by Dixon, TJ
“Elves aren’t the only servants of the Fallen Angels.” Lucy reminds me as she floats towards me.
“Put me down.” I tell the elf carrying me, who happily does so. Lucy lands on my shoulder as soon as my feet touch the ground.
“Me too.” Sor tells her elf, who seems even more eager to do so.
“You should take power from the elves again.” Lucy says with a frown. “We may face even more powerful enemies in the mines and tunnels. We will need to enter them sooner or later though, so this is an ideal opportunity to do so without having to go through the temple. We will need to rely on our earth senses to find our destination, so I will lead us once we are down there.”
“I know the way.” Kai says and surprises us again. She pauses a moment as if choosing her next words very carefully. “I’ve been down there before, so I may as well lead the way. The entrance is just over there I think. Follow me.”
We follow Kai and soon find ourselves at the entrance. The smell is much stronger here. It feels almost like a dark aura covers it, but that must be my imagination. It is a deep square shaft lined with grey stone bricks and with one rusty iron ladder. The entrance is just a square hole in the ground with one layer of bricks extending up out of the hole. I can’t see the bottom.
“Take their power now.” Lucy tells me.
“Ok, all of you kneel.” I tell the elves and they quickly get down on their knees. The ground is hard so it must be a bit uncomfortable, but they are too tall for me to reach their mouths easily whilst they are standing. I could have them just crouch or something but this is probably easiest.
I kiss the first elf and am shocked by how much power she has. It flows into me like a furious river even without my pulling it towards me. She knows she has to give me her power and I am sure she doesn’t want this to last any longer than it has to. It takes a few seconds and then the flow stops. I check and she is definitely almost out of power. Taking more would put her life at risk.
I move onto the second elf and only now do I realise just how similar her face is. I kiss the second elf and her power flows into me just as quickly as the first elf’s power did. I quickly move onto each of the other elves and soon I have more power than before we fought. As I look closely at each of them though I realise they all seem exactly the same. At a distance they just seemed similar and when I took power from them before I was in a rush so didn’t pay any attention to their appearance.
“Why do you all look the same?” I ask unable to hold back my curiosity.
“We are wind sisters.” They all say at exactly the same time. I am about to ask more when Kai gasps.
“There are enemies approaching us. Perhaps fifty or so drake riders. They will pass close by here in a few minutes, so we should hurry. There is shielding magic at the entrance, so they aren’t going to detect us if we are down there.” Kai says urgently.
“Kai, you lead the way.” I say and as I say it Kai starts to climb down. “After Kai I want Dairon and Hinata. Follow now. Then our prisoners. Then Sor and Emi. Then me and, Nico Na, I want you last to guard us from behind.”
“Are you going to be alright climbing with just one arm?” Lucy asks as I approach the entrance. The last elf has just started climbing down.
“If there is shielding I can use wind magic, right?” I ask with a grin.
“As long as you don’t overdo it I suppose it should be fine, but you’ll need to be below the shield before you use it.” Lucy says cautiously from my right shoulder.
“I should have gone first. Then I could have just jumped down.” I say realising my mistake. It is my turn now and I am going to have to be cautious. I stand there a moment thinking that this isn’t going to be easy, but then Nico Na grabs me by my waist and lowers me down. I gasp in surprise and Lucy seems just as shocked, but grateful I use wind magic to further lower myself slowly down the shaft. Then Nico Na clambers down and Lucy flies down landing on my shoulder. We are all now below the entrance’s shield so we should be safe from the enemy above.
I am glad I don’t have to use the rusty old ladder. Even with two hands it wouldn’t be pleasant. Even though we have only just started climbing down I can hear Sor quietly cursing below me about how her hands hurt. It may use a small amount of my power to float down like this, but it is worth it. I think everyone else other than the elves, who have been drained of magic, can use flight magic. So if it does break it shouldn’t be too bad. I can always catch the elves with my own flight magic.
