Emergence (21 page)

No matter what he has done, what he would do, he is still my brother, and I have lost too much of my family already
.

She threw on her clothes and bolted to the door. As she was about to manifest a ribbon, she remembered the tan book. While she had read every other book from cover to cover, she couldn’t seem to decipher the language of the tan book. It was deceptively thin and small, and something told her the words written held some unimaginable power.

I must take this with me -- for some reason, I think I might need it.

“Where are you going?!” shouted Asil, who stood in the living room clad in a blue robe. “How can you leave in the middle of the night like this?”

“The time has come. My brother calls for me -- even now, he fights the Freilux, and is losing.”

“And what does it matter?” he asked. “He isn’t your true brother.”

“You’re not truly a man, yet I love you just the same.”

A heavy silence hung between them, as she finally had spoken what was never dared mentioned.

“You . . . love me?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, I do.”

“Then why won’t you let me stand with you?”

Melissa sighed. “Because . . .”

“Because I’m not an Archsussa? And yet you’ll call on the scientists to help you, won’t you?”

“Yes,” admitted Melissa. “We could use all the help we can get.”

Asil came close, and held her hands. “Then find a way that I might help you. You say you love me? Then I tell you I wouldn’t want to live if you perished.”

Melissa began to weep, and Asil wiped her eyes.

“I have had a long time to think about you,” said Asil. “You mentioned earlier that you wish you had a home? Well this is mine -- it is all I’ve ever known, and you’re all I’ve ever known. I’m sure I could live on a levitating city and none would know who or what I was, but I know it wouldn’t be home to me. This is my home, and you are my Lissa.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “And you are my Asil. I think I know a way you can join me in battle. We will leave in an hour -- prepare the hlenna.”

Chapter 18

A great thick cloud of white enveloped the levitating city of Imathrin, as the heavy snowfall turned to mist from the intense exchange of sussa. The armies of the Freilux and the Nemesnik fought on a wasteland for a battlefield; for a ten-square span everything was razed, burned or broken to its base elements and covered with a slick coat of flesh and blood.

Melissa hovered high above in her small platform, scrutinizing what lay below. It was a grizzly scene, as hoards of Igra swarmed over what remained of Toby’s army. She could see the Freilux had Toby and his Archsussa pinned down, surrounded by a thick dampening field. Never before had she seen Toby’s face so wrinkled and devoid of hope, nor the Freilux looking so healthy.

Am I really ready for this? There are so many there, and I am . . . just one
.

She had sent a message to Sliona about the attack, and received a reply that she would receive help. But it was a short message with little content, and Melissa worried about Richard trying to get that old ship to fly once more.

“Are you ready, Asil?”

Asil stood at a small command console near the front door. The house no longer had walls of wood and stone, rather they now appeared as great circuit panels. The buzzing of current could be heard, and the air was filled with the smell of metal and ash. Melissa had charged the main battery below to almost overflow, and every room pulsed with a bluish brilliance.

“I’m ready. You look . . . utterly beautiful.”

“I still feel so fat.”

Asil came from behind the console, and embraced her. “No, you are beautiful. You have come through so much, to stand by your brother in his time of need. It would have been so easy to forget about him, and us, and remain with the scientists. But here you are, and I am happy.”

She went over to the open door and clenched her fist, feeling the power surge within, her eyes glowing fire-red. “I have waited for this moment for so long. Today, I will avenge my mother, and my father.”

“Just be careful, my Lissa. These people not only have power, but cunning and guile. They have orchestrated something over these long years -- I can feel it.”

She turned once again to face the battlefield. “No matter what it is, I have friends to support me, and guide me through my tough times.” She faced him, and ran her hand along his cheek. “Isn’t that true?”

Asil nodded shedding a few tears. “Yes it is, my love.”

“Then let us fight!”

In an instant she leapt from her platform, and descended quickly through the clouds. A few soldiers below glanced up, and when they did, she focused her energy into a percussive blast directed at the Freilux. The impact knocked him to the ground and he lay there, motionless.

I . . . I killed him?
she wondered, hovering in the air.
I couldn’t have – what have I done?

“
Melissa?
” asked Toby, mentally, “
Is that you
?”

“
Toby! What . . . what should I do? I’ve killed --
.”

“
You couldn’t have even hurt him, Lissa! He’s playing with you!
”

The Freilux laughed, and sat up. “He’s right, my dear Lissa. Oh, I can tell you’ve been studying. But you still have no conception of what an Archsussa really is. Show her, my Strumbrion!”

From behind him came a tall thin figure draped in a long, silvery robe. Melissa cringed with fear, as she could feel the being’s power.

“This is my idelfada, Lissa; my
Strumbrion
!” shouted the Freilux proudly. “Across the ovoid, he has left a trail of fire and death as he crushed my enemies. He is irresistible, and I pray you surrender before you learn that fact firsthand.”

