Facets of the Nether

by William C. Tracy

  “I believe so,” the Effature said. “The cloaked figure moved with great speed and grace. Majus Ayama seemed to know the individual, though I was not conscious for the journey from the bridge to the medical ward. Maji were directed to bring me to Joban Szaler. They said Rilan Ayama’s group traveled through a portal.”

  Sam slammed a fist into his other palm. “Nakan. It has to be him, especially if all the maji present couldn’t stop him. But that means Majus Ayama figured out the portal to the Life Coalition’s location.”

  “Nakan,” Inas hissed and Sam watched him warily.

  “He controls the Aridori the Life Coalition hold prisoner.” Inas’ face drew down into a sneer. “He’s a vile person, and his assassins are nearly as bad. They’re as old as you, sir, or older.” Inas nodded to the Effature, who frowned at the information.

  “We have to follow them,” Sam said. “They have Enos, and we can help…” He broke off, and stared over the others’ heads at the rotating oblong of pitch black growing in the room’s corner. It was ringed with brown—the House of Potential.

  “Someone’s coming,” Inas said, and Sam caught the slightest glimmer of worry on the Effature’s normally placid face. “Who would know to make a portal here?”

  Majus Ayama stepped out as soon as the portal was formed.

  “Sam!” she called. “Inas! You’re back.” She turned to the Effature. “And I see you are still alive. I’m glad. I knew if Szaler couldn’t save you, no one could.”

  Majus Cyrysi was right on her heels, closely followed by Majus Caroom, Majus Hand Dancer, then Majus I’Fon, hir head-tentacles in disarray, then Majus Kheena.

  So he wasn’t the one who opened the portal.

  Majus Ayama frowned at the Effature. “I hope you’re up to some negotiation, sir. Whatever we expected from the Life Coalition, it wasn’t…well, you’ll see.” She opened a hand to the portal as the first black-cloaked figure stepped out.

  Sam tensed. He sensed unease from Majus Ayama, and the Symphony grew complex as another followed the first figure, and another, until there were ten or more, crowding the room. Extra notes hung around the newcomers, as if they’d been near an explosion, but the music was…off, too. Sam squinted. There were reverberations in the Houses of Matter and Time, like little vibrations that, over years, could cause a building to collapse into rubble. He absently rubbed the ring Wor Wobniar had given him. It was buzzing like it would jump off his finger.

  The maji arranged themselves near the door, while the Coalitioners took the other side of the room, the portal opposite the Effature’s couch.

  Then the portal seemed to bulge, and tiny legs curled around the edges, pulling another creature through with effort. A low sinuous body appeared, bright orange and black, like a clownfish but slithering over the floor in a sinuous wave. As the rest of it pushed through the opening, it moved fast and low, like a shark on land, and a fin on its back twitched toward one side and then the other. As the fin tilted to either maji or Coalitioners, they stepped back. The creature emitted a wave of other and Sam wrinkled his nose. There was a new theme in the Symphony, a bulky loping melody throwing the other themes off their timing, as if it shoved the music away.

  “What is tha—ugh.” Sam clutched at the pain in his head.

  THIS IS MY EMISSARY.

  Sam thought that voice had disappeared forever, vanished into the giant Drain he’d banished from the floor of the Assembly. It had taken the combined might of the Life Coalition to summon it the last time, and now it accompanied one creature?

  The Vloeinkaal popped into existence for a single instant and lines shriveled and died around the creature, just as they did around a Drain.

  He grasped at the echoes of the voice, but it faded like dew in the sun, leaving nothing behind.

  Sam straightened, catching sight of someone even more important, half hidden behind the Life Coalition guards. He circled around the menace of the creature, which squatted in the middle of the room.

  Enos.

  * * *

  Enos watched the Aridori masquerading as the guards of the Life Coalition leaders, but looked around as Inas ran toward her with a shout. Sam wasn’t far behind.

  She realized he’d felt present since she stepped through the portal, but she’d been too focused on the assassins, free to do as they wished.

  “Enos!”

