Luinosa and Iyan came together at the bottom of the rubble that rose to the open second floor wall of the mall-turned-safehouse. Behind her, the trail of Althelib came hustling into the alley, led by Sam and Fazel.
“Where’s Tomo?” Iyan said.
“She’s fighting,” Luinosa responded. “Take them up, lead them through corridors that go west, and then take the stairs down. Pass the statues of the niru, into the underground hall.”
Iyan nodded.
Some of the guardsmen from the second floor descended the rubble, and began to help the denizens climb up and onto the ruined landing of the second floor.
Alto appeared at the bottom of the rubble, nearly suffocating Luinosa with his arms.
Madreena, assisted by Aern, saw them both in the alley and ran to them.
“You’re all safe,” Madreena said. “My boy,” she touched her son’s face.
“Tomo released me,” he said grinning breathlessly.
“Follow Iyan,” Luinosa commanded Iyan. “And take mother and Aern with you. I have to instruct them all where to go…” Luinosa turned toward the rear of the Althelib, now crowding the alley entrance.
Aern protested, putting his hand on Luinosa’s shoulder.
“Lu…”
“No. You go,” she threw her arms around Aernest. “I’ll be fine. Remember what I told you? About fear?”
“Of course.” Aern said, suddenly coming to an understanding.
“It’s courage.”
“It is, isn’t it, Luinosa? Courage.”
Madreena stepped between them.
“Follow us immediately after, Lu. If my sister knew…”
Luinosa nodded. “She would be proud.”
“Let’s go,” Alto said, as he and Aern both helped Madreena up the rubble climb. Behind them, the other guardsmen assisted their kin’s purchase on the rubble, and soon the alley became busy with the swift movement of the Althelib into safety.
Luinosa maneuvered her way through the last two dozen in the rear, slipping past them and into the shadows of the overturned cars outside of the alley. Through the windows, she spied the one-armed March guarding the last few who entered the alley, before she herself slipped in.
On the cracked pavement of the overcity, some steps before the alley, Luinosa took notice of a discarded baton. She ran on light feet towards it, and swiped it as she passed. She hid, from shadow to shadow, amongst the ruin of the city, towards the battle in the center of the square.
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The great shadow-wyrm’s body rippled as it sped towards the safehouse on all eight thunderous limbs. Black Kettle stood in its way, lifting the thought-sword aloft, and from its gleaming center, Tomo ignited a blinding light.
The sphere of this inordinate brilliance spread from Black Kettle’s weapon, and the shadow-wyrm halted itself with an effort. It slid, and scraped up a tempest of dust and ash from the ground.
As it turned its great, beaked face away from the light, Kettle beamed forward, and came to one of the monster’s huge forelimbs. He swung his thought-sword from underneath its long trunk, and cleaved through it completely.
The shadow-wyrm emitted a thunderous shriek, lifting itself onto its four hind legs, raining its boiling black blood all about the surrounding ruins.
Kettle appeared from underneath the beast, sprinting with preternatural speed towards the Casiq at the center of the city square.
The Casiw doubled back in alarm.
The shadow-wyrm shifted its great body, and sent its mace-like tail roaring at Kettle, who only saw it just as it reached him. The spiked mass of compacted shadow-flesh smashed into his armored frame, sending him tumbling through the air and punching into one of the facades of the smaller buildings that littered the northern square.
The Casiq followed his movement with childish delight.
The shadow-wyrm was upon the small outcropping of ruined structure in three bounds that shook the foundations of the city. It reared up once again, looking down through the roofless buildings for its prey.
The Casiq turned towards the western edge of the square, and saw not a single Althelib remaining. He huffed.
The shadow-wyrm came down with its long forelimbs outstretched, the giant tendons in its hands pulled taut as its darkened fingers tore the building apart in search of Kettle.
The Casiq bellowed in the square.
“Tomokava! We’re playing with our toys now, aren’t we? Why don’t you come out and speak with me? Neither of us belong to this world… to this frequency. We are destined for greater things. You must understand.”
Kettle appeared from a building just east of the one the shadow-wyrm destroyed, rushing forward to the Casiq with his thought-sword leaving a ghost-trail of light behind him. The great monster let out an explosive shriek of triumph.
“There’s nothing to talk about!” Tomo yelled, her voice cutting through the din of the shadow-wyrm like a scimitar.
The shadow-wyrm emitted three deadly beams from its haunted eyes that bathed Kettle in a burning light. The force of this energy pushed Kettle off his path, and his wing-tipped armor began to sizzle and glow at the edges. Only steps from the Casiq, Black Kettle was forced to raise his bright sword to protect itself. The rippling hues of the sword changed to a gentle blue. From the halo at the end of his hilt, Tomo’s power gushed forth like cool liquid, spreading before Kettle like a shield. The molten particles of the shadow-wyrm’s blast were deflected to either side of Kettle, leaping away like the sparks from a forge anvil.
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The Casiq laughed, but the laughter did not belong to him.
“Everything here is for us to play with, Tomo. You said it yourself. This is only a game. But it is our game.”
The shadow-wyrm relented its blast. Just as Kettle got to his feet, there came down a thunderous crash; the wyrm brough its gnarled fist down upon him, crushing him to the ground.
Another limb shot forward and snatched the knight from the ground by a single leg. The shadow-wyrm smashed him against the ground, and then hurled him to the south, sending him like a stone to crash through the fragile walls that quietly burned there.
The great monster pursued Kettle, slithering on its belling across the square, its limbs marching along like a centipede’s. The Casiq followed behind slowly.
“You need to be instructed as well, Tomokava,” the sage spoke through the Casiq. “In the art of creation. You’ll learn to make this game exactly what you wish it to be.”
