An angel’s road to hell

97. Of strengths, weaknesses and a little second wave

Cassandra Pendragon

The soft, silvery glow that briefly flickered along my meridians and settled in around my heart placated her more than anything I could have said. With a sound like sliding bolts I felt the woven net of energy my promise had conjured join the already present chains in my chest. A pinched smile played around my mouth when I said:

“See, no more ditching, ever. Now you’re truly stuck with me. Does that…” She silenced me effectively when she pulled me back, her tails circling around my waist. Silky hair brushed over my cheeks when she leaned in and kissed me deeply. A few breathless seconds later she whispered:

“You didn’t have to do that, but thank you. I’m still mad, though. A promise doesn’t make up for your stupidity. You’ll have to try a little harder.” A mischievous gleam had entered her gaze.

“As you wish.” I turned around in her embrace to fully face her. Adrenaline still sang in my veins and the rush I felt when I lost myself in her emerald eyes was undeniably similar to the heat of battle. Hot and cold shivers ran down my spine when I caressingly traced her jawline and slowly brought our lips back together.

“Oi, I thought you were in trouble! And now I find you making out on the stairs! Are you serious?” Mordred’s words trailed off and he continued much more subduedly: “what happened here?” The exasperation in his voice would have been funny if I hadn’t wished him to the moon right then.

“Why did I have to bring him along?” I mumbled against Ahri’s mouth. Louder I said:

“I made a mistake and it blew up in my face, quite literally. How did you get down here? I thought there were enchantments protecting the stairs.” Ahri grudgingly untangled herself from me and helped me to my feet before she answered:

“There were, but they were powered down when the tremors subsided. Is Viyara still with Reia?”

“Yes, I did what I could for the girl. Afterwards Viyara sent me after you, she insisted that she’d be much more capable of protecting her than me and that my little sister might be in need of my mediocre healing magic, as she put it. Are you?”

“I’m not as badly damaged as it seems,” I replied. “But you can’t help me anyways. I’ll be fine in a few hours.”

“No, you won’t,” Ahri interrupted. “You’re suffering from backlash again, aren’t you?” I didn’t bother with a denial, she wasn’t blind, and nodded. “Take my hand,” she continued. “It’ll be better if I am the one to cough up blood for the next few hour.”

“No, not again. I’ll be fine. I’m not going to dump my mistakes on you again. I won’t.” I even stomped my foot, admittedly rather weakly, to emphasise my point. It was a well thought out argument, after all.

“You will. You fucked up and I’m going to pay for it. Maybe that way you’ll at least remember. We can either quarrel for a few minutes about why exactly I should be the one without access to my core instead of you, or why your brother might be able to heal me and then we’ll do it anyways, or you can just graciously accept it. Your choice.” And she had called me insane. If I hadn’t known her better I’d have said she was craving pain. On the other hand, I’d probably have done the same thing in her position and I thoroughly hated injuries.

“I don’t want to hurt you, again,” I replied quietly. Her expression softened when she put her hand to my cheek.

“I know. Don’t do stupid things and it might not become necessary anymore. Let’s get this over with. The sooner we’re done, the faster I’ll get better again.” She turned to Mordred. “Could you look after me? I’m pretty sure I’m going to develop third degree burns in a minute.”

“I’ll do what I can, but I fear Viyara is right. I’m not a great hand at healing. Maybe we should turn back and get Archy or one of the others to attend before you try anything risky?”

“No,” I answered immediately. “I’ll just carry on like I am before we waste anymore time. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I have underestimated the power of the ones who built this place. We all have. Let me explain why there is a neigh impenetrable force field blocking the stairs and judge for yourselves…” I briefly recounted what had happened after I had reached out to Ahri. “… I think that the enchantments in the walls are linked. From what you said earlier they broke down when the shockwave hit, presumably to provide the strained spells with additional energy. Why they didn’t activate when I cut my way through the first barrier I can’t say but I’m certain that every intact defensive measure has triggered by now. There’s no telling what kind of nasty surprises people with access to transcendent energy might have prepared. We need to get to the bottom of this mess, fast. Or do you want to be still around when the island suddenly wakes up and decides we make for a tasty snack or unwelcome passengers?”

“No, no I think I’d rather skip that,” his eyes drew together in a frown.

