The cold hit them the higher they flew.
The air got thinner. Their breath came in pale mist that scattered in the wind. The desert below had become a moving sea of white silhouettes. The creatures, still following. Thales gritted his teeth as frost began to crust over his hands, his knuckles turning red.
"Verdamona, hang on."
The sword vibrated beneath their feet, humming with the strain of sustaining flight in the thinning air.
The stars shifted again. Words began to string together across the horizon in threads of pale light.
FLY BELOW.
He didn't question it. He dove down.
The wind howled against them, slicing through their clothes as the sword plummeted in a smooth arc toward the dunes below. For a second, Verdamona's stomach turned upside down.
Above them was a creature. It was ten meters tall. Its limbs were stretched wrong. They were too long and too thin. Its face had no mouth or eyes, only smooth white skin like unformed clay. Its body rippled as it hovered, its wings unfolding like the bones of a dead corpse.
Verdamona froze. Her throat locked. Her vision tunneled. The desert disappeared. The stars became lanterns of fire above a burning village.
The ground beneath her feet cracked from footsteps. She was five years old again, staring up as shadows moved behind the flames, long-limbed, smiling things with human faces stretched too far.
A voice — her mother's maybe — was somewhere, calling her name before she heard screams. Verdamona blinked back tears. Her fingers were trembling so violently that her whip vanished from her grasp.
"Th–Thales. It's above us…"
"I see it. Don't look up. Just—"
"I can't..."
Her breathing quickened, uneven and sharp.
The horizon tilted again. She wasn't seeing sand anymore. She was seeing pale, smiling faces towering over burning roofs. Her muscles locked and her teeth chattered as she stared into the dark below, trying to keep her eyes off the massive thing above them. She could feel it watching her. Every instinct screamed to run but there was nowhere to go.
Her mind began to fracture under the weight of two worlds of the desert and the nightmare.
She started to mumble.
"Stay small, stay small, stay small…"
Her golden Xana trembled through her veins, reacting to her panic. Light pulsed under her skin like cracks forming in glass.
"It's too tall, too tall, it's too—"
"Verdamona!"
He grabbed her shoulders. Her body was too cold, as if her blood itself had frozen.
"Look at me. You're safe if you don't look at them."
Her eyes darted toward the sky. It was a fatal mistake.
Its long limbs bent backward with a sound like cracking ice and it unfolded itself into the shape of a winged nightmare. Its head tilted all the way around, facing them without eyes, and the sound that came from it wasn't a roar.
Verdamona screamed from raw, primal terror.
Her Xana exploded from her in pulses of gold. The sand below them rippled like water under the pressure. Thales shielded his eyes, gripping the hilt of his sword as he guided it lower, closer to the dunes, hoping the creatures below would lose sight of them.
But there were tens of thousands of them, stretching to the edge of sight, standing motionless on the dunes. Each one craned its head upward, perfectly still, as if waiting for a signal. The silence was worse than noise.
Verdamona's breath came in short bursts. Every sound was too loud. She pressed her hands over her ears.
"Stop. Stop please..."
Her voice broke. She was no longer looking at the sky or at Thales. She was trapped inside her own memory, trembling like a cornered child.
Thales cursed under his breath. He had seen soldiers panic before. But this was not the fear of death but of remembrance. He placed his hand over hers, grounding her.
"Verdamona, just close your eyes. You're safe with me."
She didn't respond, but her trembling slowed. The Xana still flickered under her skin. Above them, the massive creature folded its wings and began to descend. Thales could feel the pressure in the air. He summoned his Xana and forced a grin he didn't feel.
"Guess the stars weren't kidding about danger. Hold on. We're not dying here."
He dove the sword down, slicing through the cold air as the white creature lunged after them.
Verdamona was trembling beside him. Her breath was shallow and ragged. The wind tangled her hair across her face but he could still see the tears spilling down her cheeks.
She stretched out her hand and light flickered at her fingertips. A whip of golden energy started to form, then collapsed into nothing. She tried again. It didn't appear. Her lips moved soundlessly, trembling, mouthing half-formed words.
"Please, please, please..."
