Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

Whoosh

Julia—Trixy wrapped around her chest—Elulis, Sahveth, and Jallis watched as a silver inferno tore through the building nestled in the branches of the dwelling tree. The fire was peculiar not just for its color—a bright silver with golden flares licking off the tops of the arcs of flames—but because it seemed to only target what Ithshar directed it to.

She had decided to go alone and "cleanse" the dwelling, given that the ghûls weren't mobile yet. Though the "Flame of Life," as Ithshar called it, wouldn't burn anything unless she told it to, being on her own still allowed her to burn without worry for her wayward flames.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Elulis said from Julia's side. She was gazing up at the flames with what seemed a longing in her eyes.

"Beautiful in a terrifying way, yes," Julia replied, making Elulis chuckle. "I have to say, I know how tough the nashiin are, but with fire like that, it seems like you all would make short work of them."

"Ah, would that it was available to all. That is the Sacred Fire. Only the Mother's Chosen may wield it. Currently, those are Ithshar and the Seyatha," Elulis clarified. That explained her longing for the flames, then. "It also only functions within the Mother's domain, which is this marsh. It is a defensive power meant for defending Her territory."

"I see…forgive my ignorance, but is Ithshar…uh…well-respected? How do I say this…I suspected that you all were one of the more experienced teams in the Zal'Nadir, but what you say seems to suggest that Ithshar is just below Seyatha, if that makes sense," Julia said.

Sometimes she wished she were better with words. Growing up with functionally no friends to speak with really did a number on her ability to communicate.

"I know what you mean, and yes: Ithshar is that important. You may not have made the connection yet, but our order is literally named after her. Ithsharûn-Tûrathiin, remember? Elven surnames are in tree-city format. Or, you might relate to it more as family-city. We are the Ithsharûn family—Ithshar's family.

"She was the first of our order, before it was even an order. She is something like the Seyatha's apprentice. So, second-in-line is not an inaccurate title. There is scarcely anyone older and wiser than she, barring the Seyatha herself," Elulis explained with reverence Julia hadn't heard from her. She seemed the most laid back and irreverent of the group.

"We are fortunate to serve under the grace and wisdom of Ithshar. It is among the highest of honors in the Zal'Nadir," Sahveth said with his usual seriousness, Jallis nodding behind him with closed eyes.

"I see. I am quite fortunate as well, it seems," Julia said, though she was now realizing even more how much import Seyatha placed on this particular mission. Not only was it one of her most experienced teams, her apprentice—likely the one she trusted the most—was leading it.

"So, you all must be…what…at or past Level 75? Sorry, some consider it rude to ask about Statuses, but I figure it's somewhat relevant if we're going to be working together," Julia said timidly. She'd never asked anyone about details like that before. She didn't actually know if it was common to share Statuses or not, but she assumed they were private in most cases.

Surprisingly, all three of them chuckled at her question.

"We don't have Levels, Julia," Jallis said casually. Julia almost couldn't process what he was saying. She understood the individual words, but their meaning was nearly lost on her. No Levels? What did that even mean?

At her confusion, the three chuckled again, even Sahveth.

"Our power comes from the Mother. As such, when we accept her power, we accept her limitations. The Mother comes from a time when there were no Levels or Classes—nothing of the like. Our Status shows only our Names, Ages, Classes, and Attributes.

"Our Classes are all the same: 'Mother Inheritor', while our Attributes grow as our bodies and minds do. We do not have points to allocate, but our Attributes also continue to steadily grow throughout our lives, such that a sufficiently aged elf will have comparable Attributes to a high-Level non-elf," Jallis explained.

Julia's brain felt like it was vibrating, her worldview being shaken once again. How does something like that happen?! The System just…lets it happen? Or is it overridden by the Mother? Or, is it part of what Braden once explained to her—about things from the Ether changing reality around them, and the System compensating for them?

But the Mother wasn't from the Ether, right?

The three elves were now laughing openly, seeing Julia's obvious distress.

