Chapter 16: Knight Fall

Lazulite, Day four, tranquil and serene, Darkness' beauty, it does convene.

Sapphire, Day five, a gem so rare, In shadows gleams, beyond compare.

Blue Diamond, Day six, radiant and bright, Nighttime's treasure, shining in the night.

With these gems adorned, their splendor shown, In darkness' embrace, their brilliance known.

-excerpt from Shadows' Gems: A Nursery Rhyme of Night's Delight

Almost uncomprehendingly, Zed reached out and pulled his severed arm close. Was this even real?

Of course it's real, he asserted, turning his head and spitting out a gob of blood and snot. How else would I be in so much pain? It's not a game or hallucination. This is as real as it gets.

He struggled to sit and instead slumped against the granite wall behind him. With some difficulty he raised his arm to his side and, with a herculean effort, cast Shadow Silk to tightly bind the arm to his body. Maybe it could be saved? It couldn't be saved if he truly lost it, so he might as well try.

He wondered if he could try cauterizing his stump with a localized Fireball but shot that almost-intrusive thought down immediately. First and foremost, the knight golem was preoccupied with its shadowy counterparts. A flare of light would certainly garner its attention. If that happened, Zed may as well consider himself a fleshy paste on the flagstones.

Perhaps equally concerning, he had never conjured a miniature or localized Fireball before. Fire, especially applied to one's own skin, should be handled quickly and with expert care. And Zed was no doctor. He had a hazy notion that if he was subjected to any more acute pain, he'd likely lose consciousness.

Game over.

His repeated incantations of Shadow Silk were interrupted by an unholy shattering of stone not more than a hundred yards from where he sat. He belatedly caught sight of a second shadow golem sunken into the wall and subsequently dissipating into nothingness moments after the impact. Deep cracks ran up the granite walls, and aftershocks reduced most of the ornate carved staircases into rubble. Three columns on that side of the room were felled in a domino effect, toppling over one into another until the final column too hit the wall.

The next few moments happened nearly too fast for Zed to process.

One of the Goddess Scion statues at the topmost level of the room began to break apart from the trauma. Emi called out. Whether in shock or surprise, Zed wasn't sure; her words were lost in the cacophony. Almost reflexively, Zed ordered the nearest of the two remaining shadow golems to retreat, to save Emi from being crushed to death. The knight golem seized its opportunity, leaping after the puppet.

The knight surged brighter with electric blue energy, leaving a blackened trail burned into the floor from its charge. It almost seemed to imbue the weapon itself with the same plasma-like mana before hurling the massive double edged blade through the air.

Emi's would-be savior halted in its tracks, exploding into shadowy shrapnel that disappeared into so much smoke as the knight's blade pierced its left shoulder.

The broken statue came down in an avalanche of deadly rubble, burying most of the topmost balcony. Zed's heart leapt into his mouth, having lost sight of Emi completely. Fortunately, the moment was short-lived when he saw a quick flash of her fingertips over the railing and a peculiar burning from the brand on the back of his right hand.

It was a small sign, but it was enough. Through their otherworldly connection that not even he fully understood, Zed felt certain she was safe.

The knight golem reached out with a haughty arm to retrieve its blade from the point where the blade split the wall, then jerked abruptly upward as it too received a devastating wound. In a daring move, Zed's lone ever-faithful shadow golem speared the knight through the abdomen before disintegrating into so much black smoke and shadow. Time had run out.

“That's--” he coughed, blood and spittle flying from his cracked lips, “--what you get!”

His voice was barely more than a rasp, but the wounded golem snapped its stone helm to face him. Blue mana-fueled orbs blazed with hatred and Zed didn't so much see as feel the golem smile as the shadow weapon that had pierced its stomach dematerialized. But the damage was done.

The stone golem began to crumble and break apart from the wound, but still it advanced. A faint rhythmic and organic-sounding thump reached Zed's ears. He blinked several times and forced himself to focus; his adversary might have a weakness after all.

Not hopeless... have to try...

Zed struggled to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall for support. He shivered; his body was both oddly numb and wracked with pain at the same time. What the hell was he going to do? The biggest difference between the stone golem and himself, he realized, was neither power nor stature. No. The towering stone monstrosity was entirely unfeeling. Zed was missing an arm and struggling to form a coherent thought; the golem on the other hand was missing a significant portion of its torso... but still it advanced.

Again it leveled the massive stone blade in his direction. There was no way he could take it out, especially in his current condition. But--

He furrowed his brow, squinting beyond the golem at something strange, something not quite right.

What is...?

There was something... wrong with the air behind the first of the remaining line of columns. He didn't know how else to put it. The air shimmered. It seethed with an aura of wrongness. Zed recalled the sweltering summer days of his youth. The burn of the swing on the backs of his thighs. The wavy, oppressive haze of the parking lot beyond the playground. Shimmering and sizzling. Just like that.

I asked for a popsicle, he thought bewilderingly. Dad said no. He always said no.

He stared. It beckoned.

No longer focused on the wounded golem he took one jerky step forward, then another. One more. Then the strength left his body and his knees crashed to the floor. His head rocked back as a white-hot jolt of pain lanced through his brain.

COME. I WON'T DENY YOU.

Zed fell.

Down, down, and down. Through the floor. And beyond.

Strange, unknowable limbs reached out from within the lightless depths. Curiously, and strangely without fear, Zed turned toward the probing protrusions as they pulled him in.