My blade cuts through my opponent's arm.
"Surrender," I command, pressing the blade against his throat. "Surrender or I will end you."
He grunts, holding his bleeding-out arm, the blue falling to the ground in globs. His long beard hangs in choppy masses from our battle and his eyepatch droops to reveal his empty eye socket, his bumpy skin creating strange patterns on his face in the light.
"Never, for if I do, my empire will fall to you—"
His words are cut short, head rolling to the side as his body drops. I wipe his liquid off my metal and fling it onto the ground.
"I never did like trolls," I grumble, turning to the pedestal he'd been guarding.
The room around me is lined with veins from tree roots, creating a dome-like structure. The walls glow with the light from the blue gem shard in the center of the structure, floating in the air. I reach forward to take it, the metal that had been infused with my fingers tingling and growing a red hue on their tips as they draw near, the gem shuddering at my presence. It will try to protect itself at any cost, even destroying itself.
And I can't let that happen.
I take a breath and push forward, my fingers touching the surface.
I cry out.
Blue washes over me.
Always use your gift for good, Yunae.
That voice.
A distant memory.
I promise, father.
I grit my teeth, fighting the pull into the memories, desperate not to be pulled back into that frame of mind. I'm stronger now, my name is famous. Everything I am is because I left that world behind. I left it all behind because that's what everyone wanted me to do, they expected me to let it go. They expected me to grow in my strength and fall.
What better way to prove to them I can be whatever I want by showing them I can be more than what they thought I could?
I let out a cry.
"You will not break me," I shout to no one. To everyone. To the inanimate object that picks at my lost memories.
Father.
The world around me changes. A meadow stretches out before me, a small hut made from the land sitting on the other side of our small field filled with corn. There's a chuckle to my left and I turn to see my father shake his head, laugh lines making his face wrinkle even more.
He was a short, scrawny man who worked too hard for his own good. Ultimately, I believe that's what killed him in the end: too much hard work for people who treated him unfairly. Not because of me.
He scratches behind his pointed ears and his wings flutter in the breeze as it makes the cornfield sway.
"You were showing off for that girl again, weren't you, Yunae?" He sets a bag filled with corn on the ground, wiping his brow with his dirty sleeve. My sisters laugh as they play in the field, the littlest one crying for my help in a playful shout.
I pout slightly, pride shoving itself forward. Her father had seen me holding a metal trinket and showing it off. I'd never seen anyone so upset over a small toy. "It's not my fault I'm the only boy in the kingdom who can touch it."
"But it is your fault for showing it off," my father says, giving me an accusational glance. "One day someone's going to hear about your special abilities and take advantage of it. There are a lot of bad fae in this world."
"I don't think anyone will try and take advantage of me," I argue, keeping my tone light. Besides, metal is rare in our world. It isn't like the humans or the techies. We only get whatever falls through our wormholes in their worlds."
He sighs. "That's my point, isn't it?"
"You don't think they'll try and make me go through a wormhole to another realm, do you?" I ask, scrunching my nose. "I could die if they force me to do that. Why would I do anything that would risk my life?"
"The adrenaline rush," my father shrugs as he picks the bag back up. "Enough chat. We need to get back to work. This corn will rot if we don't harvest now." He turns to head into the field when he stops suddenly. I'm just about to pick up my own bag when his eyes turn solemn. "Always use your gift for good, Yunae."
Confusion rises within me but I brush it away. "I promise, father."
He nods once, his face livening slowly. "I just want you to know that you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible."
I nod, not really sure why it is he's telling me these things. I doubt anyone would ever try to take advantage of the human part of me.
...you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible...
The world twists and warps again, returning to the troll's hideaway for their precious gem shard. It had been split between four of the races: the fae, the trolls, the humans, and the techies. Once placed together, they will mesh and become one all-powerful stone that will fuse with its holder, giving them the strength and abilities of all four races. With it, the holder could watch the world burn.
Just what it deserves.
I chuckle to myself.
"Well, father, it looks like no one but myself is taking advantage of the gift I was born with."
I tuck the shard into one of the four pockets sitting diagonally across my chest, snapping the lock over it so it won't fall out. I rub the metal that had been warped from the troll's gem.
The tree roots begin to wither around me, turning gnarled in the soil it holds. The troll's king will be notified by the dying trees around the gem shard (a stupid and silent alarm system) and will have several of his people after me.
