Chapter 782 – Taken
The Ardans are sending islands into space. They know about the Second Arc, I do not know what they are planning, but I am certain they are planning something. Whereas I cannot conceive of saving that world from collision, I am certain they can.
I formally change my stance on this issue.
Archangel Ilahim is correct.
We cannot take the risk.
- Excerpt from the beginning of a speech to the Conclaves of Paradeisius, given by Archangel Rapheum.
Elassa opened her eyes and looked around the room. She had just been in her office, sketching possible communion circles which could work. These things could not be thrown together at a whim, there were issues to consider. The largest ritual would be the most difficult to do, space still had its own properties after all. Fire could spread there, it had to be constantly given power from the caster. Earth was far more difficult to channel although that was something which could be adapted. Elassa had not realised just how many particles she was dragging out of the atmosphere when she forced a rock to appear into her hands before she tried to it in a vacuum.
The matter could still be made, somewhat, but easy was precisely the last word Elassa would use to describe that. They would not be able to deflect the Second Arc with a projectile of comparable size because generation would be too much. Wind magic had to be focused and controlled up there too, it wasn’t so much about the power as the precision. Even Elassa had taken a few attempts to realise that her standard control of the element had left gaps for the force to escape to. Hydromancy had the matter problem too.
A blast of pure mana would be best.
And for a blast of that power?
Kassandora had not been joking, they would actually need a million man miracle to happen.
But now, that wasn’t important. She had blinked and she had disappeared. She was sure she had blinked, maybe she had passed out? She was sipping on wine but it was just sipping… Her eyes adjusted to the ambient light in this room. There were no torches or lamps, there was just… light. And a fireplace with no fire. Her eyes went to the table on the other side of the room her.
Elassa stilled her arms and calmed her breathing. She knew where this was. Too many times had Anassa and Arascus described it individually to her. Then those large people there that she couldn’t place an age on where the elders that they had mentioned. A woman and the rest men. The hairs on Elassa’s stood up and she calmed her breathing. She had been in battle before, there had been ambushes, she had even duelled Elassa who could appear from anywhere at anytime for any reason. And now, this crew was just staring at her as if they wanted to be intimidating.
“Godling.” One of the men said. “You have left Arda.” Elassa smelled the air here, it smelled of… wood. Her eyes went to the man, then glanced over the others. They were ancient but not withered. The lines of age were in their faces, like human magicians that had reached close to their expiry date. Where they magicians then?
“Go to hell.” Elassa said. “Where am I and who are you?” The figures looked at each other, the woman straightened her back. One of the other men sighed.
“I am Joshua.” The man who called her Godling said. “And I repeat myself, you have left Arda.”
Elassa’s lip twisted as she stepped away from them. This wasn’t a dream them, they had stolen her from Arda. Well and truly, they had stolen her. Elassa stared at them, eyes cold, as questions flashed into her mind: Why had they not stolen her before? Would they send her back? Could they read her thoughts? The last one silenced her mind. “What do you know of Arda?”
“You are not the questioner here.” Joshua said. “I shall answer yours if you confirm mine. You have left Arda.” So they knew then, and they still needed confirmation. Elassa flexed her fingers. They had taken her as-was, still in full dress, with her blue dress and the rings on her fingers. She flexed again and began to channel. The ring on each finger started to glow.
“I would advise against that.” Another of the men said.
“Why?” Elassa said. No one gave her an answer. Elassa raised an eyebrow, her blue eyes starting to flare and glow. Did they think that silence was intimidating? That she would run? Her fingers idly went through the elements, there was mana here. A drop of water appeared at the edge of one finger. The fire burned slightly hotter. When she ignited it, it flashed into life. Two years ago, she would have not known what it was, maybe she would have considered it a mere property of the planet. After the Ash-transmutation experiments and the learning of atomic theory, she knew what this was. The air here was more oxygenated than the Ardan atmosphere, not massively, but it felt almost like trying to cast fire in a warehouse in which an hour ago, a oxygen canister had been emptied.
Well, the air was air, but it was not Ardan. The rock confirmed it, this air was cleaner. It was harder to manifest. She raised the rock, no one on the table moved. And she decided against killing them immediately. Those expressions she knew, she gave the same ones to her students whenever one of them got too stupid and thought they could compete against Elassa. Or when someone disagreed with Kassandora. They did not even register her as a threat. “Do not throw it hard.” Joshua said. “It is a warning for you.”
The woman spoke. “Accept the charity, we do not perform trickery and listen to him. I am called Mary, what are you known as?” They didn’t know her name? Why? Did Arascus give them his? Or Anassa?
Elassa lifted her hand into the air and stared at the expressions. The rock ignited and set alight. They had brought her here, she would collect as much information as possible then. What about ice then. “I would terribly advise against anything sharp.” Joshua said again.
