5.2: Listening

TW// Death, Acts of Violence

5.2

Stellina

My first attempt falls apart in a clatter of minuscule icicles. The second is disrupted by a rattling boom from outside that rumbles the floor beneath me. But the third, accompanied by a worried glance at spider webbing cracks across the ground I stand on, sends me hurtling through the hallway. The excitement of the speed at which I travel and the spell’s successful completion is quickly dissipated as an earth-shattering sound throws me forward, off my track. I risk a look back toward the direction I came before regaining momentum. My jaw drops and my breath catches in my throat at the scene before me.

The bridge I was once on is gone. All that remains is the corridors that held it, now supporting a gaping void. Beneath this void are our lovely, silver trees, though some are broken and others sway as elves run across wooden bridges to get to safety. To the sommelnium. I cannot see any entrance from here but I hope my people are getting there safely.

The cause of this destruction is a waging battle between our elvish knights and unnatural shadow beings pouring over the city walls. Necromancers. It must be. Although, despite some broken bridges and branches here and there, it is clear that we are winning. A smile splits across my face as I watch energy whips tear necrotic beings apart, pure light keeping them at bay, and the glow from magic-integrated weapons as they curve through the dark. This is a battle we have been fighting for many years. This is a battle we will win. The Necromancers were fools for attacking us in our home.

Over everything, I feel a warming sense of pride as I imagine Elix blasting energy cannons to tear through the hearts of monsters. However, I cannot help but wish I were there among the knights, fighting to protect our kingdom. This jealousy grows as I watch an elf garbed in silver armour fly across the city to strike a large figure in the darkness.

The figure’s white eyes find mine as they crush the elf in a shadowy grip. My heart drops to my feet. My legs almost collapse beneath me. All of the oxygen has left my lungs.

I turn, though I wish I did not have to, and attempt the spell again. Zela, help me, was it Glacu Kilios or Kilios Glacu? My hands shake, my mind is buzzing. Over and over, my body screams at me: ‘RUN’.

Instinctually, I sweep my hands and fly forward on ice. I do not spare a glance backward even though it pains me not to. Xada screams my name from ahead. My breath turns into a cloud of fog in front of me. I almost tumble down the stairs Xada stands beside before I reangle myself and land on the floor. Xada helps me up with a sweaty palm. Before I even regain my footing, I am speaking,

“We are winning, Xada! But there is something out there.” Xada’s blue eyes flash as he looks at me. Really looks at me.

“Did it see you?”

“What? I -”

“Did it see you?” He hisses, his voice quick and hushed. My mouth trembles,

“Yes, but -”

“Damn the Gods, Stellina.” He swears, quickly rectifying the curse with a quick hand signal. He runs his hands over his face and looks at the ceiling. Tears well in my eyes, but I bite them back,

“Just tell me what is going on! Then I will not be such a burden to you!” He looks at me then, with a hand separating his braids and a glisten in his eyes.

“You are not a burden to me, Stellina.” He says quietly. I do not know whether to be more afraid of the monster creeping behind us or the tear that slips from his eyes. He angles his head to the side to hide it from my view. “The future will be difficult, Stellina. But you have everything you need within you.”

My body feels like a static hive of anxiety as he speaks. I do not like what he says, or how he says it.

“Xada, you are scaring me. We are winning, the future will be bright and-” Then, I spot something on his arm that causes me to stop in my tracks. Or, rather, the absence of something.

Rixa’s sigil is gone. The one that binds their souls together. It is no longer there. They are no longer here.

It sinks in.

This is no harmless dream. No nightmare that I can simply shake myself awake. This is horrifically real. This is happening.

The sound doubles; the tangy crack of wood, the unsettling snap of bones, the crumbling of glass. My vision sharpens. Every fibre of glistening hair comes into focus. The freckles lining my arms beam like tiny, glowing suns. Every breath I take sends a flare of heat to my muddled brain. Everything is a moment in time coming to an end. A faint horror pounds into the back of my brain. The marble tiles swirl beneath my feet. I connect the dots.

