Weight slammed down on her, and a brightness that was both painful and intrusive. Even in the contained section of her mind, she could feel the change in the air.
Nex cried out both in her mind and using her voice. It was the first time she had heard him do so. Now she was truly afraid. He raised her hands to her ears and Adda discovered, if she concentrated, she could now sense what he felt.
Sharp pain throbbed in her ears, growing and growing until it peaked. And then, suddenly, the pain receded and it sounded as though she was under water. The frantic beating of her heart and panicked breathing was all she could hear.
There was no time to argue with Nex about the usage of her person. He ran down a corridor, a smaller mimic of the one she had taken herself when she first entered the temple.
In moments, they were again inside a chamber, this one with something throbbing at the center. Nex could sense it vaguely, but Adda's eyes were of no use to provide visual cues, this time, not because of the darkness, but the light. A brilliant and cold light, painful even behind her closed eyelids.
Nex pressed forward, toward the core. Each step took effort, great effort, and Adda could feel him weaken.
I will get you as close as I can, but then it will be up to you.
I don't understand...you are in control now. This is what you have been aiming for, why don't you just do it?
I am a creature of the dark realm. The orb is an object from the realm of light. I cannot get close to it…even this distance is agonizing…but my host can.
So you do need me, and not just for possession.
She knew it.
Nex gave a grunt of effort and then he was gone for a moment, her body hovering between consciousness’s.
Coming back to herself this time was not a slow stretching of awareness, but a sudden jarring into reality. Nex's pain filtered through her. It was not her pain, but it didn't seem to matter.
She couldn't lie to herself any longer. She was worried. She didn't want Nex to suffer...to die. Maybe she had succumbed to evil.
She pushed the idea to the back of her mind, and pressed toward the light. The air was changing, no longer stable and still but a vortex of its own, and thick. Pushing through it took great effort, each step took way too long. She dragged one foot forward, step after step, until it felt as though that was all she had done, for all eternity. Then, as she moved, she kind of popped through the pressure and into the center of the storm of light.
“Illaise!” she gasped.
The woman lay, broken, on the floor. The orb, a simple enough looking crystal sphere, in one hand, light swirling upward from it in a swirling tornado before it pulsed outward. Blood flowed from her mouth, ears, and nose.
So much blood.
Adda's gut tightened, and though she hadn't eaten for what felt like forever, suddenly it felt as though there was far too much in her stomach.
Illaise's head turned toward Adda as she neared, weak, fleeting. She was nearly gone and Adda could see no reason for it other than the loss of blood, but she could find no cause of that, either.
The orb requires a life force to open the door, Nex writhed within her. Adda guessed that, though she had passed into some sort of protected space the orb offered, his own pain hadn't lessened by drawing nearer.
She said she wanted to destroy the orb, not open it.
She lied. She hopes that opening it will cleanse the forest.
Adda knelt, careful not to touch Illaise or the orb for fear she might face the same fate as the dying Alpha.
No longer strong and powerful, or commanding and arrogant, Illaise was now simply an old woman, her gray hair tangled, the wrinkles beneath her eyes and the corner of her mouth clearly visible with her expression of pain. Adda could see her now, not as an enemy, but as a fellow Shifter, one who suffered much and required her pity.
“What have you done?” she whispered to the woman.
Illaise's eyes fluttered open a slit, surprising Adda. Her body might be broken, but the hard glint of defiance that met her promised the woman was still herself, even if she was fading.
“I did what had to be done. It was my son...it was Kurath who began this, who stole the first of the glyphs and released the first monster. By our laws, it is my duty to clean up his mess.”
Adda shook her head, trying not to be terrified by the way blood leaked from her mouth with each word. “You aren't doing anything but making it worse.”
Illaise gifted her with a bitter smile. “You are tainted. What can you know? What do you know of sacrifice? Every one of my men gave their life for this, to rid the world of the Quatori. I am no different from them, I will give....my life for this cause.”
Her voice faded toward the end, her eyes glazing over, losing the light that indicated her life force.
Adda stood in the after silence and did nothing for a long moment.
Illaise was dead.
And once again, Adda had done nothing to stop it.
The orb, Adda. She has begun to open the door to one of the other realms, I cannot tell which yet.
The door?
A portal, between the realms. That is what the orb does.
Adda nodded. And I must close it.
You must change it, open the door to the dark realm. It is the only realm where I might exist freely. The only way I may leave you.
She knelt again, reaching for the crystal sphere, but stopping, just short of touching it.
