Category: 2023

54. Lucas & Epilogue

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Lucas

I nodded at Peyton’s statement. “What about you? How much more can you fight?” I asked, looking her up and down.

She smiled wanly. “I’m about tapped,” she admitted, as she turned to watch Lexie’s inferno rage across the cavern. I watched with her. As powerful as Lexie was, there was a lack of control in her attacks – so many of them went wide, or were easily dodged by Shadawn. In fact, it almost looked like he was toying with her. “It’s so close…” Peyton murmured, the third eye flitting between Lexie and Shadawn.

I tensed hearing her words, holding myself ready for the moment. The exchange between Lexie and Shadawn was almost terrifying to watch, fire and shadow swirling through the cavern so indiscriminately that I worried for the others. I couldn’t see them in the chaos, and could only hope that they were okay. Sometimes I had to quickly erect a short barrier to protect the two of us, and not just from the shadows – the fire was everywhere.

And then Peyton gasped, seeing something I couldn’t. “Lexie, get out of there!” she shouted. Frowning, I saw that Shadawn had herded Lexie into a position where he had set a sort of trap – swirling tendrils of dark energy lanced up from the ground and down from the ceiling and Lexie screamed as the energy wrapped around her, holding her in place. Her screams were muted, like she was in a strange cage. From within the confines of the shadow, the fire burst and swirled, but it was all contained. “Shit,” Peyton said.

The chaos in the cavern quieted now that Lexie had been caught in Shadawn’s trap. He stepped close to his shadow cage, chuckling in the eerie silence. “Ah, to be young. You have so much energy,” he said. And then he turned to look at us, smiling. “And then there were two.” He started to approach us.

“Stay here,” Peyton said. “It’s close. Prepare the spell and wait for my signal.” She started to walk slowly toward Shadawn, her head held high.

Frowning, I reached for my magic as I watched her. I focused on gathering the power of death before me.

“Nothing to say, Shadawn? After all those nights insisting that I join you?” Peyton asked as she came to a stop several feet away from him.

For a moment, his expression darkened and then he quickly covered his anger with a smile. “I think you’ve made your position clear, and I am not forgiving. No amount of pleading will spare you from my wrath this night.”

“Ah, well I wasn’t planning on begging to be spared.”

The smile twisted. “But you will. When the pain becomes unbearable, you will.” Before his sentence had finished, he began to grow larger, pulling the darkness of the cavern into himself as he loomed over her. By the final word, his voice was booming, cacophonous. I winced, wanting to do something. Anything.

The air around Peyton began to swirl and lighten – I could see that she was summoning ice around herself, could vaguely hear the sound of ice creaking as chunks of it shifted in the air. She attacked. He swiped an arm through the air, batting aside some of the fragments, but not all. Some of the ice shards made contact, and a cold blue sheen arced up along his arm and chest, causing him to growl in anger. Peyton summoned a massive wall of flame, not quite as large as Lyre’s but large enough that it engulfed Shadawn’s massive form. He howled in anger as it hit him.

She released another, immediately following the first, the flames hiding Shadawn from sight momentarily. And then he came crashing through the fire, bodily slamming her against the ground. She cried out in pain as she hit the floor, her eyes fluttering, the hovering third eye flickering slightly. Shitshitshit, I thought to myself. How much more can he take? Is it time yet? Even though she wasn’t looking at me, I could see Peyton shaking her head.I was already focusing on the death spell, and could feel the coalescing of the dark tendrils of my own magic gathering before me, a deep spot of brown. If I released the spell, would I be able to gather it again? I could only use it once. I cursed myself for having started the preparation for it, wondering what I could do.

“PETER!” I shouted desperately.

Shadawn glanced up at me briefly as I shouted, frowning, as a chittering screech echoed through the cavern. Peter jumped down from where he had been hiding high up on the cavern ceiling. Startled, Shadawn twisted back, attempting to swipe the spider of his head. It was almost funny to watch. As Peter moved, skittering further down his body and biting into his arm, I could see that the spider had attached the small bag of gunpowder to the back of Shadawn’s neck with some webbing. Peyton saw it too.

She focused a smaller fire spell on it, lighting it.

It wasn’t an impressive explosion, but between it and the spider still biting it, Shadawn was distracted enough that he released Peyton. She pulled away – the third eye grew bright, coalescing a deep purple energy, and suddenly several lances of bright purple light shot out like lasers, cutting Shadawn deep. He screamed in anger and pain, finally swatting Peter away, and turning to focus on Peyton.

Peyton, who had slipped up from the ground and was running straight towards me. “NOW, LUCAS!” she screamed.

I activated the spell.

The swirling brown and black miasma of death that had gathered in front of me shifted as I focused on it. It all seemed to happen in slow motion for a moment as I focused on Shadawn and saw his eyes widen in surprise as the energy formed a skull. I thought I could hear the ticking of a clock somewhere within my head, I could hear it slow as the skull grew to match Shadawn in proportion and swallowed him whole. The sound of an utterly inhuman wail filled my senses and overwhelmed me, forcing me to my knees.

Then everything seemed to implode into the spot where Shadawn met death. I gasped as I felt the air suck from my lungs and I closed my eyes and pressed my head to the hard rock beneath me.

When it was finally silent, I gasped. I felt hands gripping my shoulder. For a moment it felt like they were going to help me up, but then Peyton slipped her arms down around me and slumped against me, holding me tight as she joined me on the ground. “We did it,” she whispered, her voice very close to my ear.

I opened my eyes and looked up. The cavern was eerily quiet. From further away than I had thought, I could see Lexie standing, the aura of her magic still burning like a flame, her head twisting. “Peter,” I croaked, my throat dry. I felt strangely exhausted, I realized belatedly – my body trembled from the strain the spell had put on me. It had literally taken everything to cast it. Peter landed in front of me, tapping my head gently with his forearms and chittering. I reached up and patted one mandible gently. “Good boy,” I said.

And then I passed out.

Even before I opened my eyes, I realized it was bright. Almost too bright compared to what I had grown used to underground. Sunlight. My eyes fluttered open, and I hoped to find myself in a comfortable bed, somewhere civilized.

I was in a jungle. I sat up, looking at the massive skull with the vining flowers crawling along it – the place where I had met my god before. I stared into the cavernous eye sockets, and the void stared back. Don’t forget your promise.

I blinked and it was like I was flying over the ground at a fast pace, over fields and forests and mountains, north, where the ground grew barren and icy and snowstorms raged. I saw the massive tree.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled.

I woke, staring up at the rounded stone ceiling of one of the domed domiciles we had found underground. I wondered for a moment if I had been captured by Underlings, until I realized that this was the same one I had slept in before facing Shadawn. I sat up, rubbing my head, and could hear Peter chirping happily as I did so. “Oh good, you’re awake,” Peyton said.

I could see that she was sitting on one of the other stone beds. For a moment, I found myself absently thinking how ridiculously beautiful she was, until I saw her eyebrow quirk in reaction and remembered that she could read my thoughts. I desperately searched my head for the first song I could think of and settled on Yellow Submarine. I nodded. “How long was I out?” I asked.

