In-between the blasts of sussa, she could see Toby’s forces regroup behind him, and press on against the Freilux, who in turn sent the igra back against them. Except the Freilux evolved the igra, so they no longer ran on four legs, but scurried on two, skipping along as their hands lightly touched the ground. They could leap high in the air, and sink their claws deep into flesh. Bolts of sussa proved to be of little deterrent, as their hides absorbed lesser blasts. And once they gripped onto a foe, no amount of shaking or beating could push them off. They opened their mouths, and sunk their three rows of vicious teeth deep into bone, bringing forth fountains of blood.
Melissa looked back up at the face of the Strumbrion, the face of her father; a face that she had seen so many times smile or laugh with her, a face she loved above all others. A face now blank and expressionless, almost serving as a mask for whatever lay within.
“Don’t you remember me?” she whispered. “You sang at my birthday; you stroked my hair when I cried, you caught me when I fell. Do none of those memories remain within you?”
Her father still mechanically attacked her, his arms moving with eerie precision, yet in her mind, he said;
“I am not who I once was, and neither are you. There is no blood-bond between us, and you need to act that way.”
She could feel the power from the batteries, but her heart would not let her use it.
“I . . . I can’t fight you, father. I love you.”
The Strumbrion paused its assault, its hood blown back, fully revealing the wizened old face of her father.
“You . . . you love me?”
“Yes,” she said crying. “And our love reaches across time, reaches across death itself. Remember my love, father!”
“Me . . . Melissa? My dear, little Lissa?”
It was at that moment that Vincent reappeared. He pulsed back into existence like a dark star, radiating death.
“Come and face me Darian; meet your fate!”
The Strumbrion leaned down and kissed Melissa on her cheek, and whispered; “it is folly to fight the Freilux.”
He whirled and raced into the sky to meet Vincent. Melissa got to her feet, and shouted; “don’t do it Vincent! He isn’t a Strumbrion, he’s my father!”
“Then I can have true revenge!”
The battle was painful for Melissa to watch, as the two men she loved fought each other. Vincent was relentless, and soon gained the upper hand. She could see her father try to disappear through a portal, but Vincent held onto him, and brought a fist up high.
“In the memory of my father, I exact vengeance upon you!”
His fist glowed like a dark sun, and as he brought I down, Darian was consumed whole.
Melissa fell to her knees, her heart broken. As Vincent gloated over her father’s death, her head swooned.
“This war is over!” yelled Vincent triumphantly, and with a sweeping motion, he conjured a wave of superheated plasma, and rolled it across the landscape, burning the evolved igra to grey dust. Toby’s army roared with joy, and ran headlong towards the Freilux, who returned their fury with a frenzied sneer.
The Freilux roared and threw his arms up high. “You pathetic whelps -- I draw on the power of the Sphere!” He made his hands into one fist, and struck down at the ground, splitting it into chasms that raced towards the army. They stumbled over each other, trying to halt their advance and retreat, but the fissures were too fast and wide. Hundreds of thousands fell within, plunging to their deaths.
“Freilux,” said Vincent, “I beat your Strumbrion; I can defeat you as well!”
The Freilux stood tall and proud. “Really? It was because of me that you were able to accomplish your revenge. Why are you still fighting? Surely it can’t be for that pathetic little girl. I’ll bet she doesn’t even like you anymore.”
Vincent turned to face her. “Is this true?”
“You . . . you killed my father. How can I be with you?”
“Why can’t you let this go? He was just an idelfada, controlled by the Freilux?”
“I am an idelfada!” cried Melissa. “You are an idelfada who was controlled by the Freilux. But you found a way to become yourself, instead of a pawn of others.”
“This is different, he was a Strumbrion; a warrior of old. They always are loyal to their masters.”
“But I saw my father’s eyes!” pleaded Melissa. “He told me he loved me. He stayed his hand from killing me! Could a Strumbrion have done that?”
