The shining light of the Binary pulled Addie from her sleep, forcing her to throw an arm over her face to block it out. What, she was still tired!
Nettal started rustling around in the grass right next to Addie, the two girls having snuggled up for warmth during the breezy night. Addie found herself thankful for the ponchos’ warmth once again, briefly wondering what the Furrians might be up to now.
But, with Nettal moving around right next to her like this, Addie knew she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. She sat up with a slight huff, causing Squishy to slide off her chest and plop into her lap. His ears went alert, but otherwise he seemed content in her lap.
Addie noticed the creeping edges of sleep slowly but surely burning away from the bright light. Rubbing at her eyes with the backs of her hands, she remembered she’d been having a good dream, too. She couldn’t recall it now, though, which made her scrunch up her face slightly at the thought.
It didn’t matter, anyway.
“Nettal, are you awake?” Addie muttered groggily, shaking her older cousin by the arm.
“Ugh, I’m awake.” Nettal opened her eyes, glancing first at the Binary overhead before quickly moving her eyes to glare at Addie instead.
“Let’s go!” Addie said enthusiastically, the excitement of the coming adventure finally starting to win out against the dregs of her sleepiness.
“How about we eat something first? Mom says you always have to eat breakfast in the morning.” Nettal began to get up, turning around and using her hands to push up off the ground.
Addie hopped up, too. “Alright. Squishy—”
“Already on it, my lady.” Squishy leaped out of Addie’s lap, his black scales glinting in the morning light before he scampered off, the grass rustling in his wake.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
After breakfast, the girls set back out, the Binary glaring into their eyes because they were moving east. It didn’t take long before Addie could see the next ruin site, peaking above the top of the grass.
Unlike the last one, which was deep underground and at the end of a long cave, Addie could see these ruins had once been built right here in the fields. She thought it was a strange-looking building; the closest thing she could compare it to was the church of the Binary they had in town. But even that would be a massive understatement, Addie decided. The tiny single-room building made of sharp angles with a bell on top could hardly compare to the giant structure in front of her now.
The crumbling building was all jagged lines and sharp edges. Rough, golden stone made up towers of piercing light pointing to the heavens. The right half of the building had collapsed in on itself, leaving her to fill in the missing details from what still stood. The source of the collapse was clear: a massive iron bell now lay on its side among the wreckage of the cathedral. A long crack ran down the middle of it, much of the bell buried in chunks of rock and dirt. Moss covered the inner, shaded parts of the entire building, fighting with the grass to dominate the remains of the collapsed portions of the building. Windows of stained glass and pictures of the Binary before the collapse adorned the front left of the building, the light from the Binary somehow managed to shine from the back all the way through the building—perfectly aligned with a glass-stained version of itself. Aggan glowed blue and bright, but where the once red sun of Servus ought to be. Instead, a pitch-black aura sucked in the light around it, dimming His blue brother star.
A tiny figure in the bottom right corner of the mural stood out to Addie. She saw a gray cat-like creature with jagged teeth poking out from its smile. Around its feet was a blanket of fog. Addie’s eyes kept drifting away from the cat, as if even this painted version didn’t want to be seen.
“Nettal, look.” Addie grabbed Nettal’s attention by shaking her arm before turning back to the cat in the fog on the glass. But, when she pointed to where it had been, the image was gone, replaced with an ordinary image of pointy-eared men among tall stalks of grass. “Huh. That’s weird.”
“Oh, those look like the same kind of person we found in the castle!” Nettal exclaimed, also pointing at the image.
“No, there was something else there a second ago,” Addie tried to remember what she’d seen, but for some reason, the new image of the men and the grass somehow consumed her thoughts. These images, they’d always been like this, right?
Addie doubled over and groaned, feeling the still-raw shards of her soul aching. What else had she forgotten? That was the thing about forgetting; Addie couldn’t even remember what she’d forgotten.
She turned to Squishy, her confusion pulsing through their bond. In response, Squishy just sent the feeling of a shrug– he wasn’t sure either.
The cathedral had the space in its entryway for a double door, but the door and frame on the right side had collapsed, the left side door frame impossibly floating off the ground. On the left side stood an ornate wooden door, and Addie was surprised it hadn’t rotted. The door on the right was similarly preserved but lay against the ground.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Lotty was the first to make a move, walking forward until his snoot booped into the door lying on the ground. The door glowed green for a moment, before the entire thing exploded into a massive cloud of dust.
“Ah, Lotty!” Nettal scolded while covering her face with her sleeve, the dust surely irritating her eyes in the same way it did Addie’s.
Addie had to cough as the dust settled back down. From the corner of her eye, she saw Lotty staring back at the girls with what could only be described as a mischievous smirk.
“You silly!” Nettal cried out, laughing slightly. “I already have to make sure Addie doesn’t burn everything; now I have to worry about you exploding random things?”
Silence passed, in which they must have been communicating with their thoughts.
As patiently as she could, Addie waited for about five seconds before blurting out, “What’s he saying?”
Nettal waited a moment longer before replying, “He said he didn’t mean to do that. I’m not sure if I believe him.”
Once the dust had completely settled back onto the ground, Addie could see that the right side door was completely gone as well, turned into so much dust.
