Restless - Chapter 12

Chief Engineer Yor came down to check on the machinery a few hours later. He called out to me as he fiddled with something on one of them. “You ready, kid?”

“For?” I asked.

“For going into Umbra- wait, this will be your first time off planet, right?” Yor grabbed a tool and started hammering on something. To me, his actions always looked like he randomly hit on this or that, but from the almost reverent way he talked about the machines, there was definitely a method to his madness.

”Something like that.” I’d technically been off planet before, though I didn’t remember much about it. Those days were… well, the days before Vayne were more of a blur than anything. Except for the cryopod. That memory never seemed to fade, no matter how much I wished it would.

Yor finished fixing it and hopped off the machine, dragging his tools with him. “You know space is big? Like, really big? So big you can’t even begin to conceptualize it?”

”Of course.” I went through basic education… or at least, mostly went through basic education. I skimped out on a lot of stuff in the later years to get a job as a courier. 

Yor rubbed his greasy hand through his thick beard. “It’s like this- if we were to try and fly to another system, almost all of the folk here would die of old age before reaching it. The higher-ups and some of the clergy would be fine. But the normal crew?”

”Yeah, I could see how that’d be a problem.” Dying of old age, never reaching your destination. Your kids, and their kids wouldn’t see it either. Only a generation long in the future would… how must that feel? How desolate must it all be? The first colonizers must've been built differently back then.

“So a really, really long time ago—I’m talking several dozen millennia—some smart person made what we call the Umbral Guillotine. Basically, it allows for a ship to slingshot through Umbra at a rate much faster than the Prime Plane, arriving at distant systems in a fraction of the time.” Yor motioned to the ship. “It was the building block for the great Slarin Republic after the fall of the Theocracy and the loss of their FTL tech during the Dark Ages.”

”Isn’t that super dangerous?” Even just touching Umbra caused all sorts of havoc back on Voth Prime. Seriously, every dark corner was a chance for a Shade to pop out and kill someone. Actually entering Umbra must be several times worse.

Also, the Prime Plane? Was that what they called our dimension? This one? That’d be good to know for the future, especially considering my current state. So far, I only knew of Umbra, the Prime Plane, and maybe the Nightmare. From the different sensations every time I lost control though, there were many, many more.

Chief Engineer Yor patted the Reality Anchor I’d been sleeping against for the past several weeks. “Hence this baby, and its four brothers scattered around. It keeps the baddies out, and us safe.”

I eyed the machine. It was more impressive than I’d given it credit for. Guess it makes sense that they didn’t build it just for me. Not that I’d thought that, but… well, I never really thought about it in general. ”That simple?”

”Course not. It’s all very, very complicated and extremely technical. Pyre, I’m nearing my third century and I barely understand it enough to keep the beasts up and running.” The mechanic stopped stroking his bushy black beard. For being nearly three hundred years old, he really didn’t look like it.

Then again, I knew next to nothing about life-extending measures other than they were super expensive and very hard to come by. They were the kind of treatments that normal people would never have access to. The guy could be a thousand for all I knew. 

Cinders… back on Voth Prime, I never really thought about it. I just assumed I’d die when I’d die, just like the rest of the normal citizens. Maybe a hundred years if I was lucky. I was at peace with that. Now that I was a Herald though? What else would it take away from me?

“Now then, I need to go check the others. Oh, and if you hear something explode during the trip, don’t hesitate to call for me.” With that worrying statement, Chief Engineer Borthax Yor left the room.

I stood around for several moments, idly staring at the Reality Anchor as I took in all the new knowledge. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong during the trip.

— — —

Something immediately went wrong. Of scorching course something went wrong. Why would anything go right?

It was hard to say when exactly I felt it all go wrong, but I definitely felt it. A couple hours after Engineer Yor left me to ponder my own existence, the entire ship lurched harshly as the gravity flickered. It didn’t take a genius to figure out we were finally hitting the road- er, hitting Umbra.

It was weird to say a Voidship lurched considering its domain was space, but it definitely felt like a lurch. Only, as it lurched forward, the entire space around me turned a dark shade. The already obnoxious Reality Anchor picked up speed with its chugs, multiplying by several hundred times until it was all I could hear. The darker shades pulled away.

And that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was how it all felt. As someone who’d been struggling, losing myself, and falling through the gaps of reality, I was intimately aware of how it all felt to enter a different dimension. There was no doubt; they’d activated the Umbral Guillotine.

Fully entering another dimension was a first for me. It wasn’t a good experience. Even through the Reality Anchor’s effects, I could feel that the very air itself seemed to take on a heavier, darker vibe. 

It was- hmm… how to put this into words… 

It was like the Prime Plane had a certain smooth vibrato to it. As a being from the Prime Plane, I never would’ve even felt that vibrato if not for my Instability waking me up to it. It was a soft tone that had a somewhat soothing effect. Like I was where I was supposed to be. It was warm and comforting, unlike the other dimensions.

