The Storm Tower | Vol.4, The Eldenarian Artifacts ✓

31.

Han smiled.

There were no words yet invented for how she felt. Her veins surged with energy. Each muscle in her body was taut with anticipation as she mentally prepared herself for battle. When she decided to bond with Lumi, she half-expected to share her mind and body with the deity. But she heard no other voice inside her head. The goddess wasn't there in the way she'd been expecting. Makaela was still herself, but with a slight shift. Her thoughts filtered through her head differently. Her emotions were walled behind an invisible dam, unable to escape, resulting in the permanent stoic expression on her face. Fear didn't exist anymore, nor its inverse. Her mind was a blank slate. The only thing in her peace-filled head was Lumi's soothing light.

Makaela peered through the hole in the ground again. Then she jumped through.

#

Six Shades immediately formed a circle around her once she landed. Her body absorbed the impact of her descent. It should've shattered every bone in her body, but bonding with Lumi gifted her with numerous abilities. Durability must've been one of them. She wondered what else she could do now.

Thorian stepped through the ring of masked magicians. He removed his hood. His mercury braids spilled from the folds of his night-colored robes. Around him, his magicians held up their hands and stood by, ready to cast. The tar-black lines originating from the dark lord's infected eye had worsened. They were darker and pressed against his white skin as if they were worms burrowing through the soil. The color drained from his once bone-white complexion, which was now a dull grey.

Mauvorin was close to taking control.

Did he know?

Did he even care?

"I want to thank you for leading us straight to the tower," Thorian rasped. "You made our search much easier."

Makaela said nothing.

Thorian continued. "You think Lumi will save you? Her power is nothing compared to mine." A switch went off in her head. He did know. "Even she won't save you from what's coming."

Mauvorin's grip on his mind warped his reasoning. There was no use speaking to him. He couldn't be saved. But that didn't mean she couldn't try with his magicians. They might've been loyal to Thorian, but were they aware their master was being controlled by the god of death? Did they know they too would be destroyed if Mauvorin got what he wanted?

They couldn't have. They wouldn't be standing with him if they did.

She peered at the man wearing the silver face of a ram standing to Thorian's right. Emile. One of the only friends she made during her time with the Order of the Black Lotus. If any of the Shades had a moral compass, even a sliver of goodness in their blackened, tainted hearts, it was him.

"There is still time to do what's right." She spoke to him, but her words were meant for everyone. "You do not have to follow this tyrant on his quest for destruction."

The Shades glanced at each other. Their faces might've been masked, but she could feel the uncertainty radiating off them in waves. They said nothing, though, afraid of the scathing glare thrust upon them by their withering master.

"The man you serve is dying. He might already be dead," Makaela told them. "This whole time, you've believed you shared the goal of bringing magicians back to the forefront of the world. You want to correct the wrongs done against our people. I want those things too. But your master doesn't. He never did."

Thorian's eye twitched.

The Shades shifted in their positions uncomfortably. Emile removed his mask.