Chapter 66 – A Lesson of Power

The deep rumble of the quake echoed all around Adam and Emily. From the cave’s mighty walls to the ceiling high above, everything seemed to be trembling. Tiny bits of gravel dropped like rain; massive boulders tumbled, taking statues and trees down in their fall.

Holding his arms above his head, Adam hurried from the shoulder of Osterhild’s giant statue to one of the great collarbones. As much as he despised Osterhild, her statue’s wide curly hair sure provided an excellent umbrella for all the misery that tumbled down. “This whole place is falling apart, damn it!” He blinked to get the dust out of his eyes, his gaze darting from the broken bridges to the caved-in tunnels. “Do you see any way to escape?”

Emily had quickly followed him and was now balancing on the other collarbone. She raised her torch and peered at the left side of the cave. “The tunnel through which we’ve entered this place has collapsed!”

“Oh, perfect…” Adam groaned. “Should we use Invocations to force our way through?”

Emily squinted and cocked her head sideways. “No… we’d be exhausted in no time if we use Invocations that way! We could hide here for just a bit and see if the quake—”

An unrelenting groan of tortured stone emanated from deep below. Farther into the cave, the ground tore open, creating a massive ravine. As the wound in the earth kept expanding, rocks at its sides rolled into the depths in small avalanches. The statue of a priest who was kneeling in prayer toppled over sideways until it also disappeared into the darkness.

Emily’s wide-open eyes showed white all around. “Never mind,” she said in a high voice.

Feeling the deep beats of his left heart in his throat, Adam squinted at the end of the cave, far in the distance. “Look! There are more of those luminous stalactites there!”

“So?!” Emily asked with more than a hint of panic in her voice.

“Those big stalactites here have already lost their shine, and everything is breaking down! I believe the parts of the Realm that haven’t degraded as much are more intact—”

“So let’s run for an exit there!” Emily yelled as she was already hurrying to Osterhild’s other shoulder.

Adam rushed after her over the outstretched arm. With a crumbling noise near the statue’s base, Osterhild’s likeness tilted to the left. Fortunately, the statue was pointing with an outstretched arm towards what appeared to be statues of her servants.

Emily glanced back while running. “Do you need help or—”

A giant thorned trunk from the Overgrowth fell behind them and crashed into the statue, causing the arm to shake precariously beneath their feet. Judging from the deafening cracks of splintered stone, some body part must’ve broken off. Running at full speed, Adam had other priorities than looking back to check. “Nope, I’m good!” He sprinted the distance and vaulted from the tip of Osterhild’s finger, the closest point to the next statue.

With a grunt, he landed on the arched back of a priest. Holding on to the holy man’s massive embroidered belt with one hand, Adam kept himself from sliding off the slippery stone. While running up the priest’s back, he noticed similar statues around him: Priests who carried large egg-like shapes or lockets covered with the tell-tale symbols of Reminiscence.

With the deep beats of his left heart echoing in his ears, Adam jumped from statue to statue. Hot blood was flowing through his veins as his boots struggled to find purchase on the slippery surfaces. Squinting to see where he was going, he clenched his torch in a white-knuckled grip. He often had mere seconds between when the sputtering flame revealed the next statue and the moment he had to jump. One misplaced foot, one snap of stone, and he would most probably tumble into the growing ravine. But he didn’t let it get to him. All that mattered was the here and now, to keep going and find the next place to jump or cling to.

Some part of his mind couldn’t help but wonder what the bizarre group of statues of the Starwing Order was about. The giant statues of owls or priests orating to people who kissed rings in worship were nothing surprising. Yet Adam couldn’t make sense of the Talons of Aves who were building a life-sized puppet, dressed in the attire of a noble.

Earlier, Adam had been shocked when he found out from Oliver that the Starwing Order had been practising Reminiscence. However, he’d never truly grasped the scale at which this was happening. All around Adam were statues of servants with blindfolds who brought their lockets to massive pillars, covered with the symbols of Reminiscence. Adam landed on the giant desk of one of the endless scribes, feeling like a fly disturbing a man at work. He ran past the giant stone quill which was writing down circles to practise Reminiscence. Feeling small, literally and figuratively, Adam wondered what his limited knowledge of the third type of Sorcery could do against the mightiest and richest organisation in the known world. An Order that had stolen his discovery and was apparently using it to a colossal extent.

Among the continuing rumble of the collapsing cave, voices reached him. “This ‘Project Deliverance’ is utter blasphemy!” A deep man’s voice yelled, sounding oddly soft and distorted.

Now that they’d progressed farther into the cave, another grand stalactite with reflections of memories had come into view; memories Adam hadn’t seen before. Hungry as he was for news of what was going on in the world outside of the Realm, he couldn’t resist taking a peek to the left. And, now that he was running over the statue of a palanquin—one of the horizontal carrying poles provided a long, straight surface—he could actually afford a couple of moments to look.

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From his glance at the blurry, distorted images, Adam recognised one of the marvellous halls where the highest stars in the hierarchical firmament of the Order convened to ‘debate and philosophise.’ Or, judging by the sounds coming from the memory, scream at each other in an utter uproar. Rows of highly ranked Order members shook their fists at the Holy Council. Although statues partially obscured Adam’s view of other facets of the stalactite, he caught glimpses of Invocations with the unmistakable green glow of Reminiscence.

