Thirty-one
Fallen
She didn't notice that the days had passed. The air was unusually heavy in the library for the ending of winter months. The mists had parted, but the leaves and flowers remained asleep – as if they had forgotten to wake up. Ebesi had kept her promise and Delta could count the words they had exchanged whilst the Alkhemite kept herself away from her. Anobus sought to spend as much time as possible with her, trying to seek her opinion on the smallest and dullest things looking for her in the eatery, even attempting to engage with her about the admissions to Goru. Unfortunately, the new head scribe would always pry Anobus' attention from her and in a strange demented way, Delta was relieved.
Communication had become an exhausting chore, following eating, sleeping, washing – everything. Even A'gesh wasn't spared from her absence, but the bird found many ways to entertain herself in the indoor and outdoor gardens, as well as retrieving her own meals. The weathermen said they would be making spectacular lightning storms beyond Posied Bay for the coming of spring. They said it would be better than anything they had ever conducted before and urged civilians to come to watch. Delta had other plans when Anobus brought the suggestion to her, but this time she truly did. She was returning to her family's mansion.
For a moment, Delta thought she had entered the wrong coordinates on the teleportation alcove in the library before arriving at the massive foyer. Her boot tapped on the dust-stained grey marble floors as she stepped off the pad. A'gesh whistled through the empty cobwebbed halls of the foyer. It was much darker than it used to be. When she looked up to see the chandelier, she saw only one or two hovering lanterns barely emitting any light. The faint howls of wind were the only thing she heard as she circled around on the filthy carpet. She glanced at the time, perhaps she’d arrived too early, and they were still out. Maybe they had forgotten, but then again, the time did align with Olanta's requests.
“Mother? Father?” she called. It didn't take long and she could hear rustling sounds coming from upstairs. Her attention turned to the metal fence of the spiral stairs, “Lord and Lady Ungbrahe?”
Olanta dashed out. Her unbearably thin form hung over the railing as her reddened eyes locked onto Delta's. “Daughter,” she croaked as a genuine smile spread along her cheeks.
Delta forced a small smile as she watched Olanta dash down the stairs and charge towards her with her arms open for an embrace, one of which she did not want to pass. A'gesh gripped her talons into Delta's shoulder as Olanta squeezed around her arms.
“I've missed you; I've missed you,” Olanta muttered before quickly pulling away to get a good look at her. The emerald silk robe that once sat snugly around her waist was loose and turning dark, while her long white hair was greasy and strung up into a sad bun. It was like viewing a poor effigy of her mother.
“So, no more parties?” Delta said as she glanced around the room.
Olanta breathed out a laugh as her slender hand wrapped itself around her eyes. “I don't miss them, so much energy thrown away just to best each other. What a waste. Though, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss when the Arinu used to come to visit. Yes, I so enjoyed those meetings,” she quietly said.
“Mother, I...” she wanted to say what happened in the last several years, she wanted to tear down the barrier around her mind to show her a mental reel inside but was left with just her quivering lips.
“I heard you're now working in Capihul's library, they couldn't have picked a better scholar,” she said with a grin as her finger gently pinched Delta's cheek, “you've done so well. I've never been prouder.”
“You shouldn't be, I haven't responded to any of yours or father's calls in years, and now, you allowed me to just come over so suddenly-,”
“I've been a dreadful mother,” Olanta's hand shot up as her head shook. The loose strands of hair were waving around her beaten face, “and opening up these doors isn't going to erase decades of your distrust in me. I believed you were inadequate or incapable of surviving in this world. Now, I'm grateful to have been proven so wrong.”
Delta bit her bottom lip hard enough for teeth indents to appear in her flesh. “You didn't trust me either. Goru told me you were a mage long time ago,”
Her smile dropped as she straightened her back. “You met with…”
“I didn't just meet him; he was my mentor at the Tower. Yunn expelled me from Pitach-rhok long before I completed my studies. I was with the Magi Order for years until I saw who they really were,” she said as she scanned her mother's face, “why didn't you tell me?”
“Would you have believed me?” Olanta said as her sad eyes dropped to the floor.
Delta looked to A'gesh circling above their heads before her eyes caught the upstairs railing. “Is father up there?”
Olanta's smile returned and nodded. “Come, he needs to see you.”
