The Clutch of Sharys: Chapter four
Chapter 4: Of Positions and Portals
The dragons came first, perfect copies of their sire, and then the humans, made in a unique design of flesh and weakness, scaleless yet resourceful creatures. They may have lacked the first children's divine gift to manipulate their world, but they possessed the spark of inherited intelligence from the Godbeast itself.
Her mind slipped back to when she had first peeked through a frosty window in the morning, creeping out of bed before the morning bell had rung. Cara had been sent to bed without dinner again, and her sleep had been fitfully light the entire night. Shouts from outside her window gave her a reason to get up and tiptoe across the floor to peer out the window. Outside, a group of her uncle's servants were sparring in the morning light, weaving in and out as they swung at each other, being spurred on by cheers from their compatriots.
Curious, she watched as an older man roundly kicked a younger dirty blonde in the ribs, sending her toppling to the ground. Cara sucked her breath in, thinking the fight was over already as the man stepped towards his prone opponent. Instead, the woman twisted on the ground, pulling her legs up under herself in a fluid motion and pushing upwards at the older man's midsection. Her heart racing, Cara held her breath as she watched the gentleman reflexively swing a punch at the girl's tawny head, which she deflected off her upper arms, bringing a knee up into a deep lunge. The woman quickly jabbed an elbow between the man's legs, taking advantage of his moment of pain to shove her head upwards into his jaw.
Stumbling backward, dazed, two of the bystanders quickly caught the older gentleman, each taking one of his arms around their necks as they guided him out of the ring. Bowing a few times theatrically, the woman jumped out of the ring as well, wiping blood from her nose as the morning crystals chimed six throughout the courtyard. The servants dispersed, a couple fussing over the quickly fading black eye on the young woman's face, the girl simply shrugging them off as she headed into the house. Cara watched as the happiness and freedom slipped from their faces, being meticulously replaced with the stoic but polite distance she was accustomed to seeing.
Watching them leave, Cara has kept thinking about the quick but brutal fight she had just witnessed. There had been something new in the way they had interacted with each other, in the way they moved. Cara found herself fascinated by the wild abandon in their eyes, the relinquishment of rules or boundaries for their blows, and the staunch respect of the winner. The people who had seemed so much like bland figures in the background had looked alive and happy, in the same way that her family had been before they were sent away to be educated with their uncle's children.
Cara loathed being stuck in the grey, bland house with its upright, cushioned furniture and stiff, snooty occupants. That wasn't to say there weren't moments that she could find happiness in, however, but Cara found all of those moments in solitude. Sometimes when her uncle was on a rampage, she would hide in the back of his vast personal library, behind a stack of books, skinny knees pulled up to her chest as she read by the light of a faltering overhead lamp. Cara would read about strategy and world mythologies, tales of wild adventure, and epic twists.
Thinking back to that moment, the combat that she had seen described within those pages didn't quite compare to what she had just seen, with the tome describing stiff military formations and tactical encampment strategies. The way the books she had read had explained it was either dreadfully boring or too wild to be practical. Cara paused in her thought, chewing on her lip, searching for words as she "looked for a better way to say less in a more educated manner." Her uncle would so often remind her of this whenever they clashed, and she had reached the point of annoyance where she was determined to change her vocabulary even if it was to tell him to screw himself in the most polite, 'educated' manner possible. The books had described the combat as either too clinical or too fantastical to be worthy of practical applications, she mentally amended.
The clicking and rattling of the doorknob had interrupted Cara's thoughts, as the maid her uncle assigned to take care of and spy on her swept into the room without so much as knocking. The girl raised an eyebrow at the empty bed and the bundled Cara on the window seat. "Time to get up, miss, you've a busy day." She said simply, pulling out some clothes.
Later, when she had been attending one of the few lessons besides dance that she took seriously, Cara had asked her Polearms Master about different forms of fighting besides just using weapons. She had always favored the spear, but as her uncle so often reminded her, it was just a stick. When faced with a dragon or an angry man with an axe, it meant little. Cara thought that if she could learn to move like her uncle's servants, she might better dodge blows of a different kind that came from people who were supposed to be protecting her.
When she had inquired, the Polearms Master hadn't answered her at first. "Go through your positions." The man had said, flicking a couple of fingers towards the empty practice floor, covered in mats to help cushion falls. "And remember to hold your overhead and balancing forms for more than just a second. Your body needs to remember the way each one feels."
Cara grumbled, picking up the dulled training spear, and began slowly moving through a set of thrusts, lunges, jabs, and poses. Pacing around her, the Polearms master stroked his goatee, throwing out criticisms and suggestions to improve her posture and stance. "Chin up, elbows on a complete line for that downward thrust. Hold it until you're sure you've got it right."
As he continued pacing around her, the instructor commented, "The type of fighting you're asking about is the type of Netian Brawling referred to as street steppeing. It's a desperate tool for the brutish, unimaginative, or foolish."
