Chapter 18: CHAPTER 18

The nightmare vividly unfolded around Jalice as if unaware of the dreamer. The scene treated her like a ghost, moving her in step with its characters while the ground slipped beneath her. Closing her eyes did nothing. The comforting darkness it brought lasted only a moment before giving way to the same place she’d hoped to escape.

The nightmare had her trapped.

If that wasn’t enough, the same scene repeated in an endless loop. While there was a definitive beginning and ending, the scene would simply restart upon its conclusion.

At the onset, she wasn’t alone. Annilasia had stood nearby, accompanied by a flashing cloud that hovered beside the warrior. Jalice had pleaded for help and begged Annilasia to rescue her from the purgatory. But the tillishu had simply stared at Jalice in confusion, eventually slipping away into obscurity.

Left abandoned, Jalice continued to plead and utter prayers, none of which brought an end to her torment. The vividness of her surroundings unnerved her. Before her, she recognized four children: Kerothan, Delilee, Annilasia, and Hydrim. More than once she called out to Hydrim in hopes he would rescue her. Yet her husband, strangely youthful here in this purgatory, ignored her, acting deaf to her words.

Yet the most startling presence was that of the fifth child—another young girl who accompanied the group. Long red hair, woven into an intricate Vekuuv weave, bobbed side to side as the girl joyfully skipped alongside the others. An unsettling dread crept in Jalice at the girl’s presence. She hardly recognized the memory itself, but her determination to deny any intimate familiarity with the girl withered with each repetition.

The memory always began with the children, discovering a vast stretch of dead forest covered in a layer of ash.

***

Jalice stared down into the crater that sliced the blackened earth. It gaped open, a deep gash scarring the land with a cavernous hull. A warm Thrive breeze brushed her cheeks as it stirred the loose layer of ash covering the ground. She waved the particulates from her eyelashes and brushed it gently off her braids.

“What happened here?” she asked.

She hadn’t meant to ask the question aloud, but she was sure the others were wondering it too. Question after question had arisen after they’d stumbled across a patch of the forest laid bare by some unnatural mystery. For several miles, the trees—normally towering over their heads and outstretched towards the sky—were snapped and fallen. Stranger still was the general direction each had come to rest, their tips all pointed south like arrows on a map. Their bark was charred black and buried under a layer of grey ash. It reminded Jalice of a fresh blanket of snow, common in the late Wither Season—an unsettling comparison, considering they were currently in Thrive.

“This must be what caused the tremor a few days ago,” said Hydrim.

Jalice glanced over at the boy and her heart fluttered. As the oldest of the group, he always had the answer. No doubt he’d be an Elder someday. He was too wise to become anything else.

“Then we need to go tell the Elders,” said Kerothan, who stood beside Hydrim.

Jalice rolled her eyes. She wasn’t surprised that her brother was the first to suggest they leave. He hadn’t wanted to venture into the stretch of barren land to begin with, and it was clear he still wanted to return home.

“What would we tell them?” asked Annilasia. She gestured towards the crater. “That a star rock hit the forest? Are you seeing what I’m seeing? That isn’t a star rock.”

Jalice looked to the crater and focused on the bizarre object cradled in its center. A large, perfectly square structure jutted crudely out of the earth, partially immersed in the ground at one corner like a sinking ship. Not one side was distinct, each a small meadow’s breadth and boasting a tar-black exterior. Jalice shielded her eyes from the sunlight bouncing off the metallic surface.

“Perhaps the impact unearthed a relic,” Hydrim ventured. His voice betrayed his own uncertainty at the assertion. “Pre-Residuum.”

“Then we definitely should go back,” said Kerothan. Jalice shot her brother a glare, but he wasn’t looking in her direction. With arms crossed defiantly, he stared at the structure in the crater.

“I agree,” chimed Delilee, her airy voice shaken. She glanced between the others before her gaze latched onto Jalice. “We could get in trouble.” She pleaded with her eyes for Jalice to agree.

Jalice cocked her head and gave an apologetic shrug. “I’m sorry, cousin, but this is too interesting to pass up.” She watched Delilee’s hopeful expression falter.

