Chapter 23: Chapter 23 – Misunderstanding

The sounds of the city below slowly ebbed away along with any unnatural light, leaving only the night sky above them.

Tessa would have been amazed at the beautiful sight, had it not been for the stranger sitting in front of her.

She caught sight of something moving out of the corner of her eye and turned to look. It was barely visible in a way she couldn’t describe, it wasn’t that it was hidden, but more shrouded.

Melding with its surroundings stood a large hound with four glowing red eyes.

As soon as she noticed it, her perception shifted as if a spell had been broken, revealing an intimidating monstrous canine ready to pounce on her.

The hound let out a deep rumbling metallic growl, echoing as if they were inside an empty hangar.

“That’s enough, Garmr.” The man said, having moved soundlessly next to Tessa.

Shocked at his sudden proximity, she took a step away, only for her foot to find nothing but air.

And then she fell.

 

***

 

“God dammit.” I cursed as the young woman fell into my domain.

Shortly after dropping off the Heirs I had felt something from above, an anomaly in the ambient energy. Curious, I decided to check it out, but the closer I got, the more unsettled I became.

Something had taken control of the ambient energy and stilled it, something I’d only ever managed through force, yet here someone was doing so through finesse.

It felt weak and easily disruptable, but impressive nevertheless.

Upon reaching the roof, I found a young woman circling the edge, seemingly not caring that a single misstep would lead to her death.

Her physique was Amazonian, tall and strong, but sleek and toned, with caramel skin and black hair.

As I drew closer, I noticed her left sleeve was empty flapping in the wind and as she turned a corner I saw her face, scarred but not disfigured, she had no doubt once been beautiful, but now a harshness dominated her sharp features, telling a story of what she had endured.

I sat down, expanding my senses, and studied the strange state of the surrounding energy.

Controlling external energy like this was a fundamental step in becoming a craftsman, at a certain point the surrounding environment became more of a hindrance than your own skill, that’s when most craftsmen would either shape their environment to offset this unpredictability, or learn to seize their surroundings, some even using them to their advantage.

But my condition made it impossible for me to interact with any energy that wasn’t inherently my own. I was forced to settle for doing what I could to control my surroundings when making anything that required precision.

As with most things, there were alternatives.

One could fill the surrounding air with their own energy and simply push away anything foreign, but this was far from efficient and would usually lead to a saturated atmosphere, which wasn’t any better.

 

The young woman turned a corner and began walking towards me, allowing me to see her more clearly. Her expression was troubled, as if recalling a bad memory. And as her expression changed, so did the energy in the air.

My shadows, ever the protective sort, manifested in the dark corners around the roof, communicating their worries and warnings about the anomalous being in front of me. Several prowling closer to be ready to strike should she prove a threat.

She kept approaching, still not having noticed me. I was at a loss for what to say in the situation, but if I said nothing, I feared she might just bump into me.

“It’s quite the stunning view from up here,” I observed, attempting to seem friendly. “Although not for the faint of heart I’d imagine.”

The surrounding energy instantly turned antagonistic, although not outright hostile. It was a Powderkeg primed to explode, all it needed was a single spark to set it off.

A shadow reminded me of the occupants below us. Although unaware of what was about to happen, they would no doubt be caught up in its effects.

I desperately spread out my domain across the rooftop in an attempt to envelop as much of the primed energy as possible while bracing myself for the chaos that would ensue…

Except nothing happened, instead of setting off the bomb she had primed around us, the young woman looked towards the sky, seeming to take in the view, before quickly turning towards the shadows stalking closer to her, the air responding to her intentions washed away the darkness covering Garmr who had been closest to her.

I felt his discomfort at being revealed. He’d long had an aversion to being seen, for which I am partly at fault.

He let out a rumbling growl in warning and I felt him get read to shed his subdued form and attack the young woman intending to kill her.

Not wanting to escalate things, I moved and intervened.

“That’s enough, Garmr.” I commanded.

