Threindil stood facing a collapsed tunnel that was clearly not natural. The destruction was too localized—too deliberate. It was only this specific room, not even the entire dwelling, that had collapsed.

The stress lines in the surrounding rock suggested intense vibrations that didn't spread beyond the origin, and the trace of mana in the air confirmed the story.

It took almost no time for him to hear the story from the residents once he'd returned to the city. It was all anyone could talk about: the Forgeblood Square Massacre. He'd followed the trail of destruction quickly, straight to its likely conclusion—this collapse.

Though the trail markers were quickly diminishing as the room swirled. The stone seemed to be…shifting—swirling, like reflections shifting across the surface of still water.

Suddenly, a great weight pressed down on the room. The floor cracked, the walls shook, and the shifting stone impossibly began to run like a liquid. Great globs and drips of cold rock fell, denting the floor before bubbling up into pillars and spires of globbed stone.

The pile of stone before Threindil suddenly splashed apart, becoming a great wave of solid stone that rushed out of the passage behind him, strangely avoiding touching him, as though his body repelled the not-liquid.

A gnawing chasm was revealed, its bottom lost to darkness. It was more than a hole—it felt alive, and hungry. It felt like it was absorbing what little warmth remained in the tunnel, as if waiting on its next victims.

Chip.

A small crack ran across Threindil's face, a fleck of skin chipping away like brittle stone. A purple glow emanated from underneath, a glow that would drive observers mad should they stare too long.

Cracks and fissures ran along his skin, the purple glow shining from beneath and casting his entire body in eerie, otherworldly light. More flecks of skin flaked off and floated up toward the ceiling, as if his body was caked in mud that was cracking as it dried. Small stones at his feet lifted and hovered at waist height, defying gravity.

A sort of 'presence' shifted down the tunnel before plunging into the cavernous maw. It crawled over the walls, which began to shimmer and run in droplets of liquid rock, like the tunnel above.

WARNING: Destabilization detected.

Source confirmed.

WARNING: Entity [Nȳrèn] is in violation of [Agreement #000].

CEASE

"Where is she, Ërune? Where is Cassie?" Threindil said, his voice distorted and sounding as if it came from several directions at once.

CEASE

WARNING: You are in violation of an agreement.

CEASE or the agreement will be annulled.

"Things will be faster for both of us if you simply tell me her location," he said.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Cracks formed around his feet, dirt and debris spilling out of them and floating into the air, raising a cloud of dust that would've stood out even in a sandstorm.

Searching…

…

…

Entity not found.

For the first time, Threindil tilted his head toward the text box floating before him.

"What does that mean, Ërune? Even if she died, you would have a record of her in the Ether," he said.

Searching records…

…

…

ERROR: Entity does not exist.

"The only way she wouldn't exist is if she was removed from…the only thing that could do that…" Threindil thought aloud.

"No…here? Under my nose? An Abyssal?" he said in disbelief.

Silence blanketed the space, even the floating orbs and globs of liquid-but-not floated silently in place. It was as if all of reality was holding its breath.

"FUCK!" he shouted.

Stone suddenly shattered, the liquid-but-not splattering around the room before it all became a deep, dark purple. The night sky seemed to have descended on the space, stars shining along the surface of the cavern. Meteors shot across the floor, a neutron star pulsated on the ceiling, nebulae sparkled on the walls, and a great, violet eye in the distance writhed in obvious grief.

CEA

Threindil cast the window aside, shattering it into pieces that fell to the floor and became part of the nighttime mural.

He appeared over the great hole, his motion completely absent. It was as though he was in one spot, and an instant later, another. He held his hand over the hole, his palm facing down into its depths, and when he clenched his fist, the night sky vanished from the room. It flew down the hole as though alive and following his commands.

The room hewn from stone, now much larger than it had been mere moments ago, returned to its dull, dusty silence. Threindil floated above the hole, his entire right leg gone. The hole where the leg should have met his waist shimmered, as if aflame. Flecks of flesh floated up into the space and disappeared like embers.

CEASE

The night sky suddenly came rocketing out of the hole to hover in a seemingly infinitely dense ball above his hand. He took a moment to examine it before holding it in front of the blue window as if in offering.

"I've identified the specific corruption source of this entity. Please trace it so that I can remove it before my vessel fully disintegrates," he said, his calm masking the grief that tore him apart inside.

The ball of night began to flow into the window in a large string, like water flowing down a drain. It swirled about on the surface of the window before being fully absorbed, leaving reality somehow both better and worse for its absence.

Analyzing…

…

Analysis complete.

Searching…

…

…

Search complete.

28 instances of corruption detected.

"...fuck," Threindil said with a sigh, suddenly exhausted.

He stared into the hole below his feet for a long, silent moment before vanishing. The cavern fell back into stillness, as though never disturbed—the only evidence of the exchange its vastly increased diameter.

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