The incantation done, all Velvet needed to do was wait and hope.

To hope that she wouldn’t be flickered away like a bug like last time. Or tossed in the air. Like last time.

And, as the seconds passed, she also hoped for something to happen.

It had never taken more than a few seconds to get some sort of reaction, and that was from the non-Lothrigern faeries. Lothrigern’s ones had been way faster.

Except now. Of course, she only had three summons to form a comparison, so maybe it wasn’t a weird thing. Maybe Lothrigern was trying to find the pocket dimension first?

No, that was ridiculous.

“Maybe He is busy?” Velvet spoke to herself in a low voice. Should she wait for a bit and then try again? Nothing was appearing on the summoning circle, after all.

“Oh, no, don’t worry, it’s not like I’m in a rush or anything. Take all the time you need to notice me.” She spoke in a deadpan tone to the empty, Lothrigernless air.

Several seconds more passed, and Velvet considered sitting down on the grass to wait, even when that option would soon be crossed off.

Above her, something creaked. Not in a loud way, since the crack in question didn’t make any noise, but more in a ‘magical’ way. She didn’t hear something break, but she felt it.

Looking up, right on the top limit of the pocket dimension, a small hole had appeared. With another muted crack, its size expanded, never losing its perfect circumference.

Velvet couldn’t help but allow a feeling of dread to creep over her. Whatever that was, it was both spreading and demolishing the pocket dimension from the top.

She didn’t know how much damage a pocket dimension could receive before breaking down. Yes, she had seen Nereus crushing a container, same as she had done during her confrontation with the book sealing Frenese. But, even when one’s inner workings were similar to the other, the differences in size were matters to keep in mind.

A water balloon popping wasn’t the same as a whole lake suddenly crashing down somewhere. Metaphorically speaking, since she did very much crash a lake somewhere.

Maybe an ocean would be a better comparison, in fact. Once again, she wasn’t sure and had no real proof outside her own conjectures.

What she had was a black, fathomless hole growing over her head, with something coming in from outside.

A finger. One at first, a hand at second, and then, another hand. Human-like in shape, beastly in appearance, with brown, thick fur covering them, and long, sharp red claws on its ends; they grabbed the hole’s edges, fingers digging over the breaking formation, forcing it to remain stable.

Then, from the void’s middle, another hand appeared, reaching down, towards her.

It wasn’t making a grabbing motion, or a slapping one, not coming down fast enough for Velvet to consider it some sort of attack.

Not like she could really defend from something like that in case it was. Compared to that hand, she didn’t even reach the pinkie’s size, and there were three- no, five of those same hands, with four holding the pocket dimension from crumbling.

So, she waited for the hand to come down, looking at the hole from where it kept entering, watching the thing’s forearm. Velvet was trying to calculate the… monster? Being? Full size with that information, but, even when the hands looked human, the distance between joints were not like a human’s.

Either the thing had abnormally long arms, or its hands were the only or one of the few human-like parts that it possessed. And, if the distance from the pocket’s dimension top to the ground was something to go for, the arms length was more than three hundred meters, since she hadn't seen the shoulder, and the hand was already next to her.

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It didn’t grab or scoop her up, like she was expecting, instead turning its palm facing up and touching the ground.

And, when Velvet chose to stare at it for several seconds, it curled and uncurled its fingers two times in a “Come here” motion.

Pretty rude, the thing. And impatient.

“I’m going, I’m going.” Since it probably was her transport, she climbed the hand, sitting right in the middle of the palm, which soon started raising back to the hole from where it came.

And, as soon as she also crossed the hole, the four hands holding the pocket dimension retreated, letting it fall apart.

Whatever the thing grabbing her was, it had effortlessly destroyed the pocket dimension just to reach her. And those were expensive as hell to make, in magic, money and resources. So much that, even when they weren’t Velvet’s properties, she still winced in pain.

The Prophet should’ve seen this coming, so it probably picked the option with less loss… or maybe it didn’t care, since it’s essentially freeloading from the Director’s assets.

Ignoring the question about the Prophet’s expenditures, Velvet looked around. Aside from the darkness surrounding her, she could only see the hands. A lot of them, holding the darkness away from her.

All of them were gigantic, covered in brown fur, the only distinguishable differences between them being the colors of the claws.

From the deep red of the ones holding Velvet, to blue, green and even yellow. Some weren’t just on one color, sharing several, and some had symbols drawn over them.

Not magic symbols, just circles or lines, almost decoratively.

And all of these disjointed arms were pushing against the void, who futilely tried to push back, to close the ‘tunnel’ where Velvet was traveling. Like a bottomless pitch dark sea, its waves creeped slowly around her, offering a hideout to predators of the deep sea.

Or, at least, she felt things staring at her from behind the hands.

Unlike the darkness of her dream, where, aside from the Chained Man’s company, and, when she couldn’t see, hear or taste and the loneliness was palpable; this darkness was full of life, of life she also couldn’t see, hear or touch.

But, unlike her dream, Velvet hoped she didn't need to.

…

Even when it felt like hours had passed, it didn’t take long for her to exit the hand-made tunnel, the sea-like void being pushed further and further away, as the quantity in hands increased, each one of them going deeper and deeper into the void.

And, climbing around what Velvet assumed was the main body.

It was immense, and she couldn’t gauge it even halfway, most of it being hidden behind the curtain of darkness. Looking up, to where she assumed the face, or head would be, she saw nothing.

No, if she squinted a bit, she could glimpse-

A cacophony of voices suddenly filled the space, making her flinch and lower her head in pain. She didn’t understand what they were saying at first, until they fell silent and only one voice could be heard.

“Quit that. This veil is only for your safety.” The being spoke straight into her mind, or maybe not. She wasn’t sure if the voice was coming from her ears or brain, or maybe both.

Massaging her temples, Velvet nodded. “I see…”

Aren’t you taking me to Erin Cardomos pocket dimension? Why the not-suspicious-at-all sidetrack? Waiting for the being to say something else, Velvet remained silent for an unnecessary amount of seconds, before speaking again when it didn’t. “I remember doing a fae summoning ritual.”

“Unnecessary, but yes, you did.”

Did it mean the ritual itself? Or doing one to call Lothrigern? “You are not a fairy, are you?”

It didn’t answer, not like it needed to, since it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t a fairy. Velvet simply asked to see if it was bothered by her asking stuff.

A silent answer wasn’t a no, and, to Velvet, it just meant ‘keep trying’. “Are you acquaintanced with Lothrigern?”

“Yes.”

“In what way?”

“We are equals.” The thing said, almost expectantly.

Oh shit. Velvet almost blurted out. That meant…

“Oh shit.” She ended up saying. “I’m sorry.”

“You are not.”

“I am now. Very sorry.” She apologized for her behavior, just in case, even when the Deriliam had both seen through, and called out on her bullshit.