Into Another World, page 31
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When Famkus awoke, the day had already dawned, and the sun shone glaringly through the window. It was usually no trouble for him to wake up early for his work, but his limbs had turned leaden. His head felt heavier than a melon. It took him some courage and effort to roll out of the soft bed. When he rang for the servants to bring him what he needed for a hot bath, no one came. Except for the ringing, it was so strangely quiet here. He could not even hear the dull thumping sound of the machines in the belly of the giant airship.Yawning, he strolled over to his travel chest and began to get his clothes ready. He was still naked, and he didn’t need to smell his armpits to know that he desperately needed a bath. Impatiently, he strode once again to the bell and let it ring louder and longer. But no footsteps sounded outside his room and there was no tentative knock on the door. Disappointed, he went through the small door that led into a bathroom. He used this only to do his emergency toilet. The water flowing in the basin was ice cold. He sighed, as he probably had no other choice.After he had washed himself with the cold water and old soap Famkus dressed. He decided to make a proper complaint to the management of the ship. The company should not have spent all the money for the rooms in the first class for this poor service. With a rumble he settled down in front of the dressing table. He placed the small jars of powder and colors on the wooden surface and began using the brush to cover the dark circles under his eyes. Despite the deep sleep he had sunk into after making love to the elf, he felt drained. Where was she? Maybe she had been just a dream, he thought, and smiled. After smearing blood-red paint on his lips, he reached for the container of blue eye shadow. It was empty. He looked in the mirror. Without the eye shadow, he looked like a ghost or a vampire.“Damn it,” he muttered and put the container away. Exasperated, he got up, went to his travel chest again and started rummaging, hoping he would still find a replacement. At that moment the door swung open and crashed against the wall. The previous silence of his room was destroyed by shouting voices and hurrying footsteps.”You’re alive!” someone shouted. He turned around. It was Elfried, his boss. Famkus frowned but got up and hurried toward him.”I knocked on the door who knows how many times and you didn’t open it!” His boss was not wearing makeup and his hair lay in sweaty strands against his head. He was wearing pants and boots, but nothing on his hairy upper body. “I actually didn’t hear it. What happened?” asked Famkus, looking past his boss. A man was just running past the door. One of the lamps in the hallway was broken and the glass shards lay in splinters on the floor, but that was all he could see.”A Beast has been raging. A monster! They’re dead... They’re all dead...” stammered Elfried. His eyes glazed over and at that moment the ship flew through a gray cloud front. The light of the sun fading.Famkus just looked at him in irritation. “I don’t understand.”His boss did not answerFamkus shook his head. It felt like someone had poured a bucket of cold water on him. No.”Look at this!” His boss pointed down the hallway. Famkus hesitantly walked past him and when he saw what he was supposed to see he stopped and stayed rooted to the spot. He couldn’t take his eyes of the scene in front of him.
So much blood... So many men were dead. The sunken eyelids, the eyes glazed over and unseeing, the skin greenish-pale. A beast had struck its claws into them. It could only have been a beast. But where had it come from? From the air? Were there such creatures high up in the upper sphere? That was impossible. He didn’t want to believe that. He stumbled back a few steps and bumped into his boss.“I don’t know what it was... But it’s still here... I can feel it...” Elfried whispered. “But what is it?” asked Famkus desperately.”I don’t know but the others dragged it here. I’ll tell you! Your elven witch!”Famkus shook his head. It couldn’t be. Such a lovely, delicate creature could not do such a thing. He thought of her soft skin and warm breath and beautiful face. No, she was innocent.”It... No... It can’t be. It has to have come from the sky! A dragon maybe!”The chief began to laugh coldly and humorlessly. “Dragons don’t fly, and how would the monster have come aboard? Through the sealed entrance gateway? A beast like that would have to punch a hole through the hull to get in here! I tell you, those elves conjured it up from the realm of shadows and let it loose on our men. Look at Felris.”Famkus had avoided attempting to recognize his old comrades in the corpses, but he saw Felris lying there. A black hole was emblazoned in his chest, where the heart sat. Insects had already landed there to lay their eggs. Famkus suppressed a retch and turned away. He didn’t want to see those bodies anymore. “We have to cover them up! It’s against their honor to leave them so.... Leaving them uncovered...”The chief just shook his head, not responding. “Felris messed with them at the auction and you young fools thought it was funny! I tell you, when we walked by them, I looked into the pink-haired man’s eyes. They were not of this world. I saw evil in them.”
