THE COMING OF WINTER
Part 2 of 4 Section 3 written by Victar, e-mail
Victar's Archive:
Part 2 Section 3
My first official act as a newly titled member of the Hierarchy was to take a leave of absence. It had been months since I'd last visited my younger brother. His seventeenth birthday was approaching rapidly. I ought to be present for the celebration, or so I kept telling myself. In hindsight, I think I was just looking for something to do that didn't involve treachery or killing.
It was strange, returning to my former home dressed in peasant garb. The clothing didn't feel right; it was too awkward and restrictive. The long sleeves chafed like a pair of manacles. They partly sealed me off from the Power, a disturbing sensation that bothered me more the longer I endured it. I knew that calling the Power when my face was unmasked would be complete folly, but rolled the sleeves up anyway.
My younger brother wasn't home. He'd disappeared again, after finishing his schoolwork and chores. Apparently, he was hard at work on some big project, and very excited about it. He'd been salvaging scrap parts from every source imaginable for weeks now, taking them to an unknown place and doing unguessable things with them for hours on end. Little brother had even hinted that his ambitions might help him earn a respectable living sometime soon. He wanted to be a scientist. To that end, he was taking Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Industrial Design, and any other such courses he could cram into his scholastic regimen. His grades were excellent. Perhaps, if he got a scholarship, he could pursue his dream at a university.
I set out for my brother's makeshift laboratory, taking care not to be seen. I'd kept its location secret for over four years now. Little brother tended to be startled whenever I interrupted him at his work, but I did rather want to visit him. After all, if not for my service in the Lin Kuei, he wouldn't have had the luxury of choosing his own destiny. I wanted to see what he was doing with that luxury.
Dusk had fallen by the time I reached his secluded lab. Its windows were boarded on the outside, covered on the inside. The rickety shed appeared deserted. I knew from memory that the interior was lit up with electric lights. Little brother had even created a specially hot, blue-white light designed specifically to attract nighttime insects and incinerate them. Wires underneath the device suspended a removable tray filled with crumpled and charred insect bodies.
Since my brother was almost certainly in the middle of some complex experiment, I decided to enter silently rather than knock and risk disturbing his concentration. Picking the outside lock with a wire in my pocket, I eased the door open... and stepped into abhorrence itself.
Microscopes, mineral formations, and many of the old beakers or test tubes had been hastily stashed away in boxes and corners. In their place, wires, springs, electronics and metal lay strewn on every available surface. Several were connected. A few had flashing lights, powered by long cords connecting them to a rectangular box with knobs and crosses on a three-legged stool. On the central table, little brother bent over his work. He delicately guided a small, rickety blowtorch along a metal seam, his eyes shielded by a battered welder's mask. When I took a closer look at the thing with the seam, I felt something twist inside, like a knife cutting through my kidney.
It was an arm.
An artificial arm.
Its steel coating housed inner sheaths of tensile rubber. Blue tubes streaked across the underside in place of veins. One end tapered into a hinge-jointed wrist, then spread and split into a set of thin fingers. Soft foam padding was protectively wrapped around each finger joint. Little brother interrupted his welding for a moment and touched something inside the elbow. The hand flexed of its own volition. A surprised hiss whooshed through my teeth.
"Hm?" Little brother glanced up from his creation. Noticing me, he turned off the blow torch and lifted the welder's mask.
"Oh, it's you. Long time no see. Hey, what do you think of my science project? It's worth half the course grade, you know, so I have to get it ready by the deadline tomorrow morning. It- what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"
When I stared at the thing in his hands, I saw the yellow-black horror in Pyre's basement. This place was a shadowy, low-budget mockery of that forbidden underground chamber. It was insane. It was an obscenity. Was this what my brother did with his freedom, while I tread the path of the Lin Kuei? Creating mockeries of life? Did he also share Pyre's mad dreams of merging his body with soulless machines?
"That thing you are making is evil." Revulsion spread through me. I held back the impulse to retch as I took a step closer to my brother and the perversion he cradled like a newborn.
"This? But it's only an object-"
"You will destroy it at once!"
