Every member of the group was staring at her questioningly, the accusation and betrayal in their eyes more damning than a slap on the cheek. If she’d mentioned her past, if she’d been more open and trusting, then perhaps they would have been better prepared to fight the unomynds. Now, with everyone badly bruised and barely able to stand let alone fight, her father had caught up with them.
“Hello, father.” Eve looked at him imploringly, intending to plead for the life of everyone else.
It was too little, too late. No one in the world knew her as well as her father, not even her mother. As a result, he likely sensed her train of thought even before she’d uttered the words, and launched an instant attack, afraid the element of surprise might be lost if he lingered.
He’d evaluated the fighting prowess of everyone when he’d entered the clearing, perhaps even before that. Thinking back, Eve realized that he might even have lured the damaged unomynds here just to weaken and assess everyone’s battle skills and capabilities.
He flashed over to Battle Cleric’s side before she could utter a word in warning, all but puncturing through the air-shield in an explosion of muted ocher and angry red essence to land a solid hit on the abdomen. James managed to create a hasty earthen block, encasing one of his feet, nearly trapping him. But he broke it apart with ease, then followed that with a swift and decisive punch, which slowed after encountering the air-shield but still had enough momentum so that when it connected with Cleric’s jaw, it instantly knocked him out.
While Eve shouted in frustration and leaped to intercept her father before he could attack Kumil, Arjun tried to soften the soil, almost making it similar to quicksand. Her father cursed in frustration and jumped, landing in solid earth which promptly opened up and swallowed him whole.
Kumil heaved an epic sigh of relief, then spat out a mouthful of blood. “Don’t tell me you’re related to that maniac.”
Eve wasn’t sure whether he was accusing her or joking to ease the tension. “Don’t relax. He isn’t like them. That won’t…”
Before she could finish her sentence, her father had dug his way out of the pit, flattened one more wall built by a desperate Kumil and knocked him out with an almost delicate punch.
Perhaps he does intend to leave everyone else alive. For the first time since the onset of dawn, Eve saw a glimmer of hope, if not for herself, then for her companions.
“I cannot let you live, child.”
Same as it had happened during their last fight, the moment he started advancing toward her, Eve froze up.
Unlike their last encounter, however, she didn’t require the help of primal self to shake her out of her stupor. This time she had help.
This time, she had friends.
With her enraged father mere feet before her, both hands extended and aimed straight at her neck, something unexpected occurred.
A simmering door, edged in deep violet and black as the darkest night, popped up right in front of him, depositing the bewildered unomynd twenty feet to the left.
He smacked into a pine tree, unable to stop his momentum. The poor tree cracked in half and thumped to the ground, causing a clamor that drove away all the animals and birds from the vicinity. The door itself vanished as soon as it spat her father out.
“What in Aimin’s name…” Eve whispered, her Crown unable to process what she’d just witnessed.
With a savage growl and jet of dark-crimson essence that obliterated the ground underneath, her father bared his teeth in a mad snarl and rushed toward Arjun, this time without any reservation about preserving their lives.
Arjun looked at Aisha urgently. He was still grasping her left hand, so Eve supposed they were communicating. Those two were an uncanny pair.
In answer to the silent query in his eyes, Aisha’s serene golden-green eyes turned steely. Then she closed them.
And something incomprehensible occurred.
A cubical box, each of the six sides identical to the doorway of simmering black leading to nothingness, formed around Eve’s father, completely enfolding him.
Eve felt a shiver down her spine.
That unassuming little gorgeous giraffe was not only a Healer but also an Enfolder.
Then, the cube began shrinking, at first slowly, but quickly picking up speed. About halfway through, the implosion stopped for a moment, only to restart with a vengeance. Within five blinks there remained no sign of her father, just a tiny box where he’d stood moments before.
Slight wind stirred the leaves of the rhododendron, filling the momentary vacuum created by the rapidly collapsing box. Then, with a pop that Eve felt more than saw, the box leading to oblivion vanished, taking her father along with it.
In the distance, a lone raven cried.
Eve stared dumbly at the empty space. She wasn’t the only one.
Her eyes darted around, checking the clearing for any sign of him. Hope warred with grief as a tiny part of her mind screamed in delight while another searched for his signature, hoping, knowing, dreading she would fail.
“This has been an educational day.” James had regained his senses and somehow managed to Heal himself and Kumil. But judging by the way he was moving, each movement slow and deliberate, he was in no shape to fight anytime soon.
A high piercing note coming from the southern slopes of the mountain heralded another pack, turning Eve’s blood cold.
