Day 21:
Sleep
When the door closed behind the woman’s departure, Bethany turned a disappointed and confused look on him. “So what’s so significant about this echo thing?”
“It…” But he found that he didn’t actually know. He frowned, gaze drifting down as he searched for the information he could have sworn had just been there. When he came up with nothing, he turned his gaze to Tolnoran. “Have you seen anything like it before?”
Tolnoran shook his head. “That was a first for me.”
Elias spoke up. “I know most if not all the creatures in the Second Plane but I’ve never seen anything like Tolnoran described, nor anything called an echo.”
Frustration churned in his chest. “It’s the translation of the name. It has one like Dlmor or Kret but I don’t know how to say it.”
That drew Elias’s curiosity. “Can you spell it?”
He gave the man a flat look. “I can hardly say it and you expect me to know how to spell it?”
“Then how…”
“I’d heard it. The thing had spoken it.”
Bethany placed a hand on his shoulder. He could feel her trembling and he wondered if it was out of some fear or exhaustion. “What do you mean the thing spoke it?”
He shrugged. Her hand didn’t move. “It had spoken it.” He met Elias’s gaze. “Or, at least the name had been spoken. Everything else is kind of just…there.”
“Transference?”
“I don’t think so.”
Elias’s gaze moved to Dlmor. “Did you hear it?”
“No.” The creature’s gaze moved to Artemis. “Try repeating the name. I want to hear what it called itself.”
“I’m going to butcher it,” he warned.
Elias waved his concern off. “It’ll be close enough.”
He pulled at what he did remember of the encounter and brought up the conversation. At first he couldn’t make out the name enough to mimic it but then it was like someone whispered it clearly in his ear and it fell off his tongue with ease. “Olnvorox.”
The reaction was immediate. Both Elias and Tolnoran’s eyes widened in shock, color draining from both their faces as their creature companions hissed and reared back. Even Dlmor growled at the word but Bethany withdrew her hand as she shook her head in denial even as the fear drained the color from her face.
It worried him that even she knew what it was by its proper name.
“Are you sure?” Elias whispered, voice strained.
“Very.”
“But you’ve never heard of-” Tolnoran stumbled over the name- “of those until now, right?”
He gave a cautious nod.
“But why?” Elias pushed, sounding on the edge of frantic. “Why did it tell you its name if you didn’t know? Wouldn’t it have benefited if we hadn’t known?”
He frowned at that. “I don’t know the answer to that. It just did, along with the knowledge of what that thing had been and the significance of it being here.”
“Significance?”
He didn’t clarify at Elias’s prod. Instead, he turned his gaze onto Dlmor. “Are you sure a Kret attacked me back in the camper?”
Bethany took a step closer. “Artemis, what are you-”
“Of course,” Dlmor assured him, sounding affronted even as confusion molded its expression. “Why?”
“Because I don’t think it was.”
Elias caught on to his thoughts. “Artemis, if it was one of those, you would be dead right now.”
It dawned on Dlmor and Tolnoran at the same time. The creature’s eyes widened before drifting as if its thoughts were racing. Tolnoran shot him a look of pity and terror. He ignored it in favor of holding Elias’s gaze. “I was unconscious for three days here,” he stated. “Before that I slept through the entire day and was left with a fog filled brain when the pain wasn’t there to disrupt my thoughts instead.” He pulled in a breath, letting that settle around them. “Far more damage than any Kret can cause. Or so I’ve been told.”
“Elias,” Tolnoran choked. “Elias, if that was a-” a shuddering breath- “if it was one-”
Elias shook his head as he took a step back, turning to look at Tolnoran. The disbelief was quickly masked by determination. “Go warn Cass and Col. Conner. They’ll pass on the word if we’re believed.”
“Is there a chance you won’t be?” Artemis asked, watching Tolnoran rush out the door with Ysle at his side.
Elias’s haunted gaze landed on him. “There’s always a chance for every possibility but in this? No. This is very serious and even the Council - though they’ll deny it - will still follow the proper procedures for the situation.”
“We can’t stay here if there’s a…” Bethany started but the words died at the name. “We have to run.”
Elias shook his head. “We have to lock down. If there are more here, there’s no telling who they’ve attached to, let alone who they’ll attack.”
