WebNovels

Chapter 22 - The River's First Claim

"When the silver stirs, it remembers every hand that has touched it."

[The Coming of Another Storm]

The storm had already receded, leaving behind a tranquil landscape. The dark pink clouds and acid rain had given way to a gentle cascade of fresh water, cleansing the land and air of its toxic touch. Yet, in the stillness, a different kind of tempest brewed – one that would shake the foundations of all that was calm.

The air inside the cave pulsed faintly, damp and alive, breathing. Threads of silver light from the fissures ran down the walls like molten veins, catching on Eris's silver-marked skin.

Ruvio stood at the passage entrance, his arms crossed over his chest. "Now that you're learning to shape," he murmured, his voice low and measured, "let this one be your forge."

As if the heavens themselves objected, thunder rumbled through the sky, and a web of lightning crackled to life, illuminating the dark landscape.

From the dark beyond, something moved; steps were slow, heavy, searching. Swaying and drooping; now and then, it sniffed. It was already drooling as it neared the cave entrance,

Kaylah's breath hitched, a sharp gasp cutting through the quiet gloom of the inner cave. Her eyes all white, she pressed a trembling hand to her temple. The intense throb behind her eyes was the unmistakable prelude to a vision: a blinding flash of a creature nearby; a freak, driven by the same strange power that flowed through her and Eris.

"There's… there's a creature, Eris," she whispered. Her voice was strained, uneven. "It looked like a man," she stopped, wincing, "... but the body was disfigured. The bones," her breath caught, "they're wrong. The silver… It is inside the incoming creature."

"Its face," Kaylah whispered, her voice barely above a breath, "It was consumed. Its features were twisted, like they were being pulled apart from the inside out."

Eris's jaw clenched, his mind racing with the implications. What kind of creature could survive such a transformation?

Kaylah's vision flickered again; a flash of pale skin stretched too thin, a jaw warped into a grinding snarl, veins burning with liquid light.

"Eris. It is close."

She blinked hard, voice shaking. "I can see it. It is following a scent, sniffing and licking the ground."

The silence stretched out, punctuated only by the sound of their ragged breathing. Then, Kaylah's voice cut through the darkness again.

"It's searching for a shard. The creature can sense it, but it is not sure where exactly it is." Her words trailed off, and Eris knew she was struggling to maintain the vision.

Eris drew in a long, steady breath. "A fragment seeker," he murmured.

Kaylah hesitated, her fingers tightening around her dagger. "The skin… it was stretched too tight over its bones. The skin has melted to the metal, the ribs move when the creature breathes."

Kaylah continued, "It is dragging something…"

The sound reached them: a scraping, rhythmic, almost wet. The Shard Seeker's body shifted against the stone like a metal hinge grinding.

"Chains?" Eris guessed because he could now hear the creature's movement.

"No, they're arms. They are the creature's arms! The limbs were twisted, like branches bent by the wind." She flinched, seeing it again. "It's…"

Her eyes were still flickering between vision and reality, seeing more than either world should show. "The face," she whispered suddenly. "Eris, it... he was human! There's still a man underneath. And his eyes…" She shuddered. "They looked hollow, but they were not; like he'd seen too much."

Kaylah's eyes clouded with the far-seeing shimmer, her gaze unfocused as she touched Eris's arm. She whispered. "The silver inside his body; it's… twitching. Like it remembers you. He knows you're here."

Kaylah glanced toward the entrance. "He is coming," she whispered, voice shaking.

Eris's heart pounded against his ribs, but his voice was resolute. "Then we'd better get ready for him."

The two wounded hunters, Renzo and Tonovan, lay motionless, still trapped in the deep, healing sleep induced by Kaylah's power. Eris and Kaylah knew they had to move them to safety. With quiet precision, they shifted the sleeping pair further into the cave, careful not to make any noise that might attract the Seeker's attention.

As they worked, Eris's senses were on high alert, his awareness fixed on the darkness beyond their hiding place. The Shard Seeker was closing in, and they needed to be ready.

He's not afraid, but he is not confident that he could fight the creature. Not now, it's too early for him. He is not yet ready.

***

[The Taking of Silver]

The cave trembled, the ground splitting as the fragment-seeker entered. His body was a grotesque tapestry of silver and scar tissue. His teeth, filed to razor-sharp points, gleamed in the dim light. His tongue is split and silver-edged. His lips were stained a deep, crimson red.

"Freessh bloood," he rasped, his voice a wet, gurgling growl, his mouth drooling in anticipation. "Sweeeet sceent," his voice slurring, "... insiiide."