“Wait.” I hear myself say breathlessly, “Is this it?” My legs guide me to the floor. “Is this where I, where we, die?” Xada is silent for too long.

The sommelnium…they are our city's last resort in an attack but they have never been used before. They were a recent invention as Necromancer brutality increased across Zyrona. One of my first lessons was how to use them; what they would do once activated. Their intention is to keep the user alive, held in space and time, away from danger. They can only be accessed by certain areas in the city, by tunnels that dig underneath the foundation. No one can teleport in. No one can attempt to break in once secured. They are completely foolproof, or at least they are supposed to be. No one has ever used them before.

Xada takes my shoulders and tries to hoist me up. I can vaguely sense his increasing panic as his eyes dart in every direction. His hands shake as he holds my arms. He is a trained soldier, he would not be acting like this if it were a normal battle. If we were all going to survive. He had a vision. He went to me first. Why?

“Xada,” I look up at him, feeling useless and helpless and oh so pathetic as tears slip from my cheeks and a sob works its way out of me, “Xada, I do not want to die.”

Xada’s face screws painfully, his throat moves awkwardly as he swallows,

“The future is not set, Stellina. After all, this was supposed to happen much later. You will not die. But in order for your fate to be realigned, we must keep going. You must get to the sommelnium.” He pulls me upwards, places my arm around his shoulder, and begins to help me walk down the staircase, leading to the quietest part of the city where I know an entrance to the sommelnium lies.

“What about everyone else?” My voice comes out in a whisper. Images of my people suffering flash across my eyes: crushed by giant hands, torn apart, their souls separated from their bodies. Blood, so much blood.

“I can not say,” Xada answers honestly, “But you will gather everyone and make Lumnia anew if needs be.”

My panic shifts to a new worry, arisen by the steady pace we now take as I slowly regain strength. His emphasis on ‘you’ rather than ‘we’ frightens me, it makes me think that…that he will not make it. A chill takes root in my heart and creeps outwards. After a moment of silence, I voice my worries,

“Xada…why do you keep saying I will survive? Why do you not instead say ‘we’?” I hear him sigh and ready myself for his answer. My hand clenches into a fist. My nails dig into my palm. Outside, a thunderous crack shakes the stones beneath us.

“I saw many futures,” He begins, readjusting his grip on my arm, “Many depicted your death but just as many showed you escaping this malevolent force.

“However, in every single possibility…it ended with my own death. No matter what I did, or what others did to prevent it. I die in every single possible reality. And I do not think the change of date matters to fate.” Silence fills the air again as the gravity of this seeps into my skin. 

A future without Xada, the man who has taught me everything I know since the day I learned to speak. I can not imagine it. I do not want to. What would my days be filled with? There would be no lessons. No witty comments to my own stubbornness. No rare moments of praise or dull diplomacy talks. No heels clicking across the polished marble floor. He was my family. He and Rixa. They would both be gone. No Xada. No Rixa. Who else would die in this fight?

“Oh gods.” 

Twenty things seem to happen at once. Xada goes stiff against me, he inhales sharply. He swivels and takes both of my arms, his grip tight and restraining. He looks me in the eyes but does not say anything. His sigil glows, his blue irises flash white. My own eyes burn suddenly.  He kisses my forehead. It burns where he touched. He squeezes my arms before releasing his hold. I look frantically from his hands to his face to see his mouth lift slightly in a smile. But his eyes are filled with haste, sorrow. He pulls a necklace from the cover of his clothes. There is no time to observe it before he slips it over my head. A roaring, thrashing wind fills my senses. Xada lifts his hands and pushes me from him with surprising force. And the wall beside us explodes. 

Xada is ripped from my sight as the white stone of the palace crashes into him. I have no time to react as fragments tear towards me. I am thrown backward but nothing hits me. A shimmering field briefly flashes around me every time something hits it. But each time it is assaulted, it shrinks and shrinks until my head cracks against a stair behind me and everything goes black.