"There are pros and cons to this way of life, and it has actually led to a fracture of our people," Jallis said, sucking all the mirth from the group. "You might look at us from the outside and think us closely knit, but we are not a monolithic society. Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions, and many don't like the trade-off of accepting the Mother's power.

"The decision to accept the Mother's melody must be made when choosing one's first Class, so people generally have to make it young. This leads many to resent the choice, as once the Class is chosen, there's no going back. They grow jaded at being forced to make such a decision in adolescence—even earlier if they are particularly precocious," Jallis said sadly.

"Indeed, many of us that are satisfied with the Mother's Class and wouldn't change it for the world also think it a bad system. Such life-altering choices shouldn't be forced on children, but it's simply the way of things.

"The Mother's Class changes the body so fundamentally that it would destroy anyone above Level 1 that attempted to take it. It must be chosen as one's first Class, or not at all," Elulis explained.

"What happens to people that don't choose the Mother's Class?" Julia asked, worried she was about to discover some grim underbelly of elven society. She was glad to be mostly wrong, in this case.

"Nothing, ostensibly—they simply continue their lives. However, life in the marsh can become difficult without the accompanying Class. It gives us an instinctual feeling for the Song—moving with it becomes much easier.

"Without the Class, we must learn as you do now. I'm sure you understand why that might not be desirable, after your efforts on the way here," Elulis said with a little bit of cheek.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Julia couldn't retort, though. It was tough.

"To answer more realistically, though, people that don't choose the Mother's Class generally go one of two routes. They either remain in whatever municipality they were born in, becoming bakers or craftsmen or learning some other trade and never leaving that area, or they become adventurers and leave the marsh.

"Few learn the Song as instinctively as those with the Class—even with much study and effort—which means they cannot navigate the marsh as well. I don't know if you've seen, but there are threats aplenty in this land. We avoid them, and they avoid us—as dictated by the Song—but without it…well, it would be difficult.

"For that reason, many choose to leave the marsh, lest they be caged to their birthplaces for their whole lives," Elulis lectured. Julia understood both why someone would want to leave the marsh and also how difficult it must be to make the choice to leave their home forever.

"The closest human city to the marsh, Vazreth, should have a great many elves in residence. They likely make up a significant portion of the adventurers in that city. Sadly, it has been long since we have had contact with them," Sahveth said.

"Usually, there are at least one or two people sending correspondence to family here in the marsh, but all communication ceased about a year ago. There was internal debate in Veshari about whether we should send forces out to investigate, but those talks were waylaid by the nashiin's arrival," Elulis explained, a slight bite in her tone whenever the nashiin came up.

At this point, Ithshar began her descent, this time just sliding down the rope rather than operating the pulley to bring the lift back down.

The lift was a curious thing that was hand operated. It was essentially just a stabilized piece of wood with a winch and crank handle that one spun in one direction to raise the platform and another to lower it.

"I will leave the lift up top. I do not believe I missed any, but on the off-chance I did, now they will have to jump to get down—hopefully incapacitating themselves in the process," Ithshar said as she let go of the rope and landed atop the A-frame building's roof.

"Let us continue, though I dread to see the state of Sûram'Vahl after all this," she said sadly, jumping down to the water and motioning for the group to move on.

They continued through the waning evening, nothing crossing Julia's senses—even the fish seemed to disappear the closer to the town they got. Trixy remained wrapped around Julia as they moved. She didn't know what the colors in the air meant, but she didn't want Trixy spending much time in contact with it when it wasn't necessary.

Julia stopped, signaling the group to halt as well.

"I don't know what it does, if anything, but those mana signatures in the air are getting denser. I think that we'll be walking through them in just a few more minutes. I'm not sure that would be a great idea," Julia said.

The others nodded and, before Julia could come up with a solution herself, Ithshar snapped her fingers. A wave of silver fire washed over the group harmlessly before stopping about a stride away from them in all directions.

"This should keep us safe. The flame will purify the air that enters. We will test it first to be sure, though. Julia, will you point out some of that foul mana? I will get close to it," Ithshar asked.

