My limbs, as cold as the core that seeped into every last corner of my body, would not respond to my commands. But his managed to melt through my fear like the first warm wind in spring.
I rose, though I barely managed to control my stance, something in my ankle had bent in a way that bones were not meant to. I looked to the floor next to me, where Ser Fume lay dead. The plates on his upper body were pierced and pulled apart at the scenes. Liters of blood pooled on the ground like a blooming rose, clinging to my hands, knees, and stomach. The flow slowed down in its stream, the man had almost dried from the massive gashes in his body.
‘I didn’t kill him, did I?’
Regardless of the way my gaze was locked on the corpse of my protector, my legs carried me to the side of the foyer where I knew another set of stairs was. Sounds of battle, the beast roaring and spitting slurred words overshadowed any indication of the state outside. That meant I had to stay in some safe place until I knew it was safe.
The stairs were behind a thick, wooden door. Its original color was lost to the flames gnawing at its frame, it turned into a blackened piece of scorched coal.
“Nûcc,” I held out my hand in the sign of the Favor, thumb and little finger touching, index and ring finger bent halfway and the middle finger straight. But my hand was shaking, my fingers twitching more than I was able to control.
A loud crack thundered behind me, making me jump out of my body for a moment. But I didn’t dare look behind. I cast the spell again, “ Nûcc.”
And again, my hands felt no magic travel through them, still just the cold of fear.
I pulled my jaw tight until it hurt. Without my magic, I submitted to the one part inside of me that I knew could protect me. The surge coming from my chest forced me to straighten my arm out. From my shoulder formed a flow of blue and white light from overcast clouds.
A damp, freezing cold crept down my shoulder, then to my forearm, all the way to my fist. Few things felt cold to me. I’ve always disliked the summer because I had no contrast, for the winter felt just as warm; and it was quieter than the busy streets of the hot months.
But this, this felt cold.
The passage suffered worse, though, now splintered and pulled off the hinges. The spires I created at that time were rather ugly, I’d say. Crude, full of different imperfections that manifested spikes, holes, and sharp edges along a single mast. The thing almost swallowed my arm because I used my own body as support.
But I forgive my younger self for the ugliness of his creations. He was almost killed for the first time. And that boy didn’t know how important focus truly is.
The next couple of minutes were spent running down the stairs, tripping a few times when the ground shook, then reaching one of the connecting tunnels under the castle. The castle was deliberately built atop an old volcano after it had erupted last, then made sure to magically seal it. Eventually, miners discovered old lava tunnels leading all throughout the city. They often converged, though many ended in nothingness. Some had been connected to exits in desired locations, others were close enough to basements that the connection was accidental.
Under the castle, however, tunnels were widened and led to about twenty entrances in the castle. They led to lower districts with hidden exits, in case the city was ever taken and the royals would need to escape, through the castle itself if one were to be so inclined, and to a hidden room only accessible by the Blackspires.
The darkness eventually took over, and faint lights of torches along the staircase fizzled away into the shadows. My thoughts were unfocused, only able to think of how I’d survive the next few hours. The idea of magic didn’t even enter my mind until I was already surrounded by darkness.
Weakly, I spoke the words of Thrishh, hoping that a small ball of white light would illuminate my tunnel. But nothing. Instead, I felt a sharp sting, one that was all too familiar. Deep within my soul, my very essence, a piece was ripped out by the failed spell.
I inhaled sharply, grabbing at my arm where I felt the excruciating sensation of my astral body being incomplete. It forced me to my knees, now in immense pain enveloped by darkness. And alone.
But within that darkness, in my overflowing mind, I heard something come through the tunnel. I heard footsteps. Quiet, soft, creeping closer. I certainly made enough noise to lead anyone down here to me. But these weren’t armored boots or hurried-paced steps.
“Hello?” I yelled as loudly as I could, though it was more stifled by my gritted teeth.
As I am always one to advocate for hindsight to learn from the future, trusting almost silent footsteps with your position is an extraordinarily idiotic idea. But you have to learn some lessons the hard way, right?
Next, I heard… sniffing. Subtle and quiet like the slow footsteps, but it was certainly present. An animal? Maybe a dog found its way down here somehow.
Soon, I found myself dreading every noise that came from the wall of darkness in front of me. I crawled backward, grabbing onto the wall to clamber to my feet, hoping whatever it was wouldn’t follow me into the torchlight.
