The Blue Pearl 15 And The Sky Cried Her Name

He missed his master. He wanted to talk to him one last time. Ask him, who he really was, the secrets he had kept from him, or what his real name was…

His mind was clear in days, like his thoughts were his own finally. But now that he felt free, he oddly missed the weight that had plagued his mind recently, almost like missing a friend. Like a companion had abandoned him in his worst. His head was way too lighter right now.

And before he had more to think about that strangeness in his mind, he began to feel a gradual but substantial magical presence around his muddy skin. The earth beneath him whisked and churned before it began to pull him through his legs, ready to devour him whole.

Then everything stopped, even the dark shapes that had been slowly creeping toward him paused.

"~Hmmmmmmaaaaaahhhhhh…~" A voice sang, cutting through the silence like an enchanted dagger.

Out of the mud a thin dark shape grew, bleeding streams of bright red blood from its head. At the top of it formed a pale face, clean and smooth, almost white, holes for the eyes, and a softly smiling mouth with blood red lips. The smooth face hardened, looking like pale ceramic. Then a mark came into view near one eye, an ornate pattern that ranged from side of the forehead to the side of the lips.

A mask. And in the increased proximity, he saw the streams of blood were Red hair.

The head rose taller and taller as 'it' marched closer, seven feet, eight…

A cloak emerged beneath it, black like the mud that flowed and floated without wind. A long and black elegant hand raised a thin and long black sword from under the floating garment. It was evil looking and jagged but beautiful in a haunted way. Everything happened so smoothly that he hadn't even had a chance to think, to even look at the monsters. What...quite... happened...? And when he got his mind back there stood a red haired, masked and hooded woman in front of him who was about ten feet tall. She was breathing in a calm and slow rhythm. Peaceful, in that despairing ambience. Two eyes opened inside the holes of that pale mask. Coldfire blue, so sharp that he felt he would be cut just by looking.

They were beautiful.

His mind called, but he didn't miss the feel of magic from inside the tall figure. It was Ava's.

Where was she? He could feel her so close to him yet it didn't make sense. But he was sure she was here, maybe inside this colossus woman. But, how?

The woman turned her head around them, in a slow and drifting elegance. Her hair lazily danced over her shoulders, floating without wind, like they were underwater. Tristan wanted to reach out, and touch the beautiful silk; but he was frozen in his place again, except this time he was transfixed by beauty and not fear. A moment flashed between them and now she was standing so close, offering her free hand toward him. Tristan matched it with his as he was pulled up from the ground.

She lazily looked around them again.

"~Oh Ava! What have you gotten yourself into this time?~" She murmured slowly in a voice that sounded like a song in the wind. A haunting melody of a mother's mourning for her dying child. She then turned to Tristan, her coldfire eyes piercing him.

"~And who… are You?~" She asked him in a tone that sent s.h.i.+vers down his spine. Slow and beautiful, the melancholy in it made his heart race in need, a need to know her pain.

"…Tristan..." He managed to answer despite nearly losing himself in that sharp stare.

"~Tristan… I am Nora, …Ava is a friend. Was she here to save you?~"

"No… it's-we are here to find Olean."

She turned to him again, as if to see if he was lying. He looked down, not willing to meet those eyes again.

"~Olean? Small girl with green hair, was it?~" She asked and Tristan nodded. "~Should take care of them first though.~" The masked woman stared ahead and lifted her sword at the monsters.

"~Don't be afraid.~"

She said patting him on his shoulders and then charged at the shadows holding her jagged sword to her side.

A gentle stride through the mud, as time seemed to slow around her and Nora turned into a red blur as she furthered into the darkness. Crimson lines weaved through the black shapes in a chaotic dance, like water with life of its own, twisting and twirling around them in a red streak. She weaved through them, systematically, one after another, leaving behind the broken mounds of dark shapes that laid lifeless. Too quick and too dark for him to actually see but he knew. In spiralled patterns she circled around him, each turn leaving behind another layer of sliced off shapes. The monsters didn't stand a chance.

He watched entranced, the beautiful chaos that unfolded around him. A tiny red knife slicing through the vast darkness. She went farther and farther away, where more shapes moved, more shapes cut down.

Something grabbed his legs and Tristan felt himself slipping down. Long tentacles of bones in a slime pulled him through mud. He opened his mouth to scream but only tasted vile rot that invaded and choked him. Gasping for air, he watched with blurry eyes as the graceful red wave became smaller and smaller before it was submerged into the gloom and disappeared like a snuffed candle and Tristan saw nothing more.

***

He awoke with a calming hand on his back. Nora had squatted beside him, her waterfall like hair painting red lines on the dirty ground and her darting eyes on him.

"~You are alright.~" The melody of her voice was still present, like honey and velvet in the air as she caressed his back. "~There, better... isn't it?~"

It was, but Tristan didn't answer. He doubted he could speak. He looked around, and to his relief no shapes hid behind the dark nothingness.

Did she killed them all?

"~No, in Endahar you cannot kill anything, they will return. That is why we ought to leave this place as soon as we can. Now up.~" She helped him on his feet, again. "~And…, you said you were looking for Olean?~"
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She had heard the voice in his head...

Before he could answer, she released his hand and hummed and looked around, as if searching for something in the darkness.

"~Found her!~" She murmured and faced up to the sky and took a deep breath.

"~OLEAN!~" Cried the sky following her unspoken command, then a thunder that called for the young girl.

The two of them now waited in silence. Nora looked ahead to her side in expectance. Tristan too stared, but saw nothing, not even a hint of anything. Found her?

They were in Endahar...!

The words rang in his mind.

Was it true?

Then what could it be if not Endahar? The endless land of darkness.... Aya, the DemiG.o.ddess guarded the Endahar, everyone knew that. And that she stopped its horror from spilling into the rest of Faeraq Mae.

Their monster was a beast of Endahar. This was Endahar. How had he not thought of it before?

Tristan felt his stomach drop. How had the monster gotten there to their village? Did they offend the DemiG.o.ddess?

R'qsar had always been in a strange position in the world. On its one side was the forest of Mati, where resided the DemiG.o.ddess Nirya. Behind the mountain of Herma, where R'qsar began, were the Black lands of Endahar guarded by Aya, who according to the stories was very fickle and vengeful, often merciless to offence. And she could easily let loose a beast of Endahar on them as punishment.

What had 'they' done?

"~Here she is.~"

Olean appeared in front of them, leaning on her knees, breathing hard. She just suddenly came in blur of movements before his mind registered it. Her face was painted black and so was the rest of her. Barely visible cleaner lines hinted tears. She was looking at Nora with wide eyes. In front of the masked woman Olean was barely above her stomach.

"~Did Ava ever tell you who I am?~" Nora asked Olean ignoring the younger girl's stare.

"Ye-yes." She answered with frantic nods.

"~Good. Are you ready to leave?~" She asked again looking at the two of them. Her index finger was playing with a strand of her red hair.

Both nodded. Nora tugged at the loose strand and formed a ring with her string below on the mud, with its one end in her hand.

"~Ava must have wanted samples. Olean?~"

"Yes. I have them." Olean readily replied.

"~Good. Now off you go.~" She said and Olean without question hugged herself and jumped in the middle of the ring, sinking and disappearing like there had been a hole inside of it that Tristan couldn't see.

"~Now it's your turn Tristan.~"

He hesitated but stepped inside the ring just like Olean had. He was too exhausted to make sense of what he was being asked to do and before anything registered in his mind, he felt nothing under his feet and fell with a yelp into the darkness.