The smell gets stronger the further down we go and as we get further from the entrance it is getting too dark to see. Then Hinata uses her now familiar enchantment on a small stone, which she places on her forehead. She keeps it there with magic and its purple glow helps light the way so we can see much clearer now.
I’m not sure how long it takes to reach the bottom, but it feels like forever. Finally we do arrive at the end of the shaft though, and everyone quite gladly jumps off the ladder. The smell now is sickly sweet and overpoweringly smoky. Nico Na looks extremely unwell now and all the elves, Dairon included, look a little sick too. It is actually hard to breathe. I would clear the air but the smell would just rush back at us the moment I dropped the magic.
We are in a long dark tunnel that stretches in both directions much further than the soft purple light reveals. I can feel the stagnant air stretching out in a straight line almost as far as my wind sense will allow. The tunnel is high enough for me and Hinata but everyone else has to crouch.
“There’s a room over there we can use to rest. Follow me everyone.” Kai says walking towards a square stone door that I hadn’t noticed. It is wide enough for three people to walk through at a time.
It is only a few feet away, but was behind me until a moment ago. It seems to have magic shielding, because my wind sense should have easily picked it up. Kai opens the door and reveals a soft white light glowing from the centre of the room. The room has a much higher ceiling than the tunnel. Like the shaft but unlike the tunnel it has those grey bricks lining the floor, roof and walls. It is easily big enough for all of us to fit in and as the door closes behind us the smell is instantly gone. Other than Kai we all take deep breathes and soon only Nico Na seems to be feeling unwell.
“Is it going to be like this the whole way?” Nico Na asks with obvious dread in his voice.
“No.” Kai says with a sympathetic smile. “It will get worse until we reach the main storage hall, but once we are past that it will get much better quickly. The dwarves abandoned the ore there, but nobody else knows how to use it, so it just lies there.”
“How far away is this place, and can’t someone just port us past it?” Nico Na asks sounding very unhappy.
“Perhaps an hour’s walk, depending on how quickly we walk. Porting is very dangerous down here because of the mana ore.” Kai says.
Nico Na looks grim but it could be much worse than an hour. I suspect that Sor could port us, but I am concerned that might be detected. Also it doesn’t sound like it is a good idea for Sor to use magic if she doesn’t absolutely have to. She doesn’t seem to be volunteering either so I think she must agree.
“What ore is it?” Lucy asks sounding very intrigued.
“Mana ore.” Kai says and Lucy looks puzzled. “It was used by the dwarves to craft enchanted armour, weapons and tools. They used it in buildings too, but it had to be something really special. They used some when they built the original temple, where the Kuroneko’s temple now sits. There may be a few rooms that still have dwarven enchantments. Perhaps a healing room or the old shrine might still be there.”
“I have heard of healing rooms in the temple.” Nico Na says with a frown. “I was never told the temple used to be a dwarven temple though.”
“It was built to honour the spirit of the mountain.” Kai tells him.
“How do you know all this?” Nico Na asks sounding a bit suspicious.
“My father is a dwarf.” Kai says and I blink. I’m not the only one who seems shocked, b
ut I am the one who voices it.
“I thought dwarves looked like human children. Even if you are only half dwarven, wouldn’t you still be shorter?” I ask.
“I take after my mother, though I am stronger than most humans.” Kai tells me with a grin, but then she frowns and says. “Dwarves don’t look like human children though. Sure, they’re the same height, but that’s the only thing they have in common.” Lucy laughs and then looks at Kai seriously.
“So what do they look like?” Lucy asks and there is clear suspicion in her voice. Kai doesn’t seem offended though.
“My father is the only dwarf I have ever seen, but he has a very long white beard down to his waist. He has more muscles than anyone else I have ever seen. His eyes are black. Pure black without a drop of white. His skin is leathery and cold. His teeth are made from processed mana ore.” Kai says and she sounds happy as she tells us about him. “He is a very good man, who would save a stranger even if it meant dying.”