But startled by my sudden actions, the woman took a frantic step back, only to fall over the ledge and plummet into the dark below….

“Huh. That’s… Well, not good.” I remarked, looking down into the thick shadowy mist below.

I turned back to the roof. Three shrouded canine figures waiting there with a confused canine tilt to their heads as they tried to comprehend how someone they deemed a threat could be so clumsy.

I felt a headache coming on, as I started considering the possibility we might all have overreacted.

“Geri, Freki, go find her and lead her out. Garmr, make sure nothing from the lower levels finds her.” I ordered, rubbing the bridge of my nose in frustration at the possibility I might have just surprised, threatened and then kidnapped an amputee on my first night here and from what I only now realized was a hospital rooftop.

“I really hope no one finds out about this.”

 

***

 

Tessa gasped as she sat up, only for her to groan and almost throw up. She had what she could only describe as the worst case of motion sickness she’d ever experienced.

Although that passed quickly as her blurry vision cleared enough for her to look at her surroundings.

She was in a dark room dimly lit, which would probably have brought up very unpleasant memories, were it not for the bizarre materials it was made of.

The floor was made of a cobbled obsidian-like stone with a matt finish. Red glowing vein-like lines snaked out from beneath her across the floor for a couple of feet and grew in intensity and distance when she moved.

The walls were covered in a dark material that appeared to absorb the light of the floor, giving the room a sense of endlessness. The only sign it wasn’t was the lines abruptly stopping where the floor stopped.

Tessa ran her hand across the smooth surface of the wall, amazed at how she could barely perceive it at all. It almost felt like she stood on a platform in the middle of empty space.

She should be freaking out, but honestly she was fascinated with the strange and otherworldly scene before her, she started testing out the floor by stomping roughly, which she instantly regretted as it reminded her she was currently barefoot, but she still achieved her desired result as a web of red lines spread out lighting up the room and giving her an idea of where the walls were.

It was at this point that she noticed a spot that wasn’t some endless distance of darkness, instead it was a square opening leading out of the room, it was large by even her standards, so high she couldn’t even reach the top even if she jumped.

She briefly considered what would need such a large doorway before pushing that thought away as she steeled herself and crossed over the threshold.

The moment her feet touched the other side of the doorway, a ripple of the red lines spread out illuminating a room across from her, identical to the one she’d just left.

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The ripple of glowing red lines seemed to continue forever, revealing an endless corridor littered with doors similar to her own.

After a minute or so, the wave of light had become barely an ember in the distance. Thankfully, the lights beneath her feet hadn’t left her. Although the thought of only being able to see half a dozen feet in front of herself wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Tessa turned back to the room she had woken up in, considering it for a moment before making her decision.

“No way in hell am I going back in there to wait.” Tessa stated out loud as she considered each direction of the corridor, before heading down the right one for no particular reason as they were practically identical.

 

***

 

“What do you mean, you can't find her?” I asked the two wolf-dogs in front of me.

I had remained on the roof, quickly withdrawing my domain to just my immediate surroundings. It had been quite taxing spreading it far enough to cover the entire rooftop and left me with a thundering headache.

Geri whined at me and I got the distinct impression he’d just given me the excuse, “That she wasn’t where they thought she’d be.”

“Then. Track. Her.” I reiterated angrily.

Freki chimed in a lot more coherently, using our connection to expand on the meaning of each sound, which still just ended up barely comprehensible. “No energy. No scent. Not awakened.”

“She did that without… She’s an Innate?!”

 

***

 

Tessa had been walking for thirty minutes, and honestly, her feet were getting sore. The stone beneath her, although pretty and warm to the touch, was still stone, and she was barefoot.

Tessa sighed and sat down to rest, which forced her to confront the thoughts she’d pushed away since waking up here.

“I remember being on the roof, walking the ledge. I remember the strange man with red eyes, and a four-eyed hound, and then, I fell… Did I die?”

Tessa was interrupted by low sobs coming from a couple of rooms ahead of her. Mumbles echoed off the walls, seeming to continue onwards forever.

