[
@DragonSong ]
[ OOC: Continued From (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=27073.0) ]
The trio took just over two weeks to get to Stonegate, a large town located in the foothills of the Terrins. It protected the entrance of a pass that led not through the mountains but to the Crystal Gorge, building its entire livelihood around mining and catering to adventurers eager to prove themselves in the treacherous Crystal Gorge.
"This is... more popular a destination than I thought," Grav commented, looking at three different equipment vendors.
Kiara gave a low whistle and nodded in agreement. "Makes me wonder if this Star Tear stuff is actually what we're looking for," she muttered as she looked around. "I mean, surely some mystical substance so fabled it's written of in faerie lore would be, well...less popular?"
Kit grumbled as he lowered himself down so the two could more easily dismount. "You're assume that is what everyone else is here for. Crystals on their own have plenty of value in the right market."
Grav hopped down with ease. "And there's supposedly a lot of treasure lost in the mountains. We might be the only ones looking for it."
He reached up to ease her dismount. "Though it doesn't bode well for making some coin while we're at it."
Kiara let Grav take her weight automatically as she slid down from Kit's back, used to the routine after the time they'd spent traveling together. "You've got a point," she sighed, landing on the balls of her feet with her hands braced lightly on his shoulders. "Although I suppose we should just be happy if we can even find the damned thing."
Kit snorted agreement, giving the few passerby who were eyeing the sudden arrival of two travelers on dragonback a hard stare. Most of them dropped their eyes and hurried on.
"We should probably start with finding a place to stay," Kiara said with a tired sigh. "We should start exploring the gorge methodically, make a plan and search a particular section each day." She sounded less than thrilled about the idea--while it made logical sense, she was not exactly the sort of person who typically enjoyed methodical planning.
Grav's face fell just a little as the tedium of exploration sunk in. "Well, that takes the fun out of it."
Exploration #1
Grav stared in wonder at the giant, glittering cleft in the earth stretching out before them, yawning up at the sky like a mouth full of jagged crystalline teeth. He hadn't imagined it would be so beautiful.
"Daaamn. This is going to take a while."
Kiara sighed, shoulders a little slumped. "You've got that right," she muttered, pulling out the map of the gorge that they had purchased before finding an inn the day before. "Okay, we can search this first sector here--" she gestured to the slight curve on the map that indicated the beginning of the gorge-- "and that shouldn't take us all the way to nightfall. Then Kit can fly us to the next section tomorrow..."
She looked up at the crystal cleft and sighed again. "...I hate this already."
"Your amulet doesn't happen to reveal hidden passages, does it?" he asked hopefully. "Because any readily apparent paths have no doubt been picked clean by no. Except maybe the monster-infested areas further in."
"Gods, maybe we'd be better off with one of those scammy treasure maps people are selling in town."
Kiara snorted and shook her head. "Don't I wish. Best it can do is get me through to the Fae realm without a proper gate."
She said it casually, as though that wasn't in and of itself the sort of thing usually reserved for bedtime stories.
Kit seemed to have spotted another problem. "Kia." He craned his neck to peer deeper into the gorge. "There's...a lot of tight spaces down there."
Kiara looked as well; though her eyes weren't as good as a dragon's, she saw what he meant. "You're not going to fit..."
Grav followed her gaze and sighed. "Sorry, big guy."
"Too bad you can't take human form." He turned back to them. "Some dragons can actually do that, right?"
Kit grumbled and flexed his claws in the earth, clearly not liking the idea of sending them down alone; Kiara nodded in answer to Grav's question.
"Yeah, some can, but there's a lot of dependent factors. There's near about as many types of dragons as there are humanoids wandering around Le'raana, and some of 'em can take a human avatar easy as winking. Some learn to do it, some can't do it just by virtue of what they are." She shrugged. "Kitharyx couldn't do it, but I'm not sure he ever tried to learn—oh, Kit's sire," she explained absently. "My mum's old partner."
Kit flexed his wings in a dragon shrug. "Don't actually know if my dam could do it, but I don't think so. Besides, I know it's not inborn in my line—I'd have to learn it, and that can take decades."
Grav gave the dragon's shoulder a pat. "I'll bring her back in one piece. I promise. And myself, hopefully with no extra pieces this time." He punctuated the statement with a sway of his tail.
"Hey. Don't knock tails. They're very useful," Kit chuffed lightly, though there was still a bit of worry in his tone.
Sighing, he cocked his head to fix them both in his bright gold gaze. "Just promise you'll call if you need me. I may not be able to get into some of those cracks, but I can certainly fly you out of there."
Kiara smiled and reached up to par his jaw. "Hopefully we won't need you to—but thanks, mate."
He crooned and nuzzled into her hand briefly.
Grav smiled. "We promise, big guy; we won't hesitate to bug out and call for you if we get in over our heads."
It was a while before fate made him a liar.
~Exploration #9~
It was had been a lucky find, Grav happening to catch a glint of light peeking out of a small tunnel that would have been impossible to see from the path without close inspection. Now inside, sunlight filtered down through the ornate crystal formation that hung from the ceiling like a chandelier, illuminating the cavern in a rainbow of colors.
Eyes wide, Grav sai, "Whoah..."
A little over a week into the search and Kiara was already thoroughly sick of the place.
Or she had been, until Grav all but stumbled into a cavern that was lit up from just a fraction of a sunbeam with a thousand different colors.
"Wow," she agreed softly, turning slowly in place as she tracked the dance of light over the walls. "It's...I mean, wow."
Under the refracted light of the crystals, her dark eyes were suddenly the bright, flickering green of the hottest part of a flame.
"And just look at all the natural gemstone. Nobody has... even..." Grav turned to face her, when he was caught by the way her eyes sparkled. "... mined it."
He turned away before she could see him blush. "Ahem. Yeah, let's... try to remember why we're here." He walked farther inside, looking for a passage onward.
Kiara trailed after him, still a little distracted by the dazzling splendor around them.
"Okay, so. The story you found said that the Tears were in the mountain, right? So...at the very least, we have to assume further in from the gorge..."
She reached out to let her fingers trail over the crystalline wall of the cavern. She squinted. "Gods, its certainly gorgeous, but it's impossible to make out details in all this. I could be staring right at a crack and have no idea..."
He suddenly stopped without warning, wobbling as if on the edge of a precipice. "Gah! Holy hells!" he cried out, waving his arms to recover his balance.
"Grav!" She snatched at the back of his jacket automatically, prepared to haul him back, though she couldn't actually see what it was he'd nearly fallen into, or over. "What is it?"
The adventurer stumbled back with a "whew" and pointed. If she got any closer, the natural illusion that the ground continued flat would be lost. Instead, there was a slanted crevasse angled towards them.
"One-way trip." He gulped.
"Gods." Kiara gulped as well as she peered around him at the drop. "Good catch..."
She looked around, realizing that the cavern was narrowing around them at this spot.
Oh.
Oh fuck.
"Grav..." she said slowly, eyeing the dip in the ground with distate. "Do you...see any other ways we could get deeper into the mountain?"
She had a horrible feeling they had just found their entrance.
"This... does look like the kind of thing that line about the mountain opening up to swallow the Warrior Sage could have referred to," Grav said nervously. "I don't know if we have enough rope for this; I can't even tell how deep it really is."
As they stood there, the ground quietly cracked around their feet.
"Maybe we should head back for the day," Kiara mused, frowning. "We know how to get in here now—we can stock up on supplies back in town, maybe even see if there's something Kit could do; if we had a long enough rope he could maybe anchor us..."
She heard the cracking before she felt it. Her eyes widened. "Shit—Grav, get back!"
Without thinking, she grabbed the part of him closest to her—which happened to be his tail—and yanked him back as the edge of their path started to crumble.
Her own footing was unfortunately less stable—the cracks spread in a diagonal, and the momentum she'd gotten from pulling Grav back sent her stumbling down to her knees. She tried to catch herself, and her stomach reeled sickeningly as her right hand met only empty air.
Grav's inhuman reflexes allowed him to catch her just, but he was too late. Suddenly, the entire chunk of ground under their feet collapsed. They spilled onto the slope and tumbled down into the dark.
Grav opened his eyes and sat up to look around in the gloom. The last thing he remembered was hitting his head on a stalagmite on the way down.
"Kiara!" he called out, wincing as he felt the side of his head. Even with improved vision in the dark, he could barely see his own hand. Reaching for Brightedge, he found his scabbard missing, having been torn loose at some point. So, he started crawling around and feeling for it.
"H-here." Kiara coughed, rock dust coating her tongue. Or, crystal dust, she guessed. Was that even a thing? "Fuck, I can't see a damn thing. Don't suppose Brightedge could--?"
She started to try to stand, then suddenly cried out and went back down on one knee. "Shiiiiiit," she hissed. Then, sounding more irritated than in pain, called in the direction of Grav's voice, "My stupid red-cap-bit leg isn't fucking working. I think I hit my hip weird or something. How're you doing?"
"A few scrapes and my head is pounding, but otherwise I think I'm fine." He kept feeling around until his hand found something metal. "Found it!"
The chamber in which they found themselves slowly lit up as Brightedge sprang to life. The small crystals growing from the ground seemed to absorb the light and begin to shine themselves. The effect spread until most of the large space was lit up like a constellation.
"Whoah... is that... an underground ruin?" In the distance sat what vaguely looked like the remains of a temple of some kind. A veritable crystal forest waited between them and the structure."
"Whoa, indeed," Kiara agreed as the crystalline forest lit up around them. She tried to stand again and managed it this time, though she was wobbly and had to leaned heavily against one of the protrusions of crystal for support.
"Hang on," she muttered, squinting at the structure in the middle distance. "Lemme contact Kit--we can't be so deep into the mountain that he can't hear me yet."
She hoped.
Grav moved to check her leg for obvious injuries. Maybe it was just dislocated?
"Any luck?"
From the way she was standing, her hip did look like it might have slipped out of joint, making it look like she was standing at an angle despite the flat surface beneath them. She was resting all her weight on her good leg, eyes closed and breathing carefully measured as she tried to concentrate through the pain radiating out from it.
Kitten? Can you hear me?
...further. You okay? Thought I heard...
"I've got him," she sighed, a mix of relief and irritation. "Sort of. Damnit, most crystals have some sort of magical nonsense going on, even at a low frequency. I wouldn't be surprised if this place is muddling up the connection."
"Just tell him we're fine and will call for him as soon as we find a way out or a hole he can fly into."
"But first..." He handed her his empty scabbard. "Bite down on this. Because this is going to hurt. A lot."
As soon as she did, he grabbed her leg and carefully angled it before quickly shoving it back into its joint.
"Yeah, that's..."
She took the scabbard when he handed it to her, a little baffled; luckily, she realized what he was doing a split second before he did it, so she managed to bite down on treated leather rather than her own tongue. It also helped muffled the instinctive scream somewhat.
Dropping the scabbard when he was done, she doubled over and braced her hands on her knees. "Ohhhhhh I hate you I hate you I hate you," she bit out. "Fuck. Ow. Thanks. Fuck."
She took another breath, two, then reached out to Kit again. "This...may take me a second," she muttered. "It's like shouting across a canyon--there's a weird echo, and I'm missing every fifth word."
Grav nodded and walked around the area as she worked on her connection. Gods, the place was beautiful: the glowing crystals lighting the cave like a sea of stars, the crystalline forest, the patch of geodes just sitting there to be taken like loose treasure, all of it.
Curious, he picked up one of the strange stones. The crystals were pristine, but the stone had a strange, scaly texture. And the shape was odd, but he couldn't say how.
"Alright. He's not happy, but he's got the message. He's going to start searching topside to see if there might be another way down here," Kiara said after a little while. Then she noticed that Grav was holding a strange crystal, and limped her way over--he may have popped her hip back into its socket, but it was still sore as all hells.
"Whatcha find?" she asked as she got closer.
Grav held it toward her. "Some kind of geode, I think. A lot of them, in all sorts of colors, just sitting there." He brought it closer to his face for a better look.
Then an eye opened in front of him. "Gah!" he shouted, dropping it like it might bite him.
"What in the hells--?!"
Kiara jumped back, reaching for her dagger automatically.
The strange crystal creature seemed to unfurl in the air so it hit the ground with four splayed feet, then skittered toward the thicker clusters of crystal columns, sparing a moment to hiss at them as it went.
Kiara gaped. "What the fuck was that?!"
"Don't ask me!" He shuddered from the surprise as he watched the creature run off behind a column. "It looked like some kind of freaky lizard."
The other "geodes" unfurled into strange lizards of varying crystal and scale colors. Without the surprise, they were actually kind of adorable. Adorable like... babies.
"What even...?" Kiara blinked, staring at the little creatures. "I didn't know anything could live down here, let alone..."
One of the lizard-like animals skittered toward them, then abruptly changed direction to circle around to their left. She snorted as it arched its back and seemed to expand the scales on its tail, like a startled cat--or like Kit used to do when he was a hatchling.
"Easy, little guy," she found herself cooing as she knelt. The animal scampered back, but when she didn't pursue, it stopped and eyed her curiously. "There ya go," she murmured. "See? We're not gonna hurt you. Sorry Grav here threw your friend--you gave us a bit of a fright."
One of the other little crystal critters chirped and skittered halfway up a spear of quartz that thrust up from the cavern floor, cocking its head as it seemed to be trying to get a better look at them.
A third one scampered close to Grav and tasted the air. It chirped and skittered up to him as he knelt. He put his hand out, and it smelled him again before cheeping happily and climbing straight up his arm.
"Well, hey, little guy." The swordsman smiled at it as it settled on his shoulder. "Gods, they're so cute it hurts."
"I think I'm in love," Kiara agreed, smiling at the little creature as it curled up in the crook of Grav's neck. She chuckled a bit and noted, "I think they like you."
Sure enough, two more of the creatures had scampered toward him, tongues flicking out to scent the air around his boots. One tentatively placed a splay-toed paw on the toe of his boot and chirped up at him demandingly.
"I've never seen anything like them," Kiara murmured as she watched. "Do you think...I mean, the Tears have supposedly been down here a long time. Do you think it...made them, somehow?"
"Who knows? I mean, there are always weird critters underground." He carefully picked up the one begging for attention. "Did I say weird? I meant precious, yes I did," he cooed.
Grav looked over just in time to say, "Oh no," before finding him buried under an adorable tide of lizards. "Help!" he laughed. "Too much cuteness!"
Kiara burst out laughing, moving forward to start pulling the cheeping critters off of him. They didn't seem to mind overmuch, giving a peep or two of protest as she lifted them up, but settling easily once they realized she was simply moving them to the ground and not taking them away entirely. A few of them even nibbled curiously at her fingers, or pressed closer to the warmth of her hand.
"They really like you," she chuckled as she peeled one off his arm only for it to scramble back up his leg and make a new perch on his shoulder. "Alright, babies, yes, you're very cute, but we...have to..."
Her smile faded as she happened to glance up and went very, very still. "Grav," she hissed. "I think...they are babies..."
Clinging to the crystal wall of the cavern above their heads was another gem-encrusted lizard--only this one was easily the size of mountain lion. It gave a shivering, rumbling growl, revealing that the cute little needle-teeth on the smaller ones would one day get to be about the length of Kiara's thumb.
"Oh. Shit."