Her arm wrapped around Delta's as she led her up the staircase and down the dusty halls in silence. Olanta extended her other arm and tapped her knuckles against the wooden door as a pained groan came from inside. Delta's throat tightened as the door slid apart to see a bloated corpse-like creature that was Durun Ungbrahe. His body was wrapped in tight cloth cocoon resting inside the centre of a round bed. Lor, the same healer that mended her wrist many years ago, stood beside him. Their eyes widened when they saw Delta.
“Been some time, Del,” they said with a smile spreading over their smooth androgynous face. Their manicured nails brushed their short ivory fringe from their golden eyes.
“Greetings,” she said with a slight nod before stepping closer to the bed. Durun's puffed eyes looked as if they have been sewn shut; his porous and pale skin had a thick layer of grease and his unusually red and thick lips were puckered from the tight cream bandages wrapped around his round face. A desperate sigh escaped her opened mouth as a tear fell from her lashes. Olanta's hand gripped around her shoulder as they leaned over the mattress.
“How long has he been sick for?” Delta said looking to the healer.
Lor sighed as their eyes glanced over to the hovering tablet on the nightstand. “Hard to say precisely as phasing sickness can take decades to set in, but he entered this stage of degradation a few months ago.”
“How many stages are there?” she said.
“I'm afraid he is in the last one and neither I, nor any of my colleagues, have the expertise to reverse or stop the process,” they said.
“Can he talk? Does he know I'm here?” she said.
Lor's brow furrowed as their hand moved over Durun's forehead. “He has some awareness of what's around him but doesn't know exactly who's around. He's in a light sleep now.”
“Lor, may we have a moment?” Olanta said.
“I'll be in the guest's room if you need me,” they said before stepping out and quietly sliding the door shut.
“It's being reported that he's suffering from a genetic disorder,” she glanced over to her mother, “but I never heard of it being mentioned by either of you, have I?”
Olanta frowned. “That's a complete lie, Durun had no such disease. Those lowbrows at the phasing lab exposed their workers to the outside of the active phasing fields. Poor Durun had the longest exposure outside that area until it was too late. It's only a matter of time when the others end up like him.”
“But phasing isn't meant to be this detrimental, we use it all the time for universe's sake,” she said.
“True, but a counter field protects those outside space from a phased area. However, Durun said that in geo-phasing the counter field hasn't been extended that far out to stop the extra-planar energy leaks,” she said.
“I was there at the lab and the one below Pitach-rhok, magi practically run those facilities,” Delta said.
“They know about the side-effects, but care little for those they force in it. They're a disease, and I hate my role helping them spread their corruption,” she hissed.
Delta wanted to reach out for his hand, but the bandages had locked his arms and hands against his torso. “What do the bandages do?”
“They slow down cellular degradation and keep him from...essentially falling apart,” Olanta whispered.
“Is he in pain?” she said.
“I'm keeping him from the waking world. I couldn't bear listening to his screams for another second,” her hands covered her pink face as she sobbed into her palms. Her wails bounced off the gold gilded walls, now covered in a thin line of dust on the indents.
It was Delta's turn to gently grip her mother's shoulder. “If he knew I was here, would he want you to wake him?”
Olanta's quivering hands dropped from her wet and blotchy face. “He knows, and he does,”
Delta sighed as Durun's thick eyelids peeled open. She could see his irises moving aimlessly through the tiny crack before landing on her. His lips parted as a guttural groan escaped his throat. “Delta.”
“I'm here,” she said as her backside sunk into the mattress with her hand gently pressing on his soft belly.
“You're a scribe now, a good one,” he mumbled, as his eyes grew wider.
“I'm trying to be,” she said trying to force her jaw from shaking.
“Mayen did a better job than what we could've done,” he said through haggard breaths, “how is she?”
Delta grinned through her growing tears. “Well, more than well – she's up there in the stars with off-worlder's, doing universe-knows-what. She was a better daughter to you than I ever…”
“You were – you are. I was never there for you when I should've been, I wish I could live for another century or even just to hold you now. My job gave us titles, an estate and servants, but took me away from you and your mother.”
“You've always said that if you didn't do it someone else would have to,” she said as fingers wiped the water from her eyes, “terrible things will always happen no matter what.”
“I used to believe I didn't have a choice, but now I really don't have one,” his jaw clenched as his breaths wheezed, “you’re a scribe, you can tell everyone what we…” another agonised groan erupted from his lips as specks of red leaked from the corner of his mouth.
