The sky was a calming blue. Only a few puffy white clouds broke the soft color. There was a very gentle breeze that kept Ina perfectly cool as she and the others walked the streets of Holiv. It was easily the nicest day since she and Gura left the compound. It was a shame they were spending it investigating potential order activity.
She clutched the tome to her chest. Its pages, filled top to bottom with esoteric scribbles, should have been the only thing left of the order's horrible ambitions. But what if it wasn't?
Every time they turned a corner, Ina braced herself to feel something familiar. She expected the air to shift, becoming what it was within the inner sanctum. She watched for the presence of the order's monsters. She steeled herself against the chill of the void. But even as they got closer to the mysterious alleyway, she didn't feel anything.
Each corner brought the same perfect day. She found that her expectations were clashing with what she was actually experiencing. It was exhausting.
"It's just up ahead," Calli said, pointing to the next block.
Ina drew in a sharp breath. She was on pins and needles as they crossed the street. When they finally arrived at the mouth of the alley where Calli emerged from the supposed labyrinth, she nearly gasped. She felt . . .
Nothing. No void. No monsters. No disquieting, familiar air. It was, as far as she could tell, a completely normal alleyway. Of course, that was just what she could discern with her human senses.
Amelia took the lead, stepping into the alley. She inspected the bricks in the walls and the concrete ground. She moved trash cans and checked behind and in dumpsters, sneering at some choice smells wafting about. While she walked the length of the narrow path, Ina opened her tome.
She opened herself to the power of the void and it flowed through her. The shadows and colors deepened. Her senses expanded beyond human comprehension and she perceived the alley for what it truly was. An alley. There wasn't a single hint of anything supernatural. And she wasn't the only one coming up short. Calli, Kiara, and Gura all took turns looking around, but they didn't find anything either. The normalcy of the place was remarkable.
Amelia returned, shaking her head. "I've got nothing. You're sure this was the place?"
"Positive," Calli said, scratching her head. Confusion, frustration, and relief mixed into an interesting shade on her face. "This is for sure where I popped out of that endless corridor."
"It isn't where you first entered the anomaly, though. Do you remember where you were when it happened?" Amelia said.
"No, I don't. My mind was wandering at the time." Calli sighed. "I'm sorry, everyone. It looks like this was a wild goose chase after all. Whatever I ran into, it must have moved on already."
That should have been the end of it. They all should have been able to breathe a sigh of relief and move on themselves. But Ina couldn't shake the unease. There was something here, Calli said she was sure. Pretending like there wasn't didn't feel right.
Amelia stroked her chin. "I have a theory, if you'll give me a second." Nobody stopped her. "Considering what Ina said last night, I think we can conclude that the phenomenon you encountered was not a direct attack by the order or its remnants. However, I think Calli was also correct. For something like this to happen to her, in this city, where the order operated can't be a coincidence."
Ina's heart beat loudly in her ears. She hoped the others couldn't hear.
"I suspect what you experienced was a kind of aftershock. The order attempted to breach the bounds of our world to allow a greater existence to enter. Although they failed, they still managed to cause a disturbance that rippled out into various phenomena. Calli's alley, my time machine failing–"
"My nightmare!" Kiara said, raising her hand.
"Kiara's nightmare. Rather than attacks with intent, I propose these are echoes of the order's actions. Frightening, yes, but not actually threatening. Does that sound fair to everyone?"
It took a moment for Amelia's explanation to sink in, but one by one everyone accepted her reasoning.
Ina could imagine a connection to the void causing ripples in space. And though she couldn't figure out how those ripples would manifest as those specific incidents, she was willing to set her doubts aside.
A cloud passed in front of the morning sun. Ina looked up and was lost for a moment in the halo of light that outlined it. A little miracle. She was learning that the world was full of them. Counting Calli's experience as one settled Ina's nerves.
It wasn't out of the ordinary even if it was supernatural. That worked just fine.
The sun emerged from behind the cloud and Ina realized it was pretty high in the sky. "What time is it?"
"Almost noon," Amelia said.
"I should probably get going, then," Ina said, stowing the tome in her bag. "I have another meeting to prepare for."
"Oh boo!" Kiara puffed her cheeks. "I was hoping we could all hang out today."
Ina chuckled, "Sorry, but duty calls."
Kiara spun towards Amelia and Gura, "You guys are coming though, right?"
Amelia's cheeks flushed. "Actually, I was going to try and get the time machine working again. And I figured Gura would help me out."
"Hmm? Oh! Yeah! What she said," Gura said. She'd been zoning out just before. Maybe she hadn't slept well.
"Fine!" Kiara pouted and stomped up to Calli. "Then it's just you and me today, Calli."
The reaper blinked, "I was actually going to–"
"Just. You. And. Me." Kiara kept walking, dragging Calli along with her.
Ina bid Amelia and Gura farewell and started the trek across the city. When she finally arrived at the cafe–the same one from the day before–she was surprised to see she wasn't the first to arrive. A number of familiar faces were already preparing the loft.
Dennis, the confectioner, waved to her cheerfully as he set up chairs. Karris, a student who had also been at the previous meeting, laid a drawing pad on each seat. It wasn't too strange to see people attend multiple meetings in a row, but a face that Ina wasn't at all prepared to see was Johanna's. The older woman instructed the others with a spry energy that she rarely displayed in the compound.
"Ina!" she said, holding her arms out to her sides. She marched right up to Ina and gave her a big hug. "I feel like it's been ages! You aren't avoiding me, are you?"
Ina returned the hug, "Not at all! It's good to see you, Johanna. How are things?"
"Things are grand! My son put in a good word for me at the rec center downtown, so I've been working there part time." She laughed, loud and breathy. Being free of the order had reinvigorated her, it seemed. She certainly looked younger than she had.
"That's so good to hear," Ina said. "So, what brings you here today?" Johanna had helped Ina run the first couple of meetings, but hadn't attended one since.
"I'm here to help, of course."
Ina smirked. The old lady was probably feeling lonely. It was so sweet that Ina couldn't bear to turn her away. "That's very kind of you, Johanna, but today's meeting is looking to be a small one, so I can handle it. You are welcome to sit in if you'd like, though."
Johanna wagged a finger in front of Ina's face. "That isn't what I heard, young lady." She clapped her hands, "Karris, sweety, could you bring me the attendance list for today?" The other woman handed Johanna a piece of paper, but Ina didn't see an issue.
Then she unfolded the paper.
Then she did it again.
Ina's body couldn't figure out if it should feel cold or hot. She shivered and sweat as the paper expanded a third time. When Johanna turned the list around for her to see, she realized just how unprepared she actually was.
"Do . . . do we have enough drawing pads? Do we even have enough chairs for that many people?!" Ina tried to imagine everyone on the list sitting comfortably in the loft, but it was too unrealistic an idea that her brain couldn't create a fantasy divorced enough from reality to realize it. "Today was supposed to be small. What happened?!"
Johanna shrugged. "I couldn't rightly tell you. I was sent a message saying that today was special and that my assistance would be needed. So, here I am!" She cheerfully folded the paper and patted Ina on the shoulder.
Several more former acolytes arrived shortly thereafter to lend a hand, leaving Ina with little to do other than wait. She set up her own chair, back to the balcony. Already, the loft was packed. Ina liked to create a comfortable atmosphere for these meetings. That usually led her to arrange seats sparsely or in circles, patterns that gave people space to breathe or encouraged them to engage with each other.
