The dull throbbing in her ((CORE)) had begun to fade by the time she slowly ambled over to the store room. She floated in between the rushing hallway of ants running back and forth from the construction site. The buzzing cleared her head, and somehow, by the time that she slipped out of the congested hall and into the open space of the store room, somehow, she felt a little better.
Empress knew that something was wrong. The ever-growing wound in the heart of her being was proof enough of that, but she would heal. She had to heal. Crystals grew, didn’t they? She had grown, at least. Would growth be enough to knit broken lattices together? Or did she need to grow large enough that the damage could be removed like a tumor?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t do anything, and the overwhelming feeling of helplessness was completely intolerable. So, Empress did her best to ignore the dulling pain, and ignore the dancing wisps at the edges of her circular vison. She most certainly did not feel as if her ((MANA)) was being sucked into the fracture. No. All Empress needed to do was stop overexerting herself. If Litone was at war, then surely, no more adventurers would come looking for a young dungeon. Erak said that she had a year or two. A year was an impossibly long time. It had to be enough.
She was pulled out of her reverie by the sound of a soft cough. Empress blinked a few times, and realized that Erak had been standing in the store room. The sliver elf was standing at the bank of the flooded hallway, crouched down to stare at the water as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, his free hand held a blue torch. For a moment, Empress tried to imagine how Erak saw the store room.
She wondered if he could see the small divots in the walls and ceilings from the ants’ mandibles, or if he could see the wriggling of the mosquito larvae before they sprung to life. It was probably dark, since he had brought his fire. Empress wondered if the elf could tell Builder apart from her crew as they worked tirelessly above him, or if the ceiling just looked as if it was moving.
She moved her ((GAZE)) beside him and watched as his expression shifted slowly, he placed the torch carefully on the ground before pushing up his sleeve- Empress noticed that he hadn’t changed into the Beastkin’s clothing- and plunged his arm into the water.
She saw how his face contorted into a grimace for a few seconds before relaxing as he adjusted to the temperature of the water, she watched as he plucked a single flower of Witches Blossom.
Node harvested +1 Mana
He shook off his wet arm before scrambling for the torch with his dry hand. The fire had gone dim, and Empress saw him push a bit of ((MANA)) into the torch, causing the fire to flare back up. It was really, such a small amount of ((MANA)), but she saw how much Erak’s ((MANA POOL)) went down, and that made her ((GAZE)) dim.
She felt her own recently replenished ((MANA)), then glanced at Erak’s with a soft hum. She tried to push some of the ambient ((MANA)) toward Erak, it responded reluctantly to her commands. Empress hummed again, before remembering to activate her ((MANA CONTROL)) skill. She only had a moment to marvel at how easy it was to hold it in her mental grasp before hot pain wracked her ((CORE)). Empress cried out, and her ((GAZE)) thumped to the floor, a barely lit coal of light. Erak flinched and dropped the flower. She saw glimpses of frantic sliver words that she couldn’t quite make out, as she watched the blossom fall back onto the miniature lake and sink into the swampy miasma.
Dancing shadows obscured her vison, and a soft mumble turned into audible speech.
“Jaa! Lizzie!” Hanu Jon,
“Jon? Ka es du jingsai per?” Hanu Lizzie
“Glau Namaedag fu du, Lizzie.” Hanu Jon
“Oh. Danke...” Hanu Lizzie
“Akk, Nil. Um... Glaudagst.” Hanu Jon
WARNING:
YOU HAVE TAKEN SIGNIFICANT-
“…A-Au Lizzie?” Hanu Jon.
“Akk?” Hanu Lizzie.
“Un dua du.” Hanu Jon, “Glaudagst!”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Ka? Jon!” Hanu Lizzie
WARING:
PROCEEDING PAST THIS POINT WILL RESULT IN-
“JON! VISLOVA!” Hanu Lizzie
[] |> E /\/ Y [] \/ R E Y E $ E /\/\ |> R E $$ .
“L-Lizzie?” Hanu Jon
/\/ [] \/\/
Empress’s ((GAZE)) whirred back to life of its own volition, catapulting her back into the storeroom, and away from the ever-growing cacophony of voices. She was instantly greeted by a flashing wall of silver text.
DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP PLEASE WAKE UP DON’T FALL ASLEEP DON’T FALL ASLEEP…
Empress realized that she was in the ((SANCTUM))… and that Erak was too. Guard was no longer curled around her pedestal but instead blocked the entryway. It was only the three of them in the ((SANCTUM)), the guards on the ceiling were missing, which gave Empress a strange feeling of nakedness.
Erak stood in front of her ((CORE)), ((MANA)) leaking out of his pours as if he were casting a very inefficient spell over and over. Empress blinked. Because that was exactly what he was doing. The silver text that he normally produced almost effortlessly was being oversaturated and swelled until it looked ready to burst. The ambient ((MANA)) in the ((SANCTUM)) was higher than normal, and, for some reason, it caused the whispers to grow fainter.
“…” She tried to speak, but her voice didn’t seem to work. She could see Erak’s small ((MANA POOL)) bottoming out, but he didn’t stop his useless spell. Her mind felt hazy, and the ((SANCTUM)) felt far away. She clumsily reached out to him with a tendril of thought, and, without particularly meaning to, caused a wave of unrefined ((MANA)) to crash down upon him.
The elf instantly collapsed. Empress’s ((GAZE)) blinked out of existence.
“You can’t be serious… Erann’d?” I-him-wE asked.
“I…” Erann said, “I’m sorry.” His voice was soft, and it waved slightly “They- They didn’t mean for- for this to happen.”
“Didn’t mean for this to happen? Didn’t mean for what- Erann where are my children?!” The Man. The Vessel. The thing. Me. Said. Anguish. I knew the answer.
Erann’s hands were shaking, his voice came out distorted. She didn’t know the words. He did. He’d heard them. “Vali is- Vali is gone. Nafri-”
A Coyote’s howl pierced the night. The moons looked upon the Tundra with disgust. Erann turned. So did their brothers. Practically strangers. Compared to Erann’d. We saw the coyote. A viper dropped at its paws. We saw its eyes.
We Knew.
YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY BOUND ERAK EITHIDIEN TO YOUR DUNGEON.
LEVEL OF RESISTANCE: 0
RANK GIVEN: SPEAKER (automatically assigned)
The coyote took its prey and ran. I watched him go as my home smoldered behind me. Ashes the shape of a giantess laying in the melted husk of our bed. We would not be allowed to mourn. They were not true heirs.
Shadows danced in Empress’s vison, and she felt as if she was falling. For a moment, she thought she smelt smoke.
“Empress?” A male voice whispered, “That is your name, isn’t it? Empress, wake up.”
She flinched, and her ((GAZE)) flickered back to life.
“You need to stay awake, can you hear me?”
Empress looked around for the source of the voice. Only to find Erak staring directly at her. He took a half step forward.
“You can’t order her around.” Empress said, woozily before her ((GAZE)) dimmed and dropped several feet. “She is…above…”
“Empress, you need to tell me what happened.” Erak said patiently defiant.
“Um.” Empress said, blearily deciding to listen to him, at least until she figured out how she could understand him now. “She is hurt.”
“How did you get hurt?” Erak said, taking another step toward her ((GAZE)).
“She…” Empress hesitated. “She repelled the invasion.”
“The crack in your ((CORE)) was there before the beastkin attacked, how did that happen Empress?” Erak said,
Empress wondered why he kept repeating her name. “She… isn’t sure. Something about the spawner she thinks.”
“…Okay.” Erak said, suddenly stepping away from her and rubbing his eyes “Okay, its alright. We can fix this.”
“Fix what?” she asked.
Erak opened his mouth, then shut it, “Its not important, Empress, can you try and do something for me?”
Empress got the vague impression that Erak was treating her as if she was stupid. “What does Erak want?” She said, suspicious.
“Can you promise not to use any ((MANA)) directly? At least for a little while?”
“What? Why would she do that?” Empress asked,
Erak’s expressions moved to quickly for her to decipher them, and she was half sure that she wouldn’t have recognized them in the first place, but she guessed that it wasn’t good. “…please?”
It was so pitiful, Empress instantly felt sorry for the Elf.
Erak frowned at her lack of response and looked away. “I’m sorry.”
Empress looked at the dozens of black lines spreading through her ((CORE)), she stared at the grey shards that had fallen off and lost their color. She watched the very essence of her being with dissatisfaction. Then she turned back to Erak.
“Why?” She asked.
