Chapter 14 - Altered Your Orientation

  Alex stumbles, falling into a roll that carries him down the side of the embankment he lands on. With a heavy thud he comes to rest on his back, looking ‘up’ at the hellhound in the distance. It’s barely visible against the stone ground, the creature’s natural colorations blending into the environment so well only its movement gives it away. Alex groans, tries to sit up, and instead just slumps back again to rest against the cavern’s ‘ceiling’.

  Corvus lands on his arm. “Well Done!” He caws, even giving an animated flap of his wings as if clapping. “Well Done Indeed!” He says. “Alex, you moved not just distance, but altered your orientation as well. If this had been a level surface, you would have landed beautifully.” The crow exclaims with genuine pride ringing in his voice.

  Alex mutters something unintelligible, dazed and disoriented. It takes him a few good minutes before he’s even able to sit up, his head a ringing gong of pain. “That… sucked…” Alex grunts out, gripping the sides of his head. “I wasn’t over the backlash yet, and that really made things worse.” He says, groaning.

  He watches the hound sniff around, then tip its head back and let out a sonorous and haunting howl. To Alex’s horror, other voices answer it in short order, at least one of which was coming from the top of the cavern where he’s at. “I can’t deal with another of those yet. I… I need to rest.” Alex says.

  Corvus nods and launches back into the air. “There is a hollow nearby that you can find shelter in.” The crow says, hovering to Alex’s right.

  Alex turns towards him and starts to get up, having to crawl a few paces before gaining his feet again. With nerves on edge, Alex follows the crow across the ‘ceiling’ of the cavern. But it’s not long before that distinction ceases to have any meaning. The ground is the same, gravel with scrub-brush. As soon as Alex is no longer thinking about it, his perception of it as the ceiling reorients to just accepting it as the ground. That’s when it clicks and Alex nearly falls from the realization. There is no ground or ceiling. Every surface of the cavern is ‘down’.

  The only reason he’s associating one orientation as being real is because of where he arrived, and where Last-Stop was positioned. But for all Alex knows, he’s been on the ceiling the entire time. Those terms mean nothing here.

  Alex is only startled out of his thoughts when he crashes through the scrub-brush and almost falls into a hollow in the stone. He’d been following Corvus on auto-pilot, and didn’t realize that they’d gotten to the place the crow had been leading him. Alex scrambles back up from the bowl of stone and tries to push the brush back into place so it wasn’t obvious he’d barreled right through it.

  Then, sinking back into the rounded hollow of stone, Alex discovers that the formation has an overhang of stone providing more shelter further back. He pulls off the knapsack and wedges himself back into the hollow. It isn’t large enough to be comfortable, but it is sheltered from view. Alex’s heart thunders in his chest, breath coming in heavy pants, and as the adrenaline works its way out of his blood Alex begins to tremble.

  The minutes blur together as Alex strains all his senses for any hint of danger approaching. There’s some scuffling of stone nearby, a faint chatter of some other creature, a slow and rhythmic thump of something else large in the distance. But nothing that appears to be getting closer, or moving with purpose towards him. Eventually, Alex starts to relax.

  As his muscles loosen, Alex winces. He uncurls his arms from around his knees and stretches out some. On closer inspection, he didn’t come out as unscathed as he’d thought. Alex’s arms are scraped and bleeding, the signs of bruises starting to show as well. And as Alex tentatively reaches to feel his back, he discovers several shards of stone stuck in his skin. With a grimace, he picks them out, lamenting the shredded shirt. At least his jeans fared better.

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  Even with the pain from the scrapes and bruises, Alex can’t stop his mind from latching onto another oddity. “Corvus?” The crow swoops down to perch on the lip of the overhang. “I was wearing these clothes when I arrived in Hell. Where’d they come from?” He asks as he picks stone flakes out of his cuts, flicking them away.

  The crow cocks his head to look at Alex. “Your clothing is manifested from your soul. Likely it reflects a wardrobe choice you were comfortable in during life.” Corvus says, giving Alex a closer examination. “As it is created by your soul, the material is part of you. It will gradually repair itself just as your skin heals from cuts and scrapes. But I would recommend replacing it with physical clothing soon.” He explains.

  Alex pauses from his self-inspection, thinking he’d pulled out all the rocks. He rubs some of the gritty gravel-dust between his hands to try to clean the blood off at least a little. “If it’s part of me, and will ‘heal’ like my skin, why would I want to replace it?” He asks, loving the idea of clothes that never wear out.

  “Because just like healing, repairing the clothes is costing you time.” Corvus says with a tone of implied warning. “The small wounds you’ve taken so far reduce your available time by minutes, the clothing is much the same. You are also using your time with each effort you put into using the intent-movement or the skills I am teaching you. Minutes add to hours. Hours add to days.” He says, letting the sentiment linger between them.

  Alex frowns and dusts his hands off. “And I’ve got months before I risk dissolution.” Alex says, quirking a brow and looking to Corvus for confirmation.

  Corvus is quick to respond to that. “Oh no. A newborn demon will have months. Alex, you have perhaps a few weeks of time before you are at risk.” Corvus says, looking intently at Alex with those black eyes.

  Alex freezes, eyes widening. “Weeks.” He mutters, the implication setting in. “But how… why… Why is it so much shorter for me?” He asks. With his body barely recovered from his escape from the hound, the returning tension just makes Alex feel sick.

  Corvus flaps down from the overhang to land atop the toe of Alex’s shoe. “When a child is created in Hell, an Animus is consumed in order to give them their vital spark. That affords them a fair window to be granted an Animus to secure their existence.” Corvus goes into lecture mode. “However, when a soul enters Hell, the Animus is created as a byproduct. It is withdrawn from you. Your ‘essence’, your vital spark, is weaker than a newborn demon’s.”

  Alex listens in silence, the weight of his choice to make the Deal now feeling far heavier. And for the first time, Alex actually feels the absence of the Animus. He looks down at himself, noticing the way his own appearance has lost the vibrancy. Faded.

  “This is why I have pushed you to make use of the intent-movement. And why I believe the minor expenditure of your remaining vitality is worthwhile. We need to get you to a location in which you will be able to gain another Animus.” Corvus continues while Alex sits with his own thoughts. “Your direction of travel is leading us towards a city called New Europa. That is where I believe you’ll be capable of gaining another Animus.”

  Alex slowly looks up. “Weeks? Can I make it that far? Will I still have enough of me left to make it matter?” Alex asks, voice tainted with worry. Up until now, he viewed dissolution as some far-off threat. A deadline far enough out that he’d have time to catch up.

  Corvus shifts his guise to his human-like appearance and kneels down next to Alex. “Purpose, Alex. Focus on the driving purpose you discovered. You told me that you knew where you wanted to go. Focus on that.” Corvus says emphatically while laying a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Having purpose, focus, and the will to move forwards can buy you extra time. Despair and apathy will rob you of most of it.” He says, then chuckles. “That sounds particularly sentimental, but I assure you that the effect is quite real.”

  Alex shudders and leans back against the stone alcove as Corvus returns to the form of a crow. “Yeah. Stopping those places, the buffets. Stopping The Glut. Just gotta focus.” He mutters to himself. And without even realizing it was happening, Alex slips into an exhausted slumber.