Chapter 1: Ignorance is Blisters

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       Something about the strange floating island that poked out from the white clouds was causing unease in Melchior. That would be aside from the fact it was a floating island. He saw Rienna on the unicorn in front of him, Dinsch on another, and he gripped the mane of the one he rode and turned to look for the others, but they were nowhere to be seen. 

       The unicorns had even insisted that Finn ride one, although, like most Folk, he found it distasteful to ride another creature especially since he had wings of his own.  To him it was like riding a man piggyback for no good reason.  However, they made it clear that Elcarim would not reveal itself to Finn and he would need to ride one or be left behind.  In the end he had acquiesced, but not gracefully.  It was something about the topic that turned Folk childishly pouty and sulky.

       Still, it had bothered Melchior that he could not see anyone else, no matter how long he peered behind him and he turned back suddenly, relieved he could still see Rienna and Dinsch.  He yelled ahead, but the wind swallowed his shouts and panic started to hit him as even Rienna and Dinsch were fading from his view.

       “Calm yourself, Melchior.  They cannot hear and you must prepare to land,” came the voice of his mount into his head.

       “What the hell?  I’m not a female,” Melchior abruptly pointed out.  Rienna had been clear that, for some odd reason, only females could hear the voices of unicorns.  It hadn’t bothered him in the least, but hearing them now was a wound to his manhood.

       The unicorn laughed at his outburst.

       “We near Elcarim and in this place, the rules are bent and broken.  You can hear me as we near it and I have little time to tell you, but unicorns cannot land here.  We will fade back into Calderon soon and you will be on your own,” the unicorn told him.  “Getting you to Myceum expended our magic greatly.”

       “Now you tell me,” Melchior grumbled. “Where are the others?”

       “You think a place the old gods created would not separate you?  Worry not, though; our kind has some foresight and you will meet with your friends again.”

       Melchior knew all about the foresight of magical creatures and he rolled his eyes, trusting those words not one bit.  Although if it weren’t true, he might be mad enough to track down some flying horses and get a taste of unicorn meat.  He hoped they would be as delicious as they were annoying, but they were probably tough and tasteless, just to spite his taste buds.

       Elcarim came into view and Melchior at least hoped the damned unicorn would at least have the grace to drop him off over the land.  It would be incredibly pointless otherwise.  Despite the fact that the image of it in his head almost put him over the edge with hilarity, the reality would not be funny in the least.  On that note, he hoped Nuriel would bail him out if he needed it.  He started to think that he wished he hadn’t used Nuriel for so many mundane tasks that he might chose to not show up.  Nuriel had threatened worse but, true to his name, the salamander/fire elemental often blew a lot of hot air.

       Luckily for Melchior, the unicorn flew closer towards the land and literally disappeared the minute its hooves touched Elcarim soil, depositing Melchior unceremoniously on his ass.  He stood up and looked around, noticing he was completely alone.  Nothing for it, standing there wouldn’t change that.

       “Shit,” he muttered, but he did not hesitate and ran off to search for his friends.

 

       Even with his own wings, the sudden disappearance of the unicorn Finn was riding gave him no time to use them and avoid the graceless inevitability of landing ass first on Elcarim.  Finn was also alone but his ride, sharing the distaste for the company of his rider, had not been so courteous as to share that the ride was to end abruptly with its disappearance.  The unicorn told him nothing in fact and once Finn got over his displeasure, he realized with some panic that he had lost track of Verity. He had lost track of all of them, for that matter, but Verity was the first to come to mind. Finn did not know if the Mother could reach him here; he had already noticed that the bottom of this giant floating continent ended in thousands of feet of air and an ocean.  He knew her roots were far reaching but this would be stretching it.  She was more akin to an elemental than one of the gods after all.

       Figuring he had nothing to lose by trying, he drew one of the white wooden arrows from his quiver and shot it into the nearest tree.  He watched with trepidation as the tree lost its rich red-brown hue and dulled into a sickly grey before bleaching into a bone white.  All the while it began twisting about like a slow mass of tentacles and he noticed the shape was becoming feminine and a face formed at the last, the eyes opening were the same odd purplish-orange as the leaves of Yggdrassl, the Mother and Tree of Life.  When the dryad spoke, its mouth moved and it had the Mother’s voice coming directly from it rather than hearing it in his head.

       “My child,” the Mother addressed him fondly.

       “I was not sure you could reach me here,” Finn admitted with relief, hoping his honesty did not offend her. 

       However, the Mother smiled kindly and drew Finn into her embrace comfortingly.

       “I would not have known it possible either; I have never been to Elcarim before,” the Mother admitted, looking around shrewdly, sizing the place up and then relaxing to look at Finn. “Your friends are not with you, so this must be why you called for me.”

       Finn nodded, still not quite sure what to ask of her.

       “Elcarim.  I have never heard of this place,” Finn added, his eyes unceasing in the search to catch a glimpse of Verity.

       “The old gods intended this place to be hidden.  You never would have found it without the unicorns’ assistance.  The old gods did not bother to hide this place from them since they were never meant to leave Calderon,” she told him now.

       Finn was not content with the explanation.  “Are you saying that Viper isn’t human?” Finn asked quickly.

       The Mother shook her head slowly, the branches from her head rustling its leaves lightly.

       “He may be more machine than human, but he also finds ways to defy magic.  It is his arrogance that makes him move you and your friends as pawns to his cause, but he could easily wake the old gods on his own if you did not play into his game,” the Mother admitted sadly.