“What is an Olnvorox?” he put in. He watched the fear race through his family. “Why the fear of it? Of the name?”
“Artemis, do you remember the story Mom used to read to you for bedtime before I left? The one of the Evershadow?”
The nonsequential question didn’t make sense but he answered it anyways. “Barely. The one about the human that couldn’t get rid of the shadow haunting him until he pulled a star from the sky and gave it life?”
Bethany nodded. “It was one Mom shared with me as a kid. I had always thought it was just some obscure children’s story she had found but even fairy tales are based off of some truth. The Evershadow was based on this being, based on the…” she took a breath, looking pained, “Olnvorox.” She shuddered. “But the difference between the Evershadow and those is that the Evershadow was just a shadow. These things are real and will tear you apart in every way possible. And no one knows how to get rid of them. Whatever the star getting life represented was lost to the story’s origin.”
Elias stepped closer, a thoughtful frown on his face. “But that’s not quite accurate anymore. Tolnoran told me Artemis had destroyed the…” his pause was much shorter than Bethany’s, “Olnvorox with his Dlmor.”
Artemis looked to Dlmor. “Do you remember what had happened?”
His heart sank when Dlmor shook its head. “I remember even less than you do and in all honesty I had thought I had passed out when you pulled its claws out of my side. I don’t remember anything after that point. Well, except for Elias and the healer arriving but I’m not sure if it’s an actual memory or a fever dream.”
Bethany spoke up, her voice tight. “I’ve never seen one and I don’t have Toley anymore. Surely there’s enough time for me to get out of here at least.”
“If there was, I would send you home in a heartbeat,” Elias assured her, “but right now the risk is too high until the compound has been checked.”
“Is there really no way to keep anyone safe?” Artemis asked, looking between the two of them. “I don’t remember the specifics but didn’t the Evershadow story have other people in it outside of the main human? Ones that were harmed by it and ones that weren’t?”
Elias shifted his weight, offering, “I doubt having everyone sleep like in the story will protect any of them. This isn’t the Evershadow.”
“But the story held some truth, right?” he countered. “What if some of it was literal? What if it really was sleeping that protects us from an Olnvorax?”
“We can’t risk that.”
“But-”
A scream from the hallway cut through the door, startling all of them. Dlmor pressed into his left leg between him and the door. Elias turned around, muttering something to the creature draped around his neck. Artemis picked out the creature’s name from the muttered sounds before it did as requested. Trevak slid from Elias’s shoulders and glided down to the floor, growing in size as it went. By the time it was half as thick as Dlmor was round, Trevak’s body filled a large amount of the room. Feathered wings carefully tucked close to the scales. Elias let a hand rest on the snake’s body as Bethany wrapped her hands around Artemis’s shoulders.
“Artemis,” she whispered. “Please. You can’t trust him.”
He looked back at her, letting his hurt show at that. “I can’t not right now. Not when it means life or death for far too many.”
“Artemis,” she tried again, voice strained and pitched too high, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by another scream.
Elias didn’t look back even as he spoke. “Artemis.”
“I still trust your word to keep me safe if I followed what you said,” he acknowledged before the other man could continue. “I’ll only leave if you tell me to.”
He gained the man’s gaze before it moved to Bethany. “The smart thing would be to hunker down and wait it out but I have people out there that I need to check on and help. I can’t ask you to come with me.”
Artemis offered him an amused smile. “Well, it’s a good thing I was already planning on helping.”
“Artemis…”
He shook his head, giving the man an out. “Lead. We’re right behind you.”
Bethany’s grip on his shoulders turned painful. “Artemis, I don’t have a companion. I’m of no use out there and will only be a sitting duck!”
He looked over his shoulder at her, covering one of her hands with his. “I haven’t forgotten.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “Stay close. Dlmor and I will protect you.”
“And when you two are too busy?”
It was a challenge but the fear cut through the sharpness of it. He gave her hand another squeeze. “There will be someone to take my place. I promise.”
The sound of running feet went past the door. There was another scream but it was faint. Elias moved towards the door, stating simply, “Time to go.”
