The Revelation of the Vine: Graft

Chapter 17: From Stony Darkness to Marvelous Light

  Solanicus and Vhalrin stood next to me as I choked on the water; something about their smells had begun to irritate me. Really, it was Solanicus more than Vhalrin, and it made me want to vomit the water, but I shook the negative feeling away. The others had started to move the fallen into sitting positions upon the wall. Vhalrin and the other Seeds said their farewells, and then went to stand off to the side, as Solanicus stepped up and shifted. The Seeds turned their eyes away from the blinding light, and then Solanicus adjusted the intensity so that there was little more than a sheen glimmer of light in place of his shadows. "Farewell, Korsin Lemniscata, Knight of the Vine," Solanicus whispered, "May you find peace in the Vine." He reached toward the body with a brightly glowing hand, touched Korsin s chest, and the body erupted with blue-white fire. Korsin's body suddenly began to glow bright blue, and then became one with the flames. I watched his soul-essence rise up like a swirling helix of light and then disperse into the Vine. I felt the surge of power, as his Core-energy was distributed to the rest of us, and Solanicus' soul-radiance began to brighten until it flashed uncontrollably with blinding light. Once the energy rise had completed, and the tunnel became dim again, Solanicus moved to stand over the boy's corpse. "Farewell, Falkris Danor, Seed of the Vine," He said, "May you also find peace in the Vine." Then he touched the boy s chest with his fiery hand, and the body burst into blazing, golden flames. A strange memory suddenly flashed through my mind. Falkris and I were standing next to one of the wagons talking, but I couldn't remember ever having the conversation. The words he spoke were fragments of sound that made no sense, and then just as suddenly as it came it was gone. The knights shifted down to normal, as the fire from Falkris died, and we continued, silently, down the corridor. A dull throb in my side served as a constant reminder of the Corruption infesting me. My only hope was that the fruit could somehow neutralize it. But I had no time for hopes of my own. My first priority was to get the Seeds to the tree. Get them Rooted. Make them Lemniscata. Nothing else mattered now. The tunnel turned up ahead where a thin glimmer of light reflected on the corner. We all noticed it, and began to pick up the pace. We turned the corner, and sighs of relief rose up as daylight broke through into the tunnel a couple dozen yards away. The smell of the fresh air of the Valley wafted toward us, carrying the beautiful scent of the Lemniscus tree. "I can't wait to get out of this cave and see what that amazing smell is," Teion said, sniffing at the pleasant scents on the air. "It reminds me of home." "Let's hurry," Tenbu said. "I don't care if it smells like a pile of dead fish; I just want to get out of here." We all hurried, pressing closer to the light, though part of me wanted to slip back into the darkness. Vhalrin and Solanicus pushed ahead of me, and I couldn't help but be thankful that the irritation of their smells was one less thing I had to deal with. I slowed my pace a bit, sinking away from the squad as they rushed for the exit. I really wanted silence, distance, solitude. I felt the Corruption changing me, sending disturbing thoughts and images through my brain, rewiring my neural pathways, and I wanted them to be nowhere near it. Bearing all the weight of the heavy gloom, I marched toward the glowing mouth, and stepped into the brightness of the valley's light as it refracted through the mist in thin beams. We had finally reached Lemnis Dale, and I felt no joy at all. The Vine light actually felt like a burden as it hit my eyes and skin. I wanted to return to the darkness and the cold, to the emptiness where I could be alone. Without thinking, I stepped back into the shadow of the cave. The cave opened onto a ridge in the cliff-face that hair-pinned along a pass down to the valley floor. The mist above was thick and opaque, shining with a bright glow from the Vine-light that traveled down, covering the valley with a blanket of luminous, white clouds. The mountains that surrounded the Horn towered along the horizon under the clouds, and could be seen through the thin layer of mist that hovered over the ground behind a dense forest of diverse trees that covered the valley floor in their canopy. Some of the mightiest trees -- ancient and strong -- rose higher than all of the others, disappearing into the clouds above. In the middle of the Dale, twenty miles away, I could see the colossal trunks of the Lemniscus weaving into the clouds with its vibrant, iridescent green leaves and golden fruit illuminating the mist around it. The smell of the Lemniscus was so much stronger and more concentrated than any of the other scents in the area. It began to elate my senses, and lull my consciousness back into the forefront of my mind. The more I breathed in the scent, the more I began to enjoy it, and with every sniff, I took one step closer to the light. It