       This shocked Finn.  Would the world end no matter what they did?  Did anything they fight for matter?

       “So no matter what we do, the old gods will wake soon?” Finn asked, trying not to despair.  He couldn’t internalize the thought and it came out as purely as it had crossed his mind.

       “I’m afraid so, but every moment you keep him thinking you will play the game is a chance for hope that the world will not end.  It is a small chance, but still it exists.  As long as he does not tire of you, he will stall to keep the game going,” the Mother told him plainly.

       “I need to find Verity,” Finn admitted in an inelegant rush.  If the world was doomed, he could not bear wasting moments without her by his side.

       The Mother nodded her understanding.

       “Grip one of your arrows tightly and it will become a staff.  It will glow when you are facing in the right direction to find her.  She is a part of me so it will only work to find her, not your friends, I’m sorry to say.  She is far from here but she is looking for you too…”

       Before Yggdrassl could finish, Finn was already following her instructions and made to start off, but the Mother caught his wrist and made him listen.

       “Do not be hasty now, my child.  This place may be sleeping but it is not free of dangers still.  It may deceive you with illusions and maybe even illusions that you have found her.  Do not believe in anything you see until you touch it with the staff or this place may be your final resting place.  Do not forget.”

       This did not comfort Finn in the least.

       “Please go to Verity and let her know, Mother,” Finn begged.

       Before he had even finished, the dryad she had turned into was rapidly becoming the tree it was before and he hoped that meant she was doing what he asked.  He let himself think that as he found that it glowed as he pointed the staff southward and ran off to find her.

 

       Dinsch had unhappily been deposited on his ass but Rienna had taken the warning to heart and summoned her bubble of protection just before the unicorn had disappeared and floated lightly to her feet.  Dinsch stood and rubbed at his sore ass, shaking his little rabbit tail out as well.  The cloth covering his eye fell away and he didn’t bother to catch it as it fell.  Rienna gasped at the wound and hurried over to him, pulling him into a sitting position so she wouldn’t have to tiptoe and crane her neck to get a better look.

       The wound was nasty but it didn’t mar his handsome face.  The skin around the wicked cut was starting to shrivel and would leave a horrid scar if untreated, but Rienna intended to fix that as best as she could.  He had been right that the cut had not gotten his eye, but his eye was still hard to see amongst the swelling and pus of the wound.  She smiled at Dinsch and touched the wounded cheek gingerly, bending closer to place a chaste kiss on his lips.  The unwounded eye shot open with surprise as her lips parted and her healing magic glowed around them.

       The pus-encrusted wound began to flake away and the skin knitted slowly.  The swelling began to subside and the bruising faded from a nasty purple to blue to green to yellow then the healthy tan of his normal tone.  He began to test the healing wound, opening and shutting the eye, and once he realized he could see properly again, his excitement made him grab her about the waist and pull her closer and he thoughtlessly deepened the kiss to something far from chaste.

       This time, Rienna’s eyes shot open and the magic faded as she pushed at Dinsch’s shoulders.  It took a few hard shoves for him to get the hint and he broke off the kiss, looking both stunned and apologetic.

       “Sorry, Rienna, I got carried away.  Something in that magic made me really… carefree,” Dinsch admitted shyly, toeing the ground like a kid in trouble.  Rienna was not angry; something about Dinsch had instinctively told her long ago he really didn’t have ulterior motives towards her.  She shook her head to brush it off and gestured for him to lean down so she could look at the wound.  Once she could see that the pinkish scar was well healed and his eye was fine, she smiled proudly and began looking around, frowning as she inspected the strange beautiful place they ended up in.

       “We’ve been separated from the others though,” Rienna unhappily noticed.  Dinsch nodded, seeming to be relieved that Rienna wasn’t actually mad at him after all.  He wouldn’t have pointed it out to her, but she was noticeably more like a woman since she had let men get under her skin, to put it nicely.  It wasn’t unheard of for women to say a thing and mean another, not intentionally but to avoid talking about things that bugged them before they were ready, if at all.  He really didn’t have the right to call anyone out on half-truths though, considering how he glossed over the truth about Kahtya.  He also didn’t let anyone know how it still hurt him that he had to kill her.  He had never really had the time to confide in his best friend Krose about it either.  Time was not something they ever seemed to have a lot of.  Just thinking about things made him suddenly think of something else.

       “I guess you’re worried about Ashe, right?” Dinsch blurted out.

       Rienna seemed surprised that he asked and silently interpreted it to mean he felt like he had invaded her territory with that kiss. She smirked.

       “As if I could think of him after a kiss like that,” Rienna teased, not sure why she felt the need to do so.  Dinsch’s shock made her laugh and she shook her head and her mood sobered again.

       “I do miss him, but my unicorn friend warned me that we should be wary of this place.  It looks sleepy, but the illusions here can be deadly.  She told me we could dispel them by…” Rienna felt a little silly saying it. “By telling them they aren’t real.”  She shook her head.  “Doesn’t that sound terribly simplistic and childish to you?”

       Dinsch blinked intentionally a few times as he thought about it. “Like telling the monsters under the bed they aren’t there,” Dinsch gave as an example, slowly enough that she could hear the disbelief.

       Rienna laughed but nodded.

       “Couldn’t have said it better myself...  But please stay close to me, Dinsch; apparently, this place has some very convincing illusions.”

