Chapter Six – A Glance into the Underworld

   The Emblem of the Star-Crossed Lovers (Interitus 1: Book X)

Chapter Six – A Glance into the Underworld

 

The shimmering starlight gently ushered me from slumber like a tour guide into a new world where I had her back by my side. I sleepily pulled myself upright and saw the silhouette of my angel as she stood beside the window with the curtains drawn. Aeliana held her hand over her face in shock as if she had opened the curtain by mistake. I watched her fumble with the curtain in an attempt to undo her accidental action, but I dismissed her concern with a playful chuckle. She turned to face me with her eyes open wide, but I lost my ability to speak in the moment I saw her. The morning starlight illuminated the world behind her; she looked like a living portrait of a highborn hero in the way that light and shadow danced around her. She whispered warm words of love and greeting, and I could actually see her words appear in the air as newborn crystals of ice. The coldness of the outside city seeped through my uneven windowpane and touched the air with a frigidity which froze every word she whispered.

I asked as I walked to the window, “Have you ever before seen the snow?”

Aeliana nodded slowly and replied, “I saw it sometimes when I still lived outside. It seems silly now, but I was scared of the snow. It hurt, and out there, there really wasn’t anywhere to escape. My sister told me stories of men whose bodies surrendered themselves in storms of snow. I used to be so scared, but now it looks so beautiful.”

I peered out the window and saw little ice crystals fall from the wispy clouds. Every snowflake shimmered in the starlight like a tiny star descending upon the city itself. But the snow struggled to stick, so the streetlights and sidewalks sported a slender surface of ice. A cool mist surrounded the street and partially shrouded the city lights. The fog transformed ordinary pedestrians into silhouettes, and it transformed ordinary silhouettes into starlit specters of ice.

I said to Aeliana as I held her in my hands, “When I once left the city, I met a swordsman in the sands. His memories died with his final breath, but I can feel him with me ever since his death. I only know it through the words that he had said, but I swear I can still see it inside my head. It’s a magical place I never could go—a fallen city which stands between mountains and snow.”

“That city is walled, but their walls they have cannons. They kill anyone who dares to approach their city. I watched an old man die because he went to them for help. But as much as I hate them, I cannot detest their fear,” Aeliana said as her soft gaze then turned severe.

I set my hand on her shoulder to sidetrack her from the trauma of the life she once lived. It was all I could do to remind her that she had left behind the darkness of the world outside the wall. When she had slept in the night, she set her few belongings on the bedside and then slept on the floor. But even as she slept, she kept two daggers at her side; the slightest sound in the night awoke her and sent her to her feet, clenching her weapons as if her very life depended on it. I couldn’t help but wonder if she would be free from the brutality of her previous life, but I knew from my time with Alyssa that some scars run deep. It wasn’t until Aeliana walked over to the sink that I had a moment alone in the small space where we slept. The cold air drove me to reach for my jacket, but in the darkness I mistakenly spilled the contents of her bag. I returned her various belongings to her bag, though it was still damp from the ocean. She had traveled lightly, although I noticed some flint and a beautiful emerald which shimmered in the orange glow of outside streetlights.

A gentle knock sounded on the door, startling me away from Aeliana’s bag. But as I probably should have expected, this sudden outside sound jolted Aeliana into action. She tore across the dark room, unsheathed both daggers, and yanked the door open with her left hand. Donovan stood outside on my doorstep in the glow of the streetlights, but Aeliana pushed forward and pressed her dagger to his throat. His green eyes widened in terror, and when he went to take a backward step, she jolted forward and prepared to strike. I caught her before she could assail him, and I held her closely in the doorway as Donovan watched with worry. His adrenaline melted the snow which fell from the sky and landed on his skin.

“Aeliana, this is Donovan! Don’t you remember him from yesterday?” I asked with gritted teeth as I dragged her away.

Though her heart was still pumping, she nodded slowly and said, “I just can’t seem to get it through my head. This life is like a daydream that ends when I awake, so I have to remind myself that none of this is fake. Please tell your friend I’m sorry. I need to get ahold of myself.”

I nodded and reassured her, but then I stepped out into the street. I closed the door behind me so that it was open just a crack. The air inside my home warmed my skin from behind like a gentle breath, but I could sense Aeliana standing behind the door with her daggers drawn. She watched Donovan through the crack in the door as if he were some barbaric attacker. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened in her past to make her so protective over me, but then I realized that her vigilance was mutual. Just last night, I had consigned myself to the role of her protector to such an extent that I would have happily killed the patrolmen in the street. If the tables were turned and I thought something posed a threat to her, then I would use the full extent of my barbarism to summarily destroy it. Earthquakes and hurricanes could not stop me from annihilating anything which posed a threat to her life.

