Now, Manila
“No shades,” Cal said. “Fog’s a lot thinner too. I think it’s putting everything it has into stopping us.”
Lilah nodded weakly.
“The sigils you made? They causing you… problems?”
Another nod.
“You’re maintaining a bunch of them around the city, right? Can you drop them remotely?”
A vehement shake of the head.
“Can’t or won’t…”
“I have to keep them safe,” Lilah said weakly.
“I’m pretty sure that they don’t need your protection right now. If you drop the wards at the other sanctuaries I think that’ll improve your physical condition and give you more strength for what we’re running to.”
“No.”
“From what Madalena said most of our relatives…” Cal shook his head in disgust, “shades, I mean… are attacking your main sanctuary. That tells me the fog is focusing on the rest of my team. I haven’t been attacked by a shade since I left the house with those four as— a-holes. We haven’t been attacked either. You’ve been here longer than I have. Is that how it usually is? Eron’s messages said that he always got attacked whenever he went out.”
“…”
Cal ran on in silence. He didn’t like pushing Lilah too much. The girl was obviously struggling. The important question was how much danger was she in? Was death on the table? Or would her magic give out first in an effort to keep her alive?
The thin fog allowed for improved visibility so that he couldn’t have missed the giant ibingan undulating in the sky a few miles in front of them
Lilah gasped as she caught sight of it a second later.
“I’ll say… it seems to be traveling in the same direction us.” He squinted. “It’s breathing… water?”
Cal kept running, keeping his arms steady so as to not jostle Lilah too much.
They lost and regained sight of the dragon-serpent as taller buildings and trees obscured it.
A strange feeling made him glance down at Lilah.
The girl’s eyes were wide as she pointed one shaky finger at the ibingan. “We have to go…”
“I was thinking we’d avoid it— shit!” Cal realized something.
The ibingan was attacking something or someone.
Probability suggested that there were only a few possibilities.
Only two or three other people in the area that he knew off could’ve been moving fast enough judging by the ibingan’s speed and attacks.
He felt it then.
A faint thread connecting him to Lilah and to another thing.
A burst of noise in his head almost caused him to trip.
Lilah winced.
“Did you— did you feel that?”
The girl’s eyes were screwed shut as she nodded.
“It was rough,” Cal agreed.
His mind was silent again, but for that one moment it had been like it was before he had entered the fog.
Ten thousand voices in his head, whispering, shouting, screaming.
Accompanying those had been others. Many more. Inhuman snarling, roaring, hissing.
“You’re a strong girl.”
Even if Lilah had only gotten a fraction of what he did… he could only shake his head.
“I think— I think it’s after Kuya Eron,” Lilah whispered.
“33% chance of that,” Cal muttered. “I have to find a safe place to leave you. I can’t bring you to face that thing.”
“I can help.”
“Not in your condition.”
“Are you sure that it’ll be okay if I stop protecting the other sanctuaries?”
“Yeah,” Cal lied. He was mostly sure, but not a hundred percent. “If you do that, you’re doing it at my word. I want to make that clear,” he added.
Lilah frowned up at him.
He hoped that if it went bad then she’d put most of the blame on him. Even if she didn’t seem like the type to do that.
“Can you bring us closer?”
“How far away?”
“I’ll say when.”
Cal nodded and put on a burst of speed.
The wind whipped through his hair while he did his best to shield Lilah in his arms.
The ibingan grew bigger as Cal quickly got closer.
A rooster crowed in the distance. It took him a moment to realize that the sound had come from the ibingan.
He was looking for a safe place to stash Lilah when she called out.
“Stop!”
Cal skidded and sent a spray of asphalt ahead of him.
Lilah struggled and it took him a second to realize that she wanted to stand on her own.
He warily lowered her to the street and hovered behind her like she was a baby taking her first unsteady steps.
Each step forward grew stronger until she stopped and stood in the middle of the street. Weak, but steady.
Cal watched over Lilah’s head as she traced a finger in the air in front of her.
A yellow-gold glow emerged, light trailing from her finger.