       Dinsch, like most of his animal ancestors, did not disguise his unease at that, twitching and fidgeting with visible anxiety.  Illusions were powerful tools of fear and he did not take Rienna’s warning lightly.

 

       Krose’s introduction to Elcarim had been among the more unfortunate but his head had made contact with a rock and it had been lights out.  When he woke, evening was creeping in and his head was pulsing with waves of dizziness and nausea and he had weakly gained his feet, only to be rewarded with the urge to vomit into a nearby bush.  He looked around unhappily and noticed he was alone in a strange place, not quite sure how he got here, wherever here was.  He sat against the tree as the evening pushed closer to night and as much as he hated to admit it, it seemed that his only option was to summon Lumina, the elemental that had killed his friend to give him his magical gifts.

       He had scarcely even thought of Lumina before the being appeared before him in a flash of light that brought back his nausea, which resulted in greeting the elemental with another sickening round of heaving.  The bright golden woman in front of him did not look at all the same as the one he loathed in his head.  He thought maybe it was two women but realized it was just his sight doubling from the onslaught of pain.  This one had long wavy hair, more slight of figure and a kind face.

       “You don’t look like Lumina,” Krose accused, his voice wavering, drunk with nausea.

       But the elemental laughed sweetly, seeming to expect the accusation, tossing her wavy hair girlishly.

       “We told you before that the Lumina are many,” Lumina scolded him lightly, even waving her finger at him. She stepped forward, placing her hand on his head and glowed brighter.  Her hand seemed to draw the pain and sickness away as he gained his feet, but she started to fade.

       “I hate you all,” he admitted unhappily, but she ignored it.

       “This place is illusion, Krose, and forcing me away.  No time…  Be careful!” Lumina was trying to warn him as she faded away.  So much for getting any answers and he had no idea what the hell any of that meant.  He hated how damned cryptic elementals could be.  He was certainly no closer to understanding anything.  His head was a muddled mess and the last thing he really remembered was watching Chevalle, that cold general bitch, dying in Myceum. More correctly, having her head splattered with a bullet.

       He looked around and started walking in a random direction.  He debated sitting there and waiting for a while to see if his friends might find him but the place gave him the creeps. The air here was thick and he could feel the pressure, which told him wherever here was, it was obviously high altitude.  The clouds above were huge and close, an odd sight to see when you are used to them being so far above. As night came, he did not see a moon at first, but when he did, it was as stunningly gigantic as the clouds.  After some time, he could see a light in the trees and swore he could see people dancing there.  The closer he got, the more he was sure he could see women dancing in the nude and his curiosity got the best of him and his steps quickened.  When he got close enough, he was thoroughly aroused by all the beautiful raven-haired women giggling and running about a huge campfire bouncing around unabashedly.  He watched their breasts bounce and their hips sway in that way only a woman could pull off.  When they saw him, they did not startle but invited him to join them.  He was reluctant, if only because he felt the voyeur and there was no hiding the erection he had invited with enjoying the scene.

       He stood stunned as they stripped him bare (but for that stubborn ring that didn’t budge) and their hands stroked him, top to toe, hard and soft and thorough.  He was drunk on ecstasy as the women rode him one after another, feeding him juicy meats and fruits while he recovered from each climax, another ready to go once his erection came back.  He was sure this place was some kind of warrior’s heaven and he didn’t even notice when one of the women had bound his hands.  He started to panic as he realized his feet were being bound as well and they were raising the pole he was bound to.  He noticed there were two great poles on either side of the fire that looked like it could balance the pole he was on to be roasted as if on a spit.  It did not take long to see that they had intended to do just that and he struggled frantically to free himself.

       The women were no longer beautiful but became grotesque creatures with morbidly distended guts and covered in bubbling blisters and oozing scabs, laughing and licking their cracked lips, anticipating the taste of his cooked flesh.  Their hands and feet were twisted like the claws of a great bird and their lumbering gaits were unnatural and lurching in direct contrast to the fluid sensuality from before. He looked at his own body and could feel the heat of the fire and saw the blisters forming on his body.  He started to scream in terror and closed his eyes.  Lumina’s words came to mind in his panic and he screamed them, wanting to figure out what she had meant.

“This has to be an illusion!  This can’t be real!” he shouted repeatedly and he could feel himself falling off of the spit as hysteria brought him close to screaming.  He could not bring himself to open his eyes and he knelt on the ground, sobbing like a scared child until he could.  When he opened his eyes, there was no fire but the remains of a huge beast that had been torn into maggoty, putrid chunks laid there. More of the fetid hunks of meat adorned the stump where there had been the food the women had fed him.  His stomach roiled and he made himself puke. Great gobs of rotten black meat and dying maggots came up and he sobbed with disgust, making himself puke until it was little more than clear bile that dribbled out and hung from his lip stubbornly.  He tried to catch his breath as he crawled away from the morbidity here, heading towards where his armor had been discarded.  He was heaving and sobbing, trembling in wretched disgust.

       Krose heard a shriek and he curled into a fetal position in his terror, shrinking away from the touch of a hand in his horror, but his vision cleared as he heard Verity’s voice trying to comfort him.

       “No, no, you’re not really here, you’re an illusion,” Krose babbled out and Verity was terrified for him, noticing his groin and mouth were smeared dark with the rancid blood of the gore all around them.

       But she did not disappear and she kept trying to calm him.

