Boulder High School. Friday, December 17, 2021.

  The tremble of bass-heavy music reverberated through the school, forcing Isaac to step even further into the cold, late night air. He patted his fingers along the outside of his pants pockets nervously as he listened to the dial tone from his phone. Yes, the small black box was still there, he assured himself for the thousandth time that night.

  No answer from his phone, however. Had his dad forgotten?

  Isaac’s teeth began to chatter. He wished he’d thought to bring his coat with him, but that definitely would have given him away. Both he and Riley were graduating at the end of the fall semester and she would be going off to Cornell University in New York while he went to the Colorado School of Mines in Boulder. They would be apart for a few years, but Isaac wasn’t going to let that get in the way of their relationship.

  Riley always seemed to know when he was up to something and her being nigh impossible to surprise was the one thing he hated about her. That was why he had started planning this night well over a year ago. His movements had been careful; leaving the ring with Will, speaking only about the plans to use Zane’s parents’ restaurant with them, and forcing his and Riley’s parents to swear the highest order of secrecy: the advanced pinky promise. There was absolutely no way he could have tipped her off in all that time.

  Isaac’s phone began to vibrate. He answered it before the second buzz.

  His father’s gruff voice came through the speaker. “You called? Everything all right, son? You and your friends having a good time?”

  “Yes, Dad. I was just checking in. Amanda and Zane are keeping Riley busy. I’m outside and wanted to make sure you guys were ready by the time we get there.”

  “We’re all set up here. Your mother’s driving everyone crazy waiting for you all to get here. Morale is low, I don’t know how long we can hold out against her!”

  Isaac heard his mother yell something in the background.

  His father cried out in mock pain, then laughed heartily before returning to the phone. “This took a lot of effort on your part, Son. I’m proud of you. Now get back inside and enjoy yourself. We’ll see you when you get here.”

  “Thanks, Dad. See you at ten-thirty.” Isaac placed the phone back into his pocket. Before going inside, he took out the small black case he’d been carrying all night.

  He opened it and studied the ring inside. A silver band with an amethyst halo stone flanked on either side by two small diamonds. It had taken an entire year of working part time at the grocery store to save up for the ring, but it had been worth every penny. He gently closed the box and put it back into his pocket.

  Isaac walked into the school, his glasses fogging instantly as he entered the warm, humid gymnasium. He shuffled through the groups of laughing and dancing students until he saw his friends’ table.

  Zane and Amanda were conversing to each other in sign language and Riley was nowhere to be found. Amanda looked up and beckoned Isaac over. Isaac took his seat next to Zane, though they were still spaced far enough apart that all four friends could sign easily to each other.

  Zane answered Isaac’s unasked question by signing, “She went to the bathroom.”

  “Thank you,” Isaac signed back with relief. Though he still found his eyes wandering around the room.

  Zane gently tapped on the table, grabbing Isaac’s attention. “Stop looking around all worried, you’re going to blow your own cover. Relax.”

  Amanda nodded in agreement with Zane. “She doesn’t know anything. Everything will go off perfectly. She’ll definitely say yes.”

  At the exact moment Amanda finished signing, Riley slid into her seat beside her. She turned to Amanda and asked, “Who will say yes?”

  Isaac’s heart sank. He was certain Amanda had accidentally blown their cover, but she replied with a quick-thinking smoothness Isaac could never have pulled off.

  “My mom. We’re gonna see if she’ll let us take the jet ski to my uncle’s cabin this weekend.”

  “That sounds like fun! I hope she does say yes!” Riley signed with a bright smile.

  A knot undid itself in his chest.

  Riley turned to Isaac and reached across the table and took his hand. Her eyes studied him for a long second and she looked like she was about to break away to sign something when the DJ announced the final round of songs, slow dances, were beginning to play.

  Unlike Zane, who was deaf, Amanda, Riley, and Isaac could hear. Riley, however, was nonverbal as a result of complications due to a surgery she’d had on her throat when she was very young. All four spoke using American Sign Language.

