JOXIE
"Wait for tomorrow,
Let's see what it brings.
Captured in sorrow,
And lost in our dreams."
Joxie closed her eyes, concentrating on the feel of the wind tugging at her curls and the sunlight sighing over her skin. Her fingers clenched around the petals of pale red wildflowers that grew entwined around the front doors of Callorah. Listened to Rya's soft voice, knowing the copper fox-tailed woman was brushing white powder from her hands, having carefully and delicately laced it throughout the white-stone building in the previous hours.
"Something made the stars align
The night you were born.
Something made the suns dance
When it became morn.
Must have been the way
You looked at the moon;
Must have been my heart
Knew where to find you.
Nothing in the heavens
Could misdirect me.
Nothing but what you are
Helped me to see.
Must have been the way
You looked at the sky.
Must have been fate's hand
That made our lives intertwine."
"I think that's a sad song," Joxie announced, opening both her eyes and her hands, watching the petals cascade away on the breeze that was steadily growing wilder. "Like someone has been lost and can't be found."
"You think so?" Rya paused in her work, letting her own gaze watch the flowers fly. "I think it's of trusting and hoping and never giving up, whatever obstacles come your way." She gave a warm smile that made her brown eyes crinkle at the edges and brushed the last powder from her hands. The pouch that had previously hung from her waist was gone.
"What's all that for, anyway?"
Rya didn't answer for a moment, looking instead to the thin white trail she had previously laid around the floor of Callorah, like a web. She swallowed. "For when things get rough." She looked away, and her voice was smaller. "Jan's orders."
"The—what'd you call it again?—Long Night is tonight, isn't it?"
Rya slowly exhaled. "Yes."
Joxie merely nodded, feeling the sunlight fading away on her skin as shudders took hold instead. Glancing to the suns that were preparing to enter into their setting stage, she whispered, "I think I'll go find Nate."
Giving a carefully placed smile, Rya stepped forward to draw the human girl into her arms. Her crays glinted where they rested in their places against her hips, sharpened and polished.
"It's just as Elyus said. Everything will become what it should be soon," Rya assured her, before letting Joxie go. "Everything will be made right. And we'll wake up from this nightmare and forget that it ever happened."
"Beyond Veils,” Joxie whispered.
"Beyond Veils,” Rya assured her.
Joxie's chin threatened to crumble. "Thanks, Rya." She cleared her throat, straightening her shoulders. The fear in her eyes banished. With a cheerful wave, she moved towards Callorah's entrance. "I'll see you."
Rya nodded in reply.
CALLORAH ECHOED.
It was eerie walking through the dark, unable to hear another soul around. Which, Joxie reminded herself, she obviously already knew. Everyone who was able to fight were down at the gates. Those who couldn't were currently underground.
And everywhere, Rya's explosive powder threaded along the ground in faintly gleaming lines.
But where was Nate when she needed him?
"Joxie?"
The girl shrieked, jumping a foot into the air before spinning around in a defensive stance, her fists up. The next moment she gave a self-conscious, apologetic smile. "Oh. Hey, Riln. What're you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the gate with everyone else?"
"I have charge over you and Nate," he replied. I believe you are looking for him?"
"Yup. If you know where he is—"
"This way.” Riln turned his back to her, walking away.
"Oh," she said again. "Well. Thanks." She hurried forward to catch up with him, which was difficult while trying to squint through the blackness so as to not scuff up Rya's hard work.
Riln, after glancing over his shoulder, formed his red light-orb, and the corridor was swathed with its glow.
Joxie lifted her head, eyes trained past Riln, as the sound of nearing footsteps—running footsteps—came around the corner ahead. She stared as Nate came barreling into view, and she could see the whites of his eyes even from where she stood.
And was that... water she heard?
It came swarming from around the corner right after Nate, like a predator on the trail of prey, curls and masses of black water that frothed and sped after Nate as he sprinted for his life. Seeing her, he opened his mouth to shout, but when he saw Riln the fright on his face delved into sheer terror.
"Get away from him, Jox! He’s not safe right now!" Nate bellowed, putting on a burst of speed that seemed to make him fly. "GO!"
Panic flooded her system, like acid being drained into every vein and artery in her body. Who was this boy running for her? Unable to name why, she wanted nothing more than to turn and race as far away as possible from him. Away from both him and that angry red light. She swayed where she stood. Frozen in place.
"It's called dream waters."
It took effort to drag her eyes towards the one carrying the red light.
Riln smiled faintly, eyes as blank as glass beads. "Goodbye, Joxie."
