Thorn and Bone

  FADABIDA

  The smooth surface of the damp floor presses against my face and legs, a loud buzz harasses my ears, and the stench of vinegar invades my nose. I open my eyes, taking in the scene before me. Dark energy dissipates around my body, as well as my friends, one of which is passed out. A smattering of black crystals surrounds the three of us in a circular fashion, absorbing the light around them like mini black holes. It's a result of Blu and Aerix's power colliding, I assume. Aerix seems unfazed by the previous events and begins fixing their sunhat that they wore to fend off bright lights, something that they hadn’t adapted to in their cavernous environment.

  Blu is absolutely dead to the world, lying on the ground face down, spread eagle, across the white, slick ground. Black vapor poured off of him, dissolving in the light. Fluorescent bulbs illuminated the colorless tiles and walls, the source of the irritating buzzing all along the ceiling, too many to destroy because we weren't in a room, not really. There were walls and passages placed sporadically throughout the area and appeared to stretch on in this manner for miles in every direction. OH SHIT. "Aerix, move him!"

  I pointed at the lifeless moron on the ground, then to a nearby locker stacked next to other random items. Aerix thrust out their hand, cracks sounded, and tears appeared in the ground around Blu. A platform, most likely made of stone or another cave-related mineral, started to rise and then immediately fell back down.

  "What is it?" I ask Aerix, who is struggling to levitate the tiles holding Blu.

  "Something's suppressing my Concepts" Aerix said with contempt.

  That's when I noticed none of us had any of our weapons or tools with us, at least the Concept-infused ones; I still had two regular daggers concealed in the folds of my dress. Aerix’s bag, even Blu's jacket, was missing; he only wore a simple black T-shirt, slightly torn from al the fighting. "Just pick him up, I guess." I bent down and hooked my hands under his arms. Aerix grabbed his legs and began moving him towards the locker. Awfully light for someone who launched me three meters into the dirt, I thought. "Aerix, I think the Shadow Shift moved our weapons somewhere else."

  "It was more of a glitch when you think about it," Aerix speculated. "Lapis lost control, not exactly an intentional shift. With the interference from my barrier, it was more of a Crystal Shift or a Shadow Glitch."

  I nudged the locker door open with my foot and helped Aerix prop Blu inside, shielding him from most of the light. “We should think of a name for the event at some point just in case it happens again. But we really need to look for an exit." I shut the locker, not bothering to lock it. I doubt there's anyone else in this place; it seems abandoned.

  A thought hits me like a truck. "Aerix, does your phone work?"

  "You know very well that I own no such device. The wireless signal doesn't work in the caves I live in," Aerix went on with an air of superiority.

  I pulled out the slim, glass device and tried my phone to find that the service, time, and internal compass were all out of commission.

  "Where do you think our weapons are?" I start in a direction, then pause for a moment. "You should mark the locker before we go; they're everywhere, and we might forget which one we left Sablune in."

  "Would that be so bad? Try your vines," Aerix suggested.

  I close my eyes, reaching my senses into the Earth, looking for any touch of nature that I can, a weed or even a half-dead twig. There was nothing. It was as if the Earth was no longer beneath me. The layers of growth and decay woven into every grave and garden like an intricate story were just gone.

  Erased.

  Nonexistent.

  Fear rushes through me, and I stumble backward, bumping into Aerix. I crash to the ground, my breathing short and quick; I puke on the spot and stare at the ground through blurred vision, while Aerix’s voice frantically calls my name in the back of my head.

  "Are you okay?" They asked over and over in between my sobbing and retching. "Okay, that's making me think you might not be able to handle-"

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  I cut them off again, and I look into their eyes, which are glassy and filled with concern. "There’s nothing here," a tear rolls down my cheek, "This isn’t my home."

  “Right…” Aerix agreed, thrown by the painfully overt statement. “You know I’ve lived longer than you, right?”

  I frowned at Aerix, wiping the tear from my face as my vision returned. “That’s not relevant. Also, time dilation doesn’t count.”

