Chapter 154
Purification
From a fortified position, out on an alien planet, in the heart of hostile lands, the fort was perfect. Nature mages had spent the past hundred years developing the land and building up a perfect hiding spot within the woods. Added to this was the fact that native fauna from different elven planets had been brought here to create a perfect biome of life designed to listen to and follow the leads of elven Nature Magic, created a perfect system of protection. Even the most ardent of trackers would have a hard time following any trail leading through the woods. Of course, this planet did have its own quirks, the way the soil itself seemed to rebel against the elven plants that were brought here. The way the Nature Mages would need to go out and weekly fight back the rot that happened in this world, it had all been worth it. For here at the heart of the elven stronghold, was a case containing all the Eclipsion Tribe’s Void Essence, raw, unaltared, and extremely volatile. The Void Essence was never held directly, always handled with tools within tools, and protective layers of clothing. Everything was done with the utmost security, as everyone knew that being exposed to Void Essence was enough to change the very nature of one’s own soul. It seemed like the world, this planet the natives called Earth, could feel the Void Essence from its protective layers just as Yolandara herself could. Just carrying Tracker Halinya to the secret entrance of their base made it so Yolandara had to cut close to the side with the case containing Void Essence.
Being so close to the Void Essence made Yolandara’s teeth chatter and caused a shiver to run down her back. Yet, this had been her fault, and her friend, her subordinate, was now dying, thanks to an action she herself had taken. It was only right that she now feel a bit of discomfort and try to get her subordinate the help she needed. For a safehouse like this, they were pretty much on their own, there were larger safe houses the closer you got to the major civilizations of this planet, but safehouses that dealt with handling Void Essence, they were far out of the way, and in remote locations like this.
Carrying Halinya into the safehouse, she immediately opened the door, and then placed her on the altar that rested behind the door. Had the natives seen such a place they would immediately assume such a place was a clothing and shoe rack, and while it was often tempting to leave one’s shoes right there, that was not what this place was for. When asked why the first thing inside the safehouse was the Altar of Cleansing, she was met with the message, “trust me, you will want it as close as possible, when it is needed.”
Now that Yolandara had such a need for the altar, she fully understood why its location to the front door was so important to begin with, when they set up the safe house. It didn’t hurt that there were also multiple walls of protection that separated the Altar of Cleansing from the secure storage area where they stored the continent’s supply of Void Essence.
Just thinking about it, about the order they had all received made Yolandara’s teeth chatter.
To all Elven Tribal outposts,
This is a general decree from the Elven Council. The use of Void Essence is not only approved, but also encouraged.
-EC
That had been the message from a week ago, one that Yolandara felt when she and Halinya both entered the safehouse from a routine enhancement tour of the environment. Now that same message was coming to her mind for some odd reason at this moment.
“Stop.” Yolandara said, trying to keep her racing mind to sit still and focus on what was at hand. In her own way, she understood what her mind was doing, it was trying to distract, to pull attention away from how much blood was oozing out of her friend and onto her hands. She tried to think that maybe Halinya was getting off easy by only dying now, versus having to die after possibly mishandling the Void Essence, and all the problems that could arise from just being near the caustic material.
The minute she passed the threshold of the safehouse several things happened all at once. The first was that she felt a surge of information flood her mind. A new message from the Elven Council, but that would have to wait. While avoiding such messages could be avoided if one focused enough on completing a particular task, it was always tough and distracting to have to deal with such a message. Also, feeling the new message made Yolandara feel slightly better about her own distraction as she now chalked up her earlier memory to be a warning that there would be another important message from the Elven Council.
Placing Halinya down on the Altar, Yolandara found the keystone and immediately linked her own power to the altar’s and instantly felt a cold sensation creep into her hand as the mana that had been in her hand was now being pulled towards the altar. Mentally, Yolandara relaxed her mind and let the mana circulate through her body and out of her hand.
Vwoom.
There was the faint thrum of energy that always happened when an Altar was activated. Just feeling it come to life caused Yolandara’s hair to rise, as it began to be infused with static electricity.
With a glance, she saw the way the magic rose up through her and was directed by the different runes on the Altar, all going to directly heal the massive wound on Halinya.
Wheeze.
Within seconds, the magic started taking effect, as Halinya took in her first pain filled breath, allowing Yolandara to relax slightly. This relaxing was enough to let her conviction that had been holding back the message from the Elven Council back. Within a second, Yolandara could feel the glowing crystalline orb that had been set up as the main communications platform here come to life and fire a beam directly into her mind.
To all Elven Tribal outposts,
Any outposts designed for the storage of Void Essence are to use or dispose of their stash of such caustic materials before the time of the Integration. Know that using will be preferable and will lead to more contribution points generated by your individual tribe.
-EC
There it was the message she had both expected and feared had finally arrived. Originally, she jumped at the chance to use Void Essence, she had been naïve, sold on the fact that a few planets had been conquered simply by well placed Void Essence bombs. Of course, such thoughts were had before she had been near the substance, a substance that caused her to feel a sense of unease, even while in its properly sealed storage device.
