Page 97 of House of Ydril

At first, my mind thinks there’s only silence. But only for a second, until it starts noticing all the sounds. The flowing, the rustling, the pounding.

With bated breath and eyes open as wide as humanly possible, I take a few more steps and realize that I’ve found myself in a sort of cave. But instead of being carved into stone, it’s a tangle of roots, branches swinging off the ceiling above me.

I move carefully, glancing left and right before every step I take. I look around and see another opening, darkness lurking behind it. It’s the only way ahead and the others must have taken it as well.

And my intention is to keep walking carefully, but the energy of the place makes me rush myself.

Once I’m nearly through the opening, I feel something tugging at my ankle, making my heart skip a beat.

I look down to see one of the roots has wrapped itself around my leg. And it’s moving fast, already climbing up my thigh.

I lunge forward, trying to pull my leg out, but it doesn’t budge. Quickly, I tap my Element Rune and have the roots get sucked back into the ground. I don’t hesitate. I run out of the place, throwing one last look back to see a gazillion other roots shooting into the air after me.

But as soon as I take a few more steps away from them, they go still and then get sucked back just like the first one.

Leaning forward and resting my palms on my thighs, I let out a shuddering breath. And just as my heartbeat goes back to normal, I hear a scream from somewhere behind me. A woman.

Blood curdles in my veins. Is it Sarya or Zelda or Amra or someone else entirely? I straighten up, turn on my heel and squint ahead, my ears pricked up. The space I’m in right now is a wide, dark tunnel carved into the ground. And it’s a winding one so I can’t actually see where it’s going.

Hesitantly, I start walking down and straight at the source of that scream. What other choice do I have, I think to myself as I keep my hand raised to my Runes. Just in case.

But just as I see light somewhere in front of me, I hear it again. The same voice screaming, only more drawn out. I stop, my ears straining.

A part of me wants to turn around and run away, but if I want to save everyone from dying horrible deaths, I absolutely have to keep moving forward. So I force myself to pick up the pace, walking straight towards the blood-curdling sound.

As I make my way down the seemingly never ending tunnel, I try to drown out her screaming by humming things to myself. It won’t help, me being scared out of my wits before I even lay eyes on her.

As I walk out of the tunnel, the light almost blinds me, making me raise my hand over my eyes. I’m squinting and I can’t see her yet, but I can hear her loud and clear. “Please,” she’s sobbing.

I recognize Amra’s voice. “Wait there,” I yell out, “I’m coming to you.”

I hear a crack and a thud and the sob turns into yet another scream.

My eyes finally get adjusted to the light, I lower my hand and I see exactly why it’s so blinding. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but it’s reflecting off the countless walls of crystals all around me. And right in front of me, suspended in the air, I see Amra. Except for her head and one hand, she seems to be completely encased in one of the crystals.

I rush to her. Obviously struggling to break out, she looks at me with pleading eyes. “Help me,” she says and looks at the floor below her, where I see a piece of crystal with her hand in it.

Her fucking hand.

Thatwas the crack I heard.

My hand darts to my mouth and I’m glad of it, because I don’t want to make her panic even more. I quickly tap the Element Rune, hoping to get the crystals off her, but it doesn’t work.

“Stay calm,” I mutter as I come closer to inspect things. I’ve never seen anything like this stone and my Sight tells me it’s not the kind of material I could manipulate.

What the fuck am I supposed to do? And just as I think that, she lets out another scream and the crystal that’s got her trapped cracks along the middle.

I panic. I tap my Element rune, even though I know it won’t work.

For a second, I think I see the crystal shrink.

Amra goes quiet and it makes me hold my breath in.

Then, just like that, I see the lower half of her just fall to the ground, her eyes rolling back in their sockets.

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit, I think to myself as I sit down with a loud thump. Maybe I just want to make sure it’s real, what happened, so I grab her free hand, now lying there on the floor next to me. I pull my knees to my chest and I just sit like that, rocking back and forth. Her hand remains dead in mine. We’re going to die, that’s all I can think, we’re all going to die.

Then it happens. The crystals still encasing Amra’s hand start coming to life and creeping up my own skin. They’re threatening to swallow me as well.

---