Elion lounged on his bed, playing on his Xbox. He yawned, then rubbed his eyes and checked the time: 1:15 am. Liora hadn’t come home yet.
Reaching into the bowl of Doritos next to him, he used the gaming chopsticks he wore to pick up a chip. Two loops allowed him to wear them on the index and middle finger of his right hand, and a hinge connecting the sticks provided a springing action for easy operation. He liked using them because they let him eat chips without getting grime from his fingers on his game controller.
He also felt smart when he used them, since he used the 3d printer at school to make them. Elion had fiddled around a lot to make the print turn out right. Beside him, his cat, Snickers, lay on the bed, purring contentedly.
Sighing heavily, Elion unpaused his game and continued playing. He could at least stay up and make sure she got home safely.
A door slammed downstairs.
“Elion!”
At the sound, Snickers leaped from the bed, bolting out of the room. Elion recognized Liora’s voice, noting an unusual hint of intensity in her cry. He paused his game and sat up, listening carefully, his brotherly instinct activated. She’d been hanging out with her new boyfriend, Keith, and his buddies who were in college.
I hope she’s not drunk again. Liora was his twin sister, and at only seventeen, she shouldn’t be out drinking. Uncle Zev had promised to talk to her, but he was only home for two or three days in ten. Elion hadn’t seen him for nearly a week, and he had no idea when Zev would be back.
Elion had always tried to protect Liora. As children, when other kids bullied them about their white hair, Elion would defend Liora. When their parents had died in a car accident, he took his role as protector even more seriously. But as they’d gotten older, Elion grew more and more confused about what he was supposed to do.
Liora had started dying her hair black, trying to fit in more with the kinds of people who had bullied her as a kid.
He knew Keith was a bad influence on his sister, but she wanted to spend time with him. What could Elion do? He was her twin brother, not her dad. All his entreaties had proved ineffective, so he’d settled for staying up late and waiting to make sure she made it home.
“What!” he yelled back. Images of Keith’s friends flashed through his head, and he hoped that one of them hadn’t followed her home. But she had an annoying habit of pestering him unnecessarily, and he was still annoyed at her for telling him off about his pudginess earlier.
The other day she’d purposefully embarrassed him by calling for his help. Keith had laughed at the way Elion had stumbled over himself, looking for danger. She’d just wanted him to open a jar of pickles.
“Elion!” she screamed again, and this time he couldn’t ignore the note of panic in her voice. She sounded genuinely upset. Tossing his headset onto the bed, he grabbed the baseball bat he kept in the corner of his room.
As he planted his bare feet on the cool floor a loud splintering crash rocked the house. Adrenaline flooded through him now, and he ran, throwing open his bedroom door. Down the stairs he saw Liora, grabbing at the floor as something dragged her out of his vision.
She screamed again. “Elion, help!”
Gripping his baseball bat in both hands, he sprinted down the stairs into the living room, ready to smash Keith’s brains out. A jagged hole in the front of the house marked the place the front door had once been, splinters of wood and bent siding panels littering the front room.
Cool night air blew through the opening, the peaceful scent of fields and fresh cut grass mixing strangely with the chalky mustiness of crushed drywall.
A huge spider-like creature dragged Liora by her ankles through the hole, its articulated mechanical joints glowing from within. Teal light flickered, the whine of motors loud as it moved. The vision of the otherworldly entity shook Elion. He rubbed his eyes. Adrenaline surged and protective instinct pushed him forward. He sprinted across the room, grabbing Liora by the hand and pulling.
The spider machine pulled back. Liora gasped in pain as her body lifted off the floor. Elion swung his bat one handed, over his head, striking at the spider’s metal skin.
With each strike the bat vibrated, stinging the palm of Elion’s hand. Liora screamed and writhed, blood dripping from her ankles where the creature bit into her flesh, one high heel still miraculously clinging to her foot.
Elion hit again, and the spider stumbled to the side. He dropped Liora’s hand and gripped the bat, swinging two-handed down onto the spider’s body. The bat splintered as it wrenched itself from Elion’s hands.
The spider-machine groaned with a sound like grinding gears, then, with a sudden burst of speed, whipped Liora through the hole in the front of the house. She yelped, clawing at the grass, pulling up handfuls of sod as she attempted to free herself.
Elion grabbed the double barreled shotgun from its place over the mantle. He ran to the hole in the front of the house and looked out across the yard. A dozen black cloaked beings occupied the front yard. A gigantic sphere hovered over the front lawn, like a snow globe filled with thousands of purple streamers, casting a strange amethyst light over the yard.
Liora struggled, her braids flailing around her head as cloaked figures grabbed her. They pulled her upright. One of them placed a hand on her forehead, and she slumped, her screams dying to whimpers. They dragged her toward the purple sphere. The spider-machine released Liora’s legs and scuttled over to stand beside another of the strange machines, waiting for further orders.
“Stop!” Elion shouted, bursting through the hole in the front of the house. Splinters from cracked 2×4s pierced his bare feet, the chill night creeping in at the edges of his bathrobe.
Leveling the shotgun, he took aim at the nearest intruder. He didn’t want to accidentally catch his sister in the spray of pellets. As he did, the tallest of the cloaked beings beckoned toward Elion. He spoke, his voice thick, rasping, menacing.
“Bring me that boy!”
At the command, the two spidermechs loped forward with frightening speed. Elion fired. The gun blasted, noise stabbing into his unprotected ears. Cyan sparks exploded from the body of one of the spiders as it staggered a few steps sideways. Elion shook his head, ears ringing.
