Chapter 42. Amndo’s Choice
Amndo took no notice of the clashing of swords at the foot of the bridge. He did not notice Deanola’s absent concentration. His thoughts were elsewhere. Something else held his attention above all else. He continued up the bridge that once spanned the Rift. He approached the large black block cautiously. It seemed to hum at him with power. He could feel the skin on his face crawling with the energy flowing around the stone. He stopped, a force pressed against him as if someone held him there at arm’s length; he was leaning against the power that emanated from within the stone. He frowned as he felt the presence, the intellect that laughed at him, mocked him.
“So my old friend you come at last”. A voice spoke inside Amndo’s head. “I have been waiting for your return with anticipation – Gatekeeper.”
Amndo hesitated at the words. He felt a deep disappointment that what he feared most, now proved to be true. It still existed even though the machine and the Rift had been destroyed. The entity was still there drawing on the power stored within the stone. He took in a deep breath and pushed against the force. He felt the pressure reduce; it gave way as if someone no longer restrained him.
“Come then Gatekeeper, come and sit with me at your rightful place by my left side. Together we can do great things; together we can put things once more to rights.”
Amndo hesitated at the words, but continued after the merest pause and stood before the great block, a feeling of dread mixed with the finality of acceptance. He could almost see the hate reflected in the stone, feel its malice; it was like standing in the presence of an old adversary, with no escape from the inevitable. He frowned and whispered, “so be it.” Then leaning forward he placed both of his hands upon the block. Immediately he was struck, it was like a hammer had smashed into his head. He fell to his knees. A vice like presence held onto his mind, he knew he would not be able to throw it out this time.
“Welcome Gatekeeper, now at last you can fulfil your true calling. I find I am in dire need of a physical form to transport me and you will provide the means.”
Serinae had just sliced through the sword arm of one of T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran soldiers. She was aware of the clatter of his blade as it fell onto the stone beneath their feet. She was watching carefully to see what his next move may be, but he held his arm, blood ran down between his gloved fingers and dropped to the ground below. The guard withdrew, backing his way down the bridge. She breathed in and lowered her guard. Nar’Allia was still battling another of the guards, the remaining one. The last lay dead behind her. “Come Narny, stop toying with him, end it now and put him to rest.” Serinae flicked hair from in front of her face and with her eyes shining brightly shot a piercing gaze at the soldier. She threw the other sword into the air and Nar’Allia caught it by the hilt. She went into a defensive stance with the two blades just as she had done many times before. The soldier had fear etched all over his face and as soon as Nar’Allia pressed home her attack, with renewed vigour and two swords; the guard dropped his weapon and ran back down the slope of the bridge. Serinae smiled at Nar’Allia and turned to look up the bridge towards the great black keystone. Her eyes followed Amndo. He had gone up the slope of the bridge that spanned the gulf below and was now standing in front of the great keystone. She started to walk up the bridge herself; she had a distinctly bad feeling about this, she remembered a time before, but surely unlike then, this time there was nothing to fear, but she could not shake off the feeling of dread that now filled her mind. Just then Amndo appeared to reach out and touch the block, his body convulsed and he fell to his knees his body continued to shake violently. She ran forward up the bridge and on reaching him she grabbed hold of his shoulders and tried to pull him back. Something heavy smashed into her chest and she was thrown backwards. She lay there gasping for breath. She managed to voice the words, “oh no. Not again.” Her words were cut short. A tendril of energy snaked out from the stone and stabbed into her, she cried out in pain and anguish.
Amndo tried to retaliate but he knew it was no good, not this time. They had fought this battle before and now the Rift entity knew him too well. Serinae was not where she once was, she did not command the power and energy of the ancient fathers. Amndo quailed, as he knew that she would not be able to help him this time. It was like some ferocious beast had him by the throat, he felt immobilised, his life forces draining from him as he watched and there was nothing he could do. He reeled about trying to maintain his consciousness despite thoughts in his mind telling him to let go, to embrace the darkness and have peace.
