Division and Duplicity

"Stay still, and open your mouth, my boy." urged Sigin. Matthias reluctantly complied. The strange worm wriggled its way into the young warrior's mouth and faded from view. Matthias flicked his gaze from left to right, his mouth still gaping. And then....

"Uh.....I.....I can......? I....can! My voice!"

"Matthias!" cried Adele, surging forward to embrace her beloved. As the two collided, they gripped each other as if trying to meld into each other's skin. And Matthias laughed with blessed relief.

"I love you, Adele."

"I love you, Matthias."

They placed their foreheads gently together, staring deep and long. Elaine averted her gaze, a look of unusual loneliness on her face. Then Astra stopped tapping her foot and coughed pointedly. "May I be part of this joyous juncture, please Sigin?" she asked.

"You may, my dear." he replied, walking towards her. He placed his dark hands carefully against the sides of her head and closed his eyes. Astra looked to the other Tellurians, confused, but each was caught up in their own personal reverie. Sigin spoke in a deep, liquid voice that sent ants crawling down her spine.

"Destruction." he muttered. "It is such a base, facile act, to unmake that which is made. It is the dark folly of mankind that this truth is the most self-evident, yet is also the truth that is most revelled in. It is in magic alone that the idiotic simplicity of destruction is laid most bare. But creation.........that is the province of true arcane discernment. Close your eyes, Astra of Aqualaria."

She did so. In spite of her state of undress, she began to feel warm. Heat coursed through her body; from Sigin's fingertips, from her stomach, from her womb and her heart came the warmth, all of it rushing through her internal vessels towards her shoulders. They tingled sharply.

"Remember, Astra." said Sigin, his voice muddy and damp. "Remember what it was to hold someone in your arms. Remember the blisters and callouses that all the harsh skins of life have left upon your gripping fingers. Remember all that has been made......and unmade......by your hands. And bring them back."

"I remember."

A burst of electric light, and Astra fell towards the ground. Sigin flung his hands out and grabbed her. By the hands. And with them, he lifted her back to her feet.

As she regained her balance, Astra gazed in wonder at her pale arms, at her trembling hands. Even the tell-tale scar on her left index finger had returned to her, like an old friend back for one more adventure. Astra looked up, wide-eyed, to face Sigin. His smile was a cluster of stars huddled together in a night sky. Unabashed, she strode forward and embraced the mage without inhibition. "I owe you a debt that I fear is beyond my ability to repay." she whispered.

"You have nothing to fear." said Sigin as he moved back and held her by the shoulders, still smiling serenely. "Now, I believe Frederigo has something for you."

Astra turned to Fred, who looked slightly confused. He then realised he was still holding the robes from the chest. He looked to Sigin, who nodded encouragingly. Raising an eyebrow, Fred helped adorn Astra with one robe, then put on the second one himself. Exotica approached and gave Fred an affectionate squeeze, who responded in kind. Elaine smiled slightly, in spite of herself. Adele and Matthias, momentarily distracted by Sigin's sorcery, resumed gazing into each others eyes.

"And now, it is time to leave this place." announced Sigin, raising his arms to the ceiling. "Everyone ready their eyes for the sun - we have been down in this pit for too long."

With that, Sigin began the intricate upper body dance that signalled the start of his displacement ritual. His arms wove complex shapes in the air before him, and the whites of his eyes retreated like a broken army as his pupils dilated to an astonishing degree. Fred and Exotica looked at each other. "My father will make you the richest man in the kingdom when we get home." said Exotica, face beaming. Fred grinned. "Perhaps I already am." he said, immediately wincing at his own corny line. But Exotica just laughed and held him tight.

Matthias wondered if he could ever look away. She was the apex of beauty, his perfect Adele. The outside world would be a lonely, alien place, just shy of a millenium from his home and his life. He did not know what might lay in store for them all now. But he still had her, here in his arms right now, and so he still had hope. Sweet Adele. Perfect Adele. He blinked the wetness away and stared anew.

And then he saw something buried inside her gaze.

He felt the twinge.

"What's wrong, Adele?"

She turned away quickly. "Nothing. But...."

"But what?"

He grabbed her face, far too harshly, and forced her to face him. Gods, not the twinge, not now.......

"Remember that I love you, Matthias. Always have, always will."

He could only stare, stare as his mind filled with a maelstrom of senseless outbrusts his throat refused to utter. He saw her mouth open and close, forming some forever unknown word, and then only light.....

...

Far away, far above the clouds, in the atmospheric mantle where sky ends and space begins, they flew. Three of them, as dark as the night caressing their backs, wings pumping effortlessly, claws drifting languidly beneath their colossal armoured bodies. Their necks were ramrod straight, like compass points. From each of their pocked, chiselled foreheads came a single white horn, which immediately doubled back over their heads, as if buffeted into that shape by the relentless wind screaming past them as they sailed mile after mile.

"Euaristus, we should not do this." said the left one.

"It has been long." said the right one. "The world does not turn the way it once did. We can no longer be certain. Are you truly certain, Euaristus?"

"I heard him die." said the middle one.

"The land forsakes all of us, Euaristus." said the left one. "We are wicks, flaming down to our last remnants. Soon our kind will no more. How can you know? How can you know it was Minestus?"

