Vigilance the aeternum c.., p.2
Vigilance (The Aeternum Chronicles Book 2), page 2
“What’s that?” Oren asked.
Without replying, he began humming a strangely haunting tune. It was a primal, unwavering melody that seemed neither happy nor sad. If the ocean itself could sing, Oren guessed it would sound something like this. The scarab glowed faintly in his palm, and he began chanting in the same strange, insistent melody. The scarab’s wings fluttered, and Oren blinked.
“You’re gathering,” Oren realized aloud. Despite the revelation, there was something about this unassuming little man that put Oren at ease, though he couldn’t pinpoint what. His appearance was far from intimidating, and his expression was friendly, but there was something more. After what had just happened, he didn’t fully trust it. Another illusion?
The scarab’s wings flitted again, and it rose from the palm of his hand, hovering there. The bearded man blew on it, and the scarab floated to Oren, landing flat on his chest. Oren was immediately paralyzed, staring down at the large insect.
“Hey!” Clem shouted. She was rushing over to intervene, when the man held up a hand and repeated, “Help.”
“What is it…” she trailed off as it began glowing a deep lustrous green, its wings opening and closing rhythmically. The colors swirled and the scarab became translucent. The strange chant seemed to expand, layering over itself.
Suddenly Oren tensed. His back arched and the scarab wings began to beat faster. The pain was excruciating, but he was unable to cry out. It felt like the marrow was being scraped from his bones. The scarab began filling with smoky tendrils, until the green light was nearly gone. Then, without warning, the man flicked his staff up, knocking the scarab directly up into the air with a clock, then hit it again, sending it sailing off into the darkness.
Oren fell back into the sand. As the shock wore off, his anger rose at being tricked and held captive. He stood and stepped forward.
“What did you do to me?” He pointed a finger at the man.
“Oren!” Clem called.
She was looking at him with surprise, pointing toward his legs.
He looked down at himself.
“You’re standing…on your own.”
“Oh…oh!” he said, testing his legs.
The old man turned and began walking, using his staff for support.
Oren’s eyes were filled with doubt as they met Clem’s. Sure, he felt better, but he didn’t like not having any say in the matter. That being said, whoever, or whatever this little being was, he knew how to survive out here.
“Hey wait!” Oren called. “Where are you going?”
Turning to face him, the man spoke, “Shelter. Safe.” Then he turned back and continued on.
Clem shrugged, and jogged after him. Oren sighed, and begrudgingly followed. It wasn’t long before they neared the small cavern in the hills. The sky was now completely dark, save the light of a few lonely stars.
The unusual stranger reached the mouth of the cave and turned. He beckoned, gesturing for them to follow as he walked inside.
Stepping beyond the threshold, Oren looked around in wonder. Luminescent turquoise, green, and purple veins threaded throughout the stone walls and ceiling of the cave. Everything was cast in gentle hues, giving off just enough light for him to see their guide up ahead. The cave was tall enough to walk through at full height, but there wasn’t much headroom beyond that. It extended back, lit only by the marbling of luminescent rock.
“It’s beautiful,” Clem whispered as she walked beside Oren, peering deeper into the cave. “Have you ever seen anything like it?” she asked, turning to him in wonder.
He shook his head and lowered his voice, “Do you think we can trust him?”
She whispered back, “He seems friendly enough…and whatever he did to you seems to be an improvement. Besides, we don’t really have much choice—I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I’m going back out there until the sun is up.”
Oren wasn’t convinced. Almost everything on Eros had tried to kill them. Who’s to say this wasn’t a trap?
They started, realizing their guide had turned to face them as he waited at the back of the cave.
“Trust him,” said the small old man, looking at them as if expecting something.
Oren and Clem shared another look. She appeared more curious than anything else.
“Trust who?” Clem asked.
The man didn’t answer.
“Is this your home?” she asked, looking up at the veins of light overhead.
