FIFTY-FIVE: Man on the Moon
Alden had heard that some humans could run hundreds of miles without sleep.
Not even Avowed. Just ordinary humans.
Not that ordinary, he thought as he jogged. Ultramarathoners. Trained, awesome people.
He was not trained. Or awesome.
And he was carrying another person on his back.
But if being an Avowed was ever going to count for something, he wanted it to count for this. He had Azure Rabbit. He had a whole lot of ground for it to work with.
It wasnt that he thought he could travel across country without rest for days, but that he needed to. Depending on when Kibby had stopped the car, depending on how fast his average speed was, the trip could be two days. Or four. Or more.
Maybe there were three hundred miles left to go. Maybe there were twice that many.
Alden hadnt asked Kibby for the number before he started carrying her because it didnt matter. They were in it now. He would run, walk, or crawl them out of it.
Or they would both die.
In a way, the clarity of his options was a gift.
There was no longer any point in second guessing the decisions that had led them here. Alden was sure hed made stupid mistakes. Probably a lot of them. He was ignorant and incompetent in too many ways. But hed done his best, and now all the choices had been exhausted.
He didnt even have a compass. He just traveled in what he hoped was a straight line away from the car, even though he knew it probably wasnt. He tried to aim for large holes or ditches he could make out in the distance directly in front of him. It was the best he could do for landmarks. At least his targetthe non-chaos zonewas massive. As long as he didnt get delirious and start walking in completely the wrong direction, he wasnt likely to miss.
He ran sometimes. He walked others.
He wished he had music to drown out the drum of his own heart in his ears.
When he got thirsty, he planted a sprinkler deep in the ground and sealed a plastic bag over its head to catch some of the water. Thanks, Thenn-ar, he whispered as he paced around the device.
He couldnt stop moving. Maybe Kibby could still withstand the corrupted environment for a long while. Or maybe it was only minutes. He didnt think she knew any better than he did.
It took a while for the sprinkler to produce a decent amount for a drink, but it was better than trying to carry jugs of water on top of everything else. He ate some dried fruit while he waited. When hed drunk his fill, he picked up his sprinkler and kept going.
*****************
Hours latermore than half a day if Aldens time sense wasnt totally wronghe realized something bizarre was going on with the ground.
It might have been going on for a long time. The convenient way his trait interacted with the soil while he was in motion meant he felt like he was kicking off of something solid even when it was it just a thin crust of dirt or it was loose and sandy. So he didnt notice what was happening beneath his feet by feeling it.
Instead, he saw the whole landscape do something.
The change was so subtle it would have been hard to notice except for the fact that the view on Moon Thegund was monotonous. Before it was grass. Now it was ditches and potholes.
And here
Did the dirt just move? All of it?
Because there was no wind, Alden was not accustomed to seeing motion of any kind around him. He slowed down to his slowest walk.
Several minutes later, it happened again.
Everywhere he looked, in the same instant, the loosest patches of soil shifted. Then, they settled back to stillness.
I think its been less than a day. Im really tired, but I cant be hallucinating yet.
It happened a few more times, and Alden finally stopped walking altogether and just took single steps from side to side to keep the skill active on Kibby. There was a shallow depression in the ground in front of him. A patch with sandy crumbling edges.
He stared at it intently, and a couple of minutes later, the grains of dark sand all shivered in place. A small chunk of the edge collapsed into the depression with the quiet hiss of falling grains.
Then, everything was still again.
Okay? Alden said to himself. What was that?
He kept walking and watching, trying to come up with theories. The only one that made sense was that the whole ground was moving. Like an earthquake. If an earthquake happened for the briefest of moments at perfectly regular intervals.
Assuming it wasnt a giant subterranean demon creatures heartbeatthanks for coming up with that thought, brainhis next, more hopeful guess was that it might have something to do with the wizards cleaning up the chaos.
Its like something is banging on Moon Thegund like a drum.
On the one hand, that would be good news. Being close enough to feel the effects meant he hadnt turned in a giant semi-circle and started heading back to the lab.
