By Lyra Zwahn
Featuring: Kaetu Farther, Koharu Tachibana, Lyra Zwahn, Squish Wilds
Content Warning: Alcohol, Blood, Bodily Injury, Violence
A fire raged in The Forgotten Knight. The pub was unusually stuffed with boisterous people – groups of mercenaries back from a good-paying job, loud workers from The Brume, and many others.
Lyra Zwahn ran her finger along the neck of her turtleneck sweater. To her, the room was too cramped and too warm with so many folks packed inside.
She clinked her highball glass back onto the shiny bar surface as a signal to the barkeep for another round, and a pair of ice shards shifted to the bottom while he topped it off. Long strands of her black hair not tied into a ponytail nearly touched the liquid inside. She brushed them aside and tried to shuffle her long, Viera legs under the counter into a more comfortable position.
By this point, Lyra was quite inebriated but could hear the beginnings of a commotion in one corner of the establishment. She tweaked her tall ears to better hear what was going on. Her gray eyes peered sharply to the side.
A few men stood at one of the round tables in the corner nearest to the Brume entryway. The smallest, and unfortunately the greasiest, of the group was harassing a barmaid – a Miqo’te woman with chin-length brown hair. She had just served their table and resisted a groping attempt. The man muttered something unintelligible and certainly inappropriate while trying to hold her arm.
Lyra clicked her tongue then gulped the bourbon in her glass. She smacked it back down onto the counter and turned to grab her weapon. The serrated, dark gunblade leaned near her legs; its crimson core began to glow as her hand neared the grip.
But, just then, a firm hand rested on Lyra’s shoulder. She looked up to meet the barkeep’s gaze, who smiled and shook his head.
A pair of knights were already diffusing the situation at the table, and after a brief but heated exchange, the unruly group drudged reluctantly but peacefully down the stairs to the rear entrance and out into the cold of The Brume. Lyra kept her eye on them as they left; she slowly sat back onto the stool.
The barkeep smiled the same sad smile and poured Lyra another round.
The wind was steady. Large clusters of snowflakes blew sideways in the darkness to land and melt on Lyra’s flushed cheek. She tugged her jacket’s tall collar upward to shield her pale skin, but it didn’t help much. Her heavier winter coat was at home, and she wobbled along the path – over hard stone streets and through narrow, rubble-cluttered alleys – to make her way back there.
Yeah, it was definitely another one of those nights.
“Let me go, you creep,” someone shrieked.
Up ahead in the darkness, the smallest of the vagrants pulled at the barmaid’s coat, pulling it halfway off and causing her to trip and fall to the ground. The woman hoped to make it home without incident, but the men crossed her path again.
The greasy man deflected the woman’s hand and gripped her forearm. “Now c’mon, honey. I’ll be your man,” he said with a sneer. He pulled her in very closely, much to her distress, and pressed his face into her wavy hair. He took an exaggerated deep breath as if to soak up her purity.
“You’re hurting me!” she shouted.
With a kick and a shove, she freed herself enough to escape. She scrambled to her feet, only to manage a few steps before being pulled to the ground by the bulkier member of the group, who had tossed a chained weapon of sorts around her ankle. The woman struck her chin on the hard, cold stone street and grasped at its pavement stones in vain with her fingernails.
The husky man reeled the woman closer, one pull at a time, and chuckled, “You can’t leave until we say so.”
“Leave her alone,” Lyra barked.
Her voice echoed off the tall, gray walls that lined the narrow alley. She stood behind the group – her head down, hands still in pockets. Alcohol spun the world around her, but she was ready to fight.
A flail and its attached chain flew from the shadows. Lyra deflected it just barely to the side with her forearm. The plate on the elbow of her jacket created a bright spark that illuminated the face of the big, bald vagrant who had used the attack as a distraction.
He swooped behind Lyra to restrain her in a headlock. His thick arm wrapped around Lyra’s neck and tightened, but in the darkness, the man had mistakenly caught the handle of the gunblade on Lyra’s back in his wrenching as well. The cold metal receiver pressed hard against her face.
A solid punch struck Lyra across the jaw, made worse by the metal of the weapon on the opposite side. She was hit one way, then the other. Another punch landed in her abdomen.
Heavier snow began to fall. It muffled the punches and sounds of the tussle while Lyra tried to get her bearings. She raised her arm just in time to block another punch to the stomach, but the sound of a dagger being drawn caught her attention.
The greasy man tried to bury the blade in her side, but Lyra deftly deflected the weapon just as its tip had pierced her skin. The metal rattled onto the street; its blade glinted in the faint glow of a nearby streetlamp.
Lyra reached overhead and clenched the hulking brute’s tattered tunic. She tumbled forward to launch him over her shoulder. The large man struck his smaller counterpart, and the two went flying into a stack of discarded crates. The wood burst into splinters in a terrible clatter upon impact.
Lyra grasped her side and spat blood from her mouth. She reached for her weapon just as the men were starting to get their footing. The crimson core of the blade glowed brightly again.
“That’s enough,” bellowed the leader of the group. His deep voice cut through the chaos.
“What!?” gasped the greasy fighter in surprise.
The leader’s cold gaze met Lyra’s briefly. His left eye was an icy blue while the right was a hazy gray. It was almost fully white from a damaged cornea and surely blinded as a result. “She’ll kill us all if you keep this up,” he growled.
“But, Boss,” the bald vagrant pleaded.
The leader wasn’t having any discussion, though. He had already begun strolling away.
“You best watch it, long ears,” the greasy man threatened as he sheepishly followed his leader into the night.
“Yeah, hopper. Best watch yourself,” the bald vagrant meekly agreed. He gestured with two fingers curled down at his lips as if to pretend they were hare’s teeth.
