Chapter 4
The cold compression of the void suffocated River as she struggled to grasp a breath, instead she found herself gulping at nothing. She fought with the sonic device that she held onto desperately, its futuristic interface refusing to display anything but a string of numbers as she searched for her coordinates. She was nowhere, a lone fish in a sea of emptiness and despair.
Her lungs burned and screamed for her to satisfy their craving for air, but their dealer was all out, her own supply stolen from her. She lay on her back looking up into the blinding whiteness of the void, her chest struggling to move beneath the weight of the gasless atmosphere. Her eyes fluttered as they refused to focus on one particular spot, although there wasn’t much for them to focus on. River groaned, raising her arm took more effort than she anticipated causing her to release part of the breath she was holding. She blinked heavily, waiting for her eyes to adjust as she once again glared at the blue panel on the side of the screwdriver. A steady blip on the panel gave her hope, it was charging, it was feeding off the excess energy the void contained, the energy of many a traveller and lost world.
Sweat dotted her brow, soaking her hair. She was struggling to stay awake, and the breath she held was lacking oxygen. She slowly dropped her head back onto the isolated floor, her vision drifting in and out of focus. Her eyelids slowly fell over the watery brown eyes as the final breath escaped her lips, the steady blip on the device she held still beating away to the rhythm of the machines heart beat as it fed off the energy residue that coated the lonely realm.
****
Arya screamed internally, she wanted to run and save Saphirah, yet the urge to survive was stronger. It seemed the others in the room had forgotten her presence and it was safer for it to stay that way. Instead, she sank to the floor, cowering in the darkness like an abused puppy. She wanted to fight, how her heart yearned for it, yet her grief subdued her movement and froze her into the safety of the darkness at the very edge of the throne room. Melancholy restrained her, yet fear of the unknown made her clench her fist and want to tear apart the stranger who killed her friends. Saphirah’s last words “Hail to the tyrant king” resonated through her conscience as she sat and waited, poised like a cat silently observing her enemy as she hid in the shadows.
“So you tell me that so long as I know the true name of an object or person, I can control it?” Eris questioned, her eyes gleaming at the thought of controlling everything. Her education with the king was quick, and in many ways rushed but it delighted her to know she had acquired an assistant without much effort, and an assistant with such powerful knowledge too? Oh she was just too lucky. Galbatorix replied to her question with an affirmative nod, she could tell he disliked being inferior to another, yet he had not tried to overrule her at all, so the circumstance suited her fine.
Her thoughts returned to the portal, and she laid a finger across her lips as she envisioned the likeliness of the ancient language working for the portal. She could try, it’s not like she would lose much should she fail.
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I understand that at this point you are confused, allow me a moment to interfere with your reading to explain. So you know who I am, I’m that crazy man in the blue box, the same crazy man whose wife’s diary just so happened to cause all this trouble.
Let us start with a basic outline, the Vashta Nerada; a rather terrifying race of flesh gobbling shadows had invaded the world of imaginations created by the young girl CALs grandfather. However, the torment of having them present and devouring everybody in the core of the world caused CAL to shut down the creation. The world CAL’s grandfather created wasn’t created through the power of words, therefore it is possible for one like this to be shut down, it happens often, particularly if the child suffers a great torment there. Although the Vashta Nerada were initially part of the world due to their presence in the library, them entering the core in which the memory of River was saved was something that wasn’t supposed to happen, the core was a sanctuary where CAL could stay safe in her mind and ‘reboot’ in security.
Normally the shutting down of a minor universe would cause no impact, however once River began to write in her diary of the world the parts she put on paper became part of a real world, a whole new universe. It was the shutting down of these parts that were entwined with the magic of words that causes this paradox and the initial crack in the fabric of the major universes such as the world of The Inheritance Cycle, written by Christopher Paolini.
Eris, being a fraction of an omnipresent existence, was aware of the true nature of the rip between the worlds. I was never too sure on her aims, although I suppose even a goddess has ‘needs’, and since chaos is like chocolate to her she was willing to tear apart the natural order of things to get plump. It just so happens, other characters being involved led to the goddess feeding off the chaos that was caused by the villains of the worlds, as they established themselves as leaders of a story that wasn’t theirs. So what do we have here? A tale of corruption, chocolate chaos and typical tyranny, all the makings for one hell of a story, let’s just thank the universe that it was never written down, because if it were made permanent who knows what could happen?
