Aerien’s POV

 

I forced myself to steady my breathing, and made no effort to dig myself out of this dust any further. In fact, I simply allowed the press of dense fine grains of former stone to cradle every part of my body and did my best to tell my brain it was relaxing. As best I could, I forced my breathing to become slow and steady.

 

I had no idea if there were any cracks in the stone, but I had to operate under the presumption that oxygen was limited right now. With nothing else to do, my mind drifted to the question of how there was even any oxygen for me to breath in the first place, presuming this was a completely sealed chamber. Best I could figure, perhaps some carbonic acid got broken up and merged into oxygen molecules. Carbonic acid was essentially carbon bound to oxygen molecules which it stole from water as the carbon was infusing into it. It’s supposed to be a rather common presence in limestone formations, and limestone is what makes up most of this area. It’s the reason why the demons have such an extensive network of caves and caverns to live in.

 

As for why the carbonic acid would break down along with the stone… well, I couldn’t be certain about that. Maybe carbon is recognized as having the earth element? The plant domain is supposedly a fusion of earth and water elements after all. But… most of the carbon plants pull in is from the air, and the carbon in carbonic acid also comes from the air. There’s probably some from the ground as well, but… most of what comes from the ground is phosphorous and other nutrients, right? Well, I don’t really know the specifics for certain. All I know is that I can somehow breath and I haven’t passed out yet. Well, if this is the case, then at least it means that I can get myself more oxygen if I start to run low, but doing so would also risk freeing up my attackers to come at me.

 

‘Aerien.’ As I am starting to consider the relative value of getting more air for myself now while I still have the fight and energy in my body Vs. waiting to potentially weaken my enemies, I hear a contact from Sagel again. He only ever calls me by my name when it’s an emergency situation. Well, I don’t really have the luxury of being frustrated over that right now, this seriously is an emergency.

 

‘I’m here.’ I respond. There’s a pause from his end and I can feel his nervous dread over our link. It seems emotions are transmitted a lot more easily over our link than words, so he probably picked up quite a bit more about the seriousness of my situation than I’d communicated.

 

‘The situation up here is under control.’ He says, but I can sense this is about as true as my earlier statement of not being in immediate danger. Technically true, but there’s actually something very wrong going on up there. ‘We… Lord Haverall himself is coordinating rescue efforts right now. Defense committee members have been dispatched to the refugee village to draft gnome citizens in order to pull you out. How serious is your situation?’

I took some time to consider his question, and from his anxiousness I could sense that he did not like that pause. ‘I… can keep myself alive.’ I sent back. ‘I will have to release the energy void in order to do it.’ 

 

The heavy emotions that followed in response to those words were quickly replaced with a sense of panicked industry. He was probably yelling things to some people. Meanwhile, I was anticipating what he would probably ask me next after he finished, and I was considering how I would answer the question. ‘How long?’ He sent back.

 

‘The longer I wait, the less energy I will have. I can buy myself more time if I act now, but…’ Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by some small stones falling onto my head. I felt them disintegrate into sand the moment they hit my head. Seems some of the brittle stone that was hit by my depletion attack, but was farther from the source. Fortunately it wasn’t big, but I couldn’t be certain that would continue to be the case.

 

‘Aerien. What’s wrong?’ Sagel asked with an extremely serious tone.

 

 

I sensed an explosion of emotion that suggested he just cursed aloud up above, and with an amount of furry I could also imagine him pounding his foot into the ground.

 

‘Wait.’ He sent back, followed by another sense of industry with a lot more urgency behind it this time. Yes, this would definitely make things more complicated. The gnomes would have trouble moving that, and the structure was already compromised. If the gnomes simply peeled away all the stone above me, the stone I had depleted would be slower to respond to them. It still had some earth element remaining, otherwise it would have turned completely to dust, but the fact it was brittle already mant there is no way they would be able to move it before it crumbled and fell on top of me.

 

‘Taminarda says he’s trying to figure out your exact depth.’ Sagel said. ‘He’s creating a hole outside of the area you are affecting. His stone senses can’t return anything inside the area, but… he’s pretty confident he will be able to pick up something just by measuring the area he can’t sense.’

 

Yeah, Logrim’s pretty darn skilled. I didn’t quite appreciate the depth of his skills at first, but he’s literally the most talented earth mage there is on the surface. He seems pretty certain there’s some deep gnomes who could best him, and there’s a fair chance most of them are part of this attack force, but their talents likely have more to do with combat. A delicate sensory job like this is exactly the sort of thing he would be unrivaled at.