The two men giggled and scampered along to catch up to their leader, who had just rounded the corner to disappear down another street.
Lyra released her grip on her weapon, which faded dark once more. She exhaled a long breath that fogged in the frigid night air. She took a few steps in the steadily falling snow, only to trip on a rough stone and collapse onto a snowbank.
The barmaid scrambled over to Lyra. “Are you okay, miss?” she asked.
Lyra rolled onto her back and tried to sit up. She left a trail of blood behind on the sparkling snow. She nodded gently.
“You’re hurt,” said the barmaid softly. “Why did you help me?”
Lyra stared into the darkness in silence and tried to right herself; the cut to her side throbbed.
The woman tried to help Lyra off the ground.
“I saw how you caught the knife, how you threw that man. You could have beat them, but you didn’t,” the woman said, confused. “Why did you let them do this to you?” she asked.
The aether lenses were in place. Their long, tubular structures framed in bronze metal refracted the moonlight through various colors of crystal – one for every elemental affinity. They stood in a circle with a central focal point being a high platform attached to the airship dock at Castellum Velodyna – a dizzying height above the chasm below.
Several people stood in lamp light near the largest part of the platform and gazed out at an imposing, dark object hovering in the distance. Many others in bright robes shuffled about to connect cables and set up devices all around its base.
“It goes without saying that our target is somewhere within the otherworldly disc,” a short Loporrit said.
His name was Thinkingway, and he stood on a tall stool while he traced his finger along the surface of a meticulously detailed diagram mounted on an ornate easel. The drawing was of the giant object nearby, ominously floating over The Peering Stones, and many cryptic calculations were scrawled along its perimeter.
Part of the object’s exterior was cut away in the drawing to reveal a complex network of interwoven lines within. Thinkingway pulled a pencil from behind his ear to correct the math on one formula.
“But what is it?” Kaetu asked while Thinkingway scribbled furiously.
Kaetu Farther was an enthusiastic, sun-bronzed Miqo’te and native of The Peering Stones. He was a seasoned Bard always ready for adventure, and his positive attitude and limitless courage saw him through countless journeys. He had noticed the object while visiting his home and was terribly curious to get involved.
“Oh, I know!” proclaimed an elegant, Au Ra woman who wore a long tailed tunic crafted from an exquisite, spring green fabric. Her ivory horns spread out like wings away from her jawline. They were contrasted by the crimson flower she wore in her long, burgundy hair that flowed behind like maple seeds falling from trees.
She was Squish Wilds, an enigmatic druid and healer from Gridania.
“Like how a tornado dances over a lake to become a waterspout,” she explained and began to spin across the platform with little regard to the dangerous height. “Use of the Echo within a shattered world creates the pool.” She reached out her hand upwards and slowly as if to invite the dark object above to dance.
Kaetu gasped, “I had no idea that could happen!” His brown-haired ears flicked.
“Indeed,” Koharu replied with a nod.
Koharu Tachibana was a reserved and disciplined Au Ra Samurai from the shores of the Ruby Sea. Her ghostly, pale visage and silvery-white hair shimmered in the glow of the lamps. and her voice was metered as she spoke. Her layered kimono was adorned with exquisite yet practical belts of the finest silk, and through one she secured her Mythrite Uchigatana. She silently joined Squish toward the edge, who had given up on dancing for the moment.
“Fortunately, we learned of a way to safely deflate this … bubble, lest it grow too large and threaten our world,” Koharu said. Her white-rimmed eyes were intense.
Squish nodded solemnly in agreement. The two traveled together to Gyr Abania after separately tracking the movement of the mysterious object across the lands and seas.
“That is correct. While it may seem dire, we have found a way to solve this problem. Let me explain a bit more about our conundrum, though,” Thinkingway said as he circled the exposed internals of the object on the drawing. “You see, the anomaly is held open by dynamis flows – currents, essentially. These currents – as seen here by the darker lines – are critical arteries, through which dynamis is spread elsewhere.”
He traced the lines out to the edge of the disc. “Dynamis pushes outward from a central memory to support the object’s form within our realm, so striking the core of this memory should collapse the structure!”
“That’s where you come in, archer,” Koharu said.
“Yes, it was fortunate that you were here,” Thinkingway agreed. “Once your mission is complete, the anomaly will collapse. There will be the tiniest moment when our world will be visible from inside the anomaly … somewhere. Ahem! Once that occurs, you will need to fire a special volley from there – back to us, and into the Aether Anchor device you see here!”
Anyone else would have been terrified, but Kaetu grinned with excitement.
“But where is ‘there?’” Squish wondered out loud. “Or maybe when is ‘there?’” She tapped her chin in thought and began to hum a tune.
Kaetu looked confused.
“Miss Wilds is correct! Because the anomaly is a manifestation of memory and emotion fueled by dynamis, you could find yourselves anywhere and at any time once inside,” Thinkingway stressed. “You will first need to navigate a world of unknown rules to find your mark!”
With his usual, unfettered enthusiasm, Kaetu smiled. “Wow, this is great,” he said. “What a challenge!” His gaze returned to the dark disc encroaching slowly in the distance. Its blackness was pure and absolute against the otherwise starry night sky.
A second researcher working on the Aether Anchor, stood to interject.
She was Nona Sunrise, an Elezen with short-cropped burgundy hair that curled around her slim and pointed ears. “If I may,” Nona said. She pushed square-framed glasses up her nose with a delicate finger. “To clarify Thinkingway’s statement, we will trace a path through space and time via a special volley to retrieve you,” she said as she turned to release the latches on a small, wooden box.
Inside, there were a few metallic arrows, each featuring a beautiful, crystalline tip and fletching that was an oily black. She held one up for Kaetu to inspect.