Fully entering Umbra though? The tone shifted drastically. Whereas before was a nice vibrato that shifted in tones like a rocking crib lulling me into comfort, Umbra had a flat tone. A tone that wreaked discord on every fiber of my being. I wasn’t supposed to be here. No one was supposed to be here. The dissonance sent waves of cold fear throughout my body.

I nearly had a panic attack as I felt my flesh coolly buzzing to the discordant tone. Felt my heat leach away even as I wrapped myself in several blankets. Felt eyes- so many eyes—everywhere. They were everywhere. Always watching. It was like I was back on Voth Prime all over again, where every shadow watched. Lurked. Waited.

I rocked myself, trying to find some kind of comfort as the cold discord hit me again and again. The only comfort I found was that with each passing wave, the sensations faded. Eventually, they receded to the background of my mind, mere noise that reminded me I wasn’t in the right place. 

Exhausted, I curled up on my bed and fell asleep amidst the noise of Umbra. 

— — —

The door opening awoke me. For a few blissful moments, as my brain tried to figure out what was going on, I completely forgot where I was. At least, until I felt the discord of Umbra. It was a rude awakening.

I blinked my eyes, rubbing at them as I sat up on my cot to see my newest visitor in this mechanical cage. Rather- visitors. Several Gloomguard walked into the chamber, vi-rifles up and ready as they swept the space. A few of their barrels lined up with me-

My sleepiness entirely vanished as I sat up straight. “What’s going on?”

One of the Gloomguard approached me as he waved his hand to the other guards. They all took up defensive positions around the room, as if expecting an attack at any moment. The one approaching was obviously of a higher rank, though it was impossible to tell based on uniform. They were all dressed in the same dark tactical gear and body armor.

”Sir-“ Ugh, right. I was a Herald now, even if not trained. I technically outranked over half the people on this ship. “Reality Anchor Four and Two were sabotaged and two dozen Fledgeling Heralds were assassinated. On orders of the Warden, we’re here to guard you.”

I shot to my feet, my mind going blank for a moment. “A-assassinated?” 

“Yes, sir.” The guard nodded to his group of guards. “Until the assassin is caught, you and every other Fledgeling Herald are under guard.”

Assassins… this was what I was terrified of when I was first informed of becoming a Herald. The galaxy was at war. Had been since humanities was first attacked by the barbarian Zo'Thir race, at least if the brief history class I took was right.

Since the appearance of Heralds not too long ago, they’d become great cogs in the war machine, sometimes single-handedly turning battles around. It only made since the enemies of humanity would want to kill them- to kill us. Especially us Fledgeling Heralds who didn’t have much means to protect ourselves yet.

”C-can I get a weapon? Or something to defend myself with?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t trained very well, but aiming and pulling the trigger was something I could do. Pyre, I’d done as much back in the Nightmare.

The man in charge eyed me for a moment, probably weighing how bad of an idea it was to give an untrained kid a gun. After a few moments, he unstrapped a sheathed knife from his gear and handed it over to me. “Here. You shouldn’t need it though.”

”Thank you.” I grabbed the knife and then moved up against the Reality Anchor once more. The straight tones of Umbra were growing more uncomfortable with each passing moment I strayed from its range.

I settled down- or at least tried to. With the Gloomguard set up all around me, it made it difficult to focus on anything else than the looming threat of assassination. Dying at the hands of the enemy…

Although I’d never admit it, there was some small, insignificant part of me that whispered it’d be fine. That if I went out like that, I’d die a war hero like Vayne. That it’d be easier. That the subtle cold and hollowness would go away entirely then.

And then the rational side of my brain screamed at me that I was an idiot. My very real fear of dying, the one that drove me to escape when facing certain death at the hands of Shades and the Grave Walker, kept me safely attentive of my surroundings.

After several hours of nothing, I decided I might as well do something. I stood up from the cot, causing a few of the Gloomguard to cast their attention onto me. Being watched made me a little… uncomfortable? I mean, training my endurance to resist the Instability was already uncomfortable, but doing it while being under watch?

I shook my head free of thoughts and approached the edge of the Reality Anchor’s stabilizing field. It was much shorter in Umbra than it was back in reality. As soon as I stepped beyond the boundary, I felt cold hollowness spread throughout my body at a rapid rate.

I focused, soothing the hollowness somewhat as I kept myself stable and whole. Time ticked by. Once I felt that weighty exhaustion of collapsing…will power? Endurance? Whatever it was that allowed me to stay whole. Once I felt it start to collapse, I quickly backpedaled to the Reality Anchor.

I winced sharply as my arm disappeared, phasing out momentarily before I could slip back into safety. My arm only returned once I was back pressed against the Reality Anchor, panting roughly at the exertion.

I felt a few gazes of pity- gazes I didn’t want to see. So I closed my eyes.

Funny how I was surrounded by people, and yet I never felt more alone. I tried to relax back once more as I let out a silent prayer that they’d catch the assassin soon.

-- -- --

AN: What do you think so far?

Reading back, I'm a little worried its too dark right off the bat. I mean, it's supposed to be a little darker as Jasper gets used to his new reality, but is it too dark? Don't want to scare away potential readers because the first dozen chapters are too much of a beatdown.