December 17th, 704 PG
Thunder is a wretched thing, can't hurt you, but it has a tendency to scare the crap out of you all the same. Mud is another wretched thing, because when there's thunder, there's rain, and where there's rain, there is mud. But the most wretched thing of all, is losing your mother after only 15 years.
The mud clung to my boots, my feet sank, and it took increasing effort to rip them free and move forward. Rain poured down with a ferocity hardly seen before, the bells of the church rang loudly, just barely audible over the pounding thunder. A flash of lightning and the gates of the graveyard, rusty and weathered were illuminated. I steeled myself and trudged past them, into a place one should not be at night, especially not tonight. My foot sank suddenly in the mud and I started falling forward, my hands flew out instinctively, and smashed in a hard wall.
Another flash of lightning and I knew where I was, in front of me, the thing that had broken my fall, the Crypt of Lumbridge. I pulled myself through the mud and collapsed just under the canopy to the doorway, the rain kept pounding, but at least I wasn't getting as wet. A wind blew from my left, the direction that the door to the crypt should have been. I looked left, and nearly fell back into the mud, the door was gone, the crypt was wide open, darkness seemed to grip at my vision. I decided I ought to wait the storm out with a bit more shelter over my head, I slipped into the ancient crypt and found a nice corner to sit in, my soaking clothes not doing much to keep me warm.
No one really knew what the crypt was for, it had stood in Lumbridge since before the church was built, and always with an eerie presence. Many legends surrounded it, not all of them good, but for lack of a better name we simply referred to it as 'The Crypt of Lumbridge'. No one had ever been inside it, and once I'd had a moment to rest I realized how momentous this was. I was sitting inside the Crypt of Lumbridge, the first person to do so in who knows how long. I smiled to myself, it was a pretty big occasion, though it could've come on a better day.
Several hours earlier my mother had died. The cold state of my physical being did not prevent me from crying, and no amount of rejection that would ever bring her back. After crying for a short time, exhaustion overtook me, and I fell asleep, dreaming of a sunny day with mommy.
I awoke in a violent fit of coughing, I felt chills and cramps all throughout my body, obviously sleeping in wet clothes had been a terrible idea. Sun was streaming in from the door, which meant I could get warm if I could bring myself to walk a short ways. However the energy I had had the night before was long gone, any trace of any emotion other than agony was gone.
Then came a voice, from outside, it was a ways away, but very much there. I listened, perhaps I wasn't about to die in a hole in the ground.
"Move it you bitch!" Said one of the voices, a harsh tone to it, it was followed by a shriek, as though a girl had just been struck.
"L-leave her alone Reese, sh-she hasn't done anything to deserve a-" Came another voice, hastily cut off by a third.
"Shut it you!" The final voice was that of a woman, "We're almost there."
I coughed again, not meaning to, but the chills were too severe for me not to.
"See, the door is gone, just like that demon said it would be." Said the first voice, Reese.
"Then lets get a move on." The female voice came again.
A boot stepped onto the stone of the crypt entrance and then into the crypt itself, the man who wore it was a rather scrawny fellow, holding a worn looking bow. He survey the entranced, then lit a torch, going to light the torches around the room. I knew that as they were lit I would become more visible, as he came to light the last one, above my head, he saw me, jumping back a little almost dropping his torch.
Hastily he levelled a bow at me.
"Reese!" He yelled, "We've got a problem here!"
"What is it this time?" Reese said, stepping into the crypt and looking at the man with the bow, "This had better not be another one of your anxious fits Kayle."
"No it's not!" He said, gesturing to me in the corner.
For a moment, the man, Reese, just stared at me, almost angrily, I let out a violent fit of coughing, and he laughed a little.
"This boy is sickly and weak, he poses no threat to us." He turned away, "But all the same, I want you to keep an eye on him Kayle."
"I- I can do that." Kayle replied, looking almost proud for a moment in his rather jumpy state.
"Good, come Caitlin we have a ritual to attend to." Reese said, as he took the torch from Kayle and walked deeper into the crypt.
A woman entered the crypt, pushing forward a prisoner. The captor was dressed in a red green robe open at the mid-rift and revealing a fair amount of her legs and bosom, her hair was a dark orange, and tied back in a ponytail. The captive was dressed in a torn blue robe, similar to what wizards wore, her face was bloodied and swollen, her hair cut at uneven intervals. It was obvious that these people were not treating her well, she looked broken, and hopeless. The captor, Caitlin, violently pushed the beaten girl forward, she let out a yelp when she was struck with Caitlin's staff.
"Let her go..." I let out weakly, coughing afterward.