She stood and walked towards the curious whines stopping in front of the opening, inside pressed against the farthest corner from the entrance, sat an emaciated man in ragged bloody clothes. His face was gaunt and eyes distant as he kept incoherently mumbling.

“I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, I’m sorry, I don’t want it, I’m sorry, please make it stop, I can’t take it, please stop.” The man devolved further into a sobbing mess, hugging his knees to his chest and hiding away his face.

That’s when Tessa noticed his arms, they looked to have been repeatedly pierced by two sharp objects equally spaced apart, weirder still, the wounds didn’t seem to bleed, although maybe that should be expected considering the man was barely more than skin and bones.

Without thinking, she took a step forward to get a better look at the man unintentionally crossing the threshold to his room.

A small ripple of light moved across the floor towards the man, and he stilled. His posture… Changed.

Tessa watched as his breathing steadied before his sobbing continued, but this time, Tessa didn’t feel pity, she felt fear, something was inherently wrong with the sound, like a bird mimicking human speech, it was eerie and made the hair at the back of neck stand on end.

The man’s face slowly lifted, his expression frozen and his eyes cold and empty. His mouth was unhinged like a snake’s and two long fangs protruded from the top and bottom of his mouth.

The sobbing continued, but unlike before, this time, his mouth didn’t move, Tessa could see his throat undulating to create the sound.

The sound changed from the sobbing of a man to the sound of a baby crying, as if to lure her in.

Tessa made to step back out of the room, but the previously feeble seeming man lunged at her with enough force to launch himself across the room, she barely managed to move to the side of the opening before he flew by her at an angle, hitting the wall on the other side of the corridor with a sickening crunch before falling limply to the floor.

Tessa was heaving in ragged breaths as she stared at the man… Monster on the floor.

But as she tried to steady her breathing, the man twitched. His neck was clearly broken, but he stood up and lunged at her again, only for a dark blur to rush past her. The light from the floor was smothered, plunging her into complete darkness.

No ripples of light were sent out, as Tessa listened to the screeching and roaring violence in the dark, fearing she might be next.

A minute passed, then another, Tessa feared even breathing, but slowly, lines of light started to spread out around her feet once more and as she looked ahead, she saw a familiar shape, a large canine with four eyes and leathery skin marked with numerous scars, now sporting a few fresh ones.

The hound regarded her, this time with none of the hostility it had previously exhibited. Tessa tensed as it approached her, its prowling gait setting off an instinctual fear in her.

It came close enough that she could feel its hot breath on her skin, then it poked her with his muzzle.

Poke

“His?” Tessa wondered why she had suddenly referred to it as male.

Poke

“I think I remember the man referring to it as Garmr. That might be why, it sounds male.”

Poke

Tessa was stunned and stood in her own thoughts, thinking her of her roommates german Shepard and how it would boop it’s wet nose against you every time it wanted to be pet.

Tessa unconsciously reached forward, rubbing the head of…

“Oh my God!” she yelled out, jumping back slightly as four large eyes stared at her in a complicated and intelligent manner.

“I’m… Uhm… I’m sorry, I was kinda lost in thought there.” Tessa stammered out, immediately feeling stupid for talking to the massive canine like it would understand her.

But to her surprise, it snorted at her before walking past her and looking over its shoulder for her to follow.

 

***

 

I stood there, more than a little surprised, as Garmr led the young woman from earlier through the opening to my domain, her remaining arm gently placed on his back for support.

“Is he matching his pace with hers?” I thought in disbelief, openly staring at the two of them.

Garmr’s ears leaned back as he threw me a dirty look, clearly telling me to mind my own business.

The woman hadn’t noticed me yet. Seemingly too fascinated by Garmr to notice, she would even occasionally run her hand across his back or reach up and scratch him behind his head.

She startled and spun towards me as I cleared my throat.

“I believe there’s been a couple of misunderstandings tonight, and I’d hoped to clear them up, if you don’t mind?” I said, trying my best to seem none-threatening.

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