Three weeks had passed since they arrived. Hammer had begun to replace fat with muscle, and his strength and agility had increased with the difficult training. As his body changed shape, his hardened skin had stretched painfully at points where his muscles grew or buckled where fat shrunk away. Somehow whatever was in his skin had reshaped itself to accommodate the changes.
Even though the time had passed quickly, he felt he was getting the rudiments of sword fighting in place. Unlike the preferred weapons of most of the other people – longswords and greatswords – the shortsword was suitable for closer fighting and faster movement, rather than the slow and exhausting swings employed by the others. Not quite as fast as what the dagger-wielders had, but more powerful, and he could use a shield. He felt that he had the happy medium.
He had become more accustomed to Rajin, and they had begun to work as a sort of team. Despite Rajin clearly being a better fighter – she had the instincts and the speed – she insisted on staying with him in his beginner's squad. He thought that the organisation of people into groups based on their experience was not a good idea because it meant that knowledge wasn't shared as well, but he kept his mouth shut – what did he know about these things? At any rate, Rajin refused to leave his side, and ignored those higher up the ranks. Perhaps it was that she felt safer with him – she had always been a jumpy one. That was probably why she was so aggressive – she feared being attacked so pre-empted others. It had quickly become apparent that if they wanted Rajin in their army, it would be at his side, and for that he was grateful, even though if you had asked him originally he would have laughed at the idea.
He was seeing less and less of Rain, which saddened him lately. Having worked with someone closely for so many years and then to see them drift away was mildly heartbreaking, but she had her new friends to share time with. He still saw her occasionally.
***
Rain had not seen Torion again. She was not even sure that she had seen him the first time. It could have been a dream, brought on by the stress of the recent events. It wasn't possible for him to be here. He was dead and his corpse had been destroyed, consumed by that creature she had created. She went to see Hammer and Rajin on a daily basis, and was beginning to get to know the other Pushers, although they were still distant. Hammer and Rajin were growing closer, she could tell that easily enough, while growing further from her. Soon, she expected, Hammer would be a stranger – he was spending too much time wrapped up in his new soldiering world to spend much time with her. They both were spending too much time working. Still, she missed him, and she had grown to like Rajin too. That was why she went to see them.
On the twenty second day after arrival, she shuddered uncontrollably, felt a squeezing pressure on her mind which passed in a second. Moments later, a loud horn echoed over the war camp, the call to arms. It had begun.
She rushed to the platform, but by the time she arrived, it was already full. Those at the top were murmuring, then went silent. She looked towards the breach anyway, but this time there was not a single column; there were three columns stretching infinitely high, tearing a jagged gap in the clouds above, making the ground seethe and melt where they touched it, liquefying and refreezing from moment to moment, as the rules holding this place together were broken down in that area.
The columns formed an equilateral triangle, with sides around one hundred paces long, and they sent out tendrils; thin tentacles which touched and formed a wall. Or a gate of some sort. This was a gateway like the ones she made between realms, but this was different; this was a gateway between spheres of realms. Between that set which made up Garon and that which made up Cennon. As the gateway manifested itself, hardening into something real, the pushers above her began their work at trying to drive it back, fencing it off with shields of Haze, driving them in towards it. Its progress slowed as it was covered in plates, bars and cords that tangled it up, trying to crush it. It slowed but did not stop, and soon the strange shapes and phantasmal lights which had become visible within began to pour out.
The pushers on the tower were not enough! She steeled herself, and reached for the Haze, drawing power from the void. It was difficult to reach, like trying to see something through thick fog, but once she had it, something helped her. This wasn't painful; it was almost pleasurable. She felt like she was doing what she was made for. She threw back her head and laughed, lost in the moment. Haze flowed into her, Haze, Shar and some other energy she hadn't felt before. Something coming from... where? From inside her? Wherever it came from, she fashioned all three together to create the insects she had created before, those she had come to regard as her signature creatures. Just like before, but this time she made them different sizes, from the size she had created on the ferry all those weeks ago to the colossal, knees reaching five or six storeys into the air, swordblade arms stretching up higher.
They shimmered in form somewhere, already racing towards the rift, cutting down anything that got in their way. This was incredible! She felt so alive. And she could still do more!
Grinning maniacally, she pulled more haze through. She couldn't use Shar for this. She didn't know how she knew that, but she knew it for truth. She couldn't use Shar, but that other force, she could use that.
She mixed it with Haze, and formed it into a long rope, coiling it around the pillar where realities bled into each other, wrapped it around and around, stretching it heavenwards and down into the earth. Further up and further down, and eventually the ends touched. Somehow, going far enough in one direction brought her back to the start.
She pushed more power into the coil, strengthening it.
Then she squeezed.
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