Coldstone Spirit of the Faded Pages

Chapter Thirty Two - Gasteard and Graegfolde

'Remember Searah,' the Belfarian shouted, 'Graegfolde, say it loudly in your mind and with your lips and maybe you will live to see another day. Another day, but not here.'

Searah jumped forward, launching herself at the outstretched arms of the Belfarian. She crashed with all her weight into her mothers arms and the world around them exploded. The noise burst in her ears, there was a blinding, all encompassing white light and Searah felt herself flung backwards, sideways, round and over, but she kept hold of the Belfarian's arms, her mother's arms, and together they were enveloped by the whiteness.

They opened their eyes together, and for a moment it looked like they couldn't see. Then the world resolved itself around them, the swirling choking dust still surrounding them and the shapes of men, women and broken shards of stone and wall shimmered in the distance somehow unreal, yet very much there. Searah, now standing tall, her cloak rippling in the winds that surrounded them, smiled.

'What happened?' the Belfarian asked.

'I don't know,' Searah said, half lying, 'but what ever it was you were trying to do hasn't worked.'

'But it must, it has, I can still feel,' she looked panicked now, and for the first time Searah saw what she thought must be something of her mother upon the Belfarian's face. 'It hasn't closed, I can still feel the power draining.'

'What hasn't closed?' Searah asked, taking a few steps backwards, one hand in her pocket, the other loose by her side.

'The Gateway. The words I...the Gateway opened, I gave you the key and the Gateway opened.'

'Gateway to where?' Searah asked.

'Anywhere, everywhere. Everywhere that is else. The Gateway between worlds, the doorway away from here.'

'What do you mean?' asked Searah, stalling for more time, a look of concentration on her face as she looked intensely at the Belfarian.

'Don't you know your history?' the Belfarian spat angrily. 'The Gods created this world and many others. Some are locked, I can't, I never could, but others, other can be seen, you can get there with the right words, the right power, the right keys. But its still open, I can feel the power draining, its still there so why can't I - ' but Searah cut across her.

'I can see it' she said, and her voice was barely more than a whisper carried on the swirling winds around them. 'I know. I understand.'

'What?' said the Belfarian, 'What can you see, I -' but again she cut short.

Searah reached her hands forward and seemed to pull at the air. The Belfarian shook, shimmered and, for a moment, seemed to blur in front of her.

'What are you doing?' the Belfarian shouted.

'I see what you are. All of you, so much to hold together, so much to hold in one place. It's almost too much, and all it takes is one thing to stop it all.'

'What are you talking about, what is going on?'

Searah smiled and pulled from her pocket a small, metallic ball, both smooth and etched, with a large piece missing from one side.

'The Coldstone!' the Belfarian cried. 'I've been searching, it is mine!' and with the last word she made a pulling motion in the air, but nothing happened, the Coldstone did not move.

'You have no power here. This is our world, not yours.'

'What is this?' the Belfarian repeated, fear starting to grow in her expression.

'Call it my little skill' Searah smiled, looking directly into the Belfarian's blackened eyes. 'The magic, the magic might have come from you, but this? This is my real power, and this came from my mother.' the Belfarian shimmered again, and huge globs of blackness dripped from the Belfarian's deadened hair.