 

Well, I literally had the best people on the job working to rescue me right now. If I wind up dying anyway, it’s certainly not for lack of trying or talent. I’m going to have to show a bit more appreciation for just how much power this kingdom has at it’s disposal. I can’t allow myself to simply take that aggregation of talent for granted.

 

‘Yes, I will have to hold my breath.’ I send back. ‘It will take me around ten seconds after I hold it, and I will have to exert myself.’ I began to prepare to do exactly this, taking deeper breaths in order to fill my bloodstream with what little oxygen was left.

 

There was a pause as he was probably relaying my words. After a little while, he got back to me with a simple ‘Ok, do it. Tell me when you’re in a safe spot.’

 

I took a deep breath and clutched the fabric of my robe even tighter against my nose and mouth, and then began wiggling my free arm and my legs in order to force my body back downward in the heavy dust. I felt like some kind of sand-bug as I pulled my own head under with my motions, and then shifted my head around in order to make certain I was buried even deeper. The calculation here was going to be tight. The more time I took the safer I’d be, but at the same time it would also make it that much harder to get out. I also had to account for the time I would need to leave for anything trying to fall on top of me. It was a very high-risk game. Almost like scuba diving into a cave, only even more dangerous.

 

‘Ok.’ I sent back, but I did not stop moving after saying that. This needed to get started now, otherwise I wouldn’t have the time to make my way back out after whatever was being tried.

 

I could hear the sounds of stone around me shifting and cracking, the reverberation of the sound traveled through the solid ground around me like a whale song through water. Suddenly, I felt a pull, like the dust around me was being sucked down and I was being pulled with it. Was there a root at the bottom of the chamber I’d made? Well, it was a ridiculously high-risk gamble, but it seems like it paid off. If we can find a way to clear the dust from the root tunnel, I can get out by walking.

 

I felt some heavy impact vibrations in the dust above me. Dust was displaced and a huge, dense, and far more solid chunk of stone landed right on top of my chest. A pained whimper escaped my mouth as I felt my hand jam against my own nose, and I heard a loud crunch of bone as something broke. Considering the pain was coming from my nose, I could only hope that was the thing that broke and nothing else.

 

I felt my consciousness flicker. I focused on the pain in order to keep myself awake.

 

‘Aerien! Are you Ok!?’ Sagel sent in distress. I sent back the mental equivalent of a moan. ‘Her majesty is saying you need to drop your meditation. They’re going to open things up.’

 

‘Wait.’ I respond in a moment of disorientation.

 

 

What!? My brain stuttered. This was a far crazier plan than I’d even realized. So, my presumptions were wrong then? Also, why didn’t they tell me this was the plan? Did she even tell Sagel? Probably not.

 

‘Heaven’s gate! Heaven’s gate!’ I couldn’t even run the proper chant through my mind, I was just trying to return my meditation to normal in a panic. But, instead of restarting the normal meditation, I just felt the entire thing fail. The void closed, heaven’s gate was already closed from the start, and everything shut down leaving me as just a normal elf child caught in a cave-in.

 

There was a muffled boom. Everything shook. It felt like I was in an earthquake. I felt more impacts against whatever was on top of me. I got a strange sick sense like something was floating as I became aware of the blood running from my nose against my upper lip. I saw light, and then I felt the numb tingling in my fingers as my consciousness was reaped away from me.

 

-

 

Rolwen’s POV

 

[Alright, just stay there. We’ll deal with you later.] A very angry and exhausted sounding woman’s voice said. It was a little difficult to take her seriously due to how squeaky her voice sounded, but after enough time living with Logrim hanging around Aerien and then meeting other gnomes in the refugee village he had gotten used to the sound of a gnome’s voice.

 

Rolwen groaned as he tried to roll over onto his front so he could push himself up. As he stood up, he saw the vista of the wind-swept ground of the surface of the Heaven’s Scar. There were red-robed figures all scattered around him, bleeding from fresh wounds, and he thought he saw Sagel and Gaerien still trying to protect Levin, but then they both faded away like smoke before his eyes. However, the vista of the scar and the giant tree were still there. However, there was not a single thing moving. The only things that were there were the dead bodies of those gnomes who had attacked them.

 

What the hell is going on!? This… shouldn’t be possible!

