Winter 2045

Jace Starr

Jace felt a physicality he hadn’t felt in quite some time. It has been a long time since Ally needed his help in that manner. She had been growing strong ever since she made the pact with Leptous, but he didn’t think that she discovered his growing concern over her dependence on having that power. He had regretted that a part of him had felt that jealousy had been some part of the equation, but upon that physicality—the gravity that surrounded him that—even if he didn’t understand how it had happened—he understood that he was severed from that connection with her. For however it was possible he was his own separate existence.

“Who...the hell is this?” David asked, and Jace remembered there were others around before Allison had vanished.

“Wait, I know you,” Felix said, stepping close. “You’re the one who Allison created.”

“And you’re the one with the sticky fingers in her brain at all hours of the day,” Jace returned.

“Excuse me,” Veron asked, stepping in. “What is the context for what’s going on right now?”

Jace turned to them, “Hello! It’s nice to meetcha. I’m plenty confused myself. I used to selectively exist and now I fully do. I’m not even sure where these came from,” he motioned toward the plain t-shirt and pants he had been wearing. “Really feels ill for the climate if I’m thinking on it now.”

“You’re a conjuration,” Bramm said, taking a step closer to Jace. “Or...you were.”

“That seems to be the simplest case of it,” Jace said. But I’ve been around a lot longer than any of these other kinds. I guess you could say I’m like their great granduncle or something.”

Felix turned to Bramm, “So...if Allison stepped inside just now—that means she wasn’t tethered. Can we bring her back?” Felix asked.

Bramm looked from him to the seam. He took a deep breath. “It’s a tough question to answer. The seam hadn’t fully stabilized—it was on its way to it, sure, but I think it could be why this conjuration’s here and she isn’t—it’s been carved from her.”

“Excuse me,” Jace interrupted. “Conjuration? It?” He side eyed Bramm. “How would you feel if I called you ex-fetus?”

Bramm sighed, Veron chuckled, and David and Felix both looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact. “What would you like me to call you?”

“Jace is the name. I’d say don’t wear it out, but it’d have to actually be used in order to do that.”

“Your point is made, Jace,” Bramm said. “Do you have any talents or abilities we should know about?”

Jace moved to answer, but thought on the question. Did he have any talents or abilities? He was rather good at emotional support he figured, but he thought that he was more talking about tangible, physical acts. He didn’t think he had any special powers—and Ally hasn’t written his story in quite some time so he couldn’t be sure if he was intended to ever obtain any kinds of powers.

“I...don’t know,” he answered simply, “I think I was supposed to down the line? But things have really been quite busy so it hasn’t been much of a priority.”

“All right,” Bramm nodded. You’ll stay here while we head ins—” He stopped and cocked his head, and then he brought a finger up to his ear and then brought his left hand up in a typing position. His fingers started dashing as a keypad faded in front of him.

“What’s wrong?” Veron asked.

Bramm was silent as he brought up a display and then his eyes widened. “Code red, Achrom’s being invaded.”

“What?” Veron asked.

“What’s happening now? Who’s stupid enough to…” David trailed off.

Bramm turned and began bending down to shut off the machine. “We’re heading back.”

“What?!” Jace and Felix asked in unison. Jace looked down in confusion as Veron turned to help Bramm with Polarity. “What are you doing?”

“Emergency situation, nothing we can do about it,” Bramm said. “Really sorry about your friend, but she’ll have to wait until we can assess the situation. The code red is coming directly from the Exarchromage. There’s no other choice.”

“So you’re saying we’re just going to leave her stranded there?”

“It’s like he said, we don’t have a choice,” David said, his irritated tone was clearly showing. “It’s not our fault that she went in early.”

“Wait just a minute now,” Jace ran around and stood next to Bramm and the Polarity.

Bramm looked up at him, annoyed, and obviously in a rush. “What is it, kid?”