“Alright, just one more tiny question: how can we hope to get through a maze of enchantments and traps powered by something strong enough to wake islands? Dumb luck and a prayer?”

“That’s why I’m so adamant about keeping Cassy functioning,” Ahri interjected. “She might actually have a chance, not to mention that most likely everything on the other side of the blast has been obliterated. With a little luck there’s nothing left in our way but we still have to make sure. Let’s head back up the stairs. Viyara can inform the dwarfs and your mother telepathically. If Reia’s on her feet and I’m not going to collapse we’ll see if we can’t somehow get through.”

I’d have preferred a little more confidence but she wasn’t wrong and I was having some serious doubts about bringing Reia down here in the first place. Maybe I should send her back alongside Ahri? Well, that ship had sailed, I had made sure of it, and I highly doubted our aspiring noble was willing to go back on her own. Everything was becoming much more complicated than I had expected, being on your own could have its merits, after all.

I heaved my hurting bones up the stairs, groaning. A fresh wave of pain raced over my back when I moved but I clenched my teeth and leaned heavily on Ahri’s shoulder to keep my balance. The steps I had flown down earlier in a breeze proved much more of an obstacle since I couldn’t lift my feet without an explosion of white hot fire all over my skin. When we had retreated several metres from the flickering curtain of energy, it vanished and a cloud of acrid smoke billowed over us. The sharp smell of molten rock, underlying notes of ozone and vaporised wood along with superheated metal assaulted my nose and my eyes started to water as soon as the first tendrils of the miasma played around my head.

All of us started coughing violently as we stumbled up the stairs, nearly blind under the suffocating blanket. Despite the harsh protest from my body I channeled a bit of energy towards my lungs and throat, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it past the first few steps. For a short while my world shrank to sticky darkness, a burning sensation in my throat that intensified with every breath I took and Ahri’s clumsy movements as she pulled me along.

I fervently hoped that there would be some kind of vent in the cavern above, otherwise smoke poisoning or plain suffocation would become very real issues, but before I could worry too much, the air started to clear. Grey residue stuck to my fur and hair and my eyelashes were glued together. Mordred and Ahri were just as smeared and we must have made for a rather ridiculous sight, staggering up the stairs, trying to rub the soot from our faces with whatever clean spot of skin we had left. As if we had crossed a magical boundary, a sweet, undiluted gust of wind blew away the lingering clouds of smoke and when I finally managed to scrape enough goo from my eyes, Viyara smiled down on me. Reia was carefully peering around her back and blinked owlishly at the roiling sea of darkness further below.

“Oh my, look what the cat dragged in,” Viyara chuckled while she descended a few steps and offered me her hand. “Seems like you had quite a lot of fun. Hopefully the other guy looks worse.”

“I’m pretty certain that there’s nothing left but ash.” I answered while I allowed her to scoot under my arm. Dangling between Ahri and her I barely had to move my legs on my own anymore. Not that it was strictly necessary, but judging from their worried faces I wasn’t looking my best at the moment. “Parts might even be sticking out of my hair, now that I think about it. It took a lot out of me, though, and I burned myself. Do you keep the smoke away from us?” She nodded

“Air manipulations were one of the first things I had to learn. Dragons can use them instinctively for their flight but my father insisted that a modicum of control could save my life. Turns out he wasn’t wrong. I can keep that spell up nearly indefinitely, for the breathing part at least, we’ll be fine.”

“Everything else can be figured out,” I smirked and tapped Ahri’s shoulder. “Do you still want to share the backlash? I think I’m doing better already and if most of the defences are already gone, there won’t be much to do for me anyways.” She didn’t even bother with a reply and I had to say, I wouldn’t have either, in her shoes. Instead she steered us into the cavern and let go of my hand with a final squeeze. She made herself comfortable as well as possible while I stood by her side with only the tiniest amount of help from Viyara.

A wave travelled across my tattoo, as if the depicted wings had flapped once, and I felt her presence at the edge of my mind like the shimmering light of a rising star during a pitch black night. Warmth raced through me and our emotions flowed freely between us, making words unnecessary. To thoroughly know that she was fully willing to take on my pain, regardless of the circumstances, was a humbling experience. To feel that there was someone who cherished my well-being more highly than her own put my recklessness in perspective. I wasn’t just playing with my life but also the happiness of other people.

