Spirit of Vengeance - 12. Ch 12: The Other World

CHAPTER 12: The Other World

Falling from a very high place into a rushing river hurts a lot more than I thought it would. I had never before run head first into a brick wall but I imagine that is how it very much feels. The darkness was overwhelming. There was no light. Just the rushing sound of a cold river that was slowly drowning me. I tried to maintain the spells that allowed me to separate the air from the water which would allow me to breath.

But I could not focus. I kept hitting things and it felt like every bone in my body was slowly being broken. I might have cried but whatever tears I had were washed away with the river.

I gave up at that moment. I tried. I really did. But I was not invulnerable. I had my limits and I had passed it long ago. I surrendered and I felt the arms of death lift me up, taking me some place else, somewhere safe.

“That was a bit harsh even by my standards,” death seemed to whisper to me. “I only hope this was enough. Such a shame to put you through all of that for nothing.”

I must have been delirious. I could hear someone talking but his words did not make sense. His voice was distorted as well, muffled like he was talking through a tube.

“Aha. It is still you then. Such a shame indeed. Such a shame,” the voice paused as though it was contemplating something. “Very well, then. Wake up. You’ve been unconscious for several days. Your lover is waiting for you at the mouth of Hoarfrost. If you don’t hurry, he will freeze to death.”

I groaned. I was delirious. Lover? Who was that? And where was I? I remembered drowning and then dying.

“You are not dead, mage,” he said as though reading my thoughts. “But if you don’t eat something soon, you will be. Magic can do much but unless you want to cross over to the realm of the Undead, it’s best you keep your body healthy.” And then he chuckled, “but perhaps, Water is so close to Death, you’d think they were mother and child.” He laughed like he made a very funny joke.

“Who?” I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes. They opened all the way when I saw the face that was peering intently at me. It was a familiar sight in a way. It was made of ice, snow, mud, and wood. It had no eyes but it had a large wide mouth full of tiny bits of wood and frost. He was also smiling.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” the thing said. “Or should I say the land of endless flowing water? No, that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”

I meant to say who are you. Instead what I said was, “what in The Lady’s name are you?”

“Oh she won’t like that,” the thing said. “Even though we are in all aspects family, she does not truly recognize me as such. Then again, she doesn’t for anyone other than her brother the Spirit of Earth. She even pretends she doesn’t have a sister who is the Spirit of Fire and Air.”

“I… I don’t understand…” I muttered as I tried to sit up. I winced preparing myself for the pain that was sure to come. I could remember the injuries I had sustained from Rites, the fall I had and the many things I crashed into as I was swept down that cold river. Yet, there was no pain. In fact, my body felt fine, I was dry and surprisingly warm in the small dark cave that glowed with weak blue veins of light etched across the stone. I looked at my leg and it was whole. No blood, no wounds, no scars. “What happened?”

The thing smiled grotesquely. “You like that? I have a little bit of Earth Magic in me too,” he said as he waggled his fat muddy fingers at me, almost as if he was going to tickle me. That thought seemed to scare me a lot more than it should have. “I think that’s why she hates me. I’m not a pure creature of Water. The form I had taken here on your world is a melding of Earth and Water. An abomination to her in many ways. Yet, it’s funny how she still asks me to do things for her.”

“Her?” I asked. “You’re talking about The Lady, aren’t you?”

He smiled again. He waved his hand over the ground and a plant sprouted from the hard barren earth. It grew, stretching out first with a vine and then leaves and then…

“Grapes?” I asked. “Are those grapes?”

“I cannot grow much here,” the thing said. “But this will suffice until you leave these caves. Eat.”

He plucked several grapes from the plant he had grown and I was worried they would be all mussed and dirty from his meaty, muddy hands. When he opened his fist though, the grapes were there, pristine and clean as if they were immune to dirt.

I took them tentatively and began eating. They were surprisingly delicious.

“Will you humour me by allowing me to tell you a story?” he said.

“I… I suppose so,” I replied. I mean could I really say no to a giant creature of mud that looked like he could kill me by merely falling over me and burying me in dirt? The idea of becoming a Samuel Mud Pie was not the least bit appealing. “But, who are you?”