Artemis gave her hand one last squeeze before slipping out from her touch. “I may not remember Toley but I remember my sister,” he offered her, holding her gaze. “I remember how strong she was when I was still too young to stand strong on my own. I remember her prowess as a person, the burning fire that had been there even after Toley vanished. I don’t remember it clearly but I remember it like I remember Mom’s hug and Dad’s prickly kisses. I remember it like I remember the happiness I had when you were around.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “I know you have so much more to lose now so let me protect you this time. Let me stand strong where you can’t- where you shouldn’t have to. I’ve got Dlmor now.”
“But I’m the older sister,” she tried using as a counter. “I should be protecting you, not the other way around.”
“You are protecting me,” he informed her, amused and mildly confused by that. “It just happens to not be in the way you want to.”
There was a new set of running feet and by the time they were at the door, he could make out two different sets. But unlike the last set of running feet, this one actually stopped at the door and yanked it open. To Artemis’s surprise, Lora was standing on the other side. Her Belvren was barely taller than her and looked like it was made out of some sort of pale rock. “Oh, thank the Divine,” she sighed as she looked between the three of them. “A man named Tolnoran said you would be here. He said to bring you all with.” Elias was out the door and down the hall with Trevak leading the way before Lora was done talking. She glanced at the man disappearing down the hallway as Artemis and Bethany stepped out of the room. “They’re needing all hands for this.”
Artemis touched Lora’s arm. “Stick with Beth for me, yeah?”
Lora gave a sharp nod. “Of course. Be careful.”
Dlmor’s form shifted at the edge of his vision as he returned the sharp nod. As Dlmor settled into something large enough to carry him and still run on all fours, Bethany pulled him into a tight hug. “Seriously. Please don’t do anything stupid.” She pulled back enough to cup his face in both hands. “Elias likes to talk about Ylmra and Walkers and their strengths but he forgets we’re still human, that we break.”
Her hands were warm under his as he wrapped his fingers around her palms. He gently tugged her hands from his face, giving them a squeeze as he did. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”
Bethany withdrew but not fully. She sent a glare at Dlmor. “Don’t you dare get him killed, Dlmor. I will end you myself if you do.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Artemis grabbed fistfuls of fur and hauled himself onto Dlmor’s back. The creature took off down the hallway before he was properly seated but he didn’t care. With his sister safe with someone he could trust - with nothing more distracting him from what he was rushing headlong into - the information from the Olnvorox came back to nip at him, bringing with it a rising fear that wanted to choke him.
“It…” But he found that he didn’t actually know. He frowned, gaze drifting down as he searched for the information he could have sworn had just been there. When he came up with nothing, he turned his gaze to Tolnoran. “Have you seen anything like it before?”
Tolnoran shook his head. “That was a first for me.”
Elias spoke up. “I know most if not all the creatures in the Second Plane but I’ve never seen anything like Tolnoran described, nor anything called an echo.”
Frustration churned in his chest. “It’s the translation of the name. It has one like Dlmor or Kret but I don’t know how to say it.”
That drew Elias’s curiosity. “Can you spell it?”
He gave the man a flat look. “I can hardly say it and you expect me to know how to spell it?”
“Then how…”
“I’d heard it. The thing had spoken it.”
Bethany placed a hand on his shoulder. He could feel her trembling and he wondered if it was out of some fear or exhaustion. “What do you mean the thing spoke it?”
He shrugged. Her hand didn’t move. “It had spoken it.” He met Elias’s gaze. “Or, at least the name had been spoken. Everything else is kind of just…there.”
“Transference?”
“I don’t think so.”
Elias’s gaze moved to Dlmor. “Did you hear it?”
“No.” The creature’s gaze moved to Artemis. “Try repeating the name. I want to hear what it called itself.”
“I’m going to butcher it,” he warned.
Elias waved his concern off. “It’ll be close enough.”
He pulled at what he did remember of the encounter and brought up the conversation. At first he couldn’t make out the name enough to mimic it but then it was like someone whispered it clearly in his ear and it fell off his tongue with ease. “Olnvorox.”
The reaction was immediate. Both Elias and Tolnoran’s eyes widened in shock, color draining from both their faces as their creature companions hissed and reared back. Even Dlmor growled at the word but Bethany withdrew her hand as she shook her head in denial even as the fear drained the color from her face.
It worried him that even she knew what it was by its proper name.
“Are you sure?” Elias whispered, voice strained.
“Very.”
“But you’ve never heard of-” Tolnoran stumbled over the name- “of those until now, right?”
He gave a cautious nod.
