《Keys of the Endpoint》


 1. The Storm

    Book One


    The Tower Of Tejahl


    Chapter One


    The Storm


    ¡°Please don¡¯t do this, Isaac.¡±


    Anthony¡¯s voice crackled through the phone from the bad reception in the desert. The gale force winds from the tornado didn¡¯t help the signal strength either. Isaac¡¯s knuckles whitened around the steering wheel as he wrenched the car around yet another roadblock.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got to, Anthony. It¡¯s my brother this time, not some faceless profile. I won¡¯t ignore this anymore.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, not one person has ever returned. They¡¯ve sent close to a hundred people and every single one is still unaccounted for. They don¡¯t want to admit it, but I know. Finn is gone, Isaac.¡±


    The road stretched out in a straight line in front of Isaac, splitting the giant swathes of desert on either side in two. A tornado swirled on the road where the ground met the horizon. Lightning scattered across the sky every other heartbeat.


    ¡°Do you get what I¡¯m saying, Isaac? No one comes back from this, not even you!¡±


    Isaac slammed the gas pedal to the floor. The tornado churned straight ahead. There was no going back now. The noise of the engine and the cacophony of wind and thunder almost drowned out the speakers on the phone, but he could still make out Anthony¡¯s shrill voice beneath it all.


    ¡°You should be thankful I went to you and not the IC guys, you would¡¯ve been in Guantanamo by now if I had.¡±


    Isaac only had eyes for the tornado. ¡°Finn¡¯s on the other side, I just know it.¡±


    A couple seconds passed before Anthony spoke again. ¡°Isaac, I¡¯m worried for you. You haven¡¯t been yourself lately, you¡¯ve cut everyone off. Even your family¡­ Did you know your secretary¡¯s been calling me every day for the past week? I don¡¯t even know how she got my number, much less my name¡­ who have you been telling about the storms?¡±


    ¡°How would you know how I¡¯ve been doing? They sent you to spy on me as well? I thought better of you, Anthony, I really did.¡±


    ¡°I came to you! I haven¡¯t told anyone about this, I swear, none of my bosses know.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Isaac continued as if Anthony hadn¡¯t spoken. ¡°What, spying on the recruits we sent into the storms to die wasn¡¯t good enough for you, Anthony? You had to add one more?¡±


    ¡°If the recruits we sent all died then your brother is dead as well!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not true.¡± Isaac pressed the phone against his ear until it hurt.


    ¡°Finn is dead, Isaac. You¡¯ll never see your brother again, you have to accept that!¡±


    ¡°Accept what? I don¡¯t have to accept shit, Anthony. Fuck you!¡± He threw the phone so hard against the windscreen it cracked into a spider web of jagged lines that completely blocked the view out of the car.


    Isaac cursed and stomped on the brakes. The car lurched to a stop and Isaac pushed down on the door handle. The moment it opened, the car door wrenched off into the wind, flying towards the tornado.


    A whirlwind of papers, books and garbage exploded out of his car as every item he had hoarded for the past several months lifted up on the wind that came in through the now gaping hole in his car.


    Isaac looked down in shock and for a brief second it looked as if some of the papers were passing through his midsection as if he was a ghost. A notebook smacked him in the face and he swiped it aside. By the time he had wrestled it away every last thing not bolted down in his car had gone with the wind.


    Isaac held onto the notebook as it yearned to join its brethren on their journey. Several circled notes were scribbled on it. One note read ¡°Patterns inconclusive¡±, another read ¡°Chronological fuckery¡± and yet another read ¡°Find the storm!¡± The last note had been circled more times than the others, each circle in a different ink than the last.


    It was just his own research, not the documents he had stolen from Anthony and the government. Not that it mattered now anyways: Here he was, the storm right in front of him. He decided to let go of the notebook but even before he could do so, it slipped between his fingers as if through water.


    Isaac stepped out of the car and watched it fly. No, he had let go of it, that was it. Physical objects couldn¡¯t flow like water.


    The light from the headlamps of his car flickered and he turned in time to see his car lift up in the air, lurch around and head straight for him. He had no time nor instinct for what to do besides gape his mouth open in astonishment. The car flew, but not him?


    The car crashed into him. He closed his eyes at the last second and didn¡¯t see anything but he could still hear the scraping of metal even over the wind as the suspension failed and the undercarriage of the car was dragged across the asphalt. Despite the gut wrenching sounds he felt nothing.


    He opened his eyes and turned to see the car sail away as if it hadn¡¯t a worry left in the world now that it too was free of Isaac.


    Sand and dust moved in around the car and soon everything was veiled by a thick grey. Everything grew darker and darker. The noise rose to a deafening crescendo. The wind seemed to affect him little but every now and then some small grain pelted him across bare skin and he raised his arm to shield his face.


    Isaac started walking. First a tentative step, then several more until he got a good gait going. He¡¯d be damned if he was to be caught lying down. His eardrums popped. The lashings of the wind grew more and more frequent. He felt like a reef at sea. The noise rose to nigh unbearable levels. Just as he thought he could take it no more, as he prepared to lay down and curl up into a ball, everything stilled.


    Silence.


    <hr>


    "Isaac"

 2. The Storm, pt. 2

    Isaac brought his hand away from his face and looked up. The tornado had gone. The sky was clear, still close to sundown, but no clouds covered the sky any longer. He stood in a clearing amidst an insane amount of rubble, garbage and a staggering variety of items. The place looked like a sort of scrapyard for discarded construction materials.


    He was surrounded by several people, one young looking girl and the rest men. The men were clad in rough cloth with leather reinforcement and they looked as if they had slept in those clothes for weeks. They had a ridiculous amount of knives and scabbards on them, strapped to every limb, belt and loop on their clothing. Most disconcerting though, was the man standing furthest away from Isaac; he had not just two bulging arms, with shoulders larger than Isaac¡¯s head, but an extra set of arms right below his first set. Four arms?


    The girl standing across from him inside the circle the men were forming around them also had her own set of oddities. She was clothed in a black cloak, hiding most of her from view. But of what he could see of her arms and face wherever her skin showed, long black feathers sprouted from it. Even from her face she grew feathers. Isaac found it difficult to hold the gaze she leveled at him. He got the distinct impression that she was weighing him.


    On some level his plan had succeeded. It dawned on him, however, how little thought he had given to his plans should he actually survive a storm and follow Finn, whatever had happened to him. The things he had just experienced bent his view of reality to the extreme. Instead of admitting what those extra arms meant for his world view, not to mention human skin that could grow feathers, he gathered his surroundings.


    Looking around didn¡¯t help though. The whole place looked as if a tornado like the one that had brought him here had come through a couple decades ago and then the cleanup had been continuously postponed ever since. Large sections of buildings appeared to have been just dropped off at random, and dropped from a height at that, as most of them had large cracks running all the way from the foundations to the roofs. Splinters and whole panels were missing where wood and other kinds of building materials had been used.


    And there was a lot of it, building materials that is, because it covered the streets and leaned against every wall. Concrete slabs, huge stones, piles of gravel and bricks lay strewn about haphazardly. There was no unifying trend of architecture to bind the buildings still standing together either. One could find anything from victorian era europe to modern 21st century buildings. Where there were road signs or shopfronts you¡¯d be hard pressed to find more than one out of ten you could read or make any sense of. Odd combinations of items covered the streets and surfaces, roofs and balconies, as if an antiquity shop had decided to shoot their stock up into space as some sort of elaborate practical joke only for it to fall short and rain down over an unsuspecting scrapyard instead.


    Tribal spears lay resting up against grandfather clocks with astronaut helmets for hats. Half of a train station ticket counter with Korean writing on the signs sat propped up next to a portcullis which must have belonged to some medieval-style castle. There were no signs of where the rest of the castle, or the train station for that matter, had gone off to. Everything seemed out of place. The only cohesive element to the chaos was the general overgrowth of plants and vines that covered everything but a few items or buildings. These undisturbed items usually lay at the top of their respective piles.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± one of the men said. He was squat and scarred. He had no knives like the other men, instead he had a silver key hanging from thick threads wrapped around his right hand. Isaac couldn¡¯t figure out what the key represented, the man treated it with the same importance and reverence one would give a religious symbol. Things were turning stranger every second. He was no beauty either, he looked like someone who had survived an accident with a wood chipper. Even his demeanor seemed chipped and fragmented, as if he¡¯d never quite managed to master social interaction.


    ¡°Aster!¡± he shouted and the girl flinched. She¡¯d been staring at Isaac like he was a puzzle. ¡°Who is this?¡± the man repeated, but he received no answer. His face grew angry and he held out the silver key as if it was a weapon. It looked like he entered into a battle stance. The pose reminded Isaac of a martial arts exhibition he¡¯d seen once. ¡°No more tricks, Aster, I tell Tejahl.¡± The man sounded like a heavy metal singer.


    Aster scowled back. ¡°How would I know?¡± she said. ¡°He¡¯s wound up here the same way as everyone else,¡± she paused to tilt her head, ¡°or are you suggesting I can somehow predict the storms?¡± she looked at him with revulsion. Her tone sounded rhetorical to Isaac but the man shifted and his stance stiffened like a coiled spring as if that¡¯s exactly what he thought Aster capable off.


    Her voice softened. ¡°Ronan,¡± she looked at him as if he was a child. ¡°Do you really think I would struggle to meet Tejahl¡¯s quota if I could predict even one storm out of a hundred?¡± Ronan looked uncertain now, not quite as battle hardened. ¡°Do you?¡± she pressed. His arm lowered a fraction and Aster smiled. ¡°At least think a bit before you open up that trashcan of a mouth you have.¡± Ronan sneered at her and his arm straightened again. Aster smirked.


    A loud roar sounded far off in the distance. Birds scattered from the roofs and towers where it echoed. Isaac closed his mouth as if that could make the roar stop. Aster, who had seemed about to say something, froze along with Ronan and his men. They all stood poised towards the east where the sound carried through the air and fleeing birds.


    Isaac¡¯s brow furrowed as he listened. The roar stopped. For a moment not one sound could be heard. The contrast was eerie. He felt his ears tingle as they perked up. Every sound magnified. The wind brushed against his ears as if he was speeding down a hill on a bike. For every breath he could almost feel the fabric of his coat slide across his shirt.


    Isaac noticed someone whispering, by that building over there, right behind the wall. No, more than one, several people, whispering, calling out to him. Their voices were too low, a hair¡¯s breadth away from being audible. Isaac craned his neck towards the sounds. He could just about make out a word here or there, but it didn''t sound anything like English.


    A bird squawked and Isaac jumped. His face reddened. What, I¡¯m scared of birds now? The feathers running along Aster¡¯s skin must¡¯ve unnerved him more than he¡¯d thought. The whispers were gone. What was up with that? This place felt like a dream, or a nightmare. Isaac¡¯s mind raced. How had he heard people whispering behind a wall from all the way over to where he stood? Chills ran up and down his back. Isaac¡¯s intuition screamed at him to run, something was very wrong.


    <hr>


    "Aster"

 3. The Storm, pt. 3

    ¡°Hey, people, maybe we should mov¡­¡± Isaac turned around but found Aster had moved up close to him without him noticing. She shoved him hard with both hands. There was a surprising amount of strength in her arms. Isaac teetered backwards off-balance and stumbled into Ronan. Something hard cracked against the back of his head. Ronan grunted. Isaac¡¯s eyes flashed white and stars blinked on and off against his retina like LED lamps in a computer.


    Aster erupted in an explosion of feathers that shot out like arrows in all directions. Grunts and screams echoed. Isaac saw the four-armed guy across from him bellow as he clutched his eye, a feather sticking out between his fingers. Among Isaac¡¯s periphery his brain registered streaks of red. Isaac knew that meant something important but his brain struggled to keep up and failed to provide him the exact details.


    A large boulder burst out from left field and hit the ground with what could only be described as a splash of dirt as it poured out from the impact like liquified. But the girl was not there to be crushed by it, she was high up in the air, defying physics by refusing to come down. The boulder continued on its trajectory for several meters before coming to a stop, leaving behind a deep groove in the earth. The four armed guy let out a roar of his own and large spikes of metal just grew out from the very skin of his palms. Isaac¡¯s stomach made some tumbles, but the four armed guy seemed unconcerned with common courtesy for public displays of bodily functions and simply snapped the spikes off. He hefted one spike in each hand, drew back and threw.


    Isaac groaned. Fourarms must¡¯ve not gotten the memo on birds and their more common behaviors because he threw his spikes aimed at the last known birdgirl location, which was also coincidentally aimed right at Isaac. Isaac tried to scoot lower but didn¡¯t get far as his body refused to commit to any amount of strenuous labour at this current point in time. Isaac winced for impact but as he did so the spikes hit something in the air and fell down, skewering ground instead of detective. Ronan shouted out something in a foreign language. Isaac could not see what the spikes had hit, as far as he could determine there¡¯d been nothing there at all, just air.


    A second volley of feathered arrows shot down from above, more concentrated, and a second wave of groans and meaty thuds followed, though not nearly as many as before. The four armed guy became a minced meat version of a porcupine. Isaac closed his eyes. What is she putting in those feathers? He thought. They just went right through people like needles. Ronan cursed, or at least it sounded something like a curse, Isaac couldn¡¯t tell for sure.


    Isaac looked up but regretted doing so as he saw still more feathers raining down towards him. Isaac had always thought it would be better to die without realizing beforehand, he had never enjoyed the thought of facing the abyss head on. Maybe that was why he¡¯d failed to kill himself. The thought came unbidden and Isaac chased it away by reflex. What did it matter, he would die in this strange place anyways. He would never see Finn again. Isaac had failed his brother, their parents and, perhaps most of all, he had failed himself.


    Isaac looked on and felt his ability to care slip away, but the feathered arrows froze yet again. They hit nothing in their path but stopped nonetheless. The feathers lost all their momentum at the same time, then slowly spiraled down in a sort of whimsical dance before they picked up speed again. Isaac cried out and brought his arm up. Searing hot pain laced through his body from his arm. The dull thump of arrows hitting dirt sounded all around him. Isaac grunted and brought his arm down. Three feathers stuck out from his forearm, blood dribbled from his sleeve.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Isaac hefted one feather in his hand, sucked in some air, bit down on his teeth, and drew the feather out with a sudden motion. The feather felt heavy in his hand. The girl dropped down from her bombing run behind what remained of fourarms. Growing curious, Isaac thumbed at the tip to brush his blood away. Something silver glimmered between the specks of blood.


    His arm forgotten, Isaac brought the tip to his mouth and drew the blood away with his lips. He held it up again against the dimming sky and the metal tip gleamed in the fading light. That strange feathered girl could somehow grow metal tipped feathers out of her body on command, in seconds, and throw them at people like darts.


    Aster spoke, ¡°having fun?¡± Her voice was sharp and rough, drenched in glee.


    ¡°You will die, Aster!¡± Ronan said. Ronan clenched his fist, but still held his other stretched out, palm spread, his silver key hanging from the thick strings tightly wound around his hand. He stood balanced, as if about to take off in every direction at a moments notice. A feather stuck out from his shoulder but he ignored it.


    Isaac looked around. Only half of the people in the circle surrounding them were still standing. When had that happened? The girl had fought them all alone, and won, not only that but it had barely been a contest, it had been just one step away from a slaughter.


    Aster faced Ronan, looking him over with discerning eyes. ¡°Tell the bitch I will have the keys, I just need more time,¡± she said. Isaac looked to Ronan. He stood poised for action, he reminded Isaac of a cornered animal, it seemed Aster had the upper hand. If that was so, why didn¡¯t she go ahead and kill him?


    ¡°No time!¡± Ronan shouted, his face rigid and impassive, but a slight scowl and the red color to his skin betrayed him. ¡°No more time! No more nothing!¡± Ronan''s voice rose in volume and distortion until he was screaming. ¡°You give us keys, NOW!¡±


    Aster ignored him. She turned to Isaac. ¡°Thanks for your help, newcomer.¡±


    ¡°My name is Isaac.¡± He cringed inside even before he said it. She had startled him. That was all there was to it.


    Aster chuckled. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t care.¡±


    A shockwave burst from underneath her feet and she flew high up in the air and landed atop a pillar farther away from the harangued group. ¡°Give the bitch my love, and don¡¯t follow Ronan, or I will pick your crew off one by one while you¡¯re not there to stop me.¡± She smiled, batted her eyes a few times and jumped onto the next tall rubble within her reach.


    Isaac felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He called out to Aster. ¡°Hey! Wait! Hold on a second!¡± He didn¡¯t really know whether it was the right move, just about next to nothing made any sliver of sense in this godforsaken place. But something in his intuition told him this was the right choice.


    Aster hesitated for a brief moment. Isaac saw his chance and took it. ¡°Hey! You can¡¯t leave me here with these guys. I mean look at them!¡± He waved, indicating Ronan and his gang. He adopted an empathetic tone. ¡°Listen, I¡¯m new here, I haven¡¯t got the faintest clue what is going on! Help me.¡± His forehead wrinkled and he looked up at her with pleading eyes. ¡°I helped you, remember?¡± Isaac¡¯s voice died down as a frightening expression fell over Asters face. She looked at him as if he was a pile of manure she¡¯d stepped on by accident.


    Isaac found it hard to face her stare. Was he really pleading with a murderer for help? How had he thought this would work? ¡°Alright,¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯ll help you. I¡¯ll teach you your first lesson.¡± She turned her back on him. ¡°Welcome to the Endpoint, Isaac.¡± She jumped, once, twice, three times from the column to a garbage heap to a building. Then she ducked down, jumped over an edge and vanished.

 4. Out of the Pan

    <h4 style="text-align: center">Chapter Two</h4>


    Out of the Pan


    Aster crept up behind the building and jumped back up to the roof again. Her clothes and feathered skin flowed through the air like leaves on the wind, not one rustle or sound escaped as she landed. She bent forward and hunkered up to the edge with an alligator¡¯s gait. At the last bit of roof before the edge she stopped. She leaned her center of gravity further onto her arms until they were the only limbs supporting her. Then, she lowered her body to the roof, slow as a falling feather, until she lay flush with it. The top of her head peeked over the edge.


    They were all still there. No one had followed her. Good. Ronan and his gang were circling that naive newcomer, Isaac. No doubt to blame him for her escape. There was nothing to blame, of course, he¡¯d simply stumbled in at the worst possible moment. From her perspective the timing had been excellent. He¡¯d been exactly the thing she¡¯d needed to break Ronan¡¯s dome of control and turn the odds in her favor. She almost couldn¡¯t believe her fortune, she¡¯d really been in a bind for a second there.


    More birds flew up from the horizon, but closer this time.


    Aster didn¡¯t envy Isaac. What horrible luck. Out of all the starting points in the Endpoint, he¡¯d received the Scrapyard, the domain of Crassus. More storms than usual occured in the Scrapyard. The place was so ravaged and stormtorn it crackled with destruction. Something was different about that place. The rifts were smaller but a lot more frequent. The real danger, however, was Crassus himself. According to the rumors he was an unstoppable force of destruction, impervious to any wound. He had gone so insane from overuse of bronze keys that he killed anyone and anything without a moment''s hesitation. To end up here was like finding a gold key for Isaac, one in a million.


    Slight vibrations emanated from the roof up her fingers. The bickering men down on the ground didn¡¯t appear to have noticed.


    Not only had Isaac landed in the Scrapyard, he¡¯d also dropped right into a standoff between a gold key and Tejahl¡¯s bandits. Well, she didn¡¯t actually have her key at the moment. But that would soon be rectified. She eyed the bandits while they bullied Isaac. Oh yes, it would be, very soon.


    Her plan was to wait until Crassus had killed off the bandits below. Then she¡¯d come down from her hiding place once Crassus had wandered off again, and she could collect Tejahl¡¯s quota of silver keys from Tejahl¡¯s own bandits. The plan was so beautiful and satisfying Aster could hardly keep herself from grinning.


    That would mean Isaac died as well of course. Unfortunate, but there wasn¡¯t really anything she could do about that. She¡¯d learned long ago that certain people couldn¡¯t survive the Endpoint in the long run. She knew a squealer when she saw one, and Isaac, now that was a squealer. If the bandits didn¡¯t kill him, Crassus would. No one escaped Crassus. She bit her lip. Yeah, she¡¯d do well to remember that herself. Overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer.


    The vibrations grew to a shaking. The men continued their bickering, gesturing to Isaac, their voices raised, talking in a language Aster didn¡¯t understand. Not one of them looked towards the dust clouds forming in the distance. The fools, they deserved to die then. Or, now that she looked closer at him, Isaac did look a fraction more frightened. Maybe he had a better instinct than she gave him credit for. The muscles in his neck strained as if to resist the temptation to look behind him at all costs.Stolen novel; please report.


    She felt a grudging speck of respect for his resolve. But then he cowered before Ronan again and the illusion was gone. Maybe he planned to use Crassus as a distraction and use that to escape the bandits somehow. There was one major drawback to his plan, though. He didn¡¯t know what was coming. He didn¡¯t know that Crassus was not something you could use as a distraction. Not if you were as weak as Isaac. That was his real crime, not his plan, or his ignorance, his weakness was what made Aster¡¯s stomach twist. So weak. They were all weak.


    The vibrations grew until she could feel each footstep. Then she could hear them, each step sounded like a boulder crashing into the earth. She heard wood breaking apart, rock against rock. A tree peeking above the buildings was pushed down like she would push away a branch in her path. Her eyes bulged at the sight. How large had that tree been? For a moment she doubted her sense of scale. Maybe this wasn¡¯t such a good idea after all. Sweat dripped onto her chin from her eyebrow. Maybe she should get away while she still could.


    Ronan¡¯s head snapped to a brick building separating them and Crassus¡¯s approach. Isaac yelped and scooted away on his back, paddling with his arms as Ronan barked out some orders. The surviving bandits fanned out into a formation. The thundering footsteps built until they came like rain, then ceased abruptly. A resounding crash shook the ground and her building with it. Aster braced herself against the roof.


    A large boulder exploded out from the brick wall and hurled debris in a wide arc like bullets, whipping up the ground to a frothing mass of dust and chipped fragments, filling the air. One large brick flew into the building right below Aster¡¯s lookout but she resisted her instinct to jump up and glide away. Several more pieces of debris halted in mid-air and fell to the ground, coming to rest in a semi-circle before Ronan and some of the bandits.


    The smaller pieces stopped before Ronan¡¯s outstretched hand, but not the boulder, it hurtled right into their formation. Two bandits vanished from sight and the large rock erupted into thousands upon thousands of tiny pieces that peltered every surface they could reach. This time, only the projectiles heading for Ronan stopped in the air. The rest of the hurtling rock found their marks. Spurts of red joined the grey and brown chaos. A severed arm sailed past Aster¡ª flipping and turning in the air around and around through the forming dust clouds and out of sight.


    Crassus leapt through the wreckage left behind by the boulder, landed on the ground, braced himself, then shot out like an arrow. He took the closest bandit at the mid section with an outstretched hand and the bandit just... ruptured. He fell apart like a piece of rotten fruit, large chunks of him splattering across the terrain, some of it up Crassus¡¯s arm. Intestines flowed out like rope and the torso spun in the air, entangling itself in itself.


    Crassus lowered a bloodsoaked arm. He wore long robes over a bronze chainmail made up of keys in place of iron rings. He had hair and beard that went down to his stomach. His face looked drained and tired. But most disconcerting were his eyes: sunken sockets, white irises, glossed over and opaque pupils. He looked like he should be in a coffin, not standing up.


    He turned and his gaze met Aster¡¯s. She gasped, despite trying not to. He looked straight at her. She¡¯d been discovered, just like that.


    <hr>


    "Crassus"

 5. Out of the Pan, pt. 2

    Aster held his eyes for three nerve-wracking seconds, unable to will her body into action, but then he looked away and he locked eyes with Ronan instead. Crassus crouched down then shot out like an arrow, head first, arms at his side. He moved so fast his form blurred and Aster barely had time to register that he had jumped. Ronan on the other hand reacted at once. He roared in defiance and brandished his arm and a blinding light flashed from his hand.


    An invisible force grabbed hold of Crassus midair. He slowed imperceptibly but in contrast to all the times Ronan had stopped the other projectiles, Crassus did not stop. The kinetic energy did appear to siphon away from Crassus through Ronan¡¯s key but there seemed no end to it, Crassus just kept coming. The dust clouds surrounding him blasted away. The ground beneath him quaked and smaller pebbles burst.


    Ronan tried again and a larger shockwave emerged from Crassus. The ground cracked and a large circle split off from the rest of the packed earth and was pushed down several centimeters. Crassus slowed to a crawl and he brought his legs forward and stepped down into the crater Ronan had made for him.


    For a brief moment he did nothing. Ronan staggered and steadied himself against his knees. He breathed hard.


    Then a truly twisted and demented look came over Crassus¡¯s face, like all the rage in the whole world had take refuge within him and now bubbled out. He screamed like a rabid animal and crouched to jump once more. Ronan cursed and brought up his hand before Crassus could take off.


    At the exact moment Crassus jumped, Ronan reached out and forced the kinetic energy away from his movement into the air and ground around him. The earth burst as if struck by a concrete pillar ten paces across. Everything not already flat shattered and compacted in a fraction of a second, three bodies of some unfortunate bandits spurted up like geysers as if they had been passed through a juicepress.


    Finding nowhere else to go, the energy traveled through the connection between Crassus¡¯s jump and Ronan¡¯s key. Aster saw the skin on Ronan¡¯s face ripple as the shockwave of kinetic energy traveled through him to reach the ground and a similar but smaller circle exploded up around Ronan.


    The light emanating from Ronan¡¯s hand dimmed and the very next instant Ronan blasted off backwards, crashing into Aster¡¯s building. As he hit the building another circle, far larger than the other ones, smashed down around Ronan, right onto Aster, like a judgement from god. It flattened the whole building along with the area as the brick structure crumpled like a cardboard box.


    Aster felt like she had been crushed by a landslide from both sides. The whole fight between Ronan and Crassus had taken no more than three seconds. This is insane. Ronan was the strongest fighter she knew, and the main reason she couldn¡¯t have defeated Tejahl¡¯s bandits herself. Stand up, stand up! The panic was impossible to push down now. She groaned as it engulfed her. I don¡¯t want to die! The thought, or perhaps the panic, or maybe both, forced her into action. She stood up, Crassus already knew she was there, no use in pretending.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Only she, Crassus and Isaac were still alive. Everyone else was either ripped apart, squished to smush, or buried under a building. Debris lay strewn about everywhere. Dust choked the air. Mutilated corpses scattered the ground and a corridor of destruction stretched out from behind Crassus in through the hole in the wall where he¡¯d made his entrance.


    Crassus made no move. He was a very tall man, with the complexion of a corpse. Now that he was closer, Aster could see from inside his cloak the myriad of identical bronze keys interlocked at their handles to form the chainmail going around Crassus¡¯s body. It hung down well past his stomach. Aster struggled to take in what she was seeing. There must be hundreds of keys in that chainmail. No wonder he¡¯s so strong¡­ and he¡¯s insane.


    She met his eyes. In between all that hair, set against his white and pallid skin two sunken eye sockets sat peering back at her. They gleamed with misery. His eyeballs were misty white and they reflected the carnage around him as if his actions didn¡¯t quite sink in beyond his eyes. He tilted his head and for a second it seemed as if he considered her. In that moment, Aster knew she would die. How could she have been so naive? She¡¯d sealed her fate the moment she¡¯d stepped into this place.


    But she didn¡¯t die¡ªCrassus instead looked towards the other survivor of the group. Isaac lay bunched up against a large piece of concrete, clutching at the ground as if it could save him if he just held on hard enough. By some miracle of fate or through sheer dumb luck, he¡¯d decided to hide behind Ronan when the battle broke out.


    That choice had probably saved his life, as the rest of the bandits lay shattered by the rocks that burst from the boulder. The whites of his eyes bulged and specks of blood coated his skin and clothes. Isaac met the gaze of Crassus, then trembled and made the sounds of a man who bargained with death.


    Crassus stood like a towering cliff, unmoving and overpowering. Until a tremor went through him and his body language melted into that of a quivering, confused mess of a man. He hunched his shoulders and clutched his face in his hands. Aster was unsure as to whether he was trying to gouge his skin out or protect it. His eyes darted from body to body and he moaned each time he spotted a new one as if they were the corpses of his own children.


    His nervous ticks grew more frantic. Aster found it difficult to breathe. This new behaviour disturbed her more than the last. The man was beyond insanity. How could a person go so fast from inhuman rage to¡­ whatever this was? Not one person present had any control of the situation, least of all Crassus. The sensation of a thousand crawling insects itched across her skin.


    The mad ravings reached a crescendo. Something was coming. Aster had no idea what that something would be, but she prepared for another explosion of deranged violence. She drew on the last of her reservoir of feathers from her key out through her skin and fell into a stance which settled her point of gravity lower to the ground.


    Crassus wasn¡¯t even looking at anything in particular anymore, he just wildly shifted between empty points in space as if they were all surrounded by invisible enemies only he could see. He brought his head around so fast he stumbled forward and Isaac whimpered. Crassus stopped at the sound yet another shift went over his mood.


    He held out his hands to Isaac imploringly, almost longingly. Isaac shivered as if he sat in a blizzard and tried to press himself further away from Crassus into the stone behind his back. His skin stretched taught across the features of his face like a thousand year old parchment. Crassus¡¯s mouth opened but only something like the rasping sounds of a man three days lost in a desert came out. He cleared his throat and tried again.


    ¡°Please, I need it, just... please!¡±


    Aster¡¯s jaw slackened and she completely forgot herself. ¡°You can talk?¡±

 6. Out of the Pan, pt. 3

    Crassus carried on as if he couldn¡¯t hear her. ¡°Please, I beg you, just lend it to me, just for one second, I need it.¡± He rambled on without pause, stumbling through different variations of ¡°please¡± and ¡°give it to me¡±.


    Aster had no idea what was going on, Crassus was acting far crazier than what the stories about him had let on. The many stories never recounted anything other than killing. She reeled. Just seconds ago she¡¯d been frightened for her life because of this man. Now he lay on his knees rambling, no begging, for something neither she nor Isaac had even the faintest clue about.


    She shook herself. This was an opportunity, and an opportunity best not forsaken. If she didn¡¯t act now she might never act again.


