A Fox in the Works Singularity Collapse By Fox Cutter Chapter Eleven 01/26/2000: I didn't sleep that night. I just lay curled up on the floor, not thinking, not seeing, just not doing anything. It was only as sunlight started to filter through a two inch high window at the very top of the wall that I finally pulled myself up off the ground. Looking out of the window I could see the central courtyard of the Palace, and the feet of people and horses as they moved around in the growing sunlight. I couldn't see much else, nor could I see an easy way out. I tried to clean myself up, brushing the dried blood from my face and relieving myself as well. It was reassuring to know that I couldn't get pregnant from what had happened, but it wasn't much of a comfort. Sitting down against the wall, I pulled my legs up against my chest and under my chin. "I could have gone my whole life without being raped again," I muttered, shivering a bit as the events ran through my mind once more. I forced them out, and tried to concentrate on better times, of Aster who was at least gentle with me, and of my times with Oriana. It helped, for a short time. I rubbed my eyes, wincing as the tip of my claw caught at the cut, opening it up a little. I let out a sigh and wiped the blood away as it ran down my nose. I looked up as I heard the cell door open, tensing my muscles and ready for anything. As the door swung outwards I saw King Alexander standing in the hallway, a smile on his face as he looked me over. "How goes the empire building?" I asked, my eyes narrowed as I glared at him. The young man smiled, "It goes well enough, thanks to you," he said. "I'm glad I could be of service," I told him as I pulled myself to my feet, not bothering to cover myself in front of him. "You going to let me go as thanks?" I asked knowing the answer. He looked surprised that I had even mentioned it to him, "Hardly. You're scheduled to be executed today at noon," he said with a smile. I snorted and wiped some fresh blood from my face. "You're so god-damn generous," I told him. "I know," he said with a smile. "You are causing me no end of trouble, but it's to a greater advantage. At least you will be known in history as the first homunculus to ever kill a person. Too bad no one will ever know how you broke your restrictions so thoroughly." I let out a sharp laugh and rolled my head back as more laughter rolled out of me. "I'm not a homunculus, I'm not even from this world, you asshole. I came here to correct a mistake someone else made, and I don't give a shit about you and your history. In a few centuries no one will know your name, or mine." He snorted and shook his head, as a disturbing smile spread over his face. "My name will be spoken till the end of time. When everyone and everything has turned to dust even the Gods will speak of me with awe!" I stared at the young man with my mouth open is surprise. "Are you crazy? Is that your problem?" I asked. Alexander shook his head and stepped out of the doorway. "Get it out of there," he ordered. "Stop calling me 'it'!" I growled as two guards came into the cell. I glared at them as they approached, not willing to fight them at the moment, not with how tired I was. "My name is Fox, and I'm a woman, a person. Not a thing," I declared. He looked a bit surprised at this, but then waved it off. "Get that _thing_ out of my sight," he said as the men grabbed my arms. I glared at him as they pulled me out of the cell, still naked and bleeding. I just let them drag me along, not having the strength for anything else. I was taken through a different set of hallways than I had been the night before. At least I thought they were different... it was hard to tell. Soon enough we came out into the courtyard and the bright morning sun. Comments fluttered around me as the people saw how I looked, but they were hushed as the King came into view. The guards dragged me through the courtyard to a rolling cage that was resting against one stone wall. There was someone already inside, an older woman, as nude as I was, who was huddling against the bars. Two more guards stood next to the cage, and pulled it open as I was brought towards it. With a quick shove I was forced inside, and the bars were slammed closed behind me. The woman in the cage with me started to cry, huddling tighter to the bars and covering her head. It was a small cage, and I tried to stay in the far side from her, giving her the room she wanted. A few minutes later a horse was hooked to the front of the cage, and with a lurch we were pulled forward. Three guards rode with us while the King lead the procession, Zain ridding at his side. We were wheeled through the City, moving directly from the Palace towards the main gate. People were watching us as we went past, some making comments about the King, or myself, but many others were silent. I saw Aster outside the gate a pained looked on his face as I went past, and I think he was crying. He obviously had a better idea about what was to come than I did. He followed along the cart as we were taken down the main road, only breaking away as we turned off the road and started up a narrow trail into a large grove of trees. The grove was five miles in diameter and sat out of place in the middle of the farmland. The trees wrapped around the trail as we moved deeper into the grove. The trunks were thick and lined the edges of the road, the branches knitted together to make a wall of wood. Undergrowth wrapped around the base of each tree, filling out the open space three feet high. There was no way to get off the road even if someone wanted to. "This place is just asking for a forest fire," I commented. I watched the trees go by as I scratched at the cut on my face. The fur around it was starting to itch, and it was difficult to keep my fingers off of it. The woman that shared the cart with me lifted her head, her eyes almost lost in the shadows that surrounded us. "What are you?" she asked. I sighed and gave her a long look, I could make out fresh cuts and bruises all over her body, but more on her chest and arms than anywhere else. "I'm a person," I told her. That seemed to satisfy her for the moment and she turned her head away and watched the passing scenery. I did the same, but I was looking at the lock on the cage and