Chapter 11 “Graveyards of Ash”
The others, standing silently with an intense waiting in their eyes, formed a cautious circle around the still un-moving newcomer. The world itself felt as if it was full to bursting with anticipation as the woman softly and deeply gave a sigh, blowing dusty spindles from the ash on the floor as she stood.
“I’m not sure i can trust any of you” she said, a deep and subtle accent flecked each word like fire.
pausing again, she muttered, almost to herself. “I’m not sure we have any choice”
Turning now, revealing her full height and stance, powerful and fluid, Tharne felt her essence as he did with all the others, A frozen waterfall of infinite depth, an unbreakable force which slowly and deliberately ground hard rocks to sand and thought nothing of it as it had always and would always do so.
“I suppose I should take you to meet the others” she
said. “Although, they are naturally suspicious of strangers”
Pausing again, and muttering to herself, she added “Or each other”
motioning with her long arm for them to follow, she began to walk back towards the great spiraling staircase they had entered by.
After a moment of paused confusion, everyone slowly followed, dodging and weaving to avoid the now motionless but still terrifying trees as they passed. Tharne nodded toward Blake, and Drawing his daggers of ebony, Blake took Ryan and moved toward the back of the group to protect them from anything that would follow.
Moving now up to the front to catch up with the tall woman, Tharne called out to her as he ran.
“Where are you leading us stranger? I don’t mean to pry but how can we be sure you are not another monster
like the one which stole Ivy?”
“Tharne!” yelled Ivy, grabbing his arm. “This is Erim, and she saved my life”
“I was watching as everyone fanned out to look around in the darkness at the bottom of the tower and waiting at the back, when something grabbed me and pulled me through itself!” I watched as the smoke and shadows before me turned into a new me and then i was carried away into the gloom!”
“It felt like hours, and whatever was carrying me kept muttering horrible things in my ears about what it was going to do to me, and”, and here she stumbled over her words as tears began to cloud her eyes. “and what its Child, was doing to my friends”
“If Erim hadn’t saved me and lead me back to you, I would still be down there, in the dark and you would all be, be.”
Tharne rushed forward to embrace her as the tears fell,
illuminating the words and emotions which she could not enunciate.
Turning back, he saw Erim had stopped, and her eyes held a curious softness he hadn’t noticed before. she watched the two of them with as much curiosity and inquisitive meaning as she normally had in Icy intent.
“I’m sorry” he said, standing with Ivy to face Erim again. “We truly are grateful for your help”
Lowering her head, Erim stood a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts and consider her options as heavily as if the fate of her life depended on it.
“Come” she said. “And we shall see who is grateful after I show you what you need to know”
Turning, she began again to lead them upward along the spiraling slabs of heavy stone, twisting upwards into the ever-increasing and fading gloom and doubt which seemed to infect every pore and crevice in the hallways and rooms of this place.
Large halls and open rooms broke here and there as they traveled forever upwards through the structure. Every so often, the bleak terrain was broken by parts of the huge crystal structure as they criss-crossed like great roots or searching coils. Sometimes a huge hole appeared to cut right through a wall or roof, or even the floor where a piece of debris, hurled by Tharne when they fell, had penetrated and destroyed parts of the structure.
Suddenly their footsteps became muffled, and staring down they noticed the cause. A fine grey black ash covered everything, as though a great fire had devoured an entire forest in its inferno and left nothing but powdery soot and scorched earth in its wake.
“We are coming to the Ashen Waste” Erim suddenly called from ahead, winding a few scarves around her mouth and nose and motioning for the others to do the same.
“What is this place” whispered Mia. “It feels like something long dead”
“This” said Erim, her voice commanding in its proud intensity, “Is where the battlefield begins”
Moving forward, all with their cloaks or hoods wrapped around their faces like masks, the group followed Erim further into the complex. Ash lay everywhere as though piled high by a swirling snowstorm and when they stepped, it flowed like weightless snow into the still air.
They moved still further upwards, and soon, the sounds of echoing rumblings and shattering vibrations could be heard above them. Erim changed fluidly from her usual casual gait, to something which Tharne could only describe as a predatory animal, ready at a moments notice to strike with immediate and deadly force.
following her example, the group all drew weapons, Tharne, brandishing his great Willow staff. Ivy holding her Regal Orange Sceptre with determination and cause. Nima drawing an arrow to her Bow of Yew and assuming her stance, ready to leap forth and engage. Mia stretched, and sprouting her great Maple leaf wings, leapt upwards, scattering dust about with
her gentle yet powerful wing strokes and brandishing her wand, ready to strike. Blake, Holding his Ebony Daggers began to glow a faint blue, and around him, a dim electrically blue glow began to statically blow particles of fine dust into miniature tornadoes at his feet. And finally Ryan, his Golden wood chimes thrumming softly as he swung them, leaving no opening for an enemy to penetrate.
A Momentous roar echoed from somewhere above, followed by a crash so loud it shook the very foundations of the spire. Further crashes could be heard from somewhere nearby and parts of the walls dislodged and shifted with the force.
“Look out” screamed Mia, pointing ahead into the gloom as serpentine figures leapt from the dust towards the group.
Leaping, Erim swing a spinning kick, sending one of the forms sprawling sideways into the wall. Another leapt towards Tharne and he quickly formed a disk of energy at the tip of his staff, swinging it like a polearm and
crushing it into the beasts side. The creature fell as more of its kind leapt towards them. Tharne watched as its body writhed and decayed, dissolving into a fine dust and ash which settled with the existing dust on the floor around them.
“How is this possible” he thought. “This ash, all this ash and dust is from these beasts dying!”
Swinging again, he saw the others engaged in fierce battle.
“Mia was right” he thought “This is a graveyard, A graveyard for what must have been thousands of those Shadow beasts”
“Hurry!” called Erim from ahead, beckoning for them to follow. “We must make it to the others! The battle is joined”
Shattered Cosmos 
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