The Four Corners

By W. B. Biggs

The world ended.

Out of its death a new beginning emerges.

Embark on a journey with The Emissary as he travels to the Four Corners of the Earth, wielding hope to resurrect a fallen world. Get ready for a mesmerizing tale of rebirth and redemption that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chaos Forge Press LLC
• Release date: Dec 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215492932

W. B. Biggs

Born on a lonely outpost nestled among the far reaches of the stars, W. B. Biggs grew up searching for cosmic space wizards. Looking for magic, he found it nestled safely between words. His wife and children remind him of the majestic magic that binds all reality together in a complex weave of beauty. He currently resides on an obscure branch of the great tree Yggdrasil which roots burrow deep into the Mississippi soil.

Book preview

Dedication

To God, and my loving family: Jennifer for whom I wouldn't have been able to write this book and Alistair and Evangeline. I love you all.

The End

The world ended. Out of its death grew a new beginning.

The First Corner

Sweat beaded against his face; the confines of his mask trapped the heat and moisture, fogging his goggles. The Emissary fought the urge to remove it. His hand twitched at his side. Only the fact that he knew that the air outside would kill in moments stayed his hand. The chemicals in the air would liquify his insides leaving his body to bake underneath the dying sun. His breathing came in ragged pulls; the filters needed changing.

Despair and loneliness were his only comrades; his steed lay dead miles back, his last companion. His task pressed down on him, constricting his chest. The silence was deafening leaving only his rambling thoughts to crowd his head like unwelcome in-laws.

He knelt, placing his gloved hand on the barren earth. A tentative tremble, little more than the brush of a butterfly’s wing, could be felt. Hope blossomed in his chest, a feeble thing that might die if not properly fed.

Yet, die it did not. It grew within as he trekked across the hard pan. The feeling was warm and unaccustomed, both pleasant and painful in its unfamiliarity. The vibrations grew, now strong enough to feel through the soles of his boots.

Thrusting out of the dry, broken earth to the west was a spherical protrusion of metal. The metal gleamed and shone as if new beneath the harsh rays of the giant, red, dying sun: a relic of an age lost and perhaps hope for a new age. The entryway barred all but the just. Engraved around the door was script written in the ancient language of man, lost to the masses since the fall of Babel. Yet still, the Emissary read it: And from the First Corner of the Earth shall the winds issue forth.

The Emissary removed a rectangular object from one of the many pockets that adorned his mismatched clothes. And with this Key, I will move both Heaven and Earth, he atoned. He slid the thin rectangle into a slot near the right of the door. Guided by Eldritch powers, the door split in two revealing the sterile insides of the structure. As the Emissary stepped in, the doors closed silently behind.

Dim lights illuminated the interior. Stark metal walls and floor fused into a single whole without seam or blemish. It reminded him of the bunker where he had grown up and all those that he had known there. His masters and friends now lay dead, rotting corpses that mocked the life they once held. Pushing these thoughts aside so as not to mentally cripple him, he surveyed his surroundings.

He found a panel inlaid into the wall near the door. Carefully, he peeled back the synthetic glove on his right hand. A sigh escaped his lips as cool air brushed against his exposed flesh. The pain he had feared did not come. The air was clean, safe.

Placing his fingertips against the panel, he cleared his mind to facilitate communication with the spirits that hopefully still resided within the ancient complex. Voices assaulted his mind, and he began to isolate them as his masters had taught him so long ago. He blocked out those that had turned to hate and those that sought dominion over his faculties. Soon, only the benevolent remained.

These spirits granted him insight into the Cage of the Winds. A dark twisted creature infested its Heart. It was clear that he would need to exorcise this vengeful spirit if he was to complete his task. The voices showed him the way to where the demon haunted the system. Dark and terrible, he could feel its hunger wishing to consume him.

The air is clean, breathable, the voices whispered. Removing his mask, the Emissary pushed aside wet hair that clung to his forehead. He dropped the mask which landed below the panel with a wet thud.

The vestibule led to a pair of doors with a single button depressed in the wall. His boots echoed with a strange cadence as he crossed the distance between; the acoustics of the room held a wrongness. Thump, thump, his boots hit the floor. Thump, thump... thump came the echo. The button flickered to life as the Emissary pushed it with one long bony finger. Its glow intermittently blinked as he waited. The silence stretched around him. Heavy. Oppressive.

The doors opened to reveal a tiny room designed for transportation. Rows of buttons filled the wall next to the door, a child’s playground. The voices had spoken of the button which would take him to the Heart: third column, nine down. Pushing the button, the room descended into the belly of the Earth.

The room’s descent accelerated as he went. If by some terrible twist of fate the ancient mechanisms guiding the room downward gave way, his descent would turn fatal. The Emissary pondered what awaited below in the Stygian depths. Unvisited by man in eons, the Cage of the Winds called to him.

The room slowed before coming to rest at the facility’s center. The doors slid open revealing the nexus of this ancient marvel. Wires and tubing ran to and from a large mechanical device, the veins and arteries of the facility’s Heart.

The benevolent voices had shown him a vision of a radiant Heart glowing with a purifying light. The vision had shown the past or the future, a juxtaposition to the one lying in front of him. The Heart glowed a sullen, angry red. It lay dormant and silent. Dark whispers from the malevolent demon inside clawed at his psyche. The time to perform the exorcism was at hand.

The Emissary pulled out an