Magi-Nation Lore

"A Bridge to a Bridge"
A Cold Welcome, Part 3
By Paul Wyatt, aka Vermillion De

Morag’s departure should have been comforting, but now Keva was trapped alone with no options or ideas. As the Geyser slowly backed her into a corner panic began to rise in her chest, and she desperately tried to regain control of her breathing. She reminded herself that now was not the time for this but she couldn’t keep her mind from racing.

Agram and Morag were the traitors. If that was the case, what happened to the Council? Is that why no one ever came out of the Core that day? Is that why no one was responding now? She couldn’t keep the emotions from bubbling up in her; the worst were the uncertainty and despair. She could feel tears rolling down her face.

Is everyone I know dead? Am I the only one left? She covered her face, trying to regain her composure as the memories came flowing in. If only Agram and Morag had never gotten involved with the Dream Barrier project, then none of this might have happened. Her thoughts drifted to that day in the council room.

*

“I don’t understand. I thought you were designing a weapon,” said a younger Morag, his hood down around his shoulders. He was floating just above a projected orrery display of the solar system; the facsimile of the moon was glowing faintly as the topic of their conversation.

“We explored that, but the situation has changed,” Keva explained, her arms crossed.

“It’s true. We simply don’t have the time to explore that as an option right now. The Dream Barrier wasn’t the plan we wanted, but it might be the plan that we need right now.” Padram gestured at the display, and the orrery showed a cross section of the moon. It highlighted several proposed construction plans, with connections worming their way to each other through the moon’s mantle.

“Then why are we here?” Agram asked with a tinge of impatience in his voice. He was a goliath of a man who was intimidating at even the calmest of moments.

“Because we need your help.” Une stepped around Padram to address Agram directly. Her soft, melodic voice calmed the tension in the room. She always knew exactly when to intervene, and this was no exception. Agram’s mood softened from annoyed to intent. Morag seemed less impressed.

“We’ve isolated some of the energies on the moon into distinct elements, but there’s still a lot of chaos in the Dream Plane. We’re missing something. We can’t establish the Barrier unless we can control it.” Padram rested two closed fists against the side of the table in an expression of quiet frustration. “We’ve tried everything, but we’re running out of time.” Padram looked up at Agram with a pleading expression. “I need your help.”

Agram didn’t answer, and before he could speak, Morag pointed at the center of the display. “And this is the center of operations? This chamber at the core of the moon with only one egress.” There was an odd tone to his voice, not inquisitive, but almost informative. Morag and Agram glanced at each other.

Keva sighed internally. Here comes the security lecture. They’re going to make us dig an access tunnel, aren’t they? That will set us back—

Padram tried to fill the silence. “I know you both have reservations about this plan, but this is bigger than those of us in this room. Day by day, the Invaders close in around us. The Dream Barrier might be our last bastion.”

“It’s not a plan,” Agram argued.

“No, it isn’t.” Une cut in. “It’s a fail-safe. I know you and Grath are doing everything you can to fight this war, but the odds have turned against us. The Dream Barrier might become the only place to retreat to. No weapon, no resource, not even any planet is more important than protecting our people.” Une sighed and rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. “You’re right, it’s not a plan. It’s a chance for us to buy time to come up with a plan; it’s a bridge to a bridge. With our people, the best minds we have, and the largest deposit of animite we’ve ever found, we’ll have all the time we need. We can find a way.” Une reached out and gently touched Agram’s arm. “But we can’t do this without your help. We need you.”

“Well, you have the best minds now anyway,” Morag quipped.

*

Morag, that self righteous, egotistical, selfish little… She snapped back to reality as the realization struck her. He IS selfish. It defines his every thought, his every action. Morag can only see two ways out of this situation because those are the only options that make sense to HIM.

Keva peered into the vortex. If the Geyser stabilizes here, the projected energies of the Door will certainly shatter the Barrier.Even if they don’t, the Barrier will decay over time without the energy the vortex is siphoning. Without energy, there’s nothing I can do about that.