Delta shot her head to Olanta. “Mother, please, he’s in pain-,”
A sudden jolt from the bed returned her focus. His body trembled as his red eyes locked on to hers. “It's not too late for you, daughter. Damn whoever tries to stop you!”
“I can't-I'm not that strong,” she wept.
“Tell them, please, tell everyone what they've done to us!” his face began to twitch as his eyes wildly looked past her shoulder, “Olanta?” he screamed.
Her mother swooped down as her palm clamped around his eyes. The twitches slowed and Durun's face relaxed. When she lifted her palm, he had returned to peace. “I haven't heard his voice in so long,” she whispered.
Thunderous booms roared from behind the floor-length windows. The storms had started. Olanta brushed back the curtains as flashes of white and blue light bombarded the master bedroom. Delta checked her wrist phone and rose to her feet feeling that time had slipped away from her.
“I can't do what he wants, even if I wanted to,” she said.
Olanta released the curtain before turning with her brow raised, “Why?”
“Goru said that the world is broken, the festering wounds have corrupted everyone in it. I didn't want to believe him until I saw it with my own eyes. Then again, I was born with an affliction that no one understood and spent most of my life being miserable because of how I was viewed. I find it difficult to disagree with him,” she said.
“You sound like you want to return to them,” Olanta said.
“As if I ever had a choice. Magi don't let anyone enter their order and leave when they desire,” Delta said.
“I'm not a mage anymore, daughter!” her mother's eyes narrowed.
“Right, yet you still had audiences with them after you 'left'; if you really did, then how and why did Goru know so much about your life, about father's sickness – about me? You're an Arinu harkan, mother, blocking telepathic probes is like flicking an insect off the walls for you,” Delta said as her arms crossed.
“Our family is high profile, magi and anyone who knows how to navigate the aether-network would learn about us,” Olanta sighed as her fingers pressed against her temples, “please, can we not do this right now? No more arguments, I beg you.”
Delta ran her fingers through her hair; her nails were catching the knots in her strands as she tried calming her thoughts. “I don't want to argue or fight at all anymore, it's fruitless.”
She turned to the bedroom door. Her hand was prying the door aside as her eyes looked down to the dark halls towards her old bedroom. Her lips puckered ready to whistle for A'gesh. “Wait,” her mother called.
Her head turned to see Olanta slowly sitting on the bed. “Goru and I were intended for a union.”
“I know that,” Delta replied.
Olanta closed her eyes and sighed. “I was asked to give Durun suggestions on how and where to place those damned geo-phasing devices. After a while, we fell in love, and I couldn't follow through with the magi plans. After I had you, they offered to keep their distance if I gave you up. For the first few months, I had considered it, told them who you were in a previous life and the psionics you wielded would have been a boon to them.”
“So, you didn't end up selling me off until you found out I was mundane, is that it?” Delta said trying to keep her voice and emotions steady.
“No! Because I didn't want you to end up becoming what you were before, whether your psionics were there or not, they would've brutalised you, and I couldn't bear it. I told Goru that I would never submit you to that for as long as I knew about it. How naive of me. That's when I think I became a mother,” she said.
Delta said nothing. It made sense, her whole life finally made sense, but she still couldn't help but feel that animosity every time she looked at Olanta's face. “I need to get to bed.”
Olanta hopped to her feet. “Another thing,” she hurried over to the dressing table, her hand rummaged through a small golden drawer and pulled out a smoky data crystal, “I wrote this years ago, but never could find the opportunity to really do anything with it, I suppose I never will.”
Staring at the old and cracked crystal extended out to her, Delta slowly took it from her mother's warm fingers. “Thank you,” was all she could think to say.
Olanta smiled and sighed with relief. “Please, show it to someone – anyone and I hope one day you won't hate me anymore.”
“I never hated you,” Delta said sharing the smile, “Goodnight, mother.”
Olanta nodded as she rubbed her reddened eyes. Delta turned out of the door into the shadowy halls. A'gesh's chirps called from her old bedroom, she looked down to the open door as her teeth grazed her bottom lip. Her head turned to the guest bedroom before her foot took a step towards it. The dangers and threats amplified in her mind with every step, Delta knew she was painting a target on herself and her loved ones. Yet, she couldn't bear the thought of letting Goru go on unscathed. She didn't want to remain silent a second longer.