“Amazing,” Kaetu whispered.
“I agree. These devices are the product of many years of research in partnership with the Loporrits, yet they were only recently recovered for our use here,” Nona explained as she placed the arrow back into the box and secured the latches. “We’re lucky to have them.”
“Thank you, Miss Sunrise! I must say, the most essential thing to remember is that you strike the center of the Aether Anchor platform for this process to work,” stressed Thinkingway, gesturing with his tiny hands. “It will be difficult, but we believe you can do it!”
“Execution of this plan requires the utmost precision. We have only three of the special volleys, so you must be exacting in your strike,” Nona added.
“You may also wish to invite strong allies you know, but please keep in mind we have very little time,” Thinkingway said.
Kaetu processed their words for a moment, then nodded. He stepped toward the edge of the cermet ledge, high on the fortress wall. He looked out over the pale desert night with a smile.
“I think I know someone who can help,” he said.
The door to Lyra’s apartment flung open. The barmaid huffed as she helped carry Lyra’s heft through the doorway and into the dark apartment.
“Over there,” Lyra rasped, pointing to the sofa across the living space. She dropped her gunblade against the wall on the way in.
The pair lumbered through the dark well enough to get Lyra near the couch. She rolled over its backrest and onto the soft cushions, nearly turning the whole thing over backward.
“Take off your jacket. We need to look at your wound,” the woman urged.
Lyra arched her back slowly in pain to unlink her plated jacket’s liner. She slipped her arms out of its sleeves and held it out clumsily enough for the barmaid to grab. However, its armored weight nearly took the woman’s small frame to the floor.
“Ugh! Why is it so heavy!?” she groaned and allowed it to flop out of her hands and onto the dark floor.
Fumbling around in the dark obviously wasn’t working out well, so she started searching for a lantern on the table. “Do you always keep it this dark in here?” she asked.
“It was daylight when I left,” Lyra grumbled. “To the left,” she directed.
A box of matches was fortunately on the table, and after a couple strikes, the lantern was lit. An orange glow filled the space, and the barmaid tried to orient herself.
“There’s an elixir … on the mantle,” Lyra rasped, “up there.”
“I see it!” She could certainly see it, but reaching it was another story. It took a few hops, and some tip-toes, but she was able to grab it and pull out the stopper. “Oh … it isn’t full.”
“It’s fine. It’s more than enough,” Lyra said. She pulled up her sweater to reveal the bloody sheen across her abdomen. It glistened in the warm light.
Lyra grabbed the bottle and tipped it just enough for the syrupy liquid to ooze out and onto the gash. She winced as the medicine activated, and it quickly sizzled the wound closed. After that, gulping down the rest worked wonders for repairing the damage inside and out. It greatly dulled the pain.
“I’m so sorry,” the barmaid said quietly as she sat onto an adjacent armchair.
“For what?” Lyra asked, trying to sort her clothes out a bit.
“For all of this. You were hurt, and…”
“It was minor; I’ve had worse, you know.”
“I believe it!” the woman chuckled, but her gaze ended on the floor. “My name’s Hope,” she said with a smile.
Lyra stretched out a bit more comfortably on the couch. Her fur-lined boots extended well past the armrest and into the air. She laid her arm over her eyes. “Lyra Zwahn,” she replied.
“Well, Lyra Zwahn, do you make it a habit of getting into tussles in dark alleys?”
“I could ask you the same thing…”
“Fair. That’s fair,” Hope conceded. She took a moment to look around and noticed they sat in a sort of makeshift library. Books lined shelves that reached almost all the way to the high ceiling. A fireplace was just over her shoulder in the darkness, so she took it upon herself to get it lit.
Hope’s big, brown eyes continued to adjust while she stacked kindling into a cone shape within the fireplace. She reached for nearby slabs of wood and brushed her hand against a large stack of papers. Once the fire was lit, and flames began to grow, she could see the countless documents scattered around the small space.
There were a lot, in fact – everywhere she looked. They were stacked under the table, beside the sofa, along the walls, and piled in front of a desk. They were organized in binders, stacked in corners, and hidden beneath the furniture. They were on shelves, beneath shelves, and were even used as shelves.
They were everywhere she looked.
“I see you like to read,” Hope commented while taking a closer look at one of the files splayed across the table. It was clearly stamped with dates from before the Calamity. “Wow,” she whispered, “before the Calamity.”
Lyra uncovered her eyes; the exclamation drew her attention.
“Not much survived from around then … unless it was on paper,” Hope pondered. “How about you? Do you … remember?”
Lyra lay on the couch in silence. She stared at the ceiling while moments of her life as a soldier – an Optio, flashed through her head. Images of battles she barely survived, thoughts of her comrades long gone … and Nim’s face.
Lyra shook her head gently.
“I figured as much. Memories erased … for everyone. I don’t remember anything from around that time, but I have a diary,” Hope whispered. “I know it’s mine, but it feels as if someone else wrote most of it, really.”
Lyra slowly sat up – her body mostly mended, and sobriety nearly restored. She listened.
“I don’t know anything about my birth parents, but back then, my adoptive mother and I lived in a house somewhere by the Coerthas River. We were poor, but we were happy,” Hope smiled as she spoke quietly.
Her hair formed a somber curtain as she lowered her head.
“That is, until bandits robbed us of everything,’ she continued while fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist. “Then, the Calamity happened, and everything changed. Mother fell ill, and … I suppose it wasn’t long before I did, too.”
Hope and Lyra sat in silence for a moment, listening to the crackling fire.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” Hope confessed. “Maybe you’re just easy to talk to.”
A loud knock on the door startled them both.