And she realized that the boy—he wants to kill me—was still barreling towards her. He was so much closer now that he was stretching out his hand for her.
"Stay away from me!" Joxie screamed, spinning where she stood, feeling her heart in her mouth. Behind her, those rolling black waves rolled on hungrily, wanting to engulf her completely in Despair. She had to get away—had to—
But as she turned, she managed only one step before she struck something solid and unmoving. Someone very much alive, for they grasped her around the arm with one hand and flung her out of their way as they rushed onward. Targeting Riln.
As if she was listening underwater, Joxie heard a voice cry out, relieved, "Serrin!". The red light-orb was instantly gone as two bodies collided.
Her back hit the wall and she crouched down, curling in on herself, hands covering her ears as the corridor suddenly echoed with snarls and the shriek of blades gouging through flesh. Breathing at a rate that she couldn't control, she felt another presence come to her side. Something encircled her, separating her from the horrid nightmare that she had fallen into. Someone was sobbing onto her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Jox! Riln said he knew where you were and suddenly that—that stuff started coming. Coerce has burrowed into his head."
And without warning the foaming waves crashed against them, tearing at her mind. Gripping with a hold that would never let go, ready to drag her down and down into the depths of Despair. But the presence was still talking in her ear.
"She can't hurt me, Jox. I've been in her hands and escaped. But she can hurt you." Tears splattered against her cheeks. She felt someone's forehead set theirs against hers. "Fight through it. I know you can. Remember what the Wize taught us." Then he was no longer talking, but singing.
"The next time I saw that star, I held it in my hands.
Holding my fears as well, I said, 'I think I understand.'"
Through the aching cold that filled her being, Joxie drew in breath, bolstered by his voice and the feel of his hand gripping hers. There was shelter there. There was safety.
"I fear nothing," she said, opening her eyes, "when you're with me."
The dream waters surrounding her snapped, threads dissolving into a hissing mist as she took Nate's hand, letting him pull her up, free of its grasp. With a surging roar, it vanished, and Joxie blinked the world back into focus.
Down the hall, Riln's body lay crumpled to the floor, unconscious but breathing evenly. And Serrin, panting heavily, looked from the clawed bracer across his knuckles to the humans. He snorted, his wiry tail flipping to the side in annoyance. "At this rate, you flimsy humans will never live long enough to repay me."
Nate and Joxie glanced at each other and then threw their arms around Serrin in return for the briefest of moments, before joining hands and beginning to run.
Behind them, stuck in an expression of revulsion, Serrin looked ready to barf.
Nate ran with Joxie at his side, halting only when the gigantic branches of the Sanoak Forest shielded them from the yellow-gray sky overhead. Everything rustled and swayed around him, in an ominous way that left a tingling sensation move through his body, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. Even the air smelled faintly metallic, like freshly spilled blood, or frost on the wind.
"So, what's the plan Nate?" Joxie questioned, leaning as he did against a massive root, gaining her breath back. "We join the others at the gate? They should know that Riln’s mind was breeched." Her skin turned slightly green at the words.
Nate shook his head. "Serrin will be there, I'll bet. Gloating about it. Nothing's happening at the gate yet anyway. Not until..." His eyes strayed to the horizon half hidden behind enormous trunks of Sanoak trees. "Not until the suns are gone." He looked back to his best friend. "Kal has until the suns are gone.”
“She'll get here, don't worry," Joxie assured him, smiling widely. "The Hordes will run away screaming. And Coerce will get shoved into hell ,or whatever, forever and ever. And... what?"
"Jox," Nate said carefully, softly, "did you ever imagine yourself old? You know—old and with your family all around you when you died?"
"I never wondered much about dying, honestly. Too busy living." She blew out her breath, seeing his expression. "Alright, alright. Maybe a little, you know. It doesn’t sound so bad that way, dying when you're not alone."
"Do you think Elyus had it right?"
"What? You mean that there's a world we go to after we leave this one?" She kicked at the dirt. Her voice became gentler, unsure. "Sounds like a fairytale. 'And they all lived together forever. The end.'"
"Isn't it 'happily' ever after?"
"Well, how else would you be happy unless everyone you cared about got to be with you, always? Through all your next adventures full of mayhem and chaos." Joxie shrugged. "Like I said, sounds like fairytales."
Nate looked up, folding his arms. "Which is why I kind of think it's all true."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, why not? We grew up hearing stories about this place, about Humra, and look where we are! Kal thought they were just stories. And she got picked to save them all."
