Sol’s rays glimmered off of the lake and the pristine blue water had never seemed so inviting to them, or at least most of them.
While Arcaea and Janette splashed water on their faces Raven got completely naked and walked out into the lake. The dust and dried up blood slowly dissolved and trailed off of her, creating almost a watercolor effect where the gray and red substances began to spread into the blue out from her.
Raven closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. The feeling of being able to wash her body felt so refreshing, it almost revitalized her, even though her wounds hadn’t fully healed yet. She sat down, fully submerging herself in the water and began to scrub her hair and skin. When she rose back up her friends saw her almost returned to her former self. Her skin returning to its darkened, red hue with fresh blood trailing from half closed gashes and cuts. It was only now that the rest of them got a good view of just how many scars Raven had. Some were small and shallow while others were large and deep. Testaments to her life of hardship.
Arcaea and Janette followed suit and took off their clothes as well and joined her in the lake. Arcaea pretended not to notice the nasty burn on Janette’s left shoulder, the one she tried so hard to hide. She wanted to ask what happened to her but sensed there might still be pain involved with that scar, so she remained silent.
“Kurai! Come into the water with us!” said Arcaea.
“Yeah, no thank you.” said Kurai, looking at the water with worry in her eyes. “Lakes are torked and should not be trusted.”
“Oh you’re overreacting, scaredy-cat.” said Janette as she dove into the water.
“That’s mildly racist but whatever.” muttered Kurai as she reluctantly waded into the shallow and splashed some water on herself.
The other three of them floated around in the lake for a little while before they, one by one, walked back to dry land. Janette was the first to go and Raven was the last. When she emerged all the dust and blood had been washed off her and the extent of her wounds was painfully clear. Aside from the sheer number of deep cuts that had begun to close on their own due to her unnatural physiology, the entire right side of her body was bruised and scraped. Her right eye was bloodshot and Janette was sure that her right cheek bone was broken too, along with how many other bones.
“I’m so sorry I ran out of arcanum. I hate not being able to heal you right now.” she said glumly.
“It’s okay.” said Raven as she carefully put her clothes back on. “I’ve had worse.”
“Well, anybody else would have been turned to mush from being smashed repeatedly into the ground by a torking urthog.” said Arcaea. “I’ll never understand how you valkyries work.”
“You have my permission to ask whenever you’d like.”
Raven then began removing the dark crystals from her utility belt, placed them very carefully in a circle around her and closed her eyes. Arcaea observed her for a moment before walking over and sitting down next to her.
“I guess there is no time like the present. I’ve seen you do this sometimes after a battle. Do you mind if I ask what you’re doing?”
Raven opened one eye to look at Arcaea, thought about it for a moment and then opened the other and turned to face her.
“Sure, why not. You know how Janette and Kurai need arcanum to do their thing?” she asked.
“Uh yeah. It has something to do with the fact that you can’t just conjure magic out of thin air, right?”
“Right. Janette needs the refined magical energy to fuel her spells while Kurai uses it to fuel her machines and gadgets.”
“You don’t really cast spells though. At least not in the same way.”
Raven was pleasantly surprised. She knew that Arcaea wasn’t very educated in the ways of magic but she was very astute and highly observant.
“Correct. Because even though me and Janette are both dval, me being a sunborn and her being a moonlet, I’m not exactly a normal sunborn. Valkyries aren’t trained, instead they are a byproduct of a genetic alteration that occurred a few hundred years ago. And it is this genetic alteration that closes us off from magic. But instead we all have an innate connection to The Void. The cosmic ocean that connects all the realms. And we can use this connection to draw void energy to fuel our powers. Make us stronger, faster or even more charming.” Raven explained.
Arcaea rubbed her snake-like scales and nodded.
“Right, so you kinda just buff yourselves.”
“In a way.” Raven smiled.
“You got any healing abilities?”
“Kinda, we don’t have any healing spells but we do heal faster than most, higher metabolism, I guess. As we get older and more experienced we learn other unnatural abilities but there is a bit of a problem to all of this. Can you guess what it is?”