    Discs of light bloomed outwards from her hands in rapid succession. The small explosions were not loud but the foreign sounds boomed in the eerie silence left after Crassus had butchered everyone. She hesitated. She formed a few more shockwaves away from her, first to her left side, then to her right. No reaction. She danced nervously on the tips of her feet. It was now or never.


    Aster dove headfirst into a charge with reckless abandon. A shockwave blossomed out beneath her, shoving her feet hard up into the air. She gritted her teeth and strained her muscles to keep her body upright. At the precipice of her arc, about three metres in the air, she hung for a brief second rather than falling back to earth. She tilted her torso forward and let herself tip over and fall.


    Her body fell forwards until she was perpendicular to the ground below, then another blast exploded from behind her and propelled her forward. Hair and clothes rippled against her body as the air around her was forced away. Right before she hit Crassus she tucked her legs in under her stomach and held her palms up aimed squarely at his back. Two balls of light exploded out from her palms, far larger than anything she had produced up until then.


    Crassus¡¯ body stood untouched, as if the light and the shockwaves went right through him. But his chainmail of keys was not so lucky. It bulged outward as if a giant soap bubble was growing underneath it. The interlocked keys strained at their breaking point for a tenth of a second. Aster strained as the bones in her arms were also brought to a breaking point as her upper torso was brought to a stop then thrown back around the other way. Her legs continued on their trajectory and once again Aster blasted a shockwave out from her feet, so huge it hid her feet from view completely. Every visible surface was bathed in light so bright it made everything appear white.


    The keys broke. The sounds of something like coins pouring into a tin can filled her ears as a river of keys flooded out from his chest all over the ground and Isaac. They flowed like a stream from a faucet made for keys rather than water.


    Crassus moaned in desperation and clutched at his stomach. He clawed at the keys as they fell out of him, desperately trying to catch them, but they merely flew through his hands as if they had no mass. Isaac clambered in full panic as far away from Crassus as he could muster. Which wasn¡¯t very far as his retreat was blocked by the large piece of concrete wall he was pushing his back against.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Crassus began mopping all the keys on the ground with the flat of his forearm into a pile. Aster, still hovering after having pushed herself high into the air with the blast against Crassus¡¯s back, let herself drop. She couldn¡¯t really believe her stunt had worked as well as it had and found she hadn¡¯t ever considered what she would do next if it did. She quickly discovered however that she could have spared herself the effort because Crassus soon made the choice for her. As she landed his head jerked up at the noise and he plunged his hand into the earth next to him.


    In a movement so fast it blurred from one motion to the next he whipped his hand up and behind him, through the earth and rock as if it was a liquid and not a solid matter.


    ¡°Stay still!¡± he screamed.


    Aster¡¯s body moved on its own accord before her brain had quite registered what was happening. She felt herself drop back and the fear rise along her spine as her view filled in with sky and then the spray of rock and dirt a mere hand¡¯s breadth away from her face. There was no way to recover from her limbo pose so she kicked off with her feet so her body was fully airborne and drew forth another shockwave beneath the soles of her feet. She launched away from Crassus and Isaac through the air.


    Every instinct in her adrenaline-wrecked body told her to get away fast and get away far, far from this place and the inhuman beast that occupied it. She tried to bring her hands forward over her face but they moved unbearably slow and in a wild moment she believed Crassus must have some ability to slow down time itself. But the moment passed and she blew two small bursts behind her which whipped her body upright and she sent a blast beneath her with all her might.


    Something large passed under her feet and the wind pressure knocked her off course. A panic the likes of which she had never felt before threatened to drown out her mind. Only a raw animalistic survival instinct let her manage to cling on to consciousness. She drew out every single one of her remaining feathers from her skin and hurled them down, without even bothering to take aim.


    As her speed faltered the panic came surging back and she dropped a few meters before she could focus her full attention on her grip on gravity and her mass. She hovered in the air, only dropping by the length of a finger for every second. Only then did she spare the time to look down.


    Crassus and Isaac were hard to make out beneath all the dust and debris flying around in the air. Isaac appeared to be clutching an arm and Crassus seemed to be working up a fury. Sweat rolled down her forehead and into her eye. She blinked. Crassus hurtled towards her. One moment he was hazy and distant on the ground, the next he was clear as day and had closed half the distance between them in one jump.


    She moved to blast herself out of his path but he was already behind her. He had missed her somehow. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him raise his hand far above her but she couldn¡¯t see if he was holding something. He made a throwing motion and she fought the instinct to close her eyes. Nothing struck her however and she turned around in the air until she had her back to the ground. Confused she waited for something to happen. Then a sudden wind battered against her. The wind blindsided her completely and for a brief second she lost her hold on gravity. She only gained a bit of speed but that was all it took, she struggled with all her might against the acceleration but it was futile. She went down hard.

 7. Out of the Pan, pt. 4

    Aster reached inside her cloak and gripped her fingers around a keychain with four keys hanging from it. The handle of one key circled through the handle of another as if they had been wrought together, just like how the keys on Crassus¡¯s chainmail linked with each other. Aster¡¯s hands closed around the lower key and she yanked hard. At first both handles held, metal against metal but then the lower key simply melted around the first key. The silver form shivered and spilled out into a misshapen mess, let the still solid handle of the first key pass through, then, as if it somehow knew it had arrived on the other side, reformed. The original shape materialized out of the melted silver, just as it had been before.


    She clutched the key in a tight fist and screamed in defiance. A metallic sheen spread along her skin out from her hand and down her arm. With a crash she landed on the piece of concrete Isaac had cowered against moments earlier. It cracked and split down the middle, with the crumpled body of Aster resting in the middle but no blood spilled from her.


    With gritted teeth and her face caked in powdered concrete she propped herself up on her elbows and sought out Isaac. He lay sprawled right next to one of the now two concrete slabs having barely escaped being squashed twice after having dived for cover when Aster came flying and again when the slab split from her impact.


    ¡°Distract him.¡± Aster said.


    He looked scared and confused. ¡°How?¡± he said, his apprehension showing.


    ¡°Like you did earlier,¡± Aster said, she meant to say more, to encourage him. But she struggled to gather enough air to form the words and her patience evaporated. ¡°If you had actually talked to him last time, kept him going, maybe my ribs wouldn¡¯t be cracked right now.¡± She glared at him, all the while attempting to get up and out from between the slabs.


    The insult seemed to stir him out of his shock a bit. ¡°Talk? To that guy? He¡¯s completely insane! What¡¯s with all this, ¡®I have something of his?¡¯ How could I have anything that belongs to him? I bloody well just got here!¡±


    Aster wanted to pin him full of feathers like a cushion. ¡°Just, lead him on like last time, entertain him, tell him what he wants to hear.¡± She tried once again to get onto her feet but her vision faded inwards and she collapsed back. Bile rose up her throat.


    ¡°How the hell would I know what he wants!¡± Isaac shouted, ¡°He¡¯s out of his mind!¡± He sounded just as exasperated as she felt. ¡°Besides, why should I help you, you left me, remember?¡± The color in his skin was fully flushed now, in contrast to the sickly white color he¡¯d sported ever since Crassus¡¯s arrival.


    A thud sounded off in the distance as Crassus touched down onto solid earth once more. Aster¡¯s heart rate spiked back up to borderline panic attack levels again.


    ¡°Listen to me, you do it or we both die!¡± Panic and fury laced her voice. ¡°Do you hear me?¡±


    Isaac opened his mouth, ready to argue back but all that came out was a shout of surprise as a rock shattered against the top of a slab and scattered chipped fragments everywhere, showering Isaac in gravel.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Aster cursed and the metallic sheen returned to her arm, engulfing the skin. She punched out as the next rock came flying. She screamed, eyes bulging as the stone split into pieces. The chunks zipped past her, one striking her forehead and she gasped. Her sight blinked out for a brief second but through the memory of her surroundings she dove for cover. If she couldn¡¯t stand upright, she at least could fall somewhere, maybe it would be enough.


    The slab to her left trembled beneath her thigh and she heard a loud crack as a third rock connected right where her upper body would have been had she not moved. But her hand still trailed behind her and she felt a numbing sensation travel up it. Had she kept the armament, or was her arm now crushed? In the haze of everything having happened so fast, she could not recall. She held her hand up in front of her face and she could see it fully, but for some reason it wouldn¡¯t register in her mind whether it was crushed or not.


    What did register however was in the background, through the rockdust she could see the outline of Crassus. He pounded the earth in pure rage with such violence that his form was almost obscured by the dirt he was kicking up. Something or other in his insanity fueled fury must¡¯ve offended him and now had to pay the price of distracting him. Maybe he stubbed his toe. The surrealness of the mental image almost made her laugh out loud.


    Someone far, far away shouted at her... or maybe it was close? She could feel the tremors. Wait, no that was Crassus having his temper tantrum. Someone was trying to gain her attention. She looked to her side. A man stood there and shouted, he was saying the same thing, over and over. What was his name again? Ike? Zack?


    ¡°Get up! Move! Please, for the love of god, just get up!¡±


    Oh... right... that. Aster pushed herself up from the ground with her right hand but the rest of her body didn¡¯t respond fast enough as she tried to stand and she almost toppled over. Her left hand shot up to steady herself against the slab behind her. As her hand clutched around the edge of the concrete an unbelievable pain seared through every nerve-ending in her upper body.


    The pain jolted her brain awake again but her grip slid right off the slab as if it was soaked in something slippery. Gravel pierced her chin and pinched her cheekbones as her face hit the ground with a sickly wet thud. She braced herself to get up before even considering the new pain. Her right side felt as if a bandage full needles had been wrapped around it.


    A hand gripped her shoulder and she looked up in time to see Isaac bend over her and grab her ruined hand as well. For a second, all she knew was pain as he heaved her body up and onto her two trembling feet. She wanted to thank him but pure instinct instead made her shove him hard with her one good hand. Using the momentum from the push she let herself fall once more. Only this time she let loose a shockwave of power beneath her before she could hit the ground.


    Not a second later she saw Crassus slam into the slabs, one foot on each slab, hard enough to make them tilt up from the ground a bit before they settled again. His upper body curved against his feet as he fought the momentum. Aster twisted in the air before she landed, making sure her good side faced down. She clutched her wounded arm with her good one to secure it from striking the ground as she skidded to a halt.


    Mucus and bile forced its way up her throat. She heaved it out in long slow convulsions, each contraction sending waves of pain down her body. The contractions slowed but still every breath seethed with agony. She found herself slumping towards the ground. To her surprise she saw more blood than bile between her hands. The realization made her feel something, but she couldn¡¯t decide what. It was somehow important. Something to do with Crassus. She searched for him. He stood with his back to her, crouched over Isaac, who sat covering his face. Crassus took Isaac¡¯s arm and forced it down. That was all she saw before darkness rushed in at the edges of her vision. It consumed the world and all stilled, at last she could rest. She welcomed oblivion.

 8. Into the Fire

    <h5 style="text-align: center">Chapter Three</h5>


    Into the Fire


    Isaac stared into sunken eyes filled with white smoke. They look so peaceful. He thought to himself. How can such an insane monster appear so calm? The wispy clouds swirled back and forth in lazy laps and didn¡¯t betray their secrets. Now that he saw them up close, Crassus¡¯s eyes looked almost kind.


    Crassus let go of his arm. Isaac flinched, ready to be split in two just as the bandit had been. But the pain didn¡¯t come, instead Crasuss rummaged around the linings of his coat with feeble, almost gentle hands. The transformation unsettled Isaac. Crassus turned from an uncaring tidal wave of destruction into a mumbling beggar, disabled and old, in a matter of seconds. His hands shook, but not from rage, they shook with confusion and uncertainty. Crassus seemed to forget what he was looking for every couple of seconds, then recall and continue his search.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have it on me,¡± he told Crassus, voice trembling before he could bring it under control. ¡°I have to go get it, okay?¡± He tried with all his might to pretend that Crassus was a demented senior out on an adventure to escape the drudgery of the nursinghome. ¡°I don¡¯t have it right here at this moment. But, tell you what, I¡¯ll go and get it, okay? I¡¯ll go away just a couple seconds, and then I¡¯ll be right back, is that alright?¡±


    Crassus just looked at him like a six year old, caught in the act of eating the last cookie. His mouth flapped open and shut like a goldfish, his opaque eyes appearing blinder than ever. Demented senior. He¡¯s just a demented senior. ¡°I¡¯ll go and get it now okay? It¡¯ll just be a minute.¡± No response. Is he even aware I¡¯m talking to him? Isaac stood up. Crassus latched onto his forearm.


    ¡°Please¡­ I need it!¡± Desperation tinged his voice and his grip felt like vice of iron jaws gnashing at his bones.


    ¡°Stop! Ouch, let go!¡± Isaac tried to wrestle back control of his arm but he couldn¡¯t move it a hair¡¯s breadth, he might as well have tried to grapple a statue made of lead. Crassus¡¯s face only betrayed his determination, his grasp tightened to unbearable levels.


    There was a sickening crack. The loudness stunned Isaac, but then every sensation and thought washed away under the onslaught of pain. He screamed.


    Crassus let go and Isaac¡¯s forearm tilted to one side. The image of it seared into Isaac¡¯s mind. He¡¯d seen mangled bodies before, but somehow his own body mangled in the same way appeared all the more grotesque and obscene.


    Crassus stared at the arm in horror, like he couldn¡¯t understand how it had happened. Isaac stopped screaming. Tears stung his eyes. He fought to regain control of his body, to ignore the pain.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ I mean¡­.¡± he managed, his voice catching multiple times. He tried again, ¡°Be patient¡­ Alright?¡± This time he waited, looking Crassus in the eyes. Can he actually see out of those? They don¡¯t look like any eyes I¡¯ve ever seen before.¡°Alright?¡± he repeated. Crassus nodded, like a child. Isaac hesitated. On a mad impulse, he waved one hand in front of Crassus¡¯s face. No reaction. He waved again, this time closer, and Crassus flinched, but he looked off in the wrong direction. Isaac paused for even longer. What did this mean?


    Holding his ruined arm gingerly, Isaac stumbled away from Crassus, finding to his surprise that his left leg dragged behind each step. It felt swollen. When had that happened? Isaac put the thought away, survival was paramount. Keeping one eye on Crassus he walked over to Aster. Crassus tracked him with his head the whole time, but now that Isaac paid attention to his sightline, Crassus looked at a spot above his head, not at Isaac himself.


    How could he not see a hand waved inches from his face, but he could see a man walking several steps away. Maybe Crassus was partially blinded, did blindness work in that way? Isaac did not know. He¡¯d known blind or nearly blind people throughout his life, but he had never asked. Crassus whimpered and began fidgeting, clawing at his chainmail as if something about it bothered him, no doubt something to do with the keys that had spilled out from it. Isaac hastened his pace. Best not to dwell too long, he couldn¡¯t really believe he was still alive in the first place.


    He bent down over Aster¡¯s crumpled body. He winced at the sight of her hand. It looked as if her pinky and ring fingers had been turned into paste.


    One-handed, he shook her shoulder. ¡°Hey!¡± he whispered in near hysterics. ¡°Get up!¡± No movement, not even a flicker of the eyelid. ¡°Wake up!¡± His voice cracked as he raised it involuntarily from sheer panic. Crassus whimpered like a wounded dog and slapped the earth with a flat hand so hard Isaac felt a tremor vibrate up his feet.


    Crassus would start throwing things soon, Isaac could feel it, just like he had always been able to feel it when a person he was talking to was about to become violent. Despair and powerlessness bore in on him. His arm broken, his whereabouts unknown, strange phenomenon he could not even begin to explain, a raving lunatic of a madman who somehow possessed the strength of fifty men, no place to run to and no chance in hell of making it there before being split in half had he known a place.


    Abandoning all caution he clung to the only hope he could see; Aster. He screamed at the top of his lungs for her to get up, his throat hurt and he felt something starting to tear but he pushed his voice harder. Aster twitched, her eyelids rolled back, but no conscious thought showed there. She started convulsing, bucking against the ground, again and again.


    Crassus threw something and it crashed down a distance away from Isaac and Aster. The rending sound of the object shattering made sweat pour down Isaac¡¯s back. His face flushed and his hands trembled. Overpowering panic drove every sane thought out of his mind. Only a single realization remained behind; the need to survive. It coursed through him like a fever, like nothing had ever done before in his life.


    Something large sailed above their head. He wanted to run but his feet felt like boulders. He wanted to scream but only the taste of blood filled his mouth. He couldn¡¯t hope to fight back. He didn¡¯t want to stay but he couldn¡¯t move. He could only think of one thing, and as the thought echoed inside his mind over and over, he found himself confiding out loud to the unconscious girl before him. ¡°I don¡¯t wanna die.¡± His throat only allowed a hoarse whisper, but there it was.


    Isaac had been reckless, he could see that now. He¡¯d pushed forward in his grief over his brother, and now he would pay the price and die here, alone with strangers, killed by a complete lunatic with superhuman strength. Isaac doubted whether Crassus was even aware of what he was doing. A strange sense of calm enveloped him, and the panic faded. He couldn¡¯t quite explain it, but something changed inside him. Had he gone insane too?

 9. Into the Fire, pt. 2

    Aster¡¯s pupils focused on his face and she stopped shaking. At the same time black clouds with a sharp blue tint materialized from nothing all around them. Aster gasped as if she¡¯d been passed through ice cold water. ¡°Oh no,¡± Isaac moaned. He remembered that smoke. The storm. He thought. That¡¯s how he¡¯d gotten into this mess in the first place. He was loathe to find out what it would do to him the second time around.


    ¡°Come on, we gotta get out of here,¡± he said to Aster and hoisted her up, hand over shoulder. He gripped tight around her waist to keep her upright.


    ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ We have to stay still,¡± she said. The dark clouds expanded and enveloped them within seconds, turning the sky from dimming twilight into a world of dark blue fog. Chains of lightning criss crossed through the billowing smoke. The eerie movement of the clouds appeared mean spirited to Isaac now after all that he had been through the last couple hours.


    ¡°No, we have to move.¡±


    Aster attempted a response but coughed with harsh convulsions against her hand before she managed to speak. ¡°We can¡¯t¡­ it¡¯s too dangerous¡­ to go into the mists.¡± She peered up at him, and Isaac was struck by how young she was. She can¡¯t be more than twenty. He thought. Perhaps younger. How had he not noticed until now?


    ¡°Staying here is dangerous, he¡¯ll kill us in seconds.¡± She seemed apprehensive. ¡°We¡¯re already in the mists anyways, come on, lets go!¡± He dragged her with him, careful so as to not put pressure on her ribs.


    Aster¡¯s head lolled from shoulder to shoulder, she appeared to have no muscle in her neck fit to keep her head upright any longer. ¡°Where¡¯s Crassus? What happened?¡± Aster said. Her face was very pale, her speech slurred. She¡¯s lost too much blood. Isaac thought.


    ¡°He¡¯s right there,¡± Isaac pointed, ¡°he¡¯ll throw something anytime now. Please, will you just move?¡± He attempted to drag her along but she screamed in pain and grasped his hand against her ribs. The dense smoke pulsed blue sparks in time with her shouts as if it visualized the sound waves like a mixing board in a recording studio.


    The light made Isaac look up and he saw more than just sparks flying in random directions along the edges of the almost solid-looking smoke. They traced a definite object. They were outlining the shape of a man, walking towards them. Isaac froze, he meant to shout at Aster again, or to force her to start running, or anything at all so long as it meant anything but staying a second longer. But he couldn¡¯t speak, much less move. The shape raised a hand.


    ¡°Hello? Anybody there?¡± said Crassus. He sounded scared, or even¡­ concerned?


    ¡°Stay away!¡± Aster screamed.


    ¡°Look, I- I¡­ I¡¯m sorry, alright, I didn¡¯t mean to harm you. Are you hurt?¡± They heard the sound of a furtive footstep closer.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°Don¡¯t come any closer!¡±


    ¡°Alright! Alright! I won¡¯t, I promise!¡± Two hands raised up before them, palms spread. ¡°I¡¯ll stay right here, okay? I won¡¯t move.¡±


    Some of the smoke billowed past them and a bubble of clear air surrounded them. Crassus stood in the middle of the clearing and they saw how the smoke shied away from him, almost as if it were afraid to touch him. His eyes were still the eerie shade of opaque white but his expression was more human than ever.


    ¡°I just need the key, alright?¡± he pointed at Isaac, ¡°his key,¡± he held up his hands, ¡°and then I¡¯ll be gone!¡± His voice raised an octave, as if to reassure them it really was that easy. ¡°I promise.¡± He smiled, no doubt to calm them further, but rather than being inviting it made him look like a predator.


    ¡°My¡­ my key?¡± Isaac sounded puzzled. ¡°I don¡¯t have any keys.¡± He looked to Aster. ¡°I left my keys in the car before I¡­ well, you know?¡± Her face showed no signs of comprehension. ¡°I don¡¯t have a key! I swear!¡±


    ¡°Yes, you do,¡± Aster said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t!¡± he said, but her resolve did not budge. Isaac turned to Crassus. Crassus stared at him, but not into his eyes, he stared at him below the neck. The sight unnerved Isaac. ¡°Please, I¡¯ll give you anything you want, I just don¡¯t have any keys on me. Look, I can get you one of the keys you spilled earlier, remember? Or better yet, you could go get one of them yourself, they¡¯re right behind you over there. Would that work?¡±


    Crassus gave no sign he had heard anything Isaac had said. ¡°We all have a key,¡± he said, and he appraised Isaac with a starved expression on his face.


    ¡°Just give him the fucking key already,¡± Aster said and she reached inside his jacket then  down through the collar of his shirt and searched with cold fingers across his bare skin.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Aster ignored him and he was about to protest further when he felt her hand close around something and a chain pull at the skin around his neck.


    In the same instant all the smoke pulsated once bathing their faces in light. The smoke breathed and billowed, then retracted and imploded again and again in small reversed explosions into smaller and smaller points until nothing remained and the stars twinkled down at them as if the smoke had never been there in the first place.


    As one both Isaac and Aster whipped their heads up. Crassus hadn¡¯t moved but a definite change to his body language washed over him like water. His body twisted as his muscles tightened and a demented look slowly warped his face. Then he was screaming. He roared with his mouth wide open so loud he tore his vocal chords to shreds. Spittle and blood splattered down his beard. He stumbled forward, attempting a charge, but faltered and wobbled from side to side too twisted in fury to even run straight.


    An icy cold sensation spread through Isaac¡¯s body from Aster¡¯s hand. It felt like his very soul siphoned away from him. Sickening cracking noises sounded from beside him. Aster let out a low moan and he looked only to find feathers covered every speck of visible skin. Clothes ripped and more feathers spilled out, larger and fuller than the feathers he¡¯d seen her grow before. Jet black and gleaming, feathers grew upon feathers, morphing into grotesque chunks of an indiscernible something somewhere between flesh and feather.


    Isaac couldn¡¯t reconcile what he saw with what he knew of the world. Even Crassus seemed to hesitate, unsure of what this inhuman display meant. Aster roared¡ªin defiance or pain Isaac could not tell¡ªand without any further preamble exploded like a bomb with feathers in place of shrapnel.


    Isaac woke from the pain. If he had thought his body pained him before, it was nothing compared to now. His entire existence was pain. A face hovered above him and he registered that he lay on his back. When had that happened? His tired brain tried to access his memories. Oh, right¡­ explosion. He tried to focus his eyes to make the hovering face less blurry, anything to distract him from this hell that was breathing.

 10. Into the Fire, pt. 3

    ¡°What happened?¡± he said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± She sounded worried. A hand grasped his and he let himself be dragged upright by Aster. How could she still move after that? He stood up, almost fell again, before he righted himself and surveyed their surroundings.


    A small forest of feathers that reached to his knees had sprung up around him. He stood stunned and could only look and try to appreciate what had just happened. A gust of wind blew through and the feathers swayed in the breeze, moving as one. The ground almost looked like black it was so saturated with feathers sticking out of it.


    ¡°Where is he?¡± he asked. Aster pointed.


    He looked to a mound of feathers that raised up higher than the surrounding ground. It could¡¯ve been anything underneath there, a rock, some garbage or a piece of concrete. But as he looked closer, and it was hard to see in the sea of black, tiny outcroppings of a black robe could be spotted here and there between the feathers.


    He looked at her. ¡°What are you?¡± he asked. She looked back at him with intense sadness in her eyes but didn¡¯t answer. For some reason Isaac felt he got his answer anyways through her face. Deep troughs ran through it, tracing lines from the edges of her face to a point somewhere on her nose. They were gray and dead-looking. In a few places it seemed small chunks of flesh had been torn out. If he looked underneath some of those feathers stuck into the ground all around him, would he find traces of human tissue? His skin prickled.


    Something in his periphery moved and whatever he had been about to say died on his lips. He looked to the mound. It moved again.


    He ran with every last bit of strength he could muster. Aster sidled along beside him and they were a pitiful sight indeed. His legs threatened to throw him to the ground and he caught Aster¡¯s shoulder to steady himself. They were barely making any headway. The attempt was almost comical.


    ¡°This is insane!¡± Isaac felt like fainting. ¡°How is he not dead?¡± Aster only grunted, focusing all her attention on putting one leg in front of the other. ¡°He¡¯s a fucking pincushion for Christ¡¯s sake!¡±


    Behind them, Crassus started screaming again.


    Isaac felt it and heard it at the same time, the vibrations through the ground, the sounds of feathers snapping and breaking off. The dull thud of a footstep. ¡°Oh god.¡± Isaac felt ghostly hands play across his back.


    More footsteps, closer. It became hard to breathe. He would suffocate even before Crassus reached them. His shoulders sagged. Why refuse the inevitable. It would be so simple to lay down and rest at last. He regretted not finding Finn though, it would have been so good to see him one last time. To tell him he was sorry.


    Thunder echoed through the ruins. Isaac opened his eyes. In under one second the smoke rushed in and reduced the visibility to a couple paces. The smoke breathed and pulsated like before, but something was very different this time. A strong wind blew through the smoke and a blue mist carried on it. The wind whipped the bubbles of smoke up like frothing water but the smoke did not drift even a hair''s breadth away from where it had appeared.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Something enormous dropped a pace away and dirt and pebbles rained down on him. The ground shook and a deafening clatter started up as indistinguishable objects of every size and shape rained down. A wooden barrel dropped in front of him and broke. Horse shoes spilled out from it clinking an almost musical sounding tune.


    Aster screamed something to him but the wind picked up and the roar in his ears drowned out all but the crash of the garbage and debris filling up every empty space and corner it could tumble its way into. He went to move closer to hear her better but as he turned he caught sight of something golden over her shoulder. It had only been for a brief moment, but Isaac knew beyond a sliver of a doubt what it had been. A face. The face of a man with blonde hair, a hesitant smile and kind eyes.


    ¡°FINN!¡±


    He pawed his way past Aster and something hit his shoulder hard, pain radiating from it. He gritted his teeth and ignored it. He could see the outline of Finn through the haze running away from him. ¡°FINN!¡±


    A hand caught his elbow and attempted to haul him back. It was Aster, she screamed something at him, something about having to go, it was hard to make out. She pointed in a direction away from Finn. Couldn¡¯t she leave him alone? Didn¡¯t she realize that Finn was right over there? Did she understand what he had been through to get to this point? He wrenched his hand out of her grasp and she fell.


    He looked back to Finn but the shape in the fog had disappeared. He cursed eternal suffering upon Aster and staggered after the memory he visualized in his mind. He had a general direction, and a sighting! Yes, this was enough. He would manage with this much, he had never even dared to dream of more than this.


    His foot caught and he fell forward, face first in the dirt. He couldn¡¯t lose the trail now. He had to get up. He clambered up but his feet knocked something into him. His foot hadn¡¯t caught at all, he¡¯d tripped on something.


    He pushed to untangle his foot and a body rolled over, face up. Isaac froze. It was a man with a short stout build and a round puffy face. His skull caved in at the forehead. He had blonde hair, and maybe he had had a hesitant smile too, or even a kind expression, Isaac couldn¡¯t tell now, but it wasn¡¯t Finn.


    A broken mirror lay next to him, shards of glass scattered about. Isaac looked into his reflection in a shard that leaned against the side of the man''s face. Blood seeped down. The roar of the wind and the crash of the raining debris numbed his brain until he could think no more.


    Aster caught up to him and crouched down beside him. She spared one glance at the broken face of the man splayed before them, then hauled at Isaac¡¯s shoulder to get him up but he slumped further into misery.


    The wind shifted. Instead of whipping at them from one direction it turned and Isaac felt his clothes tug in circles around him. The circle of wind grew and expanded past Aster a couple paces. Isaac looked into the wall of wind. It looked like a muddy grey mass of froth with blue streaks here and there. A memory prickled at the back of his mind.


    The deafening roar lessened to a deep rumble.


    ¡°Don¡¯t follow the people,¡± Aster said, breathing hard. ¡°The debris falls¡­¡± She paused, ¡°Where there¡¯s¡­ people.¡±


    Isaac didn¡¯t reply. He stared at the windwall. A memory of a car in a tornado sparked. His car. He turned around, but his throat caught as he saw the figure standing behind Aster, in the centre of the revolving wind.


    He stood panting like Aster, feathers sticking out all over his body. Blood streamed down his ruined robes and the skin of his chest showed through the gaps in his chainmail. In his hand he held onto the edge of a bright white bathtub resting on the ground. Some pipes trailed behind it and a golden faucet reflected the dim blue light that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once.

 11. Into the Fire, pt. 4

    A loud horn sounded in the distance. Crassus raised the bathtub above his head as if it were made of paper. The horn grew ever louder, the source was coming toward them and fast. The sound echoed and made it difficult to pinpoint but Isaac thought he could hear it louder from above. He looked up. Yes it definitely was louder now. What kind of horn was that? A boat horn¡­ or, no¡­ it was a¡ª


    Crassus looked up as well just in time to see the large red metallic wedge shape jut out of the fog as if a titan had decided to reach down from the heavens to squash them all beneath his finger. Crassus¡¯s hand blurred and the bathtub connected with the side of the train before it reached him.


    The locomotive hurtled away from Crassus and crashed into the ground well clear of Crassus. But the rest of the carriages dumped into the ground in a straight line away from the train engine and right over Crassus, burying him beneath the sleek metal. The carriages continued to rain down for several seconds. The tail end of the train disappeared into the fog and out of sight. They still heard the crash of each individual carriage as they met the ground in turn, one after the other.


