[For Cain]
Eventually she stopped screaming. The panic never went away but at least the hysterics subsided. Of all the ways she had imagined dying, DG had given the least consideration to being buried alive, it was simply too terrifying a prospect. Now she was going to have to endure it.
It was over. Azka- the Sorceress had everything now. Her sister, the emerald, her mother and father, her other mother and father, her friends were either captured or... she viciously pulled away from that thought. She herself was trapped now, encased in a marble tomb and helpless to prevent the end of the world she'd just recently learned was hers.
DG gasped despite fears for her supply of air, fought against her own sobs, against despair. "I'm scared," she rasped in confession to the darkness. Her eyes closed tight over escaping tears and she felt everything all at once, her heart racing against her ribs, the throbbing ache in her skull, and the soreness in her hands from pounding uselessly against her prison. "I don't know what to do."
There had to be a way out, a way to keep going, they hadn't all come this far to be beaten now. DG opened her eyes and rifled through her magic-fogged memories for an answer, calling up herself and Az as children and her mother's beatific smile. Later now, with Popsicle's stories of the Old Road and her not-mother's quiet advice about womanhood. No, she needed answers from the OZ, she needed Glitch's sly grin and Mr. Cain's firm hand on her shoulder, Raw's soothing presence and Toto- Tutor bounding at their feet. Concentrate, concentrate...
"Clear your mind," the Seeker/Ahamo/her father's voice advised her in memory. "Remember how it felt when you were a little girl, how the light flowed through you." She closed her eyes again and there was Tutor, and herself as a child holding a tiny doll. "Concentrate, DG. Show me how she spins without touching her."
DG took a steadying breath and held up her right hand, twirling her index finger counterclockwise (righty tighty, lefty loosey), and in her mind's eye the doll rose in the air, spinning fast and freely. Suddenly she heard four distinct blasts and a tell-tale grinding as the screws holding the coffin lid in place came undone. Her eyes snapped open when two of the screws came free, soon followed by the others. With a gasp she held her left hand palm up, the sigil's glow flaring with a light she felt was drawn from her very being.
Slowly the lid slid away, and DG lay momentarily stunned at the sight of light and air and hope before climbing out into the confines of the royal mausoleum. She had no real plan as she raced for the doors, no ideas beyond the knowledge that she had to stop the Witch, save her friends, save the world-
She flung the doors open and ran out into what was not the cool and woodsy hillside she remembered. In its place was a lush, tropical jungle, the sound of a waterfall not far off and strange birdsong even closer. DG spun to try and find the doorway, then after finding it gone kept turning just to make sure. No, no this was nothing like any part of the Outer Zone she could remember, and it definitely wasn't Kansas either.
"What the hell?" she murmured, eyes darting around as she took in her surroundings before they alighted on a good-sized stick. DG picked it up and gave it a couple experimental swings to test its strength before adjusting her grip to brandish it in both hands. "Hello?" she called and ignored the weird sense of deja vu.
It was over. Azka- the Sorceress had everything now. Her sister, the emerald, her mother and father, her other mother and father, her friends were either captured or... she viciously pulled away from that thought. She herself was trapped now, encased in a marble tomb and helpless to prevent the end of the world she'd just recently learned was hers.
DG gasped despite fears for her supply of air, fought against her own sobs, against despair. "I'm scared," she rasped in confession to the darkness. Her eyes closed tight over escaping tears and she felt everything all at once, her heart racing against her ribs, the throbbing ache in her skull, and the soreness in her hands from pounding uselessly against her prison. "I don't know what to do."
There had to be a way out, a way to keep going, they hadn't all come this far to be beaten now. DG opened her eyes and rifled through her magic-fogged memories for an answer, calling up herself and Az as children and her mother's beatific smile. Later now, with Popsicle's stories of the Old Road and her not-mother's quiet advice about womanhood. No, she needed answers from the OZ, she needed Glitch's sly grin and Mr. Cain's firm hand on her shoulder, Raw's soothing presence and Toto- Tutor bounding at their feet. Concentrate, concentrate...
"Clear your mind," the Seeker/Ahamo/her father's voice advised her in memory. "Remember how it felt when you were a little girl, how the light flowed through you." She closed her eyes again and there was Tutor, and herself as a child holding a tiny doll. "Concentrate, DG. Show me how she spins without touching her."
DG took a steadying breath and held up her right hand, twirling her index finger counterclockwise (righty tighty, lefty loosey), and in her mind's eye the doll rose in the air, spinning fast and freely. Suddenly she heard four distinct blasts and a tell-tale grinding as the screws holding the coffin lid in place came undone. Her eyes snapped open when two of the screws came free, soon followed by the others. With a gasp she held her left hand palm up, the sigil's glow flaring with a light she felt was drawn from her very being.
Slowly the lid slid away, and DG lay momentarily stunned at the sight of light and air and hope before climbing out into the confines of the royal mausoleum. She had no real plan as she raced for the doors, no ideas beyond the knowledge that she had to stop the Witch, save her friends, save the world-
She flung the doors open and ran out into what was not the cool and woodsy hillside she remembered. In its place was a lush, tropical jungle, the sound of a waterfall not far off and strange birdsong even closer. DG spun to try and find the doorway, then after finding it gone kept turning just to make sure. No, no this was nothing like any part of the Outer Zone she could remember, and it definitely wasn't Kansas either.
"What the hell?" she murmured, eyes darting around as she took in her surroundings before they alighted on a good-sized stick. DG picked it up and gave it a couple experimental swings to test its strength before adjusting her grip to brandish it in both hands. "Hello?" she called and ignored the weird sense of deja vu.