Act 3, Chapter 112: Liora, my light (Patreon)

Day in the story: 1st February (Sunday), past 6:20 a.m.—approximately 10 hours and 1 minute remain until the record time is lost

Elle Erikson

Liora dove back toward Laurent, who lay half-buried beneath a writhing mass of tongues. Just before reaching him, my lóng materialized the front half of his body and drove both foreclaws into the thick tongue coiled around the man's neck. Once he had a firm grip, he sank his teeth into it with every bit of strength he could muster.

The fleshy appendage split apart and Laurent drew a long, ragged breath through his clenched teeth.

“Merci,” he rasped. The instant he spoke, my view through Liora's forehead eye lurched violently. It felt as though the world had been ripped forward around him. His body shot away, dragged straight through the living mass by an unseen force. Liora reacted instantly, letting the front half of his body dissolve into shadowlight before the surrounding flesh could crush him. Yet whatever had seized him paid no attention to whether he was tangible or not.

He twisted in midair, looking back toward his tail while beating desperately against the pull. I reached for him as well, trying to recall him to my side, but something resisted my Authority. Whatever held him simply refused to let go.

“We ought to stop this,” Milo said. He planted his bat against the webbing once more, and the familiar dome of protective energy blossomed around us. I froze with another explosive card already poised between my fingers, but with quick sleight of hand I let it ran along and between my fingers, before I cleanly hid it back in the container.

“Yes. That clearly isn't working.” Liana caught Kito by the arm and pulled him closer. “Find the strongest venom you can.” She held his gaze for a brief moment before releasing him.

Kito nodded. His bladed forearms melted back into human hands, and he slowly lowered himself into a meditative squat, spreading his arms as though embracing the countless possibilities before him. At the same time, Liana released another wave of ants and bees from the folds beneath her skin, giving him fresh material to shape.

While they prepared their assault, Liora suddenly burst free of the writhing mass much farther down the slope, dangerously close to the waiting maw. Wrapped around his tail was a half-translucent, serpent-like tongue that shimmered with a ghastly green light. It dragged him relentlessly toward the pit from which it had emerged. Then I noticed more of its kind. Additional spectral tongues rose from the darkness below, their sickly glow washing over the monstrous column at the center of the cavern. They reached for Liora with terrifying speed, each one trying to ensnare another part of his body before he could escape.

I had to help him.

Ghostflame was the first thing that came to mind. I summoned the painted dagger, snatched a paper bird straight from my Domain, and lashed the weapon securely to its body with a length of silk wrapped around the hilt.

Then I hurled the bird into the darkness. At the same time, I gave it a single command through both Animation and Identity. It answered without hesitation, folding its wings and diving toward my lóng like a hunting hawk.

“Your mantises have almost hacked their way to Patricia, guys,” Piotr observed, watching the swarm carve through the living flesh with astonishing speed and precision. “Should I go for her?”

“Yes. Go,” Liana answered immediately. “Bat first, Milo. Make it safe before you grab her. Elle, secure him with your silk.” As she spoke, she directed the first wave of bees. Their stingers glistened with thick, yellowish venom as they burst from the safety of the dome and descended onto the nearest tongues. One after another, they landed, drove their stingers deep into the writhing muscles, and emptied themselves of venom. Golden and green ribbons of shadowlight trailed behind every bee, briefly illuminating their frantic flight before fading as each insect sacrificed itself.

I anchored several strands of silk to Milo's shoulders, wrapping them securely around his torso.

Then he jumped and the very moment he left the platform, we were exposed again to the creature pressing against the edges of our web, eager to overrun it. At the peak of his shadowlight-enhanced leap, Milo rotated the bat in his hands and angled himself downward.

He landed only a meter or two short of Patricia.

It didn't matter as the impact alone flattened the tongues the mantises had yet to cut through, and the instant his bat struck the living ground, a shimmering dome blossomed around him, pinning the surrounding flesh beneath its edge and forcing everything else back.

