PANACEA-Book One-By Hell or High Water

20. Unveiling

It hadn't been particularly difficult to find the place I was now standing before. That was only because of two factors, however. I had been given specifics to a location, and I had passed through many times. It had been easy for me. For someone else, though? It wouldn't quite be the same. They may come across the area, but under no circumstances would they see the place I was visiting. She would never make its existence known to anybody but me. That would mean risking unfathomable valuables being found by someone who wasn't meant to come across them. That wasn't the way She wanted it.

It had been months since I had first left the water. My first encounter with the Mistress had been brief, just enough that I could understand who--or rather what--I was. It was my understanding that I had been tasked with gathering some of the Mistress's belongings. As she was out of commission, it was my job to collect them from each place they were buried beneath the earth.

Early on in her imprisonment, she had given away fragments of her power in the form of various weapons and items. Much like myself, and the hypothetical others, they rose up from the center of the Ether. The only difference was that I came out of an oasis. They came up embedded in rock, below the earths crust. It was my job to retrieve them. For what, I didn't know. I knew they could be put to good use, though, with the variety of powers and usages they possessed.

I dropped the small backpack off my shoulders, and began to rummage. After a moment was wasted moving my things around, I managed to gather what I was looking for. I grabbed the whip that stayed coiled at the bottom of my bag. It was woven with long gold strands, adorned at the tip and handle with amethysts and pink quartzes. It was one of the first things I had gotten. It had been the easiest, too.

I looked at the flat terrain around me, nestled between the mountains. My hand gripped the whips handle, and I let it unfurl, rolling out to its full length and dragging across the ground. I took a final deep breath.

As I raised the whip, my long hair glowed and shined with multiple colors, the more evident one being white. My eyes glowed magenta, leaving a reddish pink tint to the light around me. I flicked my wrist up, sending the whips end to follow it. I twirled it in a circular motion, hearing it gain speed as it broke through the air. Winding in a circle, the gold glinted in the dim night. Swiftly, I swung it down, bringing it up smoothly in a hook motion.

Out of thin air, gauze like cloth caught on its tip and flew up in the air, like handkerchiefs in a magicians magic trick. They glowed briefly as they appeared, but the light disappeared and left violet, blue and pink fabric floating to the ground. The ground cracked and split, allowing pink light to shine through. As the ground cracked further, I stepped back.

The cracks spread like a spiderweb. Suddenly, the chunks of the ground went flying. The light shot up like a beacon, and faded as a three story tower broke through. It slowly raised itself from the ground, towering over me. It cast a shadow over the slightly lit area. The fabric faded as it hit the ground and the pink light was gone. All that remained was the white light coming from myself and the slightly red glow. Slowly, that light left me as well. I began to roll up the whip again. This time I attached it to my belt.

After I'd placed everything back in my bag, I checked the area to be sure I was alone. The answered proved to be yes. I was completely alone in the dark. With this knowledge, I slung my backpack over my shoulder. With the consolation that nobody was nearby, I walked up the white marble steps to the entrance.

There was no door, just an arched hole in the large stone. There were many floor to ceiling windows, but they were glass less. The entire structure was open, which was the primary reason for why I felt it necessary to check for anybody nearby. Veiled grottos and such couldn't really be seen by humans or really anything else in the Ether. But once they were uncovered, as I had just done, anybody could stumble into one, and once they were inside, they could see everything. Needless to say, I didn't need that happening.