Terra crossed her arms and closed her eyes and tried to summon Alter. She groaned when the girl hadn’t magically appeared in front of her, even when she screamed and cursed her name. Signing in defeat, Terra recalled the last moments before she got stuck floating in the black void she’d been in once before when she’d fought that Queen that was actually Red from the other world.
She’d been on the roof consoling that strange woman who called herself Henarie (after that woman had attacked her out of nowhere) when she was hit with that sudden wave of nausea and then by some unknown object. The impact had been so great that it sent her sailing off the roof, and even though she knew she was a good twenty stories off the ground, Terra knew that her skin crystal things would shield her from the fall. Man, she really needed to figure out what she was so she could assign technical terms to her odd defense mechanisms.
One minute she was falling to the ground, the next she was in this space devoid of exterior light. She could clearly see her arms and legs and such, so there was light, but from where she didn’t know. What she did know was that no matter how hard she tried to the manipulate the stuff like she’d done before to create that awesome exoskeleton, nothing happened. Which was when she resorted to calling out to Alter, but that didn’t seem to be working either.
Was Alter pissed about something? She had seemed more emotional than usual during their previous confrontation, but the girl disappeared as quickly as she’d come, and then Terra had to deal with Henarie, who’d randomly jumped into the picture. What Terra desperately needed was an entire day to just sit and watch clouds. Just one day to enjoy the sensations her new body promised her like a full stomach, prickly grass, the cool chill of rain--was that too much to ask for? No missions, no need to run for her life, no more unanswered questions. Apparently so because she was still stuck inside the black pod with no Alter in sight.
“Yismin?”
Terra’s head whipped around and she nearly screamed in surprise.
“Eimose! What are you doing here?” Terra squinted at Eimose’s figure, which was drifting toward her upside down. “Is that a robot head? And why is your arm like that?”
“Oh, that.” He lifted it so he could also take a look at it. “That was--what the?!”
His arm was completely encased in crystals, but not in black ones like Terra had grown accustomed to; white ones. Well, the base color of the crystal was white, but a light of all wavelengths sparkled through the arm, emitting a soft glow, lightly illuminating the left half of Eimose’s body. Terra felt a pang of jealousy as she thought about the boring black crystals that seemed to dominate every aspect of her life. Why couldn’t she get something as beautiful as that white crystal? She didn’t even realize there could be options.
“Okay, I swear it wasn’t like that the last time I checked. Are we dead?” Eimose asked as he felt around the upper part of his shoulder as if checking if his crystalized arm was still attached to his body.
“Not sure, but I’m leaning toward no. How are you still alive? I mean, when I last saw you we were trying to take over a subaqua. What happened?”
Eimose shot her a confused look as he waved his arm around to make sure it was, indeed, his arm. This motion gently rotated him so he was speaking eye-to-eye with Terra.
“Ummm, in case you forgot, you almost killed me yourself when you pinned me down at the party. Seriously? And then Henarie put that mask on you? How do you not remember this? It happened less than a day ago.”
“I did what?” Terra asked, befuddled. “Wait, who do you think I am?”
“Yismin.”
“Alrighty, well that’s your problem there. I’m Terra.”
“Excuse me?”
“Terra. Whoop-dee-doo, I’m not a robot anymore.” She shook her hands in the air.
“Wait, back up. You’re who now?” His eyes widened in disbelief as he tried to process her words.
“Terra.”
“No. This is Terra.” Eimose held up the head of the robot he still had cradled under his right arm.
“Oh, so that’s what that is. You really carried that thing around because you thought it was me? I--I don’t know what to make of that.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Yismin, what stunt are you pulling right now? Does this have anything to do with that relic you guys were going crazy for?” He looked around at his surroundings. “Is this like a tribute thing or a ritual?”
“Again, I’m Terra. Do we seriously have to go through this again? Bad enough you didn’t call me my actual name as a robot, now when I’m an actual person? Just fill me in on what happened after the subaqua stuff so we can make sense of this all.”
Even though Eimose’s mind was reeling, he summarized his week of near-death encounters to Terra, who didn’t say a word as he recanted his tale.
“Okay, first of all, what the fuck. You really tried cutting your own arm off? Who does that? Are you insane? Secondly, I need to know more about the Henarie person because I just met her and she tried to kill me, then she started crying, so there’s that. We need to go back to that glowing rock place since it sounds like something important.”
“Oh hell no! I’m not going anywhere near that place!” Eimose cried out as he scrambled backwards as if Terra had the magical ability to teleport him there. For all he knew, she could.
