"Yes," Laurence replied, his body faintly glowing the same shade of blue as his hammer, "And no. My Ascension seems to be inevitable at this point, but I'm in that transition period. I can feel my body changing, but this isn't something I could speed up with the kind of time I can make." He began to laugh before letting his hammer return to dust. "I'm back to square one, I still need more time before I’m absolutely confident."
The two men stood on top of the airship as they watched it quickly approach the floating island. To begin with it was a speck in the center of their vision, but it soon swelled into a floating mass of old buildings, lights and life. People moved around on the island like worker ants, being careful to not step near the maw that sank through the middle of the island. From the side, the island itself was only a few hundred meters in depth, but even glimpsing the maw from side on, it felt like you could fall into the mouth forever.
As Rosie approached the island, people seemed to notice its presence, and reacted accordingly. Contrary to how Laurence expected, the crowd of people neither ran in fear, nor prepared for deadly combat. Instead they simply lined up and waited, as if guiding them to the maw, and to the people expecting Laurence’s arrival with the missing key. As they got closer, they began to see the specific features of each person, but it was only when they were close to landing that Laurence gained a sense of unease; he was finally able to put their expressions in perspective.
The crowd cheered as the ship landed, the wave of their voices rippling down the path, until it reached the core of the island. Thousands of voices cried out in a wave that became a roar and it only ceased when Rosie landed. Even as Quentin hopped off the ship and landed in a cloud of dust and debris the silence persisted. Hundreds of eyes stared at him with a combination of reverence and disgust that could not be shrouded. He was one of their greatest enemies, a Bookbearer of Babel, and yet as far as they were concerned he was aiding them to raise Avalon to even greater heights. As Laurence, Jim, Peter and the children landed next to Quentin, Laurence looked back to Dunwu looking down on the upper deck.
"Don't land, but stay nearby for the moment. We will likely need a way back."
With a nod, she returned to the innards of the ship and it returned to the air, distant enough that the Avalonians would struggle to reach it without their own airships.
"Why are you blue?" Jim asked Laurence as he brushed off the dirt from his landing. "Did you make something defective?"
"On the contrary," Quentin interjected, "my cousin is Ascending."
"Ascending?" Said Peter, "Not Ascended?"
"Yeah, I'm still in a transition period. Hopefully this will be quicker than my last one, but at least I can move around in it." Laurence smirked, “Being trapped in crystal was not as fun as you might think.”
“I don’t think that sounds fun at all,” Peter replied.
“Yeah. Well it was worse than that.”
The group moved forwards as they chatted amongst themselves, safe in the knowledge that there were very few people here who could even face them, let alone actually endanger them. They still raised their guard, but bar Laurence taking hold of Fen’s hand, and Jim grabbing Ruko’s, they kept themselves seemingly as relaxed as possible. Their footsteps echoed on the cobble and dirt path, standing out against the stark silence of the crowd that lined them. Their click-clacking would have been overpowering, had the comparative silence not been so oppressive. Laurence could feel Fen’s fingers dig into his hand as the young boy struggled to keep calm amidst the absence of noise. As he glanced around he saw Ruko gripping Jim’s hand just as tightly as Fen gripped his. The children were both unsettled, but like their older companions, they tried as best as they could to not show it.
"So what's the plan then?" Jim asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"My original idea was collect the keys, enter the well, Peter and I wish Rose and Cleo back to life respectively, then we leave." Laurence grimaced as he spoke, "Pretty simple honestly,"
"That was your original plan," Quentin said, "But it's not anymore, is it?"
"Not a chance in a thousand worlds. I have a bad feeling about everything we're doing, and with the added knot of Avalon being involved..." Laurence paused, "Lets just say I'm not expecting things to go smoothly."
"Makes sense," Peter said, "Avalonians hate Bookbearers, and denizens of the Tower almost as much as they hate Babel and the Tower itself; and when you're a dead end in the paths of Ascension, you get angry and scared looking at the people who aren't."
"Anger and fear are the two easiest emotions to manipulate. If someone is scared enough I don't even have to use mana, just the right words and the right enemy. Things will fall into place on their own after that," Jim sighed, "Sometimes it makes me feel so sad that I don't always have to use mana to manipulate people with the teachings of the Book of Order. We all make it too easy, and have more vulnerabilities than we realise. If it was just changing their thought processes through the use of mana then the lining up of everyone around us would make sense. As it stands it's just weird, and a bit sad."
