Winter 2045 ~ Underworld

Laven

Everything had been happening so fast. Chaos had taken the night from under their feet. Lucas had taken the form of a dragon after resonating with the dragonstone. Laven had celebrated her theory being correct. She wished she could have explained it to him, but things were in motion and she didn’t think that they would be stopping anytime soon. There was so much she barely had any time to keep the information set in her own mind.

He and the King had each taken to the sky—Lucas was using his newfound wings to escape from the King’s grasp. As soon as they had taken off, the councilor from the South had made his advance and summoned an orb of light in front of him that started firing off arrows of light almost immediately.

“Stand back,” She looked down to Tabula, grabbing hold of their arm and shoving them back to Roderick. “Take care of them,” Laven said.

Roderick grimaced, but nodded. Laven ducked underneath one of the arrows and breathed in sharply—the fire inside her started to glow and the lights ran across her skin with a brilliant shimmer. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the red haired councilor, Cherine, approaching—a whip of fire was suspended just off both of her hands—where the ends trailed into the grass sent sparks flying upward.

Laven leapt back—bending backwards as Cherine crossed her hands with a crack of each of the whips. They intersected just above her face, the heat rushed across her body—the sparks that flew off the end of each whip stung at her face and neck.

Her eyes focused on Cherine and she reached out her right arm and fixed her stance to a more defensive one, bending her knees as one of the other Councilor's arrows of light fired at her. She glanced back to check in on Roderick and Tabula—but she couldn’t see them. She focused back on the two councilors in front of her and turned to Cherine as she redirected the arrow—the filigree on her skin glowing golden in response to the transfer of energy. The arrow passed through her hands and as she swung them around—the beam followed the path and she saw Cherine reach out to her side where contact was made.

Her scream entered the air and the world returned to normal speed. Laven jumped away from the both of them to gain some distance away. She had just barely avoided another shot firing out—the ground where it had hit blew up dust and dirt into the air. Laven closed her eyes and felt the outside sounds fade to a numb resonant wave. She exhaled and pushed herself off the ground—priming back a fist and sending it forward—she felt the moment it connected with the southern councilor’s sternum and she heard the crack.

He was going to be out from that punch—so as soon as he dropped she turned, but found a searing pain wrap itself around her left leg. The barbs from the end of one of Cherine’s whips had sunk itself deep into her ankle.

Laven looked up and noticed Cherine had one hand covering the bleeding gash in her side and one hand was outstretched with the whip.

“Might always trumps tricks,” Cherine said. “Unfortunately, I’ve got both,” she pulled back and the barbs of the wire dug in deeper into her foot. Laven felt the immense pain as it felt like a shark’s teeth were digging around—scraping for anything they could find. She felt it scraping against her bone.

Cherine yanked hard on the whip and Laven was pulled to the ground. She hit hard and the world went dizzy for a few seconds—the pain in her foot twisted, but it didn’t subside. She felt the energy start to fade from her body—she knew that this castle had affected how long she could use this power—but she feared it would be too late and too tired to continue on—forced to submit and die at the hands of these councilors.

Suddenly, a power from deep within her started to burn and she saw eyes open inside her mind.

Connected.

She didn’t know what that had meant, but she knew that the burning digging feeling in her foot was gone. She looked down and saw the fire fade through her leg—the whip fell to the ground and started a small fire beside her. Laven looked up and saw the whip had been cut from the middle, and Tabula stood between them with a broadsword clutched in both hands.

“Seems like we’ve a rat in our midst,” Cherine said, grunting as she stood back to her full height, some of her blood leaked out onto the ground.

Tabula closed the distance between them and swung out the sword, but Cherine vanished before the blade could connect.

“I know when a fight is a losing one, I’m not going to be throwing away my life to you folk, but I can’t quite let you live, either,” her voice echoed throughout the courtyard.

There was a huge crash from above and Laven looked toward the sky and saw the King—his large black scales reflected the moonlight—he was flying up toward a massive hole that was just made in the central tower of the castle.

