The Reach Between Worlds (The Arclight Saga, Book 1) (27 page)

The Arclight

The platform stopped in a long hall with a clear glass floor. Beneath the glass was a starry black sky; periodically a thin beam of light would connect the stars into brilliant constellations. Rishan the Hunter, Iset and Coset, the twin angels, the Bow of Sarona all glittered and sparkled in a sea of blackness.

The hall lead to tall double doors. Aside from the stars and a thin strip of blue light along the base of the walls, it was dark. The arched door at the end was carved with deep, beveled grooves and gold-tipped red flourishes. This was the original Arclight emblem now used as part of the Endran crest, probably seen by Sun King Aldor over a thousand years ago.

On the floor were the broken frames of six sphere-shaped constructs with glass lenses on their fronts. Their stone and steel casings were cracked and the gears inside sputtered and twitched. One of the constructs hovered off the floor when it saw Taro, but quickly crashed back down.

The circular room on the other side had little floor space. The only clear area was the narrow path from the door, and the area around a dais in the center. Hundreds of arm-wide pipes ran along the ceiling, walls, and floor leading towards the dais. The room shifted like a clock, and when it moved each pipe connected to another in a different way.

The surrounding walls were red-tinted glass and the entire Endran countryside was visible.

The intensity of the Arclight was more than anything Taro had imagined. He could feel the light in his skin, penetrating into his very soul, however the heat from the fire was unnaturally cool, considering how close he was.

Vexis had her hand pressed against the fiery dais. When she lifted her hand from the dais the flames disappeared. She was all smiles. “Ah, Taro. Fancy seeing you alive. Your sister was right about you.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Taro said. “You already have revenge on the Magisterium. What’s the point in killing everyone?”

“It's not up to me.” She glanced at Halric. “Revenge comes at a price, and it’s time to pay it.”

She pressed her palm to the dais and fire erupted into the air. Shadows coalesced around her arm and slithered into the flames, turning them deep purple as the darkness expanded.

“You’d pay with Kadia’s life?” Taro said it as an afterthought. He didn’t expect it to actually have an effect considering Vexis was willing to murder an entire city of people. However, the moment the words left his mouth, Vexis’ body tensed up.

“How do you know Kadia?” she said in an accusatory tone.

“He’s trying to distract you.” Halric shook her free arm.

“I met her at a hospital in-town,” Taro said quickly. He tried to remember some small detail that would confirm his story. Something only Kadia would know. “...Valros. He’s your dad, right?”

Vexis lifted her hand from the dais and the flames dissipated. Her stare was furious, and Taro was glad it wasn't directed towards him.

“You said she’d be far away from here,” Vexis said.

Dr. Halric took a cautious step backwards. “Taro is a practiced liar."

Vexis thought deeply for a moment. “I want to see her.”

Halric turned nasty at her defiance. “We’re not taking a timeout to sate your curiosity. Your sister is safe and sound, as was our agreement.”

Vexis doubled-down on her demanding tone. “I want to see her.”

Halric didn’t waiver. “If you want her to live you'll fulfill our bargain.”

Vexis' fingers clenched a stone handrail around the dais, and she squeezed it so hard that it cracked. “If you ever threaten my sister again I will tear every bone from."

Halric sneered. “It’s not a threat, it’s a promise.”

For Vexis, it was like some great, seething rage bubbled to the surface. She raised her hand and the shadows pooled around her. One of them lashed towards Halric, but stopped inches from his face.

Halric touched it with one sagging finger and it evaporated. “You’re just like your sister. Weak. Small-minded. Unable to understand the gift I’ve given you.”

Taro summoned every ounce of templar he had and seized Halric by the arm, but he was swatted away easily. “You don’t honestly think you can contend with me, do you?”

Dr. Halric waved his hand and the force of his templar was like an ocean being dropped on Taro’s head. For a moment it felt as though his bones were going to crack from the pressure.

Halric knelt nearby and forced Taro’s head to turn to the side.

“You mortals get under my skin,” Halric said. “Running about your pitiful, pointless lives. You steal your templar and call yourselves magisters. Let me show you true magic.”

