|
Chapter Thirty Five~ The Obsidian Stones |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I felt a cold shudder course through my body. It was always cold nowadays. So cold that I’m positive my blood has thickened and my heart has stopped.
I liked this cold. This cold was better than the heat.
The explosive fire that engulfed my body, burning me to the marrow. It hurt like no other torture or pain I’ve felt.
I tried to sprawl across the dark obsidian floor. The white chalky lines glowed a dim faint eerie green. I reached my hand out before my face.
My white skin was tinted by the green. My whole world has become green.
I shivered again, this floor was cold and hard, but I couldn’t move.
I can but to do that is to ask for the voices to come back. Even now I hear them whisper to me, urging me to go beyond this field of protection.
‘We will get through~’
They whispered that every day. The first week I would have believed them but they are just so faint….
I heard the pads of footsteps. I groaned as I tried to sit up, it was soft, barely audible if I wasn’t in this cold, dark dungeon.
The footfalls quickened and I stared up at Lariel. He looks worried.
He knelt down by my side, wiping the light sheen of sweat from my forehead. His fingers traced my jaw line.
“Are you alright Anako?” He murmured softly.
I wanted to tell him yes. I wanted to say I’m completely better but right now I couldn’t even form the lies.
I merely closed my eyes and tried to look like I was sleeping. I knew there was no tricking brother but I was going to damn well try.
Lariel laughed and I had to smile.
“Here.” He said softly and pressed something warm into my hand. He closed my fingers around, keeping his hands over my one. “Do not release this. If you can do that in 3 days everything will be alright.”
I could hear the doubt and fear in his voice.
“Br-brother. If I can’t make it…. I want.. I-it to be you that takes my… my soul to the nether realm.” I choked out, my free hand falling over top his clamped hands.
“N-no… I c-couldn’t, Anako.” He whispered, his blue eyes blinking back moister.
“You m-must.” I said sternly, giving him my best glare at this angle. “I’m still older.”
The corners of his mouth wavered, they wanted to pull into a bitter smile but at the same time he couldn’t fathom smiling no matter the irony in it.
Finally he let it fall and shook his head. Tears flew from his eyes, scattering all over the obsidian floor.
I gripped tightly to the orb in my hand. He could feel my muscles tighten under his hands.
“I will not give in so easily.”
Suddenly a swell of heat started to pool out from my stomach. My blood boiled under my skin. The vessels popped and burst spew scalding liquid all over my body, inside and out.
I screamed.
I screamed out for death. I screamed and cried for the pain to stop. I screamed until I was certain my lungs would bust.
I woke with a jolt, my body sticky with sweat. I shuddered and cringed as tiny pangs of pain slithered up my left arm.
I rubbed away the hallucinatory pain and shook my head.
Of all the days to see that dream again it would have to be today.
Rhyns…
Have you finished your three days successfully?
Just like Lariel I was too much of a coward to stay in the circle with him, to try and hold his hand shut. I tried…
I wanted so badly to stay there but I couldn’t take it any more. His screams of anger and pain… they direct at me.
He blames… blamed me maybe…. For all this. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have made him an infinite.
It’s never been pretty. I’ve seen horribly dismembered bodies, burned and scalded bodies that even their best and closest companions couldn’t identify. I’ve seen more than enough broken souls to know that they never can go back to their old life. They remain listless and dead for the rest of their days.
It is a mercy to kill them.
But also a curse.
They can’t be put to rest when they fail at something like this. Trying to be a god leaves such an emotional burn on the land that it never recovers.
They remain in limbo forever and ever.
Why did I even consider this?
I doubled over as a debilitating sob coursed through my body. I crumpled against the wall, burying my head in my knees.
I wasn’t being fair to him. I never asked, I just did.
Hyiru must have worn off on me.
I recomposed myself, brushing my sleeve over my face. I rubbed away the tears blooming in the corners of my eyes and swiftly descended into the Obsidian Dungeon.
I ran my hand over the smooth black stone. The polished stone reflected by my blurred and distorted image as I passed.
As it got darker and darker I began to see the faint green light of the Protection Seal.
I was surprised I remembered how to draw it.
That little piece of my past has been buried away for nearly an eon.
An eon ago, a mere few life times ago.
So much has changed since then. I was an Ark Mage, top of my class and in highest favor of my god. That is why Lariel was chosen to be my guide to the Celestial Plains. He was young and he was my brother. He died at birth and was a perfect choice for an avatar.
The infant body was placed in the hands of the High Priestess and she raised him. I think she went wrong somewhere for he’s not very holy. But still he is the angel and I the demon.
I shrugged and peered into the green mist circling the floor. It would splash up against the invisible barrier, trying to get at the precious person beyond it.
I wanted to call out for him, to break this strangling silence.
I stepped down the last few stairs and stared warily at the green mist circling my legs.
It brushed past me, splitting into a narrow corridor for me.
I rushed down the path like it was sinking beneath me.
I skidded into the circle, my face undoubtedly contorted with panic and anxiety.
There in the exact center where I left him was Rhyns.
His lavender hair hadn’t lost is shimmering luster in the long weeks spent here in the dark, dirty dungeon.
However it was his mauve eyes that tore out my heart.
They stared unblinkingly at me. No, not at me, at nothing. Dull and listless, they shown with no light only sucked it in to their dark abyss.
I dropped to my knees, my body just collapsing into its self. I fell onto the floor like a marionette with its string cut.
The mist swirled and started to filter into the circle. I stared unblinkingly at the glowing star a few meters from my face.
He lost it. It was too much for him. It is all my fault.
The marble blinked and flashed in the closing gloom. Or maybe that was my vision.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
I felt myself fall into the icy black despair that was defense against this overwhelming darkness.
I felt soft, gentle hands pick me up and carry me away.
However it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered any more.
 Ray the Good Soldier · Fri Nov 16, 2007 @ 10:52pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
