The Keepers of Eternity

XXXVII

Blaise woke to the smell of mushrooms. He blinked a couple times, his eyes filmy. To his relief, the place he was in was nearly pitch black, save for a few beams of light peeking in through cracks in the walls.

Curious, Blaise tried to rise, but felt a sharp, burning pain flare across his abdomen. He fell back onto his straw-like pillow, feeling his disc's Eternity Phase bubble up again from out of nowhere. That's right. I was gutted back there. The wound would have killed any ordinary person, but once again, the Faeluna had spared him. It must have been a really serious injury if it was still this far from healing.

Blaise focused, and brought up his Eternity Disc's interface. He squinted at the vivid blue light, and those unique glyphs which appeared above his left hand. Its designs felt so familiar, almost comforting in a way.

Faeluna illuminated the room just enough for him to see various species of fungi strung from the ceiling and walls. Several of the edible varieties, such as the green-capped Aeolus vestamycum and the thin Maiden's Hair, hung from the area above him, though, in the distance he spotted the Bleeding Ice Cap, which could be ground into a lethal poison. From the looks of it, he was in some sort of drying barn.

Next to him was a bowl of what looked to be lukewarm broth. Had that been Abreigelle's idea? She'd obviously taken Blaise somewhere where he could heal safely, though she didn't seem the type to play nurse. Perhaps that was why she wasn't here at the moment.

He was lucky that he didn't need anyone to take care of him like that. The Eternity Disc would do all the work. Blaise pressed a pattern on his disc, and felt himself shift into his ten-year-old body. The pain in his stomach flared for a moment, then returned to its normal aching throb. Children often healed faster than adults, so hopefully, this would help speed along his recovery until he could perform jumps with the flyer again. We better get moving fast, too. There's not much time left.

If he was still near Alraia, then Thadan and Purlip were less than three days away by grappling, waiting in one of Blaise's underground stashes as they'd discussed. He wondered briefly what the couple was doing this whole time he was away; hopefully they didn't have the gall to rummage through his belongings.

This whole mess would be over soon, and in the end, Thadan and Purlip would be dead anyway. Abreigelle was progressing in her training at an alarming rate if she managed to get him out of Alraia. Together, the two of them would put up a fight, but there was still the matter of Thadan's Eternity Disc--that was yet another reason to finish him off. Eternity Discs are my responsibility and mine alone. No one else could be trusted with them.

He pondered for a moment. Thadan was half-esk, but did he truly possess the Reprisine? The Eternity Disc was a sacred heirloom to Eskan, so there was no way they would allow anyone to just take their disc away from the homeland, much less give it to a half-breed. However, the powers of the Reprisine seemed like they could also be tangential to Thadan's disc, since both were heavily related to the power of healing. Was it possible the powers of Thadan's disc could heal a mortal's body as well as a broken disc, or was it simply the twin of the Reprisine? Each of the Nine Architects had crafted two apiece, so it was sometimes convenient to think of Eternity Discs as pairs—two which were derived from similar concepts.

Thadan's motives were furthermore, still hazy. He...wished to obtain the Heir as well as the Eternity Disc? Perhaps, Eskan had finally decided to return to their imperialistic ways, and had sent this man out to collect a weapon. The implications of that were concerning, though why offer Blaise the other Eternity Disc in return? That surely didn't add up.