The Ashen Wrath (Watty's SHORTLIST recipient 2018) CHAPTERED VERSION

*58

Waking up in strange places had become almost routine. I wasn't strapped down, but my body was heavy and my head was spinning. My limbs seemed reluctant to respond to my commands. My vision was failing.

"Get it together, Danth!" said a new voice. It was so familiar. "If you don't at least pretend to have some coordination, you're not going to survive another day."

"What?" I croaked.

"You're resisting! Just let go. It's the only way."

"Who are you?"

"Shut up...assignment incoming," whispered the voice. "Empty your damn head."

The voice was too informal to be Privus. It seemed to be trying to help me, so I did as instructed—relaxing my muscles and my mind. Something took over my body, moving my limbs for me. I did my best not to panic.

I shuddered as a blue light washed over my face. My vision had returned, revealing the world through a hazy portal.

My body was hovering a few meters off the floor, inside some immense chamber within the Obsidian Tower. No, not hovering. I could still feel the hint of my feet on the slate below if I concentrated. Nothing made sense.

A green orb of light flashed in my face, accompanied by a loud buzz. An ovaloid screen lowered from the soaring ceiling. I felt myself pivoting to stare at it, although it hadn't been my decision.

The tower's keeper was no longer obscured by shadows. He looked just as disinterested as his voice had sounded. His eyes focused on me. "Unit 1104. Status report."

"All systems nominal," I said for some reason. "Subsystems engaged. 98% power. Functioning at 61% sync."

"61%?" asked the disembodied head, sounding disappointed. "Spare the High Lord, that can't be right! Revise sync report. Now."

I had been instructed to empty my mind, but I was still clinging to the edge of a void. I finally let go and felt myself sinking until only a glimmer of my existence remained.

"Functioning at 97% sync," I said.

The head groaned. "That's better. Glitchy hunks of trash. We used to have 1,000 pilots, Newbie, now we're down to 20. Sync gets worse every day. If Sheln can't fix the tower's failure rate, they'll run the High Lord out of The Walled City on a rail."

I said nothing.

The head pinched his brow. "Why am I talking to you? I must be losing my mind."

Again, I said nothing.

"Unit 1104. Assignment Zone 18. Leave at once."

"Yes Sir." I swiveled around, feeling an enormous sense of momentum as I stomped out of the tower onto the grassy plain. Two stilt striders were walking in lockstep on either side of me.

Yet again I was being carried by a stilt strider.

No. I was a stilt strider.