The Shattered Oracle - II - An Astral Sojourn - Page 6

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II

An Astral Sojourn

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- Page Six -

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"I don't know. I don't think that was Merithault, children. There is no way. Your mother would never harm any of you."

The room went quiet for a moment after Thraya's father said those words. It seemed like everyone in the family had to take a moment to realize just what had happened. Surely their mother hadn't of died and become a ghulg. So, if she was alive, then what in the world-plane had just visited them?

"Remember what your mom said before she left for the Sanctum. She loves you. There is no way that thing was her."

Thraya turned away from her father and slowly got up to her feet. She took a few steps forward, her feet getting cut by the broken glass and shards of jagged wood. She didn't care about the pain. She didn't care about the blood. She continued forth until she could press her hand on the ruptured wall of her sibling's room.

She stared out into the darkness of the night. The haunting white light of Ishep lit up the rest of Neshran in shades of blues and purples. She lifted her eyes up, following the distant lights of the Thousand Stairs of Sorrow that made their way from the farthest edge of the city, up into the mountains that encircled its limits. She held her eyes on the twinkling, far-off torches of the Ullthosian Sanctum far into the peaks of the Auhl-athum Mountains. There, supposedly, is where her mother was undertaking her rituals and trials as an oracle.

"Thraya don't get too close to the edge. Oh, for Tolesh's sake, you've cut up your feet. Come back, Thraya." 

Her father beckoned her but his hands were filled with the others. Thraya stood at the edge defiantly and continued to gaze out into the night.

"Serranos. Jhulessi. Nesbinet."

Thraya's voice was like a whisper. As she spoke, each of the children went quiet and stared out at their sister.

"No matter what. If that was mom, or not. Remember this..."

The room went silent. Her father's jaw went slack at how easily the children seemed to take heed of their sister over him.

"If that was mother. I will kill her. If that wasn't her, I'll find out what this thing was and I will end it."

Thraya's father took a step back towards the doorway. Fear and a strange sort of pride began to well up inside of him. He didn't understand what kind of strange connection the children had beyond the peculiarities of their mother's blood, but they were united by Thraya's words.

In unison, the children gave a single silent nod. 

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The Shattered Oracle - II - An Astral Sojourn - Page 5

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II

An Astral Sojourn

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- Page Five -

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"Fuck off! You undead bitch!"

Tendrils of energy snapped out from Thraya's body and went into a whirlwind of lashes about the room. The twin's beds lifted from the ground and began to assault the floor and walls with repeated thumps. Several of the twins toys that were on the floor flew into the air and began to throw themselves at the shade-form before her.

Serranos' candlelight outside the room began to burn with the intensity of a rogue firework. A plume of flame welled up and sent the young boy scurrying to the other side of the hall. 

The glass of the window shattered and the wooden frame gave in under the telekinetic force that Thraya assaulted it with. Shards began to whip around in a frenzied whirlwind, shredding at the shadow substance of the demon before her. The wail of the shade and the twins turned from one of rage to one of pain.

With an immense force that seemed to rip the paint from the walls and rupture the very wooden beams of the house, Thraya created a telekinetic shockwave before her that cast the shade out of the window. The force was enough to send everyone in the room deaf for a few moments. The air in the room seemed to be quelled along with the shade who was blasted out the window. The walls on either window seemed to rupture forth under the continued strain.

The shade was gone into the night outside. Eventually, the sound of the room returned and the wail ceased. Thraya could still feel the tendrils of energy whipping throughout the room, ready to go after the threat should it reappear. Every bit of her attention was focused on the energy rippling out of her. She felt like a god.

"Thraya!"

"Thraya!" The voice repeated a second time.

"For the love of the gods old and new. Thraya! It's gone! You can stop! While the house is still standing!"

The voice was the frantic cries of her father behind her. As soon as his words got through to her mind, she could feel the power in her ebb and wane. The tendrils faded away within a moment and she felt herself slump to her knees on the floor of the room.

Her father's frantic voice was accompanied by the soft and scared cries of the twins. She turned to look at them, with barely enough energy to turn her head.

Her father knelt down with the twins. Jhulessi was sobbing and grabbing at his chest. Nesbinet had his hands around his father's side and neck and was wailing with fear. Serranos stood behind his father staring at Thraya with wild and wide eyes. Her brother held her eyes for a long moment of silence. She couldn't understand if the look on his face was one of fear or amazement.

"Why is momma trying to kill us?"

The voice was from Nesbinet. His words were innocent and filled to the brim with fear.

"Why did momma get inside of us?"

Jhulessi's voice wondered as she clutched at her father's shirt and let the tears flow. 

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The Shattered Oracle - II - An Astral Sojourn - Page 4

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II

An Astral Sojourn

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- Page Four -

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Thraya immediately turned on the balls of her feet, heedless now of what noise she might make. Something was indeed behind her. Whatever it was was large enough to block out all of the window's light. Whatever presence was there was beginning to leech the warmth from the room, possibly to coalesce with more of a form.

She turned to see the face of her mother as a shade. Her mother's auburn hair was the color of blood. The hair itself seemed like gushes and rivulets of half-coagulated blood flowing from her head and over her shoulders.

