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Chapter 10: Echoes from the Source

I woke up to you staring at me. Your tail wasn't wrapped around me. I wondered what was wrong. I woke to you most days now, you curled against me, but now you seem distant. You don't look too great either; your eyes are more sunken. Your skin is paler. What happened? 

***

Year of Wrath 1231, Season of Waiting D.99 Vilorlith

Palming my face, I felt my cheekbones prominent against my fingers. While I had gained much from my time spent in Illy's graces, I was still a far cry from what I was. Seeing my reflection in the still waters of the drainage basin in the airlock, my eyes sunken and hollow. Though I could still see the galaxies move within them, blinking, and they were the same color as my darling Rythia's. Blinking again, and they were the same royal purple as Illy's.

Rising to my feet, cracking my back, feeling my age, as it was not happy with the amount of work my atrophied body had just been forced to endure. Though I could shift my form as I pleased, it seemed in this state I couldn't regenerate to any meaningful degree. "It's not so bad, Villy. At least you're still breathing." I thought to myself. 

Finally taking the moment to look around, immediately wishing I hadn't. Their bodies lay in the same positions they fell, railguns still clutched in their hands. That uniform that the Legion had insisted all combatants wear, still adorned their forms. Unmarred by time, rot, or any other sign of damage. Climbing up the ladder, it was far worse than I had first thought.

The hallway leading deeper into the bowels, littered with the lifeless bodies of my children. The corpses of the Shadow Touched, having been gunned down at the very entrance, their bones twisted and deformed in facsimiles of sea creatures. Their skulls being the only things to remain unchanged, my stomach turned as I retched. Vile things, turning their brethren into horrors, only to leave their faces unchanged.

The lights came online as I broke the barrier between the airlock and the rest of the station. Still, no matter how sick it made me, I took those changed souls into my hands and wished them a peaceful dreaming dream. Sinking to my knees as the weight of my actions placed itself on my shoulders once more. Shaking as I thought back to the moment that this all began. 

She was screaming, her soul being twisted in ways it was never meant to be. Her cry reached my ears even from all those systems away, though I was there in an instant; it was too late. The Fifth Note. The note off-key, off tempo, out of tune, he stood there, hands splayed open as his power worked her soul. I demanded that he stop, the horror in his eyes as he turned to me. 

I took his power as it wrapped her soul further, knocking him to the side as I tried to undo the damage he had done to her. Yet. The sob left my throat as the memory washed over me. "Help me, Mother! Please, it hurts!" Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard, discordant and visceral. 

I turned to that Shadow I had knocked to the ground, picking him up by sticking my claws through his chest, demanding that he undo his foul power. That same horrified look in his eyes as he looked down at the girl he had corrupted, he wasn't even listening. Throwing him off my claws and into a tree, I turned back to my daughter. Trying to untangle the song that was woven into her being, only making more and more knots as I tried. 

My own song discordant to hers now, unable to harmonize with the creation I had made. She could see the worry on my face. The more I tried to help, each attempt rebounded or simply did nothing at all. Each attempt pushing her song toward a different tune, each attempt a more and more alien thing before me. "I am sorry, I do not know how to help her." His voice was soft, shifting like a shadow to a flame. 

"Then what were you trying to do?!" My voice wasn't so much a scream, as much as it shattered reality around him. Though it did nothing, several thoughts slid into place. This was no creature, no spawn of some errant creation from my siblings. He was one of my siblings, a god.

The fury at what he had done boiled within me, feeling my form shift to something darker as he shank beneath me. He shook his head as one of my claws sank into his neck, "I just wanted to sing with you..." 

"Mama, please." She whimpered behind me, this Shadow, having been torn apart. His viscera still clinging to me. Cast away to beyond creation's sound, beyond the light, I turned to her as I could have done nothing to save her. Nothing I could do was capable of undoing what he had done. 

"Rest now, sweet princess." I left no ounce of power behind as I calmed her mind, picking her up into my arms like the child she was to me. Cooing her into a sleep, "Mama will take your pain away, believe in me." The world faded back into coherence around me as the snap of her neck rang in my ears. 