“About a day. You’re the last one up. We’re getting ready to move out, and we might need you to heal some injuries before we go – I tried my best, but my healing is never complete.”

Move out. My heart jumped for a moment, realizing what that meant. We were leaving this place. We had completed our mission. We were free to live our lives. “What now?” I wondered out loud.

“We keep our promises,” Peyton said, reading my mind. I nodded. Peyton could return the bulk of her god’s power on our way out, and then we would have to visit the little island for Lexie to restore her goddess. And then I’d have to go on my longer trip, far north, to the tree. I frowned, feeling a little overwhelmed at making the trip. “You won’t be alone,” Peyton promised.

I nodded. I realized I hadn’t expected anyone to come with me, and her reassurance was instantly calming. “Thank you,” I said. I shifted, setting my feet on the floor. “And after we finish that last bit of business, what should we do?”

Peyton grinned, and stood up. She held a hand out to me. “Anything we want,” she said.

I looked up at her. Then I took her hand.

Epilogue

Life had slipped into some semblance of normal for Jennifer since the escapade on the alien ship. The invasion had been halted, and some of the invading aliens had been hard to flush out of their hiding places on Earth. But many of the freed aliens helped to find them. It had become a worldwide, multi-government endeavor. The other victims of the invading force were settling onto Earth for now – they had no long range vehicles to take them away, and no homes to return to. Not only that, but their magic flourished. Although a lot of people were hesitant or even outright scared of them, many of the newcomers simply wanted to live out the remainder of their lives as the last of their kind. Some had even begun to focus on trying to find ways back to the other worlds they had abandoned, hoping that perhaps those worlds had survived without their help.

Jennifer had Cassandra home for a brief time. They had visited the other parents of the Chosen – Cassandra had met Peyton’s mother, and Lucas and Lexie’s parents as well. Jennifer helped Cassandra get to her appointments and her treatments, but her health had deteriorated quickly. Disturbingly quickly. Jennifer had watched Cassandra’s vibrancy drain away. And yet Cassandra had been determined to try through every miserable moment to extend her life. “I promised,” she insisted every time. “I have to try to live.”

Eventually, caring for her went beyond Jennifer’s skills. Now Cassandra lay in a facility receiving hospice. Jennifer was there as often as she could be, and tried to keep herself mentally prepared for the inevitable phone call. But, she wondered, could you ever really be prepared for that news?

When the call finally came, she stared at the screen of her phone, letting it ring almost too long before answering.

“Hello?” she said, forcing herself to sound calm.

“Jennifer? It’s Wendy. Cassandra… she’s gone!” the nurse on the other end blurted the sentence out, almost too blunt for Jennifer to stand. For a moment Jennifer wanted to scream at her, asking if that was how she delivered such news to everyone.

Jennifer swallowed hard, and calmed her temper. She opened her mouth to speak, and then swallowed again to wet her throat. “I see. When did she die?”

“No! Oh god, no, nono! She’s not dead. She’s gone!” Jennifer leaned back against the ledge of her kitchen counter as the words sank in, while Wendy continued to babble. “I went to give her meds, and she just wasn’t there. No one saw her leave! Her stuff is all here. No one has any idea where she’s at. Do you think…?”

Jennifer let the unfinished question hang in the air. She wasn’t sure for a moment. Then she desperately hoped in the next moment. And then she was certain. “Thank you for calling me,” she mumbled, and hung up before Wendy could reply. She walked over to her calendar, where she had clipped the letter that Cassandra had left behind long ago when she had first gotten her diagnosis. The letter the lawyer had given her to read when Cassandra died. She stared at her daughter’s looping handwriting on the outside of the envelope, and ran her fingers gently over the outside of it, wondering if it was time to open it. Then she turned and tossed the letter into the trash. “She’s not dead,” she told herself firmly.

Cassandra wasn’t going to die before her. She’d never need to read it.

She was certain of it.

A few days later, she was trying to scroll through her email. Somehow, reporters and the curious always seemed to get her personal email address, and it was chock full of requests for interviews or random questions. Jennifer sighed, wondering if perhaps she needed to delete this account completely. There was no way she would ever be able to sift through it all.

There was the sound of an explosion outside, so loud and close it shook the building and car alarms sounded down the street.

Without a second thought, Jennifer exited her apartment and ran down the stairs to investigate and see how she could help. As she stepped out, clouds of dust were starting to settle. Crowds of people had drifted out to investigate, and others leaned out from their windows. The street was ruined and cracked, and at the center of it stood a short, almost familiar looking figure. A young black girl, with short hair, wearing a tunic dress. The girl turned on the spot, looking sheepishly at the damage that had been caused. Jennifer approached the girl, her mouth agape. “Lexie?” she whispered, hardly believing.

Lexie turned to look at her. “Umm. Hi?” And then she seemed to really look at Jennifer and her face lit up. “Wow, I guess are you Jennifer Brand? Cassandra said I’d be sent close to where her mom was, and that she’d be able to get me back to my parents, but I didn’t think that’d be the literal first person I’d see. Although, if you’re not Jen, you look a LOT like Cassandra.”

Jennifer stared in shock, and gave a brief nod. “Yes, I’m Jennifer. I can get you to your parents.”

Jennifer wanted to ask a million questions at once, about her daughter, about her health, about how she was doing, but all of those questions were put on hold as the younger girl suddenly burst into tears. Jennifer stared in wide eyed alarm at Lexie. The girl smiled, wiping away her tears with the heel of her palm, and laughed. “I’m home,” Lexie said simply.

Jennifer smiled, and moved forward to place a hand on Lexie’s shoulder. “Not yet. Let’s get you there.” There would be plenty of time for questions later – Cassandra was where she wanted to be.

53. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Everything was chaos. I felt useless holding back, summoning vines to help entangle Shadawn whenever I had the chance. Sometimes it worked, but he had learned to watch for my trick and had gotten more adept at moving away from them quickly. It was like being benched during an important game, and I felt frustrated that I couldn’t do more to help. Peyton’s hand was on my shoulder, her fingers digging into my skin, and I knew that she felt exactly the same. The glowing third eye swiveled to watch Shadawn as the battle raged before us.

Raella and Zolambi worked in tandem – she seemed to focus on keeping barriers around the two of them and somehow boosting his abilities, and he lobbed spell after spell at Shadawn’s shifting form. Between him and Lyre, the ethereal echoing of Primordial chanting seemed to fill the cavern. Asterollan seemed to be doing the most damage with his blazing sword, but Shadawn was aware of it and focused on keeping the golden-haired man out of range. Every time his blade bit flesh, I could hear Peyton cry out briefly in victory.

Shadawn also seemed frustrated with Lyre’s massive fire spells. I wasn’t sure if Lyre would have the energy to keep the display up – after the massive wave of fire, he had managed three massive balls of twisting flame, spiraling like an out-of-control vortex of fire, as well as some smaller fireballs. Now he stood back, still glowing with magic and chanting to form the next spell. He was obviously winded and panting hard. Shadawn pulled back several feet to avoid Asterollan’s blade and focused on sending his own dark tendriling magic toward Lyre, sensing the nearing completion of his next spell. Again, the energy dissipated before reaching him, sparking and crackling into the air in a series of blue flashes. A look of anger flashed across Shadawn’s face and I heard him hiss, “T’Keran!”

