My Dearest Aria,
I pray that I might live long enough to deliver this letter into your hands. I will not attempt to uncover the secrets of your hiding place, but will patiently wait for your return. If I depart from this plane before you return to the Palace, I pray that these words find their way to you. With this letter I fulfill the dying wishes of your mother, the Queen.
Your brother, Dorian, succumbed to the seductive lure of power and abandoned his Aurelian oaths. He surrounded the palace with his forces of the Black Wall, claiming dominion over what remains of the glory of house Starhold. The Crystalline Guard has fallen. In the quiet places of my mind, I still hear the sounds of battle through the halls.
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“Where to begin,” Zev said, running a hand through his white hair. He opened up a tool box, and began picking through the tools.
“How about you start by explaining what just happened!” Elion exclaimed. “How are we going to get Liora back? Where did those wizards take her? What are we going to do?” Elion realized he sounded hysterical but couldn’t stop himself.
“Well first I’m going to use parts from these Arachnatronics to trace their origin,” Zev said, selecting a tool and clearing a space on the workbench. “Those guys were not wizards, they were Warlocks; they’re Zelian Ascended. I’m guessing they took her to Kylios. We should be able to use the staff to reopen the portal, if we’re fast enough.”
“That doesn’t mean anything!” Elion exclaimed, his emotions getting the better of him. “You’re just saying nonsense!”
Zev kept rubbing at his head, grimacing and scowling. He fished around in a toolbox. I’ve never seen Zev this stressed out. He always knows what to do. Zev took a deep breath, then let it hiss out between his teeth.
Still holding onto the wizard staff, Elion tapped it on the ground nervously.
“Stop that,” Zev said without looking.
Elion stopped. He had so many questions but didn’t know how to ask them. And Zev is really agitated. He didn’t want Zev to snap at him.
“Okay, fine, probably a bad time for this, but it’s not looking like there’s going to be a good time.” Zev rose from his work, crossed the room and grabbed Elion by the shoulders. He looked him square in the eye. He took a deep breath, and Elion braced himself for the truth.
“Your parents didn’t die in a plane crash,” Zev said.
Elion frowned. “I know,” he said, returning Zev’s gaze.
Zev relaxed slightly, confusion on his face. “You know?” he asked. “How did you figure it out?”
“What do you mean?” Elion asked. “Figure what out? My parents died in a car accident, not a plane crash.”
Zev smacked himself in the forehead and groaned. “Plane, car, train, whatever. I forget the official story. They didn’t die in an accident. Your uncle killed them.”
Elion’s jaw dropped. “He’s… that man… Dorian? He’s really my uncle? But you don’t have a brother!”
“I do,” Zev said with a shrug. “Or I did. He tried to kill us. Your mother and I, so we had to flee, and we came here to Earth to escape from him.”
“He tried to kill you? Why?” Elion asked. “Wait, what do you mean you came to Earth?”
“Elion,” Zev said. “Take a seat.” He gestured at a stool.
Elion sat down, resting the staff across his knees but still holding firmly onto it, squeezing it tightly as though it might somehow slip away from him. His hands ached, and his fingers turned white.
Zev began explaining as he sifted through the Arachnatronic parts scattered across the floor. “Your mother and I are from the planet Kylios. For generations our house, House Starhold, ruled from the Throne of Erod. Your mother, as the eldest daughter, was heir to the throne; this was the Starholder tradition for generations. Dorian tried to kill her and take the throne for himself. He almost succeeded, but at the last moment we were able to escape through a portal to Earth.”
“Wait,” Elion said. “Stop. You’re saying that you’re from another dimension or from another planet? Which one?”
“Not another dimension. Kylios is another planet in our universe. It’s far, far, far away from Earth. It is very difficult to open a portal at such a distance…” Zev trailed off, his eyes glazing over as though remembering.
The statement offered something for Elion’s mind to catch hold of, something other than the pain and failure and sense of loss that burdened him.
“Holy… So… you’re an alien?” Elion exclaimed. “And, my mom was an alien too? So I’m only half human! How does that even work, like evolutionarily? I thought different species couldn’t, um… successfully have kids.”
Zev frowned. “That’s not the point. Kylian are human, anyway, so…”
“How? There are humans on other planets? And by the way what is up with your magic power ranger armor?”
“Yes,” Zev said, exasperated. “There are humans on other planets. Can you save your questions till I’m done?”
“Sorry,” Elion said. “There’s just a lot for me to process. So my human Uncle Dorian tried to kill you and mom because he wanted to be king, but you both escaped and came to Earth. Continue please.”
“We hid here on Earth. We thought we were safe. If Dorian even realized we were still alive, he’d never be able to find us, let alone reach us here. But…” Zev’s face darkened, his eyes growing distant.
