If Nuriel’s flames were not crackling, the makeshift tomb of the cavern would have been completely silent.
“You have no idea what you have done, Melchior. You did exactly as Viper had wanted. Elementals were not meant to be killed and you have disturbed the Dream as the All-Souls boy had,” Nuriel chided, his voice cold with barely checked anger.
Indeed, in the world below, the continents quaked and all felt the aftershock this time. The old gods’ fingers twitched now and huge pillars of rock shot out of the ocean. Their heads shook fitfully and the seas swallowed the ships upon them. Nuriel did not know if this would be the end coming now, but the disturbed world settled again and he did not hear the old gods’ voices, a sound he would recognize even billions of years from now.
It was Dinsch’s voice that cut through the cavern next and he had appeared from around Nuriel, a little singed but unhurt, heading for Rienna.
“Can… the world exist with one of the elementals gone?” Dinsch croaked out, his eyes wide with fear.
Nuriel’s face was grim. “The Dark Fount will dry out; the world is already dying but… we may still have time before they wake.”
Dinsch headed towards Rienna mechanically, stooping to pick her up from her broken doll pose on the floor.
“Do not touch her!” Melchior had roared, stopping Dinsch in his tracks, Rienna’s eyes clearing from the shock of it.
Dinsch listened, but his words were defensive.
“She’s not an illusion, Melchior. We can’t just leave her like this,” he pleaded.
Melchior wobbled to his feet and walked over to her. He stood above her and her eyes sluggishly pulled away from the inky puddle of Ashe’s remains to meet his and they mirrored each other’s pain. When he squatted down, their eyes did not break the gaze. He held out his hand and waited.
Rienna’s eyes dropped to his hand and she whimpered as she used her abused muscles to raise her arm enough to place her hand in his. He kissed it now and his lips lingered there for a long moment before he raised his eyes and met her eyes again. He placed her hand back into her lap and very carefully picked her up, cradling her like a precious babe and he stood and started out of the cavern the way they had come in.
Dinsch, Nuriel and even Sea Star followed them out wordlessly and when they stepped into the sunlight, they all winced as if it burned their eyes. Melchior said nothing as he walked towards one of Elcarim’s many ponds and walked directly into it, gently rinsing the blood and filth from Rienna. He concentrated on his task and Rienna left him to it without objection. The others watched, unable to break the silence. It was Melchior that finally spoke.
“Sea Star,” Melchior said as he poured water from his hands into Rienna’s hair to rinse it. He had not looked to see if she was there, but he would have made Rienna summon her to kill her next if she had dared to abandon Rienna now.
“I am here,” Sea Star answered with odd obedience, perhaps sensing Melchior’s dangerous mood.
“This armor will not do. She is a warrior and a queen and should look as such,” Melchior ordered her now.
Rienna’s eyes looked to Melchior again but he did not meet them. Some part of her had worried that his anger would turn on her, that he would blame her for Ashe’s death, but… Ashe’s death. The words rang in her head with finality and as Sea Star’s magic raised her up and altered her armor, she wailed in anguish and sobbed with all of her heart and soul. When she was deposited back in Melchior’s arms, she curled up in a fetal position and shook and cried until she passed out.
Her garb was no longer scant and girlish; it fit to her form without being cumbersome, a pale blue silken cloak flowing from her shoulder guards, most of her skin covered by silver just barely tinged with pale blue. Ashe’s scimitars were etched into her breastplate and two silver winged combs held her hair elegantly away from her face. She was beautiful and feminine, but deadly and formidable, torn by grief or not.
“The old gods will wake,” Sea Star said with finality.
“Our time is short,” Nuriel agreed. The elementals glowed now and odd runes, alternating between fire and water, appeared in a huge circle around where the group stood.
“You are protected from Elcarim’s illusions as long as you stay in the circle but you will not be able to stay here forever,” Sea Star told them now. “Take the time to rest and regain your strength. Pierait and Lyria await in the beacon but we have no doubt that the one called Viper will be waiting for you as well. If you do not go to him, he will come to you.”