Lyre loosed another monumental wall of flame, and seeing it, I sent vines to grip at Shadawn’s feet. This time as the wall of flame engulfed him, I could hear Shadawn scream in pain and frustration, and Peyton gave another victory whoop. “Is it time?” I asked her.

She shook her head, but still looked please. “Not yet, but a few more shots like that…”

I glanced over at Lyre. The light of magic had faded around him, and he looked exhausted, his shoulders visibly slumped as he panted. “I don’t think we’re getting any more of those,” I said.

Peyton followed my gaze and cursed slightly under her breath as she saw what I saw. Shadawn emerged from the dwindling spell – despite the scream he looked untouched to my eyes. He rushed forward, straight toward Lyre, his eyes focused angrily on the pale elf. He hit an invisible barrier, but as he came into contact with it, it exuded sparks, and streaks of lightning went skittering and sparkling up a rounded dome that seemed to surround Lyre. Lyre stepped back, his eyes wide as he looked in surprise at the dome, and then he stumbled and fell as it visibly shattered under Shadawn’s push forward.

Shadawn was on him shortly after, physically reaching out to grip at the front of Lyre’s shirt, and pulling back his fist to punch him. He must have been furious to have dropped all pretense of using magic – once, twice, he slammed his fist hard into the elf’s face. Before the third strike, Asterollan came sprinting through and tackled Shadawn bodily, sending him skidding back. Asterollan reached down and helped pull Lyre back up to his feet. “Get closer to Raella,” I heard him say. Lyre nodded and moved away, limping, his nose bloody.

Shadawn was standing, brushing his robes off, glaring at Asterollan. “Of course, Cenastrum chooses a human – he always favored your festering race. Surprising, though, that his Chosen is a man that murders on the orders of his superiors.” Shadawn smirked slightly. “But then, he always did love unquestioning obeisance.” Asterollan narrowed his eyes slightly, shifting back into a more defensive position with his sword, but otherwise did not appear bated by the words. Shadawn sighed. “I do not prefer playing this way,” he said as he summoned a sword of his own into his hands – it was dark and dripping with shifting shadows.

He rushed forward, and the swords clashed together, the sound more a hum of energy and the faint sounds of screams than the clang of metal. The tendriling darkness of Shadawn’s sword seemed to creep over Asterollan’s blade, causing the light to flicker. I could see Asterollan’s expression falter in the light of his sword as the darkness moved to wrap around his wrist. He disengaged and jumped back, studying Shadawn with a deep frown as he shook the hand, almost as though the darkness had numbed it.

Shadawn pulled himself up to his full height with a satisfied smirk, then shifted suddenly out of the way of one of Zolambi’s spells. As he reappeared, Shadawn glared over in the direction of Zolambi, Raella, and Lyre. Then, with seemingly no need to prepare for it at all, he released a massive wall of shadow on par with one of Lyre’s previous walls of flame.

As it released, Asterollan dashed forward to slide his blade down across Shadawn’s back. Shadawn cried out in pain and rage, and turned to swipe at Asterollan with his own sword. The spell had already loosed though, and continued to roar off towards the others.

Raella and Zolambi both focused on erecting barriers – but when the first barrier shattered easily under the force of the dark energy, Raella gasped and turned to focus instead on shoving with her magic, sending Lyre and Zolambi out of the path of the spell. They cried out in surprise as they unexpectantly went sliding away, so forcefully that both hit the wall of the cavern and fell to the ground, alarmingly still.

I watched the massive wave of shadow in shock, my mouth gaping wide, the immense size of it taking me by surprise. As I watched the second barrier shatter, I finally roused myself and grasped forward with my vines, intending to pull Raella out of the way of the oncoming spell. I did manage, but almost too late – it was a glancing blow that caught her just as she was pulled off her feet by my vines, but it must have been bad – she let out an inhumanly pained shriek. She lay on the ground where my vines had carried her, not immediately getting up, whimpering and writhing on the ground.

“This isn’t good,” Peyton noted grimly, watching Asterollan and Shadawn fight one on one. The third eye shifted, looking at each of our companions briefly, and then focusing back toward the main battle. “Lucas.” Her grip on my shoulder tightened briefly. I glanced over at her, frowning. “Go check on them. I’m going to help Asterollan.”

“Are we even close at all?” I wondered.

She shook her head. “No. We’re only halfway there.” And then she sprinted forward, summoning massive shards of ice in the air to hurtle at Shadawn.

“Oh. Well shit,” I grumbled to myself, then sprinted over to check on the person nearest to me, which was Raella. As I reached her, I could see that she had curled up into a ball and was sobbing. I gripped her shoulder, shaking her briefly. “Are you okay?” I asked, feeling a bit stupid to ask since she obviously wasn’t. Another wracking sob shook her body. I focused on the healing magic I had learned, and while there were some physical injuries, she wasn’t badly hurt – the dark energy must have done something to her mentally. I healed her anyway.

After a few moments, her sobs quieted and her eyes flashed open to look at me. She sat up, wiping at the uncharacteristic tears that wet her face. “That was…” she gasped, and shook her head. “That was… intense. He chose fear as his domain, I believe you said?” I nodded, and she sniffed. “I see.” She glanced around to see what was occurring – Asterollan and Peyton were fighting Shadawn, and Lyre and Zolambi still lay still close to the wall. She nodded to them. “I’m fine. Go attend to them.”

I nodded and got up to jog over. I checked on Lyre first – he was unconscious. Even after I healed him, he remained passed out, and I wondered if the massive spells he had used had completely drained him. I could hear Raella approach me from behind as I checked on Zolambi as well, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I found that he was also only unconscious. His eyes fluttered open as I healed him. Raella sat with a sigh next to Zolambi, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not sure how much more we can do,” she admitted.

I nodded, understanding, and turned to watch the battle. “I… should I join?” I asked, uncertain.

“We need you fresh for the end of this thing. Wait a bit longer,” Raella said. I grimaced, watching as Shadawn’s form seemed to enlarge and he viciously backhanded Asterollan into a nearby wall.

“How much energy could the stupid spell use anyway?” I asked.

Zolambi and Raella exchanged looks, but said nothing. I frowned, watching Peyton help Asterollan up. They both looked winded, though the light of magic still burned around them. Shadawn moved in on them, still enlarged.

I moved forward, ignoring Raella’s shouted warning, and focused on summoning an entire area of thorned vines. They shot up, gripping at Shadawn. I don’t know how I understood that I could do it, but I did understand naturally that it was possible – the flowers shifted, growing fangs, and latched onto Shadawn’s flesh, pumping him full of venom. He screamed angrily. I considered pulling upon the power of death that was at my hands, not with the kill spell but perhaps something weaker, but hesitated at the thought of draining myself of any magic I might need later.

