Doesn't It Make Your Heart Leap!?

Just as the words "I yield" left my lips, there was a high-pitched noise, and my vision blurred, faded, and went dark. The metal device that connected me to Alithet clicked and hissed, and it fell away from my eyes, revealing a very unamused witch sitting on the floor.

"What was that?" Marigold said coldly.

I smiled. "Just furthering my quest, dear Marigold. We are moments away from witnessing an entirely different plane—a new world!"

Marigold just stared silently, then hung her head and sighed, massaging her forehead. "I suppose this is what I signed up for. But, I never thought—Anyway, don't call me 'dear.'"

"Yes, yes," I said, shaking my head. "You never thought anything like this could happen, it was all a bunch of 'phooey,' and so on and so forth."

"Look," Marigold said begrudgingly, "I can admit it: All your rambling was onto something, somehow. But, it's not as if you know any more about what's going on than I do. I mean, what's going to happen to us?"

"That's precisely what we're going to find out!"

"Well, obviously."

"Doesn't it make your heart leap?"

"Not really," she said. "If anything, it makes it sink." I was amazed at her ability to be so gloomy in such an incredible situation. Marigold looked around the room. "Where are we, anyway? Is this... inside...?"

"Yes, inside Alithet," I said.

"Alithet—that's the name of the giant?" said Marigold. I nodded. "So it is man-made," Marigold said, squinting at the strange metal contraption. "Hm. Um, how did we get in here, though?"

"You didn't hear that voice earlier?"

"I heard it some, at first. But then, you vanished. Past that, it was just you and the one with four arms. Was that voice Alithet?"

"Not exactly, but it seemed to have control of it. I think that voice was Ariel—the one that our assailant kept talking about."

"Ariel...?" Marigold glanced about, seemingly checking for the presence of another living being there with us. The whole room shifted without warning, throwing me off balance. Marigold winced in pain and gripped her leg. "What now...?" she groaned.

We couldn't see from inside that room, but I heard a familiar sound like the tide battering the shoreline, and my lips contorted unconsciously into a lopsided grin. "We're crossing over!"

The room shook, and some wild energy roared outside. I imagined passing through a tunnel of golden light. I imagined the light to actually be some other color, some color that didn't exist in our world. I imagined that if I were to perceive what grand scene lay outside at that moment that my mind might have been broken—shredded by that to which my eyes were never meant to bear witness. The thought thrilled me, and so in an attempt to regain my vision I pulled the strange mess of metal toward me, clasping the visor onto my face, but whatever connection I had to Alithet before could not be remade. As I breathed a sigh of disappointment, the shaking and rumbling subsided. We had reached the other side of the rift.

Many quiet minutes passed. I could feel that Alithet was moving, or was being moved. Marigold and I sat in silence, listening. I heard many faint sounds: Distant roars, hisses of steam, the garbled speech of a crowd, the heavy clanking of metal... Eventually, there was a loud bang, and everything fell silent. Then, there was the sound of chains, and finally, a voice. It was an unfamiliar voice, deep and powerful—it reminded me of my father, but I didn't particularly want to think about him right then, so I didn't.

"Ariel!" it said. "You filthy, fledgling traitor! It's good to see you again after all these years; I've been looking forward to breaking you. Ha, ha!"

"It's not him," said the four-armed giant. "He is sleeping."

"Sleeping!?" shouted the other voice. "That bastard runs off with Alithet and thinks he can just take a nice nap? This time, he cannot be let free! Punishment, Estille, punishment!"

"Save your breath," said the four-armed giant, whose name was Estille, apparently. "He will have his punishment in time. There is another matter."

The deep voice wheezed, calming its seething rage. "...Yes?"

"Along with Alithet I have captured two of Ariel's... constituents, caged within the machine. One piloted the Instrument, but he is no threat."

"What? Integrants? Why bring them here?"

Estille sighed. "They claimed to have no allegiance to Ariel. One of them calls himself a Holy Knight, and the other has an unusual power—you will find them intriguing. Despite their seeming frailty, I believe they may be of use in the Median."

