Chapter Eleven: Be the Hero

I was rudely awakened when my blankets were telekinetically pulled out from under me, dumping me onto the bare wooden floor. With a single blink, I was no longer soaring through the brilliant golden rooftops of Prospit's moon. I was back in the village of the whacked-out sentient cobra people.

Blinking and rubbing my eyes blearily, I looked up into the emerald-eyed gaze of a giant, man-sized red cobra. It was Glimmering Scales, the son of the clan chief. "Hey there, Scales," I grunted, picking myself up off the floor. "Want to invite me for a morning stroll? Could use a little company?"

"A morning sstroll, yess," Glimmering Scales's tongue flitted out of its mouth, tasting the air, and the cobra gave a faint grin. "But thiss iss not an invitation."

My wrists were jerked behind my back as Scales secured them with his telekinesis…but I found that when I concentrated on moving my hands, I was able to easily loosen the invisible grip. With a few seconds of work, I actually managed to break free. This wasn't the first time I'd managed this—I'd done the same thing in front of the council fire, but that had happened in a fit of anger, quite by accident. This was the first time I'd purposely broken free.

Glimmering Scales regarded me with surprise. "How can you do thiss, underling? You are not of my people."

"You ever consider the possibility that when I said I wasn't an underling…I just might have been telling the truth?"

Glimmering Scales's only response was a low, gravelly hiss—most likely his equivalent of an irritated harrumph. Without hesitation, a sword suddenly emerged from a sheath on Scales's back, glinting in the lamplight as it flew across the room and pressed itself against my throat. "I do have other meanss of perssuasion," Scales's faint grin did not waver.

I touched the tip of my index finger to the blade, gingerly pushed it away from my throat. "Cool, but unnecessary. I function better when the swords aren't in the general vicinity of my jugular," I said, wincing slightly as images of my Sprite's slit throat flashed through my mind. I'd gotten a little sick when the corpse of my dream self—which I still had no idea where it had come from, considering I just woke up from a dream in which my dream self was very much alive—had been dumped into my bedroom, but that had pretty much been it. But when Scales put that sword to my throat… I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself down.

Scales withdrew the sword, but he did not sheathe it. We emerged from the wigwam-like building, stepping and slithering, respectively, out into the crisp chill of the early morning. The indigo glow of the clouds that illuminated the night had faded away as a soft purple light began to seep into the eastern skies.

"You never ssee a dawn before, underling?" Glimmering Scales asked, seeing how I was staring at the morning light.

"Not one like this, no," I answered honestly. "But I'd be willing to bet that you've never seen one on a world with a blue sky and white clouds."

Scales gave another one of those low, gravelly hisses.

The two of us made our way to the edge of the village, where Burning Dusk awaited us with a large group of consorts—males, females, warriors, children; all kinds of people. "Why the crowd?" I asked the clan chieftain as we approached.

"The Trial of Legendss is no small affair," Burning Dusk replied. "Esspecially these dayss, it iss rare for people to attempt the Trial. Rare enough for each attempt to be a memorable occasion. There will be fesstivitiess at the Forbidden River until ssunsset tomorrow, which iss when you will undertake the Trial. There will then be a mourning period and funeral pyre after…" the clan chieftain's voice trailed off when he realized what he was saying. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Forgive me, I do not mean to imply that you will… Every Trial I have attended hass alwayss ended with the mourning and the funeral pyre…"

Sensing that his attempts to unsay his earlier slipup were causing more harm than help, Burning Dusk cleared his throat again and exchanged a nod with his son, slithering up to the front of the group. After a short while, we all set out, moving away from the village and forging ahead into the forest. We walked—well, I walked—for many hours before the forest started to thin out, falling away into an expanse of rolling hills and meadows.

When I'd looked out over the land from the balcony of my house, I'd spotted a mountain range in the far distance, snowcapped peaks trying to spear the veil of violet clouds. As I looked in the direction we were heading, I could see those very same mountains—not quite so distant as before, but certainly not within a day's travel.

I resigned myself to a long day of walking. We ended up making camp in the hills for the night, giving me the chance to have a somewhat uncomfortable sleep. I had an assortment of nuts, berries, and some kind of porridge for breakfast. Eating the porridge was a little annoying, because there were no spoons. These cobras did everything with their mouths, their bodies, and their minds; they had no hands. When I asked for a spoon, I was greeted with blank stares—they did not even know what spoons or forks were.

