The Swords of August

I hadn't forgotten that Carver had said the chair could alter memories. What I hadn't expected was for it to completely subsume Larsen's personality, mind and apparently inclination not to talk shit. She picked herself off the floor with a casual ease that had alarm bells ringing before she'd finished rising.

"You know, Edward, you really are pathetic. You've come all this way, just to die."

Suddenly, I didn't feel so bad that we'd stripped Larsen's armour off her.

"I mean, really, you couldn't even maintain a relationship with Waters, or save those men in Antarctica. What made you think you could fight something that's been around for longer than humanity's been alive?"

That shook me. It shouldn't know that. But it was inside her head. That was confirmation it had access to her memories, a key piece of intel. That barb still hurt though, like she knew it would.

The way she looked at me was an exact match for the thing on the floor. She—or it, I suppose—had a kind of distaste on her face usually reserved for when your dog shits on the carpet. She looked at us, all of us, with a disdain that turned her normally strong noble features into a foreign landscape. This wasn't my friend anymore.

She took a deep breath and looked at Chen, then at me. "You'll have fun with that one later. Right now you get to deal with me."

And just like that I was lifted off my feet by a palm strike. I was in armour though, so instead of smashing into the wall, I just turned my tumble into a quick roll and got back to my feet. My hands had been wrapped around my railgun the whole time.

"Aw, that's cute. Running the numbers on how to take me out without hurting your friend?" She snarled, and stepped closer.

"Protect Leyndal!" I yelled.

I didn't have time for anything else because a boot was headed straight for my face. I jerked away quickly, more an instinctual move than a planned one. It was obvious that even if it controlled her body, this thing had no idea how to fight like her and it didn't have her muscle memory. Small mercies, I suppose.

I went in to take advantage of her leg swinging through the air and knock her down, but her other foot flashed into my vision and rang my bell good and proper. No real technique though, just pure strength and speed. I performed another roll, this one backwards to gain some distance and I managed to get myself into a proper stance before Larsen hit me again.

There was no way I was letting some thing puppet my friend's body for the rest of her natural life but I didn't much like the idea of letting her beat the crap out of me either.

I moved first this time and swept out with a savage right cross, fist intersecting jaw. Except it never landed.

Two things happened at once. Chen barelled into Larsen and knocked her down into the fleshy floor, and said floor began sliding and and shifting like living mud.

"Hold her down!"I dashed in, gripping a sedative from my first-aid kit. Now that her armour was out of the way, it should've been infinitely easier to administer the drug without having to aim for a shielded port in her armour.

I moved to press the needle into her shoulder but she reached out and snapped the thing with one hand while the other was busy bashing poor Chen in as he held her down.

A guttural snarling was the only warning I got until the floor opened up and swallowed us all. I saw what looked like the insides of an intestine and it began moving us at high speed towards… somewhere. My suit's dead-reckoning systems told me I was moving at upwards of sixty klicks an hour. My visual scans just returned a featureless, grainy darkness.

I flicked on my white lights and winced as something sharp and barbed punctured the relatively soft undersuit beneath my armour plating, and still I saw nothing.

"Chen, what the fuck is going on?"

"We're being digested," he grunted, "I think!"

I growled, hand straying to my chest. Bare, empty. No sheath, no knife.

"My knife's gone."

"Mine too."

"Try the railgun?"

"Not when I'm up against a giant intestine, waiting to be shit out. I'd rather not frag myself."

We struggled of course, but there wasn't a lot to struggle against when you could barely move to get any leverage and power. When we got where we were going we fell out of a wall and found ourselves in a very different looking room.

It was still dark, of course, but my suit lights illuminated enough and after a moment Chen's switched on too. A large, crumbling ruin of a room greeted my eyes. It had a central dais with trusses along the ceiling and…

"Another chair? Is this the planet of the nightmare chairs or something?"

"Eyes open," I ordered sternly. "And for fuck's sake, don't sit in the chair."

I commanded my white lights up to maximum intensity. Artificial daylight spilled out and bathed the space in front of me with blissful clarity, but that didn't make me feel any safer.

No Larsen. More distressingly though, no Carver, and no Leyndal. They hadn't followed us here.

I took in the room around us, turning to get a good view of everything. It was dark, even with my lights. So dark that I wasn't prepared for a blur to drop from the ceiling right on top of me.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It was Larsen, only she'd clearly progressed in whatever sick transformation she was undergoing. She made a croaking, inhuman sound as she moved away and circled me, her eyes were wild, frenzied.

We fought, as we had before, but just like before we didn't have much luck getting through to her. In the end, Chen got in behind her and cut off the oxygen supply to her brain. Human, bug, or something in between she couldn't fight without oxygen. Few living things could.

"She's still going to change, you know? Once chosen, the change cannot be stopped."

I snapped my rifle round to aim at the speaker. It was a man, but he was too… perfect. His skin was unblemished and flawless and he had the natural athleticism and strength to back up form with function. It was creepy, like he was the golden ratio projected onto every part of the human form.

"Who the hell are you? Do you know what's going on here?" A finger on the pressure pad of my rifle lit off the light at one end. He didn't even blink, even though he had to be staring into a small sun.

"Oh yes." He laughed. "I know." He stepped around me towards Larsen and Chen who stood sentinel over her body.

"You've grown from a thorn to a dagger in my side in far too short a time, and for what?" He scoffed. "You have no stake in this fight, why do you continue to fight?"

"You mean… what, killing a few bugs?"

His eyes flashed dangerously. "I mean defending magekind and prolonging their lives. They are the cattle with which the Abygons will fuel their war-machine. We are not cattle, you and I. We are more than that, and humanity deserves a better fate."

