Oxana and the Sky Trial

Oxana plummeted through a pastel sky, twisting like a hapless doll. Gravity’s grip held firm as it pulled at her purposefully. All she could do was fall as black bodies and iridescent bodies collided all around her, beating and slashing at one another. She fell past inky, wyrm-like wings and other wings of heavenly colors that droned. The latter reflected the suns, creating blinding pops of light in an already bright sky, the entirety of which was tangled with massive winged creatures. The dark ones, in particular, dove recklessly from all angles to snatch her up. They were vicious in their attempts and it mattered not as to who got in their way, whether ilk or enemy alike. They were Tempyr, piranhas of the Lower Skies; grotesque creatures of midnight complexion, and sharp in every meaning. Born in the shadow of this world’s chaos, they were devoted to devouring the girl. It seemed this world was finally taking her. The beasts would surely get her, and if by a hair’s chance not, she was seconds away from the canopy below, seconds away from seeing her brother again.

Subtracting the madness of the throng that encompassed her, the world she was currently falling to meet truly was laced with an undercurrent of kindness. She had been there a while now, enduring her trials, and had become attuned to its voice. Flora and fauna alike had a higher purpose in the balance of this plane. Some were meant to aid the human initiates sent here to complete their quests to birth their talents, while others singly sought out their demise. This world was a multifaceted entity that spoke through the elements that embodied it, if one could teach their heart to listen.

In what was the most harrowing moment of her existence, Oxana’s once-trained heart was a raucous band, and fear took center stage. It sang its laughter at her mortality, reminding her of death’s inevitability. Not one creature in this place had a choice of how death would be dealt. Fear was the loudest thing, save for the wind’s mighty howl and occasional snaps of jaws too close for comfort. She sucked the thin air in hard through the net of her dirty hair that danced as a wildfire, a flare of orange against the bluest canvas. The whipping sheets of her long curls made it impossible to see clearly through her good eye. The tatter of sleeve which she had used to cover her injury had flown off her head but a minute ago and into the maw of a Tempyr. The taste of her blood on the cloth sent the entire horde into a deeper, more heat-seeking rage; the benefits of a hive mind.

It was an unfair scene for such peaceful heavens. Shrieks of slaughter and shattering echoes rang out for miles. The strength of the wind couldn’t deafen the cacophony. The frenzy seemed not to sway in any one group’s favor in particular. The swarms of massive iridescent humanoids were tactile, larger than the Tempyr, and mounted an honorable defense for the girl, and for the many of their own who flew in an attempt to catch her. They flew like a trained fleet of aerial experts, but the Tempyr onslaught was overbearing.

Oxana’s heart slammed on. She dropped helpless in the mistral and thought of Sullivan and how desperate she had been to find him here. Each trial before this one pointed to the fact that this world is the last place he had been. Her love for her brother was solely the reason she was here. Thoughts of Franklin Park flashed through her mind. That had been the worst time for them, always hungry and fighting to survive. She thought of her adoptive parents and the several hard months the kids gave them after they had been taken in. They struggled at first, to acclimate to a kind life. But the kindness of their guardians melted and remolded them and taught them kindness reigns.

With these memories, Oxana’s heart slowed and the air grew warm. The voice of the wind came through, matronly, sacred, but warning:

“The satchel, girl. Protect it. In this, I cannot guide you past my words. I am forceful in my nature, yet I abide by laws, as all elements and creatures do.”

The wind spoke of the satchel of scrolls Oxana had found in the endless midnight arbors of the second of her four trials. She’d lost her eye for it and tied it around her waist through the belt loops of her mucked up cords. But the wind told no lie, for now it was coming undone, and the few scrolls she had left were critical. Without the use of the few she had already expended, she wouldn’t have made it this far in her journey.

She unplugged from the memories now as she heeded the wise words of the wind. She grabbed at the loosening knot, guarding it tightly in her fist. Her heart awarded her only a brief kiss of ease as a second later she made contact with a sheet of something elastic and frigid. She took a hard bounce off of a Tempyr’s membranous wing, changing her trajectory and stealing a bit of her breath. The beast attempted to snap at her reactively, but it was preoccupied having been caught by the ankles in the grapple of an iridescent heroine.

These were Eumyn; an extraordinary species that rarely revealed themselves. They never strayed too far from their homes in the mountains of the Upper Skies, unless beckoned by the heart of the world itself. Moons upon moons had come and gone without the creatures of this plane laying eyes upon them, and yet here they were now. What seemed like their entire civilization rode the lower winds, battling to protect Oxana. They were recluse due to their power and purpose and, crucially, because of the fragility of their gorgeous fae wings that resembled stained glass. Their wings were durable, but would shatter under a great enough force when absorbing sunlight.

