“Give Celikor your strength! Give it up to him or die!” The OFT screamed at Zane, spitting, marking the young Aetherion’s face.
“I will die before I give in to the Hytoike!” Zane growled.
The OFT flexed his claws, “I’m sure you’ll come to change your mind in time.”
With that, the hideous creature reared back, ready to strike. Kalar lay on the floor a few feet away, watching silently. Zane was alone, alone in a darkened place.
A Chalbysor stomped his way into the hall, breaking up the exchange. Chalybsors were in the same order as Onyxians (classification: Kingdom Hytoike, Phylum Forge, Class Shard, Order Humaniform). Being so, the Chalybsors looked much like their cousins, even if they were noticeably weaker.
The Chalbsor was tall and had a long, curved head like a reptile; he was more agile than the Onyxian, with larger feet and axe-like, blade-like hands. He motioned to the OFT and bent to one knee. “Sire!” his voice was sharp and deep, resonating across the room. “A representative of the United Hytoike has arrived at the mountain; they wish to carry back to their masters news of the elemental Aetherion’s capture.”
The OFT hissed in annoyance, his features contorting. The long neck swerved away and up, allowing the torso to tower over the room. “They must not know of our plans to give his strength to Celikor. I will speak to them, you conduct these two Aetherion to a cell of purest iron!”
The OFT walked away, eight legs scuttling and scratching across the metal inlaid in the stone. The Chalybsor scratched his scalp with an axe blade. “That is the only kind of cell we have.”
Zane glanced up to see the OFT spinning to look at the Chalybsor. Chalybsor’s weren’t known for their wit. The OFT glared down, folding his arms and arching his neck to angle his torso downward. “Just do it!”
The Chalybsor grabbed them and yanked them along, muttering to itself discontentedly. He finally arrived at a new cell and hurled Kalar and Zane in. Kalar groaned as Zane smashed into him. Zane yelped as his hand came in contact with the metal while he pulled himself up. It burned like fire the moment his hand came in contact with it. Standing up, his boots guarded him from the worst effects, but the metal still affected his powers.
Zane slammed his fist into the wall, recoiling at its metal. “We have to get out of here.”
“Astute,” Michael called out from his seat. “Real astute.”
Zane spun on his heel, the remnants of the cloth strips on his vest spinning with him. “Michael! You guys are here?”
Amy (sitting on a stone bench next to Michael) gestured around. “Yes, you can see that.”
The stone benches were raised off the floor. Zane sat on one, body relaxing, released from the metal. “I was just surprised they let me be in the same cell as you.”
“You mean stuck you in here?” Gale muttered, stretching out on her stone bench. “Being in a metal cube is bad enough, being stuck in it with Kalar? Even worse.”
Kalar shoved her legs aside and sat down, forcing Gale to sit up straight on her bench, frowning reluctantly. “Like that.”
“Oh, quit it,” Kalar growled, drumming his fingers on his knees. “You and your earth breath.” Earth breath was an odd term. Zane didn’t understand it meant something like complaining. Kalar used odd terms like that far too much. ‘Metal bones’ once in a while made sense, but Kalar almost tried to stick insults into his talk. As if that was the only way to be cool, in his opinion.
Zane glanced at a small rectangle of light illuminating the cell. He hadn’t had that. “Is this where you were earlier?”
Kalar nodded slightly, eyes lightly closed. Silence out on the plains of the darkened place, silence deep in the holds and forges of its depths. Silence in the cell as Zane tried his best to think of something to say, and of an escape plan.
“Who here is resistant to metal?”
The questions surprised everyone. They all turned to Zane, a familiar sight, though there was less disgust on their faces than usual. Zane repeated his question. “Who here is resistant to metal?”
“Ummm, Zane, you earth skull, were Aetherion! We aren’t resistant to metal. It’s our weakness.” That was Kalar, of course.
Zane shook his head. “There are differing levels. I can barely touch metal for a few seconds, and it’s been worse since I was on Earth. It sometimes even leaves marks on my hands. And I noticed Lee, a friend of mine…”
“We all know Lee,” Michael said, leaning back. “We’ve been friends for a while.”