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Elion aimed at the other machine and pulled the second trigger. The shotgun bucked in his hands, knocking the spider back a step.
Liora sagged limply between her captors as they dragged her into the purple sphere and disappeared.
The giant spiders recovered from Elion’s attack and charged again. With no time to break the barrel and reload, Elion gripped the gun like a bat. He squared up, but the first creature pounced at him, metal mandibles grasping at his body, his bathrobe.
Elion staggered backward and fell to the ground, crying out as sharp pincers dug into the skin of one leg. The shotgun fell to the ground nearby.
Elion kicked with his free leg, fingers grasping in the wreckage of the front of the house for anything that might be used as a weapon. The other spider reached him, and bit into his calf, sharp pain stabbing through his knee.
Together the creatures dragged Elion across the front lawn. His bathrobe rode up, exposing his boxers as the wet grass slid across his back.
Two men wearing black robes grabbed him by the arms, hoisting him to his feet as the spiders released their grip on his legs. Elion’s legs stung, crumpling beneath him as he tried to stand.
“Give my sister back,” he demanded, his voice shaking as he tried to show strength.
The tall man who had spoken turned toward Elion. He reached up and pulled his hood back from his face, letting it fall over his shoulders. His face contorted into a smile, lit with purple light cast by the gigantic glowing sphere. A shock of hair, white like Elion’s, spilled down over the man’s shoulders. Golden eyes glared beneath a strong brow.
Elion did not know the man. But… he looked familiar. Kind of like Uncle Zev. Elion had only ever seen white hair and amber eyes among his own family members.
“Interesting,” the man said, ruffling Elion’s hair. He grabbed Elion’s chin and pulled his face close, inspecting Elion’s eyes. “I did not know that Aria had a son as well.”
Elion tried to pull away, but the man’s grip was iron. “Get your hands off me.”
“You don’t know who I am,” the man said, eyebrows raised. “Did Aria never speak of me?”
Elion shook his head. His mother had never talked about her past.
“A shame,” the man said, his smile turning contemptuous. “She did you a disservice.”
“Who are you?” Elion asked.
The man shook his head. “You don’t recognize me? The same blood runs in our veins. No? Nothing? I am Dorian.” He declared this last part as though it explained everything.
To Elion, it explained nothing.
The man, Dorian, looked disappointed. “She really never mentioned me? Never spoke my name to you?”
“I’ve never heard of you,” Elion said, glancing nervously at the cloaked men now encircling him.
Dorian’s face twisted into a scowl. “I am Dorian Starholder,” he declared. “I sit upon the throne of Erod.”
Elion stared blankly.
Dorian’s face reddened with anger as Elion’s face betrayed no recognition, no understanding. “I caused The Breaking of The Sky. I freed us from the binding lies. I shone a light on the myth of Tephalian Invaders.” The man’s boasting did not impress Elion, confusing him more than anything. But the man continued. “I am He Who Glitters in the Night!”
Elion shook his head, bewildered and confused.
From across the street, a dachshund barked. Mrs. Phillips’s little wiener dog, Hamilton, ran over the asphalt and bit Dorian’s cloak, snarling.
The wizard kicked at the dog, but Hamilton did not let go of the robe. “Get away from me, you filthy—”
Hamilton pulled, and the thin material of the robe ripped, a strip of it coming away in the dog’s mouth.
Dorian sent a small bolt of purple lightning snapping through the air, striking Hamilton. The dachshund whined, and, tucking his tail between his legs, ran off down the road. The scrap of robe flapped from his mouth, jerking the small dog around with a life of its own.
Dorian scowled, turning back to Elion. “My name is Dorian,” he said coldly. “They call me the Black Fist. Master of the Black Wall.”
Elion shivered in the cold night. “N-n-never heard of you before. I’m serious.”
“I am your uncle,” Dorian said softly. “I am your mother’s elder brother.”
“Mom only has one brother. And he’s younger,” Elion said. “Maybe you have the wrong house?”
But as he spoke Elion saw the truth of Dorian’s words in his face. The color of his hair and eyes, the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose, all hinted at the relationship. If Zev had a brother, this man could definitely be him.
Dorian gestured toward the other cloaked figures. “Venya, bring him through the portal too. We’re lucky to have caught them both in the same place. Zev must be losing his edge.”
The two men holding Elion began dragging him toward the purple sphere through which Liora had already disappeared. Two of Dorian’s cloaked acolytes stood beside it, turbulent purple light flowing through their staves and crackling around them as they wrestled to contain and maintain the portal.
A pang of fear gripped Elion and he struggled with his captors, his movements energized by panic.
He fought against the vice-like grips on his arms, struggling to break away. His legs slipped on the grass as they approached the portal, struggling weakly in response to his mental commands. Air and light bent strangely around the orb, as guttural, clicking sounds emanated from it.
“What are you doing with us?” Elion shouted.
A woman stood beside the portal. She removed her hood, allowing raven black curls to spill down over her shoulders. Her dark eyes flashed alluringly in the dim light, and she smiled meaningfully as Elion met her eyes. With a flourish, she gathered power in her hand and tapped his forehead. A wave of numbness washed over him like ice cold water.
She turned, her robe flapping around her legs in the strange wind of the portal as she stepped into the sphere, disappearing.
Elion stared into the swirling patterns of the portal, unable to tear his eyes away, mesmerized by the twisting ribbons of light. He felt it catching at him, tugging on the edges of his soul like a strong current. The portal seemed to be downhill, dragging, sucking everything into it.
The sound of an engine revving pulled Elion’s attention from the portal. A pair of headlights split the darkness as a vehicle raced down the road toward them.