“It seems our dark queen wants you to come back to the underworld. I don’t entirely know her reason, but I know she’s got more than just another body to bury. Perhaps she wants to modify the part you play in her machine. I can’t say for sure; I just know she’s happy with your work,” Donovan explained.

I nodded slowly and said as I looked him in the eyes, “It seems like even for you this comes as a surprise. I can’t pretend I don’t wonder what all of this implies. I will join you as I still owe you both my life, but I’d like to keep my job even if another should arise.”

“I pray that that is something that she would not deny,” Donovan calmly answered with a quiet sigh.

I opened the door so that I could tell Aeliana of our plans for this snowy morning, but she stepped outside before I could step in. Her daggers were sheathed beneath a shoal which shrouded her shoulders. She stepped out into the soft snow and set her shod feet onto the street. Donovan looked perplexed by her arrival, but he did not say a word.

“I will go with you. I don’t want you to step into an underworld alone,” she said to me with an adamant tone.

“I cannot guarantee that Bellaina will let you in; she might not let you access the shadows beneath the city. She is a woman whose life welcomes murder and sin; she is a creature without compassion or pity. I just want you to know,” I said beneath the snow.

She said as her temper now seemed to slow, “I want to come with wherever you go.”

I could tell that there was no arguing with Aeliana, not that I particularly had any problems with her demand in the first place. This seemed to be a trend for the incarnations of my eternal love—an indominable tenacity that burns brightest in passionate love. I could see vestiges of Alyssa just in the way she carried herself as a crossroads between herself and her past lives. But just as we were twin flames in an infinite spiral, it was impossible to tell the bottom from the top; we could therefore not distinguish between the future and the past. She could’ve just as easily been Alyssa’s predecessor and not her successor.

Regardless, the three of us quickly made our way through the snow-struck city which shimmered from stars and streetlights. When we finally reached Bellaina’s home and knocked upon the door, she made us stand in silence and wonder what she had in store. She opened the door to her home beside the watershed, but she paused with a look of concern as she said, “It’s time at last that you learn the true reason for the dead. I want you to see the treacherous tragic truth that pervades the shadows of this savage city. I see you have elected to harbor another outsider, even though it was one of them that delivered you into darkness to begin with. Make no mistake, Asivario. I do not care about your judgments or the capricious crimes you commit. You serve me well, so I pay you handsomely. But in the event that you encounter some force which aims to detain you, I need you to defend yourself so that you can continue catering to my underworld. If city security dares to detain you, let it happen. Their captain is caught in a crisscross of corruption; he and his friends have waded knee-deep in the same darkness that you bury beneath the sand. Even if you are caught harboring an outsider, he will give you your freedom when he learns that you know the truth.”

I glanced up at the towering woman and nodded, afraid at first to say anything that could cost me her favor. However, I could feel by the way Aeliana held her hand onto my back that she did not trust Bellaina. She practically pinched at my skin just by gazing at the queen of the dark. Donovan nudged me slightly, compelling me to reply.

“I appreciate your help, but the truth itself seems dim. What is lurking in the shadows that now stain him?”

Bellaina laughed to herself and answered after a pause, “I can’t wait for you to see the display our darkness draws. True power in this city is not defined by position or aristocracy; it has nothing to do with lineage or heroism. Those are lucid lies lavished onto the complacent, but even Hayatama himself is just another client to the dark. We give to him the true power that lets him sever his mortal ties and shroud himself in shadow. He pays me generously, and then you bury the bodies beneath the beach. It’s a beautiful cycle that plays and plagues daydreams, and now it’s your turn to see the face of this power for yourself.”

Aeliana grabbed my arm and held it tightly, but she did not restrain me in any way. She walked up to my side, almost as if she were willing to lead me forward to see a dark truth that she somehow already understood. Bellaina swerved to guide me deeper into the house, so I turned briefly to glance at Donovan. I tried to catch his gaze, but he instead stared straight ahead like a statue. I took this to mean that he already knew the secret that defined the darkness, but he could not bear to see it for himself. Instead of following us down a staircase in Bellaina’s house, he instead turned and left the building altogether. It was the first time that I had seen the shadows smother his softhearted spirit. It reminded me of a dying ember locked in a sandstorm forced to create the only heat it had left, or a swimmer in the ocean depths denying that there was any water at all.

When we dared to descend into the dungeon, after passing through a pair of doors she unlocked with a special key, we saw a pair of people chained to the far end of the dusty space. Blood stained the brick walls of the barren basement, and even the concrete floor bore the scars and scratches of countless tortured lives. Though I had countless concerns and conjectures as I gazed upon this space, I noticed the same inscription I had seen when I met Bellaina for the very first time; I had seen her cohorts inscribe this same symbol onto blades. It was stained into two swords held by her henchman in the far corner of the dungeon. I felt Aeliana grip my wrist with so much pressure that her jagged fingernails lightly pierced my skin. The queen of the dark noticed Aeliana’s discomfort, so she faced her with a sinister smile.