He smiled. Instead of answering my question, he sat beside my bed, which I realized was covered in some soft leafy substance. He began his story. “A long, long time ago, in a time before man, there were beings in this world known only as the Inari. These Inari were like the gods of their time. I believe you are familiar with the concept of gods, yes? You see, they don’t have bodies. They had only two things, an aspect and power. Each of the Inari had an aspect, what you might call now as a spirit that made them unique among others.

“In the beginning there was only one Inari,” he said. “We called her Nyphylym. She was often thought of as the mother of all known creation. She had great power, some say an infinite amount of power but she was lonely. In all creation there was no one but her and there was nothing in the entire universe but her.

“So she said this place is too empty, I shall fill it with things. And so she created O-wen, the Spirit of Earth. O-wen saw what he was made for and he filled the infinite darkness with soil. The Spirit of Earth filled the universe until there were rocks everywhere.

“However, Nyphylym saw that the rocks were not enough. What were rocks for anyway? Everything looked so barren, so plain. And so, she created O-sten, the Spirit of Water. O-sten saw what she was made for and she filled the rocks with water. And so, water flooded the worlds and the seas were formed and the oceans ruled over the land.”

He paused as he plucked several more grapes for me to eat. I had not realized how hungry I was so I took them gladly and began eating more.

“However, Nyphylym saw that water was not enough also,” he continued. “There must be something else, there was too much darkness. And so, she created Ho-o, the Spirit of Fire and Air. Ho-o saw what she was made for and she filled the worlds with fire and air. And so the stars were born and light came to all creation.”

He paused as though he was waiting for me to say something.

“What happened next?” I asked. It seemed like he wanted my permission to continue. I had no desire to get buried in talking mud so I figured I should participate in whatever game he was playing at.

“Something else happened,” he said. “Ho-o was in many ways unlike O-wen or O-sten. Her spirit was unstable and chaotic unlike her brother and sister. Her creations could not coexist with the others. As she filled the worlds with fire and air, something happened. Her powers clashed with Earth and Water as Fire raged across the land and the seas, she did something only Nyphylym had ever done before. She created more spirits.

“As her power swept over all creation, lesser spirits were born. Some had the power of only Fire, or only Air, or only Earth, or only Water. Many more had powers of one and another or even all. Most of them were, like Ho-o, creatures of chaos. They could not think. They simply were. And certainly, none of them were as powerful or coherent as the First Inari but they held unique things that those before them did not have. Many spirits were born – but one very important spirit was born on this very world, this very rock you now live on. Can you guess what that Inari, that spirit, was?”

“Life?” I asked.

He smiled, seemingly happy I had guessed correctly. “Yes, the Spirit of Life, a child of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire was born on this world. And when that happened everything changed. Plants began to grow. Animals burst forth and multiplied. And perhaps at some point, people began to walk this world.

“Nyphylym was pleased when she saw all this,” he continued. “Although she did not understand how it came about, she saw the result and was pleased. But you see, even the Inari felt things – pride, envy, jealousy, they felt all of this. Every Inari she had created wanted to claim the creation of Life for themselves. O-wen, the spirit of Earth, had the greatest claim to the Spirit of Life. He was most similar to her. But O-sten, the Spirit of Water said it would have been impossible without her help. Ho-o, the Spirit of Fire and Air claimed she was the catalyst for all Life to begin.

“The three most powerful Inari quarrelled. The Spirit of Earth, the oldest and perhaps wisest gave way and said he would not claim if it would stop the fighting amongst his sisters. However, O-sten and Ho-o could not agree. They each wanted to prove to their mother that it was they who brought about the Spirit of Life that had so pleased Nyphylym. And so O-sten created more water from the world and showed how all life needed her. Great floods devastated the world. Ho-o filled the world with more Fire and Air to prove that life needed Fire and Air more. Storms and explosions raged across the land.

“In their struggle, in their bickering, they created new spirits from their power. One particular spirit was more dangerous than most others. Water and Fire combined to create what we now call the Spirit of Death. Death spread across this world and with each life taken away, Death’s power grew. He grew in strength and he realized that although he was a child of Water and Fire, he had the potential to surpass even them who created him. He could take the powers of other spirits, something no other spirit before him could. He started with the Lesser Spirits of Water, those created when Ho-o swept over creation with her power. He killed them one by one, until all but a few remained.”

For some reason, the story was making me angry. I shook my head to shrug off the odd feeling.