  Amanda’s parents were deaf and Zane had been a family friend of hers before the pair started dating. The day Isaac first laid eyes on Riley when she was introduced to his seventh grade homeroom, Isaac had begged Zane and Amanda to teach him ASL so he could ask her out. That was how the four had become friends.

  The first song began and the four of them stood. Isaac took a second to take in Riley’s beauty. She was wearing the same amethyst necklace she always wore, paired with a floor-length dress that shifted from azure to silver at her feet. Her copper hair was done up in an intricate braid that left it looking like a crown atop her head with bangs that came just to eye level.

  The two of them held each other close and Isaac let Riley lead in their first dance. When it ended, she brushed her copper red bangs away from her eyes before signing Sweetheart to Isaac. His heart fluttered and he mirrored the sign back at her.

  Riley smiled at him and drew herself in close and their lips met. The pine scent of her new perfume calmed Isaac and his tension left him.

  After the second song ended, Zane clapped Isaac and Riley on the back and signed, “We’re heading to Amanda’s uncle’s house.”

  “Good night,” Riley and Isaac both replied.

  The couple slipped out the door, leaving Isaac and Riley alone for the final two songs.

  When the lights came on, Isaac saw Mrs. Granger out in full force on the dance floor splitting apart students who had taken to kissing each other during the last song. He was sure the ancient woman hated the idea of any students having fun and took her own sick pleasure from splitting couples apart. She stopped to glare at Isaac and Riley for a long moment before continuing on with her rampage in a different direction.

  As soon as her back was to them, Isaac gave Riley another kiss.

  They pulled away and Isaac glanced at his watch.

  Ten o’ five.

  He sighed, they were probably going to be late.

  He and Riley broke through the groups of kids that congregated near the crosswalks, waiting for their parents to pick them up. Isaac opened the door to his silver Mustang and held Riley’s arm as she slipped into the seat. He shut the door and patted his pocket again, just to be sure.

  It had taken them ten minutes to get through the long line of cars and people clogging the parking lot and they’d had to sit at two red lights in a row. Isaac silently cursed the universe for conspiring against his perfectly planned night.

  When Isaac drove past the street that led to his house, Riley put her hand on his and pointed behind her, giving him a worried look.

  “Change of plans. We’re going out to eat.” Isaac let off the gas as he worked through the signs. He’d been signing ASL for nearly six years, but he never quite felt as smooth with it as his friends seemed to make it look.

  Isaac turned to sign something else to Riley when he saw two white suns outside her window. Time slowed as the lights grew larger before his world descended into nothing but the sound of metal slamming into metal and glass shattering.

  ***

  Isaac gasped and coughed as he forced his eyes open. He could barely move his broken leg, which had been rammed into the door from the impact. Sticky wet blood coated his pants.

  He had to get out of the car.

  He had to check on Riley.

  Isaac’s left hand wouldn’t move to unlock the door. He looked down to see all of his fingers were bent at horrifyingly unnatural angles.

  Unlocking the door with his right hand, Isaac grunted as he shoulder checked it to force it open. He tumbled to the ground and dragged himself with his good hand until he was clear of the wreckage.

  The entire passenger side of Isaac’s silver mustang had been completely caved in by a white pick up truck whose hazard lights continued to blink weakly until finally going dark.

  “Oh, god! Riley!” Isaac shouted, his tears blinding him as he dragged himself towards her side of the car. Each foot was an agonizing torture as he endured not only his physical injuries, but of what he knew he’d find when he got to her.

  Isaac collapsed beside the mustang’s trunk. It felt like someone had rammed an icepick in his chest and was wiggling it with each breath he took.

  He had to get around to the other side of the car, but couldn't get himself to move. A collapsed lung? Is that why it hurts so much? I need to rest. But I can’t.

  Isaac tried to pull himself around the car, but the pain with each breath was too great. He stopped and glanced around, taking in his surroundings for the first time.