Then it was back to the trail…or whatever it was we were walking down. We'd been traveling down a wide gully with a bottom of smooth-ish rock. It seemed like a road, but I could tell that it was not manmade…or, I guess I should say snake-made… Christ, this is getting annoying.

I ended up asking Glimmering Scales if this road was manmade—the hell with it, I'm not going to rewrite my entire goddamn vocabulary just for these reptilian assholes—and he told me no, just like I'd thought.

"These are not roadss," the younger cobra explained. "They are riverbedss."

"Riverbeds?" I arched a quizzical eyebrow. "I thought all your rivers were in the sky."

"Yess, but they were not alwayss like that," Scales clarified. "They flowed across the earth until Hyperion arrived. It wass the mighty Denizen who threw the riverss to the sskiess."

"Okay, two questions; who the hell is this 'Hyperion' character that everyone keeps rambling on about, and why would he make all the rivers float?"

Glimmering Scales fixed me with a glare, his pupils narrowing slightly. "Assk ssomeone elsse; I am not your oracle."

And with that, Scales and I did not speak again for the rest of the morning. By noontime, the light of Skaia was at its brightest. The light drizzle of violet-tinted rain had started to intensify into a shower. I'd gotten wet a while ago, but the consorts seemed to live through the harder rain showers by telekinetically deflecting the raindrops that would have hit them otherwise. I wasn't entirely sure if they did this consciously or unconsciously—in a world of seemingly-eternal rain, telekinetically deflecting the raindrops was probably like breathing to these creatures. It was something I'd have to learn…

I mean, I've kind of figured that I have some sort of telekinesis swirling around in my head—the times I broke free from the consorts' mental grip, all the times when I'd killed underlings without laying a finger on them…that basilisk I'd somehow managed to slam down through the roof of my house…my survival of a drop of over a hundred feet…

Every time something strange like that had happened, I'd always been in the heat of a moment; be it a fight or a fit of anger.

The main difference between someone like the Knight and someone like his Consorts is the mind.

A Human lives with the dichotomy between thought and action, where action rests solely in the body or in the voice, and thoughts rest solely in the mind. Actions can be perceived by the senses, thoughts cannot.

Thought and action to a Human are closely related, but distinctly separate.

A Consort of LORAR lives with no such dichotomy. To the Telekinetic, thought and action can still be very separate things.

But they can also be one and the same. And therein lies the critical difference, which your Hero must resolve if he is to become a true-

I shook my head several times, tapping myself lightly on the temples. One moment I'd been thinking about the weird occasions when I may have shown signs of telekinesis, then suddenly my mind starts going haywire, spouting off these odd, random thoughts…

Suddenly, I heard the voice, the familiar voice I could never recognize… "Your memories are overlapping." I whipped my gaze over to the side, my breath catching in my throat as I caught sight of the shadowy figure of the Phantom, standing in the shade of a clump of trees. After a blink, however, it was gone.

"Are you sseeing ghosstss, now?" Glimmering Scales had seen my little fit, and was regarding me with wariness.

"I honestly don't know…" I answered.

"You should try making friendss with thiss ghost," Scales recommended. "After all, you will be joining it after the ssunsset."

"You really enjoy reminding me about that, don't you?"

"I enjoy sseeing underlingss ssquirm."

"…not a goddamn underling…" I growled under my breath, softly enough so that Scales would not be able to hear it. I'd given up trying to convince these people that I wasn't an underling, that I wasn't serving this 'Hyperion' dude—I'd just have to prove them wrong by passing the Trial of Legends, whatever the hell it was…

I couldn't help but feel somewhat—okay, extremely irritated at my whole predicament. I mean, I go through all the trouble of getting back home from the hospital with the world going to hell all around me, starting up Sburb and entering the session, fighting off God knows how many waves of clawed, sharp-toothed little shits… And when I finally make it to the nearest village of consorts, the creatures who apparently are supposed to fucking worship me…

Okay, I'm sorry, I should really stop swan-diving into that sea of self-pity that I've been splashing around in these past few days. I just…I haven't had a single break since that meteor obliterated the High School, except for last night, when I had a night to myself, confined to my room in the Big House of Clan Nathair's village. But that doesn't really count, because that was little more than me waiting until morning, when I would be taken to go do some trial that apparently I won't survive. I wouldn't call that a 'break'.