Shadawn screamed and pulsed with dark energy again, the way he had before, blasting the vines away and causing them to wither and fade to dust. He turned to glare at me angrily, and raised a hand in my direction. I heard Peyton yell something, but didn’t quite catch the words. I watched as the tendrils of darkness seemed to swirl around his hand, almost moving in slow motion as I focused on that point…

There was a sudden deafening screech from above, almost like a musical bird call. Near the top of the cavern where the platform had descended initially, I could see a bright light. A figure of flame with outstretched wings like some sort of magnificent bird descended quickly through the air. It wasn’t long before it swooped down, landing between me and Shadawn. The shadow turned to stare at the figure impassively as it shrunk down to a smaller size.

Shadawn studied the flaming figure. “And what are you?” he asked.

The flames coalesced and the wings drew in, but she was still lit brightly, a beacon of raw magical energy. Lexie.  “I’M. FUCKING. PISSED!”

She wasn’t looking at Shadawn though. She was looking at me.

“LUCAS! I can’t believe you did that!” she screeched.

I held up both hands in surrender. “I’m sorry?” The firey aura around her grew, compounded in her rage, and I shifted my hands up protectively in front of myself. But instead of focusing the flames on me, she turned and blasted Shadawn, who cried out in shock and anger. After a few tentative moments, I moved closer to where she stood. “Ah, I thought you were going to attack me,” I admitted under my breath.

“Later,” she promised gruffly, her eyes focused on the whirling flames. I grimaced and nodded. Shadawn emerged, looking angrier than before – and he was actually starting to look winded. My gaze shifted to Peyton as I wondered if he was damaged enough yet, but she shook her head as she heard my thoughts.

Shadawn released another massive wall of black energy. I gasped, but in response, Lexie released a massive wall of flame, larger and more intensely hot than the ones Lyre had been producing before. The energies collied, the fire burning through the shadow with ease, and Shadawn let out an angry yell. He began to send wave after wave – similar, but smaller than his previous attacks. Lexie released another massive blast of fire, but it didn’t burn through all of them, and the darkness shifted, focusing on attacking her. I shoved Lexie out of the way of one of the smaller waves of dark energy, and felt it strike me.

First there was pain. It was intense, like someone had taken several bricks and lined them with needles and then slammed them into one side of my body, the side where the dark wave had physically touched me. And then something else took over completely, that made me understand why Raella had been left a sobbing mess.

Terror.

It was instant and overwhelming and in every nerve ending: pure terror. I felt how truly insignificant I was for several long seconds, like every cell in my body had been reminded that I was nothing but a bag of meat and blood that could be easily torn apart by chance or whim. It was like being dumped into a pool of spiders and feeling a million tiny skittering feet run across my skin and into my open and screaming mouth, and feeling them bite and hearing them skitter into my ear canal, and feeling myself grow numb and cold with death. It was like hearing a single overwhelming note hum incessantly, and realizing it was the sound of a heart flatlining, and…

“Lucas! Lucas!” I could feel hands shaking me hard. Coppery brown hair floated around my face and I looked up into blue eyes.

“That was shit,” I said groggily, gripping Peyton’s arms tightly as she helped me sit up. “That was so much shit.”

She frowned, worried, and brushed tears off my cheek. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying. I shifted slightly on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t shit my pants, and she chuckled, having read my thoughts. I looked up to see that there was fire everywhere – the cavern was an absolute inferno. “Yeah, Lexie doesn’t really hold back,” Peyton said, reading my thoughts. And as she read my next one, her frown returned and she shook her head. “No. It’s not time – not yet. But it’s close.”

As she spoke, she stood and offered a hand to me. I allowed her to help me up. I realized I couldn’t see Asterollan anywhere, and Peyton gestured, though I couldn’t see what she had gestured toward. “He got knocked out coming to help you. I think he’s fine… I dragged him off to the side and tried healing him of the worst of it…”

52. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

We stood in front of the platform that would take us the final leg of our journey, down to the seal and to Shadawn. “Do we have a plan?” Peyton asked, running her hand along the edge of the panel. She turned to face us when she finished speaking.

“Free the asshole, hit him with everything we’ve got, and then when you give the signal, I’ll kill him,” I said. Asterollan and Lexie both nodded in agreement as I spoke, though I noticed that Lyre frowned.

Peyton sighed. “So that means you and I have to hold back enough to make sure we stay alive until the end of the battle. No running directly into the fray for me and you, and try to keep our attacks at a distance and reserve our energy as much as possible.” I frowned, thinking of every time she had run directly into the most dangerous situations, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re right,” she said after a moment.

I started singing Baby Shark in my head. “So you and I focus on things we can do from a distance. And Lexie, Asterollan, Lyre, Raella, and Zolambi keep his attention off us by attacking – hard.” I glanced over at Peter thoughtfully. “Should I bring Peter?”

“No, you can’t bring Peter. What if he dies!?” Lexie said immediately.

“There was a little bag of gunpowder in Cassandra’s things. I was thinking maybe he could hang on to that and lob it at Shadawn if he gets a chance.” Lyre had offered up Cassandra’s bag of supplies for anything useful, and I had found the small bag of black powder while sifting through it.

Lexie turned to me, her eyes wide with alarm. “You are not going to kamikaze your spider!” she said, her voice shrill.

“That wasn’t what I meant. I was thinking he could just drop it on the guy and one of us could light it with fire…”

“Is… can Peter even understand a plan that complicated?” Peyton asked. We all turned to look at the giant jumping spider. It clicked its jaws, happily waving a leg into the air.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. Peter chirped happily. “Well, let’s see.” I scanned the ground and picked up a nearby rock. I held it out to Peter and leaned in close, watching the reflection of my face glitter in its eyes. It occurred to me that being this close to it was something I would never have been able to manage before. “Here, take this.” The spider obediently moved forward, taking the rock from my hand. I knelt closer to it, whispering, “Go to the ceiling and lob this at Lexie when I say ‘good boy.’” Peter obediently chirped and moved out of sight.

“Regardless, is a little black powder going to make a difference?” Peyton crossed her arms, tapping her fingers gently against her elbow as she watched Peter disappear out of view overhead.

“Maybe not a little, but if there was some way to make a lot…” Asterollan said. “I’ve seen a lot of it blow a ship to smithereens.” Lyre’s frown deepened into a scowl momentarily as Asterollan spoke, before he caught me watching and then his expression evened out.

Peyton turned to look at Raella thoughtfully. “We can summon water… and make plants grow from nothing. Could we create more black powder with magic?”

Raella looked surprised at the question. “I’m not really sure. I suppose… hand me the bag of powder.”

Lyre stepped forward to provide the bag to Raella. “Good boy,” I commented loudly. He tilted his head in confusion at my statement just as I heard a soft thump and watched Lexie’s hand fly up to rub at the back of her head. “Oh! He understands! Good boy!”

“What the…” Lexie grimaced, frowning at me.

Raella ignored us, opening the bag to sift her fingers through the course powder. She studied it for a time, the light of magic surrounding her as she focused on it, and then shook her head. “It’s not an impossible idea, but not something we’re going to accomplish in such a short time frame.” She handed the bag back to Lyre. “We can’t spend forever camped here, after all.”

