Swept

Rachel stood quietly before a peaceful lake.

"It is like what the others are saying. I feel it but I do not see anything." Emil looked to his youngest sister. "What does it mean Rachel? "

Rachel's voice sounded distant when she replied. "I'm not sure."

She closed her eyes and a large round green eye opened in the middle of her forehead. Her voice was ethereal as she spoke words of power. The world became a deep yellow-gold color.

She saw cracks running vertically up into the sky and horizontally along the sunrise. The cracks caused the scene to splinter and from area to area aspects changed.

In the closest areas there was calm but on either side of the calm scenes were different forms of chaos and outward from them were scenes that were oddly serene. They were not chaotic but they were not tranquil either. They held a sense of danger that could not be explained.

As Rachel observed the lake suddenly sprang forth seemingly wanting to drown her. She held her ground and continued watching. The water engulfed her. It was oily instead of wet. It felt like dead things slid across her body but she saw nothing but dense black color.

She felt a bit of fear but she maintained her calm and held still, she continued looking with her third eye as the oily water seemed to want to enter her nose, ears, and mouth but simply slid down her form wrapping around her.

The world went from yellow gold to a deep crimson and many of the scenes before her shattered and the ground quaked. She held the vision as long as she could. The oily water began to loosen and pool around her feet. All of the scenes solidified into one and she watched her realm burn and dissolve into an ethereal amber pool.

The realm spoke to her in ancient Azmin but there was no color of vibrancy to the language.

'Milana if you can not see my ailment. You can not know my solution.'

'Tell me your ailment and the solution you need.'

'Milana why do you refuse to help me? You are capable of that and more.'

'Do you realize you are being vague and speaking in riddles?'

'This is all I can be Milana. Why do you not see? You are so powerful yet you allow me to die as you watch.'

'Are you dying? '

'I am dying rapidly. Won't you help me?'

'I will help you. I will save you!'

There was a long pause 'Please hurry Milana.'

Damn! How exactly was she going to save her realm?

Her frustration was prickly upon her skin.

"Emil, Cramnal I think we started this all wrong. How do you plan for chaos you do not understand it? Where is Shain?"

Both of her brothers were deep in thought. Wanting to understand how to plan for a chaos that was incomprehensible.

'He is on the eastern ridge."

Rachel looked to the east in confusion. How had she lost track of him?

"Cramnal, Rebecca can you two handle Shain?"

Rebecca snorted in incredulity. Two of her spirit kin emerged and stood on either side of her.

"We will handle him sister." Cramnal's voice was serious as usual.

Rachel nodded.

"This is what we will do."

"Emil go to Anis and Mis. I want you to combine your knowledge and healing abilities, and they should both use knowledge and soul abilities together. Work together but you be the eyes and what you see as disease or abnormality handle as needed."

Emil nodded and began speaking telepathically to Mis and Anis.

"Rebecca and Cranmal go to the guard with Shain. Help them and then work with them to make a diamond formation and ready yourselves to attack the points I tell you. I do not know the points yet but I am sure they are below in the abyss."

Rebecca's eyes widened but Cramnal remained impassive. He nodded respectfully and went to get Shain. Cramnal instantly began telepathically talking to his brothers about the plan.

Rachel returned her attention to the seemingly calm lake before her.

'Oily' She thought perplexed.

She stepped forward and dove in.

As soon as Anis and Mis heard Rachel's plan they felt their eyes had been opened to something incredibly obvious. After working with the guard and using knowledge magics they realized its utility. But adding healing magics to the strategy was something they hadn't considered.

Mis was upset with himself for missing what he now felt was obvious.

A rainbow of muted colors arched before them, a stone door materialized and opened, and Emil walked through it. He had a smile on his face as if he were ready to play.

"Let's start. I am tired of our realm being under attack."

They would lead the assault by seeking out anomalies and attacking them.

They stood together in a triangular formation. Mis was at the tip in front of the formation because he would lead the assault. Emil was to the right of him and Anis was to his left.

Mis began.

Vibrant streams of pink and yellow color braided together to form six strand braids that flowed forward. There were seven braids that moved ahead in a fan formation.

Pink and yellow moved from Anis spreading out like colored mist and covered Mis' braided strands.

Orange and pink light flowed from Emil in undulating waves. Those waves rose and crashed along the back end of Mis and Anis' magics. Emil's eyes went from purple, to orange, to green and back again. Changing color as his focus intensified.

He suddenly saw a large mass of grey-black that had the feel of a virus with small patches hovering around and sitting in areas of normality. He sent healing magic to the larger mass in the form of an attack. It was like attacking a tumor or a mass of viral cells.