She closed her eyes, although she needn’t have bothered. Even without concentrating, she could tell another pack of five damaged unomynds was hot on their trail, barely a hundred yards away.
“Fucking balls of Jukatis,” Kumil began, and then continued swearing vehemently for several more blinks, getting progressively more inventive, and ending with two of the gods – Jukatis and Rubina – copulating in a world-shattering event.
Even while uttering profanity, the Engineer stayed true to the creation myth. That’s how five of the others were supposedly born, with the youngest god, Skyldeva’s origin being a hotly contested issue even to this day.
“How many packs of these creatures are there?” Eve asked. She sensed only one, but there should be more, if the rumors were even halfway accurate.
“Too many. Follow me.” Arjun grabbed hold of Eve, and as another identical window or door – Eve wasn’t sure what to call the simmering black curtain – opened up in front of them, he dragged her through. What followed was a strange feeling of rushing accompanied by a sensation of falling. Eve blinked a couple of times, trying to regain her balance. She wasn’t eager to repeat that particular experience anytime soon.
Once her eyes adjusted to the dim environment, Eve realized she was standing inside the dark shadowy space under the mound of vine Arjun had discovered earlier. Soon another two doorways delivered the rest of their group to the gloomy corridor. The last to emerge was Arjun, holding a pale Aisha.
As soon as her feet touched the hard stone floor, she collapsed in a heap, her breath escaping in huge gasps as if she’d run a great distance. Probably opening up doorways to even nearby places required a significant amount of energy. She’d never been fortunate enough to witness Space Enfolding before. But one thing she’d learned these past few months – everything in the Cosmos has a price, usually a steep one.
James fished out a glowstone from one of his numerous pockets, then, turning to the half-aditaru, asked the question Eve was too afraid to ask herself.
“Is he dead?”
Aisha’s head whipped up sharply, her amber-green eyes full of guilt, and she gave a small nod. A nod full of reluctance. And finality.
“No need to feel sad or guilty. You did what you had to,” said Eve. What I couldn’t.
“Everyone, stand back.” The Battle Cleric turned to Kumil. “Think you can collapse the entrance without burying us?”
With Aisha in no condition to help and the rest of them in not much better shape, facing a pack of damaged wild unomynds would be suicidal. For once, Eve silently lauded the Battle Cleric’s caution and tactical acumen. Then, her grief returned tenfold as she realized her duffel bag was lost beyond all hope of recovery, along with all the Potions it had contained. The damaged ones would’ve ransacked their campsite by now.
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“Of course,” Kumil said, closing his eyes. “If I live till two-fifty without ever seeing those ugly mutts again, it wouldn’t be long enough.”
Subtle dark-yellow flavor of earth essence permeated the ground, and the resultant trembling caused the ceiling near the entrance to collapse in an almost ponderous manner, closing off the exit and plunging them into darkness broken only by the weak light of the glowstone.
Sitting there on the hard cold stone floor of the tunnel, Eve found a strange sense of peace.
Perhaps the darkness within her soul found calming comfort in the darkness without. Or maybe after months of flight from the person she hated and loved most in the world, finally being able to rest knowing her father was not out there hunting her, she was mistakenly regarding the numbness in her heart as peace. Then, slowly, two emotions surfaced, breaking through that placid sea of numbness.
Relief mingled with indescribable sadness.
Along with them, from the depths of her Heart, emerged a small part of her self that consoled all of this was as a result of one of the Fatewardens taking a keener interest in her life. This way at least, she was spared the agony of patricide.
James struck a match, then used it to light a torch secured in a wall-sconce to the right. The flickering light revealed a tunnel roughly six feet wide and twice as tall, ending at a bare wall twenty feet away. The other end, cloaked in darkness, led deeper into the subterranean structure.
“It’s time for some answers, Eve,” he said, looking down at her, voice soft but insistent.
Eve let out a breath she’d been holding for weeks.
Perhaps it was.
Gathering her thoughts, she began at the beginning. “I was born in a small village in eastern Aiminia, near the Lorian delta. My older brother and I were brought up by my mother.”
“And your father?” probed the Cleric.
“Was a soldier of sorts in the army.” After a short poignant pause, she continued. “He was an unomynd. All his mates in the army division were unomynds.”
“Unomynds!!” Arjun mumbled under his breath, tone incredulous.
“Like those creatures? Or like your father?”
“Like my father. These are wild unomynds, as my father called them. Damaged during birth. Heard rumors they existed but never thought we’d encounter them here in Arunia.”
“Why was he so hell-bent on killing you, his own flesh and blood?” Kumil asked, scratching his left horn absently.