This meeting was looking more like a lecture with all of the chairs tightly packed into cramped lines. Just looking at the scene made Ina's throat feel tight. Were they really planning on filling every seat? As more people arrived and the space started to fill, it became clear that they weren't.
There weren't enough chairs. Not even close.
The loft ended up so packed that the seats were in the way. Without any sort of direction from Ina or Johanna, the former acolytes began folding the chairs and passing them out of the room in order to pack in tighter.
Ina found herself standing. All these people . . . This cramped space . . . dozens of pairs of eyes looking directly at her . . . It was almost like . . .
A congregation.
Her knees started to shake. She felt weak, like the blood was receding from her extremities and pooling somewhere she couldn't feel. Her lungs protested with every breath.
She spotted Johanna in the crowd and waved her over. Thankfully, the older woman recognized her distress and hurried to her side.
"Is everything alright, dear? You look ill." Johanna said softly. Her concern helped steady Ina just enough to respond.
She swallowed–why was her mouth so dry–and said, "I'm sorry, it's just this all reminds me of the sermons the heralds made me give. I think we should reschedule the meeting. Split this group up, maybe?"
Johanna smiled, "I'm so sorry, Ina dear. I didn't realize how hard this might be on you."
That reassuring tone returned the feeling to Ina's limbs. Her lungs weren't as scratchy all of a sudden either. She smiled, apologetic. She didn't want to postpone the meeting, but she herself was in the process of recovering, the same as everyone else in attendance. She had to take care of herself too. Johanna understanding was a blessing. Another little miracle.
"We're all here to support you, so stay strong. I'll make sure everyone apologizes once you've finished."
What? What did she say?
Johanna's smile was as genuine as ever, but looking into her eyes sent a shiver up Ina's spine. There was a light there in her gaze. A glint of something . . . beyond. Something dark, cold, and unfathomably vast. Something Ina knew too well.
She was a child again, standing before the void. Staring deep into its unknowable depths. Except, it isn't all black. There were lights. Little twinkling things that were almost completely consumed by the darkness.
Somebody squeezed her hand, wordlessly telling her to be strong. Ina focused on the pressure. It was safety. It was warmth. She wasn't alone as long as she held that hand.
But then it vanished.
Ina backed away from Johanna until she hit the door to the balcony. The former acolytes followed her. They pressed in closer, packing in as tightly as physically possible. They all had the same glint in their eyes.
"Don't be afraid, Ina," one of them said.
"You're safe," said another.
"Everyone here wants to help," several of the former acolytes spoke as one. Then more joined the chorus. "We've been waiting so long for this day, haven't we?"
Ina pressed so hard against the door she thought the glass might break. She grabbed at her bag, pulling the tome from the bottom. She held it close to her chest. She shouldn't have. These people didn't pose a threat to her . . . probably. She couldn't use the book's power against them.
She wouldn't.
"It really has been a long time, hasn't it?" The former acolytes spoke in unison, as if they were of one mind. The sound of their voices mingled and harmonized, ringing in Ina's ears as a single voice. A familiar one. "I've wanted to see you again for so long."
Ina froze. That voice . . . it made her feel so many things. It made her chest hurt, but it also set her stomach fluttering.
The lights in the loft began to dim. The noonday sun did the same, leaving everything draped in golden twilight. Even as the world dimmed around them, the light in the former acolytes' eyes sparkled, growing brighter.
Those glittering motes floated out of everyone's eyes and drifted towards the ceiling. As they did, the crowd fell in a wave starting from the back. It happened so quickly that Ina couldn't react. When the last line of former acolytes fell limp at her feet the tome started to heat up. It didn't burn, nor did it scald her hands. It was a pleasant heat, and as the lights coalesced before her she clutched it even tighter to her chest.
The sparkles came together, forming the shape of a woman, and suddenly, Ina was looking up into Tsukumo Sana's gleaming golden eyes.
She was hallucinating. That was it. It had to be. Sana disappeared into the void when they were children. She was gone. It was just a case of mistaken identity, if it was even real at all.
The woman smiled down at Ina and fidgeted. "Uhh . . . Hi there. It's . . . been a while, huh?" She chuckled nervously. It was slightly more mature than Ina remembered, but that was Sana's voice without a doubt. "You remember me . . . right?"
The shape of her face, her eyes, her hair, none of it was exactly as Ina remembered. Still, when she looked at this woman, she could only see her first ever friend.
"I don't think I can bring myself to believe it. Are you really the Sana I remember?" Hope bloomed in Ina's chest, bolstered by the heat coming off of the grimoire. She really, really wanted it to be her.
Sana's expression literally brightened like her face was backlit. She sniffled and wrapped her long arms around Ina, pulling her into a tight hug. "It is! I'm the same Sana! You're the same Ina, aren't you?"
Whatever doubt was left evaporated in an instant. Ina leaned into the hug, tears building on the edge of her eyelids. "Yeah, I am."
Memories danced across Ina's mind. Before Ina was anybody within the order's hierarchy, before she'd met Gura or Johanna or even Castor. She and Sana had just been two children of the compound. They were always together, fellow candidates to become priestess, until that fateful day when Ina returned from the void. And Sana didn't.
"You've gotten pretty tall. Like, really tall," Ina said, wiping her eyes. When they were kids, they were about the same size, but time had clearly favored Sana in terms of vertical growth.
Sana laughed, "I guess so! But don't sell yourself short. You've grown too. If you hadn't been in my dreams, I probably wouldn't have recognized you."
"Your dreams? What do you mean?"
"Oh! Well, that's . . . How do I explain?" Sana tilted her head and squinted. Then her gaze fell on the grimoire in Ina's hand and her eyes widened. "That book . . . Yeah, that works, I think." She reached out, gently stroking the cover of the tome with her finger. "I've been sleeping for a while. I wasn't always asleep, mind you, but up until recently I was sawing logs. This book of yours granted you power and connected you to me in the process. Since I was asleep, I experienced our connection in my dreams. Does . . . that make sense?"
"So . . ." Ina scratched her head. This was a lot to take in all at once. "Do you also receive power from the book, or . . .?"
Sana snorted and waved her hand. "No, no. You've got it backwards. The power from that book comes from me. See how it fits together now? From me, to the book, to you. Easy peasy, yeah?"
What?
"Okay, so the book connects me to you. But if the power is yours, then–" Ina's throat became dry very quickly. She tried to look past Sana, but it was difficult. It was as if Sana was wider and taller than her periphery. Sana was all there was to see. When she finally managed to focus on the room behind her properly, her stomach dropped.
The loft was full of unconscious people. The reality of the situation was coming into focus.
"That would make you . . ." An Ancient One. She couldn't say it out loud. Her throat tightened when she tried to form the words.
Sana smiled down at her gently and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on." She guided Ina out the door and onto the balcony. It was strange, seeing the world so dim in the middle of the day. "Once we're home, I'll explain everything."
The air in front of them tore, splitting into a pitch black oval. A hole in space. A portal to the void. The same kind they were forced into as children.
Ina tried to get away. She tried to shake off Sana's hand and turn and run as fast as she could. But she didn't have the strength. She shouldn't have even been able to stand, but when Sana nudged her forward, she walked.
She looked up at her oldest friend, horrified, only to see the most genuine smile imaginable.
Ina didn't know what to think. Was this okay? Was she safe?
Regardless, she was powerless to resist as Sana led her into the void.
+ Break +
The time machine was already built, but it never hurt to do a pre-travel check-up. Amelia hummed to herself while retightening bolts, checking electrical connections, and making sure the switches clicked just right.
