Chapter 5

Night’s Embrace

June sat staring off into the distance for some time. The hollow black orbs of her eye sockets filled with a tiny purple ember looked off to the side, staring at nothing. A small spider crawled across the floor in front of her, turning to skitter up the bones of her leg. June’s hand didn’t flinch or move at all to brush the arachnid away.

She looked up at Bullin, before saying in a hollow tone “I think I need to lie down.” Sounding quite tired, her voice barely rose above a whisper.

Bullin looked down at the skeleton. Regarding her crouched form for a few seconds, he nodded silently. He pushed the door open on the far side of the chamber—exiting into the hall.

June remained rooted where she sat, paying no attention to the world around her.

Bullin’s steps could be heard echoing off of the stones as he walked, moving further away. His heavy hand rapped a few times on heavy stone, ringing throughout the surrounding hall. The grinding of stones filled the hallway as a door opened. Bullin's voice could be heard faintly from a nearby room. A raspy voice intermingled with his meatier vocalizations, speaking in softer tones. The two discussed something, their conversation remaining hushed and secretive.

Bullin was gone a few minutes before returning to his workshop. Walking over to one of the few blank spaces on the wall, he placed his right hand over a small hole in the stonework. A weak electric hum emitted from the hole. At that moment, A stone section of the wall slid away, revealing a hallway leading deeper into the tombs. The hallway beyond was lit in a faint orange torchlight. Past the edges of the torchlight stood more infinite blackness, barely being restrained by the flickering sentry against whatever horrific monsters lay in wait.

Bullin beckoned for June to follow him. The dwarf looked behind him, and saw June still staring at nothing. Trying to get their attention, he walked over and hauled the specter to their feet. The stout dwarf pulled the smaller undead until they started trudging along under their own power. Being yanked along, June followed closely behind him like a child.

The hall itself was decidedly different from anything else June would have seen so far. Lined with a carved black stone filled with all manner of unique designs, it looked much more regal. The floor even had a red hue to it, contrasting the plain grey of the previous chamber. It would have looked rather fancy had it not been caked in dust. Cobwebs hung from the low ceiling, with large spiders skittering between them. Alcoves along the hallway hid various skeletons, standing stone still. Each one wore shaggy leathers, barely hanging onto their bare forms. The eye holes of the guardian knights barely burned with dark red embers. It looked as though they were held up by the wicked halberds in their hands.

Not that June noticed any of the surrounding details. June’s empty stare was fixed on the hind quarters of the dwarf waddling along in front of her.

They went down the hall in silence for about two minutes, past several plain doors, before Bullin spoke. “Here we are,” announced the dwarf. Turning to face the trudging undead behind him, the sorry form was regarded with a cold, sorrowful gaze. “I know you’re scared, but I promise it gets easier,” whispered the dwarf. “You can stay here, no one will bother you,” he said. Lost in her own thoughts, June continued to stare at the floor.

Bullin placed his hand on a small gem set into the wall to the side of a simple wooden door.

“Just place your hand here and it will bind to you,” said Bullin. He withdrew his hand from the jewel as June placed her hand there. June didn’t bother looking up as she held her hand there. Even as her hand hung there, the jewel glowed purple beneath it.

He removed June’s hand from the gem, turning their zoned-out form towards the door. Bullin tried to softly guide the skeleton into the room. “Sleep tight, I’ll come get ya in the morning,” softly spoke the concerned-looking dwarf. The door closed behind June as she entered.

Within the room sat a few basic furnishings. A small desk and bookshelf sat on one side, with a small lamp on the desk. As the door opened, the lamp flared to life, casting a soft orange glow. The opposite side of the room hosted a wooden bed, lined with a straw mattress. This was a functional room, not a beautiful or comfortable one.

June finally let herself relax—or more accurately—shattered.

As she slid down the wall, June collapsed in on herself. “what the fuck...” she whispered to herself. “Why am I here? What have I done wrong?” Her questions hung in the air, addressed to no one.

The flickering light reflected and danced off the carved black walls around her, taunting her. The dark corners of the room materialized as mysterious shapes at the edge of her vision. Shadow people danced in the cold shade, tiptoeing between imagination and reality.

