Chapter Ten – The Beast of Bones City

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

            Chapter Ten – The Beast of Bones City

 

            “I swear I saw this same shore inside my dreams. We danced hand-in-hand to a melody of screams. It was at Ember Bay that you entered this city, but it is on this shore that we enter eternity. I saw it in my dreams like it was written in the stars, as if to tell us that this destiny is ours. This is the place where the past and future collide,” I said to Aeliana as I held her hand at my side.

She said to me as she set her head on my chest, “In some ways it seems that our destiny’s a test. The stars align to illuminate a path, but they scatter the starlit road with potholes and hurdles so that most people are damned to see their destiny denied or rendered as a reverie that they can never achieve. The stars crossed us and cursed our path with heavier hurdles than most, but we shatter every obstacle that comes our way. We fought an Astrodeus cursed by the darkness and driven to destroy us, but instead we buried her beneath the beach where we will step with one foot into infinity.”

As if in a delicate daydream, we danced together beneath the stars on that beach like we were driven by an invisible melody. We danced together in an imaginary limelight like our lives were center-stage to some imaginary audience cheering on our every move. Though our golden-eyed enemy rolled in her shallow grave, we danced to celebrate our love and the eternity to which we would embark. However, this beach was much more popular than the shore of Ember Bay where we were united for the very first time. People splashed into the steaming shallows and surfed the starlit swells. Wanderers watched with wide eyes as we danced, but they eventually walked away. Picnickers sat in the sand and stared at the sea. Despite the plague, the people played without precaution; they scattered at only a slight distance from one another. We whispered our words quietly so that they were hidden by the breeze which swept over the ocean. The glow of distant lava illuminated the western horizon and sent a shimmer across the waves.

“I always thought you were the kind of man to avoid a crowd,” Aeliana said with a giggle which was almost too loud.

I answered as I set my hand right beside her head, “I think that it may be exactly as you said. I used to live my life as if it were a dream; I never thought I would find purpose in anything. I honestly thought I would drown in my own pain, so I beseeched the sky to sever that shadowed chain. They say to be careful what you wish for because it might one day come true, but across the badlands and the ocean I finally found you. Everything I have in this world was built by our will, so even a mountain to the sky is just another hill—there is nothing that the two of us together can’t fulfill. I can forge our future with the strength I steal from each kill. I once feared the stars and feared the crowds. I once feared the sky and its darkening clouds. I once feared that these people could somehow stand in our way, but I know now that they are just another obstacle to slay. We can kill all those who cross us with that black fire Array, and I will steal so much strength that the stars themselves shall sway.”

She said with a smile as she stared into my eyes, “I figured you would say something along those lines. This is what it means to see a future and force it upon an obstinate reality. People may strive to stand in our way, but with your hand in mine, I know we’ll kill them all.”

I smiled and whispered my affirmation, but then a distant commotion deferred my attention. A man slowly made his way across the beach with a small entourage around him. I thought nothing of it at first, but I saw through the starlight that several other beachgoers made their way over to him. He almost looked out of place like a fire in a snowstorm. While others wore swimsuits or casual clothing, he dressed completely in formal attire. The beachgoers tried to get his attention, but his bodyguards kept them at a short distance. Aeliana and I braced ourselves as he seemed to approach our vicinity, meaning that we could get caught in the crowd if we did not clear the area. However, I recognized this man as soon as he stepped close enough that the starlight overcame the shadows. His name was Hayatama, and he served as a city leader second only to the minister himself. Aeliana reached for her daggers in that moment, but I set a hand on her shoulder to relax her. Donovan stood among the men behind Hayatama, and it was then that I realized that our paths had not crossed as a coincidence. They had sought us out on purpose.

Hayatama offered his hand and announced as he arrived, “I hear you fought a monster and managed to survive. A witness said that the two of you fought off an invader from beyond the walls together. My source fled the scene at the start of the fight, but the results state the story from there. The fire destroyed half a block before our firefighters put it out, but we only found a few bodies in the area. I take it that that means you managed to murder the monster.”

“There’s too much evidence to get away with a lie, but in truth all we wanted was to just stay alive. l think we would rather keep this in the past,” I said as I tried to not talk too fast.

