“I hate it here,” Elaina grumbled as she stepped over another pile of bones crusted in what she imagined was old meat. The entire larder was covered in similar piles of refuse, and the smell would no doubt have made her vomit if she’d had any dinner earlier that evening. Certainly, the swordmage had expected to find some old rotten supplies, but not quite like this. Instead of moldy cheese, it was just bones and spoiled meat, with hooks lining the ceiling and walls. Spectral bodies moved in and out of visible states, hanging from the hooks in agony, leaving no doubt about the source of the organic debris they were walking over.
“What, you don’t like what they’ve done with the place?” Resius asked dryly as he picked his way through the filth toward the doorway on the far side of the room as best as he could. The candle in his hand began to flicker more erratically as it burned lower.
“Not really doing it for me, no,” Elaina grunted.
“I don’t know,” he teased, “Couple pillows, few more candles, the place could get real intimate, you know?”
Elaina gave him a snort of amusement. There was much to be said about having a sense of humor in a situation like this. It functioned almost like mental armor. She imagined a person could quickly go mad exposed to all of this without some kind of defense.
“Yeah? This is where you want to try and put the moves on me?” Elaina chuckled, “This is what gets you going?”
“Oh, yeah,” Resius said, playing along with the bit. Though the matter had never been directly discussed between them, they both knew it was something that was never going to happen. Elaina didn’t experience any level of attraction toward the male gender. It was a shame, of course, considering she had the means to accommodate men as well as women. It made the bit all the more amusing to both of them.
They arrived at the doorway to find a set of steep stone stairs curved down into the dark. What was left of the candle was more than capable of lighting the way for them down into the storage cellars. The space there was much wider, but the ceiling was much lower. Crates, barrels, and sacks were stacked neatly in all directions with paths that wound between them to afford relatively easy access to whoever was sent down to fetch things.
“Which way?” Resius muttered. Elaina pointed straight ahead, trying to recall the layouts of the rooms from the schematics. She was pretty sure it was just up ahead and to the left, beyond the piles of stacked supplies. Based on how much was still left here, she decided that when they met back up with Elsebeth, she would recommend sending someone down to see what was still viable. It looked as though most of it had been untouched by the Abyssals in their time here, so the only thing left to account for was the passage of time.
The two weaved their way through the stacks and piles until they found a heavy set of doors in the general area Elaina thought they would be found. Though not locked, the doors were made of sturdier stuff to ensure that they stayed in place, barring accidental passage of anything between the cellars and the cistern. Resius licked his thumb and finger before pinching out the dim flame on the remnants of the candle, plunging them into complete darkness.
“Moment of truth,” he announced ambivalently.
Though the doors were heavy, they weren’t too much for Elaina to handle. She leaned into them with one shoulder to ease them open. The hinges of the doors squeaked and complained, echoing off of the cavernous cistern beyond.
“Hand me the candle,” Elaina whispered, putting her hand out toward Resius. It took him a couple of tries to get it into her palm, his fingers awkwardly passing over hers a few times before he figured it out.
“*Loinir*,” Elaina whispered to the candle in Sylvan, siphoning off a small fraction of the magic within her to give to the spell, which caused the candle to glow brightly. It was the same spell she had used in the swamp with the balls of mud but more refined with the instruction Resius had given her on casting spells. She could tell he approved as his face came into view amid the white light cast by the candle.
The swordmage only took a moment to pat herself on the back before the cistern pulled her attention. The doors let out onto a large stone platform with an intricately carved stone railing. Beyond it were massive pillars, all carved in the same Solacine style of ages past. Though the light from the spell didn’t completely illuminate the vaulted ceilings, it did enough to give them an idea of just how high up it was. Each pillar had a small platform at its base, perhaps for repairs. It gave them the appearance of each being islands amid the gloomy expanse of water that stretched on beyond the light.
