Resurrected as a Drow 2 Chapter 4

“Explain,” Sevahtra and Drindessa chorused at the same time after Dagwyn proclaimed that Helera had Found Something.

But the younger female held up her first finger as she drained the last dregs of wine from the crystal decanter she still had clutched in her hand.

I watched how the dark blue wine trickled from the corners of her pouty mouth like dual streams of sapphire I wanted to lap up with my tongue. My eye then tracked the line of her pretty throat as it bobbed up and down with each deep swallow…

“For Drogu’s sake, child!” Drindessa finally lost her patience and snapped. “What has Helera found that apparently has you frazzled so much you completely forgot about the levi-shafts and ran all the way up here?”

“I didn’t forget about the levi-shafts,” Dagwyn grumbled and tossed the decanter away, but instead of shattering on the floor, it merely bobbed in mid-air where it was. “I just… needed the exercise.”

Given she was all lithe and toned where it mattered, and could probably outstrip all of us in a foot race, this was obviously a Blatant Lie.

“Hm,” the Matron Mother scoffed. “You need the exercise, ‘tis true, because it’s clear you have been neglecting your strengthening rituals.”

“Not on purpose,” Dagwyn defended with a sour look on her face. “It’s been a bit of a shit-fest lately, in case you don’t remember.”

Oof.

Dag.

What have you done?

I winced internally as the silence following her flippant words rang out like a hammer on an anvil.

It was clear by the sudden look of shock on her elfin face that she immediately regretted her choice of words, but unfortunately for her, Madame Drindessa’s shock wore off quicker than hers.

A sudden screeching howl exploded through the Temple, and in the blink of an eye, the furious dominatrix teleported in front of Dag and then held her up by the throat.

“You disrespectful little bitch, don’t you dare treat your Mother’s Great Loss with such a cavalier attitude,” Drindessa commanded, and then she dropped Dagwyn back to the ground.

“N-No, I never meant to imply that,” the younger woman said as she took her chastisement on the chin with her hands clasped behind her back. She then raised her eyes from the ground and fixed them on Sevahtra. “You know I wouldn’t.”

The Matron Mother started down at her errant Daughter with her maroon eyes that seemed sharpened into points. I could tell Dag wanted to squirm under Sevahtra’s gaze like an insect pinned under glass, but she held her head up high, and her own eye contact did not waver from Mother’s.

“I know you didn’t,” she finally eased up a little. “But I will not tolerate your lack of due diligence any more, do you understand? How do you expect to strengthen your ether if you do not commit yourself to the craft?”

“I understand,” Dagwyn said as her gaze darted to the ground again. “And I will do better, but you must come with me right away because Hel really did find something you all need to see.”

The two Matron Mothers exchanged glances with one another, and without any further ado, all three drow females surged toward the door.

I followed them in hot pursuit and wracked my brains for what it could possibly be that Helera found.

Spying on her at odd times throughout my “convalescence” told me little other than she was helping her other two sisters in the effort to clean up after Ozin-Na House.

Claden’Du’s raid with the help of Drindessa’s reinforcements from Bahna’Faar House was a successful one, which included the total decimation of every living member of Ozin-Na. This also meant everyone was on body disposal detail for the most part.

“Where are we going?” I asked Dag when the two older women rushed ahead of her so they could converse in low tones with one another.

“The Dungeon level,” she said as she jogged next to me. “In each level of the Nobel Tower, the lowest level is built as a labyrinthine tangle of corridors in case anyone below tries to plan a raid.”

“So, is it a prison?” I questioned as we neared a levi-shaft.

“The prison itself is called the Portal of Holding, and it acts as a Stasis Chamber,” Dagwyn explained with a scowl. “And before you ask, all I really know about it is that it’s like a magical pocket of space-time-- ehhh, Helly is a lot better at describing it, but basically, we can shove prisoners who plot against our House in there and ‘hold’ them until the Council can judge them and send them off into the Void Below.”

