Rising Shards

I started to back away from the monitor, as if he could see me somehow. I wasn’t ready to see him so soon, I didn’t want to see him again like ever, but this soon was too much for me. Dr. Diast spotted me freaking out immediately, which I guess wasn’t super hard to notice as I was practically panting.

“OK bud, let’s get you…somewhere.” Diast said.

“Zeta?” Oka rushed to my side and held my hand, then squinted back at the monitor. It didn’t take her long to piece together why I was dipping into a well of anxiety. “That’s him, isn’t it?” She spoke softly.

“That’s who?” Marmalade asked.

“Arctus Kathron,” I said. I gulped. “My…that’s my dad.”

“What? For real?” Marmalade asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“He’s bad news, to put it lightly.” Oka said.

“Though I don’t know if we have time to explain it all.” Lillia said.

“Yeah, we can give you the summary later,” Diast said. “For now, we should…hm.”

“It’s OK, honey,” Oka said, squeezing my hand tighter. “We can go home. Get you out of here.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “We have to get Kalei…”

“Maybe we should try to listen in while we figure a way out of here,” Lillia said. “Their voices are coming through somewhat clearly.”

“Good plan.” Diast said. “Has anything important sounding come up yet? I tuned it all out.”

I wasn’t even aware voices could be heard. Everything around me sounded too loud and too quiet at the same time somehow. My hearing was all out of sorts from the sudden shock, like I went into fight or flight mode but in a busted-up way.

“Just greetings so far,” Lillia said. “Arctus tried to speak to Kalei and the others. I think Kalei tried to spit on him. She missed, but her mother seemed proud of the effort. Now Arctus, Ovie, and 09 are keeping a good distance from them.”

“Alright, we did everything you asked,” Ovie said. “It’s time you hold up your end of the bargain.”

“I’ve already started that,” My father said. I found a slight comfort that he at least he didn’t take that condescending tone only with me. “My wife and I ‘brought the Sharai closer,’ after all.”

“Right,” 09 said. “You made the jump to the Sharai territory easier by moving, well I guess you can’t really move a void node—"

“You don’t have to explain everything,” Ovie said. I assumed she rolled her eyes there by her tone. “Now tell us how we get to where the Sharai are keeping Jeans.”

“Oh no,” I whispered. Oka gripped my hand even tighter. I had an inkling why Ovie was doing all this—really, I knew deep down and just didn’t want to admit it. Seeing my father again and hearing about Jeans felt like a deep gut punch followed by one to my jaw. I gritted my teeth and tried to ward off the panic engulfing me. Kalei was trapped not far away from me, and her mom, and Ko, and I couldn’t give up now, even if I desperately wanted to turn and run. I told myself The Kid wouldn't run away when her partners were round up by the rival gangs in the desert, so I couldn't either. Gritting my teeth as I pictured myself as my wild west alter ego seemed to help a lot for some reason.

“I got you a gift just for that,” My father said. It felt like something shook in the distance. A bit of dust fell from the ceiling in both our room and theirs. “I can’t stay too long here, so I’ll try to make this quick before I head out.” He got a box out from a bag at his side. “They’re a bit out of juice after the last time they got used, but they can do what you’ll need them for.”

Ovie took the box and opened it. She pulled out two long pins, and even from the distance I was at I could recognize them. I would never forget seeing my mother get them out and place them beside me before stabbing them into my hands. “These are those pins you used on Zeta. What good are these?”

“What?” Oka said. “Wait…how does he have those?”

“The Sharai Daggers are good for a lot of things,” Dad said. “Inducing beast tendency is obviously one.”

Daggers seemed like the right word for them. The same ones that turned me into a monster for a brief and terrible moment. The fact that my own father talked about that so casually, the monstrous form he inflicted upon me, as the daggers just being ‘a bit out of juice’ made me sick.

“They were at Tesata, this doesn’t make sense…” Oka said, scowling. “Unless there were more, but…”

“Have you seen those before?” I asked, my voice barely registering.

“Yeah…” Oka said. “My…teacher? Mikkel showed them to me at Tesata.”

“As far as I know, only one true set was recovered,” Diast said.

