Boulder High School. Friday, December 17, 2021.
The tremble of bass-heavy music reverberated through the school, forcing Isaac to step even further into the cold, late night air. He patted his fingers along the outside of his pants pockets nervously as he listened to the dial tone from his phone. Yes, the small black box was still there, he assured himself for the thousandth time that night.
No answer from his phone, though. Had his dad forgotten?
Isaac’s teeth began to chatter. He wished he’d brought his coat with him, but that would have given him away. Riley always seemed to know when he was up to something and her being impossible to surprise was the one thing he absolutely hated about her. That was why Isaac had started planning this night over a year ago. His movements had been careful; leaving the ring with Will, speaking only about the plans to use the restaurant tonight with Zane and his parents alone, and forcing his parents to swear to the highest order of secrecy: the advanced pinky promise. There was absolutely no way he could have tipped Riley off in all that time.
Isaac’s phone began to vibrate and he answered it before the second buzz. His father’s gruff voice came through.
“You called? Is everything all right, son? You and your friends having a good time?”
“Yes, dad. I was just checking in. Amanda and Zane are keeping Riley busy. I’m outside and wanted to make sure you guys would be ready when we get there.”
“We’re all set up here. Your mother’s driving everyone crazy waiting for you kids to get here. I don’t know how long we can hold out.” Isaac heard his mother yell something in the background and his father cried out in mock pain. His father laughed heartily and he returned to the phone. “This took a lot of effort on your part, son. I’m proud of you. Now get back inside and enjoy yourself. We’ll see you when you get here.”
“Thanks, dad. I’ll see you at ten-thirty.” Isaac placed the phone back into his pocket. Before he went back inside, he took out the small black case he had been carrying all night.
He opened it and studied the ring inside. A silver band with an amethyst halo stone flanked by two small diamonds on either side. It had taken him an entire year of working part time at the grocery store to save up for the ring and it had been worth every penny. He gently closed the box and put it back into his pants pocket.
Isaac walked back into the school, his glasses fogging instantly as he entered the warm, humid gymnasium. He shuffled his way through groups of laughing and dancing students until he saw his friends’ table. Zane and Amanda were conversing to each other in sign language and Riley was nowhere to be found. Amanda looked up and beckoned Isaac over to herself and Zane. Isaac took his seat next to Zane, but still spaced far enough apart that they could sign easily to each other.
Zane answered Isaac’s unasked question by signing, “She went to the bathroom.”
“Thank you,” Isaac signed back with a relieved look, though he still found his eyes wandering around the room.
Zane gently tapped on the table, grabbing Isaac’s attention. “Isaac, you look worried. You’re going to blow your own cover. Relax.”
Amanda nodded in agreement with Zane, then said, “She doesn’t know anything. Everything will go off perfectly, she’ll say yes.”
At the exact moment Amanda finished signing, Riley slid into her seat next to Amanda. She turned to Amanda and signed, “who will say ‘yes’?”
Isaac felt his heart sink. He was certain Amanda had accidentally blown their cover, but she replied with a quick-thinking smoothness Isaac could never have pulled off.
“My mom. We’re gonna see if she’ll let us take the jet ski to my uncle’s cabin this weekend.”
“That sounds like fun! I hope she does say yes!” Riley signed with a bright smile and Isaac felt a knot undo itself in his chest. She turned to Isaac and reached across the table and took his hand. Her eyes studied him for a long second and she looked like she was about to break away to sign something when the DJ announced the final round of songs, slow dances, were beginning to play.
Unlike Zane, who was Deaf, Amanda, Riley, and Isaac could hear. Riley however, was nonverbal. When Isaac had met Riley, he’d learned she was nonverbal as a result of injury to her vocal cords from surgery she’d had on her throat when she was younger and so spoke using American Sign Language.
That was how the four of them had become friends. Isaac had reached out to Zane and Amanda to learn ASL so he could ask out Riley almost six years ago in the seventh grade and the four of them had been friends ever since.
The first song began and the four of them stood and Isaac took a second to take in Riley’s beauty. She was wearing the same amethyst necklace she always wore, paired with a floor-length dress that shifted from an azure blue to silver at her feet. Her hair was done up in an intricate braid that left it looking like a crown atop her head with bangs that came just to eye level.
