Chapter 111 – Escaping the Darkness

Chapter 111 – Escaping the Darkness

Emily gives her friends a brief overview of her situation, from her awakening to her attempted brainwashing. She manages to hold in her anger with the help of a comforting squeeze from Juliana as she speaks about Herber’s death once more, but the pitying expressions on her friends’ faces don’t help. Her friends hang on her every word till the end, listening to her in silence until she finishes.

“That’s disgusting!” Dante growls, righteous indignation burning in his gaze.

“It is,” Enzo agrees, anger in his gaze along with a calculating glint. “But do you really need to become an outlaw? Oscar seems interested in scouting you, even if just as an ally, and I’m sure his family will happily take the excuse to destroy the Mandragos and take over their resources.”

Emily pauses for a moment before responding, taking a deep breath and considering her words, months of frozen time having dulled the edges of the truth, making it easier to confront.

“No, I probably don’t have to become an outlaw,” she admits, gazing off into the darkness as she elaborates. “However, I don’t want to stay in The Dome. I want to travel, to explore different magical phenomena, to find strong opponents to fight. I want freedom to progress.”

“You’d have freedom in The Covenant if you got out from the Mandrago’s influence,” Hester points out.

“Yeah! If you receive a family name you’ll be able to do whatever you want while using The Dome as a free trading hub,” Dante adds, his anger bleeding away as Emily shifts to a tone of acceptance and resolution.

“Maybe,” Emily acquiesces with a nod. “But I don’t plan on dealing with this quietly. It wouldn’t satisfy my anger if they just vanished and they have allies who’d probably keep making life difficult for me. I think it’s unlikely even their enemies will be too happy for Modo to lose a fourth circle mage. The idea of dancing through politics sounds like a massive headache to me: I’d rather leave the country, probably even the continent, until I’m strong enough that they wouldn’t even think of bothering me. Besides, there are plenty of other interesting places on the planet for me to explore.”

Her friends consider her words, showing mixed reactions to her plans.

“That said,” Emily continues before anyone else can say anything, a touch of uncertainty creeping into her tone. “I’m still not sure what I’m going to do after going back to Eimdon. I may end up back at The Dome for all I know. But, my main priority is meeting up with Anna again. Everything else can go from there.”

Nobody can argue with her final statement, nodding along with reluctance as an air of melancholy settles over the group.

“Your sister’s safety takes priority,” Ivor signs with respect and understanding, the others nodding along.

“I’d avoid politics too if I were you,” Dante says with a visible shiver.

“Of course you would,” Enzo says, leaping on the chance to lighten the mood a little. “You’d avoid anything you can’t blow up if given the choice.”

There are a few subdued laughs as everyone slowly moves towards their sleeping bags, sensing the end of the conversation and preparing to turn in for the night. After everyone but Emily and Juliana has settled in their sleeping bags, Tom speaks again, breaking the silence of the camp.

“We’ll miss you, you know. The Dome won’t be the same without you,” he says.

“Yeah, and if you ever find yourself near Cairnorm while on the run, you’re welcome to come hide in our family’s museum,” Hester adds, humour in her tone.

“It’s been fun fighting with you,” Dante mumbles, his face already buried in his pillow.

“I hope we meet again eventually,” Enzo says. “It would be a shame not to get to see your magic again.”

A small smile parts Emily’s lips as she listens to the heartfelt words of her friends. A light tapping on the stone floor draws her attention, and she turns her head to see Ivor sitting up in his sleeping bag, staring straight at her.

“It’s been a pleasure. If you ever need help, let me know. I still owe you my life,” he signs seriously, his eyes glistening with tears, surprising Emily.

“Just make sure J stays safe,” Emily signs back with a tearful smile.

“You have my word,” Ivor finishes with a nod before lowering himself down to sleep.

Emily turns back to face the fire, leaning her head against Juliana’s as a comfortable silence settles once more, no more words needed between them. A bubbling warmth fills Emily’s chest as she sits there, touched by her friends’ consideration and feeling a hint of regret at the idea of leaving them.

***

Juliana removes her solid grasp on Emily as they start walking again, the enclosed walls and roof of the tunnel seeming to help calm her fear. They shift around as they walk, moving Hester to the front to help Emily deal with archites ahead as they push on through the tunnel.

