Two Halves: chapter 35

chapter 35, :3

Zeckle collapsed onto one of the boxes, she was breathing hard from the strain of the last few minutes. Nicolas glanced around the room, which appeared to be just a small storage cell. A few bags of goods, some barrels, and boxes were the only things in the room. Nicolas sat down on one of the crates and looked to Bestalel who was picking charred bits of cloth from what used to be his sleeve.

 

“Where are we?” Asked Nicolas. He ran his fingers through his hair as the fatigue began to set it. The only one who did not appear to be winded was Bestalel. His breathing hadn’t even changed from normal, and Nicolas expected that his body was wired for far more than offensive power.

 

“A storage room under Jenzi city. I have used this as a safe house once before, and the people above should still know me,“ answered Bestalel as he walked towards the small wooden door set into one of the walls. He knocked on it hard and the reverberations echoed around the room. “Get up, both of you. The people above will let us rest in their house, so you don’t have to keep sitting on those boxes.”  Nicolas got up warily, already aware that a cramp was coming on in his left leg. Zeckle sighed loudly and lifted herself up as well, and as she did her heavy scale armor changed to normal clothes, and the crossbow dissolved into black essence. 

 

Nicolas ran his hand along one of the walls, it appeared to be made from some kind of natural stone. The entire room was cool, and there were no windows so he assumed that they were underground. As he examined the wall a series of footsteps sounded from outside and the door opened. Nicolas turned around to look through the door, and a young woman was standing in it. Her dark skin contrasted the light stone of the walls, and she was wearing what looked to be a homespun linen dress.

 

“Who are yo�"“ she began, but suddenly realization struck her and her face brightened,” Bestalel is it really you? How did you get here? And who are these two?” she waved her hand back at Nicolas and Zeckle.

 

“I will explain once we are in the main house. It is good to see you Telly, but we are in dire need of a place to rest for a short time.” said Bestalel to which she nodded slowly and turned up the stairs. Bestalel looked back at Nicolas and Zeckle and indicated for them to follow. The walls were lined with light strips as they climbed the staircase; they passed several more wooden doors. The few that were revealed odd rooms beyond. Some were dormitories lined with beds, while others were more storage rooms, and a few looked to be large cafeterias.  No one else was around, not a single person was in any of the room as they climbed the steps.

 

Then suddenly they stopped, and Telly waked through one of the doors. It was not one of the storage rooms from before, but an enormous cathedral that lay beyond.

 

The entire structure looked like it was carved from a single colossal geode. They were standing at the wide end and it slowly got narrower till it reached the opposite wall. Every wall was a dark grayish blue crystal, and while the floors and walls were rubbed smooth the ceiling still shot out in jagged spikes. One the walls were alcoves lining the way from where they stood to the alter at the far end. In every one there was a larger than life carving of a woman, each depicted in robes and in different states of revelation. All either clasping their hands in prayer or lifting their arms up towards the sky. Each were carved from the very same crystal that the hall had been made of, and it looked as if they hadn’t been put into the alcove, but instead the alcoves had been carved out around them. Each alcove was filled with hundreds of small candles burning merrily in their holders.

 

The alter was magnificent. The largest statue of all was there, and instead of being a prophet it depicted the god Kinsara. Her eyes were covered in a blindfold, but her six arms were outstretched in all direction forming the points of a hexagon around her. She sat in a meditating position, and in each of her outstretched palms was an enormous candle. The statue must have been twenty feet tall, and each candle stretched three feet of melted wax and burnt wick. Steams of molten tallow steamed from her hands and connected to the floor in columns of vicious material.

 

Now Nicolas knew why there had been no one in any of the other rooms. In front of the alter stood hundreds of people, every voice raised in song. They were all women, and their high pitch shook the very crystal of the walls, and the echoes doubled in on themselves creating a melody that is not normally able to be achieved.

 

Nicolas marveled at the beauty of the scene, and as he stared open mouthed someone put their hand on his shoulder. It was Bestalel. He motioned for Nicolas to follow him, and Nicolas reluctantly obliged. Tearing his eyes away from the wonder of the scene beyond. He was pulled into a room off to the side, whose door was noticeably thicker than the one below. Once he got inside the large door was shut behind them and a good deal of the music beyond was cut off. All that remained was a muffled melody bleeding through the wall.

 

Telly was sitting at a desk on the far side of the simple room. She was quietly humming to herself, to the tune of the music beyond. Bestalel sat in one of the hard wooden chairs in front of the desk, and Zeckle was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. Nicolas sat next to Bestalel and waited for a moment, and when nobody spoke he did.

