The Endless Solvent

The streets were eerily empty, save for half eaten corpses, smudges of blood and scatterings of destruction. Ral could hear the screeches of people and Unseeing at a distance. They walked by Ivron’s stable which were all devoid of horses and people, save for a single gnawed off arm by the doorway. Unseeing occasionally bounded past cross streets but Helaf’s men disposed of them if they got too close. Ral found that they weren’t hunting the Unseeing but rather treating them like irritating insects.

“I saw a woman turn into the Unseeing,” Ral said. He noticed that Helaf’s demeanor did not change at all while Kentor visibly paled. “Will you tell me why?”

“Those who turn are unworthy,” came the dismissive reply.

“So the Unseeing were originally people,” Ral said. “And they turn in the presence of a Gate. What’s to say none of us will turn?”

“We are protected,” Helaf repeated, shrugging.

“I’m not.”

“No, you are a heathen,” Helaf replied gravely.

Ral realized they were approaching the Alkkes mines. The closer they got to the yawning caverns, the stronger the feeling of despair permeated his mind. The feeling of dreading something yet never really remembering why. Helaf led them all the way to the main entrance of the caverns where carts of ore and rocks usually get pulled out. The moment they stepped in, the echoes of dissonant screeches echoed through the caverns. A chill went down Ral’s spine and it had nothing to do with the chill damp air of the caverns.

One of Helaf’s men lit a lamp and they ventured into the mines. Ral lost track of the twisting and turning. They passed by a tunnel lined with metal bars in front of small, rough, carved out pockets of stone and at least three of the ‘cells’ had Unseeing in them. They bashed themselves against the bars and screamed in fury when Ral passed by, the smooth slick white flesh looking even stranger in the dim flickering lamp light. Ral didn’t need to ask: these were the prisoners trapped here in the infamous Alkkes prisons, turned to Unseeing after the Gate opened.

Ral watched Kentor clutch the talisman under his tunic tighter as they walked by the caged Unseeing. At the entrance of the mines, Kentor actually stalled a bit as if wanting to stay behind or even make a run for it. But he had reluctantly followed Helaf who simply gave him a look. Ral wondered what would happen if he ripped the talisman away from the merchant.

They left the tunnel with the prison cells and Ral assumed they would be venturing deeper underground as they turned through increasingly confusing directions. Then Ral was surprised by a gush of warm air from the surface along with the iron scent of blood.

They had ventured through an exit and climbed up scaffolding off the rocky side of the mine entrance. A watch post is situated at the peak such that Alkkian guards can survey the desert at a higher altitude. It also served as a spot for foremen to oversee their men coming in and out of the mines at one glance - at least that’s what Kentor had said the platform up top was for.

Now the wooden structure off the side of the mine entrance was almost completely covered in blood runes. They grew denser and more intricate near the back of the platform where wood met stone and an eviscerated body lay in the middle of a pool of red. A huge burning black hole yawned open above the evil arrangement, the circle of black fire large enough to fit two men stacked atop of each other.

Ral didn’t know if the sinking feeling in his stomach was from the Gate or because of it. Regardless, it made him sick. One of Helaf’s men herded him until he was merely three, four paces away from the very entrance of the Gate. It was much larger than the one he closed back in the desert with Ankle’s help. He eyed the corpse on the floor - that must be the person used to open the Gate in the first place. If he could focus and grasp that solute…

Cold hard steel pressed against his neck. “Stop,” Helaf intoned. “Don’t think we can’t tell what you’re doing.”

Ral felt sweat break out on his back. He couldn’t concentrate on both avoiding Helaf’s blade and closing the Gate at the same time. If only he had time to practice… but he had half believed that his meeting with Ankle was some fever dream. Secretly he had hoped his years with the Somas had been a long, terrible dream he could forget.

She wishes to see your end, Solaris, and we are not to deny her.

They mean to kill him here, in front of that Gate. Does that mean their god is just beyond the circle of black fire? Without thinking, without warning, Ral barreled towards Helaf. Even if they had ‘protection’ against manus abilities, they weren’t protected against physical ones. But again Helaf was able to thwart his movements. Ral felt almost sluggish as he approached the man and was unable to position himself or land a strike. A boot crashed against his shoulder and he slammed chest first into the ground - one of Helaf’s men easily pinned him down. That position was normally dangerous as Ral could easily send them off balance. But it felt as if an entire mountain was pinning him down and he was unable to move.

Ral squirmed but gained no purchase, only had a man’s boot sink deeper, more painfully into him. It seemed whatever protection these people had, it had no effect on their own abilities.

“Perhaps you can tell me why your god wants me dead,” Ral managed to say. “Why is this my destiny? Why am I this… antithesis?”

“You’re someone born into nobility. It’s natural you think yourself unique. Special.” Helaf’s boots appeared in Ral’s view. “And why should that be? It’s time to prove that you are but another Gaian, albeit one tainted with Yscian blood. Die, Solaris, and show the world none of us are beyond death.”

“So this is… jealousy?” Ral said incredulously. Stars exploded in his vision again as Helaf kicked him but lightly enough not to knock him out.

“No,” Helaf said. “This is proving our god’s point.”

Ral struggled more despite barely being able to see properly. Two pairs of hands hauled him up roughly. His heart raced and his eyes desperately searched for the sword that would end him. Helaf held his weapon up as if ready to strike. Ral struggled harder, his shoulders nearly popping as he strained to break the iron grip around him.

But instead of running the weapon through him, Helaf gave a sharp gesture and the two men threw him to the dark circle of fire that was the Gate. Ral had no idea what to expect - last time he didn’t physically touch a Gate opening. Perhaps it would burn. Perhaps he would run into the stone behind it.

Instead his body stopped just a finger’s width from touching the dark, burning surface and something reached out to him from the darkness.