Chains of a Demigod Part 8
Synergy
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
Part 9 (coming soon)
Parts 1-7 Synopsis (3 minute read):
Nyl emerges in a brutal, ever-shifting world of primal hunts and ancient wars, guided by a cold, metallic voice that names her “the Impetuous,” then “the Ardent,” urging her toward the enigmatic title of “Basilissa.” Her mind absorbs alien knowledge, fueling superhuman feats - slaying chieftains, scaling towers, and dodging thousands of arrows. Each trial escalates, thrusting her through eras of advancing weaponry and complexity. She bonds with Garuna the Quick and Arcade the Steady, fully conscious warriors amid half-aware “others,” their alliance solidified in Part 2 when they slay a dragon. But Garuna, mortally wounded, is abandoned when Nyl and Arcade swear fealty to a king, sparking Nyl’s guilt.
In Part 3, Nyl’s jealousy over Arcade’s dalliances and a princess’s favor erupts at a feast, driving her to a tower. Arcade’s confession of love and his offer to sacrifice himself leads to a kiss, triggering the sun’s descent and their separation. Part 4 traps Nyl in a city ruled by a corpse-queen Garuna, whose son Garun executes prisoners echoing the trio’s flaws. Nyl transforms into a silver dragon and kills Garun, but Garuna’s magic births twins from his corpse, Luna and Runa, who thwart her rescue of a chained Arcade. Wounded, Nyl crashes, human again, near another city.
Part 5 reunites Nyl with a red-eyed, flamboyant Arcade ruling Arcadia, proposing marriage, while Garuna’s army, led by a blue-eyed Arcade, attacks. Nyl’s attempt to free the blue-eyed Arcade fails as her sword shatters. In Part 6, the twins mortally wound Nyl, chaining her beside Garun’s corpse. Sacrificing her dragon power to heal, and recognizing her role in Arcade’s surreal split, Nyl confesses her guilt for abandoning Garuna, prompting forgiveness and the Arcades’ surrender of their flaws - red’s obsession and blue’s guilt. Garuna relinquishes her vengeance, reviving as her old self. Reunited, the trio learns from the voice that Garuna is the beacon, Arcade the link, and Nyl the motive force, together having the potential to forge “Basilissa.” The sun vanishes, and Nyl awakens in a cryotube, greeted by a scientist named Hanno.
Part 7 plunges Nyl into a cargo freighter under pirate attack. Naked and armed with naught but a scalpel, she slays dozens of men with stolen guns, escaping with Hanno as cruise missiles strike. Saving him from drowning, she’s rescued by Arcade and Garuna, but fades into unconsciousness. Haunted by metallic visions and cryptic riddles, Nyl questions her identity and the reality of her trials. The title “Basilissa” looms, sounding as much a reward as a threat.
Chains of a Demigod Part 8
The medical bay wrapped Nyl in a hive of blinking monitors and cold steel. An antiseptic tint mixed with a briny whiff of old, recycled sea air wheezed silently from wall vents and watered her eyes. She shivered beneath a thermal blanket. Her skin felt raw from cryotube frost and the vagaries of combat. Someone had clothed her in military fatigues.
She ached – not just physically from explosions or the ocean’s icy embrace, but from a deeper, gnawing void. A growing emptiness that haunted her through every trial, through all the blood and steel, from the primal hunts to the knightly duels. And now, in this alien-looking submersible ship humming with technology she barely understood, she wondered again:
What am I?
The thought echoed in her skull. Her mind - a hard shell of weapon proficiencies and combat moves - concealed a hollow core she felt a desperate need to fill. A vulnerable part of her she did not control screamed from within this sound-proofed room:
Help me!
Nyl felt the words leave her mouth but heard no sound. She touched her ears, trembling, pulling away fingers dappled with half-dried blood.
The missiles. Air, and a few meters of water – a thin shield between her and two powerful explosions. The jump and dive had preserved her life. But had not protected her from all the concussive force, her lungs collapsing, her eardrums bursting.
She curled tighter into her blanket, sucked the coppery tang from her fingers, blinked hard against fluorescent glare. Shadows shifted on the floor, startling her. She looked up, squinted, and beheld two familiar faces hovering close.
Arcade’s handsome aspect, tinged with concern, red hair disheveled but blue eyes sharp. His mouth moved, but Nyl only heard a bass murmur, distant thunder in a thick storm.
Garuna’s, etched with worry, orange hair spilling silken and free, a mouth likewise shaping mute words.
I cannot hear you, Nyl tried to say.
Her friends stilled. They exchanged a glance, their worry deepening.
A stranger entered the room, a doctor, someone beautiful, her bright hair pulled tight, her movements sharp with confidence.
Nyl caught the widening of Garuna’s eyes on the stranger, a dilation in her pupils. A flicker of attraction existed there, but also gratitude, worry melting from Garuna’s face. She knows this woman, Nyl thought, watching Garuna’s lips curl in a smile. Knows her intimately.
Nyl flinched, the observation almost hitting her physically – an instinctual knowing, accurate like her aim with a spear or gun. Had Nyl become a mind reader?
But she only sensed Garuna’s feelings and presence, not her thoughts, and heard nothing from the mind of the stranger.
She looked to Arcade: he is worried, but this doctor, his friend, instills confidence. He has waited a long time to see me again, has expected my arrival. He recently thought I was lost. A fear now abated.
So Nyl had a new connection to him, too. Did it have something to do with the voice? Become Basilissa?
The stranger said something, a question directed at Nyl. Nyl did not catch the movement of her lips.
