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A corrosive miasma is spreading. Time is running out as Maple struggles to comprehend the ancient technology that once contained it.
Today’s story is the second of two parts of “Rune Weaver” by Aelius, who can be found at FurAffinity under the same username, showing both stories and artwork in his gallery. He has also been published twice, in Inhuman Acts and ROAR 8 by FurPlanet.
Last time, Maple the deer arrived at a site of ancient ruins to investigate a series of mysterious glows appearing in rainstorms. With no sign of the expedition team she was supposed to meet there, she proceeds alone, discovering ancient glyphs covering the entire site, along with a strange metal structure situated over a massive, corrosive pit. Before she could explore further, the stonework she stood on collapsed, sending her plunging toward the pit’s caustic miasma.
Read by Solomon Harries, Cuddly Badger Dad.
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Transcripts
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.
Speaker:This is Rob Macwolf, your fellow traveler,
Speaker:and Today’s story is the second of two parts of “Rune Weaver”
Speaker:by Aelius, who can be found at FurAffinity under the same username,
Speaker:showing both stories and artwork in his gallery.
Speaker:He has also been published twice, in Inhuman Acts and ROAR 8
Speaker:by FurPlanet. Last time,
Speaker:Maple the deer arrived at a site of ancient ruins to investigate a series of mysterious glows appearing in rainstorms.
Speaker:With no sign of the expedition team she was supposed to meet there, she proceeds alone,
Speaker:discovering ancient glyphs covering the entire site,
Speaker:along with a strange metal structure situated over a massive, corrosive pit.
Speaker:Before she could explore further, the stonework she stood on collapsed,
Speaker:sending her plunging toward the pit’s caustic miasma.
Speaker:Read by Solomon Harries,
Speaker:Cuddly Badger Dad
Speaker:Please enjoy “Rune Weaver”
Speaker:by Aelius, Part 2
Speaker:of 2 The world spun all around the hapless deer,
Speaker:striking Maple from all directions as she collided with fragile ledges
Speaker:while tumbling and taking pieces with her.
Speaker:Everything she fell onto caved on impact and sent her deeper into the cavity.
Speaker:Finally, she hit a soft incline and rolled until skidding to a halt,
Speaker:covered in mud as the rain continued pounding her.
Speaker:Her runes remained lit,
Speaker:albeit partially covered with grime.
Speaker:Maple felt sick. More than that,
Speaker:a reverberating drone had become an unbearable,
Speaker:ethereal scream. No matter which way her ears panned, it was just as deafening.
Speaker:It was as if the sound pierced into her mind,
Speaker:made all the more horrible as sickening vertigo worsened with every passing moment.
Speaker:The deer coughed,
Speaker:trying to gain her bearings despite her excruciating nausea.
Speaker:Even her vision suffered as intense light swelled nearby in the throbbing of her head.
Speaker:Clutching the muddy slope and trying to push herself up,
Speaker:she braved a glance toward the light as thunder crashed overhead.
Speaker:Mere meters down the slope,
Speaker:eerie yellowish-green glows surged in the downpour,
Speaker:pulsating with light as they swelled randomly like an oozy sludge.
Speaker:It hurt to even look at the glowing sludge.
Speaker:Maple swayed uneasily but caught herself from tumbling further in the sickening diffusion all around.
Speaker:She slumped down on the slope and crawled upward,
Speaker:away from the pit as it tore at her very essence.
Speaker:She noticed the runes painted on her body glowing so bright they almost blinded her.
Speaker:Yet, she pressed on,
Speaker:dragging herself ever-so-slowly in hopes of escaping the harsh effects of whatever was churning below.
Speaker:This had to be the source of the reported glows in the rain.
Speaker:Knowing how much it hurt to be anywhere near it,
Speaker:Maple could only imagine what happened to the other expeditions that never returned from this place.
Speaker:More stones crumbled and fell all around her as if the pit had been steadily corroding the entire site outward from its core.
Speaker:She coughed again, gasping for breath as she crawled.
Speaker:She had to leave.
Speaker:Her skull vibrated in sharp pain as she went, teeth gritted.
Speaker:The pit’s maddening resonations clawed at her brain.
Speaker:She reached a cracked wall and leaned against it, panting.
Speaker:Circuit lines at its surface flickered briefly under her touch.
Speaker:She could not bear to look down and relegated herself to hugging the wall as she searched desperately for a way upward.
Speaker:Stone pieces chipped away as the rain beat down on her.
Speaker:She reached a metal strut-like beam past more crumbled walls,
Speaker:but it was too slick from rainwater to scale.
