Chapter 7 continued

Decided to add more onto Daniel's section here, so that it actually feels like a chapter, even though it is still short.

Solomon had always spoken as though there was nothing the scholars couldn’t handle. We were the keepers of the lost secrets, the chosen of the ancient ones. When the first groups of scholars had ventured through the gate to Roamus we despaired to see that the only world connected to ours was even more desolate. Then one survey group was taken. They came back the black inky masses that were both nothing and horrible. The names of those surveyors were lost, unable to be remembered. The voidshaped not only took the bodies but the very memory. Where once there had been a person there was only void.

Solomon’s grandfather was the first the find out that the crystal technology of the ancient ones was able to harm the horrors. Since then the Scholars of Battle had researched the methods of melting and shaping the crystals and trained their members in combat, that had been so rarely used before. Daniel had always hoped to be one of them and that mission with Solomon himself was dream come true.

Until he actually fought one of the voidshaped, and lost his nerve. Then the Harantons attacked. Daneil had forged himself into a weapon only to be smashed against unbreakable walls. The world of Icene was collapsing on all sides and the Elders were too terrified of letting the other worlds learn our technological secrets to ask for help.

So he fights and watches his friends die. He dragged Isaac back to the gate, he stayed there waiting for Solomon to return until the sun set and the cold forced him back through the gate.

Daniel had looked the elders in the eye and while they never said they blamed him for Solomon’s disappearance, their eyes screamed. Perhaps Lot had hoped this skirmish with the Harantons would have killed Daniel.

It would be interesting to see Lot’s response when he saw him alive again, once again a survivor. Jessica had touched his face and said he was the best of them, he still didn’t believe her. He had failed, failed twice to defend his people.

Daniel at last came to an outcropping of crystal which provided a low shelter. He crawled into the crevice between the frozen soil and the unmoving crystal, at least he was out of the wind. He dozed there wrapped tightly in his robes, listening the wind howl aimlessly around him. Exhaustion took him, but not for long he spent much of the rest of the night between sleep and wake. Sometimes he was back in the battle but this time his sword would not form. Then he awoke to what he thought was the sound of footsteps out on the dirt. No one came for him while he was asleep. He had put enough distance between him and the settlement. The Harantons would be scavenging now, wouldn’t try and follow the fleeing citizens of their ravaged home. Though soon the cold would drive them out to find another one. With the core destroyed the heating systems wouldn’t make things comfortable.

Numbness had taken Daniel’s feet and hands he tried to get blood flowing into them again as he began his hike again. His eyes scanned the horizon as he marched for several days. He traveled in one direction never deviating, if he did he would be lost. There were no planets to navigate by in the sky, there were no landmarks. During the day he could barely make out when the Sun King had risen, let alone where. There were some markers he could spot, there were spots of uneven dirt, where a long progression of steps had traveled. Hundreds of Iceneians can’t cross the wastes without leaving some trail. Aside from that though all was gray, with ice and snow blowing in the air.

On the third day the storm cleared, the snow stopped. Daniel removed his head wrapping and let the cool air circulate in his lungs. His mind had cycled the events of the battle. His sadness slowly began to turn to anger. The Harantons had taken Jessica from him, he would make them pay. No, the voidshaped were using the Harantons like puppets. Fear gripped him again. Fear only the voidshaped could invoke, the fear of never existing, the fear of having Jessica’s memory taken away.

Daniel clenched his fists and jaw. He had slain one. He had done what he couldn’t do on Roamus. He had to be the best as Jessica had said he was. He had to find a way to stop the Harantons and travel back to Roamus and finish this.

But he had no idea how.

In the distance he saw a large mound of dirt and crystal. He could feel a very distant vibration through the ground. He had made it to Lot’s new settlement. It was time to have some words.