Fallen Star

by Steven Drake

  “I understand my lord.” Varias nodded, and put the vial and the papers away into a hidden pocket inside his robes. “I believe you will yet be victorious, but I will honor your request. If you fall, I will avenge your death.”

  “I trust you Varias, but be warned. If you manage to kill Arcanus, beware the Demon’s Blade. Do not touch it with your bare hands. First bind it in thick cloth, then hide it well, and encase it in crystal to contain its influence, or it will draw others to it."

  “I will do as you ask. I will kill Arcanus if I can, and hide the Demon’s Blade where none will ever find it. Upon my life, I swear it.”

  The two men embraced and patted one another on the back. Then Argas turned to Miri. She looked up at him, trying to memorize every feature of his face. He led her away, up the now familiar stone path to the stone table. Her mother walked behind her. Her insides trembled and convulsed with fear. She wanted to run away, to escape that cold table, but deep inside, she knew this was only a vision. A memory of what had happened so long ago, and she had no power to change it.

  When they reached the stone table, they stopped, and Miri’s father lifted her up and sat her on the stone. It was covered with strange symbols that Miri didn’t recognize, and the stone was freezing cold. However, when her father laid a hand on it, light seemed to leave him and flow into the symbols, and the stone seemed to become warm, and soft as silk, though it looked no different. Miri’s mother stood across the table from her father. She looked sad, as though she were fighting back tears.

  “So, you intend to place her into the unending dream,” Varias spoke. “Surely there’s another way. If you refuse to let me help you in this battle, I could look after her.”

  “No, Varias. It isn’t that I doubt your ability, but your task is to stop Arcanus. You cannot protect my daughter at the same time. This way, I can protect both Mirisa and the living star at the same time. When she wakens, the star will waken as well, and as she grows, it will recover its power. Let us hope that both will waken only when these dark times are long behind us.”

  “What if she never wakes? The spell to waken a dreamer is lost, and it requires the Star of Kings. The unending dream is said to be a paradise, so your daughter would sleep peacefully until the end of time, but the star would be lost forever.”

  “Yes, and Arcanus will never be able to touch either, so this will put both Mirisa and the living star beyond his reach forever. Still, I have altered the dream spell sufficiently that the enchantment is not unbreakable. It can be broken by scions of a certain bloodline, my brother’s bloodline.”

  “But why your brother? I doubt anyone could convince him to help you at this point.”

  “My brother and I have our disagreements. He sacrifices too much of what we are, even for the sake of evading Arcanus sight. He also bends the truth too readily, but he is a good man. I do not agree with his methods, but he does what he does for the sake of our people. I still believe in him. If not him, then his line will continue, and one day, his heirs may forgive us.

  “This is what my queen advised me. Lucca has never been wrong, about anything.” Miri’s mother added. “She asks us to have faith in her vision. She said that should the worst occur, we should have faith.”

  “Do you really trust her visions?” Varias asked of the faerie woman. “She abandoned you. She nearly killed you. How can you now imagine she acts in your interests?”

  “Lucca sees more than even the other faeries, more than we can imagine. She may have abandoned me, but I believe she knew Argas would save me.” Miri’s mother stared across at her father. Both of them glowed with love for one another.

  “That only makes it worse,” Varias protested. “She might have told you, but she kept her secrets instead. Lucca manipulates others to serve her interests because her and her faeries have no power of their own. They seek to shape the future without lifting a finger themselves. They are weak, and they resent your strength, my lady.”

  “That may be, but they protect their own.” Miri’s father spoke instead. “Perhaps better than any of the other races, and Miri is one of them, at least in part, the only one of her kind, perhaps the only one there ever will be. We have no more time now, and we cannot allow Arcanus to destroy her. If we can do nothing else, we will deny him that, at least.” Miri’s heart beat fast. She didn’t fully understand what they were talking about, but it was about her. Why did this Arcanus want to kill her, or her parents? Who was he, and why did she need to be protected from him? How could she be a faerie? She knew this woman who looked like a faerie was her mother, but she didn’t understand how that was possible? All faeries were women, and no one knew how they were born at all. No one had ever witnessed them having children, let alone a child with an elf.

  Her childhood self must have shared her confusion, and her father must have noticed, because he laid a warm hand on the side of her face. She felt the warmth, the strength, and the magical energy inside him. It was a comfort, and her breathing eased.

  “Now Miri, we need you to lay down. We are going to put you to sleep. You may be asleep for a long time, but someone will come and wake you up eventually. Until then, you will have good dreams. Remember that we will love you forever, and we will see you again, beyond the doors of death.”

  Miri laid down, her mind eased by her father’s words. Then he waved his hands around, weaving the magic. She saw a fog of light and darkness weaving together around his hands. She looked up, and saw the bright light of the sun. It seemed to grow larger, as though it were descending to meet her. It continued to grow closer, until she could see it clearly. Not the sun, it was some sort of strange pulsating light inside a clear glass ball, or perhaps a solid crystal. The light within drifted and reshaped itself, as though it were made of liquid light.

