Chapter Twenty
Scaling the cliff isn’t too much trouble, at least there are plenty of conspicuous hand-and-foot-holds. The only problem is that I’m the one chosen to carry Sae up, since she obviously can’t make it on her own. She’s not that heavy, but she does slow me down a bit. I reach the top just as the sun vanishes beyond the horizon, about five minutes behind cautious, non-athletic Iarin and more than half an hour behind Attaraya, who bemoans my slowness for a bit as expected.
We’d start a fire, but everyone’s just tired, we all drop off to sleep one by one, except Sae, who mumbles something about keeping watch as first Iarin, then ‘Raya, then I drift off.
Of course, I know I’ll never get a decent night’s sleep around here. As soon as I close my eyes, I can hear the beginning of the dream, the other me’s constant chant of “What are you doing here?”
It’s the dream, I tell myself, because back at home telling myself something was a dream always helped me to wake up.
In a way, I suppose it worked, because another voice intervenes in the dream, suddenly. The voice.
Subject Thirteen. Can you hear me?
I’m awake in seconds, sitting bolt upright.
“Yes,” I answer.
Of course you can. You can always hear me.
“Who are you?”
I do not possess a name. But my name is not important.
“What... why are you saying all this? What’s going on?”
You will understand. But not yet.
“Why can’t you give me a goddamned straight answer for once?” I shout at the sky, “I don’t want to understand ‘in time,’ I don’t want to keep chasing after things like this! Who are you? Show yourself!”
I’m afraid that isn’t possible at present.
“Well, then tell me who you are, I don’t care! Explain all this. What am I, and what do you want with me?”
“E... Emma! Who are you talking to?” Sae demands, hurrying over to me.
“Huah...?” Attaraya mumbles, sitting up. “Wha’s goin’ on?” she asks sleepily.
“It’s Emma, I dunno what’s wrong with–“
All will be explained momentarily.
“What the... oh for God’s sake, shut up and give me a straight answer for once!”
“W-what’s wrong...?”
“Emma. The kid says something’s happened to her–“
”Of course something’s happened, look at her, she’s yelling into thin air!”
“E-Emma? Can y-you hear us...?”
“Yes, I can hear you just fine. Be quiet for a second, it’s talking again.”
“’I-it’s’... Emma, what in—”
Never mind all that. Hurry now, you haven’t much time. Turn and walk north.
I take a step forward, then hesitate. The voice hasn’t done anything to hurt me... not obviously so... but it’s almost certainly connected with Kagami. No matter how gentle and polite it may sound, it’s still somehow related.
“How can I trust you?” I ask.
You can’t. Not really. But you should take my word all the same.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
Because I know precisely who you came here seeking. And I can tell you where he is.
“You... you... you know where I can find Koreth...?”
I do. But you’ll have to take my word for it that I’m not leading you into a trap.
Yeah. That could be a problem.
You can believe what you want. But I’m on your side.
“Are you now?” I say, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, despite the fact that I’m having a conversation with something that is most likely a figment of my own imagination.
I very well could be, depending on what side you choose to take.
Time enough to worry about ambiguous statements later. If the voice takes me to Koreth, then I’ve found Koreth. Simple as that. If it leads me into a trap, it’s nothing I can’t fight my way out of. Koreth is what matters. As long as we can free him, I don’t care what happens to me. What happened to him was all my fault. Well, maybe not the Spellweaver part, but everything that happened after we left Chiren. .I’ve made my own share of stupid decisions, and now Koreth is paying for them with his life. So I’ll do whatever it takes.
“Where is Koreth?” I ask.
“E-Emma, listen to us, okay? W-we’re all here, so just listen. I-I don’t know what y-you think you’re hearing, but none of us can hear it, a-and--”
“Will you quit stammering and shout at her already? Obviously she’s ignoring you--”
“Emma,” Sae says, calmly. “Emma.”
“What?”
“Emma. Look me in the eye. Listen. There is no one there.”
“There is!” I insist, “It’s been there since Yoake. But I didn’t tell any of you. I thought it had gone away... it hasn’t said anything since we left Chiren.”
“Ch-chiren? B-but what happened in Chiren... when y-you fell and started having those hallucinations o-or whatever--”
“Kagami,” Sae interrupts. “It was Kagami then, and it’ll be Kagami now. It fits with what he always does. He’s trying to use Koreth against you. Don’t be foolish enough to walk in to a trap, or you’ll likely never see the real Koreth again.”
“If it’s a trap, I’ll fight my way out of it. I can fight Kagami, I’m sure I can. Besides... Kagami doesn’t fight on his own often... he’ll use underlings. I can fight underlings.”
