A Hand-Woven Universe

"s.h.i.t." Noone whispered out loud catching Tobias"s attention. Tobias a.s.sumed it was because of the sudden shouting by the other groups.

A frown formed on paladin"s face. "Shields at the ready, group up. We head back to the entrance right away." His voice boomed deeply, demanding compliance. Although not a recognized soldier, Tobias had the presence needed to immediately take charge of their party of ten.

The rest of the group – including the young recruit Noone had saved earlier, and the man who had moved his shield to try and protect him – all nodded in unison, circling up with Tobias.

"Al… Which way do I need to go to get to you?" Noone thought quickly. "If I go back with Tobias I don"t know if I will be able to escape. I need to break free now."

"Noone. Group up." Tobias spoke evenly, eyes darting from alley to window to doorway. Noone still hadn"t moved after he told everyone to get together.

"On the far side of the city opposite of where you came in – there"s a large building with a staircase that leads underground. Get there." Alaviv said simply.

"Noone?" Tobias was now looking directly at Noone, the bad feeling he had was growing as he watched Noone stand silent and still.

"But be careful… the dark elves have traps – d.a.m.n! Not enough power!" Suddenly Alaviv"s voice cut out like a speaker in Noone"s mind being broken.

Noone barely had time to register the sudden shift before he noticed Tobias begin to approach him.

"Ah. Sorry Tobias. I thought I saw something." Noone tapped his temple indicating to Tobias he was using his divine sense. Tobias nodded in understanding, but the frown was still on his face.

"Come on then. I don"t want to get caught here like the rest." Tobias said evenly. He turned around to enter the circle of soldiers again.

Noone watched Tobias carefully, every motion - conscious and unconscious - he waited. As soon as the paladin"s back was towards Noone… Noone"s feet began to move. In his mind a small "I"m sorry" was whispered. But his first step was already taken. Not towards Tobias… But instead towards the closest alley in sight.

In that moment time slowed to a crawl for Tobias and Noone.

Maybe it was the look on the soldier"s faces who were facing Noone, or maybe it was divine intervention but as soon as Noone began taking his first step, Tobias"s frown deepened, and his eyebrows furrowed. His eyes went cold with the light of his G.o.d"s powers pulsing through him.

"Noone!" He yelled, not having even turned around. His large body moved with a speed that shocked the soldiers nearby as the old paladin turned on his heel and stretched out his hand. Noone watched with his divine sense as Tobias was beginning to throw out a spell – his palm glowing bright white.

"d.a.m.n! Faster!" Noone thought and his body strained as hard as it could to dash out of sight before Tobias could use whatever that spell was.

Time seemed to come to a stop.

Suddenly! A red hazy light glowed from under the feet of Tobias and the group of soldiers. But as fast as it appeared, it disappeared along with the ground beneath their feet. Only Noone who was dashing towards the alley was out of range.

It was like this that - in the blink of an eye - the entire group of soldiers along with Tobias shouted as they suddenly plummeted into a pitch-dark tunnel which had opened up underneath them.

Noone who had his divine sense trained on Tobias the whole time froze in shock.

What on earth just happened?

It may have taken a while to explain but everything that occurred from the moment Noone chose to run to now took less time than it takes to notch an arrow. It all happened too quickly!

Noone stood frozen in the alleyway for a few moments. His brain had completely halted as the scene played back in his mind over and over.

He couldn"t help but look back into the pit that had suddenly appeared.

"Is he... dead?" The thought seemed to approach Noone"s mind like a whisper.

How could that be? He was there just a moment ago, about to let off a spell and then give chase before Noone would lose him in the maze of buildings… how could he have just plummeted down like that?

"Noone! Hurry up, I will have it up within the hour. I will be able to maintain it for five min-"

"Al! Is Tobias alive!?" Noone shouted out loud, not being able to restrain himself. His eyes stared down the dark pit but even he couldn"t see the bottom of it with his divine sense.

"What?" The gnome asked incredulously before pausing. "Hm. Yes. But he"s in a bad way… and he won"t last long. Looks like all the soldiers with him are dead. That was a pretty big fall, but he must have had some lifesaving treasure. Wait! No-"

Before Alaviv could finish his words Noone removed the two war-axes from his waist and jumped into the pit. He stretched his divine sense down down down, preparing to stop his fall just before impacting the bottom.