“From my research, the daggers were one of the Sharai’s most well-known creations,” Lillia said.

“But there are lots of imitations and knockoffs that have been made over the years.” Diast said.

“...said to be capable of honing the transformative abilities inherent within Cani and take them to a greater level.” Lillia said.

“...I think I saw an imitation at a science convention when I was around your ages,” Diast said.

“Though much of I read was hearsay, with not a lot of research done with the actual daggers.” Lillia said.

“It would be pretty wild if these were the real deal. Like I said…” Diast said.

“Much of it is likely puffed-up fables as well, which you can't ignore when discussing them.” Lillia said.

Marmalade looked downward as Dr. Diast and Lillia both got on their own separate tracks of info dumping everything they knew about the Sharai Daggers for a few seconds.

“Alright, let’s maybe cool it with the explanations over each other.” Oka said.

“Right, and what else?” Ovie asked, reminding us that there was some kind of handoff with the daggers occurring on the screens. “How can these possibly help us get Jeans back?”

“A void node can be a big place,” My father said. “It’s an entire dimension, after all. But with these…” He held one up, tossing it into the air. It floated in the air, turning like a compass needle. “They’ll lead you right to her.”

Ovie tried to take the dagger floating, but Dad grabbed it and held it away before she could. “A few more things.”

“Of course.” Ovie said.

“This won’t be easy. The Sharai that have her…there are a lot of them. They’re retention sprites, you know that, right?”

“So the Sharai really do have Jeans.” Ovie said.

“Kind of.” 09 said. “Sharai retention sprites have her.”

“Whatever,” Ovie said. “Do you know who made them? The sprites, I mean.”

My father shrugged. “Someone who wanted an army. Making that many is an impressive feat. Someone who wanted to conquer quickly. Now, I led you as close as I safely could to your lost friend—"

“Lost girlfriend.” Ovie said.

“Sure.” Arctus said. “I led you here, to a Sharai wasteland. She won’t be a trillion miles away. I brought you to the haystack, but you have to find the needle in it. I have an assumption of what the Sharai are in, less so exactly where."

“And what would that be?” Ovie asked.

“The Sharai had a castle here, long ago,” My father said. “But where that ended up in these ruins is a mystery. Well…” He held up one of the Sharai Daggers again, and it pointed in the same direction as before. “It’s that way. Past that, I couldn’t tell you.”

“It’s a big lead,” Ovie said. “Thank you. For holding up your end of the deal.”

“Don’t mention it,” My father said. “You helped me have a nice reunion, after all.”

I scowled. With every second I spent in his presence, even separated by however many walls, I understood more and more why Stella wanted to get us away from him.

“Last thing before I leave,” My father said. “Once you get there, make sure you use the daggers to their full potential.”

“What does that mean?” Ovie asked.

“They’re drained of most of their power now, but I’m sure one of the famed castles of the Sharai would have a way to recharge it. And you have a whole group of people here who could be great candidates to try the daggers on. Might make a good bargaining chip with whoever made all the retention sprites. Or it might be a good symbol of your power if you decide to take that army from them.”

“Can you even do that? Take an army of sprites from whoever made them?” Ovie asked.

“Why don’t you try and find out?” Dad said. “Now I should really be going. Oh, one last last thing.”

My father pointed at the ground, and a bolt of dark energy shot out from his fingertip, spreading like a spiderweb across the ground. “Give it a second.”

We could hear rumbling deep in the halls. A metal hatch next to the stables in our room opened up, giving us a way out.

“What was that?” 09 asked.

“Just shut off that pesky lockdown.” Dad said. “So your way out should be clear if you follow the path behind me. The downside? All those Sharai outside are probably heading your way now, if they’re not already crawling all around this place. So you better hurry.” He glanced upward, looking right into the camera for a second, as if he could sense that I could see him on the other end.

“We better move,” Dr. Diast said, looking back towards the slides we came in on. “I think I hear…” She stopped as we could all hear the scuttling of countless enemies echoing through, along with the sound of running water again. “Yeah, yep! Move, everybody move!”

We darted towards the recently opened door, just as a group of Sharai brutes burst through the slide.