Spirit Gathering: Part 3 [Legendseekers]

Pantalaimon beckoned for Troia to step by their side, as everyone watched over them.

“What is it?” she asked. 

Pantalaimon laughed. “I’ll need you to join me, of course! To wherever this shrine will take us. It’s what you brother showed me in his vision. I know the both of us have to do.”

Troia’s mask halo always remained perfectly expressionless, but Pantalaimon noticed that her silken fur and the feathers nearly bristled when her muscles tensed. “Are you mad? What if we can’t come back, wherever it is?” She flicked her tail to the rest of the crowd. “Can’t we take more?”

Before Pantalaimon could respond, one of the spirits approached them with a solemn face, shaking their head. 

“Not enough… magic… only enough… for three…”

The other spirits agreed in a collective murmuration of whispers.

“Visitors always… come back…”

“See it… with your own eyes…”

“Must… tell us…”

“What you saw…” 

“Tell us… what you heard…”

“Help… us…”

“Save… our world…”

“We need… song… to restore… magic barrier…”

“Three?” Pantalaimon blinked. “Well? Who else could…?”

They felt a paw tap their shoulder. It was Bravura, leaning down to be closer to their eye level. “I’ll volunteer to come. I was one of the first ones to speak to Chiptune when that song began to flood my dreams. Besides,” he said, “If Troia needs a pair of wings to fly with, no matter what happens, she can hitch a ride on me.”

Chiptune nodded. “I agree that it’s best if Bravura goes.” She turned to address the remaining xyns and spirits. “Besides- the rest of us should stay here in case if anymore corrupted xyns try to pull off anything funny. We’ll at least have a few Knights around to knock some sense into them. If they need a soul song, or many songs, we ought to try while you’re out.” 

“Alright then,” said Pantalaimon. They turned to face the stone shrine, knitting their brows as they studied the . “How do we enter this ‘other world’...?”

“Stand before… shrine…”

“Three… play soul songs… together…”

Troia, Pantalaimon, and Bravura obeyed; their soul songs melded beautifully together before the stone shrine. The inscriptions on it glowed, brighter than before, and with a brilliant flash of light a circular portal opened for everyone to see. It swirled like a vortex into an endless night sky; nothing else could be seen within it, except for an especially bright star…

Pantalaimon waved to everyone with their paw enthusiastically. “We’ll be back before you know it! Stay safe out there!” They called out. Troia didn’t say anything, and Bravura waved one of their feathered wyvern wings to the crowd as well. 

“We’ll see you!” called out Chiptune, and many other xyns also cried out their brief fare-wells. “Come back as soon as you can! We have to head back to Moonreach soon!”

And with that, Pantalaimon eagerly leapt into the portal; Troia hesitated to jump in, and Bravura nudged her encouragingly. She hurled herself into it too, and Bravura did as well- and then the portal flashed with another shower of brilliant light as it sealed itself shut and vanished from sight…