Kriki's Gift, Chapter 29, Reading 23

The excitement builds as the release of

Kriki's Gift, Book Two of the Geometry of Power

draws near.

The Valkea was veiled when Flindra's mind reached her so she couldn't see the monster, but she recognized the power of the Nameless Ones. She felt the numbing cold of Evil surrounding the Valkea but snapped her sphere filled with the essence of the Spirit into position before her mind and soul recoiled from the contact. Kalmar and Gegen were with her - as close as her own thoughts and she rejoiced at having such capable and resourceful allies fighting with her. Their powers joined with hers so smoothly and uniformly that there was no separation between them. They were truly three fighting as one.

The Valkea was caught at the center of the power sphere and suddenly was confused for she couldn't direct her thoughts to the Darkness when she was surrounded by light and hope and love. The situation stunned her into immobility for she didn't know what had happened and she had no inkling of how to fight back any more than snow could battle the heat of the summer sun.

"Hold her," Flindra broadcasted to the men.

Without waiting for a response from them she drove her thoughts deeper into her awareness of the Divine Presence. The Spirit was pure love, power, beauty, and an infinite reservoir of light and all things good. Flindra contemplated these things and felt the Valkea's power fade ever so much. She still remained unable to break out of the imprisoning barrier emplaced around her.

"Carra's escort has gone," Gegen announced for he'd kept watch while Flindra and Kalmar focused their efforts on containing the Valkea. "Let's press our attack," he urged.

Nearly at that same instant, the Valkea surprised them with a stinging blow, which nearly overwhelmed their efforts. The Champions' barrier around her held, but the atmosphere within it shifted, becoming cold and dark and filled to capacity with a sense of utter despair.

What Flindra hadn't considered when she planned on isolating the Valkea from the power of the Nameless Ones was the fact that the Valkea's heart served as a portal to the Darkness. She was linked to the Enemy so completely that she was a point where the Kwetwer could access the world. Now their Evil flowed forth to do battle. The Valkea was useful; few in the world had reached her level of power so she was worth defending.

Flindra could sense the shadowy presence of the Kwetwer in their reality beyond the Valkea as they became aware of the attack and began to funnel their power through her and into the world. She recognized this evil for she'd felt the mind numbing horror before, having experienced such an intimate contact with the essence of the Nameless Ones when she had battled with the evil seed. She held fast against the maelstrom of madness, but Kalmar and Gegen recoiled from the soul-singeing, mind-ripping, and sanity-destroying thoughts of the Kwetwer. Both had skirted the awareness of Darkness during their apprenticeship with their crystals, but neither man was prepared to face the full force of this flood of malice. No one could imagine the full malevolence of the Nameless Ones until facing them directly.