Heart of Farellah: Book 2

by Brindi Quinn

But that aside, Ardette did have a point.

  “But Darch, what in Farellah are you doing here?” I asked. It didn’t make any sense. The last time we’d seen him had been at our Yes’lech sendoff.

  “I came to deliver a message! But that can wait. Can you get us out of here first?”

  “Not so fast,” said Grotts, stepping back and eyeing the cage with folded arms. “What happened ‘ere exactly?”

  Darch closed his eyes for a moment before answering. Despite his energetic attitude, it seemed that rethinking the coming-to-be of the cage was tiring for him. “I came to meet you at the prophecy site but encountered a very strong spiritual interference. There was a Feirgh roaming in the Crystallands.”

  Before continuing, he tilted his head to the side and held up a pointer finger like he was about to let us in on a very important bit of information. “You see, their souls are the easiest to read because they’re abnormally loud.”

  Ardette groaned a third time.

  “So,” continued Darch, completely ignoring the rude Daem, “I followed the Feirgh’s waves and happened upon Rend and Scardo. Rend had put up a barrier on the mist’s outskirts, but they didn’t know what to do about the Feirgh or how to defeat it. So we came up with a plan! I knew there was a crystal portal nearby, so we lured the Feirgh to it. The bad thing is that to activate the portal, you need to give up sixty-seven corras of energy. Rend was the only one of us with the ability to transfer life energy, so she gave hers up, and thus we’ve been waiting for her to wake up so that she could blast us outta here. And that’s all there is to it!”

  All there is to it? For such gumption, I shook my head at Nyte, but he was still crouched at the sphere’s side.

  “Corra?” said Kantú. “What’s a ‘corra of energy’?”

  “Why, they’re the units of energy a person has to exchange to use magic, of course! And well, by my calculations, sixty-seven of those puppies could knock a person out for about three days give or take, so I’ve just been waiting for the time to pass. Getting a little thirsty though.”

  “Units of energy?” Kantú looked to Grotts and he shrugged.

  “Sure, I mean, any magic-using person should know that, right Aura?”

  “Ehh-” I, in fact, hadn’t known, nor had I ever even heard the word ‘corra’.

  “Oh, come on! You know, that’s why you always fall asleep after using a really powerful spell? Grotts help me out here. Corras? Anyone? Ardette?”

  But Ardette was glaring at Darch with disbelief and resting his temple against his finger. “Let me get this straight. You sent a Feirgh to another ‘dimension’? Darch, you’re full of zebron shit. You know that, don’t you?”

  Darch sighed. “Always the skeptic, Ardette. But yes. The crystal portals are real, but it takes a man of spirit to use them.” He looked pleased with himself and his ‘man of spirit’ status.

  “How’d ya know, though, Darch? How’d ya know they were real? I mean, I spent the first half of my life in the Crystallands, and even I didn’t know. I thought it was a bunch ‘o bogus.”

  “What did you think I’d been doing, Grotts, while you were out gallivanting across the land and destroying mekanix with Scardo? I was on a task force assigned to research and maintain them. Lucky the Feirgh sprouted so close, though. There are only three of them that actually work as far as I know.”

  “Dammit, Darch!” spat Ardette. “What happened to ‘full disclosure’? Never did you mention you’d actually found them!”

  I stared at Ardette with complete astonishment. If I thought he’d been behaving erratically before, that was nothing compared to his new tone.

  What the heck?

  Darch swooped aside his non-existent hair. “Oh, you’re just jealous you got shafted with mole-duty. You know the officers only do that to people they don’t like.”

  “Hmph.” Ardette rubbed the tip of his horn menacingly.

  Despite his still-fawning over Rend, Nyte snorted loudly.

  “Well then,” said Darch, completely brushing aside the fuming Ardette, “this crystal web is sort of a side-effect of activating the portal. We might not have Rend’s power to bust us out, but maybe you could do something, Aura?” He peered through the sphere enthusiastically, like the thought of witnessing some of my songstress prowess was extremely exciting for him.

  “Of course!” I said at once. How could I resist that child-like eagerness?

  “Well, that’s just wonderful!” He shook with excitement.

