Episode CLXXIII - The End Within the Endgame

For just a moment, as Ellis watched his former girlfriend rush into the tide of Lakhmaspawn like an oncoming storming, moving and spinning with a force and speed which, though enhanced by the ingenuity of some Hypostatick Philosophy, still spoke of the fierce determination and strong will of the girl within, he found himself remembering the reasons he had loved her, had admired her, had felt the sting of her accusations so harshly the night they broke up.  It was a moment of revelation, of an awareness of the other which comes only ever so rarely, and rarely so intimately.  And with it there was the self-revelation, the understanding of one's own heart, soul, mind and strength.

I can't just watch, he realised.  I have to act.

The blade was in his hand before he knew what he was doing and, for the second time that night, he found himself charging into battle for the sake of an old friend.  This time, however, he was not alone.  Siren was one step ahead of him, charging her weapons with black sand even as she ran.  Gulliver, one step behind, had the furious look of one seeking some kind of vengeance, or maybe absolution.

Siren chose that name well, he thought, before the blade in his hand moved, almost as if it possessed a will all its own, to slice the vicious head off the first Lakhmaspawn he encountered.

The fray was bloody and violent and cruel, yet just.  They were all sure of the rightness of what they did even through its brutality, and the others of their party where alongside them in mere moments, no less energised for their brief hesitations.

Lord Blood Dragon lived up to his name and his heritage for the first time that Ellis had seen, sinking his teeth into the vile flesh of the creatures he faced, to spit their thick, green, bubbling blood on them as they fell.

Rockspark too demonstrated renewed strength, fighting as only a Stoneskin could, and lashing out with his cruelly barbed tail as he spun and lunged and clawed his way forward.

Miss Barkcastle, neither as young, nor as strong as any of the others in the party, held back, but took shots with some kind of hypostatick gun, not dissimilar to the one Ellis had nearly been fried by when the Former Baron was testing it all those many months ago.  Her teeth were gritted and her hands surprisingly steady as she lined up each shot carefully.

Only Annabella took no part in the battle.  She stood a little back from Miss. Barkcastle, watching with eyes wide, her lips moving in some silent mantra.  And yet, perhaps she was not so passive as she seemed, for not long into the battle the air began to warp in strange ways above the writhing clumps of Lakhmaspawn and strange appendages appeared out of nowhere to snatch and claw, bite and nab.  Ellis had never seen anything like it, and he worried for the little girl who could bring such things into being, but there was no time for such worrying now.

Lakhmaspawn were falling faster than they ever had before, and though none of the party were attacking with quite the level of butchery that Frostfire had been capable, it was still a bloodbath.  As he whirled around with his sword slicing through tentacles and impaling toothy maws, Ellis kept catching glimpses of the Noble Society members on the other side of the vicious throng.  Tiberius in particular had a diverse range of expressions throughout the ordeal, from a sort of bitter triumph, through gradually darkening moods, until, as the numbers of Lakhmaspawn actually began to dwindle, a look of utter despair.

Before the flood could truly turn into a trickle, however, they turned tail and fled - first M. Marveille, then, on sprung legs and an extra little wheeled limb, Adelbert and then finally, his face almost blank and dead, Tiberius.

The last Lakhmaspawn fell, and Ellis and his friends were suddenly very alone.  Frostfire had fallen unconscious nearby and there was nothing to be seen of Ember at the core, only the stronger glow where he had vanished.

"Is it done?" Ellis asked.  "Did we win?"

"We certainly routed the enemy," Siren said, sounding a little surprised, "but they might yet find some other way to retaliate."

"Yes," panted Sarah, the glow fading form her skin as she leaned against the wall of the corridor, "I couldn't quite get to them before they fled."

"Well, there'th no time to wowwy about them now," said Lord Blood Dragon with some urgency as he wiped the green ichor away from his mouth, "we can't have more than a few minuteth left before all the obelithkth power down and we have to thart all over again!"

"That would be just our bleedin' luck," Gulliver moaned from his place crouched against a wall.  "Well, Ember?" he called, "Have you finished yet?"

There was a sound all around them like an intake of breath and then Ember spoke in a  voice which was both recognisably his - soft, androgynous and yet authoritative - but also transformed, multiplied, edged with the sounds of metal and stone, like it was the obelisk itself that was speaking.

He said, "I have completed the merge.  It will just take a moment to move the obelisk to its original location and connect it with the machine as a whole."  Another rushing inhalation, then: "Stand by."

Franck felt like he was getting somewhere, although he had no idea where that place would be.  There had been a change in the architecture around him, a simplification, perhaps, and a sense of direction which there had not been in the mazelike lower levels.  Here, after climbing staircase after staircase, circling through impossible chambers, even once passing himself in the other direction, he was sure he was higher in the obelisk than he had been before.

