w0000! :D
My muse is back!
*showers it with chocolate*
So, yeah, writing.com short story competitions are good inspiration. An old cast sections really don't go away...
Prompt was this picture.
A little random, but hey:
The Oracle of Tul’suné
“This is Tul’suné? It’s…big…”
“Tea-eel hasn’t been out much?”
Three figures slipped through the ornate archway. The lead - a tall woman, with scarlet braids that fell past her shoulders - held up a hand, silencing her companions.
“It’s not the time for chatter. Especially you, Lienna. We’re in Llithiri halls, not one of your taverns.” She nodded pointedly at the smaller figure, a lithe young woman clad in remarkably little considering the cool autumn that held the land. “Taeilil isn’t here to be your entertainment.”
The thin female stuck out her tongue and glanced at the third, a youth nearing the edge of manhood, then shrugged.
“Yes, Asheca. No, Asheca. Bags-of-wool, Asheca,” she muttered, singsong, and fell into step. Asheca scrutinised the room. It was, she had to admit, an impressive structure. The walls - far enough apart for a small battalion to march between them - seemed to be carved from opaque crystal. Great joists like the ribs of a glacier swept up the sides, curving into an angled ceiling high above them, and everything glowed, light filtering from the rock’s heart.
Impressive. But wrong. Asheca frowned - she’d heard the stories, visited several ruins, and…
Instinct, or plain luck, made her hesitate. A moment later it was Lienna’s hand that stopped her, latching around her bare wrist. She felt a stab of pain, followed by an unpleasant sensation of something moving under the skin, and suddenly her vision blurred, reforming to a view of the back of her own head.
“Bags of illusion here.” Lienna’s mind had even stranger harmonics than her voice. “Tsk. Fae eyes see.”
Asheca would have protested the abruptness of the blood-link, but the retort died as Lienna turned and looked again at their surroundings. The contrast was shocking. Gone was the crystal room, elegant arches and idyllic blue light. The tunnel was larger now, stretching away either side in walls of rough stone. Carved into the rock were narrow walkways, all lined with polished blackness. Some swung out into the room, crisscrossing overhead in a web of platforms and paths, supported by thin ropes of the same material. Smaller tunnels opened out in the walls, lit by flame and framed by the oily darkness.
All around them, lounged on walkways, crouched, or slung from the vertical threads, with inhumanly long fingers tightly curled, Llithiri watched them. Huge dark eyes, tilted ovals the size of a man’s fist, glittered sharply, and the firelight rippled and danced on slick black skin, stretched to iridescent mottles over muscle and bone. There were no expressions visible - not that a human could have interpreted any that would form on such a face - and Lienna looked away quickly, although Asheca couldn’t tell if it were from discomfort or haste.
Looking down was worrying. Beneath their feet was a narrow path that sloped down at the sides as if molten. It felt like wet glass under Lienna’s feet, and wound like a snake down the tunnel’s length. She’d been about to step right off.
Asheca’s stomach lurched at the prospect, and suddenly her sight was her own again as Lienna pulled back. Asheca glanced down at where blood was dripping slowly from her wrist, and reassured herself that the bleeding had stopped quickly before. She looked around the glittering hall and found that, if she really concentrated, she could make out the edges of the walkway like the after-image of a bright light. She tested the ground before her, foot slipping before she gained purchase. It was amazing that they’d got this far in.
“Help Tae,” she muttered, then took the step. At the end of this path, where the illusion showed a doorway, was a platform. It was painfully slow going, and several times only Lienna’s reflexes prevented one them falling, but eventually they reached the end. The ground allowed for purchase here and Asheca suppressed a sigh of relief.
For a long minute, nothing happened. Then suddenly the crystal image swept away, as if blown by wind, and huge braziers sprang into life opposite them, framing a yawning black opening. Tae yelped, but Asheca ignored him and focused her attention on the darkness before them. It gave the distinct sense of being inhabited.
She coughed.
“I bring gr -”
“Speak quickly.”
The sound made hairs stand up on her neck. The voice was sibilant, yet somehow resonant, and was the most inhuman sound Asheca had heard speak. It made her ears itch. She noticed that the watching Llithiri had moved slightly closer.
“I seek audience - ”
“You have it.”
“I - ”
“take him south.”
Asheca blinked. She glanced back at Taeilil, then back at the darkness.
“Taeilil is - ”
“take him south.”
Asheca’s temper flickered and she squinted into the darkness.
“My orders - ”
Something glittered in the depths, and suddenly every muscle in her body locked.
“Nonetheless, you will take him south, Asheca Redhair. Leave.”
Disobeying was impossible. Asheca span on her heel and marched back towards the entrance, noting Tae swivelling in an equally puppeteered movement. At every footfall she expected the ground to vanish underneath her… and then sudden she was outside, with cool evening breeze on her face. Immediately, she fell over. Spitting grass, she sat up and tried to shake off the unpleasant tingling sensation in her limbs. Taeilil was further away, leaning heavily against a tree, panting, and Lienna -
A hand snaked down and pulled Asheca to her feet. She looked over Lienna’s shoulder, but the entrance was gone, leaving nothing more than some trampled bushes. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised.
“What happened…?” Tae asked, weakly, and Asheca shook her head. Already the whole encounter seemed unreal, dreamlike. She hesitated, and then scowled.
“Well, we’re not going south. We’ll go to the outpost listen for news.” She stood up decisively, and after a few more gulps of air Taeilil followed her.
Lienna paused, turning her pale stare back on the crumpled bushes. She smiled.
“Bags and bags of illusion.”
Giggling, she turned and skipped after them.
-end until I write more when bored again, yay-
Pfft, I have done nothing else of use today, lol.
Ought to buy more food, tidy up, find somewhere to swim etc... I suppose I could do that now.