Yesterday's failure, she decided, must have been caused by whatever supernatural phenomenon that Calli encountered. With that interference gone, the machine should work. She closed up the console, satisfied that everything was as it should be, and hopped into the operator's seat.
"Okay! We're ready for takeoff," she said. "Hop in, Gura. Let's go!"
Gura took a step towards the time machine, but then she stopped. Her excited grin deflated. It wasn't quite a frown, but her expression became much more tepid. "I . . . think I'll sit this one out, actually," she said. She tried to bring her smile back, but it lacked the spirit a smile should have.
Amelia watched her friend closely and saw through the thin charade immediately. There was doubt beneath that limp grin. Fear, too. And who could blame her? For both Gura and Ina–as much as Amelia herself–the future held a lot of dark possibilities.
What if things had changed too much? It would be jarring to arrive in a world that looked completely different than the one they were expecting. Amelia's thoughts brushed against Carlos and his mother. There was a good chance they wouldn't recognize her, if they were ever born in the first place.
Equally as disturbing, what if the world hadn't changed? How would Gura react if she arrived in a destroyed future to see her own corrupted form wreaking havoc? That despair would probably far outweigh Amelia's own.
Time travel was such a simple concept on the face of it. What was? What will be? Go and see! But that knowledge and awareness carried a weight. Knowing what would happen might influence her to try and make additional changes, and that could cause a cascade. If Amelia hadn't already set her mind to it, she'd probably want to hold off as well.
"Alright. I'll be sure to remind future you how much of a scaredy cat she was." she said, smiling slyly. She didn't want to give her friend a hard time, but a little light-hearted ribbing might get her to come along.
Gura smiled back at her–more genuine this time–and said, "I guess I'll have to prove you wrong, then. Next time." No good. Gura's feet remained planted.
Amelia sighed. She tried. Turning to the control panel, she started flipping switches and pushing buttons. The machine started humming, its engine waking up. "I'll be back in a jiffy," she said.
"Bring back some souvenirs!" Gura said, waving. Her smile was more apologetic than anything else now.
The machine's hum grew to a low growl. The control lever was all that was left. Amelia shot Gura a thumbs up and wrapped her fingers around the pocket watch bauble. She licked her lips. The previous failure was a fluke. This attempt was feeling so much better.
Unable to hold back her excitement any longer, Amelia pulled the lever and the engine roared.
But there was no bright flash. The engine settled from a roar down to a growl, and then to a hum. Amelia stared straight ahead as the machine calmed, blood rushing into her cheeks. Another failure. She groaned, leaning hard against her chair.
What had gone wrong this time?! Was the interference still around and they just hadn't found it? Or had that not been the issue from the get go? Amelia rubbed her face, trying to push the heat away from her cheeks. She'd have to go back to square one to solve the problem. That was going to take a lot of time and effort. At least she was stuck in a peaceful time with friends she could count on. Speaking of which . . .
She puffed out her lower lip and turned to Gura, playing up her disappointment. The shark girl just looked up at her with that same apologetic smile, but that was good enough. A little bit of pity might do her some good. She stood up from her chair and went to step off the machine, but then she stopped. She looked at Gura again. It was the same smile.
Gura wasn't moving. She wasn't blinking or breathing or fidgeting. It wasn't just the same smile, it was frozen on her face. It was like . . . she was frozen in time!
The machine was working, just not as intended. Could Amelia have made a mistake in recalibrating the parts she borrowed for her gadgets? Either way, she had her work cut out for her. She sighed, feeling a little better, and reset the switches on the console to their neutral positions.
The clicking that she had wanted to be extra crisp before felt particularly loud, though. Each switch she flipped and button she pressed made a noise so loud she thought it should have been echoing in the spacious workshop. Maybe the piles of junk on the counters were absorbing the sound.
Click. Click. Click.
The heat returned to her face. Somehow, the sound felt damning. She was being mocked by the machine she prepared incorrectly.
Click. Click. Click.
Click. Click. Click.
Amelia's hand froze. The switches felt louder because there was no ambient sound with time stopped, but it shouldn't have been the only sound. Her head jerked towards the machine's engine. It should have taken some time to wind down completely, but it was stopped dead.
No, it was also frozen!
The machine was designed to travel through time, which meant it could manipulate the flow of time. That it could stop time was well within its expected parameters. But how could the process that stopped time also stop the machine running the process?! It didn't make sense!
Amelia's mind ran hot as she poured over the theories and concepts she'd internalized. On a fundamental level, the foundation of her time travel theory shouldn't have allowed such a thing to happen. The Rosenthal principle covered matter transferral, which Amelia was able to repurpose, but there was no way to apply the Rosenthal principle in such a way as to allow the transportation of the device being used to execute it.
She'd gone over this very possibility time and again while she was building the machine. There was always going to be a margin of error in execution, but her successful activation of the machine proved her theories sound. There was no room in the margins for an oversight of this magnitude.
The hair on Amelia's arms and neck stood on end as her mind raced. The more she dismissed possibilities, the more she was driven to more frightening questions. Why, for instance, was she not frozen?! The machine she was riding was stopped, so she should have been as well.
An answer presented itself to her then, but her mind fled from it. There had to be another explanation. Maybe her previous time travel had given her some kind of immunity to the temporal pause. Maybe her exposure to supernatural forces had changed the way her body interacted with the world. Maybe–
Click. Click. Click.
Footsteps echoed through the workshop. The answer she most wanted to avoid proved itself despite her efforts. Her machine hadn't stopped time.
Something else had.
It took a great deal of effort to keep her breathing steady, and even more to keep her hands from shaking as she reached for her belt. She didn't have any kind of weapon on her–all of them had been made with parts of the time machine–but if it came down to it, she could improvise.
The clicking of the footsteps slowed and a hand, gloved and with long, delicate fingers, reached around the side of the machine. Amelia's breathing stopped as a tall woman strode into her view. They locked eyes. Clear, perfectly still pools of blue fixed Amelia in place. The moment seemed to stretch, almost like she'd been frozen in time after all.
But then her heart beat. That single thump within her chest sent a wave of heat throughout her body. At the same time, the mysterious woman's eyes took on a hostile cast, as if she were just now recognizing Amelia as a living thing.
Amelia's heart beat faster and faster, fear taking hold. There was depth to the woman's hostility. Her features were statuesque, but within that still gaze she saw accusation, disgust, hatred. Why was this woman looking at her like that?
She tried to speak, but she couldn't find the breath. Her mouth hung open as the woman took a sharp breath of her own and spoke.
"Do you understand what you've done?" Her voice seemed out of sync with the movement of her lips. What did she mean? Amelia swallowed and tried to work out what the woman was talking about.
Time was stopped. Only Amelia and this woman, who appeared out of nowhere, were unaffected by the pause. The woman was accusing Amelia of doing something wrong, clearly. Without moving her head, she eyed the switches on the control panel. "Does this have something to do with my machine?" she pondered out loud.
The woman bristled and took a step onto the machine. "You traveled through time," she said through clenched teeth, "and in so doing, irreparably changed the future."
The venom in those words made Amelia's limbs ache, but she didn't quite understand. Of course she changed the future. That was the whole point in traveling back in time. It was her turn to bristle. "And what's wrong with changing such a broken future?" she spat, challenging the woman's aggression.
The woman scowled and climbed the rest of the way onto the machine. And then the world outside of the machine disappeared. It was replaced by an endless, pitch black void.
"What, exactly, do you think time is?" the woman asked.