Her knuckles gently tapped on the bedroom door; she heard feet shuffling behind it. Lor's pale and sleepy face met hers. They forced their eyes wider as they gripped onto their sleeping gown tight around their chest. “Delta? Is Durun in need of me?” they said.
“No, apologies for waking you, but I need to ask a favour from you,” she took in a big sigh as her back straightened, “I need you give me a copy of my father's conditions, and of my family's medical records. Everything.”
Lor's eyes widened. “What's this for?”
“Truth,” she said.
~
The glow of the tablet's screen was the only light in the room. When her eyes closed, the surface of her orbs was as dry as stone. She ignored the aches in her neck crawling down to her shoulders and back. She remained in bed reading through everything she and Ebesi had collected since they investigated the pylons. Neither Lor's records on her father's ill health and phasing sickness symptoms that other workers experienced in the laboratories nor her mother's data on mage unfortunately, contained no clear statement on what mage were doing. Perhaps Olanta wanted to forget her life with Goru, or she still had some loyalties to him, but then again, maybe she just didn't know.
Delta's mind ran too hot to be able to sleep. The cracks of light started appearing from the edges of her curtains and sun began showing its face on the land. She took a big gulp of air as she slid her sleeve up to see the day had started. Ebesi would have just left her home and ported to Capihul's library. Her fingers typed out a message, nothing too personal, certainly nothing that the archivist would ignore and nothing Goru would deem suspicious should he see it. “Questions about phasing reports – meet for morning meal?”
A'gesh preened her feathers against her perch as her head popped out from beneath her wing. Their eyes met for a moment before Delta's wrist vibrated. “Waiting.” She smiled, though a small part of her dreaded to meet her. She looked to her purple bird and grinned. Delta stuffed the tablet into her bag and hopped out of bed. A'gesh needed no prompting to swoop onto her shoulder. Delta slid opened the door so familiar to her and walked down the hall she trod so often as child. She peered through the crack of her parent's master bedroom. Olanta had her arms wrapped around the bandaged body of Durun, asleep, peaceful and happy. Something she hadn't seen in a long time, but then she realised she hadn't ever seen the two of them so content with each other.
There was no need to break it, she thought, there was much to do at the library anyway. With a last, lingering glance, she stepped away from the door and hurried down to the alcoves in the dim foyer. A'gesh gave a slight squeal as their bodies were sucked through the airless pocket and blasted out into the eye-piercingly bright hall of the library. She shielded her eyes as her feet tapped onto the freshly polished marble floor. There were very few people up and about this early. Delta spotted that most of them were maintenance and custodial staff of this magnificent and powerful building. The emptiness made her weary, though she had walked these semi-barren halls before many times. Still, there was an air of unease.
The divine smell of baked foods and cut fresh fruits encouraged the muscles in her legs to hasten her walk toward the cafeteria. Even A'gesh stood firm on her shoulder to have a whiff of the lovely smells. One black-haired woman sat alone amongst the barren chairs. Her head didn't even flinch when Delta's footsteps stopped a few inches before her.
“What's the problem?” Ebesi said, her focus remained on the tablet resting on her lap.
“I went to visit my father last night; the phasing sickness is destroying his body. The healer said that he’s in his final stage,” Delta said as she leaned forward to rest on the cushioned chair opposite of her. The thought of her father dying any moment made her chest tighten and saying aloud to someone else made it seem more real.
Ebesi's eyes met hers. There was pain and pity in her deep brown irises but faded a moment later. “I'm sorry to hear about that, but how is this in relation to your question?”
“I was thinking about adding it into the phasing report. The healer gave me a copy of some very troubling side-effects to geo-phasing which needs to be addressed,” she said as her hand dove into the little bag and pulled out her tablet.
“It's already been uploaded, a bit late now,” Ebesi said.
“It can still be added, there's nothing that stipulates reports on topics should be one-offs,” she said growing increasingly frustrated by Ebesi's indifference.
She snatched the device from her fingers and began flicking through the screen. Her eyes were growing wider with every scan. “This is very bad!”
“Clever observation. Few people know about phasing sickness, but even fewer know that those geo-phasing devices aren't equipped with countering fields. Why isn't this discussed? Because...” Delta leaned over as the tip of her finger tapped on her mother's document before leaning back and watching Ebesi's face drop.
“Your mother was mage?” she slowly asked, but her head shook violently as she tossed the device back to Delta, “no, no, I'm not getting involved with that. This is getting ridiculous.”
