《A Martyr's Parting Cry》


 Chapter 1: The Beginning of Death

    Vail was dead.


    Not in a physical way. Nor socially, mentally, or even metaphorically. None of the standard concepts associated with the term applied, but that did not change the truth.


    Vail was dead because the world decided so.


    The impossibly dark scars stretching from thumb to mid-forearm of both hands were not something one could hide from. Despite the bright sun scorching the temple¡¯s inner sanctum, the jagged, branching marks were blacker than the deepest crypts beneath his feet. They were a perfect window to the nothingness of death. The nothingness now part of Vail.


    In the hours since he awoke from meditation, the death marks alone consumed his attention. And in that short time, they grew twice what they were. If the analogy wasn¡¯t so antithetic, Vail would compare the spread of death to a juvenile plant sprouting roots in the seedbed of his skin.


    Natural, yet ever so wrong.


    He welcomed the announcement of his death with about as much grace as anyone could expect. The destruction of finely carved marble pillars and beautiful feats of architecture would matter little with Vail no longer around to appreciate them.


    This shouldn¡¯t have happened. Vail should have had another half-dozen decades before the world noticed. His predecessors certainly had more time before the same death mark struck them. And he was on the cusp of a revelation, too. Vail just knew it.


    Now, Vail had no choice but to share his findings with those that could continue his work. Vail¡¯s time was up. No matter how frustrated he was that his time came sooner than any Academic before, he could only hope the advancements he¡¯d made could eventually lead to their freedom. If the world decided to punish him this early, then it could only mean Vail was on the right path.


    Gripping the dimensional string, Vail looped a knot around himself and teleported into the neighbouring chamber. There were no doors in this temple. None besides himself or the other Academics were welcome, and the easiest way to keep the unwanted out was to make passage impossible.


    Vail donned a coat and pulled on a thick pair of leather gloves to hide the dark scars, but the instant they settled in place, death spread. Any material obscuring the blackness withered and rot before his eyes. The world marred Vail for his defiance, and all who saw would know.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Tossing the gloves, he left the tattered sleeves of the coat as they were and teleported down into the upper crypts, where he released all the living test subjects back into the wild. Preferably, Vail would have had someone to leave all his in-progress experiments to. But of the three he know to be capable enough to take over his work, none could do so in the next few years. They had their own research to complete.


    The experiments in the lower crypts could stay where they were. Most of those would survive a decade left untouched, and those that wouldn¡¯t¡­ well, it was a good thing they were so deep beneath the surface.


    With another elegant weave of the dimensional string, Vail appeared outside the temple. The land, which had been little more than a desert wasteland when Vail had been a child, now homed a flourishing rainforest. Massive trees grew over long abandoned sandstone buildings and through ancient paved roads.


    The temple itself was massive and stood centred in the forgotten city. A true relic of the first generations to arrive. One that Vail had marred ever since he returned and reformed it into something better suited to his study of the dimensional string.


    A quarter of the sky held the fractured remnants of the planet Vail¡¯s ancestors once called home. Now, only a ball of magma and a ring of orbiting debris stood to remind them of the prosperous land they once inhabited. A constant warning that this moon beneath their feet was not their sanctuary. It was their prison.


    With Vail¡¯s death already a truth, there was no longer a need to be concerned with repercussions. He gripped the dimensional string. With careful movements, Vail threaded it into a rope longer than one limited to the natural plane could reasonably conceive, and connected it to the planet one-point-three-nine degrees below the brightest star of the southern sky.


    The location of their salvation was something they¡¯d known since before they¡¯d abandoned their planet, but actually reaching it remained impossible.


    Vail¡¯s rope stretched impossible distances in an instant. Light itself would quiver in envy of such speed. But as his rope connected and a momentary sensation of the planet plump with soulstones rippled back to Vail, the rope severed. In the sky above, a shimmering aurora shattered the image of the stars and planet beyond.


    The world¡¯s loathsome, gorgeous cage showed itself.


    Colourful strands of light lingered for the next few minutes, and when they were gone, nothing remained to indicate its presence. The original tragedy, and every subsequent attempt to fly into space had resulted the same; a terrible crash. Every ship or primitive rocket sent to reach orbit had slammed into that barrier. Nothing could penetrate it.