*Jonas and Elgalion ate breakfast without a word. Jonas had pushed his cup of tea to Elgalion because it was too bitter for him. Was he already spoiled by the luxury, he asked himself. He didn’t know what to say. He wanted to address that which should not be addressed. Elgalion, too, was surprisingly silent, his eyes turned only to his breakfast. Jonas watched as the elf kept sprinkling salt on his boiled egg after each spoonful. The elf never seemed to get enough. The egg didn’t seem to come from a normal bird, because it was almost as big as a honeydew melon and the shell was colorfully speckled. It was the only item that had been served, and Jonas knew he would probably be full after two-thirds.“That’s bad for the blood pressure,” Jonas mumbled. He just wanted to break that oppressive silence.”Yeah, that’s what Avely told me once. Like I’d listen to him. “ Elgalion took a big spoonful of the egg and stuffed it in his mouth.”You’re doing your own thing,” Jonas noted.”No, I’m doing Rulliobh’s thing. We’re all doing his thing.” When Elgalion said that he finally looked up from his egg and looked him in the eye. Jonas returned that look, puzzled. Had he stepped onto thin ice again? He never knew. But he would venture forth.”If Rulliobh forbade you to put too much salt on your egg, would you do it?”Elgalion stopped spooning for a moment. “Yes,” he said softly.Jonas just nodded. He did not want to appear judgmental.”Would you do it, Jonas?” asked Elgalion, his eyes shining like emeralds.”Yes,” the young man answered cautiously. He didn’t know if that was true, but it seemed like the right answer at that moment.”He is glorious.” Elgalion finally turned back to his egg.Jonas didn’t know what Rulliobh was to him. He scared him and his heart always beat faster whenever he was near him. There was a strange fluttering deep in his belly and when he looked into his master’s face it seemed as if every truth about the world was revealed to him. The most beautiful and the worst truths. And one could not refuse Rulliobh. One was bound to him. His will had to be done. Despite what he had done with Jonas the day before, the master had not been able to elicit from him the full truth about the strange white figure. A small triumph? Or another mystery... Another unanswered question that robbed him of sleep. Yet Jonas knew nothing about the albino. Only that he had fiddled with the machines. And out of intuition, he had kept this from Rulliobh.The door opened and Erwyn came into the room with quiet steps. Rulliobh was not to be seen. She sat down at the table. Her eyes were widened so that all the white around the irises could be seen. It was an eerie sight, and it took a few seconds for the eyelids to lower again, and she just seemed tired.Jonas pushed the rest of his food towards her, and she nodded gratefully. Suddenly, however, Erwyn sat askew, and she fell off the chair. Jonas was able to catch her by the shoulders at the last moment, Elgalion grabbed her legs and together they carried her to one of the sofas and bedded her down on it. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked, aghast.Elgalion’s face was unreadable.”She was punished,” the elf said in a low voice. It sounded neither gloating nor regretful.”What did she do?” Jonas asked defiantly. He wanted to brush a strand of hair out of her face, but he didn’t dare. His hands were shaking.”I don’t know. I was not present last night. Rulliobh will have told her to do something, and she messed it up. This kind of thing happens, but it’s not supposed to happen. And we’re being punished for it.”Elgalion returned to the table and calmly continued eating his egg as if nothing had happened. Jonas stood indecisively between the sofa and the breakfast table. He got scared at the thought of being punished. How had he gotten himself into such a situation? Maybe he should never have taken refuge in those god-forsaken fantasy worlds. He had attracted all this like a magnet, and he couldn’t get out.
