Silence (28 page)

Nothing happened. After a moment, he
heard the reverberating double-tone again.

“
I am not
any manner of deity. I the Sycrarian exile. I assumed you some
manner of deity; your voice was the crystal focus that summoned me
here,”
the Sycrarian mused, looking
at Sheikoh with an appraising flare in the twin flames of its eyes.
Sheikoh looked back confused.

“
Wait, I summoned you? What
are you talking about?” Sheikoh asked whatever was inside of
Emili’s body.

The walls of the room
suddenly reverberated with the sound of Sheikoh’s screaming.
‘-YOU IMMORTAL ASSHOLE! SHOW YOURSELF!!!!’
Sheikoh felt a flush rise on his
cheeks.

Did this thing… see…
everything?

“
Well, I have a question,”
Sheikoh said, narrowing his eyes at the creature. “Why didn’t you
just appear here? Why are you inside of Emili’s body right
now?”

“
You
summoned me here, I came. You couldn’t see my essence, so I was
compelled to appear before your person. I took possession of the
only empty vessel available,
”
Khryzt explained without
inflection.  

Sheikoh nodded, looking at the
leaping, white flames of the creature’s eyes
thoughtfully.   

“
So I summoned you? I
somehow forced you here?” Sheikoh asked. The white-flame-eyes
flickered with green and blue sparks, and Emili’s head
nodded.

“
Explain,” Sheikoh ordered,
watching the color-edged flames in Emili’s eyes spit rainbow sparks
above her hair.

Was he saying he was forced to obey
Sheikoh..? Then again…

Anything seemed possible in this
strange world.

“
It is as
I said, my lord. You called and I came. Of course, I assumed that
‘immortal asshole’ was some outer world reference to me, the
Sycrarian exile. By definition, we are undoubtedly
immortal,”
the Sycrarian’s
power-filled voice murmured in response.
“Though if you wish me to leave-

“
No! No, that’s quite all
right, mate,” Sheikoh told the ‘Sycrarian’ hurriedly, who nodded
Emili’s head solemnly.

“
As you
wish,”
it replied in a haunting
double-voice.

    “
So
what’s your name, mate?” Sheikoh asked, thinking hard.

   
“Before my exile, I was called Khryzt
Arian,”
Khryzt murmured introspectively.
Sheikoh shivered a little at the creature’s alien voice.

    “
Why
were you exiled? And where were you exiled from?” Sheikoh asked
Khryzt slowly. The thief wasn’t about to start making plans based
on the information of a being that he knew nothing about. There was
a pause, as though Khryzt was trying to remember.

   
“A vision took hold of me as I lay in my former
home, spanning the depths of the Black Moon. My mind was wrenched
by the image of myself entering the challenge ring to face the most
powerful of all of the Sycrarian, Zynia Faet. I knew that I would
not survive the battle. Fear drove me out of the Black Moon. I
dared to disobey the orders of the Celestial Crescent, so I was
exiled for all of eternity. I exist alone to wander the
Transcendent Plane in punishment,”
Khryzt
Arian told Sheikoh, voice dripping with regret.

   
“You have the power to release me from my exile.
I will exchange any willing service if you would only let me
go...”

    “
Let
you go? What would that involve?” Sheikoh asked.

   
“You could… Grant me permission to finally…
dissipate…”
Khryzt’s double-voice
finished.

   
It was
ironically exactly what Sheikoh had been demanding when he’d
inadvertently summoned the Sycrarian here. The teenager felt a
flash of pity, but he just couldn’t let go of the revulsion that
gripped his stomach at the knowledge that the creature was inside
of Emili’s body, even if it wasn’t really her body.

Sheikoh’s eyes widened a fraction. He
narrowed them back into an expressionless mask. He knew that the
idea didn’t bear thinking about. The notion was be morally
abhorrent, a perversion of nature. He had seen enough movies to
know that playing god never ended well, so Sheikoh wasn’t going to
try anything until he knew whether his idea might work.
  

