Emergence (4 page)

Why do I need to be here? Why can’t I just go home?

She lingered a while longer, her gaze settling on a young, stubble-faced brown-haired boy. He looked to be a couple of years older than her, but at his side lay a long, angry-looking weapon. A few of her friends had already started kissing boys, and up until the Apocalypse she had hoped she would be next.

I might die out there -- why can’t I just have a little fun? Why do I always have to be this title?
She pulled her eyes away, and quietly followed the narrow path out of the camp.
If I stay, then they’ll wed me to the Freilux, and no amount of kissing that boy will make that any better.

Melissa wept bitter tears as she stood in a snow-covered valley, looking back at her brother’s camp. All hope of ever seeing her friends again lay back there, and any hope of sharing Toby’s company. Still part of her thought it could all be over in an instant, and she would be back home with her huffoi, sleeping in bed. Even now it was difficult for her to reconcile this new vision of Toby with the brother she knew before, and hoped it could all be some mistake. He was always the kindest, gentlest person in her life, playing with her endlessly as the long afternoons turned into night.

Absently her hand went to the invisible wound on her arm, and it focused her back to reality. She turned and pressed on as a biting wind whipped around her.

She hoped Ruger would pay, and in her mind she fantasized of her brother discovering her absence and finding out Ruger told her to marry the Freilux. She was warmed by the thought of her vengeful brother devouring Ruger in another whirlpool of gravity.

The snow was thick, wet, and rose almost to her hips. Down into a low valley she half walked, half slid, slowly becoming more and more scared at the sheet of ice lurking beneath the snow. Twice she lost her footing and slid down, deep under the snow, her vision obscured by frigid whiteness. The valley yawned in all directions, and she worried if she slipped, that she could drown in an ocean of snow.

Isn’t this what I wanted to have happen?
she thought, standing in the white wilderness, unsure of where to place her foot.
Where did I think I’d go? No one lives on the surface, and the settlers that did have surely been taken back to Imathrin.
She grit her teeth, struggling not to cry.
Why can’t I just go home? I just want to go somewhere safe, where I can laugh and play again.
At that moment the storm abated, and in the distance on the other side of the valley a dark figure could be seen waving their hand high in the air.

Could it be people actually live down here?
She glanced back once more from whence she came.
Would it really be that bad to go back?
All it took was one memory of the Freilux cornering her outside her bedroom for Melissa to move swiftly on to the figure.

Doubling back, she tried to walk on the outskirts of the valley in a path to where the figure was. Her legs were thin, and though she exercised regularly, it would be a difficult trek for even the most experienced of hikers and her small muscles weren’t quite up to the task. The valley appeared like a giant crater in the ground, the result of some massive impact. Carefully she tread; placing her feet with precision, trying to balance herself on the sheet of ice underfoot and against the increasing wind that drove pellets of ice into her coat.

“You’re almost here,” said a familiar woman’s voice through the howling wind, “just keep moving!”

As Melissa looked up at the figure, she lost her footing and slipped down into the crater. The snow enveloped her like a beast devouring its prey, and no matter how she clawed or kicked to try to get traction, she kept falling down the sheet of ice and into the center of the crater.

Damn!

Down she slid for what seemed like an eternity, gathering speed despite her attempts to claw onto the ice. The white snow soon turned dark, and she knew she was a long way from the top. When she finally came to a stop, she could only curl into a ball and cry.

She was buried under limitless snow for hours, whimpering and urinating in her pants.

No one will come for me -- no one will find me!
she thought to herself.
It’s so cold, and I’m so scared
.

It was only then she realized how immature she was in running away. She always thought Toby ran, but in truth he withdrew to build a force so he could return and fight.

I had no plans of returning -- I had no plans for anything! I was faced with something difficult to do, and ran away
.

In the middle of her despair, she remembered the brief lesson Yllinae gave her. The lesson began with a history of the power of sussa they shared, and quickly progressed to creating Ribbons of Transit in the air. Melissa had asked about the grey void where Toby had taken her.

“
If you know where you’re going, and have a point of reference to center on, you can open a ribbon in the air itself, and pass through. I know you have done this before, but what you didn’t know is you can also access this in-between world as a place of safety. This is what your brother did this when he rescued you from the Freilux, and you can do this too. You may not be able to move forward, and after a time you will be forced back from whence you came if you have no definite destination, but at least it gives a temporary shelter. If a battle were going poorly, or you were being hunted, it is to there you would run
.”

Melissa tried to calm herself, and focus like she did with her brother. The fear of death had a terrible hold on her mind, but she forced herself past it. In a few moments, she could smell the tear in the space in front of her. She slipped one hand, then her arm through, until after a few moments, her whole body was through the ribbon and into that grey void.

“Hello Lissa.”

“Toby!”

She ran to embrace him, and though she found his body to be a spectral one, it warmed her heart to be close to him once again.