Amelia tried to answer, but the question stumped her. She had researched and theorized and experimented, but she'd never given the form of time much thought beyond her initial ideas. "I guess . . . when I was first trying to travel back, I imagined time like a river. The current was very strong, which made traveling upstream difficult, but not impossible. That was what I envisioned while I built this machine, and it worked, so I think my assumptions were pretty accurate."
The woman scoffed and disembarked. She stepped out into the void, so there was apparently solid ground, even if it wasn't visible. Amelia almost followed her, but hesitated to leave the confines of the machine.
"Who are you to criticize me? I had good reasons and my methods were sound enough to work," she said, growing more frustrated.
The woman stopped and spun on her heel. She shot Amelia a glare so sharp it nearly pierced her heart. "My name is Ouro Kronii, and I am the Warden of Time," she declared. "Here, in this moment, I am going to put you on trial for the heinous atrocity you have committed."
Amelia tried to respond, but the warden didn't give her the chance.
"First. Your interpretation of time is deeply flawed. It is not a river. It is a line. Singular. It does not flow, it does not move, it simply is. The culmination of all experience." She held her hands behind her back as if she were giving a lecture. "It is my responsibility as warden to watch over this line and verify its continuation. In essence, I ensure that what will be, will be. This is order. An order that you disrupted."
"I might have disrupted things," Amelia argued, stepping off the machine at last, "but I had good reasons for doing so. I wanted to avert a hopeless, bleak future. I can't accept that trying to make a better world is in any way a crime!"
Ouro didn't even flinch at her resistance. She held Amelia's gaze and held out her hand. A blade appeared suddenly in her grip. It was long and resembled an ornate clock's hand. She swung it horizontally, slicing the air and producing a shimmering golden line between them.
"This line represents time," she said flatly. She swung again, vertically this time, and made a perpendicular mark near the middle of the line. "This mark denotes the time you traveled to." She gave Amelia a moment to absorb, then continued. "Traveling through time is not, in itself, deviant. The mere presence of aberrant entities does nothing to time. However, with knowledge of the future, it is possible to apply significant pressure to the timeline.
"Do you know what happens when pressure is applied to a single point on a glass rod?" She swung her blade once again, but this time the part of the line past the mark vanished.
It . . . vanished? But that couldn't–
The warden didn't give her time to process. "Time is set. The future cannot be changed. In shifting the course of history, you applied a great deal of pressure to a single point in time, severing the future you came from. In other words, the future you amputated is lost. Destroyed. It never existed and never will!" The blade in her hand disappeared and she gestured to the emptiness around them. "This is the future you 'saved.'"
"I . . . no . . ." Amelia could barely hear the sound of her own voice over the ringing in her ears. "We defeated the order. We averted a world-ending disaster!"
"And in so doing, extinguished countless lives. This is the truth of your atrocity, Amelia Watson. The history and potential of an entire universe is gone as a direct result of your actions."
Amelia didn't notice Ouro approach, and before she knew it the warden was shoving her back onto the time machine. Then she delivered her verdict.
"You will face the same fate as the future you doomed," she said, her voice filling the void, "but first, I would have you live a while with the weight of that future's demise."
That weight hit Amelia all at once.
She fell to her knees and emptied her stomach onto the floor of the time machine.
+ Break +
Gura kicked her feet, making the stool spin a tiny bit. It was just about the only thing left to do. She'd already messed around with the tools and scrap that Amelia had lying around, and she'd already counted the ceiling tiles a few times. Aside from the buzzing of the lights, the stool squeaking was the only sound.
It made the workshop feel empty. That empty silence was dangerous. It was too easy to get lost in her thoughts. She tried to stay positive. She believed in her friend . . .
But why wasn't she back yet? Gura didn't know anything about time travel, but she figured if you can go back and forward in time, why wouldn't you return to the same moment you left?
Maybe she isn't coming back.
Gura shook her head. That was dumb. Of course Amelia was coming back. Gura's impression of time travel could have been totally off and Amelia was just taking her time exploring the new future. Or maybe the time machine wasn't all that accurate. The control panel was just a bunch of switches and buttons, so Gura wasn't even sure how Amelia made it go where she wanted in the first place.
Maybe the future is better than the present.
That . . . could be the case. Gura hadn't really thought about it, but if the future wasn't destroyed anymore, then it would be pretty nice, right? Things always continued to progress as time passed. If past-Gura could see the world now-Gura lived in, she'd probably stay in the future too. It wasn't just the progression of civilization either. Gura had things now that she never imagined having again. Maybe Amelia found something like that in the future. Something worth leaving Gura and the others behind.
Or maybe she never liked us to begin with.
Gura closed her eyes and rested her head on the table in front of her. She didn't want to believe it, but she couldn't help but remember the look on Amelia's face when they first met. The suspicion and disdain, meant for the monster Gura was supposed to become. She never could have known how deserving of that mistrust she really was.
The buzzing of the lights stopped and the air inside the workshop shifted. Gura raised her head and found that she was no longer sitting in the workshop. Instead, she was standing on a ruined road lined with deteriorating buildings. It was a wasteland of crumbling marble and aquamarine. She knew Atlantis when she saw it.
She should have been shocked, she recognized that, but her brain didn't want to give her a jolt. She couldn't be bothered. Taking in the ruined husk of her former home only made her mind feel thicker, more weary.
Her legs were moving, she realized, dragging her through the streets of this once prosperous city. It was still so familiar. There was the park she played in when she was little. There was the library where her mother used to take her, or the shell of it at least. There were all sorts of little landmarks and objects that lit up her brain in recognition for the briefest of moments.
A tree, broken now. A street of homes that grew in height the further along they went. The statue of some important leader whose name Gura never properly learned. The list went on, her brain firing less and less. When she finally ended up in front of her old house, she felt nothing.
The walls only came up to her knees, and the ceiling was gone save for a few shingles littering the floor. The furniture was gone too, either decayed or blown away or demolished. The floor was pitted with jagged holes. It was just as she remembered.
Exactly the way she left it.
A bright flash of red forced Gura to close her eyes tight. Her head hurt. When she opened her eyes again she saw the shattered home twisting, reconstructing itself. The walls rose up, fragments of marble floating back into place piece by piece. The furniture reappeared, scooting across the now unblemished floor into their proper positions. Her home was restored.
It should have made her happy, seeing it whole again. Her happiest memories were supposed to be here, but this was a terrible memory. Perhaps her worst.
Suddenly, as if they'd been there the whole time, Gura's parents were standing before her. Their faces were pale and wrinkled with worry. Their mouths moved, their lips forming words without sound. They approached her, arms outstretched, reaching for her. No, not for her. For the trident held tightly in her hand.
They wanted to take it from her. But she couldn't let it go. She wouldn't. She didn't want her to, and Gura didn't want to make her new friend upset.
A bright flash of red sent another spike of pain through Gura's mind. She fought through it, blinking the rippling ache away.
Her parents were on the floor. The floor was red. Somebody whispered in her ear.
You did it. Gura turned and saw herself, grinning mischievously. She didn't want to do it.
She looked down. Her hands were red. Her house fell to pieces all around her. She didn't want any of this. She wanted things to go back to the way they were. She wanted this place that she ruined to disappear!
You can make it go away, the other her whispered in her ear.
Her fingers tightened around the trident.
You can make it all go away.
A bright flash of red dispersed the images of her past. She was back in the workshop.
Gura pulled her feet onto the stool and curled up as tightly as possible.