Speaker:Maple could barely glance upward without the rain getting in her eyes,
Speaker:but could make out enough of a ledge above to try climbing.
Speaker:Mustering what strength she had left, she jabbed her hoof-tipped fingers into the brittle stone,
Speaker:cracking enough to make a rudimentary handhold.
Speaker:There was no time to test its stability.
Speaker:Her body ached and her head throbbed from the sickening resonations below.
Speaker:She grunted and shoved upward, summoning the strength to jab again with her other hand.
Speaker:The stone held though she heard cracking.
Speaker:She had to hurry.
Speaker:She steadily made her way up,
Speaker:tearing off portions of stone as she went,
Speaker:but mercifully only lost hold twice from the crumbling surface.
Speaker:Then, finally, she reached the ledge and shoved herself onto it,
Speaker:crying out in pain.
Speaker:Maple rolled on the flattened surface and settled on her stomach,
Speaker:still gasping for air as the downpour continued drenching her.
Speaker:Her cloak felt like lead, and her muscles twitched,
Speaker:reeling from the shock of…
Speaker:whatever was down there.
Speaker:She pressed her hands to the ground and closed her eyes, focusing her presence once again.
Speaker:But, just as before, she felt nothing in response.
Speaker:The entire area was desolate and empty.
Speaker:No life of any kind reached back.
Speaker:Resolving to stand,
Speaker:she pushed up on wobbling arms,
Speaker:then slowly staggered upright and limped further away.
Speaker:Lightning flashed.
Speaker:Thunder roared. A nearby stone ridge cracked and collapsed.
Speaker:Maple agonizingly sped her pace,
Speaker:trying to determine what purpose this place could ever serve.
Speaker:She searched for another way to the higher ground she had entered from.
Speaker:Distant lightning reflected off nearby metalwork.
Speaker:She instinctively glanced over and noticed it was part of the same structure she had seen above.
Speaker:It appeared to be a series of solid support beams, all engraved in undeciphered runes.
Speaker:Her gaze followed the beams and their support struts all the way past the ledges and beyond.
Speaker:Finally, she saw where they had been arranged above the pit she nearly fell in
Speaker:—a massive ring-like structure encircling the pit high above.
Speaker:Maple pulled her cloak up and checked her logbook,
Speaker:sketching out more of the symbols on the metal ring held above the pit.
Speaker:The symbols were similar, but still different,
Speaker:from those found throughout the ruins
Speaker:and repeated frequently.
Speaker:There was no doubt in her mind now.
Speaker:Whatever this structure was,
Speaker:it was constructed after the ruins were already considered a ruin.
Speaker:The question of why still remained.
Speaker:Lightning flashed above, and as thunder blasted in its wake, Maple noticed a break in the structure far off in the haze.
Speaker:She braved a cautious walk to the ledge and saw
Speaker:it was a literal break
Speaker:—part of the ring had snapped and parted. Below it,
Speaker:a gash in the stonework had seemingly been dissolved by the pit’s corrosion,
Speaker:having torn a portion of the metal supports away until the ring apparently broke in the process.
Speaker:The ring’s gap did not seem far, but as Maple stepped back,
Speaker:she pieced together another hypothesis.
Speaker:All around the pit,
Speaker:stone and dirt had become nothing but dust,
Speaker:with no life existing anywhere nearby.
Speaker:The ruins were more barren than any other place she had visited.
Speaker:As rain appeared to be aggravating whatever was down there, it seemed that the pit itself was devouring everything around it and spreading as the decay worsened.
Speaker:It was as if the very concept of desolation had been localized,
Speaker:and nothing had been spared from deterioration.
Speaker:She remembered the historical records cobbled together by New Atlantis’ loremasters,
Speaker:though most of what they had to go by were theories provided by scout reports in the Wilds.
Speaker:Still, a common belief was that the Old World that came before
Speaker:had destroyed itself by unknown means.
Speaker:Those same means unwittingly gave birth to the New World as it existed now,
Speaker:albeit with remnants of the past era still lingering in the expansive, dangerous Spirit Wilds.
Speaker:Maple could think of no other explanation than the assumption the pit was one of those remnants,
Speaker:awakened and rampantly devouring everything it touched.
Speaker:So then, what caused it to awaken after thousands of years?
Speaker:Maple focused on the broken ring structure.
Speaker:The shift in technological design between it and the stone ruins,
Speaker:the repeating runes…
Speaker:The ring must have been some sort of containment device,
Speaker:but when the decay reached the site’s foundation, it compromised the ring’s integrity.
