AUTHORS NOTE
Thanks for the story favourite/follow ironjaw and NotablyBugear!
Thanks for the author favourite/follow NotablyBugear!
Havok22 - Hope the wait wasn't too bad and this chapter makes up for it ;-)
Archer1Eye - Oooh! I miss proper D&D soooo much! Did I get you happy and excited?! Mwahahahahahaha... oh, wait. I should save that for later :(
You just got the entire party to start planning your death? Sounds like there's a story there?
? Day of High Summer? 768 n.c?
I froze, because sitting on the altar was a figure that was so familiar to me that it set off an explosion of hope and happiness deep inside my chest.
Shard was sitting on top of the altar, feet tapping against the edge, looking exactly as she did in my memories and dreams. My breath had been knocked out of me and I was just about to call out her name when I was pushed roughly to the side and had to throw out my arm to prevent myself from falling face first into the wall of the tunnel. I frowned as I turned, but was surprised to hear Gorgrim's shout.
"The Hammer of Austri!" The dwarf shouted as he ran into the room as fast as he could, arms held out in front of him as he grasped towards the altar.
"Father!" Karalin likewise called, as she too ran forward.
"Ealie!' Damon gasped as he pushed past me roughly.
A flicker of doubt ignited inside me and I paused for a moment, wondering if we were all seeing the thing or person we most wanted to see. But Shard was not looking at me, she was instead looking at the others rushing towards her. Her face showed a hunger, a delight that I had only ever seen when she looked at me. If this were some sort of fantasy vision, should she not be looking at me in that way, instead of my companions?
"Shard!" I shouted sternly and I saw her look up at me in complete and utter shock.
Everything seemed to freeze around me. Damon, Gorgrim and Karalin were all stopped in their mad dash towards the altar, all frozen in place. Nothing moved around me, except for Shard; who took a few tentative steps towards me. She was looking at me shrewdly as she walked, not directly towards me but in a wide circle around the others.
"Who are you and why can you see me?" She asked loudly.
'Why can't she remember me?' I thought frantically, 'what's happened?'
"I'm me, Sharein," I said, then pleaded, "don't you remember me?"
"I… don't know you," she replied calmly, coldly, "but you seem to know me. How?"
"Your altar near Easthaven," I said and her eyes widened in recognition and she held up a hand to forestall any further explanation.
"You have met one of the other Shards," she stated, "but she didn't explain completely our situation."
"I know that you are a Shard of my Mother of Darkness," I said and watched all expression leave her face for a moment, then her eyes narrowed and she strode up towards me very quickly.
"Do not tease me child!" She demanded, "do not say that you said those words by accident!"
"I am Tenebrae's chosen," I stated simply.
She put her hands over her mouth in shock and bent over double as she took a step backwards. When she removed her hands she had a wide grin on her face and a joy I had longed to see.
"Then it is almost done!" She exclaimed and looked over her shoulder coyly at my companions before jumping a few times in a visible show of her excitement.
"So, you are a different Shard?" I asked.
"Yes," she answered, "there are many of us. Tenebrae didn't just split off one piece of herself, she split off many, many shards. We are independent, but together… if that makes sense. I have a vague idea of which shard you met, but of course we have never met each other properly."
"My Shard is gone," I told her and I felt a tear track down my cheek, "I was dying and had used too much magic. I woke up under her altar, alone."
Her excitement ceased and she took a step closer towards me. She stared at me in such a way that I felt that she was looking into me.
She reached out her arm to take mine and I felt sad at the lack of jolt. Knowing that she wasn't my Shard had lessened the hope I was beginning to feel. She dragged me directly to the altar and turned my hand over on top of it so that my palm was facing up. Without even a word of warning she had slashed my hand with her athame and turned it back over onto the altar. She placed her hand on top of mine and closed her eyes.
I felt a pressure behind my eyes, like a headache starting to form.
She tsked and said with an annoyed tone, "let me in."
I didn't know how and was about to open my mouth to tell her so, when I felt something relax and the pressure lessened as I felt an oozing liquid feeling inside my head.
"Well now…" She said a few moments later when she opened her eyes, lifted her hands off mine and looked at me thoughtfully, "I wasn't expecting that. Good news? She's not gone. She's inside you."
"Can you get her out," I asked excitedly, "can you bring her back?"
She smiled and nodded. I felt my hopes soar.
"But it will kill you," she said. Those hopes came crashing down again.
"Is there any other way?" I asked, preparing to ask her to go ahead in any case.
"Yes," she said simply.
"What is it?" I asked eagerly.
"I can give her my power," she said, "I can give her me."
"I can't ask…" I began and she held up her hand to stop me before I could continue with, 'I'll find another way.'
"I'm sure you can't, or wouldn't," she said with a smile, "but she did."
"She did?" I asked with surprise.
"I brushed against her in there," she said, pointing at my head, "she knew what she had done and she has a plan. I am her and she is me. It is no great sacrifice for me, for we will be joined together. But alone, I am not enough to free her; and I have not the power at present to even attempt it. You will have to find other altars, other Shards and convince them to do likewise."
She turned her attention back to my companions and walked around each of them, looking at each one in the face and asked, "which of the three do you like most?"
I was following her as she walked and inspected, but stopped next to Karalin when the sudden question took me by surprise and I asked, "what?"
She repeated her question, "which of the three do you like the most? They are all your friends, yes?"
"Yes, they are," I said and with a sinking feeling I felt that something bad was about to happen.
"Which one?" She pressured again, more sternly and I thought quickly before offering up a name: "Karalin."
She looked at me with a hard gaze and nodded matter of factly.
Time returned to the room.
Next to me Karalin cried out, "father?" As she stopped, skidding along the floor to stare at the altar with arms outstretched.
We all watched as Damon and Gorgrim continued to run towards the altar, feverishly reaching out towards something unseen by us. I felt like I should do or say something, anything; but I didn't, I daren't. I stood there and watched as their hands touched the smooth black stone of the altar. I watched as their life was sucked out of their bodies, as their skin dried out and shrivelled and as their corpses collapsed to the ground.
The archer screamed as the bodies shattered into pieces and shouted out their names. She turned to stare at me accusingly, but I looked away from her and back towards the altar.
Towards Shard.
She had her hands on the altar and seemed to be sucking the darkness from the stone. The black colour flower up into her hands like oil, leaving the altar clear in places. As she did this, a corona of dark light appeared to surround her and an expression of ecstasy appeared on her face as her back arched in pleasure or pain. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the last bit of darkness disappeared from the altar and when the stone was finally, wholly into clear crystal she turned towards me and started walking.
"Who…?" Karalin asked in shock as Shard strode past her, the archer turned to follow the demi-god's movement.
Shard glided towards me and reached out to me to take my cheeks in her hands. I froze as she moved her lips towards mine as kissed me. I knew that she wasn't my Shard and I was expecting something magical to happen so I didn't escalate the kiss, but she stopped for a moment and moved her head back.
With a smile she said, "well now. Maybe I should have tried that a long time ago."
She bent her head towards mine once more and engaged me in another kiss and I felt… Pain.
