Riftside 3 - Chapter 8

Enar’s scream was not the sound of a man in pain. It was the sound of a soul being unmade, a raw, high-pitched shriek that clawed at the air in the room and set my teeth on edge. 

He arched against the bed, his body a taut bow of agony, muscles straining against the chains we’d prepared. For a moment, I thought they were about to snap. Had I looked the same going through my first breakthrough?

“Hold him down!” Eryn shouted.

I grabbed Enar’s free hand as it lashed out. The strength behind his swipe was much greater than it had any right to be. He was only a level nine scavenger, but his arm whipped about with enough force to make me strain.

“Stay with us, Enar!” Roq said, his voice forcibly cheerful. “Pain is just weakness leaving the body! Now, stop wriggling like a worm on a hook! You’re making the bed squeak, and it’s terribly distracting!”

Enar’s thrashing only intensified and he looked totally lost, eyes rolled up into his skull and even drool slipping down his cheek. 

“Can you hear me?” Roq asked. “Tell me more of your mate’s pie baking abilities. It shall distract you while entertaining me.”

“What’s he saying?” I asked as I finally wrestled his wrist down and snapped one of the heavy steel chains around it, locking down the hand he’d used to touch the crystal to his forehead . Enar was wellrestrained, but the violence of his struggle was terrifying to watch. The wooden bed frame groaned, threatening to break.

“Nothing, yet,” Roq said. “Not the best conversationalist.”

Then, it stopped. The screaming, the thrashing, all of it ceased in an instant. 

An unnerving silence fell over the room, broken only by our ragged breaths.

“Premature breakthrough?” Knut asked, scratching his shaven head.

Suddenly, Enar’s eyes snapped open.

They were not the warm, brown eyes of the man who had baked us a cake. They were twin pools of blood, solid red, burning with a mindless, feral rage. 

A low growl rumbled in his chest, and the drool was replaced by thick, white foam that gathered at his lips. He lunged, snapping his teeth at the air, his neck straining against the restraints with such force I thought he was going to hurt himself.

“Bells,” Nabeeh whispered, taking an involuntary step back. “What is that?”

Knut, just grunted. “Not Enar.”

“His mind… it’s gone,” Roq said, his usual boisterous tone replaced by a grim flatness. “He was screaming in pain, but now there is only… noise. A chaos-song, like the incoherent rage of a beast.”

Enar let out another guttural roar and thrashed against the chains, his red eyes fixed on me with a predator’s hungry stare. 

This wasn’t a breakthrough, it was a breakdown. The power wasn't rebuilding him, it was destroying the man we used to know and turning him into a…monster.

“What do we do?” Eryn asked, her voice trembling slightly. “Do we just… wait for it to pass?”

I shook my head, my mind racing. We couldn’t just wait. He’d tear himself apart first. 

“Roq, can you get a sense of what’s happening inside him? What’s gone wrong?”

“Not possible,” Roq replied. “I can only hear his thoughts through the sliver, not sense the energy.”

“Can’t you do what you did with the Juggernaut? When you felt the holes in its plating?” I said.

“I’d consumed it, drinking its essence, letting its blood carry information to me, and through it, understand its...” he trailed off. “Ah. I see. Appears my intellect has rubbed off on you!  Quick. Stab my spike into his leg. Not too deep, mind you, but not so shallow you merely tickle him. I need to get a good taste.”

“What exactly is Roq about to do?” Nabeeh asked.

“Tell you later,” I said, my stomach churning as I lifted the warhammer from the floor, twisting it so the spike pointed down. “Just hold him steady! And be careful.”

Knut grabbed Enar’s arms, pressing down with all his weight. 

A crack sounded and the bed’s legs snapped, sending the bed crashing to the ground. 

“Oops,” Knut said.

“Focus!” I said as Eryn and Nabeeh held one of Enar’s legs each, trying to slow his trashing. 

I knelt by his leg, aimed the spike at the thick muscle of his thigh, and pushed. Roq’s spike sank into Enar’s flesh. He didn’t scream, just roared louder, his red eyes burning into me with pure loathing.