“It might not be a relic,” said Hydrim. “It’s probably just a mound of metal.”

Jalice noticed Hydrim’s confident smile, which reassured her. If he didn’t think it was dangerous, then there was nothing to worry about.

“We need to tell the Elders,” insisted Kerothan, glancing up at the other boy expectantly.

“We will,” said Hydrim. He peered down at Kerothan and gave him a playful wink.

Heat flooded Jalice. She wished Kerothan would turn back and leave them alone. He clearly didn’t want to be here and was sapping all the fun out of the discovery. Without thinking, Jalice sprang forward down the steep decline of the crater.

“First, we need to find out what it actually is if we’re going to tell the Elders what we found!” she hollered.

“Jalice, wait!” Kerothan shouted after her. “We could get hurt.”

She ignored his protests. He could be such a wimp sometimes. If it weren’t for the tribal customs that required physical exertion—like the River Bend race or the Apotelesma Challenge—Jalice believed he’d shrivel up and die in the libraries. He spent too many hours scouring books, and his docile habits showed when he stood beside Hydrim. Kerothan wasn’t soft by any means—he still managed some lean muscle—but he appeared inadequate standing beside Hydrim, the Ikaul native. His shorter stature certainly didn’t help this unfavorable comparison.

Being careful not to prove her brother right, Jalice kept an eye on her footing as she forged her way down the slope. She glanced back to see if Kerothan had fled the scene. The others were close behind and, to her irritation, so was her brother.

After a time of climbing through unearthed dirt and striped wood, the group clustered together at the bottom. They stared in awe at the bewildering structure that loomed over their heads.

“This doesn’t feel right,” murmured Kerothan. Grey ash stained his disheveled red hair, and dirt smeared his pale arms. It appeared he’d struggled some coming down the slope.

Jalice groaned. “It’s a giant cube, Kerothan. It isn’t going to hurt you.”

“We don’t know what it is,” he said with a concerned tone. “It could be sky debris from the Last War.”

“I think it’s worth finding out,” said Hydrim, giving Kerothan a gentle smirk. Unlike the Vekuuv boy, his close-shaved head was clean of any ash and, aside from his boots, only his calloused hands were marked in a coat of dirt.

Jalice grunted under her breath, irked by the attention Hydrim afforded her brother. The two were complete opposites, yet they were together whenever possible. Hoping to capture Hydrim’s attention, she took the initiative and strode towards the structure. Again Kerothan shouted protests at her back, but she in turn ignored them.

She gingerly lifted her hand and placed it against the smooth black metal. She flinched in expectation, but nothing happened. Her gaze lifted. Due to one corner sunken deep into the earth, its opposite counterpart shot upwards in a needle pointing towards the sky. Her eyes traveled the breadth of the wall.

“I think it’s a house of some sort,” Hydrim murmured. He came beside her and mimicked her by placing his hand on the metal. “Right now it looks strange tilted like this. But sitting upright, it would stand like a house.”

“There’s no windows, though,” said Jalice as she continued to study the wall. It was over two stories tall, with a depth that could hold at least two dozen tents. “No windows, no tribal markings. It’s just a giant black metal box.”

“Maybe Kerothan is right,” said Hydrim. He snickered when he noticed her glare. “Come now, Jalice, let’s consider this. As you’ve pointed out, it’s missing windows and markings. It shot down from the expanse, and its makeup is what you’d expect of deserted artifacts from the Last Great War.” Hydrim shrugged. “Seems likely Kerothan’s theory is on point, even if motivated by paranoia.”

Jalice broke into a bemused smile. “At least you realize how lacking in bravado he is.”

Hydrim cocked an eyebrow at her. “You don’t give your brother enough credit. Caution was once a desirable trait before the Residuum Era. It was the difference between survival and death.”

Jalice groaned and turned back to the structure. “Save your speech. You don’t have to live with that annoying sunflare.”

Hydrim’s playful expression faded as his gaze returned to the wall. “Not sure what we’re going to find, but I’m going to see if there’s anything on the other side.”