“It’s much higher than I thought it would be,” Elaina noted as she walked over to the top step of the stone stairs that led down into the water on her right. Hunching over, she could see tiny black flecks floating in the water, which itself was a grayish brown for the most part. Despite how well the cistern had been constructed, it seemed irreparably tainted at first glance. It was nothing compared to the strange unease that simply being near the water gave her. It felt wrong, unwholesome.
“Filthier too,” Resius commented from just over her shoulder, “Corrupted magically, by the looks of it.”
“Is that going to be a problem for you?” Elaina said without glancing back at him.
“No, no. I figured we’d be dealing with something like this and took it into account.”
From somewhere behind Resius, Elaina heard a click as someone thumbed the hammer of a gun. “You’d better take into account dousing that light,” a ragged whisper demanded, “or I’m going to blow a hole clean through your melon.”
Elaina’s head whipped around to see a man she didn’t recognize in old Zelmescan armor holding a revolving handgun to the back of Resius’ head. He had light brown hair cut so short as to leave him nearly bald, icy blue eyes fixed on them unblinking. Behind him were two more men, one with shaggy black hair and a long barrel rifle at the ready, the other mostly concealed under a wide brim hat and long scarf carrying a gnarled wooden staff. Both looked ready to strike if she tried to make a move. Resius raised his hands, showing that he had nothing in them that might provoke the men into attacking. Elaina did the same, but the man with the staff motioned to the glowing candle.
Carefully Elaina reached down to the tube with the salt, opened the top, and put the remainder of the candle’s stump inside it before closing it up. Once more, they were plunged into complete darkness, unable to see anything around them. It was an opportunity that Resius seized by the sound of it. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was doing, but she knew staying where she was just a second before was a bad idea. Elaina leaped blindly to one side, pressing herself against the wall as the sound of the struggle between Resius and the man filled the chamber.
“Shoot him!” one of the men demanded in an unsubtle whisper, “Shoot him!”
“I don’t have a shot!” another replied in the same loud whisper. Elaina assumed that it was the one with the rifle.
There was a muffled impact against the railing before Resius spoke, “Think you lot are the only ones able to see in the dark?”
The silence grew as Elaina pressed her back to the cold stone wall, unable to contribute anything to the current situation.
“You really want to risk hitting your buddy here by taking a shot at me?” Resius challenged.
“I don’t have to,” the man with the rifle countered, and suddenly Elaina felt that strange tingling shudder run down the back of her neck. She was starting to get the impression that the sensation wasn’t something she just experienced around fiends but whenever she was in some danger that wasn’t immediately visible to her.
“I wouldn’t,” Resius interrupted, “You put one in her, and I put one in your buddy and then probably you before you can line up another shot with me.”
Again the silence returned between them as everyone considered their options. Finally, Elaina spoke up, “Maybe, no one should be shooting anyone.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” the third man said, “that kind of noise is certain to alert the sarglagon and doom us all.”
“Sarglagon?” Elaina asked, “What’s that?”
“Bollocks!” Resius spat. Clearly, he knew what a Sarglagon was. Elaina heard a rustling and a few footsteps as Resius released the man he’d taken as a hostage, “Bloody thing’s been nesting in here then?”
Elaina came away from the wall, feeling around blindly with one hand until she found the tube she had put the candle in. Unscrewing the cap but not removing it entirely gave her a tiny sliver of light to see by, which no one seemed to object to immediately. Moreover, it allowed her to see at least a little of where everyone was standing.
“So what’s a sarglagon?” Elaina asked, looking between the men staring daggers at each other in the dark.
“Aquatic devil,” the merc with the staff answered, “functions as a guardian for the cistern. Without someone to yank on its chain, it’s corrupted everything.”
“Why? Why is it still here if all the others are gone?” Elaina demanded.
“Well, it’s sort of their thing,” Resius replied irritably, “It’s a compulsion they can’t help. It’s in their nature. They’re driven to jealousy guard waterways. Even more with those which they are assigned to.”
“So what were you doing?” Elaina pointed at the merc with the staff, “Mister...?”