The intruder moved through the outer cavern, eyes barely registering the massive slab where Barik's group had made their desperate stand against the beast. His attention was immediately drawn to the large, unmoving shape in the center of the floor.

The mutant discovered the ravaged corpse of the glass-back beast, the remnants of the pack's gruesome feast. Kneeling beside the carcass, he was hit with the overpowering stench of blood and decay.

Driven by an insatiable hunger to confirm the presence of the Core's power, he plunged his face into the raw flesh, tearing at it with savage intensity. He ate with a beastly fervor, his actions primal and unrelenting.

As he chewed, his eyes burned with feverish hunger, but before swallowing, he spat the mouthful onto the stone floor with a snarl. "Nooo," he hissed, disappointment and rage hardening his gaze. The beast's essence was too diluted, too corrupted in its taste.

Disgusted, he rose to his feet, his silver-flecked eyes piercing the gloom as he searched the inner chambers. He had caught the faint pulse of true silver earlier, but now it was gone. Uncertainty gnawed at him as he bit into the flesh again.

"Nooo, noooo!," he murmured, his mind racing with possibilities. The scent of wolves lingered in the air, sparking a new thought in his clouded mind: had they taken it too?

For a moment, he considered following the wolf trail, but something drew him back to the cave. He was certain now that what he had felt earlier was still inside, but its form had shifted. His gaze narrowed, his senses on high alert as he prepared to resume his search. He went deeper into the cave.

He stepped into view, confirming Kaylah's vision of the incoming figure.

His frame was vaguely human, but bent, cracked. Skin like cooling slag peeled away in sheets, revealing veins of molten silver. His mouth opened sideways; tongue, just shards of crystallized bone.

Where his heart should have been, a silver knot entwined, beating like a second life.

With a slow, deliberate breath, Eris closed his eyes and reached inward. He recalled the spiral he'd shaped before, the way the ground had twisted beneath the glass-back beast. At that time, he'd been driven by fear, his emotions shaping the earth into a slick, deadly spiral that had sent the creature tumbling. But now, he sought to wield that power with precision, shaping the earth with focused intention rather than frantic instinct.

Eris knelt, palm against the cave floor. He could feel the pulse beneath the stone, the hum of the buried veins.

His body trembled, his jaw tight. This will be the first time he will use the silver power against a human or what's left of it.

"Shape, don't force," he whispered to himself.

Threads of silver rose from the dirt, trembling, eager. They coiled in a half-circle, forming thin spikes that glimmered faintly in the half-light. Sweat lined his brow; the silver inside him pulsed in rhythm with the ground.

He whispered the rhythm his elder had taught him: Breathe with the River. Shape, don't fight.

The earth shuddered beneath his hands. Threads of silver rose like vines pushing through soil. He twisted them into points — sharp, pale spikes protruding from the ground in a rough spiral. However, the response was weak, and the half-formed spikes shattered beneath the seeker's weight.

Eris' focus wavered; the thought of Kaylah being struck tightened his chest. The spikes shuddered and collapsed into dust.

Eris struggled to shape the silver, his palm tingling with the shard's potent energy. He tried again to replicate his previous success, but his mind was a jumble of worry for Kaylah and the sleeping hunters. Unlike before, when he could focus solely on shaping the silver, his thoughts were now fractured and distracted.

Waa!

The mutant was surprised by the spike that suddenly formed and collapsed under his foot. It almost fell back from the jolt under its feet.

Eris' heart lurched; his thoughts spun toward Kaylah. If the creature came too close...

"This won't do," he thought, his resolve hardening. He readied his bow and arrow, his movements silent.

"Stay behind me," he said.

"We don't move unless it does."

Kaylah didn't argue.

"Get ready," he whispered to Kaylah, his voice barely audible. Though they remained still, hoping the darkness would conceal them, He knew it was only a matter of time before the intruder discovered their hiding place.

Kaylah gripped her dagger, planting herself beside the wall.

The creature's growl echoed through the chamber, low and guttural, his limbs scraping along the stone. It crawled deeper into the cave; its movements eerily bestial.

It slithered into view. the body a patchwork of flesh and silver, face distorted by jagged growths that pulsed like molten ore. Its hollow eyes burned white. When it sniffed the air, the walls trembled with its hunger.

It hissed when it saw them. The sound wasn't rage; it was recognition. Almost jumping with joy, it growled, "Foouund yoouu!" Its grin widened,

"Taasteed yoouur kiiind," it hissed, "Stroong. Sweeeet."

The creature's gaze locked onto Eris, curiosity flickering in its eyes. "Yoouu shaaped," it said, its voice a low, raspy growl. "Teeell."

