[She took What?] - Chapter 93: Davy’s Story – Into Penumbra: More ringtail magic?

"He who forgets the old sayings walks unarmed through meaning."

Rebecca's words

|Location: The Ringtail Planet|

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As they flew on, nerves got the better of him as he played with his mote and Lady Liberty. Neither were helping.

He called to Rebecca and Becson, “All good back there?”

“Fine,” came Becson’s reply.

“Loving it!” Rebecca added, her voice light with amusement. “And you?”

“Almost there,” Davy grumbled, as her laughter echoed through the cabin, teasing him.

He shook his head, muttering under his breath, “That woman is annoying at times.”

 

Davy saw that the marker was near the centre of the map. Nix slowed the Bird, to an almost-hover and ahead was a sheer rock face. It stretched impossibly high, vanishing into thick swirling clouds above. The marker was placed atop a flattened tabletop mountain.

“Looks like it was just cleaved off*,”* Davy muttered, wondering what kind of science, or magic could do that.

“Up?” he asked pointing.

Nix nodded, “Yep, up it is.” She eased the Bird into the mist, one eye on the map, the other on the empty air above them. Slowly the clouds began to thin until they emerged into bright sunlight. The cliff fell away below, leaving them with a view across as vast flat expanse of… nothing.

 

Davy just stared, open mouthed. The top was unnaturally smooth, “Maybe it was cleaved off.” Davy said ominously.

“I hope not, what could possibly do that?”

 

Sparse vegetation clung to the plateau, some trees, short stubby things that bent to the wind as it howled across, buffeting the Bird.

“You sure this is it?” asked Davy.

Nix’s look told him quite clearly it was. He shrugged, “Just askin’”

“What did you expect? A drey and a campfire with a welcome sign?” They laughed.

 

She slowly manoeuvred the Bird across the plain and nestled it under a couple of palm-like ferns. Their fronds draped over the Bird, slapping at its sides in the wind, giving it cover.

Rebecca joined Davy in the cockpit and looked out. “You sure this is it?” she asked. Davy smiled and turned to Nix but before he could say anything she held up a single stern finger.

To Rebecca she said, “Yes. This is where the marker says we should be.”

Rebecca looked up at the sun. It was still full, burning down as bright as ever. “We have time.”

 

The beak of the Bird lowered, and as they stepped outside the wind almost blew them off their feet. Rebecca and Becson grabbed at Davy who steadied them against the gusts.

Nix, usually so willing to leap into the air, had to plant her feet firmly and lean into the wind, unable to fly in the turbulent air.

“What are you doing?” Davy asked her.

“Coming with you!” She snapped back.

“D’you have a weapon other than indomitable whit?”

Nix grinned and flipped her jacket open, revealing twin pistols holstered on her hips.

“And d’you know how to use those?”

“We’ll see.”  She shrugged.

Davy raised an eyebrow, ‘An honest answer.’ He nodded. A whole conversation passed between them in that one gesture. If only all the people he’d fought with had been that honest, maybe more would still be alive.

 

Rebecca pulled something from her pack; a smooth, obsidian-black globe.

“Mother, you brought the mob’s sphere,” he said pointing to the sphere she had removed from her pack.

“Clearly,” she turned it in her hands, “It’s a resonance sphere. A key, or a guide, of sorts.” She traced a delicate glyph etched into the surface. “This represents the Abyssal Flame; the flame said to exist at the boundary between reality and the void.”

 

Davy shook his head. “More ringtail magic,” he muttered.

She heard him and smiled, “In this case, yes. More a mix of science and magic.”

The sphere started to hum. Softly at first, then louder. Rebecca moved across the plain, following its vibrations. The sound reached a crescendo as she stopped at a seemingly unremarkable spot. She kicked at the ground, dust whipped away in the wind, revealing a small patch of black rock, smooth as glass.

Rebecca handed the sphere to Becson and knelt, brushing the surface clear. She then took Davy’s hands, her voice low but firm, “Sit.”

He obeyed, she then turned to Becson and Nix, “And you two, keep watch.”

Above them the fractured essence of the SolDiri began to manifest, the Shadow Eclipse. Unlike a natural eclipse, it was a sphere of absolute darkness, growing slowly. Instead of stars becoming visible, it absorbed all light, sucking it in and erasing any stars at it edge. An edge that rippled like smoke caught in an ethereal wind only to be replaced by a corona that shimmered in liquid-like hues of green. Its face now visible, shifting and reshaping, endlessly reaching out and at its core lay a void without end. 

Rebecca guided Davy’s hands onto the smooth surface of the plain.

A pulse of raw energy coursed through him, and Rebecca gasped as his pelt necklace ignited in emerald flame. The fire devoured the pelt, leaving only the mote behind, but now held in a spiral clasp of dark matter, attached to a black obsidian chain.

It had been warm and bright on the mesa above the clouds. But now the temperature began to plummet. Crystals started to form in delicate frosty patterns on the glassy stone around them and on their clothes as the eclipse neared it height.

Small, delicate snowflakes began to fall. It continued to get colder, Davy shivered.

“This ain’t natural.” 

 

Unseen fingers began to trace a path across Rebecca’s mind, exposing memories past. Informing memories yet to come.

Then a vision consumed her.

Humanoid and celestial figures slowly melted into an oil-like pool of darkness where images collapsed and mirrored memories emerged. Matter lost its hold, dissolving into the void. A vortex of shadows spiralled endlessly inward, consumed by a core of darkness. Tendrils of coherence expanded, entities evolved then fell apart in an agonising cycle of creation and annihilation, fighting for balance.

Rebecca caught her breath. She knew what she was seeing.

 

A Void Spiral, imparting knowledge, teaching; she heard herself whisper, ‘Tuor maya’, teach me, as if in a dream.

But there it was, the spiral, the SolDiri’s face of wisdom and balance. And its burden; power born through knowledge and insight. The endless motion of a pendulum; balance that whispers of power beyond comprehension. Of balance that can be tipped, broken. That was broken.

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