I smiled, saying nothing. Just as I reached Enigmus’ entrance, Ixiah called, “Calenus!”
I spun.
My guardians gazed across the courtyard, beyond the gate and out into the Khel’hanna Scar. Ripples in the air caught breath in my throat. Our pendulum gateway had been opened.
Someone was here, but none of mine were scheduled to return today.
We stood there, watching, waiting, as a figure emerged through the scar, limping in his approach. Close enough, I sampled his resonance.
Violet.
I relaxed.
Qaira Eltruan lost his footing outside the gate, bashing his shoulder on the iron bars. He was injured—gravely—and the fear in his eyes alluded to the fact that he was not able to regenerate here. The matter that made up Exo’daius was unusable, unlike that of outside. Here we were lessers. We bled and suffered like everyone else.
His clothes were torn and blood stained, and he dragged his foot behind him, near-crawl. Surely he saw us now, but refused to meet our eyes.
Ixiah and Zira looked back at me, bewildered. They hadn’t known of his escape from the Nexus, let alone his assimilation. I only smiled.
Halfway through the courtyard, Qaira collapsed for good, sprawled atop Zira’s toh rings. Before they’d closed, his eyes met mine, and he snarled.
So angry, yet so helpless. He had come here for answers.
And answers he would receive.
“Get him inside,” I said, retreating to Enigmus.
II
THIS DARKENED HEART
Qaira Eltruan—;
IN SLEEP I DREAMT OF A VOID RIMMED WITH neon stardust; shadowy hands stretched through, gripping all that they could reach. They pulled the universe in, and it ripped away like curtains from a screen. My heart thrummed as the hands moved toward me, and through the void came a voice.
“Qaira,” it whispered, tone like a sack full of nails.
Qaira, Qaira, Qaira…
My eyes shot open and I shivered in cold sweat. Someone was leaning over me, the image blurred from sight. Liquid splashed, and something warm hit my leg. I couldn’t remember where I was.
But then I did.
The room melded into view.
I was on a bed below a window that bled eerie red light. Ornate furniture stood sparse, the stone floor carpet-less. A bucket of blood-tinted water lay at the foot of the bed as a pair of hands wrung a cloth above it. My eyes followed the hands to their arms, chest, then face, adjusting in the darkness.
Ixiah Telei.
He froze with the cloth over the bucket, cool blue eyes showing alarm at my wake. We stared at each other, silent, waiting to see what the other would do. After a moment he looked down, running the cloth across my injured leg. A roll of bandages lay on his lap. He was dressing my wounds.
A surprising sight, as I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been injured for more than several hours. Yet the pain was still fresh—mortal pain, the kind I had forgotten.
Ixiah had rolled my pants to my knees and was cleaning out the deep gashes on my shins. The wounds on my back and chest were already wrapped. I’d slept through that. Not a word was exchanged as he worked.
Done, he moved to the desk across the room and snatched a blue vial from it, returning to the bed. An aroma of licorice and skunkweed fouled the air when he unscrewed the cap.
“Healing tincture from Eros,” he explained, sensing the question behind my gaze. “Nothing works better.”
It stung. I clenched my teeth and arched my back as he poured a generous amount across my legs. The awful aroma of the tincture was smothered by the stench of burning flesh, and I watched as my skin oozed pink bubbles over the sheets. I collapsed on the pillow and stared at the ceiling, wishing for death.
Ixiah wrapped my legs and then grabbed the bucket, exiting the room without another word. After a while the intense burning sensation switched to icy tingles, equally unbearable. I closed my eyes and tried to fend off madness, wondering why I’d even come here.
The tingling intensified, sending shivers across my body, and strangely it became pleasant. Pleasance escalated to euphoria, and my breathing grew labored as my heart thump-thump-thumped in my chest. Whatever Ixiah had rubbed into my wounds was stimulating every nerve ending. I couldn’t take it.
Fear turned to dream as my mind thankfully shut down.
