I can’t even see myself in this darkness, but at the very least it seems to not be doing anything dangerous besides hindering my senses. I have two runes up so surprise attacks are not the most worrying, let’s stay in the dark for now. I’ll follow the wall on the left I guess…
Sofia walked cautiously in the darkness, her left hand gliding along the wall, feeling the uneven texture of the cold porous bricks and the disturbing shapes of carvings she couldn’t see. While everything right around her was plunged in pitch black darkness, she could sometimes see the outlines of things that were in between her and the zones of light. There were pillars with uneven borders, tall chairs, large furniture that Sofia couldn’t recognize with the shape alone, and plenty of unlit candelabra.
After going for about thirty meters without making any sound, Sofia reached the left wall of the room. On this side as well, a large group of zombies were facing the giant centerpiece statue of Sorrow, each holding a candle. From this angle, Sofia could see that they all held the candle in their left hand while their right hand was placed on their chest, the palm on their heart. Although they were clearly zombies, there were only light signs of decomposition, their dead gray skin being the most notable one. Perhaps they smelled like zombies usually did, but Sofia couldn’t tell, the smell of burning wax completely overpowering any putrid scent.
If not for the fact that they don’t breathe and are still like statues, someone less experienced might not even realize that they are undead until they come closer.
Now, following the left wall in the dark was not an option, as there were lit candelabras every few meters along the wall, letting one observe the wall’s statues and scriptures. This left only a few pockets of darkness where the candles were most distant, and a thin corridor of shadow in between the wall and the zombies.
Sofia followed the shadow slowly, doing her best to make even less noise than before, especially when she got to the level of the zombies. Even if they were facing away, the zombies most in the back of the group were almost at arm's reach, as their candles only lit a small area around each of them.
When she reached the halfway point of the room, Sofia saw a distant light in the pocket of shadow on the left wall.
There’s actually a corridor there! It’s completely in the dark, but since I can see the light all the way out there… I should be fine as long as I go in a straight line.
Sofia left the entrance room, stepping into the corridor felt strange, it was even darker in there, and the only specks of light Sofia could see were the zombies’ candles behind, and a lone candle on a small stand some fifty meters down the corridor’s long stretch of darkness.
I’m far from the zombies so it should be fine if I make a tiny bit of noise.
Sofia felt uneasy going completely blind but she also still wanted to be discreet, so what she did was to manipulate her bone armor into growing long and thin spider-leg-like tendrils. Controlling them as she wished, she used them like extended arms to feel her surroundings, be it the ground, the walls, or the ceiling. Being able to feel what was around her, even if it was indirectly, reassured Sofia a great deal.
Just a normal corridor. No line of monsters I can’t see surrounding me, no random hole in the ground, just a corridor… Just a corridor…
About halfway through the corridor, one of the tendrils near the ground felt something unusual, and Sofia almost screamed in surprise, and had instantly brandished the dagger in the direction of the thing, only to realize that it was a loose brick shattered on the floor, another of her bone tendrils quickly finding the corresponding brick-shaped hole in the wall.
Fuck… Why am I so jumpy now of all times?
Ah, right. Pareth isn’t here. That’s why.
Sofia sighed silently, I rarely take the time to appreciate how much safer I feel with him around…
Sofia took a second to breathe, and lightly shook her scepter. The tiny bell of Ormoncleth attached to it rang lightly, helping to soothe Sofia’s nerves. After all, enemies cannot hear it, so I can safely use it like this. She thought, grabbing her staff and caressing the small bauble with her left hand, before letting it go and starting to walk again.
Now I wonder if that candle out there is some kind of trap. I can’t even tell if it’s still in the corridor or if it’s in a different room, its light is so pitifully weak, it almost looks like it’s just in the middle of an empty void.
I wonder if I should have just fought the zombies.
Maybe I’m being needlessly cautious.
Then again, my history with exploring magically dark places is not great. Earned me my first decapitation…
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The good thing is, I can control Shades with [Reign over shadows] now, so I won’t be reenacting that. Not that losing my head would be much of an issue at this point.
