"As much as I love to wax upon intricacies, how are you all carrying on with all this racket?" said Percy, pressing a hand tightly to his forehead, his middle finger bending back upon his temple. He had broken out into another sweat. The man seemed to whip between being fine and fighting off a migraine, occasionally losing his focus on the task at hand.
"What racket?" Jakku asked peeling off of Ruarc for a moment.
"Can't you all hear it?" muttered the Alchemist, pressing his hand into his face, before it fell away, as if slowly tugged apart. Those weary green eyes of his looked at every face in the room. "... Does anyone hear it?"
Khrrooong... The Staff, Unity, was tapped to the floor, and the fire and the fireplace began to warp and change in color.
"
They can feel him, the linking rope of his soul is faint, but they know he is present, and they know something is coming," came Eryl's enunciated words, as the fire began to grow to her left. Jakku's eyes widened, fearfully seeking out Miyuki and hiding behind her neck as she had done before in the face of great danger. Eryl's eyes traced a line on the wall, in a way like seeing something others could not. "They howl because that is all they know to do, each one having fallen to atrophy, holding on to that which chains them to the waking world. Five chains to be broken, a sixth to be found in the chaos."
"Five lost to their madness..." picked up Percy, as if in a daze. The fire grew up over the wall, bending backward over the books and finery. Wicking off the flames in stinging waves was a cold air, something so cold that even Miyuki could feel the difference. Their one-armed friend continued, almost amazed at his own words, "One bound by the burden it carries."
The two entranced mages, bound by their ill bond a decade prior spoke in tandem.
"Doubt."
"Doubt."
The wall of flame turned in upon itself, a bright light coalescing at its center. A repugnant stench of decay entered Ruarc's nose and swirled in his chest.
"Fear."
"Fear."
Ambient air became charged, icy particulate hovering over them. Riley could feel eyes upon her from beyond the portal, smiling and frowning.
"Shame."
"Shame."
Fire became a more distinct form, an ethereal aura washed over itself into a round shape. The light faded from Jane's shoulders, a foreign bitterness rising in her throat like a bad whiskey.
"Sorrow."
"Sorrow."
Icy air began wet rain, splashing on the floor, and then chasing back to the opening. Miyuki felt something shatter upon her sternum, as if it were sunken by a weight.
"Loathing."
"Loathing."
On the word itself, a baleful cacophony of howls roared forth from the now yawning portal. Each felt a fire in their heart burn hot, emotions of passion and energy ignited into something very ugly. Percy's eyes rolled back into his head, and he gripped a portion of his shirt, coming to his knees. A hissing word passed his lips before his head fell slack over his chest, a name, Miyuki's. The light from the portal made everything almost painful to look at, the howling only made everything louder instead of drowning it out. The blue color in Eryl's eyes was almost too perfect as she looked at the rest of them. She pointed Unity to the mouth of the opening.
They could barely see a land of withered trees and stone beyond the corpulent sensory overload. Hazes and darkness wreathed through the vague picture, which only made it harder to discern their path.
"He has gone ahead," whispered Eryl, her voice almost uncomfortable in volume even at such effort. "The way is open. From this juncture, there is no turning back, no reinforcements. Should we fail, I will relive another long darkness, and you will do it with me should you survive. This is not the sanctum, it is a shattered ruin housed in soul of infinite power. Trust only yourselves."
The portal expanded like an iris when the Maelgwyn woman approached it, "Shall we?"