by AC Cobble
It was all very strange. The same creatures that tried to rend his flesh and consume his life-blood every time he saw them looked rather peaceful. Of course, they were a four-day walk from where these demons were and none of them could sense Ben’s party. Still, he started to grow uncomfortable looking down at the monsters.
Towaal left the view hovering over the Rift structure for several minutes but they did not see anything new.
Next, she moved over to the river that flowed through the valley and traced its source. Then she scanned along the rim of the ridges, which formed the bowl. She was moving quickly now, barely pausing before moving onto the next scene.
“What are you thinking?” asked Rhys quietly.
“This valley appears to be consistent with what we know about volcanoes,” she answered. “Clearly, it is not active, but we may be able to delve deep and uncover the original source of the geological structure.”
“And then?” asked Rhys.
“Then we try to open it up and destroy the Rift,” she replied.
By midday, Towaal had viewed whatever she needed to on the far-seeing device. She was ready to start delving the ground for sources of heat.
She moved up top with Amelie and the others followed. They had nothing better to do than wait. Ben shivered in the cold, but he had no interest in sitting in the chamber below by himself.
“This will be difficult due to the distance,” explained Towaal to Amelie. “Generally, you want to be as close as possible to what you are delving. Proximity improves your sense.”
“And what are we sensing?” asked Amelie.
“Heat,” replied Towaal. “It is challenging to extend outside of yourself even a short distance. This far away, it will be very difficult. At best, we will be able to detect basic sensations like heat or light. For our purposes, I hope to find an extreme source of heat. This far away it could be impossible but I am hoping the magma is so hot I can overcome the distance barrier.”
Towaal and Amelie both settled down on the rock of the butte, looking north toward the Rift valley. Ben and the others wandered around, looking over the edge and generally wasting time.
The mage and initiate had gone silent, focused leagues away.
As Ben watched, Amelie’s eyes flicked open and she glanced sideways at Towaal. He smiled at her. She caught his look in the corner of her eye then frowned and closed her eyes again, clearly not sensing anything that she was supposed to be.
For a bell, Ben paced nervously, waiting on Towaal to say something. She just sat quietly, though.
Corinne began walking next to Ben and whispered, “Do you think she’s really doing anything?”
He shrugged. “I hope so. After seeing the demons around the Rift, I don’t want to try to go in there.”
Corinne nodded. “I don’t have any experience with mages. She seems very, uh, domineering. Is that the right word?”
Ben snorted. “Yeah, I think that’s right. And if you think she’s bad, you should meet Mistress Eldred.”
Finally, Towaal’s eyes snapped open and she stood. She stretched to work out the kinks from sitting on the hard rock.
“Well?” asked Rhys impatiently. He was a man of action and sitting and watching Towaal ‘sense’ was quickly fraying his nerves.
Towaal answered brusquely, “I located a source of enormous heat and I believe it will be sufficient for our purposes. We are lucky, it’s already near the surface. I believe in a few decades, there would have been a natural rupture.”
“Decades?” asked Corrine
“That is a short period in geological terms,” explained Towaal.
“Will you be able to do it from this far away?” inquired Amelie.
Towaal pursed her lips then shrugged. “It will be difficult, but anything in this world is possible if you have the will to do it.”
“How—” asked Amelie.
“Beneath the ground,” said Towaal, “there are plates that cover this world. The plates are floating on hot, liquid rock. They shift and move over the course of tens of thousands of years. We need to move one of these plates a little quicker than that. When it shifts, I hope to open a rupture beneath the Rift.”
“Wait, do what?” asked Corinne.
Towaal looked at her stoically. “I’m going to try and make a bunch of extremely hot liquid come bursting up beneath the Rift.”
“Oh,” responded Corinne.
“But first, I must rest,” said Towaal. “We need to create a small nudge and speed up something that was going to happen in a few years anyway, but still, I’m not sure I will be able to do this. I want to be as prepared as I can be.” She started toward the hole going down into the butte then turned to Amelie. “I will need the disc you are carrying. The repository of power.”
Amelie nodded and followed Towaal down into the mountain.
Rhys sighed. “One more day on this rock.”
Ben nodded.
“Draw your sword,” said Rhys, sliding out his own weapon and backing up to clear space. “Let’s see what you can do with a mage-wrought blade.”
That evening, Towaal reclined in the corner of the room and thumbed through the notebook she had taken off the writing table in the bedchamber. Earlier, she’d glanced at the books she’d collected by the chair. She left those for later and perused the notebook.
Puffing on his pipe and fiddling with the crystal decanter they’d found, Rhys asked her, “Find anything interesting?”
“Maybe,” she replied. “I believe we were right. This room and the rooms below were created for the purpose of observing activity around the Rift. It could have been this Purple we heard about or someone else. The writing in here describes observations about the Rift. From what I gather, this log was started shortly after the Rift was created and continues for years, if not longer. It is short notes describing the Rift, but there are no dates and few points of reference. It seems to have been for personal use.”
Rhys set the decanter down and meandered closer to look over her shoulder.
“What did they observe?” he asked.