"I see. Then, I will place them in another cell for the time being."

Marigold and I glanced at each other with dread—being incarcerated was not high on my list of things to experience before death, not to mention the ominous line about us being "of use." Despite my excitement at being in an unfamiliar, undiscovered world, I wasn't too keen to learn what the giant had meant by that.

"Yes," said Estille, approving of our imprisonment. "Now, I must take my leave. Time is always short."

"Wait, Estille. What of the axis?" the deeper voice said in a hushed tone. Perhaps this was something it didn't want us to hear, I thought.

"It remains a mystery, but that is my next effort. Oemenon should be repairing the seal as we speak."

"It worries me, Estille. I fear it is a portent of threat to our way of life."

"Your fear is unfounded. It is as you said: we won't let Ariel go free again." The four-armed giant's heavy footfalls diminished, and, as the last distant echoes faded away, an unnatural beep startled me, and the walls of the room pulsed with a reddish glow.

"Come on out, you pests," said the deep voice, and we were out.

There was Alithet, towering above us. Its arms were raised, pinned to the wall by giant handcuffs. All its parts that before had glowed purple had gone dull, and I felt a bit sad seeing it like that. It was almost like looking in a mirror. After all, just minutes ago I had been one with that magnificent machine. It was my glorious holy armor, my strongest form, my knightly weapon... but it was locked away, and I was locked away.

The voice boomed from behind me. "Gaze upon the vessel of your originator, integrants, but do not revere him. You are scum, meaningless refuse of one worth less than nothing. Be grateful that I do not destroy you."

Slowly, I turned around to face the source of that frankly unwarranted hostility. Expecting another giant, I looked up, but when I saw nothing but the tall gray ceiling of the prison, I lowered my gaze. There was a strange-looking man there with dark skin, five red eyes, and a mane of flowing braids. He was muscular and tall; his chest was at my eye level, and he wore a black robe with ornate white embroidery.

For a moment, I stood in awe of his alien form before I was struck with the thought that I shouldn't stare and instead bowed. "Thank you!" I yelped nervously.

"What?" said the man.

"Thank you for not destroying us!" I said. I felt a bit silly actually expressing gratitude for something like that—I mean, it should have gone without saying, really—but the man did say to be grateful, and I thought that it would be helpful if I could get on his good side.

"...Right," he said. With a flourish, two pairs of shackles appeared in his hands, and he bound Marigold and me to a chain and gave it a yank. Marigold tripped and tried to catch herself, but her injured leg gave way and she fell.

"Wait, please," she said weakly. "My leg is hurt, I won't be able to walk."

The strange man let out an exasperated sigh. "You!" he said, pointing at me. "Carry the other one!" I envisioned myself trying to lug Marigold around while being pulled every which way by the wrists—I thought that she was small enough that I could probably carry her, but with the handcuffs... I was sure I'd end up falling, too. I felt my face turn a bit red at the painful and embarrassing scene I had imagined, but luckily Marigold chimed in to prevent such a thing coming to pass.

"If you just give me a moment, I'll be able to walk," she said.

"I won't wait long," the man said with a scowl. Marigold picked up her staff, which she had dropped, and began casting a spell.

The man took notice of the glow of her staff and the flutter of her cloak and yelled out, "Oi! What treachery is this?" and he tugged on the chain again, eliciting a pained and annoyed whine from Marigold.

"I'm healing myself, now let me focus!" she snapped.

The man began to speak, but I interrupted. "She's telling the truth! This is the power that the one who brought us here spoke of. It's magic! It doesn't hurt people!"

He crossed his arms. "Hmph. I cannot trust you. I'm sure your world is all liars and cheats. But, to say I am uninterested in this 'magic' would be a lie as well. Do your worst, integrant. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what happens if you defy me." He waited, and Marigold healed herself, and he tilted his head and stroked his collarbone in a gesture unfamiliar to me. "I see. Intriguing, indeed. Now, come."