Penult (The Liminality, Part Four)

Chapter 69: Falling

I had no death wish. I didn't want to die. This wasn't suicide, it was murder. But with no trace of hope left to bind me to the living world, I knew that crossing over to the Liminality was a done deal.

One would think some other realm might claim my soul. But feeling serious enough about killing oneself to earn a visit to Root also seemed to condemn one's soul to the Lim forever, or at least until some realm one rung lower in the hierarchy came calling. Dying in the Lim, for example, sent your soul straight to the Deeps. The realms were nested that way. And each soul had a unique pathway to damnation or salvation. My road only seemed to lead down.

So it was the Lim for me for now, even though I was not quite dead yet. But for all intents and purposes my living was finished. I had zero hope of recovery. No chance for survival. There was nothing left for me to do but hunker down and die.

The roots needed no coaxing. They were already waiting in the wings, ready to shuttle me along.

I had a hunch that something would be different about this particular transition. I expected revelations. Memories and life scenes flashing by. Bright lights. Flourishes. Something, anything befitting this special occasion. There was nothing like free falling through the clouds to remind me what I should have been worrying about.

I had faded from the saddle of a wasp that was no longer anywhere near the patch of sky it had previously occupied. Creatures of habit, these roots always bring me back to the exact same spot from which I had vanished, even if that location happened to be thousands of feet above the waves.

I knew this wasn't a good thing. A fall from such a height was not survivable in any realm, no matter how straight I held my back and pointed my toes. Water, contrary to popular belief, was not soft, particularly not at terminal velocity. The Deeps beckoned.

As I clenched my teeth and girded myself for the snap and crush of bone, a whirring sound grew and a hulking figure appeared alongside me, matching its dive to the speed of my fall. Striped wings. Tigger! I could hardly believe my eyes.

I reached out my hand to him, but the airstream grabbed it and made me tumble out of control. Tigger adjusted his dive and caught up with me, nudging his back up against my side. All I had to do was close my hand and I was gripping the inch thick bristles sprouting from his carapace. I reached for the saddle with me free hand and latched onto a loop.

With the waves looming close, Tigger pulled out of his dive. But he was gentle about it. An abrupt change of course would have ripped me away. But he managed to flatten our angle of descent gradually to give me a chance to settle into the saddle. Soon, we were skimming the wave tops and regaining a bit of altitude.

Back in the saddle and strapped in, I finally had a chance to catch my breath and get my bearings. Penult was behind us now. A lone falcon patrolled the beach we had left. There was no sign of Ubaldo and his wasp, no trace of Mikal or Urszula.

My hand! It was almost entirely black now and the blackness was spreading up my arm. It moved slowly, like spilled molasses, but inexorably.

"Tigger, we need to climb!"

As if words could express my will to this bug. I banged my heels against his side and patted the armored plates behind his head. Tigger didn't respond immediately but I kept on slapping and then suddenly he tilted upward and began rising back towards the clouds.

"That's it! You got it buddy! Keep it up. Keep on climbing."

We punched through the low-level clouds and kept rising. This time I greeted the chill with relief. I was dying for sure now. The end had never been nearer and the higher we got, the better would be my chances of keeping my soul free of the Core's influence. No one had ever explained to me how the Core worked, but there was no questioning its power. In some ways it was like gravity, though its range was more limited.