“Get your disgusting claws off me!” she snapped. Even though she was still woozy and weak, she managed to free herself from his grasp and move away from him.
All around them was chaos as the prophet-king roared orders at his guards amid blasts of energy and screams emerging from the tunnel that led back up to the main complex.
Esther’s guards were distracted, leveling their spears toward the entrance. Sesuuk was already backing toward the catacombs.
“Now, Esther! This is how we escape!” he snarled.
There was another sudden blast of light and energy, but this time, it was powerful enough to send a trio of the defenders flying through the air. They were dead before they even hit the ground.
“Defend the prophet-king! For the First Trine!” Kessiva and other Lamakai shouted.
It appeared, for just a moment, that Esther and Sesuuk had been forgotten.
She felt her heart racing. People were dying. She fixed Sesuuk with a distasteful glare.
Could she trust him? Obviously not. He had sold her out.
Was there a way to get out of here on her own? Not without his potions.
With a growl, Esther shoulder-barged the nearest guard, making them tumble against the next before she sprang toward the door. Sesuuk turned and ran, too.
“The prisoners! They’re escaping!” someone shouted, but Esther and Sesuuk didn’t stop. They ran across the threshold into the catacombs, racing toward the glowing tunnel.
“The tool! Stop them!” The prophet-king had clearly also noticed, and Esther felt a sudden surge of wind across her back. Every hair on her body stood on end.
WHAM!
Something hammered into the rock on the near side of the cavern, and there was a flash of light like a lightning bolt. The rocks cracked, and Esther screamed as shards of grit and rock blasted her and Sesuuk.
You have been struck by rock shrapnel for 20 points of damage.
“Keep going!” Sesuuk cried out, reaching the door and half-turning. He raised his manacles, and they emitted a hesitant white glow. “Sand worms!” he spat. It was clearly some sort of curse for his people. The glow flickered about as large as a dinner plate and then evaporated.
Esther sprinted past him into the tunnel. There was another flash of angry light and another explosion of rock behind them.
“Run, Esther! Run! Take the first right!” Sesuuk was right behind her as she ran past the whorled rock shapes all around her.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The sounds of battle were behind her, as well as thunderous explosions, but still Esther ran. She saw the tunnel to her right, and she took it. The corridor unexpectedly sloped downward almost immediately. She stayed on her feet for about three tumbling paces, and then fell, hitting the wall and rolling violently. She saw rocks, darkness, and stars before finally stopping on the gritty sand below.
You have been struck by the tunnel for 45 points of damage.
Esther groaned, feeling so tired and battered that she wasn’t sure if she could get back on her feet.
How much Health did she have? She had no idea, as she was still completely unregistered in the Celestial Engines.
“Get up! We don’t have much time before my father sends warriors after us.” Sesuuk’s clawed feet hit the sandy cave floor beside her. She groaned, struggling up to a crouching position.
“Remind me just why I should believe a word you say?” She winced in pain. There was a large, angry red scrape on her elbow.
“You know nothing of how the celestial games work! You have to use every trick in the book, including disloyalty!” Sesuuk hissed. “I was pretending to offer you to my father, knowing that he would try to use you and bring us closer to the Prism of Fire! I knew that Keskul would also seize the opportunity to get his hands on the prism as well. We are right where we need to be!” He held out his manacled hands. “Now use your powers to melt this manacle! It is hindering my powers, and I will be of no use until I am freed!”
Esther looked at the silver and remembered the snake-man’s abortive attempt to use his magic earlier.
“The potion—the one that strengthens me—first,” Esther said with a steel voice.
Sesuuk wavered for a moment, then nodded.
“Fine. But you will need to control your powers and not burn me alive!”
He flicked his wrist and a fat-bottomed glass vial appeared in his hand. She was under no illusion about what these potions were now. They might have some healing effects, but they were ultimately about controlling and strengthening her power.
Whatever. She needed those powers now. She took the vial, popping the cork and swigging the oddly steaming, bubbly concoction.
Your Health is restored.
Your Stamina is restored.
Your Mana is restored.
She groaned appreciatively as a warm feeling spread through her torso, down her legs and arms, before finally fizzing through her head. It brought with it clearer focus, a sense of purpose, confidence, and power. The fatigue and nausea were gone, and in their place, Esther would have sworn she could feel the swirl of green qlippothic energy just under her skin.
“Now, quickly, girl! Break the manacle!” Sesuuk said as Esther stood up slowly, suddenly feeling stronger than even the ancient prophet himself.
“No,” she said.
Sesuuk blinked. “What? But you must! This is the only way we survive this place! You have no idea of the horrors down here…”
“I’ll do just fine with the horrors, I think.” Esther opened her hand, reaching with her mind toward that energy…
There was a spark of toxic green, and a small ball of qlippothic flame appeared. For once in this crazy journey, Esther felt calm.
In control.
“I think I am going to hold off on freeing you, Sesuuk. Not until I know I can trust you. First of all, you have to get me home,” Esther said with a cruel smile as she snapped her hand shut and the flame disappeared. “As you said, deception is part of the game of Celestial Ascension.”
His eyes were quick and calculating as they flickered over Esther, and his tongue licked the dusty air.
“You are wrong. I cannot open a portal down here anyway, not so close to the Prism of Fire. If you want to return to Blackwood—that very place that wants you imprisoned, that hates you—then you will have to leave the catacombs,” Sesuuk said in a tone that was just as searing as the qlippothic flame had promised to be.
“Then lead the way, Prophet,” Esther said, raising her head to see that there were two exits to this small cave. One led to the right, and the other to the left. Both had a faint orange glow coming from them. “Lead me out of these catacombs, and I will burn those manacles. Deal?”
Sesuuk’s eyes darted first to one tunnel, and then the other.
“This way,” he hissed, leading her left.