literature

Cover of Dark - Chapter 5: Evzen

Deviation Actions

wing693789's avatar
By
Published:
1K Views

Literature Text

    The frigid air of the night greeted us as we stepped outside. The air nipped at my nose as I breathed it in. It smelled fresh and untainted. I had my hands tucked firmly in my pockets, yet the cold still reached my fingers.

    I quickened my pace to catch up with Kazz. “You never did finish explaining these Gateways you talked about, or the spirits.”

    “Ah, right, tour.” Kazz halted and motioned the rest of the tram back to the barracks, leaving the two of us alone. He took a moment to ponder what he was going to say, then took a deep breath. “Six hundred years ago, an ancient, now long forgotten, force pulsed through our world.” Kazz pulled his wand out of his inner coat pocket, and put his thumb on the center of the glass. The tip of his wand glowed a bright orange and hummed. With the tip of his wand, Kazz drew a straight line down in the air in front of him, a thin, purple and blue line hanging in the air where his wand had been. After drawing from head to toe, he thrust his wand into the center of the line. The line split in two, creating a pointed oval hovering in the air. I stared into this hole in reality. Where the cafeteria had been was now replaced with a grey-blue silhouette, the green of the grass replaced with a dark blue, and the sky was as black as night.

    “This energy flows through the rift between worlds. Welcome to The Shadow of the World.” Kazz stepped through the hole, and motioned for me to follow. I cautiously stepped over the edges of the portal and into this alternate reality. The tear sealed behind me. This world was exactly the same as the one I had just left, although it had a distinctive lack of hue.

    The lighting intrigued and confused me. I could see well enough like it was overcast, get when I looked into the sky, where the sun should be, I saw nothing. I couldn't even see stars. I didn't cast a shadow on the ground either.

    I looked to my right and nearly jumped out of my skin. There were two guards not ten yards away from us that weren't there just a minute ago. They watched us as they made their patrol rounds.

    I turned back to face the cafeteria just in time to see two wispy, translucent walk just inches from my face. I tried to jerk myself out of their way, but Kazz grabbed my arm, holding me in place. Accompanied by the feeling of a cold breeze, the two ghostly people walked right through me, as if I wasn't there. I spun around to see if they noticed me, but they kept on walking like I wasn't even there. I looked to Kazz inquisitively. He smirked.

    “This alternate reality is a shadow of our real world.” Kazz jaunted back over to the cafeteria, and leaned against the wall. It supported him. “The reason these buildings are sturdy, but those guys weren't, is because people don't stay in one place long enough to leave a footprint. This building has been here…” his voice trailed off as he looked around. “...what, twenty years? Thirty? Either way, long enough for its shadow in this world to create a footprint.” He stood and motioned to me to come closer. “C'mon, there's more to show you here.”

    We walked along the side of the cafeteria, and that's when I saw it. To me, it was beautiful. A light against the dark. It appeared as a large orange ball of fire and gas burning slowly, like watching it through a high-speed camera. It released tiny clouds of orange gas that rose up and out of sight. In size, it was about two yards cubed, but looked taller by the rising flame. I had stopped in my tracks upon seeing it, and even being about forty yards away, I could still hear the humming, feel the warmth, and sense the sheer power that was being emitted by the Gateway.

    “That's the Gateway isn't it?” I half asked, half stated.

    “That's it. Or, the one at our base anyways. There are several hundred thousand of these things worldwide, and plenty more we haven't even found yet. These are the hidden sources of power, what we fight to control in this shadow world. They're “gateways” for energy to leave the real world. Spiritual and emotional energy that is. They show up around places where people in the real world are charged with emotional or spiritual energy. Places like churches are often Gateways, public parks, graveyards, sports stadiums too. Even night clubs and tight-knit housing communities can show up. They're like the buildings in the way of strengthening with age. This one here was an old, forgotten burial ground. A hidden Gateway in the middle of the woods was the perfect spot for our base.”

    To the left and right of the Gateway were two massive pillars. Each of them were about three stories tall, and had a faint orange glow to them, hinting to me that they were magically summoned. Each had a five sided base, that twisted and stretched upwards, almost to a cone. At the top of the pentagonal pillars were four fingered claws. Each claw was a three sided pyramid that extended from the tip out words at over ninety degrees, then turning up and ever so slightly in toward the center. In the 'palm’ of the claw was a soft glowing, purple aura with no discernable source.

