Ascension (22 page)

Without thinking, Laura drew on the
torrial
, and created a ripple in reality.  The gap closed in front of her.  She jumped through and tackled Logan just before he could reach Gray.  A look of bewilderment flashed across his face, but was quickly suppressed.  He rolled together with Laura, and used his feet to fling her off him.  Thankfully, the collision had knocked the knife out of his hand. That gave her a chance.

But that was not the only thing she noticed.  When she passed through the fold, for a split second, the shining cord became visible to her.  Somehow, the elder had shifted its location, and it now flowed from the back of Logan’s knee.  No wonder she missed when she slashed at it before.  She did not think he realized what she now knew.  She had to capitalize.

She righted herself in the air and landed on her feet.  Logan darted right for her.  Laura turned, and ran back.  She knew where the cord was.  It was the only weakness she could exploit.

She ran, thinking wildly.  How could she get to the other side of Logan, to where she needed, and cut the cord?  Something tickled her memory.  An idea formed in her mind.  It was something that she had done before, and had served her well.  She ran onward, then pretended to have her foot catch on an upturned root.  She fell heavily onto her hands.  Out of the corner of one eye, she saw Logan sneer.  The next second, he was on her, about to slam his body into hers…

Now!

Laura spun back, wielding the blade, and slashed the air behind Logan’s knee.  She did not miss.  Logan’s body crashed into hers, but, much like with the snake, he went right through.  A dumb look of fascination briefly twisted Logan’s face.  Then he opened his mouth and let out a blood-curdling scream.

The scream filled the forest air.  It was the voice of the elder.  Logan fell to his knees and clutched at his head.  Before her eyes, Laura watched as those gaping holes of light started to take over his entire body.  She had to look away.  Agony of the most perfect sort marred the features on his face, and even though Laura knew this was not the real Logan, even though she knew this was just a puppet of the elder, she could not force herself to watch.  She turned as the screams got louder behind her, cries of disbelief and immense pain.

The light pulsed from Logan’s body in all directions, illuminating the forest.  Her back was turned, but she could imagine what was happening behind her.  The elder’s screams filled the air as the light intensified, pooling closer and closer together. 

The screams cut off as Logan’s whole body was consumed by the light.  Laura turned her head slightly, and saw the shining shape that was left.  It was a glowing ball of light, exactly as the snake had been.  Laura took a step away, toward Gray.  She had bested the elder twice.

But the light behind her did not dissipate like last time.  It was still there, lighting the forest like a miniature sun.  Laura turned to look again.  Had she done something wrong?  Had she—

She cut off as the amorphous shape suddenly streamed toward her.  It moved so fast that she did not even have time to blink, much less get out of the way.  The ball of light slammed into her, paralyzing her for a moment.  Intense cold such as she’d never felt weaved its way through her body, leaving nothing untouched.  It was the cold of a thousand blizzards, the cold of the arctic tundra concentrated into one spot.  It was the cold that could freeze time, the cold that could turn the hottest of the stars into ice.  The cold travelled through her body, seeping into every joint and every ligament, every bone and every blood vessel.  It encompassed her whole being until not even her mind was safe. 

She felt the cold reaching for the connection she held with the elder in her mind.  She could not resist.  The cold settled onto the connection.  A wave of shivers rocked Laura’s body, and the sensation was gone.

In its place was something Laura could never expect.  The connection she had with the elder had magnified.  She now saw a perfect representation of him in her mind.  She felt his fear, his uncertainty.  And she knew that now, he was no longer in control.

She had killed two of his creations.  Now, there was only a single cord left that gave him life.  He was frail now, and he was frightened.  Laura saw him not as he projected himself to the world, but as he existed beneath the façade.  He was an old man, his bones brittle and his muscles weak.  His hair had become a ghastly white, and the skin that had recently been tight on a handsome face was now sagging and dotted with liver spots.  He had lived far longer than even the
Vassiz
were supposed to, and had somehow covered up who he really was.  But Laura now saw it crystal-clear in her mind.  She felt the evil dankness of his thoughts, sensed the rottenness of his soul that made her insides crawl. 

And he knew she was there.  He looked over his shoulder, one way, then the other.  He knew he was being watched.  Perhaps he did not know how, but he was on edge.  Laura knew exactly where he was.  When she severed the second cord, she inherited all the power of this world.  The power he once held.  Now, the dream was truly at her command. 

She could see the shining, pulsing cord extending from the elder’s back.  No longer would it be hidden from her.  She could also see where the other two cords had once been.  The remaining cord pulsed and twisted wickedly.  She felt the elder drawing on it.  He was drawing as much energy as he could, as much of that precious life force that gave him sustenance.  But the capacity of the cord was at its limit.  Whereas before there were three avenues for the elder to draw what he needed to survive, now there was only one.  He was weak.  It past time for Laura to end this.

She took a step in his direction, and he bolted.  His gait was pathetic and slow, now.  Laura almost pitied the man.  But after everything he’d done in his life, and everything he’d done to her, even the most compassionate parts of her heart could find no sympathy for him.  But no matter how hard he ran, he would not get away.  She knew exactly where he was. 

She felt him trying to draw through the remaining cord to create a ripple in reality, to skim somewhere farther away, and she stopped him.  She did not know
how
she did it, exactly, only that the connection between them allowed her to block anything he did.

She felt panic rise up in the elder’s thoughts.  Desperately, he tried again, and once more Laura crushed the attempt.  Uncertainty and fear swelled through the connection, so strongly that some of it almost rubbed off on her.  She stopped the flow of emotions ruthlessly.  She was the one in control.

