BK1 Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

A pure black empty space that seemed to stretch for all eternity was all I saw. There was no discernable ground to which I stood, but each step created a shimmering ripple throughout the darkness.

I heard a light scratching sound somewhere in the vast emptiness, and with nowhere else to go, I headed toward it. I wasn't sure what had happened. One moment I had been in the cave with Rian at the ruins of a temple. The next, I was here in this strange place. What was most eery was my trepidation. It almost felt familiar, like I had walked in this darkness before but had no memory of it.

As I neared the scratching sound, a small orb of light floated into existence. It definitely had not been there moments ago. Approaching the orb, I felt a sense of self. It was warm, understanding, and inviting. Something within me leant forward, driving me to hold it.

"Welcome"

I spun around to see the source of this mysterious voice, but there was no one there.

"Hello?" I called my anxiety heightened.

"Child of Vishka" A man appeared amidst the nothingness. His body was ethereal. I could see no perceptible features, just a shadow in the darkness. "Why do you seek me?"

"Um, who are you?" I asked, my voice hesitant of the creepy being. In a way, he was similar to Callan's water clones. His body blended and shifted in the shadows of this place as he seemed to ponder over my question.

"I am the memory of Albus", he spoke, his voice wavering as his shadow flickered.

"Albus?" I tried to think about where I had heard that name and why it bothered me when he said it.

"Yes, Albus", was all he offered in return, only confusing me more.

"Wait", I mumbled more to myself, "Didn't Vishka quest me to find the knowledge of Albus?" a memory surfaced of a box that had appeared when I had fallen down the tunnel with Rian.

"Then, you seek the knowledge of Albus?" He asked as though he had been expecting my request.

"I-I guess I do," I said, unsure myself. Just what was this knowledge?

"Very well. You meet the requirements for Albus's teachings."

Suddenly his shadow zoomed forward, floating at high speed, the space moving around him.

"Ugh-" I stepped back on instinct at his sudden closeness.

"For me to share this knowledge, you must adhere to an agreement, Child of Vishka."

“L-Lynette, my name is Lynette”

"Do you accept?"

"What, what I am accepting," I asked. His faceless gaze peered into my soul as he silently evaluated me. It felt invading. The hairs on my arms stood up, facing his intimidating presence.

"A trade", he finally said, not elaborating.

"A trade? A trade for what?" I asked, a sense of dread sinking into my skin.

"I will one day ask something of you. You cannot refuse," he answered, his voice low and ominous. Something deep inside triggered my fear. Something I could not refuse? What did he want from me? My hands shook as he stood silently awaiting my reply.

Vishka's quest, was it really worth the gravity of this shadow's request?

"I-I accept", I whispered, my blood draining from my face.

I had to believe in Vishka. What other choice did I have?

"The contract is agreed," Albus said.

Suddenly the darkness warped, the orb of light moving with us. I felt as though I was falling and tried to hold in a scream as nausea threatened at the pit of my stomach.

The warping stopped, and we were now somewhere that looked exactly like where we had been, but it was different somehow. This space felt just as familiar as the orb had been to me. Darkness still surrounded us, but now the orb floated in the centre of the space as it bobbed.

"Your core is very small" Albus inspected the tiny orb poking it, and as he did so, I felt a shudder in my skin.

"That's my core?"

"Yes, we are in your mindscape. I see you have experienced death from this darkness," he commented, making me gape.

"W-what are you talking about? I have no idea what you mean," I said shakily, awkwardly laughing.

"You can not hide your thoughts in your mindscape, child of Vishka. Do not worry. Now that you have absorbed my memory shard, I can only converse with you" he stopped poking the orb, my core.

"A-alright", I hesitantly said, unsure what else I could say if this shadow knew my thoughts. I looked around a little closer now that I knew this was my mindscape. It explained why I had felt a sense of familiarity here. It was me. This place was the inner workings of my core, the very centre of my being, and it was empty.

