The cave of illusions

Marela was the first to appear in Solnm's cave. Her figure appeared like a scanned projection, from the bottom up. She was already looking intently when her form was complete.

Anabel appeared at the opposite of the room, diagonal from Marela. Her form shimmered into existence and her perception flowed out from her as she focused on the focal point of the illusion.

She saw layered illusion much like Amethyst had seen in the caves murals. But she could also see the components of the weave and how it deeply incorporated water magics.

She frowned, perplexed about so much water magics used in the illusion. She nodded as she had to agree with Marela. Solnm needed water to exist, but not just to drink or live in, he needed the essentials, or the essence of what water is.

How it enhances and revitalizes life. How all things can begin and end with it. How it could exist in every state imaginable.

"Is Solnm a water spirit?"

"Not exactly. He is an alchemical amalgamation of what a water spirit could be. He is what water would be if it could exist as a single molecule."

Anabel nodded as she continued to analyze the layers of the illusion. She slowly understood that there seven distinct layers and within each layer there were seven distinct illusions.

The illusions stacked upon themselves infinitely in he eyes. There were many scenes of life but all of them seemed to avoid water. The weave of the illusions varied from layer to layer.

The inner weaves were the tightest and set inside the matrix of illusions like a tightly knotted nest. The outer weave was made so loosely that it allowed for three exit points. The entire illusion matrix was encased in a formation of various protections and defensive wards.

Anabel nodded continually as she looked through each layer and illusion one at a time.

"Seven within seven. This is a sacred illusion matrix." She nodded to herself as she continued to analyze things. "It is a very intricate weave."

Marela heard the awe and respect in her friends voice. She patiently waited wondering if they should actually enter the illusion like they had planned.

She and Marela had not actually entered the illusion and were standing outside of its main matrix. The layers of illusion revealed themselves to them in stacked scenes and scenarios that presented as movie scenes in their minds.

Marela listened to her friend as she watched the scenes play out before them. She was wondering if they should enter a sacred illusion at all. One with an actual matrix was a bit beyond her own thinking.

She cast illusions better than Anabel but Anabel understood them better than anyone she had ever known. Still she had to ask the question in her heart.

"Can we manage such a matrix?"

Anabel didn't hesitate. "Of course we can. I can see four exits from here. I also see its main power source and two of its weaknesses."

"You see exits?!"

Anabel nodded slowly.

"I can tell there are more but they are within the deeper layers. The creators of this must have wanted him to escape."

"Creators? Do you think more than one person created this?"

Anabel simply nodded as she continued looking at the illusion.

She looked up at Marela with a smile.

"Let's enter. I think we can bring the entire thing with us but we need to take it from the inside."

Marela trusted her friend and simply nodded her agreement.

Their forms disappeared from the spot.

Allistar moved quickly towards a point just below the peak that was Crims. There was a large cave there that connected itself to the illusion cave through the ley lines crossing the area.

This was a particularly powerful area. There were ley lines here intersecting from seven different directions. These lines were both natural and born of the overuse of magic.

Many areas accumulated magic and this magic layered to form different densities. As these layers formed they tended to retain their magical frequencies. As the layers accumulate they could dissipate or enhance.

Those that dissipate become magic within the area that could be used to enhance spells or abilities. When they enhance themselves they can either become new ley lines or special items.

It seemed that both of the latter developed in this area. Allistar's eyes widened as he felt the richness of magic in the area. He could tell that several more ley lines were actually on the verge of and there were three more unique items below, deeper in the mountain itself.

This was almost unheard of. He was left wondering who used to use this area. He was sure whoever it may have been they were infinitely more powerful than he, Anabel, and Marela put together.

He entered the cave and was almost blinded by a surge of dense blue light. The light washed over him seeking to understand all that it could about him.

Three of his undead were vaporized and his eyes narrowed in anger. Granted he did not bring out his most powerful undead but he hated having his things destroyed.

