5 Transmaterial Dynamics

The creature before Lorn was perhaps nine feet tall, with elongated arms and legs coated in a whitish see-through membrane. It possessed vast pale leathery wings that it currently folded behind its back. That wasn’t the worst of it, however.

Numerous mouths filled with teeth erupted through the membrane on its chest, arms, and legs, yawning wide as though awakening from a deep slumber. It took her several moments to gather the courage to look higher into the face of a monster.

With a small wedged-shaped head incongruous to its body, it had no face but for a single gaping maw, which it opened impossibly wide. This was a creature that existed for one purpose. To feed.

The souleater inhaled though all its mouths, big and small. The soul of the man was shredded in seconds as the eater inhaled him like smoke. The souleater’s main mouth then shut, the smaller ones on its limbs and chest sinking beneath the surface. It threw back its odd-shaped head as though savouring the flavour. Having no eyes or nose, it was left faceless when its main mouth also vanished. Beneath the semi-transparent skin weren’t organs but a writhing mass as though the souleater was filled with huge worms. Lorn realised those worms had mouths on at least one end. She’d never heard tell of such a creature as this. They surfaced when it was time to feed, and then retreated into the collective.

It didn’t appear to sense her, and Lorn remained still as a rock. She wondered how these things sensed their prey. It didn’t seem as though they could see, so how did they hunt, and why hadn’t it sensed her yet?

When she’d first arrived, she’d found herself breathing as she’d done all her life, out of habit. Now she hadn’t dared draw a breath for long minutes. Well, she thought irritably, what did you expect? To find out you were still alive and this has all been some sort of horrible mistake?

The souleater’s head snapped towards her, the empty face staring right at her. Then, it let out a hideous shriek. Lorn backed away inside the entrance, into darkness. She should have fled into its depths, but was as afraid of what lay back there as much as of the souleater.

It lunged for her. Something seemed to prevent it from entering, however. An invisible barrier? She supposed it made sense. The Librarian had wanted souls to cross to his side, but souleaters were unlikely to have been on the invite list.

Others joined the hunt, scratching and shrieking as they tried to get at her. Lorn retreated further inside and then turned and followed the long tunnel down. There was nowhere else she could go.

A voice spoke in her mind, halting her in the darkness of the stone tunnel. ‘Thank Manic’s smooth silver backside they didn’t spot me,’ muttered Axiom. ‘They’ve got an unhealthy taste for shraed when they can get it, you know. It’s a curse being so delicious.’

‘Axiom?’ she whispered.

‘Call me, Ax. Makes me feel more human. Not that I want to be one. I just want to feel more like one. Does that make sense?’

‘Not really.’

‘Well, who said it has to?’

Lorn didn’t know what to say to that, but her experiences with Manic and Mania had prepared her for dealing with a being like this. Most shraeds were soulless entities, the will of Tartaros made physical. Manic and Mania had been the first she’d encountered to show independence of thought. How they’d come to be that way, she didn’t know. What she did know was they were the craftiest beings in the Spectrum.

And if they have a plan involving me, it may be my only way out of this, she thought. She knew she shouldn’t give into hope, considering her current predicament, but those two always had a trick up their voluminous sleeves.

‘Where are you?’ she hissed. ‘I can’t see anything down here.’

‘Here,’ he whispered back, and a faint grey glow emanated from her body, or well, what she saw as her body. She couldn’t help thinking of it any other way. ‘Hiding in your shadow,’ he added. ‘I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.’

‘I’m dead. How can I have a shadow?’

‘Most dead don’t, but there’s some like you that just refuse to accept facts. Like Shakti, though she wouldn’t admit it. You cling to your former lives, behaving as though you still live. You know it’s truly fascinating. I’ve a cousin who’s made a study of it. He’s into necropsychology. Not my area, you understand, but I love to hear about any progress in the field.’

‘You’re not making me feel better. Wait, there are other shraeds sentient like you?’

‘Um, oh, I wasn’t supposed to mention that.’

‘Well, you did.’

‘No, I didn’t.’

Lorn sighed, and then caught herself. He was right. She was still acting as though alive. Even earlier, she’d thought of herself as holding her breath. How could she hold what didn’t exist?

‘Don’t worry,’ said the shraed, ‘I’ve not invaded your soul or anything so crass. I always ask permission before possessing someone, you know. I’m thoughtful that way. It’s the little things.’

‘You’re just using me, aren’t you? Like you used Shakti, to survive.’

‘Of course,’ replied the shraed. ‘I’m still what I am, but I won’t cause you any harm. At least, not intentionally. Honestly the last fifteen were not my fault, and those first seven were just asking for trouble anyway. Accidents happen all the time, right?’

Lorn shook her head. It felt familiar, though, like she was with the twins again, and something about that gave her comfort. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it did. He was their ally in some way, and if they didn’t plan to help her escape, then she might still find a way to bribe them into aiding her. They were always open to a good bribe, those two. She just needed something they might want. The List of Souls came to mind. Could she really do that, though?

‘Well?’ asked Axiom. ‘We going to get on with this mission of ours, or what?’