    Isaac could only look on dumbstruck as the train¡¯s last few carriages fell and the train settled to a halt. Nothing moved for a time, even Aster seemed lost for words. Then a window shattered on top of a carriage and a hand reached out followed by a torso.


    Aster shook Isaac. ¡°We should go,¡± Aster said, ¡°There¡¯s too many people.¡±


    Isaac looked to the carriage that now had people climbing all over it. Some carriages further down the line began to show signs of activity as well. No movement came from the train engine. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we help them?¡± He could hear some screams coming from inside the train now. How had they survived that impact? How fast had that train been falling? Isaac shuddered as he imagined how many dead people the metal tube now contained.


    ¡°The whirlwind,¡± Aster said.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Look at the whirlwind.¡±


    Isaac looked at the swirling mists around them carried by the eerie wind. ¡°What about it?¡±


    ¡°It hasn¡¯t stopped.¡±


    Some realization hid away in Isaac¡¯s mind a hands breadth away, just beyond reach. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    She looked out over the newcomers. Some of them had huddled in a group on the ground, having dropped down from the upended carriage, but most were stranded on top, either too hurt or shell-shocked to climb down.


    ¡°Aster, what do you mean?¡± Isaac pressed.


    ¡°Crassus.¡±


    The realization hit. It should¡¯ve been obvious but the insanity of the last few hours had pushed Isaac¡¯s spirit to the brink. It was hard to connect any of the dots, much less these new supernatural realites he had to contend with. Everything he knew and took for granted had been turned on its head in a matter of seconds. But now that he had it pointed out to him, it was easy to see the connection. Every time Crassus had neared, the smoke had done something strange. No, it was more than that, the smoke did something to Crassus as well, it made him more coherent somehow.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Ah fuck me,¡± he said. He also realized that Aster wasn¡¯t looking at the newcomers at all, but rather the carriage that Crassus lay under.


    As if on queue the carriage lurched. The train shivered from the force but gravity fought it back down and it didn¡¯t move again. Several people attempting the climb down despite injuries or broken limbs lost their footing and fell. Screams rose above the rumble of the wind.


    Isaac again found himself moving away even before his brain had caught up. He felt so drained he found it difficult to be surprised or to even care anymore. But he still ran. He had to live, if not for himself then at the very least for Finn.


    Aster in tow, Isaac reached the wall of wind. Neither of them hesitated for a second but burst through the barrier and into the whirling mists. The noise raised to a deafening cacophony again and either Isaac misremembered the loudness or the torrent of objects had intensified. Gravel, sand and larger stones pelted him from the right side where the wind forced the debris in front of it with ceaseless abandon.


    Isaac couldn¡¯t see further than a couple paces in front of him, but the booming sounds of crash after crash reverberated in every direction. He felt a tugging on his coat and turned to see Aster pointing. She spared no time to explain further and set off the way she had pointed. Her right leg dragged behind her and she supported most of her weight on her left. Isaac followed.


    He didn¡¯t know where she was taking him or where she could¡¯ve possibly gotten a heading from in this mess. But they took just a couple steps before the turbulent winds grew a considerable amount more noticeable, so at least something was different about her route. Aster did not halter. She soldiered on, and for lack of a better plan, Isaac struggled to fall in line behind her.


    Soon the wind got intermixed with sand, and it tore at Isaac¡¯s skin like files. Stones, twigs and other larger objects pelted him and threatened to knock him to the ground. The visibility shrank to zero in three strides and Isaac had to lurch forward and grab Aster¡¯s clothing before she disappeared from sight.


    Shielding his face with one arm Isaac stumbled after the tugging in his hands, too exhausted to make another decision for himself. Every breath contained a small piece of hell. Every sound cowered before the overpowering roar of the storm. Every movement quivered in the promise that the next would be the last. But somehow, Isaac did not let go and he did not falter.


    The pressure lifted. The deafening noise sounded from behind rather than around him. Light peered through the edges of his arm and painted the backs of his eyelids in a muddy yellow hue. Isaac hesitated a moment in bringing his arm away from his face, the change had been so sudden that he didn¡¯t  believe it at first. But then Aster stopped and he was forced to look.


    Brilliant sunlight awaited his eyes, the warmth of it bathed his face in a sensation of safety and home he was surprised to discover just how much he had missed. The intensity of it blinded him for a split second, it came at him from all angles, not just the sky. He closed his eyes. Sunlight? How long had they been in there? It had felt like minutes, but the night had clearly passed, had it really been that long? Isaac opened his eyes until his eyelids formed tiny slits to guard him against the sunlight and he peered out.


    His heart sank as he saw what had made Aster stop. A line of men stood watching the churning mist a couple paces away from the edge. They were just as rough-looking as Ronan¡¯s bandits had been, but these men wore pieces of resplendent armor colored in red and gold. The display of armored men was the first real sign of civilization Isaac had seen since he¡¯d stepped out of the blue fog. Maybe there were actual authorities after all?

 12. Into the Fire, pt. 5

    Aster exchanged a few words with one of the men closest to them. The man she spoke to seemed to recognize her, but he kept glancing at Isaac between sentences. Then a call went out and although Isaac didn¡¯t hear it the first time, he got several more chances to figure it out as the callsign traveled up the line. It was just one word, repeated again and again from man to man. Isaac wrinkled his brow. The call sounded a lot like they were shouting: ¡°Phoenix¡±.


    A man appeared over the line of soldiers some moments after the call had traveled out of earshot. He had far more pieces of the same gleaming armor the rest of the men wore, in fact he was covered everywhere except his face. A scabbard about the same length as his height stuck out from a belt. Everything about him was colored gold, except for his skin, that it was as if he¡¯d been dipped into a vat of liquid gold.


    He stood on a platform, no, a hand? The hand rose above the line of men until Isaac could see it better and Isaac once again since he came to the Endpoint, struggled to understand what he was seeing. The hand was as golden as the man it carried, and it attached to a huge lumbering creature, clumped and hunchbacked like Quasimodo. Perhaps the height of two men and the width of five or six.


    It had no real eyes or face, just the outline of one. It was as if someone had given up halfway into hewing a human out of rock and instead tried to melt the figure into the correct shape but abandoned that attempt too. The creature positively towered over everyone around it and Issac hoped it could at least slow Crassus down long enough for them to escape.


    The man hopped down from the creature and his overlong scabbard dug into the ground and he had to adjust it irritably with one hand to keep it from bulging his belt out. He wore a styled beard, cut into strips and sections. He had a long hooked nose and flowing dark brown hair that clashed magnificently with his golden armor. He resembled a hawk dive bombing a jewelry box.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Aster,¡± he said looking her over from head to toe, sparing only a glance for Isaac. ¡°It ¡®as been too long.¡± He had a horribly botched french accent.


    ¡°Crassus is chasing us,¡± Aster said without preamble.


    The man gasped and scanned the fog wall for a second before returning his gaze to Aster. The reaction lasted only for a moment. ¡°Zhat¡¯s impossible, ¡®ow can he smell you all zhe way out ¡®ere?¡±


    ¡°Either let me through or fight me. Then Crassus can have what¡¯s left of you.¡±


    The man pretended to be taken aback by her threat. ¡°Why aster,¡± he said, drawing out the ¡®r¡¯ in her name with a long scarring consonant. ¡°You ¡®ardly look fit to battle, my fiery friend,¡± he laughed heartily, ¡°If I were you I would not go around making threats so idly, no?¡±


    Aster stared at him. He chuckled and continued, ¡°after all, there¡¯s only one of you,¡± he nodded at Aster, ¡°and more than fifty of us,¡± he finished with shifting his gaze to Isaac as if to draw attention to the fact that he hadn¡¯t included Isaac.


    Aster didn¡¯t respond this time around either, she just crossed her arms.


    The man laughed and threw his arms up in mock exasperation and traded glances with his men as if to lament the futility of arguing with an unruly child. ¡°Ah, but I do not ¡®ave the time to play with you, Aster,¡± he said, and he even sounded apologetic. ¡°Run along now little bird and say ¡®allo to Tejhal for me, no?¡± A mirthful smile played across his lips, ¡°tell her I look forward to zhe day zhat roof falls down on her head.¡± At that he almost choked himself he laughed so hard.


    Aster grabbed Isaac¡¯s coat and he winced as pain shot through his broken arm. She elbowed her way past a man with golden armor strapped to his arms over the numerous furs he wore. He had two shoulder pads with horns sticking straight up that looked so fierce they almost seemed to grow out his actual skin. Isaac was careful to give the man ample room as he passed while Aster dragged him along. The golden man laughed behind them all the way past the soldiers, up a small incline and into the forest. None of his men joined him in laughing.

 13. Explanations

    <h4 style="text-align: center">Chapter Four</h4>


    Explanations


    They¡¯d walked for what felt like hours, but had probably only been minutes. Isaac had to stop every ten steps to catch his breath. He¡¯d never been more tired in his life, or at least he couldn¡¯t remember a worse time. Aster was not a very patient travel companion. Not that she nagged at him, they hadn¡¯t spoken since the blue fog had sent a train down on their heads, but she kept dragging him onwards as soon as his breathing evened out even a bit. She never let him sit down and she kicked him in the shin and pulled him up by the collar if he tried.


    ¡°Please,¡± he said once he couldn¡¯t take any more, ¡°I can¡¯t go any further.¡± Aster looked him over and going by her expression she was not all that impressed by what she saw. She turned around and carried on walking without a word. Isaac stopped. ¡°I¡¯m not going to make it, Aster. I need rest, you need rest!¡± Aster whirled around, her face flush with frustration but Isaac held up a finger. ¡°And don¡¯t you pretend you¡¯re hurt less than me. I can see your face, Aster! There¡¯s a huge dent in it!¡±


    Aster stomped the ground like a petulant child but then forced her leg still with what looked like sheer willpower. Isaac almost smiled despite his exhaustion and the grim situation he faced.


    Aster crossed her arms. ¡°Would you rather sit here and wait for Crassus to butcher us?¡± Isaac gave an involuntary twitch at the mention of Crassus and for a moment he found that he couldn¡¯t speak. Aster looked satisfied and walked on.


    Isaac felt a surge of desperation at seeing her back turned on him. He had to convince her somehow. ¡°How would he be able to follow us?¡± Isaac tried to hide the exasperation he felt but it slipped through regardless. ¡°Can he even see? His eyes look deader than glass marbles for crying out loud.¡±


    Aster stopped once again and looked at him over her shoulder. She bit her lip. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°Or, I thought I knew but now I¡¯m not so sure.¡± She faced him. ¡°Look, if you want to survive we can¡¯t rely on anything, the only thing that will keep him from finding us is distance. We have to get so far away that one of his insane impulses will distract him and make him lose the trail, or something else distracts him. I don¡¯t care! We just. Can¡¯t. Stay here!¡±


    Isaac looked confused. ¡°Wait, hang on. The trail?¡± She shrugged. ¡°He¡¯s not blind?¡±


    ¡°No, he¡¯s blind, or at least he¡¯s supposed to be.¡±


    ¡°Then¡­ how?¡±


    Aster tapped her nose.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°His nose?!¡± Aster nodded. ¡°He¡¯s tracking us by smell?¡± Aster waited for him to catch up. Isaac contemplated for a short while. ¡°That makes no sense,¡± he said at last.


    ¡°Yes, I know,¡± Aster said as if it was obvious but despite the tone of her voice she looked surprised that Isaac thought it made no sense as well.


    ¡°How could he have smelled anything through all that wind?¡± Isaac looked to Aster but she shrugged her shoulders. Isaac recalled the way Crassus had walked out of the storm as if he¡¯d known all along that¡¯s where Aster and Isaac would be. Isaac shivered. There had been nothing random about that walk of his, that was for sure.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Aster said, ¡°I¡¯m starting to doubt everything I¡¯ve ever been told about Crassus.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so he¡¯s famous?¡± Isaac felt stupid for making all the small talk but he couldn¡¯t help but reach for every shred of normalcy he could grab ahold of, these past hours had been the most taxing of his life.


    Aster however seemed grateful for the distraction and answered without delay. ¡°You could say that¡­ he¡¯s a horror story people tell to scare newcomers.¡±


    Isaac wrinkled his brow. ¡°Newcomers? Not the children then? Why¡¯d you want to scare off newcomers?¡±


    Aster looked at him funny but didn¡¯t elaborate. ¡°But anyways, that¡¯s why I don¡¯t feel safe here. We need to travel at least until nightfall.¡±


    That reminded Isaac of something he did not want to think about. How had he arrived here by sundown, walked through some freaky mist for a couple of minutes, then stepped out into glaring sunlight? He didn¡¯t want to think about it, somehow he knew that going down that path would eventually lead him to conclude that he¡¯d gone insane.


    ¡°Until nightfall?¡± he said instead, ¡°Aster! We can¡¯t possibly last until nightfall, just look at you!¡± Isaac¡¯s eyes strayed towards her hand but quickly darted away again, something that should have been there, was missing. ¡°This is beyond irresponsible.¡±


    ¡°Look at yourself, Aster. There¡¯s no way we¡¯re ever going to make it even another hour, you¡¯re acting out of fear.¡±


    ¡°What, and you¡¯re not?¡± Aster interrupted.


    ¡°I¡¯m scared, I¡¯m not going to deny that, but you need to look at this from another angle. It¡¯s not a question of whether we can outrun Crassus or not, it¡¯s a question of whether he can track us or not. If he can track us in some other way than smell, how do we know what distance is sufficient?


    ¡°We don¡¯t. We have to decide what we believe. Does he use smell or some other method? If it¡¯s the former, then we have to consider it a given that he will eventually find us. In that scenario, our best course of action is the be as rested and healed as possible in order for us to make another escape.¡±


    Aster looked taken aback at his sudden outpouring of logic. It felt good to finally amount to something. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s not¡­ entirely stupid,¡± she said. Isaac found himself smiling at her compliment but hid it with a quick motion. What was up with him? Acting like a schoolgirl over a simple compliment. He tried to remind himself that Aster was at least ten years his junior.


    ¡°We need somewhere to rest, do you know how to make a shelter?¡± Isaac looked with hope to Aster, because he did for sure not know how. He¡¯d gone camping one time in his life, together with his then-girlfriend, and it had ended in a spectacular relationship-ending fight a couple hours into the trip.


    Aster thought for a beat. ¡°Actually, I know of something better.¡±

 14. Explanations, pt. 2

    The church peeked out from beneath a heavy cover of vines and the moss-looking growth Isaac had seen everywhere since he¡¯d come to the Endpoint. He couldn¡¯t guess exactly how long the church had been there, but for the level of neglect that the church showed to accrue it must¡¯ve been abandoned for more than at least a couple of years. Then again, everything he¡¯d seen so far had looked abandoned. The forest leading up the church had been less crowded with junk than the scrapyard, but now the garbage lay in piles again.


    He couldn¡¯t feel his arm anymore. It had given him intense pain for hours since Crassus had snapped it between his fingers like a twig, and to have the pain vanish was a relief to be sure. But the thing that worried Isaac, was the complete absence of any feeling in his arm, not just pain. It probably meant blood loss or shock of some kind, Isaac wasn¡¯t sure as to the exact cause, but it couldn¡¯t bode well, no matter what it was.


    Bloodloss could explain the dizziness he had experienced the last couple hours as well, but then again that could just be his sleep deprivation. Aster didn¡¯t seem to be in much better shape either. In fact, she was worse off than him. Her ragged form in front of him heaved her body forward with every step as if she leaned against the raging torrent of a blizzard. Still she never faltered, not even once, as she lead the way.


    Isaac couldn¡¯t keep himself from closing his eyes everytime they fell on Aster¡¯s hand. Despite his unwillingness to look he had during the last half hour seen enough glimpses of it to build an image in his mind. At least two of her fingers appeared to be¡­ gone, just completely ruined. She limped, like Isaac, and her forehead was coated in dried blood, most likely she had a concussion as well. Isaac decided in the quiet of his mind that the church had to be their hiding place for the day. Continuing further was not an option. Isaac steeled himself for the inevitable confrontation.


    But Aster did not lead them past the church. As they entered through the doorway, where the door leaned against its frame rather than hang from it, Issac wondered whether this had been their destination all along or whether Aster had come to the same conclusion he had. She seemed sure of herself, but then again she always had, no matter the situation. Except for maybe the time Crassus had walked out of the mists, talking as if he¡¯d found his sanity somewhere out there in the churning blue haze. Isaac shivered.


    Regardless, he wasn¡¯t about to ask, he¡¯d already settled on the church in his mind now. They could climb the clocktower and they would have an unobstructed view of the surrounding area. If they were lucky they could perhaps even spot Crassus for miles out. If he was still following them. Isaac pictured the golden soldiers in his mind. He imagined the added half second Crassus would need to puncture their armor and skewer them on his arm. Isaac shook his head.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    He imagined the golden creature that had towered over them as the bearded buffoon with the strange accent and ridiculous scabbard talked. That creature could perhaps stand a chance. Though, Isaac had really no reliable data to back up that assumption. For all he knew, the creature would crumple like aluminum foil. He¡¯d never seen the creature move beyond it¡¯s lumbering pace either. Crassus moved like a freight train, if the creature was always as slow as it had been, then there wasn¡¯t even a point to contemplate the fight. Crassus would simply ignore it.


    The inside of the church was as worn down as the outside. The pews had been shoved up against the walls at some point and the altar was missing. The walls had probably been white once, but now they sported only a faded beige. In the center of the church a pile of ash marked the previous spot of a bonfire. Black soot stained the roof. Most of the windows were missing or shattered, including what must¡¯ve been a rose at the back wall, behind where the altar would have been.


    Aster didn¡¯t head for the stairs up to the clock tower, instead she moved to the pews. She tried rocking one over but in her injured state only managed a small creaking noise.


    ¡°Help me with this.¡±


    ¡°Why? Lets move to the clock tower, we¡¯ll have a great view of the area from there. We can take turns sleeping.¡±


    Aster stared him down.


    ¡°What?¡±


    She continued staring. Isaac sighed and moved to help her.


    He soon got his unspoken question from earlier answered as she showed him both why they had come here and why she wanted to move the pews. Beneath the pile of wooden benches, several boxes sat hidden. Once she opened the closest one Isaac saw the food and supplies stored inside.


    They looked like military rations, Isaac recognized the clear plastic wrapping and the unimaginative designs. But the writing was unreadable, consisting of very strange letters he¡¯d never seen before. The symbols were arranged in spiral patterns rather than left to right. Even familiar things had to be unfamiliar in this place. He should never have come here.


    The sight of bandages chased away his homesickness however. Together they gathered up the things they needed with a quiet focus. Still not saying a word between them they carried the food and bandages together using a discarded sack and moved to the spiral staircase at the back of the church.


    The top of the bell tower had no bell or railing. The precarious height should have frightened Isaac. But it barely fazed him as the bone deep tiredness chased away all other feelings before it. He was however surprised to spot the storm still raging, just a few miles to the east. He nibbled a dry biscuit while he watched the storms, bunched up against one of the four pillars holding the bell tower roof above them. Blue lightning shot out of the blue mass of fog every ten seconds or so but the flashes made no sound, no rumble.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take the first watch, you sleep,¡± Aster said.


    And no sooner had she said so, when Isaac¡¯s consciousness slipped away, and he slept.

 15. Explanations, pt. 3

    Isaac awoke hours later. He jumbled up, images of golden giants flickered across his mind, with crassus¡¯s voice taunting him, calling out to him that he''d never find his brother. He steadied himself against the cold stone as he almost tipped over, and looked straight down into a steep fall into the overgrown courtyard of the church.


    His heart beating against his chest he gripped one hand against the pillar he had slept against. His broken arm seared pain up his shoulder. He cursed and bunched over. A half eaten biscuit tumbled down his chest and cracked on the floor of the bell tower.


    ¡°How¡­ How long have I been out?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Six hours, give or take.¡±


    He furrowed his brow. ¡°You look horrible.¡± She sat opposite him, leaning against a pillar, wrapped tight in several very shabby looking blankets. She reminded him of a beggar.


    ¡°Can you keep watch for a moment? I need to take care of something.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I mean, why didn¡¯t you wake me? You look ten minutes away from death.¡± Her face was as gray as the stone she sat on.


    She didn¡¯t answer, which was seeming to become something of a pattern with Aster. Isaac hated people who didn¡¯t answer questions. With his job he had met far too many of those.


    Aster bent forward and brandished a knife. Isaac realised for the first time that she¡¯d gathered up kindling and some pieces of wood, probably from some of the pews. The flames of a bonfire licked happily at the air. She stuck the knife inside the hot coals.


    ¡°Wait! Hold on, what¡¯re you doing?¡± Isaac held out his hands, gesticulating. ¡°You can¡¯t have a fire! People will see, Crassus will find us! How long has this been burning?¡±


    ¡°Crassus is blind.¡±


    Isaac momentarily fumbled upon getting a response, he¡¯d planned on continuing his monologue of whining. ¡°What about those golden soldiers? They¡¯ll find us! And they weren¡¯t too friendly, were they?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re busy,¡± she pointed.


    ¡°What¡­¡± Isaac looked.


    She had pointed to the where the storm had been before he fell asleep, but now only the sun shone on the towers and heaps of scrap amidst the ruins in the Scrapyard. Isaac squinted as he tried to hone in on the miniature humanoid shapes far off in the distance. He could spot the golden giant easy enough, and the soldiers, as they stood out with their golden plates. But there were a lot more people now.


    The golden soldiers bunched up around a gathering of slow moving people. It seemed they were ushering the non-gold people into lines.


    ¡°Who are they? The other people I mean.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re the newcomers.¡±


    ¡°The people from the train?¡± Isaac sat up straighter.


    The lines formed fully. Some golden soldier muddled about at the front and Isaac imagined the mustached buffoon parading back and forth. No doubt inflating from the self importance and hefting his ridiculous scabbard from catching on the ground.


    Something moved out there. Something long materialized from nothing, a thin pole of some sort? It flashed across several of the lines of people and they dropped out of view and melted into the ground. Isaac gasped.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°What happened?¡± he said.


    ¡°He probably killed them.¡±


    Isaac¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°Killed them? Why? Isn¡¯t this place hostile enough?¡±


    ¡°For their keys, Isaac. It¡¯s the only thing that matters here. You¡¯ll come to learn that soon enough.¡±


    The remaining lines of survivors burst into chaos and the rest of the golden soldiers moved to apprehend them. The fire crackled and Isaac looked away from the carnage and was shocked to find Aster peeling off chunks of flesh from her hand with a red hot blade.


    He gaped at her as she brought the blade back to the fire to heat it back up again. Sweat poured down her face and in her wounded hand she held a stick marred with bite marks. She looked him in the eye, defiant, daring him to protest.


    ¡°But¡­ those are your fingers.¡± He pointed weakly with a slight bow of his head. Only three fingers gripped the stick she¡¯d used to keep herself from screaming. The remaining two were missing almost down to the knuckles. The stump of her ring finger was slightly longer and bound up at the end in black rope, wound so tight Isaac felt second-hand pain just from looking at it.


    Her pinky ended in a large burn mark. The smell of bacon wafted across Isaac¡¯s face. He belched several times over the edge of the bell tower.


    He knew why she had done it, of course. She was probably losing too much blood, at least if her skin color was anything to go by. Isaac had gone to a survival course once with his brother. He knew that¡¯s how they¡¯d done surgery in the field when there wasn¡¯t a needle or thread to be found. Or rather the time to sew up a wound properly. Instead you took a piece of metal, heated it up and scorched the wound closed.


    Tears reflected the sunlight and blinked at Isaac from the edges of Aster¡¯s eyes. She didn¡¯t mention it and neither did he. Isaac just wiped his mouth with the edge of his coat.


    Aster started shaking. She held her scorched hand tight around the wrist and she turned over on her side. Isaac watched her convulse and shiver until her breathing slowed and she fell asleep. He wondered at what that young girl must¡¯ve lived through to be so tough. He doubted anyone he knew back on earth would be willing to cut off their own fingers.


    Maybe she¡¯d been right to look at him like she had. Weighing him, disregarding him, writing him off as a lost cause the minute she met him. But she wasn¡¯t wrong. He¡¯d set out to find Finn and bring him back. Isaac had known something beyond the explainable was going on. And what had he done since coming here? He¡¯d done nothing but run and hide, whining and feeling sorry for himself. That would end now. The only thing he had to go on was his instinct and intuition, but for those to work he had to gather information. He could pretend this was another case to be solved.


    He sat guard over Aster¡¯s sleeping body while watching the horizon for signs of Crassus. While the hours went by he relived the last day in mind and made a list of questions he needed the answer too.


    He looked back to make sure that Aster was still breathing and found her eyes wide open, weighing him again. Isaac felt the back his head prickle but ignore both it and her stare. Instead he reached inside the sack and handed her a piece of flatbread. She sat up and took it. Isaac contemplated his next words carefully. She sat silent and ate, still watching him.


    ¡°How come you can grow feathers?¡± he said at last.


    She looked him over but didn¡¯t react otherwise, like she¡¯d known all along that it would eventually come to this. ¡°The keys. It¡¯s always about the keys.¡±


    Isaac looked sceptical. ¡°How do they work?¡±


    ¡°You find one that whispers to you and then you synchronize with it.¡±


    That didn¡¯t make a whole lot of sense. ¡°No, I mean, what makes them tick?¡±


    ¡°The keys don¡¯t tick, I said the whisper. What, did Crassus rattle your mind?¡±


    Isaac gave an uncomfortable shrug at the mention of Crassus¡¯s name. ¡°No, I mean how do they work, like the physics of it?¡±


    ¡°Physics?¡± Aster looked puzzled. She didn¡¯t seem to like not knowing something.


    Isaac stared at her. ¡°Alright, nevermind the physics, you said I had one¡­ ehm¡­ a key, is that true?¡±


    This it seemed she knew because she answered with confidence. ¡°Yes, you do.¡±


    ¡°Well, where is it?¡±


    ¡°Hanging from your neck, I¡¯d imagine, just like everyone else''s.¡±


    Isaac reached into his coat, beneath his shirt, and to his astonishment drew out a chain hanging there. Hung around his neck, just like she¡¯d said.


    ¡°How the¡­¡± He looked at at Aster, ¡°how did that get there?¡±


    Aster shrugged, then winced as something pained her. ¡°We don¡¯t really know, but everyone who arrives here gets one.¡±

 16. Explanations, pt. 4

    Isaac traced the chain around his neck with his fingers. A key dangled from it at the bottom. He grabbed it. ¡°Holy shit. Every single person who comes here gets one?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Including you?¡±


    She bit her lip. ¡°Well, sort of, I have several, but I didn¡¯t get mine by coming here.¡±


    ¡°No? How come?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t taken by the storms like you.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean you weren¡¯t taken? Then how did you end up here?


    She hesitated for a long while. ¡°I was born here.¡±


    If Isaac had held a drink, he would¡¯ve spilled it. ¡°You were born here? In this place? In¡­ what did you call it?¡±


    Aster looked saddened from his reaction. ¡°The Endpoint.¡±


    Her expression made him pause and he tried to hide his incredulity a bit. ¡°Right, the Endpoint. I mean¡­ that¡¯s what you meant by here right? The Endpoint. You mean you were born in this world, like, in a city or something, far from here?¡± Isaac couldn¡¯t imagine growing up in a place without electricity.


    Aster grew even more solemn at that. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a city.¡±


    Isaac was at a loss for words. ¡°You¡¯ve never seen a city?¡±


    Aster said nothing.


    Then something occurred to Isaac. ¡°Are there any cities, in the Endpoint?¡±


    She shook her head.


    Isaac leaned back. ¡°Oh boy.¡± He scratched the stubble on his chin then sighed. They sat silent for a while. Isaac rolled his key between his fingers. It was silver and had an odd design. It looked old fashioned and sturdy.


    ¡°How do I use it?¡±


    Aster stirred. She drew out a chain identical to his own from beneath her clothing. Four keys hung from it, three silver and one bronze. All but one had the chain going through it at the handle, the last key, a silver one, instead hung from the handle of another silver key.


    She held out the two silver keys that were bundled together. ¡°First you find a key that¡¯s synchronized with you, then you hold onto it until you have synchronized back with it.¡± She looked up at him, her mood brightening. ¡°Since that one,¡± she indicated the key in his hand, ¡°is your birthright the synchronization part is already there.¡±


    ¡°My¡­ birthright?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what we call it. The key you arrive with is your birthright key.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s it called that, and who¡¯s ¡®we¡¯?¡±


    She ignored him. ¡°All you have to do is focus¡­ and,¡± the keys in her hand glowed, ¡°tadaaa!¡± A large jetblack feather grew out of her hand, a silvery color melted up the root. She smiled at him. ¡°Now you try.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°Very.¡±


    ¡°But, how do I know if I¡¯m synchronized.¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°You understand the whispers.¡±


    A chill went up Isaac¡¯s spine and a memory of voices calling to him behind a wall bubbled up, unwelcome. ¡°The whispers?¡±


    ¡°Yes, or well, not understand exactly, more like you recognize the words. There¡¯s no real meaning behind it.¡±


    Isaac hesitated, then brought the key up to his ear. He didn¡¯t hear anything out of the ordinary, least of all whispering voices. Still, he could remember the voices from before Crassus had burst through the wall. He didn¡¯t really want to hear something like that ever again.


    ¡°Stop hesitating, just do it!¡± Aster threw a pebble at him. She seemed almost playful, it was startling to see.


    Isaac drew himself up. He focused on the key, trying his best not to look stupid. Nothing happened for five whole seconds. But then he noticed something. A sound, far off in the distance. He couldn¡¯t quite place it. The sound grew in strength. It was something like an echo.


    The key grew warm to the touch and it even glowed faintly. Isaac''s eyes grew wide and his muscles stiffened in anticipation, whatever happened next, it would surely be as fantastical as everything else had been in the Endpoint.


    A tiny tremor went through the key and then¡­ nothing. His palm tickled but that was about it.


    Isaac slumped down and sighed. ¡°Well, that was... anticlimactic.¡±


    Aster looked confused. ¡°What happened?¡± She looked at him as if he should have seen what she hadn¡¯t.


    ¡°Nothing, that¡¯s what happened.¡± He couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit let down from the whole affair. Maybe in some small place in his mind he had grown a hope that these ¡®keys¡¯ could help him survive the days ahead. Or, who knew, even help him find Finn somehow.


