Anais Eternal

by Paige Graffunder

  After a moment of indecision, I crossed the small space and knelt beside Tatiana and whispered into her ear, low and nearly silent. "Tati, wake up, I think we should go." Tatiana grumbled in her sleep and rolled away from my voice. I put a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her. "Tati," I hissed, "I think we need to leave." Tatiana's eyes flickered open and she quickly took in my sweaty skin and pale face, sitting up immediately.

  "What is it, Ana?" she said, her voice still thick with sleep. I shook my head, panic gripping my throat, and took her hand, passing the fleeting images of my dream to her. Her eyes glazed over as my communion allowed her to see what I saw in my dream. She was on her feet in an instant, packing up her belongings. She turned to my horror-struck face, her brow furrowing.

  "What are you doing?" she hissed.

  I knelt there; Ayesha perched on my shoulder. "It was just a dream, Tati, I thought you would just tell me I am being ridiculous and not to worry..." I started, so shocked by her immediate reaction that I couldn't move. She looked at me like I was growing a second head.

  "Ana, you woke me up, you showed me your dream. Does it feel like it was just a normal nightmare?" she whispered. Etachs stirred in their bedroll, and Tati and I both looked in their direction. I turned my head to Ayesha, asking her to gently wake Etachs through our bond. Ayesha took wing from my shoulder, landed with a flap of wings next to Etachs, and began to peck at their hair. I looked back to Tatiana, my eyes wide, thinking for a moment, then I shook my head.

  "Right," Tati snapped and continued packing her things. "Then let's go."

  Etachs brushed Ayesha away and sat up.

  "I'm up, I'm up, you tank-forsaken winged beast," they snapped. They looked up at the two of us, me standing there in only my sleeping shirt and Tatiana packing up her bag. "Wait, what's going on?"

  Tatiana looked at Etachs, then at me, her face growing more exasperated by the seconds. "Ana had a dream. There was a raid. She thinks it might happen, and soon. We have to go. Get your gear, we need to leave."

  Ayesha, having completed her job, took wing again and landed back on my shoulder. Tatiana looked at me again. "Now, Anais!" she said in hushed but fierce tones. I snapped out of my reverie and began pulling my things together. I had almost finished packing up when I finally remembered I was still in my sleeping shirt. I ripped it off over my head and rooted through the things I had just put away, bent over my pack in only my underpants.

  After I had retrieved trousers and a top, I pulled them on and finished packing my things. Tati and I pulled on our glamours and glamoured Etachs, then slunk out of our hiding place. I took Etachs' hand in one of mine and one of Tatiana's in the other as we emerged into the small clearing beyond the fox hollow we had been sleeping in.

  Tatiana started to pull us east and I pulled her back, shaking my head. She furrowed her brow and looked at me. I nodded my head to the north instead. Tatiana shrugged and strode off in the direction I indicated. I made to follow her, but it was Etachs who pulled us back this time. Ayesha gave an impatient squawk and took flight from my shoulder, flying in a generally northward direction. I turned to look at Etachs, my eyebrows raised in question.

  "What about the others?" Etachs said in a low, unsteady whisper. Tati whipped her head around to look at the two of us.

  "What others?" Tatiana snapped at Etachs in her harsh whisper. We both stood looking at Etachs, and then realization dawned on me.

  "Oh, may the Gift forsake me!" I said and dropped both Etachs and Tatiana's hands sprinting full speed back to the camp, leaping over tree falls, heedless of the branches that scratched at my face. As I reached the edge of the spread-out camp, I skidded to a halt.

  On the other side of the clearing, I could see the shimmering outline of a cloaked Himlani Hunter. I didn't think; I just acted. My magic burbled to life, quickly rising to a cacophony in my mind. I lifted my arms out to my sides, even with my shoulders, palms facing forward, as if I was going to give the whole clearing a warm embrace. With my eyes fixed on the Himlani, I thought a single word and, with all the strength in my body, I brought my hands together.

  "Storm." Bang.

  Instead of the clapping of my palms together, a thunderclap echoed deafeningly loud in the clearing, jolting the camp from its sleep. The clear, crisp autumn morning turned dark and the wind picked up, tugging my hair out of the loose bun I had pulled it into. It flew around my face in a gale of wind, conjured out of nowhere.