“The unfortunate truth of this world is that most people amount to nothing. They toil tirelessly and flounder foolishly all their lives, but they never create anything worthwhile for themselves. They never become worth anything more than the fragile bones in their frail bodies at the end of their pointless lives. Like they wasted all their energy just running in circles. The only value they ever have is one they never even knew. The life force intrinsic to their soul is a valuable fuel which burns for a power that easily eclipses everything they ever had in life. It’s such a shame that their only taste of power comes when they burn for someone else. It may be true that my clients and I take this terrible power from other living people, but reality requires this sacrifice. Reality rewards this sacrifice, and my power is my proof. So they may be victims of the dark, but look at them. This is an act of mercy. It could even be said that this murder is a pact,” Bellaina explained as if to justify her act.

Aeliana said as she stepped by the door, “This is nothing I have not seen before. How could there be any mercy in murder?”

But Bellaina blinked and then said with a sneer, “Because they spent their lives in squalor and fear. Like many lost livestock locked in a lurid land, they lament their lackluster lives and accept the cold truth that their misery can end only with their death. Look into their eyes. Whether they came from this city or the outside world, their lives followed a tear-stained trail of tragedy to this dark dungeon. Each day has been one disaster after another. It’s true that they will die as nothing more than an ingredient in my design, but most people already drain their lives wasting away for someone else. The only real difference here is one of speed.”

The two captives exchanged a final look of horror, but then Bellaina stepped closer and lifted her left hand. She narrowed her eyes, and then her palm illuminated with a faint glow which barely pierced the dim light of this underground dungeon. In that moment, she manifested a series of luminous blades right before her in the dusty darkness. They did not appear physically solid, but these energy blades sent shimmers which pierced the shadows dancing on the wall.

I stammered the words with a wide-eyed gaze, “Can you somehow control these blades?”

But Bellaina did not bother to respond. Instead, the queen of the dark pressed her left hand forward, and then her energy blades stormed toward her two captives in the corner of the dreary dungeon. Her blades battered their bodies and pierced them in countless places. Splashes of blood burst from their new wounds and shimmered in the dying light of the ephemeral blades. When the storm of energy blades finally subsided, her victims both fell to their knees; they had shattered their chains at some point in their agonized flailing. Aeliana clenched my arm so tightly with her right hand that her overgrown fingernails pierced my skin. I could feel her heart pound. I could feel her body tremble. We watched with wide eyes as the victims screamed and writhed on the dungeon floor.

With a callous glare, Bellaina lowered her left hand and stepped briskly across the dark space. Her henchman stared disinterestedly at the morbid display, almost as if he had seen this same tragic scene unfold countless times before. He offered Bellaina the two swords stained with the inscription I had earlier noticed, and then she plunged each sword into a victim. As soon as the symbol struck their shredded skin, it illuminated with a golden glow. Her victims continued screaming, but I watched in silent shock as black fire manifested on their skin. I even rubbed my eyes to verify that I saw this correctly, but Aeliana did not dare to watch. It was only seconds after the black fire appeared that they both stopped screaming. A faint glow illuminated Bellaina as if she had somehow devoured their life force for herself in an act of spiritual cannibalism.

“Regular fire burns bodies, but black fire burns the soul. The Array of Black Fire merely reverts their spirit back into the primary energy from which we were all born—quintessence itself. The perfect fuel for the ultimate weapon. The black fire begins with this one mark,” said the bloodstained queen of the dark.

I gazed to Aeliana with a look of horror, but I saw a heartbroken stare in her hazel eyes. It was almost as if the mere sight of this had somehow slashed open an old scar. I had to practically reconfigure my perception of reality itself, given that I had never seen this power or the source of its fuel. Almost like the aftershock of a bitter memory buried in my brain, I realized that the tall woman in the sandstorm was very much the same. She could practically steer the swirling sands with just the motion of her hands. But as I rebuilt reality on the shambles of what I once believed, Bellaina noticed the shock searing through my eyes.

“You can dare to detest the darkness in this dungeon, but it’s in your best interest to understand that this crime is not confined to the basements of my underworld. Even before I came along, my clients knew the secrets of the weapon we with black fire forge. I merely simplified the process and took a small portion of the spoils for myself. But make no mistake; this malice pervades and poisons the world inside the walls. And as the outsider can probably tell you, it’s even worse out in the badlands. Denounce me all you want, but your effort is better spent decrying a remorseless reality which readily rewards this carnage in the first place,” Bellaina explained as her victim’s blood shimmered on her face.