In fact, you know what? I think I've actually been handling my shit really well, considering all I've done in the way of lashing out was to snap at some old dickwad cobra who was incapable of calling me anything other than 'creature'. Points to me for not turning into a psycho…or at least, for not turning into a psycho quite yet.

I think it was still early to mid-afternoon by the time we arrived at the Forbidden River. The river itself, surprisingly, was a normal river. It flowed across the ground, winding its way into the distance, flowing towards the mountains that towered over the surrounding landscape. As I looked into the distance, I could see that there was a clump of giant peaks, much larger than the rest of the mountains. It was almost like someone had taken the Rocky Mountains and dropped a handful of Himalayas down in the middle.

The river that flowed across the earth, the Forbidden River, flowed from a giant, sparkling lake. And there were no less than eight large sky rivers pouring into it, like giant waterfalls. This filled the area with a perpetual, dull roar. With closer observation, I noted that there were an equal number of riverbeds that entered the basin in which the lake rested. Those eight sky rivers had flowed into this lake normally, once upon a time…and the lake, rather than overflowing, emptied out into the Forbidden River, flowing south towards the mountains.

On the western bank of the Forbidden River, not far from the lake, was a gathering of…well, I was going to say tents, but they're really more like teepees. Conical, made of hides from some unknown animal…yeah, they were teepees. There were hundreds of these temporary structures in a large, wheel-like formation on the western bank.

"We are the lasst clan to arrive, it would sseem," Glimmering Scales remarked, giving me what looked like a smile…but I knew that it was not a friendly smile. "Jusst as well; we would not want your Trial to be delayed another day, would we?"

"Yeah, that would really suck," I sighed, turning away so Scales could not see me rolling my eyes.

Within fifteen or twenty minutes, we were mingling with the hundreds of consorts who were already encamped at the Forbidden River. In Clan Nathair, the consorts had scales of varying shades of purple, red, and deep orange. Here in this camp, though, I also saw cobras with scales of light green and yellow.

"Who are all these people?" I asked, gesturing all around us.

"They are of the other eleven clanss of the Wesstern Firess," Glimmering Scales explained. "Clan Naja, Clan Atra, Clan Niivea, Clan Ashei; we are the lasst of the free clanss—those of the Northern Firess and the Desert Firess have long ssince fallen into Hyperion'ss conquesst. They are sslavess."

"They're all here for me?"

"Like my father ssaid—the Trial of Legendss is no ssmall affair," Scales reiterated. "In the olden dayss, before Hyperion'ss conquesst, attemptss to undertake the Trial of Legendss would draw crowdss of thousandss, from all over the planet."

I was escorted into a large, amber teepee situated in the center of camp. This seemed to be the place where the one undertaking the Trial would be prepared. All the other members of Clan Nathair had gone on to their part of the camp, setting up their shelters swiftly so that they could join in the festivities. Burning Dusk and Glimmering Scales, however, lingered at my teepee for a moment.

"You will remain here until sunset, at which time my son will fetch you," Burning Dusk said to me. "Usse this time to prepare yourself, in whatever way you ssee fit. I pray, for your ssake, that you are indeed the Knight of legend."

"Can I ask for just one favor?" I asked.

Burning Dusk hesitated, having been on the verge of turning to slither back outside. "What ssort of favor?"

"Knock me unconscious."

Burning Dusk frowned. "Pardon?"

"You heard me. I need to go to sleep for a short while, but I'll never be able to fall asleep naturally, so…"

"It would be my pleasure, underling," was the last thing I heard Glimmering Scales say, cutting me off midsentence before I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. Next thing I knew, I was snapping up in bed, back in my dream room on Prospit's moon. The pain in the back of my head remained, leaving me with a spot that was tender to the touch, and a dull headache.

But the ache was more than bearable—as I've said before, I've always felt so much more awake and energized when I dreamed on the golden moon. My mind always felt clearer in my dreams.