  The Fae and Humans in the field were instantly plunged into chaos as they were awakened by the noise and the drop in temperature. The wind swirled around the clearing, rousing the last ones lingering in sleep. The Himlani on the opposite edge of the clearing made to take a step forward, aiming their Rounder at one of the Humans, and I flung my hands out towards them, my magic surging into a roiling mass inside me. The tree to their left bowed and struck them with a branch, flinging them back into the forest.

  Tatiana came skidding to a halt next to me and Etachs followed a moment later. I sprinted forward grabbing a Fae woman we had been traveling with and yelled over the cacophony of sound from the wind, just as the first fat drops of cold and bitter winter rain fell from the thunderstorm I had conjured.

  "Himlani raiding party! They are already here! Get out!" I flung her away from me as Tatiana grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, hauling me backward and away as the first Rounder fired along the edge of the clearing. I screamed and kicked against her. "No! Tati! We have to go back; we have to help them!" I shrieked.

  "It's too late!" Tatiana yelled back as she hauled me away. I fought against her until Etachs grabbed me and dragged me as well. Angry tears coursed down my face, bitter, and helpless. I relented and followed them, sprinting through the woods, heading north for reasons I didn't completely understand. We ran for what seemed like hours. We ran until we couldn't hear the storm anymore. We ran until our lungs felt like we were breathing fire, and our veins were pumping pure acid. We ran until the screams from our camp, from our friends, were only the bitterest of memories. And then we ran some more.

  The Glade

  Marx lifted their head as the grating of their vault door being pulled open roused them from their thoughts. There had been some commotion, but they hadn't really noticed. Marx set their jaw and looked at the opening door. Ready for the Enforcerss to drag them off for the day's torture. But there were no Enforcers on the other side. Instead, there was someone new, in a ripped Hunter's vest. Their hair was too short to be a Hunter, even if they were holding a Rounder in their clawed hand. Marx stared at the person standing in the doorway to their hatch. They felt their brow furrow as they tried to work out what was happening.

  "Come on, Marx, we have to go!" the newcomer hissed, gesturing to the hallway beyond the door. Marx gaped. It couldn't be... was it? "Now!" the other whispered vehemently. Marx couldn't help their grin as they pushed up off the ground with their incomplete hands and unsteadily stood on their one remaining foot. A year had passed since the doctors had removed the lower half of Marx's leg and they still struggled with standing still, much less walking. Etachs looked at them in slack-jawed horror. "May the tank forsake them..." they whispered, taking in Marx's damaged and decimated body. The missing fingers, the leg shorn off at the knee, the small, rounded nubs for ears, the patchy places their hair would never grow back, their blunted teeth, and missing eye. The places too scarred to ever regrow scales.

  Marx turned their one remaining eye up to Etachs. "I don't know if I can go anywhere, friend. I am but a shell of what I once was..." Marx trailed off, but took a hopping, tentative step toward the hatch anyway. Etachs immediately rushed forward and wrapped the arm not holding the Rounder around Marx's waist, and together they awkwardly hopped through the hatch and down the hallway as quickly as they could.

  ◆◆◆

  By the time we had run far enough away from the raid for us to slow down, my muscles burned with exhaustion, my lungs aching with every inhale. I bent over, bracing my hands on my knees, my s
kin slick with sweat, loose hair damp and plastered to my face and neck. Etachs hunkered down next to a tree, their eyes closed, chest heaving. Tatiana remained standing, the color high in her sharp cheeks, her eyes blazing, grasping her elbows in either hand above her head to help slow her breathing. For a moment there was silence except for our panting. Tatiana looked at me, her eyebrows drawn down into an irate frown.

  "What in the name of the Gift were you fucking thinking, Ana?"

  Etachs looked between Tatiana and me, but wisely remained silent.

  "What do you mean?" I asked, blinking in bemused puzzlement. Tatiana crossed to me in three angry strides and grabbed the straps of my pack, yanking me into a standing position, pulling me so close our noses were nearly touching, her fury raw and wild.

  "What do I mean?" she yelled into my face. "I tell you; you might be the most important living thing in defeating the threat from the Himlani, and when danger is close, you go running toward it, and then you cause a fucking natural disaster, thus drawing even more attention to yourself?" She shook me violently, lifting me so I was precariously perched on the tips of my toes through my boots. "Are you out of your God pounding mind?" Her voice cracked and the tears of rage and fear spilled over her cheeks.