Good thing I know where the wormhole is and how to end up in one piece and in the correct time on the other side.
Good thing trolls are dimwits.
I walk quickly out into the open, the dark sky twisting with red clouds, speckles of white drifting below them like pocket-sized stars, creating a magical glow in the night. The stars against the sky remind me of red mushrooms, things trolls like to use as houses under the large trees that stretch past the clouds.
I push aside long, overgrown moss as darkness envelops me, sounds of things scuttling around me and whispers ripping through the air. If I wasn't as strong as I am, my nerves would be on fire and I would panic until I couldn't breathe. If I didn't go through my transformation, I wouldn't have been able to step foot in this forest. I was weak back then, a poor excuse for a man. To that, I will never return.
I draw my sword, feeling the air grow heavy as I near the wormhole. When I first came through, going the opposite direction, I noticed large claw marks on the trees and even bigger paw prints in the damp soil. Whatever the animal is, I'm ready to slay it if necessary.
My foot pushes deeply into a print as I switch my weight and take another step, hyper-aware of the sounds around me. Only a few more steps, and I'll be--
Something comes smashing through the dark, bellowing a bloodcurdling roar. The ground shakes as it takes a step toward me, tumbling forward. I leap to my left, back against a tree. My eyes sweep over the beast.
A large, humanoid creature with small, black, beady eyes and a mouth like a cave with razor-sharp teeth stare back at me as it lifts itself up. Its bulbous body is like dough that someone had tried to tame with string. Leaves and moss drape off its dark green skin, splotches where mushrooms grow from almost glowing in the darkness.
It lets out another cry and reaches for me, clumsy hands with long, sharp nails barely missing my face. I swing my sword around and cut through half of his sausage finger. He rears back in agony and I take the distraction to dart past it and leap through the wormhole. I make sure to keep my body tucked into a ball so I'm not tossed anywhere but where I want to go, the gem shards pressing against my torso and warming them to an uncomfortable degree. I only have one more to collect before I can call this a success.
The lights around me brighten and then dim as I'm tossed into a world lit by lightbulbs. When I stand, I take in my surroundings. The large, metal city stands tall before me, several roadways wrapping upward and around in circles, making the whole thing look like a frozen tornado. A streetlight flickers to my left, sparks falling to the ground and sizzling out as it touches the slightly acidic water puddles on the ground. Wires over wires fill what's at eye-level as people walk about. Some are half-robot while others are full, but they're all considered techies. I became one of them three years ago when they learned about my gift.
I grit my teeth at the memory.
The blue stone glows inside my pocket.
Everything changes.
Metal walls surround me, a perpendicular green glow set into the material the only light. My head is groggy and my eyes have trouble focusing. Restraints hold down my wrists and ankles, the coldness reaching my bones.
It's the first time I fell through a wormhole.
I didn't know it was there, back behind the farmer's market, hidden inside a large tree. I don't understand why I even went inside; I guess that's curiosity for you.
A techie comes in, rubbing his hands together. A glowing red eye replaces his left one, silver and black tendrils of wire sewing themselves in and out of his cheek and down his neck. He's a cyborg in the loosest sense.
"Hello, intruder," he says to me, his voice monotone. "How did you get here?"
My vocal chords seem to have tied themselves. I cough.
"No matter. You seem like a fae creature from one of the other realms. Have you come to spy on us? Or perhaps you misread the dangers of metal against—"
His eyes fall onto my wrists, which I notice are strapped down with metal. Not a single sign of atrophy is seen on my skin.
He grips my hand, making me yelp as the metal pinches.
"Perhaps just iron, then," he whispers to himself as he turns to grab something from behind me. I hear rummaging.
He comes back around, holding a thick iron bracelet, and places it against my neck. The metal is chilled, but still my body doesn't react.
"Minter!" he calls, eyes lit with inspiration. A robot with a plain, white face walks through, showing no emotion. "This fae isn't affected by metal of any kind. Do you have any records of that?"
The robot makes a beeping sound and comes closer on its awkwardly long legs. "No records. No fae creature can touch metal."
"So what's so special about you?" the man murmurs, looking me over. He smiles wickedly. "I've an idea."
The world changes around me again and I'm back on the street, the lamp above me flickering annoyingly.