Nyl shook her head at the hazel-eyed woman, looked to Arcade for help, then Garuna. Nyl’s consciousness – never strictly restrained to her skull – flicked casually through an abstract, external library of knowledge; a vast horde of information a single mind could never contain all at once. A constellation of datapoints flared bright, pulling her curious spirit in, something called ASL - collection of hand signals more comprehensive than the rote military ones she already knew.
Garuna, who had been staring at Nyl, winced when Nyl’s mind returned to her skull.
She hears me, learns what I learn, Nyl realized. Another aspect of the new synergy?
Garuna’s hands moved in signage: “Doctor. Hold still.”
Nyl nodded.
The beautiful stranger opened a desk drawer and retrieved an otoscope. She flashed a smile at Nyl – truly gorgeous, stunning her with charm. Nyl could not help but smile back. The woman leaned close and applied her device to Nyl’s ear.
Nyl felt the woman’s breath on her cheek, the wind of unheard words. Nyl held still, glancing at her friends, signing a question.
Arcade signed, thumb tracing his palm: “Surgery.”
“How long?” Nyl signed, desperate to hear again.
Arcade answered, hands deliberate: “Week, several. Month, several.”
Garuna shook her head, fierce. “Day,” she signed, adding with a confident jab: “One.”
Arcade shrugged. But a faint smile broke through his hard façade.
The doctor finished checking Nyl’s other ear, her light touch on Nyl’s shoulder a fleeting comfort. Nyl cherished the contact, her entire being pulled to the doctor’s hand on her shoulder. She had never been awake for the touch of a healer before. Nyl looked to Garuna, thought: lucky girl, and remembered Arcade’s strong hands unharnessing her armor not long ago, but somehow lifetimes ago. She remembered her lips brushing his in a tower – moments too rare. The thought stirred butterflies in her stomach. She hoped her blush went unnoticed.
Arcade and Garuna nodded to the doctor’s unheard explanation.
Nyl signed impatiently: “Surgery. When?”
Arcade answered: “Tomorrow.”
Nyl shook her head. “Now.”
Arcade’s brow furrowed, but Garuna smiled and conveyed Nyl’s urgency to the doctor.
Another unheard mouthful of words from the stranger.
“Two hours,” Arcade signed. “Warmth. Wash. Surgery.”
Nyl nodded, pulled her blanket tighter again. Fatigue crashed over her, eyelids heavy, and she could not stifle a yawn. She searched for the word, then signed: “Alone.”
Garuna and Arcade nodded, spoke to the doctor again. Arcade held the door for the women as they filed out.
“Not you,” Nyl said, pointing at him. “Stay. Please.”
Arcade gave her a quizzical look that soon softened. He nodded and let the door swing shut.
“Hold me,” Nyl signed and gave him a pleading look.
Arcade smiled, shrugged off his scarred wool-collared coat, and wrapped it around Nyl’s shoulders. There was little room for him, the hospital bed creaking as he squeezed in beside her.
Nyl nestled her head into his chest, his bulk a warm anchor. She felt his heartbeat on her cheek, found it easy to pretend she could hear it too, a satisfying illusion. She wanted more, wanted to kiss him, explore him, climb atop him.
But before she knew it, she fell asleep.
A deep, muffled voice said: “Nyl, if you can hear me, wake up.”
Nyl stirred, pain flaring behind her ears. She reached to touch them then felt herself falling.
Strong arms caught her, cradling her back to the bed.
“Easy there,” a feminine voice cooed, clearer now.
Nyl blinked rapidly, vision sharpening. “Arcade? Garuna?” Her hearing was back – fragile, distorted, but real.
“It is us,” Garuna said, her smile bright but tinged with concern.
Nyl complained: “It is too bright.”
Arcade, his red hair bed-mussed, clasped her hand within his rough grip.
Garuna hovered close, tired green eyes alight.
Their presence brought relief, a tether grounding Nyl in a world of lies. Yet their underlying ease of presence, their stark belonging here, sharpened her isolation. They had carved out lives here - loves, causes - while she remained a ghost, reborn from ice with nothing but a name and a knack for killing.
How do I have such thoughts? Nyl knew nothing of their lives other than the obvious connection Garuna had to the doctor.
“Nyl, you are a miracle,” Arcade said, smirking. “Sea nor fire could claim you.”
“Tough as a dragon, our Nyl,” Garuna’s teased through a smile. “Viveca wanted to prepare us for the worst even when I told her of your famous invincibility. Now she owes me a kiss.”
Nyl’s throat tightened when she heard the way Garuna said the beautiful stranger’s name - Viveca.
Nyl shifted, the blanket slipping, cold air prickling her skin with gooseflesh. “Viveca… your…” The word girlfriend caught on her tongue.
Garuna frowned now. She exchanged a look with Arcade.
Garuna has love, a future she chases. Arcade, too – his patched jacket, scarred by many battles, demonstrating years leading, fighting, living. Nyl had nothing – no roots, no memories beyond the churn of endless trials. Her life was a mosaic of violence, longing, and rage, each world dissolving into the next and leaving her empty.
Real lives. Nyl’s heart twisted. Garuna develops tactics for a large front and plans a private wedding on the side. Arcade is a leader of men, wages a war for freedom.
I have only… The longing surged, a desperate ache for something happily mundane – a home, a quiet hideaway from dread or pain, a purpose beside slaughter.
Arcade bore her scrutiny like a stone, only a slight shift of his eyes betraying his discomfort. Garuna pushed hair from her face, staring at her.
They have forgotten waking lost like this. They spent years building all this while I lay frozen.
“Where am I,” Nyl asked.