    ¡°Then you did it wrong, try again!¡±


    He looked up at her sharply. ¡°I did exactly what you said I should do. What was supposed to happen?¡±


    Aster looked exasperated. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but certainly more than that.¡±


    ¡°If you don¡¯t know then how do you know I did it wrong?¡±


    ¡°I just do alright? Trust me, I¡¯ve been around these things since I was a baby. I¡¯ve seen keys do things you couldn¡¯t imagine.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯ve never seen one like mine before?¡±


    ¡°No! I haven¡¯t, alright?¡± She shouted at him. She seemed to realize she¡¯d raise her voice, because she wrapped her arms around herself and turned her head sharply away from him in quite a pouty fashion. ¡°Fucking interrogator,¡± she grumbled.


    He gave her a few seconds of personal space to calm down. Then he picked the thread back up. ¡°Is that uncommon? For you to not recognize a particular key?¡±


    She pouted a little while longer but it seemed she couldn¡¯t resist sharing her knowledge with someone who was interested. ¡°It¡¯s not that it¡¯s uncommon for keys to be different, it¡¯s that I¡¯ve never seen one that looks anything like yours.¡±


    ¡°Most keys look similar?¡±


    ¡°No, most keys look different to one another, but the basetypes are almost always one out of a handful.¡±


    ¡°Basetypes?¡±


    ¡°Yes, many keys share the same base, but the aspect is different.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s an aspect?¡±


    She huffed. ¡°Look,¡± she held up her set of silver keys, ¡°my key is a projectile key, that¡¯s the basetype.¡±


    ¡°Projectile, right.¡± Isaac repeated, eager to keep her going.


    ¡°That means I can create something and then shoot stuff with it.¡±


    Isaac hesitated, then nodded, ¡°uh-huh.¡±


    ¡°Now my aspect,¡± she said, pointing at a small emblem at the cross-section between the circular handle and the key proper, ¡°is what determines what form whatever it is I create will take.¡± She beamed at him. ¡°the aspect for my key is a feather.¡±


    ¡°So you shoot feathers.¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    Isaac looked on amazed as Aster demonstrated by ushering forth more feather, sending a few of them into the tower roof. They did not fall down again.


    ¡°What are the different aspects a key can have?¡±


    ¡°Oh, they can be almost anything. Metals, rocks, liquids, organic stuff, anything.¡±


    Isaac took some time to let that sink in. What he wouldn¡¯t give to get his hands on some of the metal projectile ones, or even a fire aspect. He could be a living flamethrower. He needed to know more.


    ¡°I¡¯ve noticed the tips of your feathers are metal, is that part of your keys power as well?¡±


    Aster raised her eyebrows at him. ¡°You always pay attention, don¡¯t you, Isaac?¡±


    Isaac felt his cheeks redden. Damn his emotions to hell. He was acting as hormonal as a teenager.


    ¡°You are right my feathers do have irontips, but that¡¯s not from my projectile key, it¡¯s from my armament key.¡± She held up the other key that hung from the first key she¡¯d been talking about.

 17. Explanations, pt. 5

    ¡°What does it do?¡±


    ¡°It lets you turn part of yourself into its aspect.¡±


    ¡°So the feathers are a part of you?¡±


    She smiled at him like he was getting it now. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Wha¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ªthe feathers aren¡¯t part of me, they are created by the key.¡±


    ¡°Then how come you can make the feathers part metal?¡±


    Her smile widened even further and she leaned closer like she was about to reveal the big secret. ¡°See that¡¯s the magic of it all, each key can connect to any other¡­ and they will interact with the key they¡¯re connected to instead of you!¡±


    The different possibilities Isaac had been building inside his mind suddenly multiplied. His eyes widened.


    ¡°Just watch.¡± She took the armament key and pulled it hard. At first the circular handle only clinked against the metal of the other key, but then the inner circle melted and one ring passed through the other until Aster held two separate keys in her hand rather than one bundle.


    ¡°Wow...¡± Isaac couldn¡¯t help but be amazed. ¡°The metal melts on its own to let one key pass through the other? How does it know you want to seperate them?¡±


    ¡°You just pull.¡± She said it like it should be obvious.


    She put the key she had just freed back on the chain around her neck. She held up her hand between them. Isaac watched in amazement as the hand in front of his face turned silver. A large spot of blank iron sprouted out from a spot on the back of her hand. It grew like ice on a lake, except it started from the middle rather than the edges.


    ¡°What is that one called?¡±


    ¡°Armament, with the iron aspect.¡±


    She pulled off the feather key and hooked it into the armament key dangling from her chain. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and a large black feather grew from her hand.


    Isaac felt perplexed. ¡°Now the feathers have no iron on them, but you connected the feather key to the iron key, shouldn¡¯t it do something?¡±


    Aster opened her eyes and looked at him with the patience of a wisened mentor. ¡°Look where it grows from.¡±


    Isaac looked towards the base of the feather. It stuck out from the metal on her hand. ¡°Oh!¡± He looked up at her, he felt the excitement from before return ten-fold. ¡°So normally you can only manifest the feathers from your own skin, but by connecting it through the iron key you can do so from the metal as well.¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    She nodded. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. This way I can attack and defend at the same time.¡± She laughed. ¡°Though I prefer more firepower so I connect the armament key to the projectile key rather than the other way around.¡±


    ¡°Then how do you protect yourself?¡± Isaac remembered her previous fights, she¡¯d been far too reckless by his estimation.


    ¡°Just don¡¯t get hit, Isaac,¡± she winked at him.


    He had nothing to say to that, so he just stared at her.


    She grew a bit flustered beneath his stare. Maybe she wasn¡¯t all that accustomed to praise or admiration.


    She looked off to the side over her shoulder and waved her hand in the air as if to downplay his unspoken compliments. ¡°Besides, there¡¯s also the much greater drawback that to fire, I first need to create my armament, which takes time and mass. It¡¯s much simpler to create and fire one thing than to go through two layers of concentration before I can attack.¡±


    ¡°Mass?¡±


    ¡°Yes, one can only create a certain amount of mass per hour, up until a maximum limit of mass per twenty-four hours.¡±


    Isaac couldn¡¯t stop feeling amazed at everything Aster told him. This just went on and on, how much did she know and how had she figured it all out? He needed to get every ounce of information he could out of this person. ¡°How do you know how much you can create in a given period?¡±


    She shrugged her shoulders. ¡°By practicing and testing your limits, I guess. Most newcomers can¡¯t produce much more than their body per hour though, that at least seems to be consistent.¡±


    Isaac blinked. ¡°So if you weigh more you can create more?¡±


    Now Aster was the one to hesitate. ¡°Huh, I don¡¯t know, I¡¯ve never thought about it like that before. It doesn¡¯t really matter though, no matter what amount you can create to begin with, practice far outpaces that amount in a matter of days.¡±


    ¡°Of course it matters, you could gain weight on purpose in addition to practicing, leveraging your results on both axises simultaneously.¡±


    Aster looked at him like he was the dumbest person to walk the Endpoint. ¡°Have you looked around yourself lately? There¡¯s not much food to go around in these parts.¡± she shook her head. ¡°I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but most people who come here starve to death. The rest get their throats slit and their keys stolen by Tejahl and their ilk.¡±


    Isaac swallowed. He started speaking, then choked and changed course. ¡°Where the soldiers who killed the people from the train with Tejahl too?¡±


    Aster still looked angry but her voice calmed somewhat. ¡°No, they¡¯re with Kin Tao. The current warlord who rules around these parts.¡±


    ¡°Tejahl and Kin Tao? How many warlords are there?¡±


    ¡°Just the two of them. Though Tejahl isn¡¯t really a warlord in the same way Kin Tao is.¡±


    ¡°What, is she less ruthless than Kin Tao?¡±


    Aster chuckled. ¡°Oh, no, she¡¯s plenty ruthless alright,¡± she sounded bitter, ¡°she just has control of the tower. No key powers work there for some reason, so Kin Tao can¡¯t really attack her there, even though he¡¯s stronger.¡±


    Isaac thought this new information over for a while. ¡°How does she control the tower if no key powers work there, does she have a different kind of power?¡± At this point Isaac wouldn¡¯t put anything past this new reality he found himself in. He was ready to accept anything, no matter how outlandish it sounded.


    ¡°The key powers don¡¯t work, but the resonance still does.¡±


    ¡°The resonance?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve seen me use it.¡±


    Isaac thought back. Only a second went by before it clicked. ¡°The shockwaves, the discs of light!¡± She nodded. He felt his mind slip back into the usual intuitive leaps and quick pattern recognition he¡¯d grown so accustomed to through his investigative work. Sleeping had really helped him regain his old self. He¡¯d been useless for far too long.

 18. Explanations, pt. 6

    ¡°The keys whisper,¡± Aster leaned towards him, ¡°and if you whisper back, a sort of¡ªresonance¡ªis created.¡± She leaned back against the pillar and exhaled deeply. ¡°If you guide it through your limbs, you can generate shockwaves. The explosions ignore most things, but they really react intensely with other keys. They also push on you a lot, so I use them in tandem with my gravity key to move around. Tejahl is simply unmatched when it comes to resonance fighting and so no one can challenge her.¡±


    Isaac squinted against the sun. ¡°But if the shockwaves ignore most things except keys, how is that useful if keys don¡¯t work in the tower anyways?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing though, even if the powers stop working inside, most people still can¡¯t afford to leave their keys behind them. The keys are what keeps us alive, if we didn¡¯t have them, other people with keys would simply kill us and steal what we do have.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t understand, that still doesn¡¯t¡ª¡±


    Aster held up a hand to cut him off. ¡°When someone resonates a key out of your chain, it leaves you stunned. It can even knock you unconscious, and then who¡¯s going to guard your keys lying unprotected on the ground?¡± She clenched her hands and looked into her lap. Her next words were laced with contempt, ¡°it doesn¡¯t help either that she¡¯s infamous for stealing and hoarding other people¡¯s keys.¡± She looked up at him quickly then stared down into her lap again. ¡°She¡¯s one of the very few people who steal keys from the living.¡±


    Isaac suspected at least one person whom Tejahl had stolen from. Still, he needed to be sure. He bent his head down and tried to make eye contact with her. ¡°Did Tejahl steal a key from you, Aster?¡± he said as gentle as he could manage.


    She grit her teeth and for a moment she looked like she was about to throw something. But then all the air went out of her and she slumped back against the pillar. ¡°Yes¡­ she stole my birthright key, the one I was born with.¡±


    ¡°Why did she steal it?¡±


    She eyed him, perhaps a bit suspicious of him, but then she must¡¯ve thought better of it because her guard dropped again. ¡°Because it¡¯s very valuable and rare.¡±


    ¡°But you know this resonance stuff as well right? Go and challenge her, take your key back..¡±


    Aster¡¯s back stiffened. ¡°It¡¯s not that easy.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    Aster sighed in frustration. ¡°She¡¯s stronger than me, alright?¡±


    Isaac scoughed. ¡°I don¡¯t believe that.¡±


    ¡°She is. She knows how to manifest the shockwaves away from her body. She sends them out like gusts of air. Her range is far greater than mine. She¡¯d knock all my keys to the floor before I¡¯d get close enough to even attempt doing the same thing to her.¡±


    ¡°Wrap the keys around your arm or something with rope so they can¡¯t be knocked away easily.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t work, when the resonance touches a key the key sort of phases out, like a ghost or something. They pass right through you.¡±


    Isaac remembered back to the tornado, before he¡¯d arrived in the Endpoint, and how his car had passed right through him. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve encountered that.¡±


    Aster¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Oh?¡±


    Isaac didn¡¯t give her the time to ask him to elaborate. ¡°Maybe I could help you.¡±


    ¡°Help me with what?¡±


    ¡°Your key.¡±


    Aster stared at him. ¡°Why do you assume I don¡¯t have someone already helping me?¡±


    Isaac faced her unblinking stare head on. ¡°I¡¯m not assuming anything, I¡¯m offering you my help.¡±


    Aster didn¡¯t relax. ¡°What can you do to help me? Tejahl would eat you for breakfast.¡±


    Isaac started speaking but Aster cut him off.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°And what do you gain from helping me? What¡¯s your play here?¡±


    Isaac held his hands up in front of him. ¡°Woah, hold on, I¡¯m not threatening you, I¡¯m offering to help you. Honest to God, I¡¯m just trying to pay you back for everything you¡¯ve done for me.¡±


    Aster¡¯s stare didn¡¯t falter. ¡°There¡¯s more, you¡¯re hoping to gain something, tell me what it is. Now.¡±


    Isaac¡¯s face soured, but he didn¡¯t move or speak. He thought for a long while.


    ¡°Alright,¡± he said after the fire had all but died, neither of them moved to replenish it. ¡°I¡¯m looking for my brother, Finn. I was hoping you could help me find him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in the Endpoint now, Isaac. You¡¯re not on your own homeworld anymore. Your brother is lost to you twice over.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s not on Earth, he¡¯s here, in the Endpoint.¡±


    Aster shot him a very worried glance. ¡°But you just arrived here, how do you know he¡¯s here? Did you see him?¡±


    Isaac gave a shrug. ¡°Well, I thought I did, but then¡­¡± He blanked out for a couple seconds. ¡°But nevermind that,¡± he waved his hand, ¡°no, I didn¡¯t see him. But I do know he disappeared the same way I came here. So unless there¡¯s several Endpoints then, yes, he is here. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±


    ¡°Hold on, hold on,¡± Aster paused, ¡°you knew he disappeared in a storm?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I was part of a team that procured volunteers for the experiments that the government was conducting on the storms.¡± He gathered a handful of gravel from the cold stone floor and threw it back down again. ¡°They¡¯re probably still conducting those experiments right now, with more clueless idiots to carelessly throw away.¡±


    ¡°You knew he disappeared, and yet you decided to follow him, willingly?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re crazy.¡±


    Isaac thought that was pretty rich coming from Aster but he didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of someone entering the Endpoint on purpose. No one would even make up such a story.¡± She looked stunned. ¡°How did you find out about the storms in the first place?¡±


    ¡°As I said I didn¡¯t, my government did.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re a group?¡±


    ¡°In way, sure.¡±


    Aster tilted her head. ¡°Are they very strong or something?¡±


    Isaac chuckled, but he didn¡¯t feel very mirthful. ¡°You could say that, yeah.¡±


    They sat silent for a while after that. Aster seemed to continue to be stunned over the revelation that he had ran into the tornado intentionally. Isaac didn¡¯t really see the big deal, he¡¯d done it to rescue someone. It was only natural. He stoked the fire back up again until it roared with flames.


    ¡°Do you know of anyone called Finn?¡±


    Aster sat with a glazed expression, staring into the fire, and she took a couple seconds before she jolted out of her reverie and answered. ¡°No, I don¡¯t know anyone by that name. But if he came here then he is dead.¡±


    Isaac sat up. ¡°What? What do you mean?¡±


    Aster seemed confused at his reaction. ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡±


    ¡°How can you say that?¡±


    ¡°The vast majority of the ones who come here, die in the first few seconds. You saw one of the unlucky ones yourself. I practically had to pry you away from him.¡±


    Isaac saw the glint of gold again, and remembered the way he had felt upon seeing it. He remembered the disappointment when he had realized the man wasn¡¯t Finn.


    ¡°Out of the ones who do survive the storm itself, most of those people are killed by the soldiers of a warlord like Kin Tao.¡±


    Isaac buried his head in his hands.


    ¡°Still, even of those who survive that, most don¡¯t live longer than a week, much less a year.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Isaac shouted into his lap. ¡°I get it!¡± He looked up at her, his eyes stung. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear it ok?¡±


    Aster raised her upper lip in disgust. ¡°You won¡¯t last the week, Isaac. You should be more concerned with yourself. Forget your brother.¡±


    Heat surged from his gut. ¡°Enough!¡± He slammed a hand down into the pile of kindling and sticks and splinters from the church pews scattered everywhere. ¡°I¡¯ve treated you with nothing but kindness since the moment we met and you will reciprocate and treat me with some goddamn respect or I am out of here!¡±


    Aster drew her head back until it touched the pillar behind her.


    ¡°I mean it, Aster! I will leave.¡±


    Her mouth became a tight line. ¡°Fine.¡±


    Isaac breathed out. ¡°Now are you certain you don¡¯t know anything about Finn?¡±


    She pouted for a bit while idly peeling at the bark on a stick of kindling. She gave him a nasty look. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about Finn. But I do know of someone who does.¡±


    ¡°And that person will help us?¡±


    ¡°She will.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± Isaac ruffled his hair with his broken arm, winced, and switched arms.


    ¡°We¡¯ll travel to her when the daylight arrives. But after that, you will help me get my key back from Tejahl.¡± She stared him down, not letting their eye contact go.


    Isaac didn¡¯t hesitate. ¡°Deal.¡±


    They sat for a long time, neither speaking. The animosity between them didn¡¯t let up.


    ¡°Where is this woman anyways?¡± Isaac tried.


    Aster answered without looking up.


    ¡°North.¡±

 19. A Smile For The Ages

    <h3 style="text-align: center">Chapter Five


    A Smile For The Ages


    Falco reclined in a leather chair on the deck of his airship. He doodled idly in one of his notebooks. The weather was nice, not a single cloud on the horizon. He chuckled, every day had nice weather when you lived in a balloon. The wind tickled his handlebar mustache and ran across his chiseled face. His lips curled into a smug smile beneath his mustache, as they so often did.


    A lightning strike tore across the sky and ruined the spotless weather. Falco dropped his notebook out over the ship¡¯s railing but caught it again with the tips of his fingers. That had been too close. If he had lost that notebook, he would¡¯ve had to go get it, no two ways about it. And he did not want to land in this place.


    He looked out over the teetering towers of scrap and the dilapidated ruins of the Scrapyard. The place was infamous for being the resting place of his old friend and was for the most part shunned by all who knew of it. Falco didn¡¯t need to heed any such caution though, he had an airship.


    He opened the notebook and looked at his latest drawing of a keystorm while the memories of a time gone by churned in his mind. Another spark of lightning sundered the ground below him and he looked up just in time to see the dark blue mists of a keystorm spin into existence. He¡¯d never seen one from so up close. The sheer clarity of it took his breath away. It was almost like the drawing in his notebook had jumped out of the page into the real world.


    Falco threw the notebook to the deck and held on to the metal helmet on his head as he ran to the helm. He¡¯d really need to sort out a strap of some kind, running with one hand on his head all the time was getting to be ridiculous. He fumbled with the levers in his excitement until he found the correct one. A valve opened at the top of his balloon and the hydrogen inside rushed out with a hissing noise. Slowly the airship and its captain fell towards the Scrapyard.


    Falco ran back down and hung out over the railing. The storm was a big one, and a violent one as well. It rushed around itself in a circle, the dark smoke hiding everything inside from view. The clouds billowed counter to the way the wind blew, as if a completely different wind Falco couldn¡¯t see was the one that frothed the tips of the clouds into such a flurry.


    The storm rotated on the spot with the patience of a glacier. The resulting mismash of seemingly contradictory forces left a very disconcerting effect on Falco, like he was looking at one of the illusions some of the prospective sponsors had shown him back at the academy to impress him. The speed of the storm¡¯s rotation changed according to what section you focused on, just like how those illusions had worked.


    Such things had fascinated him to no end in the past. But now, these storms frustrated him. None of it should have ever happened.


    The top of a tree peeked out the top of the storm. More objects started appearing; several statues, a cart, whole walls, some roof tiles and more trees. Most of the smaller items Falco had no names for. At one point he saw a large metal cabinet drop out of nothing. It tipped over and numerous sets of what looked like some sort of armor spilled out. The suits were bulky, rounded and bright white. The helmets had glass visors! Falco shook his head at the thought of someone being dumb enough make armor with glass. These other timelines that were now spilling into the ruins of his once great planet truly made some strange objects.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    The airship drifted on the breeze. The center of the storm came into view. He¡¯d never been able to look down into a storm before, the storm clouds always reached unnaturally high into the sky, but for some reason this particular storm was different.


    He peered down into the core of the storm and to his surprise found¡­ well¡­ nothing.


    He looked straight into a long tunnel stretching all the way from the top of the storm down to the ground. Not a speck of mist or smoke twisted it¡¯s way into this funnel of nothingness. At the bottom he saw the scrapyard, looking as it always had since Crassus broke. It was like looking down the eye of a whirlpool.


    A large enclosed metal cart circled around in the wind, sticking out of the funnel every now and then. The cart had four black wheels with silver spokes. It was made completely from metal except for the glass windows on all sides. He¡¯d seen these metal carts lay strewn about before, amidst the rubble the storms left in their wake. Some of the newcomers had told him they were used as carts in their homelands, but Falco couldn¡¯t see the appeal.


    This cart had two large lamps at one end that shone through the storm, revealing ghostly shapes in the mass of chaos. At the other end two more lamps shone an ominous deep red in the darkness, but these did not shine as bright.


    Just as sudden as it had arrived, the storm along with the funnel disintegrated. That was the best word for it, the storm just smoldered away into nothingness. One second the brooding clouds battered against the land, and the next second the blue sky smiled upon it in apology.


    The metal cart hurtled towards the ground. It skidded off a wall with a deafening screech and landed on the ground with a bounce and a thud. A door in the side of the box opened and a small man with blonde, almost golden, hair walked out on shaky legs.


    The man seemed alright, Falco been worse for wear before himself and lived to tell the tale. The man vomited onto the ground before him. Yes, definitely alright, well, it was time to be off! No dillydallying about. He¡¯d seen what he¡¯d come for.


    A roar sounded in the distance. Falco froze. He knew that sound well. He covered his face with his hands and muttered to himself. ¡°No no no no¡­¡± He balled up his fists and beat them against his forehead. ¡°Do not do this, just leave¡­¡±


    Falco grabbed the railing with both hands, leaned over it and screamed.


    ¡°HEY KID!¡±


    The man on the ground whipped around and quickly located Falco standing on his airship hovering above the man.


    ¡°Do you speak English?¡± Falco hollered.


    ¡°Uh, yes!¡± The man answered.


    ¡°My name is Falco, what is your name?¡±


    The man hesitated. ¡°I¡¯m Finn, nice to meet you!¡±


    Falco did not hesitate. ¡°What country do you come from?¡±


    ¡°America.¡±


    ¡°From the Union?¡±


    Finn brought a hand up and ruffled his hair. ¡°Uh, no¡­ from the US.¡± He seemed a bit sheepish. ¡°From the United States.¡± He added, and he smiled so wide Falco could see it all the way up from his airship.


    ¡°What year was it?¡±


    Finn hesitated at this as well, but shorter than last time. ¡°2005.¡±


    Now it was Falco¡¯s turn to hesitate. The timelines people arrived from were growing later and later with every person he met, far outpacing the rate time went by in the Endpoint. Falco had no way to explain why that was so, but his best guess was that the non-union alternate timeline had something to do with it. At the very least this gave him an excuse to save the kid.


    <hr>


    "Falco"

 20. A Smile For The Ages, pt. 2

    ¡°Listen to me, Finn, there¡¯s someone coming for you and I know it sounds like I¡¯m asking you to run, but it¡¯s important that you do not try to fight this man.¡± He waited for the inevitable protest but none came. Finn waited in return for him to continue. ¡°You must not try to run either. The only way you can survive is if you hide. But just keeping out of view alone is not enough however. For you see, you also have to hide your¡ª¡±


    A nearby wall exploded into pieces which showered over the poor unsuspecting Finn. All Falco could do was to scream ¡°Hide! Hide!¡± while he hefted his rifle around and began loading it with powder.


    The dust from the explosion hid Finn from view, but as the dust settled Falco could once again rest his eyes on his old friend.


    Time had not been a good friend to Crassus. He stood tall and powerful as always. But the hair and beard on his head stretched long and unkempt down over his chainmail linked vest of keys. His face looked pale and emaciated, nothing at all like how he had used to be.


    Crassus heaved with anger, like there was so much hatred he could barely contain it. His white eyes bulged out of their sockets and strained to locate the intruder, the source of his wrath. There was nothing to be seen of course, he was completely blind, but Falco knew very well that Crassus had other ways to find his way. He had too many bronze keys for that not to be the case.


    Falco finished loading his rifle and swung it around over his shoulder and took aim. Crassus practically vibrated from indignation, he gulped in a large bubble of air, drew his head back, opened his mouth and screamed. No normal human could scream that loud. The roar was deafening, even all the way up to the airship. His power keys must be continually repairing his vocal chords. Normally the fortitude granted by the power key was negligible. But when you had as many as Crassus did, it became the main benefit to the key.


    Finn fell over himself trying to escape the sound. He had not listened to Falco¡¯s order to hide and it was too late to do so now. Instead he was attempting to climb a wall rather than take the ten steps required to go around it. Maybe it had always been too late.


    ¡°This way, boy! Come this way!¡± he screamed to the kid.


    Falco honed in on Crassus. If he missed, Finn would die. He called to his keys, all of them, and they answered. Blue sparks shot out from his skin, first firing out in random directions, then the next second they all surged forward as one in spirals around the rifle. Discs of black clouds with dark blue tint formed in sequence around the barrel like the cloud of condensation left behind when breaking the sound barrier.


    A ripple in the air spun out from Falco¡¯s hand and traveled up the rifle. The spiraled tendrils of lightning and the disks of clouds all pulsed a bright blue light as the ripple went by.


    At the last moment Falco pulled the trigger. A cloud of dust shot out from the barrel. The ripple hit the cloud and transformed into something resembling a comet, or a blue fireball. It hit Crassus straight in the chest. His screaming stopped. A river of keys flowed out behind him like the bursting of a dam. Crassus groaned, looked down and brought his hands to his stomach with movements that resembled that of an old man.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Finn stopped the desperate climb he still hadn¡¯t abandoned to look over his shoulder. Maybe the kid would listen now that Crassus had stopped screaming.


    ¡°Finn! Over here, I¡¯ll throw you a rope, you can¡¯t run from him! This is your only option!¡± Falco was already tying the knot around the mast as he attempted to reason with the kid.


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m here!¡± Falco heard the panic in the boy''s voice. ¡°Quickly, he¡¯s waking up!¡±


    He secured the rope twice, tested it once, then threw it overboard. He watched it fall all the way down right between Finn¡¯s outstretched hands and smack him in the face. He closed his eyes and fell flat on his back all while missing the rope several times with his waving hands on the way down. Falco groaned.


    ¡°Come on, kid! Get up. Get up!¡± Falco gnashed his teeth together and heard the railing croak under his grip.


    Finn blinked several times, found a pile of rope nestled on his chest and gripped it. Falco spared one glance for Crassus and saw him on his knees shoveling keys with his hands into a pile in front of him. Crassus had more than enough keys still on his vest to kill them both, but the man was addicted to his precious keys. The only way to fight him was to resonate off some of his keys and escape while he collected them.


    When Falco looked back Finn had gotten to his feet and was attempting to climb the rope. Falco doubted he¡¯d managed to clear his own height even when he fumbled his grip and fell on his ass once more. Falco cursed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t climb, just hold on! Hold on to the rope for your life!¡±


    ¡°O-okay!¡± the kid stammered back but Falco had already turned and ran for the helm.


    He climbed the half-spiral staircase five steps at a time and once he was inside the helm¡¯s room he spared no time for the remaining distance. Instead he took off his metal helmet and threw it. It hit the control levers at the panel, even the correct one, and pulled it all the way back, as intended. But when the lever hit the maximum setting and wanted to stop whereas the steel helmet wanted to continue, a brief battle of wills occurred. Which the helmet won. The lever broke clean off.


    Falco gulped. He heard Crassus resume his roar. Falco spared one more glance for the broken lever but he turned to leave again. It would have to do.


    He almost fell when he ran down the stairs and rather than risk his neck further by running the last twenty steps he jumped. He stuck the landing but pain radiated from the soles of his feet.


    He reached the railing and looked down. Finn floated thirty paces in the air, clinging to the rope with all he was worth. Falco almost shouted in celebration but the huzzah died on his lips as he spotted Crassus, or rather the large segment of wall that Crassus must be under. The segment shifted back.


    ¡°Watch o¡ª¡± Falco tried to warn Finn, but it was too late.


    The segment of wall blurred and the next moment it hurtled towards Finn. Falco felt a surge in his stomach as if he looked down into the drop off a cliff. All he could do was watch.


    The wall missed Finn by several paces, but hit the rope above him. The rope, with Finn on the end, slingshotted up and around the segment of wall and the centrifugal force peeled Finn off the rope like a flaky piece of old paint. Falco moaned involuntarily and made a half hearted attempt to shield his eyes with one hand, but he couldn¡¯t stop watching.


    Finn screamed and flailed about. He swung in a graceful arc into the rope and was once again smacked in the face.


    Falco almost threw himself over the railing he leaned so far out. ¡°Get a grip, you moron!¡±


    Finn started accelerating down towards the ground, but he regained his composure faster this time. His fists closed around the rope and Falco could almost hear the friction scorch the kid¡¯s palms as they slowed his descent ¡®till a stop.

 21. A Smile For The Ages, pt. 3

    Falco resumed breathing and grabbed the rope with both hands. He stomped one boot against the railing and heaved with all his might.


    ¡°Don¡¯t climb, just hold on!¡± he screamed down to Finn.


    ¡°Hey, uh, you need to stop the ship!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Falco dragged three arms length of rope onto the deck, careful to never let go of fully as he switched his hands around. If he made a misstep now, the kid would probably fall off.


    ¡°The ship is still sinking!¡±


    Falco cursed, ¡°oh, right!¡± and he almost did let go before remembering to tie off the rope again.


    ¡°Hold on my friend!¡± he shouted down as he turned.


    ¡°Quickly!¡± The kid sounded frantic.


    Falco bounded once more up the stairs and into the helm. He cursed as he remembered the broken lever and tried to pry it back into the neutral position. It didn¡¯t budge.


    ¡°No, no, no, no¡­¡± he muttered as he waved his hands back and forth over the control panel from lever to lever, unsure what to do next. He flinched as a resounding crash emanated from far below. The crash of something large dropping back down to earth. The next crash could be his ship, with him on it. Falco made up his mind. He leaned over the console and grabbed his metal helmet.