She only had one risky alternative. Even as she considered her choices, the temptation of Agram’s corrupted energies distracted her. The very thought of it sickened her, but Morag was right: she had limited options. Keva took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and focused.

She opened her mind to the void, letting the tainted energy flow into her body. It felt wrong, like an unwelcome texture gliding over her skin. She gritted her teeth as it flooded her every pore and sinew. She had never encountered energy so invigorating. An emotion flowed through from its putrid source—Agram was pleased, even smug. She could feel it: He believed he had won, that the Geyser would stabilize, and Keva would be his newest pet. The thought made Keva want to retch.

At least one of you took the bait. Keva focused her emotions, and once Agram’s energies brought her reserves to the bursting point, she lashed out. Every ounce of her indignity, her anger, her sense of betrayal and bitterness all rained down on him unbridled. Something deep inside her ignited, like fuel on a flame; her aggression turned to hatred, her anger to malice. The energy Agram had given her was reacting to her emotions, amplifying her anger into something barely controllable. It was almost too much to bear, but she wielded the dark energy in her mind like a bludgeon.

Screaming, she slammed the connection between them shut. The sheer weight of her emotion had surprised him. She shielded her mind and body with her newfound reserves of energy and tentatively stepped across the vortex’s event horizon, shielding her head with her arms. Fragments of constructs and consoles whirled around her. Ahead, the Geyser’s heart hammered out dark energy in an unrelenting heartbeat, riling the vortex with every pulse. She forced herself through the torment of the dark magic and reached its heart: a strange, fist sized seed that was peeling open. She clasped her hands around it.

As the seed peeled open, black tendrils slithered out of both ends. They hungrily sought somewhere to root, and when the tendrils grazed her bloody arm they began to violently flail and stab outwards. The seed had found a new source of energy and set about its terrible work of draining it through her hands. The pain was blinding, but she couldn’t stop now.

She raced for the stairs in a barely controlled sprint towards the exit. Her shoulder slammed into the side of the stairwell, and she ignored the popping sound it made. Pain filled her entire existence; she couldn’t stop to examine each instance of it.

Climbing the stairs brought fresh agony. The vortex spun uncontrolled around her, anchored to the seed she carried. In the confined space of the stairwell the unchecked energies ripped stairs and wall panels to pieces forcing her to move carefully upwards, but finally she made it to the surface. The crisp Naran air didn’t shock her lungs the way she expected; in fact, it would almost have been pleasant in any other context.

She had wanted to bear down on Morag with the Geyser in hand, to make sure he couldn’t retreat to his precious safe distance, but the ghoul of a man had disappeared, and she had more pressing matters. You can make it, Keva. Just get to the tree line. If you can starve this thing of energy it should fail to stabilize.

Keva trudged through the snow as long as her legs would carry her. The more she walked, the farther the tree line seemed to be. The energy she was using to keep the effects of the vortex at bay had run dry. Her body had never felt colder. In a sobering moment, the truth dawned on her.

I’m not going to make it.

Her legs tingled, the feeling draining away. The Geyser was gaining velocity, whistling into a terrible crescendo. The vortex rose high into the sky, even this far from the control room. Black tendrils of energy were whipping past her defenses faster and faster. Stabs of pain jolted through her at each interval. She had to grit her teeth just to keep standing.

Finally, she fell forward into a snow drift, and she knew she wasn’t getting up this time. She rolled onto her back as the Geyser rooted into the ground next to her, tearing up chunks of permafrost. The translucent purple energies crackled into the air, burning the sky and blending into the horizon. Against the pearlescent reflections of the Dream Barrier, it actually looked quite beautiful.

Pain faded into a distant echo; it would all be over soon. She could feel Agram at the distant reaches of her mind, railing against the paper-thin defenses that still existed. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and she had run out of tricks. She had given everything to buy time.

It wasn’t a solution, no. Not that. A crimson tear rolled down her cheek as she started to black out. “Just a bridge to a bridge.” Keva comforted herself as the void opened.