Chapter 19: Curtailed
Light burst in the air as Ariel and Rhinne appeared in a room deep within the temple. Rhinne fell to the ground as the teleportation spell's distance was greater than she was used to making her dizzy. Grabbing Rhinne's hand, Ariel picked her back up and lead her to the center of the room.
"Wh-what are you doing?! You said that I was going to be safe with him." she asked and Ariel worked quickly, casting a strong spell over the sand glass she had grabbed a moment before.
"I'm sorry Rhinne, but I had to make him think that he was going to take you." Ariel answered, finalizing the spell and turning to Rhinne with tears staining your eyes.
"I'm going to make sure that you stay safe, as will everyone in Usoria. Please, forgive me Rhinne." Ariel cried, shoving the Sand Glass onto Rhinne's chest instantly making her feel sleepy, lifting into the air clutching the sand glass as though it were an infant. When Ariel was sure that the spell had taken effect, she knelt to the ground and used every last ounce of mana she had erecting a nigh impenetrable barrier around her. Lights shot through it into Rhinne from the ground far below. With one final chant, Ariel finalized the barrier and was tossed aside with a sweep of as Magus Sloe's hand as appeared behind her.
"What have you done to her?" Sloe asked with a torrid tone, walking up to the barrier to bring it down only to be dismayed when the barrier scorched the flesh on his hand instead.
"I've placed her in a state of eternal slumber." Ariel grunted, reaching back for her leg which lay at an unnatural angle.
"I suppose then I will simply take her power." Sloe answered, holding up his hand as Black Magic swirled unto existence penetrating the barrier only to be thrown out.
"You've done your work well Ariel my love." Sloe smiled, clenching his burned hand and cracking his knuckles.
"So long as she remains asleep, the entirety of her power is being used. Everyone will remain safe." Ariel hissed through clenched teeth. Sloe only smiled, turning back to the sleeping Rhinne and chuckling to himself.
"You do realize that this is nothing more than a minor delay Ariel: your efforts will not save our daughter from what destiny has chosen her for. If I can't wake her from her slumber here, then perhaps all that needs be done is destroy the world created in her dream." Sloe smiled. Ariel tried to summon the strength to cast another spell, tapping into her infinite life force for power. Light hardened into spears around her, whining as they gathered power.
"Careful my love. If you hurl those at me, you just might hit Rhinne. You wouldn't want that, now would you?" Sloe asked, holding up his hand to the barrier once more as swirls of black gently flared around him and up his arm. Ariel concentrated on a single one that howled towards him. Holding his other hand out, he caught the incoming spear and crushed it. Ariel swung her hand as another spear hurled towards him only to obliterated in a plume of black violet fire, engulfing Ariel and tossing her back against a column.
Once he was sure that Ariel would be tamed at least for the moment, he turned his attention back to Rhinne, pushing power slowly through the barrier surrounding her as she slept. Just as the cloud touched her, Sloe felt his mind leave his body, delving through what felt as if it were time itself.
"That's it then? There is nothing that you can do?" the monk of the Green asked as he sat next to Minerna who stared into the mirror of time.
"I wish there were, good monk. But as I told the Monks of the Red, if we were to make an Oblivion known to someone, worse can and will come." A monk of the blue came to them, taking his mask from his face before beginning his own argument.
"If this is allowed to continue, then the new goddess of time will be lost to us. Ariel herself may become what she once was and Usoria will once again lose her to depression." The monk of the Green stepped forward, holding out his hand as a small globe of light appeared in it and revealed Ariel as she was before meeting Dane.
"This cannot be allowed to happen my goddess Minerna. Usoria will not be able to withstand it; the Darkness would come back, perhaps even stronger than it is now."
"I am well aware of that, good monks. That is something however the Mirror will not show me. Time is a blank canvas from the point we have just seen. The only thing it will show me is the image of a young woman, with hair of silver and eyes of blue. She escorts a large metal crest behind her dressed in Purple. There is one thing that is peculiar about the image though." Minerna said, waving her hand over the mirror as the image appeared. The monks stepped closer to look at it, squinting their eyes and tilting their heads.
"A duality of spirit?" the Monk of the Blue asked.
