Silver Cathedral Saga (25 page)

“It was all
just code for an emotional response to our words. It needed an
internal feeling attached to the spoken words we gave them. And I
made sure we all done that, whilst developing some internal
problems at the same time.”

“You cheeky
fella,” said Oddius as he and the other Edeolon Warrior followed
them now moving through the gap. “You are crazy smart to have
figured that out and solved several internal issues in one swift
stroke.”

“I don’t
believe smart covers what I done, or even me. I believe it is about
caring—in all ways!

Selphira
and the Beat-caster Adea stayed far enough behind so they could not
be seen shifting when and if they saw these Astorian Originals.

The room
was dark, and an ever growing hum grew as soon as they entered;
there was some magick at work in this room, both the children could
feel its chill, stepping into its power lurking somewhere from
within the darkness.

The eight
plunged through the deep room. There was no light down here, so no
idea was had for how big it was for the seven of them. Ematay knew,
but found it bad timing to even speak now. 

Their
star-metal bracelets shone out automatically after recognising the
blackness around, making the room look eerie, blue, empty and
silent. The horror of silence made them all the more cautious as
they tried to move quick.

“Where are
they?” said Dak, shocking Ematay; flicking his head to him, showing
his annoyance.

“They
always show themselves as soon as people enter their home. I don’t
understand,” said the Star-caster. “It’s not like they have much
else to do down here.”

Ematay’s
group continued to move to the other side, where this portal was
that they needed to get to.

It was
going on to five minutes before they got to the other side, the
room both great in width and length from what they could see.

In some
way, all of the group were just waiting for the Originals to show
up from the edges of the Heart of the Mountain. Although fear
surrounded them they all wanted to see the beings of old. All
wanted to see something worthwhile down here.

It
became evident after they all looked at both edges of the room as
they crossed, that there was no Astorians here, other than
themselves, or their eyes deceived them in seeing so.

“Magick has
been here. It is faint now, but has left a residual energy behind,”
said Lauretta.

“You are
right, elemental archer,” said Ematay. “If there is no evidence of
their bodies, then this is the surge of powerful space magick at
work. It seems the Dark Queen has been busy as of late. Because no
other on their side can use such potent magick. Or nobody else we
have seen. Let us hope that is the truth.”

“An enemy
who has space magick,” said Adea. “Well this is just great. One of
the strongest and rarest magicks to exist among Spell-casters, and
we don’t even have it on our side with us. Instead the enemy does,
and we get landed with a Star-caster as a leader.”

“Keep your
tongue at bay, Beast-caster,” said Selphira. “The days of lesser
thinking of star-casters will be put behind you on this quest
whilst I am here from now on. Speak to him like the person he is, a
worthy life form. Enough drama.”

The
Beast-caster just nodded her head, disgraced. She looked up at the
tall ceiling she could not find an end to. The light from her
star-metal did not stretch far enough to reach. It must have been a
mile high or so, no exaggeration.

Adea knew
deep down she could not beat an Edeolon Warrior with years behind
her, she was far beyond the skill of a person like Selphira. So the
Beast-caster gave no more hassle towards Ematay.

They all
carried on to what Eleanor and Christian believed was the place the
portal must have been, and Ematay knew it to be; though they all
stopped, looking at an item floating amid the air, glowing with a
radiant purple energy that seemed to give off little light, other
than for itself. Light similar to what surrounded the wall. It was
so high into the air that they all nearly missed its sight. But the
finder noticed it before all others.

“What is
that?” asked Eleanor before the others has a chance to speak.

“The
Apostle Stone,” said Ematay, “And before any of you ask, no known
person knows what it does. All we know is that it came from the
first death of a true born Spell-caster on Astora,” he didn’t just
look at the kids, but the Spell-casters too. So it was clear to the
children that not even they knew what it was about, or what it
could do. The purple glowing stone was not so much a stone like
they would use to build with, but a stone that was round, a sphere;
looking so smooth it looked almost alien to humanoid eyes.

They all
beamed at the stone, seeing the round light entrance them for some
time as they walked on.

Bang. A
thud suddenly knocked the ground. One that sounded heavy. Not like
the stone they just turned from.

The sound
came from behind them, and it went on for some time. Then it
sounded as if rock slid across the floor, the excruciating drums of
their ears paid for this, making them all cover their ears.

“What on
Astora is it?” shouted Eleanor, feeling the sound more than the
others.

“I don’t
know. It doesn’t sound good though,” said Oddius; which in turn
surprised the others, because he seemed to be more of a stranger to
words, at least words they could hear. “Get behind me. I will be
able to stop whatever it is that comes this way.” Everyone darted
behind the Warrior of Faith.

The
Fire-caster held up a light from her fist that glowed mightily and
far, though was still not good enough at this range to see what it
was. So he powered it down, not wanting to waste his energy in
these moments of uncertainty. Whatever it was, it was hidden, or
still some distance away. The sound of scraping continued, and it
didn’t get any less painful. Like sharp nails scratching against
rock, yet also sounding like screeching from a heavy metal being
dragged along a disagreeing surface. The smell of fire smoke came
from Lauretta’s hand for a few seconds, and wafted into most of the
others mouths, making them cough..

“Make it
stop,” shouted Eleanor.

Oddius and
Selphira instantly took the blame. Them being the strongest there
made them feel responsible.

“Oddius,
come with me. We will check it out.” Both went forward, holding out
their arms, to get the most out of the light from their
star-bracelets.

The two
Warriors of Faith went so far out of the light of the other
star-metal bracelets luminous arc, that it all appeared dark where
their allies where now, where their footsteps crept from.

The
screeching continued till a scream of “Oddius” sounded from the
other Edeolon Warrior.