Kid? First he was an it, and now he’s ‘kid’? There was something about this guy that really agitated him. That agitation bubbled up to a fever point and he decided he had had enough. “I’ve heard you all bitching about losing people and wondering why nobody wants to join your pity party, yet the first situation that appears you’re all ready at the drop of a hat to abandon a new recruit? One who you took out here, let get too close to the seam, and are now going to add to your bitch and moan campaign?”

David stepped up to Jace and tried to stare him down. “Listen Goldilocks, I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but nobody asked you to be here. Nobody here cares that you’re here. You’re free to hop in there and chase after her if you like, but when we get a code red, we respond to a code red.”

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of those back in Achrom outweigh the one person who got themselves into a problem. If she’s as strong as Veron said, then she’ll last out there until we come back.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Jace looked at each of them with a look of disgusted horror. “You are all awful people…” He was shaking his head, and then he landed on Felix. “And you…” Felix seemed to take surprise with being singled out. “Why am I the one that’s asking these questions? Why am I the one who is caring about who was supposed to be someone you cared about?”

Felix looked off to the side, his usual quips seemed to be silenced. He walked past Jace to join up with Veron who had been carrying the box with the replaced Polarity inside. Bramm conjured up the buggy with a wave of his hand and a muttering under his breath.

Jace couldn’t believe it. Even this piece of shit is willing to ditch her.

“Listen kid,” Bramm said. “It’s not like we don’t understand the shit situation we’re in. I fully understand how hypocritical it seems, but a code red isn’t some walk in the park. We’ve never had something on this level before. If you ask me to weigh the lives of hundreds versus the life of one, I’m going to choose the hundreds every time. It’s just that simple.”

“I really don’t suggest you go throwing your life away in that seam,” Veron said. “If you go chasing after her, then the seam will tear you to shreds. I couldn’t even imagine how it would affect someone who originated as a conjuration. Come back with us and lay in the back, we’ll neutralize the threat, and then we’ll head right back out to send out a team to bring her back.”

“Why don’t you leave the machine, let me go into the stabilized seam?”

Bramm laughed. “Can’t leave this out just anywhere, the Exarchromage would kill us.”

It’s a tempting offer.

Felix was looking at him—there was a new look in his eyes—almost disgusted. The look angered Jace, but he figured if he was going to be of any help to Ally, he needed to comply for the moment. He sighed, “Fine...let’s go back, but let’s put a move on it. Every second we’re here bickering is another moment something bad could be happening.”

“We know you’re only agreeing so you can come back,” David said. “Don’t get us wrong, I want to get this over with as much as you...too many voices entering lately,” he groaned.

Jace looked away and started thinking to himself—establishing a barrier for his mind just as he did for Ally all those times previous. He found it easy to do, and realized he wasn’t totally useless. If he could figure out how else to perform, he may be able to save Ally yet.

He jumped in the back seat of the buggy, feeling the strange sensation of sitting down, and realized he had taken Ally’s seat out of habit—just in-between the two people he had been irritated the most with. He couldn’t help but staring at Felix as he entered the buggy. A million questions were running through his mind and he wished he could wring his neck now to force him to answer—if only his mind were susceptible to that unwarranted probing. If only...

~...~

They abandoned the buggy as Jace and the others approached Achrom, they could see the sky was filled with smoke, and flames leapt high into the air. They could see the plumes of fire from the distance.

“Oh shit…” Veron said, their eyes going wide as they stopped to take in the scene.

“No kidding,” Bramm said. “You stay here,” he turned to Jace. “We’ll go on ahead.”

Jace shook his head, “No, I’m already out here. I can help search for people trapped by the fire.”

“You really don’t know where we’re going, are you?” David asked. “It’s literally a village full of people who can at the very least conjure fire themselves. Do you think for a second that our chromages would need help from escaping from a village on fire?” He scoffed. “Please,” he shook his head.

“David, we’re not going to turn down help,” Bramm chided.

David groaned. “Whatever.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Veron said, running ahead.

