Jewels from the Dark

Morrigan took a deep breath as she walked away from her brother. She could not believe how stupid Meirleach had been. The foolish, insolent boy. Betraying the Nefas was one thing, but betraying the Void was quite another. Had he learned nothing from his father’s example ? And for what? Líadan?

Who was that woman, anyway? She had never seen anyone defy the Void and live. Her husband had been utterly destroyed. Morrigan’s heart squeezed at the memory and she shook her head to clear it. Some things were better left to the yesterdays.

~~~~~

Manadh reached the edge of the Wasteland and motioned for the other scouts to fan out and keep watch. She needed to negotiate with the Waste Wind and the Void alone. She gave the humble summoning whistle and stepped forward, immediately overcome with a heaviness that pushed her down. As she sank into the abyss, she shivered. No matter how many times she did this, the depth of the darkness, the coldest cold imaginable, and the stark emptiness that shattered souls never got easier to bear. She lifted her chin to take one last breath of warm air and held it as her head slipped beneath the earth.

~~~~~

Darach was still clinging to the embers in his pocket when a cruel hiss filled the air around him.

“I am being summoned…,” the voice scratched out. “I have half a mind to take you with me, as you are the only one in the Waste, so it must be about you…”

“Please,” Darach rasped out, his voice sounding hollow in his own ears. “Don’t…”

A searing lash of wind struck him across the face. He gasped, feeling blood begin to bead and then trail down. A wispy hand caught him by the throat and he felt himself being dragged backward toward the edge of the Wood. He also was pulled deeper under the ground.

His heart lifted with hope just as his stomach dropped. This could not be good, yet maybe he could figure out how to escape. He squeezed the embers tighter as he turned his attention to remaining conscious as the Waste Wind tightened its grip. Just when he thought he was succumb to the Void, he was unceremoniously dropped to the bottom of wherever he was.

He could see nothing. The darkness was complete and without any thought of light. There was a deeper, stygian entity here that eclipsed the Wind. It brought with it a feeling of the deepest, most final loss – a Void from which no one could ever return.

Darach did not need to but he closed his eyes anyway. He tried to focus on the warmth in his pocket while listening to the words swirling around him. Fear gripped his heart but he refused to give in to it.

~~~~~

Manadh felt the air shift. The pitch blackness of the Under Realm where the Void resided removed any sense of sight. She bowed low, unsure if it was the Waste Wind or the Void itself in her presence. Then she heard…breathing? Confusion, then hope filled her. She smiled slyly.

“Well?” the familiar sigh of the Wind came from her left. “You summoned?”

“I must speak with you both – it concerns Líadan,” she rushed out, feeling the crackling tension build in the air. There was a deep sigh and a disturbing growl that answered her.

Any hope she felt at the sound of the man who breathed was snatched away as the malevolent presence of the Void filled the air around her. Her body involuntarily shivered as a cold, heavy dread pressed in around them. Even the Wind seemed to quake.

“Who are you to disturb me?” the Void rumbled. “You are familiar but unknown…” The very air rippled with displeasure.

“May the darkness ever be,” Manadh hastily breathed out, unashamed at the fear permeating her voice – she thought it was well earned at the moment. The displeasure eased a little bit. “I bring news of the man who fell,” she paused, sure that was who the Wind had dragged with it to the meeting.

Sure enough, the Waste Wind sighed and a sharp inhale came from the man as it lashed out again. “I had not finished preparing him,” it whined. Manadh felt the tendrils caress her cheek and she fought the urge to flinch.

“What of the man?” the Void ground out. “What do I care of another Lost One?”

“We believe he came in search of Líadan. That perhaps she will come for him now that he has fallen. And you may finally take revenge on who betrayed you.” Her words came out in halting sentences, fear continuing to build.

Manadh underestimated the intensity of the Void’s response. She was thrown back, every atom of her being felt as if it was being ripped apart. She heard the scream before she realized it came from her own lungs. It was joined by that of the fallen man. The fury of the Void seemed to last forever and then suddenly it was gone. She and the man gasped, grasping at their chests, clawing air back into their lungs.

“Take him and bring her to me. If you fail, I will follow you into the depths of the Wood and take you as ransom. It is either her or you. Do not disappoint me!” The roar of the Void ran through every fiber of her already raw being and impressed the dread necessary to ensure she followed through. Manadh felt the grip of the Wind around her throat and felt herself dragged up through the layers of the Under Realm.

She could sense the man next to her, although it took several more excruciating minutes before she could see his form. The Wind roughly deposited them at the edge of the Wood and then withdrew without a sound. Just before she lost consciousness, she glimpsed the faces of the Nefas scouts and then the world went dark again.