“This section here,” said Towaal, touching the page, “discusses demons staying clustered in the Rift valley. The author speaks about how they expected the demons to disperse once the food sources vanished—animals presumably—but they didn’t. It speculates that the demons are getting sustenance from another source, possibly the Rift itself.”
“How would that work?” asked Rhys.
“I’m not sure,” admitted Towaal. “From what we saw in the far-seeing table, the Rift is by far the largest magical device I have ever heard of. Who knows what energies it bleeds off and what affect that might have on those near it. I’m not sure how something so large could remain powered for so long. There is a lot we don’t know, but according to this writing, we are fortunate to not have tried entering the valley. The writer describes swarms of demons living within it.”
Rhys frowned and puffed harder on his pipe. He wandered off, letting Towaal get back to reading the notebook.
It started slowly. Towaal sat quietly again in the same place, looking north. The early morning sun kissed the peaks of the mountains in the distance and spread across the forest floor below.
The bitter cold of the night before faded with the coming of the sun, though the air still carried a painful chill. Ben kept his hands tucked within his cloak as they watched. What they watched for, he wasn’t sure.
The repository, the wooden disc, was resting in Towaal’s lap and she had one hand placed on it. Nothing happened visibly, but at one point, Amelie’s eyes widened, and her breath caught. Ben assumed Towaal was starting to exert her will.
Below in the mountain, the far-seeing table was set on the Rift, but so far, there was nothing to see. They were milling about up top, waiting on Towaal. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and froze in the cold air. She paid it no mind.
As Ben watched her, a smile played across her lips. He thought he heard something—a grating crack and b
oom from far off in the distance. It was muffled though, like something underground.
Rhys strode to the side of the butte, looking north. Minutes passed and nothing happened.
Finally, Towaal opened her eyes and declared, “I’ve done what I can.”
Casually, she tossed the repository over the side of the butte. It had crumbled into pieces. “It’s useless now.”
Ben blinked and looked at the vista in front of them. He’d expected something more dramatic. As far as he could tell, nothing changed.
“Did you, ah, do anything?” he asked.
“Watch,” said Towaal, pointing north.
Ben looked but saw nothing.
“Was that magic?” asked Corrine. “I thought it would be more exciting, like the lightning.”
Towaal shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint. Sometimes exertion of will is obvious, sometimes it is subtle.”
Another faint crack echoed across the open air.
“Something is happening,” said Corinne. She stepped on top of a knee high rock and shaded her eyes to get a better look.
Suddenly, another boom shook the air and seconds later, the ground. Corinne stumbled off her rock. Ben caught her arm. She looked at him, frightened.
“There,” shouted Amelie, pointing. A thin plume of smoke was rising into the sky.
Another boom and the butte shook again. Small rocks tumbled down the sides and the entire rock formation shuddered, causing them all to stumble.
“Is it safe up here?” worried Ben.
“It’s safer than climbing down right now,” asserted Rhys.
“Let’s go look at the far-seeing table,” suggested Towaal. “From there, we can see what is happening.”
They all agreed. The smoke was rising into towering black plume. It had already tripled in size from just a minute before. Ben eyed it nervously as they all clustered around and climbed down into the hole.
Loud cracks and bangs filled the air as they descended into the butte. Stomach-turning shudders shook the structure. Ben tried to ignore them and moved into the dark of the rock.
In the chamber, the far-seeing table was lit up with a vision of the area surrounding the Rift. At first glance, nothing appeared to have changed. Then Ben saw a shadow in one corner of the table and pointed it out.
Towaal shifted the view and a third of a league away from the Rift, they found smoke pouring out of the trees. They watched as more and more smoke billowed up from an unseen source. Then a tree burst into flame and they all gasped. Ben involuntarily took a step backward. Tree after tree ignited like lantern wicks.
Now in addition to the smoke, steam from the snow-covered ground wafted into the air. Their view was obscured until a gust of wind whipped away the steam and smoke. They saw an orange red glow creeping across the ground.
“It’s working,” breathed Towaal.
“You weren’t sure?” asked Corinne.
“The theory was sound,” muttered Towaal, “but theory is just that—theory. I knew we didn’t have another choice.”
The perimeter of the steam was expanding rapidly. Towaal adjusted the view again, trying to circle the area. It was difficult to see what was happening underneath the cloud.
Finally, she gave up and shifted to the edge which was closest to the Rift.
“What’s that?” asked Corinne, pointing to one section which hadn’t yet been obscured. Between the trees, they could see motion.
Unable to bring the view closer, Towaal centered on the area Corinne had pointed out.
“Something is moving under the trees,” she said.
“Demons,” answered Rhys. “They’re running from what you unleashed.”
“But that can’t be demons!” objected Corinne. “Look, the movement is almost constant. For that to be demons, there would have to be…” she trailed off. For it to be demons, there would have to be hundreds of them.
“Look at the Rift,” suggested Ben. “It was clear of trees there. We should be able to get a better view.”
Nodding, Towaal swiped her hands over the table and they were observing the Rift again.
Now, there was nothing they could see in the clearing except the stone circle.