“It seems dwarven men and women are very different then. Did he never describe a dwarven woman to you?” Lucy asks.
“He never spoke about other dwarves, though he spoke about dwarven accomplishments and history many times.” Kai says with a frown.
“It is very rare for a dwarven man to be seen by a human. It wasn’t always like that, but I have never seen a dwarven man, so I assumed they were the same as dwarven women.” Lucy says and she pauses for a moment as if deep in memory. “Dwarven women are very much like human girls, except for their incredible magical abilities and their ridiculous fighting prowess. Dwarven men are meant to be very good with enchantments, alchemy and crafting, but it is normally the women who fight. Of course even a dwarven man can easily kill most humans one on one.”
“Are dwarves more powerful than elves?” I ask.
“It depends on both the elf and the dwarf.” Lucy says with a shrug. “The dwarven kingdoms of old were at one time considered invincible, but so were the elves. This was just a small dwarven outpost. Their homeland is much deeper into enemy territory. The enemy have a barrier world similar to Portalis that we would have to conquer to pass through to most of their worlds, including the ones where most dwarves lived. We have never even come close to taking it. The dwarves there held out for a long time even when most elves had been conquered. For a long time it was assumed they could hold out forever even when their worlds were completely surrounded.”
“My father always said dwarves were much stronger than elves.” Kai says.
“I was always told elves were stronger.” Dairon says sounding a little confused.
“Most elves would say that elves are stronger, but most dwarves would say it is dwarves who are stronger.” Lucy says with an amused grin. “They never did get on.”
Chapter 15 (Multiple)
(Ara Kii)
I finish chanting and the miko is now completely healed. She is the last one. I look at her pale sweat covered face and see her admirable strength of spirit and mind. No matter how strong she is she can’t hold out forever though. We are alone, but the magic binding her is much greater than anything I can use. Even if I could release it we would never escape from the temple. Besides, where would we go? Evading an elf in a forest is impossible. We would be instantly spotted on the mountains and even the tunnels, villages and mines below are controlled by the enemy.
She doesn’t even look at me. She just lies there unmoving staring blankly at the ceiling. Her soul is still intact thanks to her spirit clothing. If the elves succeed in corrupting or breaking her soul it will weaken the Kuroneko far more than simply killing her would.
Perhaps it would be a mercy to kill her. All I would need to do is place my hands round her neck and strangle her. Perhaps I could kill the others too before anyone realises. The Kuroneko would surely forgive me if it was to save the miko from being corrupted, wouldn’t she?
“How boring.” The elven girl says suddenly standing behind me. I turn and see a pale skinned human girl standing next to the elven girl. The elf boy is there too. The human girl is probably about fourteen and has cool blue hair down to her shoulders as well as blue eyes. Like the elves she has an evil grin on her face. It is the human who speaks next.
“Let’s make things more interesting. Either you can torture her, or I will torture you. Either way you’re going to the mines afterwards, boring human. So which will it be?” The human girl asks with a big smile.
“Torture me.” The miko says in a firm voice. They are the first words I have heard her say in this room, but I shake my head.
“Torture me.” I say, but my voice trembles. I don’t want to hurt the miko, but I would much rather torture her than be tortured myself. My torturing her or the elves doing it isn’t really that different. Monks are forbidden to touch or harm a miko though, unless you are her soul brother. Nothing they do to me can be worse than what the Kuroneko would do if I tortured one of her miko just for the sake of saving myself.
“It seems he’s more scared of the Kuroneko than us!” The human girl laughs. “We’ll have to show him how silly that is.”
(Wind Sister)
I am sitting against the wall with my sisters, glad to be away from that awful smell. I am not looking forward to walking through it as it gets worse for another hour or so, and even then it isn’t going to be instantly gone. The catman has a much better sense of smell than I do, so I don’t know how he is going to cope.
