“Get off me!” Addie shouted.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the two Furrians in the sparring ring start running over.
“Nettal, grab my hand!”
Squishy yipped at the Warrior Furrian, driving his hand away from Addie.
At the same time, Addie brushed her hand through the air, summoning a wave of fire out into his face. The Warrior Furrian put his hand in front of his face to block the heat, but the flames never reached him. They had just been a warning.
Nettal latched hard onto Addie’s hand, her other hand over Lotty’s head.
Addie wrapped herself and Nettal up in magic. She used Nettal’s connection with Lotty’s head as a bridge to extend the magic to him as well. Space distorted around their eyes. The Warrior Furrian leaped forward.
Addie stepped into Realmspace.
She immediately swept her surroundings with her spatial sense to ensure she hadn’t brought along any unwanted guests. Luckily, it was just her, Nettal, and Lotty in the black space. Squishy popped into Realmspace a moment later, Addie felt relieved that he was next to her again.
“Addie?” Nettal’s questioning tone broke the dead silence of Realmspace. “Can you turn on the light?”
In her free hand, Addie summoned a fireball so that Nettal could see again.
“You know, your eyes glow such a pretty light purple when you do that,” Nettal said with a half smile.
“Really? Yours glow a pretty green when you use your magic.” Addie said back.
Then she shook her head away from the temporary distraction. “Do you think we can ever go back there?”
“I don’t think we should,” Nettal said, with worry etched across her face.
Addie lifted a corner of her poncho up and stared at it. She sighed. “Yeah. I guess not.”
She was disappointed with the way things ended between the Furrians. They had been so helpful, and they had given both girls food, water, and shelter. Not to mention the ponchos. Addie wasn’t really sure why they had become aggressive all of a sudden. Maybe if she had stuck around to learn more of their language, but no, that would be a waste of time. They had a mission: get back home.
Though it did make Addie wonder. Why had they gone from so helpful and friendly to aggressive all of a sudden?
“What happened?” Addie asked Nettal without bite.
“He wouldn’t let me leave,” Nettal began while staring up at the black Realmsky.
“But why?” Addie started walking forward, leading Nettal by the hand.
She had built up quite a lot of magic to send them here, so they had plenty of time to walk forward without needing to worry about getting sent back to the Furrian ruins.
“Maybe it’s not because we did anything bad.” Nettal let Addie guide her by the hand, now with her eyes down at the floor as they walked. “Maybe it’s actually because we did something good. Too good.” Nettal furrowed her eyebrows and raised her voice, “I think they wanted us to stay there, forever, because of our magic. They wanted me to keep healing them, and they probably wanted you to stay, too.”
“Yeah,” Addie kicked at the floor with a frown as she walked, “That makes sense. One of the old ladies tried to keep me from leaving, too. But the other one stopped her. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, not when Squishy and I can just go to Realmspace.” Addie smiled at her companion, and he smiled back. For some reason, he reminded her of a king goldfish for a second. She shook the silly wandering thought away.
“Hey, so, how does Realmspace know where to put us?” Nettal spoke up, changing the subject.
“What do you mean?” Addie asked with a tilt of her head.
“I mean, how do we know that it’s gonna put us deeper in the cave instead of on top of the mountain right in the snow?”
Addie thought about it for a second, “Huh, I dunno.”
Nettal stopped walking. “What do you mean you don’t know? I don’t want to get buried alive in tons of snow.” She crossed her arms.
Addie huffed as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. What a silly worry. “We won’t. Now c’mon! Let’s go.”
“Fine, but later we’re figuring out the answer to my question.”
Addie rolled her eyes again. It didn’t matter how it worked, Addie thought. Her magic did what she wanted it to do. It was that simple. Why it worked didn't matter as long as it listened to her. But, if it made her feel better, she would agree with Nettal anyway.
“Fine. Now let’s go!” Addie grabbed Nettal’s hand again and pulled her cousin forward.
Stolen novel; please report.
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“Are you ready?” Addie looked to the right, directly into Nettal’s eyes.
Nettal squeezed her hand. “Ready.”
Addie let go of her magic, sending them back out into Reality.
Upon reentering reality, Addie gazed upon a crumbling underground city, not unlike the one the Furrians lived in, just a lot bigger. Crumbling stone pillars, adorned with faded carvings of a script unknown to Addie, stood like silent sentinels amidst the darkness. Jagged stalactites hung from the ceiling, dripping with moisture that glistened in the dim light of bioluminescent fungi scattered across the cavern floor. One massive ethereal glowing mushroom burst out of the ceiling of one of the buildings, towering over its conquest. The walls of the ruins were partially collapsed, revealing glimpses of once-magnificent architecture now obscured by the centuries of destruction. Blue glow-moss and spiraling vines grew their roots throughout much of the ruins. In the center, a grand archway, still remarkably intact, led to a dark inner sanctum. The main sanctum had one-half of a double door crumbling at Addie’s feet, the other half nowhere to be seen.
Addie gulped. Luckily, she didn’t have to go in there alone.
Just as she thought that the familiar flow of her book materializing outside of her body came to her attention. It manifested a few feet above her and began glowing.
