The Swords of Memory: Second Chances

Chapter 16

Zara opened her eyes to the open field of the central plain. The sky was clear above but the rumbling of thunder could still be hard off in the distance occasionally. The wind whipped at her hair and momentarily blinded her. She brushed it out of the way and saw Eli and Hayden. "Zara!" Eli yelled. She was jolted out of the peaceful daze she usually had when she first got to the portal game and registered that Eli and Hayden were in trouble. There were shades everywhere. Hayden was trying to hit them with his sword and Eli was using his imagined sword but neither was having any affect. They both just passed through the shades like they were ghosts. It made sense since that was essentially what they were. They had already learned that their weapons had no effect but could do nothing other than try to use them, hoping that they might suddenly start working. They wouldn't deal any damage but they could block the shade's attacks.

Eli let his sword disappear and tried to summon a barrier to protect them but he couldn't concentrate enough. The best he could do was summon a small personal shield that he could use the block individual attacks. Zara was a few yards away from them and rushed towards them. She pulled the sword that she had taken from Daniel from her waist and slashed it at one of the shades. She felt the familiar darkness that was inhabiting Daniel as the sword passed through and pulled back, forced to retreat by her instincts to stay away from that darkness. The shade shrieked in pain and dissolved into a dark mist. It floated to the ground and began to dissipate. Zara fortified her resolve and continued towards the others. Each Shade she attacked fell but the cost was her being effected by their darkness. By the time she reached Eli and Hayden she was nearly in tears and the shades didn't appear to have diminished at all in number.

"Your sword can kill them!" Hayden said. He ripped it from her hand and used his greater skill with the sword to start advancing on the shades. The sword passed right through them like his had. He had expected to deal damage and in the second of doubt that followed he was hit by a shade. Its talons slashed right through his right arm and he fell to the ground. The wound was big but there was no blood. Instead something black and sinister was visible through the opening in his arm. It was the darkness that Zara felt in the shades. It was now starting to take root in Hayden. Zara knew she had to act fast. If it took root he would be in the same position as Daniel. She wasn't sure if she could trust him but she did know that they needed him. He knew the intricacies of the portal game they would need to find the swords.

Zara ran over to him and started pulling the darkness into her. She moved quickly and stopped it from attaching to him. She felt the cut on his arm appear on hers and then the darkness followed. She could sense the darkness appearing in her blood. She was getting more familiar with her power and could tell instantly when all of the darkness was out of Hayden. He was completely well. He stood just in time to block another attack. Zara on the other hand was crippled. Her power was trying to heal the darkness and wasn't making any progress. She had expected it to dissipate like it had with Daniel but this time it didn't. She felt the numbness starting to form inside her. She desired it above anything else but a part of her knew that she needed to avoid it. There was nothing there other than the pain so that was what she held onto. She knew it might be a mistake but it was a connection to feeling, even if not a positive one. She had escaped the numbness with pain before and regretted it.

Eli joined Hayden and together they held off the shades. Zara started to shiver as she broke into a cold sweat. The darkness was starting to suck the heat out of her body. She felt herself start to lose consciousness. She had never done that in the portal game before. A distant part of her wondered at what would happen. As she forced herself to embrace the pain rather than the darkness she passed out.

***

Zara jolted awake in her bed. She was covered in sweat and her heart was pumping a mile a minute. She reached up to rub her eyes and felt the tears that had started to flow. She had been forced out of the portal game. She wondered if she had died. She had left all of the pain and darkness there, and was already starting to calm down a bit. She knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep alone. She took her phone from the table next to her bed and called warren. "Warren, I need your help. I was attacked in the portal game and I think I might have died."