The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 38. Chapter 38 - Sorrow

The sun was just starting to rise at the eastern horizon, but the sounds of wailing awoke everyone aboard the Mermonster.

Alydrael worried it was Dorjin, who was still coming to terms with her actions and those of her people.

Dorjin thought the crying was Nuji, who seemed to be the most dramatic of the group.

Nuji was concerned that it was Tigath, suspecting it had something to do with the new magic in him.

Lestralin thought Alydrael had hurt her damaged leg, and he was immediately overwhelmed by his internal guilt for bringing a pathway onto the Mermonster that the Humans had been able to access.

The newest addition, Rhostilla, did not know the others well enough yet to have been certain who was sobbing, except that she was in the cabin next to the one where the wails originated.

It was Othri.

His cries of sorrow startled Tigath, who was sleeping beside him. Tigath sat up and saw his beloved hunched over as if in agony. Othri was weeping, and Tigath went to take his hand, but Othri crawled out of bed and staggered toward the cabin’s door. He fell to his knees; his whole body wracked with sobs. Tigath climbed down beside him.

“What is it, my love?” He wrapped his arms around his man’s trembling form.

Othri was crying so hard that snot was running from his nose, and he was drooling.

Within two minutes, all the others were crowded around the door to the men’s cabin.

“Three more,” Othri rasped out, and he repeated himself, “three more.”

Rhostilla was the first to comprehend.

“No,” she whispered, “three more?”

Othri looked up at her through his tears and nodded.

“No,” Rhostilla repeated.

Tigath, Nuji, and the others quickly realized what had happened.

The Humans were hunting down the remnants of the free peoples, and three more magic-imbued Urcai were no more, slain in the unending genocide.

The Mermonster let out a mournful groan, and Kilial turned away from Tigath and Othri’s room. She headed to the stairs that led above, climbed them, and stepped out onto the deck in the rising sunshine. Nuji, Alydrael, Lestralin, and Dorjin followed her a moment later. Rhostilla remained standing above her fellow Urcai as Othri continued to cry into Tigath’s shoulder.

When he eventually began to calm down, she said, “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

The men looked up at her, and Tigath said, “What are you wondering?”

Rhostilla winced at her own thoughts, and she shut her eyes as she asked, “Othri, how many of us can you still feel?”

“When I could first sense you,” he replied, “there were only sixteen, and we’ve already lost five. With you and Tigath here, Rhostilla, and Toque in Nextworld…” Othri let out a quiet moan and stated, “I can only feel seven others out in the world.”

The three green-skinned individuals joined the others above deck.

Everyone gathered around the map of West Sea.

“I can feel Urcai in these three places,” Othri stated, indicating a chain of islands and two spots on the coasts of different continents that sat at the edges of the map. “There are also those two Urcai who are on the other side of the world. The final two are inland and not on this map.”

“Then let’s start with the three who are accessible,” Kilial replied.

Tigath took Othri’s hand. “Pick one, and we’ll go there first.”

Othri pointed at the place closest to where the Mermonster and Uall Island were currently floating.

Tigath turned and leaned over the railing. “Uall Island, can you please bring us to where Othri has just indicated?”

In a flash, they were there.

Lestralin let out a noise of surprise. “I’ve been here!” he declared. There was a settlement on the larger island’s coastline. “That town’s called Dabalahdle. I came here with a lover,” he added with a little blush working up his cheeks. “It was years ago.”

“Thank goodness the Humans haven’t destroyed it yet,” Tigath added.

A very large crowd was immediately gathering to gawk at Uall Island and its sudden appearance.

“Time to go ashore again,” Kilial stated.

She, Tigath, and Lestralin headed toward the island in the dinghy.

“What is this?!” one of the inhabitants shouted as the trio approached.

“We’ve found a way to escape the Humans who are hunting us!” Tigath called back.

The gathered Urcai, Rothians, and Noktar fell silent as the rowboat approached. The small community of Dabalahdle may have thus far been spared, but the inhabitants were well aware that their destruction was fast approaching. They knew about the cities in their region that had been obliterated, and the islanders did not need any convincing. They were also not secretive about the Urcai among them who had recently started doing magic. Every single individual from Dabalahdle evacuated their home. Uall Island raised its path of bedrock for them to walk across, and two-hundred-eighty-four more Earthian entered Nextworld.

Rhostilla also decided to join the survivors at that point, to help with the setup of the hidden refugee camp.

