Hollow footsteps echoed against the fortified walls as Darrin led Alaric and me down a long spiral staircase that took us deep underground.
What greeted us at the end of the short journey was a thick rune-inscribed door that opened onto a large training area. My gaze swept the wide room as memories of the flying castle training grounds, where I had trained with Hester, Buhnd, Camus, and Kathyln after becoming a Lance, resurfaced.
With the nightmare about Tess and Cecelia still fresh in my mind, the past seemed to be floating closer to the surface than usual.
That seems to have been in another life cycle , I thought with a sigh, stopping at the door.
'That begs a good question: exactly how many lives do you have, anyway?' Regis asked, his disembodied form radiating amusement and genuine curiosity. 'Nine, like a cat, or are you more like a river nix, just moving and rising forever?'
A river nix?
'It's this little tube-shaped mana beast that lives in the rocks under water. It sheds its crystalline exoskeleton every morning, comes out like new again, and if you cut it one by two, both halves regenerate. '
As I entered the training room, I considered what it would be like to have a clone of myself every time one of my limbs was cut off.
Regis cursed in my head. 'Please forget what I said. That image is ghastly. '
Like the door, the runes were inscribed on the floor, along the walls, and on the ceiling. I followed a line of runes, trying to determine what they were for.
"Protective runes," Darrin confirmed. “To keep the house upstairs safe. It means that I can do my best here without even waking Sorrel from his nap. "
It was an impressive training room, although not as grand as the one in the flying castle.
Darrin, Alaric'le beni yerin derinliklerine götüren uzun sarmal bir merdivenden aşağı inerken, surlu duvarlarda boş ayak sesleri yankılandı.
Kısa yolculuğun sonunda bizi karşılayan, büyük bir eğitim alanına açılan rün yazılı kalın bir kapı oldu. Bir Lance olduktan sonra Hester, Buhnd, Camus ve Kathyln ile birlikte çalıştığım uçan kale eğitim sahalarının anıları yeniden su yüzüne çıkarken bakışlarım geniş odayı taradı.
Tess ve Cecelia ile ilgili kabus hala aklımda tazeyken, geçmiş her zamankinden daha fazla yüzeye çıkıyor gibiydi.
Bu başka bir yaşam döngüsünde gibi görünüyor, diye düşündüm bir iç çekerek, kapıda durdum.
'That begs a good question: exactly how many lives do you have, anyway?' Regis asked, his disembodied form radiating amusement and genuine curiosity. 'Nine, like a cat, or are you more like a river nix, just moving and rising forever?'
A river nix?
'It's this little tube-shaped mana beast that lives in the rocks under water. It sheds its crystalline exoskeleton every morning, comes out like new again, and if you cut it one by two, both halves regenerate. '
As I entered the training room, I considered what it would be like to have a clone of myself every time one of my limbs was cut off.
Regis cursed in my head. 'Please forget what I said. That image is ghastly. '
Like the door, the runes were inscribed on the floor, along the walls, and on the ceiling. I followed a line of runes, trying to determine what they were for.
"Protective runes," Darrin confirmed. “To keep the house upstairs safe. It means that I can do my best here without even waking Sorrel from his nap. "
It was an impressive training room, although not as grand as the one in the flying castle.