The Celestial Forge
By: Schin Ka'Tharos
CHAPTER 13
(Part 2)
I remained in my seated position while gathering my wits and attempted to piece together the scenario unfolding around me. A faint unfamiliar male voice was barely audible in the distance coming from the direction that Ciara had been. While the words were too muffled and far off to make out, the aggressive tone was clear and the fight or flight state was triggered within me. A strange high pitched buzz accompanied the voice but its source was unknown to me.
It was now late evening and only a little light shone through the large opening in the cave's ceiling but it was enough to clearly see the area around me still. My surroundings seemed undisturbed and exactly as it had been when I had started to assimilate the Rendings save for the fire which had burned down to a shallow flame. There were no perceivable signs that either of the Siblings had come back to the cave since leaving. Whatever was happening seemed to be a recent development.
Abruptly the voice stopped. An unnatural quiet settled upon the surrounding space. Intermittent crackles of the dying fire became the only noise for a few long drawn out minutes.
“Adeon!” Ciara’s voice shattered the empty calm. It wasn’t a call of concern but more akin to a warning or signal.
On the heels of her shout came a cacophony of noise and violence from her direction. An unseen force slammed through our cave and heavily damaged one of the stone walls leading out of the cavern in the direction of Ciara. Large boulders of stone fell to the floor and then burst into a thousand small shards like shattering glass.
My attention was then captured by sounds of battle coming from directly above me. Someone was on the roof of the cavern and I could see shadowed movement filtering through the dusk light. A cry rang out followed by a burst of explosive crashes. A sensation danced at the edge of my skin and I got the impression that a large amount of celestial essence was being used.
After what I could only guess to be a drawn out fight, things quieted down and I looked up to see the evening glow frame the outline of a short broad shouldered man looking down at me from above.
“Oh ho what do we have here?” The man said with a sneer. “More trash to clean up-”
Before he could continue a figure crashed into him from behind sending them both tumbling down over the edge of the crack in the ceiling. As they fell approximately 80 ft. To the floor I caught a glimpse of Adeon riding on the back of the sneering man. He had tackled the newcomer and while falling had driven a blade into the man's back so deep that an obsidian blade tip burst out his chest.
They hit the stone floor with a sickening THUD and both men lay motionless. Eventually, after a few moments, Adeon rolled off the man and postured himself against a nearby stone into a half seated position. He glanced over at me with eyes still blazing blue from Forging celestial essence. I sat on the other side of the cave frozen still in astonishment.
Adeon flashed a toothy grin.”Hey boyo. Sorry to cause such a stir. You may continue-”
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His words were choked off as a whip of forged celestial essence coiled around his neck. The sneering man held the other end of the whip in an outstretched hand as he picked himself up off the ground. Blood covered his chest and back and trickled out of his mouth and eyes. His face looked like an oft used anvil. It was flat with harsh and scarred features that I suspected had nothing to do with the fall. He looked like he had taken many, many 80 ft. falls to the face.
“You filthy dregs! Why can't you just die like you're supposed to. I piss on whatever honor was left to your trash family name.” He roughly wiped his face with his free hand clearing blood out of his eyes but smearing it up over his hairless head.
The newcomer paid no heed to me. I was certain he could sense my power and he knew that I was no threat to him. Even so, I tried to conceal my movements as I leaned forward and picked up my last Rending with my left hand. Simultaneously I bit into my right hands’ thumb and pointer finger, opening the skin and drawing blood.
“Time to die you filthy rat. And next it's that sister of yours. “ The blue fire in the man's eyes flared bright and flames wrapped around his hand that gripped the whip. The flames coiled like a snake around the whip flowing towards Adeon.
Then I shot my fifth Rending into the temple of the sneering man. The Rending hit him with a CRACK and glanced off at high speed slamming into the wall somewhere further into the cave. It did no damage to the man. No major wound or concussive force. Not even a small cut appeared. He did however divert his attention to me for a moment and opened his mouth to speak.
The man cut off his words and his attention snapped back to Adeon. The fire in Adeons eyes shifted from blue to purple and roared brighter. The whip around Adeons neck unraveled and then Adeon seemed to simply disappear. Adeon then materialized directly in front of the sneering man holding an obsidian black blade, a twin to the one in the man's chest. Utter surprise was etched on the sneering man's face as Adeon rammed the blade up through his adversaries jaw and out the top of his head.
Adeons face was blank as he stared into the dying man's eyes. “You know nothing of my family nor its honor.”
“What have you done?!” Ciara cried out.
She stood amidst the shattered stone rubble at the entrance of the tunnel. She looked like she had been chewed up by a gollum. Her hair was a disheveled mess and her entire body was covered in small bloodied burned holes like someone had stabbed her with a fire poker a thousand times. Despite her appearance though she carried herself with a vibrancy and poise which gave no sign of fatigue or injury.
Her eyes darted with concern from Adeon to me and back to Adeon with a growing look of concern mixed with anger. Adeon shrugged at her scornful gaze as he let the body slide to the floor. His eyes turned back to normal as he released any techniques he was forging.
"Did you forget that he was a damn Adept, sis? Holding back and keeping secrets is good and all unless you're going to die. What's the use of hidden power if you're dead?"
“You knew I would be coming soon. You should have just held him off and focused on surviving until I could reach you,” she said. Her voice was laced with annoyance and she stomped over to inspect the corpse at Adeons feet. “We could have taken him together."
"Maybe. Maybe we could have taken him together. Or maybe not. He was an Adept Ciara! How about something like 'bloody hell Adeon you just killed an Adept, great job! I'm glad you're ok'".
"You know I'm glad you're ok. She said and shared a look with him.
He sighed and dropped down onto the floor which put him on the opposite side of the fire from me.
"Ashes, I'm spent sis. It's been a long, long last few weeks. I...don't think I have it in me to have any other fights anytime soon. Did you take care of things on your end?"
"Of course. I've had sufficient time to prepare since our last encounter." She pulled a few items off of the dead man's body.
Adeon reached over and pulled out the blades he had lodged inside the man. Once free he used them to gesture towards me.
"The only reason I was able to win was because of Schin here. I forgot how durable Adepts could be. I don't think I would have won except for catching him by surprise twice back to back." He turned to me. " What did you hit him with? A bloody rock?"
I looked down at my hand now completely covered in my own blood. "Just a little trick with the last of the Rendings I had. The blood is from a cut on my fingers that I needed in order to spellforge into it. I wasn't able to open my second flowline yet.”
“You didn't even reach 2nd Apprentice with four of those Rendings?” Ciara said in disbelief. “You were in terrible shape but I figured if you managed to repair your soulcore you would have plenty of essence to hit at least 2nd Apprentice. How are you now? Was your assimilation disrupted or destabilized because of all of this?”
“No, I'm fine." I replied. "I was able to assimilate the first four Rendings into a stabilized and balanced state before anything happened. Speaking of. What the hell just happened? Why was an Adept of the Seekers Guild trying to kill you?"
Next Chapter...
CHAPTER 14