“Jump on.” Tor said in a fatherly voice imbued with care and resolve. He turned, and the group watched as he grew in the blink of an eye, suddenly covered in multi-coloured, shimmering fur. Dropping onto all fours, a huge bear head swung back towards them and gestured for them to climb on. Tchook had done the same in near synchronicity, a perfect mirror image of his companion. Eve walked up to Tor and hugged him around the neck with both arms, burying her face in his fur and smiling. He was stronger than she’d ever seen him. Powerful magik emanated from him as he stood there, patiently waiting for half the group to climb on. Eve felt a nudge at one of her elbows and saw a huge, non-bear head cocked expectantly. She hugged Tchook around the neck too and couldn’t help warming to him more at the wagging his behind, as if he had a tail. What a curious and remarkable creature she thought as she turned to look at Tor, her face asking questions about Tchook that he didn’t have answers to. The rest of the group climbed onto Tchook and as Eve settled herself, she moved her head to the side ever so slightly as if she were listening.
“Hold on.” She said to the group just before both bears grew larger to accommodate all the passengers. Padding slowly towards the light, the symptoms worsened for the party, skin crawling and hearts pounding with the effort of staying conscious and keeping the darkness at bay. They needed to be quick, but anything could happen, so a guarded approach was also required. As Tor had predicted though, the darkness threatening to consume them receded as they got to the room of light. With relief, all members of the party managed to gather themselves, Tor and Tchook returning to normal form and size. Xiang cautiously peered into the room to take stock and begin formulating a plan. The room was round, a cracked and damned alter in the centre. Carved from one huge piece of stone directly into the floor, it was heavy with memories and evil deeds. Strange symbols were scratched into every surface he laid his eyes on and there was no sign of the plants at all. Not even a stray frond of red had penetrated the room. He expected to see vines and roots weaving in and out of the bricks and mortar like they had in the streets. Veins of red danger snaking into the core of Sahld’veba, but the stonework was untouched, apart from the marks of unknown magik upon it. Turning back to the group, he started explaining what he saw.
“Rosalind is in the centre of the room by the alter, sat cross-legged and staring at the light with a book open in front of her. The bear cub is at her left side, the Archfiend, her right. The two big purple things are stood at the other end of the altar. I counted eight more purple creatures stood in a circle around them, but I couldn’t see the other two. The Furies.” Drawing on his own experience as to how they should approach the group he looked to Gerard who he felt would have expertise in this too. “Now, I think-” He cast around to see where Tor and Eve were, but they were gone. Whilst everyone was recovering from the short journey from the tunnel to the centre of the cavern, no one had noticed The Dyad that never was, move towards the entrance of the room. Xiang turned around frantically to see where they were and was met with a serene and purposeful couple holding hands and looking at each other lovingly. They smiled, dropped their hands with ease and then confidently walked into the room without a care in the world. It’s okay, Xiang though looking to K'Chool and Gerard who were thinking the same – we still have the element of surprise. Khar, the sisters and fortune all prepared themselves, trying to pick out where they would strike first based on Xiang’s brief description, talking in hushed, urgent whispers. As they did so, they missed Tchook calmly following Tor and Eve into the room, also without a care in the world.
“Stay calm everyone, we can still get the drop-” Gerard began, turning to the group to rally them before entering the room.
“Enough, Rosalind!” Tor shouted with control and gravitas. The Last Word turned her face towards them, pitted and rotting with evil and malignant intent. Recognising her brother, she regained her composure, turning back to normal and smiling as she stood. With one hand on the bear cub’s head, the book in her other, she spoke clearly and without emotion.
“Remember when we used to do this, Tor?” She looked down at the cub and scratched his head lovingly, the whole group surprised by how natural and caring she looked in that moment.
“That was a long time ago.” He replied sadly, memories of their childhood distracting him for a split second.
“It was, wasn’t it.” Rosalind replied, looking at Eve as a tremendous sadness seemed to take over whilst she spoke. “It’s good to see you, Äsheenie.” She said, a wan smile appearing and a single tear rolling down her cheek.
