24. Plotweaver
Chapter twenty-four
Plotweaver
What?
“Stab yourself with every spear until you collapse.”
The orca-mech continued to torment us. The other had not ceased its work on one of the other boats that had changed its direction. The race no longer mattered. This was survival and the survivors were dying.
I held a bundle of glowing spears in the crux of my left arm with one in my right hand.
“Now, bakuh! Each wasted minute is another death due to your cowardice!”
What if he was wrong? My modifications did not prevent dying from bleeding out. He was asking for self-inflicted torture under the trust that it would somehow change our circumstances.
“Have I ever deceived you?”
I’m sure you have.
“You will die if you do not change something. Here is your change. Take it.”
I looked up at Naoma. She clutched Zhou’s throne, not letting the chaos and my imminent death break her character.
“Do you want to rely on her to resolve this? She could, you know. She could stop it all now by revealing what she truly is.”
And you understand that?
“More than you, as does Zhou.”
No. I’m not letting them take her back.
“I’m sure she would reveal herself in an instant if it meant saving you. All she needs is your word. Tell her. They will take her back soon enough. You might as well capitulate now to save yourself, if that is what you desire.”
I took the spear in my hand and stabbed it into my thigh.
The agony was unmatched. I had hoped that the burning light would numb the tissue, but it only aggravated it.
Had the others felt such hellish pain when they died by the spear?
They at least had the reprieve of death or whatever their disintegration entailed.
I was left with pain. It doubled as I stabbed another into the flush just below the first.
“Just as I expected. I know you too well by now, bakuh.”
I ignored him, took another, and stabbed it next to the other two. I fell to a knee as my leg lost its strength.
“Spread the light throughout your body or this will be in vain.”
I did as commanded. I stabbed one into my shoulder. Another into my other thigh. Another into my calf, then the other calf. Another into my hip. I crawled over to retrieve more. My body held onto consciousness despite my desire to fall into a numbing sleep.
Shoulder. Bicep. Trapezius. Back. Calf. Forearm.
The agony was blinding. All I could see was white.
White faded to violet, to indigo, then to a vibrant green.
The light-spears retracted into my body. My vision returned with a vivid aura of enlightened clarity. Every sense followed with similar amplification, then increased with exponential fury.
Zhu snorted in triumph. It felt akin to the animated mindshows I had seen where a hero laughed in glory after a charged transformation.
I stood, sloughing off the spears as my skin pushed them out and the wounds sealed themselves.
I was no glowing god, but I saw in the glimmering hope of my fellow boatmates’ eyes that they could sense a change in my aura.
Their awe came to an abrupt halt as the orca-mech smashed its head into the base of the boat, tearing a massive hole in the back that filled with wine.
The rowers scrambled towards the front of the boat as the back started to sink.
The spearmen continued to throw to no avail as the orca retreated.
They turned to me as they waited for the next attack.
I didn’t let fear of failure overcome me this time.
I saw light reflecting on metallic tentacles under the wine’s surface.
The faint outline of the animal’s head moved closer to the surface.
I jumped.
I felt nothing and despite ascending, I dared not open my eyes in the wine.
The beast not only touched me but wrapped its tentacles around my chest and squeezed. I grabbed onto it and tried to match its fury.
It did not care how I felt. Whatever hunger or hatred drove it continued as it pulled me towards its head and bit into my side.
I lost my breath as I screamed but managed to keep the wine out of my lungs.
Zeg! What now?
“Give it your light, ascended one.”
I twisted, punching its face with delayed strength under the wine. Had I been an unmodified human, I would have been torn to pieces already. Despite my Bite’s reinforcement, I felt the flesh of my skin tear and my ribs crack.
“Focus! Don’t fight it. Connect to it.”
I unclenched my fist and grabbed onto something metallic on its head.
I ran my fingers down it, recognizing it as one of the cognitive bands that helped advance its sentience, if it held to the same principles as Finians.
I tightened my grip and let the light drain from me.
I felt the current travel from my Bite, down my fingers, and into the cybernetics.
Though my eyes were closed, I saw a flash of green light through my eyelids.