“Home,” he answered, gesturing at the walls around. “Shelter. Safe.” He turned and raised his staff. The ends began to glow as he painted a semi-circle of blue light on the back wall of the cave. Oren watched, narrowing his eyes as a small part of the stone within the semi-circle suddenly skittered away. Oren leaned forward for a closer look, and soon saw that the whole wall was made up of hundreds, if not thousands of small stone lizards, darting over and around one another.
The old man tapped at the center with his staff, and a small hole appeared. It opened wider and wider as the lizards scurried out, away from it. Soon they had all moved onto the wall surrounding the semi-circle, and the little man hobbled through. Yellow light emanated from the room beyond.
Oren turned to Clem, eyes wide. She doesn’t actually plan to go in there…does she?
Clem shrugged, and followed before he could stop her.
Oren sighed and ducked his head as he entered. He squinted from the light, and turned back at the sound of the lizards scurrying back into place, solidifying once again into rock.
Weird. As his eyes adjusted, Oren was surprised to see a bright, cozy round room. There were four stairs leading down from where he stood on a raised shelf encircling the perimeter. Plenty of pillows and soft looking blankets were strewn about the slightly concave floor, and at the center was a translucent black glass pyramid. Two corridors led off from the far side of the room, preceded by short sets of stairs rising toward them.
Clem was standing beside him, looking up with her jaw hanging open. Oren shielded his eyes and followed her gaze. Wispy white clouds drifted lazily across a vast, deep blue sky. Eros’ orange sun rested high above, casting its strange light down upon them.
“How…” It was all she managed to get out.
It was a strange sensation. They were definitely underground inside the hills, and it should have still been night.
Their guide, who had moved down to the lower floor area, must have noticed them squinting at the bright light. He quickly hobbled up to the wall and knocked his staff against it two times. The clouds above swirled and thickened, filtering the sun until the room was filled with a gentler, less glaring light.
“It’s artificial,” Clem grinned. “Incredible!”
The man said nothing and simply grinned at them, then stepped back down and began arranging pillows, presumably for them to sit on. After a moment he settled down onto one himself, and gestured for them to join him. Clem stepped down, walked to a pillow near the stranger, and sat. She looked back at Oren, who was still standing on the shelf near the entrance.
“Coming?” she asked.
Oren walked down the stairs and joined the two of them on the floor, keeping a safe distance away.
Clem turned to face their host, and gestured to herself with both hands. “Clementine.”
The man spoke slowly, “Clem-en-time.”
She then pointed to Oren and said, “Oren.”
“Oh-ren,” he spoke and nodded. He adopted a look of concentration, and sat for several seconds before pointing to himself and saying, “Eleu.”
“Nice to meet you, Eleu.” Clem held out her hand.
He held out his hand as she did. “Nice to meet you, Eleu” he repeated back, mirroring her inflection.
Clem smiled, suppressing a small laugh.
Eleu looked from one of them to the other, lowered his hand and said, “Where from.”
“We came through the waygate, along what used to be your beach.” She pointed back toward it.
Eleu nodded once, and spoke in an unfamiliar tongue. His words had a melodious quality, rising and falling in an unexpected, yet strangely rhythmic cadence.
Clem furrowed her brow, then asked, “You speak some of our language, have you encountered others like us before?”
Their voices slowly faded to the background, as Oren drifted into a memory.
He was falling—descending through the darkness toward an eternity of suffering. Two forces fought over his essence like hungry dogs fighting over the last scrap of a meal. The pain was excruciating. A deep rumble grew until it became all encompassing.
“Oren…Oren?” Clem’s voice caught his attention, and the reverie vanished.
“Huh?” He looked at her.
“Have you been listening?”
He couldn’t tell if she was worried or annoyed. Probably both.
“Eleu is learning our language as we speak it. The more we talk, the more he’ll understand and be able to speak with us.”
Eleu nodded, grinning. He held out his hand, palm up, toward Clementine and said, “Smart and beautiful.”
