CHAPTER 12 : THUNDER IN THE GROUND

"The King cast a shadow over the Endless, turning day into night. The people were afraid. He reached into the darkness and plucked a star from the sky, as easily as an apple from a tree. He gave the star to the people and they rejoiced. They forgot their fear." ~Yevin Yangur, The Endless Scrolls, Volume 1

NILAH

Tonight is the night.

I'm taking his havoc for myself. I've been studying hard, staying up late to read tomes by candlelight. I've practiced with regular havoc, chaining strings of untaken choices together to weigh them down and anchor them to my own chaos.

I can do it.

His magic is different, yes, and volatile. That's why I can't wait any longer, it could disappear as quickly as it came. I have to capture and store it as soon as possible.

The power is so close I can taste it.

Luckily, boys are easy. Twirl your hair around your finger and smile—suddenly they're lost in your eyes. I doubt he'll resist.

But the amount of havoc I need to draw is sure to be noticed by the higher witches. Then again, they've ignored Egg's unusual effect on chaos for a month now.

Still, I can't risk it.

I have to get him away from the tower. I can't allow his havoc to slip through my fingers. It would be an academic travesty. Perhaps, once it's stored I can take it to the Warden for study.

Unless she wants to take it for herself. It might be best not to tell her after all...

I can use it to get me into a real school instead, like Starfall's Chaos Academy. Maybe they'll just elect me into the Coven straight away. But why stop there? I can just take over the Coven. Maelstrom Nilah Stormwood...yes. With limitless power like this, they won't be able to stop me.

Egg shouldn't feel a thing.

Probably.

EGG

One moment I'm standing firmly on the ground, the next I'm levitating in the air.

I wobble and kick my legs, as if that would help.

The ribbons in Nilah's hair have come undone, and an unnatural wind cyclones around her body, whipping her skirt about her legs.

It's like she's containing a miniature storm.

The chickens behind us wake up, sensing the disturbance. Or maybe just from my hollering. They cluck in alarm and beat their wings against the hatch. The entire coop shakes.

She forms shapes with her fingers, runes I think they're called, and whips me back and forth like a rag doll.

"What are you doing?!"

"Sorry," she grimaces, "I'm not used to moving something this heavy."

"I'm not—woah!" My body is thrust backwards and through the chicken coop's wall. When my spine hits the boards pain splits my vision. I lay there as chickens stream out around me in a burst of feathers.

Nilah curses and stomps her foot. "Stop resisting! You're messing with the balance. It's too unstable!"

I'm not doing anything, as far as I can tell. But my head is still spinning. Darkness teases the edges of my vision, and a broken board presses into the back of my ribs.

Suddenly, Nilah calms.

Which, somehow, is so much worse.

Alarm horns blare in my mind as she steps closer, and my vision splits again, like looking through a broken telescope. There are little wisps of gold spinning around her, darting in and out of her skin. It seems angry. It's as if they sun is biting her.

It's behind her eyes too.

She bends down and places her palm against my chest. "You can't use it anyways."

Upon contact, images crash across my mind in a blurry stampede.

A rooster crows. An enormous eye opens inside a wall of ice. Silk Sister Tack crosses a great ocean, the waves are as tall as mountains, and there's a shadow beneath her boat, following. A gemstone gleams in the palm of my hand, then melts through my fingers. Little Abbey burns. Nilah wears a violet shawl over her hair, she's older, and she smiles at me. A lonely tree stands vigil under the sun, surrounded by sand. Silk Sister Needle watches herds of men trail south. A star is falling. Bones erupt from beneath the land and crumble mountains. Children scream and scream and scream—

I'm screaming.

Nilah's expression has changed. She looks more like herself. She takes a step back, horrified. "I-I can't stop it!" She's staring at her hands, shaking. "What are you?"

Her body doesn't make sense. Pieces of her are pulling apart, exposing fissures of light. It's as if she's a reflection in a mirror.

And she's breaking.

The wind is stronger now, and it's real. It bends the tops of pine trees and roars in my ears.

A few of the chickens are lifted off the ground. They squawk in distress.

I struggle to stand as a pressure pushes me back, covering my eyes with my hand to block the wind. "Nilah!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—" Her voice is breaking apart too. It sounds like her, but at different ages, young and old. "Get back! The recoil will..." Her eyes fall on Little Abbey, and fear is replaced with a decision.

Nilah turns, intending to run as far away from Little Abbey as possible.

Something inside my chest urges me to follow.

I chase her across the field and into the woods, branches scratch my face and hands as we barrel deeper. She's lit up like a lantern now, it's impossible to miss her. The cracks are everywhere, and pieces of her are falling through, disappearing in the light. Her body prisms, and I can see a dozen versions of her in a row.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

There's a young Nilah, stained black up to her elbows, carrying a bucket of tar. A wisened Nilah, hair streaked with silver, skin thin and wrinkled. A pregnant Nilah, hands shielding the bump on her stomach.

And then there are a thousand variations in between.

Nilah wearing expensive robes with gemstones holding back her hair, carrying a book of spells to her chest. Nilah, skin and teeth blackened by tar oil, hair shaved, body skeletal. Nilah dressed as a boy, no, she is a boy—

"Wait!" I call after her, reaching out.

The glow trails between us, linking us together like a chain. Is this magic? Havoc? Why can I see it?

Why is it coming out of me?

I'm only a finger's width away from catching her.

"Go back!" She shouts over her shoulder, strands of black hair streaming across her face. "The rift will kill you too!"