“The energy… it’s chaotic,” Roq said. “It flows without a plan. When you broke through, the power was clumsy but it followed a path. It knew what to build. In him, it is a flood rampaging through his body. It’s like the Class Gem isn’t connected. Not guiding the energy at all. It’s just… running amok and tearing him to pieces.”

I pulled Roq free, the spike slick with Enar’s blood. 

“What do we do?”

Knut’s face was a grim mask as he spoke. 

“Only one thing when breakthrough fails.” He looked at me, his eyes filled with a sorrowful certainty. “End suffering.”

Nabeeh nodded, her usual fire banked. 

“I’ve never seen a breakthrough fail, but my mentor had. The mind is shattered and the person is no longer there. He’s as rabid now as a Shardfang. There is no coming back from that. Not even with Roq and Arclight’s help.”

I swallowed, looking down at the man who had put his life on the line for my family and I, again and again. Yet what did he get in return? Death.

“Do you… want me to do it, Ash?” Nabeeh asked. “I’ll make it quick.”

“No!” Eryn snapped, her voice sharp. “We are not giving up on him! We are not killing our friend!”

“What then?” Knut’s voice was off, and he sounded genuinely pained. “Let him suffer until energy is spent, then kill? Mercy is to end suffering now.”

I didn’t like it either, but he wasn’t wrong. 

This is what Edwin had talked of. What he’d feared when I came down the stairs hours before I was supposed to finish my breakthrough.

There was no doubt about Enar’s agony, nor that he was no longer the same, but what was I supposed to do? Kill him? Surely there were other ways…

“What if he returns to normal after the energy dissipates?” I asked. 

“No,” Nabeeh said. “It has been tried. They are as rabid then as now, just less physically powerful.”

“We must—” Knut started, but I interrupted him. 

“Wait,” I said. “Maybe there is something we can do. We know how to influence breakthroughs.”

“Of course they tried healing them,” Nabeeh said. “Doesn’t work. Mine is broken.”

“They didn’t have me,” Roq said. “Nobody knows as much about soul forging as I do.”

“Soul forging?” Knut asked.

“It’s what he calls influencing and guiding the breakthroughs,” I explained.

“If there is even a small chance, we have to take it,” Eryn said.

We all looked at each other and spoke the same name.

“Katherine.”

Knut didn’t wait for another word, just stood, letting go of Enar, and storming out of the room. “Checking Guild! If not there, Riftside!”

“I’ll check the Timberline!” Nabeeh said, already on his heels.

“The infirmary!” Eryn called, rushing after them.

I was left alone, holding down the man who was no longer Enar, thrashing against my grip and his bonds. If I’d let go of him, he’d probably manage to free himself in minutes if not sooner.

Guilt washed over me in a cold wave. 

Did I push him too soon? Was it the speed of his gem consumption? Did it matter what Class Gem a person used? Is there a minimum number of stats required to survive this?

I shook my head, forcing the dark thoughts away and reassuring myself that we’d done the best we could. We had the best intent, and even Roq was involved.

“Good. Conquer your negative thoughts,” Roq said. “Take it from me. As a leader in war, unpleasant things happened to many of my people. This is Enar’s first true battle. He will survive, or he will not. There was no alternative to him stepping up to fight. It was his wish, remember that. No one guilted or forced him into it, Ash.”

I nodded, the brutal logic settling my nerves, even as the sight of Enar’s suffering tore at me. 

“You may be right, but its still painful to watch. Maybe I should have chosen someone else. Maybe the Guild is right about scavengers needing the time. Maybe–”

“Riftrot,” Roq scoffed. “They are cowards. Some warriors always perish in training. Not all are meant for the crucible, and you blaming yourself will not change anything. Man up!”

“But Enar didn’t want to be a soldier,” I said, straining a bit under his powerful thrashing.  “He wanted to be a healer.”

“Same thing,” Roq stated.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not.”

The wait felt like an eternity. 

Eryn and Nabeeh returned first, their faces confirming their search was fruitless. Then, a while later, the heavy thud of running footsteps sounded from downstairs.

“Back!” Knut’s voice bellowed.

