“So, this gives you power. Huh. I wonder why this works when everything else doesn’t? There are small crystals in the blimp, and the thing we travelled here in, right?” Michael stepped towards the crystal. It was beautiful, radiant even in the low lights of the chamber.
“Very astute, star child. What was it your companion called you? The knower of things?”
“Truths,” Michael said.
“An apt title,” Gravult said. Somewhere in the dark of the chamber, Aileena rolled her eyes.
“And these crystals, these are the ones that keep the ice crabs away?”
“You mean the Vystak yes?”
Michael nodded an affirmative, before realising his body language might not translate. “Yes,” he said.
“Again, correct. This is only part of the reason why I brought you here. Gurret, bring it!” Gravult slammed his staff again.
“Are you sure, prime minister?” Gurret asked. Garvult’s glare was his answer. “Of course, of course.” He vanished into the blackness, returning a moment later carrying a large canister in his arms. He placed it on the ground before Garvult.
“This, star child, knower of truths, is yours.”
“And what is it?” Michael said. As he did Gurret slid back the cover. Within was another crystal, the same size as the one that powered the city.
“This is the key,” Garvult said.
“To?”
“The Sword of Truth.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Mellok is going to fucking love this, isn’t he?” Michael shot a glance at Aileena.
She shrugged. “Hey, I told you,” Aileena said. “Reputation has its own rewards. That circle we talked about.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Michael stared at the container, its long, brass form shining under the dull light. The Merydians had given him a room, a place to rest whilst they recovered the rest of his crew, the slow blimp drifting lazily through the night. He had placed the cylinder, carefully, on a chair in the corner of the room. The chair looked wicker, though the material that had been woven to create it was a dark grey. Like the other chairs Michael had seen, it had a large hole in the back to accommodate a tail. It smelt faintly of mushrooms.
The room itself was sparse. It had simply a bed, a metal cabinet and a small stone square with a hole in the top that Michael was hoping was a toilet. The handful of material within the chamber was made of a heavy cloth that felt oddly rubbery to the touch. It smelt just like the chair. Michael had expected something grander for a supposed saviour from the stars but had quickly realised that the Merydians were a people constantly on the edge, relying on an ancient arcology that was struggling with their population.
His thoughts drifted to the people that Gravult had mentioned, the ones living in the caves. It had to be even worse in there, scrabbling for a living amongst the damp and the dark. A realisation came to Michael, a supposition that the caves must be filled with brass and copper, an explanation for the Merydian’s love of those specific metals. Making do with what you had was something he was familiar with, as he looked down at the once white trousers he was still wearing.
Michael hadn’t wanted to carry the crystal out with him, but his hosts had been insistent. On the trip to the building that held his room, he had noticed a similar cylinder within the automobile, tiny in comparison, barely two inches across. It had shaken him, the fact that sat on his lap was an object capable of powering an entire city. Gravult had deflected all his questions about it, reiterating that it was the key to something called ‘The Sword of Truth’ though he wouldn’t specify what exactly that was. It was starting to annoy Michael, both Gravult and Mellok had a line on cryptic nonsense, seemingly just to make his life difficult.
“God, I hope I don’t have to fight this Vys-whatever with a fucking actual real sword.” Michael sat on the edge of the bed. It was hard and rustled oddly as he moved. “Maybe it’s some kind of laser sword. At least then it might be cool.” He slumped backwards, arms splaying out beside him. There was a loud knock, and then the door opened.
“I just came to check you weren’t doing something stupid with that crystal,” Aileena said as she stepped through the doorway.
“Just come right on in why don’t you? And no, I’m not doing anything stupid with the damn crystal.” Michael sat up, arms slapping to his side as he did. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
Aileena shrugged. “Just thought it was worth checking. If one that size can power this entire city and it’s weird dimensional thing, then it has to be pretty powerful.”
“Dangerously so?”
“Maybe? We definitely want Kestok to take a look at it once he gets here.”
“Amazing,” Michael said. “Now I have to carry around something that could be dangerous? My life is just one big shitshow at the moment.”
“You just love to moan, don’t you? Come on, get your coat, we’re going out.” Aileena walked to the corner of the room, picking up the cylinder, holding each end with a hand. It was annoyingly heavy.
“Where are we going?” Michael said as he slipped off the edge of the bed.
“For a history lesson.”
The knocking against the hull was growing louder, more frequent, the creatures outside becoming more desperate in their attempts to get in. Meggok and Kestok were sat in the centre of the cargo hold, each carrying a large wrench. It was the most open area of the ship, giving them a perfect mini-arena to practice their craft. The wrenches had simply been the heaviest objects they could find.
“Won’t be long now,” Meggok said, one end of his wrench resting on the ground. He twisted it back and forth and it scratched across the metal floor. “You think it was worth it? Running from Greddog? Barely a day off Ossiark and some weird alien monsters are trying to kill us.”
“Sure,” Kestok said. The pair were sitting back to back, each covering a side of the room. “We would be dead by now, that’s for certain. One day more of life is better than none.”
“That’s fair.” Meggok sighed. “You think this human really is what the speaker-bird think’s he is? The knower of truths?”
“Honestly,” Kestok said, turning around to face his partner. “I don’t know. He saved us, that’s for sure. They could have left us to die, instead, he let us go. I think it takes a big man to help someone who was competing with him in a death game that same evening. I actually don’t really think it matters, right there, at that moment, he did what I think the knower would do. Then, if even for a second, he really was the knower of truths.”
“That’s… a way of looking at it, I guess. I hadn’t really considered it that way.”
“Listen? The noises have stopped,” Kestok said. Both men stood up, holding their wrenches outstretched like swords.
There was another flurry of noise, different this time, like glass shattering. Then, for several agonising minutes, nothing, until the silence was broken by the hiss of the airlock door.
“Hello?” It was Mellok’s voice, echoing through the ship as he shouted. “Anyone home?”
“In here,” Meggok replied.
Mellok stepped into the hold, followed by a cluster of aliens wrapped in thick black cloth, yellow eyes shining from the gaps in their masks. Huge curled tails climbed up their backs. In their hands, they carried sharp-looking picks. A handful of them had gashes torn in their clothing.
“Hang on, just one moment,” Mellok said. He walked over to the two gladiators, his multiple legs pounding a rhythm. “Crouch down.” They did as instructed as Mellok placed his hands upon their heads. His eyes glowed brightly for a few seconds, and they felt a faint tingling in their spines.