But Hayatama answered with an amused laugh, “You’ve got more backbone than the men on my staff! But it can’t be a coincidence that this is where we first meet, on the beach where our city gathers to celebrate the valorous heroes of our past. I would be honored if the two of you would join me at my nearest office, somewhere away from the prying eyes of onlookers.”

Though my instinct was of course to refuse his offer, I glanced at Donovan and saw him silently convey that refusal wasn’t a realistic option. I even saw a panicked glimpse in his dark green eyes as a whisper and a warning. I could sense from a distance that this man was mired in many motives, though this seemed inescapable for any politician in this city. I never once questioned it when the dark queen mentioned that her clientele included the city leaders. They were exactly the type of men to feign a life of love and service when in reality they were more monstrous than anything they banished beyond the city walls. They were glorified pickpockets at best and mass murderers at worst.

Regardless of my internal debate, Aeliana forced my hand and grabbed my arm. For the first time since she arrived in this city, she chose to feign civility instead of throwing herself into battle. I nodded in compliance with Hayatama’s directive, and so we walked away from the waves where we would one day walk waywardly into eternity. A pair of bodyguards stood beside us as we stepped across the sand, but the others spread to a short distance so that they could hold off the beachgoers who strived to see their city leader. A short while later, we arrived at an office just a few blocks from the ocean. I sighed with relief when I saw that he did not lead us to some underground dungeon, and for a moment, I held out hope that Hayatama was not a customer of the underworld.

Hayatama announced to us after he locked the door, “There is no reason to play pretend anymore. I’m sure you have figured that I am Bellaina’s client, and thanks to her courier, I understand that you are in her employ. It doesn’t matter how I found you, and I have no reason to report either of you to city security. I said before that I want to extend to you both my thanks, and that is still true. However, it’s obvious to me that you only managed to overcome the monster by using your power. Between Bellaina and the invader, you must have accrued a healthy sum of quintessence. I’m sure you know… that there are others in the underworld who would readily kill you if they knew what you possessed.”

I saw Aeliana twitch as if she dared to draw her dual daggers, but she dismissed her own instincts when she saw the four bodyguards that joined us in this office. Even though her weapons worked well in a confined space, we were outnumbered. Aeliana and I both felt the hostile threat hidden in his harmless words, but we could not make a move in this place.

“That is why we work to repress the power I possess. Only the people in this room know the secret I suppress. My power is not known by anyone but her, and I strongly doubt that it is one you can infer. I doubt your men would dare attack without that knowledge, so let’s both just walk away with a word of homage. You have nothing to gain if you choose to fight us,” I said as I could sense his bloodlust.

But Hayatama merely laughed and then faced me as he said, “I think you have a few too many worries in your head. My men are merciless marauders for sure, but I doubt they care enough to steal your quintessence. I want to hear your thoughts, Asivario, assuming of course that I correctly remembered your name. It’s about our Astrodeus powers—this unique ability we all seem to possess. What do you think about it?”

I took a moment to consider my response. I could feel the remnants of my victims all striving to guide my hand in a different direction. Aziel wanted to tear a bloody path through to safety without speaking another word. Kalairo wanted to stay calm and cordially converse with the city leader as it was our only real defense. The golden-eyed monster called to kill the corrupt caitiff in a clash of blades and fire. But when I closed my eyes, I could see Aeliana and myself emerging safely from this office without a single scratch on our bodies. Her scarred skin would shimmer in the starlight. In this glimpse of our perfect future, we were not on the run, and I could only achieve this by keeping calm. A firm but deferential conversation could create more options at the very least.

“I was thrown into the underworld just to repay my debt. I kept my head low until the day we first met. She was the girl for whom I would die to defend, and it was the man who stole her who made me descend. I know how to use my power and I understand the Array; I know you steal four points when you burn someone away. But I don’t know the source of this power we possess,” I answered as the little I cared to confess.

Hayatama nodded with a chuckle and explained, “That line of logic has long locked us in chains. People delude themselves into thinking that everything has a source and a destination, and then they deceive themselves into inventing inane ideas like God and the afterlife. But the reality as I see it is far more mundane. Where did this world come from? It was always there. Who set the stars in the sky? They were simply always there. Where did our powers come from? We never noticed them before because the fuel is nearly impossible to discover—accessible only by killing another on a special inscription written in a special ink. Our Astrodeus powers were programmed into our hearts when we were first conceived. This power epitomizes the uniqueness we as people all possess; it is the only thing that truly distinguishes us from everyone else. It betrays the true nature we strive to hide from a hateful world. There are those who believe that this power defines who you truly are. This is how I know that I am truly a selfless civil servant, despite the corruption in which I am complicit.”