    He skidded as he rounded the doorframe leading out on the stairs. Then he jumped up on the large structure consisting of twisting tubes, fuel tanks, mechanical gears and strange contraptions with countless vents and gauges. With one hand holding the helmet he climbed past the vents, gauges and valves on the ground level up to a large tank underneath the top-most vent that aimed directly into a hole in the balloon above.


    He clamped his knees as best he could around the curved top of the tank and gingerly let go with his one free hand. He lifted the helmet above his head, holding it tight with both hands, ready to strike. He knew this was an extreme measure. Just one spark and his darling airship would become a fireball. He hesitated one more second. He yelled and slammed down, aiming to hit with the edge of the helmet.


    The fuel tank reverbated a deep clang and dented inwards but didn¡¯t breach. Falco screamed louder and bashed the helmet against the tank again in pure adrenaline-fueled desperation. The dent ruptured. The force of the hydrogen within ripped the edges of the hole outwards and flung Falco several paces into the air.


    He tried twisting in the air but couldn¡¯t manifest a resonance in time because of his panic ridden mind. He landed awkwardly onto the deck below, just one pace away from hurtling over the edge of the ship. His elbow struck the fence hard and all feeling rushed from it as numbness spread up to his shoulder.


    Falco lumped his half-turned body over on his back and he lay there staring into the balloon as hydrogen rushed past it on either side, making the canvas flutter and contort. Some of the hydrogen must¡¯ve found its way inside the balloon because Falco could feel the pit of his stomach drop as the airship lifted.


    He stood up, holding one arm around his numb elbow.


    ¡°Hey kid! Are you with me?¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡ª I¡¯m alright!¡±


    Falco breathed out a long sigh of relief. Taking his time now that the crisis was over, he sauntered over to the railing where he¡¯d tied the rope. It was fastened in two places, the second one from when he¡¯d needed to raise the ship out of its decent.


    A hand appeared from behind the railing and startled Falco. The image of Crassus crawling up the side of his ship flashed before his mind. The illusion dispelled however, when the hand grasping the railing tensed and brought up the smiling face of a golden haired man. His smile faltered a bit when he spotted Falco.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Falco clutched a hand to his beating chest. ¡°Nothing¡ª nothing, my friend,¡± he walked to the closest wall and slid down into a sitting position, ¡°I just thought you were someone else.¡±


    Finn looked back over the railing he had just climbed over. He peered down for a long while but didn¡¯t say anything. He seemed to understand that Falco needed a little moment to himself. It took him longer than usual but Falco shook out of it in the end.


    ¡°Let''s get something to eat, eh, or what do you say, boy?¡± The kid didn¡¯t answer, he looked to still be in shock. Not too hard to understand, considering what he¡¯d been though. On the good side of things though he appeared to accept the new reality of things quite quickly.


    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re ok?¡± Finn asked.


    Falco couldn¡¯t help but laugh. What a considerate fellow! ¡°Of course, my friend, never better. Now, how about that food? You¡¯ll feel better, I promise.¡± Falco smacked his forehead, ¡°and questions! You must have so many questions.¡± Warm laughter bubbled up from deep in his belly. ¡°Come! You eat, you ask and I will answer!¡± His aching elbow forgotten, Falco slapped Finn on the back and gestured him inside to the galley.


    ¡°Oh¡ª uhm¡ª alright I guess.¡±


    ***


    ¡°I want a second key before we go see your friend.¡± Isaac tried turning to face Aster as they climbed down the spiral staircase but had to give up in danger of breaking his neck falling down the stairs.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have time, you¡¯ll have to wait until after we¡¯re done.¡± Aster bit every syllable off with obvious irritation.


    Isaac turned as he reached the end of the staircase and blocked her exit. Standing on the step of the staircase she stood even with his height and stared him straight in the eyes. ¡°What if we have to fight again? How will I be able to help you. You said it yourself, this place is unwelcome, how am I supposed to survive if I never grow stronger?¡±


    Aster brushed him aside, again surprising him with her inordinate strength. ¡°It¡¯s not as simple as ¡®getting a new key¡¯,¡± she spun, and anger flared in her eyes, ¡°there are people who go through a hundred keys without finding a compatible one.¡±


    Isaac¡¯s stomach dropped. ¡°There¡¯s compatibility as well?¡± The hope that had blossomed in him ever since the conversation in the bell tower waned.


    ¡°Yes. You have to synchronize with a key, and it has to synchronize with you. If both of those aren¡¯t true, then a new key might as well just be a piece of metal to you.¡±


    Isaac despaired, but he wasn¡¯t ready to give up yet. ¡°What about that resonance thing, you mentioned that earlier, I could use that to fight other key users right? Could you teach me that at least.¡±


    Aster looked uncomfortable. ¡°It takes a very long time to master, very few live long enough to learn it,¡± Isaac sighed and her voice softened a bit, ¡°resonance wouldn¡¯t be of much use to you anyways. Most people would kill you before you¡¯d ever get close enough to use it. That¡¯s the largest drawback with resonance, it¡¯s range, in a real fight you need some other complementary ability to close in.¡±


    Isaac wracked his brain for other solutions. Aster must¡¯ve mistook his thinking for brooding however, because she continued, much kinder this time around.


    ¡°Reach out like I told you earlier, listen to the voices.¡± She closed her eyes to illustrate, though Isaac couldn¡¯t see what she was doing inside her mind. Still this was one of the things that at least, that seemed to come easy for Isaac. He closed his eyes. ¡°Listen to the volume of the whispers, the louder ones are the closest.¡± Isaac tensed, he could hear a ton of voices, but they sounded very far away, as if through a tank of water.


    ¡°I¡ª I hear something.¡±


    <hr>


    "Finn"

 22. A Smile For The Ages, pt. 4

    ¡°If you focus hard enough you can make out a direction as well. If you can find one you think is close, and it¡¯s in the same direction we¡¯re traveling, then maybe we could try.¡±


    Isaac couldn¡¯t give her his full attention, there were voices, so many voices. He couldn¡¯t make out what any of them were saying but they were there, growing stronger by the second. He swiveled around trying to pinpoint each and every voice. So many! Claustrophobia trickled up his neck.


    ¡°What is it Isaac?¡± He heard her move closer despite the voices. ¡°Did you find one? Already?¡±


    Isaac tried to speak, to reassure her, but when he opened his mouth all that came out was a low moan.


    ¡°Isaac?¡±


    A hundred voices, no, a thousand voices, all screaming for him, screaming to tear him apart, to rend, rip and gouge his skin. They were close, to the east, behind the church wall. No, they were even closer than that, or¡ª getting closer, yeah that was it. A thousand keys were moving, right for them!


    Isaac¡¯s eyes split open, despite the cacophony of voices threatening to render him unconscious. He tried to warn Aster but instead he whined out a long overwhelmed note.


    ¡°Isaac!¡± Someone grabbed his arm.


    He punched himself in the forehead three times in rapid succession. The force of the blows knocked him to the ground, but the voices dissappeared. Paniced, he looked up into Aster¡¯s face. She stood over him, great concern written in her face.


    ¡°What happened?¡± she asked.


    Sparing no time to explain, he flipped his feet under him onto their soles and launched both himself and Aster out of the way. The wall in front of them burst inwards and Isaac felt something hit them and push Aster into him. The both tumbled backwards until a wooden pew struck Isaac in the back and stopped their momentum.


    Isaac couldn¡¯t see anything for rock dust but he could hear Crassus as he started screeching like a madman. He shook Aster, but she didn¡¯t move.


    ¡°Hey! Aster, get up!¡±


    Her head lolled over on his hand and when he looked down he saw a large red spot blossoming out from her forehead and over his fingers.


    ¡°Fuck me.¡±


    ***


    ¡°But that¡¯s just it Falco, I don¡¯t want a new key. Why can¡¯t we focus on what matters?¡±


    Falco sat askew the hydrogen tank with a hand-held canned welding machine, trying to mend the hole he had hammered open earlier. He wore no protective gear of any kind, opting instead to shield his face with his hand and look away for every weld he attempted.


    ¡°Matters?¡± he chuckled, ¡°this is all that matters my friend!¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Finn sighed like a teenager tolerating his dorky parent. ¡°Why?¡±


    Falco turned surprised to look at Finn. ¡°My dear boy! Your first key did not do you much good, now did it? We must be getting you a new one, quickly! I can¡¯t have you walk around undefended.¡±


    Finn let out a sound of frustration. ¡°Where would we even find one, there¡¯s nothing here! Every place we flew past was barren.¡± He gestured to the trees surrounding them.


    They¡¯d landed in a clearing just as they¡¯d lost lift completely, scraping across a sharp cliff by the skin of their teeth. The poor boy had lost his cool for a moment then. Finn had told him that he did everything with complete recklessness and no regard for his own or anyone else¡¯s life. Falco smiled at the memory. The kid was a bit soft.


    Falco lifted his dented helmet with one finger in a half-salute, half-greeting. ¡°I will teach, and you will learn.¡± He couldn¡¯t help but laugh at Finn¡¯s miffed expression. Falco jumped down from the tank and walked up to Finn. ¡°Come now, my young student, what really troubles you?¡±


    Finn hesitated but then a dam inside him broke loose. ¡°What difference would a second key make when the first one already isn¡¯t doing anything? What¡¯s to keep me from just failing one more time?¡± Finn¡¯s shoulders sagged as if all the air went out of him at once.


    Falco gripped the kids shoulder. ¡°Do you always doubt yourself this much?¡± He burst his hands out to either side as if in celebration. ¡°Believe in yourself, little man!¡± He sauntered over to his open metal boxes and began tidying up the tools he had used for the tank repair. ¡°Besides,¡± he said, tapping his nose, ¡°I have my suspicions about your tiny problem. I think a second key would be¡­ enlightening.¡±


    Finn threw his hands up in the air. ¡°You said you¡¯ve never seen one like it right?¡± He didn¡¯t wait for Falco to answer. ¡°Why do we even need to do this? I just want to go home.¡± Falco straightened his back. ¡°Look, Falco, you¡¯ve been very nice to me, more than you¡¯ve had any right to be¡­¡± Falco turned to look at Finn, the boy had a sorrowful expression on his face. ¡°But I need to go home. There are people waiting for me.¡±


    Falco turned the welder in his hand over and over a couple times. ¡°Do you have family waiting for you?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ Well, yes, but there¡¯s basically just my brother left.¡±


    ¡°Is he waiting for you?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Is your brother,¡± Falco paused, ¡°waiting for you?¡±


    Finn hesitated once more, apprehension on his face. ¡°My brother is¡­ complicated.¡± He searched Falco¡¯s face, as if looking for something, but he must not have found for he continued, speaking fast. ¡°Honestly I think he¡¯d be happy that I¡¯m gone. At least now I can¡¯t fuck up more of his life.¡± The bitterness that showed through his voice and face then was such that it pained Falco to see the stark contrast between the smiling blond-haired kid and a weathered self-loathing man.


    Falco took three steps over to Finn and grasped both his shoulders in between oil soaked hands. ¡°If that¡¯s that¡¯s the case my magnificent friend, then your brother isn¡¯t worth missing.¡± Finn¡¯s eyes widened.


    Falco laughed. ¡°Besides, young man, you can find a new family here, in the Endpoint!¡± He gestured with his hands, spinning in circles, to the sky above them. He stopped, then walked back to Finn again. ¡°You don¡¯t need to live in the past, look to the future!¡±


    Finn still hesitated. ¡°But, Falco¡­¡±


    Falco held up a finger. ¡°I know! I know¡­¡± He looked down, as if considering, then back to Finn. ¡°If returning home is what you truly want, then perhaps I might be able to help you.¡±


    Finn brightened at that more than from anything else Falco had said so far and the mustached mentor swelled with pride. ¡°Really? You know how to return home?¡±


    Falco smiled wide, nodded and bopped Finn on the nose with his pinky. ¡°No.¡±


    Finn¡¯s smile disappeared. ¡°But you said¡­¡±


    Falco interrupted him. ¡°But I do know where to start.¡±


    Finn¡¯s face shone in awe. ¡°You do?¡±


    ¡°We go to the tower. The Tower of the Nine.¡±


    ¡°The Tower of the Nine¡­¡± Finn whispered. ¡°Where¡¯s that.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s far from here,¡± Falco said, ¡° but first we¡¯ll train you up, then¡­¡±


    Finn¡¯s eyes bulged in sheer anticipation.


    ¡°We go south.¡±

 Note from the Author

    Hey everyone! Kaizer here.


    At this point in the story you''ve had a pretty good introduction to what the Keys of the Endpoint is about and what it will be like. Going forward there will gradually be more power progression, characters, factions and feuds introduced.


    If you''ve ever considered commenting, reviewing my story or just giving me a rating-- now is a good time to do so!Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    If you''ve never considered any of those things at all then please consider considering them in the future.


    As the story progresses you might notice a lack of art, this is simply because the art always lags behind the chapters that are being written. So if you follow along with the current chapter then you won''t see much art from update to update. But rest assured it is there and it is being added all the time!


    Also take note that by visting my website and subscribing through Patreon for 1 USD you can read the newest chapter a whole week or more before it''s avaliable anywhere else!

 23. Complications

    <h3 style="text-align: center">Chapter Six


    Complications


    The rockdust settled enough for Isaac to see Crassus¡¯s face fully in the morning light that shone in from the hole in the church wall that Crassus had just blown in. The air smelled of earth and metal. Isaac thought for a fleeting moment about what would have happened to them had they continued standing where Crassus stood now. Isaac had connected the dots just fast enough through what felt like sheer luck.


    For too long he¡¯d been barely hanging on for every event that befell him, and now Aster lay unconscious in his arms. Crassus took a step forward, his whole body vibrated in indignation and anger. Isaac¡¯s hand moved before the plan materialized in his mind. For some reason he felt more clear headed than ever. He winced as his broken arm fought it¡¯s way past the fabric of his shirt.


    The pain was almost unbearable, but he gritted his teeth, there was no time and the other healthy hand cradled Aster. He moaned when his thumb snagged the collar on the way out but he managed to wrestle it free. There was no time. He held his silver key out between weak and feeble fingers, he had no grip strength left, but he couldn¡¯t drop it, so he held on, somehow. Everything rode on this.


    ¡°Here, I have the key. This is it, look,¡± Isaac said, and he couldn¡¯t keep from gasping between syllables.


    The effect on Crassus was immediate. All anger drained from his face and once more he became a mumbling mess.


    ¡°Ah! Thank you, oh, please, I need it, I just¡ª please hand it to me, oh no no no, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m so sorry!¡± He started crying.


    Isaac tried consoling him but Crassus didn¡¯t respond to anything Isaac said. He just continued crying and moaning, completely inconsolable. He might appear more sane, but in the end it seemed to be a different kind of madness. That complicated things.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to¡ª I can¡¯t¡ª I just won¡¯t.¡± Crassus started denying and refusing something. Maybe he was talking to a ghost again. There always seemed to be some voice or voices Crassus could hear that no one else could.


    The only times he had seemed to listen before was when it concerned the key. Perhaps Isaac could bluff his way out of this situation as well. But he clearly had the key right in front of Crassus this time, he couldn¡¯t lie and say he needed to go get it like last time. Could Crassus even comprehend a more complex lie in his state?


    ¡°I need it, it¡¯s the only thing, oh have mercy¡ª I¡¯m so sorry!¡±


    Aster would pose a problem as well, he¡¯d need to drag her with him. With his sorry state and a broken arm. Not to mention, once he got far enough away from Crassus, there¡¯d be nothing to keep him from re-entering his enraged state of mind.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, you can make it stop, it¡¯s the only way.¡±


    Perhaps he could convince Crassus to leave them somehow, send him on a wild goose hunt. No, that would have the same problem as leaving, he¡¯d just get a certain distance away, go full crazy again and simply turn around and head right back.


    ¡°I¡¯m tired of killing. I want it to stop. I don¡¯t want to live anymore. Please, make it stop, we can make it stop.¡± Tears fell from the large blank and white eyes and nestled down between the dark hairs of his beard.


    Isaac¡¯s blood chilled as he realized the coherent meaning behind the crying man¡¯s words. His throat felt dry and leathery. ¡°Would this key make it stop?¡± He gestured to the key in his hand by shaking it.


    ¡°Yes! Yes, oh please end the suffering. I can¡¯t go on¡ª Forgive me!¡± He fell down onto his knees and started crying softly to himself.


    Isaac licked his lips. He felt very dehydrated all of a sudden. What use did the key really pose to him anyways. It did nothing whenever he tried to use it. He couldn¡¯t come up with a reason for why he shouldn¡¯t hand over the key. The only reason he hadn¡¯t done so the last time was simply because he didn¡¯t realize it was there to begin with.


    This one particular key didn¡¯t actually mean anything to him. It was more the concept of the keys and the hope it provided him in surviving and finding Finn in this crazy new world he found himself in. If he gave the key to Crassus, and the obsession the man had with it continued, maybe they could crawl out of here, him and Aster, together.


    For every second that went by, Isaac¡¯s conviction that this was the only right move solidified more and more. Yes, this was the solution to his conundrum, if the key never left Crassus, maybe the anger wouldn¡¯t return either. The only reason he could come up with that went against his plan was the interest Aster had shown in the key. He realized with a start that her attitude towards him had completely shifted after that time she had reached for it to try and throw it to Crassus.


    As if she could read his mind, Aster closed a hand around the wrist of his broken arm.


    ¡°Don¡¯t¡ª trust him¡ª he¡¯s a liar.¡±


    Isaac wondered at when she¡¯d woken up, and how much she could¡¯ve heard of Crassus¡¯s rambling. He tried to think of the answers. The answers to why she¡¯d changed her mind after touching the key. That was when she¡¯d grown the grotesque display of feathers. But she claimed to not know what his key did. Perhaps she was the liar.


    But Isaac bent down to tell her that it didn¡¯t really matter. They had no choice. Their only chance was giving up the key and crawl out of there with their lives intact. Maybe, if they were lucky, Crassus would stop chasing them as well. But he never got the words out, because in that moment the church wall opposite from the hole Crassus had made, exploded.


    Something large and black flew past them and collided with Crassus. The large black mass brought Crassus hard against a stone pillar and Crassus let out a pained moan that reverberated around the church. Crassus fell from the pillar as the black shape stepped away, and he collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.


    The dust once again settled and Isaac spotted two long hammer shaped lines sticking diagonally up from either side of the black shape. The man turned. He had a boyish face with stubble. Black insect like carapace covered most of his body. He stood shirtless and the carapace made it difficult to spot the pink skin beneath.


    From his forearms along his elbows and well up past his shoulders, stuck two thin horns that could¡¯ve belonged to any oversized horn beetle. The man grinned.


    ¡°That was easy!¡± he said, dragging out the last word. He laughed and brushed some rockdust off his shoulder. ¡°When did you become such a pussy, Ronan?¡± He spoke to someone behind him.


    Isaac turned to see Ronan at the head of a group of people. They looked very similar to Ronan¡¯s own gang from earlier.

 24. Complications, pt. 2

    ¡°Keep guard, Jakob.¡± Ronan looked very frightened, in stark contrast to the man walking shoulder to shoulder with him ahead of everyone else. The man was clad from head to toe in rain gear reminiscent of a hazmat suit and he carried himself like this was a picnic and he¡¯d come prepared.


    ¡°Keep guard.¡± The carapaced man, Jakob, aped after Ronan¡¯s terrible English with a grimace to match. ¡°How about showing some appreciation for having your dirty work done for you by your betters, huh, Ronan?¡± Despite his boisterous and mocking attitude, Jabok did not turn his back on Crassus.


    Ronan responded, trying to communicate caution with his barely understandable English, but Jakob kept on taunting Ronan. Everyone in the group shifted uncomfortably. Only the rain gear guy seemed at ease. As they fought Isaac tried to scoot his way behind the closest pillar, moving one inch at a time trying to make each movement as imperceptible as possible.


    Jakob snapped to them immediately however. ¡°Stay the fuck still!¡± he screamed. Isaac jumped, his heart beating twice a second.


    A hand reached out from the clouds of dust behind Jakob and grabbed his shoulder. The man covered in rain gear cried for Jakob to watch out. Jakob struggled but Crassus had already grabbed his neck with the other hand. Crassus¡¯s fingers strained against the black carapace and it snapped open like a hard boiled crab, his fingers finding hold beneath it.


    The twisted and enraged face of Crassus shook as he flexed his muscles, each arm pulling in opposite directions like he was trying to break free from a pair of handcuffs. Spittle and sweat flew off his face and his black hair matted in front of dead-looking white eyes.


    Everyone stood paralyzed. Jakob screamed, almost louder than Crassus. Only Ronan moved. He threw one arm behind him and the other in front, aimed at Crassus. The ceiling and floor of the church cracked as an enormous pressure bled off from the kinetic force Ronan exerted onto Crassus.


    Crassus didn¡¯t budge an inch. The stone tiles beneath him cracked and he sank into the floor as he was pushed into it, but the man himself stood unfazed. A chunk of the church wall behind Ronan snapped off and the pressure abated and disappeared.


    Jakob went silent. A split like the seam of a piece of clothing opened up and extended down from between his shoulder and neck as Crassus tore the shoulder off his body.


    Crassus threw the discarded arm and shoulder off to the side. The rest of the body he just let go off and it crumpled to the floor, much like how Crassus had done mere moments before. He breathed hard. Someone hurled the contents of their stomach out on the stone tiles.


    Ronan conjured a new wave of pressure and the whole church shook this time, threatening to send the church ceiling crashing down on them.


    He reared his head, screaming at the people around him. ¡°Fight, you dogs!¡± With that the paralysis broke.


    Several lances of varying materials flew past Isaac and Aster huddled together on the floor. The lances hit Crassus, shattered or bounced off him leaving Crassus unharmed. Isaac tried to crawl away from the fighting but couldn¡¯t muster the strength to drag Aster with him. A swarm of what looked like wooden spiders crawled over and past them.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Isaac cast about for a way out, for any means to spirit them away from this godforsaken church, but the line of fire was in between them and the only open exit. The two remaining exits were blocked by either Crassus or Ronan and his people. The pillar behind Crassus that Jakob had thrown him into burst and a large section of the roof fell between the three parties on top of some unfortunate soul who¡¯d attempted to close in on Crassus.


    Then there came a loud hissing noise and suddenly everything above knee height became encased in a thick sickly yellow gas. Poison! Was all Isaac could manage to think before the tendrils of lightning crawling along the floor occupied all of his attention instead. The tendrils licked their way up across the pile of rubble where Crassus¡¯s legs disappeared up into the gas cloud.


    Isaac watched as if in slow motion as the gas ever so slowly billowed towards the earth. One adventurous tendril spiked into the air, caught the edge of the cloud, and the gas ignited.


    Isaac blinked. He lay on the floor again. He could hear shouting, far away. Something passed overhead. Gasping, all the sound and sensation rushed back into him. He flailed around him with his arms and the broken one caught onto a body. He turned and checked it with his healthy hand. He could feel a pulse, and his own steadied somewhat.


    The poison gas had gone, but more dust and debris took its place. Light shone in from behind them now. Isaac¡¯s eyes widened. Had they been blown around that much by the explosion? Isaac looked up. No, there was still a roof there, although much less intact than before.


    Someone collided with the pillar that he and Aster had been hiding besides mere seconds before. Crassus followed after, leaping out of the dust clouds, landed on top of the person, and drove his arm through the persons mid section as if it were made of butter.


    The next second some invisible force took hold of Crassus and hurled him to the side, away from them. The pillar cracked as if struck by a ten ton hammer and crumbled into a pile of gravel. An ominous moaning sound started from above. Someone stumbled behind them and Isaac turned to spot Ronan trying his best to keep himself standing.


    Ronan spared them only a glance and the time to shout ¡°RUN!¡± at them before going after Crassus and two seconds later he had disappeared in the dust cloud. Screams of agony sounded from beyond the swirling dust.


    Isaac heaved Aster upon his back. He struggled to drag her up high enough to hold her with only one working hand. A particularly loud explosion much too close made him throw all caution to the wind however. Using both hands, broken or not, he forced himself through the intense pain until he finally got Aster secured on his back.


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± he screamed. Isaac didn¡¯t know whether he meant to curse at his broken arm, the unconscious Aster, Crassus, Ronan or, hell¡ª himself. Somehow he mustered the last vestiges of his strength, enough to carry them both to the new exit behind them past the non-existent altar.


    Isaac thought he understood what had happened once he closed in on the new hole. Crassus must¡¯ve made one of his hallmark moves of throwing something, he¡¯d probably missed and hit the wall behind them instead. Perhaps it had been a blessing that they¡¯d both been unconscious.


    When he was about the step through and out of the church, he spotted the discarded corpse of Jakob. Something silver gleamed there. In a spur of the moment, he bent down and yanked the chain around Jakob¡¯s neck free. The added weight of Aster on his back threatened to slide forward and send them both face planting into the torn corpse but Isaac managed to hold on.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Aster mumbled over his shoulder on the way out.


    ¡°It¡¯s me, Aster.¡± Isaac said.


    ¡°You take care of me.¡± It didn¡¯t sound like she was fully aware of her surroundings. ¡°Thanks, Ed¡­¡±


    Isaac hesitated. He secured her as he set into a brisk pace, carrying most of her weight on his healthy arm. ¡°I got you, Aster.¡±


    ¡°I got you.¡±


    ***

 25. Complications, pt. 3

    ***


    ¡°Falco!¡±


    ¡°Over here my friend.¡± Falco watched Finn fight his way through the vines and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.


    ¡°Are you really sure about this? It¡¯s so dark down here.¡±


    Falco laughed. ¡°Haha! Of course! If you want to find a key, this is the place you want to be.¡±


    Finn pouted and ripped the remaining cobwebs out of his hair. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I want to...¡±


    Falco slapped him heartily on the back a couple times. ¡°Nonsense!¡± He held up the torch in his other hand and made a sweeping gesture with it. ¡°Look what I¡¯ve found, we are in luck this day, my friend.¡±


    Finn jumped and almost knocked Falco over. A shrill scream escaped his mouth. Falco laughed again. ¡°Hahaha! What is the problem my young apprentice, never seen a skeleton before?¡±


    Morbid curiosity seemed to get the better of Finn, and he leaned closer to the skeletons. They had no clothing, only armor, and it was rusted almost all the way through. They sat leaning against the stone wall behind them, three skeletons in all.


    ¡°How long have they been here?¡± Finn asked, wonder in his voice.


    Falco shrugged. ¡°Hard to say.¡± Then he sat down on his haunches and brought the torch even closer. ¡°But look, around that one''s neck, what do you see?¡±


    Finn squinted, then his eyes opened wide. ¡°A key!¡± He looked at Falco in amazement. ¡°But¡ª how did you know it would be here?¡±


    Falco waved the admiration away as if it were a housefly. ¡°Oh, but it was you who led me here, my dear boy. The key called to you, not me.¡±


    Finn didn¡¯t let off. ¡°But we¡¯re a couple hundred feet below the ground. How did you know¡ª,¡± he gestured to the ceiling, walls and doorways around them, ¡°all this would be here?¡±


    The numerous rooms and staircases gave the eerie feeling of a catacomb. The air was more dust than oxygen and it hung heavy without even the slightest movement of wind. All of the windows and many of the rooms were hidden behind mounds of dirt, threatening to burst the standing walls and cave in on them any second. The place smelled of earth and death. But for Falco¡¯s torch the whole complex sat caked in darkness.


    ¡°You said the key called you from here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but not from down here, I could never have told you the altitude, not in a million years,¡± Finn interrupted. ¡°I¡ª I just sensed a vague direction.¡±


    ¡°Oh, but naturally it would be here if not above. Where else would it be? In the sky? Hahaha!¡± Falco laughed. Finn stared at him. ¡°Now! Let¡¯s not put it off any longer, eh? Grab,¡± Falco pointed and lowered his tone to a dramatic whisper, ¡°the key.¡±


    Finn held Falco¡¯s eyes for a moment longer, but he let his questioning drop. He didn¡¯t breathe and his hand shivered, but he did as Falco asked. He leaned down on his haunches like Falco, and reached out a hand.


    The very moment he touched the key, the brittle chain that hung around the skeleton¡¯s neck faded to dust. Finn gasped and stood up in a hurry. Falco laughed once more and brought the torch up to illuminate his companion¡¯s face. Sweat ran down it in long streaks and off his rounded chin.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Go on,¡± Falco urged, ¡°try it.¡±


    Finn looked frightened out of his mind, frightened of what, Falco wasn¡¯t sure. But it wasn¡¯t something worth mulling over. Finn was frightened of everything. Despite his fear however, Finn closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. They¡¯d practiced this for hours, every day. Finn still hadn¡¯t been able to muster even a sliver of resonance, but he was becoming quite adept at using his own key.


    There was just that one tiny slightly important detail that whenever Finn activated it, nothing happened. The key was activating, there wasn¡¯t any doubt of that, Falco saw it glow and could feel it warm to the touch.


    Much like how Finn¡¯s new key glowed now. The glow of an activated key was hard to spot in daylight, but in the darkness, down in the ruins of his people, below ground it was easy to see.


    A spike of metal grew out Finn¡¯s idle hand. Finn turned his head, saw the spike, and screamed. He flailed about like he tried to throw off a spider. The spike shot out of his hand at tremendous speed and burrowed itself in the ceiling where it sat vibrating for a few seconds.


    The whole structure rumbled and some sand and dust poured down on top of Finn¡¯s head and formed a tiny pyramid there. Beneath the dust pyramid and the golden locks, Finn¡¯s eyes peered frightened up at Falco.


    ¡°What the fuck was that?¡± Finn whispered.


    ¡°A projectile key! Wonderful, hahaha! I knew it, I knew you could do it!¡± Falco almost celebrated by clapping his hands but remembered the torch and thought better of it. ¡°Draw it forth again, but slower, don¡¯t shoot it off, best not do too much of that down here.¡± Falco laughed out one syllable. ¡°Hah! It could grow unpleasant!¡±


    ¡°Falco!¡± Finn complained.


    ¡°Yes, yes, it¡¯ll be alright. Go on, do it again, slower.¡±


    Finn looked very pale, but he brought his gaze back to the silver key in his hand. He glanced at the other hand, seeming very apprehensive and perhaps a slight bit queasy. But once more, he closed his eyes.


    The spike appeared, slithering out of his open palm, straight out like an extension of the bone in his forearm. The spike was jagged, made up of multiple square and elongated sections melted together to form a bar that started off thin at the top but thickened the longer down your eyes went. At the bottom the spike covered most of his palm. The skin bunched up around it as if to make room for a new nail, or a tooth.


