Part 5 – Through Darkness

Kai was used to moving through darkness. He had swum great distances in the Idran Sea, when all his world was a shade of turquoise that slowly darkened to pitch. He had sailed on moonless nights, guided by a complex tapestry of stars and the rings of Weave that surrounded the planet.

Kai had even moved through the darkness of the valley of death and returned, with a crack of thunder, to the illumination of life. Even still, it was not for the first time, he felt the thought pass through his head that perhaps this time, he may not find his way out of the dark.

On this occasion the gloom that was unlike any he had felt before. He listened to Clio and Daphne rummage through the contents of a chest. They had found it inside a secret room hidden behind a bookshelf. As they rummaged, Kai began to feel hopelessness settle in.

He had felt it for a moment in the valley of death, along with the cool, ghostly grass that had curled beneath his toes and a warm wind that had folded over him like swaddling. Hopelessness then had only lasted for as long as it takes thunder to follow lightening.

The darkness that permeated the cursed house was something altogether different. Hopelessness was threaded through the very weave. It crept up on him as a spider creeps. It watched him. It whispered terrifying certainties into the back of his mind. It clawed at the hairs on his skin that stood perpetually on end. It grew slowly, like a rising tide. Kai knew the tide well enough to know when a storm would follow a rising swell.

He had moved through darkness before. There was only one thing for it; he had to keep moving forward. That was the only way he knew to keep hopelessness at bay. It was at the core of his culture’s belief: To put one foot in front of the other; that is what hope felt like. It was the only way he knew to combat the dread settling in. He could see it in his friends too. If they were not careful, that dread could take them all.

“Are you two done in there?” He whispered back into the study. The rest of the third floor stood still; silent as the grave.

Despite the stillness, despite the silence, the house seemed to breathe. In and out. It was the slow measured breath of a predator watching prey. It was imperceptible to the eye, but Kai could feel it. It was entrancing. So entrancing that he jumped when Daphne put a hand on his shoulder.

“I think we’ve discovered a little of what we’re dealing with.” She said. Kai could see his own fear reflected in her.

The Aquan leaned against the door and rubbed his uncovered arms. Arms that had been made strong from his time climbing rigging on the Idran Sea. Still, they prickled with fear despite their strength. Kai kept watch over the landing of the third floor.

“This house seems to be the residence of a cult.” Clio whispered. “Or it used to be. There’s evidence of the worst of it. Necromancy, contracts with creatures of the outer planes. It runs the gamut.”

“No idea how we get out then?” Kai asked.

“Not yet.” Clio said as she started laying a few things on the floor. When Kai turned to look, he saw a few pieces of parchment, a shirt of chain armour and a leatherbound tome.

“And do we know what the monster could be?”

Clio paused. She looked like she was about to say something but instead she closed her mouth and shook her head.

“Can you use that?” Daphne asked, pointing to the chain shirt.

Kai shook his head. “Too heavy for what I need to do.” He gestured to his loose, dark shorts that were fastened with cord and his sleeveless, open vest. “It would get in the way of my slinging.” He made an exaggerated gesture of casting a spell to illustrate the point.

Daphne was in a similar situation. She wore hardened leather armour that protected her vital areas but sacrificed protection for flexibility at the joints. It was an unfortunate trade off, but for her style of combat, an essential one.

“Shame. It’s too big for Clio, otherwise she would have used it.” Daphne said, shifting the armour aside with her foot.

“I can’t believe I thought I would be safe travelling with just my vestments.” Clio said. The loose, light linen she wore didn’t hamper her movement in the least, but it offered no protection. “I am a fool.”

“You couldn’t have known.” Daphne told her before turning back to Kai. “What about that?”

Clio handed Kai the leatherbound tome. “It looks closer to your use of the Weave, than mine.”

Kai flicked through the pages. It was a spell book. From the looks of it, one that had been used by a powerful mage of some kind. If Kai had spent his life studying the Weave like most magical practitioners, the tome would have been worth more than its weight in gold. However, the Weave came differently to Kai than to most people. He would have a hard time deciphering its pages. Still, he decided to tuck it into his bag for safe keeping.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Thanks.” He said. “Not much I can do with it right now. Maybe once we get out of here…”

“Great.” Daphne cut him off. “We should get moving.”

“I thought you said that you figured out what was going on here?” Kai said as Daphne moved to leave the study. “Care to fill me in?”

Daphne and Clio quickly told Kai of the letter they had found. They’d also discovered a diary that belonged to someone named Petros, who seemed to be the man of the house. By putting the clues together, they discovered that his family were making frequent sacrifices to appease Archelios, the vampire that was terrorizing the island of Bris.

Petros had created all kinds of misery in the hopes of appealing to Archelios. When the misery of outsiders failed to attract the vampire’s attention, Petros had turned on his own household. He tortured his wife, tormented his child, and convinced his maid to willingly mount the sacrificial altar. The final journal entry explained that the last person he had to offer as sacrifice was himself but presented little else in the way of information.

“How does a man get so broken?” Kai asked.