“Let her kill herself if she so wishes.” Another of the men said. Elassa felt the coolness of the ice and then materialized it away. Well they weren’t harming her immediately. She wouldn’t through anything sharp then. The rock twisted, then hovered, curled into a ball. She just wanted to see their reaction. Maybe Fer could be sent here if they discovered how to do it to rip them about? Or Neneria if they were immune entirely to physical damage.
Elassa threw the rock, hard enough to hurt, at Joshua’s chest. And then Elassa keeled over, spitting blood from her own mouth as she felt her own ribs snap and her stomach deform from the sudden force that felt like… like a rock thrown at her. Joshua sat, unblinking. He moved his hand to his stomach and sighed. Well, at least that was a reaction. Elassa smiled to herself, closed her eyes, turned crimson from the embarrassment and made a puddle of red wine before her. “We do not trick.” Mary said. “You will never us.”
“You got hurt.” Elassa croaked as she stared at her own reflection in her stomach, then realised her dark hair was had fallen into her own vomit. She swiped it away, steadied her own knees and then picked herself back up. “You’re not immortal.”
Joshua stared at her as if she was mad. Mary raised an eyebrow. One of the other men shook his head. “You will not kill us because we know you.” He stood up and spread his arms out. “Come, your life for mine.” Elassa shook her head and pretended not to hear it as she straight her dress and looked down at her knees. Wet with a foul-smelling of stomach acid and wine. Her hands too. After a moment of silence, she realised they would wait her out.
“I will not die just to kill you.” Elassa said and Mary leaned back.
“Truth.” She said, Elassa’s eyes passed over the woman. Did she smell falsehoods? Fer did so it wasn’t too impressive.
“The question is why.” The man who had stood up said.
Elassa’s eyes sized him up. A slow draw down, then back up. It was the easiest answer in the world. She knew it, they knew it. Everyone knew it. And she decided to lie to test out that Mary woman. “Because I do not care about you.”
“False.” Mary said immediately. She had not moved her nose or anything like that. Through sight then? Maybe she had some of spirit-sense that determined it? Elassa gave them the answer.
“Because my life is worth more than yours.”
“Truth.” Mary said and the table shared dry, unimpressed looks once again.
“I told you they are not us.” Elassa pretended that it was going over her head, whatever word they said was a word that would be used against them. These people had apparently never stepped foot into an Ardan courtroom. Or maybe they thought she was a child and that it was below her?
“No.” Mary said. “I have always backed you up on this Samson. They are not us.” Elassa saw the silence grow on the table and fed them the same sort of bait that would be used to start an argument on Olympiada.
“They why call me Godling, godling?” She said loudly and the table turned around, staring at her with those dry expressions.
“You don’t even know what that term means.” Samson said from the far side of the table. Maybe she did not, but if they called her that, she would call them that in return. What did she care? Besides, one did not have to be Malam or Helenna to make a guess. It was basic linguistics.
“An incomplete God.” Elassa said and the table went silent. The Goddess of Magic stared at them, cataloguing every she could do and did. Already, progress had been made. She was close somewhat, maybe not fully but close enough that there a brief moment of pause amongst them. Allasaria had a similar reaction. Helenna or Arascus would have never given it away.
“You guessed that, didn’t you?” Joshua asked.
“No.”
“False.” Mary said.
“I did guess it.”
“Truth.” Elassa stared at the woman. Was it metaphysical then? Just a flat universal confirmation of if truth or falsehood were being spoken? These creatures managed to snap her up in the blink of an eye apparently.
“What do you want and where am I?”
“We are the questioners here.” Samson said. “I told you we shouldn’t have brought her.”
“How did you bring me in the first place?” Elassa asked. That was the important part. She tried to think of what exactly she did that made her unique. Really, there were only two things that could come down to it. Maybe three, but the third was a stretch and the first was seemingly too random: She was the Goddess of Magic. It didn’t fit though, magic was an Ardan science. Others should have been taken. Likewise, she had made Anassa, but Anassa had said that these people did not know what to do with her the first time around.
And she had gone to space. The only Divine to do it. If they intercepted through the soul realm and bound others to never leave their realm, then maybe physically leaving also alerted them. “What is your name?”
“How did you bring me here? Where am I? What do you want?” Elassa stood her ground. She looked around the room now. That looked like wood. It may not be wood, but it looked wooden enough. They should send Iniri here then.
“We will give you one question for one answer.” Joshua said and Samson sighed.
“Truth.” Mary said.
