Chapter 26

Archer woke in his bed, inside his apartment in Sol’s skyscraper.

The instant he remembered how everything had ended, he leaped out of bed and ran toward Anka’s apartment in a panic.

As he ran, he noticed that his space armor was covered in black soot. Parts of it had melted, while others had been completely destroyed.

“No, no, no!” he kept saying as he rushed into Anka’s apartment.

When he reached the living room, he saw Anka lying on the floor.

Parts of her body were charred. Her armor had partially melted, and her left arm was gone below the elbow.

Her helmet was black with soot, making it impossible to tell whether she was alive.

“No. Not this,” Archer said.

He crouched beside Anka and took her surviving right hand in his.

Immediately, he felt her fingers close around his hand.

She was alive.

But the melted armor had trapped her inside it, leaving her unable to move.

Archer tried to remove her helmet, but all of its fastenings had melted.

“Anka, can you hear me?” he asked.

She squeezed his hand a little harder.

“Anka, we’re going to get you out,” he said. “I’m going to check on the others.

“Wait here, Anka.

“We’ll get you out.”

Archer ran to Sol’s apartment.

Sol wasn’t there.

There were no traces of soot. No pieces of melted armor.

Everything looked as though Sol had never managed to teleport back.

“Damn it, Sol,” Archer said.

In desperation, he went to Galsius’s apartment.

The scientist wasn’t there either.

Archer tried to contact emergency services through his neural interface, only to discover that the device was completely offline.

He ran out into the spaceport.

The portal arch leading to Arkonia still stood there, but the portal itself was closed. Its magical glow had disappeared.

Several people were standing nearby.

“Help!” Archer shouted, running toward them. “Anka needs help!

“She’s trapped inside her armor. It melted, and I can’t get her helmet off!”

The people approached Archer.

One man said he was calling emergency services. Another asked Archer what had happened.

“I don’t know where Sol and Galsius are,” Archer said in a panic. “We were in Arkonia, inside the magical dimension.

“Something went wrong. There was a bright flash, and...”

Archer looked down at his ruined armor, his partially burned clothing, and the exposed flesh of his regenerated body.

“I’m afraid Sol and Galsius didn’t survive,” he said.

“I don’t think they survived.”

The thought of losing two of his companions made his stomach turn.

His legs went weak, and he sank to his knees.

Then he vomited.

The strangers helped him recover.

Emergency services arrived soon afterward.

Archer led the responders through the spaceport and into Anka’s apartment, where he showed them his immobilized friend.

“She won’t have a pulse,” Archer said. “That’s normal for her.

“Just get her out of the armor.

“Help her.

“Please, help her.”

The rescue team brought in a laser cutter and a portable X-ray machine.

After taking several scans, they used the laser to cut Anka’s armor apart piece by piece, freeing her from her metal prison.

When they removed her helmet, Archer saw that her face was covered in tears.

“Archer?” she asked.

“I’m here, Anka.”

He moved closer to her.

“What happened to Sol and Galsius?” Anka asked.

“I don’t know,” Archer replied. “They aren’t in their apartments.

“That means they didn’t manage to grab their Amulets of Return.”

“Archer, I think it was the magical advisor,” Anka said.

“I think he did this to us.”

Archer said nothing.

He thought about it.

Ignoring the rescue team’s warnings, Anka got to her feet.

She looked at the charred remains of her left arm.

Then she walked over to Archer and embraced him.

“You’re not to blame,” she said.

“You think it was Kronveld?” Archer asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Anka said. “The beam of fire came from him.”

“But... I thought he was trying to warn us,” Archer said.

“He shouted, ‘Back!’”

“Yes.

“And then he burned us with a beam of fire,” Anka said.

“I don’t understand,” Archer said.

Anka released him.

“Maybe he’s the mage from the prophecy,” she said.

“The mage and the deceiver.

“Maybe we were getting too close to exposing him.”

The rescue team began cutting the remains of Archer’s melted armor away with a laser cutter.

A doctor examined Anka.

Two police officers arrived.

“Archer,” one of them said.

Archer looked at them.

“We have several questions for you,” the investigator said. “There was an incident in the Kingdom of Arkonia that resulted in multiple deaths: five Arkonians, one citizen of the Four Crowns, and one Ankarian citizen.

“Since you were involved in the incident, we need to take your statement and establish exactly what happened.”