“He found you,” Elion prompted.
“He found us,” Zev agreed. “And for some reason he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted Aria dead, and I wasn’t able to stop him. Your father died trying to help me save her.”
Elion remembered the day that Zev had told him both his parents were dead. His heart clenched.
Zev stopped, his brow furrowed with the pain of the memory. Elion thought of Liora, in the hands of his homicidal uncle on a distant planet. The wounds on his legs from the Arachnatronic mandibles ached, skin itching beneath the bandages.
“Why?” Elion whispered. “Why did he have to kill her?”
“She refused to abdicate.”
“But she was gone,” Elion protested. “He could have told everyone she was dead and then been the king. He didn’t have to come here!”
“There are powers on Kylios that are only accessible to the true heir to the Throne,” Zev said. “And he wanted them. He was second in line to the throne for my whole life, and thought that by killing Aria he would become the heir. He didn’t know that she had children.” Zev laughed wryly. “I wish I could have seen his face when he realized.”
“We have to stop him!” Elion declared. “We have to get there and save Liora!”
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Zev said, crouching down beside the pile of Arachnatronic parts. He had selected a small pile of the more energetically glowing pieces, and methodically began cracking them open. Each crackled with teal light, like static electricity, before going dark. Zev tossed the dark chunks of metal aside, not finding what he searched for.
Elion shifted the staff in his hands, careful to keep one hand clamped onto it at all times. Strange how hard holding onto a stick could be. He examined the runes etched into the side of it as Zev worked.
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'“I have a minor gift from Sentinel Artefix that will help me to do this, left over from when we fled from Kylios. The staff is just an energy source so it doesn’t matter that I’m not a warlock. Artefix craftsmanship means that each machine has a unique tie to the place of its creation, and I just need something to direct the portal to Kylios.”
Elion didn’t understand this, but nodded.
“Ah.” Zev located what he was looking for, a cube about the size of one of Elion’s fists, shining with the same rippling cyan light which animated the arachnatronics. It didn’t look alive to Elion.
Using this cube and some of the other parts he had set aside, Zev began building something. His hands moved with surprising dexterity, and he made pieces fit together in ways that Elion didn’t expect they would.
Zev recovered an etching needle from the tool box, a sharp piece of metal with a wooden handle. He used this to etch glowing teal shapes into the metal. When pressed together, these fused separate pieces into one. A ring formed in Zev’s hands.
“So how come humans on Kylios have magical powers?” Elion asked.
“Not everyone does,” Zev said. “Power comes to us from the Sentinels, and it must be earned.”
“Is that where you got your magical armor?” Elion asked. “And that sword?”
“Yes,” Zev said. He was focusing now, and the parts he was working with shone with a vibrant blue-green light. Energy pulsed between Zev’s hands, chaotically at first but growing more and more rhythmic as he worked.
Zev drew lines and shapes across the metal ring he’d formed.
“Most of the time I only have snatches, whispers of the power I had on Kylios,” Zev said. “But when they opened that portal I felt my full strength flowing through. It fades quickly.”
Elion watched Zev work, mesmerized by the craftsmanship.
“I’m not an Artificer,” Zev muttered to himself. “But whoever made these arachnatronics sure was, and thank goodness for that.” He pulled the glowing cube from his pile of parts, and fixed it into the middle of the ring he had made. Power flowed from the cube into the grooves and channels Zev had etched, as well as into the joints and gaps between pieces. Arcs of energetic light crackled off of sharp edges and points.
“It’s not very stable, but it’ll work for a little while!” Zev exclaimed.
“What is it?” Elion asked.
“A warp heart,” Zev said. “It’ll serve as an anchor point for the violent turbulence of the portal. And focus the energy back toward where the arachnatronics were constructed. I’ve tried to direct it to Liora. It would be easier if she had something from Kylios that I could call too…”
“Her necklace!” Elion exclaimed. “It’s from Mom, she always wears it. You know, the golden star? It has to be from Kylios, right? She had it on earlier!”
“Oh, good thinking,” Zev said. “You’re right, that’s a Starholder pendant. Let’s see…”
He scratched a few more glyphs onto the side of the warp heart, which now hummed a clear tone. The sharp, slightly sweet smell of ozone wafted through the air.
“I’d better suit up for this,” Zev said, setting the warp heart down in the middle of the garage. The light from the glowing ring cast a teal hue over everything, drowning out the pale yellow light from the bulb overhead. “The transfer is going to be rough, so protection is necessary.”
Elion didn’t notice Zev doing anything special to start the process, but golden threads of light wrapped themselves around the man, condensing into shining plate armor. From head to toe, armor wrapped itself around Zev.