       “No, no, sweet Krose, it’s me, Verity.  I would never hurt you, please, let’s get away from this awful place and get you cleaned up,” Verity said calmingly.

       Verity hid the gruesome scene from Krose with Mirage and led him away from the nightmarish area, back the way she had come where there had been a still, clear, shallow pond.  They had not even bothered to grab his armor; like all of their magical things, it would come back to them later anyway.

       Once there, she led him into the water, her being fully clothed and gently washed the blood away until he was clean.  He sat there quivering and rambling unintelligibly and she continued to stroke his head and calm him with soft platitudes.  He started to tell her about it but she shushed him and told him it was over, that they would be careful from now on.  From what she had seen and gathered, she already knew she needed no more details to be spooked or sympathetic to his fear.  In fact, her empathy was overactive and his terror was becoming contagious.

Once he was calm and asleep under a blanket, she noticed a strange glow and saw that it was Finn carrying a white wooden staff.  She had anticipated this before but finding Krose had made her forget all about the Mother telling her earlier.  Her heart soared and she ran towards him.  Once she caught up, she leapt into his arms and started to lay kisses all over his face in her happiness.  She wept and grabbed his hand.

       “Finn, I found Krose and he was so scared; this place is a lot more dangerous than it looks, so we need to be careful!  The Mother had told me to expect you because of the staff you carry, but she couldn’t stay long…” Verity said in a rush, then gasped as his hand clamped down on her wrist so hard that she cried out in pain.  When she spun about, she saw that his face was becoming grotesque and black and falling off in great chunks.

       She screamed but could not break away, tugging so frantically that she seemed to be okay if it tore her arms off when one of Krose’s daggers planted itself in the thing’s chest. The dagger caused the wretched being to release her and melt into a sick black puddle as she clumsily scurried in a crab-walk to get away from it.  This time, it was Krose comforting her as his dagger reappeared in its sheath and they held each other for comfort now.

       “I was trying to tell you, Verity, but we have to stay close now.  This place is full of illusions that repel intruders and we have to be strong and careful to get through this without going mad.  Lumina had been forced to leave me too soon before she could tell me, but I figured it out.  Thank the gods I figured it out,” Krose told her, his eyes still haunted by his own experience.  Although, he berated himself for being so careless as to go along with the illusion to begin with.  The sickening feeling was returning.  Did that count as both necrophilia and bestiality? He really hoped not.

       “Does that mean we can’t sleep without fearing this place?” Verity asked unhappily, and they flinched with fear at another glow appearing close by.  Krose’s Lumina had reappeared, flickering like a sputtering candle, but he drew his dagger distrustfully, an involuntary whimper escaping Verity’s trembling lips.

       “I won’t fall for another illusion!  Begone!” Krose shouted, but Lumina rolled her eyes now.

       “Be at peace, my child, though I know it does no good to say it.  The illusions might be able to chase me off, but they are not limitless and the energy it takes to frighten you means it will not be back to haunt either of you for a long while.  If not for the place sleeping, you would be driven mad by the endless onslaught of illusion.  You must make haste to find Viper and beat the next illusion.  I will make you both rest now and I will guard you while I induce the sleep; we are not entirely cruel creatures.  It does me no good to see either of you dead since this time is so crucial.  You will be on your own after this and the illusions may not come back for a while but do not think this place is entirely safe still; be on your guard anyway.  Your enemy has plans of his own,” Lumina warned.

       Verity and Krose were too wired and frightened to think of rest, but Lumina’s magic lulled them both into peaceful sleep as she promised and she indeed guarded them until it was time to wake them by dawn.  After all, it did not benefit the elementals to lose their heroes here.  Their lives were definitely in the elementals’ own self-interest.

 

Chapter 2: The Dreaded Ex

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       Rienna wasn’t entirely at ease even though she wasn’t wandering Elcarim completely alone.  Neither she nor Dinsch had any idea of how to go about finding their friends or Viper for that matter and the whole idea of a hidden land booby trapped with illusions didn’t sit well with them, guarded with the warning or not.  This place was outside of the realm of humans, a place that was as unpredictable as the elementals. This was also a realm that even the elementals had been wary of.  The night had come and gone and they had slept in shifts to be careful but neither of them felt safe in any event.  Not knowing what illusions might come was a terrifying prospect and no one liked the idea of your worst nightmares appearing before you real enough to drive you to madness.  Both were anxious to find their friends, get rid of Viper and make Elcarim, no matter how beautiful, a distant memory.

       They approached a clearing by midday and noticed a strange spot in the middle that was not the same lush green grass as the area around it.  As they approached, they noticed that the dirt spot in the middle was in the strange shape of an X.  Both held their breaths uneasily but Rienna released hers and stepped forward, causing a strange miserable sound to slip out of Dinsch’s mouth.  Rienna stood on the X and nothing happened so she smiled as they both released their pent-up breath.  Rienna’s relieved laughter was cut short as the ground swallowed her, leaving no evidence she stood there. Dinsch had a moment to wonder if this is what his friends had seen when Girdinus had first taken him, but the moment had passed quickly in his concern for Rienna.  Dinsch panicked and started to dig at the X, hoping it would be her he found and that he didn’t just dig his way through the continent first to fall a long, long way to his death.

       “It’s just an illusion,” Dinsch cried out, but Rienna did not reappear and his cheeks grew wet with his tears as he dug for her.  He cursed both of their stupidity for not being more careful.  I mean, come on; when has an X on the ground ever been a good thing?  And on an untouched floating continent at that!