    “
I
could help you return to your people, couldn’t I?” Sheikoh asked
slyly.

Khryzt’s fiery eyes spat a whirlwind
of colored sparks. The creature hesitated a moment before nodding
Emili’s head in assent.

   
“The Celestial Crescent is subject to the will of
an Outworlder,”
Khryzt confirmed in twin
hopeful voices. Sheikoh nodded back.

    “
Okay
then. Here’s the deal. You bring Emi to life, and show us how to
get back to the outside world, and I’ll get you back to that Black
Moon of yours. Sound like a deal?” Sheikoh offered with glittering
eyes, holding a hand out to the Sycrarian.

   
“You vow that you’ll end my exile and force the
Celestial Crescent to forgive my crime?”
Khryzt echoed, sounding desperate. Sheikoh nodded at the
Sycrarian with a jittery smile. Khryzt didn’t make any motion to
grasp Sheikoh’s outstretched hand, so he simply held it
up.

    “
So
what do I have to do to get you back there?” Sheikoh asked with a
smile.

   
“Offer your forgiveness to the plane,”
Khryzt told him
hungrily.   

“
I, Sheikoh, give Khryzt
forgiveness for any crimes that he’s committed, as long as he
brings me and a living Emili back to Earth,” Sheikoh intoned with
excitement, wondering if this was really possible. He hoped with
every fiber of his desperate being that he wasn’t lying unconscious
in the rubble of Sanatous’s house right now. This was all very
unrealistic.  

“
The terms are acceptable,
”
Khryzt responded gravely in its eerie voice, the
white flames of its eyes flared with multicolored
sparks.

“
Firstly, we must revive
this empty body. The only way that we might accomplish that
requires that we draw out the body’s individual soul. When this Emi
lived-”

“
Emili. Emili Wray,”
Sheikoh quietly interrupted the Sycrarian.

“
Then I
will search for this Emili Wray,”
The Khryzt told Sheikoh in its powerful, menacing
voice.

The Sycrarian sat down and shut
Emili’s eyelids over the white flames in her eyes. Sparks escaped
from underneath Emili’s lashes and twinkled with different colors.
Sheikoh paced for a while, before sitting across from Khryzt. He
watched the brilliant sparks float around while he waited
anxiously. After what seemed like forever, Khryzt opened Emili’s
eyes. Their sudden flickering startled Sheikoh.
  

“
Emili
Wray is already dissipated. I cannot bring her back,”
the Khryzt informed him. The Sycrarian’s double
voice dashed through Sheikoh’s hopes like a sliver of ice.
“But there might be another way…”

Sheikoh waited with baited
breath.

“
Did you love
her?”

He started.

The creature sounded genuinely
curious. Sheikoh looked at it with a wild desperation, before
glancing back down. He had loved Emili, but he had never told the
girl. Sheikoh was ashamed. He suddenly realized that he had
something in common with the flame-eyed creature; both of them had
proven cowards.

“
Yes
. I still do,” Sheikoh whispered
quietly.

“
Only
Outworlders love. It is the signature of creation. You and this
Emili Wray might share the traces of your death shattered bond. If
so, we could recreate the soul’s structure and then reinforce it
with the energies of the Transcendent Plane. Shall I, my
lord?”
Khryzt suggested in its
double-tone.

“
Do it, mate,” Sheikoh told
him with a hopeful nod.

Memories of the happiest moments that
Sheikoh had shared with Emili flickered through his mind faster
than he could comprehend. He could feel a well of warmth light up
his chest. It grew and grew, faster and faster, until it burned
throughout his body like a raging inferno. Sheikoh raised his face
to the white ceiling and opened his mouth in a scream of pain, but
nothing came out of his mouth. Sheikoh could feel something
crawling through his throat. He wanted to gag but he couldn’t.
 

Suddenly, tendrils of sapphire light
forced themselves out of Sheikoh’s mouth and eyes, leaving a sense
of relief in their wake. The floated in the air and wrapped around
one another until they’d taken the weakly glowing silhouette of
Emili. It was easily the most beautiful thing that he’d ever seen.
 