    But Vail still believed there was a way. Vail, and every other Academic, dedicated their lives to the freedom and survival of their people. The world had decided he was now dead. Before this dead man could no longer speak, he would spread the knowledge that would save his kind.

 Chapter 2: The Spread of Death

    Vail appeared waist-deep in ice cold water.


    The sudden change in temperature sent an unrestrained jolt through his body. In an instant, Vail was submerged. He waved his arms around in an unflattering display of dis-coordination, before finally pulling his head back above the chilly waves.


    With a deep gulp of air, Vail hissed out a curse. It had been so long since he¡¯d come to visit his friend, that he had forgotten the wreckage of the colony ship resting beneath the lake. Large masses of soulstone tended to attract the dimensional string intensely. Vail¡¯s teleport had been pulled off-mark.


    Temporarily tying another string around himself ¡ª this time far looser of a knot ¡ª Vail reappeared with dry stone beneath his feet. He was still dripping, but at least the freezing water was gone. Vail noted with a detached curiosity cultivated by a long career, that any of the liquid that slid over his death-marks disappeared. It didn¡¯t vaporise nor evaporate. Instead, every molecule was removed from existence.


    While a part of Vail demanded he explore this strange phenomenon, he couldn¡¯t escape the dread the black marks brought. His certain future. Every goal Vail had for the next decade was now unattainable. His mind, subdivided and optimised to withstand infinitely more information, struggled to overcome his regret. If only he had achieved everything sooner.


    What was worse, was that the unsightly scar grew with each moment of inaction. It stretched around Vail¡¯s wrists, not yet wrapping them entirely, but it wouldn¡¯t be long.


    Vail brushed his thumb over the soulstone embedded ring of his right index and breathed out the remaining air in his lungs. A mist surrounds him, and the drenching water strained from his clothes. In mere moments, Vail was dry.


    Dry, but no less cold.


    Around him stood a city. Though, compared to the towering behemoths he had seen through the inherited memories of his distant ancestors, the buildings surrounding the lake were closer to a child¡¯s toy-house. Stone and clay brick structures that climbed three floors at most.


    The border between city and lake wasn¡¯t well defined. In some places, walls had been built to hold back the ever-growing body of water. In others, entire city sections laid abandoned to the expanse of nature. Generations of households stood forgotten in the waters. Many had crumbled and were swallowed by the waves over time, while only the most well-built of the lot remained intact.


    Considering the lack of any standard construction material ¡ª like iron ¡ª on this rock of a moon, or the methods to refine advanced ones, this was about the best that could be achieved without stripping the ancient ships for parts.


    Vail¡¯s target ¡ª or what was supposed to have been the target of his teleport ¡ª was a large research facility that stood out amongst the primitive buildings like the splotchy regions of life do on this otherwise dusty, barren moon. Being the only structure comprised of advanced alloys, the research facility stood taller and wider than any other. But only the material and architecture could be considered aesthetic.


    Every surface exposed to air had been defaced in one way or another. Whether they be paints, rotten vegetables, or all other sorts of filth, the once gleaming material of their ancestors was now smeared and concealed.


    The sight was a disgrace.


    Vail strode through the city. His gaze not turning from the excessive act of vandalism marring one of the few great institutes remaining. Only at the heavy combined murmur of his surroundings did Vail pay attention to the citizens. All of them stared. Their eyes shifted between his old-world clothing and the mark of death that had sliced away more of his sleeves.


    This was far greater hostility than Vail had expected.


    The common man willingly allowed themselves to fall into the cycle of devolution. They had forgotten, and outright rejected the teachings of their forefathers, but never had they shown such blatant hatred for the Academics that work to save them.


    When more people gathered than Vail was comfortable being surrounded, he grew weary and teleported the remaining distance.


    This time, his aim accounted for the intense attraction applied by the soulstones, and he arrived within the main entrance chamber of the facility. This place, too, had long since sealed its doors to separate the work of the Academics from the conflicts of men.


    Yet despite that, Vail felt an unnatural breeze through the interior chambers. In addition, a foul stench lingered. Vail tapped his soulstone again, and an invisible, biochemical protection weaved into the other soulworks encasing his body. The scent disappeared.


    Could this be the result of one of Karaa¡¯s experiments? Vail hoped not. She should know how important it was to keep an isolated environment for each individual test. Not only for the sake of idealised data, but also because many of their experiments tended to be unreasonably dangerous, considering the nature of their enemy.


