Chapter Seventy-Five: Kissing Cass Galavis

"You're no knockoff," Cass whispered to me.

My eyes closed and we finally kissed.

I've waited a long time for this kiss.

Cass and I have been casual friends for a couple years, now. Might not seem so long to other people, but for me it has felt like a century. Memories of every conversation I've shared with her still stand out in stark detail. Especially the awkward ones.

It's an agonizing feeling - loving someone without knowing how to say so. And while also being part bird...a fact I really don't know how Cass is overlooking.

I can't offer relationship advice to anyone. Good advice is given from experience. In my experience, one way to get the girl you like to kiss you is to die, get revived as a not-quite-sane energy creature, and accompany her on a quest through a land filled with Dwarves.

Not very helpful advice, I'm quite aware.

And yet… Perhaps I can offer another piece of advice. You just might surprise yourself.

Kissing Cass (on the mouth!), as I said, is something I've wanted for a long time. But it's always been like a far-off dream. An idea, forged in the mind of a horny teenager. Nothing truly substantial about it. All in my head. For all my feelings, I suppose I never truly believed I'd ever get the chance to bring this idea into reality.

You just might surprise yourself.

Well, I certainly surprised myself. Not only am I finally getting that kiss, but I am getting it while lying on a warm beach. Life could not get any better than this. I kept my eyes blissfully closed, willing this moment to last forever.

It did not.

I was startled back to reality by a deafening explosion startled me. The kiss ended abruptly. More explosions followed - they were not stopping..

Cass gasped and pulled away.

My eyes flew open to a hellish sight. The sky was ablaze with streaks of fiery red light. They reminded me of Star Wars battle sequences; a thunderous hail of deadly laserfire. As I overcame my initial shock, I realized that I was witnessing precisely that: a thunderous hail of deadly laserfire.

Behind me, Tyrene burned. Tendrils of smoke were already rising from the city, and I could hear screaming. Elsewhere on this beach, Dwarves were hurrying away from the water, fleeing their fishing boats, trying to reach the city. Some made it, some did not. The harbor quickly caught fire, and the smell of burnt fish soon took to the winds.

Cass was shouting. She was looking up at the sky, her gaze fixated on the laserfire.

Some of the projectiles were larger than others - the larger ones shined more brightly, and they caused much deadlier explosions upon impact. These were the artillery shots. The smaller laser bolts did not cause explosions - they did, however, cut straight through any surface they came into contact with. The primarily wood and stone dwellings of Tyrene had no defense against them.

Watching the laser barrage sparked memories from before my death. I suddenly remembered Prospit burning, its golden towers torn down, its streets disfigured by craters. Smoke everywhere, stinging the eyes, suffocating the throat. Prospitian soldiers were running past me, forging on ahead into the smoke, their sergeants and lieutenants hollering orders. And up in the sky? That very same laserfire.

I've seen it before.

"No fucking way…" I murmur under my breath, making the connection. No fucking way my kiss got interrupted by these fuckers...

I was going to have stern words with the Black Queen over this. Very stern words.

A purple ship emerged from the storm clouds. It was large, though not quite so large as some of the battleships I've seen - significantly smaller, in fact. That would make it a frigate, or a destroyer - I always get the two mixed up. The ship was moving from south to north, several miles off the coast, presenting its starboard side to Tyrene. Every last cannon in the ship's starboard battery was ablaze, firing bolt after bolt across the ocean at the city.

Derse was here.

At first, panic threatens to coil in my chest, but then it subsides into an almost startling sense of calmness. I knew that I need not focus on anything beyond getting Cass the hell off this beach. Staying put, above all other things, was not an option. The Eagle was already soaring back into my conscious mind from its alpine home in the snowier regions of my imagination. The imminent danger had manifested as thunderclouds howling at the Eagle's nest in the mountains, alerting the avian consciousness of my plight.

Still in shock, Cass started asking, "Why is Derse's Navy-?"

"I don't know." I interrupted, my face flushing as the Eagle's reflexes took hold, the sprite-equivalent of adrenaline beginning to course through my body. "Probably to kill you. C'mon, we gotta go." I wrapped my arms around Cass's torso, spread my wings, and took to the skies in two powerful wingbeats. I flew over the city walls and banked towards the Merchant Quarter. I had to link up with the other sprites - that alone would increase our chances of escaping Tyrene with our lives.

The streets were filled with fleeing Dwarves. Corpses, too. Consorts were getting crushed by falling masonry, vaporized by impact from the laser bolts, torn to ribbons by the explosions. Blood was flowing, sickeningly unimpeded, through the troughs on the sides of the roads.

Nausea clenched at my stomach. I turned my gaze away from the streets below. The veil of smoke settling over the burning city was gradually thickening, inducing potentially hazardous fits of coughing. Twice, I was nearly struck by a laser bolt - on the second occasion, the energy beam actually singed several of my wing feathers.

"Adam, put me down!" Cass yelled. "We have to help them!"

"How?" I shouted back. "Carry them all?"

"I don't know, but we have to do something! They're my consorts!"

"Cass, I'm not—agh!"

