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THIRTY-ONE
<h2 style="text-transform: uppercase">SARIEN</h2>
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“You want to help us now? All of a sudden? Prove it.”
From the look on his mother’s face, his belligerence amused her. “For starters, I just saved you from Alenna.”
Ein cleared his throat. “We were just about to overpower her.”
“Of course you were. I’ve also stalled those working the ritual for the Council, buying you a little more time before Maydian is claimed by the Prime.”
Sarien narrowed his eyes. Alenna had mentioned that his mother was interfering with the Council’s efforts. “So, you’re going to help us defeat Wyndemir now?”
“By now you should know that there is no defeating a Prime. If there ever was, the window for it closed long ago, before the void prison was destroyed.”
“You were the one that destroyed it,” Ein grumbled.
“How did you know where to find us?” Sarien asked.
“Alenna’s illusion. A nasty flow that cut you off from your source of power, son.”
“So?”
“No power, no barrier.”
Heat flushed Sarien’s face. “Oh.”
“If there is no way to defeat Wyndemir, why did you help us?” Kax asked.
“I wanted to give you the chance to say goodbye to your friends. Or, if you choose, to save them and bring them here to Nexus. I am not heartless.” Anja said. “Once Maydian has fallen, there is nothing preventing you from joining us.”
“We won’t join you,” Sarien said, straightening. “If you truly want to help us, you can tell us what you know of the Living Darkness, Order Beyond Doubt, and Unyielding Resistance of Man.”
“Legends and tales,” she answered simply.
“And what if they’re true?”
Disappointment flashed past his mother’s face, like she couldn’t believe how na?ve he was. But she humored him. “If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s the void, the Prime flow of order, or perhaps even the Prime herself.” She stopped to think. “And the resistance of man bit,” she said, rubbing at her chin. “A shield, maybe? Men use shields to protect themselves.”
Sarien looked at his father, who made a face to show that he had no clue if she was right or not, before turning back to his mother. “How do I contact the Prime of Order?”
She wrinkled her nose. “That door has been closed to us for all of known history, but it is theorized that those who came before us could. Wayfarers and Slayers are branches on the tree of Order. Even I, one of the most powerful Wayfarers in hundreds of years, have not been able to sense our Prime for myself. With how I am now, I would not stand in her shadow even if I could. But if your power is what I think it is, the Prime flow reformed, you just might.”
Her eyes glittered and a playful smile crossed her lips. “Do you want to try?”
“It could help us against Wyndemir,” Sarien said, looking at Kax who shrugged.
Ein narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t you trying to pull something, is it, Anja?”
“I understand that the trust between us is broken for now. In time, I’m hoping to repair it. Stopping you from doing whatever you want was never my intention. Just know that the window for saving your friends is closing quickly. I am offering them refuge here in Nexus. I won’t be able to stall the others for long, and the ritual in Maydian is still underway.” She frowned for a moment. “Or perhaps it is not.”
Ein wasn’t satisfied. “Lila betrayed the Prime by killing one of his priests and a council member. She was punished by Wyndemir and turned into a monster because of it. How do you know the same will not happen to you?”
“There will be consequences,” Anja said, turning to leave. Before exiting, she said, “The Prime of Chaos is consumed with Maydian, allowing minor infractions to slip through the cracks. Furthermore, what I’ve done has little to do with rebellion. It’s all a matter of intent. You will come to see the truth. You will join us in the end.”
Sarien knew his mother believed that he would join her. He knew differently. His heart twisted. This might be his last chance with her, so he said, “Thank you, mother.”
“Son,” she said, bowing her head. “Make sure to resume your barrier when you leave this place. There are many pursuing you three. And, if you see that dog of yours, tell it to come see me.”
With that, she was gone.
They stood in the dark for a moment before Ein spoke up. “We need to go. Alenna won’t be gone for long. Kax, next time you see her, run her through, would you?”
“Oh, I plan on it.”
Sarien raised his barrier again and the three of them left after grabbing Alenna’s book. They took temporary refuge in an abandoned craftsman’s shop. The locked door didn’t provide much of a challenge. The first floor smelled of treated wood and of the old hay that lined the floor. Upstairs, they found living quarters. A thin layer of dust covered everything. Not bothering to collect chairs, the three of them plopped down on the floor.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“We don’t have much time now if the Council is resuming their task of opening the gateway for Wyndemir. The rhinn travelers won’t be able to withstand them for long.”
“What do you want to do?” Kax asked. “I wouldn’t mind having another go at his arm. Did you know I almost cut through its skin last time?”
“Force won’t work against Wyndemir. Our best bets right now are learning more information about the three cornerstones, something about how the giant cube was built, and asking Order for help.” Sarien held up Alenna’s book.
Ein grabbed it and opened it in his lap. “I’ll look into this while you have a chat with one of the forces of the universe.”
“Thank you. Any pointers?”
“None, I’m afraid. To me, the Wayfarers have always represented order, rules, and judgement, while the Slayers are responsible for what comes after. Incarceration and, at times, execution. Order watches over us both, but I’ve never felt myself governed by it.”