“Wow, armored shoes too?” Elion said. “Is it heavy?”
“It’s made to be light,” Zev said, lifting the visor on his helmet. His voice sounded richer and more commanding, but Elion wasn’t sure if that was magic or not. “So not really. Also in this state I get some strength buffs.”
“And you got this from the Sentinel Artefix?” Elion asked.
“No. This is power from Sentinel Aurelia, Lady of the Dawn.”
“How many Sentinels are there?”
“Seven True Sentinels,” Zev said.
“What about the sword?” Elion asked. “Where is that?”
“I don’t need it right now,” Zev said. “But I can summon it.”
Elion waited eagerly.
“I’m not going to. We need to get this portal open before the warp heart collapses. Are you ready?”
Elion nodded.
“Okay. Touch the staff to the warp heart. It should draw power automatically…”
Cautiously, Elion touched the tip of the staff to the glowing center of the warp heart. Strands of purple spun like silken cloth out of the tip of the staff, wrapping around the warp heart, overwhelming the teal light and darkening the room. The staff vibrated in Elion’s hands as power flowed through it.
The purple strands of power swirled around the warp heart, like a tornado, or like a whirlpool forming as water flows down a drain. Elion had the same strange sensation of gravity shifting, reorienting so that down was towards the whirlpool of power. A faint scent of vinegar filled the garage. Elion looked around to see if they’d knocked something over, then realized the smell came from the portal.
Zev wrinkled his nose.
The portal did not form into the same purple sphere that Elion had seen in his front yard earlier, but instead stayed in the whirlpool shape.
“It looks like it’s working,” Zev exclaimed. He started walking toward the portal.
“Hey, don’t I need some protection?” Elion asked.
“You’ll be fine,” Zev said.
“Um, why did you just put on that armor then? That’s like putting on a coat and telling me it’s not that cold outside.”
Zev stopped walking and met Elion’s gaze. “You’re not coming,” he said. “Way too dangerous. You’d be killed by the transfer without some kind of extra protection. Besides, I need you here.”
Elion almost dropped the staff. “But Liora…”
“I’m going after Liora,” Zev said. “Don’t even think about trying to jump through after me. You’ll be ripped to pieces. If you care about your sister, stay here. I need your help. Dorian and his warlocks must have been planning this for a while. Go find whatever traces you can of them. When I come back here with Liora, I’ll need to know as much as possible about their operations on Earth.”
“Traces of them?” Elion asked. “They dissolved in purple mist; What am I supposed to look for?” Even as Elion protested, he recalled the strange figure watching him from the fields behind the house, and the scrap of cloth Hamilton had torn from one of the warlock’s cloaks.
“You’ll know it when you see it,” Zev said. “Stay here.”
“But the house?” Elion said.
“Tell the cops I was drunk driving and crashed,” Zev said.
“They’re going to send me to a foster home! And what do I say about Liora?”
“She ran away or something, it doesn’t matter.”
“But what if Dorian comes back?” Elion protested. “What do I do if he comes back for me?”
“By tracking Liora’s pendant the portal should take me straight to her,” Zev said. “Dorian will have his hands full in Kylios. His powers are limited here so he needs to be careful. He has to plan and scout things out.”
“You can’t leave me!”
“I’ll be back in one day,” Zev said. “Twenty-four hours. If I can’t get in and out with Liora in that time, I’ll come back and we’ll reassess.”
“But…”
“I have to go before this whole thing breaks down!” Zev shouted. He reached up and closed his visor. “I trust you, Elion,” he said, stepping into the whirling vortex. “Don’t panic. I’ll be back soon.”
Violet streamers whipped around wildly, twining themselves around Zev’s limbs, ripping him into the air. Elion watched as Zev fell into the middle of the portal, and had the feeling that he stood on a tall cliff, watching his uncle fall down down down into a void of nothingness.
The staff in Elion’s hands sputtered and began smoking. He pulled it away from the warp heart, and the swirling portal faded. The warp heart flashed brightly, and Elion realized the staff he was holding was on fire. He threw it away, and watched as it dissolved into a purple mist.
The air filled with pungent smoke, burning Elion’s nose and eyes, and making him cough. The warp heart burned out, its glow fading, leaving behind nothing but a lump of slag. The other arachnatronic parts in the garage smoked, slowly dissolving in a teal haze, disappearing like the wizards, but much more slowly.
Elion looked around the garage, his heart sinking. He’d been standing on the threshold of an incredible adventure, a world of magical wizards and armor made of light. And it had all just faded away from him, taking away his only remaining family and leaving him behind to clean up the mess.