In that moment, if you were to ask Noone why he was doing what he was doing, he wouldn"t have an answer. He knew it wasn"t logical, and in fact might cause even more problems… but the thought of doing nothing didn"t sit right in his chest either.

At the bottom of the pit it was completely dark except for the light being emitted from the necklace around Tobias"s throat. A small silver effigy hung there swaying violently with Tobias"s movement in the image of the good G.o.ds.

…

Tobias wasn"t sure why this anxious feeling was building up within his chest. He ordered the soldiers nearby to group up – he wanted nothing more to do with this death trap of a town. They could return with reinforcements, but only so long as they made it back alive.

But as the young and old soldiers circled around him, Noone stood silently looking off into the distance. His body was tense and his eyes were set tight. Despite calling to Noone multiple times, he didn"t respond.

"What"s going on?" Tobias thought to himself, frowning as he approached.

As he got close, Noone suddenly broke out of his trance. He looked at Tobias and gave him an excuse – he was looking at something with his divine sense. Tobias nodded, easily believing Noone who he knew had special abilities. But despite this… his feelings grew worse.

It wasn"t until he had turned his back towards Noone that he realized why. If someone were to ask Tobias how he reacted so quickly in this moment, he would say that it was the c.u.mulative experience of more than four decades in battle – and maybe some divine intervention.

He felt it in his very bones…. Noone was about to make a run for it.

"Noone!" He yelled. His entire body tensed tightly, and he wasted no time preparing a restraining spell he had been saving just for this moment. He had hoped he wouldn"t need to use it… but he couldn"t blame Noone either.

He spun quickly on his heels – palm outstretched and the spell moments away from ensnaring Noone who was attempting to disappear down an alley.

But it was in that exact moment, Tobias felt the world literally shift from under him. A red glow filled the ground beneath his feet just as he was finishing preparing the miracle.

The ground disappeared, revealing a pit several dozen meters deep – pitch black – and no doubt deadly.

"d.a.m.n." Tobias managed to think before losing himself to gravity. Tobias instantly began to prepare a protective spell to cover him and the soldiers around him but… In his palm, the miracle to ensnare Noone was finally complete.

He couldn"t use the next miracle until he wasted this one… but everything went by too fast! There was no time!

Tobias and the group of eight soldiers, including the young man Noone had saved before crashed violently into the pitch-black rocky earth below.

The sound of flesh and bone being broken echoed up the pit and out into the town above. There had been no time for any of these normal soldiers to react. Even the one"s with some magical capabilities were caught by surprise.

When Tobias"s heavily armored body crashed against the stone floor – a white light burst through his armor. It was the effigy of the good G.o.ds of life. The b.l.o.o.d.y breath which had exploded from his body on impact suddenly returned with a refreshing wave of healing power.
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This was a lifesaving treasure.

Tobias groaned deeply as his old and broken body was strenuously repaired by the miracle held within his necklace. His eyes swirled with stars as his mind was being mended after the impact.

"How pitiful am I…?" Tobias"s managed to groan as his body quickly finished repairing the largest of damage.

Despite being healed of his most life-threatening injuries, he was still in a bad way. There"s no damage quite like fall damage.

This was made even worse when his eyes resumed working… the white light provided by his necklace gave him a second of warning before a sudden dark and lithe figure flashed on top of him.

A deathly sharp spear thrust towards his skull.

The world slowed down in that moment. Tobias could clearly see a dark elf standing above him – presumably waiting at the bottom of the pit to pick off any survivors. His muscles – organs – bones all screamed at him in protest as he tried to lift his arm to defend, roll away, anything.

But his body was still in the middle of healing… if he moved now, he would disrupt the miracle.

"But I have no choice!" Tobias shouted out a groan as his whole body quickly rolled violently to the side. He moved with years of battle-hardened experience. Despite the burning protest he managed to roll away – into the dark elf causing her to reel back – and onto his feet, swiftly pulling out his great-axe.

As his eyes adjusted to the low-light of the bottom of the trap, he suddenly realized he was in a much worse way than he thought.

There were six dark elves waiting there for him – they seemed as shocked by his liveliness as he was by their presence.

"s.h.i.t." Tobias uttered. For once… he wasn"t sure if he was going to make it out of this alive.