Dimension Fourth

One

"Jaleel! Jaleel!"

In the darkness, the voice came slowly, at a distance. I could no longer differentiate between the pain that had racked my body just a few minutes ago and the demons that haunted me. I mean, the pain was pain, but it crushed two different parts of me, almost completely. One part needed to stand and run, but the other, my heart, was too worn.

"Jaleel! We hafta go!"

It was her voice again. I could hear the lilt to it. But she sounded pained and anxious, as though something really bad was about to happen. She was calling out to me, and I wanted to answer, but to wake up and face the pain seemed too much to ask from myself.

I felt the pain and the demons close in on me, hounding me to the death, only satisfied when my last was consumed by their sorrow. Pictures of caged, starving children swam behind my eyelids, bound by chains and bleeding from multiple beatings. The old slaver caravans...that night...

All because of that night. Closer they were coming, and further I felt I was slipping. Further away from her, my source and sustenance and my light.

And the light!

She was here! And she was fighting for me. I could feel her near and the shadows were receding. The darkness was fading as her brilliant blue light lanced through my misery and left trails of this indescribable sensation.

I wanted to stay there forever.

But it was not to be. The light intensified, and I moved my hand to shade my eyes, but there was no relief. Then in one final sharp burst, I was up and out. It felt like bliss being free from those cages deep down, but waking up to the real world hit me. Hit me hard.

"Lee!" She was shouting my name. "You hafta get up! They're here!"

My eyes fluttered open, and I looked around groggily, not fully comprehending what she was saying. There was some haze, and a dull moaning sound intermingled with a few sharp snaps and crackles.

What was going on?

But then it hit me. That acrid smell of death that seemed so thick in the air at just that moment. It seemed to force its way down my throat and into my lungs and body. It felt like some wicked violator, come to take me to the afterlife against my will.

My eyes flew open. I was awake.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up at her. And immediately began to cough, great hacking, wrenching coughs that shook my body and tore at my insides. My eyes teared up, and the haze intensified.

"Come on, Lee! The hell are you crying for? It's just a bit of smoke."

She was urging me now, pulling me to my feet forcing me into wakefulness. I was stumbling along behind her, tripping over unseen obstacles and almost wretching with the filthy air.

"Wait! Aiza!"

She stopped for me. I could feel her confusion. Energy was just pouring out of her like smoke from an awakening volcano.

"There's no time, Lee! They're here! Right now! And we have to go!"

I swiped at my eyes and covered my nostrils, trying to keep up with her frantic pace. She wasn't hard to follow. Her energy was pretty visible. But it was as if the world had just collapsed.  There were all sorts of random objects obstructing my path. I growled in frustration, bursting through some sort of wall that had made its way between me and Aiza.

Finally my eyes cleared up, and I managed to keep my balance just before I crashed face first into a  fallen beam. I was almost outside, just a few more meters and I'd be out of this burning pit. The air was heavy and thick with ash. Even with my eyes cleared I could barely see.

Struggling to keep up with Aiza, I ran to the limits of the building we'd been in, catching glimpses of broken walls and furniture, and worse - broken bodies. The smoke settled just a few feet off the ground, and running was difficult. I could hear my ragged breaths, and my uneven footfalls pounded in my ears, out of time with my rapid heartbeats.

Aiza tossed a glance over her shoulder, making sure I was with her.

"The stables! We can get out if the horses haven't all fled!" she shouted at me, voice filled with urgency, eyes filled with fear.

I followed the stream of her black hair just ahead of me in the haze. She veered left sharply, causing me to stumble and nearly lose her. Not much further to go, it suddenly hit me that I couldn't hear the cries of the townspeople.

Or the horses.

"Damnit!" Aiza swore as we burst into the empty stables.

"How much time do we have? I can conjure a Hell Steed for us to go on."

"Not enough. And we can't afford you using your Magum and running out if they chased us."

She spun wildly in the open floor of the corner of the barns that held the horses. Smoke and dust filled the air, and  the absence of sound was starting to make tendrils of fear creep through my heart.

"Here."

She threw a bottle at me, and I caught it carefully. Fumbling with the string holding the cover in place, I drank the sweet-tasting potion in great gulps, savouring the feeling of power returning to my body. Her silver eyes glowed with that same blue light as she scanned the room for the door to our salvation.

Breaking through the silence, the soldiers from the royal army flooded into the court outside, horses  stomping and snorting at the smoke. I could see them in my mind's eye, clad in the gold-trimmed black leather of the uniform of the Vanguard, swords flashing in the setting sun and glowing with the flame runes carved into them so that they could burn everything they cut into ash.

"Secure the Hall, men. No one escapes, no one survives!"

The sounds of soldiers dismounting their steeds and rushing to obey the orders of their commander wafted in on the arid, smoky air entering the stable through its windows.

Aiza found what she was looking for. The entrance to the tunnels that ran underneath all the villages close to the Valley's End outside of the Creigen city was in the corner of the room, hidden safely under a barrel and some hay.

"Come on!" She reached her hand out to me, already quickly chanting softly the runes for passage through the subterranean flight route.

Casting the bottle into one of the vacated stalls, I took her cool palm in mine and joined her chants, the strange words of the Olde Tongue slipping through our lips as softly as the dust around us fell. The feeling of peace overcame me, that sense of communion I always got when I chanted with Aiza.

Our Magum rose, intertwining and binding us together. It flowed to where our hands met in a coiling blue light that felt closer to heaven than earth. The hidden symbols on the entrance glowed, responding to our summons, and the illusory covering wavered slowly before seemingly dissolving into a lingering, shadowy mist around the entrance.

The sounds of the soldiers were drawing near, and we ran to the Router pressing our free palms to the old wooden door nestled solidly in the earth.

In the name of the Sacred, we bid entrance of thee!

Responding to the command, the door also dissolved quickly, and we slipped into the depths of the earth as the True Magic above hid our escape.