Ice Phoenix
Chapter 47 - Survival of the fittest

At the same time Nashim was speaking to the grandmaster about feiyed beasts, Eliksha crashed to the floor of the Dark Star’s outmost airlock. She scrambled to her feet, tears of terror streaming down her face. Her hands grasped desperately around the large wheel lock protruding from the door, and she threw all her strength into turning it.

There was a crash from outside the ship and she screamed as Quempa’s broken body shot through the airlock. It happened so fast — he crashed into the wall, leaving a dent.

“Please unlock!” she cried, pulling at the wheel. But it refused to budge; the exit door she had come through had been damaged beyond recognition, causing the ship’s system to lock down all remaining entry points.

Large claws tore at the twisted wreckage of the outer door, and Eliksha released another terrified scream. She aimed her gun at what came through, firing off several shots. They were head-on shots but they failed to stop the horrific, fiery creature from coming inside. It stared at her with cruel eyes and radiated such an intense heat that Eliksha felt herself burning up. Flames erupted on her suit.

She hammered on the door. “Someone please! Open the door! Open the doooor!”

The last thought that ran through her head was, Let my death be quick. That was before the door opened and a hand pulled her through to safety.

The creature shrieked in surprise as the woman disappeared before its eyes. It tried to follow her, quickly burning a hole through the thick door, when a voice broke into its thoughts.

You’re going the wrong way. Turn around and come back out.

The creature looked around in confusion.

That’s it. Come outside. Come to me.

"For what purpose did you bring Terrana here?” shouted Grandmaster Deitrux to Nashim.

“Can’t you feel her, grandmaster? She’s coming,” laughed Nashim.

“What are you talking about? Who’s coming?” Grandmaster Deitrux felt a ripple in the In-Between, and his eyes widened in horror as wild uncontrolled qi surged through the area. He, Lakara, L-Master Hadrick, Lady Skiss, and even Nashim were almost blown away as brutal power whipped around them like a tornado. The wiring in Grandmaster Deitrux’s suit short-circuited, destroying his entire communications system. He could no longer hear or speak through his intercom.

In the silent heaviness of the In-Between, he sensed the terrified emotions of his team and heard the deafening sound of his own breathing. Seconds ticked by. Nashim floated over him. Judging from the inclined position of his head, the grandmaster knew he was saying something, but he couldn’t hear it. The Valpuri reached down and knocked on his helmet several times before pointing towards the Dark Star.

With a sickening heart, Grandmaster Deitrux turned his head to look at the ship. Fire met his eyes and caused him to tremble in fear. Impossible. It can’t be ... what is that creature?

Nashim nodded as though he could hear the grandmaster’s question, and he made several hand gestures before pointing to the creature again. Grandmaster Deitrux shook his head in disbelief. He didn’t want to, he couldn’t believe it, but he could sense that Nashim wasn’t lying. That fiery creature shooting towards them in the darkness was Terrana. But it wasn’t the same Terrana who killed the queen on Si Ren Da. It wasn’t T2. It was something else entirely.

If the grandmaster thought he could spot any sign of humanity in her, he would only be fooling himself. The blazing white creature with two pools of darkness in its head where its eyes should have been contained no compassion, and certainly it did not show any signs of recognising him and the others. All Grandmaster Deitrux felt was destruction. He could see only oblivion heading towards them. Oblivion in the form of a once-human girl with the wings of a dragon and the eyes of death itself. By killing the human Terrana, Nashim had released the feiyed beast in her. The only hope they had of saving themselves was to use the pendant, but Nashim had thrown that away.

Think, Deitrux, think! Why does Nashim no longer require the pendant? Why did he kill the human Terrana to unleash that creature? He doesn’t want the Dream Walker free, but he needs that creature for a reason! Find that reason, Deitrux, and you will replace Nashim’s purpose.

Grandmaster Deitrux felt he wasn’t looking deep enough. He wasn’t taking everything into consideration. Terrana was the key. If he could connect all the pieces surrounding her, he could figure this out — the only problem was, he didn’t know where to begin. He latched on to the first fact that came to him.

Terrana has a guardian. Where did the guardian come from?