The Rift entity was enjoying this, it felt joyous. But then a presence made itself known. Somewhere a powerful channel had made a connection. It knew the signature, it was T’Iea, but this one was different, this one was strong. It recognised the basic elements of the signature for it had felt it before. This female T’Iea signature had once controlled vast amounts of energy, limitless energy, so much energy that the entity had not been able to overcome the signature, not that time once before. But now the signature did not have such energy at its disposal. The entity smiled, it relished the prospect of having this new T’Iea signature as a slave, for this would be far better than the weakling keeper, the current Gatekeeper. This new Gatekeeper would be far more powerful a far more fitting slave. This new Gatekeeper had the knowledge of an energy source far beyond anything that the entity had experienced before, it wanted that energy, it would demand to know where the energy could be found, then it would make the slave take it there. But This signature knew something else, the entity could read the memory of it, this T’Iea female new of a means of transport that would allow the entity to leave the stone, not only that but to be able to travel freely across the world and even beyond, far beyond. The Rift Entity was beside itself with excitement. It released most of the pressure it was applying to the Gatekeeper, for the keeper no longer interested it and diverted all its thought towards the source of the drain, towards the female T’Iea signature.
Serinae’s body convulsed. She felt despair, for the first time in her life she had made a fatal mistake, she was not under control of this situation; she knew she was unable to win this battle. She felt something alien, something terrifying enter her mind and start to search through her thoughts. There was nothing she could do against this violation. Her mind, her memory was being stripped apart by this monster in her head; all she could do was watch as it sorted through her most private things, it tossed aside old memories aside like scraps of paper.
Amndo dropped to the ground, he gasped for breath. The Rift entity had released him, but why? He gasped in air and tried to steady his swirling mind. He felt for the black stone once more and touched it. He probed beyond his body, probed for the entity. He found it, he couldn’t miss it, a massively high concentration of arcane energy provided a beacon to its location, but this energy was focussed away from him. He turned his attentions elsewhere, his suspicions were correct, like all key stones this one also was able to store a great amount of arcane energy, only its mass was of such a size the amount of stored energy was truly enormous. He smiled, as he had guessed right. He now guessed that the entity had escaped the Rift just as the machine was being destroyed and had indeed entered the keystone. Now in its eagerness to be mobile and have an escape route it had indeed entered his body and mind, but it had partly left him to turn its attentions elsewhere, something else vied for its interest. His own body now played host to a tendril-like appendage that connected him with the Rift entity and through it to the stone. Amndo quickly detached the tendril and redirected it to the stone, bypassing the entity. With the Rift entity itself gone he was free to search the power within the stone and he did so. He soon found what he searched for. Like all artificial intelligences without the capability to repair itself like its biological counterparts the Rift entity had fallen into the habit of making copies of itself at regular time intervals, making multiple copies of itself in a separate place, so that it could repair itself should any unw
anted corruptions occur. The entity had stored all of these images in the stone. There, he found them, many of them in fact, for the entity had been a part of the Rift for many ages. He looked for the latest image; he opened it and took a look inside.
The rift entity was having fun, it was sorting through the feeble mind of this T’Iea looking at each and every memory until it found what it searched for. There, a memory of a vast place, a place of infinite power, a technology that went far beyond anything that the entity had ever seen. A craft then, a craft like the drones it had designed, but this craft was capable of so much more. It felt excitement well inside. This craft could traverse the heavens, it was not confined to this world, it could go anywhere and in any time. The entity needed to know where the craft was, it searched through the T’Iea’s mind, but it did not find the location, the T’Iea didn’t know, didn’t have a clue where she had been. Only that she had been there! So failure after all. The entity prepared to withdraw and kill the T’Iea female, it would make sure that the death was a long and painful one, how dare this weak T’Iea raise the entity's hopes only to dash them once again. But the keeper, the Gatekeeper was still available, perhaps he knew more. Then the entity had a sudden feeling; something that was precious to it was being probed. It released Serinae and turned its attentions once more to the Gatekeeper.
