Creation: The Primordial Era (Creation Series, Book 2)

Refracted Senses

Oracion's POV

I look from the shattered window, remembering the sun's about to rise as I remember Ira. "Drink the cure so we can move on." I advise him while going down the steps to pick up Eragon's head.

"Spit." I order him as he attempts to release the glass shards from his bloodied mouth. "Why is it you're still able to...live?" I ask.

"M-y power was an anomaly" He coughs out through blood, "It came to me in a dream, there wasn't a figure, there wasn't a shadow and there wasn't any form of life. It was just a voice echoing the words, "Wait for him." When I described it to Aluca she seemed to recall something...not long after is when she disappeared from us." He explains.

"Hmm" I hum out, picking him up by the hair and carrying him along with me.

"What do you hope to get through me? I'm not sure you understand the limits that I have, whatever's plaguing your village's memories is beyond me, a beast that could rival...them." He continues to ramble as I past by Ira, noticing he's still holding the vial.

"Drink it Ira, that way we'll go back to the way things were." I encourage him.

"You protecting us all the time?"

"If that's what I have to do, for us." I walk to the hole in the wall that Eragon created earlier, narrowly avoiding the crumbling rubble.

"We're in a different place than we started right? I'm sure...you'll need me to help at some point. I'll save it for when we're closer, how's that sound?" He tries to reason, one that I'm not fully against.

Each step I take feeling heavier than the last as my body's healed but whatever will I had that kept me going is very much vanishing. "Whatever you want Ira, let's leave." I breathe out, trying to retrace my steps through the castle.

We both walk in silence with him lingering behind me ever so slightly, treading over the blood soaked carpet and dripping walls. Ira's palm every now and again being placed along his chest as if he's struggling to breathe. The mist still lingering around, still guiding me even. It's almost like he's fighting death just to spite me in these moments. His head in my hand but his body elsewhere...still he continues to breathe and bleed.

I stop for a moment after witnessing a blur along the wall, stepping back to acknowledge myself within the mirror. The white tips in my hair gradually spreading further along my head, my fangs barely allowing me to close my jaw and my eyes still partially dyed with a putrid red as veins bulge around it.

Ira walks into frame alongside me, gazing at his own appearance and touching his face while looking at my own. 'We dragged ourselves into this place with the intention of changing what we had back home...but is this the change we needed?' I think to myself before continuing through.

Whilst we walk through this last hallway, I can't help but hear Eragon hum at something in curiosity. Following suit of where he's facing, I look towards Ira. His hand weaving in and out with the mist, influencing it almost.

After one final turn, we step into the entrance hall where all the vampires and humans from the castle gather in front of us, some with standing with malice and others standing with complete bewilderment. I grip Eragon's head tighter after I hear him sigh in annoyance...boredom, whatever it was, I don't have it in me to care anymore.

"Com-" I hold my breath as I hear a sort of hissing behind me.

"They oppose us." I can hear Ira's glee.

With the mist beginning to revolve and my body nearing its limit, I dread to look at where the sound is coming from. But...nothing could of prepared me for the scene that played out before me.