The little ones skittered away as Grav looked up, as if they were in trouble for talking to strangers. He gulped. "Thaaat's not good."
"Maybe if we don't make any sudden mo--" He was interrupted by an angry hiss as the mother ran down a column and towards them.
"Yeah, run!" The adventurer scrambled to his feet and supported Kiara as they fled.
Kiara yelped, finding herself spun quickly in place as Grav's reflexes kicked in faster than hers and he wound up hauling her along for two steps before her body caught up with her brain.
"That thing..is huge," she panted as they ran. "There's gotta be a--a crack somewhere...we can hide!" She didn't like their chances of getting to the ruined temple before the mama lizard caught up with them; damn thing was fast.
Grav didn't like their chances either, but was more worried about there being more than one angry adult lizard around. "I don't see anything!" he shouted as he cut down some large crystals to crash down between them and the creature.
The adult crashed into the barrier with a hiss. But instead of scrambling around, the brilliant red crystals on its body lit up. The barrier started to shine the same color and simply parted for it.
"Aaand they're magical. Wonderfull," he muttered sarcastically.
"Oh of fucking course." Kiara's mind was racing. Underground. Crystals. What would—
Oh.
Oh.
Well. This was either going to go really well, or it was going to be a disaster.
"Keep running!" she shouted at Grav just in case it was the latter, and she spun to face the charging lizard.
She hadn't used her magic in over a month—and even before that, she'd mostly been using Kit's fire as a base for it, which was significantly easier than summoning flames herself.
That wasn't an option just now. She threw her hands out with a muttered prayer in Sylvan, and fire leaped from her palms, striking the ground just in front of the lizard's feet.
It seemed to work; fire wasn't a typically naturally occurring part of this animal's environment, and she screeched and reeled back quickly, scampering to put distance between herself and the bright, hot foreign substance.
"C'mon, that won't keep her long." Grav grabbed her arm and pulled her along.
He ran through a shallow pool, hoping to disrupt their scent trail a little. As he ran further, he accidentally bumped a big mushroom, which released a cloud of fragrant spores.
"Gah! Gross! Lookout for those!"
"R-right." She staggered after him, a sudden sense of vertigo nearly knocking her feet out from under her before she managed to right herself and worked to keep up with Grav's longer strides.
Though she tried to avoid them, she was panting heavily, and inhaling some of the spores made her cough and sputter. "Fh-fhuck," she choked out.
Stinky spores? That's perfect!
"Wait!" He stopped to chuck some loose rocks at several mushrooms behind them, releasing a cloud of spores to confuse the reptile. "I'd like to see her follow us now!" he whooped before running onward.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? We don't know what these things are, or what they might do!" Kiara called as she raced after him. Well, she thought she was racing--he was steadily starting to pull ahead of her, no matter how hard she pumped her legs. She couldn't tell if it was magical over-extension, or maybe something to do with those spores, or even both, but she was flagging must faster than she should have been.
Grav was panting as well, coughing from the direct spray of spores he received. "Well we weren't *cough* exposed to anything more than that first spray, now were we?"
Once he was satisfied they were sufficiently far enough to be out of sight, he stopped. Resting his hands on his knees, he said, "I think we've lost her."
"Y-yeah..." Kiara leaned against the nearest crystal stalagmite, her head spinning. "Shit...that was...whuff."
She slid down to the ground, her legs simply refusing to support her weight anymore. "What...the fuck...was that?"
Grav was suddenly hit with whatever toxin was in the spores; his resistance was spent. He groaned and slid down next to her. "I think maybe... poison... Shit..."
He gave a rueful, hysterical laugh. "Please... please tell me my butt didn't just get us killed..."
Kiara chuckled faintly where she was leaning against the trunk of crystal l. "Well, all things considered...your butt...could've got us into...worse scrapes..." she muttered, clearly fading fast.
With the exhaustion from using her magic already dragging at the edges of her consciousness, the poison from the spores really had very little work to do.
Her lashes fluttered, then her head lolled back and her shoulder pressed heavily into his as she swiftly lost consciousness.
Grav shook her with slowly growing weakness. "Kiara?! Kiara?!" he pleased.
"Kiara?" He nudged her. "Kia...ra..."
"Kiiaaraaaa..."
His eyes fluttered shut.
Water splashed her in the face. "Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! a rude voice said, dripping with mean-spirited humor.
Kiara sputtered as she was jerked abruptly awake, trying to force her vision to stop spinning.
"What the fuck was that?" she gasped. Then, suddenly and fiercely: "Oh gods—Grav? Grav! Where...? What...?"
She blearily reached out to her connection with Kit as she looked around, trying to get her bearings.
She was now in a stone room, crumbling after perhaps millennia of neglect. Some of the strange glowing crystals lighting the cavern had been brought in as light sources. Water dripping from a crack in the ceiling had formed a tall, sturdy column of limestone. Of more immediate concern, however, was the fact that she was tied to it, and neither Grav nor Kit were there to answer her.
A large Serenian man squatted down before her, green eyes curious and cruel. He was powerfully built, with thick, beefy arms, and with a face that had clearly been punched too many times. "Good. You're awake. Next, I would have had to cause some pain," he said, as if he were disappointed that he didn't get to.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Kiara narrowed her eyes at her captor, trying to subtly twist her wrists back and forth to judge the strength of her bonds.
Pretty strong.
Damnit.
"Where's my friend?" she demanded, not really expecting an answer but needing to ask anyway. Needing to try. "Who the hells are you? How did you get down here?"
"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. Okay, love?" He didn't wait for an agreement; he just pressed on. "We were more than a bit surprised to find you two here. You see, we have eyes on the passage in. So, what I'm wondering is, how did you find your way down here?"
Passage in. There was an actual passage in.
She filed that away to fully unpack later, but there was the faintest thrill of hope in her chest--if the passage was big enough, Kit could get to them.
Outwardly, she kept her expression blank, staring the man down. "You first, love," she spat, as though she wasn't the one tied to a limestone spear. She smirked a bit and quirked an eyebrow. "Y'know, typically for the whole interrogation thing to work, you've gotta have leverage. For all I know, you've already killed my friend. Why should I tell you anything?"
Please please please let this guy be stupid enough to let something slip...
The man laughed. "Oh, I so like 'em with spunk!" He grinned. "For that, I'll give you a crumb."
"Our employer very much needs him alive. You, on the other hand, we don't need. Is your life not enough leverage? I'm sure the boss would love to use you as a test subject if that would make you talk."
Oh thank gods, he was alive. And...Boss. So they were working for someone. Someone who was interested in Grav.
She had a bad feeling she knew who that was.
She repressed a shudder at the words "test subject" and snapped something uncomplimentary in Sylvan, then snarled, "Go ahead, asshole. I'm not telling you shit."
It was a gamble, but if he meant it about the "test subject" thing...she had a better chance talking to the boss directly than to the hired muscle. She hoped. She just had to piss him off enough that he decided she wasn't worth the trouble, but not so much he just killed her to shut her up. Great.
"Oh, goody. Let's hope a little pain loosens your tongue." The man grinned with sadistic glee before punching her in the gut, skipping right past the slapping that women usually get first.
Kiara grunted and instinctively curved forward as much as her bonds would let her, blinking dizzily as that thoroughly knocked the wind out of her.
When she managed to get any amount of breath back, she rasped, "Get...fucked..." Her eyes still reflected the light from the crystals in an inhuman, almost eerie way, making them burn as she glared at him.
Internally, she continued to reach for Kit, but whatever strange interference that was happening in this place seemed to have grown stronger while she was unconscious--that, or maybe she was still too exhausted from her earlier magic use.
There was no getting through to Kit. She didn't so much as feel him.
"Stubborn, eh?" He smirked cruelly, spreading his fingers, and conjured arcs of electricity between them. "How's about a little shock?"
He grabbed her shoulders with his large hands and sent a jolt through her.
The scream was instinctive, echoing off the glittering stone around them for a few moments before she swallowed it back. She couldn't close her mouth for fear of biting down on her own tongue, but she managed to choke the scream off into something like an out-of-breath keening.
She was panting when his hands pulled back, trembling with aftershocks. Still, one leg kicked out on reflex, trying to catch his shin even from her awkward position.
"Bastard," she hissed, unable to come up with anything cleverer for the moment.
The man grinned. "Now, how did you get in without us knowing?" he demanded.
At the same time, Kit would just make out a faint, Gods...scr...ing...at...ing...er... Although familiar, the voice wasn't Kiara.
The dragon had been circling the sector of the gorge where Grav and Kiara had been supposed to be searching, looking for a way down that would fit him. He started at the brush of a foreign voice against the edge of his mind—not many outside Adela could speak to dragons in such a way.
At first, he was wary, throwing up mental shields and demanding, Who are you? Where's my rider?
Kiara spat blood in the man's face. Despite her best efforts, she had bitten the edge of her tongue. "Your mum's ass, that's how," she growled, though the raggedness of her voice took away some of the bite.
The man sneered and wiped the blood from his face. He shocked her again, this time with more power. At this rate, he was going to kill her before he got anything.
The voice cleared up a little as whoever it was put more effort into it. Kit?
Is...you? How am...oing this?
Wait... Grav?!
By the first fires.
Grav? Grav! He had to assume this was some effect of the mutagen--although every previous revelation of a new ability had always been heralded by some sort of strife, which made Kit very concerned about what was happening. Since when can you--?! Never mind, not important right now. Where are you? Is Kia okay? I can't get through to her.
Kiara screamed again, unable to quiet it this time. She bucked and thrashed uselessly against her ties, wrists chafing harshly against the rope. The electricity jolting through her system made her muscles seize, and her head snapped back hard enough against the stone spire that she saw stars.
It took longer for her to be able to form anything like a coherent thought this time around, and when she could it was mostly just ow ow ow ow ow fucking ow. She was slumped against the stone, panting.
Still, she managed to grit out, "Not...telling you...anything."
Please, Grav, please be safe. A Kit rescue would be great any time now--though she had a sinking feeling that wasn't going to happen.
I don't know, a temple...think. In...av--In a cave. I don't know; she's... screaming. Torture, maybe.
There was a pause. Volke's here.
Rage rose up in the dragon's chest, flames flickering between his teeth and smoke billowing from his nostrils. He tried to force himself to think rationally, despite the protective instinct.
Keep talking to me, he told Grav as he banked, dropping a little closer to the ground. If this works like it does with Kia, I can feel how far you are. I'll try to find you. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best chance they had.
Are you hurt?
The connection immediately grew stronger and was still growing.
Not technically. But... he did something to me. Something to trigger more mutation. He needs me a certain way, so I don't know what I'll look like by the time you find us.
The only good news is that the Tear is here, deeper in the temple.
Just hang on. Keep talking, I'll find you. I promise.
Underground, another scream rang out through the temple--and then things went eerily silent. Either Kiara had lost consciousness, or...
Oh gods... Hurry! I think she's in serious trouble!
Grav kept talking, giving the dragon as much information as possible about the cavern and his immediate surroundings.
Kiara woke slowly to arguing voices. She wasn't tied up, which meant she was probably in a cell of some kind.
"I thought we didn't need her alive." Her torturer sounded apologetic, possibly even afraid.
"We can still use her as leverage, you dolt!" A woman's angry voice.
Then, she heard a voice she had hoped never to hear again: Volke. "Enough. I don't pay you to carry on like children. Now leave us; I can handle her from here."
I'm trying! The dragon roared in frustration as he seemed to find the closest point to this new connection: the side of the gorge, where a fissure had opened up into the surrounding land. But a fissure just small enough to keep him out.
Kiara's instinct was to groan as consciousness returned. Her whole body ached, and her throat was raw. She drew in a shuddering breath, then coughed raggedly as her whole system seemed to seize up in protest.
Volke's voice was enough to cut through some of the fog; damnit, she'd really been hoping that particular hunch was wrong. Slowly, she pushed herself up onto her elbows, looking around blearily.
I think they just brought her to him. Alive, I think. I can't see from where I am.
She was in a small room, blocked off from a larger chamber by iron bars far newer than the temple itself. Beyond the cell door, Volke watched as the blue-haired mercenary and an Adelan woman walked out. The chamber itself had been turned into a makeshift alchemical laboratory, flanked by many more cells. Clearly, he had built a lab here before they ever met him.
He turned and, seeing her awake, approached the bars. "Ah, you're awake. I fear I must apologize for Mr. Rathbourne; he can get quite... carried away."
"Eat shit...and die, you megalomaniacal...asswipe," Kiara coughed, spitting another gob of blood to the side as she forced herself to sit up and then lean heavily against the wall. "I heard you...talking. Like hells am I gonna be...your leverage."
She glared at him through the bars, trembling with the sheer physical shock of what she had endured, but her eyes steely despite it.
Alive! Pissed, but alive!
"Oh, but you will. You see, there's something I need from Mr. Caviin and he's going to cooperate, or you will, unfortunately, have to join my other test subjects or die in the process," the mage said dispassionately.
"Please! I'll do whatever! Just don't hurt her!" Grav yelled from somewhere to her left, across the chamber. He sounded miserable and afraid, whatever defiance he had seeming to dissolve.
Oh, thank the fires. Keep talking, keep them distracted! I think... Kit narrowed his eyes at a cleavage in the stone of the fissure. I think I might have found a way in...
For just a moment, emotion cracked through the façade of irreverence Kiara had held in place. She lurched forward at the sound of Grav's voice--then forced herself to still. She met Volke's eyes and held them, seething.
"Then I die," she said calmly, and a strange, cool acceptance spread through her. If he needed Grav, then she couldn't let him have him. Simple as that. I'm so sorry, Kitten.
"Whatever you're planning, I won't do it. I won't be part of this. I won't be the thing you use to hurt him."
Grav's heart fell as she said she'd rather die. He might still be confused about his feelings about her, but he knew he'd never forgive himself if she died for his sake.
I'll try...
"Don't listen to her! I said I'd do it!" he pleaded.
Volke smiled coolly, not remotely moved. "I don't need your cooperation, girl. But, perhaps, I can make you an offer. Take his place as my subject, assuming you survive, that is. Do that willingly, and I'll even undo what I've done to him."
Her breath caught. She had no reason to believe that was a promise he'd keep, but...
She couldn't stop thinking of the way Grav had looked when he first realized what was happening to him; how he took each new change in stride, but with that bit of fear hidden in his eyes. How much she'd wished there was something, anything she could do to for him.
How much she cared about him.
How her own magic was slowly killing her anyway.
"...Fine." She met Volke's eyes with the harsh determination of someone who had absolutely nothing to lose. "Deal."
Raising her voice, she called, "Grav, this isn't your fault! Just...promise me you'll look after Kit, okay?" Her voice shook a bit on her dragon's name, but she gritted her teeth and swallowed back the threat of real tears.
"Then the decision is made," the mage said with a nod, "I'll be right back." He moved to his laboratory table to retrieve something, giving the two a moment to talk.
Whatever you're going to do, do it!
"Kia, please, don't..." Grav's plea was shaky and desperate. "I can't... I can't live with this... I..." He couldn't bring himself to say the rest. But he had never called her Kia before.
I'm trying, I'm trying! There was the barest tremor through the caverns even as he said it. I can't...get...through!
