//------------------------------// // 730 - No Rest // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “SOLVEI!!! NOOOOOO!!!” The words burst forth from Lex’s lips as he sat up, agony coursing through every fiber of his being. The pain of feeling Solvei die – of feeling part of himself die – blotted out everything else, leaving him unable to think straight as he thrashed and screamed, blind to his surroundings and unable to make sense of what was going on around him, the nearby voices that immediately spilled forth in response to his outburst little more than meaningless sounds. “What’s happening?! What’s going on?!” “It’s Lex! He’s awake!” “Meep meep!” “Lex, calm down! You have to calm-” “Don’t go near him, you idiot! He’s lost it again!” “Well we can’t just leave him like this! He’s going to hurt himself!” Something heavy landed on him then, pinning him to the ground, and Lex struggled underneath it. But a moment later the weight increased, and he found himself unable to throw it off, the frenzied quagmire that was his mind churning harder in response. He knew that Solvei was gone, but like a limb that had just been ripped from its socket, the overwhelming pain and the sheer magnitude of the loss were more than he was capable of processing at the moment. The result was that, as Lex managed to latch onto a single coherent thought, he was unable to fully grasp how little sense it made. I have to find her! It was the very most that he was able to comprehend at the moment: Solvei was gone, and something was holding him in place, and so if he could just get free he could start looking for her. On some level he knew that idea was flawed, knew that she was more than simply physically absent, but at that moment the full scope of what that meant was beyond his ability to fully fathom. “SOLVEI!!! SOLVEIIIIII!!!” He dimly registered new pain erupting through his back then, along with sudden sense of vertigo and a chorus of yelps, cries, and shouts. But all that mattered was that he was no longer restrained, and he scrambled to his hooves, stumbling forward blindly. “Ow ow ow! Damn it, what just happened?!” “He...he made one of those huge black crystals, right underneath himself!” “Gods, if the top of that thing was any sharper, he’d have impaled himself on it! And us too!” “Or crushed us against the ceiling! Look at how close he came to it!” “Lex, stop! Come back!” But he was still beyond attaching meaning to what he was hearing, knowing only that the voices belong to the weight that had been trying to keep him searching for Solvei, the missing piece of himself. Loping forward, he knew only that he needed to get away from them so that he could keep looking for her. Nothing else mattered. Lurching in a random direction, he made it less than a dozen steps before colliding with a barrier, collapsing as he bounced off of it. A frustrated wail rose from his throat then, and he threw himself against whatever it was he’d hit, but it was utterly immovable, and he had to content himself with sliding along its length, trying to find a breach in whatever new obstacle this was. It was only then that it occurred to him that he couldn’t see anything. The knowledge that something else – darkness, in this case – was hindering his search brought a wordless moan of anger and despair from him. It was all making things worse! It was all keeping him away from wherever Solvei had gone! Straining, he willed his eyes to pierce through the darkness, to show him something, anything that would let him keep looking for Solvei since not doing so was too painful to bear. As if in response to that thought, he could suddenly make out his surroundings. Everything was in black and white, distantly reminding him of how he’d sometimes used his powers to view things that way when there was no light to see by, but it was enough to show him that he was in a small room made entirely of stone. Picking themselves up from where they were lying around a huge spike of crystal were some ponies that he knew he recognized – and who were again making noise at him as they cautiously moved toward him – but he cared less about that than about the open doorway that was past them. He was getting ready to barrel past them and make his way toward it when a new burst of noise came from beyond the exit, into which strode- “SOLVEI!” Her name tore itself from his mouth as he spotted the winter wolf, and he found himself rushing toward her, shooting past the other ponies to throw his forelegs around her neck, burying his face in her fur. He distantly registered her tensing under his grip, muscles going taut as if to pull away from him, and he held her tighter in response, refusing to let her go. It wasn’t much better than it had been a moment ago. Even despite the fact that she was right there, he still couldn’t sense her presence in the way that he had before, and the pain of having been separated from her was diminished only slightly. But any succor was better than none, and he collapsed against her as a mournful sob tore its way past his lips. A moment later the strength fled from his back legs, and he sank to the ground, dragging Solvei with him as she laid down on her belly. Nor was that the extent of the exhaustion that fell over him then, and he felt his consciousness starting to slip away. He fought against it, not wanting to lose what little of Solvei’s closeness he’d managed to regain, but he couldn’t summon up the energy to do so, his eyes closing of their own accord. The voices around him were speaking again, but the only one he cared about was the one coming from the wolf he was embracing, her voice gentle and soothing as he slowly fell asleep. “It’s alright, Master. Everything will be alright...” No one said anything as Lex drifted off, waiting until his breathing was slow and even before