Chapter 975: Different Definitions

A minute passed in relative silence as everyone stared at the spot on the rainbow-colored rocks where Noah had vanished from. Aylin would have spoken if he hadn’t been so excited. He’d only met back up with Spider a short while ago, but he’d already gotten so much new information.

The Line… it was as horrible as it was incredible. The knowledge was still settling within his soul, but it was making him stronger already. He could feel his understanding expanding. Spider had given him a gift. He’d given them all a gift. And he was a bit too preoccupied with processing just how significant of a boon that was to really muster up any words.

The others seemed to be taking it roughly the same. They were all lost within their own thoughts. The effects of seeing the Line had been… very significant. Even for someone without his abilities, witnessing what waited for all those who passed was a sobering experience to say the least.

No. Sobering was far too light a word. Aylin could feel the week he’d spent upon the Line bearing down on him like a thousand pounds. It sent jitters down his spine and wrapped his heart in dread. Abject horror beat deep down in his soul.

That couldn’t be his end. He couldn’t afford it to be. It couldn’t be anyone’s end. That infinite nothingness…

The fact that Spider still had a mind was boggling. Aylin simply couldn’t comprehend it. To spend months or years on the Line…

He refused to even consider it. There were some questions that not even he wanted the answer to. It filled his soul with dread. Even the week he’d seen was enough to make his insides twist.

Aylin had done his best to make sure it hadn’t shown. Spider was too kind to his followers. It would have crushed him to know just how heavy the experience had been. To all of them. And the others all knew it too. Aylin was quite proud of how well every single one of them had managed to conceal their thoughts.

It hadn’t been Spider’s fault, after all.

But now that he was gone forging a path for them, it was a bit hard for everyone to keep the act up.

Moxie hat sat on a large boulder, her head in her hands and fingers buried in her hair. Lee leaned against her, studying a particularly round and orange rock the size of her palm wordlessly. Silvertide leaned on his staff and stared into the sky. Fuyin had pulled her knees up to her chest and sat in a cluster of stones, joined by Yulin, Vrith, and Alexandra. Sticky sat together with Torrick, Edda, and Violet a few feet to the side.

Yoru still hadn’t bothered summoning her magic arms back yet and had joined Vireth in a small circle with James and Emily, Ulya, Brayden, and Bird.

Every single person was in shock of varying degrees of intensity. Even Jalen looked slightly shocked. Fist had obviously taken it the worst — she was pacing back and forth muttering to herself under her breath. Nobody stopped her. Aylin was pretty sure they all understood exactly why she was doing it.

Even Tim, who hadn’t personally been the one who had experienced the Line given Sievan’s presence in his mind — was silent and contemplative.

But the silence couldn’t last forever. Moxie blew out a sharp breath and tore her gaze up from the ground. Her eyes focused as she clapped her hands against her knees before rising to her feet.

“Okay,” she said sharply. “I think that’s just enough silent commiserating for all of us. Dwelling on the Line isn’t going to help anyone. We already conceptually knew it existed.”

“No, we didn’t!” Fist said. “Not all of us!”

“Well, now you do,” Moxie said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Information is power. There are people that would give almost anything to have seen what you just did. It’s up to you if you put that knowledge to use or if you let it destroy you.”

“She’s right,” Silvertide said through a grunt. “Nothing of worth is ever obtained easily. You’ve already paid the price for this. Might as well turn it to your advantage rather than letting it eat away at you. Just don’t feel some rush to do so. It’s okay to take your time with things.”

“I’m no teacher, but I can agree with that,” James said through a lazy yawn. “It’s good advice. Probably.”

“You just like the idea of doing nothing in general. Don’t forget the bit where you have to actually do something at some point,” Emily said, prodding James in the side.

“There are no clothes in the Line,” Bird muttered, more to herself than anyone else, as she looked down at the tight wrappings covering her body. Her brow furrowed in deep contemplation. “Formless fighting goes even deeper than I ever realized. I did not realize just how much Spider really knew. This truly is the root of all combat styles.”

Nobody responded to that particular revelation.

“The Line really is good motivation, though,” Jalen mused as he stroked his beard. “The afterlife seems so… boring. Horrible, really. What manner of rancid fool would come up with something like that? Why not have a few games to pass the time? A small change, but to great effect. That’s what I’d change.”

“Are you running for a political office to manage the afterlife or something?” Todd asked through a snort. “I don’t think they’ve got a suggestions box.”

“Bah. Suggestion boxes.” Jalen flicked his fingers dismissively. “We had one of those back on the Linwick Estate. I had it connected directly to a pit of magma. Nobody ever reads those. If you want change, you must take action yourself. Force others to bend to your will.”

“That’s not the most diplomatic way to approach things,” Yulin observed.

“Diplomatic?” Jalen’s lips curled. “When has anyone ever called me diplomatic? I’ve killed for smaller insults.”

There was a loud crunch. Everyone turned to look toward Lee. Half of the once-round stone she’d been staring at remained in her palm, several deep bite gouges running along the piece of it that remained. Lee swallowed, and a very visible lump traveled down her throat before vanishing into her stomach.

Then her nose scrunched.

“Doesn’t taste like an orange. Crunchy, though. Just like orange juice. Not bad. The texture makes up for the flavor.”