The two of them held each other close and Isaac let Riley lead in their first dance. When it ended, she brushed her copper red bangs away from her eyes before signing Sweetheart to Isaac. He felt his heart flutter and he mirrored the sign back at her. Riley smiled at him and drew herself in close and their lips met. The pine scent of her new perfume seemed to calm Isaac and he felt his tension leave him.
After the second song ended, Zane clapped Isaac and Riley on the back and signed, “We’re heading to Amanda’s uncle’s house.”
“Good night,” Riley and Isaac both replied. The couple slipped out the door, leaving Isaac and Riley alone for the final two songs.
When the lights came on, Isaac saw Mrs. Granger out in full force on the dance floor splitting apart students who had taken to kissing each other during the last song. He was sure the ancient woman hated the idea of any students having fun and took her own sick pleasure from splitting couples apart. She stopped to glare at Isaac and Riley for a long moment before continuing on with her rampage in a different direction. As soon as her back was to them, Isaac gave Riley another kiss.
They pulled away and Isaac glanced at his watch.
Ten o’ five.
He sighed to himself, they were probably going to be late.
He and Riley broke through the groups of kids that congregated near the crosswalks, waiting for their parents to pick them up. Isaac opened the door to his silver Mustang and held Riley’s arm as she slipped into the seat. He shut the door and patted his pocket again, just to be sure.
It had taken them ten minutes to get through the long line of cars and people clogging the parking lot and they’d had to sit at two red lights in a row. Isaac silently cursed the universe for conspiring against his perfect night.
When Isaac drove past the street that led to his house, Riley put her hand on his and pointed behind her, giving him a worried look.
“Change of plans. We’re going out to eat.” Isaac let off the gas as he worked through the signs. He’d been signing ASL for nearly six years, but he never quite felt as smooth with it as his friends seemed to make it look.
Isaac turned to sign something else to Riley when he saw two white suns outside her window.
Time slowed as the lights grew even larger before his world descended into nothing but the sound of metal slamming into metal and glass shattering.
***
Isaac gasped and coughed as he forced his eyes open. He could barely move his broken leg, which had been rammed into the door. Sticky wet blood coated his pants.
He had to get out of the car. His left hand wouldn't work to unlock the door. He looked down to see his fingers were bent at horrifyingly unnatural angles.
Isaac unlocked the door with his right hand and grunted as he shoulder checked it to force it open. He tumbled to the ground and dragged himself with his good hand until he was well clear of the wreckage.
The entire passenger side of his silver mustang had been completely caved in by a white pick up truck whose hazard lights continued to blink weakly until they finally went dark.
“Oh, god, Riley!” Isaac shouted, tears blinding him. Each foot he pulled himself was an agonizing torture as he endured not only the pain of his injuries but of what he knew he'd find when he got to her side of the car.
As he looked around, Isaac realized everything was wrong. His mustang and the truck that had hit him were there, but the intersection he’d gone through wasn’t. Instead, he was in the middle of an icy plain, in what was definitely the aftermath of a large battle. Dark blood stained the snow and bodies littered the ground in every direction. Not all of the bodies were human, however. Some were made of crystal and rock with mechanical joints. All were still clutching weapons, wands, or staves as though they desperately wanted to get back up and rejoin whatever fight had laid them all here.
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But even more horrifying were the much, much larger monsters strewn about. They weren’t humanoid and many looked like insects, snakes, or beasts Isaac had no names for.
What the hell is going on? Where the hell am I? Pain still lanced through Isaac’s body as he tried to stand.
Green motes of light danced around Isaac and the pain fled as his wounds healed. He looked in the direction the light had come from and saw Riley looking at him.
She wasn't wearing the blue and silver dress she'd been wearing moments ago, but white and red robes with golden trim. She reached out a hand and helped Isaac to his feet.
“We need to go. We’re running late,” Riley signed, then turned and pointed beyond the wreckage of the car.
Isaac caught a glimpse of her ears beneath her copper red hair. They were long and pointed. They were elven.
“You’re not Riley. Who are you? And why did you make me go through that again?” Isaac pointed to the wreckage, which still lay horribly out of place upon the snowy battlefield. Senses finally returned to him as he remembered the accident had been nearly three years ago.
“I am me,” Riley signed, shaking her head sadly as she continued, “I'm sorry, this was the last memory we shared. It was the only way I could bring you here.”