His perception focused on the streams of magical dust floating to his left and right and they collected themselves and shot towards him and entered his lower level bone lab within Blasien, through his soul connection to the shape-shifting Vander.

He readjusted herself, sent a message to Anabel and Marela, and continued forward through the cave.

Anabel and Marela arrived within a deep, dark, cavernous space simultaneously. Their eyes slowly roamed over the large area.

Anabel nodded and Marela pulled them both into the illusion as Anabel encased them in a dense anti illusion spell.

The cave flare a dark golden color. And layers of illusion fell down, and pushed into them from all sounds. The disorientation of it caused their minds to buzz and their thoughts to swim as the illusion attached the anti-illusion spellwork to successfully bring them into the illusion.

It failed.

The first scene unfurled before them like a scene springing up from a long carpet unrolling before them.

It was of a young woman, heavily pregnant, looking out longingly at a deep bluish green sea. She watched the waves rolling in and out crashing against the rocks below her to calmly disappear back into the sea as if they had never come.

Only to appear again and crash themselves against the rocks.

Her hand moved to her stomach and she absent mindedly began to slowly stroke it.

The baby stirred and she smiled.

The scene stirred and changed rolling out right to left to replace the pregnant woman with a young boy of no more than six years.

He sat in a cold grey stone room with bright sunlight streaming in from somewhere far above him. He stared blankly at a far wall where deep seas could be vaguely perceived. They were perceived but the illusion did not allow the possibility to hold on to the perception and it continually slipped through his finger tips.

Conditioning through torment.

Anabel pursed her lips not wanting to see anymore but holding herself in the vague chance that the situation could change.

Marela sat calmly but she felt the muscles in her neck and above her eye tense and twitch respectively.

Allistar's shield held against another ramming of dense blue light. He was almost at his destination and his mind focused and his muscles tensed.

He exhaled deeply and moved forward quite a bit faster.

He entered a vast cavern covered in dense blue grasses and large blooming light blue flowers. A rich floral smell permeated the area.

A large sphere of bright blue sparking energy sat at its center hovering just above a large stalagmite.

The stalagmite was the only thing not covered in blue grasses and flowers. A thick white vine twisted around its grey stone causing deep groves around the stalagmite. The vine rose up to the top of the formation and a single large white bloom spread its petals across the surface below the sphere.

Magic streamed the sphere and down into this bloom to return to the sphere in a much more powerful state.

It was a symbiotic relationship.

Allistar's eyes narrowed in contemplation as he strengthened his barrier around him and his undead and more dense blue magic flew forth from the sphere.

Anabel was furious. She had seen several illusions that seemed to follow the life of a young man that she had first assumed to be Solnm but she realized it was just an illusionary figure meant to be associated with Solnm.

This was an illusion of contrition. It was made to convince Solnm that he needed to be remorseful and penitent.

Anabel sighed and wondered how this man had not been utterly crushed, living within such a spell for years, probably even centuries. She now understood that he did not need this illusion or the sea. These were just things implanted in him by the illusion.

It was a very powerful thing for the suggestion to still be fully active even as he was outside of its influence.

She stopped at this thought. Was he outside of its influence?

She began looking at the spellwork a bit differently.

Marela noted the change and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Allistar didn't really know how he should handle this. He had moved about the space looking for possible weaknesses and finding none.

He found himself wondering what his Anabel would do.

He shook his head. He would never understand her and he would never be as smart as her.

He had given up competing with her when he almost lost her. He always sought power in the quickest way possible and he still had to wonder what had possessed him to use her daughter as he had.

He shook his head at the thought. Amethyst was his daughter as well. A part of his soul stirred at this thought and another burst of dense blue light hit his barrier again.

He was going to have to ask for help.

Anabel had been monitoring Allistar the entire time. It had been difficult, not due to the spellwork itself but because of the spell weave.

