Gateway Unlocked

Avea's legs burned as she sprinted through the tunnels, and her breath was starting to come out in short ragged gasps. She knew she couldn't outrun Dolunay for much longer. As she ran past the cold obsidian walls of the underground, she swore she could feel the very essence of the luminescence around her as if it was alive, their soft murmurs reverberating through the cool, damp air, like a hum. Reaching deep within her consciousness, as if trying to call out to her.

“We’re probably committing an act of treason by just being down here,” Bebop declared."Something tells me that this isn't the Core councils jurisdiction." Avea's legs were starting to ache as she and Bebop continued along the winds and turns of the passageway. She was starting to think that this miraculous light was intentionally leading her astray. Silently promising herself that if she could sneak back into the house without her mother finding out she would happily live the rest of her existence never setting foot in these wretched tunnels again. The light began to dim the deeper they travelled, fading back into the tight passage walls.

“We’re lost.”

“No, we aren’t.”

“Yes, we are.”

“No, I’m navigating.”

"Really then where are we?"

"We're right here..."

They turned through another winding passage to find another dead-end. Avea clutched her hand in a fist slamming it against the stone barrier. "What are we going to do?" Bebop asked. "I've got this," Avea took a breath breath, stepping back to face the stone barricade. "OPEN SESAME!" she shouted throwing her arms up in a grandiose manner. The stone barricade remained unmoving. "This is not the time," Bebop hissed. Avea's shoulders slumped. "Worth a shot."

She’d been thrown into the deepest pits of the outlands against her will, she couldn’t forget the coldness, the darkness and the obscurity of that vision. How it had felt so real being dragged by those hands into the warped haze of the outlands. Dolunays touch clung to her, a lingering hollowness that hadn't left her. Avea kept looking over her shoulder, expecting Dolunay to shatter the obsidian prison and seize her in his clawed grasp. She'd told Bebop everything about Dolunay's insane declaration about her supposed heritage and the light warrior that had severed the tether between them. The bot remained quiet intently listening to Avea ramble on until she finally drew breath. There was silence and then "so do you think Dolunay was telling the truth?"

Avea knew what Bebop was referring to, "what that I'm secretly from the moon?" She couldn't let her herself consider Dolunay's words. She'd been drawn to the outlands for as long as she could remember. Every night she'd scale the giant ring border of T'alli to stand on the curve and stare out beyond the guardwatch posts. Watching the sun set and the moon rise in an never ending wheel, disappearing behind the horizon. Sometimes she'd carve out a path in the sky wishing to follow wherever it led.

"It would explain a lot" Bebop teased. Avea shot her bot a glare. There was no place for her among the stars, there was hardly a place for her in T'alli. She couldn't allow herself to believe the minotaur.

Avea's legs gave out, crouching over she pressed her forehead against the cool stone wall. "I need to go home," she whispered, lifting her palm to gently touch the stone again. She summon the dimming light, before Dolunay tore through the passageways, engulfing every shred of light in its wake. The pulse was still there beating steady and true in the center of the underground. Now that Dolunay's lurking presence wasn't obstructing the connection Avea could sense the light thrumming inside the obsidian stone. She called it to the surface again, and all of the buried flecks of light that had retreated so deep inside the obsidian stone surged towards her handprint. An imprint of her hand glowed on the stone acting as a beacon that called the light forward. "Do you hear that?" she asked Bebop, straining her ears she listened to the faint delicate whispers ringing out softly all around her.

“Let us show you the way."

"Hear what?" Bebop replied. "V what is going on?" Avea shushed Bebop leaning in closer to hear. "Can you show me the way out of here?" Avea whispered into the wall, trying not to think about how insane she looked. "The key to unlock gateway will lead you home," the light whispered swirling around her fingertips. "The gateway?" Avea muttered, her irritation flaring. Rising to her feet she choose to trust the connection deep inside her, mainly because she didn't have another option.She was no match for Dolunay without this silverlight, she was in his underground and the minotaur knew it. There was cold presence lingering around her, the darkness overshadowing the light, like ink in water. Dolunay was still waiting, biding his time. She needed to get out of here before he regained his strength. The silver strands of light whispered all around her, and without realising Avea felt herself following it, drifting further into the tunnels. She could feel it everywhere within her no longer a tether inside her, but a true connection. That flowed within her, around her, consuming ever sense of her being.

Avea let herself think back on the way that she'd raced in these tunnels. Purely on her instincts she'd navigated those tunnels without relying on any sort of device like the other racers. She knew from the moment she'd entered the tunnels that steady heartbeat echoed out to her and she had let that echo blindly lead her. She had to trust that now, that same instinct, echo, uri or whatever. So she let it steer her and Bebop out of the winding routes, until all those winding routes merged together into a single road.