Relief washed over me as the big guy appeared at the doorway. 

“Nothing has changed yet. His condition is the same. Did you find—”

I trailed off. Knut wasn’t alone. Dr. Katherine Ridley rushed in, her face a mask of focus. But behind her, moving with a stiff, deliberate grace that belied the catastrophic injuries she’d sustained, was Mara Fen.

Her arm and leg had been reattached, but they were still wrapped in fine, silvery bandages beneath her uniform, and somehow she walked without a limp. Despite her state, she still looked like she’d recently gone for a climb to wrestle gravity and come out on top. The woman was a force of nature.  Her gaze was sharp, assessing, and utterly uncompromising. 

She took in the scene in a single glance, lingering for a fraction of a second on Roq in my hands.

“Un-carved monster balls,” Katherine cursed. “Knut! Help ash hold his damn hands down!” 

“Ohh, yes, right! Sorry,” he muttered to me, and I just shook my head while smiling.

“All good, brother. But–”

Katherine knelt besides Enar, her hands glowing as she ran them over his convulsing body.

“The breakthrough has failed,” Mara stated, her voice flat, devoid of emotion. “I’ve seen it a dozen times before. There is only one solution.”

She reached for her spatial storage.

“Wait,” I said, stepping forward.

Her eyes narrowed on me, but she halted. 

“For what, Aldrich? The scavenger is suffering. You should have ended this as soon as it happened, not called for us and prolonged it.”

“Mara’s right,” Katherine said, her brow furrowed in a mix of anger and sadness. “I’ve seen this twice before. The foaming, the red eyes, the abnormal strength… his mind is broken. There is nothing I can do for him.” 

She sighed and stood, stepping away from the bed.

Mara let out a disgusted sigh, staring at Enar. 

“I cannot believe Vos agreed to this foolishness. Poor boy. Maybe he would have lived a happy life, but now?” 

She swiped her two-handed axe with the black furred hilt from her storage, the one I’d only ever seen once before, during my initial interview where I’d brought Pa’s hammer.

“No,” I said, holding a hand up, palm out, stepping between her and the bed. I looked down at Enar, at the friend we had tried to elevate, now reduced to a caged animal. “There has to be something we can do.”

“Roq? Did you find anything at all?”“The energy was like a storm,” Roq replied. “There was no guidance. The Class Gem and the Mind Gem energy… they are like oil and water, refusing to mix. The gem is trapped in his mind, just sitting there while the raw power of the mind gems is going rampant.”

I looked back at Mara, ready to argue, to plead, but the words died in my throat. She was staring at me, her eyes wide with a look I couldn’t decipher. Shock? Realization?

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Her gaze flicked from my face to Roq, then back to settle on me, and her stance shifted as she lowered her weight.

“Who knows,” she said, her voice a low, dangerous murmur.

My mouth went dry. 

A primal sense of danger, more potent than any monster’s charge, coiled in my gut.

“Who knows what?” Roq asked, and I realised we were six people who had just heard him speak in our minds. Eryn, Knut, Nabeeh, Enar, myself, and… Mara.

The room went utterly silent, save for Enar’s pained grunts and Katherine shifting as she turned to look among us.

“Don’t reply! I don’t think Mara can hear my thoughts, but she knows. She knows about you. I don’t know what she’ll do, and I doubt we can stop her, even with all four of us. If she attacks, go Primal Form. She might not expect that.”

“It seems,” Mara said, her voice cutting through the tension, “That everyone here knows.”

“Knows what?” Katherine asked, her tone laced with irritation.

“Except you,” Mara said, a strange, almost amused light in her eyes. “Interesting.”

“What?” the doctor demanded. “Can we please focus on what to do with the patient?”

“No,” Mara said softly. “This is more important.”

Knut, Eryn, and Nabeeh slowly moved. None of them drew their weapons, but the shift in their posture was a clear message.

“Please,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “Don’t do this. I…we might know how to save him,” I said, saying anything just to give us a bit more time to come up with a way to save Enar. 

Mara’s axe remained in her hand.

“You’ve got ten seconds to convince me,” she said.