Halric placed one hand on Taro’s neck and the other on his forehead. Taro had felt this before when Kyra opened his templar. Halric’s templar was as deep and terrible as Taro had imagined it to be. It washed through Taro’s body and charged every one of his veins with such force that he felt as though his soul would burst from his chest.

“So easy to corrupt, just like your sister,” Halric whispered. “It’s a shame you won’t get to see what I’ve got planned for her.”

It was like a bomb had gone off in Taro’s mind. His eyes shot opened and Halric recoiled like he’d pressed his hand against a hot oven. Taro grabbed the old man by his neck.

Taro was sweating and panting. “Do you know what happens when you take a blowtorch to a candle?”

“You can’t do this,” Halric said, “you’re just a—"

Taro slammed his fist into Halric’s cheek and the doctor tumbled back. Vexis was near the Arclight controls, and at Taro’s motioning, she pressed her hand to the dais and flames exploded into the air. Taro charged at the disoriented Halric and shoved him into the beam of fire.

Flames consumed him like a leaf in a furnace, and the machinery sputtered and shards of glass exploded from the Arclight controls. An arc of raw energy struck Vexis square in the chest and she tumbled backwards onto the floor.

Taro was completely unable to move for a long while. He’d used every ounce of templar in his body to fight back against Halric. When he heard footsteps approaching him, he couldn’t even bring himself to turn his head.

“You've made quite a mess of things.” It was Aris. When he touched Taro on the shoulder, he regained enough energy to move.

Taro looked around and found Vexis’ body.

“Dead,” Aris said, anticipating Taro’s question. “The doctor?”

“Gone.”

“Aris, my friend,” Vexis called. Her voice was weak and barely raised about a whisper, but she seemed frightfully smug. “Never thought we’d meet here again, did you?”

“You said she was dead,” Taro said.

“Just wishful thinking on my part. I'll finish the job.”

Blood trickled down Vexis’ chin. “Do what you want. I’m going to live forever. I brought the great Magisterium to its knees.” She chuckled and wiped blood onto her sleeve. “Taro, do you know why Halric’s templar wasn’t able to corrupt you? Because you fight for something other than yourself. You believe in something other than yourself. He was just like Aris.”

Taro glared at her. “Aris is a far better person than you'll ever be."

Vexis coughed out a laugh. “Aris fights for nobody. He believes in nothing but himself. He was willing to plunge this city into darkness for his own selfish ends. Believe what you want, but there’s only one villain in this room, and he’s standing right there.”

There was a long span of silence before Aris spoke. “She’s right, Taro.” He approached the Arclight and placed his hand over his mouth. “I thought my freedom was worth more than a few pitiful mortal lives... that was just arrogance.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I think I can return what was given to me. But I think... I think it might kill me.” Aris’ hands crackled and energy seeped from his pores.

"There has to be another way," Taro said.

Aris smiled a warm, genuine smile. “I have no doubt you’ll make a splendid magister someday. Try not to sell yourself short.”

Aris touched the Arclight dais and fire erupted from the platform larger and brighter than ever. It didn’t just go up, it went out in every direction. It expanded like a bubble around Aris, who stood enveloped in white light.

Warm light shined into every corner of the city and countryside. Night became day, and the Arclight burned steadily.

Aris stood like a cracked statue. The flesh on his palm was bloody and burned. Taro watched and waited for the burns to heal themselves, but it never happened. Aris’ skin crackled and glowing white energy seeped out like fog on a lakefront. Within seconds there was nothing left of him but thin smoke.

“I didn’t think he had it in him,” Vexis said.

Taro approached her and pressed his foot against her throat. “You deserve to die.”

“I can’t stop you.”

“Tell me what Halric did with Nima,” Taro said.

“Nima?”

“My sister!” Taro shouted and grinded his heel into her. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

There was no lie in her eyes. Whatever Halric had done to Nima he’d done so on his own, and with both him and Mathan dead, finding her may have been impossible.

The City of the Sun

It was two days before Kyra and the others returned from Tyrithia. With them they brought not only a dozen magisters (including Ven’s mother and father), but five hundred warders armed to the teeth.