“All this talk of Primes, Prime flows, branching paths, and history is making my head spin,” Sarien said. He closed his eyes and manifested his gray flame. “Let’s hope Order is willing to share some insight on how to stop her brother.”
“I guess, I’ll just sit around and be bored, then,” Kax grumbled.
As Sarien concentrated on his gray flame, everything in the house drifted away. Before leaving this realm behind, he heard Kax say as he leaned over Ein’s shoulder to look at the book, “I recognize those cornerstone things.”
The wayfaring grabbed Sarien’s attention and carried him through it. Not his body, only his mind. For this, he thought it best to tread carefully. Entering the pathways between worlds, peoples, and places was one thing. Finding a Prime was quite another.
To manage it, he pulled more of the gray flame through his body to carry his consciousness farther into the wayfaring.
He drew more and more from within his body and felt his connection to all things around him strengthen. It was not enough.
Holding more of his power than he thought wise, he expanded his consciousness, finding the links between the beings traversing the wayfaring and their connection to himself. A couple of Wayfarers noticed him and hurried away as soon as they sensed the power he wielded.
One of the Halvgudar soared past, shining brightly with power. An image appeared in Sarien’s mind. A squirrel.
Confused, Sarien unconsciously sent an image back of himself, a gray flame dimmed in the dark. The squirrel sent back a sense of amusement as it exited the wayfaring into a world Sarien had never before seen. A lush untouched forest and bountiful groves with animals running wild and free.
As his connection to the passing Halvgud faded, he set his sights on his true goal. Order.
Sarien’s consciousness relaxed. It came to him then, the idea of how to approach the problem of finding the Prime. Everyone called them forces of the universe. This meant they were everywhere and a part of everything. If only he could see that layer of the wayfaring, he should be able to pick out the part of the whole that was Order.
He couldn’t. No matter how he tried, his senses remained blind to the Primes’ influence on the worlds. Perhaps the wayfaring stood outside their influence or from this reality.
Sarien looked inward. If the wayfaring wasn’t a product of the Order’s power, then he knew something else that might be. The gray flame. His own unique power.
Both Alenna and his mother named it the Prime flow of Order, or at least told him that was what they suspected. Now, he could put it to the test.
Sarien forced his power out and looked within himself. White streaks threaded out of him, representing his connections with others. He mentally followed a few, which led to his father, Goslin, Kax, and the rest of his friends.
Even the trembling link between him and his mother was present. There was an even more tremulous link that led to the Karm estate. His former home.
No matter how hard he searched, he did not find a connection to Order.
As he prepared to return to his father and Kax, Sarien noticed something strange. Each of the links to friends and family branched. A tiny sliver broke off and pointed upwards.
Puzzled, he followed one strand and saw all of them coalescing together where previously there had been nothing. Thousands of threads joined together into one massive path.
This was it. It had to be. The path thrummed with power as it ran through the wayfaring, disappearing into the distance.
Sarien followed the path. He passed a multitude of strange creatures and beings. Occasionally, a Wayfarer appeared. Those he passed watched him with curiosity. He sensed them as they sensed him. They were all connected here. They were all one.
He reached the end. Dumbfounded, Sarien saw no path forward. Darkness where the wayfaring could not pass.
He saw that the massive strand he’d been following continued into the barrier.
The darkness was not the void. The void was a universe of its own, while the wayfaring was a representation of how all things related to one another. The wayfaring and the void were intimately linked, but still separate entities.
Desperate, Sarien flared his power as he pushed to follow the thread past the barrier. It did him little good as it captured the interest of three Wayfarers. They approached him and their intent was clear. They were here for him.
Sarien smiled to himself as he reached out to them with his gray flame and drank greedily from the wells of their power. All three were powerful. Confident. Yet, they folded under Sarien’s will.
Once Sarien emptied the Wayfarers, they blinked out of the wayfaring, no longer able to keep their connection to it. He knew they would recover, but not in time to stop him.
Bolstered by the new reserve of power, Sarien flared his gray flame again. Nothing happened. Only, due to the increase from the Wayfarers’ power, his connection to others deepened within the realm. He toyed with the idea of harvesting the power from the other beings present but discarded it quickly. No matter how much power he claimed, it would make no difference. Not here.
The only option was to return to Nexus and hope that his father and Kax had discovered something useful. As he prepared to leave, the space around him rippled.
The wayfaring screamed and twisted upon itself as something emerged from the barrier, sending shockwaves across the realm.
A slender finger.
Sarien sensed the other beings fleeing. He was left alone in the wayfaring. All except for the finger.
More of the hand emerged, and he took a step back, wondering if the others fled out of awe or fear of what was coming.
The wayfaring pushed back against this new being. It rippled and strained until Sarien thought the realm would collapse around him.
Once through the barrier, the hand turned and stopped. The barrier quaked and shuddered and Sarien’s power flailed wildly, reacting to the chaos.
In the terrible disturbance, Sarien had lost sight of the strand. When the hand turned to reveal its palm, the link he had been following blazed brightly, blinding his senses. It sat in the middle of the entity’s hand.
Afraid that the whole universe might shatter if that hand remained in the wayfaring, Sarien grabbed it and shook it like he was introducing himself to someone for the first time. In a sense, that was exactly what Sarien was doing.