Julia nodded and pointed in the direction of some low-hanging wisps. It wasn't low enough to walk through, but it would be just inside the circumference of that flame bubble.

Ithshar walked in that direction and, as soon as the bubble contacted the mana, it was burned away.

"Looks like that did it. No traces of either mana source made it through your shield," Julia called.

They continued their advance, the foul mana thickening like a fog. Julia was watching closely for any intrusions, but the fire thoroughly scorched it from the air. It was an instant thing, almost as though the mana was removed from existence where it touched the shield.

Julia was grateful for the shield, but she had her own ideas about what she could do to eliminate the mana. Though, she wasn't even sure it would affect spirits. She and Trixy didn't really need to breathe, after all. Granted, she had to inhale to be able to exhale and speak, and her body did it out of instinct and habit anyway, but still. She wouldn't be too worried if circumstances arose that forced her or Trixy out of the shield.

As they approached the town, the shadows grew long and the sky glowed a dull orange. They had been out the majority of the day at this point, and it was looking increasingly like they'd be investigating in the dark. Not that it would affect Julia's sight, but she had this instinctive idea that combating the undead at night was a bad idea.

Regardless, they reached the town just as the sun dipped below the horizon; in the waning light, a low glow became visible. The air around them now glowed a slight green that was visible to normal eyes. Julia's eyes, though, saw a thick smog of purples and greens swirling around each other.

The juxtaposition between her normal vision and her Truesight was distressing—her mind struggled to process it all. Other than the subtle glow, her eyes didn't detect any abnormalities. In fact, the stillness was unsettling. Normally, there would be many nocturnal creatures awakening and beginning their nightly activities.

Her Truesight showed her something altogether different. The mingling greens and purples were a veritable hurricane swirling around each other, the eye of that storm fixed over the town. She could just see it in the distance—seven large marsh trees wrapped around each other. It reminded Julia of the swamp trees she and the Thornalûn had built a temporary structure under.

These were far larger than the swamp trees. Despite their trunks being separate, Julia could see that there was a wooden wall constructed around the base of all the trees, likely indicating dry land that the intertwining roots dredged up from the marsh floor.

Explaining what she was seeing quietly to her comrades, Julia kept her eyes fixed on the town. Whatever was going on in this area, that was the epicenter.

"We need to figure out a way to get close and scout it out. I'll not have us charging the wall blindly," Ithshar said firmly. The party all looked at each other, each likely trying to come up with a way to scout the town without drawing attention.

"Trixy can do it," Julia said confidently. All eyes turned to her, but when no one objected, she continued. "As spirits, we don't need to breathe. I'm confident this fog of mana won't be able to affect us, and I'm relatively certain I could cleanse it from us if it did. I have done something similar before.

"Trixy has camouflage, and even full-invisibility options she can make use of to stay beneath anyone's notice. We can also communicate remotely, so I can stand here with you and explain what she sees. We can form a coherent plan that way," Julia finished. Her reasoning was sound, and the group agreed without issue.

As Trixy slithered through the air in a serpentine fashion, shifting her fur to a camouflaging black, Julia crouched down and closed her eyes. Most of the time, sense sharing was Trixy sending a barrage of sense memories to Julia all at once. However, what she wanted now was to see through Trixy's eyes in real time.

As Julia focused on her need, she felt a twang, as though the string of an instrument was plucked, and suddenly she was snaking through the sky with Trixy. She could see over the short wall at Trixy's height, and she was not pleased with what she saw.

There, standing with swords stabbed into the ground at each point of a five-pointed star carved into the ground, were Barrowlords. Their armor was unmistakably the same as the one she had met and killed before, and they were just as hulking.

Their helmets faced the center of the star, where a translucent crystal pulsed with light. Each pulse would start completely white in the center of the crystal before rushing out into the surroundings and shifting along a gradient into the sickly green she'd been seeing throughout this section of the marsh. What was that crystal—some kind of catalyst for whatever ritual they were conducting?

Whatever it was, things were not looking good.