Chapter 11

Trede has another nightmare, only to realize at the end, this one is too real.

The lights.  The familiar lights stare back at me.  What are they?  There are so many countless points of light.  Some grouped closed together, some spaced far apart.  Why are they here?  Where is here?  The black void containing the lights seems peaceful, while flowing waves ripple by touching each light enhancing it’s spark just for a moment. 

One light comes closer.  What does it want?  A point of light in the distance becomes ever larger, it is nearly upon me.  I can’t move to avoid it…  I have no body to move.  The light is here.

I see a room.  No, a hallway.  A long hallway.  I am running towards something.  I can hear harsh whispers all around me.  I am not alone, there a few men in front of me, possibly more behind, but I can’t turn to look.  One man in front of the line opens a doorway to a stairwell.  I see he is holding a weapon.  I look down and see I’m holding one too, a blade of some kind.  I’m wearing the same clothes as all of them.  We’re all in uniform, dark blue jumpsuits and black boots.  We climb the stairs, there’s another door at the top landing.  The man in front turns and motions to us.  I don’t understand what…  Look out!

The door explodes in a red light, I duck just in time to avoid being knocked down the stairs.  There are still a few of us standing.  I look up and see a man... A shadow standing in the door way.  He’s come for something, but I know I have to stop him.  I grip my blade as a huge wave crashes over me.  My body tenses up, but I must hold the line.  It is my duty.  The two men left standing in front of me charge the shadow.  They manage to push him out of the door.  I follow them, we… we’re on a large flat rooftop.  One other uniformed man comes in behind me.  The waves start to quicken their pace.  We stand and watch briefly, the first two fight on with the shadow.  They come at him with their blades, but the shadow is powerful.  He deflects their blows with bursts of light.  I feel a tap on the shoulder, a brother at arms yells something to me… but the words are lost in the crashing waves.  I need to act.  It is my duty.  I run at the shadow, slice at him with my blade, but I hit nothing but air.  I see the shadow again, his back is turned.  I raise my blade and point it downward and rush towards the shadow.  A deafening wave rolls by, but I will not stop.  I plunge my sword towards the shadow… 

I see a great red light.  I lose my footing.  I… I think I’ve dropped my blade.  I feel the forceful impact of rooftop surface.  I’m dizzy, my arms feel as if they’ve been badly burned.  I roll onto my back, my head hurts…  The waves pound into my chest, I can’t even feel which way is up any more.  But I know I have to get up, that shadow must be stopped.  I tilt my head, I see the shadow walking across the rooftop, he’s heading towards the door!  Another one of us jumps at the shadow, but he waves his arm in a blur of red light and my comrade is quickly downed.  He’s nearly at the door.  I try to get up, but my body hurts so much.  The waves keep beating against me, my lungs burn and my head begins pounding. 

I try to call out.  Stop!  The pain is too great, but I can’t fail in my duty, I won’t.  I try to get up as the man enters the doorway, he can’t get by.  I have to hold the line.  We can’t let him get inside, this can’t happen!  The waves are crashing into me, I can’t breathe, my head… so much pain.  The world is being ripped apart, the sky is torn open, the void is coming back.  That shadow, he’s�"  NO!

I wake up.

“No!”  Trede exclaimed waking up in a start.  He looked around, but saw only his empty room.  “That shadow was… Maej.  Is he hunting me even in my sleep?”  Trede spoke out loud.  He rose from bed to check to see what hour it was.  There was a basic gear driven clock hanging on the wall next to the bathroom door.  He tried to turn on the lights, but it appeared the power had been disconnected.  He squinted at it and was able to make out the time by the pail moonlight coming in the window.  “Four-thirty…” He muttered. 

Suddenly a loud bang rang out.  Trede thought it sounded like it was coming from the hallway.  He rapidly put on his shirt and pants, and grabbed his gunstaff.  He left his boots and jacket behind.  Trede opened the hall door.  The hallway lights were off as well, but Trede could see a commotion at the far end of the hall.  There were two men barricading a door.  They had dropped a small flare on the floor to light the way.  Whatever was coming in was strong, the two of them braced with all their might, but the door kept quickly opening.  It took all they had to push the door back closed each time. 

“Those uniforms.  What is happening?”  Trede recognized the blue uniforms immediately, he had just been wearing one himself in his dream. 

Another uniformed man, one of the Cytech security guards, rushed passed Trede en route to assist in barricading the door. As he passed he turned, “Master Trede, there’s an intruder here, you should get to safety!”

Trede’s mind rushed, there was an obvious thought forming that he didn’t want to admit.  “It couldn’t be!”  He thought.  “But, what else could it mean?  The intruder is Maej.  My dream was right!”  Until recently at Smisom, Trede’s dreams had never seemed to take place in the real world.  Now he realized, it’s not that someone was randomly struck unconscious by the dream, perhaps somehow his dream had a deeper connection to the victim of his curse.  Trede thought of repercussions of this, but was quickly distracted. 