My dream tower had four windows—one on each side of my room. I hopped out of bed and walked over to the window facing Skaia, looking out over the golden moon, up into the bluish-white radiance in the sky. I squinted, trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of anything in Skaia's clouds, but the moon was nowhere near close enough to Skaia for me to see its clouds.

I was suddenly gripped by a very strong urge to step out into the sky and fly up and away, soaring over the rooftops of the golden moon as I'd done so many times already…but I took a deep breath and repressed the urge. Yeah, I always felt clearer and more lucid when I dreamed on Prospit, but I was also a lot more carefree and spontaneous than I was while awake...which was a fancy way of saying that sometimes I tended to act like a fucking idiot when I was dreaming. Fitting for a dream self, I suppose.

But then that kind of begged the question…who was I really? Unlike most people, my dreams are actually real. It's not like I retreat into my mind every time I fall asleep like a normal person—Prospit is a real place within this session. I ambled over to the opposite window and looked out into the darkness, knowing that my waking self was out there, somewhere, lying unconscious in a teepee. Whether I'm awake or on Prospit, I'm still me, I retain all my memories and identity…but I could see subtle differences in my personality as my dream self and my personality as my waking self. So is it possible that I exist as two different people, as strange as that sounds?

Bleh, there I go again, rambling on and on about boring, philosophical shit. Fuck, I get so easily distracted when I dream…

I stepped away from the window and headed over to my desk. My dream room was almost an exact replica of my actual room. It had the same bed, carpet, nightstand, lamp, alarm clock, the same desk…and the same computer.

My dream computer was already on. I opened up PalHassle and checked to see who was online. I saw that Gwen was on, but I had nothing really to say to her—we never spoke much, anyway. Theo had been on recently, but he'd signed off just nine minutes ago. "Damn…" I muttered to myself. I hadn't spoken with Theo since before I entered the session, and I kind of missed the guy.

I scrolled down towards the bottom of my friend list, doing my best to ignore the dozens of signed-off screen names of people I'd known at school and from community theatre…accounts that would never be used again. I gave a quick sigh of relief when I saw that Cass was online, double-clicking her screen name.

-anomalousThespian began hassling certifiedGoddess-

AT: hey, cass?
AT: please please please answer
CG: Hey, what's the matter?
AT: oh fuck, thank you so much for being online right now.
CG: Yeah, you're kind of catching me at just the right time.
CG: I'm dreaming on Derse, at the moment… I think I might even be dead.
CG: My waking self, I mean…
AT: …?
CG: I don't know.
CG: I made it through my first gate yesterday
CG: *Thanks for building my house up, by the way
CG: and I end up running straight into a group of liches.
CG: You know, those weird underlings with skulls for heads?
CG: I was running from a big swarm of imps and ogres when I ran into these liches.
CG: I remember killing two of them, but one of them must've gotten me from behind, because the next thing I knew I was waking up on Derse again without knowing how I fell asleep.
AT: you're not dead, cass.
CG: You weren't there. How can you know?
AT: let's just say a cloud told me.
AT: anyway
AT: sorry, i don't want to be an asshole, but i don't exactly have a lot of time.
CG: Uh, okay…
CG: You seem pretty wound-up right now.
AT: haha, do I?
AT: do i seem a little WOUND UP right now?
AT: well, that's one way of putting it…
AT: i don't really know how to ask this without sounding like an idiot, but…
AT: cass, i think i have superpowers.
CG: …
AT: i know, i know, it sounds like crazy talk, but i'm dead serious.
AT: i'm pretty sure i can move shit with my mind.
AT: i've killed imps without laying a finger on them, i survived a fall i shouldn't have
AT: i even killed an ogre with fire from my fists.
AT: yeah.
AT: this ogre was about to kill me, and I conjured fire out of my fucking fists.
AT: i went all prince zuko on that bitch.
AT: am i going crazy?
CG: Uh…of course you have powers.
CG: We all do.
CG: You didn't already know this?
AT: um…where exactly did you learn all this shit from?
CG: My sprite told me.
AT: exactly.
AT: while your sprite was being all helpful and shit, my sprite went nuts and tried to fucking kill me.
AT: so would you mind filling the knowledge gaps, here?
CG: Cruz told me about your meeting with the White Queen, I just assumed that she explained this kind of thing to you.
AT: no, she just spouted some bullshit about the significance of journeys, or some other garbage.
CG: All eight of us have our own unique powers that tie in with our hero roles.
CG: For example, my sprite told me that my title was the Sylph of Death.
CG: I'm supposed to be able to heal with death, or heal the dead, or something like that.
CG: You're the Knight of Force, so you'll have some kind of...forcey powers.
CG: From what you've described, you seem to possess telekinesis…as well as the ability to conjure and command fire, though I'm not entirely sure how that relates to Force…
CG: Our powers begin to manifest as soon as we enter the session.
CG: You've only experienced these phenomena during fights?
AT: yeah.
CG: It's because our minds aren't used to manipulating our Aspects, after having grown up our entire lives with our powers remaining dormant.
CG: When we enter our session, the barrier between our mind and our Aspect begins to crumble.
CG: At first, our powers only manifest in times of extreme stress or emotional duress
CG: *Usually during a fight-
CG: But in time, you'll learn to invoke them at will, when you see that they have been there all along.
AT: Damn, you know a lot of shit.
CG: Some from my sprite, some from Gwen. She's discovering her Aspect, too—she already knows almost as much about this game as my sprite.
AT: okay, thanks…
AT: sorry if i was acting douche, i'm just under a fuckton of pressure, right now…
AT: my own goddamn consorts decided to-