“H-He might... Emma, d-d-don’t glare at me like that, just listen– he might not use underlings where someone like you is concerned... I mean... um... n-no offense, of course, b-but you’re not exactly a normal human– but even though y-you’re not normal, I-I don’t think you can beat Kagami. H-he’s a full-blooded, powerful Kuarthian... you c-can’t do much against him. Normal or not, you’re still human... a-and there’s a reason why the Kuarthians looked down on humans. Th-there’s just a gap there that can’t be bridged, a-and the more powerful a Kuarthian is, the greater the gap. You’ll get yourself killed–“
”Well, what if I don’t? I know when to fight and when to run, I’m not stupid–“
”N-no, but... l-look, Emma, where Koreth is concerned, your emotions are starting to overtake your judgement.”
Subject Thirteen–
“E-Emma...?”
“Emma, Iarin knows what she’s talking about! Please, just listen to her, will you?”
“Don’t be an idiot, Emma.”
Subject Thirteen, time is running short–
“All of you, shut up!”
Polite silence from the voice. Rather less polite silence from Iarin, Sae, and Attaraya.
“Listen, I’m going to find Koreth. If it’s a trap, I’ll fight. Maybe I’ll die. I couldn’t care less. Now if all of you want to stay at the camp, by all means, stay! I won’t force you to go get yourselves killed. I’ve already got one person on my conscience, I don’t need the rest of you to die, too.”
Quiet, from everyone.
“Okay, voice guy, whoever you are. Which way?” I ask.
* * * * *
The voice directs me north, towards Kirael. Exactly where Kagami said he’d be. On one hand, this could be good. Could mean that Kagami has something to say that doesn’t involve killing us all, so he’s being honest and not setting traps.
Yeah, right. On the other, rather more likely hand, this means that the voice really is on Kagami’s side, and is intent on leading me to death faster.
As for the others, they seem to have decided, through some unspoken consent, to follow me. Great. What I was saying wasn’t just to get rid of them, I really don’t want the three of them on my conscience. Because I do think this is probably a trap. ...But there’s a chance it might lead me to Koreth, if he’s not in Kirael. I’ve got to take that chance.
Leave the path, now. Then continue northeast.
I guess we weren’t going to Kirael after all.
Our destination is still Kirael. This route is a shortcut.
Dammit. I almost would have preferred if Kagami was a double-crossing bastard and I’d gained a helpful (if creepy) ally. If we’re going to Kirael after all, things are still ambiguous.
Well, at least the scenery is nice, I think, and then boggle at my own stupidity. There I am, walking into what may or my not be my doom, and I’m thinking about the pretty trees.
It is nice, though, tall, dark silhouettes of trees, their leaves glowing in the first rays of sunlight. When I look up, a few faint stars are still present in the farthest reaches of the sky, at least, the part of it that I can see through the branches. The road is smooth, paved, almost. The ancient Kuarthian empire must have been a hell of a lot better at making roads than Iarin gives them credit for. There aren’t even any rocks loose, just an immense stretch of pure white pavement, though at the far edges it is beginning to crack a bit, with the help of plants and general disuse. Attaraya said once that it’s been five years since people lived in Irim Kuarth, enough time for inquisitive plants to poke their way around the edges of the road. Nature’s beginning to reclaim the place, bit by bit, as if the earth can tell when there are no longer people around to bother it. Still, it’s a better road than I’ve walked on, uh, ever since I got to this world, and I’m a little sorry to leave it.
“Hey, Iarin?” I ask, eager for something to talk about other than what we’re heading for, “I thought Hanora was part of the Kuarthian Empire, back before it fell.”
“I-it was,” Iarin says, looking surprised at my change in topic.
“So how come they don’t get roads like that one?” The ones we took north from Chiren weren’t bad, but they certainly weren’t paved like these.
“They did. A-after the Empire fell, and H-hanora won its freedom, the First Council ordered them all torn up.”
“What? Why?” I’d keep the roads, if I were them...
“Th-they were considered a piece of past tyranny. It was s-symbolic, like tearing down a statue. The Kuarthians may have built good roads, b-but they were hardly good masters. A-and the Hanorans don’t take v-very well to anyone’s control, I don’t think.”
And yet they’re desperate to control everyone else. Interesting, that.
Anyway, walking along the forest floor isn’t near as nice as having a road. I trip over tree roots several times, slip on the grass covered by a mess of fallen brown leaves left over from last winter. The tree trunks are dense and thick and close together, and I don’t think the voice was planning very well when it decided this was a shortcut– we really aren’t getting anywhere very fast.
I point this out to the voice, who tells me, Of course. I had already forgotten the limitations of mortal bodies.. But it is too late to return to the road now.
“What’s with the hurry?” I ask, uncomfortable under the glances the others give me, like oh no Emma’s speaking to the air again, everybody act natural. “We were going to Kirael anyway. You could have just let us come on our own in the morning.”
It is in our best interest that you arrive at Kirael safely. Besides, special conditions had to be made for your arrival– conditions that will not last forever. We are unsure how long future events will take you to complete... It is best that you reach the village within a safe time window.