Joxie eyed him and repeated, "Seriously?"
Nate drew in a steady breath. "Jox, if I'm told I get to be your best friend in this world and the next one, and on and on, I'm going to believe it." He stuffed his hands in his pockets, scowling. "Who else can help me with all that mayhem and chaos you mentioned, huh?"
"Well, when you put it that way, I'll believe you then. I believe you completely." She sighed. "But really, what's the plan?"
Nate swallowed. "We've got to separate."
Now it was her turn to make a face, her fists planting themselves obstinately on her hips. "Yeah? How come?"
Nate's eyes flicked towards her, then away, and back again, as if he were lost and didn't know which direction to go. "Because it's like Elyus said. Once Long Night comes, the Hordes will be after Kal's key and I... I mean you..." He stood straight, his words gushing in an uncontrolled torrent from his heart. "I don't want you getting hurt again, alright? 'Cause that was horrible when those rocks fell at the Grons' Hoven and I was way up in the air, couldn't help you, and the way you looked when I found you back in our world, all alone, I just can't stand it, so you've got to be where it's safe, okay?" He drew in a shuddering breath, wringing his hat in his hands before him.
"Nate," Joxie whispered, "you don't have to cry."
"You'll stay safe then?"
"I’ll be safe at the end of it all, I can promise that.” At his startled look, she added, “You’re not the only one that Elyus has talked to.”
Nate was struck speechless, sagging back to take a seat on a Sanoak’s protruding root. Joxie settled next to him, hands fidgeting with the end of her hat. “I know all about it. I know what you’ve decided. I agreed as well.”
Nate put his face in his hands.
“What? Did you really think I wouldn’t help? It’s going to all be okay. Isn’t that what we’re trusting in?”
Nate lowered his hands. “Beyond Veils.”
“Yup.”
"Deal," Nate said firmly, his eyes catching hers.
"Deal."
"Seal it."
They clasped their left hands, interlocked their pinkies, touched their right fists to the other's heart and spat over the other's shoulder.
"I’ll follow your lead this one last time, got it?" Joxie demanded, pulling out her hat from her back pocket and placing it firmly on her head. "Then from here on out, I'm calling the shots."
Nate grinned mischievously. "I wouldn't change your bossy nature even if I somehow could, Jox. Hey, that hurt!"
"I am not bossy!"
"Maybe a little—ow! Stop that!"
"I'm not!"
"Are so."
"Not!"
"Yes, you are! OW!"
"Take it back."
"No!"
"Take it back!"
"Look, I never said I minded it—ooph!"
"Well, in that case," Joxie relented. She brushed off her hands, leaving Nate sprawled on the ground. "I guess that's okay." She chewed her bottom lip as she watched him stand, brushing himself off. Glanced towards the suns hovering over the rim of the world. "You'll be all right without me, won't you? It'd be just like you to fall right into some trouble that you can't get yourself out of."
He sniffed, raising his chin, and jammed his hat over his thick black hair. "I've gotten myself out of plenty of trouble, thanks."
"Yeah, because I was there to help."
He paused, his indignation melting away, a more vulnerable expression taking its place. "We've been through lots of scrapes through the years, haven't we?" He looked at the sunsets, and back at her, almost imperceptibly shaking where he stood. "Listen, Joxie..."
Her eyes narrowed in response. "Don't you try saying 'goodbye' Nate, or I'll deck you so hard your eyes will switch places!"
"No, I mean, I wasn't—Joxie, I just—"
She nodded once. "Good." Turning where she stood, she gave a wave over her shoulder. "See you, Nate." Took three steps. Stopped.
Joxie looked back to where he still stood, his deeply blue eyes wide open. They showed everything she wouldn't let him say aloud.
She ran for him, hurtling her arms around his middle in an embrace that he returned just as fiercely.
"See you soon," Nate breathed.
They let each other go.
JOXIE
THE LOWERING SUNS WERE HARDLY MORE THAN TINY SLIPS OF RED GLOWING on the horizon, like embers from a dying fire. The shadows stretching in all directions throughout the Sanoak Forest grew in size every passing second, and she felt that they were on the verge of rising up and catching hold of her, to encase her in a never-ending blackness. Several times she tripped, slamming into the ground as she stumbled, gathering more gouges along her skin every time she did so. But she jumped right back up and kept going, her heart pumping so quickly it seemed to not beat at all.
How big was this stupid forest anyway?
