Chapter 78

When the Land Burns

“Amidst the Wights and the Ghosts, you will find me. Weeping. Kneeling. Ashened…”

Fragments

The deep night fell over the plains behind the Brightfort as the tens of thousands of souls turned to sleep. On occasion, one could hear hushed chatter and strange sounds, though, for the most part, the exhaustion of the journey had sidelined everyone to their beds.

Noah, however, had other ideas. He had long since left the tents-filled area and reached the bank of the Sumnner’s River, pondering – how to cross to the other side? Taking a ship would be too obvious and might cause way more trouble than it’s worth it. He considered dousing his feet in the Dark and praying they would temporarily give him Jesus-like powers of walking on the water, but chances were that he’d just end up wet and cold.

He considered another option – ‘summoning’ Sumnner and having it drag him over to the other side. There were still a few… issues, however, with that. He stroked his chin, sitting down and lodging his legs over the edge, dangling as the cold waters of the violent-at-night river battered against him. Ah… his thought barely processed before he felt himself ripped out of his body and thrust through the membranes he didn’t even know existed.

Just like before, he found himself inside a smoked, dark room full of skulls and bones, but lacking the previous pressure. The Dark inside of him reacted instinctively and coated him, ensuring he felt as well as ever before. The pair of gigantic eyes peered from the blackened curtain once again, staring at him curiously, in silence. Noah didn’t break it, deferring to the creature. However confident he had grown since acquiring the magic of his own, he was yet to turn into a fool. What basic tricks of light could do against what looked like a creature straight out of the Lovecraftian horror?

“… who blessed you?” the creature asked.

“Blessed me?”

“Inside,” it said. “It is keeping me out. The Light. Strong, strong Light. Strange Light.” Noah frowned inwardly; this was something he had already noticed, but now all but confirmed: it appeared that nobody could tell he was using the Dark, and not the Light. Or, rather, to the outsiders, it must feel as though he is using the Light, somehow, someway. Perhaps, he mused, it is a natural defensive mechanism – but he wouldn’t question it. Nor reveal it.

“The King.” Noah said.

“The King? That boy… hasn’t blessed anyone before…”

“He has, now.”

“Are you lying?”

“No,” Noah shook his head. “I’ve no reason to.”

“It is strong, firm, rooted in your character, reflexive,” Sumnner continued as Noah paid heed to the words. “It is you… but ethereal. Strange, strange. You are more akin to me than the Heralds of Light.”

“… that doesn’t sound too bad.” Noah said, carefully choosing his words.

“It is!” the creature relented, as he expected. “It is terrible! Woeful! Agonizing! Do you wish to end up like me?”

“I won’t,” Noah replied simply, smiling.

“… hm, you won’t,” the creature said. “You are a skylark unbound. Enviable. Enviable indeed.”

“… what is it that you’d done, Sumnner, that had caused you to become like this?” Noah probed deliberately. “I can hardly think an action evil enough to wrap the man up so much.”

“… then you hadn’t stared at the true evil… and embraced it, just yet.”

“… I believe I have,” Noah said. “I’ve stared into the eyes of dying children weeping and crying for help… and turned my back, walking away. If that isn’t primal evil, what is?”

“… I speak not of material evil, little human,” Sumnner said. “Even if you had burned those children and laughed at their mangled and scorched corpses, you’d have not still become the evil. Just… a monster.”

"… who… or what did you betray?" Noah threw out the question, thinking back on the concepts of evil from Earth and venturing a guess. In most cases, exclusion of 'material evil' left only the internal one – self-loathing, betrayal of the highest values or the betrayal of someone specifically. And, as it appeared, his guess seemed to hit straight on.

“… everyone,” the creature replied. “Everything. You are strange, little human. Strange. No one… no one has understood my evil. No one… except for you.”

“… you ought to give redemption a shot.”

“It’s too late.”

"It's never too late," Noah shook his head. "What is better? Hiding in the dark corners, becoming a self-loathing whisper, singing self-woes day in and out… or trying to make a difference? To help those you wronged, to remedy that which you faulted."

“… it is too late for me, little human,” the creature said as Noah felt himself pulled against his will. “Stand by the river once you wish to return. Don’t get too close to them; they will see you, and I won’t save you.”

