The Underworld - Abyssyn
Deep in the layers of the underworld, a strange, harsh land burned under three ubiquitous suns. There was no reprieve of night, no escape from the constant, oppressive heat. The bare, rocky mountains glowed with the constant light from the red solar giants and the burning landscape. Hazy smoke settled within the deep valleys, canyons and trenches that flowed between the harsh peaks of the mountainous lands of Abyssyn. Demons and monstrosities, born of misery and pain, lurked within the deepest depths of these crevices, seeking shelter from the heat and destroying one another for sustenance and territory. It was a harsh, cruel place where only the most horrifying creatures survived and thrived. The landscape was marred with scars of such battles and the screeches and cries of these creatures were heard for miles, echoing off the dark stone.
Deep in one such valley, a different light bloomed. A small ball of unnatural blue energy glowed and slowly grew into a crackling, shifting sphere. Bright red eyes peered interestedly out of the pitch black of a nearby cave. The sphere of energy twisted and stretched until it was nearly the size of one of the charred, skeletal trees haphazardly lining the valley floor. The creature took a daring, curious step closer to the crackling blue light as it continued to stretch.
With a loud crack, the energy took form, bolts of silvery blue lightning flying out in all directions, illuminating the swirling smoke. One bolt struck inside the cave mouth, narrowly missing the creature, sending it scurrying away into the safety of the darkness with a shrill screech. The blue ball transformed into a thin band of blue energy connected in a circle, the center filled with a silvery smoke that shimmered and moved. Unlike the smoke that lazily drifted through the valley, this hazy substance shimmered and swirled, glittering in the dim red light as if blown by a harsh wind. No creature dared draw near after the explosion, but if one had been watching, they would have begun to see shadows taking form within the circle, becoming clearer with every passing second.
The portal remained present as hooded figures rushed toward it from the other side. They ran through the silvery, shimmering haze toward the faint red glow and smell of sulfurous fumes. Five figures burst through the portal and the blue light flickered, seemingly struggling to hold, sparks flying as it strained and sputtered.
“Hold the portal,” A high voice screeched from under her hood, flinging an arm out toward the warbling bubble through which they had emerged. Two of the cloaked figures, though visibly winded, turned toward the portal and threw their arms out, a similar blue light shooting out from their hands to connect with the crackling energy. It stopped sputtering and became a solid border, once more filled with a hazy silver smoke. They panted with the effort but the portal held firm.
The one who gave the command turned from them without another word, satisfied they’d managed to succeed. She lowered her hood as she observed the rest of their small party and the valley where they emerged. She pushed back her long, curling white hair out of her slender, withered face, revealing watery blue eyes. Though quite advanced in age, she moved with lithe, almost feline tenacity. Her senses were honed as sharp as the daggers strapped to her thighs: She missed nothing. Her gaze settled on one in the group who was stooped, posture wrong and bent, arms cradling a bulging stomach as they too panted heavily. The elder woman approached the stooped, woman and slid a hand under her arm as a shudder rippled through her body.
“Lie her down,” The elder woman commanded another standing off to the side, pointing at a spot on the ground where the dried brown grass hadn’t been burned away entirely.
“Here, Lady Elise?” A woman’s voice responded as she moved to follow orders. “Surely you don’t mean to perform the ceremony here in the open? It could be compromised.”
Lady Elise helped to lie her down on the grass without reply. Once she was safely down, Lady Elise swung an arm out in a precise, swift motion, slapping the one who questioned her hard along the side of her hooded head. The slap reverberated loudly around the narrow valley and the hood was thrown back to reveal a young woman, short chestnut hair whipped across her face from the force of being hit. She cried out, falling to her knees, hand covering the injured part of her head.
“Insolence. There is no time for the ceremony to take place elsewhere due to your incompetence again, Vinnia,” Lady Elise growled. “It took far too long for you to conjure the portal and it has risked everything we have worked toward.”
She circled the woman as she spoke, hissing her displeasure. “Now you have the gall to question me? You have given us no choice in the matter. It will be done and it will be done here.”
Vinnia didn’t so much as whimper as she continued to hold her hanging head. Elise stopped her circling, glaring down at the woman before her in disgust. “Pathetic,” she hissed and raised her hand to strike again. Before she could land the blow, however, one of the cloaked figures holding the portal cried out, “Here they come, my lady!”
Elise whipped her head toward them, long white curls flowing out behind her as a smoky gust of wind blew through the valley. She narrowed her eyes at the silver smoke, counting the shadows that ran toward them, figures not yet completely visible but growing clearer. She whirled around as the woman lying on the ground moaned loudly. She rushed to her, dropping to her knees and placing a hand on the woman’s bulging stomach beneath her robes. As she did so the woman’s body tensed and she let out a blood curdling scream. Elise turned toward the two holding the portal.