“I forgave you, for being born by that butcher,” sneered Vincent. “It is pathetic you can’t do the same. I won’t fight you, Freilux, but I can’t join you either. And I certainly won’t waste anymore of my time or strength on that pathetic little waste of an Archsussa.”
Melissa got back to her feet, and reached out her hands towards him. “Vincent! Don’t leave me -- not like this!”
“Whatever. Bye.”
“Vincent!” screamed Melissa as she watched him dive down through the clouds. While she grieved over the loss of her father, part of her heart still ached to hold him.
“You thought you could beat me?” jeered the Freilux, as he once again secured Toby in bonds. “Perhaps you’d like some of your friends at your side while you do so.” The Freilux motioned to his soldiers, who brought out the last two of Melissa’s hlenna from a small cage. “Look what they found, dear Lissa -- your little toys!” They were bound and gagged, with their limbs somehow deformed so they had to crawl on the floor. “You have gotten quite good at making pets, but you need to learn how to have fun with them. Take this one, for example.”
He motioned to his guards, and Asil was brought before him. For an instant she was overjoyed to see him still alive, but then he stood next to the Freilux and she despaired, for Melissa thought it was another Freilux. He was now dressed exactly like the Freilux, but it was more than that. Melissa never noticed how much Asil favored the Freilux -- almost appearing as a younger iteration.
“My, my, my,” said the Freilux, walking around Asil. “So let me get the picture straight; here you are, alone in your mother’s house, needing a companion, and out of all the possibilities you summon me into existence!” He threw an arm around Asil. “Tell me, have you seen her naked? Have you two done anything interesting?”
Melissa felt the anger boil inside her like a volcano. In an instant, she remembered how the Overmen were able to push her back through the ribbon. So she created a small ribbon, but extended it through the fabric of space. With all her strength, she limited the event horizon to the Freilux.
“What is this?” he demanded, looking anxious.
“A little something I learned.”
The Freilux struggled, trying to extend tendrils of sussa to grasp onto something, anything, but the pull was too strong. Everything fell into the small ribbon, and despite his best efforts, his body began to distort in sympathy with the immense gravitational pull.
“You cannot win, Melissa -- you cannot!”
The Freilux vanished, and in an instant appeared in front of her.
“Oh Melissa, how wonderfully-one-dimensionally you think -- it’s really quite quaint. You think to overwhelm me with more and more power, opening portals to gravity whirlpools. I admit, you’ve shown a few glimmers of originality, but you still have so long to go. Perhaps if you faded into the void for a while and honed your powers, you might stand a chance of fighting me properly.
She threw up a shield to protect her. “I will never become like you! I . . .”
She wanted to continue, yell at him, demand accountability for all his crimes, but was taken aback by how changed the Freilux was. He was now a tall, powerful man, with broad, muscular shoulders and a lean physique. His eyes sparkled with a confident fire, devoid of the perversion she saw before. Unconsciously she dissolved her shield and took a step forward, as if the act of embracing him was a familiar one.
“What . . . what is this?” she said, pulling herself back. “I hate you!”
“Melissa, you don
’t hate me, you barely understand me.” He grasped her hand, and held it tenderly. “Sussa can change a person tremendously, without the balancing effects of the Centric Sphere. This is who I truly am; not the monster your brother and his allies have portrayed me, but a patriot who wants nothing but good for his people.”
“Who . . . who was I? What were we?”
The Freilux smiled wryly. “So you’ve figured it all out?”
Melissa staggered back, confused. She felt like a marionette, and the Freilux was pulling the strings.
“Get out of there, Lissa!” yelled Toby. “Run!”
“But I’m done running.” Suddenly, words her mother said came back to her. “War with the Freilux is suicide.” She knew now the right path to follow. I may be strong, but his experience and strength will wear me down. I must get what I came here for.
Quickly she conjured a ribbon which opened in a chamber deep inside the palace. She could feel waves of conjured barriers, either working psychologically or physically to deter her progress. She knew how to counter them, though it was difficult. Up through the levels she progressed, until she finally stood in a wide, circular room with white marble tiles called the Hall of Allkthea. So many memories’ came flooding back, of all the ceremonies she attended with her father in front of the Sphere and of when she was able to steal it after the Second Apocalypse.
