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Chapter 7: Oasis

The passageway was damp and chilled, our progress punctuated with the sound of water dripping from the ceiling. Marlowe and I had been walking for about ten minutes, just making it to the first curve in the path. The ceiling was just high enough that I didn't have to duck to walk through, but the cold was beginning to bother me as we turned the corner in silence. The path continued along for a while before turning again somewhere down at the end, the light of the torches flickering impassively due to the moisture in the air. I heard a sigh from beside me as Marlowe surveyed the path before us. While he had been in a much happier mood since our escape from the cell area, it seemed that his own fatigue was catching up to his cheery attitude. I decided to strike up conversation to help get to know him better.

"So Marlowe." I said, my voice echoing through the stony passageway. "How did you end up here?"

He stopped and looked up at me. "What do you mean?"

"You called Nihash the master, right? Did you work for him?"

Marlowe began walking and looked down again.

"It's not like that. He took me and Pharris when we were little... we didn't have a choice."

I stopped walking. "He took you from your parents?"

Marlowe looked down. "It's been his way of doing things since as far as I can remember. He took us from our parents and told us that if we did as he told us, they would be able to live. It's what kept us from leaving."

"How is he allowed to do such things? Does nobody challenge him?"

Marlowe looked up to me, his face becoming serious. "To challenge Nihash is death."

We began walking again, and it was another minute before Marlowe spoke again.

"Nihash was able to gain power through fear. His abilities..." Marlowe shuddered. "He can kill without even being around you. Many people thought him to be a god of some sort."

I snorted. There is no God that would do the things Nihash was doing.

"If anything he is a Devil." I suggested mildly. "So he is able to do things like this because everyone fears him? I wonder what he needs me for."

Marlowe laughed suddenly, catching up to me before speaking again.

"My sister will probably tell you more about it; she was one of his closest aides. Up until when she got caught... but I'm so glad she's alright! She's such a genius, I bet she tricked him with his own illusion stuff." He was smiling again, and I could tell that he cared a lot about his sister. It was refreshing to see such genuine happiness in a place as dapper as the tunnels we were traveling in.

We were approaching the curve now, and I could see a bit of light reflecting down the hall from a light source further on. It looked different than the light of the torches, and I wondered if it was from a door. I hoped for Marlowe's sake that we were nearing our destination, as he still seemed weak from his time in captivity. We turned the corner.

The hallway was about a quarter of the size of the last one, ending in a stairway that led upward. It wasn't the stairway that first caught my eye, however. Light was blazing from a strange orb situated at the base of the stairs. The light was far brighter than the torches, and I couldn't seem to look directly at it without my eyes hurting. It seemed to be contained within a jar hanging from a hook on the wall. We sped up the pace of our movements, eager to leave the tunnels behind us.

As we approached the stairs, our eyes adjusted to the brightness of the orb. Marlowe had managed to move himself ahead of me, and he was the first to reach the stairway.

Almost immediately after his foot would have come into contact with the stone step, the light flickered out. I could barely see ahead of myself, my eyes having to readjust to the now dark lighting. I heard a yell and a scratching sound as Marlowe fell forward.

"David! Help!" Marlowe sounded panicked.

"Where are you?" I asked, feeling around ahead of myself.

"Don't walk forward, there's a drop off! I'm gonna fall!"

Suddenly, I understood what had happened. We had triggered a simple trap, and Marlowe must be dangling just ahead of me. I leaned forward and down, feeling with my hands for where the drop off was. I felt small furry fingers clamped onto the edge, and grunted as I reached down and began pulling Marlowe up from the drop.

His weight made pulling him up from the edge an easy task, and he was safe within minutes. As we stood catching our breath, he began talking.

"That was too fast... I feel like my head is spinning."

With my eyes adjusting to the semi-light flickering from the torches further back, I was just able to see the sick expression on Marlowe's face. I wondered how someone so young could handle catching themselves like that after being starved for two days. Before I could respond, I attempted to lean back against the wall to our left and let out a startled yell as I kept falling. I felt a cold chill and hit the ground hard, a few steps higher than my feet.