  Everything was wrong. He wasn’t at the intersection he’d just gone through. No, Isaac was in the middle of a vast, empty icy valley. The ice walls went around as far as Isaac could turn his head and were far too steep to climb, not that he was in any position to. There was a crevice in the ice, a pathway wide enough for two people, maybe three, to walk side by side.

  “Ah, I get it. I died,” Isaac said aloud. How fast was he going when he hit us? Fifty? Sixty? Of course I couldn’t survive that. Were the last two years a dream then? My dying brain trying to make sense of its last moments?

  Isaac’s car shifted and he heard the sound of the door forcing itself open. He tried to turn his head, but the pain in his chest became too great. He couldn’t even get the shallowest inhale to fill his lungs.

  A soft, peaceful melody from a violin began to play around Isaac. He recognized the simple progression and repetition of the notes. It was Riley’s lullaby.

  Isaac closed his eyes and listened along to the lullaby, drinking in its sweet sound like a drought-stricken man getting a glass of water for the first time in ages.

  The pain in his chest began to subside. Isaac opened his eyes to see green motes of light dancing around him. They spun and twirled in the air like snowflakes carried by the wind, but each one was a small music note.

  Riley was standing in front of Isaac. She wasn’t wearing her winter formal dress, but white and red robes decorated with golden trim. Their eyes locked as she finished the song.

  Forcing his now unbroken, unparalyzed hands to steady, Isaac signed, “So this is it? We’re dead?”

  Riley shook her head as she knelt beside him, setting down the violin. “I couldn’t let you die,” she signed. “You need to get up. We need to go.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Isaac let himself be pulled to his feet. He caught a glimpse of Riley’s ears beneath her hair. They were long and pointed.

  And he remembered. He’d been in his guild castle with Sam. Hadn’t he? Which version of these nightmares was real?

  Isaac yanked his hand away from hers. He did know one thing for certain. “You’re not Riley. Who are you?”

  “I am me,” she signed.

  She reached forward again, but Isaac refused. Instead, he took a step back as rage overtook him. This person was using his memory of Riley to taunt him.

  “Did you bring me here? Why did you make me go through that again?” Isaac pointed to the twisted wreckage that was his car and the truck that had hit it.

  “I’m sorry I hurt you, this was the last memory we shared. It was the only way I could bring you here.” Tears welled in Riley’s eyes as she grabbed Isaac again by the hand, continuing to sign with one hand. “We need to go!”

  Again Isaac pulled back, forcing her to stop and look at him. “Go where?”

  She didn’t answer, but turned and ran towards the crevice.

  Isaac ran after her.

  “Wait! Tell me what’s going on!”

  She disappeared behind a sharp, tight turn. Isaac squeezed himself through it. The turn opened up to a narrow straight away, but Riley was nowhere to be seen.

  Isaac stopped. He heard a commotion coming from ahead of him.

  “Riley?” Isaac called out.

  He picked his way forward through the tight space. The sounds resolved themselves into a sound which Isaac was growing very familiar with: combat.

  On the outskirts of what looked like a settlement or a large camp with tents inside hastily erected barriers, dozens of humanoid beings of rock and stone and metal clashed with equal numbers of titanic monsters of the same make.

  Though these monsters were anything but humanoid. They looked like snakes and insects and the worst of the monsters from Isaac’s nightmares. They had claws and spears and mace-like appendages that found or created gaps in the humanoids’ armor with deadly abandon.

  Something like a faint whisper, more of a weak pulling sensation, urged Isaac forward. He resisted the call, watching the violent scene before him.

  The defenders were being pushed back towards their walls as their allies around them were crushed or torn apart. Occasional streaks of light came from inside the barriers, exploding off the monsters’ armored bodies, but it was clear they were unperturbed.

  They’re losing. Isaac took in a breath and stepped forward out from his hiding spot. I’m either dead or dreaming. What the hell is hiding or fighting gonna matter? Not like I’m going to make a difference either way.

