Chapter 28: Two Vessels

Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Two Vessels

He could hear it. The sound of someone breathing. Slow and uneven.

This was not a creature. This was something else entirely, coming from around the corner of the mine.

He moved down the passage, keeping his sword hand leading as he used his appraisal crystal to probe for dangers. The Forsaken had clearly not completed whatever they’d been doing here. Something had gone wrong.

After a while, the passage opened into a circular chamber. In the center stood a number of candles burned down to black stumps. Wisps of smoke curled up from the recently extinguished remains.

The three-circle symbol had been carved into the floor, its outer ring scored through deeply as if someone had tried to scrape out a mistake.

At the center of the chamber, a woman was chained to a stone pillar.

She was roughly his age, judging by the state of her hair and face. What remained of her dress hung in dirty ribbons from her body. Strips of cloth tied around her forearms pulsed with a fractal arrangement of dark lines that branched upward from her wrists toward her shoulders. They were not veins. They looked hard and had corners.

He raised his appraisal crystal.

[Target: Unknown]

[Level: 31]

[Condition: Critical]

[Status: Corrupted]

[Appraisal Result: Incomplete]

[Warning: Target possesses an abnormal magical structure.]

"That’s new."

The woman’s eyes slowly opened. Silver and weak, yet they remained steady despite the chains and dirt coating her. It was impossible to tell how long she had been down here, but she seemed to have reached a steady state.

"Are you here to kill me?"

Allan looked around, sensing no danger. He let go of his sword. Sheathing it back.

"No. You don’t need to worry about that."

"Then you’re the first."

"First for what?"

"First person who came down and didn’t ask what I saw."

Allan recognized the way she talked. It was similar to Lira. Language of vagueness he named it.

He came closer. "What did you see?"

"I will answer once the chains are off." Her lips curved into a faint, tired smile. "By then I’ll have decided whether I trust you enough to lie well to you."

Sheesh, talk about choice of dialogue. He thought.

"Who are you?"

She tried to speak, then paused.

"I...don’t seem to remember."

"That’s fine. I’ve opened worse conversations."

She let out a single short laugh that degenerated into harsh coughing. He moved to the nearest chain and ran his finger along the arcane symbols etched into the metal. This wasn’t a simple restraint. Someone had lovingly crafted it to slowly leech her of whatever magical energy she managed to produce.

[Warning: Restraint possesses a triggered magical reaction.]

"Of course it does."

"Please, hurry. Whatever lies here doesn’t like you here."

"Neither do I lady. Neither do I." As he worked on the lock with a thin tool from his pouch, he stowed the evidence: the poison, the symbol, the missing miners, the bodies at Hollow Root.

The floor quaked.

The lines on her neck turned black as the outer ring of the symbol appeared first in pale color, then the middle section followed, burning with fierce intensity. The center was now complete, radiating heat he could feel against his face.

"What the hell happened?"

"Don’t touch the symbol. We need to leave. Now. Something down there is about to wake up. To stop me, to stop you."

The floor split apart across the entire width of the cave. Her hands clenched around the iron manacle, and she reeled back, her breathing coming in frantic gasps.

"Get me out. Hurry!"

"Clearly, working on it."

Her hands shook. "It’s going to come back. It’s going to torture me, torture you—"

He got a grip on the chain and pulled. The iron screeched, turned white hot for a split second, and then snapped.

She weighed almost nothing when he caught her.

"Run!"

As they ran, the ground shook and sections of the ceiling crashed down around them. Below, something huge and malevolent made a low, long, rumbling noise that echoed up through the tunnel. She had gone limp against his shoulder, her eyes fixed on the dark space behind them.

"It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"You don’t understand."

"Noticed that too."

Black mist swirled furiously in the tunnel, a huge, low-lying, hungry mass that rolled along the ground, devouring the light.

She went pale. "It’s too late."

He didn’t ask for an explanation. He just kept running until daylight illuminated both their faces.

***

Amelia arrived at the Oakwood main hall as Seris walked toward Lira.

"Where is he?" Amelia asked.

"The old Emberwind mine," Elena said.

Amelia glared at Lira. "You let him go alone."

"He ...he insisted."

"That’s not the same thing."

"With Allan," Seris said, "it usually is."

Lira took a step back, holding her head. Then she spoke, and something in her voice made the whole room stop.

"He isn’t alone."

Her eyes were fixed on her own wrist where a strange new mark had begun to glow faintly.