“They aren’t going to make it in time. I have to start now. The potion is nearly worn off. Tell them to join me immediately once through.”
She didn’t wait for a reply before she drew a slender knife from within her cloak. She pulled it out and flicked it into her hand in a skilled maneuver. She reached out and gathered the fabric of the woman’s dress above her stomach into her hand and sliced from just beneath her breasts all the way down to between her feet. She laid the knife to the side and folded the sides of the dress back to reveal the woman’s bare body from the top of her stomach down. She glanced at the large amount of blood all over the woman’s thighs and seeped into the cloak beneath her.
Vinnia joined her, kneeling wordlessly on the other side of the visibly pregnant woman on the ground. She drew her own slender, ornately carved blade from inside her cloak. The elder picked up her knife again and dipped it in the pool of blood beneath the woman, careful not to slice the smooth brown skin of her thighs as she did so. Vinnia followed suit and in unison they began drawing elaborate symbols into the hard dirt around the patch of grass. They continued, quickly carving the symbols as fast as they could, redipping their blades in the blood every so often as they went. The only sound was their breathing and the crackle of the portal's energy as it loomed behind them. The woman in front of them on the ground did not moan or cry out again. In fact, she lay unnaturally, almost deathly still, the only sign of life being an occasional shallow breath, barely filling her lungs before being expelled. It was this insignificant rise and fall of her chest that Vinnia anxiously watched as she carved symbol after symbol into the dirt. ‘Please,’ She thought desperately. ‘Stay with us, Cyrah. Just a little longer.’
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Here and there they had to pause to tear up crispy, burnt clumps of grass and smooth the dirt down before continuing their pattern of symbols. It was tedious work but their hands didn’t falter. It was hot in the valley and even more so within their heavy cloaks. Vinnia frequently wiped her brow with her sleeve to keep her sweat from dripping on the symbols and blending their intricate design. Their practiced hands worked swiftly, cutting and carving meticulously until they finally finished. Such work would have taken someone less skilled a long time to complete but it had only taken them mere minutes to have carved a wide circle of symbols to surround the pregnant woman. They locked eyes and Elise nodded. They each took their blades and sliced a small cut into their palms and pressed them flat into the dirt within a ring of symbols they had drawn onto the ground on opposite sides of the pregnant woman. As they did so they began chanting: harsh, low words in a language that seemed to hiss and crackle on their tongues. The symbols around them began to glow, this time with an orange energy, in bright contrast to the blue glow of the portal.
As the last of the symbols began to glow, illuminating the sweat beaded on their foreheads, they heard the footsteps of figures running through the portal and approaching. The women holding the portal’s power gave the figures quiet instructions as they stepped through and each one in turn hurried into a position around the woman lying in the middle of the glowing symbols. They each fell to their knees next to Elise and Vinnia, pouring energy into the symbols. Each touched the women or one another, connecting themselves and transferring their power, the symbols glowing brighter with each person who joined together. Their chanting also joined in a steady, building rhythm. The women holding the portal were gritting their teeth as it continued to suck power from them. As the last of the figures rushed through, they groaned in relief and the portal snapped shut with a sizzle.
As the last of the cloaked figures joined the ceremony, the chanting changed and became more urgent. The pregnant woman, Cyrah, lying on the ground began to move, first her fingers twitching and then her hands. Slowly, movement began to return to her body and her eyes fluttered open beneath her hood. She reached a hand up and pushed her hood back off her sweat-slick face. The pain hit her so suddenly and violently she screamed. But then the magic grasped her and she was frozen, her scream choked off in her throat and her eyes bulging from the pain.
Elise stopped chanting and stood, another woman close to her slicing her palm and replacing hers where hers had been. She ran a hand down the front of her cloak, unbuttoning it and letting it fall to the ground. She stepped out of it, utterly naked, wrinkled skin and dark age spots stark across her pale, slender body. She stepped carefully through the symbols she had drawn to reach Cyrah. She looked across to the other side of the circle and watched Vinnia doing the same as her. They made their way to the frozen woman now staring at them with huge, bloodshot brown eyes, silent tears running down her face that was stuck with her unfinished scream. She was young and beautiful, chocolate brown skin and eyes glowing in the orange light, but her features were now twisted and distorted with the pain.
They simultaneously knelt at her side, Elise running a soothing hand down the side of the woman’s face. Black curls were stuck to her forehead and neck with sweat.
