Chapter 52
Utter darkness crept in around me, invading my mind like a storm in the night. My body was weightless, floating in the void, untethered to reality.
Thick fog loomed over every thought as I drifted through the nothingness. Everything felt numb, save for the tiny prickles dotting my spine. Familiarity broke through the trance as I recognized the peculiar feeling.
The tendrils that I’d come to know danced, delicately lacing themselves around my mind, pulsing with warmth — an embrace that now brought comfort.
They grew and grew and grew, overwhelming my world, freeing themselves from the shell of my skin and extending into the darkness, flickering like candles in the night.
They reached and reached and reached, searching for something. For anything.
What were we looking for again?
My thoughts still felt drenched, heavy, swirling.
In the distance, a shimmering orb came into view, and my tendrils flittered towards it like a moth to a flame.
Then I remembered.
We were looking for a mind.
The ball of light in the distance was glittered with translucent fibers, shifting between pastel shades of pink, blue and violet. Then colors that didn’t exist, colors I had only ever seen within my own mind… within my own web.
As my tendrils approached the entity, a sense of something not so foreign began to trickle into my thoughts.
Like I had been here before. Seen this before. Been this before.
Nothing made sense, yet everything felt exactly as it should.
My webbing surrounded the orb, gently snaking… searching… learning… adapting.
Violent light surged through me as contact was made.
Fiandrial.
The name echoed through the expanse, and in my head, and through my limbs.
Fiandrial? That name…
We’ve been waiting for you to find us.
We’ve called out to you from the darkness, but you weren’t ready to see us yet.
What?
It’s still too soon.
There are things you must do.
But the path has been set.
The choice has been made.
White-hot light took over my vision as a torrent surged through the tendrils, loosening the bond.
What was happening?
Who was the mind?
I couldn’t help feeling like I had heard it before…
But not in this lifetime.
When the time is right, you will find us again. Wake.
My mind pulsed with searing pain as my eyes shot open and darted around, not recognizing the room in which I found myself.
My heart began to race.
Where was I?
I was in a bed, my body enveloped by white sheets and thick throws in varying shades of gray.
What I thought might have been sunlight trickled in from a window on the wall to my right, but I couldn’t make anything out at this vantage point.
The rays were muted, as if it were raining, but I didn’t hear the drops outside.
The walls were made from shimmering black stone, uneven and rigid. I noticed a table at the end of the bed with what seemed to be a pile of dark fabrics.
Exhaustion was still heavy in my limbs, weighing my body down and forcing my eyes to close once again… Maybe some more sleep wouldn’t be so bad….
Wake up. You’re in danger!
My mind was screaming at me.
I winced, attempting a sitting position. I pushed myself up, bracing for the pain that should have radiated from my shoulder.
But that pain never came.
I inspected the bones I knew had broken only to find that there was nothing out of place.
Find a way out of here .
My feet flew to the barred windows, searching for any give.
Unsurprisingly, there was none.
We were at a dizzying height, almost touching the clouds. Charcoal mountain tops loomed in the distance. There was no green… no color, just varying shades of desaturation.
This couldn’t be happening.
I walked to the door, knowing it would be locked, but I tried anyway. My heartbeat quickened as the handle remained stiffly in place.
Think.
I needed a plan. And fast. Crawling back into bed, I tried to calm my breathing. My thoughts were a whirlwind. I shifted uncomfortably, feeling layers of lace and tulle twisted around my thighs. I was still wearing the tattered dress from the ball.
Was that only last night? Memories from my last moments in Emeraal came racing back.
How far was I from home?
Fear flooded my body as I recalled the long journey here. The beasts, the voices, the towers.
I was in one of those towers.
No. No. No.
I was stuck, potentially with no way back. In the grasps of the enemy who had been killing us by the hundreds without a second thought. My hands began to tremble as the reality sank in.
How could anyone rescue me here?
Why had Laryk not raced after me? He had just stared with a dumbfounded look on his face. And Osta’s scream right before I blacked out...
I couldn’t bring myself to imagine what Osta was going through right now. I was sure she thought I was dead.
Perhaps death would have been better.
Tears welled in my eyes. Why did they bring me here? And even stranger, why were they keeping me alive?
Don’t work yourself up.