Kiara wrapped her fingers around the bars of her cell and let her forehead rest against them. She laughed, tired and entirely unamused. "I'm not long for the mortal world anyway, Puppy," she told him quietly. "One way or another. At least this way I can...do something good. Help you."
She squeezed her eyes shut, the way he'd said her name echoing in her ears. "I'm sorry," she managed to force out through gritted teeth as her chest went tight with emotion. "You're the best non-dragon friend I've ever had, and I love you, and I'm sorry."
She didn't mean it romantically; yes, her occasionally embarrassing crush was a large part of how she felt about him, of course it was, but in this moment... She just meant that she loved him as they were now. As the first person who had stuck with her. As the family she had chosen, like the way she loved Kit.
She hoped he understood that. That she wasn't trying to push, it wasn't desperation. She just wanted him to know. In case he didn't already.
"Ah! There we are." Volke said as he located a syringe. He filled it from a bottle and started walking back toward her.
"I swear you won't get away with this!" Grav shouted, getting angry.
Volke chuckled. "Your threats mean nothing, dear boy. Besides, the lady has made her decision."
He stopped near her cell. "Your arm, if you please."
There were plenty of animals that interpreted eye contact as a threat, a challenge to dominance. Kiara seemed to be channeling all of them as she held Volke's stare and thrust her arm through the bars.
She smiled, but it was more an expression of bared teeth. "My dragon is going to rip you apart," she told him in an almost sing-song voice, desperately shoving her fear down to be dealt with later.
If there was a later.
"I have methods of dealing with dragons." The mage seemed unconcerned as he plunged the needle into her arm.
Grav had felt nothing at first. She, on the other hand, felt an odd chill run up her arm as Volke backed out of reach.
Kiara shivered as the chill spread from the point of injection along her body, seeming to follow her nervous system incredibly quickly. That was certainly not what had happened to Grav, but then again, she didn't know anything about alchemy. Maybe he'd "improved" the serum.
She didn't think it was likely. "What...did you..."
Her vision started to swim. She slumped to one side.
And of course, that was when Kit broke through the first layer of crystal. His voice rang in her head, clearer than it had been in hours but faint, as she felt her heartbeat starting to slow.
Kiara...coming. Hold on...
"I'm sorry," she whispered, out loud and in her mind. "I'm sorry..."
Her heart beat once, then seemed to struggle to beat again. She couldn't get enough air. It was so cold...
She collapsed to the ground, color quickly draining from her skin. Her chest rose laboriously once, fell...then didn't rise again.
"No!" Grav shouted with more fury than he thought he could feel. "What did you do?!"
Volke faced him with a smirk, only able to see his subject's eyes in his dark cell. "Think of it this way: She'll never have to see what you're going to become."
Grav felt his heart thump faster as he was overtaken by an animalistic fury that even Kit could feel. He felt his humanity slip away as he rapidly mutated into something else.
Volke smiled triumphantly as his newest creation bashed itself against the bars of its cell with a strange, savage roar.
Kiara? Kiara!
She wasn't answering. It didn't feel like the lich's illusion, as though their connection was blocked. It felt like it was...broken.
Kit's roar echoed Grav's, reverberating off the crystal walls as he finally tore through the weak point in the fissure and crashed fully into the main cavern where the ruins of the temple sat.
"Uh, boss?" One of the mercenaries poked his head into the lab, looking nervous to be entering the space at all. "We...seem to have a problem."
Volke faced the mercenary, temporarily annoyed. The expression became more neutral as he asked. "I believe that's what I pay you people to take care of."
Outside, men scattered to take cover from the inevitable dragonfire while others opened fire with Connloathian rifles.
"Errr...right. Of course, boss, but ahh..." The mercenary swallowed, eyes flicking briefly toward the current "experiment" flinging himself against cage bars to the deathly still body lying in the other cell. "See, no one was actually...expecting a dragon. If there's anything--anything you've got that we could use to give us some sorta advantage here..."
The merc had clearly been sent by someone else, and seemed to be uncomfortable with being an errand boy on this particular sort of errand.
Volke sighed. The wretched beast shouldn't have been able to get in. "Very well, I'll release the dragon beetles. Tell your boss to get her men back; they are highly aggressive. And send her and Rathbourne to me. I could use their assistance."
When the merc left, he walked to a cell with narrow gaps between the bars and pulled a lever. The ceiling of the cell began to slide open, and the restless inhabitants swarmed the opening.
Kit had never heard of "dragon beetles", but it didn't take him long to decide he didn't like them. At. All.
While the Connlaothian rifles were an inconvenience, his scales were resilient enough to deter a majority of the shots, and even the bullets that did hit merely cracked or dented a few scales, they couldn't pierce his natural armor.
Unlike the massive insects' stingers, which must have been either specially evolved or created to cut through a dragon's defenses. After the second one to make it through his fire managed to slice a gash across his shoulder, logic finally broke through the haze of rage to force him to fight rationally. He was still breaking through Volke's defenses, but more slowly, methodically.
The mercenary had muttered a quick, "Yes, boss, of course, boss," before fleeing the lab. It didn't take long for Rathbourne and the red-haired woman to take his place in the doorway.
"You asked for us?"
The three insects came at the dragon from different angles, attempting to slash his wings in an effort to bring him down. Fire didn't seem to deter them; they were built to hunt dragons after all. Or, at least, the common dracarys pyro.
Volke looked to the mercs. "I'm going to need help keeping the subject on task. Your abilities will be a good deterrent."
Fire was Kit's main weapon, but it wasn't his only one; when he realized the beetles didn't seem much deterred, he started slashing with long, curved talons. The insects' shells were too hard to pierce easily--but their armor overlapped the way a more regular beetle's would.
It took a few tries, but Kit managed to get his claws hooked under the seam of one of the bug's thorax and ripped into it with sickening crack that echoed strangely off the crystal.
The few mercenaries who had been taking pot shots at the dragon while the beetles kept him distracted started to fall back. Quickly.
"And...how exactly do we do that?" the lead mercenary asked a little warily, shooting his "subject" a calculating look.
The beetle let out a final shriek before Kit ripped it in half. The other two became even more aggressive, trying to land on him. Stinger already poised, one came at his belly while the other came at his back.
"You'll see. For now, follow me." He led them down a flight of stairs to a chamber open to a lower region of the cavern accessible by no other path, save flight. Ancient columns lined a path leading to a passage deeper underground.
"Just get the subject to flee that way," he said. "I don't care how many men it takes."
"But don't go in yourselves. The poison gas inside will kill you."
Kit was wide to the beetles' tactics now, and he reared up to feint a slash at the one coming for his underbelly, making himself an even better target for the one coming at his back.
It was a risk, but one that paid off; the beetle at his back landed, slashing across the membrane of his left wing, just as the other darted under his forelegs, going for the most vulnerable patch of scales.
And he dropped like a stone, almost instantly crushing the beetle underneath him, then rolled quickly onto his back. Rolling was not typically a move dragons employed, save in the air--but Kit had grown up wrestling with a very human playmate. The beetles had not been prepared for the move, and though the one on his back survived--barely--it was dazed enough that he made quick work of it, flipping it onto it's back and cracking it open as he had the first.
The one beneath him was still twitching feebly. He growled and bit down on its stinger, ripping it free viciously before slamming both front paws down on it to thoroughly crush it.
The jet dragon swung his head toward the temple and snarled; the sound thrummed through the entirety of the cavern, echoing along corridors and bouncing off crystal until all the air was thick with it.
"Poison? But--our men--"
"Understood, sir," the mercenary leader said, cutting Rathbourne off. "We'll get it done."
When the roar echoed down into the lower cavern, Volke looked at the opening above. "Something tells me you don't have much time." He started back up the stairs. "Pull that lever to release the subject when you're in position. I'll keep the dragon occupied."
Rathbourne frowned after Volke left. "Are you sure about this, boss? Poison or not, I don't like it. We're just chess pieces to this guy."
The dragon in question wasn't too concerned with finding a proper way into the temple ruins; he just started smashing stone apart. With the link to Kiara gone--gone, gone, gone, no, not now, can't think about it now-- he had to rely on the tenuous connection with Grav. Though no more words were coming through the link, it was still there, and he could still use it to track him down.
"For what he's paying, I'll be a damn playing card," Rahtbourne's companion retorted. "Round up some men and get to your post."
It didn't take long for the mercenaries to file themselves into position, their leader taking her place at the lever. She held up a hand, three fingers extended, and put them down one at a time.
Three.
Two.
One.
A platform was lowered, and the cage atop it opened. The large creature that emerged didn't resemble Grav in the slightest. It was barely humanoid, with limbs designed as much for upright movement as they were for quadrupedal. It crawled out on splayed hands and feet, toes tipped with crystalline claws of some golden-yellow mineral.
It growled at the mercenaries through a muzzle that seemed part lion and part lizard, its mouth lined with sharp teeth. A mane of crystal spines clinked against each other as it turned to stare at the lead mercenary, singling out the dominant person. Its tufted reptilian tail lashed angrily behind it as the monstrous predator charged with a snarl.
The mercenaries closed ranks, using crossbows and a handful of purchased spells to try to drive the creature in the direction Volke wanted.
Grav! There was just enough space in the main cavern for Kit to take flight; he circled the temple, calling out in his mind with words, and trumpeting a dragon's battlecry aloud. Grav, can you hear me?!
The thread of connection was going down. Deeper into the ruins, into the mountain. He couldn't get into the temple itself, he couldn't--
Wait.
The floor of the cavern was thick clusters of crystal. All but one section, which he could see from above was smoother, flatter. Thinner. Like the panes he'd broken through to make his way into the cavern from aboveground.
Fuck, this is going to hurt.
Beating his wings sharply, he rose nearly to the cavern's ceiling, feeling the edges of his wing membrane brush stone; then he folded his wings in tight, tucked his head up under his chest, and went streaking toward the thinner pane of crystal like a comet.
The mercenaries scattered as enormous chunks of crystal rained down around them. This gave the beast the opportunity it needed to go on the offensive. It bit down on a merc's shoulder, crushing bones and tearing the limb free.
Roaring in triumph, it leaped over a fallen chunk to get at Rathbourne. The merc zapped the beast, but that only seemed to annoy it.
"Uhh... boss?"
"Get it into the tunnel!" the mercenary leader snapped, pulling a Connlaothian pistol from her belt and firing off two shots.
Kit, a little dazed from crashing through the crystal, shook his head and then swung it toward the knot of mercenaries and the...the creature they seemed to be doing their best to fend off.
The creature that tugged at the corner of his mind, familiar--but then he saw the arc of electricity fire off Rathbourne's fingers, and he remembered those brief tingles of shocks, the only thing he'd been able to feel through his stunted connection with Kiara for that last hour. Any sense of rationality momentarily fled.
With a snarl, he snapped one forepaw out to catch the mercenary--who was currently focused on the crystal amalgamation--in the chest and slam him onto his back. Looming over him, he bared his teeth and dropped his head close enough for the man to count them. A low, reverberating growl shook his chest.
"You. Hurt. Her."
The Serenian mercenary's eyes were wide and terrified. "Wh-who... the g-girl? I--I was just following orders!" he lied. "It's her you want!"
The beast, not much smaller than the dragon, slammed into Kit, snarling something that sounded suspiciously like, "Mine!"
Kit's growl grew in volume, then stuttered as the beast slammed into his side. He whipped his head around to snap instinctively, a territorial snarl curling his lips.
Then some semblance of sense reinserted itself. He pressed down harder on the mercenary's chest, claws digging into his shoulders. If this thing was who he thought it was...
"Ours," the dragon relented grudgingly, and moved just enough so that on the beast's second charge it could clamp down on Rathbourne's throat while the dragon's claws sunk relentlessly into his stomach. If the crystal creature had enough momentum, it would take almost no effort to literally rip the man apart.
The mutant tore at Rathbourne's throat with its teeth and pulled at his shoulders with long, clawed fingers. Between the two of them, the man was torn to shreds in mere moments. It swallowed a chunk of flesh, eyeing the larger creature with suspicion.
If Grav was still in there, he was buried under a mountain of animal rage and instinct.
Kit rumbled, dropping his head and arching his wings along the curve of his spine; an instinctive display from one apex predator to another, not challenging, but not backing down either.
He had to hope enough of Grav's mind was left to hear him when he growled, "The mercs first. They hurt her. It's their fault."
His own rage was boiling, nearly impossible to contain. It was only the barest thread of connection that remained from Grav speaking to him earlier that kept him from lashing out in pure animal instinct.
Monster-Grav rumbled aggressively not backing down. It was only when a stone shard from a spell pierced his side that his focus shifted.
"Come on, you ugly freak! You're going to regret that!" the leader shouted, wielding a magical spear of stone. He roared and raced after her.
Other mercenaries charged Kit, throwing spears and twirling bolas over their heads.
Kit laughed.
A dragon's laugh is not a sound often heard; Grav would have become familiar with the rumbling chuckles and amused snorts that Kit gave fairly frequently, but a laugh was something different. Part of the reason it was rare among dragons was because of how it showed their teeth: a threat among many species, dragons being no exception.
"That's cute," the young dragon snarled, and with a flick of his tail he knocked three of the charging mercenaries back into the wall of the cavern. Two crumpled, and didn't rise again. The third stirred weakly, and he put them out of their misery with a quick slash from his foreclaw.
These mercs were not backing up dragon beetles, or even armed with Connlaothian firearms. Kit tore through them like paper as the Grav beast went after the leader.
The leader who seemed to have abandoned all hope of driving Grav into the tunnel as Volke had wanted, and was simply trying to kill him. With extreme prejudice. She drove the spear forward, teeth gritted, and stone met crystal with a strangely chiming scrape that echoed out across the cavern.
Grav rose up into a bipedal position and bashed the spear aside with a snarl as he stomped closer. He leaned down to growl in her face, teeth bared and mane rattling with a snakelike sound.
The merc bared her teeth, but she was backed against a pile of rubble from Kit's dramatic entrance. "Eat this, fucker," she spat, and spun the spear overhead while her other hand came up with an onyx dagger that she tried to drive into his snarling mouth.
The beast twirled around in an acrobatic move that was pure Grav, grabbing the spear and coming back around to drive its elbow at her chest. As it approached, a bony stinger popped out, dripping with venom.
The merc was fast enough to avoid the spear, but she wasn't expecting the stinger. It caught her square in the center of her chest and she choked, venom coursing into her bloodstream.
"Fucking...animal," she spat as she sank to her knees, then slumped back.
Kit had nearly finished with her men; he had just snapped the last's head off with a precise bite, tossing the body aside to hit one of the clusters of crystal rubble, when he finally turned to see how Grav was faring against the leader.
The Grav-beast pulled his stinger out of the mercenary leader and tossed away the stone spear. He roared in triumph and turned to face Kit. He bared his teeth in challenge, dropping back to all fours and stepping towards the young dragon. His tail lashed behind him menacingly as he drew closer.
Kit held his ground, though he tried to force the rage and instinctive, territorial aggression to the side. "Grav," he muttered, unable to keep the growl entirely from his voice. "Grav, it's me. It's Kit. You don't want to do this..."
His tail lashed from side to side as he started to circle the beast, trying to keep enough distance that the thing Grav had become wouldn't lunge. "Don't make me fight you."