  “It isn’t relevant to you either, you’re barely thirty, not some omnipresent god.”

  “I am a god, thank you very much.”

  Aerix just shrugged. "There's a fracture in reality that I can sense, but it was too subtle for me to notice right away. We aren't anywhere near home. I think it will take some time for our abilities to adjust and function well,"

  "The only thing I can sense here is death, lots of it, aged and weathered through time." I come up to my knees, placing both palms up. "Your rest has come to an end; you will serve me, for you are bound to my will."

  Bones erupt from the ground and walls; some form partial skeletons and others pile up while others scatter about.

  "This should work just as fine as vines." I turned to one of the skeletons with a fractured skull and a missing arm. "Guard that locker." I motioned to the one housing Blu. "If anything comes and tries to open it, alert me. If he dies, I'll make sure you never sleep again." I flick my hand, and a shattered bone attaches itself to the shoulder of the skeleton for a makeshift weapon.

  "Aerix, let's go. I'll leave a trail of bones for us to get back." I draw my daggers and start moving, Aerix not far behind. As I suspected before, the "rooms" don't change much; they are just randomly placed walls. Bones hover nearby and fall into place as we walk, linking together in a protracted line.

  Aerix spoke up. "So, are we gonna discuss what happened?"

  "What is there to discuss? He wanted to come whine about his mom, so I messed him up."

  "He messed you up, actually. It's not his fault his mom is dead; just because you don't love yours is no reason to dismiss him." Aerix pointed out.

  "Please, he lost a whole tooth. And I'd rather fight him than defy divine balance. You think I want an Echo of Fate upset with me?" I shot back.

  "He kicked you into my cave, cut you up, and bruised you, despite the healing attributes you have from being an echo and from your patron."

  "So? The fact that Primixa is my patron already makes me one of the most powerful entities ever." I threw my hands up to accentuate my point.

  A distant rattling echoed through the chamber, its volume increasing with time. The vibration traveled up the bone chain until it reached the group above my head, shattering the bundle of bones and showering us in yellowed ivory. "They found Blu," Aerix said frantically, looking above their raised palm through a fracture in the air that showed the demolished locker and dismantled skeleton. I turn and run alongside the bone trail, hoping I reach the locker in time. "I swear if someone kills him before I do, I'll be pissed," I huffed out as I ran, Aerix just behind me.

  When the area with Blu's locker comes into view, I shift the grip on my daggers; I see a tall, gray figure. The look it gave off reminded me of Television static, in a way. It was vaguely humanoid but was blurred and had no discernable features. Blu was being held in the air by one of its arms that resembles mosaic censorship, wrapping tighter around his throat. I flung my daggers at the creature, severing its arm and head, causing it to fall into a pile of amorphous mush.

  “Am I in Ossuaris yet?” He asked, his distaste for the circumstances laid bare in his voice.

  Aerix tossed him their sunhat, "Put that on."

  "Thank you," he said surprisingly calmly.

  Blu fixed the hat to his liking on his head, casting a shadow across his face. He tapped the crystals that hung from it, turning them glossy and black.

  "Bitch,” he mumbled to me.

  "Okay," I acknowledged, not having the energy for another spat.

  Aerix waved for our attention, their expression determined.

  I turned to them, hoping they could shed some light on our predicament. "Do you all know where we are? Or at least what that was?"

  “I’m pretty sure that was a demoryn,” Aerix said steadily.

  Blu blinked. “A demo-what?”

  I knew this one. “It’s a type of demon that is created from broken memories after someone loses their sense of self.”

  Sablune nodded, asserting his understanding. "I've heard stories set in a location with a description similar to this place."

  “This place is made up of the discarded realms of Celestials. The official name came up several times in some records I store in my archive at home,” Aerix debriefed.

  An annoyed sigh escaped me. “We’re dungeon crawling in… what was the name?”

  Aerix’s glittering irises shined with academic fascination. “Verestia.”