"A split Life Force? Twins perhaps?" The Monk of the Green asked. But to their questions she had no answer. The three fixated their attention to the mirror once again, pondering the image. There appeared to be a second woman, this one identical in appearance but was dressed in white and blue with hair of gold. What lay ahead or them? And who were these women they saw?
"You are to speak to no one of this." Minerna commanded, waving her hand as the image disappeared. The monks bowed in understanding, putting on their masks once again and leaving to their assigned tasks. Minerna looked back to the blank mirror and sighed a long breath.
"It will only come if you don't open your eyes before it happens, Ariel."
"To your left!" Will shouted to Tahir, both of them flattening to the ground as the Omen swung its large knife-like hand. Putting up her shield, Eleanor stopped it in a shower of sparks, her feet digging into the ground as she held off the brute strength.
"Rhinne! If you're going to do it, now's the time!" She grunted. Rhinne spun her hands around one another, pulling in bright blue energy from her hands into a giant ball of white flames. Her hands shot forward with a quick flip of her wrists, a wall of pure white flames erupting, charring everything in its path and turning the ground to glass. With only time to look up the Omen disappeared before it could even scream.
Just as the last of the Omen was disappearing, a bright ring of white light burst from where it had stood a moment before. As the blaze of white expanded, the air felt light and calming. Breathing a sigh of relief, the four of them enjoyed the short respite before the Darkness swept back in weighing them all down.
"There, that's the last of them." Eleanor huffed, sheathing her sword and putting her shield over her back. She, Will, Rhinne and Tahir had all been put together as an elite Omen Hunting party with Tahir as their commander.
"Now, tell me again how you became whatever this is?" Will asked, motioning to Eleanor and her heavily armored figure.
"It's something that I'm experimenting with. The Clerics and Acolytes are powerful, don't get me wrong. But with as dangerous as the Omens have become these last few months, The Order needs something more substantial than mages wielding a staff in robes."
"She has a point William." Tahir called, cleaning his dagger before shoving it into his belt.
"I told you Commander, its WILL, not William. But yes, I do see her point, I just don't know what it is she is trying to be. The closest I can guess would be similar to the Paladins of Orion." Will observed as Rhinne walked over to him and put her chin on his shoulder.
"Those soldiers are nothing more than overly fancy Knights. Eleanor here is a true Paladin." Rhinne chimed when Tahir grunted.
"We should get going. We don't want to be here when night falls." He barked, picking up his things and beginning to head back to the temple.
"WHEN night falls? How can you tell? It's constantly night here." Will answered, gathering his knapsack and taking Rhinne's hand as they trotted after Tahir and Eleanor. Behind them in the shadows, the man in the black and gold cloak stepped out, black vapors and whispers cloaking him. As he reached his hand for where the Omen had been standing, he recoiled staring at his palm as though he had been burnt.
"That girl is hindering progress. Perhaps it is time we talked." He hissed, whispers danced on the wind around him. He turned his palm up and swirls of Darkness sprung up within it. The other Clerics and Acolytes had destroyed the Omens, leaving behind the most important parts of them: The Core. This girl however was capable of obliterating that core and even the surrounding Darkness. If these cores were destroyed, it would set him back years.
Upon returning to the temple, Tahir reported to Mars in the knowledge depository what they had found and defeated during their patrol. Once acknowledged, the four of them were then given time to themselves. Eleanor decided to head for her own special training grounds as Tahir went to his room for some much-needed rest.
"I suppose that leaves us to ourselves." Will smirked, gripping Rhinne's hand.
"What should we do then?" She replied, pulling his hand around her shoulders and beginning to walk to the front of the Temple
"There are some creatures within the Forest that I would like to study. They don't seem to be effected by Darkness as much as the Omens we've been fighting. Would you care to come along?" Rhinne sighed heavily; she was hoping that Will would put aside his studies just for a bit so they might do something else other than study creatures or fighting Omens. She had been drawn to Will from the first time she had stayed tithe Aurora for a short while. Now that she was staying at the temple on a more permanent basis, she perused his companionship more seriously though still felt that he wasn't as involved.
"I would, but there is something that I have wanted to do for a long while with you." Rhinne answered, pulling an interested hum from Will as he raised his eyebrows and looked to her.
