Act 4: Delusion

Once again, she found herself in the dark. How could she be so careless?
“Don’t die,” she heard.
“Daddy? Yes, I’m here!”
“Come back!” the voice commanded.
“Please, tell me where to go!”
“Live, now!”
She woke up with a cough and bent forward as her stomach contracted. A splash of water burst from her mouth and she panted to recover the short supply of oxygen.
Then she fell on her back and turned to her side. The world was green and blue once again, what a joy to behold! She allowed herself a brief smile to cross her lips.
“We made it,” she heard Game’s voice behind her.
“You... you’ve save my life,” she gasped as if she just witnessed a miracle.
“I’ve been trained to do that, too.”
“I drowned?”
“Very much so.”
“So you had to...” She blushed and turned away from him.
“I had to save your life. Let’s leave it at that,” simply suggested Game as he stood up.

“So how is he doing?” asked Kolor, genuine concern in his voice.
“He’ll live,” answered Arena plainly.
“What do you think, big boy?” asked Soona and put her hand on Key’s shoulder.
“I’m not letting go yet. Always wanted to die with a sword in my hand,” let Key through his painful growl.
Everybody turned their head to Jonas who just released a heap of firewood from his hands.
“You have built a shelter, good,” he praised a makeshift structure Kolor and Sehun had built. It consisted of two poles stuck in the ground just couple of feet from the hovercraft. A large sheet was attached to the vehicle on one side and to the poles on the other side, making an effective roof. Under it they piled up empty crates to create simple walls. “Now let’s make a fireplace and plan how we actually get out of here.”
“How can we get away?” asked Kolor. “Our hove is wrecked and your ship sunk.”
“I don’t know yet,” plainly said Jonas.
“Isn’t anyone going to miss us? Maybe they’ll come looks for us,” said Soona.
“The instructor took us off course. Nobody knows we are here,” countered Kolor.
“Well, what about them?” She nodded towards Jonas.
But Jonas shook his head. “Our mission was secret. Nobody knows we are here... save for one man.”
“What? What man?” inquired Kolor.
“Royal war advisor and the sovereign lord of Elion, Kordon Elenius.”
A moment of silence. Soona opened her mouth in surprise. A painful realization took over Kolor’s face.
“He is not coming here to save anyone, is he?” asked Soona.
“I’m afraid not,” confirmed Jonas.
In anger, Kolor punched the ground as hard as he could.
“If we get out of here, it will have to be our own effort,” added Jonas. “That is, if we survive the night.”
“Why? What comes out at night?” asked Kolor.
“Hapoleyh.”
“Hapoleyh? The thorn beast? How can it live here?”
“It does. Some nights it came to hunt us but our barriers stopped it.”
“Then what will we do if it comes here?” asked Soona, rather concerned.
“We will have to kill it.” He noticed Kolor’s horrified look. “Or we might get lucky and it will go hunt somewhere else. The island’s big enough.”
“How do we kill it with the weapons we have? That thing has shell thicker than armor,” wondered Kolor.
“Yeah, but we are trained to kill, remember?” reminded him Soona. “If we kill it we can rest easy.”
“That’s not all there is,” said Jonas. Everyone looked at him.
“Why? What more is out there?” demanded Kolor.
“Wait for the scout boy to return. He will tell you.”
“The transfer? He must have died along with Ean as they ran after that freak.”
“I hope he’s alright. It would be shame if something happened to him,” said Soona, rather wishfully.
“You suddenly care for the transfer?” asked Kolor in disbelief.
“He looked like he could take anything on,” shrugged Soona with raised eyebrows, trying to hide her blushing.
“All we have is a couple of blades,” thought Kolor out loud. “What can we do to defend ourselves?”
“What can you do?” asked Jonas.
“Me? I’m a field technician and genitor. I create things that are useful and keep them running.”
“Well, then you’d better start creating, boy.”
“Create from what? I have no plans, no foundry and no tools.”
“Must I think for you?! Why don’t you look around?!” thundered Jonas’ voice, shaking Kolor to his bones.