 

       Rienna wasn’t sure if moments or days had passed when she opened her eyes to pure blackness. She opened and closed her eyes, unsure if she was really doing so, since what she saw was exactly the same.  It was a strange sensation, true pitch black.  Even when you think the world is dark as you sleep at night, you always see even the tiniest bits of refracted light, faint shadows, all things that tell you that it may be dark but there was still light. In pitch black, there is absolutely no light and you get the sensation that the entire world is only as far as your own skin, that the weight of darkness is painted firmly against your eyes and you lose the sense of your own limbs.  It causes a kind of shock that robs you of direction and balance and as the shock persists, your eyes start to move involuntarily and rapidly as they search frantically for light. Rienna whimpered with desperation, wanting confirmation she was not robbed of her sense of sight and noticed she could still feel and breathe, smell and taste, if only her own fear.  She could feel damp rock at her back and noticed that her hands must be shackled above her head to the rock behind her.  She struggled in futility with her eyes still wide open and hysterically searching in vain.

       In front of her, a set of glowing red eyes appeared suddenly, maybe a couple feet away and though it made her shriek and try to look away, her eyes so desperate for light kept forcing her to look.

       “This isn’t real, it’s not real!” Rienna pleaded, but there was laughter now and a dim light suddenly illuminated the cavern and Rienna gasped at the familiar form.  Her heart seemed to miss several beats before she could feel it catching up rapidly.

       “NO, no, you’re not really here!  Why isn’t this going away?” Rienna whined as tears rolled down her face, the illusion not cooperating.

       “My lovely, lovely bride,” came the menacing version of Belias’s voice now, still in the formal soldier’s uniform that he wore on the day of their wedding, the day she had been widowed when he died.  It was a corrupted version of it though, seemingly dipped in black tar and stained.  Belias had always been a stickler for keeping his clothes impeccable so it was unsettling.  She had seen him once after his death when Sea Star had first found her and he had told her to live and to forget about him.  Now, despite his kind gaze, she was in anguish anew as he refused to disappear like a good little illusion.

       “It must disappoint you that I am not an illusion for you to wish away so easily,” Belias mused, the sweetness now disguising a touch of venom.

       “Belias, you told me you would find peace,” Rienna pleaded again, through her tears.

       “It was not my promise to make, my love.  Do not blame your flaky elemental for the misunderstanding, but her waters have been tainted by Viper’s malice for so long that her information just isn’t to be trusted anymore,” Belias told her, his voice strange and unfamiliar in its cadence.  Rienna could swear she heard strange echoes around them that sent cold fear through her.  If Night or Pierait had been there, they would have recognized those voices.

       “What are you?  Are you really Belias?” Rienna whispered, sure that whatever the answer was, it would cause her no peace.

       “Of course, my love, I will always be your Belias, no matter how many men you fuck,” Belias’s words had started out saccharine but the last three he had punched out coldly, each one hitting her as if he had planted his fist in her chest and squeezed her heart with it.

       “Never mind that, my lusty bride; you can’t possibly think that I was going to our marriage bed pure after all,” Belias drawled on and she realized that she had indeed thought that he was.  Rienna had never once noticed him talking to any other women and right now, she wasn’t convinced that this thing was Belias at all, just a thing that wore his form to torture her.

       “What the fuck are you?” Rienna shouted now, her voice echoing angrily through the cave and Belias raised his eyebrows with distaste at her outburst.

       “I’ve never heard you curse before, but it doesn’t suit you,” ‘Belias’ told her arrogantly, as if the word coming from his mouth sounded any less tasteless.  “Do you remember the shade Erised?  That pitiful elemental that finally lost his long, long battle with Nuriel?”

       A pit had formed in Rienna’s stomach and she couldn’t speak so she nodded.

       “Of course you do; you still weep for that idiotic couple, after all.  He came sneaking into Sea Star’s realm where I lingered pathetically in despair.  It was good of you to claw at my reflection after you let that clumsy oaf deflower you on the anniversary of the night we fell in love, by the way; a nice cold way of telling me you had so easily moved on.”

       Rienna’s misery deepened with every chilly word he threw at her.  She started to wish he would beat her; this kind of torture was so much worse.

       “But you asked me a question that I so rudely neglected to answer.  Erised visited me, a pathetic smear of a shadow and made me such a tempting offer; to give up his power, his old soul, to me to become the Shade that ruled them all, not just among the living again, but with eternity and more power than I could imagine at my disposal.  How could I say no?  I would be able to be with you again, but now that I’ve seen you again, my wretched little bride, I have realized that my heart no longer has love for you after all.  Ah, don’t cry, my dear; I do still want a husband’s rights, after all, and you do so enjoy sex even without love, so it’s a win-win situation.”

       Rienna shook her head as his slow steps brought him closer.  She shrunk away from him and her tears fell piteously.

       “No, Belias, don’t do this.  I love Ashe now; you told me to move on and I was miserable without you but I did!” she begged him as she pressed her back into the wall, ineffectively hoping to slip through it.

       Belias laughed with cold amusement but did not stop his steps until he stood directly in front of her and she could feel his breath on her neck.  She opened her eyes reluctantly to see he stood there watching her, a cold mockery of the smile she once loved on his handsome but frightening face, those once pale blue eyes were crimson, his hair not just pale blonde, but now snow white and brittle.  She did not see any resemblance to Ashe there at all, nothing that endeared her to him as she watched with horror the lust filling his eyes.  It was not a hot lust but it burned more painfully in the way that frostbite did. She tried to shrink away more, sure that the cave was leaving a clear impression on her back, not caring that it might be cutting her to ribbons.  Adrenaline might be her only pain relief for what was to come.