wondering if I could get it open some how. It was a simple lock with a keyhole that was disguised by layers of folded metal. I thought I could pick it, if I only had a tool. I cast my eyes around the floor of the cage. It was made up of wooden boards with nails every few inches holding them down. I started to move around the small cage, tugging at each nail I found. "What are you doing?" my companion asked. I licked at my fingertips, biting at a sliver in the pad of my index finger. "Trying to find something I can use to pick the lock. The nails in the floor are about all we have. If you can find a loose one, tell me?" I asked as I continued along the floor. She laughed softly, "Where would you go?" "I can't really go anywhere in these trees, but once we get through them we should be in the clear," I explained as I started to dig at a nail head that had risen slightly above the wood of the floor. The woman let out a sigh and shook her head. "I've taken this road before, but never like this. There is no way out of this forest, not for us." I snapped my head up to look at her, my ears twisting back slightly, "So they are going to kill us in here?" I asked. "Oh no, but in a few days we will wish they had," she said as she placed her hands on her face. I shook my head and returned to working my claws around the nail. "I'd rather get out of here than be left in these woods," I told her. She raised her head again to look at me, "You have no idea what they are going to do to us, do you?" she asked. "Not a clue," I told her as with a final tug the nail came free from the wood. I held it in my paws, looking at the blunt narrow piece of metal, thinking about how I could use it on the lock. She laughed again and looked out of the bars of the cage. "They are taking us to the Dominion Grove," she said. I flicked my tail at her as I bent forward to look at the lock, "I've never heard of it." "Not surprised, your kind aren't usually taught the history of the Church. The Dominion Grove is where the Dominion fell from the stars, it's where the first Holy Relic was found, and it's the gateway to the Holy Land," she said. I ran my fingers over the lock, searching out the keyhole around the folded metal. "Why isn't the Holy City here, then?" I asked. She laughed, "The King was here before the Church, and after the Fall he forbade the Church to be in the City or the lands around it." "I see," I told her as I found the keyhole. "Ironic that you're back in the same boat now, aren't you?" I said with a smirk. "I do not find it ironic," she said. I shrugged my shoulders and pressed the nail into the lock, working it inside and feeling out the mechanism. I really didn't know what I was doing, but a lock as primitive as this one was barely complicated enough to actually stay locked, and I've picked them before. The nail caught in something inside the lock, and I twisted it firmly, feeling it pull at the internals. With a harder pull I heard a muffled thunk as the lock opened for us. "There we go, a way out," I said with a smile. My companion shook her head and pointed to the front of the cage. "We have nowhere to go," she said. We were entering a large clearing, two hundred feet wide and perfectly round. The same tightly woven trees that had lined the trail also lined the grove, providing only the way we came in as a way to exit. A small stone pillar stood at the middle of the grove, looking weathered and forlorn on the leaf-covered ground. Our cart came to a stop a dozen feet away from the pillar, and two guards came forward to stand by the door to the cage. I pulled my paws back, holding the nail tight in my fingers, hoping they couldn't see it. "Not much time now," my fellow captive said as she looked up to the sun as it hung above us in the sky. "It's almost noon." I nodded, sitting back against the bars. "How are they going to execute us if we are going to wish we were dead?" She gave me a dark smile. "They are going to send us to the Holy Land," she told me. "Is that a metaphor?" I asked her, a frown playing over my face. "You'll see," she told me as she closed her eyes. I let out a long sigh and crossed my arms over my chest, letting my eyes drift closed. I could feel the long night starting to creep up on me, and let out a heavy yawn. A slam of the cage door brought me back to full awareness, my eyes fluttering open as I saw a guard reaching in for me. I let him grab my arm, and didn't fight as he pulled me free. I keep the nail held between my fingers. I landed hard on my ass, and was ungracefully pulled to my feet. I let the guard lead me along towards the stone pillar. My fellow captive was fighting the other guard as he pulled her free. The guard held me tightly as the King approached us, a smile on his face as he looked me over. "This is an honor for you. Homunculi are never sent to the Holy Land, so you will be the first." "I'm thrilled," I said, trying to lay on the sarcasm as much as I could. "Lady Sally," he said as the other captive was brought to the pillar, "this must be a different place for you." She threw her head back and spat at the King. Alexander turned to the side, deftly avoiding the glob of spit. "Well, it will grow on you." "This affront to the Church and God will not stand," she snarled. The King shrugged and turned away from us, walking over to the group of men and guards who were standing at the edge of the clearing. "You may proceed," he ordered. One of the men stepped forward, pulling off his shirt as he walked towards us. The guards who were holding us pulled us away, letting the man walked past us and to the stone. The man was a bit older than I was, and had scars crisscrossing his chest, some so old that they had faded to almost nothing, and others that were still bright pink. The scars ran up his shoulders and down his arms in long puckered lines. "Open the door," the King ordered. The scarred man nodded, walking to the pillar and placing his hands on the sides. He pressed his forehead against the stone, letting out a long breath as he started to chant. I could feel the power staring to build around him, flowing between his body and the pillar. His chest started to glow, lightning flickering over the pillar like electricity. As it danced over his chest the power cut at his skin, blood starting to well