A Banner Torn (Book 1 Complete)

Kaelid:

Searing pain compressed his entire being.

Not the kind from falling off barn roofs or spraining his ankle playing. This pain was different. Deeper. An invisible hand clawed into his skull, mercilessly squeezing everything inside while shaking his body like a rag doll.

He pressed his back against the cold crystal pillar that pulsed with flashes of blue and gold. The terrifying part was feeling wooden barn walls against his shoulders simultaneously, even though he knew he was still in the underground chamber.

Curio had moved forward to help in the defense, although less capable, due to his lower mass. He was faster than in his duels with them in the clearing.

In the chamber, Marta and Kael fought alongside the gremlins and Curio. Their swords clashed with Praxis agents' weapons, ringing like death knells. Marta, having replaced her broken spear with a scavenged blade from the battle. Though she had less skill with a blade she was giving her all.

He could see energy flowing from the crystal toward each fighter, streams of light making their movements faster, their strikes deadlier.

But in his mind, in that barn that wasn't real but felt more real than it should have, parasites pressed against the walls. Wooden planks groaned and twisted. Rain that wasn't rain pounded the roof. And amid the chaos, the leader's voice whispered poisonous words.

"You're just a child. You don't understand what you're fighting. Surrender now, and I'll make it brief."

Lexicon trembled in his satchel. He reached down and gently stroked the satchel. It wasn't the ball of teeth it had started as, retreating from the mindscape as its progenitor took over the defense.

"Don't be afraid... we're going to be okay."

The chamber shook as something pounded the walls from outside. More agents were coming. They were staying outside of the library's manipulation range for now.

In the mental barn, the storm intensified. The leader's presence loomed like a giant shadow, pressing on every plank and nail, searching for cracks. And finding them. Tiny holes appeared in the walls, and threads of black smoke stretched through like greedy fingers toward he and Rannek. Finding and making cracks faster than the boys and the library could solidify them.

"Rannek... I don't think the barn is going to hold."

His friend's face was pale, but determination blazed in his eyes. "Then we make them stronger."

But how? He looked at the mental space and saw the Library's golden light fighting the creeping darkness. Shelves that hadn't been there before now held books with gleaming covers. The Library was helping, adding its power to their defense.

In the physical chamber, Curio deflected a Praxis agent's strike. His surface vibrated: "The leader... grows desperate. He summons all his servants. This is the final assault."

The Network's crystal blazed with blinding brilliance, and he could see everything. The chamber, the barn, tunnels where more agents ran toward them, and the mental landscape where parasites swarmed like angry wasps. Above it all, the Praxis leader prepared for one final, terrible attack.

"Oh... no."

The leader wanted to devour the crystal. Not just control or destroy it, but devour it and make all the Network's power his own. If he succeeded, everyone connected to the Network would die. All the gremlins in their tunnels. All the Petrakahrn in the earth's depths. Everyone.

In the mental barn, the leader's shadow grew until it covered the entire sky. His voice thundered: "If I cannot have control, then I will consume everything. All will obey, all power is ours!"

The barn walls began cracking. Long fissures appeared in the wood, and streams of hissing darkness poured inside. Lexicon hid deeper in the satchel, and Kaelid felt his courage crumbling.

This was beyond his ability. He was just a child. How could he fight such a monster?

But then he remembered his lessons about herd animals . When one was scared and panicked, you didn't force it to calm down. You stayed calm yourself and reminded it that it wasn't alone.

He reached out and took Rannek's hand. With a loud voice so Lexicon could hear, he shouted, "We're not alone! We have each other. And everyone fighting beside us!"

The Library's presence grew warmer. Golden light flowed through the barn's cracks, sealing them with the power of thousands of stories. The Network's crystal sang a deep note that stopped the chamber walls from shaking.

But the leader wasn't finished. In both worlds, he gathered himself for the final blow. He could feel his approach like a giant wave about to crash down.

"Here he comes."

The attack fell like thunder.

In the chamber, all Praxis agents moved as one, their eyes blazing with terrible light. They attacked with inhuman speed, driving defenders back toward the crystal.

Marta's sword met three blades simultaneously, sparks scattering. Kael staggered from a fresh wound on his arm, blood flowing freely. The libraries manipulated stone struck down agents by the dozen but more came.

But the real battle was in the mindscape.

The leader's shadow crashed down like a falling mountain. The barn walls exploded inward, imaginary wood fragments flying everywhere. Darkness flooded through like a black tide, reaching toward him and Rannek with greedy claws.

Then he heard his Mother's voice.

"You're a disappointment to me, useless child. I thought I'd raised you better, but you still leave me alone to go play at being a man you'll never be."

These words hit harder than any physical blow. He breath caught and he staggered backward. The voice continued, each word stabbing his heart.

"Look at yourself. Hiding in a corner while real people fight and die. You're just a cowardly little boy pretending to be a hero. You should have stayed home, where you belong."

"This... this isn't real," he whispered weakly.

"Isn't it? When have you ever done anything right? You can't even properly take care of me. Remember when you let the rats run free in the grain barn because you wanted to play with sticks? Stupid, Useless!"