    ¡°It is beautiful. Look, Finn, look!¡±


    Finn opened his eyes and at the sight of the metal growing out of his palm he seemed poised to do something drastic but all he did do was to hold it away from him like the spike were a venomous viper that could strike at any time.


    Much like every time before however, Falco could see the battle of curiosity and innate optimism win out against the fear. It was perhaps the one single defining trait Finn carried with him that so endeared Falco to this youngster and made him want to take Finn under his wing.


    ¡°What metal is that?¡±


    Falco moved closer and peered at the key between Finn¡¯s fingers. ¡°It¡¯s titahnium.¡±


    ¡°You mean titanium?¡±


    ¡°Ah yes,¡± Falco chuckled, ¡°that is correct.¡±


    ¡°But how do you know it¡¯s titanium, couldn¡¯t it just as well be any of the gray metals?¡±


    Falco grasped Finn¡¯s key hand and brought it closer to Finn¡¯s face, angling the torch to cast its light into his palm. ¡°Do you see where the handle and the shaft meet?¡±


    Finn peered closer, still making sure to hold the arm with the spike sticking out of it away from him. He looked for a few seconds then looked back to Falco again, an amused expression on his face. ¡°There¡¯s an emblem there, with a symbol on it.¡±


    Falco nodded, proud. ¡°That¡¯s right my curious little pupil. Learn the symbols and you will know the aspect of any key you come across!¡±


    ¡°Wow.¡± Finn gazed at the key with wonder. ¡°So you¡¯ve seen this aspect before?¡±


    ¡°Well, we must be off now, no use in collecting dust down here, haha!¡± Falco slapped his thigh twice as if to emphasize the greatness of his joke and then scurried off, torch and all.


    Finn stood alone watching the darkness creep in on him. ¡°What¡ª hey, wait up!¡± He hesitated, then started after Falco. The spike protruding from his palm wound its way through vines hanging from the ceiling and entangled itself into a knotted mess. Finn attempted to wring the spike free but all he managed to do was to ensnare himself further.


    ¡°Hey, Falco, how do I get rid of this thing?¡±


    ¡°Falco!¡±


    ***

 26. Complications, pt. 4

    ***


    Isaac cut the last few branches of the enormous pine with the sharpened edge of the jagged rock he¡¯d found down by the riverbed. He took a few steps back and surveyed his work. He didn¡¯t know what species of pine this was, it stood at least a hundred feet tall, the trunk towards the bottom looked more like a concrete pillar than a tree trunk.


    The branches of the pine protruded from everywhere and were thicker and more luscious than any pine he¡¯d ever seen. That was the reason he¡¯d chosen this tree. He¡¯d pushed the branches aside and dug out all the pine needles, cones and composting plants from underneath it. At the very bottom the branches sat so close together you couldn¡¯t see the trunk.


    By cutting away most of the branches at the ground level he¡¯d effectively made himself an igloo of pine branches. The space was tight and the ground not very comfortable. But it would have to do. It felt like his heart hadn¡¯t slowed down even a bit since the church.


    Sweat poured down his features and dripped off his nose. His hands pulsated from the exertion and the pain. He looked down and realized with a surge in his stomach that he¡¯d been using his broken arm for the work the entire time. Yet it didn¡¯t seem to hurt more than his healthy hand. The adrenaline must still be pumping through his veins.


    He put the rock away and walked over to a pile of discarded branches, he gently lifted them aside one by one and uncovered Aster beneath it. She didn¡¯t move and his pulse hastened as he knelt down and held a hand against her mouth. He felt her breath spill over his palm and he breathed out himself, not noticing before now that he had held his breath.


    With great care he dragged Aster inside the makeshift shelter. He sorted her into the farthest alcove beneath the cover of the tree branches. Then he turned around in the entrance, grabbed the discarded branches, and covered the entrance by sitting down and leaning the cuttings against the other branches above him. He left only a little slit in the dense covering and he sat down cross legged in front of it.


    He sat peering out, his heart beating out of his chest. He tried a breathing exercise but he couldn¡¯t calm down his heart. He needed to focus and keep watch for Crassus. He remembered the explosions, the way the spikes had bounced off Crassus¡¯s chest like they were toothpicks. He saw the mangled corpse of Jakob, clear as day, the resigned expression on Ronan¡¯s face as he walked off into the battle after having saved them yet again.


    Something hit the branches. Isaac flinched. He looked wildly around, trying to spot anything through the slit. Something hit again. The branches shivered in the wind. It sounded like a pebble, or something similar. It hit again, and again, it started pouring down. It sounded like droplets, like rain. Isaac buried his face in his hands. It sounded like rain because it was rain.


    He noticed he wasn¡¯t doing the breathing exercise anymore, he was hyperventilating. Abandoning the watch, Isaac closed his eyes, head between his hands and focused on the pitter-patter of the rain. The rain comforted him. He didn¡¯t know why, but it did. Perhaps it was because the sound would be muffled by the falling drops and help hide them.


    His mother had been the one to make him notice that about the rain. She¡¯d always loved rainy days. It had been quite some time since last he thought of her. He¡¯d never apologized to Finn for blaming him. The pine canopy seemed to be watertight and no raindrops wound their way through the branches, yet still a few droplets fell onto the leg of his pants. Isaac had never been good with grief, or feelings in general for that matter. That had always been Finn¡¯s forte. Just about his only forte, but still.


    Isaac drew a shuddering breath. His heartbeat settled. But in its wake, his hunger grew to a gluttonous beast within him. He spared a glance for Aster. She slept. He couldn¡¯t leave her. Not even to gather food. Not while Crassus still remained out there. If he found her while Isaac was away, she would die. Besides, it wasn¡¯t like Isaac knew how to gather food in the wilderness anyways. Especially this kind of wilderness. Who knew what was out there.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    An idea began forming in his mind. There was one way in which he could be sure Crassus wasn¡¯t nearby or worse yet, headed for them. He could never have explained it to Aster, but he was certain he could find Crassus through the whispers from the keys. Isaac would never forget the hundreds of voices at once, so close together, chasing him.


    Isaac closed his eyes, but didn¡¯t reach out. He hesitated. As long as that overwhelming sensation didn¡¯t render him unconscious or something it would probably be fine. His eyes sprang open again and he breathed hard, steadying himself against the tree trunk. Oh, he couldn¡¯t fool himself. This was a huge risk to be taking. No Aster to get him out of it should the voices take over. No one to protect him from Crassus should he faint.


    But the hunger inside him didn¡¯t let up. Starvation was an issue, but more likely than that they¡¯d sooner die from the next challenge they faced. They were already badly hurt, the both of them. They needed food. They needed strength.


    Isaac steeled his nerves. He reached out and the voices were there in an instant. They didn¡¯t fade in like last time. First there was nothing, no whispers, and then they surrounded him. Isaac curtailed his immediate instinct to silence them. He could feel his mind teeter at the edge of what it could tolerate. He tried to categorize the keys by direction and proximity.


    One voice came from his chest. That would be his own key. Two voices emanated from his pocket. That had to be the keys he had taken from Jakob. A set of additional keys came from a couple feet to his left. Aster¡¯s keys. Then there were about thirty or so individual keys scattered about around him each in their own place ranging from close to far away. The curious thing was that they all seemed to stem from somewhere beneath him.


    He didn¡¯t linger on the fact, he hurried on searching for the hundred voices bunched together. He knew he could find them, if only he were fast enough. He focused on the keys in the direction they had traveled from. There were less voices that way. That didn¡¯t seem right. There were just more of those keys below ground.


    But when he focused on the keys underneath the earth, he heard new voices further off. Isaac focused on them in turn and they sort of¡ª shifted, closer in his mind. He repeated the process, using the keys he found as a way to shift the center of his awareness. There were a lot less keys around now, and he found it easier to keep himself from becoming overwhelmed. He repeated the shift several more times. He counted each shift, two, three, four then at ten he started doubting himself, maybe he could have skipped past Crassus without knowing it.


    But the moment he shifted the twelth time, he heard them. Hundreds of them, screaming vitriol at him and just like last time he understood some of it.


    ¡°Rend, rip and tear you.¡±


    ¡°Eat, crush and devour your bones.¡±


    Isaac clapped his hands to the sides of his head but it of course did nothing to abate the screaming. In panic he shifted back the way he had come from and the voices stilled. He sat waiting for a long while to let his heart calm down but also to see if the keys were coming towards them.


    After a long wait with no voices he started doubting himself again. It was so very difficult to judge distance in this void realm of voices without end. He dared one jump forward to see if Crassus maybe had moved past him somehow.


    ¡°Hate them, kill them, hunt them¡ª¡±


    Isaac shifted away. Yup, they were there. He spent some time searching the areas around Crassus to see if he was alone or perhaps being followed by someone else but Isaac couldn¡¯t find anyone. Finally it occurred to him that maybe there were other people with keys close to their hideout and he shifted all the way back.


    His excitement grew as he traveled through the void by jumping from key to key. If he could map out where every living person were around them, perhaps they could avoid all trouble from now on. Well, he¡¯d only be able to spot the ones carrying keys, but then again, those were the only people worth worrying about in the first place.


    ¡°Find the tower.¡±


    Isaac retreated from the void so fast he continued the retreat in the physical realm and hit the back of his head against the tree. He rubbed his head and spared a glance to make certain Aster still slept. His heart pulsed in his chest. That voice had been the clearest and most human he had heard so far. He had heard it the moment he returned to his own keys. It had been the sound of a young boy. Clear as day.


    He reached back in.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±

 27. A Boy And His Rock

    <h3 style="text-align: center">Chapter Seven


    A Boy And His Rock


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    Isaac held onto his concentration with all his might. There were too many keys nearby, the voices threatened to overwhelm him.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    And the voice was so loud. The voice echoed in his mind. It sounded like a young boy but the only thing he said was the same line repeated over and over again. The inflection was all wrong for a child to, it sounded more like a religious incantation than a call to action.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    Yes, yes, we get it! Isaac tried intoning a message in his mind back at the key but he might as well not have bothered, the voice merely kept on intoning the same two sentences.


    The fact that the voice was so loud must mean that the key was close nearby. He couldn¡¯t sense a direction, but perhaps that was because it was too close? It was worth a shot. He opened his eyes and the voices ceased like he had stepped through a door into a room devoid of sound.


    It took some time for the sounds of the rain to come back into focus. He made sure Aster still breathed and slept on. He grabbed a bundle of the pine branches and moved to uncover the makeshift door enough for him to step outside.


    He straightened his back after covering the entrance up after him and he felt the tension in his muscles. How long had he been sitting there jumping from key to key in his mind. It seemed to him how bizarre it must¡¯ve looked while he was doing it. It had been difficult to tell the time when he was under, and the clouds covering up the sky made it difficult to judge how far the sun had traveled.


    The canopy above led most of the rain away from him but just two steps out from the tree the rain poured down. Taking the bundle of pine branches and holding them over his head like a poor man''s umbrella, Isaac stepped out into the rain and began his search.


    He hadn¡¯t the faintest clue of where one would look for a key in a forest. His first instinct would¡¯ve been to ask Aster for help, but she was out of the count. They were relying on him now. His next thought was to review what he knew. The keys came with the people arriving with the strange storms. So either someone was nearby, or someone had dropped a key or left it somewhere, or perhaps more likely, someone had died.


    Isaac shivered, from the cold or some ominous premonition, he couldn¡¯t say but he cast about for further clues. If there were someone alive out there, so close by, Isaac would probably have heard he or she by now. But what if they were hiding? Isaac¡¯s skin prickled all of a sudden as if he could feel two eyes watching him, preying upon him.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He shook the feeling off. If they were skilled enough to remain undetected up until this point, then Isaac would never find them unless they wanted to be found. He would have to assume he wasn¡¯t being watched.


    He also highly doubted someone would leave their key voluntarily, even one as useless as Isaac¡¯s. Keys were everything in this place it seemed.


    Then the only remaining conclusion Isaac could draw was that he was looking for a corpse. Having made the deduction, Isaac straightened his spine further. Right, where would someone have died in the vicinity of this tree?


    To the left the terrain dipped slightly in a decline down to the riverbed. In front of him, to the right and behind him there was nothing but forest. More pines like the one he and Aster had taken refuge in. Perhaps someone had thought of the same thing. His excitement growing he walked circles around their pine, brushing aside branches and looking inside the other trees, hoping to spot a hideout much like their own.


    Aster had said that when the keys called out to you, that meant they were synchronized to you personally, and being synchronized meant that you could utilize that particular key. At least, that¡¯s what he remembered her saying. Perhaps he had misunderstood. He tried not to get his hopes up, but he was like a starving man in more than one way. He needed to believe he could survive. He needed a useful key to defend himself.


    After having checked the thirtieth pine he felt the hope begin to wane. The rain had begun seeping through his makeshift umbrella the last ten minutes. He couldn¡¯t keep this up much longer. If he got soaked through, who knew how long it would take before he would be dry again.


    He sat down and balanced the branches on top of his head. Trying to breathe in a calm and ordered fashion, he closed his eyes.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    His eyes flew open the second the voice finished the incantation. The voice had sounded lower in volume. But much more than that, Isaac had heard an inkling of a direction, pointing back to their hideout, but slightly off center. Isaac looked and tried pinpointing where he had heard the voice coming from. Yes, the voice had come from a bit to the left, from the riverbed.


    The fire burned inside his chest once again. He stood up, forgetting the branches balanced on his head and showered himself in the rainwater trapped between the pine needles. The impromptu shower didn¡¯t abate his passion however, he stooped just long enough to scoop them back up and jogged over to the river.


    When he arrived he hesitated. Where would someone die on a riverbank? There was nothing but rocks, earth and a strip of sand along the river. But his mind raced ahead a hundred miles an hour. Perhaps he had been wrong about someone dying, perhaps someone indeed had dropped their key. It would probably lie just beneath the sand, waiting to be discovered.


    He flew up and down the small strip of beach, sliding his foot behind him, upending the sand as best he could in a methodical fashion. He felt a bit like he was mowing a lawn, one foot at a time. The going was slow and after just a couple minutes his calf began to burn from dragging the other foot behind it with little support. Isaac hopped around and switched to dragging with the rested leg and mowing sand with the tired one.


    The fire inside him kept him at it. For how long he didn¡¯t know, but the sky started to darken eventually.


    He ran out of undisturbed sand and started trying to upend the rocky edges of where the beach met the grassy knolls. But he snagged his foot on a root after only a couple feet and fell on his ass.


    Cursing the root and everything it stood for he hobbled hunchbacked and defeated over to a large rock and sat down on it to rest.

 28. A Boy And His Rock, pt. 2

    He looked out over the river and felt the fatigue, hunger and humiliation set in. He¡¯d been so sure. The key was there somewhere, he just had to find it. This wasn¡¯t like him. Ever since he¡¯d stepped through that tornado he¡¯d gone from failure to failure.


    He grabbed a rock and chucked it as hard as he could into the river. It made a splash and disappeared beneath the surface but his anger remained. If he was completely honest with himself, the failures had started even before the tornado. Or even before Finn disappeared. He should never have blamed Finn in the way he did. It wasn¡¯t like Finn didn¡¯t love their parents just as much as Isaac did.


    Something breached the surface of the water while Isaac watched it, brooding. Isaac jolted out of his misery. For a wild second he considered whether something was trying to throw the stone back up at him from the bottom of the river. Then another fish broached and dived back in.


    ¡°Fish!¡±


    Isaac stood up. His stomach growled. Still he hesitated. Ah, what the hell, what did it matter, he was already soaked completely through anyways. Once again, having found something to focus his uneasy energy on, Isaac waded out into the river, set on catching a fish as if it were the last thing he would ever do.


    He waded out until he stood with the icy water to well over his knees. Then he peered down into the water until it cleared and watched in amazement as dark outlines fluttered by his legs and down the stream. So many! Isaac¡¯s stomach rumbled once more. He bunched his coat up his arms and the fish scattered from the motion.


    He calmed himself and relaxed every muscle in his body as best he could. He stood poised to strike, hand held just above the surface with his fingers spread, ready to grasp and hold on for dear life. He waited for the perfect moment. One of them would slow down, maybe inspect his leg. That¡¯s when he would strike.


    Something glittered beneath the surface. Probably fish scales reflecting the sun. His brow furrowed. But there were no dark outline of a fish around the sparkling light, and what sun?


    He gasped. The dots connecting faster than his brain could keep up. He dove for the light. The water splashed him in the face but he didn¡¯t dare close his eyes. He felt something cold, long and thin among the sediment in his fist. He straightened up.


    He marveled at the sight in his palm. He held a silver key, sparkling and glittering as if a ghostly light he couldn¡¯t see illuminated it. Immeasurable joy bubbled up inside him.


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    He startled himself with his own outburst and he looked around him with weary eyes. Nothing moved.


    A whisper sounded from far away. Isaac froze, listening with all his might. Had someone heard him? The whisper grew louder. It came from every direction at once. Isaac recognized the voice. It was the young kid again.


    Without him meaning to, and even with his eyes open and standing upright in ice cold water, he slipped into the void.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    The voice boomed inside his head like a gong the size of a car. It was impossible to block out. His vision darkened, the sensation of the water and rain faded and instead was replaced with a sea of sound.Stolen story; please report.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    ¡°I know! I know, please, I¡¯ll find the tower just please stop,¡± he tried begging to the voice, if only he could just make it stop.


    The voice stopped.


    Isaac could feel himself blink, even though he saw nothing but darkness.


    ¡°Eh, hello?¡± he tried.


    ¡°Find the tower. Find the tower where it all began.¡±


    ¡°Alright! Alright! I get it!¡±


    The voice fell silent. The contrast between the ear shattering booming and complete silence made Isaac uneasy. He dreaded engaging the voice again but it was clearly responding to him now and he couldn¡¯t pass up the opportunity to learn more.


    ¡°Who are you?¡±


    Nothing.


    ¡°Why do I need to find this tower?¡±


    Still nothing.


    ¡°Look, at least tell me whe¡ª¡±


    The voice broke him off out of nowhere and it intoned out almost like a recitation.


    ¡°Find the tower where the storms never go. Find the tower where the golden keys gather. Find the tower where the brother is lost. Find the tower where the survivor is resting. Find the tower.¡±


    The void cast him out and reality rushed back and Isaac stumbled from sudden vertigo. He gripped hard on the key in his hand as if it were a lifeline. He steadied himself but whirled around like he could spot the little kid somewhere in the river.


    ¡°What do you mean ¡®brother is lost¡¯?¡±


    Not even bothering to go back to the shore he plopped himself into a sitting position right there in the water. He closed his eyes and chased the void.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not done talking to you. What did you mean ¡®brother¡¯? Do you know where Finn is?¡±


    No answer. He shouted at the voice, attempting numerous angles of attack and approaches. But no matter how much he whined, antagonized or accused the voice of his key, it didn¡¯t speak again.


    A deep cold in his body made him jump back out of the void and stand up. He shivered so hard water droplets flew off him for each shake. He brought the key up to his face and inspected it. It was made of silver and the emblem on it looked like a rock of some kind. The key had teeth on both sides of the shaft and they covered almost the entire length of it, right up to the handle.


    A diagonal line of empty space cut over the teeth from one side to the other across the center of the shaft. The line separated the teeth into two sections, one upper and one lower. It made Isaac think of duality, separation or something similar. Besides that, no other clues could be discerned from the appearance of the key.


    Isaac closed his hand and focused. Perhaps activating the key would make the voice more talkative. If the voice wouldn¡¯t come to him, he would go to it.


    An extreme sense of vertigo hit him. It felt like his senses split in two, as if he occupied two points in space at the same time. His hand split open as the key itself grew in his hand. The curious sensation of splitting in half ceased and he opened his eyes. Something large and rocky bulged out of his palm, it didn¡¯t look anything like a silver key anymore.


    It looked like a boiling rock. Bubbles of gray sludge bubbled along its surface and the air smelled of sulfur. Then the rock ballooned in size and a face formed on it, blinking back at him. Isaac screamed and threw the rock-like creature up in the air, trying to get it away from him. The awkward throw made him lose his balance and he toppled over backwards, watching the water splash up on either side of him and plunge back in on top of him as he sank to the bottom of the river.


    The rock-thing fell heavy on his chest as it came back down after him. Isaac swallowed water as the little air he had bubbled out of his mouth from the pressure. In full panic he struggled to slide the rock off him. It bulged out, at least larger than his head, still growing. His broken hand refused to grip anything and what little strength he had left couldn¡¯t budge the stone. He lay trapped, two feet below the surface.

 29. A Boy And His Rock, pt. 3

    Something small and thin poked him in the side. The rock slid off him. He breached the surface. He got up and breathed in the blessed air in large gulps. His broken arm was bleeding. He looked down into the water and saw the rocky shape moving on its own accord around down there. Isaac turned and waded back to shore, despite his fatigue. He wasn¡¯t staying one moment longer with that thing out there in the river. He¡¯d been seconds away from doing the equivalent of drowning in a kiddie pool.


    He¡¯d waded out of the water and was just about to turn around and see if the thing had followed him when something clamped around his ankle. He toppled over once more and ate a healthy serving of sand. The same sand he had so meticulously spent hours upending.


    He spit the sand out and made some not so manly sounds while trying to paddle his way further up the beach, away from the thing that would surely drag him back into the water. The thing was very heavy however, and he dug two long troughs in the sand more than he propelled himself forward.


    A grinding noise made him pause. It sounded like two rocks being wound together. Like the grindstones in an old fashioned mill. He stopped paddling and looked down. The noises came from the stone creature. For he could see that it was a creature now. It had two wings, tiny in comparison to its feline body. It wound it¡¯s head back and forth his leg like a cat three times and then turned its head up at him and blinked.


    Its face looked like a cross between a panther and a demon. Two horns, two elongated fangs, a squashed face and a snout. Isaac hesitated. The grinding noise didn¡¯t abate, if anything it grew more pronounced as they made eye-contact.


    ¡°Are you¡ª are you purring?¡±


    The stone creature let go of his legs, made a yelp that sounded like a rock smashing against a cliff, then jumped around in circles a couple times. It looked proud somehow.


    Now that his panic had diminished somewhat, Isaac began putting two and two together. The creature must be his new key power. There was no other explanation. It certainly seemed friendly. More unsettling was the fact that Isaac could swear Aster had told him you needed skin contact to use a key. But he couldn¡¯t spot the key anywhere.


    And Aster had never mentioned that the key powers could have sentience. This¡ª thing, seemed like a fully aware and intelligent animal. If it hadn¡¯t been for the fact that the thing was made entirely from what appeared to be a mineral of some kind, he would¡¯ve sworn it was alive.


    Isaac marveled at it. Now it was trying to rub the top of its head against Isaac¡¯s chin by standing up on its two hind legs to reach him, just like a cat would. The more pressing concern though, was what could he use it for?


    ¡°Hey, eh, stone-thing,¡± the creature made another of its grinding yelps, ¡°fetch me a fish.¡± The creature angled its head to one side, looking at him. Isaac pointed to the river, ¡°go, fetch!¡±


    The walking stone thing yelped again and bounded into the water, spraying sand behind it¡¯s small but surprisingly powerful hind legs. The thing didn¡¯t need to swim or dive, it walked across the bottom. Isaac began to worry. Would it need to breathe? Had he just sent his newfound power off to die by drowning. Isaac didn¡¯t know whether it would preserve itself if it couldn¡¯t fulfill his command. He didn¡¯t even know whether it had understood him.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    How long would it last? And did it factor into the daily mass he could create with a key? Aster had spoken about that bit at length. Isaac didn¡¯t feel any more tired than he already had before he used the key. But then again his fatigue was bone-deep to begin with.


    The rock thing came out of the water, splashing droplets everywhere. It paraded up to him with a bobbing gait, stopped in front of him and dropped a large and rounded rock in his lap. Then it sat down on its haunches and waited.


    Isaac looked at the rock. The thing yelped. Isaac sighed. It had been too much to hope for. He should¡¯ve known his luck was cursed. First a key that did nothing, now a petrock. The thing purred in its peculiar rocky way and brushed its head against his forearm. A horn snagged on his coat and prodded his skin below. It hurt. Isaac shoved the thing away.


    ¡°Would you stop that!¡±


    The thing pouted and looked like the next twenty birthdays had been canceled. The pitiful display tugged at Isaac¡¯s heartstrings but for some reason it made him start cursing the creature.


    ¡°Go away! I don¡¯t need you!¡± Some part of him wondered what he was doing, shouting at a sentient rock, but he couldn¡¯t stop. ¡°I don¡¯t want you!¡± The thing buried itself partly in the sand. ¡°Do you understand? Fuck off!¡± The rocky face blinked at him, but didn¡¯t move.


    Isaac realized he was standing. The pointlessness of what he was doing sank in, and he sank down himself. He threw a couple stones into the river. The rocky creature watched him throw, half burrowed in the sand.


    ¡°FUCK!¡± he screamed. He grabbed the chain around his neck and snapped off the useless key that hung there. He brought his hand back behind his head and poised to throw the symbol of his failures as hard and as far into the river as he could muster. The creature mewled like a bag of marbles.


    ¡°What? It¡¯s my damn key, I don¡¯t need your permission.¡± The creature looked behind him.


    ¡°Isaac?¡± He spun in the sand. Aster stood there, bleary eyed, clutching her hand with the missing fingers in the other. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why are you shouting?¡±


    Isaac sighed and cleared his throat. ¡°Khm, nothing, Aster¡ª I¡ª I just got frustrated, is all.¡± He hid his outstretched arm from Aster¡¯s view.


    ¡°What are you throwing?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Nothing.¡±


    ¡°And what is that?¡± She pointed at rocky.


    ¡°Oh, this? I have no idea, to be honest I¡ª¡± Isaac turned back towards the creature as he spoke just in time to see that it had moved almost on top of him. Its mouth gaped and closed in on his hand. Isaac didn¡¯t have any time to react. The creature chomped down, Isaac yelped and let go of the key by instinct. The creature swallowed.


    The rock thing made a curious sound as if it had a stomach ache. It looked at Isaac, blinked once, mewled again, then it doubled in size. Isaac jerked back, almost having collided with the creature as it ballooned. The gray bubbles and the smell of sulfur from earlier returned, and the creature continued growing.


    ¡°Woah.¡± Isaac got up on his feet and staggered away. Rocks popped and burst, cracks formed and reformed all over the rocky skin of the creature.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Aster asked, ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡±


    They watched in awe as the creature extended in every direction.


    Finally, it stopped growing. From a size not much larger than Isaac¡¯s head, it had grown to about the size of a small elephant. Its limbs had thickened, and the body now appeared more mammalian than feline. Its horns now curled in long spirals like a rams. The creature had grown from a petrock the size of a watermelon into a ten-ton gorilla.


    The creature let out a grovely yelp, with a considerably larger amount of bass in its voice than before.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be damned,¡± Isaac said.


    ***

 30. A Boy And His Rock, pt. 4

    ***


    Falco watched Finn over the ship¡¯s wheel as he tied off the last balloon down on the deck. He let the hydrogen blow it to the proper size then fastened it to a rope together with the others. He kept the floating balloons from escaping by biting down on the rope while he closed the valve on the hydrogen tank.


    Falco chuckled to himself. The kid had found the pack of party balloons inside what Finn called a ¡®camper¡¯ during their last supply run. The ever sensitive Finn had felt bad about looting the place but Falco had reassured him that the previous owners wouldn¡¯t mind, their bones were showing after all. Finn still acted queasy around skeletons, the poor boy.


    The bad conscience didn¡¯t last long however, as the inventive kid started practicing his new key with the balloons. The colorful balloons looked a bit silly to be military gear Falco thought. But Finn had assured him they were really meant for parties and festivities, and that he had merely repurposed them for target-practice.


    Finn released the balloons and they scattered in every direction, buffeted by the wind. He aimed at them by holding his hand out straight and resting his head on his shoulder. Using the space between his thumb and index finger as a sight he fired off multiple spikes in quick succession. Most, if not all, missed.


    ¡°Smaller, Finn, make them even smaller.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m trying! Don¡¯t distract me.¡±


    Falco grinned. The kid had no aim whatsoever. But he was learning how to control his key at a rapid pace. He had a knack for that. By Falco¡¯s estimation the boy could fire off about ten or so spikes in an hour before he grew too tired. If only he could make the spikes smaller and not waste so much mass. Everyone always wanted a projectile key with a metal aspect. The thing they never considered was how heavy metal could be. The denser the material the fewer projectiles you could produce. Luckily for Finn he had one of the lighter metals with his titanium aspect.


    Falco would¡¯ve preferred a lighter material himself, perhaps bone, or some kind of glass. Not that he wanted a silver key though, he only used bronze keys. It wasn¡¯t that he had never had the chance to acquire one for himself, he had heard a silver key call out to him every now and then just like everyone else. It was just that he knew why all the other people thought no one could understand what the voices were saying. So he stayed away.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Finn let the rope drop and watched with a dejected look as the balloons flew off on their merry way, intact. The smile returned to Falco¡¯s face. He knew their destination would cheer him up. Falco almost looked forward to Finn¡¯s reaction more than his own. It was a bit intoxicating to travel with someone so optimistic and easy to impress.


    ¡°Haha! Don¡¯t you worry, my friend. With practice and time the beggar becomes the king!¡±


    Finn peered at him with a sullen look. ¡°That makes no sense, Falco.¡±


    He must really be down on himself, Falco thought. ¡°It¡¯s just an expression,¡± Falco said, and he couldn¡¯t help but be a bit sullen as well. With an effort, Falco shook off the downward mood. He banked the ship off to the starboard side and they traveled through a thick cloud down towards the earth. The ship shook in a slight turbulence and the sails collected condensation from the water vapor.


    The ship sailed out of the clouds and the turbulence ceased. Brilliant rays of sunlight lit up the ship and the terrain far below them. Falco righted the ship again but let it keep on falling.


    ¡°Go look over the railing, my boy. What do you see?¡±


    Finn hesitated, and he had the look of someone who wanted to continue sulking, but curiosity once again got the better of him and he rushed over.


    ¡°What the hell¡ª,¡± he drew out the last word into one long syllable. ¡°Wow! What is that?¡± He looked up at Falco in disbelief, whose only answer was laughter. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like it. What¡¯s making all that smoke?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s steam, not smoke,¡± said Falco, walking over to have a look as well.


