As the sun rose on Teriae, I realized Aiya was still glued to me as she slept. She had paused her studying for the past couple days so we could spend more time together. I always hated the idea of leaving without her since we started dating; her reassuring presence always made my worries fade away... Today was no exception, as it was when the others and I go back to the accursed dig site to exorcise it from the aberrant's presence. Aiya had to keep reminding me to unclench my jaw every few hours in the days leading up to today. She always did know when I was anxious more-easily than I typically could.
"Aiya," I gently shake her in an attempt to wake her up, "Aiya, I've got to go."
"Hm?" She grunts as her body begins to sloppily move, "Already?" Her voice was a mixture of sadness and exhaustion.
"Unfortunately, my love," I run my fingers through her hair, its waves gently flowing between my fingers, "It'll only be for a few days at most. I promise," I lean over and kiss her on the forehead before fighting my way out of her grasp. The rest of my morning routine was a blur from that point forward until I found myself at the docks.
"Took you long enough," Rae teases from out on deck, "I'll tell the captain you're boarding now!" She climbs up the small flight of stairs and into the bridge when not even a second later Keildrik comes bursting out.
"Miss Ain! Do ya need a tail wind? We need to go!" He'd always say that whenever I'd show up late. It used to kick me into high gear, but now it just makes me chuckle.
"I'm on, I'm on!" I shout at him, as I step onto the deck and remove the stairs that lead to the boat, "Don't let an octopus get in your mouth with it open like that, Keildrik! You know what happened last time!"
Keildrik belly-laughs before slapping his knee, "You've got a point there, lassie!" He heads back inside the bridge and almost immediately the boat jerks and begins to fly through the otherwise calm waters, "I figure at our current pace, we'll get there by lunch! So hold on tight!"
Sitting down in the cabin, we begin to formulate a plan. I whip out the map I 'borrowed' from one of the other students and set out a few of my bullets to signify each of us, "We'll be arriving around here in the harbour," I begin explaining, "We'll then have to hike about twelve minutes inland to reach the previous camp site that our group used. The families of the noble students have probably already gathered anything that belonged to them, as well as the bodies; assuming they were still there by the time they came for them." Moving the pieces along the trail marked out on the map, I outline a circle with a pencil, "Here is the dig site. It has two massive doors that currently contain the aberrant. They open outward when a certain passphrase is spoken." I pull out a mangled bullet and set it by where the doors would be on the map, "This will signify the aberrant. I highly suggest fighting it out in the open, as the ground in the courtyard here has been cleared of most of the debris and plant-life while the room behind the doors has a floor that is littered with bones. I'm not personally a fan of walking on bones, let alone fighting on them."
"So how should we go about killing it?" Faust asks. He sounded normal for the first time since we arrived at Mar'karéth, "You said bullets and arrows do nothing..."
"Correct. That's why we have these two," I gesture towards Yviira and Rae, "These two have experience fighting aberrations and their magic should be able to damage the beast."
"More importantly," Rae interjects after a brief pause, "We should be able to kill it. Aberrations can heal over time, so we need to kill it and kill it fast." She turns towards Yviira, "We'll need you to cast some sort of ward on us to protect us from the aberrant's psychic damage. I can bless us with holy protection for a short time, but it may need to be refreshed during the battle. If that ends up being the case, I need it to be locked down by any means necessary; meaning it can't move at all so I can re-apply the blessing."
Yviira nods, "Worst comes to worst, I can pull us out of the time-stream in order to get a breather, reposition, or allow you to reapply the blessing."
"Hell yeah," Rae slugs Yviira's shoulder playfully, "That'd be perfect, actually!"
"So what kills it?" Faust asks, looking more invested in the conversation, "Do we wear it down? Can we 'pop' it in a burst of magic? Do we have to wait for a specific timing?..."
"That's a good point," I echo.
"Well," Rae sighs, "It depends. I've fought some that I've had to wear down over a long and drawn-out battle. Others I've just smitten them with my flail and they disintegrated. We'll have to see. Let's plan for a drawn-out battle just in case."
"Excellent," Faust nods as he pulls out a small alchemical distillery set, "I'll get to work on some potions. I'm thinking Instant Health, Stickiness, and Ice? Do we want to drink the health potions or do you all prefer contact or injections?"
"I'll stick to ingested," We all say simultaneously, "Jinx!"