"Oh? What did you have in mind?"
"I've been studying the maps in the cartography room. Not far from here to the south east, there is a beach said to have trees baring a fruit called Goldychee. I've seen this beach from the temple, but I would love to see it in person with you." Nodding to her proposal, Will reached into his coat and pulled a leather bound book from it, flipping pages until her found what he was looking for.
"I know what beach you are talking about and I have a transport spell with enough range to get us there. However, I don't think your father or Mars would allow something like that." With a growl and a huff Rhinne pulled away, walking to a window.
"I've been here for nearly a year and the most I've seen are these walls and the majority of the Forest of Peace. I know how being a Demi-Deity can lead to issues here in Usoria, but I want to see this world even if it's only a small part."
"Weren't you able to see if from the Temple of Time while you stayed with your mother?" Will asked, putting his book away before walking to the same window and leaning against it.
"Able to see it, yes. I could see the entire planet from the temple, but I still couldn't see it." Nodding his understanding, Will turned to lean his back against the wall and think. He knew what Master Dane would say if he were to ask him for this outing. At the same time he wanted to be able to go other places with Rhinne.
"Please Will, just a for a couple hours and then we'll be back before the evening meal." begged Rhinne quietly.
"My father won't even know we were gone. He hardly knows what goes on in this Temple anyway being locked in his lab all the time." Will tilted his head side to side, cracking his neck as he thought.
"Wait here." He muttered, walking further into the temple's living quarters. Turning back to the window, Rhinne sighed and watched her reflection in the darkened glass. Minutes passed in a slog of cold molasses as she waited for Will to return. Boredom soon overcame her as she tried to watch the small squiggles in her vision. A touch on her shoulder woke her from the trance she had fallen into to see Will having returned with two other people.
"Rhinne, this is Baroq and Terri. Baroq has been studying the use of light to change one's appearance. With this, he will take our place here at the Temple for a short while." With wide and eager eyes Rhinne agreed, Baroq weaving the intricate spell over both Terri and Rhinne. Once it was done, Rhinne had to shake her head so as not to confuse herself: the disguise was perfect. Baroq then did the same for he and Will, having both disguises created within a few minutes.
"Please return before three hours have passed; I cannot make the spell last any longer than that." Baroq asked. Will chuckled as he agreed, amused that such a deep voice was coming from what appeared to be his mouth. Taking Rhinne's hand, he opened his book and recited the transportation spell, disappearing in a burst of white light.
Tossing his cloak to the side, Dane quickly reached for a potion on one of the shelves of his Lab, drinking it down in one swallow. Exhaustion over took him, holding himself upright against his desk while the potion took effect and strength once again returned to his limbs.
"Master, there you are. I was beginning to wonder when you would return." Mars said, slipping into the door from the Knowledge Depository.
"I told you Mars that I would return in a while." Dane growled, pulling back his shoulders cracking his back one vertebra at a time.
"Yes, but three days is not simply a little while. And what of the Omens? Have you heard what the Clerics and Acolytes have found?" Panic ran thick in Mars's voice, becoming thicker with each word he spoke.
"I have heard." Dane replied dryly, standing to his full height and walking to a nearby shelf containing dozens of vials of Darkness and one large bottle which he reached for.
"How long are you going to let this go on? These Omens are becoming worse than before. Who's to say that eventually the entirety of the Darkness itself will rise?" demanded Mars. Pulling the stopper from the bottle, Dane held his hand over it. From his palm a small sphere seeped out, dropping into the bottle followed by almost a dozen more. Once the last sphere had dropped into the bottle, he quickly jammed the stopper back in.
"You want the Darkness to continue this way, don't you?"
"NO!" snapped Dane, turning back to Mars with wide eyes.
"No, I would never want the Darkness to build to that point. It is becoming worse, I can feel it. But I am so close to the final goal." Turning the bottle end over end and shaking it for a few moments, Dane then unstopped it and poured a vile lump of darkness from it into his palm. Thick sludge dripped from around it, through his fingers but disappearing into ash before it hit the ground. With his other hand, he set up a few rows of smaller vials, pinching off bits from the larger mass and putting them in the vials.