The curiosity was fleeting, replaced by hunger and anticipation. "Meeh knoow," it continued, its voice dripping with malice. "... eeaat ... braaiin."

Eris released an arrow; it hit the seeker's shoulder and splintered, useless. The creature didn't even slow.

Kaylah raised her dagger but hesitated. "It's feeding on the silver around it," she breathed. "Even your light."

The creature lunged.

The impact sent Eris sprawling. He rolled, came up on one knee, and loosed another shot. It struck closer to the heart, but the intruder didn't bleed. He only shrieked as if insanity made him invincible. Metal grinding against bone, he growled and charged.

Eris barely dodged, the seeker's nails grazing his arm. Pain flared, but it was distant, drowned out by the silver's song in his veins. The creature licked its lips, savoring the few drops of blood welling from the cut.

"Sweeet. Deeliiicioouus."

It came again, teeth bared, claws carving sparks against the cave floor.

The creature was well-experienced; Eris couldn't counterattack.

Waaa!

"Caan't kiill meeh," he sneered. "Aate ...maaany ...liiike yoouu."

"Eris!" Kaylah cried, but then she froze.

Eris dropped the bow, rolling to the side, pulling up his knife. He slashed once, twice; the blade scraped through a layer of brittle flesh but caught against the hardened skin. Sparks flew. The creature's claw ripped across his shoulder, tearing fabric and skin.

"Eris!" Kaylah cried; her voice echoing, laced with another flicker of vision. Her pupils widened, going pure white. The world around her flickered like light through rippling water. Through that shimmering vision, she saw Eris's arm glowing; silver threads leaping from the creature into his veins, as if the River itself were pulling the essence out of it.

Eris, glowing from within, hand against the creature's skull, the River's current passing between them. Not violence, but exchange.

Kaylah's voice pierced the air, urgent and desperate. "Eris! Touch him! Grab him! Claim his silver!"

Her words echoed dimly in his mind, like a shout through water.

Eris couldn't grasp their meaning, but Kaylah's thoughts flowed into his, and he knew what to do.

The mutant charged, claws outstretched, aimed straight for Eris's throat. The creature's snarling face was inches from his, its breath a noxious mix of iron and decay.

Eris twisted at the last second, grabbing the creature's wrist and yanking it into a vicious, unnatural arc. His other hand slammed against the mutant's chest, then its jaw, forcing its head back. Eris gripped the creature's head, pressed his palm against its skull, and willed the River inside him to open.

Waaa!

It froze, body rigid and unmoving. The contact sent a jolt through both Eris and the mutant, like a spark of electricity arcing between them.

Eris saw it then, the silver in the creature's blood, a writhing, stolen thing, screaming with the voices of those he'd consumed. The shard's power surged through Eris's palm, and he pulled.

A flare of light burst through the cave, streams of liquid silver leaping from the creature's body into Eris. The seeker screamed, its voice dissolving into static. The silver threads burrowed into Eris's skin, winding through his veins like living wire.

Its eyes widened in surprise.

Waaa!

The creature shouted in horror.

A thread of silver light ripped free from the creature's head, coiling into Eris's hand like tendrils of smoke.

Waaa! Waaa! Waaa!

The mutant's shriek was ear-piercing, its body convulsing as the stolen power was torn from its grasp. Its skin split along the veins, silver bleeding out like a dark, liquid stain, dissolving into the air.

The creature stumbled, its movements growing sluggish and uncoordinated.

Horror twisted its face as silver began to seep from every orifice: eyes, mouth, nose, and ears, a ghastly, unnatural bleeding that seemed to drain the life from its very being.

The seeker howled; a sound of breaking metal and wind. Its light poured into Eris, streams of silver racing up his arm, coiling through his veins. His heart hammered; every pulse felt like a drumbeat from the Spiral itself.

"No! Mine!" Suddenly, his voice changed; it sounded almost human, and no longer slurring or gurgling.

He tried to escape, but he couldn't move; his body was frozen still.

The seeker's silver veins unraveled, spiraling out of him in ribbons of light. They twisted around Eris's arms, sinking into his skin, and with each thread absorbed, the hunter grew weaker. His muscles withered until he collapsed to his knees, gasping. His eyes, once bright with stolen power, were now dull, human.

"Please," he whimpered.

Eris released him, his breath ragged, his body humming with newfound strength. The hunter crumpled, his form shrinking in on itself, his silver veins fading to scars. Then his body turned into a dried-up corpse.

Kaylah shielded her face, her sight burning white. She saw Eris in two worlds: in one, crouched and human; in the other, shining, veins of silver arcing out like branches of lightning.

Then, silence.

***

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