Oxana bounced and flew, and the frustrated Tempyr produced a shrill cry as it spun with abandon. The sudden impact left her ear ringing as she swung. Her momentum caused her to lose control of her grip on the knot, which had been loose enough to become untied. The satchel flew off quickly as it was relatively weightless. Oxana barely saw this, squinting through the flames of her hair. Every organ reached her throat. The satchel contained hope and confidence and willpower, and she was about to lose it all. Still, in her last trial, there were too many unanswered questions to allow that to happen.

She grabbed at the string that was flying past her and felt it. Just as it was about to disappear forever, it seemed to pause in the air unnaturally but for a short breath and she caught it between the two strongest fingers of her right hand. The wind had pulled the string back to her, breaking a most sacred law in favor of a human, and a debt would have to be paid.

Only the wind heard her victoriously surprised scoff, which quickly morphed into a desperate yell as she felt a strong yank at her left wrist, followed by the most painful and searing hot sensation that strummed up her arm and into her head. She looked down to see her hand entrapped in the serrated nightmare of a Tempyr’s maw. This world was immediate in enacting its judgment for laws broken. It had allowed a hole in the Eumyn defense to strike a balance.

In a rainbow flash, a Eumyn dove upon the Tempyr with a reckless aerial tackle, jolting it completely sideways. The Eumyn’s wings shattered into shards in the process and it could do no more than to wrap its strong arms around the Tempyr’s legs in its final act of bravery.

Oxana whipped involuntarily, following the momentum. The strength of these creatures totally took her. Her gut wrenched, passing other organs it shouldn’t. Then at the sound of a pop and several twangs, she was free, weightless, and on her own again. The Tempyr was gone, tackled into the mix, hardly strong enough to support the weight of the Eumyn attached to it, but it did disappear with a prize. Oxana’s left hand was no longer hers.

The searing hot pain waved inward through her arm and disbursed out of her pores, turning the girl ice cold. Her lungs rejected oxygen as her body forgot what they were for. Her sight whitened, too, as her spine began to sizzle like a wire in water, sending a different kind of electricity throughout her synapses. Her ears failed her as the sounds of war tapered into a silence that matched the whiteness in her mind.

There was peace here. Oxana felt her consciousness come through as if on angel’s wings. She was never a religious person and a thought came through that if this was heaven, she wouldn’t be here for long. There was no more falling, no more of these horrid sounds of creatures fighting over her. She didn’t even feel a sense of gravity. Instead, she felt light, like a balloon that had been filled with helium a few days ago.

In the white, a splotch came through. It glided and moved in a familiar gait. The figure broke through the fog, coming into focus. It was Sullivan, and like the other times, he appeared dressed in his favorite burgundy flannel and tall snow boots as he was on the last day she saw him. His eyes were the same crystal blue and his cheeks kissed to pink by the snow’s cold.

Before she could act, he raised his hand to reach her chin, and he smiled.

“Times not up yet Oxie. You’re pretty much there.”

With the words of her brother, and the warmth of his touch, he and the whiteness began to dissolve as the conscious world bled back into view.

Every Tempyr in the sky began berserking now. Sharks in blood would seem docile by comparison. Where one had tasted flesh, the rest had felt it, too, on their tongues. Their mouths pumped burning saliva and their stomachs ignited their acids even hotter. Their shrieks were unified and horrible and reverberated powerfully through each and every body in the air, and now the devils had become even more relentless in their onslaught.

Even in narrowing odds, the Eumyn were just as formidable and determined. With the Tempyr raging from the shared taste of Oxana, the clan of Eumyn rallied with an insurmountable hope. They’d sacrificed too much already to suffer defeat.

In her dissipating blindness and shock, Oxana could no longer feel the thrusting hands of death on her back. Instead, she felt the maternal warmth of the suns. She felt secure. She wanted to believe she was finally done here and back home with her brother, but as she came to consciousness it was clear that the feeling was different. She felt strapped in the perfect constriction and could still feel the wind, now apologetic, washing over her. A Eumyn had caught her at last, scooped her up to his chest, and cradled her tightly. From this Eumyn came a war shout, booming and roaring in an ancient tongue. The others rang out in reply with a hymn of their own. Their iridescent skin grew more luminous as they syphoned more light in from the suns through their oddly paneled wings, causing a slight bit more difficulty in the sights of the Tempyr.

The Eumyn holding Oxana wasted not a blink more as it made a break for the clouds above with a blasting velocity. The rest of them began forming tight layers of a domed wall, shielding the two from the Tempyr legion. The Eumyn’s radiance burned each suicidal Tempyr that tried to puncture the defense. Yet the same was true of the Tempyr’s bites, laced with acidic saliva that easily necrotized Eumyn flesh. Evidently, these enemies were created within a fatefully divine balance; the truest forms of chaos and order, love and horror.