“I think he’s brilliant,” she grinned at Oren, then turned back to Eleu. “Oren and I come from a place called New Arcadia…well, we used to,” she frowned. “We…had to leave,” she pressed her lips together and looked to Oren.
He nodded. “There are bad people, where we come from,” he said, speaking slowly. “They hurt others. We stopped them.” He put his hand on the hilt of his sword briefly.
“For now,” Clem added. “What about you? Is this world your home?”
Eleu nodded. “This home.”
“Are there more, like you?” she asked.
Eleu frowned. It was the first time he’d done so since they’d met him. He shook his head solemnly.
“Eleu last.”
“What happened to them?” asked Oren.
“Bad people,” he said, “World…” He held up both fists and moved them as if snapping a twig.
“Broken,” said Clem.
Eleu nodded with resigned sadness. “Others leave, or hurt big time.” He looked up at the sky and spoke several words in his own tongue. To Oren it sounded like a prayer.
“When did this happen?” Clem asked.
“Many life ago.” He held up his hands, moving them far apart. “Eleu alone. Not leave home, not leave Io.” He placed his hands on the floor.
“Who did it? Who broke your world?” asked Oren.
“Bad people.”
“Yes, but who? What do you know about them?”
Eleu sat and concentrated for a moment before lowering his voice and answering. He spoke several hard, clipped words that sounded different from the others of his native language. He paused a moment, and said, “Great Dark.”
The room grew eerily silent. Oren resisted the urge to look over his shoulder as a shiver ran down his spine. Eleu made a warding sign with both hands.
The shadow passed, and Oren spoke, “We have to get back to our world”—he put his hand on his sword—“We have to fight.”
Eleu watched him for a long moment, his expression serious. He nodded. “Eleu help.”
Oren relaxed, easing the white-knuckled grip on his sword hilt.
The ground rumbled briefly beneath them, then settled. They looked around nervously. Oren did not relish the idea of being trapped underground should this place collapse.
Clem was first to speak, “Does that happen oft—”
The ground heaved, shaking violently. Oren bounced around on the pillows covering the floor, attempting to regain his footing.
“We have to get out of here!” he shouted, but could barely hear the sound of his own voice. He managed to maneuver into a crouch, and saw that Clem had done the same. Eleu had been thrown backwards, and was trying without success to recover his balance. There was a deafening CRACK, and the stone floor split, dividing the room. A large crag fell from above and crashed into the small glass pyramid at the center of the circle, shattering it. The artificial sky disappeared, and the entire room darkened.
Blue lights flared on around the edge of the room, and the shaking receded to a dull rumble, though the occasional stone still fell from above.
“We have to get out of here!” Oren repeated.
Eleu awkwardly propped himself up with his staff. “Come!” he said urgently.
Oren and Clem followed him as he stumbled toward the far end of the round room. They entered the corridor on the right—the left one had caved in—and quickly moved along the upward-sloping passage. Eleu’s staff lit the way with bright blue light, and they climbed for nearly an hour before reaching a wall of solid rock. When Eleu pressed his staff against the wall, it became suffused with the same blue light. The stone liquefied and splashed to the ground, revealing a view out from high upon a hillside. Oren stared in shock at the blighted, hellish landscape below.
Massive fissures, glowing with eerie red light, divided the land into jagged, slanting shapes. Steam rose from the ground, and lightning etched its way across the darkened sky. Beyond the broken plains, a massive column of black smoke and ash, lit by flashes of heat lightning, billowed upwards from the mouth of an angry volcano.
“Maker help us,” Oren whispered.
Thunder rolled across the broken land, giving voice to the destruction.
After a few moments, Oren turned to Clem, “Do you remember where the waygate was on the map?”
Clem pointed—directly toward the volcano.
“You’re kidding me. That is our way out?”
She nodded grimly.
“There’s no way we can use the one we came through?” he asked.
“Even if we could, would you want to step back into New Arcadia after how we stirred up the hive?” Clem asked, studying the landscape.
“I might, if the only alternative is—”
“Eleu help,” the little man interrupted.