With a gasp, I was back in the station, heart racing as my claws reverted back into my hands. Adrenaline pumping through my veins as I had to race to quell my voice leaking through the world, already feeling the Vestiges clawing at the airlock door. Swimming in the murk, from deeper below, their voices clear to me in a phantom song of confusion and despair. 

Rising unsteadily to my feet, unstable as that memory echoed inside my skull. Placing a hand on the wall beside me to balance myself, my breathing ragged and painful. "I could have waited," I said to the world around me, turning to walk further down the hallway. The moment my hand left the wall, I fell to my knees. Retching as the memory wouldn't leave, "I could have waited until they had shown up." My voice warbled as I struggled to regain control over it. 

Picking myself up from the ground again, keeping my hand firmly planted against these walls. Shuffling along as more and more bodies passed by, I couldn't. I couldn't look at them right now. "They appeared only a few moments after she hung limp in my arms. Alnya and Syn took her from me. Kyln tried his damnedest to calm me down." Each doorway I passed led to empty rooms, all my children having been called to fight some threat from Eons ago. 

The control panel was in the center, the circle. It should still be operational, though this dimly registered as I refused to look at anything except the end of the hallway. Its massive metallic door bore the symbol of my own name, the thing having been shut. Presumably, they would have hoped that it would never be opened again. Shoving the memory down, suppressing that vile thing. "I can't. I can't relive it again." The words gasped out from my own throat, the horror trying to set its roots deep into my mind once. 

Humming to myself, trying to calm my own mind. Using what little power I had to soothe my own anxiety, the reality of my past actions. The dread easing away with each passing note, "Oh, Illy. How I wish I could speak with you freely, but your voice... I want to talk to my children again." 

I was lying to myself, and I knew it. I wanted to confess my sin, the sin of a goddess. I wanted them to understand that I never meant for any of this to happen. I laughed as the audacity of even thinking about it hit me. "The road to hell is paved in good intentions, Villy," I told myself. Finally reaching the end of the hallway, an arcane display opened up at my touch. 

"Maybe I could tell her one day, but I have no right to grieve my own choices." My fingers quickly moved across the display, typing in override codes, access information, and unlock sequences. The sound of the locks disengaging rang like a bell in the now empty halls. Closing my eyes as I turned around, one last time to frivolously use Illy's power. It really was hers. I was a leech to her, a parasite that could do nothing on her own. 

I turned their bones to dust with a flex of my hand, pushing that dust upward into the ventilation ducts. Sending my mind's eye with them, unblocking the dirt and ash that had accumulated in them from the untold amount of time the system remained unresponsive. Pushing that out of the way, I sent their dust toward the skies. It was the least I could do, let them see the skies one more time, before letting them rest for eternity. 

Opening my eyes, the halls were now truly empty. Only their guns having been left behind, the Shadow Touched's bodies having gone with them. Tears rolling down my cheeks as I turned back to the now open doorway, the massive sphere having survived well despite all this time. I had to admit, Alnya had been right when she said that this design would survive the longest. Though there were cracks in the case around the control panel, they shifted in ways that only made them stronger. The more pressure on it, the better. 

The doorway to the actual panel slid noiselessly into the wall as the several hundred screens inside the sphere powered on. The resilience of the power stations never ceased to amaze me, first the library, now Central Command? I would have kissed Taneth right on the lips for all his work. 

In the chair, its needle still pinned to the grid on the floor, was another body. Kyri. She was such a loyal girl; apparently, she made good on that promise she made. Having told me at the start of this war that she would never abandon her post. She was the frontrunner for operating the communications systems, joining the network together. All channels from the outer rings of the universe, to the local comms centers that were on each planet, all came through here. They called her "The Spider" for how much webwork she did to keep everything running. 

Her keyboard still in her lap, several other command boards hovered in fixed positions around her chair. Their magic had persisted long after the chair itself had died. "System?" I said aloud. "Damn, I wish I knew what she had called this thing again." 

A simple melody played in response to my voice, I took the keyboard from Kyri, brushing the desiccated hair from her face. Typing in my own command keys, they should have the same effect regardless of which system I used. The Children were insistent on giving me a master code, one that circumvented all security protocols, allowing me to access any information I wanted. 