Something spoke into my mind using the same method as Zhu, though this voice was lighter and lacked the ancient formality that he spoke with. It was that of a frightened girl. “Who are you? What is this? What do you want?”
“Stop attacking,” I told her.
“Why?”
I pushed more light into her and felt the resistance wane. “What do you want?”
“To get you out of here.” I’m sure there was something better I could have said that didn’t feel like the words a cheesy hero would say to an imprisoned monster in a children’s mindshow, but it did the trick.
The tentacles moved me onto its back and it surfaced. She surfaced. I held onto the tentacles on her side and worked my legs into a semi-comfortable position. I whipped my hair to the side and wiped my face as I took in the air still stained with the wine’s aroma.
My boatmates dropped their spears. The rowers stopped their panicked scrambling to look at me, despite the sinking boat.
“Tell the other orca to stop attacking.”
She cried out with squeaky clicks. The other sea-mech replied with a docile retreat from its current target.
My captain laughed and clapped. The others cheered with him, as did the other boats. The two undamaged boats rowed over to the sinking ones and helped them onto their already crowded vessels.
The few audience members did not find the sudden calm a reason to rejoice.
The turrets in the middle arose to balance out their frustration.
“Tell the other one to attack the turrets!”
She responded with another series of calls.
Those on the boats who were not ducking in terror took up their spears and aimed for the turrets. While the turrets still hit some of them, the others continued to bombard the devices.
The other orca-mech breached as if putting on an aquatic spectacle and landed on one of the turrets. All that was left were a few pieces of floating debris as the other remains sunk into the wine. The orca-mech repeated the process until there were no turrets remaining.
I turned my orca towards the audience. Even fewer people remained now that there was nothing left to terrorize the competitors.
I let my light flow through my steed. I felt the light that gave her her power. There was a large storage of violet light that could run down the lengths of her tentacles. I tapped onto the power source and let the light flow down her arms.
I pointed us towards Zhou and charged the veil of light that divided the audience and the lake.
We dove down to build momentum. I held onto her as the wine rushed by my body.
She built speed, then rose in a magnificent breach that pointed us towards our target.
With tentacles forward to shred the light, she tore through and shattered the veil around us.
She landed with the grace of a spider, though her weight would have been enough to crush Zhou, had he chosen to do so.
Three Eunuchs remained by Zhou’s side and rushed forward to protect him. Naoma peeked out behind his throne alongside the other elevated elites Zhou had invited to sit with him. With the rest of the arena now empty I wondered what threats he had made to keep them at his side.
Zhou remained in his throne wearing a look of simple annoyance on his face. I couldn’t tell if it was from stubborn confidence or if he was good at masking his fear.
The Eunuchs tapped their necks. Violet light shields covered their bodies like diving suits with violet spears like harpoons to match the theme of aquatic warfare.
The front two ran towards me while the other stood in front of Zhou, his spear in the diagonal position.
They deflected my orca’s initial tentacle stabs with the reflexes of trained combatants, despite their otherwise docile appearance.
Even targeting them with two tentacles a person was not enough.
While they deflected one, their light shields could take an occasional hit from the same degree of light.
“Use the anti-spectrum.” Zhu’s words sounded like a ripoff of an alien sage from an old sci-fi mindshow.
Can I?
“Feed your steed, just as you did to control it. You have ascended, use your elevated abilities lest you become another wasted investment.”
I tightened my grip on the orca’s band and released my light.
Dark specs flooded my vision, but I was not ready to pass out.
Green light covered the tips of her tentacles like poisoned spears.
While the first Eunuch deflected the violet body of one tentacle from above, the other stabbed from below, skewering him from bottom to top.
The Eunuch went limp and dropped the spear.
The orca distracted another by tossing the corpse of the first at him, making the killing stab that much easier.
The next was as little a threat as the first two.
The final Eunuch surprised me. He took the little wit he had remaining and retreated, leaving Zhou alone as everyone else did except for Naoma.
I locked eyes with her and nodded. She stepped forward, smiling as she turned to Zhou without fear.
“What do you want?” he asked Naoma, not acknowledging me. I had defeated his game with nothing but one of his tools to support me. That didn’t matter to him. I didn’t have the societal status to earn his attention.