by J. Cee
“You can end this,” the Word said. “Where is she?”
Ceph tried screaming again, but only a hoarse whisper escaped. “The docks. The Waterwalker. There’s a fire cult. They wanted me to stay. I left. That’s it. I don’t know anything else. Please stop, please stop.”
“Lies.”
“No!” For an instant, Ceph was furious at the Word’s reply, before horror overtook him. “Please, I’m not lying. Why won’t you believe me?” Ceph sobbed, his voice a low mumble.
Ceph closed his eyes and waited. When nothing happened, he let out a sigh of relief and opened his eyes again. The Word smiled as it pulled the knife across his left wrist. Ceph passed out.
The whole world had become an inferno for as far as he could see in all directions.
A girl’s voice whispered. “Soon. A little longer.”
Ceph woke up with a pounding headache. A strange numbness had crept over his body. His arms burned. His stomach burned. He had the distant memory of someone reaching inside him. How was that even possible?
He couldn’t see anything and wondered for a second if he had gone blind. Then he remembered to open his eyes.
The room was empty. His head drooped. Gray wetness covered his stomach. It took him a minute to realize that he was looking at his own entrails.
Ceph trembled. No one was in the room to hear him, but he summoned what was left of his strength to whisper.
“Kill me. Please, fucking kill me.”
Ceph winced at a bright flash of violet light accompanied by the crash of the door bursting open. Two figures rushed into the room.
“Ceph,” a woman said.
A man’s voice replied. “It’s too late.”
“No, no it’s not, but we have to hurry.”
Ceph mumbled with eyes wide open. “Kill me. I want to die.”
“Hush. We’re almost there.” Someone put a hand on his forehead.
Ceph heard a man talking but couldn’t make out the words. He closed his eyes and didn’t open them again.
* * *
Someone was carrying him. He couldn’t see, but he could hear noises. Voices?
“Ceph, it’s me. Aeri.”
Ceph opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
“It’s time.”
“Mom?” No, that wasn’t right. His mother was dead. They were all dead.
“Ceph, I know it’s difficult, but listen. This is important. We can save you. Your body’s broken beyond healing, but we can give you a new body. You have to willingly give yourself to the Flames. Can you do that?”
That sounded familiar. Yes, he had seen flames in his dreams. “Flames?”
“Yes, the Flame Rite. It will destroy this body but create a new one. It’s how you become a Onceborn.”
Ceph didn’t reply.
“He’s too far gone,” a man said from behind Aeri.
“No, he has to make it,” Aeri said. “Please, Ceph. Do you agree to give yourself to the Flame?”
For a long moment, Ceph didn’t say anything. “Yes.”
“Thank you, Ceph. Drink this.”
Something was placed at his lips. A bitter liquid poured into his mouth. He swallowed, one mouthful at a time. After several minutes, the sticky substance was gone.
“Is this the end?”
“No, Ceph. This is the beginning.”
A tickling warmth grew stronger and stronger. As the hot flames consumed his body, Ceph summoned the strength to arch his back and screech in pain one last time. Then, he collapsed and gave himself to the void.
* * *
“Hello, Ceph.”
Ceph stood in the middle of vast black emptiness. He looked to see who was speaking to him. It was the silver-haired Aeri.
“Aeri? Where am I?”
Aeri nodded. “This is where your new life begins. A place of preparation.”
He looked down at his restored hands and patted his stomach. He was wearing a formless white robe. So was Aeri. “Have I been healed?”
“Not quite. Your old body was burned. Your new body is identical to an Everborn’s with one key difference.”
“Difference?”
“Unlike the Everborn, you can only die once. You won’t resurrect like they do.”
Ceph thought for a moment. “A Onceborn.”
“Exactly.”
The void stretched out further than Ceph could see in all directions. He had no idea what he was standing on. He didn’t care. Ceph sat down on the mysterious darkness beneath him, grabbing his head.
“I can’t believe this is real. That crazy cult… so there are others? Onceborn?”
“Kaine is another. The man who saved you.”
