|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 10:49 pm
 ~ Part I ~
She was reluctant to let Laney out of her sight for much of it and she pressed her friend to stay as much as she could stomach to allow herself. It felt too much like she was inconveniencing someone she cared so much about, but, after everything she had been through, she argued to herself that it was okay to lean on someone else for a while. She had been through hell. Was it too much to ask that a friend held her hand so she wasn’t alone again? She was half afraid every time she closed her eyes to sleep, that she would open them and find herself back in her crystal room, her rescue a fever dream.
Being inside was a challenge as well. Too often it felt like the walls were closing in on her, reminding her too much of being locked in her room on Alkaid. It was a blessing that the apartment had a lovely open balcony and she made use of it often, curling up in one of the chairs there wrapped in a comforter. Sometimes, if she was lucky, with hot cocoa to warm her too-thin hands. Seeing what had become of her in those nine months had been a shock. She’d stared for long minutes the first time she’d undressed in front of a mirror.
Hollowed out eye sockets, cheeks that caved inward. Bones that stuck out too prominently and a rich complexion gone pale and gray. She had been slender before, but now she was skeletal and sickly, any appeal she had ever had lost. Some of her color came back over those days of rest, but building up to a healthy weight again would take time. She was glad she wore so many dresses, because they could be made to fit, more or less.
Nightmares plagued her sleeping and waking, if she happened to let her guard down enough to doze. The same dream of Ida burning, with the same fear and panic. The only way to make them stop, and to fully regain her energy, would be to go there and soak up the power from the source. She knew from the memories that weren’t memories that it would restore her. It had just been a matter of time, allowing herself to recover some so that she could make the trip.
The night of the worst dream, a dream where the trees screamed in pain and wept blood, Orah woke up crying and sweating, and knew she had to go now. She might still be weak and frail, but she couldn’t wait any longer.
Everything; mind, body and heart, cried out for her planet.Word Count: 508
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 10:32 pm
~ Part II ~ Laney had been understanding, but she had also been insistent on going along. It made Orah feel warmed and teary-eyed, daring to hope Laney was as reluctant to let her out of her sight as Orah was to leave her behind. She had never felt so wanted before… she almost didn’t know how to accept the feeling. Instead, she accepted Laney going with to Ida and the pair stood hand in hand on the balcony as Ida called her phone to her hand, the lines of her transcendence markings only a dim glow on her skin.
She was scared and excited as she gripped Hvergelmir’s hand tighter and her thumb found the proper button. The world around them shivered and melted, leaving Ida with a sense of a great distance passing in a breath before everything firmed around them. Tall grass brushed against her knees and clean air drew into her lungs with her first deep breath. There was no taint of smoke to it, just clean and pure and so good… and then the energy welled up like water from a well, seeping upwards in a trickle that became a river that became a flood. The pleasure of it took the strength out of Ida’s knees and she waivered, needing a hand pressed in concern to her shoulder to keep her from simply collapsing to lay in the grass.
This was worse than she could ever remember it being, even in those false memories, but no wonder. She’d never been separated from her planet for so long before. The rushing energy made her feel giddy and she offered Hver a tumultuous smile, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. This felt so good and so right… she didn’t ever want to be apart from it again, even knowing they would eventually have to go home. It felt like her planet sang its greeting to her, full of love and yearning and joy, up through the soles of her feet.
After a while, Ida felt good enough to move from the landing zone, the rush of energy slowing. It would take a little bit of rest here to be fully recovered, and there was no reason they had to be out here for it. There were chairs and bottles of water she had squirreled away, so at least they could be comfortable while she recovered. The tower looked as she remembered leaving it and it was impossible not to smile, looking around at all the old, familiar curving lines. Hver helped her settle into one of the comfortable chairs and Ida smiled as she pressed her cheek into her hand.
Rather than join her, the knight expressed a desire to see the tree room, where they’d found one of the remaining living gravestones. Something about the trees there seemed to have touched her in a way Ida didn’t fully understand, but she was delighted in a deep, secret way that anything here had caught the heart of her friend. It wasn’t like there was anything here that could hurt her, so it hadn’t been an issue to let Hver go off on her own, she knew the way well enough. It left Ida to lean into the back of her chair and doze, comfortable and warmed by the ambient energy.
It was hard to tell how long passed like, before her eyes fluttered open to see the sunlight streaming across the grand hall. She felt comfortable, but watching dust motes dance in the light made her wonder about the great room in the center of the tower, the one with the orchid flowers that gathered energy. She’d taken Hver there last time and it hadn’t been a pleasant experience, but after so long away… had things changed? For that matter, how much had the dead zone spread in her absence?
Worry drove her finally to her feet, abandoning the comfort of the front hall for the uncertainty of the rest of the old, abandoned Tower.
Word Count: 671
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 11:29 pm
~ Part III ~ It didn’t much look like anything had changed since the day she had brought Hvergelmir here. They could have walked out of here yesterday, it looked exactly the same.
Ida paced down the curving, zen-like paths towards the center, curving columns and swept her eyes over the over grown and unruly flower beds. Everything seemed peaceful, but there was something just… off about it. Nothing outwardly, really. Just a feeling she had, in the back of her mind. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on and she was forced to admit she was jumping at shadows. There wasn’t anything here to be uneasy about, not when the dead zone was way off in another village.
