Within the Seal

Time passed. Still, she hated, but that hatred had changed. Changed targets, changed in scope. Her fury had passed, slowly drained away by the chains of mana anchored to this portion of her bloated and corrupted soul.

She hated herself, and she hated the Elder.

And that hate blossomed further as an innocent Gnome screamed, his soul bled away into somewhere else, someone else. Sucked away by the enchantments Darisen had built around the seal. It grew further yet as another Gnome was fed to the enchantment, then an Erlkin. The lost lives quickly blurred together, a small tapestry of horror to match her own in tragedy, if not scale.

She hated Darisen, for in his own small way, he had become much like her.

Unnamed Tal

“Tal!” Nolsa screamed.

“Nolsa!” Tal yelled back as he fell from sight.

He dropped through the floor and into darkness, landing on something hard a moment later.

“Uck!” Tal grunted out as the impact drove the air from his body. The ground under him shook as something landed nearby. Tal fumbled with the darksight goggles, trying to see in the darkness.

The ground shook under another heavy impact, and then light arrived.

“Devourer!” Darisen shouted, his voice shrill will pain.

With the burning Elder came sight. Tal stood on a ring of wood centered in the open chamber. Guarding the edges of the ring platform were thick rails that now served the purpose of holding the whole thing together. And another impact of falling ceiling hit the ring and broke a far walkway leading to the wall of the chamber. Tal had seen this place in Alexan’s memory of Darisen manipulating the enchantments.

But now it was so dark.

The Elder dropped through another massive crack in the floor; a severed arm stuck to his belly was the only sign of what had been Perkay. The lashing fire continued to wrap him tighter, even as Darisen fought back with tendrils of dark mana to fend off the fire.

[Neat,] commented Alexan.

The black and burnt face of Darisen was horrific, and his shrill laugh of pain didn’t help the image. Half of his robes had burnt away, and his left arm was cooked through, black and cracked. The staff in his right hand had shattered, leaving him with a broken sceptre of twisted aether wood.

Darisen waved that sceptre at Tal, throwing a blinding, slithering lash of white mana at Tal. Tal only managed to stand up before the whip wrapped itself around his stomach.

To Tal’s surprise, the fire burning away at Darisen started to crawl up the whip towards Tal.

[Neat!] Alexan commented again.

“Is that all you’ve got to say!” Tal shouted at the voice in his head.

[Just eat it,] Alexan replied. She barely even considered the whip a threat.

Tal grasped the glowing strand of light and pulled. He quickly discovered there was nothing simple about ‘just’ eating this mana. The thick mana, still full of purpose, stuck to his veins like sap. It filled him with energy and also caused his nerves to fire with sensation. The sudden buzzing of his arm blanked Tal’s mind. It was like he’d slept on the limb, but so much worse!

[Oh yeah, I suppose you work differently,] Alexan observed. [It’s really been a while, you know?]

The experience was terrible, but Tal managed to pull it off. The light in Tal’s hand dissolved, and the whip leading back to Darisen followed suit, the fire puffing into nothing after it.

“Not done yet!” Darisen croaked, falling to his knees and pounding his scepter into the walkway, smashing the floor along with it once again.

The floor fell away, throwing Tal sideways. He only just managed to hold onto the railing next to him, the spinning floor leaving him hanging by his left hand.

“How?!” Tal yelled.

[Oh, he’s doing what Perkay did. Darisen is sacrificing his life to his seed, forcing it to sprout in order to pull more power from it. If it makes you feel better, it’s quite fatal.]

“That doesn’t make me feel better if it’s fatal for me too!” Tal shouted back.

[I suppose that’s fair.]

Tal gritted his teeth and grabbed with his right hand. The moment his hand wrapped around the railing, he was reminded again of the slivers he’d acquired. An involuntary shout of pain passed his lips, but he held on.

“... Done…” Darisen said, one last time. Unlike Tal, Darisen had slid into the railing, leaving him hanging loosely on the wood. His left arm had burnt away until only bone was left, and much of his robe was gone, revealing his charred body. With the last strength left to him, his right hand rose and touched the platform. The sound of the resulting crack shook the room.

“Tal!” shouted a voice from above. Nolsa hung over the edge of the floor above him. Just over her shoulder was Seft, holding onto her to prevent her from following Tal down.

“Don’t come!” Tal shouted back.

The wood snapped and broke. The platform fell, and Tal went with it.

Tal dropped.

[Ah, the taproot, they had to clear it out for the source pillar that made the barrier,] Alexan informed Tal, seemingly heedless of their descent. [It narrows towards the bottom, if we’re lucky, this platform will get jammed!]

Darisen’s burning body was above Tal, the flopping of his dead limbs dragging on his fall.

Tal tumbled as he fell. This time he was able to pull the goggles up over his eyes.

He could see what looked like the end of the taproot. It did narrow at the bottom, but it was coming up so quickly.

The platform spun lazily about as it fell, and the edge of it bumped into Tal. He responded by flailing about until he was holding tightly onto the railing once again.

Just in time.

One end of the platform struck the wall of the taproot, sending it turning and almost throwing Tal from his hold. It hit again and ended up spinning Tal head over heels this time.

Then it caught. The remaining half circle caught the walls, but the rapid fall meant there would be no easy stopping. Large fragments of wood broke away as it ground against the inner surface, only slowing the fall. They were approaching the end. The platform suddenly stuck, spinning the walkway slightly and throwing Tal from his handhold.

He closed his eyes.

A pair of hands caught Tal, and an unfamiliar voice shouted out in pain as Tal jerked to a stop. Unfamiliar, a voice he’d never heard.

And yet one he knew intimately.