“Blackbarn,” the man answered, “Specialist Blackbarn. This is privates Ayotte and Clark,” he said, motioning to the man with the rifle and the other merc, respectively.
“You do know who this is, right?” Clark growled, motioning to Elaina, “We shouldn’t be talking to her, let alone giving her our names!”
“I don’t care,” Blackbarn said dryly, “I really don’t. Our objective is to clear the cistern; we’ve already lost men just getting this far. We need all the help we can get, or we’re not seeing daylight again.”
Elaina was just as surprised by the pragmatism as the other two. Nevertheless, Resius was pleased to hear it. The two other mercs stood silently for a moment, glancing at each other in silent agreement. As much as they didn’t like it, they were forced to see it Blackbarn’s way.
“I’m taking it by the staff that you’re some kind of mage?” Resius speculated, gesturing toward the staff that Blackbarn held.
“Wizard, yes.” Blackbarn confirmed, “You?”
“Occultist,” Resius motioned to himself and then to Elaina, “Swordmage.”
Blackbarn nodded, “Yeah, as they said, we know who she is. Everyone in the Orbonne company does.”
“I didn’t realize Dieter meant that much to all of you,” Elaina said irritably.
“Dieter was a fucking dickhead,” Ayotte scoffed, “But he was the last son of the family.”
“Son?” Elaina shifted her weight uncomfortably.
Private Ayotte laughed snidely, “Hell, you don’t even know who you’ve pissed off, do you? No idea whatsoever!”
“Keep it down, eh?” Resius scolded, “Or do you want the sarglagon to hear us before we’ve even made a move?”
“It can’t,” Blackbarn said, gesturing with his staff, “screen of silence centered on me. It’s how we’ve been getting around this whole time. Anyone inside the bubble can hear each other and anything outside, but nothing outside of it can hear what’s inside.”
Elaina supposed it was the only way they’d managed to get this far, but it hadn’t been enough to spare whatever men they’d already lost. As soon as Blackbarn finished explaining the spell, though, the sound of water moving got her attention. Her turning her head to look out toward the black water also caused the others to take notice. Was it possible that the spell had failed? Had the creature managed to hear them regardless of its dampening effect?
The others stood frozen, each of them looking like startled deer. The water that had been mostly still now lapped at the stone platform and its stairs. A glance passed between them quickly before Resius spoke, this time in a hushed voice, “Right. So what’s the plan you lot had coming down here?”
“Catch it sleeping,” Ayotte said simply, “Put a bullet in its brain.”
“And the water?” Elaina asked skeptically, “What about that?”
Blackbarn leaned on his staff, focused brown eyes remaining fixed on the distance as he spoke, “It’s not part of our mission. We’re just clearing the way. They got someone for that back at base camp. What was your plan?”
Elaina stepped closer to the group, letting Resius explain the general thrust of their plan. While he spoke, her eyes drifted back out to the water where the wizard was staring. Both of them could feel the strange dark weight that lingered out there somewhere beyond their field of vision. She doubted that Resius didn’t feel it, instead preferring to remain focused on the objective. He’d probably done this much more than either of them combined. When it came to things like this, he was much more in his element than she was.
“So you’ve got a spell that will purify...all of this?” Clark asked, motioning at the vastness of the cistern.
“I do,” Resius said, “a ritual, to be exact. So it takes time to cast it. Problem is, if we have a devil lurking about, it’ll be near impossible to complete.”
Ayotte shrugged, “So do it after we kill it.”
Movement came from the water again, sending large ripples through the dark. Resius didn’t take his eyes off the private, “You think you can do that without the element of surprise?”
“No,” Blackbarn answered for him, still leaning on his staff with his eyes staring dead ahead, “We can’t.”
The other two mercs looked over at him with expressions of grave surprise. The tone of Blackbarn’s voice didn’t change, remaining completely calm, “I’ve only got a handful of spells left in me. I spent much more of my stamina getting us here than we thought I would.”