Kaelid remembered. The disappointment in his mother's eyes, his slumped shoulders when he saw that disaster. The bitter tone when she said his name.

The darkness drew closer, and he felt his last fragments of courage crumbling. Maybe that voice was right. Maybe he really was just a useless cowardly boy who didn't belong here.

But suddenly, Rannek squeezed his hand firmly.

"That's not your mother's voice. She would never say such things. She's proud of you, Kaelid. I've seen it in her face when she watches you work with the animals. She's proud of your kindness, of how you always try to help others."

The false voice growled, its resemblance to his mother fading and becoming more like the Praxis leader. "Lies. Pretty lies to make a weak child feel better."

Rannek squeezed tighter. "No. This is truth. And you know what else is true? We're not alone. Look around you."

He looked and saw them. All those who had placed their hope in them. Marta, fighting with everything she had to protect the crystal. Kael, wounded but steadfast, still swinging his sword. Whisper-in-Stone and the other gremlins with determined faces. Curio, whose blue-green body rippled with each absorbed blow.

Beyond them, in tunnels and earth's depths, were others. Gremlin families huddled in their homes. Petrakahrn colonies singing their deep songs. Everyone who would be destroyed if the Network fell.

"All of them are counting on us. Not just me. Us. All of us."

The Library's presence embraced them like a warm hug, and suddenly the barn was no longer just a barn. It transformed into a reading hall with comfortable chairs and gentle lamplight. A place where stories lived, where heroes faced impossible hardships and found strength to continue.

Words of golden light appeared: "Remember, young ones. Every story worth telling has a moment when all seems lost. The best heroes aren't those who never feel fear. They are those who feel fear and yet choose to act."

He stared directly at the leader's shadow. "We choose. We choose to protect those who matter to us."

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The leader's shadow writhed and grew smaller with each word. In the physical chamber, the Praxis agents staggered, their coordinated attack falling apart as their connection to their master weakened.

But the leader hadn't surrendered. With a voice like breaking glass, he made his desperate last attack to shatter their minds.

That attack never reached its target.

The Network's crystal sang a note so pure it cut through darkness like a blade of light. The Library's golden presence flowed into every crack, strengthening the mental barn's walls with the power of thousands of stories. From somewhere in the earth's depths, Kaelid felt the Petrakahrn colonies adding their voices to this song, lending their ancient stone wisdom to this defense.

The leader's shadow, stretched too thin, pushed further and shattered like glass.

In the chamber, the Praxis agents collapsed. Some who had been recently captured gasped and opened their eyes, awakening from a long nightmare. But others, too long under the leader's control, simply fell and didn't rise again.

But the leader himself wasn't dead. With the mindform shattering, something solid and dark fell with a wet sound onto the chamber floor. Almost human-shaped, but wrong, as if a human-shaped hole had been cut from the world's heart.

"He lives. Still lives. I hear his wretched heart beating," Whisper-in-Stone said clearly in the sudden silence.

Marta raised her sword with determination. "Then we finish his work."

Kael grabbed his arm, wincing from his wound's pain. "Wait. If we kill him, we lose any chance of learning what he knows."

"What he knows? He killed our people, their people pointing to Whisper. Turned them into monsters. What could he possibly know that's more important than justice?"

The leader on the ground twitched, his form shifting like smoke. When he spoke, his voice was barely audible, but everyone heard it.

"Justice? You know nothing of justice. Do you think I'm alone? Do you think killing me ends this?"

A cold shiver ran down Kaelid's spine.

The leader's laugh was wet, forcing wrong flesh to make sound without bones. "We are a hive of hundreds, this node is no longer useful. But legion are those standing ready to take my place. We have been preparing for years, placing our people in positions of power. Your duke, your nobles, your merchants, all have our whispers in their ears. Some knowingly, some unknowingly. But all serve our purpose."

"You're lying." But Marta's voice lacked its former certainty.

"Really? Do you think it took so long for someone to investigate the disappearances by chance? Why reports were buried and witnesses silenced? We have been weaving our web for decades, and you've only seen its edges."

The chamber fell silent except for the crystal's gentle hum. He looked at his companions' faces and saw his own fear reflected. If the leader was right, this victory was only a beginning.

"Then we need him alive. We need to know who else is involved. We need to understand how far this conspiracy has spread," he said.

Marta's knuckles had gone white on her sword hilt. "He killed children, Kaelid. Innocent children and families, who never harmed anyone."

"I know. And that's exactly why we can't let it happen again. If we kill him now, we might never find the others. And more will die."

"But how do we get him to the Duke?" Kael asked, wincing as he shifted his wounded arm. "Even if we could carry that thing through the tunnels, it would take weeks to reach the surface. By then, his allies will have covered their tracks, silenced witnesses, prepared their defenses."

"The Network connects to many places," Whisper-in-Stone said hesitantly. "But only for messages, for shared thoughts. Not for... traveling."

The Library's golden presence stirred, and suddenly books began materializing on the new shelves—ancient volumes with covers that seemed to shift and change in the light.