I don’t understand, of course, so I ask what the conditions are.
The Bridge must be made visible, is all the voice will say, which of course, is no help at all.
The shortcut doesn’t turn out to be a halfway decent shortcut at all, since it still takes us about twelve hours, two of which are spent on eating, to get to Kirael. The sun peaks over the horizon, makes its way up over our heads, and then goes west as we continue along the trail. A glance at the sky reveals the time to be... probably about seven or eight on a summer evening, by the time we reach what the voice insists is the village of Kirael.
I’m using “village” in the loosest terms possible here, of course. Because there’s nothing left of Kirael.
There was definitely a town here, at some point, long ago, but there sure as heck isn’t one here anymore. The crumbles of what once might have been a brick wall now ring a mass of burned wood and charred stone strewn about the earth. It looks, I think uncomfortably, like the remnants of a quite terrible fire. I’m reminded unpleasantly of the vision I saw at the gates of Chiren and the dungeon of Dara-Kozca.
Suddenly, a strange feeling comes over me, something I can’t name or describe, like me, the person that I am, is being pushed out of my head from within, like something from deep inside me is forcing its way out the way superheroes push apart brick walls, sending little bits of me, my personality, my memories, me, off into the air as debris. It’s all I can do to keep myself mentally together, to keep the other me from bursting free and taking over, to remain conscious. I can’t even stay on my feet, I tremble ineffectually on my hands and knees and can’t even summon the extra strength to get back up.
Attaraya hurries over to me, seizes my arm, and hauls me roughly back to my feet.
“What’s the big deal?” she asks. “It’s just a ruin. Serves those demon crazies right anyhow,” she adds sniffily.
Home. The voice of the other me rings in my head, the creaking voice of one unused to speaking, and sad and angry. But under all that, it sounds like my voice, speaking in Kuarthian, oddly enough. My home.
That doesn’t make sense. I’m not from some burned village in the middle of nowhere, I’m from some slowly-baking city in the middle of somewhere. I’d never even left Phoenix before I came here. How can this place have anything to do with me?
“Welcome home, Subject Thirteen.”
The voice again, but by Attaraya’s stiffening, I can tell she heard it, too. Which of course, makes no sense, again. Iarin seems to be able to hear it as well, as does Sae, who looks around desperately for the source of the sound as fire leaps to life in her hand.
“Who’s there?” She shouts at the sky. “Des ria il? Show yourselves!"
“Certainly.”
A shape begins to from itself from the shadows, wispy and somewhat insubstantial, vaguely person-shaped but about eight feet tall, and composed only of shadows.
“Y-you aren’t... human, are you?” Iarin asks, in a tone of scholarly interest.
“I am not. I am a Wraith.”
Iarin’s eyes widen in surprise.
“A-a Wraith? B-but it’s supposed to take an exceptionally skilled caster to create–“
”Kagami is an exceptionally skilled caster.”
“O-of course” Iarin says softly.
For once in my life, I’m not the only one lost here. “Just what the heck are you two talking about?” Attaraya demands of Iarin (and I don’t blame her for not wanting to demand anything out of an eight-foot-tall Wraith).
“A-a Wraith is a creature created through magical energies a-and bound by several complex binding spells to complete a task, a-after which the Wraith’s substance will disintegrate.”
“Huh?”
“That means it’s a creature made by magic and created to do a task,” Sae says, “One task, no matter how simple or how complicated. After the task is complete, the Wraith will... well, basically, it’ll die. The magical energies that created it will dissolve, it’ll fall apart.”
“Well, then, why would it do anything in the first place?” Attaraya says.
“Magic is more binding than you understand.” The Wraith tells her, “We haven’t a choice. But Wraiths are difficult and rare, as your friend says. There used to be nearly twenty of us under Kagami’s command, and now there is only me. My task is to bring Subject Thirteen here, I’ve something to teach her.”
As though reminded that I’m still here, the Wraith turns toward me, smiling, I suppose, because out of the shadow appears a row of very white teeth. “Subject Thirteen is the final piece. She is required to complete the Bridge. Subject Thirteen is an anomaly, because she is possessed of two souls. And as such...
“Well, Subject Thirteen? Tell me. How much do you remember about this place?”
“Will you stop that? I’m not Subject anything! My name’s Emma.”
The Wraith’s grin grows broader. “That’s just the problem. You see, the thing about you, Emma Bering, is that you don’t actually exist.”
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(A/N) Ooookay. Well, we're (finally) almost done with this thing- five chapters to go! And hopefully none of these new ones are as boring as the previous ones have been. Thanks for sticking with me so long, all of you who have-- I'm still amazed this thing gets any reviewers at all. You guys are great. ^_^
I can't wait to see what happens to Emma and Koreth in the future! I really don't want Koreth to die-he's too awesome to go!! 
You're very good at developing her voice into something distinct and realistic, so good job there.