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Redhair grunts and cranks a lever on the side of the table. The chains around my wrists pull like vines, stretching my shoulders.
“What about now?” The Underling smirks.
I say nothing.
They crank some more.
Pain. White hot, searing pain. My shoulder strains as ligaments stretch uncomfortably far. Blood seeps from the bite of the chain along my wrists.
“Wait, wait, wait, stop!” I quickly think through my options. There is no way out of this room without giving them some sort of information. How will they know if I'm telling the truth or not? Think, Akemi. “What does it look like? This stone?”
The lever stops. “‘Bout as large as a fist. Shines with the light of a hundred stars, legends say.”
“Can you tell me more about the stone? I’m not sure I can find it from memories only knowing its name.” I push for more information, trying to stall the inevitable.
“The Cebalrai Stone is used for power amplification. Pure Source magic, some say.”
Interesting.
“And I assume that Lord Rollo wants this for his own collection? To use this power as his own?” I hadn’t seen the Lord of Jord channel magic, now that I think of it. Always using axes, ghosthounds, horns, and other means of intimidation, but never magic.
Blackbeard snarls and laughs, “Stop asking questions and start Starwatching.” He reaches toward the crank.
“Okay, okay!” I say and shut my eyes to concentrate. I push down the fear, the tiredness, the fatigue to connect with the stars above. With a massive amount of effort, I am able to extend my presence upward, unraveling the string higher and higher.
The string fades before I can connect into the web of stars, but I frantically chant anyways. Star stone, Cebalrai stone, pure Source magic, Battle of Kantonag, Star stone, Cebalrai…
The Source completely fades. “I can't… I can’t see anything,” I say. “I’m too weak to channel right now.” Not to mention I’m the farthest from the stars that I’ve ever been.
Do my powers even stretch this far?
This upsets Redhead. He grabs a tool from his pocket, a knife, and begins poking at my belly in tiny pricks. Death by a thousand paper cuts.
“Stop! I’ll try again!”
He stops with the incessant scraping. I can feel a tiny bead of blood dribbling down the side of my stomach.
What they don’t know is that this power is completely new to me. I don’t have total control over it yet. I have a feeling I haven’t even begun exploring the boundaries of what I can do as a Starwatcher. When Atlys and I practiced, we were either outside, right under the stars, or in the caves, which were just under the Watch… not deep underground like this.
I try another approach. “I need to be outside. It works better if I have a clear connection with the stars.”
“We suspected that you’d ask for that,” Blackbeard says. He walks to the edge of the room and presses his whole weight into a giant pillar until it moves. Dust floats around as the sound of rock shifting echoes throughout the circular stone chamber.
Strapped to the table, all I can do is look up, mesmerized at the mechanics of it all. Round and round, the ceiling shifts and opens into a dome. Each plane of rock spiraling to a small circular ball of light high above.
Sunlight. The surface!
I'm both petrified and relieved in knowing how far away I am from the world above.
Blackbeard returns to my side. “There. Now find us the stone.”
I close my eyes once more, reaching mentally toward the circular ball of hope. This time I can feel the current of magic within me rise in a singular thread. Spiraling upward and upward until free from the depths of Jord.
In part, I feel free too. I want to lose myself in that freedom, but I keep vigilant.
Battle of Kantonag, Cebalrai stone, star stone…
My thread catches for a moment. A memory snagging on a fishing line. Just the slightest of tugs tells me that there is something there. I try to reach for it, but it slips between my fingers, like grains of sand. If I just reach again, maybe I’ll get closer to the memory.