Deft movement revealed the same sigil that he had seen on the wall of the small house he had taken shelter in when he had fallen into the fog.
“It is coming,” Lilah said in a dreamy-sounding voice.
“What is?” Cal said warily.
“It…”
Cal looked up.
The ibingan undulated in the sky with surprising speed.
“It’s headed right for us!”
Lilah didn’t give any indication that she had heard him.
The ibingan reminded Cal of an oncoming train.
“Uh, Lilah?”
He reached out to grab her and run away, but stopped.
Her out-stretched hand was still held up to the sigil as it pulsed, sending light out that burned the fog around them.
The ibingan grew larger by the second.
Something stayed Cal’s hand.
He peeked at Lilah’s face and found her staring up at the ibingan. Her brow was scrunched in concentration, jaw clenched tight.
The ibingan was close enough that he could see droplets of reddish spittle flying from its maw. The sword-like teeth seemed to shine as its tongue flicked out.
“I guess we’re doing this.” Cal stepped up next to the statue-still Lilah.
The ibingan swooped down.
Cal brought a hand up. Instinctively calling on telekinetic powers that didn’t respond. He felt something in his mind like a locked box rattling from the inside.
He saw nothing except an enormous maw large enough to swallow him and Lilah.
The sigil suddenly flared.
Cal had enough.
He jumped in front of Lilah and swept her up in his arms, cradling her close as the Ibingan swept over the two of them.
The sigil undid it utterly.
As soon as the dragon-serpent drew near it began to dissolve into mist.
Cal felt a heavy weight strike him in the back, reminding him of being blindsided by a wave at the beach.
The force washed over him.
Wind violently buffeted him. He braced himself as best as he could while sound thundered in his ears as the train rumbled past him and darkened his vision.
Lilah whimpered in his arms.
It felt like an eternity before the eerie silence of the fog-shrouded street returned.
Cal blinked down at Lilah.
He looked back and saw an empty street.
Lilah’s sigil was gone and the fog was already reclaiming the space.
“You got rid of your other wards?”
“I had to… to do that,” Lilah said.
“Very impressive. If you don’t mind, I mean you don’t have to answer, but… what’s your Class. I’m just curious.”
“Sigilist,” Lilah replied sheepishly.
“That sounds cool!” Cal held his arms out. “The way’s clear, but Eron’s got a head start and we need to hurry to catch up.”
Lilah nodded.
He picked her up and sprinted down the street.
----------------------------------------
Eron tore what was left of his shirt to use as a bandage for the open wound on his arm. Not exactly the most hygienic of options, but he had no other choice. Years of being nigh invulnerable and a fast healer meant that he had never carried first aid supplies. He couldn’t do anything for the wounds on his back. He had to let them drip blood, which slowly seeped into his pants.
“Nothing worse than bloody swamp butt,” he muttered.
His footsteps echoed in the huge lobby of the senate building.
Eerie didn’t begin to describe the feeling of being the lone person inside the massive building. Thousands of people must’ve gone through it on a daily basis back in the old days.
The fog was a light mist. It caressed his face and his bare torso as he walked. There was a presence. He could feel it all around him. Eyes watching, ears listening. He knew that he couldn’t escape its notice.
“Might as well come out,” he said. “This is a huge place, but I can move pretty quick. It won’t take long to find you.”
He pushed through a door and into a wide corridor. He paused and listened. He couldn’t see in the dark as he was now. The gray gloom outside didn’t provide much light despite the presence of multiple windows.
He tried, but couldn’t decide if the feeling he was getting came from a particular direction, so he picked a random direction to continue in.
“Look… you want to end this as much as I do,” he said.
The direction he had chosen ended in an intersection with two options.
Left or right?”
After a moment’s hesitation he took the right corridor.
Minutes passed as he walked the dark corridors. Several more turns saw him standing in from of a door. He walked through and emerged into a grand chamber.
On his left was a raised dais with several long, fancy-looking desks. One was on the highest level, while the other two where in front of it on next.
To his right was where the delegates, guests and other people must’ve sat. The floor level had more wooden desks and padded chairs. Surrounding that was tiered seating.
