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 Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2022 6:04 pm
The Chaos seemed to reel back from the brightness of the light coming from Devyn. It hissed and Sessrumnir shielded his eyes as he rose almost unnaturally up onto his feet after being nothing but a still body on the ground for the last several minutes.
The magic seemed to have some effect on the Chaos. It screeched and the shadows around them seemed like they were scattering, looking for places to hide in crevices and corners, trying to escape the magic and the light.
But it also wasn’t backing down.
“You want to know my despair?” it hissed, still covering one of its eyes as it lunged forward to try and attack Alastor again, clearly speaking as though it was still Sessrumnir.
“Watching those I loved die in front of me. Watching my friends burn. The smell and sound of screams still haunt me. My own father dying due to my mistakes -- and where were you? Hiding away here because you were in such denial about something so obvious. And then being too much of a coward to end it all for myself. Never being good enough. Being a burden on others. Being too privileged to believe I should get help, and of course I wouldn’t be able to explain any of this, anyway,” the figure gestured to everything around him.
“You’re convenient, Devyn. I’m desperate for any kind of attention, and you were so eager to just accept everything because of a stupid starseed. Do you really think I could care about you? It’ll be easier to use you and then add to my misery when you finally realize that you could do better.”
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2022 6:14 pm
It didn’t surprise him that it wasn’t enough to get rid of the Chaos. He’d hoped, but in his heart he’d known it wasn’t going to be enough. It had been around for so long, and he knew he couldn’t do it alone.
He knew that there were people, so many people helping protect the Core. Fighting for the Hall, for Alastor. He didn’t know how well it was going, but he figured that they had to be giving it hell.
But, he hadn’t seen Michael in minutes now. Hadn’t heard from him.
All he knew was that Michael didn’t have the necklace, and that alone was enough to turn his stomach upside down even without the Chaos talking to him like this.
It wasn’t Michael. It had been dead a moment ago. Convincingly playing the part..
It wasn’t Michael. It was the culmination of what it thought it could pull from Alastor’s heart to trick him. Maybe some of it was true; Alastor knew the weight of guilt and grief that Michael carried in his heart. If he felt anything from Its words, it was because he thought some of the things it said as Michael might have been true.
He and Michael had spoken of some things. Some were told to him by Peter, by Claire. Some were assumed.
He knew Michael blamed himself for so much.
And it wasn’t fair for the Chaos to try and regurgitate these words as if they had any weight in Its mouth.
Alastor wasn’t convenient. He knew he was a lot of work. Constantly asking questions, constantly needing someone to keep him out of trouble. Maybe he had been eager to accept Michael because of his starseed, but he’d liked him before he knew.
Had Michael ever used him for anything? He couldn’t imagine it. Of course, Michael could do better, but he didn’t let himself. But then, ‘better’ was subjective, anyway.
He didn’t know where to hit. Its face wasn’t really flesh and blood. He didn’t think that would be enough to hurt it.
“Just stop. You’ve already lost,” he growled, and swung again.
It was a fruitless effort; no matter what damage he did, he knew he needed to find the source of it if he was going to really hurt it.
…He needed to find Michael, too.
He couldn’t focus. He knew what he needed to do, but he didn’t even know if Michael was alive.
He didn’t know if he could even make it back to him to help.
That thought hurt worse than anything the Chaos could say. It might stick needles in his mind, under his skin, but the reality that Michael might be alone and hurt–or worse–was what kept stabbing into his heart.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:22 pm
Around them, the cavern seemed to shift and move as the shadows did. They swirled around Alastor whenever the flashlight and light from the Core’s blessing didn’t shine in a particular direction. It seemed as though it was all trying to suffocate him, just a little closer each time.
Sessrumnir, still covered in blood and pale like death, lunged forward to once again try to get his hands around Alastor’s neck, shoving him hard against the rock wall. It lifted its leg to try to kick at Alastor’s shins, trying to immobilize him. Cripple him. If he couldn’t fight, then he couldn’t fight the source itself.