She let out a chuckle, even though she wanted to scream and cry all at once. Despite the quiet nature of the tiny noise, the sound echoed. A strangling feeling of silence remained in its wake. As the seconds of torment ticked by, June could only hear her own heartbeat. Confused, she looked down, seeing nothing but the gap between a bleached-white rib cage. As she stared, a strangling sense of loss bubbled up into the forefront of her mind. Everything she had known had just changed. The realization tore through her like a hurricane. The strangest part of it all was that she still felt like she was breathing. Whether it was some kind of lingering physiological response or not, she didn’t know.

She tried to take a deep breath, trying desperately to calm down. Despite this, no relaxing wind came. June further tried to catch her breath, a single breath, that’s all she wanted. The pressure continually built, dragging her down deeper into despair. Everything was just too fucking confusing. Her mind swam with lost possibility, and as she was consumed with worry, nothing felt right—familiar.

With or without lungs, June couldn’t breathe. The choking pressure closed in around her, and she was desperate to break free of the nightmarish grip of this decrepit hole in the wall. The pressure threatened to break her into tiny shards, mashing them away to little more than dust. She searched for any image or notion of peace; she found only new senses awakening, tormenting her.

The smell of dust and dirt was pervasive for the first time since she arrived. Though it wasn’t just that, death followed with it. The dirtiest pile of trash couldn’t compare to the wildest odors conjured in this tiny damp hell. Wafting in on stale air was the smell of rot and an ammonia-esque scent that reminded June of a litter box in desperate need of changing.

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Marching in with the vapors of death was a subtle mix of horrifying noises. Wails from voices in alien tongues twisted and bounced their way through the halls. The screams of the mourning damned ripped back from paradise, and shoved back into existence in a new—torturous—hell. Every new sound made June flinch, made her want to run away. But where could she go?

She couldn’t focus, not with all the unknown horrors swarming in around her. Her mind swam in the agony of true loneliness, a dastardly feeling that usually only gripped her mind in the dead of night. In this dark and dusty tomb, the loss burned deeper into her emotional core. Every doubt blooming in her mind bled out, became corporeal, and echoed out in the shadows within the space around her. As the room closed even tighter around June, she felt more alone than ever.

The whispers and odors were just the start. June stared down at the floor, huddled into a ball, silently filling with regret and worry. Her face was pressed hard against the cold black marble of the wall in front of her. Try as she might to forget seeing them, those damned black tendrils danced along with the phantasmal orchestra, waiting at the edges of her vision.

“Please, I just want to go home,” cried the emotionally tattered wreck of an undead.

Out of the shadows across the quarters, came a cracking male voice. “That won’t be possible, child.” The voice crawled from the side of the room opposite June, from beneath a torn and ragged hood of mixed fabrics.

Fear struck her like lightning, lighting every part of her body with the momentary fire of adrenaline. Out of an induced reflex, she leapt for the door with surprising speed in a single motion. June paused once she reached the door, finding no handle. Turning to face her foe, June flipped around. She held her back against the wall, frantically trying to find the jewel on this side of the door with her outstretched hand—her gaze never left the looming mass of rags. Her hand found purchase on a small orb, and she tried to grab it, turn it, anything. Nothing happened. “Open you son of a bitch,” she thought, trying to compel the door to free her.

“There’s no need to be frightened, little one,” spoke the all-too familiar pile of rot and fabric. “I come bearing a simple gift, something that can help you adjust. Something to imprison that icy fear in your heart."

The fear tore at June’s mind, she wanted to shrink back into a little ball, but she had nowhere to go, nowhere to run. A caged animal had to fight, and so did she. “FUCK YOU!” screeched the undead, finding a fire in her voice she didn’t even think she had. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?” June screamed at the void beneath that tattered hood.

In an instant, the blackened husk grew to an impossible size, filling the entire space of the cramped quarters. The small lamp in the corner, casting a ghostly orange hue, was instantly snuffed. The air and light were consumed by the monstrous form, as its shadow filled the entire room around them. Everything else in the room fell away. The noises were strangled out by the personified madness filling the chamber. All sounds stopped. There was nothing, truly nothing. Nothing but a blank void filled with a terrified girl, and some unimaginable face of terror.

