32 The Crystal Key

79BI, Before the Imperium, 1003 years in the past

A NORTH WIND DROVE rain into Aiyana’s face and she shivered despite the extra cloak. Cydra’s body reacted as any breather’s would in such weather. While Aiyana had felt cold as a viral, it had never touched her in this manner though her façade might’ve suggested otherwise.

An interesting experience, to feel alive. Her heart thumping, the sting of cold on her skin, the aches in her muscles, not to mention the hollow in her stomach which she belatedly realised was hunger. She had not eaten anything and was beginning to feel weak.

Life felt exhilarating in a way she’d never experienced and a part of her wanted to remain as Cydra, to remain a breather. No magic could conjure what she felt. All this time, she thought as she guided her sydarag along the bank of a swift stream, I imitated life, thinking I understood it, and what it meant to be alive. I understood nothing.

How ironic I should experience life for the first time, while on the brink of death. That she would not return to her undead body was never in doubt. The price to release the viral horde was steep, but one she would pay willingly. The very nature of existence was at stake after all.

She glanced at Ralan who rode beside her wrapped up in his woollen cloak. She tried not to look at his face, although, he seemed to have regained some control over it. Perhaps those changes were linked to his moods. He was quieter than when they’d first met. If Cydra had a relationship with him, Aiyana was uncertain as to its nature.

He saw her looking and unclasping his cloak, tried to offer it, but she refused. She wanted to feel the cold, to relish it as much as she wanted to enjoy the heat of the sun. This would not last much longer.

When the foothills became steep, they dismounted and left the sydarags to roam. Both beasts were battle mounts, trained to await their owners. She muttered as she trudged uphill behind him, her stomach in knots. It wasn’t just the hunger. No, something was wrong.

In her time, there were no ruins north of Icarthya, just bare foothills dusted with woodland. She had no idea where he was taking her. Also, she felt Treena and Mop nearby rather than saw them. They were following and she did not believe it was to observe. Trouble lay ahead.

They entered the ruins after midday though to Aiyana’s mind it was an old town where none should be. There were no records of its existence although after a millennium it was not altogether surprising. Still, the uneasy feeling didn’t leave.

The ruins consisted of a twelve-foot wall and green-tinged bronze gates twisted inward, deformed. A column of smoke rose above the buildings several streets away.

‘What is the name of this place?’ she asked, knowing a display of her ignorance was a grave risk. However, she felt none of the danger with Ralan as she had with his mother. The opposite in fact. With him she felt safe.

‘You should ask your companions,’ Ralan muttered, ‘not me.’ His voice was thick with emotion, but she found it hard to determine if he was angry or sad.

Aiyana halted, staring at the walls ahead and not daring to look at him. ‘What are they?’ This time, she didn’t mean the ruins.

Ralan barked a laugh. ‘I knew there was something about you. You are not my Cydra, that much is clear.’

Not his Cydra. I see, she thought, understanding the nature of their relationship and his reluctance to talk. ‘How did you know?’

‘She would never have asked that question. Also, you behave differently, speak differently. You move wrong as though not used to your body.’

‘I took a knock to the head in Icarthya.’ She recalled that Treena and Mop had attacked Ralan. It seemed he could see them, or sense them.

He stepped closer to her and she felt his breath on her neck. ‘They are shraeds, those two. Servants of the Darkness. My father discovered them and has kept them as his pets, although I don’t understand why. Does he know you can see them? No one else can. Did they reveal their names? They refuse to do so to my father. Apparently, knowing a name gives one power over a thing, or so he claims.’

They had given their names to her but why? Fear clutched her gut and she felt nauseous. Sensations she wasn’t used to. Breathers experienced fear in a way she’d never known. It incapacitated her, rooting her to the spot. Her heart hammered and she felt the blood draining from her face. How did the living manage? She fought to regain control. Wasn’t her body supposed to obey her? ‘What ... what do they want?’

Ralan laughed, but there was no mirth in the sound, only sorrow. ‘I had thought to ask you. So, you will not tell me who you are, imposter? Where is my Cydra? Is she in there or have you killed her?’

‘Right in front of you and safe. I promise. Think of it as her sleeping while I do what I must.’

He moved in front of her blocking the way. She watched those shadows flit across his face as the flesh melted and reformed, while he’s eyes lurched out of position and back. After a moment, he managed to force control and she noted the effort it took. ‘Why should I trust whoever you are?’ he demanded. ‘You could be lying to me.’

Aiyana struggled to answer and instead asked, ‘What happened to you?’

He stumbled backwards, a hand reaching up to touch his face, his control evaporating. ‘We will all die. Cydra too. I cannot save her, but my mother thinks she can save the whole world. From him. From my father. From the Darkness.’ He turned to continue the journey up into the ruined town. ‘We should keep going. We don’t have much time.’