    But no, as Vail walked through the facility, he found that the breeze came from missing doorways. Sections of sealed walls had been completely punctured. The soot surrounding each revealed the cause of each was explosive. Whether that meant one of Karaa¡¯s experiments escaped or the source was something external¡­ Vail felt a deep pinch in his gut that something horrible happened.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Forgoing standard politeness, he teleported all across Karaa¡¯s facility. She had to be here. Val was already dead, so she needed to take his memories while he still here to hand them off. But fate is not so kind.


    Vail was dead, but apparently Karaa died first.


    He landed in Karaa¡¯s meditation chamber. The walls were smoother and more nondescript than what Vail would be comfortable sitting for weeks on end, but Karaa could always zone out easily. Vail remembered so many times where she¡¯d lost all concept of the world when in her fugue state of study.


    She was so good at forgetting her surroundings, that she took a blade through the heart without noticing.


    Karaa sat there, half decayed, in the same meditative pose Vail had held a thousand times. The blade wound was obvious, and exposed her chest. Yet she hadn¡¯t fallen. Even in death, she was dedicated to her purpose.


    Vail¡¯s knees dropped to the long dried blood crusting the floor. Two months, maybe three. Duration estimates slid through his mind, but he shook his head in disgust. Vail didn¡¯t want to know how long her body had rested in this position after having been murdered.


    The scent hit Vail all at once; his soulworks unravelled despite desperate efforts to pull it together.


    Vail heaved. Bending over, his hands landed in the crusty old blood. Vail heaved again. Nothing came out. Nothing could come out. It had been many decades since he ascended; his body no longer sustained itself from nourishment. It made no sense, but Vail continued to dry heave until he was out of breath and panting.


    Who could be so monstrous as to drive a sword through one of the few remaining people who could save mankind?


    Vail remained kneeling before his old friend for the longest time. Death had consumed her features, leaving them almost unrecognisable. Vail watched her anyway. Death continued its slow, unrelenting march, stealing away more life with each minute that passed.


    Eventually, sound beyond the subtle breeze snapped Vail from his grief. He turned at the echo of footsteps. Heavy, metallic boots clanging against the unblemished alloy surface announced the dozen men and women that entered through the broken wall behind him.


    Vail¡¯s eyes followed the sound, finding the heavy footwear covered in mud. The pristine, ivory ground now filthy with the muck they¡¯d dragged through the facility. Vail rose. The people walking towards him all wore the same carved metal suits; armour. Stark white cloth hung from their shoulders and full helms, standing out from the mud of their boots, stained knee-guards, and rusted shin plates.


    The lead ¡ª a tall man with golden lunar motifs decorating his cloth ¡ª snapped his foot to a halt. With an impressive show of coordination, the others ceased their march as one.


    ¡°I am Selenwright Craul. By the will of the Life-Giver and our Provider, your existence is sin.¡± The man¡¯s voice was powerful, clearly enhanced by forbidden technology. A colony ship had been tainted. ¡°Give yourself to us for judgement, and you may retain your dignity.¡± The man¡¯s covered eyes dropped to Vail¡¯s arms, where the mark had grown beyond his elbows. ¡°Even if you have already been judged.¡±


    ¡°Did you kill her?¡± It was the only thing Vail could consider asking. Between the criminal acts of damaging a colony ship, thievery of old world equipment, and the sacrilegious worship of humanity¡¯s nemesis; only Karaa mattered.


    ¡°Prostrate yourself to our command.¡± The felon didn¡¯t even consider Vail¡¯s words before shouting an order of his own.


    ¡°Did you kill her?¡± Vail demand. His voice slammed over them like a wave, rattling the armour of the men and women before him. The self-proclaimed Selenwright¡¯s modified voice may be strong, but anything he can do with the technology stolen from the colonyship, Vail could replicate to far greater effect with soulwork.


    Craul¡¯s eyes shifted to the decaying corpse behind Vail. ¡°She refused to submit. Now do what she failed.¡± With a single motion, he unsheathed a blade of pure soulstone to legitimise his threat.


    Vail¡¯s fists clenched as he stared at the weapon. Such a wasteful use for the resource. Almost as bad as this celestial body¡¯s unrestrained greed for it.