Arcade shed the awkwardness like it never was: “You ride the SSN Witness, the United States of the Periphery’s high-tech warship.”
“A submarine,” Garuna clarified, eager to fill the silence. “The most advanced in existence, built at a time when humanity still ruled the world.”
A girl blessed with engagement to a beautiful companion. And a respected hero who enjoys daily comradery and fame. Nyl sat up, vertigo gripping her again. Blood rushed through hear ears, her heart pounding like a drum, a heartbeat monitor toning alarm, then she was-
Bound by brilliant knots of light, falling through the hull, falling through the sea, hurtling through a vortex of screams, blind assailants throwing the shards of their death – not people, ghosts, fragments of minds, unwhole spirits tugging, absorbing, splitting from her like sticky bark, her skin beneath bubbling, inconstant, unsubstantial layers of muscle, frayed and bleeding, transforming, hardening, glossy, almost glass, then darkening, hues of steel, transparent yet opaque layering over a –
Patchwork of slain heroes.
“What is happening to her?”
Unviable fetuses ground to fodder.
“Doctor!”
Fragmented souls screeching in torment.
“Doctor! Doctor!”
The stolen purge of hell.
“Viveca! Help her!”
Eyes without brains brains without blood blood without vessels vessels without souls souls without life life without purpose purpose without meaning meaning without time time without end end without start-
Nyl felt several strong hands holding her down. Something sharp pricked a vein in her arm.
Nyl woke again to dim light, her limbs strapped to the bed by leather bands. She heard a noise - Garuna, asleep in a foldout chair, snoring lightly, head nestled in a corner.
“How long have I been-” Nyl croaked through a hoarse throat, short of breath.
Garuna blinked awake, stood slowly, fatigues rustling and her seat squeaking in the quiet.
“Nyl, you wake,” Garuna whispered, dark circles under her eyes.
“How long?” Nyl repeated.
“Two days passed since we found you,” Garuna said louder. She stood and came to hold Nyl’s hand. Beeping monitors lit salty tracks on her cheeks – dried tears. Her eyes were red and raw with grief, her voice tight and congested.
Nyl felt foggy in the brain but otherwise healthy. She wanted to be released, wondered why anyone thought it necessary to bind her in the first place.
“What is wrong?” Nyl asked instead, concerned by Garuna’s obvious grief.
Garuna’s smile faltered. “Viveca ended our relationship.”
Lacking words, Nyl asked the obvious: “Why?”
“I broke a promise,” Garuna smiled at Nyl sadly. “I swore to remain in a support role, safe. The work was important, but now it is done. We launch the final assault soon.”
Nyl, naïve to love, attempted to draw from her esoteric source of knowledge, finding only a horde of competing ideologies, confusion, and contradictions. She felt an urge to help her friend but knew not where to start.
“But enough about me,” Garuna said, sniffling and wiping away a tear. Her smile came back, more genuine: “How do you feel?”
“Good,” Nyl said. “Please untie me. And if there is water…”
Garuna assumed an apologetic look and freed Nyl from the straps. “Sorry. You lost control of yourself after the surgery, and Viv-” Garuna choked back a sob, but continued, “The doctor feared both infection and damage to your surgical grafts, so she had us tie you down.”
Free, Nyl sat up and touched the raw skin behind one ear, discovering a stitched incision. Where the tissue came from to repair my ear drums, Nyl presumed.
Garuna perused cabinets and filled a tiny paper cup from a nearby faucet.
Nyl drank it in one gulp, and said: “I am ready to fight. Take me to the armory.”
Garuna blurted a laugh. The mirth brightened her, outshining her sadness for a moment.
“Nyl! You have not changed at all! I missed you.” Her hands brushed Nyl’s shoulders, teasing but tentative. “We are a week away from the planned date. Your time will come, Nyl. For five years now, Arcade and I have fought and bled and planned the overthrow of the ‘Consensus,’ the Artificial Intelligence choking freedom from the world.”
Nyl felt a tinge of jealousy, wishing she could have been a part of that. Building an army must have given them a sense of community. But with another look she saw Garuna’s face wither to sadness again, and thought: I should not be so selfish…
“Viveca left you because you will fight? Because of me?”
Garuna looked away. “It is not like that…”
“Perhaps I can help you with Viveca.”
“It has nothing to do with you at all.” Garuna’s tone sharpened, defensive.
Nyl stood, hugging her friend and softening her tone: “You are heartbroken. This distraction dulls a warrior’s focus.”
Garuna tensed, then melted into the embrace. “But there is nothing to be done.”
Nyl held her at arms’ length. “It cannot hurt to try, can it?”
It could, Nyl read the words in her friend’s eyes.
“No, it cannot,” Garuna humored her, but her face betrayed doubt.
She chooses reason over emotion, but she also humors me. She forgives me for truly having no idea of what I speak.
“I can almost read your thoughts,” Nyl said, the synergy uncanny.
Garuna nodded, solemn. “Arcade and I discussed this. He and I are connected now, too, deeper than before. Your awakening changed something for all three of us.”
“So you know my impatience,” Nyl said.
“Yes - though that is always a safe assumption concerning a certain friend of mine,” Garuna smiled again.
“I will tell you what I can: Viveca was a hostage. Too old for the Consensus neuro-washers, too young for servitude. So they collared her with a detonator and hid her in the Consensus’ fortress as a hostage to force her parents’ obedience, like many millions of others. The AI’s regime tested Viveca, discovering her aptitude for science and medicine, then educated her and put her to work in these roles.
