CHAPTER 17 - ARTHUR’S SWORD

Second Age, Echo Realm

Glimmers approached the entrance of the cave. It was of normal size, and never made any one feel small, as others have done with gigantism. It was merely there for the sake of sloth, hidden beneath a hill adorned with rollicking grass and meadows. As it happened the passage of a breeze found the arrivals and made them Linden and Melina once more. The landmark complimented the surrounding area in an honest fashion. It was a nice place on the road to somewhere, and not the type that would draw attention. Linden gripped his gauntlet and felt the strength of its gold. He looked toward his consort who expressed her thoughts in swift auras of light, bending the curvature of space around her. Above those people the sky fawned over the clouds and sweet talked them. "I will have you know, this place is well hidden" he assured her. It was one of the treasures they possessed, and would be passed down through the generations. The constellation cave in the heart of portion Valco. Anyone who enters finds themselves adrift in a strange lattice of stars and lines. Gate to the echo realm. Crawling with nameless shadows. "It hope so, my love. This place is our homeland, and it belongs to Echo and her children" Melina answered. She sent her eyes toward her counterpart, granting him the promised threat. Above the roof, a stone fell from its outcrop and landed on the sediment. Shy trees fanned themselves, pining for moisture. "And watch your head" Linden commanded. The pair made their way into the hallways of earth, where the rock turned to gray and the gray turned to darkness. Linden swept his hand against the slick wall of the edifice, and in his heart he felt mortal for a second. There were no torches, as their golden armor, replete with magic, fought against the void. "It looks like the cave with transform soon, and then we can find the items we seek. I can bring them back to the room, and do experiments on them to elicit their function" Melina whispered, her words imbued with expectation. "The grain stars are unlike any other star" Linden admitted, nodding his head, "they are highly unusual in their makeup". Melina walked further ahead, then stopped suddenly. She breathed deep from the flood of memory. "Yes, after Echo summoned that new realm, The Moment, into which we sleepwalked, so many found themselves in one of the two worlds. It was through the actions of Honeycomb Man and the Dispersal, which allowed those below to come above. Into the Moment. That spell combined a grain of pollen from Onsuru's flower, the Aphro, with a star, and created these unusual grain stars". Betwixt the threads of luminescence, and at their tips, the petite stars shined. They could fit ten in the hand if one desired. Yet they were true, the colossus hidden in the deep of space. The bath of phoenix fire. Graveyards to hapless spaceships, and life givers to their worlds. "The grain stars shrunk to this size, so they cannot be found in space" Linden stated. His hand was on the chin, looking them over with curiosity. "Melina darling, go to the left". She glimmered and arched her back. The darkness was silent. The threads made a hinderance to her fingers as she inched them forward. If one of them snapped, it would cause events in the far future. "Go slow" Linden instructed. The loving wife did as he willed, and moved cautiously. Intangible aether glided at lightspeed through the long length of the threads. The grain star welcomed her sight with its characteristic figure, a geometry of microscopic things made large. "Pollen has personality, don't you think?" Melina whispered. Like a collector she grabbed the tinker toy and stood up. "Here is one, let me put it in a satchel" Linden smiled, taking it from his mistress. A smile alighted on his face and the comedy was not lost on her. The day continued like that, with the Divine Couple amassing grain stars. In a damp dungeon greater than all the heights of ecstasy the world had to offer. It was after that adventure that they found in one of the chambers, a pedestal with Arthur's Sword, and Linden took it out and transformed it into a feather to tickle his wife, and she laughed, and when they returned home Linden snuck up on Etheria while she was sleeping and tickled her. And that is how Etheria obtained the Omega-Feather.