***
The red light from the window was the same. It felt like I’d been out for hours, but nothing had changed. The ache in my legs was diminished, the strange tingling sensations all but gone. I felt better, stronger.
I sat up and pulled the sheet away, leaning against the wall. That sheet hadn’t been there before.
My eyes trailed to the window, settling on the hazy light that beamed across the room, making a crimson circle on the floor. My stomach growled and I winced, realizing it was days since I’d eaten. The hunger pangs had turned to nausea, churning bile up my throat. My stomach was eating itself.
I moved to leave the bed, but froze as memories of recent events flooded back, overloading my fragile mind. I recoiled against the wall, holding my throbbing head.
The anger was gone, given way to an empty ache, like something had scraped out my insides. My life had ended almost a thousand years ago, yet it seemed like only yesterday. Technically it was only yesterday that Sanctum had fallen; my people, my family—;
Leid.
I said her name out loud—nothing more than a whisper. It cut through my tongue like a razorblade, boosting my adrenaline, releasing a fresh twinge of fury. But after the fury came sadness; a recollection of the look on her face before I’d pressed that killswitch. Her tears, her pleas. Whose fault had that really been?
No, I could not return to Purgatory.
The door creaked open and my eyes followed the sound. A woman entered with a diamond-shaped plate and oval mug. Her hair was long and electric blue, with sparkling skin that looked dipped in gold dust. She wore a black sleeveless dress that trailed along the floor in her approach. It was practically see-through.
I straightened, watching.
She knelt at the foot of my bed, setting the tray and mug on the floor. Her eyes never left mine, and up close I saw that there were orange starbursts in them. Her appearance was confusing; she was beautiful, but beautiful in a way one might consider a painting, or a statue. Abstract.
“I want to speak to Calenus,” I said.
The woman retreated to the desk; caution behind her gaze. “You will, but not now. Eat. You look half dead.”
We spoke Exodian, something I had never tried on my tongue. Innate, nonetheless.
I waited for her to leave, but she didn’t. Calenus had probably sent her to make sure I was replenished. His charge was needless, because I was starving and could no longer ignore the aroma of the meal. I snatched it up and placed it on the bed, eating with my hands. My taste buds recognized none of it, nor could I even take a guess as to what the meal entailed—but food was food. The plate was clean in just a few minutes. I brought the mug to my lips, downing the cool, sweet liquid in three gulps. It tasted like fruit, kind of.
The woman reached for the empty plate and mug, nodding once I handed them over.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Jii.” I opened my mouth, but she said, “I already know your name. Calenus would like you to bathe, and I will give you some clean clothes. Come, let me show you where.”
My knees trembled once they bared my full weight. I looked at Jii, now at the door. She beckoned me, and I followed her out of the room.
Enigmus was a giant dome with layers and layers of floors. Standing at the ledge and looking out over the railing reminded me of the Ark—the way the floors wrapped around like rings on a planet, open at the center for all to see. Yet unlike the Ark, nothing was made of crystal, but black glass with spiral surface patterns. It was cool to the touch and often accompanied by strange blue sparks that didn’t shock my fingers. I wanted to ask Jii what they were, bu
t decided to save my questions for Calenus.
Descending the stairs, I passed other scholars along the way, most as abstract looking as Jii. They all paid me a brief glance of curiosity before continuing up the stairs to wherever they were headed. Adrial had told me there were only twelve Vel’Haru left, including us. That meant there were only eight who lived at Enigmus.
Calenus and seven more; such a huge place for so few.
Most of the doors were closed on the lower floors, their purposes etched in glowing script across placards:
Observatory
Lab 5
Apothecary
Distillery
Lab 6
Studio 4
Spa
Jii touched the placard labeled Spa. More blue sparks ran down the surface of the door, like a network of veins, and then the door disappeared in a blinding flash of light.
I peered into the open room, astonished.
She gestured inside, amused by my reaction. “Towels and soap are provided. Don’t wet your bandages.”