“Her mother died. How, she does not know. The Consensus provided an explanation she does not accept. Her father, though, did something wrong. Disobeyed an order, it seems. Viveca’s collar activated, but the bomb proved a dud. She removed it and escaped captivity, a harrowing tale of its own. Her father must have perished, never knowing his daughter survived.”
Nyl’s heart ached for Garuna’s lover. Viveca’s loss might echo her own void. “It is no wonder that she fears connection and its loss.”
Her words hung in the air.
Garuna’s green eyes glistened, her jaw tight. “She does not fear loss. She expects it. Viveca has had too much taken away – her family, her freedom. First by slavery, now by the exigencies of war. She behaves as if I am already dead.” Her voice cracked, raw with grief.
Garuna believes she is free from the cycle of our false reality, Nyl thought. She opened her mouth to mention this, but reconsidered. What if she is right?
Nyl gripped Garuna’s shoulders: “Then fight for her. Show her you are more than a promise broken. Do not let her discard you.”
Garuna laughed bitterly. “You make it sound simple, Nyl. Like swinging a sword or pulling a trigger. Love is no battlefield, no simple conquest.”
“Is it not?” Nyl’s gaze burned. “You faced legions of men. You faced dragons. You faced me. Do not tell me Viveca’s reluctance is a fiercer challenge than all that.”
Garuna’s mouth worked, a silent stutter as she fumbled for a response.
Someone knocked quietly at the door. Garuna eagerly slipped from Nyl’s grasp to admit Arcade.
Garuna turned her head, suavely hiding new tear tracks, and mimicked cheer: “Hello, Arcade!”
Arcade leaned against the bulkhead surrounding the door outside. He shifted uncomfortably, his blue eyes flicking between them. “Nyl is right, Garuna. Viveca is worth the fight.”
“How much did you hear…” Garuna sniffed.
“Enough. But we have a bigger battle first.” Arcade had a steady voice, but Nyl caught the strain beneath his fire – a leader weary of death and war and eager to see its business concluded.
Garuna wiped her eyes and nodded. “New York. I know.” She straightened, her soldier’s mask slipping back into place. “Every waking day we strived to weaken the Consensus’ grip on the world. And now Nyl is here, just in time for the final push. There is much she should know.”
Nyl’s chest tightened, again feeling like a ghost with nothing but a name and a talent for death.
You are the motive force and the howling void… through you, Basilissa could draw strength, the voice had told her. But what was Basilissa? A title? A destiny? Or just another lie in this endless game?
“I am glad to see you on your feet,” Arcade observed.
“Take me to the armory,” she repeated, resolute. “I am done lying in beds.”
Garuna’s smile returned, her heartbreak pushed aside. “If you must. Come on, then.”
Arcade pushed off the wall and turned his shoulders to let the women past. He brushed Nyl’s arm when she came near– a fleeting measure of reassurance, a look that tried to say: you belong.
Nyl felt thankful for it.
“You will see the Witness in action, Nyl,” Garuna said. “She is a beast, and unique. A secret prototype, hailing from an era before the Consensus’ conquest. And we are not alone. The USP has rallied free souls from around the world for this fight. If all goes to plan, that thrice-damned tyrant will never see us coming.”
Nyl followed them through the submarine’s roomy corridors, the quiet whir and hum of machinery vibrating through her soles. Crewmen nodded or smiled at Arcade, behaving with a mix of informal familiarity and a bit of awe. Their eyes would then linger on Nyl with and change to curiosity and fear. She sensed fragments of their thoughts – nothing like the connection she held with her companions, but weaker, surface-level feelings. Pride, hope. And dread.
Her synergy with Arcade and Garuna shone as well. She sensed Garuna’s resolve, albeit tempered by heartbreak. And Arcade’s focus, shadowed by guilt and pity for Nyl’s circumstances.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Nyl told him.
Acrade nodded, knowing what she meant. He seemed more open to their connection and did not try to hold things back like Garuna did. But despite her assurances, his shame lingered.
They reached the armory. Steel racks and weapon crates cramped the cavernous room. Firearms of many advanced types gleamed under harsh light.
Nyl’s eyes locked on a submachine gun - a compact, 9mm beast with a folding stock and red-dot sight. She lifted it, the weight familiar, her mind flooding with specifications: 800 rounds per minute, effective range 150 meters, parabellum anti-armor rounds boasting a heftier gunpowder charge than standard cartridges. She slung it across her chest, then perused a rack of Kevlar vests with ceramic plate carriers, hefting one out that looked her size.
She sensed Garuna and Arcade’s silence, looked their way, saw the pair grinning.
“Seven days,” Arcade reminded Nyl with a chuckle. “It is a little soon to gear up.”
Nyl blushed with embarrassment and tried to save face: “There is no target range for practice?”
Garuna mock-rolled her eyes. “You do not need practice, Nyl.”
“Do I not?” Nyl said. “I have never had downtime before. What if my abilities fade?”
Arcade ceded the point. “I did get a bit rusty at one point these last five years. Regular training has proven important. But I think you underestimate how different you are, Nyl. More importantly, a submarine is not an ideal place for firearm drills.”
“I see,” Nyl said, realizing the truth of it the moment he said it, now visualizing many things that could go wrong.
“Oh my,” Garuna said, seeing the same things Nyl did. “And here I thought I already knew all the horrid ends one could meet at this depth.”
Arcane laughed. “Nyl, I am glad you are here. I knew your bandwidth for instant knowledge would prove a boon, but this synergy with which you share it will make us doubly unstoppable.”
Nyl smirked at the name, remembering the time when a theatrical side of Arcade had literally gone by the cognomen, “Unstoppable.” The humor passsed when she remembered the blood and pain associated with that title.
