The Mirror Guard (chapter 6)

Six: Seven Days in the Stark

EVA WAS IN A FIELD OF SNOW. Around her was a barrier of snow-covered trees. They rose into the sky, higher than any trees she’d ever seen. She didn’t feel cold, which she thought was weird, but as soon as she grasped the idea that it was unusual — she lost the concept. She looked around for the boys, Benjamin, or Mrs. Shimmyshanks’ body — but saw nothing but the trees and the snow.

“Jono!” Eva called. Of course there was no answer, except for the echo of her own voice as the call reverberated over the snow and nothingness beyond.

What was she doing here?

Anxiety of the movement being a wyrm or a predator, sent Eva into fearstance. She had no blade, no sword, even though she kept looking for Benjamin. <Where is everyone?> She wondered, holding an arm across her chest defensively, the other balled into a fist. Honestly, no stance was a match for a wyrm without a mirrorblade. But Eva wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

The tunneling was drawing closer. Eva’s hands were sweaty, despite all of the snow around. At least Jono was safe, wherever he was. <Is he safe?> Eva honestly wasn’t sure.

Before she was called into action, the creature in the snow revealed itself. A puff of snow mist burst from where the creature stopped and a form slowly appeared from within the snowfall. It was a strange little man, short like a Cavaman. He was sitting cross-legged — but in the sky. <Can Cavamen float?> Eva wondered.

“Who are you?” Eva asked, even though she knew exactly who the funny little man was.

“You know who I am,” the man spun upside down. “Perhaps this angle is better to understand.” His voice wasn’t just one voice and it sounded as if it came from his mouth and from the expanse of the Stark — from all directions.

“Where am I?”

“Ugh, mortals! Always with all the questions. No one ever asks how Duplinacktu is doing!? How I am feeling! No one ever has a real conversation anymore. Must be part of your lives being so fleeting.”

“Duplinacktu?” Eva couldn’t believe what she was seeing. A part of her had always instinctively knew who the little man was, but it wasn’t until he referred to himself that Eva was sure. Duplinacktu was one-third of the trinity of gods that the Cavamen worshipped.

“Oh don’t worry, little one, my existence does not mean that Rainiar wasn’t a wonderful woman. But she was no god.”

“Liar!” Eva snapped.

“This is not going to be an easy conversation if you can’t let go of the lies you’ve been taught were truth. Open your mind, child.”

“But Rainiar created everything I knew. I’m her descendant.”

Duplinacktu righted himself, still sitting cross-legged, “The fact that you are descendant, is proof enough that Rainiar was no god. Gods can’t breed with mortals. Never could.” There was a moment while the godform thought to himself, “We don’t breed like you either.” He said matter-of-factly.

“But the Crystalissians — we have Goddess in our veins. The crystal on our skins — our horns.”

“All very beautiful indeed. But they are not genetics from a god. Gods only care partially for the physical. The physical is body. Gods are concerned with body, mind, and soul. Our gifts, if bred into your blood, would be inconceivable to your poor mortal mind. Trust me, my brothers have tried.”

“How can you have brothers?”

Duplinacktu smiled, “Our methods are very different from your own. Less archaic. But we can have families — of a sort.”

“What do you want with me?” Eva had read thousands of stories about Rainiar la Jaguar. In each story, Goddess Rainiar only visited mortals when she needed something from them. Eva never put it together that as a god, that Rainiair could have boundaries or rules. Eva figured that as a god — if he really was a god — he must want something from her to show himself to her.

“Now you are starting to ask the right questions.” Duplinacktu smiled. “You’re in the Dreamscape, child. The World of Dreams. It’s where we all go when we sleep and we think.”

“Is this where gods live?”

“Ohhhhhhh — so you do care about me!?” Duplinacktu flew around swirling up snow and wind. In a moment there were fields of snow and the circle of giant trees — then there was a pavilion made of ice with red stripe carpets and two comfortable chairs that were made long enough to half-lay and half-sit upon. Duplinacktu was draped along his chair-couch. Eva couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

<Was this the power of gods?>

“I only spend some of my time here. The Cavamen keep me good company out in the Stark.”

“Did you bring me here?” Eva figured it was possible, the godform did just call up an entire pavilion in the middle of nowhere.

“No child — you brought you here. However, I have been waiting.”

“You knew... Of course you knew — that I’d come here.”

