The Demon of Elderstay: The New Dark Saga by I. Ribbon

Author:I. Ribbon [Ribbon, I.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I Ribbon
Published: 2024-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

“Finally!” an unpleasant voice snapped in my ear. One I was well acquainted with by now. “What took you so long?”

I woke to find myself hugging the edge of the fountain. I couldn’t see my reflection this time, or anything else for that matter. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The colourful goldfish had perished and decayed at the bottom of the basin years ago. The thought induced a tingling sense of absence in the pit of my stomach. I stared emptily into the filthy water. Then up, at the cloying yellow barrier above our heads. A heavy silence filled the air for what felt like a very long time. The disjointed clues were falling into place, and I thought I had it. I almost had it.

“Come on, gnome!” scolded Polly. “You were out cold for ages! You just took a tiny sip!” Her tone was tinged with urgency. I noticed her lips were stained black. Mine must have been too. “Come on, let’s go inside!”

“It was the baby,” I said. “The demon was the baby. Lord Edmund was trying to strike a deal with the Shade Planes. To bring his child back to life…”

I could feel Polly’s gaze on me. The loyal Bingop-ul was next to her; the undead goblin seemed oddly subdued.

“But you already knew that,” I continued, “didn’t you, Polly?”

That’s why she looked familiar. Beneath years of subtle magical alterations, I saw the face of the little girl. The one who had hidden behind a pillar and witnessed evils no child ever should. Her frizzy black hair had all but dropped out, replaced by odd lichen-like growths. The kind you expect to find on the side of damp caves or the bark of gnarly old trees. Her skin had gone from a healthy rich brown to an unnatural sandy tinge. She was like a plant that had grown in the shade. Sheltered from the light in more than one way. Everything about her had morphed, spoiled. Except for her inky black eyes. Those had remained the same. And they were currently set on me with disarming intensity.

“What are you talking about?” growled Polly, a threat in her tone.

“You are Lord Edmund’s daughter.”

I did not need her to confirm this. The look she gave me was enough.

I ambled past Polly, taking care to avoid her spores. I needn’t have worried. Like their caster, the magical swirling spores had gone still, as if frozen in place.

I stopped and turned back, pacing up and down the plaza with my hands behind my back. One of my little habits when trying to catch up with my thoughts. I felt them stumble over each other in an unseen race towards some grand realisation. I had been known to fall into such deep states of ambling cogitation, I am told that – to this day – you can still see where my incessant walking stripped a path in my first arcane teacher’s lawn. A lot was going on, there was a lot to think about.

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