Hollows of the Nox

by Matthew E Nordin

  Surges of energy blasted through every fiber of his core like sap in a tree being struck by lightning. Each muscle twitched and stretched, becoming attuned to the magic flowing through it.

  He could hear voices chanting to him, but the pain stole his ability to comprehend them. The unified voices echoed into the last remaining areas of sanity inside him. He focused on those areas, knowing he was on the brink of crossing over, forever falling into the void that separates reality from illusion.

  This was where he was supposed to be.

  No longer defined by reality.

  The purest form of energy.

  ~ ~ ~

  “No! We’re not ready!” Sayeh’s voice rang above the chanting. “Stop them!”

  Something jerked Eldritch from the ritual as the voices ceased. The burning flow of the spells coursed through his veins. He could see everyone around him even though his eyes were closed. Such a hindrance his eyes were.

  He looked beyond the walls of the citadel.

  Elves. They tried to sneak closer, but they could not hide from Eldritch’s power. Foolish creatures. They should have instantly surrendered with the simple weapons they carried. Primitive tools.

  “Don’t fear, my darling,” he said and put his hands on Sayeh’s arms. “These mortals do not understand what they are doing. They should not have interrupted the process. They do not understand our power. But now, they will. Come, my children.” He turned to the Nox who crowded around him. “It is time to add to our family. Let us leave at once.”

  Sayeh slipped into the shadows beside him.

  The Nox had used the powers flowing from the Orbivas ritual to create stronger walls and more ornate details. There were no doors or windows. Enormous talons poked outside the perimeter with barbed spikes and a deadly enchantment spell. If the elves tried to hack at them, they would lash out and destroy.

  “We know of the darkness you bring to this land,” one of the elves called out. “We will not allow it. We have come to warn you. End this and return to where you came from or else we will force you out.”

  Eldritch laughed and passed through the walls of the citadel.

  “We will not leave,” he said. The Nox repeated his words. “You may join us willingly and become part of the Nox. Those who resist will only make us stronger. It is your choice.” He paused. The Nox were no longer repeating his words, but slowly starting to become in sync with them. “Who among you twenty-three elven warriors will join us first?”

  The question seemed to startle the scouting party. They looked at each other and muttered to themselves. The hidden elves stepped into the clearing. There would be no retreat. Eldritch sent some of the Nox to surround them from behind.

  “Help us in our quest to save this world,” he said while the Nox formed into position. “We can enlighten you to all the secrets that are hidden by this world. We have come to release you. We are the Nox.”

  Eldritch stopped. He hadn’t meant for those words to come out. The voices resounded in his mind like before. His entire body grew numb as if pitted against him.

  He forced himself forward out of his own volition. At least he had control of his movements. Perhaps he could influence how the elves would react to the turning spell. If they remained on his side, the Nox wouldn’t take over his mind completely.

  The tendrils from his hands whipped out, and the elves tried to cut them away. Eldritch could almost hear their thoughts and reacted with counterattacks.

  “What is this?” one elf cried in disbelief. “We will not fall to your dark magic!”

  Yet as much as the elf struggled and cursed, his veins darkened and exploded the ashen ink across his body. He, along with his companions, turned into the form of a dark elf, like Grinley.

  “We will serve you now. We understand your desire,” the elf captain said.

  The other dark elves agreed and motioned to the rest of those who had not been turned, waiting to attack. Some held their ground while a few stepped closer, persuaded by the quick change of loyalty from their leader.

  “Join us,” Eldritch said with the echoes of the Nox filling the wood. He hated that he could not speak on his own, but he still spoke from his own will, hopefully.

  “We follow our captain into death,” one of the dark elves said.

  Those who turned joined his side. A handful of the other elves rushed toward him with their weapons drawn.

  The urge to raise his arms overtook Eldritch. The earth reached up to him as he plunged his fingers into it. Grotesque vines shot out of the ground and coiled around the legs of those before him. In cries of terror, their appearance changed and they became like the other dark elves.