That wasn’t new, I had known before that my mom would have been devastated if something had happened to me and that there were others who depended on me, but I had never truly realised what it meant until I felt that Ahri was actually looking forward to taking on some of the backlash. As much as it’d hurt, to see me in pain was much worse for her. I didn’t miss the irony that, since I felt the same way about her, while she’d be suffering from an injury, I was going to have to deal with the emotional pain that might just trump the physical one. It’d be best to avoid the whole conundrum altogether in the future, we both thought simultaneously.

I stopped playing coy and allowed our connection to deepen. Slowly my aches vanished as I felt revitalising energy caress my strained muscles and broken skin. This time I could see how Ahri’s power moved in her body and flowed through the tattoo to erase my injuries. With agonising precision it replicated every healed scratch and repaired patch of skin as wounds all over her body, her tissue unable to cope with the transcendent energy. While I felt my strength return she became paler by the moment and a suppressed groan escaped her when she dropped to her knees. Frantically I tried to sever the link but she stubbornly clung to it, keeping it open far longer than I had intended to. Not until the waves of pain made her concentration slip was she forced to allow the gate to close. She drew in a shuddering breath, cold sweat slowly spreading across her brow.

I was nearly restored, a mild soreness all that remained but Ahri had paid a hefty price. The smell of blood rose from her back and she was hunched over, her eyes bleary with pain. I crouched beside her and held her hand while I gestured towards Mordred.

“Please, help her,” I mumbled. Ahri’s head rose when she heard my voice and she even managed a small smile before her back trembled and a spasm raced down her spine. With another low groan she closed her eyes and her chin dropped to her chest. My heart promptly skipped a beat.

“Move over,” my brother’s tense voice made me flinch but I immediately complied and watched on tenterhooks while he went to work. With my second sight I could follow his careful attempts to manipulated Ahri’s body, to help it repair the damage the volatile energy had done. I saw his struggles, felt the gaps in his knowledge when he had to face injuries he couldn’t understand and witnessed his grunt of triumph when he finally coaxed the first gash on her back into closing. A wave of gratitude rushed through me and I threw my free arm around his shoulders.

“Thank you, thank you so much. I owe you, big time.” I squealed.

“Not so fast, we’re far from done and this shit is complicated. But I think I can manage. From what Ahri told me, Archy patched her up in no time with a smile and a hug, after she helped you against the dragon. The boy must be a frigging genius. I’m struggling like a fox under water and I’m still barely making any progress…” the tension in his voice had changed to his usual, grumpy inflection which was another load off my chest. He wouldn’t sound like that if there was any real danger. I squeezed Ahri’s hand tightly and whispered in her ear:

“You’ll be fine. Just give it a moment and the pain will be gone. I’m right here, by your side.”

“I know.” She leaned into me and slowly relaxed while my brother still had his hand above her heart. I cradled her head against my chest, relieve rushing through me like a wave, she’d be alright in a couple of minutes.

My gaze travelled around the cave while colour slowly returned to Ahri’s cheeks. The first thing I noticed were a handful of glowing orbs that hovered beneath the ceiling. The amount of energy I needed to see in the dark was negligible and I hadn’t stopped supplying it the whole but it wasn’t needed anymore, the cavern had been lit with glowing mage lights, presumably Viyara’s doing. The dragoness herself was talking to/distracting Reia a handful of steps away. I lightly reached for the spark of my presence I felt inside of her and projected a tiny piece of my memories in her direction. Her expression changed subtly while she watched what had happened and I added:

“I should have asked much sooner but could you link us telepathically? As soon as Ahri is back on her feet I’d like to move and there’s no telling what we’ll find at the bottom of the stairs. With a lot of luck the statues have all been pulverised but I somewhat doubt it. I’d feel much safer down there if we could communicate mentally.”

“Sure, I already formed a connection with the others. I didn’t include you because I thought you’d want silence in your head when you’re out “scouting”. Turns out you could use a voice or two to tell you what to do, or rather what not to.”

“Et tu, Brute?”

“Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

“Never mind, it’s a…” I never got to explain how Caesar had been betrayed by his son because a mild tremor that quickly intensified shut me up. My fur was tingling with the building magic in the air, the conjured lights were pulsing with invisible surges of energy and the enchantments further down the stairs were glowing brightly enough to pierce the lingering cloud of smoke.