“Soon, the Hall and the Core will no longer be yours,” it goaded, and while Alastor might have been able to break free of hands holding onto him, the shadows had morphed into long, black tendrils that wrapped around Alastor’s neck, before creeping down the rest of his body --
Then a flash of white --
An enormous jaw, full of sharp teeth ripped through the shadowy arms of Sessrumnir’s imposter. It shrieked and hissed -- although not necessarily in pain but certainly frustration.
At the edge of the water, Sessrumnir was working on climbing up onto drier ground. He had no flashlight with him, but the ring on his finger glowed enough that it illuminated him in the darkness.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:34 pm
At some point, Alastor had stopped being able to breathe. It didn’t matter how much he struggled or fought against the thing, the result was the same–there was always more darkness. Always more shadows. Always more Chaos.
Alastor almost laughed. It wasn’t funny, but all of the sudden the air rushed back into his lungs and he didn’t have to look to know that Sessrumnir was there. The real one.
Princess was there, as wonderful and perfect as she’d already been.
He could have hugged her now but he’d make it up to her later.
Alastor didn’t have a lot of time; she’d jostled the Chaos but he knew whatever temporary advantage they had wasn’t going to last. His head was swimming. The shadows felt like they’d twisted around him, crawled into his blood. He wasn’t sure if they were digging into his skin or if he was just imagining it; it felt like a thousand tiny threads just slicing into him.
But, Sessrumnir was there.
It was okay.
He was alive. Unless this was his mind playing tricks on him, but he had the ring, and–
“I have your necklace,” he shouted, because of all the things he wanted to say, that was the only one that came out. He didn’t have enough air for the rest, and even as he lunged towards Sessrumnir, he was rasping to fill his lungs.
Alastor could see his hand from the ring, so that’s what he grabbed. If he hadn’t already gotten the raised platform wet, the rising water would have; by the time he pulled Sessrumnir up, it was already at his ankles.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:50 pm
If Sessrumnir hadn’t been close to having a heart attack at seeing Alastor being pinned and wrapped with Chaos he would have been relieved to hear that his necklace had been somehow recovered.
At the moment, all he could do was sputter in disbelief that that was the first thing Alastor managed to say.
Really, it didn’t matter what either of them said. There seemed to be a silent understanding between them that he couldn’t explain, anyway.
The fear of Alastor being consumed by Chaos, or worse, was enough to have his heart racing. He hadn’t known what to expect when he made it out on the other side of the tunnel, but he was glad he’d managed to get there in what looked like the nick of time.
He held tightly to Alastor’s hand as he helped pull him out of the water, and with Princess keeping the Chaos occupied for the moment, he quickly glanced over him to make sure he was still in one piece.
Sessrumnir was also still in one piece. He was a bit bruised, but that was difficult to see in the dim light of his ring and Alastor’s glowing streaks of light on him. There was also a gash over the top of his eyebrow where he hadn’t managed to block one of the rocks that had fallen on him. Now that he was out of the water, the blood flowed more freely, but he wiped it from his eye and nodded towards the form of himself.
“Cheap tricks. Did the same to me,” he growled, and grabbed hold of Alastor’s elbow to usher him away from the rising water. “Sorry, it convinced me to hand over the GPS. It got lost in the water.” Along with the necklace, but thankfully it had been easier to see. Probably went right to Alastor since it was a piece of the Core.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 11:05 pm
When Sessrumnir held his hand, Alastor didn’t want to release it.
A part of him was still frantic to see any open wounds, and he had to check to make sure that Michael wasn’t bleeding out where he couldn’t see. He didn’t care that he’d wasted time and supplies on the Chaos, he just cared that Michael was here, now.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s in here.”
They wouldn’t need the GPS, he could feel the Chaos smothering him.
…And all shadows led back to it, so all they had to do was follow it. It was just so dark already.
The ground trembled in a way it hadn’t before, so much so that even the Chaos itself seemed temporarily alarmed. The shadows skittered away, recoiling to–
He couldn’t see where exactly, but he saw them move. Saw them retreat.
Alastor had no doubt that they were gathering to regroup.
