The Mirror Guard (Chapter 2) [rough draft]

 Two

AFTER THIER PARENTS DIED, EVA TOOK CARE OF HER BROTHER AS HIS SOLE GUARDIAN. No one cared about a couple of scruffy kids that lived in the Coal District. Buildings here didn’t have the crystalline luster of the most other parts of Crystalis. Here, the buildings were crafted from cheap crystal parts and metal. From the top of the wall, the Coal District looked like a blight.

Eva’s parents were adrenaline junkies — and biologists. They sought out into the Stark to identify and study the habits of the creatures that lived there. Crystalissians had no use for anything on the other side of the Stark. The Stark was too dangerous. Many thought Eva’s parents were eccentric — and crazy. To some degree, Eva believed that they were. 

Her parents published a few books on Stark wildlife and on how to survive on the other side of the wall. Her mother was most proud of her memoir about helping to locate and blueprint a safety bunker for the Mothers’ Council. Her father’s book about meeting various Cavamen tribes was actually banned by the Council. Eva always felt that that was pretty badass. 

However, despite such pseudo-famous parents, when they died the Mothers’ Council seemed happy that they didn’t have to hear these two pro-Stark eccentrics talk about what wonders existed on the other side of the wall. Their children were basically forgotten. 

Eva and her brother lived in an extended stay motel in the Coal District. The motel was erected by metal beams coated with cheap crystal tiles. A woman clad in a mini-skirt and a thick tawny starka came tearing out of the room Eva had been rushing by. Most people in the Coal District were too poor to obtain an artificial exoskeleton. Eva could see the fishnet top as it peeked through where the woman’s starka fell open. The two collided. 

“What the fuck!” The woman snapped. She didn’t even have her heels all the way on. Her hair was a tangled mess and her lipstick had been smeared. Eva immediately bent down to help the woman up. “I don’t need your help!” The woman scolded. 

“I’m sorry,” Eva said. 

“Ness, hypothermia will begin to settle in her legs, in approximately three minutes.” Benjamin warned of the woman’s exposed legs. 

“Just ignore him. I’m sorry.” Eva said. The sky was thundering with the each attack the snow wyrms laid upon the wall. 

“You should evacuate the city,” Benjamin continued. “There are news reports that the wall has been breeched. In approximately seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds they are going to sound the evacuation alarms.”

“Benjamin!” Eva said. “She doesn’t care. We need to get Jono.” It literally sounded like the sky was breaking!

“Is he for real?” The sex worker asked. She got herself to her feet, zippering the last zip on her left heel. 

“Too real, I’m afraid.” Eva said. 

A man appeared in the doorway. He hadn’t finished tying his breeches yet. His body was still semi-excited from whatever the woman had been doing to him. Eva did her best not to look. “What the shards is going on?” He asked, rubbing his bare stomach. “Hey, is that an exoskeleton!? I know a place that will pay a pretty crystal for that model.” 

“No,” Eva said and started down the balcony towards the room she shared with her brother. 

“Get back in the room. I’ve already paid and you didn’t finish.” The man hissed at the sex worker. 

Eva brushed passed the scene, towards room 208. The woman clip-clopped towards the stairs. The man still seemed half-dazed. Eva didn’t know all of the specifics of what went on between johns and sex workers, but she knew that it could be anything from sex to fetishes to drugs. What she did know, just from living in the Coal District, was that nothing was ever simple and “vanilla”.

“I am nearly 99.9999999999% sure that woman was a prostitute.” Benjamin said. 

The motel room looked exactly how you would imagine it to look with a twenty-something female living there with a teenage boy. Eva pressed her keycard into the receiver and swiped it out, the light turning green. Eva ripped the door open. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Various game consoles were hooked up to the TV — CDs and cartridges with and without their cases piled every flat surface.  

Eva burst through the door. It smelled stale. “Jono!” …Nothing. “Get the survival bags,” she said to Benjamin. As soon as they’d entered the warmer environment of the motel room, Benjamin had detached. He looked like a white sleek exoskeleton of plastic that was able to move about at his own accord. “Kentucky wake.” Eva called to her little brother’s personal artificial exoskeleton. Another mdl:1985, but Kentucky didn’t need any upgrades. 