Kit's plea fell on deaf ears. Said ears folded back as he followed the dragon with his red eyes. Suddenly, he lunged forward, pushed to attack by the primitive urge to dominate. He snarled, slashing with his crystalline claws.
Shit.
Kit dodged the first swipe and matched it with one of his own, mostly trying to maintain some distance between them--he didn't want to test the strength of Grav's stinger against his scales, especially after fighting those dragon beetles.
"Damnit, Grav, wake up!" the dragon roared, throwing aside pleading in favor of an irritated demand. Maybe Kiara could have done better--but she wasn't here, and he was.
Growling, he lashed his tail again and tucked his wings in close to his sides, making himself more streamlined to better dodge incoming attacks.
Blood dripped from the gash Kit managed to leave in Grav's side. It slowly closed up as he circled for another attack.
Kit's demanding roar caused the beast to hesitate, pawing at his head with one mutated hand. He grunted, growling again as he retook his attack stance. He roared and lunged again, aiming to tackle his challenger.
Had that...?
"Grav!" Kit tried again, shouting in his mind as well as aloud. "Listen to me! Stand down!"
He grunted as his friend tackled him, rolling with the momentum of the strike in the hope it would knock him loose. The gash that the dragon beetle had opened on his shoulder earlier chafed painfully against Grav's scale-and-crystal hide.
The Grav-beast was so determined to win that the voice didn't reach him so easily the second time. He held on, not relenting even when he found himself pinned under the dragon. With a roar, he snapped and clawed fruitlessly as he squirmed to get free.
"Stop it," Kit snarled, trying to pin him without hurting him—a task that was proving impossible. "Sorry," he muttered, before sinking his claws into Grav's shoulders in an effort to hold him in place.
"Grav, please, listen." He resisted the urge to snap in the beast's face; steaming dragon's blood dripped between his scales, and he could feel Grav's blood coating his talons, despite this new form's rapid healing.
"I don't want to fight you."
The pain and Kit's demands combined gave Grav more clarity than he had had since losing himself to the mutagen. Some recognition fought its way into his eyes as their blood mingled. He made a strange noise, as if attempting to speak.
The beast breathed a few quick, deep breaths before trying again. "... K--K-it..."
"Oh thank the first fires." Kit relaxed his grip, erasing his claws out of Grav's shoulders with a wince, but not shifting his weight entirely. "Yeah, mate, it's me. Can you...hear me?"
He kept his voice physical, hoping that the mental connection wasn't necessary anymore—maybe he could sort of ease Grav back to himself...
He shook his head, an odd feeling stirring in his blood. It was...something like the broken link he had with Kiara, but...not quite. A tightly tied knot where his connection with his rider was woven.
Grav stopped thrashing, his rage fading. The strange connection between them gave Kit a clear picture of the feelings warring in Grav's head. Confused sorrow and anger flooded the link even before they showed up in his eyes.
"Ki--Kiara... Where?" His voice sounded rough and raspy, not unlike a dragon just learning to speak.
Kit's wings sagged in relief and he finally lifted his weight from the smaller reptilian creature, backing up a few steps.
He shook his head at the question. "I—I don't know. Our link is...gone. I can't feel her. Something happened, and then you couldn't speak, and—"
Dragons didn't often look anxious, but Kit did now. "Please...do you remember what happened? Where is she?"
Grav rolled over and sat up in a more human position. He stared despairingly at his monstrous hands for a long moment before answering. "Please... I don't-I don't want to... remem--remember..."
"Grav," Kit pleaded, lowering his head closer to his friend. His voice sounded oddly thick, though dragons weren't typically thought of as the sort of creatures capable of tears. "Grav, I need to know what happened. Where is she? Did he take her? What did he do, please..."
He knew. He knew why their link would be broken, but he refused to believe it. There had to be another explanation—something Volke had done.
There had to be.
The creature grabbed his head, wailing at both what he felt and what he didn't want to remember. "Oh Gods... how am I this?! How... no... gods no... "
He made a mournful, keening sound that said everything before he even spoke. "He... he--he... he killed her..."
Kit was already stretching his head toward him, a low croon in the back of his throat; he didn't know how to comfort him.
But then that sound, his words registered, and the dragon froze.
"No."
He drew back, shaking his head. "No. No, he can't have—she can't be—"
He had been grieved by the loss of Kiara's mother—the woman had helped to raise him, after all. He thought he knew what grief felt like.
He'd been wrong.
Something deep in his chest cracked apart and the dragon opened his mouth and made a sound that wasn't a wail and wasn't a roar but some awful, gut-wrenching thing in between. Coherent words were gone, though through this new link they had established his own desolation crashed against Grav's.
I'll kill him.
The thought rose through the mark of grief and panic, a bright, burning spark that he clung to like a guiding star.
"I'll kill him."
Grav's rage failed to reignite. In fact, he was overcome by his sorrow and curled up in a ball of misery. "What good would it do... she's still gone."
As the rage was smothered, his body began to shrink imperceptibly.
"You'll kill me, will you?" Volke smirked as he came back down the stairs. By his side was a hulking mutant humanoid that had probably been some exotic ape from Kishan. It was effortlessly carrying a chair to which Kiara's limp form was tied.
The broken noise Kit made at the sight of his still rider echoed off the cavern walls. He started to lunge forward, then forced himself to still.
In his state, he couldn't control a flame. He would burn her too. And she had no magic to protect herself, no nothing, gone gone gone gone—
The dragon didn't seem realize that the keening sound ringing through the air was coming from him, his whole body taut with misery even as he found himself moving to crouch protectively over Grav's curved form.
"Give...give her...back..." His voice was tiny and plaintive, nothing like the tumbling roar it had been just minutes ago. "Give her back..."
"Patience, dragon, patience." Volke projected the impression that everything was accounted for in his plan when, in fact, he was clearly improvising. "She can yet be saved."
The hulk placed the chair on the floor and stepped back. Producing a small vial, the mage said, "She is merely in a state near death. Just one full dose of this, and she's cured. And I will gladly revive her if Mr. Caviin there gets me what I want."
A state near death?
Hope swelled in Kit's chest, but it was quickly tempered by suspicion. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" The dragon demanded.
Maybe...maybe she really was dead. The thought tore at him with jagged claws—but he couldn't risk hope only to have it dashed.
Or maybe Volke was simply lying about any attempt to revive her.
"Oh, but I can prove it." Volke smiled and stuck a syringe into the vial, drawing out roughly a third of the contents. Without further ado, he injected her with it.
Kit would immediately feel her faint presence.
Kiara!
She just barely stirred—a twitch of one finger, a flicker of thought. But she was there. She was there.
Kit stretched his neck forward, then froze again, staring at Volke.
"...What do you want?"
Through their new-forged link, he managed to gasp out a relieved, joyful, She's alive, Grav, she's alive!
Grav almost gave away their link and shot to his feet. Instead, he uncurled, his body still changing behind Kit. She... Oh, thank the gods...
Volke smirked triumphantly. "I want Mr. Caviin to do what I need of him to get what I desire. Then the three of you can leave together. Everyone wins.
He's lying. If he gets what he wants, there's no telling what damage he can do. He wants the Tear, Grav said.
Shit. Kit snorted. But why does he need you?
Aloud, he demanded in a low growl, "Let my rider go. Then we can talk." He jerked his head at the chair. "The bonds are unnecessary. She's too weak to fight back."
So says you.
Kia! He was so relieved to hear her form a proper sentence, to feel their connection reinstating itself, that he didn't seem to notice it had...grown. Or rather, he had grown. Something had happened when Grav's mutated blood had mixed with his, strengthening not just his connection to the swordsman, but also forming a link between his bond with Kiara and his new bond with Grav.
Essentially, the dragon had become a crystal resonator.
Are you hurt? Is Grav hurt? Kiara asked, and though the words were for Kit, due to the newness of this ability, he didn't have any precise control yet. Grav would be able to hear her too. I couldn't even see him back in that cell...
Well, I wouldn't say hurt exac--wait, wait, I can hear her too?! Grav transmitted, surprised.
"Fine. But be warned, without a full dose, this is as conscious as she gets." Volke pulled a knife from his robes and cut her robes. "Now, let me see you, Mr. Caviin. I know that your mind is once again your own."
Kit snorted, unable to keep the small gesture of surprise suppressed, though hopefully Volke would assume it was a reaction to Kiara's ropes being cut. I--you can? Wait, that--
No time, we'll figure it out later, Kiara cut across him, even her mental voice sounding tired, though certainly more alert than Volke seemed to assume. Do we keep him talking? I--I don't think I can walk...
Kit growled quietly, though he glanced down at Grav when Volke made his demands. Slowly, he shifted to the side, allowing Grav to be seen, but staying close enough to curve his neck down around him protectively.
What was revealed was a smaller creature with much more human proportions. Grav still had reptilian and feline features, and crystal where hair should be. The muzzle was shorter, but ever so slowly becoming more human. He stared at Volke with pure hatred.
Volke smiled with smug pride. "Interesting. I didn't expect you to undergo a reversion so soon. No matter, the full hybridization is still a success. I congratulate you for your remarkable constitution."
"Fuck you. Just tell what you need me to do," Grav hissed.
"You see that crystal barrier? I need you to open it, as you no doubt saw one of our unusual lizard friends demonstrate. It should come naturally to you. Once you do, I need you to use your enhanced poison resistance to swim across a poison pool to lower a bridge from the other side."
"What will you do with the Tear?" Grav risked asking.
Volke chuckled. "That, young man, is not your concern."
We can't let him get to it. Kit dropped his head a little lower, closer to Grav, while a soft, continuous growl rumbled in his throat.
...I'm gonna try something.
Kia?
She didn't answer. Not through their link, anyway. From behind Volke, she stirred slightly where she was slumped in the chair.
Then, very, very slowly, she stood.
Kit snorted, genuinely surprised. Oh gods.
Kiara took one step, bringing her in arm's reach of the alchemist, and drew her shadow dagger. She pressed it into the small of his back.
"I don't think we need to to do anything you say," she hissed, and the tremble in her voice could have been from exhaustion or rage, it was difficult to tell.
Or it would be for someone who didn't know her. Shit, she's bluffing, Kit told Grav quickly. She can barely stand.
The look of surprise on Volke's face was almost worth the risk by itself. He wished his mercenaries were still alive so he could murder them slowly for not searching the prisoners. How stupid could they have possibly been!
"You--How?! I managed the dose precisely! You shouldn't even be standing!" He couldn't believe this. His medical knowledge knew no equal; no mere half-Fae could--unless... "You--your Fae parent was a high noble, wasn't he? It's the only explanation."
Grav stood fully, still quite tall from his fading berserker mutation. The hybrid took a tentative step forward before walking toward Volke. He just hoped Kiara didn't lose what composure she had when she saw what had become of him.
I'm okay, Kia. Physically, at least.
Kiara grinned at him, flashing those sharp canines. "It certainly would seem that way, wouldn't it? And ya gotta love a stealth enchanted dagger."
Grav's movement drew her attention to him, seeing him properly for the first time. Her eyes widened, and it was only Kit quickly throwing that connection up between them again and allowing her to hear Grav's reassurance that kept her even remotely upright.
Oh, Puppy...
Aloud, she managed to keep her tone the same as it had been, clipped and biting. "I think maybe you should take a seat, serrah," she hissed at Volke, jerking her head toward the chair where she'd been tied.
We'll have to move fast, Kit told them both. The second he's down, keep him there. Kiara's losing her grip.
Behind Volke's back, her hand on the dagger trembled slightly, confirming what the dragon said.
Volke saw no other option than to do as instructed. Still, he sat as if he were still superior to them. "Do you mean to kill me?"
Grav moved in fast, putting his claws at Volke's throat to let Kia relax. "The ressst of the antidote. Give it to her. Now," he hissed. "And maybe you'll survive thisss."
Volke nodded, holding out the vial and syringe.
Kiara snatched both syringe and vial, filling it with shaky hands before jamming the needle with absolutely no grace into her her arm. We need to get him immobilized--I think I'm about to collapse again.
"The ropes," Kit snarled quietly, nosing them forward toward Grav where he was keeping Volke pinned. "Though personally I don't think we need to leave him alive..."
The antidote gave her quite a boost. She was still weak, but steadily gaining her strength back.
Grav nodded and tied Volke's arms behind his back before moving to his legs. "I'm actually tempted, Kit," he admitted. "At the very least, though, we knock him out."
"You wanna do the honors?" the dragon asked, his growl changing to a quiet croon as Kiara shakily made her way over to him, then all but collapsed against his neck. He curved his head around to nudge her in against his shoulder, flicking his sandpaper tongue over her cheek briefly.
"We know where we need to go now," Kiara managed to mutter, struggling to focus; while the antidote was certainly returning her strength, that meant that her body actually had the energy to attempt to process everything that had happened to her in the last hour or so.
She wasn't sure she was handling it well.
The mutated Grav snarled as he knocked Volke out with a blow to the head. He then rushed over to his friends. But he hesitated before coming close, afraid that he might lose himself again.
"Kia... I..." He didn't know what to say; he had been tricked into thinking she was dead again. And this time, she almost was.
Kit swept one wing forward and gathered Grav in close to his chest, nuzzling at the top of his head with that same low, comforting croon he had used with Kiara.
For herself, Kiara only managed to look at him for a moment before she broke down. Her knees buckled and Kit just barely managed to catch the back of her shirt, guiding her the few stumbling steps it took to grab Grav around the shoulders and hold on, shaking.
"I'm sorry," she managed to gasp, her whole body trembling with sobs. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
"It'ss not your fault, Kia," he managed to get out before he was sobbing too. "I-I th-thought you--you w-were... You were dead. I di--I couldn't take it. I gave up... I att--Oh godss, I went after Kit! I'm sorry..."
His outpouring of emotion seemed to accelerate his reversion. He doubled over and, with a sudden series of pops, his muzzle juddered back into a proper human-like face as his hands reverted. His body shrank rapidly to human size as well.
Kit snorted, clearly at a loss as to what to do with both of his humans dissolving into puddles of emotion.
Kiara moved back to give Grav room as he seemed to jolt his way through the final part of a transformation. She wound up on her knees, still too weak and overwhelmed to stand properly.
"It's--it's okay," she gasped through her tears, somewhat nonsensically, reaching for him. "You're okay. Kit's okay. We...we're all okay..."
That was probably a lie, but she didn't know what else to say. What could she say? She had known the risk of what she'd volunteered for--there was every chance Volke's concoction would have killed her, and she had accepted that. And her acceptance, though it might have been born of a desire to help her friends, had done this.
The adventurer was left with his own face, but it was covered in fine, light golden-brown scales that extended all the way down his chest past his waist. The rest of his body was covered in short, tawny fur like that of a lion. Strangest was the fact that both the hair on his head and on the tuft of his tail had been replaced with golden yellow crystal. Several other crystal formations grew from seemingly random positions on his body. One hand was completely encased in it, like a gauntlet.
He embraced her, not concerned about his form for the moment. "We are. And we're almost to our goal. Just a little farther."
Kiara was just starting to get ahold of herself when he moved to embrace her, and then she was crying all over again. She held on tight--then abruptly gasped and jerked back as his hand brushed against her side and the electrical burns she'd sustained from Rathbourne's treatment protested. Loudly.
"Shi--sorry," she whispered, wincing. "I--that merc bastard really did a number on me."