“Nyphylym saw this as well,” he continued, “and saw creation as it would be if Death gained as much power as she. All creation will be plunged back into Darkness. Not just darkness as in the absence of light but Darkness where chaos and death ruled. Nyphylym knew that even she cannot overcome that Darkness if it grew too powerful. And so she took her power, all of it, and swept the world of all the spirits, of all the Inari she or her children had made, leaving only that which was already created. She did not know if life will continue without those who created them but she hoped for it anyway. She took all her children, those who had created everything with her to a realm of light beyond your world where their powers meant nothing. There she bound them all to her so that their spirits can never escape and their powers will remain trapped forever.

“But,” he said and raised one dirty finger at me as though to silence anything I would say, “the extraordinary happened. After an eternity in that prison of light created by Nyphylym for all her children and the evil that was growing in your world, something ripped through the walls she had created. Many, many, many centuries ago in your time, man did something that shattered the very walls that Nyphylym had created and the power of the Inari trapped within poured forth into your world.

“Freedom,” he whispered as though the word meant so much to him. “After eons of being trapped, we were free. Yet our imprisonment had changed us in many ways. Where before our powers could sweep over creation, that was no longer the case. We became impotent. We had powers but were unable to use them on anything or anyone. You see, we were meant for more than mere existence. We were created to use our powers. To see all of creation and yet be unable to act was worse than eternal light or even darkness.

“Yet Death in his ambition had other plans. He wanted vengeance on Nyphylym. It was he who first discovered that we could channel our powers through hosts, either through the tiniest creatures in the rocks and waters or perhaps even through the walking and talking creatures we’ve come to know as man. Yes, young Samuel, your powers come from us. You are a mage because a spirit has bound itself to you, channelling his power through your fingers, seeing and feeling the world through your touch. It is nothing like our existence before your time. But it is enough… for now.”

He waved his hands as though spreading them out to the whole room. “As ours powers poured forth from our prison, your world was recreated. Creatures that did not exist before emerged, twisted or changed by the aspects that sought out any means to make their existence meaningful. Life grew where places were once barren. Death swept over the world like a tidal wave as he returned in fury and vengeance against those who had imprisoned him so long ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said at last, “when you say another world, do you mean like somewhere in the stars?”

“No,” he smiled. “Here, there, everywhere. Our prison was nowhere and everywhere. Through the tearing of the veil that bound our two worlds, we escaped. Remember small one, we were here before you and we shall be here long after you are gone.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, trying to ignore his calling me small one. “And is it really true? You, I mean your kind created the world?”

“Perhaps,” he replied. “I was not there at the beginning of creation. I came into being late into the cycle of your world. It is simply what I have come to know. But soon perhaps it shall come to a close. Darkness is rising once more. Soon he shall return to manifest himself completely and the world as we know it shall come apart. Malden and the Seven Cities of the Mages shall fall. The Spirit of Death hates the Lady of Water above all else. She is for now, the most powerful of the three Inari who first came into creation. But even she is becoming desperate and she will go to any means to attain her goals.”

He paused as he stared up at the ceiling which glowed subtly with a phosphorescent blue light. “I do not like what she is doing but there is very little I can do. The Spirit of Earth is silent. Ho-o’s hosts are only coming to their full power and I fear they will be broken long before Ho-o’s true power comes to fruition. It has taken her too long to channel her powers into a host while evil gained a foothold in this world. All that stands between Darkness and this world is The Lady.”

“What is this Darkness?” I asked. “Is he a creature like you? No offense intended,” I added quickly as the thing turned to face me.

“No,” he replied. “He is not like me. He is bound by the magic of the Great Ones. Nine Spirits of Earth who poured their power into your world all those years ago had surrendered their very essence in the last war you now know as the Demon Wars. I believe you are familiar with the man once called Arantius? He was the leader of the Nine, or at least the human counterpart of the Nine. Their sacrifice was necessary so Death’s power could be bound. Death cannot be destroyed, not by any of us. We do not have the power to destroy other spirits. It is not in our nature to harm one another. Except his nature is not like ours. He alone holds that power for he was Death itself. For every life he took, for every spirit he crushed, he grew in strength. That is his ultimate power which is why he above all can be the greatest.”

“How about Nyphylym?” I asked. “Can she not do something to destroy this Darkness that is rising?”