"... Great," Faust rolls his eyes, "I'll get to work on those then. I'll make five of each just in case." He begins to toil away, mixing various ingredients together along with Yviira's help. For as much as he's seemed distant these past few days, at least he gets along with Yviira reasonably well.
As soon as we arrived in the harbour, Faust finishes up corking the potion bottles and hands them out to everyone, "Remember, it's better to use it than to hold onto it in case you need it later. We can share if it gets bad enough."
We all nod in understanding and begin boarding the row boats. Given it was just the four of us this time, we were all able to fit onto one row boat.
Once we reach the shore, Keildrik turns to me, "I'm going to stay parked here in the harbour for three days tops. After that, I'll need to go back for supplies. I'll have my crew leave a spare boat outside the tide's reach. If, for any reason, you all need to escape, feel free to take it." He puts his hand on my shoulder, "I placed on my vessel's flare guns underneath one of the seats. Fire it every four hours to make them last if you get dragged out to sea by the currents-"
"I appreciate it, Keildrik," I embrace him for a hug, "Hopefully we won't need it, but we'll definitely keep it in mind just in case."
"That's my girl," He says returning my embrace. I always thought of Keildrik like some sort of father figure, and moments like these just solidify that feeling for me, "Remember: every four hours. I should see it." As I pull away from him, I notice one of his crew members dragging the row boat he mentioned up hill and setting it upside-down under a tree.
After a short hike from the shore, we stumble upon the remnants of the camp site. The fire-ring and a few shredded pieces of canvas from various smaller tents laid strewn about. I pull out the map for a reference and with its help I'm able to pick out the trail towards the dig site from the various game-trails littering the field of grass. While we hike, I make sure to reference the map to keep us on track.
"Hang on," I shout, stopping to look around, "I want to make sure everyone got retrieved," The place we were stopped at was the furthest marker from the dig site where we had found one of the students' bodies a year ago. I look in the area that we moved it to and to my relief it's absent, "Thank Po'oraat, he was claimed after all..."
Continuing our march down the overgrown trail, we stop at each of the markers on my map to ensure that the students were recovered by someone. So far all of them were... That is until we reached the dig site, itself. The plants had grown back over most of the ground. It wasn't impossible to walk on, but it would make getting a foothold in combat tricky. As we descend into the site, I notice a familiar sight catch my eyes. Four skeletal remains laid out in a row. These were the mercenaries that almost survived!
"Are these the doors?" Yviira asked, pointing towards the towering monoliths.
"Oh yes," I assure her, "Let's get ready, maybe clear a bit of the brush out of the way to make the fight easier for ourselves."
"Oh, by the way," Faust approaches me as Rae and Yviira begin bickering about what method to use to clear the plants, "I have something for you. Since the aberrant can't be damaged by our normal bullets, I took it upon myself to make these," He pulls out a strange device with wires and screws poking out of it that was attached to a revolver, "It's an augmented revolver, similar to your old one. It probably won't be able to single-handedly take down the bastard, but you'll at least be able to damage it... It fires cartridges instead of wads like yours. You shouldn't need to worry about it getting wet or being inaccurate after a certain point either! Just, uh... Be careful with it. I packed the rounds extra-hot, so they should really pack a punch."
"Oh. Thank you, Faust this is so kind," I hold the new revolver in my hands to get a feel for its weight. It was heavier than my old one, but the weight was distributed in a way that felt like it would counter-act the recoil from firing.
"Consider it, a uh... Early wedding present," His eyes refuse to make contact with mine, but I could tell he was being genuine.
"Awww, thank you~ That's so thoughtful!" So that's why he was acting funny, he thought he had to get me a present, how lovely.
Faust then shows me how to load and unload it and pressed firmly into my mind to 'keep the brass'. Apparently he has a way to reuse them, so that was good to know. He also shows me how to enable or disable the augment that was wrapped around its barrel. "When enabled, this should fire a round that is imbued with electricity! The few times I've tested it out, myself, with dummy rounds, I'd say a rough estimate is it has a success rate of around twenty-five-percent," He shrugs indifferently, "Not great, but at least it may help given our circumstances... At worst you tickle it with a gun that already doesn't faze it; so I see that chance as an absolute win!"
With the area cleared, and our weapons and minds ready, we get in formation; Rae up front, Yviira closely behind her, and Faust and I stand a safe distance back. Yviira spends a minute casting a ward over each of us, its iridescent glow shimmering against the sunlight. She claims it's made out of primordial energy, so it should resist the psionic blasts the aberrant throws at us.
