Ballad of the Blue Roses

Chapter Eight
The Fifth Realm

After the light, the first thing Elazul noticed was the almost unfamiliar deadened sensation that weighed down half his body. Instinctively, he reached for his core... the pulse came naturally, steadily reverberating... comforting, or it should have been...

But it wasn’t. For if he was here – wherever here was; another problem entirely – whole, as he was shaped, as he was created to be, then where in Fa’Diel was Galathea?

“Here.”

She appeared at his side, much as she ever was – solemn, caring, and altogether human. He smiled softly at that, only the least bit cautious. “You’re reading my mind, now?”

Galathea gave a feeble shake of her head. “You are going to ask, Where are you. I’m here now; I won’t be in a moment.”

“Can you explain that,” he wondered aloud, “Or am I going to have to take this one on faith?”

“This is the fifth realm,” she said, with an unusual hint of reverence, as though it explained everything.

“Yes, I see, ‘the fifth realm’,” Elazul waved his hand in a dangerous mockery of her ephemeral glyphs, “What does it mean?”

“Take it on faith,” she suggested, “And follow me.”

With that, Galathea turned away, visibly fading in the eldritch haze of obscurity. Familiar pain swelled through his body, but fought against the undercurrent as best he could – this was the worst time to be growing. When he looked again, she was gone.

“‘Thea? Where are...” he caught himself halfway through, and the last word fell flat, “...you.”

Once again, he found himself placing his fate squarely in her hands.

---

“The first realm is the realm of Mana... the second is the realm of the Fae, the third is the realm of Men. This... is the fifth realm, where everything intersects. And doesn’t.” It did not have a name, or a designation. It was there, although only those versed in magic knew it was there or how to find it, and not always both at once... but not one of them knew what it was for.

Mages did not tread the danger lightly. Wizards did not tread the danger lightly. Galathea did not tread the danger at all, when she could avoid it. The first time she set foot in this place, with all her childish ambition, she had naturally understood that she was or would be here again. By the third, she was versed enough to intuit that she had made five such journeys in her life, although two of them were yet unknown to her. That she could now make her way with confidence, following the naturally still currents of the realm, did not set her mind at ease. She focused instead on finding those she had misplaced.

Both Bud and Lisa followed separate, winding threads to her side, as she only needed to guide them from afar rather than seek them out. Elazul, she suspected, only needed a nudge in the right direction. Escad knew many of the paths in and out of the Underworld, but this was not the Underworld, nor the Realm of the Fae, nor anywhere else he might have been, so she suspected him to be hopelessly lost.

“We’re dealing with a mage,” she delineated when Elazul found her again, “An Artificer, I think, who has been very cautious until now.” Coming across Escad on her peripheral, still recovering his balance from his decent, she added, “How could you not know she was a man?”

“How was I supposed to?” he answered evenly, perhaps less affected by his surroundings than any of them. He merely took it for what it was – an unfamiliar happenstance. Had she not been suitably distracted, Galathea may very well have envied the limits of his intellect.

“Didn’t you-... Rather... If you don’t get along and you never...” she paused to collect her question, and served it colored with genuine curiosity, “Why did you marry her?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No!” the sorceress fluctuated, clearly vexed. Not quite suicidal enough to scoff at her ignorance, Escad answered honestly, if a bit terse.

“I needed to sire an heir.”

“Ah huh,” Galathea managed, with more composure than she felt. She was starting to see the problem. “How, exactly?”

Completely lost behind her line of questions, Escad shrugged it off as inconsequential. “How else?”

The temple knight began to bristle under the woman’s silently demeaning stare. Coming to his rescue, Bud piped up, sharing his wisdom with a learned air of understanding.

“You see, when a man and a woman love each other very much...” the boy faltered when his master’s thoroughly bewildered gaze landed on him, and squeaked, “Nevermind, not important!”

“No, that’s fine,” Galathea nearly choked, “In fact, I think Escad really needs to hear-”

“We’ve got company,” Elazul warned, drawing up his sword for protection. A crackle of lightning shattered against the barrier Galathea erected at a thought. Pushing past him to stand at the front, between her allies and their assailant, she addressed the stranger by the only name she knew him by.

“Elene, I presume.”

“If you like,” the man answered, smiling wryly.

“What I’d like is to know who the hell you are,” Galathea snapped in reply. Aside, she warned, “Don’t,” as Elazul flanked her and Escad began to move past her. “Stay behind me.”

The mage scoffed in disdain.

“That, my sister, is one ignorance you shall have to suffer,” he purred, full of himself in the way that wizards of his stature often made a clear point to be, “Suffice it to say, I am your enemy.”

“I noticed,” the woman scowled. Although his first spell had been nothing short of child’s play, more of an introduction than an attack, his smugness was overwhelming. Still, Galathea did not attribute her survival to simple chance; she felt certain he was still holding an advantage that she could simply not see.

“Lisa,” the girl lifted her head, no less attentive than she had been a moment ago, “What are the five principles of travel?” When her protégé hesitated, the sorceress further prompted, “Now.”

Still skeptical, Lisa recited, “Origin, destination, locus, speed, and distance.”

“Good. Bud,” the boy perked up, no longer interested in the enemy’s vain, poofy hat. “You remember last winter, how we grew vegetables in the snow?”

“Yeah,” Bud began skeptically, “We used a-”

“Good,” the woman repeated. She began to look over her shoulder, but changed her mind.