Part of his movement was mechanical, he was thinking of a thousand things at once. He pulled the necklace from subspace and draped it around Sessrumnir’s neck; it glowed as bright as the light gifted to Alastor by the Core of his world.
It wasn’t enough to see the whole room but it was enough to see him.
“Are you okay? I’m fine,” he insisted, even if his hand hurt. Even if parts of his uniform had been torn open by the shadowy tendrils, even if he had bits of fresh red blood gathered at the surface of his skin where the marks were deepest. His head hurt, his knees hurt. Nothing had broken before, and he was still alive.
Michael was still alive.
“I can’t feel where it is, but it’s here. Do you have more flashlights?”
He had some in subspace, he pulled out one and shined it around, but the ground rumbled again and nearly knocked him off balance. He planted his feet on the ground to keep himself steady, but the water had risen again. It went up to his calves now, and the current was getting strong enough that he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to stay standing here–especially when the ground was suddenly slippery and too smooth to get much grip.
His boots were only doing okay; he didn’t know how hard it was going to be for Sessrumnir as their situation worsened.
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2022 1:18 pm
As the cavern shook, Sessrumnir recalled Princess so her magic wouldn’t run out too quickly. He had no idea if he would need to ask for her help again.
“Pissed as hell,” he growled in response to if he was okay. He was glaring across the cavern, desperately trying to follow where the shadows were retreating.
“What the hell was that?” he asked of the ground rumbling, holding tighter to Alastor to keep him upright -- and maybe also so he could convince himself that he was real and okay, and not injured to the point of not being himself.
The necklace around his neck once more was more of a relief than just knowing that it was rescued. He would have reached for it… if he didn’t know the light would have been hidden in his hand. And he also needed his other hand to pull a new flashlight from his subspace. This one had the option to be turned into a lanturn, which he held up high above their heads as Alastor used his torch to narrow in on where to look.
“What about up there?” he frowned, looking up at how there was a flickering glow of… something. Fire? Gold reflecting off the water? “Just don’t stand under any of the --” he didn’t bother finishing the sentence because he realized they were already standing under one of the giant stalactites, and he pulled Alastor a few steps away from it coming down on them, should the cavern shake again like it did before.
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2022 2:47 pm
Sessrumnir’s attentiveness would save them; water slammed against the wall of the cave and there was a loud crack. Small rocks and debris were already tumbling down, but behind them, something loud cracked into the floor with such force that it seemed to pierce it. Some of the water began to drain, but it wasn’t enough.
The thunder was raging so loud that it was audible alongside the rushing water.
The shadows began to scream. Soft, at first. Then louder.
If the Chaos couldn’t keep Sessrumnir and Alastor apart, it would do everything it could do disrupt them. Sometimes, the shadows would grope and grab at it, but despite the intense efforts, something was undeniably wrong with it. Sometimes, sharp talons dug into them. Sometimes, the shadows passed right through them.
He didn’t know what had caused the tremor, but he knew that Sessrumnir was onto something.
The flickering fireflies gleamed with an intense, desperate light, but they burned out quickly.
The Core was taking every effort it could to guide the way, and a trail of flickering light would burn into existence almost as quickly as it burned out. It looked like fiery gold flakes.
Alastor was tired. His world was tired.
They were trying.
He didn’t let go of Sessrumnir’s hand. Not yet. It was a steep climb to get to the little cranny they were being led to, but he thought he could do it. Maybe. If he ignored the ache in his hand and shoulder and legs.
They were so close, it didn’t matter.
He wanted to thank Sessrumnir for pulling him out of the way. For coming to break off the Chaos. For always looking after him. For being himself.
He knew they didn’t have a lot of time–for anything, really.
So he tried to stay focused.
The likelihood of two of them getting up there was slim. They’d have to be smart about it.
“Can you give me a boost up? I can scale the rest of it pretty quickly, I think. I’ll go fast.”
He’d have to. The water was up to his knees, now.
