Elegy for a Star

CHAPTER SUMMARY - SPOILERS

Tess spoke with utmost eagerness, “I’m so proud of you all. That was amazing.” Her pride for the others was far above her shame that she could not help. She took the moment to be happy, not to dwell on negative thoughts. This was their time, not about her, and they were kind enough to include her in their brief celebration.

It was the first time Joyona, Mairaela and Gwendolyn fought together and won. Tess looked forward to the time when she could count herself among them, and she had hope of it now that she saw an effect from her constellation practice. She wanted to tell them, but didn’t want to distract from their moment. Again, this was their time.

Mairaela laughed and asked, “I thought I told you to hide?” Tess only gave a sheepish grin in response, staring down at her shifting feet.

Gwen nudged Mairaela and pointed down the street, “Just two more streets over is where we saw the light.” Gwendolyn sheathed her sword and shrugged her shield up onto her forearm and said, “We should move.”

Joyona started without another word, running toward the next street, and the rest of the group followed. They moved with haste, slipping through the alleyways and streets before they came to the final turn. Joyona peeked around the corner and turned back, “I see webs.”

“Spiders?” Gwendolyn asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t see anything on them.”

Mairaela whispered, “What else?”

“Something gold. Small.”

“We should risk it,” Mairaela replied, “It could be a lost soul.”

The others went through, into the street. When Tess turned the corner with the others, she saw the object of their attention. A golden, flaming orb sat on the ground, beaming a tired, sputtering light into the sky. Tess slowed her pace and walked up to the group. They looked pensive and didn’t want to disturb them.

“You were right,” Gwendolyn said. Mairaela simply nodded.

“What’s a lost soul?” Tess asked.

“It’s what’s left of us if we die here. One of us died and left this,” Gwen replied.

“Is it corrupted?” Mairaela asked.

Joyona shook her head, “Doesn’t look like the pictures of a corrupted soul that I’ve seen.”

“What do you mean?” Tess asked.

“I mean if it’s been here too long, it’ll turn dark in the center,” Mairaela explained, pointing at the shining sphere, “It means the soul inside is tainted by the Black Sun and needs to be purged.”

“Purged?”

“Killed. You crack the orb and, from what I’ve been told, out comes a dark copy of the dead soul. You have to kill them all over again,” Gwendolyn finished.

“Or else what?” Tess was genuinely confused. Why put yourself through that anguish and struggle?

Gwendolyn frowned and said, “It’s not certain, but the College thinks that the soul is tormented until we put them to rest. It’s a standing order to purge any corrupted soul that we find.”

“Speaking of standing orders,” Mairaela added, “If it isn’t corrupted, we need to bring it back with us.”

Joyona bent down and picked it up. When she lifted it, a bit of webbing came with it. Joyona had to peel the webbing off of the orb. The act sent a visible vibration through the webbing, all the way up and across the white strings that connected building to building.

“What is that?” Gwendolyn asked, leaning forward.

“Nothing good,” Joyona replied.

“Wait,” Mairaela whispered, pulling an arrow from her quiver. There came a sound in the distance, a shambling; a scrape of feet on stone.

Walking out from nearby alleys, several lanky, pale-skinned and naked humans of all sorts approached. They looked dead in the eyes; They looked like zombies.

“Zombies aren’t terrible,” Tess said as Gwendolyn drew her sword. The others didn’t respond and a worry grew in Tess’ chest. “Right?” She asked, a little less certain.

“Zombies don’t make webs,” Mairaela replied.

As if on cue, one of the zombies twitched and convulsed. It toppled to the ground and began to seize violently. The back of its head burst open, revealing a mouth of four fangs where hair should’ve been. The arms cracked and stretched as the creature rolled onto its back and propped itself up on hands and feet, belly into the air. The upside down, splayed out man vaguely resembled a spider, more so as its belly burst open, revealing a hairy spider’s abdomen. Out from its back sprouted four scythe-like arms that it used to crawl on, lifting itself up off of its hands and feet.

A corpse. A spider just grew out of that corpse. The eyes looked so lifeless, its mouth opened wide and limbs hanging uselessly.

Tess wanted to retch.

Every one of these shamblers did the same, and the orchestra of cracking bones and arachnid chittering drove a shiver through Tess’ back.

“I hate spiders,” Joyona murmured.

Tess wanted to laugh at that. She would have laughed at that at any other moment, but all she could make was a nervous whine. Everything in her was in defense mode

Joyona’s gorget snapped upward, forming several layers that folded themselves around the woman’s head, encasing it in protective metal. Extra layers formed around her arms and legs until she stood seven feet tall. She looked like a metal golem, especially as she crouched down and steam hissed from her back. 

“I’ll make a path,” Joyona spoke with a metallic, tinny ring to her voice. The ground crunched under Joyona’s feet when she launched herself into the fray, crushing one spider and shoving five others aside. They mobbed her immediately, three spiders crawling up her legs and back, slowly webbing her to the ground.

Gwendolyn, Mairaela and Tess followed after her, with Mairaela firing arrow after arrow into the hoard of arachnids behind them. Gwendolyn dashed toward Joyona and slashed at the spiders. Several more phantom images of Gwen appeared behind her, slashing at the other spiders swarming their tank and freeing her up to continue the charge.

As they booked it into an alleyway, Tess looked back to find a horde of these spider creatures crawling after them, digging their arms into the walls and following on the ground and up above. They were faster, and Tess knew that their time was short.

She began to sign the constellations. The Crown for power, the Spinnerets for fear, and the Red Poppy for blood, murder and strength. When Tess finished the last, she felt power surging through her hands, aching to be released. 

Tess turned around and held out her arms. Fire enveloped her from the shoulders, down her arms and out into the field of spiders like they were hurricanes of flame. Those that were touched were incinerated, turned not even to bone, but directly to ash. Those that weren’t fled, screeching and skittering away by the quickest route possible.

When she was done, her arms remained fiery for a few seconds before the flame dissipated. Tess looked at the scorched alleyway with surprise, pride and a big, big smile.

When she turned back around to the others, they all looked at her with shock and terror. Tess grinned and said, “I told you I could be useful.”

Mairaela fit an arrow into her bow. Tess looked around, but saw no other threat. “Mairaela, what-..”

Joyona’s armored plates shifted down her arm and created a massive axe in her hand. She shrugged it up into both hands, ready for a fight.

“Tess, you’re-..” Gwen stammered, being the only one to not draw a weapon.

Joyona finished her sentiment, “...Evil.”