We all stared at the platform hesitantly. Peter jumped down from wherever he had been hiding and crawled along the edge of the platform, tapping the sides as he went. “The Underlings will find a way here eventually,” Zolambi said finally. “We need to go.”

No one immediately moved, but then Peyton sighed and boosted herself up onto the platform. She turned around to look at us, and said, “If we sit and plan too long, we’ll lose our nerve. We’re running out of time and our chances won’t get any better. We go now. It’s now or never.” I nodded, and moved to join her on the platform – she reached down and offered her hand. I paused a moment and took it, allowing her to help me up.

“Now or never,” I agreed. Then I started wondering if that sounded stupid, and added, “Now. Definitely now,” guaranteeing that I sounded stupid. The others joined us on the platform.

Raella, who Jon Umberling had shown the controls to, moved towards them and began to work on using them.

The dwarven soldiers, Captain Kaphryn, Jon Umberling, and Chase all stared up at us from below. “I should be going,” Chase said, watching as the platform lit up along the bottom and edges. She looked like she was debating jumping on to join us, but Zolambi only smiled and shook his head at her wordlessly. She sighed, staring at each of us as though it might be the last time she saw us. I wondered for a moment if it was.

“Good luck,” Jon Umberling said, looking somber. “Our very world depends on you.”

Lexie was standing very near the edge of the platform. She placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at the small gathering before us. “It’s all good,” she said confidently. “We’ll have this world saved in no time!” Peter chittered like he agreed with her, his front legs waving in the air.

The platform started to inch forward. And I made a split-second decision. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Lexie was just turning her head to look at me with a slight frown on her face, wondering why I had apologized, when I shoved her off the platform. Twisting vines were already reaching up from the ground below to catch her, softening her fall and grasping her limbs, holding her in place. The platform gained speed, pulling away quickly, and I could just barely see the look of shock making the whites of her eyes stand out before we were away. “Lucas! What the fuuuuck!”

The platform swooped into the next tunnel and I stared back at the spot of light at the end of it as it grew small in the distance. Turning to face my remaining companions, I could see Peyton regarding me with a warm smile on her face. Asterollan frowned, his arms crossed. “You plan to die today, one way or the other, I see. You know she’s going to kill you for that, right?” Peyton said, though her tone lacked any venom.

I sighed. “But at least she’ll be alive to do it.”

“She would have been useful to have in the fight ahead of us,” Asterollan said, less pleased. “She’s stronger than you give her credit for.”

“And what will we do if we need to reform the seal?” Raella asked. Her face was carefully composed and emotionless, but her tone betrayed the seething anger underneath.

“We’ll deal with it when we deal with it,” I said. I didn’t look at either of them as I spoke though – I found myself staring directly at Peyton. My thoughts were only on one thing: winning this fight.

The trip was shorter than I had thought it would be.

The platform exited the tunnel from high up on the wall of a massive cavern. I gasped, ducking down to place my hands on the platform as it tilted, but despite the angle we weren’t sliding off. Far below and approaching fast was what I assumed was the seal.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at it. I think I had expected something massive in scope, especially given that it supposedly contained all the gods and not just Shadawn. But it hovered very near the floor, a pulsing ball of light. The platform floated to a stop as it reached the ground, the ball still several yards away. We each dropped down and approached.

The surface of it was volatile, more like looking at something molten or made of plasma. It seemed to thrum and pulse with energy in front of us, and I could see tiny hairline fractures of darkness along its surface. I handed Peter the gunpowder and told him to hide in the ceiling and throw the bag at the bad guy when I called for him. He scurried away, disappearing into the dark, and I felt a little better that he would be out of sight for the battle.

I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to go. “How are we going to break the seal?” I asked.

Peyton approached the ball first. She turned to look at the rest of us. “He’s been asking me to free him since the beginning… he showed me how.” She took a deep breath, and I realized she was calming herself, steeling her nerves for what was going to happen. Her nervousness made me nervous, and I swallowed hard. “Remember, Lucas. We need to move away quick, let the other handle this.” I nodded and set my jaw.

Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment, and I nodded again for her. She reached out and placed her hands on the surface of the ball, and muttered, “All right, you bastard. Let’s start this.”

I wasn’t sure if anything was happening at first. The ball seemed to shrink for a moment, and grow dim. Then there was a loud noise – like a tear in fabric, or an explosion, or a scream, or all of it at once, and it seemed to come from everywhere without and within. I flinched, and I could hear some of the other shout out in shock at the sudden noise. The ball seemed to suddenly expand to encompass us all and then shattered with a noise like breaking glass.

Peyton, Asterollan, and I all immediately lit up. I wasn’t even aware I was reaching for magic – in retrospect, it would have been smart to have been ready, but I had made no conscious decision. It was simply like the wall between myself and magic vanished, and I wondered if that was what it meant to truly hold all the power of my god. I gasped as I felt the power surge through me. The sudden rush of it was euphoric, the auras around the three of us bright and instantly overwhelming the entire cavern. Asterollan shone so bright it was hard to look directly at him, so I focused on Peyton – her floating eye was focused off to the side.

Following its gaze, I could see darkness coalescing.

Shadawn was taking shape.

It was like the shadows creeped into each other, whispering as they gathered, and a humanoid shape took form within. When he appeared, he looked like any other elven man. In fact, it was almost disappointing how normal he appeared. Despite that appearance, there was a sense of apprehension in the air, something that made me internally shiver like I was hearing nails scratch across a chalkboard. I realized the revulsion was almost like concentrated fear, and remembered what domain he had chosen.

He was tall – about my height – and thin, with pale skin and long, angular features. His eyes glowed faintly. He smiled at Peyton, a smile that conveyed no actual warmth. “I see you’ve put the knowledge I gave you to use. Even if you intend to use it against me.” And then, without any visible sign of wielding magic, no gesture, no shout – a rush of tendriling darkness moved to grab Peyton.

She looked as surprised as I felt. The only thing I could think to do was to summon vines to grip her and pull her back – we needed to stay further from the fight, and she was too close. She gasped as my vines pulled her forcibly back, though it was hardly necessary – a barrier had erected in front of her, and the darkness crawled along the edges of it like it had its own living will.

As I ran over to where I had pulled Peyton, I could see that Raella was focused on maintaining the barrier. Shadawn narrowed his eyes at her, annoyed at her interference, his expression speaking of his absolute disdain for a mere mortal. And then everything exploded into chaos.

It was crazy to watch – Asterollan had moved forward, his blazing sword of light swinging with precision, but Shadawn moved unnaturally, almost like he didn’t exist as a physical object in space. He shifted easily out of the way of Asterollan’s magical weapon, and easily brushed off the spells that Zolambi was hurling at him. Raella seemed to focus on defense, quickly pushing Shadawn’s offensive spells away or creating barriers to deflect them.

As I reached Peyton, she shot me an annoyed look. “Really? Vines?”

“You’re welcome,” I said. I turned to watch the battle. “Are we even hurting him at all?”

She was watching as well, the floating third eye focused on the battle. She nodded after a moment. “They’re doing damage. He’s just… very strong. Final boss energy.”

