“Do youknow what I want?”Isaac asked.
Cainewatched him, flowing and bright.
“I wantto leave.I want to turn and walk away and never think about this tomb again.Iwant to see the places I’ve only known through books.I want to feel themoments I’ve only seen in dreams.I want to wake up and walk outside and watchthe sunrise and not be terrified that I’ll be struck for doing so.I want—Iwant—I—”
Hisvision blurred, and he lowered his chin to his chest.In the moment, more thananything, he hated that he was embarrassed to cry.
“Idon’t want to do this anymore.”
Hiswounds still ached.His clothes were filthy, and his pack was heavy, and hemissed the softness of his bed, the warmth of a cooked meal, the feel of old,musty paper on his fingertips.He missed the things that had always given himcomfort.
“Do youknow what I’ve wanted, Isaac?”
Thesoul drifted forward, close to Isaac’s face.The ethereal light left spots inhis vision.For the first time, he noticed wisps leaking from the invisiblefield around the device, as if holes were forming in the barrier.
“Iwanted to save myself,” Caine said.“I just pressed a button.I had journeyedfor days, I had watched several friends die around me, and I was walking aroundthis little shack, looking at all the trinkets and lab reports, and I pressedthat big button down there, just a quick little moment of curiosity, and itdestroyed my body.It took a second of carelessness, and I was trapped.”
Thesoul split and rejoined.
“Ipanicked.I think anyone would.It was weeks before the Diet tried to contactme.I spent those weeks in the dark, alone and afraid, coming to terms with myonly choices.It was you or me.That was it.I had to put my soul in your body.Kill my son to save myself.I was still struggling with it when they called,and when they asked what could be done ...I made my choice.I thought Sarahmight understand.I thought the Diet would acquiesce if I kept the obeliskhostage.I had always drunk life to the lees, and that must have meant that Iwanted to live more than anything else.”
Thepurple cloud began to spread.Light boiled inside.
“Butthen I was alone, once again.For years, I was alone.It felt an eternity, herein the dark, and I discovered that eternity is ...quite a long time.
“Ipracticed with the bones, I learned this city’s language, I explored every inchwhere I could wriggle a finger.”A tendril of gas blew toward the labequipment.“I even attempted to replicate some of the sorceress’s experiments,though I hardly understood the science.Whoever she was, she had a mind formachines far exceeding my own.In any case, it still wasn’t enough.There is noway to tell time in the dark.I couldn’t evensleep, Isaac.I have noneed for rest.In the end, thinking was the only way in which I could occupymyself.And I did ...quite a lot of it.”
Thecloud raced around its containment, roiling, shifting, stretching the vaguetendrils of a face.
“Ithought about you.I imagined how much you might resemble me, or, at least, thehandsome flesh I used to own.I pictured your first steps, your first spell.I calculated how much training you would have to dobefore your body could be sent.Most of all, I thought about the Archons, allthe ways they would keep this a secret from the supranational regulators, allthe ways they could ...bend and twist the deal, corrupting it for their ownends.Slowly, I realized what I’d done.I realized what they would have to doto Sarah.I realized what they would have to do to you, just so it would allstay a secret.And I realized that my fate was likely sealed, no matter what.”
Below,some of the gauges had reached zero.Lights were beginning to die.
“Iwanted to save you,” Caine said.“But there was nothing I could do.The Dietdid not contact me again, and the reach of this little box only went so far.Asyou might imagine, there were few guests to the tomb surrounded by dragons andpirates.My only hope—the only thing that kept me sane through the years—wasthat, someday, you would arrive here, and I would get the chance to speak withyou, and I would tell you to run, to run very far away, to forget all about meand to live your life on your own terms.”
Isaacremembered the grinding voice of the bones, the insistence with which they hadspoken his name.
“After aneternity, after all my hope had nearly bled away, Ifelt a tingle in the tiny corpuscles within my cloud, and I knew I was finallybeing called again.And when I answered, it was Berith who spoke.And he....”
Thecloud shuddered.
“Hetold me everything.Your entire life.There was not much to tell, from thesound of things.Just training and lessons and the sound of a cracking whip.And after all that time and effort, after he had spent decades of his lifemeeting my demands ...he had still decided to kill you.In a few days, hesaid, you would be swallowed by the desert.You would die of wyrms or thirst.Neither would bepleasant.There was nothing at all I could do to stop it.Berith let his wordsimpale me.As I was numb with shock, he asked if I was proud of myself.He toldme just how long he’d been waiting to say that I was no brother of his, anylonger.He said I should’ve just accepted my death when it came, instead offorcing him to come and finish the job.”
Morewisps leaked from the invisible barrier, twisting in the air, spreading outinto dust.
“I lostmy mind,” Caine said.“That is really the only way to put it.I snapped myfinal strand.I gathered every bone I could find and, when he entered the tomb,I lashed at him with everything I had, and it was completely useless, becausehe was Berith the Bone Hunter, and he had used our family’s talent forcross-specialization to amass an army of thralls, and even though I knew myfate was sealed, the only motivation I had left was spite and a wounded, animalrage, and so rage I did, to the final spitting breath.When you appeared, Ithought you were his reinforcements, or some wandering scavengers, and if Ihadn’t been concentrating most of my mass on Berith, I would’ve slaughtered youwithout a second thought.It was only afterward, when I was listening, that Irealized....”
Ahigh-pitched whine began to ring from the device.By now, most of the gaugeshad died.The soul inside was beginning to drift apart, growing thin andtransparent.
“Oh,”Caine said, quietly.
Isaacclutched the device, running his hands over the dials and switches.“What’shappening?”
“It’sout of energy.The obelisk....”There came a warbling sigh, thin andwhistled.“I think I’m losing the memories.”
“Wait,wait.”Isaac leaned forward, tugging at the pipes below.“Is there anothersource of energy?Can it transmutate, like a scroll?”
“Gods,”Caine said, “I want to remember her face.”
