New Beginnings
Purple, gold, turquoise, and black shimmering sparks of light drifted around Emil, brushing through his being like whispers that sometimes cried, sometimes shouted, sometimes murmured into his soul.
He couldn't name the malady. It was confusion itself—an illness that made no sense yet pressed down on him with suffocating weight.
The black spark pulsed, and Emil recognized the presence of his youngest sister. The recognition calmed him, but it also drove him to push harder. He dove deeper, forcing his consciousness into Anis' soul well while wrapping his own in the dense layers of his named colors.
'Anis! Anis, walk to me!' His intent projected outward with a strength that vibrated through his being as he sought the core of his sister's soul, the essence of her true being.
It seemed adrift, untethered, Emil could only sense it as if it were a shadow, a thin substance suspended over two vast planes, it seemed lost and wandering but Emil was certain it remained within her well, not her soul sea.
Sitting behind his brothers and Struns, Emil grimaced, jaw tight, as he doubled his efforts, streams of magic thickened as they swirled around him. He added more of the sorceric guiding magic, it tumbled about, weaving into his healing, soul, and knowledge magics, tighting the weave, and thusly, the meaning, intent, and power.
A swirling, twisting braid of magic moved forth and surrounded him the the knots of chaos, and Emil began to hunt for his sister and bring her back from whatever oblivion she was lost in.
---
Rachel had stepped forward. In that instant, Anis "woke." Her amethyst eyes focused on Rachel, a fleeting ghost of a smile touching her lips before vanishing as quickly as it had come.
She didn't blink. She didn't look away.
Rachel's own lips curled knowingly, and then she vanished from sight.
For her, eye contact was unnecessary to enter a soul well—but it helped. More importantly, she understood what that fragile smile had meant.
Anis had answered her question.
Rachel had asked whether her sister was trapped in her own well or someone else's. The smile said: both.
Perplexing to others, maybe. Impossible for an Azmin, not necessarily. A soul well was a structure, within the cosmic makeup of a Trannisan, it had walls that had form and solidity. The soul itself was ethereal, bound within flesh yet amorphous, its vast sea stretching endlessly with the well at its center was the truth of its magic.
Its center deep and misunderstood. A point of reference that always led an entity back to who they were and who they had become. This was the soul well, the nexus of an entities power, and a beacon reminding them of their identity.
One could project their soul outward, shaping it into a scape reflecting their essence. A stormy mind might show as seas of chaos, darkened skies, lightning that never ended.
Rachel, however, saw what no one else could. She could tell, from a glance, the condition and meaning of a soul well. This is because she was one with Trannisa, the source of all magic within the realm.
She understood her realm—the core cosmos itself had a soul. This was why the Milana could intertwine with it.
Anis' illness wasn't illness at all. It was the partial, flawed success of the ritual manifesting through her being.
It was that backlash moving through her sister and destroying as it went.
Rachel needed to enter Anis' soul well and and find the affected half of her soul, then she would need to understand how Anis was split and where the other half or halves were.
In theory, anyway.
If not, she and Emil would forge another path.
At her sister's well, Rachel felt a pulse ripple outward—energy tinged with Emil's red-blue aura. He was calling. Supporting. Holding the line.
Rachel rode her color-name alongside Emil's, but instead of speaking to Anis, she addressed the realm. The language was not sound but patterns of color—lines, dots, long strokes of light.
Her own well trembled. In return, colorful responses formed: short bursts, long waves, shifting hues.
Then came a sound like suction—release or connection, Rachel couldn't tell. She froze. Waited.
Before her, colors churned. From the endless spectrum, purple-white, the color of Anis's aura, light separated and hovered. A rainbow force pulled at her with urgency.
Rachel resisted, answering with lines and dots: 'I must ensure Anis is safe.' She could not leave without knowing, for sure that Anis was okay.
The pull stilled. Rainbows fractured outward in branching rivers of color.
Emil's voice followed: 'Go, Rachel. You may need to orient and calm the realm. I have Anis with me now.'
Rainbow light surged back, carrying images—Emil's form, steady, one arm wrapped firmly around Anis' transparent waist as though holding her upright.
Rachel exhaled. Nodded. And let the rainbow drag her inward.
---
Opening her eyes, she stood encircled by towering rainbow bricks, wide as a fortress wall. Slowly, she sank downward, passing the last brick until only a boundless rainbow sea spread around her.
She hovered above its surface. Ripples spread outward.
Then—a wave, massive and sudden, rushed toward her from the left. It froze just centimeters away, its vertical stripes of subdued color quivering.
Everything stilled. Colors brightened and dimmed in staccato rhythm.
Rachel raised a hand, mirroring it. A wall of her own bloomed above, horizontal bands glowing. They conversed like this—flashes, rhythms, silent codes of shifting hues—until Rachel grew annoyed.
'You're speaking too fast. Talk directly to my soul.'
'Why do you refuse to learn my language?'
'I understand it', she answered,' but when you're upset or excited you slip into dialects I don't know.'
The realm hesitated. 'Then you do not fully know my language. Never mind. Bring order. The chaos here is too pronounced. Quiet it down.'
'I'll return to Ambruce—'
No. The commanding intent inside the word snapped like lightning. 'Abandon that. The chaos comes from within the Abyss, one has decided to consume. You, your family, and your two Antrunie —enter the Abyss, find the one that hunts and devours. This is where the chaos blooms and it will stay until that one is neutralized - perhaps you will even receive a fourth Antrunie as a gift.'
Rachel stood frozen. Not because of the cadence, but because of the directive.
Never before had the realm assigned her a mission. It guided. Nudged. Allowed Rachel to determine needs. But now it ordered.
Why couldn't she sense the chaos herself? That was what unnerved her most. She always felt it—sharp, unavoidable, like static on her skin. But not here, not now.
She got a sinking sense that her realm, her existence was slowly changing.
'You are strong, Milana', the realm said, and you could face the chaos alone. But the Azmin must evolve. They must change how they exist within and interact with the cosmos. Teach them. Shape them. Guide them into what is needed.'
Rachel went slack. Teach? Evolve?
Her temples throbbed. All she wanted was to sink into the rainbow sea and take a long, quiet vacation.
Instead, a rainbow archway materialized, and she was pushed through it.
Her eyes widened. 'Did you just throw me out?!'
'I was tired. You weren't leaving.'
An illusory shrug brushed over her as she landed in a long corridor of revolving color bands.
It was not alarming. She knew this place—the connective channel between her own well and the realm's.
So I wasn't thrown out. Just shown the door. She sighed. Same difference, really.
Reaching upward, she placed her hand on the door to Anis' room, she moved through the layers and prepared to begin a grand, and unprecedented change.