“I do not know, small one,” he replied. “Nyphylym has been silent since the time when she swept us all away. Perhaps she is still there in that prison of light, trapped herself, impotent, powerless. It is believed her essence was spread too thin when that happened. Perhaps she was destroyed. I believe that may be the case.”

“So what does the Darkness want?” I asked.

“He seeks to undo what Nyphylym has done,” he said. “He wants to restore our kind to the time when all creation was free for us to hold, to take, to create, or to destroy. He seeks to gain enough power so that he himself shall become as powerful as Nyphylym was, perhaps even more so. I do not know what he wants at the very end, what his ultimate goal is. Know though that whatever that may be, there is no place there for mankind to exist.”

“Do you not want that?” I asked tentatively. “Do you not want to be able to roam the world once more as free spirits?”

The creature before me seemed to think about it. “In many ways, yes, I do. But, I also see the wisdom in what our Great Mother had done. Darkness is evil. Death is the end for all. He cares not for us, the others of his kind. He will destroy each and every one of us if he had to just so he could amass more power for himself. He will perhaps destroy all life and all spirits until all of creation is his and his alone. His powers will with time grow in strength while ours are limited by our creation.

“But enough of my stories,” he said as he suddenly stood up and perked nonexistent ears as though listening for something. None of the dirt or snow on his peculiar body seemed to stick to the place where he sat. “I can feel your lover’s essence dwindling. He will not last for much longer. You must hurry before he passes from this world and the essence of the spirit within him is returned to the abyss to wait another turn to reform. You cannot let him die. You will need him more than you can imagine in the times ahead.”

“I’m sorry,” I replied. “Who is this lover you are talking about? And I still don’t know what name to call you.”

He turned to me, the smile on his otherwise featureless face turning into a frown. “Have I misread? His actions speak of such. But perhaps it is friendship. I do not think so though. But if you have to ask then perhaps I am wrong. It is not the first time after all. As for my name, you can now and forever call me Antios.” He looked up towards a wall at the other end of the room which began crumbling as jagged teeth began breaking through. “Aah, we have a visitor.”

“It’s that thing!” I said, seeing the already very familiar creature of ice that had attacked Lance, had chased Paul, and had nearly bitten off my leg. “We must leave!”

The beast broke through the wall and growled at me.

“Yes, indeed we must,” Antios said. “She will take you back to the entrance of these caves. You can walk but in all likelihood, you shall not make it in time. Phino-e shall take you there faster.

“Fino… what?” I asked. “That thing has a name?”

The creature Phino-e growled at me again.

“She cannot converse like us,” Antios said, smiling. “But like Gryphons they can feel intention. I do not think she appreciates the tone you used when you called her a thing.”

“S-she?” I managed to blurt out. “She almost bit off my leg!”

I could have been imagining it but it looked like Phino-e smiled through her many jagged ice teeth.

“A test,” Antios said, “it was all part of the Rites of course. We needed to see who shall pass and who shall fail.”

I looked at him in disbelief.

Phino-e approached and then knelt as though offering her back to me.

“Hurry now,” Antios said as he gathered some more grapes that had been growing off the ground. He placed them in what looked like a pouch made of intertwined leaves. “Take these. He will need it. You must leave now or else all you shall find when you exit shall be a frozen corpse.”

I took the small pouch he gave me and tucked it into a pocket of my vest. Tentatively, I mounted Phino-e who slowly stood up as though adjusting to have a weight on her back.

“Heed my warning, young Samuel Archer,” Antios suddenly said. He was no longer smiling but instead had set a frown on his otherwise featureless face. “I did not want to save you. In many ways, I almost didn’t if only to spare you of the hardships you will endure. However, they will need him for the coming war. And he needs you. Take care of him for he will die without you, not just today but in the hard days to come.”

They? Him? War? “What are you talking about?” I asked but then screamed as Phino-e suddenly lunged towards the exit and all I could do was hang on for my life.

* * * * * * * * * *

Riding on a creature made completely of ice yet the flexibility of a panther was not a very pleasant experience for me. I suppose it came a close second in unpleasantness to being dropped hundreds of feet from the air into cold rushing water. Phino-e charged through the elaborate caves that ran in almost every direction, seemingly not caring if I flew off her back when she made her turns. I hung on as tightly as I could as she navigated through the caves as if she knew exactly where she was going. Perhaps she did for tunnels formed and reformed before her as though they obeyed her every movement.