I watched him continue to move quickly and easily away from Asterollan’s sword, and focused on summoning vines just beneath him, springing up to grip his legs and thighs. Despite the unnatural shifting, the vines held him tight – it surprised me, because I hadn’t expected them to, and I wondered if there was something about the divine nature in the vines that helped against him. Asterollan’s next strike cut him deep across the abdomen – it looked fatal, but the wound reformed quickly and he growled angrily, hitting Asterollan hard and sending him skidding back several feet.

He turned to glare at me, but as he did, a massive wall of flame rose up in front of Lyre, blocking him from view. “It’s working,” Peyton said. “We’re doing damage. But this is going to take awhile.”

“Oh, that’s nice and fucky,” I commented, trying to sound as cheerful as I could as the fire faded and Shadawn came back into view. If he had been hurt like Peyton claimed, there was no physical sign of it yet. Mostly he just looked annoyed, but thankfully that anger seemed to have shifted away from me and towards Lyre, who he regarded carefully after the fire spell.

He pointed at Lyre and a lance of shadow struck out, lightning fast and jagged. It seemed to hit something in the air and dissolved in sparks, though it didn’t look like Raella had managed to summon a barrier in time.  Lyre looked just as surprised as Shadawn did, who let loose a low hiss of anger as his attack dissolved, his eyes narrowing. He inhaled deeply, and focused, the air wavering around him, and then waves of dark energy exploded from around him, knocking all of us back and off our feet – but more than that, when the wave hit, there was a sudden explosion of pain from inside of my skull. It was like hearing a thousand voices screaming in terror at once – it hurt so bad it left my vision flashing and left me dazed. I hadn’t even realized I’d been knocked off my feet until that pain subsided.

As I lay on the ground for a moment, gasping, I realized this was just the beginning of the fight.

51. Cassandra (WIP)

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Okay, so instead of an actual full chapter I’m posting a kind of half assed chapter and some brief summations of things I intended with it, and I’m going to kind of skip this part to move on to the remainder of the story and finish it out. Part of the reason for this is that there are whole sections involving this part that are going to be completely rewritten. When I work on my rewrites, the Interludes are going to be more frequent and involve the tensions between Cassandra and Jennifer’s relationships as parent/child.

There were also a few things that were supposed to happen before this point that I simply forgot to add in. Most significant being that Jennifer was supposed to hear Asterollan reveal Cassandra’s diagnosis and then she was supposed to sit and decide whether to read or not read the letter (I have not decided yet whether she will at this point or not). Which of course informs a lot of her interactions with Cassandra in this chapter. And since I flubbed all that, I can’t expand on it here. So basically within this chapter, Cassandra and Jennifer are supposed to defeat the bad aliens, save the day, return to Earth.

Since I’m also already blabbing on about intentions for the story, I’ll go ahead and discuss something that I was saving for when I finished to give an idea of next steps. I’ve been taking notes on things I definitely plan to expand upon when I do my rewrites. The notes are as follows:

  • Lucas will start off awkwardly calling Peyton “Miss Hobbs” because calling her by her first name sounds too informal, and he will kick himself in the head for it immediately because he knows it sounds dumb, but stubbornly stick to it for more than half the book.
  • Add show instead of tell where possible.
  • No clear baddie at first beyond the “idea” of a bad guy, need to impress stakes upon the characters from an earlier point
  • Have Cassandra see her goddess out of the corner of her eye from earlier, and maybe even the bad guy?
  • Show more interlude bits of Jennifer reacting to the feeds. These are likely to be shorter insets anyways
  • Evil being = god ascendant?
  • Change Peter to Parker?
  • When Lexie has her god meeting, she should start to display fiery properties to her aura when she reaches for her magic. Her god grants her full power earlier after all.
  • Play up awkward for Lucas and anxious for Cassandra.
  • Expand upon the characters and world a bit and have them stay a bit longer in a few places. Greyjon should have celebrated and well known military accomplishments that people comment on when they meet him, etcetc.

So when I actually go through and do the edits, a lot of the minor characters are going to become more important, places are actually going to get named, history is going to be built in, and themes are going to be strengthened. My next rewrite will be shameless expansion and bloat and worldbuilding. And then my third rewrite will be trimming that back down and tightening everything into place.

So all that in mind, here is my sloppy writing to stand in place for Chapter 51, and then next week I will move on to Chapter 52, which switches back to Lucas.

As we freed the prisoners, I worked on ripping out the dampeners and healing the small remaining wounds one at a time. Despite the tedious and tiring nature of the work, the blaring alarm kept me on high alert, my system coursing with adrenaline. As the crowd of freed prisoners grew, I felt my indignation grow as well. There were so many people here – some were of the same race, prisoners from the same world, but still the variety accounted for well over a dozen worlds. And all these worlds had been destroyed? Just like these aliens planned to do to Earth…

Even as worn out as I felt, I was swept up with the group as someone led us toward the main deck of the ship. I’m not sure if anyone had an actual plan or if they were just spurred by anger and revenge. The alarms grew louder as we moved through the halls, and soon the sound of fighting reached my ears. Those at the front of the group sped into a jog, and soon all of us were sprinting towards whatever lay ahead, toward the cacophony.

It was as chaotic as it sounded. An entirely separate group of freed prisoners were in the middle of fighting across the control deck. They had somehow managed to gather weapons, but despite that advantage they still faced one major disadvantage – they lacked their magical abilities. I gaped as I watched the strange abilities of the tripod-things as they cast their spells – they shifted through space, turned invisible, and easily deflected projectiles by redirecting them through small holes in space. As a result, the entire room was a chaos of unpredictable weapons fire and screaming.

I paused outside the doorway as everyone else charged into the fray, watching as the new group of prisoners that could use magic began to channel their own strange abilities. It was obvious that magic was going to be a deciding factor in this fight. I leaned against the wall outside the door, my brow furrowing as I considered what I could do. I needed to remove all the magic dampeners in the other prisoners… after having removed so many individually, could I sense them without placing hands on each individual?

I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing hard, pushing out with my magic searchingly. I focused first on finding the small pieces of metal but couldn’t seem to focus on something so small across so many different bodies.

I took three deep breaths and reoriented myself. I focused on the room, on all the life forms in the room. I could sense them. I instantly got a sense for how many people were in the room fighting. I could feel their injuries, their illnesses, the strains on their bodies. I frowned hard, realizing some of them were human even, but then forced myself to focus past that…

I couldn’t focus on finding the little pieces of metal that I had hoped to find. But I realized that so many people on our side were injured… perhaps I could at least get them back in the fight.

I cast a healing spell across the entire room.

For a brief moment, everything got louder as those that were on the brink of death launched themselves back into the fight. But casting so much and so continuously since I had arrived finally wore me out. I slumped against the wall, my head pounding and the world spinning as I got alarmingly close to passing out.

A blurry figure knelt in front of me. I blinked to clear my vision, and remembered that without glasses, it would never be fully clear. I squinted. “Cassandra,” a familiar voice said, the tone a cross between gently maternal and sternly cross.

