I fell for a long time with the tower coming down around me until with a crash that felt like it shattered every bone in my body I hit the ground. The sudden pain and the stunning blow to my head made my barrier flicker and nearly cost me my life. With a hoarse scream and an effort of will I was able to gather enough thought together to reform my barrier. It was working but wouldn’t continue to do so for very long. Even now with my gravity field at maximum strength I could feel the weight of the stone pressing down on it.

I was trapped, buried alive in a slowly sinking tomb. The weight of the tower pressed down upon me and I could feel that my mana regeneration was barely able to keep up with the demands of my barrier. The next thing that I noticed was the distinct lack of air inside my little bubble. It was there but there would only be enough to last me a quarter of a day. After that I would have to decide between a death by crushing or one by suffocation as I didn’t have enough mana to both create air and maintain my barrier.

As I started to realize how desperate my situation truly was I began looking desperately for a way out. My gravity magic was barely able to keep the tower from crushing me so the option of using that was out. I could probably cut through the stone by using water magic, if I had a couple of years to do it, so that was also out. Wind magic would only be of use to help keep me breathing a little longer. Next I tried digging at the walls to get out. That only resulted in the rubble shifting and a greater amount of the tower’s weight to come down. With my barrier having shrunk and my situation made worse I quickly abandoned the thought of trying to dig through the walls. I would have tried the floor next but I had landed on some kind of hardened crystal foundation that was too strong for me to do more than scratch.

With each avenue of escape that was cut off my heart began to beat a little faster. Panic started to set in as I realized that I really had no way out of here. I was truly trapped and alone, suffocating in total darkness. My breathing became erratic and I started to get lightheaded as I struggled to maintain control over my barrier. “I don’t want to die. Please I don’t want to die.” I pleaded with the darkness. My shortness of breath and failing control only served to heighten my fear. The barrier began to flicker more erratically, and I probably would have died in the next couple of breaths if it hadn’t been for Mel.

She started sending out strong soothing waver of energy pushing them into my body. At first my panic warred with her calm until I finally gave in and let the feeling of peace wash over me. I closed my eyes and basked in the feeling as I slowly brought my breathing under control and felt my heart rate slow. With the new feeling of calm drifting over me I felt my connection to my magic strengthen and let my mind drift. Holding my connection to my barrier like a tether I floated through the tangled web of my mind until I found a place that was dark and empty.

This was a calm place, separated from the crushing darkness of my current predicament. Here it was empty but not in the unsettling way that it had been while I was stuck between two spaces. This was an emptiness that was calming, with enough sensation to keep from feeling lost. The darkness was also not that of the room I had seen in the tower, nor that of the space I was trapped in. Instead it was like the darkness from simply closing your eyes.

I was jerked from my temporary peace from a soft chiming noise as I received a new notification.

Skill acquired – Meditation!

Meditation – You have found peace within the storm of your mind. Able to separate yourself from extraneous thought and emotion you have deepened your connection to the world. Stamina and mana recover faster while not moving and in a meditative state. Stamina and mana recovery increase with skill level. Reach deeper levels of meditation to increase skill level. +1 Wisdom per skill level.

“Thank you, Mel. I owe you big this time. You saved us both and helped me to get a skill that will keep us alive until I can find us a way out of here.” I whisper. I felt slightly ashamed for how I had let my fear nearly overwhelm me and made two silent promises before sinking back into meditation. Once we got out of here, I would lavish Mel with the best and highest quality mana that I could make, and I would never let fear get the better of me again.

As I sank back into meditation I felt my mana regeneration increase slightly and began to weave a spell that would produce the thinnest trickle of fresh air. It wasn’t much but it would give me some more time to find a solution to my current predicament, and it was all that I was able to produce while maintaining an equilibrium with my mana regeneration and output.

Floating inside the empty space in my mind I began to pull up my skills one at a time and analyzed them to see if they could be of use. Most of them I dismissed as I had either already tried them or they would be of little use. From my examination I came up with two possible plans. The first would involve creating a large number of mana blades to chop the pieces of the tower into tiny pieces and slowly make my way up. The second plan would involve trying to manipulate spatial magic again. While each had a chance of working I was not eager to try either one of them. The first was likely to cause more problems with the stability of the rubble that I was already barely supporting. My second plan I was even more hesitant to try. I had already experienced what the void between spaces felt like and I was in no rush to end up there again due to a botched escape attempt.

With my only two plans set to the back of my mind to try as a last resort I changed the focus of my meditation. The skill had said that in this state I would have a deeper connection to the world around me so I started to move my focus outward. My mind spread out first through my body where I could sense a large number of bruises and cracked bones that I didn’t have the spare mana to heal at present. My heart pulsed with a slow steady rhythm and I used that as an anchor as I slowly stretched my mind out and away from my body.