Pain tore through the left side of my abdomen. My wings faltered and I plummeted towards the streets below. The Eagle's reflexes swelled, taking control of my flight. The Eagle threw itself into a short corkscrew, turning me face-up, shielding Cass from the impact. I regained enough control to look down, over my shoulder, and saw a tiled roof whooshing up to greet me.

Before my vision faded to black, I felt myself reaching out my arm. A bright conflagration erupting from my hand.

I blacked out before the crash.

I spend an indeterminate amount of time swimming through a hazy dream. I move through this dream as would a sleepwalker. All I hear is humming, distorted voices; all I see are blurred colors, impressions of shapes. But then the humming fades, the colors subside, and I return to consciousness.

My eyes flew open.

The pain I'd felt in the left of my abdomen was still there, now a mild throb. I looked down to inspect it and saw a ragged hole in my torso, large enough for me to fit almost two fingers side by side. Luminescent, cherry-red sprite 'blood' oozed from the wound. It had to have been one of the smaller laser bolts. If I'd been hit by one of the larger artillery projectiles, pleasant memories would have been all that remained of me.

At first I was puzzled as to why I wasn't screaming in pain. But then I remembered - I'm still part Knight. I can get sliced up within an inch of my life, and I can still keep on going.

All the same, that didn't make me immune to dying. I needed to get this healed pronto.

I regain my bearings.

Cass was lying next to me, motionless. I could see her chest rising and falling, so I knew she was merely unconscious.

We were surrounded by broken timber and shattered terracotta tiles. The debris was charred, still smoldering. I looked around and observed that we are in what appeared to be a child's bedroom. The bed was overturned, the rug burned half away. Daylight was shining on us through the gaping hole in the ceiling I'd just created.

Outside, I no longer heard explosions. Instead, those explosions had been replaced with small-arms fire. I recognized the loud, hissing pulse rifle discharges from my time spent fighting the Dersite Army in Skaia, alongside Theo. It's not exactly a sound I could forget. Hearing that sound meant the Dersite ship must have landed ground troops. As I continued to listen, I made out carapacian voices shouting orders to each other in the streets below.

Carapacian voices sound...different from ours. A little more mechanical, almost. Artificial. It's difficult to describe, yet easy to distinguish. The voices I hear are most definitely carapacian. I did not want them finding me.

Time to go.

I tred to wake Cass, but she didn't respond. I then noticed a massive bruise on the side of her forehead - she was probably concussed. That meant her being unconscious was actually life-threatening, but I didn't know how to revive her. Coming to a snap decision, I held out a hand, invoked Force, and levitated Cass's body, draping her onto my back. I took hold of her arms and wrapped them around my upper chest, made sure they wouldn't slip up to my neck and strangle me mid-flight.

Then I launched myself out through the hole in the ceiling. My wings flared and I shot straight up into the sky. I climbed and climbed, my wings beating firmly, rapidly gaining altitude, carrying me far from range of any Dersite troops who may have spotted me. If I got shot again, it was game over. No way I could continue to carry Cass with a second wound. Not when the first wound was already giving me trouble.

I set my jaw and leveled out, pointing myself east. The Dersite naval vessel still loomed in the sky, raining laserfire down on Tyrene. Thankfully, it neither pursued nor even seemed to take notice of me. That would have been slightly problematic.

I chose to stop looking back.

Gwen Twymann's fingers struggled to keep up with her thoughts.

She was lying on her back, rearranging the insides of a gutted truck engine. "Jesus, when's the last time you guys gave your vehicles an upgrade?" Gwen asked. "These pistons look like they have a venereal disease."

The Onyx's motor pool chief - a squat, short-legged Dersite man named Slickstain - emitted a low rumbling sound from deep in his throat. It had taken Gwen a little while to realize that this was merely laughter. She was now used to it.

"A venereal disease, huh?" Slickstain laughed some more. "Apt way of putting it. We haven't had replacement parts in over thirty years. It's high time we raided one of the Law Enforcement vehicle depots. No chance of that now, though, not with the commandos runnin' things."

"Well, that's real unfortunate, 'cuz the only thing holding the intake pipe in place appears to be a strip of duct tape - fuck," Gwen swore. Her fingers had slipped momentarily, accidentally connecting a frayed wire with something it should not have touched. This produced a loud zap, followed by a shower of sparks.

"mm," Slickstain grunted. "You alright down there, miss?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm good...can't say the same about this wire, though." Gwen took a moment to put her index finger in her mouth - she had actually gotten a mild burn from the zap, though she did not consider it serious enough to raise attention.

She got a good grip on the faulty wire and tore it out.

Without missing a beat, Gwen pulled a new length of wire from her sylladex, along with a pair of snips. The motor pool chief saw this and gave a start of surprise. "Skaia Burning, Witch, where the hell'd you pull those parts from?"

"My sylladex," Gwen replied, using her snips to cut the new wire to size. She then set about attaching it to the engine. "It's sort of a trans-dimensional 'pocket' you can store stuff in. I wouldn't bother asking how it works - your eyes would glaze over."

"Have you got anymore parts tucked away?"

