Ravik without preamble took up the quill and wrote on the paper. Immediately Cystella created more webs of Stygoscript that shot towards Ravik. However it seemed that Ravik was very quick at writing. By the time he finished writing the Stygoscript had reached him, but by then he dashed away.
The Champions and Zeros could move at bluring speeds thanks to their armor, but Ravik surpassed that all on his own. The Nine let go of the pen and it floated off to the side while the paper moved to float behind Ravik and I saw the words on the paper.
I couldn’t read them, they were in the Bronze Isles traditional language Un. Most places spoke Empyrean due to the Coal Empire enforcing it as they took over the Core Layer, but after their fall places like the Bronze Isles began to teach Un to their children once again.
I did recognize the numbers one through five off to the left hand side like you would see on a test paper though.
“No one is allowed to use Stygoscript,” Ravik declared.
The words on the paper next to the number one glowed first a deep blue, then rapidly shifted to a crimson red. A identical red glow surrounded the three Champions and the two Zeros. It took me a surprised moment to realize that there was a red glow around me as well.
Cystella meanwhile had her attack of Stygoscript dissolve into nothing and had even thrown away her umbrella before Ravik had finished his sentence.
Ravik showed no expression and only looked to the six of us that were now glowing with red light.
“Detain.”
Crimson red chains appeared from nothing and wrapped around me, manacles clamping down on my wrists then dragging me down to the ground. The five armored figures were in a similar situation.
Now only Ravik, Cystella, and the four Mid Numbers were left standing. Cystella looked to me and the others that had been chained to the ground.
No one is allowed to use Stygoscript. Cystella had immediately stopper her attack using her Stygoscript, as well as throwing her umbrella away. Meanwhile I knew that the three Champions armor and weapons used extensive Stygoscript, and was fairly certain the Zero’s did as well, though there had been no jets of steam coming out of their armor. As for me, I had my watch that used a insignificant amount of Stygoscript and stamina to function.
The words on the paper had not disappeared, but had shifted back to a blue color. It was likely that there was still a ban on the use of Stygoscript. Was there a limit to the amount of people could go against the words. What was considered “using” Stygoscript? Was just holding a Stygoscript device considered using it or did the person have to have some function in its use and activate it?
If it had been the Sun Stone watch that someone had stolen would it still have been against the “rule” Ravik had set? Was Ravik himself exempt from these rules? That would make the most sense, but then that would also be incredibly unfair. This was my first time fully seeing a Dreamers Wit, not just Ravik’s rule thing, but also Cystella’s Stygoscript Wit.
Stygoscript was used for almost every piece of technology out there. As long as you had a dark material, even ink, and you knew the formula then you could make something with Stygoscript. For her to be able to immediately make such a complex formula she must either be a genius or it just happens naturally. From the notes I had glimpsed of hers I would say the former.
That brought on another piece of the puzzle to Ravik’s Wit. Every inch of Cystella’s skin was covered in Stygoscript, however it was also broken up by scars so they were not functional.
Cystella bent down, watching Ravik as her hand slowly inched towards her umbrella. Her hand wrapped around the handle, but neither the words nor Ravik changed, and no glow appeared around Cystella.
A black haze burst from Cystella’s umbrella and she whipped it horizontally at Ravik. There was no Stygoscript as far as I could tell and no red glow came from the paper, so the black crescent blade that shot towards Ravik was either pure Intent or a different part of Cystella’s Wit.
Ravik dodged it without difficulty. So of course Cystella sent a dozen more out, all while closing the distance. Whenever Ravik would move the floating page and pen would as well, but for some reason he didn’t hit back.
Instead he seemed to be observing the older girl.
“You are truly remarkable, I would not think a Skulker capable of such control at their age,” Ravik said.
“You’re younger,” Cystella replied blandly.
“I am a Nine, of course I am capable.”
“If you weren’t so humble I’m sure you’d be a Four by now,” Cystella said sarcastically.
Ravik scowled and the pen flew back into his hand, the paper following after to rest in front of Ravik.
Cystella burst forward, a black haze blooming around her as the dirt at her feet exploded. Ravik paused in his writing and did a twisting lunge, kicking Cystella right in the gut and even sending her a few feet into the air.
He finished his writing and the paper once again floated behind him, a new sentence in Un right beside the number two.
“No women shall move.”
The blue words turned a sickly yellowish orange, and a similar glow surrounded Cystella as she fell through the sky, landing feet first on the ground. As she stopped the glow faded and the words on the page went back to blue.
No women shall move? That was actually quite smart, both of his “rules” have directly impacted Cystella to lock down her choices. Why not say no one shall move? The answer was obvious, he was someone. Could he not create a rule that influenced himself? Or was it that he himself must follow any rules placed, so he was deliberate in making rules that did not affect him.
However, why had it not been red? It could be that the numbers had different colors and also different effects if someone broke a rule based on the number. It could also be that because Cystella herself was not responsible or could not logically stop herself from being in the sky so therefore “moving” was not counted.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Also what did count for moving? Her heart still needed to beat and she still needed to breathe; those shouldn’t be able to count against her. What about the natural twitching and movements of the body as she stood there.
“Detain.”
I was watching Cystella, but no red chains appeared around her instead I heard them from off to the side. One of the Mid Numbers, 42, who was a woman hadn’t been paying attention it seemed and must’ve broken the rule. Now she was similarly chained to the ground unable to move.
So the numbers the Rule was listed on did not affect the punishment for breaking the rule.
Cystella straightened from her crouch and the same yellowish orange glow came off her, but again Ravik said nothing.
Cystella stood perfectly still as another gushing wave of black Intent wafted off her. Then a beam of black energy blasted towards Ravik, who raised his hand to block.
