The Revelation of the Vine: Graft

Chapter 6: The Only Way Up is Down

Just as I was about to shout for us to hurry down the stairs, something happened that stole the words from my throat, and left my mouth hanging open. A thick pillar of cryogenic fog erupted behind the tidal wave, shooting up into the flaming sky like a geyser, and the water began to freeze.
I watched in wonder as the rising, crashing, curling, and falling parts of the wave froze into solid ice, forming what looked like the jagged overbite of a world devouring creature creeping over the mountains. The water that had been crashing back rose into the air like sharpened spikes and horns. A wave of the freezing mist billowed over them from the cryo-steam geyser, and rolled down the mountains into the Unclaimed Territory. The gas pillar was pushing the flames away from its point of impact in the sky above, almost as if dousing them, turning the roaring inferno sound into a piercing hiss. The burning mass of flames that covered the sky was slowly beginning to dissipate, as it was quickly conquered by the cooling fog that was strengthening and spreading the savage Rime-storm. The thick clouds grew and grew and grew until they had completely filled the sky, and then, kept growing. More than 10 minutes passed, before I watched the tail end of the steam pillar get absorbed into the black and gray clouds of thick fog and freezing rain that had filled the sky. The growing mass, after spreading across what I imagined to be the entire sky of the whole world, began to literally fill the air. The clouds grew closer and closer to the ground as I watched it swirl around, bulging its way toward us. The cryo-rains could fall at any moment, freezing the Seeds in their tracks. The temperature began to drop much faster than it had risen earlier, and I watched as the cloud of freezing mist began to fall back down to the ground. Small chunks of hail began to pelt us from above. Then medium ones. Then large ones. "Everyone down the hole, NOW!" I screamed, scrambling to my feet in the slushy water that cascaded over the Cliff and into the tunnel. Large chunks of ice ricocheted off my armor and one of them smacked my helmet directly in the back. A short blur crossed my vision. We scrambled to the opening, feet shuffling in the slushy mixture of water, snow, and ice. I saw one of the Knights come sliding past me to my left, and realized it was Kivan. I tried to grab him, but he was already out of reach, and I couldn't risk leaving the Seeds behind to surge after him. He flipped helplessly over the side of the opening with eyes closed and limbs flailing limply from unconsciousness. He must have taken a direct blow to the head. When we reached the hole a short time later, he was already gone, rolled down the slippery steps into the blackness below. "BE CAREFUL," I screamed through the sound of the hissing freeze, as the cryogen mist rolled down. Pointing toward the hole, I motioned for the men to go first. They didn't hesitate. Tenbu, Falkir, Teion; one-by-one, they, and the others, all stepped down into the hole. But where was Vhalrin? A faint trace of worry crossed my heart. Not one of the Seeds The massive cloud of falling mist closed in, and I felt the freeze draw closer. Frigid tendrils and tongues licked at the top of my helmet, as my ears began to burn from frostbite, and realizing that my hood had blown down, quickly pulled it back up over my head. I saw movement a few yards away through clear patches in the swirling debris. Vhalrin was shuffling toward me--mostly obscured by the falling hailstones and splashing snow slush-- holding the lantern that had been dropped by Kivan. The hail pelted him as he took long crouching steps through the sleet. The worry lifted. I patted him on the back as he descended into the hole, and fell in at the rear of the squad between two Knights. We re gonna make it, I yelled, as I stepped down onto the slippery steps. Nothing but mouth movements, as the cacophony of destruction kicked my words to the ground. The faint glint of his lantern reflected on the walls of icy-stone around him, and I followed him, taking my steps as carefully as the encroaching freeze would allow. My head cleared the hole, as we shuffled down the stairs that had become an icy stream, but the cryo-mist was only a couple yards away from crashing through the entrance and freezing all life within the tunnel. I reached the 15th step where a small Lemniscate was carved into the face, still visible through the sheen layer of slushy water. I stopped, and planted my feet on each side of the symbol; a faint blue light began glowing in its swirling, intertwined line. The squad was a few steps below me. They stopped and turned around, looking up at me in the dim light. The only way up, I began, and the tunnel filled with a loud, echoing hiss of releasing pressure, is down! The hiss died, replaced by the slow cranking of gears, and then the loud grinding began again. The door above had begun to close, sending a waterfall of slushy snow into the hole as it jerked to the left. Welcome to the Sowing Caves, Captain Virgil of the Lemniscata, I heard a woman's voice speak from within the walls of the tunnel in an encrypted frequency that was inaudible to the Seeds and Knights. Anomalies detected. Warning: anomalies detected throughout the system, extreme All-flesh activity. Please take necessary precautions. Then her voice disappeared with a fuzzy blip. I continued the descent, trying to move quicker, motioning with my hand for them to turn and keep going. I turned my head over my shoulder as I shuffled forward, and saw that the door had almost reached the halfway point, but it was too late. The freeze hit the ground hard, sending razor-pointed shards, chunks of dense ice, and a long arm of freezing mist down through the gap of the door. Sparks exploded from the tracks as the force pressed down on the door, and icy frost formed on the surfaces, spreading along the inside of the door and down the walls of the tunnel. The ground trembled and swayed around us like an earthquake, and the sound of distant rocks crumbling in destruction echoed from below. Duck and cover, Seeds! Knights, block them, we have sharp debris incoming, I shouted, as I turned my head back around, and shards of hard ice pinged against my armor and hit my shoulders and arms. One of the shards zoomed past my right ear, and then a surprised yelp cut through the air as it crashed into the helmet of one of the Knights next to Vhalrin. I moved closer to block him from the assault. The rest of the shards and ice chunks were raining down on us in a torrent, pelting us from behind as the Seeds crouched on their steps. The Knights and I hovered behind them, taking the full brunt of the debris, but I watched as the frozen daggers melted into boiling liquid once they hit us and splashed forward onto the Seeds thermal cloaks and then evaporated into vapor. I heard another crack of rocks in the distance, this time it seemed to come from the other side of the walls. I heard the sound of screams, then a large boom that muffled some and cut-off others. A sudden surge of power rose up in me, and I knew that some of the Knights in Jurgen s group had fallen. Their Core-energies were being distributed through the Vine to those of us who remained, as was the way of the Lemniscata. Whenever one of us dies, the ones who remain are made stronger. This strength has been passed down for 1200 years, and soon it will be passed to these Seeds. The sounds of the horrible nightmare were suddenly muffled by a loud screech that echoed down the tunnel. The door had finally closed, and sealed the entrance. A long hiss sounded, and then the cranking stopped. Only the echoes of random thuds and thumps from icy debris hitting the door outside, and the trickling fall of water below remained. The wall of energy faded as the power rise completed, leaving us in the darkness of the cold tunnel.