“He’s coming in, we can’t hold!”  One of the guards called out. 

A blast of red light splintered the door and the 3 guards were sent reeling backwards.  Standing there in the doorway was indeed Maej, his black and red cloak concealing all his body except his right hand which was pulsating with a red light that was slowly fading. 

“Trede.”  Maej spoke flatly. 

Trede did not waste a moment.  He saw there were easily 25 paces between them, so he started charging his staff.  “It’s a narrow space, should be an easy shot.”  He thought.

“You need to come with me.”  Maej spoke again, his baritone voice seemed to reverberate in the hallway.  “Put the weapon down.” 

“I’m not listening to another thing you say.  YOU SET ME UP!”  Trede was lost in all the emotion of the previous day, combined with the fear still lingering from the dream.  He let loose a massive beam swirling beam of energy that took up nearly the whole hallway.  It was so bright, Trede had to look away from the blast. 

There were many loud cracks as the wooden beams in the hallway buckled under the pressure.  Trede could feel the floor boards under his bare feet shake and settle.  Pieces of the ceiling rained down.  As the dust began to settle, Trede looked down again and saw Maej was still there.  He was kneeling and his cloak was completely back behind his shoulders now.  His hands that were both glowing red, shone in front of him. 

“So that is the way it is going to be.”  Maej spoke in a deep tone.  He rose and ran at Trede.

“Crimus!”  Trede thought.  He was willing to bet that Maej was more adept at melee combat, so he knew he would have to think of something fast.  “No time!”  Trede turned and ran.  He remembered there was another stairwell further down the hall.  He started charging his staff again as he ran.  Maej was running close behind him as Trede entered the doorway to the stairwell.  He looked down, the lower stairs had been destroyed.  Trede thought it looked like some kind of explosion had gone off.  “Only way is up.”  He thought.  Without skipping a step, Trede ran to upwards, and soon found himself through another doorway and onto the roof. 

Trede took his first few paces on the broad flat rooftop, then while jumping forward he twisted back around firing another blast towards the small frame structure that housed the rooftop exit of the stairwell.  There was a loud crack of energy and again splinters of wood flew everywhere.  Even as the burst of energy from the beam light up the night Trede did not actually see Maej, but he hoped he at least got caught up in the debry. 

Trede pulled himself up to a kneeling position and held his gunstaff close as he charged it again.  He waited a moment, but heard nothing.  There were a few lights off in the distance around the other buildings of the compound, but it was otherwise dark.

“It can’t be that easy” he thought. 

“Leave your toy to the Cytech’s.  I have a much bigger purpose for you.”  Maej’s voice rang out behind Trede. 

“Crimus, he’s a ways behind me but not too far!”  Trede turned in a flash, but saw nothing.  “What the-”

Out of nowhere a shadow materialized in front of Trede.  “You don’t have an option at this point, you’re coming with me.”  Said Maej. 

“I’m not going back there!”  Trede stepped forward and swung is gunstaff at Maej at full force.  It was already well charged, Trede thought a direct hit should inflict some good harm. 

Maej turned and grabbed the incoming blow with both hands.  He winced and grunted as the white energy seemed to overcome the power emanating from his own glowing red hands for just a moment. 

Trede started charging the gunstaff again even while Maej still held the blast chamber in his hands.  The intertwining of the red and white power sources crackled and popped.  Charges of energy began to create a small maelstrom of what looked liked to Trede as small lightening bolts flying in all directions. 

Maej pulled the blast chamber forward, but Trede did not loose his grip on the staff.  He stumbled forward barely remaining on his feet.  Maej was within arm’s length now and struck Trede with closed fist across the face. 

Trede reeled from the blow, but remained standing.  His staff was barely charged, but he took another swing at Maej, this time towards the head. 

Maej was caught off guard and took a blow off the right temple.  Maej stepped back to regain his balance. 

Trede noticed at that point there were alarms sounding all over the compound.  Many more lights turned on in several different buildings.  “Hopefully the rest of the security detail can get here quickly.” He thought. 

“Enough.”  Said Maej.  An intense anger burned in his voice.  Maej seemed to tense his arms as the glowing red light once again surrounded his hands, but this time the light took shape and formed two wide and curved blades out of nothing but red energy.  As Maej waved the blades across his body to enter an unfamiliar fighting stance, Trede noticed there was even a type of runic writing on the blades, though he was unable to read it.  “You’ve brought this on yourself.”  Said Maej as he lashed out a blow from his left blade down towards Trede’s head. 

Trede raised his gunstaff to block the strike.  Though the blades were made of some kind of mystical energy, they hit Trede’s staff with the weight of strong steel. 

Maej continued his assault coming at Trede from all sides.  It was all Trede could to to defend each blow as he was pushed further and further back to the edge of the roof.   In the commotion, he was even unable to continue charging the gunstaff.  Trede tried to keep an eye out behind, he knew he only had a few steps left until he would be at the edge. 