The spa mimicked a paradise oasis with flowery vines and faucets along the walls. The water was blue-green and shimmered from little circular lights at the bottom of the artificial pond. The air was humid and sweet. Beside the pond were vials similar to the one that Ixiah had used, and a net of clean towels rested by the door.
So far Enigmus was more magic than science, at least to my eyes.
“Someone will bring clean clothes in a little while. Enjoy.”
Jii walked away, leaving me at the door. I looked back at the spa, reaching over the threshold. My arm crossed some kind of invisible barrier, rippling the air like a surface of water. Rings spanned around my fingers, and I closed my eyes, stepping through.
***
I hadn’t gotten into the pond since I couldn’t get my bandages wet.
Instead I’d grabbed a cloth in the net and dipped it into the water, running it over my skin. Bruises marred every inch of my body, my skin stained muddy brown from old blood. The water wasn’t just water—there was some kind of healing factor in it because after a while my skin glowed and the tingles I’d felt earlier returned, albeit not nearly as intense.
I opened several of the vials and sniffed them, not liking the idea of using something I didn’t know about. I didn’t want to accidentally slather on another gallon of that black licorice crap and spend an hour writhing on the floor with a painful erection.
One of the vials held sweet-smelling oil. When I poured a bit into my hand, there were tiny black particles in it; almost like seeds. I settled for that, being too tired to go through every single one on the rack.
Finished, I looked toward the door. There was a wad of clothes near the net, but I hadn’t seen or heard anyone come in. Creepy.
A black robe and mantle, the Court of Enigmus symbol etched in gold across the breast. The pants came with a belt attached to a strange looking skirt tail. It wasn’t an actual skirt because it only covered the back of the pants, like a cape for your ass. When I put everything on, the sigil flickered, emanating red light. Then it lit up in flames, just as I’d seen on Zira and Ixiah at Eroqam.
Eroqam.
I winced, trying to away that thought. I felt tears in my eyes and shut them tight, holding my face, counting to ten. Crying was pathetic. And messy. Tears weren’t salty water anymore—they were blood, and I’d just spent an hour scraping that off my skin.
The hall was empty. I took several steps toward the stairs, about to wander aimlessly, but Zira appeared at the bottom. He looked up at me, then at my clothes, enmity in his blazing, orange eyes. He didn’t think I belonged here. That made two of us.
“Calenus will see you now,” he said, disappearing down the stairs.
With a slow exhale, I followed.
We never sidled, and I kept a ten foot distance as he led me through hallways, down more stairs, through more hallways, until I was certain that I would never find my way back. Enigmus was huge, like a city-hive of halls and doors with blue-electric placards.
I paused at a window, looking over the expanse. Beyond Enigmus and its courtyard was an endless sprawl of yellow grass that blurred into the red horizon. My internal clock told me it was night, but the sky hadn’t changed. No sun, no clouds, no wind. Nothing moved, and the quiet was ominous.
Zira had realized that I’d stopped and waited in the entrance of another hall. The look on my face seemed to melt the ice in his expression and he came to the other side of the window, following my gaze.
“Nothing like your world,” he said, near whisper.
I didn’t respond, and he looked at me.
“Are you homesick, Regent?”
I met his stare, feeling my own harden. Zira hadn’t called me that as a taunt—at least I didn’t think he did, because his tone stayed soft. The animosity was gone from his eyes. “No.”
Without another word I left the window, and together we continued down the hall.
***
In a vast, dark room, Calenus stood behind a desk.
His eyes were raised to an image reflected across the ceiling, which rotated in a slow, steady circle like telltale clockwork of the cosmos.
It was the cosmos. I’d recognized the constellations of Apaeria Minor within seconds.
The door closed and I glanced over my shoulder once Zira had taken his leave. It was just me, Calenus, and the cosmos hologram. Another source of light flickered on and off in the corner of the room. It was a podium—one that looked remarkably similar to the one in our library, floating electric sphere and all. It was flashing like a beacon; non-repetitive. Code.
