Authors: Darcy Town
Buildings shifted and changed to suit the needs of the occupants.
Some were squat, while others rose to leaping heights or formed aeries in the rock face itself.
The stone reflected hues of vermillion, amber, and garnet; precious gems studded the walls.
The City was divided into boroughs, domains of families, each area developed to fit its varied inhabitants.
The center point of the City was a palace, and within that, the Sanctuary.
The palace was as ever changing as the City.
In the time of purges, as it was now, the palace took on the austere presence of a fortress.
It had expanded to hold food, water, and supplies.
The wounded and dying were drawn into its walls to be healed or prepared for burial.
Armored ranks of the City Guard waited inside and on the walls, staring ever outwards down the Grand Promenade toward the Old Road.
The Old Road consisted of countless passages and caves.
It had many surface entrances, but all downward paths led to one, the Grand Promenade, the walkway that divided the City in two and led straight to the palace gates.
The Old Road ended in a gaping hole in the rock; at its tallest, the entrance was as high as the palace itself.
Made eons ago by Titan, he had forged the metal gateway that held the Road open.
Were the metal to be removed, the stone would reform into a solid wall and passages to and from the City would be closed as if they had never existed at all.
The caves along the Old Road were dark, guarded, and deadly.
Since the purge began, less than ten thousand refugees had come to the City from the Old Road and humans had followed none.
A force of City Guard stood at the entrance nonetheless.
They were the elite, the most deadly Lilliam, ready to die if an invasion occurred, but only dank air breathed back and forth from the entrance.
The Lilliam that fled into the City largely came through the second outpost portals that lined the Grand Promenade.
Medics were on hand, waiting for the tired, hungry, and wounded Lilliam that had been pouring in over the last two days. Those with injuries were guided to the light places, the warm and welcoming pools of water and stone, the palace itself.
Only ten blue-hued portals remained open now.
Wounded Lilliam came through in a trickle, their faces and bodies showing the horrors they’d experienced to get there.
The King and Queen waited by the portals with their sons.
Eleven princes had yet to return.
The King closed his eyes and sent a warning pulse, a message that the portals were closing imminently.
They could not risk infiltration.
Varen flew through one portal.
Still weak from his fight with the angel Genon, he had grown weaker from numerous new injuries.
He fell to the floor.
His body flickered with his own fire, his sword broken at the hilt.
No Guard followed him.
He struggled to stand on his own.
“France is not clear.”
The portal closed behind him.
A brother helped him to the Promenade, and he waited with his family in silence.
A rush of insect, chitenous Lilliam flew through a portal, and Madog, one of the youngest princes, dropped in after them.
“Japan
clear
.”
He turned back to the portal and closed it with a wave of his hand.
He turned to them, his dragonfly wings shredded, his armor pierced and scored.
He bled from iron-tainted wounds.
A metallic blue beetle dropped out of the air, picked him up, and hauled the prince to the palace for treatment.
Water rushed through another portal and splashed the stone walkway.
The Queen looked over and the area beneath the portal morphed into an expansive pool.
A slew of selkies burst through in a rush of seawater.
The twin princes Soren and Regis followed, brilliantly blue and wet.
They shook their heads, gills closing as they switched over to breathing air.
Soren ripped a propeller blade from Regis’ back and handed him off to a medic.
He nodded to his father and mother.
“The North Sea, English Channel, and the Olde Isles,
clear
.”
The portal closed.
Armored wolves jumped through the next open portal, changing to men and women as they tumbled through.
More than one fell down dead on the stone floor.
Prince Grendel stepped through.
He carried those too injured to walk; his massive frame supported their dead weight.
He opened his mouth to speak, but passed out.
The wolf at his feet spoke for him, “Eastern Europe clear, we think.”
Their portal closed.
Satyrs rushed through another portal.
Their battle partners, Nymphs, raced alongside their mates, their weapons drawn and bloody.
Centaurs barreled through after them, slinging arrows back the way they had come.
One stopped and saluted his mother and father.
“The Mediterranean is
not
clear, but we could hold out
no
longer.”
The King nodded.
“You did the best you could, Chiron.
The others can take the Old Road.”
Pale, wraithlike purple-eyed men, women, and children hiked through their portal.
Ice and cold came through with them.
The wraiths bowed to the King and Queen and continued their stoic trek.
The creatures of the Great North had not been harried or attacked as those in the more temperate climes.
A tall, black and white man stepped through last.
He looked over his shoulder and shut the gate.
“Arctic
clear
.”
Rainbow-feathered Lilliam dropped through one of the remaining four portals.
They were missing feathers and splattered in slurry of rock, but they managed to fly over the heads of those watching.
Flying fairy medics trailed them, catching those that could no longer keep to the air.