They walked along the sole path until it stalled travelling into the mouth of a giant cave. The pulse so strong, as the strands of light like veins flowing directly into the heart of the underground. "Let me guess the underground nightlight is telling you to go inside the cave?" Bebop said, as the two of them stared into the giant mouth. The silver light almost blinding as the cave swallowed it. "Do you have a better idea?" Avea said, slowly approaching the mouth of the cave. She knew taking her first step inside the cave that this is where the light had been leading her all night, as everything inside her went still bowing to the true power that resided deeper within the cave. "Uh Avea?" Bebop said, Avea turned barely a foot inside the cave to see Bebop still at the mouth of the cave. "Bebop seriously come on," she said seeing that Bebop wasn't moving forward. "I can't" Bebop said ramming its bodice against the mouth of the cave, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier holding Bebop back. "Its alright I'll come back for you" Avea reassured Bebop, "but V what if its dangerous?" Bebop replied. "No more dangerous than staying down here!" Avea said, "I'm not letting that blue creep take me away and I'm not going to leave you behind," she promised, before turning away to walk into the cave's mouth letting it swallow her. She knew that she should be wary, but she didn’t feel afraid. Something about the cave and the light circling inside it felt like being inside a womb.

Her eyes widened seeing the cave open, where the silvery light danced like rippling light reflecting off the water. Avea didn’t know how long she stood there mesmerised. The silvery veins of light refracted off every surface, moving through the smooth curved walls of the cave in a blinding lustre. Avea forced herself to retract her eyes from the miraculous light ripples to scout the cave for any sort of gateway. There was nothing, only the refracting light and the solid cave walls. "So how is this supposed to get us out of here?" Avea closed her eyes listening, "you are the key, unlock the gateway." "What is that supposed to mean?" Her eyes skirted around the cave trying to see past the radiance of the light, noticing that at the far end of the cave the ripples of light seemed to be shielding something from view.

Avea walked over to it spotting a marking engraved into the cave wall. She crouched down to insect it more closely. A circular shape marked into the wall with deep cutting lines. The curved lines so precise they couldn't have been crafted by human hands. Avea's finger lightly hovered over the symbol and her heart leaped in surprise when it shifted beneath her fingertips, waiting for her touch to take its true form. Noting the curvature of the cave Avea began walking along counting a total of eight symbols etched into stone. Dragging her fingertips she could feel the vibrations of energy flowing out from each symbol. Beginning at a hollow symbol that gradually filled out as Avea circled back to the first symbol. It felt both familiar and foreign to her, as though she where walking through a place she knew but had never been. “It’s the lunar cycle” she whispered, the eight symbols replicating the phases, ‘birth, death and rebirth. She couldn’t hear anything, only feel something guiding her back to the first symbol.

Avea held her breath, the residual energy stirring inside her, grasping for more of that surge, that life force. Her fingers touched the first symbol on the cold stone and immediately sensed the rush of the light ripples flooding into the symbol. The light breaking through the curved lines of the symbol, illuminating in the obsidian stone. A beam of silver light shot out from the symbol stopping directly in the centre of the cave waiting. "I think I understand ..." Avea lightly hovered her fingertips over the next symbol watching in awe as it moved under her fingertips responding to only her.

The light once again flooded into the symbol that illuminated brightly in the cave as another beam of light shot out. Uniting with the previous beam of light in the centre of the cave. The symbols became stronger shifting beneath her fingertips they unleashed the beams light trapped inside the cave wall. As she moved through them, drawing out their light source, her mind remained unable to grapple with the insanity of what was happening. All she knew was that this essence was responding to her, calling her forward. The current of each symbols power was different, a cord in a song. Its own melody sounded and when she moved to the next symbol its cord built upon the previous symbols cord syncing in perfect harmony. Neither one alike in the way that the lights essence called to her and strummed beneath her fingertips. She could only unlock the symbols essense letting it release outwards channeling the current of light that moved throughout the entire underground.

The cycle of life. The beams of light connecting in the centre of the cave. Their cords blending together soft and subtle as they connected in perfect orchestration. She felt the symbols luminescence flow into her, that sensation of the smoothness gliding along her bones. Reaching halfway Avea didn't know if she was controlling the light or if the light was controlling her. Locked in a trance, she had to finish the cycle. She touched her hand onto the next symbol, the essence a deeper cord filled with a mystic melody. The cycle of death. Surrendering life back into the symbols, as the symbols essence became darker and more sombre with the beams of light connecting in the centre. The faint harmonies building to the awaiting glorious symphony. "Almost there," Avea muttered feeling depleted of strength as the essence seeped out of her. She focused on placing on foot in front of the other, until finally she reached the last cycle. Rebirth.