“I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone I was related to him.” Eve gritted her teeth and held onto the tears threatening to pour forth. She’d shed enough tears for that man. No more. Taking a deep breath, she continued. “All male unomynd offspring are required to fight in the army. Else, they’re summarily executed. All females are carted off to another base, for breeding the next generation of unomynds.” Eve added dejectedly, “I wanted to become a fighter like my father.”
“But Aiminians still don’t accept women in the army, do they? Not unless she’s a Cleric, at least. And not even then if she has unomynd blood, I reckon.” Arjun nodded his head, finally understanding the implications.
“So, as I was his responsibility, he came for me, claiming I’d become a liability. Wasn’t ‘pure’ enough to breed the next generation of unomynds. Dilution of the blood. Killed mother when she tried to stop him. Framed me for her murder.”
Grief, once again, threatened to overwhelm her. Burying it deep in her Heart, Eve cleared her parched throat, desperately wishing for a drink. Preferably something stronger than the plain spring-water they’d been drinking for the past week.
“All of these… unomynds, they're as strong as your father?” Kumil’s voice betrayed wonder. And concern.
Eve understood both emotions, which were written across all their features, not just the half-stonehorn's.
“He was freakishly strong. Broke apart my shield almost as if it was made of paper. How about you?” asked Kumil.
“Most unomynds are extremely strong and agile, but few are as good a fighter as my father was. Some are close though. Some reputed to be even better.” She paused, wondering whether she should reveal her own abilities, then decided that for better or worse, she needed to trust these people. So far none of them had given her any reason not to. “I’m almost as fast as my father. He was stronger though, a lot stronger, and far more experienced in actual combat.”
“Legends come to life. You sure those were unomynds?” Kumil asked, still a bit skeptical, not that Eve blamed him for it.
“I’m sure.”
Kumil stroked his unkempt beard, which had spots of dried blood on it. “My recollection of the Lore is spotty, at best. Whatever your father did…that must’ve been some sort of Manipulation or Enfolding ability. Or something similar, at least. Otherwise, can’t see how even a brawny fellow like your maniac of a father could’ve dug his way out from thirty feet of rock in under five blinks.”
The fact that her father had once proudly declared himself to be an Augmenter might have something to do with that. But Eve’s own knowledge of such things was limited. So she remained quiet, still lost in the past.
“There’s some passing mention of unomynds in the Lore, even the Historica, but it’s minimal and vague.” James’ glance promised dozens of questions, but, sensing her state of mind, he refrained from prodding her for more information.
“Could be a new technique for changing the fabric of the Cosmos, one related to one of the dormant Aspects of Reality. Certainly wasn’t Manipulation, or we would’ve sensed that. There’s also the Awakened Throat to consider. It’s probably their Lineal Chakra.” After a quick glance at the half-aditaru, he added, “Aisha says it wasn’t Enfolding either.”
“Speaking of Enfolding, we thank you for the timely rescue.” James dipped his head slightly, pressing his palms together. A traditional aditarun sign of greeting and respectful acknowledgment, all rolled into one. “Shrouding Vest and Potions both?”
Aisha returned the gesture silently, eyes contrite, then gave a hesitant nod.
“No more of that from now on. Ever. Potions like those can cause permanent damage to your Chakras. I’m surprised the effect lasted as long as it did.” Seeing the constipated expression on the stunning half-aditaru’s face, the Cleric added in a softer voice. “As the ghost so aptly put it, it’s time to enlarge the circle of trust.”
“Not that I don’t agree with your caution,” Eve told her tall friend, “but I’m with the Cleric on this one.”
James grunted, giving her an appreciative smile, one which hinted that he might just be starting to trust her.
Eve decided to reciprocate. “Also,” she said, taking off her scarf, “there are other ways of hiding your Chakras.”
All eyes widened in shock as they gazed at her Awakened Throat. Well, all except Kumil, who simply grinned wider. “Felt there was something nice and odd about you. Right from the start.”
“Should’ve known!” said Arjun. “Your punches pack way too much power. And the way you fight with your legs. Never seen that before. No Earth Cleric likes taking his foot off the ground.”
“Some do,” said James, eyes intense. “But I’m more interested in this,” he said, thumbing the blue cotton scarf. “Who provided the material?”
“My father. From his limited allocated stock. Mother then made this with her own hands. After losing her Potions, this is all I possess of her,” she said, wiping the couple of drops of tear that had betrayed her.
“Not all,” Arjun put in. “You still have the memories.”
Eve nodded, acknowledging the point.
