Adventure in Ayremus

Chapter Ten: Back to Nothing

The rock walls felt cold to the touch as I leant heavily on them. Ruby, finally relieved of my weight, propped herself up against the wall beside me to catch her breath. The floor felt hollow as every step I took seemed to shake the cleanly cut boulders beneath my feet. The sounds of the waterfall had been replaced by one of a busy town. I glanced over at Ruby.

"What could possibly be hidden down here?" Her voice echoed the ambience surrounding this place, hushed to a soft whisper.

"You expected something?" I replied quizzaciously.

She let out a long drawn out sigh. I felt the same emotions coursing through me as well. We hadn't really gotten anywhere, yet our bodies implied otherwise. Our short trek through the forestry had been quite short; however, upon reaching this cave, a constant weight seemed to balance itself on my head. Pushing me down with... every... step...

I woke with a jolt. I was no longer leaning on a rock. Ruby was at my side, urgently nudging me awake as she watched a shadow pass by our door. The smell of fresh air was replaced with a stinky one. Both Ruby and I were caked with mud, matching the state of the unsightly floor. The pile of straw and hay that I was lying on lined one side of the tiny room we were in. A deranged scream and shout could be heard down the small tunnel that led out into the open air. I leapt up and felt around for my pouch, I scrabbled around in the hay but to no avail. It was gone. A tender hand pushed me back down as I felt my blood boil. I could feel my tendons burn as I balled up my fists in anger. I let out a disgruntled noise and fell back onto the hay, letting my mind wander.

I let Ruby eat most of the what they gave us, refusing to munch on the disgusting slop that had been spooned hastily into a bowl the size of my palm. My vision blurred as I felt a new pain. This one was not physical, it burned my insides and made my muscles tense up. Ruby told me to calm down, still worried that my potentially sudden outburst could potentially attract unwanted attention. I shook the feeling off and let my senses settle. My eyes were tearing up as I lay splayed on the hay bed. I shook my head to clear my mind and by instinct, activated my ethereal sight. The surroundings glowed a deathly blue in my pure vision of the ether, and I noticed that there was something of a slightly higher shade of blue, somewhere in a room upstairs. A small smudge of blue lingered and wobbled in minuscule shaky movements. I could not make out what it was, but I felt a strong pull towards it. Maybe it was...

Ruby shook me from my trance, cutting into my thoughts as she stood up, beckoning me to follow her. A scruffy looking guard in leather opened the door and shoved us both out. We were manhandled into a slightly larger room, where a very menacing figure leant over the rickety oak table. The walls were plastered with dried and flaky blood, and the smell wasn't any more pleasing to the senses. The guard behind us bowed in greeting and went back to his duty, patrolling the long corridors. I was distracted, I stared upwards at the ceiling while the words of the burly man blew past my ear like a soft breeze. Ruby tried to shake me from my trance, but I resisted, whispering a quick sentence.

"I see my tablet."

She immediately glanced upwards and looked back to the man in front of us, who had given up talking and held a long pole in his hands. I gave him no bother as I felt my mind grasping onto the tablet, moving it around slightly and... Ruby and I both let out a squeal as the guards took our tied hands. The burly man had switched out his tool for a humongous axe and swung it over his shoulder. "Defiance to us brings you nothing but death." He bellowed in anger, frothing around his mouth. Ruby looked at me in fear as we were pushed out into a bloodier room. She cowered in the darkness, cursing herself for what she said to the executioner; which must really have crossed the line. The axe thudded into the ground a few inches from me as they tied me down. Ruby was forced into her place beside me and tried to say something, but I closed my eyes shutting the etherless world out from my mind.

I felt my mind transporting itself into the tablet, my foggy vision clearing up as I saw what the tablet is seeing in its cushion that it rested on. A gasp rose from the chair that had spun around suddenly as I commanded the tablet to float upwards, and found myself looking into the eyes of... Dronn.

He paced the room in glee, thumbing his piece of the tablet as he attempted to fuse it to the broken tablet. It took hold, and I saw bright lights shine from within the tablet's cracks itself. Dronn's face lit up with glee, but it was not for long as I, with the new found piece, found myself able to control the tablet more freely. I flew it through the door with an enraged Dronn following slightly behind. I spun the tablet around the corner hastily and glided straight into the wall. Instead of crashing through it, the tablet's vision changed into a hazy blue. I immediately recognized my sight as the ether that I was so used to seeing. I wasted no time and pointed the tablet towards the blue outline of a person below and flew straight for it, leaving Dronn stumbling behind me, scratching at the wall in surprise. He barked out orders to the guards at the gate as I finally flew out into the open.

I saw myself, my head lolled as the executioner finished sharpening his axe. Ruby silently waited, looking around in vain. The executioner spun the great axe in his hand and whistled to the guards to ready Ruby for the kill. I flew the tablet through the ceiling silently and into the room. I resumed control of my limp body and immediately flicked my head upwards. The ropes that held me down seemed to suddenly slacken as I worked the ether all around me. The tablet was a searing white color, gleaming and outshining every other light source in the room. The guards screamed out in terror as I stood my ground, viewing the world flawlessly through my ethereal vision. The tablet returned to my side, and everyone around me had dropped to the ground, dazed by the light. Ruby shook herself free from her own ropes and tugged me along. We ran along the corridors until we saw the sun, leaving the crumbling mess of the dungeons.

Suddenly, I felt my body feel lighter. Ruby looked down at herself and grabbed onto my trailing hand. Dronn momentarily appeared beside me, snickered and suddenly disappeared along with my tablet. The same lightheadedness I felt when we went through the strange rock wall came rushing in again. The world closed in.