  She started to feel sleepy, and yawned. Her vision blurred. She heard voices speaking, her parents, and Varias, but she couldn’t tell what was said. Varias appeared at the end of the table, near her feet, and began to wave his hands as well. The strange light seemed to change, and suddenly it split into hundreds of streamers of bright light, which left the glass sphere and danced in the air like ribbons on the breeze. They wove beautiful and complex patterns in the air, and danced ever closer to her. The sphere itself descended into the table next to her, and the stone surface seemed to ripple like water as the sphere disappeared into the stone. The streamers of light still danced in the air, and then they broke out of the pattern, and spiraled down. Miri felt them flow into her, so much energy she thought she might burst from it. The symbols on the dais lit with bright light, and the world around her seemed to disappear into hazy light. She felt irrepressibly sleepy now, but clung desperately to consciousness, as she suddenly knew that she would never see her father or her mother again. She found the strength to reach up. She felt her father squeeze her hand, one last time, and then faded into the world of dreams.

  The vision ended, and the blue light returned, but she was not alone. She saw her father before her, floating in the same blue ocean of light. She ran to him, and embraced him, finding him solid. “Daddy, daddy is that you?”

  He grasped her shoulders, and pulled her away gently. “It is, and it is not. What you are seeing is a vision granted by the memory stone. If you are seeing me now, it means that you finally woke up, and found your way here, and I am so happy for that.” His eyes grew wet with tears for a moment, and he paused while he gathered himself. “This room contains what is called a memory stone. It is the collective memory of the people of this sanctuary, the city of Albenar, and one of our greatest treasures. The necklace I left with you contains a portion of its power, and a small piece of the vision you just saw. You probably have seen it before, in dreams. I could not leave you without any memories of us, so I gave you a small memory, so you would understand who you are, and where you came from, at least a tiny fragment of your life as a child with us.” Miri’s breathing slowed and grew more even. Finally, she understood. “In this stone, you will be ab
le to see much of the history of our people, but it will take time to learn to use it. Search the books on the shelves, and you will find one that explains how to use the memory stone.”

  “But all the books are gone,” Miri blurted out. “The Shades, they took the books, they took everything.”

  The face of her father turned blank. “I do not understand. What is ‘Shades’?” Miri felt a cold confusion at this change in her father, but then it wasn’t really her father, just an illusion, a spell that looked like him, a memory from thousands of years ago. Of course, it couldn’t know about the Order of the Shade, or anything else in the present world, but another question surfaced in her mind. How did the Shades know about all this? Darien might have an idea. Darien! Her mind suddenly returned to her fully and she remembered completely where she was. A part of her awareness of her body returned, and she noticed that she no longer felt Darien’s presence behind her, nor his hands on her arms.

  Chapter 32: Avatar

  Darien felt the strange currents of magic moving back and forth from Mirisa to the stone, almost as if the stone were speaking to her, and she to it.

  “Miri. Can you tell me what’s happening?”

  She didn’t respond. As he feared, the stone had placed her into some kind of trance, but why. What purpose did this thing serve? What was it doing to her? Would it ever let her go? Could he find some way to break the spell? Darien waited a few minutes, uncertain what to do. He felt the currents of magic flowing back and forth continue to intensify, and his worry grew. I led her out here, he thought. I wanted to find out who she was. Anything that happens is my fault. I can’t let her be trapped by this… thing.

  Darien resolved himself to try and break the connection, so he focused fully on the currents of magic, then tried to interrupt them, pushing his own magical energy between Miri’s hands and the stone. At first, it worked, and he felt the connection waver and become unstable. Darien felt certain he was about to break the connection, but then something fought back.

  Darien didn’t know where it came from or what it was, but he felt another presence oppose him, not Mirisa, nor was it exactly like the magic of the crystal that seemed to be speaking to her. This was, for lack of any better description, a presence, like a mage aura without a mage, something formless, empty, hollowed out. It had been watching the connection between Miri and the crystal just as Darien had been. The opposing force held a particular hostility, and Darien was struck with the uncanny and disturbing sensation that the hostility was directed at him personally, as if it knew without any doubt who he was, and had marked him as an enemy. The energy opposing Darien built quickly, then lashed out violently, pushing him violently backwards and away from Mirisa. He crashed to the floor and rolled.

  He quickly regained his feet, and started to run back toward Miri, but stopped as soon as he felt the immense force building between him and the still entranced woman. An icy blue fog hung in front of him, and thickened gradually as the magic built, until it solidified into a swirling blue mass of water and ice. The mass sprouted arms and legs that extended until it roughly resembled a headless, faceless soldier. Currents of electricity ran through the arms and legs of the creature, arcing out from random points on its body. Darien wondered if this was a golem. It matched the descriptions of the dragons who had seen Niarie’s stone creations, but this one was clearly made of water instead of stone. More importantly, Darien could sense no one controlling it. The faceless soldier had an aura of its own, almost as if it were a living thing.

