Darkness in Eloria

The Wastes

The wastes looked like what Mallory imagined land would look like after heaving bombing and a few nukes. The stark ugliness of the dead land, the ground that was varying shades of gray and black, where plant life couldn’t thrive stuck her hard. Trees rising blackened and warped, reaching into the sky as if the earth itself was reaching out for release. Everything looked barren, tortured, and aggrieved. Mallory did notice however, the land did have a haunting beauty to it, a warped beauty made more beautiful by the contrast between what one would think is beauty.

As she surveyed around her, holding tightly to Eugene so as to forget her troubles, she saw dancing lights. They reminded her of fireflies, but of every color and varying sizes. They travelled for hours, around noon, they took a small break to eat a bit as Mallory was feeling faint. Eugene checked her arm, purged it once more as more of the black substance seemed to have oozed from it again. Eugene left Mallory while he talked to Aiden, stuffing food in his mouth so that he could reduce the amount of time they stood still in the horrid land.

One of the flickering lights caught Mallory’s eye, darting inches from her face. It stayed there as she stared, as if it was staring back into her soul. She started to see movement within the light, figures started to distinguish themselves, tinted in the blue color of the light. She saw a young man in ragged clothing walking towards an older man in clothes equally ragged. The young man was muttering, calling out to the older man to watch out for the sundering of their world. He grabbed his arm, screaming at the man that the darkness would swallow the world, that creatures (the wretched, abominable creatures) would have their due, for it is they who own everything. As the young man raved, more color started to show, the grass on the ground, though marred by soot and streaks of fire shined green, dew reflected the colors of the spells she could now see streaking the air around the two men. She could now see several more people men and women, fighting each other with fantastic creatures of their imaginations, with fire, with water, with whatever they could conjure quickly. Vines snapped from the ground to grab the raving man, his screams pierced Mallory’s ears as the older man spun around and launched a creature that looked like a turtle mixed with an alligator at a woman attacking him. She spun and launched a small tornado, picking up the creature and slamming it into its maker. Mallory felt the wind in her hair, freezing, a concentrated tundra wind slicing into her skin. She gasped, hearing her name in the distance. She ducked and cried for Eugene and Aiden, screaming again and again until she felt her throat start to shred.

The air left her lungs, she felt like she was falling and landed suddenly on a hard surface. It took her a moment to breathe, to take in the surroundings which was no longer the people desperately fighting one another, but the aftermath. She looked around, dazed and confused. She looked in Eugene’s eyes only inches from her own.

“Oh HOLY! You’re here, dear me… Oh, oh…” he pushed his lips on hers, holding her as one holds someone who they thought was gone.

“Whoa, nelly! What just happened?” Mallory croaked her throat still sore and her voice a hoarse whisper.

“You looked into a whisp, I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think about it, Aiden told me to tell you but I forgot to when I saw the black stuff was back, please forgive me! I know you’ll hate me for the rest of my life, but at least you’re safe!” he spoke quickly, too quickly, almost too fast for Mallory to catch.

“When you look into a whisp, is pulls you back into the memory it holds where you are imprisoned forever living the loop it has captured. It’s not quite in the past or in the present, it’s like being stuck in a room with no doors or windows, cut off from the rest of time and space.” Aiden explained when Mallory looked up at him confused. “You were flickering out as if you were being transported into the whisp. That is why Eugene here is so upset, he feels he has failed to protect you.”

“Oh. Eugene, please stop apologizing” she said, for he hadn’t stopped begging her forgiveness since she opened her eyes. “Eugene, please I forgive you, just no more with the kissing. No bueno.” She patted him on the head awkwardly, and stood slowly. Aiden looked at her confused.

“What language is that?” He asked, brows furrowed.

“Spanish, it means ‘no good’ or ‘not okay’ kind of like that.” She replied.

“Spanish? I don’t think that is a language here. Unless some of the barbarians and exiles speak it in the lands across the ocean.” He muttered, brows still furrowed.

“It’s quite common on earth, one of many languages spoken regularly in the United States where I lived. I guess I just thought since you guys spoke English, that the languages would be the same.”

“What is English? We aren’t speaking that, we generally use the Elorian, the common language of the kingdoms. Some of the old family still use the Queen’s tongue, but no we are speaking Elorian.”

Eugene seemed to have mostly recovered, blushing from his shame. “Is Elorian the same as English, then?”

“Koren was curious about that, Mallory speaks perfect Elorian, and she isn’t speaking English, although apparently she thinks she is. Another question to pose to the scholars when we get to the academy. I think we should take a shorter route. Eugene, you keep check on Mallory, heal her if she needs it and help with the discomfort of the long ride, we’ll ride through the night, and use the Dwarven pass instead.”

“I can do that. Is the pass safe?” Eugene queried.

“I have a connection. An old companion of mine is relatively high ranked, so he’ll be able to get us through, or at very least his name will.” Aiden hopped on the horse and motioned for them to do the same. “Now let’s make haste we should be at the pass tomorrow night.”

Upon the horses once again they travelled, the starkness of the wastes fading into a yellowed meadow, which turned into shadowy foothills that grew in height.

The light of the moon looked down on them, lighting the mountain peaks in the distance. Mallory looked upon the scenery, marveling in the picturesque scene soaking in every blade of grass, every turn of the stream, every leaf on every tree. It all seemed so lovely and intense in the pale light. As she drifted off to sleep on Eugene’s shoulder she just couldn’t seem to shake that it all seemed so familiar, as if she’d seen it a million times before.