Keridwen of Khar Vell

The Old Aureate Wing

Imafenduwell Hall

Keridwen rose quickly to her feet as the standoff between the two sides took shape, and she ran to hide behind the safety of the Hounds of Twilight.

The Hounds pounced on the criminals with a snarling ferocity that Keridwen had never seen in a beast before. The thugs in question opened fire on the Hounds, but because of their celestial nature, the bullets passed right through them. The Hounds’ claws, however, did not phase through their targets, and had no trouble cutting into their foes.

“Keri!” Thumper appeared next to Keridwen and began tugging her arm. “Come on! We’ve got to get out of here! We need to free Lalauri!”

“I know that,” Keridwen shouted over the noise. “But how do we get though all of this—”

The hallway became bathed in a flashing purple light. Despite not recognizing the design of the large cannon, Keridwen quickly realized it was a dangerous weapon as the leader of the masked thugs fired it. The purple arc of lightning caused everything it touched to either blaze into flames or spontaneously combust. The sight of it caused Keridwen’s mind raced back to Khar Vell and the luminous purple aura that Panok could create with a single finger as he tortured people. Including Lalauri.

Luckily, this weapon had no effect on the Hounds.

“You think I’m some measly gheist?” Razzalar roared at his would-be attacker. “Your mortal weapon has no effect on me, whelp!”

“Ok, now!” said Keridwen. “While they’re all focused on the Hounds! Come on!”

Keridwen bolted into the fray once again and this time, she wasn’t going to let anyone stop her from reaching Lalauri.

This time, though, the gangsters had decided to exclusively use magic against the Hounds, as they proved to be more effective than their weapons. It was only because of Thumper’s ability to nullify any magical bolts or hexes that crossed their path that they were able to make it down the hallway at all.

They paused their sprint behind a large stone fountain on one side of the hallways that seemed to weather the carnage rather well. From their position, they could see that the masked criminals had cast some sort of force-field at the end of the hallway that kept the Hounds at bay. For the time being, at least.

“Where are all the brasshulks?” Keridwen shouted to Thumper.

“I don’t know!” Thumper replied. “There should be tons of them around here—”

As if on cue, a large metal hand came from around the corner of the hallway and batted the Hounds of Twilight away as if they were mere pests. The Hounds collided into a wall and fell hard to the ground.

“Razzalar!” Keridwen shrieked.

“Keri, look!” Thumper cried.

She turned around to see the massive automaton had arrived, but upon recognizing its markings, Keridwen knew it was not there to help them. The dwarven-faced brasshulk that had ripped Junction Point apart in pursuit of her and Thumper now strode in fully from around the corner and placed itself between the shielded criminals and everyone else. Clenched in its right hand was the upper torso of a brasshulk, once a common sight in Imafenduwell Hall, now broken and still emitting a distorted intruder alarm.

“Everyone out, NOW!” bellowed the masked leader to his followers. “Let the robot fight them off! Grab whatever you can of the dwarf records and MOVE IT!”

The dwarven brasshulk—which prompted the masked thugs to flee down the nearest hallway—attacked Grannie and the nulliwumps. Meanwhile, Keridwen and Thumper sprinted down the same corridor to save Lalauri from their horrible prank.

*

Lalauri’s screams and cries reached Keridwen’s ears before she herself even reached the broom closet.

Upon reaching that door soon after leaving the battle-scene, Keridwen and Thumper almost collided into the door as they raced to open it. They both tried to open the door—to dispel the magical lock that was still holding it shut—but it wouldn’t budge.

“Hold on, Lalauri!” Keridwen shouted at the door. “I’m sorry! We’re going to get you out, I promise!”

No response came from Lalauri, though. The elf was sobbing—and at moments, retching—as if she were being tortured by someone inside.

It wasn’t supposed to be this bad! It wasn’t supposed to be this bad!

After trying one last time to pull the lock off of the door by just their hands, Keridwen lost her grip on the magical lock and fell hard to the floor.

“Out of my way!” bellowed a voice from behind them.

Grannie appeared out of nowhere, looking battered and bruised. She walked past Keridwen, who was lying on the floor, and with a quick flick of her wrist, she yanked Thumper off the door and flung him aside. She pounded on the door with her war hammer—the sound echoing through the halls. Grannie’s hammer hit the ground with a loud thud as the last of the broom closet’s door broke apart, and she rushed inside to console her sobbing granddaughter.

Lalauri looked terrible.

She was screaming and covering her head with her arms as she wailed. Grannie wrapped her arms around her and began trying to soothe her. Keridwen, feeling an incredible amount of guilt, approached Lalauri. She got as far as the door frame before Lalauri stared lashing out wildly and trying in vain to back herself further into the closet, only to slam her back hard into its back wall.

“Get away from me!” Lalauri screamed. “Get away from me!” Then she looked up at Grannie, her face drenched in an unflattering mess of sweat, tears, and snot. What she said next came along with a series of hiccups and even more wailing. “They’re—they’re back, Grannie! The foul things are back! They locked me in here again! A…Again! The High Faeries are back! They’re alive! I heard them laughing! They fed me alive to acid slime, AGAIN! They took him from me, AGAIN! They…they…” And then, in a quiet voice that Keridwen could only barely hear, Lalauri said, “They made me cook the little ones…I fed their remains to them…the monsters made me feed them the chopped up pieces of the…of the…don’t let them take me, Grannie. Grannie? GRANNIE?! Don’t let them take me back there! PLEASE!”

“It’s just Keridwen, Lalauri!” Grannie tried hopelessly to calm her down by hugging her tightly, rubbing Lalauri’s arms, and stroking her head as she sat next to Lalauri on the floor. “It was only the child! It was the children that locked you up in here, not the Fae, sweetheart. Shhh, breathe, Lalauri, breathe…you aren’t in the pits anymore. You’re safe here at home. In Imafenduwell Hall—shhh…”

Keridwen was without words, and she felt a strange hollowness inside of her as if she’d been thoroughly gutted.

She watched helplessly as Grannie managed to slowly bring Lalauri to her feet and guided her back out of the dark closet. By now, the other nulliwumps had caught up to them and had no doubt all seen Lalauri’s ranting as she had. They all quickly backed out of Grannie’s way as she guided Lalauri out of the closet and into the light of the hallway.

A sound like laughter seemed to come from the closet, and when Keridwen examined it, she found the source to be none other than the same purple stuffed moose that was talking to her before this all began. Keridwen had left it in there as a lure for Lalauri, but she had no idea that it was made to create this laughter. This is what had triggered Lalauri. This is the child-like laughter that had sent her over the edge.

After tearing the head of the stuffed moose off and passing it to Thumper to nullify whatever enchantment was powering it, Keridwen made a move to walk up to Lalauri—to apologize for what she did. She only made a step towards her before she met the eyes of the nulliwumps who were standing across from her. The glares that all of them—aside from Thumper, who stood next to her—shot her way were enough to stop her dead in her tracks and force her to gasp.

As if to make extra sure it was extra clear she was not to approach the elves, Cecil looked Keridwen dead in the eye and slowly shook his head at her.

It was in that moment that Keridwen knew for absolutely certain that what she had done to Lalauri was by far the worst thing she had ever done to anyone.