Broken Lands

Chapter 418 – Moonrest

“None that I’m certain of,” Ci’an answered, “I thought I saw something at the willows, but while the shape was correct, it was deeper and wider. And then just now, if you look over there, where that large tree is. Do you see the hollow under the roots?”

Sophia followed Ci’an’s directions. The tree seemed only a little bigger than the others, but it did look like there was a burrow under one of the large roots. There was a section of darker shadows that didn’t follow the tree roots, at least. “Yeah, I think so.”

“There’s a mark there that wasn’t there when the leaves fell.” Ci’an gestured towards the hollow again, as if that would tell Sophia where the mark was. “You killed the leaf-monsters fast enough that it definitely wasn’t one of them; it’s almost like something hid in the hollow while the leaves attacked. It wasn’t one of the shadow lurkers either, they don’t leave traces behind.”

Sophia made her way across the leaf-littered ground to the hollow. She couldn’t see the mark Ci’an meant; the outer edge of the hollow was obvious now and it had clearly been improved by some sort of forest animal. The animal wasn’t in there right now, though, so she wasn’t even certain what animal it was. “There’s nothing there.”

“I know.” Ci’an sounded annoyed. “I never saw anything move. All that’s there is the mark it left behind, like it’s dragging a leg or something. It’s too wide, but I don’t know what else it could be. I can’t tell what the marks are made by; it’s nothing I recognize. It’s probably half the weight of a person, but even that seems to change, as if there are several of them, but there’s never more than one mark. It’s not the first time I’ve seen one where I’d have sworn there wasn’t one a moment before.”

Sophia focused on the entire hollow, including the edge where the mark had to be, but there was no sign of more magic than there should be. If there was something hiding there, it was somehow keeping her from seeing the mana of its spell as well as its body. Sophia was pretty sure that the World Tree wouldn’t place something skilled enough to hide from her in the area intended for people without any upgrades, so she was fairly confident that whatever caught Ci’an’s attention wasn’t there. “I guess we’ll have to be careful. Can you say something earlier next time, so we know to keep an eye out?”

“I thought I was just being paranoid until now,” Ci’an admitted. “But sure.”

Sophia shrugged. “Not a rabbit would have been enough. It didn’t matter this time, but who knows next time?”

An hour or so later, the light in the sphere on the statue’s head had grown to fill nearly half of the globe when the group emerged from the forest into a clearing around a large building. It was simple in shape, four pale stone walls and a tiled roof with a single ridgeline down the middle. Naturally, they’d arrived at one of the corners and they picked the wrong way around, so they had to walk more than halfway around the building until they found an entrance on the far side, below the peak of the roof. The other three sides of the building had a moon etched into them; to the left and right were opposing crescents while the rear of the building held a disc etching that Sophia knew was a moon only because of the crescents and the fact that they were supposedly headed to Moonrest. 

Realistically, they’d have walked around the building even if they’d managed to approach from the correct side. They needed to know if the bunny’s sphere pointed at the building or if it was simply in the way. They’d probably go in either way because it was interesting, but as it turned out they didn’t have to make that choice: the light from the orb on the statue’s head shifted direction as they walked around the stone building, always pointed towards it.

The entrance was nothing more than a stone arch in the middle of the wall filled with darkness. Unlike the other sides, there was no obvious moon image near the opening, just a set of steps that led up to an opening filled with darkness.

Sophia frowned at the opening. The building was big enough for them but it would be tight quarters if it came to a fight, even if the building was empty. Sophia doubted it would be empty.

That wasn’t the only problem, either. The shadow was wrong. It didn’t have teeth and claws the way the shadows of the shadow lurkers were wrong, but it was still wrong. It was too dark. Sophia concentrated for a moment to confirm what she’d already guessed: it wasn’t just an archway. There was an enchantment of some sort on the frame, no, on the entire building. 

It wasn’t a portal. That much was obvious. It was either an illusion or something else that affected the entire space inside the building. Maybe it made it bigger on the inside or maybe it did something else Sophia wasn’t thinking of. Whatever the enchantment did, it was definitely there. “The entire building’s enchanted. It’s not just the entrance, it’s the whole thing. Back home, I’d have called it a dungeon effect and kept going since this area isn’t supposed to be that bad but I’m not sure what it does.”

“Let me look,” Xin’ri declared. She moved forward holding a staff Sophia didn’t immediately recognize. 

Sophia was certain she’d seen it before, but not when Xin’ri fought. She pummeled her memory but the only time she could think of when she’d seen something like it was when Xin’ri was building Mo’ra’s new body. It wasn’t important enough to interrupt Xin’ri’s train of thought while she examined the building.

