Shattered Knight

I'm sinking into a void. No...stars gleam in the distance, pinpricks of icy light. Or am I imagining them?

A void. A cosmos. Which is it? Or are they one and the same?

In some deep, dim part of myself, I have the sense I'm not drifting aimlessly. No, I'm here for a reason.

I'm...searching for something. Someone.

A name.

What is it again? Voices drift in and out of my memory, meaning nothing. Except for one. So faint and far away, yet I can still make out the shock shuddering through it.

"Sarieva!"

Is that it? The name I'm searching for? It can't be, I want to say. I don't know who that is.

But at the same time, I feel like I know it all too well.

That's when light explodes across the cosmos. Bright as a star going nova, it drowns out the darkness in its wake.

With the light comes pain. It sears through my entire soul, stabbing like a hundred burning daggers. Beneath the onslaught, I can't even scream.

But it doesn't last long. As quickly as it appeared, the light vanishes. I plunge back into the endless dark. All that's left is a prickling echo of pain.

Rather than relief, all I feel is a terrible icy dread. I need to reach that light, I need to find it again, before –

~*~

Theo bolted upright, drenched in sweat and heart hammering a mile a minute.

He darted his eyes around, trying to piece together his surroundings. The void, or cosmos, was gone. Instead, he lay on a bed in a cramped space crowded with shelves, the air heavy with the scent of herbs.

The infirmary?

He wasn't alone here. Cay, rearranging bottles on a shelf, spun toward him with wide eyes. "Theo? You're awake?"

Fighting stiff muscles, Theo slid off the bed. A shock jolted through his body when his bare feet hit the cold floor, but it didn't hurt half as much as that tide of pain from earlier.

Though the pain was gone, his panic wouldn't stop rushing. Mindlessly, he reached for the Levia swirling in his core. No, deeper. The place where his dawn light met a stark crystalline glow.

Except...there was nothing. Only a gaping void, raw as an open wound.

His panic crested like a tsunami, stealing his breath. But just when his vision started blurring at the edges, he felt a faint flicker inside.

Theo froze. He hadn't imagined that, had he? Gathering all his courage, he reached for the void again. There it came again – another flicker of light, dim and weak as an ember in the wind. And with every frantic heartbeat, the light grew fainter.

He staggered forward, ignoring how the infirmary lurched around him. At least until strong hands gripped his shoulders. "Where do you think you're going?" Cay demanded.

"I – I have to – " The words sputtered in Theo's throat , clamoring to escape. 'I have to find...I have to find Sarieva....'

No, that wasn't it. Then what?

As the hands on his shoulders pushed, trying to guide him back to the bed, the answer finally came to him. "Zenith!"

"What?" Mercifully, Cay stopped pushing. He blinked at Theo behind his messy curtain of hair. "What are you – "

Theo took the chance to squeeze under Cay's arm and push past him. The infirmary door was just a few steps away.

But before he could reach it, Cay grabbed the back of his robes. "That's enough! Come back here and let me check on you before you start running around like a maniac."

Furious, Theo wriggled out of Cay's grip. The longer he dawdled, the weaker Zenith's light became. Who knew when it would go out completely?

The prospect twisted his insides into knots. Even as Cay yelled his name, he pushed open the infirmary door and stumbled outside.

Before long, he made his way up to the deck. The wind stung his face and his feet splashed through icy puddles, but he didn't give a damn. In the surrounding chaos – people running back and forth, voices shouting – nobody seemed to notice him.

Theo glanced wildly back and forth, trying to pick out details in the dancing light of the globe-fish. Most everyone seemed to be crowded around a kneeling person with a much smaller figure in his arms. Ryan and Fia?

But already, he could tell Zenith wasn't among them. Wasn't anywhere on the Blue Sky.

"Theo!" A voice shouted his name, followed by thudding footsteps. Whirling around, Theo saw a man in black armor approaching.

Victor? Yes, it was his brother in the flesh, though his hair was longer than Theo remembered and a patch covered his right eye. When he came to a stop, his hands twitched like he wanted to grab Theo, only to curl into fists by his sides.

"Are you all right? What are you doing here?"