+ Break +
Kiara reached into the air, stretching her entire body as she walked. The sky was fading through evening shades as the sun sank closer to the horizon. She and Calli had spent the whole day wandering around Holiv, getting to know the city more intimately and generally taking it easy. A rare opportunity considering Calli's line of work.
The last few weeks hadn't exactly been relaxing, but Calli was having a particularly hard time taking a load off. It was just like her to get more stressed when there was no work to do. Today's adventure did her some good, though. She was smiling and breathing easy. In general, her spirits were much higher than they were at the start of the day.
That made the day a success in Kiara's eyes.
"So, what are we doing about dinner?" she said.
Calli shrugged, "Not sure. Got any ideas?"
Kiara tilted her head, thinking. They'd eaten out for every other meal today, so something homemade seemed like the play. Now, did they want quick and easy or big and involved? A light meal sounded great at first, but it wasn't just the two of them. The others had the same scare they did, so whatever they ate should be able to feed all five of them.
"What do you think about a hotpot? We've got that crock pot at home," she said.
"That might take a while," Calli said, "but I dig it. The slow cooker's big enough for everyone to sit around comfortably, too." Kiara pumped her fist and did a little dance, but Calli continued. "If we're going to feed the others too we'll need to grab some groceries, pronto. I want to eat before the day rolls over."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Kiara laughed and grabbed Calli by the wrist and took off running. Well, it was more of a jog. There were too many people around to go as fast as she wanted. But that was fine.
Dashing through the narrow gaps between people as if they were racing the sun was its own kind of fun. Calli seemed to agree since she shook off Kiara's grip and started to pull ahead. They practically danced through the streets for a time, but eventually, the crowds grew too thick to have that much fun.
There were people packing the sidewalk on both sides of the street. Trying to get anywhere felt like standing in line for a popular roller coaster. The gaps were there, but Kiara was having trouble spotting them.
Calli wasn't having any issues at all. She passed through the crowds smoothly and before Kiara knew it she was almost a whole block ahead. Was she cheating somehow? If she was, she could at least share the secret. The crowds were only getting thicker and Kiara could barely take two steps without bumping into someone. There were people spilling off the sidewalk and onto the road, too.
Was there a celebration or festival that Kiara hadn't heard about? She didn't think so, but she didn't exactly have her ear to the ground for things like that. None of the people she passed looked confused about the crowding either.
She tried to call out to Calli, but the reaper didn't hear her, and she didn't want to bother anyone if she could help it. She sighed. The crowd couldn't last forever, and they were both heading for the same place, so they'd meet up eventually. It wasn't as fun, traveling alone, but she–
A horrid unease slunk up Kiara's spine. She wasn't claustrophobic, not by a long shot, but the people around her suddenly looked like barricades blocking her in. She tried to get Calli's attention again, and she wasn't worried about bothering anybody anymore. This time, Calli heard her and spun around. Maybe it was the concern in Kiara's voice, or the distance that now separated them, but Calli started pushing back through the crowd immediately.
Apologizing profusely, Kiara did the same. She shoved and squeezed through the ever thickening pedestrian syrup. No matter how aggressive she got, though, she never seemed to get closer to Calli. Were the currents of foot traffic conspiring to keep them apart?
She tried jumping up and down to find a path through, but had no luck. The crowd was getting thicker still. It flooded the road, dragging her towards the center of the street and Calli into an intersection further along. Nobody seemed to care.
In the distance, the crowd suddenly split. The people cleared the road finally allowing Calli to break through. She stumbled into the open space and Kiara could see her take a deep breath. Now if only the same could happen for her.
Calli became a streak of pink and rammed into the wall of people blocking her path. She pushed through with slightly excessive force. The people left in her wake fell like dominos. The current of the crowd was powerless to stop her.
Kiara reached out for Calli's approaching hand. She closed the gap in a flash and reached out as well. Their fingers nearly touched.
Nearly.
The street under their feet stretched. There was no other way to describe it. One moment, Calli was right there. The next, she was pulled far away.
Kiara couldn't even gasp. The sudden, unnatural gap between her and Calli was too vast. It took her breath away. Her brain raced to catch up and she realized that it wasn't just the street. The entire city had expanded to keep them apart.
The crowd started to move to fill the space, but Kiara wasn't about to let that happen. She dropped the manners and shoved through the people in front of her. It was easy. Weirdly so. Everyone she pushed bent out of the way or tumbled to the ground with barely any resistance. People were heavy, they couldn't just be tossed around effortlessly.
She stopped and grabbed one of them firmly by the shoulders. Once again, she found herself at a loss. It was a man . . . probably. His features weren't defined enough to really tell. He had the barest suggestion of a face and he was cool to the touch. On closer inspection, everyone in the crowd was the same. They weren't people at all!
Kiara flicked her wrists and her weapons dropped into her grip. She hesitated before taking the first swing, but swallowed those doubts. There was something sinister afoot, and she didn't have time to worry about the ethics of cutting these things. She needed to get back to Calli as quickly as possible.
She started chopping, cutting down the not-people with ease. They didn't bleed. That made it easier. She picked up the pace, sprinting through the crowd and clearing a path. But no matter how many she cut down, there were always more. Where were they coming from?
It didn't matter. She breathed in sharply and ignited her blade. "Let's see you stand in my way now," she said, drawing back. Lots of things were afraid of fire, so it was a safe bet they'd disperse a little.
But no, the crowd just grew thicker. The not-people swarmed her, wrapping their arms around her waist and legs. One of them slammed into her from behind and grabbed her sword arm. She tried to shake free, but they were heavier than before. No matter how hard she kicked and thrashed, they stayed firmly rooted to the ground. She tried to turn and face the one holding her arm, but as she did she realized that it wasn't a hand wrapped around her wrist.
A tangle of vines connected Kiara to the not-person. Its vague "face" melted away into a tight bundle of plant matter. The ones holding the other parts of her body underwent similar transformations. It was as if she'd charged through a dense jungle and gotten tangled in the hanging vegetation.
The not-people around them started changing too, but they weren't limited to just plants. Some of them dropped onto all fours and took on the shapes of various wildlife. Others grew stiff, taking the shapes of trees and rocks. The city was transforming into a distorted forest.
Kiara struggled against her binds. Was she dreaming? What other explanation was there? It wasn't exactly the same, but this whole development reminded her of that nightmare. That was more than enough for her.
She grit her teeth and another sharp breath stoked the eternal flame of her soul, igniting her entire body. The vines holding her erupted in flames orange and green and she took off without hesitating. She ran, leaving a blazing trail as she cut through the distorted creatures that tried to block her path. She must have torn through hundreds of the things, but she wasn't getting anywhere. The street had stretched before, so was it happening again? Was she running on a treadmill?
Ahead, she spotted a stand of trees blocking her path. She moved to slip around them, but another identical stand sprouted to intercept. That was fine. She could just cut them down like the rest of the twisted creatures. As she came close, though, they grew rapidly, shooting into the air. Their trunks, willowy and young moments before, expanded and fused into a solid wall of bark.
Kiara swung her sword, crying out. Flame erupted from the blade, cutting into the trees. Fire ate away at the thick bark, but it couldn't consume it fast enough. Kiara slid to a stop and pivoted on the spot, but when she turned, another wall of trees rose to stop her. She tried going back the way she came, but another wall had already grown there. There were trees all around her. She was trapped.
Just like her nightmare. Except, here in reality, there was no darkness for her to dive into and no light to pull her out of it. She was on her own.
She picked a spot on the encompassing wall and focused on it. It was a part of the wall where the trees grew into each other, a part that seemed thinner than the rest. Whether it really was or not, she didn't know, but she had to try something.