And then he saw the light - daylight, a rectangle of blue-white purity contrasting with the dark stone and the glowing green veins he had been surrounded by for hours now.  He found himself yearning for it, desperate to reach it.  He staggered forward, broke into a run, then stumbled.  The ground seemed uneven, one moment it was slopign upwards, the next down.  HE paused, looked at where he was putting his feet - it was as smooth and flat as ever it had been, but the motion continued and he realised it was the obelisk that was shaking.  He stumbled back against a wall, felt the vibrations flooding through the stone, his fingers clawing the glowing grooves and -

[Flash]

- He stood in a garden, staring at the most beautiful tree he had ever seen.  It was taller than most, and more perfectly formed than any natural tree he had seen, with astounding symmetry from its trunk to its branches.  The leaves were a brilliant, translucent emerald and the blossom which covered the canopy, and rained down around him to carpet the ground, was the softest rose-white.  He felt peaceful as he watched birds and butterflies, bees and ephemera, flitting in and out of the branches.

There seemed to be nothing beyond the ivy-covered walls of the garden but blossom and mist, but with a tree as beautiful as this one, that hardly mattered.  Franck was happy just to stare at it, to rest in its supernatural perfection, to -

[Flash]

Those few sheltering within region of the obelisk's defences, in Templeshade, felt the rumbling like an earthquake.  Many took refuge where they were, in doorways and underneath tables, but the more curious rushed to their windows, opened up he shutters and, if they were facing the right direction, stared in horrified fascination as the pyramid whih had been a fixture of their lives and the lives of their parents and their parents parents and back beyond memory, first blurred, then flickered, then flashed out of existence, leaving a massive pit, deeper than any mine or quarry, stretching down to the foundations of the earth, or, at least, much of the thickness of Shadow's relatively shallow crust.

Meanwhile, in some unmarked stretch of ocean, the water began to bubble, as if it were boiling underneath, then, just as suddenly, it swelled like a small mountain, rippling out across sea in great concentric waves, to hit some distant shore with devastation in the hours to come.  The epicentre, in contrast, fell silent and still almost immediately, as if it were waiting for something yet to happen.

[Flash]

Franck was more shocked to find himself back in the corridor he had left than he had been to be transported to the mystical garden.  It was different now, darker somehow.  At first he thought it was the contrast, but then he realised that the light he had seen ahead of him had vanished, replaced instead by a darkness much deeper than that of the corridor he stood within. The air was changing too, colder and more humid, with the tang of salt creeping in: the smell of the seaside.

Confused he made his way forward, finding his feet splashing in puddles he was sure hadn't been there before, until, at last, he reached a dark doorway, rough stone sealing the path.

He put his hands against the rock, pushed very gently, just to test it, and was surprised when the stone began to move.  He was even more surprised, however, when water began gushing through the crack he had just created.

"It is done," Ember said from all around them, "the obelisk is now back in it's original location.  The machine is whole once more."

"That's great!" Ellis all but shouted in his excitement.  "We can finally get rid of that tentacled monster!"

"It almost seems too easy," Siren said, "even after all we've been through, but I'm happy to to take a break for a change.  Fire away, Ember!"

There was a long silent pause.

"Ember?" Gullliver asked, "are you still there?"

"Yes, but..."  Ellis wasn't used to hearing the Fallen's voice sound so uncertain.

"But what?"

"I do not seem to be able to activate the weapon from here."

"But you'we in the core!" Lord Blood Dragon cried out, clearly exasperated.  "What more do you need!?"

"I... I cannot access any of the activation systems and... I cannot escape.  I am bound here, permanently."

"Then what do we do?" Siren demanded, "What needs to happen to get this thing working?"

"I think... I think someone needs to activate it from the control panel"

"And just where would that be?"

"............Outside."

"Well thith ith jutht perfect!" the vampire cried out, having apparently had enough.  We can't have much more than a few minuteth left until thethe obelithks deactivate themthelveth, and thomehow we have to uthe that time to find our way out, find thith contwol woom and activate the obelithk manually!  That'th jutht widiculouth!  It can't be done!"

"I thought that was usually my line," muttered Gulliver from his place by the floor.

"It's okay," Siren said, trying to calm the situation, "I'm sure it's not that bad." She turned towards the core and, even though he appeared to be everywhere, addressed Ember.  "Just how long do we have left?"

"Exactly forty-three seconds," the Fallen replied.

"Thee!  Impothible!"

"No," Siren said, starting to pace, "there has to be a way, there has to be!"

"Thirty-five seconds."

