the portal network,” Walt said.
“Do you know where Elsora is?” I asked. “We’ve got guests arriving.”
“She’s dealing with the guests already here,” Walt said, as he peeled himself off the wall and motioned us along. We followed.
Walt led us through the halls to the war room. Elsora was there standing face to face with Maria. They were doing that staring down each other thing that made it look as if they’d been at it for hours. Spider was doing embroidery, lounging in one of the chairs nearby.
Eyes traced my entrance and Elsora smoothly curtsied. “Majesty. Walt had said you might be returning soon. There is food and beverages on the table.”
So there were. I took a moment to find a sandwich and some wine before making my way back to ask, “So why do you two look like you’re going to murder each other?”
“Idiot,” Maria said. “Why do you think? Because we want to murder each other.”
