COMPASS OF TRUE LOVE - CHAPTER 21

Chapter 21: Deep and Greedy

-Marion-

The tunnel was a steady slope down into the mountain, not bending or turning in the slightest. I led a small globe of flame in front of me so I could see in the pitch-black darkness. My companions didn’t need the light, thanks to their darkvision. Apparently even the bunny has it and I’m the odd one out in that regard.

We descended for what must have been three days with no sound other than our breaths and the stepping on stones, until one day, faintly, the sound of rushing water echoed through the tunnel.

Before us, a large cavern opened up. The walkway took a sharp turn and ran along the left side of the cavern wall. A small underground river trickled down on the right side of the tunnel exit and filled what looked to be a massive underground lake.

The small flame in front of me could only illuminate the surrounding area so much, but I could make out the faint outlines of stone structures reaching up out of the water.

“Holy shit…” Liana exclaimed, looking over the same lake. “What is that?”

Lorelei stepped over to us with a solemn expression. “That is Raelund. The capital city of the Greybeards. Or what’s left of it.”

I could make it out a little better now. The stone structures in the water were towers. Somewhere within this lake was an entire sunken city. One of the grandest cities dwarfdom has ever built. It was as awe inspiring as it was depressing. Like most other dwarf cities, the exact location of Raelund was always a mystery to outsiders, only the trade hubs near or on the surface were known to the realms. But we did learn about Raelund at the academy. Namely, that it was a city large enough to fit both Omar and Segronne inside it comfortably and that it was older than the entire race of elves.

Many even believe that it were the ancestors of the Greybeards that eventually settled on the surface of the jarrainorian continent; slowly evolving and leading to the birth of humanity.

Liana hugged her bunny a little tighter to her chest before we all turned and made our descent down the cliffside towards what was left of the metropolis.

*****

-Lorelei-

The moment we had entered the cavern, I realised I’d made a grave mistake. The last time I travelled through these tunnels was a few centuries ago. The Greybeard clan still held dominion over these mountains and there was no safer route to take than their underways.

Now, seeing the destruction in front of me, I knew there would be trouble. You don’t slaughter and raze a city of hundreds of thousands of people without attracting forces that make even me shudder. I could feel its presence, deep beneath the waters, hiding amidst the ruins.

It had noticed us the moment we stepped out of the tunnel and there was no turning back now. Going back into the enclosed space would be a death sentence, all we could hope to do was get to the other side of the cavern and escape, hoping against all hope that it would prefer to continue its rest rather than bother with us.

We continued down the pathway that was hewn into the cliffside and soon we were on level with the lake. I warily kept glancing into the deep, although I knew if it moved, I would sense it much faster than I would see it.

Liana eyed the water as curiously as I. Maybe she sensed it, too, though it is unlikely. She was unaffected by the shadow dominion after all. It was something unique to dark elves, more specifically, the dark elves that were with my mother when our kind fled the Isles of the Immortal.

My mother had successfully led our kind to a new land. Untouched by elves, dwarves and humans. The darkness called out to us since the dawn of elvenkind. She believed that it was a paradise created by Oz, our God of Darkness. But she was deceived. The darkness was not a creation of the divine, but a curse of the demonic.

Ashling, Demon Lord of the Realm of Shadow lured my kind in and then enslaved them in the dark. He used us to assault Rizishma, back when it was the homeland of the orcs, but we were ineffective under his control. He granted us our free will back, believing that our spirit had already been broken and we would continue to serve him.

Instead, my mother rallied her strongest soldiers and marched to the City of Shadows. She killed Ashling and sealed the rift to the Realm of Shadow. But the damage had already been done. The land was cursed with eternal darkness and our souls were tainted by the demonic. We became half-demons.

It was with this nature that I could sense the horror beneath the water. How I could feel its cold, emotionless gaze follow our every step.

Liana knelt down at the shore and reached a hand out towards the water. My breath stopped. Don’t touch the water! I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t find my voice. Before I could reach out to her, Marion gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her back.

“Stay away from the water,” she commanded stiffly. “It feels… malevolent.”

Gods I could kiss that woman. I feel like I keep failing our group at every turn, but at least Marion compensates for my failings every time. Still, I really need to get my bearings. If mother saw me like this, she’d have me do patrol duty for another century.

I only just got out of the last one…

*****

-Marion-

The water seriously gave me the creeps. It was hard to say, but it felt… evil. Maybe all the death and destruction this place went through led to some sort of curse, or maybe I was just imagining stuff. Either way, I’d rather trust my gut feeling than regret it later.

We continued our march along the lake ‘shore.’ It’s not really a shore in the familiar sense, though. The lake simply leads all the way to the cavern wall along the carved path we were following. I already accepted the fact that we’d have to circle half the cavern to get out of here. We came from the north and our journey is taking us to the south after all.

