Warrior of the Void Book 1, Chapter 28

When Muur turned back to her invisible guide, it was long gone. In as much as its trail of footprints wasn’t forming right before her eyes at least. Shrugging, she quietly hurried along it once more, it hadn’t steered her wrong yet and it looked to be vaguely heading towards the tower anyhow.

Just as she was starting to catch up with it, it seemingly either froze in place, or vanished entirely in the middle of a room, as the tracks stopped in the middle of nowhere. Muur stared at the sight for a few seconds, before seeing them bolt for a dresser of some kind.

Not hearing any monstrosity out to use her tail as a kneesock, the lizard wizard took her time to gently open the dresser, careful to avoid squeaks from the decrepit furniture. It didn’t open nicely, getting caught on this and that, requiring some light jostling here and there to get it to open properly. When it finally was open, Muur found herself quite disappointed in the mess of corroded metal that might have been an assortment of coinage long ago.

Frowning, she took a step back to look at one of the other drawers. Only to catch a glimpse of something hidden deeper, reaching out she pulled a silver mirror that somehow hadn’t lost its reflective properties.  On a whim, she tried looking at herself with it, but the only thing that stared back was herself. No weird mutations, no creepy reflections, no ghost slowly advancing behind her. Just her, Muur’Zagas Himaa, and a quickly growing puddle of pitch black ‘water’ seeping from under a door.

… 

Ah, shite.

Muur stared at the water that encroached towards her. The closer it crept to her, the more she was transfixed by the sight. It was no common flood, where the liquid flowed out from a source. But a moving puddle- a pancake of liquid that moved as a singular mass. Morbid fascination rooted her in place as the rippling, ankle high, wall of water reached her, swallowing up the majority of floor space of the room in the process.

She slowly bent down and cupped her hand t– The cloth around her tail suddenly squeezed down, pulling her mind out of the fuzz that had smothered it.

Unfortunately, it had still been long enough for all her exits to be swallowed up by the brackish liquid, so all she could do was mix Fire and Lightning aether into an angry hunk of starstuff and sling it a wall. One that she could only hope didn’t have even more of the stuff on the other side.

Muur’s swift spell slammed into the wall, haphazard plasma splashing against the crumbling stone. Only to, instead of turning it into orange goop and hopefully open a way for her, the unstable aether was drunk up like water on parched soil. The only evidence she’d done anything was a soot mark on the wallpaper, which didn’t even have the common decency to turn to ash.

She didn't have time for more than a swear before the water reached her. One moment the dark muck was placid in its advance, its surface disturbingly calm. The next it came alive. It thrashed and rose and fell and rose and fell like a sea caught in a storm– or maybe a rabid beast trying to gnaw at its prey.

Flowing between her legs until she was completely encircled by it, the brackish water clung to her like thick mud and quicksand. Struggling against it, she felt her strength sapped by the second, stinging numbness spreading where the gunk touched. She didn’t get time to so much as start forming a spell before a splash sounded out from outside the room.

Sliding from under the door the water had first oozed from came two large shark fins, lazily swimming towards her.

“You were just playing with your food, I see.” Muur sighed resignedly, even as she let Lightning aether rampage down her legs and tail and into the liquid. Even odds that it would be swallowed up like her plasma, but she had to at least try.

Using herself as a conduit sent spikes of pain down her spine and nerves. But to her surprise, it proved fairly effective. Small arcs of electricity spread throughout the water, flash-boiling it at where they passed and zapping the shark.

Which must have done something as it wobbled along the path that led directly to Muur. The closer it got, the more violent the shocks it had to endure. Until it eventually gave up and started circling Muur from a distance where only a few forks of lightning nipped at it. It stayed there, waiting patiently…

There was something satisfying about keeping the overgrown fish away like this, for all it was a hollow feeling. The moment she let up on the spell, the shark would snap her up before she could do anything else. So without any real way to escape her situation, Muur eventually ran out of aether and found herself unable to keep up the continuous flow of lightning.

Falling to a knee, she couldn’t do anything other than pant as the shark turned back towards her and slowly rose out of the waters, “You- hurt me!” It growled as it approached her with its full stature, “Wasted my aetherblood!” Each word was carefully enunciated, as if it struggled to speak them, or think them, as they each came out of a different mouth, “Now, I–!”

Sluuuuuuuurp

Her would be eater blinked owlishly when he was interrupted by the sound of someone loudly sipping from a can.

“I–!”

SLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP

The roar it let out at being interrupted a second time vaguely resembled the word “Who”. But it was rather difficult to make out under all of the bestial anger its voice carried.

SLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP

Not that it stopped the slurping.

Looking in the direction the sound had come from, Muur saw a massive bird creature made of silver plumes perched on a table. A taloned hand poking out of its mantle of glistening feathers held the glass skull that Muur had left behind a while ago.

“Well, if it isn’t my favourite nightingale.” The Au’Ra chuckled hoarsely, barely managing the energy to give the monster a little wave. “Don’t suppose you’re here to help?”

It gave no verbal answers, or did much of anything beside reach into the skull with a snake-like tongue to get at the last few drops of liquid still inside. But Muur got the feeling that if it had visible eyes, it would have arched an eyebrow at her.

“YOU!” The shark turned on its heels and screamed at the bird-like probably-Voidsent, the rage in its voice more focused, more human as it spoke, “YOU TOOK OUR FOOD! YOU TOOK OUR COURT! YOU TOOK OUR EYES!”

The newcomer threw away the empty skull with a shrug, as if to say, ‘Eh, what can you do?’ Crossing its legs, it cockily rested its silver skull on a hand, the meaning of the gesture clear: ‘And what are you gonna do about it~?’

With one last anger-filled screech, the seabeast threw itself at the flying one. Who swiftly took to the air and ran away with a cackle. The shark pursued, Muur’s existence now seemingly completely forgotten.

The draining water left with them, allowing her to start regaining her strength all the while the sound of combat filled the air. Sometimes coming closer, sometimes further away… Until it finally ended with the sound of a window shattering and a quickly fading scream.

It sure sounded like it was time for Muur to make like a tree and get the fuck out of dodge.