Grandmaster Deitrux felt himself sinking deeper into a battle of wits he was fighting with himself. He knew the answer lay buried in his mind, that whatever there was to know, he had all the pieces. He wanted to scream, to kick himself, to pull his hair out because the frustration gnawed at him. He could have cried, he needed to. At last, he couldn’t hold it back any longer. He screamed in frustration.

Releasing his emotions did not produce the answer he was searching for, but his heart slowed down and the blood finally kicked into his brain. It began working once more and Grandmaster Deitrux began reshaping his questions. What is the earliest known record we have of Terrana? Why did she have the pendant?

They still weren’t the right questions. Grandmaster Deitrux closed his eyes and took a deep breath. While he was drawing his next breath, the real questions dawned on him. Terrana was the child of Dartkala — that much was undisputed. All he had to do was return to her beginning. When had the search for Dartkala’s child begun? How did Terrana come to have the pendant? It was starting to fall into place now. Grandmaster Deitrux blinked rapidly as he moved the first piece into place.

The search for Dartkala’s child had begun fifteen hundred years ago, after the formation of the United Worlds of the In-Between. That much had been recorded in Flimus Flamus’s journal. He retrieved the memory of Mikin showing him a copy of the journal, and Flimus’s words flowed back to him.

... upon Aran’s discovery of the infant’s location, a sense of foreboding descended upon me and suddenly I feared for our lives. For if Aran knew, then most likely did the Valpuri. What we would replace in Arakam, the birth place of Dartkala’s new child, we possessed no inkling. We were gripped by both fear and excitement. What would the infant look like? Would it have a shape or would it be pure energy?

As Grandmaster Deitrux stared at the white blazing creature heading towards them, he realised he knew the answer to Flimus’s last question. Both. The infant is both shape and energy. More words from Flimus’s diary came back to him.

Between the demon monster and Aran, I knew not who initiated the killing hand. I could only watch as Aran, the demon monster, and the infant were consumed in a white hot flame. When Megan finally came to, she described something about the demon monster which to this day has puzzled me. The demon monster wore a simple necklace around its neck. A pendant in the shape of a teardrop. Skra’s pendant ...

And there was the answer to Grandmaster Deitrux’s second question. How did Terrana come to have the pendant? A theory, far-fetched as it sounded, but not impossible, sparked in his brain.

Flimus mentioned a weaver named Aran, an infant, and a demon monster from the Valpuri world. A monster more powerful than the other Valpuri they had met. If the three of them had really died in the explosion, the pendant would have disappeared along with them, but, somehow, it had survived. So, if the pendant’s power was strong enough to save itself, it could have been strong enough to save Aran, the infant, and the demon monster also, especially if Aran and the demon monster who had abducted the infant were as powerful as Flimus had described.

Grandmaster Deitrux was now certain that Terrana was the infant mentioned in Flimus Flamus’s journal, and it was highly likely that Aran had been with her all this time. The guardian. Aran had been the dolphin who had remained with her against all odds — it explained why he allowed Baneyon to leave Fiji with her. Aran had been a weaver, and he had recognised Baneyon as another. Satisfied that his reasoning had been sound so far, the grandmaster concentrated on working out who or what the other, more powerful, Valpuri was — and where it was now.

Terrana had been reborn, along with her guardian, Aran, in Sector Thirteen thirteen years ago. But, what if the demon monster had not been reborn, and instead had remained in a dormant state all these years? What if, to break free of this state, it required the same elements that had sent it into dormancy in the first place? The final piece fell into place as Grandmaster Deitrux recalled the last few words written by Flimus Flamus.

I could only watch as Aran, the demon monster, and the infant were consumed in a white hot flame.

