"Never let it be said that we have reed the pinnacle of magical knowledge in this world. There are absolutely forms of magic that we have not yet found. And even if the day does come, that all ten roots and branches of the Tree of Quipoth are have been fully uncovered… (the rest of this page had been ruined by an ink spill)
"I plead to any who have read this, to never forget that even when stagnancy rears its head, that the fight for innovation, for growth never cease, and even when all has seemingly been seen and found, It is the hope of this simple man, that we never stop discovering!"
- Two excerpts from the personal journal of the Twenty Seventh Wizard King, Argus Will of the Fallen Royal House Will.
- - - -
'I miss the sun.' It was green that spoke up in a somber tone. And it was again, me, that had to once again suppress the thought.
Not that I want to, but I know that the thoughts that come from there would be enough to completely destroy us in our current state.
The body was just about running- or well, dragging, on autopilot by now, most of the parts of our mind have been too exhausted by keeping the ever encroaching tides of pain at bay to even try to expel any thoughts…
Except for green.
Green would be more likely to open up the flood gates to the pain, we couldn't afford that, so she was on maintaining the autopilot our body is in.
While I am focused on keeping everyone on track, and forcing down any stray pain.
It's a dire situation we're in.
The main consciousness was barely managing to keep the body from passing out, and all of us know what will happen if she sleeps…
She'll never awaken.
'Why are we doing this?' It was green, again, who thought this. And I stared at her until she continued.
'I mean, why don't we just cut out a slab of meat from the bear, cool then eat it, and continue on after we have more energy?'
And as I heard it, as it echoed in our mind, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of my palm smacking my forehead.
- - - -
As my eyes widened at the idea given by green, I turned so quickly it gave my migraine a migraine, and I had to hold myself on the surface of the bear's ass as I tried not to pass out from the pain, again…
New problem. How to get the meat, out?
I reeled in the mana strings I had been using to drag the damned thing -making sure to keep as much mana as I can as I do so- and I sharpen one into a blade, while sending the other out and onto the floor, where a rune began to carve itself into the floor out of my magic.
(My mind was in too frazzled a state to realize at the time, and later I would chalk this up to a hazy dream, but that I had just cast two spells simultaneously, which would kind of be like moving both your hands in different ways, at different speeds and with a different rhythm, at the same time.)
And as I did so, I began to cut into the flesh with the mana blade, slicing a rough cube out of the flank before pulling it out.
By then my mana had already finished with the fire rune, and I began to cook it directly on the rune.
Not the best of ideas, but I'm not really in the state to do anything but salivate from the smell.
And of course, peel off the thick furred skin and turn it over after a few minutes.
I didn't bother holding back as the scent of the fat beginning to render overwhelmed my reason and I lunged at it, heedless of the heat.
It was cold in the center, I hadn't given the time enough time for the heat to sink past the surface. but as the taste of the mostly still frozen meat hit my tongue, my tear ducts felt itchy as I devoured what was the first thing I had eaten in ages that wasn't corrupted human.
That thought soured my stomach and made me stop for a moment.
'I want to go home.'…
It was a thought I had been ignoring for the past few days. Too exhausted or too busy or too injured or too in pain or too panicked to do much of anything…
It's all been just, Too much.
I should be able to survive this, I should be able to keep going no matter the cost, I should be able to keep moving regardless of the pain.
Right?
As I put the chunk of bear meat back on the rune, I looked upwards and sighed as I leaned back into the thing that lead me into this situation.
I should have stayed with the bear, dragged it down here in the beginning and just, moved with it…
As I leaned forward to flip the meat again, I found my body screaming with an intensity that had only gotten worse now that I had actually sat down.
On top of that, my relaxing in the slightest has completely toppled my want to continue forward.
Meaning that for now, and until I finish resting, I'm gonna be a sitting duck.
As I sat, and waited for the meat to cook all the way through -and even with all the pains- my mind quickly began to wander.
'Allen's prolly gonna be pissed.'
'Heh, pissed off is pretty much that codger's default state, not much to worry about.'
