rolled over to see Bayne removing his sword from the beast’s back.
“Will… will I be alright?” she asked Riad is pained breath. Where the beast had bitten her back an acid-like feeling seared her flesh. Somehow she felt her wings reconnecting where they had been broken and her flesh repairing itself.
“Time will tell. Get up,” Riad instructed, blasting a beast charging toward them and leveling it to the ground. The thing clawed and moaned as it pulled itself on the rock in their direction. “If you morph into one of them I will destroy you.” Riad blasted the beast clawing toward them in the face, its human-like form glaring at them with red eyes before disintegrating in gore from the blast. “I can’t promise it would be painless though. With the essences bonded to you, you would die hard.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” Julieth said, still stunned at Riad’s coldness but glad Bayne would be protected from her if the beast’s saliva and bite were enough to change her to one of them.
She found she did not have the strength to fly now and instead kept by their side, limping as she moved. The pain somehow moved from her back to her legs.
You will survive, a voice entered her thoughts.
Julieth looked to Riad’s leg, checking that Vrax was still there.
Do not speak to her, not yet. She is not fully ours, another voice came.
You do not rule me, the first voice returned.
Julieth knelt, holding her head with her hands. It throbbed in pain. “Wait. There is someone in my thoughts,” she spoke to her companions.
Riad came to her, holding his cybernetic hand to her forehead. She watched as its mechanics glowed green.
“The essences are contacting you. They have found a way to join with your consciousness.” Riad removed his hand and then shone the UV light from his gun down the tunnel, holding it braced there.
“I have never heard of that about them.” Julieth closed her eyes, trying to hold back words that whispered eerily in her thoughts.
“Not all with the essences hear them, but you have many essences bonding in your flesh. It is likely that they were triggered by the beast’s bite. Think of what calms you and you can possibly hold them back for a time. Bayne and I will continue. We must move to reach Ivanus and Andral if they are alive. Follow us when you are able.”
It was paralyzing.
She cannot reject us now. We can teach her and show her the ways.
Control her. I do not share what I possess without controlling the flesh.
You are but one of many in this form…
“ENOUGH!” Julieth shouted aloud, silencing both voices. She closed her eyes, focusing on the past, to that boy she loved in her youth, before he was taken from her, swallowed up by the sinking earth that claimed him. His eyes… his face. They were so beautiful. One moment she had been chasing him playfully through the desert, the two suns setting on the horizon, and the next moment his body had been swallowed whole. Can no pain be spared me in my life? she thought. Then she realized that the voices in her head had gone silent.
She stood, her body still burning, and illuminated the darkness before her with the light of her gun. Nothing. She did not see Riad or Bayne. None of the beasts were in her vision either. Just as she began to walk forward once more a hand clasped her shoulder.
She violently turned. Olan’s wounded people stood in a mass, staring at her with their hollow eyes.
Chapter 11
Olan’s people trudged behind Julieth in near silence, a mass of a hundred at least moving but not speaking, murmuring while blindly following her lead.
“What happened to you? How long have the beasts been here?” she asked.
Their mentally blind, wide eyes had only stared back at her. Their silence sent a chill through her that she could not explain.
Some of Olan’s people remained shackled, their chains echoing as they dragged, clawing over the tunnel floor.
A great span of time passed as Julieth and the mass of
“Will… will I be alright?” she asked Riad is pained breath. Where the beast had bitten her back an acid-like feeling seared her flesh. Somehow she felt her wings reconnecting where they had been broken and her flesh repairing itself.
“Time will tell. Get up,” Riad instructed, blasting a beast charging toward them and leveling it to the ground. The thing clawed and moaned as it pulled itself on the rock in their direction. “If you morph into one of them I will destroy you.” Riad blasted the beast clawing toward them in the face, its human-like form glaring at them with red eyes before disintegrating in gore from the blast. “I can’t promise it would be painless though. With the essences bonded to you, you would die hard.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” Julieth said, still stunned at Riad’s coldness but glad Bayne would be protected from her if the beast’s saliva and bite were enough to change her to one of them.
She found she did not have the strength to fly now and instead kept by their side, limping as she moved. The pain somehow moved from her back to her legs.
You will survive, a voice entered her thoughts.
Julieth looked to Riad’s leg, checking that Vrax was still there.
Do not speak to her, not yet. She is not fully ours, another voice came.
You do not rule me, the first voice returned.
Julieth knelt, holding her head with her hands. It throbbed in pain. “Wait. There is someone in my thoughts,” she spoke to her companions.
Riad came to her, holding his cybernetic hand to her forehead. She watched as its mechanics glowed green.
“The essences are contacting you. They have found a way to join with your consciousness.” Riad removed his hand and then shone the UV light from his gun down the tunnel, holding it braced there.
“I have never heard of that about them.” Julieth closed her eyes, trying to hold back words that whispered eerily in her thoughts.
“Not all with the essences hear them, but you have many essences bonding in your flesh. It is likely that they were triggered by the beast’s bite. Think of what calms you and you can possibly hold them back for a time. Bayne and I will continue. We must move to reach Ivanus and Andral if they are alive. Follow us when you are able.”
It was paralyzing.
She cannot reject us now. We can teach her and show her the ways.
Control her. I do not share what I possess without controlling the flesh.
You are but one of many in this form…
“ENOUGH!” Julieth shouted aloud, silencing both voices. She closed her eyes, focusing on the past, to that boy she loved in her youth, before he was taken from her, swallowed up by the sinking earth that claimed him. His eyes… his face. They were so beautiful. One moment she had been chasing him playfully through the desert, the two suns setting on the horizon, and the next moment his body had been swallowed whole. Can no pain be spared me in my life? she thought. Then she realized that the voices in her head had gone silent.
She stood, her body still burning, and illuminated the darkness before her with the light of her gun. Nothing. She did not see Riad or Bayne. None of the beasts were in her vision either. Just as she began to walk forward once more a hand clasped her shoulder.
She violently turned. Olan’s wounded people stood in a mass, staring at her with their hollow eyes.
Chapter 11
Olan’s people trudged behind Julieth in near silence, a mass of a hundred at least moving but not speaking, murmuring while blindly following her lead.
“What happened to you? How long have the beasts been here?” she asked.
Their mentally blind, wide eyes had only stared back at her. Their silence sent a chill through her that she could not explain.
Some of Olan’s people remained shackled, their chains echoing as they dragged, clawing over the tunnel floor.
A great span of time passed as Julieth and the mass of
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