Kentucky was standing in rest mode in a shadowed corner of the room. At his wake word he sprung to life. “How can I help, Ness?” 

“Help Benjamin collect the survival bags.”

“Will do, Ness.” Kentucky said. When she spoke to Kentucky she really felt like she was communicating with programming. 

“Jono!” She called again. Their parents were survivalists. They had always taught them to have bags full of basic survival gear for just-in-case moments. Jono was on the far side of the couch, heaving, his swoopy hair fell over his eyes. He was clutching tightly to a wolf stuffed animal, his favorite. The animal was blue and shaped like a tundra wolf. He was obviously stressed, scared. “Jono.” Eva moved towards him, to cuddle him, to let him know that he was alright. But her movement was too quick. Jono moved like a cornered animal.

“Jono, it’s okay. It’s me.”

“The...The mon—monsters.” He pointed out the window. The emergency sirens had begun blaring. A chill ran down Eva’s spine when she realized that the sirens screaming weren’t the signals for a wall attack. They were the sirens that meant the wall had been breeched. <Benjamin was right.> The wall had never been breeched before!

“It’s okay. I’m here now. We need to get out of here.”

“We can’t go out there!” Jono cried. He leapt from the couch and hid behind the table, wolf animal in hand. 

“Ness, I got the bags.” Benjamin announced. Kentucky pulled up behind him, eyes illuminated. 

Just then the crumbling, rolling crashing that could only be from part of the wall falling, sounded. Jono whimpered. Benjamin immediately cradled Jono in his arms. “We need to go.” Eva said. “We are not safe here. Remember what mom and dad used to always tell us?” Eva handed Jono his survival bag. 

There was a moment of intensity as Jono looked into his sister’s eyes, judging her, coming back to the surface of his fear, mastering his fear. Jono dropped his wolf stuffed animal and reached out and hugged his sister, grabbing his bag. “It’s going to be okay,” Eva said — though she wasn’t so sure herself. She’d never heard the siren that was screaming, outside of a drill. “Put on your exoskeleton,” she said as Benjamin seemed to split his body in half so that he could knit around her. Kentucky did the same for Jono. Eva grabbed her brother’s stuffed wolf off the floor and her technikalblade that was leaning up against the wall. She grabbed Jono’s arm and lead him out the door, technikalblade swinging over her shoulder in its usual spot. 

They were used to leaving. No place was permanent. Eva didn’t make enough for an apartment, so they surfed from extended stay motels to shelters — to even sometimes the streets. Eva was hoping that all of this practice fighting the cold would give them a sliver of a chance out in the Stark. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that they were going into the Stark…And Eva wasn’t as afraid of the other side of the wall as she should be. 

The balcony was chaos as people were grabbing what belongings they could and began running down towards the stairs. Eva pulled Jono along towards the stairs. The gentleman, the “john”, from earlier had a starka on of his own, rushing towards the stairs also. He pushed passed Eva and Jono on his way. “Watch it!” Eva snapped. She held tight to Jono’s hand, squeezing it every so often to make sure he was still with her. He would squeeze back his reply. The john didn’t even look back as he took the stairs down, two at a time. 

They reached the top of the stairs when Jono screamed, “Eva!” He was pointing at something. Eva didn’t see what he was looking at. Something had kicked up a good cloud of snow powder. There was a crunch, like two gods exchanging fists. The building across the street was being made into rubble by a snow wyrm! 

Eva had never seen a snow wyrm really. Sure, she’d seen them in books and stuff, in school, but she’d never actually seen one in the flesh. The wall protected them from the wyrms. The creature reared up, sitting on the upper-half of its body. It was about as girthy as one of the crystal spires that made up almost all of Crystalis’ cityscape. The creature was covered in snow-white fur that revealed black crystalline scales in-between fur patches. Its mouth was beak-like and opened to revealed a circular mouth full of rows upon rows of teeth. It shriek-roared, unlike any sound Eva had ever heard. Then, it motored its mouth parts. Its teeth began spinning, each row sawing in the opposite direction from the row either before or behind it. The sound was horrifying! It pierced Eva’s ears — and she knew that she would never forget that sound for as long as she lived. 