  Oh, screw it. They need help. Isaac ran forward only to realize he didn’t have a weapon. There wasn’t even anything nearby that he could use as a makeshift one.

  “You have a weapon. Find yourself, Anathi.” The words, draconic and feminine, yet distinctly familiar echoed inside Isaac’s head.

  “Rellar Azureth?” Isaac said the name aloud.

  “Yes, it is me. Our souls are bonded, remember? I am by your side. I will be your weapon, your shield, until you find yourself, Anathi.”

  “Okay, show me this weapon and shield, Rellar.” Isaac whispered the words as he pushed forward towards the fighting. Towards that sensation beckoning him.

  “Call upon me! Like you have for the last ninety-six years! Call upon me and I will answer!”

  For a second, Isaac thought it was the weight of her commanding words that had knocked him off his feet, but no, the icy ground was cracking and crumbling as a large fin breached the surface between Isaac and the melee ahead of him.

  A worm rose from the hole it had made with its fin. Large and mechanical with tens of dozens of crystalline and metal segments larger than any four of the defending warriors kept growing taller and taller as more of its body came out of the hole.

  Eight glowing eyes, a pair for each cardinal direction around its maw, looked at Isaac. There weren’t any teeth in its “mouth”, but a series of barbed drills and grinding machines designed for the purpose of tearing through the ground and ice it had just come through.

  It made a terrible mechanical screeching as it lunged for Isaac.

  “Rellar, I could really use that shield!” Isaac shouted as he ran back towards the crevice. But it was gone, replaced with smooth, unmarred ice.

  A bellowing roar cried out as Rellar Azureth answered Isaac’s call. The black and blue dragon landed on the mechanical worm, latching onto its fin with her jaws.

  She beat her wings, kicking up snow and ice as she pulled the monster’s head back away from Isaac.

  Though as large as Rellar was, the worm still dwarfed her. She was like a mouse grappling with a python. The worm's body began to split into four, parting a quarter of the way down its length. Each fourth took one pair of eyes and the metal and crystal making up its body shifted into four smaller heads, each equally as adept at drilling through ice, or dragon, as the original head had looked.

  The three heads not held by her jaws reached for Rellar, trying to drill into her flesh. She forced them at bay, straining with her arms and even a leg.

  “Rellar!” Isaac shouted.

  One of the heads held back by her clawed foot was moving forward, aiming for her underbelly. She was struggling greatly against the mechanical might, that head inching ever closer.

  Go! Find yourself! Rellar’s piercing blue eyes seemed to say as she locked them with Isaac.

  Isaac wanted to help her, but his legs wouldn't take that first step.

  Rellar roared in pain as metal met flesh. She released the fin in her mouth to blow crystalizing fire on the head drilling into her stomach.

  The head pulled free and let out a mechanical wailing sound of pain. The head she'd let go sliced through one of her arms. The limb fell to the ground and Rellar with it a moment later as she reeled back and released her grip on the other two heads.

  Isaac didn't stay to watch Rellar's death. He forced the lump in his throat down and took off in a sprint. He used the time she'd bought him to run past them both and past the fighting monsters and defenders into the camp. Towards that sensation calling him.

  He ran past more of those mechanical beings inside the camp. Strangely, there were more humanoid people. People with skin and hair of every color. Though even they were still taller than Isaac by at least two feet.

  There were wounded and dead inside the camp. Their blood stained the ice. The dead still gripped weapons, wands, or staves as though they desperately wanted to get back up and join the fighting Isaac had just run past.

  Some of those tending the wounded reached out or called to Isaac, but he didn’t understand their language. Either way, he ignored them as that sensation grew stronger.

  He found the largest tent in the camp and opened the flap. Inside, he saw ten more of those same mechanical warriors surrounding another mechanical man lying on the ground, still clutching his black and gold war hammer. A thick, ugly, black crystal spear stuck through his chest; the weapon still dripping with his clear-white blood.

