I slowly waddle down the steps, I've never liked being on steps like these. They've always given me anxiety, like what if I fall, or something.
I look back at sunny and cassie who are also going down the spiraling staircase. Well they seem to be doing just fine, I'll put on a brave face. I'm the oldest and I've been a.... no I beat the first nightmare the longest time ago. So its my job to protect them, even if I am not the best at it.
I notice sunny glance at me, why does he have a slightly guilty expression?
Cassie steps forward passing me. I walk next to sunny. I look over at the sky below. I fell down there. Hmm, well that was definitely traumatizing. I already don't remember it much. I did steal a lo- a loud bell snaps me out of my thoughts. My head snaps to look at some kind of religious building... I forgot the name.
More importantly its upside-down. How did they manage that? It would be so cool to find out how they did. It's the night temple I'd guess, its original owner and the owner of the sanctuary must have been quite close. The night temple is like its shadow oddly enough. Cassie looks at us
"Let's go they've seen us"
We walk together. There's the feeling, the feeling that I've gotten in over my head..... but i don't care that much. I do that a lot, and I have a divine aspect. Plus that dread as been there for years now. Since I got that divine aspect itself. Not sure why, probably the weight of real responsibility.
"So what happens now exactly?"
Nothing good that's what, but i don't want to cause them stress so I don't say it.
"I am not sure. That depends on if saint Cormac is inside the citadel or our exporing the hollow mountains-"
I look into the gate. Why would that very bad feeling lighten up, have I gotten a seventh sense, for weird bullshit situations someone my level shouldn't have to deal with.
We walk to the gates. The two guards don't look like their playing around, their lost apparently. They look pretty damn strong in my opinion and there's like 100 of these guys. I wonder, does clan valor make them lost, or when a loyal member becomes lost do they ship them off here.
They remind me of something, but I don't care to remember it. One raises a hand telling us to stop and starts studying us.
"Lady song of the fallen. What a nice surprise to see you again. I hope that the other members of your cohort are well."
That tone doesn't fit the whole scary vibes he's got.
"They are well and are in good health, anchored at the sanctuary of noctis."
The other ones looks at her with some suspicion "oh what prompted you to make the long journey and return to our modest citadel then? In the company of a stranger and awakened Heat seeker and without your loyal comrades no less."
Cassie looks at sunny
"This is awakened sunless and he is no stranger, in fact he is a dear friend of mine and one of the few people in this world I would trust with my life. Both of us used to be lady changing stars companions"
Sunny looks like he's about to choke at that comment
"And as you know heat seeker was apart of changing stars cohort with me. We hope to have a audience with lord Cormac."
The two lost don't speak for a while. I study the two.
"Lord Cormac is carrying out one of his missions he won't be back for several weeks at least"
Cassie responds without any trouble
"Sir Pierce or Lady Welthe then."
The two look at each other in a silent debate.
"Wait here"
The man goes inside. I study the woman, I could likely beat her but it wouldn't be easy without using my aspect to the fullest.
I look off to the side, it would be really easy to fall.
"What are you staring at boy?"
Oh, oh dear he's been called out
"Your armor ma'am, it seems like a nice memory"
Coming in with the save. 10/10 sunny.
"And you?"
Fuck.
"How many people have fallen off?"
She seems to get more annoyed
"You don't need to know that."
I think sunny glares at me, to be fair that is what I was thinking.
Soon the other one comes back out and leads us to a back room. We get handed the worst made clothes I've ever seen. These things look like their about to fall apart. And their material is horrid, my grade for these things that where sown into the shape of clothes is F.
I desummon all of my memories, goodness I have a lot summoned.
"Yall done?"
"Yee haw"
"shut it sun"
I turn around i try my best to not say how horrid the clothes really are.
Sunny knocks on the door and soon we are lead out. I stay in the back. I have a better view of the two. Just in case you know. The lost we pass are also in these spotty outfits. At least we don't stand out because of them.