Cara privately thought that his dumb pointy beard was foolish but decided not to voice that opinion.
"Now, my lady, if you want real art in martial form, learn about the Farcan Rhythms." Her teacher picked up a long javelin from a nearby rack, thrusting into the air a few times as his feet nimbly danced back and forth. "Each element has a set of movements ascribed to it, and those forms, or rhythms, are the basis for many a martial art." Placing the thin spear back down, the master went back to correcting Cara's forms with an acute eye. After that small tidbit of information, their lesson proceeded as usual, though Cara now had some new threads to follow.
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Now she wished for the comforting weight of the spear in her hand because then at least she would have something to do while the High Priestess finished her droning blessing. Cara noticed the group had drifted even further apart, forming groups of friendships or alliances that put a bit of distance between those in clumps and the majority who were alone.
Her prayer finally ended, the High Servant’s hands dropped, and a silence fell over the soft murmurs that had filled the hall moments before. Cara and the other participants looked around at each other and then back at the shimmering portal, waiting to see who would move first. After a moment of hesitation and examination, the black, curly head of the prince strode off, pursued by his cohort. Placing a leg up on the stone, he leaned forward, glancing into the depths as lights danced over his face and leg the closer he got to the portal. Glancing cautiously up at the High Servant, and then back at his group of followers, the young man set his shoulders and hopped up on top of the stone. Taking one last glance around the liquid before stepping off, he fell through the golden surface and disappeared.
"Well, at least he's not a total coward." Cara thought, taking a few steps forward to join the crowd climbing the small set of steps up to the circle of stones. She could see the heads of several people rise as they climbed the surrounding barrier and then quickly fall as they leapt in. Anxiety knotted Cara's stomach as the lights got closer and closer, the number of participants left fast dwindling. She had reached the top of the dais now and could see the ring of purple-robed priests, faceless in their hoods, flanking a circle around the High Servant and the four focusing their magics on the portal.
The light from inside the ring shone upon them, coloring their clothes and skin with white-blue light. Overhead, the rays from the portal just kissed the underside of the four dragons, glinting off their scales as they silently observed the proceedings. Two places ahead of her in line, the twins jumped in together, holding hands as they fell in. Cara envied their companionship, desperately wishing that someone had come for her today, but she was next to go, and for better or worse, alone.
As a young man with dark hair and dusky skin leapt eagerly up in front of her, Cara attempted to control her rapid heartbeat, which felt fit to burst out of her chest. Everything felt like it was going too fast and taking too long simultaneously, and it left her unsure whether she was impatient to jump or terrified of what happened after. From accounts that she had heard and books she had read, it was described as a rather uniquely disturbing experience, with varying descriptions of journeys through the Godbeast's doors.
Now it was her turn to find out, and Cara had the horrible thought cross her mind that maybe the priests didn't know what they were doing, and everyone who jumped into this strange, shining brew died a horrific death. Placing a booted foot up on top of the stone guarding the entrance to the circle, she glanced around at the four Servants pouring their combined energies into the portal.
None of them looked especially tired or faulty, more like an intense, almost trance-like focus had taken over their faces as they gazed at the swirling waters in front of them. Cara pushed up, looking down into the ring where the water still spun and sparkled, light yellow beams brushing across everything surrounding the portal.
"Hurry it up already." One of the young women behind her grumbled, "At this rate, the damned thing will be closed before we get a chance to jump, and we’ll have to find a wild portal to get in."
Cara swallowed hard, tensing her body and still looking down. Maybe Keti had been right about this, risking dismemberment and death for just a chance at an egg. The second the thought of a future spent forever in her brilliant sister's shadow crossed Cara's mind, a sick feeling rose in response. Cara refused to be kept in obscurity and constantly be forgotten because she lacked the power and showmanship that everyone adored Keti for.
No, she would not resign to be faded into the background of her uncle's perfect picture for their future. She would be heard and seen, for who she was and what she could offer, for her own power and merit rather than the hollow shell of someone else. There was no choice left for her but to jump, so Cara took that step forward off the stone, the luminescent liquid rushing up to meet her.
The first thing Cara was aware of after the initial flash of light was being flung forward, her speed speeding up as lights blurred together in long streaks, painting her surroundings in millions of rainbow lines as she hurtled past. Not unlike an emotionless roar, a rush of dull sound filled her ears and rattled her teeth within her skull.
After a few moments of speeding towards her unknown destination, utterly alone in the tunnel of light that she flew down, Cara became slowly aware of a sensation creeping up over her body even though nothing was around her. Heat, dry and burning, began lapping at her skin in fiery tongues and spread up her legs, quickly consuming her right torso and arm as the sensation intensified.
Desperate to try to stop whatever invisible blaze that had begun spreading across her, Cara moved her left arm, encountering a sort of resistance as though she was pushing it through some thick fluid, before batting at her right bicep in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain. The second her hand made contact with her arm, Cara yanked it away; as a different heat immediately bit at her hand, wet and stinging, she saw that the skin looked raw and burned from the quick contact.