“Laven!” A voice called from down below. She looked down to see Tomorrow and Roderick running toward them, Roderick noticeably had no longer been holding his own side.

Laven smiled, “You turned coat for us?”

The look in his eyes explained more than she could have asked for, and he simply nodded. “I recommend you escape as soon as you possibly can. I cannot go with you, unfortunately. I am dedicated to this kingdom to its very end, and mine, but I am to face my consequences here whatever they may be.”

“I appreciate your assistance, but unfortunately I’m going to be staying.” She looked up toward the tower, and then saw the fiery spiral erupt from the hole in the tower and she saw Lucas slam into the King. “We are aiming to kill the King.”

“What?” Tomorrow asked. “How…”

“It’s a long story, one we don’t have time for, and...wait a minute,” Laven said, turning to see that they were alone in the courtyard. The councilor Laven had beaten down had left along with Cherine, but more concerning was…

“Where’s Tidmas?” Roderick asked.

The northern gates to the rest of the castle opened up and twelve soldiers filed out into the courtyard—and then joining them was another group of what looked to be ten soldiers from the eastern gate from the soldier’s barracks. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the two dragons above come together—it looked like the King had grabbed hold of Lucas.

The soldiers had begun to surround them and Laven began looking around her surroundings. She had felt more energy pouring through her body than anytime before—she felt stronger than she’s ever been, but still it would be a tall ask to take on so many soldiers at once. Her eyes had locked onto the oncoming soldiers that surrounded them. She knew she was at a disadvantage, but she was determined to fight until the end.

The courtyard was surrounded by towering stone walls, their surface weathered by time and stained with moss. A few trees dotted the edges of the courtyard, their branches reaching out like skeletal fingers towards the sky. The ground was covered in cobblestones, worn down by years of foot traffic and the occasional horse's hooves.

The soldiers each were clad in the tightly clung armor and wielded the shimmering steel swords that looked infinitely stronger than the weapons they had gotten used to training with. They had begun to advance as one central unit—coming down on all sides. Their faces were grim and determined. She could hear the clanging of their weapons and the sound of their heavy footsteps echoing off the walls. This definitely didn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence.

If only I could know how Lucas was faring. She hadn’t seen either of them since they passed overhead.

“Looks like that judgment might be coming sooner than you think,” She said off-hand to Tomorrow, but noticed he was gone when she looked for his reaction.

“Vanished,” Roderick said, gripping a spear she hadn’t realized he had. He shook his head, “Looks like it’s just gonna be us.”

“Can give us weapons but won’t stick around to the end,” Tabula signed. “Quite unfortunate.”

Laven nodded, then turned back around to the encroaching soldiers. She took a deep breath and charged forward, her footsteps propelling her forward and she leapt toward the front of the pack—using the chest-plate of the front-most soldier as a springboard—she heard the metal in the armor dent as she sprung off. She swung her neck around to avoid a sword swiping at her in the air and she landed in the middle of the crowd, dipping and diving in between slashes. One managed to cut the back of her left leg—she winced since it had still been sensitive from the burns, but she was able to grab at one of the soldier’s hilts—as he had gotten cut from one of the other soldiers in the chaos.

They didn’t have any coordination in fighting in a group—that much was clear. It’s possible they were only trained to swing wildly and that was it. She could take advantage of this. She was able to shove one of the soldiers back into two of the others behind him. They toppled over which had sent two more soldiers behind them falling over as well. It gave her an opportunity to slip out from the center of the crowd.

She looked back to see Roderick and Tabula had gotten pinned down by two soldiers closing in on them. For however good they had gotten during training, they still lacked the defensive measures the soldiers had with their armor.

There was a sound from behind Laven that stole her attention away for but a moment. Unfortunately it was the moment one of the soldier’s needed to close the distance between them. He full-body tackled her and they both went down to the ground. It had felt like she was slammed down and the wind left her chest. She felt a sharp pain in her side and it took her a moment to register that she had been stabbed with a dagger—the soldier had pulled it out from a hidden sheath inside his boot.