It was too much. Everborn, cultists, this strange place. Ceph began crying softly, holding his knees tightly. “Why? Why did you do this to me?”
“Ceph? We saved you.”
“I know! Why! Why didn’t you let me die?”
Aeri stepped back in surprise.
Ceph raised his head to look at Aeri, his teary eyes red with grief. His voice was pleading, almost desperate. “Why won’t you leave me alone?” His voice was a soft whisper now. “I remember. I remember what they did to me.”
“This is our path. This is how we save–”
“I don’t care!” Ceph roared. “I don’t care about saving people or whatever you believe.” Ceph indicated his surroundings with his hands. “All of this. You did this to me. Like what they did. You’re the same as them.”
“That’s not fair. This was your choice. We have nothing in common with the Everborn. We want to save people, not kill them.”
“How? By forcing them to do what you want? That wasn’t a real choice. I had no choice!”
For a minute, neither spoke.
“You may not believe me, but I know what that’s like.” Aeri looked away, her jaw clenched.
Ceph’s anger softened at emotions flitting across Aeri’s face. Was it fear? Fury?
“What now?” he asked.
“I’m sorry. This must be overwhelming.” Aeri crouched next to Ceph, touching his shoulder. “Let’s forget about everything else for now and focus on keeping you safe.”
“Sounds good. I guess.”
“We’re in a bit of a rush. Getting you out was… messy. We don’t have much time before they reach us.”
“They? The Everborn?”
Aeri nodded grimly. “Here. Look.” Aeri turned her left forearm over so the inner side was facing Ceph. Blue sigils appeared.
“Woah.” Ceph flinched.
Aeri pointed to one of the symbols. “This is your blood points. Get hurt, it goes down. It goes to zero, you die.”
“What—”
“Questions later. We don’t have time.” Aeri pointed to the next symbol. “This is your spirit points. Use it for attacks or shields.”
Ceph didn’t understand what Aeri was talking about, but he kept silent. He glanced at his own left forearm. He began clenching his fist.
“This last one is your harmony. It’s complicated. I’ll explain later. These are your unspent power points. Your new body is at rank nine with nine available power points. You can assign power points to blood, spirit, or harmony.”
Ceph squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. He opened his eyes and checked his inner left forearm. Still nothing.
Aeri sighed. “Are you getting all of this?”
“How do you do that?” Ceph curled his left arm up, flexing his bicep in a masculine pose. He tried rotating his forearm so it pointed away from him in another pose. “I can’t get it to work.”
“Maybe this was a mistake.” Aeri slapped her forehead. “The command is Corpus. Think the word.”
Corpus. Ceph spoke the word to himself. His left forearm glowed with blue sigils. “Holy biscuits! My arm is glowing. Look, my arm is glowing.”
“Yes, it is.” Aeri crossed her arms in annoyance. “Ceph, focus. We need to hurry.”
“Sorry. First time with a glowing arm. Power
points? You were saying?”
“You need to assign your nine power points to attributes. You’ll receive four blood points or four spirit points for each power point you assign. I would suggest an even balance of blood and spirit—”
“Like this?” Ceph touched the sigils on his arm. “I get four blood each time I tap this. Twenty, twenty-four, twenty-eight–”
“Stop! Stop!” Aeri pulled Ceph’s hand away frantically. “What are you doing?”
“Blood points keep me alive, right? I’m adding as many blood points as I can. Isn’t that what you said?”
Aeri clenched her teeth in frustration. “Yes, blood points keep you alive, but you need some spirit points, too.” Aeri checked Ceph’s forearm. “Thirty-two blood?” She groaned. “Put your last power point into spirit.”
“But—”
“Do it!”
“Fine,” Ceph grumbled. “So much for choice.” He made the last selection, giving himself four spirit points.
Aeri drew a deep breath as if to scream. Instead, she let out a long sigh. “I’m trying to help you. Life as a Onceborn is extremely dangerous.”
“Okay, okay.”
“We’ve spent too long here. We need to go.”
“Go where?”
“Back to the real world. We’re only here because I have certain… privileges. Come on.” Aeri took hold of Ceph’s hand and led him to a white doorway that had appeared in the midst of the blackness surrounding them. She turned to Ceph. “Ready?”