Kit growled, having curled himself in a protective semi-circle around the two of them. "He's dead, Kia," he assured her quietly, nuzzling at the back of her neck.
She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Good."
Grav froze as the faint memory of Rathbourne's death came back to him. "Oh gods... I helped you... Oh gods!" He scrambled away to vomit in a corner, not stopping until his heaves ran dry.
He looked sickened as he trudged back to them. Did eating human flesh count as cannibalism if you aren't human at the time? He hoped not.
"Hey, hey, easy." Kit quickly jerked his head around to nose his shoulder gently. the dragon wasn't exactly sure how to comfort him in this--as far as he was concerned, Rathbourne had deserved exactly what he got. And Kiara...
Well. Kiara hadn't actually seen that part. Which was maybe a lucky thing.
"I'm sorry," she murmured as Grav returned to them, reached out to draw him back into a hug, if he accepted the gesture. "I don't--I can't even imagine what this was like for you. But...but you're right. We're almost there. It's almost over. Just a little bit further."
By time the embrace ended, Grav was back to his old self... at least in mind. He gave a resolute nod toward the crystal barrier. "Now then, let's go figure out how I open that."
After a few steps, he paused. Heat rose to his cheeks as something embarrassing occurred to him. "But first--uhh... where are my pants?"
"Your--oh!"
Kiara whipped around, just a little wobbly on her feet, and determinedly fixed her eyes on one of the piles of crystal rubble. Clearly, none of them had been exactly thinking about that, but now that he'd pointed it out her cheeks were flaming as her brain decided to point out, hey, she'd just spent a not insignificant amount of time weeping into the embrace of her mostly naked best friend.
Nothing to worry about there at all.
"I think they must have ripped when you...grew," Kit offered slowly. He looked around the bloody battlefield they had left. "You could always...borrow a pair? If we can find some clean ones?"
"I--yeah, good idea." Grav looked around the dead mercenaries for a clean pair of pants. "But maybe after this poison pool I'm supposed to cross. Which... must be why he combined me with a manticore."
"Aha!" he cheered, pulling something off one of the dead men. "Behold! Pants!" He held his prize in the air as if it were lost treasure.
Kit snorted and gave him a playful little flick with his tail. "Yes, well done. Now maybe get them on so Kiara's face returns to a more natural shade?"
"Oh--shut up," Kiara protested in a grumble, turning carefully to move around to the dragon's other side so she could give Grav some proper privacy. "Also, while we have a second: what in the home-grown fuck was that earlier? I could hear Grav in my head--through you, I think," she added with a pat to the dragon's shoulder.
Kit rumbled and shuffled his wings in a shrug. "I'm not sure. We know these crystal-lizards are...something that Volke used with Grav, right? And if the crystals are what was muddling our link earlier...maybe it's because they have a link of their own?"
"Okay, yeah," Kiara mused slowly. "But why would that affect you?"
"We, ah...bled on each other. Quite a bit."
Grav ripped a hole for his tail and slipped the pants on. "Okay, I'm good."
Looking back at Volke, he spotted the lowered cage and grinned wickedly. "Oh, that's perfect," he cackled, rushing over to drag Volke inside. He latched the side door and flipped the lever, sending the mage up to the lab. "Let's see you get out of that!"
The swordsman turned back to them and said, "Ready when you--Oh shit! Brightedge!"
"I should... probably go get the stuff they took, huh?"
"Probably," Kiara agreed with a nod. Her hand moved to the hilt of her dagger. "Pretty sure the only reason I managed to keep this is whatever shadow-stealth-magic nonsense it's got going on. They nabbed everything else."
"Do you want us to go with you?" Kit offered, though he was eyeing the path back up into the temple proper dubiously.
"I can--" Kiara started, but the dragon snarled at her. Actually snarled, which made her shut up quickly.
"The last time I left you alone, you died," he growled.
"You should conserve your energy until you're recovered. So, either you ride Kit or I go alone. There's no guarantee a dragon can fit everywhere I need to look, but maybe you could search the lab for his notes on the Tear," he answered. "Your decision, really."
He started up the stairs.
Kit nodded, craning his neck around to help nose Kiara into position as she climbed a little awkwardly up onto his back.
"What do you think he was trying to use it for?" she asked as Kit rose to his feet and padded carefully after Grav up the stairs. "I mean...it seems like he can make plenty of things already. Why would he need the Tear?"
Grav shrugged. "Who knows? Probably immortality, or to be a god emperor, or something else megalomaniacal. He certainly has the ego for it."
"Whatever it is, it can't possibly lead to anything good if this is what he's willing to do to get it."
Both Kit and Kiara murmured agreements as they entered the lab. Kiara knew she should be searching through the notes, but she was still so thoroughly exhausted that even the idea of climbing down from Kit's back seemed insurmountable.
As though reading her mind--which he couldn't actually do, their link was strong but it still needed active participation to work--Kit projected, Just sit tight; this place is big enough that I can take a look around.
Again, the dragon didn't seem to quite have a handle on the new dual-nature of his link to these two humans, and the words would be audible to Grav as well.
"Careful around the alchemy equipment and the potion rack. There's no telling what dangerous shit he's cooked up," Grav responded as he checked a chest in the corner. "Nope. Not here."
He scra--he stroked the crystals on his chin. "Maybe where they took you?" he asked, looking at Kiara.
Kit snorted and Kiara blinked, both a little thrown that not only had he heard Kit, but he had taken it so easily in stride.
Though, well...the poor guy had had to take quite a lot in stride recently.
At the mention of her own imprisonment, Kiara's face lost what little color it had regained. But she nodded; he was probably right.
"I'm not sure," she murmured. "They had me tied in place. But there would have been space in there, yeah. I just...don't know which direction. I was unconscious when they brought me in here."
Grav had so much thrown at him so fast that he felt he had to take it all in stride or curl into a ball and sob, and he didn't have time to break down right now.
"I'm not practiced at it, but I think I can smell my way there. Just hang tight until I get back. I feel pretty sure all the mercs are dead downstairs, so there's no reason to worry." He waited by the doorway, looking back at them for confirmation before slipping out.
"I—okay." Kiara gave him an apologetic but grateful look, beyond relieved that he was taking it upon himself to find the place. She didn't know if she could go back in there without losing it completely. "Thanks, Puppy..."
Kit darted his head out to nose Grav's shoulder before he left, then he stretched it up onto an arc to take a better look around the room.
Gods. This is...a lot.
He began nosing though piles of notes and books, delicately picking up glass and metal instruments with the very tip of his claws. He started piling anything that caught his attention in the center of the room; they could shovel it into one of the packs to study later once Grav got back.
He was so absorbed in his task that he didn't notice Kiara had slumped slowly forward along his neck and just...fallen asleep. Or maybe fainted, but the end result was the same: by the time Grav got back, Kit was hunched over a small pile of books and papers with Kiara thoroughly unconscious across his back.
"Success!" Grav cheered as he entered. But as he saw the unconscious Kiara, he dropped their recovered packs and ran over.
"What happened?! Is she okay?!" His voice sounded like something more than the concern of a friend.
"What—?! Oh." Kit craned his neck around to nudge Kiara, who grumbled sleepily. Now that their link was back in place, he was much calmer; he knew she wasn't in any danger, just exhausted.
"She's just tired," he assured Grav, dropping his head down next to him to give him a little butt with his nose. In other circumstances he might have teased, but not now. Now his voice was low and reassuring. "I would feel it if she were hurt; she's okay."
He gave Grav a considering if sympathetic sort of look. Carefully finding their new link, singling it out so as not to disturb Kiara, he offered, Do you want to ride? If we tie the packs on I can carry them, and you can help keep her steady.
His own instinct was to maintain the contact with her, to reassure himself that she was alive and breathing against his back. Maybe...maybe Grav would find a similar reassurance.
"Probably the best way to get back down those stairs without her falling." Grav nodded his agreement and started loading Kit's collection into the packs. Once everything and everyone was secured, the group returned to the stairs.
Grav stared down the crystal barrier, groaning with mental effort as he tried to access his supposed crystal-lizard powers. He quit with a frustrated sigh. "Damnit! How do I do this?"
Easy. Breathe. Kit advised. He considered a moment, then mused, It's a kind of magic, right? Maybe...
Kiara stirred slightly and the dragon gave her a meaningful look. You have a mage here. Maybe she can give you some pointers?
Kiara mumbled something in her sleep that sounded like "fresh sandwiches" and turned her face into the crook of her elbow.
Kit sighed. Well. That's not encouraging. But I swear she knows what she's doing.
Grav looked over at her and smirked. She's kind of adorable when she's asleep.
Don't tell her I said that.
He rubbed his chin again. Gods, he hated not having chin scruff. Hey! You're a magical creature; surely you have some advice on how to do magical creature things. Right?"
Kit snorted twice, first in exasperated amusement, then in mild indignation. "Magical creature things"? I'm a dragon. I can do dragon things—I've no idea how to do crystal lizard things.
He sighed and shuffled his wings. Maybe...oh, I dunno. Maybe you could use Brightedge? That thing's magic, and you can wield it just fine. Maybe try...channeling through it?
Kiara stirred and sighed, unconsciously snuggling herself more securely against Kit's neck.
"Sorry." Grav winced at Kit's indignant response. "Yeah. It's worth a shot."
The adventurer pulled the sword out of his pack and drew it. Pausing to breathe, he aimed it at the barrier. "Okay, Brightedge, I don't need you to charge up. I just need your help focusing my own magic."
He quietly asked his crystals to glow in the same way he asked the sword. When that didn't work, he asked Brightedge to send its glow into him. The sword responded, giving his magic a nudge in the right direction. His crystals started to glow, and the barrier slowly lit up from the center out, as if heated from behind.
He kept his focus up, gritting his teeth as the crystal receded into the wall. With a gasp, he let go and dropped to his knees. "I'm okay, I just... need a second."
Perhaps it was the shift in magic in the air, but by the time Grav had sunk to his knee, Kiara was alert enough to realize what was happening.
Kit started to lower his head toward Grav, but Kiara beat him there, sliding down from his back to land—or, well, stumble—next to the swordsman.
"Take it easy." She put a hand on his shoulder lightly. "Focus on your breathing. Magic needs energy—and that was a whopper for your first time. Need water?" she offered, beckoning Kit down again so she could hunt through their packs.
"Y-yeah," he croaked. When she gave him the water skin, he chugged greedily. "Thanks." He wiped his mouth and went back to breathing.
Eventually, he stood back up. He stared at the opening and laughed. "Holy shit... I really did magic."
"I think I now have an inkling of what you must go through. No wonder you're spent afterwards. I mean, damn that's exhausting. "
She chuckled quietly and nodded. "Yeah. From what I understand, for most mages it just takes practice, learning their limits and then building up stamina to push them." She shrugged. "My problem is that my magic doesn't actually have limits, but my body sure as fuck does."
She gave herself a little shake and cuffed his shoulder gently. "We'll have to find you a proper teacher once all this is over."
Kit huffed and sniffed at the opening Grav had created. "Speaking of this being over..."
Kiara nodded. "Right. We should...probably go through, huh?"
Grav nodded and stepped though. "You know, if I end up cured, I probably won't have magic anymore. So maybe don't make plans yet."
The passage led down a curving staircase that definitely wasn't entirely natural. Nothing formed naturally with such straight, consistent angles. The evenly spaced glowing crystals ensconced along the walls only strengthened the impression that some powerful earth mage carved the passage.
Eventually, they came to an open space dominated by a strange, green pool. The fumes drifting up from it would overcome them if they strayed too close for any length of time. Across the narrow pool sat a stone bridge, held up by crystal growths that locked it to the ceiling. Only a potent earth mage or a crystal lizard could pass, just as Volke said.
"Oh. Yeah, I guess that's true..." Kiara realized she'd been so wrapped up in the what and how of their current adventure that she had almost forgotten the why. They were here to get the Tear so Grav could be cured, and she could stabilize her own magic.
Focus. Have to focus.
Kit stopped them just at the edge of change from tunnel to cavern, tail placed protectively in front of the other two.
"I don't like sending Grav through that," he muttered, the barest hint of a growl in his voice. "I don't care what Volke did to him."
Kiara bit her lip, eyeing the poisonous green waters. "I don't like it either," she muttered, glancing at Grav with concern. "You don't have to do this, you know."
Suddenly, he had a thought. Smirking at the idea of thinking of something Volke hadn't, he said, "You know... maybe I don't have to. That lizard was climbing the walls, right? Maybe I can too."
The mutated swordsman pressed the pads of his fingers against the tunnel wall and slowly pulled them away. It took some effort for him to free himself. He chuckled and grinned. "Talk about having sticky fingers."
"Whoa." Kiara blinked at him. "We'll damn—but are you sure that's gonna hold your whole weight?"
Kit eyed the distance from the edge of the tunnel to the start of the water. "We could always give it a shot—practice at the roof of the cavern just above us, I could catch him if he falls."
Grav nodded and handed his sword to Kiara. "The less weight, the better, right?"
With that taken care of, he stepped out of the tunnel. He took it slow, pausing halfway up. "Okay. This is pretty amazing." He climbed faster, reaching the ceiling in a fraction of the time.
Then came the truly frightening part. He breathed slowly as he tentatively reached out to grip the ceiling with one hand, then the other. Encouraged, he carefully moved completely onto the roof of the cavern. "Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down," he chanted to himself as he crawled a short circuit around the closest part of the cavern.
When he returned to the ground, his heart was beating like a drum. Rejoining his friends, he let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Gods, that was... terrible and amazing, at the same time... Amazible? Terrazing?"
Kiara took Brightedge with a nod and an encouraging smile, but the expression quickly dropped into tight concern as she watched him scale the wall.
Kit was sure to keep himself under Grav the whole time he was on the ceiling, but the longer he skittered about with seemingly no problems, the more confident the two on the ground grew. When he came back down, Kiara released a held breath of her own.
"That was something," she laughed a little breathlessly. "How're you feeling? Think you can make it across?"
"I do." He nodded. "The question is whether I can use my magic without the sword as a focus."
The swordsman smirked confidently before wrapping a torn piece of shirt around his nose and mouth. "No time like the present to find out."
He set out, climbing back to the ceiling like it came naturally. Continuing slightly more slowly, he reached the part of the cave over the pool. He took much more care over the pool, testing each hand and foot hold before each lurch forward. A rock broke free as he gripped it, making his heart beat rapidly until he got it unstuck and flung it down into the pool.
Eventually, he reached the platform on the other side. Sighing with relief, he called out, "I'm across!"
Kiara clambered up onto Kit's back to better keep him in view as he climbed. Both she and the dragon winced when the rock broke loose, then slumped on relief when he kept his grip.
Save your breath! Kit urged when he called to let them k ow he was across. I'll keep the link open. Just be careful, yeah?
He worked to connect his bond to Grav with his bond to Kiara, drawing a line between the knotted cord and the woven link. Kia, try to say something to him.
"Ahhhh..." She looked across the water and waved. Don't strain yourself with the magic, remember. Take it easy. Focus on your breathing.
Grav palmed his face at Kit's observation. Sorry. Still getting used to the idea that I can do this.