There were the last few symbols, and Avea was hanging onto the cave pulling herself along. Touching the symbols she felt the surge of essense flow back into her, only this time all the power coursing inside her was too intense she couldn't hold it all. The cords were loud and grandiose, as the beams of light stood connecting in the centre waiting to be united. Slowly her hand hovered over the eighth symbol. The last one in the cycle a final beam of light waiting to unlock the gateway. She tried to call the light forth from the eighth symbol, but it was a void. She pressed her hand more firmly against the symbol burrowing into the void trying to find the speck of light. Listening for the cord, but it sound too discordant and detached from the rest of the symbols melody. There was only an cold darkness that met her, caressing her palm as it touched the stone.

She sensed the light buried so deep inside the stone that when her fingertips grazed the symbol she had to latch onto the stray strands of light and drag it to the surface of the stone. The light heeded her call, but Avea could feel the symbol's essence desperately clawing its way back into the dark depths threatening to break the hold. She reached for the eighth symbol again rooting into the source of its light. This time she found the faintest flicker buried in the void. She closed her eyes feeling herself reach further for the speck of light, she felt it cradle against the bond. Avea watched as the eight symbol morphed into a twisted and warped symbol. Illuminating in the stone, she had to suppress the shiver at the flow of light that was released. Cold and dessicated the light been cut off from the heart for too long, now Avea watched the light beam flow tentatively into the center until it finally connected to the heart.

The cycle complete all eight light beams connected in the cave glowed brightly. The cords all weaved together into a heartbeat that was steady and true. The powerful beams of light surged into the heart before vanishing. The symbols light dimmed leaving her in the darkness once again. “Seriously" Avea cried, throwing her arms into the air in frustration. There was a slight stir in the air, and then a blinding chasm of light blasted inside the small cave. Throwing Avea to the ground it knocked the air out of her. Gasping on her back she scrambled to her knees watching the blinding light split the air forming the gateway.

The rift grew wider and suddenly there was a gateway standing in front of her. "I did it Bebop! I unlocked the gateway!" Avea called out to Bebop. "What do you see?" Bebop shouted back from the mouth of the gateway. Avea peered into the gateway seeing her own reflection staring back at her. "I just see me," and did she look awful. She touched the gateway surprised to find that it felt wet like touching the surface of water. The ripples moving outwards to the edge of the gateway where wisps of light gently floated off. "Show me home," Avea declared, slightly wary of the sight before her.

Her reflection faded and a new vision emerged of violet fire raining down from the skies onto a unrecognisable landscape. The soil shimmered silver as though the fallen stars had laid to rest turning to dust. Bearing fertile soil for the strange vibrant plants rooted in the terrain that swayed in clusters. It was a marvellous sight, the flora dancing softly and undisturbed until the violet rain scorched the silver soil. The black marks appeared like marks of death on the terrain spreading across like a plague of darkness turning all of the strange vibrant plants to rot at its mere touch withering away. The violet fire continued to incinerate the land leaving everything desiccated and in ruins. The realisation hit Avea, recognising the shimmering wave of light that passed over the soil.This must be one of the moons that Dolunay had spoken of orbiting in the infinity of space. This is what Dolunay thought she was destined for?

"No...no show me the valent ring" she said again to the gateway, closing her eyes she let her mind remember the Valent ring. The scraps heaps with rusty junk and discarded trash, where she'd scavenge for parts. The wires that were strung from rooftops of dilapidated buildings, that she'd run across to watch the hustle of the bargain strips. Or the glaring lights of the ring that at nightfall blinded the stars. The drifting moon dissolved away, and Avea let out a sigh of relief seeing the border of T'alli form in the gateway and then a little hut sitting on the top of a lonely hill.

Home.

Avea pushed her hand through the gateway the sensation similar to gliding through water. "Bebop we're going home," Avea cheered, turning towards the mouth of the cave to retrieve Bebop. Before she could pull her hand out a blue clawed hand gripped onto Avea's arm. “Uri…restore the uri” Dolunay's rageful voice boomed out from the gateway. The touch seared into her flesh, Avea hissed snatching her arm away. It was like a shadow veil had been cast over the gateway cloaking it, preventing her from crossing over. Dolunay twisted horns appeared in the gateways reflection, "you must restore the Uri from the octave, the sacred sanctum of Lumous.” Dolunay growled crawling out of the gateway towering over Avea, still lingering in his shadowing form, not fully solid and yet not fully seen."I don't care who you think I am, I am not going anywhere with you," Avea snarled, stepping back. Dolunay had slipped free of his stone prison, now looming over her like a phantom of another realm.“By the light and dark sides of the moons you will be claimed,” the minotaur said taking a step towards her, the ferocious blue flame erupting from the horns.