-anomalousThespian is no longer hassling certifiedGoddess-

I spluttered as I suddenly woke up with water falling onto my face. I covered my eyes and rolled over onto my side, getting away from the miniature deluge.

My desk and computer were gone, as well as my dream room. I was back.

"Get up, underling," Glimmering Scales hissed. He lowered the bucket of water he'd been emptying onto my face onto the ground. "It iss time. Lasst chance to ssay your prayerss."

"I'll pass, thanks," I yawned, climbing up to my feet. I didn't bother wiping the water off my face—I could hear the rain striking the outside of the teepee, and it sounded like it was coming down pretty hard. Even if I wiped my face, it would just get soaked again within seconds.

I stepped out of the teepee and into the rain, squinting up into the violet clouds. Skaia's light was shining brightly in the western sky, creating a purple-red sunset, and the clouds' nighttime luminosity was beginning to show.

I was surprised to find the combined camp of the twelve clans completely silent. The only noise was that of the rainfall, and the quiet roar of the eight sky rivers falling into the lake from which the Forbidden River flowed. It seemed that all of the consorts present had gathered on either side of the path that ran straight from my teepee towards the shore of the Forbidden River. I felt like someone walking past two walls of guards toward a King, seated at the far end of a long chamber. As I passed between the two lines of cobras, the ones I passed by broke their line and slithered after me.

By the time I came within sight of the Trial of Legends, right on the bank of the Forbidden River, I had a sizable mob of cobras following me. My clothes were soaked, as was my hair. It didn't seem very long normally, but wavy hair always appears shorter than it really is, except when it gets wet—I had to keep brushing wet strands of hair out of my eyes every so often.

I was doing this, pushing my wet hair from my eyes, when I finally saw what the Trial of Legends was. The lines of cobras ran all the way down to the bank of the river, to what appeared to be a tall ladder with shiny metal rungs. The rungs were not full rungs—they did not extend from one post to the other. Instead, the rungs alternated, protruding from the left post, then the right post, then the left, and so on until the very top, where there rested a wide stone platform.

Was that the Trial? Did I just have to climb a dumb ladder to make these cobras stop doubting me? I mean, sure, the ladder was pretty tall—at least a hundred feet, with rungs every two or so feet. Maybe two hundred rungs… Yeah, it was a tall climb, but certainly not impossible. Perhaps the consorts had been failing so miserably at it because cobras lacked hands and feet.

And that's when I got close enough to the tall ladder to see that its rungs were not mere metal rungs…they were blades. Razor sharp metal blades, protruding from the two thick, wooden posts. They gleamed in the sunset light, almost daring me to climb them. All too swiftly, my earlier relief dissipated, replaced with a noticeably increased breathing rate.

