Helooked sheepish.
“Godsdamnit,Isaac.”
“I’msorry.”
“I lostmy fucking eye!”
“I just...wanted to help.”
Zariatook a deep breath, growled around the pain, and looked down through the pipes,eyeing the small fire still burning at the bottom of the obelisk.“No.Nevermind.I ain’t mad.Your meaning was there.Just ...gods.”
“Iknow.”
Theyspent a few moments hissing in pain.
“Ican’t cast anymore,” Isaac said.“You’ll need to lead the way.I think yourpoleaxe fell to the bottom.If you can—”
“Youthink I can swing a polearm with my hand like a butcher’s shop?”
Sheraised her hand.Through the jagged valley of flesh, he could almost see thebones of her palm.He lightly swung his arm, testing the motion of the sling,and received a sharp stab of pain in response.
“Whatcan we do?”he asked.
Shelooked at him, silent.
Behindthem, the glass pillar began to shake.The souls rushed beneath the prison,their screams rising in pitch, the surrounding pipes bending and flexing, thesurviving machinery churning and groaning and spinning into motion.All atonce, the souls were sucked downward through the glass pillar, rushing by instreams of light and spectral limbs.The entire power grid shook on its framesas it was brought gruesomely back to life, struggling against its age, tryingto perform its task thousands of years after its creators had died.
Berithhad reached the bottom of the tomb.
He wasresurrecting the skeleton.
The soulshad been the only source of illumination in the obelisk.Now, as the last ofthem drained away, a wall of darkness rushed downwards from the top of thetower, like water filling a tunnel.Blackness washed over the stone.By theend, only a few errant souls remained above their heads, glowing like stars ina night sky.The machines fell silent.
All theenergy and light had been drained.
Thescreaming had finally stopped.
“Father!”Isaac shouted.“Father!”
Onlyhis voice returned.The only thing he could see was a faint spot of fire whereSoren had fallen, which could only be the bottom of the tower.Isaac knew, insome way, that Caine might’ve still been pursuing Berith, out into the cavernthat surrounded the obelisk.There might still be a fight.All the same, therewas no sign of it now.
Theweight of the earth laid down a heavy silence.
Sparkscame out of the darkness.Zaria was striking her flint.Slowly, the sparkscaught the torch, and Zaria raised the burgeoning flame above her head.It waspitifully small compared to the darkness around them.
“Isaac,”she said.“We’re fucked now, aren’t we?”
Arumble began to be felt through the stone and metal, coming from somewhereabove.Outside, through the cracks in the obelisk, the darkness seemed tochurn.There was an unimaginably large cavern surrounding the body of thecolossus.Out there, through miles of blackened air, the first twitches wouldbe echoing through the bone.The toes would curl.The knee would flex.Soon,the entire creature would be ready to stand.
If itever rose to its full height again, its head would pierce the clouds.
“I’llbandage your hand,” he said, digging some vials from his pack.All thatremained was a few tinctures of chamomile and boiled elderberry.They would notdo much.
“Hey,”she said.
Helooked at her.
Shepointed at the powdered plants.“You givin’ meflowers?”