I couldn’t help but consider the implications of his words. If he were right and these powers truly did represent our unique soul itself, then it served as proof that Kalairo was always a coward at his core. His power let him conceive a decoy with which to shield himself, almost as if he could deflect any damage or blame to someone else. He could never fight anything head-on. The self-righteous woman with golden eyes swore to purge my evil for the sake of the world, so she summoned spheres of fire to burn away anything impure. Bellaina could unleash a scattershot of energy blades because her brutality had built her dark empire. Something like that. In all cases, the connection was tenuous at best and arbitrary at worst, but I myself was an exception. My eyes bind my mind in monomania, meaning that I enact my will upon this world without worry for repercussions. I am avarice unbound.

Not only could I crush any creature to stray upon my path; I force them to serve as steppingstones for the power that will scour this worthless world. I bury their bodies beneath beaches so that they serve as the literal foundation for our future. It is not enough that my obstacles must perish from my path. They must strengthen the weapon with which I will wipe away the next hurdle. If I must devour countless souls for the strength to slay the stars in the sky that both cursed and crossed us, then I will pay the price with their blood. Whether or not Hayatama’s theory is worth anything, it is certainly true for me.

I asked as I silenced my mind in its downhill roll, “What is the power that manifests your soul?”

Hayatama answered with an entertained smile, “You look like you’ve wondered that for a while. The truth is that my power is nothing special, in fact it is perhaps the most mundane power of anyone I know! But I am not a fighter nor some supernatural warlord. I am a builder. I am a giver. I am a humble-”

“What is the form of the weapon you wield?” Aeliana asked with her impatience unconcealed.

“Ha! Isn’t that just like an outsider? You truly are a victim of your own hunger! But very well. I have the power to give away my own quintessence to other people. And that’s it! In that way, my power makes me no more special than your queen of the dark. I seize my fuel from her victims, and then I trade it away at an even higher price! But I don’t trade in mere money like Bellaina. I want loyalty. I want warriors. The men who stand with us have exceptional powers, and I pay them with this fuel. And even that… is just the tip of the iceberg. I have men in my pocket who consider themselves righteous and upstanding. They have no idea that the fuel I give them is extracted from the black flames of a dying soul! They think the power they possess is a gift from God, and they believe that I am their closest link.”

But I asked to interrupt his exposition of glee, “How does any of your empire pertain to me?”

Hayatama answered with a booming chuckle, “I don’t think I’ve ever met such a charming couple! The truth is that we both have a lot to gain from each other. Asivario, I would like you to serve as my bodyguard. I can pay you in quintessence—far more than you could ever scrounge up from street-fights with other outsiders! What do you say?”

As if caught in the crossfire of courage and concern, Aeliana stepped in and lied without pause, “I am the one who deserves your applause. Asivario helped, but I am the one who killed the outsider in the street. We knew each other when we were young, far before we ever dared to trespass in this place. I am the better fighter between the two of us. I deserve this job.”

Hayatama found himself shocked at her audacity, but I nodded to confirm when he glanced over at me. Aeliana stepped in between us in that moment, almost as if she were casting me aside, and then she outstretched her scarred hands for Hayatama. I could see by the slight hesitation in his eyes that he had never directly encountered an outsider before—at least not unless he had hacked one to death in Bellaina’s basement. His bodyguards all took a forward step, but Hayatama silenced them with a wave of his hand. He stared at Aeliana for a moment in contemplation before taking a deep breath.

“I accept, but only if you show me the power you possess,” Hayatama said with a touch of fear he could not suppress.

Aeliana answered as she dropped her daggers on the floor, “I did not use an Array when I killed that whore. Asivario protected me with his power, but only I was strong enough to slay her. You know where I come from. That viciousness hardened me; you cannot conceive the savagery which was once my everyday life. As it already stands, I can tear down anyone in this city. If I were to access a power, I could defend you from anyone outside the wall as well.”

I saw a flash of contemplation in his hesitant eyes. Hayatama nodded after a moment and then said to her, “I can give you your power, but I have to be sure. Will you use your power only in service to me?”

