Private Tales A Reason for Everything

[Aldrae]

She agreed that the strange item more than qualified. In fact, 'unusual' struck her as an understatement. At least his answer gave her a bit of reassurance after the recent chaos.

Yet as Aldrae looked around at the dark hallways with its forsaken offices, she couldn't help but feel a nervous tremor skitter across her shoulders. The fading magic around them made the whole world feel as though it was losing its color. It reminded her of a nightmare she'd often had as a little girl, that a terrible monster had stalked her through a gloomy, shifting maze.

One moment, Aldrae was following Erren up the hallway in tense silence. She had an inkling that something was about to happen when a couple of the runes in the band began to shift and glow, stirring a few loose motes of magic that stubbornly remained lodged in the universe. She paused to look at the markings. Then she fainted.

Though from her perspective, it was the world that had skipped a heartbeat.

"Erren?" she uttered uncertainly into the looming blackness all around, unaware that her body was uninjured but motionless on the floor.

A distorted image of the hall flickered across the surface of the disk Erren was holding. A demonic howl echoed faintly through the building.

-------------

On the far side of the library, Averen and Hagan paused their search to share an incredulous look.

"Did you hear that?" Averen whispered.

"I rather wish I hadn't," replied Hagan.

Erren Serris

 

[Erren Serris]

The silence between them certainly wasn't helping the tense and unsettling atmosphere that permeated the lifeless College surrounding them like a stone prison, but every word spoken was a risk of being heard by those who pursued them. Once they were safe, there would be time for talk, and quite the talk it would be. Despite the chaos that strange little bangle had brought to Elbion on this day, Serris couldn't help but feel the slightest tiwnge of excitement.

After all, it wasn't everyday that even the old coots in charge had their entire lives upended in a single moment. Today was for people like him, who thrived in the unknown. He simply wished this poor girl hadn't been dragged into it as well.

Speaking of Aldrae, Erren furrowed his brow as he realized he could no longer hear her footfalls behind him. "Miss Aldrae?" He whispered, before looking over his shoulder to the dark, ominous hallway stretching out behind him. She lay there, motionless but breathing. A whispered swear leaves Erren's lips as he turns to assist her.

No sooner had he taken a step than a terrifying sound echoes through the empty halls of the College. Deep, bellowing, and angry.

The mage froze, sweeping his eyes this way and that, as though he could actually cut through the darkness to see anything properly. Even he hadn't the faintest at what the sound could have been, but he wasn't the least bit interested in sticking around to find out. Quickly, he scoops Aldrae up into his arms and continues down the hall, forgoing his stealthiness for the time being.

Aldrae

 

[Aldrae]

The college corridor twisted into a truly surreal scene around Aldrae. The ceiling and walls shrunk soundlessly into tight tunnels. The lights faded away into a conscious sort of darkness that oozed nefarious intent. It was the labyrinth from her childhood nightmares, which meant...

Gaaarrrrwwwwwllllllll! The supernatural howl reverberated and rebounded off of the darkness itself, masking the direction of its source. Aldrae spun around to look in each direction, her heart pounding suddenly in her ears.

Though it had been years since she'd had this dream, she still remembered it vividly. She remembered the primal fear; the gnashing sounds that came closer no matter how fast she ran. The fear of pain and death in a pitch black tunnel, and its eventual dead end. Her monster took the form of the scariest thing in existence - the unknown. Something that could be seen could be defeated, but something merely hinted at was given a much more devious power.

But it was a power she'd learned to defeat, in time. Shaking her head wildly, she called upon it now:

"Wake up, Aldrae, wake up!"

She felt a sense of jostled movement before she startled back to the real world. She glanced up at Erren's face in surprise.

"What's happening?" she asked as she tried to get her feet back on the floor.

Gaaarrrrwwwwwllllllll! There it was again, coming from somewhere behind them. Aldrae felt her face go pale. Wait... she was awake now, wasn't she? It must have been, because she could see that horrid relic still on her wrist, runes alight and shifting in a mockery of her ignorance.

"I do hope your colleague's office is nearby!"

Erren Serris