"What?" A dismayed expression spread across his face.
"I am the elder brother. Do not question me. Get rid of that vile-"
"Are you kidding? I told you, it's my final project! I'll fail Advanced Electronics if I don't-"
"Do not worry about the class. You will be withdrawing from it, and any classes like it. And you're not going to attend a university if they fill your head with this filth!"
"What!?" His grip on the corrupt device tightened
The disgust that had been building within me came to a peak. Before he could say another word, I lunged forward to snatch the despicable thing, wrenching it from his hands and dashing it against the wall. Its joints fell off their hinges. Fingers separated from the hands, scattering about on the floor. Oil dripped like blood from the broken atrocity.
Little brother cried out as if one of his flesh-and-blood hands had been shattered. "AAAAH! It took three weeks just to attune the frequency of-"
"I am not going to let you squander your soul on mechanical atrocities!"
The shock in his eyes gave way to anger. "Get out. Get out of my lab!"
"This place, these things you've studied have possessed you. I won't lose my only brother to-"
"Get OUT!" he shouted, directly in my face. His entire body was had become tense, almost as rigid as his blasphemous metal construct.
My self-restraint snapped.
I never should have let him set up this experimental pit. It had defiled him, changed him into someone I could hardly believe was my kin. The mistake had to be remedied. Now.
Walking straight past him, up to the biggest table covered with the most components, I consolidated my inner strength and brought the edge of my hand down upon the table's center. My blow split the wood into splinters. Spare parts thrown by the recoil clattered against the walls and floor. They did not all come to rest before I attacked the next stand.
I shattered glass, tore the pages out of textbooks, ripped out wires, and crushed plastic dishes under my heels. Whole notebooks filled with arcane symbols in my brother's handwriting became shredded, their pieces tossed amidst the confusion. He tried to intervene, but I pushed him aside. He tried reasoning with me, then pleading; I paid no attention to his hysteria. I continued the rampage until every breakable thing was destroyed, then smashed the electric lights on the floor, inadvertently starting a fire. It spread quickly, fueled by stray trails of oil, instantly consuming all the books, notes, and paper I'd thrown around. Little brother tried to rescue a sheet filled with grids of numbers. Sternly, I took hold of him and dragged him out of there. He resisted violently, wriggling like a fish on a hook. The fire curled brighter and hotter, suddenly bursting into a huge conflagration that licked every corner of the rundown old shed. Flames consumed everything.
"NOOOOO!!" my brother screamed. He curled his left hand into a fist and jabbed his elbow backward, catching me unprepared with a strike to the solar plexus. My grasp weakened enough for him to wrench loose. For an instant I worried that he might try to dash back inside, but he just stood there, staring at the burning shed. Firelight glinted off two trails leading down from the inner corner of each eye.
"It is for your own good," I told him, gently.
He turned around and ran, sprinting at top speed into the light woodlands nearby. I decided to let him go, for the time being. He'd been through a lot. Moreover, I had to watch over the fire, to ensure that it destroyed everything without spreading beyond the shed. It would be easier if I could freely use the Power to contain the blaze, in which case I didn't want any witnesses.
Once that was taken care of, I returned to my former home and settled things with the rest of the family. My brother was to drop out of the science courses at once, and he was not to enroll in any university. None of them objected to my decrees, for I was Lin Kuei. Little brother could not relocate away from the village without my consent.
The next day, I tried to talk to him again. He stared straight ahead the whole time. Attempting to explain why this was best for him got no response. "Would you at least look at me when I'm speaking to you?" I asked, growing somewhat exasperated.
His turned his head. Something was different about him. His hands were so tightly clenched that the color drained from his knuckles. There was a new stiffness to his muscles, and a remote, windy look to his sienna eyes. Those eyes glared at me with unmitigated hostility.
"I hate you," he whispered. It was the only thing he would say.
I'd originally planned to visit for the rest of the weekend, but somehow there didn't seem to be any point in staying.