Arcade walked over to the racks, withdrew a light machinegun, pulled a belt gleaming with bullets from an ammo box and snapped it into the weapon’s feed. He inspected its action as he spoke: “This sharpening of our link… I have operated a gun like this more times than I can count, but now, with you close, it is not just a tool. It feels like an extension of my being… like a fifth limb.”
Garuna piped up: “Have you seen Arcade’s ‘fifth limb’ yet, Nyl?”
Arcade, normally so stoic, could not hide his blushing. He made a face and looked away.
Nyl arched a brow at Garuna, who made a heroic attempt at maintaining a neutral expression.
“Oh…” Nyl said in sudden realization, looking Arcade’s way again, unable to stop the visualization.
Garuna’s mask broke and she doubled over with laughter. “Nyl’s lack of action this week – a problem solved!” She gave a meaningful look to Arcade.
“Shut your mouth!” Arcade said with excess consternation.
Excitement, yearning, distress. Nyl sensed his true feelings through their connection. And not just his…
Nyl and Arcade turned serious at this shared, unexpected revelation. They both stared at a surprised Garuna.
“I…” Garuna stammered, looking back and forth between her friends.
Nyl stumbled over her words: “Surely we - she could-”
Arcade tried to speak: “This is no-”
“Brothers and sisters!” Hanno interrupted merrily, entering the armory.
All eyes turned to see the old man seemingly appear out of thin air, the reinforced door to the submarine’s magazine slamming shut behind him. How had they not heard the heavy metal hatch open?
Arcade recovered first: “What were you doing in there?”
Hanno smiled innocently, “Oh, just checking inventory.”
Nyl had not expected such an old man to be up an about. He had suffered the same torments she had. “How have you recovered so quickly?”
“It was but a scratch,” Hanno said. He walked to the center of the group, his face turning wistful. “Oh, to be young again.” Hanno dropped his eyes from the ceiling and gave Nyl a wink.
Nyl’s emotional turmoil made a response difficult. Garuna gulped audibly, and Nyl sensed clashing feelings in her friend – desire and self-reproach.
Hanno coughed and addressed Arcade: “General, may I borrow you for a moment? The loss of the Duskchaser and its cargo necessitates changes to the invasion plan.”
Arcade seemed not to hear the doctor, his eyes flicking between Nyl and Garuna.
“General?”
Arcade shook his head and blinked. “This is a matter Garuna-”
“No, no. Garuna is…” Hanno looked at her, seemed to search for the right term. “Distracted.”
So am I, Nyl thought. So is Arcade.
“Garuna and Nyl have matters to discuss,” Hanno insisted. “I promise not to keep you hostage more than a few hours.”
“Very well,” Arcade said with a sigh. “Let us go and adjust our strategy.”
Garuna reached for Arcade. “Call upon me when you finish, or should you need my-”
“Yes, we will if we need to,” Hanno interrupted again, conveniently placing his body between Garuna and Arcade’s touch. He herded the big man to the door. “Do not worry yourself. We will take care of it. Simple but important matters must be rectified.”
“I will see you soon,” Nyl said to Arcade, uncomfortable with the high pitch she heard in her voice.
“I will find you when I am free,” Arcade promised. He looked away from Nyl to glance at Garuna, and then he was out of sight.
Garuna spoke once the armory door had closed: “Strange.”
“What?” Nyl asked.
“I saw Hanno in the corridor on our way in.”
Nyl shrugged. “And?”
“There is only the one door into the magazine. The other is welded shut, to direct fire or unplanned detonations away from vital systems.”
“Huh,” Nyl wondered, Garuna’s point unspoken: How had Doctor Hanno gotten in there?
“I can sense your suspicion,” Garuna said. “That none of this is real.”
Nyl hung her head. “Some of it is real. I am real. You are real. Arcade is real.”
“For several years I have not noticed any hints like the strangeness of our time… before. I have witnessed no magic, heard no voices. And Doctor Hanno is no stranger to me. There must be an explanation. We have collaborated for years, though…” Garuna faltered as if not fully convinced, then said. “I only met him in person for the first time when you came aboard…”
Nyl shook her head. “How do you think we came to be here?”
“That is easy. Before the AI takeover, a mighty country existed called the ‘United States of America.’ Their military kept many secrets as Consensus spread its influence, developing separate AI research centers and projects. One of them was a super-warrior program, of which we three are products. Once there were more of us, but the AI killed most of them in the ‘cradle,’ so to speak. We three remain, thanks to Doctor Hanno’s efforts.”
“Why did he wake you, and not me?” Nyl asked.
“Hanno is paranoid, and for good reason. Researchers who were not are slaves, now. He sought to remain in the shadows and take it slow with us. He woke Arcade first as a test, and when that went well, he woke me. We asked about you, of course, but he convinced us of the importance of keeping you in hiding. A backup, so to speak, in case we perished on a guerilla op. The last five years have been difficult, Nyl, with many close calls – the importance of our struggle cannot be overstated. But you can thank Arcade for your waking now. He flatly refused to go into this final phase without you, and named you the tip of our spear.
“I believe in this cause, Nyl. Humanity deserves to be free, and despite my unusual origin, I count myself as one of them.”
“So you have seen no dragons. No spells. No magical fire that punishes cowards. No… unusual abuses of physical law.”
Garuna shrank and clutched her elbows. “I have seen much,” she said vaguely. “Most of it has made sense. But some of it has not. I think ‘real’ reality is underlined by a layer of the unexplainable. A realm of expectations-perfectly-met would seem the strangest of all.”
Nyl felt a powerful wave of emotion emanating from Garuna – a new sensation she had not encountered before.
