Echoes From Dust
by L. S. Popovich
In the Cauterhaugh, lifeforms and even the landscape are composed of synthesized metals, and beasts called cynths ravage the dwindling human settlements. Riku is a Mag, an inorganic human born in this harsh and unforgiving land.
Riku has grown up hearing stories about Mitchlum, a metropolis of habitable trees and the bastion of the Priesthood, which channels divine powers in defense against the encroaching cynths. Riku is chosen to undergo the sacred trials, assume a priest’s mantle and protect her homeland. Everyone has high expectations for her, but her destiny is hers to decide.
| Table of Contents | Glossary |
Chapter 55: Control
Riku neared the top of the Fjord where the stone walls were studded with controls and delicate gauges. Under normal circumstances, guards would have been stationed at every level, but given the situation in the city below, she ascended without passing any. Instead she encountered deep gashes in the floor and wondered if Izzie or the beast would be waiting at the pinnacle. Garish pipes and flickering lights followed her upward.
The control center overlooked the massive waterfall cascading down the tremendous height of the Fjord. Riku was out of breath when she entered the small room and found Izzie fiddling with the complex panels of blinking machinery. The door had been pried open with more than human strength. Riku had never seen the priestess in such disarray: her tunic was reduced to rags, and her hair was flowing wildly.
“Izzie!” she yelled. Her call echoed, and Riku realized they were alone. Izzie looked up, a moment’s confusion passing through her eyes before determination returned.
“Riku, have you made up your mind to stop me?” Izzie twisted something on the board and the whole room hummed, causing Riku to freeze in place. “You’re a little late.”
“I can’t let you do it!” Riku shrieked.
Izzie sighed heavily and brushed a lock of hair out of her stern face. “You’ve seen the gods yourself. You know this is not the world they want. I’m going to believe Virgil’s god. Remera is just trying to stay in power.”
“So why not just kill her?”
“What?” Izzie looked genuinely surprised.
“Why not finish off your mother instead of destroying everyone else with the Fjord?”
Izzie narrowed her eyes. “I might despise her but—”
“You’ll be the same as she, if you go through with it. Finishing what she started! Do you really want to become what she is?”
Izzie paused for a moment, as if her resolve had faltered. “I’ve got to do it, Riku. I’m sorry if you don’t understand, but I respect you for how far you’ve come. Try and stop me if you think you can.” Izzie frowned.
“But why? You spent most of your life saving people from grotto-le.”
“And I’m tired of fighting the will of the gods. It’ll put an end to this pointless war! You have no idea what it’s been like. The situation has grown steadily worse over the past century.”
“You’re right! I barely know anything. But I can tell right from wrong! And starting this machine up again is wrong!”
“You’ve seen what the Council really is, what my mother has done. She controls people through innocence and ignorance. Don’t you get it? It’s all an illusion. Remera has been pretending to be a god, and we’ve all been her faithful servants!”
“And now you’re trading one god for another.”
“She needs to be stopped. Maybe if I told you what she uses your people for, you’d see what a monster she is.”
“What do you mean? You killed Nadyr!”
“My beast-form may have caused his death, but Remera recycles mags. She collects the bodies of cynths and mags. She studies inorganics and uses them to create these!” Izzie displayed her modified arm. “She strengthens her warriors by using the metal bones of the dead. She is searching for a way to stop the grotto-le, but they keep getting stronger and stronger. She’ll never beat the gods, no matter how many people she sacrifices along the way. After a lifetime of lies, of sending new victims for her dissection, I’m done.”
Trembling, Riku let out a slow breath. Warm tears flowed down her cheeks. In the intensity of her emotion, she couldn’t decide what to believe. Izzie wouldn’t lie about what Remera had done. Her knees threatened to give out, and it was only by giving way to her god that she continued. “Using the Fjord isn’t going to save us.”
“This can’t go on. Our chances are dwindling. For your sake, for everyone’s sake, I have to change the outcome.”
“Izzie...” Riku began, “I can’t stop you, we both know that. This world needs to be fixed, I agree. I lost my village. Maybe there’s no right answer. Maybe Remera is a horrible leader! But this isn’t going to make it any better. Please, we can find another way.”
Izzie’s hand hovered, and then the stainless steel segments of her fingers pierced the solid surface of the control panel. A red glass bulb pulsed like a heartbeat, sparks jumped from the gaping crevice carved out by her metallic arm. There was a loud wrenching sound and the console crackled and sputtered.
Riku stared in astonishment. Izzie’s arm snaked through the interior of the machine and drew forth a gnarled trail of wires.
“What did you do?” Riku gasped. “Did you stop the Fjord?”
“Virgil needed me to destroy this central unit to do his part.”
“Izzie, No!”
“The longer we wait, Riku, the more people will die. This is the only way.”
The red bulb had gone out. A profound silence pervaded the room. For the first time Riku noticed the perfect stillness of the Fjord, like a needle pinning the planet. Before, it had hummed like a subtly churning machine.
Then a fiery aura surrounded Izzie, and Riku’s god shouted within her: Stop her!
Enormous wings unfolded from Izzie’s back, her arms elongated and curled into gleaming claws. A painful tension seized Riku, but her voice did not falter. “Stop him! You have to stop Virgil!”
Pausing for a moment, the beast regarded her without expression. Then, turning, it burst through the solid wall of the room, leaving only a gaping hole through which an icy wind howled.
Splinters of glinting steel and dangling wires whipped across Riku’s face, and she watched the beast’s shape recede into the dense clouds.
Riku screamed, the god Yumi screamed, but the wind was too loud, and the monster was too far away.
Copyright © 2019 by L. S. Popovich