  They collided, and she breathed in the scent of her other instance as he crumpled her in a huge hug.

  “You are in danger,” she whispered, clutching him tight. Over his shoulder she saw Majus Ayama introducing the Coalition leaders to the Effature. Her mentor’s eyes twitched toward her, but there had been no time for them to even speak to each other.

  “The others are here.” Inas tensed in her arms, but his eyes went to the disguised Aridori, picking them out though the Coalition leaders still hadn’t noticed. One hood swung in their direction, then back to the creature that had come through the Drain.

  “Where is the biggest one?” Inas whispered back. How could he tell that one was missing? He leaned back to study her face. “You’ve changed. You’re taller. One of your eyes is different.” He looked at the gash on her arm. “And you’re injured.”

  She dismissed the gash with a shrug. A problem for another time. “I’m not just me anymore,” she whispered back. She caught his eye-flick to the Aridori and nodded. “The big one attacked me. I…finished the fight.”

  Inas pressed her hand between his, and Enos relished his warm touch. It had been too long since they were together. But then his flesh flowed around hers, soothing the angry voices inside her. Why would he freely offer himself? She began to accept his body, as the urge to soak him up like a sponge sopping up water rose through her. Then she shoved it away.

  I am in control.

  “The other Effature taught me some tricks. I can help you mesh the new parts,” Inas said.

  Enos blinked. That was not what she’d expected him to say.

  “Wait—other Effature?”

  “Some odd things happened,” Inas said, his old smile tugging at the corner of his lip, but he didn’t get to continue, because Sam was there, pressing into their embrace, and it felt like the days of confinement with the Aridori prisoners fled at his touch. His presence was as welcome as that of her other instance.

  “I missed you,” Sam said, and pushed his forehead against hers. She leaned up, breathing him in, running a hand down his shaggy hair.

  A need surfaced, the drive to feel all she could, to search for new sensation. It came from changing too much. But knowing that made it manageable. She channeled the desire into a fierce kiss, pressing Sam back with its force, taking all her breath away with it. His arms encircled her, and Inas hugged both of them, his ever-present warmth like a small star. They were complete again.

  Then Sam pulled back from her lips, sniffed, and swallowed. His eyes bored into hers.

  “We’re in danger,” he said, and Enos would have laughed at the echo of her words if he hadn’t looked so serious.

  Sam peered over his shoulder at the creature that had come from the Drain, which was debating with Majus Ayama. There was a communication barrier, even though they were in the Nether.

  “The voice came with it,” Sam said. “The one that removed my memories of Earth.”

  Enos’ stomach dropped at his words, and Inas looked as concerned as she felt.

  “He told me while we were in the other facet,” her other instance said. Their heads were close together, and they spoke in whispers.

  “It’s connected to that creature, and it’s incredibly dangerous,” Sam said. “It said the creature is its emissary. I think the voice is behind whatever is really making the Drains. This isn’t just the Life Coalition. This is connected to the Dissolution, somehow.”

  * * *

  “We have no extra power. These idiots told us you would bring the way to peace with you, whatever that is.” Rilan pointed at Janas as she stared down at the sinuous orange creat
ure. It felt wrong, as if the Symphony itself was rejecting it. She couldn’t get a fix on its biology with the House of Healing, much less anything to do with how it thought.

  The creature hadn’t introduced itself, but kept demanding power. Or maybe energy. The Nether wasn’t very clear in its translation, for once. The words appearing in her memory wavered and changed, as if they could mean multiple things.

  We/I am must have/want/find a concentration/the source of/new types of power/energy.

  “I don’t know what you want,” she said, and looked to Ori, who shrugged, then down the line of the others. Rey, who’d just closed the portal he made, scowled at the Coalitioners. He was standing close to them, just past the knot of bodies made from Sam, Inas, and Enos. Rilan wanted to rush to her apprentice, but there was no time. She thanked all the gods Enos had made it away from the asteroid.