“But how, though?” I asked as the two Matron Mothers disappeared down the shaft via their own methods. “Is the Noble Tower hollow or something? Like one giant levi-shaft thing?”

“No, it’s something with magic and how it breaks all the rules of normality or something-- ask, Helera!” she spun around on her heel and barked at me before she continued to march backward toward the shaft. Then, before she plunged tragically downward into the arms of gravity, she snapped out one final word. “Freefall!”

I huffed when the difficult female disappeared from view, and then I joined her a few seconds behind in case she had to stop abruptly for some reason. Given I was considerably larger in stature for a male drow, and she was considered smaller for a female, that would be bad if I landed fully on top of her boots first.

“Freefall,” I grumbled when I surmised enough time had passed to give myself enough cushion, and I sensed my cloak’s insignia activate with the Command Word.

Instead of using my ether like I did to navigate the shaft upward, going down only relied on the left over magicks and enchantments the Wizard instilled in the House Insignia. From what I learned so far, enchantments such as these were spells that lingered for some time like an ink stain.

Mother Sevahtra could even feel for Nodrin’s particular magical signature if she wanted to, but I hadn’t seen or heard of her doing so in a while. The Wizard had been missing and presumed dead, but he was powerful, and Tryss explained to me how his enchantments had the potential to last quite a while before someone needed to renew them again.

I was just in the middle of wondering when that time would come when my normally smooth descent suddenly jerked and juddered until I came to an abrupt halt.

“Fynn?” Dagwyn called up, and my sharp hearing picked up on the scared tremor in her voice.

“Are you stuck, too?” I asked.

“Y-Yeah, but--” I never heard what the “but” was, because a moment later, I was falling a lot faster through the air as the power behind the Command Word started to unravel.

“Daggy?” I called as I picked up speed bit by bit.

“Fynn?” Her voice sounded like it was a lot more distant than mine, and when I realized it was because she was falling exponentially faster than me, my heart sank with dread.

“Hang on, Dag!” I shouted and formed an ether bubble around myself. If ether had an actual weight, it stood to reason that if I added more ether into my sphere, then I would sink.

And sink I did.

Rapidly.

“Fyyyynn!” Dagwyn’s voice sounded a lot closer now, which was a good thing.

“I’m coming!” I called back and visualized a little more of my ether pouring into the bottom of my sphere of magic. It was a controlled pour, however, and I was able to gradually accelerate my descent until I was falling right alongside her.

“I-I can’t th-think!” she stuttered, and when I reached out toward her, she gratefully grasped onto me as I pulled her into my bubble of ether.

“I got you,” I said as I held her flush against me and then pulled my ether back until it was just a slight trickle so we were descending at a much slower rate.

“Fucking Void,” she huffed, and I felt the cloud of her moist warm breath through my shirt where she had her face buried. A second later, a shudder rolled through her body, and then she looked up at me with a pained smile as she tried to hold in her nervous laughter.

“Hi.” I grinned back as I took in the endearing and even more rare sight of her smiling with her teeth.

“Ahem, hello,” she said back as her two front teeth bit into her bottom lip in a way that drew my attention so thoroughly. Her front teeth were slightly bigger than the others, and this made her look a little vulnerable and soft when she mostly portrayed a gruff and standoffish exterior.

I was absolutely smitten by it.

“Are you okay?” I asked in a lowered voice so she could feel the vibrations through my chest.

“I’m… fine,” she faltered, and I grinned even wider when her mysterious dark eyes tracked down to my pecs as her fingers flexed against the hard muscle like she couldn’t help it. “Thank you for the assist. My mind was much too frazzled to attempt to rally my ether…”

She trailed off as a scowl like a somber storm rolled in across her dark blue face, and for a moment I was struck with how… beautiful she was.

Which had been a fact for quite a while because there was one thing about Mother Sevahtra Claden’Du: she produced gorgeous Daughters, and all three were stunning in their own ways.

But these little moments drew me more than each one of their beautiful outward perfections. Ironically, it was the cracks beneath the facade-- the fissures of dark branching throughout the vibrant light like the dark swirls throughout white marble-- that pulled me into orbit.