“I was hoping you would remember Yllinae’s lesson, and kept this echo of myself here for you. Wait while . . . while . . .” Toby’s body shimmered, and coalesced into something more substantial. “I’m here, Lissa. I’m happy you’re alright, but why did you run from me? Where did you think you’d go?”

“You want me to marry the Freilux!” she cried. “How could you?”

Toby curled his lip, obviously irritated Melissa discovered his plan. “Yes, to lull him into a false sense of security, so I could kill him later.”

“You . . . you would use me like that?” she demanded. “What if he wanted to bed me? What if he . . . what if he wanted a child?”

“Then you’ll give it to him,” he answered plainly, “and I’ll kill it later on.”

“No, no -- I won’t! This is horrid, utterly monstrous. How can you be so cold?”

“Lissa, I don’t have time for this, and neither do you. You can’t stay in this place forever, and you won’t survive long on the surface -- at least not with your undeveloped knowledge of sussa. Come with me now.”

She knew she was acting like a petulant little girl, but all those noble intentions of a few minutes ago vanished in the immediacy of the moment. “No! No . . .”

“Then where will you go?”

“She’ll come with me,” said a woman’s voice.

A figure materialized near them, one that Melissa recognized as who waved to her in the snow. The voice was a familiar one, and as the figure drew closer, she squealed with joy.

“Mother!”

She ran and held fast to her mother while Toby folded his arms and glared.

“How -- why are you here Esoica?” he asked.

“To take care of my children.”

“You ran out on us. Ran away and hid. I heard you were even killed.”

Melissa looked up, never before seeing her brother confront her mother. “And what did you do?” asked Esoica. “I heard you ran away as well.”

“I saw the future, and prepared.”

Esoica ran her hands through Melissa’s hair. “And so did I, though we each had a markedly different way of doing so. Come, my dear Lissa; I have a safe place you can go to.”

Melissa was loathe to move, as it meant giving up on her brother. He looked worn and tired, and she knew that despite Yllinae’s company, he enjoyed being back with her as much as she enjoyed being with him. “What . . . what about you, Toby -- what will you do?”

“I’ll fight, even without you, though with you both we’d have a better chance of succeeding -- a much better chance of resurrecting father.”

“Darian?” harrumphed her mother. “I never want to see him again. It’s his fault things are as they are.”

Part II

Chapter 5

Melissa had never felt such an immediate emotional and physical transformation in all her life. One moment she was cold and desperate, facing grim choices about her future, and the next she stood in a warm room being embraced by her mother. She couldn’t help but weep tears of gratitude and joy.

Esoica brought her to a narrow window, and it was then Melissa discovered they were on a small levitating platform which overlooked the crater she almost died in. On the ridge Toby’s encampment could be seen, and it cheered Melissa even more, knowing not only was she with her mother, but could keep an eye on Toby.

“That is the crater of the First Apocalypse,” said Esoica. “Three thousand years ago, something hit our world. It hit it so hard, that it knocked our world out of its orbit around the sun and changed the sphere into an ovoid.”

“And that’s why it’s so cold?”

“Yes. So many people died,” she said softly, as if she was witness to the event. “But there would be no Archsussa if not for that catastrophe. It is near that impact crater that the Centric Sphere was discovered, almost two thousand years ago.”

Melissa lingered at the window as her mother sat near her. She felt suddenly self-conscious as her mother examined her.

“You’ve grown,” said Esoica with a smile.

“It’s been three
years
,” she stressed, giggling. “What did you expect?”

“I thought Toby would have stayed with you. I thought your father would have somehow passed his title to Toby, and that you and he would be in power.”

Melissa sat near her mother on a short, worn couch that reminded her of something that used to be in her home. Though she was overjoyed to be with her mother, she was unsure how to proceed. It was almost like speaking to a stranger, as so many things had happened since last they were together. “Why did you say father was responsible for everything?”

“It wasn’t his fault the Second Apocalypse happened,” said Esoica, lazily leaning back on her hands, revealing a small yet firm belly. She wore an oversized knit sweater that looked hand-knit, and Melisssa wondered if she knit it herself. “But it was his fault that all the people on the cities plunged to their deaths. While there are many Archsussa, there could have been many more. It is
we
that powered the Levitating Cities,
we
that kept our people warm. Darian hoarded power for fear an army of Archsussa would overthrow him. If we had more Archsussa, then they could have deflected the devastation wrought and safeguarded those cities.”

As they sat together, in a small room that smelled of wet wood, Melissa was finally able to relax and absorb the sensation of being back with her mother. Under the blue and green sweater Esoica wore a soft purple dress that looked like crepe yet felt like softest silk. She was a hardy woman, with developed muscles and a lean figure, bordering on being gaunt. Her cheeks were sunken in, but her hair was still luscious and full, and it crowned a warm gaze. Melissa always loved her mother’s lavender hair, and was disappointed to see her own still couldn’t compare.