And here I am again, trying to do the same thing. Except I feel immensely stronger and wiser. The Centric Sphere sat in the Cup of Allkthea; an ornate gilt pedestal with sculpted figured forming three arms that reached up, supporting the Sphere. For the first time, it no longer was a mysterious object to her; after all, she had journeyed through time and understood how it came to be. Quickly she advanced on it, feeling the Freilux was coming.
“Leaving so soon?” asked the Freilux in her mind. She could feel him try to open a portal, but she blocked it. She came and knelt by the Centric Sphere.
But what now? No one has managed to bring someone back from the dead for any period of time. And even if I could, who do I bring back? My mother didn’t want to return, and my father . . .
“Enough of these games!” roared the Freilux, as he finally overpowered Melissa and materialized in the chamber. Melissa knocked him back with a wall of force.
“I’m not the little girl you cornered outside her bedchambers. I have learned a thing or two.”
“You have learned that you are merely a construct; a fiction, a reminder of a girl who was! You have no real purpose, no real destiny!”
“You are lying,” spat Melissa. “Too many people have struggled to help me live, help me succeed!”
“And yet, you are but a shadow of who you were. Xisa Drusciana, she whom you were, was a mighty girl, the most powerful of the Archsussa ever to be born. It was a battle between her and I that caused the Second Apocalypse, and her refusal to admit defeat that engineered your creation. You are like some afterimage of a being who refuses to die.”
“I’m just an idelfada -- is that it?” scoffed Melissa, generating balls of sussa in her hands. “Well, perhaps I’ll bring back my original, and together we will destroy you.”
The Freilux threw up his hands. “You don’t ever want to see her again -- trust me. I’m sure even Toby would agree with me. Tell her, whelp!” In an instant, Toby materialized in front of the Freilux, his hands and feet in bonds. “Tell her it’s wrong to bring back Xisa -- tell her!”
Toby staggered to his feet. “Why would you bring her back?” He glanced quizzically over at the Freilux, then, with an impassioned plea, said; “I don’t know what lies he’s been filling you with, what half-truths, but you must understand that Xisa should never be brought back. She is nothing like you. She is . . .” He sat back on his legs. “She is a lot like me, and would --”
A bound appeared on his mouth.
“That’s enough of that from you,” said the Freilux. “So, you’ve heard it from your brother, and from me. Don’t bring her back.”
Part of her still oscillated at the decision she was about to make. The aspect of Xisa in the photograph, her hateful gaze in the past next to her mother, made her think she would bring no good. But too much of her wanted to do this, so she erected a shield and grasped the Sphere. As soon as she lifted it, the whole of Imathrin began to rumble. The three arms of the Cup of Allkthea ignited in blue flame, and all those in the streets and homes of Imathrin fell to their knees. She raised it up, held tightly in her hands.
“Ti dioma farra Xisa!” she shouted. “Ti dioma farra Xisa!”
The ground shook more violently and the atmosphere grew thin. Lightning flashed in a now darkened sky, as tendrils of power extended from the Sphere to Melissa and back again. The scent of sulfur and death intermingled in toxic quantities, making the air thick and difficult to breathe. Those around her, the Freilux included, sank to their knees with fear. Melissa could feel her strength evaporate, as a column of light appeared around the Sphere. It slowly moved off, pulsed once, and faded, revealing a very familiar-looking young girl with a sneer for a smile.
“Xisa?” asked Melissa, taking a tentative step towards her. It was like looking into a temporal mirror, for it reflected a younger version of herself. She had the same red hair, the upturned brow, but was slightly smaller, with thinner limbs. “Is that . . .” Melissa fell to the ground, as she no longer had the strength to stand.
The Freilux rose, and spread his arms wide. “Welcome back, love.”