Peering upwards, Ida traced the curving paths of the columns in their triple helix shape, watching them bend gracefully around where she stood till they blended smoothly into the vines and leaves of the ceiling. It was beautiful, in its way, like most of the Tower was beautiful. Old, plant technology, culminating in these great works. She was proud to inherit it, but also sad, that so few got to see it.
The energy of Ida felt warner here… more concentrated. It seeped up faster from the ground, soaked up faster by her body. It was like being bathed in warm sunlight, and after so long in the darkness, it was a wonderful feeling. Tilting her face upwards, she closed her eyes and savored it, letting it banish the worry. She was safe here. If there was anywhere safe in the entire universe, it was here. She didn’t have to fight here, or face the family that thought she was dead. There was only warmth, and light, and comfort…
Something brushed against her ankles that she didn’t register at first. A low rustle just under hearing that her ears didn’t quite catch. It wasn’t until something firm and strong wrapped around her knees that Ida broke from her revere to look down in surprise that wasn’t really surprise.
Vines. Coming up from the ground to wrap around her legs, and every second she watched as they crept higher, and faster, and gripped her more securely. Just like the last time, just like that time in the village when Scholomance had cut her free… She felt the choking grip of panic, right before thorns burst from the vines to work their way under her skin. Ida grabbed for the gripping vines, but with the thorns came a numbing warmth that spread at a surprising rate, making it hard to fight off what was happening, if she’d even had the energy to do more that tug ineffectually. By the time they wrapped her hips, she felt lethargic and sleepy, the exhaustion of her months in captivity crashing down on her again as though she hasn’t spent days sleeping on Earth. The fear was muted too, and getting fuzzier, until she couldn’t summon up the will to fight any more.
She didn’t know what this was, or why it was happening, but she didn’t have the will to fight it. She was so tired… and Ida was a safe place… Nothing could hurt her here…
Ida didn’t fall so much as slump in place, the vines spreading with surprising speed now that she wasn’t resisting them. They bound her torso and crept down her arms, curving up her neck and the sides of her face. From the ground, more came curling free, and as they grew, they bound together, growing thicker and wider and forming something around her that had a purposeful shape… a lattice work of woody lengths that caged her in, and in the gaps, clear, amber resin welled and filled.
Almost egg shaped, but as long as Ida was tall, the vines curved and met above her head and soon there was nothing to be seen of her. Just this strange rounded dome woven of vines and resin… and then light scrolled across the side, forming odd characters no one had been able to read for a thousand years. They blinked and swirled at a steady pace, glowing brighter and dimmer in an old, familiar rhythm.
Silence fell, soft as sunlight through the windows along the outer wall.Word Count: 707
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 11:54 pm
~ Part IV ~ Something moved, but it wasn’t the sway of grass and flowers in the wind. It wasn’t the fluttering path of a leaf falling from a branch, either.
On a world where nothing lived but plants, something moved against the wind, seeping from dark crevices and corners where it had hidden, unnoticed, for many long years. It dripped down walls and slithered across the floor, meeting rivulets of more of its kind and pooling together like some viscous liquid… but liquid that moved with a purpose, defying the drag of gravity. Dark as the spaces between stars, it defied the light, refusing to reflect it, but rather, swallowed it whole.
In the soft, sun-lit silence, there was a low sound, like whispering, or silk brushing over stone. Sibilant and dry. Like many voices speaking to each other in words that couldn’t quite be caught.
The dark presence gathered all the myriad pieces of itself and then it fled that light that was everywhere, touching everything. Light that burned in irritated, even as it couldn’t kill any more. Not after so long buried inside this place. It left the dark, blackened trees and brittle grass to flow towards the stately shapes that lay on the horizon, knowing there was shelter there, and more than that… something that had disturbed it, pushing it from its deep resting places. As it moved, more of its kind came forth to join it, and it grew in size and presence and thought… many thoughts, all whispering similar things. Different, but joined in a common goal.
Feed. Spread. Grow.
A heart beat steadily in a cage of amber and the darkness yearned for it, felt the call of it drawing it out. It swept in under the trees like the shadows already there and the stately giants began to weep black tears that ran down their trunks to join the river flowing up hill towards the tallest of them… The place where the call came, where the power came, bright and pure. It was both irritating and seductive, promising more power than the drips and drops it had been feeding on all this time. A bright river of it, just waiting to be swallowed up if it could just find the conduit…
…
Somewhere inside Ida’s tower, a cosmos knight stood contemplating a dead tree, unaware of what was coming until movement caught her eye. Dark colored… something oozed up like giant tear drops of tar to run down the walls and pool on the floor, drawing together like raindrops on a leaf.
Somewhere else, an amber and wood egg blinked serenely with old writing and light as more of the shadowy liquid dripped from the outer walls and welled up from between the flowers. It drew towards the beating heart at the center of the tower and then suddenly, without warning, something pulsed from the very center of the planet. It rippled outwards like a wave, reaching… reaching…
Calling. A cry for help, to anyone or anything that would listen.Word Count: 507
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