“Calm down glow boy, I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re both a little trapped at the moment.” She motioned to the space around them. “Unless you know the way out, we’re staying.”
“About that, where exactly are we?”
“Wow, I was wondering when you were finally going to ask that questions=. Been waiting here for ages to finally pop out.” Alter’s voice rang out from above the two.
“Alter!” Terra screamed. “Where the hell have you been! I’ve been calling you for...well I don’t know how long, but a long time! Get us out of here!”
“Who is this now?” Eimose asked.
Terra’s eyes widened and she stared at the man.
“You can see her too?” she questioned, bewildered.
“Am I not supposed to? Oh, shit. Is she going to kill me because I saw her face?” His pupils darted to the bemused Alter. “Wait, unless we’re already dead and you’re a spirit or a god or something. Someone, please explain this to me or I’m going to lose the last bit of sanity I have left.”
“Would you rather learn about who I am and what I can do, or do you want to get out of this space? I’ll leave the choice up to you.” Alter replied with a cool expression.
“I’ll explain who she is and stuff if we get out here. Promise.” Terra stated.
“Fine, tell us how to get out of here,” Eimose demanded as he turned up to Alter.
“Your loss, Terra knows very little about me. Oh well, it’s your decision. Alrighty kiddies, get closer and stretch out your left arms.” Alter declared as she floated down beside them. When she was close enough she grabbed their extended wrists and positioned them so that Eimose’s crystalized hand was poised a foot above Terra’s, their palms facing the others. “Okay, now close your eyes. Especially you, Eimose, you might get a little freaked out. Terra, pull the crystals toward your hand.”
“I already tried this,” stated Terra while she rolled her eyes. “Literally the first thing I did.”
“I know that, but now we’re doing it right. There’s going to be a little kick at the end that you won’t like, but I think it’s well-deserved.”
“What kickba--”
“You want to get out here?” Alter interrupted. “Then concentrate.”
Terra clamped her jaw shut and shot Alter a glare full of as much spite and malice she could muster. Letting out a breath she’d been storing she focused her attention on her palm, still unclear as to what the desired outcome was supposed to be. Eimose had already closed his eyes so she did the same, concentrating on trying to bring her crystals to her palm like she’d done before without success. To her amazement, she could feel something forming in the palm of her hand, so she peeked one of her eyes open just a sliver so she could see exactly what was going on. It took all of her willpower to not flinch her arm back and scream at Alter until the girl spilled some answers.
Eimose’s hand didn’t look remotely look human anymore; his fingers had elongated to form a circular cage, meeting at a point at the bottom. Terra’s hand was at the center of the contraption with a dark crystalized rock floated above her skin that was no larger than an egg. As she observed the stone further, she noticed that it was getting bigger by minuscule proportions. What that thing an accumulation of the vast amount of crystals around them? How was it so small? By the time the rock got to the size of a large fist, the space around Terra and Eimose had dissolved away, leaving them floating in red fog.
“Is it working? The air got weird. Can I open my eyes now?” Eimose asked.
“Not yet, ten seconds.” Alter promptly answered.
Terra quickly shut her eyes in case Alter decided to check on her. The feeling in her stomach revealed that she was being slowly lowered to the ground and she had to bite back the cry of relief she felt when her feet were back on solid land. When she sucked in a breath, however, she found that even when her lungs were full it didn’t feel like her body was satisfied with the amount of oxygen it was getting. Was this body faulty?
“Alright, you can open them. Terra, here comes the kick.”
Terra’s eyes snapped open and she opened her mouth to question alter, but the black stone that had been floating above her palm suddenly remembered gravity and the sudden weight caught Terra off guard.
Time stood still as she felt herself age within seconds. Her bones turned brittle and snapped, shattering sharp shards of calcium into her soft muscle and tissue, ripping her body from the inside out. Her skin flaked away layer by painful layer until there was nothing protecting her broken interior from the outside elements. The slightest breeze lit a fire around her as acid coursed through her veins. She wanted nothing more than to make it all stop, but when she tried to scream her teeth cracked and her tongue swelled until she couldn’t breathe. No one could hear her cries of blood and agony.
Suddenly she was back, covered in dust and dirt from having collapsed, Eimose by her side with fear in his eyes. Terra blinked a few times as reality set in and she unfolded herself from the fetal position she’d unknowingly curled up into. In the palm of her hand there lay aa small black stone and a clear crystal the size of a heart.
“So that was the kick Alter was talking about.”