Jace followed them, unsure on what he really should do—moreso acting on instinct rather than logic. As he began to run he felt a new sensation—his lungs—he had lungs—had started to burn as he was running and the village got closer and closer. What was this feeling? Was this physical exertion? Is this the kind of thing Ally had to do constantly?

They had reached the edge of the settlement and Jace was the last to catch up. His whole chest felt like it was on fire—this was an entirely new feeling for him. The others had split off to investigate the code red that was called, he bent over and caught his breath—it was then that he realized how toxic the air around the fire was. The acrid smell of smoke mixed with the scent of burning wood was almost suffocating. Jace’s eyes started to water and his throat felt like it, too, was on fire.

The sound of crackling flames and creaking wood filled the air, accompanied by the screams of panicked villagers. David was wrong, that arrogant prick. No matter how much you knew about magic you were still susceptible to normal human fear, and fear will trump any kind of magical ability.

Jace could feel the heat emanating from the inferno even from a distance, making him feel as if he were standing too close to an open oven. The sky was orange and red—Ally had looked at these skies with such despondency, but if he were to give his honest opinion, he enjoyed the warm tones those skies elicited in his heart. He had a heart now.

He stared up and then noticed that the smoke clouds that filled the air had started to blur out the sun. His smile turned dark as he thought on what kind of creature would cause such a disruption. What kind of being would willingly destroy such a view?

Jace rushed headfirst into Achrom met with a scene of chaos and destruction. Buildings were engulfed in flames, and the intense heat made it difficult to see or breathe. He tried stepping over debris to avoid any of the fallen embers.

“Anyone around here?” He called out, and then covered his face with his arm. He heard a voice calling from inside one of the nearby buildings and he began running toward the sound of the voice.

He rushed to the front door of the building and reached for the handle. It stung with how hot it was and he reached his hand back and shook it. Fuck.

The voice called again from inside—it sounded like a whimpering from behind the door. Jace held his hand and took in a sharp breath before he braced himself to ram the door. His shoulder connected once and it sent a shockwave of pain throughout his arm. He winced and backed up, grabbing his arm. He threw himself at the door again, teeth clenched and he let loose a scream as he barreled through the doorway—busting it down as he fell on the splinters.

The interior of the room he fell into was much hotter and he had to turn his head to get the immediate searing sensation off of his face. He took in a sharp breath as the back of his head started to get real hot.

“He...lp,” came a voice off to his side.

Jace turned to see a man trapped underneath a heavy looking bookshelf—the top of which had not been spared from the blaze. The hole in the ceiling above him told the story of how he ended up where he was.

Jace worked up to his feet and noticed he was sore all around—and the heat had still started to make his face hurt and sensitive all over. He pushed through it and bent to grab the bookshelf—it looked like it had broken upon impact—that should have made this easier on getting it off, but the heat of the wood instantly made him regret that. He knew he couldn’t leave this man to die. He bent again and grabbed the wood—the heat searing on his hands and he yelled out as he lifted with his legs—pulling the splintered wood off the man’s abdomen.

The man started heaving as the weight was lifted off of him, Jace screamed as he shoved the shelf off to the side and it broke further. His hands were raw and red—they were in so much pain tears started forming in his eyes. He looked down to see the man’s legs looked like they had open wounds, but they didn’t look like they were broken. They were horribly burnt, though, as well was his back and arms.

Then suddenly there was a large crash above and Jace leapt into action. He bent and latched his arms around the man and heaved him up—they both cried out in pain, but Jace pulled back—dragging the man out of the building.

“Th..thank you,” the man offered out as they slid out of the doorway. His voice was ragged and barely present.

Jace was tight as they breached the doorway and he pulled him out as another sound from the top floor erupted out. Jace looked behind him and saw that the creature he and Ally had seen in Enforal—the pale monster with the tendrils extending from its back and blood lust in its eyes. It had soared through the air from the hole that was created in the second floor of the building. He leapt on top of the building that was right across that hadn’t yet been swallowed by the fire. He continued leaping off out of sight.

If that thing was here and causing the invasion—then they were in trouble.