Here's the next installment of our Metallum Nocturne story. If you need to catch up on any of the previous episodes, click here.
Episode Forty-One
Pain enveloped Claire.
Half her flesh was on fire, the part that wasn't night metal. It'd been a mistake. She shouldn't have come. The agony went on for an unimaginable time until it slowly faded from her consciousness.
Claire woke near a pool of black liquid surrounded by ebony tree-like structures that reminded her of frozen lightning, except they were rising from the ground. As she looked around she realized everything was shades of black. Even the sky. But it wasn't incomprehensible. Either through a trick of her eyes, or something human remaining, the shadowy expanse had as much difference and hue as a rainbow. It was like staring at an oil slick expecting sheer blackness and finding swirling colors within.
As she rose to a sitting position, she realized she was both naked and covered entirely in night metal. The reason for the pain became clear. The rest of her body had been converted, allowing her to exist in Umbra, which explained why the realm was a mystery. She couldn't imagine someone with no night metal being able to survive the transition.
Claire searched for the proper route to find the Night Mother, but the surrounding area was glistening black hills. She headed in a random direction, feeling like she was walking in shadow. As she crested a hill, she spotted an enormous object floating through the sky. Further out, she saw more mini-moons hovering over the ground. Some were surrounded by tiny black shapes. The scale was incomprehensible because she had nothing to compare them with.
She headed down the hillside toward the jagged landscape. Traversing the reverse-lightning trees, she stumbled upon a moving shape, digging in the not-earth. From the back it looked like a giant porcupine made of glistening black metal, snorting and digging like a pig after truffles. Claire backed away, but the creature lifted its head, turning ominously. The head reminded her of a wolf, but with sharper features. It lowered its front as if it were going to charge, before turning slightly as if it'd heard a distant noise. Then it bounded away, leaving Claire in relief.
A few times as she traveled, she reached for the backpack that wasn't there. She wasn't sure if the gear she'd worn hadn't made it through the portal, or if it'd burned up when it arrived, much like her remaining flesh. Claire wished she had a mirror to see what she looked like covered in night metal. Her flesh was surprisingly supple. She wondered if the protective quality of the material was the same in Umbra as it was in her realm.
The lack of thirst or hunger was curious as she traveled. Not only did she not feel them, she had no desire to either, as if the need for sustenance had been eliminated. Claire spotted other shadow creatures, but none as close as the porcupine-wolf. It appeared they were avoiding her, but she wasn't certain. The rules of the realm weren't entirely clear to her.
Claire worried she might wander forever until she spotted a collection of spires that stuck out against the jagged terrain. Whether or not they were the Night Mother's domain, she didn't care as long as they could point her in the right direction. The structures grew larger as she neared until they became towering spikes. The tips punctured the air near the floating rocks. When she grew close enough, she could tell that the structures were purposeful. Each one was as big, or bigger than the Spire in the city of sorcery. The floating rocks seemed to move around the structures in a pattern that Claire couldn’t quite determine.
Reaching the structures took longer than expected because the perspective had made them appear closer. She couldn’t imagine how she might have made the journey without being transformed since she'd seen nothing she could eat or drink. Even the pool where she'd awoken had not been water, but some black liquid equivalent.
The landscape wasn't dreary. Claire found herself delighted by the details she spotted along the way like the "berry bushes" whose fruits exploded into shadows whenever she walked too near, or the bird-like creatures near the rocks in the sky which were probably as big as commercial jets. A stream of oily liquid traversed an uneven field and then climbed into the sky, defying what she thought of as gravity, to reach one of the mini-moons.
A reflective mirror-like road crossed her path, so she took it, recognizing that it led to the spires at the center of the enormous valley. Seeing that the surface was reflective, she knelt down and examined her features. She was still the same Claire, but it was like looking at a negative of a black-and-white photo.
Without bodily functions, time had less meaning. Claire marveled at the landscape, forgetting why she'd come to the realm of Umbra until she grew close enough to the spires that she began to see figures moving between them. The first time she was close enough for a good look, she was both horrified and enthralled. The figure strode forward on long tentacles, almost like a giraffe striding. It looked like an octopus crossed with a human, and when it spotted her, it stared back for a long moment before turning the opposite way.
The tentacle-people avoided her after that first encounter. She wondered if she was contagious or so strange that she disgusted them, until she spotted a familiar shape moving towards her. The distance made the lead-up last forever until they were finally close enough that Claire could make out facial features. The back of her neck tingled with anticipation when she realized she was approaching the original patron of Metallum Nocturne.
Stephen Adolphus.
