A sharp breath followed by a squeal cut the silence, from the ground a woman threw herself up from her prone position. The next moment she went from being unable to see anything in the dark to being unable to see because of light. She yelled and swung her arm trying to hit anything in front of her, a voice then cut in, “Hey stop!” the voice was deep and rough, as their voice was quite dry as if the person had not drunk water in some time.
The woman shrunk back as she began to move her hand over her eyes to try and shield them from the light to allow her eyes to acclimate. She could barely make out a large figure as he continued to talk, “Alright, seems you’re awake, you seem healed too, so, that’s good. Hey, what’s your name?”
The woman scoffed, “Shouldn’t you state who you are first?”
The man’s head shirked back as finally the woman’s eyes acclimated and could see the face of the man, and it had on it plastered the face of disgust. The man said quickly, “Shouldn’t you say thank you?” The man shook his head as he began to look around, “Name’s Adrith”. The man took a moment before continuing, “Adrith Catulus, in case that means anything to you”.
The woman looked on in disgust of Adrith, she was to scoff again, yet she held her tongue, as she gave her name as well, “Evelyn Lucero”. The woman then cleared her throat as she continued, “Well Adrith, I think I need to ask, where are we?”
Adrith shifted himself on the ground as he said, “Based upon the door, we’re at the bottom of the Dungeon”. Adrith lightly gestured off to the enormous door that stood no more than 10 feet away. The woman was a gasp for a moment, she could not even fathom what horrors were down here. Evelyn took in a gulp before she said, “How?”
Adrith chuckled as he said, “I couldn’t tell you exactly. Most likely, seeing as you aren’t aware of where exactly you are, the monsters in this dungeon bring down the bodies to this floor”.
Evelyn’s horror compelled her, “Why would they? Wouldn’t they fight over them?”
Adrith shook his head, “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, I can’t be sure”. Adrith then turned to Evelyn as he asked, “So instead of being a curious cat, how about we ask more important questions, like, do you know magic?”
Evelyn shook her head and said, “I do, I am a practitioner and was recognized as an advanced practitioner”.
Adrith fully turned his head as he looked at her incredulously, before laughing. Evelyn looked in shock before she got angry, “What are you laughing about?”
Adrith waved his hand as he said, “Oh, I’m just laughing because I thought about grilling you about how you handled the Horror Dragon, however, then I thought about the situation you probably found yourself in and couldn’t”.
Evelyn still looked at him perturbed, yet he then made a light gesture to the small mote of light and said, “I assume you can perform unassisted incantations?”
Evelyn seemed to find some ground again as she said, “Of course”. She held her hands out in front of her as she began to focus. Orange light began to flow from her chest then outwards to both of her arms then flowed into her hands as she made a small chant, “Hear me, oh dawn that chase away the dark, answer me, Light!”
From Evelyn’s hands flowed 3 orbs of blinding white light that were bright enough to each be the equivalent to a campfire.
Adrith shifted his head away from the lights as he said, “Yeah, a little bright, but that works. Goes to show what an academy type can do”.
Evelyn shook her head in pride, “Yep, who knows, maybe if you studied you might have made something more than that little light without a catalyst”.
Adrith rolled his eyes as he began to lay down, “Maybe, now keep that up for a while, I need to sleep”.
Evelyn spoke with pure shock, “Wait what! Why?!”
Adrith said as he began to make himself comfortable, “A good night's rest should be enough”.
Evelyn exclaimed again, “Why am I keeping it up for that long?! Do you know how much energy that will use?! I’ll probably pass out before you even wake up!”
Adrith nodded his head lightly, “Yep, I do know how much it will use, I did the same for you, and now I need you to do the same for me”.
Evelyn then rebuked, “Why are you sleeping here? Shouldn’t we try and leave this place so we could maybe rest somewhere more comfortable”.
Adrith responded quickly, “Nope. There ain’t no place more comfortable. The only worry we have here is the Horror Dragon spawn that are afraid of the light. On any of the other floors, there are probably going to be complications. Besides, you should get used to this. It’ll take us a good bit of time to get out of here”.
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Evelyn quickly interjected, “Well, why not make a fire?”.
Adrith quickly retorted, “With what?”
Evelyn seemed to hesitate as she seemed to take a moment before sighing, “Okay, do I need to wake you up?”
Adrith did one more light shake of the head, “Nope. I’ll get up when I need to. Besides, you’ll know when”.
Evelyn nodded her head as she began to look around. She lightly waved her hands around as she moved the large orbs of white light around. She was bored. In the silence, the only sounds were the skittering of the Horror Dragon spawn. She took a breath in and could feel herself already becoming antsy, the sounds were worrying, yet that wasn’t the worst part. It was after a few hours, that intrusive thoughts began to flow into her mind.
