Sam held strong against many urges swarming his mind.
He wanted to chase after his wife and ensure his son was okay. He wanted to comfort Magnar, who turned into stone on the ground, crushed by grief, eyes fixated on his slain childhood friend. He wanted to have a drink and turn off all his thoughts.
Instead, Sam focused his eyes on the Dark Horizon. He had duties to perform. The standoff made too much noise. The trouble could be on the way.
Perhaps they got lucky this time? Their gunshots and screams were loud, but the light would have been a much bigger issue. By an incredible stroke of luck, he had just tended his gun, trusted it fully, and took the shot, not letting Leon light himself on fire. Reflections would carry the light of the blaze for thousands of miles, luring the terrors of the Twilight out.
Magnar got yanked to his feet and was led away. Sam glanced at the group and came back to examine God Pillars' reflective surfaces interrupting the Dark Horizon.
He listened to the Call of Nought mumbling in his head non-stop. Day after day. Year after year. He learned to tune it out with a combination of mental tricks, the drug Hush, and good old moonshine, but right now, he needed to know if the voice in his head was getting louder.
Nought was different for everyone. To him, she spoke in a female voice - typical among men. Who would not have liked to have a seductive lady whisper in his ear? Sam imagined her as a femme-fatale at a bar who decided to flirt with you out of nowhere. The feeling of uplift you get from her sweet voice, purposeful accidental touches, and rehearsed flowing motions! Absolute intoxication. A smart man would sense foul play and walk away. However, deep inside, even a smart man wanted to see all her traps through. He would die, yes, but with a smile on his face.
Sam tentatively let his guard down. The femme-fatale rushed to his ear.
You enjoyed killing him...
Sam began to melt.
You did... You are a natural... Embrace it... Smell the blood...
He slowly inhaled. It smelled like perfume.
So sweet... Leon had it coming... It hits you stronger if you kill young, innocent, trusting... Your own flesh and blood...
Sam turned and looked at his wife in the distance, heading to the Landship Daring. In her hands, Alexander. His son.
If you look into his big trusting eyes and squeeze his throat...
Reluctantly, Sam turned away and began taming voices with fear: fear of losing his loved ones, fear of snapping and acting out on his urges. He raised the barriers in his mind one by one and fortified them. Love for his family. Empathy. Nought retreated, and as she did, she clawed his humanity, hurting it, subverting it. The bloodthirsty bliss subsided, giving place to pain and existential fear of losing everyone he ever cared about.
Sam pushed Nought back to where she was, but he knew she won a few more inches of his mind in this fight. They played this game back and forth for years, and she had advanced miles, slowly and silently taking a firm hold of him. The won mental battles were hollow. Sam knew Nought was winning the war.
He glanced at Leon's body on the ground. It had a further sobering effect on him, but it also reminded him of his ultimate fate. One day, it would be him on the floor. Who would have to pull the trigger? If he was lucky, it would be somebody who did not care as much. He would not want to scar his friend, wife, or son on his way out.
In his quick skirmish with Nought, he found out what he needed. The voice was indeed getting louder. Soon, he saw why.
The Dark Horizon was spilling onto the reflective surfaces of God Pillars. It was tricky to spot, and yet, patch by patch, the Twilight gave up to the darkness.
The Leviathans had heard the standoff. They were coming.
Sam turned around and walked briskly to Landship Daring. No running - the noise would only make the Leviathans go faster. He raised his hand above his head and gave a whirling signal. He saw the sniper they left at the landship disappear inside to warn others of impending danger. Sam overtook the group with Magnar, gave them the warnings, and then chased after his wife.
"The Leviathan is ten minutes away," said Sam when he caught up with her. "We'll be on the run for eight hours to lose it, by the looks of it."
Sophia did not say anything and did not hurry her steps. The situation was trivial. Sam lifted the hair off Alexander's forehead and tried to check him for injuries, which caused Sophia to awkwardly bump into him and almost fall.
"Done that," Sophia said in annoyance as she pushed him aside.
She made five steps in silence, then exploded in an angry whisper.
"Did you lock the door?!"
"Of course I did."
"Then how the hell did Leon get in?"
"Beats me," said Sam. "In the five minutes I was out, the only way to open the door was from the inside. I'll look into it."
