SWNOVELS Chapter (10) Star
The bent shafts of light, rippling of the Noon Sun, thrashed across the last shadows of the Dark Tapestry. Far below, Holden was still kneeled in groove he had excavated in his chase after the Lamp of Vision. With head down, he was attending to the golden sands, stirring about him.
Looking back along them, he traced the intensity of the quake to the High Hill. Atop it, the tower was swaying; its gleaming veil of Maya Illusion, shedding as revealing its Anvil Stone foundation. Along its base-perimeter, black clouds under high pressure were seething out past its sides, rising through the atmosphere. The rock was tilting—rocking forth and back. A vertical current of black magma erupted from the hilltop, launching the Anvil Stone through the sky.
Holden stumbled to his feet, gaping on the surge, effortlessly propelling the mass. Along the peak of the gush, crest of the fountain ejected the Anvil Stone along an arc; the rock, drifting in their direction. Not liking the looks of its trajectory, the Youth turned about to Dark Skeleton.
“You going to catch that?”
The creature lowered its attention from the Anvil Stone to the Crystal Pyramid. Holden was in the process of taking a hint, seriously, when the shining beams of Dark Skeleton were redirected upon him. Stepping aside, it revealed the Crystal Strait, behind it. A rush of adrenaline helped jumpstart the Youth unto a headlong sprint.
With lunging strides, he charged with all his might, racing for the straightaway through the Wall of Valleys. Once within the passage, he did not take his eyes off from the Mammoth Mountain. It was still a great distance ahead of him when the Anvil Stone pounded the Crystal Pyramid unto the Golden Plane.
The Youth was mid-bound when the ground beneath him was replaced by a rising swell of crystal bits, golden sands and dark threads. He flew up along the head of the wave, his limbs, splayed and flailing. As struggling to steady his spinning body, he intermittently glimpsed the summit of the Mammoth Mountain towards which he was rising. He was not going to make it. Redirecting his focus on the steeps towards which he falling, he extended his legs to prepare for a vertical landing.
His boots touched down; his fast-stance, broken upon impact. Holden tumbled back, somersaulting down the mountain. Without control, he flounced down between the precipitous slopes with pinball reaction, till finally rolling out along bounce across the bottom to be thrown upon his back.
Wanting to convince himself he was alright, Holden leaned up, lifting his head; his mouth open, saying nothing. For several moments, he remained sitting up, coming to terms with the reality of the fact that his lungs had been crushed. Ordering himself to relax, the Youth laid back down. A brief interval passed before the Youth inhaled a long and slow breath.
Feeling sick to his stomach, he rolled over, slowly moving his limbs just to reassure himself that he could. Aside from a leg that badly hurt, he believed he was okay. Once he had calmed, he became aware of the grains, raining across him. Reminded of the all that had just happened, he looked up to check his environment.
To his right, the Mammoth Mountain was unscathed, save for the tear-drop dimple his body had dented in its side before the zigzagging fall that followed. To his left, a massive cavity had opened in the center of the Golden Plane. Though unable to perceive its depth from his angle, he saw the darkness, churning round the upper rim of the bowl. He decided to have a closer look.
Tightening his abs, Holden cringed along his struggle to sit up. Once he made it, he bit down on his lip and took a long look at his leg. Several inches above left kneecap, a shard of crystal had nailed through the center of his thigh.
He was trying to recollect the exact moment it happened. He had become lost in the destruction so fast. Remembering the Crystal Pyramid, in all its majesty, the Youth put his hand to his brow, pressing against the stress he was feeling; his disillusionment, mounting.
Peeking past his palm, he stared to the place he remembered seeing it last. Between he and the High Hill, which had transformed from grains to glaze, there was only a gaping hole, full of darkness, turning along its interior.
Glaring on the depression, he felt himself becoming overwhelmed with frustration. He was sick of what he had been going through and where he was at; this place—the entire situation. He did not understand why Dark Skeleton had made no effort to prevent the senseless destruction from happening.
“Calm, collect, control...” Holden said through gritted teeth, “One thing at a time...”
Ordering himself to channel his rage into the problem at hand, he took a good long look at his leg. He came to a decision. Pressing his left palm down on his thigh, he took the shiv by his right. He took a deep breath and ripped it out.
“Yaow!”
Shutting eyes tight, a tear welled out corner of each and ran down his cheeks. Knowing he had to do something about the blood saturating his pant-leg, he studied the edge of the shard and decided to put it to work.