"lira?" Seris called..

Amelia’s own sleeve slid up her arm. The black lines she hadn’t noticed moving in weeks were now stretching up toward her elbow.

Seris stepped between them. "I don’t know what’s happening but, both of you, breathe," she ordered.

"I am."

"Try..ing."

Amelia took a deep breath. The lines on her skin stilled.

Lira looked up at Amelia. "I’ve had this dream. Dream of you lady Amelia, you and of master."

Nobody said anything for a long moment.

Then Amelia felt a sudden tugging to her left. Seris caught Lira as she stumbled. The air in the hallway began to thicken, the windows rattling in their frames, half the candles falling over.

Lira’s eyes went black. An old voice spoke from her mouth, cold and measured.

"I am free. Free from the chains. Free from the cave."

The black featureless space retracted as suddenly as it had appeared. Lira slumped forward and Seris caught her. The girl’s eyes returned to normal in an instant.

Elena’s hand had moved to the hilt of her knife. Seris held Lira upright, murmuring something under her breath as Amelia felt a heavy, thickening mass in her chest.

"What was that?" Elena said quietly.

Amelia masked her fear. "I don’t know."

"This...This is forbidden magic. This needs to be reported, immediately."

She turned to leave.

Amelia stepped in between her and the front door. "You’re not going anywhere."

"Move."

"No."

Standing close enough to whisper, Elena spoke. "I came because Cedric told me to. I stopped caring about the marriage when your friend’s eyes went black. You’re angry with me because I’m easier to be angry at than your father. I understand it, but I have no part in this."

Before Amelia could respond, a servant burst in.

"Western road, near the old district! There’s been an explosion. Black smoke over the mountain. Adventurers are already heading out."

***

Allan didn’t look back at the sound of the explosion. He had a barefoot woman to get to safety and black mist following them.

"Worst mining inspection I’ve ever run. Here I thought, I could catch the culprit red handed."

"You talk too much," she replied, her eyes black.

Allan turned to her. "What was that?"

"What do you mean?" She said, her voice and eyes now back to normal.

He let it be and kept walking forward, not seeing the slithering smile on her face.

"You’re welcome to walk, you know."

"Can’t."

"Then we’re doing it my way."

Finally they reached a road. He set her down on a large rock and turned back to the tunnel entrance. Black lines were spreading rapidly, and the earth kept shaking.

The System flared.

[Warning.]

[Abnormal Fate Activity Detected.]

[Target: Lira — Fate Route Instability Increasing.]

[Target: Amelia von Arclight — Fate Route Instability Increasing.]

[Unknown Entity — Center of Instability.]

"Unknown entity? Who, her?"

The woman who was at the center of the so-called instability watched the rising column of smoke, her gaze unchanging.

"You know them. I can smell their scent on you," she said, devoid of feeling.

Allan stayed quiet, taking a step back while she continued.

"One of them is dreaming, or starting to, seeing glimpses of fated future. The other is struggling to carry something that doesn’t belong to her. And it is immeasurably patient. All of it, Centuries in the making."

"What the hell is that? A riddle? Not good with those..."

"Neither am I, My name might be Sable by the way," she said finally. " Only a few know this name, consdier it a gift, for freeing me."

Marks appeared in her palm. Three circles rose up to her skin in the same pattern of the three-circle symbol. Allan’s face went still.

[Multiple Fate Routes Converging.]

[Critical Event Detected.]

[Witch’s Awakening — Deviation: 37%.]

He looked toward Oakwood. "Lira."

Then at Sable. "Who exactly are you?"

There was no time for an answer. A carriage was racing down the lane far too fast, with a figure clinging to its roof, hair streaming behind her.

Allan closed his eyes for a second.

"Amelia?"

Amelia leaped from the carriage before it stopped.

"Allan!"

She ran and hugged him, her grip tight.

"You’re safe. Thank the gods, you’re safe."

"Indeed, always there in the middle of some crisis," Seris said, breathing heavily.

"Don’t worry about me. Worry about this girl. She was chained in that cave," Allan said, pointing back at the boulder.

Amelia released him, her eyes following where he pointed.

"Allan, what girl?"

Seris came closer, frowning. "Master, what girl are you talking about?"

Allan turned, but the woman who had just whispered words of gratitude was no longer there.

"Huh, I swear," he muttered, walking toward the boulder. "She was right here."