Sitting back on the furs within the small building in the cavern ruins, Addie finished reading the book— if it could even be called reading. It had felt more like she had entered the realm of the story, feeling the conqueror’s will and life as if it were her own.
Addie shuddered. The emperor hadn’t even realized that he was immortally trapped within the fog. It had felt so real. When Addie finally finished the book, it was like she had woken up from a night terror— she was just grateful none of it was real. Well, not real for her, at least.
But now they had a lead on the fog. The demon from the book must have been controlling it. But bonded creatures can only have two powers. If controlling the fog was one power, and somehow transporting Addie and Nettal to this place was another power, how did it give the man in the story immortality? That would have to be three powers.
Addie shook her head, it didn’t matter. They needed to find the demon in the fog to get home, that much she was sure about.
“Wow,” Nettal began, “That book really drew me in, it felt like—”
Addie cut her off, “Like you were the character in the story?” Addie finished Nettal’s sentence.
“Exactly!” Nettal perked up as she exclaimed. “Exactly like that.”
“I experienced the same thing you did through our bond. What a troublesome foe,” Squishy said.
Addie felt a familiar bubbling in her soul, and her book shot out from her chest, forming itself out of pure magic. The now-familiar sight of the floating book shuffling through its pages grabbed everyone’s attention. It created a slight breeze as Addie listened to those ruffling pages.
*There is power here,* the words displayed,
*Continue down the cave, seek what you've prayed.
Remember, in this place, your soul must not stray,
More secrets lurk, do not wake them from their bay.*
Then, in larger letters beneath the poem, more words started to form.
*A poem from before Servus. Should you continue deeper Addie, remember what I told you. Do not allow your soul to separate from your body in this place. And whatever you do, do not wake the secrets of the ruins.*
The pages began shuffling backward, and the book slammed shut with finality. It evaporated back into magic, then flowed right back into Addie’s chest and soul.
“What did it say?” Nettal leaned into Addie’s face, “I couldn’t read the words! It looked all scribbly.”
“It said we should go further into the cave to find something to help us. But it also said not to wake up any ‘secrets’, whatever that means.” Addie rolled her eyes at the vague instructions. “It also warned me not to use Ember’s magic.”
“How shall we find one thing but not the other, if we do not know what either of them are in the first place?” Squishy asked with a tilted head.
“You can’t use Ember’s magic? But the flames have helped us a lot!”
Addie decided to answer Nettal first, “Well, the flames are ok. It just said not to use the other power.” Then, to Squishy she said telepathically, “No idea. Guess we have to be careful.”
“Oh, ok.” Nettal nodded her head, but then she tilted it in confusion, “What’s the other power again?”
“I can move my soul around without my body.”
“So you’re like a ghost basically,” Nettal decided one-sidedly.
“I’m not a ghost!”
“BooOoo, I’m Addie the ghOoost.” Nettal fluctuated her voice like a spooky ghost.
“Stop that!” Addie said with a smile.
Then, both girls laughed for a bit.
“So I guess we need to go further into the cave, huh?” Nettal asked as she looked up at the ceiling.
“Yeah, I guess so. I wonder if the Furrians could make me some kind of shoes,” Addie bent over and pulled one of her feet up to look at the bottom of it.
It was dark all over, but not bleeding thankfully, just sore and bruised. It was also disgustingly filthy, so maybe that was part of the reason it looked so dark.
“I really wish I hadn’t forgotten my shoes back at the tent,” Addie complained aloud as she set her foot back down.
“Yeah. Let’s ask them, maybe they can help with something. It’d also be nice to have some of the furs made into a cloak or something so I’m not so cold all the time,” Nettal rubbed her arms and shivered.
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“Yeah, that would be nice.” Addie agreed.
“How about tomorrow? Let’s rest some today, see if they can get us some shoes and clothes, and then we can explore the cave more tomorrow.” Nettal suggested.
“Ok,” Addie nodded her head in agreement. “I’m tired now, anyway.”
Luckily, some of the women Furrian had stopped by and left more furs on the ground so Addie would also have a pile to sleep on. After reading the book, both girls had also long finished another meal of mushroom stew. Another day in the cave had passed.
Something else curious happened, completely in tune with both of the girls, the glowy moss somehow knew that the girls wanted to go to sleep, since all the glowing noticeably reduced just as Addie and Nettal lay down. Automatic light-switch. Addie approved of it, but she wondered if maybe it’d be nice if she could control it more, like by clapping or something. Might be a good idea for a magic item sometime.
Her thoughts drifted in this manner as she fell asleep.
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A gentle hand shook Addie awake. “Is it morning?” she asked blearily, hearing a soft ‘whoo’ in response.
That made her turn around in bed, it still looked like it was dark outside. She opened her eyes slowly and came face to face with a fuzzy face. Oh, that’s right. She was in the caves, with the Furrians. This wasn’t her bed. She sat up slowly, and let a few disparate furs fall off her chest as she moved.