“I thought you two could only heal stuff? Not dustify it,” Addie asked.
“He really means it— he didn’t do that on purpose,” Nettal clarified.
“Huh.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, should we go inside?” Addie asked, waving to the dark entryway.
“Can you light it up first?” Nettal suggested.
Sending her thoughts to Ember, Addie imagined her birdie flying into the building alight with flames and leading the way for them. Her birdie agreed easily, pouring out from her chest before solidifying with a caw and launching forward. Briefly, she hovered near the entryway, lighting up the area and scanning the inside.
Through their bond, Ember sent a feeling of ‘safe,’ so Addie began walking forward. She had a flame shield ready to go up at a moment’s notice, just in case.
The inside of the cathedral was just as beautiful as the outside, minus the destroyed and crumbling right-side wall. There was so much stone and debris that the mountain of rubble blocked off the outside completely. Ember's flame pushed back the darkness, slowly revealing the room as they strolled through it. The back wall had more murals with those pointy-eared men and women, along with the Binary in its various phases. The lighting really confused her, too. If the Binary somehow shone through the front window, how was the inside of the building so shaded?
She guessed it didn’t really matter, they were here for whatever flame ability had been stored here— and to hopefully get one step closer to releasing the man from his chains.
Ember flitted this way and that, lighting up different sections of the giant room. She flew over destroyed stone pews and big tube-like brass objects. She scanned different sections of the glass murals and hovered around the great columns still supporting the left side of the cathedral. Other than normal church-stuff, the building looked empty.
The book floating up and to her right, Addie checked the map on its pages, but it showed the girls as being in the right spot.
Ember drifted to the front of the room, where a single book lay atop a lectern. “Oh, it is the right spot,” Addie said to herself.
She walked forward, Nettal following along slightly behind her. Unlike Addie’s carefree steps, she noticed Nettal trying to avoid making any sound by walking between the pieces of debris.
Clearing three stairs in one big jump, Addie walked around behind the lectern and reached up to grab the book. It was too tall for her, so she had to stretch on her tippy toes to get it. The second her hands made contact with the book; it vanished into motes of blue light, Addie’s hand grabbing nothing but air. Addie’s soul-book flapped its pages, absorbing the blue motes of light still scattered about.
After it had gathered all the motes, the book flipped to a new page and began writing out glowing blue text.
*Congratulations, Addie! This book can now teach you how to control your flames into a spiral lance. This is a powerful technique, capable of piercing through the toughest of targets and searing the wound as it passes— not to mention the soul damage it will inflict. Do not use this unless you have to, Addie.*
Despite the ominous warning, Addie was excited by this new flame technique. She could have used it against the ape earlier!
Reading the book from over Addie’s shoulder, Nettal was quick to retort, “No setting this place on fire!”
“Ugh, stop reminding me! I know already,” Addie bit back, her tone full of frustration.
The book slammed shut, drawing Addie’s attention before it flowed smoothly back into her soul. When Addie turned back to the main entryway, a giant man with heavy metal armor covering him stood in the doorway.
There was a single discordant second where Addie thought he was just a statue. How could he not be; such a man covered in metal would have to be very loud, right? Except, she knew for a fact that the metal man had not been in the doorway when they walked inside. He held a longsword in one hand, and a metal disk shield in the other. He was taller than Addie and Nettal combined, taller even than the doorway he was guarding.
Beside Addie, Nettal gulped. “Addie, I give you permission to set that thing on fire.”
Despite the tense atmosphere and impending battle, Nettal’s words made Addie huff once with laughter.
“I am afraid, my lady, that my teeth and claws will not be of use against the metal adorning this man,” Squishy mentally spoke up from Addie’s side.
The metal man just stood there, not reacting to the girls at all– for now at least.
“What if he’s friendly?” Addie asked as she pointed at him, “Look, he’s not trying to attack us yet.” Even Addie knew the words felt hollow.
“Addie, we are not getting close to that thing to find out if it’s ‘friendly.’ It’s blocking the doorway!”
Addie tilted her head, “We could just go into Realmspace and exit the church that way,” she pointed out.
“Well, what if it chases us and you set the entire grasslands on fire?” Nettal shook her head.
“I’ll be careful...”
“Ugh, just blast that thing! It’s not alive!” Nettal said loudly, not quite a shout, her voice echoing through the cathedral.
Then, as if in response to Nettal’s words, the metal monster took one large yet impossibly silent step forward. Its foot landed on top of a pile of stone rubble, the stone instantly crumbling and then smashing into dust.
“How do you know it’s not alive, it looks like a man in armor!” Addie really didn’t want to kill someone.
“I promise it’s not alive, it’s just walking metal, my magic isn’t reacting to it at all!” Nettal hurried to speak, shaking Addie’s shoulder, “Just blast it!”
“What if your magic can’t see that far?”
“Just blast it!” Nettal sounded panicked, as she shook Addie’s arm. She was really freaked out by this thing, to the point it surprised Addie.
The metal man took another lumbering step forward. Addie summoned her magic, Ember helping from within her soul. A white soul-attacking fireball shot out... and washed harmlessly against the walking armor.