       His hands stroked her bare midriff but did not linger long as he followed the curve to her thighs.  Despite how hard she clamped her legs together, he separated them with the ease that a hot knife split through butter, wedging himself between them. He undid his pants with slow deliberation, letting her watch him free his ready erection and Rienna struggled in a panic to escape. His cock swayed large and veiny, the veins as black as his soul. Within moments, her unhappy screams and cries filled the cavern, matching the unwanted thrusts as he violated her.  The shadows murmured with excitement as the cruelty continued unabated.

       When Rienna awoke again, her cheeks stung with the misery of her tears and her wrists and arms were caked with the blood of her struggles, the pain of her limp body weighing on them.  The cavern seemed empty; no whispering shadows, no sign of Belias.  Her inner thighs were badly bruised and there was blood drying there also as evidence of his abuse, as if the intense pain lingering there needed any such reminder.  She had sworn that whatever foul appendage entered her had moved unnaturally and swelled to the point of nearly tearing her in half.  Her lips were chapped and she was cold, her teeth chattered as she tried to test her hoarse voice.

       “S-s-s-s-Sea Star…” Rienna whispered almost inaudibly.  “Can you hear me?”

       Despite the fact that she had not expected her to, Sea Star did appear and the elemental looked miserable, shining tears on her face as well.

       “I am not strong enough to stop Belias; he may be new, but his pact with Erised has made him stronger than Erised had been…” Sea Star weakly told Rienna.

       “You never told me,” Rienna accused her.

       “It is as he said, Rienna, I am so sorry.  I did not trust the waters that have failed me so much and some told me of his fate, others had assured me that he had passed on in peace. What he said was true; corruption in my waters, shades mingling with undines,” Sea Star told her unhappily.

       “Can you free me?” Rienna asked, tired of hearing excuses.

       Sea Star hung her head and Rienna’s heart sunk, already anticipating an unhappy answer.

       “I cannot; the magic is too strong.  I will look for your friends and try to lead them to you.  It is the least and the most I can do, my child.  Please stay strong.  I leave you with my protection, it will keep you alive, dampen the pain, but you must endure,” Sea Star pleaded and then she was gone.  Sea Star’s reach would be limited—she would not leave Rienna unprotected, to bear the full brunt of the Shade’s wrath.  Rienna had not been wrong about his invasion; her human body would not have survived the violation intact without her intervention.  Yet, Sea Star knew that would be no consolation and kept it to herself.

       Rienna would have wept in despair, but she was tired and sore and she passed out again, her only respite from feeling anything and she welcomed it.

​

       Pierait and Lyria had not exactly shown up on Elcarim together but they had been lucky enough to find each other rather quickly. The two of them were visited by Mot and warned of the kind of place that Elcarim was, more fully than the others, but again they were lucky.  Pierait learned that his powers could make him a beacon for the others to find, but a beacon that might draw Viper to them first.  Pierait would take that risk since he believed that Viper would at least wait to strike when all of them were together again; it seemed to be his style.  Getting them together was of dire importance; the illusions would break his friends down rather quickly if they lingered here too long.  It was also fortunate that while Pierait acted as a beacon, they would be immune to the illusions but they would have to sit put in this place, possibly for many days, until the others could reach them and Pierait would be in a trance state, not sleeping but not awake either.  Lyria worried, but Pierait did not think twice in accepting.

       Pierait took a seat in the clearing he chose and let the pinkish purple light of the souls swirl around him, swelling larger and towering as a column into the sky.  The beacon had spread to a 20-foot radius around him, easily large enough to be seen at a great distance.  Lyria worried as she saw Pierait there, his golden eyes having become white and they did not blink.  As they had agreed on, Mot then put Lyria into a sleep that she would not wake from unless the beacon were disturbed or Pierait stopped it.  They waited, hoping their friends would be drawn to it.

       Melchior was the first to see the beacon appearing, but he did not go towards it.  Something stronger was pulling him to the west and he kept to his course.  He would eventually go towards the tower of light, but for now, he was resolute to keep at his path.

       Verity and Krose on the other hand had seen the towering light and had been immediately skeptical.  They had both told it that it was an illusion but the light did not fade and they dared to hope that it was leading them towards their friends.

       “The stories in my village once said that the light of All-Souls was that color.  It may be Pierait that seeks to gather us,” Verity told Krose now.

       Krose nodded but didn’t look happy.  Elcarim knew this too and it could be yet another attempt to prey upon their hopes only to crush them.  He did not trust Lumina to know the full extent of what this place was capable of, sleeping or not.  It bothered him that this place was supposed to be so well guarded a secret but it would sleep with the old gods rather than be on full alert.  What did that mean about the power of the old gods?  As much as he wondered at the truth, he knew that he probably would never get the answers he sought either.

       “All the same, I’m sure that Viper sees it too and that fool is putting himself in a lot of danger to do it.”

       Verity knew Krose would be right about that too, but right now, it was their sliver of hope, a thing that could take their focus off of whatever terrifying illusions might still await them.