The boy started at him for a moment. The big man was not looking at him, his gaze fell onto something behind him. Slowly, he turned around.
The hovercraft’s wreck!
Of course, there were still many parts intact! The hull was deformed and some parts were ripped clean off but there could be something worth salvaging.
“Right. I’ll get on it.”
Kolor stood up but froze in place due to Soona’s sudden exclamation.
“There they are!”
She pointed to the west where two characters emerged from among the foliage. Game first, pacing surely only in his underwear. Silveria followed closely, holding onto her loose clothes.
“You need to have more faith in your friends,” said Jonas with satisfaction and leaned back in the wooden makeshift chair he made some time ago.
“Neither of them is our friend,” noted sourly Kolor and sat down as well.
“Sorry to have you worried,” said Game as soon as they arrived.
“What happened? Where’s Ean?” asked Soona, looking past them, hoping to see the boy somewhere in the distance.
“He... didn’t make it,” answered Game, trying to suppress the bad memories.
Kolor shot a suspicious look at Silveria.
“What happened? Did she kill him?”
Game was about to answer when Silveria bowed deeply.
“I’m so sorry.”
Kolor gasped in surprise. Slowly, an expression of boundless anger deformed his face.
“Alright, we’ll kill her. I take it upon myself.”
He stood up and headed towards Silveria. He would have reached the girl was it not for Game placing himself between them, refusing Kolor to even look past him.
“Back off, right now.”
Kolor just threw his hands up in resignation and with a palm on his forehead he headed back to the hovercraft. Before he reached half way he turned around, pointing directly at scared Silveria.
“One day. One day you’ll pay for all this.”
A moment of following silence ended when Jonas decided to speak.
“Tell us, boy, what have you found?”
Game sat down into the grass, scraping dirt from his feet.
“I don’t even know where to begin. We’ve seen something unbelievable just now.”
He looked at Silveria. “In fact, if she hadn’t run off we would have never found out.”
“What do you mean?” inquired Jonas.
Game thought for a while, trying to sort out his memories. “There is something deep beneath this world, I don’t know what. It could be a machine, probably more than one. It does something to the world, makes it fall apart.”
“How deep do you think?” asked Jonas.
“At least a mile. And it didn’t look like something we can take apart with what we have.”
Jonas laid back in his wooden seat.
“Then let’s get out of this island. Other people will take care of it.”
“You’re right, let’s work on that,” agreed Game.
“We’re not safe yet. We need to secure our base and scout the rest of the island,” said Jonas.
“I would go finish the sweep, but I’m not going anywhere naked.”
“Isn’t she wearing your clothes?” asked Soona while nodding at Silveria. “You should take them back.”
“And what will she wear?” asked Game.
“I don’t care. If she was so stupid and lost her clothes it’s her problem.”
Game looked around. His stare fell upon Eyona’s dead body.
“What about her clothes? They would fit.”
Soona opened her mouth in disbelief. “You would steal from the dead? And for that thing?” She pointed at Silveria.
“Am I supposed to ask for her approval? We’ll put one of the blankets over her. She should be burned or buried anyways.”
He moved towards the dead girl but Soona jumped into his way.
“Over my dead body.”
Game smiled. “There are other ways to get past you.”
Soona looked at her classmates.
“Are you going to watch him do this? He’s defiling one of us.”
“Let him do what he wants. She’s dead anyway,” growled Key.
Arena just avoided her look. She knew this was nothing to argue over.
“What use are clothes to a dead person?” simply answered Sehun.
Baffled Soona was pushed aside by Game. He walked past her and knelt down by Eyona’s corpse. He left the underwear on and Soona quickly hid the body under a blanket.
“How can you do this? For her?” she asked Game in a half-voice.
“Isn’t she one of you? You won’t make it far as a team if you single someone out,” replied emotionlessly Game and left Soona behind, carrying the clothes in his arms.
“Here you go. Now give me back my clothes.” He handed everything to Silveria.
As the girl changed her clothes behind a tree Jonas stood up from his chair and walked past Game.