Placing its serrated side to the denim, he sawed and cut the pant-leg just above the wound, then sliced the fabric all the way to his boot. Setting down the shiv, he removed the piece of fabric, wrapped it about his thigh, then knotted it about the puncture in effort to slow the bleeding.
With the task completed, he acknowledged his raggedy attire, juxtaposed with the fragment of the creation that had pierced him. As staring over his blood across it, he felt his temper rising. Losing it, Holden picked up the shattered piece and hurled it unto the void.
Soundlessly, the shard tomahawked down through the darkness. A ping resounded from the base, sounding up from the hollow. Following the high-frequency ring, Holden turned away and looked up the Mammoth Mountain. Time to climb, he thought. With hands on the sands to his sides, he was about push himself up. Dark tendrils that had flowed up and over the rim of the hollow coiled about the Youth, reeling him across the ground, towards the hole.
“Let me go!”
He was just over the edge when the cords released him.
“Ah!”
Sliding down the wall of the depression, he wrestled amidst the opaque folds before completely disappearing within them. At the concave base, his eclipsed body swooped the curve towards the hollow’s center, spinning in seat as gradually slowing to a smooth stop. After several moments, the darkness waxed across him peeled off him; the strands oscillating towards the middle of the void. As they continued flowing, the Youth took in the details of the Crystal Gorge, enveloping.
Diagonal with the Noon Sun, the bowl was so deep that only the top-half of the depression was illumined; Holden, eclipsed by the wall’s shadow. Several paces beyond his spread legs was the fragment he had thrown, impaled at a diagonal in the crystalline foundation. A short way beyond that, the tendrils that had pulled him over the edge were raveling unto the frame of Dark Skeleton. Standing with its back to Holden, Zkoletal Daath went on examining the Anvil Stone at the center of the Crystal Gorge.
Struggling to his feet, bearing the pain of standing, Holden prepared to confront the creature. He was waiting for it to turn around and acknowledge his presence. He felt his patience being tested. Holden could only overlook shattered piece of the creation between them for so long.
“You destroyed it,” he said, focused on the fragment, “The pyramid. Just stood by and watched. You allowed it to happen...”
Dark Skeleton did not look back.
“Sure thing, though—we’ll pretend it never happened,” he said, shaking his head, “Play it just like all the rest them...”
Holden felt filled to hilt with fury by the time Dark Skeleton turned about to face him. The Youth was surprised upon seeing its frontside. From the crown of its skull to its bony toes, splinters and spikes of crystal were nailed across the frame. Zkoletal Daath had been thoroughly pierced by the explosion.
EVERY CRÆTION,
ZERVE PURPOZE
Dark Skeleton advanced a step towards the Youth; the lucid needles, twinkling across its black figure.
ONCE FULFILLED,
CRÆTION TRANZCEND
At once, the splinters darkened and slipped unto the frame.
ABZORBED UNTO UZ,
ONE WITHIN UZ,
IN TIME,
TO RIZE AGAIN
The Youth marveled with exceeding marvel; not a trace of scar across its bones. Stepping towards it for a closer look, Holden squirmed, reminded of his pierced thigh. He lifted his leg, watching the blood drip from his sole into the small puddle beneath his boot. His attitude soured.
“Yeah well some us take longer to heal,” he said, hobbling as trying to get used to the hurt, “Sometimes, the pain’s too real, but nevermind—don’t expect you to get that.”
Raising its arm, Dark Skeleton pointed at his leg.
PAIN THOU FEEL,
THOU ZHALT DENY;
THOU ZHALT RIZE,
BEYOND
A tendril of Daath zipped unto his thigh and gyrated about it, sewing the wound. Once the healing was complete, the darkness slashed his other pant leg, then tailored the right and left simultaneously. Just like that, his tattered jeans had been rendered unto a clean-cut pair of denim shorts.
Stepping beyond the puddle, the Youth turned about without pain, looking over the fresh fit he was sporting. He amazed over the transience of his hurt and his decrepit state; how quickly they had passed, suddenly nothing left of them but a memory. Looking up to Dark Skeleton, Holden did not know what to say. Before he could mention it, the creature turned to the Anvil Stone.
Bending its knees, Dark Skeleton lunged through the heights along a steep arc, well beyond the confines of the Crystal Gorge. Coming down with tremendous force, the creature struck its sole unto the top-center of the Anvil Stone. Force of its landing cracked atop the rock. Beneath the boulder, the crystalline foundation started cracking.