By the time he opened his eyes and wanted to say something, Noah realized he was sitting on wet grass underneath the streaking starlit sky. Looking back, he saw the distant behemoth of a fort looming across the river. Sighing in regret, he got up and dusted his behind off. He was close, so close to pulling the creature in. Alas, not everyone will be like Myrell or Sash or Syl. A good pep-talk, in the end, rarely does it – and even less so when the creature that looks to be timeless is taken into consideration. Noah neither knew the depth nor the extent of Sumnner’s regrets, which limited his approach considerably. There’s a chance, he thought as he faced toward the south. That’s all that matters.

The land beyond the river toward the south was composed entirely of plains and faintly bulging hills – as far as the eye could see. To his right, in the distance, hidden in the shadows, was a stretch of mountains that ran all the way from Elucido’s outskirts almost to the shore itself, just outside the Hollow Bay. To his left, plains seemed to stretch endlessly, disappearing into the horizon. If the chase was to unfold, there would be very few places he could hide and wait it out, so it was best he heeded the creature’s advice – to keep his distance.

Even if those with Light were generally unable to see through him, that didn’t mean nobody could. He suspected that the King, for instance, would still have no issues seeing through his disguise, and there could be numerous others with similar strengths.

Emptying his thoughts, he streaked toward the further south, a shadow blending into the tall grass of the plains, speeding away like a blur. It felt strangely freeing, being in the open field like this, running like a panther, uninhibited. As he’d never experimented with this before, he noticed another thing – he was fast. Fast. His surroundings blurred into a blend of colors, everything vanishing from his sight. He couldn’t even begin to estimate his speed, but he knew that it was in tens of miles, possibly even in the triple digits.

Just how much has my body changed, goddamn?! He exclaimed inwardly, maintaining, and even increasing, his speed. He'd noticed it, slowly, the changes – he was nimble, fast, and seemed to rarely tire. Even now, having run in a full sprint for five straight minutes… he felt fine. As though he'd been lying around all that time. If anything, he felt even more energized, as though every cell in his body was being rejuvenated and sparked back into life.

He felt younger. Not his forty-five years old self, not the man who would find himself short of breath after ten minutes of proactive sparring, but his twenty-year-old-self who could go on a marathon and still have enough energy left over for a workout.

His lips curled up into a subconscious smile as he found himself reveling in joy. He may have not escaped the claws of the aging, but he had slowed them down. Even if the Dark had little impact on his mind, he could live with it; his body, in the end, was his biggest concern. The mind could slowly be nurtured and maintained, but, past a certain point, the body just breaks – especially with someone like him, who'd put his muscles and bones through the hell and back throughout his life.

Unsure as to how much time had passed, he suddenly slowed down as he approached a rather streaky area of hills; it was not the hills, however, that had him pausing, but the flickering, blistering light beyond them. It was almost like there was a city beyond, shining in a magnificent splendor, decorated with neon lights.

He coated himself completely in the Dark and approached, crawling up a hill and peaking beyond its top onto the other end. His mind froze, right then and there. Broke, even, as the conception of reality he held dear and close to his heart… shattered. Like the shards of glass cast against the stone, it was ripped apart into decaying cadence, never to be whole again.

It was a sea – an ocean… of fire. Everywhere he looked, the fire burned. So bright, so strong, so immolate. It wasn’t that the world was on fire, it was just that everything was the fire. He finally understood what the Kindled were – humanoid giants blazing. There were hundreds of thousands of them, and it was difficult to distinguish them individually, but he approximated, as he always does – they appeared to be hitting ten feet in height on average, their heads smoking blaze unfolding upward. They looked to have humanoid features, such as eyes, contours of the face, and even muscles beneath the blaze. They really were just like humans… on fire.

His heart finally cooled as he ducked back, hiding, taking several deep breaths in succession to drive the instinctual fear away. Holy fuckin’ fuck!! His thoughts rumbled as he broke into a full sprint, running back toward the river’s bank. We’re supposed to fight that shit?!!

There was no way, he knew. Forget thousands, everyone would die. They wouldn’t even be able to fell one of them before they burned through the entire army. The histories downplayed the living shit out of the invasions, he realized. Why?! Why lie about something like this, you fuckin’ idiots?!! Chances were that only the last parts were true – about the ‘heroes’ showing up. His theory, and even the allure he sold to the masses that the commonmen and commonwomen played a key role in delaying the Kindled’s advance… was a lie. An outright lie. An impossible reality. Delaying them? The army would be lucky not to make things worse. This is bad; he, however, couldn't give up. There had to be something he could do instead of just sitting back and watching his plan literally go up in flames. And that something… he would find. He had to find.