Again and again she struck the spot she picked. Pieces of bark and splinters exploded into the air, burning away before they reached the ground. The wounds she opened in the trees started to heal immediately, but each swing went deeper. If she could just outpace the plant's growth, she could escape and try to reunite with Calli.
You won't get through.
Kiara froze mid-swing and spun. She searched her cramped wooden prison to no avail. She was the only one there. So what was that voice?
"Says who?" she said, listening carefully for the response. For a brief time all she heard was the wind whistling high overhead, but it didn't sound right. It was tense, like a storm was building just outside the ring of trees.
Finally, a response came.
You do not have the right to question me, it said. The voice was loud and crystal clear, coming from all around.
Kiara peered up to the top of the prison, but still couldn't see anyone. "I don't see how that's fair," she said.
I do not do fair. No pause this time. I am gracious, however. So I will show you, my enemy, grace.
Behind?! Kiara leapt into the center of the ring of trees and turned back towards the spot she was trying to cut through. Someone was emerging from the trees themselves. It was a woman, as far as Kiara could tell, but she had strange blunt horns that resembled sprouting branches growing from her pale green hair. Looking at her felt like standing on the precipice of a verdant valley. She was so much deeper than a person.
"Who are you," Kiara demanded. She raised her sword, but her uncertainty loosened her grip.
The mysterious woman scowled at her. "My name is not for you to know." Her voice was sickly sweet. It tickled Kiara's ears like a gentle spring breeze. "You know me, however. I am life, mother and keeper of all things natural." She started to walk, slowly rounding the wall of trees.
Kiara watched her, unsure what to think. If she was telling the truth, that'd be a pretty big deal. "What do I owe the pleasure, then, mother nature?"
The keeper's face twitched. Was she restraining herself? "I love my children," she said, "so much so that the depths of my affection cannot be measured. I do not love you. In fact, I despise you."
Kiara's hands shook. She wanted to know why, but her throat was too dry to speak.
"You cannot be counted among my children. You are distinctly unnatural, and yet you live. Your very existence is an affront to life itself, so I have come to snuff out your profaning flame."
The keeper pressed her back against the trees. Then she began to sink into them. And as she disappeared fully, the towering wooden prison shook with a heavy impact. It came again. And again.
The next impact splintered the bark in front of Kiara. She braced herself, but she couldn't have anticipated the stampede that crashed through the cage of trees a moment later.
+ Shift +
An enormous shadow darkened the street. The people boxing Calli in didn't seem to be aware. Their eyes were unfocused and cloudy, their heads slightly tilted one way or another. They were in no position to answer her questions, let alone react to the building that was leaning over to crush them all.
Calli considered her options with what little time she had. Destroying the building was out of the question. She didn't have the power to evaporate the structure and all its parts, so breaking it down would only create debris that would continue to fall on the crowd. The people were unresponsive, so she couldn't convince them to run. She could escape by herself, but that wouldn't help anybody.
She looked up at the approaching side of the building, the sounds of breaking glass and cracking concrete growing louder. That was weird, wasn't it? Buildings didn't do that. Pushing one over like it was on a hinge wasn't really possible. It would have started collapsing long before it reached the point it was at.
The endless alleyway had been just as strange. It had stretched, same as the road that separated her from Kiara. The walls had grown too, shooting up to the sky to keep Calli in. The building looming overhead was the same. If it was targeting her, then . . .
Calli slipped into limbo space. The color faded from the people around her and their shapes became less distinct. She launched herself up to the falling building, aiming for a window. She passed through and sailed past office furnishings that somehow weren't toppling about as the building leaned sideways. The moment she emerged out the opposite side, she dropped out of limbo space and kicked off the window frame.
The towering structure had almost reached the street, its base flexing like rubber. Before it could crush the people gathered underneath it, however, it stopped. And, just as Calli hoped, it started to flex the other way.
It was chasing her.
Not exactly a relief, but at least she had some idea of what was going on. She rode the building as it straightened out. Once it was standing properly, she could scout a spot for it to smash without bystanders.
As the wall she was standing on became too steep to keep steady, she heard a new sound mix with the groaning of concrete and cracking of glass. Was that . . . an engine? Calli spun as the sound of screeching tires was added to the mix.
A sedan, four door, raced up the side of the building, somehow keeping traction as Calli started to slide. It was beyond bizarre, but she was numb to it at this point. She leapt into the air, easily avoiding the speeding vehicle. As reached the apex of her jump, though, she heard more engines revving.
Two more vehicles, a pair of delivery trucks, sailed through the air like they'd just driven off of ramps. They careened towards Calli, threatening to smash her between them. She couldn't kick off the air to avoid the collision, but she could spin. And she could swing her scythe.
The two vehicles became four halves and collided with each other around Calli. Unexpectedly, one of the trucks exploded and blasted her away from the bending building. She flew through the air and almost landed on another building. But before she could, it moved out of the way. All of the buildings moved, leaving Calli to land in a vast field of asphalt crisscrossed by concrete walkways.
The moment she touched down the ground began to move. Sidewalks raced along the asphalt like snakes through sand. The road under her feet buckled and jumped. It was impossible to catch her footing.
Road signs of every shape and size, carried by the racing walkways, came at her, forcing her to dive and roll. They were soon joined by a fleet of construction equipment. Thick I-beams whipped through the air between large earth movers. Excavators swung their arms in the remaining gaps.
Calli couldn't breathe. There was no time. She couldn't take cover from the equipment flying through the air because the cover was also working against her. Every time she cut the bucket from an excavator's arm, another moved in to take its place immediately. Escaping was proving difficult as well. When she spotted an opening through which to dash, a brick wall would rise up out of the asphalt to block her path. The city itself was trying to kill her.
Thinking that, Calli spotted an oddity. Through the storm of motion raging around her, she spotted something sitting still. It was a person, a woman, seated on a bench just outside the danger zone. Her face was covered by a hooded cowl, but Calli could see her eyes clearly through the shadow. A pair of beady amber-red dots glowing with animosity.
For the briefest of moments, Calli stood still. The storm seized the opportunity, throwing everything it had at her. She was going to take some punishment, but if that's what it took to escape the frenzy, then so be it.
Street signs smacked into her and an I-beam dug into her side, but she endured. She waited until the excavators lunged at her all at once, then she struck. She became a pink vortex of destruction, swinging her scythe as fast as she ever had. She dismantled obstacles standing between her and the woman on the bench, and when a wall rose to stop her advance, she smashed through it. It hurt, big time, but she was through.
She got to the bench in the blink of an eye and stared daggers at the woman sitting there. She made no attempt to hide what she was as she spoke. "Before I send your soul packing, tell me who you are and why you're attacking me."
The woman scoffed at the threat. "My name is none of your business. But if I have to introduce myself . . ."
Something changed. Calli wasn't sure exactly what it was, but she felt it down to her core. No, it ran deeper. Then she noticed everything moving, not in random confounding patterns like before, but in one specific direction. Towards them.
The city was being pulled into the spot they were standing in. The concrete melted into the patch of sidewalk the bench rested on, and the asphalt receded to the normal width of a road. The buildings returned as well, lining the street as usual. The otherworldly air the city had taken on when Kiara was taken away was gone. They were standing on a normal city street again.
"I am a guardian," the woman said, standing. "I am a guide, overseeing the development of civilization," she doffed her hood, revealing a face rigid with determination. Her eyes were filled to the brim with hatred. "Necessity and circumstance have kept me from you until now. But now that I have this chance, I won't let it go to waste. I will no longer allow you to impede progress, reaper."