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 5:18 pm
For as long as Alastor held onto his hand, Sessrumnir didn’t let it go. He had no idea what was going on in the outside world, but he could only assume it was something big. Maybe their friends and allies were able to do something.
Had Ganymede used her magic? Had the Court that Devyn talked to him about managed to do whatever special thing they could do? Were they fighting so desperately that they had no choice but to give it everything they had?
He hoped they were safe, but he and Alastor would see them soon.
“Watch your footing,” Sessrumnir said, not hesitating in shifting closer to the wall so he could brace his back against it and give Alastor a lift up. He reluctantly had to let go of Alastor’s hand so he could lock his hands together and nodded to let Alastor know he was ready for him to step up.
“Use my shoulder as a step,” he offered, tilting his head out of the way so Alastor could use the leather shielding over his shoulder. He watched the fireflies above them, and glanced over where they’d been standing, where now rocks and rubble filled the spot. He hoped they’d have a chance at finding a way out after all of this, because he didn’t have a very good feeling about their odds.
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 5:26 pm
Alastor sucked in a breath and braced himself because it was such a ridiculous thing that he didn’t want to step on Sessrumnir. The water was over his knee. Almost to his thigh. “Thank you, Michael,” he said, and it was brief but it was for more than just this.
There wasn’t enough time, but he hoped that Michael would understand that there was so much behind those words.
“I know you don’t want to leave, but you might want to consider it. I don’t know how long this place is going to last. I don’t know if there’s a way out. Don’t stay so long that you can’t still get out of here, okay?”
He had absolute faith in Michael, but he knew that getting out of somewhere–going to Sessrumnir–would take no small amount of focus, and everything going on right now was very distracting.
“Please,” he insisted, but he could only place his hand on Sessrumnir’s cheek to try and get through to him.
It was all he had in him; he forced himself up. He moved from his hand, to his shoulder, to a protrusion in the wall. He had momentum, so he didn’t stop. Weight on his hand hurt but it wasn’t excruciating. The light guided him.
Something sounded like a distant explosion and he couldn’t imagine if it came from somewhere in the cave, or the forest, or the Hall. A stalactite shook loose and fell into the water. He had to cling to the wall, but he was high enough that the water wasn’t a problem.
Sessrumnir still had to deal with the sudden tidal wave that slammed into him.
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 7:46 pm
He didn’t say it, because there was no time, but it was cute that Alastor thought he was going to consider leaving him.
And by cute -- kinda exasperating.
Sessrumnir knew what Alastor meant. Could feel how much Alastor cared about him in his words and the hand on his face. He could see how unstable the cavern was, and how quickly the water was rising. There were also tremors that must have been caused by something external -- the Hall was his first guess -- otherwise if it was just the storm causing all the explosions, he doubted the stalactites would have lasted until now.
They were definitely not lasting now. And Sessrumnir held his arm over his head to protect himself as the wave from the falling rocks crashed into him, taking him off his feet and tossing him along the side of the wall.
“I’m fine,” he called up to Alastor when he righted himself. And held onto the wall again. He kept an eye on Alastor, making sure he was ready to catch him if something happened and he fell.
“Tell me when you’re almost up, and I’ll climb up, too,” Sessrumnir called up to Alastor, once again wiping the blood off his face from the cut above his eyebrow.
He knew their chances weren’t that great, but they’d already promised each other -- if something happened to Alastor, Sessrumnir would keep his starseed. And if he wasn’t able to do that, then he would just join him.
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 8:41 pm
Alastor gripped the wall tightly, and even if it hurt him to do so, he didn’t fall. He couldn’t look back at Sessrumnir without risking the grip he had on the wall so when he heard the water splash against the wall he just shouted, “Come up now. Don’t stay down there.”
The higher up they were, the less chance they had of the water washing them away, but–
His heart was pounding, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
A thousand years ago, he’d been trapped in this cave. Not here, he didn’t recognize this part. The memories should have been foggy, it was so long ago. Except, sometimes he still dreamed about being trapped in the darkness, listening to the rising water. Slowly starving.
He hadn’t been waiting to die, but sometimes, in a dream, he was.