    A vast sinkhole covered up most of the forest filled landscape below. The cliff sides of the hole went for miles upon miles in each direction before circling back around and meeting up. It was so vast the mountainous regions to the north and east looked tiny in comparison. Two giant lakes on either side of the sinkhole bordered over the cliffs of the hole and created a waterfall the size of a glacier. Almost half the cliff sides were turned into neverending waterfalls by the cascading water.


    The water fell at least a mile down, but it was hard to tell exactly how far the cliffs extended down because a column of steam came billowing up from the depths of the sinkhole, obscuring everything but the cliffs, waterfalls and half of the sinkhole facing them. The other half and any sign of the bottom of the hole was completely hidden behind white foggy steam.


    ¡°So there¡¯s probably lava or something on the bottom? And the water is coming in from those big lakes over the side. That¡¯s what¡¯s creating all that smoke, or steam rather?¡±


    ¡°I think so, lad, but your guess is as good as mine.¡±


    Finn stared at the marvel for a long time. He turned and walked up the staircase to join Falco at the helm. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s cool and all, but what does it mean? What are we doing here?¡±


    Falco smiled. ¡°That down there, my young friend,¡± he gestured downward, ¡°is one step closer¡ª to home!¡±

 31. The Shape On The Pyre

    <h3 style="text-align: center">Chapter Eight


    The Shape On The Pyre


    Isaac bit into the cooked fish, casting aside all table manners and devouring it. He swayed from side to side on top of his new rocky steed. Or maybe it was a rocky bull, considering the stone creature had horns. It looked more like a gargoyle than anything else Isaac could come up with. Aster swayed in front of him, seated on the twisting horns, legs dangling. She ate a fish of her own, several more laying in her lap.


    They were traveling to a place called ¡°Heimgaard¡±. Aster had said her friend would be there. Isaac had tried telling her about the voice, but she had remained sceptical despite Isaac¡¯s repeated assurances and all but demanded that they head for Heimgaard. It wasn¡¯t like Isaac had even the first clue of where to start looking for a tower, and so he¡¯d had no choice but to do as she said. He hadn¡¯t given up on convincing her though, and they¡¯d been arguing ever since, only stopping to furiously feed on the fish they¡¯d stockpiled.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you could¡¯ve heard what you thought you did,¡± Aster said through a mouthful. ¡°No one can understand the voices. I¡¯ve never even heard of anyone understanding them.¡±


    ¡°But I did!¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s been rumors, of course, scared people always cling to legends of a way home or similar.¡±


    ¡°Are you even listening to me?¡±


    ¡°¡ªbut that¡¯s all they are, rumors and legends!¡±


    Isaac turned away from her, watching the trees and bushes glide by them as the rock creature trundled along with a calm and measured pace. He threw a fishbone aside and turned back. ¡°I know what I heard. Do you know anything about a tower? I gather there¡¯s not many buildings around these parts, so maybe a tower would stick out.¡±


    Aster bit her lip and grew silent. So she had been listening. She hesitated. ¡°I have heard about a tower before, but it¡¯s not what you would call a reliable rumor.¡±


    Isaac waited. ¡°Well?¡±


    Aster threw a fishbone over her shoulder and Isaac had to dodge it by swaying so far he almost fell off. ¡°Hey!¡±


    Aster twisted around and faced him. ¡°Look, we¡¯re going to Heimgaard and that¡¯s that.¡± She held his gaze with her own unblinking stare. ¡°We¡¯re not gonna go off on some wild treasure hunt just because you have a hunch!¡±


    Isaac made a wounded sound. ¡°I¡¯d hardly call a voice blasting me half unconscious a ¡®hunch¡¯!¡± Aster kept eye contact. ¡°It was really insistent, Aster. It told me everything started with the tower.¡±


    She looked not the least bit convinced, if anything she looked perhaps more disturbed. ¡°What started with the tower?¡±


    ¡°Everything.¡±


    ¡°You mean you don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°I mean ¡®everything¡¯ pretty much encompasses anything you could want.¡±


    Aster continued to stare at him.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Look around you for Christ''s sake! Everything¡¯s fucked up!¡± Isaac looked down and tapped the creature with his hand. ¡°Look at the thing you¡¯re riding to start with. Doesn¡¯t this all seem strange to you?¡± Aster didn¡¯t respond, she just watched him, judging. ¡°Where does it all come from? How does it even work?¡±


    ¡°It just does, okay?¡± Aster seemed very uncomfortable, like she wanted to end the conversation.


    ¡°The voice mentioned my brother, Aster. I can¡¯t just let that be, I need to find out if there¡¯s more to it. Don¡¯t you want some answers? What better way to find out than from the source, the keys themselves!¡±


    ¡°Isaac, you¡¯ll get the answers you need once we get to Heimgaard.¡±


    ¡°The answers I need? Not the ones I want?¡±


    ¡°Alright! Fine, the answers you want, happy?¡±


    ¡°Calm down, Aster, I¡¯m just joking.¡±


    ¡°I am calm!¡±


    They sat in silence and ate. Isaac wanted to discuss the matter more, and he also had hundreds of questions he wanted to ask. But he thought it best to let Aster be for a while. Besides, he was still hungry despite the amount of fish he¡¯d eaten in the last few hours.


    It had taken them quite a bit of time to get over the initial shock of seeing the creature grow to five times the size right in front of their eyes. Aster especially had been shaken. She¡¯d started cursing him out over being reckless with his key, harping on about some kind of key discipline dictating that you should never take your keys out so people could see them.


    Isaac suspected the real reason was because she was interested in his key for some reason, possibly for herself. He hadn¡¯t been able to get it back from the creature, it just looked at him quizzically whenever he tried to reason with it. Perhaps Aster was frustrated with him because now the key was out of reach for the both of them.


    Their dispute didn¡¯t last long however. Once they¡¯d gotten over the shock they had quickly found a use for their new companion. After several attempts, Isaac and Aster had, through a lot of pantomiming and cajoling, managed to convey to the stone creature that they wanted fish from the river, not stones. Once Isaac saw the concept of a fish click inside the creature¡¯s head, something amazing had happened.


    The sentient rock had jumped into the river and turned into a veritable fishing machine. A stream of flapping fish cascaded down onto the shoreline as the creature¡¯s arm became a blur of motion and water. Isaac had barely been able to contain his excitement and hadn¡¯t even noticed Aster¡¯s expression at first as he hugged her. He had let go the moment he saw.


    But Isaac¡¯s elation hadn¡¯t subsided. Finally something had gone right after so many failures. The key power wasn¡¯t very conventional, and Isaac still didn¡¯t know what it would mean in the future, but at least it wasn¡¯t useless. The fish had never stood a chance.


    ¡°What are you gonna name rocky here?¡± Aster said eventually, tapping a horn with a half-eaten fish. Isaac made note of the change of topic, but saw it for the peace-offering it was.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, should I name it already? What if something happens to it?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen him eat anything so he¡¯s not a golem, and since he hasn¡¯t crumbled yet, I think it¡¯s permanent.¡±


    Isaac attempted to read her expression. ¡°You say ¡®him¡¯, how do you know it¡¯s a ¡®he¡¯?¡±


    Aster petted it¡¯s horns. ¡°I have a feeling.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    ¡°You should name it Rocky.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t know? It¡¯s a rock, so¡ª Rocky, it¡¯s perfect.¡±


    ¡°A bit on the nose, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°On the nose? What do you mean?¡±


    A sudden inspiration hit Isaac, and he laughed to himself.


    ¡°Don¡¯t laugh at me.¡± Aster looked sour.


    ¡°No, no, I¡¯m not laughing at you, I just came up with a name.¡±


    She frowned. ¡°Well, what is it?¡±


    Isaac petted the rocky skin beneath him with a sudden affection welling up in him.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll name him Dwayne.¡±


    Isaac laughed for the first time in a long time, reaching for another fish, resting up as Dwayne carried him to his destination. Aster looked at him like he¡¯d gone insane. Dwayne chortled an imitation of Isaac¡¯s laugh.  It sounded like a cement mixer filled with nails. Yes, Dwayne was a mighty fine name for a rock. The best petrock a man could ever have asked for.


    ***

 32. The Shape On The Pyre, pt. 2

    ***


    Falco fastened the last of the ballast onto the deck of his airship. A wall of steam poured out of the sinkhole on their starboard side and stretched to the ever present layer of clouds above. A dense and lush rainforest covered everything to their port side. They sat sandwiched on the cliff¡¯s edge between a wall of white and a wall of green.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you at least tell me where we¡¯re going?¡± Finn hadn¡¯t stopped his anxiety fueled line of questioning ever since they¡¯d touched down and Falco had told him to gather up rocks and logs, anything with a weight to it, and help him strap it down to the deck.


    ¡°You¡¯ll see when we get there, my boy!¡±


    Finn made a frustrated sound and walked over the edge of the deck, facing the rainforest. He brought his arm up, took aim, and fired off a titanium spike that lodged itself several inches into a tree trunk thicker than three men across.


    Finn no longer looked surprised at the destructive strength of his projectiles. Falco remembered the first time he¡¯d practiced shooting at trees. The kid had inspected the tree after his first shot for over half an hour. Falco smiled. Finn had even been reluctant to fire off another one, having grown some respect for his newfound power. Ah, the innocence of youth. Falco chuckled.


    Finn looked over at the sound of his laughing and his mood soured even further. ¡°What¡¯s all this for anyways? I doubt we¡¯d be able to take off at all with this junk weighing us down.¡± He kicked a huge log tied to the checkered hatch leading below deck.


    Falco turned and surveyed the thickness of the steam clouds billowing out of the massive sinkhole. The rushing steam seemed to have calmed somewhat. They could leave soon. ¡°We don¡¯t need to take off.¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°In fact, we need the opposite.¡±


    Finn flicked a nervous look towards the steam. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°The steam makes it difficult to lower the altitude, the heavier we are, the shorter the journey. And trust me, my friend, we do not want this journey to be too long!¡± Falco laughed and slapped an increasingly alarmed Finn multiple times on the back.


    ¡°The steam? You can¡¯t mean¡ª are we going down there?¡± Finn pointed to the wall of white.


    ¡°Hahaha! So you figure it out at last.¡± The kid was smart, he just needed to shackle his fear. ¡°Now, come help me push.¡± Falco walked over to a valve and released it. Gas hissed far above them into the balloon. Then he set course for the rope ladder leading down to the ground below them.


    ¡°Push?¡±


    ¡°Yes, my friend, push! How else will we get into the air, we are too heavy!¡±


    ¡°But¡ª but¡ª who¡¯s flying the ship if we¡¯re on the ground pushing? Are you sure you¡¯ve thought this through, Falco? How would we get back on again?¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ¡°Why, we jump, of course!¡±


    Finn looked sick.


    ***


    Heimgaard looked like a bite sized village plastered to the side of a rocky hill, sticking out of the forest surrounding it. They¡¯d followed the river the entire time. Isaac had wondered whether that was how Aster knew where to go, but she seemed just as surprised as him at seeing the river follow along. She must use some other way to navigate then.


    The huts on the hill were made out of stone and mud, square shaped and small. Several chimneys jutted out of houses here and there and columns of smoke drifted up to the sky. A wall that looked more like a mound of rock and dirt encircled the little village.


    A slim tower stood in the center and someone sitting atop it had already spotted them and waved. Aster waved back.


    ¡°You do know these people right?¡± Isaac whispered.


    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re one giant family, led by the mother, Inga.¡±


    Isaac¡¯s skin crawled.


    Aster must¡¯ve noticed because she continued. ¡°Let me speak to her, okay? We¡¯ll be out of there before you know it, with the information we need.¡±


    ¡°Fine,¡± Isaac sighed, ¡°I trust you, Aster.¡±


    Aster flinched slightly but didn¡¯t speak further.


    Dwayne carried them up a winding path past jagged rocks all the way up to the perimeter wall. A sort of gate sat in the middle of the wall facing down the hill. It looked more like two enormous menhir, a large standing stone, had tipped over at the same time and struck each other half-way down and got stuck like that. Sure, it kind of worked as a gate, but Isaac wondered how they would close it, there was no door, just the two stones.


    They jumped off Dwayne and something made Isaac signal for Dwayne to wait outside. Much to his surprise, Dwayne listened. The large creature sat calmly and looked at him. Isaac remembered when he¡¯d first met Dwayne the day before. The way Dwayne had moved like a wild animal, the uninhibited energy he had permeated. The eyes that gazed at him now portrayed not only an understanding of what Isaac wanted him to do, but also why he wanted him to do it.


    The last thing Isaac wanted was to scare these people. He didn¡¯t know the first thing about them, except for the fact that they lived, and must have survived, in the Endpoint for some time. Not just lived here, they¡¯d built their dwellings from mud and rocks rather than wood, and they¡¯d built it on top of a hill instead of simply finding one of the many buildings left by the storms.


    They¡¯d surrounded themselves with walls and they had a watchtower to look for arrivals. These people were cautious, that much Isaac could conclude just from the circumstances. Perhaps you had to be, to survive here. So he signaled for Dwayne to wait outside. It would be bad if Isaac got locked inside and separated from Dwayne, but hey, there was no door on the gate. And besides, he always had Aster to fall back on.


    They entered through the gate. A courtyard waited for them inside. Most of the houses formed a circle around the center of the village. A throng of people stood gathered in the courtyard around a huge pyre. A small figure lay atop it with a white cloth draped over it. Isaac¡¯s throat tightened at the sight.


    The people¡¯s attention wasn''t on the pyre however, they focused on a woman surrounded by small critters talking with wild gesticulating motions to an older woman. The older woman had what looked like a strange cat on her shoulders.


    Isaac stepped to move closer. Something tickled his memory when he looked at those critters surrounding the agitated woman. Aster held out a hand and stopped him. She looked off to the side at the watchtower standing at the edge of the courtyard.


    A young kid swiveled down it like a fireman¡¯s pole and positively bounced towards them. He had bowl cut hair so blonde it almost looked white and a very pale complexion. He reminded Isaac of a bouncing snowball.


    ¡°Hey, Aster!¡± he said.


    ¡°Hello, Birk.¡±


    ¡°Why are you here?¡± The kid spoke with a scandinavian accent of some sort, Isaac couldn¡¯t place exactly where.


    ¡°I need to speak with Inga.¡±

 33. The Shape On The Pyre, pt. 3

    ¡°Mom¡¯s busy right now. Who¡¯s this?¡± Birk gestured to Isaac.


    ¡°He¡¯s a newcomer,¡± she looked at him, ¡°he¡¯s a¡­ friend.¡±


    ¡°Gee, Aster, thanks for the glowing commendation.¡±


    Aster shot him a harsh glance. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly.¡±


    ¡°Did you get a new key, Aster?¡± Birk said


    Aster looked suspicious. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Birk gestured to the gate, ¡°the golem you came with.¡±


    Aster relaxed. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not mine, it¡¯s his pet.¡± She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at Isaac.


    Birk¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Wow,¡± he looked at Isaac with admiration, ¡°you¡¯re a newcomer and you¡¯ve got such a large golem already?¡±


    Isaac shuffled his feet. ¡°Ehm, sure.¡±


    Aster¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a golem actually, it¡¯s something else.¡±


    Birk didn¡¯t falter. ¡°So a familiar then?¡±


    ¡°A familiar?¡± Aster sounded confused.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Birk as though it was the most self-evident thing ever, ¡°though familiars are never that large.¡±


    Aster waved her hand through the air. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± she said, ¡°can I speak with your mother? Will she be busy for long?¡±


    Birk turned and watched the crowd with the two women at the forefront, still arguing. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s Agnes, she wants us to leave.¡±


    The woman with all the critters, Agnes, turned in circles then as if on queue and fragments of her voice drifted towards them as she addressed the crowd.


    ¡°You¡¯re not safe here¡­ your safety¡­ while you still can!¡± Agnes¡¯s voice was shrill and had a panicky twinge to it. Isaac had heard that voice many times before, from his colleagues, whenever they were headed for a breakdown.


    ¡°Why does she want you to leave? I thought Tejahl guaranteed your protection. Has she withdrawn it? Is she bullying you?¡± Aster suddenly seemed very angry.


    ¡°No, no, Agnes is acting on her own I think.¡± The kid lowered his voice. ¡°She says Chaaron¡¯s group fought with Crassus.¡±


    Aster calmed down a little at that but she still sounded a bit angry when she spoke next. ¡°So what? They chased him off, didn''t they? That¡¯s no excuse to turn around and bully their own allies.¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s the thing, they lost. They all died.¡±


    A chill went up Isaac¡¯s spine. Aster¡¯s voice choked.


    ¡°Only Ronan, Agnes and Chaaron survived. And Agnes says Ronan won¡¯t say where the rest of his group is. Agnes thinks they¡¯re dead as well.¡±


    Images of Crassus¡¯s hand tearing through a bandit poured through Isaac¡¯s mind. Images of Aster poking the four armed guy into a pulp with her iron-tipped feathers. He knew they were dead. He¡¯d been there. He should say something. Clear up the confusion for this poor kid, who would now, if Isaac understood the implications correctly, soon be homeless because of something he had been a part of. He couldn¡¯t make himself say it however, and the kid continued before he had the chance to.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ¡°And even worse than that. Agnes says Chaaron has left.¡±


    Aster jolted out of her paralysed state. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she says Chaaron won¡¯t even come out of her poison clouds anymore.¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡± Aster turned, palm to her forehead. ¡°Where is Chaaron now?¡± she asked Birk.


    ¡°Last Agnes saw her she was heading for Kin Tao¡¯s territory.¡±


    Isaac saw now where he¡¯d seen the critters before. They were spiders, wooden spiders. The very same that had crawled over him and Aster when he¡¯d been trying to save the unconscious girl as the fighting had broken out. Then the drifting poison clouds must have belonged to this Chaaron. And the wooden spiders belonged to Agnes. But that would mean she¡¯d been at the church, and yet here she was, having arrived before them even though they were the first to leave. Had they really been traveling that slowly?


    ¡°Birk, listen to me, you need to listen to Agnes. You need to leave. Convince your mother. If Chaaron joins up with Kin Tao, he really will be the one who holds all the power, not just in name.¡±


    Birk smiled. ¡°There¡¯s rumors of another lieutenant joining up with Kin Tao as well. He¡¯s even supposed to have a gold key, though I don¡¯t know if I believe that.¡±


    ¡°Exactly,¡± Aster sounded desperate now, ¡°that¡¯s why you need to leave!¡±


    Birk laughed. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about it, Aster. My brother will kick their asses if they ever try to come here.¡± He turned and looked with supreme confidence at a large man with skin made of rock towering over the rest of the crowd.


    Aster on the other hand didn¡¯t look so convinced. She seemed about to say more but she was interrupted as Agnes suddenly bustled past them, almost running into Aster, who had to jump aside.


    The wooden spiders frothed around her feet like waves on the beach, knocking each other up in the air. They locked together and by the time she had reached the gate they had formed a crab-like creature made up of linked spiders. The superorganism accelerated and soon all that could be seen was the dust cloud kicked up by eight whirring limbs. Well, that explained how she¡¯d arrived before them.


    ¡°And you, what do you want?¡± A voice snapped at them. It was the old woman, whom Isaac presumed was Inga. The leader of Heimgaard and also Birk¡¯s mother. ¡°Now?¡± Inga continued, ¡°don¡¯t take up all my time, out with it!¡±


    Isaac grew conscious of each and every eye in the courtyard locking on them. It suddenly occurred to Isaac that they might be interrupting something. Inga stood squinting at Aster with a staff in one hand. A wooden cat perched on her shoulder, its bark like fur rippling with every movement.


    Birk¡¯s older brother stood next to Inga, his arms crossed over his massive chest. His rocky skin flexed, even his eyebrows were made of rock. Further to the left of him three girls stood. They all had the appearances of peasant girls straight out of a medieval play. But there was a hardness to their faces and the way they carried themselves. The tallest of the girls had a belt of rocks revolving around her like tiny planets that dispelled any notion of vulnerability.


    The hostile atmosphere in the air was unmistakable. Isaac regretted making Dwayne wait outside.


    ¡°Please listen to Agnes, Inga. You need to take your group and leave Heimgaard.¡±


    Inga peered closer and her eyebrows shot up. ¡°Oh, so it is you Aster, how wonderful to see you.¡±


    ¡°Please, Inga, if not for yourself then for everyone here. Think of your family.¡±


    Inga scoffed. ¡°Bah! This is our home, no warlord can drive us away from here.¡± Approving murmurs echoed through the crowd. ¡°If you are so concerned for our well-being, Aster, then ally with us. Combine your power with ours.¡± The crowd grew dead silent at the offer. Some hope began overshadowing the hostility in the stares aimed their way.


    ¡°You know I can¡¯t do that, Inga.¡± The whispers resumed their previous volume and many turned away to talk amongst themselves, their interest in Aster and Isaac apparently having run its course.


    ¡°Mh, so you say, Aster.¡±


    ¡°Come on now, Inga, don¡¯t be so stubborn. Take your people and join me, we can travel to Ed¡¯s camp and join up with the people there, we¡¯d be stronger in greater numbers.¡± Isaac¡¯s ears perked up. There was that ¡®Ed¡¯ name again, he should remember to ask Aster about that once they were alone.


    ¡°The answer is ¡®NO¡¯, Aster.¡± The tired old woman sounded more like a general than a grandma.

 34. The Shape On The Pyre, pt. 4

    Aster¡¯s shoulders stiffened. ¡°Tch, stubborn old¡­¡± she tapered off.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Inga formed her hand into a funnel around her ear.


    Aster''s face grew red and she cast about for a distraction. Her eyes landed on the wooden cat. ¡°Where¡¯s Kristinn?¡±


    ¡°Dead.¡± Inga¡¯s expression darkened.


    ¡°But¡ª but, his cat¡ª¡±


    Inga bit off Aster¡¯s words with her own. ¡°I take care of Alf now.¡± She turned her head to the cat perched on her shoulder and pet him.


    Aster glanced towards the pyre and the shape atop it. ¡°Is that..?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not him,¡± Inga said, stomping her staff on the ground. ¡°My husband died four months ago.¡±


    ¡°Inga¡ª I¡¯m so so¡ª¡±


    ¡°Enough!¡± Inga shouted. The sudden outburst made Isaac¡¯s heart jump. Aster slipped into a fighting stance. ¡°Now what do you want, girl.¡± The venom in Inga¡¯s voice made Aster flinch. ¡°Hm? Out with it.¡±


    Aster straightened from her stance in one slow movement, as if to pretend she¡¯d never been startled in the first place. She gestured to Isaac with a nod. ¡°I need you to use your power on him.¡± Her voice sounded cold and calculated, not at all like someone asking for a favor.


    Inga angled her head to one side. She both acted and sounded like a cat. ¡°Now why would I do that?¡±


    ¡°I¡ª I¡¯ll speak to Tejahl on your behalf. Make her send some guards.¡±


    ¡°Come one now, girl, don¡¯t be so naive. Tejahl is done for. Both of her squads wiped out in two days.¡± Inga barked a short, bitter laugh. ¡°Tejahl won¡¯t ever help us now, because she can¡¯t help us. No one can. We will face Kin Tao¡¯s golden soldiers on our own.¡±


    ¡°If Chaaron joins with Kin Tao, there¡¯s¡ª¡±


    Inga took three short steps and before Isaac could blink she stood almost nose to nose with Aster. ¡°If Chaaron dares come here again I¡¯ll tell her the same thing I told her last time.¡±


    Aster looked very pale all of a sudden, but her voice didn¡¯t let on anything but supreme confidence. ¡°If what you say is true and Tejahl really is done for, then I will go to her, defeat her, and take back my key.¡±


    Inga¡¯s eyes widened and a hush fell over the crowd.


    ¡°Once I have my key back I¡¯ll return to you. I¡¯ll help protect you.¡±


    A smidge of something Isaac thought must be respect showed in Inga¡¯s expression. ¡°How could you possibly win against Tejahl.¡± Despite her words Isaac heard more hope than challenge in Inga¡¯s voice.


    Two white discs of resonance formed from each of Aster¡¯s hands, she angled the disks down and her feet left the ground for a second before she let the discs dissipate. ¡°I know I can. The only reason I haven¡¯t done so sooner was because Ronan and Chaaron always made sure they were present whenever I met with Tejahl.¡± Isaac had to admit, it was a very impressive display, and judging by the crowd, the theatrics had worked.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Inga looked Aster over for several seconds. She glanced once at Isaac. ¡°Deal.¡± She held her hand out to Isaac. ¡°Give me one of your keys.¡±


    Isaac ruffled his hair. ¡°Eh, well, about that¡ª¡±


    Aster broke him off. ¡°We¡¯re not really sure how it happened, but he has a strange golem that has swallowed both of his keys.¡±


    Many in the crowd laughed, even Inga smiled ruefully. ¡°You fool boy, don¡¯t you know to never give your familiar all of your keys?¡±


    ¡°Ehm, I¡ª well that¡¯s to say, it happened by accident.¡± Isaac felt dumber by the second.


    ¡°Well? Where is it?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s waiting outside the gate.¡±


    ¡°Call it here.¡±


    Isaac yelled for Dwayne and he could hear the giant of a gargoyle moving towards them. He hadn¡¯t realized just how loud Dwayne was, he would have to remember that. Aster had calmed a bit. Seeing that made Isaac relax, so it seemed they had succeeded in getting what they had come for. Aster had agreed to fight this Tejahl woman and Isaac would probably have to come along for that too. Perhaps he could convince Aster to steal the key back rather than fight for it.


    ¡°What are familiars, Inga? I¡¯ve never heard of them before.¡±


    Inga snorted. ¡°No, you wouldn¡¯t have. They are exceedingly rare. I only know of three people who have one, my husband and that wretched Kin Tao.¡± She spat the last two words out as if they were a curse. A realization came over her and her voice grew solemn. ¡°Well, my husband used to have one, I guess I should be counting myself from now on.¡± She peered at the wooden cat with a destitute longing in her eyes.


    Aster brushed hair away from her face. ¡°Kin Tao has one?¡± Inga nodded. ¡°But, if Kristinn is dead, how is his familiar still here?¡±


    ¡°A familiar carries a part of your soul, when you first use the familiar key it takes after half of your personality and soul to grow into a creature based on its aspect.¡±


    ¡°But what do they do? Seems to me they are more trouble than they are worth. Isaac¡¯s creature swallowed his key and now we can¡¯t get it back.¡± Isaac nodded in agreement. He could see Dwayne round the corner and he heard gasps from the crowd. Someone shouted. Perhaps he had been right to make Dwayne wait outside after all.


    ¡°Oh, they can be a source of weakness, that¡¯s true, but they can also be your greatest ally if you use them right.¡±


    ¡°How do you use them right? And you said you knew of three people who had one, yet you¡¯ve only named two, who¡¯s the third?¡±


    Inga¡¯s face soured and she waved her hand through the air and opened her mouth as if about to tell her off, but then her eyes widened and her staff clattered to the ground. ¡°By the gods!¡± She cursed a long string of what sounded like obscenities in a language Isaac couldn¡¯t place. Dwayne moved into the courtyard, he seemed wary of the reactions to his entrance. Inga¡¯s voice caught and she staggered, clutching her chest.


    She whirled around and faced Isaac with an icy stare. ¡°You!¡± she said, steel in her voice. ¡°Where did you find this key?¡±


    Isaac felt a creeping panic set in as if he was locked in a small room and the walls closed in on him. The pyre with the cloth covered shape atop it seemed to grow in his mind, larger and larger out of the crowd until it filled his whole line of sight. ¡°I¡ª uh¡ª that¡¯s to say, I found it.¡±


    Inga screamed. ¡°WHERE?!¡±


    Isaac jumped. ¡°I¡ª I¡ª in the river, I found it in the river.¡±


    Inga didn¡¯t listen. She started wailing and staggered towards Dwayne with her arms outstretched, muttering ¡°my child, oh my dear child!¡± through sobs. She reminded Isaac of a toddler crying out for its mom.


    Isaac bumped into someone. He hadn¡¯t realized he¡¯d been backing up. He turned and found the large man with rock in place of skin standing there. The man flexed his arms and he shouted at Isaac. ¡°Did you kill it? Did you kill his familiar?¡± He had a very strong scandinavian accent.


    ¡°No! It was just a key! It called out to me!¡± The dots connected in his mind through a sudden rush of inspiration. The pyre, the small shape, the voice in the rain, the rock aspects of Inga¡¯s other children. ¡°Your son called to me!¡± he shouted at Inga, ignoring the brute in front of him. If he could convince her, perhaps they could survive this.

 35. The Shape On The Pyre, pt. 5

    Inga continued to wail, but the brute hesitated. ¡°What?¡±


    Isaac pointed to the pyre. ¡°That¡¯s your son right? He spoke to me, before I found the key, I heard the voices from the void and I could understand one of them.¡± Isaac¡¯s mind raced, the people in the courtyard moved one by one to surround them. ¡°It was a young boy, clear as day.¡±


    The giant man stepped closer. ¡°You lie.¡±


    ¡°No! It¡¯s the truth, I swear.¡±


    ¡°Magnus did not know English. He was too young.¡±


    ¡°What? But¡ª¡± Isaac¡¯s confidence faltered. Then what had he heard?


    Aster moved to keep the people from getting behind her but Inga¡¯s daughters moved to block her. She faced them head on. Feathers sprouted from all over her skin. Her fists clenched. ¡°Back. OFF!¡± Two large shockwaves burst out from her and the other women jumped back in alarm. They surveyed her warily from a distance but didn¡¯t move to block her off again.


    They were afraid of her, Isaac realized. Even Inga had stopped crying long enough to keep tabs on Aster. What kind of person could put such fear into the hearts of a whole village?


    This would explode like a pressure cooker if Isaac didn¡¯t do something. He only had one road left to go down. ¡°Magnus told me to look for the tower!¡± he shouted at Inga.


    She whipped her gaze back to him with a sharp motion. ¡°What did you say?¡±


    ¡°He told me to find the tower where it all started.¡±


    Some rapid exchanges went between Inga and her older son. If Isaac guessed right, the large man didn¡¯t believe him. But something he¡¯d said had sparked a memory in Inga.


