Chapter 5: Chapter Five—Resilient

“Cyrus!”

“Cyrus!”

“CYRUS, please get up!” May screamed at me with everything she had. Her voice sent a jolt through my body causing my eyelids to flutter open. Everything was muffled, as it felt like I was listening to my surroundings through a wall. The distance blurred, but my hand had a shaky focus. My fingers twitched and an electric sparked off the tip jumping to another. I mustered what little strength I had left and pulled myself off the ground in one swift motion, it somehow felt both heavy and effortless.

As the man lunged for May, I kicked him in the groyne from behind, sending him to his knees. I leapt onto his back, wrapping one of my forearms around the side of his neck snaking my hand onto my bicep. Then I jerked his head back into my chest, attempting to apply pressure to his carotid arteries; there was no way I had the strength to collapse his airway. My knees bashed into his spine as I covered his face with my free hand. I saw and felt the electrical current surge again—I had hoped I could at least pull his eyes out and do enough damage for May to run. 

What happened next wasn’t anything like what I practised on the ship with Edwin. The man screamed in excruciating pain as the tendrils of electrical current bounced between my hand and his face; my palm was glued to his face. Electrical charges erupted off my palm, sending fizzling sparks all around us. Both his hands ignited into burning flames as he flailed them around, attempting to punch and grab what he could. If his flaming fist had directly struck me, they would have killed me. But instead, he only nicked my arm, burning my sleeves a couple of times as I swayed away from his grasp. The man's arms dropped, going limp as his body became skeletal, his suit was suddenly oversized and his screams sounded like echoes before dying out like a whimper.

The strength it took to peel my hand from this man’s skin was unsettling. Almost a full minute of me struggling before it came off, sending a shock wave that blew May’s hair back, and I stumbled backward to my ass. Glancing down at my hand as a rising plume of black smoke danced off it. After flipping my wrist over, I noticed pitch-black veins that ran from my fingertips to my elbow fading back to their natural colour. A burn mark appeared in the middle of my palm that looks like I cauterised an inward gash that I don’t remember getting.

“Give me a break,” I heard as I looked back as Edwin and Ricky walked out the door with an enormous stone tablet under his arm. Their clothes were torn, and Edwin had a deep cut above his eyebrow that left a trail of blood running down his chin.

Ricky came over, grabbed me under my arms and pulled me to my feet from behind. He glanced down at the body on the ground. “You did that, kid?” Ricky asked, as Edwin looked at me with a mixture of shock and curiosity. Edwin's gaze jumped back and forth from the corpse to me. “What about that one?” Ricky said, pointing to the decapitated man.

I shook my head. “Jolene did that.”

Edwin practically tossed the tablet to Ricky and walked over, grabbing my shoulders roughly. “What was your element?” he asked with the most intense eye contact I’ve ever experienced.

“I… it looked like I drained… his soul out of his body, if that makes sense.”

Edwin smiled. “It makes no sense,” he said with excitement, “And that means the mystery continues—Where’s Jolene?” Edwin asked while surveying around. His excitement in not figuring out an answer to the question that kept him up at night was odd. 

“I think they teleported her out.”

Ricky laughed, “Smart, that crazy bitch would have murdered everyone.”

My eyes darted over to May blankly staring into the distance resting on her knees. I pulled away from Ricky, sprinting over. 

I took a knee next to her. “May,” I said softly.

May’s gaze slowly fell on me as her hand touched my charcoaled neck, which was numb at this point. “How do I heal you?” she said as tears filled her eyes. “How do I fix this?”

A tremendous gust of wind blew by, almost knocking me over as Jolene stood in front of us. “Good, you’re alive,” she said, stepping in front of Edwin. “What the fuck happened?”

“The usual bullshit a gang would pull. They wanted more money than agreed on,” Edwin shrugged, grabbing the stone from Ricky. “I said no, of course.”

Jolene tilted her head. “And you thought, hey, I got a hero in the car to back me up.”

“You are the fifth most powerful magica user in the world. So, pardon me for feeling a little comfortable,” Edwin said, stepping over the body, and getting into the car’s passenger side with the tablet on his lap like an excited child. It baffled me how casually he stepped over the dead body. He was clearly unfazed by all the death lying around.

