Ch57: Homecoming, Part One

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

 ― Plato

"How deep is this thing…" Cain muttered as his scythe split a moon-sized whale into two. The group had carved a bloody path through the ocean, headed straight down into the abyss. "I thought you said you could see the bottom?"

"I said I could see something down there…" Brull snorted. The cat-kin drew his sword and divided a dozen titanic squid, then returned it to its sheath in a single motion. "Whatever it is, it started moving away over an hour ago."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Lyra swam through the side of a six-eyed shark, only to emerge from its skull in a rain of gore. She redoubled her speed, fangs bared to the world. "What if it escapes!"

Brull sighed and drew Excalibur once more. Tip aimed skyward, he levelled a slash towards the assumed bottom. Space crackled and split, a crack wide enough for the cat-kin to slip through. It carried him ahead of the others, closer to the indistinct image at the edge of his perceptions.

"That's…" Brull snapped to a halt, even as the distant objects pulled away faster than his eyes could process. He spun his sword, a circular wave that blocked the others as they closed on his position. "EVERYONE STOP!"

"What is it…" Lucifer stopped just before the sword light and gave it a tap with his midnight blade. His eyebrows raised as Brull's barrier repelled his attack. "So far, nothing in this place is a threat to us."

"I'm not sure…" The 'ground' was a crazed menagerie of images, all projected from countless tentacles. Thin, and long beyond vision, they all ended in a luminous bulb. Ghostly illusions manifested from these bizarre spotlights. Human figures, tall and vibrant forests, even mountains. "I think whatever it is, it's alive…"

– – – –

Rafe crept through silent halls, tight to Argon's shadow. His friend journeyed to the depths of the refitted guild building, not a soul in sight. Draped in thick, velvet curtains, the walls gave the impression of a fabric castle. Dim light shone beneath the folds, buried crystals that struggled to light the way.

"What kind of decoration is this…" Rafe turned up his nose at the thick silver drapes, a hitch in his heart as his mind returned to the past. This place had once been the largest Guild hall in the Labyrinth, filled with the honours of his Order. "What happened to the memorials.. the relics…"

The guildhall of his memories was replaced by something akin to a temple. Thick incense on the air, with a silence Rafe had only witnessed in places of worship. As he crept after his friend the air grew hot, stuffy, and harsh to the throat. Argon's steady pace led them to what had been the hall of heroes, a vast chamber that held statues of the fallen. Now, it was remade into a throne room, with a full length mirror where the King should be.

Argon grabbed a silver robe from a rack on the wall and tossed it over his shoulders. A flip of fabric raised the hood as he joined a circle of robed figures at the base of the absent throne. The cowled figures bowed low, heads pressed to the floor and aimed toward the unusual mirror. They spoke as one, a unity that chilled the heart.

"All hail the One, first among all and holder of the true legacy," The mirror flashed and an eye blinked open at its centre. Another followed, then another, until countless gazes reflected without a source. "We gather to offer our faith and affirm our loyalties…"

"We have a guest," A menagerie of voices echoed from the mirror, tinged with amusement. "Halt your ritualistic prattle and make our visitor comfortable, would you?"

The eyes in the mirror shifted to focus on Rafe, as if his body wasn't invisible at all. The cloaked figures turned their heads, eyes tinted silver, and faced him as well. Cold sweat covered his back in a sheet as his feet inched backwards.

"Come now, it's been so long, little Halfling," The robed figures, Argon at their head, spoke as one with the voice from the mirror. "We have so much to discuss, why run?"

"I'd love to chat…" Rafe continued his backward pace, eye locked on the silver robes that moved to follow. "But look at the time! Sorry, but I'll have to offer a raincheck…"

A twist of his body pushed Rafe into a desperate rush, back into the gaudy decoration of the former guild's halls. Pressed close to the ground, he sprinted along a return path, heart in his throat. Laugher of the insane followed at his heels, the voice from the mirror as it wriggled into his mind.

"I'm afraid not, little escape artist," the crazed voice snorted as a trickle of mercury wormed into the depths of his soul. "It's too late for that…"

BOOOOOM!!!

The ceiling ahead collapsed, an explosive ruin pushed aside by a green toned fist. Dressed in a white mask, a delicate collection of finely carved leaves, Christopher rushed past Rafe. Axe raised to strike, he released a bellow of reckless joy.

"Run, little man!" Wreathed in an aura of the deepest emerald, the fabled 'Green Man' sent the cloaked figures on Rafe's heels flying with a sweep of his weapon. "These fools are mine to fight!"

One of the pursuers shrugged off the pressure wave and extended a hand. A bell rang out, and Christopher's axe stopped in place. Held steady by a calloused hand, the Green Man struggled to wrench it free.

"Who are you?" The hood fell back and revealed Argon's face, but not his eyes. Those were replaced from a set Rafe recognized from the hideous mirror. "Your spirit is not from this world…" A wide grin split Argon's face as Chrisopher continued his struggle to free his weapon. "I understand now… the abomination and his allies have journeyed to other parallels!"

Christopher grunted and abandoned his axe. A quick backstep brought him to Rafe's side. He scooped the halfling up and launched himself upwards, through the building's many floors and into open air. The mercury in Rafe's mind settled into a stationary ball as they left the enemy's sight.

"What the hell was that all about…" Christopher glanced at Rafe, a question in his eyes, as they fled at the Green Man's top speed. The halfling shook his head, still tucked under the other man's arms like a sack.

"I don't know, but we need to report back," Rafe's face hardened as an image of Argon's changed figure rose in his mind. "Ven and the others will want to know, somethings gone wrong in our old home…"