"Did you not hear me?" Avea said, inching closer to the side of the cave with Dolunay eyes trained on her. Arms width away from the side of the cave wall, the ripples of light shining brightly. Dolunay saw her inching towards the cave wall, "NO" he lunged towards her. Closing her eyes, she gave over to her primal instincts and slammed her palm to the stone. A surge of energy erupted beneath her palm, the light from every inch of the cave came rushing towards her. Its essence flowing out to her, like calling to like. Igniting the connection within her, until she felt that tether take hold of her.

She concentrated on that tether, that back-and-forth motion flowing in-and-out of her. Noticing Dolunay surrounding himself in shadows shielded from the touch of the light. If she could channel it, direct it away from her and towards Dolunay there was a chance for her to escape. She felt the light flowing inside the cave from the ancient symbols, all she needed to do was redirect it, willing it with every fibre of her being. The cords of light disappeared along with the gateway, Avea wasn’t expecting the blast of light that erupted out of the cave's stone, as she called upon it. She had siphoned all of the essence out of the cave and now it was swirling around her in a whirlwind of blinding light, and her instincts were screaming at her to hold on. Avea unleashed a scream hurling the light at Dolunay. It hit Dolunay sending the fearsome creature to its knees, and the seared markings on its body lit up. It looked like the fearsome minotaur had inhaled a solar flare and its light was breaking out of the hideous scars covering its body. A roar thundered through the cave. Avea let herself consume every ripple of light, the pulsing energy spreading through her body as she relentlessly hurled it at Dolunay.

She was losing control. The power inside her lashed out, wild and merciless, as the rays of radiant light split from Avea, slicing through the darkness like lightning made flesh. It wasn’t flowing through her anymore, it was ripping through her, turning inward, threatening to consume her. She couldn’t hold it. Couldn’t bend it.

It was devouring her. Slipping through her fingers like an unleashed storm.

Dolunay surged forward, his form a shifting blur of shadows and jagged teeth, his monstrous will battling hers with feral force. His growl echoed through the cave, and Avea felt herself weakening. She wasn’t going to be able to hold him off.

Then something changed.

The cave came alive. Symbols across the stone walls flared, glowing with brilliance. From the darkness, a pulse of energy reached out, like a tether searching for her. A second force, flowing with a quiet, sacred rhythm, flung out a lifeline. Avea felt it, a force outside herself channelling the wild power back into her, taming the light and wrapping around her in a spiralling current. The tether connected, anchoring itself to her.

She grasped it. And everything snapped into place.

The power didn’t consume her now, it crowned her. Light swirled around her, and the surge steadied. The light bent to her will. Dolunay's eyes widened in disbelief. Weakened from his long imprisonment, he faltered, dropping to his knees, trembling under the weight of the power that no longer answered to him. The second force was guiding Avea, she could feel its presence steadying her as nothing but pure blinding power came surging out of her hands. The current of light swirling around her receded, morphing itself back into the gateway and unlocking it.

"Balance will be restored to the Lumos, you will be claimed Avea Maxwell" Dolunay roared. Avea took her chance summoning the last remnants of the power she fired it directly into Dolunay's chest shoving the giant blue minotaur into the gateway, as the remnants of light flooded out of Avea's body. She collapsed to the ground, the absence of power overwhelming. The gateway closed taking Dolunay with it with a final melodic note hanging in the air like a soft shimmering sigh.

As Avea lay on her back gasping for breath, for a moment she lay just listening to her breathing. All the chaos had subsided, and she thought she could hear Bebop's rattling coming towards her, her siphoning all the light must have broken the invisible barrier. She tried to force herself up and crawl to Bebop, but she couldn't move. Everything around her was suddenly still, and she could feel her consciousness fading away.

Avea turned her head and suddenly out of the solid cave wall emerges a body covered in silverlight, stepping out as easily as gliding through water, landing silently on the ground. In a warriors stance, with two blades, small and curved into crescents. It wasn't Dolunay, but something different. It had a human shape, but its features were shielded by the glare of the light. Avea couldn’t focus with her vision growing blurry, spotting at the sides. Avea couldn’t really hear or process what was going on, only trying to fight off the unconsciousness taking over. "Stay back," she mumbled barely coherent. The figure stilled clearly not realising that she had been laying on the ground this whole time, turned towards her. It seemed to hesitate, Avea couldn’t see straight; all she could see was the blurred light and the sharp blade directed at her. The figure retracted their blade. It hurriedly crouched down beside Avea; she couldn’t see its face.

She only felt its warm hand press against her cheek before the world went dark.