Elassa took a step back and knocked on the wood. It did feel like wood as well. That wasn’t any help whatsoever. Was she on Arda then? Maybe? Her crystals began to flare again. A flame appeared by the side, no effect. Another rock appeared in her hand as the people watched her throw it into the wood. The rock phased through and she lost all sight of it. There had not been any resistance whatsoever yet there was no sense out of here. Elassa took a step to the side and raised her palms at the wood.
A burst of raw, light blue magical energy poured from her. It touched the wood. And then it disappeared the moment it crossed that barrier. “Are you done?” Samson asked.
“I am done.” Elassa said. “One question for one answer then and I just answered.” She followed up before they got a counter-argument in. “Where am I?”
“Trickery receives tricky answers. You are in a room.” Joshua said. “What is your name.”
“Divine Elassa, Goddess of Magic, Headmistress of Arcadia, Sovereign of Humanity’s greatest art, what do you want with me?”
“For you to sign the pact.” Samson said as Elassa caught her breath. She still herself for the next question. “Why are you leaving Arda physically?”
And for that, she had to think about the answer. “To test out whether magic works in space in preparation for the defence against the Second Arc.” She said slowly and then she thought. “What happens when I break the pact?”
“Then we shall know.” Joshua said. “You will not be able to hold against the Second Arc.”
“That is not for you to decide.” Elassa said. “If I break the pact, will I die?”
“I did not ask you a question for you to bargain against an answer.” Joshua said. “And this conversation will not go on. If you wish to return to Arda, you will sign.”
Elassa caught herself, thought for a moment, and then pinched herself that she didn’t have the speed of Arascus or Helenna or Malam. She’d call their bluff, to see what they would do if nothing else. “And if I decide to wait?”
“Then we wait.” Joshua said. Elassa stood there as she felt the wound in her stomach slowly begin to heal. It was nowhere near as bad as when she had first inflicted it upon herself. Her ribs would take longer, a cleric would have to heal them. After what must have been fifteen minutes of waiting, Elassa gave up. She had a job to do. Could she stand she here and truly try to wait them out? Most likely. But when the Second Arc was coming to her world? Not whatsoever.
She made the call, opened her mouth to ask about the blade, and then held the question back. “Can I ask one thing? Out of politeness, because it perturbs me?” Elassa asked. None of them responded. “How did you find me? Can you snap anyone out of Arda?” The people around the table looked at each other, then at Elassa.
“You revealed yourself to us when you left Arda.” Joshua said. “We will send you to the pact, and then you shall return to Arda, and you shall never leave your realm again.” He raised his hand, then held it for one moment. “Elassa, Godling…” He sighed. “Enough has been said in this conversation. Do not leave your realm, no matter whether it is through a portal or whether it physic-“
“Why do you allow Allasaria to leave then?” Elassa said quickly. The man looked at her, then to the table.
“Send her away Joshua.” Samson said.
His hand dropped and the ground underneath Elassa turned to an infinite plane of darkness. The exact same as when Irinika was sent through. Elassa looked around felt a weight in her hands. She looked down, a hammer and chisel. Those people were gone, their table was too. Everything bar a column of stone some distance away. Elassa took her feet off the ground.
Elassa tried to take her feet off the ground and blinked in surprise. She suddenly realised why the hammer and chisel were so heavy. If only she had visited other realms to know, but this must have been somewhere that did not obey the rules of nature. She approached the column as saw the names. Anassa, Allasaria, Arascus… If she could fly higher, her eyes struggled to pick out the names higher up. Irinika, Iniri and Neneria were probably there, somewhere.
She took a deep breath, put the chisel on the space, before her, and started to chip away her own name. To think a Goddess would be reduced to manual labour. It took an hour. She finished, dropped the tools and took a step back. Good enough? Right?
Elassa tightened her grip onto something soft. Pillows? Silk? She recognised the material a moment later and opened her eyes. It was her own bed in Arcadia in her own room. She tested her power and was back on Arda, she could feel Arcadia’s leyline confluence and everything was normal. And then, her eyes went to the ceiling, straight above.
A sword dangled on a single horse-hair.
Neneria stared at the rock. Malam stared at the rock. Fortia and Maisara did too. Everyone had stopped, ignoring the monster that Malam had been explaining after she had killed it as they stared at that piece of… of what they had found in the previous nest. Fer broke the silence. “I’ll say it because no one else will and I don’t believe my eyes. That thing just shone, didn’t it?”
“It did.” Maisara said. “I saw it.”
“I felt…” Neneria mumbled. That was impossible though… Her... Here? “I know that soul.” She looked at Fer who twisted her nose.
“It will sound crazy, but I just smelled someone we know.”
“I just felt someone.” Neneria said. “Female?”
“Very, haughty and impolite?”
“Capable of flight?”
“Divine?”
“Of Magic?”
“Of Magic.”