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323. Gap
🕑 Added 2025-03-05 15:00:06 +0000 UTCThe gap widened as they drew closer—or at least, it appeared to, as the enormity of the mountains faded away into one big lump, and they no longer had a scale to compare it to. There was something strange about it. Ike stared at it, trying to figure it out, before it finally struck him. It wasn’t a natural gap. There was nothing organic about it. It was a perfect line cut directly through the mountain, so utterly straight and clean that he could see the horizon on the other side of it. He lifted his hand and swept it down.
“What?” Wisp asked.
“A sword strike. It’s like someone lifted their sword and cleaved the mountains in two with a single strike,” he explained, coming to the culmination of his thoughts.
She followed his gaze, then nodded. “It could be. There’s some mages powerful enough to do that.” She paused. “Or, well, there were. The ants say they remember, but that’s all I know.”
“If that were true, then that mage could easily slay every dragon on the continent without breaking a sweat,” Ike said disbelievingly. He’d been the one to see the gap as a sword strike, but he was arguing against his own conclusion. It was just too radical. Too insane, to imagine someone that powerful. To him, mountains and dragons were the height of power. The idea that someone could come along and carelessly cleft one in twain with but one stroke boggled his mind.
Wisp shrugged. “Maybe it isn’t possible anymore. Maybe the ants saw a dream, and took it for reality. They don’t lie, but it isn’t impossible to confuse them. I don’t know. I just hope that, if it’s true, that person isn’t named Brightbriar.”
Ike took a short breath. He nodded. “Yeah. Let’s hope so.”
A second later, she laughed. “If it was, he wouldn’t need to bother with the puppets, would he?”
Ike snorted as well. “You’ve got a good point.” If Brightbriar really could go around slicing mountains like bread, then he really had to question what was wrong with the man’s head, that he nonetheless resorted to skullduggery and subterfuge. At that level of strength, he could kill whoever he wanted with a single pinky finger and level entire regions with a swipe of his sword. No, that doesn’t seem right. After all, Scar had said Brightbriar had never made a puppet over Rank 5. Surely, if he was that strong, Rank 5 would be so infinitesimal as to be difficult to imagine, let alone craft something so weak.
Then again… “I thought there were only ten Ranks. No way can you cut mountains at Rank 10.” If Brightbriar was halfway up the scale, then even if he doubled Brightbriar’s power, he couldn’t imagine the man accomplishing such a feat of strength. Every Rank was a jump in power, but he’d never heard of a jump in power that extreme.
“That’s the kicker, isn’t it? But who knows? Maybe there’s infinite numbers of Ranks, and we’re just the fools who believe it stops at ten. Maybe…” Wisp leaned in conspiratorially. “Maybe there’s even someone deliberately deluding us into thinking there’s only ten Ranks.”
Instantly, a spear of pain drove into Ike’s head. He winced, putting a hand to his brow.
Wisp frowned. “What?”
“I…” Ike opened his mouth to explain it to her, but his tongue wouldn’t form the words. They melted away as they rose to the top of his brain and instantly faded into oblivion. The more he tried to speak, the more it spread, until he felt it eroding even his thoughts.
At that, he stopped. No. I need those. I won’t let it take them.
The erosion faded as suddenly as it had come on. The dim thought remained as it was, locked away deep inside his brain. Something he knew, but couldn’t put to words. Something he almost understood, but not quite. A word at the tip of his tongue.
Not yet. I’m not strong enough yet, Ike realized abruptly. Whatever this influence was that prevented him from realizing the thought, he wasn’t strong enough to fight it back yet.
“What? You okay, Ike?” Wisp asked, frowning in concern.
“It’s nothing,” Ike said, waving a hand. He rubbed his brow and nodded ahead of them. “Let’s focus on the next fight, not on wild rumors.”
“Okay, okay,” Wisp agreed easily.
They ran on. At last, the gap opened before them. From afar, it had looked like a narrow thing, barely wide enough to fit one person through, but up close, it was enormous. Nearly as wide as Shopkeep’s city. The sheer walls stretched up to the heavens. Age had worn the stone down, but he could tell that it had once been completely smooth.
Puppet pieces carpeted the floor. They couldn’t walk without stepping on pieces of puppet. Here in the entrance, but also looking forward into the tunnel, where the puppet pieces continued to clutter the earth. Ahead, some of the puppets dangled from spears, pinned to the wall from the force of the strike, or sat propped against the wall, dead all the same, but just protected enough from the elements to keep their form. The rest laid in scraps on the ground, completely ruined. Porcelain limbs rolled and cracked under their feet. It was like walking on large, loose gravel. Ike kept running, using it as a chance to practice recovery and balance. Wisp transitioned to the wall, and Mag fluttered along overhead.
Aside from the sound of their locomotion, the entire cleft was silent. Ahead, the walls fell into darkness, shadowed by their own bulk. Wind whistled through the space. Not a single puppet moved, nor did any of the strange-shaped puppets stand in here. Some laid on the ground in scraps, but none of the live ones dared brave the tunnel.
Ike didn’t dare speak, afraid to break the silence. The emanations were stronger and fiercer in here. They washed over him in waves, battering him between each breath. The air was full of them, the world thrumming to the beat of the pressure. He’d never felt anything like it before. It was as though he stood within a beating heart.
A clatter from the left. Ike whirled, grabbing his sword, but it was only a puppet falling to ruin. On the other side of him, Wisp laughed and pointed. “You thought it was going to jump up and attack you!”
“Shut up! Of course I did,” Ike muttered. He sheathed his sword and shook his head. What the hell. Stupid puppets, spooking me—
White flashed in the corner of his vision, and Ike slammed to the floor, throwing up puppet parts. It was so fast that even he hadn’t been able to react, so sudden that he hadn’t seen it coming. Wisp shrieked, and Mag screamed.
A pale form stood over Ike, clad in ragged robes. It raised both hands and plunged a blade toward his heart.