"I told Magnar to exile Leon!" Sophia jumped to another topic. "The dude was slicing his fingers off to keep Nought at bay! He said he had no visions, and Magnar just believed him?! Fucking moron!"
"I don't know what to tell you," said Sam. "He tested negative."
"He clearly lied on the test!"
"It was our job to catch him," said Sam. "We thought he was honest. Or he convinced himself he was honest, which is concerning. How do you even test for that? It's true what they say – the smarter the person, the smarter the voices. And Leon was a scientist, smarter than half the landship put together."
"I knew he was a goner," said Sophia. "I knew it. Magnar couldn't see past twenty years of friendship."
"Well, Leon didn't seem gone to me either. He was further into the darkness than us, but he didn't seem gone. I thought he had six months in him. Hell, I just chatted with him at the distillery, and I did not see any red flags."
"Leon should have exiled himself. There is no way he could not feel that the end was near."
"He did," said Sam. "He told me that he would jump off at the next Lantern's settlement in a week or so. He just wanted to bring his affairs in order first. He thought he had time."
"Huh," Sophia gave Sam a surprised and ashamed look. "That explains you passing him."
"It gave him enough edge," confessed Sam. "Also, giving him a dignified to go made both Magnar and me feel better. Look where it got us..."
"Also, Lanterns would have kept him alive longer," mused Sophia. "Even in the Cursed state. They never give up on people. They use herbs and shrooms to pull minds out of Nought's grasp, although just for a moment."
"We could've visited him..." Sam's voice trembled.
He blamed himself for everything that happened today. However, had he done anything wrong? Would he have done anything differently had he known the outcome of his decisions?
Perhaps, that was why people could not see the future. It helped them remain human.
Sophia gave Sam a quick hug with one hand. She went quiet. Her rage subsided.
"I'm not entirely blameless either," confessed Sophia. "I just had to check the damn terminal the second time! My damn OCD! I would have been in bed ten minutes earlier, and you would never have left Alexander's side. Who knows... Maybe we would've managed to tie Leon up, deliver him to the Lanterns after all..."
As they arrived at the wheeled Landship Daring, the looming figure of Arachnid Limper moved. The news of approaching Leviathans reached the pilots too. Shuddering the ground with each step, Limper folded its eight long arms with guns and artillery, then settled on the Daring's roof and prepared to be quickly driven away. The Arachnid was great to carry the landship over hard-to-pass areas – but in the race against the Leviathan, the wheels were faster than pointy legs.
Sam and Sophia climbed the ramp inside the landship and moved down the corridor. They mindlessly stopped and flattened themselves against the wall five times as the crew ran about, making the departure preparations. In a few minutes, they reached their nursery and put Alexander back in his crib. He got distracted by the hologram and hopefully forgot about today's bloody incident. Sophia proceeded to wipe Leon's blood off Alexander's face. Her features were stiff with motherly instincts. However, minute by minute, the guilt of killing Leon settled in and softened her lips and eyes.
"Fuck, Leon," she mouthed. "We'll miss you. May you find peace in the True Sky's embrace."
"May you find peace in the True Sky's embrace," Sam repeated the prayer.
"The only embrace he'll get is the plastic bag," said Magnar.
Magnar stood in the doorway, filling it with his burly military figure. He swayed lightly and held a half-empty bottle of moonshine. No matter his mood or state of affairs, Magnar's rough, scarred face, worn-down black denim jacket, pants, and gloves simultaneously emanated charisma and instilled fear. Half the people did not want to cross him because they liked him. The other half did so out of fear. Either way, he kept the landship tight. Nobody else could become the captain of the landship otherwise.
"His body is getting dragged to the farms as we speak," continued Magnar. "No need to waste two hundred pounds of organics."
Sam squeezed Sophia's hand. It was notoriously easy to ignite an argument between the siblings, and he did not want to hear another one now. Luckily, Sophia held her tempter.
"We will say our farewells before he's processed," she said. "And the mind goes to the true sky, not the body."
"At least Leon died knowing he won't be cannibalized," said Sam.
"Remember that cannibals laugh at us?" said Magnar, leaning on the door frame and drinking more moonshine. "They say we take a great meal and make it worse out of strange moral obligations. All we do is put a few more steps between the dead body and our plate. But the truth is – we still eat each other."
