The Chosen of the Chamber
Book One in the Girl of the Chamber quartet
CHAPER TWO: DESTRUCTION AND HEALING
There had been an explosion. That much was clear. He, Vessius Delava, had been running to deliver a message to Diane the Wild Mage when he heard the booming crash. He was a page, and he knew he had to go see what had happened and if he could help anybody.
He started running down the hallway, and he soon noticed that he had heard the explosion towards the chapel that housed the Chamber of the Ordeal. A creeping thought went into him and he wondered if a thief had tried to sneak into the chapel, and if the Chamber had found a new way to dispose of thieves.
He remembered the explosion well. He had first heard the booming sound that seemed to send knives through one ear and out the other. Then he had felt the explosion. He felt a great wave of energy rip through the corridor wall to his left, and then shake the very air itself. He felt the wave of energy go through him and he half-remembered seeing a cracked, sexless face screaming some horse-like sounds. But it happened so quick he couldn't remember if he had actually seen that or if he was just imagining it.
He reached the corridor that led to the chapel door when he first starting seeing the damage. Great spider web-like cracks lined the walls, and pieces of mortar and stone had fallen off of the wall and lay in piles on the ground. He walked towards the chapel door and saw that one of the chapel doors had been thrown off of its hinges and lay against the corridor wall, with a large chunk of stone jutting out of the middle of it. Splinters of wood from the door also lay around the floor like a row of wooden teeth.
Vessius should have expected that an explosion – or was it just a huge earthquake? – should have occurred. The palace animals had been acting up all day today. The unusually smart animals had been on the edge of nerves and would attack any squire they had seen. Luckily Vessius was just a page and the intelligent animals seemed to leave him alone. But they had still been acting strangely.
When Vessius saw the damage from just the outside of the chapel he feared what the damage from the inside of the chapel must've looked like. He doubted that somebody was inside the chapel – who would voluntarily go so close to the Chamber of the Ordeal? – but he knew that if anybody were inside could be in huge medical trouble.
He ran into the chamber, past the door that was been half hanging off of its hinges. Inside the chapel was a disaster. There were great chunks of gray rock scattered around the floor. All the pews had been ripped off of the ground where they had been nailed down. Great chunks of rock had crushed the pews into just big pieces of splintered wood. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, and the great golden disk of Mithros was cracked down the middle.
Vessius just started at the chamber in a horrible fixation of awe. Everything was in ruins, and as he watched unstable portions of the wall feel down, and a piece of the wooden pew snapped and fell to the ground. He looked to the corner of the room and saw where the Chamber of the Ordeal was. Or where it had been.
It looked as if that was where the initial damage had come form. The portion of the room that was the Chamber had been blasted into smithereens, and there seemed to be nothing left. He saw deep shadows come from the space where the Chamber was, and the shadows seemed to be spreading towards him as if without the Chamber or the Ordeal to keep the shadows in, they would be released to possess every being of Tortall.
He was about to run and inform the rest of the castle, when he saw something unusual from a large heap of rubble in one of the corners. There were huge pile of stones that had once made up the Chamber of the Ordeal in the pile, as well as half of a pew, and portions of the wall that had fallen to the ground. But that was not the unusual part – half of the chamber was filled with piles of debris. The unusual part of this rubble heap was what was sticking out of it.
Between two portions of gray stone was a pale and bleeding forearm. It jutted out of the stones like a surrender white flag, and the hand lay limp at the wrist. He gasped and ran towards the immobile hand to help free the rest of the body.
But as he ran a great chunk of stone twice the size of him flew by. It had come from outside the hallway, and was being pulled across the floor at an alarming speed. H had to jump backwards to be avoided being crushed by the colossal stone, and watched the rocks progress. It looked as if it was being pulled by an unseen force and it raced across the room to the section where the Chamber of the Ordeal had once been. The stone suddenly rotated 45 degrees until it was standing face up where the flat edge. Vassius realized that it was a great potion of the wall and that the Chamber was magically reassembling itself.
