A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 77 Chaos Approaching

       

Chapter 77 Chaos Approaching

Raina walked down the hall, eyes flicking every which way, taking in the astounding sights. The hall was massive, all great, gray blocks of stone perfectly fitted together, reaching easily one hundred feet above her head in a sweeping arch. The walls, from about fifty feet high and all the way down to the floor, were covered almost entirely in what looked like thick, luxurious tapestries.

Wall hangings expertly crafted, each telling a story in an image captured by the artist using various shades of thread as their pen. The floor was interlocking slabs of deep black marble, shot through with scattered lines of sparkling gray. It was so polished, so dark, that she felt like she was walking across the midnight sky of a lower realm, existing just below this place.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Ahleena was quiet, seeming even more subdued than normal.

She was walking with Raina down the center hall to this palace, bringing her to meet somebody. She hadn't told Raina who she was to meet, but Raina had been able to read her body language enough to know they were people Ahleena would rather avoid. Raina wondered what type of person could make the normally untouchable Ninja so wary. She wasn't at all sure she wanted to meet such people, but she didn't feel like she had a choice. Ahleena wanted her to meet them, so she would. It was ever that way with the Ninja.

"Yes. It's beyond beautiful. What is this....this world? I don't understand." Raina saw the many adjoining, smaller hallways, some filled with bustling servants, identified by their simple, black outfits.

This palace, filled with servants and soldiers and nobles. A land out of time. Except, she saw torches in rooms without windows, shedding more light and warmth than should be possible, burning with an eerie glow, a ball of some type of fire floating just above the torch shank.

Power. Raw, psionic power, tied down and controlled in ways she never imagined were possible. She could almost see it, a single focus point within each torch, hair-like strands racing off in every direction, getting smaller and thinner as they went, until her eyes couldn't track them any further. And she understood they were lines of power feeding the torches. But from where? From who?

"You'll learn a lot more about this land later today." Ahleena said, striding down the hall with her eyes fixed straight ahead. Ignoring the beauty around her as if she were walking through a dank, underground dungeon instead of through a building so massive and beautiful that it boggled the mind.

Raina studied Ahleena from the corner of her eye as they walked. Trying to pin down her body language, the nuances to the way she moved and looked. What was this place to her? It was obviously a place she had been to before. And equally obviously a place where something bad had happened to her. A location tied forever to soul-scarring nightmares.

Then, as they walked, as Raina tried to see everything about her at once, her eyes caught the flare of power surging wildly. She blinked and stopped, standing frozen in place like a rabbit moments before the lion pounces. She could see the power moving even through the walls.

Her hand rose and she flapped it helplessly forward, down the hallway in front of her. A choking sound crawled out of the back of her throat, her face draining of all color. The image of mind-warping panic.

Ahleena was in a dangerous crouch, both of her swords blazing in her hands, edges forged by her willpower and enhanced by her raw power. She had read Raina's panic as an imminent attack, reacting as the Ninja would. And then, as her senses told her nothing was amiss, she understood what Raina was seeing.

"The city prepares to meet the Berserker." She said quietly. As if it was an explanation, when it to Raina it was nothing but more riddles.

Raina managed to pull her stunned senses back under control, shutting her eyes and breathing deeply. It was incomprehensible, this level of power in motion. It made her feel less insignificant than a dust speck in a hurricane. To her eyes, it looked like fully half of the totality of the psionic power of this entire world had just gathered around the gates to the outer wall that surrounded the city. Seething, surging, unimaginable power, its motion conveying its intent unmistakably. It was a weapon. It was destruction. It was war absolute.