With Tryss, it was her young brashness, insecurities, and wicked cleverness oftentimes at the expense of others that drew me like a moth to flame.

Then there was Helera who was quick witted, easy going, and yet fierce and arrogant by turns often to her own demise. I had to already pluck her out of trouble once, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last time.

Funny enough, I was very okay with this.

But I knew the least about Dagwyn because she put up such a hard and prickly exterior. Any sort of reaction that wasn’t anger or sarcasm was hard to come by, but when she did let a smile slip here, or let the huff of a genuine laugh go there, it was somehow more precious for its rarity.

And because of that, I really didn’t want the moment to pass, so I slowed us almost to a complete stop just so I could have a little more time with her alone.

“Any idea where we’re going?” I murmured as her gaze smoldered into mine.

“Um… down. More,” she added because we were headed that way in snail-like increments. “I’ll tell you when we are getting close.”

“Alright,” I said as I clutched her waist even tighter and then made us go a little faster.

When she signaled we were almost to the bottom, I ceased the flow of my ether once more until we were bobbing in midair over what appeared to be a pit with deadly crystal shards sharpened into spikes. As the gruesome image of one or both of us being impaled on the crystal spires, I was glad I caught up with her like this after all.

Especially because I could see a few skeletal remains left over from a few unfortunate souls who plunged to their doom.

“Good of you to join us, younglings,” Drindessa drawled as I floated Dagwyn and I out of the shaft and into the eerie antechamber that reminded me of what the inside of a brain must look like given the ceiling and walls were plastered with vein-like plant roots and vines.

“Did you miss us?” I snarked as I set Dag on her feet.

She blinked up at me for a moment, shook her head, and then stepped back carefully so there was an appropriate amount of distance between us.

“Tch,” Sevahtra scoffed and then eyed her Daughter. “Well, va-darnem? Are you going to lead the charge? You were the one who wanted us down here.”

“Right, erm…” Dagwyn seemed to make a conscious effort to stop biting her lip, which was quite a shame from where I was standing. “This way…”

She folded her arms over her chest, and then she marched past the two austere older women toward the mouth of some dark corridor. When she reached the threshold where the darkness swallowed up the light, I could tell she hesitated only a second before her sight changed.

“Darkvision, Fynn,” Mother Sevahtra reminded me, and even though I hadn’t done this particular bit of magic yet, the way she said it informed me that this was something standard to drow of average power and above. Even Dagwyn, who demonstrably had lesser magical power behind her ether than most, was capable of seeing in such dim conditions, so I figured it required very little effort on my behalf.

I was right, and I found as long as I concentrated and focused more with my peripherals, I could detect shapes lined faintly in the barest light that somehow seeped in from distant torches far above.

My hearing was also helpful, and the longer I adjusted to such poor visual conditions with my already compromised eyesight, the more my other senses kicked into high gear.

Even so, I was glad to have Dag as a guide because it seemed like every chamber we came across gave birth to multiple tunnels branching out to Drogu knows where. It would be easy to get super lost within the labyrinth of the Dungeon Level, and I understood why the snarl of tunnels alone were enough defense between the stations. If anyone from the level under us, say House Twenty Eight, decided to try to break in, they would find themselves chasing their tails sooner than actually finding a way in.

It was enough to inspire insanity, and as it was, my own mind started to play tricks on me the longer we continued on through the labyrinth in the Dungeon Level.

The darkness alone was enough to drive a person with normal vision crazy, but considering my Dark Eye lived up to its name, one half of my sight was completely smothered by near blackness of the constricting kind. Meanwhile, my regular drow eye was almost just as suffocated because the flickering violet sconces were barely enough to light the way.

“I’m assuming the reason I can’t use my faefyre sight is due to the fact that would defeat the purpose of entrapping your enemies,” I murmured at Dagwyn in an attempt to distract myself from the faint howling and screaming noises I could hear echoing from the twisted maze’s bowels.