"Kayle, make sure that he doesn't make it." The woman said, pushing the girl into the next room in the crypt.
He looked at me with a face filled with worry, fear, and confusion.
"J-just get down there and finish whatever it is you wanted to do." He said, his voice unsteady.
The woman didn't reply, instead ignoring him and vanishing into the darkness after Reese and the captive girl. Kayle, looked at me, obviously he had a weaker temperament than the two who had progressed deeper into the crypt. His bowed was still levelled at me, he didn't want to kill me, I could tell, he didn't have the malice or angry hunger of an animal that was necessary to kill.
"X-Altruism is a dangerous thing to have you know." He said, his voice slightly more steady than before.
"I... I don't know... what that is." I muttered through violent coughs, "Your name... is Kayle right?"
"Yeah, that's right." He replied, looking me in the eye.
"My name is Acelian, it's nice to meet you..." I coughed.
"Damn it!" He yelled, lowering his bow, "Why did you have to go and say that?!"
"Because... you won't kill me now." I replied.
My parents had told me many times I had the aptitude to be a doctor, they said time and again that I was too bright for the life of a farmer. However my family didn't have the money to send me to any place that would allow me to exercise my mind well, so I had to do it on my own. Through observation I'd learned a lot about people, and their psychology.
"You're a rather perceptive one, aren't you?" a female voice came from the entrance.
"Xenia..." Kayle began to trembling.
"Kayle, you'll let that boy live, now won't you?" She said, stepping into the crypt.
"But Reese said that-"
"Reese lies." She said, resting a hand on a sword strapped to her belt.
"Please don't hurt me!" He stammered, "I never meant to hurt anyone, Reese said this would help me with my anxiety."
"Should I reiterate my statement?" She said, lowering her voice.
"N-n-n-no!" Kayle screamed, fear very much filling him, "I'll leave, never gonna get involved in these things again I swear!"
"Go." Xenia said with a gesture of her head.
Kayle ran from the crypt, the woman, who looked old, bent over me, examining my condition. I coughed violently and sustained for a good 2 minutes, bring up the contents of my stomach in the process. She stretched out her left hand, it was glowing a comforting shade of green.
For a moment it seemed like I'd blacked out, then I was very much conscious again. The woman, Xenia, was still kneeling in front of me, her side was bleeding, and she had a hand over it. Suddenly I realized that I felt much better, the influenza I had developed in the cave because of my wet clothes, was gone. In fact, my clothes were dry now, and felt almost new, the woman in front of me was however injured. Her side was bleeding fairly heavily, and she was leaning against a pillar.
"Your name is Acelian, correct?" She asked me, breathing heavily.
"Yes, and I'm assuming you're Xenia." I replied to her.
"Yes, now listen, I have something you need to do, I would've taken care of it for myself, however as you can see..."
"You're too injured to carry on with it." I said, observing the wound.
"Yes, I did not expect to have to ask for help from a complete stranger, I thought I could stop my students myself, but..."
"I don't know how much good I'll be, I've never used a weapon before." I said.
"You have to try!" Xenia said, "That poor girl is going to be sacrificed if we do nothing, we cannot let that happen!"
"I don't disagree with you, but I stand no chance against trained fighters." I replied, not meaning to sound so cold.
"Are you really going to let that girl die?" Xenia asked, drawing her sword and tossing it the ground in front of me.
As much as I knew I was doomed to fail in my attempt to save the girl most likely resulting in my death, I couldn't bring myself to leave the crypt. I felt as though I had nothing to lose, and something to gain in helping this person, it was a feeling I didn't know existed inside me. I picked up the sword, it was a long thin sword, and a bulge at the base of the blade, and a short hilt wrapped in leather.
Without thinking I descended deeper into the crypts, I didn't have anything to lose, my father still had my brothers, and the person I cared about the most was dead. I descended a short staircase to a room that was divided by a chasm in the floor, not really a chasm though, it was obviously designed as such. On the other side was the woman from earlier, wielding a spear-like staff, wrapped in red leather, and with a metal oval on the top, with a hole in it's centre. She raised it and a blast of air struck me, knocking me off my feet. I tried to stand again, and another blast of air knocked me down.
Laying on the cold floor, I considered the situation, she was a magic user, firing bolts of air across an impassable distance. But she would've had to have entered through here, so how did she get across? I looked around, for a rope, or a ladder, something to tell me how she got across, then I noticed an entry at the end of the divide, one arch way on my side, and another on her side. I pushed myself up and ran, Xenia's sword gripped tight in my hand. I ran at the archway, slamming into a set of bars, a bolt of air struck my side and I grabbed them to avoid falling over.