Were it not for the screaming wind, silence would have followed the question. Euaristus closed her great eyes, and permitted herself a split second dream of what once was.

"I heard Minestus die."

...

It was the heat that awoke Astra. She sat up, gasped and choked on the foul fumes. She saw glowing orange everywhere, her ears beset by an earthern roar unlike anything she had heard before. The ground beneath her felt hot and jagged. Someone was pulling at her arm, trying to drag her backwards. She blinked twice, and now saw the river clearly. The river of lava.

"Astra, get back!" screamed a female voice, the owner of the hands desperately pulling her arm. The air was heavy and rank; each breath was a raw physical challenge that scorched her lungs deeply. The river was somehow getting closer.....

The hands hauled her toned body across the dark rock beneath them, away from the advancing lava. Astra felt pain as a sharp edge of some kind tore into her back, and she watched in dazed horror as the surface she had been lying on only seconds ago sank into the bubbling orange sea of death, emitting a noxious cloud of vapour that rose into the unseeable ceiling. Astra staggered to her feet, her searching hands finding those of her rescuer. She looked up, her mind filled with pure and utter confusion.

Elaine stared back at her, face bleeding and covered in dirt.

In perfect unison, they asked the question.

"Where are we?"

...

Fred opened his eyes, and sunlight seared his retinas. He gave out a cry of surprise, and squinted them shut. Rolling over onto his stomach, he carefully cracked his eyelids open, concentrating his now blurred, spotty vision on the soft, verdant grass beneath his body. A fresh breeze crawled over him. The air smelled sweet and sane. Taking a deep, grateful breath, he rose to his feet, rubbing his eyes like a small child.

Suddenly, a dreadful howl of agony came at him from behind. Spinning around on the spot, Fred reached for the sword that was not there, and grasped only a handful of brown robe. His eyes widened in earnest, and were punished once more by the ubiquitous daylight. Shifting amoebas of brilliance floated over his vision, and he felt dizzy. The horrible, crestfallen howl echoed in his ears again. Fred trod warily forwards, one hand over his eyes, the other out in front of him, feeling for the way ahead.

"Exotica?" he shouted, wondering where the others were. Were they battling the beast making those awful sounds? "Astra! Sigin! Anyone!?"

Then he heard her voice. Exotica's voice, some way ahead. He tried to look ahead, but his debilitated vision did not allow. Grunting with frustration, Fred quickened his pace, jogging across the sweeping grass underfoot.

"Please.......please stop, Matthias!" he heard her cry, her voice panicked and weepy. Fred broke into a full-on sprint, his mind ignorant of the risk of a trip, of a broken neck. "Matthias, what are you doing to her!?" he roared. But then a tangled clump of vineweed hooked his foot, and Fred collapsed to the ground. His head fell into shade, and as he hit the ground, Fred's vision strangely cleared, and he could now make out the scene before him. He saw Matthias, punching the side of the mountain with no restraint, his fists bleeding and torn. He saw Exotica, her arms around Matthias like a fussy mother, her eyes shut tight. Matthias opened his mouth, and a third howl came forth, ragged with despair. His hands slammed down on solid stone once more.

Fred saw that another of his companions was standing a way away too. He tried to focus, to see who it was. Then he gasped.

It was his squire.

...

Sigin opened his eyes and saw that he was still inside the lair of Belboz. Confusion clouded his awareness for just a moment, but that was all Adele had needed.

"What...."

That was all Sigin could manage as the dagger plunged into his back. His eyes bulged and his jaw lolled like a ventriloquist's dummy as the blade twisted and shifted, severing his spine. His body began to fall, but was immediately yanked back by a smooth, pale arm wrapping like a bony snake around his neck. Adele pulled the dagger from Sigin's back and in an instant was sending it tearing across his throat, spilling blood like paint. A burbling noise crawled from his mouth, carrying with it a foamy rivulet of warm spittle. She let go of him, and he plunged downwards, his skull making a sickening noise as it collided with the cold stone floor.

But Adele was not done yet. Flipping him onto his back, she mounted his body like a ravenous lover. She raised the dagger high, and for the next two minutes, she did what was necessary to get it back.

The two minutes went by. Adele stood up slowly, arms soaked in red. She did not try to stop the tears that cascaded down her blood flecked face as she held a closed fist up in front of her. She opened it, palm upwards, and stared at the ring. Her father's ring. Taking it in two fingers, she held her other hand up, index finger erect in anticipation. It fitted perfectly.

Wave upon wave upon wave washed over her. Dusty, unlockable doors within her consciousness melted to reveal their contents plain. An ancient, seismic understanding electrified her brain. It was time. Time to finish what her father had started.

She looked down at Sigin, almost floating in the pool of blood that surrounded him. Eviscerated by her own hand. His face wore an expression of muted shock. Sadness overwhelmed her, and she did not try to suppress it. She flicked a finger at his chest, and he rose into the air. Dark red droplets fell from body to ground like the product of an unholy, demented raincloud. Adele blinked, and there she was, standing next to her dead father, now half buried by grey rubble. Gently, she placed Sigin next to him. "I'm sorry." she whispered in a cracked, parched voice. She blinked again, and there she was, standing inside her dead father's machine.

It was time.

1. Fred.......
2. Astra.......
3. Adele.......

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