“Just like a high school auditorium, except much fancier,” he muttered.
A slight rustling sound caught his sensitive ears.
He followed it to the enormous flag hanging on the wall just behind the highest seat on the dais.
“Are you hiding behind the flag?” he mocked. “C’mon, man… you’ve been throwing everything at me this whole time and now you get shy?”
He considered going up and ripping the flag down, but decided that was disrespectful. Governments no longer truly existed in the post-spires world, but he supposed they could be given their memorials. The flag would eventually rot anyways.
Something pricked the back of his neck. He spun in an instant with a swing of his arm.
Nothing.
Just gray swirling around him, as if in mockery.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
He let out a frustrated breath and entered the chamber.
He climbed the dais and sat down in the highest seat.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“I’m the president now…”
He stared out into the cavernous senate chamber. He imagined forms of mist and shadow in all of the seats. Faces and names he once knew, along with those he didn’t. Once living, now dead. How many had he failed over the years?
“One is too many,” he decided.
He had to find it. Had to kill it. More lives were on his shoulders. Lilah, Madalena, Dr. Rufo, Cherry, the kids, his dad, maybe even Cal.
“Bro, if you’re out there reading my mind, now is a good time for an assist?” he looked up to the ceiling, but only saw darkness.
Ultimately, he was alone in this. As he usually was when fighting the worst of what the spires had brought to his world.
The chamber felt oppressive despite its grand size. He felt lesser without his full power. His senses were muffled. He was weak, tired. Months of physical violence had worn him down more than he had ever let on. The aches and pains had settled in so deeply that he couldn’t remember what it had been like before.
Eron was weary on all levels. He felt as if the fatigue in his mind, body and soul had seeped into every cell he had.
He brought his fist down on the desk with an inarticulate shout.
The heavy, thick wood broke like it was one of those cheap, thin boards they chopped in karate class when he was younger.
“Fuck!”
So much for respecting the remains of a dead government, a dead country.
“Nope, fuck that. A government isn’t a country. It’s the people that matter,” he said. “So, hurry up and show me your true form. I need to kill you to give these people a chance to rebuild their home.”
There was no response. There was only his own echo.
Eron left a bloody seat as he continued his search.
Grand chambers made way to mundane offices. The seat of government needed many people to do the work that truly mattered.
Most of the offices and cubicles looked as they did over a decade ago.
Empty coffee mugs on desks.
Photos of loved ones.
Tacked notes, old calendars with important dates marked.
Whomever worked in the cubicle he passed had an anniversary marked at the end of the month.
He thought back.
The spires had appeared a few weeks before that day.
Poor guy probably never saw that day.
He picked up the picture frame and put it down just as fast.
That had been a mistake. It was harder when he could put faces to the dark imaginings.
It was surreal. One could almost think it was empty due to a national holiday if not for the layer of dust on everything.
But then, one was reminded of reality.
He entered another office space several minutes later.
Someone or several someones must’ve been working on that day.
The cubicles, desks, chairs, everything was in disarray. Huge swathes of the cheap carpet were blackened.
Blood stains, dried long ago.
He hurried through the space and entered yet another corridor.
“Where are you hiding, bastard?”
Eron blinked.
He realized something.
There was a spire that had appeared through the senate building. He remembered seeing it from outside, rising out of the roof.
A theory formed in his thoughts.
Random wandering wasn’t the best way to search.
Things from other worlds came through the spires.
He should’ve started his search from there at the beginning.
He reoriented himself and set off in the direction where he thought the spire was.
----------------------------------------
“I don’t know…” Lilah began.
“Wait… what?” Cal said.
They had reached the senate building.
Cal was taking a moment to assess the situation.
The first thing he had noticed was a trail of blood leading into the front lobby. That had been good news. It meant that his brother was still alive and able to walk.
He stared up at the architecture.
“Sort of like a few pyramids stuck together,” he muttered. “So, Lilah. What don’t you know?”
“I— I don’t— it’s like— I have this feeling.”
“You’re talking about the fog thing?”
Lilah nodded up at him.