Garuna saw Nyl’s confusion and explained: “I discovered God, Nyl. And I believe He is real, that He is benevolent, omnipotent, and all-powerful. He is far above the other ‘gods’ we previously suspected or blamed for our circumstances.”
Nyl waited for Garuna to continue, and when she did not: “But?”
“But I cannot reconcile my faith in Him with the world I see. The suffering He allows… I have sought the advice of holy ones from many religions, hoping they could settle my doubt. How could a good and almighty being such as He permit the atrocities I witness?”
By reflex Nyl’s mind reached far, touching the surface of spirituality and religion. She beheld a vast sea of contradictory theories and belief systems every bit as confusing as love – if not more. Nyl felt equal parts intrigued and estranged.
“I am not religious, and do not think I could be,” Nyl said, then admitted: “If I did believe, I am certainly doomed to hell.”
Garuna laughed bitterly at this, the gravity of the moment fraying any real mirth.
Compelled to reflect deeper, Nyl knew not what to think. The tug of a hundred different directions left her adrift. So many questions. Why does Hanno appear from thin air to disrupt this… triangle. Why does he take Arcade, the person I wish to be with most, for a duty normally under Garuna’s purview? He interrupted a moment as frightening as it was exciting…
“Viveca,” Garuna said.
Nyl’s blood went cold. It was uncomfortable enough sharing feelings and knowledge. Did Garuna now also hear the words in her mind?
“What about her?” Nyl asked.
“For your list of people who are real.”
Nyl almost sighed with relief. At least some part of my mind remains private.
Garuna continued: “Perhaps you are right that we remain trapped in the voice’s unreality. As much as I wish to, I cannot be certain you are wrong.”
Garuna clutched Nyl’s hands tight, squeezed them in earnest. “But Viveca is real, like us. I know this in my heart.”
Nyl harbored doubt. She suppressed her reaction and hoped Garuna did not sense it through their link.
“Tell me more about Viveca. Let me help.”
Garuna sighed and nodded. “I will tell you everything I can.”
Garuna explained the day they met, their time together, their first kiss. Nyl’s jealousy burned bright at this recounting, her longing for a connection like hers, her longing for…
Nyl forced the distractions aside, focused on Garuna. She stared into her friend’s green eyes and felt the trembling hope in the beautiful woman’s nervous hands.
“Viveca is everything to me. She is fierce, brilliant, stunning. And she is pure – a healer, a lover. She hates the machine that killed her parents, but she could not harm a flea, and I love her all the more for it.”
I have only fleeting moments, Nyl thought. Arcade’s arms around me, the memory of our kiss, the warmth of Garuna’s touch in this moment…
“I hate how easily I broke my promise to stay safe,” Garuna continued. “She thinks I choose war over her. She knows nothing of my bond to you, or cares not. But perhaps she is right to question it…”
Nyl imagined Garuna’s orange hair spilling over Viveca’s shoulders, the pair laughing in a quiet moment. Her chest ached, a hollow void where a real life should be.
Yet when Nyl looked into Garuna’s eyes, when she saw the pain in them – sadness and pity cut deeper than her jealousy. Nyl recognized a fierce love there, a loyalty that made her envy trite in compariosn.
“I know enough,” Nyl said in a low voice. “You are worth her love. You are worthy of anyone you choose.”
Garuna’s lips parted. Her eyes dilated. But no words came, and her mouth closed. “But Nyl, what do you know of love? It is complicated.”
Nyl’s jaw clenched. “I know loyalty. I know your hurt. Is that not enough?”
Garuna squeezed Nyl’s hands, a silent thank you, then let her go. “I will find Hanno and Arcade, then, and see if I am truly banned from my work. You will find Viveca in the medical bay, most likely. I will also tell you the way to her quarters…”
Nyl did not find Viveca in the medical bay. An aide told Nyl that the sinking of the Duskchaser required a reassessment of medical supplies, and Viveca had taken on the work. He told Nyl to look for her in the cargo area.
Nyl made her way, marveling at the size of the Witness. She walked more than a hundred meters in a route from the armory, to the medical bay, and now to the cargo area. She could only guess, but she surmised from the size and spacing of the rooms so far that the submarine must be double or perhaps triple the length of this hundred-meter trip.
She found Viveca studying rows of crates on shelves in the cargo area, her bright hair pulled tight. Reading glasses framed her eyes as she checked labels and consulted an electronic tablet.
Viveca looked up at Nyl’s approach, a sharp look of disapproval over the rim of her glasses. “You should be resting.”
“Thank you for repairing my ears, doctor.”
“You are welcome. Now, if that is all?” Viveca returned her attention to her tablet.
“I have come to speak with you about Garuna.”
Viveca’s brows arched, but she did not look up. “Have you now?”
The doctor’s tone remained cold, but Nyl sensed a flicker of pain behind the hostility. Silence passed between them, broken only by the dull currents over the submarine’s hull and the thready hum of its engines. Nyl studied her: the tense set of her shoulders, the faint quiver in her facial muscles, the way her eyes darted away. She does not want to speak to me and guards a fragile heart. Nyl’s mind, so quick with weapons, fumbled with the words. Her heart raced, her inexperience a weight.
Nyl tried bluntness: “You are breaking her heart. Garuna falls apart because of you. She could make a mistake and die.”
Viveca stiffened. “You do not know me or what I have been through. And I doubt you know her as well as I do. Garuna is strong. She will be fine without me.”
Viveca’s directness equaled Nyl’s own. This approach will not work…
Nyl softened her tone. “I know loss. Garuna told me of your past. I know what haunts you. But it irrational to push her away now, on the eve of this important battle.”
