Chapter 80 - THE UNDER

Risens approached the door set into the left side of the wall that would lead him to the Under and to the unknown. There was either handle nor keyhole on the face of the door handle, just the solid decorative panel. Another part of the quest, it seemed. From just outside the door to the tumbledown structure, Mother Raven watched judgementally as he pushed against the door to no avail. His attempt was met with immediate failure as the panel didn’t budge.

He stepped back from the door, his rapid gaze darting across the small chamber. In the Roost, failure to access the trial chambers had been met with pain. After a few anxious moments, the room.remained unchanged, no punishment, beyond the pointed glare of his guide sought justice for his insufficiencies.

With a frown, the idea came to him. The Quillkey, had not merely been etched into his skin for show. The Brand of Avowal granted him.access to the Roost. The feather tattooed onto his hand was required for entrance into the Barren and the Under. Holding out his palm with a newly marked finger toward the doorway, he shifted it to the side moving from right to left across his body.

As if the panel was connected to the motion, it shifted with his action. Sliding silently on a hidden track it disappeared into the wall on the left, revealing the open void into the realm beyond. Repeating the action, he closed the door with a simple motion of his hand and a though. The result was gratifying. The sense of achievement was welcomed.

Opening it again, he peered into the still blackened face of the portal. Like the others he’d been accustomed crossing, no hints of the spaces beyond were distinguishable through the impenetrable shadow. With a shrug, he strode forward into the unknown.

The crushing speed, pressure, and endless cold of the portal between Windwake and the Roost was familiar. Stepping into the darkness here, similar sensations and discomfort flooded his body. The sudden jolt of unquestionable speed, strong enough that he felt as if his very frame teetered on the verge of being torn apart preceded the crush of pressure that compressed him like a vise. In a flash he was frozen by an unbearable chill. The thawing, like shifting between Halthome and the Roost started from the Brand in his chest, though this tike, it was not centered on the initial Brand, but radiated from all the markings that were etched into his chest.

As soon as the discomfort ebbed, he stepped out of the portal to the realm beyond. Risens had no expectation of what he would find beyond the black void of the doorway, though the sight before his eyes was a surprise.

Mother Raven’s cryptic statements had stressed the hidden connection between all things. His minds had painted a picture that was similar to that of the Roost. He had  wondered if the black stones that dominated the construction of the hallowed hall would be present, though at the moment his conjecture was immediately disproven.

Again Risens stood on a scrap of land floating in a sea of blackness. The space here was smaller than the Barren stretching less than fifteen meters in diameter. Where the void that surrounded the realm he’d just departed was clear, the Under was littered with jagged chunks of land and stone. They circled overhead and below, as if some violent cataclysm in days long past had torn the world asunder before spreading it among the sky. He was thankful for his balance and lack of concern for heights as the motion and the bottomless void that plunged into nothingness a few meters from where he stood was disconcerting at best.

The center off the suspended island featured the only features of note on the tiny chunk of land. A circular structure rose around from the ground, surrounded by concentric rings of colored stones set into the ground. The building appeared to be comprised of natural rock, the sides smoothed to dull shine revealing the sparkle of minerals within. Around its base the outermost ring, a dull grey was the lightest, the others darkening as they neared the building. The strip that bordered the rounded wall was pure black.

Risens could only see one door entering the building. Beyond its threshold, no details could be made out as the light failed to penetrate the darkness within. Around the around the outside of the structure, the remaining space of the floating island was covered with a fine carpet of neatly manicured, green grass. The color was vibrant. The contrast with the muted earthy tones of the stones and black void was alarming. It seemed that the vegetation was the only thing alive in the great expanse that surrounded him. The color was so alive and healthy that it ecclipsed the withering yellows and browns that he’d grown accustomed to seeing throughout Windwake. The drought that gripped the city and Kingdom of Halthome had been as fierce as it was unending.

Looking back over his shoulder, he confirmed that the portal he had entered through still remained. There was no fixed frame holding the black portal of the doorway open at this end, merely the wavering blackness of void that hovered over the pristine grass of the floating island.

He could feel the draw the attraction, the allure pulling him toward the opening of the structure. Like the power that emanated from the doors locked among the halls of the Roost. That there was power lurking within, he was certain.

Risens approached tentatively. Though his body wanted to run into the darkness within, to grasp its secrets and its power, returning to Windwake stronger than he’d ever been, caution dictated his steps. Instead of charging into the darkness, he made a slow, deliberate circuit of the small structure first.

The building it was round and completely without openings beyond the doorway in the front. He craned his neck to peer along the sloping the top of the building. The conical roof, like the wall was smooth, constructed of what appeared to be natural stone. The rounded peak angled up to a wicked point several meters above where it began. Viewing it from afar it looked like the spike of a massive spear that stabbed up from the ground.

The solid, natural striations of the stone allowed for no gaps protecting the interior from the elements. He had nothing to back up his kmation,though he doubted the Under, wherever it resided would see no rain.

Risens stopped again as he reached the main opening to the rounded building.

The lure of the power had only intensified as he neared the entrance. The anxious, excited energy that that surged though him when he realized the infinite strength that awaited him within the Roost again tugged at his senses.  Concealed somewhere in the interior lurked true power. He had no idea what it was, though the mystery was intoxicating.

It only took a moment of observation to understand the reality of the darkness inside the doorway. Risens was certain that he stood before another portal of some type. His guess was that it was like the doorway that brought him from Windwake to the Barren though he would find out soon enough. Looking back over his shoulder cursed as he noted the opening that had led him to the Under had vanished. Panic started to set in, was he now trapped here.

Settling his racing heart, he considered the possibilities. The portal delivered him here for a purpose. The portal filled doorway of the chamber stood waiting before him. He had been sent here to complete a task, one that he had no intention of backing out of. Glancing at his hand, he inspected the elaborate marking of the feather that covered the entirety of his index finger. Tracing the shape of a door with the Quillkey, he was surprised to find that nothing happened. After several failed attempts, he gave up as the reality became apparent. He had been sent here for a purpose, one that would need to be fulfilled before he was granted a return to the Barren.

For the moment, it seemed that he was trapped here in the Under. It was a frustrating, yet not entirely surprising twist of events with no clear means of return. With no other option, he turned his attention back to the portal of the doorway. The draw of the power that lurked within was overwhelming. The warnings of Mother Raven rang in his ear.

“Power and danger.”

His hands fell to the feather wrapped hilts of the Raven Talons as he strode forward.

Expecting the irrational urge for bloodshed and violence, the shiver of fear that emanated from the blades was startling as he was swallowed by the shadows of the void.