On the otherwhat if they werent doing some high-powered cleansing spell to get rid of the chaos like he and Kibby had both assumed? What if it was more like they were dropping magical nukes on it from space?
He was hoping to walk into a clean zone surrounded by benevolent chanting wizards. Not step out of the chaos into a giant bombing range.
Alden thought that most of the things that would make a planet-sized moon tremble would make a human-sized person dead.
But that changes nothing, he decided. Because I cant turn back.
One foot in front of the other. For as long as he could naturally.
And after that, he still had a couple of tricks in his pocket.
***********************************
When I get home, Im going to be lazy.
Alden made this decisionsometime. How long had it been? A full twenty-four hours yet? Longer?
Was that only wishful thinking?
One of the sprinklers had given up. Hed gotten water out of it five times. Elepta Farm had earned his business if they ever actually grew something that wasnt mildly toxic for humans.
Im going to be one of those lazy, rich Rabbits that everyone envies and hates.
No even worse than those Rabbits. Im going to be the laziest one that ever existed.
He would never walk another step. He would buy a car. And a driver. He would hire servants to carry him on a palanquin. Hed pay some Adjuster with the right spell to follow him around and levitate him up staircases.
Everything hurt.
Legs. Back. Feet. Shoulders. Authority.
He kept adjusting the straps that held Kibby in place, trying to relieve pressure. Theyd started to rub him raw even through the coat and the layers of clothes.
Focusing on his future life as the human embodiment of sloth helped for a while.
When that stopped working, he tried to hold a mental conversation with the gremlin. You were loud about the big chain debt for a while, and then you got quiet, he said. I dont mind if you want to be loud again.
It stayed silent.
Thats really scary of you. Hey. Gorgons confused ancestors. Talk to me. Keep me company at least.
He waited for a reply that never came.
Fine.
Be that way.
When I get home, Im going to hire an S-ranked Sway to force us to eat an entire rack of barbecued ribs.
He snorted at the image of himself, trying to explain to some disturbed Sway why it would be a necessary and righteous use of their powers.
From far away, there was a single whumf of sound. Staring down at the taped-up toes of his sneakers, Alden saw the ground shake.
They started back.
The distant hammering of something against the moon had gone on for a long time. Then it had stopped for a long time. And now here it was again.
With sound effects.
Were still moving the right way.
He coaxed a few more steps out of himself with that knowledge. But it was getting way too hard. He thought his left foot might be bleeding inside his shoe.
I guess I should do something about that. Its still a long way. No matter what, its still a really long way.
The supply pack around his waist contained bandages, numbing spray, and a change of socks. He was just scared to stop and drop the preservation on Kibby for the minute or two it would take him to use it.
He was afraid shed be hurt. He was afraid he wouldnt be able to pick her back up. Physically or magically.
Whumf.
It wasnt like the situation was going to get better as time passed, though.
He walked a bit farther, trying to put himself in the right headspace to do and say the right things. What were the right things again?
Whumf.
They came around ten minutes apart maybe. That was cool. He could use the sound of the Artonans bombing the hell out of his destination to keep time.
Whumf.
Alden took a knee in the soft dirt.
It hurt. His knees were starting to hurt. Theyd never done that before. Was it just the amount of walking and running, or was the trait taking a toll on his joints?
Alden?
Dont unstrap yourself, he said. He was surprised at how dry and raspy his voice sounded. Hed been drinking plenty. Im just changing my socks really quick, and then were moving again. Can you do just a couple of minutes?
Im fine.
No lies right now. Were making good time. Ha. Hypocrite. You dont even know if youre lying yourself or not.
Im fine, Kibby whispered.
Aldens feet looked way worse than theyd felt. One of his heels was actually glued to his socks with blood and whatever the clear stuff that came out of blisters was.
He lifted the foot, hunched over so that he could reach his hands around it. Made an attempt at the kindergarten hand sanitizing spell.
If you held something in a specific position between your hands it was supposed to work on it instead of them. So maybe it would help.