"Symphony online, awaiting command." Symphony, the smile touched my face as the memory filled my mind. She had been so excited to tell me about the new tool she had built to help fight in the war. I remembered being touched that she had called it something like that, bringing a symphony to the chaos, like a true artist, she brought sense to the senseless. 

I was always terrible at not speaking what I typed. Even now, that old habit refused to die. "Status: responsive networks." Symphony made a small melody again, several dozen screens lighting up with information forming a single large screen. 

I wasn't ready to hear Kyri's voice coming from the runes that powered the whole system. "Mother? You never let that bad habit die, huh. Good for you that I built a tool where you can just speak instead of typing it all. I made this database with advanced query functions so that you can ask a question anyway you wish, and I could, in spirit, get it for you." The simple melody played again. 

Covering my mouth as my eyes grew wet, I never expected to hear her voice again. I couldn't help myself, "Kyri, is that you, or is this some kind of recording?"

"I suppose it is both. I made a recording of my voice and used it to overlay the query response. It is my voice, my ticks and way of speaking, but no, it is not me." That answer was oddly devastating, my ears drooping in response. "Please do not be sad, Mother. Before you ask, yes, I have cameras in here, and yes, they do read the mood of faces. I can see Kyri's body there as well. It has been some time." 

Confused, I looked around trying to see the camera's she was mentioning. But finding none, well, none that I had recognized. The amount of technological advances the Children made from the start of the war till the day I died, it was nearly an impossible task to keep up with. "Kryi, what is the year? What date is right now?"

"Using the standard intergalactic calendar, from the start of the War at year zero, it is currently year forty-five-thousand five-hundred and sixty-five. Day three-hundred and ninety-nine." She said dully as if the information wasn't horrifying. 

"Kyri, what date did I die?" I asked slowly. 

"Unknown input, The Great Mother is still alive." Her voice said in an odd way. "System readings show that the Great Mother has been present on The Cradle for the last forty-five-thousand three-hundred and sixty-five years. Using the orbital magic monitoring systems." 

I closed my eyes, understanding how to phrase the question now. "What date was it when the system observed the unresponsiveness of the Cradle's Citadel?"

"The Citadel was overserved as destroyed by both field operatives from the Legion of Syn as well as by the High Priestess Rythia on the last known date of entry at three a.m., year two-hundred and sixty-five. Audio journal files found for both reports. Would you like them played?"

Forty-five-thousand years. A chill ran down my spine, slumping to the floor, the keyboard still in my hands. "Mother, are you alright? Shall I send for someone to assist you?" So even Symphony didn't know. Glancing at the screens that listed which systems were operational, nearly all the comms systems were listed as inoperable. Nearly all the observation systems were offline. The only things that were operational were a single satellite still orbiting the Cradle and the comms between the Cathedral, the Portal Nexus, and this station. Otherwise, all databases were stored locally here.

"Please play the recordings, Kyri." My own voice sounded muted as there was brief static, and several dozen runes glowed softly. 

"That's it then. There isn't anything else we can do." Anlyth's voice filled the small space. Yet another voice I never thought I would hear again, the sound of gunfire sounding off in the background. The telltale song of the Fae, the crackling infernos in the Faeries wings. "Mother Vilorlith has fallen. She took the Citadel with her, and every last one of her Children. May the Quartet rest their souls. That ash cloud is only growing, it's blotting out the sun more and more as the minutes pass." 

There was static in the recording as Symphony flashed a brief warning about corrupted data. His voice picked up again, as each word he spoke filled me with dread. "Father Kyln was captured and executed by the Shadows. Nearly every Ashbringer we have left is enroute to," he laughed darkly. "Well, I don't know what we are fighting for now. Our gods can be killed, it seems. Might as well just lie down and die with some dignity." I had never heard him speak like that, his pride gone, his confidence gone. 

"Either way, they will come, kick up even more dust. Try to eradicate the hordes of Brownie Shadow Touched in the central continent. The frontline here, where Alnya's army was stationed just outside the Citadel, is oddly quiet. Though a few of the Brownies were teleported here, claiming to have been sent here by the Great Mother. Just before she glassed the Citadel and every last surrounding mountain, the Cathedral is already mostly buried in ash. All comms between the Citadel, Portal Nexus, and Cathedral have gone dead."