  There was a woman beside the man, holding his head in her arms, whispering something to him. The woman looked up at Isaac with an expression of grim resolve that did not falter as she lowered the head of the dead man.

  All looked at Isaac, but it was the woman who Isaac locked eyes with. Her features were slightly different; her face older, yet also ageless. But there was no mistaking she was the woman Isaac loved.

  Reylynn’s lips curved ever so slightly upward into a smile in a moment shared only between her and Isaac.

  Their moment was broken as an earthquake knocked Isaac and the others in the room to their feet. Reylynn was thrown back as the crystal spear ripped itself free of the man’s chest and began to change.

  The weapon grew larger as parts began shifting around until the weapon took on the form of an armored figure, tall and just the faintest bit see-through.

  A voice, terrible and deep, boomed throughout the room like thunder. “Has this war not gone on for long enough? Have you not lost enough of your kind for nothing? Return that which is mine and it will end.”

  No one moved and Isaac felt a fear so strongly in his core, he couldn’t move, either.

  “No? Then die a useless death!” The figure paused, turning his two burning yellow eyes behind an armor-covered face onto Isaac. “You? I killed you. And yet you live? How? I sundered every place you could run to and hide. Every place you could be reborn. And yet you live again?”

  One of the warriors wielding a spear charged forward while the crystal warrior’s attention was on Isaac. They lunged, aiming their spear at the gap between the crystal armor and helmet.

  A sword appeared in the yellow-eyed warrior’s hands and he thrust it through the spearman’s chest. He hadn’t even turned as he kicked the now dying body off the sword, gasping as blood ran down their mouth and out the wound in their chest.

  “You don’t recognize me?” The figure shook his head slowly. “No, you don’t. You don’t even remember who you are. You do not know the evils that have been perpetrated against me. Against us. Evils you could end.”

  In truth, Isaac was only half-heartedly listening to the man. That sensation, that call. The one that had drawn Isaac to this place. It was too loud for him to ignore. He tried to look slowly around the room to see where it was coming from. And he realized what it was: the war hammer the dead man was holding. It was what was calling to him.

  Not wanting to tip the armored man off, Isaac refused to look at it. But he had to say something, the man was waiting for a response. What had he been talking about? Something done to him?

  “You lie!” Isaac shouted, surprised by the conviction in his own voice. “You are the one hurting these people. You are the evil one.”

  “I do not lie!” His words rumbled like thunder.

  Isaac took a step back. His foot brushed against the dead mechanical man’s leg.

  “My body was stolen from me. Can you really judge me for wanting it back? Return it to me and this would all end.”

  “How am I supposed to believe you wouldn't just kill them if you got it back?” Isaac asked.

  The crystal warrior didn't say anything, but gave a low and guttural growl.

  Isaac took another step back. And then another, letting his foot guide him towards the war hammer.

  The crystal warrior suddenly lunged forward, realizing what Isaac was doing.

  Isaac’s hand touched the hammer’s shaft and knowledge flooded his mind. Anathi wasn’t a title given to him by Rellar Azureth. It was a name.

  The dead mechanical man’s name.

  Isaac’s name.

  “I remember who I am, Isiphelo. I am Saiph, Remnant of the Sentinel.” Isaac picked up the hammer and rammed it into the crystal warrior’s advancing form.

  The blow knocked Isiphelo back, shattering the armor around the right side of his chest. Isaac didn't wait for him to recover, but slammed the head into the ground. An electrified golden chain burst forth, piercing Isiphelo as another one bound itself to Isaac.

  Isaac needed another weapon. He reached for the spear of the warrior who lay dead on the ground. Isaac heard the faintest whisper as he gripped the weapon. It was fleeting, there and gone before he could grasp any meaning.

  Isaac pushed the thought aside and thrust the spear forward.

  Isiphelo leapt backwards and countered, his sword coming down upon Isaac faster than he could track.