*****
Eris cast her gaze over the scrolls the king had presented to her, the language was foreign to her, though she was a quick study and with the flustered aid of Galbatorix she located the words she required. Despite the kings protest regarding the amount of energy the spell required she proceeded to chant the ancient words, dismissing him with a simple laugh and announcing she was a god and that all energy belonged to her.
As the room began to glow with an eerie light, Arya shielded her eyes, the sudden brightness painful to look at. She curled tighter into the corner afraid should the light touch her she would also be devoured by its ravenous hunger for moisture and energy. The glow engulfed half of the room as it spread its blinding tendrils into every nook and cranny on the rough stone walls. The elf quivered, fear was not an emotion her race was well acquainted with, she was superior in every physical and magical aspect to a human and knew she could win almost every battle that the other Alegasian races could throw at her. It was, after all her own people who had waged war against the dragons whilst others cowered in fear at the mighty reptilian foes, yet here it was she that cringed in the darkness.
A wave of heat blasted through the room, the light being pulled from the corners of the room, attracted back into the centre colliding in a massive burst of energy. The flash lit up the room like a blinding flash of lighting over a stormy black ocean with the moon under the cover of cloud, lighting up the faces of each onlooker giving each individual a terrifyingly ghostly complexion.
Arya slowly opened her eyes, her hands ached as she attempted to unfurl her hands from where they were clenched over one another holding her knees to her chest. With her vision fuzzy and body stiff she attempted to stand. The force from the pulsing white portal before her pushed her back against the wall with all the force of an angry typhoon. The pressure pressed down on her, stealing the air from her lungs and causing her blood to rush through her ears like a raging river. He pressed her numb hands against the side of her head, wincing as it did nothing to dull the sound that rattled her head.
The reaction of the king was very much similar to Arya’s, this fact made Eris smile ever so slightly, he was after all only mortal, how could he cope with such a great power?
@Stop your drama” She smirked waving her hand slightly, a little shimmer of magic forming a bubble around herself and Galbatorix. “What on earth is this thing?” Croaked the human, rubbing his ears to ease away the dull ache. “This, my friend is ‘The Space Walker’” She announced proudly, she liked the name, it was, after all, far easier to say than the lengthy name in the ancient language. The king withdrew a moment; he had no idea what this thing was and whether he would survive entering it. Eris beamed at his bewilderment; she could see the doubt on his face but knew he could not resist the urge to accompany her as far as he could. Slowly she rose from the throne, taking a moment to smooth the purplish dress she wore, despite its obvious lack of creases, the action intended only to draw out the time the king longingly gazed at her perfect form, elevating his desire for her. Daintily she swept down the steps to loop her arm through the Kings. He flinched at her touch, but she held on, pulling him closer so she could whisper in his ear. Her full rouged lips brushed his earlobe; he tensed his body shivering involuntarily in pleasure at the touch as she whispered seductively into his ear, the attraction he felt towards the tone washing away all doubt in his mind. Galbatorix was not a lover, but she seemed to have a spell over him, his natural primeval instinct overtaking everything he would consider rational. “Shall we?” She sang in a hushed tone, her tongue working over the words like a devious snake weaving through the desert sands, her poisonous words poised like dripping fangs to sink deep into his mind as she spoon fed him her desire. Like a pig being led to slaughter the King attempted to resist, he was sure this would lead to his end, yet the rope about his neck was too tight, he was going whether he liked it or not.
The goddess and the tyrant disappeared into the ‘space walker’ as Arya watched from the shadows. She hesitated, her eyes glued to the pulsing white opening to the portal. Her ears still rung and her head still pounded, and still her heart hammered with adrenaline. A sudden flush of confidence over took her, she couldn’t let them go. With a huge laboured breath she stooped, long slender fingers wrapping around the Dauthdaert that lay half buried beneath a pile of crumbling wall. A slow rumble emanated from the portal, the vibrations shaking the entire castle. Any hesitation she had was swallowed by the urge to escape the crumbling palace. The walls rattled, the lanterns shook. Rock rained down, their heavy thuds matching the pace of Arya’s heartbeat. She could wait no longer; the light was starting to pull in on itself. Collapsing into its heart, she had to go. She bounded forward. One. Two. Three. Arya fell into a blinding void just as the portal exploded in a blinding pulse before disappearing into nothing.