Stars Of Madness

Chapter 12: Old Friends

Sleeping in the cabin was a major change of pace from the comfortable bed I used to sleep in back at home, thankfully I slept through the night without and strange occurrences taking place minus the bugs that sometimes crawl over me or the occasional unexplainable noise echoing from the woods that would wake me up throughout the night, I choose not to question it. Eventually morning came and I trudged out of the cramped cabin to see Aela already awake and there to greet me.

"Good morning, did you sleep well?" Aela asked.

"Not really, I feel like I barely slept at all." I responded barely awake as I was.

"I was quite the same I must say, but we have work to do regardless, and we have to keep moving or they will find us."

"Who is even chasing us?"

"Things you don't want to see."

"I guess I have to take your word for it, so where are we going first?"

"I was hoping you'd have some ideas."

"ME? I barely have any idea what's going on still." I said as an idea entered my head..."Wait...my friend Gavin was the one who found the book and gave it to me since he couldn't find a way to sell it."

"You were going to sell the book?!" Aela exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, at the time I was because it was my job slash hobby alright? But my thinking now is that maybe Gavin took some of the pages for his own for research-"

"Or he put on the mask that arrived at his doorstep and tried to make you share the same fate as him becoming a follower of the cult. He probably took the pages to destroy them, but they can't be destroyed by normal means."

"How can you destroy pages of the Necronomicon?" I asked curiously.

"You can only permanently destroy pages of the Necronomicon by using a special fire spawned from an Elder Sign, it requires a full two days of chanting and ritual sacrifice and prayer to get the Elder Sign made due to its unknown cosmic proportions."

"What kind of proportions?"

"You remember how we flew across the water in the Dreamlands?"

"Yeah...still feels unreal."

"That was an elder sign projected into a physical form or sorts, basically they can be manipulated to the casters needs, some things require more preparations, and some are simple and easy to do only requiring you to say something in the book. Some of the words are written in Sanskrit and partial Arabic but most of it is written in an eldritch dialect that I can't speak. But in the Dreamlands...the rules are different as to what is real and what can't be real."

"So, what can you do in the real world?"

"Nothing as advanced as that platform I created in the Dreamlands, but I can do some other things like make us invisible or teleport and do this." Aela reached her hand up and put her hand over my eyes and said something inexplicable with a faint glow emanating from her hand.

"What did that do?" I asked curiously.

"Your mind won't be affected by what you see now, you have an Elder Sign seal on your eyes now guarding you from vision induced madness. This doesn't protect you from other forms though."

"I guess I'll take it, but you also said we can teleport. And be invisible?" I said with excitement.

"Yes...but I can only do these things in moderation, they take a toll on the mind when they are used, this can usually be dispelled with a good night's sleep and rest but the cultists don't care what happens to them so they could have a more versed range of things they can do."