by Andrew Lynch
Lucian touched the looted emblem to the floor, and a jagged natural circle opened, releasing the statue. It clanged down the staircase, chips flying off with every step. Lying at the top of the stairs was the bottom half of the statue. Two legs lay mangled, fleshy, in a pool of blood.
The group passed by in silence, taking the staircase downwards, ready to back Moxar up when needed. Free the God. Complete the Quest. Go home.
Khleb gave a low whistle. It was the whistle he gave when he decided, after looking over a room in its entirety, that he couldn’t figure out how much he could sell everything for. It was a common sound for the team by now - counting wasn’t Khleb’s strong point.
The bleached walls of the outside had been replaced with smooth marble floors, gleaming in the well lit room. Well lit by giant windows spanning the entire length of the hall - opening not to the surface and sunlight, but to rock. On closer inspection, the brightest rock Lucian had ever seen. Not that he was an expert, but the rock was so hot as it passed the windows that it caught fire. Magma windows.
‘He really did something special with the presum eight model,’ Lucian whispered. Every sound they made echoed in what was, effectively, a well polished cavern.
‘The summoners still have to follow basic rules, otherwise their buildings will not survive after they stop feeding it power,’ Jess said. ‘But that does not seem to be an issue in this place.’
‘The things you can do when you have a God as a power source,’ Lucian marvelled. ‘Fiery underground windows.’
‘Now, boss,’ Khleb began in a way that made everyone realise they should ignore what he was going to say. ‘This is a castle, right? But it goes down? What’s that fancy word for underground?’
‘Subterranean?’ Lucian guessed.
‘That’s the one, sure. So instead of presum castle eight - which is very uninspired - what about... Subtercastle?’
Everyone ignored him, although Lucian wished he’d thought of it first.
The marble floor had a red carpet showing the main path to get around the castle. Except, of course, it wasn’t an actual carpet. It was a bed of red pebbles.
‘He even managed to make stone opulent,’ Darrius said, kicking a few of the red pebbles off the path. After skidding to rest on the white marble, they were absorbed into the floor After a few seconds there was no trace of Darrius' kick of defiance.
‘Gold, diamond, all just stone really.’ Lucian muttered, watching the pebbles being absorbed. ‘When you have the power of a God behind you, or at least a God’s shard, I guess you can really go for it.’
The staircase was long, regal, and with an elegant curve. The room itself was twenty metres high. A grand reception hall, the likes of which Lucian would expect from the era before the Empire and its mandated government cutbacks on the redundant royal families.
The only difference was that every room had a staircase for you to enter by, as you were always going down.
The silence was eerie. The castle should have been filled with courtiers, flamboyant garments, and outrageous hair. Enough face paint to question if it was the court jester, or a courting lady. Instead the only sounds were their footsteps and the crunch of gravel. And Khleb’s breathing. Lucian had gotten used to the mouth breathing when he was trying to sleep at nights. It was almost calming now.
On the ground floor - which still worked as something to call the floor they were on - the magma light shone, and the red stone pathway guided them to a large archway that led into another grand room. Several side doors led elsewhere.
A single body lay at the base of the grand archway. Its hand had become stone, but a large axe wound in its neck had presumably stopped the transformation from spreading.
‘Does something seem off about this one?’ Lucian asked.
They all shook their heads.
‘Actually, can’t put my finger on it, but there does seem less to steal. Dunno,’ Khleb said.
‘There is no weapon,’ Jess said.
‘I feel I should have noticed that,’ said Lucian, annoyed at himself for letting his mastery of observation slacken. ‘Maybe it was just a guard going for a stroll?’
‘Not guard,’ Gar said.
Khleb had wandered over to a large sheet of rock, identical to one on the other side of the door. It spanned the full height of the hall, a good twenty metres. It was the same red as the pebble carpet they walked on, and had the same insignia emblazoned across it as the small brooches the guards wore. Khleb eyed it from the side, and then reached out to prod it. It didn’t move. It wasn’t cloth - it was a paper thin stone. He was clearly investigating whatever it was that made up the shards on the emblem.