She felt the pain from her foot start to flare back up as the adrenaline started to fade—her entire body was sore and pain spread throughout her body like a virus.

This is how I die. Stabbed in the side and to bleed out like some animal. This isn’t right. It shouldn’t have happened like this. My life should have gone in such a different direction—it should have continued. It should have continued!

The sound from behind her sounded again, and suddenly the sound of footsteps crashing on the ground. She craned her neck back and looked upside down at the sight behind her—she noticed the moving chaos of bodies stampeding in their direction. At first they looked like a mass of flesh, but then she realized that she recognized some of those faces—and they had been wielding swords and spears of their own. At the rear was Tomorrow—he had led in the other squadrons to the courtyard for backup.

Immediately the courtyard was overrun by bodies clashing and the soldier that had tackled Laven was pulled off of her. She slowly worked her way to her feet—the knife was still in her side and she held an arm up to it to keep it from slipping out. Keep it plugged until you can fix it. You know this.

She was able to hobble away to a corner of the courtyard just behind one of the topiaries that hadn’t been destroyed in the scuffle. She leaned against the wall and placed a hand around the knife. She looked and saw the filigree on her skin was glowing still—even if it had dimmed considerably. She had enough to patch up the wound, and she thanked her blessings.

As the fight continued, Laven began to tire, her breaths coming in short gasps as she struggled to keep up with the soldiers. But she refused to give up, fighting with every last ounce of strength she had. She clasped the knife and Laven pulled on it slowly as the cooling air emitted from her hand. It brought relief, but the other pain in her leg had overpowered the relief. She bit her lip as she worked the knife out, sealing the entry wound as it left and she let loose a long breath.

Laven collapsed against the wall and she saw the filigree darken completely—her strength has left her completely as she watched the squadrons take on the surprised soldiers. Even though they were prepared, the numbers were now in favor of the squadrons—Tabula and Roderick had even been able to regain their ground against the soldiers that had previously pinned them down. Roderick heaved his broadsword upward, sending the soldier toppling backward before Tabula was able to follow up and send a spear through a hole in his armor.

Laven felt a smile cross her face. She slowly turned her head to face Tomorrow—the effort required was gargantuan, but she made it happen. You gave me every reason to doubt you, but you came through in the end. Thank you, Tomorrow. I am so glad this worked out. I am glad I placed my trust in you.

Her head fell back against the wall and she stared up at the stars, then the one thing remained in her conscious mind—where had Lucas been? Come back. I want to see the stars with you...I want them for one more night. Those nights again...I would give…

Something jolted her awake. She tensed up and felt a dreadful coldness envelop the area. Her eyes opened wide and she saw a figure of darkness falling from the sky—she squinted to try to get any sense of detail out from the figure.

They landed and smashed into the ground—sending dirt and spray flying into the air. When the dust settled the figure was in motion—they looked like...oh no.

It was a Shade.

Their body was entirely encased in darkness, the yellow lantern-lit eyes illuminated the darkness and helped Laven track its absurdly fast movements. The body was entirely smooth and void of detail. Void was a good descriptor...what was a Shade doing this close to the castle?

It leapt toward one of the squadmates and shoved its arm through his chest like a knife. It pierced his heart and he dropped on the spot. The Shade danced under the corpse—sinking into the ground and rose up with their arm outstretched and killing a soldier—the shadowy arm slipping easily through the armor and ending her life.

Horror dawned in Laven’s eyes as she tried to will her body up—she had to get them out of there—she had to call upon that power Lucas had when they last encountered the Shade...but her body would not move. She could not even bring her voice to speak.

The Shade jumped over the soldier’s body as it slumped to the ground and two appendages pierced two other bodies at once and then before they could even fall it used both of its arms to split Roderick in two halves.

