Greetings all
I hope you have all had a better week than myself. The cooking book is going well, but I lost one of my dear pets and I am still reeling from it. I didn't even want to write this update, but here it is all the same. I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to follow up on what @zakludick wrote in Part 49
This was a between world. It had taken his sister’s discovery to make him realise this. They weren’t in the right place, but it was close.
Adrian touched the wall where his sister was miming. The feeling below his fingers was strange. It wasn’t cold and rigid. It was nothing yet everything at once. He closed his eyes and felt the revenant placing his hand on his shoulder. With an extra source of magic close by, Adrian had everything he needed.
He pushed against the wall, willing it to open before him, trying to make the magic in this place understand his will. However, it wasn’t the same as before, and it didn’t take him long to realise that he needed to change his thinking. He was seeking last time, perhaps now, he needed he need to will his companions to the right place.
There wouldn’t be an open veil this time, no. He would have to push them through to the other side. The side that held the clue needed to find the dragon. He didn’t warn his companions. He had no idea how this between world would impact the spell if they knew about what he was about to do.
Mentally he reached out to each and pushed them into the realm they needed to go. He pictured their auras and one by one, willed them through. He felt their existence wink out one by one, and he almost panicked, but a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder let him know that everything was alright.
Lastly, he pictured himself and Mortis being pushed through. For a moment, it felt as if nothing would happen, but then he fell forward. Mortis’ hand managed to grab him before he fell face first in wet, cold muck.
All at once, Magna’s senses were overwhelmed. She smelt the ozone in the air from a lightning strike, the damp, the mud, and felt the cold and rain on her skin. All around her were run-down hamlets, buildings that seemed to be rotting away. Above her were steel grey clouds that continued to send down a fine mist that coated all of them. This felt alien, yet so familiar. She tried to see beyond the rain, but it hung like a veil before them.
She felt a sudden surge of anger from Sebastian and turned to find him seething silently as he looked beyond what Magna could see.
“Is this a joke?” he demanded, a growl creeping into his voice.
Adrian, now being held up by Mortis looked around and seemed somewhat confused himself. He looked from Trix’s sad face to his uncle’s furious one and quickly realised where the spell had taken them.
“Clarprati.” He whispered.
“I am back where I started!” roared the King as he put his hand through a crumbling hamlet.
“I don’t understand.” Said Adrian. “I did the spell correctly; I followed the clues. Rhys must be here.”
“I would have known if a dragon was here!” roared Sebastian.
“Sebastian, calm down.” Said Trix. “You will call them to us.”
“Might as well, we are all but out of time and the whelp brought us back to where we started. We don’t have any more time.” Sebastian pulled his sword free from its scabbard and sunk it into the muck before him.
“They come.” Said Trix.
Mortis grabbed the boy and pushed him into the centre of the circle that was formed by the fighters. All around him, he could hear snarls and movement. Something was hiding in the rain and without knowing the lay of the land, he wasn’t sure how he could protect the boy.
“We must flee.” Said Trix. “They know not how to fight…”
“I am done running, I am done looking for help that will never come. I will handle this my way.” Sebastian flexed his arms and sank to all fours as fur started to bristle through his skin.
It didn’t take long for the man to disappear and the beast to remain. Trix frowned, sighed, replaced her helm and sank into its shadow.
“We fight or die.” Growled the beast.
“No, wait, Rhys is here, we need to find him.” Adrian begged.
“I am done with this.” Sebastian tried to take a swipe at Adrian, but Magna brought up a blade to defend her brother.
“Don’t make me do this.” She begged.
“We fight or die.” Repeated the beast.
“Or we plan.” Came a familiar voice.
Andrian covered his ears when he heard a word of power spoken. It echoed in his chest, and it felt as if the ground beneath his feet gave way. His face hit the muck and he struggled to get to his feet. He could barely open his eyes, but from what he could see, his sister was kneeling with gritted teeth. Even Derric was crouching, staining his fur. Sebastian and Mortis seemed fine but seemed somewhat distracted by the spell that had been cast.
Within seconds, the weather broke, and sunlight poured down upon them. All around them, Adrian could hear unearthly screams of creatures that had tried to surround them. He felt his consciousness slip as his sister pulled him up to support him.
Mortis looked at the stranger who seemed to be squatting on the roof of the hamlet close by. He had seen this man before, knew him by sight and name, but he didn’t understand how he had come to be here.
As if hearing the unasked question, a set of yellow eyes fixated on the revenant, “Well met Mortis. I believe the prince followed this to reach me.”
A grey hand reached inside of the shirt to pull a medallion free. It was a gold chain, and on the end, there was a scale. Mortis would have grinned if he were able to.
The Lifedrinker looked up at the heavens and saw the clouds were starting to close once more. He frowned and said, “We do not have much time. Is there a place we can remain undetected?”
“Castle.” said Sebastian, though it was clear he was straining to speak.
“Lead the way, before the remnants of the spell dissolve and we are without protection.”
The Lifedrinker leapt from hamlet to hamlet, somehow not falling through the rot, while Sebastian and Mortis had to rouse the rest of their party and get them to move toward the castle that had been revealed by the break in the storm.
“Who the hell? What the hell?” muttered Sebastian as he held the twins over his broad shoulders.
While Magna was conscious, she was barely keeping her eyes open, and Adrian was out cold.
“I can answer one of those questions.” Said Mortis. “We just crossed paths with Lucien.”
And now Zak gets to decide where we go from here.
Here is an explanation of Chain Stories and here is the current Chainstory Library
Mortis Custos
Sanguifex
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