The sun shone through the small gap in the canopy that Zethira carved minutes earlier, filling the center of the dense jungle with a warm glow.  A small breeze blew, circulating fresh air from the outside world and helping to quell the oppressive humidity deep within the dark of the jungle floor.

Zethira tested her mastery of fire once more.  Though the flames she could generate were reduced considerably compared with her abilities in the outside world, at least they were not completely snuffed out as soon as she created them.  Using the generated light from both the sky and her flame, she saw a lot more jungle in every direction.  Just nothing that immediately stood out as being one of the Aetherial shards they were looking for.

Elsie, meanwhile, was deep in meditation, likely communing with Elana about something or another goddess related.  She didn’t mind the short delay— although her stamina was much greater than before, it wasn’t infinite.  And it still took time to regenerate from the injuries she sustained during her fall, as well as a couple of errant touches from the wraiths that stole bits of her mana.  Damnit, I got too careless again.  At least Elsie didn’t get hurt.

“Zethi,” Elsie said after about ten minutes.  “We’re not too far.  Elana says she senses something in that direction”

Elsie pointed toward what was probably the east.  They were near the equator, meaning the sun would travel from east to west, and the skylight streaming in would slowly move in the opposite direction.  The two had entered the sky island from the southwest quadrant, and had been moving toward its center before the wraith attack.  If Zethira had to guess, the shard was probably at the dead center of the island, a suspicion her love voiced as well as they finished their preparations.

Zethira took the lead when they finally started back.  Although she had better hearing and more skill using said hearing to navigate, Elsie was in constant communication with Elana.  And the two of them together were much better at surveilling their backs than Zethira would be on her own.

The next portion of the trek was arduous, walking around the dense thickets and around the large trees, but the unnatural quiet from earlier had ceased, a welcome sign that the wraiths didn’t seem to be lurking nearby.  But Zethira refused to get complacent, taking a few minutes when the previous skylight was nearly out of sight to carve another tree down and create new patches of safety in the event of a surprise ambush by the manaweft beasts.

They didn’t encounter any wraiths, but there were a handful of large spiders that attempted to incapacitate the two as they proceeded closer to the heart of the island.  Each of them were swiftly incapacitated by a single blade of air clefting them in twain, though Zethira did suffer a few acid burns on her left arm from the first one’s acrid blood, something Elsie was able to protect against in the subsequent encounters with well-timed gravitational barriers.

The giant scorpions and slugs of the island each posed their own share of challenges, though neither was particularly perilous.  The slugs had the rather disgusting tendency to try to catch the Runic Blade within their thick, gelatinous flesh.  It proved a pain in the ass to dig it out, but attacking them from afar with blades of air proved to be both safer and more effective.  And the scorpions’ bodies, claws, and stingers were capable of autonomous movement for a short while after dismemberment or decapitation.  Zethira’s bladework proved too risky for those encounters, but they were surprisingly vulnerable to being crushed by Elsie’s gravitational magic, which cleanly avoided the problem altogether.

There was a large and deep divot near the center of the island, perhaps a hundred feet in diameter and who knew how deep, along with an all-too-convenient skylight where the trees didn’t quite cover the entire sky.  The light which streamed in cast a spotlight on the opposite side of the open-air pit, suggesting it was shortly before local noon when they arrived.  And it was quiet enough to suggest the presence of more wraiths, or something down there strong enough to deter the life of the island from approaching.

“Down there, I presume?” Zethira said.

“Naturally,” Elana responded.  “And I sense something down there guarding the shard we seek.”

“More wraiths?”

“No.  Something much bigger.  But thankfully something material that we can attack directly.”

“We should get going before noon then.  If we’re going to fight, I’d rather have the benefit of sunlight during our battle, not before.”

With a nod, Zethira led the way down a set of winding stairs along the inner rim of the massive pit.  It was a bit too convenient, all things considered, as though the topography of the island itself had contorted in such a way to invite challengers inward to their final trial.  They went slowly, Zethira taking extra time with each step as she made certain each step along the ledge was firm and would hold her weight.