“Is it?” Delta said while her fingers scrolled through to Goru's name and his face on the screen before showing it to Ebesi, “Recognise this handsome man?”
The Alkhemite's eyes flicked between the holo-image and her. Delta could see the cogs in Ebesi's brain spinning and breaking as the machine fell apart. “He's a mage? But we told him ev-,”
“I know you don't trust me, probably even despise me, but this is so much bigger than us. We need to get this out there, and the only way we can do this is if we go to Alkhem today and give everything we've got on the magi,” she said.
Ebesi stiffened in her seat as her breathing became shallower. “He'll know it was us. We'll be taken by authorities.”
“Far worse things will happen,” Delta rested back into her chair as she soaked in the library halls, “we won't be able to come back here for some time. Alkhem will be our haven and who knows where else after Alkhem is no longer safe.”
“My sensors haven't read anything about the counter fields being implemented when we went to the lab, how could someone miss such an oversight?” she said rubbing her forehead.
“Not difficult when enough people are scared or ill-informed. We need to get Anobus here,” Delta said as her fingers rummaged through the messages on her wrist phone for his name.
Ebesi pulled the tablet from Delta's lap before her eyes glanced over it. “All these pieces are part of a greater picture but scrambled together and look as if they don't fit or have any connection. It's almost as if they don't care about the land beyond this small border – as if it doesn't exist.”
Delta bit her lip, her bracelet vibrated against her wrist when Anobus' message appeared. “He'll be here in a moment. Please tell me that you haven't given every single copy we have on the magi to Goru?”
“When he asked that of us, I knew something was off,” Ebesi smiled as her fingers pulled out a data crystal from her pouch. “Plus, no good researcher would ever their stuff saved on to one thing.”
“You’re the best, Ebesi.” Delta said as she plucked the crystal from her fingers.
Hours passed as they hovered anxiously inside the scribe room. Dishes with half-eaten pieces of bread and empty cups of herbal teas and water lay on the surface. Ebesi's finger was wrapping itself around her short black hairpiece as she looked to Delta. “Don't you have anything to pack from home?”
She glanced to A'gesh, her head dunking in the half-full water cup in the table's centre. “Nothing for me there.”
“What about your parents? You won't be able to see your father again,” she said.
Delta closed her eyes. “Do you believe in life after death, Ebesi?”
She scoffed. “Nothing to believe. I know it to be so.”
“Many remember their past lives; I don't. I've always wondered who I was. If I've lived before, then I will live again and so will others. I hope I get to meet my father again in the next life,” she said.
“What about your mother?” Ebesi said.
“She'll probably outlive me, being an Arinu harkan,” Delta said with a smile.
“Then you'll likely outlive us all. We'll wait for you two in the Plane of the Dead, I promise,” she said.
A knock on the door made their heads snap to it. Anobus slid in with a morning smile on his face. “Relieved to see you two haven't killed each other,” he glanced at Delta and smirked, “though you look like she's roughed you up.”
“Close the door and please open up your senses so we can make sure we're alone,” Delta said before looking to Ebesi, “both of you.”
“Alright, we're alone,” he said slowly as he raised one of his brows.
“I went to see Olanta and Durun last night,” Delta rose from her chair with the tablet in her hand.
“Wow, so you finally took the plunge. Did you finally make up or was it more of 'we never learned our lesson, and this is the last time we'll be in the same room'?” he said with a smug smile.
“Father's body has been exposed to phasing technology for too long, his body is falling apart, and he isn't long for this world.”
Anobus' face flattened. “Oh no, Delta. I had no idea he was that unwell…” he paused, “why do I get the feeling there's more to this?”
“The devices he and his team were working on never had counter fields added, and since years can pass with said illness without it being detected and depending on how long they've been exposed for, no one knew until Durun found out too late,” she said.
“So, who did know and suppressed it? Magi?” he said.
“Afraid so,” Ebesi said.
“How could they be so careless as to leak these energies and info out? Wouldn't they want to keep this completely hidden?” he said as his fingers nervously brushed against his jaw.
Delta looked to Ebesi, almost as if they had shared the same thought. “Maybe because if they had the timing right, they wouldn't need them. According to mother, the counter fields would've been too tricky to produce across such a wide plane – a waste of resources and effort.”
“And how does she know about this?” he said.
Delta sucked in a lung full of air. “If you could leave the country right now, would you?”