Eventually, she began charging down a dead end that seems to give no indication it was opening up.

“Phino-e,” I said, my voice broken by her constant bouncing as she ran, “wall! See wall? Stop!”

She merely growled as she ran faster.

I screamed as we hit the wall and it broke into a thousand tiny little pieces of ice. I closed my eyes and opened them little by little to see we were in a big cave that most certainly looked familiar.

“This,” I said, “this is where the Rites began. This is where Master Leveret gave us instructions.” It was empty then. All the holes through which we Trainees went through were all gone except for the one I just burst out off. I gratefully got off Phino-e. “Thanks,” I said.

Phino-e nodded and lied down resting her head on the floor. She looked at me with her glass eyes as if waiting for me to do something.

“Should I go?” I asked her.

She merely flicked her frozen tail.

“Okay,” I said staring at her to see if she would do anything else. She just stared back at me. “I’m going to go now, okay?”

Again, she merely flicked her tail.

I hurried out of the caves carefully shielding the grapes from the cold through a little magic. I looked back to see if Phino-e was following but she simply stayed lying there as she stared at me with those icy eyes.

It didn’t take me long to see daylight. There at the mouth of the cave, someone was kneeling, shoulders slumped in defeat. His form was shadowed against the light and I could not see his face until I was much closer.

“Matty?” I called out.

His head slowly looked up from where he was hunched. His skin was pale. He looked weak and thinner than I remembered. His skin was half-covered in frost as though he was just waiting to die in the cold. His eyes met mine and he stared at me as though he couldn’t really see me or that there was a fog obscuring his vision. His voice, when he spoke, was husky and uncertain. “Sam?”

“Matty, what happened to you?” I asked as I ran over to him. He looked like he was at the edge of death. “What are you doing here all alone?”

He raised his hand weakly and let his thin fingers touch across my cheek. And then his face seemed to break as though he was about to cry. “I looked for you,” he said in a broken voice. “Master Leveret was so angry when I wouldn’t leave. But I couldn’t. Paul said the cavern had collapsed where you were. But I didn’t believe him.” Tears started flowing down from his eyes. “I didn’t believe him. I stayed. I ran into the caves against their command. I tried to find you but the cave just ended and there was nowhere else to go. I didn’t know where else to look for you. I didn’t want to leave. I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t go back and leave you here all alone.” His shoulders shook and his head bent down as he began crying in earnest.

“Oh Matty,” I said as I hugged him in my arms. He was nearly as cold as ice. It seemed like his magic was withering and he could no longer repel the cold. I stretched my magic to cover us both and I could feel his body warming up again. He was thin, so painfully thin, like he had lost a third of his weight. “Matty, how long have you been here?”

“A few days,” he said weakly. “I don’t know anymore. Maybe a week.”

“A week!” I said. “What have you been eating?”

Matty shook his head. “I ran out of food days ago. I’ve managed to get water from the ice but there’s nothing to eat here. There’s nothing alive.”

“Matty!” I said wanting to scold him so badly. I figured though that it was not the time. I took out the grapes Antios had given me. “Here, eat some of this. It’s not much but I think you need anything you can get at this point.”

“Grapes,” he said as he stared at what was in my hands. “Where did you find grapes in this place?”

“I’ll tell you later, okay? For now, please just eat this. You need to eat this now, okay?”

He nodded as he took several grapes and placed them into his mouth. He didn’t need much encouraging. It was obvious he was starving. I worried that I did not have enough grapes to sate his hunger but the tiny bag seemed to hold more grapes than I expected. In truth, it almost seemed to hold an impossible amount of grapes.

“Sam,” Matty said as he began urgently tugging at my clothes. He was staring wide eyed behind me and I looked back to see Phino-e prowling towards us. “What should we do?” he whispered.

I waited and watched, holding tightly onto Matty. Phino-e circled us as though watching her prey carefully before striking. Matty followed her with fearful eyes as she circled us as though waiting for any movement from us, any indication that we were going to flee.

And then Phino-e knelt and offered her back to us.

“What?” Matty asked in disbelief.

“I think,” I said, smiling, “she wants to take us home.”

Phino-e smiled widely with her finger long teeth of ice.

NEXT CHAPTER: Ch 13: Journeymen
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