The healing magic dimmed and just as Emil was thinking to send a stronger pulse it flared and the grey-black mass quivered. Seeing this both Mis and Anis sent knowledge and soul magic to the area.

The mass shivered violently and suddenly shrunk to an obsidian black node. The healing magic immediately stopped its attack and began nourishing the node.

The three siblings froze and stared in wonder. Emil used sorcery and he knew how to set spells within his different magics. These spells allowed his magics to seem sentient and they automatically changed tactic when needed based on Emil's knowledge.

All he knew about sorcery he learned from Rachel. Seeing what just happened he made a note to have her teach him more.

New knowledge flowed to all three of the siblings and they burst into action. Mis and Anis began surrounding the smaller masses of grey-black with soul magics, Emil sent trickles of healing magic to these and they were quickly dispersed leaving nothing behind.

Healing magic began dispersing in the area seeming to coat everything. The three could see that the area pulsed orange and Emil knew that the area was being "healed".

'What is going on Emil?'

Anis' voice was cool like cold water on a hot day to his mind.

'My magic is healing it. These masses seem like viral masses of cells in the body.' He thought for a moment. 'If there are sufficient viral cells in a body the person could die. I think the realm has a virus,'

'A virus? What do we do? Maybe you should be at the lead.'

'No Mis. I think knowledge magics draws out the virus and makes it easier to be seen and attacked. We need to highlight these areas first and allow Emil the opportunity to attack.'

'Okay. Are we ready?'

'Yes' Emil and Anis answered in unison.

Beneath the oily water the realm was a dense amber color. Rachel felt like she was moving through a pool of slick honey. It was incredibly viscous but still slid by like something slick and slippery.

The deeper she went the more viscous it became and she eventually felt like she was moving through molasses. As this change occurred the water stopped being slippery and began clinging uncomfortably to her.

Still she propelled herself down using gravity magics. The water had been altered so much her water magics was not working well here. She could form water but it was quickly absorbed into the environment and unusable again.

She could still use gravity to push and pull herself so she propelled herself down quickly.

She could sense it from the lake shore. The dark mass she was moving towards. It was massive and it was sending out tethers of knowledge and soul magics in a myriad of directions. But it was especially sending it to Sibba and into the abyss below Sibba continent. Mis and the others were also in a location where many were sent but she could sense that area contained another mass on par with this one.

The tethers were not like their magics. They seemed like something innate or reflexive. She felt it was some primitive defense and communication system. The more she thought about it the more Rachel felt like they were dealing with something similar to insects who had a queen at its center, or communal beings that shared one conscience.

When she finally reached the mass the lake was crystal clear and almost solid. She had been worried that she may need to use terra firma or shadow to move forward just as mass seemingly appeared from the murk.

She was instantly in motion. Rainbow light flared as she began weaving an intricate spell and watched the mass for a reaction. She was not one hundred percent sure of her conjecture so she remained on guard.

There was no motion and she began believing that Emil was right and this was akin to a virus. Then she thought about it. Could these be young, or only sentient when the main body directly controlled them?

Being the Milana she could learn solely from the memories of previous Milana. She did not have to ask and no one needed to actively tell her anything. Memories sometimes just rose to the surface of her conscience and other times she had to hunt out information.

A spell primarily using water slid forward, hitting the mass, and dispersing around and through it. A wide ripple of rainbow light flowed over the mass and penetrated its core almost simultaneously.

A violent ripple moved through the mass. Rachel felt it resonate through her body. As the lake floor tremored and large ripples moved through the body of water. Healing magics took over her spell and sent another shock wave through the mass.

The mass trembled and became a light lifeless grey. Everything stilled. The water began to gradually clear and liquefy. The sorcery magic changed from an attack and began nourishing the large black node left in the place of the mass.

Just as Rachel decided to propel herself up through the sludge she teleported a distance to the right and thick black sludge bands burst up through the lake floor just below her previous position.

They felt around a bit. Black sludge seeping from them and spreading into the water around them. The sorcery magic flared and this brought Rachel out of her contemplation. The magic surged toward the feelers and they seemed to hiss as if burned.

Rachel sent more sorcery magic into her spell web. As she thought about what was happening.

The feelers began moving back under the lake. Her spell began sealing the break in the lake bed.

As Rachel watched she spoke to Cramnal. 'I am going into the abyss below the lake. I will tell immediately you the locations when I find them. Be careful something from below just attacked me in the lake. They are not all benign.'

She did not wait for a response and, with mental and soul magics surrounding her, she descended into the space below the lake.