“Yes, because there is also nothing for your faefyre to see in the first place,” she answered. “Helera found a map, and we used a spell so we could find the way to the inner chambers of the Dungeons. It makes it so you only remember the way once you set foot inside the labyrinth. That way, in case you are abducted and tortured for information, you won’t have anything to hand over because there is nothing to forcefully extract.”

“Huh, clever,” I remarked even though the thought of abduction, torture, and “forceful extractions” did not sit particularly well with me, like it shouldn’t with any Normal Person. Even so… “Can you do the spell on me?”

“Yes, but it must be done once you have been shown the way first,” she answered with a grim tone to her voice.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as our arms brushed up against one another.

“I’ve just remembered what came before...” Dagwyn trailed off as another disturbing moan of agony ricocheted throughout the labyrinth. “Before we reach the Holding Chamber.”

“What’s before that?” I asked even though everything about this conversation told me she didn’t want to talk about it, especially if she was trying so hard to be this vague about it.

Now that my regular eye was accustomed to this level of darkness, I could faintly make out her face in profile, and her expression was grim even for her normally severe resting expression.

Resting… Bitch Face?

Huh.

Somehow that seemed accurate regardless of whatever corner of my mind that rattled loose from.

And as Dagwyn’s RBF turned from bitchy to fearful, I gently bumped into her side in order to jar her out of her spiraling thoughts.

“Hm?” She turned to me and blinked her large dark eyes, and my own pulse skittered in my throat at the sight of her caught off guard.

It was another one of those rare moments of vulnerability that peered through the cracks of the fierce warrior’s normally stoic exterior, but as honored as I was to be let in on these little moments, I also felt a tad guilty for pushing her.

“What comes before the central portal chamber?” I asked slowly because I feared if she didn’t catch what my question was the first time, I wouldn’t have the gumption to repeat it again.

After all, maybe I didn’t really want to know what was in store ahead of time.

Regardless, Dagwyn heard me, and after another brief hesitation, she started to explain.

“This labyrinth is circular with the Portal of Holding at the center, but the inner middle ring is dedicated to… Ozin-Na’s perversions,” she said in a halting voice.

“What’s that, now?” Drindessa butted in. “Speak up, child!”

“Drindy, don’t be a cow,” Sevahtra snarled as she hip-checked her sister-in-arms, but I wasn’t sure if the gesture was hostile or not. “But she’s right, Dagwyn, explain what you mean for all of us to hear, please.”

The younger female heaved a resigned sigh and came to a stop right before the path branched off into three different directions. After another beat in which she seemed to take a moment to order her thoughts, she straightened her spine and turned around.

“Apparently, Daria Ozin-Na was into interspecie breeding and experimentation, and the middle ring of the Dungeon level was transformed into her diabolical laboratories,” she said, and by the way the two Matron Mothers inhaled identical sharp breaths, I figured this was Bad.

“Fae folk? Duergar folk?” Drindessa asked, and at Dagwyn’s silence, the other woman’s eyes grew wide in horror. “Goblin folk?”

“That and… more.”

“Surely not orc or nevlar folk,” Sevahtra chimed in, but when Dag merely stared back, the Matron Mother of Claden’Du screwed up her face in a disgusted snarl. “Tch.”

“Oh, how deplorable!” Dessa gasped as her wheat-colored brows buckled together in an equally disgusted scowl. “This is the type of blasphemy that could bring waste to an entire House.”

“Which is exactly what happened,” Mother growled as she clenched her hands into fists. “We have destroyed every iota of them.”

“Except for the abominations left behind,” Dagwyn said. “Some of the hybrids are grotesque and malformed, but surprisingly resistant to starvation, dehydration, or exposure to extreme elements-- magical or otherwise. We haven’t decided what to do about them yet because we were waiting for you.”

“I’m assuming since you neglected to bring this bit of information up previously that getting to the Holding Portal where Helera is takes top priority,” she responded. “So let us worry about them later. I take it the abominations are secure?”