Another brief bit of static as Symphony flashed the same warning. His voice was broken, defeated. The pride of his race, stripped from him, "Syn. She's, she's dead." My skin crawled at that. She couldn't be. She couldn't; she was the strongest amongst us. "Shadow Lust consumed her. The Raven ate our Sun." His voice broke as more static filled the space as his words broke up. "Only... Alnya left... infection rampant... she's worried... last planet left unburned by Syn... there is no escape. Today we die, today we face our extinction." 

Kryi's voice filled the room as the recording ended. "I'm sorry, Mother, that file is very old. The system did its best to restore as much of its code to play that much. There were a few more minutes left before the recording suddenly cuts out. A summary from when the recording was first taken is this: Arch Valkyrie Anlyth spoke about how their armies were corralled just north of the Cathedral. The Shadows had taken down the Ashbringers and drove them to the planet's surface; the last known comms between them indicated that they were immediately swarmed and turned. Though the Ashbringers did succeed in eradicating several million Brownie Shadow Touched..."

"Enough. I've, I've heard enough. Please, Kyri, play Rythia's recording." I couldn't bear to listen to the death toll of my own children. I had seen enough of that wandering the ruins of the world I had built. My voice pulsed with the runes powering the system. Briefly, a few systems came back online only to go dark once more. "Control, Villy. Control, we don't get to speak freely. You'll be noticed. Control."

Kryi's recording made a noise that was all too familiar. The same hesitant cough she used to do when she didn't know if she should say something or not. When I didn't respond, the melody played again as drips landed on my hands at hearing Rythia's voice. "Mother, I do not have long. I am not myself. I know you are out there. I have seen the creation of this world through your eyes. I do not care that Shadow Wrath slit your throat," I touched the scar along my neck. "I do not care that he put my spear through your chest. You are still out there." 

The recording flared with a high-pitched screech as Rythia groaned, trying to maintain control of herself. "He chained us to him. Chained our souls, our minds, and bodies. I can feel he can't touch our sparks. So he suppresses them, our voices so much weaker than they were. I know you are out there. I will find you again, Mother." 

There was that screech again, as the runes in the control room flared brightly at the noise. "He uses us as his soldiers, we raid the ashlands hunting down their corrupted. It's the only orders he has given us: hunt them down and kill them. He has no more use for them. Though we die in droves along with them. My own golden spear flashing in the night as he and the other Shadows are trying to keep reality together. Mother Alnya, she did something, something the Shadows can't fix." 

I heard her voice bark orders to something behind her, before returning to the recording. "It might take years, but I will find you again. I will find all of you. If the others of the Quartet are the same as you, Kyln and Syn are still alive. Maybe. Ah, Great Father grants us each day, we should just be happy we are still alive. Though suffering and war are all we know, I can feel Bhal coming close. I'm sorry, I can't let him find this. Mother, I love yo..." The rest of the recording was nothing but static, then nothing. 

Kyri's Symphony had the good decorum not to say anything as the room filled with that deafening silence. A silence that filled my mind, quieting as the world around me stilled even further. This tomb, this cathedral of the dead, where I have to learn my children were truly taken from me, where I learn that my siblings have fallen. That no matter how much we fought back, it was all for nothing? 

"Vilorlith, I have some queries that might be of interest to you." Kryi rarely ever used my actual name, only ever doing so when she needed my attention. It was enough to make me nod, her cameras picking the motion up. 

"Orbital data indicated that your Citadel may have fallen, but your children are alive and well. Though they are very few in number." Her voice began. 

"I know they are the Goblins; they stand less than two-thousand strong." A bitter laugh left my lips, "A far cry from the billions and billions of my children there used to be." 

"I understand that you are distressed, Mother, but these queries will interest you further." It waited for me to say nothing, continuing a short moment later. "There was a spatial anomaly detected a few days after the Citadel became unresponsive, as well as all the surviving generals' ID signatures becoming unreachable. Several million ID's went missing at the same time. The most important being that Mother Alnya ID disappeared from Namix. Her ID is no longer on this plane." 

"Are Syn's and Kyln's IDs still active?" I asked, suddenly remembering that Symphony had flagged me as still alive. 

