No Trace

Avea felt her heart lurch into her throat, as soon as her feet leapt off the ledge into the dark abyss below. As she felt herself become weightless, and the moonstone locked in its beautiful capsule glowed before lifting off her chest. A beacon in the dark, and just like everything else in the outlands the trench wasn't what it seemed. The mystic air around her caught her, and carried her gently to the ground. Avea felt her feet hit the ground below to the sunken depths where no other living soul could be heard. She didn't feel scared, instead she could feel the hum of the portal like a subtle melody echoing out to her. "Alright let's find where you are" she whispered closing her eyes, the moonstone around her neck recognising the call of power guided her through the narrow escape towards the end where she saw the opening of the dome.

Avea threw her hands over face, shielding her eyes from the blinding lustre of the luminescent light, that she had brought back into the forsaken depths of the outlands. Avea held her breath and took a step inside the dome, but there was no portal. Confused, she'd kept that portal open with every might of her being...it had to be here. Her pounding heart beating as she scoured inside of the dome. What am I missing? Avea thought to herself, as though her thought had summoned action, the capsule around her neck lifted without warning floating in front of her. Trusting the instinct that had overtaken her, Avea unlocked the capsule. The delicate moonstone floated upwards towards the union point of the dome, suspended in the union point with an ethereal glow emanating from the stone.

As she stood in the union point and all the markings awoke, their deep power rising to the surface of the rock as it surrendered to the moonstone. The first symbol released the cord of light that melded flawlessly into the moonstone, and as the rest of the symbols followed responded. As each cord of light was unleashed it culminated in a breathtaking song of luminescence, a decadent display of pure, entrancing light inside the moonstone. "You're a key" Avea murmured, as the last beam of luminous light was captured by the moonstone. She realised, the moonstone held one final secret, one last memory, so she stretched out her hand, her fingers meeting the glowing stone.

Suddenly she felt herself being whisked away.

The first thing she saw when the haze of the memory settled was Dolunay's angered face trapped inside the prison that her mother had forged. Those twisted horns could be seen through the glass like rock as well as those long taloned hands slamming against the barrier. "You have no idea what you've done" Dolunay's thunderous roar echoed. Avea found herself standing next to her mother, not looking directly at her, but instead looking at her reflection. The expression on her face was a mask of cold impassiveness that sent shivers up Avea's spine. "I know exactly what I've done, I've prevented your uprising and as long as you never get out it'll stay that way" Araceli said. Anger flared in Dolaunay's eyes, and his power seeped out of the minotaur like smoke, clouding the glass in a rising mist of rage."Tell me where it is!" he bellowed, hurling himself at the barricade like a beast. His voice cracked with fury, every word spit through clenched teeth.

Avea didn't even get to hear her mother's response, as a vision of an object shattered in her mind. As the shards burst outward, they danced like splinters of silvered glass caught in a timeless waltz, each of the eight fragments seemingly adrift in Avea's mind. Just as she was suddenly propelled into the vision, she was expelled from it. She was back in the dome watching the moonstone float in the air seeing the threads of light weaving together. The moonstone slowly descended back into the capsule, and as Avea locked. As she did the portal was unveiled before her.

Mum knew I would come for her... What is she trying to tell me?

Avea stared into the tear of the luminous portal beckoning her forward, a gateway to the unknown. A surge of courage propelling her forward, as she stepped through the window of light letting it swallow her. The mystic symbols that once adorned the dome walls which faded away as if they had never graced the stone. The portal sealed itself behind her, drawing all the cosmic light into it, leaving the outlands empty once more.

Not a single trace of the outborn remained.