“… that our Holy Council has the gall to preach the Lord’s lessons of humility, bah!” the raspy voice of a heavy smoker said. “You are human; flesh and blood! The mere arrogance to think humans can succeed at this is…”

“The costs alone are ridiculous!” the stern voice of an elderly woman cried out. Adam recognised the speaker as Johanna, a widely respected member of the previous Holy Council, from before Zachalynn had become the Archpriest. “If this goes on the whole Order—nay, our whole country—will go bankrupt!”

Several voices came afterwards, but the sound was drowned out by the echoing quake all around.

While running his ass off, Adam raised his eyebrows. It was well known both the Order and the massive nation of Dorenland weren’t exactly shy of coin. What kind of bizarre ‘project’ could possibly form a financial risk?

Adam’s mind was racing as he climbed over the knuckles of one of the servants carrying the palanquin. This might be his last chance to learn more about these memories. And, to reach the other end of the cave, he could take a slightly longer route. If he would jump over the statues of researchers with what seemed like chemical equipment, he’d be way closer to the stalactite. Judging by the angle, he’d have an almost unobstructed view of the stalactite’s facets which most likely showed memories about Reminiscence.

Sweat dripped over his forehead as he was mulling it over. He could make those jumps, but would it be worth it?

In the few moments Adam had to spare, he did see how five Talons of Aves charged Zachalynn. The Archpriest kept standing, her back straight as an arrow. With her hands folded behind her back, she seemed as calm as if she was addressing naughty students in her class.

One of the running Talons of Aves suddenly stopped moving. Her skin turned blueish white out of sheer cold as she was lifted in the air by some invisible Invocation. Then, as if fired from a crossbow, she flew sideways and hit the wall at the other side of the hall in the time it took Adam to blink. The second Talon of Aves formed knives of Marrow and flicked his wrists to fling them. Yet, the knives didn’t move. Zachalynn’s level of sorcery was so advanced she frequently took control of other Novaseers’ Invocations. To his credit, the man had made fine Marrow knives, judging by how easily they sliced through his own neck.

As Adam ran, he caught glimpses of Zachalynn’s last attacker. His Instilled polearm was glowing in intricate blue patterns when he swung it at her neck. Zachalynn didn’t even move; she didn’t have to. A bright shield of Ironglass had suddenly sprung into existence, deflecting the mighty blow without even showing a crack. Although being clearly caught off guard, the man quickly recovered his posture and slashed his weapon sideways. Again, Zachalynn didn’t even need to move a muscle as she simply conjured a new shield to protect her. Before the Talon tried again, Adam saw the change in the man’s eyes: the look of a man who knew he was about to die.

“ADAM!” Emily yelled.

His breath halted; the part of the statue in front of him had broken off. Adam came to a screeching halt, right in time to hastily climb down the shoulder of one of the carriers.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time to daydream?!” Emily yelled. She was running over the enormous giant statue of an operating table with a seemingly unconscious patient.

“Right you are.” Adam could still make his way to the luminescent stalactite. But with a groan of reluctance, he made his way to the relatively ‘safe’ route: to join Emily in climbing the overhanging branch of one of the humongous trees which had survived so far. Everywhere, the bark showed deep gashes and grooves caused by the parasitic Overgrowth, yet it seemed sturdy enough to hold them as he ran across the branches. With the abyss growing below him, he knew this was the wiser option.

That didn’t make it any less frustrating though.

Adam ground his teeth in frustration when the luminous stalactite practically disappeared behind the branches. In the rare moments he could afford as he climbed, he merely caught glimpses. How Zachalynn dismissed the uproar. How crying priests failed to prevent black-robed warriors from chaining a struggling man and pulling a grey sack over his head. If Adam had been closer, he may have been able to recognise him or hear what was going on. Now, the echoing rumble of the collapsing cave was too loud. He hadn’t even seen the invaluable bits of knowledge about Reminiscence. Memories which would soon be lost to oblivion. Any sight of them was obscured by the statues and the branches.

As Adam and Emily neared the end of the gnarled branch, the statue of another Holy Council member loomed in front of them: the corrupt monk Rüdeger. He was depicted with his hands in one of the holy gestures for prayer: open palms facing the skies at chin-height, offering servitude to the Owl god Aves. The statue’s left open palm provided all the space for Adam to land, roll, and stand up again.

Emily was soon to follow. Although she couldn’t jump as far as Adam—who had spent most of his training improving his physical feats—she had plenty of tricks of her own. In mid-air, she whipped out a chain of Ironglass links which wound itself around the tip of Rüdeger’s upright thumb. While swinging, she quickly conjured a longer second chain—targeting Rüdeger’s crooked nose this time—and overtook Adam.

Without any fancy Novaseering at his disposal, Adam had to make do by climbing the statue’s liver-spotted ear. Luckily, the wrinkly flaps of skin in the cranky monk’s neck formed an excellent stairway to the bald head. While Adam sprinted, trails of heat flowed from his left heart to his legs. At the very tip of the statue’s skull, Adam clenched his lit torch between his teeth and jumped again.

He fell through the air with outstretched arms until his chafed fingers closed around the edge of one of the massive feathers on a humongous statue of Aves. A very strange one at that. As Adam hurriedly climbed sideways along the feathers, he couldn’t help noticing how this statue of Aves was spreading His wings towards pillars covered with symbols of Reminiscence. Huh…? Does that mean that He—

When even the mighty Aves’ likeness trembled in the tremors, Adam clenched his jaw, looked away, and kept climbing. Maybe the statue held a worldview-shattering revelation and not just a peculiar stylistic choice. But even if it did, ‘not dying’ was still a little higher on Adam’s priority list.