Chapter 222: Chapter 219: Runes

 

A needle in a haystack. Who do you think got the job of finding it? 

Yeah, little ol' me.

There were several reasons for that. For one thing, Stella wasn't as mobile as I was, and carrying her on my back while I ran through the woods would only slow me down. Not to mention it would just wear her out for no reason. On top of that, I was the one who was able to hear and feel the misshapen space at a greater distance. Needless to say, I had no idea what our present, the floors of Fallen's Cry, actually sounded like from this side. Was it also ringing with the screams of men and beasts, or was it completely silent? I sincerely hoped not. That would make an already arduous search even more difficult.

Well, in the end it turned out my senses weren't even needed and that Stella would have to ride on my back for a little while longer.

Neither she nor I were completely stupid and asked . . . well, she asked if Traiana, as the warden of this place, felt any misshapen space around. If she did, it would make the whole searching thing a lot easier. But the woman quickly dashed our hopes. According to her, there was no such space nearby. In fact, there was no misshapen space across the entire echo. "This nightmare of mine is running as it should," were her words.

Even though it shouldn't have, the fact that she could feel what was going on in all this echo of the past took me by surprise. Yet it made sense. How else could she be with us the moment we passed through time and space and found ourselves on that cliff? She felt us enter. Either that, or we were unconscious for longer than we thought, screaming our lungs out in agony whilst in blissful oblivion. If that was the case, we were lucky it was her and not some beast that found us.

"So . . . you can feel every distortion of this echo, ma'am?" Stella asked, still with hope in her voice. She wasn't ready to give up, and neither was I.

"Indeed, little one. I'm the dreamer after all. Even you would be able to sense if something were to disturb your dreams."

A low growl escaped my throat. We were reduced to mere dream intruders, the disturbers of her dreams, her nightmares. That was just bloody great. 

No, I wasn't angry with Traiana; after all,  we were intruders in this place; it was just my frustration talking. I was disappointed that when we arrived at the location, corresponding to the spot where we entered the maze, there was nothing but old trees. No obvious way out, not even the slightest clue.

"T-Then shouldn't you be able to tell us if there's a misshapen space somewhere through this echo . . . that we could pass through, ma'am?"

Traiana nodded. "I should."

>> Then? Is there? <<

Ignoring my growl, Stella asked a question of her own. ". . . and did you sense any?"

"Not since I began dreaming this nightmare of mine," she said, looking at us both, aware of our dismay, confusion and even anger. "Do you think I'm so heartless as to let those who find themselves here wander through this nightmare until they lose their minds, and even then when I know the way out? I've already told you that I don't know, and that's the truth you have to bear."

"B-but how is that possible . . . ?" Stella stuttered. "There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of records of people disappearing in the Labyrinth."

"And indeed, many have ended up here," Traiana said, drawing a deep breath. " You seem to have forgotten, though. The past, even if only an echo of it, is more firmly anchored in time and space than the present. It's the past that tries to swallow the present, to seep into it, not the other way around, little one." That's when I finally understood - sort of. Any change in the past could cause a butterfly effect on the present, swallowing what we knew. However, there was no way to change the past in the present. No matter what we might do - cover it up, forget it - the past would remain unchanged.

In other words, there was no reason for a misshapen space from our presence to appear here and pull us back into it.

"But if you knew that . . ." Stella said, having come to a similar realization as I had. ". . . why - why didn't you tell us?"

"Because you still have hope. As I said, once you lose it, it's hard to find again, and I didn't want to snuff it out any sooner than it had to be. Again, I am not a time or space magus, but I was once told that whenever you travel through them, you leave an imprint, a memory if you will. I simply thought that . . ."

"That if we showed up here, it might trigger that memory, open the way for us," Stella finished, her dawning moment of realization quickly turning to dread as she became aware of her rudeness. "I apologize, ma'am."

"No need, little one. I fully understand your eagerness and am glad that instead of extinguishing it, I have rekindled your hope."

And that was basically why I ended up running through the forest with Stella on my back, hoping that if we ran over the right spot, we would trigger the memory, and . . . well, that something would show up, be it the way back, or at least a clue to it. 

So I ran, sweating from head to toe, out of breath, stubbornly refusing to give up, even though I was treading in the tracks I had left there hours before. I ran, alone, as Stella, after hours of this, could no longer take it. I ran, my senses in overdrive, my ears pricked, waiting for Traiana to tell me that this was it, this was the spot. Yet she never did.

As much as I hated to do so, I eventually had to admit that this part of the old woods was not the place where we would find our way back. Running around, I had plenty of time to think about why I hadn't come across the right place already.