"Wait," the Crystal pulsed into the area around them. "The Library is archiving… old memories..."

The Network's crystal pulsed uncertainly. "I... there are gaps. Functions I once knew but can no longer access. The patterns are there, but incomplete, damaged by time."

"What kind of functions?" Marta pressed.

"Movement. Not of thoughts, but of... substance. The creators traveled vast distances in moments, but the knowledge fractured when they..." The Network's voice faded into uncertainty.

Whisper-in-Stone's eyes widened. "The old songs! The star-paths our ancestors spoke of! I thought them legend, but..."

The Library's warmth grew stronger, and more books appeared—technical manuals, architectural diagrams, crystalline schematics that hurt to look at directly.

"The knowledge exists," the Library said, its voice tinged with discovery. "Scattered, broken, but present. The Network once folded space itself, creating passages between distant points. But it requires enormous energy, perfect synchronization, and..."

"And?" he asked.

"And two consciousness working in harmony. The Network alone cannot remember how. But together, we might..."

"You mean to tell us," Marta said slowly, "that this entire time there's been a way to travel instantly between places, and nobody knew?"

"Not nobody," Whisper-in-Stone whispered, awe creeping into his voice. "The deep memories, the eldest songs... they speak of roads that bent the world, of stepping through crystal doorways into distant lands. But those were from the time of the creators. We thought them mere stories."

Kael stared at the Network crystal. "How is that possible? How do you forget something like that?"

The Network's glow flickered with something like embarrassment. "When the creators left, much was lost. Some knowledge crumbled naturally. Other parts I... sealed away, too painful to remember. The pathways reminded me of them, of what we built together. So I let them fade."

"Incredible," Curio vibrated. "An entire transportation system, dormant for centuries."

"But can it actually work?" Rannek asked. "I mean, after all this time?"

The Library's presence pressed closer to the Network crystal, and both began to glow brighter. "We are... attempting to reconstruct the process. The Network provides the power and spatial awareness. I provide the computational frameworks and memory recovery. Together, we might..."

"By the depths," Whisper-in-Stone breathed. "It's actually happening."

The reconstruction took time. Books flew open on the Library's shelves, pages flipping rapidly as thousands of years of scattered knowledge coalesced. The Network crystal blazed brighter than it had since the battle, energy coursing through every facet.

"The pattern is complex," the Network said, strain evident in its voice. "I must map the destination precisely, account for stone and air and living things. One mistake and..."

"And what?" Marta demanded.

"And you might emerge inside a wall. Or scattered across several rooms. Or not emerge at all."

"Comforting," Kael muttered.

Whisper-in-Stone placed his hands on the crystal. "I have been to the Duke's castle. Through the Network, I can share the memory of the place. The deep cellars where old foundation stones touch bedrock."

"That will work," the Network said. "Old stone remembers better than new. I can find the resonance, match the harmonic frequency..."

The shimmer in the air began to solidify into a doorway shape.

"This will drain everything," the Network warned. "Centuries of stored energy, gone in moments. I will not be able to repeat this. You will have to find your own way back."

"Assuming there's anything to come back to," Marta said grimly.

"The pathway is ready," the Library announced. "But be warned—this technique hasn't been used since the creators' time. We are working from incomplete knowledge and ancient memory. There may be... side effects."

The doorway solidified into crackling light. Through it, Kaelid could see worked stone walls, torch sconces, the unmistakable architecture of human construction.

"Side effects?" Rannek asked nervously.

"Unknown. But likely temporary. Probably."

"Probably?"

"The old texts are unclear on that point."

He looked around the chamber one last time. The Network crystal had dimmed considerably, its light now a pale echo of its former brilliance. The effort of opening the pathway was clearly exhausting its energy. The network's gently blue glow was spreading back into its pathways in the walls, dimmer but steady.

The warm golden glow of the libraries presence retreated from the pathways, it's influence fading from the stone as it returned to its natural rough texture. It moved deliberately backward to allow the network to reclaim itself. It consolidated in a corner of the room, carving a small nook into the corner that had not been there before. The space resolving into a reading alcove with several smaller shelves along the walls and a comfortable looking chair. Before the glow seemed to sigh and relax, the distance placing a great strain on its control. It would rest, and could keep the network company from this remote annex, visiting mentally through the channels.

Looking toward the crystal, its glow spreading down the passages away from the cavern now. "Will you be all right?" Kaelid asked as he lifted Curio into the backpack once more, and checked their belongings for damage..

"I will endure, as I have for centuries. But now I am no longer alone." The Network's voice was weaker but warmer. "The Library stays, and my littles will help me remember what I have forgotten. Perhaps, in time, some functions can be restored."

"Not the space-folding," The crystal pulsed firmly. "The power required is beyond what I can build up in the future but other things, smaller things. Better things."

Kael, still injured badly from the battle, led the group through the wavering passage that seemed to be there and not at the same time. As the prisoner was dragged through, the passage winked out behind them leaving a finely carved stone wall that was obviously very expensively made.