'Mason and Dorine, surely they'll worry…'
'To be honest, I'm more worried about the beating we'll get from them for this. But it'll probably be fine, right?'
I curled myself into a tighter ball at the idea of what I had so callously left behind.
I didn't have to fight that bear, I didn't. And yet I did anyway. And that one impulse has practically destroyed me…
The meat in my stomach, too hot and yet too cold, sits there like lead, just as my chest feels heavy with the weight of my guilt, and the chains around my limbs tighten to a painful degree.
And yet, even as my throat tightens, and my eyes get itchier, not a tear falls from my eyes.
Unwillingly, I am brought inward, to the metaphorical body I had been manifesting as a way to understand the energies inside of me.
I watch as the place where my eyes would be, veins of magenta and cyan spin and congeal and fuse and then bloom outward into two purple orbs with a black dot at the very center.
The eyes then dilate, oozing into a blob around the pupil, and where once was two all encompassing voids of amethyst, are now two off white eyes, with bright purple irises.
And around them, the maroon flesh creeps and bubbles towards the eyes, and covers them in two pairs of eyelids. And though I cannot see it, I can feel the glands and ducts forming above and around the orbs I inadvertently made just now.
And as I open my new eyes, it's as if I am both looking in, and looking outward… I can see both the purple of my eyes, and the brown of my eyes?
As I look in and out of myself, I can feel a splitting headache, one that courses through not only me, but also myself. God this is confusing.
But before I can continue with this impromptu
Staring contest I'm having with my inner self, I'm suddenly ripped out of that state at the pain of my migraine suddenly spiking to mind shaking levels…
And suddenly, I'm back. In the darkness, curled up and probably having a panic attack…
Covered in pain like a cloak, I try to look around, but all that does is lead to more pain. So all I find that I can do without being overwhelmed by the pain, is simply breath.
And The smell of burning meat reaches my nose and suddenly I'm concerned for a much more manageable reason.
- - - -
(Some minutes before this…)
"S-sir, w-what should w-we d-do?" My breathing was hitched from the fear, and my jaw wanted to clatter from the cold, but that same fear had me nearly paralyzed, rooted to the floor looking into the darkness from where the other voice had come from, down the hall…
My grimoire in my hands was my only reassurance in this place.
But it was as I heard another drag of that huge bear, that I my curiosity added to my fear for a moment, and cast out a weaker Lay of The Land, in order to see just what, the fuck that impersonator is.
It was after I casted the spell, that I realized that although the information had returned, the mana I had used, simply refused to return to my body…
The thing down the hall is human in shape, but since my spell can only gather vibrational information so the further something is from me, the harder it is to acutely grasp, and sadly, this was all I could parse about the being…
I also decided to reassure myself with a look at my senior, only to find that, there was nothing there. not a man, not a monster, not even an echo of anything.
'but I heard someone speak? surely, s-surely i hear someone 'say that wasn't me' just next to me, right?' it was after I thought this, that I heard footsteps rapidly approaching me from the direction of the humanoid in the distance. the stomping of the boots on the cold stone floor was familiar, and as Sertentio came closer, the sickening feeling of something being right behind me slowly faded as I heard his yelling, although my state was too shaken from, what ever that was... to really grasp what he said.
"Al, Al. speak to me, breath. breath. in out, in, out... Alronde, we are in a spell right now, a trap as simple as it is insidious..." as he spoke, his hands pressed firmly down on my shoulders again, grounding me.
"wh-wha-" my shock at his words stalled my mind, but before i could adapt to the situation, he had already moved on.
no time boy! I wasn't able to parse most of it, but what i did-" "the more fear you experience in this room, the longer the hall gets." I could feel my senior's hands on my shoulders tighten in response to the voice that had suddenly cut him off, the voice that came from seemingly everywhere, yet nowhere. but sounded clearest to my left, in between me and the only other human here.
no vibrational information existed in the space that the words were spoken. not even the slight echoes that should have bounced off the walls, simply did not exist.