Things could be worse. Things could always be worse. “Haven’t felt any adverse effects so far, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Only been wearing this for a few months. Hid whenever a Cleric was around before that.” She turned toward Aisha. “Now that you’re among friends, no need to use Vests or Potions anymore.”
After quietly accessing her face for a blink, Aisha gave a thoughtful nod. Next, her eyes sought Arjun’s approval.
Their weird ability to communicate no longer made Eve feel nervous. That in itself might be bizarre. But it was no more bizarre than her own origin. Whatever passed between the two of them seemed to lessen some of her anxiety and Aisha gave a nervous smile. Even with all that power, she still somehow managed to look vulnerable. And gorgeous.
“I had my suspicions, especially after recalling the vague rumors that Shillang was home to a rogue Enfolder. Probably should’ve connected the dots earlier, given how our mutual acquaintance likes to operate. He wanted me to take you to Jivanpur. The fact that I was considering refusing him had no effect on the eventual outcome.”
Aisha gave an awkward smile.
Eve scowled. Looking around, she realized even Kumil appeared clueless, while Arjun looked downright infuriated.
“Don’t worry. You’ve done more than enough to warrant a place in our little group of misfits,” James assured Aisha. “Did he also help you hide your talents?” Seeing her affirming nod, the Cleric chortled. “Of course, he did. If anyone can come up with a Shrouding Vest and Potions, it’d be the most resourceful man I’ve ever met. I’m assuming he didn’t do all of this out of the kindness of his heart. Smuggling is much easier if one can form Portals,” the Cleric said, voice holding no judgment.
Arjun’s glance, however, did; the judgment being she’d betrayed him somehow. Like all men, he was a moron. “Who are you talking about?” he demanded.
“Just an old acquaintance,” was the casual reply from the Cleric.
Arjun shook his head in frustration. “How is it that you can also Heal?” he almost accused the poor girl. “I thought that was supposed to be impossible.”
“Not impossible. Simply highly unlikely,” James said.
“Very, very unlikely,” Kumil supplied as he glanced between the two who were doing their best to convey their feelings through touch, while giving nothing away with their body language or kernel signature.
Neither succeeded.
But eventually, Arjun gave the girl an apologetic smile, turning to the rest of them.
“She’s sorry she didn’t tell us about her Healing abilities beforehand, and she insists her Enfolding skills are mediocre at best.” He grinned, addressing Aisha aloud. “If that’s your definition of mediocre, then either you read a crappy dictionary or Enfolders are far more formidable beings than I was led to believe.”
“They are. Some TearMaestros could decimate whole armies, if you give credence to the Lore,” James said, eyeing Aisha thoughtfully, who, in turn, gave a shy smile that contained an equal amount of sadness and solemnity.
“In any event, you have our thanks.” Kumil thumped the half-aditaru in the back, eliciting a surprised yelp followed by a radiant grin.
“Well, the unomynds seem to be heading in the direction of the corpses,” Arjun said, after a moment or two of concentration. “Perhaps they’re attracted to freshly killed people,” he said, looking askance at Eve.
“They are, and yes, I have a feeling my father had been trying to lure them into attacking us.” Eve looked down. “That girl in the village…”
“Sins of your father are his own. No one is blaming you…” James hesitated. “But I’m afraid once we get to the University, you will be asked again about your past. In detail.”
Given the facts, there undoubtedly will also be peeps calling for her head. “I understand.”
Only saving grace was that she was a treasure-trove of information regarding the unomynds. It’d be a miracle if she wasn’t probed and prodded – which, hopefully, will be limited to verbal questioning, though a small part of her Crown feared worse. After all, even the existence of unomynds seemed to have come as a complete surprise to the Battle Cleric, who otherwise was oddly well-informed about affairs of state, even when that state, or country, wasn’t his own. That thought led to multitude of others – all logically pointing toward the inevitable conclusion.
Someone else might try to finish what her father had started. His death won’t go unnoticed – and not just because of his rank as a Clan-Captain.
One of her more far-fetched deductions concerning unomynds was their ability to communicate over long distances. Jivanpur was half a country away. If there was another fully-fledged unomynd roaming around Kailash, one who was also an Augmenter like her father, he’d have plenty of time to hasten her to the Eternal Halls.
And there was another problem, equally grave.
Her brother.
He’ll know what has befallen their father. He always knows.
Sooner or later, he’ll come for her.
Eve was dragged out of morbid thoughts revolving around her own assassination by the unusually somber voice of the Engineer.
“Almost feels like I’m in a temple,” he said, looking around with concern.
“What temple?” asked Arjun.
“Melwig’s Shrine.”