“I will promise your safety as long as you promise mine,” Aeliana answered as she strived to seem benign.

A whirlwind of worry washed over me when he walked toward Aeliana with his hand outstretched. I felt my muscles tense, and I nervously tilted my hand so that my palm faced the city leader. If he would do anything to hurt her, then I could retaliate at a moment’s notice with a searing sphere of spiraling fire. My only solace was that he and I both shared a similar trepidation in not knowing what would come next. He had no strategy to hurt her or harness her as his hostage; he simply hoped that he would not immediately regret his decision. It was in that moment I realized that he was never the mastermind I imagined in my mind. He was nothing but an ordinary gambler cursed to control nothing in the world except the investments he had made. Hayatama had no real power; he only had bribery.

He set his hands upon Aeliana in that moment and empowered her with a sudden stream of quintessence. Hayatama hesitated in the moment that he removed his hands from hers. I wondered if perhaps he had hypothesized that she might strike as soon as she received her power, but instead he stayed still and silent. His bodyguards seemed to brace themselves but made no movement.

I realized with shock that I had also become motionless as if I were held in place by invisible chains. My whole body became bound in place. By gripping the handles with her sand-stained feet, Aeliana retrieved her daggers from the floor. She swerved around, undoubtedly unaffected by the stupefaction that sealed everyone else, and then she pressed her lips against mine. In the moment I felt the gentle press of her perfect kiss, I became unlocked from my motionless trance. It was then that I realized that Aeliana had locked us all in a prison of time, and only her kiss could create the key. Though the world had frozen all around us, she led me by the hand toward the half-shut door. When we stepped out into the quiet street, I pushed on the door and realized that it would not move at all. Even though I pushed with all my strength, it remained locked in place.

“Is it your power that locked us all in time?” I asked as I ran down the street with her hand held in mine.

“We fight for a future that’s at the very least traversable, or at least it has to be because the past is irreversible. He would’ve never let us slip outside his hands. This is the only way we can live our lives together as we were always meant. He will never stop chasing us, but with this power, we can at least have a head-start.”

“You triggered your power without missing a beat,” I said in disbelief as we dashed through the still street.

I glanced at the passersby as we jogged together toward our home in the rundown part of town. The streets were mostly empty other than the few people who pointed toward the beach where we first met Hayatama. They were all frozen in place, silent and motionless, little more than stains on the surface of the starlit street. They stood at a short distance from each other as if compelled by whispers of plague. A captivating beauty pervaded this inert world where wind sent waves through the hair of motionless walkers, but we could feel no wind in this state; she had even frozen the air itself in place. A wispy cloud hung over the horizon, and the stars neither swayed nor twinkled.

“I never heard his theory before, but I believe that he is right. Our powers are in one way or another the ticket-taker to the tragic truth of our true nature. After I lost my sister, I saw myself as a hopeless soul standing at the crossroads of a painful past and a forsaken future. I had nothing worth remembering, but I also had nothing worth chasing. I truly thought that I could die, and it would make no difference. I would die as nothing any more special than the sand which swirls in the badlands. As dramatic as it sounds, I did the bare minimum to stay alive even though I told myself there was no point or purpose. I suppose you could call that living in the present, and I don’t think I ever truly grew beyond that feeling. If it were up to me, I would freeze the world forever and live with you in an eternal present. No need for infinite power, no need for eternity itself. All I want is to spend forever in a moment with you right by my side,” Aeliana explained with a sad smile as she held her hand in mine.

“Have you heard the theory of relativity?” I asked as we walked past people caught in her captivity.

When Aeliana shook her head as an invitation, I said, “Relativity is defined by tensor equations. It defines the way in which gravity bends time and space; it suggests that a strong enough weight can lock you in place. Time stretches to forever at the edge of a black hole. It is there at the event horizon that time loses all control. It is an infinity in which all eternity can pass. It is the place where we could share our endless dance. But just as some infinities can come in different sizes, you are the source point from which a small infinity arises. You are an event horizon that pervades all this space. How long have you known that you can freeze the world in place?”

“I love the way you see something so spectacular even when the truth is so inane. No matter how you dress it up, the power I possess has no effect on the world around us. When this passes, it’ll be nothing more than a blink to the rest of the world. It does not freeze them in time; it only freezes us. I have the power to summon a tiny infinity inside an instant, but it is not a weapon. It is just for you and me.”