Speaker:Then, when the supports anchored to the ruins gave way,
Speaker:the ring snapped and the circuit powering it
Speaker:broke with it. Lightning flashed again,
Speaker:causing the circuit glyphs in the stones to flicker under her hooves once more.
Speaker:Whatever powered the site’s glyphs also must have powered the device until the decay spread too far across its foundation.
Speaker:A crash came from below,
Speaker:followed by more crumbling noises nearby.
Speaker:Maple’s eyes widened as she backed away.
Speaker:The pit had been devouring the entire site for years,
Speaker:and with the storm aggravating the pit’s effects,
Speaker:the process was apparently speeding up.
Speaker:It wouldn’t be long before the ruins were a distant memory,
Speaker:and if another piece of the support structure was compromised…
Speaker:She gasped at the realization that New Atlantis, despite its scientific prowess,
Speaker:had no way of repairing this kind of technology, let alone figuring out how to replicate it,
Speaker:especially if the decay destroyed it first.
Speaker:If it was indeed a containment device,
Speaker:there had to be a way to at least perform a temporary repair
Speaker:until it could be studied.
Speaker:If it was lost,
Speaker:then there was no way her people could stop the corrosion’s spread.
Speaker:The ring’s rune designs implied they could interact with those spread throughout the site.
Speaker:There should theoretically be a way to restart the containment device if she could somehow reconnect the ring’s breakpoint.
Speaker:More crashes echoed,
Speaker:then muffled as if pieces had collapsed into the
Speaker:pit’s muddy, corrosive slope.
Speaker:Maple turned and ran through the ruins, clutching her satchel.
Speaker:She still had raw materials to paint runes with.
Speaker:All she needed was something to paint them on and then bridge the ring’s gap.
Speaker:Her mind raced, trying to remember as many details of the ring’s rune symbols as possible
Speaker:in hopes of crafting a makeshift connector piece.
Speaker:The question of how to complete its circuit would have to be answered after finding an object to use first.
Speaker:Her hooves skidded on slick stones as she rounded a corner, struggling to find traction,
Speaker:but she maintained balance and continued past broken stone columns
Speaker:and remnants of decorated walls,
Speaker:all while the storm raged above.
Speaker:She ran through an empty plaza,
Speaker:eyes darting about until lightning highlighted something jagged nearby.
Speaker:Maple approached and blinked in amazement.
Speaker:It was a tree! Growing from a spot where stones had broken away long ago,
Speaker:the tree had no leaves and was horrendously gnarled,
Speaker:but it could serve her needs.
Speaker:She came up and placed a hand on the trunk, then frowned.
Speaker:The bark felt like stone.
Speaker:As thunder rumbled and another crash echoed behind her, she figured it would have to do.
Speaker:She grabbed a branch and tugged, but there was no give.
Speaker:It had been petrified solid.
Speaker:Maple clutched the branch and swiftly kicked.
Speaker:Her tough hooves jabbed through the branch and it snapped away,
Speaker:but a sharp resonation struck her ears as the same sickening yellow-green fluid spilled out from the resulting hole in the trunk.
Speaker:Maple gasped and backed away, dropping the petrified branch and clutching her ears against her head.
Speaker:The sludge spilled out from the trunk like a fountain.
Speaker:It had penetrated the groundwater.
Speaker:The disturbing emptiness all around the site now had context.
Speaker:Whatever Old World substance left behind in that pit was infecting the region,
Speaker:explaining how the glows that prompted the expedition had been spreading closer to safe areas.
Speaker:If it was not contained soon, there was no telling how quickly it could spread.
Speaker:Maple glanced back to where she had run from.
Speaker:There was no time to keep looking.
Speaker:She then noticed lit reflections of her runes in a nearby puddle.
Speaker:Her heart sank as a solution appeared in her mind.
Speaker:She was the solution.
Speaker:She could replicate runes,
Speaker:and her presence already had a unique way of interacting with the world.
Speaker:If the ring drew its power from the deep circuitry of the ruins,
Speaker:then it could also theoretically draw power from her.
Speaker:But just how much would it take from her?
Speaker:Another crash echoed across the ruins, then quickly muffled.
Speaker:“No time…”
Speaker:Maple muttered to herself.
Speaker:She hurried back through the decaying ruins, stopping under the first overhang she found.
Speaker:Shielded from the rain, she unfastened her drenched cloak and cast her garments away,
Speaker:then kneeled at her satchel and pulled out a trio of vials.
Speaker:She opened them and poured the contents into her palm,
Speaker:mixing them together and creating a unique golden glow from them in the process.
Speaker:She checked her field notes to
Speaker:confirm the rune designs copied from the ring,
Speaker:then stood and took a breath.