Nettal jerked Addie by her right arm in surprise. “What’s it doing?” she asked.
“Um, not sure.” Addie let go of Nettal’s hand and stepped forward a bit to try and make out the book.
It didn’t open or anything, so it wasn’t showing any words either.
“Book?” Addie called out to it.
It just kept floating in the air and glowing. She felt it tugging her onward, into the abyssal sanctum in front of her.
“It wants us to go into the big dark building,” Addie explained.
“Never go in the big dark building, Addie. That’s like, rule number one.”
“Says who?” Addie asked with attitude.
“Says me, obviously.”
“Whatever. I’m going in there.”
Nettal sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
Addie smiled, “Thanks.”
“But don’t say I didn’t warn you! I told you, don’t go in the big scary dark building. I’m definitely gonna say ‘told you so’.”
“You won’t.”
“Just wait and see.” Nettal raised her chin up in the air pompously.
“Ember?” Addie called out.
She raised her pointer finger in the direction of the big dark building. Flames shot out from her finger, materializing as a purple bird as Ember flew out of her hand. Half-formed of fire, she roared like an eagle, and zoomed forward, leaving a trail of embers in her wake. She went straight into the building, her purple ghostly silhouette lighting up the darkness while she flew forward, becoming smaller and smaller the further away she went, until she looked like no more than a candle wick surrounded by the darkness.
Total darkness, came the images and thoughts from Ember, musty smell. Complete silence. Nothing except old rock.
“Ember says it’s safe to go in, I guess,” Addie said to Nettal.
“We’re really going in there, aren’t we?” Nettal shared a look with Lotty, then she turned her head up to Addie’s floating book, “What about you mister book? Don’t you think we shouldn’t go in there?”
Addie’s book stayed silent.
She grabbed Nettal’s hand and started pulling her forward. “C’mon! Let’s go.”
“Fine.”
As Addie crossed the threshold into the darkness, her book deformed from its physical state. It transformed into particles of magic once again, but instead of flowing back into Addie’s soul, it started forming patterns in the air ahead and above Addie. She stopped to stare at it while it moved.
The sparkling blue particles formed words:
*The Northern Lost Ruins of Enullis,* it said.
The second she finished reading the last word, the book reformed into a solid ball of magic before taking on the appearance of the old dusty tome once again. It floated over Addie’s shoulder and stayed there.
“Enullis. Have you ever heard of it?” Addie looked over her shoulder to Nettal.
“Nope.”
Something about that name struck a memory in Addie’s core, but wherever the memory was it must be fragmented. She felt a gaping loss as she tried to remember. Maybe, after she restored more of her soul she would know. The name filled her with awe nonetheless, half-fragmented and partially lost as the memory was.
She took another step forward, Nettal following close behind while holding her hand. Addie noticed that she didn’t complain this time.
Ember was right, it did smell musty in here, even more so than the normal cave atmosphere. That was about all the changes Addie noticed. She could still see perfectly fine using her spatial sense; the building was much of the same she had already seen. Tons of ruined stone and half-remembered passageways. None of the lively atmosphere from the Furrian village existed here, though.
Nettal couldn’t see like Addie could though, so she summoned Ember to come back from her scouting mission. She hadn’t seen anything anyway. Addie wanted her magic to be at the ready in case they needed it.
With the crackling of flames and the whistling of air parting before her, Ember came back down the tunnel, her ghostly flames lighting up the way and making her impossible to miss as she got closer. Her returned presence brought Addie more than just physical warmth.
Plus, just having her right here meant Addie didn’t have to focus on summoning any of her own flames— Ember did that plenty just by existing.
“Thanks for the light, Ember,” Nettal whispered to Addie’s birdie.
“She says thanks back. She’s never been thanked before. She likes the feeling.” Addie said with a smile, Ember’s own emotions bouncing around inside her for a moment.
After walking down the passageway for a bit, with Addie helping Nettal walk around obstacles like old mushroom stalks and misplaced boulders, they came to a staircase that led further down. The end of the hallway with the staircase wasn’t the only direction they could go forward in though. The hallway also split to the left and the right. They could go either of those directions, but if they wanted to go forward they would also have to go down.
“We could split up and explore all three directions, but—“ Nettal began to say.
“Definitely no. No splitting up.” Addie decided steadfastly.
She could see Squishy jumping around on the pads of his paws, but even if he looked so excited to go exploring she wouldn’t let him split off from the group.
“Yeah, I didn’t really think it would be a good idea either. Just a suggestion.”
“Squishy, which way do you think we should go first?” He had always been her best little navigator.
“Let us explore where the left and right passageways lead. Should either of them be dead ends, then we can proceed down the stairs. I want to explore everything, no stone unturned.” He wasn’t just saying that out of logic alone, either. He genuinely felt excited to be exploring with Addie. The promise of gold and loot flashed through his thoughts and bled over their bond into Addie. The idea of treasure excited Addie too, but to a lesser extent than her silly cat.
They explored all of the left passage and then backtracked to explore all of the right passage. Both were simple dead ends— they led off into different rooms, which may have been living quarters at one point but were now no more than storage rooms for old crumbling rocks.
So they came back to the top of the stairs, staring down into the deeper dark.