Black Kettle leapt high into the air from the ruins, the trail of his sword following behind like a comet on its way to the sky. The shadow-wyrm marked him a moment too late. As Kettle descended, he swung his sword, just as the beast flinched; he cut away an upper segment of the great mask, and took with it one of the wyrm’s gleaming eyes. It recoiled and flung its face to one side, sending its tail once again at Kettle like a great, black wave.
Kettle hurdled the onslaught of the shadow-flesh flail, as the wyrm continued to circle its body. The beast’s front half came around again, and its enormous beak came to Kettle opened wide; its mouth a portal to a burning black realm.
Kettle slid underneath the shadow-wyrm snapping jaws, raising the light-blade up above his head as he did, leaving a deep, glowing gash down its throat as he went. He sprinted underneath its curling belly, then turned towards one of the rearmost legs, and swung the blade of light at it, severing the sinewy hand there with a bright blast.
The beast spun desperately, gurgling from the wound in its neck, and sent forth beams from its two remaining eyes towards the knight. Kettle avoided it deftly, as it left a sizzling trail of molten stone on the city’s floor. He moved quickly underneath the shadow-wyrm, towards the other rear leg, and raised his sword once more.
As he half-way severed the next leg, the shadow-wyrm snatched at Kettle with the limb ahead of the one freshly cut, and caught him tightly in its powerful grip. The beast curled around itself, sending its remaining hands toward Kettle, and entrapped him there; a prison of piston-like fingers. Though it wailed in agony at its several mortal wounds, it held the knight aloft.
The Casiq came ambling on, pleased with himself.
Black Kettle’s exposed arm was twisted into an unnatural shape between the fingers of the great dying wyrm. He lost the grip on the hilt of the halo, and the sword came clanging down onto the stone ground.
Tomo’s brilliant spirit arose immediately from the circle. As she took form, she eyed the great shadow-wyrm in its last suffering; it chittered from its many mouths, and the great mask lay curled toward itself, spewing forth its oily lifeblood from the face and throat. Tomo turned to Kettle, further crushed and compacted by the beast's trembling hands.
The Casiq stood watching her, a few steps away. His robes waved gently in the wind, now subsiding. The flames of the burning city began to calm as well.
For a moment, it was peaceful.
“We prepare something new, Tomokava. Come with me, and be welcomed with us.”
Tomo turned towards the Casiq.
“We?” she asked, blankly.
The Casiq nodded, his eyes alight with wicked wonder.
“Myself… and my master.”
The shadow-wyrm shuddered, and squeezed Black Kettle severely. There was a groan from his iron armor, as it was compacted upon itself.
Tomo turned towards Black Kettle.
“Don’t hurt him anymore. Please,” she pleaded.
“He’s only a toy,” the voice within the Casiq said. “You will also learn from me, Tomokava…”
A figure dashed up from the rear of the Casiq, and readied the baton in its grip as it came to the Casiq’s side. As he noticed the figure, there was a cracking sound.
Luinosa struck the Casiq hard across the forehead with her rod.
The shadow-wyrm loosened its giant hands, and Black Kettle fell like an iron doll onto the ground. Tomo ran to him, and put both her hands on his mangled body.
There was a scuffle behind her, and Tomo turned her glistening eyes them.
The Casiq was staggering towards Luinosa, blood gushing from his forehead. He seized her baton, and the two struggled for it. Tomo got shakily to her bare feet.
“Sweets?”
The Casiq wrenched the baton from her, and then grabbed the little Althelib by her wild hair. He yanked her close, as she fought against him with her flailing limbs. He gripped the baton in two hands, and quickly brought it over her head with a snap, so that it pressed her throat. The Casiq lifted and shook her violently. Luinosa gripped the baton with both her hands, struggling to prevent herself from being strangled.
Tomo took a step forward, and sank to her knees.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her hands extended and trembling before her.
“This is the little one who brought you here,” the Casiq said. He relented in his strangling Luinosa with the rod, and she began to breathe in desperate heaves.
“How weak these bodies are,” the Casiq said, panting; laughing. “She nearly killed me.”
“We won, Tomo,” Luinosa said between her gasps. “You did it.”
The Casiq held her firmly once more, and Luinosa shut her eyes tight.
Tomo looked desperately at Luinosa. She held a hand to her chest.
“Please…” she said gently. “She’s… my Sweets…”
The Casiq nodded his bloody head, and squinted. The voice within him warbled from his mouth.
“Oh, I see now. It has become clear to me - you were only just born, weren’t you?”
The Casiq released Luinosa from his grip, and held the rod gently in his hands.
Luinosa spun and backed away from him with feral eyes. Then she turned to Tomo.
“Sweets,” Tomo said, opening and closing her hands, imploring the girl. “Come.’
“This is the first piece of knowledge I take from you, Tomokava,” the voice said, from within the Casiq. “An experiment.”
Luinosa began to walk towards Tomo.
“Is Black Kettle okay?” she asked.
“Sweets…” Tomokava crawled towards Luinosa.
Luinosa held out her hand to Tomo.
The Casiq raised the baton, and it crackled with electric fire. A bolt snapped from the rod to the girl, and for a single moment, Luinosa was a shadow before Tomo, arms outstretched. As Luinosa she came to Tomo, her eyes lit with a brilliant silver light from inside of her.
Tomo’s eyelids shimmered with tears.
Luinosa exhaled, and from her mouth came a tendril of smoke.
She stumbled to her knees.
Her hands reached Tomo’s.
“He walks so slow,” Luinosa whispered, and curled down in her lap. The hair on the back of her head was burned away, and the wound in her skull was cauterized, still smoldering.
Tomo passed her shaking hand over Luinosa’s wound, and then withdrew it.
Luinosa was gone.
“Now, tell the truth. How do you feel,” the Casiq posited, “about the game now, Tomo?