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There's no oxygen, so the flames die away. The pain doesn't, but I've no time to focus on that. It's freezing and there isn't any air. If I can't construct a shell around myself, and soon, I'm finished.

I search for magic, but there's nothing I can make use of. This zone of lights contains even less magical energy than there was on Earth. I thrash about like a fish on dry land, lips shut, eyes bulging. I feel my skin tighten from the cold, but that doesn't bother me. I'll suffocate long before I freeze to death.Advertisement

As my lungs strain for air that isn't there, my limbs go still and a calm wave spreads through me. In a way this is fitting. I was always a lonely child. I often felt out of place, not in sync with the people around me. Now I'm going to die in true isolation, more alone than any human has ever been.

A gloomy mist crosses my eyes. I think it's the shades of death drawing over my face, but then I blink and realize it's a dark green window that has opened ahead of me. As I stare at it numbly, a ball of light shoots through and envelops me from head to toe. I've just enough time to marvel at the warmth it brings. Then my eyelids flutter and I fall unconscious.

I awake on a grey, cold, ashen world. I sit up, groaning. My skin is blistered. Parts feel raw. But I'm alive.

Something moves nearby.

"Art?" I call.

"No." A tall black man steps into view. He's fat, with very dark skin, dressed in an expensive-looking suit.

My eyes widen. "Raz?" I gasp.

"Only in appearance," the man says solemnly.

"I don't understand." I start to rise but pain prevents me. Grimacing, I frown at the fat man. Raz Warlo was a Disciple. I met him when I first joined Beranabus. He was killed during the quest to find my baby brother. "Why change?" I wheeze.

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"The one you knew as Art is dead," Raz says. "Although shapes mean nothing to us, we know you need them to make sense of the universe. We felt it would be easier for you if I took a different form." He looks down at himself and frowns. "The suit was a difficult touch."

"What happened back there?" I ask.

"The panels of the Kah-Gash reacted to your presence," Raz says. "The demons attacked. We managed to get you out before they killed you."

"And the panels? Did they stop?"

"The fact that we still exist makes me think so," Raz says dryly.

I nod slowly, then clear my throat. "Art sacrificed himself to save me."

"Evidently."

"And you placed your life at risk by coming after me."

"Yes."

"Why?" I groan. "Why take me to the Crux and risk your lives for my sake?"

"That will become clear very soon," Raz says and nods at a rock behind me. "That is a lodestone. It is the reason I brought you to this world. I suggest you use its power to heal yourself before we continue."

Now that I focus, I realize there's a strong current of magic flowing around me. I tap into it gratefully and set to work on my wounds, patching up the holes burned in my flesh.

As I'm sealing the last of the gashes, Raz looks around at the dead land, then says, "Did you ever plan to have children?"

The question throws me and I squint at him. "I hadn't given it much thought. Probably not. It's hard to bring up a child when you're busy battling demons."

"The Old Creatures can't reproduce," Raz says. "It didn't matter in the original universe, since we were immortal. That changed when the Kah-Gash fractured. Now every creature ages. We are captives of time and the price of our captivity is death."

As Raz speaks, I stand and stretch. My stomach rumbles. I'm ravenous and thirsty, but there's nothing to eat or drink, so I do my best to ignore the cries of my deprived body and focus on the Old Creature's lecture.

"We accepted our mortality," Raz continues, "but the Demonata craved a return to the way things were. They wanted to live forever. So they set about thwarting the hold of death."

"How?" I frown.

"As long as the new universes exist, death will claim us all," Raz says. "But if those universes are eradicated... if the Kah-Gash is reassembled and the old laws are reestablished..."

I start to tremble. "Beranabus said the Kah-Gash could destroy a universe. But you're saying it could destroy both?"

"Yes. The Kah-Gash could draw everything back through time to the moment of the Big Bang, eliminate all that that has happened since, and restore the original universe."

"What would happen to us?" I gasp.

"You would have never existed," Raz says. "Time would be reversed. All the creatures and planets of the new universes would be wiped out. Only the Old Creatures and the Demonata would survive."

"Why wouldn't you be killed too?"

"We think we would be protected, as we were when the Kah-Gash exploded. If we are correct, even the new Demonata-the spawn of the original beasts-would be spared, since they carry the genes of their parents."

"Then why not us?" I ask hollowly.

"You are not our offspring," Raz says sadly. "New life was created when this universe was born. We have guided many species and helped souls develop. But you are not ours.

"We must go," Raz says abruptly. "You need to eat, so we will move on." He sets to work on the tiny patches of light in the air around us.

"What world of wonders are we heading for now?" I ask.

"We're not going to a world," Raz says. "We are going to a spaceship." pqdm.com