‘What about Shakti?’ she asked as she starting walking again. ‘What happened to her?’

‘You know what happened. You saw. Once they get a hold of you, well, let’s just say very few escape, and most of those end up Fractured.

‘Most?’

‘Well, there is one who has confounded my theories on all this.’ He paused before adding, ‘There must be a trillion, trillion souls in Tharaxis and they caught her. Bad luck is all.’

‘So, how’d you escape then?’

‘I moved fast. Shakti didn’t.’

‘Just bad luck, huh?’ Well, what had she expected from a shraed? Compassion? Then again, what did she feel? Shakti had already been dead. At least this way, she had likely found peace. Oblivion. It helped her to think that way, whether it was true or not. She did not want to end up like Shakti, however. She wanted to continue, to persist.

‘You’re thinking dark thoughts,’ the shraed muttered. Its voice seemed to come from somewhere near her chest. Even with the grey glow it was giving off, she couldn’t discern anything.

‘I can feel it, you know,’ he continued. ‘I can taste them. You know what dark thoughts do to one of us, right?’

‘Not particularly, no.’

‘We feed on them, along with any negative feelings, like those eaters feed on souls. You shouldn’t tease me. I’m nice, but I’m still what I am. I get hungry too.’

Lorn immediately switched to a different line of thinking. She couldn’t trust Axiom, but he was all she had.

Lost in thought, she eventually hit a wall. Literally. She walked right into it and smacked her head. Fortunately, being dead meant there was no pain; she had felt the impact like a strange pressure that prevented her from continuing forward. Being dead was confusing. Shouldn’t she have just gone right through? Maybe it was that refusal to accept she was dead business.

‘Now what?’ she snapped.

‘The Librarian’s lair is more ... remote you see,’ said Axiom. ‘He didn’t like to mix with the competition. Souls sometimes got lost and wandered to his side. Of course, he often baited them.’

‘This Librarian is a souleater, isn’t he.’

‘No, no,’ he replied, ‘or well, yes, wait—I mean, no. He just happens to dine on souls. Got a taste for them, but he’s not one of those eaters, if you see what I mean.’

Lorn placed fists on her hips, feeling exasperated by this shraed’s answers. ‘Sounds an awful lot like a souleater to me. He ate souls, right?’

‘No,’ the shraed insisted. ‘I mean, yes. Stop confusing me. It gives me a headache.’

‘Shraeds get headaches?’

‘This one does.’

‘I think you’re the one confusing you.’

‘Huh, and Mania said you were nice. Enepsigos ate the odd soul, but no, he wasn’t a souleater.’

‘That doesn’t make sense.’

‘Why do you humans insist on everything having to make sense? Sometimes, I forget how narrow-minded you are. Alive or dead.’

Lorn sighed. ‘Fine, tell me how I’m supposed to reach this Librarian’s lair, or whatever it is.’

‘It’s a library; that’s why everyone calls him the Librarian.’

Lorn felt like punching something. ‘How do I get there?’

The shraed giggled. ‘By going through that wall of course. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.’

‘I just bumped into it. I can’t go through it.’

It was Axiom’s turn to sigh as though he was tired of dealing with such an imbecilic specimen. ‘Lorn Larthuz, you are dead. Remember? A wall can’t hold you back, not if you don’t let it.’

Lorn tentatively reached out to touch the rocky surface, and found it solid. ‘Well, this one can.’

Axiom separated himself from her, forming once more into the semblance of a person though he had no face this time. He gave off a faint grey glow so she could see him. ‘Interesting. You should not be having this problem. Yes, very interesting. I wonder if my other cousin has made any progress in his study of transmaterial dynamics?’

‘Transmat-a-what?’

He waved an ethereal hand that looked quite detailed, including painted nails. ‘Oh, never mind. It’s an obscure field.’

Lorn glared at the shraed. ‘So, I’m trapped down here, am I? What, for eternity with a wall I’m supposed to be able to get through but can’t on one side, and souleaters trying to eat me on the other.’

‘They’ve probably gone by now.’

‘Oh, so you want to go back and check?’

‘Um, no,’ the shraed said after a moment as though having thought it through. ‘I do think I can help you with this.’

Once again, he melded with her. She thought she felt a slight chill which she hadn’t noticed the first time. It was eerie, like the echo of a feeling she’d had when alive. Then, it faded.

‘Right,’ said the shraed, ‘now, let’s try this again, shall we?’

She touched the wall, and this time noticed a dark filmy aura surrounding her fingers. They sank into the stone. There was resistance, but they still moved through it. She pulled them out again in haste.

‘Don’t worry,’ said the shraed. ‘You won’t lose your hand, because you don’t have any to begin with. It doesn’t work like that. It’s all in your mind. You maintain the form you had when alive, because you don’t want to accept, you’re dead.’

‘Of course, I’ve accepted it.’

‘Oh really?’ Axiom replied. ‘Then why can’t you pass through this wall without me?’

Shraeds, the sentient ones in particular, were irritating to a fault. She stabbed her hand into the stone, imagining it was his face. The wall shimmered but remained whole. Then she stepped into it, to be greeted by darkness.