Ricky chuckled, making his way to the car as Jolene and I pulled May to her feet, helping her to the automobile. After getting May into the vehicle, Jolene tapped on my shoulder, and I turned around. Her cold, emotionless face was off-putting, especially after what I saw she could do. 

“Good job, Cyrus. I need to report this to the police. I will see you at the academy,” Jolene said, disappearing, leaving a gust of wind behind as dust fluttered in the air. 

My neck ached, but surprisingly it was not too bad. Later, I was sure the pain would make its presence known. I got into the car and heard Ricky complaining about the door and Edwin reassuring him he would pay for it. I scooted a little close to May because falling out of the car with how Ricky drove was a genuine concern. May stared out the window as I put my hand on her leg. Dried blood was splattered on us.

“Hey, May… I do.” I said as she looked over at me. “Your question from earlier. I think it’s clear you mean a lot to me.”

May put her palm on my hand, sliding her fingers in between mine. “I don’t question that for one minute,” she said, squeezing my hand. I gave a nervous nod, looking forward.

The car travelled down the road, getting strange expressions from the pedestrians and local traffic, as Ricky aggressively sped around horses and other vehicles. Between the missing door and Ricky’s over the top driving, I was surprised the authorities weren’t chasing us down. 

As the sun set, we exited the metropolis to a large grey road that appeared to stretch endlessly. The car’s tires hummed against the road surface as Ricky sped down it. The traffic transitioned from wagons to steam cars speeding around each other with no fear. Truthfully, I was terrified. If I had fallen out of the car, I would have gotten ran over by other steam vehicles.

"What's this road made of?" 

Edwin glanced back from the corner of his eye. "In this climate, we use Concrete. It's stone and sand bound together in cement. It's a common base for buildings in the Archon domain."

"It’s much smoother than brick and stone. So why does the crown not use it in the city?" 

"The City of Rosia is the largest in the world. Rough population numbers are around twenty million. The Empire does not have the resources to do that because they're always too busy fighting everyone. The Archon Domain paid for this road, and The Empire still expected us to pay taxes that year. I don't even know why the—" May placed her head on my lap as Edwin started to go off on a tangent. I didn't want to be part of this conversation anymore. 

"So the crown—" 

"Empire," Edwin corrected. 

"The Empire's total population is how big?"

Edwin looked forward, appearing to think as May hugged my hand to her chest. "A little over eight billion." 

"That's... a lot."

"I would say the whole planet is roughly around twenty-seven billion if you count every sentient being."

I fell silent, trying to imagine that many people. My island was small, and everything in this unknown land was of god-like stature to me. "How does the Empire control that much?" 

"The dwarf nation, Kulalduhr and The Archon Domain are vassals. Without The Archon Domain's enchanters and the Kulalduhr's mass production, The Empire would be much less intimidating."

"Why do they even bother listening to the Empire?"

Edwin paused. "Good question," he replied. 

May fell asleep and stayed asleep for most of the ride. I was still glowing over the fact that I was able to save her. I thought that taking a life would have been more taxing than it was, but it felt trivial in the act of rescuing her. It was so justified that I couldn’t think of the man as anything but a bug I crushed with my boot.

***

After somehow managing to fall asleep, I was jarred awake as we finally arrived at a massive dome building. The sun was coming up, bouncing off the tiled brown marble walls of the structure, illuminating the transparent entrance doors. The top of the dome was stained glass, which made me excited to see the inside. Of course, the building had copper pipes running up its side.

We came up to a fence gate with people getting their passports checked. They divided cars up among the multiple check stations. Whatever this building was, there was a lot of traffic looking to get in. We drove up to a man in a black and gold trim uniform. He puts his white gloves on the car window, glancing at May and me in the back before his eyes fell on the missing door. Edwin fumbled around with the heavy stone tablet on his lap. He pulled out a black booklet from his jacket, handing it across Ricky to the man. My eyes travelled to the tag on the man’s chest that said police and his name underneath.

“That’s enough to let them pass without documentation,” Edwin chimed in after the officer stared at the passport for a while. This booklet must have been foreign to him as his curiosity became evident as he read it. 

