Infinity Blade: Awakening

my fears won.” She looked up and met his eyes across the small chamber. “I didn’t think it a betrayal, since you had obviously lied to me. Obviously . . .”

Siris coughed, trying to get some of the gunk out of his mouth. “I’ve lied to myself too, apparently.” He closed his eyes, raising his hands to his head, groaning.

This can not be possible.

“Do you really not remember anything?” she asked. “You’ve probably lived thousands of years.”

“All I know is my own life,” he said. “Growing up in Drem’s Maw, being told I was the Sacrifice. Seeking the God King.” He took a deep breath, in and out. “I’m just a person. Hell take me, a regular person.”

“You don’t fight like one.”

He tried to banish the thoughts that came next. Memories from his childhood. Veterans who had left the God King’s service and come to train the Sacrifice. They had whispered that Siris was too good. That he learned too quickly. By childhood, he’d been able to fight as well as any of them. By his teenage years, he’d have been named a duelmaster in any major city.

By his twentieth year, he had been good enough to defeat the God King.

. . . too perfect to be completely human anymore . . . you fought like a god . . .

“I’ve seen something in your eyes, occasionally,” she said. “A depth to them, a . . . change to you. Sudden flashes of arrogance.”

“The Infinity Blade,” he protested, opening his eyes. “It was corrupting me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Why would a weapon built to free mankind, to defeat the Deathless, corrupt the one using it?”

“I . . .”

She mocks me. Kill her.

An awareness blossomed in him. Those thoughts weren’t external. They were a part of him. A real part of him.

“That’s who I was . . .” he whispered. “That’s what I used to be. One of them. Oh . . . Verity . . .” He could almost remember it. He banished those memories by reflex. No. He didn’t want them. He hated them.

He hated who he had been. Hated him.

“Who are you?” Isa asked.

“I wish I knew.” It was a lie. He didn’t want to know anything of that man, the one who thought the Dark Thoughts. The man who hated all things, who kept himself isolated, who acted like he ruled everyone.

The God King had named him Ausar.

Siris shook his head and started to climb out of the tank, then realized he was completely naked. “My clothing?”

She nodded toward a pedestal beside the tank, and didn’t even have the decency to blush. Damn Avrians. “That’s all I could find. Your own clothing was burned; I had to haul what was left of you here. You were badly burned. I peeled off what clothing was left; I didn’t know if the rebirth would work with the clothing on.”

Siris wished he had a towel. The chamber was all metal, with a few of these tubs full of goo in them. “It would have. I saw the God King’s rebirthing chamber. He had . . . copies of himself, fully armored, waiting for him.”

“I don’t know if you saw what you think you did.”

“It looked a lot like this,” he said. He hesitated, then climbed out on the side opposite her, keeping the large, waist-high tub between the two of them for some modesty’s sake. He began pushing the goo from his body as best he could.

“I think there’s a hose beside the tub,” she said.

She was right. The water was cold.

“I assume we’re in the chamber you visited that once?” he asked. “On the mountainside?”

“Yes.”

“You broke your promise, you know. You killed me.”

“You’d have preferred the alternative?” she snapped. “He was going to kill you. Kill you with the blade.”

Siris froze, water gushing out over his arm. She’d killed him to save him. He should have realized it before, but all of this was coming at him so quickly.

“I knew I couldn’t fight through to you,” she said. “And I didn’t know if a crossbow bolt would stop him. I didn’t know if you were . . . what I thought . . . Well, I didn’t know what to think any longer. I gambled. I do that. Father always said it was a bad habit.”

He continued washing, disturbed.

“You should be grateful,” she said. “I won’t even mention the chase I had to go through to get away from his minions. When I finally got back, they’d burned your corpse. Gathering you was not a pleasant experience-for me, or for Nams, who carried you here.

“This place seemed the best choice. I knew . . . well, I assumed that some of the facts I’d heard were true. If you’d been left alone, your soul would have sought out a new body. However, if your corpse is placed in one of these things, the soul will seek it instead. The tub repaired your corpse and started it breathing again, and your soul returned. It took a couple of weeks.”

“Weeks?” he said. “You’ve been waiting here with me for weeks?”

She said nothing, so he finished washing and started dressing. Isa sat in silence, staring forward again. This entire experience seemed to have disturbed her greatly. She wasn’t the only one.

As he was stomping on the boots, Isa slid something across the floor toward him. A sword. “I took it from one of the champions you killed,” she said.

Siris affixed the sword’s sheath to his belt.

“You said your ancestors fought the God King,” Isa said. “That your father, your grandfather, went to fight and died. Have you considered that you didn’t have a father or a grandfather? At least, if you did, they’ve been dead for thousands upon thousands of years?”

“But . . . the Sacrifice . . .”

She shrugged. “Something in there is a lie. Something big. You weren’t born, Siris.”

“I grew up as a child. I remember it.”

“I . . . I don’t know how to explain that.”

Questions for another time. “I need armor.”

“You might be able to take some off one of the fallen daerils,” Isa said. “Saydhi’s guards. I think the God King’s minions left them behind.”

He nodded, then looked to her. He was stunned by the coldness he saw in her eyes.

“Isa . . .” he said.

“You’re one of them, Siris,” she said softly. “I just . . . I’m having trouble with this. One of them, Siris. Shemsta macorabi natornith na . . .” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered visibly. She looked sick.

Kill her, the Dark Thoughts said. She knows too much about you.

He found himself gripping the side of the reincarnation tub, knuckles white. She was right. He was a monster.

“What will you do?” she asked.

“Before she died, Saydhi answered my question. I know where to find the Worker of Secrets.”

“But he’s your enemy,” she said. “He created a weapon to kill the Deathless. He wanted to overthrow you.”

“I’m not one of them,” Siris said firmly. “I won’t let myself be.”

“And what would you give the Worker?” she asked. “You can’t deliver him the Infinity Blade, now. So why go?

“You wanted freedom, Siris. Well, the God King has his weapon back, and he doesn’t know where to find you-if he even cared to. I think he won’t bother, focusing on Deathless with armies, lands, and influence.