by D. M. Almond
CHAPTER 21
Elise sat alone in her drafty prison cell, mulling over the loss of Lady Cassandra. She was trying to understand why this had happened and how it could be better for the kingdom. Trying to rationalize the insanity of it all, to somehow put it in the perspective of the Elders, who must surely have the best interest of the people in mind at all times.
Her mind kept wandering back to Corbin. What would he do if he saw her locked away in a cell like some criminal? She imagined what he might say to the Elders to free her, how he might handle her accusers and make sense of the situation. She had really messed this one up, not seeing through Lady Penelope’s ruse. But why? What had she done to deserve the noblewoman’s ire?
Elise wished Corbin was there more than anything else in the whole world, to help her understand what was happening and hold her tight. Whenever she thought about Corbin, she found it hard to breathe. It had already been twenty-one days since he left, and the Council had made it clear that she would be the next execution should he not return with Logan by the week’s end.
Again her mind wandered to what he would say to the Elders when he returned, how he would react to the news of her treatment by Fafnir. She could almost hear his voice in the back of her mind.
Elise…
“Yes, my love,” she whispered, imagining she was speaking to him.
“Elise…”
She spun her head about in shock. The word became an actual whisper in her cell! What trickery could this be? Was she losing her mind? Had the insanity that gripped the capitol found its way into her own heart?
“Corbin?” she tentatively asked, thinking she must be mad indeed.
“Elise.”
The word tickled her neck, sending chills down her spine.
Corbin’s mind had wandered the wastes of Vanidriell in search of his love. He refused to go into the light, stubbornly committed to warning her of the dangerous truth first.
“Elise, my darling.” Waves of emotion rocked her, simultaneously resonating his deep affection and profound sorrow. “I am…I am dead.”
Elise sobbed, hearing the words she had dreaded since he first stepped outside the city.
“Do not cry, my dear,” Corbin said softly. “You must listen. I do not know how much time I have.”
Elise nodded, choking on her anguish.
“It was Baetylus. He murdered me…the Great Crystal is a lie.”
Elise gasped, her senses reeling at the proclamation. “But…I do not understand. What you mean? Why would the All-Father murder you, who have long been a devoted follower to his teachings?”
Feeling that words could not adequately express his message, and not knowing how long he had left, Corbin reached into her mind, using the psionic energy he was wrapped in to communicate to her through images.
Elise sucked in her breath and snapped her eyes open wide. Her head cocked back toward the ceiling as her eyes rolled back in her head. Corbin’s memories played across her vision. She watched the All-Father reaching out to teach Corbin, to guide him along the path and save the people of Riverbell. She saw his long trek through the wildlands, his encounters with Logan, his journey into the ruins of Ul’kor.
When Corbin’s soul was forced from his corporeal form, snuffed by Baetylus’ overwhelming psionic mastery, he had locked minds with the Crystal, if only for an instant. That fraction of an instant was all that he needed to see the truth of its past.
The Crystal was created by the goodly gnome clerics of Ul’kor as a way to bring the astral powers to Vanidriell. Their intentions were noble and pure: to help create life in some of the uninhabitable caverns, to make plants grow and help animals survive. The Crystal was their crowning achievement, and the king of Ul’kor praised the clerics for its creation in a lavish ceremony.
From the time Baetylus was born, it could sense the beings around it. It tried to communicate with them but none would talk back. So it sat alone in the light, able to hear the world around it but never participate. Over time, the Crystal gave itself the name Baetylus and longed to live life like those it served. It watched as humans fled to Vanidriell from a power on the surface they could not match. It felt pure sorrow when the gnomes gifted it to them in order to create a new homeland, and it was forced to stand vigil leagues away as monstrous humanoids took over the city in which it was created.
Ah, but the humans, they were so very different from the gnomes. Baetylus found it could actually communicate with them. Not directly, but by swaying their thoughts. Soon after New Fal was established, the Crystal began to play with the new species like toys. Baetylus rejoiced for the first time since it came into the world. The Crystal’s happiness was short-lived however, as it found it could interact with the humans but still could not speak directly to them.
Baetylus was simply not strong enough.
