Benevolents: The Book of Tomorrows by Einar Dod

Author:Einar Dod [Dod, Einar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ten To Midnight Press
Published: 2022-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

As Danel came to again, immediately this time, his first thoughts were of water and pain, wondering simultaneously where the wetness had come from and where the pain had gone. The moist film covering his entire body felt slimy and foreign, prompting an instinctual longing for a clean, warm sand bath and a generous dusting to remove the filth. His chest was raw and stinging, like a patch of skin had been scraped off. This pain, however, was only a shallow puddle left behind by the tsunami of agony that had enveloped him before. Without thinking, he slowly licked his lips with his feeble tongue, and the resulting taste of salty sweat brought on a whole new all-consuming feeling: thirst.

He blinked his eyes open and found himself staring at the familiar ceiling of the ship. He was thankful for the soft light that permeated the room.

What room? His thoughts felt disconnected.

His eyes shifted from side to side. He had been in this room only once before, but it had been mostly empty. Now it was an infirmary.

Next he tried his left hand, lifting his fingers and then bending his wrist. Everything seemed to work, but his joints groaned and resisted as if filled with grit. He moved his other hand, his legs, and then his neck, all of his joints protesting at the effort it took to move. He rolled his neck slightly and then arched his back a tiny bit. Stiff, yes. Achy, yes. But all seemed in working order.

All alone, he lay his head back and closed his eyes, trying to process. Had he really been that close to death? Although he didn’t think of himself as a fighter, he thought he’d done pretty well in the face of mortal danger. Would he have acted so bravely if he had known how dangerous it truly was at the time?

Without warning, his whole body began to burn with tremendous heat while cold sweat poured out from head to toe, and an overwhelming panic gripped him. His eyes opened, and he stared absently past the ceiling, seeing nothing. Anxious thoughts ricocheted haphazardly through his brain, uncontrolled and uncontrollable, while self-doubt slithered in snug circles in the back of his mind.

What am I doing? A little while ago, my biggest concerns were whether to join the PelaMidareen and whether I would ever see my parents again. Now I am facing off with a technologically advanced and extremely deadly cult of black, sticky creatures bent on chaos. And that’s the best-case scenario. The worst case is that I am smack in the middle of a timeless war between angels and devils that somehow spilled over from the spiritual realm. Who am I to be here? How can I ever live up to what they want from me?

As crushing despair pressed inward, threatening to extinguish him completely, a single thought entered his consciousness: the love of Pela. It was only a pinprick of light in an otherwise all-consuming desolation, but it was enough. He fixated on the thought, forcing himself to breathe, and the speck began to grow.

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