Melchior and Dinsch nodded, still unable to speak as the elementals vanished.
“We make camp,” Melchior stated the obvious and Dinsch nodded again. Dinsch did not object now as he gathered their packs and set up camp alone as Melchior held Rienna.
She wept. She did not have a physical body, but She could weep in her soul. She saw the devastation on the world below Elcarim and wept for the countless fragile lives lost there, but it was the death of Zephyra’s child Ashe that hit her the hardest. The girl called Rienna had found love again and had it ripped away from her and by a shade that had looked like her dead husband, no less. Like Rienna, She did not think that the shade was entirely Belias, but better than thinking, she simply knew. The rotten soul of Erised had existed in that vessel. She would have liked to tell Rienna that Belias did not hate her, but it would have been a lie. The sweet boy he had been was twisted with regret and despair and bitterness in death and it had not been entirely Erised’s venom that had made him attack her. She would have liked to comfort Rienna but all She could ever do is watch.
She saw that Viper was watching too and he had greatly enjoyed the game Erised had played, although he had been disappointed that there had been survivors. That cave could have been the grave of half of his adversaries and this would make it a little more difficult for him to have to wipe more of them out himself. This fact pleased her, however, and She did not want Viper to have any satisfaction. It was times like this that made the watching near unbearable.
She knew that the point of no return had been reached when Melchior had let his rage destroy the shade. He did not know that killing that one would make the others wither and die, make the founts of darkness run dry and those humans with the affinity would die as well. They were on borrowed time now and the old gods were waking soon, dream or no. She did not know what else Viper had in store to further accelerate their waking but She tried with all her might to will herself into some kind of existence that would offer salvation. As yet, her efforts failed but She did not give up. There were no consequences for trying.
Chapter 4: Light Up My Life
The illusions that tormented Finn were not as horrifying as the ones his companions faced, but they were certainly not less cruel. Several times, he had walked into the scene of Verity and Krose embracing like lovers, kissing passionately or even tangled in flagrante delicto. At first, he had been confused. As beautiful as Elcarim was, tensions were high and it certainly wasn’t conducive to passion, this whole rushing to stop a man who was trying to end the world thing in the way. Once the shock faded, he was just hurt to see them kissing and was nearly killed in the first incident when he stepped forward to confront them. What he thought had been Verity had twisted bizarrely into a demonic creature and had attempted to decapitate him. He had narrowly missed the barbed tail and drew his own bow, shooting arrows at the two of them as they burst into dust. It had shaken him up but that was simply too easy.
He had stood there, breathing heavily and shook the disbelief from his head before grabbing up the dropped staff and gathering his bearings.
The second time he saw them together, he saw them making slow gentle love to each other and illusion or not, it squeezed his heart harder. He did not know if he could believe it was them or not. He had never said anything about his insecurity that Krose might charm Verity, had seen the easy way they got along, and it was never his immediate thought that this place might have access to that. He approached carefully and
when they noticed that Finn was there, they had looked ashamed and they gathered their clothes. Verity had been apologizing profusely and Finn’s heart sank by the moment, but then what had been Krose but was now a twisted wolf-like creature had knocked him onto his back, laying open his cheek. Before the thing could damage him further, he drove his staff into the creature’s throat and it burst into flame. The creature that had been Verity similarly burst into flame when he shot an arrow into it. They might be illusions but attacking anything resembling his friends unsettled him more than he anticipated.
When the third incident happened, what appeared to be Krose and Verity were fucking quite roughly, Krose sodomizing her cruelly while she laughed and told him to go faster and drive harder. Finn only hesitated for a moment before he shut down in stone cold rage and ended them with arrows, scattering them into piles of dried leaves.