    “What about those?” I asked as I pointed up toward them.

    “Those are Harvesters, they're magic constructs primarily to capture and claim Gateways, but they also harvest the energy from the Gateways as well. A natural Gateway is actually pure white, but turns our color upon domination. Similarly, Veracious owned Gateways and Harvesters are green.”

    “So when you discover an uncaptured Gateway, you summon one of these to control it? How do you do that?”

    “In our active duty uniforms we have some chalk and a knife, depending on the surface, which we use to draw the rune. It's a large circle with a backwards L in the middle, and it has to be fairly large in order not to cave in on itself. Then, we place our hands on the edge of the circle and focus mana into the rune to summon the structure.”

    “And that's it? Poof, it's there?”

    “It takes a lot of mana to summon structures, you can't just toss them around. Also, the Harvester has to be close enough to the Gateway in order to take effect.”

    I nodded. I didn't understand how the whole thing worked, but I think I understood enough. Kazz pulled out his wand and opened a portal back to the real world.

    “Come on, let's get you back home, you have a busy day tomorrow.”


    I donned an old, faded blue, shirt that a friend had bought for Kazz when on vacation. It wasn't remarkable by any means, it had “Colorado 1991” written on both the front and back, along with a faded picture of some mountains. I recalled Kazz muttering something to himself about 'skeletons in the literal closet’ as he dug the shirt out. Prior to the shirt, Markus had lent me a pair of exercise shorts since he was closer to my size than Kazz was. This formed my rudimentary sleeping attire until I could get sized for clothes of my own tomorrow.

    At this point I had already showered and brushed my teeth with an extra toothbrush Isebel had received from the dentist but never used. There was only one bathroom for the men to share, so getting in and out quickly was important. Once again I was faced with tasks that I had no memory of doing before, yet I performed them as if they were second nature. I hoped I would figure that out soon, it still creeped me out a bit. No one else seemed to notice or care, I guess because I was acting normally, so I didn't say anything about it.

    The upstairs area consisted of a hallway with stairs at one end, and 6 doors to bedrooms lining the hall, with a closet at the far end. The walls were painted a light brown and the doors were painted white. Each door had a sign with the occupants name, Markus and John were opposite each other near the stairs, Isebel and Zara were opposite each other in the middle, then Kazz and Kate at the end. Kazz had explained to me that since technically I was just his apprentice, I wasn't replacing Zara, although I'd sleep in her room for tonight.

    I got some idea on who she was just by the décor and personal keepsakes she had lying around. She had a couple pictures of her, nicely framed and sitting on a low dresser across from the foot of the bed. In all of them, she had short, spiky blue hair that swayed to the right. She had a strong nose, and a chin to match it. Her teeth weren't quite perfect but the joy in her smile negated that.

    One of the photos was of her dressed in a traditional cap and gown and holding a diploma of some kind. I couldn't tell if she was old to graduate high school, or young to graduate college. Another was of the whole team, and the last one was of Kate and Zara. The two together were smiling, with an arm resting on the other's shoulder.

    Then I remembered the scene of her getting hit square in the forehead as she had turned to fire back at the Veracious that were chasing me. I remembered her scream before she fell silent. I shuddered, sighed, and tried to push the thought from my head.

    A hand landed on my shoulder. I had barely taken a step in the room, and glanced over my shoulder to see Kazz in the doorway. He wasn't smiling.

    “She was a good soldier, and a great friend. Nothing got her down. We had a ceremony for her while you were still passed out in the hospital. Never got around to touching her stuff. I guess none of us wanted to do it. Sorry about that.”

    “No, it's fine. I'm very sorry she died.”

    “It's not your fault,” Kazz sighed. “Hey, I'm going up on the roof for a bit, if you want to join me, the ladder will be down in the closest.”

    “Yeah, sure, just give me a minute, I'll be right behind you.”

    Kazz gave me a pat in the shoulder, and walked off down the aisle. I heard the squeaking of hinges come from the hall as i set my clothes down in a corner of the room. I figured it'd be pretty cold out at night, so I pulled an extra blanket off the bed, rolled it up, and brought it with me. Kate was watching me from her doorway. She wasn't smiling either. Come to think of it, the only time she did smile was when Kazz joked about naming me after her father.