The slivers spread beyond the Youth, spidering up the walls of the enveloping bowl. At the top, the fractures steadied. All was silent. Thus far, the walls of the Crystal Gorge continued holding strong, not breaking under the pressure of the sands behind them.
Holden was taking it all in along a backstep. His heel knocked the shard of the creation he had formerly hurled, dislodging the plate into which it was impaled. A series of jigsaw-displacements followed; plates of crystal, tilting out of place at an accelerating rate. With the critical mass, the Crystal Gorge started to collapse.
As a sunburnt expanse of mud, the smooth grounds had cracked apart. The fissures were rising up the concave steeps. At the top, the spidery-spread unlocked the walls. Frames of crystal started tipping out from the sides, pushed out by falls of golden sands behind them.
Stunned to stupor, imagining it over, Holden stood in a daze, looking up on the beginning stages of the implosion that would soon to be gushing towards him. A flash of brightness struck him awake. Upon the stone, Dark Skeleton gestured a wave of invitation.
QUICK
Without hesitating, the Youth dashed for the coal-black hulk.
High above, towering slants of crystal started tilting of the walls. Some of the panes were already raining about Holden, shattering about his sprint. Paying them no mind, with eye on the stone, he searched its face for fine edges and corrugations. Next thing he knew, he bound and clung grip onto its side, holding on tight as above him, the creature went on making preparations.
Atop the rock, the creature turned along a circle as whipping veins of darkness across the stone’s upper perimeter. Once all the cords had been lashed and attached, the creature at the center of the web tightened its grip. Lowering feline-low, it pounced up with a tremendous amount of torque.
Zkoletal Daath rocketed up through the cavity. In its wake, the strands in hand stretched a great distance. The elastic pull went taut. The Anvil Stone lifted up slow, then shot up along its yank, towards the crests of the inwardly collapsing cascade; the Youth, holding onto the sidewall with all his might.
“Woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
The battlecry resounded. Darkness fell quickly as circular falls of sands and crystal eclipsed the light of the Noon Sun. Braving pieces of debris, the pair were rising through the shadows when the Youth yelled up to Dark Skeleton—
“Look out!”
Behind the creature, a pane the size of a skyscraper was tilting into their trajectory. Spinning about, Dark Skeleton swung a radial-uppercut, shattering the tower. The shards were raining towards the Youth just as he wall-climbed about the corner, avoiding the spray altogether.
Following the blow, Zkoletal Daath and the Youth flew through the open ring of the crest, escaping just before it folded over, filling the cavity. After arcing through the air, the rock came down on the grounds of the Golden Slope, which across the way, rose unto the foundation of Mammoth Mountain.
“We, did it!”
Still clinging on the sidelines of the rock by his left hand, Holden swung his right fist in triumph. High above him, Dark Skeleton was still airborne, coming down fast. When the creature landed atop the rock, the Youth reached for a corrugation above him and proceeded to climb up the Anvil Stone.
Pulling himself over the top, he pushed up to his feet, brushing himself off. The coal-black shade of the rock was coaxed across him.
“Sure could use a wash to go with the new look...”
At his comment, he observed Dark Skeleton at the center of the stone, staring upon him.
“Thanks for that, by the way,” he added, “You’d make a fine tailor.”
Dark Skeleton said nothing. After a brief silence, the Youth turned and stepped across the point of the Anvil Stone. Over the slope between him and the High Hill, he searched for one of the oases he had formerly seen, scattered about the grounds. Aside from several in the distance, there were none that he observed across his recently transformed environment.
“Too far to go for the waterhole...” he said, blinking, irritatedly, “And this soot in the hair’s getting in my eyeballs...”
Untying the black bandanna from his neck, he folded it as a headband, then tied it about his forehead, restraining his locks.
“How’s this for style?” he asked Dark Skeleton, “Match the black outfit or just make me look fat?”
Without offering a comment, the creature continued looking towards the center of the Anvil Stone, where its footprint had been stomped unto the rock.
“Man, you’re a hard one to get a reaction from...”
When the creature stepped about the center, still focused upon it, the Youth advanced a step towards the footprint. Across its center was a small fault, slightly larger than the footprint. He could see something glittering inside, several inches beneath the surface of the rock.
“Hey...” he said, trying to make it out. ”What is that?”
The creature extended its arm out before it along a parallel over the fault. Darkness streamed out its palm and into the slit, plucking the object up from it. An ultra-thin facet clinked into the grip of Dark Skeleton.