A sound of
something resembling blown leaves almost struck through the air,
and then the people, all the people in that room—were now floating
in mid-air, not able to move as easily and as freely as before; as
they would have liked to right now, in a time of need, where
thunderous bangs grew into worry.

Another
sudden thud came to the floor with a growling of what seemed to be
a language. The noise happening over and over in the same tone, and
with the same pacing apart, a little like Morse code.

“What can
we do?” asked Adea, floating in the air.

“There is
nothing we can do like this I am afraid. We will have to wait, and
pray.” Ematay looked at himself floating. Like he was weightless,
nothing, like physics became a nonsensical thing on their journey
now.

Blue
Light

Oddius
and Selphira walked past all the others, moving forward to discover
this crawling ‘thing’, if it was even a ‘thing’ to be called.

Both the
Edeolon Warriors eyes were menacing, so focused, yet not afraid.
Danger to them must have been an ordinary thing. They didn’t fret;
even for the likes of them looking like older children, teenagers.
It still did not falter, and their past was clear at work in this
situation.

They could
hear the scraping as they got closer, and still continued to wince
whenever the screech flew through the air towards them.

When
they got nearer the archway and white wall that once stood and
stopped them from getting in here, there was no next screech; this
being when they were only about ten yards from the spiralling
stairs. They both stood still, looking around. Only none of them
could see anything. Still nothing. It became a conundrum, and the
conundrum turned into an eerie mess now, surrounding them. Their
minds not so much afraid, merely anxious.

But that
all changed with the strike of hard rock hitting near their
whereabouts, looking as if it was aimed at them, being a bad hit,
maybe one to merely alert and frighten. Only as luck would have it,
the jump from the Edeolon Warriors made them move back from what
they thought was a projectile at first, their star-bracelets
falling off much easier than they liked in this moment, and with
it—the light that helped guide their eyes.

Only it
wasn’t a projectile. Selphira’s eyes were so close to this rock she
could see it. Not very well, but her eyes adapted to the lack of
light fast, faster than any known being alive. This rock shaped
like a column, with spikes upon it at the end, moved again; it
pulled itself up from the floor and then—they saw it now. It was
pulling its body closer and along the floor. Looking as thick,
sturdy rock would look, but also as brown as the earth and soil
beneath and around. Where their joints should be was an orange
glowing like lava; it even flowed like lava, only this flow had
nowhere to go, except around the joints it clung to before the next
dark brown textured rock made up more of its body.

After it
came a little closer and Oddius quickly picked up both their
bracelets, him shining a light only briefly to it from wearing his
own, they were sure these were creatures of rock, of earth, of
lava. They looked as if they were made from the world itself.
Children of Astora, yet makers of themselves. Though it seemed this
creature didn’t know what to make of the ageless young looking
folk.

All the two
teenage looking warriors could think of was the sorrowed face that
showed pain on its part to them.

Then there
was an anger that fuelled this creature. Selphira noticed this
sudden change in its face with its eyes glowing a brighter blue.
She presumed it must have thought Selphira and Oddius were the
beings who done this to him, her, this beast, and whatever happened
to all of the others of its kind.

She then
changed into the same exact creature in front of her. Only as it
should have been; walking freely, not damaged. She stepped quickly
in front of her long time friend, shielding Oddius as the two fists
that looked more like earthly columns plummeted into her now tough
and dense legs at her knees. At the height her friend and she was
before transforming.

Selphira as
an Original, a child made from Astora, paid close attention to what
little pain she got from such a devastating blow from two enormous
fists that looked the same size of the ‘Boulder of Dawn’. It barely
hurt Selphira as she was now, but could have easily done more had
she not changed.

The
Beast-caster could hardly feel anything, and not just physically,
but emotionally too. She could still feel the turmoil thinking
about her dead Edeolon Warrior friends dying thousands of years ago
like they were still fresh, giving residual feelings to her insides
as easy as ever. Yet for whatever reason, they were lessened now by
a great amount, which made her feel out of place and quite
uncomfortable. The new form bringing with it a new set of rules, as
it normally did for Beast-casters.

Selphira
thought she kept herself inside pretty well on most occasions when
she transformed into other beings. Only this one seemed to be very
different.
Perhaps because this being is so old compared to all
the others I have changed to
? thought the female Edeolon
Warrior.

The true
Original Astorian growled before it was about to try and strike
again, sounding as if falling rocks roared around them; with itself
trying to get closer now, pulling itself along the floor again.

Oddius had
gathered himself from the humanoid reaction of shock. He placed his
right arm in front, turning his palm face down and brought up his
hand again to put by his side. A sound like rustling leaves went
off—Original Astorian lifting into the air with it, slowly,
beginning to float uncontrollably. But at the same time the others
floated too, the only one who wasn’t was the Space-caster Oddius;
standing firmly on the ground.

“Hey,” said
one of the Astorians. It was a young voice, and sounded like that
of a humanoid. Oddius knowing thereon it was Selphira. She suddenly
dropped to the floor, making the ground shudder like large crashing
boulders would. Her eyes were that of the colour blue, almost
looking like they were made from the Shade Sea itself, with no
pupil, only colour, Oddius didn’t know this until now as she had
her back turned. The Space-caster put his star-metal bracelet on
for good again now, safely out of harms way.

The rest of
Ematay’s team could see them once more in the far distance. A blue
light engulfing their location.

This
Original Astorian was so far out of sight with their allies, that
they could all only just see it.

Though
Eleanor in particular noticed the Original had a leg gone.

“It would
take some tremendous force to damage one of these,” echoed Ematay
from afar. “And it must have been very powerful being. This is
worrying. Very worrying,” said the Star-caster with all the worry
of the world on him now. Though Ematay could not see exactly what
was wrong with the beast, he could make out the beast could not
walk properly.