“But why?” Elias pushed, sounding on the edge of frantic. “Why did it tell you its name if you didn’t know? Wouldn’t it have benefited if we hadn’t known?”
He frowned at that. “I don’t know the answer to that. It just did, along with the knowledge of what that thing had been and the significance of it being here.”
“Significance?”
He didn’t clarify at Elias’s prod. Instead, he turned his gaze onto Dlmor. “Are you sure a Kret attacked me back in the camper?”
Bethany took a step closer. “Artemis, what are you-”
“Of course,” Dlmor assured him, sounding affronted even as confusion molded its expression. “Why?”
“Because I don’t think it was.”
Elias caught on to his thoughts. “Artemis, if it was one of those, you would be dead right now.”
It dawned on Dlmor and Tolnoran at the same time. The creature’s eyes widened before drifting as if its thoughts were racing. Tolnoran shot him a look of pity and terror. He ignored it in favor of holding Elias’s gaze. “I was unconscious for three days here,” he stated. “Before that I slept through the entire day and was left with a fog filled brain when the pain wasn’t there to disrupt my thoughts instead.” He pulled in a breath, letting that settle around them. “Far more damage than any Kret can cause. Or so I’ve been told.”
“Elias,” Tolnoran choked. “Elias, if that was a-” a shuddering breath- “if it was one-”
Elias shook his head as he took a step back, turning to look at Tolnoran. The disbelief was quickly masked by determination. “Go warn Cass and Col. Conner. They’ll pass on the word if we’re believed.”
“Is there a chance you won’t be?” Artemis asked, watching Tolnoran rush out the door with Ysle at his side.
Elias’s haunted gaze landed on him. “There’s always a chance for every possibility but in this? No. This is very serious and even the Council - though they’ll deny it - will still follow the proper procedures for the situation.”
“We can’t stay here if there’s a…” Bethany started but the words died at the name. “We have to run.”
Elias shook his head. “We have to lock down. If there are more here, there’s no telling who they’ve attached to, let alone who they’ll attack.”
“What is an Olnvorox?” he put in. He watched the fear race through his family. “Why the fear of it? Of the name?”
“Artemis, do you remember the story Mom used to read to you for bedtime before I left? The one of the Evershadow?”
The nonsequential question didn’t make sense but he answered it anyways. “Barely. The one about the human that couldn’t get rid of the shadow haunting him until he pulled a star from the sky and gave it life?”
Bethany nodded. “It was one Mom shared with me as a kid. I had always thought it was just some obscure children’s story she had found but even fairy tales are based off of some truth. The Evershadow was based on this being, based on the…” she took a breath, looking pained, “Olnvorox.” She shuddered. “But the difference between the Evershadow and those is that the Evershadow was just a shadow. These things are real and will tear you apart in every way possible. And no one knows how to get rid of them. Whatever the star getting life represented was lost to the story’s origin.”
Elias stepped closer, a thoughtful frown on his face. “But that’s not quite accurate anymore. Tolnoran told me Artemis had destroyed the…” his pause was much shorter than Bethany’s, “Olnvorox with his Dlmor.”
Artemis looked to Dlmor. “Do you remember what had happened?”
His heart sank when Dlmor shook its head. “I remember even less than you do and in all honesty I had thought I had passed out when you pulled its claws out of my side. I don’t remember anything after that point. Well, except for Elias and the healer arriving but I’m not sure if it’s an actual memory or a fever dream.”
Bethany spoke up, her voice tight. “I’ve never seen one and I don’t have Toley anymore. Surely there’s enough time for me to get out of here at least.”
“If there was, I would send you home in a heartbeat,” Elias assured her, “but right now the risk is too high until the compound has been checked.”
“Is there really no way to keep anyone safe?” Artemis asked, looking between the two of them. “I don’t remember the specifics but didn’t the Evershadow story have other people in it outside of the main human? Ones that were harmed by it and ones that weren’t?”
Elias shifted his weight, offering, “I doubt having everyone sleep like in the story will protect any of them. This isn’t the Evershadow.”
“But the story held some truth, right?” he countered. “What if some of it was literal? What if it really was sleeping that protects us from an Olnvorax?”
“We can’t risk that.”