NO! Her mind was screaming, begging for it to end. She wanted to close her eyes—to pretend like it wasn’t happening, but knew she couldn’t look away.

Tabula was next, she raised her spear and thrusted it through the Shade’s abdomen, but the Shade’s body simply wrapped around the spear and its form traveled up the spear. Tabula’s eyes went wide and Laven recognized she must have been seeing something—some glimpse of the life behind the darkness of the person it used to be just like how Lucas had before.

Moments later the Shade pierced her heart and Tabula dropped to the ground.

Tomorrow sent a blast of light toward the Shade—he was approaching the Shade and making hand gestures too advanced for Laven to keep up. She saw light and darkness melding together as he was using all the magic he had available to dispel the Shade—but the Shade was ducking and twisting past every shot. The yellow eyes turned to a crimson red and the Shade launched itself at Tomorrow, devouring him whole and leaping off seconds later—leaving the empty husk behind which fell on its back. The Shade looked around the courtyard.

Everyone was dead.

Its gaze landed on Laven—who at this point had less than no energy to move. She closed her eyes and in a second found her body temperature cooling even colder. She opened her eyes and the Shade was overlooking her, those crimson lights in its cavernous eye sockets faded to an orange as it stared into her own eyes. She felt a wave crash over her as her fear mounted to the fullest feeling in her presence.

Something deep within her started to speak, but it wasn’t in a language she understood. The Shade seemed confused, curious almost, and stood to its full height. There seemed to be an echo of a memory—siting just on the edge of Laven’s vision, but she couldn’t reach out to grasp it. It would not move closer to her. She then saw a shadow above—the flying form of the black dragon soared in the air and the Shade stopped, then looked up at the sky toward the dragon and leapt. Then all at once consciousness faded from her like the flame of a candle being snuffed out.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

~...~

Lucas Adair

Lucas was floating within his own mind. His body—noticeably human—rested above a colorful splash of expanse that seemed to shift hues as he looked at it. What started as a maroon depth turned brown, and then green, and then blue, and then back to maroon. The shift was so subtle he had difficulty finding a stable color to orient himself with.

He was weightless as the world around him spun and co-existed with the untangled stream of thoughts that flowed from his head. He couldn’t understand what was leaving his brain and what should have stayed. What had just happened? The last thing he remembered was flying through the sky—seeing the stars above him.

Then the crash shot through his mind like a silver bullet. He looked around and saw a bubble of sorts floating past him. He tried to navigate closer toward it, but found it was difficult to propel himself forward.

Come back. I want to see the stars with you...I want them for one more night. Those nights again...I would give…

His eyes opened wide and he brought a hand up to his cheek—he felt a warmth resonate that he knew stemmed from Laven. He reached out his other arm and found he was approaching the bubble. Inside, he saw the world he had left—it was a bird’s eye view of the world...it entranced him. He started to reach closer toward it, but he heard a voice behind him, so he turned slowly.

“You…are different,” a voice rang out all around the space he existed. He saw a faded ball of light appear—it looked like all color had been drained of its presence.

Then next to the first appeared a second—almost identical presence that similarly looked monochromatic.

“What?” The second asked.

“You are different. You are like me, but different. I woke here too, not that long ago, but long enough. I don’t know exactly when it was. I had the same thoughts you have now. A recollection of a place you can’t seem to put your tongue on.”

“Hello?” Lucas asked, sliding over until he was in-between them. “Who are you? Where am I?”

The presences continued, uninterrupted. “Who are you?” The second asked the first.

“I don’t know,” the first answered. “Those kinds of answers aren’t given to me. I just know I’m not you.”

“Hm...does the name Acheron ring a bell?” The second asked.

“No, should it?” The first answered. “I’m getting bored here, do you want to go somewhere else?” the ball of light asked.

“Somewhere else? What about that place there? I think I know those people,” The second said.

The ball of light moved back and forth. “There is no going back there. You’re no longer welcome there.”