Other stones began to follow suit. That piece of rock that had been stuck in the chapel door was wretched free and flew towards its place in the chapel door. Pieces of stone were wretched from the ceiling where they had been shoved in, and then flew towards their place with the Chapel of the Ordeal.
Soon Vassius was on his feet, dodging left and right and up and down to avoid being hit by a huge piece of stone. He thought that he had been doing well – he had only been hit by the rocks a few time, and twice a rock has skimmed his shoulder it its mad flight to the Chamber – but he was distracted and saw a chunk of stone hurtling towards him.
Vassius threw himself backwards and landing with a fall onto the chapel floor that knocked every breath out his body. He winced in the pain and watching a watermelon sized rock – the one that had almost just hit him – fly a foot and a half over his head. He noticed that it wasn't just the big pieces of stone that flew over him. As he lay on the ground a whole sheet of dust and pebble-sized pieces of the chamber washed over him to fit in their proper place for the rebuilding of the Chamber.
He felt a grapefruit-sized piece of stone bash into his shoulder, and he instantly stood up to better dodge the rebuilding Chamber. He stood up and saw that the Chamber was almost entirely rebuilt. Only small fragments of the wall of the Camber of the Ordeal were still unstanding. He felt a piece of wood roll over his foot and merge in its place with the Chamber door. He looked to his left and saw what looked like a cracked stone mask slowly float into the air. Pieces of it were still missing, but it was almost whole and it floated through a crack in the Chamber door and into the shadows beyond. He saw another rock soon fit into place and seal up the crack that the mask had just gone through.
He looked to where he had seen the bloody arm and gasp. He saw a young girl of about the age sixteen lying in a painful lump. She was definitely unconscious, and she was in a horrible state. Her arm was twisting at a horrible angle, and there was a huge wood shard – that had once been part of a pew – lodged in the muscle between her neck and her shoulder.
Vessius ran towards the young woman to see if she was still alive. He saw a large piece of gray stone lodged into her knee cap. Her entire face was also red, matted with sticky blood. He thought that he saw another wooden shard sticking out of her forehead, but it was so blood-stained he couldn't tell if it was wood, stone, or gold. There was also a huge gash on the unbroken arm, and he saw that blood soaked through her brown dress. She was lying what would be an extremely uncomfortable position, and a small pool of blood surrounded her.
The young page looked behind himself and saw the entire Chamber was almost all rebuilt. There was only a hole about the size of a foot, in a portion above the Chamber door. But the Chamber of the Ordeal was not his concern – there was a young woman in dire need of his help.
He first went to her and ripped out the wooden shard from her neck. He threw it to the side and watched as a great lot of blood squirted out of the area where the stake had just been. He then pulled out the stone that had been lodged in the girls' leg and heard a horrible bone-cracking noise. He threw the stone over his shoulder, and amazingly didn't hear it hit the floor. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the stone was still flying through the air towards the other side of the room. It was flying far more than his strength should have thrown it, and he saw that it was flying strait towards the gap above the Chamber door. It fit perfectly into the gap, and the Chamber wall was whole again.
He pulled out another piece of stone that had been lodged between the young woman's ribs. It had thankfully missed her lungs and the girl was still alive. But when he placed the stone down next to him, the blood stained thing zoomed across to floor to a small nook in the Chamber wall. It was almost as if any pieces of the Chamber that had been stuck in the girl had stayed in the girl. He proved his theory by picking out a small piece of stone that had been stuck in the girls' upper lip. The instant he pulled it out the stone zoomed towards the Chamber of the Ordeal. So this young woman's body was almost a barrier from the Chamber's magic. Or maybe anybody's human body would prove to be a shield against the Chamber's pull.
But why was he wasting time thinking about this? While he was here wondering if the Chamber couldn't pull out part of itself from a human, this young woman was loosing blood! He quickly put his fingers on the young woman's neck to feel a pulse. He felt nothing.
