The Keeper's Codex: Ashen Memories

by A. D. Wills

  The moment Caden crossed the second half of the bridge, vines whipped down in front of him. Tangled up and woven into them were colorless corpses hanging inches from his face—causing him to shuffle and lose balance, nearly falling off the bridge entirely, if not for desperate clutching of the moss he nearly ripped out.

  The bodies didn't have any uniforms like the guards wore, they had the same thin rags of any of the captives in the quarry.

  “...That bastard...” Caden balled up his fist in anger.

  Caden pressed ahead, ducking beneath the dangling corpses. As he reached the end of the bridge, those same vines surged from behind to grab at Caden, and add to their collection.

  In a frantic effort, Caden managed to escape their grasp, running onto a old stone platform, but they circled around to cut him off. When he tried getting around, the vines lashed out, cutting away at his clothes with their shredding thorns.

  Caden pulled his boomerang out, stood back a few steps, and slung it at the vines. A sizeable hole open up, and Caden leaped through the opening before it could regenerate on him, leaving his boomerang behind.

  It wasn't going to be so easy to get away from the vines however. They kept chasing Caden, crawling stretching behind him as he ran away, head down, as fast as he could along the ancient stone path. The vines nipped at Caden's heels, threatening to snatch him up, when his boomerang burst through from behind—chopping them to bits to buy him a little more time, and returning to his grasp.

  Caden took his opening, and ran down some spiraling steps up ahead that wrapped around a giant beige pillar stretching all the way down to the void.

  No matter how long he kept running, it didn't feel like he was making any progress other than delving deeper into some endless hole procedurally generating more spiraling steps in front of him. Caden's legs and lungs were begging for a break, finally beginning to wear and slow down, but in the corner of his eye, he was distracted by a light glow emanating from his pocket.

  Caden fumbled around his pockets in a rushed stride to check what it was, and he pulled out the small disc trinket that neither he nor Snillrik were able to open up. “Almost forgot about you.”

  Caden looked up and down trying to make sure he didn't lose his footing, all while examining the strange trinket. The deeper he delved down the spiraling stairs, the glow intensified, and demanded his attention. With his focus torn away, Caden blindly raced ahead, and found himself at a dead end leading to the dark chasm below. He slid around, trying top stop his momentum, and fell on his backside, just barely managing to stop short of falling off.

  “Whoa, that was too close...” Caden said, and grabbed the disc on the ground beside him.

  Caden looked around, but there was only complete darkness ahead of him without another path. He could still hear a now distant waterfall behind him, and chasing vines that sounded as if they were stretching and tearing their way toward him.

  “Do I just jump down? There's nowhere else to go.” Caden stared down into the swirling void with his toes hanging over the edge.

  Caden held the disc out, noticing its glow at a single point at the top. He turned and flipped around, but it always remained pointing ahead.

  “I don't know if this is going to work, but I don't really have a choice.” Caden looked behind him as the vines rapidly sprawled down the side of the pillar—closing in on him.

  Caden took a deep breath, and jumped off the edge, but he fell face first onto an invisible pathway beneath him. He shook his head, scraped himself up to his feet, and looked down in awe that he was seemingly walking on air above an endless drop below.

  The vines rushed down the spiraling stairs, falling just short of grabbing Caden. For some reason, they wouldn't move an inch forward from where the platform ended. They wriggled and twitched at the edge, even with Caden there in front of them, but wouldn't budge.

  “Guess I shouldn't have doubted this thing eh.” Caden grinned at the glowing trinket, proudly tossing it up and down.

  Caden took a second to at least catch his breath, but didn't want to fall too far behind Workal, and carried on ahead, walking along the invisible walkway with wobbly legs. Every step felt like a risk, like one misstep could be fatal, and it wasn't as if anything lit up, or indicated where it might be safe to step. But step by step, he made his way further along without issue.

