Chapter Twenty Seven
Horror Vacui

“We finally meet face to face, monster,” Aesling said with not a hint of the mirth or pleasantness usually found in her voice. “Much as I dislike fire, burning you out of this world will provide me with satisfaction I can’t put to words.”

“I don’t even know who you are,” the Cavean said. It was complete again. The destroyed mask was whole within this realm. Hollow eyes glared unblinking from under a tattered black hood. “I have burned many forests and groves, you will be simply another in my path, Nymph.” It took a step forward, raising its hand. Out of the shadows, its wretched blade began to form. 

“No,” Aesling said. “You will not. You are nothing. You pride yourself in it. A hollow, a vacuum in this world that sucks in all light and leaves nothing in its wake.” Her words seemed to make the Cavean chuckle, but she wasn’t done. “You are abhorrent, creature.” She raised a hand. The trees moved around the Cavean, the canopy opening up to let through the light of an imaginary sun. The sword vanished like a snuffed out candle-flame. “Nature,” the forest guardian said, “abhors a vacuum.”

“Your threats are empty,” the Cavean said, its voice like a rumble through metal, but Vera heard an uncertainty in its voice. “I will destroy—”

“NOTHING!” Vera bellowed as she stepped forward. “You will destroy nothing, you despicable, fleshless thing! You are a bad dream, a specter from a time we have moved on from!” With that, she closed the distance between them, and stood before it. 

Before, in the world of the real, it had towered over her, not quite twice her size. It had been a terrifying, imposing thing. She didn’t know if she was taller or it was shorter, in here. It didn’t matter. She stood face to face with the Cavean, the creature that had upended her world, killed so many, both ten years ago and now. She faced it, and smiled.

“You end here.”

“You cannot kill—” the Cavean began, and was interrupted when Vera decked it in the face with a full-bodied haymaker that would’ve made Rubicus proud. The Cavean went flying backwards and landed among the dead leaves and fresh vegetation with a wet thud.

“You said that already,” Vera said, rubbing her hand. Even though as she understood it this space was a construct of Aesling’s, that had still hurt. Worth every cracked knuckle. “This is not your world, Cavean.” She spat out its name like bile. “This is mine. Ours.”

Aesling stepped up next to her. “In here, there is nothing to keep you from our wrath.”

“You can not keep me, wenchling,” the Cavean spat as it rose to its feet again. “I will escape this feeble place, burn the mind out of you, and I will wear your face when I kill that pathetic prince.”

“No,” Aesling and Vera said at the same time, then looked at each other. Aesling bowed, and Vera continued. “No,” Vera said. “You will not. And that was the wrong thing to say.” She stepped forward again. The Cavean reached for her but she swatted its hand away. It was strong, still, but in here she was too. She was as strong and much, much faster. She grabbed it by where the collar should be. 

Holding it in one hand, it was strange to see it be as formless up close as it had been from far away. She’d always imagined it as a being cloaked in shadows, disguising its true nature, but there was… nothing. Hollow armor wrapped in black cloth. Nothing beneath. Her hand had closed around shadows where its throat should be, but there was resistance nonetheless. 

“I had originally planned to seal you away like you had been ten years ago. Sacrifice myself and Aesling in a slumber and lock you in here with us. Clarus would have either done the noble thing and sealed us away, or maybe some zealous godsman would have slain us in that sleep,” Vera hissed. “And that would have been the end of you, and of us. It would have been a good end.”

The Cavean, grabbing her arm, tried to wrestle itself free. It was failing, losing strength by the minute. “I will escape,” it said. “Your Prince will not be able to live without you and will raise you from your slumber. I will—”

“You will do nothing,” Vera interrupted. “But you’re right. The plan was flawed. It didn’t contain you last time. So that is not what will happen.” She grabbed the mask and threw it to the ground. As she suspected, there was nothing underneath. Just shadows and malignant nothing. Still, she wanted to look at it, naked and vulnerable. 

“You can not destroy me either, child. So which shall it be? Doom or oblivion?” It laughed, laughter turning to a confused snarl as vines started to wrap around it. Aesling appeared at Vera’s side. 

“Neither, hollow one,” Aesling said as she walked around it. “You will be awake. Chained. Guarded.” Vera ripped off the hood, and the shadows where its head had been quickly grew faint, now that they had nothing to hide within. Aesling stood behind it, and she and Vera shared a brief glance.

“By us,” Vera continued. “Nobody will know you are here. You will fade into history like a bad dream. Nobody will remember you as anything but a footnote of a war long won.” Aesling’s vines stripped the creature of its blackened, shadow-rotten armor. Each piece fell to the ground like tired hammers striking an anvil, sealing the Cavean’s fate. What lay underneath was not even a creature. Just the suggestion of form.

Aesling leaned forward and hissed next to its head. “You will not be honored. You will not taste success, or freedom, or victory, ever again.” The Cavean didn’t even react.

“You will not die,” Vera continued, “just as you said. But you will not live, either. Not for your old master, not for yourself, not for carnage or death or the end of our world. You will exist. Within us. Powerless to do anything but rage.”

It took barely any pressure from Vera to force the thing to its knees. Its growling voice was reduced to the hum of hollow whispers, like someone scratching at a window. Aesling’s grove grew around it. Vines, though hissing at the touch with the thing, strengthened their grip and pulled it down against the roots of a large oak. “And the trees,” Aesling said, “care not for your rage. Your words will not be heard.”