“What do you mean?” The second asked.

“We don’t seem to be welcome in any of these bubbles—in any of these places. You can try all you want but you cannot go into them.”

All of these bubbles? I can only see the one...what is going on here? Is this really happening...or is this something that happened a long time ago?

“You’ve both done very well,” a new voice said, it was a bombastic presence that filled the entire void. It didn’t seem to originate from any singular source.

“You won’t find me by looking, I’m everywhere. I am dimension you reside in.”

“You….are the dimension?” The first asked.

“Indeed. I was known by the name of Friedrich Adata back when I was human, that name may mean something to you, but it also may not. I existed long before I was human, and am existing long after my death as one, but you two are different.”

“What are you?” The second asked.

“You can call me Father. I am the caretaker of Everything. You two are new. You two are the Sons. Your presence here means that you have become something more than human.”

“There…were others like us, weren’t there? I have a foggy memory,” the First said.

“Yes, you both have very foggy memories, that is an unfortunate side effect of your ascendance. You see, when a human dies, their soul returns to me, or more specifically into The Pit.”

“What is The Pit?” The first asked.

Lucas saw the space between them all change—the colors started to swirl as they formed at a singular point below them all. There seemed to be a cavernous pit that extended far past his vision consisting of a thick, viscous, tar-like substance. He followed the two balls of light down to the edge. He bent over and saw almost a reflective coating over the edge of slots that scaled the walls of the pit as far down as he could see. He got closer, pulling himself closer to investigate, then he turned up and saw the others looked to be frozen in time.

I guess it’s okay for me to check out exactly what this thing is. He hadn’t understood fully what he was experiencing, but figured that he wasn’t going to learn anything if he wasn’t searching for the answers.

He looked at one of the slots—it looked like an inlet with a shimmering window that looked into admittedly a strange scene. There was a young girl inside—probably looked to be around ten or eleven. The name Abigail Aarons flashed in his mind. He also saw a flash of the young girl’s death—she died when an explosion leveled central Denver—her family lived in a townhouse nearby and she died instantly.

Wait...when did an explosion like that happen in Denver? This surely must have been before the world became what it is now. Denver didn’t exist anymore.

He turned and slid deeper down to another slot. He looked inside and saw an older woman—probably looked to be in her late twenties. Lindsey Berrant-Cress. The name appeared just like the previous person’s, and he learned Lindsey—assuming that was her name—had committed suicide in a run down motel called The Continental Inn in 2029. This was just before the world was prevented from its destruction by way of the Radical-9 Incident.

Radical..9? That name seemed familiar...he had heard it somewhere before, and then the memory clicked into place. It was the name of a book. The same book...or...close to it, maybe the same series that Gavin Daniels had come from. What was the point of this place? Just what was going on?

As if to answer, the voice of the Father picked back up. “This is The Pit. It is what started our life. The black tar that you see inside of it is the collective unconscious of every single human that has ever lived and passed on, their memories stored here forever.”

“What do they do here?” The First asked.

“The souls travel back to this place after death. They empty all of their memories into the Pit, cleansing themselves for future use, and then they are recycled into being used to create new universes, just like the two of you did now,” The Father explained.

Is this the process in which new universes are filled with new life? If that were the case, why was there only one left?

“And how are we here?” The Second asked.

“Your souls are tied to this dimension now since your bodies perished inside of it. They became linked after death and you now have more mobility than a normal human soul. It triggered an ascension process.”

“Okay, I understand that, I guess. What do we do now, Father?” The Second asked.

“Your job is now to act as my eyes and ears throughout these new universes. You shall enter them and take on an identity there within that universe. You shall play a role until that universe ends.”

“Until it ends?” The first asked.

“You will find more about that when you begin doing so.”

“Okay, that sounds easy enough,” the Second said.

“You shall cleanse yourselves of your previous identities. No longer shall you go by your old names. Gavin Daniels will be lost to the annals of time—its life shall not be stored within the Pit.”