"I think... *huff* I think I found the real path."

I looked up behind me to see a spiraling staircase lit with torches every few feet, just hidden behind another mirage wall. Progressing through this tunnel was quickly becoming tedious work.

Marlowe had gasped when I fell back, as assumedly half of me had disappeared. I looked forward as his head peeked through the illusion, his face a mixture of curiosity and weariness.

"Let's go then..." I suggested, picking myself up and gesturing for Marlowe to follow.

"Alright..." Marlowe confirmed, his voice trailing off into the dusk. It was apparent that both of us were ready for rest, our pace enervated by exhaustion. We continued walking up the stairs, tentatively testing each step and holding on to the wall for fear of another illusionary trap. It wasn't long before a strange noise began to echo down through the stairs, piquing my interest and fueling my curiosity.

"Do you hear that?" Marlowe inquired.

"Yeah, it's coming from ahead of us."

Serious Déjà vu moment... It's just like the first night I woke up here.

As we made progress through the stairwell, the noise became identifiable as the sound of rushing water. I found my mind returning to Markus, the first time I saw him washing his clothes. I wondered if he was alright now. I sighed as I felt myself stopping. Marlowe bumped into me as I pulled the transceiver from my pocket.

"What are you doing?" He asked, worried that I had stopped moving. He was apparently feeling the same paranoia that I was, but I had to hear Markus' voice.

"I need to talk to Markus. To make sure he's ok."

Marlowe opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind. Instead, he walked a few steps ahead of me and sat down on a stone step.

I clicked in the receiver button and began talking.

"Markus? Are you alright?"

I released the button and was almost immediately responded to.

"David? What's going on?"

I felt myself relax.

"Nothing, I just needed to call you. We've been walking for a while now, this tunnel is annoyingly long. And there are traps."

"Traps?" Markus quickly responded, worried.

"Nothing we haven't been able to handle, but... I miss you. I'm tired of not being able to see you."

A moment of silence passed.

"I miss you too. I didn't want to call over and over, but after I looked around I just sat here in the grotto from before. I can still smell you, it's like you just vanished from the spot." Markus' voice sounded anxious.

"I'm trying to meet up with a girl that is supposed to be able to help me."

"Can you trust her?" Markus inquired. I contemplated his question.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can. Just try to stay safe until I can get back."

"I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about you. I can't believe I let this happen." I could hear sadness in his voice. "I couldn't even protect one person, the person I care about the most..."

"Markus, stop... It's not your fault. There's a man here, like me. He wants me for something, I'm not sure what. He's apparently been trying to find me since I got here. And he's not normal, he can make illusions and... kill people, I guess. He's dangerous."

Another moment passed, and as the transceiver flared up I heard a sniffle. Markus seemed to be blaming himself for everything. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

I thought back to the pain in my chest, but it had completely stopped hurting by now. I didn't need Markus thinking I was injured or something. "He needs me alive, for whatever he's planning. But I've already escaped his holding cell, and I'm supposed to be able to leave soon. Just hold tight, ok? I love you."

"I love you too, David. I don't think I've said it enough times, but I do."

His words sunk into me like a stone into a desert oasis. I wanted to comfort him, to explain that I would be perfectly alright. However, I knew that I couldn't guarantee that. I knew that saying "I love you" was the single most comforting thing either of us could say at this moment, and I decided to end it at that.

"Talk to you soon."

"Bye, David. Be safe."

As the static from the transceiver echoed off into the distance, I felt my hand drop to my side. Wordlessly, I turned and continued walking up the stairs. I was ready to end this nightmare.

As I pushed the transceiver into my pocket, I heard Marlowe speaking behind me.

"Why do you talk to him like that?"

He was standing now, walking next to me. He seemed genuinely curious, but I didn't understand the question.

"What do you mean?"

Marlowe looked to the side before responding.

"Well... I can tell by his deep voice that he is a man. But you keep saying stuff like 'I love you' and 'be safe'. I know you're not from this world, so he can't be your family. Why do you talk to him like that?"