Just...a little...further...

I lunge and grab her hand.

A clap, loud as thunder, shakes the forest as a shock wave explodes from our hands. It feels like ice and fire at the same time are pouring out of Nilah and into me. The fissures in her body darken, sealing back together, and the ghostly versions of her connect once more into a single Nilah.

All the light that was in her refocuses into her hand, feeding into mine. It grows brighter, like a miniature sun, swirling and crackling with blazing energy. I can feel it now. The chaos. It's incredible. The power—

An explosion tears our hands apart and throws us backwards as the ball of light bursts.

Darkness rushes back in.

NILAH

I'm in a bush.

Why am I in a bush?

I groan and rub my fingers across my eyelids. What happened...?

I gasp.

"Chicken legs!" I scramble to my feet, heart racing with adrenaline. The woods are barely lit by moonlight, but I can see. The night tints the leaves blue and the branches silver.

I spot him collapsed across the clearing, back draped over a rock that's been hewn in two.

All around me trees have split apart, branches have been rendered to slivers, and knee-high plants are little more than stains of ash streaked across the ground.

I run over to him and fall to my knees, cheeks wet. I shake his shoulders, but there's no response. "You idiot!" I sniff. "I told you to run."

I rest my forehead on his chest. You saved me, chicken legs.

Egg's right hand lays limp in the dirt with an acorn sized hole through it, singed black around the edges.

He must have unknowingly channeled the havoc, siphoning the oncoming explosion and negating the rift. If he hadn't, half the valley would be cinders, and I would be dead.

Worse than dead.

My vision blurs further. I've seen dead bodies before in the Tar Pools. But this is different. This is my fault. It was like I was possessed. I—

There's a spark of havoc, barely, coiling in the air above his lips. I stare at it? Why? He's already dead. There are no other paths...

That's when I feel it.

A small kernel of Egg's havoc, no bigger than a dewdrop, still burns in the center of my left eye, like the last ember of a campfire dimming in the cold.

I remember the butterfly, and what the Warden had said.

Maybe, I can give it back...

Holding my breath, I close my eyes and concentrate. I call the havoc deeper into me. It's discolored, neither gold or violet, but a mixture of both.

The Warden warned us this was dangerous, that connecting to a dead body can drain your life-force.

But I have to try.

I don't know the rune for healing, the Warden didn't use one. I grab his right hand, laying it flat between my palms to cover the hole, and focus.

Come on, chicken legs.

Wake up.

EGG

I'm floating on my back, in the middle of a waveless sea. The water is neither cold nor warm, it barely feels there at all. The sky is a brilliant dome of purples, oranges and blacks. I've never seen so many stars. They reflect in the water around me, so I can barely discern which way is up or down.

It's peaceful here.

I lift my hand up to the sky, pretending to cage a star with my fingers.

Something is in the water with me.

It circles, and although I can't see it, I know it's massive. It could wrap around Starfloat's palace twice over, although it makes no waves.

But I don't feel afraid.

"You must go back." It speaks, the sound is as deep as the bottom of the sea, reverberating through my bones.

"Why?" I ask.

"The first flame must be found. Return them to me when you are done."

"What flame?"

"Remember, child of ash." The voice slides away. "Everything must end."

The water falls away, and now I'm floating in mid-air. My body is naked, but not wet. I curl into myself, fist cradled to my chest. When I look down, I am holding a brand new star in my hand.

NILAH

A groan escapes Egg's throat.

I scream and smack him in the chest.

"Ow. Why?"

"Holy havoc, I'm sorry. I can't believe that worked! You're alive!"

"Are you sure?" He grunts, sitting up. "My body feels like it's been put through a cheese grater."

He squints through a wall of dusty lashes and peers at the damage we did to the forest. "What happened?"

"It's a long story," I say, breathless, "I succumbed to chaos toxicity. It's my fault. I should have gone straight to the Warden. But everything is fine now...mostly."

"Mostly?" His eyes follow mine, drawn to his hand.

I wince.

"What...is that?"

"Not sure. Fascinating though, right?"

"No. No it is not!"

In the center of his palm is a small...well, sort of small, hole. Inside the hole is an amber sphere of molten light, sparking occasionally.

"When you touched me, you channeled havoc through your whole body," I quickly explain, "you're lucky you're not dead."

His brow squeezes together as he continues to stare at his hand. "Right. How am I not dead again?"

The tips of my ears heat up.

I pretend that there's something utterly captivating about the forest canopy. "I gave you a spark of havoc, but it shouldn't have worked. You're...you're unique, chicken legs. The witches in Starfall will want to study you for sure."

"No thanks. I've had enough witches to last me a lifetime. Undershadows be burned, I'm going back to the palace at first light."

He tries to stand, but stumbles and I catch him. I support his weight underneath his arm and brace my palm against his chest. "Take is slow. You were dead, remember?"

"Thanks," he mutters. He looks around, getting a better sense of the damage. "You're pretty powerful, huh?"

The heat from my ears creeps into my cheeks. "I doubt the Warden will agree. I almost took everyone with me"

"SHHH!"

"Wha—Excuse me?"

"Do you hear that?"

We both freeze, listening to the dark.

"Sounds like thunder," I whisper, "but, there are no clouds?"

"It's coming from the ground."

We both look down at our feet. Small rocks and sticks are vibrating in place.

"What's that mean?" Egg asks.

Dread fills my stomach. "We have to get back to the Abbey. Now."