The orb already has its life force, it will not take yours.
...But what happens if I open the portal to the dark realm.
You live, Adda. Intact. That is what you’ve been aiming for.
It was what Adda had been aiming for, yet...
She looked around herself. The light rushing from the orb formed a dome around her. It was too intense to look at for long, so white it was impossible to behold. Streaks shot through it like lightening, and she thought, for a hint of a breath, that she could see something press against it, testing.
Adda shuddered and turned to the woman on the floor, laying in a pool of her own blood. After studying the light, the scene was too dark and it felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. The entire temple had an unnatural sense to it, one that was worse than when she first beheld a possessed Shifter.
But Six, she wanted to live.
She reached down with shaking fingers. The orb was clutched tightly in Illaise's hand and she had to pry her grasp open to release it. She did so gently, as much as the woman had angered Adda in her dogged pursuit of what she considered to be right, Adda had a grudging respect for her, enough to not wish to disturb her spirit if it was now at rest.
The orb was cold, icy. She had expected warmth, either from Illaise's grasp, or the force of the light that was expelled. Instead, the surface sucked the heat from her fingers. It was smooth, the closest thing she could compare it to was glass, but that was wrong.
Along the center was a crack, perfectly straight, and it split a seam into the orb, marred only by six delineations.
A portal between the realms. Six realms and six doors?
Yes, and this realm is killing me. Nex ground out sharply. Turn it to the right. The dark realm is the third marking. Quickly, before the portal opens fully to this realm.
What happens when the door opens, Nex? What happens if it opens in the dark realm?
Because if this was what one of the other realms felt like, Adda didn't think the dark realm would be pleasant. She could feel the fabric of the world, her world, changing. It wasn't meant to accommodate such an intrusion.
Yes, Adda wanted to live, but at what cost? Above another life that sought to kill her....perhaps, but would she betray her entire world for a chance at life? Could she live with herself after making such a choice?
Would Scet?
Adda knew the answer to that one immediately. Scet would never understand...or love someone who acted with such dishonor.
Adda...
Adda didn't think. If she thought any longer, she would lose the courage she had caught the thread of. And If she didn't think, Nex wouldn't know what she was about to do.
She readjusted the orb, ensuring her grip, and then she pressed, hard. It resisted her at first, as though the vessel itself were reluctant to close now that it had begun to open. Adda pushed harder, no longer any hesitation in her mind. Slowly, the edges of the orb budged, sinking together. The storm of light surrounding her fluttered, and then, as she pushed, it weakened, until with a final, solid click, it closed completely. The air snapped back into place and darkness quickly overcame the corners of the chamber. It was not the ancient shadow, though, that presence had been wiped out, Adda knew for certain.
The orb still glowed sharply with the remains of its use, reminding her of its power, and that it was still a threat.
That was foolish. A waste of that woman's life. Another will be needed now, to open the portal once more.
You knew she would open it. Knew she would be first and her life would be taken. That's why you suggested she be allowed to come.
I thought the possibility might arise. You would rather have opened it yourself? You would be the one laying on that floor now, Adda, Nex snapped. I can only do so much. You need to open the door, I cannot stop the possession. Even if I do not try, my being will overpower yours.
I understand, Adda told him, and then she did the unthinkable, she acted on the urge she was working so hard to keep from his knowledge, and it sealed her fate. She raised the orb far above her head.
No! Nex commanded, his presence reaching out instantly to gain control.
But he was too late.
With a final determined stroke, Adda smashed the smooth ball downward, and moments later the chamber filled with a sound like shattered glass.
Two things happened simultaneously: first, light burst from where the orb shattered upon the stone. It flooded the room in a sharp wave, growing ever outward from the source and then passing through her. A freezing pain and fear bubbled to the surface. Her skin ached and then stung sharply, until she feared she would never know warmth again.
Then, Nex screamed. The rage and pain of the sound doubled her over to her knees. Whatever she had felt before was nothing compared to his suffering. The orb had been open to the realm of light, Adda was sure of it now, and it was that realm that passed through her. A burst of it anyway, and it seared her soul...the parts that were shadow. The only thing that held her together was that not all of her soul was shadow.
Nex, unfortunately, was not spared any pain. Adda grit her teeth as his control slipped...he had been trying to keep his pain from her. When the wave of his anguish hit her full force she wobbled, spots dancing before her eyes. It grew until she wished for anything, even death to stop it.
Then, suddenly, he was gone.