“Well, this is
my
idelfada,” said Melissa, gesturing to her descending platform, “and he may not have a pretentious name like yours, but he ignites a fire within me. Set Toby free, Asil!”

The small platform descended quickly, glowing like a sun. Plasma swirled around the structure, and from its surface erupted a thick column of sussa. It detonated just above the battlefield, causing a massive quake that knocked many down to the ground. The Strumbrion, unaffected, made several motions with its hands, and a large portal opened underneath Melissa.

What are you planning?

In an instant, the portal opened into the sun itself, and the intense heat from the surface of the sun could be felt. The concrete under her cracked and buckled -- incinerating from the intense heat. Melissa struggled against the extreme heat and radiation, erecting a thick shield to counter the effects so she could still function. The Strumbrion then opened a portal above her of gravitationally intense blackness, and Melissa now struggled against the heat and a whirlpool of gravity.

He has more experience than I – how can I possibly win? I thought I was so strong, but . . . wait, I have learned science!

Melissa concentrated, and bent the fabric of space-time around her, so the portals became interconnected, the whirlpool feeding off the sun’s energy. Now out of danger, she turned her power to the Strumbrion.

I can’t give up now . . . I just can’t!

She brought her hands back, and quickly brought them together in front of her. As she did, the atmosphere echoed her motions, and within the air rocks coalesced. The Strumbrion now struggled against a mighty gale-force wind that rained rock and stone. As Melissa intensified the assault he succumbed, collapsing to the ground.

She could see Asil firing more eruptions at those holding Toby and his Archsussa, and in a few moments, Toby broke free and ran through the wasteland.

Yes!

“Not so fast, dear friend,” said the Freilux. Melissa watched as a spectral web ensnared Toby, dragging him first down to the ground, then back to the Freilux’s side.

“Let him go!” screamed Melissa. “Face me!”

“Are you really ready for me?” wryly asked the Freilux. “Why don’t you finish playing with my toys? Oh wait, you’ve only met one of them . . .”

Out of the clouds descended two more Strumbrion, their cloaks billowing like silver fire. Sussa whirled like wildfire around their fists, and in an instant they landed next to their fallen comrade. They helped him up, and now they stood tall, radiating intense power. 

Now, the true test begins.

They each hurled mighty bolts of power against her, which she deflected with relative ease. In turn, she remembered some scientific principles, and applied them against her enemies. She manifested a glowing sphere that rotated with terrible speed. It soon created its own gravity, and helplessly the three figures plunged towards it. As they drew near each other, Melissa hurled her own bolt of power to detonate the sphere. The Strumbrion were cast down many hundreds of meters from Imathrin, unable to move.

They won’t be so quick to attack me again
, she thought.
They realize I know what I’m doing. Their next attack will be --

Before she could finish her thought, hundreds of igra materialized around her, one on top of another. They were a squirming, roaring mass of teeth and flesh, and they all sought to rip her apart. Melissa felt a thick childhood fear grip her, and no matter how many she threw off with sussa, three more materialized in their place.

“Do you like my pets?” jovially asked the Freilux. “They have grown bored with their current feast, so I give them to you!”

They began to sink their teeth into her, and she felt real pain. Though she could heal herself quickly with sussa, it was a terrible drain on her strength to fend them off and keep healing herself. She was getting frantic, her mind racing on what she could do but coming up with no answers.

What was I thinking? He’s been studying sussa all his life -- how can I beat him?
Through the mass of the igra, she could see her small platform firing blast after blast at the Strumbrion, trying to break them.
Asil doesn’t give up . . . and neither should I.

Suddenly a solution came to her. She reached out thousands of tendrils of sussa, wrapping them around the beasts, cocooning them in her own energy. Their roars dulled and faded, as their bodies were transmuted by her will.

Now, let’s see!

The cocoons dissolved, revealing thousands upon thousands of small blue amoebic creatures. They rained through the air, almost like petals of some magnificent flower, falling on the Strumbrion. They didn’t know what to do, as they appeared harmless.

“Science and sussa, my friends,” roared Melissa, “it can be a terrible combination!”

Melissa opened the clouds and diverted a typhoon of snow. The amoebic petals absorbed the water and began to grow in size, pulsing and suckling on the Strumbrion. No matter how fast they brushed one off, another would grow in size and siphon off their energy.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “What terrible Archsussa you are! One must learn more than what is in the sacred texts!”

The Strumbrion screamed, opened a ribbon, and vanished within.

Melissa turned to the Freilux. “Your pets have abandoned you -- you should surrender!”

The Freilux nodded with approval. “You have certainly learned quickly and thoroughly, dear Lissa. Perhaps what you don’t know is one can open a ribbon onto the surface of time itself. Every minute you waste, preening before me, is a year in which they develop their skills. When next they appear,” he said, as the hooded figures re-entered the sky, “they will be exponentially more powerful and deadly.”