“What in the universe are you talking about, Del?” his voice becoming quiet.
She spun around the tablet's surface with Goru's face in full view of Anobus. “This file is mother's personal experiences with the magi – she was one of them. This man here is their leader.”
His lips parted as his eyes wavered; Anobus' heavy chest rose and dipped faster as his trembling hands took the tablet. “Not possible, this is a lie-,”
“Olanta has hidden many things from me, but this is her own personal diary. Why lie now? We need to act. Otherwise Goru and his company will find out and end any hope we have to get this out,” she said.
“Goru has been my friend for many years, he's done everything to prevent harm from coming to me – he wouldn't…” Anobus pressed his palm over his eyes.
Delta reached out and gripped his forearm, using her shoulder to hold him from falling, “I need you to be strong right now, we don't have the time to fight anymore. All of this needs to be exposed, and Alkhem will be the place to do it.”
Anobus shook his head. “You’re asking me to leave my family, home – my whole life, Delta. You two will need to go on without me, I’ll tell Nehmet and father, we can do something-,”
“Not against the magi, even Olanta struggled to keep them away. We are in too deep now; they will come after everyone you know if you stay behind and tell them what’s happened. The safest thing we can do is stick together and leave immediately,” Delta said.
“My apartment can hold us for as long as we need. Once the magi have regrouped, Goru will trace it back to us, after that we will be long gone,” Ebesi said lifting herself from the chair as she swung the bag strap over her shoulder.
“How do you know that Goru won’t come after our families while we’re gone?” Anobus said.
“He will certainly use them against us, but we need to remain true to our goals. Think about how many more will suffer because of their disease. We need to draw a line, Anobus,” Delta said as A’gesh flew to her shoulder giving a small chirp.
Anobus straightened his back and sighed. “I’ll message Olanta to keep an eye on them once we get to Alkhem,”
Delta’s smile almost split her cheeks before looking to Ebesi. “Is your contact ready to receive the crystals?”
“They'll be waiting for us at Alkhem's port station,” she said looking to Anobus, “won't it be suspicious that we're all leaving at the same time?”
“The day has started, too many people will be coming in and out from these halls,” Delta said as she glanced to Anobus, “are you ready for this?”
He closed his eyes and gave a slight smirk. “No, but if you're used to dropping everything and leaving, why can't I be?”
Delta brushed her fingers around his forearm leading him out of the scribe’s chamber. Ebesi trotted behind them as they fought their way through the foot traffic in the morning hustle. Her eyes were on the lookout for Goru amongst the crowds, but she couldn't decide whether his absence made her relieved or worried. An annoyed gurgle escaped A'gesh's little throat as the feathery hem of her wings beat against Delta's arm. This warning was all too familiar: magi were close. She stopped, frustrating the people who walked around her.
“Where's Goru?” she whispered to Anobus.
“I haven't seen him all morning either,” Ebesi said inching closer into the small circle between them.
“He's gone to talk to some of his contacts in one of the power plants about the Kyline crystals, supposedly will be back the next day – can't confirm whether it's true or not,” Anobus said, shaking his head.
Delta paused, her heart thumped as hot blood ran through her limbs and head when she recalled Rocai's last words to her. They knew each other. A'gesh's talons dug deep into her shoulder, making her flinch in pain and she instinctively nudged the bird off her body.
“Ugh, what're you doing?” Delta called out as she rubbed her shoulder. She looked to see small smears of blood on her palm.
“Stop, we need to get you to a medic. Ebesi, call someone,” Anobus said as he pressed his hands over her wounds.
“Don't worry about the damn medic, we can see one in Alkhem,” she said through a grimace, looking to her bird, who was now flying around in circles. Her chirps turned into squawks that got louder and louder. Delta turned around to see eyes on them.
“Shh, A’gesh, come here,” Ebesi said with her hands out to the crazed avian.
“Let me calm her down,” Delta said clicking her fingers with outstretched arm, but A’gesh refused and remained airborne. Her squawking only got louder, making everyone around her cover their ears. She flew to the ceiling before taking a dive towards the three of them. Delta covered her head as A’gesh flew up to the ceiling once more.
“She's scared, why is she scared, Delta?” Ebesi yelled covering her scalp.