Sofia finally reached the lonely candle, which turned out to be still inside of the corridor. She walked past it while keeping herself near the wall, feeling what was on the other side.
Oh, we have big wooden doors here. Iron ring handles? Doors must be heavy. Well. Time to experiment a bit.
Sofia took cubes of bones out of her storage one by one, delicately putting them on the floor, and with [Bone dominus], she made them into a hollow cube encasing this part of the corridor.
There we go, I’m inside my cube with the candle. Nobody can see me.
There was something magical to all the candles, this one included. Although the fire looked normal at first glance and produced some heat, the light was oddly weak, even for a candle. Slowly, Sofia stepped into the light.
Alright. I feel no change. Nothing weird so far, so the light is also safe.
Sofia then reached out to grab the small copper plate holding the candle, and as soon as the tip of her fingers touched the thing, the candle went out.
Crap!
Sofia prepared herself for a fight; her bone tendrils flailed around wildly only finding air and bone walls. There were no signs of anything happening, and she was still perfectly safe and alone inside of her bone cube.
No touching the candles, then?
Actually…
Sofia tried to store the candle in her storage ring, and that failed miserably. It just would not go in. Then she tried to light it back up with a tiny angel bolt spark between two of her fingers, but not only was it hard to do properly as she could not see the wick nor the light coming from the sparks that she knew were flying between her fingers, but it also did not seem to work at all.
Can’t light it back up, can’t store it in my ring. I’m not allowed to take a lit candle with me… At least I tried…
Putting the extinguished candle back where it belonged, Sofia stored all of her bone back after making it into small cubes again, and pulled on the handles to open the wooden doors. She could not feel anything from the other side, which meant it was likely to also be in total darkness.
The theory proved itself true, the room beyond the door a pitch black void, but not for long.
A candelabra near a wall lit up by itself, followed by many more, until only the back of the relatively small square room was still obscured. There was nothing but candelabra in the room, and two more doors on the left and right.
Is there something hiding in that shadow?
Sofia entered the room, wondering if she should close the door behind her, and eventually deciding to seal it with a vertical sheet of bone instead, which she could remove much faster than she could open a door.
The room was about seven or eight meters on each side, and only that one about two-meters large spot in the center of the back was still dark. Sofia readied her weapons and took a few steps closer. Before she could send her bone tendrils to probe the darkness, something appeared within the shade. A barely visible blurry white figure. It was kneeling in a prayer position, facing away from Sofia. Little by little, it became brighter, revealing that said figure was a long-eared humanoid wearing tattered robes, and, surprising Sofia, a scroll of parchment paper appeared between Sofia and the forming ghost out of nowhere, unrolling silently.
A few lines of glowing white text were inscribed on the scroll:
‘Here prays Sister Meilyss
She repents for the Sorrows her creations have caused
She has offered herself as your first trial
There are nine trials of might
Each helper will come alone and may only participate once
Currently available helpers:
Pareth
Everelle
Velanihuarahton’
As she read the last three lines, illusory images flashed before Sofia’s eyes, Pareth, Everelle and Ihuarah were all waiting alone in similar rooms, facing closed doors, each holding a similar small scroll.
Sofia’s first thought was, What about Bookie and Cinthia?
But before she could worry about that, she had to quickly make a decision, as the ghost of ‘Sister Meilyss’ became clearer by the second.
Four words of light had appeared inscribed directly on the floor, one for each helper, and one in ancient human, spelling ‘Loneliness’.
Nine trials, five helpers?
That means I have to do four of them alone.
Sofia sent some mana toward the ‘Loneliness’ word of light, but that did nothing, so she tried stepping on it, and the words as well as the scroll all disappeared.
“I can feel the two holy mothers coming for me,” the ghost whispered in an ethereal voice, “this must be fate. I have atoned enough, Sun, today I will return to my brethren.”
Sofia prepared her spells and weapons, an array of skulls appearing behind her, and the ghost slowly stood up.
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