by Darkbringer
While I stood, trying to figure out what had possessed her to carve windows between rooms no one was staying in, Crystal came back into the room, sword hung at her hip and our lightstone in her hand. “My Lord!” She sounded shocked to see me, and half jumped back in surprise. “Are you finished out in the halls for now?”
“I am, and the dead are still coming. We should get back to the room and shut ourselves in once again,” I told her, as I moved around her and back across the hall into our own room. A few moments later, she came in behind me and shut our door to keep the dead away. Strangely enough, several blackened stone blocks were stacked neatly in the corner of the room.
Raising an eyebrow questioningly at her, Crystal just shrugged and laughed. “Some more stone for My Lord to carve or shape, once you melt and purify it. I like watching you work, and we were running out of free stone that you could use.”
“Well thank you,” I told her, honestly touched that she’d think about me while keeping watch and making certain the dead stayed away while I flexed my magic a bit. Laughing, I couldn’t help but go over, hug and squeeze her tightly for several moments. As I was finally letting go, she surprised me by leaning in and kissing me passionately.
“It’s nice not to have the dead scratching at the door; even if it is just for a few moments,” Crystal said, smiling brightly once she’d unlocked her lips and tongue from mine. “You have my thanks, for even a few minutes’ peace, My Lord.”
“It won’t last,” I warned her. “Already the dead are back in the tunnel. Their scratching will start back up soon. I was hoping that a few days repeating the process would help thin out the herd somewhat, so we won’t have such a difficult time when we actually try to leave later, but now I wonder about that. It seems as if their numbers are limitless. Even if my brain tells me that’s not possible, that’s still how it seems.
“There’s a darkness here that defies logic, and I fear my work isn’t harming it at all. When we leave, we’re going to have to fight our way out,” I warned her, grimly. “I honestly don’t think I’m going to be able to clear the endless dead with my magic alone.”
“And we still can’t leave,” Crystal reminded me. “We don’t know what’s happened to the other two yet.”
“I’m assuming they’re dead at this point,” I told her, sadly. “It’s only our magic that’s allowing us to survive down here without a steady source of food and water. Mongo and the others would already be dead if we wouldn’t have found them when we did.”
“And yet, they seem to have forgotten that already,” Crystal muttered angrily. “I really don’t like the way they seem to be blaming you for everything, My Lord. Is there any chance that the taint is affecting their opinions? Their minds?”
“I don’t think so,” I told her, shrugging slightly. “I think it’s mainly just nerves. We’re surrounded by the dead. The scratching won’t stop at the doors. Mongo is still in a coma. Tiffany is alive but somehow merged with Mongo. There’s no sunlight. No wind. No star and no moon. Everyone’s on edge, and they saw me perform a horrendous act of magic that’ll give them nightmares and wake them in the middle of the night for years to come.
“There’s no taint affecting them, I don’t think,” I told her, quietly, “but that doesn’t mean their distance and judgment doesn’t hurt. I understand it – they need to be able to put blame on something, just to make themselves feel better – but I really don’t like being the one at the brunt end of their emotions.”
Stripping out of her chain robe, and undressing completely once more, Crystal just laughed lightly. “You still have me, My Lord. I’ll admit, what I saw bothered me at first, but then I decided it wasn’t important. It’s thanks to you that I’ve got a good home now, that my family is out of their debt and bonds and are walking free once more.
“I promised I’d be yours, and then at the first difficult hurdle, I almost forgot about that promise.” Stretching slightly, she slowly sauntered over, wrapped her arms around my neck, and pressed her naked body up tight against me. “You’ve treated me so well, been so kind, I almost forgot my own initial resolution – to follow and serve My Lord all my life, no matter what. I’m a slave, who’s given so much kindness and freedom, that I forgot who and what I was for a while.
“And, when I remembered that, I realized that it didn’t matter whether you did horrendous things to others or not. You had given me nothing but warmth, kindness, and even love – when I was nothing more than a slave which someone else bought for you, without even asking your opinion. Even if the world turns its back on you, My Lord, I won’t. You have my word on that.” Leaning up tight, she kissed me long and passionately, while I wrapped my arms around her bare back and pulled her close.
“You know, I don’t really see you as a slave,” I told her breathlessly, once she’d finally pulled back from her extended kiss. “You’re my friend, and someone I care about deeply, and am coming to care for more and more every day. Your freedom is yours, anytime you want it, and the laws can be damned if they don’t agree or allow it.”
“And that,” Crystal said, nuzzling up and resting her head on my shoulder, “is why I don’t want or need it. My freedom’s yours, My Lord. Keep it, and keep me. I’m not going anywhere.”
My first attempt at clearing the dead and lessening the numbers around us had been a complete failure, but for some odd reason, I didn’t mind. In fact, I didn’t mind the others being moody and ignoring us still.
As strange as it is to say it, I was quite content and peaceful at the moment where I was. Trapped in darkness, surrounded by the dead, with taint and corruption all about – I’d found a place of utter warmth and acceptance in Crystal’s embrace.
The First to Fall
It was the next morning when our peaceful interlude finally shattered.