"What are you?" I asked, gazing at my tiny core and studying the glow it emitted. It was unnerving looking at him and his strangeness.

"I am the memory of Albus", he repeated, not really answering my question.

"Yes, but what is that exactly?"

He straightened, holding his hands behind his back. "I am the remnants of a man called Albus stored into a memory stone. The stone was a mere shard, not as powerful as the ones you used to cheat death, so I am a fragment of the man he was," he answered, but his words only raised more questions.

"Wait a minute", I held up my hands. "The stones that were on my bracelet were memory stones?"

"Yes," he said, his featureless face looking at me. "Very powerful ones. Suitable for the child of Vishka."

"Wha-but-what?" my words tumbled as the shock of this information flooded my brain. I had known the bracelet, and its stones had something to do with me coming back to relive my life. Vishka had confirmed it.

"If I returned from death using a memory stone, why are you different?" I asked, my mind reeling. Why was he different? Why had I returned, and does that mean anyone with a memory stone could return from death?

Would I.… would I become like him?

"My stone was created by Albus. It was never intended to allow him to return from death once more, but to store his memories for the future of Teralia"

"He created your memory stone? But, wait, Teralia, what is Teralia?" again, even more questions than answers from this man.

"Yes. Like you, Albus was gifted three memory stones from the gods. However, he decided his knowledge was worth more to the future generation, to the next child of the gods. So he shattered his final stone to create me, a memory to guide the future of Teralia, the kingdom."

"There is no such kingdom of Teralia", I mumbled as this information sank in. I had succeeded in picking up this memory shard because, as he put it, I was a child of Vishka. The runes around the pedestal must have been to prevent anyone who did not qualify from gaining this knowledge of Albus.

I winced. Maybe Rian wouldn't have gotten hurt if I had attempted to pick up the memory shard first.

"Oh? What is it called now?" Albus asked. His tone changed for the first time in our conversation. He sounded surprised, not the droning tone he had been using as though he was talking to a child.

"I do not know if it is the kingdom you knew, but we are in the Zopan Empire."

"I see" he turned and looked to the floor in thought, "I suppose much time has passed then", he sighed heavily, returning his attention to me.

"Enough with our history lesson. Your core is too weak to support me for such conversations. However, despite its small size, it is thankful you have come to me before beginning to gather. This will make what I can teach you unpolluted by whatever teachings exist in your time."

"Support you?" I asked as he circled my core, studying it.

"Yes, you do not have enough Aether for me to stay here long." I believe he would have frowned if he had the features to do so.

"So you can stay longer if I grow my core?" I asked.

Did I really want him to stay around longer?

"Yes, now listen to what I have to teach you. The first thing you must do is learn how to gather Aether. This is no simple task. The stronger you grow, the better techniques you will need. However, for a core of this size, you must not use a technique that is too taxing, as it could break you. I believe the best technique for you to use would be this" he flicked his hand, and a scroll appeared. It floated across to me, and I plucked it from the air in my mindscape.

"One with all?" I read the technique's name in my hands, my first time holding such a scroll. I had seen them in the past but had not really understood what they were, having no knowledge of what it required to be a summoner, magic or otherwise. I had thought of them as text documents I was not allowed access to. Eduard had always forbade me from reading the ones in the manor's library. On the other hand, Garret did not have any to store, at least not anywhere I knew about.

"Correct. Now absorb it," he insisted rather urgently.

"How do I do that?" I asked, causing him to make an annoyed sound.

"So many questions," he muttered. "Will it so. Here, in your mindscape, you control the space. Will for the knowledge on that scroll to be absorbed. Quickly."

"Y-yes" I straightened at his snippy tone and closed my eyes tightly. He said I had to will it to be absorbed, right? Okay, I can do this.

