Chapter 48: Phantasmal Parlay

Perspective: Destiny


The twilight sun pulsed down from the West, and with no breeze, Destiny felt like a slug under salt as she lay down in the mouth of the old portal, trying to fall asleep. She blamed the sun - it just wouldn't let her sleep on things. She was exhausted. She'd barely slept since the Prophet's Hill - since they lost - yet somehow the sun had decided she wasn't allowed to sleep because it sucked and was terrible.

She couldn't even get drunk enough to fall asleep like she had on other nights since. The heat made the beer sit horribly in her stomach no matter how much ice she materialised into it - like the yeast was cooking into bread inside her. She might have thrown up if she wasn't so damned stubborn.

The sun was also ruining the memory of other relaxation sessions. Various bottles were piled up around the portal and they burned gold in the sunlight. Destiny couldn't look at them without tearing up, and even when she closed her eyes the reflected light turned the sightless void a disconcerting blood red.

She'd tried to fall asleep with her eyes scrunched shut a few times, but she kept remembering how, in an old adventure novel she'd once read, a character passed out in a desert, face-up, and the sun cooked his eyes like eggs even though he was asleep. Even more than the physical discomfort, this kept her from drifting off.

Every now and then she'd work up the energy to puff out a glacial cloud of air which would rise a foot or two in the air before collapsing back down on top of her. Of course, she also felt the same strange warmth she always felt when summoning ice, so it was barely a relief - in fact, for a couple seconds she would feel as though she'd just broken out in a cold sweat - but it provided a welcome break from the smothering effect of the sun and made her feel as though she were putting up a fight against her burning tormentor.

"We both know it's a terrible thing," Anya muttered as she paced back and forth.

Destiny flicked her eyes in her past-self's direction.

"Yeah," she muttered. "A terrible thing."

She glared furtively at the sun before casting her eyes back to Anya. She knew they weren't talking about the same thing, but they also were. Anya was worried about Freak's offer, and Destiny was annoyed that the sun was distracting her from thinking about Freak's offer.

"Freak has done a lot of awful stuff but… what choice do we have?" Anya asked. "If he wants to help take down the Entity, we have to trust him."

"Yeah, we'll trust the guy who tortured Tyron because he laid some flowers on an imaginary grave and said, 'I swear I'm not that evil'," grunted Destiny.

"He also helped out the kid, I thought you said," Anya pressed.

"Warnado mentioned Freak. Didn't go into much detail… He seemed pretty upset. I told you what Glibby did to," she suppressed a belch, "To Fristad. He saw that first-hand. Like I said, he seemed pretty shaken up."

Anya cursed under her breath.

"You come to a conclusion or not?"

"About what?" Destiny with an obtuse smile that quickly subsided.

Anya pressed her palms to her eyebrows.

"I hate you when you're drunk," said Anya.

"I'm not drunk!"

Destiny stood up, indignant, but her legs faltered unhelpfully, and she had to catch her balance.

"See, dry as a desert," she said without conviction.

"You've had six bottles since you got here and I'm going to wager you've only eaten like two slices of bread in the last two days. You're not sober."

Destiny sighed and wandered around for a spot where the bottles wouldn't blind her quite so much. Anya was unaffected by the light, standing out clear as day between the golden infernos. Destiny's past-self marched up and leaned in close.

"Now, listen here, I've been real patient with you the last while because you've been in mourning. And so have your bosses, which is why they let you disappear for hours at a time when you should be helping plan. We were getting better after David, then your little friend the shepherd went and died, and you went back to square one. Except you weren't drinking after David - that's beside the point. People need you on point, I need you on point."

"What are you, my mother-"

Anya ignored this and cut across.

"That creep gave you a phone, and you need to know if you're answering when it rings! Let me see it."

Destiny rummaged reluctantly in her pocket and pulled out the small, yellow crystal. No bigger than a fingernail. Perfect for a ring or broach pin and that was probably what Freak had planned for. She hadn't had the time or energy to put it in anything, though. She'd been spooked when Jennifer noticed it and had barely had the nerve to take it out since then.

Destiny held out the crystal in her palm.

"Well," Anya said. "What's your decision? Are you taking his help or not? Is he a useful ally or is this a trap?"

Without realising it, Destiny's eyes had locked gazes with Anya's, and now they drifted back to the crystal. Freak said it would glow if he got any news. It was still dull.

