Draven Ashborne's Arc

Chapter 40 of 17

Draven knelt at the edge of the pit and stared into the dark. Malakorax was dead. But its corpse had sunk into the earth, and he could not see the bottom. He needed proof the corruption died with it. If some root of the beast still lived down there, the poison would rise again. The collapsed keep had sealed the only path down. No stair. No ledge. Just black air and falling stone. "We can't reach it," Aldric said. He pushed his glasses up his nose and peered over the edge. "No rope reaches that far. The walls are sheer. We'd need eyes down there. We don't have any." "Then send eyes," Draven said. Aldric went still. He raised two fingers to his lips and whistled, one short note. From the broken doorway a gray cat padded in. Runes glowed pale blue across its fur, tracing its legs and tail. It moved past the tired mages without fear and sat at Aldric's feet, ears forward, watching the pit. Seraphina looked at the creature. "Yours?" "My familiar," Aldric said. "Bonded to me. I see what it sees." He knelt and touched the cat's head. "It can climb what we can't. And it doesn't breathe the way we do. The vapor won't drop it." Briar crouched beside the cat and let it sniff her hand. "He's brave," she said softly. "Braver than the rest of us right now." Celestia frowned at the dark. "If corruption still lives below, it will sense a magical thing entering. Send it carefully." Aldric nodded once. He guided the cat to the edge. It flowed over the lip of the pit and vanished down the sheer wall, claws finding cracks no man could use. Aldric closed his eyes. His breathing slowed. "Going down," he murmured. "Dust. More dust. The walls are dead stone." He was quiet a long moment. "I see the floor. The beast is there. It landed on rock, not water." Draven leaned closer. "Is it moving?" "No." Aldric's voice stayed flat. "The body is broken open. Black blood, spread wide. It's cold. No pulse of light in it. No green. The vapor down there is thinning, not growing." He opened his eyes. "It's dead. Truly dead. Nothing feeds it now." Aurelius let out a long breath. He put a hand on Draven's shoulder. "You wanted proof. There it is." The cat climbed back up and shook the dust from its fur. Aldric lifted it and held it against his chest. Draven stood. The weight in his chest eased, but did not lift. The source was dead. The corruption below would rot to nothing. Yet the poison it had already spread across the land still lived in the soil. He looked at the runes carved into dead stone around them. "The beast is finished," he said. "But the sickness it left isn't. We heal the land next, or we've saved nothing."