Thinkingway peered into the analyzer’s viewfinder. Its sensors picked up measurements of the dynamis pool’s attributes while he dialed in the focus.
The ominous disc could be seen hovering over the stone spires nearby, slowly moving forward. Number values in red flashed on the device’s display, and it beeped a variety of tones as he adjusted knobs to silence them.
“It’s as I feared,” Thinkingway exclaimed. “The density is increasing! It’s growing much more rapidly!”
“Fortunately, sir, the Aether Anchor is nearly ready,” Nona reported. She turned her gaze to the crew working far below to complete setting up equipment. Hoses and cables stretched from the highest rung of the fortress airship docks and down to the bridge below. “The Ironworks crews report it should be fully operational by the time our heroes return from their recruiting venture in Coerthas.”
“That is good news, indeed!” Thinkingway said as he continued to stare into the device. “I do hope they hurry!”
“So, what is it, exactly?” Lyra asked. She cradled a hot cup in her hands.
A kettle heated by the fire sat on the round table. A strong, black tea was soothing for everyone in the room.
Lyra had never seen so many visitors to her apartment before.
“A dynamis pool,” answered Koharu, who held her cup close to her mouth with both hands and sipped audibly.
“Thinkingway – the Loporrit in charge – told us it can happen when the Echo is used a lot inside a shard,” Kaetu continued. He grabbed a small cookie from a saucer on the table. Though it was quite stale, he chomped down on it with delight. “Wow, so tasty!” he exclaimed with a smile. “Are they almond?”
Lyra smiled warmly and nodded.
“It will float in the sky and collect feelings all the way home, you know” said Squish with a smile. “Fill it too much, and it will pop!” She pantomimed popping a balloon – her cup – with her finger like an imaginary needle.
Lyra looked confused for a moment, and Hope wondered what in the world was happening around her.
“She’s right. It will continue to grow out of control unless we strike its core,” Koharu said, her expression serious.
“Don’t pop your bubbles!” Squish declared with enthusiasm.
Koharu nodded in agreement.
“And that’s what brought us here, friend. Will you help us?” Kaetu asked. He lobbed another cookie into his mouth and grinned with hands spread wide while he chewed.
“How do we get inside?” Lyra asked.
“Awesome! I knew you would. So great!” Keatu grinned.
“Thinkingway has that all set. We simply need say the word,” Koharu replied.
Kaetu looked around the apartment for a moment and noticed Lyra’s weapon by the door. “Using that one, eh?” he asked with a sad smile but then reached for another cookie.
Lyra nodded.
“You know, Lyra, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without your jacket,” Kaetu laughed while chewing, but he suddenly realized he hadn’t greeted Lyra’s guest. “Oh, where are my manners? I haven’t said hello to your … um, and you are?”
Kaetu stared at Hope, who was surprised by the sudden attention.
Squish tapped her finger on her lips as she analyzed the scene. She looked at Lyra’s disheveled clothing, the jacket haphazardly thrown on the floor, its proximity to Hope’s feet, and back again. Her eyes moved about the scene until it dawned on her what had occurred. She gasped playfully.
“Sorry for ruining your steamy time!” Squish exclaimed with a conspicuous wink.
Puzzled, Lyra looked to Hope, whose face had flushed red.
“What!? No, it’s not like that,” Lyra insisted.
Kaetu scratched his head and chuckled with embarrassment, “Oh, ha! My bad. So sorry, Lyra!”
Koharu suddenly plunged herself into an apologetic bow, hands firmly down her sides. “Gomennasai, Lyra-san!” she shouted with her eyes squeezed closed.
Hope popped up from her seat. “It’s not like that!” she yelled.
As the group arrived on the scene at sunrise, a cluster of engineers rushed to greet them followed by Nona. “Oh good, you’ve returned,” she said.
“We’re back! This is my friend, Lyra Zwahn,” Kaetu replied.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Zwahn,” Nona said with a smile, and Lyra returned her usual nod. “If you’ll all follow me, the entry vehicle is ready.”
“Entry vehicle?” Koharu asked.
It was indeed a vehicle – a sort of large, rounded cup of wood and metal resembling a carrot stub fitted with a series of seats. There were just enough spots for the group to fit comfortably. The whole unit sat atop what seemed to be a large platform draped with heavy, blue cloth.
“Please use these Linkpearls while inside the anomaly,” Nona said. She dropped a handful of the devices into Kaetu’s palm, who then distributed them to the group.
“Keep in mind that we won’t be able to reach you while you are inside the anomaly, but you should be able to communicate with each other,” Nona clarified. “You’ll also need this,” she held up a jagged, pebble-sized crystal of sorts. “It’s a dynamis stone.”
Kaetu examined it closely. The stone was gray and cloudy with black webs spread throughout.
“Keep it with you, as it will glow brightly once you’ve found the memory core,” Nona explained. She plopped the stone into Kaetu’s palm as well, and he popped it into a chest pocket.
After that, the four had little trouble getting seated in the craft with Squish and Koharu up front and the taller Lyra and Kaetu in the rear row. It was around the time when the group realized there were straps for restraints that Thinkingway had appeared.
“Oh, this is excellent! Excellent, excellent!” Thinkingway cheered. He tried to clap his tiny hands, but he had too many things to carry. “All seated and ready? Be sure to get properly strapped in! It’s just a little precaution, you see! Just a bit of precaution!” he grinned as he punched a few colorful squares on what appeared to be a tomestone of sorts.
Koharu fiddled with the latch on her seatbelt – trying to learn which end plugged into which while Squish simply tied the straps around herself in bow knots. Kaetu and Lyra had just begun to get their restraints in order when Thinkingway shouted, “All clear for launch!”
“Launch!?” Koharu seemed to turn even more pale than she already was.