Cursing silently and shaking her hand, Cara gasped when a sudden wave of soothing, smooth cold lapped over her, gliding across her skin and wicking away the heat from her entirely. She felt like this feeling completely encompassed her, head to toe. Cara watched in wary confusion as her braid lightly floated up past her head, where before it had been flying behind her as she continued to hurtle forwards.
Suddenly, the cool, flexible sensation stiffened, her clothes feeling rigid and her braid falling heavily to her shoulder as though soaked. Cara's teeth chattered even more as her skin began tingling with a familiar rush of warmth, which meant she had only a short amount of time before the itching started, tightening her throat and preventing breath.
As she panicked, wildly looking around for something to get her out of the tunnel of lights, Cara felt a warm rush of air slam into her, melting all ice and rigidity from her as the sensation in her skin began to dull down. The surrounding lights seemed to go by even faster than before, and Cara wondered if that meant she was falling faster, realizing that the sensation of wind earlier had been the first and only sense she had gotten that she was falling.
Her brow creasing, Cara reconsidered her perspective, the lack of a directional force opening up some new possibilities. Now instead of falling down a tunnel and hallucinating weird feelings, she was flying down a hallway, upright, and hallucinating things.
Unsurprisingly, she didn't feel much better now that her fear of falling was gone because she was still hurtling along, seemingly accelerating as the lights pulsed in waves around her rather than streaks. As the pulses slowly intensified their rhythm, starting at a slow, purposeful pace and quickly picking up speed, Cara suddenly felt waves of vibrations pressing over her, timed with the pulsing lights. Feeling to her as though she was promptly crashing through a series of walls, Cara's entire body felt rattled by the time that the waves stopped, replaced by a sudden nothingness that scared her more than any feeling she had ever experienced.
It wasn't so much the lack of sensations touching her as the lack of almost all senses that immediately left Cara reeling. She could hear nothing but a distant ringing, eyes looking out into the unending darkness that enveloped everything, even her own body. Cara twisted and turned, feeling nothing at all as she screamed soundlessly, her mouth tasting of nothing but ash.
"Face it without fear. Face it without fear." Cara repeated the words repeatedly, a silent prayer that helped to slow her breathing until her mind was clear once more. She bit the inside of her cheek, using the pain to help keep her focused as she tried to discern or sensate something about her surroundings. All she could hear was the sound of her heartbeat, gradually getting louder as not even her breaths made any noise. Cara reached out with her hand, groping around to see if there was anything around her, heart skipping a beat when her fingertips brushed into something solid.
There was a pause where nothing happened, and Cara let her shoulders droop slightly in relief when a concussive force flung her backward, hurtling her in a different direction than she had been moving before. She continued to fly in reverse, unable to move or change her trajectory until the back of her body came into contact with something firm and semi-solid that softly gave way beneath her, slowing her down and encompassing her with a slow, even pressure.
When it felt like Cara had almost come to a complete standstill, all movement slowed in the overwhelming darkness around her; the solid surface beneath began to crumble, starting from near her head, and disintegrating its way down her spine. Where the firmament was gone, a warm, supportive light beamed out, piercing around her body into the emptiness and enveloping her in a slowly growing, glowing aura.
Cara slipped backward after whatever was holding her up slowly disappeared, consumed by the light. Headfirst, she fell into a brilliant flash of the same yellow-white light she had stepped into earlier, in what seemed like years ago. It occurred to her that she was now hurtling decidedly down and struggled to flip her body around, wildly swinging her arms to help keep the movement going.
Barely moments after she had oriented herself entirely upright, the yellow light around her thinned, like a curtain being slowly shaved away before her eyes. Cara had little time to take in a red sky, fully painted with black streaks and dark grey clouds that surrounded an enormous rocky disc floating in space. There were thousands of crumbling ruins in an oddly familiar pattern, but before she could puzzle it out, overwhelming heat and the smell of sulfur struck her. Seconds later, her feet slammed into the ground, the force of the impact reverberating up her legs. As she landed, Cara crouched down slightly, bending her knees to help absorb the energy of her landing, and she tried not to fall flat on her face.
Throwing her arms out to the side to try to keep balance as she stumbled a few steps forward, Cara regained her composure. She looked around the arena as dozens of other lights streaked down from the sky, looking like fallen stars as they race down, placing contestants in a circle around the rocky disc, each one arriving in various states of dishevelment and disrepair. Cara could see one of the rat-faced boys from House Sebri lying on his side down on top of a fallen roof not too far from her, slowly picking himself up.
She had been transported onto the top of a flat pillar of rock; many such posts were scattered in a line stretching towards the other side of the disk. Cara could see quite a few caves and crevasses leading down into the ground from her vantage point. If she could get down off this pillar safely and get underground, she would stand a better chance than out here in the open.
Before she had a chance to decide on her next steps, four massive beams of light descended from the ceiling, one of which seemed to land quite close to where Cara stood.