‘Diamond I reckon,’ Khleb said. ‘I'll take some home. Souvenir.’
The wolf could see what was coming, and preemptively jogged away from whatever terrible idea Khleb was hatching. Khleb, being that kind of person, used his dagger to stab at the giant stone banner - as if that would somehow get him closer to the thick veins of diamond several metres off the floor. Paper thin stone reacted as it should. It shattered.
A vertical sheet of stone fell right next to the team, and they scattered.
A deafening crash hit Lucian’s ears, and shards showered over him.
After a few seconds, he turned to face Khleb. Half of the entrance hall was now covered in flint. Everyone gave Khleb an angry glare. The wolf howled. Lucian could relate to that. Khleb just shrugged and walked off. Everyone else stopped to watch the shards of flint act just like the red pebbles, and be absorbed into the marble floor. Then the giant banner began to reform, like a stalactite growing in super speed. Within a few minutes the banner was back and the floor clear, as if nothing had ever happened.
Jess raised her eyebrows - a sign that Lucian took to mean she was impressed.
They moved on, not wanting to fall too far behind Moxar. Several identical halls followed with no more bodies. On the fourth chamber they found one of the side doors open. Open in the loosest of senses - because it had been opened by having a giant magical axe smashed through it. Apparently, certain types of stone can splinter like wood. Malum’s dedication to this stone concept was remarkable.
The side room was equally impressive, just significantly smaller than the welcome halls. The magma windows were smaller, but just as bright. It seemed like a small meeting room, fitting ten people comfortably, with a marble slab in place of a table. A much narrower version of the red pebble carpet ran through the room.
As usual, a staircase led down in the corner, and the team followed the trail. Still, their footfalls were deafening. Actually, rather stereotypically for an evil castle, the silence was deafening - their footfalls made things much more comfortable from a decibel perspective.
Several other small rooms followed. All similar - tables in the middle, chairs in the corners, drinking cabinets for the non-existent guests. Lucian had forbidden Khleb to rifle through those, but even he would have liked to know if the stone motif extended to the liquid.
The large tables in the first rooms gave way to beds as they made their way along Moxar’s trail. The guest quarters. It goes without saying at this point that everything was some form of rock. Malum had definitely found a theme and run with it.
They continued following the open doors. No other bodies had been discovered.
‘How does Moxar know where he’s going?’ Lucian wondered.
‘Well, nothing shows that he’s actually headed anywhere apart from generally down, sir,’ Darrius said.
‘True. But he know,’ Gar said. ‘In his blood. Gift.’
‘How does a horse know where to find water?’ Khleb said, sagely. ‘It just does. Nature, innit?’
They all thought about that for a moment and decided to not argue with Khleb. They'd rather go toe to toe with Malum than Khleb’s ignorance.
After several more identical rooms, there was finally a break in the monotony of red pebbles crunching. The final door Moxar had chosen to abuse led to a dark corridor, b
ereft of the magma light windows.
It was the prison. Lucian felt it was odd that it was right next to the guest rooms and entrance hallway, but presumably the castle architects knew what they were doing, and who was he to argue? Increases the chance for all of the guests to be massacred in a giant bloodbath of a prison break, but also puts your entire garrison between the dark lord and harm.
A thin strip of magma ran down the centre of the long room, providing just enough light for the narrow walkway. The cages on either side of the path made up cramped, barred rooms. Lucian couldn’t see to the back of the cells - a comment on the gloom, not the spacious cages. A modest dungeon as these things went. Ten, two by two cells. No smell of mould, so at least they were well maintained. Although, thinking about it, Lucian was pretty sure rocks couldn’t grow mould.
The pebble path was a basic grey in this area. As he kicked a few red pebbles over from the guests' room, they changed colour to match their new home.
A mash of jagged rock was strewn about the walkway. Lucian could just make out six heads still intact. Six more living statue guards they didn’t need to worry about.