    Never before had Vail felt such murderous inclinations. The purpose of Academics was to achieve the deliverance of humanity via means separate from warfare. They strove to bring humanity out of the clutches of this parasitic moon, but were dedicated to keep their discoveries out of the hands of those who would use it. History had proven this was the correct path.


    But that was not to say the Academics¡¯ creations could not be deadly. No. More often than not, they could inflict terrible harm if mishandled. This had been the way even long before their planet died.


    As Vail stood before the murderers of his friend, his soulbound oaths had never felt more strained. They burned. It would be so simple to end them all. A string of dimensional thread around the brain and they¡¯d suddenly lose their most valuable organ. A single change to a couple compounds in the air, and any without protective soulwork would suffocate in a breath. Even a flashlight, if set to the right frequency sequence, could send this small crowd into a mass of seizures where they felt nothing but agony until they choked on their own tongues or their heart failed.


    There were so many innocuous little details about the universe that could be used to inflict death and suffering. And right now, Vail had to strain himself not to give into his baser desires. He had lived and researched long enough to know a dozen ways to shatter the soulbinding oaths¡­ but what would that make him? Vail¡¯s purpose was to give these people their life, not take it away. Even with his own life stripped by the most sinister of methods, Vail would not break the oaths that make him what he was.


    Craul decided he¡¯d given Vail enough time to bow before him and his insulting beliefs, and rushed forward. The others unsheathed their own weapons and fanned out at his sides.


    Vail teleported to the other side of the room to make space. Despite being crude uses of the material, the fact that they were made of soulstone meant he couldn¡¯t directly interfere with them as he would any metallic blade. Also, with how much of it they lug around, any subtle effects Vail tried to enact with his own soulstone would only be smothered and distorted.


    Vail should abandon this place. Death had nearly consumed his arms, and he had not yet shared his research. There was a ticking clock strapped to the Academic, and he didn¡¯t have the time to waste with these misguided fools.


    But Karaa remained. Her body was out in the open and would continue to rot without being given a proper rest. Vail could not leave her. If these Selenwrights were willing to discard her final send-off rights for this long, there was no chance they¡¯d suddenly discover the care to so now. Vail needed to be the one to free her soul from the clutches of this greedy world. And if he could punish this group without succumbing to murder or assault, then all the better.

 Chapter 3: Failure in Death

    Vail stood in the corner of the meditation chamber across from Karaa¡¯s corpse and the Selenwrights that carefully approached with soulstone swords raised.


    First thing first; he would free his friend¡¯s soul from this moon. Punishment for the murderers would come only when he was sure the world beneath his feet couldn¡¯t consume the life-force that remained in Karaa¡¯s body.


    With a breath, soulworks weaved into existence around him. They wavered before locking into place, saving Vail from the lingering scent of decay and many forms of warfare humanity had utilised in the past few millennia. While his ancestors had remained impartial to war, Vail¡¯s inherited memories showed they weren¡¯t ignorant of the horrors of men¡­ so neither was he.


    It was unlikely the people of this age knew of those horrid methods, but one could never be too careful.


    Vail brought his fingers to his lips. The death-mark was already spiralling up past his knuckles, but his soulstone ring remained untouched for now. A slight breath warmed his fingertips. Soul energy sat upon the skin, waiting to be woven into something useful.


    Vail teleported. The group of Selenwrights spun, falling back to back with their neighbour. It was a show of intense training and coordination that they could react so rapidly, but Vail did not care about them. Not yet.


    He appeared before Karaa¡¯s kneeling form and pressed his fingers against the air before her. The tips found resistance, as if a sheet of glass stood between Vail and his friend¡¯s corpse. His hand pulled back, and a glowing rune lingered.


    Twice more Vail teleported. Twice more, he left visible soulworks frozen in the air. The Selenwrights tried to react, to charge him down before he could finish whatever he was doing, but they were too late.


    As Vail reappeared back across the room, both the runes and his friend ignited. A pillar of fire shot from floor to ceiling, incinerating everything within the bounds of the soulworks. Vail watched, head bowed with hands tilted upward to encourage the soul to leave this entrapping world, as his friend¡¯s body burned.


    He would not let this moon consume her soul. Best her soul wander the endless expanse of the universe than be broken down and used to fuel this lifeless rock¡¯s unachievable desires.