Zane shrugged; it was another reason he felt like an outsider. There were only a few hundred Aetherion, and only fifty or so kids of their age. Most people at least knew the names of everyone else. Zane was the outsider, a new kid who didn’t even understand the Aetherial City, let alone his fellow young Aetherion. It helped just a little bit that everyone respected his dad so much, but only a little. Zane ground his teeth together, trying to find the words to explain.
“Make sense,” Amy said, surprising Zane by her lack of contempt. “I’ve noticed some Aetherion don’t have such an adverse reaction like Lee or Kalar.”
“Metal still hurts Lee; it doesn’t seem to affect Kalar,” Gale noted. “Maybe it affects his bossy nature.”
Kalar huffed. “Metal hurts me.”
Zane motioned abstractly, standing up to pace before remembering the floor and hurriedly sitting down. “Either way, you can touch metal easiest. Why don’t you try to climb up and look through the window? You might be able to see the delegates from the other Hytoike.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Kalar asked, folding his arms.
“Oh, just do it, please?”
Kalar grunted and stood. He crossed the room, jumping to catch the window ledge in his fingertips. He heaved up and peered out before dropping and quickly returning to sit on the stone bench. “I saw them, it looks like a group of minions, one for each Hytoike, they’re gathering at the oracle edifice to talk with the Omne Ferrum Terrae and Celikor’s oracle.”
Zane nodded, thinking. “I need a plan.”
Kalar snorted. “Yes, we do, thank you, earth skull, for that revelation. Now I’ll be forged if I’m going to sit around here listening to you anymore.”
Zane looked up sufferingly at Kalar. “Just stop talking, please, you aren’t promoting peace or solving any problems. You are just being annoying, rude, and immature.” Everyone was stunned, including Zane. He seized on the moment, however, and stood despite the metal floor. “I think I can get us out of the cell, but that won’t help much unless we figure out a plan for after. I’m open to ideas.”
“How will you do that?” Gale asked skeptically.
Zane lowered his voice. “Here is my plan.”
• • • • •
The door swung open. The Chalybsor who came to get them was in a bad mood; the Omne Ferrum Terrae had fairly screeched at him, almost blowing him from the face of the earth. The prisoners were drawing attention to themselves, yelling and throwing out clouds of dust from their cell, trying to get the attention of the Hytoike representatives below.
“They must not know that the boy is here! Or that any Aetherion are here! Why did you put them in a cell so high up?” was how the Omne Ferrum Terrae had begun, and by the end, he was cursing the artifex who’d forged his soul to the metal skeleton he wore: a big insult.
The Chalybsor looked in, and the Aetherion were all arguing and being loud, and he hated loud noise. “Quite all of you! Or you’ll get no torches or stone seats in your next cell.”
They quieted. He glanced around. “Hang on…” Chalybsor’s weren’t known for their wit, “Weren’t five of you in here?”
Zane nodded. “One of us just left; he deserted us, left us behind. It’s not fair.” The other Aetherion started to agree and then disagree and then argue again. The Chalbysor put his axe blades to where he would have ears if he were still a human. “QUIET!”
They quieted. The Chalybsor scratched his scalp with a metal-on-metal screech. “Where did he go? How did he get out?”
Michael hadn’t gone anywhere; he’d turned invisible, which was one of his gifts. Being on the stone bench long enough, he could probably stay invisible for another minute or less. They had to hurry with the plan.
Zane crossed his arms. “He left us behind! He…”
“Don’t start that again!” the Chalybsor howled. He began to panic, thinking of what the Omne Ferrum Terrae might do to him if he’d let one of the Aetherion escape.
Amy perked up. “Oh! There he is!”
Michael had to turn visible again once he left the stone bench and landed on the metal floor, but he was behind the Chalybsor now. He stopped in the prison hallway and waited for Amy to make her observation.
A smarter minion of the Hytoike might have paused to think, but the Chalybsor turned and raised his axes. “You!”
At this point, Kalar was supposed to throw out a few sparks of energy; he’d been standing on the bench too, and his metal resistance was incredible. It didn’t work. Kalar squeezed his whole face up trying to throw enough forward to knock the Chalybsor over, but nothing happened. This was strange because Zane had seen him use some of his powers while surrounded by metal.