Sure enough, according to Traiana - based on our map and her knowledge of the runes in this place - we were in the right place. It was here that we entered the maze. However, there was the rub. This was where we were when the maze manifested around us, not where Stella and I crossed space and time.

She gave me a long, sympathetic look as I walked dejectedly into the silencing field she had set up. "We need to talk, Korra." No, I wasn't in trouble. She just wanted me to change back, and I did, at least partially. Going all the way back with my shapeshifting seemed wasteful when all I needed was to be able to talk. So the Tier III Beast form it was. This was the form in which I most resembled the terrans, though the truth of that now had a completely different meaning to me. In this form, I was on the cusp between human and beast, the closest I could ever be to them, and something the terrans had to be all the time. Or at least in this era that brought them into the world.

"Yeah, we need to," I said as I sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree across from her, testing the words on my tongue. A while had passed since I'd last spoken. "Stella . . . we'll most likely have to get to the center of this maze . . . damn, this echo. You know what I mean."

"I do, Korra."

"But . . . ?"

"I've been talking to Traiana while you've been running . . . scouring around, and chances are the exit will appear with the end of the cycle. We left our traces in space and time, and when we passed through . . ."

"Sure, it was at the end of the cycle; I got it." Did I? ". . . but we appeared here at the beginning of a new one."

Traiana laughed, for some reason finding my question funny. "Your comrade made the same point, little Guardian. But rest assured, I'm confident enough to say that you can put your worries aside. You passed through at the last moments of the cycle."

"You know how the labyrinth closed in on us?" Stella asked, when the way Traiana had put it didn't make her point quite clear.

"Uh-hmm . . . ahhhh, I see."

"Yes . . . it was the runes closing the cycle."

". . . and readjusting themselves," Traiana added, so that we wouldn't forget the fact.

There was still one detail that bugged me, though. "Why did we then appear at the beginning of a new cycle?"

"You could say it's a design flaw and a fail-safe at the same time. As the runes begin to close the cycle, any alterations to the echo are not registered . . . or they are. They just don't manifest immediately, but only at the start of a new cycle."

To tell the truth, it was a good thing that this was the case. Otherwise we'd be stuck here just moments before the end of the cycle, all messed up, suffering if we were conscious at all, trapped here for all eternity.

"So I take it you want to stay here, right, Stella?" The more I thought about it, the more it seemed pointless.

"I know what you mean. We haven't touched the misshapen space here. That was in the middle of the maze, but . . . do you think we can go in there like this? That is where the battle is, where . . ." She glanced at Traiana, avoiding to talk about her fate, even though she surely knew it better than we did. "We'd have to get through half the army, and honestly, Korra, I don't know if we'll ever be able to do that. That's why I would like to be really sure that this place isn't the right one before we try something so crazy."

Stella paused, waiting for me to speak, but I didn't. I remained silent, thinking. While I wasn't in favor of staying another day, it was hard to argue with what she was saying. The chances of us getting into the middle of the echo were abysmal - at least on the first try. That meant we would be stuck here for at least another cycle, ten whole fucking days.

"Come on Korra, talk to me. Tell me I'm wrong."

She really wanted me to say that, to find a reason not to be stuck here for so long, but I saw only a sliver of hope of that happening. "Is there any way you can get us to the center of the echo unnoticed, ma'am?" The moment I asked, Stella sighed, making it more than obvious that she had already asked about that.

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"I'm afraid not, little Guardian," Traiana replied. "The way you seek to go is through the army encampment. Even the best would have trouble avoiding the detection of the magi, enchantments, and runes placed there to secure it."

"Shit." 

"That's what I said," Stella chuckled miserably. "We're pretty screwed, aren't we?"

"You still want me to tell you you're wrong?"

"Preferably."

"You're not." We were truly screwed.

"I thought so."

Even though it may have looked that way - sitting there dejected in the middle of the woods, the flame of eagerness in our eyes dying out - we didn't give up. Not yet. At least I wasn't ready, and I was sure that Stella wasn't either. This was just a temporary setback, another hurdle we had to overcome, nothing more. Hopefully.

"Is there really no way we can get there? Even if we ask nicely?" I know, stupid question. No military commander would just let strangers into his lines during a battle. I had to ask anyway.

Contrary to my expectation, Traiana didn't laugh, but actually thought about it. " You could pose as members of the Dia Eichenralke."

"The what?" I asked, having no idea what the strange name stood for.

"A mercenary company, a damned good one, that could hold its own against the armies of the kingdoms. It was destroyed with the fall of Atazar, a fortress city they were charged with defending five years before this battle. The survivors wandered the lands for years, eventually all seeking a battle in which to die and restore their company's honor."