“Mom?” I said, feeling so confused I was certain that maybe I had passed out and started dreaming. She repeated my name again, telling me to get up. “What are you doing here?” I mumbled. She stared at me for a long moment and then hugged me. I hugged her back, still confused. “What’s going on?” I wondered out loud, not really sure what to think anymore.

“We’re going to blow up the ship,” she announced.

I stared at her in confusion. “What?!”

She pulled me along behind her, gripping my arm tight. I was still dizzy from expending so much power. “The aliens you freed were the last of the prisoners from the other prison wing. The ones I was working with know what the plan is – they’ll get them out,” she reassured me as we walked. “On our way up to the deck, we found the fuel system for the ship, and the energy source and be overloaded.”

“Mom, wait. I don’t even know why you’re here.”

She flashed me a mildly annoyed look. “I came out of retirement after you disappeared and the Stream started?”

“Stream?” I mumbled.

Ignoring my question, she said, “Once we overload the system, we’re going to have to make a quick escape. So stay close to me.”

“Why are we doing this exactly?” I asked as I finally pulled my arm out of her grip. I kept pace with her as she continued to half-jog down the hall.

“The aliens that run this ship are starting their invasion of Earth. From the various aliens I’ve talked to, they apparently stage everything from this ship. Even if the invasion is already underway, if we destroy their base, they won’t have anywhere to return and regroup.” I nodded like I understood, but I was tired. I was homesick for Earth, but also homesick for Lyre, and a part of me wanted to find a dark and quiet room to curl up and cry in undisturbed until the cancer killed me.

50. Cassandra & Interlude

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Cassandra

The hour was up. I could hear my heartbeat whooshing in my eardrums as I finally pulled away from Lyre, slowly dressing, wanting to make every moment last longer. As I finally exited the building, I could feel his hand gripping mine tight, like it had so often through our entire journey. It was hard to focus and I felt numb, like I was on autopilot. I said my goodbyes to everyone, smiling and reassuring Lexie that I’d make sure her family was safe and let them know she was okay.

Finally, I turned to look up at the dark black orb as it hovered close. I pulled my hand away from Lyre’s as I did so, taking a deep and shaky breath. I felt his fingers brush against the back of my hand as I pulled away, and could feel his reluctance to let go in the gesture. “I’m ready,” I said, my throat feeling dry. I could barely speak around the feeling of my heart blocking my throat. “Take me back.”

For a split second I felt like turning around to catch a last glimpse of Lyre, of everyone, but it happened so fast I never got the chance. The colors of the world around me swirled into light and sound and I gasped as I felt an immense weight press all around me, my ears popping at the pressure of it. It felt like I was going to implode. It was hard to maintain consciousness – I blacked out.

When I came to, I found myself on my knees, coughing and gasping for air, and I pressed my eyes shut against an overwhelming sense of vertigo. The floor beneath me was metal, cool to the touch, and I leaned forward to press my forehead against it and screamed.

When I finally stopped, I became aware of how heavy my body felt now. I could immediately feel the dull ache deep in my hip on the side that had been crushed in that car wreck so many years ago. I could feel a strange exhaustion set deep in my bones. I felt my breathing quicken for a moment as the realization hit – the cancer was back. I was going to die. Maybe not today, but soon. I wanted to indulge in curling into a ball on the floor and sobbing. A tremendous sense of loss washed over me, and I didn’t want to open my eyes and face where I had arrived. But I could hear noises around me – in the distance, there was a muffled alarm sounding, like hearing emergency alerts on other peoples’ phones in public. There was the stirring of air as I heard a door opening, and I sensed something moving close to me.

Before I could look up, cold metal pressed against my neck. Gasping in surprise, I jerked automatically, pulling away from whatever it was. There was a soft hissing sound of air pressure, and a metallic clang as something bounced off the floor below me. I immediately reached for my magic – I did it without thinking, having used it so naturally for months at this point. I could feel it – it was weaker than before, empty and solitary, lacking the presence of T’Keran – and I used it to push the person that had pressed the metal object to my neck away.

Opening my eyes, I found myself having to squint at how blurry my vision was without glasses. I moved closer to the slumped figure I had attacked to see it more clearly. I was in a small square room and the force of my magic had shoved the person I attacked all the way out into the hall. It was humanoid, with three arms and three legs and a broad face. Three eyes blinked up at me in a daze as its large mouth gaped open, and it emitted a soft noise of pain and surprise – somehow it must have hit the doorframe on its way out and broken two of its legs. I winced, seeing one leg twisted unnaturally under its body and the other splayed out limply with a bone poking through. I could see that it held a strange metal object firmly in its hand, that looked alarmingly like a gun. It weakly raised the object to point it at me, and I lashed out with my magic again, slamming the hand back and causing the metal object to fling down the hall.

I paused, completely unsure of what to do. I felt immediately guilty – if these were the creatures that brought me back, would they decide to attack Earth because of what I had just done? Should I have surrendered? I stood floundering in indecision, wondering if I should heal the creature before me, wondering about the loud blaring alarm in the distance. A strange croaking voice said, “Human! Cashdra-human!” My head swiveled toward the sound – I was in a hallway lined with semi-transparent doors, and I could see at least two blurry figures standing close to those doors, watching what was happening. “Let out! Let out!” the voice croaked, sounding a lot like a very large frog.

“What?” I asked stupidly, feeling a swell of anxiety. I moved closer to the door. There was a button right next to it, and I wondered for a moment if it could be that easy before I pushed it.

The door slid open.

I squinted at the figure standing before me. It actually did look like a giant humanoid frog – the skin was dry and pebbly, giving it a more reptilian look. Its large eyes and strangely shaped pupils focused past me at the creature still slumped on the ground, and its body mass expanded as it drew in air, releasing it in a shockingly loud hiss. I stepped back, shocked at the explosion of sound, and the frog-thing rushed past me. It moved faster than I would have expected, and began to slam the head of the tripod-thing into the floor repeatedly using its strong hind legs. I gasped and looked away, completely shocked at the sudden gore as the head smashed open and the insides splattered out, and I felt my knees give out.

I sat on the floor, trembling in terror. My mind reeled, wondering what was happening. I had returned home, hadn’t I? I could hear the heavy breathing of the frog-thing as it moved past me, having beat the tripod-thing to death – it opened the other door and the other shadow stepped out.

The frog-thing approached me. “Cashdra-human,” it said, reaching out its strange three fingered hand. I gaped at it, wide eyed with shock.

“What?” I asked again, my voice a lot quieter this time.

A different being moved forward, this one tall and thin with almost translucent gray skin. It looked almost human, and had large green-black eyes. I could not see a mouth moving when it spoke, the voice seemed to simply hover out of its chest. “He is calling you by name and clan. Cassandra, human.”

I shivered, staring up as the other figure moved close to me. “How does he know my name?”

“We’ve all been watching you while you journeyed.”

I felt my blood run cold as my head swiveled around and I squinted at each of them. “Watching me,” I repeated, my voice flat as I tried to comprehend the statement.