  The further he went on this invisible bridge, Caden found himself surrounded by absolutely nothing. He couldn't see the vines behind him anymore, and it looked like he wasn't making any progress by walking in an empty void that messed with his senses. His trinket remained glowing in the same direction though, so Caden pressed on, and finally saw an ending up ahead emerging from the darkness.

  Another platform eventually revealed itself, and Caden stepped off onto the other side. There was an obvious carved out among exit in front of him, but the disc's glow was pointed to the right. The problem was, there wasn't anything there other than a stone wall.

  “Come on, not now!” Caden was sure it was malfunctioning. No matter how many times he shook the disc though, it remained set on the wall. “Fine, I guess it led me across safely before. No matter how I look at it though, there's nothing here...”

  Caden stepped up to the wall, and placed his hands all over it, but he couldn't see anything that would help part it, or swing it open. Taking a moment to think it over, he let out a tired sigh, leaned on the wall, and it revolved around, sending Caden falling through into a slick slide on the other side.

  Completely out of control, Caden wildly slid up the sides of the open slide, trying desperately to gain some sort of grip, so he wouldn't fly out, but it was useless. He couldn't even gain bearings enough to look at his surroundings before he was shot out at the end of the tube, crashing down onto the floor of what looked to be an ancient tomb.

  The ground was caked in dust, with eroded etchings covering the walls around he couldn't make any sense of. It looked like no one had ever even been down here before, or at least not for hundreds of years, but that was when Caden noticed up ahead the sand on the floor was all tossed around.

  Caden proceeded along, and spotted what looked like footprints when he got a closer look. He was sure he was closing in on Workal now, and when he went to check his trinket, it pulsed with the brightest gleaming glow yet.

  Turning the corner into a larger chamber held up by four old pillars, Caden's eyes widened at the sight of Workal at the very end of it with his broad back turned facing a stone stand. Caden's heart raced, finally within reach, and he had the jump on Workal too. But being so close to him for the first time like this, Caden couldn't control his emotions.

  Forgoing any plan, he gripped his boomerang tight, and whipped it at Workal—connecting with a walloping thud to the back of his big head.

  Workal turned around, flailed around to reach for the flying boomerang, and his eyes followed it until they landed on Caden who caught it, standing before him with piercing determined eyes.

  “So someone actually came down here after me?” Workal rubbed the back of his head, like that blow was nothing.

  Caden scornfully looked back at Workal, and walked him down without a shred of fear. “It doesn't matter who I am, but I'm going to finish what my friends and I started. I'm not gonna let you get out of here, and just run like nothing ever happened. You're not doing this again to anyone else.”

  Workal stepped up to confront Caden with a sneer—looking down at him with his burly bearded face, towering over him more than twice his size. “So you and these friends of yours are the ones to blame for that little uprising? You're those fucking adventurers I heard about?” Workal glared down at Caden with furious eyes, and popping veins in his thick neck.

  Caden didn't give an inch to Workal. “Yeah, that's right.”

  “Then I'm going to take great pleasure in teaching you to learn your place. I've been needing to let off some steam after all. You see, I was already stressed before you decided to ruin everything.” Workal's f
ace dropped from amused to furious, and lunged his knee up into Caden's stomach, sending Caden to the floor sucking desperately for air. “Go on get up, that was one shot. You can't be that pathetic, can you?”

  Caden stood back up to his feet, still gasping for breath, and slowly straightened his back while reaching for his boomerang.

  Workal stalked Caden down, and before Caden could sling the boomerang at him, Workal grabbed Caden's wrist, halting him in place. “...I guess you can be.” Workal squeezed Caden's wrist until Caden dropped the boomerang. “But you know, it just pisses me off to no end knowing I should've just gotten rid of you when I first heard you rolled in. Then you wouldn't have ruined everything I've worked for.”

  “...Your work? None of this is yours!” Caden seethed toward Workal with his same piercing eyes that didn't so much as fade even a little.

  Workal grabbed Caden's head, and threw him face first onto the stone floor. “Yes, my work. These lowlifes were living like pigs in a pen even before I got here, so what does it matter if this was their home? Their lives were a waste anyway. At least I gave them some purpose working for the Divines.”

