Exile Empire, Exile The Second

Chapter 22 - Kairos

I couldn't breathe. The air was thick enough that I didn't believe it to be air at all. It felt more like water or gel, viscous and malleable and barely able to make it into my lungs.

I gasped and flooded them with the gel, choked, and it exploded out into the ether around me. I winced and struggled, flailed my arms and tried to figure out which way I was supposed to face.

Was I upside down or floating upright? Space had no meaning, nor did time.

Sorin.

Where was Sorin? And why was he my first thought as soon as I figured out which way was up and how to breathe this gelatinous goo?

He'd be enraged. And terrified.

He'd been magnificent, tearing apart that demon. And the wolf, I'd seen the wolf inside him. A shimmering wave of light that'd pulsed when he'd attacked, exposing a manlike, brutally ravening creature with a bloodlust that had compelled it to shred and tear the body containing the demon.

Fuck. Sorin was a wolf.

And somehow that made him even hotter.

Fucking Elma and her stupid comment putting that thought in my head.

What the hell was wrong with me? I was suspended in black goo thinking about wolf fucking.

I moved my head to seek a light source, but found nothing. It was black all around me, I wasn't even sure if there was anything above me or below me.

I tried to write a glyph, or cast a simple spell for light, but I couldn't connect to anything. I couldn't catch hold of the sunlight or the Earth's energy.

Or Empire magic. I was cut off.

I was a husk of a human, filled with a growing panic.

"Hello!" I yelled.

I wasn't thrilled at being taken again. At least this wasn't as violent as last time, when Mike had dragged me into the room downstairs. At least I wasn't waking up with a face full of splinters and Mara lurking around wanting me dead.

I didn't like what was happening to my head, I kept getting flashes of light from the corner of my eyes but when I turned, there was blackness.

I began to breathe harder, the goo forcing itself in and out of my lungs with deep, choking motions. I curled up in it, wrapping my hands around my knees, pulling them up to my chest. I opened my eyes wide, searching again for light.

And then there.

In the dark.

A single spark.

I gasped, as much as I could with the goo all around me.

I stretched my body and splayed my arms and legs wide.

And the light grew larger as whatever it was came closer.

When it grew large enough to fill my vision, it was too bright to look at. I turned my head and couldn't escape the penetrating radiation of the solar flare that had exploded next to me.

At least that's what it felt like; heat, light and burning on my skin. I was surprised my clothing didn't sizzle off of me, leaving me to fry to a crisp in the light of the star.

"Kairos Empire, you are here," a voice said. It was asexual and neutral, devoid of emotion and almost robotic, but it possessed that quality that indicated it was organic. It was alive.

"Where is here?" I asked, my voice leaving my mouth with all the power of a fist into a pillow.

"Here is where you are meant to be."