He remained upright for only a heartbeat. Then gravity reclaimed him, and he began sliding down the slick slope once more. As he passed Patricia, he caught her around the waist just as she, newly freed by the mantises, began sliding after him.

The instant he had hold of her, I stopped feeding silk through my distributors. Digging my heels into the woven platform, I leaned backward with all my weight as the lines stretched farther and farther between us before finally they snapped taut.

The sudden jolt arrested Milo's fall just long enough for him to plant his boots against the living slope and recover his balance. Holding Patricia securely with one arm while using the bat in the other to steady and strengthen himself, he bent his knees and launched himself in a broad arc back toward us.

Kito was already carving through another wave of tongues reaching for the platform when the two of them landed. The impact sent ripples through the woven web beneath our feet, but it held without a single strand giving way. My silk was harder than reinforced steel, yet flexible enough to absorb the force.

Milo laid Patricia on the net slowly. Her eyes were open, but she was otherwise absent-minded. Liana kneeled beside her, checking her vitals with both care and haste and immediately after embraced her, relief washing over her face as she confirmed that her friend was unharmed. Beside them, Piotr joined Kito, his bat sweeping through the grasping tongues before he planted it once again and drove the invading flesh away with another protective dome.

"She seems fine." Liana confirmed, slowly lowering Pat into laying position again.

"Maybe just in shock?" I proposed.

"Or in deep meditation to conserve energy," Kito proposed between slashes that cut another tongue in half. Some of them begun pushing through the barrier, either on their own strength or on behalf of Piotr straining his own Authority too much. “I've seen her like that before," he finished.

I barely noticed any of it as my attention remained fixed on Liora and in that moment I barely had enough of it to spare. Most of the minds making up the Brain Web were devoted to Maya and her desperate attempt to find the link that kept Alexa suffering within the Weaver's Tree’s vast cosmos of shadowlight links.

My lóng fought to stay above the sea of living muscle, straining against the growing number of spectral tongues wrapped around him, when the paper bird finally reached him.

He snapped it cleanly in half and the construct dissolved into fluttering scraps while Ghostflame remained clamped securely between his jaws. With visible effort, Liora twisted his body and slashed at the nearest spectral tongue. The enchanted blade, painted to cut what existed only partly within reality, passed through it without resistance and the tongue split cleanly in two.

The section coiled around his foreleg loosened immediately and fell away, while the severed end recoiled into the writhing flesh below, thrashing wildly as sickly green ichor sprayed from the wound.

Using that brief opening, Liora shifted Ghostflame from his mouth into his newly freed paw.

My heart lurched, because he missed. Another translucent tongue whipped around his neck and jerked him violently backward and the dagger slipped from his grasp.

“No!” I shouted. Within the Domain, Alex reacted instantly, recalling Ghostflame before it could disappear into the living mass below.

“I'll free him,” Piotr said, resting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“I'm not sure your bat can even hit those green tongues.” My mind raced from one solution to another. I was only moments away from abandoning every precaution and teleporting straight to Liora myself.

“Can't he just become physical and slip free of them?” Liana asked.

“He's trying,” I answered, repeating what Anansi had conveyed through thoughts. “He can't.”

I reached for my spellbook again, extending my will across the boundary between worlds to summon Ghostflame once more. Then something unexpected appeared before Liora's gasping snout—a pearl of swirling, rainbow-colored light. It floated there like that for only a heartbeat before the colors slowed and the sphere grew denser, smoother, until it became something tangible—a lustrous, pearlescent orb suspended in the air before him.

[Throw him the dagger. He needs it closer.] Anansi's thought echoed through my mind.

Every ounce of strength my body, suit, and Authority could provide went into the throw that followed that ask. The instant Ghostflame left my hand, I poured additional Authority into the rotor painted on my palm, sending the dagger hurtling even faster.