I realized what Marlowe was getting at now, and I barely suppressed a chuckle.

"Well, It's kind of hard to explain."

We were walking at a cautiously steady pace now, the rushing of the water forcing me to raise my voice a bit as I spoke.

"You should understand that you don't choose who you fall in love with. Sometimes that person is of the same sex as you. It sounds confusing, but now that I've spent time with Markus I realize it couldn't have been anyone else. Love is an enigma wrapped in a mystery."

I looked down at Marlowe, and he still looked very confused.

"In other words, I'm in love with a guy and I have no control over it. It's not the weirdest thing to have ever happened, right? Just don't think about it too hard."

"It sounds pretty weird... but whatever." Marlowe was looking down again. I couldn't help but feel that my explanation was lacking, but love isn't a concept that you can easily define in a sentence or two. Much less homosexuality. If I had to define it for myself, I would have to say that it's the feeling I get when Markus looks at my eyes and smiles. I light up inside and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else in the world.

The sound of rushing water was enveloping us now, and our fatigue was pushing us to throw caution to the wind and pick up the pace. We had been traversing the flight of stairs carefully and uneventfully for almost twenty minutes now. After we began moving faster, the remaining stairs flew by and we had made it to the top. We found ourselves facing a large iron door with a valve in the center, presumably to unseal and open it. After a moment's deliberation, I grabbed the valve and began turning it. Three turns in, the door shuttered and listed open, revealing what had been making the noise.

It wasn't the cloaked figure in the center of the bridge ahead of me that had taken my breath away, but the scenery surrounding her. The room appeared to be a cistern of some sort, the door opening to a long bridge that extended from one end of the room to the other. It wasn't a straight bridge however, as the center hosted a rather large round platform with a pillar in the center. The room was circular and gargantuan, the glass ceiling host to some sort of bright light. Water cascaded down the entire circumference of the room, sparkling in the surreal light being cast down from the ceiling. It was like opening the door to the center of a massive whirlpool, and it was dizzying to behold.

Even in the presence of mortal danger, this place manages to take my breath away... amazing.

As I was still surveying the cistern, Marlowe suddenly ran ahead of me.

"Pharris! Are you alright?"

My eyes settled back down on the hooded figure, who promptly uncovered her head before turning to smile at the approaching Marlowe. It was Pharris, looking the same as she had the day I had seen her at the bar. They embraced in the center of the room amidst a literal torrent of sounds. I began walking into the room, my fatigue being replaced with excitement. It seemed that this beautiful room had been our destination after all, and I was much more confident now that I had actually met up with Pharris.

I walked into the room, aligning myself with the bridge to look over the railing that lined the path. The drop was staggering, at least three stories high. The water cascaded down into the bottom before spiraling into a whirlpool that was easily the size of a football field. I felt flecks of cool water dusting my face, and it was surprisingly refreshing.

"Oy!"

I turned my head as Pharris called me and smiled. She looked enthusiastic, with Marlowe standing next to her and smiling.

"You guys finally made it." Pharris announced over the roaring water. "I was getting worried for a minute there."

"The path took forever to get across, and there were traps, but..." I felt myself sigh in relief. "We made it back fine."

As I was finishing my statement, Marlowe yawned loudly.

"Except I think Marlowe needs to get some sleep..."

Pharris gestured for Marlowe to rest on a pile of blankets positioned near the pillar, presumably where she had been sleeping. He smiled at me before walking over and dropping haphazardly onto the blankets. Pharris watched this and laughed before turning back to me. Her face had become serious, and she gestured for me to walk forward.

I did as she suggested, but began speaking before she could.

"Listen, I wanted to thank you for helping us... for protecting Markus. If anything would have happened to him... I owe you my life for helping us through this."

She listened apprehensively before opening up to a sly smile.

"I didn't do it for you, exactly, but it's nice to know that you can appreciate what people do for you." Her words were sharper than the warm tone of her voice. "Thank you for getting my brother some food. I was preparing myself to go down rescue him, but as you can see there isn't much food around."