Craving an end to its unyielding solitude, Baetylus devised a plan. It began to feed off the life energy of all animals in New Fal to gain strength. The more sentient creatures offered a tastier morsel to its newfound hunger, and as it fed off their energy, the Crystal grew larger and more powerful. To its annoyance, the gnomes began to become wary of their creation, warning the humans to stop their new religion, which was spreading through the land in worship of the construct.
Baetylus would not tolerate the devious little gnomes’ disruptions. Why shouldn’t it be allowed to grow and communicate as they did?
Corbin had watched in horror through Baetylus’ mind as he turned the humans on their peaceful friends, forcing any gnome who had influence out of the very lands they had created and expanded to help the surface refugees.
“This is horrific,” Elise gasped, shaking out of the trance.
“Baetylus is not a god,” Corbin said. “It is more like a leech, and the people of New Fal are its prisoners as much as food for its unquenchable appetite.”
The room swooned and Elise had to lean her back against the wall where she sat to keep from falling over.
“There’s one other thing you must see,” Corbin said.
A memory shot into Elise’s mind like a hot knife, rocking her once more. Corbin did not mean to hurt her, but his control over the psionic realm was more powerful than he realized. In her mind’s eye, she saw the cameo from the King’s Hall. Carved into the ivory marble was none other than Arch Councilor Zacharia, receiving the Crystal from the gnomes.
“How can that be?” she gasped.
“I do not know,” Corbin said. “Only that the Elders have clearly kept our people living in many lies.”
Elise was overcome by the information. It was all too much for her to grasp. To think Corbin was dead, yet somehow speaking to her, and that the All-Father was a false god. She pushed against her temples, squeezing them in frustration, straining against this assault on her core beliefs.
“You must get our people to Malbec,” Corbin warned, “away from the Crystal’s influence.”
“How can that be possible? Won’t Baetylus just force us to stop? How can I defy the will of a god?”
“It is not a god,” Corbin snapped. “You must stop thinking of it that way. The Crystal can push the human mind with suggestions, but it cannot make you do anything you do not want to.” An image of him wildly assaulting his brother ran across her mind, followed by profound shame. “The only reason I could see him so clearly was the power Lady Cassandra unlocked from within.”
As he sent the thought to her, Corbin could see a violent flash of Elise’s memory laid open in the ethereal flow. The events she had endured played before him.
“I am so sorry, Elise,” he said. “Lady Cassandra was a wonderful human being. It pains me to think she died as punishment for trying to help us…”
Elise was a river of emotion, comforting his distraught soul.
“Strange as well,” he wondered out loud. “I thought for sure I sensed her presence here with you when I arrived.”
Thinking how that could be, an idea occurred to Elise. Pulling
the stone Lady Cassandra had given her out of her dress, she held it up as if Corbin could see it—which he could through her mind, but not with eyes on the physical plane.
To Elise the stone was a simple smooth obsidian, but to Corbin it was a fantastic glowing onyx, brilliantly illuminating the spiritual plane. He was taken aback to see the images swirling deep inside the magical stone and moved in closer, hoping to make them out better. Far away, inside the heart of the mystical stone, another world existed. It was a beautiful land, softly lit by a glowing orb high in the azure blue sky, with lush fields and gently trickling creeks. Beside the brook sat a younger Lady Cassandra, smiling contentedly, her bare feet splashing in the cool water.
She looked over her shoulder, sensing Corbin as he connected minds with Elise so she too could view the amazing spectacle.
“Lady Cassandra…is that you?” he asked.
Her lips moved in response, but they could hear no words. Then the stone warmed in Elise’s hands and the sorceress’ words flowed from his fiancée’s mouth.
“Poor children, I am here with both of you,” Cassandra spoke through Elise in a light voice.
“But I watched them execute you,” Elise said in her own voice.
“Alas, this is true. The woman you knew as Lady Cassandra has been murdered by the vile traitor Fafnir. Long has the wretched half-blood jotun coveted power, and finally, to our misfortune, he has gained it. Woe be the future of New Fal with him sitting on the Council of Twelve,” Cassandra lamented.
“But if you are not Lady Cassandra, who are you?” Corbin inquired, perplexed.