“Yes, Mother.” Dag nodded once and tucked her fists against the small of her back. “From this point onward, we can use faefyre. Helera and I marked off the corridors that lead to where the hybrids are locked up. Just follow me, and try to ignore the screaming.”

I swallowed around the sudden constricting lump in my throat and followed the younger drow female as she led us down the right path. It stuck out to me how silent her footsteps were, and I attempted to quieten mine, but I couldn’t quite manage it without sending at least a little of my ether to the soles of my feet in attempt to cushion their landing, and even then it still didn’t fully work.

It was when I strained my ears even more to try and understand how the warrior priestess was so light on her feet that something else caught my attention. But the two older priestesses murmured between each other low enough only they could hear, and this alone was not helping some of the squirming feeling writhing around in my gut like a pair of eels battling for dominance.

“Dag?” I whispered when the lack of distraction finally forced me into action. “I know interspecie breeding is taboo, but can you explain to me why hybrid species are frowned upon? I thought it was just a cultural thing about drow, but you all seem like it’s something… more.”

One of Dagwyn’s cloud-gray eyebrows arched up as she looked at me askance. “Tryssie keeps rhapsodizing how ‘clever’ and ‘observant’ her little fuck-pet can be, but this is the first time I’m impressed. Well done, Light Boy.”

I was just on the verge of being treated to one of her rare smiles when a tragic wail rang out through the antechamber we were still in and made her flinch so hard she bumped into my side.

I eased into the contact like it was natural, and before she could snap out of her momentary shock, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and lightly pressed her closer.

At first, her steps faltered, but then she shivered and tucked even closer as if it was almost against her will.

And no wonder, because after our footsteps finally synchronized and we weren’t bobbing awkwardly against each other, I noticed for the first time how cold she was.

Then, to top it off, I did what I was good at and seamlessly picked up the thread of the previous conversation as if nothing had happened.

“Come on, Daggy, the very first time?” I needled with my voice as my hand did the opposite and attempted to rub some warmth into her soft blue skin. “Surely you’ve seen enough of me to have been impressed by my… assets once or twice before now.”

The out of place comment as well as the bright tone in my voice was at such odds with the dismal place, Dagwyn huffed out one of her quiet laughs. Even in the dim tunnel, I could see the brief flash of her white teeth before her hand came up to cover her mouth.

“Maybe you’ve proven interesting once or twice in the past,” she finally conceded in a pseudo-serious voice.

“Interesting?” I asked. “What kind of compliment to my ‘assets’ is that?”

“Ugh, you need to stop referring to your manhood as an asset, it’s getting tired,” she bantered back as we both stepped over what looked like a femur belonging to something Large.

“I have it on good authority that ‘It’ actually has remarkable stamina,” I shot back, and I grinned wide when I felt her shake with silent laughter.

Yes.

Point for Fynn.

“Did you just give yourself a point on some arbitrary scoring scale you made up just now?” Her soft ear brushed my jaw when she glanced up at me, and I pursed my lips.

Apparently, I said that out loud.

“…No,” I said, and before she could think she had the upper hand in this conversation, I swerved us both swiftly around a pile of skulls. “And even if I did, who says the scoring system is arbitrary?”

“It’s not?” she asked.

“It’s very specific,” I replied with a discreet rumble in my voice. Her ear was still close to my jaw so it was easy for me to dip my chin in order to purr directly into it. This elicited the best response, which was for her to shiver again, but not from the cold. “Mm, another Point for Fynn.”

“Hush,” she chastised. “The more you tease me the less inclined I am to answer any of your questions.”

“Ah, you’ve discovered the weakness of my insatiable curiosity, you win,” I deadpanned, and then I glared over my shoulder when Dessa cleared her throat rather aggressively.

It was clear she disapproved of the low flirtations coming from us for whatever reason I didn’t care to look into right now.

“What’s up her twat?” Dag grumbled, and even though I was also miffed our little game was interrupted, I was glad she was feeling the same.

“Ignore her,” I said and subtly began to hasten our pace just as Sevahtra deliberately slowed hers so Dessa was forced to fall behind some.