He stepped up to the bridge and looked up at the crystal formation. Right. Just clear my head of everything else and let it happen. The swordsman reached out a hand to help focus on the crystals and breathed slowly but deliberately. The crystals began to glow, slowly retracting into the ceiling.
The bridge didn't fall immediately, so he gave it a shove. The heavy stone slab fll over with a colossal SLAM, fitting neatly into a niche carved into the opposite platform before it could hit the poison pool.
Grav ran into the tunnel on his side and took a deep breath. Oh, sweet, clean air, how I missed you!
Kit snorted and jumped back from the falling bridge. The dragon gave it a cautious test step, then tucked his head and urged, Cover your face, Kiara, before darting across.
They shimmied quickly into the tunnel behind Grav and Kiara jumped down, making sure she was well within the tunnel lip before risking a proper deep breath. "Do you think it's safe to leave it down behind us?" she asked, giving the bridge a wary look.
Then she turned and nudged Grav's side lightly with her elbow. "Also: lookit you, hotshot. That was some pretty impressive intuitive spellwork."
Grav grinned proudly. "I mean--if a cave lizard can do it, why not me?"
"As for you're other question... How, exactly, are we supposed to bring it back up? There's no mechanism. Even if there was, I don't think we have the combined strength to turn anything that can lift it," he pointed out.
"That...is a very fair point." She sighed and glanced away. "Sorry. Guess I'm just a little...paranoid, after all that."
Kit snorted and lowered his head to nuzzle her cheek, which she accepted for a moment before pulling away and saying quickly, "Come on. The faster we find this thing, the faster we get it out of here and away from Volke."
"And the faster we can take a damned vacation," Kit added in a low rumble.
Grav cinched his sword belt around his waist and led the way down the passage. "Keep an eye out for traps. Something tells me that wasn't the only protection this thing has."
While it wasn't a trap, the next chamber that they came across was divided by a wall of fire. Grav just laughed. "Okay, this one is way to e--nope, not jinxing this."
He patted the dragon's shoulder. "You're up, big guy."
Kit snorted, dipped his head, then strode up to observe the fire more closely. "Doesn't seem overly magical in nature--other than burning off stone," he noted, cocking his head. Cautiously, he reached a claw into the flame.
When nothing unexpected happened, he placed his whole foot in, then situated himself so he was laying through the middle of the fire, tail extended toward Kiara and Grav and his head pointed toward the continuation of the tunnel beyond.
"I'd cross quick," he advised, a little sourly.
"Apologies in advance if I step on your head." Grav took a running start before dashing across the dragon's length. He jumped over Kit's head and landed on the other side. "Nailed it."
Kit huffed and rolled his eyes, but had to wait until Kiara had crossed before he could lift his head to give Grav's shoulder a brief nudge. "Let's keep moving, hotshot," the dragon rumbled, though not unkindly.
Kiara was at least able to keep herself upright as they continued down the tunnel, but it didn't take long for her to start leaning against Kit's side, panting lightly. "Gods and demons," she swore quietly. "This is...really starting to get...annoying."
"Just hang in there Kia," Grav said encouragingly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I think we're halfway there. At least, if this is a four elements deal."
Again with the Kia; did that mean anything? Had her so-called death helped him figure out how he felt?
Kiara smiled at him tiredly and nodded, leaning briefly into his hand on her shoulder. Despite the exhaustion, and the trauma, and the general urgency of their quest, she couldn't help noticing how he seemed to be using her nickname more consistently than he ever had. A nickname that typically only Kit used.
Stop it, focus, not the time, a more rational voice in the back of her head snapped at her, and she tried to force herself to focus on the task at hand.
"It probably is," she said with a tired laugh. "Isn't that how these sorts of stories always go? Trial by earth, trial by fire, trial by--"
Kit suddenly stopped. "Water," he said dryly, standing at the edge of what appeared to be some sort of underground lake. An underground lake that filled the entire cavern, with no exit tunnel in sight.
Grav groaned. "Great. I don't suppose either of you can swim? I can, but I never took to it like the other kids in Griffonbeak."
"Wait... Volke must have had a plan, right?" He went to the packs to see what goodies Kit picked out. With an "aha!" he held up a blue potion. "Potion of water breathing!"
"So... who's going to drink it? It's Volke, so I wouldn't be surprised if it caused you to grow gills."
"I'll do it," Kiara said immediately.
"Is that a good idea?" Kit muttered, concerned. "I mean...you're..."
"I'm fine." She took the potion from Grav. "And there's no way in any hell that I'm letting that bastard mess with either of you anymore than he already has, even indirectly."
Kit snorted. "Well, hang on, I'm—"
She knocked the potion back before he could finish the sentence.
Kiara almost immediately felt a tingle on the sides of her neck. It blossomed into a quick, sharp pain as lines on her neck opened into gills.
"Yep. Gills alright." Grav sighed. "Sorry. Let's... hope they're only temporary."
Kiara hissed quietly as her body changed, then cautiously reached up to prod at the new gills. She winced; they were tender, sore, like when she'd fallen as a kid and scraped her skin raw and pink.
"Well." She shrugged. "Water breathing potions are usually temporary. So here's hoping."
She eyed the length of the underground lake and shuddered. "Just...not too temporary."
Glancing back to Kit and Grav, she gave them a shadow of her usual playful grin and a quick mock salute. "See you in a bit, boys." And with that, she dove in.
Kit shifted his weight with a low, anxious rumble. "I'm suddenly very glad I can keep us all connected," he noted.
Then, because some of the adrenaline had died down and Kiara wasn't there to glade at him for it, he gave Grav a sidelong look.
"So. Kia, huh?"
Grav looked at Kit, raising a brow. "What? Can I not call her that?"
Inside, he was hesitant to admit to himself that her supposed death for a second time had helped him realize just how much he cared about her. But, he still didn't quite know who he was with these mutations.
"Oh, that's up to her to decide. You just didn't used to do it, that's all," the dragon replied innocently.
Tapping his link to Kiara and opening up the new joining to his link with Grav, he asked, Find anything?
Maybe... Kiara had got about halfway across the lake, and she thought she saw something near the bottom, something that was far too much of a regular shape to be a natural formation. She swam down toward it; while the new gills allowed her to breathe the water, she was still tired, and wasn't moving as fast as she would have liked. It's a mechanism of some sort. Not sure what it does...maybe a drain?
She touched down on a circular stone disk, looking around. No, not a drain. More like...
There was a series of levers: ancient things, made of heavy stone. She grabbed the first one and heaved, grunting with the strain, until it juddered slightly and she felt something click.
Above the surface, a sudden ripple moved out from the center of the lake as something beneath the water began to move slowly, steadily upward.
And on the far side of the cavern, another ripple, accompanied by a grating sound, like stone doors grinding slowly open to release...something into the water.
Kit's hackles raised. "What the hells is that?"
Grav's crystalline "hair" spread out as his inner animal felt the same wariness, like a larger predator was nearby. "I don't know, but my instincts don't like it."
Hurry up, Kiara... I don't think you're alone in there. He sounded worried as he stepped closer to the edge to peer into the water.
Can't...move, Kiara called back down the line. I have to...hold this thing in place...or the platform stops...
Kit growled. He did not like that. "Of course. It couldn't be just the one thing..."
The ripple across the lake moved steadily toward the center. Kit got to his feet, eyeing the distance to the ceiling of the cavern. "It's too low," he growled. "I can't fly in here."
Looking around, he spotted a loose chunk of crystal and suddenly started working to pry it free. "Maybe we can distract it, whatever it is," he grunted to Grav. "Throw something in to draw it's attention."
Grav dug through the packs quickly, looking for anything they wouldn't regret losing. "No, no, no... Aha!" He pulled out an elaborate scoop of some kind. "Not sure what this even is, but I don't think we need it."
He threw it into the lake with a plop. Then he pulled out an ingredient bottle. "Ooo, 'don't mix with water'!" He opened it and threw it in. First, bubbles, then... Water shot up from a small explosion under the water."
"That... ought to do it."
Kit yanked the chunk of crystal from the wall just as the jet of water shot up from the surface, and the steady, pulsing ripple from the other side of the lake became a sharp, much faster-moving "v" barreling straight toward them.
Shit! He quickly opened up the line so Grab could hear Kiara warn: Get back from the edge of the water! That thing just went by me, it is huge!
Grav jumped back and drew his sword. Brightedge sensed the danger, lighting up almost instantly. "Bring it, unseen giant cave monster that I can only assume is super ugly and smells bad!" he roared in challenge.
Kit scoffed, grabbing Grav by the back of his shirt and delicately yanking him back as a tentacle easily the girth of Kit himself suddenly lashed from the water toward them.
"Okay." He released the swordsman's shirt. "Now you can fight it."
I'm almost to the surface! Kiara tried to tell them. This platform—I think I see what we have to do. But you have to get on it fast, before that thing can grab you!
Easier said than done!
Grav slashed into the tentacle, hoping to drive it back long enough to give them an opening to get by.
The thing in the water screeched and thrashed, sending waves churning and crashing against the stone where Kit and Grav stood. Footing suddenly slippery, the dragon flared his wings wide to keep his balance.
"Grav, climb!" he shouted, just as the circular platform broke the surface of the lake. "Get over the disk, then drop!"
Without further explanation, he heaved the hunk of crystal he had broken loose into the water, slamming it down on one of the lashing tentacles. The creature shreiked again and he took advantage of the temporary distraction to dove over its head—which he got a brief look at and was far too human—and started swimming for the stone disk.
Grav took action immediately. Sheathing Brightedge, he climbed to the roof of the cavern and moved for the center as fast as he could without falling. He had to stop a few times as a tentacle blindly thrashed up after him. Eventually, he stopped over the disk and dropped the second Kit was there to grab him.
Kit darted his neck put to snatch Grav from the air, simultaneously heaving himself up onto the stone disk.
"Good." Panting, Kiara jerked her head toward another of the levers. "One of you...hold that down. It makes...crystal dome. We need to...go back...under."
Her eyes flickered to the shoreline and widened. "Hurry."
The creature had freed itself from Kit's temporary impediment and was sinking back beneath the surface, rushing toward them. Kit quickly curled himself into a tight ball, struggling to fit the entirety of his body onto the disk.
Grav kneeled down and pulled the stone lever. A crystal dome snapped shut around them just before a huge tentacle slammed against it. Immediately, the pillar began to lower. The creature kept slamming against it, by some miracle not breaking either the dome or the pillar.
"This'll hold... right?" Grav asked worriedly.
"It...should," Kiara grunted, oh-so-carefully easing her weight off her own lever. "You just gotta...keep holding...that down. Then when we reach...the bottom...there's an indent...this should...fit in—Kit, the third one!"
Kit snorted and wrapped the end of his tail around the third lever, growling with effort as he started to crank it down. Kiara released her own lever with a gasp of relief, sinking to her knees. The pillar jerked and stuttered, then started to move down much more rapidly.
"I think—I think Kit needs to keep holding that one until we're fully in the indent on the bottom," Kiara gasped. She looked up as two more tentacles slammed into the crystal dome, shaking the structure. "We just have to hope it holds long enough."
Forcing herself to her feet, she stumbled over to help Kit hold the "descend" lever, calling, "You got that one, Grav?"
Grav nodded, grunting a with effort. "Who the hells makes levers this resistant?" he growled. "Even Kit's having trouble."
The creature's mouth appeared in the squirming mass, biting at the dome. The tiniest crack appeared on the third bite. On the fifth, a tiny trickle of water.
"Hurry, you stupid thing!" he said with great urgency.
"Someone who really wanted to make you stay in the water for this trial," Kit grunted in response. Kiara nodded, panting.
The pillar jolted, shuddered, then clunked as it sank into its recess in the lakebed.
And it kept going. Down and down, until the crystal dome above them started to shiver and...flake away.
"Shit." Kiara looked up. "I hope that's supposed to happen."
The opening above them slid shut just as the pillar stopped, and the water around them began to drain.
"Oh, thank the gods." Grav relaxed.
As the water level lowered, the new chamber took form. The pillar had stopped level with a short bridge to a new tunnel. Below was a shallow pool with openings in it for water to drain out.
"You two okay?"
Kit groaned and stretched both neck and tail, nodding. "Yeah, fine. I think. Might have a permanent kink in my tail after that though."
Kiara sank to her knees, breathing heavily, but waved off the concerned grumble from her dragon. "Fine," she gasped. "Fine...just...out of breath..."
Grav waited until the water was below the top of the pillar and released the lever. The dome retracted, allowing fresh air to reach them.
"So, uhh... what was breathing underwater like? As weird as it sounds?" he asked with curious glint in his eye.
Kiara laughed breathlessly. "Very weird," she confirmed, reaching up to prod at her temporary gills. They were sore again, now that she was out of the water. "Dunno if you noticed, but I think I brought up half the lake's worth of water once I was topside again--I guess the potion doesn't work if you're not fully submerged."
Kit slowly curled his neck back, still stretching out the kinks, and took a look around.
"So. We should be nearly there, right?"
"Yeah. At least if the pattern holds. And if whoever built this place wasn't a dick and added all of the elements like light, dark, ice, lightning, and so on," he mused as he started walking.
Not far into the tunnel, they began to hear the intermittent howl of wind. Something told them that flying was not going to be a safe solution.
Kit's hackles raised once more as the shrieking wind grew in volume. "I don't like the sound of that," he muttered, tucking his wings in tight to his spine.
Kiara nodded, but tried to look on the bright side. Whatever bright side there was. "I mean—it can't be as bad as the lake, right?"
They soon reached a narrow crystalline bridge over a chasm so deep that they couldn't see the bottom. The high winds howled by with what seemed like completely random timing. Flight would definitely be impossible.
"You were saying?" he asked dryly.
"Fffffhuuuuuck," Kiara responded eloquently, glaring.
Kit made a noise that in a less impressive creature than a dragon might have been called a whimper. "Is that thing even going to hold me?" he muttered, eyeing the narrow width of the bridge warily.
Kiara chewed at her bottom lip. "That...is a valid question."
"Maybe we picked up a shrinking potion?" Grav asked hesitantly. He started looking through the packs again. "I know you'd hate that, but it would solve that problem, at least."
Kiara joined the search, but wasn't finding anything that looked like it might be helpful for this particular challenge--at least not for Kit.
"Well, at least your newfound stickiness will probably help," she noted with a quick half-smirk in Grav's direction. Finally sitting back from the pack, she sighed and glanced up at Kit apologetically. "Kitten, I'm not sure if--"
"I am not staying behind," the dragon growled. "Not again. Never. Again."
Kiara sighed again, still too tired to have a proper argument, but trying to soothe, "It's not staying behind--honestly, we probably should leave someone to keep watch in case Volke or his ilk is on our tail."
"She does have a point, Kit. Don't get me wrong, I get why you don't like it; the last three times didn't work out well at all. I'd be protective too, in your position." He gave Kit an understanding smile.
"But we can't exactly turn back now, and the only other option is that I go alone."
Kit growled in the back of his throat, then let his head droop with a sigh. "Fine," he muttered, wings sagging dejectedly.
Kiara moved around to his head and wrapped her arms around his muzzle, hugging him to her chest. "You can keep in contact with us the whole time," she tried to reassure him, kissing the ridge above his eye. "This is the last one--then we'll be out of here. I promise."