“I am confused,” the Second asked. “You said one name, but there are two of us. Which one of us was Gavin?”

“At one point, you both were. That does not matter now. Now, you shall go by your new identities…” the voice of the Father started to fade, and as Lucas rose out of the Pit. The two balls of light have disappeared completely.

“Hello?” Lucas asked, and the question echoed throughout the infinite vastness, looping on itself. He realized that there was nobody else here—unless you counted the memories of those that had apparently died in the Pit.

He felt an uncomfortable coldness emanating from the Pit and he did not like the feeling it gave him inside. Is this what human life was to be reduced to? Like a washcloth to be wrought out at the moment of death and to be repurposed back into the system?

His eyes opened as he had an idea, and it terrified him at the same time. He looked back over the edge of the Pit and at the reflective panes as they shimmered all the way down. He traveled down the side of the pit, noticing the names of the people inside went in an alphabetical order. He stopped when he came to the name he sought after.

Abel Gray.

Inside he saw both the young boy who had been present in the accident that took the use of his legs as well as the older man who had constructed his original form. Both seemed to fade in from one or another, but what solidified it was the numerous causes of death that were on the record for Abel. Every death within the Roulette Game was transcribed here—as Abel’s soul had come back to the Pit after each death before being sprung in the next cycle. Of course, the final listing showed the explosion that sent the SubCon facility to the bottom of the ocean. He went on to look at Cain’s slot, but was ultimately confused when his panel looked to be empty.

What was this? Cain was dead too—he remembered the numerous times that he had perished after the second round of the Roulette Game. Was it possible this system was flawed?

Or…

He rose back up above the depths of the Pit. He did not like the sounds that filled his mind while he stayed down there. The eerie atmosphere and the total loneliness had set in a fear he didn’t want to feel again.

He pulled himself toward the bubble and pushed himself inside. I’m done with messing with things I don’t understand. I still need to get back and take care of what I do.

He breached the surface and began falling—he looked up and saw the exterior of the bubble as he began free—falling through the air. It seemed to vanish as his weight started to return to him—he looked at his arms and body as he continued falling—his whole form looked transparent. All of this was so unreal, but that meant that he was probably still where he had fallen—and he looked back down to the ground below. He saw the Underworld in its entirety—it looked like a massive island with cobalt blue seas surrounding it on every side—the five kingdoms couldn’t have been more distinct as their massive castles stood tall in the distance that he could see their points even from this high up.

He saw the Blackwell Castle and aimed toward it. The feeling of flying wasn’t so strange to him the second time around. He felt the wind coursing through his hair until he was closer and closer…

There he was.

He found his body and as soon as he made contact his eyes opened—he was staring back up at the stars. Those same glittering stars he was just falling amongst. His body was electric with energy and he stood tall—the crystal embedded in his chest was glowing with a bright red light that seemed to ebb and flow with his breathing. The azure scales on his body seemed to sparkle in the moonlight, and he fully took inventory of his body.

The smallest movement in the sky alerted him and his vision honed in the black dragon flying overhead.

Gardov.

Lucas jumped into the air and he shot out like an arrow toward Gardov. His wings flapped and he was going as fast as he possibly could. Laven flashed in his mind—he saw her body lying limp in the castle courtyard and he tensed and felt a fire bellowing deep in his stomach. He was a hundred feet away, then fifty.

His talons erupted in cobalt fire and his eyes burned with vengeance. Gardov turned, confused, and then Lucas reached his arms out, claws of fire stretching out as they clasped around the black dragon’s neck.

The momentum was enough to send both dragons hurtling toward the ground. Lucas was in control this time, his talons were sinking deeper into Gardov’s neck and he only could make a gurgling sound as he tried to let loose his own fire—but it bottlenecked in his throat. Lucas closed his grip, severing the dragon’s head from his neck and cauterizing the stump in one fell swoop.