When I glanced at the Matron Mother, her cheek twitched just enough to give me the impression of a wink, and I had to turn back around so Drindessa wouldn’t see me smirk.

“What?” Dag asked.

“Nothing, you were about to tell me why mixed breeding is a crime against drow-kind,” I said as I attempted to steer us back on track.

As if on cue, another eerie high-pitched moan split the air.

“You m-mentioned earlier how you thought it was a cultural thing,” Dagwyn said and attempted to ignore the strange noises of anguish and despair.

It was no easy task.

“Right.” I swallowed as best as I could with my dry throat and grimaced when it clicked unpleasantly. “I figured Drogu-ani would think all other species aside from her own Children to be less-than.”

“You are correct on that end, but there is more to it than just the belief drow have superior blood,” she said, and I could tell she had settled in on the topic enough to block out the cries of pain. “Helera can explain the particulars better, but basically, drow blood is usually non-compatible with other species with varying degrees of bad. Sterile and sickly tends to be the mildest of the maladies, followed by other unsavory mutations that just get worse from there. Whether or not this makes drow blood superior or not has been a point of scholarly debate for aeons, but regardless, it is actually more of a mercy not to breed with other species. It’s completely random how bad a mutation can wind up being, and in the past there are records of infants suffering beyond measure…”

“Gods,” I said. “That’s awful.”

“And something tells me whatever is behind some of these doors is as well,” she said and then fell quiet.

The rest of the journey to the center of the chamber was silent, but I didn’t fully know if it was because we had run out of things to say, or because the sounds of wailing and gnashing teeth were now almost deafening and made conversation impossible.

Probably a mixture of both since I really had nothing to contribute to the disturbing pile of information the younger female educated me on, and the realization of just what Daria Ozin-Na was up to started to sink in.

It seemed to be the case with the Matron Mothers as well because they closed the gap between us pretty quickly just as we picked up our own pace.

When we finally made it out into another larger antechamber, Dagwyn made a beeline for the giant double doors. Then she pressed her palm over the thin seam between them, and the right door hissed before it popped open.

As it closed behind us, the screams that were amplified naturally by the antechamber were blessedly silenced, and for the first time, it felt as if I could breathe.

“Piece of shit nevlar design.” The familiar sight of Helera with her hands on her hips and glaring at some sort of massive iron gateway like it offended her future offspring shook off the last bit of chill from the labyrinth, and I breathed a sigh of relief as she grumbled under her breath and then kicked the base of the strange thing for good measure.

“What’s wrong with the Portal of Holding?” Drindessa asked as she immediately rushed forward, and she had an edge of disapproval in her burnished copper voice that caused the younger’s hackles to rise up. “Are the relics charged?”

“What an excellent question, why didn’t I think of that?” Hel muttered sarcastically under her breath and then kicked the anticlimactic portal once more. “And yes, all eight relics are more than charged.”

“Then why isn’t it active?” Mother Sevahtra asked.

“Watch,” Helera said as she motioned with her hand and said some esoteric words that must have been part of her priestess magick because her cherry colored eyes glowed bright like two lanterns.

A sharp crystalline ringing rendered the quiet chamber apart with its hellish otherworldly noise, and the fine muscles in my long pointed ears twitched in agitation along with everyone else. The middle of the portal flickered silvery for a moment, but before it could manifest, the continuous ringing stuttered, cut out, and then the enchanted light completely dissipated.

“What is wrong?” Sevahtra snarled. “We must have a working Holding Portal, especially if anyone discovers our true status here at the Twenty-Seventh Station.”

“I’m working on it,” Helera grumbled. “But that’s not all.”

“What now?” the Matron Mother asked as she shot a glance at Dagwyn like this new surprise was her fault simply because her Second hadn’t been aware enough to warn her ahead of time.

“I think something is stuck inside it like a small metal spanner inside a larger and more intricate mechanism,” the First Daughter continued before Dag could sputter out a retort in her own defense.