Zane formulated a plan B, motioning to Amy and Gale. They leapt onto the floor, yanking on the Chalybsor’s feet as he jumped for Michael. The Chalybsor tripped forward, crashing heavily to the floor, moaning in sudden pain.
Zane jumped forward, crashing into Kalar, who’d leapt simultaneously. He and Kalar landed on the floor, burning Zane painfully. The Chalybsor started to stand, but Michael, who’d been outside the cell long enough to build up a few more seconds of invisibility, launched himself forward and grabbed one of the Chalybsor’s axe hands. He yanked and pulled, breaking the blade free, and cracked the weapon down on the Chalybsor’s head.
It grunted, collapsing to the floor. Zane managed to get off the floor, grab the other axe, and bring it down with a final crash, ending the Chalybsor’s struggling. He quickly stepped off the metal floor, wincing and holding his hands. Metal affected him the most, but Gale and Amy were still sore from landing full-length on the ground.
Kalar got up embarrassingly. “I was going to do that part.”
Amy crossed her arms. “Well, all you did was crash into him!”
Zane shook his head, remembering all too well what it felt like to be in Kalar’s place. “No, my bad, I should have let Kalar do that part, he makes the most sense because he’s resistant to metal.”
Gale-eyed Kalar. “We wouldn’t have had to do all that anyhow if you’d managed to zap him!”
Zane was already heading up the hallway. “Guys, just leave him alone. We need to get out of here. I thought he did well, all things considered.” That was an overstatement, seeing as Kalar hadn’t done anything. And by the eyebrows and skeptical looks everyone gave him, they knew it, but it seemed to give Kalar some relief.
He nodded, taking the lead. “This way.”
“Do you know how to get out?” Zane asked, surprised.
Kalar nodded. “I saw a way out when the OFT dragged us up to Celikor.”
“OFT?” Amy asked the following.
“Omne Ferrum Terrae,” Kalar said casually as if he’d coined the nickname and hadn’t heard it from Zane. Zane lost most of his empathy for Kalar as the boy reasserted leadership.
Amy chuckled. And even Michael smiled. “Clever.”
They entered an open space, the hall on top of the mountain. Zane stopped. “Uhhh, Kalar, I think this might be the wrong way.”
Kalar spun on one heel. “This isn’t right…”
The OFT burst into the room, growling, neck holding the torso high. Gale gagged at the slimy, bare-chested figure at the top. He lowered his torso, the beetle-like body skittering back and forth to compensate for its top heaviness. The OFT rushed them, their claws extended, and the young group of Aetherion scattered around him.
The OFT caught Amy in its slimy paws, gripping her with its claws at her throat. “None of you move, miserable slime!”
“Let her go, coward!” Zane cried out, though he had nothing to back up his words; there was still so much metal around, and he’d only just left the cell confining his powers. He doubted he’d be able even to stir up a wind.
The OFT cackled, pulling her head back. “Oh… so you care what happens to this slab of flesh? So weak and fragile?”
Amy let out a squeak of fright as his claws of metal dug into her, probably burning like brands. Zane looked around for a weapon of some kind. His sword of crystal fire (deadly to creatures of forge and earth but useless against other creatures) would be helpful; a good strike at the OFT’s neck might work.
Of course, it wouldn’t, Zane admonished himself. The Omne Ferrum Terrea has slain thousands of Aetherion; he’s one of the oldest minions of the Hytoike. Then another thought occurred to him as Michael and Gale backed up closer to him. How does a lowly Hytoike have an Omne Ferrum Terrea working for him? Isn’t there only one? That’s why he is THE OFT, not an OFT. Why hasn’t he used any of his powers? The most he’s done is create a dark nebula around his hand like an Onyxian.
The OFT screeched in pleasure. “Look! Celikor awakes!” The mountain began to tremble as the pyramid glowed with a faint aura. He looked straight at Zane. “Give him your power, or I kill her, and then the others!”
“Zane! What do we do!” Michael asked in fear. Zane looked into the OFT’s eyes. Something was off, Zane thought he knew what. Taking a deep breath, Zane saw beyond what things appeared to be to what they were. His vision, made up of white and blue lines, revealed to him the crouching shape of a Figurus Metalum (a minion capable of changing forms) outlined in blue against white. The OFT was no Omne Ferrum Terrae! He was a shape-shifter.