A bronze shield of Raviks own Intent blocked the attack. The two powers created a ripple of energy that ripped up gouges in the earth. Had I or anyone else been in the path of the attack we would have died instantly. Once the attack finished Ravik looked at his hand where the skin of his fingers had been peeled away and were now leaking blood. A scowl once again marred his face.
“Annoying.”
Ravik pounced onto Cystella and immediately they started to exchange blows. Every movement of Cystella’s made her glow a deeper and deeper orange, but her feet stayed planted in place. Ravik kicked the legs out from under her, but the color didn’t go to red, still staying a bright orange.
She rolled to her feet, making sure not to move them, which put her balance off, but she was still able to exchange blows with Ravik well enough.
Well enough that she wasn’t getting beaten to a bloodly pulp, but Ravik despite being a few years younger than the Skulker was still taller and bigger than her, and was apparently very proficient in martial arts.
He sidestepped a stab from her umbrella and wrapped his arm around her outstretched one, then began to rain punches on her. To me each impact sounded loud, like the effect noise from a theater play instead of the normal dull thud.
Cystella then made a mistake, she took a step back. All the blows had taken their toll on her and she hadn’t been thinking analytically, instead relying on instincts. The orange color that had been around her for most of the fight deepened into the familiar crimson red.
“Detain,” Ravik said, letting go of Cystella and taking a step back.
Crimson chains wrapped around Cystella and tried to pull her down, but an unimaginable amount of black intent poured out of her as she struggled to stay standing. In fact she started to sink into the ground from the force of the chains. Dirt going up to her ankles.
Her lip was busted, her nose bleeding, and a gash was on her eyebrow, but she glared up at Ravik. There was a silent madness to her eyes now, feral.
She rested her hand on his chest and dug grooves into his clothing and skin trying to find purchase. Ravik himself looked surprised that she wasn’t on the ground like the rest of us.
“That’s-“ he slurred, then cut himself off.
He snarled suddenly, and grabbed Cystella by the throat, bronze Intent condensing around his hand.
Shit, Cystella might not of been at the friend level like Elina, but I didn’t want her to die.
Ravik pulled back his hand just as a golden beam of light shot right through where his arm had been a moment before.
Everyone except for Cystella who was trying to reach for Ravik looked to the side where the beam had come from. I expected to see someone on top of a tree as the beam had come from above, but instead I had a view of the mountain we had trekked down to get to the forest. As I watched another beam of golden light came down from the same place and Ravik had to take another step back.
He lowered his arms and looked to the mountain with a squint.
“I will stop,” was all he said.
No other beams came down, and Ravik turned from the mountain to look back at Cystella.
“Not as engaging as I would have liked, but a good attempt. I am a bad matchup for you.”
Then he walked back to the group of Mid Numbers, motioning them with his hands. Obediently the three still standing picked up the stretcher with the Nightmare and began making their way through the forest again. Ravik gave none of us a glance, not even the Zero’s or Mid Number he was leaving behind.
I looked at the purple worm Nightmare, it was struggling against the binds that held it. According to my earlier thoughts that likely had something to do with why the Forest was acting weird and why Ravik had come to take it. We were told the tree in the center was responsible for the odd behavior of the forest but perhaps that worm also played a part.
Cystella for her part didn’t attack, even though she could still use her Intent, she just glowered as the boy disappeared behind the purple fog of the forest. Once he was out of sight Cystella spat out a bit of blood and let the chains fully take her to the ground.
Even with her busted lip swelling and literal chains holding her to the ground she didn’t look angry or scared and instead looked bored.
The three Champions began to speak, but they were just doing check ups on one another so I tuned them out. Instead I examined the chains binding me. Were these made out of Intent? Intent could physically manifest things? Incredible.
I brought my face to the manacle on my left wrist and rubbed my cheek on it. It was cool and felt just like metal. Sniffing it I couldn’t smell anything outside my own sweat and natural scent. Then of course I licked it. My tongue could make out the texture better, and I noted that it wasn’t as smooth as I thought it was when rubbing my cheek on it. I didn’t get the slight sharp taste I got from other metals.
Looking up I saw three Champions, Cystella and the 42 woman looking at me oddly.
What? There was nothing wrong with genuine curiosity.
After I was done examining the shackles I then tried to resist it like Cystella had. I focused as much as possible on the river stone and drew as much Intent from my Dreamscape as possible. I wasn’t even able to get my feet under me properly.
“They will likely disappear soon,” Cystella said.
“I assumed so, I was just testing out my power against it,” I replied, then thinking about what people usually said here I asked her a question. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Nodding I let myself fall back and began to think about the fight I had just witnessed. The two Dreamers didn’t just have a Wit, their physical capabilities were greater than me by a huge margin, and the amount of Intent Cystella had produced was staggering.
Then there was the martial aspect. I wasn’t particularly interested in learning how to fight and kill things, but they, especially Ravik, showed extreme skill at physical combat.
Was it normal for Dreamers to just go up and fight one another? That sounded like a pain in the ass and completely illogical. If I did that what was stopping someone from learning my name and where I came from and taking revenge by murdering my family?
Had we actually wanted them to not take the worm Nightmare that I assumed was valuable then we might fight them, but I didn’t really care if they took it.
I had gotten what I came for from The Forest of Living Dreams, and maybe now it won’t work the same but that didn’t affect me. Also if they really were going to ruin this place then I’m sure Professor Alyci would have stopped the boy from taking the Nightmare.
Speaking of the Professor it was amazing, there was no other explanation of what had interfered other than the Professor shooting from halfway up a mountain.
Could the Professor have beaten Ravik? It seemed obvious that the answer should be yes, especially if she was a mountain’s distance away, but what about close up? If I could I would drag Ravik up the mountain with Cystella and question all three Dreamers for a month straight.
If only.