The being barely resisted the urge to crawl back inside the tunnel, and it still quickly recovered its bag and plastered itself against a rock close to the exit, ready to jump inside at need, pushing its stealth to the limit.

  It looked around wildly, trying to spot anything amiss that could betray death approaching.

  Every time it turned its head, it was afraid it would be to find the terrible image of the dark one standing close by, walking unhurried while staring down the being, moments before...

  The little light was, as usual, completely unaware of its plight and of the danger they were both in. Because there was no doubt in the being's mind that the dark one absolutely could harm him, and easily. There was no rational reason, since the orb had proven impervious to anything they'd come across, but it was still certain of this.

  Yet the little light just kept floating around uncaring, shining brightly in perfect view.

  The being regretted like never before that their vision-powered communication was so one-sided. It would have thrown a spike at the little light - that always seemed to get his attention - but was far too busy pretending to be a rock at the moment.

  The little light kept floating left and right, spouting its nonsense non-stop. The being was still scared but...

  if the dark one was truly lying in wait, surely it would have come out by now?

  As the orb kept at it without anything happening, the being gradually calmed down enough to look around very slowly, though it was still way too early to move from its hiding spot.

  This place was truly humongous.

  Whereas the others they'd been to were only one or a small smattering of castles at most, this was an enormous multitude of them, so many that the being couldn't see the end.

  So many castles that might contain wonders. And so many castles for the dark one to hide in. But better not to think of that.

  All around, extending so far it disappeared into the distance, there was the dome made of swirling currents. And the both of them were in some alternate version to the void surrounding the epicenter, the one over the chasm.

  And though not everything was the same - essence was more abundant than usual here, rather than completely absent - most details matched.

  Most importantly, the whirling currents detached from the ball all around, to converge somewhere ahead, mostly spiraling down in a spectacle that was as much awe-inspiring as it was menacing.

  Somewhere that the being would still be able to pinpoint with perfect accuracy even if it were blind.

  It was somewhere of great importance. And the more the being considered it, the greater it felt.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  So great that it was struggling incredibly hard not to throw caution away and just rush ahead.

  A calling so strong that even the epicenter was background noise compared to it. So strong that if there was another chasm, the being might just dive into it rather than delay a moment more.

  So, it gathered its courage and jumped back down, next to the little light.

  Whatever the cost, that thing would be its.

  The being had hoped things would be more interesting in here. It should have known better. Just yet more rummaging throughout boring, empty castles. And though the fact they were so close to each other cut the dull travel time by a lot, they made up for that in sheer number.

  Its excitement was always disappointed in the end: there was never anything inside, excluding that freak accident with the brambly slime. Just more and more inert clutter. Even the fear of an ambush by the dark behind every corner, that had kept things lively at first, had eventually faded away.

  Right now, the creature must be on top of some rock, staring at the only interesting thing around, as it was wont to do. The very same giant spiral of death and significance that the little light was clearly intent on circling around. Why, better to float over useless piles of junk, spit out some annoyances, and move on...

  It might be time to revisit the judgment on the orb's intelligence. Going around looking for things it couldn't interact with in any way, while avoiding the obviously fundamental one couldn't be very smart.

  Not that the being could complain too much, when it had itself decided to hold back, this time.

  Its experiences with mysterious, sudden, all-encompassing impulses were far from good, after all: they'd always turned out either completely disappointing, like with the shiny thing, or straight up deadly, like with the collateral first and the epicenter next.

  And since this one felt at least as momentous as the latter - at least, and wasn't that a scary thought? - it was far better to tread carefully. And this was without considering other confirmed lethal threats lurking somewhere.

  ... which meant scouting the surroundings, looking for clues and such, and approaching only after having got a satisfying idea of what was going on.

  Thus, once again, there was nothing better to do than follow along helplessly, because obviously the little light must have at least a marginally better understanding of the area. Certainly not because the being was afraid of wandering alone while the dark one was stalking the place.

  Also, there were, in fact, a couple of interesting things to entertain itself with.

  The disquieting discovery that the winding thing inside had been scoured empty without it noticing at all... was a very good example.

  Sure, it had happened at times that something would surprise and then hold its focus enough for its control to slip, which obviously meant the compressed principle would dribble out. But it hadn't been that long since it last checked, and yet the spiral was now completely empty!