"Damn. And you think we can pull that off? I'm not good at lying." Not only that, there was my damn body language, too.

Traiana looked at us both, sizing us up. "It won't be easy, but you might be able to do it. They had a lot of members and were still recruiting even in their last days."

"Couldn't we pose as less-known mercenaries?" Stella asked. 

"You certainly could, but your chances of getting where you want to go will be considerably lower, and even lower if you pretend to be merely wandering warriors. They haven't exactly earned a good reputation. In fact, you'll be lucky if you don't end up in a brig."

I winced at the thought, a shudder running through me. Granted, it wouldn't be the end of the world; after all, we'd be out in five days, but the thought of rotting behind bars for days made me sick. Never again. 

"We don't know anything about these Dia Eichenralke, though."

Stella had a point. "Right, one wrong word and we could end up worse than locked up." Then a thought crossed my mind. "What if I told them I was a Guardian? They're fairly respected in our time."

"And so were they in the old days," Traiana nodded, her eyes locked with mine, daring me. ". . . but what tree are you the Guardian of, little one?"

"Idleaf . . . shit." The young World Tree might have been centuries old, but she was not growing at this time. "Wait, you were able to tell right away that I was one and that Idleaf was a young tree. How?"

"Being the warden, the dreamer of this place has its privileges. Also, some of your runes were glowing. Considering your mana, their number, and their complexity, it wasn't hard to come to that conclusion."

"But that's because I'm weak," I argued, feeling the need to defend Idleaf. "She couldn't lay more or more complex ones on me."

"I'm not questioning her strength or yours, little Guardian. The way I see it, though . . . you've never met a Guardian of another tree, have you?" At my hesitant nod, she continued. "If you met one and saw their runes, you would understand that they are unique to each tree and speak of its power."

That was the first I'd heard of it. "Like the power of names?"

"The two things have more in common than you think, little Guardian. The runes are the written language of this world, and when you speak names as they should be spoken, you speak in its language."

Damn. I was at a loss for words. That names were more meaningful than they seemed, I had learned long ago, but the runes, I thought, were the creation of the folk, a way for them to control magic without the involvement of mages. That the runes could be the written language of the world did not occur to me at all. Though it did raise the question of how people could forget the power of names and not the runes.

"What we're using is just a simplified version that we understand," Stella said when she saw my inner wonder and confusion. Although she was no less taken aback by Traiana's words than I was, she knew more about runes than I did. No wonder. I never asked Aspen about them since I was busy mastering mana control and learning other shit, including Eleaden Standard. And while I had barely learned to speak, let alone write, in Standard, it looked like I was in for learning another one.

"I highly doubt that, little one."

"Ma'am?"

"That whoever made your tools understood the language of the world. Hold your anger, . . . there were not many in my time who understood it either. Understanding the runes and how to use them is not easy. It can take a lifetime to comprehend and speak the language."

"So what you're saying, ma'am, is that no one should be able to read my runes," I deduced. "Or at least tell where they came from."

"Unless you use them, no," Traiana nodded, pointing to my chest where my heart of magic was beating. "In fact, if I were you, I'd avoid using magic as such. The mana of the Guardians is close to that of the World Trees, and thus quite revealing to those who know."

"Ah . . .yeah, shit." I completely forgot that my mana changed when I became a Guardian, adjusting to that of Idleaf.

"Didn't you say that in this time there were those who understood the true runes?" Stella argued, her eyes tracing the runes on my body hidden behind the fur.

"Indeed, little one. However rare as they were, they were even rarer to be found on the battlefields. I can confidently tell you that there are none here, and the same goes for other Guardians or Dragons."

"Dragons? What do they have to do with . . . ahhh. They speak the language of the world, don't they?"

Traiana nodded at my unfinished question. "Better than anyone, little one. They're masters of it."

"So Korra's runes won't be a problem as long as she doesn't use mana, right?" Stella reassured. No matter how it might have seemed, she was no less curious than I was to learn more about dragons. But knowing that there weren't any, she curbed her curiosity and tried to figure out how to get us out of this mess.

"Correct."

"And her appearance? She looks like a beastman. No offense, Korra."

"None taken." I looked like one.

"It may cause some concern, but she is not one; that much is obvious at a glance. If asked, say the curses twisted your body."

"What curses, by whom, where?" Stella listed the questions they might ask off the top of her head, frightened by how much we didn't know about this world and how difficult it would be to get back to ours if we didn't find our way back to this part of the woods with the end of the cycle.

"Do not be daunted, little ones. If you are willing to listen, I will tell you all you need to know."

Not everything she knew, of course. But if learning how to deceive the people of the past here was the way to get back, no matter how much I hated it, it was the price I was willing to pay.

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