 

“Where exactly are we?”

 

“You are inside the Sisterhood of Kinsara’s Will. They are a religious order based near Jenzi city. This is Telly, who is an old friend of mine. She helped me escape Salex before, when I used to be one of their soldiers.” His eyes softened as he looked at her, and she smiled back at him.

 

“What brings you here Bestalel. Why are you in my Sisterhood? We do not allow men here, and last time you were only allowed due to the order signed by the High Father himself.” The two stared each other down for a moment, and then burst out laughing. It was odd to hear Bestalel laugh; it was laud and deep, but didn’t seem to quite fit right with her person. Nicolas was staring at Bestalel gapping.

 

“The High Father? You’ve met the High Father of Kintera? Why? How? I thought he died during the Blaze war,” stammered Nicolas, near incoherency.

 

“I am a disciple of Kintera, Nicolas. The High Father is who set me on the right path two years ago when I stopped being a Salex soldier. He is probably not the High Father you knew, a new one was appointed after the Blaze War, about six years ago to be exact. Kintera is whom I prayed to before we left on our journey long ago. He had surely protected us.” Bestalel’s eyes glowed with an intensity while was talking of Kintera what Nicolas did not thing possible. When he was a child because he had entered the Academy of Cloudtop he had never been educated in religion. Religion was for others, not the magi. They had always been taught that a god had a lot of followers, so he could never possibly protect everyone. Instead they had to learn to protect themselves. Though he had known of the High Father, who was the leader of one of the several schools of teaching. He was the prophet of Kintera, the brother of the goddess Kinsara.

 

“Anyway, I have come here to ask a favor of you Telly.” said Bestalel, his seriousness returning.

 

“Oh, and what is that?”

 

“We need transportation. We need to make it to Gen city, and later Cloudtop. We are raising an army Telly. We are going to destroy Salex. Once and for all.” Said Bestalel proudly.

 

“What? How can you possibly do that? You would need to break through the Mile High Walls. You can’t just get an army into their city on a wing and a prayer. You need to break though the strongest magical barrier in existence, and I can’t help you! Not again!” She looked at him as if pleading; her eyes had started to moisten at the last few words.

 

“We are going to seek the Cloud Walkers. If we can convince them to join our side we might be able to break through the wall.” answered Bestalel, in a attempt to calm her. Nicolas had heard about the Cloud Walkers during his time in Cloudtop. They were an order of engineers and pilots that had mastered the ore inside of Cloudtop Mountain, and had trained their members to be able to pilot the crafts they had constructed. Each one of their planes had a small nugget of the ore inside them. When exposed to a magical field the ore would produce a membrane that the planes could ride one. Literally surfing the powerful magic waves that swept across Earth-2.

 

They had refused the call to arms at the beginning of the Blaze War. No one knew why, but for their decision their order was banished by the council of Cloudtop. They and their families had left the city and never returned. Rumor had it though that they had built an enormous flying barge to live on and train future members of the order.

 

“Ha! The Cloud Walkers. They didn’t help in the Blaze War, why should they help now! Besides, how will you even find them?”

 

“That is why we need seek the High Father. He knows where they are. Nearly the entire order was devout followers of Kintera, and would not have abandoned their faith once they left Cloudtop. He will know where they are. “ Replied Bestalel.

 

“Fine, it seems as if you have it all figured out,” she said her voice dripping with sarcasm,” I will be able to sneak you two out of the city, and get you transport to Gen, but you are on your own from there.”

 

“Thank you,” said Bestalel, and he sounded as if he meant it,” Though I will need a room for my friend here. He has had a temporary body-mod and will need to revert and expel the nanites before we leave. Lest they short circuit” Nicolas had nearly forgotten.  If he was to exit the city before getting rid of the nanites it could quite possibly prove deadly for him. The small robots inside his body were maintaining the more cosmetic changes he had; their final task was to revert him to his original appearance before leaving his system.

 

If he had left the city before getting rid of them they would all shut off simultaneously. The enormous magical field that surrounded Earth-2 was a hundred times stronger than Earth-1. Electrical equipment that wasn’t properly shielded would immediately cease to function, and proper shielding cost thousands of dollars for the simplest of tools. That is why Earth-1 had never suffered devastating losses in the Blaze War. After Earth-2 opened a gate way they were only able to expand a shield for maybe a few hundred feet around them that they could use equipment in. On their home turf Earth-2 magi would win, but once they tried to fight Earth-1 soldiers on theirs they would be massacred easily.

