SunRider

[06] Fate Wrought

—Erstwhile in a day gone by, oft stalwart men die: not by blight, sword, nor rod, but by Aluxim, the Baron-God. A warning: be wary of a pillar of light, to hither transport you to endless night. Venerate Aluxim, shall the weary chant, venerate, venerate! Yet I shall reply, armor-donned God will I not obey, for the sake of my freedom, I can't.—

-Old forgotten song, tuneless, believed to have come from the 14th Era, roughly 20,000 years prior to modern age (E.E.)

A gurgling scream full of pain and terror disturbed the dead sky. Finn pulled away from black rock, shocked by the noise that'd come from his throat. He was a baby, violently born into a hot, unforgiving world. Everything he'd ever known: gone.

     His skin, like one large swollen welt, refused to stretch. Invisible fingers were pinching the sides of his brain, rolling the meat between knobbed digits. The headache in his temples flooded his senses and he staggered about, dodging steam as if the ground was spitting at him. Heat waves the size of mountains rippled the landscape, distorting reality. Air thick as mud and hot as a furnace forced its way down his throat. He fell, tearing the skin on one knee. He let out a moan. His mind—his mind couldn't take what he'd seen. How could one man have caused so much death?

     An image of Gunther flashed through Finn's mind, already dead yet still stumbling about. He dry-heaved, tasting sour bile. Hot, it was way too hot. Half-running, half-falling, Finn entered the shade of a stone spire shooting to the heavens like an enormous tooth. There was no change in temperature. Everywhere he looked, he couldn't see signs of life, not even cacti, birds, or bugs. The only movement came from steam, trickles of lava pouring from rock.

     Finn's mind huddled into the corners of its own depths. Nozgull the EarthBreaker: how had the man obtained such power? What Nozgull had demonstrated—it changed everything. The scales of Lenova were tipped. Magic and armies, artillery and navies, they were nothing to a man who could create clouds from gems. Memory of the Star-Child shimmered before Finn like the heat waves vibrating the landscape. Nozgull held his arm up, showing a piece of armor—a bracer—his yellow teeth glinting in the heat. His eyes mocked Finn.

     "This. This fell from the sky to land at my feet. I was chosen by the heavens themselves!"

     There was something about that bracer. Nozgull had shown it off, like a knight brandishing a beautiful sword. Was that what had given the man such power? If the article had fallen from the sky, what could have manufactured the event? Why send it to Nozgull, a man full of greed? A murderer.

     Rage engulfed Finn for all the miners who'd died. They'd struggled so much, fought so hard, just to stay alive. Then with the wave of a hand, Nozgull swept it all away. He'd even taken Goblin. Finn howled into the air, his voice weak. Why had Finn made friends with the boy? He'd taken the risk, promised himself he'd watch the younger cave-diver knowing full-well Goblin could die in the mines. Yet fate was too strong a thing to change. Danger had found them in the end.

     Helplessness boiled within his veins, forcing his muscles to clench and his burned skin to throb in agony. What could he do? He spun in place. There was nothing but black rock stacked and poised, ready to cut him to ribbons. Spines pointed to the sky in accusation, bristling in curved rows like petrified liquid explosions. The Slaglands, he was lost in the Slaglands. Panic squeezed his chest and his stomach muscles clenched. The Slaglands meant death. He was going to die, the meat on his bones slow-roasted, peeling back to reveal bone cracking under heat. He could already smell it; the cooking flesh sliding off him. He wanted to giggle, the edge of madness tempting him into an easy slide down into the dark.

     But his cave-diver training fought back, assessing the situation. Think Finn, what do you have? Finn patted himself, grabbing his cave-diver belt. His fingers ran over the satchel hanging from his right side. He tore it open. Inside, were various stones Finn had stored for the day's work, a job he'd never do. Eight Aquamarine Tears waited within, staring back at him. Water!