As related by His Most Sublime and Eminent Radiance, Ailann Tiarnan, Archon of Skarsia
We’re sitting on the hovertrain. Everyone but me is soaked to the skin; it seems that my robes somehow resist the inclement weather. The treedominiums were strong enough to stand against the raging wave of the tsunami, which only makes sense, as the towers are the bodies of three of the trees, Atlas, Goliath and Yggdrasil. The odd thing is that the pleroma would generate such a huge wave only to flood the unoccupied town of New Merenis. Perhaps somewhere down the coast, an assailant was washed out to sea.
Cillian hasn’t said a word since the battle of Albion. He took all the killing onto himself, and I know he did it for me.
I rest my hand against his arm. It’s all that I can do, all that he’ll let me. But I know he knows what his support means to me.
« It’s night here, » says Valentin softly.
« It’ll be day soon, » says Mickey. « I can’t imagine an amusement park as anything but a sunny afternoon. »
« We need to study the achievement list, » says Ellery. « For example, one of the tasks is “Shake hands with a squirrel.” »
« Tervok, » says Mickey. « That could save Harsh, if we can get the information to him in time. »
We don’t know the details. Jamey’s message had been brief – he was afraid that a skillful telepath could localize his transmission. But I had my doubts. « The telepathic enemy hasn’t done anything, well, telepathic. All of their attacks have been physical. »
« I know, » says Cillian, in a barely audible voice. « There’s something strange about that. »
« Really strange, » says Cüinn. « Mickey and I were around back when Molly did a deep scan on Jamey – do you get me? »
Mickey nods. « A telepathic attack is brutal, » he says. « They can shred your mind. Ask Chase about what that Ennead telepath did to him someday. »
« Then why would they withhold their power? » asks Aran.
« Maybe they never had that power to begin with, » says Lucius.
« Why would you say that? »
« What do you think would happen if a SongLuminant possessed a telepath? »
There was a moment of absolute silence.
« I’ve just got a sense…» Lucius continues. « I mean, there’s a certain stiffness to a body I’m animating. I felt that from the attackers. Maybe the telepathic ability is being used to project into here, but once they’re here, they’re not reacting with natural telepathic instincts. They’re like puppets being used by beings who can possess bodies, not beings who read minds. »
« SongLuminants can read minds, » says Aran.
« With difficulty. They do it by possessing the brain, then forcing it to divulge its secrets. It’s different entirely from a natural telepath, who picks up on the brain’s electrochemical impulses. »
« I won’t dismiss it, » says Cillian, « but those rifles are CenGov issue. Why would CenGov cooperate with the SongLuminants? Last I knew, the SongLuminants were gunning to erase them. »
« I don’t know, » Lucius admits. « It’s a theory – no, not even that. A strong gut instinct. »
Suddenly, everybody winces: it’s daylight. The train announces that the next stop is Squirrelworld.
We’re out on the platform, the train pulling away, before Cillian says, « I’m a little surprised we weren’t attacked on the way. I didn’t want to say it because it might jinx us. »
At that moment, a flock of rambats descends from the skies.
« Jinx, » says Cüinn.
« This is showing a distinct lack of imagination on the part of the pleroma, » says Aran. « I could think of much better means of intimidation. »
« Do you want to go fight zombies in the shopping concourse? » asks Mickey.
However, in our current state of armament, the rambats are little threat. « This is a waste of good ammunition, » says Cillian. « That might be the point. »
« Do it like this, » says Callum softly. He gets a rambat’s attention, ducks and rolls beneath it, and comes up in time to slit its throat with a combat knife.
« I think I’m going to be sick, » says Lucius.
« It ain’t pretty, » says Cillian, « but we can’t afford to get too precious here. We’ve got to get to Harsh. »
Rambats dispatched, we get to the front gates of Squirrelworld only to find that the tickets are ridiculously expensive – not that we had money anyway.
Remembering what had happened with Tara’s group, I go to the window. « Ten please, » I request.
« Credit limit exceeded, » the ticketdroid remarks. « One ticket. »
« Looks like Ailann can enter with dignity, » says Cillian. « Cüinn, you’ve got rope, right? We’re scaling the walls. »
I hand my ticket to Ellery. He looks at me helplessly, but I motion for him to go in. « It will be better if I stay to protect the group. »
Scaling the wall is the easy part, despite the fact that some of us are hardly elegant. Cüinn ends up getting a shove to the rump from Cillian.
« This is so annoying, » says Mickey. « On Dolparessa, I’d be able to jump this wall. »
I think about my lack of hunger and my dry robes. I decide to try it. It turns out I can jump the wall easily. There’s a logic to all this – if the pleroma recognizes us, it simulates emanated bodies able to tap into our alchemical capacities. If it doesn’t, the limitations of the bodies are strictly human.
Unfortunately, when I land, I am confronted by a plethora of holome characters waving stun rifles. Major Regrettes looks me directly in the eye. « Entering without a ticket, » she says with a scowl. « We’ll let it go, this time. »
Of course, the others aren’t so lucky. Before they open fire, Cillian decks Major Regrettes with a punch to the jaw.