“What are you doing?” It was the Rift entity, some alarm had gone off and he had been seen. The Rift entity raced back towards him, but Amndo was too quick. He opened the backup image and quickly reloaded it. The Rift entity disappeared for it was not expecting or able to resist the sudden reinitiating of its subroutines. Never had it thought that someone, other than itself, would ever be able to do this. Quickly Amndo searched the reloading subroutines present within the image, he hoped that this image contained everything, everything that was the Rift entity and also everything that was the Rift. He hoped the Entity had not been selective in what it preserved. His hopes were rewarded. He knew he didn’t have long; the entity having been rebooted would take a few seconds to re-orientate itself, to reload all its functions and subroutines. He followed certain subroutines, but none seemed to have what he was looking for. But then he found one particular subroutine and opened it. He prayed to the Maker that it was the right one. Suddenly relieved for there before him spun several bright shining disks. He looked at them as they moved across his field of vision. He removed this subroutine, detached it from the image and dragging it away, placing it into the stone, into a fresh spot; it would remain there within the stone for as long as the arcane power the keystone possessed lasted. This would be his final gift to his friends, he hoped they would find it and it would allow them to go back home. Then he systematically erased all the other images that the entity had created. Satisfied he turned his attention back to the bright disks that spun in front of his eyes. There he saw an image that pulled at his heart, he would have given anything at that moment to touch that image, to be able to return there. But he could not. Instead he found the one he looked for, a disk depicting a six pointed star, in the centre of this star was a face, it looked upwards as if it gazed at the heavens; the hands either side framing this face with palms upwards. He felt he entity crash into his mind, but it was weak, not all of the subroutines had reloaded yet. So before it could do anything Amndo reached out with his finger and touched this disk. Immediately he felt the pull of the portal, just as he felt the Rift entity complete its reboot, as it came back online he reached out and grabbed it like a beacon, he created an arcane tendril that connected them, it was like two people with a rope tying them together. He heard the Rift entity scream in frustration as he engaged the portal; he made sure that the tendril and the entity were also pulled through.
It was over in a couple of seconds, Amndo exited the portal along with the entity in tow, not onto a firm surface, but into a star filled space. He remembered the last time he was here, the destruction and mayhem. But now it was quiet and beautiful this place where once the void containing the machine hall had been. Now this void was open, stars shone everywhere around him, it was breath taking. But an ache shot through his chest, he gasped, tried to breath in air but he was in a vacuum, there was nothing to breath and his lungs began to complain even as his eyes bulged, he wanted to close them but he also wanted to see what lay before him. He smiled; he knew his final vision would be the beauty portrayed by these billions of points of light, billions of galaxies of star systems, countless Nebulae their beautiful coloured gasses spanning vast distances across the outer void, myriads of suns some dying, some in their prime, others young and just born. Somewhere he knew one of those suns played host to a world where he would feel at home. He looked around as if such a place would be just there, a stone’s throw away in relation to the infinite void that surrounded him. He was surprised, for something deep in his memory seemed to recognise where he was, or at least what he was looking at. He seemed to understand that he had travelled this way before, well almost this way. He felt a familiarity like he had come back, returned after many years, many ages of being away.
Amndo didn’t hear but he Rift entity screamed within his mind repeating over and over, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU FOOL? YOU HAVE DESTROYED US BOTH.” It desperately looked around trying to find some other host to escape to, but there was none.
Amndo’s attention turned to a small dark spot, how far away it was he couldn’t begin to guess at, but he could begin to feel its pull upon him. He knew that soon that crushing attraction would become unbearable, irresistible but he smiled, for he knew he would be long dead before he even got close to it. His lungs burned in his chest. He exhaled his last breath, the water vapour froze immediately. The Rift entity screamed at him as he felt the pressure of his blood building in his veins. He knew it was only a few seconds before his skin could no longer contain that building pressure, he didn’t want to think of the consequences.
The Rift entity screaming repeatedly at him, “YOU HAVE DESTROYED US, YOU FOOL!”
Amndo felt a deep satisfaction, he felt fulfilled. He would have sighed if he had air in his lungs to do so. He would have closed his eyes but they now bulged so much his eyelids would not close around them anyway there was no moisture left to make tears it had all frozen solid. He was thankful to the Maker that he felt no pain. Then just nothing, a void was all that remained.
Serinae stirred, how long she had been unconscious she did not know but it could only have been a minute at most. Many hands grasped at her. She felt her upper body being lifted to a sitting position, someone held her tight, hugged her close. Her sight returned and through the haze of pain she could make out the face of her friend Minervar. She felt a sudden panic, an old fear. She looked towards where Amndo’s body lay upon the bridge one hand still held against the black stone block. His eyes were lifeless, Serinae knew for she had seen death in many guises and at that moment Amndo’s face looked no different from any other devoid of life’s presence. As she watched his body began to shimmer, start to look translucent, it formed once more as if something fought within, fought to reform it, but then it seemed to break apart forming into a multitude of miniscule spherical globules that floated in the air in front of her. These elongated into a thinner and thinner line until they all disappeared.
The panic within her subsided, all terrifying thoughts diminished. She felt a great empty sadness and became aware once more of others around her, hands on her shoulders, voices that seemed a million miles away. She lay back down heavily upon the stone of the bridge and turned on her side drawing her knees up to her chest; a tear ran down her cheek.
Unseen by the T’Iea upon the bridge the inhabitants of the city of R’Iggorr’Thegoran fell to their knees clutching their heads in pain.