    It only took five seconds to burn every remaining molecule, freeing the soul that clung to them. Once Karaa was truly gone, the blaze extinguished. Despite the heat and power behind the inferno, not even soot remained. Vail¡¯s command over his soulworks was too good to allow anything to remain, nor for the flame to burn anything besides what he intended.


    Now appeased that his fellow Academic will not suffer in death, Vail turned to her murderers. Two, including their leader, were rushing him, while the others fanned out through the room. Each in pairs. It was clear they were adjusting to his frequent teleportation.


    To any lesser dimensional weaver, their tactics might have proven effective. With twelve full longswords of soulstone, the thread was warped in all sorts of ways. But Vail was the authority on all things dimensional. He had expanded the field by such bounds only a few of his predecessors could compare.


    Where an amateur Academic might find that soulstone blade piercing their heart with an attempt to teleport, Vail could dance around the weapons as long as he knew they were there. And so he did.


    Craul swung the heavy blade with two hands, but it only hit empty air and the soulwork lying in wait. As Vail reappeared behind the man and his partner, a sound like shattered glass told him that his attempt to glue the weapon in midair had failed. The soulstone blade had simply crashed through the rune.


    Craul¡¯s partner swung at Vail, and he had no choice but to teleport again. Vail didn¡¯t trust his soulworks to withstand an impact from the heretical weapons, and never in his athleticism to dodge physically.


    One of the soulworks wrapping his body let him know of the position of each soul around him. That also meant the soulstones nearly blinded him, but it kept him from teleporting within range of another swing, as he quickly found they were attempting: whenever one was near landing a strike, the other Selenwrights moved to swing at empty air. They targeted the areas with the most space between small groups, knowing that was the most likely place Vail would run.


    It was¡­ unnerving that they were this effective.


    But Vail still had two goals before he left. First, he would punish these Selenwrights for the death of his friend ¡ª without sacrificing his oaths ¡ª and second, he would destroy this facility. It was an unfortunate reality, but it was better to destroy Karaa¡¯s creations than let them fall into the hands of the people. Especially with these Selenwrights already having proven their lack of respect for the old ways.


    So as Vail danced around deadly blades, he spread the breath of his soul into the men and women trying to hasten his end. He started with Craul. The man¡¯s throat had been almost entirely replaced with an implant that enhanced one¡¯s voice. Perfect for a leader. As Vial¡¯s soul energy pressed deeper through the man¡¯s body, he found other points of outrage.


    The man¡¯s body was a patchwork of equipment. Alloy bones, fire-resistant skin, an entirely replaced musculature system, a neurotoxin producer, a nervous system isolator¡­ so many more installations than Vail expected. They had to have desecrated not one, but an entire fleet of colony ships to get such varying equipment. Did he not care that he was barely even human anymore? Less than ten percent of his body contained molecules that could hold his soul. He was so close to a disentanglement disaster. Did he not fear the damage he will cause once he loses himself?If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Did he even understand?


    ¡°Never take on any more augmentations,¡± Vail found himself warning. ¡°If there¡¯s any of your old flesh in storage, do whatever you can to reintegrate it. Even if it¡¯s rotting. Disentanglement has destroyed nations.¡±


    As Vail¡¯s soul energy spread into the bodies of the rest of the Selenwrights, he felt a growing despair. None were quite as bad as Craul, but they were close. On average, only twenty percent original body remained for a soul to latch.


    ¡°Speak lies in death, sinner,¡± Craul grunted as he swung his sword again.


    Vail wanted more than anything to end this problem before it sprouted, but again, he would never break his oaths. If Craul or any of the other Selenwrights underwent disentanglement, they would become killing machines that deserved to be ended, but until then, they held a soul. Until then, there was still a chance for redemption.


    It was a horrible decision to be faced with. Vail knew it would be almost impossible for Craul to fix himself before he lost his sense of self and began the slaughter. He knew there would be so many deaths, especially now that so much past knowledge was lost from the minds of men, and yet Vail refused to kill him.


    But he could disable their tech.


    It was unreasonably difficult to manipulate soulworks inside another body while there was so much soulstone around. The only real counter Vail had to work around the effect of those swords, was to empower his creations with so much soul energy they couldn¡¯t fail. Vail grasped the first implant and disabled its operation.


    Craul¡¯s battle-cry cut off mid-scream.


    There would be no reactivating that piece. Vail had cursed it with a soulwork that left it unable to function as intended. Any inspection would show all components in working order, yet it would never operate. Only a full replacement would fix it. If the surgeon attempted to only replace a section, the curse would ruin that too.