Her mother's face was white like alabaster and transparent enough that the bones of her skull were able to be seen beneath blackened veins. Her eyes were black as pitch, seeming to draw any light or warmth into them to be devoured.

The clothing that covered her mother's form was a mess of tattered, gray robes. She looked as if her oracle robes of station had been shredded by wild beasts or by decades of neglect. Her feet never touched the ground and her form seemed to hover as if suspended from the very fabric of darkness itself.

Her mother's arms reached out for her, each of her hands were soaked up to the forearm with blood. The blood was mixtures of old stains and brilliant freshness. Her bony fingers, more like a skeleton's than the hands she remembered pushing her bangs out of her face so often growing up, reached out towards her as if ready to seize around her neck. Long and silvery claws, like the stuff of mercury, danced and curled as her hands reached forth.

At once the jaws of her mother's shade opened wide — wider than any human skull could allow — and a great piercing cry erupted into the room. The cry itself was beyond description; being a mixture of incredible agony and rage all at once.

Thraya noticed that as her mother began to wail, so to did the twins who had now sat up straight in their beds. Each set of the twin's eyes had gone white as if turned fully in their sockets. Their mouths gaped open at a painful angle. The darkness flowing over her mother's form seemed to reach out and embrace each of the twin's upon their bed; ready at any moment to lift them up.

"What in Gehemol!"

The voice from behind Thraya was that of her father. She turned her head sideways from the fearful shade in front of her just enough to see him enter the room from her periphery. He soon went quiet with fear.

She could hear Serranos' quiet sobs from outside of the door. She let her head turn back to the looming shade before her. She could feel the energy inside of her crackling to life. She wasn't trained yet in how to offensively attack with her will, but the energy was there and her intent to protect her family felt like enough.

She faced the shade completely now. Her hands were curled into tight fists. She could feel her nails piercing the skin of her palms. The energy inside of her welled up to a level she had never felt before.

The shades' wailing face, filled with fangs and blackness was a mere inch from her eyes. She looked up to take in the hollow blackness of her mother's gaze. The energy inside of the room felt as if lightning would go off at any moment. 

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The Shattered Oracle - II - An Astral Sojourn - Page 3

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II

An Astral Sojourn

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- Page Three -

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Thraya took two steps towards the twin's door. The door itself was shut tight and hadn't seemed to be disturbed at all. Surely if a thaekkuz was in the house, it wasn't smart enough to close a door behind itself. Shades, however, had no use for such physical barriers and would have passed right through it.

She placed her ear on the warm wood of the door so as to hear inside. The room beyond was silent. There was no sound of any disruption at all. She let her hand take hold of the brass knob and begin to slowly turn it.

"Watch for father. If he catches us sneaking into Jhulessi and Nesbinet's room, he'll tan our hides."

Serranos' eyes went wide. The earlier tears were sucked back into his sockets. He turned and stared at the end of the hallway as a sentry. He lifted his other hand to cover the candlelight.

Thraya turned back to the door and having felt a click of the knob, began to softly lift and push the door on its hinges. One of the doorjambs gave out a quiet groan under the strain.

Once the door was open sufficiently and no disruption seemed to come from either her father's room or inside of the twin's room, Thraya released the door and took a single step inside. The haunting white light of Ishep filtered in through the bare window at the end of the room. On either side of the room were small wooden beds, each containing a gently snoring occupant.

Thraya pressed her luck and took two more steps into the room. She was now between both beds filled with their slumbering occupants. She leaned into Nesbinet's bed and cautiously felt the bed covers over his chest. She could feel his breathing in quiet little bursts. She pivoted on her hips and lightly touched Jhulessi's forehead with the palm of her hand. The young girl's temperature felt normal.

She turned on her feet, lightly creeping back to the doorway. She could see Serranos glancing from her to her father's doorway nervously. She gave a grin and the thought that they might actually get in trouble for sneaking into their sibling's room.

She took another slow and wide step to avoid any kind of creaks or groans from the floor. Her hand grasped the carved ball of wood on the end of Nesbinet's bed. Obviously whatever Serranos had seen was enough to scare him, but the twins were safe, the house was secure, and the evening's imaginary phantoms would soon pass once everyone got back to sleep.

Once her foot struck the rug-covered floor without a sound she looked back up to see Serranos staring directly at her. His eyes were wide with fear and his pupils had dilated to pure blackness. She felt her eyebrow perk up at this, wondering if her father had somehow gotten the drop on them.

Thraya could feel a chill coming from behind her, maybe a draft from the window. As she thought about the window, she soon noticed that the room she was inside of had suddenly gone completely dark. The only light she could continue to walk by was the flickering candle Serranos held in his hand. Surely a cloud hadn't passed in front of the Night's Lantern so quickly.

She noticed her brother in the hallway shaking now. Clear wax began to jostle out of the metal candleholder and fall in droplets upon his bare feet. He didn't notice the heat or the pain. He continued to stand and shake. She looked at his face and saw him mouth out the words "Right. Behind. You." 

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