Squish chuckled in excitement while Lyra and Kaetu realized something very unpleasant was going to happen. They looked at each other with concern.
The blue cloth was dramatically pulled away from the base of the vehicle to reveal an elaborate mechanical catapult of sorts. With a dramatic press of his Tomestone, Thinkingway initiated the launch procedure. Green lights flashed all around, and machinery tensioned the mechanism beneath the platform.
“Fly safe!” he said and pressed another button.
The group was instantly launched into the air at breakneck speed, pressing the team deeper into their seats from the acceleration. Stomachs sank. Prayers were said. And a few insects were surely eaten. By accident, of course.
The inky black of the dynamis pool swelled quickly to encompass their entire field of vision until they plunged right through its outer skin without even a whimper. At first, there was absolute nothingness all around – an endless void of deepest black, but suddenly a swirling and surreal world appeared above, below, and everywhere in between.
As they continued to fly, the world sorted itself out, changing and morphing into sky and horizon, into hills and trees and everything else. It was suddenly a lush, green, and partially forested region framed by majestic mountain peaks, and the bluest sky above was pierced by a sun that sparkled so brightly within ripples of winding rivers and streams woven through sporadic hills that it could have been diamonds in disguise.
The wind was brisk but invigorating as the group soared over this verdant wonderland, and it wasn’t long before they realized their trajectory had long since peaked with their craft on the descent path.
A catastrophic crash through the canopy came next, with branches and leaves whipping about, followed by an instant deployment of a barrage of air sacs around the perimeter of the craft. A jarring impact on the soil, softened a bit by the air sacs, sent the vehicle tumbling end over end.
“Why did they make it round!?” Kaetu shouted through the tumbling chaos, realizing the Linkpearl he was given had nearly flown out of his ear.
Eventually, the craft came to an abrupt and sudden halt – mostly sideways – and after breaching the forest, a line of prickly scrub brush, and landing in a steep walled creek with chilly waters. Fish flopped about under Squish’s feet.
“I think I found dinner,” she said.
“No time for that, I’m afraid,” Lyra groaned, as hungry as she was. She tried to unbuckle herself. “I wouldn’t eat or drink anything here – for safety’s sake.”
After several minutes, the group managed to free themselves and escape the crashed vehicle. Koharu kneeled on a grassy spot to tame the spinning inside her head while Lyra checked her gunblade shells. Kaetu scouted the immediate area with Squish by his side.
Lyra placed her hand on Koharu’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Koharu ratcheted her head round. Her face seemed a bit green, and with one eyelid quivering, she delivered a raspy, “Hai.”
“So, where are we?” Kaetu asked. “Any ideas?”
Koharu composed herself well enough to stand and look around for a moment. “Hmm, mountains in the distance,” she noted.
“Oh, then, I’ll commune with nature!” Squish excitedly declared as she climbed a small knoll on all fours, gripping the lush grass in between her fingers for extra traction. She stood and closed her eyes. She reached out with her arms and began to dance.
Her delicate footwork was delightful as she whirled about in the spring-like breeze, stopping only to bend down and gently pluck a plush, golden dandelion from the ground. She sniffed it delicately.
Then chomped down on the flower viciously like a reptile gulping its prey.
The others recoiled in horror.
“Coerthas, Western Highlands. Somewhere … near Falcon’s Nest,” Squish said as she chewed.
“Okay, then! Lyra! Any ideas?” Kaetu asked. He took a quick look at the dynamis stone and saw it still dark.
“Uh, I have a few, but … wasn’t this your mission? I’d hate to take command now, you know,” Lyra said with a smile.
Kaetu grinned from ear to ear – a radiant and energetic grin. He popped the stone back into his pocket. “Right!” he barked. “If this is the Western Highlands, then how about you and Koharu head upstream to search for a settlement? There could be clues about our target!” Kaetu excitedly looked around the area a bit. “Squish and I will investigate the fortress wall to the north.”
“You got it,” Lyra replied. “Alright, folks. Let’s use our Linkpearls and play it safe while we’re apart,” she added.
Koharu nodded in confirmation, and Squish bowed graciously.
Gray stone seemed to grow straight out of the soil ahead. It formed a twisted pair of stairs leading up to a platform above, a sort of warped rendition of the Falcon’s Nest entryway. Between the stairs stood a tall, thin spire that hosted a large bonfire at a landing on its peak. It was a strange rendition of the beacon from the original fortress entrance.
Koharu and Lyra made their way up the uneven stairs and to the level area to which they led, and all around were somber looking folk – heads down and toiling with work. Even the armored guards stood impossibly still, their faces masked by their helmet visors.
“Sumimasen,” Koharu said to a passing couple whose faces were perfectly hidden by hoods and bonnets. They ignored her. “Sumimasen!” She had no luck with the next man pushing a cart.
“Hello, can I ask you a question?” Lyra asked a woman brushing what seemed to be cattle in a pen that was far too small. The woman kept her back to Lyra. It was almost as if she couldn’t hear her.
Koharu reunited with Lyra and offered a confused shrug. At that moment, a man rounded the corner while pulling a small cart instead of pushing it. He tugged at the wooden poles awkwardly as the uneven wheels wobbled along.
“Excuse us,” Lyra said to him, but he didn’t respond. “Hey,” she said and grabbed his shoulder.
A loud screech filled Koharu and Lyra’s ears. It was intense and steady, and the man turned to face them with jerky motions. However, something was wrong.
He had no face.
Where it should have been was completely blank, yet he still spoke. His voice was somehow everywhere, almost as if it came from inside their heads.
“We lost hope a long time ago,” the voice howled. It was a voice formed of many voices, all speaking in unison.