“We had those same dreams, visions, right? I think I have an idea on what you’re getting at, but I’d like to hear your thoughts before I share my own.”
“It’s just that, like, I can feel it through my magic that it’s inside the building… but also not?” Lilah’s scrunched in frustration. “That it’s, like, everywhere too…”
“I’m with you on that. I’m starting to think that it doesn’t have a physical form. I mean, from the visions its got a life cycle and maybe early it had one, like a core… do you remember that orb of swirling gray mist? Did you have that same vision?”
“Uh huh,” Lilah nodded.
“It felt as if that had a form that could be destroyed through physical means.”
“Like the dragon guy’s fire?”
Cal nodded.
It was tripping him out how those dreams were probably memories of past events on other worlds, perhaps hundreds or thousands of years in the past. Plus the fact that he had shared them with Lilah and the fog entity.
“Or blowing up a landmass, although we never saw the aftermath of that one,” he continued. “So, now that its had time to gain strength, maybe its dispersed into all this,” he gestured at the thin fog swirling around them.
“Then we can’t beat it,” Lilah’s shoulders slumped.
“This might be something we can’t just hit until it’s dead. Your magic might be our one chance. Its main essence is in this building. I’m pretty sure of that.”
“Yeah, I can feel it in there,” Lilah hugged herself.
“So, what’ll happen if you draw your sigils in the heart of it?”
“I don’t know,” Lilah said softly.
“Bad things for the fog, good things for us.”
Cal still felt that he was missing something. The visions. The life cycle of the fog entity. Those memories had revealed… he didn’t know what.
A way out of this?
To free the shades and disperse the fog.
All while making sure Lilah didn’t die.
Cal looked up at the spire sticking out of the flat roof near the most pyramid-like section of the building. “It came through the spire. I remember that from the vision,” he said.
“Uh huh. And I saw a huge room with a giant flag,” Lilah said.
“Yeah, me too, but I have no idea where that is in there. I can see the spire. I’m thinking we start our search there. Go floor by floor in the immediate vicinity of it. See if you pick up anything. Hopefully, we’ll make enough noise for my brother to find us.”
Lilah looked at him.
“I’m going to punch through the roof and the floors. We’ll save time by not having to use the stairs,” he shrugged.
“How will we get up there?”
Cal eyed the structures that comprised the senate building. There was a layered look to them. “Like a cake… and pyramids,” he said. “We can jump our way up. May I carry you again?”
Lilah nodded.
He picked her up princess-style and moved toward the lowest lying rooftop.
A handful of jumps brought them to the spire.
Cal put Lilah down and moved a short distance away before proceeding to punch and rip a hole in the roof.
“One second.”
He dropped down into the hole and looked around. Satisfied that there weren’t any dangers, aside from the thin fog, he jumped back to the roof to retrieve Lilah.
They searched the immediate area around the spire and found nothing.
Cal repeated the same process to get down to the next lower floor.
Again nothing.
They had descended several times when Cal felt something rattle in his thoughts.
The locked box shook as light peeked out from the cracks.
He pushed experimentally with his thoughts.
Still nothing.
Truth be told a part of him wasn’t eager to get his mental powers back. He had forgotten what it was like to be alone in his head. Not having constant whispers was nice.
“We’re closer,” Lilah whispered.
“Farther down, you think?”
Lilah nodded.
“I concur.”
Cal sent tile fragments flying as he punched through the floor.
Elsewhere in the senate building Eron’s approach to the spire had turned cautious. He had heard what sounded like someone going off with a hammer, like construction or demolition work. It seemed to be going off at regular intervals. A flurry of pounding then silence for ten to fifteen minutes before resuming.
He used his superior sense of hearing to hone in on the sound.
He figured that it probably wasn’t the ibingan, since that would’ve been much louder and the entire building would’ve shook if it was ramming it.
He remembered the light he had seen in the distance drawing the giant dragon-snake away. The suspicion that he knew what that had been was slowly dawning on him.
So, he wasn’t completely shocked to see two people at the end of a long hallway.
Happiness, relief and anger mingled freely within him when he realized who they were.
“Hello?” Eron called out from fifty feet away. He still needed to be cautious in case this was another fog trick.