“I don’t know- she’s never done this before!” Delta said looking desperately at her feathered child. From the ceiling, A’gesh dipped down for another dive, this time with her razor-like talons out and directly to her human’s face. As she closed in, Delta slapped A’gesh from the air, sending the purple bird tumbling to the hard floor with loose feathers scattering around.
The little bird didn’t move. Delta held her breath, almost believing she had killed her until A’gesh slowly gained her bearings and rose to her talons.
“A’gesh?” Delta whispered through her strained throat as she stared longingly at her companion. Her teal eyes were on hers; fear and sorrow wrote in her irises a hundred times. Her bird opened her wings and took to the air once again flying passed the tree lines of the indoor forest and out of the open glass shutters in the ceiling.
The hall was deafening in its silence as everyone paused on at the events that transpired, but the silence didn’t last. A deep boom echoed outside the library. Its power vibrated through the stone floors and pillars in the halls. Delta’s body grew cold as the amber lights in the hall were replaced by screaming red strobes. Chimes and bells rang from in and outside the building as the booms grew in their intensity. She looked to her bracelet, the black band shone scarlet with amber words flashing on the screen: Evacuate Capihul. The three of them exchanged looks before the crowds around them broke into stampedes.
“An earthquake? Is it an earthquake?” Ebesi called. Her body was as stiff as a statue.
Screams came from the hordes of people running through the large granite hallway, clambering to get to the teleportation alcoves. The booms grew louder, this time shaking the floating chandeliers that were flashing red. People pushed into each other trying to escape the falling tomes from the shelves.
‘The geo-phasing devices have been activated, the power plants- we have to go, we have to go now! Ebesi!” Anobus ran over to her, trying to shake her into moving, “to the alcoves!”
A bright purple flash came from an open doorway down the lower hall and more and more people flooded the library from outside – fighting each other to get in.
“They're completely backed up,” Delta screamed as she forced herself to stand her ground against the tides of bodies. She pushed herself through the crowd, trying to reach the outside alfresco to see what was happening, “I need to see.”
The lower alfresco oversaw the blue bay. The water surface trembled as the waves grew and poured on to the stone walkways. Another flash of purple light blew from over the northern hills in the city’s outskirts. A ball of energy rose from the horizon like a wave of death. It consumed buildings and trees, as it grew ever closer to the inner city. Delta felt an elbow from a fleeing civilian strike her in the diaphragm. Her chest exploded in pain and she toppled over to a nearby marble fencing. She held onto the rail with all her strength as the waves of people made their attempts to run from the energy wave. As she clenched her chest, she looked up to see thousands of birds desperately fleeing the doom that was destroying a civilisation. A'gesh was amongst them; maybe the universe would allow her to live.
The earth violently trembled beneath her feet from the wave’s power. She watched fissures break open into the land. In the distance, the land cracked faster than those who tried running from them, she watched as people fell into holes untold depths. Some fissures were large enough to swallow whole buildings. The sea’s waves grew so large that they crashed into the crowds of people dragging them into the waters, but the energy wave was the worst by far. Its potency was so great that it disintegrated everyone and everything it came across. There was no escaping it. She tried forcing her body to move, but her muscles failed to respond to her impulses. They were frozen by fear or the irradiating power of the explosion. The purple sphere grew so large and so fast from the horizon that it was within a kilometre of the library. She could feel her scalp tingling with electricity, and her skin felt like it was touching the surface of the sun.
As she watched the wave consume more of the land, she knew that this was it – this was her end. Then a moment came, something she did not expect, and memories flooded her mind: The first time she held A'gesh, when she and Anobus shared a laugh, when Mayen let her into her home and heart and when she chose to lie about the Kyline crystals. It was her whole life; she relived it in these last moments from start to end. This was her end, and it was too late for regrets.
The wave closed in. Her arms instinctively shot up to protect her face, but they were no match for such a destructive force. She watched her fingers, hands and then arms burn away as the energy wave consumed them. In no time, the bright wave crawled closer to her and struck her face. There was a moment of unimaginable pain, until there was nothing left of Delta Ungbrahe.
Epilogue and Prologue
I blinked and then my life was gone. How many times did I blink? How many things did I miss to save my life? Not only was I a fool, I was a fool who thought I was smart. The burning sphere seared my body into ash that drifted into the wind from the cataclysm that swallowed Atlantia, along with everything and everyone who was caught in the blast. The last thing I saw was a fire and then, nothing. I was shocked at the brutal ending of my life that for a time I believed that my entire existence had ended. But that wasn’t the truth. Small, shimmering blue lights began circling around me. At first, I counted five, then ten, then fifteen and more. I heard familiar whispers from those lights. They grouped together, and their full forms appeared before me. They were my Soul Guides. For a moment, we shared silence, the kind that one would have at a funeral.