With a grunt, he put the whole young woman into his arms and ran out the Chamber. If he didn't find a talented healer soon this woman would die.
If she wasn't already dead.
"Is she alive?" Vassius asked eagerly. "I got here as fast as I could! I was–"
"Calm down," Hardal said with a soft chuckle. He was the closest healer that the young page could find. He was in his early fifties and had dull eyes, and short close cropped salt-and-pepper hair. "You got her here as quick as you could."
"I was going to bring her to Baird of Queenscove but I could not find him! He's the best healer there is, and I knew she needed all the help she could get, but you were the only one I could find and I wasn't sure but–"
"Shh!" Hardal said as he sat down in a chair. His legs were wobbly, and he felt famished. He pulled a glass of water off the table next to him and gulped it down. "She will be fine in time. That was one of the hardest healings I've ever done. I've never seen so many broken bones and pierced organs. It was almost as if she had stood in front of a cannon that shot out stone spikes! But she will be fine."
Vessius released a sight of relief and sat himself down on a chair, opposite of the healer.
"First I had to clean all of her wounds – there were so many pieces of wood and stone in there it was madness! And the weirdest part was that every time I pulled out a piece of gray stone it would fly out of my hands and out the door. At first I was caught off guard but I had to heal her quickly or it would be too late. Three ribs were broken, two were cracked, she had a broken collar bone, ripped muscle, pierced lung…" The healer sighed as he leaned back in his chair.
"How did you manage it healer?" Vessius asked as he kept glancing towards a door on the far side of the room. It was behind that door that Cleanna was sleeping, and although the healer insisted that she was alright, he still feared for it.
"Luckily two of my apprentices and a lesser healer were there to help give me strength. I took care of her eternal organs and bones while the other healer took care of that nasty wound on her forehead. She seemed convince that a shard of wood had lodged itself into her forehead, but she searched and found nothing. She didn't have much time and had to close up the wound quickly before she had too much blood loss."
Vassius nodded, and his eyes kept darting towards the door.
"She was a fighter" the healer told the young page. "When you came to me she was dead – no pulse, no nothing! But she had strong will to live, and there was something in her head that told her that she couldn't die. And she didn't!"
Vassius gulped as he imagined what could have happened to the young, innocent maid.
"Don't worry!" Hardal said with a tired laugh. "You saved her life, you know. If you hadn't brought her here in time… Look, I think it's time for you to go. You need to bathe and get new clothes – you're covered in blood! And I'm sure you'll get in trouble with the new Lord of the pages…" Vassius gulped as he wondered what his duties would be. Probably mucking out the stables for a month!
"Thank you sir" Vassius gave a polite bow to the elder healer and then walked out the door. Hardal was about to get up to write his summary of the injuries but when he stood up he collapsed back into the chair. That was the most draining healing he had ever done. Fatigue washed over him like an angry tide and he collapsed onto the table. He was asleep before he even closed his eyes.
Anna stirred in her unconscious state. Harsh sunlight form the setting sun streamed through her window, forcing her eyelids to flutter. She opened her eyes and wondered why she was in this strange room in the late afternoon, sleeping in stead of scrubbing floors. She didn't know what happened, and she was about to call out when she realized how dry her mouth was.
She saw that someone had so nicely put a glass of water on her bedside table and she gratefully gulped it down, and filled it up a second time with a pitcher of cool water next to the glass. She only drank half of that glass, and put the water on the table next to her.
She sat up on her bed and leaned against her headboard. She tried to figure out what had happened that day, and she beat her hand against her forehead in frustration. Feeling that pain in her forehead, she suddenly remembered a horrible pain that she had felt in her forehead earlier that day. All the pain and memories came rushing back to her and stabbed into her mind.
She remembered the pain and fear that she had felt, and in a panicked state she ran her hands across her body searching for wounds. She felt none, but remembered the pain she had felt. She suddenly felt her eyes well with tears and she started to silently cry.
