Chapter 19: Free him! Part Two

My eyes locked back on to my target. Fluffy’s snout was contorted in an infuriating smirk. I continued the chase. She was weak and slow, so I came up to her fast. I paid close attention to my spatial sense. I would be ready if she tried to trick me again.

As expected, I again heard a loud pinging noise, akin to metal striking the ground, but this time I knew it for what it was: an illusion from the trickster fox before me. I ignored the fake sound and instead lunged toward her.

As I closed in on her flank, she again tried to use her tail as bait, the fluffy appendage acting as a shield for her more vulnerable hind legs. But I was not aiming for her rear.

I snarled, some of my saliva hitting her flank, and then I ran even faster to aim not for her legs, but for her neck.

She yipped and made a hard right turn, breaking from her pre-determined trail and moving away from the wall she was originally aiming for.

The blue trail behind her did not abate, so I assumed the minor setback to the ritual would not be devastating, but I also thought knocking her off course wouldn’t be consequence-free for her. Sure enough, she could barely concentrate on avoiding me, since she spent a bit too long focusing on running around the room in her set path.

I kept close behind her but became slightly distracted as my attention moved back to my soul-bond with Addie. She was sending me a pulse of magic— attempting to send her dad out into Realmspace I was sure. I reciprocated, the magic sending back to her. It echoed back down our bond in a familiar distorted twisting shape, attempting to send Addie’s target out.

I stumbled for a moment, and to my surprise, the magic rebounded off me and hit Addie, to no effect.

I noticed that due to focusing on the magic, I had stopped in the middle of the room— my quarry momentarily forgotten. I renewed my efforts and sprinted forward to dispatch my foe. I strained my legs and claws harder for traction against the stone floor in my haste. I did my best to ignore Addie and leave the magic to her, but it was difficult to continue chasing down the Slyfox with this pulsing magic between Addie and me growing.

Addie’s accumulated power became a torrent even as I neared Fluffy once again. I pushed the flow of strength to the back of my mind, basically turning the constant cycling of magic over to my subconscious mind as I tried to focus.

No warrior could win a matched battle of two fronts alone, even me. While our magic also relied on my reciprocation, Addie would have to make do with controlling it nearly by herself, so I could focus on catching Fluffy.

The world became slightly strange, as I felt concentrated power leaking out from Addie. She barely contained it while it continued to grow. I knew this much magical energy was impossible for Addie to maintain, and as a consequence, it began warping the environment. The basement no longer seemed like a perfect cube with four walls, but instead appeared to distort and twist in minor but inconvenient ways. The wall to my left became more sharply angled than before, and the back wall felt further away from me than it should be. Even the floor seemed to dip and climb ever so slightly, easily throwing off one’s footing if not careful.

To my benefit, Fluffy couldn’t see the changes in space with her mundane senses. She yelped as she found her body suddenly rotated. I, of course, could see the twist in space that caused it, my spatial sense easily making note of the world around me. With her unable to orient, I huffed out a guttural laugh while closing the distance.

Capitalizing on her mistake, I was on her in moments. It was easy to aim for her neck now that she was facing toward me. In a last desperate attempt, she skittered on the floor, not having enough time to get proper traction, her legs splayed in all directions and barely moved at all.

I pounced, feeling the moment of victory upon me. She whimpered as she saw her inevitable defeat. Out of desperation, she attempted one final, futile effort to use her tail as a shield, but it did not matter. I dug my claws in, trailing down into her back, and batted away her tail with the side of my head. A tiny trickle of blood filled my mouth with the salty taste of copper as my jaws close around her neck— not enough to kill, but enough to make her freeze and keep her from escaping.

This time, I did not release my hold on her. My earlier mistake had not been forgotten. Addie would surely be upset with me if I let Fluffy go free again.

I sensed Addie’s intention shifting, and then she opened her eyes; she stared directly at Christena. In naught but a moment, together, Christena and Addie completely vanished. Now that Addie’s magic had been used, large pockmarks are scored out of the ground— perfect scoops cut out from the walls and floor. With her magic no longer affecting the room, the angles of the walls immediately snapped back into their proper right angles, the room no longer showing spatial distortions. The air seemed to woosh, and I felt a bit dizzy as I adjusted to the room and floor regaining their normal dimensions from the twisted mess they had been only a moment ago.

My eyes scanned over the center of the basement floor, looking for Addie’s father. Fluffy whimpered as I continued to trap her within my jaws.

Oh.

***

Addie split her brain in two. One half of her mind focused completely on her spatial sense and the world around her. The other half of her mind continued to relay the overwhelming storm of magic pulsing between her and Squishy. She thought her brain would melt under the strain.

Despite the difficulty, she managed to use her pay just enough attention to her spatial sense to find Christena. Now, with a target to rush toward, Addie’s magic burst forward, impossible to stop. It moved faster than she could even think. One moment, she was looking around the room spatially, the next her magic already finished being unleashed, crashing into Christena.

Christena herself seemed surprised too, based on the panicked expression her face twisted into. In less than a single breath, Addie’s magic locked onto Christena and immediately forced her out of the basement, pushing her into Realmspace. What Addie didn’t expect, was the way her magic overloaded, also grabbing ahold of her too! The next moment, she was in Realmspace, along with Christena.