They both looked at him. He wore a sad smile. “World dying. Clementime and Oh-ran go. Stop the Dark, keep friends safe.”
“How?” asked Oren, “Even if there weren’t a labyrinth of lava, stone, and cliff between us and the waygate, it’s at least three days’ journey.”
Eleu tapped his staff on the ground two times, and said, “Friend.”
“I don’t understand.”
Eleu didn’t answer. He simply closed his eyes and held his staff upright before him, grasping it with both hands. The bottom began to pulse, its glow accompanied by a deep, rhythmic hum. Oren swore he could hear the slow, hollow beating of drums, though there were none in sight. Eleu again began chanting a strange melody, and the blue light within his staff spread through cracks in the ground.
Oren turned to Clem, stepping back from the spreading light. “What’s he doing?”
She shrugged, staring with wide eyes.
The stony ground began to tremble beneath their feet, and they each took another nervous step back.
Eleu’s chant grew louder. He began stomping his bare feet rhythmically, and soon his voice was joined by that of a woman’s, trading off in a hypnotic call and response.
The stones before them began climbing up out of the ground, taking shape. The form was unrecognizable at first, but as pebbles fell away and it stood to full height, Oren tensed, nearly drawing his blade. He knew this beast—the four wings, long tail, and sharp curved beak were unmistakable.
“An arbex??” His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword, and he took a ready stance.
The stone beast twisted its neck around, and a wave of color fled across its body as gray stone was replaced with black, iridescent feathers. They fluttered as it stomped its talons on the rocky hillside and released an ear piercing shriek to the black sky.
Eleu opened his eyes, lowering his pulsing staff. Small beads of sweat stood out on his brow. He gestured to the intimidating arbaterix. “Take Clementime, take Oh-ran.”
He’s crazy, thought Oren. “Wait a minute, you don’t actually expect us to ride on that thing…?”
Before he could stop her, Clementine walked up to the beast and stroked its feathered neck. She smiled as it bent its head down and nuzzled her hand with its beak.
Turning back to them, she said, “We should get going. This hillside may not be here for much longer.”
“No,” said Oren, shaking his head. “There is no way I’m getting anywhere near that thing.” He unconsciously felt for the missing pinkie finger on his left hand.
Clem rolled her eyes. “He’s perfectly friendly”—she turned and stroked its neck—”Aren’t you? You’re just a big sweetie.” She grinned and it nuzzled her again, then leveled its beady eyes on Oren, flicking its long tail.
‘Friendly’ was not the word he would have used to describe it.
“Come on,” she urged, “unless you’d rather take your chances with the night-life?”
Oren shivered, but still couldn’t bring himself to move any closer.
“Will you carry us to the waygate?” she asked, then after a moment, she gripped its neck and climbed onto its back.
She steadied herself, then called to Eleu, “Come show Oren he’s got nothing to worry about.”
The bearded man smiled sadly and shook his head. “Eleu no leave home. No leave Io.”
Clem dismounted the arbex and walked over to him. “What? No, you have to come with us…there’s nowhere else to go.”
He didn’t answer.
“Our world isn’t perfect,” she admitted, “but there are good people there too. People like us.”
Eleu simply smiled, unmoving, and Clem’s shoulders slumped.
“You’re really not coming?”
He met her eyes. “Eleu life begin with Io, Eleu life end with Io. Eleu and Io same. One.” He clasped his hands together.
Oren found himself experiencing a deep sorrow for the destruction of this world. Deadly wildlife aside, the small part of it he’d seen before now had been beautiful beyond description. The injustice left him angry, and even more determined to punish those responsible.
Another bout of shaking wracked the ground beneath them. Oren fell to his hands and knees, holding desperately to the rocky hillside to prevent being tossed off it. A rock-slide tumbled down nearby, and there was a loud CRACK from behind. Oren glanced back and saw steam rising from a newly formed fissure. The rumbling again receded, echoing with tremors of the initial shaking.