If our people find us as prisoners they will kill us without a second thought. If they don’t we will remain prisoners until our captors decide they no longer need us, but I fear we will be killed when that time comes. All I can do is hope they spare our lives. The humans and others are sitting against the opposite wall and the catman is sitting against the wall between us, staring intently at the grey stone door.
“Why do you all look the same?” Peter asks. It is the second time he has asked. He is asking me, not my sisters so I must answer.
“We are wind sisters. We were not born but forged with magic. We were forged at the same time so we are the same.” I tell him.
“How?” He asks looking very surprised.
“For each of us, nine humans were sacrificed, soul and body, and merged together by magic to form a wind sister.” I tell him. Shock is written all over his face. Perhaps he will kill us now out of anger, but if he does, there is nothing I can do, so I just sit here waiting to learn my fate.
“Who created you like this?” He asks sounding angry, but he doesn’t seem to be directing his anger at us.
“The Envoy.”
“The more I learn about the Envoy, the more I want to kill it.” Peter says with utter disgust. “It’s not your fault though, so there’s no need to be scared. I’m not going to punish you for what the Envoy did.” Killing the Envoy is impossible, but I don’t say anything. He stares at me for a few moments and then asks another question. “What’s your name?”
“I am wind sister three of group twenty six. I am normally just referred to as three.” I tell him.
“Do you not have a name?” He asks sounding rather shocked.
“No wind sister has a name.” I tell him.
“Do you mind if we name you?” Peter asks with a frown. I blink.
“If we return to our people we will be killed even without a name so I can see no harm in it.” I tell him.
“Then we’d better not return you to your people.” Peter says with a frown. “Dairon, choose a name for each of them. Make sure it’s something simple that we can easily pronounce.”
“It is unusual for a wind sister to have a name, but ok.” Dairon says with a frown. After a minute staring at me he says. “You are sisters so you should have the same last name. You will be Val Aer from now on.” He then looks at two and says, “Kal Aer.” Then he looks at one and says, “Ral Aer.” Four becomes, “Sal Aer.” Five is now, “Dal Aer.”
It seems strange to have a name and not just a number. I will burn our names into my mind as they are the first thing
we have ever been given simply for the sake of giving. I notice Lucy, the small winged human staring at me intently. Seeing I have noticed her stare she looks me in the eye.
“Is it true you would be killed if you returned to your people?” She asks.
“Yes.” I answer.
“Is she telling the truth?” Lucy asks Peter.
“Yes.” He says with a nod.
“Then your fate is tied to our own. We will take you with us if we escape, so helping us means you are more likely to survive. Would you like to fight for us?” Lucy asks.
“Fighting other elves of our tribe would go against our very nature. It is impossible for a wind sister. The Envoy made sure of that when we were forged.” I tell her shaking my head.
“What about against monsters and non-elven enemies?” Lucy asks.
“That would be possible, but if are drained of magic we cannot fight.” I tell her.
“Don’t worry, it would be dangerous for Peter to keep draining you, so you just need to wait for it to recover. He will need to drain your power when he uses his own though.” Lucy tells me.
“Then we will help you when we have power and it isn’t against other elves.” I answer for everyone. There is no need to ask my sisters, because I know what their answer would be.
“We should move on soon.” Lucy says and then looks at the catman. “Nico Na, are you recovered?”
“Yes, but it is going to be difficult.” He says sounding grim.
“Peter, maintain an air bubble around Nico Na’s head. If we are attacked you’ll need to drop it, but whilst we are just walking it should be fine. Everyone else will need to just put up with the smell.” Lucy says.
(Peter)
The tunnel roof is much lower now and we have to crawl through it. Back at the academy I could compensate with magic so I was pretty much used to having only one arm, but even something as simple as crawling through a tunnel is much harder with one arm than it would be with two. We have been crawling for a while now and the smell is much worse.