Absorb, absorb, absorb

The feeling of the parchment in my hands began to lighten. I opened my eyes and saw as it burned from the bottom up, fragmenting into the vast space. My mind throbbed as images instantly flashed behind my eyes. I saw runes, so many runes. I saw how to build them in my mindscape. How to surround my core with the runes in interlocking patterns, how these runes would suck Aether from the world into my core.

"Build your runes, now, whilst I am here to correct them", Albus insisted.

I nodded, the knowledge of how to do so flooding my mind. I walked up to my core and cupped it in my hands. Strands of Aether leaked from the orb connecting with the skin on my palms, and I quickly redirected it into the vast empty space surrounding my core. The Aether strands glowed a pale white as they rose above and began to weave into the symbol of a rune. I knew from the scroll that I could only create one rune right now, but with time I could create more.

The rune formed as I directed the Aether into a spiral shape. I carefully pulled a strand to weave it through each circle but cried out in pain when it touched another strand.

"Again", Albus pushed as the rune fell apart.

I repeated this process four times until finally, the rune formed and stabilised in my mindscape. I looked at it and watched as it hung above my core. Faint motes of Aether filtered through the centre of the rune directly into the tiny orb from the vast darkness. The orb pulsed as it drew it in greedily. I wish I could say I felt stronger, my body revitalised, but I didn't feel any difference at all.

"Well done, leave this rune running, do not turn it off, and your core will grow steadily. You will know when you can add another."

"I don't feel any different" I pursed my lips, a little disappointed.

"Patience", Albus sighed. "My time is up. I will see you when I am replenished" His shadow vanished in a puff, leaving me alone in my mindscape.

Just how do I leave this place?

***

I opened my eyes, returning to the temple hidden in the cave. My hand was still outstretched as it had been when I grabbed the memory shard. Except for this time, the shard was no longer there.

Vishka's Guidance System

Quest Update

Congratulations! You have obtained the knowledge of Albus

Use this knowledge wisely

I dropped my arm and quickly stepped away from the pedestal. As I did so, a column of energy dropped, and I baulked.

"Finally", Rian's voice exclaimed as she ran over and grasped my shoulders. "You are a Crazy bitch, do you know that?" she glared at me. "What the heck made you do that."

"I figured why not try again" I looked away from her intense gaze back to the pedestal, which now stood empty.

"You're crazy", she chided. "You stood there frozen like a ghost for hours. That thing raised a shield, so I couldn't get to you. Do you know how worried I have been!?"

"Hours? But I was only gone for a short while…." It hadn't felt like hours in my mindscape, maybe one hour at most.

"No, you were frozen for hours", she scowled. "What happened? What was that thing" she inquired, seeing that it was no longer on the pedestal.

I hesitated. Is this something I should be honest about? I quickly decided against complete honesty. This was Rian Thornfax.

"I was in my mindscape. That thing sucked me into it," I said, and she looked at me surprised.

"Why would it do that?"

"I don't know, but I hadn't ever been in my mindscape before, so I didn't know how to get out" I rubbed my ear, a little embarrassed. I had, in fact, been stuck in there for a while before I realised I could will myself to leave like I had willed to absorb the scroll Albus had given me.

"You didn't know how to leave, seriously?" Rian rested a hand on her hip as she looked at me with doubt.

"N-no, figured it out eventually", I laughed, trying to shake off the tension.

"I can't believe I was out here pacing over you being stuck in your mindscape", she huffed, shaking her head.

"Is that really all that happened?"

"Y-yes," I said, but my voice wasn't very convincing. Rian's expression proved that.

"Come on, I found a room at the back of the ruins we can rest in whilst you were occupied" She narrowed her eyes at me, her suspicion burning in her eyes.

I nodded and followed her to a small hole in the wall near the pedestal. We ducked and crawled through it into a room carved into the temple's stone. Rotting wood showed signs of a desk having been here once, a broken bed-frame and scraps of cloth black from mould. There were some angel shrooms but not as many as there were outside of the room.

