Ascension (11 page)

She was floating in a dark abyss, and the only thing she was sure of was the piercing pain in her foot.  The wound she had taken seemed to feed on the uncertainty.  The pain she felt became more and more terrible, gripping her with a horrible intensity.  It became too much, and she blacked out.

~~

“Laura?  Laura, what’s wrong?”

Laura opened her eyes weakly.  She was surprised when she could see straight.  Logan was leaning over her, his face lined with concern.

“How long was I out?” she asked.

“Out?  Laura, you fell just now.  I ran over.  Are you alright?”

“I… think so,” she said.  She had thought she had been lying there for hours.  She didn’t know if it was frightening or comforting that it had only been a few seconds.

“It’s the cut,” Alexander said gravely.  “I will bet my livelihood on it.  It is not an ordinary wound.  When the shadowed being cut you, it must have transferred some kind of poison into your body.  Some kind of vileness.”

“I can fight it off,” Laura said stubbornly.  She started to push herself up, but Logan stopped her.

“Stay down,” he said.  “We need to figure this out.”

Shadowed being? 
Gabrielle interjected. 
Laura, is this true?  Tell me what happened.

Laura sighed, and relayed the story in its entirety to Gabrielle.  He listened solemnly, and when she finished, drifted over to her.  He knelt by her side, and placed a hand onto her leg.

This should help.

Laura gasped as a cold spread from beneath his fingers.  It traveled down her leg toward the wound.  The cold concentrated there, numbing the pain she felt to nothingness.  Exhaustion she did not know she felt ebbed out of her like water running out a spout, leaving only a fading memory of the pain.  The cold spread through her entire foot, gripping it in its icy hold, and then vanished.  Laura’s eyes widened in wonder.

Gabrielle drew his hand away. 
How do you feel?

“Much… better.”  Laura moved her wounded foot left and right, twirled it in a circle.  The pain that should have been there was gone.  “What did you do?”

I did not heal you, if that’s what you’re asking.  But I was able to restrict the severity of the cut.  Alexander was right – there is a vileness to the wound that wants to overtake your whole body.  You fought it off well.  What I did should give you more time before it returns.

“It’s going to come back?”

You will need it attended in the human world, where your body lies.  The healing must be done in the same realm you took the wound. 

“Do you know what it was that I fought?”

I… recognized part of what you said.  The shadow is a type of creature that exists in the planes between the dream realm and the human world.  It preys on people’s dreams.  I have never heard of it appearing in the human world, however.  But what you said about fighting it off, and the
torrial
gem you found… it may have been what allowed the shadow to cross into your world.  I am certain it was put there to guard the repository. 

Laura stood up.  “Thank you,” she said.  Gabrielle had given her enough strength to stand and fight. 

Laura,
Gabrielle said. 
I will not tell the others of this unless you ask me to.  But you need to hear it. I believe the wound you took will be fatal .  The pain in suppressed here, but in the human world your body is fighting it.  You will lose.  I fear you may not survive the trip back to the human world when it is time to return.

Laura froze.  Her eyes widened and a sudden constriction gripped her chest.  She was going to
die
?

The only way for you to live is if one of us comes there to heal your body
.

“But you cannot survive in the human world,” Laura whispered.

You have sacrificed for us, as we will sacrifice for you
.  The voice that filled her head was not just Gabrielle’s, but a choir of all the angels.  Laura was overwhelmed with emotion.

“We will kill the elders,” she said icily.

Chapter Ten

~Need~

And this is how we’re going to do it. 

Laura knew that at that moment, Gabrielle was speaking not just to her, but to all of them. 

He went back to pick up the spherical
torrial
and placed it on the ground before Laura.  Everyone else circled around her.  The five angels who were standing outside came in and made a wall of bodies to one side.

“You recognized it,” Laura said.  “What is it?  Madison knew of it, also.”

This is one of the most powerful
torrial
ever created.  It is what the elders used to imprison us
.

“How?” Laura asked.

This
torrial
allows the user to pull anybody into the dream realm.  Anybody, in any state, from anywhere in the world.
 It grants immense power, for in the dream realm, as you well know, you control your reality.  This
torrial
takes away that control from whoever is pulled in. 

Laura’s eyes widened with understanding.  “That means we can pull the elders in, and destroy them here!”

“Yes,” Madison answered.  “That is what I suspected we would do as well.  But it will not be so easy.”

Someone has to operate the
torrial
,
Gabrielle said. 
And it can only pull in one person at a time
.

“The elders stay apart from one another,” Alexander mused, “but they would know immediately if one of their comrades has fallen.  If they even start to suspect that they face a threat from a
torrial
like this one, they will ward their minds.”

“There are eight of them,” Logan put in.  Laura turned to him.  “We cannot just do it one-by-one.  We might bring them here, yes, but they still remain powerful.  And cunning.  After the first falls, the others will be prepared.  No, this will not do.  One of our advantages is the element of surprise, one of our
only
advantages, but we throw it to the wind if we proceed this way.”