[Oh? Who is this?]

Tal opened his eyes and looked up. Looking back at him and holding his right hand, an Erlkin girl his age, beautiful, although her face was currently lined with the strain of holding on to him.

A ball of flame sizzled past them, and Tal saw no more of the thing that had been Darisen.

Alamia dragged Tal up far enough for his left hand to grab the railing.

The walkway shifted, and they both jerked in place.

“How?” Tal whispered.

She had more leeway with Tal carrying his own weight. She smiled and then answered. “You had to close your eyes,” Alamia explained. “We’re borne from the shadows after all.”

“Oh, I forgot that part,” Tal admitted.

More wood fell past them. A large chunk struck the side of the platform, turning it flat and dragging Tal partially onto the platform. Smaller pieces of wood impacted the platform, some of it bouncing off, some embedding themselves. Tal looked at Alamia and then had to immediately look away. She wasn’t wearing anything!

Tal looked up into the distance and gaped as he saw the pedestal come loose from the cracked floor above them. It immediately started flipping over and over as it fell. It wouldn’t be long until it hit their temporary refuge.

[You see that?!] Alexan shouted in his head.

Tal flinched, and Alamia looked at him. “Who was that?” she asked.

“The sealed one,” Tal answered. “Breaking the seal meant taking her with me.”

[Don’t mind that! Look!] Alexan interrupted. [The Sentinel!]

Tal didn’t see it, but he felt it.

Alexan was linked to the Sentinel, the created mind a part of her prison. She could feel the last fragment of it coming down. And since she could feel it, Tal understood. It was the wooden bird. Tal had left it next to the pedestal, and with that coming down, so was the body.

“Do you think it’ll work?” Tal asked.

[It’s your only chance. You’ll have to grab it!] Alexan replied. [No pressure, I’ll live one way or another.]

“I’m not sure I like her,” Alamia groused.

[It’s okay, I barely like me.]

Tal stood on the platform, throwing out his hands for balance as the thing wobbled underneath him. He looked down and realized he could see land in the distance. Solid ground, with a glittering that seemed like water. He looked back up and moved to the edge of the broken platform.

Above them, the pedestal platform cracked as it struck an inner wall, throwing fragments and shrapnel around.

“We’ll have to jump, of course,” Tal told Alamia as she joined him.

“You know, this is a pretty inconvenient place to end up as a newborn,” Alamia replied.

“I promise, it wasn’t on purpose,” Tal said in return.

[I could have saved Tal by himself, you showing up just makes things more complicated, Alamia,] Alexan added unnecessarily. [You’ll just have to listen to my orders. I’ll make sure you both live, but I’ll need your mana to do it and that bird as a focus.]

“I won’t blame you if you don’t get along,” Tal said to Alamia, still carefully keeping his eyes to himself.

There was no time for more words.

[Jump!] Alexan ordered. Tal and Alamia jumped and left the taproot behind as they fell through the open air.

[Hold your limbs out wide, fall flat!]

Like a pair of squirrels, they held themselves flat. Tal could feel the drag. Shards of wooden floor drifted past them.

[Lean right, and forward.]

A piece of wood tapped Tal on the head.

[Ahhhh,] Alexan sighed, then pulled on Tal’s mana. Tal reflexively pulled on Alamia in return. Alamia’s reaction was clumsy at best. She could do little more than just allow it to happen, which did little to help transfer mana passing through her hand.

Tal felt the talons of the bird dig into his shoulders. Prompted by a wisp of thought from Alexan, he pulled Alamia into his arms, holding her tight to himself. The movement allowed Alamia to turn around, and she wrapped her arms around Tal.

There was a flap of feathers, and a blur of darkness and their descent slowed. Tal felt the talons pierce his flesh, and he grunted with pain.

Suddenly, falling became gliding. Having found her equilibrium, Alexan slowed her pull of mana to a trickle.

With them gliding, they left the wooden debris behind.

Tal looked ahead of them and gasped. He’d never seen anything so far away and never so much.

Spread out around them were great valleys filled with trees and giant luminescent blue, green and purple mushrooms. Poking up from the peaks of the hills were spires of rock, and in one deep valley, Tal could see the glitter of running water.

“It’s so pretty,” Alamia sighed into his ear.

Tal twisted his head to look up and gasped again. As below, so too above, the valleys rose up into a vast ceiling of rock, with huge shelves of mushrooms lining the massive stalactites that might as well have been upside-down mountains. Great pillars of rock joined the ceiling of the colossal cave with the floor, more mushrooms growing along the surface of those pillars.

And spread out in regular intervals, shining crystals that glowed with bright, warm light. The crystals shined bright, casting shafts of that same light upon the forest below. The incredible cave continued into the distance, only the connecting pillars of rock disrupting Tal’s sight.

Alexan shifted and started circling, banking away from the vast forest ahead of them.

Tal got his first distant look at the roots of Linumbra’s hollow home. The roots twisted together and stuck out at all angles. He’d always known it to be as much or even more of a forest below the tree as compared to above, but seeing the sheer size of it from a distance was a whole other thing.

The tree’s taproot pointed down directly at an island below, the lonely little forested piece of land utterly surrounded by deep dark water. Outside the lake were more trees, more mushrooms, but also more than a few clearings. Clearings that Alexan had clearly spotted as she adjusted her black wings to carry them down to the openings in the foliage.

Alexan flapped occasionally but failed to gain any height. Tal could feel the strength starting to leave her borrowed body.

Alexan broke their reverie. [Ahhh… free. You know, it’s been at least seven hundred years since I visited the inner continent of Linavrone; I wonder what’s changed! But first, let’s find a spot to land.]

End Chapter