Rian settled down in one of the empty corners using her brown cloak to soften the ground a little, her backpack as a pillow. I took the opposite corner seeing my cloak already placed there, and slumped to the ground, my body protesting. Now that we stopped moving and there was a moment of quiet, all of today's exhaustion, fear, tension and anxiety cascaded.

"So", Rian spoke, picking at some jerky she had saved. "Any ideas on how to get out of here?"

"Not really, unless we can find a miracle", I sighed, finding a scrap of meat I had cooked yesterday. It probably wasn't the best, but I had poison resistance, it should be fine.

"Miracle indeed", Rian leant her head on the back of the wall. "They have probably left, you know."

"What?"

"The Brigade, they probably think we're dead."

"Possibly," I said for the first time, realising that possibility.

"Wouldn't you? With a horned Baildon, even if we had just fallen into a ditch, it would have still crushed us or suffocated us under the earth with its abilities. They definitely think we're dead."

"The army waits for no one weak enough not to survive", I abbreviated General Saika's words.

"Unfortunately, for us", Rian finished her jerky and began to untie the loosened braids of her fluffy brown hair. "Why did the Crazy Cerue join the army anyway?"

"Me?" I shrugged. "I wanted to get away from things."

"Things? Like what? I thought you lived a life of luxury," she sneered. "You love to flaunt your fancy things."

"Maybe once upon a time", I half smiled. "Not so much lately."

"I don't get it" She sat up, her braids now fully undone, so her wild hair framed her face. "What changed for you? You used to be so…."

"Abrasive?" I finished her sentence, and she dubiously nodded. "I just… I just realised I wanted something else, something more."

"I don't want to be a trophy for some noble to parade around at social functions. I actually want to, well, do something with my life for once" I finished curling my legs close to my chest.

Rian looked at me silently as she contemplated a response.

"Is this to do with Garret Asher?"

"Would you want to marry him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and causing her to smile.

"He is a pompous ass, isn't he. You know, he told me he was your fiance a dozen or so times" She rolled her eyes. "The man is irritating to a fault."

"I'm glad you understand" I exhaled a little in relief. "So why did you join?"

"Oh, that's…." She looked away, debating something, and then sighed. "Here", she unsheathed one of her serrated sabres and handed it over to me.

I raised an eyebrow. Rian waved it at me again impatiently, so I took it, tensing my arm muscles for the weight. When she let go, I was shocked to find the blade was light, so light I had no trouble lifting it. The hilt wrapped in a sable green leather felt cool in my hands. Bringing it close, I could see a series of runes etched into the metal. The patterns were delicate as the runes blended together at the base of the weapon.

"It's so light", I marvelled, handing it back to her.

"It was a gift from Vayan. All Thornfax's join the army. It is a tradition" Rian returned the serrated blade back to her scabbard, a strained look on her face.

"Your sister?"

"Yes, she is an enchanter, a prodigy." Rian bit the inside of her cheek. "Albertine assisted in making the blades. Vayan enchanted them." I recalled they were both older than Rian. She was the youngest of three siblings.

"My Father expects me to become like them. A summoner of prestige to bring honour to the family. So they made me these blades to ensure I had the best" She clamped her jaw.

Rian then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "They expect me to surpass Vayan. She surpassed Albertine, so I have to be better than Vayan."

"Didn't you say Vayan was a prodigy?" I asked, remembering Vayan was the second oldest.

"I did", Rian sneered.

"That's a lot of pressure to live up to," I said, seeing the emotion in her eyes.

"It is," she affirmed.

"What would you want to do? If you weren't enchanting" I leaned my head on my knees as Rian looked at me. She copied my stance, cuddling her own legs close as she thought about my question.

"Clothes," she said, surprising me.

"Clothes? You want to be a seamstress?" I couldn't hide my surprise, which made Rian smile gingerly.

"Yeah", she sighed, "I would love to make clothes."