« Don’t tell Driscoll, » says Cüinn. « Major Regrettes is his hero. »
« Fantasy is more like it, » says Mickey.
There’s an enormous scuffle between branches and the park personnel. Reinforcements come running from the security cabin.
« Ow! » Lucius gasps as he takes a punch to the head from Sweetsweet Sugah Bunneh, Tervok’s girlfriend. As Lucius tumbles to the ground, Lens rushes to him, but a vicious character named Detective Dobergator swings at Lens.
The dobergator is dispatched by a kick to the ribs from Mickey. Perhaps Mickey’s body isn’t supercharged with nul-energy, but he hasn’t lost his mastery of literally hundreds of fighting styles. « Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to hit a man with glasses? » he snaps at the hapless holome.
« Cüinn, Lucius, Lens, get behind me, » I command. I stand with arms outstretched, pushing them back towards the wall. My gambit is correct – the guardians of the park won’t attack me, leaving the fight to those better at hand-to-hand combat.
We are surprised by gunfire. Detective Dobergator collapses in a pool of blood. Callum has pulled a pistol and shot him in the head. « It’s ridiculous, » Callum murmurs. « Are we supposed to be nice to them because they’re cartoons? »
« I thought…Callum was a…submissive… » stammers Lens.
« He’s hardcore, » says Cüinn. « Don’t ever underestimate him. »
Then the tides of battle turn in our favor – our reinforcements arrive.
« We heard a commotion, » says Beat. « Jamey figured it might be you. »
Sheer numbers work for us – the new arrivals are inept, to say the least. The only ones in the slightest prepared for combat are Sloane, Beat and Lorcan. The others – Jamey, Driscoll, Hurley, Seth, Rainier, Darius, and Solomon – are almost liabilities, and look much the worse for wear after their experiences of the past day. I recall regretfully that the teams more-or-less chose themselves based on personal affinities, and not according to any sort of strategy. But then again, we’d had no idea what we were up against.
We make a run for it. We follow the new arrivals to the Light Fantastic Planet, an interactive holographic display where they had taken refuge. Harsh is sitting in the lobby of the concession area, his chair pushed against a corner to keep him from slumping out of his seat. He looks terrible. His natty bespoke shirt is soaked with blood.
« He was shot by the invaders, » Beat explains.
« That isn’t good. That means the squirrel shaking achievement isn’t going to work for him. »
« Then we ought to employ that achievement where it will do the most good, » says Mickey. « Let’s have Cillian take it. »
Cillian declines. « Two reasons, » he says. One: it’s an easy achievement, so we should let someone not likely to get the combat scores do it. Two: right now, I’m nothing more than a tactician. We should let somebody do it with a hope in hell of figuring out what’s going on. I wish we had Davy or Dermot or Malachi. Or even Suibhne. »
Cillian has a point. We go through the likely candidates. Jamey defers on the grounds that his connection is to the grove, not the pleroma. He tells us using Galactic Sign Language, which means he’s still worried about the telepaths listening in on his messages.
« I can read dreams, » says Hurley, « but CenGov telepaths don’t dream. I’d be useless. »
« Yeah, but the pleroma is a kind of dream, » says Mickey. « We might get some insight. »
« Maybe Solomon, » suggests Valentin, « or Cüinn. Solomon is great at problem-solving, and Cüinn is a theoretical thinker. »
« I have a different idea, » I say gesturing towards the front door. Ellery is there, having finally caught up with us. « As the truth of Ashtara’s heart, if anyone will be able to figure out what’s going on, it’s him. »
« I agree, » says Cillian. « The kid can’t hold his own in a fight, so it’ll be safer for him, too. »
I know just how to do this. I put my arm around Ellery, and we go out into the park. He’s shaking violently. « Are you all right? »
He nods dumbly. He isn’t, but he won’t admit it. Why did I and I make his heart so damn sensitive, so unprotected?
Because it’s a heart’s job to be sensitive, and my job to protect it.
It isn’t long before I notice an employee in a Tervok costume. I approach him, saying, « Excuse me, but my boi has always wanted to meet you. »
Timidly, Ellery extends his hand. I’ve seen that look on his face before, the expression of terrified children pushed by their parents to meet the Archon. I can usually calm them with a smile. But Tervok isn’t smiling. There’s something sinister about him. His eyes narrow, but he glances at me and grasps Ellery’s hand, shaking it roughly. Then the park PA announces:
“Ellery Alderman. Ipsissimal Sugarboi. 46th to emanate, 80 in the color scale, resonates to 409. 1.729 meters tall, cock size 16.44 cm when erect, apparent age 22. Concubine. Totem is Syzygium luehmannii, the cherry alder, small-leaved Lilli Pilli or cherry satinash; fixed star is Alkes, the cup, also called Yì Sù Yī, first star of wings. Esoteric symbol is the Minchiate trump La Carità, Charity. Dessert is gulab jamun with hot nau’gsh syrup. Function is combinatory inertia, proto-conscious tendency is orison, designated Alder. Blazon is per bend Chalkolo sunset and argent, a unicursal hexagram countercharged.”
