Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) Read Online Free

could it? “Stop chewing your lip, Jade. Why don’t you look around? There’s a lot to see in the Big Ugly. I’m going to search for the candle’s symbol inside here. If I know what it represents I may add it into the white candle’s inventory holo, the same with the black candle when I get to it. Knowing what the symbols on the artifacts represent, changes everything. Ruena has to appreciate it, I hope.”
    “Okay, but be careful. There’s something about those…” Jade said, moving away.
    Crystalyn turned the book’s pages with extreme care. Ruena would notice the slightest crinkle and rage throughout the warehouse like a radioactive squall ravishing Low Realm, as she sought the person responsible. Crystalyn found the symbol she’d recalled in chapter four under the heading: Enhanced Healing. Why healing?
    “Speaking of symbols, what are these?” Jade asked, setting two blue objects in front of the desk.
    Crafted from sapphire crystal, a pair of trim obelisks rose to door height, tapering smaller from base to top. Engraved a third of the way down, two intricate symbols with many curved lines, like links of a chain without end, stood out. Crystalyn was delighted. “Whoever carved these was very good, wouldn’t you say, sister? They’re identical. I don’t remember them in this book, I’ll check inside the other one.” Setting the black-lettered volume next to the white one, she opened it slowly. Penned with dark ink, the matching lines of the links without end symbol stretched across half the first page under the heading: Travel. Underneath, black spidery handwriting went on for two paragraphs written in an unfamiliar language, unlike the white-lettered book.
    Why travel? The symbol might represent a past agency, no one traveled anymore. There was nowhere safe left to go, except the Mountain. But she had doubts, it was too complex. Which meant it probably represented something else, for there was something going on with it…A power resided within the symbols pattern. Subtle, yet strong, chained to something vast. Reaching out to the symbol, she tugged the chain, not too hard, yet with the firmness of knowing it was right for her to do so. The chain gave way, creating an opening, inviting her to step through…a gateway. Her head reeled as the power she’d sensed thrummed through her. Or was it already within her?
    Churning faster and faster, the symbol lifted from the page and slowed, growing in size. Suddenly, a beautiful sapphire color raced along the symbol’s pattern, swallowing the black lines, glowing brighter.
    “Crystalyn!”
    The symbol floated across the desktop toward the obelisks. Both symbols on it spun in place. Black, translucent spidery extensions of their patterns raced up and down each one as the symbol from the black-lettered book soared between them. Locking in place, the symbol’s translucence brightened. Jagged, azure bolts pulsed within the symbols radiance in alternating directions, above and below. A dark blue mist drifted out of the symbol and scrolled to the floor, drawing a misty, clockwise swirl as it went. Deep within it, darkness stormed with a constant flux.
    Stepping close, Jade stared at the spiraling, dark curtain. “What is it?”
    “I’m not sure. It’s almost like there’s a storm brewing inside.”
    Jade inched closer. “You’re right, it is a storm, and it’s getting worse. There’s blue lightning flashing above a dark, swelling sea behind the mist. Where is it? What is it?” Raising her hand, she reached for the alien landscape beyond the swirling symbol.
    A sudden feeling of disquiet hammered Crystalyn. “Get away from there!”
    Reality slowed.
    Jade raised a single, deliberate fingertip to the dark curtain, and vanished.
    The symbol faded, the mist dissipated.
    From a great distance, Crystalyn heard a voice scream. “NO! Don’t touch it! Don’t touch the symbol!”
    After a time, she clamped her mouth closed, putting an end to the screams.