  Worse, it was impossible to start filling it again, because even though they were in a similar situation to the epicenter, there was no principle to be found here. The being had thought passing the barrier would mean a spike of it, but there was none at all!

  The frustration of losing progress coupled with this dearth, and compounded by the absolute boredom of this useless search... it was getting a little irksome. The being would have probably ran back outside or straight at the menacing spiral by now, if it weren't for this other nagging feeling, giving it pause. As if, now that the principle wasn't there anymore, something else was reaching to it. Trying to...

  ... that wasn't the little orb. According to the being's extensive experience, he was out of annoyance range right now. And it was weirdly persistent.

  This must be the original, something it had almost forgotten in the deluge of the little light's noise. The true 'annoyance'. And it meant that something had changed. Something was improving.

  But what?

  If it were something unique of this place, or if it had been going on for some time, but suppressed by the principle, the being didn't know, and probably wouldn't ever. But there was something else different, that could be a clue: it just couldn't shake the feeling that the currents were... strange.

  Reaching out to it, in a way they hadn't before.

  Which was absurd: the currents weren't alive in any way and they'd never shown any kind of favored treatment to any creature.

  ...But what if they had some hidden requirements, just like the principle? Requirements that, unlike for that intangible and mysterious stuff, the being had met without even trying?

  There was a budding connection now. Maybe. That allowed it to... There was definitely something to the currents here, yes. They weren't moving only by their nature, but... as if they were arranging themselves to form... a pattern? Though what exactly, the being couldn't begin to understand.

  They were intrinsically connected to any and all creatures of this realm... But now, they were getting connected more to itself than to anything else.

  This, it just knew.

  The rules it had learned about the principle - its little preferences, signs and affectations - didn't really apply here. But the mindset helped. Maybe, in time, it could learn the currents' own proclivities and be able to enforce its will upon them, like the knight did with its whisper? Perhaps it would be a good idea to focus on this?

  ...no, that didn't feel right. Whatever the currents were about, they weren't just a different flavor of whisper. They were something else, and wouldn't stand for it. Something like the being wouldn't ever be able to command them.

  But maybe with the stuff inside the the spiral, it could.

  That thing certainly felt important enough for that. It might be the very core of it all. Maybe even more than the epicenter.

  Why else would the currents flow into it? Condense around it?

  Because what they were doing around the epicenter only looked similar, on second thought. But was very actually different.

  They weren't flowing into it. But around.

  They weren't infusing it. But forming a some kind of... Were they trying to plug the chasm? Or maybe what was beyond it? Before... something bad happened?

  The being felt like it was onto something, and it wouldn't take it long to-

  Something was happening outside.

  Through its new awareness of the currents, it could feel a distortion at the edge of the enclosure. Something was... pushing? at the wall of currents.

  Its gaze turned to where it felt the disturbance... but there was nothing.

  And as well it should, since those currents were completely impregnable. Touching them would be death to all creatures around. Maybe only excluding the being itself, once it had completed... but no. This felt like brute force.

  Which again was ridiculous, because even the dark one had been forced to skulk around it. There was no way that anything could-

  The wall started to look different, the currents in the area looking wilder and restless, as if they weren't working anymore in accordance to the greater wall.

  Deep worry seized the being.

  What could cause them to behave that way? If they kept going like that, they were bound to--

  Around that area, the perfectly smooth surface gradually morphed back into smaller currents, which deviated out of place, whirling inwards into loops that awkwardly rejoined the ball further away, and completely breaking the pattern in which they had flowed until now.

  The being could only stare in awe and terror, as a hole opened to the outside.

  And through that hole... a shining, blinding light came hurling towards the ground far away.

  It landed before the being could even take it in, but there was something... familiar to it. Familiarly magnificent.

  And then the slowly healing hole up above exploded inwards.

  Similar shining lights burst through a now much bigger opening, far too fast for the being to even understand what had happened, if not for one of them stopping to float above - the wildly flailing currents nearby slowing down - and allowing for a better look.

  The little light had rushed here to jerk madly in the air, in utter panic. But he wasn't important now.

  The thing floating up there shone brighter than anything, so strong that the being couldn't really discern its features, beyond that there was something beneath all that radiance, emanating it. There was a physical body inside, unlike the orb's case.

  The only thing the being knew for sure, was that they were creatures. And they might be bad news.

  Judging by what came through its connection with the little orb…

  he agreed.

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