Adrenaline brought clarity back as Oxana’s eye began to function again. She was mortified to see that her hand was really gone, but as if the Eumyn was telepathic, it adjusted her mid-flight, still cradling her, and took her vacant wrist in its right hand. It held it for a spell, all the while maneuvering with tact within its shield of comrades. At first this was painful, but Oxana felt trust for her savior. The gleam from the Eumyn’s elbow to forearm migrated to its hefty mitt, collecting there in a wondrous radiance, encompassing her maimed wrist. The warmth intensified with the growing light. It felt healing and divine and when it was done the pain was replaced by a pulse. Oxana’s wrist was healed. Where there should have been an open wound, the girl simply had a nub.

She began to cry. No matter what she had endured during her trials, she was always given favor somehow, as if the universe itself vied for her success.

Yet as she looked past her tears, she wondered what all this would mean for these brilliant fae creatures. The Tempyr still attacked relentlessly at the wall of Eumyn. Dozens of them fell to their deaths as innumerable wings shattered and failed, their lights flittering out. It was the saddest thing she had ever witnessed in her life. Their screams were metallically mournful and ghastly. They were individuals of a close knit and ancient tribe. Partners and offspring, matriarchs and patriarchs all flew side by side, and fell just the same, giving their lives for the girl.

She sobbed as they broke through clouds in their ascent. Her tears dripped and became icy webs across her cheeks and temples. They crystallized in her hair, ice and fire uniting. For the first time since the beginning of her trials, Oxana felt a second, more selfless reason to complete them. If these beings were giving their lives for hers, she would do everything in her power to avenge them.

The Eumyn that had snatched her up seemed undoubtedly to be the bravest of them all for it flew so confidently. It showed not an ounce of fear, only dauntlessness, as it navigated past the occasional claw and tooth of a dozen or so Tempyr who broke off around the dome. With each dexterous maneuver, the others followed, handling themselves nearly as artful. Then in a swift adjustment, Oxana’s hero shot straight up. It burst through the clouds, finally reaching the Upper Skies. While these creatures exuded luminous majesty, their homelands offered greater testament to their divinity. Oxana couldn’t help but look on in awe as her logical human brain puzzled the horizon. Whereas below the clouds was nothing but open sky, above their silvery edges existed a beautiful mountainscape. She was wordless as she stared, digesting the warm and vivid colors that painted the fast approaching peaks. Smaller flying creatures vacated the sky to find a safer place.

More and more Eumyn fell as the Tempyr bombed at their wall, destroying their vibrant wings. Several Eumyn broke off to mount an offensive to stymie the relentless black horde as they neared their destination. The rest had a slimming chance at getting Oxana to the gateway that came into view as theirs numbers dwindled. The Eumyn offensive beat, choked, and thrashed whatever enemies came near. They grappled wings closed in a locking grip and dive-bombed Tempyr into the rock face before correcting their flight paths.

The Eumyn holding Oxana once more spoke in an ancient verbiage, and from the mountain came a tremble, and a fatherly voice of antiquity spoke to Oxana:

“Welcome child, the time is nigh for solace of the heart. You are but moments away from rectifying what ails you and igniting the magicks from deep your soul. Love brings yet another one of you to me, and so I shall reunite you with yours. Breach the Gateway of Yaudin’lor. Step into the Light, and be free.”

Oxana was riddled with goosebumps as the voice faded. She could see the massive stone structure several feet in front of them, mildly distorted through her teary lens. It was easily thirty feet tall, a deep purple, and intensely smooth as if once heated to an intense degree. Adorning its face were runes of ancient years that elevated the structures beauty, deepening its blazing mystery.

Oxana trembled in anticipation as her heart came back on blast. She felt nauseous and ecstatic in tandem. That was fate and failure’s way when they raced for the same door in the hall of chance. She believed that the answer to what happened to Sullivan would be there. Every event in her trials pointed to this truth.

The girl had to quickly escape her thoughts, however, as her carrier flew in to meet the stone wall. Dozens of Eumyn and Tempyr crashed into them, dogpiling wildly. Her heroes’ backside took the brunt of the vertical pile up, painfully shattering its wings into sharp shards that pierced all who were immediately behind. Her savior let out an awful cry. Involuntarily, it released Oxana and she tumbled several feet to the ground below. She locked eyes with it for the first and last time, and she knew.

The pile quickly became a shell of Eumyn that blocked Oxana and safeguarded her under the protection of the Eumyn that had got her here. Their radiance popped and sparked like exploding lightbulbs charged too intensely. They tightened as best as they could, but the Tempyr were breaking through, killing themselves on the Eumyn armies’ waning radiance in a kamikaze fashion.

