The still echoing voice reverberated around Mevi, shaking her core like an earthquake. Something moved in the pitch-black room. A slithering presence slinking behind Mevi’s perception. The feeling was unmistakable now, only once before had she experienced such oppressive darkness and the tell-tale feeling of overwhelming dread and anxiety; the Magi Falcier.
As if on cue with her realization the voice echoed out again, “Oh little Starlight… To think how high you’d soar.” The voice creeped into her mind as much as it boomed around her. Like a voice shouting directly into her ears yet impossibly far away at the same time. Mevi couldn’t muster a response as she stood, barely keeping herself from cowering in the dark. “Yet again you wound me…” the voice mimicked sadness, “To think you would become such a gleaming gem with so little polish. If I had known…” the voice trailed off, losing some of its power.
The darkness began to shift and move, as if the darkness itself was a creature with some kind of motive. Yet as Mevi tried to muster courage to stand tall as Maphet’s Magi Apprentice, another wave of dread crashed into her soul. A figure began to materialize, and as it did some small amount of light was let into the room from an unknown direction. The shadows coalesced into a figure. A dark and looming robed figure walked forward while wisps of shadow trailed off their body.
The Mask of the Magi Falcier was in full view, and it spiraled with emotion. A dark swirling cloud with mists of purple and faint light was almost sucked inwards like a cosmic drain. A black hole at its center that seemed to be actively consuming the light around them and slowly devoiding the barely visible room of color. The spiraling entity on Falcier’s mask was almost hypnotic, Mevi could feel herself swaying towards it as if being pulled in. Before she fell into the swirling abyss she pulled herself back. A warm orange glow began to shine faintly as she held fast against the dark temptation to fall into nothingness. Her own glow fought desperately against the absorbing darkness, but it was a failing battle. Falcier almost seemed amused as the display of defiance radiated unintentionally from Mevi.
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“You certainly have soared, little Starlight. Your glow is absolutely… intoxicating.” A hand materialized out of the dark robes and moved to touch her face, but shrank away as the light pushed it back. “Such an interesting pet… I am sure your masters are pleased with what they found in the gutter.” Falcier pulled away angrily, turning his back to Mevi and pacing towards the center of the room.
Mevi worked up what little courage she could, and barely let out a whisper, “What… what need have you of me, my lord?”
“Need?” Falcier repeated the question to the air.
The air darkened again, what little light was allowed in or emanated from Mevi was devoured whole once again by the darkness. A rage was bubbling in the air, not red and hot but cold and piercing. Falcier was paused in the middle of the room, and despite not being able to see Mevi knew; the Magi’s body grew as something unnatural took its place. A feeling of intense fear of the unknown penetrated her mind, and Mevi couldn’t stop herself from cowering against the door behind her.
The intense presence of Falcier turned and loomed around Mevi like an oppressive curtain of weight. A foul stench of death and rot creeped out of the dark as the intense presence grew stronger. “You presume…” the voice was now inhumanly low, gravely, and furious. “Deign to assume that I would have NEED of you?” Mevi felt like a massive giant’s hand was closing in around her, a grip on her psyche forced her fully to the ground. “Hear this Mevare Bensari… I have no needs but for your suffering. Eternal, unending, suffering. It would amuse me so greatly…” The presence seemed to almost grab at Mevi’s body, but was buffeted by a wind that was not conjured by Mevi; intentional or otherwise. The evil creature strained for a moment but gave way quickly. The darkness slowly began to fade and the presence returned to a semblance of humanity as the rage calmed, “Remember this moment. I am never far away, my little Starlight. When your master tires of you, when they are toppled, or when you are lost in the dark… Know that I will be there to take you. I will not have a treasure escape me so easily…”
The voice faded and echoed, and the creature in the dark slowly disappeared entirely. As light began to filter into the room as it should, the door to the Slipaway tunnel opened and Mevi fell fully to the ground. Barely able to breathe again, she heard a firm voice speaking to her as someone began to tend to her. The words were muffled behind an intense ringing in her ears, but the intent was almost gentle and caring. Mevi allowed herself to be helped, but her mind’s eye still followed the shadow’s flight away and into the dark unknowns of the Barge.