    Aster moved closer to Isaac and Inga. She kept her feathers out still and they made her look like something out of a horror story. Isaac noticed for the first time that the whites of her eyes had turned black. The dark edges made her stare look quite menacing. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this. Inga, will you do it or not?¡±


    ¡°Why do you have my son¡¯s familiar!¡±


    ¡°There was no familiar! I found the key in the river, I swear!¡± Isaac said.


    The giant of man behind him rumbled his disapproval. ¡°Or did you find a weakened familiar and decided one small sin couldn¡¯t outweigh the benefit?¡±


    ¡°No! I would never¡ª it was a key! A voice spoke to me and so I followed it!¡±


    Inga scoughed. ¡°A likely story. How could you bond with a key that fast, you must¡¯ve transferred the familiar to you.¡±


    ¡°Transfer? I don¡¯t even know how I would do that!¡±


    Aster made a frustrated noise. ¡°Inga, would you listen to me?¡±


    The old woman crossed her arms. ¡°The familiar stays with us.¡±


    ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake! Forget about the familiar! Would you use your power on him already?¡±


    Inga¡¯s face turned red. ¡°Thor¡¯s hammer! Will you leave it be, girl? Stop pestering me!¡± The wooden cat on her shoulder hissed. It sounded like a rocking chair.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Isaac angled himself between the two women and held his hands up to mollify them. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Aster means well.¡± Isaac hesitated. He might be pushing it considering the tense situation but he couldn¡¯t make himself give up on the chance to learn more about Finn. ¡°She just wants you to find my brother on my behalf. Perhaps we could come to some sort of arrangement?¡±


    Inga grimaced. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Maybe Dwayne can stay here with you while me and Aster go and get my brother. You get to keep your son¡¯s familiar, I get my brother, and once we¡¯ve gotten Aster¡¯s key we can all return here and defend this place. What do you say?¡±


    Inga looked very confused. She turned to Aster, then back to Isaac. ¡°You foolish boy, I don¡¯t find people.¡±


    Isaac stammered. ¡°But¡ª Aster said¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true, I see the people connected to your key. Your family.¡± Inga sighed. ¡°But I don¡¯t see where they are. I merely see that they are there.¡±


    ¡°Wait what?¡± Aster didn¡¯t look sheepish or guilty or even sorry, she looked angry. ¡°Did you know this?¡±


    ¡°She knows of my powers, yes.¡± Inga joined Isaac in scowling at Aster.


    ¡°Of course I knew, that was the whole point of coming here.¡±


    A coldness seeped through Isaac. ¡°Then you lied. Why?¡±


    ¡°You know what, I¡¯ve had it with carrying you through every damn situation. From now on you¡¯re on your own.¡±


    Isaac shook his head as if to clear up his ears. ¡°I carried you out of that church.¡±


    ¡°Yeah? But not before knocking me over into a flying rock.¡±


    The indignation entered Isaac almost like a physical force. ¡°If I had let you stand where you were Crassus would¡¯ve ripped you apart! I knocked you out of the way. I saved your fucking life!¡±


    ¡°The only thing you saved is yourself, Isaac. You¡¯re too weak to save anyone else. Just admit it, your brother is dead. If I hadn¡¯t been there you¡¯d been dead the second you arrived. Think about for two seconds and you know I¡¯m right.¡±


    ¡°Oh look who¡¯s acting all high and mighty now! You don¡¯t care about me at all, so don¡¯t pretend you¡¯re some saint for saving my skin. The only thing you want is my key, I¡¯ve figured out that much. I may be weak but I¡¯m not stupid.¡±


    ¡°Huh, could¡¯ve fooled me.¡±


    Isaac clenched and unclenched his fist several times. He knew he should be scared but the fog of anger made it difficult to care about anything other than the mental image of punching Aster¡¯s stupid face in. He couldn¡¯t believe he¡¯d trusted her. He¡¯d even cared for this person!


    Birk shouted down at them from the watchtower. He spoke rapidly in his language. Isaac couldn¡¯t understand but whatever he said it sure got a reaction out of everyone else. Inga, who seconds before had seemed ready to explode, now ignored them. Several people moved towards the walls. Some of the other younger kids climbed Birk¡¯s tower as well.


    ¡°What¡¯s happened? Inga?¡± Aster shouted at Inga¡¯s back but she got no answer.


    Isaac took the distraction when it was offered to him. He¡¯d never liked being angry. He gestured to Dwayne and the enormous creature picked him up with a hand the size of a man-hole. He climbed up the hand onto Dwayne¡¯s back and pointed in the direction of the wall.


    Others in front of them had reached the wall now and they spoke between themselves with agitated motions. They shouted back to the other people down in the courtyard who couldn¡¯t see. At least three languages were being spoken, none of them English, but one word stuck out like a beacon: Chaaron. Isaac felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.


    He cleared the rubble making up the base of the wall by using Dwayne¡¯s arm as an improvised ladder. He stepped onto the tallest part of the wall and stared out over the landscape beneath the hill. Except there was no landscape to be seen.


    ¡°Not this shit again.¡±


    Isaac followed the poison clouds with his eyes all around the horizon. The clouds stretched from the base of the hill to several miles out in every direction. As far as he could tell, they were completely surrounded. Just one small gap about a couple hundred yards across stood clear of the poison gases.


    In that gap, Isaac saw the sun reflect off the golden armor of countless soldiers. A huge golem rose up from between them, it carried a man in its hand, and even from that far away, Isaac was sure beyond a shred of a doubt that the man was laughing.

 36. The Battle For Heimgaard

    <h3 style="text-align: center">Chapter Nine


    The Battle For Heimgaard


    Aster bit her lip. Not only had this trainwreck of a person she¡¯d somehow bound herself to managed to lock away his key inside his familiar. But now he¡¯d also managed to bait them into a trap the likes of which she never could¡¯ve believed to be possible. There was no way out.


    ¡°No, no, no, this can¡¯t be right,¡± Isaac muttered beside her. She felt like throwing him off the wall, but no doubt that sycophant of a rock he had down below would catch him. Rocky appeared to be just as obsessed with Isaac as Isaac himself was with Finn. In that way they deserved each other.


    She¡¯d hoped Inga would use her power and deliver the news that any right-minded person would¡¯ve realized by themselves ages ago. Surviving the endpoint was an anomaly, not the norm. Isaac¡¯s brother was dead. If she hadn¡¯t heard of him then he hadn¡¯t survived, it was that simple. But the man simply refused to listen!


    She glared at him, and she really would have pushed him off the wall then, but the shock of what she saw before her kept her from acting.


    Chaaron. She shivered. The things she¡¯d seen that woman do, they defied all logic. How had both her and Ronan managed to lose against Crassus? Had they started infighting? Crassus was strong, she¡¯d never deny that, but there had to be a limit to how many people one person could fight at one time and still come out on top.


    Aster sawed her lip back and forth between her teeth. Agnes had been unharmed, and she¡¯d arrived before them, that fact worried her. She must¡¯ve ran for Heimgaard the moment the fighting broke out, but why? Perhaps more of Chaaron¡¯s group had defected as well, at least that could help explain why they¡¯d lost. The problem with that theory though was that Ronan would never let someone defect, she knew that much personally. Something didn¡¯t add up. The only person who could¡¯ve defected without Ronan¡¯s approval, was Chaaron, and indeed so she had. The proof of that lay right in front of her.


    Chaaron and Kin Tao¡¯s golden platoon, cooperating. It had to be some sick joke. They¡¯d spent the last ten years fighting each other only to now put that behind them? No, there had to be something she could use there. More golden soldiers had died by Chaaron¡¯s hand than anyone else, including Tejahl herself.


    Aster squinted. The soldiers were led by that bumbling fool, Augustin. She¡¯d had always thought he was too dumb to lead anyone, much less an entire army. But she couldn¡¯t deny that the man was strong. In particular that golem of his, would pose a problem. She¡¯d seen Augustin fight before, he used his soldiers and his giant golem as a slow moving formation that served as a foundation that protected him while he stood on top of the golem and sent out short to medium ranged attacks with his extending sword. It looked ridiculous, much like the man himself, but it did work.


    The golem reminded Aster of Rocky. Maybe Isaac¡¯s new familiar could be their ticket out of this. She looked at the rock creature below. Two large eyes moped at her. He acted like an oversized puppy. Still, despite the pathetic demeanor, he appeared strong enough.


    ¡°Do you think we could make Rocky throw some rocks at them? We should test how they react.¡±


    Isaac didn¡¯t answer. He sat cross legged on the wall, eyes closed.


    ¡°Hey!¡± She shoved him with one foot.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    He toppled over and gasped like he¡¯d been submerged in cold water. ¡°Would you stop that? I¡¯m not talking to you, now kindly fuck off.¡±


    ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡±


    He returned to his cross legged sitting position and scowled at her. ¡°I¡¯m trying to map out where everyone is.¡±


    Aster raised her eyebrows. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°By listening to the voices from their keys of course! If I have this stuff figured out then I thought you of all people would have as well.¡±


    ¡°You idiot. You only hear the keys that are synchronized to you.¡±


    That made him pause. ¡°You do?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Now if you haven¡¯t noticed we¡¯re in the middle of a siege here. If you want to storm off in indignation to pout then you can do so after you¡¯ve helped me survive this.¡±


    ¡°But I can hear all of them. Everytime I go into the void there¡¯s hundreds of voices shouting at me.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re sure that¡¯s not just you being crazy?¡±


    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m serious here, I really can hear them!¡±


    Aster crossed her arms across her stomach. ¡°Alright, then tell me where in those clouds Chaaron is and I¡¯ll kill her right now.¡±


    Isaac didn¡¯t answer, he just closed his eyes. Aster waited. His eyebrows tensed as if he had a nightmare. She leaned closer, putting her face in front of his until they almost touched.


    ¡°Well?¡±


    His eyes opened. ¡°I¡ª I can¡¯t hear her. There¡¯s no voices coming from the clouds.¡±


    ¡°See? I told you. You only hear the keys that are synchronized to you, and even then, if someone else is using that key you can only hear it when they¡¯re asleep.¡±


    ¡°But I heard Crassus¡¯s keys! That¡¯s how I knew he was coming.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you didn¡¯t just hear the vibrations from his footsteps, he¡¯s not exactly quiet you know.¡±


    ¡°Then how come you didn¡¯t hear them yourself, you¡¯ve got way better instincts than me.¡±


    Aster didn¡¯t know how to rebuke that argument, so she stayed silent.


    Isaac¡¯s face brightened. ¡°Oh!¡± He fumbled with his coat, then drew out a set of two silver keys.


    ¡°Where did you get those?¡±


    Isaac ignored her. ¡°If what you say is true and the voices means I¡¯m synchronized with the keys, that should mean I can use these!¡± He held them tight in his hand and before Aster could warn him, he closed his eyes. Aster held her breath.


    Nothing happened.


    Isaac made a frustrated sound. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, why doesn¡¯t it work?¡±


    Aster almost felt bad for him. Almost. ¡°Are you done fucking around?¡±


    Isaac scowled at her. That was fine by her. He could be as angry as he wanted, it made no difference.


    ¡°Get rocky down there to throw some rocks at Augustin, alright? No more experiments.¡±


    He stood up and surveyed the poison clouds below them. His eyes lingered on the golden soldiers.


    ¡°I need someone to distract them while I try to pick off some stragglers.¡±


    He swiveled around and searched the crowds inside the walls. This time it was Inga he focused on.


    ¡°You¡¯re not listening are you?¡±


    He wasn¡¯t listening.


    ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake, Isaac, we¡¯re going to die, do you realize that?¡±


    He motioned to Rocky and a massive hand reached up to the wall. He walked onto the hand. ¡°They¡¯ll attack us any second now. You stay on the wall and defend it.¡±


    Aster couldn¡¯t believe the gall of that man. Strutting around, giving orders to her. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna stay on the wall. The first thing Augustin¡¯s going to do is to swipe everyone off it.¡±


    Isaac waved away her concerns. ¡°Then stay in the air, I don¡¯t care, just defend the wall, you¡¯re the combat expert here. Make sure no one gets over it.¡±


    She prepared a few well chosen string of words to let him know just how much she thought of his so-called plan, but he was gone.


    Birk¡¯s shrill voice carried over the cacophony of panicked voices below. ¡°They¡¯re coming!¡±

 37. The Battle For Heimgaard, pt. 2

    Aster cursed. She called to her keys and she felt her skin prickle. She made sure her iron key connected to her feather key. A number of people jumped up on the wall beside her.


    ¡°Fall back!¡± she screamed, ¡°stay off the wall until I say so.¡±


    The villagers hesitated, but stepped down one by one. She couldn¡¯t remember most of them, but they must¡¯ve heard the stories about her, for they showed her a quiet respect in the way no one even questioned her reasoning. For once the rumors proved useful.


    Isaac and Inga argued with each other, the old woman shook her head several times and held out a flat hand as if to signal Isaac to stop. She couldn¡¯t hear anything over the loud ruckus of a whole village preparing for battle at a mere minutes notice.


    She couldn¡¯t make out the argument but she did notice the thrumming sound of footsteps interspersed with the crashing noises of Augusteen¡¯s golem. The nervousness she always experienced before a battle returned in full force.


    She readied herself again, checking and rechecking the iron armament key. It was there. The feathers felt heavy on her skin and she felt the sweat glide down the stilks and pool at the edges. She turned and faced the oncoming mass of gold and dust.


    She paid the soldiers no mind, they were no threat to her, not as long as she could jump away. She only had eyes for Augusteen. He stood on the top of his golem, the furthest away from the wall. She could barely make out the details of his pommel, he was so far away, but she didn¡¯t let that reassure her. She knew what Augusteen was capable of.


    Sure enough, his hand flickered and the sword in his hand struck out with the motion. It would¡¯ve looked odd to attempt a slash from that far away, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to throw the sword far enough, much less strike with it, but then the blade extended in the blink of an eye.


    Right before the halfway mark of the arc, the blade shot out like a telescoping rod, much faster than Aster had anticipated. Her body dropped backwards even before her mind had registered what had happened and she watched the golden blade blur the air above her where her head had been a fraction of a second before.


    She channeled the power of her gravity key and her weight cut to a tenth of her usual footprint. Two large shockwaves blossomed beneath her palms into the ground as she shoved against them and propelled herself into the air just in time for Augusteen¡¯s next strike to pass under her.


    Her body moved on its own, she didn¡¯t have to think, she just acted. And that was a very good thing for the whooshing noise Augusteen¡¯s sword made as it cut through the air sent her mind into panic.


    Years of practice wouldn¡¯t let her mind sabotage her survival however, and she reversed the shockwaves throwing her back down to the earth again. Augusteen¡¯s third strike split the air above her.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    She touched down on the wall and then the soldiers were upon her. She wanted to jump away, her panicked mind screamed at her that Augusteen would strike again any second. She didn¡¯t know if he would risk hitting his own soldiers. He didn¡¯t seem like someone who would do that kind of thing. On the other hand, he did seem like someone who might think himself good enough to thread the needle.


    It didn¡¯t matter. She couldn¡¯t let the soldiers get down to the courtyard. If they did the village would be overrun and she would die or get captured with them. She didn¡¯t have the option to glide away like she usually did when things got too hot. Chaaron was such a pain in the ass.


    She used the sudden flare of anger to burn away the panic. She sent two volleys of feathers into the soldiers by throwing a hand out to either side. There were so many of them she didn¡¯t need to aim and they had also been so kind as to arrange themselves in two neat little lines along the wall.


    The feathers thunked against the golden armor and inflicted superficial wounds at best but most of them lost their footing and the rest got distracted long enough to get nailed by the hail of projectiles coming from the courtyard.


    It wasn¡¯t enough though, not by a long shot. The soldiers created human barricades by supporting each other from getting knocked off the wall by the furious effort of the villagers in the courtyard.


    It dawned on Aster what an unstoppable warmachine Augusteen had assembled. He¡¯d perfectly stitched together a group to shore up his own weaknesses. Now with the addition of Chaaron they were the perfect unit to lay down a siege.


    Her two greatest weapons, her feathers and her resonance, were completely negated by the golden armor and that oversized golem in turn. She couldn¡¯t penetrate the armor and as long as that golem was there she couldn¡¯t close in on Augusteen himself without getting crushed. If only she would¡¯ve still had her gold key. She cursed the day she had ever first heard the name ¡®Tejahl¡¯.


    As it was, she needed the other villagers if she¡¯d have any hope of pushing the soldiers off the wall. If they managed to succeed however, Augusteen would swipe them into submission and they¡¯d be worse off than before from the losses. She needed to keep him occupied somehow. Her only option was to challenge him head on. She¡¯d rather step off a cliff than jump out into the open again, but she didn¡¯t have much choice. Isaac was right, they had to hold the wall, it was the only advantage they had.


    She breathed in, steeled her nerves, and launched herself into the air.


    No sooner had she done so than a blade sang through the air at her. She accelerated by blasting four explosions, one from each limb, and she cleared the attack.


    She channeled her gravity key for all she was worth and she hung in the air as the friction of the air slowed her ascent. She prepared every feather she could muster. She ran out of open skin and she heard her clothing tear from the feathers searching for an open spot.


    She soared over the village and she registered in the back of her mind the true extent of Chaaron¡¯s gas clouds. There was so much of it. Chaaron produced more mass in a day than ten normal people put together. It never ceased to amaze Aster just how much one person could manage alone with the help of the keys.


    Somewhere in those clouds that reached in every direction for miles, Chaaron sat hiding. If only they could find her somehow, then Aster could take the fight to her directly and this whole battle would¡¯ve been a lot easier.


    Augusteen¡¯s sword sliced through the air and she had to twist her upper body into an obscene angle to keep her head on her shoulders. Only the spatial awareness from her bronze key enabled her to react in time. The blade cut the feathers on her stomach in half and the air filled with fluttering fragments.

 38. The Battle For Heimgaard, pt. 3

    She used the momentum from the impact to twist around in the air and she let loose a small volley as she wound back around.


    Despite the small number of feathers the golem closed in on its master, shielding him. Good, that was the opening Aster needed.


    With a quick motion she snapped her gravity silver key off her keychain and clicked it onto her iron armament key which in turn hung from her feather projectile key.


    Her hold on gravity vanished the moment she removed the gravity key but she just let herself fall towards earth. She flicked off the remaining feathers on her arms into an upwards arc. She waited a few seconds, then she ripped out the halved feathers on her stomach and threw them herself into the same arc as the previous feathers. They¡¯d probably start spinning and veer off course on the way down but it would have to do.


    She used every ounce of concentration she had in aiming true. If she did this right, Augusteen would have a continuous hail of iron tipped feathers raining down on him. The feathers would spend just that extra bit of time at the precipice of the arc because of the gravity key she¡¯d just connected to them, before they fell back down. Perhaps Augusteen¡¯s copious golem really was impenetrable, that wouldn¡¯t stop Aster from exploiting its strength, namely its massive bulk, as a weakness.


    She threw the last of her feathers just as she touched ground. She kicked the footing out under a soldier and sent him sprawling over the wall. She filled her lungs with air to the breaking point, swiveled towards the villagers in the courtyard and screamed.


    ¡°NOW!¡±


    The inhabitants of Heimgaard moved as one large wave of motion turning the tide of the battle.


    Aster punctuated the counter-attack herself by blasting the two closest soldiers with a shockwave of resonance each. The two unfortunate souls watched her with dumb expressions as their keys flew out the back of their armor and clattered down the wall. Her use of resonance made the other soldiers nearby shy away from her. Even if the armor they¡¯d received from Augusteen still remained intact the prospect of losing one''s keys was more than most were willing to risk.


    She knew from Tejahl that most of the soldiers used animal aspected growth keys for the inherent strength granted from them. Without the added strength to use the armor offensively, they stood little chance against the varied powers of the villagers. For some reason Kin Tao was reputedly very stingy with his silver keys and preferred to only give out bronze keys to his followers.


    The lines of gold atop the wall were soon replaced with the beige and brown colors of the villagers. The soldier¡¯s formations buckled in a dozen places within just a couple seconds. The rocks beneath Aster¡¯s feet grew slippery and she struggled to stay upright. The air grew stale and warm. She breathed in huge gulps between each movement gliding from attack to defense and back to attack again.


    Then there were no soldiers close enough to attack and she let up, finally able to breathe properly again. Her mind registered dully that if there were no more soldiers then Augusteen would attack again soon. She needed to distract him again, or their counter-attack would backfire.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    A huge shadow fell over her. She didn¡¯t take the time to look up, instead she blasted off to one side, gaining speed so fast her sight darkened for a brief moment. Augusteen¡¯s golem landed next to the wall and it punched through the top part of the wall and rocks the size of her head sprayed into the courtyard, killing in swathes.


    Augusteen landed on top of the golem¡¯s head one second later. His blade swiped out and a line of villagers dropped. The battle turned around in just three seconds. The villagers closest to the golem panicked and ran into the other people in the courtyard, turning it into a frothing mass of chaos and confusion.


    Inga¡¯s eldest son slammed his fists into the earth and a wall of granite sprouted out from the broken hole in the battlements. The golem punched again and forced another wall to be made further back to keep a repeat of the earlier slaughter from happening again. They were losing ground by the second. Soldiers poured in from the opening by the golem and the battle resumed in the courtyard.


    Aster landed next to Inga¡¯s son and fought the tide of soldiers on the right side of his newest wall inside the courtyard while he took the left hand side.


    Augusteen swiped down a second swathe of defenders through the courtyard but then moved to defend himself as Inga¡¯s eldest daughter sent the tiny planets circling around her at him one by one.


    Aster stepped out of the range of three spear wielding soldiers who charged her. She flung an arc of feathers at their visors. One soldier went down clutching his helmet but the remaining two closed in. She blasted off an explosion to one side but she barely moved. She didn¡¯t even clear the ground. Her gravity key still hung from the projectile key! She¡¯d never connected it back to her chain.


    The two soldiers thrust forward as one with a practiced motion. The spear heads blurred. They trailed her stumbling motion and she used that fact to her advantage by stopping her motion with two large shockwaves of resonance. The unexpected stop made the spears graze her hip rather than skewer her through.


    The two men bumped into one another in their eagerness to take down Aster, making their follow-up awkward. Aster had stopped her forward momentum but sacrificed her footing to do so. Rather than fighting the inevitable she leaned into the motion and rolled over the retreating spears.


    She whirled around once she regained her footing to resume the fight but the soldiers had disappeared in a shower of rock. Augusteen¡¯s golem had stepped through the breach and now hammered the secondary wall inside the courtyard. Still acting on instinct Aster shot a volley of feathers at its eyes but the golem ignored her attack and sent a boulder sailing through the air in return.


    She reacted without thinking by sending herself up into the air with two huge discs of light beneath her feet and realized too late that she wouldn¡¯t make it. She hung helpless and exposed in the air and without her gravity key all the resonance in the world wouldn¡¯t be enough to get her out of the way.


    Isaac crashed into her and tackled her to the ground. The boulder smashed into the dirt behind them. Isaac¡¯s familiar thundered up to Augusteen¡¯s golem which punched at the intruder. Rocky caught the punch in his paw-like fist and locked onto the golem¡¯s shoulder with the other. The two creatures trashed in a brief stale-mate but the golem appeared to be the one being pushed back the most.


    The ground shook from the giant feet fighting for the superior foothold. Every other combatant, be it golden soldier or villager, gave the two of them a wide berth.


    The golem tried to twist its locked arm out from the familiar¡¯s hold on its shoulder to punch at him but Rocky thwarted it at its every attempt. The familiar had the golem beat in both agility and strength.


    The struggle reached the wall and the golem stopped the advance by securing its feet in the rubble. Rocky let out a series of frustrated sounds that sounded a lot like rocks smashed by a hammer.

 39. The Battle For Heimgaard, pt. 4

    Isaac disentangled himself from Aster, jumped up and shouted at the familiar.


    ¡°Use your horns! Your horns! Cave his fucking face in!¡±


    Rocky tilted his head back, growled at his adversary, then pounced forward. Chips of gold scattered, the golem staggered, stunned. The familiar didn¡¯t let up, he smashed his horns into the golem¡¯s face again and again.


    The golem attempted to get away from the relentless dismantling of its face but Rocky followed it every step of the way up to the breach in the wall.


    ¡°Kick him! Kick him the fuck out!¡± Isaac stood jumping and screaming until he reddened in the face, not paying any attention to the rest of the fighting going on around him.


    The familiar once again responded without delay. He let go of the golem, who staggered back, too pummeled to respond. He jumped up and caught onto the edges of the breach, flexed his arms and swivelled forward with his hind legs and kicked the golem square of its feet.


    Aster heard the crashes of the golem tumbling down the hill. The courtyard erupted into cheers and the villagers surged forward. She struggled to take in what she had just witnessed. Just how strong was this familiar? Rocky didn¡¯t move according to his size at all.


    Isaac whistled at the familiar and he came bounding over in just two leaps. Isaac grasped onto the hand that the creature offered him but turned to help Aster up first.


    ¡°We¡¯ll provide the distraction, you provide the cover fire! Once we have his full attention, you come in from behind and finish it!¡± He had to shout over the celebrations of the villagers in their renewed vigor to throw out the remaining invaders. ¡°Okay?¡±


    Aster felt blindsided, everything moved so fast, her heart beat so fast that each pulse blurred into the next. A searing pain in her chest accompanied the acidic feeling in her stomach. The light hurt her eyes.


    ¡°Aster? Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, I¡¯m fine.¡± She struggled to a standing position.


    ¡°Right. I¡¯m off then. Remember, come in behind him and finish it once he¡¯s occupied with us, but be quick about it, I don¡¯t think we can hold on for too long.¡± He hoisted himself up onto the familiar¡¯s shoulders with the help of a rocky hand.


    Aster felt dizzy. What was Isaac talking about? ¡°Who are we attacking again?¡± she asked him.


    Isaac pointed at Augusteen. ¡°Him.¡±


    ¡°Wait, Isaac, no!¡± Aster shouted at him, but it was too late, he¡¯d already gone, riding off towards Augusteen with a tremendous speed. That familiar was too good to be true. She¡¯d never seen a golem even half as strong or agile.


    She saw now why Isaac was in such a hurry. Inga¡¯s eldest daughter had started running out of planets to throw at Augusteen, she tried to create more from her hands but she showed all the most critical signs of mass fatigue; violent shakes, excessive sweating and a delirious expression on her face. Going over your mass limit felt like starving, dehydrating and overheating all at once.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Augusteen sliced any object that came his way with little apparent effort. In fact, he smiled and laughed, shouted orders and praise to his soldiers, not even paying full attention to the fight in front of him. Aster hesitated. He¡¯d just lost his golem, but he didn¡¯t even seem fazed.


    Isaac and Rocky burst into the middle of the fight, Isaac whipped his head back just in time to make Rocky weave away from a planet hurtling behind them towards Augusteen. Inga¡¯s daughter shouted at them to stay out of her battle but the duo ignored her.


    Augusteen slashed out a series of intricate attacks aiming for Isaac atop the familiar, but Rocky weaved and bobbed so each slice landed on his horns. Small chips of rock flew off the familiar but the creature shrugged the damage off. The familiar thundered on and seemed poised to run Augusteen through. Augusteen laughed as if this new turn of events delighted him.


    He whipped his sword around in his hand, stuck the hilt into the ground, grasped the blade and the blade shot up in the sky with Augusteen following along for the ride. The blade shrank back and Augusteen flipped the hilt back in his hand with a casual flick of his wrist.


    ¡°En garde!¡± he shouted and sliced down with a malicious gleam in his eyes.


    Isaac shouted out in surprise, being attacked from above he sat exposed, no longer protected by Rocky¡¯s curled horns. The familiar dug his heels in but their speed decelerated too late.


    Aster heard herself shout; ¡°Isaac!¡±


    Rocky twisted around at the last second and hugged Isaac tight to his underbelly. Augusteen¡¯s sword cut deep into Rocky¡¯s back and one of his tiny wings sliced clean off. The familiar cried out a heart wrenching sound but kept his limbs like a protective cocoon around Isaac. The duo rolled and skidded along the ground until they crashed into the wall on the opposite end.


    Rocky writhed and screamed in pain but Isaac rose to his feet unharmed.


    Augusteen landed next to Rocky¡¯s discarded wing. He used his extending sword to catch his fall for him. He began a casual stroll towards the wing. ¡°Oh, no no no,¡± he laughed and wagged his finger to and fro, ¡°perhaps this will teach you insolent mongrels¡­¡± he left his casual walk with a sudden burst of speed and kicked the wing several paces up in the air. ¡°...to leave my fucking golem alone!¡± He roared with a sudden anger.


    An inexplicable heat grew inside Aster¡¯s own stomach to match Augusteen¡¯s fury. Something about the way Rocky whined dug up a pain deep within her. It bubbled up to the surface and before she knew it she was screaming back at him.


    ¡°He was innocent you little shit!¡±


    Augusteen put on a shocked but mocking expression. ¡°Zhe little puppy attacked me, ¡®ow can he be innocent?¡±


    ¡°You attacked us first! He defended himself.¡±


    The golden buffoon of a man cocked his head to one side and a grin split his face. ¡°Why, but Aster, ¡®ave you gone soft for zhese interlopers? I thought you were stronger zhan zhat, Aster.¡± His ridiculous accent made her head ache.


    The soldiers had used the distraction their leader was causing to push the fight even further into the courtyard. They¡¯d now reached the pyre and Inga had joined the fighting. Inga¡¯s elder son stood surrounded by a score of soldiers, each golden clad man feinting in and out to find a weakness in the large man¡¯s defenses.


    All of these details played at the edges of Aster¡¯s mind and threatened to send her into a panic. Her body screamed for sleep. But the sight of that bumbling buffoon in front of her kicking Rocky¡¯s wing had sent her blood boiling. Like she had so many times before, she used her anger to overthrow her fear.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that sword and shove it up your ass! Let¡¯s see how much you enjoy extending it then!¡±


    ¡°Hahaha! I¡¯d like to see you try! You are too predictable, Aster. How could you ever defeat me?¡±


    Aster snapped her armament and gravity keys off with a flick of her wrist and hooked them onto the chain around her neck. She halved her weight five times over and called forth every shred of resonance she had and sent it behind her. She exploded forward like a bullet, straight for Augusteen.


    ¡°Like this!¡± She screamed.


    Augusteen balked at her suicidal charge. He hadn¡¯t expected that.