Zkoletal Daath turned the ultraviolet blade by the light, studying the razor-fine hexagonal, barely visible from its serrated side. Beaming lazar-white sights upon the knicks and infractions, it smoothed out the flaws scattered between the circuited threads, woven throughout the creation from handle to point, supporting the structure. Completing its inspection, the creature turned on the Youth as raising the blade.
DÏAMOND ZÄBRE,
FOR YOU
Holden’s frame tightened; his posture, straightened.
“For me...”
Dark Skeleton advanced a step towards the Youth. Swinging the blade over its shoulder, it stabbed the creation unto the rock on his side of the fault. The creature was upon a knee before him when it pushed up from the vertical blade as letting go the handle.
TO BE DRAWN
WHEN
THE HOUR COME,
ONCE THOU READY
TO DO,
WHAT MUZT BE DONE
At that moment, Holden was hard of listening—still hearing the blade slicing through the air, right before his face. He was still feeling the after-sensation of the near-death experience as beholding the creation, transitioning towards feelings of love at first sight.
The Youth advanced a step, admiring how radiantly it captured the gleam of the Noon Sun. Reaching out, he rubbed his thumb across the brunt of the handle. Just below were three symbols, vertically engraved across its grip—
O
∆
S
He remembered two of the three. Shortly thereafter, he realized he did not so much like the sight of them.
“Those symbols...” he started, “The same ones were written across the Lamp of Void that pulled me in... in which we supposedly stand...”
Folding hands before its chest, Zkoletal Daath clinked its phalanges together.
ZYMBOLZ
TO
ZENZE
The Youth nodded, in agreement.
“Zenze ’em a warning,” he said, “Given what happened the last time I got started...”
Putting his hands to his hips, Holden started to pace in direction of the High Hill as wondering what it all meant.
“But do say, Zkoletal Daath—what exactly did I do to earn such a gift?” he asked, “Honestly, what use have I for it?”
Dark Skeleton regarded the instrument.
DÏAMOND ZÄBRE
FOR
THY TRIUMPH
“Over?”
ONE
WHO ZEEK
THY DEZTRUCTION
The Youth was gazing towards the crystalline slope of the High Hill when he tilted his head in surprise. He was quite sure he had heard correctly. Pivoting about, he faced the creature.
“That’s rich, but really,” he said, “What’s the sword for?”
The creature offered no response. After doing some thinking on his own, the only definite conclusion he arrived at concerned the fact that thus far, Dark Skeleton had not been one to speak in jest. Holden was still confused.
“Now don’t take this the wrong way,” he started, “But I’m the Youth, you see? And that’s it. I’m the bad guy, nor the good guy—I mean... I mean well, but I mess up a lot, and basically, am kinda just the kid learning along the way. And for reasons entailed therein approximately, it’s just hard to believe there’s someone’s whose actually got it out for me—or as you prefer to put it—‘seeking my destruction.’ ”
After a moments pause, Dark Skeleton inclined its sight towards the Noon Sun.
FORGOTTEN
THYZELF,
THOU HAZT…
THY ORIGIN…
THY ZTORY…
Holden peered about, looking to see if there was anyone else present.
“Who are you talking to?” Holden asked, looking up above before returning his attention to the creature. “What do you mean ‘Origin?’ What do you mean ‘Story?’ ”
Folding hands behind its back, Dark Skeleton looked down upon the fault.
DEZTINY,
UNRAVELING;
WHAT FORGOTTEN,
COME
UNDONE
Frustrated over the communication breakdown, the Youth thought hard for several moments on how to best work about it.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
Looking up, Dark Skeleton beamed its sights beyond the Youth, scanning the sands, not far from the foundation of the High Hill. After settling its brights upon a point, a band of darkness lunged out from the grains, bending along a high arc that bowed across the Golden Slope. The vessel clinked into its palm.
LIZTEN TO HEAR—
A black flame licked out the spout of the Crystal Lamp. Ripples of Maya emanated of the fire, waving a mirage unto reality. A radiant globe rose over the Diamond Sabre.
IT A ZTAR
Waving its palm towards the Maya Star, hovering between them, Dark Skeleton inclined its sights to the luminous sphere of the Noon Sun.
The Youth understood the illusion to be a model of the shining above them.
“Okay...” he said, “And what of it?”
IT A COIN
The creature pointed to the Noon Sun before lowering its index finger until it was aimed on the Maya Star.
After rolling eyes up-down between the two, Holden felt himself having trouble comprehending.