Calli knew a threat when she heard one. She wasn't sure what this woman was, but she wasn't about to let her have her way. She swung her scythe with blinding speed. Columns of steel and concrete erupted from the ground, pinning her arm and halting her swing prematurely. The guardian didn't even flinch.
The concrete pushed Calli back as the guardian placed her hand on the steel pillar. The metal morphed, shrinking to a handheld size. It took the form of a hammer, more tool than weapon. That didn't stop her from using it like one.
The ground beneath the woman's feet slid, bringing her close to Calli. She swung her little mallet, smashing through both the concrete pillar and Calli's guard. The reaper was sent tumbling across the street and through a statue that hadn't been there a minute ago.
She barely managed to get to her feet before the ground beneath her sucked her back across the street and into the guardian's range. The hammer was already swinging when she arrived, but Calli wasn't about to take another hit like that. She entered limbo space, narrowly dodging the blow.
Going off that first hit, Calli judged this mysterious attacker to be on Gura's level strength-wise. That made a head-to-head fight less than ideal. She dashed around the guardian, aiming to drop out of limbo space in her blind spot.
But the woman's eyes followed her. Her arm moved, swinging the mallet sideways, following her path. It hit her. In limbo space. The impact knocked the wind out of Calli and blasted her down the street.
She dropped back into the world proper and grit her teeth. Limbo space was a realm of souls. Nobody should have been able to intrude.
The shadow of a wrecking ball appeared overhead, but Calli wasn't out just yet. She obliterated the steel boulder with a few lightning fast cuts. She wiped the blood leaking from her lips and glared at the woman slowly approaching her.
Civilization was an intimidating opponent, to be sure. It never ceased to grow and expand, persevering no matter what sort of disaster befell it.
But death was more relentless by far.
Sooner or later, it always won out.
+ Shift +
Kiara's knees buckled under the weight of the keeper's relentless assault. Animals appeared to batter her body. Plants sprouted to neuter her attempts to protect herself. The earth itself shifted to keep her in place. She couldn't escape. She could barely fight back.
A jagged slab of stone erupted from beneath Kiara's feet. She leapt out of the way, narrowly avoiding the attack, but a thick vine wrapped around her the moment she left the ground and violently pulled her back down. She groaned as she pushed herself to her feet.
"Do you know what people call a fire that won't go out?" The keeper said, approaching slowly. "A disaster."
Kiara felt a pang of terror in the core of her being. The keeper's disgust was so thick that it made breathing harder. It was paralyzing.
"A wildfire can be a beautiful thing. It brings death and destruction to entire ecosystems, culling all manner of thriving life. In its wake," she kept getting closer, and when she was finally within arm's reach, Kiara swung her sword with all her might. But the earth moved and the keeper stepped right past the blade, "life flourishes anew. Only once the fire has died can growth begin again." She stopped and pointed at Kiara. Her finger was inches away from her face.
Vines broke through the asphalt and climbed up Kiara's legs. Nearby animals morphed into bundles of leaves and bark and took hold of her arms. Nature wrapped her tightly, threatening to crush her bones and tear her muscles. Kiara cried out as the creeping foliage reached her torso.
The edges of Kiara's vision began to darken. The air grew cold and dense, so much so that what little breath she could pull in with greenery squeezing her chest came slow and haggard. Then she felt it. Her flame flickered.
It was the same as the nightmare. It was the same as that empty purgatory. The fire at the core of her being was being smothered. Fear took hold of her heart, squeezing tighter and tighter. Panic bubbled up in her throat like bile. She almost screamed.
But she didn't.
That oppressive pressure, that frigid darkness, was something she could overcome. She had overcome it both times she'd encountered it already. She clenched her teeth and pulled against the plants restraining her. They coiled more tightly, but she didn't stop. They sprouted thorns to pierce her skin, but she raised her voice against the pain.
Her temperature rose and the air in her lungs ignited. With a single, bellowing shout she unleashed a wave of heat and flame that burned her restraints to ash. She locked eyes with the keeper and released another wave of searing breath. Mother nature covered her face and stepped back.
Kiara felt her panic recede. The fear that was gripping her heart fled to the deepest reaches of her psyche. She smiled as she realized that she wasn't nearly as outmatched as she thought. She could win, even if her opponent was life itself.
The keeper snarled, but her disgust wasn't so oppressive anymore. Kiara leveled her blade against her, fire dancing on its edge. Before she could attack, though, another wall of trees grew between them. Thick trunks surrounded Kiara once again.
"I will snuff you out!" the keeper's voice resonated with the bark. "I will not fail!"
The ring of trees began to shrink, but Kiara did not flinch. She knew it wouldn't be possible to cut her way out of the wooden prison, but that wouldn't stop her from trying. Again and again, she hacked away at the tree wall. Pieces of bark flew and regrew and were cut away again. Kiara swung her sword until the circle was too small to do so.
It pressed against her, tried to crush her, to squeeze the unending life out of her. But she did not give up. Her smile remained firmly on her face. She looked up–her neck was the only part of her body she could move–and focused on the little blue dot high overhead. The sky was still there. There was still a world to return to.
She almost laughed. She could die over and over and over again, but she would always return. As long as there was a world to explore and people to meet, she would not disappear. She would not allow anyone, not even the world she so cherished, to stop her.
She winced as the trees pressed ever closer. She couldn't laugh even if she wanted to now. There wasn't enough space for her chest to expand. But she ignored the burning pain of her starving lungs and stared up at the spot of blue.
Something sparkled in that little dot of sky. Kiara might have gasped if she could as a brilliant light descended through the narrow wooden tube. She squinted at it, not because it was too bright, but because she felt that she knew it somehow. There was an odd familiarity to its shine and the warmth radiating from it.
Her eyes shot open. She did know it! It had come to her in her nightmare, and when she'd died in the order's inner sanctum. No, it wasn't just those times. She'd seen it all throughout her stay in Holiv. It wasn't clear what it was exactly, but she knew it was a friend.
The light drifted closer and closer until it was right in front of her face, a glittering star. Its warmth extended, cradling Kiara's chin like a pair of gentle hands.
You've fought hard, haven't you? You should be proud.
It spoke! And not only that, it filled her with a power she was all too familiar with. No, that wasn't quite right. The light had helped her before, but it had never given her any sort of power. All it had ever done was bring her own power forward and bolster it. It didn't add more kindling to her fire, it fanned it with unbreakable hope!
The flame of Kiara's soul expanded and she erupted. Blue and green flames engulfed her and filled the narrow prison. She could hear a sound like a jet engine as her heat rose and escaped into the sky. The bark, resistant to all of her attempts to break through it so far, smoldered and shriveled. The jet engine sound gave way to loud, rapid popping as the trees trying to crush her burned. Just seconds after her ignition, the wooden cage was crumbling into chunky charcoal bits.
Kiara stepped through the ring of ash that was her prison and leveled her sword at the keeper. The woman almost seemed to wilt in the heat of her unending soul. She wasn't sure if she could defeat the embodiment of life even with her fire raging so intensely, but honestly, she didn't care to try. She didn't win this fight by defeating the enemy attacking her.
A pair of fiery wings sprouted from Kiara's back, and she smiled at the keeper. With nothing more than a snarky wink, she took off. Mother nature was beyond sight in the blink of an eye.
The asphalt beneath Kiara melted as she tore through the sky. She'd never moved so fast in any of her previous lives, and even still it was taking time to reach Calli. The entire city was stretched and distorted beyond recognition. Were they even in Holiv anymore? For a moment, Kiara worried that she might struggle to spot Calli in this unfamiliar place.