Through my increasingly fearful breaths, I heard a deep, raspy inhale. Then a growl unlike anything I had heard before emerged from the narrow hallway. The footsteps now grew louder, my breathing was joined by something snarling, something feral and hungry.
The core in my chest grew freezing cold, preparing to fight despite my only thought was to get as far away as I could. My bent foot made walking at any pace other than a sluggish hop impossible. But still, I reached the stairs, at the bottom of which hung an old, almost extinguished torch.
I pressed myself against the stone as if I could meld into it. But I only stayed out in the open, too scared to even move up the steps. “S-stay away!” I tried to not sound like I was whimpering, but the terror in my voice would have been obvious to even a child.
Then, at the very borders of the flickering orange light, a claw came into view. Smooth skin, pale as marble, a think ankle continued into the darkness above in stilt-like legs. The foot was barely that, looking much closer to a hand with only four fingers, three clawed toes going forward, and a single hooked appendage at the back.
Another step revealed a leg that bent backward. When the torch’s light flickered high enough up, I saw the beginnings of an unnaturally slim torso. Instead of smooth skin, this part looked downright armored. Plates of stone-like texture covered a humanoid torso, though it was stretched and as thin as a leg where a stomach would lie.
The thing was taller than a half-draconic, arms longer than my torso. So long and so tall that it touched the ceiling while creeping closer. And with a last step, the towering silhouette came into the light.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I was leaning on the stairs, basically prone and just hoping to wake from the nightmare this surely was.
With talons on its fingers, it carved long groves into the wall, slowly stepping closer. It sniffed the air. Then I realized why I wasn’t dead already, the thing was blind. More accurately, it had no eyes through which it could see. While the head shape was largely like a human, the face pulled forward, giving it a snout-like appearance. Only it had no skin on its mouth or cheeks like someone had pulled it into the bone which protruded from beneath. Its nose was a gaping hole of white bones, merging almost with the teeth from its jaw. Four of those teeth were much, much larger than the rest, like the fangs of a wolf placed in a human jaw.
And instead of eyes, the thing’s sockets were sunken grooves without any indication of containing eyes.
Upon smelling the air again, the monster’s head suddenly snapped toward me. It dropped low to the ground, perfectly level with me. It opened its maw, the sharpened teeth parting with blood dripping down the edges. Fresh blood. A moment’s pause felt like an eternity in this silence, as I was helpless but to stare at this beast.
Then it clattered its boney jaw shut, then open again and shut at high speeds. It increased this teeth-clattering until it became one incongruent sound that echoed off the walls a hundredfold.
Suddenly, its demeanor changed, shifting from what I assumed was hunting, to suddenly dropping to the floor in… subjugation.
It threw itself in front of me, head facing the ground, hands clasped together to its front. I stared in utter confusion as it lifted its balled hands to me as if offering something. My breathing overshadowed any other noise I may have heard, along with my heartbeat drumming a deafening melody in my head.
When it unfurled its hand, I noticed they were not only covered in blood but it held a pendant in its palm. In the dark, I only made out the barest of details, some sort of weaving pattern, and a flower. Though I can hardly be blamed for not picking up on the intricate symbols, seeing as it was covered in blood and in the twitching grasp of five unnaturally long finger-talons.
I didn't move, of course. But neither did the creature. It stayed in its submissive pose, presenting the item in its hands. Strangely enough, it reminded me of when merchants approached my father, practically begging him to accept them and their wares.
Slowly, as if to check that I wasn`t offended by the act, it lifted its head from the ground, still continuing that clicking sound of its teeth. It twisted its head to the side, approximately in my direction, then shuffled forward slightly. But when I reacted by backing up a little more, ascending the stairs one at a time, it stopped immediately.
With a trembling hand, I reached forward with one hand. If it had wanted me dead, it was already close enough to do so. I tried my best to avoid touching it but my fingers failed to grasp the pendant without shuffling underneath. It was cold and felt as dead as the stone around us.
As soon as I had lifted the object from it, the creature retreated its arms below its chest and returned its gaze to the floor. I pulled my arm back and looked at the pendant, which may once have been a necklace, judging by the holes at the top. It was still slick with slowly crusting blood.
Suddenly, it reacted to something. With inhuman speed, the beast rose to its feet, dug its claws into the ground, and bared its fangs at the stairs behind me. Of course, I was more concerned that I might end up this beast’s meal after all. But it didn’t look like it was threatening me. This hopeful trust was quickly tested, however, when it reached forward.