The grandmaster cast his mind back to when Terrana had transformed into her supposedly feiyed form on Si Ren Da; Quempa had clearly told him she had given off blue-green flames. Her flames then were nothing like the ones he saw now — the creature flying towards him was ablaze with explosive white flames. The Terrana flying towards him was the true born feiyed creature, birthed in the darkness of Dartkala. He didn’t know who the other girl was that had appeared on Si Ren Da but she definitely wasn’t this blazing feiyed creature. This was what Nashim had wanted all along. This was why he had brought her through the Voron Cloud. He needed the feiyed Terrana with the white flames to undo what she had done fifteen hundred years ago. He needed her to release the one part of the trio who had been trapped for fifteen hundred years in the In-Between, instead of being reborn with Terrana and the guardian

The answer to where this third entity was trapped suddenly came to him. With impending dread, Grandmaster Deitrux twisted his head to stare at the random spinning rock above the gate. He had initially believed that Nashim had recklessly hurled the pendant into the void, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. The demon had thrown the pendant at the rock, as he had been planning to do all along. How strange that the rock had been trapped outside the Dream Walker’s prison.

The rock was glowing, and Grandmaster Deitrux finally understood what was draining their qi. What had appeared to be a lonely asteroid fragment was the reason why he, Lakara, Hadrick, and Lady Skiss could not move. Whoever or whatever was trapped inside the rock needed only the burning white flames of the feiyed Terrana to release it.

His worst fears were realised when Terrana hovered above the rock. Grandmaster Deitrux had to avert his eyes to avoid being blinded by her brilliant flames. She observed them and hesitated.

“What is she doing, just hovering there?” muttered Nashim. He hefted his weapon over his shoulder.

“Stop!” cried Grandmaster Deitrux although no one could hear him. “Don’t aggravate her! If she comes any closer, we could all die!”

But his desperate gesturing and muffled pleas went unnoticed by Nashim as he took aim at Terrana. Grandmaster Deitrux struggled to overcome his growing panic. Terrana’s flames stretched across the void like a magnificent raging river, and he could feel its heat burning through his suit.

He wasn’t sure how the others were faring, but he fervently hoped that Lakara, with her suit, could overcome the strange hold the rock had on them. They needed to get to the ship immediately and escape from Terrana, Nashim, and ... whatever was in that rock. A surge of adrenaline rushed through the grandmaster’s body and, to his surprise, it disrupted the hold the rock had on him.

Nashim fired his weapon and Grandmaster Deitrux watched in horror as a dark, red beam struck Terrana. From the way it exploded in her chest like an aggressive cancer, he suspected that it was a cellular-disintegrator beam. Whether it would work on a feiyed creature like her, he didn’t know.

What he did know was that he needed to get out of there fast. He found he could move his body again, and using all his strength, he ripped himself from harm’s way, tapping furiously on the manual propulsion sensor on his suit. Little bursts of compressed air expelled from his feet and he shot towards the Dark Star.

He had been correct about Lakara and her unique suit. She was already speeding towards the ship, dragging L-Master Hadrick and Lady Skiss with her.

Terrana writhed like a live fish on a hook before the blast molecules from Nashim’s weapon tore her apart. The blast sent powerful shockwaves throughout the void. Grandmaster Deitrux shrieked in pain as the blast tore his suit apart and he ejected the last of his qi in a desperate attempt to weave a barrier around himself. He watched as white flames consumed the darkness in a raging frenzy, and slightly ahead of him, L-Master Hadrick and Lady Skiss were ripped apart. Deitrux did not even have time to be shocked by their dreadful demise before he saw the Dark Star tumble into the darkness.

Terrana, you didn’t deserve to die like this, the grandmaster thought as he propelled himself towards the tumbling ship, barely protected by his barrier. Despite successfully sealing in the Dream Walker, the world was still doomed to die. A premonition of the future dogged him, and in his mind’s eye he saw the Dream Walker emerging from his long sleep, hungry and lusting for power. His desire to complete what he had started would return, and the worlds would be plunged into darkness once more. Grandmaster Deitrux realised that when that time came, the worlds would never see light again; the one person, the only person who could have saved them, had been destroyed.

Even though they had re-sealed the Dream Walker, the grandmaster didn’t feel he and the others had won. He had sensed the power beyond the gate when he and the sealing team had been working, and it was nothing that he or the world could contain. He realised why the Ancients of Olden Kartath had been terrified, even after all these years of peace and progress. The Dream Walker possessed nothing but lust for destruction. If Dartkala was life, then the Dream Walker was death. Even worse, he could not die. He had transcended beyond mortality and nothing short of another being like him could kill him. The knowledge had stunned him and he had nearly cried out upon realising it, but as the grandmaster, who was responsible for the lives of so many others, he did not lose his composure in front of the sealing team.

