Dark blood pooled instantly. And the magic within was strong. A hundred times stronger than when we last did this.
I turned her hand over so the blood could drop onto the center of the parchment. Then I sliced my palm too, and did the same.
Drop, drop, drop.
Theblood blended together like the lovers again, who were still waiting to seal their fate. They were married now, but their fates were still uncertain.
I hoped they’d get their happily ever after.
Ready to cast the spell.
“Syrith velor aethernal,thraven korum mal.Syren vael orum thar, thalorien en drakthal, Amuun dai del nenira. Amuun dai del nenira.”
The spell invoked the powers of the eternal veins of magic, ancient bloodlines, dragon essence, and the celestial pathways of the stars. The air shimmered with my plea, then it rippled and the howling shadows came. Not mine. The other kind.
Elariya had been terrified of them last time. Now she stared them down. As though nothing would stop her from getting what she wanted.
Amber light radiated across the parchment and our blood began to flow along the carved pathways.
Shadows writhed through the air, trying to draw our attention away, but we kept our focus.
Like before, our blood traveled in a line across the parchment and began to form amap. The pattern came quickly and more hope filled my soul.
The map showed Vaelthorne, the name appearing in elegant script, then the pathway breached past the Hollow Realm into the Ether Planes. The names of all the places shimmered above the parchment. Soon the Nojavai Realm materialized showing another plane of existence and the line of the map kept going.
This was as far as we got last time.
And fuck, as soon as the thought entered my mind, the map stalled as if it recognized something was wrong.
Elariya looked at me but I couldn’t look away.
The blood in the line made a tingling sound before it split and my blood came flowing right back to me. It went straight backin my hand and the wound that had been there moments ago sealed, healing like I’d never sliced my palm.
“What happened to…” Elariya stuttered, but her word trailed off when her blood fused back with the line and the map continued to grow.
Last time a door had closed, shutting us out. But the map was going, still tracking the ring. With her blood.
That it had rejected mine was a worry but it was lost on me as I gazed at the line rippling into the great beyond past realms and places I’d never heard of.
Then it stopped and I wondered if it reached its destination. But there was nothing there.
To my shock, Elariya stepped forward, flicked open her palms and threads of gold appeared around us.
Thread of time.
She wiggled her fingers and the threads converged.
“Show me,” she commanded.
Something pulsed in the air beyond the planes. I couldn’t tell what it was.
Then a loud rumble echoed throughout the room.
Just like before.
And just life before the map fizzled to nothing, Elariya’s blood floated back to her, and the room quieted to graveyard silence.
We stared at the space before us. All of us wondering what the fuck just happened.