His authority shuddered. Straining it in a new direction made him feel how far from himselfArtonan version of the wordhe was.
He sprayed the numbing spray. Bandaged the foot. Pulled on the clean sock. Stuffed it in the shoe.
How long has it been? Kibby asked, wriggling a little against his back.
She knew he didnt really know.
Almost three days, he lied again. You know that means we must be getting close.
Whumf.
Whats that?
Alden finished doing the best he could and stood back up.
Thats where were headed.
His whole body screamed at him when he tried to take a step forward. He almost fell face first in the dirt.
He tried again with almost the same result.
He wanted to lay down. He wanted to sleep right here in the chaos. It couldnt be that bad could it?
Oh, he thought. So this is how far I go without cheating.
Hey, gremlin. I know youre not gone even if you pretend to be. Wanna see something cool?
Alden licked his lips and cleared his throat. Then, he said the sacrifice half for the peace of mind chain.
He shuddered as it fell on him. His anxiety spiked. His sluggish, sleepy thoughts turned a little wilder.
I cant stop moving. I cant. Ill die.
He took a step and then another. It wasnt enough to satisfy his fresh sense of dread. He needed to jog.
So he did.
The opposite of peace of mind was fear.
Occasionally, fear was a good thing.
***********************
Blowback for peace of mind lasted around three hours. Alden made the sacrifice three times, paying back the debt for every chain hed used to sleep in the car. Then, because he hadnt physically fallen down yet and his body was still functioning, if poorly and painfully, he used it a fourth.
He was going to enjoy having the positive half in the bank at some point.
By the time the fourth started to run out, he was staggering more than he was walking. Everything hurt so freaking much that even the fear couldnt keep him moving anymore.
He tried to focus on the auriad. Kibbys gift was a constant source of comfort, hidden under his shirt against his chest. It was the only thing in the world that felt pleasant anymore.
His body was done. His authority wasnt recovering. At all. All the new authority he had made still existedbut it had been pushed too far out of alignmentor something like that. It was tired. He was tired. He couldnt thrust the chaos away. He felt like something was penetrating right through the rest of him to batter at his skill and the trait that was built onto it.
Now, it seemed like even that was at risk of cracking apart. Alden kept urging it along. Kept his fingers deliberately pressed against all of the machines ON buttons, so to speak.
But it was getting hard.
He wondered if it would have been better or worse if he couldnt actually feel the machine. He could see it going either way.
Maybe an Avowed who wasnt able to feel the skill consciously wouldnt be able to keep forcing it to work in this situation. Or, maybe they would, and they wouldnt even know they were in this unique kind of pain.
Alden had never been in pain before, when he felt the thing most humans called skill drain.
Hed justkind of stopped.
The skill is stronger than it was, though. A lot stronger.
He remembered months and months ago, how that single fleck of a demon grasshopper had landed on Kibbys hair and made him reel.
He knew it was a direct strike against the skill from a creature that actually magnified chaos. But he thought he could take it much more easily now.
He was positive that the skill could not have preserved another person for days before. And now it could. It could do it even here, in this hostile place, where Alden was falling apart.
At least Level 4, he thought. If its not at least there by now, Im going to have a fight with the System about its abilities as a judge.
He stepped wrong. His ankle rolled.
It had happened before, but this time it was bad enough that he was pulled for a moment from his focus on the skill and the assault of the chaos back into his beleaguered body.
Without his attention, his trait collapsed.
It just turned itself off without his permission. Even though he was still carrying Kibby.
His feet sank an inch into soft dirt.
Yeah. This is worse than bad, he thought tiredly, kicking up soil and sand as he trudged forward. Gotta keep the willpower and the focus up somehow. Abusing my adrenal glands with reverse peace of mind isnt going to cut it from here on it.
He was so tired his vision was tunneling.
He planted his last sprinkler. It hadnt worked well for its past two uses, and it didnt for this one either. It just dribbled water down its plastic sides and he had to wait a long time for his bag to catch enough to make a decent amount for drinking.