“What happened?” I asked.
Their forms shivered before replying, “You died.”
“I don’t understand, how is that possible? I’m going back, this is just a terrible dream.”
“If you return to the place of your death, you will find nothing but tragedy.” They replied simultaneously.
“You’re lying! I cannot be dead; it wasn’t my time!” I shook.
I wanted them to say something else before I phased out from Limbo, but they didn’t. I wanted them to stop me, to tell me that I was irrational, but they let me go. The darkness shifted into a bright blue sky; the white clouds drifted aimlessly across the heavens – as if nothing had happened. I looked down, expecting to see fires blazing, buildings in ruin and broken mountains in the horizon, but there was a turbulent ocean below me. It took several moments to adjust to the sight before me, I couldn’t comprehend that there was no land in all directions. The realisation struck me harder than the blast that took my life, the fact that there was nothing remaining of the land that I once called home. No one would remember me and all that I had achieved was washed away by the waves. It was like I had never lived at all, like I had died for a second time. My Soul Guides called me back to Limbo, but I resisted their summons. I sensed them drift into the Plane of the Living. I could feel that even they were taken by the sight. I turned to face them; their forms were more transparent in the blue background than in the blackness of Limbo.
“What have you done?” one asked.
“I haven’t done enough to save this land, this is the result of my failure,” I replied. It wasn’t intended as an accusatory question; it was put forward for self-reflection.
“What have you learned?” the other asked.
“Not enough. I don’t even know where home is,” I replied.
“Who are you now?”
“A traveller that has lost their way.” My soul couldn’t bear staying a second longer above the sea where my homeland had once been, where Delta’s life was doomed to be lost to the ages. I phased back into Limbo and my Guides quickly followed suit.
“Where are you going?” they asked in unison.
“Far, far from this place,” I said.
I could feel a powerful grip over me, as they dragged me back to the Plane of the Living, but it wasn’t above the oceans of the earth. It was a bright and vibrant world, where high mountains and small hills were covered in tranquil forests stretching across its vast landscape. I have never seen a place more breath-taking in my previous lives, and a part of me wanted to be a part of this new world, but bitterness quickly swallowed any excitement I had.
“What, you want to see me destroy this place too?” I asked my Guides.
“You will destroy nothing if you remember the lessons from your past,” they said.
“You cannot know that for certain, life is riddled with uncertainty. Even if I am born here, something will go wrong… it always does,” I said.
“Of course, things will go wrong, that is the only certainty,” they said in unison.
Slightly irritated by their response. “Isn’t death the only certainty in life?”
“Are you dead now?” they said.
“I’ve never been more awake and aware…I’m not dead,”
“And you are one whole life wiser now, the challenges that await you here will grant you a new way of thinking and feeling,” one said.
“And your previous experiences will allow you to try a new tactic to solve those problems,” another said.
“Perhaps,” I wanted to trust their words, but I couldn’t trust myself.
“You still have a debt to pay off, do not forget that. The universe is still unbalanced from your past actions. You must try,” they said.
“What if I fail? Then who knows how unbalanced the universe will become,” I said.
Their translucent forms shivered as low silver clouds passed through them. “Then fail,” one said.
“And try again,” the other said.
“And then fail harder,” the first one said.
“And then try harder.” the second one said.
“You must learn how to fail first before you learn how to succeed. What is your success?” they asked.
“My success is to be happy. Do you believe I will find happiness here?” I questioned their faith in me.
“Happiness is only for those who know how to find it. And there is happiness to be found in every life.”
I stared across the lush world, among the trees I could see small orbs of violet, peach and lime dancing and spinning around the trunks of the trees. This world was bursting with life, birds of every colour soared through the clouds, the silver-blue rocks that sat on the emerald grass shone with scarlet from the small worms that lived between the groves of the stones. Could this place potentially be my new home? Would this place accept me with all my past mistakes? I wondered.
“It will, if you allow it.” they said.
Before I could exchange a word, I felt my soul getting heavier and heavier. I fell through the fabric of my Limbo reality to re-join the Plane of the Living.
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