Hope had almost died in him until he had seen Terrana in her feiyed form. Although young, a baby in comparison to the Dream Walker, she possessed the same power, the same greatness that he had sensed in the Dream Walker. While she may not have shown any recognition, compassion, or loyalty as the blazing white creature, Grandmaster Deitrux believed she would have, in time, come to learn these things. It was why she had to be protected, and taught to respect life. She was supposed to embrace all things that the Dream Walker hated and, eventually, she would have been his equal. He had tried to protect her, and he had failed.

While the grandmaster and Lakara were tumbling away into the darkness, Nashim had been clinging to the rock. When it finally disintegrated, his eyes glowed with the triumph of victory. He felt invincible, knowing he was shielded by the incredible power of the entity that would soon appear from the remains of the rock. He had killed the young child of Dartkala and ensured the Dream Walker remained sealed, so now the emerging entity would have no equals. Nashim was proud that he had achieved everything he had set out to do.

A glowing orb rose from the dust particles of the shattered rock, and Nashim gazed at it in wonder. He became so absorbed in the orb, he failed to notice a glimmering cloud of ash behind him. Two large holes appeared in the ash and reduced quickly into a pair of black, shining eyes that glared furiously at the Valpuri’s back. Nashim must have sensed its anger; he turned around to stare into the face of a young girl. Terrana.

Her face morphed into white flames and Nashim found himself looking at a creature filled with cold, infinite rage, cocooned in the protective flaming arms of its guardians. The blood literally drained out of Nashim as he recognised the ice-phoenixes huddled around the girl.

“No,” he whispered.

Yes, said the millions of unrestrained voices in his mind. Did you not think that we wouldn’t protect our own? This is our home and you attacked our child.

“Your, your child? But she’s Dartkala’s. You’re not the same.” He stared at the girl with her dragon wings, flickering in white fire in the centre of the writhing flames. “She, she can’t be!”

All trueborns are one and the same.

Nashim looked beseechingly at the glowing orb. “You did not tell me this. Help me, please!” But whatever he thought the orb would do, there was no reaction. It did not even move. It simply remained glowing steadily in the dark.

"Please, I beg of you! Help me!" he screamed.

A billion voices flooded into his head and his brain imploded. Nashim twitched once or twice before going completely still. A dark liquid seeped through his ears and nose. As he drifted lifelessly in the In-Between, a delicate white bird emerged from the writhing flames that cocooned Terrana. It circled the Valpuri once, before perching on his helmet. Nashim splintered into icy fragments, littering the In-Between with fine dust.

Next, the bird turned its attention to the glowing orb. The orb must have sensed it was in danger because for the first time since its appearance, it moved.

The bird exhaled, and its breath transformed into a delicate mist that surrounded the orb. The mist hardened and, moments later, a cold lump of velassium floated in the void. The orb had vanished.

Hiding behind the damaged thrusters of a scouting pod, Lakara and Grandmaster Deitrux, their heads safely cocooned in helmets, peered cautiously past the Dark Star to observe what was happening with Terrana and the ice-phoenixes. They had been very lucky indeed. When Nashim had fired at Terrana, the resulting shockwaves had blasted open the doors to the transport bay, and a single scouting pod had wriggled loose. The two weavers had immediately sought shelter behind it.

“Incredible,” said Lakara.

“Even more incredible if we survive this,” replied Grandmaster Deitrux, floating in what appeared to be a giant plastic bag. “Thank goodness for emergency kits.” He had used the last of his qi to shield himself against the blast, and if it hadn’t been for Lakara he would have died.

In cases of accidental exposure to the In-Between, every spacesuit was fitted with a backup suit, and Lakara’s was no exception. She had removed a capsule from her own suit, which contained the spare spacesuit. As soon as the grandmaster had drifted into her reach, she activated the capsule, and it expanded and sealed itself around the Imeldor. He could survive in the In-Between for an hour before his air ran out.