 

That was why the Mile High Walls were built. It was the largest magical barrier in existence. It shielded the entire city from the magical currents that criss-crossed Earth-2. It was the largest Earth-1 city on Earth-2, though there were several others dotting the planet, none measured up to Jenzi. The Mile High Walls had been called a wonder of the magical world.

 

“That can wait. Would you join us for the service, though I believe it is almost over. I will give a room to your friend for his reversal, and afterwards I will organize the transportation to Gen. I believe there is a station some fifty miles from the city that has a regular transport to there. You might be lucky and be here in time for a transport. I will look into it.” She got up from behind her desk and walked over to the door. After she opened it the music that had been suppressed suddenly returned to full volume. Nicolas got up and followed her and Bestalel, with Zeckle following behind him. She showed Bestalel and Zeckle down onto the back of the cathedral floor, where the singing was still going on, but when Nicolas tried to follow she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out into hallway.

 

“I will get a room prepared for you, we have several empty ones that you could use.” said Telly in a voice barely over a whisper. “Though I need to ask something. Who are you, and who is that other woman.” Her eyes blazed with a deep suspicion. She trusted Bestalel, not Nicolas, and it showed.

 

“I am not really sure how to say this, but I am the Alchemist, and the women is my clan guardian. There is no way I can prove this to you, so you are just going to have to trust me. I am Gregorian Chenran Voltaire Flamel, call me Nicolas.” As he finished her eyes did not lose their suspicious gaze. She still did not trust him, but did not seem to be outwardly hostile any longer. She nodded and brought him down the stairs until they reached a door, which she opened. Inside was nothing but a simple bed; it was much smaller than the enormous dormitories from below, and appeared to be vacant. He entered and sat down on the bed; Telly stood by the door and starred at him.

 

“If it wouldn’t be to much trouble, can I have a bucket or something? The nanites have to come out somehow and they expel via the throat.” She turned to leave, and looked back for a long moment. Then left, leaving Nicolas alone in the room. He sat there staring at the wall for a moment, then said.

 

“Override code: 00001. Unit termination.” The nanites inside him have a few bots monitoring his vocal cords, waiting for this order to come. Immediately they reacted, and pain started to shoot up Nicolas’s legs. He hadn’t been prepared for the pain to be this intense, and was waiting for the machines built in sedation to kick in. For nearly a minute he writhed in agony until the sedation took effect, and afterwards he was only dimly aware of the world around him. He vaguely recalled Telly coming in and leaving a bucket by the foot of his bed, but nothing else. At around five minutes after his sedation he fell into a deep sleep.

 

Several hours later he woke up; his mind was still swimming in a half drunken stupor from all the sedatives. He sat up in bed, and held his head for a moment as he winced in pain. Then looked at the hair that was obscuring his eyes. It was brown. Unfortunately his celebrating at the nanites success was short lived as a sudden wracking pain gripped his stomach. He looked next to the bed to see a bucket was sitting there. He picked it up just as the nanites activated his gag reflex.

 

He threw up dark grey bile into the bucket. His mouth tasted like metal afterwards as he spit into the container. After he had put down the bucket he tried to get up shakily. His legs ached like mad from returning to their original height. After a moment he couldn’t take the pain and collapsed onto the bed. For nearly ten minutes he sat there gritting his teeth as he tried to get up, and over and over again he fell back onto the bed. 

 

He wished this could have been done in a clinic, but that luxury was lost to them now. Their faces would be plastered all over city as Salex attempted to locate them. They wouldn’t be able to go into a public place without falling into Salex custody. After a few more attempts at standing he gave up, and relented to merely laying in the bed. He let his thoughts turn back towards the fiasco at the ICO.

 

They had lost their demon’s sack in the fray. Which meant that all the equipment was gone as well. Most of it didn’t matter, and could be procured again off the black market. What really mattered was his Grimoire, it was unique, one of a kind. Graduates of the academy were given one filled with standard spells, but only about half of the pages had writing on them. A magi was supposed to fill in the rest as they went along with incantations and potions they had developed themselves. He had done extensive writing in there, and had detailed the creating of several potions unique to him.

 

He sat there for a while and thought about the recipes, and realized he could only recall about half of them from memory. If he didn’t reclaim his Grimoire they would be lost. He was angry at the possibility of his research being gone forever, but sacrifices must be made for the rebellion. The door creaked open as he sat there, and as he sat up he saw Bestalel in the doorway.