Jalice gave a stiff nod as her cheeks flushed. Wrestling with a sense of dejection, she watched the older boy disappear around the far corner of the structure, where the others had gone. Hydrim always acted offended when she tore into Kerothan. She didn’t understand his need to defend her brother.

The urge to follow him burned, and for several moments she stared off in the direction he’d gone. She decided against it, worried she’d appear desperate for attention. Her eyes scaled the wall again, squinting against the sun’s reflection there.

Kerothan had overreacted—she needed no evidence to be certain of that. Yet something about the structure didn’t seem to add up. It was too smooth—too finely cut to be a natural occurrence of unearthed metal.

Jalice’s gaze floated to where the structure met earth. Her heart skipped, and she swiftly fell to her hands and knees. A tunnel, just large enough for her to fit in, penetrated the metal and led into darkness. It’d require careful maneuvering to crawl through but wasn’t impossible to enter.

Jalice frowned as she peered into the unlit passageway. The opening didn’t strike her as intentional. Barbs of metal and loose pipes jutted out at the edges and would injure someone if they weren’t careful.

The wind stirred and sent more ash into the air. Jalice raised her head and glanced around. The others were still out of sight, presumably exploring other parts of the structure. She opened her mouth to call them but hesitated. Kerothan would just protest, and the entire afternoon would be spent bickering about whether to enter or not. If it hadn’t been for her, they wouldn’t have even approached the house, as Hydrim called it.

Dropping onto her belly, Jalice edged forward using her elbows and knees. It was much tighter than she’d expected, and darkness quickly engulfed her vision. A few feet in, she grew still.

If she got stuck, she wondered if the others would be able to hear her. She imagined herself stuck, unable to move, as she called out to her friends for help. A bout of fear twisted in her stomach. Her breaths shortened.

Hydrim’s wink to Kerothan flashed in her mind. The image banished all fear and caution. She gritted her teeth and resumed crawling. She wasn’t going to let Kerothan keep stealing Hydrim’s attention with his skittish behavior. She envisioned Hydrim’s admiration upon discovering Jalice’s bravery. She’d be the first one inside the mysterious structure and prove that Kerothan was a frightened infant with no sense of adventure. She pressed on as beads of sweat dripped into her eyes.

At times, the space constricted and closed in around her, and sparks shot out periodically from the dangling tubes. Panic at the thought of getting lost came and went. The motivation to impress Hydrim banished her fear and the pain of skin blisters. Besides, he wouldn’t let her die in here. If she got stuck or lost, he’d find her.

A dull vibration in the walls stole her focus. She grew still again in an attempt to discern this new element. Though unable to determine its source, a fresh hunger to explore gripped her and dispelled the panic created by uncertainty. She doubled her efforts as the vibration intensified.

In sync with the vibrations, Jalice experienced a change that confounded her. Her first guess was that the vibration had escalated enough to numb her sense of touch. Although probably true, she quickly dismissed that theory as the sole reason. The alteration was more than that, like a liberation from her outer body, emotions, and fears. They were all still there yet somehow separate, like she was in a dream.

The end of the journey caught her by surprise. The vibrations and sensational shift had kept her distracted, and the pitch black had offered no warning of what was ahead. When her arms suddenly wiggled loose, she realized that the hole had given way to a much wider space, allowing her to scramble free from the tunnel.

Her limbs trembled as relief flooded her. She’d made it inside without getting stuck.

For the first few seconds, utter darkness continued to reign. Jalice didn’t move. Fear of the unknown finally besieged her. Her breath caught when a green light pressed against the darkness and illuminated her surroundings.

A long, empty corridor stretched out before her, and she was mystified by the square sheets of silver metal that comprised the floor, ceiling, and sides. Only an incredible master of metallurgy could have achieved the nearly perfect edges and balance of material.

An offshoot ahead hosted the eerie light that was granting her this burst of vision. Aside from herself, the hall appeared empty. She was given only a moment of obscure perception before the light dimmed and extinguished.

Darkness overtook her once more.