"Didn't you shoot the cannibal who preached this to you?" asked Sophia over her shoulder. "Whatever could happen to Leon's body – he's done suffering."
"And we got ten more years to go!" said Magnar and raised the bottle bitterly. "If we're lucky."
He took two big gulps, walked in sideways, and leaned on his nephew's crib, squeezing between Sam and Sophia. It instantly became too crowded. Sophia was forced to sit on the bed and Sam to lean on the bench. Once they settled, they all stared at the hologram over the crib, the only light source.
Sam felt the landship jolt. They were now on the move. Two minutes and thirty gear shifts later, they reached the cruising speed of fifty miles per hour. The crew took care of all the arrangements, so they all had time for themselves.
***
Sam, Sophia, and Magnar did not say a word for half an hour. They watched the child fall asleep and passed the bottle of moonshine around. When the voices in Sam's head and his guilty consciousness both became quieter, Magnar mouthed:
"The kid was awfully chill with all those guns blazing."
Sam also did not remember his son flinching once. Even with sophisticated suppressors, their guns were noisy enough to make any unprepared person jump. Yet, throughout the ordeal, Alexander remained unimpressed by the sounds. He was probably rigid with fear, the poor thing. Or had his ear pressed against Leon's chest. Or...
Sam felt his heart race. He slowly positioned his hand against Alexander's ear and snapped his fingers. Then once again. Then a few more times. His son slept undisturbed.
With every snap, Sophia and Magnar straightened up more and more.
"HEY, NEPHEW!!!" Magnar yelled at the top of his lungs.
Sam and Sophia both jumped, rattling the contents of the shelves, and looked around. Sam knew that even the sound of an unsuppressed gunshot would not escape the landship, but he could not be too careful. The child, in the meantime, did not move in his sleep.
Sophia covered her mouth with her hand, tears of happiness streaming down her face. She squealed, jumped like a little girl, and gave her brother a crushing hug. Magnar lifted her up and spun around. Then, both of them bumped into Sam. He simultaneously got a hug from Sophia and a lift from Magnar, which resulted in all three collapsing on the floor. They laughed as they got untangled, got up, and lined up in front of the crib again. The object of their celebration still slept like the dead.
"A Blessed mother of a Disciple!" declared Magnar and pointed at Sophia as she did an over-the-top pompous stance. It looked ridiculous since she was on the bed, standing on her knees. "And the Blessed dad, who at best deserves a participation trophy," he nodded at Sam, who only scoffed. "I've been working my whole life trying to elevate myself from Wayward to Blessed. And all it took for you two was Sophia's magic whoo-ha."
"It's not too late to marry your sister," shrugged Sam.
"And puke every morning?" said Magnar as siblings exchanged disgusted faces. "Hungover is miserable enough. I don't want the Gardens of Skydream that bad."
"Yeah, I'd rather die in the Slums," Sophia agreed.
"Too bad your son ain't also blind," said Magnar. "We could've usurped the Blind Queen's throne."
"And you would get a freebie title from the new King?" Sophia saw right through Magnar's scheme.
"A man can dream!" laughed Magnar.
Sam mused about King Alexander a bit.
"Would you take deaf-blindness to become a Prophet and a King?" asked Sam. "Sure, Nought got nothing on you, but you'll have to live in silence and darkness, in your personal Eternal Night."
Sophia shuddered.
"I think deafness is a good middle of the road," said Sam. "You won't have the highest cast of a Prophet, live a century, or sit on the throne, but your life is much more enjoyable."
"Yeah, you're probably right," said Magnar. "I'd take deafness! Imagine not hearing Sophia's screeching! That's heaven."
Sophia demonstrated remarkable flexibility in the overcrowded room by kicking Magnar in the butt.
"Also, sixty years to live and an easy pass to the Gardens of Skydream," continued Magnar, rubbing his butt. "Yeah, I'd totally take deafness and a Desciple status. Nephew, you lucky little bastard."
They all exchanged excited looks. They worked tirelessly to get a good life for Alexander, and now he had it as a guarantee. It was a huge load off their shoulders.
Magnar straightened up and got serious.
"That gives us a problem," he said. "How the hell do I drop you lot at Skydream?"
Sophia's smile died like it was taken outside and shot. Sam was also not ready for this suggestion. It took all the wind out of him. Abandoning Magnar? After all they went through over the years? Unthinkable. Before he could say a word, Sophia set off.