He realised they had all paused at the entrance to this dungeon, peering in. He knew he had to take the first step. Nothing to fear. Moxar had already been through here.
Lucian placed a foot on the grey path
‘Hello,’ a voice boomed out. The team jumped backwards. Gar managed to grab Khleb by the collar before he got too far.
‘He... hello?’ Lucian called back, his voice cracking.
Two slender hands gripped the bars of a cage at the other end of the room. The hands gestured to the guards lying dead on the floor. ‘Come on in. I don’t think they'll be much of a problem.’
Now that it wasn’t a shock, the voice really wasn’t booming, and was actually quite soft. Feminine. Sort of like someone else he knew. But in the adrenaline of the moment, he couldn’t remember who.
Lucian placed his foot carefully back onto the grey pebbles, and without another jump scare, stepped into the room fully.
The others followed reluctantly. Gar made the wise decision of not allowing Khleb to watch the rear.
Lucian was quite pleased with having taken several footsteps without incident, and strode with a bit more purpose. As he reached the middle of the room, the occupied cage still hidden from sight, the voice came again.
‘You wouldn’t be able to help me out of here, would you?’ The hand pointed to Lucian’s feet.
More precisely, the key that was right next to them.
Lucian bent and picked it up. A single key, which made sense. Why faff with ten different keys? There was a worrying thought in the back of Lucian’s head about the practicality Malum seemed to be showing, but he pushed that aside.
He picked his way round the rock and blood, although it turned out that pebbles didn’t get that bloody, they just looked a bit shiny. A regal carpet and a mesh for liquids. Pebbles!
As he came level with the cell of interest, the occupant stood back. The light illuminated her body, but hid her face. Lucian looked up to try and figure out how, because there was nothing blocking the light. Again, something reminded him of someone else, who was presumably back in the capital, doing whatever it was she did. Lucian considered for a second that he probably should have asked her that by now. Whoever she was. But he couldn’t seem to focus.
All he could see was a tight fitting brown sack material covering not nearly enough of a female body. Sexualising your prisoners? Malum was definitely showing his evil tendencies now.
‘What’s your name?’ Lucian asked.
‘Isabelle,’ she replied.
‘We have a spare travelling cloak,’ Lucian offered.
‘Hmm? Oh, that’s okay. The uniform they gave me left everything to the imagination. I cut it down a bit. You like?’ Isabelle asked, her body wriggling into different poses as she spoke.
Lucian gulped, hard. ‘Creative. Yup.’
The rest of the team held back, allowing the exchange to happen. The bars obscured their view, but Khleb sensed he should be there. He felt there was something he should see. Darrius stopped him, muttering something about sensing a disturbance and impropriety.
‘Umm, why are you here?’ Lucian fought through a haze of inappropriate arousal to ask.
Isabelle put her hands on her hip, tilting it to the side. Her fingers slightly pushing down her self-fashioned skirt. Closer to a belt, Lucian thought, the stance reminding him of being scolded if it hadn’t been for the fingers. ‘Because an evil person put me in here, silly.’
Lucian could hear the playful smirk behind her tone.
‘Oh, okay.’ Without doubt, she should be released immediately. Lucian moved to put the key in the lock. Suddenly he realised that was a metaphor he could get behind.
Jess cleared her throat rather pointedly.
Lucian shook his head to clear it. It was suddenly very hot in there. ‘But, uhh, why... why did he put you in here?’
‘Oh, who really knows!’ Isabelle’s hands flew up in exasperation. ‘For some reason, a town got the impression that I was killing a large number of their men. Something about equality, or for my own protection? I didn’t really pay attention.’
Lucian tapped the key against his cheek thoughtfully. ‘What is your sentence?’
‘I’m still awaiting trial.’
‘So... you’ve been imprisoned for your own safety, or maybe because it was the right thing to do, and you’re going to receive a fair trial?’
Something about practical evil lords being far more dangerous than your standard, clinically insane dark lords, popped into his head, but he couldn’t really focus in this heat.