Finally, the Cavean spoke again. Moss slowly began to cover it, roots grew over it. Even the bark of the trees bent to deny it freedom. Its voice was a low whisper, a gust on the wind. Even laid low, it still had the strength for a curse. “I will seep into the soil,” it said. “I will drink from the wells beneath the trees. I will corrupt your grove and come for you when you are laid low. As I am never free of you, you will never be free of me. Your nightmares and fears will be mine, until the day you succumb.”

Vera kneeled down next to it, and looked at the thing. Usually, pity came easy to her. Not here. Not now. Some things were beyond pity. Understanding, maybe. But not pity. “You,” she said, “are nothing special now. I have lived with monsters like you my whole life. You are a voice in a muted choir.” She stood up and turned away. Aesling didn’t waste another word on the thing. Behind them, the Cavean spat more hissed threats and curses their way, but they were lost on the wind. 

Standing in the middle of their grove again, Vera and Aesling sat against a tree. The sun shone on their faces. 

“Did we do right?” Vera asked. “Maybe we should have sealed it like you did once before.” She looked at Aesling. Despite her confidence in the face of it, now that there was distance between her and the fight, it was hard not to think about things that could have been done differently. 

“I believe so,” Aesling said. “It wasn’t wrong. If we’d repeated the actions from last time, we would’ve repeated the same mistakes. And the cycle could have repeated, easily. I love Clarus more than anything, but he would have never stopped searching for a way to wake us. And who knows what he would’ve found on his search.”

“You’re right,” Vera said as she closed her eyes, letting the sun fall on her face. Through her eyelids, the red warmth filled her vision, and she smiled at it. She felt she hadn’t had a chance to really relax. “Still, it was probably not lying either when it spoke of infecting the soil. Will you be able to keep it at bay?”

“I will,” Aesling said. “It isn’t one for empty threats, but neither am I. There is no curse it can levy that I can not match. There is no shadow older than the stone or tree that cast it. And if it does try something?” She nudged Vera with her elbow. “We’ll defeat it. Together. Again.” Vera grinned.

“Yes, we will.”

“What now?” Aesling said. “Are you ready to return?” Vera opened her eyes. 

“Not yet,” she said. “I would like to stay in here a little bit longer. I have the feeling that these next few days… It’ll not be quiet.”

“There will be celebrating and grieving to be done,” Aesling agreed. “I do not envy you, Vera. I live here.” She waved at her grove. “I witness your world, but you are the one who walks it every moment of every day.” She smirked. “With the occasional exception,” she said, clearly thinking back to her moments with Clarus. 

“I can retreat here when I have to,” Vera said, “and I may just do that in the coming days. It’ll be a lot, and I will value your companionship and your advice as much as I have your saving my life these past days and weeks.” Aesling shrugged casually, but Vera wasn’t having it. “No,” she said. “I feel as if I’ve not properly thanked you for what you’ve done. You have kept myself and my allies alive. You saved Caerella from what was done to her. You made me into the woman I am now, and I would have nev—”

“You may have,” Aesling said. “Stranger things have happened. I only cleared the way for you.” She smiled. “But you are welcome for saving your life. That was my pleasure.”

“Fine,” Vera said. “But I owe you a great debt, Aesling. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay you adequately.” The Nymph scoffed. 

“Nonsense,” she said. “I get to see my Clarus, hold him, kiss him, and I do so with your blessing.” She looked over at Vera, who nodded, a quiet confirmation that this wasn’t changing any time soon. “Without you, that would not be my reality. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t owe me a damned thing.” 

Vera chuckled softly. “Very well, have it your way, Aesling.” She stood up and stretched, then held out her hand to Aesling, clasping each other’s wrist as she pulled the Nymph to her feet. “You have been a good friend to me. Allow me gratitude for that, at least.”

“As long as you allow me gratitude of my own,” Aesling winked. “Now, let us wake up, or Clarus will go gray with worry.”

“You’re right, of course,” Vera said with a laugh. “Let’s.” 

She opened her eyes. She had expected to be laying down next to the corpse of the Cavean, or whatever body it would have left. Instead, she was looking right in Clarus’ eyes, wet with tears. 

“Vera! Aesling!” he said, his voice breaking. “Are you all right?” Vera raised an arm and realized how weak the fight had left her body. Even Aesling’d had trouble keeping up with the damage done to it. 

She smiled weakly. “I am sorry for worrying you, my Prince,” she said. “I’m here.”

“I thought I’d lost you.”

“Never,” Vera said. “Although I may want to rest a while.”

“Then rest you will,” Clarus said with determination, like he was planning to fight an army to get her to a bed. He lifted her with ease, one arm under her back, the other under her knees. Vera giggled in surprise and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I will carry you as long as you need me to.”

“I love you,” Vera and Aesling said, their voices out of her mouth together. Clarus looked at them in surprise, and then smiled.

“I love you too,” he said. “Now, let us get your friends, and tell them the news. The Cavean is dead.”

“Something tells me they know already,” Vera said, looking over at Rubicus and Caerella, who stood as sole pillars in the middle of a street. The Demons surrounding them had sizzled into blackened scorch marks. Rubicus’ bellowing laughter could be heard all the way over, much to Caerella’s feigned annoyance.

Elamimax

As an author, there's these chapters you look forward to, and then there's the chapters you built the entire novel working towards. Here we are! Gosh. 

Remember, the book is already finished (there's more, don't worry!) and you can read it on my Patreon here. Also, if you want to get an early look at book TWO, I'll be publishing the first few chapters there and on my discord soon :)