Dropping her shield, she began to draw energy to her, but not fast enough. At the speed of thought, Elene attacked; Galathea caught the orb straight on, and closed her hand around it, blocking its light. She blurred around the edges, ever so slightly, and tightened her grip, fading all the while as the white current washed her away.

It took no time at all to sink in. Bud recovered first, frothing with rage and violent words. He would have charged the sorcerer, then and there, if Escad hadn’t grabbed him by the scruff of his robe and held fast. Elene seemed as surprised as any of them, but recovered just as quickly, and with far more glee.

Escad sighed, raising his sword in a strange, outlandish salute. “Well, she always said, heroes never live-”

“-to the end of the story.”

Escad looked surprised, and perhaps mildly annoyed at being interrupted. Nevertheless, he took the revelation in stride. “You too, huh?”

“Yeah,” Elazul admitted quietly, “Me, too.”

“Right.” The temple knight replied, terse, “Fast from both sides; she can take down one of us, but I doubt she can take down both of us.”

“And us,” Bud reminded him.

“Get out of here, the both of you,” Escad snapped.

“If you can,” Elazul added under his breath. Lisa shot him a sour glance that she could only have learned from Galathea.

“We can’t,” she said, “But we can cover you.”

“Keep trying,” were Escad’s last words on the subject, before he rushed forward, trusting Elazul to follow. He was not disappointed.

Elene, for his part, watched the exchange with high spirits, taking the attack with an air of steady amusement. The first jolt of magic threw Escad off his feet, giving Elazul the opening he needed. Except Elene deflected his strike with a steel-shafted staff, pulled from the ether, or an echo of reality. It didn’t matter to him where it came from, only that it was there, and that Elene could use it. Escad recovered, warded by Bud’s protective spell. His second spell deflected, and Lisa’s green growing vines menacing him from the darkness, Elene vanished.

He appeared for a moment, and stopped Lisa’s split-second spell, an explosion, with a wave of his hand. In the same instant, his counterspell found its mark, and Bud cried out in pain. The boy was struck by a burst of lightning, slow and paralyzing. Escad deflected a volley of missiles, the strain of which snapped his sword in two.

A split-second whirring caused Elazul to turn back, and instinctively, the Jumi crossed his arms over his chest, guarding his core. The air blast cut deep, through one wrist and into the other. Half his arm dissolved as it fell away; sand poured from the wound, and he shook his hand as it reformed, scattering fine dust as he tried in vain to extinguish the tenacious itch that came with it. He barely noticed the second air blast, which struck a shield. When he looked again, Galathea was there.

She stooped over Bud, comforting him, not unlike a child with a skinned knee. Likewise, she patted Lisa’s shoulder as she stepped by, now focused on Elene.

“Was that all you had for me?” she asked flatly. The wizard paled before her quiet irritation, an answer unto itself. “I was expecting more.”

The magic of the realm flowed around her, eddies and currents marking the way for her passage. She phased in and out between steps, and it was difficult to see her directly. Elene stared through her, full of petty rage and hate.

“You started this game,” the Artificer told him, “But you have no idea how to play, do you?”

“And what do you know about anything?” Elene huffed, in indignation, “Anything of worth? You wind yourself so tight with magic and books and incantations that you miss what is real and important in life. Tell me when you have ever lived as I have; tell me when you have ever loved as I have.”

Galathea choked. She laughed then, a strangely disquieting, almost mirthful laugh that started with a small giggle and soon had her grasping her staff for support. Bud and Lisa could only glance between themselves, for they had never seen such a thing, but knew enough to understand that it would likely end in pain. Escad, presuming her mad to begin with, merely took the respite to collect the shards of his sword and stick them behind his belt.

“Oh,” she said, breathless suppressing another chuckle, “I’m sorry, you were serious.” She composed herself, disintegrating a half-hearted attack before it struck her. Magic gathered dangerously around “Unfair is fair. To answer your question, rhetorical as it may be, I know more about life and love than you have learned in your all your years of peddling parlor tricks. Life is not about grandeur, and love is not so singular as you make it out to be.” It was her turn to be indignant, as this appeared to be a sticking point, “Love is multifaceted, and you seem to only have managed a single fractal of it – it can be terrible and horrific, or soft and vain, or as beautiful or as ugly as the moons...”

“Thea!” Ignoring the twin’s frantic bid for her attention, Galathea continued, and a storm of darkness gathered about her shoulders.

“I have seen it affect people to their worst, and to their best; I have felt its sting, more than once, if you must know, and I can honestly say – what?” She snapped, and Elazul jerked his hand back from her arm, mutely pointing to the children. Still stiff from his jolt, Bud relaxed a bit, encapsulating the problem at his leisure.

“You’re monologuing.”

She thought for moment, becoming fully solid as she did. Looking back to her company, then forward to Elene, who was attempting – surreptitiously – to draw magic while she was distracted. Galathea admitted forthright, “So I am.”

The darkness that had been drifting around her staff, and occasionally catching, intensified as she composed herself. Light was not unaffected, bending and mixing with the strands of pure black as it escaped, forming murky colors. She tossed the weapon carelessly; it cut through Elene’s spell, whatever it might have been, vanished into the cloud, absorbing everything around it.

When the last vestiges of darkness drifted away, the sorcerer was nowhere to be seen. Reclaiming her staff, as it reappeared near to her hand, Galathea turned and walked away, fading as she did.

A/N: Action scenes kill me, every damn time. -_-

... and I notice there be questions. (Questions that I intended to answer here, but appear to have run low on time. Ack!)