Chapter 205 (2/2)

But then he froze, because after they fled away from him, the wisps began floating in the air at certain points in front of him. As he looked at them, Randidly realized they formed a cross. The largest and longest was in the center, slowly circling in a small space. The others were arrayed in four directions around the first, flying in and out towards the central wisp, as if tracing a line.

“What…?” Randidly muttered. Then his face paled, as one of the wisps popped out of existence. Then another. Then another, then another, until there was only the long and thin one, swirling in the center.

Its brightness had been ground down, so its long and thin body was dim and insubstantial, like a trail of smoke. Its movements grew sluggish. This was the first one, the one that originally split, the one that had so brightly danced around his fingers in the past.

“Why….?” Randidly said frantically, pouring his will into his body. He still couldn’t feel his body, but he began to float forward through the darkness, towards that last remaining emerald wisp. “Why aren’t you fleeing….? What are you trying to show me….?”

The emerald wisp continued to circle, beginning to shrink. The wheel overhead sped up, and the Agony crashed downward towards them. But there was one benefit to the Agony; the stronger it was, the stronger Randidly’s control over his numb body became. It cut through the isolation to hurt him, and gave him space to move.

Finally, after a long minute, Randidly reached the wisp. Stretching out his hand, he went to pick the wisp up. With a satisfied sigh, it popped, disappearing. But hanging in the air was a thought that was transmitted directly into Randidly’s brain with such clarity that it almost seemed like a thought that he had himself.

You are not alone.

The tone was one of joy and pride, even if it was filled with nostalgia.

Hanging in the spot where the last wisp had disappeared, Randidly’s hand slowly curled into a fist. He ground his teeth and a glowing light filled his eyes, suppressing tears.

“The nerve of you…. to say something like that….. as you die…. Where does your confidence come from… Why would you give for me to such an extent…?”

But there was no answer. The darkness continued to fill with Agony, crashing against his will. Randidly restrained a sob, then focused his eyes, furious. Although the wisps had given themselves up, he refused to believe that there was no meaning to their actions. There was meaning to the location that Randidly now floated, and also to the 4 lines that they had traced in the air. All he had to do was find it.

So Randidly closed his eyes and breathed slowly. The crashing pain dug frantically at the edges of his consciousness, demanding attention, but his core slowly became increasingly tranquil. Plus, if his outside feedback was cut off, there was no point in holding his eyes open. The information there would be warped. All he had left…. was hope and intuition.

And the promise that he wasn’t alone. But if the wisps died to say that, was it still even true...?

Still, hope wasn’t an answer, but it was the scent of a path. And strangely, Randidly had no fears that the wisps had lied to him. They were a pure creature, a joyful one. They were simple and bright while they were alive. Thinking about it, the anger in Randidly’s chest grew hotter and hotter, and he bared his teeth in the darkness.

This location, the location of the largest of the wisps….

His senses expanded, but found nothing. Shaking his head, Randidly instead just sat, withdrawing his focus. He brushed away the pain of Agony, even as it began to reach a level that would result in physical damage to his body. Those things weren’t important now, it wasn’t even clear that this was a body that could be damaged.

This was…

He was submerged, completely underwater, surrounded by a thick, deep pressure. Endless possibilities swirled around him. It was raw and pure and frigid and piping hot. It was the energy of Aether, and he was deep within the core of it, sitting at the location of that deep well within himself. Inside his chest, the hole that was the source of it all sat at the same location of his heart, and beat in time with his pulse.

He then turned his focus outward in the 4 directions the other wisps had traced. There was only darkness there, darkness and the insidious grinding of the Agony.

But Randidly had made it through the Challenge of Tarnak, and he had learned much about his own ability to endure. And he was patient. So he waited. And waited.

His senses were cut off to him, but still he waited, confident. Maybe he was just imagining it, but now that he thought about it, Randidly was very sure that he was right; he was sitting in the core of his Aether Spring. His Aether Crossroads, that was hamstrung in a way that would give it no outlets for Aether but himself, growing to become a dungeon.

Along those paths, he suddenly felt it. Motes of light, flowing slowly towards him. Four different colors of lights.