By the time Xin’ri finished, Sophia’s anxiety about the entrance had turned to boredom. She knew she was being overcautious for the lowest area, but it was good practice. At least, she hoped it was.

“There’s an enchantment built into the walls affecting the space within the building,” Xin’ri announced suddenly. “It’s made of light and shadow and space. I’ve never seen anything like it, but it’s actually changing the area, not simply masking it. It’s not like Taika’s illusions, either; this is light and shadow becoming space, not light affecting what we see. That’s all I can tell from out here, but we need to be ready for a completely different place when we step inside, one that’s real.”

Sophia picked herself up off the ground and brushed the dirt off her armor’s pants. It didn’t make much of a difference. “That’s what I needed to know. Everyone else ready?”

“I am,” Dav stated as he moved forward to the opening.

“Yup.” Ci’an stepped forward, apparently content to maintain her wolf-eared human shape for now.

Xin’ri grimaced. “I need a moment.”

The staff Xin’ri held disappeared and was replaced by another one, a two-foot-long wooden baton that looked like it was made of thin branches woven together. It supported a large, clear quartz crystal at the top where the woven branches were narrower and seemed to smooth into a single branch at the base. Sophia recognized that staff; it was the one Xin’ri used for light-based magic. It worked particularly well with Jax, but of course he wasn’t here.

Xin’ri slipped a glove on her left hand, then held it out for everyone to see. It was a black fingerless glove with a set of crystals anchored to the back, with a larger faceted oval stone in the middle and a series of long thin crystals set around the central oval. They looked like glass or maybe quartz to Sophia, but she wasn’t even close to an expert in crystals. Silver studs wandered down the length of the partial finger coverings.

“I’ve been trying to duplicate Abilities in equipment,” Xin’ri announced. “This is the best I’ve done to duplicate Jax’s light-shields; since he isn’t here, this seems like a good time to pull it out. We’re fighting shadows, so I figured a shield made of light will hopefully hurt them as well as block them. It’s my first success, so it’s a bit, ah, temperamental. The shields are … well, they’re where I want them but they may not be the right size or shape.”

“Have you managed to duplicate-”

“No.” Xin’ri cut off Sophia’s question before she could even get it out. “You and Dav are completely hopeless. Feathers can’t do what you do with them and I’m pretty sure the core of Dav’s Sphere is breaking reality. That would be really expensive to duplicate, it’s better to just do stuff with the same outcome a different way. Shapeshifting is possible but kind of pointless since I have better ways to achieve flight. I can duplicate some of Ci’an’s vision Abilities, if I put the effort into it, but there isn’t much point. I’ve been trying to duplicate your spellbreaking lately with exactly no luck. I can’t even see the threads you break.”

“Magic, even intent-based magic, naturally falls into spellforms…” Sophia trailed off as she realized that this wasn’t the place to talk about it. They’d talked about it before, but it was a topic for evenings around the campfire or in the party room. Not that she was ever going to get to see Arryn’s party room again; she didn’t plan to return to Mazehold. “Ah, I can go over it again later. I’ll be happy to help; a lot of Abilities are basically spells so it would be useful.”

Xin’ri sighed and clenched her gloved hand. “We should get moving. I’d like to get this taken care of before nightfall.”

They had at least a couple of hours, which made it obvious Xin’ri was changing the topic. Sophia followed. “Do you think it will matter?”

“Well, it can’t hurt,” Xin’ri shrugged. “If we’re early, we can wait. The shadows aren’t likely to be weaker at night, not when I need light to see even if the rest of you don’t.”

Sophia did still need light to see, as did Ci’an. They just didn’t need as much as Xin’ri did. Dav was the only one in the group who didn’t seem to need light at all. It wasn’t worth the protest; Xin’ri was just teasing anyway. “Right, right. If we’re all ready then?”

This time, they were. 

Dav led the way into the stone building. “It’s bigger in here than it looked. There are pillars to each side and I can’t see the ceiling.”

Sophia was the last to enter. She stepped in, then heard a noise behind her. When she turned, a light seemed to appear in the distant sky, a sky that should be blocked by the building they’d entered. Sophia saw pale light and craters for just long enough to recognize it as a moon that wasn’t her own before darkness bled across the moon, an eclipse that happened in seconds instead of minutes. The light around the moon turned red and it seemed far closer than it should be, if it was there at all.

The shadows of the carved pillars twisted and morphed into the shape of a headless man with claws. Tendrils of shadow wisped away from him, like extra arms and fingers or perhaps tentacles and spider legs. They shifted from moment to moment, writhing in place, making their own shadows in the light of the blood moon eclipse.

A pair of glowing red eyes blinked into existence in the shadow-creature’s chest and then it spoke. “You have brought the Moon Rabbit back to Moonrest.”