  “You don't get to decide that...'' Caden uttered on the floor, refusing to buckle to Workal's mocking pressure.

  “You don't get it, that's exactly what I get to do,” Workal's eyes widened further, and stomped his big boot on the back of Caden's head—pressing down and grinding on it.

  Caden remembered those same words from the guild in Tortsia with the Baron's sons, and bit down on his bleeding lips.

  “How can you just do that to other people!?” Caden mumbled with Workal still squishing his head.

  “That's like asking how can a farmer brand and his cattle."

  Caden ground his teeth, wincing with his eyes tightly shut while his face scraped across the floor, leaving behind bloody skid marks mixing in with the grainy grating sand.

  “You've got to be one of the few fools left in this world who actually doesn't understand their place if you're asking obvious questions like these.” Workal took his boot off from Caden's head, and kicked him in the ribs—sending him rolling across the room in agony.

  Caden spat up gobs of blood, and clutched his stomach in paralyzing pain. Still, he looked up at Workal with the same unwavering determination. His hatred fueling his defiance.

  “Everyone else here...must've gone through way worse than this...” Caden mustered up his already waning strength to stand on shaky legs, but Workal kicked Caden back down to the ground without resistance.

  “Oh, I can assure you they did,” Workal snickered. “And when I return to Divine Lord Judocus, I'm coming back here to get rid of this rat infestation. You see, that's all that's gonna happen here. You fucked with a Divine, the one thing even an ogre can understand is a stupid decision.”

  Workal kicked Caden around like a toy while preaching to him, mocking and abusing him.

  Anytime Caden had even a sliver of space from underneath Workal, he dug his fingers into the cracks of the floor, and dragged himself inches at a time toward his boomerang.

  “Why are you trying so damn hard!? You hear what I just said? None of this matters. You're already as good as dead one way or another. No King, no Queen—no one is going to help you so long as the word Divine is attached to you."

  “...I don't want their help anyway...” Caden ground through his teeth, within arm's reach of his boomerang, never once looking away. “I've got...all the help I need.”

  Workal pinned Caden's leg down—stomping on it, and breaking it clean, echoing out a snapping shatter over Caden's screams of anguish.

  “Don't need their help? Look at you. You can't even fight the likes of me, and your friend barely managed to kill Angren. You think we're anywhere near as dangerous as the ones Lord Judocus will send after you? It'll only get worse for you, and your friends, and you'll be the one to blame.”

  “She still beat him...” Was all Caden said, through a faint pained smirk.

  Workal's eyes widened, and he grabbed Caden up by his red wild rag, ripping it at the seams with every passing second he held Caden up. “What're you even doing this for, huh? Fame? You want to try changing the world on your own?”

  Caden glanced down at his ripping keepsake. “...I took that contract, so...I'm gonna finish it.” Caden headbutted Workal on the bridge of his nose.

  Workal let Caden go, holding his busted bloody crooked nose.

  “You little shit! What, do you think this'll get you some rank among adventurers? No actually gives a damn about any of that anymore, so what's the point? What aren't you even getting here?!”

  “I said I don't care about any of that...”

  “You know, at first this was entertaining to see you struggle so hard, but now it's just getting annoying.”

  Workal beat down, and belittled Caden all he wanted, but aside from physically debilitating Caden, it was doing little else. He was still as stubbornly determined as before.

  “After all this, you've only managed to piss me off even more. I'm done with you. There's no point talking with a dead man.”

  Workal made his way over to grab the dull looking spherical relic off the stand. It didn't appear to be anything special, just a smooth round stone caked in dust with a few random etchings on it, but nothing else of significance.

  “Funny, all of this just for me to fetch a stone,” Workal held the relic up. “You know, if those rats just managed to find this, then you wouldn't have to be in this situation."