Clio shrugged. “One step at a time.”

“And did you figure out why there’s a skeleton in the cupboard?” He asked.

Daphne smirked. “Caught by a poisoned trap. Did you figure out anything more Clio?”

“I can’t say for sure. All I can tell is that this house is cursed with some powerful Weave. I don’t think time moves quite the same here. It all seems too old…I’m not sure though. I’m not…I’m sorry.” She shrugged before grabbing her holy symbol with both hands as she tried to repress a shudder.

“We can figure it out later. Follow me.” Daphne said hurrying out the study door.

The Tainted led the other two back to the entrance of the master bedroom. Then she began doing her strange routine of checking intimately things that had no business being checked. She knocked on walls and blew into gaps. She stood back from it all and surveyed the room from different angles and then closed her eyes and checked things carefully all over again.

“Here.” She said finally.

Then, she pressed up against one section of the wall next to the master bedroom door. Nothing happened. She knocked on the wall several times and frowned. Next, she shook her head like she had missed something far too obvious and pressed a different section of the wall. The wall swung open.

“That’s the second time that you’ve done that.” Kai said.

Daphne gave him a wink and led the way. The secret door opened onto a narrow staircase. It curled around on itself like a pig’s tail winding further and further down. They followed it down past the second storey, down past the first, and then down further still.

It wound round and round, delving deeper and deeper into the earth. The walls were no longer plastered and painted cream. They were hewn from dirt and stone. The stairs themselves were the same. Transitioning from dark timber to earth. The Triumvirate followed the stairs down for what felt like another three storeys until finally a corridor opened before them.

The corridor reached both left and right. The moment Kai stepped out, he saw a number of doors on the opposite wall. Quickly, he positioned himself to keep watch down the left side while Clio watched the right. Meanwhile, Daphne investigated the closest door. She crept through and back in no more than a few heartbeats.

“I found the girl’s mother.” She said grimly.

“Great. Grab her and tell her to show us the way out of here.” Kai whispered.

“I found the girl too.” Daphne said. Just as grim.

Clio and Kai both looked back at her.

“They’re dead, both of them. Buried too. Looks like they’ve been that way for quite a while.”

A long silence followed, punctuated by a howling that wound down the staircase, right toward the three of them. Kai shuddered.

“Then who was the girl outside?” he asked.

“It’s her, the daughter. There’s an etching of her face in there. Same girl.” Daphne replied.

“It must be some sort of shade or…Iros’ mercy.” Clio swore. “This use of the Weave is so far past what I was educated in.”

“No idea what it could be?” Asked Daphne.

Clio shook her head.

“What do we do?” Daphne asked.

Clio opened her mouth to reply but could only shake her head in response.

“We keep moving forward.” Said Kai before leading the way down the corridor that stretched off to the left.

It wasn’t long before they found themselves in a room that seemed to have been a gathering place of sorts. A large, heavy table stood surrounded by rough wooden chairs. The few items that had decorated the table mostly lay strewn about the floor apart from a bowl and a candlestick.

The three of them spread out around the room. There were a few different corridors that led away from the gathering space and a door; heavy, and wooden, and shut. Kai was carefully peering around a corner when he heard Clio behind him turning the handle of the door.

“Wait!” Daphne called to her, suddenly panicked, but it was too late.

Clio had already opened the door and was about to take a step inside before realizing what she was confronted with. A giant worm uncoiled quickly before her. It was easily four times her height in length, probably more. Two sets of mandibles clattered over a drooling maw. Eyeless, it somehow sensed Clio in front of it and lashed out.

Clio managed to raise her shield just in time. Kai could hear the scrape of mandible on bronze as the creature clamped down. Clio was bowled over as Kai began running toward her. He didn’t know what else to do so he forced himself to move forward, ever forward. He got as far as the heavy table before he realized he wouldn’t make it to her in time.

His wand was still in his holster but from the speed at which the creature was slithering toward Clio he knew he didn’t have a moment to draw it. Instead, he forced all the weave he could into his fingers and touched a candlestick that was laying on the table.

He focused the power of a storm into his fingertips and transferred it into the candlestick. The bronze ornament shot off the table at a terrifying speed, straight toward the worm. Its mandibles were clacking a terrifying rhythm around its maw. The candlestick shot right through the worm’s open mouth and buried itself in the earthen wall behind.

There was a moment of silence before the worm fell lifeless to the floor. Daphne had only just drawn her rapier. Both she and Clio looked to Kai in surprise. The Aquan felt a sudden wave of lethargy sweep over him. He braced himself on the table before easing himself into one of the chairs.

“Thank you.” Clio said as Daphne walked over to help her up.

“Call it even.” Kai replied through deep breaths.

“You’ve changed a lot in the last four years. That’s not the type of Weave you pick up after some casual study at the university.” Daphne investigated the candlestick. It was wedged so deeply into the wall that it sat flush.

“When we make it out of this cursed hell hole, I’ll make sure to fill you in.” Kai said. “But for now, we have to keep moving forward.”