*Elgalion looked at the dried white flower petals in his hand. They were imbued with an unknown spell. Rulliobh had handed them to him and told him to find their maker. As if he were sleuth. But Elgalion’s magical skills were dull on most levels. The sleuthing spell that had to be used only worked when he was near the object. So far, he had walked through all sorts of corridors and not once did the spell find a trace. Erwyn would have been better suited for this, but he had the feeling that whatever had happened last night had broken Rulliobh’s trust in her.He snorted as he walked through the same corridor for the third time, casting the spell. No trace. Nothing at all. A servant walked past him, giggling cautiously. It was almost midday. The sun was a bright glare, the light almost blinded him as he walked past the windows. At first, he had been impressed by this wondrous airship, but the sunlight so far up in the sky was too much of a good thing. He sighed and turned around. The maid had stopped and looked at him with flushed cheeks.“S-sir, do you need help?” She was certainly not part of the crew, Elgalion he knew the effect he had on other creatures. He smiled slightly. Yet he thought he still looked too exhausted from yesterday. What Rulliobh had done to him had robbed him of all his strength and it hadn’t yet fully returned to him. He walked up to the servant and stood close in front of her. She stumbled back, smiling slightly. He could hear her heart beating like a bird’s.”Yes. I need help,” he said.
***
He licked the blood from her pale lips, then brushed the strands from her face and squeezed her eyelids shut. She had died with a smile on her lips. That was the way he worked.He drew strength from the blood, it was nowhere near enough to cast a successful spell, but it strengthened him. Slowly, he began to perceive the currents of magic again, which had previously lapsed into a background noise.He left the storage room containing the corpse. Back in the hallway he finally perceived a trail. A pale thread that tickled when he ran through it. Like an umbilical cord, he held onto it and followed. The cord grew stronger as he passed through a metal door into a side passage and then took a small flight of stairs downwards. There was a double door there. He ran toward it and pried it open. Hissing and rumbling greeted him and for a moment he couldn’t see anything because of the colorful fog. Then he made out a figure.“Ah, there you are... Oh, just one of you dogs. Your master doesn’t seem to be very open to strangers, “ said the man standing in front of him. Elgalion approached the person and stroked the pommel of his weapon. Two red eyes flashed and now he could see the white figure more clearly. He kept his distance. This was no ordinary enemy. He smiled at the challenge. He was not a dog, even if he was sometimes made into one against his will. He thought of the strange favor he had had to do for Avely.”Well, a dog I’m not, but I like to feed those to the dogs that are foolish,” Elgalion said.The albino snorted, shook his head, then turned around as if the blonde elf posed no threat at all. Elgalion circled him and saw that he was operating some sort of spherical golden box with buttons and wheels. He used a thin pen and pressed it into a few places.”If you want to learn something, come closer, but keep your hands off the dagger,” hissed the white elf without looking at him. Sure enough, Elgalion let go of the pommel and came even closer.
“What are you doing?” he asked, moving so close that the tip of his nose almost touched the shiny metallic orb.”I’m trying to connect the sphere to the algorithm in the ship’s spell. Yesterday, I ran some samples. I had to figure out how it worked. Impressive work, but not flawless.” He smiled and looked at him from under long white lashes. His eyes were as red as the blood Elgalion had just drunk.”And what are you going to do with it?” That his counterpart spoke so openly was a bad sign.”If your master wants to know, let him come here himself, or is he afraid of me? I know guys like him. I’ve seen hundreds come and go. The show he puts on is anything but impressive. At least to me. You’re lucky I didn’t kill you on sight. I despise lemmings to death. You little slaves...” He growled the last word as he continued to tinker with the orb.Elgalion snorted but couldn’t say anything in return. He hated this feeling when someone else was right. He resisted the urge to touch his weapon again.Suddenly darkness fell, the colorful light faded, and the swaths of magic became invisible. His opponent was now only a white shadow. The orb was only a faint metallic flash.”What are you doing?” He asked the question for the second time now, hoping for what he really wanted to know. What was the albino up to?”Hmm, well. Since you’re all going to die here anyway, I can tell you. I hate hearing this damn story over and over in my head, without properly letting it out. Once upon a time... Long before the kingdoms and long before I was even born, someone banished one of the fairy spirit