“Nothing tangible could harm the Portal,” Sevahtra said in a way that sounded like she was catching on to what Helera was getting at. Then, as if to test her own private theory, she held her palms out in front of the iron ring as her eyes glowed.

After about a minute in which she concentrated in silence, the Matron Mother pulled back with a frown and rubbed a palm over her sternum.

“Do you see now why I think there’s something stuck?” Helera asked and clasped her hands in front of her full breasts. “When I reached out with my ether to try and grab it, I could feel it pull taut, here, behind my breastbone.”

“Unem-la! You mean to tell me you tried this alone? What I felt was the near exsanguination of my magickal core!” Sevahtra raised her voice, and the small stalactites on the ceiling of the large chamber trembled with the vibration enough for rain droplets of water down on us all.

“I just tested it, that’s all.” Hel shrugged like it was no big deal and wiped a few beads of ceiling water off her light blue cheeks. “And then when I realized it was going to take more than just me to unstick the Stuck Thing, I sent Dag off to get you while I made sure the Thing stayed put. Although, you sure did take your time, Daggy. Did you stop with Fynnie in a small crevice so he could pump you full of his baby cr-e-ammm?”

The taller of the two twinborn sang this last word out in an annoyingly teasing way that had the shorter one simmering in rage as she tried to ignore Helera’s jabby fingers.

When she reached Dagwyn’s exposed ribs, she was treated to a swift kick aimed at the back of her knee.

If she hadn’t nimbly danced away, then she would have probably suffered the near total destruction of the joint because the feisty warrior woman never held anything back.

“Girls,” Sevahtra said in her Mother Voice that brooked no arguments, and the two sobered immediately. “Drindessa and I are going to need you to focus if we all don’t want to be sucked into the abyss between planes. That means you, too, Fynn.”

“Just tell me what to do,” I said without missing a beat and was treated to an actual head pat from Mother.

“Stand next to me, va-ulsen,” she said much to the chagrin of the two sisters, and I happily took the open place to her left while Drindessa took the place to her right.

This made it so Dag and Hel were closest to the iron ring structure and completed the semi-circle we all created in front.

“Fynn and Dagwyn will act as the support pillars, so you two, empty your minds and let your ether flow,” Dessa instructed as her bronze eyes blazed a stunning vermilion, and a magical wind started to kick up.

Fuck.

Clearing my mind only happened when I was dead asleep, which was why I had a chronic problem being left on my own in a silent room because too much peace usually made my rambling thoughts louder and harder to parse through.

But as all four of the priestess’ eyes began to glow with that otherworldly light, I realized there was no time to ask questions.

At least this “thrown to the flames” thing Mother so often favored in her teaching methods was predictable by now, and it was enough of a kick in the backside for me to do as Dessa said and clear my mind.

My eyes tacked onto Dagwyn to see how she was managing this, and I saw her chest rise and fall with each one of her deep breaths, and when she gazed back at me, she even emphasized what she was doing so I would follow along with her.

Breathe in… one… two… three… four.

Annnd breathe out… one… two… three… four.

Repeat.

Soon, our breathing was synchronized, and as our eyes drifted shut at the same time, I felt confident I could float in this haze where the only thing that mattered was breathing in…

And out…

Letting every cell fill with life-giving oxygen on each deep inhale, and then letting my ether flow out on every exhale.

In…

And out.

Clang, ker-thunk.

My eyes flew open as something suddenly yanked me from behind my waist, and I widened my stance so I wouldn’t lose my balance.

Something indeed felt stuck on the other end of my ether, and when I looked up I saw the cause:

An oblong full length mirror with an ostentatious bronze molded frame was stuck right across the mouth of the portal.

However, the mirror wasn’t the most shocking thing. What was even more of a surprise was the image of a woman so pale she looked like a ghost peering out of the glass and utterly frozen in time.

Then Helera gasped.

“Sashti?” The young priestess’ eyes stopped glowing as the shock of recognition crashed into her, and the portal flickered as everything started to fall apart…