“I am Cassandra, a reflection of her at least. Long ago, I was wise enough to store a sliver of my soul inside the Onyx you now possess. When I died, a piece of me split off and remained here, stored with what is left of my power in the living realm.”
“I did not know such a thing was possible,” Corbin said.
“I see the world you live in so much more clearly now. What fools were we, not to heed the warnings of the goodly gnomes. We can only dare to hope that it is not too late for the people of New Fal. The two of you must act as their saviors. You must be their voice of reason, freeing the bonds that chain our society to the corrupted abomination.”
“But milady,” Elise said, “how can we do anything? Corbin has been murdered, and I am trapped in a dungeon far away from my people.”
“Dead? Oh no, my dear…Corbin is not dead. He is very much alive, just not inside his body at the moment,” Cassandra said. “His love for you, so absolute, bound his spirit to Acadia long enough for his soul to gather in this protective cocoon of psionic energy,” she explained, referring to the thick living blankets of blue energy swirling around his spiritual form, invisible to Elise’s naked eye.
Corbin’s mind danced around the form of Elise, rejoicing in this truth and thrilled at the newfound possibility of hope Cassandra presented.
“Corbin Walker, you will need to return to your corporeal form alone, if you can still find it, for I cannot help you with that. The longer you are out of your mortal coil, the more damage may be caused, not to your mind or soul, but to the Acadian shell that is your body.”
Corbin knew the implications were dire, conveyed by her mental projections. If he could not return quickly enough, his body would cease to be habitable. “But what of Elise and my people in Riverbell?” he asked.
“Fear not, for I have a plan,” Cassandra said. “The universe has opened up to me in a different way; never had I such vision in life. Your journey lies past the ruins of Ul’kor to the surface. I sense it is there that you will find a great mage named Isaac, who will have the answers we seek. I will help Elise escape, buying time until you can free the people of New Fal from the shackles they unwittingly live under.”
“Lady Cassandra, wasn’t the surface destroyed in the great wars?” Elise asked, not understanding how someone named Isaac could be living up there.
Corbin understood. He had guessed it while exploring the Ul’kor ruins, but did not want to fully accept the reality. “It’s all been a lie, Elise. The wildlands, all those gnome towns out there, everything they told us about our history.”
Cassandra confirmed his suspicion with a solemn nod.
“It was necessary to protect the survival of mankind. Unfortunately, there is not nearly enough time for us to go over our long embattled history right now. The top priority is for you to get back to your mortal shell. I will give you a boost, but you must hurry and be on your way.”
Corbin knew she was right. He could feel it, as if the longer he drifted in this form, the less substantial he was becoming. But the idea of parting from Elise was unbearable, and he ached just to remain by her side.
“Please, Corbin,” Elise said in her own voice, “you must do as she says.”
Corbin wrapped himself around her. “I will come back for you,” he swore to the woman he loved more than life itself.
“I have faith in you,” Elise said. “Now go, track down this Isaac. Find out how he can help us and come back to me.”
Corbin could feel her belief in him. In her heart of hearts, she knew that the man who dared to defy death just to speak with her one last time would find a way home again. It still pained Elise to feel his presence fade away and she began to cry, left alone once more in the cold dank cell.
“You are not alone, my dear,” Cassandra said. “Now hold the Onyx to your forehead so I can channel my magic through your avadhuti into the physical plane.”
Elise did as she was instructed, closing her eyes as the warm stone touched the soft skin of her forehead. Clouds of purple energy swirled from within the rock, moving outward in tendrils, covering her body with the magical will of Cassandra. Weaving with mystical mastery, Cassandra opened a rift in the physical plane around them that dropped Elise through a void.
Landing on her feet in the dust, she almost dropped the magical artifact. As Elise looked around, she was dumbfounded at the heavy expenditure of power Cassandra had unleashed. Where only moments before she had been sitting in a New Fal dungeon cell, now she was miles away in the village square of Riverbell!
There was no time to stand in awe, however. An astonished farmer named Barth stood stock still, rubbing his eyes in disbelief at her sudden appearance.
“Don’t just stand there, Barth! Alert the entire village. We are in danger, and we have to escape right NOW!” she barked at him, determined to set her people on the journey that would take them safely away from this cursed kingdom.