"Oh, shit…" I murmured. "Shit, shit, shit, fuck…"

I slid my hand under my shirt, clasping the amber pendant that my Sprite had placed around my neck, considering summoning the psychotic spirit guide, but ultimately decided against it. Call it trust issues, if you want—I'm sure my Sprite would need a little more time before he'd be able to not lose his shit around me. And I had no way of contacting Cass, Cruz, Theo, or anyone else. I was alone.

Burning Dusk was waiting for me in front of the ladder. He slid aside as I stepped up to the ladder of blades, and all the gathered cobras closest to the death trap drew back.

"Climb the Knight'ss Ladder and prove yoursself a hero of legend," Burning Dusk commanded. "Touch only the rungss. If you touch the posstss, you forfeit your life. If you give up your Trial, you alsso forfeit your life. May your flame never waver."

I stood there, looking up at the hundred-foot ladder and the stone platform at the top, breathing heavily as the rain slowly intensified, soaking my shirt and pants completely. That just made me more miserable—there's not much in this universe that I hated more than wet boxers.

How was I supposed to climb this thing without getting sliced up? I touched the rung at my shoulder height, feeling the edge of the blade. It was wickedly sharp, and I could tell that it would draw blood if I pressed on it.

This Trial was designed to prove the identity of the Knight of Force, so it had to be something that only the Knight of Force could accomplish. I think that, despite their telekinetic prowess, the cobra consorts were incapable of swinging themselves up on these blade rungs. They would not be able to coil up the posts, either, as touching the posts would 'disqualify' them from the Trial. And if they tried to slither from blade to blade, they'd get sliced to pieces.

No, you need hands and feet to climb a ladder…but I'm the only Human with telekinetic powers, which made me unique as the Knight. This Trial was something only a Human with telekinesis could conquer. A combination of body and mind. I took a deep breath, reaching towards the ladder, only to be stopped by Burning Dusk.

"Wait," the chieftain of Clan Nathair commanded. "You musst complete thiss Trial with only the ressources of your own body. You are wearing foot protection—remove it."

He was talking about my shoes. The fucktards wanted me to climb this sword ladder without any shoes. Now, I'd be constantly resting my weight on a sharp blade edge, no matter where I was on the ladder… Maybe it didn't really matter all that much—the blade rungs probably would have sheared right through the soles of my shoes, anyway…but still.

I took off my shoes and socks, as I was ordered. Thankfully, the cobras did not want me to take anything else off—that would have been slightly awkward. I faced the sword ladder once again, taking another deep breath. "I can do this…" I breathed to myself. "You got this…you can do this…you can—Fuck!"

Feeling like it was the right time to try the ladder, I tried to grab the first rung. I'd just barely placed my hand over it when a burst of pain suddenly lanced through my arm. I withdrew my hand, which was already beginning to bleed profusely from the cut across the palm. I took another few deep breaths.

I was beginning to notice a strange feeling within me. It was a curious feeling, because it felt very familiar… It almost reminded me of that ringing noise you hear when you're in a silent room—that sound never goes away, it is always there…but you can only hear it in silent rooms, because the normal sounds of life are more than enough to drown it out.

With this strange sensation, I finally realized that it was the same feeling I got every time I was angry or panicked, or afraid. And when I wasn't in a moment of emotional stress, the feeling did not go away, it was still there…just much harder to notice. It faded away into the background of my mind.

I placed my as-of-yet uninjured left hand on the rung above the last one I'd attempted to climb, and I tried to slowly pull myself up so that I could rest my foot on a lower rung, towards the ground, but it was no use. I could already feel the skin on my palm starting to tear as I increased the pressure, so I pulled away. "This is impossible…" I breathed. "This is fucking impossible…"

Burning Dusk started towards me. "If you yield the Trial, your life iss-"

"Get the hell away from me!" I snapped at the maroon cobra in a surge of frustration. I was going about this the wrong way… I'd been trying to climb it with just my hands and feet, but any one of my other friends would be able to do the same. No, this was a trial designed specifically and solely for me, for someone with telekinesis…

I decided to close my eyes, and I concentrated hard… I imagined my hands and feet were made of metal, that I was wearing gloves and socks made of some impenetrable substance. I focused on that weird feeling in my mind, and I let it flow and expand to the furthest reaches of my body, until I felt like I was glowing with a faint, amber aura of energy.