Ceph swallowed nervously. “Ready.”
Together, they stepped into the light.
* * *
Ceph was lying on a stone table. Torchlights flickered around him. Something jabbed into his back. Wood? No, ashes. He was lying on a pile of smoldering ashes that curiously didn’t burn him. Ceph sat up, checking his hands and stomach again. He gave a yelp of shock.
“My hand’s gone.”
While Ceph’s right hand was normal, his left hand was still missing. Ceph stared at the smooth stump.
Aeri approached from his right. “Let me see. Hm. I’m sorry. The Flame Rite isn’t always perfect. Becoming a Onceborn carries a risk.”
Ceph glanced at her and his jaw dropped. “You’re naked.” He looked at himself. “I’m naked.”
“Yes,” Aeri said without batting an eye. “Put these on.” Aeri tossed him a pile of plain brown clothes.
Ceph jumped off the stone table holding the ashes and him. He scrambled to get dressed, trying not to look at Aeri doing the same.
“Are we back in the real world? Xero? What is this place?”
“Yes, we’re in an underground crypt. This used to be a secret sanctuary for Kaine’s followers.”
Ceph risked a look at Aeri. She was dressed now. “Used to be?”
“The Everborn will know we were here.”
Footsteps rushed down stone steps into the crypt.
It was Kaine. “We need to go! City guards are on the way.”
“Everborn?” Aeri asked.
“Not yet,” Kaine said. “They’ll use a summoning stone the instant they spot us. We need to leave now.”
The three rushed out of the crypt. As they emerged onto the dusty street, Ceph saw that they were in a busy district packed with buildings. A sharp cry came from behind. A guard had spotted them from across the street.
“Follow me!” Kaine cried as he ran down the street and turned a corner.
Street vendors and shoppers cursed at Ceph as he raced after Kaine along with Aeri. Ceph looked back for a moment to see if the guard was pursuing. Instead of a guard, he saw a flash of golden armor. It was the warrior from the other day.
A bolt of violet energy streaked towards him. It hit an unlucky vendor instead, transforming her watermelon stand into a gruesome salad of body parts and fruit.
“He’s here!” Ceph shouted in alarm. “The Everborn from when I met you!”
Ceph tumbled to the ground as Aeri pushed him aside. Her body glowed yellow a moment before another bolt struck her. Ignoring the attack, Aeri helped Ceph to his feet.
“Keep going!” Aeri shouted. “Stay in front of me.”
Ceph followed Kaine as he turned onto another street. “What was that yellow thing you did?”
“A Deflection Shield.”
Ceph thought the word. Deflection Shield. His body tingled, glowing yellow. The glow faded after a few seconds. “Like that?”
“Don’t waste your spirit! You can only cast one shield with your low spirit pool!”
Ceph checked his inner left forearm while running. Corpus. He had zero spirit points left. “Oh.”
“You’ll need a minute to gain your spirit back.”
“Oops. I didn’t know.”
The group turned another corner. The alley stopped at a dead end. Ceph slowed down, ready to run in the other direction.
“No, keep going.” Aeri pushed him forward. “Look.”
Kaine raised his hand and the same violet bolt he now recognized streaked towards the stone wall. The wall exploded inward, creating a man-sized opening. Kaine leapt through the hole.
“Go, go!” Aeri said.
Ceph and Aeri ran into the building after Kaine. It took a moment for Ceph’s eyes to adjust from the harsh sunlight outside. Rows and rows of shelves stacked high to the ceiling with piles of lumber filled an enormous room. It was a warehouse of some kind.
Ceph turned to Aeri. “What was that called?”
“What?”
“The purple thing everyone does. How do I blow things up?”
“You’re not ready for that. I’ll tell you later.”
“What if I need to use it?”
“I’ll teach you when you need it.”
“Oh, come on,” Ceph whined. “What’s it called?”
Aeri gave up. “Soulstrike.”
“How much spirit?”
“Spirit?”
“How much do I need?”
