“Woah.” Her words bounced off the walls of the cave in an echo across the dark abyss. Accompanying her sudden sound was the rushing streams of the spirited waterfalls dropping down into the deep unknown chasm below them. Briefly, Aurora tried to make sense of the place as she took it all in and distinguished which was magic and which was pure nature. The torches continued to flare gracefully while they gave the newcomer some time to overwhelm herself at the newfound discovery. The cave wasn’t black, albeit dark. It was green. Moss and nature had overgrown from it. Although the torches had an orange sense of the cavity, Aurora examined the plants and the moss climbing across the walls as if a coat of protection from anything else. Through it all, the air was fresh and welcoming. She took another deep breath. And she closed her eyes. She exhaled, and it was as if the fires joined her in this meditation. There was an odd chime across the venue. Like ringing, ambient a
Brilliant daybreak had once again dominated the color of the place. Sunbeams and shafts, glowing above the yellow sky while everyone in the town was still either sleeping or just preparing breakfast. Everyone, that is, except for the noiseless few donned in onyx black suits that almost seemed to reflect like the black gem itself—glinting against the mild sunbite. Within the trees surrounding them, there were chirping birds few and far between. It was a lonely, quiet day with only the chosen Kadlum that had accompanied Alice, standing beside two to three raven cars ready to go. Alice, hardly squinting from the radiance of the sun, crossed her arms as she gave a long sigh. “What’s taking him so long?” she asked.Inside the café, Aden was staring at the mirror—his eyes cutting deep into the windows of his own soul. It was, however, admittedly a bit strange to him. He was staring at his own face, but he could have sworn there was a feeling tha
…a wound… Cut black and deep right in the middle of the dark desert. Starless skies had hovered above him, but the white glow had caused the sands to glint and reflect quite enough. Atop a hill of sand, Aden gazed beyond the black dunes and caught himself staring at the infinite sinkhole fixed at the center of the hollow dream. No, not a sinkhole, corrected Aden. He stepped closer, but made sure he wouldn’t slide away from the sands. It was a vacuum. A fall. A pit. A fissure that dug deeper than what Aden could possibly see. The trench was as big as a town. You could throw in a whole village in there, he said to himself. There were signs of the sand, some sparkling against the lowly-gleaming white, being sucked in. But ultimately, they stopped. No movement. A frozen picture of the terrain going down into the black hole. Aden gripped his handgun and blinked wildly. He did not expect the sinking rift to go away, but he expected to calm down. Regaining his breat
At first, Aden did not believe it. He did not choose to recognize it. He stared at the presence of the abyssal onyx symbol underneath him, clutching the patterns and the symbols. Maybe because of his mumblings, and the silence, and the whisperings of the void, he was getting his thoughts whispered back to him. Because he began to hear himself. His own voice. But it wasn’t there in his head anymore. It was… right there with him. Standing, Aden continued to stare at the ground with the uncertainty of what he might see when he turned his gaze away. His eyes shot directly at the pedestal, and his left fist clenched while his right hand gripped his pistol. But then, he eased himself. Letting the anxious breath go, he exhaled the last of his anxieties. Nothing replaced it but a warm and calm caress in his soul. He stared blankly at the ground, then… his eyes crept up. To his left side… “Hey…” his voice. His own voice. “…Aden.” But that wasn’t his tone. That wasn’t
Aden stared for a long moment at him, like digging and scavenging what he could through the man’s eyes. He wasn’t sure why he was doing what he was doing—looking for an odd glint in the old soul’s eyes. Maybe, he was searching earnestly for Ailan’s past… and now his present intentions. Maybe, he was looking for weakness, something that could prepare him for… whatever will happen next.He felt himself regain bodily strength. There was a calm resurgence in his mind, his arms, and his feet. Unconsciously, he felt himself turn completely towards him and reach slowly for his holstered handgun, but he eventually just hovered his fingers beside the weapon and just dropped his arm to the
The metal door opened, its giant contraption screaming with a loud metallic gear as the door slowly slid to the right, its body slowly being eaten away through the open space within the walls. When the metallic sound rang again, signifying the sliding of the door complete, Isabel and Mikey walked through the ten-foot doorway. A short, narrow staircase led them upwards, towards the massive hallway awaiting them. At the top of the staircase, however, were two guards—standing agitatedly and irritated. “Isabel? Mikey? Why aren’t you two in your positions?” the guard on the right angr
Leven stood at the center of the cylindrical room, his back turned towards the open doorway. Distant starlight had entered through the round glass panel fixated on the center of the ceiling. Although supposedly made to create a beam that would illuminate straightly down to the center of the room, its ray of light now was slightly bent to show that the majority of the stars had been coming from the left side of the sky. Leven looked, carefully, almost intensely, at what the simple starlight had been shining down upon. A statue, onyx glossy black as the floor beneath it. He had figured the material used was marble, or at least a very smooth stone to form it. He was quiet, but Leven inwardly beheld at the sight: Ledanai’i.
Aden pulled the trigger, his eyes glinting with fury and resolve as a comparable fire burst out of the barrel of his gun. The gun shrieked, its bullet instantly whizzing across the dark walls and into Leven’s chest. This time, no mist had replaced his body. Aden shot again, and once more, and once more, and one more. Five bullets, in total, all digging into Leven’s upper body. Aden wanted to shoot again, to completely empty the magazine, but decided it was enough. Leven watched in shock as he felt himself lose control of his body and fall to the floor, his view now slightly obscured by the blood momentari
“Thank you,” Kael said. He grabbed his burger and drink from the vendor and gave him his payment. It was a stall, just across the street—right in front of the internet café, his internet café. Kael walked towards his small business, crossing the empty street under the sting of hot daylight. It was a bit windy today, so his jacket slightly flapped against the rushing gust. He had missed the times when he would wear a suit and walk around the small town with dapper, but he had also already gotten used to wearing his casual clothes. They had to keep a low-profile for now, as Alice had told them. The other clans were still looking for Kadlum stragglers scattered across Manila. Yes, it had almost been a month since the attack of the Bayi on their territories. It had almost been a month since Miko’s death. He was told by Alice himself that most of the Kadlum have gathered to the ‘refuge’. But, like few others, Alice told him not t