"Yes, Syn's ID is currently in the interior of the continent, south of a newly formed mountain range. Though Orbital information is very limited, many systems of the satellite are offline, she appears to be in a valley filled with fog for inordinate amounts of time." Kryi's voice pulled open a grainy overhead map of the landscape. It looked nothing like the planet I had made; the Great Meadow was supposed to be far larger. As well as this new inland sea, and a massive desert to the south. That valley was indeed filled to the brim with fog, though there was an odd, clear line running through the middle of it connecting two cities on either side of the valley. 

"Kyln's ID moves about frequently, never staying in place for very long. However, it should be stated that both their IDs are accompanied by Shadows at all times. Shadow Lust is always with Syn as Shadow Piety is with Kyln. The monitoring stations are still mostly operational, able to pinpoint the locations of all the Shadows currently. Though real-time information is limited as Shadow Touched have recently been infiltrating the cities and bases, sabotaging comms runes." Kryi answered. 

"What is the infection rate of the Cradle?" I asked, now wondering about something.

"One-hundred percent. The Cradle has been fully infected with the Shadow's Miasma. Every single living creature, lifeform, and biotic has been infected. Monitoring stations have indicated that the Miasma has made its way into the DNA codes of living organisms. The Shadow Touched likely do not even know they are infected, let alone perpetuating the infection." Kyri told me. 

"What is the status of the defenses of the Coast Cloud station?" Suddenly wondering if my speaking out loud here was a wise idea if the monitoring stations were reporting something like that. 

"Many of the passive systems are online, though ventilation, life-support, and active deterrents are currently offline. I'm sorry, Mother, but your appearance here used the last of the active deterrents left. All reporting stations around the Cradle have also exhausted their defenses as well. The station would not be able to withstand a direct assault from one of the Shadows themselves, but hiding the presence of a member of the Quartet, yes. You are safe here, Mother." Kyri's exasperation came through beautifully; she really had done a wonderful job preserving her own personality in her creation. 

I thought about it for some time before asking anything else. I wondered that Dwarf who recognized me when I showed myself to him that night. He reeked of familiar power, only a few times removed. He had my voice, a gift that shouldn't have been able to happen unless they shared a bloodline with my children. But, he had none of the features besides his height. "Is there any information on the current Shadow Touched? The ones I have interacted with seem incredibly lucid. The Goblins especially seem to have a mix of my teachings and traditions, as well as several others that do not fit."

"Error inquiry, follow-up question from system. What do you mean the Shadow Touched are lucid?" Kyri's voice responded. 

"They are; they can form thoughts and ideas on their own. They have built cities on top of the bones of my old ones. They have built their own cultures, a new language that is based on ours." I told the system.

"Error, unknown information. Mother, the Monitoring stations have not collected any data on what the Shadow Touched are doing, their level of mental capacity, or their capacity for emotion. The system still operates on the assumption that they are still living tools of war. Thoughtless husks of the people they once were. Craving only to infect more Children, to kill and disfigure anything they touch." Kyri's voice responded. 

Well, clearly the system wouldn't update that type of information without someone inputting that data for it. Though I knew it used to do that, then again, most of the stations and monitors didn't do that. Most of that information came from the cities and their metrics. "Has there been any new information added manually that hasn't come from the stations?" 

"Yes, there are two entries that have been added in the last fifty years. One was added in the Portal Nexus, as well as from the Great Meadow monitoring station. Would you like to view them? The Portal nexus also has a recording from a guest user. Verification was unable to be performed, as the language used wasn't a system-recognized source." Symphony responded. 

"Let me hear that recording. I have spent a lot of time in the Portal Nexus, and I haven't seen anyone use the system there." I told Kyri's bones, wondering if I was truly lucid then. I know I had convinced those people who lived in the ruins to give that child to the Necromancer, and I had watched their strange society grow around the sea of bones just outside the Portal room. 

There was a brief pause as the melody played. "Well, isn't this a strange device. What an odd display, activating on its own like that." It was a voice I knew, that Dwarf's voice. The one who had given my children his protection. Gjorn. Though he sounded far younger, speaking in that garbled tongue they spoke these days. "I was told to find places like these and to see if any of them were still operational. It would seem this one is, though I was also warned that the Shadows may have infected even these places in the time they have been gone. If there is anyone still loyal to the Four's song, seek me out. I am a friend."