It doesn’t take long for them to clear the path, killing the entire remaining nest and arriving at the sharp upward bend leading to the next layer. Emily shifts the barrier once more, carrying them up in an elevator of wind and water.

They break through the water’s surface, arriving in the light of the sparkling crystals overhead. They move to the shore, stepping onto solid ground and allowing Emily to finally disperse her barrier. A collective sigh is released by the group, glad to be out of the oppressive darkness of the deepest layer.

“Take a break here for a little bit,” Emily says, reaching her hand into a pouch at her belt. “I’m going to mark this tunnel to try to make it easier to find The Abyss if I come back.”

Everyone spreads out in the tunnel. Enzo, Dante, and Ivor position themselves slightly upstream, just in case something attacks them, and Tom and Hester sit against the wall, watching Emily work. Juliana sits down beside Emily, also watching with interest as she pulls out an earth crystal, space crystal, chunk of white iron, and an ingot of black iron.

“Why earth and space?” Juliana asks as Emily forms the black iron into a flat plate.

“To handle mana gathering and location transmission separately,” Emily answers as she makes two sockets from the white iron, fusing them to the black iron plate and starting to draw lines onto the plate with thin beads of white iron. “I’m going to bury this marker in the rock partway down the tunnel so it hopefully won’t move too far from the path down. The earth crystal will help draw mana in through the surrounding rock to keep the space crystal full while it sends out a signal for the receiving space crystal to track.”

She finishes drawing a complicated runic matrix around the plate, covering the top and bottom with a delicate mix of runes and connecting shapes, before dropping both crystals into place. They instantly link to the magic circle, lighting up the white metal with a brown and purple glow.

“There we go,” Emily says, pulling out a space crystal with a dull hue, lacking the usual lustre of the mystic gems. “Now we link them.”

She takes out an engraving knife, gently bringing it to the dull crystal’s surface and carving a detailed set of runes. Everyone falls silent to let her focus as her hand races along the crystal in fast but precise movements, quickly forming a spell on the crystal without shattering it. They all let out a collective sigh of relief as she finishes, everyone understanding the volatility of even a drained mana crystal.

Emily taps the crystal to the marker plate and a small purple strand of mana reaches out, connecting to the crystal and slowly returning its vibrant glow. She holds it in place until the connection breaks itself, then drops the linked crystal into her belt as she stands up.

“I’ll be right back,” she says to her friends before stepping into the water again.

She swims down twenty metres before stopping and floating over to the tunnel’s wall. Placing a palm against the rock, Emily casts a spell to soften the rock before coating her hand in earth mana and pushing it forward, displacing the stone and burrowing into it.

She keeps going for a few minutes, until her arm is shoulder-deep in the wall, before pulling it out. She places the location marker in the back of the small alcove before starting to fill it back in again. Halfway out, Emily pauses again, holding her hand out before herself with a vicious grin.

I don’t want any archite borrowing in to try to find those mana crystals, so let’s add a precaution.

A faint purple mist flows up from her belt, coalescing together to form a small black disc with silver circuits running along the surface. The centre of the disc is a disconnected ring holding a small, white, mana detection crystal and several strands of silver metal. The central ring’s wires don’t connect to the others, twisted a quarter turn out of place.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Mana Mine]

[Rank:] D

[Description:] A proximity-based magical explosive.

[Effect:] Explodes dealing massive damage when a living being’s mana signature comes within a set distance.

_____

This detonating should scare them off trying to burrow in for the marker for a while at least.

She flips the mine over, revealing a large rotating ring on the back as well, with zero to ten carved around it. She barely turns the indicator on the ring, moving it a tiny amount from zero, setting the mine to go off if something comes within twenty centimetres of it. Then she places the mine in the hole, facing outwards.

Emily turns the front dial counterclockwise, releasing it from a latch inside and setting off a ticking inside as it slowly starts shifting clockwise back into place. She quickly moves the stone back into place, burying the explosive before it has finished priming. After the wall is back to normal, looking identical to when she first swam down, Emily gives a satisfied nod and kicks off, heading back towards the surface.