Speaker:She pressed a hoof-tipped finger into the glowing solution and carefully painted new,
Speaker:untested runes onto her unclad body.
Speaker:The process was unnerving.
Speaker:No one in their right mind would ever apply runes without knowing how they reacted to one’s presence,
Speaker:let alone how they would affect the area of the body they would be painted on.
Speaker:Maple was knowledgeable enough to understand how to arrange rune designs on the right focus points on her body
Speaker:and activate them with her presence to replicate their intended effect.
Speaker:In theory, at least.
Speaker:For these glyphs, however, she only had educated guesswork to go by,
Speaker:and there was still no guarantee that this would reactivate the assumed containment field in the ring.
Speaker:Also was the real possibility that reactivation would do precisely what she hoped it would…
Speaker:and drain her completely.
Speaker:As more reverberations pulsed underfoot, Maple tried to steady her hands with long, drawn-out breaths.
Speaker:Something had to be done to stop the spread, even if it meant risking her life.
Speaker:She dreaded the idea that she, too, would never return from an expedition to this horrid place.
Speaker:Still, at the very least, she found a modicum of comfort knowing it would be after an effort to save her home.
Speaker:The process complete,
Speaker:Maple glanced over to a nearby puddle to check her work in her reflection.
Speaker:Everything seemed right. Foci were marked in the right places on her body,
Speaker:and the runes appeared to be drawn correctly.
Speaker:The deer closed her eyes and focused her presence once more as thunder rumbled above.
Speaker:The new runes lit up, covering her body in mesmerizing golden patterns based on those she had studied moments earlier.
Speaker:She let out a breath and nodded,
Speaker:resolving herself to whatever might happen,
Speaker:and stepped back into the downpour.
Speaker:The runes continued to glow as the deer made her way through the rain,
Speaker:now clothed in nothing but her own soaked fur.
Speaker:Tiny wisps of energy curled upward from the designs as the rain cascaded down her body,
Speaker:but the runes did not wash away.
Speaker:Lightning flashed,
Speaker:and thunder roared again.
Speaker:Below Maple’s hooves, circuit lines flickered brighter than before
Speaker:but faded moments later as she walked.
Speaker:Cracks spread on the stonework.
Speaker:Maple’s ears panned forward as crumbling noises continued closer to the pit.
Speaker:She sped her pace.
Speaker:The ruins were coming down faster than expected.
Speaker:Down a barren corridor and past decaying columns,
Speaker:the pit’s familiar and still nauseating reverberations intensified.
Speaker:With rain pounding against her, Maple vaguely recalled the closest point where she could climb a support beam to reach the ring’s break.
Speaker:As thunder rolled above,
Speaker:Maple ran past a mound of rubble
Speaker:and saw the ring's support structure ahead.
Speaker:A crack split the stones ahead of her and she leaped over the break,
Speaker:but as the other side shook, she botched her landing and her hooves slipped on the wet surface.
Speaker:She cried out as she tumbled.
Speaker:She rolled to a halt with her ankle in excruciating pain.
Speaker:She winced and tried to stand,
Speaker:but then fell back to the ground clutching her foot,
Speaker:unable to put weight on it.
Speaker:The site rumbled again,
Speaker:and reverberations intensified.
Speaker:Through rain-soaked tears, she saw the broken ring past a ledge ahead.
Speaker:She shoved forward on her hands and elbows,
Speaker:crawling as fast as she could.
Speaker:Finally, she reached the cracked ridge and carefully stood,
Speaker:putting all her weight on her uninjured leg.
Speaker:The pit’s sickening vertigo returned.
Speaker:Then, teeth gritted,
Speaker:she leaped off. The ledge collapsed in the process,
Speaker:but she had enough distance to reach an angled support beam.
Speaker:She landed hard on the slippery metal and wrapped her arms around the beam,
Speaker:keeping herself from falling off.
Speaker:As the storm raged above and the pit’s resonations screamed below,
Speaker:she slowly climbed the beam.
Speaker:The familiar horrendous noise throbbed in her head as her stomach churned, but she carried on.
Speaker:She finally reached the ring, climbed on, and got to her knees.
Speaker:The break was less than a meter away.
Speaker:She carefully crawled along to the edge, then stood,
Speaker:wobbling on her uninjured leg.
Speaker:Finally, she reached out across the break and let herself fall forward to place both hands on the other side of the broken ring,
Speaker:connecting it with just her own body.
Speaker:“If anyone could see what I’m about to do…”
Speaker:she muttered, then closed her eyes and focused her presence.