Rae then kneels down on one knee and offers a prayer, "Idor, hear our pleas! For we have a foe that stands against mortality and the gods and goddesses that give it. Protect us with thy will, so we may deliver this aberrant to Gra'Nu'Daer; that it may finally get the rest it so requires." As she closes the prayer, each of us glow with a faint light. I suddenly felt faster, more calm, and like I can face the terror that lurks behind the cursed doors.
"Everyone ready?" I ask. The others nod their head, "Zeit'iier!"
The doors creak open, their ungodly chorus snapping the overgrowth as they creep open. The aberrant mass lays dormant on the altar, as motionless as a formless-blob of mistakes can lay. I take aim and fire one round out of my new revolver, the bullet zipping through the air with such velocity that it nearly knocked me off my feet!
Zewp!
The round misses and ricochets crackling as it hits the first surface it makes contact with. Faust follows my shot up with one of his own, his round landing directly on the aberrant's abhorrent excuse for a hide. A small flicker of blue-ish-white light appears and the aberrant quickly takes form; the shapeless mass dripping from its malevolent throne of gold.
Yviira holds her hand out, her palm facing the sky. She yells something in a language I'm not familiar with and then snaps her fingers. Just as the snap echoes through the courtyard, the aberrant shrieks in pain as an iridescent burst of light and energy blasts from within the aberrant, sending bits and blobs of its gooey mass in all directions.
"Incredible," The words leave my mouth almost as if on their own. I had never seen offensive magic of this caliber before. The sheer power and control was simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying.
"The fights just getting started," Rae yells out, snapping my attention back into the moment. If not for her warning, I wouldn't have seen the bits and globs of the aberrant rejoining and re-forming back into one shapeless mass.
"P̸͇̿͝l̶̰̩̓̒ę̵̍̍ḁ̴̽̑s̶̖̄̕e̶̛̫̣!̴̘̀̕ ̸̹̍̕R̴̰͛͊ẽ̶̬̀ḽ̷͑͐è̶̲a̷̛̹͌͜s̶͕̀̕e̷͈̪̕ ̴̬̔ṁ̷̬̰͑ẹ̶͎̈́!̶̠̳̅̊" The aberrant's abysmal cries pierce the air, causing several birds in the surrounding trees to flee before falling lifelessly out of the sky. The aberrant rushes through the doors, its awful stature, slinking and sliding, gripping and gnashing as it leapt out of the altar room and into the open courtyard, "T̶̲̀͠ͅh̷͈̜͆͛e̴̢̚-̵͎̪̾T̴̻́̕h̷̙̊̔ḙ̵͓̐ ̶̪̦̕S̶̜͉̎͝u̸̼̦͛́n̴̛̠!̸̲̕ ̴̖͑Ǐ̵̧'̵͇̥͆͛m̴̹͋ ̵̢̗̽̍r̶̥̀e̴͖͊a̶̫͊l̴̗̃́ľ̴̖̜̀ẏ̴̡̠ ̶̹̈ŏ̸̬u̶̠̓͑͜ţ̵̻̌̏!̶̠͛ͅ" The horror stops in its tracks as several spindly tendrils rise up from various points on its body; each facing the direction of the mid-afternoon sun.
Rae takes the opportunity to leap into the air, her flail glowing red-hot and crackling with black sparks as it slams down on the nightmare. The ground cracks and shifts under the weight of the mighty blow, the aberrant's body lagging behind as the shock-wave travels up and down its various limbs causing it to finally slam into the dirt below.
Taking aim, I let loose another shot, this time hitting the horror dead-center. A small crackle of light flickers, but otherwise nothing happens. Faust follows my shot up with another one of his; the beast understanding the rhythm of our attacks morphs its body out of the way of his bullet, causing it to shatter some of the stray bones back in the altar room.
Yviira, noticing the aberrant's attention is elsewhere takes out a bottle of Contact Frost potion and throws it at the beast, the air is quickly filled with an icy mist as the bottle shatters and the aberrant is consumed by ice, "I've got it locked down, now's your chance to hit it with all you've got!"
The aberrant's unholy choir of melded voices screams out, the sound penetrating the icy cocoon. As its shriek rings out, the ice lining to it begins to crack; and before any of us could react, the horror breaks free from its icy tomb, sending ice fragments flying into the area directly around it, "S̷͍̿ǫ̸͋͘ ̶̧̅č̴̡͠ơ̸̪͈͌l̷͎̘̈̊d̷̰͙̊!̷̗́" It lets out.