Tension filled the room. Black shapes poured into the clearing and Corinne let out a hiss. The creatures streamed around the Rift like water bursting from a dam.
“We expected there were a lot of demons in that valley,” said Ben anxiously.
“Yes, but…” Towaal didn’t need to finish. As they watched, a constant flood of darkness swelled out of the forest and moved past the Rift into the trees on the other side. Hundreds then thousands. They kept coming.
They watched for half a bell until the smoke and steam started intruding on the view. Flickering light from burning trees peeked out between the swirls of smoke. Towaal moved her hands around rapidly, hovering from side to side. She was looking to see if the magma flow was making its way toward the Rift.
Finally, the last line of trees surrounding the Rift clearing burst into flame and the tail end of the black shapes vanished into the opposite tree line.
With less smoke from the burning trees, they could see the creeping line of magma flow into the clearing. All activity in the room stopped as they watched in silence. The bright orange and red wave of heat approached the Rift.
“Hopefully this works,” mumbled Rhys.
Ben shot him a look to see if he was joking, but his friend kept his eyes on the far-seeing table.
Minutes passed before the slow-moving mass of liquid reached the base of stone. The magma, as Towaal called it, flowed around the structure like honey pouring into a pan. Ben leaned forward, looking for any visible change in the Rift.
“I don’t think…” started Corinne.
Then they all jumped back from the table.
A brilliant blue web of lightning arced across the Rift. It was odd watching it, since no sound transferred through the far-seeing table. Ben imagined it sounded like a violent thunderstorm.
Silver-flecked smoke started to boil off the stone and the blue lightning became intense. They all watched as a subtle lean became more pronounced. The stone started to sink into the magma below it. Through the far-seeing table, the vision didn’t seem real to Ben.
Lower and lower, the stones dropped. The silent lightning grew increasingly violent. Soon, Ben could no longer see the stone and only saw crackling blue energy surrounding it.
“What will happen when it gets completely melted?” wondered Ben.
Before anyone had time to answer, the far-seeing table cracked across the middle and flickered into blackness. The stone lights in the room exploded, showering them with hot shards of rock. A razor sharp spike of pain raced through Ben’s body. His eyes watered with the sudden, unexpected blast of discomfort. Heartbeats later, a loud snap sounded through the butte and Ben stumbled back from the table to his knees.
He was frozen on the floor as excruciating waves of pain raced across his body. It radiated from his head and pounded through him in rapid pulses. Minutes or hours passed, he couldn’t tell. The only thing that existed was the excruciating blanket of pain.
But finally, with each heartbeat, the pain slowly faded. He took a gasping breath and kept his forehead pressed against the stone floor, waiting for the agony to subside. When he was finally able to open his eyes, he saw Corinne was sitting next to him, gripping her head with both hands. She was lit by the meager fire left in the hearth. All of the other lights in the room had gone out.
Across from them, he saw Lady Towaal’s boots and legs prone on the floor. He stumbled up and staggered around the table to find her lying on her back, eyes open staring sightlessly at the ceiling. A trickle of blood oozed out of her nose.
Amelie crawled over to the mage, wet streaks coursing down her cheeks.
“What happened?” croaked Ben.
“The spell around the Rift broke,” mumbled Amelie, pain lacing her voice.
“Her senses must have still been extended
,” rumbled Rhys, shuffling over to tend to the mage.
“Is she okay?” worried Ben.
Rhys stared back at him.
Ben looked down at Lady Towaal’s body. Her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, but other than that, she was completely motionless.
“Never mind,” mumbled Ben apologetically.
“Maybe with rest she’ll be okay. Like before,” suggested Corinne.
“We don’t have time for that,” remarked Rhys. “We need to leave. Now. Get your things.”
“What?” exclaimed Ben.
“The demons,” choked Amelie.
Rhys nodded. “We just saw what had to be thousands of demons fleeing that magma. Towaal thought they were in the valley because they somehow fed on the Rift. Their source of sustenance is gone now.” Rhys paused. “Thousands of them. What do you think they’ll do?”
“Oh, shit,” Ben cringed.
Getting Towaal’s unconscious body to the top of the butte proved easy, but once they got there, they had to pause. They didn’t have rope and needed to scale down a wall that was twenty-man heights above the ground.
After a brief consideration, Rhys used his and Towaal’s cloaks to rig a sling for her that he hung off his back. Ben was given Rhys’ pack to carry down. He tried to think a way out of it, nervous about carrying both from such a height, but asking one of the girls to do it was too big a blow to his pride.
“You go first, Ben,” suggested Rhys.
“Wait,” interjected Corinne. “What about the magic armor and mace? I was promised a fortune by Rhymer when I get back, but that stuff is worth…I don’t know how much it’s worth,” she said with her hands on her hips. “A lot of fortunes.”
“You want to go down and get it, carry it up here to the top, then climb down this mountain holding it?” asked Rhys with one eyebrow raised. “Not to mention the three-week hike back to Northport carrying twenty stones of extra metal with a few thousand demons on your heels?”
Corinne frowned.