Speaker:It was oddly different,
Speaker:opening herself up not to an environment abundant with life,
Speaker:but instead now forcibly projecting her deepest sense of self into a soulless device
Speaker:that, in every perception of reality,
Speaker:should never even be able to connect to another being.
Speaker:Yet it was still meant to activate from the same energy.
Speaker:Lightning flashed above.
Speaker:The device’s runes flickered briefly.
Speaker:Maple felt the reverberations again,
Speaker:but they were resonating through the device this time,
Speaker:intensifying until finally…
Speaker:Maple shrieked as her runes blazed.
Speaker:They felt like fire!
Speaker:The pain shot through her entire body,
Speaker:forcing her to arch her back as the device lit up the same way.
Speaker:Bright light flared across the entire structure,
Speaker:encircling the pit.
Speaker:Maple kept screaming,
Speaker:unable to stop even after her voice gave out.
Speaker:The power coursed through her in excruciating waves until lightning burst overhead
Speaker:and interrupted the force.
Speaker:Maple was thrown backward and landed on her back,
Speaker:still on the ring as its symbols continued glowing.
Speaker:She coughed as the rain continued to drench her body.
Speaker:She was too numb to feel it.
Speaker:All she could think of was getting away from the pit.
Speaker:Whether or not it was contained, its effects still reached her high above.
Speaker:She carefully rolled to her side,
Speaker:trying her best not to fall off despite her vertigo.
Speaker:Her entire body ached.
Speaker:She could barely focus her eyes, and the resonations in her head worsened.
Speaker:Even so, the ring stayed
Speaker:lit. Maple panted for air as she moved to her stomach and paused to catch her breath,
Speaker:difficult as it was to breathe above the corrosive haze.
Speaker:She weakly pushed up to move but collapsed back onto her stomach, wheezing.
Speaker:She let out a sickly whimper as she tried again, but could not muster the strength.
Speaker:Vertigo worsening,
Speaker:she did not dare move.
Speaker:Everything was getting
Speaker:dark. Maple lay there motionless, save for her gasps.
Speaker:The last thing she could comprehend
Speaker:before blacking out
Speaker:was that the broken ring
Speaker:was still lit. “She’s moving!
Speaker:She’s waking up!” Bright light shined in Maple’s eyes. She winced, consciousness gradually returning.
Speaker:The light dimmed and shapes came into view as she groggily blinked awake.
Speaker:She heard rainfall and distant thunder,
Speaker:but no reverberations nor crumbling of rocks.
Speaker:“What happened?” she asked weakly.
Speaker:A familiar, feminine voice responded,
Speaker:“We were hoping you’d tell us!”
Speaker:Maple turned to the voice, seeing a lop-eared female rabbit
Speaker:wearing an immensely relieved smile.
Speaker:A makeshift canvas tarp wavered above them.
Speaker:Maple’s ears flicked,
Speaker:realizing that the expedition team had finally arrived.
Speaker:“Orchid…” said the deer.
Speaker:“You made it, after all.”
Speaker:The rabbit gently embraced her.
Speaker:“We were routed by the storm,” Orchid replied.
Speaker:“We noticed a huge glow and came running,
Speaker:and that’s when we caught your scent and followed right to you.
Speaker:You’d passed out on… something
Speaker:huge.” Maple tried to
Speaker:lean up but grimaced in pain.
Speaker:“Hey-hey, don’t try and move yet,” said Orchid,
Speaker:cradling the deer’s head.
Speaker:“You look like you’ve been through something intense.”
Speaker:Maple held up a wobbly arm,
Speaker:noticing the runes still painted on her fur, but unlit.
Speaker:She smiled. “Yes… I did.
Speaker:That structure you found me on…
Speaker:is it still glowing?”
Speaker:“Yep,” said Orchid. “It seemed to have a series of repeating runes and…
Speaker:Wait, did you have something to do with that?”
Speaker:“And the pit…” Maple continued,
Speaker:“None of you went closer to it, did you?”
Speaker:Orchid’s eyes widened.
Speaker:“We could barely get within a few meters of it.
Speaker:Zephyr almost couldn’t reach you to pull you to safety.
Speaker:We still haven’t figured out what’s down there.”
Speaker:Maple closed her eyes and chuckled.
Speaker:“Good… Keep your distance from it
Speaker:because after I recover,
Speaker:I’ve got a lot to tell you all…”
Speaker:This was the second of two parts of
Speaker:“Rune Weaver” by Aelius,
Speaker:read by Solomon Harries,
Speaker:Cuddly Badger Dad.
Speaker:As always, you can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,
Speaker:or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker:Thank you for listening
Speaker:to The Voice of Dog.