Mythic (NaNoWriMo14)

Chapter 41 - Last Chance

After a brief explanation of the plan, Rena took her place in the circle of Mythics on the portal's surface. 

She was fairly certain that none of them believed what she'd suggested was possible, but after Allegra brought up the fact that Rena had taken out the chaotics completely on her own, they'd listened. As some cheery fae had brought up, they were all going to die a whole lot slower deaths if they didn't do something anyway, so why not risk it and probably cut short the suffering with a quick death? 

Rena didn't care why they were sitting with her. The important thing was that they were doing it. They needed every mind possible to make this work. 

"Link the circle!" Rena called, taking Allegra's hand to her right and Kiou's to her left. It'd been the muses idea, the circle. To space out the Mythics capable of manipulating raw energy to ensure everyone was linked to the djinn. "Focus!" 

The djinn was well into his ritual why the time they were ready. It was longer than Rena recalled, but she supposed the portal hadn't been infected by a chaotic spectre back then. Incoherent words fell from his lips as the ley rose around him, crackling, pushing to escape as he kept it under his will. Slowly, it expanded, reaching around the outside of the circle and bringing one Mythic at a time into the circle. 

Allegra gasped as the djinn's ley reached her. Her fingers tightened on Rena's, skin trembling. Rena kept her grip and steadied herself, preparing to hold her mind free from the power of the djinn's lure. 

The ley crept over Allegra's wrist, climbing over their interlocked fingers and finding its way to Rena's body. 

She tensed as it climbed up her arm and engulfed her body. His ley hadn't changed. Still powerfully raw, still a blank canvas for his will, but Rena no longer felt hypnotised by it as she had been back at the temple. It was sweet, it was heady, but she could resist its pull.

One by one, new consciousnesses joined her inside the ley. Rena's vision slipped from the physical more than once. She caught glimpses of familiar things, the clouds of ley, the glow of crystal keys, but she also saw things she couldn't explain. Flickers of scenes long past. She saw herself through the eyes of others and more than once, caught herself disconnected from her own body to be regarding her own cross-legged form with awe, even resentment. 

The djinn closed the circle over the final Mythic. His voice echoed through their communal mind.

I'm about to connect us to the portal, he said, the words lacking their usual charisma. He was utterly focused on his task. There was no room for pride or hatred. Do not break the circle. This will not be pleasant. The spectre doesn't want us in there. 

The ley shifted. Where it had hovered, it was now tugging on Rena's consciousness, pulling her thoughts and her mind towards the centre of the circle, the heart of the portal where she'd crossed over once before. Rena didn't resist it, letting her essence separate from her body. The two came apart with ease, leaving her drifting in the ley, always drawn towards the centre. 

The other Mythics didn't come so easily. Several of them, particularly those of the giant and beast families struggled to let themselves go. Rena pulled herself back to them, coaxing them with the slightest charm to convince them it was safe, that they could relax. She told them nothing she didn't believe was true herself, but even so, as each reluctant Mythic listened to her, the guilt started to build. 

Yet they were still blocked. Still held out of the portal by something that resembled a dark, mystical plug. 

Rena found the djinn's essence, the brightest by far. Can you get in?