“You don’t get to call her that, Rosalind.” Tor said defensively, his magiks flaring uncharacteristically. The light from the altar seemed to respond, shooting bolts of light from it as Tor looked around for the Naïves. Bile and rage threatened to overcome his as he realised they were all gone.
“You are too late, Dyad.” The thousand curses said as watched Tor look around for the sacrifices. She’d spat the last word out, full of regret, hatred and disrespect. “You cannot stop me.” She finished arrogantly, and she was right.
“We aren’t here to stop you.” Tor responded knowingly. After Khar had described his vision to them the other night Tor and Eve managed to steal a few moments together to discuss what they would do. They’d decided that whatever they found they wouldn’t trap her again. Convincing his sister to come back to the light was more important and Eve felt the same. It wasn’t about their personal sacrifices or avoiding any cost to themselves. It was about saving a lost sister. A lost soul. They were rash the first time around and Rosalind had done too much damage for there to be no recourse. Lucids were calling for her blood at every turn back then and trapping her before anyone could kill her was their only option. They wanted to do something different this time around however. They wanted to help. Eve pulled out the amulet, holding it aloft for everyone to see. Gerard and the rest of them were confused by what was happening and torn by what they were seeing. Rosalind flinched, wary of what happened the last time she saw the glinting piece of jewellery.
“We were wrong to do what we did last time.” She tossed the amulet towards Tor’s dumbfounded sister. Despair enveloped the group as they watched their last hope fly through the air towards their enemy. “We think you were right all along. This should’ve been yours and Tor had no right to give it to me. We’re sorry.” The amulet landed on the floor and skidded to a halt just in front of the bear cub who sniffed at it thoughtfully. Rosalind picked it up and stared at it for the longest time, everyone seeing the inner turmoil and conflict in her eyes. Eve even saw what she thought she had when they fought at her home. There is hope yet, she felt.
“I can’t take back what I’ve done.” The Diplomat finally said after a long pause, waving a hand towards the altar.
“It’s okay, pebble.” Tor used a nickname from their childhood, hoping to keep the calm presence that was winning within Rosalind, still winning. She smiled at hearing it, some of the turmoil and conflict receding, everyone in the room calming with her. Even the purple beings seemed to soften, and the Archfiend wilted a little bit. Tor and Eve knew that a toe to toe battle could be disastrous, favouring words and sentiment to bring Rosalind back to the light.
Walking on a knife’s edge, Tor ventured on. “We can stop The Barren Sun together, we just-”
“The Barren Sun!” The Rage shouted angrily. Rosalind's face flashed back to the pitted and grotesque one they saw earlier, teeth bared and black with hatred. Her companions bristled at the outburst, the purple creatures flinching and tensing with her emotions and her Archfiend standing taller than before.
“You misunderstand, darlings. We don’t want to bring back The Barren Sun.” The Mistress purred. “We don’t want to share the worlds with her. We want them for ourselves.” Tor and Eve stared, confused and lost.
“After I release The Reapers, you will die, with those looks on your faces.” The Rage laughed a maniacal laugh but as the laughter died, Eve saw the calm face from earlier, a
sorry expression written all over it. It was too late, and they fallen the wrong side of the knife-edge. They couldn’t move as The Last Word laughed again and watched in slow motion as evil intent was focused solely on them. The Betrayers creatures turned on them all of a sudden, burning bright in their own ways and about to attack.
Seeing the situation worsen, Tor and Eve’s new friends looked at each other from the entrance to the room, nodding at whoever met their gaze, steeling themselves for the oncoming dread. Without hesitating or warning, Tchook slammed his full body weight into Adam, concentrating his mass as much as he could in the blink of an eye. The six-foot purple shield took the brunt of the attack but Tchook was too quick and had increased his density so much that Adam was flung backwards into a wall, human arm not having formed its bone sword just yet. Flowing and rippling, Tchook landed a lightning quick strike on Eve, mimicking the movements he’d learned in the rooms. She was flung backwards too, hitting the wall just to the side of Adam, her own weapons barely drawn as dust and brick cascaded around them from the impact. Still paralysed, Tor watched the attack with pride and encouraged by his friend’s fearless ferocity he could feel some control return to his muscles.