They landed the
Eventide
outside the Midway. All of the ice and snow had melted, leaving behind only moist soil and budding foliage. It was a warm summer’s day and everything seemed six shades brighter.

“I was wondering when you’d get here,” Taro said as Kyra marched down the
Eventide
’s ramp.

Kyra’s voice was cold. “Vexis?”

“Dead,” Taro said. “Magister Ross is locked up.”

“You’ll be joining her soon.” Kyra looked to the warders. “Seize him.”

Taro put palms towards them. “Wait, wait, wait. Please.”

“Whatever good you think you’ve done, you were a conspirator in the murder of my father. You should’ve left when you had the chance.”

“Tell me,” a voice called from a distance. “How can you charge someone for the murder of a man who is still alive?” The Sun King strolled on the stone walkway towards them.

Kyra melted when she saw him. For a moment she couldn’t even form words, and settled on running towards him and almost tackling him to the ground. He swept her up and hugged her tight.

“Vexis said you were dead.”

She let him go and tried to regain her composure, but the tears in her eyes gave away just how overwhelmed she was.

“Vexis said many things. She kept me alive to watch the downfall of my kingdom.” The Sun King waved Taro to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “But she didn’t count on the extraordinary bravery of Mr. Taro.”

The Sun King peaked over Kyra’s shoulder at the small army she’d brought with her. He laughed out loud when he saw it. “Kyra, you’re truly my daughter through and through.” He kissed her on the forehead.

Ven’s father approached the Sun King. “Your Majesty, permission to secure the tower?”

“Please do,” the Sun King said.

_____

The searches for Nima seemed unending, and the Sun King was quick to offer resources toward finding her, but after months of searching Taro began to accept that even if she was alive, Halric could’ve sent her anywhere in the world.

As the months passed the city only grew more beautiful. The Arclight scoured the city of the Corruption and cold. Farmers returned to their land, fishers to the lakes surrounding the city, and life slowly returned to normal in the eternally-daytime countryside.

Word of Vexis’ duplicity spread (Leorin was especially helpful in this regard) but many viewed her as a hero regardless. Still, the hostility to the Magisterium was a dim memory. People had jobs to perform, crops to till, and lives to lead.

It didn’t take long for life in the Magisterium to return to normal. The artificers had been promised extra work credits and two nobles an hour if they assisted in tower repairs.

Magister Briego became imperator without much fanfare, and Kyra took his place as head of Artificing. Briego didn’t see it as a promotion, but rather an annoyance that kept him away from his tinkering. Kyra, meanwhile, became the youngest magister in history.

She and Taro hadn’t spoken since that day in the courtyard. Taro ran through what he wanted to say a thousand times in his mind. He imagined every possible outcome. Did she hate him? Did she forgive him? Was that even possible? When he finally got up the nerve to visit her in the Artificium, she barely looked up from her desk. She had a screwdriver out and was tightening a bolt on what looked like one of the constructs from the Arclight hallway.

“What are you working on?” Taro said.

Kyra looked away pointedly.

“Kyra, I...” His voice trailed off.

“You what?” Kyra said.

“I know I can never take back what happened.”

Kyra placed the part down. “Taro, remember what I said when I kicked you off the
Eventide
?”

“You said you didn’t love me.” The memory stung.

“I was lying. I love you more than I ever thought I could.”

Taro’s heart soared for a moment before crashing down.

“And I hate myself for it,” Kyra added. “I hate looking at you. I hate seeing you. My father might consider the matter closed, might even consider you a hero, but I know the truth.” Kyra went back to fiddling with the construct.

Taro left without another word. In retrospect, it was foolish to think that she would forgive him. Despite all reason, he did little things to see her. He volunteered for tower repairs in the same sections she was in, but every time he saw her it only made things worse.

Of all the terrible things that had happened, Taro took comfort in the fact that he hadn’t lost Ven and Suri as friends. He told them everything, from beginning to end, expecting them to treat him as Kyra did. After some hard words, all of which Taro rightfully deserved, they forgave him.