An awful groaning emanated up from the bottom of the tower to the top, the sound of the building’s constituent parts tearing themselves away from one another. Gravity was taking hold.
It was going to fall right on top of our base of operations.
Something shifted and the floor gave way, sending me tumbling down to the level below. Chunks of the ceiling rained down, filling the air with dust as I wasted precious seconds trying to figure out why I couldn’t move right.
Ice cold numbness was spreading up my back. I know I just got cut in half. I know it, but… It didn’t feel real. My body’s refusal to accept such a traumatic reality, even if I knew I had the capacity to restore it.
“Over here!” Kay’s voice called out from a gap in the wreckage that led to an open window. I crawled towards her, willing my legs to regenerate faster. The whole building was rattling, making it hard to get traction. Just as sensation was returning to my lower half, a large piece of rubble slammed down, pinning me.
There was an immense rush of air as the floors above pulled free, the tower beginning to fall.
Adrenaline flooded through my body like electricity. I could feel the fibers in my muscles breaking and regenerating in seconds as I pushed the concrete off of me.
I finally grasped the sill and pulled myself through with a helping push from Kay.
The shadow of the building crept up the streets and rooftops, claiming the space it would soon decimate. There was barely any time.
I let myself fall. In my mind’s eye, I sought out another seed. Please let there be one here.
There were a few seeds nearby, but nothing at the spot I was diving to. I wouldn’t have time to find one. I placed a finger in my mouth and bit down, bypassing natural human inhibitions that usually prevented this sort of thing and severed it clean. Then I molded it between my hands, thinking of all the seeds I had held and planted into soil, drawing on Nell’s memories of quiet moments of concentration, when she lost track of the world and saw an entirely new one within the potential of a single seed.
I tapped into the Lacuna, drawing deep from its well of power and I felt it respond, waking up and pulsing with my emotion.
The ground rushed towards me and I hardened my body in anticipation.
Impact.
I was blind. Deaf. Only the Lacunae’s pressure was a reassurance that I hadn’t died. Waves from each, ebbing and flowing in sync, clashed in the air like a careful duel, taking turns striking but never mixing.
“Where?” I asked, not hearing my own voice.
Hands pressed against my shoulders, turning me. My vision returned slightly, the hazy outline of the sky blocked out by the tower dropping like a guillotine.
My hand slammed into the ground. Grow.
Like an ancient dragon unearthed from its slumber, a tree erupted from the ground. Black bark laced with starkly white bone, branches unfolding like wings on an insect’s back. The tree intercepted the building and with my returning hearing I still felt as much as I heard the collision.
BOOM.
Leafy branches caught what debris wasn’t redirected. The black and white spire ceased its growth and I hung my head, feeling dizzy.
“You okay?” AJ whispered in my ear.
I roused myself, focusing on regenerating what was damaged, which was just about every part of me. “Yeah, no, I’m alright.”
“I saw that. It was so awesome.”
“Why are you whispering?” I mumbled.
“Hang on, something’s-” AJ’s voice cut out.
I glanced around, looking for his nearly invisible Shape. There were no telltale distortions in the air. Was he okay?
I needed to keep moving. Sounds of fighting came from the streets around me. I could hear the unearthly roars of the spawn of rage. It seemed our efforts to corral the spawn away from Cecily were only partially successful. I needed to-
I stared at my clenched hands, not moving from the spot where I knelt.
Kay’s butterflies solidified into her human form next to me.
“Take your time,” she said softly.
“I should go,” I said, still rooted to the spot. “Cecily is still around here. I need to-”
“Take. Your. Time,” Kay said firmly, touching my shoulder. It didn’t sting like her butterflies did.
I took a trembling breath, fighting back tears. The tolling of Nell’s Lacuna had made the sorrow come back fresh. It felt like I never had enough time to process things. Always something I needed to do. Why couldn’t I just have some time to sit in this feeling until it felt better? Or was that a lie and I would never feel okay again?
“Do you like your new body?” Kay asked.
I sniffed and nodded. “Yeah. I do. Feels right.”
“I don’t know how to feel about mine. I think the Shaping changed my brain somehow. I feel a bit more distant, like I’m always spread out.” Her hand squeezed my shoulder. “Touch helps.”
I gave her a hug. The butterfly wings trembled along her skin.
“Do you remember hearing about that guy making a sanctuary for only Shapers?” Kay asked.
“I think so.”
“It’s awful what he’s doing, but there’s a part of me that thinks that sounds nice? Like I wonder if maybe there, I wouldn’t feel like this body is going to get in the way of forming connections with people. Sometimes, when it’s real bad, I feel like I might never experience human love again.”
“I’ll still love you. Even if no one else does.” The words tumbled out of my mouth unexpectedly. I froze. “I mean, I don’t know if my kind of love is proper love, I’m kind of weird, but…”
Kay smiled.
“COME QUICK!”
I started, wrenched from the private moment by a loud shout.
AJ’s voice had been right by my ear.
I straightened, looking around. There was a slight wavering in space that AJ’s Shape occupied.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, swallowing my raw emotions.
“Just come, Nick!” he shouted again, voice slightly garbled, like he had bitten his tongue.
The Shape snaked away from me.
I glanced back at Kay.
“Go,” she said. “I’ll go track down the Goddess and then find you again. And thanks for that.” She grinned wider, even as she didn’t meet my eyes. “I’d love to talk more later.”
I turned away, heat rising to my face, and then ran after AJ’s Shape. Bounding over road barriers and waves of gold, I spotted a group of Shapers moving away from the command center. Graham was with them, carrying an injured Wolf.
“Graham!” I called out. “How is everyone?”