  I tapped the edge of the crystal. It seemed to be very sturdy, much more like rock than glass. Would it shatter? Such a massive ball of thick crystal web? It looked much like the branches of the above ground crystal trees, only way less brittle. I imagined it would’ve been beautiful, had the sun’s rays been able to penetrate the ceiling of the bunker and reflect all about the cage, but in the yellow of my orb, it was only reflective enough to magnify the yellow to an eerie glow, only adding to the already-dead appearance of Rend and Scardo.

  What would be the best way to go about breaking it without injuring them?

  “Mist bomb?” I suggested.

  “Gross!” said Kantú, shaking her head. “Remember those flakes of drippy flesh from that anemone?”

  “Er, yeah.” I cringed at the thought of the ‘drippy flesh’ of our comrades. “Let’s see here. Rain, light, fire, sand, heal, bomb . . .”

  But while I continued to rack my brain, Nyte unexpectedly spoke, offering a recommendation in a quiet, too-composed voice. “Use your mist splice.”

  “Huh?” I turned to him. “My ‘mist splice’?”

  Nyte stood from Rend and started towards me. His gaze was dark, shadowed by his forward-tilted head. “Yes,” he said. “It was very effective the last time.”

  I studied his face for explanation. “But I’ve never used that before. I don’t even think I know that one-”

  “You sang it for me, remember, Aura?”

  “Uh, no, Nyte.”

  I continued to study him with the deepest worry forming in my core. Something about this felt really wrong. Mist splice? What did that even mean? I wanted him to at least tilt his head back so that I could see his eyes . . . make certain they were still foresty. But they remained shrouded. I’d have to wait until he was closer to be sure.

  Grotts shot Ardette a worried look.

  “Uh-oh,” said Darch. “Is the kid’s transformation starting already?”

  “You know ‘bout that?” asked Grotts. At first he just eyed Darch questioningly, but after a moment, he gave the Magir a shallow nod, nonetheless.

  “Transformation?” I said. As an emulator? The worry was still forming, and Nyte was still walking toward me ever so slowly with that dark expression on his face.

  “Wait, what’s going on?” Kantú looked from Darch to me to Grotts, but I had no answer to give, and the other two weren’t about to start sharing Yes’lech’s secrets with the rest of us.

  “Er- never mind, Kantoo. Not important right now. Let’s just git above ground first.”

  “Miss Havoc, do you not remember?”

  “No, Nyte, I really don’t. Hey, why don’t you sit down for a bit?”

  But Nyte continued to approach. He hadn’t taken any notice of the conversation that was obviously about him.

  “How cumbersome,” groaned Ardette. “Let’s just leave him behind next time.”

  I gave Ardette a look of warning. If you aren’t going to help the situation, then just go away for now.

  But Ardette would do nothing of the sort.

  “Watch this,” he said instead. He straightened up with an expression reading clear devious intent and then proceeded to make his way in between Nyte and me.

  “Ar-deh-ette . . . ,” whined Kantú in a squeaky voice. She knew nothing good could come of that look.

  I knew it too. I locked eyes with her, and together we silently exchanged a rant of distaste.

  However, even with our clear annoyance, Ardette’s deviousness didn’t break.


  If anything, it grew.

  “You’re entirely worthless, Elf, even for one of your kind,” he said mockingly, after taking stance directly in front of Nyte. “Remember the time you tried to kill Aura? Isn’t that a memory worth treasuring? Why, I know I get giddy just thinking about it. And you liked it too, didn’t you? You enjoyed holding her life in your filthy hand. Hmph! Disgraceful. Oh, and another thing, that hair of yours is quite ghastly if you ask me. Doesn’t it remind you of vomit or some other un-pleasantry?”

  But Nyte just walked around Ardette like he wasn’t there.

  “See,” said Ardette, flashing a brilliant smile, “completely gone.”

  “Ardette, I’ve had it ‘bout ta here with ya!” Grotts squeezed the shaft of his hammer and violently ground his teeth, like he about to pummel something at any moment.

  It was a gesture that made him look frightening. Extremely frightening.

