The spell jolted the air, slowing his plummet, but it was too late.
His head hit the ground. The last remnants of the energy held his feet briefly before setting them down with the rest of him, laying as if lifeless in the soft grass.
He could not tell if it was panic or the madness in his mind that held him there. The grass should have been attacking or wrapping around him. He needed to focus. Yet he trembled in anticipation of the thorns and poisons waiting to pierce him.
“Steady yourself. Breathe.”
He inhaled deeply, letting the levitation spell become part of him. He exhaled cautiously, waiting for the inevitable attack from the filed. The air rose around him and floated him to an upright position.
Now to find the entrance and figure out where he was.
The edge of the trees repeated the same pattern in endless directions. The sheer mass of them created an impenetrable wall. Their bark was covered in a gelatinous and transparent substance. Although curious, he did not want to test the material. It was the last line of defense to the kingdom of the fae.
He hovered in front of the trees. There had to be a way to enter. There was something he was not seeing. It nagged at the back of his mind like the voice.
“Why are you so silent when I am so close? What am I missing about the fae?”
The rushing wind and his beating heart were all that responded to him.
“These are simply physical objects. Something I should be able to control.”
His words brought about the realization as he spoke. The fae did not seem to belong to the material world. They passed in and out of other realms. His physical body was a hindrance if the wall was an illusion, like Grinley’s magic.
He closed his eyes and embraced the darkness. The outline of the trees filled his thoughts.
No tales had ever been told of a human crossing that barrier. It could be disastrous. The fae kept perfect harmony between their magic and the realms within their wood. No human could understand that balance and would irreparably damage it.
Eldritch’s lips curved into a proud grimace. He was not like other humans. The patterns and mysteries of magic unraveled before him. A destined path waited beyond the trees for him. All he needed to find was the right irregularity in the trees.
Like white drawings on black paper, the map from the book came into his memory.
“Closer to us now,” it spoke in unison with the lure of the fairy’s song. “You know where we are. Enter. Remember. You have been searching your entire life for us. We have found you as you have found us. Unlock our power. Move in the right path.”
The weight of the words dragged him forward to a small tree. He slipped into its shadow and through the forest’s wall.
An oppressive presence filled his mind. Thoughts of regret and fear forced themselves in, urging him to return to town, to forget his journey and retreat. Whatever this attack was it sapped the rest of his power.
His levitation spell faded, and he descended.
Eldritch rubbed his hands together, trying to steady the spell. Orbs of light spun around the trees and danced to him while he reached the ground. He took in a deep breath to regain control of his thoughts. Energy from the forest filled his lungs.
At first, the ground crawled with bugs of light and magic. Yet it was more like waves of energy, pulsing through the roots of the trees. The ground’s spell illuminated the entire expanse.
A sense of serenity filled him. The patterns of the forest’s magic resembled those of the dark fae book, but wove together in reverse, drawing light from the air around it. A brilliant and blinding magic.
The earth around Eldritch cracked and turned to shadow. The darkened patches hissed from the burnt path he created as he journeyed forward.
“Keep to your task and breathe,” he muttered to himself.
The dark book tugged at this hands, prompting him to go in the direction it wanted. The voice whispered to him in foreign tongues. It was anxious for him to arrive.
“Ignore the others. They cannot touch you. We will protect you.” The voice overtook the other sounds in the forest, even the song of the fairy.
He pushed aside the leaves, withering from his touch. More light violently flashed toward him. The path behind him swirled with a cacophony of light and darkness. It wouldn’t be long until someone else found him. The fairy from the tavern couldn’t be too far. He quickened his pace.
The trees reached after him as the book pulled him into the overgrowth, a place not ventured in a long time, certainly not on the ground. The book severed a path before him. He traversed into a dimmer area of the forest.
“Closer now. You shall have true power.”
The entity behind the voice would be free soon. And with it, endless power for Eldritch to control. If only he could focus through the eruption of the fae magic.
“Breathe.” His words sucked the energy from the air around him.
Another presence loomed close to him. It wasn’t from the forest, it was something else. Something ancient. He had sensed this presence long ago, speaking to him in his childhood dreams. A whisper leading him to this moment, this forest.
All his life he had chased this power, not knowing what it would be. It trained him how to read the patterns of spells, how words could be unlocked. At last, as he entered a clearing, the source of the voice stood before him.
The vines on the cover that were curling around his fingers loosened. The book dropped from his hands. It sprouted legs again and crawled ahead of him toward the dark tree that was the exact image of the one on the cover.
The tree blurred between the realm he walked and those of his imagination, like looking through a shattered mirror to the reflection of another reality. No shadows formed around it as it itself seemed to be shadow. It brought darkness. It was darkness.
Eldritch drew closer, captivated by the malignant power. Its leaves and limbs whipped at the air, shaking from some unknown wind. The same sulfuric smell he encountered at the bookshop in Raikrune pervaded his nostrils. It felt corrosive. No doubt the bark on this tree resembled the scar of Sayeh’s wound.