I pull out my sword and run my fingers over the hilt, metal weaved over metal, and feel for the button glowing a slight green. Once pressed, there will be all those who follow me in this city walking behind me to help me get the last shard. They expect so much from me. They don't like the way their government is ran, which is where I come in. When I retrieve the last shard, the government will dismantle itself trying to gain control of its city as it powers down. If somehitng isn't done when they notice the first lights going out, anarchy will break out and everyone in the city will begin shutting down, all of the people running off electricity. I hope they have a backup plan.
Actually, I don't rather care, either way.
Techies begin to pop up as I stride toward the city, my broken wings on fire at the memory. Turns out the only thing on my body that was affected by metal was my wings. Go figure.
The man fused my body with several metal parts, none of which were to make me part robot. He found some terrible delight in my being a fae with metal forged to stay in my body and it won't affect me like normal fae. Joke's on him because he's dead.
The techies cheer me on as I walk by, ready for a revolution.
I bust open the doors to the large government building, the robot at the front desk jumping from her seat, startled. She begins to say things I don't care to understand and I push past her, my sword clanging against her head and severing some important wires. She slumps to the ground.
I press a button on the wickedly-curved elevator and walk inside once it opens. It's only a matter of time before someone comes to see what the problem is.
The elevator falls downward, a new number showing in the screen beneath the buttons. Beneath the number, it says Sample Needed. I scoff and slam my fist against it, my fully-metal hand making it beep and malfunction, letting out several sparks. The lights inside flicker and the elevator drops faster. I lower myself into a ball, ready for the impact.
The small room crashes. The ceiling caves in.
I catch my breath and stand through the rubble, the metal warped.
They need a better security system.
Lasers begin to ricochet off the walls as two techie guards, one a cyclops and the other a cyborg, shoot at me. I smile and thrust myself forward, my sword slicing through the first, his human-like organs spilling to the floor. The second gets a shot on my hip, making me grimace as I block out the pain.
His head rolls.
I march into the room behind them and hit the sliding doors until they cave in, the last green shard glowing on yet another pedestal, shining like metal in the sun. This time, I waste no time in grabbing it, watching as it melts nearly through my metal palm. With my other hand, I take out the other shards and drop them next to the techie's, watching as they come together like magnets. I smile as the last shard, the fae, glowing purple, creates the full shape. A burst of energy pushes out around me, creating a power surge, and the lights go out. Fire runs through my veins and my body grows twice its size. My muscles ripple as they extend and increase in size. I trace my steps and move to the crushed elevator, crouching low and jumping, reaching for the edge of the floor two stories above me. I swing upward, laughing at my sheer power. The ground shakes as I pull myself onto the first floor. This world is doomed for destruction.
I sprint through the streets, people cheering in their ignorance, and throw myself through the wormhole in a broken-down hover-craft, just large enough to let me fit through. I land in the troll's world, bounding through the forest and ripping down the trees that hang low for their protection. Now that their stone is gone, they won't be camoflaged from the ogres. They're all good as dead. I make my way back through the hole, landing in the fae world, my home. The humans don't need any more destruction on top of their own; they're already unstable on their own.
I sprint through the market and toward the castle, drawing my sword. Blood spills from the guards. The doors break at my force. The king's eyes widen as more fae swoop in to protect our king. I smile, pushing another guard off me and leaping to stand before the king, placing my blade over his throat. Blood saturates my clothes, my face, my metal.
"You're Hatald's son," he whispers the skin near my sword growing black.
My heart quivers.
"Who sent you?"
I grimace and push the blade tighter. I can feel the guards creeping up on me. My hands begin to glow at the possible threat.
"This is all your fault," I grumble, my mucles coiling, ready to pull the blade through his bones to end the royal line. He has no wife. No son.
The king's eyes fill with understanding.
"Your family, your sisters, your father, they died because of the metal you collected as a child. We can't—be near it. We become deathly sick."
"It wasn't my fault. It's yours for allowing my father to travel to the human world and bring back a human."
"It was our military's job to—"
"You're the reason why she died. Why they all died. Now you'll pay."
"You father wouldn't want you to be this way. You've strayed too far from what he expected." He coughs, head lolling in his chair as his chin bumps the edge, turning black as well. His skin begins to turn green with illness. "Go ahead and kill me," he whispers, his voice almost too hoarse to understand. "But it won't fill the void eating your heart."
I grit my teeth and pull the blade through.
The king is dead.
The guards fall one by one as they attack me. I head for the door.
The sweet air greets me, but there's still a gaping hole in my chest. The gem melted into my palm lights it with fire as if its filled with gasoline. I'm filled with anger. With confusion.