"Anna!" She heard a voice form outside the hallway. Anna gasped in surprise, and let out one last sob. She wiped the tears on the back of her clean dress (somebody must have bathed and clothed her after her healing) and called out to the voice.
She heard a sigh of relief from the outside of the door, and she saw the door rush open.
"Oh, Anna!" A masculine voice gasped. Logan, her boyfriend, looked at her and released a second huge sigh of relief. He was only half an inch less than six feet tall, and had a lean, muscular body. He had a thick neck, and large shoulders that were lined with muscles. He had a firm, square jaws, a mess of golden-blonde curls, and soft blue eyes.
"Logan!" Anna gasped as she jumped out of the bed, but felt a surge of dizziness and fatigue wash upon her. She put her fingers to her temples and fell back onto the bed.
"Oh, Anna – I was so worried!" Logan said in a sincere voice as he sat next to her on the bed and wrapped his muscular arm around her shoulders. She suddenly felt safe in his warm embrace, and began to cry again. Logan tried to give her slight smile, and Anna hid her face in his chest, ashamed of crying.
"Shh… it's okay…" Logan said as he held her head against his chest and slowly began to rock her body to calm her down. "It's all over now… I'm here."
Anna released an embarrassed laugh and wiped her nose and arms on the back of her sleeve. She looked up at him, and his soft blue eyes connected with her dark brown ones in a gaze filled with love. Without a word between them, they reached for each other and locked their lips together in a passionate kiss. Logan wrapped his hands around Anna's back and pulled her close to him.
"Wait…!" Anna said as she pulled away from the kiss, and Logan continued to kiss the base of her neck. "The healer – in the other room! He'll see us kissing!"
"He's asleep." Logan said as he kissed her neck, then her jaw, then her cheek and found his place again on her lips. She put her own arms around Logan's neck and succumbed to his kiss. She felt safe in his grasp, and his lips silenced her worried words.
His strong arms held her close to him, and he felt his and her heart beat. She was alive, and so was he, and everything was going to be all right. He would protect her. She knew that was safe.
She was wrong.
Authors Note: thank you for reading! I know that nothing really happened in this chapter – it was just a filler chapter to show you Anna's love life and what happened after the explosion. I was going to make a lot more fluff between Logan and Anna but the Vessius part took up too much space (yes he will have a part in this story… unfortunately it's not this portion of the quartet. He comes in one of the later of the four books but I felt like adding him in here just for fun!)
Next chapter is much better and the fourth chapter has a lot of action so get excited! Thank you so much for reviewing! I want to answer your reviews here:
Vaialaverikova: very interesting. write more please! REPLY: Thanks vaiala! I hoped you like this chapter even though it's not as "interesting" but just wait for chapter three and four – those are some good ones!
Captainobvious19: like it. It is so very interesting and has a lot of detail good job and please keep going. REPLY: thanks so much! I'm glad that you liked it. I'll keep going don't worry.
Salma-Sol: O.O you've got me hooked. I can't wait for more! questions, questions, questions. so many of them. It seems like a really origanal and well writen story and I can't wait for more! My only thing was (and sorry I'm not being more constructive, but this isn't to do with your actuall story) that you said you didn't want "to commit myself to a fan fiction until I know that people will like it" I find people who say they won't write unless people review or unless people write that they like it egotistic. that's just me. but I still love your story. RELPY: thank you so much! I know this chapter wasn't much of anything, but don't worry. Next chapter gets really interesting where a lot more is explained, but there's a lot more questions. Thank you so much for all the compliments! And here's the thing about "Committing myself to a ff" – I know exactly what you mean. I hate it when people say like "I wont update until I get twelve reviews!" Its just that I have exams coming up and I'm really busy and Im working on like four ff's and I only want to stick with one, so I have to see which one people like the most because Im writing it for you guys! I hope you liked this one, too!