“Two. Don’t you dare—”
Ceph checked his spirit pool. He had just enough. Kaine was running towards the far side of the warehouse. Ceph aimed at a wall to his right. Soulstrike. His outstretched hand tickled for a moment before a blast of energy shot out, exploding a fresh hole in the wall. Ceph ran towards it, away from Kaine.
“Ceph! Ceph!” Aeri called after him. “Kaine, we have to get Ceph!”
Ceph leapt through the opening, leaving his rescuers behind.
* * *
Aeri screamed after Ceph, but it was too late. He was gone.
The sound of explosions and screams grew closer from outside the warehouse. Shelves of lumber suddenly flew across the room as splintered fragments. A series of violet bolts flew past Aeri and struck other shelves.
“We can’t! He’ll have to make it on his own. Come on!” Kaine yelled over the mayhem.
Aeri hesitated, glancing at the way Ceph had run. Then she cursed and ran after Kaine.
After emerging from the other side of the warehouse, Aeri and Kaine lost their pursuers in the surrounding neighborhood. They huddled in the shadow of a dark alley, recovering their blood and spirit.
“That ungrateful boy,” Kaine raged. “We saved his hide and off he goes again.”
“I’m mad, too, but he’s been through a lot. He needs time to heal the rest of himself,” Aeri said.
“I still don’t see why you need him. You have me.”
Kaine had been in a surly mood ever since Ceph had left them at the Waterwalker. He followed Aeri’s orders, though.
“Kaine, we each serve the cause in a different way. I need Ceph. We have to find him.”
“We already risked our lives to save him once. He threw that away.”
“And we’ll do it again if we have to.”
Kaine scanned the alley’s opening, keeping watch for trouble as he spoke.
“You’d sacrifice me to save him, wouldn’t you?”
Aeri hesitated. “Yes.”
“Is that how I die?”
“I
don’t know. My visions can’t reveal everything,” Aeri said. She wasn’t shading the truth. Her visions could only convey broad directions and possibilities.
“You know, I could live forever. I don’t have to die. I could turn away now.”
Aeri held her breath. She didn’t question the man’s devotion to the cause but knowing one’s fate was a heavy burden. She would know.
A feminine voice pierced the silence. “To live or to die? Is that really a difficult choice?”
Aeri and Kaine scrambled into fighting stances as a cloaked figure stepped into the entrance of the alley. Aeri couldn’t see the hooded face against the sharp glare of the sunlight behind the speaker.
“What do you want?” Kaine asked.
The stranger paused as if examining him.
“Ah. Twice born. Soon twice dead. My message is for her, not you.”
Kaine’s face turned dark at the stranger’s words. “Is that a threat?” Then, he laughed. “Bold words, for one with your rank.”
The stranger ignored Kaine and shifted to address Aeri.
“I know what you need. A trinity of souls. One from above, one from Xero, one from below. A trinity of artifacts. One from blood, one from spirit, one from harmony.”
Aeri gasped. Her visions were anything but clear. She had only grasped the bare essentials, exactly as the stranger had stated.
“Who are you?”
The stranger laughed again. “What do your blessed visions tell you?”
Aeri gasped again. The stranger had no thread in her visions. In fact, a cloud obscured Aeri and Kaine’s threads. It was as if something was hiding the fate of the stranger and everyone nearby.
“What are you?”
“Someone who shares the same goal as you. I can give you all that you need, if you prove your strength.”
“That’s enough,” Kaine said. “You’re nothing but a new Everborn. I could kill you right now.”
“As is she,” the stranger said, pointing at Aeri.
“No, Kaine, let her speak,” Aeri said. Kaine grumbled as Aeri continued addressing the stranger. “How do I prove my strength?”
“There’s a Pit tournament in two weeks. Win, and you will gain an ally and an artifact.”
Aeri began to reply, but the stranger cut her off.
“I’m not finished. Lose, or fail to attend, and I will destroy you,” the stranger said.
“Why should we believe you?” Aeri asked. Inspect. The stranger’s aura was yellow-green. “Like Kaine said, your rank is barely higher than mine.”
