In the darkness the crystal lifts her towards the light. Oh what a beautiful lie..........
Ayrlyn shakes the thought from her head trying to focus. Her head still filled with a thick fog. Something had gone wrong. Too much time had passed. As she trotted down the hallway the machines came alive. All around her blinking lights and panels with an unfamiliar language scrolling endlessly. She shook her head she didn't understand. Nicci would as she was a Child of the Sun. Find me ... The words echoed in her head.
Her head still pounding . She thought Where has she gone ? When they had entered the dream pods they were right next to each other. The pod wasn't there when she had awoken. Ayrlyn desperately followed what she had thought to be a track it may have traveled upon.
She entered a room full of pods lining the wall. Her eyes scanned them all quickly all empty save one at the end. Nicci..... Arylyn knew it was her. She could feel her dreaming. She surged foward. Then she saw it. A many bladed thing poised over her pod. A nightmare of machine and magic. Ayrlyn didn't stop to think . She swiftly let her axe fly with deadly accuracy. End over end it sailed through the air pinning the sentinel to the wall. Sparks and whirrs came from the machine until it stilled.
Something had changed. A chill flew through her like someone had stolen her breath away. Everything went dark moments after the lights came on with a red hue. Ayrlyn was terrified. The red light pulsing she fumbled over to Nicci her face so serene. A low shriek emitted from all angles. The tablets and pictures started displaying red lines of text. Ayrlyn pounded on the tube. Wake up She screamed. She looked for imperfections in the glass. A hairline crack right next to Nicci's arm. Ayrlyn made a fist with her adamantine gauntlet. The glass shattered from the blow. Nicci started slumped to the floor. Ayrlyn caught Nicci in her arms tears flowing from her eyes.
Wake up! You have to wake up I don't know what to do. I am lost without you....
Ayrlyn heard the clanking of the terrible things soon after. She cradled Nicci in her arms. Her eyes looked at the ruby necklace Nicci wore. She absent mindedly gazed at her own bright blue sapphire one. The necklaces are the key Nicci had always told her. Her eyes travelled to the floor . There ! A thin blue line with small arrows traveling along it drew a path out the door and beyond.
With a purpose she ran. Down the nightmare of machinery and tubes. The alarms shrieking and the light flashing. She gazed at one of the strange tablets trying to discern the meaning
Life and death...Love and hate...They are all the same.
Life and death...Love and hate...They are all the same.
Life and death...Love and hate...They are all the same.
Life and death...Love and hate...They are all the same.
Ayrlyn shook her head she couldn't read it. She rushed onwards. The ground shook violently and suddenly. She stumbled along a bridge over a seemingly endless chasm. Nicci rolled to the ground. Again the entire room shook and tilted. Ayrlyn hangs to a rail as Nicci rolled to an open doorway on the oppisite side. Nicci starts to cough. Ayrlyn can hear a soft sob. Nicci faintly hums the Sun language
He is waking
He is waking up...
Nicci ! They are coming! You have to wake up!
Nicci opens her eyes and pushes herself to her feet. Ayrlyn is facing away. Why? she thought. Then Nicci's eyes catch a glint of steel. The walls seemed alive. Wait! They were alive. The bladed things slowly detached from the wall. Like spiders and leaped to the catwalk and shamble towards them. They advance slowly but they are many. Ayrlyn turns towards her hand outstretched. The necklace dangles from her hand she tosses it to Nicci.
She catches it instinctively. She is confused.
You have to go I will hold them here! I will buy you time you need to take the keys and wake him!
Nicci shakes her head violently Not like this Not like this
A scream erupts from one of the machines. A strange darkness leaks from it. It starts to move unnaturally faster the others follow its lead.
Nicci GO! I hate goodbyes as much as you but there isn't much choice. Go wake him stop this madness. You have to go.
Nicci's eye flood with tears. But it wasn't supposed to end this way we stood against the world and won
Ayrlyn smiles warmly. She unhooks her Ridill from her belt and her small buckler. Nicci you have to go
Because they need you
Because I love you
Ayrlyn smashes the door control. It slams shut. She slowly turns to face the metal daemons. Her love is a weapon against the darkness . Her faith a shield.
