The Keepers of Eternity

XLII

Blaise's ears still rang from the explosion caused by the full power of temst. He sat up, tired and dazed, and looked out over the farmyard to where the remains of Thadan lay in a crater of charred earth. Traces of the lightning strike still danced over the wet mud.

Purlip staggered over and hastily snatched up the Indelina, which had landed several feet away. She removed it from the locked grip of Thadan's severed arm, tossed the arm aside, and then wiped the Eternity Disc off with the front of her dress. When she approached the point of the explosion, she stared down numbly like a phantom over her own grave, her dress blowing in the hot wind.

Have to move quickly.

Blaise got up and rushed to the other end of the yard. Abreigelle sat upright, letting out ugly sobs. Mud was blasted all over her face and hair. From the looks of it, she already dismissed temst, but held her hand out like she was still operating it.

"Abreigelle," Blaise knelt beside her, "it's me."

"Don't touch me!" She snarled, reaching up to wipe the sludge from her eyes. She opened them, not bothering to say anything else.

"I know you're angry with me, but listen--"

"What makes you think I'll believe anything you say from now on?"

He sighed. Thadan must have really gotten to her head. "You trusted me with that disc pattern."

"You still didn't bother to tell me about what it did! What if I was closer? The ground is so wet...I could have been electrocuted!" She winced, clutching her leg. "Help me." Abreigelle whimpered, her face suddenly filled with panic. "Blaise. Please. I can't...."

Blaise didn't like the look of that shin. Even through her pants, he could tell how badly it was broken. Her lower leg was completely doused in blood. She'll never walk again, that's obvious.

Seeing that distressed horror in her eyes was unsettling. He'd never seen her like this.

"Look," Blaise said as he quickly removed the shoelace from Abreigelle's boot and began to tightly wrap it into a tourniquet. "this isn't over yet, but you'll probably survive. Try to calm down."

She nodded slowly.

"Stay out of the fighting--which means no discs--and don't move under any circumstances."

Blaise gave her a reassuring smile as he stood, but Abreigelle was already staring at a point behind him. He turned to see a red light, bright as a beacon, pulsing from the crater like a heartbeat. It was already starting.

There was no doubt now that Thadan had the Reprisine, an Eternity Disc designed to both heal and inflict wounds. It had always been in the possession of the ruling class of Eskan, so Blaise had no idea how this man had gotten it. Must have been quite the event.

Purlip stood a short distance away as her partner's body reformed. Thadan's dismembered flesh rose from the lightning crater and knitted itself together by strings of red, glowing energy which branched from that one point on his finger. His body looks nearly transparent, giving full view of the damaged organs and such before his skin could cover it. The process was more gruesome than Blaise remembered it being, though the last time he'd seen the Reprisine was over seven hundred years ago. One's memory tended to leave out those more macabre details.

Now fully re-formed, Thadan reached down, picked up his undamaged disc-box, and attached it to his waist. "Well, that was quite a thrill." He said. Irritated, Blaise glanced away from his nakedness.