It carved a broad, green-tinged arc through the cavern toward my soulbound companion.

Liora never looked away from it and as the dagger entered his reach, the pearl hovering before him blazed with vivid green shadowlight. The next instant my vision through his eyes vanished and Alex recalled Ghostflame back into the Domain.

Lio's scales turned steel-grey, stretching and sharpening into overlapping blades. His mane erupted into ghastly green fire that burned without smoke or heat, spreading across every inch of his body until the dragon himself seemed to become living Ghostflame.

The spectral tongues recoiled the same instant. Wherever the emerald fire touched them, they blackened and vanished. Liora wheeled through the air in a blur of green light, his bladed scales slicing apart anything the flames had not already consumed.

“What is he doing?” Liana asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the spectacle.

“I have no idea,” I admitted truthfully while I watched my lóng break free completely and sweep toward us in a broad arc. At the same time, Liana's mantises were closing in on Laurent's position, making it painfully obvious that we'd have to mount another rescue. Still, for a brief moment, I allowed myself the relief of knowing my little sky serpent had survived. He rushed through the air, bounding off invisible platforms, flying and slithering like a draconic eel before finishing with a sprint around the dome. At last, he leaped inside.

“I am glad you let me deal with this... Elle,” Lio whispered the moment his escape succeeded and he reached us. The secrecy was entirely unnecessary. Nearly every pair of eyes on the platform was already fixed on him. As he spoke, the emerald flames withdrew into his body. The bladed scales softened back into their familiar shape until he looked like himself again—at least as much as a tiny flying dragon ever could. Only the orb remained. It hovered weightlessly between his horns, slowly turning in place as rainbow colors drifted across its pearlescent surface, blending into one another like wet paint. “I was afraid you wouldn't let me handle this myself.”

While he spoke, I began winding another strand of silk around Milo's shoulders. Like everyone else, the big man listened in silence to the exchange between me and my soulbound companion.

“You're good to go.” I patted Piotr on the back while wrapping the remaining silk around my wrist and between my palms, preparing to control its tension.

“I was considering a more direct approach,” I admitted to Liora. “I didn't want to lose you.” I continued while Anansi relied information about my teleportation plan.

“Thank you,” he replied quietly. “I appreciate that.”

“Go now!” Liana shouted.

Her mantises flared with shadowlight, outlining Laurent's exact position beneath the writhing tongues. Milo bent his knees, shadowlight flowing over his body like a second skin, then launched himself toward the marked spot.

I leaned backward once more, bracing myself as silk streamed from my distributors in a continuous line, unreeling like fishing wire.

“I think we should just leave this place and make for the staircase in one of the tower's legs,” Liana said, stepping behind me and placing both hands on my shoulders to steady me. “We don't have to fight this thing.”

“This thing has strong Authority,” Patricia murmured suddenly as she pushed herself upright. She pressed a hand against her forehead. “Strong Authority,” she repeated, as though testing the thought. Then her eyes settled on us. “You'd... save me?”

“Milo just did,” Liana answered. “Well... him and Elle.”

“I appreciate the kind words, Lia, but all of us played our parts.” She smiled at that. Maybe not all was lost after all.

“O... kay,” Patricia mumbled slowly.

At that moment I pulled the silk taut, giving Piotr just enough support to regain his footing before he and the newly secured Laurent launched themselves back toward the platform together. Freed from the strain of supporting Milo's weight, I took a couple of steps toward Liora, who hovered patiently nearby.

“Do you know what that is?” I asked, reaching toward the pearl suspended between his horns.

Before my finger could touch it, he instinctively pulled his head back. The sphere retreated with him, maintaining exactly the same distance between itself and his horns. I lowered my hand.

“I'll tell you about it when the time is right.” I simply nodded, watching his nebulous eyes meet mine. There was something in them I hadn't seen before. Sadness, perhaps. Or maybe shame.