Viveca’s loosed a brittle laugh. She removed her glasses and stuffed them folded into a pocket. “Loss? You think you know loss? I buried my family, Nyl. My mother, my father, killed for defying the Consensus. What do you know of loss? Garuna has told me much about you, speaks of you in hushed and worshipful tones. Neither of you have a clue what a true life of guilt is like. My family is dead and I survive by a fluke!”
Nyl’s chest tightened, jealousy and anger flaring. She saw Garuna and Viveca in her mind’s eye, hands entwined, a bond Nyl craved — she thought of Arcade’s strong hands, Garuna’s pleasing warmth, imagined her friend’s her silken hair grazing Nyl’s skin in an embrace. She shoved the images away, clung to the memory of Garuna’s tear-glistening, hopeful gaze.
“Garuna fights for freedom. For you. Like you. You fight, too, in your own way – you heal instead of kill, but I recognize the hatred in your heart. It is written on your face. You would die for this cause, if needed, Viveca. So would Garuna. She just might. What then?”
Viveca’s face reddened. She gripped her tablet tightly. “I cannot believe she… You! You are talking to me!”
“What do you mean?” Nyl said.
“When I met Garuna I thought: ‘Finally, something bright. Joy has finally found me.’ I dared feel hope, dared to love without conditions. It was fine at first, but she would come back to me injured, again and again. Every month, it seemed, another bone to mend, another wound to stitch, another near-death experience. The days of love and laughter turned to dread that the next goodbye would be our last. One day I realized when I look at Garuna, I see and feel the same thing I did with my parents – fear and the weight of inevitable death. My wellbeing deteriorated to the point I could no longer perform my work. Slavery all over again - but this time with no ‘Consensus’ to blame!”
“But your love triumphed.”
“Yes! She refused to let me go. Said she did not need to fight anymore, that the rebellion had grown large, that it no longer required her on the front lines. She swore she would stay safe in her new support role, that she was needed more for planning and leadership than for combat. She stopped following that glory-hunting friend of yours Arcade into every bloody scrap he could scrounge up.”
“It seems to me she kept her promise as long as she could,” Nyl countered. “Now the planning is over. She is needed for the final fight. As am I. As are you.”
Viveca turned away, hid her face. “You do not get it. It is not just about watching her die.”
Nyl stepped closer, her voice urgent, raw. “Tell me. I have no past, no life, only battles and a name. But this only intensifies my care. One of the few things I have is my love for Garuna. I cannot imagine throwing it away for any reason. Why would you?”
Viveca knuckled her brow, tense with emotion.
“You still love her. The only risk I see is her dying not certain you still care. If you let her go, you will not be protecting yourself. You will just be alone. with regret.”
“I am alone already!” Vivica shouted angrily. “You do not understand!”
Nyl’s breath hitched, surprised by Viveca’s fury.
Viveca turned on Nyl, animated now. “For years she spoke of you! Nyl, the mightiest warrior she had ever known. Nyl, the one who will save humanity from slavery. Nyl, the beautiful, strong, intelligent, unstoppable! Nyl, Nyl, Nyl!”
Viveca’s hands trembled at her sides, tears running down her cheeks. She swiped them from her face and turned away again.
“Oh,” Nyl said, feeling idiotic.
“Go to battle with Garuna, Nyl. If everything she says of you is true, I am a fool to think I ever mattered. I am not foremost in her heart.”
Nyl’s face felt hot. She sees me. Sees herself. Maybe Garuna was right about Viveca.
“I want…” Nyl swallowed, her voice rough, “I want Garuna to be focused. More important, I want to see her happy. She is my comrade, but also my friend, Viveca. To be whole, she needs you.”
Viveca’s hazel eyes widened, her tablet clutched tightly. “Garuna speaks of you like you are her hero. She and I have worked for years achieving the impossible to give us a chance against this… thing! You have yet to raise a finger for our struggle… but to Garuna, you are Nyl! Nyl ‘the Ardent,’ Nyl the savior. She is obsessed with you! And she breaks her vow to me the moment you arrive. What am I to believe? Am I to deny the proof of my eyes?”
Nyl’s chest tightened, the truth of Viveca’s misunderstanding now stark. Garuna’s praise mistaken for attraction, obsession. Viveca is not entirely wrong – I sensed Garuna’s longing, so did Arcade… But the discovery had surprised Garuna, had been suppressed. How deep did it really go? But Nyl had sensed Garuna’s love for Viveca as well, like a steady pulse, a brightness greater than that moment in the armory – what may have been a fleeting desire, a fantasy, a slip.
This insight bolstered Nyl’s resolve. She might be inexperienced, but she spoke with confidence now: “You are mistaken. Garuna loves you. She tells me you are fierce and brilliant. She tells me of a healer who hates the Consensus but would not harm a flea.”
Viveca scoffed, but her eyes lost some of their hardness.
It is working.
“This is only what she tells me. We share a link, she and I, so I know her deeply.” Nyl thought of the voice and what it had told her of Garuna, of their path to Basilissa, seeing the truth in those words: The crystal atop the mountain…
“She is a complicated woman, Viveca. Garuna harbors more guilt, anxiety, and fear of inferiority than you know. But she is more than that - she believes in greater ideals and traditions and their authority in our lives. She remembers things I do not, and when I am in a storm of doubt, she is the light on the horizon. She is the anvil and the hammer, the wind and the spark - forging not just armies, but the ideals that might push them through hardship. And through her, we may end these days of slavery.”
Viveca looked at Nyl strangely. “That was… that is quite poetic.”