"But my Daughter is beginning to hinder Progress as she is taught more about the power of Light." Sneered Dane, pouring the lump back into the bottle, capping it and the vials.
"Master, isn't that what you wanted?" asked Mars. Dane grabbed up the vials, twenty in all and shook them violently, turning the once small lump into dark vapors.
"Her power is key to destroying the Darkness and making the world into a better place. But if that power is hindering me, that day may never come. Until then, the Aurora must continue to peel away the outer layers of the Omens and leave the enriched cores." With vials in hand, he walked to the back door, hurling each vial in a different direction hearing them break against the stones within the forest. Whispers howled in the air after the sound of breaking glass, followed by a shape growing in the dark sprouting glowing eyes near the tops.
"I am so close, I don't want to be held back now."
"But if you continue to enrich Omen cores, Rhinne will only further her study of Light and grow in power to match them. In time, she would be the only capable of facing them. It could lead to her death! You are creating the very thing you are trying to eliminate!" Exclaimed Mars, cursing himself for becoming so loud since anyone outside with mind enough to listen would have been able to hear him.
"I know, but I must have the Ultimate Darkness. It is a necessary hazard Mars. Without it, we are all doomed." Tossing the last vial out of the door, a haunting whisper echoed through the air around him.
"Don't let the light we created… die… with me. Promise me…"
"I'm almost there Menodora. I nearly have the Ultimate Light."
Within seconds, the two of them were standing on soft sands met by the darkened waters of the ocean as the sun set in the far west.
"Oh, I was hoping to catch the sunset." Rhinne complained. Will chuckled, reaching into his sleeve and pulling a glowing lamp from it, igniting the sands around the with a golden light rivaling the sunset in color.
"I brought a Twilight Lamp just in case." Rhinne grinned, sitting down in the sand next to Will as he set the lamp down before them.
"We should try to come back here when the sun is still up so we can actually see the sunset." Will suggested, putting his arm and a blanket around Rhinne, pulling her close to him.
"I'll have to have my mother teach me some Time Manipulation so that I can extend out moments like this." Rhinne said, scooting closer to Will and laying her head on his shoulder.
"Wouldn't that warp the flow of time?" Will asked.
"No. At least, I don't think it would. My mother told me of how she had used that very power to extend out a moment in time for my father before he met my mother. And it doesn't seem to have effected time in any way." Will nodded, pulling out his small note book and writing a small note in it, setting it beside them in the sand. For a while the two of them sat in silence, enjoying the salty breeze coming from over the water of the ocean. After an hour, Rhinne's eyes became heavier and heavier as the cooling breeze kept her close to Will.
A chill began to permeate the air around them. This was no ordinary chill like the ones felt in winter. This was a chill that speared through your soul and dampened your spirit. This was the chill of Darkness. Rhinne held her fist tightly between them as a spell hummed to life in her hand. Will picked up his spell book, turning the pages until he came to a rather powerful sealing spell. Throwing off the blanket the two of them began casting, throwing their spells out. No sooner had they begun reciting than the presence reached out boney hands and gripped their wrists hard. They collapsed to the ground in agony as their wrists popped under his grip, whispers hissing around them.
"Ah, there you are. I wish to have a word with you, young lady." said the man smoothly. With little effort he tossed Will aside, bouncing across the sand until he collided with a large tree half buried in the sand.
"WILL!"
"Don't worry young lady, he will be fine. For now, I wish your attention drawn on…" Light buzzed to life in her gripped hand, slamming into the cloaked man hurling him into the sand. Feet burrowing into the sand drifts, Rhinne sprinted to Will when spear tipped chains shot out around her, constricting around her arms, legs and neck. Searing pain erupted wherever the chains touched her skin, ash rising from each of the wounds.
"Now, as I said before, I would like a word with you." Said the man, this time speaking as though he were clenching his teeth. The chains pulled Rhinne back to a kneeling position, holding her down hard within the sands.
"Let me go!" Struggling against the grip of the chains only made them coil tighter digging further into her skin. The man crouched before her, grabbing her chin to pull her attention to him.
"You've been destroying work that is valuable to me. You are to stop and let those you call comrades deal with them. Your power keeps destroying that which I need from the Omens for my work." He sneered, the shadow of his cloak covering most of his face.
