Chapter 18: Free him! Part One

Addie stepped through the barrier, straight into chaos.

Her dad screamed in front of her, pushing against the stone brick floor with all his might. His screams gave away his agony and effort in equal measure. His arms flexed with desperate strength— his will for survival fighting against impending doom, but the floor continued to absorb him all the same.

Directly to Addie’s right, Christena seemed completely fixated on the task in front of her. She was whispering something under her breath, but best Addie could tell, her main effort was to continue the ritual. Her arms and body moved in a sickening conductor’s dance, directing Fluffy across the room. For a moment, Fluffy stared directly at Addie and Squishy but decided to ignore them, for now. Fluffy, too, was focused on participating in the ritual in front of her. She bounced across the room, wall to wall, just as Addie had seen with the old woman those few days ago. Same as then, she unerringly landed in the center of each wall before kicking off and running to the next, residual blue magic trailing behind her as she went. When Fluffy ran in front of Addie, she snarled but continued without stopping.

Squishy prodded Addie telepathically, then mentally shouted, “Do not hesitate! Move!”

Stupid. Addie thought to herself, even as she ran forward toward her dad. Stupid for just standing there without doing anything. Her dad was only a few steps away from her, but the closer she got, the more the floor consumed him. Dorple jumped off Mr. Lomain’s shoulder and landed on the ground. During those brief moments of sprinting forward, Addie’s panic overcame her: she might not make it.

His head was the only remaining part of him above the stone tiles when Addie finally reached him. She put her hand directly on the top of his head, just about the only place she could touch him, then yanked with all her might upon her soul bond. Squishy responded, and together, they fought.

Christena began to laugh wildly even as magic pooled within Addie, unspent. “My ritual is not so easily overcome, girl. Go ahead, try to fight it!” she confidently spat.

Ignoring her, Addie continued to pull harder than she ever had before. If only she still had the power of her bond ignition.

Something blocked her from pushing herself and her dad into Realmspace. A metaphorical unyielding stone wall obstructed her path. Or more accurately, held onto her father with unbreakable strength. Addie couldn’t move him. The more effort Squishy and Addie poured into their soul magic, the harder Christena and her ritual resisted. Addie and Christena reached a deadlock, their souls fighting against each other.

The floor covered her dad’s mouth completely now, but he was still able to breathe from his nose. He stopped sinking— Addie’s magic resisted the floor’s pull, trying to shove her dad out into Realmspace.

Fluffy flashed in front of Addie, the blue trail behind her glowing much brighter than before. For a moment, it fiercely blinded Addie. Next to her, she heard Squishy growl.

“This isn’t working,” Addie managed through gritted teeth, mentally talking with her partner.

Trepidation and a slight bit of fear seeped through the bond; Addie wasn’t sure if the fear belonged to her or Squishy.

“You are correct. Stay here and free your father. I will take the fox as my foe,” Squishy replied.

Before Addie could say or even think, Squishy leaped away, crossing directly into Fluffy’s path, stopping her cold. Addie took that in for only a moment then focused her attention back on the building power coursing through her soul. Her job was to free her dad; she had to trust Squishy to perform his own role independently.

Her focus moved back to the realm of her soul even as she continued to yank. The room around her fell away, Christena and Fluffy, Squishy, and the basement, it all fell away as she focused her intent entirely within the confines of her soul.

Her soul felt astoundingly beautiful inside her. It glowed and pulsed, a tether of magic creating a pathway toward which rested her bonded partner’s soul. Her eyes did not see it, so Addie closed her eyes as she focused. It could be her spatial sense, but Addie believed she could feel her soul even without her magical spatial sense. Ever since her mad dash through the forest, if she focused, she could sense her soul and Squishy’s too. From the first time she activated her magic, she could feel it coursing, flowing through her soul bond.

A point began within the center of her being: the beginning of intent. As her intent gained will and strength, it pulsed down, where it met Squishy’s soul, forming a new point within him, too. These two points echoed off each other, built upon one another. Waves of power generated and flowed between the two.

It was just a single flash of will, a single intent passing from one soul to the other before their magic materialized.

This time, Addie focused her intent and sharpened it. She gave it the will to grow. A mote of magic ran through her soul, beginning within her, and then pulsing out toward Squishy’s soul. When the pulse of power reached him, he eagerly accepted it, caused it to grow with his will, and then sent it back to Addie. Then the magic cycled back to Addie— Again and again, the two’s intents overlapped, and the magic grew with each passage. The constant repetition soon turned Addie’s initial pulse of will into a gigantic torrent of magic.

Still, it refused to be released. The waves of power crashed against her, every bit of her concentration used just to maintain the magic and keep it from bouncing around wildly. Addie knew Realmspace was only a moment away, a tiny fraction of her current power required to enter. Something blocked her. Christena’s will battled against Addie’s— not fighting her, but denying her. A wall stood in between Addie and Realmspace. To break through that wall and drag her father out from the stone, she had to keep pushing her magic.