  With Workal's back turned, Caden looked around the room, trying to figure out anything he could do while he had the chance. Caden noticed his boomerang just out of arm's reach, so he bit down, and rolled over to it—his vision blinding for a moment from the excruciating pain shooting through his body.

  I don't care if I'm trapped down here with him, as long as that bastard doesn't get to leave. I'm not gonna let him do what he did to anyone else. Caden held the boomerang up to his head, instilling every bit of hope into it that it might hit.

  Just as Workal turned around, Caden pushed himself up as far as he could with one arm, and with the other, slung his boomerang as hard as he could without any bit of control, and his body helplessly crashed back down onto the unforgiving stone floor.

  Workal's head jolted back, easily dodging out of the way, and the boomerang whirled behind him, skidding on the floor back to a defeated Caden.

  “Honestly, I'm not in the mood to waste any more time with you. I've had my fill already. This is just pathetic now,” Workal scoffed, gleefully throwing the relic up and down in the air.

  Finally, even Caden was beginning to feel defeat—smashing his scraped fist against the ground in raw, helpless gritting frustration. He wanted so badly to move, to do anything, but his body wouldn't allow it.

  “Maybe if someone better than you would've shown up, they would've at least held me back a little,” Workal threw one last derisive bit of venom Caden's way. “But good for you, you gave me a bit of a nasty nosebleed."

  Caden stared at the ground with his one opened eye, and pressed to think of anything—knowing Workal was about to leave any second, and he wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. The creeping sense of defeat banging at the door—clawing its way to stun Caden into submission, but he dug his feet in to hold it back a few moments longer.

  Come on...just work...I don't know what else to do. This is all I've got, please just work. Caden smashed the end of his boomerang on the ground over and over, staring in desperate determination.

  “This is just getting sad now, at least die with some dignity.” Workal looked back over his shoulder just before leaving—watching Caden about to try again throwing his boomerang with one last sad toss, but this time, Workal saw an odd glow in it, bringing him to a puzzled halt.

  Caden didn't notice the glow behind his head, but when he launched it, it was impossible not to notice now. His once normal boomerang expanded into a hulking weapon that even if he were able to stand, Caden would have n
o hope of lifting. He watched in amazement, thinking for a moment he was seeing things, as his giant boomerang at least eight feet long, smashed through the two pillars of four pillars behind Workal with ease. When it circled back to Caden, it touched the third—catching just enough of it to send it crumbling down as well, leaving one last rickety support standing.

  Heaps of cascading rubble poured down in powerful sheets, cutting Workal off from his exit, forcing him to back away unless he wanted to risk being buried under it.

  “You stupid piece of shit...” Workal's blood boiled over—looking around at the wreckage all around him without a way out.

  Caden squeaked out a weakened taunting smirk with his now shrunken boomerang sliding in beside him.

  “You think you're smart for trapping us both down here? You think you've won?!” Workal slipped into deranged fury, grabbing Caden by the remaining half of his wild rag, as boulders crashed down all around them, threatening to encase them for good at any moment now with the final pillar barely withstanding the pressure on its own.

  “Yeah...I win...” Caden's spaced out look still managed to show a small sense of pride.

  “You stubborn trash don't know when to give up for your own good—to lay down and die when you're meant to, to do as you're bloody well told!” Workal ranted on, looking around in a panic for any possible escape. “I can't believe I'm going to die all because of this rock, this useless stone!”

  Workal shouted out in pure uninhibited rage, and threw the relic against the wall, but it didn't shatter or even chip off any pieces. He paced around like a mad man, unable to cope with just waiting for his end, tearing his hair out to think of anything.

  “No, I'm not going to wait to die with a piece of lowlife trash. I'm done putting up with this shit. I'm going to get out of here. Yes, I'll just run through, and get out of here. I'm a Judge of Lord Judocus, this should be nothing for me. I'll leave you behind to die alone like I said I would, and return here to make the rest of this sad lot pay.”

  Workal's bloodshot crazed eyes looked down at Caden in a cold sweat, and ran through the sheets of rubble and sand pounding down from above.