“The Chaos.” Gardinal finished for Celeste, meeting her gaze. “I feel it as well.”

Celeste focused on it then, leaning on Kriss. She felt the darkness beneath, felt it pulling on her. “It’s… so terrible. Like it want’s to consume everyone and everything.” She cried. And it was, terrible. It was so unlike the gentle warmth of the Mother’s light, so… opposite of it. A cool, consuming abyss.

“Well unless you two are talking about the smell,” Vallerian began with a grimace. “I can’t say I feel anything. Other than impatient perhaps. Shall we?”

Gardinal shot the count a sharp look, but Celeste just focused on that abyss. There was something in that darkness that she…

“I hate to agree with Lord Vallerian, but we should get going Your Radiance.” Gardinal urged, glancing back down the way they were heading.

“By the way, do any of you even know where, precisely, down here we’ re supposed to be heading?” Vallerian asked. Gardinal shot him a scowl, and Vallerian responded with a shrug. “Just all looks the same to me, that’s all.”

“Just wait.” Celeste spoke with a gasp. “Let me… let me focus.”

Thankfully the men quieted. Doing as she said, Celeste focused, letting the darkness move closer to her. The Chaos had been banished from the world during the Daemon Wars, by Seratos himself. Now it could only enter the world when beckoned by mortals. Celeste felt chill at the thought of what someone who would do that must be like, but she shrugged it off. They were lost, and the Mother was a light in the dark for all lost souls.

There was a theory, one she had read long ago, that when Chaos was invited into the world it left a mark on Creation. If Celeste could sense just the presence of Chaos, perhaps she might also be able to pinpoint its origin. Celeste let a bit of her own soul open, let the floodgates up ever so slightly to meet the Chaos as she did when healing someone. A tendril of thin light escaped her lips and reaching into the air it… felt something. The Chaos retreated from the immediate area, and Celeste eye’s shot open.

“I know where it is.” She said, startling herself with the proclamation. But she did know where it was, and she knew that she could purify it. Perhaps not all was yet lost in the wake of such evil. “This way.” Celeste spoke with confidence, pushing past Gardinal and Vallerian.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Oh no you don’t.” Gardinal snapped, pulling her back by the shoulder. “You can tell us where to go, but I take the lead.” Gardinal hoisted his shield as if to make a point. Celeste rolled her eyes. But feeling the Chaos slipping away, feeling its presence quickly diminish, she relented. She had to cleanse that darkness, and if she could get to it, she knew she could.

“Hurry now.” Kriss spoke softly, pulling her forward as Gardinal and Vallerian began to rush off ahead. “We don’t want to get left behind.”

Celeste forced a warm smile for him. It only lasted a minute, the twisted maw of Chaos gnawing at her mind made her stomach sour. She needed to put an end to that, quickly.

They moved quickly through the sewers, the thin thread of the Chaos’s essence pulling her forward. Large shadows where cast across the slick stone walls from Kriss’s torch, like daemons crawling out of the oldest stories.

They moved quickly, Celeste whispering to Vallerian and Gardinal her directions at every crossroads. A few times they had to make small leaps over channels with long broken bridges meant to span them. More than a few times along the way Gardinal would mutter something about a trap, and Vallerian often stopped to look at something on the wall or the floor, remarking that people had certainly been through here recently. He seemed to have a knack for tracking.

Eventually Celeste guided their small group to take a sharp left and up some stairs, finding themselves in a space that their torch could barely begin to illuminate. It appeared a huge cistern with ankle deep rainwater. Looking at the tall curving walls, Celeste felt thankful it hadn’t rained in a few days, or the water might likely be above her head. The room was tall, at least twenty feet, and spread out far and wide enough that the torchlight was lost to fading darkness. And within the darkness… Celeste thought she could see tiny flickering flames. Yet… no light came from there. Only that deep, impenetrable darkness that reeked of Chaos.

“It… it’s here.” She whispered. “Whatever it is, it’s…”

A wave of fire exploded from the darkness.

“DOWN!” Gardinal shouted, Lifting his shield up. Celeste felt Kriss push her down just as the flame struck their group, Gardinal taking the brunt of the inferno. Falling into the water, Celeste felt Kriss covering her with his own body. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as the fire passed over them.

Celeste wasted no time, pushing her light into Kriss without a second thought. With a gasping breath Kriss leapt to his feet, readying his spear and spinning in place. Celeste quickly followed, clambering to her feet. Scanning over her friends, Celeste felt a moment of relief. Vallerian had been forced to toss away his cloak, the flames slowly consuming it as it floated on the water, but otherwise was fine. Gardinal, in contrast, looked untouched.

His shield, Celeste thought staring at the large wood and metal object that glistened in the dark, it glows with Ethinia’s light. She stared in awe; she could feel it. Feel the Mother’s presence radiating from within it. It made her think of the cutting of the First Tree that grew back at the temple.

The moment was broken as a flurry of crossbow bolts hurtled through them from behind.