“I’ve never seen a blue diamond tier passport,” the police officer said, handing it back. “Yeah, it’s more than enough.”

He waved us on, and we drove to the front of the building stopping by the stairs leading in. The glass front doors with vertical copper handles sat open as people flowed in and out of the building like ants. Even this early in the morning, the building was crowded.

Ricky turned to me, tipping his beret. “Good luck, mate. You’ll need it with Edwin.”

Edwin and Ricky got out of the car talking before shaking hands with a smile. I wasn’t sure what Ricky’s deal was, but he seemed to be a friend of Edwin’s. They laughed like old friends, hanging out for the first time in a while.

I leaned over, petting May on the head before caressing her cheek. “May,” I said softly as her eyes opened, going straight to my neck. My skin was terrible, and it was becoming uncomfortably painful, but I didn’t want to concern May with my whining.

“Cyrus that—” May started to say with such a caring tone that it made my heart ache.

“It’s fine. It hurts, but nothing too bad,” I interrupted.

May didn’t believe me, but we got out of the car to Edwin waiting for us at the bottom of the marble stairs as Ricky took off behind us. He handed May and me a copper card. 

“What’s this?” I look down at the thin brown metal with raised numbers on its surface. 

“Your train passes. If we get separated at any point, these cards can buy your way to the academy and give you free public transportation,” Edwin answered, glancing at my neck a couple of times. May and I stuck our cards into our pockets, following Edwin up the white marble stairs.

Edwin stopped abruptly, turning around to face me, almost causing me to run into him. “Your neck is horrible.”

“And?”

“We need to fix it before you die from infection—this trip has gone fantastic, losing you to a curable injury would be… rather unfortunate,” Edwin said, turning around and continuing up the stairs. 

May looked over at me with a weary shrug. Edwin liked to talk aloud, and sometimes we didn’t know if we were having a conversation with an internal monologue or an outward voice.

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We look like complete messes with blood all over our torn clothes, and my neck oozing down into my shirt collar. I had felt it recently to discover my skin was a moist, gooey texture that mushed when touched, making me immediately pull away in disgust and worry. My skin was most definitely coming off from the burns. I knew this wound was going to make me hate my existence at some point. The pain was approaching a physical cringe at every step.

The three of us arrived inside to a wall of sound as footsteps struck the ground, along with idle chatter. People dressed in widely ranging fashions moved through the bustling terminal. Some people pulled luggage behind them while others just brought themselves.

We walked through the crowd as I saw steam drifting in the air toward the stained glass dome. The sun was now up, illuminating the canopy; a spectrum of colours filled the lobby. The aroma of perfume passed my nose a few times as we came to the gold railing that oversaw the loading dock a couple of floors down.

This unnecessarily massive building was just an entrance to the underground station, making it seem small. A train sat next to the loading dock as people flowed in like a river. I got caught in a trance as I beheld the multiple copper steam chimneys that sat idle as a mist danced around the rim. The front railcar was an enormous engine that had pipes flowing back towards the steam stack. I don’t think I found one thing on the locomotive that wasn’t copper or another metal.

“A train…” May said, letting today’s events slip away for a moment. “It’s one of the Oceanic Trains.”

Edwin motioned for us to hurry, and we hastily rushed forward. Everyone stared at us. We looked like murderers, and I expected the police to run up to us at any moment. We take some stairs down to the train level, holding the metal railing in the middle. 

Edwin pressed the card to the surface of a tripod-like gate as a small green light at the top blinked. “It’s a subway turnstile. You pay, and it unlocks,” Edwin said, walking through the turnstile that rotated against his waist. 

May and I followed, through the machine, to the mass of people on the other side. Getting distracted, I stopped in the middle of the crowd and stared at people passing by. Everyone was wearing such contrasting attire—this train station seemed to accommodate a lot of cultures—I didn’t realise there were so many different-looking people in this world. The same species were so diverse in appearance. 

This feeling felt familiar... all of this felt...

“Cyrus?” Edwin shouted, waving his hand at me, annoyed. 

“Sorry,” I said, catching back up. This was probably why Edwin gave me a card. Getting lost was a high possibility.