"Dropping us off?" she asked. "You must be joking."
"Well, you already have the golden ticket!" said Magnar and nodded at Alexander. "It's stupid not to use it."
Sophia was rapidly turning livid, like a hurricane gaining power.
"Who the hell do YOU think WE are?" she asked, indicating each party with her finger. "You seriously suggest we should abandon you like that? You're planning on fulfilling our plan ALONE?"
She was insinuating that Magnar was not capable. Classic Sophia's attitude to her brother. She would serve her love under so much salt that it tasted like hate.
"I'm perfectly capable of finding some old-world godstech and dragging it to the Queen's throne room," said Magnar and clenched his jaw. "Doing that would feel more satisfying than showing up with a deaf child I popped."
And Magnar was about as delicate to his sister as Arachnid Limper to a tea set. It was as if he did it on purpose, still trying to piss off Sophia out of sheer boyish malice as he had done since childhood.
However, Sam began to see Magnar's point to some degree.
"First of all, fuck you," Sophia said to Magnar. "I was not looking for an easy way out. Secondly, you NEED me to navigate the Twilight. Without me, you'll spend the rest of your LIFE searching for godstech. And Sam–"
"I also think you should go," said Sam.
Sophia deflated her unfinished tirade with a sigh and switched her ire on him. He had to get ahead before she blew up in his face.
"I should stay here," said Sam. "And you should take the best care of Alexander. The Twilight is not a place to raise a kid. Before, we did not have a choice. Now we do. I'll feel much better knowing he's safe, hidden in Skydream's mountain."
"And since Alexander can hardly walk," hissed Sophia, "You need a mule. Hysterical. Why does it have to be me? Why not you, Sam? Why don't you fuck off to Skydream with Alexander and wait there all cozy for our return!"
"No, no, no," said Magnar. "With Leon gone, I can't afford to lose another mechanic."
"And you definitely can't afford to lose me!" Sophia seethed and switched back to her brother. "Who do the Lanterns trust on this landship besides me? Who has fifteen years of missionary work in the Twilight? Not to mention, I must always drag your sorry asses to the Lanterns' settlement! You'd drive right past them if it weren't for me."
"Well, we would've covered ten times the area if we hadn't stopped at Lanterns' settlement all the time," said Magnar. "We would have found something a lot faster."
"No, you wouldn't have, you thick motherfucker!" exclaimed Sophia. "Every lead we had so far we got from the Lanterns!"
"Bust, every single one of them," countered Magnar.
"So you'd rather what - aimlessly drive around?" asked Sophia.
"Yes, and do so quickly," said Magnar. "The more area we cover, the more chances we have to get lucky."
Sam heard this argument unfold once a week. The longer they spent on the search, the more heated the arguments got. The time would show who was right in the end. Would they come across some functioning godstech by accident, or would they do so using the Lantern's lead? Whatever the outcome, the winner would never let the loser forget it.
Or they would all die trying. Then, no one would be left to keep the score.
"Sure, your name recognition is second to none," said Sam. "But the Landship Daring and those who ride it became well-known. We should be fine."
"The Lanterns won't open up to you as they do to me," Sophia shook her head. "Besides, I'm more worried about your willingness to talk to the Lanterns rather than your ability."
"I will ensure we keep pursuing any leads-" began Sam, but Sophia cut him off.
"Oh please, nobody on this landship has the balls to stand up to my brother!" she said and pointed at Magnar. "And I'm the only one who can resist that charm of his that makes you all freeze in awe every time he farts! He just blurted he won't stop for anything! He'll instead gamble on his gut feeling like he wanted from day one!"
"So you don't trust me?" asked Sam.
"Not when it comes to my brother, no," she said.
Sam knew better than to push his point further. Sophia just called his bluff and threw all his manipulations in his face. Magnar would listen to only two people: himself and her, and only after she yelled at him long enough. Everyone on the Landship Daring and the Arachnid Limper knew that. Sam could not even convince himself that he could exert influence over Magnar.
"Unless Magnar makes you the captain of Daring," floated Sophia.
Meanwhile, her manipulations were sharper than razors. She pierced her brother with an ironic stare and watched him squirm. Of course, he would not give up his post. He would not even lie about it.
"Also, you said it yourself: dropping me off at Skydream would be impossible."