Maej leaned back to launch another thrust.  Trede held his staff vertically, hoping to deflect the blow to one side.  Unexpectedly, Maej hesitated.  His piercing eyes locked on Trede. 

Suddenly, something broke through the pile of debry from the nearby stairwell.  A few more guards stepped onto the roof, and right behind them was Cassidy. 

“Trede!”  She called out. 

“Cass-”  Trede was surprised to see her come out during the middle of a battle, but he didn’t even have time to finish his thought. 

While Trede’s eyes were on Cassidy, Maej struck.  Maej thrusted with his right hand towards Trede.  He had just enough time deflected the blow away, but Maej quickly spun and using the other blade sliced across Trede’s ribs. 

Trede choked in pain as he fell to the ground.  His eyes opened wide as he struggled to breathe.  He clutched his side in agony. 

“No!”  Cassidy screamed.

Maej quickly dissolved his red blades and held his hand out over Trede.  The impact of Maej’s blow on Trede’s body began to glow, and suddenly a ring of red light began to grow around him.  The light grew in intensity and actually lifted Trede up off the ground.  He was bound around the waist, and his arms were also trapped.  Trede floated thre in mid-air barely conscious. 

Cassidy ran at Trede, followed quickly by the three security guards.  The guards were armed and posed for battle. 

“Hold.”  Maej spoke, though he was not yelling, the force of his voice seemed to strike Cassidy in the chest and she couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.  The guards also stopped. 

“This doesn’t concern you all.”  Maej spoke again.  “I will take only the one whom I need.” 

“Like hell!”  Cassidy shouted regaining her composure.  She resumed running towards Trede. 

“I will not allow it!”  Maej shouted this time, and in a burst of light Cassidy felt like a huge gust of wind blew against her whole body forcing her backwards.  After a few struggled steps, she fell to the ground along with the guards.  They were pushed back several yards rolling and tumbling on the rooftop surface.

Maej turned back to Trede.  “Time to leave.”  He said. 

Trede struggled to speak.  “N…no” His pain was still excruciating.  It was nearly impossible to focus.   

Trede’s plea was silently ignored.  Maej gestured and the ring of light holding Trede aloft came closer.  Maej put Trede over his left shoulder and seemingly prepared to jump off the edge of the roof. 

Cassidy looked up just in time.  “Stop!”  She shouted, but Maej ignored her. 

Maej shifted his weight and began to jump, but he was interrupted.  Out of the night a new voice rang. 

“Not friend but foe it would seem!”  Traz shouted.  He had been silently climbing the side of the building at just the right moment.  He finally saw an opportunity to take action, and wasted no time. 

Traz jumped up onto the roof and sliced one of his daggers across Maej’s exposed shoulder.  Trede dropped, his bare feet dangling off the edge. 

“This one is staying with me.  I suggest you move on for the night.”  Traz spoke confidently as he brandished his daggers. 

Maej gripped his now bloody shoulder.  “You selahn.”  Maej’s voice was almost gutteral.  “Your friend is lucky to keep such a companion, but this is not yet finished.  I…”  Maej paused a brief moment.  His eyes changed from blue to a dark red, a shade deeper than had been previously pulsing from his hands.  “There are much worse things to come.”  After he spoke, without hesitation he turned and jumped off the roof.  Instead of falling towards the ground, his form disappeared like a shadow being dispersed by the coming dawn.  He was gone without a trace.

“Idle threats, surely.”  Spouted Traz as he turned to his fallen friend. 

Cassidy ran immediately over.  “Is he, is he Ok?”

Traz ran his furred finger along the edge of the wound.  There was a clear slice through his shirt, but his skin was only badly burned along where the blade had struck.  “There’s…  There’s no blood.”  Traz said puzzled.  “But his breathing is irregular.  He appears to be unconscious.”  Traz held open one of Trede’s eyelids briefly and saw his pupils were very dilated.  “This is a strange state of being.”

The guards came over to the trio at the edge of the rooftop.  “Miss Cassidy, how is he?”  Said one of them.

“I… I don’t know!”  Cassidy tried to contain her panic.  “Hurry, let’s get him inside!”

 

 

Author's Note

I'm trying not to beat the reader over the head with Trede's realization about his nightmares, but is it too vague? Otherwise this is a very action-centered chapter, hopefully it holds people's attention.

Reviews

It held my attention very well. me ---> O.O

A few typos here and there, I know with such a big group of words, it'll be rather difficult to locate, so...

During his initial fight with Maej = He let loose a massive beam swirling beam of energy that took up nearly the whole hallway. It was so bright, Trede had to look away from the blast.

The Massive beam swirling beam is... repetitive at best : D

And another reptition= It was all Trede could to to defend each blow as he was pushed further and further back to the edge of the roof.

To To.

Other than that, Traz quickly comes back, but one has to ask how he knew where they'd be. Of course a clever selahn like him could've just noticed the action from afar and swiftly ran to aid. Can't wait to read the rest!