“A coin...”
Dark Skeleton advanced a quarter circle about it as continuing to explain—
AT CENTER,
COIN,
ZHINING
AZ
ŽUN
Though he thought himself to be catching on, the Youth said nothing, waiting for more of the big picture to be revealed.
LOOK TO ZEE
Continuing along its advance about the sphere, Zkoletal Daath orchestrated suave motions of its wingspan about the illusion. The Maya Star started strobing between a state of lightness and darkness.
The Youth made several observations, the first of which had to do with the slowing strobe-rate of the Maya Star. The intervals of darkness and lightness were becoming longer; the illusion, flashing between the two states, less frequently. As it continued slowing, he realized that the Maya Star was not strobing, but rather turning along a rapid spin, as a coin, spinning upon a table. The Youth realized he was looking upon not a sphere, but a disc.
“A coin...”
And then he saw it—the coin—at the core of the Maya Star. The kernel of lightness—of darkness—was extending its spherical glow beyond it as flipping over and over again. Upon comprehending, Holden turned to the creature, trying to discern what it all meant. Dark Skeleton explained—
HALF DÄÄTH, HALF LЇGHT,
GYRATING
AZ
DARKNEZZ : ABZORBING
AZ
LIGHTNEZZ : PROYECTING
At a slow turn of the Maya Star, black tentacles emerged of the Dark Side, oscillating towards the Youth as evolving unto serpentine aspect. He was so engrossed by what was happening, he had hardly time to react when the serpents opened their mouths and sunk fangs across his frame. He found it strange and uncomfortable that he felt nothing at all.
OF
DÄÄTH,
MAZZ
OF
INFORMATION,
ZUZTAINING
COLOR AND FORM
Veins of Holden’s color flowed unto the Dark Serpents, whose jaws remained locked across his frame. As they held on, their scales took on rich waves of his color spectrum. Releasing their bite, they left voided fang-marks, riddled across his boots, shorts and flesh. As the Dark Side of the Maya Star turned away, the serpentine strands were reeled back unto the Coin.
OF
LЇGHT,
ENERGY
OF
REVELATION,
ENLIGHTENING
COLOR AND FORM
The Light Side of the Maya Star took its turn towards the Youth. With the exposure, a river of Shining Honeybees washed through him, some landing along the voided bite-marks, depositing bits of pollen, restoring his color, anew. Throughout the passing, the Youth experienced the ecstasy of their rush across him, the sensation, gradually fading as they soared beyond him, till as the Dark Side before it, the Light Side of the Maya Star turned away.
The cycle was starting again. Having come full circle, Dark Skeleton swiped the flame of the Crystal Lamp, extinguishing the illusion of the Maya Star. As it unraveled, Holden found himself face to face with the creature, trying to put it all into perspective.
“Are you telling me that the Sun...” he paused, “That all the stars in the sky, even beyond the lamp... are coins?”
Putting his fingers to his temples, the Youth braced his confusion.
DÄÄTH,
LЇGHT,
COEXIZT
VIA
PERFECT BALANCE
Holden shook his head, seeing no way any of it could be true, but nonetheless, without any counter theory or argument to offer.
“How do you know all this?”
At the question, brights of its eyes pulsed, ever slightly.
ONCE UPON TIME,
Ї & Ї
ALIVE
“You mean...” he started, examining the figure, “When you were man...”
Upon noticing the Lamp of Vision, still in its clutches, eyes of the Youth lit bright.
“Show me...”
Opening its palm, tendrils of darkness delivered the vessel to Anvil Stone with a crisp clink.
DANGEROUZ
Turning away, the creature stepped across the Anvil Stone without another word, leaving the Youth unsatisfied.
“How so?”
Hands behind its back, Dark Skeleton contemplating the Mammoth Mountain.
POINT
OF
NO RETURN
The creature turned its head towards its shoulder.
ONE MUZT BE READY
Holden was overwhelmed with intrigued.
“Zkelly, I was born ready,” he said, “And I want your story. I narrated you mine. It’s only fair you showcase how you came to know all this stuff—how you learned to create. And came to be inside the Lamp, even...”
In silence, the creature inclined its attention to the summits of the mount. As fastening upon the lightness, Holden persisted—
“Come on,” he said, “What have you got to lose?”
Zkoletal Daath turned about, examining the Youth, closely.
AZ
YE
WIZH
Opening its arms unto him, the Heart of Darkness within the ribcage of the creature began to swell.