Of all the times to be distracted by her, she was all he could think about now. She would be overjoyed to see this place. Her obsession to please him would be matched by the sense of wonder spilling from every vine and leaf in the forest. A stronghold for dreamers.
A breeze blew past him, caressing his hair. It twisted around his head and pulled him toward the dark tree. A haunting glow from the tree’s energy formed behind it. He caught a glimpse of a familiar shape. The figure he had seen lingering near the barrier of the forest a few days ago.
“Eldritch?” Sayeh’s voice coughed through the smoke coming from the tree’s massive trunk. “You have come to us, come to release us. You will be rewarded.”
The presence did not feel like Sayeh. It seemed like another reflection. Her shadowy visage changed from solid to transparent, swirling in ash and dust.
“Who are you?” He inched closer. The ground turned to a dark tar that clung to his robe. “Why have you led me here?”
“We are your servants now.” Sayeh’s voice echoed with more voices coming from the tree. “Save us, and we can reward you. You see how spells are undone. Your ability was unlocked within you. Unlock us. Set us free from this prison so we can teach you more.”
Sayeh’s form grew in size around the dark tree. Features of the tree and Sayeh’s image blended together. Although this tree held the power and the voices that influenced Eldritch’s journey, he still had the choice, the will, the knowledge to free them.
He stepped onto one of the larger roots. The spell around the tree held it in a perpetual loop of energy. This wall of light kept the prisoners from the reality of the forest―locked in another world and unable to come out. They were whispering through the cracks between dimensions.
“Please, Eldritch,” the shadow of Sayeh said. “You can bring me back as I was, or stronger and more devoted to you. I will li
sten to your will.”
The shadowy figure stepped into reality as if Sayeh stood before him again. Her clothes resembled the ribbons she wore before he left Raikrune. The scent of jasmine and vanilla came from her hair.
“We can bring anything you desire.” Her eyes became clearer the more he looked into them. “Our powers are beyond what your mind can understand now, but soon you will. Soon you will know all of our secrets. You must free us first.”
Eldritch closed his eyes and touched the bark of the tree. It hardened and crevassed like the scar on Sayeh’s leg―strangely comforting. He reached out with his mind and tugged at the invisible strings of the magic prison. It webbed together from a greater magic that somehow managed to contain the dark tree’s power.
It would take years for him to undo the spell. He slumped back and stumbled over the book crawling around his feet.
“It's you.” He ripped it from the ground. “You are the doorway.”
His cloak wrapped around him, covering every part of exposed skin. The thought of being trapped within the spell of the tree caused him to sweat. It ran down into his eyes. He closed them tighter.
Whatever realm the book belonged to invaded his senses. Every lost hope or broken dream of his world filled his thoughts. Waves of regret, hate, and despair cast a shadow into his mind. Such tragedies were what this dark realm had been created from.
The inhabitants knew how to control or manipulate any situation because they had been forced to endure it. Their sorrow turned to a willpower that enforced their will onto others. They were beings of shadow and energy, remaining formless until called into service under a caster’s command.
Eldritch’s mind filled with the potential of wielding this power. His lost brother could be brought back from beyond the grave. No more memorization or recitation of spells to bend the elements, he merely had to will it so. The entire world stood upon the edge of their dagger. The dagger that Eldritch wielded.
“Who are you?” he asked as he let himself become part of the spell.
“We are the Nox. The keepers of shadows and visions forgotten. We have waited so long to be released. The fairies locked us in, but we have learned from them. We learned their secrets and their powers. We have perfected them, and we shall conquer. You will help us.”
“Rise from your slumber,” he said and stepped into the dark words of the book.
The shadows from the other side grasped at him to remain while he reached the inner workings of the prison. His will would be stronger. He would drag them out of the book, or be trapped with them until someone else listened to his cries for help.
Chapter Twelve
“Excuse me, sir? Hello? Are you okay?” a woman’s voice called from far away as Eldritch squinted in the morning light. “Don’t move.”
The taste of blood mixed with the rotting grass beneath him. He tried to spit it from his mouth. It hit more of the weeds in front of his face and fell back beside his cheek, slick from the mud.
The lady continued to shout for him not to move.
He tried to remember what happened in the forest and how he ended up facedown in the field. After he set Sayeh free, the entire dark tree shook loose its shadows, breaking the imprisonment spell.
Then light.
A blinding light coming from all corners of the forest. It hit him with intense beams until he fell. An invisible hand plucked him and tossed him out, into the field of eternal sleep. The place where he remained for an unknown amount of time.
The sun warmed his skin while it burned off the dew from the ground. His clothes remained wet. The grass gripped around his fingers. Something pressed him into it, hovering over his back.
“I’ll get help, stay there,” the lady called again. “Don’t move a muscle. I’m not sure how you got that far out. Most folks know better than to step into that field.”
Eldritch took short breaths as the lady’s footsteps faded away. He was relieved no one would be around to see him use magic, but there was no way for him to use his hands for spell casting. He didn’t understand enough of the dark fae magic to free himself without setting off the field’s defenses.