After so many hours of running into these cruel illusions, Finn did not even stop and simply slew them, but his mood grew more sour and dark with each step. Now, as the staff led him south, it also drew him a bit closer to the beacon of light although slightly to the west so he was not veering from where he wanted to head once he found them. He wondered if he should be more careful about his anger; if he saw either of them in earnest or especially together, he might react before realizing it was them. However, while the illusions taunted him with a cruel Kama Sutra, he was certainly in no mood to stop the slaughter.
Krose and Verity had woken after some time, as well rested as Lumina had promised but the anxiety started to creep back as they made breakfast and shared polite bits of conversation in an attempt to divert their thoughts. They had taken to holding hands for comfort, at Verity’s wordless grab for it, both of them on constant alert as they travelled cautiously through Elcarim. It was hard to believe that this beautiful place was one so steeped in wretched horror.
Although, Lumina had said the illusions would not hit them so hard that they would ‘need time to gather again’, both of them would jump at the slightest movement on the sides of their vision. It never turned out to be anything but they were never comforted by that knowledge. In truth, it wasn’t Elcarim’s illusions at all but some quick stealthy little machines that Viper enjoyed tormenting them with. Elcarim didn’t really act quickly enough to suit his need for fun.
Viper was in a foul mood, having only witnessed one of their group dying in the shade’s trap (quite marvelously though) and he fully intended to toy with the thief and the desert bitch for a while that day but by day’s end, he planned to slaughter the two of them. The way they held hands and kept their conversation light was rubbing him bloody raw.
Over the hours they headed towards the beacon of light (and Finn had noticed that the light of his staff was veering that way too), Viper was growing tired of just playing on the edge of their vision and sent one swooping past Verity’s head. Verity had leapt into Krose’s arms fearfully and Viper had intended to send in his death machine but the game got interesting on its own when Finn had seen them and drew an arrow that flew by Krose’s head, only missing its mark because Verity had jerked Krose off-balance and knocked them to the ground.
Krose had noticed the arrow before Verity did and shot to his feet in a defensive stance, needing to quickly dodge another one that Verity did see this time.
“Finn! What are you doing?” Verity called out incredulously, but Krose pushed her behind him to guard her.
“No, Verity, this has to be an illusion. We know what you are, illusion!” Krose called out.
However, this Finn was not an illusion and he scoffed with cold amusement and nocked another arrow.
“Nice try, asshole; you tried that ruse once before and I almost fell for it,” Finn countered, drawing back the bowstring.
“Wait, please, Finn, don’t do this!” Verity called out desperately and Viper was salivating at the taste of death in those moments. “Please, if we were false, then your words would banish us!”
Finn calmed enough to consider it. Viper began to seethe with rage as he watched him lower his bow slightly. He did not speak at first but then he lowered the bow and held out his staff.
“Move to the east until I tell you to stop,” Finn ordered. Verity grabbed Krose’s arm and pulled him to do so.
Finn watched as the light dimmed when they moved away and the staff glowed brightly again when he pointed it at them.
“You are an illusion,” Finn said now, knowing that saying that would remove the last shred of doubt, though feeling silly that dispelling evil was as simple as something you might find in a nursery rhyme. However, this place’s illusions wouldn’t be in any child’s storybooks.
Krose made to strike but Verity held his arm tightly and Finn put his weapons away, still not looking relieved. “Why were you two embracing? The illusions kept showing you two as lovers.”
Verity was stunned by Finn’s accusation but she knew what the illusions were capable of. She stepped forward, not daring to embrace him yet.
“The… illusions… have left us cowards, Finn. His led him into an orgy where they attempted to cook him alive and when the illusions vanished, he saw that he had been… violating a rotten carcass. My illusion was you carrying that staff and you… the fake ‘you’ tried to kill me. Before you shot at us, something flew past my head and I had lost my nerve. You know I would never take another, Finn, please be at ease. And surely not in this evil place!” Verity said, tears streaming down her face.