All the worlds are falling. I've avenged my family's deaths.
Now what?
I find myself walking to my memories. The small hut comes into view, run-down since I last saw it. The corn in the field are dead and falling over, crows picking at the ears not covered in the winter snow. For a moment, I see me as I was, small and weak, but determined to show my worth.
...you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible...
I clench my jaw, silencing the words. Why would I ever want to go back?
"Yunae?"
The small feminine voice reaches my ears and sends a chill down my spine. It can't be. They're all dead.
"Brother?"
I spin to find my youngest sister of three staring at me wide-eyed. She's maybe ten now, her feet buried in the snow.
"Impossible," I breathe.
Her eyes fill with water as she comes closer, ignoring the green tint she gets as she nears the metal.
"I've missed you," she whispers in a sad voice. "I've missed you..."
Tears overtake her. She tells me one of my father's closest friends took her in when they all got sick. She was the only one that was saved. Little Kanena.
I remember my father burying my siblings. He never told me that she was still alive. He acted as if she had gone with them. He was so close to death then... he was so close to death.
A light snow begins to fall from the sky, settling onto our long dark hair, every curl matching. Suddenly, my heart changes form and the fire disappears, leaving behind crippling guilt.
I fall to my knees. The gem falls to the ground, all four colors creating patterns in the snow. I return to my normal size, the metal in my body growing colder as the temperature drops. What have I done?
"Father said you might do something drastic," Kanena whispers. "He said you might blame yourself for this misfortune. I wasn't as sick as the others. He said to stay a secret and hide until you were gone. But I... I couldn't stay away from the house. I was hoping you'd return, Yunae... I was hoping you'd return to me. Please come back. Please. I need you."
My heart melts and I stare at my hands.
What have I become?
...you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible...
I look to the sky, every sin I'd committed and let the first tear fall.
Father.
There's no possible way I could return to who I was. I've changed. I've become someone I don't recognize. I can try, though. It'll be a long process, but I know I can be better than I was because of where I've been, even if that path is too dark to find a light. Maybe I'm not what my little sister needs, but perhaps I am. Or I will be.
You can never fall too far.
Come what may.
"Forgive me."
"Surrender," I command, pressing the blade against his throat. "Surrender or I will end you."
He grunts, holding his bleeding-out arm, the blue falling to the ground in globs. His long beard hangs in choppy masses from our battle and his eyepatch droops to reveal his empty eye socket, his bumpy skin creating strange patterns on his face in the light.
"Never, for if I do, my empire will fall to you—"
His words are cut short, head rolling to the side as his body drops. I wipe his liquid off my metal and fling it onto the ground.
"I never did like trolls," I grumble, turning to the pedestal he'd been guarding.
The room around me is lined with veins from tree roots, creating a dome-like structure. The walls glow with the light from the blue gem shard in the center of the structure, floating in the air. I reach forward to take it, the metal that had been infused with my fingers tingling and growing a red hue on their tips as they draw near, the gem shuddering at my presence. It will try to protect itself at any cost, even destroying itself.
And I can't let that happen.
I take a breath and push forward, my fingers touching the surface.
I cry out.
Blue washes over me.
Always use your gift for good, Yunae.
That voice.
A distant memory.
I promise, father.
I grit my teeth, fighting the pull into the memories, desperate not to be pulled back into that frame of mind. I'm stronger now, my name is famous. Everything I am is because I left that world behind. I left it all behind because that's what everyone wanted me to do, they expected me to let it go. They expected me to grow in my strength and fall.
What better way to prove to them I can be whatever I want by showing them I can be more than what they thought I could?
I let out a cry.
"You will not break me," I shout to no one. To everyone. To the inanimate object that picks at my lost memories.
Father.
The world around me changes. A meadow stretches out before me, a small hut made from the land sitting on the other side of our small field filled with corn. There's a chuckle to my left and I turn to see my father shake his head, laugh lines making his face wrinkle even more.
He was a short, scrawny man who worked too hard for his own good. Ultimately, I believe that's what killed him in the end: too much hard work for people who treated him unfairly. Not because of me.
He scratches behind his pointed ears and his wings flutter in the breeze as it makes the cornfield sway.
"You were showing off for that girl again, weren't you, Yunae?" He sets a bag filled with corn on the ground, wiping his brow with his dirty sleeve. My sisters laugh as they play in the field, the littlest one crying for my help in a playful shout.