They hit the ground immediately after and Lucas was sent spinning and rolling until he slammed into the western wall. Gardov’s body tumbled to a stop in the center of the courtyard.

Lucas stumbled to his feet as the world was spinning around him. He saw the corpse of the black dragon and felt a voracious victory. He yearned to tear his body limb from limb and roast his remains...but then something else caught his eye. Up on the banister up on the second floor sat a Shade, legs hanging off the edge of the ledge, dangling. Almost as if it were enjoying the show.

Lucas’s eyes narrowed and he looked from the Shade to Laven in the corner of the courtyard. He noticed her chest was rising up and down and he let go a breath of relief. His attention focused back on the Shade.

It jumped up from its place and landed just before Gardov’s body. Lucas moved to close the distance, but it reached a darkened hand down and its shadow consumed the body as the lights that were in place of its eyes deepened to a blood-red.

Lucas’s nostrils flared as he prepared to stare down the Shade. He leapt out toward the Shade, but it leapt backward, its eyes fading to the lantern-yellow.

What...it was trying to run away? Not if I have anything to say about it.

Lucas took off and his wings flapped—propelling him forward. The Shade landed and then turned on the spot—jumping high into the air. Lucas reached out an inflamed clawed hand and just barely grazed the Shade’s leg—a scratch leaving rainbow colored ichor stains on the ground below.

Lucas’s eyes flashed white and he saw a girl in her mid twenties with auburn shoulder length hair. She looked eerily like Allison—the young Allison that had been his companion for a short time in the other world.

She was looking around herself in fear from her small apartment. She lived in Upstate New York—she was haunted...and then she was sacrificed.

Archiver.

He fell to his knees as the images faded. His eyes were darting around wildly and they landed on the pile of corpses near the western gate. He looked in horror as he saw Tabula and Roderick’s bodies among the rest as well as the other squadron’s bodies. Tomorrow had fallen just outside of the initial ring and then he turned slowly to Laven. He darted over to her. I knew I saw her chest moving. Please don’t tell me I was hallucinating that.

He hadn’t. He lifted her back and cradled her in his arms. His heart started to slow and the fire deep within him cooled. He had felt great sorrow, confusion, anger, but those all cooled in comparison to the relief and love he felt for the woman that sat in front of him now.

“Laven, thank god you’re alive,” he said. His voice was hoarse—he couldn’t recognize the harshness of it, but there was a hint of his original voice in there.

He felt the soft drops of rain on his head. He looked up and saw the cloudless sky—yet rain had started to fall from a point out of sight. He heard a slight sound coming from Laven and he turned back to her. Her eyes were fluttering. He cradled her face with his hand and he lightly stroked her cheek.

Her eyes opened, and she looked up to Lucas and smiled. “There you are,” she said. “Looking a bit more muscly than I last saw you.”

Lucas smiled, tears coming to his eyes. “I’m so happy you’re alive. I’m not sure if I can go back from this, but at the moment I don’t care.”

“Here,” she said softly, reaching her arm up. Her hand clasped around the crystal on his chest and she twisted it clockwise. The light in the crystal flooded his vision and he felt that similar weightlessness. He was enveloped in the light and he felt weight return to him as he sat next to her—back to his normal self. He was sitting bare on the ground as the clothes he had been wearing were nowhere to be found. He was cold, but he didn’t care. He was more confused than anything.

“What...happened? How did you know…?”

She laughed. “I found it in the guard station. Turns out they stole it themselves from the Councilors, who themselves were hiding their own secret from the King.”

Lucas tried to connect the dots, but it took an extra minute.

“The King’s dragon breath is what gave this place its magic, right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “And he got that power when he entered this world—it seems like how the transport changed my powers, it changed his as well.”

“It turns out those councilors were planning big things with that dragon breath—they were collecting as much of those accelerant particles as they could. Tidmas’ quarters held the key to it all. It was in there I found the plans hidden away—proposals for secret councilor meetings with a limited selection of members present. These were pretty thorough docs containing the design specifications of this,” she grabbed and held up the dragonstone—Lucas hadn’t realized it had closed back up and sat between them.