  I grappled with words and managed to choke out the start of an automatic apology, but I didn't even get the full word out when she cut me off. "I don't care if you're sorry. You're so selfish, Anais!" she screamed and pushed me away, releasing the straps of my pack. I failed to plant my feet correctly and landed awkwardly. I stumbled over a fallen tree branch, sprawling backward onto the leaf-littered ground, my pack digging painfully into my spine forcing the air out of my lungs.I stared up at her in wounded shock. The surprise quickly gave way to rage as I lifted myself into a sitting position, gasping.

  "Selfish? Trying to save people is selfish?" I yelled back at her, hating the hot angry tears building in the corners of my own eyes. "How is trying to save what is left of our people selfish, Tati? Isn't that what I am supposed to do? Isn't that what all this is for? To save people!" I glowered up at her with narrowed eyes and furrowed brow. She threw her hands up in exasperation.

  "Of course, it is, you ignorant nit, but not just one camp! You're not supposed to throw away the lives of everyone to save the people in just one camp!" she roared back at me. "Don't you understand? This isn't a war won in battles, this isn't something we can just chip away at until it sorts itself out. They outnumber us now!"

  "Saving everyone means saving everyone I can. I could do something about that, so I did it. Call me selfish all you want, but I would do it again," I said stubbornly, rising to a standing position and planting my feet firmly, my arms crossed over my chest, leaves still clinging to my clothes.

  "Fuck you, Ana..." Tatiana said quietly.

  "What did you just say?" I asked, my arms dropping to my sides, the wind disappearing from my sails immediately.

  "You heard me," Tatiana said and looked away, slumping to a sitting position, her back up against a tree. "Bet you didn't think how it would feel for me to see you sprinting off in the direction of danger? After all the years I have spent keeping you safe, keeping you hidden. To see you do magic like that and risk your life. Those Himlani saw you." I stared at her, unsure if I should hit her or hug her.

  "It's my fault," said a heavily accented voice in the common tongue. Tatiana and I both swung our heads around to look at Etachs still hunkered with their back to a tree. "I mentioned the others, that was foolish, I shouldn't have done that. Please don't be angry with each other..." they trailed off and looked down at the ground.

  "It's not your fault, Etachs," Tatiana said. "My foolish sister should know better." She crossed to me again, grabbing the straps to my pack again, yanking me to my feet. She wrenched me forward putting her face close to mine.

  "Don't do that again." She released me and jabbed a finger into my chest pushing me back a step. "Ever." I sighed and stepped past her, crossing to Etachs, offering my hand to help them to their feet. I looked up and saw Ayesha perched high in the branches. Satisfied that all of us were here and accounted for, I started off in a generally northern direction.

  "Where are we going anyway?" Tatiana asked.

  "The Glade," I said, then frowned at myself.

  "The what?" Tatiana inquired skeptically.

  "Uh..." I said haltingly, "I don't really know. I didn't mean to say that. I mean, it just kind of... happened."

  "Well, where is it?"

  "I am not actually sure, but I feel like I will know it when I see it," I said and kept on.

  "That's comforting..." Tatiana mumbled. Etachs just rolled their eyes and followed behind.

  We walked on through the woods until the sun had begun to sink into its bed on the horizon, turning the sky into a blazing inferno of pinks and purples with oranges dancing among them, filtered through to us by the reaching, stretching canopies of the trees.

  "Anais..." Tati said, "I think we should make camp now before it gets dark, find a place to hide."

  I shook my head and kept going. “We’re almost there," I said dismissively.

  "How do you know?" Tatiana demanded. "You don't even know where we're going!" Her exhaustion tinted her voice with annoyance. "We could just be walking into a trap for all you kn—" I lifted my hand and she fell silent immediately. I took another step forward and the strangest feeling washed over me. I halted and cocked my head to the side. A strange tingling sensation had spread over my left hand. I slid it to the left and the tingling got stronger, to the right and it got weaker. I turned to the left and stretched my hand out. The tingling increased, so I walked in that direction. Tatiana and Etachs merely watched me, Ayesha perched atop Etachs's head comfortably, preening her feathers.