Lyra backed off a few steps and gripped the handle of her gunblade. Koharu followed her lead and was ready to draw her uchigatana.
The ghastly inhabitants of the fort began to riot. They climbed over fences, through windows, and from inside objects like barrels and boxes. “Hope is lost,” they cried in unison.
They stumbled as they walked, and their forms were hardly that of people at times. They warped and slinked when they should have walked. They lurched and veered when they should have jumped.
Everything about them was wrong.
The woman brushing her cattle suddenly flailed at Koharu. “Hope is dead,” she shrieked while trying to grab Koharu’s kimono with her mangled hands.
The samurai drew her weapon and slashed the deformed creature down the middle. It vaporized into a black mist that first swarmed like bees, then faded like smoke.
Lyra hacked through two others in rapid succession before the two regrouped. The black mist diffused into the air behind the fighters while they stood back-to-back.
“There’s too many!” Lyra shouted. She and Koharu held the creatures at bay well enough until an escape path suddenly opened within the mob. They sprinted past the flailing limbs and empty faces to leap over the edge of a staircase.
“Koharu,” Squish said as she held her linkpearl send button. “Lyra?” she called with no luck. It seemed the Linkpearls wouldn’t work in the distorted world after all.
“No good,” Keatu said and shook his head, “I can’t even hear you on mine.” He took the device out of his ear.
Squish frowned. “It’s been a long time… Maybe we should return to the landing … landing, uh … hole?” Squish was unsure as to call the wreckage that was their arrival.
“Hold on,” Kaetu hissed. He threw out his arm to push Squish back into the foliage with him. A few armored men who looked like bandits lumbered past. Their forms were strange and partially deformed.
Their faces … blank.
“Wow, that’s creepy,” Squish whispered with a cringe. She bit her finger.
“Oh, yeah! Totally.”
Kaetu watched as the strange specters morphed from three to two, then back to three again. They phased right through the door of a small cottage that he could have sworn was simply not there a moment ago.
“A little pop-up house! That’s so cute!” Squish said. “If it wasn’t scary, I mean.” She looked around to make sure nothing else had appeared without warning. “Because that’s scary.”
Kaetu checked the dynamis stone and saw a weak red glow within its core. “C’mon, let’s go!” he bolted out of the brush and across the green space just beside the home. He tucked himself away to the side, down by a rushing stream that seemed to get wider by the second.
Kaetu motioned to Squish, who tip-toe ran across the area, then twirled herself acrobatically to land behind Kaetu who had positioned himself against a tall stack of firewood to conceal their presence.
“Nice moves,” he whispered.
“Thanks!” she replied with a grin.
“By the way. Don’t look at the river,” Kaetu whispered.
“Okay, I looked at the river,” Squish whispered back.
“No, I said don’t look at it,” he replied, catching himself looking again at the river; its width increased further now that he was inspecting it. “Now you have me looking at it!”
“Doesn’t look like a river to me. Looks like a lake now.”
“Stop looking at it!”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll just look at the back of your head, then. Just the back of your head for me. That’s all I wanna’ see.” She said. She tapped her fingers on his back and thought for a moment. “But we could go for a swim, though.”
Kaetu left Squish behind the wood stack and slinked beneath a shuttered window next to the entry door. His Chrystarium Composite bow nearly struck the ground from such a low stance.
The house was strangely narrow and built from the same rock that peppered the riverbank behind them. Its windows and doors were made from what seemed to be a dark mahogany wood with rough grain and adorned with heavy iron components.
There was not a sound to be heard from inside.
Kaetu snuck around to ease the large door inward a bit, and what he saw surprised him. The interior of the home was an elaborate cathedral, a sort of dining hall that stretched onward for a great distance – much farther than the house could possibly contain.
“Wow,” Kaetu whispered. He gestured for Squish to follow.
Thinkingway continued to stare into the viewfinder. He was a lone figure at the top of the platform, watching the anomaly tirelessly.
Lightning of both black and white scattered about in the clouds around the black disc. Intense winds had kicked up in response to its considerable increase in size.
“Oh, dear. I do hope our heroes are okay!” Thinkingway exclaimed, only lowering the device for a moment.
“I’m certain they will succeed,” Nona replied.
Lightning struck one of the devices at the base of the Aether Anchor. Crews from both Garlond Ironworks and Sharlayan struggled to extinguish the flames and assess the damage.
“You’re right!” Thinkingway said nervously. “They’re fine! They’re going to be fine!”
He returned to watching the anomaly through the viewfinder.
Squish and Kaetu slipped inside without a hitch, slinking into the fantastically long dining room. The table was adorned with elaborate silver plates and flatware, crystal wine glasses, and floral arrangements. Candles were lit all along the table length into the distance. However, there was no food on the menu. Instead, scattered belongings lie on the plates – necklaces, handbags, watches, coins, and brooches. It was a feast of valuables, it seemed.
The two walked for quite some time before something came into view.
Beneath a skylight just ahead, the table ended where five men were seated – one at the very end and flanked by two others on each side. They sat there, motionless in the dusty beams of sunlight as if statues, their heads down and faces obscured by the hoods of their dark robes.
The inevitability of their discovery was clear, so Kaetu and Squish dispensed with the sneaking and strolled up to the group with weapons ready – Kaetu in front with his bow and Squish behind him with her ornate Serenity staff.
“Hello, there,” Kaetu said, hoping the people at the table might respond to friendliness.
There was silence at first, but the man at the end of the table eventually spoke. “We took everything they had,” he rasped.
Squish and Kaetu were visibly confused, their eyes drawn then to the valuables on the table.
“So, you’re thieves, eh?” Kaetu asked and readied an arrow.
“We took it all,” the man repeated, this time, the voice seemed to originate from inside Squish’s and Kaetu’s heads. “We took everything!” the man shouted as he suddenly stood.