"Plenty. Don't have any intake pipes, though, and a new intake pipe is what this truck really needs. Along with a new suspension." Gwen sighed, taking a moment to breathe before successfully installing the new wire. The engine gave a soft hum, its circuitry restored. She wiped the sweat from her forehead

Gwen then rolled herself out from under the truck, sitting up from the dolly she'd been lying on. "That should keep it in one piece, so long as no one drives it over a mine," Gwen reported. She stretched her arms and legs, standing up. "Still, I can't promise it'll live through another brush with commandos. Better keep it on supply runs - I wouldn't trust it with transporting wounded."

"Won't be going out on supply runs much longer," Slickstain said. "Big fight's brewing, topside. I've seen it happen before. This'll be the last one, though. After the dust clears, if we ain't on the winning side, it'll probably be because we all got transformed into carbonized skeletons. Won't need to keep stealin' supplies, either way."

"Do you think we'll win?" Gwen asked.

Slickstain grunted again, shrugging. "Probably not."

It was Gwen's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Anyone ever tell you to stop being so optimistic?" she asked, surprised by the frankness of the motor pool chief's answer.

Slickstain rumbled with more laughter, taking no offense. "Can't say anyone ever has, no. Like I said, Witch, this isn't Derse's first civil war. Don't suppose you've ever seen the Red Miles?" This elicited no response from Gwen. "Didn't think so, didn't think so. You will. And that'll probably be the moment you agree with me, whether you want to or not."

"You don't sound very stressed over it," Gwen observed. "You not afraid of dying horribly?"

That got another shrug from Slickstain. "Don't think so," the head mechanic replied. "Won't know for sure 'til I'm dying horribly."

Gwen had no answer to this. She considered the Dersite's words in silence. She might have lapsed into deep thought were it not for the interruption that was on its way.

"GWEN!" Gino Caiazzo's sharp tones cut across the motor pool. The teenage boy stormed across the lot of derelict trucks, walking at a pace just shy of jogging. An expression of fury was etched onto his face. "Gwen, they killed her! They fuckin' killed her!"

"Prince ain't happy," Slickstain remarked, giving no other reaction to Gino's tirade.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Gwen held up a hand as Gino made his way over to her. "Who killed-?"

"Cass, they killed Cass!" Gino shouted, cutting Gwen off mid-question. "They hanged her, the fuckin' animals, they fuckin' hanged her!"

"Cass is dead?" Gwen's voice was very quiet. She found herself more stunned by the news than anything else. Blinking rapidly, she asked, "When did this happen?"

"It happened today! A public fuckin' hanging in the biggest fuckin' marketplace on this shithole planet! And they knew, these dissenter fuckers, they fuckin' knew about it!" Gino's face was growing redder by the minute. "Mister Angry Veteran fuckin' watched the whole thing happen, and didn't breathe a single fuckin' word of it to us! Just kept us in the fuckin' dark while Cass choked on the end of a fuckin' rope! C'mon, let's go," Gino growled, turning back towards the direction of the Onyx's command center.

"Where?"

"We're gonna have ourselves a little fuckin' chat with our friend the Veteran," Gino said, finally regaining enough control over his anger to lower his voice a fraction. "And you're comin' with me to stop me from fuckin' snapping his neck."

Slickstain did not move from his stool.

He watched impassively as Gino took Gwen by the arm and pulled her away from the motor pool. The head mechanic was left on his own once more.

The motor pool chief pulled a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket. He removed a cigarette and lit up, inhaling deeply. "Heroes..." he murmured, speaking to no one, exhaling a concentrated stream of smoke. "Never a dull day when Heroes are around."

I can't remember how long I flew.

All I remembered was my heartbeat and my breathing rate. Pain and fatigue were held just shy of full conscious awareness. I also remembered it turning to nightfall as I made my way eastward. Cass's body grew heavier and heavier. Morning returned, and I could no longer ignore the burning in my arms and wings.

My wound bled all through the night. By the time Mount Goldmont winked at me over the horizon, I was about to drop from exhaustion and blood loss. Through sheer force of will, I closed the distance between myself and the mountain. I swooped down over the dwarven city and landed in front of a great oaken hall, towards the center.

Bells started to ring. There were guards stationed outside the great hall, and they rushed towards me.

I felt delirious, at this point. I lower Cass to the ground before I lost my hold on her. My sprite knowledge pressed against the corners of my mind, reminding me of my dangerously depleted energy.

I'm going to have to enter into hibernation in order to heal. I've done it before, but there's no way of knowing how long I'll be down for the count.

Cass was going to be on her own for a while.

The dwarf-consorts reached us.

"What the bloody hell happened?" Wymar Redbeard, the barrel-chested, battleaxe-wielding Captain of the Guard, demanded to know. The ruddy-haired Dwarf knelt down to examine Cass, discarding his helmet. "The Sylph, is she…?"

"Severe concussion. Needs a healer..." I squeezed the words out, fighting an uphill battle to remain conscious. I pressed a hand to my wound, applying pressure. Black spots encroached on the edges of my vision.

With the last of my strength, I grabbed Wymar by the arm.

"Seventh Gate…" I whispered to the Dwarf. "Through her Seventh Gate… She has to find Anubis."