  I took no more than five steps then yanked my hand back. It had felt as though I had planted it directly into a spider web. I frowned and extended my hand again, into what appeared to me as empty air. Again, I felt a slightly sticky barrier. I turned back to Tatiana and Etachs and beckoned them forward. They both stepped up to either side of me and looked at my hand.

  "Put your hands out where mine is, tell me if you feel anything," I said. They both stretched their hands out, frowning, Tatiana looking more than a little annoyed at this interruption to her lecture on my frivolous nature.

  Tatiana sighed and dropped her hand. "Nothing, Ana, what is this about?" I looked at Etachs who shrugged their shoulders. My frown deepened and I dropped my hand as well.

  "I know this sounds... strange, but do me a favor," I said, half talking to my companions and half-listening to the eruption of murmurs from my magic. "Just keep walking straight forward and let me know if you feel anything..." Tatiana sighed and stalked forward 20 feet, then back again, glaring at me.

  "Nothing," she snapped. "Are you going to tell us what this is about?" I looked at Etachs who dutifully walked forward then back again as well. They shrugged at me again, their mouth turning up in an apologetic smile. I nodded back at them.

  "Ok, so neither of you felt anything. You walked right past where my hand was, and didn't feel a single thing..." I said mostly to myself and reached my hand out again. When I felt the spider web-like thing brush against my hand, I did as my magic had been urging and grasped it with my hand, pulling it aside. Tatiana grabbed my shoulder gasping. Etachs' eyes widened, but they did not comment.

  "I think," I said as I turned to Tatiana grinning, "this is the Glade." I looked back into the rip I had made in the forest, into the lush green grass, dotted with wildflowers, and broken by a little creek. Though the sky above us was a foreboding dusky grey and threatening rain, it was a pink and cheerful twilight in the Glade. The warm, balmy air puffing out of the rip and onto our stricken faces.

  Before anyone could say anything, I stepped through the rip and held it open for Tatiana and Etachs to follow. Ayesha leaped off Etachs's head and soared through, flapping her wings in elation into the wide-open sky. She cawed out her glee as she wheeled highe
r and higher into air that had no business existing at all.

  Shelter from the Storm

  Thrixx tapped their claws on the panel in front of them, the footage from the dead Hunter playing again and again on the display in front of them. Next to the display showing the scene, were three more displays full of readouts and figures. They frowned and blinked both sets of lids, keeping them closed for a moment before turning their teal eyes back to the screens. Their mouth set in a line of determination. Something was wrong. The Hunter had entered the clearing as normal. They had been cloaked and proceeding noiselessly. They had lifted their Rounder aimed at one of the Remnants, and then…

  Thrixx slumped forward in their chair and rewound the footage again.

  Before the Hunter could unload the Rounder on the sleeping Remnants, the sky had gone dark, filled with thunder and high wind and pelting rain. The Hunter had looked up startled and seen... her. A Remnant, surely. Arms held in front of her, hair flying in the gale. Fat drops of rain mixed with bullet-hard balls of hail started pouring from the sky as she stood, staring at the Hunter with unbridled rage. The Hunter had twisted around and lifted their Rounder again, to at least bring some of the now panicked Remnants in, but just out of the corner of the visor's camera angle, the girl had flung her hands forward and the tree the Hunter was standing next to had bowed and swung, impaling the Hunter on sharp bare autumnal branches, snapping their neck with the force of the blow.

  The readouts from the sensors of the team of five Hunters, as well as the ground and air sensors in the area, had picked up nothing. Not a blip. This was clearly magic, but it wasn't Fae... Or was it? Thrixx zoomed in on the image of the girl, as close as the resolution would allow them. Her face was Human, round ears, and none of the angular bone structure so common in Fae, but that could be one of their tricks. Even their most sensitive sensors couldn't pick up the Fae's magic if it was just a tiny bit like their masking ability. Assuming they weren’t trying to disguise themselves as something too different biologically. In the frame right before this girl, this Stormbringer, killed the Hunter, they had snarled, and their teeth were pointed and sharp like the Fae. Thrixx shook their head and wiped the display clear. They didn't know what this Stormbringer was, Human, Fae, or something else, but they wanted her. They wanted to see what made her. And they would have her as soon as they could find her.