When Tigath, Kilial, and Lestralin were back aboard the Mermonster, Othri pointed out the other two locations, which turned out to be tiny fishing villages that were also expecting an impending attack. One-hundred-ninety-one Earthians from the first community and two-hundred-fifteen from the other left their homes for the strange land of the green sun and pink sky.

Gathered around the map again, Othri informed the others, “I can’t indicate on this image the last five Urcai who I can feel. Two are inland, and two are on the other side of the world.”

Tigath furrowed his brow in thought, and he turned around. “Uall Island! Can you bring us to the other side of the world where Othri can feel the Urcai?”

The island and those on the Mermonster experienced stillness, motionlessness, as the world blazed away. Everything around them became dark in the night, but then those on the ship were surprised as the world suddenly turned white. Uall Island was moving beyond the pole of the Earth, and the vast icefields and glacial expanses brightened the darkness, but the travelers were untouched by the cold. Then another ocean appeared around them, and the group arrived at an archipelago.

Along the shore of its largest island, fires were burning in the night, and a gathering of Earthians was in the middle of a celebration. The festivities on the beach came to a halt at the astonishing appearance of Uall Island.

Only Tigath accompanied Kilial in the dinghy.

“Friends, why are you having a party?” Kilial called when the rowboat was close enough.

An Urcai woman raised a newborn above her head. “In defiance of the end of our people, we celebrate life! This beautiful child has just been born, and even if she will not grow up to see our wonderful world, we rejoice in her life!”

Tigath climbed out of the rowboat as Kilial got it to shore. “May I hold her?” Tigath asked the Urcai woman with a warm smile.

“Of course,” she replied, and she extended the infant to the stranger without a hint of trepidation.

“She’s miraculous,” Tigath breathed to the woman. “Is she yours?”

“She is.”

“What’s her name?”

The child’s mother smiled with pride. “Her name’s Tigalth.”

Tears sprang to Tigath’s eyes. “My name is another version of Tigalth,” he said in a choked voice. “I’m Tigath.” He cradled tiny Tigalth close to his heart and declared to the gathered islanders, “Tigalth is going to live! We have found a way for our people to survive!”

Another ninety-three Earthians – plus a brand new one – were hidden away from the Humans.

“There’s one more magical Urcai near water,” Othri stated. He took Tigath’s hand. “Can you please ask Uall Island to bring us where I can feel them? The person is on the coast of a huge island.”

Tigath looked out and asked, “Uall Island, will you please bring us to where Othri can feel one of us?”

Uall Island sped away until it arrived at a region where the sun was beginning to rise on the horizon. Despite Othri having informed the others that they were headed to what was an island, the landmass before them was so large that it appeared like a continent.

The inhabitants of another fishing community were beginning to awaken, and like the others who had been startled by the appearance of an island that should not have been there, they were very surprised by Uall and the Mermonster.

Kilial rowed Tigath and Othri to shore, and the trio convinced the three-hundred-nine islanders to join the other refugees in Nextworld.

“Now how do we find the last two?” Othri asked those aboard the Mermonster. “They’re far inland, and we have no way to get to them.

“I guess I could ask Uall,” Tigath recommended, and since the group had no other ideas, he stepped up to the railing of the ship. “Uall Island, is there some way you can bring us to one of the places where Othri can feel a magic Urcai?”

The island blasted across the face of the Earth at its shocking speed, and suddenly, there was no longer water beneath the island and the Mermonster, which let out a series of confused and alarmed creaks and groans.

“I think we’re okay,” Kilial reassured it in an uncertain tone.

Then the world stopped moving, and Uall Island now appeared like a small mountain on the landscape, and the Mermonster was seated on its hull on the ground, but Uall Island was supporting it with its magic.

The ship let out a squeak, and Nuji and Kilial both smiled.

“The Mermonster just said it tickles, about the island holding it,” Kilial translated before Alydrael could ask. “This is so unbelievable,” the captain added.

A half-circle of huts stood at the edge of a bright wood. The little village’s inhabitants began to rise and were very startled by the appearance of the small mountain to the south.

Like the groups of islanders who had been rescued, every person from the inland community entered the portal to Nextworld, but while they were crossing the threshold, Othri cried out in pain.

Tigath came to him. “Another?”

Othri nodded.

Tigath sighed. “There’s only one of us left.”

Othri nodded again. “We have to get whoever it is before it’s too late.”