9 Mother

After they’d made the crossing to the other Tharaxis, the first thing Lorn noticed was Yaldo’s condition had worsened. Both his arms and legs were now double-jointed and elongated. Several of those tiny mouths she’d seen on the other souleater were also present, with snake-like forms writhing beneath his skin.

And yet, he was still Yaldo; he was fighting to hold on to himself. The boy looked up with sad eyes. He knew what was happening, and the brave little soul was willing to endure it so they could fight back. Lorn felt a terrible ache in her heart, no matter that she was dead. This wasn’t right, and yet she knew there was no other way.

The second thing she noticed was that they were in the same building as before, but this time there was a staccato beat of thunder outside, and the ground shook. Axiom was no longer visible; she felt him clinging to her soul, and oddly, she also felt his fear. That a being such as he could feel fear intrigued her. It certainly gave her a new perspective on Manic and Mania.

Aiyana touched her arm. ‘We need to get moving,’ she whispered. ‘Once they know we’re here, they will attack.’

Lorn took a step back and turned to exit the building the way they’d entered in the old Tharaxis, and to her surprise found a river of lava outside. Volcanic eruptions spat into the dark sky in the distance, and the ground shuddered again. She watched as a building close the edge of a deep fissure, collapsed in a cloud of dust.

‘We’re still in Tharaxis,’ she said, turning back to look at Aiyana and Yaldo. The other souls had already gone outside, keeping to the shadows, while watching for eaters. ‘Just not the same one.’

Aiyana nodded. ‘We are in their Tharaxis now, and matters have gotten more dangerous.’

Looking back out into the street, Lorn realised something else. The dead were missing, apart from those that had transferred over with Yaldo. Not another soul visible, save for two small groups, which she realised were the Fractured. Those were barely visible, like vague shapes within fog and she thought it was because they hadn’t fully crossed over. Some hung suspended over the fissures, magma spitting at them from below. They seemed to exist a little in both versions of the city.

Glancing upward at the sound of thunder, she noticed the sky hadn’t changed, a dark angry firmament split by colourful lightning. It was then she saw them.

Thousands of winged beings weaving in and out of the ghostly light, seeming to grow energised at each stab of lightning. Like circling crows only more insubstantial in form.

Lorn took a few steps back inside; she did not want to put a foot outside this building. Yaldo had curled up into a foetal position on the floor, hugging his distorted knees to his chest. He was muttering something unintelligible.

We need to move soon, said the shraed, his voice once more coming from somewhere within her core. It’s too dangerous to remain in one place for long. They will sense us, and they will come.

‘What do we do with him?’ asked Lorn with a nod towards Yaldo. ‘We need to help him. We can’t just leave him like this.’

Aiyana offered her a sympathetic look. ‘I don’t know if there is anything we can do. There is no way to reverse the change.’ Both women helped Yaldo to his feet.

‘I can feel them,’ he whispered as he stood. ‘I can feel her!’

Lorn froze as she held him. He was becoming a souleater. In fact, holding him was harder as he felt less substantial to her even as he became more real. At what point did he cease to be Yaldo? When would he turn on them, and attack?

‘Who is he talking about?’ Lorn whispered.

‘If I’m not mistaken, I think he means the Primordial. He must be able to sense her now that he is on their side.’

We still have need of him, said a far less than sympathetic voice. He can lead us to her.

‘He’s just a boy,’ Lorn hissed in response.

No, he is a dead soul, and an infected one. You keep thinking as though you still breathe air into your lungs. You don’t and neither does he. There are no children in Tharaxis. There are only souls.

It was a harsh perspective, and one Lorn did not like, but she also found it hard to argue against. Yaldo was dead. Treating him as though he was a living child was illogical, and yet ...

‘We really should go,’ said Aiyana, and Lorn nodded.

They left the building and exited onto the street. Both women glanced upwards at the horrific sight, while dragging Yaldo between them as they hurried along. They stepped across lava and rock with equal ease, and Lorn felt a discomforting reminder she was deceased. One foot in lava and one on solid rock, but one was as good as the other to a dead soul. With each step, she half expected to sink into the molten rock and burst into flames.

‘Where do we go to?’ Lorn hissed as they half walked, half ran, but Aiyana just shook her head. The others were following behind, heavy crossbows periodically aiming upwards as they waited for the first attack.

It was then Yaldo stumbled and Lorn nearly fell with him. She chided herself for being a fool. It should not have been possible for him to trip her up. For the forsaken Spectrum above, she was a soul, wasn’t she?

They managed to pull him into a narrow alley not defiled by molten rock. Lorn glancing nervously up at the circling eaters. This was foolhardy. How they hadn’t been spotted yet she couldn’t fathom. The souleaters obviously weren’t expecting anyone to cross over to their side, except maybe for Yaldo.

They can’t sense you because of him, said Axiom. Your proximity to a souleater, even a fledgeling, shields you, I think.

