The Coming

CHAPTER 5 - HEALING TIME

…The Toxins react with silica present in minerals to produce fluorescence which can be manifested as a faint halo or gloom around the ground, some minerals and a variety of rock formations in general. Silica-toxin complexes, due to the toxins’ high affinity for silica, are quite stable. It is believed that this Silicophilicity of the toxins is utilized by the Aspects’ physiology in order to extract toxins from their environment. The Silica-rich body of an Aspect is used as the intermediate medium in order to bind to the toxins introduced to it, which are then being metabolized internally. As a by-product of the toxin metabolism, purified water-based solutions, containing carbohydrates among other substances, are produced and stored by the Aspects in large vacuole Cysts. This property of silica is also utilized by Terrans in order to maintain aether environments containing relative low toxin levels. For this reason, most of the Terran settlements are built underground or within caves…

Journal entry 01-01-03-02 from the Personal records of Ahien the Elder.

Io ran. She was used to running after all. All her life, it seemed, was about how fast and far she was able to run in order to stay alive. This time though her running came to a sudden stop. The cave corridor, in which she found herself running, came to an abrupt end after she took a right turn. She was trapped, facing a wall while the Decastomo that chased her appeared behind her, only moments after she arrived at the dead-end.

Io screamed in frustration and reached for her sword only to find that, unbelievably, she didn’t have it with her. The Aspect stopped momentarily just a few steps away from her and let out a triumphant roar that resonated on the cave walls and inside Io’s head. Then it attached her with all of its tentacles at once, beaks biting and tearing into her flesh, reaching into her very soul. Io screamed as she was eaten alive.

Io found herself screaming even after she woke up. She had jumped up from her sleeping spot, both arms crossed in front of her in a defensive stance, as if they could protect her from her latest nightmare. She knew it couldn’t be helped. These dreams were here to stay, it seemed. She looked at all directions around her and let out a long sigh of relief when she realised that the cave was empty and she was alone. Nothing was there around her and Cain was also nowhere to be found; most likely he was out hunting. She uncovered herself and got up. Next to her the fire had died out and a thin layer of smoke had accumulated in the air from its remaining embers.

Io walked towards the cave’s exit. When she reached it she hesitated for a brief moment. She considered her wounded hand for a few heartbeats, before she finally removed the Aspect carapace that was blocking the opening to the outside world. For too long she remained indoors. She wanted out, even if it was going to be for a few moments. Before she stepped outside, Io realized she didn’t have her sword with her so she went inside the main cave chamber once more in order to retrieve it. She guessed Cain would have put it in the secondary chamber and this was indeed where she found it.

The sword was leaning against the cave’s wall in its sheath. Io lifted it and held it reverently in her hand. For a heartbeat she looked at it as if she never saw it in her life, but when her eyes lay on the sword’s hilt, all the memories came rushing back into her mind. The sword was a good old friend, more than a friend, a protector, an extension of her own body. It had kept her alive until now.

Io reached the exit once more and, sword in hand, stepped outside. She was quick to replace the carapace fragment at the cave entrance and then walked around the entrance in order to scout her surroundings. The day was cloudy but decent enough. She knew already from Cain she was on a hill not that far away from the lake, which she could now see the lake in the distance; not more than an ingot burning-time away from her current spot. She could barely make out shapes walking slowly around the lake’s banks. Murklurkers. She thought. She continued to scout her nearby surroundings until she was certain that there was nothing else lurking around in her vicinity.