The Fifth World

Cynric: I feel my mouth fall open a little as I watch this... shining light... a beam shoot out from Colt. What the hell is going on? His body rocks forward a little and more light shoots out from his body, each in different places... it's beautiful, as if the sun is shining from inside his body, sending its lovely rays in every direction. He is glowing... and disappearing at the same time. Bo remains there, her body wrapped around him. She is completely frozen and her hand shaking as it still holds the Angelican dagger.

"Bo," Nancy whispers, "get away from him."

It is too late. Bo barely hears, I barely hear, Felicity barely hears. We are astonished with whatever is happening and it is strangely beautiful. Everything is becoming slow... this human... he has been killed yet his body is reacting to his death as if he were some kind of god... suddenly Colt's back arches and his face leans up to the sky. Bo begins to scream as loud as she possibly can. Colt's body disappears, every shred of his existence... gone... and a ball of light replaces him, the light is so intense. It is strange to try to make out why this is happening... could it be due to every serum this Thorne has ever injected? Or could it be for every life he has killed and every soul he has taken? There is a roaring sound and the light disappears within a second. The world returns to normal. Everything turns silent.

My eyes flutter a little, I am still dazed from the intense light... blinding light. I look around and see Nancy and Felicity on the ground... sitting up but just as dazed as I am. I then see Bo, her body lying across the grass, peacefully. I crawl as quickly as I can to her and carefully touch her face... she is not hurt, not at all but she is not awake. My other hand takes her neck and I stare at her... come on, Bo.

"Bo," I say quietly, "Bo, can you hear me?"

I stare at her face, see the rosiness in her cheeks, the warmth in her lips... and strangely.. I look at her, my eyes focus and I realise... something is different. There is a long blonde streak running through her hair, it isn't white, it isn't grey... it is just... blonde and towards the front of her head. How did that happen?

Her eyelids flutter and she stirs as if she has awoken from a long sleep. My hand wipes some hair from her face and I instantly smile as I look down at her. She is beautiful and definitely alive. I calm a bit. Nancy and Felicity are at my side in a second.

"Bo," I whisper, "Bo..."

Her eyes connect with mine after she looks around and registers where she is, she smiles, "Cynric... are you okay?"

"Fine. Are you?"

She smiles as I touch her cheek, "Fine... is it over?"

While everything can feel perfect, not all things are. I look around and see that the battle is still going on. There are less people standing than there were minutes ago. I return my gaze to Bo and I shake my head slowly. With the help of Felicity, Bo stands, and with the help of Nancy, I stand. The four of us look out over the clearing and that is when we realise it... the amount of Thornes standing compared to everyone else and us.

"There's no hope," Felicity says, our eyes still out in the clearing.

"What do we do?" Nancy asks.

"We have no choice," I say, "we have to fight. It still isn't over."

"We'll kill everyone," Bo says, "we have to retreat."

"If we retreat they will just come after us." Felicity says.

Nancy sighs deeply, "let's re-group. We'll figure it out from there. Gather as many people as you can, the only thing we can do is fight the Thornes off one by one, together."

We begin to move but Bo stays still. I turn back to look at her and I almost ask her if she is okay but I stop when I follow her gaze. She is staring towards the side of the clearing up ahead. Felicity follows her gaze too.

"Oh my god," Bo whispers.

At the side of the clearing, hundreds of metres away from us there are crowds appearing... humans on horses, armoured up, armed... City of Hargon flags are held from poles declaring the identity of the army.

Felicity looks over at Bo and I, "what now?"

I swallow and I curl my fingers with Bo's hand, "we negotiate."