A loud growl suddenly filled the space where complete silence had once been, shaking loose debris from the pillars around them. Then, within the noise that rattled each of them, there was a voice, “I smell magic.”
Resius smirked, glancing over his shoulder toward the voice and pointing, “Sounds like you lucked out to find us down here then.”
Blackbarn’s eyes finally moved, shifting quickly to look at Resius, “So what do we do then?”
“Keep the beast busy,” Resius ordered with a sudden air of authority, “if I can finish the ritual, the magic will consume it as well.”
“That’s quite a spell,” Blackbarn said skeptically, “You’re sure?”
“Aye,” Resius said confidently. The water began to move again, the ripples growing much more prominent.
The young wizard looked at Elaina as if she would vouch for him. She answered by squaring her shoulders and placing a hand on her sword. She was ready to do what he asked: buy him the needed time. That appeared to be all Blackbarn needed.
“Let’s get to it,” the wizard said, finally taking his weight off his staff.
“I. Smell. Magic,” the voice repeated, a gargling quality to the growl now, “Fae magic.”
The wizard squinted at Elaina, who stared back at him in complete shock. How was it that with an active spell concealing the sound of the whole group that it had somehow honed in on her tiny bit of light? His was the more powerful spell of the two by far and should have totally eclipsed hers to any form of magical detection. There wasn’t even enough visible light emanating from the cracked opening in the tube for her to see much.
Elaina shrugged, resigning herself to what came next as she drew her weapon. If the creature was going to be honing on her anyway, it made sense for her to lean in on the idea and turn it to their advantage. With a brief word of magic, the swordmage ignited the steel of her blade. Bright blue light filled the chamber, centered on Elaina’s weapon as she turned and jumped into the murk and gloom of the water. It only came up to her hips and was neither warm nor cold. The unclean corruption in it pushed outward in a ring around her as the magical light of the blade neared it.
“Well, that’s something,” Elaina muttered as she began to slog her way through the gloom as quickly as she could, putting distance between her and the stone platform where she’d left the others. For their part, they appeared to be going down a set of stairs in the opposite direction. Unlike her, however, there was no sound from their passing through the water. Still, even as silent as they were, she had to imagine that the fiend had a means of detecting movement in the water or sniffing them out. Her job was simply to remain more interesting so it wouldn’t notice.
A surge of water began to move in her direction as she passed behind one of the pillars and pushed on. She couldn’t see anything, even though she felt a deeply unholy presence growing near. It must have been below the water to close the distance between them. Perhaps it moved faster that way. Elaina scrambled up onto the nearest stone islands around the pillars as quickly as she could, not wanting to try and battle the thing in the water if it could be helped. Behind her, she heard jaws snapping and felt a tremendous splash of water run down her back as she narrowly avoided the fiend’s first attack.
Elaina turned to get a look at it, bringing her sword to the ready, only to see a large set of purple wing-like fins vanish below the churning dark surface. A moment later, she caught a glimpse of a sizeable azure tail with purple fins, propelling the fiend on past her. It was big, real big. She recalled the river drake she had once fought and estimated it had to be roughly the same length. As it passed, Elaina felt her breathing grow heavier than it already had been. Every part of her body sagged a little as if some great weight had suddenly been thrust upon her. Even her grip on her weapon became difficult to maintain as it grew heavier. The magic of the Radiant Blade should have made the sword exceedingly light to wield, but now it was much heavier than it had ever been.
“Nine Hells,” Elaina gasped, nearly falling forward into the water once more before catching herself. As she struggled to stand and keep her balance at the pillar's base, the creature in the water circled back around to come at her again.
Now she could see the terrible face with four menacing yellow eyes atop a widening maw of vicious teeth. Its leathery hide was mostly that azure color, except for the fins, which began to fan out as it was poised to strike. Elaina could barely move a muscle, as if something massive was leaning down on her to pin her in place. The fiend rode the wave of its own creation, carried forward at astonishing speed, its jaw coming unhinged.