The woman Furrian next to her pushed a cup of steaming liquid in front of Addie’s face, and at the same time, Addie could see another woman Furrian similarly fussing over Nettal. After both girls were wide awake, the moss in the building got brighter, just enough to light up the room but still nothing close to the Binary.
“Whoo, Whoo,” the Furrian next to Addie said.
“I don’t speak Furrian,” Addie replied.
“Whoo,” she said again.
Just for fun, Addie decided to reply, “Whoo whoo,” herself.
Something about that spooked the Furrian who instantly shot up to a ramrod straight standing position. She said “Whoo!” With a worried expression, and then darted out of the room.
The Furrian next to Nettal watched the whole thing happen with wide eyes, but Nettal put her hand on her and she settled down pretty quickly.
“Weird,” Addie said aloud.
“Don’t scare the locals,” Nettal chastised her.
“I didn’t mean to,” Addie said, slightly embarrassed.
Nettal rolled her eyes. “Wouldn’t it freak you out if they started speaking Borian all of a sudden?”
Addie squinted her eyes at Nettal, “Not really? That’d be nice if they could, honestly.”
Nettal laughed a bit.
“Why are you laughing?” Addie asked.
“I don’t know. You’re funny I guess.”
Addie harrumphed.
Pretty soon after that, the woman Furrian took away all the spare cups and bowls, bowed, and then left the building.
“Maybe we should tell them we are leaving?” Nettal suggested once they were alone.
“Are you ready?” Addie asked.
“Yeah. It’s nice here, but I want to go home.”
“Me too. But wait!” Addie said excitedly, “We still need to ask if we can take some of the furs.” She reminded Nettal.
“Oh yeah.” Addie grabbed a few of the furs from off the ground.
Everyone started walking out of the building, Squishy and Lotty following behind Addie and Nettal respectively.
Just as they left the tent, Addie saw the warrior Furrian from yesterday. It looked like he had just been on his way to the building.
He spotted them quickly and smiled. He let off a few small whoops, and then hurried closer to them.
Once he got close enough, he reached his hand out toward Nettal. Nettal glanced at Addie, who shrugged her shoulders in response. Nettal also shrugged and then grabbed ahold of his hand. The Furrians were pretty short, usually no taller than Addie was, but this particular Furrian was about a head taller than normal, so it almost looked like Nettal had a fuzzy dad or something as they held hands and walked ahead.
Addie couldn’t help but snicker at the sight of it.
After about five minutes of walking, the warrior Furrian brought them to another dilapidated building, this one about the same size as the one they slept in— just large enough for a single room.
It was strange, though. All of the warrior Furrians, not just the lead male, had all lined up outside the building, single file. The ones at the front of the line didn’t look too great. The very first person in line was missing an arm, and the Furrian behind him had a giant gash through his chest, which was still slightly bleeding. Not a ton, though, luckily.
“Oh my gosh! What happened!” Nettal exclaimed. “I need to heal them!”
She rushed forward, only to be yanked and stopped as the lead warrior Furrian held tight onto her hand, unyielding.
“Let go,” Nettal tried to explain with a patient smile, “I need to help them.”
The lead Furrian smiled back as he used his spare hand to gesture toward the building.
“Battlefield triage.” Squishy’s voice came through their bond, drawing Addie’s attention to his small black form, “Notice they are in single file? Tell Nettal to go inside, surely they will come to her one at a time.”
Addie looked back up, and she saw that Nettal was still trying to argue with the lead Furrian, who refused to let go. His patient smile seemed to be cracking at the edges.
To try and defuse the situation, Addie hurried forward and grabbed onto Nettal’s arm. “You can heal them,” Addie tried to start before getting interrupted.
“Tell that to this guy!” Nettal was starting to pout in frustration.
“Squishy says you can heal them, he just wants you to do it one at a time while in the building for some reason.”
No longer hyper-focused on the two most injured Furrians at the front of the line, Nettal finally swept her vision across the entire clearing. She deflated, and all the frustration washed off her face. “Oh, I see. It’s like the clinic. They probably have a place for me to rest while I treat the injured or something. That makes sense.”
Sure enough, the moment Nettal started walking into the front doorcloth of the building, the lead warrior Furrian easily let go of her hand. He took up the rear as he followed Addie and Nettal inside. And, just as suspected, there was even a stone bench in the dwelling covered in furs for Nettal to rest on.
And it also became clear why the lead warrior Furrian wouldn’t let Nettal heal the people in line. Two more Furrians were laying on the ground who looked much worse than anyone outside. One of them had a bleeding leg stump, a missing eye, and his jaw was protruding strangely. Addie had to look away.
The other Furrian didn’t look much better, with a gash in his stomach with ropes of somethingnopedon’tlook; Addie had to quickly leave the building so she wouldn’t puke on the injured Furrians. She scrambled past the doorcloth, almost getting tangled up in it before she finally got outside. She heaved a few times, but luckily nothing came up. Addie breathed heavily for a moment and just tried to catch her bearings. She had never seen guts before. She shuddered. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to see that again any time soon.