almost seemed to stabilize the Corruption, to make it go dormant. My hope that the fruit might be able to help got brighter, as I stepped back into the light of the Dale. "V!" The voice broke through the air like the bark of a wolf. "V!" Jurgen and the Krinjite boy, Jeizen, came running toward us from further up the ridge to the west. Only them. My insides swelled with the pain of grief. We had never lost so many lives during a Sowing, but today had been no ordinary day. "V," Jurgen huffed as he bent to catch his breath, and then he looked at me with wide eyes. "What in the bloodiest shadows happened up there?" "The Tear," I said. "The time has come, and we weren't even looking." The gaze in his eyes quivered, as he sifted through the memories. Sweat poured down his face, mixing with blood. His beard was stained red. Bruises, cuts, and scrapes lined his face. His lone survivor, Jeizen, looked no better. "A cave-in took most of us on the stairs; four of the Knights and four of the Seeds," He continued, taking small sips of water through stabilizing breaths. "It would have taken me, too . . . if I hadn't decided to take the lead at the last second . . . but then none of us would have made it here. The thing that hits me the most is that we never even got the time to burn their corpses. We were scared, we ran, I'd never seen so much activity in my life, it was like they were everywhere. Sophi tried to warn me, but then the whole bloody tunnel started to dance under our feet. We had no choice but to run like mad straight . . . straight into . . . ah, I can remember turning back to look just as the falling boulders smashed into their heads and straight down through the stairs." He handed me the water skin with a shaky hand. It was still over half full, and I took a sip. The water tasted horrible, and I almost spit it out, but stopped myself and swallowed hard. It didn't even seem to quench my thirst, as if the Corruption were stealing its energy from me. Jurgen coughed, and then continued, "Then, to top it all off, dozens of Corrupted spiders -- the size of horse -- poured out of the walls and climbed up from the floor in the caverns. They just kept coming. Ah, it s such a shame, V. I . . . I can see their faces in my head . . . their eyes." "They were good men, and the Seeds held a lot of promise," I said, and grabbed his shoulder. "But we received the Knights powers, and all of their souls are on the way to the Core. Their deaths weren't in vain." He shook his head and then continued, "No, you re right, the extra power we gained from their deaths pushed us through, and now they can rest from this shaded world. Darrun and I held the monsters back as best we could while the Seeds ran for the Hall of History, but I lost him and two others before Jeizen and I could get in and seal the elevator. Bloody Shadows, V. We should have known the tear was coming. Those bloody fakes sent us out to die here didn t they, V?" "I don't think so," I replied, "If they wanted us dead, we would be. I think there's something bigger going on, J, and I feel like I already know exactly what it is. I just can't seem to remember anything until it happens, but I swear, it s like all of this has happened before." "Bloody shadows," He muttered. "If only we could remember our last Rest we would know what to do." "Maybe we're not supposed to know what to do," I said, "Maybe if we knew, it would turn out worse. Or maybe we do know, and we just can't remember. Then when it happens, it sparks the memory, but it s impossible to know if we knew it beforehand or not with much certainty." "Bah," he grumbled, waving a hand. "Who knows?" Then he looked around at our group of end-of-the-world survivors and said, "At least your group survived mostly intact. I only count three missing . . . oh . . . where s Kivan!?" I gave him a sharp look through a wince from a sudden pain that seemed to explode at the mention of that name, and then, I began to tell him our side of the journey. His eyes widened when I mentioned Kivan, and he looked like he wanted to scream, "I knew it!" The Knights and Seeds that remained were sitting and standing around us, listening, and adding their own comments during the parts where my mind had wandered away. "Bloody Shadows . . ." Jurgen said when I had finished, "How do you feel?" "Not so good," I winced, "I just hope that the fruit or the leaves can help. But, if the Corruption really has mutated in some way . . ." I didn t want to finish the thought. A pool of tears gathered under his eyes as he looked at me. He sniffed. It was the saddest look I d ever seen on his face. My stomach turned to knots. A sharp prick poked at my cheekbones, as I fought to keep the tears back. I had to stay strong, or risk letting the pain I felt feed the Corruption. "Well," He said, rubbing his face, "This is no time for tears. The sun already dropped enough for everyone that ever lived." He coughed, and then finished his thought, "We still have a hope, and we still have a job." He stood to his feet, and held a hand out. "Let s go, my friend," I said, grabbing his hand and rising from my seat.