The Eumyn who carried her here mustered the last of its light and slammed its hands against the doorway. Instantaneously, the light left its body and a wave of beaming energy radiated out from the gate, briefly stunning the Tempyr. This was a welcome respite for the Eumyn, and vital seconds for Oxana. Before her now was a luminous portal which the Eumyn shoved her through.

It didn’t mean malice, but the push was forceful. Oxana stumbled to catch her legs for several feet before losing them. The satchel fell too, and several of the scrolls rolled out. She picked her head up to see a wondrously massive cave, centralized by a mossy hill lit from above by some magical source. Capping the hillcrest, there seemed to be some sort of tomb.

Oxana looked back to see the bright light of the gateway closing up. She turned to pick herself up. Then she heard it and spun her head back. A Tempyr was fighting through the waning light. It was pulled back, but another came through. Oxana scurried in fear to gather up the scrolls as the portal faded, trapping the two in together.

She grabbed a scroll and crushed it tight in her grip. A deep crimson spark came from it as the scroll burnt up in her hand, producing a deep red blade of light, jagged and thorny. She had invoked a Scroll of Anger, and truly it was suiting. Without hesitation she swung wildly several times, clipping the beast once in the neck, but barely. It reeled, giving her a chance to run. She was good at running, always had been, and it was easy to outpace the Tempyr now, who couldn’t fly just yet with stalactites like knives waiting to pierce a wing. She made it to the hill and began to climb up its steps and mossy sides, slipping more than she’d like. The beast hurled itself out of the stalactite’s danger and onto the hill, clambering quickly to catch up to the girl. It closed in and clawed at her calf. She yelled, but not out of fear. Oxana was angry now. She whipped around and swung again, and again. The first attempt failed, but with the second, the blade grew much longer, making contact with the Tempyr’s winged arm, slicing hot through bone and membrane. It reeled violently, turning on its side, beginning to slide, yet still driven by hunger. Oxana grew brave and decided in that moment that anger was a tool for winning when used in defense of a divine outcome. She swung down, and the blade of light grew over ten feet long, cutting through the Tempyr diagonally, from ear to chest. Its blood burned the moss beneath it as it expended its gases, the dark life releasing from its vile heart in a black wafting smoke.

The spell ended then, having completed its purpose. She panted, but had no desire to recover. She continued up the hill to the tomb. It was dusty and beautiful. With her right hand she pushed hard on one corner, and then the other. After a struggle, she finally managed to push the lid on the ground, sending it tumbling down the hill.

She didn’t know whether to laugh or bawl, so she did both. She was dirty, and weak, and pitiful, but she’d found him.

Lying peaceful as a dreamer, Sullivan seemed to be sleeping deeply. He was in his sacral robes, which was strange for her. She had seen them on others, but never on him.

Oxana put her hand on her brother’s icy face.

“Sullivan. Sullivan wake up. We have to go now okay?”

Oxana’s voice squeaked through her stressed voice box, but what happened next stoppered it altogether. Sullivan’s cheek began to dissolve into evaporating photons under her hand.

“No…Please, no!” Oxana screeched. Then she saw her hand matched his cheek, and she realized she was fading into light too. It took them both over and the girl could do nothing to stop it, but her tears stopped, and as the light washed over her, her heart relaxed, then her mind. Then the light beckoned her to rest.

Oxana awoke on a bed of ivory sheets. The scents of rose and vanilla danced through her senses, as if she could feel and taste them too. She tried to open her eyes but only one would. The other was covered with cloth. As her vision corrected, a blurry woman came into focus, sitting at her bedside. She had flat white hair that glistened and fell like ice sheets and donned the familiar sacral ruby robes of the High Magus. She smirked as she broke the silence.

“You’re back girl. Despite my disbelief, you actually completed your trials. I was certain you’d die, but it seems you’re one of us now,” the woman’s smile faded with the last few words.

Oxana wanted to get up, but her body rebelled.

“What…what the hell was this Grella?! You told me I would find answers! Do you realize what you put me through?! You promised you—,” Oxana paused as a voice came through.

“Calm down Oxie, she didn’t lie to you,” Sullivan’s voice echoed.

“Sullivan?!”

Oxana’s eye darted around the room, but saw no one other than the thin woman who smiled again, knowingly.

“Yeah I’m here Ox…but…you’re probably not gonna like where. But, hey, now we can talk, for a little while at least.” Sullivan sounded like his happy self.

Oxana put her hand on her head in utter confusion. She looked at Grella with dismay, and she shook.

“He’s…he’s in my head…,” she said in bewilderment, as a single stream of tears turned on.

“You did what you set out to do girl. You brought your brother back, but in our secret world, nothing is ever as you expect it to be. Regardless, you’re alive and you’ll have your answers.”

Grella picked up her lantern and stepped out of the room, leaving the siblings to speak amongst themselves.