Nyl stepped forward and clutched Viveca’s arms. “It is the truth, it is the core of her being.”
“A strange way to describe my love… but rings true,” Viveca allowed.
Nyl did not jump at the slip - Viveca’s inadvertent admission of love. The woman squirmed in discomfort and Nyl let her go, then said: “I know that love cannot prevent death. But love can transcend it. Love must transcend it. Otherwise, what is the point of love in the first place?”
“I cannot survive another loss,” Viveca whimpered, retreating steps, cracking.
“I know, I can see that, and I understand,” Nyl said, coming closer again, moved by Viveca’s sorrow, wishing to comfort her and tell her it would be alright. How much I have changed in a short time…
But she had a mission. “But breaking from her only makes it worse. Surely you see that. She must fight with or without your blessing. You will still love her either way. Should she die this week, parting from her will only add to your regrets.”
Viveca sputtered, then broke. She stepped forward and Nyl caught the weeping woman’s head in her bosom.
She weeps as though Garuna is already dead…
“I will speak to her again,” Viveca sobbed into Nyl’s shirt. “Promise me… Promise you will protect her!”
“I promise,” Nyl said. She made her words sound earnest, but in truth, she was wracked with guilt, and felt dishonest.
She could protect Garuna, but she could not promise any of this was real. She remembered the last time she had allowed Garuna to die alone – had that not been Nyl’s fault? She could have chosen to stay at her side to the end - a regret she might never shed, no matter Garuna’s forgiveness.
Nyl looked at Viveca hard, thought: Upon completion of our mission, the sun might flee the sky and rip us away. How convenient that one cannot spy the sun from inside a submarine.
“I promise,” Nyl said again, whispering now, ignoring the doubt in her heart.
“Thank you,” Viveca said, and they embraced.
“You are welcome,” Nyl said, awkward but enjoying the moment.
This did not feel like a trial. It felt real.
“You know, for a super warrior born five minutes ago, you are not bad at this.”
Nyl felt a bit insulted by the praise. She glanced sideways, glad Viveca could not see her face, insisting: “I am not so different from Garuna and Arcade.”
Viveca laughed and parted from her. Seeing Nyl’s serious face, though, she dropped her smile. “Thanks again. I have to get back to work.”
Viveca donned her glasses and picked up her tablet without another word.
Nyl nodded and left the cargo area, Viveca’s and Garuna’s tear-streaked faces burned into her mind. The submarine’s hum vibrated through her boots as she considered her actions. She had swayed Viveca and given Garuna another chance at love. But the victory felt partial. Bittersweet. Was this world, with its steel walls and AI tyrants, any more real than the one of dragons and corpse-queens?
Does any of it matter? After the coming battle, will Garuna see Viveca again? Do I want them to fail?
The question clawed at her, sharper now, deep, exposing a new layer of guilt – she acknowledged a new shame, a secret desire for Garuna and Viveca’s relationship to fall apart, to have Garuna for herself - and have Arcade, too, of course. The awkward moment in the armory, Garuna’s attraction – it had lit a fire in Nyl. She had not seen Garuna that way, not like she had seen Arcade – what made it different? Why Garuna, when Viveca’s beauty stirred nothing, yet even a plain man first met could spark more?
Doubt threatened to consume Nyl. She wanted to tell Garuna the good news, but first she needed to see Arcade, look into his handsome face, his steady blue eyes, feel his anchoring steadfastness. She clenched her fists and quickened her pace.
Nyl found a passing crewman and asked him where she could find the man.
“The General? You might try the captain’s quarters. The skipper insisted he take his bed. And thank you for coming, Nyl. It is an honor to meet you!”
She knew no one, but everyone seemed to recognize her. Nyl thanked the man and followed his directions, walking down corridors and climbing first a stairway, then a ladder. She did not find Arcade in his room, but she did spy the submarine’s captain through an open door nearby. He inhabited a slightly smaller room meant for the executive officer.
The captain sat at a desk. Some men exuded authority on sight, and this was such a man. The swarthy, hollow-eyed fellow affected an unusual demeanor equal parts strict and charismatic. He leaned back far in his chair, a large book propped over his canted legs.
“Nyl,” he said, looking up. “What can I do for you?”
“I seek Arcade.”
“He was just in here and should be somewhere nearby. Still in the pilot house, scheming something with Hanno. Try the control room.
“And thank you,” the captain added before Nyl could bow out. “Arcade and Garuna have worked miracles for the cause and both speak highly of you. A friend of theirs is a friend of mine. Anything you need – just say the word.”
Nyl smiled and nodded, again, awkward at her fame. She followed his advice and searched that deck, these areas in the submarine’s tower smaller than the rest. She did not find him, though, and climbed a ladder up to another deck. She bumped into Arcade just as he left the submarine’s house-sized “control room” - a label writ-large across a bulkhead door.
“Nyl!” he said, tired but pleased to see her.
“Do you believe any of this is real?”
Her abrupt question caught him off-guard. Slowly, he said: “We forgot how to be suspicious, until you returned to us. Do you-”
Nyl grabbed Arcade by his collar and hauled him into a kiss.
He leaned into it, squeezing her tight, lifting her off her heels.
“Nevermind what I said.” Nyl exhaled heavily in the pressure of his arms. She broke free, gripped Arcade’s hand, and hauled him down the corridor towards the ladder.
“Where are we going?”
“To your quarters,” Nyl said, hurrying him along. “How thick are its walls?”
Arcade grinned. “Thick. No one will hear us. But be warned - everyone will find out anyway.”
“Good,” Nyl said. “Let them all know. I am yours, and you are mine.”
Continued in part 9