I could sense the stone around me. Vague impressions of the tower piled atop me floated into my mind along with those of the earth below me. I could feel how old and heavy the tower was, and how compared to the earth below me it was like a newborn baby. As I focused on the area my expanded senses revealed my attention was drawn down rather than up. The earth below me seemed to contain a great energy that drew me in. At first I thought that I was sensing the echoes of my heartbeat but when I listened closer I found it to be beating much slower and deeper.

Letting my mind drift into the slowly beating energy of the earth I tried to listen to what it could tell me. What I heard was at the same time much more and also much less than what the other elements had communicated to me. The concepts the earth spoke of were simple ones but they were on a scale that none of the others could match. It spoke mostly of holding. The earth held everything on its back, carrying cities and oceans, plants and animals. Those were the things it held up, but the earth also spoke of holding back. There was a great fire that was hidden deep in the earth, that was held down beneath the land so that I could not burn everything. I listened intently to everything the earth told me and slowly I started to hear it’s song.

It was a strange song, different from the other two I had learned. It was ancient and slow. It was a song that was sung with both the loudest voice and the softest whisper. These though were not what made the song strange. What made this song different was that it was a song of silence. No words would come from my lips, instead they would be sung directly into the earth itself, and so I sang the silent song.

Hard rock, soft earth

Great foundation

Holding all life upon your back

Hoarding secrets within your depths

Watching for time unending

Strong walls, bright gems

Life abounding

Solid and steady you stand unmoved

Sliding you shake and all else crumbles

Watching for time unending

High peaks, great depths

Fire withholding

Keeping the balance of cycles eternal

Knowing the secrets of ancient steps

Watching for time unending

First light, last breath

All creation

Beating heart before life’s first spark

Beating heart after life’s last ember

Watching for time unending

Like with those before it as the song came to a close true understanding of earth filled me and I got another glimpse at The Endless Song. Lost as I was deep within my meditation this glimpse did not overwhelm me. It was a glorious moment of seeing something beautiful that quickly faded.

With a way to escape now in hand I pulled out of my meditation and began to call the mana of the earth. Working slowly I stretched threads of it up through the rubble above me. I did not use it to lift or force the rubble aside but rather to slowly bind it together. Moving my way up from the earth below the collapse I melded rubble and earth creating a stable structure able to support itself. With that taken care of I could finally drop my barrier and start the real work.

Now able to wield the full strength of my mana I set to moving the earth. I could sense every crack and shift in the structure above me and was thus able to find the places that wanted to move and would leave my safe dome untouched. Focusing on these places I began to push, pull, or break apart rubble carving out a small winding tunnel. Once I felt the path reach the surface I began my climb. Crawling through the small path I had made I was repeatedly showered in earth until coated in a thick layer of dirt and crying soft tears of relief I broke through to the surface.

Crawling a good distance away from the remains of the tower I collapsed and simply stared at the night sky above me taking in deep breaths of the fresh air. “We made it Mel, we made it.” I whispered into the darkness. Mel responded with a series of happy pulses.

The two of us lay there for a long time simply basking in our freedom and I talked endlessly of nothing. I told Mel about the grass and the different shapes that I thought I could see in the stars. The talking helped to ground me and reassure me that I really had made it out of the hole I had been trapped in. Mel for her part did nothing to interrupt my ramblings, seeming happy to just listen to me describe the world to her. After I ran out of things to talk about I let out a small happy sigh and focused on the rapidly blinking dot in the corner of my vision to bring up the notifications I knew were waiting for me.

Ding!

Meditation has reached level 3!

Spellweaver has reached level 15!

Mana Manipulation has reached level 27!

Quest Alert!

Quest Alert: The Endless Song

A song of incomprehensible power that bends the very laws of nature; it is beyond your current understanding. To know this song you must know the 6 primal aspects of nature. Feel them, listen to them, and understand them.

- Understand Fire (x)

- Understand Wind (Complete)

- Understand Water (Complete)

- Understand Earth (Complete)

- Understand Light (x)

- Understand Darkness (x)

Reward: The Endless Song

“Half way there Mel, half way there.” I muttered as I closed the notifications to once more look up at the night sky. It took a while but eventually I realized that I was looking at the true night sky and not the one of the dome that had contained the Moonlit Tower. The dome must have been somehow connected to the tower. The mystery of how such a construct was made is the least of the questions that came out of this little adventure. I wonder who the woman from that portrait was, and how I am connected with her. The tower gave me more questions to ask and new things to look for.

With one final question on my mind I curled up amidst the trees in the garden and fell asleep.

What other secrets does the forest hold?