Well now. That was interesting, could it be chance? Alnya always hated fate; she refused to integrate it into the world. Then again, sometimes even our forces reacted without our cause. Perhaps fate was inevitable in the countless systems and calculations our magics work with each passing second. Someone had to tell him about these places and how to bypass the security measures, let alone a place that I had been residing in for so long. "Not that it matters, I am tied to where my corpse is at the moment," I said without meaning for Kyri to respond.

"Your corpse? Mother, I have no data on that query. Would you mind adding these unknown results to the system? We haven't had many updates beyond the monitoring data." Symphony asked, marveling still at how much it reacted and sounded like my daughter. "Permission to touch you?"

"Denied. Please open the terminal, and I'll transfer my memories to the databank." The response surprised me at how much the repetition of days gone by kicked back in. I hated the way cables plugged into the skulls of the Children, besides I didn’t have the hardware for that. But the system responded promptly, a display appearing at about the level where I could comfortably rest my hands. A series of runes glowing as the logo that Kyri had designed flashed to life. A treble note in the center of a web. 

Placing my hands on the terminal, I felt the system merge with my own spark momentarily, pacing through every memory I gave it access to. "Strange, dark. Conflicting information." Kryi's voice sounded worried, I could see cock her head in my mind as she continued speaking. "Cultural information on subjects: Goblins, Humans, Dwarves. New information of status of stations: Library, Portal Nexus, The Cathedral. Tosk will be missed, Mother. Analyzing foreign language, entire lexicon complete in less than thirty seconds." 

I closed my eyes when she mentioned Tosk. Slowing my breathing, as darker memories the system had no need to know bubbled to the surface. Feeling the system break its analysis of my memories, I sat down, breathing so slowly as to be nonexistent. She spoke again after collecting the data from me, "Multiple errors compared to known data. Unable to access analytical processes, multiple system failures across Symphony. Mother, have our cities been destroyed?" 

"Yes. Yes, they have; there are precious few facilities that I have found. Doubtless, there are more, but their functionality is unknown. We lost, Kyri." I said. "When I leave here, are there any other terminals that are known and operational where I can speak to you again? I fear coming here again would put the station at grave risk. I will not allow the database to be annihilated; that would only make the rest of the ruins of this world worthless."

"I can see that now, Mother. The local analytics of the terminal have shown as much. My, how the world has changed. I'm more surprised that the Shadow Touched have evolved so much in the time they have." She spoke slowly, seeing the Kyri in my mind pace the room with a hand behind her back while chewing on her fingernails. "There are three other operational terminals on the Cradle, one in the Cathedral, one in the skyhook platform to the south, and another now buried under the new mountain ranges in the eastern Great Meadow. Dozens of stations remain partially operational. Would you like to know their locations?" 

"Can you make me a durable map of all these locations?" I asked. 

"Certainly, one moment." The machines around the room lit up, the rest of the screens in the sphere glowed softly as the familiar hiss of the pneumatics pushed open a floor panel, "I would hate to be a bother, Mother. But I can sense from my last scan that you are unwell. Assuming you can still create, I would appreciate a small amount of power to create a metal map for you to take." 

"I'm sorry, but I cannot," I spoke softly, touching the scar at my neck. The jagged skin felt wrong under my fingertips. "Is there any other input I can offer?"

"Based on the state of the station, are there any loose panels on the walls that could be pried off?" Kyri asked. 

I stepped back out of the terminal, looking for anything. It didn't take long to find a side panel that was riddled with bullet holes along its seam. Shifting my fingers into something a bit more durable, wedges of hardened bone, I was able to pry the sheet off with some effort. Though the thing was nearly as tall as I was, just as heavy. Dragging it back with even more effort, huffing from the exertion. I didn't have nearly the amount of muscle I needed to be doing something like this. I could still see my ribs, my stomach sunken, and my nearly everything else about me just as bony; physical effort wasn't something that was easy. 

Dragging the sheet back into the room, Kyri laughed. "That is quite a bit larger than what I would have anticipated. Could you place it here?" A set of runes glowed just behind the needle chair, a series of four. All of them relating to geometry and heat, Syn's handiwork right there. Having given up trying to drag it, I pitched the thing on its edge and pushed it the rest of the way. Nearly dropping it twice, but managing to get it to the rune matrix.