Isabelle huffed, and stepped forwards, closer to Lucian. Thinking back on it, he couldn’t remember what he saw. Or felt. A vague recollection of euphoria. And his hand moving the key towards the lock again.
His memories became less foggy when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him backwards. It was Darrius.
‘Get away from him, demon!’ Darrius shouted.
Lucian stumbled on the pebbled floor but was caught by Jess. Well, he fell into Jess before she could get out of the way, which she didn’t manage too well. Before she could untangle herself, Gar grabbed them both around the waist and dragged them out of the dungeon, back into the guest quarters. Lucian felt the fog in his mind begin to clear.
They all leaned against the wall, as if bracing for an explosion, none daring to look at the fight. The wolf was about to run in, but Gar grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and held it between his legs.
“Stay,” said Gar, tersely.
Words were shouted. Darrius taunted and Isabelle jeered. The kind of scuffle you’d expect to hear in a close quarters life-or-death fight - the small noises making a mockery of the stakes.
Grunts and groans echoed. The sound of bodies being flung around. After several minutes, Lucian had fully come back to himself.
‘Why aren’t we helping?’ He pushed away from the wall, prepared for a valiant charge to his friend’s aid.
Gar placed a hand on his shoulder. There was no pressure there, but he was an immovable object and Lucian couldn’t escape. ‘Not our fight.’
Darrius shouted, his pain evident.
Lucian looked to his group. They were tense, but none made to move, and they took the chance to rest their legs, removing gear and sliding down against the wall.
Khleb had sat in one of the stone chairs. ‘Much more comfortable than you’d think.’
‘So we just... wait?’ Lucian asked.
‘Yes,’ Gar said. Lucian had never heard so much worry in a single syllable before. Knowing his wounded best friend was doing battle with a demon.
‘Why don’t we just run in and cut its head off?’
‘Have you ever fought a demon, Lucian?’ Jess asked, eyes jumping between all three of the Humans in the room. Lucian suspected she had only just started paying attention and couldn’t tell which one he was.
>
‘Umm, once I fought a half-demon with my previous group.’
‘Oh, and what half-demon did you fight?’
‘Mmmrrm,’ Lucian mumbled.
‘Pardon?’
‘Bog... it was a bogling.’
‘So, the bottom feeders of the demonic plane? Knee height? Had mated with some poor mortal animal creating a hideous spawn? How difficult was it to kill?’ Jess guessed everything correctly, of course.
‘Rather difficult, now that you mention it,’ Lucian mumbled at the ground. ‘Put us out of action for a few weeks.’
This time it was Isabelle who screamed. But it wasn’t in pain. Lucian felt that was bad. Everyone else perked up at the shout, but still didn’t move. The tension was palpable.
‘Do you remember how I introduced you to Darrius?’ Jess asked.
‘Umm, he’s our bard. Good with the ladies?’
‘Do try harder, Lucian. A specific word.’ Jess rolled her eyes. Humans were a tiresome breed for her.
‘It was quite a while ago, Jess.’ Lucian said, annoyed that she was playing memory games when they could be helping Darrius. ‘Get to the point.’
‘It was practically yesterday. You Humans and your time keeping.’ Lucian let it go, knowing that she needed to admonish before she could get to the point. He did however shoot a silencing glance to Khleb who was about to start something. Jess continued, ‘Incubus.’
‘Oh yeah. But he said he wasn’t one.’
‘And he is not,’ Jess confirmed.
Lucian could tell she was playing with him now. Some odd Elvish superiority game, no doubt. ‘Oh come on! Just tell me!’ He shouted in frustration.
At his eruption of noise, Darrius and Isabella joined in the cacophony. These weren’t screams, these were moans.
A few things clicked into place, and he felt a bit awkward.
‘She’s a Succubus, isn’t she?’
‘Yes.’ Gar said, still tense.
‘And he’s part Incubus,’ Jess said. ‘A very small part, as he tells it. Some great-great-great ancestor was seduced by a Succubus.’
‘Well, that doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t the Succubus get pregnant then? Also wouldn’t the Succubus kill the man?’