The figure in armor was in front of the smaller figure in an instant. “The password?”
Cal’s voice was music to Eron’s ears.
Was it really his brother?
Eron blinked.
What password?
He wracked his memory and came up blank.
“What’re you talking about? We don’t have a password!” he shouted back.
“You know… the three unrelated words we came up with to test if any of us had been doppelgangered, cloned, duplicated or otherwise ensorcelled.”
“Yeah. Okay. That never happened.”
It was hard to see Cal’s expression in the darkness. The gray gloom from the outside barely illuminated the corridor from the lone window at the far end and the hole in the ceiling.
The translucent faceplate of his fancy, futuristic helmet also did a good job at obscuring his features.
Eron thought he saw a small smile.
“That’s true, but it sorta leaves us at an impasse. How do I know you’re really my brother?”
“How do I know that you are?” Eron countered.
“If I was a shade, why would I need to punch through the ceiling?”
“Commitment to the trap,” Eron shrugged.
“Enough! You guys are lame!” the smaller figure stomped a tiny foot and tried to walk around the armored figure.
Cal, if it was Cal, didn’t let her.
“Lilah?” Eron recognized her voice. “Greenwich, Hippo, Punchball.”
“Chocnut, Unicorn, Shooting,” Lilah said.
Eron relaxed.
He approached.
“It’s Eron!” Lilah dashed forward and leapt into his arms.
“You should be on a bus,” Eron said.
“If I was the ibingan would’ve eaten you…” Lilah made a face as she relinquished her embrace. She stared at one hand with growing horror. “Blood— you’re hurt!”
The girl tried to look at his back, but he kept her from doing so.
“You don’t want to do that. It looks gross.”
“I suppose I’ll be settling for a firm handshake then,” Cal approached.
The two brothers clasped hands with grips that could bend steel.
“Not too hard,” Cal warned. “You’ll break my armor.”
“Thought you said it had memory metal qualities. Just a little heating to bring it back to shape.”
“Up to a certain level of damage. Go past that line and broken is broken,” Cal shrugged. “So, you guys developed a password system?” he regarded the other two, “smart.”
“Food, animal and sport,” Eron said.
Cal stared at him with unblinking eyes for a moment. “One of yours isn’t a sport,” he said to Eron, “and one of yours isn’t an animal,” he turned to Lilah.
“There might be unicorns out there!” Lilah scowled. “There’s dragons and all sorts of monsters and magical creatures now!”
“True,” Cal conceded.
“One day there will be punchball,” Eron said flatly.
“Don’t tell me you’ve imagined up some rules,” Cal sighed. “More importantly, how was the pizza?”
“You can find out yourself after we take care of the fog. Got a couple of their restaurants cleared and claimed.”
“I can’t wait!” Cal grinned. “Part of the reason I came all the way here was to eat all the foods and snacks we used to get whenever anyone in your family traveled back from here. Chocnut,” he nodded at Lilah, “torrones, fresh hopia…”
“You can still get that back in America.”
“But not fresh and authentic. The stuff back there was all refrigerated or frozen,” Cal said. “Only true hopia is from Ho-Land.”
Eron and Lilah snickered.
“Oh, that’s really mature,” Cal said. “Him, it’s expected, but I thought better of you,” he turned to Lilah.
“I’m not a kid,” Lilah rolled her eyes.
“How old are you again?” Cal said.
Lilah glared at him in silence.
“Cause if you’re not 18, then you’re a kid,” Cal grinned. “I’m just kidding,” he said after a beat, “not really,” he continued.
“Yeah, it’s you. The fog entity wouldn’t go to these lengths to capture your lameness, like Dad,” Eron said. “If you’re here— did you see how the fight at the main sanctuary was going?” his eyes darted from Cal to Lilah and back. “The bus? Did they get out? Or…”
“Can’t speak on the sanctuary. I wasn’t actually planning to enter the fog in the way I did. I did run into the bus, obviously. They were on the way out when we parted after Lilah made me bring her along. I’d say they’ve got a good shot at getting out. I walked through the fog for miles and wasn’t attacked once. Good news, bad news thing, though. I’m also pretty sure that the reason for that was because it’s using all its power to focus on our people at the sanctuary and here with that ibingan,” Cal said.