Janette, who was very learned in the ways of magic and The Void, shot up and raised her hand.
“No Janette. I know you know this, I want to see if Arcaea can piece it together.”
Janette slumped back down, sad she couldn’t answer the question. Arcaea thought about it for a while.
“Magic requires refined arcanum to fuel the spells. But with your connection to The Void you basically have an endless supply of energy.” She then stopped and thought about it some more. “But whenever we fly close to a ghost sea or a void tear we always have to wear protective suits.”
Raven nodded. “And why is that?”
“Because void energy is corruptive, right? It burns and can create tumors, cancers or even more severe mutations.”
Raven nodded again.
“So I guess the question is, since nothing is ever destroyed, only transformed, what happens to the void energy you use?”
Raven snapped her fingers and pointed at Arcaea.
“That is exactly the right question. When we use our valkyrie abilities we essentially exude void energy. It is highly corrosive to the environment around us and can corrupt locations for hundreds of years to come. But that’s where these little crystals come in.” Raven picked on up and handed it to Arcaea. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”
Arcaea picked it up and was surprised by the warmth it gave off.
“This is what we call a nilshard. When we use our abilities they act as sponges that soak up the irradiated energy that we exude so that it’s safe for others around us. And what I’m doing now is a short little ritual that will empty these shards, using my innate connection to funnel the energy back into The Void, safely.”
“That’s crazy.” said Arcaea. “What do you do when they all fill up in the heat of battle?”
Raven shrugged. “Stop using my powers or risk causing irreparable damage to the environment...and possibly kill all of you. Neither of which I want to do.”
Raven then closed her eyes again and started her ritual again. Arcaea moved back to where Janette was sitting and they both observed.
“I knew all of that.” said Janette.
“Of course you did. You’re the smartest person I know.” said Arcaea, nudging her elbow at her friend.
Janette laughed.
Once Raven was done with her ritual and the sun was setting they saw Kurai emerge from the nearby treeline.
“Found our ship. It’s not too far away.”
“Nice job. You guys wanna camp by the ship for tonight or fly back to Keystone as fast as possible?” said Raven as she got up and reattached all the nilshards to her belt.
“Making camp and using some of our supplies for a well deserved dinner wouldn’t be such a bad thing.” said Janette.
“No objections here.” said Arcaea.
All four of them walked back into the woods, keeping an eye out for any hidden dangers. Soon enough they found the clearing where they had landed their ship. Or, well, the ship they had borrowed from Old Sal. It was called Dawnshore and it was a rust bucket that had, surprisingly, not fallen apart on their way here. Jury was out on whether or not it would make it back.
Janette quickly entered the ship, retrieved her medium sized reserve tank of arcanum in order to heal Raven some more. While she did that Arcaea and Kurai set up camp and started a fire.
That night they gorged themselves on tasteless rations while swapping ghosts. Enjoying a night of respite before going back to the hustle and bustle of Keystone.
“And they say…” said Kurai theatrically, “ ...that her murderous specter roams those moors still to this day.”
There was a momentary silence before her companions chimed it.
“Untrue.” said Raven.
“What?!” exclaimed Kurai.
“Yeah, I’ve been to the Hiridous Moors myself. And there were no ghosts there.” added Arcaea.
“Also, ghosts aren’t real.” said Janette. “Just like demons, angels or humans. They’re just myths. At least there is no scientific data that supports that they exist.”
“Clearly none of you have been close to or into the Void.” said Raven.
“Wait...do humans exist in the Void?” asked Kurai excitedly.
“What? No, I was talking about ghosts.” said Raven.
“Why do you say that?” asked Janette.
“A lot of weird things happen in and around tears into the Void.” explained Raven.
“Sounds like there’s a story there.” said Arcaea.
“Tell it!” ordered Kurai.
“Fine.” said Raven, readying herself for a retelling. “Part of the valkyrie training has you making a sort of pilgrimage into the Void. And I’ve never experienced any spectral occurrences or ever found any evidence of the existence of ghosts. But…”
There was a moment of silence followed by Kurai saying; “Buuuuut?”