“Bring me where?”
She didn’t answer, but started running in the direction she'd pointed without looking to see if Isaac was following. Isaac ran after her.
They found what had to be the fallen army's war camp. There were medics tending to the injured while soldiers, both human and the same mechanical-crystal beings Isaac had seen earlier, readied themselves for battle by donning extra armor or stuffing arrows in quivers. No one paid any attention to Isaac as he walked by them as though he were invisible.
As he took in the scene, Isaac realized Riley was gone.
Something like a faint whisper drew Isaac deeper into the camp. He followed the feeling to the largest tent in the camp. Isaac opened the flap and saw a mechanical man lying on the ground, still clutching his black and gold war hammer with the same intensity as so many of the fallen Isaac had seen earlier. A thick, ugly, black crystal spear stuck through his chest; the weapon still dripping with his clear-white blood.
There was a woman beside the man, holding his head in her arms. The woman looked up at Isaac with an expression of grim resolve that did not falter as she lowered the head of the dead man in her arms.
Her eyes locked on Isaac’s and as he held her gaze, he understood. Her features were slightly different. Her face looked older, but also ageless. But there was no mistaking it was the woman Isaac loved.
Reylynn’s lips curved ever so slightly upward into a smile. It was a moment shared only between Isaac and Reylynn. Though the others in the room looked in Isaac’s general direction to see what she was looking at, it was only Reylynn who actually saw him. That much, he could tell.
Their moment was broken as the ground rumbled beneath Isaac's feet. The people standing in the tent were knocked off their feet. Reylynn was thrown back as the crystal spear in the man’s chest ripped itself free and began to change.
The weapon grew larger and parts began shifting and moving around until the crystal weapon took on the form of an armored figure, tall and just the faintest bit see through.
A voice, terrible and deep, called out to those in the room. “Has this war not gone on for long enough? Have you not lost enough of your kind? Return that which is mine to me and it will end.”
No one moved and Isaac felt a fear so strongly in his core, he couldn’t move either.
“No? Then you will all die anyway…” The figure paused, turning his two burning yellow eyes behind an armor-covered face onto Isaac. “You?”
Did that monster really see Isaac? Wasn’t this supposed to be just a memory? Isaac wasn’t sure if he should answer, turn and run, or curl up on the ground in fear, hoping he'd wake up.
A woman wielding a spear charged forward while the crystal warrior’s attention was on Isaac. She lunged, aiming her spear at the gap in the neck between crystal armor, but the warrior was ready.
A sword appeared in his hands and it stabbed the woman through the chest. The crystal warrior hadn’t even turned to look at her as he kicked the woman’s body off his sword. She dropped to the ground, gasping as blood ran down her mouth and the wound in her armor.
“I killed you and yet you live. How? I have sundered every place you could run to and hide. Every place you could be reborn. How do you live again?”
This time Isaac knew the figure was talking to him. The others wielding weapons seemed to be getting ready to attack as one group, though confusion was still etched on their faces as they looked between the man and Isaac’s direction, likely still unable to see him.
Isaac’s eyes locked with Reylynn and she raised a hand to the others. Suddenly Isaac understood this was no memory or dream, but a moment he had been summoned to.
“You don’t recognize me?” The figure paused. “No, you don't. You don't even remember who you are. You do not know the evil that has been perpetrated against me. The evil you could end.”
In truth, Isaac wasn’t even listening to the figure. He could feel that sensation, that whisper again, the one that had drawn him to this tent. And he realized what it was: the war hammer was calling to him.
Isaac fought to avoid glancing at the war hammer. He didn't want to tip the armored man off, but he needed to get to it.
The armored man continued speaking, “My body was stolen from me. Can you really judge me for wanting it back? Return it to me and this would all end.”
“You lie!” Isaac shouted, just as much surprised by the conviction and ferocity in his voice.
“I do not lie!” His words rumbled like thunder and Isaac took a step back.
Isaac pushed away the fear and answered the hammer's call. The crystal warrior turned, realizing too late what Isaac was doing.
Memory flooded Isaac’s mind as his hand touched the hammer's shaft. He wasn't simply one of the millions of people from earth brought here, he was the one who'd had the idea to reach out to the space between worlds. He was Anathi.