  They’d come here at agreement from both the Life Coalition and her group of maji, as the room of void seeds was vibrating as if it would collapse the cave in the little homeworld. The Nether, where everyone could communicate, was the best place to meet a new species. It had been so ever since the Assembly was founded.

  And here she could bring Nakan to an accounting. His fellow Life Coalition members didn’t seem to like him either. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam, Enos and Inas turn to face them. What had the Sathssn done to her? She looked…taller. Had they made her use her Aridori abilities to change shape?

  Rilan shook her head. No one would appear and offer a source of free power, so what did this disturbing creature want? It seemed to watch her, eyeless, its fin cocked toward her.

  “If you, you do not give power,” Janas said, “then do you seek a representative or leader?”

  The creature squatted, its cilia-like legs spreading out as if feeling the floor.

  We/I search/come for great power. We are/I am the Elgynerdeen. We have been shouting/communication/pleading for much time.

  Hand Dancer signed.

  “Our leader can negotiate with you,” Rilan said, gesturing to the Effature. “He is currently injured, but can help when he is healed.” She glared at the Coalitioners, and hoods turned to Nakan. So there was another story there.

  “I am always eager to meet new species,” the Effature said. His voice was weak, and Rilan could see signs of stress around him. Ripples of darker coloring passed along his face, as if Nakan’s knife still affected him. What had it done?

  The creature slithered over to him, the fin on its back waggling. It made Rilan’s spine itch and she forced her shoulders to loosen. Something was very wrong about all of this, but she didn’t know what.

  “Greetings from the Assembly of Species,” the Effature said. “Please forgive my state. I have been—”

  “You still live.” Nakan stepped out of the Coalitioners, shaking off the hands that had held him back. “Me, I thought I was rid of you.”

  Rilan shifted her feet, ready to fight the majus. There were so many who could hear the Symphony in this room they’d trample all over each other if they started changing notes.

  “Not as yet,” the Effature said, and shifted to a more vertical position. His voice was as harsh as she had heard from the old man.

  There is not peace/conflict/danger here, the Elgynerdeen said. Was that its name? Or its species?

  “Yes, there is conflict,” Rilan told it. The fin on its back twitched toward her and it swung around. She took a step back.

  Conflict/disorder is not best/optimal. Peace/silence/finality is more efficient.

  “This being, it is one who sides with the philosophy of the Life Coalition,” one of the cloaked forms said. “We also seek to bring peace to all.”

  This is negotiable/different/misunderstood, the Elgynerdeen said, swinging its body the other way, and the Coalitioner who spoke—she thought it was Janas—took a surprised step backwards. Rilan smiled grimly. So their prophecy didn’t predict everything.

  The Elgynerdeen twirled in a circle, though without a recognizable head, Rilan wasn’t sure where it was facing.

  We will share/enact our peace/silence/transformation.

  “While that is a possibility, we must negotiate our terms,” the Effature said, then sucked in a breath, holding the bandage on his side. That was when the Elgynerdeen moved.

  Quicker than she thought possible, it was at the Effature’s side, slithering halfway up the low couch he rested on. She’d only taken one step during the same time.

  Negotiation/peace/silence/not peace will become one. The creature was on the Effature’s chest, then melted into him. The Effature choked out a surprised cough, his wide eyes sinking back into his head, his body falling back in a heap. Rilan realized he was melting too, falling into nothingness.

  “No!” she called, as everyone rushed forward. Time slowed and she glimpsed Sam clutching his head, Enos and Inas gathered around him.

  She reached the Effature’s side at the same time as Nakan, but even as the Symphony whipped through Rilan’s mind, she could already tell it was too late. Chords fused into a sludge of notes, everything playing at once. The Effature and the Elgynerdeen flowed together like melting snow, into a pool of color, then nothing. A crystal circlet rolled down the couch and onto the floor. It looked like it had legs, or prongs. How had it been attached to the Effature’s head?

  Rilan swiped a hand across the bare sofa. It wasn’t even warm.

  “What happened? Where is he?” She spun to the Coalitioners, her braid spinning in a spiral.