  Suddenly, a disembodied voice came from the general direction of the watery soldier. “Arcanus” it bellowed with a furious hatred that Darien felt into his very bones. Darien felt a chill run down his spine, thinking he vaguely understood what was happening. Darien had recognized the marks on the wall in the throne room as coming from the Demon’s Blade. He had used such arcs of raw energy when he fought the demon months before. That, combined with Miri’s account of the faerie vision, confirmed in Darien’s mind that Arcanus Sarenna had been the man who she had seen, and that Arcanus was clearly the enemy of these people. Darien understood Ezra’s reaction to Miri’s abilities as well. As a disciple or a descendent of Arcanus, Ezra would share the man’s hatred of these particular elves. Unfortunately, these elves seemed to have left a powerful guardian, and that guardian had identified Darien, himself, as their former hated enemy, probably because of the Demon’s Blade. Either way, he felt certain this creature meant to destroy him, if it could.

  Darien had no idea what to do. Breaking into the room had already drastically weakened him, and he had no idea how to fight this thing, whatever it was. Even so, he couldn’t abandon Miri, so he raised his sword and prepared himself for a desperate fight.

  The golem wasted no time, and thrust an arm forward. Darien initially thought he was out of range, but quickly learned his error, as a jet of water burst forward. Darien twisted awkwardly to the right, dodging the unexpected projectile, but the spout of water turned again and rushed forward towards him a second time. Still, it was only water. Darien ducked low and summoned a powerful wind to scatter the water. It splashed and spattered on the crystal floor, but an arc of electricity quickly flew out from the creature’s body, following the trail of water left by the projectile arm. Darien raised a sword to gather the lightning and managed to channel it away. It hissed as Darien flung the stray bolt across the room over Miri’s head. The creature then regathered its arm into its body.

  Darien wracked his mind trying to consider his options. He had never fought any opponent like this before, and he felt badly unprepared. He needed time to think of a strategy. A shadow void could consume the water in seconds, but his earlier exertions had drained most of his power, and he feared further exertions could aggravate the weaker but still present wound in his right side. If he passed out here, it would be over. It would cost him his life, and maybe Miri’s as well. He took a moment to look at Miri, still entranced by the crystal bowl. She was at risk if he continued fighting here. The stray lightning had passed just feet over her head. Then again, he still didn’t know what the crystal was doing to her. He understood that both choices represented a risk, but he chose to avoid the more immediate danger. A stray spell, deflected projectile, or falling debris could kill Miri instantly, while the crystal bowl had done no obvious harm, yet. Darien turned, and ran, hoping the creature would follow.

  He need not have worried, as the creature matched his speed, firing jets of water which fortunately he could detect with his mage sight as they quickly approached from behind him. Each jet of water hissed with tingling electricity as it sped past. The charge in the room set every hair on Darien’s body on end. The water golem sounded like a crashing waterfall behind him, and he could tell it was gaining on him. He ran out the library and through a narrow door into the stairwell, then leapt down the stairs. He stopped for a moment at the bottom, wondering if the creature’s bulk would prevent it following further.

  For a moment, he felt nothing. The thing stopped at the door of the stairwell. Perhaps it could not follow. A moment later, that hope was dashed as Darien felt and heard the thing change. Suddenly a flood cascaded down the stairs towards him. He turned out of the stairs and tore down the hall then out into the hallway. The flood of water followed into the hallway. Darien thought of stopping to fight here. He didn’t want to get too much farther from Mirisa, and the hallway was large enough, but then he remembered the diminished magic he had felt in the throne room. Whatever battle had been fought there, it had damaged the magic in the room. Whatever this creature was, it depended on magic, perhaps even on the enchantments of this elf sanctuary, somewhat like the guardian ward at the gate. It might be weaker there, so he turned towards the throne room, dodging another torrent of water that splashed just to his right.

  Once he reached the center of the throne room, Darien turned to face the golem. The massive watery soldier stood at the large doorway, hesitating. He immediately smiled, knowing he had been right. Whatever t
his thing was, it had some intelligence, but not more than his own. Years of training and experience had taught Darien the importance of carefully choosing his battlefield, and he had chosen the perfect spot for this fight. Now he simply had to draw the thing to attack him.

  He raised a ball of fire and threw it at the golem. Water hissed and boiled into steam, reducing the size of the thing slightly. Darien smiled again. The creature reabsorbed the steam, but did so very slowly. If he could burn off the water quickly enough, perhaps he could defeat this… whatever it was. Darien buffeted the creature with repeated balls of fire, and the golem shrunk with each blow as steam rose to the ceiling. Finally, the golem overcame its hesitation and charged forward. Darien dodged a hard, wet blow that came in from above. The creature’s attacks came noticeably slower, with far less force. The electricity vanished both from the creature’s attacks and from its body. In this room, the creature was severely limited.

  Darien quickly found an opening to attack. He channeled heat into his sword and slashed through the leg of the golem. It passed through easily. After all, the thing was made of water, but as the sword passed through, the heat sizzled and boiled off still more water. Darien tried to follow up the blow, but the golem changed tactics. For the first time, it dodged his attack. Darien tried several more strikes, but the golem simply reshaped itself, curving its liquid body around each attack.