Her concerns dissolved as she spotted a pair of large buildings sliding towards each other. For something so strange to be happening, Calli must have been at the center of it. Sure enough, the reaper was careening through the space between the structures.
Kiara beat the air furiously, racing the buildings as they came together to crush her friend. Her wings clipped concrete and glass, melting both materials as she snatched Calli out of the air and soared away from the crashing buildings.
"Perfect timing! Thanks for the save," Calli shouted over the roar of the wind. Thankfully, Kiara's intense heat didn't burn her as well.
They landed a couple blocks away from where the buildings came together. It was probably a couple of blocks. Maybe. Everything was so distorted that Kiara couldn't really gauge how the city was laid out. She wondered if they could even leave this place, but then Calli took up her scythe. Kiara spun to see a woman in a brown cowl that definitely wasn't there when they landed. She looked more than a little perturbed.
Kiara leaned close to Calli, "Who . . .?"
"Guardian of civilization," Calli said.
"Ah," was all Kiara could reply before life herself–looking equally agitated–emerged from the ground next to the guardian. "Keeper of nature," she explained.
"Right." Calli shifted her feet, preparing to attack.
If the guardian was anywhere near as strong as the keeper, it was going to be a brutal fight. But with Calli at her side, Kiara was confident. She too tightened her grip on her weapons and readied herself.
"Was the only thing you had to do really that difficult?" the guardian said, not to Kiara and Calli, but to the keeper. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised." She shook her head, a feather in her hair dancing along with her long ponytail.
The keeper stomped her foot. "Like you're any better! You were in charge of keeping them separated," she said, shaking her fist.
"Oh, that is just like you," the guardian shook her fist back and got in the keeper's face. "I was keeping them apart, just like we agreed. But you couldn't get the job done and now you're here, stepping on my toes!"
"That's . . ." The keeper flushed and stammered. "You said there was no way they could get back together. You were so confident, but here they are!"
They continued bickering back and forth like there wasn't a fight going on. It was almost enough to make Kiara drop her guard. In any other circumstance, she might have thought it was funny, but these two were anything but.
"Excuse me," Kiara said, raising her hand. The arguing pair didn't even glance in her direction. "Excuse me," she said more loudly, but they still didn't stop. Calli took a deep breath.
"Hey!" she shouted. Finally, they turned to look at them. The guardian's expression hardened, but the keeper's softened for some reason.
Kiara cleared her throat and said, "Before we get back to business, could you please tell us what's going? Like, what are you after?"
The enigmatic pair looked at each other and scowled. Then they each pointed, their arms crossing over each other.
The guardian pointed at Calli. "I'm here to destroy death," she declared.
The keeper pointed at Kiara. "I'm here to destroy you," she declared.
Kiara sighed. "That wasn't very enlightening."
Before she could probe further a tall brick wall rose out of the ground between the guardian and the keeper. It shot across the street with the speed of a bullet train, cutting Kiara off from Calli before either of them could react.
An enormous airliner appeared in the sky, its nose pointed directly at Calli on the other side of the wall. Kiara prepared to break through to offer her support, but before she could, a massive tree erupted up into the sky fully formed. The airplane crashed into its canopy and broke apart on its branches. Not a single piece of the thing touched the ground.
Kiara raised her shield and smashed through the bricks. The scene she saw unfolding when the dust cleared was perplexing. A group of large, spoked wheels were harassing Calli. They spun with enough force to tear up the asphalt as they tried to catch the reaper under their rims.
She leapt to assist, but a tangle of vines dropped out of the branches of the massive tree and took hold of her. Yet again her arms and legs were tied tightly in green. She struggled, flaring up, but the vines multiplied faster than they burned and squeezed harder.
The guardian in brown appeared along with the roar of an engine. The woman was holding a chainsaw, one that she didn't have on her person before. Saw blade screaming, she leapt over Kiara's head and cut the vines, freeing her. Was she . . . helping?
No, she definitely wasn't. Her leap carried her past Kiara and straight to Calli, oversized tool primed to strike.
Kiara breathed in sharply, stoking her flame further, and dashed to Calli's side. She raised her shield and it expanded to absorb the biting strike of the chainsaw.
But the strike never came. The guardian landed just in front of Kiara, but didn't swing her rumbling weapon. Instead, she stumbled backwards. She looked . . . confused? Why would that be? Why was she hesitating?
A ring of thick bushes sprang up between Calli and Kiara separating them and capturing the autonomous wheels.
The keeper emerged from the bush behind Kiara and lunged at her. Kiara spun, shield raised, but when the keeper's bark-coated arm slammed into it, her legs buckled. Another hit sent her to her knees. The keeper's overgrown arm rose for a third slam, but the guardian's engine roared.
The cycling blades of her chainsaw swung over Kiara's head, forcing the keeper to dodge out of the way. The ensuing standoff made Kiara's head spin.
The guardian stood in front of her, back turned, while the keeper stood in front of Calli, facing away from her. They stared each other down, goals aligned but not. Wouldn't it be easier for them to work together?
Apparently not. Kiara could feel something growing inside them. It was something immense, not in terms of physical size, but in depth of power. That they were more than they appeared was obvious, but the pressure that was building between them escaped her ability to gauge.
Then the sky went out.
It was only for the barest fraction of a second, but the sky definitely flickered, like the sun was turned off and back on again. That infinitely brief moment quelled Kiara's flame. She couldn't move, or breathe, or anything really. Her eyes flicked to Calli, but she was also frozen, her face deathly pale.
The keeper clicked her tongue. "Now look what you did," she spat.
The guardian scoffed. "Oh no, you aren't pinning this on me. If it weren't for you, I could have finished well before they called us back."
The world began to flow as the distorted image of a city shrank in on itself. Buildings wobbled and raced across the ground, and streets waved and snaked into a proper grid.
The guardian turned to Kiara and knelt down, smiling. "I don't have a name, per se, but my friends call me Mumei, so you can too. I hope we get to meet again under more pleasant circumstances." She stood and backed away. The ground opened up beneath her and she slowly descended into the asphalt. "Bye-bye," she said as the earth swallowed her.
Kiara blinked. That was bizarre. Pleasant, but bizarre.
The keeper cheerfully waved to Calli before dissolving into a pile of leaves dispersing on the wind. Suddenly, it was just the two of them in the swirling cityscape. Calli jogged over and held out her hand. When Kiara took it and got back to her feet, the city snapped into its proper shape.
There were people walking by on the sidewalk and cars on the street, but not more than there should have been. The urban din was in full force, too. The normalcy was surreal after that avalanche of oddities.
But it was over for now, so Kiara breathed easy. "Are you alright, Calli?" she said, relaxing.
Calli sighed, "Yeah, I'm good. Not sure what to–" Her eyes widened and she raised her scythe. "Watch your back!"
Kiara spun, knuckles white. Was the keeper back? The guardian, Mumei? To think that returning the city back to normal had been a trick!
. . . Or not?
Kiara didn't recognize the woman standing behind her. She was sparkling from head to toe. The horns jutting out from the sides of her head glittered like gemstones. The wings, or whatever they were floating at her back, appeared to actually be gems.
Her hands were raised and she smiled nervously. Her knees were shaking too. Kiara didn't know what her deal was, but she definitely wasn't looking to tussle.
"H-Hello . . ." the crystalline woman stuttered. "My n-name is Irys. I . . . come in peace?"
