A light, with an intensity fit to shatter darkness, burst forth!
With shifting blue and purple hues interspersed with pink gradients, Ember’s light whipped towards the blood wall and its forming dome. The darkening cave lit up with a brilliance that frightened the shadows away. The velvet blaze crashed into the blood and before Aadi’s very eyes there commenced a battle of colours. He held Ember aloft with his right hand, keeping the stone as steady as he could. The magic of the stone did battle with the nefarious force that threatened to engulf the cave. Aadi couldn’t tell who was winning. The colours clashed and pushed each other back and forth furiously! One moment, the blood wall drove back Ember’s velvet radiance. The next, purple and blue smashed through their foe’s barrier, forcing streams of deep red to retreat.
“Ember, how is it going?” asked Aadi and the stone replied, “Nowhere, really.” Aadi sent a mental query to the magic stone and Ember said, “I can hold the blood, but this back and forth isn’t going to take us anywhere.” “Is there anything I can do to help?” asked Aadi. Ember replied, “Focus and don’t drop your guard.” “Can I give you more power, or something?” offered Aadi and the stone replied, “You are giving me a lot as is. I can’t take any more without risking you falling unconscious.” Aadi tried to follow the battle of colours, but it was difficult. Trying to keep track of the fluctuations across the cave’s wall was tiring. He felt his focus slip at times and had to redouble his efforts. Ember said nothing, busy as it was. For several moments, only the hum of magic pervaded the cave. Even as they opposed each other, the magical forces didn’t roar or shriek. It was with a solemn, dull vibration that they fought.
As time passed, Aadi’s shoulder began to ache. His right arm was growing stiff above his shoulder and frankly, he felt slightly bored. “Do you fancy fighting this thing, then?” asked Ember. The stone was in tune with his thoughts and feelings much more, now. “I would if I could,” answered Aadi, “but I am not sure I would be of help.” “No, you wouldn’t,” said Ember and Aadi snorted, “Thanks.” The stone was about to add something more, but it was cut off by a shriek that pierced the magical hum permeating the cave. Aadi tried to find its source, but his body was stiff and he had limited mobility right now. “What was that?” he asked Ember, but the stone didn’t reply. Out of the corner of his eye, Aadi spotted large shapes forming on a section of the blood wall. They looked eerily human, but he wasn’t sure of the sight he beheld.
“Ember…” said Aadi with some urgency and he felt a note of strain in the stone’s voice. “It has become,” said Ember, “more powerful. This just got harder.” “Can you win?” he asked, still jarred by the shriek from a moment ago. His muscles were increasingly stressed, too. Ember began to reply, “I…” when another shriek interrupted it, followed by hungry growls and victorious grunts. This time, Aadi didn’t ask Ember anything. He didn’t need to, for he knew whom those lascivious cries belonged to. He recognised their evil voices almost instantly, from his recent foray in Ember’s memories. The third shriek that followed those voices confirmed his suspicions.
“Are they…?” Aadi heard Ember begin to ask and he finished for the stone, “…the law keeper’s thugs? Yes.” He added, “The screaming woman is…” and Ember completed his sentence this time, “…the woodcutter’s wife.” Both Ember and he watched, as a familiar scene from the stone’s memories played out on a section of the blood wall. With each passing moment, Aadi felt an increasing sense of oppression. The illumination in the cave grew dimmer and in a corner of his mind, he could feel the strain on Ember’s power distantly. The evil magic had grown stronger, much stronger. The magic stone was barely keeping it at bay, but the effort was exacting a heavy toll on it.
As the bloody scene reached its climax, Aadi heard a desperate roar echo throughout the cave. “My wife,” a deep, angry voice said, “my daughter! I…” The roar grew louder and the cave dimmer. Around Aadi, there were drops of blood dripping on the ground! As the roar subsided, the voice continued, “I will have my vengeance! I will…” Suddenly, another shriek cut the voice off. It pierced through the din and Aadi winced as he recognised it. Another set of shapes formed on a different section of the blood wall. They played the same scene out again and another roar reverberated through the cave. The voice repeated, “My wife, my daughter! I will have my vengeance!” The figurative weight bearing down on his shoulders grew heavier and Aadi struggled to stay on his feet.