“It isn’t an orange,” Todd said. “That was a rock.”

“It’s orange,” Lee said. “The only thing missing is the an.”

“I — I mean, yes,” Todd admitted, blinking, his hand raised slightly. “But—“

Lee tossed the other half of the rock into her mouth. And, after another few crunches, nothing remained of the rock but a memory. Todd’s hand dropped and he shook his head.

“You know what? Nevermind.”

“You want one?” Lee asked. “There are more.”

“No,” Todd said. “I think I’m probably good. Isabel?”

“Full,” Isabel said, patting her stomach. “There was a bunch of food in our room already. I don’t think I’ve got more room. Especially not when we’re about to go through yet another suspicious magical pathway in a few minutes. I’d prefer to keep my lunch where it is.”

“Your loss,” Lee said with a shrug. “More for me.”

She immediately started rooting around in search of another orange stone.

Aylin’s gaze flicked down to the stones at his feet. A small frown tugged at the corners of his lips and his head tilted to the side.

I wonder if the orange rocks actually taste different from the other ones. Do colors have flavor?

Aylin shook his head to clear that particular thought. The Line wasn’t the only thing he didn’t need to ask too many questions about. He didn’t really have any desire to go licking rocks to figure out how they tasted. Even if there was any power to be found there, it couldn’t have possibly been worth it. There were far easier and considerably more effective ways to expand his knowledge.

“How long do you think it’s going to take Noah to get us a portal?” Todd asked.

“It seemed like the location we are heading to is quite defended and difficult to access,” Brayden said. “I’d imagine we might have to settle in for a while. Opening a pathway like that isn’t going to be easy. Just trust that he’s doing his best. It’s better to be patient than to rush.”

“So long as the Rank 8s in pursuit of us don’t catch up too quickly,” Fuyin said. “It seems that Spider has made a great deal of enemies. I do not know him nearly as well as the majority of you. I thought his fight was with the Inquisition alone, but he has done the exact same in Obsidia that he did in Arbalest.”

“He did it in the Damned Plains too,” Sticky said cheerfully. “The others told me!”

“I get the feeling that this is just how he is,” Ulya said with a shake of her head. “I don’t know him all that well either. But he did it in the Advanced Track meetings back in Arbitage as well.”

“Very true,” Moxie said. “I don’t think he’s managed to go anywhere without making enemies, actually. It’s a skill.”

“Either way, we should settle in for a while,” Silvertide said. “There’s not much we can do right now other than wait and trust that Spider has things handled. Unless Yoru has something to add?”

“Nothing,” Yoru said with a shake of her head. “I am simply trusting in all the pieces that are already on the board. It’s best not to look at the future right now. Not when someone else is playing with it.”

That was a concerning line. Aylin frowned.

“What do you mean—”

A crackle cut through the air and his sentence alike. Then, before anyone could react, a brilliant white portal snapped open in the center of the group. Arcs of angry white energy hissed out of it, licking into the air like claws. Noah stepped out from within it, his hair looking wild. It looked like he’d stuck his hand into a torrent of lightning — and the faint traces of smoke rising from his body and the scent of singed flesh certainly didn’t help.

“In we go,” Noah said. “Quickly, please. We don’t have long. There will be time for questions after. This is a safe passage.”

Everyone shot to their feet.

“Any special way we have to enter?” Moxie asked. “Do we have to be in contact?”

“No,” Noah replied. “Just go in. It’s all connected. Just make sure not to lag behind.”

That was all that had to be said. Everyone poured into the portal without another word. They trusted Noah implicitly. If he said it would be safe, then it would be. Even Fist came along without complaint — though that may very well have been simply because she didn’t have a better alternative.

The rocks were empty in moments. Aylin plunged into the energy, after all the others, followed by Noah.

Then the clearing was empty. Nothing remained but the sea of rainbow-colored rocks.

The portal buzzed, crackling as its edges slowly started to seal themselves shut.

Then a faint cut sliced down through the air with the sound of cut cloth. A pool of black spilled open before the shrinking white portal and four people emerged from within it — just as the portal snapped shut.

“Ah,” Elania said, a smile splitting across her lips. “Here we are. Right on time. ”

“I think we have different definitions of that,” Mordred said, staring at the air where the glowing white passageway had been moments before.

“Do we?” Elania asked. She stepped forward and sliced her hand downward. For a moment, her open palm slowed, as if catching on something invisible in the air. Then it jerked back to its proper speed.

There was a loud, ripping tear. Coils of thin black energy riddled with white dots spun into being in the wake of her hand, stitching themselves into a slit. Elania grabbed onto the corners of her floating magic and yanked. And, with another loud ripping noise, she tore open a glowing white pathway.

“There,” Elania said, letting her hands drop and brushing them off on her robes. “In we go.”

Mordred squinted at the glowing black magic rimming the portal. It looked like someone had stitched a patch straight into the air. “How did you—”

“Hardly matters,” Elania replied. She nodded to the glowing energy. “In we go.”

The other three glanced at each other. Then, without another word, all of them stepped into the portal.

Elania’s magic dissipated. The disk snapped shut with a hiss.

Then the clearing was silent.