Previous | Chapter Index | Next

It was a forest, dark, dank and full of buzzing creeping insects. Wet and hot, far hotter than the unseasonably warm weather afflicting Caredale. Unless the Key was showing them a hot house somewhere Ophelia was certain this was nowhere in Britain. Somewhere in the tropics maybe?

Looks like it, Kira said. But it feels slightly off.

She was right, Ophelia realised. This might just be a vision but something was scratching against her skin.

You think this isn’t Earth? Sera asked.

Possibly, or the feeling might be coming from that. Kira mentally indicated a dark, jagged spar of crystal sticking up out of the swampy ground.

Everything about it felt wrong like it was pushing up through the fabric of reality from somewhere else rather than just the ground. The wrongness of the thing made Ophelia feel sick. She clutched the fabric of her skirt convulsively as she recognised the images the key was showing them.

This is my dream from the morning! I only remembered bits and pieces of it until now, but this is it. She strained her memory. I saw silver eyes. Immediately the crystal showed them an image of a boy with silver eyes and wings of silver wind sitting on a nearby rock watching the crystal spar. He looked bored.

One of your kind? Ophelia asked.

Yes, with an air affinity, Kira said. That insignia embroidered on his shoulder belongs to Andarian-mirian’s court. Usually I’d think he wasn’t a problem – Andarian is supposed to be okay – but he’s supposedly been dragged into helping our enemies. Still why is the key showing us this?

As soon as Kira asked that the rest of Ophelia’s dream flooded back to her and she tensed as she realised what they were about to see. Crap!

What’s wrong? Kira asked then gasped as another barrage of images hit them.

A hole started to grow around the crystal. A hole that felt like it was forming in the very fabric of reality. Looking into it only confirmed that as within it was nothing – not soil, not water, not even empty space. Nothing at all. A void that somehow made even a vacuum seem full. Through it Ophelia could sense something terrible and hungry approaching. Something that felt eerily familiar but try as she might she couldn’t place it.

“What the hell is this?” Kira said aloud. “What is this hole?”

“Well it’s obviously bad,” Sera said. “What can we do to stop it?”

“I-I don’t know,” Kira admitted.

The Key on the other hand did have an answer. It showed them crystal shattering into fragments and the hole fading and vanishing. Though the sense of something trying to break through into reality lingered.

“Okay so destroying that thing will solve the immediate problem but not the cause.” Ophelia frowned to herself. “Is this some plan of our enemies?” She frowned as the Key broadcast a negative sensation at her. She got the sense from it that  they were studying the crystal rather than controlling it. “I see but they will try to stop me?” The key gave an affirmative sensation and showed image of the Kithreian boy in an aggressive stance. Ophelia sighed and opened her eyes. “I’m going to have to fight him.”

“It looks like it.” Kira agreed. “I wish you weren’t being dragged into this. It’s not your fight.”

Previous | Chapter Index | Next