“Elana, there’s something I would like to ask, if I may.  What do you know about this runology I have been using?”

Elana paused for a moment.  “The runes, or symbols, of which you speak are the fundamental building block upon which all magic is based.  Not just in this world, but in all worlds.  An analogy is the best way in which I can explain.  You can think of spells as being full sentences.  Something like ‘I want to create a massive ball of fire in my hand and then launch it at an oncoming mob.’  That particular sentence is maybe a bit on the nose, but it gets the point across.

“Most people who use Arcane magic simply cast preconstructed spells— full sentences that are already known and understood in terms of form and function.  Spellcraft, as was taught at the time I walked the world thirteen hundred years ago, operates on the level of individual words, rearranging them to create new sentences with unique and potentially very powerful effects.”

“So my runology is like… individual letters, then?  And they are different from the ones The Watcher uses just like different languages sometimes use different alphabets?”

“Something to that effect.  The analogy is a bit rough around the edges and doesn’t account for the nuances between Will and Arcane magic, but it’s good enough to get the general point across.”

Zethira was curious why Divine magic was left unmentioned, but didn’t press the issue.  “Then I guess we’ll leave it at that.  You wouldn’t happen to know of any runes that I can use?”

“Only one.  Though, I have a feeling we will stumble upon more over the coming months as we find more of the Aetherial shards.  Please, hold out your hand.”

Zethira sheathed her sword and extended her right palm.  The back of her left hand already possessed the fire rune she’d discovered by accident back in Larav some weeks back, so the right hand would have to do.  It didn’t matter that much— just a matter of where she needed to concentrate her magic when utilizing runology, but an inkling in the back of her mind suggested that having the runes not too close to each other would be a good thing.  Some sort of runic interference?

Elana traced over a few lines, not unlike small arcs of a ring of concentric circles, then traced a few more arcs around them, creating the illusion that the original four curves were moving or shifting somehow.  As she finished, Zethira concentrated her magic into the new rune and felt a strange power, but not one which she could easily identify.  The wind didn’t move, neither fire nor water nor electricity answered her call when she attempted to conjure, and the earth did not quake or shift beneath her feet.

“What rune is this?”

“It is the rune of ‘push,’” Elana said as the two finally reached the bottom of the chasm.  “Try it on that boulder over there.  It is blocking the way forward.”

Zethira nodded and walked over to the large stone, a sphere wider in every direction than she was tall.  She pushed with all her might as instructed, at first not using the rune’s magic, and found herself unable to move the massive boulder even the tiniest bit.  But when she employed the rune on her right hand and again willed the ten-ton stone to move, it did so.  Moving such a massive object still required strenuous effort, but the fact that she was able to do so at all was astounding.

“Impressive, Elana.”

“Let us make haste, Zethira.  We are close.”

In contrast to the thick, oppressively sticky air in the jungle above, the air down in the chasms within the sky island were cool, dry, and musty.  They were filled with the odious stench of earth and dirt and grime that Zethira had long hated so, but at least down in the caverns, her fire magic was uninhibited.  With a sigh of relief, she created a small flame in her left hand to light the way and hopefully deter any wraiths that might be lurking in the darkness.

The path branched in various directions, but at each of them, Elana guided them along the middle path, and Zethira followed just behind.  The faint crackle of the flames in her hand was joined by a chorus of small centipedes clattering and shaking about, along with the shrill sounds of a few bats in the distance.  At least there are some creatures here.

They proceeded further as the path wound like a helix, leading the three even further into the heart of the island.  Zethira drew her blade again as the sounds of nature ceased.  Elana looked around, and slowly moved her hand toward a glint far in the distance.  The two approached the stone

“That is our objective,” she said.  “Hopefully the first of many steps toward restoring my power, that we might have the strength to oppose our enemies, Raesha and Lyseria.”

“I don’t suppose it’s going to be quite as easy as just strutting in and grabbing the shard?”

“Of course not.  Can you not feel the guardian’s presence?”

“I can.  I don’t suppose we’re going to let it stop us from completing our objective.”

Elana smirked.  “Of course not.”