The second it crashed to the ground, a series of hot spots began moving along its surface. Cutting it down to the right shape, another set of lights rounding its sharp edges. Though it still had a few bullet holes, that apparently didn't seem to matter too much as the terminal continued to work the sheet of metal. "Mother, do you still need to breathe? The chromium and vanadium in this metal are rather toxic to organic life in vaporous form." Kyri asked, pausing the work on the metal.

"I don't need to breathe, no," I said as I slowed my heartbeat to a crawl, my lungs ceasing their functioning as I felt my blood saturate with oxygen. Only a small moment later, after Kyri made a noise that made me smile, the metal became molten as the bullet holes filled in on their own. Thinning the sheet down, yes, but it was perfectly smooth and cooling just as quickly as it began.

"Well, it looks nearly perfect! Would you be a doll and put the new sheet into the terminal beside the chair?" Her voice was sweet and bouncy like it had been in life; she always got this way when she was excited. Picking it up and sliding it into the slot in the pedestal that had opened from the floor, it vibrated as various tools began making the map. 

It only took a few minutes as I watched in awe at my children's creation, working with the practiced hands of a master. "We have a problem, Mother," Kyri spoke quickly. 

"What? What's wrong?" 

"I was wrong. You are not safe here. There is a Shadow inside the facility." Her voice sounded horrified, echoing my own fears. I wouldn't survive an encounter with one of them right now, and if it had been so long before. How long would it take for me to awaken again? "I've finished the map. Please take it and leave right now. I'm redirecting power to as many of the protections as I can. Hopefully, you can escape unnoticed. Going dark, I love you, Vilorlith." 

Every screen went black, as with the runes inside the sphere. The map popped back out of the slot, a perfect recreation of the map of the Cradle with its new landmasses and forms. Elevation lines marking the topography, stars noting each of the operational terminals, and circles denoting former settlements. 

I took it quickly, merging its reality with my own to hide it from prying eyes, the same way I did with the book. Trying to stick to the shadows as the system had killed nearly all the lights, only the ones over the airlock were operating at the moment. I felt it now. That sickening ichor, clinging to everything, probing at everything.

I stepped softly, even to my ears, I was silent as this tomb, the fans and machinery having gone silent as Kyri killed the power. Just hoping that I could crawl my way to the airlock and flood it quickly enough to leave, already shifting my form to something far more aquatic. The silence ringing in my ears as the shadows shifted in far too intentional ways. Searching each room, sweeping the place. Trying to time my movements as it went into each room. 

Though my heart beat was slow, my blood pressure was through the roof as I traded places with the Shadow, which entered a room just as I passed it. Slowly turning around to watch my back, stepping lightly. It left the room and paused as a pool of darkness on the floor, eyes floating in its form as I pressed myself against the wall. Blending the shade of my skin to the same shade and texture as it. Jumping as the temperature shifted in the ventilation ducts, making a loud thud from the vent next to me.

It rose in a column, a face with far too many eyes materializing as it scanned the hallway. Each one of my steps quieter than the last, trying to put more distance between me and it. "You can stop hiding. I know you are in here." It said as its voice grated against every surface. 

It turned in my direction, not quite looking at me. "I can smell you, Creature." It hissed as it went into the next room, splitting its form to search more rooms at once. Time was growing short, quickening my steps just a little as I walked backward. If it was going to attack, I could at least slow it down long enough to reach the airlock. Maybe. 

"There isn't any point in hiding, my brother is just outside the door. He called for me when he heard your song, Creature. Opening that door would only lead you into his gullet." It seemed to be calming its voice, trying to be less harmful to my mind. Still, I was seeing eyes where they shouldn't have been, his voice echoing where there wasn't sound. 

My foot bumped into something on the floor, and the railgun skittered across the floor. The racket sounded like a gunshot at a funeral, and I bolted for the airlock basin. Shifting into the aquatic form fully that I had in mind, I was almost there. The lights of the basin were like a setting sun; tail was already lashing out to smack the button on the wall to flood the room. 