“But-”
A scream from the hallway cut through the door, startling all of them. Dlmor pressed into his left leg between him and the door. Elias turned around, muttering something to the creature draped around his neck. Artemis picked out the creature’s name from the muttered sounds before it did as requested. Trevak slid from Elias’s shoulders and glided down to the floor, growing in size as it went. By the time it was half as thick as Dlmor was round, Trevak’s body filled a large amount of the room. Feathered wings carefully tucked close to the scales. Elias let a hand rest on the snake’s body as Bethany wrapped her hands around Artemis’s shoulders.
“Artemis,” she whispered. “Please. You can’t trust him.”
He looked back at her, letting his hurt show at that. “I can’t not right now. Not when it means life or death for far too many.”
“Artemis,” she tried again, voice strained and pitched too high, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by another scream.
Elias didn’t look back even as he spoke. “Artemis.”
“I still trust your word to keep me safe if I followed what you said,” he acknowledged before the other man could continue. “I’ll only leave if you tell me to.”
He gained the man’s gaze before it moved to Bethany. “The smart thing would be to hunker down and wait it out but I have people out there that I need to check on and help. I can’t ask you to come with me.”
Artemis offered him an amused smile. “Well, it’s a good thing I was already planning on helping.”
“Artemis…”
He shook his head, giving the man an out. “Lead. We’re right behind you.”
Bethany’s grip on his shoulders turned painful. “Artemis, I don’t have a companion. I’m of no use out there and will only be a sitting duck!”
He looked over his shoulder at her, covering one of her hands with his. “I haven’t forgotten.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “Stay close. Dlmor and I will protect you.”
“And when you two are too busy?”
It was a challenge but the fear cut through the sharpness of it. He gave her hand another squeeze. “There will be someone to take my place. I promise.”
The sound of running feet went past the door. There was another scream but it was faint. Elias moved towards the door, stating simply, “Time to go.”
Artemis gave her hand one last squeeze before slipping out from her touch. “I may not remember Toley but I remember my sister,” he offered her, holding her gaze. “I remember how strong she was when I was still too young to stand strong on my own. I remember her prowess as a person, the burning fire that had been there even after Toley vanished. I don’t remember it clearly but I remember it like I remember Mom’s hug and Dad’s prickly kisses. I remember it like I remember the happiness I had when you were around.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “I know you have so much more to lose now so let me protect you this time. Let me stand strong where you can’t- where you shouldn’t have to. I’ve got Dlmor now.”
“But I’m the older sister,” she tried using as a counter. “I should be protecting you, not the other way around.”
“You are protecting me,” he informed her, amused and mildly confused by that. “It just happens to not be in the way you want to.”
There was a new set of running feet and by the time they were at the door, he could make out two different sets. But unlike the last set of running feet, this one actually stopped at the door and yanked it open. To Artemis’s surprise, Lora was standing on the other side. Her Belvren was barely taller than her and looked like it was made out of some sort of pale rock. “Oh, thank the Divine,” she sighed as she looked between the three of them. “A man named Tolnoran said you would be here. He said to bring you all with.” Elias was out the door and down the hall with Trevak leading the way before Lora was done talking. She glanced at the man disappearing down the hallway as Artemis and Bethany stepped out of the room. “They’re needing all hands for this.”
Artemis touched Lora’s arm. “Stick with Beth for me, yeah?”
Lora gave a sharp nod. “Of course. Be careful.”
Dlmor’s form shifted at the edge of his vision as he returned the sharp nod. As Dlmor settled into something large enough to carry him and still run on all fours, Bethany pulled him into a tight hug. “Seriously. Please don’t do anything stupid.” She pulled back enough to cup his face in both hands. “Elias likes to talk about Ylmra and Walkers and their strengths but he forgets we’re still human, that we break.”
Her hands were warm under his as he wrapped his fingers around her palms. He gently tugged her hands from his face, giving them a squeeze as he did. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”
Bethany withdrew but not fully. She sent a glare at Dlmor. “Don’t you dare get him killed, Dlmor. I will end you myself if you do.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Artemis grabbed fistfuls of fur and hauled himself onto Dlmor’s back. The creature took off down the hallway before he was properly seated but he didn’t care. With his sister safe with someone he could trust - with nothing more distracting him from what he was rushing headlong into - the information from the Olnvorox came back to nip at him, bringing with it a rising fear that wanted to choke him.