Elise leaned down, a small smile on her face and whispered in the woman’s ear. “It will all be over soon. Everything we worked toward finally coming to fruition and you’re here to witness it all.”
She then drew back, the woman watching her with the same, frozen expression of pain and terror, tears dripping down the sides of her face. Elise looked up and locked eyes with Vinnia across from her. Vinnia nodded, throat bobbing as she swallowed, eyes returning to meet Cyrah's terrified gaze. Elise drew her blade and ran the tip gently across the woman’s abdomen, just above the top of her bulging stomach. She didn’t cut deep, just enough to draw a thin slice all the way across. She muttered words as she moved the blade, an incantation that ended the paralysis on the woman but only below where she cut her. This became evident from the woman’s legs as they immediately tensed and began thrashing with the pain. A bigger pool of blood squelched out of the woman where a baby’s head was widely crowning between her spread legs.
Vinnia began chanting and moved lower to pin Cyrah's legs so they could not thrash as much. She grunted some with the effort but Cyrah was becoming weak with blood loss so she wasn’t as hard to fight as she normally could have been. Elise reached down between the woman’s legs and touched the baby’s head gently and closed her eyes. Blue energy began glowing around her fingers and surrounding the top of the baby’s head. More of the blue energy began to gather and it seeped into the woman’s body, surrounding the baby. Cyrah’s eyes rolled back and her body convulsed as Elise used magic to tug the baby, shielding it from the trauma of dislodging it. In turn, the magic caused agonizing, irreparable injuries and tearing as the baby was pulled out, caccooned in magic.
The baby moved slowly but surely out of the birth canal. Soon, the entire head was visible. Elise grunted with the effort of trying to free his shoulders. Cyrah’s body convulsed again, loosening the baby from its grasp just slightly. Vinnia began, too, pouring blue light into Cyrah’s body, trying to keep her stabilized through the birth until the baby could be freed. Though, they all knew, the effort would be futile to save her life. They need only keep her alive long enough to safely get the baby out and fed.
Elise gritted her teeth as she poured every bit of magic into surrounding the baby to avoid injury before giving a mighty tug. The baby’s shoulders came free at last along with a huge gush of blood and convulsion from Cyrah. Elise held the baby up, eyes shining in wonder. A boy. Just as prophesied. She withdrew her protective cocoon of magic from around him and he shuddered, body jolting with the feeling of air surrounding him at last. He sucked in his first breath and let out a loud, healthy wail. Elise smiled and held him up, turning to face the watching crowd.
“A boy as promised,” She said, beaming. The crowd bowed their hooded heads in respect.
A gasp from behind her had Elise whirling around. She looked down at Vinnia sustaining the Cyrah's life with her magic. Vinnia looked beyond haggard and her magic was coming out in a trickle. The pool of blood around them had grown wide. The elder quickly dropped to her knees, bringing the baby in close to her chest. She held him tight with one hand as she picked up her blade with her other hand sliced away the fabric of the remaining dress at his mother’s chest. She looked down into the woman’s face to see her nearly dead eyes staring back. They had to hurry.
Elise placed the baby at his mother’s breast. His crying immediately stopped as he latched on and he began to calm as he sucked. She held her breath as she watched, hoping they weren’t too late. As she watched, Vinnia suddenly slumped to the side dead, her power completely used up. The baby continued to suck on his mother’s swollen breast contentedly for a few minutes before he fell asleep, breaking the suction. Elise gently peeled him from his mother’s chest as he slumbered. She pulled him close to her and used her thumb to gently open his mouth. She could see the blue of the first milk glowing on his tongue and smiled to herself. She stood again and beamed at the crowd of bowed heads surrounding her.
“This night is the culmination of decades of planning,” She said in her high pitched voice, addressing all of them. “Everything we have worked toward is finally being set into motion.”
She stepped toward the crowd, across the now dimly glowing symbols etched in the dirt. They cast eerie light across the black hooded figures and onto her pale skin. She approached one person at the edge of the circle and they stood at her approach. She gingerly handed the baby over to the cloaked figure who promptly wrapped him in a waiting black velvet blanket. Elise watched the baby for a moment, a small smile on her face but then turned back to the two bodies lying in the middle of the circle of symbols. She picked up her knife that lay on the ground where she had kneeled. She turned back to the crowd who had not moved. They still had their heads bowed respectfully.
The elder sat down on the dead grass and looked up at the red sky with a smile on her face. She addressed the crowd again, holding the knife up high in the air as she spoke. “Don’t let our sacrifices be in vain. Finish what we started here tonight.” Then, she plunged the knife deep into her own chest and slumped onto the other two women, lifeless.
