The Rifts of Psyche by Kyle West (i love reading .txt) 📕

part of him was shining with blue radiance. And the tethers were ready.

When Lucian let go of the tension, at once, all of them sailed away at breakneck speed across Snake Rift. Cleon lost his pack, but still brimming with ether, Lucian opened a fifth stream, anchoring the pack to Cleon. Ether burned through him even faster, shockingly fast, but only for a moment. Cleon grabbed the pack, allowing Lucian to close off the stream. Lucian only slowed down once they were meters from the trail, setting them down near the focal point. He let go of the stream entirely with a gasp.

As more wyvern shrieks filled the air, Lucian’s vision blackened for a moment before returning. He looked back at the entrance to the ravine across from them. There were a dozen of those things coming for them, all as large or larger than the ones he had fought alone.

Fergus stood with his spear, along with a shield that seemed to be made from light itself, with a brightness to counter the wyverns. Cleon’s hands were wrapped with fire. Serah knelt, shockspear at the ready with a silvery aura of Gravitonic Magic surrounding her.

The shrieking wyverns poured over the ravine exit across the rift. In the skies above, there was no sign of the Zephyr.

Despite his exhaustion, Lucian opened a new Binding stream, focusing the magic at the point of his spear. Until now, he hadn’t realized magic other than Dynamism could be streamed along a shockspear, but somehow, he was doing it. More and more magic collected in the growing blue sphere, which shone brighter and brighter. Again, the world faded, as the Shadow World receded and was replaced by the Manifold and the ethereal field it generated.

Remembering the voice he’d heard before, he didn’t want to delve too deeply.

With a roar, Lucian thrust his spear skyward, releasing a blinding burst of blue magic from the spear tip. A fork of blue lightning shot outward, connecting with the forerunner of the wyverns. It shrieked as the lightning split into multiple paths that bound even more wyverns. It was the same thing that had happened at the Snake Pass, except instead of the lightning grabbing boulders, it was grabbing wyverns. The air emanated with pained screeches. His consciousness was beginning to fade as his Binding stream petered out . . .

“Stop!” Serah said. “You’re going to kill yourself!”

Lucian let go and would have collapsed had not Serah caught him. Forcing his eyes open, he could see that the wyverns were leashed to each other by tethers, all pulling them toward each other.

“Cover your eyes and grab onto each other!” Fergus said. “I’ll lead us to safety. Just trust me!”

“What are you on about?” Cleon shouted. He shot a few ineffectual fireballs in the direction of the wyverns. Lucian’s Binding lightning was beginning to fade as the wyverns fought against their restraints.

“Do as I say!”

Lucian covered his eyes, and not a moment later, a nova-like burst of light penetrated his eyelids. The wyverns screeched their dismay.

“Follow!” Fergus said. “And don’t open your eyes!”

Lucian felt himself pulled along by Serah, judging by the size of the hands. The ground rocked, causing Lucian to almost lose his feet, shortly followed by a rain of rock.

“What in the rotting hell was that?” Cleon shouted.

“Stop panicking,” Serah said. “You’re making things worse!”

“The Zephyr is back,” Fergus said. “Their mages are attacking us.”

“Why aren’t they attacking the wyverns?” Lucian asked.

“Don’t know,” Fergus said. “There’s a cave up ahead.”

“Get in there!” Serah shouted. “We’ll figure out the rest later.”

The light was dimming outside his vision. He risked opening his eyes. It was no longer bright. In fact, it was quite dim, and it appeared they were now inside the cave. From behind came the sound of screeching wyverns. Looking back, Lucian could see the Zephyr floating down the rift. Hopefully, the ship and the wyverns would keep each other busy long enough for them to escape.

“Deeper,” Fergus said. “This cave goes quite some distance, it seems.”

“Better not be a dead end,” Cleon grumbled.

“That’s not likely,” Serah said. “Most cave systems on Psyche connect with others. If we go deep enough, we can find our way out later.”

“Unless we get lost.”

“Way to stay positive, Cleon,” Serah said.

“It isn’t like we have a choice,” Lucian said. “Unless you want to take your chances with a dozen wyverns and the Zephyr.”

At that moment, Lucian felt something . . . pushing against his mind. He placed a hand on his forehead, a high-pitched ring throbbing in his ears.

Serah placed a hand on his arm. “Lucian. You okay?”

The sound became louder, until he was on his knees. He shut his eyes in a vain attempt to ignore the sound, but it only grew more dominant, until it was all he could think about.

Fergus said something, though Lucian didn’t know what. His vision went black and he knew no more.

25

When Lucian woke up, all was dark. All except for a single light, floating in the distance. Two pairs of hands were carrying him along. And he had a splitting headache.

“He’s awake,” Cleon said. “Should we set him down?”

“Here’s fine,” Serah replied.

Lucian groaned. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere under Snake Rift,” Serah said. “Other than that, we’re lost as lost can be.”

“But no one’s chasing us anymore, thanks to me,” Fergus said.

“You mean, no one’s chasing us yet,” Cleon said.

“Cheery as ever.” Serah knelt and looked at Lucian, her eyes concerned. “How are you feeling? Did you . . . see her?”

See who? Then, he remembered the Psionic attack and being knocked out. Had that really been the Sorceress-Queen attacking him?

“No. All I felt was . . . darkness.”

“Our ward must have worked, then,” Fergus said.

“That’s great, but here’s the situation,” Cleon said. “We’re deep underground who knows where, and we can’t go back the way we came. As far as we know, soldiers are hot on our trail. It will be much faster for them to follow us than for us to