"The Aurora was created for battling back the Omens. I was born to rid the world of its Darkness! Your work is not important!" shouted Rhinne, finding a momentary swell in power allowing her to break free of the chains that bound her in a burst of light. The man reeled, falling to the ground as she darted for Will's still body next to the tree. Molten pain shot through her leg as a chain spear burrowed through her lower leg, ripping it from under her and pulling her to the ground hard.
"This is not a request. This is my law. Cease your destruction of the Omens."
"This is what my Father and Mother want me to do! I will carry out his desires and there is nothing you can do to sway me otherwise." She bellowed in return, tending to her ash spilling leg when the chain through it dissipated.
"That is what they all say." The man sneered, chains sprouting around Will. Clinking slowly, they wrapped around his body, pulling him into the air above them. Another chain slithered from the sand, coiling links behind the spear head aimed for his chest.
"Cease your destruction of Omens. I need their essence to complete my work." The man demanded, raising his hand to face Will as he hung in the grip of the chains.
"Put him down. If you so much as scratch him, not even Minerna herself will be able to undo what I do to you." The malice in Rhinne's voice drew his attention back to her, lowering himself to her position as she healed the last of her ashen wounds.
"Cease your destruction." Throwing her hand forward, an orb of light shot at the man, only to be deflected into the ocean. Rhinne tried several more times only to have her light deflected into the ocean. A burst of sand hung in the air as she teleported to the side, slamming her palms together and concentrating light where they met. As she gathered energy, the man shook his head and let out a long sigh.
"If you won't do it on your own, then a broken spirit will do it for you." The man threw his hand towards Will, launching the chain spear into motion. Rhinne turned the attention of her light to the chain but missed. The spear hit something metal, bouncing off course and slicing the side of Will's chest instantly waking him. Rhinne didn't wait to find out what had happened, swinging her hand through the chains holding him and disappearing in a cloud of sand. The man turned his head up to see Ariel standing before him, sword in hand pointing to the spear chain driven into the ground.
"Why is it so important that to follow your demands that you would resort to murder, sir." Ariel asked with heat in her words.
"You would know best of all, Ariel, my love." His voice smiled. Ariel lowered her brow.
"Who are you to call me 'my love'. There is only one who can call me by such a title." With purposeful leisure, the man reached to the hood of his cloak, pulling it back and revealing his white hair and gaunt features. Ariel's eye became wide as recognition came fast, gasping for breath as her chest became tight.
"And I am that one, my love."
Bursting into existence, Rhinne and Will appeared back at the Temple. The minute they did, Will collapsed to the ground beside her. The Acolytes practicing in the yard quickly helped them into the infirmary where Rhinne began assessing his wound. With his robe removed, the full seriousness of it was revealed; a long gash spanning the length of his side oozed blackened blood. The skin around the wound had begun to turn black spreading as far as Rhinne's hand, and the flesh within the wound puffed ash from it.
"Damn this Darkness magic and all its forms." Rhinne hissed, placing her fingers tenderly on either side of the wound.
"Rhinne? Is that you?" Will asked, groaning a bit when Rhinne enacted a healing spell.
"Yes, I'm here. Just lie still, I'll get this wound all healed." She whispered, carefully dragging her fingers the length of the wound, burning away the ashen flesh and closing the skin. As she finished, Tahir came in to see how Will was.
"I'm fine. Whoever that other person was though saved me from what could have been much worse." Tahir furrowed his brow, crossing his arms over his chest and taking on a much more grounded stance.
"Tell me everything, both of you." Tahir commanded. With as much clarity as they could, Will and Rhinne recounted the events of the evening. Mention of the man in black robes kept his attention fixed. There was the feeling he had always felt while near Dane and his lab that something wasn't right. He almost made himself believe that it was due to Dane's work with Omens and Darkness that gave him the feeling. But with his obsessive behavior, locking himself within his lab for weeks at a time, the increasing frequency in appearance of stronger Omens and now the appearance, the identity of that man was becoming easier to believe.
"Tell me something Rhinne, did you get a good look at this cloaked man's face?" Asked Tahir. Rhinne shook her head after giving the question a great amount of thought.