My chest flared with a cold that seeped into my veins so deeply I feared my blood would freeze and turn me into a statue. But no ice formed to protect me, for it did not need to.
The monster clasped a clawed hand around my doublet and pulled sharply. I was halfway tossed, halfway pulled urgently. At first, I wanted to scream, fearing I’d be dragged off into the darkness. But just as quickly as it grabbed me, it already let go once I was a few feet behind it. I stared with wide eyes when it turned away from me and toward the stairs.
A few moments later, I heard many footsteps, armored ones on stone, rushing down the stairs. Then voices. Many male voices spoke over each other until a female voice spoke louder. A familiar, assuring one.
“Haden!” Siestra called out, her tone tinted with worry but holding the authority a woman of her power commanded naturally.
I wanted to call out, but the words got stuck in my throat like dry bread.
The sounds came closer. And soon I found a new source of light traveling down the stairs. It was blue and white, the source must have been an arcane one.
Perhaps closing my eyes would have been preferable to the next few moments. But I was frozen to the spot, my eyes locked on the creature. It got low to the ground like a cat ready to pounce. And not long after, the first guard stepped into view.
His eyes met mine, blue or bright brown, I couldn’t quite tell. His face lifted at the sight, at first. Then he spotted the creature haunched down at the bottom of the stairs. He opened his mouth to scream a warning but no such sound emerged. Instead, the creature screeched so loudly and at such a high pitch that an echo thundered in my ears even while it threw the man in his armor to the ground.
The beast dug its claws straight through his metal plate. He managed to vocalize his agony for about half a second before the creature reared up and dug its jaw into the man`s neck. A stomach-turning sound of choking and tearing flesh filled the air while everything else descended into chaos.
Sounds and flickering light blurred in my mind. I began to feel dizzy and sick, smelling the blood and hearing the ripping of armor, clothes, then meat when the beast launched itself at another man. He was pinned to the wall, struggling for a second or so before the beast slashed at his stomach. Blood, followed by the man’s guts fell to the floor with a sickening slosh.
‘They are all going to die…’
Two more fell before someone finally landed the thrust of a sword into its arm. The beast screeched and jumped back, landing next to me. It became more defensive, slashing at the air to keep the men at bay, who had managed to spread out at the base of the stairs. It grabbed at my leg, likely to pull me away and escape.
But then, just as I was being pulled away into the void of the tunnels, a voice cut through the darkness. My teacher, the woman who had shown me a world beyond the physical.
“ Boór-Caprur!” Immediately, the creature stopped. Not only did it stop moving, it was physically frozen in place, paralyzed by a powerful spell. The problem was that its hand also became locked around my foot.
“Now, the hand!” Another voice yelled, a deep-toned male one. Alebstra, I recognized a second after.
Rushing through the line of guards was a man with burned rags for clothes, his pourpoint barely hanging by a few straps. He entered a full sprint toward me, the beautiful sword he held high above his head gleaming in the fire’s light. He let out a yell when he brought the blade down across the creature. I heard flesh being cut, then I was suddenly freed and dropped to the ground.
“Icinarro!” Siestra yelled, forgoing her otherwise composed tonality while casting spells.
I turned just in time to see the creature, which was still frozen in its own body, beginning to glow as if it had swallowed embers. Soon the glow became brighter and bright until the creature burst forth with flame. Finally, the paralyzing spell it had been trapped within, the monster clawed at its sizzling skin. But no matter what it would do now, its fate was sealed in the flames.
The smell was awful, the sounds were worse. What started as monstrous screeching eventually turned into the distorted, agonized yells of a man. It was like two were trapped in one, sometimes a high-pitched roar, other times the painful vocalizations of a dying man echoed down the now brightly lit hall.
It only took a few seconds in truth, but to me, it felt like an eternity. Watching as every part of its body bubbled from the heat until the skin burst. The bones in its thin legs melted and split, forcing it to the ground. Its arms turned to ash, its face open with pain, throat bellowing with the voices of both man and beast until even that incinerated from the spell. Soon after, the only thing left of it was a pile of white ash and a severed hand.
My chest rose and sank frantically, despite my attempts at convincing myself I was finally safe. But my heart wouldn’t slow, my lungs refused to inhale air like a drowning man finally surfacing. The feeling coming from my chest threatened to burst forth.
Until a hand found its way into my blurred vision.
A guard would have pulled me up without a second’s thought. The two wizards may have used magic.
But Able, the dragonslayer, offered me his hand to pull myself up.
And I reached out in return.