Sometime in the middle of what we were calling “night” while the lightstones were burning dimly, Mongo finally awoke from his coma and looked around. It’d been nearly four full days since I’d worked my magics merging his spirit and Tiffany’s together so she could fight off the corruption, and his waking woke everyone. We were all pulled into the “common room”, even Crystal and me; and Mongo was flexing and enjoying being back in his own flesh once again. Tiffany was giggling and bouncing, snuggled up tightly to him, and every so often she’d end up flexing and he’d giggled girlishly.
From the best I could tell, the two were now able to somehow swap bodies rather freely, and they had no control over the phenomenon.
Jess was trying to use her magic to check the two of them out; as was I, secretly. After the way I’d been treated, I wasn’t going to grovel and ask permission to study their condition. I simply worked a gentle little touch of death magic and felt the flows of their spirit myself. Normally, I wouldn’t probe around and use my magic in such an intimate manner without permission, but in this case, I felt it was suitably justified. I needed to know as much as possible so I could refine the process and do it better next time, with fewer flaws and drawbacks, and yet I didn’t think they’d give me permission to use my magic on them, considering the way they’d been treating me.
After all, all I’d did was save Tiffany’s life and soul. Nothing to be grateful about there!
As I was focused on feeling their spirits, and since no one else was paying attention to anything but Mongo and Tiffany at the moment, no one was prepared when all hell broke loose. From the other room, back from where Megan was resting at Death’s Door, the dead suddenly started to swarm. A wave of black boned skeletons surged in from the opening between rooms in a rush and was on Skeet and Dino in an instant. Both of them were immediately pushed down to the floor, overwhelmed by the sheer press of bodies, and countless more dead continued to push and surge from that entrance.
Immediately, I dropped my weaves of death which I was using to study Mongo and Tiffany. Working against the sickening curl of magic backlashing from the flows terminating so suddenly and improperly, I lashed out with fire and p
ushed back at the dead. Spots swam in my vision and I felt as if I was going to puke at any moment, but I stubbornly held my focus and continued to fire at the hole between rooms.
“Heartblade isn’t destroying these!” Crystal yelled from off to my side while Jess ran to work magics on Dino. Tiffany bounced over to where Skeet had been swarmed and began to work her magics over his body. “Skeet’s dead!” She yelled out, in anguish.
“What the hell?” Mongo was blinking and trying to understand the situation, and that’s when the dead began to swarm from the other opening in the walls; the one leading to the room he and Skeet were staying in, and then ultimately to mine and Crystal’s makeshift home. Wearing nothing but her bare skin and jewelry, Crystal leaped forward to intercept the dead and stop them from swarming from that side like the others had. We’d been awakened while sleeping, and Crystal had completely quit caring about modesty of any sort in front of the others, so she was almost bare; and yet she fearlessly positioned herself between the dead and the rest of us.
“Dammit!” I was sweating and already feeling the strain. Breaking one flow of magic, and then opening another one while the first was still unraveling, was a sickening and gut-wrenching phenomenon. “Mongo! Snap out of it! Hold the door! Hold the door!” I was screeching at him, panic filling my voice like never before in my life. If the dead somehow breached the door, we’d be hit from all directions at once, and in the shape we were currently in, we’d all perish.
Nodding stupidly, Mongo lumbered over and leaned up against the door with his massive frame. I don’t know if anyone or anything was actually trying to force it open; I was too busy with my own troubles at the moment. The swarm of the black-boned dead was relentless from both side openings and I knew we couldn’t hold out for more than a few brief moments. Swaying on my feet, I forced myself to work yet another weave of magic. In my sickened state, dark spots swirled across my vision and I found myself growing faint from the effort.
Coughing and gagging, my stomach rebelled, and I hacked up the contents of my last meal as I stumbled to my knees. I don’t know what miracle of desperate will allowed me to finish my weaving, but I somehow managed to manipulate the stone shower that I’d created. Ripping it apart with my magics, I split the shower in half and blasted it left and right across the room. The stone fragments shattered dozens of dead and unfortunately blasted a deep bloody chunk out of the back of Crystal’s shoulder as it slammed into her on the way past. When both stone halves were in line with the openings in the wall, I shaped them into sturdy stone bars and used them to block off entry to the room we were in, much like a jail cell.
My, head was spinning. My stomach was in knots. I tried to unravel the fire I was using slowly, but the sickness from the backlash was too much for me. First, the weave of fire I was using to destroy the dead snapped, forcing flames and heat to explode in all directions, and then the weave of earth which I’d forced to move and shape the bars shattered. Magic coursed and flowed wildly back into my body and I was hit with a torrent of agony and illness.
Darkness once more descended over me.
Not Getting Help
When I awoke next, I half expected to find myself back in the darkness with The Fool laughing at my untimely demise again. Unfortunately, I felt too bad for that. The spots in my vision, the pain wracking my body, and the agony in my guts informed me all too clearly that I was still alive.
Trying to look around as much as possible, I could tell that I hadn’t been down for more than a mere moment. Crystal was still valiantly trying to hack down the dead that remained in the room on her side, and Tiffany was lashing out like a madwoman possessed with a blackened skeleton’s leg on the other side. I’d roasted most on my side of the room, but there were still a few left and she was beating and fighting with them like a warrior born! All I could do is blink and stare blankly, as they hacked the last of the dead down. I tried to reach for my magic, to offer whatever tiny inkling of support that I still could, but the effort was more than my body could take.