I pout slightly, pride shoving itself forward. Her father had seen me holding a metal trinket and showing it off. I'd never seen anyone so upset over a small toy. "It's not my fault I'm the only boy in the kingdom who can touch it."
"But it is your fault for showing it off," my father says, giving me an accusational glance. "One day someone's going to hear about your special abilities and take advantage of it. There are a lot of bad fae in this world."
"I don't think anyone will try and take advantage of me," I argue, keeping my tone light. Besides, metal is rare in our world. It isn't like the humans or the techies. We only get whatever falls through our wormholes in their worlds."
He sighs. "That's my point, isn't it?"
"You don't think they'll try and make me go through a wormhole to another realm, do you?" I ask, scrunching my nose. "I could die if they force me to do that. Why would I do anything that would risk my life?"
"The adrenaline rush," my father shrugs as he picks the bag back up. "Enough chat. We need to get back to work. This corn will rot if we don't harvest now." He turns to head into the field when he stops suddenly. I'm just about to pick up my own bag when his eyes turn solemn. "Always use your gift for good, Yunae."
Confusion rises within me but I brush it away. "I promise, father."
He nods once, his face livening slowly. "I just want you to know that you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible."
I nod, not really sure why it is he's telling me these things. I doubt anyone would ever try to take advantage of the human part of me.
...you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible...
The world twists and warps again, returning to the troll's hideaway for their precious gem shard. It had been split between four of the races: the fae, the trolls, the humans, and the techies. Once placed together, they will mesh and become one all-powerful stone that will fuse with its holder, giving them the strength and abilities of all four races. With it, the holder could watch the world burn.
Just what it deserves.
I chuckle to myself.
"Well, father, it looks like no one but myself is taking advantage of the gift I was born with."
I tuck the shard into one of the four pockets sitting diagonally across my chest, snapping the lock over it so it won't fall out. I rub the metal that had been warped from the troll's gem.
The tree roots begin to wither around me, turning gnarled in the soil it holds. The troll's king will be notified by the dying trees around the gem shard (a stupid and silent alarm system) and will have several of his people after me.
Good thing I know where the wormhole is and how to end up in one piece and in the correct time on the other side.
Good thing trolls are dimwits.
I walk quickly out into the open, the dark sky twisting with red clouds, speckles of white drifting below them like pocket-sized stars, creating a magical glow in the night. The stars against the sky remind me of red mushrooms, things trolls like to use as houses under the large trees that stretch past the clouds.
I push aside long, overgrown moss as darkness envelops me, sounds of things scuttling around me and whispers ripping through the air. If I wasn't as strong as I am, my nerves would be on fire and I would panic until I couldn't breathe. If I didn't go through my transformation, I wouldn't have been able to step foot in this forest. I was weak back then, a poor excuse for a man. To that, I will never return.
I draw my sword, feeling the air grow heavy as I near the wormhole. When I first came through, going the opposite direction, I noticed large claw marks on the trees and even bigger paw prints in the damp soil. Whatever the animal is, I'm ready to slay it if necessary.
My foot pushes deeply into a print as I switch my weight and take another step, hyper-aware of the sounds around me. Only a few more steps, and I'll be--
Something comes smashing through the dark, bellowing a bloodcurdling roar. The ground shakes as it takes a step toward me, tumbling forward. I leap to my left, back against a tree. My eyes sweep over the beast.
A large, humanoid creature with small, black, beady eyes and a mouth like a cave with razor-sharp teeth stare back at me as it lifts itself up. Its bulbous body is like dough that someone had tried to tame with string. Leaves and moss drape off its dark green skin, splotches where mushrooms grow from almost glowing in the darkness.
It lets out another cry and reaches for me, clumsy hands with long, sharp nails barely missing my face. I swing my sword around and cut through half of his sausage finger. He rears back in agony and I take the distraction to dart past it and leap through the wormhole. I make sure to keep my body tucked into a ball so I'm not tossed anywhere but where I want to go, the gem shards pressing against my torso and warming them to an uncomfortable degree. I only have one more to collect before I can call this a success.
The lights around me brighten and then dim as I'm tossed into a world lit by lightbulbs. When I stand, I take in my surroundings. The large, metal city stands tall before me, several roadways wrapping upward and around in circles, making the whole thing look like a frozen tornado. A streetlight flickers to my left, sparks falling to the ground and sizzling out as it touches the slightly acidic water puddles on the ground. Wires over wires fill what's at eye-level as people walk about. Some are half-robot while others are full, but they're all considered techies. I became one of them three years ago when they learned about my gift.