“Let me tell you something about this island.”
Game joined him while he kept walking until they were out of the hearing distance from others.
“We never searched the northern part of the island. Keep your eyes open on anything that can be food. We won’t do good if we’re starving.”
“I know,” acknowledged Game.
“One more thing,” Jonas lowered his voice. “Keep your distance from the Elenia girl. Don’t let either of you think you’re close, for your sake,” he glanced at Soona, “or the others.”
Game smiled. “Whatever you mean, big man? A lowly soldier like me wouldn’t do well with a woman of her kind.”
“Don’t fool yourself,” insisted Jonas. “Women are eager to jump to wrong conclusions, even if you have no intentions yourself. I fucked a lot of them before I became this big fat blob and relying on reason with them is like making fire burn underwater.”
“I don’t care what any of them thinks or feels and I know well when to charm them. Now if you excuse me.”
Game put his clothes on and returned to the others.
“Let’s go. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover and little time left till sundown,” he told Silveria.
“Why are you taking her with you? Is she so interesting?” asked Soona, alarmed.
“Would you rather have her stay here with you? I didn’t know you liked her so much.”
“She’s not even a good scout! Why don’t you take someone better with you?”
“Are you talking about yourself? Sorry, I just don’t like you,“ shrugged Game.
He turned away from the angry girl and his eyes sought out Silveria. She was bent over the food box, sweeping through its content.
“Hey, that food is poisoned. Stay away!” He approached Silveria and pushed her hands away from the box.
“I... I know. But there is something special just for me,” she stated plainly and returned to her previous action.
“Special? How special?” inquired Game.
“Nothing too strange,” answered Silveria in the same plain voice. “It looks like a small tube with three black stripes on it. I really need it.”
“Oh, so you’re looking for this,” said Soona and presented a small container that exactly fit Silveria’s description. “I thought it was a part of the equipment that got mixed in there.”
She threw the thing at Silveria, hitting her in the chest and the girl quickly moved her hands to hold it there.
“But there is my name on it, see?” Silveria showed her the inscription etched into the bottom of the container.
“Oh, I suppose I missed it,” shrugged Soona with a smile.
Game tossed a holster with a blade in it to Silveria who nearly dropped it.
“We’re going now. Come on.”
Silveria looked at Jonas who briefly nodded. He saved her life, at that moment she could only trust him.
They left the camp due north.

“How’s your hand?” asked Game, seeing a new bandage Silveria scored from Arena while in the camp.
“It still hurts when I move it,” she answered plainly.
“With any luck you won’t need it,” said Game without breaking his stride, always watching ahead.
Silveria slowed down up to a point when Game stopped and looked back at her.
“Why did you take me here? I won’t be your girl,” said Silveria.
“You think I’d want you?” laughed Game. “You, of all girls?”
Silveria felt a little anger. Was he trying to say she was not good enough for anyone?
“Even if you’re one of the only few girls here,” continued Game, “you should know I grew up in Origin. The girls there set a high standard and we have wild nights at our academy there.”
He leaned closer to her.
“So no, I don’t want you to be my girl.”
He turned around and resumed walking.
“And I took you with me because they would eat you alive back at the camp. Maybe it will save them effort if it happens here should some animals find us.”
She hurried to catch up with him.
“They all said you like your father too much. If that’s true, what kind of fool would go for you knowing that?” wondered Game as they walked.
“T-that’s inaccurate,” defended Silveria. “I only want to support him because he’s a good man.”
“The man who started the war. He has so much blood on his hands. Behind his serious face it’s hard to tell if he has any love in him at all,” thought Game out loud.
“Yes, he does!” exclaimed Silveria, almost offended with that thought. “I know that people hate him but it’s only because they don’t know him well! He is my father and yes, we are close. He is worn out from all he has to endure.”
“After living for so long, I can understand him being so worn out,” shrugged Game.