"It's no use, Siren, dear," Miss Barkcastle said, putting a hand on the captain's shoulders to still her, "but maybe it doesn't matter.  We activated them all once before, we can do it again.  And we've halted the Noble Society, so perhaps it will be easier this time?"

"Twenty-five."

"But Lakhma's onto us now, and we've used most of our resources to get this far..." Ellis could see the despair starting to set in, the shimmer of tears in her eyes.  "Harker died, for gods' sakes!  It can't end like this..."

"Fifteen."

"I don't... I don't know what to do..."

Ellis knew there was only one thing to do.  He stepped over to her side, put his arm around her and held her as tight as he dared, whilst Ember counted down the last few seconds.

"Five, four, three, two-"

Franck swam forwards and up, kicking as hard as he could against the current, trying to find the air he was sure must exist somewhere above him.  All was darkness and deeps, but he still felt like he was being guided somehow, even more certain, in fact, since his vision of the tree in the garden.  It was as if the tree itself had been calling to him, influencing him, and he was sure such perfect beauty could not have been leading him astray.  Thus, there had to be air above him.  There just had to be.

His lungs were burning with the need for air, his head was pounding and his vision was starting to blur. It took all his energy to keep kicking, flailing his arms the only way he knew how and hoping that would help propel him forwards.  The urge to gasp was getting desperate, he wasn't sure he could restrain it any longer and then-

His head broke the surface of the water and air - damp, salty air - flooded his lungs.

It was still dark around him, so he fumbled through the pockets of his sodden jacket, mostly submerged, and found his hypostatick lantern.  He wasn't entirely sure whether it would work when damp, but it didn't need to be lit in the conventional sense, so there was hope.  He fingered the mechanism, felt the catch and then there was light - glorious light! - and, to his surprise, he knew exactly where he was and what he needed to do.

Without wasting a moment he swam to the edge of the pool and starting feeling around the cold stone walls until something clicked and the lines started to glow, spreading out across the chamber even as the control panel began to form.  He walked over towards it, saw the familiar pattern of hieroglyphs on top of the blocks and smiled.

"Oh my, yes," he said, "this was worth coming back for."  He put his hands to the stone and started to push.

"One, zero.  Obelisks de-activ-...  No, that's not what's happening... Someone has activated it manually.”

There was a second rumbling from all around and the masonry shook with some tremendous movement. Outside, the great sea mountain, within which both the obelisk and the network of buildings which housed the control room, was rising up out of the sea floor, to break the surface of the ocean as a new island and even then it was not done.  The obelisk itself emerged, cracking up through the widening pit in the control room to tower fifty, one hundred, five hundred, even a thousand a feet above sea level.

Similar scenes were witnessed at the other five points on Shadow, as  the obelisks there rose out of their hiding places to loom ominously above the city.  Those nearby could only flee, uncertain as to what such structures meant, what they might be capable of and who had caused them to rise.

“The obelisks have risen,” Ember said from within the core as the rumbling came to an end, and in the shade of the other five, all fell silent.

Almost as soon as the rumbling had stopped the glowing lines within the stonework began flickering and pulsing as the walls themselves began to hum.

“What’s ‘appenin’?” Gulliver asked, finally rising to his feet with a look of panic on his face.  “I swear the floor just gave me a shock!”

“It's powering up,” Ember replied, “the obelisks will be firing in less than thirty seconds."

Siren looked up, pulling her damp cheeks away from Ellis' chest to stare in startled wonder at the vibrantly glowing core.

"Who could have activated them...?" she asked.

Ellis thought of the one member of their party who had been missing all that time.

"Who else?" he replied with a smile.

"I need to transport you all out of here," Ember said with urgent authority.  "Very soon this whole obelisk will be superheated by the flow of hypostatick energy.  Anyone who remains will be vapourised!"

“But what about-?” Ellis began, staring at the glowing core one moment, then massive obelisk and the endless ocean beyond in the next.  “You?” he finished in a half whisper.

“Is everyone here?” Siren asked, pulling away from him and turning to survey the whole group.  They all stood staring at the obelisk, which even then was starting to glow with tremendous amounts of hypostatick energy and even Frostfire was there, huddled on the ground nearby, barely moving.

“Everyone except Ember,” Gulliver said morosely.

“And the Former Baron,” added Miss. Barkcastle.

Before them the obelisk shone like a giant green beacon, as above the clouds roiled and shifted.  Tentacles descended and the impossible, dark form of one of Lakhma’s many beaked maws pierced the vapour, lunging down towards the apex of the weapon, seeking to devour.  There was an intake of breath and for a moment it seemed that all was light and shadow, noise and silence – a tableau of motion and stillness - until the obelisk fired.

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