She grasped it with hers.
**
Their return to Calessa was nothing short of triumphant. Where hours before there had been curses muttered in low tones and looks of anger and rage and betrayal, now there was reverence, something that could be almost described as worship. One of their own had died in the line of service and had returned to them, a feat which was beyond the impossible. The light from her manna shard radiated outward onto the faces of those who clamored to see the dead returned to life in radiance, instead of onto expressions of mixed awe and fear.
He had guided her through her first trance, and she'd shown remarkable ability. Once they returned to Calessa, he retrieved an extra blade wrapping from his saddlebags, and they'd clothed her at a tailor's shop in a manner which was appropriate for a fledgling Arbiter – flowing, unrestricting clothes of white and grey. The white symbolized the purity of the newly pledged, and the grey showed the long road ahead. He also gave her his spare sheath, and within an hour upon their return to the city, she looked all the part of an Initiate.
Once they were done, D'Arden looked over his new protege with an eye for detail. 'It's not the right cloth, but it will do. At least the look is appropriate. We will have to fetch you proper clothing once we return to the Arbiter's Tower. I'm afraid you won't be going to Hartsknell after all.'
'I'd rather stay with you,' she said softly.
'And so you will,' he replied. 'There will be time for formal training in the future. Right now, there is an evil that threatens Calessa and all of its citizens, and though you are no longer one of them, you bear the same responsibility to them as you always did. We must find the evil that is corrupting this city and raising the toll of dead with every passing day.'
'Where do we look?' she asked him.
'Right now, we look beneath the old Calessan fort, in the north part of the city. There was an Arbiter who visited this city five years ago, according to your guard captain, and he told me that the Arbiter disappeared beneath that fort into the catacombs beneath. Though we strive for purity in all things, some of our number do fall victim to the corruption. Those who do need to be destroyed at all costs, for one who falls to the corruption wielding such power as we do are a dangerous foe indeed,' D'Arden told her.
'Do we stand a chance against an enemy like that?' she asked.
He nodded. 'We are two, and he is one. Though you are new to your power, still our combined energy will be stronger than his corruption. We will find him, and we will purify this place so that life may return to normal before we leave here.'
She fingered the wrapped handle of her new manna blade gingerly. 'The blade is so light – will I know how to use it?'
'You will find it more comfortable than the heavy steel you swung about previously. It is lighter, it is faster, and it is several times more deadly, especially to those who fight from the side of corruption. We must be careful, though, exposing you to such danger so young. If I had a choice, I would leave you to await my return, but I cannot. I will need your strength as surely as I will need my own.'
Elisa nodded, though it was somewhat tentative.
“Come, child,” D’Arden said with a slight smile, a warm expression that he had not used in several years – the approving glance of a teacher to a student. She responded to it immediately, by looking shyly away with a broad smile. “We go to the old Calessan fort to discover the source of this evil.”
**
They approached the broken ruin that had once been a proudly standing fort many years previous. D’Arden remembered from that time that there was talk about sending an Arbiter to Calessa to destroy an evil that had inhabited this old place, but he had been on mission at the time, and was not informed about who had finally been sent.
It would have had to be someone powerful, he thought as he gazed upward at the ruined spires. The place was impressive and awe-inspiring even in its broken and run-down condition. The manna currents curled around and flowed through it, turning red and raw as they touched the building and passed along its side. He heard Elisa draw in a breath beside him.
“I’ve lived in the shadow of this place my whole life, but I’ve never seen it this way before,” she said softly.
“The currents tell us many things that the normal eye cannot see,” D’Arden said, following her gaze as it traveled up the dark towers that reached toward the cold blue sky. It was incongruous, the vision before them, of a silhouette which was not a silhouette, black stone against the clear and cloudless blue that caused a sharp contrast, with the blue and reddened manna flowing within and without, ebbing and flowing all around them in its desire to permeate and find the shortest path for complete immersion. “This place has much corruption within its walls. It will be dangerous within; there may be many demons, many dangers lurking inside. I realize that your skills are lacking, Elisa, and this will be both frightening and harrowing for you. The corruption may tease and tempt your conscience and your soul, daring you to step out of my protective circle so that you might embrace a long-lost loved one, but you simply must ignore these visions. They are as unreal as a dream, and a thousand times more dangerous.”
“Will it try to tempt you as well?” she asked him innocently.
D’Arden clenched his jaw firmly for a long moment, his eyes looking through the fortress as though at something far in the distance, and then answered, “Yes.”
Without another word, they proceeded forward up the black stone stairway that led to the desiccated door which would take them inside. His instincts screamed at him to leave this place, to run and hide. Crossing this threshold would be like crossing into the land of the dead itself, and he did not relish that thought.
For a few moments, they simply stared at the open doorway, leading inward into what looked like a very normal stone reception room or cloakroom. D’Arden held out one hand cautiously, and lifted the other to draw his manna blade from the sheath on his back, which came free with a low rasp. Only a few seconds later, there was another, slightly higher rasp as Elisa drew her own manna blade free from her back. The pure energy that radiated outward from their blades helped to keep back some of the corrupted manna that flowed around them, making him feel ill. She was still young enough that the feeling of the corrupted manna would feel like power to her, instead of noxious.
He would need to keep a close eye on his new protege.
“Come, Elisa. There is nothing to be gained by standing here on the landing,” D’Arden said, as much for his own benefit as for hers.
Together, they stepped through the doorway.
Immediately a feeling of claustrophobia set in on them. It was dark, and the light from the cold sun outside had vanished entirely as if it had never existed. It felt as though the walls were pressing in on them, though he could feel nothing. The light from their blades was reduced merely to a dim glow, barely visible even for their brightness in normal conditions. It reminded D’Arden uncomfortably of the darkness in the cellar of the low quarter, but far more constricting.
He felt Elisa beside him struggling to breathe. He laid a comforting hand on her shoulder as he tried to regulate his own air intake, and she seemed to breathe a little easier when she felt his hand on her.
They took a step forward, and then another. D’Arden tried to remember what the room had looked like from outside, but the utter inky darkness erased all memory of the place from his mind. It was only when he found his outstretched hand pressed up against a cool stone wall that he could even remember that he had a hand.
The darkness seemed to be pressing in further, weighing on his mind in such a way that might make him forget who he was, if he stayed within it long enough. The corruption in this place was unthinkably bad, and if he’d been able to read any of the fonts in the city at all, if the whole city hadn’t just blended into one horrid puddle of