Really would it kill them to hire someone who knows how to make clothes, or have one of the lost trained. This is a great clans citadel, shouldn't they put a little more money into this?
We are lead to a room
"Sir Pierce is on his way. Please present the items you brought from the outside."
Well me and sunny have a storage memory. Cassie puts her belt on the table
"Uh.... all my things are stored inside a memory"
I shrug
"Same for me"
We get quite the nasty glare from him
"Summon them."
The.... mimic soon appears and so does my satchel. Hmm what to take out first. Okay first non weird non food items. Lucky sunny, he can take things out so much faster.
"How much trash do you two have."
I'm lucky I'm halfway in my satchel as I'm trying not to giggle. Me being slow i only get the cooking, cleaning and bathing stuff out before Sir P gets into the room.
He looks over our piles. Sunny has more stuff, and more random stuff at that. I personally don't want to take out my tools, or the dolls. What would they think, its weird.
"Awakened Cassia welcome back to the night temple."
I pop out of the satchel holding a large pot. This likely looks funny, I mean a whole person in a, well rather large, satchel. I notice that sunny brought prince's mirror shard, dumb ass.
We are so going to get questioned about it, annoying. I notice sunny looking away, i don't catch what he says..... oh Fuck! Prince is speaking, god damn it sunny i knew it, I god damn knew it. The lost gets thrown and sunny gets grabbed by the master
"Where did you find it boy!? Answer me!"
He's scared no the valor master is terrified like the devil himself is about to appear and drag him to hell personally. Shit, shit shit, is prince that scary? Oh hell, of course he is, that's just out luck. I put down the pan i had just grabbed.
"Reckoning. I picked it up after slaying some strange creature"
Sunny flinches at a sound no one of us can hear. Is it too late to say I told you so.
The mirror shard cracks
"no...."
I desummon my satchel. I have weird things, like a whole human sized, if not bigger, doll I stole from the dark tower.
"Seal the temple! Destroy the gateway! Go now! We can't.... we can't let that thing escape!"
Is prince actually a nightmare creature? No sunny said it was a ascended devil so it makes no sense that it could be a nightmare creature.... oh fuck does he have a divine aspect too?!
"Sir Pierce? What's going on?"
He turns with a look of hate to sunny.
"You...."
I'm not even able to take even one step in front of sunny before he gets grabbed. With the other hand he grabs Cassie. Two lost grab my arms, i feel them jolt at just how cold it am. Get in line I hate it too.
"I'll deal with you three later"
We get dragged off. There's chaos all around, the lost seem scared, like deeply scared. Soon i feel shaking and all natural heat from the outside is gone.
As we get dragged i hear screams. Oh to hell with it. I expand my heat sense to its limit. We stop, their faces are that of terror. This is like a horror movie. I've never liked horror movies- no i need to pay attention!
We get to the end of the hall. They open the door to a cage and soon we are thrown in. We land on the weird sloped floor in a heap. I stand up, I glace at the runes on the floor, sunny's yelling and kicking the bars..... wait no he's not.
Our essence, its being drained by the runes. Trapped, we are trapped in a cage while, likely, prince probably kills them all.
I pull the two closer, i don't touch them.
"They'll have to take us out sooner or later."
Sunny looks at me. Cassie turns her head towards me as well, that's a flicker of.... fear.
"What does that mean?"
"I mean just that. Did you see how scared he was? They won't be able to deal with it and they'll be forced to gain our help"
I look away. I should have pushed the issue more, I should have stopped sunny from bringing the mirror shard.
"....Is it too late to say told you so?"
The two aren't entertained, but i hope it took their minds off of it.
"....He tricked me"
I scoff
"Yeah. Of course he did. This place is probably a prison, and if you were trapped in this hell, you'd do the same."
Cassie pipes up
"aren't you mad"
"I clearly am, but more at valor's neglect. The devil was there for what, years? Did none of them think to deal with it?" I look away, isn't this their fault, if they had simply dealt with that ascended devil, then he wouldn't have gotten out.