Could she trust this cruel little phantom? Even the way he'd gotten her attention was emphatically evil. Indril didn't need to die. Then again, was Freak just keeping up appearances? Was he supposed to be there at all? Was he lying?

She remembered the withering flowers, the dying world she had briefly glimpsed. Was that real? Could the Entity be that cruel? Certainly, it was a collector, like Freak had said. What would it do when it finally had everything that interested it? It would first be a tyrannical god over all, but would it then become a bored god? She couldn't decide which would be worse.

But then she remembered the way Freak's claws dug into her side as they tried to escape. How he'd grinned when he hurt her before vanishing from sight. The blood. That was a bastard through and through.

In this surge of anger, she chucked the crystal at the ground. Despite her best efforts, it didn't shatter and bounced off towards a pile of bottles.

"Screw this!" she yelled. "Not my problem!"

She marched off towards her satchel, fully planning on marching off.

"Hah!" barked Anya. "I give you two right answers and you still somehow choose the wrong one! At least come back here with someone willing to give an answer, you - you coward!"

Destiny whirled around.

"You crazy? It could be a trap, this question dies by this portal!"

"I thought it wasn't your problem."

Destiny breathed deeply.

"Sorry," she conceded.

"Sounds like you've come to a conclusion, let's hear it."

"I take the call, but I don't tell anyone else. This is on my head. I'm a hero, I came here to stop whatever evil was going on, and the Entity is that evil. I will kill it at any cost, and hopefully Freak will help me do it."

Anya came in and offered one of her ethereal hugs.

"That's good," she whispered. "Because the call's come in."

Destiny slowly turned her head. A cloud had crossed paths with the sun, and the bottles weren't glowing quite so much. She could see the yellow crystal slowing pulsing away.

Destiny walked over so haltingly she might as well have been limping, a bear-trap around her ankle. Finally, the crystal was throbbing between her fingers. She squeezed it.

Suddenly, she felt herself rooted to the spot, and a series of yellow lines surged into viewing, eventually crisscrossing and coalescing into a transparent image of Freak. He looked around.

"Hello Destiny," he said with surprising formality. "And friend."

"You can see Anya?" said Destiny with considerable surprise.

She and Anya exchanged a glance. Her past self kept obstinately silent but seemed similarly confused.

"Yeah, it's a mental connection. Unimportant. I've learned something important."

"Go - go ahead," said Destiny.

"Just earlier, and by earlier, I mean a couple of minutes ago, I was having a look at what the 'hunter' riding your leader's body around was doing. Turns out he fancies himself a bit of a scientist and talked to our main science lady. And guess what? After too much dry talk, he tells her that apparently your wonder mage and the Entity are similar in some manner. Not just that, they also thought that the crystals could be used to build a weapon to harm her. One problem with that though, if it harms her, it harms the big grey boss too, so they quickly stopped. Boring if you ask me, what evil scientists skip the opportunity to build a weapon that could kill their own boss? The two even went out of their way to acknowledge it! Where's the drama, the sudden twist? Anyways, crystals."

"Yes, crystals," said Destiny slowly. "But what do you want from me?"

The image of Freak continued: "I just want you to keep an eye out, you might know where to find a crystal or two. It would make sense for you rebels to collect our main strategic resource, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," she said carefully. "Of course, we have. It's just about getting access to some. I'll work on it."

Her heartbeat increased a little and Anya visibly bit her tongue. That was about the only thing they hadn't been stockpiling. It just hadn't occurred to gather them - not that they knew where to find them. Maybe she could mention it to Kay. Otherwise, she might have to have a very cautious discussion with Steve or Jennifer - the only person who suspected something was up.

"Great," Freak said a little too smugly. "Talk soon."

His image faded and she was left with a dull crystal and a world full of concerns. But she was a hero. She would pull through.

"You'll get through this," Anya said redundantly. "If you get your shit together."

Destiny nodded, then hurled a fireball at her satchel, destroying everything within.

"Cold turkey," said Destiny.

"Yeah, I was just going to suggest you tried to drink more responsibly but that works too."

"It's going to suck," Destiny said, scrunching her eyes shut. "But I will do it. I have to do it."

"For David," said Anya.

"For David," repeated Destiny.

With that, the cloud moved, and the sun cascaded down anew. The golden inferno of the bottles returned. Destiny scrunched her eyes and marched towards the sun. She felt sick with every step.