C H A P T E R 4

GODS AND MAGIC (PART 3)

Vi screamed as the shadow creatures swarmed over her, gnawing and biting at her robe and her hair. Where they touched her skin, it bubbled and blackened until it went numb. Their crazed chattering overwhelmed Vi's senses until she became nothing but a huddled, gibbering wreck.

And as suddenly as they came, they retreated. An Illuminate sprung into being above the runestone, focusing like a spotlight and sweeping over the shadowy mass. Where the light touched, the creatures screeched and smoked like a grease fire, dissolving into the air and reforming a short distance away, safe in their corridor, where they watched and waited.

Slowly, Vi came back to herself. She dragged her fingernails down her arms, as if to scrape off the remnants of whatever had been done to them. Blood welled in the scratches, but the black patches and broken skin returned to their normal pallor and began to ache.

"Fuck me," Vi whispered, shivering against the sudden cold. The darkness stirred, and she took to her feet. "Shadowy god damn monsters." They were still watching from from the corridor, with unblinking grey eyes like car headlights in the morning mist.

She flipped them off.

"Some fucking riddle swarmed by fucking shadow monsters kill whoever designed this ain't no way I'm putting up with this shit..." Vi paced back to to the runestone and plopped down on her ass. Her breathing slowed as she slipped back into a meditation. She let her mind drift as she focused on slowing her heart beat.

"I swear, if you keep bothering me about these dreams there will be no TV time." Shelby said. Unlike her last step mom, Shelby could be called nice. Maybe even friendly if she was in a good mood. But her attitude made it clear that she was here for Vi's father and not Vi herself. If Vi had a problem, Shelby would brush it aside, or threaten to ground her, or other unhelpful things.

"But there's nothing else to do around here," Vi complained. All her 'friends loved being outside, but wandering through the woods taking potshots at squirrels or racing between islands at low tide was not Vi's idea of fun. She said as much.

"Jesus Christ, Vi, sometimes you have to make your own fun. I didn't even have a TV growing up, and I turned out fine. I married my high school sweetheart after all." The way Shelby talked about Vi's dad always made her cringe, but at least it was better than complaining about him. She hated when people complained about her dad.

"Fine, I won't talk about it." Vi huffed and ran down the hall to her bedroom. This was their old house, before her dad had sold it and moved them into his brother's trailer. In the corner was the bunk bed she'd insisted on having for the sleep overs she'd never had. At its foot was a toy box Vi never opened anymore.

The desk against the wall was host to an old Macintosh computer that was almost too big for it. Vi remembered a time when it was covered in art supplies and drawings of happier times. Flaked wallpaper displayed the likeness of a cartoon character Vi had loved as a child, but at the age of eleven had long since grown out of. The rest of the room was empty, and dark but for a single electric lamp with no shade.

The floorboards creaked beneath her feet, and protested loudly when she fell face first into her bed. She rolled onto her back and looked around one more time. This was a room of youth and decay, of a young girl fading away to be replaced by an as yet undetermined young woman with new hopes and interests. A story waiting to be told.

It was where Vi came to think, because it was the one place she felt unburdened by her troubles, both past and future.

"Shadow monsters..." Vi said to herself. " Obviously the light hurts them, but either mine wasn't bright enough or it didn't work for a different reason." Vi thought back and pictured the scene. The Illuminate had been behind her head when the shadow monsters struck, which meant the light hadn't actually been shining on them at the time. She'd lost track of it when the swarm had hit her, so she couldn't account for anything after that, but she thought she'd found the obvious solution.

Opening her eyes, Vi rose calmly to her feet and drew on the Etherik like she had before. She felt the tingle in her spine and turned the imaginary valve. A trickle of energy seeped out and began to Illuminate according to her mental commands. With a firm control over the energy flow, this attempt was much easier, but Vi still found herself making adjustments and overcorrecting constantly. Any sort of grace or poise was still a long time coming.

FIinally, the Illuminate was big and bright enough that Vi felt satiasfied with it. She commanded the orb to hover in front of her and advanced upon the wall of darkness. The creatures twisted to watch her, shivering in either anticipation of trepidation as they beheld the light.

Vi shoved the ball forwaed, grinning as the monsters recoiled. "Ha! How do you like that?" Vi slammed more energy into the spell, brightening the entire room and finally revealing a glimpse of the hallway the creatures were guarding. Black, earthy-smelling smoke billowed from their bodies and shrouded both Vi and the Illuminate in darkness.

"Wait a minute," said Vi, but It was too late. The monsters scrambled along the lines of shadow, zigzagging faster than Vi could follow until they reached her. Their scathing touches numbed her again, the chattering filled her ears and threatened to driver her mad. She felt something on her face, two of the creatures using their tiny claws forcing open her mouth, their presence bringing a milky film to her eyes that left her blind to all but vague shapes.

The darkness stirred.

"You think this is enough to scare me?" Vi snarled. The creature scrambled into her open mouth, but she bit down on it hard. It whimpered as it died and coated her tongue with something that felt like static sparks in her mouth.

"I've been through so much worse than this. This is nothing! This doesn't even hurt! Can you even kill me?!"

The creatures seemed to sense the change in Vi, and began to relent. Almost as if they were about to retreat. Some disintegrated in the waning light of her spell rather than approach her. She couldn't see, but she could sense it somehow. An aura the creatures were giving off.

Fear.

"ARE YOU AFRAID?"

Something snapped in Vi, and she let loose all of her accumulated Etherik energy. Hundreds of writhing creatures died, but the shadows behind her deepend, and the survivors gathered there in a vain attempt to flee her wrath.

"YOU ARE AFRAID."

Vi tried something new and made the energy snap like a whip as it left her body. Multiple orbs sprang up around her and flashed brightly before they winked out and new ones took their place. Like magical strobes, the Illuminates flared chaotically all around, drowning every shadow and every crevice in blinding white light. The creatures tried to run, but the shadows they hid inside were blown away, and they went up in smoke with pathetic, pleading shrieks. Vi showed them no mercy.

And then she was alone.

Cracking her knuckles, she strode confidently into the now open hallway, where she found an identical chamber and a new runestone. Illuminate orbs lit the path she'd taken, guiding her to the exit.

She considered trying her luck with the second runestone, but hunger and fatigue won out, and she made her way back. The hallway and the first chamber stayed lit as she passed through them, her reward for solving the Riddle and a sign that the rest of Ruthik the Bright's secrets awaited her eventual return.

The sun was still high in the sky when Vi emerged, even though she could have sworn she'd spent hours in that chamber, either meditating or unconscious. She found Sorya sitting in the tall grass outside, munching on the last roll. The older girl regarded Vi's battered and bruised form, torn robe, and half-lidded expression with a raised eyebrow.

"You look like shit," she pointed out. "Did you do it?"

" ...Yeah. " replied Vi.

"Ready to head back?" Sorya tossed her the half eaten roll, which she shoved unceremoniously into her mouth and chewed like a cow chews cud. "You look tired. We could rest for a bit if you'd like."

" ...Gryah. " Vi took two plodding steps in the wrong direction, and sleep thankfully took her before she hit the ground.