There is… another way
.

Laura spun to face Gabrielle again.  “What is it?”

A slightly modified use of the
torrial
.  Instead of pulling the elders into the dream realm, we can use it to propel ourselves into their dreams.

“Isn’t that more dangerous?” Laura asked.  “If we’re in their dreams, they hold all control.  Right?”

Not if the
torrial
is being used.  This way, it can negate the extra control the elders would have over their dreams.  It puts us on even ground with them
.

“But what’s the advantage of doing it that way?” Laura asked.

You can all go at once.

Laura blinked.  If they all went at once, it meant they could strike at the elders simultaneously.  “How many do you need to control the
torrial
?”

Me and one other. 
A female angel drifted toward Gabrielle and stood beside him. 
Yes.  She will do.  The remainder will go with you to fight.

Laura did a quick count in her head.  “So then there are eight elders, and eight of us.  Is the idea for each one of us to attack an elder separately?  By ourselves?”

That is correct. 
 

Laura frowned.  She looked at Logan.  “Are we strong enough to do that?”  She could feel the time starting to tick away.  Back in the human world, her body was slowly being killed by the venom from the cut.  The fight against the elders would have to be now or never.

Logan considered for a moment.  “A unified attack on all of them at once?  It sounds preposterous, but it may work.  If Gabrielle is right, and the
torrial
negates the advantage the elders have in their dreams, then the only thing that will determine the victor is sheer strength and will.”

“The elders are strong,” Madison said, “but they have not faced a direct threat in a long time.  They may have grown complacent.  If we surprise them at once, we may have a chance yet to overtake them.  It will take a tremendous amount of luck, but…”

“But we need to do it,” Laura confirmed.  “Right.  Gabrielle, that is how we’re going to proceed.”

Excellent.  We need time to prepare.

~~

The preparations for the fight took less than an hour.  All the
torrial
in the room had to be taken away, except for the sphere.  Gabrielle said that having too many
torrial
in close vicinity could cause the main one to malfunction, and that was not a risk they were willing to take.  So, they all carried the
torrial
as far as they could in the building, down to the lowest level.  All the while, Laura couldn’t stop thinking about how close they were to the end.

Once Gabrielle and the other angel activated the
torrial
, they would all go to face the battle of their lives.  And they would each be doing it alone.  It is not how Laura imagined things would be when this all began.  What if she survived, but Logan didn’t?  Could she live with herself after that?  Then again, the whole expedition was nothing more than a glorified suicide mission: if but one of them failed against the elders, all would be lost.  It had to be a unified strike, everyone had to succeed, and it had to happen fast.

Laura did not know what she would find in the elders’ dreams.  She knew how corrupt the
Vassiz
were, how scathing and manipulative the majority of the race was.  Even if, thanks to the
torrial
, the elders did not have full control of their dreams, they still would know the landscape better than any of them.  How much of an advantage was it, really, to have the
torrial
on their side?

Of course, Laura knew that without it, their slim hope of success would have wilted away to nothing.  The
torrial
was essential, and yet not even she understood how it worked.  Madison said it had been both feared and revered in her pack’s histories.  Was it because it annihilated the control one had over their dreams?  Because it could suck others into the dream realm and leave them there, helpless?  Or was there an even more sinister side to it?  What if, no matter Gabrielle’s best intentions, the
torrial
malfunctioned, and brought them into the elders’ dreams but left the elders’ powers unchanged?  A swift death would be the best outcome.  But that was not within the realm of reality.  Laura knew the elders would squeeze every drop of life out of her, and then string her out as an example to all
Vassiz
of what happens to those who do not conform.

She couldn’t let that happen.  She had her whole life yet to live.  She wouldn’t let it be cut short on somebody else’s watch.  There was so much she hadn’t done, hadn’t seen, hadn’t experienced… and there was only one way to ensure that she could do those things.  Win. 

Laura climbed the final flight of stairs leading to the vault.  It was only a matter of minutes, now, before they would begin their inconceivable fight against the elders.

She looked around.  The room was quiet, and everybody looked solemn.  Gabrielle was sitting cross-legged on the floor by the
torrial
, eyes closed, focusing on it.  The female angel he had chosen as his partner in activating the
torrial
was across from him.  She was just as focused.  It was the first time Laura had seen any of the angels not standing up.

The other angels were off to one side as a group.  Their bodies were still, but their eyes flashed from one another rapidly.  Laura wondered if it was a way of communicating.

Madison and Alexander and Logan were standing around the small collection of
torrial
that Gabrielle had picked out.  Laura went to them.

Logan noticed her, and squatted down on his heels.  He reached over to pick up a
torrial
– one of the three dancing figurines.  Seeing them for the first time close up, Laura realized that the depictions were not clothed.   But, the way their hands and hair streamed around their bodies made them look exactly as they were meant to me.  Free.  Free in expression and in flight.