“I remember you, Isiphelo!” The words boomed from Isaac’s mouth as he slammed the head of his war hammer into the ground. An electrified golden chain burst forth, piercing Isiphelo as another bound itself to Isaac.
He needed another weapon. He reached for the spear of the woman who lay dead on the ground. Isaac heard the faintest whisper as he gripped the weapon. It was fleeting, there and gone before he could grasp what had been spoken.
Isaac pushed the thought aside and thrust forward with the spear.
Isiphelo leapt backwards and countered, bringing his sword down upon Isaac far faster than he could track.
Pain lanced through Isaac’s arm. But where he expected to see blood, ruined flesh, and potentially even broken bone, there was only an armored hand, his armored hand, holding back the crystal sword.
His arm was definitely broken, but it held as the black crystal armor grew around Isaac’s body. Heavy chains underneath plate mail fit as though it was his own skin.
The Sentinel’s armor.
Saiph’s Armor.
His armor.
Isaac pulled back and with his good hand and swung the spear as he uttered a battle cry.
The spear’s haft caught Isiphelo's sword and the two drew close.
“We were gods, locked away for so long. We were supposed to rule them all,” Isiphelo growled.
“We were supposed to protect them!” Isaac pulled away, letting the spear twirl and come to rest in a defensive stance.
The others in the room attacked with Isaac as one. A soldier, no, Sword Saint wielding two swords, cut into the crystal warrior and another man, Berserker, was a wall of muscle with fiery rage in his eyes as he barreled into Isiphelo, taking him to the ground.
Healing magic flowed into Isaac’s body from a Druid as yet another woman, a Caster, sent cables as thin as thread, yet stronger than chains of steel binding Isiphelo to the ground.
Isaac stepped back and pulled his hammer from the ground. He raised the weapon high and… stopped.
“Do it. Finish me, Anathi,” Isiphelo goaded.
Isaac lowered his hammer. “No, that's what you want.” He turned to Reylynn. “Now!”
The sky above them peeled back to reveal a sea of purple crystal. Isaac and those still able to leapt back as the barrier that was Caer Siddi descended upon the war camp, sealing Isiphelo in with the entire remaining population of Ikhwezi and Revi.
“No!” Isiphelo shouted. He broke free of his restraints, lunging himself forward towards Isaac, but was stopped by the purple crystalline barrier that had fallen between them.
He took his sword and stabbed it at the barrier. It cracked, but quickly healed. He did so again and this time, the barrier held. Though Isaac knew it wouldn't forever.
Fortunately, the army in the camp was quickly moving to the barrier’s edge. They charged at Isiphelo, forcing him to take up the defensive.
Isiphelo slew dozens, but more filled their ranks. And even those that died didn’t stay dead for long. Revi and Ikhwezi picked themselves off the ground, weapons raised anew and rejoined the fighting. Each time one got back up, the crystal barrier pulsed and Isaac could feel a great wealth of mana being absorbed by the barrier. And not just mana, but the energy that gave life to the Ikhwezi. It fueled their resurrection, creating an unending army to focus Isiphelo's attention.
Isaac took a step back from the barrier and understood. Each of those beside him, including Reylynn, was holding a Remnant, a shard of Anathi’s own self, soul forged into powerful weapons life times ago. Weapons that were intended to stop Isiphelo, but had proven not enough.
But Anathi had seen a world, untainted by the energy of his kind, where with the right application of the soul forging technique, an army could be borne from it. An army that could become stronger than what the Ikhwezi and the Revi could be alone.
Isaac turned to Reylynn, remembering the note he'd found when he touched her necklace. Her Caer Fragment.
Isaac turned to Reylynn and signed, “I told you I had a plan.”
“Why didn't you tell me this was it?” Reylynn asked. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she signed, “I watched you die so many countless times.”
“Would you have let me die if you knew you could save me? Even if it meant I couldn't bring the army I told you of?”
To that, Reylynn had no answer.
Isaac knew Anathi had figured out a way to manipulate the outcome of Reylynn’s Dreams through his own telepathic connection. She had so desperately wanted to avoid this final confrontation between Isiphelo and their people and sought any means to do it, but Anathi couldn't let her or else his plan wouldn't have worked.
More of a gamble, Isaac thought to himself. He watched the fighting on the other side of the barrier for another moment longer before turning for the crystal cavern that had been used to bring the Revi and Ikhwezi armies from Terre to Ciel.