Then he flinched as the soul twitched
and jolted under the barrage of an internal explosion of white
life. Sheikoh turned and saw the solid Emili’s mouth was open in
scream, gushing rainbow-outlined power into her soul. Sheikoh
turned from the Sycrarian and watched it glow brighter and brighter
until he had to cover his eyes before the blinding
light.

Khryzt stopped blasting power out of
Emili’s mouth. Sheikoh’s neck snapped over to the soul and his
heart leapt. Emili’s soul opened its brilliant eyes and looked at
him for a moment. Then the soul walked into Emili’s body and
disappeared with a ripple of light. Emili’s eyes were still leaping
with white flames.

“
Now for
the last part of our agreement; yours and Emili’s passage back
home,”
Khryzt reminded Sheikoh, who
bobbed his head quickly in assent.

“
Let’s do this, mate. And
thank you so much for everything that you’ve done. Really,” Sheikoh
expressed fervently. Emili’s neck bent in a limp nod.

“
Travel
between the Transcendental Plane and the outside world is only
possible through the two artifacts, the Transcendental Amulet and
Codex,”
Khryzt explained to Sheikoh
in its eerie voice.

“
So that explains how I got
here…. And why Dream wants that book…” Sheikoh thought out
loud.

Was Dream after the Sycrarian’s
crescent thing? Was that why the Celestial wanted to codex and
amulet - to get here? He shot a guilty glance at Khryzt.

“…
But they didn’t come here
with me,” Sheikoh told the Sycrarian, forcing himself to hold the
white-flame eyes rather than glance over Emili’s features. “The
amulet and codex brought me here but they didn’t come with
me?”

“
They
came with you,”
Khryzt told
Sheikoh.
“You seem to have carried them
here inside of you. You just have to find them inside. Close your
eyes and picture the amulet and the codex; they’ll be there. Then,
hold onto Emili when you attach them to one another. Thank you, my
lord. Farewell.”

The white fire in Emili’s eyes died in
an instant and the girl collapsed onto the white floor. Sheikoh ran
to her side, and felt her neck for a pulse. He instantly made out
the strong beat with a flare of ecstasy. He sat down next to Emili
and crossed his legs, pulling the girl’s unconscious head onto his
lap. He brushed her hair out of her face and stare at her lovingly
for a minute. Then Sheikoh closed his eyes.

As soon as he tried, Sheikoh could
vividly see the Transcendental Artifacts in his mind’s eye. The
rune on the Codex’s black leather cover was as sharp as the
morning’s first rays of sunrise. He could even make out the little
scuff marks along the leather spine and the wrinkled, yellowed
pages that made the book seem wider than it was with perfect
clarity that even the best memory couldn’t match.

Resting on top of the grizzled tome
lay the softly-beaten, silver amulet that Dream had given him. At
the chain’s end, the runed pendant hung over the side of the black
tome. Sheikoh could see the otherworldly inscription so clearly,
that he could have copied each of its individual runes winding
around the circle if only he’d had a piece of paper. It was like
they were right there in front of him. Sheikoh connected the amulet
to the codex inside of his mind.

He and Emili were jerked from the
empty white room so fast that, for an instant, Sheikoh thought that
his body had been stretched by the speed. He stared at the
beautiful face of the sleeping Emili as the two rocketed through
the middle of a wild vortex. The rushing storm felt like the kiss
of a gentle breeze to the teenager as he flew through the air. The
two landed dizzily, knocking up a cloud of dust.

Sheikoh lay on the ground, breathing
in the familiar night air. He could feel grass beneath his back as
he just lay peacefully in the moment. Strangely, Sheikoh could tell
that he wasn’t lying in Sanatous’s house. After everything that had
happened though, he wouldn’t have been surprised to have fallen
into the middle of the Great Ocean. He opened his eyes and looked
around with a feeling of contentment.