‘My name is Aiyana Todralan,’ she called out before he went too far. ‘I am a part of Cydra, or at least I will be. She and I are the same person. At least we were. Are.’ Oh, Hell’s Teeth, this isn’t easy to explain. I must sound like an idiot.

He paused, and turned, his face ravaged with grief. ‘What?’

‘I am one half of Cydra that will ... be born a thousand years from now.’ Well, that’s a little better. ‘I will be born as one of the undead, but I promise you she will survive. Just, not as you knew her.’

He turned and continued walking and having no choice, she followed.

She felt Treena at her side as the shraed nudged her and whispered in her ear with a gleeful tone, ‘He has lost so much and has more to lose yet.’

‘Do you delight in his suffering?’

‘Of course. What is the point otherwise?’

‘You want the Aura’s power,’ said Aiyana, low enough so Ralan would not hear. ‘It was never about the Shathra Stone.’

‘Clever you are, undead one,’ said Treena. ‘Too clever, which we are undecided if we like or not.’

‘Nosey,’ suggested her brother in her other ear. ‘I do not like nosey. Long noses are ugly things. Best to cut them off.’

Something the sorceress Astra had said clicked in her mind. ‘You two are what is wrong with Nalrost. It’s you who are controlling him. I’m right, aren’t I?’ Ralan had suggested they were pets, but she doubted these two would allow such a thing. ‘That’s why you don’t give him your names. He is a powerful spectral mage, after all. You can’t risk him regaining control.’

She heard Mop laugh gleefully. A glance to her right revealed a slight ripple of air. ‘We are Rasnal Nalrost, undead one. We are what makes him manic with power. He would be nothing without us.’

‘We are,’ said Treena, ‘what caused his mania for control.’

‘We are the power behind the power. Oh, that is poetic. I’m keeping that one. Treena, don’t you dare try and take it.’

Aiyana halted, watching Ralan continue to within ten feet of the gates. ‘I know you two or at least, I will know of you in a thousand years, but by different names.’

She heard them laugh in unison. ‘Oh,’ said Treena, ‘your brother knows us best, but why be so linear with your thinking? Time is of no consequence to us. We are aware of what will be and what is.’

‘We are then, and now.’

‘Future and past.’

‘Manic and Mania.’

‘Yes,’ said Treena, ‘however, we disagree with this future, one that sunders us from Tartaros. We must change it. We will change it. Awareness is not acceptance and the future is not set but fluid. Time is a concept of mortals and if you saw it with our eyes you would understand.’

It then hit Aiyana like a rock in the face. ‘You want the crystal to stop what’s going to happen.’ She whirled left and right, but there was no longer any sign of the duo. Manic and Mania, the twin shraeds who had possessed Rasnal Nalrost until the ritual had separated them from him, and from Tartaros. Threadfin had told her everything he’d learned of them. They had failed in their attempt to use Nalrost to destroy the world and had been at war with him since he’d regained his own mind, if not his body. A mind known in her time, as the Grim.

They wanted the Aura to change the past or what they currently saw as the future. She shook her heard. Thinking about time was confusing, giving her a headache. She had to warn Ralan, but she did not think they would allow her to interfere. Yet, she had to stop them before it was too late. If they succeeded, Cydra would never be split into two, a Torment and a viral. She would simply die and Aiyana would never be.

But the plagues would occur, the virals birthed as true servants of the Darkness to destroy the world. And with the Stone and the Aura, the shraeds would then overrun the entire Spectrum of Existence.

It would be the end of everything.

‡

RALAN AND AIYANA WALKED the main street of the ruined township. Windows and doors gaped from either side, while bodies littered streets and alleys. All rotting. Rooks and jackdaws fought over the cadavers while rats scurried about their business unimpressed as the living approached.

Aiyana forced herself not to retch, covering her mouth from the stench. It got through nevertheless. As a viral, such smells hadn’t bothered her, but as a breather it was stomach-churning. Seriously, how did they ever get anything done?

‘There was just a small group of us here,’ said Ralan, an edge to his voice. ‘This was meant to be a haven.’

‘Us?’

‘They were all alive before I left to come for you. This is where I’ve been living. For some time now, though I’ve maintained contact with my mother.’

Aiyana eyed the bodies and realised all were misshapen and damaged before death. ‘Your father’s experiments. It’s what happened to you isn’t it? Your father experimented on all of you.’

Ralan didn’t answer as he picked his way through the dead. ‘These were my friends. I pleaded with him to stop, but those shraeds who haunt you always got in the way. He stopped hearing me, stopped knowing who I am. Those two are responsible. The Darkness infected our family and destroyed it.’

