Page 23 of Amethyst and Iron
And then a swirling ball of blue light shot toward it, whipping right past me.
Magic concealing something within, it seemed.
I went to reach for it, but I was startled as something appeared through the other side of the hole.
My breath caught in my throat as a hand shot through, withered and covered in black veins, the nails brittle yet long and sharp in a monstrous sort of way. It snagged the ball of light, then came into view.
Partially.
Most of his identity was obscured by a thick red velvet hood from his cloak.
He had a creepy air about him, black veins and fissures crawling like rot across his skin. His lips were pressed into a disdainful line, jaw sharp and unmoving. His skin was drawn tight and twisted in many places. Wisps of his stringy, straggly dark-brown hair escaped the hood.
A voice whispered on the wind, the cadence and tone unidentifiable, just… there. Just words that sung painfully all around.
“Scion, remember our bargain. This for my freedom. You deny me and I will see you suffer alongside me here.”
A smirk curled the lips of the red shadowy being.
Then a definitive nod.
Black tendrils shot out then, sealing the hole I’d made rapidly.
“No!” I cried. “Stop!”
I thrust my shadowed fist forward, but a jolt of painful power blew me backward. It tasted like sludge, felt like an awful chill.
I tried to return to the area, but my shadows protecting me on the left fell.
And then I was being dragged toward the Valley of the Dead, my feet scraping on the strange ground that was hard some places, but unstable in others, then nothing when I frantically fought for friction.
I called my Wraith magic, but neither my shadows nor my frost responded.
They were done.
Iwas done.
Closer and closer I was forced toward what could never be escaped.
That bastard, whoever the fuck he was, had ruined my shot at leaving this place.
He’d even somehow sealed it off so I couldn’t attempt it again.
Vibrant-red magic exploded into being, blinding me from its brightness and ferocity for several moments.
When I could see properly again, I watched in a whole lot of shock as a red wall shot up between me and the Valley.
A voice roared through the area, resounding all around.
"Mors mihi nunc non imperat.
Cede voluntati meae.
Flecte corpus et animam.
In genibus—subiice!"
This voice was absolutely distinguishable.