“We are all victims here. We have all shared the same story. We have all traveled by magic between worlds, and been brought back by the threat of our home’s destruction.” The gray figure reached a hand out to me – it had the appropriate number of fingers, but they were long and thin, and the hand looked almost too fragile. I hesitantly took it and was surprised to find it was stronger than it appeared. I also reached out and took the frog’s hand. Together, they pulled me up easily. “I am sorry, human. They lied to you. They plan to destroy your world regardless. The invasion of your Earth will begin soon.”

“What!?” I shouted. “They’re going to invade anyway?”

The creatures in front of me glanced at each other, their expressions a mix of sadness and understanding. The frog nodded. “They invade. No matter choice.” It moved past me and back to the body of the tripod-thing, rummaging through its clothes.

“We have to do something,” I said. Doing my best to ignore the mess of a body still sprawled on the floor, I moved over to the metal object it had been holding. “Is this a weapon?” I asked, picking it up and examining it.

“Not entirely. It holds small metal magic dampening devices, that would inhibit casting ability.” I shivered as the gray alien spoke, realizing how close I had come to being rendered completely defenseless. “They use them on all of us, to make sure we can’t use our abilities against them.”

“You can use magic too?” I asked, surprised. I dropped the gun.

The creature nodded, and said, “We all can. And they can too. Its how they find us…”

I moved forward, placing my hands on either side of the creature’s face. I focused my healing ability, remembering how I could sense illnesses and infections in a body, I instead focused on finding anything that seemed foreign, and found it – no larger than a grain of rice, a small metallic piece in the base of the neck. I frowned, trying to think of how to remove it, before deciding to simply rip it out. I focused on pulling it straight out the way it had entered. I heard the gray person gasp and tense under my fingers as it felt the metal move, and then it cried out as the dampener ripped through its skin. I heard the metal clatter to the floor, but focused instead on healing the small wound left in its wake. Finally, I stepped away.

The gray being lifted a hand to its neck, touching where the wound had been. A strange series of expressions flitted across its face – then it pointed a finger out toward where the magic dampener had landed. The small piece of metal rose into the air. The gray being twisted its wrist and clenched its fist, and the metal twisted and disintegrated. “I can…” its voice trailed off briefly, then it looked at me and nodded. “Thank you,” it said.

“How many others here are like us?” I asked.

“Many. They have been to many worlds.” It turned its head towards the frog. “Have you discovered why the alarm is sounding?”

I grimaced. Many worlds? Destroyed? What kind of people would do such a thing? I realized the frog had taken a tablet like device from the body, and was now examining something on the screen. “Alarm. Intruders here.”

I frowned as he spoke. “Where is here, anyway?”

The gray being nodded, a thoughtful look on its face. “We will explain. But help us free the other prisoners, and remove their dampeners as well. We will have a better chance then.”

I nodded. “Lead the way.”

Interlude

After seeing the Stream go dark, Jennifer turned to Polypt, her mind racing. “When you were brought back, what happened? Were you brought to this ship immediately?”

The alien tilted its mantis-like head, regarding Jennifer with its large black eyes. “I was brought to the ship, directly to my prison here. The first thing they do when you return is embed a device into your body that dampens your ability to use magic. Immediately after, the invasion begins.”

Jennifer paused a moment, trying to process that information. If she had known that they were so close to starting their plans, she would have immediately reached out to other departments so everyone could be on high alert back on Earth. Her suicidal rescue mission had suddenly grown a lot more complicated. “How do they proceed with the invasion? Do they already have units on the planet ready to strike, or do they leave from the ship directly?”

Polypt made a gesture – Jennifer realized it was a shrug. “I was in captivity. I was not privy to the details.”

Jennifer let loose a string of expletives under her breath and twisted on her heel, immediately issuing orders for Reese and Hall to get the other humans to the nearest vehicles they could find and get them home. She also told them that the invasion was going to start, maybe had already started, and they needed to alert everyone as soon as they landed. She told Polypt to go with them. “I could help you here,” Polypt protested briefly.

“They’re going to need at least three vehicles to get everyone back to Earth,” Jennifer said. “And you’re the only other one that can operate one. Also, having an actual alien warning against an alien invasion should light a fire under someone’s ass.  I’ll go alone. Any ideas on how I can find the prison block where they’ll keep Cassandra?”

“Much of this level is made up of prisons,” a low growling voice said, surprisingly close. Jennifer frowned, looking over at the furry creature, which now stood close to her and Polypt. She hadn’t been aware of it moving up to them in the first place, but she didn’t allow her discomfort at that to show. For a moment, she wanted to ask how everyone seemed to know English – was it watching the Stream broadcast daily for so many months? Was there more magic at work? But she quickly dismissed these thoughts – they were questions for a less hectic moment. “But there is another row of prisons on the far side of the ship as well.”

“So she could be close,” Jennifer said again. She paused, not certain what to say to the creature, then settled for, “Thank you. If you want to escape, you can go with the humans.”

The creature regarded her passively, with those strange glowing eyes. Jennifer kept her expression carefully composed, annoyed at how inexpressive both aliens before her appeared. “I will go with you. We will release all the prisoners, and seize control of the ship.”

Jennifer blinked, a little surprised at the idea. She hadn’t thought of recruiting help from the prisoners on the ship, but it made sense, and if the invasion launched from the ship, perhaps they could cause enough chaos to delay or even stop it before it really got underway. “How many prisoners are there?”

“Impossible to say. Sometimes they take multiple prisoners from planets – hostages, in case they are discovered before their drama plays out, and the travelers that return to save their homes.” The creature’s eyes burned brighter for a moment, set and determined.

Jennifer nodded. “Let’s go.”

There were multiple hallways like the one that Jennifer had exited, each holding rows of cells. Some were empty, some held only one or two individuals, and others were packed full. Jennifer boggled nearly every time they released hallway after hallway of strange looking aliens – there were so many different looking creatures, some that looked humanoid and others that looked so vastly different that she wondered at first if they even understood her as she addressed them. But she kept a clear head and gave clear and concise instructions – whoever wanted to escape was free to find their own exit. Anyone that wanted to stay should join them in taking the ship.

There were many that stayed. It seemed the desire for revenge was strong amongst them, which made sense if they had all witnessed the destruction of their home worlds.

The siren from earlier still sounded, but the Bastards hadn’t figured out that the prison levels were a problem yet. Jennifer prayed silently that her original team had stayed safe through their own dangerous game of cat and mouse around the ship, and was pleased that it had kept danger away. “This is the end of the cell blocks on this side of the ship,” the furry creature informed her after they freed the last hallway of aliens.

Jennifer sighed. She had searched nearly every strange face for Cassandra, but hadn’t seen her daughter yet. Her fingers absently brushed the pocket where the letter was still secured. Jennifer glanced back at the ragtag group of aliens that filled out the hall behind her. She weighed her choices. If they took the ship, she could search for Cassandra at her leisure – her daughter would be safe enough holed up in a prison cell. Nodding decisively to herself, she said, “Does anyone know where they control the ship from? Is there a… a bridge? A command center?” A few of the aliens did know. “Good, lead the way. We’ll check rooms as we go – we’re looking for any weapons we can use, and we’ll beat them out of the hands of anyone we run across. We’re going to take this ship.” A strange chorus of cheers, hoots, and growls echoed in the air around her.