Chapter 10-313: A Tribute of the Light (1/2)
The word she uttered in Demonic was vile enough that the MP’s all spontaneously vomited to hear it, which no doubt would have entertained her were matters better.
“Huh. Disappointing,” I muttered, totally unfazed, of course. The Shards around me dissipated like illusions, just missing that last part of total reality before being released to kill her.
I glanced at the diamond in my hand, and golden threads of light shimmered around and through it, forming a complex pattern attuned very, very specifically to the Name she’d just given me, or it simply would not work.
I held it up for her inspection, and she grimaced despite herself. “Catch it, or I kill you instantly.”
My Shards all snapped back up. My Song and humming had never stopped, and the edges of the Words of Creation in the melody was obviously making her twitchy.
She snarled at me, but nodded as I lowered it, and I fobbed it lazily right at her.
I could tell that for a moment she was thinking of letting it drop, skitter across the Pentagram, and break the confinement on her. But she glanced at the Skull atop Clavus, swallowed, and caught the stone easily.
Golden lights streamed out, wrapped around her as she grit her teeth and glared at me. With a defiant shout, she was sucked inside the diamond in a blur of magic and motion.
The gem started to fall from midair, but the Pentagram snuffed out the instant she was no longer actually inside it, and Einz caught it with TK before it could hit the ground.
I glanced at the darkness wrapped inside the gold within the diamond, tossed it in the air once, and stowed it away.
There was a boom!, and everyone jerked as a bolt of lightning leapt for the horizon and the distant sky, taking me with it.
Yeah, Flame was still my sister, and I was going to save her.
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I materialized in the hidden cave, which had no Wards on it, the traces of demonic energy about enough to dissuade any vermin with ideas. Devilsight let me see all the Husks here easily.
If the lilitu had died, all these people would literally have had little time to live, as the demonic energy would lose its hold on them and leave them alive at the very precipice of death. They might be able to last a short amount of time, but the faster someone came to save them, the better.
Holy healing magic swirled around them, first breaking the Husk Enchantment upon them, then destroying the Brands afflicting them which had formed it in the first place. Physical and mental healing and Restoration followed as the Husk Links were totally broken, and began to restore the five women and one man to some semblance of health.
They only woke up from their tortured nightmares for a moment before the Restoration sent them immediately back to sleep. This time, the dreams would be healing, reinforcing, and strengthening them, letting them know that they had endured, their nightmare had come to the end, and they would be all the stronger for it.
I whipped up the Disks, and Bey ‘Azzar politely Summoned up some geniecraft cloth blankets to wrap them in.
I couldn’t Linejump with them, so that meant flying them back. Thankfully, that wouldn’t take too long, and there was a Healing Hall of Amana right that way I should be able to reach in about twenty minutes.
The boulder blocking the cave’s mouth melted away, Shaped off to the side, and after everyone floated out, it flowed back and completely sealed the mouth of the cave, merging into the hillside and completely hiding it, to the point of being roughened by the winds and even matching crystal patterns in the surrounding stone.
Making sure they were protected from the wind, I lifted off the ground, the Old Steed erupting from the ground beneath me to carry me aloft, the Disks following. With a snort of ice and fire, flaming clawed hooves pounded at the air, and he raced north and a little west, making a beeline for the Healing Hall.
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The stadium where Morninglight was supposed to be playing was seething with all sorts of rumors and discontent. The arrival of the Inquisitors of Harse going backstage had been noticed and spread rapidly, but exactly why they had arrived was not known, although that didn’t stop the rumor-mongering from happening.
Some people just dismissed it, others were annoyed that their time had been wasted and were ready to start clamoring for a refund. Some had real concerns, and some were just looking for a juicy story.
“Please dim the lights.”
The Voice rippled through the air, and although it was very quiet, it cut through every conversation like a knife, and suddenly everyone speaking shut up abruptly.
They knew that voice...
Slowly and in series, the lights illuminating the seats on the floors and sections began to go out. Even the lights on the stage went off, and there was nobody out there moving on it even now. Murmurs went up, wondering what was going on, the majority of people sitting back, thinking the show was about to start, anticipating a bright spectacle about to erupt in Morninglight’s flaring and showy style.
The spotlight that went on came from above, but no spotlight sent it forth. It was gentle and serene, but in the darkness, bright enough, and it illuminated the woman walking forth onto the stage with supernatural clarity.
Once you saw her and recognized her, you would always know her and recognize her.