A blinding light and deafening sound erupted from the head along with a shockwave, sending the only individual in the room flying into the wall. The temple shook as the Man stood back up, walking toward the head now gleaming with light. The light began to twist into a series of odd shapes.
The Man waited for the process to finish.
Or did he wait for it to begin?
The light twisted one last time, finding a final form in that of an orb coated in Runes.
“Who hath summoned?” The voice rang throughout the room.
“I have.” The Man confidently answered.
The Orb expanded the runes, plastering the walls. Flashes of light overcame the Man as a Mystic portal snapped the room in half, dragging him through it into a different room.
A room of pure light.
The Man dusted off his clothing, walking to the Orb in the center of the room.
“What doth thine wish to exert on reality?”
Davon Yemer stuck his hand inside the orb “Power.” He plunged his arms fully within the light. “I wish for power.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to take on that gelatin ship? It really got the drop on you last time.” Nadeden’s coughed words are contrasted by the laughing voice of Granix, “It’ll be no problem! I was simply unprepared last time. I have a plan now.”
Nadeden feigns a smirk of confidence, worry hides beneath it.
She clicks her prosthetic leg back onto her body. The action only increases her pain. Her entire body is crying out in agony. Every physical sensation tells her that she should be dead. She covers her scorched-over eye with the freshly washed Bandanna. She wraps it as tightly around her head as she can.
“So what’s the plan?” She asks, standing to look out of Granix’s eye.
“I’m still not strong enough to destroy the ship myself. And you told me that you killed most of the pirates, so the only goal is saving Smith. If I can get close, I can make an entrance for you, just like last time.”
Nadeden lies against the eye, weak from standing.
She huffs, “So the plan is just to do what we did before? That’s not very strategic if you ask me.”
“Well, this time I won’t be foolish enough to be caught in the Gelatin’s tendrils!” Granix states, floating into where they were previously defeated, only to find the ship now missing.
“Where are they?” Nadeden asks, pressing her face up to the eye.
“I don’t know,” Granix states.
“I know you don’t know, Granix. It was-” Nadeden sighs, stressed and tired. “Nevermind. Just look around a little. They couldn’t have gotten far.” Granix moves through the asteroid field, swimming across the black as fast as they can in search of the ship. Nadeden wearily rubs her temples.
“You’re panicking.” She looks over to her vision of Gerry sitting next to her. Taunting her. “I don’t feel good about this either, you know, but if it makes you feel any better, he’s probably already dead.” Despite her pain and tiredness, Nadeden slams her fist into the wall, silencing the phantom.
“What was that for?” Granix asks, feeling a stabbing sensation in his eye.
“Sorry. I just tripped.” Nadeden huffs, shaking her hand out of a fist to dispel the aching. “I never thanked you.”
“For what? Saving your life?” The question echoes in the rock.
“No.” Nadeden sighs, “For this. Helping me look for Smith.”
Granix stops at a clearing in the asteroid field where a majority of the remnants of Quandroiz’s lifeforms drift past. “We still haven’t found him yet. Save the pleasantries for when he’s safe and sound, got it?”
Nadeden cracks a smile. “Of course.”
Granix pushes on past the bodies, halting again once they reach the other side. “Do you see that?”
Nadeden gazes out of Granix’s eye to view half of the Gelatin ship split open, its dead crew slowly floats out of it like salt from a jar.
They had wet their boots in the sea of bodies.
Trampling through the corpses, they wondered if they were admiring their handiwork or simply recording it.
They both did.
Him and her.
Nadeden stood in the center of the inactive battlefield with Gerry. The wind blew in both their hair. “Did I ever tell you how I was born?” Gerry squinted back at her. The pair hadn’t spoken in quite a while. Gerry was surprised that Nadeden even chose to accompany him on what might have been his largest report yet.
“You haven’t even told me when your birthday is.” He slashed a note down in his journal, huffing as he stepped over another fallen soldier. She followed him, continuing, “I never knew my parents. I was still in my Mother’s womb when the Republic soldiers tossed her onto a flaming pyre. The only reason I didn’t burn with her was because the Lieutenant Colonel traced the annoyance of a scream back to me, pushing my way out of her lifeless body.” Gerry’s boot squished down, avoiding the bodies to dig into the dirt beneath him.