“I made you better, gave you potential,” came a single whisper. The voice sounded like it was choked out of a mouth filled with broken glass. The horrifying echo bounced off of every surface in the chamber. The implied threat of its tone surrounded June like a hungry pack of wolves. “Now, listen to me, and listen carefully. You will need to get stronger, you must be tempered. Do not fear the darkness, embrace it. It can make you powerful, useful.”

An unseen pressure in the room pressed in, threatening to crush the whole of existence, shatter it. Everything else had been stripped away, there was no fear or panic. June felt nothing, true and utter emptiness. A void filled with no hope, no thoughts.

From within the mangled mess of different colored rags stretched a single arm. Not a normal human one, it was much too long for that. It covered the entire distance of the chamber with ease. Along the pockmarked purple skin were countless sores and wounds. Maggots crawled out of open and festering pits before burrowing back in somewhere else. When the maggots ripped open new holes, they brought bits of broken bone forth. The jagged and black bits of rot shot out like a rock formation against the surface of a wounded planet. With a sickening series of snaps, its mangled and broken hand opened. Within the hand sat a small jet black cabochon, perfectly polished in a princess cut.

“Take it, it will help,” spoke the mysterious form. “It can make the screams go away,” it said, the words slithering from the dark hole in the creature’s hood. "In death, the illusions will be shattered." Came a haunting tone inside her own mind, in her own voice.

Against every part of her screeching consciousness telling her not to, June took the proffered jewel. As soon as she did, the room shifted. Her vision blacked out for a second, and June remained alone with an emptiness that had settled over her room. A whisper came to June, carried on the wind. “Press it to your gem,” spoke the haunting voice inside her mind. When she did, a boiling shadow began to emit from the new black gem. As the shadows boiled and fell away like heavy nitrogen gas, they were slowly sucked back into her Class Gem. The next instant was filled with a flash of grey light, and a new status window filled her flickering vision afterwards.

Item Gained

Name

Crown Jewel of an Eternal Monarch

A jewel stolen from the ancient crown of a lost monarch. Claim the power of true death, and quiet the screams of an eternity of anguish. The power of this jewel is legendary, sought by many as a treasure of magical power.

"Silence, you foul wretches. I ended your suffering and gave you freedom!"

Rarity

Rare

Grade

Exceptional

Affinity

—

Effect

Grants Death Magic Tier 2

Grants Arcane Prowess Tier 2

Along with the status window came a joyful realization. All the panic that had set in was gone. Every negative emotion that had torn into June had been pushed away. The wildfire of happiness made June feel better than she ever had. Somewhere deep in her mind, a worry blossomed over what this creature was doing to her. But before the ember of that seed could catch, it was snuffed out by a cold reality, induced as if by magic. Her mind heard the echo of a sharp voice, saying she had nothing to fear, but the reality of such a revelation terrified her to her center.

Every part of her body ached, despite having no muscle. Even her skull ached, as if an incorporeal brain was searching for a way to break free. The pressure grew and grew, expanding, blotting out her thoughts and fears, icing them over. A prison bloomed in her mind, locking her in a feeling of cold and ice. Frozen within this physical tomb, she was helpless. And she'd made the decision to shut the door herself. That damned gem, that damned pile of old rags. Images floated by the cell in her mind, taunting her. The jagged and corrupted flesh of that strange beast. The faces of the skeletons and zombies by the score, all floated past, gawking or laughing at her predicament.

June swore she could feel its creeping influence, corrupting her. And as her senses returned to the physical world, the shadows around her receded. But everything was wrong, perverted, inverted. She felt euphoric. The euphoria was drug-like and, in a stupor, June stumbled over to the bed. As she plopped down onto the straw and wood frame, a deathly silence dominated the room. And for the first time in years, solitude was comfortable for June.

June flipped over, staring at the dusty ceiling above her. Pushing into the straw deeper, she tried to actually relax for once. “Do undead sleep,” she thought. She couldn’t even bother to care. Whatever the hell this item was doing to her, she liked it. Remembering what had gotten her here, and hearing the echoing words of that horrifying robe of death, she made a decision about what to do tomorrow. For now, she was resolved to learn more about the world around her. First, she was going to start with this damnable gem.