Aeliana and I exchanged a silent glance to convey our concern in the presence of Bellaina. We mutually agreed to comply with whatever words she summoned if for no other reason than to avoid igniting some short fuse. Though the queen of the dark did not seem irrational or overemotional, to the extent that her heartless humanity predicated her brutality, it was best for now to not incite her wrath. So we simply agreed with her relative morality and fumbled our way through an inane conversation. I was saddled of course with burying these soulless bodies beneath the city, but I complied and continued moving. Aeliana helped me load a wagon, and then we escaped with it into the quiet streets of Bones City.

In an attempt to stay inconspicuous, Aeliana and I traveled primarily on empty roads where we minimized the chance of encountering city security. I kept fruit and assorted wares atop the wagon so that I would look like a merchant or a customer, but I held my sword closely in case a patrolman discovered her identity or the true purpose of my mission. We encountered many passersby on our sojourn to the sea, but we reached the ocean in the end without incident. Ember Bay shimmered with starlight, though its sand was touched with snow. I carefully inspected the area, and then I dug through the beach with my sword.

Aeliana stared at the stars from the shore and said, “I keep reliving the same scene inside my head. Monsters roam the windswept plains in the form of tall humans, but I never knew that they infected the city as well. It is a tragedy I’ve seen too many times before. I made this journey for myself in the guise of a flight I once dreamed with my eyes closed. Those monsters are the ultimate terror in the badlands. They wield powers which warp reality itself. They run so fast that an ordinary person can never outrun them. Even if someone dares to strike back, they are invariably slain and then burned with black fire. My sister said that that is the ultimate finality. If a soul burns in black fire, there is no hope for another incarnate. There is no chance at any afterlife. There is no wandering spirit left to watch over this world. It is infinite emptiness and nothing more.”

            I said to Aeliana as she stared over the sea, “I think that I am inclined to agree. I believe that we both have an odd situation; I believe we are bound by reincarnation. Our souls cycle in all directions—both forward and backward in time. We echo across lifetimes so that I can hold your hand in mine. But if black fire is all it takes to burn a soul, then that can end our eternity whole.”

            She said after a pause as if she questioned her remark, “I think it’s better for now that we have friends in the dark. The strongest people in this city are blinded by their opulence and avarice; they want you to live so that you can serve them. The shadows are safe since the shadows side with us, but it cannot last forever. Their loyalty will not withstand the trials of time. I think that in the end, they will pose a threat to our eternal love.”

            “If they endanger you in any way, then I will kill them with their own Array. I’ll break their bodies with my blade and burn their souls with black fire. I think you may be right that all roads end at that same destination; it’s the inescapable convergence of a geometric series. Anything that stands in our way is destined to die by my hand. The stars themselves will cower at my madness; they’ll never dare cross us again,” I whispered to the woman at the edge of the sand.

            Aeliana nodded slowly and confessed, “I think I once thought that this life is a test. Even when I had nothing and no one, I forced myself forward as if I were working toward some future I could not see… almost like a listless letter left by a past life. I think it’s similar to the tunnel-vision you mentioned before, except that you could see your destination whereas I could not. For years of my life, I wandered in silence toward something I could not see. All I knew was that I had to survive so that I could someday see the something for which I was striving. I knew in the moment we met that you are the unknown ambition; you are the ambiguous future for which I fought. I sacrificed enough blood and sweat to send waves across this starlit sea. I devoured enough other wanderers that their bodies could double the cemetery beneath us. As callous as it sounds, I forgot their faces after I left them in the sands. I think in that way, I am the same as your underworld queen. We both used other lives as steppingstones toward the future for which we both were destined.”

            I felt a paralytic surge of ice crawl through my veins in that moment, almost as if my body understood her admission even before me. Perhaps it was the lingering essence of Aziel inside my head, exerting the implication into my silent mind. I didn’t even start to understand until I covered the burial with sand at the ocean’s edge. It struck me like a sword that I had found a small emerald among her belongings, and I only realized at that moment that it was the same emerald as the necklace which was pilfered from Alyssa’s body. I had found her corpse in the desert, partially devoured by a human attacker, and here Aeliana had admitted to killing and eating countless other wanderers. The truth was undeniably obvious, but I could not stop myself from asking the question. I asked Aeliana because I had to know, “Did you kill a woman thirteen weeks ago? Her hair was shaped like a cloud and dark like the sea. Her eyes were hazel, and she had a bent knee. She wore an emerald right around her neck, and she was clearly never meant to go on that trek.”

            Aeliana said slowly with a somber stare, “I killed the woman with the cloud-shaped hair. I usually left my victims with their belongings intact as if it were some small consolation to their dying dignity. Even as she died, she clenched the necklace as if it were an emblem to the life she lost. An emblem of love and loss. An emblem of the star-crossed lovers. I pilfered the emerald from her necklace, though I did not know why at the time. The emerald itself looked like a little glimpse of the unknown future for which I was searching. I was transfixed by its beauty for reasons I could not describe. I did not understand the reason until we met, when I saw the same emeralds inside your eyes. I thought in that moment that fate had brought us together for a reason.”