“I don’t remember much from before I woke up on the bus,” Lilah said.
“The ibingan is gone by the way,” Cal remarked. “Lilah, did, like, a Gandalf thing. Sent it back to the shadows from whence it came.”
“I’m not surprised,” Eron smiled down at Lilah.
Her gaze fell to the floor. “I had to drop my other wards though.”
“The right call,” Eron nodded. “The fog entity is concentrating on others, which means that the rest of our sanctuaries will be safe for now. As long as we end it soon.”
“We haven’t had much luck finding where its core essence, if it even has one anymore, is hiding,” Cal said.
Something in his brother’s words struck Eron as strange. “It feels like I’ve been wandering around this place for hours. Those mind powers of yours would be a huge help right now.”
Cal shook his head. “They’re locked away from me. Just like your main power set. Though, the box’s been shaking more lately.”
“I don’t even have that. Mine are just straight gone right now. Has been for months.” Eron regarded Lilah. “Do you think you can safely conjure up one of your sigils? Can you do it with a pen or a sharpie? Tons of offices in this place we can search.”
Lilah looked thoughtful, but Cal interrupted before she could answer.
“What’re you thinking?” Cal said.
“Powering up a sigil in here might just shake its box up enough to provoke a reaction, which we might be able to use to find where its real body is hidden.”
“Only if you feel that it won’t be dangerous to you?” Cal said to Lilah.
“Agreed,” Eron chimed. “And don’t lie. I know how you are. I’m not letting you risk your life. Not anymore,” he warned Lilah.
“It’s my choice,” Lilah frowned, “and I don’t need paints to draw my sigils anymore.”
Eron’s eyes widened. “Since when?”
“After I woke up in the bus,” Lilah shrugged, uncomfortable with the intense interest. “I don’t remember how, but I just had this feeling that I could do it.”
“Drew it right in the air, all glowing and shining and shi— stuff,” Cal added. “Twas very cool. Top ten of most awesome things I’ve seen. The way that ibingan was bearing down on us like a train with a mouth full of teeth…”
“Okay, but be careful, don’t hesitate to drop it if it feels dangerous,” Eron said.
Lilah nodded and began.
Her lips moved and strange words drifted into the thin mist. Her finger traced a symbol in the air. The ghostly translucence slowly gave way to the familiar yellow-gold color.
“Eron, listen,” Cal whispered, “I’m not sure that this is a punch it and make it go away type of problem. I—”
“Shhh… you’ll distract her.”
Time seemed to pass with agonizing slowness as Lilah continued to work her magic.
Eron could feel it in the air. A palpable presence that warmed his insides. Comforting like a fireplace on a cold night. Hot chocolate and other things that had kept him warm in the past.
Those days felt like another life.
He realized that he had never been physically cold after his powers had developed. Not even when he had flown beyond what altitudes commercial jets could reach. Not even when he had flown to Antarctica nor to the peaks of snow-packed mountains. The depths of the oceans hadn’t done anything to dim the heat that had been inside of him.
He had forgotten the physical cold.
Not so with the other kind.
Eron’s reverie was interrupted by a bright flash of light.
Lilah’s sigil hovered a few inches over her cupped palm.
The fog burned away in her immediate vicinity.
He noticed the tightness in the girl’s features. Sweat beaded on her forehead.
“You’ve burned away the fog in about a ten foot radius. The effect doesn’t seem to be extending beyond that,” Cal’s head was on a swivel.
“Are you feeling anything different, Lilah?” Eron said.
“Yes… it’s trying to push back. I can follow the touch,” Lilah’s voice reverberated unnaturally.
“Where?” Eron and Cal echoed each other.
Lilah pointed her free hand to the floor.
Eron and Cal exchanged a glance.
“I’ll do it,” Cal said after a moment.
“Thanks, you’ve got that fancy armor. It’ll be better if I conserve as much of my energy for the fight,” Eron said.