    Vail felt a self-satisfied smirk cross his face as the Selenwright panicked and grasped at his throat. It took him a touch too long to realise that he felt no pain, and by the time he¡¯d raised his sword again, he found it far heavier than it was a second ago.


    All across the room, the Selenwright grew sluggish. Completely disregarding the soulstone ring on his finger, Vail burnt through his soul to disable sections of augmented muscle. They were now slower, lost the ability to produce toxin ¡ª which they¡¯d been pumping through the room since they¡¯d arrived ¡ª and lost the impressive coordination they¡¯d shown until then. But they could still wield their blades. The soulstone longswords still swung at Vail with every teleport.


    In a dozen seconds, everything would be over. Vail would disable everything besides their ability to walk and eat, and they would no longer be a threat even if they fell to disentanglement. It was all going just as it should, considering the amount he had sacrificed to keep people safe.


    Until it wasn¡¯t.


    Agony ripped through Vail¡¯s hand. He looked down just in time to watch the death mark spreading through the soulstone in his ring. Its glistening clear colour fell away to the black void of death. Vail yanked at the ring, and sent it flying, but it was too late; the soulstone was already gone.


    The death mark had spread almost to his fingertips, and now that he was looking, had also spread over and around his shoulders, leaving him sleeveless. A small dot of black hovered over Vail¡¯s index finger. It was not connected to his hand, but it moved when he did. There wasn¡¯t much left of the ring that Vail had tossed away ¡ª a mere semicircle of metal ¡ª but the soulstone was gone; replaced by a scar that floated the exact distance the stone had in his ring.


    Vail teleported away from the sluggish swing of a blade, only to watch as the black tendrils of his curse spread to his chest. Death accelerated with each passing moment the fight continued. Vail only needed an instant to realise that he could not continue as he had.


    As a future was no longer a possibility for Vail, he had willfully expended that which he never otherwise would have to overcome the masses of soulstone and save these Selenwrights¡¯ families. But the soul energy he had consumed was also that which delayed the death mark. If he continued, then he would fail to pass on his knowledge.


    If he could just disarm one. If Vail could take the sword from a single Selenwright, he could use the soulstone to empower a soulwork strong enough to collapse the research facility. It was already too late to fully disable the tech lining their bodies, but Vail could still keep Karaa¡¯s legacy out of their hands.


    There was no point trying to lasso their weapons with dimensional thread; the soulstone would not allow such teleportation. Instead, he looped the string around a chunk of alloy wall from the breach. It took a bit of finesse ¡ª well, a lot of finesse ¡ª but Vail imbued the piece of rubble with momentum.


    When the next sword struck for his neck, the alloy appeared in its path and flung it clear from the Selenwright¡¯s hands.


    The blade skidded across the smooth floor before clattering against the wall. Neither had the blade struck Vail, nor did the chunk of alloy injure the Selenwrights hands.


    Vail appeared over the mass of soulstone, thankful that this would finally be over. An Academic of Vail¡¯s calibre could do anything with this much of the substance. The instant he picked it up, he would disable each of the implants in the Selenwrights and instigate a self destruct soulwork through the facility. A completely non-lethal self destruct sequence. The walls and experiments would melt into nothing but an unusable, stabilised sludge, while anyone within would remain untouched.


    Only, the moment Vail bent down and touched his fingers to the blade, they burnt with worse agony than when his ring fell prey to the death mark. Vail watched with horror as the black scar spread up the final stretch of his fingers and engulfed them whole. He¡¯d intentionally attempted to touch the weapon with only his fingertips, where there was no death, and yet this still happened.


    Trying again, he placed his foot over the blade. But immediately, the cursed roots shot down the side of his chest, racing to carve through his body and reach soulstone.


    Vail snapped his foot away, but the damage had already been done. His tattered jacket now fluttered to one side, revealing the asymmetric scars as they branched from his shoulders and down his chest. On his left side, the marks had already reached as far down as his waist.


    He could no longer use soulstone. That alone was a blow that almost crushed him. It was something that was so ingrained through everything he had worked for and how he lived, that it was impossible to imagine a life without it. Soul energy was everything. And now, the only safe, moral supply was beyond him.


