The Semaphore

I hate this place, Pontis thought the moment they arrived in the marble chamber.

'Yes,' said Varia.

Mondagreen grimaced and covered his nose and mouth with a hand. "That smell…" he said, his eyes filling with water. "What the fuck is that?"

Pontis scanned the cavernous room. It appeared exactly as it had: the table with its two chairs on either end; the double staircase leading to the second floor balcony with its ten identical doors; the iron chandelier suspended from the high domed ceiling with its complicated mural. Without Varia bleeding to death in his arms, Pontis took a moment to observe the mural. It depicted a mountain of gray bones, human skulls conspicuous among the tangle of femurs and ribcages. Pontis's stomach knotted. He could not imagine what kind of person would choose to live beneath such a vulgar image. But this was the house of a Hemmick Votary. He was death-obsessed. He dreamed of eradicating humanity. The mural was merely a representation of what preoccupied his mind.

On the far side of the room stood the enormous white door, its pale, wooden exterior peeling like the bark of a dead tree.

'It's there,' said Varia as Pontis's eyes settled on the door. 'The transmitter.'

Mondagreen's hand rested on Sarabeth’s hilt, the other still hovering around his mouth. "This place is awful," he said, and then lowered his voice. "I feel like I'm inside a tomb."

"We're going in there," said the coat. Pontis pointed to the door.

Mondagreen drew Sarabeth. "I'll watch your back," he said. "Maybe we're lucky and there's no one here. You can get in and out before…"

"We see you brought a friend," said a deep voice from overhead.

Mondagreen brandished Sarabeth. Pontis clenched his fists. Varia coiled.

The Hemmick Votary stood on the landing. Though his face was entirely concealed behind his long mask, Pontis had the disconcerting sense that he was smiling.

"Though we're afraid we only have two chairs," the Votary said, his deep voice echoing across the marble. He gestured down at the table, a thin white thread suspended between his index finger and thumb.

'Do you see it?' Varia asked in Pontis's ear.

I see it, thought Pontis.

"So we'll have to ask your friend to leave," the Votary continued, folding his hands behind his back. "Or perhaps, since you brought a guest into our home without invitation, it should be you who makes him leave."

Mondagreen held Sarabeth with both hands, unwavering, his feet planted firmly on the marble floor.

"Make him leave," the Votary repeated.

Pontis scowled.

A sound—a note—sour and grating, rang out from the balcony. The coat tightened around Pontis, its hood muting the sound, deflecting it. Pontis glanced at Mondagreen just in time to see his expression change. His face relaxed, and he lowered Sarabeth. His shoulders slouched and he turned toward Pontis, his mouth ajar. His eyes darted with fear.

What's happening? Pontis thought.

'I don't know,' said Varia. 'But I think we made a mistake. I don't think Mondagreen should be here.'

"Go on then," the Votary said from the balcony, amusement dripping from his voice. "Make him leave."

Mondagreen shambled toward Pontis, Sarabeth’s tip scraping along the marble floor.

Pontis stepped backwards.

"Mondagreen?" said the coat. "Mondagreen."

Mondagreen's eyes tumbled with terror.

Another bitter note rang from the balcony. Mondagreen pivoted suddenly, raising Sarabeth and stumbling toward Pontis. Pontis leapt aside just as the blade carved through the air, whistling past his ear. Mondagreen swung again, this time catching the outside of Pontis's arm. The coat deflected the strike, sending the blade in a high arc, but the force of the blow set Pontis off his feet, and he scrambled to avoid a third strike, which barely missed his face.

"Make him leave!" the Votary shouted from above.

'He wants to make us kill Mondagreen,' said Varia as Mondagreen's scared eyes swam and he lurched with startling speed. 'But there's nothing Mondagreen can do to hurt us. Just give me a minute to figure out…'

Mondagreen swung wide, Sarabeth clipping the coat's hood and clanging violently. He pirouetted and stabbed at Pontis's chest. The coat closed swiftly over Pontis's heart, and the blade bent sharply with impact, causing Mondagreen's whole arm to rattle in its joints.

Pontis backed around the room, absorbing Mondagreen's increasingly vicious blows. One strike landed powerfully against Pontis's side, nearly knocking the wind from him. Another, directed at his face, drew sparks as it grinded off the hood. A pulse of static ran down the coat's sleeve and gathered in Pontis's hand.

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'Stay calm,' said Varia hurriedly. 'Just another second… Alright, I'm ready. Get up in the air!'

Pontis leapt. The coat propelled him toward the ceiling, where he hovered. Mondagreen stood at the center of the black spiral inset into the marble floor, his frightened eyes peering upward, his body standing strangely—as if its weight was distributed to his head instead of his feet. Sarabeth was scuffed and bent at her middle.

'Pontis!' Varia called.

Pontis turned toward the balcony as a white tendril whipped out, striking his side and sending him tumbling through the air.

'Watch his hand,' Varia said as Pontis struggled to regain his balance.

Another tendril struck him, this time from the other side. The blow was immense, but it had the effect of counteracting his initial momentum, and he rocked to a shaky stop. In that window—another tendril already whipping from the balcony—he focused his eyes on the thread suspended between the Votary's fingers.

There was a flash of green from the Votary's palm, and his hand snapped back, scalded. The impending white tendril broke into dust in the air.

Below, Mondagreen collapsed to the floor.

The Votary clutched his hand.

'Get behind him,' Varia said.

Pontis eyed the spot on the balcony directly behind the Votary. The coat's hood closed over his face for a fraction of a second, and then he was there.

But the Votary was not.

Pontis scanned the balcony.