Zane stepped forward, catching up a shard of rock that fell to the floor as the mountain quaked and dust fell all around. The OFT (or Figurus) held Amy up, “not any closer, boy!”
“I’ll give my power to Celikor, you Figurus…” Zane said.
“Good! You see reason! Wait… What did you just call me…”
“… over my dead body!” Zane finished hurling the shard of stone with all his Aetherion might; it cut into the OFT’s false body, outlined in white in Zane’s vision, and struck true into the Figurus Metalum’s real body, the glowing blue center.
The OFT screamed in pain, his body melting away as he dropped Amy, until all that was left was a sodden, faintly canine creature lying before the glowing pyramid. Everyone stared in stunned silence, but there was no time to wait. Zane forced himself out of his shock and turned to Kalar. “Lead us out! There is no time!”
“No, there isn’t!” Kalar growled, throwing his body into Zane’s, crashing them to the floor.
The breath left Zane in a painful huff. Kalar moved like a blur. He struck Michael, throwing him back into the wall. Then kicked the still-prone Amy as she tried to get up.
Gale was faster, without questioning why Kalar had suddenly attacked them. She ran around him, crashing into him from behind and attacking him with a shard of stone like Zane had done. Gale was also a weaponite, a person who could use their power reserves to become more skilled at fighting, increasing their agility, strength, and muscle memory. A shard of stone was more dangerous in her hands than a sword in anyone else’s. She attacked, ducking around Kalar and cutting up. Unfortunately for her, being a weaponite was one of the most common abilities, and Kalar was one too. He caught her wrist, twisting it to the side and plowing her backward into the wall with a bolt of energy.
Zane sat dazedly. Kalar turned to him with a sneer. “Celikor awakens metal bones! What can you do against him!?”
“But, the metal,” Zane said, confusedly, “you can’t use your powers…”
“Yes, I can!” Kalar cried triumphantly, “I am a servant of the Hytoike, the spy who gave your location to the Onyxian six months ago. When I switched my allegiance to the Hytoike, metal began to affect me less and less. I now draw power from touching it while you languish weak before me!”
Zane thought back to all the snags in their plans, the misinformation about Celikor’s moving date, Zane’s foiled leap from this hall, and Kalar’s denial of his metal resistance. It all fit into place now, but it fit in too late.
“The elder Aetherion are very secretive about what the Hytoike do to transform themselves into transcendent beings of power, so naturally I investigated, imagining having the power they do! The more I learned, the more I realized that the Aetherion are languishing, their ranks thinning, as they wait for their dead ruler to return to his empty throne!”
“Our king is not dead!” Zane fairly screamed. He climbed to his feet, but Kalar waved a hand, blasting him back to the ground.
“…I realized that the Hytoike are a natural evolution of the Aetherion; those too foolish to move on will die. Survival of the fittest! I embraced the metal, holding it whenever possible, pushing through the pain, as I did so, it began to fracture my soul, allowing the voices of the Hytoike in. They instructed me in all their secret ways, led me to their darkened places, where I swore fidelity to Celikor and promised him your power so he would be most mighty among Hytoike! You see, that is the secret: Metal hurts us because it breaks our souls. When you allow the process to complete, holding metal and laying in metal coffins for extended times, the transformation allows you to draw power from it. Your powers can become greater; you can gain the whole world.”
“And what does it benefit you if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?” Zane asked, struggling up again. Kalar knocked him over almost subconsciously.
“See, that is why you are a lesser lifeform, incapable of evolving to the next level.”
“I was created like this!” Zane growled, standing again. “Created by my king and lord to serve him, not to shatter my soul and ‘progress to the next level,’ you are foolish, Kalar.”
Kalar stomped his foot, making the mountain tremble even more. Dust poured down. “No, Zane, you are the fool! A fool for not seeing the Aetherion for what they are! Look at yourself by the forges! Weak, barely able to stand, watching Celikor rise, unable to stop him!”