Apparently buoyed by Tchook’s actions, the whole group felt that The Ten may stand a chance before their hopes took a deadly blow when Tor and Eve heard two horrific slams behind them. Ugly, purple, bloodied gorilla-like shapes snarled, crunched and grinded as they roared after creating small craters from their landing. The Furies were appalling to look at, the human face of one distended and warped in ways that made Khar want to wretch, which he actually did. Getting the worst of it out of his system through, he found strength to enter the battle, confidently stepping towards the Fury closest to him. He wouldn’t let his friends down and was determined to match Tchook’s ferocity, who was already fearlessly advancing on the two creatures he’d unceremoniously cast into the wall a second ago. Without admitting it though, Khar was thankful to see K'Chool whip past him, her Guan Dao shining bright at her side. Landing a crushing, scything blow as she span on the other Fury, he could hear her battle cry and see her deadly resolve. Simultaneously, Gerard had flown past him on his other side, silent and quick with his samurai sword already in hand, Khar could barely register how fast Gerard moved. He looked possessed by the wind and brought dreadful justice to bare on the Fury Khar had stepped up to.
All of a sudden, he found himself watching as four purple creatures came towards him. Mindlessly, his body moved, his words came, and he found he was defending himself against the purple and white tide that was upon him. He met the eyes of each creature whilst defending himself and couldn’t understand how they were so lifeless and hideous as a dreadful thought recurred in his head. I cannot last long against these seeds of evil he admitted as a he parried another blow without thinking. He managed to look over, in the briefest of pauses in his own struggle, to see that Xiang and Fortune were battling four more creatures. A fiery sword cut through the air, landing blow after blow and with Xiang’s void magik, two of the seeds fell quickly. Then, the sisters were at his side in the blink of an eye, making short work of two more. Hope swelled within the group as Tor and Eve felt control come back to them, the paralysis fading with each passing second and each successful blow on their enemies. The Ten were already winning, bloodying noses and reducing their enemies’ numbers when two terrible cries shook their bones. Just as quickly as thoughts of getting out alive came, they went. Kane and Abel’s fury found new levels as the four seeds had fallen, as if their deaths gave them strength. There was an odd moment when everyone almost stood there in awe at the Furies’ prowess. They’d passed into the eye of the storm it seemed, as sickening sounds rippled through them as they morphed and changed in front of them. Still Gorilla-like, but more vicious, Gerard and K'Chool were soon on the back foot, each defending as if their lives depended on it, which they did.
Huge forearms came down, gnashing teeth snarled and snapped, feet whipped around, and claws tried to dig into flesh at incredible speeds. The sisters shared a worried look and then asked Khar for his permission to help Gerard with pleading eyes. It wasn’t needed, and an unsaid understanding passed between them before they came to aid the struggling Våpen and Sojela. Khar turned back to his two foes, resolve taking control as he attacked, sword whipping and cutting with extreme precision and focus that surprised him like it had in the library. He advanced and put pressure on the seeds in ways he didn’t know he’d learned, an odd force taking control and driving him forwards. Across the room, a similar exchange of looks happened between Fortune and Xiang, the larger athletic man with his burning sword wanting to help Tchook. Xiang nodded and then was flurry of fists and kicks as he levelled his will against the seeds in front of him to mimic Khar’s.
Tchook was handling himself well but the initial surprise attacks were the only blows he landed. Adam and Eve were working together seamlessly, attacking and defending with a practised dance of strikes, moving in and around each other and giving the black mass a lot to manage. He was forming parts of himself into defensive and attacking shapes in response to the dance, deflecting and dodging like he had in the room, all the while losing ground. He tried confusing his enemy by tricking them with odd body shapes and non-bear, non-normal movements but they were unphased and landed a few attacks Tchook was not expecting. As another bone-sword strike was about to make contact, Fortune’s fiery blade cast it aside and Tchook seemed grateful for the Sløv’s assistance, a friendly noise coming from his as Eve was taken by surprise from the side by a scything, hot blade.