"Hey, ugly!" Rae calls out to the aberrant, its attention turning from Yviira to her before getting a face full of white-hot flail, "Eyes up!" I couldn't help but notice that Rae had a stream of blood trickling down her cheek, a flying shard of ice must've grazed her before she could raise her shield.
I turn to Faust and give him a nod, as I reposition myself to make it harder for the creature to know if either Faust or myself were about to fire. Luckily Faust understood my signal and as I moved, he fired another round, grazing his target. Once I was in position, I send my third bullet flying down-range, its weight impacting the aberrant, causing it to jolt and twitch! I look to Faust as he gives me a 'thumbs-up'... I guess that's what it looks like when the augment works? Odd... Well it was better than nothing, I suppose.
Holding out her hand and her wand, Yviira shouts at the aberrant, "metatea dA!" A magical arc jumps from her wand to the aberrant, but it doesn't appear to do anything, "Oh... Well that's not good."
The aberrant slashes at Rae, ripping into her shield and gouging her left arm before turning towards me and slinging a volley of spikes out in my direction. The spikes nail me in my right arm and leg, with two more piercing right through my abdomen and knocking me to the ground, "Y̴͕͒̋ő̶͔̟u̸͕̽!̶̨̞̇ ̵̖̏̕Ǐ̷̝ ̵͙̠̀w̶͔̿̊a̷͕͋̿s̸͕͊ ̸͚͎̉s̸͍̼͆͗u̶͉͛p̸̩̹̑͋p̸͓̊̍o̵̜͉̍̒ś̵̢̀e̸̬̭͂͋ḓ̴̦̀ ̴͓͓͝t̸̢̺̀͋o̴̝͉͋ ̴̠̒̌ḅ̸͝ẽ̴̱̚ ̶̰̽͊ò̶͉n̷̛̥̐ẻ̵̞̪̓ ̸̧͆ö̴͍́͝f̶̣͑́ ̷͚͒̊ẏ̷͕̎ṓ̶̡̝u̸̜̩͒!̵̹̄" It howls in anger.
"I'm over here!" Rae's eyes glow a pure-white as she points her flail at the beast, "Fight me, you coward!" Several of the aberrant's limbs twist forcefully towards Rae, as if it was forced to keep focused on her. Winding her flail up to build momentum, she unleashes a bone-crunching blow to the aberrant's body. I'm not sure what is beneath the ooze and goo, but something in there definitely broke just then.
I attempt to get to my feet, but the pain is intense, and my leg has a fist-sized hole through it. With various fluids spilling out onto the soil, I clumsily reach into my pouch for one of the potions Faust brewed for me. It wouldn't completely fix me, but I figured it would stop things from getting worse.
"Yviira, go help her, I'll cover you," Faust issues the command firmly while letting two more bullets fly; the first one passing right through the abomination and the second causing it to twitch, with visible arcs of electricity arcing over the outside of it.
I manage to pop the cork off of one of the potions and drink as much of it as I can. The taste was awful. I've definitely had worse potions, but by Po'oraat I wish they'd use a little mint or raspberries for flavour like most potion-crafters. As I expected, though, the potion stopped the loss of fluids, but I was in no shape to get up, let alone to keep fighting. I could risk another potion; but it's so easy to overdose on potions that I didn't want to risk it.
"Oh shit," Yviira runs up to me and notices the gaping holes in my body that the potion didn't fully close, "I've got you, don't worry..." With a touch of her hand, I feel a strange sense of déjà vu, as I relive the past few moments in reverse. The sensation of feeling the potion flow backwards up my throat and back into the bottle, the awful flavour hitting my tongue again, and the unique feeling of having something tear through your body in reverse, but instead of leaving a hole, the holes close up. Once the sensation fades I look down at the empty potion bottle in curiosity, did I not un-drink it? Or did it just feel like I did? "How do you feel?" Yviira asks for what felt like a second time.
"Oh, I," My head spins for a moment as I realize that I had not traveled back to the moment when I got impaled and that Yviira was still standing next to me, "I'm a bit confused, but I don't feel like I'm dying..."
"Great!" She smiles, "That's how that typically feels!" I begin questioning her intentions, as no normal person would say that.
