Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 100: Descent

Toren Daen

I froze as I saw Darrin Ordin, feeling a wave of apprehension. How much had he heard of my revelations? Not much, I was sure. I'd turned to gauge Sevren's reaction earlier in my demonstration and Darrin hadn't been there. In channeling my lifeforce and focusing so intently on the slight thumps from the stone, I'd inadvertently tuned out the other sources around me, allowing the mage to approach without my notice.

Darrin looked from the portal, to me, and then back to the portal with wide eyes. "You activated it?" he said questioningly. "How?"

I didn't respond. Truthfully, I'd acted on instinct and impulse in the heat of realization. I'd understood the djinn's intended insight in this zone; at least part of it. Without the constant intent threading every heartfire, I wouldn't have been able to see the right path to call on my own. So, realizing that I needed to use that new insight in some fashion to push us onward, I activated the portal.

Darrin walked toward the portal, ignoring Sevren's worried glances. He looked it up and down as I had before, a strange sort of weight settling on his shoulders. I took the moment to examine the leader of the Unblooded Party.

His clothes were burned and caked with blood and grime, torn in countless other places. His blonde hair, which he kept in a windswept sort of part, was drenched in the blood of his lover.

"You figured it out," he said, his voice seeming distant. "How to get us out of here..." He paused. "No, not just that. The food as well, back near the start. You knew immediately where to go to get us fed. Knew how to use those elevators. How to use all those strange appliances in our base."

I clenched my fists.

"Is this place..." Darrin seemed to choke on the words. "You're familiar with it. More than any of us were when we first entered."

The broken striker turned to me, a silent plea in his eyes. "Why?" he whispered. "Why did the Relictombs do this to us? To Dima? You know so much of this place."

I opened my mouth to respond; to formulate some kind of lie or excuse. But no words came out. I tried and tried to force myself to give the desperate man some kind of answer.

Darrin's eyes slowly widened. "No," he said quietly. "You don't know of this place. This place–somehow–knows of you," he said.

I shut my mouth slowly, turning back toward the portal. I tried to focus on the rhythm of my heart. It would calm me; bring me back to tempo. Except the thundering thump-thump-thump of Darrin's accelerating heartbeat tugged at my ears, demanding attention.

Then the man said something that made me feel as if I'd been punched. "The Relictombs adapt to those ascending," he said with a stutter, seeming to say the words as they came to him. "Stronger enemies. More complex puzzles. Maybe an extra boss. But you're not just a stronger ascender."

Piercing green eyes seemed to stare into my soul. I saw it there out of the corner of my eye. Darrin's face begged for me to deny him. "Tell me I'm wrong," he whispered. "Tell me you're not the reason this zone was hell. Please!"

I closed my eyes, welcoming the darkness that my eyelids gave me. I wanted–needed–Aurora right then. I needed the warmth she brought to my every thought. The calm, certain surety she gave with her every sentence, as if she were an unweathered stone standing strong in a hurricane.

But only silence greeted my unspoken plea.

"Merciful Vritra," he cursed. "You don't deny it," Darrin said breathily. Sevren stepped forward, tension to his shoulders as he sensed the storm brewing. "Your presence here... it caused all of this. I don't know how. But it did."