Screeches that weren’t there, shadows moving that weren’t ever moving, and even the smell of blood. Everything around Evelyn began to fold in. Her breathing began to become staggered, sharp, and fast. Evelyn’s hand began to grab at her arm as she gritted her teeth. Her eyes glazed over. Evelyn was trying to calm herself, however, she could feel the weight of everything around her. She could feel everything within her range of magic, as her skill in magic allowed her to sense and control her energy outside of her body so well it acted as an extension of her senses.
She could sense all around her, within the mounds of skeletons, hiding just at the edge of the light’s reach, and hidden not even outside her reach. Countless thousands of different writhing and wriggling creatures all lightly poking in and out of the light, and wrestling among each other, trying to reach out.
Yet Evelyn’s paranoia did not come from the writhing that was around her, it was what was in her. She could sense something was strange, not only about Adrith but even herself. Energies that wrestled and writhed within her like countless thousands of worms which take the place of her own energy as she uses it to fuel her magic. It was an arcane and foreign energy she could never remember having. It was something she could not even fathom to be able to explain or comprehend what it was. The energy made her stomach twist and turn as she could sense the energy worming its way deeper and deeper into her body.
It was the moment she heard a sound she lost it, she lashed out and screamed “BLAST!”
From her scream, in front of her appeared a large unstable orb of dark red fire that shook and warped. Evelyn’s eyes grew wide as she realized what she had done. She performed an act of magic without any incantation or a tool of assistance.
Before Evelyn could even cry out, she felt her body be lifted in a moment and launched. She heard an ear-piercing explosion that shrieked and roared. The fire, even while unstable, was unbelievably hot and felt like it could scorch her even when not near it. The ringing in her ears made it impossible to hear, but she could finally comprehend what was happening, she was right now on the floor, and on top of her was the man who saved her for a 2nd time.
The hulking armor was heavy, yet she could feel it lift off of her as she could see Adrith’s face. He looked like he was trying to yell something but her ears were still recovering from the explosion, it took maybe a few minutes for her ears to finally adjust as Adrith finally asked.
“What happened?”
Evelyn shook her head, “I’m-”,
Adrith then cut her off as he began to sit up, “If you say that you are fine, then I will have to take drastic measures. What happened”.
Evelyn seemed to stiffen up as Adrith looked at her expectantly. It took her a moment to answer “I, feel something strange. Within us. Uhm…what happened to us? Why is our energy like that of…monsters?”
Adrith looked confused as Evelyn continued, “What happened? You obviously don’t look like one who could heal an entirely missing arm, so how did I get it back? Why does it feel like our energy is foreign? Like it is another energy all together”
Adrith looked confused for a moment as he asked, “You serious?”. It took another few moments before he realized she didn’t understand her situation and decided to explain, “I’ll explain this quickly. You’re an Awoken. One who was dead and then brought back to life through the power of the gods”.
Evelyn looked confused as she then said, “Wait, I’m an Undead?”
Adrith nodded his head, “Yes”.
Evelyn began to take a breath in, and then her breathing began to hasten. Her eyes began to flicker around as if a revelation had been dropped upon her. She began to mumble to herself, “I can’t be dead. I can’t be. How? I was safe. I was great. There was nothing I was afraid of. But why?”
Adrith shook his head, he couldn’t do much more for her. She had to work through this alone, for Adrith his thoughts were to be thankful that this time she at least used a fire spell that could burn bone and metal, so it should keep the creatures away until he could get the rest of the sleep he needed. If she went crazy, that would be its own issue, but he would not move at all from where he started in either case, so there was no need to dwell on it.
Adrith began to lie down and drift off into sleep as he had what could be described as dreams. Yet they were something more akin to him working through what Evelyn is having to deal with, and even himself, madness. For the Awoken, they had to work through many things. Physical pain was an issue, they weren’t impervious to injury, nor were they unable to be afflicted by magic. Maybe it was something truly important the gods left because if the Awoken were unable to be affected by magic they could not become stronger, however, it left them open to many things, and one of the only true deaths that can be had by an Awoken is when they lose their minds.
When an Awoken loses their mind, it turns them into something horrifying, a being who is unstable, unhinged, and unable to rationally help themselves out of their insanity. No matter how many times an Awoken dies, they retain every memory, they retain every emotion, they retain every trauma, and in the worst case, if they face a truly arcane threat, they even retain damage that has marked their soul.
Yet the extremes aren't the true worries, it is the acclimation of sudden trauma. Originally Adrith thought Evelyn knew what she was. Yet upon the realization, she seemed to almost lose her mind.
Adrith was worried, yet all he could do was move forward. The moment Adrith came to this calming thought, he felt a lightness fill his body, a euphoric feeling of all the stresses he could have felt had just washed away in an instant. It was then he awoke, and he awoke to Evelyn seeming to be hovering over him inspecting his armor.
Adrith broke the mage's intense concentration with, “Good Morning”.
Evelyn replied with a dry, “Looks like you are finally awake”.