Xisa ran into the Freilux’s arms and they embraced and kissed each other deeply. Melissa sunk within herself, dreading what was to come, but somehow, she felt different. It was as if the act of creating Xisa expanded her knowledge and her consciousness. She felt more than she had been ever before, but still didn’t know what to do with the power.
“Is it any wonder I couldn’t keep away from you, dear Melissa?” asked the Freilux.
Xisa’s presence was stifling to Melissa, who gasped not only for air, but for identity. Xisa was so confident, so complete, that Melissa felt unworthy to even be alive. But she kept up a brave front, knowing too many people’s lives depended on her strength.
And too many people have died so I might survive.
“What an amazing thing this idelfada is,” said Xisa, as she slowly examined Melissa from head to toe. Xisa was dressed in a thick black robe with ornate golden lettering in a tongue Melissa couldn’t decipher. Her long hair danced on its own accord, becoming wound into a ball in one moment, flowing back behind her head in another. Melissa could see traces of slate in the corners of her eye as she looked on Xisa, and behind her hung the shadow of what were probably immense black wings. “She played her part perfectly, bringing me back at the right moment, pulling Toby and the rebels out when we wanted.”
The Freilux nodded. “I still am in awe that you predicted that an innocent soul was needed to use the full powers of the Sphere.”
Xisa haughtily laughed. “To think, there is a version of me that is actually innocent.”
“How could you do this?” demanded Melissa, with a voice that suddenly seemed weak and squeaky. “Why are you with him?”
“You dim little girl -- I am the cause of the Second Apocalypse!” cried Xisa. “I killed all those Archsussa, at father’s insistence.”
“But . . . why?” begged Melissa, still wondering how they could be the same person, when she was so thoroughly evil. “How could you kill mother; how could you do this?!”
“I have seen the future, and tried to make it real today. I saw not just Levitating Cities, but an entire shell of a world spinning around another. I saw layers of civilization living on top of one another, all because of the joys of living, cold metal. Metal that could talk and walk -- even sex like us. It is called ‘science,’ and one day it displaces sussa. One day it shifts the entire world back out of the cold, one day it renames this word as ‘Novan.’“
“I have met the scientists of this world,” said Melissa, “and they are good people, much like us. They p
ossess power few can understand, except I feel they might be better at governance than us. Why not just let the future be?”
Xisa paused for a moment, betraying a malicious grin. “Call it vanity, call it what you will, but I endeavor to break this world’s destiny, and bend it to my will. For the first time, what was seen shall not be, and it will be because of me. I, born mortal, shall break the plan and the will of Holis.” She raised a hand. “All that’s left is your disillusionment.”
Xisa raised her hands, and Melissa could feel she was steeped in great power and experience. The tendrils of sussa that emanated from her fingertips were fine and detailed, appearing as vines that twisted and pulsed with life. Her eyes pulsed with blue power, and a mist formed around her lips. Her manipulation of sussa made her stunningly beautiful, and for a moment, Melissa was transfixed by her power, even though it was bent on her destruction.
“Wake up, Lissa!” shouted Toby.
She roused to life, and threw up a shield, which proved to be of little use. Xisa easily brushed past it, with the tendrils now coiling around Melissa’s limbs.
Do I want this, or have I decided to live, on my own terms.
Melissa reached out to the batteries of sussa from all Levitating Cities across the ovoid. She reached into Imathrin itself, draining its power, determined to rebuff Xisa’s assault. Though ensnared in Xisa’s sussa, Melissa held her own, channeling all her strength into pushing them out and away from her body.
“Perhaps I made you too well,” said Xisa, as she began to show signs of strain. “But you cannot resist me; I am your root!”
“You may have spawned me, but I shall rise above you, stronger than you, better than you!”
For a moment it appeared as if they were caught in a stalemate; Xisa could tighten her bonds no more, and Melissa was unable to extricate herself. Then in an instant, Melissa let out a primal cry and brought her fists down, breaking through the bonds of sussa and knocking Xisa far back into the chamber wall.
Xisa flailed about in the rubble, unable to stand. “How can this be?” she asked, aghast.
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