A woman walks into the room standing outside of the cell. Looking at sunny
"You! You brought that mirror shard into the citadel, correct"
I shift closer to sunny and cassie
"I did"
I can see her trying to hide her hate.
"Who instructed you to do so?"
Sunny seems outraged at it
"What? No one instructed me. I had no idea what that shard was. I just thought it was curious and picked it up."
She looks over at one of the lost who nods
"He is telling the truth, or at least he believes what he says."
She looks at me, fair enough me and sunny are deeply connected
"What about you"
"Nobody told me in any way to come here. The only thing I knew for sure about this place was that it was for looking into the hollow mountains."
The lost nods
"Its not a lie."
She looks back at sunny
"What was your purpose for coming to the night temple?"
Sunny puts on a shaky and scared voice, if he wasn't a awakened he could ahve been a actor.
"I've been told that there is... there is a special knife here, on the altar. I am interested in that knife, because it has to do with the past of the Chained Isles. I am a researcher at the Awakened Academy, you see… maybe you've read my previous exploration report? It's, uh… quite famous."
She stares at him, in disbelief. Then she glances at the lost again and she simply shakes her head, in disappointment I think. She likely hoped to be able to hate us for this, well get a better reason to hate us for this.
"All this.... because of one clueless fool"
Seems he put on a good show. Good job sunny another 10/10.
"Master Welthe? I am very sorry for the trouble I've caused, but… uh… what is going on? And when are you going to release us?"
She laughs, it sound clipped her voice has almost completely unhidden rage.
"Release you? If you knew what your actions have caused, you would have begged me to keep you in this cell. At least that fiend can't get to you here… no, the two of you will remain locked up until we deal with the mess you've made. And we will deal with it, believe me."
So it seems they are really terrified of prince. Good grief, seems we are staying here.
"Now that the temple is sealed, no one but Lord Cormac can unseal it, anyway. With the Gateway destroyed, there's no escape. Where would you even go?"
Isn't he out right now?
After a while we are brought... food? It's the paste
"Oh come on."
Sunny is laughing.
"Oh....oh gods! I never thought I'd be eating this crap again"
I pick one up. How.... expected. How about it die instead,or better yet I'd 1v1 prince myself if it means I don't have to eat this shit. I eat, nearly throwing up, the everything of it is so bad. Sunny seems to find it funny at least. Cassie too, its good I can take their minds off of.... this.
I'm waken up by a scream by cassie. I bolt awake pulling them close. I look around for the threat
"■■■■ she just had a vision!"
I let them go
"Oh... sorry. Cassie are you okay?"
She slowly nods
"Another visor right?"
"Yes it was...."
That's dread in her voice.
"What? Did we die again?"
I slowly turn my head to him, he looks away quickly.
"No.... no this time I saw someone else"
She hugs her knees.
"It was one of the Lost — the man with grey eyes who advised Lady Welthe. He was in front of a large crucible, throwing shards of broken mirrors into the fire. There were thousands of them, all reflecting his image. Only… at some point, one of the reflections stopped."
She shakes in fear I want to reach out, but I doubt it would help.
"The Lost stopped, too, and stared at the motionless reflection, his eyes full of utter terror. It was as though he was paralyzed by fear. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth. After that, he didn't move anymore… but the reflection finally did. It raised its head, and… and smiled"
She stays silent in clear fear
"That smile filled me with so much dread that all I could think about was to run away. But I couldn't. That… that was when I woke up."
I look away. I'll have to fight him, probably. If I'm right, I'll die but I'll hold him off.
Each time they give us food. They get worse and worse. One day one of them disappear. Their being picked off. Damn is prince a cruel bastard. I end up saving most of the... paste. They give me, one day with shaking of the walls, they don't come back. All that's left is the smell of blood.