Finn wanted to embrace her but the part about something flying past their heads before his arrow did bothered him.
“What flew past your head other than my arrows?” Finn asked warily, his sharp eyes darting around suspiciously. “This place is sleeping so nothing outside of very deliberate illusions should be flying past…”
Viper had been frothing with insatiable fury that the deadly situation had been averted and the fact that there were three of them to contend with now seemed like no coincidence to him; three pawns to make up for the three that the shade had not killed. He would remedy that now. He cursed himself for letting them speak at all rather than hammering in the panic.
The machine that crashed through the trees now and shook the ground, landing close to them, was a towering version of the death gauntlet that had greeted them in Myceum. It was a horrific metal monstrosity equipped with spinning, pulsing and swooping blades that headed directly towards them now. It would be impossible for Krose and Finn, even with their elemental gifts to take on this thing alone and Verity could not really fight in close combat, but she would not be a coward now. She turned herself invisible and hoped like hell this would work.
Verity grabbed onto Finn to turn him invisible too as he dodged the impossible number of blades coming at them.
“Finn, guard us with the Mother!” Verity pleaded and he ran away as swiftly as he could and did so at a safe distance, wondering if she was leaving Krose to die with this plan, already looking like he was faltering.
“Krose, we are protected! Shine like the sun!” Verity shouted and Krose also did as she said immediately.
The blazing light did not melt or stop the machine, but she hoped that whatever controlled the thing would be blinded by it.
“Finn, you have to disable it from behind its head; you’re the only one that can reach! I will hold your protection, now go!” Verity said, pushing him towards it.
Finn flew behind the thing carefully, Verity’s Mirage making it possible for him to see beyond the blinding light. He could not find what she was talking about and had to dodge the flailing blades as he searched it. He found a kind of indent in the seamless structure and smashed his bow into it. He was greeted with a series of grinding, squealing noises as the machine seemed to be malfunctioning. Finn escaped to a safer distance, grabbing up Krose and then Verity and flying in the direction of the beacon. He had flown a great distance, but not quite far enough, the blast of the machine’s explosion knocking them out of the air. It was a painful landing for all of them, but
still they survived.
From their location on Elcarim, Melchior and Dinsch could see the blazing light and then the explosion and hoped that it hadn’t claimed any of their friends. Neither of them thought that it would be a good idea to head that way. They were in between that blast and the beacon and they had no doubt that if their friends had survived it, they would be meeting up with them in another day or so. Rienna still slept and neither of them could find any good reason to wake her. Rienna was not the only one to miss the show; Lyria still slept undisturbed and Pierait was in his trance, hoping his friends would be there before Viper lost his patience.
Krose’s arm was broken but Verity was very careful to set it, splint it and make a sling. It would have to do since none of them could heal it. Even Yggdrassl had been too overtaxed to do such a small thing; she was weak on Elcarim already and even if she could appear here, her fruit could not. She promised she would return once she could gather her energy. She admitted she was hardly an endless fount. However, there was an unspoken warning there that the Mother might not be ready in time for the world to end—they mentally prepared to do without her.
None of them had been willing at this point to stop and rest; as soon as Verity had seen to Krose, they started towards the beacon again. Verity did not like how distant Finn was being and could see that he did not want to elaborate on those illusions that had almost brought him to kill them. She wondered how far the damage went, for he certainly did not plead for forgiveness or bring it up at all. He had keep to himself as they walked and Krose had chosen to hang behind them at a distance as well. Verity knew she could not let this go on too much longer. She wondered if he might even be afraid of what the illusions might use with his friends beside him now.
“I will be glad to put this place behind me…” Verity tried, her voice cracking from the effort.
“The old gods are waking; it may be the last place we ever see,” Finn gritted through his teeth uncharacteristically and this angered Verity to a sudden spurt of courage.
The Truth about Heroes: Complete Trilogy (Heroes Trilogy) Page 56