But Silveria shook her head. “No, you don’t. Living eternally is a torture, real torture that nobody outside can see. But I can feel how he feels.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I once asked him what it feels like to live forever. He would not want to say. But insisted and he told me. Imagine you stay awake for days and you want to go to sleep but you can’t. Imagine there is no rest for you.“
“Hmh, I can relate. Sometimes I did stay awake for long. Sleep was a liberation for me,” acknowledged Game.
“Staying awake for long is not good for you.”
Game stopped and turned around.
“You don’t know anything about the second level ranger training, do you?“
Silveria blushed in shame.
“Only a little. I was not admitted to the training for rangers or spies or even attentae. They said my face was too well known. I could never deceive anyone.”
“I suppose you wanted to travel a lot, didn’t you?” chuckled Game and looked to the sky as if he was trying to remember his long lost memories. “I’ve been wandering for a long time. My father taught me just a few things in my life. He told me only one thing about the outside world, whenever I came to a new area I had to learn its laws. Beyond that he wanted me to learn everything the hard way.”
“He must have been a cruel father,” said Silveria but Game only smiled to that remark.
“Not at all. He said that the world will make me a better man than he could. And if I ever came home, no matter what I did, he would welcome me with open arms.”
“And the traveling made you want to be a ranger?” asked Silveria.
“Rangers are used for many things, in teams or alone. But mostly they are the protectors of the less frequent areas. I figured I would like to be the one who makes sure our lands won’t be infiltrated so easily. If somebody tries to sneak up on us, they know.”
Silveria felt jealous. Her dream was to travel alone, perform tasks that made a bigger difference than the common soldiers did, anything just to stay out of the battlefields where her special skills would only be ground down to swinging a sword around. After all, a well planned assassination, commonly called attentate, could prevent some battles altogether.
Game has noticed her daydreaming and simply resumed walking to give her back the sense of urgency.
“Don’t worry. Wherever you end up it will count. Risking one’s life for the safety of others is good. There is nothing more noble than that. That’s why nobody quits until they’re dead. This is a job for life.”
They scaled a steep slope in order to bypass a high cliff standing in their way. On the top, among the trees, they found a meadow; serene, with wind playing in the long blades of grass. There they saw two big unicorns with a young one, all grazing peacefully.
“A whole family,” smiled Game.
“How can they live on such a small island?” wondered Silveria.
“They can feed on all the grass there is and they are fast enough to outrun most hunters,” answered Game.
Silveria saw unicorns only twice in her life when she was still a little girl. They didn’t live in Edenia, which made them even rarer sight for her.
“Come on, we don’t have much time,” said Game and walked around the meadow. Silveria followed him closely, watching the animals carefully observing her as well.
Without any paths to lead them they walked among the trees, sometimes traversing tall grass or patches of dirt. Not too long after Silveria overheard neighing behind her. Something has scared the unicorns. But she paid no mind to it.
The forest turned to an orange tint as the sun approached the horizon. Such color felt pleasant to Silveria and made her feel warm, even if it was but an illusion that would soon fade.
Two hundred yards later the ground started descending again. The sunlight barely reached it by now and it would take a while before any of the moons would show up.
Game sped up and Silveria did her best to follow him on such uneven terrain filled with fallen branches, small streams and large stones. She often stumbled, cursing herself for not having such long legs Game had at his disposal.
“Look, there!” shouted Game and pointed into the distance where the forest ended. Against the dark blue sky they saw shapes of two ships. One was washed ashore as a result of the recent cataclysmic events but the other still held by its anchor, safely staying in the water.
“The way home,” he said with satisfaction.
“Is there anyone on them?” asked Silveria.
“I’m not sure. Let’s take a closer look.”
Keeping a close eye on the floating ship they snuck to the very end of the treeline where the land ended abruptly and changed for water. A large boulder provided good enough cover in the already dark forest.
Silveria sat by the bottom of the boulder, clutching onto her tubular container while Game looked over to the ship.
She opened the top and poured the contents into her mouth, swallowing hard afterwards.
“I can’t see anything on that ship. Looks deserted,” said Game.
Silveria stood up and squinted towards the ship.