I grit my teeth at the memory.
The blue stone glows inside my pocket.
Everything changes.
Metal walls surround me, a perpendicular green glow set into the material the only light. My head is groggy and my eyes have trouble focusing. Restraints hold down my wrists and ankles, the coldness reaching my bones.
It's the first time I fell through a wormhole.
I didn't know it was there, back behind the farmer's market, hidden inside a large tree. I don't understand why I even went inside; I guess that's curiosity for you.
A techie comes in, rubbing his hands together. A glowing red eye replaces his left one, silver and black tendrils of wire sewing themselves in and out of his cheek and down his neck. He's a cyborg in the loosest sense.
"Hello, intruder," he says to me, his voice monotone. "How did you get here?"
My vocal chords seem to have tied themselves. I cough.
"No matter. You seem like a fae creature from one of the other realms. Have you come to spy on us? Or perhaps you misread the dangers of metal against—"
His eyes fall onto my wrists, which I notice are strapped down with metal. Not a single sign of atrophy is seen on my skin.
He grips my hand, making me yelp as the metal pinches.
"Perhaps just iron, then," he whispers to himself as he turns to grab something from behind me. I hear rummaging.
He comes back around, holding a thick iron bracelet, and places it against my neck. The metal is chilled, but still my body doesn't react.
"Minter!" he calls, eyes lit with inspiration. A robot with a plain, white face walks through, showing no emotion. "This fae isn't affected by metal of any kind. Do you have any records of that?"
The robot makes a beeping sound and comes closer on its awkwardly long legs. "No records. No fae creature can touch metal."
"So what's so special about you?" the man murmurs, looking me over. He smiles wickedly. "I've an idea."
The world changes around me again and I'm back on the street, the lamp above me flickering annoyingly.
I pull out my sword and run my fingers over the hilt, metal weaved over metal, and feel for the button glowing a slight green. Once pressed, there will be all those who follow me in this city walking behind me to help me get the last shard. They expect so much from me. They don't like the way their government is ran, which is where I come in. When I retrieve the last shard, the government will dismantle itself trying to gain control of its city as it powers down. If somehitng isn't done when they notice the first lights going out, anarchy will break out and everyone in the city will begin shutting down, all of the people running off electricity. I hope they have a backup plan.
Actually, I don't rather care, either way.
Techies begin to pop up as I stride toward the city, my broken wings on fire at the memory. Turns out the only thing on my body that was affected by metal was my wings. Go figure.
The man fused my body with several metal parts, none of which were to make me part robot. He found some terrible delight in my being a fae with metal forged to stay in my body and it won't affect me like normal fae. Joke's on him because he's dead.
The techies cheer me on as I walk by, ready for a revolution.
I bust open the doors to the large government building, the robot at the front desk jumping from her seat, startled. She begins to say things I don't care to understand and I push past her, my sword clanging against her head and severing some important wires. She slumps to the ground.
I press a button on the wickedly-curved elevator and walk inside once it opens. It's only a matter of time before someone comes to see what the problem is.
The elevator falls downward, a new number showing in the screen beneath the buttons. Beneath the number, it says Sample Needed. I scoff and slam my fist against it, my fully-metal hand making it beep and malfunction, letting out several sparks. The lights inside flicker and the elevator drops faster. I lower myself into a ball, ready for the impact.
The small room crashes. The ceiling caves in.
I catch my breath and stand through the rubble, the metal warped.
They need a better security system.
Lasers begin to ricochet off the walls as two techie guards, one a cyclops and the other a cyborg, shoot at me. I smile and thrust myself forward, my sword slicing through the first, his human-like organs spilling to the floor. The second gets a shot on my hip, making me grimace as I block out the pain.
His head rolls.
I march into the room behind them and hit the sliding doors until they cave in, the last green shard glowing on yet another pedestal, shining like metal in the sun. This time, I waste no time in grabbing it, watching as it melts nearly through my metal palm. With my other hand, I take out the other shards and drop them next to the techie's, watching as they come together like magnets. I smile as the last shard, the fae, glowing purple, creates the full shape. A burst of energy pushes out around me, creating a power surge, and the lights go out. Fire runs through my veins and my body grows twice its size. My muscles ripple as they extend and increase in size. I trace my steps and move to the crushed elevator, crouching low and jumping, reaching for the edge of the floor two stories above me. I swing upward, laughing at my sheer power. The ground shakes as I pull myself onto the first floor. This world is doomed for destruction.