  Pain lanced through Isaac’s arm. But where he expected to see blood and flesh cleaved from bone, there was only an armored hand, his armored hand, holding back the crystal sword.

  Black crystal armor spread out from Isaac’s hand. Heavy chains underneath the plate mail slid up and around Isaac’s body in a fit almost like his own skin.

  The Sentinel’s armor.

  Saiph’s armor.

  His armor.

  Isaac reeled backwards and uttered a battle cry. The others in the room attacked with Isaac as one. A soldier, no, Sword Saint, wielding twin swords of blue and red, cut into the crystal warrior as another wall of crystal and stone, a Berserker, barreled into Isiphelo, knocking him to the ground.

  “We were gods! Locked away for so long!” Isiphelo growled, throwing the Berserker aside. His sword clashed against Isaac’s spear, their faces inches from each other. “We were supposed to rule them all!”

  “We were supposed to protect them!” Isaac pulled away, letting the spear twirl and come to rest in a defensive stance.

  Isiphelo charged and Isaac picked up the hammer, letting the spear fall behind him. He swung with all his might, letting the hammer connect with Isiphelo’s stomach.

  The blow knocked Isiphelo back, sending him through the tent's walls, taking it down around them. Something, Isaac didn't see what, cut the roof of the tent as it started to fall and each half landed around Isaac and the still standing warriors.

  A mana barrier appeared above Isaac, Reylynn, and the nine remaining warriors.

  Reylynn grabbed Isaac by the shoulder, pulling him back while Isiphelo struggled with the tent. They moved back as the sky above them peeled away to reveal a sea of purple crystal. The barrier that was Caer Siddi descended upon the war camp, sealing Isiphelo in with what remained of the entire population of Ikhwezi and Revi.

  Isiphelo pulled himself up and hammered on the crystalline barrier, though Isaac couldn’t hear anything. Isiphelo took his sword and stabbed the barrier. It cracked, but quickly healed. He did so again, but the barrier held. Though Isaac knew it wouldn’t forever.

  Fortunately, the army within the war camp was converging on Isiphelo and the barrier’s edge. They charged at Isiphelo, forcing him to take up the defensive.

  Isiphelo slew dozens of Revi and Ikhwezi, but more from around the camp filled their ranks as quickly as those in front died. And even those that died didn’t stay dead for long. Slain warriors picked themselves off the ground, weapons raised anew and rejoined the fighting.

  Each time one got back up, the crystal barrier pulsed as a great wealth of mana was absorbed by the barrier. And not just mana, but the same energy that gave life to the Ikhwezi. It fueled their resurrection, creating an army unending to focus Isiphelo’s attention.

  Isaac began to understand. Each of those left beside him, including Reylynn, was holding another Remnant, a shard of Anathi’s own self, soul forged into powerful weapons life times ago. Weapons intended to stop Isiphelo, but had proven not enough. And Isiphelo’s taint had been unleashed upon all the Ikhwezi and those that drew on their power.

  But that version of him, Anathi, must have seen another world, untainted by the energy of his kind, where with the right application of soul forging technique, an army could be born from it. An army that could become stronger than what the Ikhwezi and Revi were alone.

  Isaac turned to Reylynn and signed “I told you I had a plan.”

  The signs weren’t American Sign Language, but Revi Standard. Signs Isaac hadn’t even known before he began using them. The

  “Why didn’t you tell me this was it?” Reylynn asked, tears streaming down her cheeks as she signed. “I watched you die so many… countless times.”

  “Would you have let me die if you knew you could save me? Even if it meant I couldn’t bring the army we needed?”

  To that, Reylynn had no answer.

  “We have work to do before my army is ready.” Isaac changed the subject.

  “We can help with that.” One of the mechanical warriors, the one with the bow, said. It wasn’t through sound, but telepathy.

  He and the other nine warriors turned and took off in a sprint, leaving Isaac and Reylynn to run after them.