Once I passed the dragon skeleton's tapering tail vertebrae, the passageway's width diminished. Light from the cavern's mouth faded. I advanced cautiously into the darkness, feeling my way along. At times the stone corridor was so narrow that I had to turn sideways. It curved, sometimes rising, sometimes descending, until it came to an end before a blank wall of stone. Examination by touch revealed an open passageway to each side. I chose the one on the right, ripping a shred of cloth off my leg cuffs and setting it down before I entered. The passageway veered, turning back on itself, and finally branched into three different routes. Picking the center one, I pressed ahead into a dead end. After retracing my steps and taking the left corridor, I encountered another nexus, this one with four different options.
I'd wandered into a damned labyrinth.
I was dearly in need of a light source. It had never before been my nature to carry flint, matches, or anything else that created Fire, yet now I was forced to reconsider the wisdom of my prejudice. The dragon skeleton's healing and the cavern's relative coolness had given me an opportunity to rebuild my inner storehouse of the Power, but my elemental aspect extinguishes heat or light instead of creating it.
Something smoother than rock or gravel crunched underfoot. Bone, by the feel of it. It seemed to have come from something human-sized or larger. Tooth marks peppered its surface. Every once in a while I came across another, cleanly picked set of remains. Tiny creatures also scuttled in the darkness - bats, mice, and insects, by their sound. They were the first natural life I'd encountered since arriving in Limbo.
A tenuous map, maintained through constant concentration, existed in my mind. There was no way of knowing how accurate it was. The slope underneath my feet fluctuated so much that I could be walking directly above or below my last steps. Sometimes I thought I felt a mild breeze from above, blowing down into my face even when I was pressed next to a wall. Attempting to walk into the source of the wind, I encountered one cul-de-sac or hub of passages after another. Moments waned into what felt like hours. Monotony began to set in. The map in my mind became unclear. I was losing track of direction, depth, and time.
My foot touched something soft and thin. Kneeling down to touch it, I felt flexible, somewhat ragged fabric underneath my fingertips. It was cloth from my own uniform. I'd traveled in a great circle.
There was something wrong with the rose I had sculpted out of Ice. Its leaves drooped, and the central blossom wouldn't spread properly no matter how many times I retouched it. The more effort I invested in molding the flower, the more listless it became. I'd been trying for hours, unsuccessfully, to recapture the life of my childhood creations. Perhaps distant memory pictured them more vibrant than they actually were. I was in the process of taking the sculpture apart, planning to start again from scratch, when I detected a localized increase in the room's arctic temperature about five paces behind, accompanied by a familiar whiff of charred ash.
"You should not apply the Power to such trivial pursuits," Smoke advised, disapprovingly. "There are other ways to make ice sculptures. The Power should not be channeled unless you have no other recourse. You still rely upon it too much."
"Why have you come? I did not summon you," I sighed without turning around. Deciding to try a different flower, I willed a fold of ice to become a violet leaf, heart-shaped with a finely toothed margin.
"Ignore my warning at your peril."
"Answer the question!"
"Unit LK-4D4 has disappeared. It was supposed to be destroyed, but someone had removed it before we could force our way into Pyre's laboratory. I think Sektor may have stolen it."
"He's still recovering from two broken arms. How could he steal anything?"
"He could have hidden it before your battle with Pyre."
"Pyre would not have let him do such a thing. You are attributing a great deal of cunning to a young hothead too witless to properly control his mouth."
"Perhaps."
"Don't be so quick to rule out whatever party 'discovered' that the metal atrocity was missing. There could be others in the clan who are sympathetic to Pyre's cause. He revealed his secret to me; who knows how many were aware of it all along?"
"A point."
"Is that all?"
"Not quite. There is also the matter of your brother."
"What makes you think I have one?" The violet's stem had a kink, as though it had been stepped on.
"You forget, Sub-Zero, that your grandfather was my instructor, once. He died before you were old enough to remember him, but we knew each other well. I'm the one remaining Lin Kuei who knows who he was under his mask. I know who you are, and who your brother is. It came to my attention that a Hierarchy member has personally forbidden a certain citizen to leave the village. A brief investigation confirmed my suspicions."
"The matter is none of your concern." Instead of creating each petal individually, I decided this time to shape the entire blossom at once, in hopes of making the whole appear more coordinated.
