The Man Who Was Never There by Niall Teasdale

Author:Niall Teasdale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

~~~

There were no more chaos monsters, and they saw no one else as they closed in upon the entrance. Chaos monsters sometimes appeared at magical accident sites, Ozbach told them. They were not common, which was good since they were difficult to deal with. The magic of the Wall kept them to a minimum within Ardalamn, but they did appear. Kori told them that the things could be summoned using Chaos magic. And that was one of the reasons that Chaos magic was heavily controlled or outright banned everywhere.

The problem was that the level of chaos all around them continued to increase as they approached their goal. Lizbit, the most skilled in Magic aside from Kori and Ozbach, was monitoring the situation, and her pale face told the story rather well every time she cast the spell.

‘The chamber where the entrance is is just up ahead,’ Garrik said after what seemed like far too long.

‘I d-don’t really have an objective m-measure, but the chaos level is really high now,’ Lizbit said.

‘Keep moving,’ Ozbach said. ‘Just keep hoping that the entrance is open and clear.’

‘So far, so– What’s that?!’ Garrik stepped into the chamber with its five ways in or out, and he immediately spotted something which had not been there the last time they had been in it.

It was not large, a block of stone perhaps a foot in height and half that wide. It was standing upright on a metal stand such as one might find in an alchemist’s laboratory supporting an alembic. There were symbols cut into the stone faces, visible because they seemed to be glowing a little. Otherwise, it was just sitting there in the middle of the chamber, doing nothing.

‘Alfawda Alshueur,’ said Lizbit. ‘D-don’t touch it! It’s… It’s almost like that’s the source of the chaos. But not. It’s saturated with chaos somehow.’

Kori did not touch it, but she circled it at a respectful distance. ‘It was not here when we entered. It does not appear to be doing anything right now. I’d almost say that it’s inert. I don’t recognise these ideograms, and my Aljazirac is fairly good. Safa?’

Safa grinned. It was a bit forced, but she managed it. ‘You assume that because I’m an islander, I can read Aljazirac better than you? I know it used to be our language, but that was a long time ago.’

‘Apologies for the assumption.’

‘You’re forgiven. For the record, I don’t recognise them either.’

‘Neither do I,’ Ozbach said, ‘but my Aljazirac isn’t great. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to examine it properly.’ He nodded toward one of the corridors, the one they had taken on first entering the chamber. Black chaos was filling the opening and starting to advance into the room.

‘There’s more of it down here,’ Garrik said, pointing down another of the ways out.

‘Then let’s not wait for it,’ Kori said, and she started for the corridor which led to the entrance portal. She came to a sudden stop five paces from the point where they should have transitioned to the real world.

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