The Rifts of Psyche, Kyle West [i love reading .txt] 📗

Lucian fell to one knee, only supporting his weight from his shockspear. He was tired. So very tired. He fell forward.

Serah grabbed him by the torso, just in time to catch him before he descended into darkness.

47

Snow was falling. Lucian looked into the star-studded night sky, seeing a molten moon providing light. Ahead stood a village of wooden cabins, windows lit and smoke rising from chimneys. It was a cozy scene, and the memory of it was returning.

Vale, on the planet Aurora. This was from the simulation, the place Emma had grown up. What was he doing here?

He ran until he was inside the village, his heart thundering. The streets were empty, and there were no sounds coming from within the buildings. He felt pulled by a familiar force, until he saw the great tree that overshadowed the village’s entirety.

Standing before it was the woman he thought he would never see again. Emma turned as his boots crunched over the snow toward her. She was as stunning as he remembered. Even more so. The year or so since he had seen her had added a maturity to her face that only enhanced her beauty. Her dark hair and heavy coat were laden with snow, but her brown eyes were the same, warm, sad, and happy all at the same time as she looked at him. A smile spread across her face, like the memory of the sun long forgotten.

He drew her close, and almost cried to be holding her in his arms. He questioned for a moment whether he was somehow dead, but he knew that wasn’t so, somehow. This was a dream, and Emma was far away on Volsung, while he was on Psyche.

But just because it was a dream didn’t mean it wasn’t real. Certainly, the bittersweet happiness he felt at seeing her was real enough.

When she pulled back, there were tears in her eyes. “I knew you were still alive.”

“This is real, then?”

“Seems like it.” She watched him closely. “Where are you? What are you doing? I felt you trying to reach out for me across the stars. And somehow, I was pulled here.”

“How can that be possible?”

She shrugged. “Who cares? It’s . . . good to see you, Lucian. So much has changed, but at the same time, a lot is still the same. Time stands still here.”

“Are you at the Academy?”

She nodded. “I’m a Talent, now. Technically, I have another half year to decide my Aspect, but I already know I’m going to be a Radiant.”

“Seriously?”

She nodded. For a moment, the image of her warbled. Lucian frantically tried to reach her again, and only just managed to keep the dream alive.

“You’re far,” she said. “I can feel it.”

“I’m . . . on Psyche,” he said. “It would take days to explain everything that’s happened to me. Listen, Emma . . .”

He wanted to tell her everything then. How much he missed her. How he wished he would have just chosen one of the Transcends so he could have stayed. But he stopped himself short. That would only bring him pain – and her, too, if she felt the same as him.

Their lives had moved on. She could be nothing more for him than a memory.

“What is it, Lucian?”

He opened his mouth, but his words were caught in his throat. With her looking at him like that, it was so hard to speak. So hard to say what was important.

But at that moment, the dream’s power began to fade. Lucian felt panic as he tried to rekindle it.

“What is it, Lucian?”

Her voice was fading, and so was the snow, the village, the tree. A light shone from that tree, illuminating Emma with green radiance. She watched as he was pulled away, as if into a black hole . . .

“There you are,” Serah said. “Thought I’d lost you for a second.”

Lucian blinked, finding himself in the last place he wanted to be – the Spire. Somehow, Serah had dragged him down the staircase, and now they were before the tall, open archway leading out into the desert. The Psionic storm was gone, but all the dust it had kicked up still hung in the air. Night had fallen, and the breeze blew cool through the entrance. Of the crashed airship, or any survivors from it, there was no sign.

The other woman – the woman who had once been the Queen – huddled against the wall, her green eyes lost. It was unreal to see her like that, but those haunted eyes made her seem a different person. Her white dress of pearls was in tatters, dirty, and bloodstained. Her empty gaze seemed to see nothing.

“Won’t even talk to me,” Serah said. “But she does follow me around and do what I say.”

“She’s shocked,” Lucian said. “I might have pushed the Queen out of her mind too hard.”

Serah frowned. “I can’t believe you let her go.”

“It felt . . . right. Then again, it’ll probably bite us in our collective asses later.”

“Yep.”

“Now, the Queen is out there somewhere. Planning.”

“If the Queen is capable of possessing the mind and body of another person, she’s far more terrifying than I thought.” Serah looked over at the unknown woman. “And . . . I do feel sorry for her. She tried to run away, but came back when she realized there’s only desert out there.”

Lucian’s throat clenched when he remembered Fergus and Cleon.

“What about Fergus? Cleon?”

Serah’s face fell as she shook her head. “They’re . . . at the base of the stairs. I laid them out, side by side. I’ll . . . need help with the rest.”

It was as he expected, but that didn’t take away from the sick wrenching at his gut. Lucian followed her. As good as her word, both men lay side-by-side at the base of the stairs. Bloodied, but with the bodies of at least ten Mage-Knights around them, many of them severely burned. Among the