  Eldritch reached deeper in the dirt. The vines sprawled out and lashed at the remaining guards. They tried to resist, hacking at the darkness as it continued to grow. Although some were successful in cutting loose, they could not counter all that emerged at them.

  One of the elves took his sword and thrust it through his chest before the tendrils caught him.

  Eldritch witnessed one of the Nox grab the corpse and meld itself into the body. Blood spilled from the wound as the once dead body rose to its feet and pulled the sword from its chest. Its eyes wandered independently of each other. The head jerked from the force taking over until it flowed with a dark mist. Whatever elf had previously resided in the body, it was now a vessel for the Nox.

  The last few tried to run, but the Nox caught them. They were not as merciful as Eldritch. The spells they used reduced the fleeing elves to piles of ash.

  “Enough!” Eldritch screamed.

  The Nox did not repeat him as they shrunk back to the fortress.

  He caught a glimpse of Sayeh. Something about her seemed different. She would usually be right beside him, but she remained a few trees apart. She didn’t acknowledge him at all.

  “We must advance now,” the possessed elf’s body said with a voice from the Nox. “Before they know the patrol is missing.”

  Eldritch found himself nodding in agreement.

  The dark elves led the way through the maze of trees. Eldritch used the energy from the air to carry the elves with greater speed. The Nox moved with him in a similar fashion, matching his pace while he flowed with the currents of magic. Not only had they enabled him to follow the hidden patterns of this world, they were somehow channeling and using his own power for themselves.

  Of course they could. He had allowed himself to become the Orbivas―the vessel through which all the powers of the Nox flowed.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “There it is,” one of the dark elves said. “Beyond that line of trees is the gateway to the elven kingdom. They have likely sensed our attack already. Should we wait until they advance and ambush them, my masters?”

  “No,” Eldritch said, letting the Nox speak with him. “We should move with haste in our advance. I believe they are not ready for us.”

  Eldritch tried to see through the clouded wall of energy obstructing his vision of the palace gate. Different areas in the elven woods blocked his powers, but none this intensely.

  “Sayeh, join me as we take the elves for ourselves.”

  She slipped around the others and stood beside him.

  He searched for any glimmer of innocence in her eyes. She had become distant. Dark energy flowed through her. Little remained of the girl he once knew. She sounded like Sayeh, yet the desire for Eldritch to teach her was gone. She no longer looked to him for wisdom or insight.

  “What has happened?” he whispered to her. “Where are you?”

  “We are where we’ll always be, at your side.” She attempted to give a convincing smile, but a tear rolled down her cheek. It burned away into a vapor as she shook her head. “You’re not quite complete with us. Soon we will be one.”

  For a brief moment, the dark aura subsided. Like a transparent shell or ghostly form hiding the truth, something stirred deep within Sayeh. A being beyond the vessel of the body gazed back at him. A presence lost to
memory. The faint glow of a friend.

  “Sayeh?” Eldritch took a step towards her.

  “Eldritch?” she whispered. Behind her eyes was the love of the girl from Raikrune.

  A twig snapped, and her concentration turned to the elven palace.

  “Begin your advance,” Sayeh said as the darkness engulfed her again. “They will not see us coming.”

  She pulled Eldritch forward, and they followed the dark elves.

  “What is beyond this doorway?” Eldritch muttered to himself when they neared the gate. He tried to look beyond it. Still a void.

  “You can see beyond our sight and must direct us where to go,” Sayeh said as the dark elves dispelled some of the smaller traps around the entrance. “We will follow your orders as you will be the most powerful caster in all the realms.”

  Eldritch was growing tired of this Sayeh’s lies. He sensed the Nox had other plans for the elves than he was told. They likely needed him to be weak enough to complete the Orbivas. Without him being able to resist, they would use him and the dark elves for their own purposes.