The dragon huffed and nosed at her chest. "Careful with that. Faerie promises have serious consequences," he joked half-heartedly.
Her lips twitched on one side. "Good thing I'm only half fae then, isn't it?"
Grav smiled at the tender moment before looking back across the bridge. "Ahem. So, what's the plan? Tie yourself to me and pray I'm sticky enough?"
"Or did you find something we can use in your rummaging?"
"Well, tying ourself together isn't a bad idea," Kiara mused allowed, looking at how much rope they had and then across the chasm, judging the distance. "Actually... Kit, could we use you as an anchor? I think we've got enough rope to stretch all the way across, and if you're staying here, just in case one of us slips..."
Kit nodded with a low rumble. "I may not be able to fly out there, but I could certainly pull you back up to this side."
"Right." Kiara started reeling out the rope, tossing one end to Grav. "Tie that around your waist, tight. Do you know how to knot yourself a climbing harness?"
Grav caught the rope and smirked as he deftly tied it around his waist. "I grew up in a cliffside port town. Of course I know my way around a rope. Just because I don't want to be a sailor doesn't mean I wouldn't be good at it."
He tested it before working on looping her in securely. "How is that?"
Kiara gave her own makeshift harness a testing tug, then nodded and looked up at him with a quick lopsided grin. "Nice work, sailor boy."
It took her a moment to realize how close they were standing together, and when she did she took a quick step back, determinedly ignoring the faint heat in her cheeks. "Right. Well...sticky fingers first, I guess? I'll try to leave a bit of room before I follow so you have space to work."
Grav nodded as he finished securing the other end to Kit. "Good idea."
"Wish me luck," he said as he started crawling across. He kept focus on the bridge under him at all times and slowly moved along, pausing to flatten himself against the ground every time the wind picked up. Just do what I'm doing, and maybe take off anything that might catch the wind.
Gotcha. She quickly stripped off her still-damp jacket and overshirt, leaving her in the sleeveless undershirt and breeches, which were much more streamlined. For good measure, she tied her hair back into a tight braid.
Be careful, Kit urged them both as she started creeping out across the bridge after Grav.
Where Grav could cling to the crystal itself, Kiara was stuck crawling painstakingly on her hands and knees, dropping down onto her belly and freezing in place when the screeching winds picked up. Her braid didn't last more than two blasts, soon enough whipping her hair back and forth over her face, which certainly didn't help the situation.
How close are we to the other side? she asked a tad desperately, knowing she wouldn't be heard over the wind so directing the question to Kit, who opened the channel between the two links. I can't see a damn thing.
Grav risked a look ahead. He could just barely make out the other side in the gloom of the unlit chasm. The other tunnel was a vaguely brighter outline from the light peeking out behind a bend.
Maybe a little less than half left. It's kinda hard to tell. It's so dark that even my eyes are having trouble.
Half left. Okay. She could do this. It was fine. They were fine.
Another gust of wind pelted her from the left, making her skid all the way to the edge of the narrow bridge before she'd had time to drop. Her scream tore off into the wind, inaudible over the howl, and she quickly scrabbled at the edge of the crystal structure, just barely keeping herself from going over.
Panting, heart racing, she curled herself up tight and tried to just breathe as the wind died down again.
Kia! Kia, are you alright?!
...F-fine...I'm fine. We're--we're nearly there...
The same unpredictable gust would have torn Brightedge away from him had he not tied it to himself. Just take it slow and stay low; we're almost across. He kept steadily pressing forward until, finally, he was on stone again
I'm across! He quickly got to his feet and pressed himself against the wall to become a second anchor. You're almost there.
O-okay...
Inch by painstaking inch, she made her way across the remainder of the bridge. Once she was over the lip of stone, out of the wind, she rolled onto her back and just laid there for a moment, chest heaving as she panted.
"That...sucked..."
Grav sank to the floor and let out his breath. "Gods yes. I've never stared at the ground so intently in my life."
We're both safe now, Kit.
He had the presence of mind to look around for something to tie the rope to once they untied themselves. "Hey... do you think that if I can shrink crystals, that maybe I can grow them too?"
Thank the fires. No movement back here, but I'd still hurry if I were you.
"We will," Kiara assured, both aloud and through the mental link. Turning to look at Grav as he spoke, she cocked her head at him and mused, "Maybe...I mean, I suppose it's worth a try. What were you thinking?"
"We need something to tie this end of the rope to, right? And I don't see anything. So, I thought I'd try to make something," Grav said while he located a large enough formation to experiment on.
"This should work. So, any advice?"
"Oh. Right. Magic advice. Errr..." She came up beside him, lips pursed. "Alright. So. With the bridge, before--how did that feel? I mean--most elemental mages feel their magic somewhere in their body. Mine is here."
She tapped the center of her chest, just at the base of her breastbone. "I mean, it's fire, so...it's hot. Flickering. And sometimes it runs through every vein in my body, but it always starts here." She glanced at him sidelong. "Yours probably feels different, but it should start somewhere. Focus on that to start."
"I feel it in these crystals all over me, especially where the most is." He flexed his crystal gauntlet and aimed his arm at the spot. "Okay, I imagined myself pushing the crystal before, so this time I'll imagine pulling it up."
He closed his eyes and imagined a hand of magical energy stretching the crystal formation and molding it into a slight curve. Kiara saw the formation light up and slowly extend from the floor, angling into a geometrical hook of sorts.
The swordsman let go with a grunt and opened his eyes. "Holy hells, I did it," he huffed.
"You did," Kiara confirmed with a quick arm slung around his shoulders and a brief squeeze. "Look at that--you're a natural."
She let go quickly and moved to start tying off their end of the rope. "Do you need a minute? I know it wasn't as flashy as your last spell, but you're still new to magic--no shame if you need to take a second."
"Yeah." Grav huffed. "That was more draining than getting rid of those bridge locks. I guess it makes sense that creation is harder than destruction."
"Also, I wouldn't say 'natural.' This is all the mutagen's doing," he said, shrugging off the compliment.
"Hey." Kiara bumped her shoulder lightly against his. "Maybe the mutagen gave you the ability, but you're the one using it. The only reason I've got magic is because of my Da, but you wouldn't say he's the one casting my spells, would you?" she pointed out with an arched eyebrow.
With the rope securely tied off, she looked down the remainder of the tunnel. "Nearly there..."
"Yeah, almost..." Grav was beginning to get nervous about how they would decide to use the Tear if it indeed granted a wish. He tried not to let it show, but it was obvious something was on his mind as they headed down the tunnel side by side.
Kiara walked alongside him, checking in with Kit every so often to assure him they were making their way along. Even despite all of the certifiably insane things that had happened to them over the last day, it started to dawn on her that Grav was being...quiet.
"...You alright?" she asked eventually, then winced and amended, "I mean...I don't think either of us is exactly alright, but you seem..." She trailed off, not entirely sure how to finish the sentence.
Grav snapped to attention. "... hm? Oh, I..." He grew hesitant. "I was just wondering how, exactly, we're going to decide to use this wish. Because, unless we get two, one of us will have to let the other spend it on us."
"Oh." Kiara blinked. it was certainly a possibility—magic always had some sort of catch, after all, some way to keep things in balance. It wasn't even that she had never considered that the Tear might not be a perfect solution to their problems, she had just...sort of assumed...
"I mean...we're using it for you, then, aren't we?" she said as delicately as she could manage. Then she gave herself a little shake and added more firmly, "But there's every chance we'll be able to figure out a way to use it for both of us—no need to get ahead of ourselves."
"Right..." Grav answered distantly before gathering himself. "Let's cross that bridge when we come to it."
Eventually they came to a large cavern lit blue by glowing crystals growing down from the ceiling like a giant chandelier. A path in the cave floor led down to a large blue crystal (https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-19/art/lo-crystal.jpg) floating in the air, with smaller crystals rotating around it.
"Uhh... We aren't carrying that out of here."
Kiara whistled and shook her head. "Uh...no. No, I don't think we are," she agreed, staring at the Tear of the Stars.
Her attention quickly moved to the smaller, rotating crystals and she said slowly, "Those might be more portable, though..."
But--that would mean leaving the Tear where it was. For Volke, or someone like him, to find. They couldn't do that.
"The question is: do the little ones do anything? Or is it only the big one that matters?" Grav started walking down the path. "Seems too easy if each piece is a wish, and magic is never that generous."
"Well, yeah." She started down the trail after him. "But the little ones have to do something, right? Maybe they're just...not as powerful."
"Maybe..."
Hey Kit! We found it! He blinked. "I think the Tear is interfering with talking to Kit. I can barely feel it."
"Really?" She frowned and closed her eyes, reaching for the link. He was right, she couldn't hear words--but...
"Hang on." She blinked, then reached out again. Her eyes widened slightly. "Whhhooa, weird. I think I'm getting...feelings? I mean, normally I can tell his mood when we talk mind-to-mind, but this is like...I wonder if this is how the crystal lizard things communicate?"
Carefully, she tried to send a sense of success, and safety, down the link between herself and the dragon. It took a moment, but she thought she felt a brief pulse of relief in response.
"Yeahh. You're probably getting that from my link. We kinda felt each other when we..." He hesitated for just a moment, glancing away. "Well, when we thought you were dead."
"And when it turned out you weren't. It was... intense. Thankfully, that's weaker now that I'm at least fully humanoid again."
"Oh. Wow. Damn." She looked at him, feeling...awkward.
"Umm, y'know, for the record--" She bit her lip, not sure if she should say what she was thinking. "I mean--about that. Back there. Me...dying. Sort of." A breath. Then: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for--for everything. Every stupid thing that's happened to you since we met, I--"
She swallowed and looked away. "I know it doesn't fix anything, I'm just...sorry."
He smiled softly and put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have anything to apologize for. I could have left at any moment or not even gone with you at all. It was my choice to stay, and I'd do it all again to know you and Kit. You're... the best friends I've ever had."
He hesitated, considering his next words. "Especially you."
"I--" She swallowed, closing her eyes. "I meant what I said back there, when Volke...when I took the deal," she murmured after a moment, not sure if this was exactly the time but feeling like she had to say it. "I do love you--and I don't mean, y'know...what we've talked about before. I've never had a friend like you before, and I care about you more than I thought I was capable of caring about someone."
She exhaled, fixing her eyes on the crystal. "So...yeah. Just...wanted you to know that, I guess." As they had back in the first cavern they discovered, her eyes reflected the light from the Tear differently than they did aboveground, setting them flickering that burning green again.
Gods, her eyes were beautiful.
Grav put the thought aside for the moment; they would have to figure out love beyond the platonic after they figured out the Tear. He smirked. "I kinda had a feeling."
Getting closer to the Tear, Grav felt a tingle in his crystals. It was as if the lizard part of him was somehow connected to it; perhaps it was even the source of their magical powers... and of his. Even her magic swelled a little in response to the powerful artifact.
He blinked. "Okay, even I can tell this thing has some serious mojo."
Meanwhile...
A figure sneaked up behind Ki.
Kiara nodded in agreement with his assessment. "This is...incredible," she murmured, pacing around it to try to get the full picture. "I've never felt anything like this..."
Kit was waiting just between the mouth of the tunnel and the start of the crystal bridge, occasionally pinging out queries down the line of connection between him and his humans--he'd figured out that his link with Kiara was too muddled to use so close to the crystal's interference, but the purely emotional bond he'd formed with Grav worked, and he could still link the two.
He was momentarily absorbed in trying to work through the minutia of that, so the first few footsteps didn't draw his attention. The fourth did though, and he snapped his head around toward the sound, teeth bared and hackles raised threateningly.
Grav reached out to touch one of the orbiting pieces but drew back at the last moment. He didn't want to accidentally activate anything before they agreed on what to wish for.
"So... any ideas how we can both get what we want?"
Volke stepped forward, tossing a potion bottle up and down in one hand. He was wearing some kind of filtered mask over the lower half of his face. "Sleep." He threw the bottle at Kit's feet, where it shattered, spreading a sleep-inducing purple mist.
Kia! Grav! Volke's here! Volke...
Kit's head swayed and he lashed out almost drunkenly at the alchemist as unconsciousness tugged at his mind. He desperately sent the warning down the link, both links, in words and emotions, as strong as he could.
"I--" Kiara sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe, just..."
She gestured at him. "I mean... You should use it. We don't know that it's a one-wish-only kind of situation, and--and if it is, you should still use it."
Grav frowned. "I don't like the idea of possibly sentencing you to either give up living in the mortal plane or die young."
He gave her a sad look. "Either way, I'll... I'll never see you again."
Unfortunately, he mistook the twinge of fear from Kit as part of his own conflicting emotions.
Kiara was similarly distracted, such a well of emotions swirling in her chest that she couldn't separate out the dragon's warning.
"That--I mean, that wouldn't...necessarily be true," she murmured, not quite able to meet his eyes. "If I...If I did join the Autumn Court, y'know, properly...I mean, I have the amulet, right? I could probably make you something like it. You...you could visit..."
It wouldn't be the same. Of course it wouldn't. But what else could they do?
Grav could no more meet her eyes than she could his. "And Kit? Could he survive there? He'd be devastated if he couldn't go with you?"
"I mean--I'd love to be human again, I just--I don't want to make anyone else suffer for it." He sighed. "Least of all someone I care deeply about."
"Kit--Kit's going to outlive me by centuries anyway," Kiara snapped, suddenly, irrationally angry. "In fact, the only way our lifespans might match up is if I join the court. He can survive there for years at a time if he wants, we would make it work."
She hated it. She hated the thought of it, hated the idea of either seeing him rarely, or watching him grow eternally bored in a world that, while not hostile to dragons, wasn't exactly a perfect fit for them either. Even though the alternative was to leave him far, far too soon...
"What if this kills you?" she demanded, gesturing abruptly to Grav's whole form. "What if there's yet another hidden catch from Volke that we don't know about, and this is as much a death sentence for you as staying in the human world might be for me, hm? You're not the only one here who's not prepared to watch someone they care for suffer."
She swallowed, throat tight. "Kit and I...we can figure something out. If--if I join the court we'll have literal millennia to figure something out." She couldn't hide the distaste in her voice at the very idea, but she barreled on. "Damnit, Grav, if it's not this, my family will find some other way to get their claws in me. It's just a matter of time. Don't waste this on me!"
"It's not a waste!" he responded defensively. "
Then he sighed deeply. "But otherwise, you're right. I know you are. I just... well, I absolutely hate that you're right. I'll do it."
He gave an awkward chuckle. "Gods, you're stubborn."
She smiled a little shakily. "Yeah. It's one of my better qualities."
The small, ruthless voice in the back of her head that had kept her alive since she was twelve told her she was being an idiot, that she was giving up her one sure-fire chance at avoiding the Autumn Court's hooks. It was easier to ignore than she would have thought.
She hesitated a moment, then reached out to take Grav's hand. "Just...gods, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but be careful what you wish for." She squeezed his fingers lightly, then let go. "Magic like this is always finicky."
Grav breathed out and nodded. "Right. Gotta word it carefully or I'll end up as my literally old self or worse."
He gathered his words and reached for the--
A bullet pinging off the ground at his feet interrupted him. Instinctively, he jumped to the side, away from the Tear. Turning slowly, he cursed.