Eva was frozen in place. The snow wyrm wrapped its lower-half around the foundations of the building and constricted. People screamed. Crystalissians were throwing themselves from windows and balconies — hoping that they would land the fall. The wyrm simply dug its open mouth into the crystalline tower and Eva stared as the snow wyrm’s mouth parts simply ground the structure to dust.

“Eva!” Jono cried again, “What do we do!?” Eva snapped from her petrification. She could swear the snow wyrm was looking right at her. She could hear the scritch-scratch of the creature’s rough stomach scales as it slide over the snow, crystal, and metal that made up the street below. 

“You have approximately a 6% chance of surviving a…”

“Benjamin! Shut up!” Eva snapped. 

Eva shoved Jono aside and stood between him and the wyrm’s mouth. She unslung her technikalblade and brandished it before the fifty-foot behemoth! The snow wyrm had made short work with the building across the street. There was nothing between them and it. Eva was delusional to believe that she could use the feeble metal blade against such a beast — but it was all that she had. She wasn’t going down without a fight. 

“Ness, your chances of surviving…”

Eva stayed on the balls of her feet. She ignored Benjamin. Jono was too afraid and dug his hand into Eva’s momentarily free one. The sword was almost too heavy for her to handle with one grip, but she had to make it work. She attempted to hold the blade over her head in a moving hyperstance. Hyperstance was a stance for quick jabs or slices and recovers or dodges. It was the only stance that she felt would be effective against the snow wyrm. She needed to stay alive. She just needed the wyrm to think that there was other, easier prey, than her and her brother. 

“Eva!” A voice from below. Familiar, but Eva couldn’t place it. Not now. Her mind was focused on getting her brother to safety. 

The enormous snow wyrm was pulling its length from around the building. Its head was armored and garnished with tusks and teeth that spun like saws. It shriek-roared again. The very vibration lead a jagged trail up Eva’s arms, and down her spine. “Jono! Go!” She nearly lifted her brother and threw him. Eva followed right behind him as he clumsily landed on the landing below. He’d screamed.

…And then he’d screamed again when the platform gave way beneath them!

Eva fell — and expected the end. Everything left her hands. …But she landed, her eyes gripped closed. “Got you.” Eva looked up at Benjamin’s face. “There was a 10% chance that I wouldn’t catch you without breaking something.” Benjamin had released his grip on Eva’s flesh, fast enough to reform beneath her and take the brunt of her fall. After the shock was absorbed, Benjamin quickly assumed his protective guise around Eva’s form to protect her from the cold. 

“Jono!?” Eva blurted. 

“Got’em.” Eva found Eke with Jono clutched in his arms. Eke was getting to his feet. The impact had knocked him on his ass. Mother Shimmyshanks was standing behind her son. Fear in her eyes. She’d been crying. 

Eke Shimmyshanks was a typical Crystalissian young man. His hair was cropped short and was pink to match his eyes. His skin was fair to pale, like alabaster. Despite his social status, Eke was well muscled from constant working out. He’s a pretty well renowned puck player. Being a puck player was about the only thing the rich boys did to get their hands dirty. The horns that sprouted from the sides of his head were nearly crystal-transparent and thick and curved, the way some of the mountain sheep’s horns were. They wrapped around his ears, leaving the points staring forward, just on the sides of his eyes.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eva suggested. Eke helped her to her feet. 

The snow wyrm was not picky in who or what it ate. With her brother’s hand back in hers, Eva and the rest of the gang ran down the street. Her brother and Mother Shimmyshanks screamed when the wyrm snapped a few running people that were next to them, up into its toothy jaws. 

Eva took that moment to look up. The snow wyrm cried in delight. Its many eyes looking everywhere, though Eva felt they were all attuned directly on her. “Get out of the way!” Eva yanked her brother between two closely built buildings. The snow wyrm struck! Eva covered her brother’s body with her own. The wyrm snapped its jaws. Eva could hear some of the buildings on either side of them give. The crunch was the sound of metal and thick glass shattering. 