"Does it please you to abuse your authority like a tyrant?"
"No. Nothing has pleased me for many years, since the night we first met." Smoke became quiet for an extended period of time, while I concentrated on honing the violet's stamen to hairlike thinness. When he addressed me again, his gruff, husky voice had lost its caustic edge.
"You are crushing the dreams of a very intelligent young man."
"'Dreams'? Nightmares would be more apt! I will not let those foul artifacts of metal and wire possess him!"
"Technology is not inherently evil. It is a type of Power. Like any other Power, it can be used for woe or weal. Do not confuse Pyre's insanity with your brother's science."
"I see no difference."
"You are making a mistake."
"That will be enough!" The violet shattered into pieces under my fingers. I turned and glared at Smoke. His eyes were darker than usual, like burnt wood instead of grey coals. "Leave, and do not approach me again unless I send for you!"
He left. It would be the last time I spoke with him for two years.
There was nothing to be done but plunge back into the maze. This time, I set down a tiny piece of cloth at every intersection. Directing the Power like a knife, I ripped my uniform's leg cuffs off and used them to make a trail. At each branching of tunnels, I always chose the one with the most upward slope; if there were more than one such, I alternated between right and left. After an interminable period of time, the black cloth of my leggings ended in scraps about my knees, and I still had no idea whether I was any closer to the way out.
Something sparkled.
Light! It only shined for an instant, just long enough to illuminate the tops of the tall stone walls that boxed me in. It had come from above, far and away down the corridor I currently traveled. I trotted as fast as I dared toward where it had been, soon reaching a juncture of six intersecting tunnels. Which one led toward the light flash?
Before I could make a choice, two pinpricks of bright red appeared from the leftmost corridor. They were a pair of ruby-colored eyes, gleaming in complete darkness. No ordinary animal's eyes could have shone like that. Animal tapeta reflect existing light, instead of creating their own. The translucent orbs hovered about a meter and a half off the ground. From their radiance, I could discern the small outline of a smooth-skinned, birdlike body supported on slender hind legs, with a long mouth. Sharp, meat-eater teeth were faintly visible along the mouth's front half. Its breath smelled of carrion.
"Rrowl!" the creature cried. "Rowl, rrowl!"
"Stay back, little one," I advised. "You are no match for me."
"Rrrowl!" A second pair of red pinpricks joined the first, synchronizing its call. Then a third stepped out of the adjoining tunnel, followed by fourth...
"Rowl! Rrowl!" The creatures streamed out of every branch ahead of me, drawn by the clamor of their kindred. A dozen of them pressed together. Combined light from their glowing eyes outlined the feathery crests running along the backs of their necks and their long, stiffly pointed tails. Their claws were shaped like sickles. Especially noticeable was the claw on the second toe of each foot - it was gigantic, held cocked in an upraised position. I've seen carving knives smaller than those claws.
I took a step back. The pack advanced. They eyed me in a tense, voracious manner. Individually, they were too small to be a danger, but the combined force of their numbers presented a threat. There were so many I couldn't attack them all with the Power, or even a majority of them. If I were to concentrate my energies on paralyzing some, the unaffected pack members would charge me en masse while I was distracted.
"Rowl! Rrowl!" Their call came from in back of me, now. Another wave of the little predators advanced through the tunnel where I'd just been. My avenue of retreat was cut off. I pressed my back to a flat wall while the hook-clawed beasts converged on every side.
Tired of what I'd been doing for the past decade, and uninterested in the day-to-day workings of the clan, I did not exercise the influence that I held as a Hierarchy member. The prospect of assassinating other hunters had lost its appeal. I went into semi-retirement, spending most of my time meditating and pursuing arts, especially the art of Ice sculpture. In due time, I became quite accomplished at reproducing still objects, such as Ming dynasty vases and jewelry boxes. But I couldn't accurately sculpt anything that lived. Plants were dull and wilted, animals sick and misshapen. Even when I worked directly from live models, something was wrong. My creations were nothing but crude lumps of frozen water. They lacked the appearance of life. Frustrated, I abandoned the aspiration to re-create my Ice dragon. I did not want to spoil her beautiful memory with some crass, twisted imitation.