    Vail glanced up at the Selenwrights as they charged him down once more. He could no longer save their families. He could no longer keep Karaa¡¯s work out of the hands that would abuse it.


    Failure was a common experience with the number of experiments Vail had enacted through his life, but this was different. He could see how the actions of those before him would doom both their close relatives in the short term, and all of humanity in the long term, and yet he couldn¡¯t succeed where he needed to.


    These Selenwright were the murderers of his friend, yet he did not wish death upon them or their kin. Vail had failed what would have been easy only a day ago.


    Craul swung his sword, mouth open in a snarl but unable to scream. Vail took one last glance through the room at his failures before he disappeared.


    He teleported far away, abandoning the lake city to almost certain disaster at the hands of a disentanglement event.


    Vail had never felt so defeated.

 Chapter 4: Despair in Death

    The dusty craters of the windless desert were the predominant feature of this moon. If one ignored the few regions of life around the foreign masses of soulstone, it should be obvious to all that this celestial body was not naturally welcoming.


    Vail¡¯s boot clipped the lip of a crater; the dust having gone untouched for entire lifetimes now scattered. The regolith had held its shape since some meteorite crashed and placed it there many, many thousands of years ago.


    Only a single millennium had it been since Vail¡¯s ancestors arrived with the rest of mankind.


    The moon was never their destination, but they needed to land and repair the colony ships before continuing on their journey. Only, they never reached their new home.


    This covetous moon wouldn¡¯t allow them to leave. Not when it had finally received some soulstone for itself.


    The moon¡¯s core was cold; it didn¡¯t have even the basic requirements to sustain soulstone, and yet it would cling to their souls with all it could until they were all swallowed. The rock would become a rock again.


    It was their enemy. Humanity would die if they gave in to this world¡¯s efforts to keep them contained. It was something they should all be working towards; pushing to free themselves from an inevitable end at the behest of a moon that wishes to be more than a moon.


    And yet, it seemed the people Vail was dedicated to protect wanted nothing more than his and his cohort¡¯s demise.


    Before him, a massive ship lay broken and burning.


    Not floating through the skies under Shab¡¯s powerful anti-gravity engine ¡ª a true work of art, even by Vail¡¯s standards ¡ª but buried in the dirt. All across its hull, damage littered the nearly impenetrable alloy. With the soulwork shields it should have had in place, only one thing could have done this.


    Bombs.


    Specifically, the missiles loaded aboard the other colonyships.


    The Selenwrights had gotten into the body-mod sections of those ships. It wouldn¡¯t be a leap to assume they¡¯d gone for the more dangerous ship-mounted weapons, too. Though, considering they used blades rather than those soulstone-shell rifles ¡ª that had at one point been developed to counter the Academics ¡ª meant they hadn¡¯t gained access to all the ships¡¯ armouries. That, or the nations of the old-world had actually followed regulation¡­ which was unlikely.


    They probably shot down Shab¡¯s ship and killed him as they had Karaa. Vail wanted to think otherwise, but as death wrapped around his throat, he found it hard to be optimistic. Especially with such obvious evidence before him. Shab would not leave his masterpiece in such disrepair if he was still alive.


    But¡­ he had to check. If Shab¡¯s body was left to rot as Karaa, Vail would have another friend to burn.


    As Vail walked through the wreckage, he extinguished the few fires that remained. Soul energy conduits were exposed to the elements, and the sheer amount of energy flowing from the tip left the alloys around it white and molten. The thermal conversion wasn¡¯t even that extreme with soul energy, but it spoke volumes of just how much flowed through the ship.


    While the cool sand in the ship¡¯s trail spoke of the crash occurring over a week ago, the fact that it was still functioning meant it hadn¡¯t gone into hibernation. That meant less than three weeks ago.


    The halls of the city-sized ship lacked their usual artificial gravity, forcing Vail to walk along a slight incline on his way to the central lab. That was the most likely place to find Shab. As Vail got nearer, the scars along the walls and missing sections of ship became all the more obvious. Not only had there been a fight, but Shab had not held back.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    When Vail walked into the large open workshop, his eyes widened at the destruction that filled the place. Far beyond the mess of the corridors or the charred exterior, the lab appeared to be nothing but debris. Thousands of showpiece projects that had once decorated the lab like it were a museum rather than a place of research, now rested in shards. Twisted metal and dust were all that remained of Shab¡¯s century of efforts.