 

“I see the process was a success. It is good to have you awake. I have brought you medicine to relieve the pain so that you can recover quickly. Telly had already sent word out to the station that had a transport to Gen. We are waiting for word back. We will most likely have a return message by the time you wake up.” He walked over holding a gel pad in his hand. Nicolas stopped him before he could administer it.

 

“Bestalel, one thing before you do that. Our luggage, it had my Grimoire in it. Is there any chance of getting that back?” He knew that it was impossible, but thought that he might as well ask anyway.

 

“Your Grimoire? I have it with me,” Nicolas’s face exploded in a look of surprise,” It was one of the items I took with me.” Now that Nicolas thought about he remembered that there had been a small black case the size of his Grimoire in the pile of equipment that Bestalel had stored in the lining of his coat.

 

“But when did you take it?” asked Nicolas, hardly able to believe that it might be true.

 

“In the morning after you had gotten ready. I thought in case we were in an emergency and were separated from the rest of the equipment it would be the most valuable item to you. “

 

“Thanks, you can’t know how important that imagine how much that book means to me.” stammered Nicolas as Bestalel reached into one of his pockets and took out the black casing. Nicolas took it and unzipped the plastic waterproof sack that held his book. “You can give me the stuff now.”

 

Bestalel bent over and pressed the gel pad onto Nicolas’s neck. It released a steady stream of painkillers into Nicolas’s blood stream, and as Bestalel left Nicolas leafed through his Grimoire to the last page, where Abigail had written a letter to him.

 

It was the last thing she had ever written to him, and he hadn’t even known of its existence until after he had left for Earth-1. He starred at it lovingly as he read it.

Hello Nicolas. I’m sad that you have to go now, but we all know it’s necessary. You always fought for what you believed in, and even though you have to leave now to keep us safe we are still going to fighting for you.

 

I will remember you always, me and everyone else in the forces. I’m going to miss you. I remember the first day we met each other, you had snuck out of your dorm at the Academy, and I was out with my friends in Cloudtop. You never looked at any of my friends, just me. You kept sneaking out, just to see me. You were always like that. Never caring what other people thought and just doing what your heart told you.

 

I am going to miss you more than you can ever imagine, and even though we can still talk to each other with your typewriters it just won’t be the same.

 

Love you always,

Abigail

 

He loved reading the message, but always got teary eyed when he did. He wiped a solitary tear from his cheek at he sat back. He was thankful now though. He was going to see her again after ten years. Nicolas lay back on the bed and finally appreciated the crisp white sheets. Before he had hardly a minute to look around the room, but now he took in the room. They were underground, the whole complex looked to be. The light brown stone was cool to the touch as Nicolas reached out to brush it. He closed his eyes and let sleep wash over him, and instead of the troubled sleep from before Nicolas was at ease.

Author's Note

This is beginning of my big chapters. Now that it is summer vacation the chapters are going to behemoths like this. 4000-4500 words a day.

Reviews

[Rick Puetter]

Dear Zachary,

This is well written and a captivating story. There are a few places incorrect words (probably typos) are used, e.g., vicious instead of viscous, but you'll easily catch those on a rewrite. All in all, I'm rather impressed. This is very nice. Congratulations.

High marks!

Best regards,

Rick

[Senseless whatever]

Great chapter, kept me going. Good attention to detail.

[A.r. Bazian]

ok... Novels, or novellas whatever you may call it, is not my thing... but here's my just and neutral perception and description; this is highly intense, captivating to an edge!
i like... very paradoxic emotions, thats what i got...at least! i like this!

[Dutch Jr.]

Another great chapter. High tension.

[PaperHearts]

This was a really fantastic chapter! You have a really keen eye for imagery, which is exciting, because as the reader, I felt like I was right there in the midst of the action, and I was able to visualise everything that was happening. Keep writing! :D
~PaperHearts

[Nicaushio Yamaki]

good

[seal]

I really like the names in your chapter. Great write! :)

[DeadToTheWorld]

Wow!! not to mention how long that is I loved it simply brilliant keep up the good work i'm looking forward to reading more when you next write

[John Morris]

A brilliant chapter. I have no problems with it at all, it is an absolutely perfect write.

I am looking forward to (if i get a chance) to reading the rest of the novel in order to understand what on Earth is going on throughout it. A very engaging read and i really look forward to more.

Can You Hear The Silence? 22nd June 2010

[Huggy Bear]

Great Chapter:)