Chasing Sunlight by Inadvisably Compelled

Author:Inadvisably Compelled [Compelled, Inadvisably]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The inhabitant of the deserted city took no form that could be seen or heard, no skin of flesh or shadow. It was a raw force of lonely longing and a sweet, sharp-edged nostalgia for the very moment of dying. Not death itself, nor life either, but that infinitesimal moment poised halfway into the abyss. Its presence carried tender memories of the last lingering instant before oblivion, of life draining away into nothingness. The emotions and images hammered into them, sending everyone staggering save for the two Lux Guards.

Not even Jonathan was immune, despite the sunlight that brimmed within him. Nothing was immune to death, and the ideation of dying found purchase in everything, flesh or stone or insubstantial dreams. He found himself clutching his cane in a white-knuckled grip as he fought off the sudden beckoning temptation to use that very cane on his own throat, or to dash his head on the stone. Anything to reach that exquisite moment.

“I can’t—” Eleanor said, gripping her dagger with trembling fingers, though it was difficult to tell if the trembling came from weakness or strength. Sarah and Marie had simply fainted under the pressure. Antomine, however, straightened up as his eyes glowed, and at his gesture James – or perhaps it was John – scooped Eleanor up, plucking away her dagger before she could use it. The other one went to assist the maids, while Jonathan centered himself, finding all those pieces of himself that held anything but sunlight. Even if he could not cast them aside, knowing they were not his thoughts was enough to turn them into a mere insistent murmuring in the back of his mind. At length he managed to straighten, though the presence had hardly diminished. The saboteur’s death had merely whetted its appetite, and now it wanted more from them.

“We must leave now,” Antomine said, as if it weren’t obvious. Jonathan forced his muscles to work and reached out with his cane to hook the sled that the saboteur had brought along with him. Jonathan had already forgotten the irrelevant man’s name, the body crumbling into red stone, mortal clay claimed by the city.

Even with such lethal hungers battering at his brain, Jonathan was mindful of the reason they’d come. He pulled open the bag sitting on the top of the sled, and a brilliant zint glow shone forth from the stolen luminiferous gems, still slotted into the broken-off chunk of glass and steel that had been taken from the Endeavor. Jonathan snatched it up and turned to go.

“I need that,” Antomine said, reaching for the mechanism. Jonathan nearly yanked it back, but stilled himself. Sunlight required such iron discipline to contain that even the city's clamoring lust for death could not dispossess him — nor would he allow Antomine to do so. The inquisitor was not the enemy, and so he dropped the zint device into waiting hands.

The gems blazed up, then dimmed as Antomine’s eyes glowed nearly as brightly. The mental assault dimmed, not vanishing entirely but receding to a background scratching of suicidal contemplation.

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