creatures into this orb. I found it by accident. I was a wild boy and roamed around in places I wasn’t supposed to. The orb looked pretty, and I decided to keep it. I forgot about it at some point, and it disappeared into a chest, and I didn’t see it again for centuries. Much later, when I was far into the realms of magic, after years of self-chosen solitude that served to find inner peace, I found it again during a spring cleaning. And I recognized it for what it really was. Goras was one of those spirits who had a name and often showed himself to us mortal beings. He is mentioned only here and there in writing, but the description of what had happened to him applied exactly to the orb. I won’t bore you with the details...”A loud smacking sound emanated from the sphere and a hole opened at the top and a strange smelling gas came out. Elgalion felt a sharp pain behind his forehead. It almost felt as though he was going to come under someone else’s control again, like that time with Avely, but that was not the case.”Goras needs energy to free himself. It is everywhere in our world, of course, but not as concentrated as on this airship. The energy must be delivered in one burst, or it will dissipate again. This will be a real feast for him.””And then? What do you plan to do with him?” Elgalion began to feel a strange power emanating from the sphere, and it was so alien that it sent chills down his spine.”Well... I don’t know yet...” Suddenly the albino brushed Elgalion’s cheek with his knuckles. He hadn’t seen the movement coming. He remembered what the albino had said earlier. Since you’re all going to die anyway.“I don’t think it’s a great idea to try to kill us.” Now Elgalion did draw his sword. Was it aggression or even fear?”We cannot escape death. It waits for each of us. You have met it many times, what frightens you? That one day you will die as painfully and slowly as your victims? You deserve it. Goras will eat the ship, he will seize the power, and I will serve him as a vessel.”Vessel? Elgalion had heard this term only once, but due to the circumstance of his magical abilities, his mother had never taught him much about conventional magic.”A vessel...” he said dumbly.But the white elf ignored him and kept playing with the orb.”How many souls are on the ship? A thousand? Two thousand?” the latter interrupted the silence.”I don’t know,” said Elgalion, and he heard his voice as if from far away.”Hmm. It doesn’t matter. There are definitely a lot of them, and they are good food, good fodder.”Elgalion knew what it meant to consume energy. He could still drink the energy from a victim, and he or she had to be alive or recently dead. But no more than three victims at a time. And the energy he held always dried up, as if he were a sand container with a small hole in the bottom and every grain threatened to disappear. It was an intoxicating feeling to drink energy and even more intoxicating to let it out. But thousands at once? That would be a disaster! But why did he care so much? They could just run away. Let the others die. He shouldn’t care. Elgalion turned away and a few steps, then stopped. What was stopping him? In his mind’s eye he suddenly saw the trembling hands of the maid and how the life left her body. Then it was gone.”What’s keeping you?” The Albino behind him asked.
Elgalion turned around and rushed at the other elf. The albino ripped away his sword and wrestled him down with an ease he would not have thought possible because of his lean stature. His fingernails dug into his flesh and his hot predatory breath hit his face. Looking into his eyes, he saw an orange glow in the pupils. It was as if they were round windows through which one could watch a furnace. He knew a part of the being had already flowed into the albino giving him this eerie power.“Stay here. Watch and learn, and maybe you will live. However, if you continue to resist me, I will eat you.” His white face now moved so close that the tips of their noses touched, and a tingling sensation moved through Elgalion’s body. Elgalion had never had anyone get so close against his will without sending them to their death.
“Do you understand?”Elgalion said nothing, but the albino seemed to read the answer in his eyes because he turned away from him and touched the orb. There was a flash, and he was blinded for a moment. The beam of light stabbed directly into his brain.”Ah, there we have it. It’s time.”A hissing sound echoed through the room, and suddenly the air became so uncomfortably hot that Elgalion wanted to rip off his clothes. But he wasn’t sweating at all. It was an illusion. Soon he thought he was on fire, but there was no fire. He had to summon all the self-control to banish this false pain, this illusion, from his mind. All that was needed against illusion spells was the discipline of the mind. When he had finally freed himself from the hideous pain, he ran once again towards the albino.
“Goras has been trapped in this sphere for eons. If I release him, he will be anything but thrilled. He will reduce this beast to rubble.”