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.
Nadeden hung her head. “I haven’t just been in this war since I could stand, I’ve been fighting for my life since the day I was born. The reason I said that all this is temporary to me is because I’ve never had any other purpose in life. I hardly even cared if I died. Half the time I was out fighting, I spent hoping to die in some glorious battle, thinking that would make my life worth something.”
She looked to the gray sky, every ounce of light was shrouded by clouds, ready to pour rain. “That battle never came, and now I see that my life was hardly worth the fight.”
Nadeden tossed her head down to look at Gerry directly across from her.
He was staring at her.
In the sea of bodies.
Nadeden sighed, “I’m pregnant, Gerry.”
“He’s not here.” Granix’s words cut through Nadeden, who can do nothing but lie helplessly on the rock.
“There’s another half of the ship out there. We need to find it.”
Granix feels the urge to deliver what they believe to be the harsh truth. Beginning with a “But-”
Nadeden’s resolve tightens with her voice, “I said, find it.”
Granix takes off into space.
“I thought you didn’t care about him?” The phantom of her mind has reappeared. “Oh, my lovely Nadeden, I thought only I mattered to you. Or did you forget what I did?” She places her hand on one of the many burns staining her body that can no longer be hidden by her now-absent cloak. “I’ll never forget.” She whispers.
How can I ever forget?
“Nadeden, look!” Granix’s words lead Nadeden to look out of the eye again to view the rest of the ship hanging in the dark as if it were a shining torch of light. She rises off the rock, her whole being fighting her as she does so. Aching with every movement, she runs to Granix’s mouth. With each step comes a stabbing pain. Granix bites down on the ship, sealing it with rock. Their tongue rolls in with Nadeden atop it. An anxious fervor takes her body as she allows it to float inside the hull.
Nadeden can hardly see in front of her.
With the Gelatin now dead, the ship has gone dark. She curses at this newest obstacle in this unending cycle of obstacles. Despite this, she tumbles deeper into the abyss. She strikes against walls, debris, weapons, blankets, books, and scraps of rotten food.
She doesn’t concern herself with any of this.
She falls further and further until the body of a young man stops her.
“Who are you doing this for?”
“You aren’t even here, get out of the way, Gelmidas!”
He smiles that awful smile at her words.
Her mind refuses to let go of him.
To shut him out.
Even when something needs to be done.
“If you know I’m not here, then you know that you’re the one asking yourself the question, Nadeden.”
She can’t think straight. I must be running out of oxygen. Did Granix unseal the ship? Or? No. No, I’m not dead yet. She tightens her fists to remind herself that blood is still pumping through her veins.
The ghost persists, “You think saving Smith will make up for everything?”
“No.” She scowls.
“Don’t lie, you were never any good at it. You’re only good at one thing.”
“Get out of my way, Gerry.”
“No, you know what matters deep down. The fact that you keep seeing me shows that! You want to drive an arrow through my chest, don’t you? It’s the only reason you’ve kept yourself alive all these years. This is a waste of your time! Turn around now, tell Granix you couldn’t find him, and that you need to go out and kill me! You barely know this kid! He’s not your son, nothing is going to bring Adamus back, so you might as well get your revenge! You might as well strike out at the universe with all that grief and all that rage that’s built up inside you! You might as well burn it all down! You’re the Scorched Archer! Why do you keep thinking that anyone could ever care about you? All you do is get people killed! This is just a stop along your road of hatred! There’s nothing left for you! Smith has nothing for you! Granix has nothing for you! Hadel had nothing for you!”
“And you think you do? You’re just another person for me to kill, Gerry. I’ve killed more people than I can count, but I never saved one. Not until I dragged Smith out of that Bioship, and I’m going to save him again. Because-”
She opens her fists, stretching out her palms and the rest of her exhausted body, “life is precious.”
Her arms wrap around Gerry’s body in front of her, which she now knows is Smith’s unconscious body.
Gerry is still hanging in the back of her mind. Gnawing at her memories.
Warning her that she won’t be able to keep him safe.
That she can’t possibly protect such a kind soul in such a cruel universe, but Nadeden refuses to listen.
She just holds Smith tighter.