It was the fifth—or the sixth?—time that she fell, this time to roll right into the unforgiving root of a massive Sanoak, that she heard it. Clicking. Hissing.
Something hissing through the dark.
Joxie pitched herself to the side, and the ground behind her shriveled and burned away as a glob of greenish acid splattered across its surface. The stench of rotten carcasses made her gag, and she scrambled to her feet as a lumbering shape, bulky and crooked in the dim lighting, coming towards her. Her skin crawled at the sight of the massive thing, glittering red in the little light left to see by, like an insect with talons
"Oh, sick." She backed away, her hands feeling behind her. "Oh sick, oh gross, yuck yuck—eep!"
With her hands flying to cover her head, she nearly belly-flopped the ground as she ducked a glob the size of her body and it zoomed above her. She clambered away as the glob exploded against a boulder, sending burning droplets in every direction.
Of everything she had survived in this world, being barbequed by an overgrown bug-thing seemed rather unfair.
Hefting up a rock she stubbed her toe on, Joxie bellowed as she flung it with all her strength. The monster simply batted it aside and clicked more insistently, now skittering sideways across the length of roots and rocks and vines, nearing at her with an alarming speed. Even through the dying light she could see its pinchers, now inches from her neck, and she recoiled, hardly able to think—
The sound of pattering, like hundreds of little feet slapping against solid surfaces, filled her ears, drowning out the clicking of the monster. The next instant, she felt a rush of air as countless things—she opened her eyes and still couldn't make out exactly what—rushed past her, piling onto the monster. Hundreds of voices filled the air with high-pitched jittering.
And something solid, warm, and furry landed on her shoulder.
"It will not bugged you more," Trizz informed her. "Mixie will killed it." The white pramiite bounded off her shoulder, urging, "Quicked! This way!"
With one last look at the monster, hardly able to see it beneath the dandelion-like puffs that sprayed from the swarm infesting the beast, she tore away from its squealing of pain and the sound of its hide being shred to pieces.
"Where'd you come from, anyway?" she questioned, hurtling over a root.
Trizz leaped gracefully from one side to the other, his bright fur the only reason she could follow him. "The Magis are here. Hurried!"
No sooner had the words left Trizz’s mouth than a deafening pounding made Joxie cover her ears, and the ground began to roil beneath her feet. The last of the Sanoaks towered over her head as she was pitched off her feet. She rolled downhill as the ground heaved like it had become boiling water. When she stopped, laying on her back, stunned and breathless, she felt the vibrations grow stronger and the ground around her suddenly burst.
It was as if towers were being erected from the center of the world and growing outward, black spiraling shapes that stretched first up, then coiled back down, twisting this way and that, like roots. Massive roots. Dripping slime.
Joxie rolled to the side, rising to her feet, and was propelled nearly three feet into the air from the impact of one root slamming into the ground where she had just been. Chunks of earth rained down, pebbles along with it, and she covered her head once more, gritting her teeth as they hit her already bruised body.
"Follow Trizz, quicked!" The pramiite wove around her feet to get her attention and leaped away. Joxie nearly stomped on his tail as she followed. A sickly yellow-gray light enveloped the horizon, as if the sky was desperately trying to cling to its star- and moonlight, and rapidly losing the battle. Following Trizz was becoming increasingly difficult. Daring one glance ahead, Joxie could see the lake roiling and seething.
A sharp crack left a ringing in her ears as she stumbled, momentarily stunned, before it seemed as if the earth itself was trying to split itself to pieces. But looking back, she saw it was actually the Sanoaks that were splitting. One by one, they burst into pieces that zipped through the sky, as the roots that had infested the ground took hold, entwined the majestic trunks, and reduced them to kindling. Joxie stood, hands clasped to her ears, horror and incredulity striking her immobile, watching as the Sanoak Forest was destroyed in a matter of moments.
When the last tree fell, and she let her hands drop, her ears rang abominably, and she staggered when she tried to move. A warm trickling was dripping from her right ear, and numbly, she felt it with her hand. Pulled it away to see blood staining her fingers.
Not good.
Trizz's words were useless as he raced around her, trying to get her attention, before biting her on the leg. Howling, she kicked out reflexively. She watched as Trizz bounded on towards the lakeside, then came racing back, jabbering. Obviously wanting her to follow.
The faintest whisper of sound returned to her left ear as she ran after him, holding out her arms occasionally to keep her balance as the world trembled. It was impossible to tell who moved around her through the layer of dust mixing in the air and it might have been sheer luck that made her crash into Nilayn.
