Of the Light of Starless Nights

Oleara sweated as she ran through thick, dried grass hoping that she wouldn’t trip over one of the tree stumps or their rotten branches, which were scattered across the plain. She couldn’t see far under the dim light of a moon hiding behind ominously bulbous clouds. Neither her nor her companions had the cognitive capacity left to worry about rain.

Breathing heavily, one of them did trip and disappeared from sight. There was no cry. Mirell cursed “Lucky bastard!” for he must have fallen head on onto a stone. This way, he couldn’t feel what happened when the fastest of the black clothed figures got his claws on him, screeching in triumph like a bad piece of chalk getting grinded onto a blackboard.

As the sky turned deep black, the adventurers reached the end of the deadly plains. The chasers were superior in almost everything, especially in speed. Upon reaching the woods, however, their prey got a new chance. Yet, they could showcase another skill to terrorize them with. They always did.

That’s not fair. That’s not fair. Oleara was desperate for justice. But she just failed to deliver it. Her purpure cloak waved in the wind when she took a risky jump over a set of mossy roots. She landed somewhat gracefully on her leather boots as she stumbled, rolled two meters and continued to run.

The chase continued into the forsaken woods of corrupted treants, treants corrupted by having been feed the blood of their elven caretakers to their roots.

The adventurers panicked. The weight on their hearts was as physiological as it was emotional. They have already lost half their party to the traps and monsters of this place. And all they wanted to do was to rescue their elder siblings, who never returned when they brought the rebellion directly to the shadow lord’s lair, who conspired to control all the land there was in Mieren. Now they believed that they didn’t hold them as hostages, but as bait to lure in more of them.

“Our master’s reign is absolute!”, howled a vampire spawn into the darkness as it jumped from branch to branch, leaving a clear track of claw marks behind.

“And his hands are merciful…”, promised the cynic demon guardian as his tail waggled due to the thrill of the hunt. He paused, then added frenetically, “…mercifully agonizing! Oh, they are beautiful cruelty incarnate.” His swiftness seemed to double as he moved again.

Just then, when the adventurers turned their gaze to the sky, they started praying under running tears. They didn’t pray for salvation anymore. This hope was lost hours ago. They simply prayed for a swift end.

“If there is something out there, w-we promise you our souls!”

And one of them thought: Please don’t let my friends suffer in this horrible place… Anything but that.

Cracks formed in the sky, filling it with softly glowing fractures of golden light. The adventurers spilled tears again. But now one out of ten was out of hope. The monsters turned around starring up into the night. Stars became visible and then, the golden cracks pulsed just once with the intensity of a newborn sun.

Its glow was charged with enough holy power to paralyze all evil that night, giving the adventurers enough time to flee into the woods. They won another night. While they took their chance, they directed their thanks to the heavens.

The chasers bellowed after them: “No matter when, we are coming for you! We always do!”

Far above their heads, far above the canopy of malformed trees, some of the soon to be victims believed to see a noble dragon stretching its wings, descending to devour the biggest beast it could see, others a flaming bird burning away the darkness as fuel.

But Oleara? She saw an angle. Come for us!

Elana stepped into the hallway and closed the door to her room. Not only she and Sarran, but all three of them got assigned to their own room. Only Tharamir’s was still waiting to accommodate someone. His ash filled egg was still lying where they arrived to this world seven days ago. Although it was pondered whether or not to place it on a pillow or move it to another place, it was decided against. Elana had feared that it might be more fragile than it seems, so that the lord only ordered a guard to stand watch at the entrance to the hut.

It was early in the morning. As always, the sun tinted the palace in a deep orange tone. Many of its walls were made from paper. They were told that only important rooms got fully enclosed by solid material. For example, the chambers of nobility were made of stone, while the sleeping quarters of the servants were made of wood.

Elana moved swiftly, navigating through the labyrinthine corridors. As she did, multiple servants tried to conceal their curiosity – in other words, to not stare after her. She increased her speed so much, that her long black hair fluttered every time she turned around a corner.

As she was arriving at her destination, she noted that Sarran wasn’t. They both had to do errands delivering messages to people of importance down in the city, as well as other tasks. The lord let Sarran work especially hard. Naturally, he found his ability of being able to see into the future extremely valuable – but also dangerous. The oracle had to constantly write down his predictions and report them twice a day to one of his ministers. His character could speak, write and read many languages. Whatever happened to cause their arrival, the AI that was involved seemed to have changed one of them to the local’s tongue. Elana was equally lucky. One of her abilities was to understand any human language. She couldn’t talk to animals though.

The guard let her through and closed the door after her. Any guard who entered the room without good reason was threatened with “heavy sanctions”.

Which may mean anything from the loss of a hand to execution. On day three Elana accidently come across the gallows. She didn’t give a damn about that the convicts were called traitors to some homeland and allies of a shadow lord. Barbaric.

“There he is, finally!” Elana was relieved to see the heap of ash stir, as it began to rearrange itself into the shape of an egg made of the grey powder that has been Tharamir some days ago.

The ashes didn’t just lay bare on the polished ceramic tiles that made up the floor and reflected the orange shine of the setting sun. Instead, when she and Sarran have suddenly found themselves lying on the cold ground, in the apparel of their in-game characters, they have seen a crystal next to them, made of translucent scales, neatly laying close to each other like a pine cone.

Elanas gaze followed the movement of its blue hue - that was induced by the suns slowly travel over the sky that shone through the window - upwards from the ground to a ceiling made of wood beams and equally wooden yellow roof tiles. Her eyes could see the large hollow carving - an orb, so to speak of - inside the crystal husk that now contained the ashen egg. An egg inside an egg.

At first, after awakening days ago, Elana noticed that Tharamir wasn’t around. When Sarran had tried to calm her down by stating that he is in the crystal, she nearly panicked. But on having remembered that they had come here continues to them playing her game, she had calmed down.

She took a look at her distorted reflection, that showed her leave green eyes.

As the ashen egg stirred again, the cyan crystal seemed to slowly inflate, granting the orb that was expanding and changing its shape more room. The egg went from ash to living matter in an instant to burst open another moment later, revealing a tiny embryo inside it that was connected to the shell’s inner fleshy side through a scarlet cord. It was both disgusting and a wonder of impossible biology. To cut it short, there was magic at work.

Rapidly growing, the embryo soon became a grown adult. The crystal was shield and frame in one and it fulfilled its mission. Under the sound of shattering ceramics, it exploded into a thousand pieces. The emerging figure emitted a flash and twitched once.