Another glance around the room revealed there to be nothing more than us standing there talking and Marlowe sleeping on the blankets.

"Now, we have a short while to talk before Nihash will notice you missing. He thinks that he's killed me already, and his own arrogance will assure us at least an hour before he checks in on you two."

"Alright, I understand." I thought for a moment before continuing. "First, can you explain what Nihash wants with me? Why he went out of his way to find me and kidnap me?"

Pharris turned and leaned against a railing before speaking, gathering her thoughts.

"Well, as far as I know, he needs you to open a door. It's kind of hard to explain, but as far as I know Nihash is planning to use you to leave this world and travel to yours."

Apparently, the confused look on my face compelled Pharris to elaborate further.

"From what I've gathered, he is hoping to use his abilities to gain power there. This wouldn't necessarily be a concern of mine if I hadn't discovered that him opening the door would cost Elyria another couple thousand lives."

Wait. What?

"What do you mean? What's Elyria?"

Pharris looked bemused. "Elyria is the name we have given to our planet, off-worlder. And the cost of any of Nihash' trickery is life. He saps it from the ground he walks over, from the people he is near. If he was to open the door to your world, it would require an enormous amount of energy... of life. He had never revealed this to any of us, but him leaving would bring about a second plague."

I felt as if my throat was seizing up. This must be why she had betrayed him. I understood what she was saying, but something about it seemed curious. I had to know if what she was implying was true.

"So, are you saying Nihash was responsible for the first plague as well? The one from a year ago?" My words hung in the air like hornets waiting to attack.

Pharris sighed before continuing.

"Nihash tried doing this once already, only to fail. Now, because of him, our world is only sparsely populated, at least in the places I've been to personally. Him attempting this again could possibly kill the remaining population on Elyria."

The second she had confessed Nihash' mistake, I began shaking.

He was the reason Markus had lost all of his family, and he was the reason Markus was sitting alone worried about me. He had been responsible for all of the hardship in Markus life, and he was completely free, planning to do it again. I felt my body become host to the fury that was slowly filling me, and I was only just able to pull out of it before I would have punched the metal railing.

Instead, I continued looking down. I felt hollow, and my words sounded strange to my ears. My exhaustion was making it difficult to remain coherent.

"What do we do now?" I tilted my head and looked over to Pharris. She had witnessed my strange display, and was looking at me with a mixture of worry and confusion. It seemed that she was going to say something, and she changed her mind before continuing to explain her plan.

"Well... I'm going to get you, Marlowe, and your friend to a place that you will be safe. Then, I'm going to try to set a trap for Nihash. I've been charging up a gate for three days now." She gestured to her feet as she said this last line. I looked down to see her bare feet against the slippery stone, and it was a moment before I noticed what seemed to be small crackles of electricity popping off of her furry skin.

"This is the largest concentration of water in the area, and I should be able to use it to send all of you to a safe place. It'd be somewhere far enough away that Nihash shouldn't be able to follow, and hopefully I'll be able to do the same to him. Except I would send him up instead of down, straight into outer space."

I understood what she was intending to do now, but I couldn't help noticing how much depended on her success.

"If you were to fail in killing him, wouldn't he be able to just pull another person from my world and do it again?"

Pharris responded without missing a beat. "He could, but it would take at least a year to get everything prepared. Besides, I'm not that incompetent. I'll get him, you just have to be far enough away so that he can't teleport you back to a cell on sight."

"Wait, teleport? He teleported me before?"

"Of course!" Pharris waited a moment before explaining further. "He was traveling in a kind of duplicate of himself, he probably wanted to make the job quick."

I understood why she was moving us first now. If I was that critical to his plans, no one would really be safe until I was far removed from the picture.

"Alright, so how much longer until we would be ready to leave?" I asked, paranoia eating it's way back into my mind.

"You don't have nearly enough time."

The sadistic voice came from behind me, startling me and making me turn around.

