Misbegotten Memories

Chapter 301

Esther felt the Dragon’s attention shift to their position.  It was like being submerged in filth.  The miasma around them fluoresced into cosmic energy and light, drawing its ire.  She wanted to scream at Hector to stop what he was doing, but fear stilled her voice.  She’d been frozen into immobility and could only wait in terror for her end to arrive.

Darkness gathered as the Dragon, a hundred kilometers distant and still large enough to eclipse a quarter of the sky, slithered through sky like it was solid surface.  A filthy slime of miasma sloughed free to create demonic clouds leaking toxic rain.  Around them, the glowing globe of cosmic energy contracted as if cowering before the ultimate predator.

“We’re done,” Restoration whispered.  In the funereal air, it seemed loud as a scream.

Everyone shrank down closer to the rough alloy of the habitat surface.  Esther found herself on hands and knees like a supplicant before a king.  A beggar who could only ask the executioner for a painless passage into death.  Isabel took Esther’s hand and held it tight.

The Sage of Piercing wept with high pitched panting.

Esther saw bare toes pass her face.  Looked up to witness the erect posture and broad back of one of their number who would not succumb to the paralyzing fear.

“Please no,” hissed Piercing.

A deep sigh.  “I’ll draw it away.  You guys… try to stay alive as long as you can.”

Then Hector exploded into the air with an eruption of cosmic energy.  His domain expanded, making the sphere of transforming miasma double in diameter.  The man shot away at full speed, a ball of light rapidly receding into the distance.

The maddening attention passed away from them.  The beast itself slithered after their departed friend.  Esther shuddered and looked up, still too shaken to even think of standing.  And then she regretted her decision to raise her gaze.  She saw Hector’s ultimate fate as the Dragon’s maw closed over the tiny glowing morsel.

What struck her even harder than the loss of her friend was the immense relief she felt as the Dragon continued to move in the direction the distraction had taken it.  She was momentarily safe, and happy to be safe, and ever so guilty about that happiness.

A deep well of nihilism threatened to drown her.  Temporary safety didn’t matter.  They’d lost before they ever began this fight.  Humanity couldn’t fight such a beast.  She questioned whether they even belonged in a multiverse where such terrors lurked.

“Sirs!  Sirs!  You’re being evacuated to Cruiser Erin!  Please come this way!”

Jinn commandos dragged Esther to her feet.  She swayed, but allowed them to prod her in the direction of a shuttle.  Amid the crush of bodies being pressed into the cramped vessel, Esther didn’t even think to look for the others of her squad.  When she did, they were already in flight.  And, like a miracle, everyone was there.

Almost everyone.

One of their number was missing.  Esther felt her breath catch.  Why had he never listened to her advice?  Hector always had to throw himself onto the front lines.  And somehow she’d been fooled into following him.  What a mess.

Restoration’s voice trembled as she asked a question of the Jinn.  “Why didn’t you let the others onto the shuttle?”

“We were full already, sir.”

“You were selecting who could board,” Restoration insisted.

“I cannot comment any further, sir.”

Esther squinted at the group.  It wasn’t just that all of their squad was there – almost all.  There also weren’t any passengers not of their squad.  They’d been selectively evacuated.  She didn’t question their good fortune.  If someone among their number had connections, then so much the better.  Maybe they would be able to escape Terra before the world died.

Beside Esther, Isabel began to weep as the shuttle entered the hold of a larger vessel, a sudden release of emotion that she understood.  If she wasn’t so numb she might join the woman for a good cry.  Jinn commandos removed everyone from the shuttle with cold politeness and single-minded efficiency.

“Wait,” Ajax rumbled.  “Where are we supposed to go?”

“Someone should be along shortly, sir.  We have another passenger to recover.”

“Who?”

“That information is classified, sir.”  The Jinn commandos were back inside their shuttle moments later, the doors sliding shut.

From further up the bay, a Jinn woman jogged into view.  “Sorry, sirs, everyone is extremely busy at the moment.  Come with me and I’ll show you to the observation lounge.”

Their guide shepherded them down the main corridor of the vessel, up a level, and into a room already occupied.  “Please wait here, sirs.  Everything will be explained to you once we depart Terra.”

Ajax stepped between the woman and the door to prevent her exit.  “What is going on?”

The Jinn woman shrugged.  “Maybe we’re all dying.  Maybe not.  We’ll know soon.”

While Ajax was still processing that non-answer, the Jinn woman slipped past him.

That hardly mattered to Esther, though, because she’d spotted familiar faces.  “Darius?  Riley?  What are you two doing here?”

The eunuch studied the new arrivals with suspicious eyes.  “I have no idea.  My presence is not voluntary.”

“The Jinn recruited us to go to the North City dungeon,” Riley said.

“They lied,” Darius spat.

A Jinn commando beside the two Xian spoke.  “Who are these people?”

“Esther used to be my boss when I worked at Tian Tower,” Riley said.  “And that other woman is Isabel.  She lives in our building too.”

The conversation drew the attention of an Arahant woman who had just entered the observation lounge.  “Conrad?  Is that you?”

The Jinn commando tilted his head.  “You were Hector’s friend.  Zelda, was it?”

“Yes.  Do you know what’s going on here?”

The man gestured towards the increasingly dark scene outside.  “The end of a world, I believe.”

“I think you’re right on that count, but my question was about our presence here.”

Conrad shook his head.  “Myself and my two associates were recruited to join a dungeon run, then brought off world instead.  We have been given no answers other than the assurance that our presence here is necessary.”

Zelda sighed.  “This is what I get for letting myself get tangled up with Sages again.”

“Sages?”  Conrad glanced around the people gathered in the lounge.

“Conflagration and Persuasion are on board.  They sent me to wait here.”  Zelda shook her head.  “I should have stayed on Maya.  By any chance, do you know how Hector is doing?”

Esther flinched at the name.

Riley, meanwhile, blinked at the Arahant woman.  “You know Hector?”

“Quite well,” Zelda said.

Ajax rumbled.  “It seems everyone here knows Hector.”

Riley studied those gathered before turning her attention to Esther.  “Where is he?”

Esther couldn’t bring herself to answer.  The first day the two of them met, Riley had broken down at just the thought of losing Hector.  Today that fear became reality.  Giving the small woman the bad news could wait.  Maybe they’d be dead before she had to break a friend’s heart.

Tears in her eyes, Esther looked towards the window and the beast.  Everyone else followed her gaze.  Outside, an unnatural midnight had descended.  One that would never depart.  Hints of movement could be detected from within as the massive serpent coiled upon itself.

“Esther?  Where is Hector?”

“I’m so sorry, Riley.  He’s….”

The entire sky flashed blinding white.