sighing in relief. “Akna,” whispered Thermal Draft as she moved to pick up Lex’s bedroll, laying it down across from where the black crystal he’d raised had tossed it, “do you think you can carry Lex over here without waking him up?” The adlet-turned-winter-wolf grimaced. “I’m not sure. I mean, if I had my hands it wouldn’t be a problem, but I haven’t spent much time in this form.” “Don’t change back!” warned Valor. “If Lex wakes up and doesn’t see you as a winter wolf, he’s liable to start panicking again!” “I kind of figured that,” muttered Akna, giving the sleeping stallion an uncomfortable look. Even asleep, Lex had kept his forelegs curled around her neck, refusing to let go. “Besides, I wouldn’t be able to see in the dark if I changed back anyway.” “At least you can do that on your own,” huffed Shadow, sinking down onto her own bedroll and wrapping her cloak around herself. “Once Thermal Draft’s spell wears off, we’re back to being blind, since apparently it would offend the oh-so-mighty Night Mare if we lit some candles in her precious shrine.” “It’s an antenoctem temple to her faith, Shadow.” Looking up from where she was checking that Woodheart hadn’t been injured in the scuffle, Mystaria frowned at the masked mare. “This entire place was consecrated to the Night Mare back when she was still considered a goddess of darkness in general, rather than the nighttime in particular. And even though the Moon Princess is still considered to be the goddess who governs the moon, the stars, and other visible aspects of the night sky, the two of them-” “Mysty, I really don’t think this is the time for a sermon,” groaned Spinner, sitting down next to Shadow. Taking the hem of her friend’s cloak, she pulled it over her shoulder, leaning against the other mare for warmth. “Honestly, I just wish this place was warmer! I know it’s better than outside, but I feel like I’m still frozen!” Everyone else winced at that, with Spinner cringing as soon as the words left her mouth. “I didn’t mean...I know she saved our lives and all, it just...it happened so fast...” “I still can’t believe that worked,” muttered Valor, looking down. “Not to diminish the sacrifice she made; I just don’t understand how freezing you all got you here safely.” “The ice she encased us in protected us from the other ice chunks that were being spun through the water,” explained Mystaria. “And since we were frozen...it’s hard to explain, but sometimes when people are subjected to extreme cold, they go into a sort of...hibernation, I guess you could call it, where they don’t need to breathe. Most of the time it doesn’t work, because the cold also damages their organs, but-” “But Solvei had already put protective magic on us earlier so that the cold wouldn’t hurt us,” finished Thermal Draft, a catch in her voice as she finished laying out Lex’s bedroll, her hooves shaking. “That, and Akna’s wasn’t hibernating like the rest of us, since she’s a creature of the cold,” noted Shadow, her voice lacking its usual sardonic edge as she glanced at the individual in question. “Which is good, since if she had been, or if we hadn’t all been frozen together in a single chunk of ice...” “It was the Night Mare guiding me. I’m sure of it,” murmured the adlet who could, everyone had only recently found out, become one of Solvei’s people. “Being able to find the opening to that alcove in the darkness while the water was raging, let alone getting us into it...that wasn’t just good fortune. It had to be her.” No one could say anything to that, and silence fell again, lasting for only a few moments before Shadow looked back at where Akna was trying to move Lex without waking him. “Grab the hem of his outfit with your teeth. You’ll be dragging his back legs a bit, but it’s not very far.” The helpful comment caused Thermal Draft to look at the earth mare in surprise, and she wasn’t the only one. But before Drafty could say anything, she suddenly doubled over, shudders wracking her body as she started coughing. Pressing her hoof over her mouth to muffle herself, several seconds passed before she managed to get her breathing under control, although no one missed how there was blood on her hoof when she lowered it. “Drafty...” The pegasus shook her head in response to the concern in Mystaria’s voice. “I’m fine.” “That’s not how that Paska guy made it sound,” noted Spinner. “It’s nothing I can’t handle,” insisted the pegasus. “Compared to what Lex is going through...and what happened to Solvei...” Biting her lip, Drafty had to take a moment to compose herself before continuing. “Not to mention the state Woodheart’s in, this isn’t a big deal. Lex will wake up soon, and he’ll go through that Rite he was talking about, and after that...” She trailed off for a moment, realizing she had no idea what the unicorn’s plan was then. “After that, he’ll fix everything.” “And if Spinner’s prediction comes true?” asked Valor quietly. “...how’s it looking out there?” Thermal Draft directed her question at Akna, the wolf having reached the bedroll and placed Lex on it, lying down next to him before answering. “They’re saying that there’s no sign that anyone tried to follow us. The traps in the river that Lex disabled are all back up, the catacombs are quiet, and there’s no evidence of magic being used to try and break in.” She shrugged as best she could with Lex’s forelegs still tight around her neck. “It’s like I told you before, we’re safe here.” “But...?” pressed Drafty. Another pained moan from Lex kept Akna from answering immediately, the stallion squeezing her tighter in his sleep. It was only after she whispered another reassurance into his ear, calming him enough to where he relaxed his grip a little, that she answered the question. “I spoke to the Keeper just now. He wants to meet with Lex as soon as he’s awake.”