The chaos had found its balance all of a sudden. Xiang and Khar occupying the four remaining seeds, Tchook and Fortune dealing with Rosalind’s honour guard, K'Chool, Gerard and the sisters harassing the Furies as best they could. Neither side could break the others resolve and it looked to be a stalemate. Then Rosalind and the Archfiend came for Tor and Eve. Both of them were snarling and growling fiercely as they pressed down, red hands trying to find Eve’s body, red teeth and claws trying to take chunks out of Tor. They despaired at what they were seeing in Rosalind, Tor wanted his sister to come back to him as tingling and bliss replaced the paralysis of earlier. Thoughts of him giving her the nickname pebble brought a calmness to him as white hands glowed and defended in perfect unison with his multi-coloured paws of black, brown and silver. They kept the evil at bay as they squared off against each other over and over again, clashing with dreadful animosity each time. Two bi-polar and unyielding forces were at work. One bathed in rage, disgust and torment, more furious than the gorillas with that namesake. The other embodied peace, empathy and contentment, as calm as the weather before a storm. Before they became the storm.
Rosalind had made the Archfiend to be her Dyad, to be her partner and an unstoppable force when the time came, and they were incredible. They moved in ways that would tear any defence apart, using each other’s bodies to manipulate the flow of the fight, landing blows from all angles and dismantling their foe. For a time, Tor and Eve looked to be at a loss, this cursed Dyad being a match for many of the Dyad’s of old, powerful and direct like a juggernaut of terror. But they were no real match for Tor and Eve. They moved in ways that seemed impossible, ethereal and mystifying, almost one being as the synergy within them brought forth untold strength. Like a storm, levelling wind, rain, sleet, snow, dirt and mud they leapt from around each other, magikal energies fusing and binding terrible forces to each punch or kick as they went. The tide of the fight had gone their way, the storm overpowering the futile defences of the cursed Dyad. Individually, they may’ve all been evenly matched in the old days, but Tor was made anew since the rooms and Eve drew confidence from holding Rosalind to a near-draw when they last met. No words were exchanged between them, but thoughts, emotions and instinct were shared as they decided to put this fight to bed. A mountain-crushing flurry came from them and they cast the Archfiend aside, before Eve found her glowing, white-hot fingers at Rosalind’s throat. Warning her own Dyad
to stop, Rosalind looked into Eve’s eyes, part willing her to end it, part willing her to help. The fight around them raged on but there was an eerie silence between the four of them, broken by a rasping, scraping, sick-inducing voice that came from nowhere.
“Finish her.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR - THE FALL
Keeping her fingers to Rosalind’s neck Eve looked around to see where the voice was coming from, but part of her vision was obscured for some reason. She thought she saw the loose spiral symbol just in her peripheral vision but dare not look too closely. On his hind legs, in a very non-bear defensive stance, Tor was looking around too, keeping an eye on the Archfiend and judging whether to look at the symbol or not. He noticed how valiantly everyone around him was fighting, thankful to have these new friends with them in this moment. He felt as he did when he was in the army, a part of something greater than himself surrounded by companions he could trust. He saw Eve nervously casting around to see what was going on too, impressed by how they’d overcome the broken Dyad, but wanting no harm to come to his sister. All of a sudden, an alien noise came from everywhere and nowhere, strange sucking sounds made their skin fizz with an unknown energy. It repeated its earlier statement with annoyance, causing Everyone to buckle a little under its weight. Eve looked down at Rosalind again and then at the bear cub she had adopted. Her opponent, white fingers dangerously close to her throat also looked at the cub and began feeling calmer. Eve saw the calmness winning and hope began to fill her heart once again. Her own memories of the times they spent together in the Monastery bubbled to the front of her mind and she thought of the countless hours, her, Tor and Rosalind had spent together as well as the sisterly love that she’d fostered for her. Rosalind’s only real mistake was to love the wrong person and she deserved a second chance. They could get her out and help her. No one need die this day or lose their soul in a miscalculated spell.
A Dyad in Time Page 50