  This had to be their plan, but there was no time to turn back. Eldritch vowed to reverse the Orbivas once the elves had fallen. But he needed to separate himself from the Nox first.

  As soon as the gateway to the palace opened, Eldritch sent a blast of power behind him to push back the Nox. Sayeh’s hand tightened around his while the others stumbled back.

  His magical sight fell away in an unraveling spell. He blinked to clear his vision.

  Surrounding the gate in a semicircle formation, the elves held staffs similar to the ones the first patrol carried. Fae symbols and spells were inscribed into the weapons. The elves slammed them to the ground, and the tops erupted in dazzling white light.

  “Return to me!” Eldritch commanded the dark powers fleeing from the air around him. “Give me strength!”

  It was no use.

  The light grew more intense from the being standing at the center of the elves. It’s entire body blazed too brilliantly to distinguish the patterns of the magic. It shone with light from a thousand realms.

  Eldritch couldn’t reverse the waves of energy flowing from the entity, wreaking havoc on his senses. Loneliness filled him as he reached out for help, and was abandoned.

  The dark tendrils could not escape his fingertips. They burned up and disintegrated before they could emerge. Searing flames licked at his hands.

  Somehow the Orbivas did not allow him to feel the pain, only numbness. He wanted to feel something, anything, even if it was defeat.

  Sayeh twisted around him, putting her back to the light.

  “What are you doing?” he cried.

  Her eyes blinked as the dark aura fell from them. The brightness and spark of his childhood friend returned. Her face shook in pain and confusion.

  “Eldritch?” She gasped. “What’s going on? What have they done?”

  “I’m sorry for doing this.” He tried to move, but she held him tightly and would not move from between him and the light. “Sayeh?”

  “They are everywhere. The shadows that feed. My mind, I gave it to the Nox many years ago when you never returned. If only I resisted. We could go back to the bookshop, and you could read to me again.” Tears streaked down her face as she embraced him. “All is darkness now. Shadow and ash. You must find me. Please, release me from this place. The book, enter the book!”

  In a guttural cry, she pushed him away. The smoke of the Nox trailed from her fingers.

  Eldritch stumbled back. The elven light pierced through her, and blue flames flicked from her flesh. Her eyes became a mixture of the shadow trying to escape and the fire trying to enter.

  The darkness could not overcome the light. The shadowy form of Sayeh swelled and convulsed until it became nothing.

  Eldritch looked back at the Nox who were fleeing. They lurched over in pain. This was his chance to defeat them and free himself.

  He swirled his hands in the motion to create the mirror trick Ben had taught him and reflected the fae’s light on any Nox beings standing in his way. They collapsed to the ground, their ash remains joining with the charred bodies of the dark elves.

  As he saw their blistered bodies, he remembered poor Grinley’s on the boat. The fae were right to lock away the Nox. They did not bring power or knowledge to the world, but misery, death, and corruption.

  In one final burst of energy, he soared through the woods to the accursed place the traitorous Nox constructed for the Orbivas. The trees splintered around him when he landed, leaving a scar of destruction―like a rock blazing from the sky.

  When Eldritch reached the inner room of the citadel, the dark book laying on the floor came alive again. The roots from the tree on the cover held it shut tightly, not allowing anyone to pry it open.

  “I have strength from your spells, and I am connected to your realm.” He grabbed the book and ripped the covers apart. “I’ve seen your prison.”

  The room trembled as the roots splintered from the force of Eldritch’s might. All the patterns and tricks he had learned would surpass the fae’s imprisonment spell. This time, it wouldn’t fail.

  The dark book screeched while he flipped through it, calling out to the Nox. Somewhere in the words, Sayeh had been locked inside for them to create her shadow. He needed to free her before. . .

  A jolt of energy twisted his shoulder back.

  The Nox were close. He sensed them in his mind, following him like bees to a hive. The swarm would descend soon.

  “Remove yourself, so I may replace you.” He wiped his hand across the last page, and the words disappeared. "Where is my pen?" He searched his pockets but could not find it.