The youngest of the Lilliam princes was close behind, his rainbow-sheen armor tarnished and blood stained.
Idris saluted his parents.
“Australia and the Southern Seas are cleared.”
Golden men the size of children fell onto the Grand Promenade from one of the last three portals.
They tumbled into one another, their clockwork parts clanging and rolling away.
They shook themselves off and nodded to the royalty.
They followed the rainbow Lilliam towards the palace.
An androgynous redhead with olive-colored skin stepped out of the portal after them.
He tracked the clockwork men and followed behind them, picking up the gears they dropped.
“Amazon is clear.”
The prince fell in line with his brothers, arms full of clockwork pieces.
Swearing that could curl hair burst forth from the second to last portal.
Dwarves were pushed through.
They hit the ground and rounded on the portal, determined to run back with weapons drawn and shields up.
A stick thin boy beat them back with a metal pole.
“We are retreating.
That is an order!
Back off!”
The portal closed behind him.
“Can’t go back now!”
Petris barely looked at his parents.
“East Coast North America is cleared
enough
.
I said
enough
!”
Prince Petris swiped at the dwarves.
Everyone’s eyes turned to the last portal, glowing blue in the air.
Debris and smoke billowed through.
The Lilliam took a step back.
Lucifer, Berith, and Nodin fell through the portal and hit the floor of the Grand Promenade.
They cartwheeled for yards before coming to a stop.
Everyone went to their knees at the sight of Lucifer and Berith.
Nodin coughed and sat up.
“West Coast North America is
not
clear.
Expect
many
refugees on the Old Road.”
Lucifer shrugged Berith off him.
He set his jaw against the pain and took the hand that Nodin offered to him.
“Take me to her.”
The Queen swept past her husband and embraced Lucifer.
“We’ve heard rumor of your injuries, come with me.”
She helped him up.
Behind him, Nodin and Berith faced the royalty.
Berith bowed to the King.
“Appleadris stayed behind as Fury.
I could not get her to follow.”
The King looked grim.
“Then she has chosen her own course, and if we see her again we shall rejoice, but for now, we pull back.”
As he spoke, the last portal closed.
The blue light that covered the Promenade went out leaving it lit only with tiny glow lamps.
Lucifer nodded to the princes and leaned on his great granddaughter as they walked towards the palace.
“Take me to Dahlia before the healer.”
The Queen stopped.
“She has not arrived.
We wait on the Old Road.”
She pointed towards the rows of guards that stood between the Promenade and the gaping, unlit caves that led to the surface.
Lucifer turned back to Berith.
“You liar!
SHE IS NOT HERE!”
His voice ripped across the cavern and echoed.
Lilliam froze for miles; they ducked their heads on reflex.
Lucifer stood straight despite the pain that tore at his insides.
“If she were with Andrealphus they would be here!
The Old Road is a short walk for him.
Something has happened!”
Berith did not know what to say.
The Queen held Lucifer gently.
“We will send search parties up the Road.
You must come.
Your injury is grave.”
Lucifer struggled against her.
“I will look for her myself, Daphne.”
The King left his sons and took Lucifer’s other arm.
“No.”
Lucifer snarled at him.
“Do not disobey me, Morgan!”
Queen Daphne pressed her hands to his face.
“Great Grandpa, you are not in your right mind.
You burn with fever and pain.”
Berith came up behind Lucifer and lifted him off his feet.
“Listen to them.”
“No!
Let me go!”
Lucifer punched Berith, throwing the giant to the ground.
He ripped himself out of the arms of the King and Queen and clutched his chest.
His wound ate away at more flesh; his skin visibly steamed.
Blue fire raced along his body.
“I have to find her!”
He took a pained step towards the Old Road, then another.
His vision doubled and he stumbled.
Ice and grass rippled out from the spot behind Lucifer.
A woman of green and blue formed in the air.
She watched him.
Lucifer turned.
“Ceres, help me leave.”
Ceres smiled kindly.
“Grandpa, you are not well.”
Lucifer swayed.
He lost feeling in his limbs.
“I need her, Ceres.”
Ceres wrapped her arms around him.
Her icy skin drew out the heat in his.
“I know.
But you need to get better first.
You are far worse than I thought.”
“I am fine!”
Lucifer pushed himself away from her.
“I am strong!”
“We know you’re strong, but you’re hurt and we all need you to be healthy.”
She lifted him off the ground.
“If you do not heal now, you will lose your heart and possibly this body.
You will not be a physical creature anymore.
You will not be able to stay here.
You will not be here for the Mother when she comes.”
Lucifer sagged and stared into the opalescent eyes of his granddaughter.
“Something must be wrong, I must help her.”