You think?

I never said I knew everything. I’m not the Librarian, the fount of all knowledge you know. He sounded testy suggesting he was indeed terrified.

The boy’s eyes began to glow. At first, Lorn thought it was another change as he deteriorated, but she realised quickly this was different.

‘I can feel her,’ said Yaldo in a hoarse voice. ‘She’s calling me.’

Lorn felt the axe’s haft forming in her hand at those words. It had come instinctually without thought. As quickly, it lost form and vanished like before. She felt sick as she knelt and stroked the boy’s head. ‘Then answer her call,’ she whispered in his ear. ‘Go to her.’

Yaldo immediately lurched upwards and the others drew back in fear. Several crossbows were levelled in his direction, but Aiyana gestured for them to remain calm.

Yaldo still maintained that boyish visage as the glow faded. ‘I know where she is,’ he said in his normal voice and then turned to look at Lorn. ‘I can take you right to her.’ He then reached out to touch Lorn’s arm. The axe formed again in her hand. ‘Believe in it,’ he said. ‘Pretend only works when you believe in it.’

Without another word, he leapt forward and took off. It took every effort for the others to keep up.

***

YALDO HAD FELT THEM in his head as he’d passed through to the other side. They kept whispering to him. Horrible things, like what they were going to do to him, and things they would get him to do to others. Worse, he felt a strange urge to join them, to abandon his companions and become one of their creep. That’s what they referred to their collective as, a creep.

He didn’t say anything to his companions, but he felt the shraed watching. The shraed felt what he did; Yaldo was close to becoming an eater. So close, he was now a threat to Aiyana and the others. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He just wanted to find his family and get rid of the eaters. He couldn’t do anything about the first one, but maybe he could help with the second.

He led the two women and the shraed through this version of Tharaxis, muttering as he tried to distract himself from the voices. The ground was broken and, in most places, molten rock. Magma spat at them from deep fissures. The buildings of this Tharaxis were different. Most had crumbled to nothing; others were blackened ruins with several on fire as though they burned eternally.

Oh, they were eager for him to join their creep. So eager to feed. They would help him on his first hunt. He began to feel a hunger gnawing at him, a ravenous hunger that could never be sated.

He halted at one point, retching as Aiyana held him gently, whispering words he couldn’t hear. He saw the tiny mouths on his arms and legs protruding and felt them writhing like snakes inside. He also felt a deep desire to turn and feed. It took every ounce of will to refuse that urge. For now, most of his mind was his, but he knew it couldn’t last.

He stumbled on not wanting to have them close. He was dangerous, and he knew he didn’t have long.

All the while, he could hear her voice. The Primordial. She was calling to him loudest of all.

Mother.

***

IN THE CENTRE OF THARAXIS, at least in the old version, there was an ancient temple. Massive in scope, it loomed over every other building in the city. The dead souls avoided it of course, because there was a terrible feeling when one went near it. Yaldo had been there, more than once in fact. He’d been seeking his family, and he had even climbed its steps in defiance of the weight he'd felt; a heavy presence that threatened to squash him flat.

Now, as he neared that same location in this Tharaxis, he felt it again, only this time it was different. It felt as though he was part of that weight, crushing everyone else. He heard the two dead women behind him cry out. He just kept going. He didn’t dare turn to face them. Every fibre of his being wanted to feed, and he knew if he looked at either of them, he would lose control. There wasn’t much left of the old Yaldo, just one final thread he refused to cut.

He clambered up those wide stone steps, into the shadow of the temple, where she was waiting.

***

THE TEMPLE LOOMED OVER Lorn as they approached. She didn’t understand how the structure could have been built, or who might have built it, but it was beyond anything she’d seen while alive.

It was impossible for her to get a sense of its design it was so large, and she felt she was being crushed as they got closer. She heard Aiyana and the others cry out. Yaldo leapt up the broad dark steps and was swallowed in darkness.

Then the souleaters sensed them, and attacked.

‘You need to hurry,’ Axiom whispered in her mind. ‘We are close to losing him.’ She knew he wasn’t referring to the distance between them either.

Aiyana shouted at Lorn to follow the boy. They would fend off the eaters. Even as Lorn rushed up the steps, she heard the thrum of crossbows and the cries of battle begin behind her.

At the top she paused between the columns, staring into the darkness. Whatever lay within was old, older than angels. It was likely to be deadlier than anything she could think of. The shraed in her shadow paled by comparison. Yet, she knew if she did not proceed, the boy would be lost, not to mention countless souls, to the feeding frenzy she’d witnessed earlier.

You know, Mania, she thought, you and I will need to have a long chat at some point. A very, very long, and uncomfortable chat.

I’ll make an appointment, said Axiom in her mind.

Taking a deep breath, fully aware of the pointlessness of such a mundane action, not to mention the irony, Lorn Larthuz entered the temple, and was swallowed whole.