This time it didnt.
He got a measly cup before it quit for good. Alden gulped it down, saving the last sip in his mouth while he fumbled with fingers that had once been kind of dextrous for the very last of his last resorts. He pulled out a small silver pill bottle and poured the contents into his palm.
This one keeps you from throwing up. This one keeps you from passing out. This one temporarily inoculates you against Thetet Fever, and this last one makes you unable to register physical pain.
He still remembered them all.
He ditched Thetet Fever. Kibby said it didnt even exist on Moon Thegund, so who needed it?
He tossed the other three into his mouth and swallowed them with the last of his water. It took less than a minute for the effects to kick in.
Just as hed remembered from his trip to the hospital with Stuart, the Artonans were great at drugging people.
His vision untunneled. He could straighten his spine without the agony of a couple of different pulled muscles. He could put his full weight on the ankle he was pretty sure hed just sprained.
He felt normal. Physically.
If he didnt have common sense and authority sense, he would have thought theyd given him a healing miracle in a bottle.
But he did have authority sense, so even though he felt great in one way, he felt like crap in another.
He took a few steps forward easily, trying to get Azure Rabbit back online. Come on, come on, he thought, pushing at the part of his bound authority that belonged to the trait. You only do one trick, so youd better do it.
It was going to be a really slow walk without it.
Maybe pushing isnt the right thing, he thought. Maybe its more
He tried to picture the way the trait was designed. The thing the System had built for Alden to use. He had been poking at it angrily for ages now, resenting it even as he knew he needed it. So he knew what had gone wrong when he took a closer look at it.
It wasnt just turned off. It was slightly askew.
This wasnt something perception or positive thinking was going to fix.
The trait itself had weakened and wobbled. It didnt want to recover. And now that Alden examined it with his mind free of the burden of a host of bodily aches and painsit was a big crack in his overall stability, and that crack was deepening.
Not good.
Theres got to be a way to mold my authority back into the proper shape of the trait. Like manipulating it to fill in the empty panes when I make patterns with the auriad. I know I cant alter the trait, but trying to patch whats already here by asserting its existence deliberately should be doable, right? Like
He took another step, and his foot finally left the ground in the way he wanted it to.
Ha! he said in a rasping voice as he jogged forward. Alden can do magic intelligently now. Hes an Avowed with kinderwizard training.
Admittedly, he was also hyped up on alien drugs and talking about himself in the third person. But it was still an impressive achievement.
**********************
The good-bad thing about feeling a little better was that Alden actually had enough presence of mind to think again.
He could imagine clearly all the terrible things that lay ahead.
The worst, by far, was the thought of what would happen when he collapsed. He was sure that when the drugs gave out, he finally would, too. Permanently.
Kibby would have to see that.
He didnt want that for her. But there was nothing more he could do to prevent it from happening.
Since running didnt hurt anymore, he was running.
The whumf, whumf sounds came again. So much louder. He could see the ground shake clearly now. Soil jumped around him every time.
In the distance, on the edge of the horizon, the sky looked strange. Far too dark. Like an approaching storm on a moon that never had them.
Hours passed. The sounds stopped.
The storm clouds grew closer.
Alden let his body move as if it wasnt being destroyed and focused all his attention on asserting his trait and his skill.
Not even the rest of himself anymore. Hed had to stop. Hed had to choose. So he chose just those two things.
They seemed like something the System had taken from Alden and written onto reality. They chained him. Hed never be rid of them. But if they were the only thing holding him here now, hed rely on them.
The kept wobbling and cracking, and he kept reasserting them.
Who has language for existing harder?
Me. Now. Apparently.
A lot can change in a little while, I guess.
He could feel his heart racing like it wanted to escape from his body. He could feel himself gasping like his lungs were begging him for air. Under his coat, his clothes were drenched, and he wasnt sure if it was sweat or blood.
But none of it hurt.
And he thought, maybe, that storm was his destination.
So he didnt stop.
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