Where did he go?

'I don't know,' said Varia. 'He was just…'

A sound rose up. A note, bitter and atonal, but unlike the others it was prolonged. It hit a piercing frequency that made Pontis's skin crawl.

'Something's wrong…' Varia said suddenly. 'Something's happening to the programs. I can't—Watch out!'

Pontis spun, expecting the Votary—or even Mondagreen's katana.

The eyeless man, his mouth agape, his sockets bent in rage, swung his enormous knife at Pontis, a blur of silver.

Pontis crossed his forearms over his face. The knife impacted him with such tremendous force that the marble cracked beneath his feet. His breath ruptured from him. He squinted up as another blow caught his shoulder and sent him rocketing over the balcony. He collided with a column on the far side of the room and slid to the floor.

'Get up!' Varia screamed.

Pontis's vision filled with a thousand flickering stars. He stumbled to his feet—but the eyeless man had leapt from the balcony and was upon him again, driving the point of his knife toward Pontis's head with all the strength of his landing.

The coat's hood closed, shielding Pontis's skull from impalement, but it could not offset the full force of the blow.

Pontis crumpled to his knees beneath it.

Tetragrammar… Pontis thought, his vision darkening. Now…

'I can't!' Varia said, panicked. 'That sound, it's overwhelming the system… You need to make some distance!'

Pontis peered upward as the eyeless man again brought down his knife. The blow forced Pontis, already knelt, facedown onto the floor. Another blow cracked the marble beneath his body.

Do something… Pontis thought.

'I'm trying…' Varia said. 'I can't get… nothing will…'

The eyeless man struck him in his back. Rending pain tore up Pontis's spine and into his head.

Please… Pontis thought, his face pressed against the marble, his consciousness dimming. Please…

Varia was silent. The long, sour note filled the marble chamber.

The eyeless man rained blow after blow onto Pontis, forcing his body deeper into the shattered marble. The coat shielded his body from the blade, but with each strike Pontis felt more of the impact. Soon the coat would give out completely, he thought. Soon it would be no more than a piece of cloth, and the eyeless man's knife would shred it like paper, and Pontis to pieces.

A particularly savage blow knocked Pontis's breath away. His vision strobed. He braced for the next one—the one that very well might end it. He thought about Harper, asleep in Hummel's study, her little body fighting for its life. He thought about his Ma, probably tending to the people of Lowood Den as they emerged from their stupors. He thought about Ien. Sweet, brilliant, beautiful Ien. They were all going to die, because Pontis had failed. They were all living at the end of time.

#

'I'm sorry,' said Varia, her voice quiet. 'I'm so sorry.'

Pontis readied himself for the final blows.

There was a sound of shattering glass and an explosion of heat.

Pontis managed to turn his head and squint upwards. A pillar of fire roared over him. Inside it, the eyeless man thrashed, his knife waving in circles. He stumbled and staggered across the room.

Mondagreen stood nearby, leaning on Sarabeth like a cane. In one hand he held a small glass bottle filled with liquid.

Pontis rose shakily. As he did, the prolonged note faded and went silent. In its absence, Pontis found that his breath returned, and the pain in his spine and in his limbs waned to nothing. The coat glowed faintly, and fluttered along his body.

He blinked at Mondagreen.

"Friatha." Mondagreen held a glass bottle aloft. "A gift from the Lorain."

The eyeless man lurched across the chamber, engulfed in fire.

'Everything's back!' Varia cried.

The eyeless man's flaming body staggered against the table.

'Let's finish him and find the Votary,' Varia said.

Pontis approached the pillar of fire, writhing along the edge of the table. The knife waved from it, swinging desperately in search of a target. Pontis gestured to Mondagreen to move a safe distance away.

When the eyeless man lurched toward Pontis, the coat stiffened and flared, ringing a deafening peal. A shockwave exploded from it, shattering one side of the table and cracking the floor. The eyeless man caromed backwards, the fire extinguished from the force of Tetragrammar. He smashed into a column across the room, which cracked with his impact. He crumpled to the floor, his charred body motionless. The column cracked and fell, blocks of marble thudding down, burying his body, until he could no longer be seen beneath the debris.

'Outstanding,' said Varia.

Pontis hurried over to Mondagreen.

"Are you alright?" the coat asked.

Mondagreen nodded at the pile of marble. "Yeah," he said. "Are you?"

"Yes," said the coat. "Thanks to you."

Mondagreen clutched the remaining bottle of flaming liquid in his hand. He inspected Sarabeth. Her blade was bent badly in its middle, her edge dulled from its impact with the coat.

"I'm really sorry," he said, lowering his eyes. "That wasn't… obviously…"

"Of course not," said the coat. "It was probably worse for you than us."

Mondagreen shrugged. "I drank proof in Cade once made me feel weirder than that," he said, though the sad, exhausted look in his eyes suggested otherwise. "So where now?"

Pontis placed a hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't come with us any further," the coat said. "It's too dangerous." A moment unfurled. "Do you want us to take you back to Osseon first? Or Tecca?"

Mondagreen raised an eyebrow. "You may not need me right now, but I'd like to be nearby in case that changes. You two go on—I'll be right here, enjoying the artwork." He gestured up toward the ceiling at the mural of bones.

Pontis offered him a thumbs-up.

'Look,' Varia said suddenly in Pontis's ear.

Pontis turned. The enormous white door was ajar.

"We need to go," said the coat as Pontis glided quickly across the room.

Mondagreen watched him go. The coat's green glow illuminated the dark space beyond the door as Pontis followed the Votary. A moment later, the door drifted shut behind him.