Is this the real life…

Is this just fantasy…

Almost as if there was an earbud installed in my brain, I started humming and singing Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in my mind. Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. My concentration did not waver, but I felt myself stepping onto something cold. I had the feeling that I was climbing, grabbing at handholds that, like with my feet, felt cold to the touch.

…put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead…

I couldn't really tell how fast I was moving—I was too focused on Bohemian Rhapsody, too focused on maintaining the rhythm and routine of my body's movements to notice very much of what was happening around me.

…shivers down my spine, body's achin' all the time… Goodbye, everybody…

I think the rain was getting harder. I heard a soft clap of thunder in the distance, and I still felt the coolness of the rainwater that had soaked my clothes through. I briefly wondered how the sword ladder wasn't slippery at all in the rain, but I immediately banished the thought—thinking about the sword ladder nearly made my concentration waver.

...I don't want to die, I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all...

Just as I started getting into the crazy middle section of the song, I felt a shift of surfaces underneath my feet. Before, I'd felt like I was stepping on small ladder rungs made of ice, but now I was standing on something much more solid.

Stone.

My eyes opened slowly to a view of the hills east of the Forbidden River. I couldn't see very far—the heavy rainfall obscured everything in the distance with a grayish-purple haze. I was standing on a stone platform.

I looked down at myself and saw that I was glowing. There was a dim, but strong amber glow all about me, almost as if my very skin was shining. Then I realized that I was looking down from the top of the sword ladder. I was on the stone platform at the very top.

I'd just climbed the sword ladder. I'd done it.

How the hell had I done that?

I looked at my palms, but they were unblemished—save for the cut on my right hand made by that first rung. My feet were likewise uninjured. Had those powers Cass had been talking about…had they protected me? Is this the kind of shit I can do as the Knight of Force?

I noticed that I could now feel that odd sensation I'd felt as I started to climb the Knight's Ladder, and it did not feel so odd, anymore. I don't think it had changed at all, actually…right now, I just seemed to be able to notice it a lot more than I normally did.

I had no way to be sure, but I think that, if I concentrated hard enough, I'd be able to use my powers again. This was the first time I actually fully believed the fact that I had some kind of telekinesis—before, I'd only been partially convinced, more confused than anything. I just wanted answers…then I refused to completely accept the answers that I was given. That is, until I ended up in a situation where I was forced to spark my semi-dormant powers, and I quite literally saw for myself what I was capable of.

As I looked down to the ground, I saw the hundreds of consorts gathered around the Knight's Ladder. While the cobras spent most of their waking hours with their necks and heads reared up, almost like they were standing up, all of the gathered consorts had lowered their heads to the ground. I think they were bowing to me.

I took another deep breath and, as if I was in a trance, stepped forward, off the edge of the platform. I plunged through the rain for a few brief moments before I concentrated on that 'Forcey' feeling within my mind.

Now I knew what that feeling reminded me of; it reminded me of a muscle. It felt like I had a muscle in my mind, now, and when I used the telekinesis of the Force Aspect to arrest my fall before I hit the ground, it was like I was 'flexing' this muscle. And as I 'flexed' it, my faint, golden-amber aura flared brightly for a second before subsiding.

Burning Dusk and Glimmering Scales were the only ones who had not bowed down yet, but the chieftain of Clan Nathair did so when I touched down to the ground. I stepped forward, raising an eyebrow at the red cobra. "Can underlings do that?" I asked.

Glimmering Scales tasted the air and blinked, his slit-shaped pupils relaxing into a more oval shape. I saw something new in his eyes, then…could it possibly be a grudging respect? Disbelief, perhaps? Then he, too, lowered his head to the ground. "Knight," he hissed.

I found that I was smiling. Finally, at long last…something was going right for me. I wouldn't be getting any more trouble from my own consorts. But I knew that was just the beginning… There were still entire swarms of underlings out there that needed to be dealt with, and I had to get started on familiarizing myself with my Aspect. I'd compared it to a muscle, and muscles need exercise to grow stronger.

"I'm just a poor boy, everybody loves me…" I chuckled.