  * * *

  Rey stared at the place where the Effature had been. His gut clenched, his skin cold and clammy. This wasn’t right. He’d known it from when the weird critter had trouble going through the portal. Had to pull itself through, like it didn’t belong in either place.

  The others rushed forward, though the old man was already gone, along with the repulsive creature who’d come through the void.

  His eyes found Janas and Zsaana, who he’d spoken to what seemed like cycles ago. If he hadn’t talked with them, would this have happened? Would the Effature be gone? Would Inas have deserted him for Sam? He clenched a fist. So many things wrong. He should have stayed on Sureri—never left home.

  The Life Coalition had spoken in their prophesy of access to great power, but they were clueless. Now they’d killed the Effature. He’d tried to understand. Tried to rationalize with all these aliens. No one paid any attention to him. The Assembly was stupid, the Council of the Maji useless. It was far past time for them all to stop fighting.

  Rey moved behind Janas, listening to the Symphony describe the energy around her. He could do—

  “You think like one of the Blessed, I can tell,” said a voice behind him. Rey jumped and spun. It was a guard, but bright blue eyes peeked out from under the cowl. What—?

  “It is such a simple thing. I will show you.” The figure reached out with arms that were too long, and Janas made a small noise as they captured her head, squeezing. What were these creatures?

  “Only a little kick to the back of her boots,” the not-guard whispered. The other Snakeys weren’t even watching. All eyes were on where the Effature had been, but Rey’s voice was frozen in his throat.

  The person snapped out with one leg and Janas’ full weight was transferred to the joint between her neck and her body. Rey could hear the crescendo in the energy and there was a sharp crack, lost in the noise the others were making over the Effature.

  Not even the other Coalitioners noticed. Not even Zsaana, who should have been able to tell with the House of Healing. Janas fell limp.

  “Hold this.” Rey caught the body, falling back with her, out of the line of sight of the others and closer to the guards. None of them had reacted. Weren’t they supposed to be guarding her?

  Then they turned to him, as one. They had seen. Rey swallowed, cradling the small body.

  Vibrant purple eyes stared out from another hood. These were no Snakeys. As he watched, a shadow
of fangs grew. A gloved hand lifted and nails lengthened into knives.

  Aridori.

  “You know the ways of the Blessed, of silent death, though you are not of our species.” The shape glided forward and Rey pressed back against the wall of the chamber, still holding Janas’ cooling body, very very unsure now of what had happened. He had only thought… He hadn’t…

  “We also wish to take our vengeance on those who have imprisoned us.” The voice was like silk, laced with poison. These were the ones who’d been tortured with Inas. The Aridori assassins. “Such initiative has a place with us, should you wish it. There is great power to be had.”

  “I…I…” Rey could only stammer.

  One of the other hooded figures looked back, then made a small signal.

  “We must go now,” the voice whispered. “Bring the body. It will be valuable fuel.”

  The group surrounded Rey, pulling him to his feet, bustling them from the chaotic room like a line of shadows crossing a wall.

  * * *

  The voice screamed in Sam’s head about power and time. It was too much and his body was shutting down. Enos and Inas were next to him, but everything was going wrong. Pain cascaded up his legs as his knees hit the floor.

  MY EMISSARIES WILL DRAW ME TO THIS PLACE AS I WAS UNABLE TO DO BEFORE.

  The voice was stronger, like music blasting at full volume.

  I stopped you, Sam thought back. You were gone.

  NEVER GONE. ONLY HIDDEN. BUT NOW THE CONDUIT IS CONNECTED, NO MATTER THE LOCATION. WATCH.

  Majus Ayama and Nakan were still arguing next to where the Effature had been. Sam struggled to his feet against the oppressive voice, and turned, with horrible fascination, as a skin like rancid pus bloomed into view. His eyes fixed on it, even as others jumped out of the way. There was a hole in the Symphony where notes split and died. It was like a Drain, but also unlike it.

  The skin split open and two more orange and black-striped creatures exited, scattering Life Coalition and maji alike. Then the Drain collapsed behind them into a pile, like a leftover shell.