May was still in awe of the train as we came up to the moving metal building. Square tinted windows filled the car’s side. It looked like the passenger sections were two stories tall and ran on for easily over seventy carriages as it disappeared around a dark corner. The locomotive was an impressive sight, and I would have been ecstatic to see it, but I was emotionally exhausted. It was like everything that had happened over the past year was hitting me all at once.

I had not stopped once since being forced on that boat. One traumatic experience after another. Sure, I had time to rest as May took care of me, but I was fighting for my life the whole time. And I wouldn’t say the trip to Rosia was pleasant, as I was in a constant state of anxiety.

May looked back at me as she touched the copper railcar with a smile. Her hand quickly fell from the surface, and she looked at me, concerned. I glanced to both my sides, trying to see why she was frowning as she walked up to me.

“Cyrus?” May said, grabbing my hand.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, as Edwin frowned at me also.

“You’re shaking, and… your face is twitching,” May said, reaching out to me as I stumbled. She tried her best to catch me, but I slammed into the marble floor as Edwin rushed over. Everything was spinning as May’s panicky hands felt my face. Vomit filled my mouth, and nothingness fell over me.

***

I woke up sometime later to the reflection of Edwin next to a lamp from the ceiling. The roof of our cabin appeared to be glass but I couldn’t see anything but darkness on the other side. It felt like I had been asleep for a while.

Edwin was in a red cushioned chair, reading a book with his legs crossed. Sitting up, feeling my bandaged neck, the train shook a little, causing me to alert Edwin’s attention from the book. 

“You had second-degree burns approaching third, and you have Nocphia, a viral infection we vaccinated at birth for. Name after Nightbourne word for self-infliction. It causes your body to attack itself,” Edwin said, not taking his eyes off the book, licking his finger before turning the page.

“May?” I coughed out. My body felt like a bag of rocks, sending me back down to bed, breathing roughly. It felt like my lungs were full of water. 

"I advise you to stay down. You have roughly a twenty-two per cent chance of survival. Your body is attacking your nervous system and you might experience hallucinations as your brain shuts down," Edwin snapped the book shut. "I blame myself for not thinking ahead. You would be in contact with diseases your immune system would not be prepared for." Edwin pinches the bridge of his nose. "Stupid, Stupid."

Edwin's words made my heart drop. "Where is May?" I asked, clenching my fist to try to stop the uncontrollable twitching. 

 

“May has to stay away. Luckily, she hasn’t shown symptoms.” Edwin leans in. “This is extremely contagious through fluids. You had this on the boat and May spent many nights in your room. If anything happened—”

“Nothing happened,” I snapped at him as the muscles in my neck twitched violently. A burning sensation down my leg made it abundantly clear that moving that fast was stupid.

“I am going to believe you because I do not think you would play with her life.” Edwin stood up. “If you make it to the island, you may live.”

Edwin walked away, sighing. 

“Where are we?” I asked as my shoulder convulsed causing me to roll to my side in pain.

“Bottom of the sea. We are almost to the mainland.” Edwin stopped at the door, facing me again, “This is the worst part. Good luck—I do not wish to… watch this,” he said, sliding the wood door open and leaving the room.

The next couple of hours were spent in excruciating pain. I endured what I can only explain as the worst cramps of my life as every muscle in my body violently twisted constantly, for hours on end. The suffering  on the boat was bad, especially the maths, but this… this was unbearable. I hoped death would come fast, but it never did. The coughing and constant feeling of suffocation, even though I was taking large breaths, was horrible; it was like my lungs were not absorbing oxygen. The fever didn’t help—I was freezing but couldn’t cover up because that would require control of my motor functions.

I tried to focus on anything to keep myself from falling into despair over my chances of survival. The verge of death was nothing new to me, and this virus would not take my life that easily. On the ship, I had no reason to live, yet I persevered. I wanted to see May’s face again, and this illness had no chance of taking my life with that thought burned into my mind.

My fist squeezed the sweat-soaked sheets as my spasm subsided into trembles. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or if my body was giving up. My vigour from earlier had wanned, and I was hoping my immune system would save me—or at least let me die at this point. As I sat waiting for my prolonged doom, the dark blue water above became brighter before the shadows of fish were visible. The train was travelling through what looked like a translucent tunnel as it climbed a steep slope. 