He saw me and smiled. “Sage! That was you, wasn’t it? Shaping never ceases to amaze me. I must tell my dendrologist friends about the tree you created. One more reason to fight to see another day, eh? Don’t worry, everyone is safe. The initial attack caught a lot of people, but your friends are all safe and sound. Thanks to your defense, we’re still in fighting shape.”
“No time!” AJ hissed. “Come on!”
Graham frowned. “Is that AJ? Good. Tell him to get medical aid. Last time I saw him he was bleeding badly.”
I waved goodbye to Graham and followed after the nearly invisible Shape. It weaved between the fallen rubble and snaked down the empty streets and alleys. How far can he extend this thing?
AJ eventually led me to an old strip mall. The paint on the outside was faded to the point of illegibility. All the windows were boarded up and graffiti art covered the walls. It was likely this mall had been abandoned far earlier than the rest of the city. Some of the boards had been removed, probably by teens or the unhoused, so I stepped inside the dark halls.
My heartrate briefly jumped as I spotted human figures, but they ended up being mannequins on display, somehow remaining standing in defiant chic poses while the city was falling to pieces outside.
“This way, Nick!” AJ called out.
I turned another corner, feeling nostalgic. I remembered going to a strip mall similar to this one in my hometown. My parents would try to get their shopping done while I pulled in different directions, begging to go on the cheap coin operated ride or to get sweet treats. The memory was hazy and the shrouded faces of my parents made my chest ache.
“You’re okay, right AJ?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I smiled to myself. “This reminds me of the first time I met you. I chased after your Shape, all through the suburbs. I was panicking like crazy, thinking that someone might tell the world my secrets, only to find out it was just some scrawny kid that was stalking me.”
AJ didn’t respond. The sound of my voice bounced around the dust-coated mall.
“AJ?”
“Yeah, that was funny, Nick!” he said enthusiastically.
I slowed down as the Shape slipped past the display exhibit of a store with a broken window. My heart started to pound as I stared into the dark.
My throat felt tight. “You know… You’ve been calling me Nick for a while now.”
“Come inside!” AJ’s voice echoed out from the shadows. “There’s someone hurt in here who needs help!”
“Why don’t you come out?” I asked, my voice getting higher.
“There’s no time! Come on!” AJ shouted, suddenly sounding a lot more angry.
I stared past the bent bodies of the mannequins wearing old tank tops and shorts, trying to see anything inside. It was total blackness.
“AJ, you remember what my name is now… right?”
The translucent Shape shot out of the darkness and stopped right in front of me. I could barely make out teeth and a tongue.
“COME!” it demanded in AJ’s voice.
My skin went cold.
“What did you do to him?” I whispered.
The Shape said nothing. Then it turned gray, becoming fully visible. It dropped to the ground with a splat, draping over the display window. Black fluid trickled out from the mouth.
I stared at it. A gray, lifeless snake.
I couldn’t see straight. It felt like the floor was moving underneath me.
The Marquess was laughing inside my head and I wasn’t sure if it had ever stopped, or if I just hadn’t been listening.
His ichorous, malformed body dropped from the ceiling and walls inside the store, revealing windows that let the sunlight in. The Marquess’ face bulged out of the murk, his expression matching the sound I was hearing.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!” I screamed.
The Marquess launched himself at me through the store front.
I seized a nearby bench and swung it, splitting him into two pieces. The first flew over my head but the other wrapped around my legs, sticking fast and then creeping up towards my face.
I ripped off my fingernails on one hand and Shaped them into large pearly discs that spun like saws, cutting the congealed fluid around me to ribbons. Some of it sprayed into droplets that landed on my face. They crawled like insects towards my nose and eyes. But when the pieces were small, I could Shape them, turning them into dandelion tufts and shaking them off.
Whirling around, I saw that the Marquess had draped a display of mannequins in his fluid. They moved like they were controlled by an unskilled puppeteer, striding forward with unnatural gaits. I threw the discs at them, gouging lines in the tile floor. One mannequin lost its legs to the blades but carried on, dancing up and down on invisible strings. The thought of isolating the fluid piece by piece crossed my mind and then was dashed away by a blaring conviction: that fucker needs to die now.
The mannequins slipped between my strikes and threw themselves around me, locking up their limbs into restraints. I struggled, my heart feeling like it’d been torn to shreds.
“At least-” I tried to speak between sobs. “At least tell me where he is. Where you left him.”
“You think I remember every spot where I’ve stepped on an ant?” The Marquess mocked as the cold sticky liquid crawled towards my mouth. His main form leaned forward hungrily, waiting, watching.
What’s the point? I thought. Even if the world is saved, what’s the point if I’m alone?
Something white sailed through the air, like a flag. It landed squarely on the Marquess’ chest and stuck to it. The Marquess slowly looked down at the roll of paper towel that was soaking up the fluid and turning black.
“I got more where that came from.”
Tom strode around the corner, face hidden behind a mountain of tissue boxes and paper towel rolls he carried in his arms. A few spilled out of his grip as he marched up to me.
The Marquess stared at him in disbelief.
“Tom,” I cried. “AJ… he-”
“He’s alive.”
“But I saw his Shape, it’s…”
“He’s alive,” Tom repeated with brazen confidence. He placed a tissue box in my hand. “My Shape might not work on this guy or the bad hair day outside, but I’m sure as shit that AJ is alive and kicking. Don’t let this puddle of pudding fool you.”
The Marquess recovered from his astonishment. “Mop your tears all you want. Your sorrows will fill the oceans. You will weep as all things you hold dear are unmade, as is her divine will.”
“Oh, these aren’t for Sage,” Tom said, waving another roll of paper towel threateningly at the Marquess. “They’re for you.”