There is a particular type of fear, that festers in the heart. The fear of words.
To speak a thing is to make it real, to give it form and content. Words cannot be taken back once they are breathed into existence, and heard by others. The imperfect intonations send their messages across the air and nestle in deep to the minds of others.
Thoughts are not rigid. Until a thing is given a word, it will shift and change with uncertainty, unknown, secret and hidden away in the mind.
It is not safe even to speak out loud when you are alone. Because even then, you are there to hear it. Ink, the written word, is no less dangerous.
Whisper quietly. And be careful what you make true.
-Professor Melian, Lahrii
The rowboat was lazily drifting across the water back towards the ship, Zelith sprawled out against the wall, grinning and looking at Grey, the sort of relaxed smile you’d expect on somebody drunk.
“Pretty,” Zelith said, before giggling as Grey rolled her eyes.
“Yes, yes. Fourth time this hour,” Grey grumbled, although she did smile.
“I’m right,” Zelith retorted, turning to look at Lahrii as the shadow of one of the towers fell on her face. As she looked up at it, the smile began to slowly sink out of her face, although Grey was focused on the dock.
“You just say that because I made you c-”
“Titans…” Zelith muttered, standing up, Grey noting the quiet tension in the witchblood’s voice and looking over, starting to follow her line of sight.
Her blood immediately ran cold as ice as she saw the top of the tower. The glowing, luminescent clockface was flaring, the hands rapidly and randomly spinning in every direction as flashes of white and black criss-crossed over bricks of the ancient academy.
“My spell,” Zelith said under breath, breath shaking. “Wh…why is it…what’s going on?”
As the flares got closer, the sea shifted violently under the ship as something fell from the top of the towers, slamming hard into the surface and sending water splashing up at Grey and Zelith.
As Zelith tried to get the water from her eyes, she let out a scream as something shot out of the water, a white, almost clawed hand grasping her arm. Blood was oozing from the injured person in the surf, and Zelith’s stared as an old man with greying hair desperately clung to her sleeve.
“LILY, RUN!”
As Zelith shot her arm back, instinctively, the old man vanished in another flash of black and white. The air was crackling with energy, Zelith staring where the man had been, a horrible sense of foreboding coming over her.
“…Keep going forward,” Zelith said, Grey staring at her before nodding. As the gates of the dockhouse got close, Zelith frowned as she saw Kevyn and Conall near the doors, weapons drawn.
Grey leapt from the boat at that, claws already manifesting as she bounded over.
“It’s like the demon outbreak,” Conall yelled out, a hand on a simple wooden staff. “But worse!”
As Zelith rushed over, stars starting to flare around her hands, the air crackled with more energy, white and searing a sound almost like a mirror shattering echoed across the space
, the entire room seeming to shatter for a moment. Zelith began to breath loudly, staring forward at the space just in front of her, Kevyn and Conall standing to the side of Grey’s back facing her.
“W….what the hell was tha
Zelith fell to her knees, screaming in sheer panic as it felt like the ground was falling out from beneath her. She could see Grey moving towards her, but she was indistinct, drifting, like errant pen marks drifted around her.
“G…Grey, ple…please help,” Zelith called out, her voice echoing across the space. It sounded so…empty. So bright. The cracks were getting worse. “What’s happening? Please! Anyo
Strike The Horizon 