Chapter 12: Chapter 12

“Do not forget your place in all of this Protos. I gave you mastery over time and space to keep Xayddryrth on a path that will make him powerful enough to topple my sister AND I vividly remember telling you that I don’t care if it takes a hundred billion years AND YET you come to me after only ten billion, complaining that he is too powerful for some of you AND YET he has never left The Outer Realms. There are Warlords and even simple inhabitants of Arrithia that would push him to his limits with a flick of their finger AND YET because it is now directly affecting you personally, you come to me crying for help…I suggest you gather The Highers you have under you and tell them that if any of them leave The Burned Cosmos to challenge Xayddryrth again, I will personally snuff them out of existence, and don’t you dare think I haven’t noticed you. You directly intervened, telling him that ‘It’s about time.’ He was well on his way to figuring it out himself by the end of his time on Urith…so tell me, why did you intervene, could it be you think you can execute your own coup? You’re pathetic Protos, I am Infinity, I know AND see ALL…nudge him like that again and I will make you wish I had snuffed you out with the others, I gave you explicit instructions for when intervening…now am I to be understood with all of this?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, Lord Ivory.”

“Very good, now leave me and fetch Diom and Nozarg, I would like to have a word with them.”

*

“A’CHOO!” I took off my mask and wiped my nose. “Sorry, someone was talking about me.”

Maeve and I had ventured down several tunnels, each of them with temperature changes—which we thought meant an opening and technically there were—there were quite a few. 

“They tunneled out little air holes to the surface, that’s cheeky,” I stated.

Whoever had built the tunnels below Vol had done so with craft, trickery, and purpose.

“Zero.”

“What?”

“Can you teleport through all the tunnels and make this faster?”

“Oh.” I stood there for a moment, not realizing how ignorant we were being. “Yeah, I could have done that, why didn’t–”

“Just do it.”

I nodded and began teleporting through the maze of tunnels, smacking into a plethora of dead ends. The tunnels extended far beyond what either of us could have imagined and the more I surveyed, the more I realized that these tunnels weren’t made as a means of transportation—they were a means of hiding. I tried to find a pattern or even something that would give me a clue as to where to go, but the tunnels gave me nothing.

It’s going to be a long night.

*

“Princess Varin…there isn’t much else any of us here can say beyond…we’re sorry…I’m…I’m sorry, but if your mother could see you now, I know she would be pro–.”

“Stop.” Varin cut Alinanda off, turning from the wall to face her. “You all were born from the Moon as gifts, you’re not a real family, what makes you think you know anything about it huh?!”

“Princess, I…” Alinanda lifted her hand, trying to muster words, but she was struggling to find them. Even though Varin is almost three hundred and fifty, she is still a child, her emotions haven’t fully developed, regardless of how mature she might seem.

Alinanda nodded to herself and stepped forward. She wrapped her arms around Varin and pulled her in tightly. “I can’t say exactly what you’re going through, but I can tell you that I know what loss is and I know how hard it can be…” She pulled Varin back and looked her in the eyes. “Your mother loved you, Varin and if you could have seen her during her final days, you would know how much you meant to her.”

There was a sudden flash before Varin and Alinanda’s eyes, a spark of white light that only they could see.

“What’s happening?” Varin asked.

The world around them began to rewind—pulling the city back together, piece by piece. The two of them watched a forest of trees formed out of the ash around them, giving the city back its plentiful shade as they hoisted themselves into the sky. The City of a Thousand Hands in the span of a few moments had completely returned from its ashy grave and turned back into the bustling city that it was in its prime.

Varin stuck out her hand, trying to grab the attention of one of the Nymphs that was walking by, but it simply passed through with a smoky haze.

“It’s like they’re ghosts.” She stated.

Alinanda tried to hide her expression, but Varin’s own showed she was caught. “Well, that’s because they are.”

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“What do you mean?”

“MoonShadow Elves can connect with the soul of an area and replay the past.”

“And this?”

“This is the day our mothers died.”

*

Maeve and I continued our little adventure through the tunnels, walking for an hour before coming to another large opening.

“Man, I’m getti—.”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Maeve interrupted me, holding her hand up to my mask.

“You don’t even know what I was going to say, I’ll have you know, I wasn’t going to say I was tired or hung—.”

“Quiet dummy.” Maeve shoved her hand into my mask more, grabbing ahold of it, she pulled me down to the floor. “Shhh, I hear movement.”

“You sure one of your parents wasn’t a Viper Wolf?” I asked. 

“Are you sure one of yours wasn’t a Banshee? Now shut up.” Maeve replied.

She pulled herself down into the floor, disappearing into the shadows.

“Ohcomeonnn—.” I stopped myself as my senses began to go nuts—something that doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, it usually means—I turned around as a small portal opened itself before me.

“A Rift?” I asked myself.

Maeve popped back up, her hands wrapped around her daggers.

“Is this what you felt?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I could hear footsteps, but once this opened they cut out.”

“You don’t think?”

“Touch it and force them out or wait until they come out themselves.”

I walked up to The Rift—its greenish hue was radiating from the center and the yellow outline was slowly fading in brightness.

“What if it’s more Dryad?” I asked.

“Then we kill ‘em and move on?”

“Fair enough.”

I tapped my palm against The Rift, filling the area with a blinding light and the sound of many groans as it forced those inside, out.

“Sorry about thaaaat, hey, hey, look at this Maeve…Jólu Elves!”

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