The Hollow

Dust

They once again found themselves on an unkept road going south from a doomed town. The hard-packed sienna dirt path was more recently used than the Old Road from Elocant, but of much older ruin. Their footsteps blew up powdery dust, which strangely mingled with the early-morning mist like sand gently sinking into water, but in reverse. Huge baobab trees, over a hundred feet high, each thick as a house, stood widely-spaced far into the distance. Of what significance are we, thought Nom, when even such giant sentinels swiftly disappear into the haze?

The environment absorbed all echoes, emphasizing the stifling closeness generated by creaking and scratching metal-shod wheels. Omuti pulled a hand cart off to Nom's right, laden with barrels of water, rations, and gear provided by Solus. Ahden had offered to pull the cart, but she declined. Nom doubted his own ability to pull the weight, so was astonished that this slight woman could do it so effortlessly while still drinking, though at the moment she was perhaps functionally inebriated rather than sloshed as when they first found her. She noticed Nom observing, and jerked her head at a squat bottle decorated with beads, precariously perched on the edge of the bouncing cart. He shook his head in declination, and continued leading the group, if only by his placement in the front. Omuti ostensibly was their guide to Zulm, though having found her lost in a cave, Nom had reservations about her cartographic abilities. He still mourned the loss of Onu, and wished the small pathfinder were with them now.

He had little confidence in accomplishing anything at Zulm, and in light of the Guild of the Sun showing up, seriously questioned the wisdom of this diversion, but the others were committed. Ahden was dedicated to his promise to Alaigbara, and indebtedness to Solus; it was a wonder the lad wasn't swamped in a backlog of mental debt. Dev was convinced they would all find the right path together, and ultimately prevail. However, it was Omega's resolve that kept convincing Nom this was worth doing. He could see the toll her view of the Hollow took, and admired her drive to do something about it both for her sake and for others who suffered here. But as much as he tried to understand his companions' motivations, he continued to doubt his own. He still did not know what he could contribute in a battle against something no one understood, beyond guiding them to a place and person he preferred to remain a shadow in his memory, and right now he wasn't even doing that.

He called to Omega, "What did you learn from Solus?" Those two had briefly talked last night, while the rest of them scrambled for supplies.

"I asked how he manipulated darklight so powerfully yesterday, and what he knew about the glyphs." After a thoughtful pause, she continued, "His answer was different than I ever heard. He described darklight as illusions that connect almost everything, like tendrils of a plant wrapping around their surroundings, but also a manifestation of something real at its core, so pulling on these tendrils affects things in a real way, like strings on a puppet, or tendons moving muscles. Seers influence how these tendrils wrap, which is maybe how those glyphs become tuned to one another."

"Huh. I see," Nom lied absently.

"That's not how darklight appears to me, but I can almost see it that way. He also had a warning: believing is seeing, in the Hollow."

"That, I can believe, even if I don't understand," Nom answered.

"It's not straightforward, but he implied that seers could manipulate darklight, or edit those glyphs, even without waggling our fingers, like we all do. Our motions just focus our thoughts. I should have been able to escape those restraints myself."

"Sounds straightforward," Nom said.

"No, it's unpredictable, like keeping only one thought in your head for even ten seconds. As he put it, lose that thought, and things go horribly wrong."