“No, no,” Duplinacktu sat up. “Though I am a godform, we are not all seeing. True, we can see many endless possibilities, but you mortals decide which possibility will become Truth. We have very little power over that.”

“Why have you been waiting for me?”

Duplinacktu shot to his feet, though he never truly touched the ground. He swirled around, again with the snow and wind. When he was done, he was floating, in a standing position, next to Mrs. Shimmyshanks. Her form was slack, mostly, but in other parts, around her joints, it was rigid, like she was a puppet made from a dead body. “I’m here as a favor to an old friend. I was told to wait for this instance. You see, he couldn’t be here because it could really ruin the possibilities if you saw him. At least, you can’t see him yet. Powerful man, that RiverStone. He can interpret possibilities better than most godforms.” Duplinacktu stopped, “Oh shards, I don’t think I was supposed to use his name. Forget I said that. …Though, I’m sure he’s going by a different name now. His people are very liberal when it comes to names.”

Duplinacktu moved Mrs. Shimmyshanks’ stiff body as if it was a puppet’s. He tugged various strings attached to various joints to pose Mrs. Shimmyshanks’ body as if she were pointing at Eva. “Speaking of names. You have an interesting one for a Crystalissian. Especially one devout to Rainiar la Jaguar. Is there a reason your name is asymmetrical?”

Eva reacted bashfully for a moment, “My parents were scientists. They figured that my lineage was just descendant from some priests or something.”

“Ahhhhh, religious rebels. Free thinkers! There is a lot of truth in their logic, but they didn’t know the whole story. Something tells me that one day — you will.”

Eva couldn’t take her eyes off the macabre body of Mrs. Shimmyshanks. Duplinacktu gestured towards Mrs. Shimmyshanks’ body with his free hand. “Don’t worry, this isn’t her real body. I know how you mortals worship your death. Oh, such short lives. It’s a wonder you ever get anything done. If you all only realized your potential and used it, we probably wouldn’t be in this predicament. Anyway, I’m here to make sure that you eat her.”

Eva sat there with her mouth half-open. “That’s what you’ve been waiting to tell me?”

“Well of course! River — I mean, he seems to think that you eating Mrs. Shimmyshanks is a very important path in the continuum. Like I said, he’s so much better at interpreting the paths than myself or my brothers.”

“Is this man, this RiverStone, a god too?”

“Oh I wish you hadn’t remembered his name,” Duplinacktu looked genuinely concerned. He even looked around like there were spying eyes watching them and might see his mistake.

“Fine, fine, I won’t speak it again. What name? Who?”

Duplinacktu smiled, “Good, good. ...And to answer your question... No, he is not a godform. Though if he were to unlock... Oh never mind. I can’t ruin the potential path that we are on.”

“What do I have to do to follow this man’s path?”

Duplinacktu’s face was hidden in the gloom of his fur hood, but Eva could see his smile. His teeth were so white. “Another right question.” For the first time since their meeting, Duplinacktu stood. Compared to Eva, the god was very short, the crown of his head just barely reaching her chest height. “You need to survive.”

Duplinacktu jumped towards Eva. She barely had a moment to snap into a Guardian swordstance. Duplinacktu shapeshifted in the air. One moment he was a short Cavaman with brown skin and dark eyes — and then his flesh rippled with white fur. His dirty fingernails became black hardened claws. His black eyes flashed baby blue. His body grew impossibly large in the short amount of time it took for the godform to get from one place to the other. When his instant transformation was complete, he was a giant snow tiger — bigger than any Eva remembered hearing about, or seeing when she’d go into the Stark with her parents.

Duplinacktu, the tiger, landed on Eva, easily knocking her over and slashed her face! Eva screamed and tried to lay a flurry of punches at the tiger’s chest. Her assaults we feeble. The only way that she was going to survive was to get away — to run. Eva turned from the tiger and tried to get some traction on the ground with either her knees or her fingers.

Duplinacktu simply slashed and clawed Eva’s back. Her blood was raining down on the white, white snow. Eva slipped from underneath the snow tiger. For a moment she felt relief as she was nearly out of reach. But Duplinacktu quickly clamped his tiger jaws around Eva’s ankle. Eva screamed — and this time it was more hopeless.

Duplinacktu flipped Eva around like a rag doll and looked down into her eyes. He growled, it was low and almost playful. Eva closed her eyes. Duplinacktu took the equivalent of his “pointer paw” and simply poked it into Eva’s throat. Eva couldn’t scream anymore, it came out like a gurgled mess.