“But...you know the saying ‘the Frontier holds many great and terrible things’? Well, the Void holds only terrible things. Of course nobody has ever been able to prove that anything truly resides there. It’s officially considered dead space that connects all the worlds together.
“But when I was there I heard things. Felt things. I was there alone and yet I felt as if something circled around me. And I heard someone...call out to me.”
The hairs on Kurai’s back rose up and her eyes widened. All of them stared at Raven with terrified fascination.
“What did you hear?” asked Arcaea.
“It was a whimper. So distant yet so audible. It was a small frail voice that whispered my name.”
All of their eyes widened now. Raven wasn’t known for telling tall tales.
All of a sudden they heard a twig snap. Each of them rose up and readied their weapons, or what was left of them.
“What was that?” asked Kurai.
But then they saw it.
The ship and their campsite was encircled by dense woods. No man-made structures to be seen. And yet. Standing there, in between two oak trees that were illuminated with a low bioluminescent blue light, they saw a red door and door frame. The door, made of wood, had white symbols that seemed to have been crudely painted on it.
“What. The tork. Is that?” asked Raven.
“It’s...a door.” said Janette.
“No it’s not.” said Arcaea who quickly began gathering their things. “Somebody needs to keep their eye on that door while the rest of us get everything together. We have to leave. Now!”
Raven silently took it upon herself to keep her eyes on the door while the others did as Arcaea asked.
“You have to keep your eyes on it until we manage to close the hatch of the ship.” Arcaea added.
Their hearts were racing and adrenaline was pulsing through their bodies but somehow they managed to not panic and to get everything into the Dawnshore. When they were ready Raven backed up, constantly keeping her eyes on the red door, right up until they closed the hatch of the ship.
Arcaea and Kurai got into the cockpit and began routine checking all systems to make sure everything was fine. Outside they heard something scrape against the hull of the ship. But in a matter of seconds the ship’s engines turned on and the ship flew up into the air, rattling as it did.
As they turned around to fly into the direction of Keystone, they looked out the cockpit window at their recently vacated campsite. There was no door there.
“Okay, that was terrifying.” said Kurai as she plotted their route back to Keystone.
Janette poked her head in through the narrow doorway of the cockpit. “You wanna tell us what in the Void that was?”
“Not sure. But my mom used to tell us stories about red doors that would appear out of nowhere on the Frontier. Apparently bad drim would happen around them.”
“And why do we have to keep our eyes on them?” asked Janette.
“Because apparently they move around when you look away. And I didn’t want it to move into the ship.” explained Arcaea.
Janette thought about it for a second. “I’m gonna go and check the rest of the ship. Just make sure it didn’t make it in here from somewhere else.” And then she disappeared into the open cockpit door.
“Cool! Great! I didn’t need to sleep tonight anyways!” said Kurai.
“Four hours until Keystone. You’ll have forgotten all about that door by the time we get there.” said Arcaea.
“Forget the teleporting door of nightmares? Unlikely.”
“Just look at the pretty lights outside.”
Flying at night was considered dangerous but one couldn’t argue with the view. Stretching out before them was an ocean of lights. Some purple, some pink, others light blue and even a few them shun red. And Arcaea was right. Looking at them was calming. Which only served to make the dark spots even more terrifying. In the cities it was easy to forget just how dangerous and terrifying the Frontier really was.
“Yeah.” said Kurai. “Really pretty.”
After searching the rest of the ship, Janette quietly walked to the bunks at the aft of the ship where she found Raven lying in one of them, fast asleep. Janette smiled and put one of their blankets over her so she wouldn’t get cold.
While Raven snored away, dreaming again of her mother and long forgotten memories, Janette sneakily opened her backpack and pulled out the two items she had found in the bunker. She cast a simple analysis spell on the sword hilt and the spell identified it as a holbrand. She was unsurprised by what she found, although a little troubled by what it meant.
She then cast it on the octahedron. She focused on it, then she focused harder. She felt the spell get pushed back and break as she opened her eyes in surprise. The analysis spell, which she had used to identify hundreds of objects with no difficulty, had failed.
“That’s...disturbing.”
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