  I’d leave Ardette to him. Even though I was agitated with the infuriating Daem, I was infinitely more worried about Nyte’s current, zombie-like state.

  “Nyte?” I said cautiously. “Can you hear me?”

  I again tried to see into his eyes, but they were still shadowed – still dark.

  “Do you not remember, my Mystress, the loveliest song you sang for me?”

  “Mystress?!” eeked Kantú.

  What?! Mystress? Was he being controlled again? But how? There was no one around to control him!

  “Can this really be a ‘transformation’ or something?” I said shakily to myself. “How do we stop it?!”

  If someone answered my question, I didn’t hear them, for just then, Nyte spoke and his words struck me in a most uncanny way.

  “Have a drink, my Aura, my Mystress.” He finally tilted his head back, and I saw that his eyes were not the murky dullness of an Elf being controlled, but they were the most luscious, quenching green. I knew then that he wasn’t under her spell. This was something else.

  I should have felt relived, but I didn’t. I was way too distracted.

  The thing I craved most had just offered itself to me again, and it was too much for me to handle.

  Quenching green. Delicious, juicy, succulent.

  “Hah.” I struggled to breathe. “A . . . ‘drink’?”

  He was almost at me, he was vulnerable, and I was parched. If I wanted a taste, now was the time.

  Yes, just a taste. Nothing bad can come from a taste, right?

  The thought filled me with guilt, but I didn’t back away. I just waited, half-hoping he would graze my skin on his own.

  “Well, this is no good!” cried Darch. “Hurry and get me out of here so I can put him down!”

  Grotts released his threatening hammer-grip and reached for Nyte’s shoulder. “Nyte, snap outta it!”

  “Take this power, my Mystress, you know it is yours.” Nyte stretched his hand out to me, just inches away from my chest. The strongest temptation. It was just there. Within reach. For me.

  But it isn’t for you! Listen to him!

  T-that’s right!

  “Nyte! I’m not The Mystress! I’m Aura, but I’m not The Mystress! Don’t make me hurt you again, please!” And yet, I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for his hand. “Grotts, Ardette, Kantú, someone help . . .” I didn’t want to drain him again, but it felt as though I had to. Like it was the thing most right in the entire world. The thing that would make everything perfect. Make me whole.

  And when I was almost at his fingertips, breathlessly surrendered to the temptation . . .

  “Sing his song. The one just for him.”

  . . . A bit of advice from some unknown source drifted into my clouding head, and before I knew it, I was singing.

  “For here I stay and lie awake,

  All waiting for the dawn to take,

  This fear away, a fear I know,

  With the rising sun will go.

  Deep into the sky so soon,

  And taking with the dying moon,

  The stars fade out each one by one,

  To tell to all that morn's begun.

  The quaking whispers start to speak,

  To sing of all the ones that seek

  This end to fear, make naught mistake,

  This waning fear, the dawn will take.”

  I was done singing. My eyes were squeezed shut.

  And there, in the darkness, a fragment of memory drifted into my head.

  “Mist splice?” I asked with uncertainty.

  A second voice in the blackness spoke, but I couldn’t discern whether it was male or female: “Yes. I will teach you, but do not tell anyone.”

  “Um, I’m not sure. I usually don’t break the rules, and I’ll get in trouble if Miss Danice finds out.”

  “She will not.”

  “Alright. I trust you.”

  And that was it. The memory was over just as quickly as it had arrived.

  Who was that? What time was that memory from? Who taught me that song? I . . . don’t . . . remember . . . .

  “I got to hear the Pure Heart sing! I got to hear her sing, sing, sing!”

  I opened my eyes. Darch was hugging the bars enthusiastically.

  Nyte was just before me, on his face a look of concern. “What has happened? I have not blacked out like that since . . . argh.” He hunched forward and rubbed his forehead.

  “Nytie?” Kantú approached cautiously. Apparently, she too could see how weak his state of mind was.

  I tried to mask the pain it caused me to see him like that while I carefully composed my quivering voice. “Nyte, it’s okay now. No matter how many times . . . I’ll always pull you back, so don’t worry.”