I felt a chill as I recognized the indescribably horrid black smile, the infuriating playfulness. Nihash was standing in the doorway, leaning against the wall and watching us. He laughed as he saw my face.

"You didn't really think it would be that easy to leave, right?" After he said this, his expression changed to one of pure malignant hate. "Time to go back-" He was raising his hand toward me.

Before I had a chance to react, I heard a yell from just behind me. I felt a shock as something flew through me, and I saw a strange orb expanding around me and Pharris. It snapped like electricity, and it had an almost blue hue to it. Watching it move was difficult, it seemed to leave a blurry trail behind it. It was kind of like watching a high-speed film of moths flying, the way the orb seemed to lag.

I looked back at Pharris, and she had her hands clasped in front of her, a look of concentration on her face.

"Move back, we need to get Marlowe and go now!"

Pharris began shuffling back, and I saw that the crackling orb that surrounded us was centered on her. It followed, and I began stepping back to stay within its boundaries. Pharris' yells had apparently alerted Marlowe to the presence of danger, and he jumped up from the blankets before surveying the scene ahead of himself. After a moment's confusion, we were all three standing within the orb, Nihash having moved a few paces closer.

"I see you've taken to only channeling with water now, Pharris. It's a pity, we both know that just one life would supply more than enough energy to get you and your brother out of here." Nihash sounded sincere in his suggestion, making it seem infinitely more grotesque.

I looked over to Pharris, whose eyes were tilted with rage. "Fuck you! I'm not a murderer!" The orb seemed to glow brighter at her words, and she spoke again while Nihash began laughing.

"We're leaving now, I'm opening the gate. You need to contact your friend and tell him to get to a body of water." I realized she was talking to me, and I quickly pulled the transceiver from my pocket, nearly dropping it in my haste. I was mentally cursing Pharris for not mentioning this part beforehand.

"Markus!? Are you there!?"

He picked up almost immediately.

"David? Why do you sound like that?"

"We don't have much time, listen-" I nearly fell as the orb protecting us shuttered, releasing small waves of sound. It sounded like being underwater, and hearing someone rapping on a piece of metal near your head. I realized that Nihash was attacking now, his hand raised as small sparks jettisoned back and forth between him and the orb. I quickly put the transceiver to my ear again.

"Get to the stream, now! You have to move as fast as possible!"

"I'm running!" Markus replied before silence fell on the line.

"Tell... tell him to jump in when he sees light!" Pharris appeared to be struggling in between doing so many things at once.

I reported this back to Markus, who confirmed that he had heard. Another crash against the barrier, and the transceiver flew out of my hand and cracked against the ground. I cursed as I struggled to gain my footing on the shaking, slippery ground.

"I'm almost through!" Nihash said this in a teasing voice, emphasizing his words to show that he was under much less stress than Pharris was. I heard a yell, and looked back in time to see Pharris' face bleeding. Nihash began laughing lauder than before.

"Oh look, you're trying to compensate with your own life!" Nihash seemed to find this particularly funny, and I felt horror washing over me as I realized what was happening. Pharris yelled loudly before my world erupted into color.

All around me, the water began glowing with a brilliant light. It was hard to focus in on, but the water appeared to be overlaid with a miasma of colors, swirling around just under the brilliance of the light that was filling everything now. Nihash yelled once before increasing his attack rate, angered that she had actually succeeded with her ploy. As my eyes adjusted to the vivid light, I saw that Pharris looked close to collapse. I ran up to her and grabbed her before she would have fallen. The orb was flickering now that she was losing consciousness.

As my skin came into contact with her fur, I felt my mind expand. It was a hard feeling to explain, a crystalizing moment where you understand exactly what needs to be done. I felt the orb expanding around us as Pharris lost consciousness and Marlowe yelled for me to hurry. I felt energy flow through me as I pushed the orb further, strengthening against Nihash' onslaught. The orb began glowing a curious green as I backed up to the rail. With Pharris in arm, Marlowe and I jumped over the edge of the bridge, and I felt myself overcome with startling brilliance as my body came crashing down into the waves below.