“That’s… Flint,” said Ember, its voice revealing the pressure it was under. “Is he… still alive? How?” asked Aadi, struggling to keep the stone aloft. “He is… gone,” replied Ember, “This is the… bloody facet… of his soul.” Aadi’s knees began to buckle. He felt his body approaching its limits. He couldn’t hold Ember up for long. “If you shorten…” he began to say and almost lost his balance. With difficulty, he finished his question, “…the length of your… magic, will it help?” The stone didn’t reply, but Aadi felt its affirmative nod. Without further ado, he slumped on his knees and held his arms close, his hands clasping Ember to his chest. The stone glowed brighter, but its magical energy withdrew from the blood wall. Immediately, veins of blood shot from different points on the wall towards Aadi. They were like long darts tracing lines of ichor across the air.
The projectiles struck the space around the two of them, but were unable to pierce the bright, shining, blue-and-pink-hued shield that enveloped them. Aadi and Ember were safe inside the stone’s magic. “The shield is stronger, now that its range has been shortened,” said Ember, relief evident in its voice, “Good thinking, Aadi.” Breathing much easier now, his limbs more relaxed, Aadi asked, “Do you know what’s happening?” Ember was about to reply, when Flint’s voice roared again, repeating its threat of vengeance. The sunlight illuminating the cave had been completely blocked by the dome of blood. Save for Ember’s glowing magic, there was no light for Aadi to see anything by, now. Even so, his instincts told him that the blood magic had intensified, following the roar.
“You are right,” confirmed Ember, “The dark facet of Flint’s soul is attempting to strengthen its purpose.” “What do you mean by that?” asked Aadi and Ember replied, “The bloody power needs a purpose to manifest and once you defeated the Unflinching, it had none.” “Why is it still here, then? Why didn’t it die with Flint?” asked Aadi again, confused. The stone answered, “Conditioning. Through repeated experience, that facet of the Unflinching’s soul became dominant and its conditioning compels it to survive; to remain manifest as it were.” Aadi pondered Ember’s words unsuccessfully.
He asked again, “If Flint is dead and gone, shouldn’t his dark power have vanished with him?” Ember replied, “An ordinary woodcutter would have indeed experienced such a death, his faculties, skills, and powers, such as they were, vanishing with his passing. The Unflinching was different. As I mentioned before, he had tapped into a dark aspect of his soul to exact revenge for his family’s death. That aspect was fuelled by his purpose. It made his purpose its own.” Aadi focused on ‘purpose’ and asked, “Since Flint is dead, his purpose no longer exists. How can this aspect use it?” Ember answered, “It wishes to exist, to continue being in your world. That isn’t possible without a vessel. There are rules that the manifest must follow.”
Aadi intuited the meaning of ‘vessel’. “It wants me?” he asked, “I am a vessel for it, right?” He felt Ember nod in answer. There was nothing else which was alive in the cave for this evil to possess. He was the clear choice, given that Ember obviously had enough magic to resist the blood power. “Once it takes me over as its vessel, what happens to its purpose?” asked Aadi, trying to think of a way out of this peril. “If it dominates your existence, its experiences will become your condition. Its purpose will become yours,” replied Ember gravely. Something in Ember’s words caught Aadi’s attention. He couldn’t put his finger on it, so he decided to focus on a single word again.
“You said ‘its experiences will become’ my ‘condition’. Are you saying I will know what Flint saw and heard in his lifetime?” asked Aadi. Ember answered, “You will share his experiences, in as much as this dark facet knows of them; yes. If those experiences overcome your conditioning, then the bloody power will consume you.” A certain understanding was dawning on Aadi. “You are saying,” said he, “that Flint’s experiences will replace mine.” “Yes,” affirmed Ember and then added, “If they overcome your conditioning.” A notion was forming in his mind. He enquired, “Can it work the other way? Can my experiences replace Flint’s?” Ember was silent for a long moment. Then, instead of replying, the stone asked, “What is your plan?”