'What are you?' But he could ask later. Now, only one thing mattered. "Where's Zenith?"

Victor's eye widened, then he took in a sharp breath. Before he could speak, someone else approached.

Darian. Like Victor, she was drenched to the skin and her face was haggard. "Theo, you're awake."

"Zenith. Where is he?" Theo demanded, in no mood for catching up.

Just like that, Darian's expression turned hard as stone. Her eyes pierced his, colder and more serious than he'd ever seen them.

"We defeated Hellebore, but...Sir Zenith was gravely injured. He landed somewhere in the town."

"What?" Theo's heart slammed against his ribcage. Without thinking, he lunged toward the closest railing.

"Theo!" A firm grip on his arm stopped him in his tracks. Gazing over his shoulder, his eyes met Darian's steely glare. "Where are you going?"

"To find Zenith!" Theo yelled back. "Before – before he – his Levia, I almost can't feel it anymore – "

"But you still can feel it, can't you? Then calm down and focus on it."

Though her voice was steady, Theo couldn't ignore how her hand was trembling, nails digging into his sleeve. Somehow, that helped clear some of the panic from his head. Right. He wasn't the only one worried about Zenith. But as Zenith's wizard, he was the only one with the power to locate him.

The tension in his chest loosened – not much, but enough for him to draw a full breath. He nodded slowly.

A faint smile twitched up Darian's lips. "We'll take a skiff down and search for him that way. Sounds good?"

"Wait." Victor stepped closer. "I'd like to come too. We may have defeated the general, but there might still be soldiers around."

"What, you don't trust me to keep Theo safe?" Darian sneered.

"Let's go already," Theo cut in, acutely aware of the seconds ticking past – and that tiny spark of light growing ever fainter.

Victor and Darian exchanged glances, but Theo no longer cared about their reactions. Without looking back, he ran toward the nearest hatch.

~*~

Silence reigned as the skiff drifted through Mare's drowned streets, broken only by the gentle lapping of water and the occasional distant wail or shout. Sometimes Darian had to steer them around obstacles, not all of which Theo suspected was debris.

But he couldn't think about it too hard. Right now, he needed to direct all his attention inward, on that pinprick of light flickering in the depths of his soul. If he let his focus slip for even one second, he might lose it entirely.

Despite the chilly night, sweat prickled the back of his neck. He'd never known how obnoxiously bright his own Levia could be, its pink glow filling his mind even when he tried his best to ignore it. But it felt strange, almost incomplete, without Zenith's steady light shining behind it.

Theo clenched his teeth. Zenith's light wasn't gone. No, the deeper they headed, the brighter that tiny spark became. Not by much, but enough for him to notice.

Focus on it, and only it. Not the devastated town around them, not the guilt digging a hole into his heart. 'If I'd been there, Zenith wouldn't have gotten hurt.'

He ground his teeth together until his entire skull ached. Not now. This wouldn't help.

All of a sudden, he felt a strange tug at his Levia. As if the spark of light had become a shooting star. Heart thumping, he looked directly ahead.

The narrow street opened into a wider square, at the center of which stood a pole draped in colorful flags. Now, only the tip of the pole rose above the water. But something pale was floating at its base....

Darian must have noticed too. She thrust the oars forward, rowing faster.

Bit by bit, the pale shape grew larger. Theo made out arms and legs, hair swirling around its head. All around it, the water glimmered as if full of stars. But as they came closer, he realized the stars were actually shards of metal and crystal.

Dread throbbed a sickening beat inside Theo's head. He didn't realize he had started trembling until Victor's heavy hand rested on his shoulder. Some part of him wanted to shake it off, but he couldn't move a single muscle.

All he could do was stare as they drew closer. That faint Levia burned brighter, like a candle flame in the dark, but it brought Theo no comfort.

Not when he finally got a good look at Zenith. The knight bobbed in the water with his eyes wide open, uncannily like a drowned corpse. Yet that wasn't half as horrifying as the hole gaping in his chest.

Scattered particles of light drifted inside the hole, so dim their glow barely penetrated the darkness. And as Theo watched, a couple of them sputtered into nothing.

Strength slammed back into his body. He lunged forward, a scream tearing from his throat.

"Zenith!"