“It is empty,” she said with surprising certainty.
“How can you see anything on it? All I see is a black outline,” wondered Game.
“Every time I eat silver I...” A strong feeling of dread came over her and she gasped, unable to choke out any more words. Even though the world just became brighter for her it moved around her like a melting wax blown in the wind. Chilly grasp of death enveloped her skin and she could not find her way around anymore.
She turned around, feeling something pulling her back into the woods. And then she saw it, the movement among the trees. It ran away from her.
“There it is!” she shouted and followed the vision.
Game, completely taken aback by her sudden change, couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Elenia!”
But the girl was gone.

Silveria ran uphill, fighting her delusional visions, following the light on the top. She felt her heart beat hard against her chest, even harder than usual.
Even after reaching the top she kept running, unable to stop herself, even forgetting why she ran in the first place. Her wild chase ended as she tripped over a fallen log and fell face first into the grass.
It was silent.
A second later a noise coming from behind made her turn around.
A dark shape stood above her, making inhuman noise that made her cringe in pain.
It lashed out at her and she launched herself backwards, doing her best to stand up.
The attacker followed her, its strange saw-like limbs reaching out for her. One of them got hold of her left arm.
“No, let go of me! You monster!” she shouted and pulled her blade from the holster, making a large sweep around herself.
Her blade struck the limb and the monster roared in pain. Silveria seized the opportunity and charged ahead with her blade aimed right into the middle of her enemy’s chest. It went right through and as it did everything felt silent again.
She let go of the blade and it fell down along with the indistinguishable shape of the supposed monster.
A scream brought her back to reality. A girl’s scream, yet not her own. But she had no strength left in her to search for its source. Weakened and deluded she fell to the ground, her body succumbing to a strange spasming sensation along with severe cough that scratched her throat.
Somebody grabbed her hair and pulled her upwards. Before her knelt no other than Soona.
“You are one piece of human garbage, Elenia!” she screamed right into the girl’s face. “Do you realize what you’ve just done?”
Silveria could not focus on those words, all her insides burned. Ironic, thinking how she survived being thrown into lava not so long ago.
“You’ve killed Game! You piece of s**t!” she heard just before being hit in the face with a fist. The area around her nose started burning as well.
She heard Game’s name yet couldn’t realize what it was all about. Not until her vision came back and she saw the student’s body lying on the ground before her, her blade sticking out of its chest.
She quickly crawled to him and grabbed his hand. There was no life left in him. But she would have no time to mourn as Soona literally kicked her in the face, making her waver, nearly falling backwards again.
“How can you live with yourself? Do you even have a conscience?” said Soona and dealt a series of blows into her stomach ending with an uppercut. Silveria finally understood, she was poisoned again. What has she done?
Soona walked around her as she lied on the ground.
“Well, you don’t need to worry about it because today you’re going to die. Even if we make it out of this island, and I don’t believe that, you won’t be among us.
She kicked Silveria in the stomach and made sure she put all her strength into it. Silveria squirmed as she tried to catch her breath. Somewhere deep inside she knew she had to fight back, this girl sounded every bit serious. But her mind and body were both weak and the sickness held her back.
“You know,” continued Soona, “I wanted Game for myself, just to have little fun before we all die. But he only had eyes for you. Of course I knew that little tube was yours so I put some of the poison into it.”
Silveria moved in a feeble attempt to get away from the kill-crazy girl. Soona only saw it as an invitation to stomp onto her face, nearly putting her out of consciousness.
Three hits were all it took to put Silveria out of her energy, she could still hear sounds and perhaps see a little but her brain could no longer process that. She felt being dragged by her hands and laid against a tree.
“You really seem to survive everything,” said Soona and pulled her blade out. “But you’re not getting out of this. I’ll be really thorough.”
Silveria felt a slight pressure of the blade against her neck, it was sharp enough to slice her skin without much effort. At that point observing was all she could do, any kind of action was impossible.
Soona pulled her blade back and prepared to strike.
“This is for all the people who died because of you.”