    Vail was certain Shab was dead now, so when he spotted the subtle sign of soul energy in the corner of the room ¡ª barely noticeable beneath the immense soulstones that powered the colonyship ¡ª his delight was immeasurable.


    Tossing off the slab of a semi-collapsed wall, Vail found Shab kneeling in meditation as if nothing were wrong. He was alive! But why was he in his memories while there were so many repairs to be done?


    Taking a breath of soul, Vail stung the back of Shab¡¯s neck, snapping him out of his dreams immediately.


    Whatever it was Vail was expecting from the man, it wasn¡¯t for him to scream and plead. ¡°No! Don¡¯t bring me back. I can¡¯t do it anymore.¡±


    Vail frowned as the man threw his arms over his head and tried to force himself back into his trance. Shab didn¡¯t even look at him.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Vail said. ¡°Get up. You can tell me what happened here as we clean.¡±


    Despite his urging, Shab remained on the ground in a pile of broken tools.


    Time was not on his side, so Vail was not willing to rein in his impatience. He grabbed Shab by the collar and dragged him to his feet. Vail hadn¡¯t even pulled the man the full way when the shirt fell through his fingers. Death left it tattered, but he accomplished what he wanted.


    ¡°You are dead.¡± There was no doubt. They both knew. ¡°I thought at least you¡­¡±


    Once again, Shab fell into his pile of rubble, but at least this time, he wasn¡¯t trying to hide from the world. ¡°There truly is no hope left for us.¡±


    ¡°Hardly,¡± Vail droned. ¡°You¡¯re still here, and I doubt your old bones are about to give out for another few decades, at least. Now let me share my memories so I can enjoy my last day of existence.¡±


    He stepped forward, bringing their minds close in order to transfer the ancient collection of memories.


    ¡°No.¡± The mumbled word was too quiet to stop Vail as he brought his forehead to touch Shab¡¯s. ¡°No!¡± he shouted and scrambled away from the contact. ¡°I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t do this anymore. Don¡¯t make my burden worse than it already is.¡±


    Vail froze. ¡°What do you mean, you can¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ My anti-gravity engine broke. I thought I was so close to a breakthrough, a way to avoid the moon¡¯s influence. But it didn¡¯t work. It exploded; sent off a chain reaction through the ship. Six decades of hard work, gone. It¡¯ll take us centuries to recreate one of them¡­ and we won¡¯t last that long.¡±


    ¡°Then what would you do? Die?¡± Vail slammed his fist into the ground. A shard of glass pierced his death mark; it didn¡¯t even draw blood. ¡°This is the only way we survive.¡±


    ¡°Our people; they want us dead, Vail. I¡¯ve worked my entire life for them, and they only ever grow more hateful.¡± Shab couldn¡¯t keep eye contact any longer. ¡°There are too few of us left. Our ancestors had hundreds of Academics, and they couldn¡¯t figure a path off this rock. We only have¡­¡± he trailed off, but it was clear they both knew just how few they were. ¡°Our purpose is unachievable.¡±


    ¡°It is not!¡± Vail denied. ¡°I was so close. The world marked me for death because it knew I was scraping at the answer. Even if you¡¯ve lost your engine, you can take my place and finish the Gate.¡±


    Shab didn¡¯t look up. He just let the silence stretch for a minute, before his voice filled the lab again. ¡°Karaa is dead, isn¡¯t she?¡± His eyes snapped up, and Vail couldn¡¯t turn away from the absolute despair he saw. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have come to me first, and Trill would have been the last you saw. So¡­ is she dead?¡±


    Vail did not want to share her death like this. In a fight over whether they should give up on humanity. But it was not something he wanted to hide, either. ¡°Yes.¡± He dropped his head. ¡°They¡¯d stabbed her through the heart while she was meditating.¡±


    Shab tilted his head back, as if questioning why things had to be this way, and to hold back tears. ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± he whispered, voice wavering. ¡°If humanity has decided they want to worship a rock that eats them, then let them die. I am done.¡±


    ¡°You are a coward.¡± It was so hard for Vail not to throw a punch, but he decided better of it and walked away, determined to rely on the last person he could. The one he wanted to spend his final moments with.


    The accusation was met with no denial. Instead, Shab spoke only once more before he fled into his dreams.


    ¡°Trill is dead. They killed her.¡±