“If you hadn’t used it, Hayatama would enslave us. How did you know about it if you’ve only used it once? I still barely understand the power I possess,” I asked as I gave her hand a gentle caress.

Aeliana smiled at this gentle kiss, but she continued our onward run. She steadied her breaths as we passed streets which were once scattered with crowded stands and markets. We crossed into a less upscale section of the city where abandoned buildings rotted in plain sight. Cracks and potholes scattered the street. A thin cloud covered the starry sky in this shadowed city sector, fueled by an expulsion of steam from a crack in a distant street. Broken glass scattered the roadway, but Aeliana stepped intrepidly over it with her calloused feet. When we walked within blocks of my home, we saw tiny drops of water suspended in midair. Rain had fallen from the wispy cloud overhead, but it became locked in place by her power. The streetlight shimmered on the suspended spheres of descending rain. For the first few steps we took in the frozen drizzle, Aeliana extended her tongue and excitedly caught droplets in her mouth with a wide smile.

She said when she reached the door to our quiet home, “I learned the truth of my power when I was the most alone. I can safely say it was on my darkest day, but I deceived myself into believing that it was just a distant daydream—a dreary fantasy, a desperate deception. Like most people who wander the sands outside the city, my sister had her body killed and her soul devoured by an Astrodeus. She had practically raised me. Everything I had I had because of her. I was so heartbroken when I lost her that I convinced myself that it was just a hopeless dream. The Astrodeus who killed her explained that he would let me live because my power would never pose a threat to him. He had not killed her just for fuel; he killed her because he had delusions of grandeur that she could’ve derailed if given enough time. When I asked, he never explained how he could see our unfueled powers, but he said that I am cursed to experience an ephemeral eternity in an instant. I am cursed to see every inch of this world without the ability to ever nudge it in any direction. When I came to this city, I realized that I had not deceived myself in the past. These powers are real. It was then that I put it all together and realized exactly what he meant.”

I nodded slowly, but I did not say a word. Sadness stained her smile as it often had before. She lost her sister long ago but never lost the pain. And like the scars that stained her skin, that sadness would remain. She was tortured by a tragedy she knew she could not tame, and tears surfaced in her eyes as she stood in the frozen rain. I wrapped my arms around her in a powerless embrace, hoping I could somehow strike her sadness from her face. But like a song or all along she forced another smile; she feigned that she had slain her past if only for a while. It was then the rain resumed and fell upon the street, but I felt beat and incomplete as if I botched my trial. Misery clung to her skin in the form of a fake smile.

“I wish I could force reality to give back all you lost,” I said to the woman for whom I knew I would pay any cost.

But Aeliana shook her head slowly and said, “You aren’t in this alone; put that out of your head. I’ve come to terms with the past and that it’s irreversible. What I lost, I know is lost, and that’s incontrovertible. But together we will build a future that shall be traversable. We will build a world where we are not haunted by the ephemerality of our past or the mortality that once bound us.”

“We will build our perfect future like a house atop their bones. We will commit countless crimes which nothing ever could atone. I will become the greatest monster that this world will ever know, and steal so much power that God Himself shall hide below.”

“You know he’ll come after us, don’t you?” she asked as she hid her hazel eyes from view.

“Let Hayatama and his cronies come, let them scream and toil and fight and run. I’ll take his brave soldiers and send them all to Hell. If it would serve us, I would poison the city well. There exists no limit that for you I would not cross, because your heart deserves so much more than to just wallow in loss. I want to save you from your pain and save you with my hand. I want to hold you one last time in the place our love began.”

Aeliana said as she smiled with a little laugh, “I always dreamed I’d fall in love with a psychopath.”

Aeliana pressed her lips on mine and ran her hands through my hair. She wrapped her legs around me when she jumped into the air. We continued to kiss deeply as we slammed open the door; she loves just like an angel but she fucks just like a whore. Having lost my balance, I fell down onto my back. She tore off my clothes with her dagger as if she had gone on the attack. She then cut off her own clothes beneath the gentle rain, and she quickly climbed aboard me with both pleasure and some pain; she sank herself upon me and then twice whispered my name. She stabbed her daggers through my sleeves and pinned me to the ground, and I set my hand over her mouth so that she would not make a sound. We made love upon our doorstep, half-exposed to the stars. We made love without worry because all this world is ours.