I saw a gigantic creature with massive fins swimming by as it started consuming fish bigger than me. The beast, however, looked more reptile than fish. The awe was both terrifying and amazing at the same time. To think such a titanic creature existed was insane, but here they were. But, of course, with how large the oceans were, that was no surprise. There had to be something that would eat this monster as a snack in the deep sea.  

 

Edwin cracked the door open, peeking in as I saw a smile develop on his face. He walked in, putting his hand over my forehead and cheek. A man in a grey suit with a red tie joined us. The man opened my eyes and flashed a light over my pupils. He put his finger to my neck for a few seconds before grabbing one of my feet and squeezing it roughly.

“Do you feel that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I mumbled as he nodded his head, folding his arms.

“Hmm, you recovered in roughly ten hours—impressive. You’ll make it. If you’re not dead after the first stage, you will live,” the man said, turning to Edwin, “Take him to Dr. Federine. He will be able to heal him without scaring the skin around his neck.”

“That was the plan,” Edwin said, shaking the doctor’s hand, “I appreciate you coming.”

“Not every day does Edwin Pierce ask you to help save a native boy. My curiosity was peaked,” the doctor said, nodding at me before leaving.

“Is it over?” I said, breathing roughly as I coughed blood onto my hand, which didn’t give my question any confidence.

“Over no, you will be sick for over a month, and the side effects can last up to a year,” Edwin answered, sitting down in the chair next to the couch, letting out a long sigh of relief. “But the worst is over. Some people can go a full day with the contractions.”

“Lovely.”

“Understand you cannot see May for at least until the end of the month. Her body needs time to build a resistance after vaccination,” Edwin said with a bit of sadness in his tone, “I’ve made a promise with you I intend to keep, do not worry.”

I just stared at Edwin for a minute before looking at the glass ceiling. I was so done with suffering. If I could go a few months without almost dying, that would be fantastic. 

We kept quiet for the rest of the trip as I fell in and out of consciousness. I have vague memories of being put on a stretcher and carried out of the train. The trip was a blur; I couldn’t even recall what the room looked like. Only Edwin in a chair and the ocean above me. It definitely was an exciting experience I completely missed out on.

The next thing I knew, I was in a white room. The bed I was lying on was slightly elevated towards my torso. Beeping filled the room, tubes running from my arm and connected to a machine. I am pretty tightly tucked in the green bed sheets. My brain swayed to the insistent beeping. As I tried to slow the room from spinning a silhouette of a man walked toward me.

“I am Doctor Federine. You’re in excellent hands. I’ve had no one die that I didn’t want to.”

I tried focusing on his face. “That was a comforting introduction.”

The doctor walked over to the bright light on the wall that was illuminating images of a skull and lungs. He was wearing a white coat over a three-piece black suit; he kept a very tight appearance with a bow tie around his collar. 

Doctor Federine ran his finger through his long, peppered hair that touched his shoulders. He mumbled to himself a couple of times before coming back over to me. The doctor seemed like an… interesting man. “The x-ray shows your lungs are almost clear,” he said, putting his hands in his coat pockets. “I kept you sedated the whole time. It’s been close to a month.”

“Where’s Edwin?” I asked, staring up at the tiled ceiling, trying to control the wobble from my vision.

“He’s working on the paperwork for the school,” he replied, getting distracted by a flickering above us. “I should get that light fixed.”

I tried sitting up only to return to the bed, short of breath. It felt like my body was hundreds of pounds. The weight of each breath felt like I was breathing in water, which didn’t feel any different from when I was on the train.

“I would stay—” the doctor said as I pulled myself up, sitting on the side of the bed coughing fluid onto the floor. “Oh,” he said with curiosity. 

After working up the energy, I stood up as my legs shook, keeping my hands resting on my knees. “Where is May?”

“Where is this? Where is that? Child, sit down,” Doctor Federine commanded as the door opened.

Edwin stepped in giving a slight smile before returning to his neutral face quickly. “Good. You’re awake.”

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