No sound came out. Her body shook with the effort. The Xana around her flickered like a candle fighting to stay alive in a storm. Then she whispered, hollowly, as if to herself:
"I'm useless... just like before…"
She didn't look at him.
Her gaze was locked on her own trembling hands. The whip refused to form. Her pulse pounded in her throat.
Thales remembered something Phaser had told him. In one of their rare quiet talks back in the university, before spring arrived, Phaser had mentioned it offhand that somehow felt too personal to ignore.
----
"Oh, and Verdamona's afraid of tall things. Call it megalophobia, if you will. It's not like she's scared of buildings and such. She's scared of tall living unusual beings because of her past trauma. Don't push her too much if it happens to her. Just remind her of something and she'll come back to her senses."
----
Thales hadn't asked then. Now he understood why. He glanced down at the sea of white creatures chasing them and back at her.
"Verdamona!"
Her head jerked, startled. He shouted over the wind,
"You want to see Phaser again?"
Her eyes widened. Thales continued, the sword trembling as he poured every ounce of strength into keeping it airborne. His Xana was running out since they have been flying for hours.
"He believed in you! He brought you here for a reason! He knew you were strong enough to endure the trial so endure it!"
She shook her head violently, unable to look at him. The words didn't seem to reach her, or maybe they reached too deep. Her entire body was tight, frozen between panic and collapse.
"Verdamona! You think he'd risk your life for nothing? Trust in him if you at least don't trust my words!"
She clenched her fists so tightly that her nails drew blood. Her golden Xana flared for a heartbeat, then sputtered out again. Below, the stars shifted, rearranging itself into words across the night sky:
HIDE IN THE OASIS.
Thales followed their glow. Far ahead, a was a shimmer of blue.
"I see it."
He leaned forward and the sword screamed as it cut through the air. The creatures below suddenly turned after he flee close to them. Hundreds of pale figures leaping upward in coordinated waves. They were moving faster now, their long limbs dragging them forward like spiders.
Thales extended his hand.
"Sword Summon."
Sixty swords shimmered into existence around them every second, forming a rotating barrier of steel and golden Xana. The air vibrated with the sound of metal tearing through sand. Creatures that tried to leap up were shredded in midair, dissolving into white dust. Verdamona was clinging to his back, her breath hot against his shoulder. He could feel her body reacting to every lurch of movement.
"The oasis is close. Just a few seconds more..."
A pulse rippled outward from the oasis.
Thales's swords shattered into light, disappearing instantly. His Flux failed. His balance snapped. The flying sword vanished.
They hit the water hard.
Thales gasped, his lungs burning as he surfaced. He blinked furiously through the blur, searching for Verdamona.
He found her face-down in the water, unconscious. Panic surged. He grabbed her wrist, pulled her close, kicked toward the shore with everything he had left. His muscles screamed in protest.
When he dragged her onto the sand, both of them coughing, he finally looked up and froze.
Thousands of them were at the edge of the oasis, staring inward. They were not moving or breathing. Their faceless heads tilted all at once. One of them reached for them and as soon as its finger brushed the edge, it ignited. Its body turned to ash instantly.
One by one, others tried but ended up with the same result. Whatever barrier surrounded this oasis, it was burning them out of existence.
Thales exhaled in relief. He looked up at the stars again.
"Guess that's… your doing, huh?"
And then, to his disbelief, the stars rearranged themselves once more.
YOU'RE WELCOME.
He stared at the message for a long second. Then ran a hand through his soaked hair, half laughing, half shivering.
"Well fuck me. I don't think I'll be able to relax after seeing that."
Verdamona stirred beside him. He turned immediately. Her eyes fluttered open, glassy and confused. He helped her sit up slowly. She was paler than usual but breathing. She looked around, saw the creatures still standing at the edge, and flinched. Thales gripped her hand firmly.
"They can't get in. You're safe here."
She nodded faintly, though her hands still trembled. Her eyes drifted up toward the faint glow of the stars and sighed.
"Sorry. I was pathetic, wasn't I? Someone like me is scared of creatures like these..."
Thales leaned back against the damp sand, his eyes half-closed.
"I don't blame you. That shit scared me too..."