There was no time to panic. There was no time to let my mind spiral through the possibilities. Whatever the reason was, I wasn’t going to cooperate. I’d die fighting.
My mind was so cloudy, it was hard to stay focused. I shifted my thoughts to the voices that brought me here. What they said. Where I was.
They had called it Ravenfell.
While I didn’t get a look at them, I knew now their shadows were just a mirage, a defense to hide the truth of their physical forms. Forms that didn’t seem so different from us.
Forms that spoke the same tongue.
I leaned back, trying to clear my thoughts. If I wanted to survive, I had to find a way out of here. It would only be a matter of time before they decided to kill me…
Or worse…
Don’t go there.
Once I managed to calm my breathing, my thoughts settled on the only thing that made sense.
My eyes slammed shut, calling forth the tendrils, urging them out of their hiding place.
I was met with resistance. My mind swirled.
Refocusing, I goaded them up my spine, feeling relieved when they finally made their way to my skull.
My connection to them felt different…
Weaker.
I took a deep breath, casting them out, sending them to the ether. Perhaps there was a mind we could take. They fluttered along the walls, to the door, through the cracks below…
An orb appeared mere paces beyond the room.
A mind.
It glowed with a warmer hue than the ones I was used to, but it would work all the same. It pulsed within my reach, calm and unassuming.
A perfect target.
The tendrils slithered toward it, ready to strike, but as soon as they reached the glowing orb, they were zapped, rejected, sent soaring back into the depths of my spine, terrified.
What the fuck?
A commotion came from behind the door, and seconds later it was swinging open.
“Don’t try any of those mind games on me, Princess. It’s not going to work.”
A gasp flew from my lips as the large figure stepped through the doorway; his presence rang throughout the entire room. Suddenly, I felt incredibly small.
Raven-colored hair brushed his shoulders. Onyx designs traveled across portions of his pale skin. They looked foreign and strange. He was dressed head to toe in black leathered armor with detailing like I'd never seen before.
His face was square and sharp, boasting features that could cut diamonds. Pointed ears peered out of his dark locks, lined with silver metal piercings. There was another bar at his eyebrow. His expression was dark and impossible to read. His irises glowed like golden embers.
But around them…
Oh Esprithe.
Memories of the ball surged back into my mind. Of the woman I had seen… The one who’d shared my perpetual shadows.
Just like the man who stood before me.
A silent scream erupted within me, but no sound came. Words that wanted to tumble out died on the tip of my tongue.
My jaw opened. Then closed.
The man let out a chuckle and shook his head. But there was an edge to his laughter. A bite I couldn’t quite place.
Anger surged through me, and finally, words came. Just not the ones I wanted.
“Why did you take me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice strong, but it came out more like a petulant child.
I winced.
“Why did we save you ?” he corrected. I recognized his deep baritone from the journey here. He was the captor sitting behind me on the flying beasts. Aether.
Save me? You’ve got to be fucking kidding.
“You’d be dead if we hadn’t brought you to Umbrathia.” He crossed his arms. His voice was unemotional, cold.
“You kidnapped me. You didn’t save me. I was taken against my will–”
“You’re the one who revealed yourself. We did you a favor,” he snapped, cutting me off.
“Revealed myself? Do you know how crazy you sound?”
“Spin it how you want. We don’t leave our own behind. There aren’t enough Umbra left as it is.”
“ Umbra? What are you talking about?” I was getting frustrated. My head began to pound once again.
“You’re a shadow wielder. They would have killed you in a second after you exposed yourself.”
Silent confusion enveloped me.
Our eyes stayed locked in a stalemate. His stare was so intense; it reminded me of someone else.
Laryk… My heart felt like it would weigh me down. We had wasted so much time. If I had known it would be so short… Mist threatened to blur my vision, but I fought it back with a newfound ferocity.
“Liar,” I finally seethed.
His eyes narrowed, but a glimmer of something shot across his endless golden irises. It happened in an instant, gone just as soon as it arrived.
“Believe what you want, Princess. I don’t have time for this. I have a realm to save from those monsters you seem so fond of.”
If he calls me Princess one more time, I’m going to explode.
He turned for the door, pausing for a moment before walking out. “Apologies. We don’t have any gowns for you to wear. But there’s a change of clothes if you’d like.” He motioned towards the pile of fabric.
Wait, what did he say?