    She made eye contact with me, then slunk back into her room and shut the door behind her. I blinked, questioning what happened, then got a terrible feeling in my gut. Was I the reason for Zara's death? Does Kate blame me? Fighting with these questions, I continued down the hall with my blanket under my arm, and climbed the ladder to the roof. I shut the hatch behind me to not let the warm air out, and was instantly glad I brought the blanket with me.

    The roof was pretty standard, it was slanted on two sides, peaking in the middle. It had black rubber shingles covering it like scales. Since there was nothing but gutters at the edges, I stayed near the middle, and ambled toward Kazz. I wrapped the blanket around me, and lied down next to him. We stared up at the few stars that would peak between the thinly spread clouds. The tiny pinpricks of light twinkled gently as a breeze rolled through, making me extra glad I had the blanket.

    “Nice night, a bit chilly, but it isn't raining,” I commented, breaking the silence first.

    “Yeah,” Kazz replied. “I like coming up here at night to look at the stars, breath the fresh air. Makes me wonder what else is out there, where we could go, how small we are, just makes me think.”

    I studied the sky, slowly gathering what I knew about space. Not much as it turns out. I knew the planets in our solar system, I knew stars were big spheres of gas, but very little beyond that. I also knew that the base was too bright for me to see everything out there.

    “So how've you been doing settling in, managing to keep up with everything?” Kazz asked me.

    “I'm managing so far I think. I'm still at the stage where I don't know enough to have many questions, but I'm getting there.” I nodded, still staring at the sky. “I mean heck, I'm figuring out who I am, not to mention everything else.”

    “Yeah, that's fair,” Kazz chuckled. “You sure seem to be coping well, considering.”

    I snorted apprehensively. “That's just the thing, so much of this stuff is coming naturally to me, actually more like supernaturally to me. Things like brushing my teeth, taking a shower, talking, I don't remember ever doing these things before, but I also feel like I've done them a thousand times. The worst part is that it feels weird, unsettling,” I motioned vaguely with my hands, but the gesture was lost since they were still in the confines of the blanket. “But I don't remember anything ‘normal’ to compare it to.”

    “The subconscious is a funny thing,” Kazz explained. “There's a ton of research on it, where people who have lost their memory, or lost the ability to remember, can still learn and perfect tasks through repetition, even when they think it's their first time doing it.”

    “God, I hope my amnesia isn't going to be a reoccurring thing,” I gulped.

    “I'm sure you'll be fine,” Kazz said reassuringly. “The doctors didn't detect anything wrong with your head.”

    I sighed, calming myself down. “That does make me feel better.”

    A few seconds went by. I made an effort to quell the silence before it became awkward.

    “So what about you?” I vaguely inquired.

    Kazz turned his head to me, his hands still behind him, acting as a cushion for his head. “What about me?”

    “Well, I- uh, you have a past, where you came from, why you joined the Vivid. What about that?”

    Kazz looked back up at the sky.

    “Before I was born, my mother, Maurice Hammond, founded the Dragon Squad here. Pretty good story actually. She started as a regular mage, recruited after she had moved out. She and her parents never saw eye to eye, I never met them. Anyways, she was just a Rank 8 Conjurer in the VAF, Vivid Assault Force, the general army, and was on a mission to capture an Veracious outpost. They had 18 mages including their commander, all en route to this outpost. But the Veracious knew they were coming. The night before the assault, their camp was raided. My mom and five other Mages were the only survivors, and they only survived because the Veracious were abnormally sloppy after they killed the commander. They did however manage to destroy all the communications equipment, leaving my mother's team with no way to call for help. While by rank one of the other survivors should have been in charge, my mother lead the way since she was very bright and a natural leader. Despite their odds, these six took that camp in what's now known as 'The Battle of the Burning Tree.’ She was deemed a hero, and formed the original Dragon Squad out of these six.”

    “What about your dad?” I interrupted.