The spellwork was the actual spell or spell cast but the weave was how the spellwork was lain or used. The weave could be loose or tight. A tight weave can make a strong spell with minimum breaking points or escape routes. It also caused the spellwork to flow faster and give it a possible increased radius or increase in its length of operation.

Loose weaves tend to be weaker with loopholes and escape routes. The spellwork had gaps that caused it to flow slower and maybe even stutter, pause, or even stall.

The illusion spell they were in already had a tight weave but this was strengthened by its layering. Each layer was tight and their overlapping caused for a denser faster spellwork.

Anabel was quite impressed.

Yet now she was annoyed because she sensed Allistar speaking with her but their connection had essentially be muffled.

She had to strain to understand each time and she decided that if it didn't feel urgent she would ignore it for now. But now she felt his need to understand something.

She worked to understand all that he had sent including the latest message and admonished herself for forgetting the importance of this second location.

They had found the connection to Solnm.

She moved to Marela and grabbed a hold of her being. They disappeared from they illusion together.

Anabel and Marela appeared inside of Allistar's barrier. They both quickly strengthened the barrier just as an even more powerful burst of blue light struck it.

Allistar sensed his wife approaching and allowed her freely into the barrier and they sphere thought it was weakening.

The blue sphere had sentience.

Marela's eyes narrowed then widened in surprise. She looked to Anabel confusion and astonishment filled her face.

Annabel smiled with a nod.

"Do you think you can talk to her?" Anabel's eyes moved over the stalagmite greedily but she did not say anything.

Marela nodded slowly and blinked from the barrier and moved to the sphere. It flared as if it would attack then suddenly quieted.

Marela reached the side of the blue sphere and her being flared into a bright sparking purple light a bit larger than the blue one.

The natural form of the Alchemist was revealed.

Natural Alchemist were pure energy born from failed alchemical experiments, rituals, or sever backlash that consumed the performing Alchemist.

They could always build their power but their initial power base was decided by the power and intent behind the experiment or ritual, or the reason behind the backlash. They were rarely formed from alchemical casting because the cost for these were paid in rituals and experimentation.

But it was possibly if the caster tried to cast something before they were ready or if the spellwork was too powerful for them.

Marela was born from one of these rare occasions. Her "mother" was consumed while casting a spell she knew well but she had been infected by an enchanted virus that weakened her magical resources. Because both the spell, her mother, and the virus were all very powerful Marela was also born very powerful.

She still carried a remnant spark of her mother and she had always felt guilt, shame, and loss. Because of this she refused to take on a male persona, she refused to have children of her own, and she loved Anabel, Amethyst, and Jolan without question.

The purple sparks touched the surface of the blue sparking sphere and a brilliant white light flashed through the cavern. Rocks and pebbles fell from the ceiling, walls, and were gaged out of the floor.

The barrier around Anabel and Allistar shimmered but held. Allistar's undead vanished and he moved closer to Anabel. He quickly wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

He kissed the top of her head. "How did I pick the most important part of this mission for myself. I am much to lazy for this."

Anabel smiled at his comment. And leaned into him. They had been too busy lately and they hadn't had time to even sleep let alone be near each other. She wanted to relish being close to him for as long as she could.

They watched, relishing their closeness while still being alert, as the purple sphere touched then entered the outer edge of the blue sphere.

There was another brilliant flash of white light went through the cavern. This time it was not destructive but sent out inert information and intent. Their barriers prevented it from reaching them so Allistar and Anabel could not discern the information or intent, only that it was there.

"Is this how they communicate?"

Anabel shook her head in acknowledgment of the question but that it was erroneous. "No. They speak through soul speech and telepathy. This seems to be a defense mechanism and maybe even a call for help. Alchemist are solitary and usually destroy each other when they meet. She may think Marela is an enemy and trying to attack her. But that is odd."

"Why is it odd?"

Anabel shrugged into his side. "Marela did not approach in a threatening manner. It is like the other alchemist has weakened mentally. Or that it is confused. Either way something is wrong."

Allistar nodded as he watched the two sparking spheres of light.