The web shuddered as Piotr landed once again. The moment his boots touched the silk, he let Laurent stand on his own, drew a deep breath, and planted the bat into the platform. The familiar shimmering dome expanded around us, pressing back the advancing tongues and barring them from further intrusions.

Even in the dim light cast by Liana's bees, Liora's natural glow, and the fading shadowlight still clinging to his body, Milo looked unusually pale. The crimson and white film covering him receded a little more with every passing second.

“You need to rest, Milo,” Patricia said, already reaching into her satchel. She uncorked a small jar of herbal ointment, scooped out a spoonful, warmed it between her fingers, and spread it across his chest and neck. The sharp scent of spirits mixed with edelweiss and another herb I couldn't identify. Almost immediately, Milo inhaled deeply and color returned to his cheeks.

“Better. I'm better now.”

“This is only temporary, Peter. You know that.”

“Guys...” Laurent spoke quietly. “I'm sorry for being dead weight again.” He stood with one foot behind the other, absentmindedly supporting his injured arm while staring toward the distant center of the cavern.

“That could've happened to any of us.” Liana stepped beside him, gently taking the same arm he was holding and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “That's why we're a team.” She smiled before looking back toward the monster. “I was just saying we should make for the staircase. Any ideas?”

“I think we should kill it,” Bastien said. The flames still consuming the central column reflected in his eyes, flickering across his face as they climbed higher through the writhing flesh. Above them, tongues continued spreading across the ceiling. Sooner or later, they would reach us.

“How?” Liana asked. “Kito and I already brewed the strongest venom we could think of, and this thing just keeps regenerating.”

“I can trap it inside a photograph.”

“You can't be serious,” Kito scoffed, casually slicing through another tongue that had managed to force its way through the edge of Milo's shield. “Look at the size of this thing. Don't you have to capture the whole target?”

“I do.”

“Then how the hell are you planning to photograph all... this?”

“I don't think all of this is the creature.” He pointed toward the towering column rising from the maw. “I think that's the core. The stem... and the mouth beneath it. Everything else feels more like an extension of the thing at the tower’s peak than this creature in here, despite the similarities. If we illuminate the whole thing well enough for me to capture those parts, I can try to overpower its will.”

“My bees won't be enough,” Liana admitted, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

“I can become the light, humans,” Liora said as he drifted through the air to hover beside Laurent and Liana. “And the sooner, the better. My Pearl of Ten Thousand Forms will not remain with me much longer. I can already feel it fading.”

“Let's try,” I said.

“Fine,” Liana agreed. “But if, at any point, you think you can't win, you tell us immediately. Then we stop gambling and focus on getting out of here. Understood?” Laurent nodded.

At Liora's silent request, relayed to me by Anansi, I drew one of my Light cards from its holder. I held it before him without infusing it with Authority. Liora drifted closer and reached toward the painted image of sunlight streaming through a stained-glass window.

The transformation was instantaneous. One moment, a tiny dragon hovered before us. The next, he became the painting itself. A brilliant radiance burst outward with such intensity that every one of us instinctively shut our eyes. Even after he floated away, I could still feel his warmth through my closed eyelids. Orange, yellow, and white danced across the darkness behind them, filling my vision with shifting patches of light.

Several heartbeats later, I dared to look again.

He was no longer a dragon but a great wisp of living light as he circled the towering stem at the center of the cavern, surrounded by grasping tongues that reached desperately toward him. At its heart floated a single black point, his pearl.

His brilliance flooded the cavern beneath the Eiffel Tower, revealing for the first time the true extent of the muscle-like overgrowth that had consumed it. Flesh spread over every wall and climbed every support, while above us the ceiling was coated in the same living tissue, its slower movements suggesting something different than the frantic tongues below.

Laurent raised the camera mounted to his forearm and began sweeping it across the illuminated cavern, capturing the maw, the central stem, and the immense network of living flesh stretching all the way to the ceiling in one panoramic take.