"What are you thinking commander?" Will asked, sitting up in his bed, but clutching his side where the wound had been healed.
"The Omens haven't been increasing in number because the Darkenss is getting worse. Someone is creating Omens." Tahir's eyes became wide and his face became pale.
"No… it couldn't be…"
"What?! What are you thinking?!" shouted Rhinne.
"'The ultimate light can only be found in ultimate darkness'. That's what he meant! Your father is the one making the Omens and Making them stronger! I don't know how he's doing it, but he is." Exclaimed will.
"Are you sure? That sounds a little farfetched." Rhinne asked. Will adjusted his hexagonal rimmed glasses readying to reply when a hot stab of pain stopped him. Something wasn't right. His freshly healed wound was beginning to hurt again. Tahir took of the answer.
"Think about it. Before you started going out on hunting missions with us, the only way we had to defeat them was to just blow them away using the light of the clerics. Rhinne has been here only a few months and has been able to blow away the Omens entirely, even making the Darkness retreat for a short time. And now this cloaked man who nearly killed Will was demanding that Rhinne stop what she was doing. How can you not see it?" Rhinne was about to speak when a blinding light filled the room as the doorway to the infirmary revealed a woman with great white wings stepping from it.
"Mother! What are you doing here?" squeaked Rhinne in surprise. Ariel held up her hand, her eyes wide and some of her hair tangled as if she had been in a battle.
"There is no time to explain, you must come back to the Temple at once. Once you are safe there I will tell you everything, but for now we need to leave." Turning back to Will, she noted that he was doubled over, holding up one hand to shield his eyes and the other clutching at his chest.
"What is the matter Rhinne, we need to leave now!" Ariel exclaimed. Absently Rhinne walked to Will, standing between him and her mother as she took his hand away from his eyes.
"Will what's wrong?"
"I'm not sure, my chest still hurts and it's getting worse." Pulling his hand away, it revealed a large bruise on the side of his chest, some of the skin swelling in black pustules.
"What is…"
"Rhinne we have no more time. We must leave now!"
"Not before I find out what's wrong with Will. He may mean nothing to you but he means quite a lot to me." Ariel huffed, striding over to Will in what seemed like a single step and looked over the wound. Her eyes widened slightly as she sighed.
"I know this magic, but I haven't seen it in some time. It's called Anti Magic and is hard to remove, even for a goddess as I."
"But you can remove it right?" lowering her power as much as she could to dim the light surrounding them, Ariel turned Will to face her.
"Will, I can remove this. It is called Anti Magic and combined with the Darkness you have been infected with makes it extremely difficult to remove. I can remove it, but you must endure a dangerous level of my power that could kill you to do so." Will looked to Rhinne and her lonely eyes.
"It's for Rhinne. I will withstand it." Will stated. Sighing, Ariel laid him down on the medical cot, turning her palm to the wound as power gently flared.
"That's another good thing my daughter has inherited from you humans; your tenacious refusal of accepting dire circumstances." She smiled, beginning to apply her power. Minutes passed as hours, each second more and more power flowing from Ariel's hand as the wound began to heal. Will started to grunt in pain, clenching his jaw hard enough that his teeth began to creak. Grabbing a leather belt, Rhinne folded it and put it in his mouth. Still the power increased; the world around them began to shift and warp and still the power and pain rose. Will's screams could be heard over the roar of power as his whole body writhed and twisted, trying to ease the pain to no avail.
Just when Rhinne was about to forcibly stop her mother, Ariel ceased and Will fell to the bed as still as stone. Tahir uncovered his face, walking over to Will and placing a hand on his neck. Rhinne looked from Will to Tahir and back to Will, waiting for him to say something.
"Is he…"
"He's still here. He's just asleep. If you need to go, go. I will watch over him until he wakes. In the meantime, I will try to see if Dane is the one…"
"He is, Mercinary." Interrupted Ariel. Tahir breathed long and hard, nodding his understanding.
"Then I will do what I can to try and stop him." He promised as the door once again became sunrise bright.
"Be careful Mercenary. Darkness is an ugly thing, and it has begun to twist him beyond saving." Warned Ariel, escorting Rhinne through the door before closing it off, leaving them in silence.