"I said it would be a nightmare," corrected Magnar.
"It would be IMPOSSIBLE!" she insisted. "We lost any chance to excuse our AWOL three years ago. This landship and everyone on it are deserters on an unauthorized treasure hunt. You get anywhere near Skydream – the Blind Queen will stretch your asshole over your eyes!"
"We could get you close enough," said Magnar. "You'll cover the rest of the distance on foot."
"Alone?" she asked and crossed her arms. "You think I can fend off the likes of Leon with a toddler in my arms?"
It was a low blow that landed on an open wound. Magnar looked at her heavily, chewed on his tongue, and pushed himself up from the crib.
"Do whatever the hell you want," he said. "He's your kid and your headache. I'm off to bed. Wake me up when we lose the Leviathan."
Magnar, swaying, marched through the door and shut it harder than needed. Sam instinctively winced and looked at Alexander, who, of course, slept undisturbed by any sounds. It would take him a while to get used to his son's gift.
Sam and Sophia maintained a tense silence for a minute. The awfulness of what Sophia had said settled in Sam's head.
"Wow, Sophia," he said. "You could have just said Cursed. Did you have to bring up Leon by name?"
"I had to get Magnar off my back somehow," said Sophia.
So, she did it on purpose?
"It didn't make me feel good, trust me," she said. "I'll apologize tomorrow. But right now, I have a question for you, husband. What in the world was all of that? You want to get rid of me now?"
"I was trying to keep you and Alexander safe," said Sam.
"You should focus on keeping us all together instead," said Sophia.
She made sure the door was locked. She then turned to him and said:
"Have you forgotten why WE are here?"
"I haven't," Sam said. "I just wanted to—"
"What?" she asked. "Settle? Raise the kid? That's it?"
"Wasn't it what you always wanted?" he asked.
"It was," she said. "Before I met you. Before I discovered that I could be more than just a good mother and wife."
Sam sighed. He had an intense feeling of deja vu. They had this conversation before, except he was the dreamer with crazy thoughts and too much idealism. How times have changed! Now that he had a family, he developed an overpowering instinct to play it safe for them. Sophia changed too. She wanted to go bolder than ever, also for them. If he had married someone meeker, he would have abandoned his mission by now.
"We must stay together," she said. "I got nothing without you. I got an improbable story for the Queen of Skydream and no way of seeing the Patriarch of Libra. We're just polished pieces of a broken plan without each other."
"Haven't we been on the road enough?" asked Sam. "Haven't we dodged death enough? I thought today would be a wake-up call for you."
"It only reminded me how important what we do is," said Sophia. She approached him and touched his shoulders. "Yes, we spent many long years on the road. But we saw hundreds of Lantern tribes and came across thousands of stories and legends. We heard the same thing everywhere: blue sky, stars, galaxies. All of it must exist beyond the Mirror. I know it does."
"There is no guarantee that an alliance of Skydream and Libra would shatter the Sky," said Sam.
"There is never any guarantee of anything," she said. "We can only do our best, maximize our chances, and hope for the best."
She moved past Sam, leaned on the crib, and looked at the hologram over it. Sam joined her.
"Skydream and Libra are it - the entire humanity," she continued, the blue sky glowing in her eyes. "They are the only civilized cities under the Mirror, the only places that aren't the Twilight. We would've heard of others by now: a whisper, a legend, something. But there is nothing there. If we ever hope to break the Mirror, silence the Call of Nought, to see the blue sky and stars over our heads – humanity must unite. Skydream and Libra must drop their superstitions and come together. And we can get them there."
"They will unite without our help," said Sam. "It's inevitable, don't you think? Given enough time."
"It has been two thousand years since the last peace talk," said Sophia. "How long should we wait?"
She shook her head and finished:
"You don't just wait for history to happen - you make history happen."
Sam recharged from her resolve and unbending will. He became ashamed of himself. Long ago, he revealed his secret to her. She fully accepted him and his mission. And now, after years of pursuit, after they got so close, he wanted to walk away? He had to see this through, even if he was no longer the driving force behind it.
"Our son's deafness only means one thing," she said, stroking her son's hair. "He'll live a long life. The voices of Nought won't take his years away. So, if we fail, we'll have something nice to think about when the darkness takes us. Nothing else has changed."