There was a hole in the wall, just barely large enough for someone to wriggle through.
He hated the crushing, smothering sensation. If the wall caved in, it would crush him. There wasn’t anywhere to go. And yet, the sparkling trail of light led him deeper. He could see the shadows twisting unnaturally, like long black threads that shifted frantically. They were pulled thin and taut. They looked ready to snap–and some of them even seemed to when the light got too close.
It gave him hope. But, the further he went, the more suffocating the Chaos was. The angrier it seemed. The threats tried to twist and wind around him, tried to push him away. Tried to stop him.
But, he couldn’t stop. Not now.
He got stuck, once, but managed to breathe, and relax. He wiggled deeper into it, but the strain was immense and his body was protesting. He was so tired.
A black stone glinted, but it didn’t seem like it was reflecting the light, it seemed like it was absorbing it.
He knew, immediately, that this was the source of it all. A black haze swirled around it and the whole thing seemed polluted. He’d had to put the flashlight away while he was climbing, but even in the dimmer light granted to him by the Core, he could still see it. He fumbled for a flashlight out of subspace and shined it on the stone just to see it squirm. A few more tendrils snapped off, but the cave just shook again. He could almost reach it.
“Michael,” he called, as loud as he could. His voice echoed but he didn’t know if Sessrumnir could hear him. “I found it.”
He found it. He could break it.
Fleetingly, he thought he should say goodbye, just in case, but he’d promised Michael he’d be fine.
Even if he wouldn’t have been, there wasn’t any other option. He kept the flashlight aimed at it, but he reached out and grabbed it. It was cold, like gripping an eternal nothingness. He felt despair. Consuming, smothering, hateful emptiness.
He could see blood on his fingers. They were swollen and bruised already. He clutched it like none of that mattered. His borrowed light shined brighter.
White consumed the corners of his vision and bled inward until it was nearly all he could see.
His heart was in his throat. He wasn’t breathing.
He felt cold. Empty. Lifeless, already. Black shadows twisted up his arms and clawed at him. When they couldn’t hide from the light on him, they tried to disappear inside of him.
Alastor didn’t feel any of it.
He smashed the black gem into the ground and the shadows erupted like a hail of arrows, but there wasn’t anywhere to go. The gem turned to dust, and there was a strange stillness for a second, for an eternity. The shadows recoiled back into the dissipating dust like snapped elastic.
The shadows imploded.
Golden light sparkled around it and the embers burned brighter. They didn’t die out this time, they grew. And grew. Streaks of light cut through the foggy shadow, burning out every inch of them.
And then, it exploded.
The cavern shook and splintered and cracks formed in the wall. The pressure blew out the back wall entirely and Alastor felt heat, but–
He didn’t see anything. The white light consumed him.
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 8:47 pm
As soon as Alastor said he should climb up, Sessrumnir did. There was no hesitation in his movements, although there were a few places in the rock wall that made it difficult to get a good grip.
He had no idea how Alastor managed to squeeze through the hole in the wall. His armor would have to be removed for him to manage it, he feared. He could try, but --
Something was happening. He could barely hear what Alastor was saying. He found the source? He must have, because the shadows seemed to be swarming like angry hornets. They came through the tunnel and tried pushing him away -- off the edge of the wall he was holding on to. He couldn’t hold onto the wall and the flashlight, so he tried to make sure his necklace was prominently blinding the shadows with light, while holding up the ring that glowed to push as much of the Chaos away.
“Devyn, be careful!” he called. He thought he called. He couldn’t hear his own voice. Everything was too loud in his ears, like a rumbling of rocks and water and thunder and magic --
And then everything seemed to implode on itself. The tunnel Sessrumnir was trying to figure out how to climb through -- the one Alastor had just climbed through -- had started to collapse. Rocks were falling all around him, breaking off of the wall he was holding onto. A whole section of the wall shifted-- and collapsed into the water below --
“Devyn!” he called, quickly using the opportunity to use this new opening to try and get to where he hoped Alastor was -- if he hadn’t been blown out of the cave entirely.
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