Realistically Yolandara knew that most of her unease was based on her class, Diviner, where she could literally predict the future of events. At least that is what her class was supposed to do, but recently her class had been all haywire. She had dreams about dying by Void Essence, it had been something that shook her to her very core. As Yolandara knew more than anyone what just being exposed to such materials would entail. She saw the look of melancholy that Eclisis now suffered from, and how his current condition was a best-case scenario. Worst case, he would have died and been forced to join the armies that he had spent most of his life fighting against. Yet, his current state was a state of constant pain and misery, one where he needed to constantly fight just to stay alive.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
There was still hope, Yolandara’s mother, the Matriarch Diviner for the entire Eclipsion Tribe noted that there was one chance, here on this planet. That was why Yolandara signed up to go, why she herself made sure she was in charge of handling the Void Essence, this way she would be able to do multiple things. The first thing she had wanted to do was to find this supposed cure for Eclisis. The second thing she wanted to do was to ensure she had enough contribution points to make sure that the cure for Eclisis was claimed as part of their territory. The third and final thing she wanted, well it was trivial in comparison to the other tasks, but she wanted to prove to her mother that she was worthy of being called a Diviner.
All of these reasons flashed through Yolandara’s mind, as she dismissed the message and was once again able to watch the world in front of her.
Blinking.
Yolandara blinked away the Council message from taking up her complete vision and was once again able to see the real world around her, there she saw Halinya. Halinya was blessedly awake, her hazel eyes were nearly blue from the light that was infusing her, but she had a smile on her face.
Seeing Halinya wearing that same smile she always seemed to have when she was with Yolandara made her heart beat a little lighter. Seeing her already coming back to life made Yolandara let out a breath of relief, as she knew the worst was over. At least it should be, but for the life of her, even seeing with her own eyes what was happening, that the Altar was in fact working, Yolandara couldn’t help but feel that something was off.
Seeing her discomfort caused Halinya to suddenly grow apprehensive as well.
“What is it?” Halinya asked.
Pausing, Yolandara tried to focus on the strange sensation, but couldn’t. “I, I don’t know.” She admitted.
“Is it your premonitions?”
Yolandara nodded, trying to highlight the emotions she was now feeling. Seeing her in such a state, Halinya began coaching her.
“Breathe, focus on your thoughts, calm your mind. Remember to relax and let your mana flow naturally.” Halinya began.
At that Yolandara felt an intense agitation. “I can’t, not when all of my mana is going to healing you.” Yolandara snapped.
Then almost as quickly as she spoke, she immediately felt guilty for such a comment. Yolandara looked away, but soon felt a warmth cover her hand. Looking down to the source of the heat, Yolandara saw a hand placed over her own. Then following the hand up, she saw that the hand went to Halinya’s bright smile.
“Sorry, it will be okay. We can wait until it is time.” Halinya said, her words calming, and this was often a thing, sometimes a great premonition would come, and the build up would be very important, but it hadn’t fully formed. When she was younger, Yolandara would try to force such Divinations out regardless, but she had learned that such actions would only exacerbate the problem as the Divination would come when it was good and ready. Knowing this was often the case Yolandara tried to relax, nodding, but there was something wrong with this one. It was ready, everything in her body told her that the premonition was ready to come, that she just needed to apply the mana and she would get it. The only problem was she needed her mana to save Halinya. Unfortunately, the way Altars worked, you could not heal yourself while inside the Altar. That or you could, but it would require a lot more concentration and mana than it would for a friend to try to infuse you.
Whoom!
Just as she was thinking about what to do, how she could bypass the need to channel energy into both the altar and her premonition, fate it seemed had made a choice for her. Or rather, fate proved that it was as unavoidable as it was inevitable. For the power to the safehouse faded, sucked away almost instantly. No, waning lights, no slight decrease in functionality available, just nothing. One second everything was working, she was receiving long range communications, climate controls were operating, and above all the blessed altar were all functioning in a harmonious balance, and the next the energy was gone.
Badump, badump.
Worse, even the special containment chambers that surrounded the Void Essence was down, while this was just a minor precaution, it was a necessary precaution as it ensured extra elemental forces were unable to merge with and form a bond with the Void Essence that for obvious reasons needed to be separated from all other elements. While such a precaution was unnecessary at this point, especially given the way the power had abruptly shut off, it was something that Yolandara’s mind went to almost immediately, the breach in the containment ward. A breach that now meant that the Void Essence was now able to be directly interacted with by any element.
Dual vision.
Blurred Vision.
Forced Vision.
The three stages of a vision came before her and suddenly the images that her eyes saw were transposed, by those of her visions. In an instant, she saw it, a great evil coming. A predator of the woods, then she saw it, the way it came for her Void Essence.
