No Blessed ✓

Wild Card

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

It was the mantra Mikel repeated over and over to himself as he soared through the clouds, firmly implanted on the back of a Ghi. When Tyrese had come up with the idea of using the scavengers as a sort of transportation, Mikel had thought he was joking until the ex-Knight had set a trap. He had killed a smaller bird, slit it open and left it lying around.

Sure enough, the Ghi had come down after a while, and while they had devoured the bird, Tyrese had trapped them, wrestling the birds into submission.

They were much faster than the Khadits, Mikel admitted, but at least he knew for a fact that Khadits had been tamed and broken in. What was the assurance the Ghi wouldn’t suddenly have a tantrum and throw him off, plummeting to an unavoidable death?

He glanced at Tyrese, noting with envy how he looked totally at ease, as if he’d done this before. Mikel would not be surprised if he had, it was not above him. They had flown the whole of the previous day, and as soon as the sun had peaked, they had resumed their journey. At first, Mikel had wondered why the Ghi had not taken the opportunity to fly away while he and Tyrese were asleep but had gotten his answer when Tyrese had killed yet another bird for them as breakfast. They truly were lazy.

From beyond the translucent clouds, Mikel could see something far up ahead, gravelly and large and he directed Tyrese’s attention to it immediately. “Hey, Tyrese! What’s that?”

Tyrese peered ahead, and the large smile that split his face in half told Mikel all that needed to be said. They guided the birds downwards, preparing for a smooth landing.

However, as they broke through the hazy barrier of the clouds, their eyes were suddenly opened to what the thick vapour had been hiding.

The Life Gate, contrary to what Mikel had expected nor what its name connoted was not a gate of some sort nor a large column of pillars but was instead two large hands breaking out of the ground, partially bent as if covering something. They were gigantic, about the length of a two storey building. However, they were not all the clouds had been hiding.

Rapidly advancing towards the Life Gate were a large retinue of soldiers, and leading them all was the King himself, his royal cloak billowing in the wind, like a never ending trail of blood.

Tyrese gritted his death when he saw it, spurring the Ghi’s descent even faster. As Mikel followed him, he was mildly alarmed by the lack of fear in his veins. This had been his mission since he’d landed in no Blessed and he’d dreaded it for as long as he could remember. Yet, the closer he drew, he did not feel the paranoia he had imagined he would, the paralyzing  fear he had thought would ensnare his mind.

Yes, anxiety was there, scratching at the back of his mind with a million claws. Resignation clouded his consciousness and worry twisted his gut into tens of knots but fear – fear was conspicuously absent.

They landed directly in front of the Life Gate, both of them climbing off the Ghi smoothly. Mikel drew his staff and Tyrese unsheathed his sword as the King and his cortege drew closer. With several horrible squawks, the Ghi flew off into the sky, leaving the two men to face their troubles alone.

“The Life Gate can only be opened by two means,” Tyrese held his sword out in front of him, his tone critically serious. “The first is by solving a series of characters no one has ever been able to decipher. The second, although less reliable, is by sacrificing the blood of a human born without powers, a special kind of No Blessed. I suspect the King will use the latter, although those No Blessed are incredibly rare. We must kill him before he can.”

Mikel nodded as a lone figure began to run towards them, far ahead of the other soldiers, and as the figure drew closer, gripping two curved daggers in each hand, Mikel recognized Astra. She was in her faux male form, curly hair waving wildly as she moved forward at an insane speed.