"That's Avalon," Peter replied, shrugging.
They continued to chat and walk down the path, until finally reaching the end of their path, a simple wooden stairway attached to the side of the gaping maw that was the hole in the heart of the island. From here they realised for the first time that there was something off about the hole. It seemed to stretch kilometres down, far beyond the height of the floating island, which was at most a hundred metres thick. It was another oddity in a long string of things that made Laurence uncomfortable, but at least here he and his companions could speed things up.
He and Jim hoisted the two children onto their backs, before in unison, the four men leapt into the abyss. With some effort, Laurence managed to retract the odd blue glow that was emanating from his body. In the light of day it was easy to miss, but in the void-maw that held the Wishing Well of Yoth it was like the moon in a clear night sky. As they fell, he desperately pulled the excess power leaking out of his body inside. His aura was still wild, but the less of his hand he showed initially the better. Inch by inch, second by second, the soft blue went from a metre out of him, to a foot, then an inch, to millimetres before finally sinking below his skin and plunging them into darkness.
They continued to sink in unison, watching the rickety, wooden stairway attached to the wall ticker down with the high velocity they were falling at. What could have been moments, but felt like aeons, later they saw several specks of light below them. As the spots of light became bigger, the four men began to slow their descent, before landing gently at the bottom of the well.
Before them was a great, obsidian doorway, much like one of the gateways that allowed people to traverse through the tower, however in place of the six glyphs that represented the Book clans, stood a great fresco depicting various Manifestations of note, starting with the great wall on the second floor, and ending with the Well of Yoth itself, at the bottom of the doorway. At about chest level, in the middle of the door, was a simple symbol of a forge, the old icon that depicted the Hephaistia clan. It was one long replaced by Laurence’s own symbol, but to all those who saw it, and understood its connotations, the forge was still a mark of great power and value. The symbol sat atop a protrusion with three warping and shifting slots within the doorway. The slots called to Laurence, but he bit his cheek. Now was not the time.
“So you’ve finally arrived,” spoke a voice from behind the group, “You’ve kept me waiting a long time.”
Behind them was a man flanked by two women, one blonde, one brunette, all three dressed in red and black stained leather. The brunette, Laurence recognised immediately. Yveth. The other woman, the blonde, he did not. Assuming the man was the leader of Avalon, Gawayen, he could not work out who the blonde woman was. He could tell there was no love between her and Yveth, as she seemed to be trying to distance herself from the other woman at all costs. All he knew was she would be an unpredictable element. He faced the trio, let Fen climb off his back, and smiled slightly before replying, "And you're trying to get hold of an inheritance that is rightfully mine. Honestly I think the least I could do is make you wait for me."
"He's the one?" The man asked Yveth "The surprise?"
She smiled, "Of course, father, but I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet."
"My name is Gawayen Pendragon, and I would like to request that you use the last key so that we may unlock the well. We all seem to want to use it so."
"I know who you are," Laurence replied. He turned his back on them and finally approached the doorway. After placing his hand on the hard stone he released his truesense into the door before him, exploring the mechanisms within. Sighing, he pulled away his hand, "Four people can enter once we open the door. Peter and I will be two of the four; I don't care who you pick for the rest."
Gawayen frowned, "We have two of the keys, you only have one. You're not in a position to make demands here."
"No. You're not in any position to argue with me, Gawayen. If we had spoken about this before we saw the doorway I would have likely agreed with you, but the fact of the matter is that I do not actually need you here. Give me a week and I can create two replacement keys, because I know how the lock works, and most importantly I am Laurence Babel-damned Absolution, the first Immortal of the Hephaistia clan," Laurence growled before summoning his hammer and pointing it at Gawayen, the blue radiance gently releasing itself into the darkest. "Do not misunderstand. You are a convenience, nothing more."
Gawayen gawped, first at Laurence, then the hammer before turning towards Yveth. She gave the man a thin smile before singing, "Doom of Avalon's a thrumming, Hammer's children are war-drumming, blood and bone, and broken homes. Naught will stop revenger's coming." As she finished she began to laugh wickedly, "Are you ready father?"
"Fine," Gawayen replied bitterly, "Yveth and I will enter with you. Ayna, Dayel, watch the entrance. It's time to break the curse of our clan."
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