The aberrant lashes out at Rae again and again and again. Rae's shield taking a royal beating as blood begins to drip from her arms. With each new swipe of the abomination's claws, tendrils, and maw, more and more blood splashes to the ground.
Jumping back, Rae's shield begins to glow with the purity of the heavens, "With Idor as my witness, I shall not fall!" Reaching for her belt, she pops the corks off of a potion and chugs it before tossing it to the ground to drink another. I can tell her body was trying to reject the second flask, but it was quite impressive that she was able to keep it down. She pitches the second flask at the aberrant, the glass shattering as it makes contact with its skin, "Prepare to meet your end."
While the aberrant is distracted, I reach into my pouch and withdraw a glittering-yellow potion hat has the consistency of honey and throw it at the aberrant's back; the potion splashing as the glass shatters, gluing the beast in-place and rendering it unable to move. Yviira holds out a hand to help me back to my feet, and I take aim and prepare to fire my fourth shot. Yviira, noticing my aim must've been slightly off, whirls her hands together at where she predicts my shot will land and opens a rift just in time and space for my bullet to reach it. As my stray bullet enters the one rift, it quickly exits the other, slamming right into what I'd assume was the head of the creature.
"Thanks!" I nod towards Yviira, "I didn't expect it to miss that wildly!"
"Of course!" She replies as she readies her next spell.
Faust fires his sixth shot before ducking behind a rock to reload, the bullet nailing the aberrant right where mine pelted it, "Are you sure I can't use my normal weapon, Rae!?" He shouts.
"Oh, I'm sure! I wouldn't want to be caught up in the blast, now would I!?" Her voice was mildly sarcastic, as if she was wanting to have a little fun, but was too focused on the fight to fully commit to it.
I see Faust mumble some things, as he pets a circular object before stowing it back into his bag to continue reloading. Yviira holds her hand out again and snaps her fingers, causing another primordial blast to occur within the aberrant; the pieces try to fly away, but are held at a certain distance due to the Stickiness potion's goo holding it all together. As the pieces coalesce once more, I notice the aberrant is moving far more sluggishly. Its cries are softer, and its movements are sloppy. It tries to attack Rae again, but she's able to side-step the onslaught of blows.
"It looks like it's almost finished!" Yviira shouts at Rae.
"On it!" Rae quickly embeds her glowing shield into the dirt between her and the aberrant and kneels down one knee, "Idor, my god, the great balancer; hear my pleas! This enemy is not to exist in this world! Release it from this mortal coil and deliver it to Gra'Nu'Daer!" Just then, a fiery sword made of golden light, about thirty meters in length, falls from the sky, slamming down on the aberrant with a quaking force strong enough to knock all of us to the floor. The aberrant squirms for a few moments before it stops moving; the divine blade pinning it to the ground below.
We all approach the monstrosity, prepared to begin another round of fighting when the sword and the aberrant's body begin to fizzle out of existence.
"Thank... You..." The aberrant mutters in a clear and soft voice. The princess and the other sacrifices were finally free.
Once the last of the remains of the aberrant had disintegrated, we step inside the altar room to ensure the job was done. Inside, amongst the skeletal remains of the sacrifices, I spot a body I didn't have accounted for back when we originally marked them on the map... It was Professor Neidle's! There was no sign of biting, gnashing, or clawing; so they must've died the same as the mercenaries outside did. We drag their remains out and bundle them a pile just outside the dig site's area; ensuring that we didn't mix them together with each other or any of the sacrifices' bones. I also looked through their clothes to make sure that they didn't have anything that belonged here; going as far as to rip out a few pages of Neidle's notebook to ensure the secrecy of this site's nefarious purpose.
We assist Faust in lining the walls and cage-rooms with his special explosives, which he claims make the ones previous expeditions used on the doors look like fire-crackers... Whatever those were. While roaming the halls to place the explosives I come across my old pouch! It must have fallen off when I put away my torch! Thank the gods for that, I was actually debating working towards the fifty gold for a replacement, so I'm glad I don't need to go through with that after all... Checking inside I find my lembas was still good to eat as well; those elves sure do know how to make long-lasting bread if it survived for just over two years in a cold and damp environment!
"What about the doors?" I ask, pointing towards the towering monoliths as we evacuate the interior of the ruins, "They're in basically-pristine condition after all this time. Despite the endless scratching from the aberrant, the blast from previous expeditions, and any other attempts at destroying or opening them..."