Volke stood in the entrance to the tunnel, aiming a strange-looking gun at them as he started walking towards them. "I suppose I should thank you for helping me get this far. But, I must ask that you back away from the Tear."
Kiara had her knife drawn in an instant, darting in front of Grav automatically. "Shit," she whispered.
Then her eyes widened. "Kit..." Raising her voice and narrowing her eyes, she demanded, "Where the fuck is my dragon?"
"Oh, your beast is unharmed. He is simply sleeping." He seemed unconcerned with her threatening tone of voice. "Despite what you must think of me, I do not take life without reason."
"Yeah. You just destroy lives." Grav frowned accusingly.
Volke raised an eyebrow. "Destroy? Dear boy, are you not stronger, faster, and gifted with more magic than before? I would argue that I've ultimately given you a gift."
"Get fucked, you sick, psychotic son of a three-toed bitch," Kiara snarled, the sound nearly inhuman. "I don't know what someone like you could possibly want the Tear for, and honestly I don't need to know; you're not getting a step closer to the damn thing."
Grav stepped up beside her, drawing Brightedge. "I couldn't agree more. I'd sooner destroy it than let the likes of you use it."
"So self-righteous," he chided. "What if I just want to get someone I lost back? Did you even consider that I may have noble intentions?"
"First of all, I don't believe your bullshit for a second," Kiara spat. "Second--no magic can bring someone back. Not really. Believe me, I've looked. So you can take your noble intentions and shove 'em."
As she spoke, she kept reaching out for Kit with the corner of her mind that--she hoped--was still connected to the communal link the dragon had established between the three of them. She felt the edges of his consciousness, which assured her that he was, in fact, alive, but she couldn't get anything specific.
"No matter." Volke sighed. "What you believe is inconsequential. I can't let you stop me from achieving my goal."
He fired a second shot, striking Grav in the chest. The adventurer grabbed the spot and stumbled.
"Grav!" She moved to catch him, panic surging up in her chest. "Shit shit shit shit shit..."
She pressed a hand to the wound, trying to get a feel for how bad it was—he had scales now, but that shot had been at close range.
Grav's own hand came away bloody. He stared at it disbelievingly; there was so much blood. "He--he actually sho--" He coughed, causing blood to trickle from the corner of his mouth.
Volke put the two-barreled pistol away, frowning. "Taking a life is never something I enjoy, but you left me no choice." He twisted the end of his gentleman's cane and pulled out a small sword. "Perhaps I'll save him when I get what I want, provided you don't interfere."
"No... No no no no no..."
Kiara sank to the ground, desperately trying to keep Grav upright as she held him, keep his airway clear. But he was bleeding so much, he'd been shot, what did she—how could she—?
"Grav?" Her voice shook as she pressed her hand more firmly over the wound. "Come on, just—just hang on, okay? We'll—we can fix this..."
She looked up at Volke, eyes wild and desperate, her dagger dropped on the ground between them in her haste to get to Grav. She scrambled back, dragging her friend with her, and her spine suddenly thumped against something cool and smooth that tingled with magic.
The Tear...
Volke stepped forward, eyes full of a desperate darkness that could now only be satisfied by blood. He had to have the power of the Tear at any cost. His mission demanded it.
He lunged, sword aimed at her neck. Time for negotiations was over. It was, quite literally, time for her to do or die.
Kiara moved on instinct, ducking the blow and rolling away from Grav so she could snatch her dagger up off the floor.
She sprang up behind Volke, but she was slower than she should be, still not fully recovered from their earlier ordeals. Lifting the dagger into a guard position, she started to try to skirt her way around the edge of his range, looking for an opening.
The mage took an expert fighting stance. He sidestepped slowly, keeping his cane handle in a guard position and his blade prepared to thrust. "I have all the time in the world to waste on the defensive. You, however, do not. From the ragged breathing and the bubbles in the blood coming out his mouth, I can see that has a collapsed lung. He'll be dead in minutes if you don't do something."
Kiara didn't have space in her brain for witty banter, or even an angry retort. Because she knew he was right; Grav was dying.
She couldn't let Volke get the Tear.
But she couldn't let Grav die either.
Slowly, she let her dagger start to lower, arm trembling. "Fine," she whispered. "Fine. Just—promise you'll help him."
She'd already sacrificed herself once for Grav, or had intended to—Volke would have no reason to suspect she wasn't about to do so again. She just needed his guard down. Just for a second...
Volke nodded, lowering his blade slowly. "Excellent. I'm glad you're finally seeing sense."
Kiara nodded dejectedly, eyes on her feet, and took one shuffling step toward him. Then her off hand came up, flinging a weak jet of fire into his face--probably not enough to do him real harm, not with his skills. But enough to distract him as she suddenly burst forward and jammed her dagger as far between his ribs as she could get it.
She didn't even pause, letting the momentum of her lunge carry her forward to skid onto her knees beside Grav and pull his shoulders into her lap. With one bloodied hand, she reached out to press her palm against the Tear.
"Please," she begged, not sure if she was wishing or praying. "Fix him. Save him. Please."
Volke stumbled back with a look of surprise on his face. "You'll..." He couldn't manage to say anything else as he collapsed to his knees before falling over.
The Tear responded to her intent, glowing brighter. And it continued to glow ever brighter until all was white. When it faded, she was floating in a vast sea of stars. Grav was with her, but frozen in his final moments.
Before her floated a person in flowing clothes the colors of a nebula. They stared into her with eyes like twin suns, though they didn't hurt to look at. "What is thy desire?"
Kiara stared. She had seen a lot of ethereal creatures in her life--it sort of came with the territory of her parentage--but nothing like this.
"Y-you're...the Tear is...alive?" she whispered, stunned. Then she shook herself, looking around. "Wait, I--where am I? What's going on?"
She swallowed and looked back to the glowing figure. Her hand on Grav's chest clenched in his shirt unconsciously.
The being smiled kindly. "Do not worry, child; you are still in your reality. This place is simply being projected into your mind so that we may communicate more easily."
They cast their eyes on the wounded swordsman. "You wish to save his life, this I know, but I sense there is more to your wish than that."
"I..."
Kiara looked down at Grav. He wasn't breathing, but that seemed to be due to the strange blip in time she was currently occupying.
"I just want him to be okay," she suddenly sobbed, curving forward over him slightly. "He--he never would have had to deal with any of this if he'd never met me. He's still be human, he wouldn't have met Volke, he wouldn't have gotten shot." She looked up at the Tear, her own eyes ironically watery. "I--I want him to be okay. To be himself again, to be happy."
The entity looked apologetic. "This, I cannot do. If you had never met him, then you wouldn't be here now to make that wish. I can no more break the flow of time than I can revive the dead.
Sniffling, Kiara nodded; she was sure there was some lengthy, convoluted explanation about that, but she didn't have the time--or really the inclination--to try to parse through it.
"Then..." She looked up at the Tear. "Can you fix him? Heal him--make him himself again?"
"I can do that." The entity nodded. They snapped their fingers and reality crashed in on her.
Grav took a sudden gasp of air. He was human again and, more importantly, unharmed. He was even fully dressed. Strangely, though he was in much nicer travel gear, with a high quality breastplate among other fine, studded leather armor. He even had a cape, for gods' sake.
"What in--what did you do?" he asked, perplexed.
Kiara gasped herself as the world suddenly oriented itself back into the reality she knew. Grav was still half in her lap, warm and alive and...perhaps a bit shinier than she'd been expecting.
She didn't care. With a half-choked sob, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged tight. "Oh my gods, oh my gods!"
"I-I--" She sniffled and tried to pull herself together enough to answer him. "I made the wish," she whispered. "You--you were dying, and...I had to. I asked the Tear to heal you, to...make you yourself again..."
"Is that why I'm dressed like a nob?" he asked with a woozy smirk. Yep, he was himself alright.
His head cleared quickly. "Oh shit! Volke shot me, didn't he?" His hand shot to his breastplate. "Right... healed by the... Tear? Uh... where did it go?"
He was right: the artifact was no longer there. There was only the empty space where it had been.
"I..."
Kiara looked at the empty space where the crystal had been floating. "I think...it's gone. The last of it's magic must have been used up..."
She was still half supporting him, but then her eyes widened and she shot to her feet. "Kit!" She whirled back toward the entrance to the chamber. "We have to get back to him--I know Volke said he was just asleep, but what if--what if--?!"
Grav wobbled a little, but managed to get to his feet. Nodding, he resolutely said, "Let's hurry."
He wasted no more time, not quite running for the tunnel back to the bridge. He didn't bother to make sure Volke was dead; there was nothing for him anyway. Kit was far more important.
Kit skidded to a halt as they made it to the bridge, seeing a mass of black scales and crumpled wings on the other side of the gap. For a heart-stopping moment, that was all she saw--then she realized his flank was moving lightly with breath, and a relieved exhale escaped her.
"Kit!" she called "Kit!"
No response--the wind was probably drowning out her verbal call, and he was too deeply asleep to hear her shouting down their mental link.
Grav scratched his chin. He had his scruff again! Yay!
"Hey, does the wind sound... weaker to you? Like, a lot weaker?" He stuck an arm out to feel the wind flow around his hand. "It is!"
He looked at her. "Do you... think the Tear was keeping the magic going?"
Kiara tried to focus, redirecting her attention from her concern for Kit. "That would make sense," she murmured with a nod.
Giving the chasm a wary look, she added, "I still think I'd feel better if we use the ropes while we get back across..."
Grav nodded. "Agreed."
The journey back across was far easier. Not once did the wind threaten to blow them away. Before long, they were once again by Kit's side.
"Kit! Kitten!" Kiara bolted to the dragon's side and started shoving at his shoulder, trying to jostle him awake. "C'mon, you great stupid lizard, wake up--"
Kit grumbled, snorted, then came awake with a start, wings flaring. "Volke! Kia--!"
He blinked, looking down a them. Then blinked again. "Am I...still asleep?" He lowered his head to sniff cautiously at them both, lingering on Grav.
Another blink.
"First fires. You--did you do it? You really found it? You're both alright?"
Grav nodded, smirking. "What? Did you think some snobby wizard could get the better of us? Kit, we're fine; I wasn't shot or anything."
Oops.
He attempted to cover, but he only made it worse. "Shot? Did I say shot? I meant--uhh... he missed."
Kit and Kiara gave him equally incredulous looks, if for different reasons, and without thinking their voices echoed down the link: Idiot.
Kiara blinked. "Oh, hey--wait a second, can you still hear that? Er, us?"
Kit snorted. "I'm sorry, can we go back to the whole being shot?"
Kiara winced. "Okay, lots of questions--but maybe we should worry about explanations once we're topside? I wanna get out of this place as quick as possible."
"I heard you both call me an idiot, yes. I just don't feel your emotions anymore. I guess that was a lizard thing." Grav thought aloud.
"And, yes, let's get the hells out of here." He coiled up the rope and nodded.
They found, on their way out, that Volke had somehow killed the lake monster. Also, without the Tear, the fire trap had gone out. These things made getting back to the temple easy.
As they passed the laboratory, Grav looked back. "Hey Kit, do you think we should burn his shit? I think we should burn his shit."
The dragon paused, then his lips pulled back in a feral grin that really looked like more of a snarl. "I think you're quite right, my friend," he rumbled, then shifted to usher the two humans closer to the exit, blocking them with the bulk of his body as he reared his head back and exhaled a jet of crackling gold flame from one end of the laboratory to the other.
Kiara found herself grinning almost savagely.
The fire danced in his blue eyes as he watched the lab burn. "If he somehow isn't dead, at least we set him back a laboratory and stole the Tear out from under him."
Something exploded, turning the fire green for a moment. The swordsman stepped back nervously. "Yeah... maaaybe we should get out of here before something bigger explodes."
"Good plan," Kiara agreed quickly, while Kit nodded.
"Up you get then," the dragon muttered, nudging first Kiara and then Grav toward his side so they could climb up and settle onto his back. Once everyone was secured, he made his way out through the dragon-accommodation-sized areas of the temple that he'd managed to get through before, finally bringing them out into the main cavern.
Behind them, there were occasionally popping or shattering sounds from deep in the recesses of the temple.
Kiara glanced back, evaluating. "There's not enough fuel down here naturally for that fire to spread far, but...maybe I should try for a barrier, just in case." They didn't want to destroy the crystal lizard's natural cavern, after all.
Grav gave her a concerned look. "Are you sure you're up for that? You're supposed to take it easy on the magic, and that sounds like a big spell."
As if to make a counterpoint, unusually colored smoke began to billow out of the structure. "Right. Alchemy fire. Proceed."
"I'll be fine." She was glad he could no longer feel emotion through their mutual connection with Kit—it would be more difficult to tell if she was lying.
As Kit bounded away from the temple, she cast a hand back toward the fire, closing her eyes to feel the flames in her magic, then slowly curled one finger in toward her palm at a time.
A scorched circle slowly drew itself around the temple. As soon as it connected to its origin, she let her magic go, slumping forward with a sharp exhale. "Damn...okay—that should...should do it. Fire won't...go past that line..."
Grav grabbed her so that she didn't fall off of Kit. "If this is fine, I'm afraid to see what you consider not fine."
"I didn't survive just to see you hurt yourself," he chided. "No more magic unless you absolutely have to, okay?"
"It's alright," Kiara sighed, voice slurred a bit. She leaned back into him slightly as Kit started climbing back up out of the crevasse that he'd broken through to get down to them. "Just...precision work is...sorta tricky..."
Kit rumbled and glanced back at her, but she was still conscious, and they were almost out. He kept moving.
The sunlight made both Kiara and Kit squint, though the dragon's eyes adjusted much more quickly. "Fires preserve me." He fanned his wings wide and arched his neck up, crooning happily at the warmth. "I missed daylight."
Grav shielded his eyes, but was grinning. "Gods. It feels like we were down there forever."
He did some mental arithmetic and frowned. "Wait. How long were we down there? It should be dark."
Kit shook his head with a small snort. "I think it's...morning again."
Kiara frowned. "Either a lack of day-nigh cycle seriously fucked with my sense of time, or...maybe the magic of the Tear messed with time? Or at least our perception of it."
"Or maybe those spores knocked us out for longer than we thought." Grav shrugged. "It would explain why I'm so hungry. So, uh, back to town for some grub? Yes?"
He patted Kit's side. "And we'll tell you everything."
"Do we...wanna risk staying in town?" Kiara said hesitantly. The idea of food—and a bed, gods—was so tempting it made her chest ache, but... "If Volke somehow survived all that... I don't know, maybe we should try to get some distance between ourselves and this place."
Grav frowned; he had been afraid that she'd say that. "Damnit. Yeah, you're right." He sighed. "We should at least sell off as much as we can of what we took from the lab. Too much weight to carry a long distance and too much that can break and ruin everything else."
Squinting at her neck, he asked, "Speaking of... has that potion worn off yet?"
"Hmm?" She honestly had to take a second to remember what potion he was talking about. Then she reached up to touch her gills—or where the gills had been. They seemed to have sealed over, leaving thin scars along the length of her neck.
"Oh. I guess it has. I can't...feel them anymore, it's not sore like it was." She ran her fingertip along the curve of the scar. "Mmm. They're not opening. Yeah, I guess that was it."
"Good. We're all back to normal," he said, dressed like a noble. "... -ish."
[ Continued Here (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=27120.0) ]