The blonde-haired girl whipped about, more agilely than Joxie's battered body could move even in the best of circumstances. The human girl saw her eyes widen, her mouth speaking. Her name she heard faintly, followed by, "Are you alright? Joxie, you're bleeding!" Then, if possible, the cat-tailed girl's eyes expanded even more. "Were you up in the Forest?"
Joxie didn't answer, instead staring around her, seeing the laces of fissures in the ground, like dreadful scars. Saw the roiling of black, smoke-like fog descending towards them from the West, eerily glittering as it came. Trizz shouted to her, and she caught the words, "Finded a Magi for you," and he was racing away before she could protest.
"What's happening down here?" Joxie demanded. She pointed towards the wall of blackness approaching. "And what is that?"
"It's Long Night," Nilayn responded, looking pale and grim. "It's going to bring horrible nightmares with it. Come on." She grasped Joxie's hand. "We've got to get to the underground."
"No way." The human girl balked, shaking her head, and stopped, wincing, as her ear throbbed.
"Everyone's gathering down at the gate with my father," Nilayn explained. She cupped her palm over Joxie's damaged ear. "Hold still, I'm not very good at healing yet."
"Nilayn? Joxie? What are you two doing here?"
Both turned at the sound of Calla's voice, which was sharp with worry, and cringed as she came nearer.
"Nilayn, how did you slip past your mother?" Calla demanded, but just as quickly swiped a hand before her. "Never mind. We haven't the time. Follow me quickly, girls. I'll take you part-way to the underground"—she fixed a sharp eye on her granddaughter—"and you will go the rest of the way by yourself."
"But," Nilayn protested, "Trizz is bringing a Magi because her ear—"
"Hey," Joxie broke in, her eyes trained towards the gate. "What's happening over there?"
Calla's eyes, already narrowed, set themselves to where Joxie was looking. Then they widened in horror.
The Long Night had reached the gate, and was seeping over it, like an oozing mass of smoke. Even from this distance, Joxie could see that the glittering she had noticed was actually traces of frost crackling through the depths of the blackness. And the Nalii about to be engulfed in the darkness were writhing, some falling to their knees, some grasping their heads as if they were about to burst.
Then, with a roar of wind that stole her breath away, Joxie watched as the black fog was blown to every corner of the horizon, the strands of frost carried within its mass flinging like a web across the sky. A cascade of screams reached her one good ear, full of pain, and her blood seemed to curdle under her skin. Beside her, Calla and Nilayn moaned, both slowly lowering to their hands and knees, their eyes rolling back in their sockets. Joxie staggered backward, her heart in her throat.
Then, the clash of metal against metal—the all-too-familiar noises of battle—made her spin on her heels. Joxie screamed.
The Pack members were attacking each other.
'Feel Fear,' came a wintry whisper, a chorus of voices that filled the sky, saturating it like a storm, oppressive and dark. 'Feel Hate.'
The voice, that horrible voice, was like dark ink being poured into her heart, staining it. Like smothering oil filling her lungs. In panic, Joxie bolted to Calla and Nilayn, her hands reaching out to shake their shoulders in turn. "Wake up!" Her voice was high and tight. "Wake up, wake up, wake—"
"What's happening?"
It was Nilayn's voice, and Joxie nearly sobbed with relief as she saw the Naliian girl slowly blink, as if clearing a mist from her mind. Beside her, Calla was shaking her head, looking furious. Murderous.
"That kayzing Coerce and her— her filthy Dark Emotions!" Calla spat vehemently, standing straight, her eyes nearly searing with rage. "She's taking their minds!"
Ice-cold terror shot down her spine, and Joxie stared helplessly towards the mass of ruthlessness. Uncontrolled animal instinct.
Beasts.
"I thought she needed collars," Nilayn whispered, terrified.
Joxie glanced towards the shimmering, frost-like threads, something clicking otgether in the back of her head. Collars?
"No." Joxie shook her head slowly. "She just needs those threads. They're just like the ones on Kal's Seership. But evil. Dark." She looked to her hands. Human hands. Could she help to free the others from Coerce's hold, just as she had for Calla and Nilayn? Possibly in the same way she had helped to rescue the Grons before?
"They're killing each other." Nilayn stumbled forward, halting when Calla placed her hand on her granddaughter's shoulder, though she didn't seem to feel it. "How can she do that? How can she make them do that?"
Joxie made up her mind.