 

       Viper had used his machines to watch over the little rats in the maze that had so foolishly followed him here. This little horror show amused him greatly, glad that the old gods were as perverse in their protection of privacy as he himself was. They wouldn’t have stood a chance if the place was awake, but Elcarim could give them enough rope to hang themselves with. He would sit and watch them get chipped away.  The beacon greatly displeased him though.  The once-Soulless brat was going to shorten the game, but he supposed he would allow it.  The games he set up only amused him for so long and the world’s end ahead seemed more appealing with each passing day.  He was tired of the flaws of organic life and bored with how easily he could predict the rest and when the toys in his games broke as they so often did, he would have to go through all the trouble to find more pawns to torment. Every time had to be more spectacular than the last and he so quickly exhausted those possibilities over time.  Even finding out that the old gods were as perverse as he only thrilled him for a short while as it only left him wanting to wake them for a final game to end all games.

       It would be too easy to just smash the naïve boy and his stupid girlfriend but he wanted the fools to meet, crushed by madness and possibly watch them kill each other with the distrust this place liked to dish out.  The illusions seemed to need time to build before they struck, but his machines had no such limits to the mischief they could cause.  He watched and waited and did not plan.  Impulse led to much more satisfying changes in the game.

 

       Not all illusions were openly dreadful, as Ashe was discovering, and it seemed that although Ashe did not deviate from his path to the south the scenery was obviously repeating and he was frustrated that his progress was hindered.  He felt more than a little silly saying it out loud and that he had waited a day and a night to do so, but he took a breath.

       “Nice try, Elcarim, but I’m done with the illusion,” Ashe mumbled and when the scenery shifted it became more obvious from the large circular trail he had left in the grass that revealed itself now that once he had started down the ridge he climbed when he first got here, he hadn’t gone far beyond it before Elcarim played its tricks.

       However, once the veil had lifted he noticed a towering beacon of light to the south, the direction he had been heading to before and had little time to be frustrated for allowing the illusion to grip him for so long.  He did now know if this was one of Viper’s traps or if it was one of his friends, but it was certainly not part of an illusion and the only damned lead he had as he wandered this aggravating and deceptively lovely realm now.

       Ashe tried not to succumb to doubt; he had wasted a day but then what was time here?  There was no game plan now and he had no idea if he would see his friends again but at the very least, he had a purpose.  The thought made him wonder about the desperation the Soulless must have felt not having a Purpose or straying from it.  Right now, his own purpose tethered him from letting panic overtake him.

 

       Dinsch clawed methodically at the earth and so far he had managed to dig nearly 20 feet and still saw no sign of Rienna.  Digging made him nervous here; he knew this enigmatic land was suspended high in the air and there was no way of knowing how deep he could dig without risking the ground crumbling away and falling straight through the continent to plunge to his death. If Rienna didn’t mean so much to him, it would paralyze him with fear.  He did not have any illusions that the Mother who had saved Finn and Verity would be there to reassemble his mangled body when it shattered on the surface of the ocean.  After digging 5 feet down rather quickly, he wasn’t so anxious to keep up that pace as he dwelt on that.

       Digging had been a calming thing for him on Vieres; it was in his blood to dig to secure a hiding spot.  Bryfolk weren’t quite the artisans that dwarves were, who often carved their cities down into mountains and through stone, so Dinsch did not feel confident about his ability to test for weaknesses here.  If it gave way even the smallest bit, it wasn’t impossible that the cave-in could be more like an avalanche, only with a ton of dirt and air and nothing to grab onto before certain death.  The further he dug the more he was chilled with a feeling he never had while digging before, the feeling of digging his own grave.  It did not sit well with him.  Already he had tried calling Girdinus, but he had guessed the gnome wouldn’t be able to find his way up here and so far that guess had proven to be right.  Then again, the gnome was forgetful as all hell and had strange priorities anyway.

       The dirt seemed damper the further he went, which was usual, but it started to get sloppy like mud after a hard rain and it was more difficult now to clear it away.  He was covered in the muck up to his elbows; the bottom of his body up to his chest was painted in the filth as well.  Dinsch had to stop several times up to that point already, to rest and to fight the dread that he felt the deeper into the earth he went.  He plunged his hand into the watery slop and frowned as his hand closed around some kind of spongy small object.

       When he pulled it up, dark crimson pooled from that spot and he tried to figure out what it was he was holding but it was far too muddy to make out anything about it.  He held it in one hand as he removed the flask from his belt and unscrewed the top with his teeth, spitting out the bit of mud that got in his mouth.  He poured the water over the object he held and the color left his face.

       He held a large brown and white rabbit tail, the bone still inside it, a bit of blood still clinging to the fur where it had been severed.  He dropped it and pushed himself away from the blood-swirled mud as far as he could, although he had not made the hole too wide.  He was scooting back on his ass, the mud wall at his back and something roughly the size of a coconut landed in his lap.  In his horror, he noticed it was a Bryfolk head and not just any but the head of his beloved Seles, the eyes clouded with the film of days-old death.

       Dinsch screamed in horror and shoved the head away, clamping his eyes shut and trying to grasp at his sanity.

       “It isn’t real, it isn’t real, this place is full of illusions,” Dinsch babbled hurriedly like a mantra or a wish he desperately needed to be true.  He was reluctant to open his eyes, but when he did, the blood, tail and head were all gone and the mud itself wasn’t quite so wet anymore.  Dinsch heard a rushing of feet from above and his panic came rushing back as he stared up out of the hole with dread.