With a thought, her mind caught up with the fears of her future self, a self that was but moments ahead in time, if that. Feeling the fear, the panic, she raced forward, trying to get to the Void Essence, trying to keep it away from this ancient evil.
Badump, badump, badump.
Her heart raced as she felt the fear of her vision get reverberated and magnified inside her own mind. This was the problem with visions, they heightened the experience of an event. Normally, the visions didn’t matter as they only pertained to others, she remembered plenty of visions from the perspective of Halinya, where the ability to feel the emotion of the point of view was a blessing. But now, she was getting her own heightened fear, fear that was then being echoed and resonating deep within her chest.
Fearfully, she ran to the storage room, to the Void Essence, there in her vision she saw it, the way the demonic crystals began to glow and vibrate slightly at first. Then after a few seconds, they began shaking and pulsing violently in their casings. Fear, primal and utter fear, for it was known that only the demons or their most powerful of minions could cause such a reaction.
The visions came faster and faster, her fear rising as an ancient evil came to the safehouse, it had found her and tracked her here, and now it wanted the vile materia before it could be disposed of. Was this why it was ordered to be removed before the integration? Had the Council become aware of such an event? Surely they must have.
Panting.
Yolandara was getting so worked up that she was breathing heavily with exertion, but she couldn’t stop, not now.
Knock, knock.
There was a knocking at the door.
WHAM, BANG!
The knocking intensified. The monster was going to get in, and all Yolandara could do was fear for her life.
Gentle caress.
There was a gentle caress on her hand, and suddenly she was back, the vision was broken.
“You okay?” Halinya asked.
Blinking.
Yolandara blinked a few times, slowly letting her mind try to separate the two sets of images. Well the one set that had been forcefully overlaid over her own natural sight. “Ye…” Yolandara began to answer, but suddenly she was cut off by a slight reverberation in the back room.
Crystals chiming.
Hearing the sound coming from the back room, Yolandara paused, feeling the moment her prophecy was coming to life. With fear, she grabbed hold of Halinya and pulled her to the back room with her.
“What are you…” was all Halinya managed before she was pulled to the back room. Her wound had healed enough to not cause any further rupturing, but she did use her free arm to cradle her injured stomach.
“Come on.” Yolandara managed, her voice cracking slightly from the fear that was pulsing within her.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Halinya asked, but then paused as they entered the back room and she saw the source of Yolandara’s fear. There in the unprotected and unwarded space the case of thirteen Void Crystals were vibrating. Not much, just enough to cause a high-pitched chime every few dozen oscillations.
The two elves watched in horror, as the crystals began vibrating faster and faster. At one point the box they were in visibly shifted.
“Gah!” The two let out a gasp of fright, seeing the protective case move.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Halinya asked.
Nodding, Yolandara tried to talk, but her mouth was suddenly dry, bone dry as she realized it might be worse than what she had imagined.
“This has to be a Demonic Knight, or worse…” Halinya stated, her mind instantly recalling the warning signs and ways to view demons. “What do we do?”
“We need to get rid of it, before a demon uses it to gain power.” Yolandara said, her training came back to her in a moment. Then realizing this is the price of leadership, she nodded to herself, and then moved forward to the crate of crystals.
“No, you mustn’t, just tell me what to do.” Halinya demanded, pleaded with Yolandara.
“No, then you would…” Yolandara began, but caught herself, as she realized that this would mean that she herself would die, but that Halinya would live.
“I will not allow this to happen.”
Knock knock.
The slow creepy knocking of someone trying to enter the safehouse could be heard. Hearing it, Yolandara instantly recalled her vision, how there was time, not much but a moment. There was still a way she could stop this, a way she could keep this from going bad. She was dead, she knew this, even Halinya was likely dead, but they would stop a demon knight from getting even more powerful, and for that anything was justifiable.
“Buy me time.” Yolandara said.
Halinya looked like she was about to argue, that she wanted to, but she saw something in Yolandara’s eyes, something that made it so she knew arguing was pointless. Seeing that firm resolve, that utter dedication to the mission, made Halinya remember why she loved the young princess so much. Seeing her like this, made her realize she would follow her to hell and back. Then thinking about the material that she was now working with, if she didn’t have enough time, that would likely be exactly where Halinya and Yolandara both would find themselves, if she didn’t have time.
“Right.” Halinya said, as she bowed her head, and gave the free hand sign for sacrifice, though this time it would likely mean exactly that.
Only once Halinya left did Yolandara let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Then calming her mind, she reached a hand into the crate and gently grabbed one of the violently shaking crystals.
“A cleansing ritual, too easy, right?” She said to herself, holding up the crystal to eye level for a second.
WHAM!
The door slammed open, instantly causing Yolandara to tremble with fear.
“You shall not…” Was all Halinya managed, before her voice was cut off, as the sound of intense fighting ensued.
Realizing it was now or never, Yolandara held up the stone to her forehead and began the ancient ritual of Void Purification.