She bolted towards the chaos, ignoring Calla's shout, her feet carrying her at break-neck speed if she were to trip over anything. Stretching out her hand, she grasped the arm of the first Nalii she encountered, only to yelp and duck as the man growled, swinging his sword her way, nearly taking her head. She backed away, staring straight into his eyes, finding they were empty of everything but savagery. He turned his back to her, already forgetting her as he pursued another.
So. The threads were stronger than collars once they set in.
Well, shit.
"Stop it!" she faintly heard Nilayn scream, in the midst of the melee. Joxie turned and spotted her looking this way and that, tears streaming down her face. "Can't you see what you're doing?" The cat-tailed girl leapt onto someone's back, dragging at his hair. "Stop!" The man she clung to, baring his teeth, snatched hold of her and flung her to the side, smashing his hilt into her with enough force that Joxie could feel the blow just by watching. Nilayn tumbled several yards before she rolled to a stop.
"No!" Joxie shouted, reaching out a hand, faltering as she tried to force her body into immediate movement. Her feet felt glued to the ground. The man was already rushing forward, his club raised, bringing it down—down to where Nilayn was trying to lift her head, looking dazed—
Calla sprang at him, the Pack member who had once followed her orders. Flew at him and stabbed him between the ribs, and then stood trembling as Coerce's threads lost their hold of his mind and he swayed, dying. Confusion swept over his face.
"Calla," he choked, "I don't understand." She caught him as he crumpled to the ground, quivering, before he permanently stilled.
Nilayn lifted a hand where she was sprawled, her lips moving, no sound escaping her. Blood welled from the corner of her mouth, dripped to the ground below.
"Calla!" Joxie screeched, so loudly her vocal cords seemed to shred to bits. "Look out!"
The blade slid through Calla's throat and out again, too quickly for her human eyes to follow. The salt-and-pepper-haired woman stared straight ahead, her eyes and mouth wide with surprise, as blood spurted from the wound, drenching her front. And she sagged forward, to lie at the feet of the Pack member who had killed her, by the side of her granddaughter who slowly stretched out her hand to set it on Calla's arm.
The woman who had killed Calla rushed away, her animalistic bloodlust calling her onward.
Joxie's botos skid against the dirt as she came to a stop beside the two, her breathing too shallow, too quick. Her hands stumbled from Calla's form to Nilayn's, before she sat back, feeling as if she had been carved from stone. The pain that burst into existence, deep in her chest, caused her to hunch over, unable to draw breath as red and gray dots scattered before her vision. Her blood smothered hands fisted her hair.
"Kal..." She breathed in ash and smoke, clamping her eyes shut. Rocked back and forth as the madness went on and on around her. "We need you here, Kal." Throwing her head back, leaping to her feet, Joxie screamed. "KALEEN!"
The faintest stirring of air was her only warning before her world turned yellow, then delved into black and white, before wrenching back to normal. Something hot, scalding, rushed through her abdomen and back out. Something just as warm was gushing from there. Something was staining her clothes.
Slowly lowering her head from the sky—the tattered, broken sky—Joxie set her eyes on the blood welling up there. I've been stabbed, she marveled, touching her abdomen. Her fingers were stiff and cold. The edges of her vision grew fuzzy. A terrible, unrelenting spasm seized hold of her, dragged her into a pulsing pain that wouldn't let her think properly. She sank to the ground.
"Nate..." Joxie whispered.
And closed her eyes.
NATE
CALLORAH SEEMED TO SAG WHERE SHE STOOD, HER NORMALLY VIBRANT WHITE STONES now bleak and filmed with grime, no light reflecting off its surface. But she had been his target the moment he saw the storm of blackness approaching. Nate sprinted for his life, the frost that grew across the ground biting for him, seeking to draw blood.
It didn't take a genius to figure that it was Coerce was angry and she was going to do her best to turn their very world into a hell all of its own.
Dodging between the rubble remaining from the civil battle, Nate twisted around a corner, only to nearly bite through is tongue. Scrambling to a halt, he sighed in relief when saw it was Rya standing before him. She was breathing hard, leaning down to press her hands against her thigh and even in the dark Nate could see that something wet slid between her fingers to fall to the cracked and fissured ground.
"Nate," she exhaled, straightening herself. "I've been looking for you."
There was a rush of air, and a second figure arrived, leaping over the runes to land in a crouch by his wife’s side. Malin’s staff gleaming even through the gathering dark.