She heard Manic and Mania giggling. ‘Where is it?’ demanded Manic in her ear. She jumped at the suddenness of his voice.

‘Can you hear them?’ Aiyana asked Ralan, while ignoring the shraed.

‘Neither hear them nor see them, although I now realise you can. I sense them though, but my powers are weak since my ... accident. I am aware when they are close as they are right now. Call it a feeling, like an itch.’

Aiyana picked her way across the frozen mud of an alley and inspected the nearest corpse, trying to keep control of Cydra’s body and the rising bile. ‘I am sorry for all which has befallen you, and your family. Truly.’

He looked at her with such forlorn sadness she felt tears stinging her eyes. Damn it, being alive was tough.

‘It is just history to you, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘A footnote in some weighty tome perhaps, but it is real to me. Here and now. They are tearing us apart and the worst is to come.’

‘Why did your mother send us here together? She could have just sent you alone.’

He smiled with a mischievous light in his eyes. ‘Oh, you had to come, Aiyana Todralan. You especially had to be here for they are attracted to you as they will be to your brother. Undead, didn’t you say? Oh, I know a little of what is to come, which is why I’m willing to believe you now. That name of Todralan doesn’t exist yet, but I’ve had dreams of the future. Nightmares. What you’ve told me has clarified some things for me.’

Ralan knew who she was and about Threadfin, if not everything. ‘Your accident, what did it do to you?’

He knelt by a body and closed the eyes. ‘You know, this was my mother’s idea. A town for the failed ones to scrape out some sort of life. All this suffering and death, for what?’

‘Your father wants to save a part of the Spectrum, to save this world.’ As she spoke the words, she knew them for a lie. The look Ralan gave her confirmed his agreement.

‘Your father was not completely wrong, Ralan. His motives might not be pure any longer, but the undead must be born. Born free of the Darkness, of Tartaros. Otherwise, everything will be lost. I need you to trust me on this.’

She felt the shraeds rather than saw them. They were close and flitting from body to body. Their forms were less corporeal than Threadfin had described them, but then Nalrost’s spell would change many things. They would never allow the Aura Crystal to reach Astra Dar’s hands. Aiyana now understood it was by means of the Crystal that Astra would disrupt the ritual. That had to be it.

Claws gripped her throat, invisible if no less painful or real. She felt herself flying to then land atop several corpses, the breath knocked from her.

‘Powerless she is,’ said Manic. ‘You will cease this dialogue. The undead will never be as you know them. This world will be ours. Now, where is it?’

A gust of power washed over the shraeds, who screeched. Then they were gone. Aiyana couldn’t sense them anywhere.

She looked up to see Astra Dar stood nearby. ‘Get up my dear. It is unsightly lying there like that. You are stronger than this, surely. Ralan, shut your gaping mouth like a dear boy and help her. She is your betrothed after all.’

I’m his what? Slowly, she got to her feet with his aid her head booming and chest agony. She had to calm herself. Cydra was Ralan’s betrothed not Aiyana and Ralan knew the truth now. ‘Why are you here?’

It was Ralan who answered. ‘Mother believed they would follow you to get to the Crystal, which they did. Until now, they’ve avoided being anywhere near her. She could not find them. She once tried to purge them, but their hold on father is too strong.’

‘Enough of the chatter,’ said Astra. ‘The Aura Crystal is here. We must hurry. I banished them, but they will return. They are tethered to my love and you are right, Ral my dear, I cannot cut that tether. Not without help.’

‘You know who I am,’ said Aiyana, knowing she was taking a risk, ‘don’t you?’

Astra Dar turned to regard her with a studious gaze. ‘My dear, if you know who I am, you do not need to ask that question. Now, quiet the both of you. Like nattering toddlers. Look, he comes.’

A man strode from between the rubble of two buildings. His long black cloak skirted across cold flesh and stone. His face looked drawn and tight, a long beard beneath a sharp nose and pinched eyes, with long black hair.

He halted and acknowledged each of them with a nod, his gaze lingering on Aiyana. He smiled and she felt in awe of him. The warmth, the utter honesty and openness of his smile, melted her heart. No, being a breather was too ridiculous for words. Her body and emotions were so intertwined she sometimes couldn’t function at all. What was this new attack on her senses?

‘You are a most welcome sight, Aiyana Mayala Todralan,’ said the newcomer.

She felt no threat from him and, in fact, felt an absurd urge to throw her arms around him in a deep embrace, which of course led to thoughts of his arms around her ... stop it!

‘My name is, Fakir,’ he announced for her benefit for it was obvious the others knew him. ‘I am a member of the Seraphim Council. We are aware of your task, Aiyana Todralan, and we know one of our number now aids you in it. You have our blessing.’