over him. Throwing his head back he let out a scream of pain as magic burst out over him, washing over his body in a wave of purple light. It flared out of his body like a pair of wings, then a stream of light rose from the pillar and arched back down to the ground. With a flare a sheet of magic formed between the pillar and the arch of magic. The sheet solidified into a twilight sky, with the outline of trees, and I swore I could hear the sound of breaking waves in the distance. The man stumbled away, his chest and arms bleeding profusely from a conflagration of shallow cuts. As he neared the horses he fell to the ground. "Put them through," the King ordered. The guard wrapped his arm around me, pulling me against his chest and lifting me off my feet. He carried me toward the gateway, and as we reached the threshold he shoved me through. I stumbled as I came out the other end as I found the ground level was different between each side of the portal. I fell about three feet onto cold sand. A moment later Sally followed after me, landing on my tail and bringing a yelp from my lips. "Goodbye," Alexander called as I pulled myself to my feet. I could see the clearing through the arch of light hanging in the air. Then with a flash it was gone, leaving us on the beach, alone in the starlight. She fell to the ground, letting out a long sigh. "We are dead," she said. I shook my head as I looked around the island we found ourselves on. "I don't know, we probably could survive for a while out here. I mean it's classic 'Gilligan's Island', but we can do it. It's probably not even an island, thought we are at least halfway around the world from the City," I said. "You don't understand. This is the Holy Land, we are not meant to be here as flesh, and we can not live here," she told me as she wrapped her arms around her legs. I shook my head, "Look around, this is just some piece of land on the far side of the world. We can live off of it easily." "We can't live off the food here, it's toxic," she said with a sigh. I frowned, looking back to her. "What?" "There is no food here, nothing at all. We can not live here; we are dead," she said in a whisper. I shook my head. "I don't know about you, but I might be able to eat the food around here. I'm not from this world, I have a different biology. Don't worry, we'll be just fine," I told her as I leaned down and placed my hand on her shoulder. I would quickly learn that I was wrong. * * * <> Rhea yelled as she pressed her head against the bars of her cage. "They executed them," Rodrick repeated as he dropped down into his chair, then dropped his head into his hands. "I tried to talk Zain out of it, but I couldn't stop them. Fox is as good as dead." Rhea frowned as she pressed herself against the bars, <> He sighed and shook his head. "They sent them to the Holy Land. It's a beautiful place, but it will kill them. There's nothing to eat, barely anything to drink. In a week they will be dead; it's how the Church executes heretics. They were already using it to kill the Highest's Wife, so they put Fox through with her." <> she said as she pulled away from the bars and started to pace around in her cell. <> The old man frowned and shook his head, "Three weeks? Why three weeks?" Rhea watched the Mage out of one corner of her eyes, <> she explained. "Three weeks then. I don't know the spell to open the gateway. It's been a secret of the Church for centuries. I might be able to derive one if I go to the Dominion Grove myself, but it would be suspicious," he said as he tapped his fingers on the surface of his desk. The lioness nodded her head as she stopped pacing and turned her gray eyes to him. <> she asked. "Not a lot," he said as he stood up and walked across the room to his bookshelves. Upon reaching them he started to run his fingers over the spines of the books. "It's old magic, the same sort that I use and it takes a lot of power, and a full year of your life to cast. Ah, here we are," he said as he pulled a leather bound tome from the shelves. He opened the book as he walked back across the room, "The pillar is the focus of the spell, and is the only component. It's a traveling spell. I don't know much about them, nor do I know the destination," he said to himself. <> she asked. Rodrick blinked in surprise as he sat back down in his chair. "Look at the residue... dissect a spell that's already run its course," he muttered, rubbing his chin. "I don't know, I don't think that's ever been done." The lioness let out a physical and mental sigh, <> she asked. "Never," he repeated as he started to undo the bindings of his gloves, "but if I can put a focus on the finished spell, like a lens... It would be difficult, spells vanish completely once they have run their course. On the other hand the gateway spell has been cast a thousand times in the same place, the same residue would be left after every one of the castings. Layering one over the other, it could make it significantly easier to track it," he said, starting to become excited. <> Rhea asked him. "It's possible, but it would take some practice... and I need to build the spells I would use to look at the other spells," he said, pulling his gloves free, and flexing his fingers. "It would take some time, a week, maybe two, and I could use the Sin Scepter to help me," he said with a smile as he picked the item from the top of his desk. The Second Holy Relic seemed to glitter in the light. The lioness nodded as she lay down on the floor of her cage. <> "Yes, it would be... it would be. I'm going to have to go to the Grove sometime in the next few days, once I learn the basics of the spell," he said as he looked at the jewels that covered the head of the Scepter. <> she told him. Rodrick frowned, and returned the Relic to the top of his desk. "It's not as simple as that, Rhea. I will probably have to make many trips to the Grove. If people see you coming and going with me, they will be suspicious. I will bring you with me when I attempt to open the gateway." <> she said, dropping her head to the ground, and watching him as he worked. To Be Continued... ----- This story is copyright 2005 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy reprints limited to one per person, all other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.