“I have a feeling it’s going to get violent,” Squish said in a sing-song tone. She readied herself by calling Swiftcast in preparation.
The rest of the seated then stood and threw off their robes to reveal armor fit for highwaymen. Their leader was armed with a short sword while the others bore a mixture of daggers, maces, and crossbows. All their faces were blank – completely missing as if they were erased, except for their leader, though, whose mismatched blue and silver eyes and distorted grimace were exceptionally striking.
Kaetu deflected a dagger thrust with the bulky lower limb of his bow. He loaded an arrow, then released to fire a shot into the chest of an assailant farther to his right who thought to take advantage of the opening.
Squish raised her staff high. She cracked its crystalline lamp-like centerpiece down onto the skull of the first attacker, causing him to stumble backward while Kaetu loaded his next volley.
Kaetu drew the string backward and released the arrow into the direct center of the first attacker’s head. The specter burst into a cloud of dark spheres that swirled, then diffused like smoke.
Squish cast Aero on the second attacker, which sent him tumbling backward and over the table. A cacophony of breaking dishes and crashing utensils followed, and the entire end of the table collapsed. Tumbling candles ignited the tablecloth, and a blaze soon grew out of control.
Kaetu caught a glimpse of a loaded crossbow and turned to roll away from its line of fire. The bolt struck him in the right thigh, lodging into his flesh. He tumbled over and returned fire from a kneeled position to strike the assailant in the abdomen with a charged shot. The impact sent the enemy backward, but a second hit higher in the chest knocked him backward onto the floor.
Squish rushed to Kaetu’s side to find him pulling at the bolt stuck in his leg. He pulled it out with a wince and threw it to the side. Squish began to cast a potent cure spell, only to be disrupted by a falling blade, followed by an iron sphere swung by a chain. This sent the two heroes darting in either direction just as a shattering sound came from above.
Through the skylight, two figures came crashing down into the hall. Koharu and Lyra landed on the hard stone with a wide gust of wind that sent dust and bits of debris scattering about.
They drew their weapons.
“Kaetu, are you okay!?” Lyra shouted over the roaring flames.
Kaetu smiled at her while holding pressure on his bleeding leg. Sweat dripped down his face.
Koharu deflected a strike from the bandit leader’s blade, leaving a shower of sparks behind in the air. She darted to the side and positioned herself beside Lyra; together, they formed a blockade in front of Squish and Kaetu.
“Koharu and Lyra! So lovely to see you!” Squish called out cheerfully. She readied her cure spell while the other two distracted the remaining foes. “Just a second, Kaetu,” she said and swirled her staff in the air. Its adornments clinked and jingled with the motion, and a font of aether appeared and washed over their wounded friend.
As a finishing touch, Squish dove in for a big hug as the healing spell began to seal the wound.
“Lyra-san. It is two against three,” Koharu said while staring down her blade at the third bandit rising from the floor in a twisted mass, limbs bent in unnatural ways and arrows protruding from his torso.
“Fine by me!” Lyra yelled while moving in for the attack, and it was at that moment the leader of the specters looked Lyra directly in the eyes.
“She’ll kill us all if you keep this up,” he growled.
Lyra deflected the leader’s blade. She used a charged shell on impact, sending the enemy stumbling backward from the blast and over burning furniture.
With incredible speed and precision, Koharu sliced a flying crossbow bolt into splinters. The mirror sheen of her blade flickered in the firelight as it swung through the air. She dashed forward in the blink of an eye, and with an upward diagonal strike, slashed the deformed creature apart.
Just then, a wash of bright light filled the space prompting Lyra and Koharu to raise their guards, but it was Squish who launched a surprise attack from behind. She had cast Holy and unleashed a wave of hallowed aether forward like a tsunami that blasted the remaining foes into oblivion. The intensity of the pulse extinguished much of the closest flames.
“Great job! Really great,” Kaetu cheered and clapped his hands, and Squish performed a bow to his applause. She started to dance around the end of the hall despite the lingering smoke.
“Sorry we were late,” Lyra said. “I don’t really understand how we got here, but we fell for a while before reaching this place.” She loaded two cartridges into the empty cylinder slots on her gunblade, then snapped the mechanism back together.
“Hai. Lyra-san and I heard your battle below and readied ourselves,” Koharu added with a nod. She followed Squish with her eyes for a moment, then continued, “Our linkpearls failed. There was no way to contact you, but … one moment, we were in the fortress. The next, we were here. This world is truly strange.”
Kaetu crunched glass beneath his boots. He gazed upward at the shattered skylight, but behind the frame was only more stone. There was no passage upward, no opening whatsoever. He shrugged.
“Glad you’re okay, though. Thinkingway warned us this world would be weird,” Kaetu added. “And he was right.”
Lyra and Koharu agreed with a nod.
Squish danced along the back wall but froze when she noticed a single block of slightly darker stone that stuck out from the flat surface. She pressed it with her palm, and a hidden, circular door peeled open with a puff of dust.
“I think I found our way out,” she shouted to the group and pointed. “It’s a dirty hole!”
Through the tunnel was a stone staircase that spiraled down for almost a hundred yalms, then gave way to yet another hall, changing from drab stone suddenly to bright wooden boards.
Along the walls were slender windows reaching nearly to the ceiling, and their panes were dirty and smudged. What our heroes could see through them, as they walked that slender path, changed with nearly every step. A lush, verdant landscape evolved into a frozen, white tundra by the time they reached the threshold at the end.
“Then, the Calamity happened, and everything changed. Mother fell ill, and … I suppose it wasn’t long before I did, too.”
