Intermission #13: Etana

Etana jolted awake, her body reacting as if yanked from a sinister dream. The chill of the surroundings bit through her, setting her teeth chattering while a shiver wracked her frame. As she scanned her frosty environment, thousands of thin, straight threads stretched into the distance, piercing through the swirling snow around her. Near her feet lay a grotesque sight—a melted, distorted form that barely resembled a Paliternian. The remaining blue eye and a scar on the disfigured face were tragically familiar. "Calida!" Etana exclaimed, her voice cracking as she knelt on the icy ground. Grief washed over her; she had inadvertently ended the woman’s life using her Aspect of Removal.

As her vision blurred with a blizzard of snowflakes and countless threads, a new sense of clarity emerged, albeit confusingly so. A notification flickered at the edge of her sight, pulling her focus momentarily.

You have been bonded with the Aspect of Journey. Attunement 100%.

> Trina Detected. Obtaining Trina’s settings from the system.

>

> Settings obtained.

Etana's gaze fell to the solitary thread linking her to Calida. Though she could no longer save her, she felt compelled to honor her in death. With a sorrowful murmur, "I'm sorry," she activated her Aspect of Removal again. Calida's form dissolved into the ether, and the connecting thread vanished, granting Etana a bitter sense of closure.

Turning away, Etana eyed the nearest cluster of threads in the distance. She took a step forward, seamlessly transported back to The Committee’s Great Hall, her prior sensations of travel inhibition absent. She was now whole again, yet the hall greeted her with its somber stillness, save for the crackling fireplaces and the stark sight of numerous lifeless bodies.

Quickly, she approached the nearest fireplace, adding a log to the fading coals and soaking in the warmth. Despite the heat, she couldn't shake off the chill of isolation, her eyes darting toward the lingering threads visible a few hundred feet away. Her Aspect of Senses tingled with the faint perception of movement in the distance, though no one seemed to approach.

After drying her clothes and warming her chilled bones, Etana felt ready to explore the silent halls of The Committee. She followed the threads, their paths intertwined with the ambient sounds of rustling papers, labored breaths, and rapid footsteps. Her own footsteps echoed strangely, a reminder of her dislocation from her usual self—she glanced down in surprise to find boots on her feet instead of her usual barefoot stance. "Calida must have put them on me to protect me from the cold," she whispered to herself, the starkness of the empty hallway amplifying her realization. "She didn’t want me to die…" This thought lingered heavily in her mind as she ventured deeper, tracing the threads towards their unknown ends.

As Etana's focus shifted, her vision underwent a startling change: every thread except for four abruptly vanished. She spun around, disoriented, the sudden loss of her aspect's guidance feeling like a blow to her purpose. Her Aspect of Travel kicked in, revealing a startling truth: she had left Palitern. Yet, her surroundings stubbornly insisted she was still within the familiar halls.

"I was warned about you," a man's voice floated down the corridor, his words trailing the sparse threads left in her vision.

Turning toward the voice, Etana was bewildered when it and the threads flipped behind her, originating from behind a stone column that supported the ceiling. "Goodness knows, I wanted you to die, but now..."

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"Come here!" she shouted, charging toward the voice, ready to unleash a strike of air or acid. However, as she rounded the column, the threads shifted again, and nothing was there. Reaching out to the pillar to pivot around it, she was shocked to find her hand passing through—it was immaterial. For a moment, darkness enveloped her before she re-emerged on the other side.

"It remains to be seen if Vina will save Trina," the voice taunted.

Etana spun around, locating the threads again. "What are you talking about?" she demanded.

"I’ll let you live in case we really do need a new Trina," the voice echoed through the hall, followed by the sound of retreating footsteps.

Her Aspect of Travel updated her: she was back on Palitern. Without hesitation, Etana pursued the elusive figure through unfamiliar corridors of the massive, chilling complex. Despite her exhaustion, she pressed on, her instincts screaming that they were headed for the portal ring. Gasping for breath, she used her aspect to leap forward, arriving at the portal ahead of her quarry.

As the threads realigned, Etana confirmed she had outpaced the man. A minute later, he appeared—an old man in simple leather armor and a masked face, each thread connected to him hinting at his significant but mysterious role. He stopped, seeing her blocking his path.

"You're not leaving," she growled, trying to restrict his travel, but when her aspect failed to provide his name, her effort faltered. Frustrated, she turned to disable the portal ring, only for her aspect to alarm her once more:

Portal Ring Not Found. Please Return to Palitern.

Suspicious, Etana reached out to the portal ring, her hand passing through as it had with the pillar. She eyed the old man warily. "Who are you?" she demanded.

The man's shoulders slumped, weighed down by an unseen burden. "If you ever figure it out, be sure to let me know too," he sighed, his voice tinged with a weary resignation.

Trying to maintain her composure, Etana scrutinized the man's enigmatic mask. Though her aspect of names provided no insights, she began to piece together her knowledge. "You control people, force them into mindless servitude, and pit them against one another until a sole survivor remains. You do this from the shadows, under the cover of night," she paused, a childhood memory surfacing, shaping her realization. "You erase something from us when you do it... erased from the mind," she echoed words from an old story. "You operate through the night, face concealed. You're Nil," she declared, the pieces clicking together.

The old man nodded slowly, his movement laborious. "Smart. You're the smarter one of the three, aren't you?" he strained to turn his mask toward her. "There's a reason a paragraph was removed from that old poem Shan wrote. Stay smart and let me leave so you don't have to learn why."

"No," Etana responded firmly, her teeth gritted. "I came here for answers about my family and The Committee's role. Talk."

The man's response was a growl of irritation. "Little girl, I am a three-hundred-year-old legend. None have replaced me among the twelve. Let me show you why." As he approached, the scenery around them shifted dramatically.

Suddenly, Etana found herself standing calf-deep in brown, murky water, her boots soaking through instantly. She gasped as her gaze swept over the twisted, bloated purple trees and the landscape of a bog littered with the rotting corpses of creatures, their rib cages grotesquely visible. A putrid smell assaulted her senses, and the overcast sky, thick with green gasses, barely allowed any sunlight to penetrate this macabre setting.

Nil had transformed as well. No longer a man, he became a morphing mass of flesh, constantly shifting its shape as if undecided on its final form. Floating atop the bog, it alternated between a clawed, fanged beast and a wet, slimy entity with multiple limbs. Its face was gone, replaced by a single large blue eye that remained fixed on Etana even as the rest of its body twisted and writhed.

As it neared, the creature morphed its limbs into many scale-covered arms that stretched unnaturally toward her. Etana stepped back, lashing out with strikes of concentrated air, aiming for the joints. While the scales sloughed off momentarily, they regrew, and the creature undeterred by her attacks.

In desperation, Etana activated her Aspect of Removal, unleashing a wide arc of acid that melted the unprotected fingers but left the scale-covered appendages unharmed. The arms reached her in a frenzy, beating her body relentlessly. She fought back with more air strikes and attempted to escape using her travel ability, but the onslaught overwhelmed her. Feeling new hands grasp her body, she was forced face first into the murky water, forcing her face-first into the water.

Then her head was pushed into the mud below, the many hands holding her down as she struggled against the overwhelming force. Despite her strength, she couldn't break free from the muck, her lungs screaming for air. In that harrowing moment, Etana realized the grim truth—despite her powers and determination, Nil already knew how to kill her.