Page 5 of Souls of Steel
I had a bad feeling about her definition of ‘strain’, but I tried to not let the fear get to me. “All right, then. Let’s do it.”
If the Sphinx thought I was being rash, she didn’t say it.“So be it, young Selene. Brace yourself.”
A sharp pain exploded over my spine and my brain was assaulted by a myriad of images I couldn’t hope to process. The figures of ancient titans and creatures surrounded me in a dizzying, nauseating kaleidoscope. Ghostly hands made a grab for me, clawing at my mind, my body, and my soul.
My blood was boiling in my veins. My skin was crawling and cracking. I screamed, but I couldn’t hear myself utter a single sound.
A wise, familiar voice drifted into my head, the last remnant of a world I was quickly losing track of.“It’s all right. You can do this, young Selene. Don’t fight it. Embrace your power and it will obey you.”
I tried to listen to the Sphinx, but it was easier said than done. I felt like I was shattering, being ripped apart, torn into pieces by a force I couldn’t hope to understand.
And then, just as suddenly as it started, the overwhelming process ended. The power of the chimera settled in my bones. I blinked and my vision cleared, the pain turning into a certainty more genuine than anything I’d experienced in my life.
The controls felt natural in my hand, like I’d been born to grip them. Maybe I had been. After all, the Sphinx had specifically picked me as her tamer, even if there had been a crowd here of over a thousand men, all of whom might have been better qualified, simply because of their gender.
Fuck that. It didn’t matter that I was a woman. The chimera had successfully connected to my soul, and now, we were one.
“Congratulations, young Selene,”the Sphinx said, her voice tinged with smugness and satisfaction.“You’ve successfully passed the first trial of chimera taming. Now, we can begin to consume those fools standing in our way.”
Gaia help me. Why did I have a feeling that the hard part had only just begun?
The First Battle
Selene
An ancient saying had once claimed that women were from Venus and men were from Mars. My mother had always disagreed, pointing out that we were all children of Gaia. I’d emphasized that if we ever did meet the populations of Venus and Mars, they’d probably be more hostile than other members of mankind. But there were days when I did wonder if, at least metaphorically speaking, that saying had been correct.
The chaos in the plaza could’ve certainly been described as a miniature war. I’d seen recreations of the battles between mankind and the Sun-Dwellers, and those images were uncomfortably similar to what was now showing up on my display screens.
“War is one thing that will never change,”the Sphinx told me.“No matter who the combatants are, it is just as vicious, cruel, and petty.”
“But we’re not at war now, at least not on Earth,” I argued.
“Are you sure, young Selene? Because it certainly seems like you are, to me.”
Was the Sphinx right? Most likely. In my head, war had always been defined as the gigantic, all-consuming calamity that had almost destroyed our planet, to the point of forcing ancient deities to awaken from their slumber to help us. The war with the Sun-Dwellers was practically over now, with very few skirmishes going on in deep space, so I hadn’t really considered it an issue.
But even if it didn’t have the same scale of destruction, the anger of the rogue magic users was almost as dangerous. And like in the case of the Sun-Dwellers, they needed to be stopped.
I started out by finding the source of the fire. It appeared that the out of control magic had made a canister of fossil fuels explode. I directed the Sphinx forward, at which point I found myself in quite a predicament.
How was I supposed to put it out? I didn’t see any water, and the ground was already unstable. Using it to stem the advancing inferno might mean killing the people desperately trying to escape.
This was part of the reason why we’d abandoned fossil fuels. They were so volatile and impractical. Why in the world was the canister even here?
“I suspect it must’ve been food for one of the older chimeras,”the Sphinx said.“We have to eat too.”
Food. Okay, then. One of these days, I’d figure out how something that didn’t have a stomach actually ate, but that wasn’t going to happen now. “Okay, great. Do you have any thoughts on how to stop the fire?”
I was still not completely familiar with the systems of the Sphinx, and despite the connection I had with her, I couldn’t figure out how to access everything I needed. Right now, I was just making things worse, since the beating of the Sphinx’s powerful wings seemed to be spreading the fire.
The Sphinx did have an idea, but it wasn’t one I’d expected.“Like a good friend of mine used to say, when in doubt, hit it.”
Hit it? What kind of friend had given the Sphinx such advice? How in Gaia’s name was I supposed to hit a fire?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any better ideas, and the Sphinx didn’t seem inclined to provide me with further input. I had no choice but to put my faith in her and hope she wouldn’t lead me astray. “Gaia, help us,” I whispered. Taking a deep breath, I dropped from the sky, straight onto the blazing container.
I expected a lot of things. An explosion was the most likely result, but I was relying on my massive mecha to be able to take it and shield the crowd from possible damage.