The holographic image zoomed in on a star-cluster that breached another galaxy. The image moved at warp speed, and suddenly spanned out into a pattern I’d never seen. Little circles and diamonds, starbursts and flecks that, when combined, looked like petals on a flower.
Petals on a flower.
I gasped.
It was a map of the entire Multiverse.
Although Calenus hadn’t looked at me during my revelation, he’d sensed it just the same, and smiled. “Senestyre is a world located in Arbettia Major, Torika.” His eyes shot to the flickering beacon in the corner. “They’re calling me.”
The image zoomed in on one of the petals, zooming and zooming and zooming until a close-up projection of a world rotated in real time. This was no hologram. The Court of Enigmus had some kind of Multiversal surveillance system. How was that even possible? How was any of this even possible?
Once upon a time Archaean gadgets made my eyes widen.
Vel’Haru tech brought me to my fucking knees.
“Look,” he murmured, pointing to one of the suns. At a glance I could guess it was a hundred million miles from Senestyre, but it was huge and flaring gamma rays. Nova. The look on my face told Calenus that I understood what he was alluding to. “Star restoration; not a popular form of contract around here.”
I said nothing, staring.
“But it pays well and we’ll be saving a few solar systems,” he added, debating himself. “We could use the PR, no doubt.”
“Star restoration,” I repeated, cuing him to explain. The physicist in me couldn’t resist.
“Refuel the star, stabilizing it. I’m sure you know the nitty gritty.”
“I’ve read of it.”
“But the real task is trying to educate the people into creating a recharger ring. Senestyre hasn’t even mastered deep-space voyage.”
“Looks like they’ve got about a hundred years before their planet cooks.”
Calenus paused, paying me a grin. “How clever you’ve grown.”
I didn’t humor him.
He lowered his attention to the desk, pressing something. The planet flashed and the projection faded. The podium stopped blinking. “Dangerous job, but there’s glory in it. A nova sun is nothing to fool around with. I’m sure you’ve realized we aren’t invincible.”
Yes, I’d gathered that we couldn’t survive a star collapsing
on itself.
“More on that later,” he said, waving a hand. The room was illuminated in daylight, and he leaned on the inactive desk. The mirth on his face was gone. “Welcome to Exo’daius. I’m glad you accepted my invitation.”
His invitation had been a portal on the Astral Trail. I’d known what it was, and given the choice between Purgatory and here, I came here. I had been injured, confused, devastated, furious, and was in no state to return to The Atrium. Upon reawakening I had been dead set on returning to exact revenge, justice, but injury had slowed movement, which had also given me a lot of time to think. Like that sun, my anger had deflated and my conscience had collapsed on itself. A guilt and shame supernova.
As far as I was concerned, I could never go back. For a hundred years I was humiliated—Leid’s pet, slave to the very people who had once feared me. My world had been stolen, my people laid to waste in the wake of a New World Order fronted by Yahweh Telei and Lucifer Raith, employers of my wife and her guardians.
Just the thought of it all made my head spin. None of it made any sense. How had everything turned out like this? How had they seen me and not reacted?
How could Leid have done this?
And the more I thought about it, the more little things came creeping back; how she’d looked at me, how she’d treated me—always keeping me at a distance and never fully explaining anything. Leid had done so much to ensure I would never remember, but in the end the truth always came out. It was only a matter of when.
There was pressure between my eyes and I looked away, choking back sorrow. The last thing I wanted was for Calenus Karim to see me break. I hated him, but needed him just the same, and he knew that.
“I won’t pretend to know what you’re going through, Qaira,” he said, having noticed the change in my expression. “And now that you’re here, I’d like to tell you how sorry I am.”
“I don’t need your apology.”
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t persuade you into believing me. I’m sorry that the penalty for your selfish choices was eight hundred years of slavery, and your world.”
The Antithesis- The Complete Pentalogy Page 65