"We both have," Malin said, but his eyes were on Rya, scanning her. "Where are you hurt? Ah. There." He knelt, peering closer to see, and added curtly, "It's cut to the bone." He placed his hands against the injury, but his blue sparks did nothing more than flicker in and out of existence. "Kayze it." He snatched a dagger from his boot, stripped away her pant leg from below the wound and tore it into ribbons, working furiously to bind her leg.
"We've got to get him out of here," Rya said to Malin, but her eyes were trained upward, where the black storm was condensing. Flickers of frost were spreading out like living tendrils of a creature. "Long Night is almost here and soon we won't be able to see a thing."
Malin heaved a sigh, pausing for a brief moment. He stood, turning to Nate. But his eyes swept to the side the next moment, his brow furrowing. Listening. "Do you hear that?"
To Nate, it seemed as if a chorus of voices murmured from the shadows, their breaths as cold as snow. It coiled around his legs, inched up his arms, breathed against the skin of his neck. Goosebumps erupted along his body as the whispering grew steadily louder, and he couldn't help but spin around, his eyes scanning for the source. But it was everywhere. What were they saying?
'Feel... Hate...'
The words echoed, rebounding off of everything, drilling into his head. They clawed into his heart where it thumped pitifully. And it was suddenly as if a multitude screamed from inside his head, so loudly that nothing else existed. And though Nate knew his eyes were open, he couldn't see a thing.
'HATE ME!' Coerce shrieked. 'FEAR ME!'
The human boy could feel the world shudder beneath his feet, as if it had been caught in the grasp of something so vile it could never escape. Through the tumult, the rest of existence seemed to turn as cold as death. As non-existence.
He breathed in. Breathed out.
"Get out of my head," Nate said determinedly. "You have no control over me."
The voices immediately vanished, leaving his mind serene, though the world around him had delved into a new realm of disorder and destruction. His heartbeat sped up erratically when he saw both Malin and Rya falling to the ground, as if their own pulses had crashed to a halt. He heard screams and snarls and the sounds of battle around him through the amassing dark.
"Get up!" he commanded, panicked. His knees scraped against debris as he reached to shake their shoulders. "Hurry, get up! Please!" He looked about him, his mind grasping that Coerce had infested the Pack members, as if she'd just stretched out her hand and taken hold of their wills, twisting them until they were nothing more than feral instincts. They fought with one another below and his blood ran cold.
Groaning in pain, Malin slowly stirred, lifting himself off the ground. He shook his head as if to loosen tendrils attempting to hold it. Beside him, Rya opened her eyes, gasping. She turned her head, calming when her searching fingers found his.
"Come on, come on," Nate urged, bouncing impatiently on his feet. "Before she can grab hold of you again." Relief flooded through him as the two got to their feet before him.
"To Callorah," Rya said softly, looking tired.
Nate nodded once and led the way.
It was with difficulty that they reached the front steps. More times than Nate could count, Malin or Rya were confronted with one of their Pack, lost in their bloodlust. As Coerce’s crip solidified, Nate couldn’t pull their minds free, the threads biting too deeply for him to release them. Rya sobbed the first time she had to kill after her attempts to render the other unconscious was unsuccessful.
"Coerce controls their wills," Malin had said bitterly, wiping away her tears with his thumb. "Of course she would make death the only option. Let's carry on."
But merely ten steps later, Nate suddenly skid to a stop. His eyes went wide and unseeing, unfocused, and he held his breath. It felt as if the planet had stopped turning at that moment. He took off his hat, stared at it in his hands.
He couldn't feel his heartbeat anymore.
"Nate?" Rya called urgently. He couldn't feel her presence, didn't see her anxious eyes.
"Joxie," he breathed. Blinked. Brought everything back into focus.
Rya lowered her gaze when he caught hers. Her chin quivered.
Nate set his shoulders. He stuffed the hat into his pocket, half of hanging out. He started running once more. There was a task before him that he had to prioritize above everything else.
Above everything else.
Tears trailed behind him as he sprinted.
Everything.
The mountain behind Callorah loomed above, a purple mar against the sky, as if it were threatening to rupture into pieces and come tumbling down. Given the quaking all around, Nate didn't think that was a far cry from actually happening. The front doors to Callorah splayed wide, as if she were trying to scream her anguish without a voice. And still glistening faintly along her floors, Rya's powder laid out in its delicate streams.
"Inside," Rya ordered, already delving into the darkness beyond the doorway. Malin was right on her heels.
Nate, however, paused. He turned to face the despairing events laid out at Callorah's feet. Like a scene from the nightmares that he was so familiar with. Only this time... this time there was no waking up to escape it. You can't escape reality, he thought, livid where he stood.