In addition to crafting with the Power, I continued my usual daily regimen of practice in combat skills. Any Lin Kuei member had the right to challenge me for my Hierarchy title at any time, and I was not going to repeat Pyre's mistake of honing my Talent to the exclusion of all else. I half-expected Sektor to seek vengeance upon me, but never heard from him. A young upstart did challenge me once. He was fairly accomplished and showed potential. It was unfortunate that I had to kill him.
Visits to my family were infrequent. The only member I wanted to see was my brother. Though he did eventually start speaking to me again, he would only discuss pleasantries. His demeanor was cool. We resembled casual acquaintances more than brothers. When I offered to lift his confinement to the village in return for his promise not to study technology, he merely shook his head and walked away.
My position in the Lin Kuei meant that I could have any woman I chose, yet the only ones who showed interest were looking for wealth, or power. I found such gold-digging repellent, and the thought of marrying an unwilling woman was many times more repulsive. Furthermore, if I were to have children, they might inherit my Power and consequently be forced into the Lin Kuei - a fate that I would not wish upon my worst enemy.
I had the autonomy to do anything I wanted, yet there was nothing I particularly wanted to do. I'd spend days alone in Pyre's former chamber, on my intricately sculpted throne of Ice, brooding about the paradox. There was no purpose. Nothing mattered.
So passed two years.
Rather than attack with the Power, I used it defensively. Bringing my left hand up into guard position, I let my right hand down and sent the Power coursing through it. I'd been practicing shaping things with the Power for so long that I could direct its flow while keeping my attention on the pack of carnivores.
The foremost creature tried to snap its jaws on my leg. It was twice as large as the others; its burning eyes were in line with my own. I pivoted, chambering and driving my heel into its neck. It flew back with a squeal that was at least an octave deeper than the others' high-pitched cries. The rest of the pack pressed forward, but by then the Ice ramp I'd created was as tall as they and I was on top of it. High ground gave me an advantage, and the ramp's narrow slope forced them to attack one at a time. In between bouts of fending them off, I invested effort into elevating the ramp and making it steeper. They struggled to climb it, skidding on its slick surface while I maintained my balance with ease. After a few minutes most of the pack stopped trying, though they continued to stalk the ramp's base.
The creature I'd kicked in the neck wasn't giving up that easily. It dug its hooked claws into the ramp's surface, using them to gain purchase. Its muscled hind legs crouched and propelled it toward me; in midair, it twisted to bring the carving knife claws on its feet in line with my stomach. Springing forward to meet it, I snapped one foot after another in a double-hit front kick that connected solidly with its chest. It landed further down the Ice ramp and skidded to the bottom. I flipped backwards, alighting near the ramp's summit. The large creature righted itself and hissed.
A light source suddenly appeared from behind and above. It shined like daylight - real daylight, not the pounding red-orange haze of the bright circle in Limbo's sky. The glittering illumination revealed the greyish-brown color of the pack's dry skin, crisscrossed by asymmetrical black stripes on their necks, backs and tails. The pack blinked and shied away from the brightness, except for the one who had attacked me twice. He paced close to the ramp. When he turned, I noticed a long scar on his left hip, cutting across his stripes.
"You've been following the rays from my Sunstone, haven't you," mused a languid male voice with a rumbling cadence, from the same direction as the light. His breath smelled hot and foul. "Need any help, Sub-Zero?"
"No. How do you know my name?"
"News of the Tournament you participated in travels fast, even here. By the way, I couldn't help noticing your moves against that raptor. Not bad, but rather weak compared to what I've heard about you. Are you holding back?"
"I kill people, not animals."
"How noble." Sarcasm dripped from each word. "Unfortunately for you, the raptors have more flexible ethics. Food is scarce in the Maze, so whenever they find something too big to bring down, they pin it against a corner somewhere until it collapses from exhaustion and thirst. They'll take turns watching you, rotating in shifts for as long as they have to. They're quite intelligent, that way. But they taste simply awful. Too tough and stringy, definitely not worth the effort. See the scar on that alpha male? I put it there, and nearly lost a leg of my own in the process. That was the last time I tried to make a meal out of a healthy adult raptor.
