Shadows of the Lithilium

The book in Durgin’s hands has the odor of dirt, age, and death about it. The unknown script on the cover glows faintly silver in the moonlight. The pages rustle like a dull breeze on a hot day through dry grass as he places the book upon a table next to the shelf. I shift as quietly as I can, focusing all of my enhanced senses toward the tome resting ominously in front of the megalomaniacal mage.

Durgin carefully turns the book open to a portion of the book marked by a crimson ribbon.

“Help us.”

I shake my head, trying to clear the strange whispers and ringing that suddenly fills my ears.

The script in the book flickers oddly in the candlelight as Durgin runs his finger down the page.

“Did the writing just change? Is that BLOOD?!?”

I shift again on elbows that are beginning to ache. Durgin begins murmuring to himself, and even for me it’s nearly impossible to hear what he’s saying.

“I haven’t quite worked out the details of this magic, but having that blasted thing shoving his way into my business with Arrath is forcing my hand. Where is that blasted passage?!?”

A few rustling seconds later Durgin stops on a page and his face relaxes into a parody of satisfaction.

“This ought to do the trick,” he murmurs softly as he begins to move his hands and arms in intricate otherworldly patterns.

Ice begins to form where my breath condenses on the floor. Every hair on my body begins to writhe as a metallic odor fills the air. Fear grips me like I haven’t known, as a lurid purple light oozes between Durgin’s interwoven arms. The light oozes along the floor, creeping towards my hiding place under the bed. I search frantically for a way out of the room.

“I can’t go for the door, it’s on the other side of Durgin and whatever that is.”

The light begins to twist and swirl in in itself in mesmerizing ways.

“I can’t go for the window, because there’a no way I’ll be able to get away before that maniacal mage sends his evilly scintillating light after me.”

I’m pretty sure the room has grown darker. The magical light seeming to suck all normal light out of the room. I try to move farther from the light and feel cold stone against the soles of my bare feet. It appears I have two choices: Curl up in the fetal position and wait for the light to reach me, or make a move one way or another.

“I’m not going out this way!”

Every muscle in my legs tenses as I prepare to launch the bed into the air and myself forward through the air toward the glowing silhouette of the mage in front of me.

Suddenly a strange gurgling noise comes from the other side of the closed door. Durgin turns swiftly, the light vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

Grunting softly with the effort I relax the tension in my muscles and settle into a semi-relaxed state. I nearly retch when Durgin opens the door and the odor of burnt and rotting flesh reaches my nose. I have no idea who the poor soul was that was trying to get to Durgin, and I wonder what could be so important as to risk disturbing their boss unexpectedly, but as the dedicated remains settle to the floor, crumbling under their own weight without the support if the door it was leaning against, I can only whisper a silent prayer of thanks to them for their sacrifice.

“Fools!” Durgin spits as he kicks the ashes aside.

“I left specific instructions that I was not to be disturbed for any reason tonight.”

“I could do it now. It would be easy. Launch myself from under the bed and break his neck before he even knew I was there.”

But the strange book and the way the magic made me feel have me waiting to see if I can learn more. The dust swirls around Durgin’s feet as he closes the door over what used to be one of his cronies. He swiftly crosses the room in two short steps to return to his book.

As Durgin resumes his position the strange light returns almost immediately. A tingle runs up my spine as the light begins to approach me under the bed again. My skin feels like it’s freezing and burning all at the same time, while the hair hanging down into my face begins to lift into the air. I feel my gut churning as it clenches with the primal fear that had me before. I don’t have time to react before the light has suddenly washed over me.

I’m floating.

Around me is darkness. I feel nothing, but everything. Time seems to race past me while standing still. After an eternal instant I realize that the sensation of my body is changing, becoming more crisp, more focused. As the sensation grows I become aware of something just on the edge of hearing. A soft buzzing in my head. Turning into a whisper, words I can’t understand.

“This one…”

“No, that will never work…”

“What have I done!?!”

As the phrases coalesce from the chaos of sound I begin to see a building. The house zooms toward me and I instinctively brace for impact before passing through the wall without any sense of resistance at all. My eyes immediately begin to water as the bright light inside of the building shocks them. I blink rapidly, trying to clear my vision.

“I must still have tears blocking my vision.”

The room might once have been a library, or maybe some sort of alchemist’s workshop. Now it was a blasted shell with soot covering everything and wisps of charred parchment still settling down. A disheveled man with a round body and hair that appeared to have once been wispy, but is now nearly all scorched off, is hunched over on the floor examining something I can’t see on the floor in a crater that I assume is the center of whatever caused the destruction of this room.

I think about getting a better look and my body immediately begins moving. I glide across the room, arcing slowly around the edge of the crater.

“No! That’s impossible!”