"He's fucking with us"
Sunny looks over
"Mordret?"
I sigh
"Who else?" He looks away, cassie speaks, her voice is softer then normal
"But why?"
"Why not? We're trapped in here, and there's no real reason to kill us. He likely finds messing with us fun. The dick"
Sunny huffs, he sounds unsettled but that last part did seem to entertain him at least.
I end up giving the 'food' I saved to them. God I'm so damn tired. I sit, closing my eyes and waiting. I put everything I've got into making even a small amount of ice. I successfully make a tiny little bit of ice. I hold it out
"water?"
Sunny takes it incredibly quickly it breaks it in half and hands the other half to cassie. I can't make much at a time but, even these small amounts help a lot.
"Hey.... did cassie have a vision of us three dying and you two not tell me"
Cassie turns her head towards me
"I thought sunny told you....?"
I frown
"he did not"
Aunny coughs
"It was of us tired falling from the islands into the sky below. I didn't think it needed to as you can fly."
I nod
"fine..."
Sunny wakes us up by shaking us. I feel a finger over my mouth, god the smell. Blood, its so strong. What the hell is happening? I hear laughing and insane muttering. Is that... its a bow. Why aren't they moving. One slides past cassie's shoulder. Another above sunny. The next will hit him i, I have to do something. I hear a crunch... a crunch?
Another arrow goes past sunny and he rushes forward. I move with him. I blindly reach forward catching the man's arms, I can barely hold them, but that's enough. Soon I hear a snap and he falls limp. I grab sunny as he slides down. Cassie walks past and looks the keys off of the now truly dead lost. She unlocks the door and helps me drag sunny out.
Sunny summons that saint. I lean on the wall staring at the door with her. It takes some time but sunny gets up summoning that water memory. He and cassie drink first, not that he didn't try to give me any. I take it drinking for a while. Soon the two fall asleep. I summon my own ice shards. Flame helps me stay standing, singer won't look at me.
Sunny wakes up. I hold out a sealed bowl full of left overs from my satchel. The sound of his eating wakes cassie and I hand another to her sunny stops her before she eats
"Not too much and slowly"
"Why? Im so hungry"
"You could die"
"What? Why? How do you know"
"Seen it happen."
After a while I speak
"Nothing entered"
Sunny glances over, stops then looks back at me
"You stayed awake?"
I scoff
"Someone had to"
He slowly gets up handing me the bowl, cassie soon does the same.
"I'm going to send singer to grab our stuff."
We walk out of the room, that's a dead body
"Wouldn't that make you weaker?"
I laugh softly
"Of course but she will also be taking a good look around. She's our best option"
He nods.
We walk and walk and walk. It's boring but better then that cell. Finally we find a storage closet. They unlock it, we enter and its relocked. I lay down on the floor as sunny starts shoving those dreaded paste cylinders into the mimic, the mimic!
"May we pray to the mimic"
"I think you need sleep"
"heh yeah...."
We clean off, a shame i haven't gotten my stuff back yet.
"Come here..."
Sunny rubs stuff from the lanterns on cassie's armor
"too shiny right"
He nods
"Right"
My armor isn't reflective thankfully. I hand over the owls eye and it gets deshined.
We leave the closet after a while. The whole place is gone. I stay in the front of the pack. My heat sense shows nothing living close by. We finally get to where the exit was. It's filled with bodies. Sunny walks over looking the bodies over to see what killed them.
"Human hands am i right?"
He nods
"A sword killed them"
We leave for the gateway, its gone I'm sure of it.
"Even the statue is gone. Prince is in mean streak right now isn't he"
"The ivory knife is gone...."
I sigh
"Of course it is, didn't he say something about that nightmare seed and the knives. He clearly wants out and wants to do that nightmare."
Cassie steps forward
"Someone's coming."
I lift my daggers staying in front of the two. It's the rest of the lost isn't it? Singer isn't back, but she's close enough to be able to get here in time.