The beast screamed, but this time it sounded different. Eva peeked. Eke had covered her and Jono as much as he could with his body and arms. Mother Shimmyshanks was protected under her artificial’s metalloid shields that appeared. Eva was envious of Mother Shimmyshanks’ exoskeleton. Eva felt cool wetness on her face. Eke’s body was literally on top of hers. She moved his arm so that she could see a Mirror Guardian zipping away from the lunging wyrm’s razor mouth. They were saved! Yellow wyrm blood oozed upon Eke’s arm. Eva felt claustrophobic. She began to push Eke off of her. He blushed. “Sorry.”

“Just get up.” The Mirror Guard was luring the wyrm away from them. They all slowly untangled themselves from each other. Mother Shimmyshanks’ artificial pulled in the protective shields that it had the ability to produce from Goddess knew where.

“Ness, we have a 29% chance…”

“Benjamin, just shut! Up! Quiet mode, or sleep, or whatever.” Eva was tugging Jono along. Mother Shimmyshanks incessantly wiped off what wyrm blood had landed on the pristine coating of her artificial exoskeleton’s flesh, and then followed behind them. Her exoskeleton’s bulk caused her to move too slow. It made Eva anxious. There was no way that they were going to get out of the city safely going at Mother Shimmyshanks’ pace. <And the witch is wearing heels!> Eva thought. 

They were all covered in yellow wyrm blood. Eva saw the flash of a figure zip across the sky. The beams of reflected light could be seen up and down the street. There were about four of them. Another zipped past the screaming, writhing snow wyrm. Another line of yellow blood appeared on the beast’s furry hide. The Mirror Guardian turned her mirrorblade flat so that the wyrm caught his reflection. There was light and power. Eva could feel the trickle of it crawl up her arms, causing the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The snow wyrm screamed again. There was something in the power of reflection that Ono never schooled Eva on. But she was seeing it in action, even though she didn’t understand what was truly happening. 

“Eva!  Get out!” Speaking of Ono. He was standing on what was left of some crystalline stairway that lead to the sky. The upper floors had been demolished. He was covered with yellow blood. “Go!” He appeared to be made of ivory. He was holding a weak-looking sword that looked like the spiral horn of a norwotter. The blade only appeared weak in the presence of the mirrorblades that the other Guardians held as they zipped through the sky upon their pathways of ice. They skated by in streaks of white light, revealing a new yellow cut that the wyrm bled from. This was Ono’s power. Eva had never really seen him covered in it. Over top of his horn-like armor was a baby blue norwotter starka.  

“Reports are coming through that the wall has been compromised in at least five places,” Benjamin explained. “We have less than a 3% survival rate if we stay within the wall.”

“Where will we go?” Eke asked.

“The bunker.” Eva and Mother Shimmyshanks said at the same time. 

“That’s real?” Eke asked. 

“How do you know of the bunker!?” Mother Shimmyshanks sneered. 

“I don’t have any record of this bunker.” Benjamin scoffed. “What about you Kentucky?” Of course Kentucky didn’t “wake” because properly functioning artificials couldn’t communicate with each other without a human using their wake word. 

“Well I guess you don’t know everything,” Eva said. She ignored the Mother’s question. As rude as it was, Eva never liked Eke’s mother. And, in a moment like this, Eva was some subservient citizen and Mrs. Shimmyshanks wasn’t a “Mother” of the Council that held power over her. They were both Crystalissians just trying to survive. 

Mother Shimmyshanks looked stressed behind her old tired eyes. “Just get us out of the city,” she said to Eva. “Get us safely through the Stark and I will get you streetrats in. My exoskeleton knows the way.” Eva gritted her teeth to prevent herself from saying something snide. She simply nodded at the Mother. 

Eva noticed that that chaos behind them had seemed to quiet. She looked back to find a giant bleeding wyrm body blocking the roadway. <That reflection technique,> Eva thought. The Mirror Guard and Ono, were gone. They had other snow wyrms that had breeched the wall to deal with.

Even though everything seemed quiet directly behind them, the world was ending everywhere else. Eva could see, miles off, parts of the wall falling in large chunks, down upon the beautiful pink and lavender crystal towers that made up businesses, homes, and apartments. A large wyrm body was writhing through the opening it had bore into the wall — the wall that had protected Crystalis for thousands of years. 

The Mothers Council always said that the wall around Crystalis could never be breeched. Mother Shimmyshanks had some explaining to do.