"So, do you still want to stay down there with your toothy friends?"
"They are not my friends."
"Even if you do drive them off, which way would you go? The Maze has thousands of paths; you could search for days and never find Leucrotta Castle. You'd starve to death looking, unless you want to live on rats and cockroaches. Disgusting things. You can barely make a decent snack out of them, let alone a meal."
"Do you know the way out?"
"Of course."
"Tell me."
"First, would you do me the kindness of a face-to-face conversation? It really isn't very polite, keeping your back turned to someone when they're talking to you."
Though I was reluctant to take my eyes off the pack below, this Maze was a greater threat than they were. My hearing and sensitivity to air currents would warn me if the scarred creature attacked again, but nothing I'd tried had helped me navigate this seemingly endless network of corridors. I risked a glance over my shoulder, at the speaker.
A sphinx reclined on top of the stone wall that ran a meter above my head. He resembled a massive lion with the twisted mimicry of a human face. His thick fur was tawny yellow, contrasted against a dusky brown mane and matching tuft on his tail. Retractile claw-tips poked out from his toes. Tan, feathered wings longer than his lion-body folded against his sides. Each wing was attached to his back just below the shoulder joint. His face had distorted proportions; the nose poked far out, like a hawk beak, and the abnormally wide mouth was crammed with double rows of pointed canines. Underneath his neck sparkled a brilliant yellow jewel on an iron chain. I felt the presence of Power within its faceted depths. Someone had used a great deal of mystic energy to turn this gemstone into a solar storehouse.
My admiration of the gem was cut short when I made the mistake of looking into the sphinx's eyes. They flashed deep green, the color of moss rippling beneath a running stream. There were no corneas, only vertical slit pupils nestled in a sea of shimmering emerald. My limbs stiffened. Command of my muscles seeped away. Like a badly manipulated puppet, the controlling force made me turn fully around. Inside, I struggled furiously against the sphinx's hypnotic Power.
"Yes, that's better," he drooled. "Now, come on up here, where I can sink my teeth into you. All your fresh meat shouldn't go to waste on the raptors." My legs tensed as if to vault; I fought against the compelling urge. "What's taking so long? You're quite capable of making the leap."
"Nnngh-no." The strain of defying the sphinx's call sent involuntary shudders through my frame. Though I could speak, I could not look away from his mesmerizing gaze. It took everything I had to simply remain where I was.
"Don't be modest, I saw you jump an instant ago. You wouldn't be resisting my will, would you? You're not the first to try. Other humanoids have squirmed, cursed, spat in my face, or pleaded right up to the end. Guess what? They were all the more delicious for it." He stared harder. Sweat formed on my brow. Uncontrollable shaking wracked my limbs.
The sphinx frowned. "You are more stubborn than you look. At this rate, I may have to come down to where you are." The scarred raptor made an angry, squawking sound. "Except that I don't like the way your friend is looking at my leg."
"C-... coward!"
"Who, me? Just because I immobilize my prey before killing it? Isn't that what you do?" I could not deny that. "It's a very practical system. Spiders have been using it for millions of years. One more try. Come!"
I took a step forward, then stopped.
His mouth split wide in an irritated grimace. "Tell you what. I'll give you a sporting chance. If you can answer a riddle, I'll free you. I'll even show you the way to Leucrotta Castle. If you can't answer the riddle, your meat is mine." He licked his chops, smacking his lips noisily. "Here it is:
Most precious of treasures
Sealed in a long white box
Without lock or key
No lid to open
No clasp to close
What am I?"
end section three of part two Disclaimer: Mortal Kombat belongs to the creation of Ed Boone and John Tobias and the Midway team. The characters from Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, and Morrigan from Darkstalkers are likewise not created by either me or Victar. No part of this story may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, without express permission by Victar. I did not write this story, but I had permission to post this, so if you want to talk to him about the fanfiction, go to Victar's website.
