Chapter 3: Betrayal
Dolin sped out into the corridor.
For a moment, he stood still there, listening.
The distant sounds of battle still echoed faintly through the stone ceiling above: screams, clashing metal, and the occasional thundering crash, but down here it was strangely still.
The other prisoners, on the other hand, were anything but quiet.
"Hey!"
"Boy, you got the keys!"
"Open my door!"
"Don't just stand there, idiot!"
Damn. These guys don't ever just shut up.
Dozens of dirty hands gripped the iron bars around him.
Faces pressed between the gaps, desperate and terrified.
Dolin ignored them.
He crouched down beside the dead guard first.
The man's throat had been ripped open, leaving a mess of dark blood spreading slowly across the floor.
Dolin searched the corpse.
A short sword lay in a sheath attached to the man's belt. Dolin pulled it free, attaching the belt and sheath to his own raggy pants.
The blade wasn't impressive like a memory, but it would do.
Dolin fastened the sheath and stood again.
Behind him the shouting grew fiercer.
"You bastard!"
"Don't leave us!"
"Open this damn cell!"
Dolin glanced down the corridor.
The creature and the guard were long gone… for now.
He had very little time.
He began to make his way down the row of cells. As he passed, prisoners reached for him and called out, begging him to save them.
Dolin brushed them away. They could not help him in this nightmare, and were just apparitions made by the spell anyways.
Then one voice spoke calmly.
"You should open my cell."
Dolin slowed.
The voice was calm, lacking the desperation and nigh-insanity the others carried.
A man was sitting quietly in the corner of a nearby cell.
Heavy iron cuffs wrapped his wrists with a thick iron chain connecting them.
Dolin's eyes narrowed.
The cuffs were unusual. Even from where he stood, he could see faint markings carved into the metal.
Runes.
The man noticed his gaze
"Essence dampeners," he said calmly.
The prisoner looked to be in his early thirties. Lean, muscular with sharp eyes and a calm expression.
"I'm awakened," the man continued. "Those cuffs cut off my essence flow, and without them I'm only a tad better than a normal human."
One of the prisoners laughed bitterly.
"Yeah, sure you are."
The awakened man ignored him.
"If you open my cell," he said to Dolin, "I can help you survive this."
Dolin tilted his head.
He heard stories about these awakened from time to time in the outskirts. They were rare. And dangerous.
Dolin walked closer to the cell, studying the cuffs more carefully.
"Those really block your power?" Dolin asked. This man, if he could be used, was a good opportunity.
"Yes."
"And if I open the door?"
"I will help you get out of here."
The man met his gaze evenly, looking at Dolin's scrawny body.
"I imagine you'll need it"
Dolin remained silent for a moment. An awakened ally would improve his chances of survival, but trusting strangers had always gone wrong for him in the outskirts.
Still… It was an opportunity.
Dolin pulled out the keys.
"Alright."
The other prisoners erupted.
"What!"
"You're opening his first!"
"You insane bastard!"
Dolin inserted the key.
Click.
The cell door creaked open.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then he moved, faster than Dolin expected.
A hand shot forward, grabbing Dolin by the neck and slamming him violently into the stone wall.
The impact knocked the air right from his lungs, pain exploding from his back.
The man's calm expression did not change.
"Thanks for opening the door," he said quietly, his grip tightening around Dolin's throat.
"I don't need baggage to get out of here. Perhaps if the circumstances were different, but that doesn't matter now."
Dolin's vision blurred.
With a burst of desperation, he grabbed the chain connecting the man's cuffs, and yanked. The chain wrapped around the attacker's neck, loosening his hold.
Stars exploded in Dolin's vision, his hands holding onto the chain desperately. After the man finally lost his grip on Dolin's neck, Dolin reached for the sword at his waist.
Dolin ripped it from its sheath, and stabbed upwards. The blade sank right into the man's eye digging into it.
The awakened gasped in shock.
Dolin slashed his blade free, cutting the man's face.
Then Dolin stabbed again.
And again.
The man screamed at him in rage, slamming him into the wall. Dolin did not stop.
He kept on stabbing, until the man's body collapsed forward.
Silence ensued.
[You have slain an awakened human, name unknown.]
[You have received a Memory: Traitorous Edge]
Dolin's eyes opened wide.
A memory. And what a fitting name.
[Traitorous Edge: a blade forged from treachery. Born in the flames of desperation and betrayal.]
Dolin summoned his runes and concentrated on the words "Traitorous Edge". Immediately a long sword appeared in a burst of sparks.
"What type of witchcraft is that?"
Another prisoner shouted something, but Dolin was only focused on the blade.
He smiled, picking it up.
"That's convenient."
Far above them, the sounds of the castle's invasion continued to rage.