“I can’t believe that creature is the same girl who was travelling with us,” said Lakara. “Is she an ice-phoenix?”

“Hard to say,” muttered Grandmaster Deitrux. “She looks nothing like them.”

“Well, it looks like she’s recovered quickly enough — no doubt from all the qi being fed into her by the other ice-phoenixes. What was that glowing orb we saw earlier?”

A feeling of extreme uneasiness gripped Grandmaster Deitrux. “Something terrible. Nashim released something terrible.” Lakara gave him a puzzled look, but he did not elaborate. “We should get to the ship.”

Lakara nodded and grabbed hold of his suit. She pushed off the scouting pod with her legs, sending them shooting straight towards the Dark Star. Tiny bursts of jet propulsion from her feet propelled them even faster. They were almost at the ship when Grandmaster Deitrux spotted something floating by.

“Wait!” he cried out sharply.

Lakara slowed down. “What is it?”

He pointed to a dark amber sphere spinning gently in the void. It was quite large, about half his body length in diameter. “We need to take that with us.”

“What is it?” Lakara stared at the sphere curiously.

“Not an it. A who. That’s Quempa.”

“Grandmaster Deitrux, that is a ball of amber!”

“Our kind possesses the ability to remove our life energy from our physical bodies and regenerate in a new body. The only drawback is that we can perform this only once in our lifetime and it shortens our lifespan. We also begin our new life as a youngling.”

“Wait a minute. Are you saying that when Quempa hatches, he’s going to be a child?”

“Yes.”

“Dear Dartkala.” Lakara wasted no time in securing the amber sphere and they made off towards the Dark Star once more. As soon as they reached the ship, she and the grandmaster scrambled into one of the airlocks.

Across the void, Terrana watched them disappear into the ship; their actions meant nothing to her. Although she was looking, she wasn’t really seeing them. She was lost in a strange euphoria of overwhelming exhilaration; she could sense life in every corner of the vast universe, and, she had never felt more alive.

Terrana.

Voices. Billions of them.

Terrana, come back.

Terrana groaned. The voices that called her seemed like a sobering hand pulling her from a drunken euphoria and, like most people who relished that temporary happy state, she did not want to sober up. But the pull of the voices was strong and, reluctantly, she followed them. Her sight was blurry at first, she was lost in a swathe of bright light, but eventually, she made out five ice-phoenixes floating around her.

Welcome back little one. You’ve suffered a difficult transformation.

I, I was dying. My body...

She gazed at her hands and blinked in surprise. They were neither solid nor ethereal, appearing to glimmer between the two states.

You lost your flesh and bone body in Dartkala.

So, am I dead then?

She detected a sense of mirth all around.

Death is but a state of mind. If you are referring to the fact that you no longer exist, then no, you are still very much with us. Your existence continues.

Why am I like this? I’m floating in the In-Between, aren’t I? How is that possible? I should be dead.

Again, mirth all around.

You are a child of Dartkala — a trueborn. Your home is in the void. However, you are not of pure blood and hence it is not your time to live among the stars. The release of your feiyed form is premature and you must be returned to your natural state.

What is my natural state?

Your human body. You must revert to the organic flesh and blood body that walks on dust.

But why must I? Why can’t I stay here with you? If I’m feiyed, I don’t have to return to my world.

You must. You are much too young to contain your form in the void. Your energy will flitter away, and you will become nothing but dust in darkness.

But I don’t have a human body anymore! Look at me — I’m glowing!

You will stabilise as soon as you re-enter a planet’s atmosphere. The qi in the dusty lands will revive you.

I don’t want to go.

You must. Not only will you cease to exist by remaining here, you will awaken the sleeping one. That must not happen.

Are you talking about the Dream Walker? If I don’t wake him, he’ll sleep forever?

No, little one. He will awaken. It doesn’t matter when or how. We already sense his restlessness.

But couldn’t you protect me? Couldn’t you defeat him?

Sadness.

We cannot, for that would mean the end of existence itself. In time to come, you will understand. Now, little one, you must go out of Dartkala and return to the planets.