    “His name was George. He was a normal human, an accountant for some budding tech firm. They met in a coffee shop of all places. He took her last name when they eventually married. He only ever knew a little about The Shadow and what my mom did. Anyways, eventually they had me, and after a while Maurice had to go back to the fight. She did everything in her power to keep me from becoming a part of this war. But, obviously. That changed. Two of her squad mates were captured, and leaked information on the whereabouts of the rest of the team. I was only 14 at the time when the Veracious broke into our house, and used my dad and I as bait to lure her in. She fought hard, buying my father time to free me, but they killed him. I was the only one who managed to escape their attack. I didn't see her die, but team that went back to our house said it was messy. Thanks to my mother's influence, I was rescued and brought here. I trained hard, fueled solely by revenge at the time. It was also pretty hard because I was constantly compared to my mother.”

    “How did you get your command here?”

     “They were actually going to shut down Dragon Squad after the entire team was assassinated, but I showed enough promise that they tentatively offered me the position when I was old enough and had proven myself in enough battles. Naturally I took it, and over time selected people to join. Since then it's been a tough fight for us, not only to serve the Vivid, but to prove ourselves as greater than or equal to the original Squad.”

    “How do you think you're doing?”

    “I don't know, opinions are all over the spectrum, although losing Zara will likely tip the scales negatively.”

    I paused a moment, hoping my next question wasn't a touchy subject. “What about you and Kate? Are… you two a thing?”

    Kazz laughed, I felt relieved. “Officially, no, the image of a commanding officer being in a relationship with his subordinates is highly frowned upon, but just between the six of us, yes. She and I had served together in the AAF, and we had built solid trust between each other. I knew she was talented, so when I started assembling my team, she was first on the list. Since then we've privately been a bit of an item.”

    “Careful, I don't know anything and I could figure that out,” I chuckled.

    Kazz laughed along, then brought his voice down to a whisper. “I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Kate told me that if she hadn't met me, she probably would have married Zara.”

    The image of Kate watching me then retreating into her room made it's presence back in my mind. I winced. Not only were they friends, they were borderline a couple.

    “Is that why Kate seems cold around me?”

    Kazz let out a deep sigh and ran his palm down his face. “Let me preface this by saying Zara's death is not your fault, it was an unfortunate accident. We all miss her dearly, but I've made it clear to the team that it wasn't your fault and they shouldn't blame you for it. We're soldiers, we lose people, it sucks, but we have to move on. Kate, however, still believes that you lead the Veracious soldiers to us. That if you hadn't shown up, our recon mission would have succeeded. That everyone would have gone home.” Kazz turned to face me, and I turned to him. “But there was no way you could have known we were there, and frankly, had you not run into us, you'd be dead.”

    Guilt flooded my mind, and overflowed into my facial expression. Regardless of whether or not they had the moral high ground to blame me, I was still the reason Zara was killed. I unwittingly lead the soldiers to them, not on purpose, sure, but exposed them nonetheless.

    “Hey, we still don't have a name for you.” Kazz tried desperately to change the subject. He didn't really show it, but I suspected it was as awkward of a topic for him as it was for me.

    I took a deep breath and sighed. “Yeah, I gotta pick something soon don't I? Can't keep putting this off.”

    Kazz sat up. “What about Evzen?”

    I too sat up. Evzen. Yeah, I could do that.

    I said it out loud just to hear it off my tongue. “Evzen. Evzen. Yeah, I like it!”

    Kazz grinned, I couldn't help but do the same. Alright then, Evzen, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be quite busy.”

    We stood and descended down the ladder. Lying in bed, I said the name over and over in my head, owning it.


    Evzen.

Names are important, I hope I can live up to mine

Well, that's all I have for now, i'm working on 6, but college is busy. Unlike Hybrid, I'm not going to make the same mistakes and rush myself, I'm going to take my time to really plan things out so I can produce the best product I can. Hopefully you guys will like it better too.
© 2016 - 2024 wing693789
Comments19
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
TheClosetMailman's avatar
That guys Ripper portal staff thing.
......
Attaching it to a rifle would prove useful for rapid relocation.
Also, what would happen if someone shot the pillars....
Or even fired a gun in the shadow world.

As the story mentioned, the Gateways like to show up in religious or so places.
Places god forbid gunpowder to enter.
Even the pope mentions it was an unholy thing.
Or what about Strobe guns?
Echo incapitators?
....
(Lasergun-like weapons to blind and Riot Stoppers)