They finished packing up in short order and gathered together by the door. Tentatively, Quentin eased the heavy oak door open and was immediately buffeted back by the rough winds that forced themself into the home. They swirled like chariots, invading and displacing anything that was not firmly secured to the floor. Tables were turned over, chairs smacked against the walls, and in the foray Laurence and Jim used their bodies to shield the two children. Peter pushed against the wind and galvanised the mana that was within him before forcing himself to the door and slamming it shut, and locking it.
The group took a concerted deep breath before all slumping down onto the ground.
“What in the name of all that is holy is causing that,” Jim asked, aghast as he pulled himself up and looked outside at the trees being pulled up out of the ground by the fierce winds. He turned back round and looked at the mess that was before him. Shards of broken wood, kindling and splinters filled the room. They were spread across the floor, sunk into the walls and even in the roof. There was not a single part of the room free from the destruction rent by the vicious winds, and outside it was far worse.
Quentin stood up and brushed himself off before glancing around the room and swearing profusely. “My things!” he cried out. “Okay, now I have a debt to settle with whatever is causing this storm. It ends today." A steely glint appeared in his eyes, and he moved over to Laurence. You and someone else should tie the children to you, we are going to need to move quickly and if they are left to their own devices then we will never get anywhere."
Laurence nodded before coiling ropes of light around Fen and Ruko. He attached Fen to his back and Ruko to Jim’s before moving towards the door.
“When we get out of here I’m going to reinforce the life seals on the building and activate the replacement beacon for the family. That way if I don’t come back they can replace me here without any surprises. It’ll be quick though, so you should head off towards the eye of the storm. I’ll catch up in moments."
The group nodded and Jim, Peter and Laurence all rushed through the doorway, sprinting at high enough speeds that they were able to cut their way through the wind. Since they had been inside the storm had only picked up strength, but now it was more than just a wall of wind, there were dead trees and clumps of dirt, rocks and other debris caught by the storm’s grip and used as projectiles for peppering any unsuspecting person that would have traversed through the region. The three men dashed around the tree trunk bullets, skirted below the marble cannonballs and deftly weaved their way through the walls of shrapnel that bombarded them. Finally the winds began to abate and their journey became easier, so they slowed down slightly and glanced behind occasionally, waiting for Quentin.
True to his word, he was just behind the group, but his journey was much more dangerous than their own. He was taking more risks than they were by travelling at his top speed. With such a high speed of movement he had far less time to react to any of the obstacles erected by the turbulent winds. Occasionally there would be something too small to see or too fast to dodge in time and so he would be skimmed as he attempted to dodge. On one occasion a spike of rock even punched through his side, but as it passed through him a bright white glow enveloped the wound and within seconds the only way to tell there had even been an injury was the damage to his clothing.
Inevitably he reached the boundary that separated the turbulent winds from the slower winds near the eye of the storm, skittering to a stop as he passed the threshold. After taking a breather from the mad rush he had to take to get through the storm, Quentin moved to catch up to Laurence, Jim and Peter. The three of them had kept their slightly slower pace than Quentin was willing to go, but he only caught up when all of them finally reached the true eye of the storm.
Before them was a shard of stone that jutted out of the ground like the finger of an unruly god. It stood proud, even as the storm that surrounded it laid waste to the surroundings. At the base was a mausoleum, a crypt of sorts that had been broken into, and at the top stood a man with bone white hair that hung to his waist. His simple robe hung from him loosely and whipped about as the power he channeled caused the storm that tore at the very fabric of the realm. He was screaming wordlessly, fist raised in defiance of the heavens.
Pulsating charges of blue energy streaked through the sky and diffused amongst the storm clouds, warping the realm and slowly causing a twist within space itself. Eventually there was a crackle, and a snap. It was not loud but somehow despite Laurence and his companions being at the base of the spike they could hear it as clearly as if they were next to it. A line formed within the warping area above the man and slowly it revealed the space outside the Tower.
Laurence stared, unable to pull himself away from the bizarre sight. He knew he should not look lest it taint his understanding of the world but he could not help it. He had to know what was beyond and between. He had to know what Babel had seen oh so long ago when the Tower had been first formed. Peter, Jim and Quentin all turned away on instinct, none of them willing to look upon whatever lived in the void; for to them whatever lived out there did not belong within the realms they knew or could comprehend.
As the rend in space grew and Laurence and the white haired man stood staring at the hole Laurence could not help but feel like he was being watched. It was as if the hole was looking back at him. The rend stopped expanding as it matched the eye of the storm and eight lines of mana shot out from within, ripping apart the sky like the legs of a spider. Finally the churning turbulent waves of power began to quiet down and were instead replaced by a formless pressure that weighed upon everyone there. It was stifling, like they had been thrown into the depths of an ocean, but there was no malice behind the pressure. It simply was.
Once this pressure unfolded, the lids of the rend in space opened, revealing a single eye that looked down upon all of creation. There was a softness to the eye that Laurence could not explain, it was like a mother looking at her young child, or an owner looking at a new pet; hopeful and loving, but worried they might harm themself.
“MOTHER!” the man with white hair screamed, his voice piercing the lull like a siren. “TAKE ME BACK OR I WILL DESTROY THIS PLACE AND EVERY REALM WITH IT!”
For a moment there was silence in response to him, but after a moment the wind whipped up from nowhere and brought with it a whisper. It was unintelligible to Laurence, but he could feel the profound and ancient sentiment behind the words. He could tell these words, this sentiment was not meant for him, but he still craned his body and dragged himself closer to try and make out anything that was said on the wind.
Before he could even reach the foot of the mound, however, the eight coils of mana that had shot out of the rend in space curled back and wrapped around the man with white hair like a spider would to a fly trapped in its web. He was pulled up and into the rend before disappearing completely, at which point the eye snapped and turned to look at Laurence. Being the direct target of all that pressure was a lot for his body to bear and he sank to the ground, but he did not turn away. He breathed through his nose as he felt his ribs crack under the weight of that eye’s aura, but he did not stop. The longer he stared the more it felt like the eye was staring through his entire being, at all he was, and could be. He was more exposed before it than if he had been naked, but there was nothing he could do.
Just as he was about to break and collapse under the weight the eye closed and was gone. The storm ceased and the only remnant that could even be connected to the bizarre occurrence that Laurence and his companions bore witness to was the ancient air that surrounded them, repelling the decay that filled the realm.
Struggling to his feet, Laurence checked on Fen, but found the boy to be unharmed. He turned around and found his friends staggering towards him, step by step.
“Fen is fine,” Laurence said, “Is Ruko...?”
“She’s fine,” Jim replied. “She was the first thing I checked.” he stopped and looked back up at the sky, words catching in his throat.
“By Babel’s eye... what was that?” Peter stood slightly behind the rest of the group, still shocked by what they had felt and seen. “My body knew that whatever it was I was not ready to see it. No matter how hard I tried I could not even turn and look. Is this area clear now? Are we done?”
“Almost,” Quentin replied, pointing at the mausoleum at the base of the spike. “That building over there is where the key is sealed, but it looks like we aren’t the first to get here."
“After whatever that was?” Jim said, “I don’t doubt it."
← Previous
No comments:
Post a Comment