  Something sharp dug into his palm as he clenched his fists. The tendrils. A remnant of one remained hardened across his fingernail.

  He wedged it between his teeth and bit it back. The loss of blood and energy made his stomach turn.

  “Breathe through the pain, scribe the spell.”

  He wrote out a spell to force all the Nox into an eternal sleep with his blood, using the patterns of magic he learned from the Nox and the fae. The words of the spell linked together and shone with light. He couldn’t look at his writing anymore. The light seared the tattooed Orbivas on his skin.

  “What have I done?” he cried

  The dark book trembled in defiance. He hated it.

  “Why did I ever listen to you? You will never speak again!”

  Eldritch’s spell sunk into the void between the pages as new words filled them. No one would be able to unravel the spell. It would appear to be a simple tale, fitting to read in a small bookshop.

  The story of beings called the Nox and a young farmer who fell in love, left his home, and met an elf. The curiosity that led him to the edge of the fairy forest and the fae themselves, the wondrous beings who created the pure light which no darkness could stand against. The ones he should have listened to.

  Eldritch’s body convulsed from the Orbivas burning on his skin. It no longer gave him power, only pain.

  “You cannot force us back!” the Nox cried out in unison from around the citadel. “We gave you our powers. Why do you defy us?”

  The pages of the book continued to fill themselves with the words that would lock the darkness away. The fortress began to crumble.

  “You did not give me power. You have stolen mine.” Eldritch pounded his fist on the book. “You have taken everything that I loved. I don’t know what I’ll find on the other side, but I will find Sayeh and release her!”

  The spell completed and the gateway opened.

  “Eldritch,” Sayeh’s voice whispered into his mind. “Find me.”

  Her voice was weak but clear. He knew she was alive on the other side of the book, somewhere in the hollows of the Nox.

  His heart raced, and he smiled. This time, not of malice or ill intent, but of pure joy. They would be together again.

  The world sunk around him.

  A force
was pulling him into the book, along with the rest of the citadel and the dark powers that brought the Nox from their realm.

  He would find Sayeh, and the Nox would not be able to escape. For he was Eldritch. The one sealed forever with the shadows, and the one who would bring their destruction.

  Epilogue

  The boat rocked from the sudden weight of an additional passenger, landing onboard. An old captain emerged from his cabin, muttering to himself.

  “Did they find any lingering threats?” the new passenger asked. In the moonlight, his wings were almost invisible.

  “Nothing’s there, nothing’s left. All is ash and dust now.” The captain moved his weathered hands in specific motions until a small fire appeared. He took the flame and lit one of the hanging lanterns. “I tried to tell them they would need the light, but they blame you as much as us. Stubborn minds.”

  The fairy crossed his arms. His shape became more human-like as he wrapped himself in his cloak. A tear formed in his eye.

  “You mustn’t worry yourself,” the captain said and placed a hand on the fairy's shoulder. “I knew this day would come. No one wants to take the blame, so they blame everyone else, shuttering away in their own pride.”

  “Too many good lives were lost in the name of pride,” the fairy spoke softer. “The queen has banished me for bringing our light to the elves. Any future alliance with them will be dismissed.”

  “With hope, time will mend those broken ties.” The captain turned and paced. “I fear the scars in our world. None of the dark magic remains around the elven kingdom, yet none can tell where it has gone.”

  They paused as the wind seemed to rise against them. The boat tipped, but with a whisper from the fairy, it returned steady. He knelt down and ran a finger across the wooden boards. A soft glow emanated from them.

  “I wish Grinley would have traveled with you instead of staying behind in Caetheal,” the fairy said. “He could have warned his people. Where will you go now?”

  “Grinley told me of a place he visited once, a bookshop in a small village. Unoccupied now I gather.” The captain grinned. “I would like to settle there. Maybe write about the realms. Can you imagine me running such a place?”