I sprint through the streets, people cheering in their ignorance, and throw myself through the wormhole in a broken-down hover-craft, just large enough to let me fit through. I land in the troll's world, bounding through the forest and ripping down the trees that hang low for their protection. Now that their stone is gone, they won't be camoflaged from the ogres. They're all good as dead. I make my way back through the hole, landing in the fae world, my home. The humans don't need any more destruction on top of their own; they're already unstable on their own.
I sprint through the market and toward the castle, drawing my sword. Blood spills from the guards. The doors break at my force. The king's eyes widen as more fae swoop in to protect our king. I smile, pushing another guard off me and leaping to stand before the king, placing my blade over his throat. Blood saturates my clothes, my face, my metal.
"You're Hatald's son," he whispers the skin near my sword growing black.
My heart quivers.
"Who sent you?"
I grimace and push the blade tighter. I can feel the guards creeping up on me. My hands begin to glow at the possible threat.
"This is all your fault," I grumble, my mucles coiling, ready to pull the blade through his bones to end the royal line. He has no wife. No son.
The king's eyes fill with understanding.
"Your family, your sisters, your father, they died because of the metal you collected as a child. We can't—be near it. We become deathly sick."
"It wasn't my fault. It's yours for allowing my father to travel to the human world and bring back a human."
"It was our military's job to—"
"You're the reason why she died. Why they all died. Now you'll pay."
"You father wouldn't want you to be this way. You've strayed too far from what he expected." He coughs, head lolling in his chair as his chin bumps the edge, turning black as well. His skin begins to turn green with illness. "Go ahead and kill me," he whispers, his voice almost too hoarse to understand. "But it won't fill the void eating your heart."
I grit my teeth and pull the blade through.
The king is dead.
The guards fall one by one as they attack me. I head for the door.
The sweet air greets me, but there's still a gaping hole in my chest. The gem melted into my palm lights it with fire as if its filled with gasoline. I'm filled with anger. With confusion.
All the worlds are falling. I've avenged my family's deaths.
Now what?
I find myself walking to my memories. The small hut comes into view, run-down since I last saw it. The corn in the field are dead and falling over, crows picking at the ears not covered in the winter snow. For a moment, I see me as I was, small and weak, but determined to show my worth.
...you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible...
I clench my jaw, silencing the words. Why would I ever want to go back?
"Yunae?"
The small feminine voice reaches my ears and sends a chill down my spine. It can't be. They're all dead.
"Brother?"
I spin to find my youngest sister of three staring at me wide-eyed. She's maybe ten now, her feet buried in the snow.
"Impossible," I breathe.
Her eyes fill with water as she comes closer, ignoring the green tint she gets as she nears the metal.
"I've missed you," she whispers in a sad voice. "I've missed you..."
Tears overtake her. She tells me one of my father's closest friends took her in when they all got sick. She was the only one that was saved. Little Kanena.
I remember my father burying my siblings. He never told me that she was still alive. He acted as if she had gone with them. He was so close to death then... he was so close to death.
A light snow begins to fall from the sky, settling onto our long dark hair, every curl matching. Suddenly, my heart changes form and the fire disappears, leaving behind crippling guilt.
I fall to my knees. The gem falls to the ground, all four colors creating patterns in the snow. I return to my normal size, the metal in my body growing colder as the temperature drops. What have I done?
"Father said you might do something drastic," Kanena whispers. "He said you might blame yourself for this misfortune. I wasn't as sick as the others. He said to stay a secret and hide until you were gone. But I... I couldn't stay away from the house. I was hoping you'd return, Yunae... I was hoping you'd return to me. Please come back. Please. I need you."
My heart melts and I stare at my hands.
What have I become?
...you can always go back to how you were, even if you feel like it isn't possible...
I look to the sky, every sin I'd committed and let the first tear fall.
Father.
There's no possible way I could return to who I was. I've changed. I've become someone I don't recognize. I can try, though. It'll be a long process, but I know I can be better than I was because of where I've been, even if that path is too dark to find a light. Maybe I'm not what my little sister needs, but perhaps I am. Or I will be.
You can never fall too far.
Come what may.
"Forgive me."
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