Inside the large room at the end sat a single figure upon a solitary throne – a woman wearing an elegant, black dress as if she were ready for a funeral. Her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe, each inhalation more painful than the last. Her skin was a pale gray, and she stared blankly at the floor with eyes like onyx.
A second, ghostly image of her broke the silence, occupying the same space but weeping, wailing in despair.
“You should never have come here,” the woman said. Her voice was so dry and hollow. Her chest heaved while the sound howled from within like the others. “There is only loss. Only death!” She stood from her seated position to spread her arms wide.
From the fabric of her dress, black vines sprouted and stretched across the room. The inky black fabric took the form of a pack of wolves to surround the group.
“I am Sorrow,” she screeched painfully, “and I will consume you!”
“Sorry, we’re not on the menu!” Kaetu shouted and fired his bow straight upward to perform Rain of Death, showering the area with crimson arrows from above. Most of the dozen wolves were destroyed in the attack, but a few regrew from the black vines writhing across the floor.
Squish held her staff not far from her nose as she whispered. She raised it high over her head to release Afflatus Misery as a second area of effect wave. “Go!” she shouted to Koharu and Lyra who darted through the regenerating wolves.
Koharu leapt forward to slash at the right arm of Sorrow’s dress, but the creature had moved just slightly and minimized the blow. Right behind her, Lyra lunged in with an upward swing, and a strong blast from the gunblade’s Brutal Shell sent Sorrow stumbling backward.
Koharu swung in underneath from Lyra’s left and sliced part of the vines from Sorrow’s right side. More vines quickly sprouted from her back in a sort of winged shape in response.
In a lightning-fast move, Lyra loaded a blue shell and snapped the cylinder back into place and flung Heart of Corundum to Koharu who had just raised her blade to parry. The large, black wing swatted Koharu backward but left an opening for Lyra to directly hit Sorrow’s body down the middle with Blasting Zone.
The blast was bright. Debris of the throne splintered and scattered across the room in the earsplitting explosion. The heroes regrouped in the center of the space as Sorrow writhed, her cries so intense that everyone covered their ears desperately.
Sorrow’s body was split partially down the center with a purple, crystalline blood gushing from the jagged cut and pooling on the floor while she thrashed about. A small sphere could be seen within the wound. Its skin was that of a window to reality warped around the curved surface.
Seeing this, Kaetu pulled a special volley from his quiver and drew it back.
Sorrow cried even louder and caused the group to wince again, but Squish managed to cast Divine Benison and shield the group in a glowing dome. It was a slight relief from the excruciating pain, but the barrier fluctuated. It wobbled under the pressure.
It would not hold long.
Koharu managed to raise her blade in an attempt to meditate. Her form was engulfed in a fiery glow while she concentrated despite the pain. She grimaced.
The world around the heroes began to crumble and collapse. Pieces of the walls tumbled and bounced from the barrier dome. Openings revealed a deteriorating world. Outside, the environment stirred endlessly like stew, from a green forest to a frozen tundra and back again.
“Hope is dead!” Sorrow screeched, her double image thrashing as well.
“My name’s Hope,” she said with a smile.
“Hope!” Lyra shouted. She struggled to step forward, to get closer.
Sorrow’s cries blasted the group backward, fully shattering the protective dome. Squish screamed in pain while Lyra struggled against the waves to get closer.
Kaetu sweated as he stared down the arrow.
“Listen to me!” Lyra shouted. “Hope is alive!” she yelled through the sonic onslaught.
Kaetu fired a volley at the sphere, but the chaos ensured it slightly missed. He loaded another.
“She’s alive!” Lyra screamed.
The double-image of Sorrow seemed to finally hear Lyra’s words. It cried in pain – a new pain: one from knowing her daughter lived while she did not. “Hope lives?” she cried. Sorrow’s second-self wrapped its arms around the first-self and held so tightly it restricted the movements.
“Now!” Lyra shouted.
On that mark, Koharu released Hissatsu: Guren in a flaming line and struck Sorrow directly. She followed it with Hissatsu: Senei and shredded the creature apart in a violent whirl of strikes.
Kaetu fired the shot.
A fire blazed in The Forgotten Knight’s fireplace. It was stuffy and crowded again, which was not what Lyra hoped to find after such a taxing adventure. Still, it wasn’t nearly as hot as last time; she could handle it.
She threw back another drink and rested her head on her hand. She smiled, but only briefly, as there was a commotion at the upper entryway that caught her attention.
Lyra looked over her shoulder to Hope, whose gaze rose from the floor to meet hers.
“Boss, we’re gonna’ drink real good on all this coin,” the large vagrant chuckled as he passed through the doorway and into the warmth of the pub.
“Only the best this time, right?” the smaller, greasy man chimed in.
His enthusiasm faded once he realized Lyra stood on the stairway and blocked their path. She walked up slowly and threateningly.
The two muggers stepped backward onto the landing awkwardly, only to bump into their leader who did not move and whose mismatched eyes were locked onto Lyra.
“It’s that hopper again,” the greasy one said and drew his dagger.
“I think it’s time we taught her a lesson,” the larger man said. He wrapped the chain of his flail around his hand and moved in for a punch.
Lyra caught his arm, twisted it behind his body and broke it with an upward pull. She kicked him in the spine to send him flying straight into the greasy man. They were launched across the landing and slammed into the stone wall.
“Not again…” a weak voice groaned, and an artwork frame fell onto the two limp bodies.
Their leader moved to thrust with his short sword.
He was considerably faster than the other two. He was clearly the bandit she expected, but Lyra deftly avoided the strike. She punched him in the sternum with such fury that it sent him backward through the closed, wooden door.
Outside, the two muggers limped in the snow and dragged their leader away by his boots.
##
Zwahn Tales 