Eternal Beasts

Ritual Completed

Nikeera looked around her as the finely penned words on the scroll in her hands stopped glowing and faded back to black. Did she just feel that? A tremble that shook the world?

Whatever it was, it didn't mask the fact she was now exhausted, the strength needed to cast the powerful ritual being drawn directly from her body. She needed to push past it and find Jared. They only had a few hours to connect on the final level that would see their mutual destinies be fulfilled in each other before the summons to Tammen Gall had to be answered.

The scroll she reclosed with a practiced twist of her wrists before holding it out in front of her. The ball of light that had delivered the scroll to her and had hovered close by while she performed the ritual, quickly moved close and the scroll winked out of sight. Then she was turning and moving as fast as her sluggish legs would allow her back out the big doors.

"Lord Japheth!"

The older tuathan stirred from where he had fallen asleep during the second hour he had waited for Princess Nikeera to return from her search into the Master Library. Looking up, he saw the princess striding firmly down the corridor towards him, the double doors at the back already closed behind her.

"Gather yourself," she directed, sweeping past him to begin the climb back up the stairs. "We are done here!"

Nodding even as he scrambled to his feet as best as his old bones would allow, he began to climb after her.

"Did you find what you were looking for, your Highness?" he asked in a wavering voice as he attempted to keep up with the much younger tuathan woman, the pace that she set for the ascent frankly brutal.

"Yes," she curtly replied. Did she have enough strength to cast a snap portal and get them back to the surface that much more quickly? Yes, she did.

"Now step close." And she stopped to wait for the panting older tuathan man to catch up to her. Then, with a gesture and a word of command, a basket of light wove itself around them in a rush of motion and energy, much to Japheth's astonishment. Then she scribed the activation rune in the air in front of her and the staircase winked out of view, replaced by the courtyard they had begun their journey downward in.

"Blessed Maker!" Japheth husked, nearly falling over in amazement.

"Steel yourself, Lord Japheth," Nikeera said tautly. She had no time to waste with these doddering, ignorant fools that laughingly called themselves tuathan nobility. Especially after how that imbecile Aaron had disrespected her Jared.

"I need you to go to the Maker's Temple and fetch me a priest."

"A priest, your Highness?"

"Did I stammer, Japheth?? Yes, you fool. A priest! Have them meet me on the griffon platform atop Caedmon's Tower in the next fifteen minutes."

"Forgiveness, your Highness, but I cannot run to the temple in fifteen minutes," Japheth weakly protested.

"Maker save me from incompetence!" Nikeera snarled. A smooth gesture and a word of command coalesced a storm of blue and gold light just above her, swirling like a miniature tornado as it gathered magical energy from the ether all around her. Then another gesture was channeling the gathered energy directly into her body, making her stiffen with the surge of power that, temporarily at least, scoured away the gnawing fatigue.

Her eyes glowing from within with bright blue light for a moment, she then looked back at a cowering Japheth.

"Priest. Griffon platform on Caedmon's Tower. Fifteen minutes," she said. Then, with a wave of her hand, used a push portal to jump the tuathan nobleman to the temple's front porch, several kilometers deeper into the city.

- Nikeera, can you hear me? - the Watcher suddenly said into her head.

- Honored Watcher! Yes, I can hear you, - she replied as she turned and used her borrowed energy to run out of the courtyard through the arch that served as its entrance.

- Thank the Maker! - the Watcher declared. - I thought we had lost you. -

- Lost me? I was just in the Master Library. You should've been able to see me through its wards without trouble. -

- And I did, until you abruptly disappeared, - the Watcher explained.

- I ... disappeared. - Nikeera frowned. Had the ritual's completion somehow taken her temporarily out of phase with the rest of Ethaeron's reality?

- Honored Watcher, where's Jared? -

- In the courtyard outside of the king's main audience hall, - the Watcher replied.

Frantically Nikeera searched for a mental image of the courtyard. A point to point portal was only possible if she had been somewhere before. If she blind ported to a place, she ran the risk of materializing inside a wall, or half buried in a floor. Or even dropping out of mid air through enough distance that she could be seriously hurt or killed by the landing.

- Damnit, Watcher, I don't have a mental image of the courtyard in order to form a portal there, - she said as she ran down the street out in front of the courtyard towards the palace that she could see in the distance. - Do you have one I could bounce off so I can gate directly to him? -

- There's no point, Princess. Jared needs to leave now if he is to reach the Arch in time for the summons to unfold. -

- Now? But he has over twenty two hours to get there. And the flight is what, six hours at best? -

- No, Princess. He only has seven hours before the summons tears him apart, - the Watcher countered.

- How is that possible? - she demanded to know.

- Whatever spell you triggered in the Master Library has moved you and him ahead by sixteen hours, - the Watcher explained.

Sixteen hours?? No!!

- Honored Watcher, I need that image now! - the tuathan princess said with no little urgency. And felt a slight tingle of relief when the image of the courtyard appeared in her mind.

The portal web spun around her with a gesture and a word of command even as she continued running. Then she was drawing the activation sigil and the street winked out of sight. It was instantly replaced by the courtyard. Where, with dust still swirling from where Samantha had used her wings and powerful body to launch her and Jared into the air, Nikeera stumbled to a halt to look into the sky and see the rider and griffon already reduced to a tiny dot against the clear, spring sky.

"NOOOOOO!" she howled in despair, falling to her knees as she stared at the dwindling dot.

"JAAREEEEEED!"

The tears came then, hot and angry. Damn the Tuatha for failing to keep magic alive in their lands, forcing her to be the one to finish the ritual! And, in doing so, losing her the only person that ever meant a damn to her. Without Jared here, beside her, Findias felt ... empty. Ethaeron felt empty. And for the briefest of moments, she didn't care if the Harbingers' forces razed the last City of Stone to the ground.

- Jared does not go to war, Princess, - the Watcher came into her mind to carefully remind her. - He will return to Findias following the summons to assist the Tuatha and the races of Light plan strategy for the war. -

The powerful entity paused slightly as if measuring its next words.

- You will still have plenty of time to fulfill your destiny with him before his obligations in war take him from you. -

Savagely wiping away her tears, Nikeera pushed herself back to her feet as the Watcher's words returned strength and determination to her in a rush.

- Then I will prepare for his return, honored Watcher, - she tautly promised. - Starting with a meeting with a certain priest! -

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