With her feet on solid ground, and her magic nearly all used up, some part of Addie’s soul seemed to click in place, locking her to Realmspace in a way she didn’t know was possible. She felt as though she could stay in Realmspace forever and it still wouldn’t protest. There was only a slight problem. Her soul hadn’t just locked herself down in Realmspace, she could feel Christena anchored here as well.

“You made a serious mistake there, little Addie.” Christena’s voice reached Addie from all directions, emanating from no discernable source. The total darkness of Realmspace seemed to make her sound louder. “You see, now you are trapped in this place, alone, with me.” Christena’s final whisper of a word tickled against Addie’s right ear, feeling her warm breath against the side of her face.

With a jerk, Addie whipped her head to the right, in the direction of Christena’s last whispered word, but she wasn’t there. Nothing was, only darkness. Addie frantically looked all around her, trying to spot Christena anywhere, but around her she saw nothing but the empty stone expanse and utter darkness of Realmspace.

A primal fear response welled up within her, a tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her to use her spatial sense, that her normal eyesight was useless, here. And yet, she couldn’t help but frantically scan around herself with her eyes, like checking the room for monsters before bed.

Her breath came in and out with panicked gulps, as though sucking down the air faster might save her somehow. Her eyes darted around, side to side trying to spot any hint of moment, any sign that Christena was nearby. She still remembered what it felt like the last time she was cornered and alone with that woman.

Soon, Addie heard Christena’s voice again from behind, “Don’t bother turning around, now. I’m already gone.”

Before Addie fully registered her words, she had already spun completely to check behind her. Christena wasn’t there. Addie whimpered ever so slightly, just enough for her to hear herself.

Addie tried to send a message through to Squishy. No matter the distance, Addie had always been able to reach him. Even now, she felt that her soul-bond was intact, Squishy an impossible distance away, but also right next to her. She sent a simple message to him, through their bond. “Help.” In response, she felt Squishy’s soul react, but she didn’t get a message back, almost like he wanted to come but had no way to, stuck on the other side of reality against his desire to help his bonded human.

Now truly alone, Addie’s heart rate picked up, and she felt a cold sweat forming around her. Addie remembered the times she ran to her parents’ bedroom after a horrible nightmare. She remembered not being able to wake up, to escape from the terrifying monsters created by a her dreams, the safety of her blankets barely keeping the darkness at bay.

Being in Realmspace with Christena was worse than that. Addie had nowhere to wake up to. No father to tuck her into bed, and no mother to find down the hall. Her hands felt clammy with sweat, while her legs felt numb and unresponsive.

But Addie’s mind moved over to the terrifying witch she’d found just earlier; Addie remembered that she had won, despite all the terror. She remembered staying calm underneath an impossible deer, and she remembered learning to navigate the forest while developing her spatial sense. She remembered how far she had come in just the last few days.

Addie closed her eyes with a deep breath, shutting down her instinctual fear by blocking out all sights and sounds. Instead, she focused on her spatial sense, and Realmspace exploded around her in all its simple glory. A bubble of awareness opened up around her, and within that bubble defined by her spatial sense, Addie knew every single movement that happened anywhere nearby.

But most importantly, now that she focused on her spatial sense instead of her sight and hearing, Addie found Christena.

***

Squishy looked for Addie’s dad in the middle of the stone floor of the basement. Squishy quickly found him, standing tall, no part of him obviously injured.

“Are you alright? My lady worried for you,” Squishy asked earnestly.

“If you are attempting to communicate with me, sitting there with a funny look on your face won’t be enough,” Addie’s father said with mirth, “Here, I’ll have Dorple translate for us.”

The strange long-eared rabbit thing hopped off of the Area Lord’s shoulder and scampered over to Squishy, who proceeded to eye him skeptically. As if the scaled rabbit was suspicious in some way. Squishy hesitatingly allowed the odd scaly thing to approach.

Now, with his somewhat fragile permission, Dorple laid his body down near Squishy’s front left paw. Then, he rested one of his long ears down against it, gently making contact with his paw.

“There, now I should be able to hear you,” Mr. Lomain announced with an introductory smile.

“I am glad you appear unharmed, though I worry for my lady. Do you require any aid before I rush off to Addie? I do not believe you are hurt.” Squishy declared telepathically, as the worry in his tone bled through. He could feel his thoughts travel through Dorple to Mr. Lomain, the process quite similar to the way he sent his thoughts to Addie through their bond.

Mr. Lomain sat down next to Squishy’s spot on the floor. “Don’t worry about it just yet.”

Squishy’s head turned towards Mr. Lomain with a bewildered expression. Nothing about that sentence made sense.

“What? Don’t look at me with that face! There’s something you and I need to talk about first.” Mr. Lomain, Addie’s father, crossed his arms against his chest with a serious expression.

“I think I am still unsure what you mean by all this. Christena is evil, no? We should act immediately.” Squishy emphasized, confused.

Mr. Lomain didn’t comment, his smile just turning into a mysterious smirk. “But it doesn’t look like you are going to elaborate?” Squishy mostly thought aloud.

For a moment, Squishy’s soul pulsed, and he heard Addie calling out to him for help. He perked his ears up and prepared to jump into Realmspace.

A hand gently touched down against his back, causing Squishy to bare his teeth in a threat display, and he ripped his head around to look at the offender.

Mr. Lomain sat still, completely relaxed, one hand resting on Squishy’s flank. “Leave it to Addie. Trust her to win.”