We were about halfway through the cavern, when Lorelei suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

“We need to leave now!” she stressed. Her face was pale. Even paler than usually and lips were quivering as she spoke.

I glanced over to the lake and then I felt it. A gaze. A hungry, terrible, force was lurking beneath the void-like surface. And it was getting closer. Small little waves were cresting against the shore. The movement of this creature was enough to slowly shake the entire lake.

I grabbed Liana and held her in a bridal carry, Rosie in her arms. My eyes darted back to Lorelei. “Where to?”

“Out. Doesn’t matter where!” Lorelei answered sharply, swinging herself on Kamir’s back. She pointed to a dark crevice a few hundred metres ahead. “I think that’s another tunnel!”

I struck my wind glyph and dashed forward, Kamir close behind me. The waves became larger and larger and started to crash against us as we ran.

A terrifying growl emanated from the lake and a shockwave of wind and water thundered against the cavern walls. I was thrown over and Liana and Rosie were buried under me. Kamir and Lorelei somehow held on. The elf held out a hand to pull me and the others up, but she was thrown off by another wave before I could grab it.

Beyond her, I saw two massive tendrils emerge from the lake and wrap around two of the tower structures. They gripped the stone and pulled its gargantuan form out of the waves in what I hoped was its entirely. The creature in front of us was an eldritch abomination. Large tendrils and tentacles were chaotically protruding out of its elongated, bulbous body. Various green-glowing eyes were randomly scattered across its surface, both on the body and the tentacles.

Then, from the centre of the main body, a toothy maw cracked open and roared at us furiously, spitting saliva and bile all over the cavern wall. Liana was shocked stunned and even Lorelei stood frozen. Every part of my body told me to run. Flee. Abandon them all. I could make it with my wind glyph.

But even though I only just met Lorelei a week ago, she and Liana were my friends. And I wouldn’t abandon them, especially now.

I threw my hands to the ground and began bending the water in lake to my will. You might be a weird kraken monster, but I’m an elemental witch surrounded by earth and water bitch!

I formed the lakewater into vines large enough to rival the monster’s tentacles and began pulling the behemoth back under the water. It reared and flailed at the vines, but I kept pouring more and more water into them. One of the creature’s eyes focussed on me and one of the thinner tendrils lashed out at me.

I loosened one of my hands from the water and pulled a large slate of stone out of the cavern wall. The tendril slapped against the rock with a splotch sound and quickly retreated again, seeking out a new angle.

Lorelei snapped out of her frozen state and immediately pulled the darkness of the cavern towards her. The shadows around her formed into long spears of darkness and soon she was slinging the weapons at our foe.

She pierced some of the larger tentacles and the monster roared again. It pulled back a little, then began to rise up. My water vines were dashed into rain by an onslaught of tentacles and with half my concentration on the stone shield, I couldn’t replenish them fast enough anymore.

The creature rose up more and more, soon it was floating in the air, tendrils and bubbles of water following it upwards. It seemed to defy gravity itself.

The elongated body moved into an upright position. The tentacles hung downwards like a puffy dress. Then the bulbous centre of the body unravelled itself like some corrupt, eldritch flower. Nestled between blueish-red flaps of flesh emerged a large, smooth head. It had no nose or ears, but five violet glowing eyes and a wide, sharp maw that across the entire width of the face. The smaller tendrils formed into six spindly arms.

“RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! WHAT POWER DOES A PEBBLE HOLD OVER A MOUNTAIN?!” it roared. The water continued to coalesce around it in bubbles and tendrils. It tried to get a hold of some of the water in the lake, but its like it was slipping through my fingers. My magic was entirely overwhelmed by this creature.

“Yeah, I get that,” I muttered quietly, now focussing all my energy on the rock around us. Lorelei formed the shadows around her into a shield of darkness, that enshrouded us in a bubble. Liana was still not moving, still clutching Rosie while Kamir was pressed up against the wall howling in terror.

The monster unfurled all of its tentacles and shot them forward. The entire lake rose up with the attack and soon a massive tsunami wave crawled towards us. The tentacles impacted Lorelei’s shield. Just a moment longer. I saw Lorelei next to me straining against the oppressive force of our foe, barely holding on. The wave came closer and closer, its thunderous rumble ringing out every other sound in the cavern. Just. A. Moment.

My head started to hurt. Blood began dripping from my nose. But I needed to continue. I was this close.

Lorelei’s shield shattered in a splatter of dark shards. The nearest tentacles were ripped to shreds and the others took several hits. Then the cavern vanished behind the towering tsunami.

I released my magic.

The rock behind us lunged forward and swallowed our entire group like some elemental maw. The ground beneath us started to pull back, the earth around us shifting ever forward as we are drawn a few hundred metres deeper into the solid mountain rock.

The distant rush of water grew quieter and quieter until it vanished completely.

Then I passed out.