I paused, his words turning over in my head once, then twice, then again.

"I don't know about all that," I said slowly, "but we need the loyalty of the mages and their people if we're to get home. We need their help."

"And if doing this strengthens the real enemy?"

"What real enemy? You mean you?"

He gave us a stare that could freeze water.

"There exists out there, a species that has plied the stars for many tens of thousands of years. They are in a war for the survival of their species and the war they've been fighting has lasted centuries."

"Centuries? And you think you can make a difference?"

"I have already. You may have noticed, but I do not carry the weight of age."

"You're… immortal?"

"Merely ageless. Nothing is truly immortal, no matter what anyone might tell you. One of the ways the Abygons thought to break the stalemate with was to create disposable shock-troops, and fuel for their own mages."

"What? That's bullshit, that's some space fantasy bullshit!"

"It's been a long time since I've been human, but tell me, does that really surprise you? After everything you've witnessed, even among our own kind, do you believe that cruelty between species does not exist?"

"I'm not some pawn in your war, I'm a human soldier who swore allegiance to the Martian people and I need to get back home. What's your price?"

"My price?"

"For you to send us home. If you don't want us helping these people, fine! But I have a responsibility to my people. I have to get them home, and either you help us, or the mages help us."

"My price is that you listen, and you understand. After that, we can talk about send you home. Is that acceptable?"

"Hold on a minute, damn it." Chen exclaimed. "Edward, you can't seriously be considering this? There are innocent people here who need us."

"There are innocent people back home that need us! We can't start a fucking colony here, and it was misguided of us to even try. I made the mistake of assuming we could do this quickly and easily because we were more advanced. The truth is, this isn't our fight."

"But what about Leyndal, and everyone else? This bastard would've destroyed a city!"

"Humanity does not command magic, it was forced on us. That is why Earth knows nothing of it, and this world has used it to make war." The strange man turned to me, his gaze steady and knowing. "Tell me this… would you let your enemies develop new horrors to use against you? Or would you cut them down at the root before they could be made real?"

I was beginning to get it. There was some big-bad out there that he was worried about and he didn't like us aiding what effectively amounted to their military scientists tinkering to create a new weapon by using humanity as breeding stock. Unfortunately for him, I'd no interest in some great big galactic war. I just wanted out.

"I don't give a shit. Was it you who did this?" I nodded my head towards Larsen. "Change her back."

"I can't. I'm sorry." He seemed genuinely apologetic, which surprised me. Everything he was saying sounded like some distant fantasy delivered by a grandiose warmonger, but in this, I believed him; he did seem sorry.

"Why not? Why not change her back? You must be able to."

"The reforging is… one-way." He explained slowly. "It was intended to select appropriate members of the populace to become new Guardians and there could be no half-measures in that. If it puts your mind at ease, I have commanded this place to wither. This will not happen again."

I growled. "I don't give a shit about that! It has happened. Change her back!"

"I came to meet you as one… former human, to another, to explain. I cannot help you, but I must ask you to stop impeding me. Do not aid the mages and do not attempt to use their blade on me. It cost me time that none of us have."

"You mean that sword is real?"

"If it wasn't, I would not be here. I'd be far away, fighting them."

"Can you change her back, or not?"

"Not as she is. It's up to her if she completes the process."

"Up to her? She's like some wild fucking animal. I doubt she even knows what we're saying."

"A side effect of the process. It's up to her. Either she accepts what she's becoming, or she dies."

"Oh, and I suppose that includes whatever role you have for her in your fantasy-war?"

He shot me a dirty look. "I value individual choice, despite what you may think. I will not force her to serve in this war, but I can do nothing for her unless she accepts the change."

"FUCK!" I barely managed to hang on to my railgun. The urge to throw it at this… monster, and attack was strong.

My grip tightened, my arms moved of their on accord, swaying to the fury inside me before remembering their restraint. I wanted so badly to punch this stupid fucker in the face, but I couldn't. Putting aside all the shit he'd just told me, he probably didn't have infinite patience, or restraint.

"Edward, come here." The sharp words didn't come from the too-perfect holier-than-thou man, but from Chen. He kneeled over Larsen's slack form and soon I did likewise.

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Chen asked.

"Call me… Saul. Do you trust me?" Saul asked.

"Fuck no. Why would I ever trust you?" The words were out of my mouth before I could think better about antagonising the man with Larsen's life in his hands. I'd said a lot of stupid, impulsive shit over the years, and done just as much, but I mentally kicked myself for my tone. I never seemed to change.

"I will take one of you, and let you connect with her. I warn you, you may not like what you see. You friend has spirit… but she's only human."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He gave no answer.

"Chen."

Chen nodded, unspoken words passing between us. I lay my railgun down next to me, stood up and turned to face Saul.

"What do I do?"

"Take my hand." He smiled, the way a snake might before devouring a mouse and sinking its fangs in deep. I hated that look, it made me want a shower and a hand cannon to shove in his face.

"Let's get this over with." I put my gauntlet into his hand.

"You will face her trials with her, but you will also bring your own nightmares for her to face."

"And… what? I help her?"

"You can't, not directly. She will know you are there, you will be seen and heard, but at no point will you be able to fight her battles for her."

I begrudgingly nodded. "She better be okay after this."

"That will depend entirely on both of you." He inhaled deep. Sharp enough that I could hear it only an arm's length away. "This will not be gentle." Saul warned me.

He was right. He plunged me into the cold nightmare head-first and against all my fury and stoicism, I began to drown.