“Wait,” Archer said. “Galsius is dead?

“Do you know that for certain?

“And what about Sol?”

“Their bodies were not recovered,” the police officer replied. “But according to the only surviving Arkonian witness, Sol and Galsius were killed, while you and Anka teleported away from the scene.”

“And Kronveld?” Archer asked. “Is he all right?”

“As far as we know, yes.

“But at the moment, communication with Arkonia is impossible,” the officer said.

The police took statements from Archer and Anka.

They also requested access to their neural interfaces.

Archer’s interface was too badly damaged, but they managed to recover data from Anka’s.

With Archer and Anka present, the officers reviewed the recording of the incident.

A powerful beam of fire had indeed come from Kronveld’s direction.

The officers said this made Kronveld the primary suspect.

But Archer was also informed that he would face trial, since he had been the leader of the group and had endangered the lives of citizens of Trinity and the Four Crowns.

He was ordered not to leave Ankarian until the court reached a decision in his case.

Archer and Anka were issued new neural interfaces.

Archer asked the rescue worker operating the laser cutter to cut open the mechanical pocket on the left thigh of his armor.

That was how Archer recovered his brush.

A doctor asked Anka whether she wanted a robotic prosthesis for her left arm.

She said she wasn’t ready to think about that yet.

Afterward, everyone left, leaving Archer and Anka alone.

Anka walked over to Archer and embraced him.

She didn’t let go for a long time.

They stood like that for several minutes.

Then Archer and Anka received a group call through their neural interfaces.

It was Sol.

They looked at each other and immediately accepted the call.

“Sol?” Anka asked.

“Yes. It’s me,” Sol’s voice replied.

“Sol, where are you?” Archer asked, suddenly excited and overjoyed.

“Technically, at this moment I’m inside the servers located in the basement of our skyscraper,” Sol said.

“What are you doing down there?” Archer asked with a small laugh.

“I live there,” Sol said.

“Sol, we thought we’d lost you,” Anka said with a smile.

“You did,” Sol replied.

“The Sol who was with you at the moment of the attack is lost.

“I’m a backup copy of Sol.”

The smile vanished from Anka’s face.

Archer went pale.

Sol remained silent.

“So you’re not Sol?” Anka finally asked.

“Yes and no,” Sol replied.

“The Sol you knew cloned himself. He created numerous disembodied copies of himself.

“He did it more than a century ago, while you were inside the temporal sphere.

“He created them precisely for situations like this one.

“I and many of the other copies of Sol received regular updates from him.

“My most recent update was yesterday, when you and Galsius returned from the Four Crowns and left for Arkonia.

“So you can think of me as yesterday’s Sol.

“I’m an exact copy of who Sol was yesterday.

“I have no memories of what happened in Arkonia, but I’m aware of what occurred there.

“I’m ready to upload myself into a humanoid robot and rejoin you.”

Anka and Archer looked at each other, neither knowing what to say.

“You’re confused. I understand,” Sol said.

“I’ll give you some time to adjust to this news.

“When you’re ready for me to return, call me through the interface.”

“No, Sol, wait,” Anka said. “We’re ready for you to come back.

“Right, Archer?”

Archer nodded, unable to say anything.

“Sol, come back,” Anka said.

“We’re ready.”

“Understood,” Sol replied.

“Wait for me.

“I’ll be there soon.”

The call ended.

Anka playfully punched Archer on the shoulder.

“Archer, what’s wrong with you?” she asked. “It’s Sol.”

“It’s just strange,” Archer said. “The original Sol died, and we were talking to a copy of him.”

“Would you rather Sol had died without leaving any copies behind?” she asked.

“No,” Archer replied. “I just need some time to get used to the idea that there are a whole bunch of Sols living in the basement.”

Archer and Anka walked over to the elevator and waited for Sol.

Two minutes later, the elevator arrived.

The new Sol was inside.

He looked completely different from the Sol they had known.

This Sol had the body of a humanoid robot rather than a wooden mannequin.

When the elevator stopped, Sol stepped out toward his friends.

“Sol!”

Anka wrapped her arms around the robot.

“Hello, Anka,” Sol said, embracing her.

Then Archer stepped forward and put his arms around them both.

“Hello, Archer,” Sol said.

“Hello, Sol,” Archer replied.