Caravan Palace

[Jairus Starvald]

“Keep your voice down!” she whispered loudly, almost defeating the point of whispering, to her.

“The feth are you even doing here?!”

Kail rolled her eyes, before crouching herself to keep low. “What, you think I’d let you deal with that oogie-boogie nonsense yourself? C’mon, I am not that heartless.” She didn’t add that she was pretty sure Peregrine would throw in a little bonus if she kept plant-face alive.

With another huff Cerita closed her eyes, counted to ten and then opened them, giving her one of her more pleasant smiles.

“Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.” See, Di? I can be diplomatic when I want to be.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

The rogue did not seem to be very convinced, inspecting her face closely before giving a shrug and nodding simply. “Don’t mention it, love. Let’s go.”

Their attention was drawn further into the room. A sickening red light shimmered through the alcoves and suggested that there was something very wrong going on. As Cerita moved closer towards the source of the light she felt it. A tugging at her very essence and being, as if her very life was slowly, but steadily being drawn away from her.

Force Drain, but on an entirely different scale.

Kail and her entered the ‘sanctum’ of the temple. Inside of it were six hunched over and cloaked individuals, whispering slowly to themselves in a steadily increasing interval. They clutched at their own bodies, their skin pale and pocketed with splatters of what seemed to be blood.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Cerita exchanged a look with the thiefling whose jaw was set in a determined position.

There was also a glint of purpose.

Dangerous purpose. But before Sarova could do anything, Kail already crept forward like a whisper and there was only the shimmering of light, reflected on her edge, that warned her of what was about to come.

No!

But it was already too late. The blade sunk into the neck of the closest cultist and the entire circle of ritual was broken.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

The red light twisted and churned in response to the intrusion. After only a moment more it turned into a hue of green and the source of the light - a crystal set in a simple locket - started to rise up in the air. Underneath the crystal was an unadorned heavy table. On it… a half-decomposed corpse of a Whiphid. A Whiphid who was currently raising himself from the table and did not seem to be particularly amused at what was happening.

The crystal started turning and the green light shifted into solid tendrils.

They started to swipe through the room and every time it touched a cultist the tendril pulsated back into the crystal. And every time the crystal pulsed with new energy the Whiphid corpse seemed to become more agitated and alive.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Kail was fighting against one of the still living cultists. Well, dodging the lightning bolts was more accurate. So there wasn’t much help there.

There was only one thing that Cerita could think of that could help, but it could also make everything way, way, way worse.

What else is there to do?

Her jaw set in determination and eyes locked with the crystal her own hand pointed at the artifact. What did the magician say back in his shop?

Reverse polarity?

Cerita’s eyes widened. Almost immediately afterwards she focused her sight on the surface of the amulet and looked at it like Valik had taught her.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Art of the Small.

It wasn’t just simply seeing.

It was the ability to reach deep into an object and then change its properties. And right now Cerita was seeing the electrons move around the surface of the individual atoms.

And it was the simplest thing in the Galaxy to simply… reverse the polarity of a single atom in the amulet. Negative became positive and vice versa.

All sound died out in the room. The tendrils quieted and froze mid-swing. Even the Whiphid was staring at the amulet. Then there was a tiny plop and the amulet turned into itself. It disappeared and then reappeared in a sudden expansion of energy: a blastwave of darkside energy that coursed through the entire room.

Cerita was hit straight in the face and the force of the blast send her flying against a nearby column.

Lights exploded in front of her eyes and no matter how hard she tried the woman could not find her focus. Instead she started to slip away into the darkness.

The last image printing itself into her eyes was a feintly concerned and far too pretty face.