She took another step in his direction, but then stopped.  Why chase him if he could come to her?  A smile formed on Laura’s face.  She would let him run, but he would run right into her arms.

The elder was still frantically trying to form that ripple that would allow him to get further away.  Laura could feel the feeble beating of his attempts against the shield she had put up.  She let the shield go. 

Hope surged through the connection, stronger than any emotion Laura could expect from him.  She smiled cruelly.  Let him have that little bit of hope for now.  It would make it all the more sweet when she dashed it out from under him.  He had dared play with her emotions, creating the apparition of Logan to bring her into a vulnerable state.  She would do the same to him.  She could be just as calculating, just as cruel, as he had been.

He shifted reality before him, and moved a great distance away in the blink of an eye.  She let him go.  No matter how far he went, her connection with him would not waver.  She could still see him clearly in her mind’s eye.

The hope that Laura felt was now replaced by relief.  The smile on her face grew.  That relief would make everything so much sweeter when the elder realized she was only toying with him. 

The elder drew through the cord again, and again compressed a large swath of land before him to jump through.  The relief within him grew stronger.  Laura also felt a new sense of confidence erupt within the man.  He genuinely thought he was getting away.  Well, let him.  The surprise he came to at the end would make everything so much more satisfying.

Laura watched through the connection as the elder created ripples in reality, again and again.  Each time he thought he was getting farther away from her.  The confidence in him grew, and the fear and uncertainty faded.  He thought he was still in control.

Laura nodded to herself.  It was time to correct that perception.  The elder used the strength of the cord and shifted reality again.  But just as he stepped through the portal, Laura drew on both her
torrial
and the connection with him to alter the destination to something he could not possibly expect.  She brought him to her.

She saw a flash of light in front of her.  The air shimmered, wavered, and solidified into an elderly man with a triumphant smile on his face.  The smile disappeared and his eyes went wide when he realized where he was. 

Laura felt overwhelming panic pulse through the connection.  The elder tried to use his fading power to move himself away, but Laura stomped down on that, hard.  She reenacted the shield that blocked him from accessing the lifeline given by the cord. 

His mouth worked, but no words came out.  Laura simply looked at him.  He was a pathetic excuse of a man.  All the pomp and glamour that he displayed when Laura first met him in the cabin was gone.  In its stead was rotting skin and a decaying body.  The natural air of confidence he had once assumed had disappeared.  He stood there in front of her, a shell of the man he once was.  No –
this
was who he actually was.  Everything else Laura had seen was nothing more than an illusion.  It was nothing more than a sham. 

In one last, desperate attempt to get away, the elder turned and ran.  Laura watched as he went into the woods.  Then, when he was just out of sight, she sprang the invisible shackles he had once used to confine her.  She did not know how she did it, only that doing so was both natural and instinctive.  He fell to the ground, struggling against them, but it was no use.  They had him bound tighter than the strongest chains.  Laura pulled, and the elder came tumbling back, bouncing hard against the ground.  When he stopped, sitting slumped over not ten feet away from her, he was beyond pathetic.

Laura felt hatred course through the connection with him.  He shot a vile look at Gray, who was lying leisurely to Laura’s side.  There was no more fear, however.  The elder knew he had been caught, knew he had been bested.  He seemed to have accepted the fact, and that surprised Laura.

“So, girl, you think this is it, do you?” the elder sneered.  It was almost a shock to Laura to hear him speak so clearly.  His voice had not changed at all, and the strength of it came at stark contrast to the rest of him.  “You think you’ve got me beat, don’t you?  That your despicable attempt to alter a world you know
nothing
about has succeeded?”

“Has it not?” Laura asked calmly.  “Have I not gone against two of your creations, and beaten both?  Do I not have you chained right in front of me, created prisoner by the methods you once used against me?”

“That may be so,” the elder said, “but you’re a long way from accomplishing your true goals.  I am one of
eight
.  Do you truly believe that all your pathetic friends will find the same success?  If but one of us survives,
everybody
will be alerted to what you have done. 
All
the
Vassiz
in the world will come after you.  You think the packs that came for you before were bad?  Those were the lowest of the low.  We did not recruit our strongest, nor out best.  They will come for you, and they will destroy you.”

“Your time of power is up, elder,” Laura said harshly.  “The lies and deceit with which you spun your web of command will be revealed.  What you did to the angels will be revealed.  All the crimes against your own race will be revealed.  The histories you hid will not remain covered up.  The
Vassiz
will know of their true past, and of your role in eroding their race.  The era of repression you oversaw is over!”

To her surprise, the elder looked at her, and started to laugh.  It was an infuriating gesture, because it was so much at odds with the fear the elder felt earlier.  It was the laugh of a man at ease, of a man who has the upper hand.  In her mind, Laura double- and triple-checked to make sure the elder could not squirm out of the bonds that held him, nor draw on whatever power came through the cord attached to him.  As far as she could tell, there was no threat of that.  But then, why was he laughing like that?

“
My
era of oppression?” the elder finally sneered.  “You truly think your intentions are noble, don’t you?  That all the
Vassiz
will readily accept the change that you bring to them?  That now, because you killed off the leaders they’ve had for centuries, they will embrace you with open arms?”

“Of course not!” Laura defended, but she felt an uncomfortable bit of uncertainty start to form in the back of her mind.  She shut it away.  “But anything I give them will be better than how they lived under you.”

“You say that as if it has already been decided,” the elder said sadly.  “You are so young.  You have so much potential.  Why risk it all for a race you barely know?  For a people you cannot possibly represent?”