Terrana’s heart sank. She didn’t wish to leave the ice-phoenixes, to return to her world where she’d be reminded of all her pain. In her feiyed state, she could still recall it, although the heavy feelings of personal attachment were no longer there. She knew that would change once she left the void. Everything human in her would return. But just as she understood that, she also understood there was no way the ice-phoenixes would allow her to remain with them. Resigned to her fate, she sighed.

Are we going to fly there?

You came with others from your world, did you not? You can return with them.

Terrana gasped. She had completely forgotten about the Imeldors and the ship.

Already your human feelings return. You worry for the others.

They were sealing the Dream Walker when Nashim attacked. They succeeded, right? That’s why you said he was still sleeping.

They succeeded, but not without great cost. Now, you must return with them. They cannot travel through the cloud without you.

Huh? Why? I can’t protect them.

Yes, you can. This belongs to you.

She blinked in surprise as something appeared in her hand. It was her pendant. A flood of emotions rushed through her and she shuddered.

If I return to the ship in this form, won’t I hurt them?

No. Your body will become more human when you are on the ship. With your human feelings, it will lose its power and you will be able to contain yourself. In a way, your empathy for the others is your anchor, it prevents you from harming them. The longer you are among others who are caring, the more human you’ll become. Once you step foot on a dusty planet, your body will be restored to its natural state and bind you in your Earthly form.

Terrana stared at her beloved pearl. In the fiery light of the ice-phoenixes, it called to her, and memories of a once happy time returned to her. She blinked away the fiery tears that had appeared suddenly.

This pendant represents everything I feel.

Inside the Dark Star, Master Drummik, Grandmaster Deitrux, and Eliksha were busy hauling the injured crew members and passengers to the medical room. Master Drummik had escaped from Nashim when he came to abduct Terrana, fooling the Valpuri into thinking he was dead. He had left behind a clone for Nashim to kill as he made his escape. However, his injuries had been severe and he had passed out before he could reach Terrana in her sleep capsule. He had come to just in time to save Eliksha from being burned alive by Terrana.

“They won’t remember a thing when they wake up,” said Master Drummik as he lowered the comatose form of the captain into a free bed. “The last thing they’ll remember is seeing the sealing team heading out towards the gate.”

“Pity they’ll remember even that,” muttered Grandmaster Deitrux. “Because then they’ll wonder where the rest of the sealing team is, before they learn that we’re stuck on this side of the cloud forever. We will never get through the cloud without the pendant.” He noticed Eliksha trembling and asked in a concerned voice, “Eliksha, are you all right?”

She gave him a watery smile and shook her head. “Sorry, I’m trying. It’s just ... after all I’ve seen, I need some time that’s all.”

Grandmaster Deitrux gave her a sympathetic nod. “We all wish we could go home.”

A voice interrupted them. It was Lakara, speaking from the bridge. “Latest status report. The good news first — our auxiliary engine was undamaged in the blast and I’ve been able to repair the ship’s thrusters so we are good to leave this area. We have full power and face no problems with our air recycling units. The bad news — the ship’s main void-drive is still down and it’ll take me a while longer to fix it. At this point, we can only travel at the speed of light.”

“Dartkala, how is that good news?” cried Eliksha. “Being stuck at the speed of light is like a death sentence out here! Anything could attack us and we wouldn’t be able to outrun it!”

“One step at a time, Eliksha,” said Grandmaster Deitrux. “We mustn’t panic. I have every faith that Lakara will be able to repair the void-drive.”

“Lakara, is there anything we can do to help?” called out Master Drummik.

There was no answer.

“Lakara?” Drummik called out again, his voice tinged with worry.

“You should all come up here. Now.”

They immediately sprinted out of the medical room towards the bridge. When they finally reached it, they burst through the doors, searching for Lakara. They spotted her standing at the captain’s station, her back to them as she looked out.

“What is it, Lakara?” asked Master Drummik.

She didn’t reply. Instead, she pointed at the window. “I think she’s trying to get in,” she said.

They followed her direction, gasping involuntarily when they saw the skinny, glowing creature with large, black eyes staring back at them. Terrana was plastered on the window, wondering how she could convince them to let her in.