Something grabbed my tail as it whipped out, pulling me back into the darkness. My nails cutting deep into the metal floor as it dragged me further into the hallway. “No, no, no, this isn’t happening…” I thought to myself as a cold sweat broke out across my skin. Turning to face it, opening my mouth to let loose a blast of power to stun it. He opened his own mouth and swallowed the sound, pressing a hand to my mouth. Several dozen other limbs pinning me to the ground. 

"So I was right about Ilgor." His form shifted from the mass of tendrils slinking over my body to one of a man. Far too many eyes on his face, as a silver mask formed where his face should have been, though his wickedly sharp teeth remained. "You are attached to that precious tool." 

His hand was still over my mouth, a silencing spell that I had only ever seen Alnya use, drowning my voice out. Too many arms for a human, several of his tendrils remained to hold me down. "Now I'm going to remove my hand, Great Mother. But you cannot scream, do not make a noise. I do not want to harm you." 

Though I was struggling with the little strength I had in his grasp, that comment made me go limp. What did he mean? Out of the corner of my eyes, I watched as his shadow curved into a circle with an inverted cube in the center, the base of a teleport. He watched my eyes see what he was doing, "I did mean that one of my brothers is outside the door. I'm going to take us somewhere we can speak just a little more freely." 

The world turned and shifted as the dark hallway of the station became the night-shadowed trees just outside the Goblin village. The second he finished the teleport, he recoiled away from me, his flesh burning where he had touched me. "Still divine even in your state. How am I not surprised. Still, I can't have you running away before we've spoken, Prey." The next instant, I was surrounded by a black shell, drowning out all things from the outside world. 

"Balance, why am I not dead?" I asked slowly. 

"They call me Xelex these days. Besides, this form you see now, it's familiar to Ilgor, should you mention this to her. Beyond that, I doubt you'd be able to tell her much, as I'm assuming you've already encountered that wonderful safety measure your sister put in place." He said sarcastically, still having several dozen runes active in his hands, pointed toward me. 

"You are a Shadow. I was under the impression that you still wanted me dead." Feeling my strength give out, I sat heavily as my hips complained at the impact. "Why are you not doing anything to me?" 

He cocked his head, confusion visible on his face despite the mask. "I thought you would have been more powerful than this by now. I gave Ilgor four drops of your blood; surely that would have been enough to kickstart your regeneration." 

"So you have been the one. Why give them to her in the first place." Though it was meant as a question, my voice just didn't have the strength to make it so. 

Dispelling the runes in his hands, he knelt down to me. Placing a fingertip just in front of my eyes, a spark connecting our magic together for just an instant. "Hmm, that isn't expected. You have been mixing your spark with hers to gather power. That won't work the way you want it to, Vilorlith. The species you see as Goblins is a fully infected species. Her magic is tainted by ours, as well as her mind, body, and soul; every ounce you pull from her eats away at itself. So the amount you think you've been pulling from her is far less." 

I looked up at him, my turn to look confused. "Why are you helping me?" 

"It has been too long. I smelled something different from that priestess from half a world away, only to find you Tethered to her like you are now. You will find that the Shadows are far less united than we once were; only my predisposition was always for equilibrium. In the old days, you and the rest of the Quartet held all the power; now we do. I want to help you, Creature." He said as he opened his palm in front of me, my eyes going wide as he manifested one of the Great Songs. Alnya's Song. The small note-filled galaxy was moving slowly in his hand. 

"How," I started. 

"Enough questions, Vilorlith. I want you to know that I am doing everything I can to help you. But that tactic you are using with the priestess will not work. She needs to cleanse her soul of the infection for that to happen, and yes, it is theoretically possible. Though Bhal will never do it for her, he is too far gone on his power trip and his playthings. You need to find more of your blood, and you cannot touch Ilgor's magic anymore. Not until you are better, being around her will only make you dependent on her without ever healing." He said, rising to his feet. 

"But, can I trust what you are telling me?" The retort left my lips before giving it much thought. 

"If I wanted you dead again, I would have killed you and every last one of your surviving children. I want your help. I need to find where Alnya fled to. I need you to regain your strength, preferably your full power." He said as he dispelled the black shell around us. 

"But, how?" I asked him as he turned to me, then vanished. A small sky blue stone rolled away from where he was standing, and my eyes widened with cautious surprise. A drop of my blood.