Let them come
Nicci stares at the closed door. She bangs her fist on it but it was futile. She turns to the schematic and the monitor above it. Something is wrong . The floor shakes again. Something is trying to stop him from waking.
If you try and go against reality... Reality will surely crush you.
Reality will kill you.
And reality will continue to go on as if nothing ever happened..
Reality will crush you...
Reality will crush you...
Reality will crush you...
Every display just scrolls the last phrase endlessly. Nicci runs to the door. She needs to get to the control room. She dons Arylyns necklace. She breathes deeply Be my light in the darkness. She runs through the maze with her destination so near. Minutes later she passes through a doorway. A massive bridge. A huge room . She gasps. The stars shine through massive rotating windows. I found them Ayrlyn no we found them
At the end of the bridge is the doorway to the control room. She starts to pick up her job but then she senses it. In front of the door is a massive machine seemingly defunct. A tank bristling with weaponry of a lost age. Magic and machine it sits upon two legs
A guardian she thinks it shouldn't be here but it is long dead. She slowly walks towards it with catlike reflexes. She stopped cold she could sense the hatred. No she shook we defeated you !!! She screamed with pain.
The red eye on the terrible machine pulsed faintly as the displays everywhere scrolled a new message.
The only thing pure in this world is enmity
The only thing pure in this world is enmity
The only thing pure in this world is enmity.....
Darkness leaked from every joint. Its weapons slowly trained on her. Nicci reached for her bow. It was gone. She sighed. At that moment Nicci knew what she must do. The weapons screamed. One thousand terrible things headed in her direction. The door starts to close slowly. She surges forward. She did what she did best.
She ran.
She ran like the wind
The red beams where everywhere. The metal tried to bite her as it passed by. She jumps and rolls over the rockets with grace Nothing touched her. She dodges it all perfectly. With a speed born of desperation she closes the distance. The machine seems to scream reality will crush you! She reaches to her belt her last weapon her trusty kukri. She flings it blade first towards the mad machine. She screams in defence. The blade smashes into the red eye with a sickening crunch. It rears back its weapons firing everywhere.
Nicci sees her opening she drops to her knees and slides between its legs. Almost flawlessly. She feels the white hot pain cut into her side. She screams as she rolls under the door as it rumbles shut.
The pain she screams in the silence
She stumbles to her feet holding her side
So much blood
The pounding on the door is deafening. It buckles under the weight. She doesn't have much time she looks around the room grasping her side. The chairs surround the table. A massive whale floats in the center of it. She runs to the central chair almost losing consciousness as the pain stabs her every step. She falls into the chair with relief. Her gaze travels to the panel
Designation : Bismark
World-Ship Class
Destination Unknown
Please enter command____
error
error
error
Try to remember
Niccis cries. The panel is smeared with blood. She fumbles with the necklaces prying the stones from them. She wants to sleep she is so tired. Not yet! NOT YET! She sets the ruby and the sapphires into the small inlays below. They click and light up.
Archmage recognized please enter the the sequence to reactivate
Where do angels go when they lose there way? He used to say to her
Nicci fading in and out of consciousness slowly types the strange language in
Heavensward
Accepted beginning sequence
Corruption detected.......
Initializing Archangel Protocol
The globe in the center of the whale pulses. People look to the sky. A wave of light emanates from the sun slowing washing over everything. Athera feels a kind warmth as it pass through her. Ayrlyn is slumped against a wall in the belly of the whale. Her blood streaking down it. The machines all around her stop moving as the darkness is cleaned from them with a gentle light. The guardian also slumps to the ground. The unnatural glow fades as it shuts down.
Activating systems ... sub systems coming online
The world-ship lights blink on the entire length hums. Its shape indeed a giant whale floating in the darkness of the void. Its engines flare to life. It's size titanic. It slumbers no longer.
Warning low energy please enter destination
Nicci sighs one last time
We did this I wish I wish you ......
and then
and then she was free......
Auto pilot engaged scanning scanning scanning
Low energy reserves
System found.. rerouting power..plotting coordinates..engaging engines
Destination : codename~Where Angels Lose their Way. actual name~ Primal System
Heroes may be remembered but legends never die.......
~The End?
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