Darkness once again clouded my vision and the sweet relief of unconsciousness washed over me.
* * * * *
The next time I awoke, I was resting my head in Crystal’s lap and she was gently stroking my hair. Glancing up, I still had to squint from the pain in my eyes, but I was relieved to see that her left shoulder and arm was still attached. Either my panic had made the wound seem more intense than it actually was, or else one – or both – of the healers had managed to treat it after the dead finally fell.
“Wak Grokinon?” I slurred, my jaw not wanting to work at all. I’d tried to ask about ‘What was going on’, but the words didn’t come out proper at all. Looking down, Crystal hushed me and gently stroked my hair. Exhaustion was plain on her face, but she smiled slightly as she looked down over me.
“Rest, My Lord. We seem safe once again. For now, at least, it seems,” she clarified.
“Wak Grokinon?” I slurred again.
“Shhh…” Gently, Crystal kept stroking my hair. “We’re OK. Well, all of us except Skeet. The dead ripped his head half off the moment they swarmed him. He’s dead. Twice dead now, in fact,” she whispered quietly. “After lying on the ground for a while, his corpse began to twitch and move again. Mongo had to chop his head off and then Dino burned the corpse. There’s no one in here now, except for the living.”
I had a thousand things I wanted to ask, but her gentle touch and reassuring words were too much for me to resist. Once again, I drifted off to a deep and restless sleep.
* * * * *
The next time I awoke, I was sitting on a rainbow cloud, overlooking a landscape of vibrant colors and sounds. Trees which seemed to be made of candy lined the horizon, and flowers of all colors, shapes, and hues filled the landscape. Reaching down and feeling the cloud, a piece tore off in my hands and the sweet smell of cotton candy filled the air.
“Hello, good sir.” A desk and chair appeared out of nowhere, and The Fool was sitting prim and proper in it, floating in thin air beside the cloud I was on. He was dressed in a black tuxedo, wearing metal-rimmed glasses, which he pushed up on his nose, and his rainbow hair was slicked back and combed perfectly.
“Let’s see here.” Glancing down, he picked up a stack of papers and tapped them against the desk to line the edges up perfectly, before he sat them down and looked at them. “You’re Mik’Hail the Michael. Correct?”
Mik’Hail the Michael? What the hell was he rambling along so lawyer-like this time about? “Uhmm… Yeah. I guess that’s me,” I answered, uncertain.
“Currently in the Tuath’inor Graveyard, trapped by the Gekkengashingottenbottencoocoo?”
Whatever the last part was that it said, it sounded like he dislocated his jaw trying to spit it out. The string of consonants and vowels meant absolutely nothing to me. “Sure. That sounds right,” I shrugged. “Trapped in some graveyard, surrounded by an ancient evil.”
“Umm hmm…” The fool pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose and turned a page. “And you allowed the wizard with you to succumb to the darkness and rise again?”
“What?” Now I really was confused. “All the wizards with us were fine the last time I checked. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Hmm?” Yawning, The Fool glanced dispassionately over at me. “Then you mean to say that the one called Megan didn’t fall to the darkness? She’s not possessed by one of the ancient evils?”
“Not that I know of,” I replied, hesitantly. It’s true, the dead came from the area where she was first, but I just assumed that they’d broken through the door there while we were all distracted elsewhere.
“I see. I see.” The Fool nodded his head slightly and scribbled something down on his paper. “So you also deny that she’s the one who strengthened the skeletons, making them more resistant to the blade’s aura that your slave carries?”
“Umm… I really don’t know anything about that. Maybe…”
“And you deny th
at the other humans are deep in the heart of the Tuath’inor Lair, attempting to release the bindings on The Fallen One? That with the sacrifice of the one known as Ghost, upon the next full moon, the great seal will be broken? You deny these things?!” The Fool half hopped up and slammed his fist upon the table.
“Uhh…”
“You know the Gods are powerless to interfere with the happenings at the Tuath’inor Lair, don’t you?! You know they can’t offer aid, advice, or interfere with anything that happens there, don’t you?! You’re there, and your soul is going to be judged for your actions there when you die! You realize that if you don’t recover your strength, find the way down into the deep paths, uncover the ancient altar of darkness, and stop the sacrifice, you might be judged for that failure?!”
The Fool was now hopping up and down. The chair he was sitting in spun out of control and floated off into the distance and he threw the papers he was holding all around. “You do know that the gods can’t talk about the Orb that holds the darkness? You know they can’t tell you to find it and seal it, don’t you?! You also somehow know that Megan and David are now lost forever to the darkness and have to be sealed, or destroyed, right?
“Right? RIGHT?!” The Fool was growing ever more agitated and animated, now bouncing on top of the desk.
“You can’t tell me anything can you?!” The Fool snorted and stomped, putting his foot through the top of the desk. “Get out! Get out! Get out! I can’t tell you anything either! The ancient agreements prevent it!”