"Kal?" he whispered, nothing more than a breath, as if expecting her to answer him. His voice sounded young, as young and as lost as it had been when his mother had died. Can you see what's happening? Can you hear it? Feel it? We need you here! He dragged air into his lungs, letting out his anguish in a cry, in the form of his sister's name. "KAL!"
The moon in the sky dripped light from it like blood, the beads fading out of existence before they could touch the stars. Everything suddenly stopped trembling. And blackness engulfed everything, while Coerce's laughter rang through the air.
Long Night.
ALAJAN
HE SMELLED DEATH.
It made him jittery, more unstable in his Gift form than he usually was. Part of Jan itched with excitement, with the urge to conquer, to feed into obliteration. The greater portion of him was disgusted with the tang of sweat, blood, tears, and bodily fluids staining the wind. The true part of him worried about what the scents meant.
And that he didn't find Kal's, the scent of spring blossoms, among them.
Whirl ran behind him, alongside the throng of other Grons, their giant footsteps making the ground shake. The deeper core of his Gift urged him to lash out, to destroy them simply because they lived, given strength because of Coerce's threads lacing through the sky. But Jan tightened his mind's hold and the Gift submitted, simmering under the surface.
The world was nothing more than a dark, empty space, devoid of all light except what flared from his being. The edges of him blurred from the greedy tugging of the Dark that wanted nothing more than to unravel his soul. Beneath him, he could see the crevices of the agonized world that was, among its trembling, breaking to pieces under the tumult of Black Emotions.
If Kal didn't arrive soon, he noted, Coerce would unravel the world.
Training his eyes to the East, he saw the gate of Callorah nearing. He could sense the threads of Dark Emotions even from this distance. He saw his Pack turned against each other, their minds fraying beneath Coerce's hands just as Humra was. He settled his anger into the farthest part of his being because it burned too hotly, raged like the heat of the suns against the scorched sand of the Barren Lands. With a pull of will, Jan subdued it before it overwhelmed him.
The Magi stood in a line before the gates, their shadows spreading straight and endless before them as Alajan neared. Their forearms crossed over the other as they clasped the hands of the ones who stood at their side. The Magi standing at the ends of the line held their free palms facing skyward. Devric stood apart, and Jan could hear him clearly as he said, "We are powerless against her."
Jan came to a halt, standing behind the Magi, the white fire that built his form curling off in shaves that died when they neared Coerce's frost-like threads.
Devric, without bothering to glance back, said simply, "She is after you, Gift bearer."
The Gift curled back its lips, growling, shockwaves rumbling in a low tremor. Though unable to speak, Alajan's message was clear: I do not fear her.
'Ah.'
Coerce's voice came as a sigh, a caress, like a lover who had found one she had lost and sought after for a long while.
'There you are.'
With a pulse of power, Coerce sent chunks of earth and stone flying, scattering the Magi. The Gift reared back as Dark threads, racing for it hungrily, began to entwine across its being. The Gift roared in defiance, its light dwindling under the onslaught of Dark Emotions wrapping around its frame, which was rapidly decreasing in size. Shifting back. It was Jan who stood at the last, snarling as he resisted, his eyes and his body glowing amidst the Dark.
'Come back to me,' Coerce crooned. The air stirred instantly into a tumultuous wind that tossed debris into the air carelessly.
"Alajan!" Whirl shouted frenziedly, already running. The ground he placed his next step on cracked, like a pane of glass shattering. The young Gron scrabbled to find purchase with his hands as the rest of his body fell into the newly formed soul reaper. His comrades hastily dragged him away, staring in fright at the jagged edges that leered at them. Whirl panted as he looked back to where the Gift had last been. His eyes widened. "N-No..."
The threads were amassing, spiraling and pulsing as they encased the Gift bearer. Tiny rays of light struggling through the slits. A dying fire. The wind puleld the black clouds towards the twisting bulk of shadow, as if Coerce drew the remnants of the sky into a void.
"How do we stop this?!" Whirl demanded, looking frantically at the faces of his companions.
Beside him, one shook his head. "I don't think we can."
Whirl's chest heaved, the last beams of light vanishing from the world as he watched the Gift bearer disappear beneath the writhing, tangled mass of Black Emotions.
"Liiara," Whirl gasped, turning where he stood, not knowing where he faced. Unable to see a thing. "Liiara!"
Those near him heard, and joined their voices to his, until the atmosphere of nothingness was ringing with their cries, on and on through the blackness.
"Liiara! Liiara!"