***

With our roles determined, I jumped away from Addie, sticking myself directly into the slyfox’s path. I would protect my Lady. This orange fluffy-tailed creature would not surprise me again.

Vaguely, I could feel Addie’s battle of wills against Christena pushing through the bond. Addie reached out to me for power, and I reciprocated it, sending it back with an extra burst of energy. Then, I pushed that to the back of my mind. My duty was in front of me. I turned my focus away from the echoing power Addie continued to build within our souls, and I focused my attention fully back to my foe.

The orange foe ran directly at me. And I, in turn, flexed my claws against the hard unyielding bricks below me as my instincts begin to make themselves known once again. The drive to fight enveloped me. I bared my teeth; perhaps it is a smile, anticipation to battle the orange one again. Perhaps I revealed them as a threat. It mattered little.

The fox continued its run across the room as I prepared to intercept. I could see the drive in its eyes, too.

“No, not it. Her,” I thought vaguely to myself. To some extent, we were the same, both uplifted above our initial intelligence. I flexed my muscles, ready to pounce on her all the same.

She flew past me. She flew past me?

I turned my whole body around, and I could swear her vulpine form was smirking at me. That dishonorable, wild animal. To flee from battle? Unthinkable.

Still, in a bit of shock, I shook out my whole body. If it was a chase she wants, then a chase she will have.

I remembered our previous battle, how the clever creature used fake images to fool my normal sight and hearing. This time, I made sure my eyesight aligned with my spatial sense, confirming she was in fact where I expected her to be.

My feet hit the ground, my claws doing whatever they could to help with traction. She no longer deserved the title of foe; she is simply prey, now. I heard her chitter at me, making me realize she was laughing! My muscles pumped even harder to catch the slippery fox as we ran around and around the room. I closed in on her slowly at first, then with a final push, I pounced— my mouth aimed for her hind leg.

A moment of distraction, a loud bang sounded off just to my right: near my Lady. For a single moment, I turned my head to confirm Addie’s safety, but she seemed unaffected by the noise— her eyes closed in concentration. The tricky fox used this distraction against me!

She yipped as she forced her extremely fluffy tail into my face, baiting me away from her leg even as I bit down. My teeth found fur instead of flesh, and she escaped once more, continuing her glowing run around the room.

I pumped all four of my legs even harder as I felt shame running up my neck. The timing of that was too perfect, I realize. Perhaps she doesn’t just create fake images, perhaps fake sounds are within her skillset, too.

Her trick of sound will not work on me a second time.

Addie’s body knelt on the floor with both of her hands outstretched holding onto her dad’s head. Her eyes remained closed in concentration as she delved deep into her well of power. Though she made constant and slow progress against Christena’s will, Addie worried she wouldn’t win fast enough.

Compared to when she first entered the room, her father sank much slower into the earth now, remaining above the stone largely due to Addie’s current efforts to push him into Realmspace.

“How is Christena blocking me!” Addie desperately thought to herself, frustrated. In her mind’s eye, a great stone wall separated her from properly affecting her father. Addie’s power continued to build in great waves, echoing across her soul bond over to Squishy, where it was amplified and then sent back to her. Constantly growing and pounding against Christena’s immutable wall of will.

But it didn’t make any sense to Addie. In order to use her own magic, she had to know both how it worked and have experience using it. For Christena to block Addie’s magic without even knowing what Addie was trying to accomplish seemed crazy. It maddened Addie. How could she block magic she didn’t even understand?

Her mind kept flickering to this frustration, even as she tried to focus on building the power to push her dad into Realmspace. It seemed impossible for Christena to block Addie so thoroughly without even knowing what she was blocking Addie from doing.

The power continued to pulse and grow in strength as Addie directed it, but she started to worry. Her magic was starting to grow beyond the limit of what was comfortable for her to control. It started to hurt, straining and opening up the bridge between her soul and Squishy’s in its relentless torrent— pushing past intent as it flooded from side to side without care.

She almost lost her grip on its direction, and she fearfully had no idea what would happen if she lost control now. She wanted to avoid damaging her soul-bond at all costs, wincing as she remembered the crack she created when she overused her then-new powers to escape the manor.

The energy needed to go somewhere, and at this point, Addie felt certain that she couldn’t break through Christena’s wall.

The magic moved once again to Squishy with a thwoom of energy, and Addie braced for it to come back and hit her again. This time, it needed to be released. The wall stood before her, as sturdy as ever— unmoving.

“I can’t free him!” Addie thought to herself, panic and desperation building inside her. She prepared herself to receive her magic even as she dreaded what would happen if she lost control of it.

Then, in a moment of lucidity she realized, “Maybe, I don’t need to move Dad.”

In an instant, Addie split her focus, one path of her mind continuing to direct that unceasing energy flowing within her bond. The other half of her mind moved to her spatial sense, and through it, to Christena.