Prison of Eldan

Part 16: The Return

Rachel

Emily can fall asleep literally anywhere, I reflected with a smile as I looked out my window at the full moon. The pale light shimmered off of the abalone roof, making the whole palace look magical. The Grand Herald's tower glinted brighter than all the others, like the jolly old man was looking out for everyone even in his sleep. The shifting light illuminated a tree in the courtyard, and I sighed to myself. I hope Sophie can get back here soon. It's just not the same without her. The palace had been subdued since the Oracular Pig's prophecy, and people were tiptoeing around Sophie's room as if they were afraid for her to hear them. Oh, if only they knew what was really going on.

Maybe it was just a trick of the light, but the tree I was looking at seemed brighter than the rest of the courtyard. The moon's reflected brightness had stopped shimmering around it now and was solid like a spotlight. As I watched, something... strange happened. The light stopped shining on the tree, and seemed to shine from within it. It sounded weird, I know, but there was no other way to describe it. The moment was quite literally magical, as I suspected sulah was involved.

With that thought, I realized that I should probably go examine the tree. If something with sulah was happening, things could get weird really fast, and Sophie wasn't here to deal with any problems that might arise.

I pulled my door open and hurried outside. Is it right-left-right, then down the stairs, or right-right-left? I stopped to look out a window and check my direction. Oh good, I'm headed the right way.

The door leading to the courtyard was heavy, and I struggled with it briefly before pushing it open. The tree was glowing brighter now, and it almost hurt to look at. Wait, didn't the vision Emily had show a tree opening the Prison of Eldan? Where's it going to open to? Every door has to have a place on both sides. Oh, damn! If I was right about what was happening, then Sophie was about to come home!

Emily! Get to the courtyard, now! I shouted mentally. I think the prison might be opening!

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Sophie

"What do you think is causing this?" Philippe asked as the tree shot up another inch. It was now up to my shoulders.

"I don't know, maybe sulah? I don't care as much about what's causing it as long as something is. There'll be time to solve the mystery after we get out of here."

"Sulah can explain almost anything, true."

We were silent for a minute as we watched the tree grow even more. Now it was above my head.

"Why did it just start growing all of a sudden? I mean, it was a sapling for a few days, then it just grew to almost full size in a few minutes. And why did it just start growing now? You guys have been in here for seven generations! I find it strange that it just appeared a few days after I got teleported here."

"I suspect that the original spells to keep us in the prison were never meant to last forever, and that there was some way of renewing them when they had grown old. Did the Priests of Soche leave any spells for this?"

"Yes, they said that in order to close the prison, someone with sulah would need to be sacrificed." I shifted my weight nervously. I didn't really want to talk about the fact that I used to think of Philippe as a monster that needed to be locked up.

"Am I correct in presuming that you thought you were the sacrifice?"

"Yes, I did."

"Then that's probably what made the tree start growing in the first place," Philippe said.