       It was Melchior that appeared there, to Dinsch’s relief, and he was frowning down at Dinsch with his hands on his hips and an eyebrow cocked up curiously.

       “I know Bryfolk have gotten out of bigger holes that this,” Melchior pointed out derisively.

       By way of reply, Dinsch scrambled out the hole effortlessly, his eyes narrowed at Melchior.

       “This place is booby trapped with some pretty sick illusions.  You obviously haven’t had the displeasure of finding that out yet,” Dinsch said with a glum tone.

       “Illusions have you screaming like a fishwife?” Melchior snapped back skeptically.  He inspected his muddy comrade now and frowned, pointing at his own right eye.  “The eye’s healed.  Were you with Rienna?”

 

       Dinsch managed to look both guilty and impressed as his own frown deepened.

       “Yes, and the earth swallowed her here.  Hours ago, I’m guessing, and I can’t find any sign of her.  I’m thinking I’ll fall through the damn earth before I ever find her this way,” Dinsch explained morosely.

       “Why the hell didn’t you call your elemental?” Melchior chastised him, which only rewarded him with an evil glare.

       “You think I didn’t try? I don’t think gnomes can fly,” Dinsch shot back, seething with building anger.

       Melchior waved it off.  He hadn’t even attempted to call Nuriel himself and from the way he had heard Dinsch screaming, he counted himself lucky that whatever ‘illusions’ had terrified the Bryfolk hadn’t decided to visit him in his ignorance of how to handle it.

       “What was this about illusions now?” Melchior changed topics.

       This time, Dinsch waved it off.

       “They’re not real but when you notice, you have to say they aren’t really there.  Out loud, you know?”  Dinsch said, shaking his head in disbelief.  “I sure as hell wasn’t expecting to see Seles’ head falling into my lap.”

       Dinsch shivered involuntarily as he tried to shake the image out of his head.  Melchior’s eyebrows shot up, realizing this place wasn’t fooling around and wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of anything pulling his past into the light to use against him.  He wished that fucking unicorn had been a little clearer but he guessed it could have cared less about enlightening him.

       Melchior sighed heavily and shook his head.

       “Sorry, friend, I guess I ought to try calling Nuriel,” Melchior apologized and concentrated on summoning Nuriel through his gauntlet.

       Nuriel had appeared, to Melchior’s great relief, in a swirl of flame but Melchior had jumped in shock as a swift blue flash knocked Nuriel several feet away.  Once the mess cleared, he noticed an unhappy Sea Star heaped on a very pissed off Nuriel.  Sea Star frantically swirled into her usual hover in the air, swimming in a figure eight and clearly agitated where Nuriel took his time gathering his composure. Dinsch and Melchior maintained their confusion as Sea Star seemed to favor Dinsch to speak to.

       “Rienna’s in serious trouble, earth child!” Sea Star stuttered out, not at all her usual cool self as she grabbed his shoulders and shook him ungently.

       Melchior stepped forward frantically, grim worry dominating his face.  Nuriel watched with irritation and impatience, not bothering to mask his disgust and arrogant displeasure at having been summoned so inelegantly. Fire and water were not very fond of each other anyway.

       “Where is she?” Melchior snapped angrily, wondering why the hell Sea Star was not helping Rienna herself.

Sea Star was not happy about being addressed so rudely, but she spun to face Melchior.

       “The Dark has her, the shade that took Erised’s place!  The waters are so tainted I could hardly find my way out to get her any help!  But you, you are the one that has both flame and darkness in you!  Maybe you are strong enough to help her,” Sea Star pleaded.  Melchior was amazed that Sea Star seemed to care so much.

       Before Melchior could ask anymore, Sea Star shrieked, her hands going to her head, her eyes shutting painfully.

       “There’s no time to waste!  Nuriel can find the way…  He’s… he’s hurting her again!”  Sea Star wailed, disappearing in a swirl of sea foam.  Melchior turned to Nuriel frantically.

       “Mind shedding some light on the subject?” Melchior said, unable to resist the jab even as he worried about Rienna.

       Nuriel had his arms folded, still not looking amused.

       “You won’t find her in that hole, if that’s what you were after.  She’s not technically ‘here’ at all.  I can find it but it will take some time.  I will take you through the dark dimension myself,” Nuriel explained.

It was so quick that neither Dinsch nor Melchior had time to react before they were spirited into a kind of dimensional tunnel, tethered to Nuriel. It was a strangely swirling tunnel of darkness, hues of purple, blue and black like a nasty pulsing bruise.

       “How long will this take then?” Melchior asked, strangely noting his voice was a disembodied echo here. Nuriel’s flame cast an odd light in this place wherever it touched and Melchior could swear the walls were devouring it.

       “Patience, boy, I don’t know for sure,” Nuriel snapped.

       Several minutes passed as Nuriel zipped about the strange place and Melchior’s patience was growing shorter.

       “What did the undine mean?  Why does she think I could help Rienna specifically?” Melchior asked, trying to shift his thoughts elsewhere, still bothered by that.

       Nuriel was quiet for several moments before his rumbling voice came.

       “You don’t have any clue why the Suleika were wiped out, do you?”  Nuriel asked him now.

       Melchior had not expected that to come up so he was too distracted by his own shock to answer right away.

       “No,” he finally answered shortly, his throat working around a lump forming there.

       “Perhaps I have time to enlighten you,” Nuriel hissed out.