Ellery hurls himself into my arms, weeping.
« Was Tervok that bad? »
« So broken, » he gasps. « I can’t…it all backfired and the trees fighting against me. »
He’s shaking too hard to walk. I lift him into my arms and carry him back to the others. « I’m not certain this was the best idea, » I tell them.
« Manan, » he moans. « Manan trying so hard to keep everything from falling apart. »
« Ellery, get your shit together, » snaps Lorcan. « Take a few deep breaths and tell us what’s going on. »
« Don’t talk to him in that tone of voice. He’s fragile. »
« Fragile is something we can’t afford right now, » Lorcan retorts. « Look at Harsh. »
I don’t want to look at Harsh. He’s paler than Ellery – no, Ellery is like ivory or marble. Harsh is washed out, his bronzed skin ashy from loss of blood. His eyes are so distant, like he’s trying to fight his way back from the bottom of an endless chasm.
Cillian puts his hand on my shoulder. « Hate to say it, but Lorcan’s right. We need Ellery to be functional. »
Ellery takes a few deep breaths. « Ashtara needs a container, » he says. « He can alchemically construct a human body, but the trees hold his energy. But he also needed a place to hold his minds, the ones that weren’t being used inside of the emanation. The grove made a place for us inside of their dreams. At first, it was just inside of the dreams of Atlas, but now it’s a whole dream world that extends across galaxies. But it wasn’t ours, not really. It’s like we were tenants who couldn’t even change the paint color in Daniel’s room. Then He realized – I and I – the grove and the mothman – it couldn’t go on. There were too many of us now. The dreams of the men and the dreams of the trees had to become one dream. »
Ellery continues: « The quest was supposed to do that by fitting our minds into the pattern of the grove. There was a trigger for each of us, some kind of realization which would harmonize our thinking with the trees. But we dragged our feet, and then this attack happened that nobody expected, and now the trees are reacting blindly to any minds they don’t recognize as part of their own pattern. But that means I and I is torn into bits. He’s lost pieces of himself, and He’s fighting against them, trying to destroy the things he needs to reclaim. And even if we get rid of all the invaders, the process won’t stop now that it has started. The only way to be accepted by the grove is to finish the quest. »
« Finishing the quest isn’t going to help Harsh, » says Beat, his voice breaking. « I don’t know how much longer he’ll…»
« What will happen if we lose one of us? » asks Seth. « Do we have any idea of the consequences of that? »
Trust Seth to say the things that can’t be said. Cillian looks like he wants to punch him, but that would only make it worse.
Something tugs at my sleeve. It’s Jamey. This is much easier than it seems, he signs.
And then I feel like a complete idiot.
The pleroma is recognizing my powers and abilities as an emanation, but is treating Harsh like an ordinary human. I’ve done miraculous healing hundreds of times by using my alchemical abilities. It’s one of the reasons why I’m such a popular Archon.
I kneel next to Harsh, laying my hand on his chest. « It’s warm, » he gasps. I nod at him. I close my eyes, feeling the smallest details of life, stitching together what has been rent.
« It feels as though you’re pouring light into my body. » I look up into Harsh’s eyes, large and liquid. He looks as if he wants to say something, but then Beat throws his arms around him.
« I was so worried, » says Beat.
« There’s a logic to it, » says Lens. « Ailann can heal any injuries inflicted by the outsiders, but not by the pleroma. »
« What about Marius? » asks Sloane. « He took some pretty bad damage. Should we go find him? »
« He seems to be stable, » says Cillian. « It would take us the better part of a day to get up the Holy Mountain. I think we’ve got bigger Floatfish to fry. »
« We still need to figure out what’s going on outside, » says Solomon. « We can’t prioritize accurately without complete information. I’m not sure whether we should get rid of the invaders first, complete as many quest achievements as possible, or whether there’s something bigger that needs our attention before all that. »
I look at Ellery, but he shakes his head. « I’m the heart of Ashtara, » he says. « Not his eyes. »
« In that case, » says Mickey, « we know exactly what to prioritize. The two emanations who have to get achievements ASAP are Lens and Ace. »
« I’ll communicate that to the other team. Is there any achievement which looks like something Lens could do immediately? »
« I’ve got it, » says Cüinn. « “Face the ghosts.” Didn’t I see a haunted house around here? »
« Good thinking, » says Cillian. « That seems to be the way this thing is working. I’m not even gonna comment about how screwed up it is to try to integrate the sparks into the pleroma by having them complete stupid hologame tasks. It’s like something Suibhne dreamed up. »
« It probably is something Suibhne dreamed up, » says Hurley. « I and I gets His ideas from us. »
« There are a suspicious number of penguins, » says Lorcan. « Maybe we should make tracking down Suibhne a priority, too. »
« As ludicrous as it seems, it’s important, » says Ellery. « I and I is trying somehow to bridge the difference between ourselves and the trees. »
« First things first, » says Mickey. « Lens takes a walk through the haunted house. How bad can it be? »