"I'll handle it once the explosives are finished being set," Yviira reassures me, "They have a strong enchantment on them; but it's nothing I can't undo."
As we finish setting the explosives throughout the entire structure, we run a wire to the top of the trail that oversees the dig site so we can keep a safe distance. Speaking the command, the doors begin to shut. It will be the last time they move.
Yviira's the last to leave the courtyard, as she presses both hands on the doors and whispers something in that unfamiliar language again before walking up the trail to meet us again, "It is done. The doors won't be a problem," Her voice was quieter than normal, as if she felt bad about what she- or we, for that matter- did.
"What'd you do to them?" Faust asks curiously.
"I removed the enchantment and then commanded them to turn to dust. See for yourself," She points back towards the doors as their shiny lustre fades and rusts before holes begin to appear and pieces quickly fall off, "It is not something I like doing... Deteriorating things like that." We watch in awe as the impervious doors are reduced to nothing more than two piles of rust.
"Can I detonate them now!?" Faust asks excitedly after the moment of silence between all of us. The emotional whiplash from Yviira's previous words to Faust's was potent. We lay down and brace for the explosion, "Five. Four. Three. Two. One!" Faust slams his whole body weight onto the handle of the box that's attached to the wire leading to the courtyard. Several moments pass without even a sound. Just as I open my mouth to comment on the lack of action taking place, I feel it.
KABOOM!
With each set of explosives detonating, the ground quivers. The constant explosions sounding like an extreme thunderstorm with the power of an earthquake. The quaking lasted several minutes before it finally calmed down and the dust and debris began to settle.
I peek over the ledge to see that where the structure once stood, it had now been reduced to a crater of rubble and debris. Larger pieces still remained; but I doubt anyone would be able to make some sense of it in the future.
"I want to do something," Yviira stands to her feet, brushing off the dust from her cloak, "Just to be thorough." She waves and flicks her wand, creating a shadowy glyph in the air. Not a moment later, I feel a sudden shift in my weight; as if I was being pulled in a direction contrary to what gravity normally pulls me in. I look back over the ledge and see a massive jet-black orb floating above the courtyard; the pieces of rubble and rock loosened by the explosions getting sucked into it as if were alive and gnawing on the surrounding landscape. As the ball of darkness grew, so did its appetite. Its pull snapping trees out of the ground and eating the very soil... After a moment, Yviira flicked her wrist again and it vanished, "There! Now it's like it was never here at all!" She says with a chaotic smile.
"What was that!?" Faust erupted. If I didn't know better I'd say he was about to explode next!
"A black hole," Yviira grins deviously, "I had to make extra sure that we erased this place entirely~"
"Yes, I can see that; but why wait until after we used up all of my precious bombs!?" Faust raised his voice further.
"Well, if I did this first, it probably wouldn't have gotten everything unless I let it get too big; and I don't like letting them get that big, as they can become... Unstable..." Her words had a mild amount of sass hidden beneath the surface, as if she was trying to combat Faust's aggressiveness with it.
Still seated on the ground, I look in horror at what was once the dig site. From human-sacrifice and automaton production facility to abandoned to a dig site... Has now been reduced to absolutely nothing. I glance at Yviira in fear, "Arcanists are crazy!" I mutter to myself. I had seen a lot for one day, hell a lot for one lifetime; and I've been around a while! I had never before seen a mage wield this kind of power before, granted I'd never seen an Arcanist before either...
"Don't worry, you get used to it," Rae states with a chuckle as she extends me a hand to help me up, "I've somehow known two Arcanists now... They pack quite the punch."
I take her hand and get to my feet as Faust and Yviira bicker over 'efficiency' and 'being thorough'. Maybe they didn't get along quite as well as I originally thought... I gesture for them to follow Rae and I and begin the trek back to the harbour. As soon as we reached the shore, Keildrik was already there waiting for us. He must've spotted us as soon as we could see the shore line.
"Are you kids alright?" He asks, "One minute I was sitting in the ship, reading today's paper, and the next? A sound that I can only describe as 'the ground sobbing in pain'! Then the tide came in hours ahead of schedule! I thought a tsunami was a brewin'!"
"Yeah, we're alright. Thanks Keildrik," I give him a warm smile as we board his row boat back to the ship. It was finally done. It had been over a year since the expedition, but the site and the aberrant were finally destroyed. Thank the gods, too... I was tired and ready to see Aiya again.