  It was all I could do to keep my hands at my sides. Thankfully, Grotts’ massive hand was there, resting on his shoulder, giving him the reassurance I could not.

  “Yer all right now, aren’t ya?”

  Nyte ignored Grotts and looked back up at me with the gauntness of a man on the verge of discovering a bad omen. “Miss Havoc, have I done something-”

  “You didn’t do anything.” I wanted to spare him. “And it doesn’t matter right now, anyway, because I know the mist splice song you were talking about, so we can get those three out of there.”

  “Er?” He rubbed his temple. “What ‘mist splice’ song?”

  So that too was part of his blackout?

  “Uh, nothing. Darch, stand back.”

  Darch joyously clapped his hands together and scurried to the back of the crystal.

  “Sword-like edge of matter deep,

  Abound in me the mist to seep.

  Splitting towers, cutting stone,

  Shatter breaks of marrow bone.”

  “Bone? My, my, awfully morbid, don’t you think?”

  But before I could acknowledge the comment, a searing hot blade of mist extended from my upturned hand. Though it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, I could feel it there, a sliver of mist power at my fingertips. The spell was ready.

  “Yah!” I neared my hand to the bar and made a slashing motion across a few strands of crystal web. The invisible blade cut through them in a most perfect slice. The above crystal, no longer supported from below, fell forward and silently shattered when it passed through the outstretched mist.

  The result was a jagged, ovular opening at the middle of the cage.

  “You did it!” whooped Darch. “Now I can finally give you one of these!” He ran forward through the cage’s opening and threw his arms around me in a wide embrace. Then, as he had during our previous encounters, he picked me up and spun me around in a double circle before setting me down and gleefully moving on to Kantú.

  Nyte was visibly still shaken from his blackout, but now that Rend was accessible, he wasted no time running forward to inspect her.

  Thank Creator. Everything would be all right now. We were all back together again. Scardo and Rend would awaken eventually, and my song would break Nyte out of any other lapses. My song would be able to keep him sane.
>
  But where had that advice come from, anyway?

  And then, in the midst of all of the excitement, I heard Darch mutter something just off to my left.

  “You know, Ardette, for someone who hates that kid, you certainly were quick to urge Aura to sing for him, weren’t you? I guess you weren’t kidding. I’d hoped that being allowed to join her guard would have dissuaded you from those dreams, but it’s thoroughly backfired, hasn’t it? Oh well, I guess it’s nice to see you care about someone other than yourself for once.”

  Chapter 7: The Message

  “Hello there, Elder Nosrac!” cried Darch gaily.

  At first it looked like he was going to hug the great, shimmering bird around the neck, but at the last moment he halted, held his hand a foot or so above its beak, and closed his eyes. After thirty seconds or so, he spoke again.

  “Whoops! Sorry. I forgot that ‘Spirit of In-between’ is what you prefer now.”

  The Spirit of In-between looked perturbed. Certainly normal birds might not have such abilities as looking perturbed, but this bird was far from normal. It almost seemed to snub Darch when it turned from him and flapped away in one large push. It was in flight for only a short while before it fluttered down and landed on Kantú’s outstretched arm.

  “Ah,” said Darch sheepishly. “He’s still a little touchy about me kicking him out of you, Aura.”

  Kantú wiggled her nose cutely at the bird.

  Like she really thinks it’s her pet.

  We were back outside. It was night, but I couldn’t tell if it was early night or late night. The eastern moon wasn’t visible as a guide, and I’d lost track of time within the bunker. The walk back felt to have gone much more slowly than the walk to the portal, but that might very well have been because of my much heavier footsteps, very literally weighted by the bunkers’ happenings – more specifically, those involving Nyte.

  The Elf to speak of was just to my right, carrying Rend. He hadn’t put her down since retrieving her from the sphere. In fact, he was overly attached to her. I understood that they were family and all, but to me, his reaction was a little odd, considering just how rocky their relationship was. It wasn’t the fact that he was carrying her. That was very much acceptable and to be expected. It was more so that he was staring down at her with more than just the concern of a worried relative. It seemed like he was incredibly anxious about something. Like it was emotionally ailing him to see her like that.