Infernum

Several hours passed before Alex could pull himself out of the fog that enveloped his mind after Hope fell. As he began to come to the realization that she had actually fallen into the Infernum, his first feelings were of anger as he realized he would never see her again. He jumped to his feet and began screaming at the ground where Hope had fallen. He tried desperately to open a porthole to the Infernum; His ribbons emerged from his back and formed a circle as they energized with surges of power, but it was no use. The power of Alex’s ánimam seemed almost infinite, but it had its limits and the Infernum was just too deep in the earth and his ánimam did not have the power on its own.

After several obviously futile attempts Alex gave up on the idea and acknowledged that there was a good reason he could not enter the Infernum on his own. He took a pause from his efforts and realized that the cold air on this mountain top was actually starting to hurt his hands and especially his face so, knowing his futile attempts could be made from anywhere on the planet, he opened a porthole back to his house. A quick step through and he found himself in his living room, alone once again.

***

Alex sat on his couch unable to get Hope off his mind; it was becoming increasingly clear that at this moment she meant more to him than he would ever admit to anyone, especially himself, and the thought of never seeing her again was almost too much for him to bear. Alex’s eyes began to well up a little bit as he thought of Hope alone in the dark being burned alive. As he thought more and more on the subject a single tear formed on his bottom eyelid and rolled down his cheek, still stinging from exposure.

“NO!” he yelled out loud as he jumped up off of the couch to his feet. He declared that he would not let this end, not now, not like this. Despite his best efforts at avoiding any resemblance of a serious relationship, Hope meant too much to Alex for him to just give up without a fight; whether it was the connection they shared through the ribbons or perhaps something more profound, Alex knew they had something worth fighting for. So with that notion in mind, he began to think of ways to get to her, to save her from all the horrors that were looming in the back of his mind.

He knew that the daemon came to the surface through a manmade hole, but he did not know where. He knew if a daemon could fit through the hole, so could he; but again he did not know where it was. And he also knew that if he did go into the Infernum, the insane amount of heat would most likely kill him instantly. So he would need to get a protective suit to withstand the heat but from where? He closed his eyes and concentrated on the problem at hand. At first, he thought of the Infernum itself, and then his ánimam told him of the Infernum in a very technical sense.

“The Infernum; a prison founded and created by the lords to hold the invaders of Caelo and will forever keep the daemon race from attacking our home world again. Created from a small class III planet, a 12-mile-thick crust was created over the entire surface of the lava planet to be the perfect barrier to keep the daemons contained therein for all time. The newly formed surface of the planet was then seeded with life to act as a second security barrier and alarm system in the event of a breach.”

The ánimam inside of Alex also showed him images of the Infernum at various stages of construction including some data on its size, weight, and temperature. Although much of the data seemed to be incomplete or incoherent, Alex saw in his mind for the first time in human history the earth, his beloved home as it originally was. The earth had no solid form on the surface, just an endless sea of ever-flowing lava that moved like currents. The only hint of solidity on this ball of magma floating in space were small islands of rock that seemed to float around aimlessly and occasionally bumping into each other, usually causing one or both to sink back into the lava below to be reclaimed by the lava. A quick comparison by modern means would easily confuse this raw earth with either one of its two sister planets closer to the sun, Mercury or Venus. Alex then thought of materials that could withstand the several thousand degrees of heat inside the Infernum, a place that would surely resemble the picture of Earth that his ánimam just presented to him. He thought of tungsten steel, ceramic plates, and even asbestos, but nothing would do.

Alex then thought of Hope’s armor. And it was not long before his Ánimam gave him all the data he could ever need on the subject. He heard his ánimam’s voice in his head once again.

“Royal Armor… Made of Inmutatio Nanite technology or INT that came about from the great Caelo rebellion of 01-142, it is both a means of protection and a badge of honor given to a royal guardsman upon completion of his trials. This special nanite tech is made from the rarest substance in the universe and has the ability to absorb incredible amounts of energy, especially heat energy from particle weapons that the rebels were using at the time,” the ánimam informed Alex in its usual technical manner. Alex then asked for information on where the armors were created or kept.

“INT armor stock is stored in the secure vault located beneath council chambers. Individual armor is custom created from these nanites by a lord upon completion of the trials. Access to the armory can only be granted to a lord after the trials are completed,” the ánimam noted. Alex thought on it for a while before deciding that information was utterly and completely useless to him as there was no way he could gain access to a suit of royal armor.

He left his living room and went into his kitchen to get a bite to eat as he often did when he was deeply depressed. He checked the refrigerator first then the freezer before he settled on a bowl of ice cream. He pulled the ice cream out of the freezer and set it on the counter before he leaned on the counter with the bowl between his arms to gather his thoughts. His head filled with images of Hope, the daemons and everything else that had happened; it did not help matters any that every time he started to think of something his ánimam showed him pictures of it as well as giving him every bit of information on the subject. After a few moments, Alex looked up at the ice cream container on the other side of his bowl and spoon. He began to read the carton to take his mind off of things when he noticed that the handle of his spoon was blocking out some of the letters on the carton. As he stared at the words on the bottom of the container the letters began to blur out of focus, all but a select few. An L here and an A there was all it took for Alex to remember the word Lamia. As he looked at the letters something stirred in his mind. Lamia, he thought, where do I know that from? He thought some more and then it hit him as his ánimam showed him a playback of Hope falling into the Infernum. Lamia was what Hope had said to him as she fell.

Alex immediately accessed his ánimam’s database, asking for all the information on the word “Lamia”. It did not take long for his ánimam to reply.

“Lamia… The planet of the Caelo rebels after they were exiled for starting the great rebellion of 01-142.” Naturally, the next question was about the rebellion of 01-142. His ánimam soon gave him the following information.

“In the 142nd year of the first millennium, after Caelo was saved from the invading daemon army, a group of rebels formed around the belief that Caelo should rise against our saviors the lords and take over the rule of the entire planet for selfish reasons. This belief nearly destroyed the planet as opposing sides battled for control; the lord sympathizers on one side believed they should honor their deal with the lords for saving them and the rebel fighters on the other believed the lords had been in charge long enough. After nearly a decade of fighting it was the lords who gave their sympathizers the secret to the nanite technology that the rebels had been working on and eventually won them the war. After the rebels were defeated it was proclaimed that they would forever be exiled from Caelo to the planet Lamia where they would never see their home again.”

Alex tried to access more information on the planet Lamia but there was simply none available. It seemed that the exile of the inhabitants of the rebellious planet was permanent and they had not been able to have any direct interactions with the people on Caelo since the rebellion.

Even an ancient race of people shrouded in mystery could not detract Alex from the prospect of getting Hope back; he was prepared to do anything and everything in his power to be with her again, even if it cost him his life. He almost got a grin on his face as he thought about the opportunity he now had to rescue Hope. If there was anybody in the galaxy with the knowledge and technology required to break into and out of the Infernum, without getting burned alive, it would be the people of Lamia. After all, they were around when it was created. Because they were so elusive and had no affiliation with the lords or the royal guard, Alex thought they could be trusted not to tell. But one question remained in his mind… Would they help him?