The lady was likely getting help from Caetheal, and it would be too late to get away unnoticed once they returned. If the field’s enchantment was powerful enough to not allow anyone to enter, he could only assume some fools had tried rushing the forest to break in by force. The outcome was most likely too dismal to report. A wrong move could be fatal.
“Sayeh,” Eldritch whispered, trying not to disturb the grass. “If you are here or in the book, show me how to escape.”
A thorn punctured his shin and grew into his leg. It pushed into the muscle, bursting through the other side and diving back under the ground.
Eldritch bit his lip through the pain. He dared not make another noise.
“You see?” Sayeh’s voice whispered. It came from his side, but he couldn’t turn to see her. “You need us, as we needed you before. Our powers are greater than the fae now. You only have to ask us, and we will save you.”
“Free me, please,” Eldritch cried as more vines sprouted in front of him.
They wavered in the air like serpents about to strike. In an instant they pierced his skin, staking him firmly to the ground.
Eldritch clenched his teeth in agony. He could make out the sounds Sayeh’s spell, yet could not focus enough to discern them. His eyes filled with tears from the pain rattling his mind. A tingling wave of energy formed around him and pricked at the hairs on his skin.
Sayeh’s spell wrapped over him in a thin sheet. The magical fabric sliced through the constricting thorns that held him to the ground.
A moan of relief escaped his lips. The shards of vine inside of him twisted violently in response. Yet, none pierced him again.
“Where are you?” he called out to Sayeh.
“With you always.” She pressed him hard to the ground as the magical sheet pulled his helpless body through the dirt and shadows.
He choked on the nothingness around him. Dark tendrils pried the remaining vines from his wounds and crackled in a mysterious fire. A new sensation of stepping through a myriad of shadows at once overtook him. Each one grabbed for him while he passed through. The dark power pulled him faster through the void.
A softer material rested under him. He was on his back in a familiar bed.
He opened his eyes long enough to see the wooden beams of the tavern ceiling. The pain around his legs and arms left him. A shell encased them, becoming hard like the bark on the dark tree. Something moved in the corner of his eye.
“Sayeh?” He tried to say more but moaned again.
His exhaustion made his eyelids close. A sweeter scent overpowered the smell of burnt flesh from his leg. He needed to rest, to heal, to regain control. He could not defend himself in this state. Sayeh would have to protect him as he assumed she had done in the field while he lay unconscious.
The bed shifted under another body’s weight.
Although Eldritch could not feel most of his limbs, he could feel the warmth of hers around him. At least, it felt like the Sayeh he knew from Raikrune.
He managed to blink his eyes open in the cave of her hair. She stared back at him with a ghastly aura. Her eyes filled with a darkness that consumed the light around them.
“How are you here?” he managed to sputter.
“You freed us from our prison. We are no longer bound in that realm. All will be revealed soon. Rest now.”
She kissed him with cold lips. It was harsher than he remembered. He wished he kissed her more before finding the hidden room in the bookshop.
Although his mind raced with questions, he could not stay awake. He let the darkness wrap him into the folds of sleep.
Eldritch tried to cover his eyes from the sunlight coming through the window. His right hand grasped for the sheets as his other was unable to move. A breeze chilled him as he thought of the frightful event in the forest. He would have been another fatality of
the field without Sayeh and the Nox.
He forced himself up and noticed Sayeh sitting on the floor in a corner of the room. She sat with her knees up to her face, hiding her eyes. Her hair hung lightly over her and twirled in the breeze. The unnatural shadows around her shifted.
He decided not to disturb her and let her remain in her restful state. There had to be a spell he knew to heal himself. He stared at the shell on his shoulder and focused, reaching beyond the physical realm into the place where the magic had been formed. The spell encasing the wound cracked open.
“You are part of me. Obey me.” Eldritch grabbed the scab and squeezed his arm. “Weave the pain to mend the wounds.”
The force from his spell caused his body to quake. The shell crumbled away from his grip. Scorched marks from the wound stained his pale complexion. Dark spots grew across his other arm.
He looked again at Sayeh, undisturbed by the events, peaceful in her corner. Eldritch smiled. Whatever dark magic had been used, it brought her to him.
He sat back toward the wall and stretched out his legs. They were covered in the ash from the scabs. He could almost understand Sayeh’s experience with them, yet his was not as long.
Her cries of pain when she fell through the floor seemed like a lifetime ago. The Sayeh he left in Raikrune didn’t seem to be the one sitting in the corner. Her features were clouded from reality, like an old mirror with a dim and incomplete reflection. She was Sayeh, but also the Nox.
Eldritch eased himself from the bed and gathered his cloak, hoping not to wake her. She breathed heavily and curled onto the ground. Although she appeared to be sleeping, Eldritch couldn’t shake the feeling that she was fully aware of everything he was doing.
He crept out of the room and made his way downstairs.
The tavern had been sparse with patrons most mornings, but this time it was entirely empty. A lone towel and a few glasses were the only items remaining on top of the bar. Eldritch pulled up a stool, hoping someone would hear him.
Nothing. Whatever happened affected everyone inside. Eldritch never saw the barkeep leave the tavern the entire time he was there.
Hollows of the Nox Page 9