She fired another air bolt, striking me in the leg, still gripping the bars I collapsed to my knees.
"Did you think we'd just leave the way open!?" She yelled with delight.
I didn't answer.
"You will die, knowing you never stood a chance of saving anyone!" She said, firing a series of air bolts.
Bracing myself they struck me, the pain was immense, I let out a scream of agony, my focus dissolved, and I came dangerously near unconsciousness. I felt something trickling down my side, blood most likely, I was probably bleeding from the hits. I leaned myself against a wall, and stared at the archway, blocked by bars, my only way forward blocked.
The woman on the other side of the divide, Caitlin, laughed, and launched more attacks at me. I lost the strength to sit upright and fell to my side, landing on a lever of some sort, a wheel begin spinning, chains made a clanking noise as they moved, the bars sank into the floor. I hadn't noticed it before in my agony, I managed to crawl out of range of her attacks. Standing was too difficult, my leg felt broken, and I most certainly had a few broken ribs, I could feel various parts of my body beginning to swell. Why did I let her talk me into this? I thought to myself, feeling my consciousness slip away from me.
You're not a hero!
I could be a better hero than you!
You are a nothing, a farm boy, you grow the food, we tax the food, and you just barely get enough to eat, remember your place peasant.
I believe in you, Acelian, you can do anything you set your mind to...
I pulled myself to consciousness, this was not the time to give up, someone was in danger, and I had to save her. I struggled to pull myself to my feet, but I managed, pain shooting up my leg, I braced myself against the wall and picked up Xenia's sword. Why had I left home, but not for this very moment when I could be something more than a farm boy in Lumbridge?
A mix of emotions swelled in my chest and I cranked the second lever, opening the bars to the second archway. I was something more than a farmer, I had always been something more than a farmer, I just had to prove it. A blast of air shot through the archway, I hugged the wall, then taking a deep breath I dove into the next area. Bolts struck all around me, but I managed to avoid being hit myself, I ran toward the mage, roaring as a way to ignore the pain. I was within range, I slashed diagonally upward with the sword, it collided with her staff, and kept going, cutting it clean in two.
A blast of magic knocked me back a little ways. Caitlin looked furious, the remains of the staff crumbled to dust in her hands. Then she gasped for air, clutching her throat, her body began to dry up, in a moment she was nothing but dust in the crypt. Limping I climbed down a set of stairs into a large open chamber, it had a grate on the floor, for a reason I need not have guessed. Reese stood with the girl bound at his feet, holding a sword to her throat, he looked at me then back at the girl.
"I don't know who you are, or how you recovered so quickly, but this ends here!" He yelled, the girl had a gag in her mouth.
"I won't let you kill an innocent person!" I responded, levelling my sword in his direction.
"That sword belongs to Xenia, my old teacher." He said, disbelief briefly flashing across his face, "So that's how you recovered, that old bitch!"
He drew back from the girl and drew a second sword, exactly the same as his first, a short sword inlaid with a red gem where the hilt met the blade. I raised the sword Xenia had given me, and ran foward, bring the sword down in a vertical slash, he used his swords to catch mine. he snapped the blade in my hand with no effort whatsoever, the blade clattered to the floor next to a very frightened captive.
Swiftly moving his blades he embedded them in my chest, the air escaped my lungs and I fell forward.
"This is what happens when you try to be a hero." He whispered into my ear, pulling one of the swords out of my chest.
"You've got the wrong idea..." I croaked, "I'm just a farm boy..."
I raised what was left of Xenia's sword, and stabbed it into the side of Reese's neck, he let go of the sword still embedded in my chest and stumbled backward before falling over. I stumbled backward into a pillar, the tip of the sword getting pushed back into my chest, I couldn't breath, my vision became covered in black spots. Then a warm breeze blew through the crypt, for a moment I felt as though I could breath.
Xenia was walking toward me, her left hand was glowing green, a comforting green. She raised it and the sword in my chest clattered to the ground, my wounds healed. As she was approaching a loud crack came from further into the crypt, then an explosion. Forces I could not see flew past me and knocked Xenia and the captive back, Xenia caught the poor girl, and tried to hold her ground. Reese's body was also not affected by the invisible force, however it burst into nothing but blood, and flew in the direction the explosion had come from.
"Acelian!" Xenia yelled above the roar of the pulsating magic.
I couldn't hear her, the roar was too loud, then another explosion rocked the crypt, and a rock struck my head, knocking me unconscious. At that moment I understood something that I had always knew, I wasn't meant to be a farmer in Lumbridge. I had something more to do in the world, something spectacular, and it all started in that crypt, The Tomb of Dragith Nurn.