Zane gritted his teeth and stepped forward. Kalar didn’t seem to notice he was focused on the pyramid whose body began to fracture, revealing a sarcophagus of purest iron. A brilliant, glowing aura of colors spun out and away, and a voice moaning from deep underground made itself heard. Kalar literally clapped his hands in delight. Rapture in his voice as he spoke. “Celikor! My master! Come to me, your servant!”
Zane made his move. He leapt forward, plowing into Kalar and knocking him back into the ground, driving his fist into Kalar’s face as hard as possible. Kalar rolled over, pinning Zane down and slamming the younger boy’s head back into the ground before delivering his hit. “When will you give up, Zane? When will you recognize how insignificant anything you can do is? You can’t stop the Hytoike, you can’t stop Celikor, you can’t stop me!”
Zane’s vision blurred as Kalar hit him again. “Why do we keep having to go through this, you worthless fool! We’ve already won. This flailing around is pathetic!”
Zane smiled, faintly unsettling Kalar. Something in his face seemed broken, so his words came out slurred. “No, my king has already won.” Then he fell back, relaxing; it was over.
Or was it? A voice spoke calmly in his head. “Do you trust me?”
Yes, Zane thought, yes.
“Summon a storm, metal surrounds you, summon a storm.”
Zane focused and pulled the air, water, and charges around him into himself, channeling the energy into a swirling mass of cloud and rain, reinvigorating his body. Kalar stumbled back in surprise. Zane let out a yell as he pulled harder, bolts of electricity. Formed around him, striking out in all directions. Zane could sense Celikor waking and the Hytoike frustratedly trying to break free as Zane filled the darkened place with light. He sent it bursting everywhere, shoving Celikor back down, shoving Kalar to his knees. Zane stood bolts and storm shooting out from him in all directions.
“The Hytoike have lost everything!” Zane pleaded with Kalar as the mountain crumbled, rocks shooting outwards. The other three members of Zane’s team stood shakily, embracing the winds. The wind pulled them with Zane to the center of the wild destruction. “Come back with us, Kalar! It isn’t too late!”
Kalar backed up, running to the pyramid in fright. Zane extended his hand as the storm grew, shredding the mountainside, leaving only the four Aetherion alone at its center. “Kalar! Come! You don’t have to be this way!”
“I’d rather die than accept help from you!” Kalar screamed as he hammered his fists on the pyramid. “CELIKOR! COME TO ME! SAVE ME!”
Kalar was hidden from Zane’s sight as the mountain collapsed under him, and the pyramid dropped them below and crumbled after him. The delegates from other Hytoike tried to run, but a rockslide consumed them in the blink of an eye. Zane dropped all of them to the ground slowly as the storm faded. His entire body hurt, yet he felt more alive than ever before. The soreness began to fade as the metal in the mountain collapsed, and his body once again felt free from its effects for the first time in what seemed like an age.
The other three Aetherion stared at him. Zane looked down. Silence pervaded the circle.
Michael looked up at the mountainside. “I… I thought… Kalar… he… he…”
“I didn’t think… I mean.” Gale muttered. That was about what Zane said, too. Amy was the only one who didn’t seem surprised (or hid her surprise well). She looked at the mountain, looked at all of them, and said calmly. “That went well.”
This was so blatantly ridiculous that everyone turned to stare at her. She still had cuts on her neck and arms from the Figurus Metallum disguised as an Omne Ferrum Terrae. She shrugged. “Y’all are so glum, we just survived.”
“But Kalar, he didn’t,” Michael noted.
Amy tapped her chin, false levity gone. “Well… he rejected the Aetherion. He relied on powers he thought would protect him, traded in the glory of our king for idols of power and safety. I can’t say I’m sorry for him.”
“I still thought I could save him,” Zane said quietly. “That I could help him undo the damage he did to himself.”
Amy shook her head. “Not possible. He chose his path; I think it makes a good warning.” She walked off across the vast plane of the Darkened place. “We should leave before more Hytoike minions show up.”
The other three followed her reluctantly at first but quickly continued with more alacrity. A few hours later, Zane stood on one of the rises of the land, the last spot he was likely to be able to see the fortress from, and glanced back. One more look at the fortress of Celikor, then he turned around, leaving the darkened place. Leaving his regrets about Kalar, ready for whatever would come his way next.