“That’s nuts,” I can’t believe I didn’t see that when I was in there,” Lucas said.

“I don’t think it would have registered as anything important if you had,” Laven said. “But I found it in the locker on the right hand side—pretty poor planning on their part if I’m being honest.”

“The...fuck...I was right behind that locker hiding!”

“This here was the culmination of their secret meetings,” Laven explained. “They were collecting the particles and made a contained source of energy that which they would use to overtake the King and establish a new form of rule over the kingdom.”

“Become the new king, huh,” Lucas said, staring down at the dragonstone. “Why do you think they didn’t use it? Surely they would have had it working before it could be stolen.”

“I don’t have an exact answer for that, but I think they realized they weren’t able to use it.”

Lucas cocked his head in confusion.

“I tried to use it when I found it in the guard station. To me, it was effectively nothing more than a paperweight. My guess is it didn’t work for the councilors—and the guards—much how it didn’t work for me.”

“But how do you know that the guards even knew what it did?”

Laven shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m only guessing since I don’t think they would have stolen from Tidmas unless they seriously believed they had something they could avoid punishment with. Which then leads me to believe they were under the impression they saw the dragonstone as their ticket out of their own lives.”

“I see…” Lucas said. “I guess that makes sense.”

“But you…” Laven said. “You had the power to blow back the Shade—I had thought that maybe that power was what you needed to interact with the power of the dragonstone—since it was the King himself who had summoned the Shades to this world. So I made a mad dash back to the cell block, only to find you all were gone. And Amber…”

Lucas’s eyes fell to the ground. “Yeah...they woke us in the night. They had killed her trying to get info about the dragonstone out. We didn’t know at the time, then they took us all out to be tortured, and then that was where Tidmas came out, and then I think you know the rest.”

Laven’s eyes went wide, “Oh, fuck. Tidmas’ body is gone. I was too busy dealing with everything else.”

Lucas turned toward the pile of corpses on the other side of the courtyard...and she was right. The spot where Tidmas had been impaled by the spear was gone. “Well, whether he’s out there or not, we need to leave here immediately. I saw what happened to Tabula and Roderick…”

Laven closed her eyes and sighed. “It was awful—it was that Shade. It acted different to the last one—it was aware. It was deadly. And it hungered.”

“I was able to wound it, if even slightly, but unfortunately it got away. I think it was a girl, but it was strange, because she seemed to live in the world before the world changed—I didn’t get a lot of detail.” He looked down to the dragonstone and placed his hand on hers. “I think I am going to have to use this if we want to get away from here with any sense of speed.”

She looked to him with a concerned look, “Are you sure? Did it hurt?”

Lucas shook his head. “No, not physically. I noticed…” he trailed off, then looked up before looking back into her eyes, “I noticed that when I had thought you had died…I got this intense anger in the pit of my chest. It felt like it never could have been satisfied unless I tore apart his corpse and fed it to the worms, and even then I’m sure it would have burned even hotter because I would have thought he deserved worse and I couldn’t give it to him.”

“What brought you back from that?”

His fingers curled around the dragonstone and he kissed her, holding her close. He backed away and clenched his fist around the dragonstone and felt its warmth surrounding him. The light enveloped his body and he took on the more draconic form.

“You,” he tried his hardest to speak in his softest voice, but in this form his softest voice still carried gruff undertones his human side would have dreamed of carrying.

He wrapped his arms around her and picked her up off the ground, looked to the sky, and leapt into the air. He didn’t know where they were going to go, but it would be anywhere but here.

“We should...head to the south,” Laven said.

He looked down at her in his arms, “I don’t know why, but I’m getting this...feeling. We should be heading south.”

He nodded, “Okay. I trust your intuition. We’ll head for the south.”

She nodded and curled up in his grasp. With her warmth he felt that he could fly for hours.