‘Fakir,’ said Astra, her voice heavy with impatience. ‘You have brought it with you as I requested?’

The angel turned his gaze upon her, and it was less friendly. ‘Once, another like me made a terrible mistake and gifted into the hands of a mortal man an object so precious and powerful, it could both save or destroy all. He gifted that man existence. When it was clear that man had become corrupted, the object was then placed in the care of new Guardians. I wonder if now, I am remedying this mistake or repeating it. Even among us angels there is no consensus.’

‘You know what will happen,’ said Astra Dar, ‘if you do not give it to me.’

‘Now, or in a thousand years? No, I don’t see everything but,’ he added, glancing with fondness at Aiyana, ‘I see the comfort and kindness of a woman who wishes to save this world and the souls of those she has come to love. It is such love and compassion, which compels me to acquiesce to this request.’ He held out his hands palms up, and an object appeared with a snap of air. A crystal, translucent and jagged in shape, shot through with ribbons of colour.

A ripple of wind was all that announced the beast’s arrival. With a guttural growl, its form solidified as it lunged at Fakir.

The angel moved with the speed of lightning, swirling dark wings exploding from his shoulders in a welter of light. He curled as he spun, sheltering the crystal, his right wing slicing the air. Like a scythe it cut through the hide of the beast, but the creature didn’t howl or show sign of pain.

Ten feet at the shoulder and hairless, the two-headed gorgon’s muscles rippled as its claws struck the angel.

Astra appeared unable to strike, perhaps for fear of harming Fakir. Both angel and beast had become entangled, wings and claws in a maelstrom of blood, light, sweat, heavy grunts and finally a cry of pain.

The beast flung the body to one side and immediately sought out the crystal. Fakir held it in his left hand as he lay unmoving. Astra now chose her moment, her spectralic magic slamming into the creature’s flank, forcing it back. Ralan reached Fakir and began dragging him out of harm’s way.

Aiyana felt like a useless fool unable to touch her own power, and unable to reach Cydra’s.

‘Its name is Cerberus,’ panted Ralan as he dropped the angel’s arms.

Aiyana knew that name. Ralan simply shook his head as he examined Fakir. She should have helped, done something, anything at all. The beast fought its way closer to Astra. Its skin and flesh began to flay beneath the onslaught of her magic, exposing bone. Cerberus was a servant of Tartaros. It was it seemed, also unstoppable.

Something familiar about the twin heads caught her attention, and she began to understand. Manic and Mania couldn’t touch the mortal world in the way they wished. They could not retrieve the crystal and so they used this creature to manifest in flesh, and achieve their goal. Manic and Mania were Cerberus.

Astra Dar redoubled her efforts, the ground around the gorgon splitting and crumbling as the air ignited in green flame. ‘Get it out of here,’ she yelled over her shoulder. ‘Go!’

Ralan was holding the crystal as he backed away from Fakir’s body. He looked at Aiyana and at his mother’s back, eyes full of ... indecision.

Aiyana watched him run with the crystal, as spirals of blood erupted from an advancing snarling Cerberus.

She broke into a run after the Crystal.

‡

AIYANA FLUNG HERSELF down the hillside. The sun was setting, the sprawl of Icarthya a soft glow in the distance. Too much time had been lost, the hour almost upon them.

She felt Cerberus thundering after her. Astra had failed to hold it off. Without warning, her feet lifted from the ground and she crashed into Ralan, sending him sprawling. The crystal flew from his grasp.

‘What are you doing?’ he cried, as she picked herself up and lunged for the crystal. Somehow, she had to defy the shraeds, but she also had to keep Cydra alive. For a bit longer.

Ralan’s magic struck the beast as it appeared above the rise behind them. Aiyana reached a sydarag, leapt onto its back and spurred it to battle speed. Dirt and rock spewed from the earth around her as Cerberus closed. She heard her mount cry as she was flung into the air again. This time, she landed hard and felt a rib crack. Struggling to breathe she rolled onto one side with her chest and shoulder on fire. She felt the crystal in her bloodied grip.

The beast was upon her. It raised one claw and struck. Aiyana felt the pain of this body as though it were her own. In a manner of speaking, it was. Agony erupted as she felt the claws rip into her. She lay, blood pooling around her wondering how she had failed?

The beast reached out to take the crystal, and she heard the shraeds laughing. Treena and Mop, Manic and Mania. They had won.

Then she thought she heard Manic utter a foul curse.

Booted feet near her head. Dirt flung into her eyes. She heard grunts and the clash of what sounded like weapons. Then the familiar scorch of magic and little else as darkness closed in.