Saturday, November 16, 2013

Page 357

He couldn’t tell if Karkash had purposely avoided his brain or if it was purely coincidence, but with his body in tatters, Stoker plummeted back to the ground. He could see Hector struggling on his own now, but the kid could barely protect himself. The lightning ripped the metal apart on impact.

Stoker put a ruined arm forward, scratching at the dirt and trying to crawl toward Nize.

But it was too late.

The last of Hector’s defense was stripped away from her, and Karkash thrust two fingers toward Nize.

Stoker watched the lightning tear into her.

She vaporized.

He just stared, wide-eyed. His hearing was already shot, eardrums in the midst of repairing themselves, so it was all a numb sight, making it somehow harder to believe.

He’d failed. She was dead. His body was still regenerating, but he could already feel the shift taking place in his mind. Stoker blinked, eyes blurring and then refocusing. And he saw Karkash and Hoyohté there, both looking back at him.

He wondered if they would even bother to finish him off. It would make little difference, so he doubted it. For all this chaos, Stoker knew that Karkash took no pleasure in killing him. This had all been Karkash’s duty, nothing more.

Sure enough, after a few moments of their silent deliberation, Karkash leapt into the sky with booming force, and they flew off together. They soon vanished beyond the horizon.

Stoker climbed onto his knees and elbows. The reverberations in his chest were growing stronger, stealing his breath away in increments, and his whole body flashed between sweltering warmth and shivering cold.

His muscles convulsed. Everything went dark. And he saw a life.

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A boy. Growing up in Vaeland. A country of water. More sea than land. The city of his birth floats more than it stands. He learns to swim. He learns to fish.

It was once a prosperous nation, he hears, back when his parents were young.

6 comments:

  1. I say stoker has become a reaper.

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  2. Typo:
    "The last of Hector’s defense was stripped away from [he], and Karkash thrust two fingers toward Nize."

    Not sure about this:
    "Growing up in Vaeland. A county of water."
    Should this be country?

    I'm sad now. I didn't want Stoker to die. I don't think he's a reaper now -- we had to see a reaper and servant die at some point, right? And considering that Nize is dead, I don't think Stoker would actually want to continue existing. He'd feel guilty as hell for failing to protect her. Might give him the will to fight Abolish even more, or it might drive him to be a destructive force again.

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  3. Fixed both, thanks. And damn, that was a good catch. Was definitely supposed to be "country." Even after you pointed it out, I still didn't see it right away.

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  4. "It was once a prosperous nation, he hears, back when his parents were young."
    Hears? Would "heard" be better there instead?

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  5. Nope. Using the present tense for this segment. 'Tis special.

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  6. I...I didn't expect that. But I guess some time we had to see it happen. It happened too quick when Damian killed that reaper and servant...

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