 

He tried to recount the last few moments in order to make sense of the strange images he was seeing in front of him. As he looked around, one by one the figures of their dead attackers were fading from existence one after another. This left nothing but him, the barren rock beneath him, and Isanil sitting off in the distance.

 

Ok, so, the last thing he remembered was Aerien just… somehow slipping into the solid stone when those red-robed gnomes pointed to her. After that, several of them slipped below the ground as well in the exact same manner, but a few started running over to Levin. One of them scooped him up off the ground. Gaerien got there first, snagged the bastard by the face, and then lit their head on fire. Then, with a few wild swings of her sword, the rest were driven back as he and Sagel arrived for a defensive formation.

 

Next… that was where he did something stupid. He pointed his sword at one of them and demanded to know what they were here for. All he did was turn to his buddy and yell, saying they got what they came for, and then he turned and ran. He could see his source of information escaping, and he gave chase. Sagel called out a warning that he was leaving the area of Aerien’s spell, but it was too late by the time he heard it. Some rock closed it’s way over his foot, and then he got dragged forward by the foot. His sword flew off somewhere as he was being dragged, his body flopped around against the stone and his mind went to the thought of protecting his head. And then, everything went dark as he felt like he was falling.

 

After a bit of time in free-fall while surrounded by darkness, he was caught by what could only have been one of those gnomes. At about that same time, this image of still being on the surface entered his eyes, but then he felt his arms and legs grabbed by stone again and he was being dragged through… somewhere. He could see something holding his wrists, but it seemed like it kept changing like it was a liquid object. He could see the red-robed people around him, but they just seemed to be running.

 

He felt completely disoriented by what he was seeing, and he kept noticing inconsistencies between the sounds his ears were bringing to his brain and the information he was seeing with his eyes. For one, the number of people around him kept changing. For two, the sounds of echos he kept hearing were all wrong. Third, he definitely heard water and the sounds of people running through water at several points, but there was no water in the area they were before.

 

The clincher though was that this image stayed around even when he closed his eyes. He could still see it as though his eyes were still wide open.

 

After being dragged around for a while, he felt himself being thrown, and then the people dragging him around left. He couldn’t hear anything except his own groaning voice. It echoed back at him like he was inside a small cavern. He could see the illusion of the surface flicker in front of his vision, almost in response to the echos. He saw a brief flash of a small cave room lit by torch light with all sorts of stalactites and stalagmites surrounding him like the jaws of a large creature. But, the illusion of the surface stubbornly re-asserted itself. However, it was growing fuzzy very quickly.

 

Yes, there was no more doubt about it. This was definitely some kind of illusion. And, it seemed like the way to dispel it was to realize what the real area around him was actually like. He was captured by the gnomes, so he’s definitely underground. There’s no way he’s on the surface.

 

The illusion responded best when he was hearing the echos. He groaned again, this time with the intention of hearing the sound bouncing off the wall. This time, the illusion darkened like the sun was going down. However, no stars appeared in the sky. It just replaced the sky with blackness, and the range of his view shortened considerably. He saw another brief flash of the inside of a cave, but then the sky lit back to a pale ghostly low light. The sky was blue again, but it seemed somehow much darker like someone painted the sky there and the light in the room filled with the fake sky was replaced with a dim torch.

 

Suddenly, Rolwen remembered something he’d heard once about cavers. They say the brain doesn’t like being in complete darkness, and it will form a false image of the last thing you saw before things went dark when you are plunged into a true complete darkness. Was that what is happening to him right now? Well, great. That means that if he DOES manage to dispel this illusion, it’s not going to give him any additional information. Well, at least it might get rid of the confusion of seeing things that aren’t there. So, even if things become completely black, he will at least be better equipped to piece together his real location.

 

Probably a cell of some sort. “Great.” Rolwen said aloud and heard his own voice echo off the cave walls, shaking the illusion once again as his brain tried to create a picture of the area around him.

 

Probably doesn’t even have the cool cave feel of those stalactites and stalagmites he imagined earlier. Just smooth stone walls. Well, probably all he can do is crawl on his hands and knees and sweep his hands across the ground now. Try to find his way around by touch. His eyes are completely unreliable right now, and he can’t exactly find his way around like a bat. So, that means touch is the most reliable of his five senses right now.

 

His ribs and shoulders complained furiously as he relived the painful memory of being dragged over the surface of the Heaven’s Scar. He groaned. Well, never said it was going to be easy. It’s do or die time, this pain is nothing.