Ravenloss
I lay sprawled across the hard dirt, staring up into darkness, my head still reeling from my nose dive into the portal back in Falconreach. Honestly, I thought to myself, what kind of Tog-brained idiot would place a portal where some poor unsuspecting hero could trip and fall on her ass? My leisurely stroll through the town had been brought to an abrupt and painful ending when my toe had caught on the edge of the overgrown portal and I had gone tumbling head-first into the swirling purple depths, finally being spat unceremoniously onto the unforgiving ground.
I shook my head, trying to clear it of the haze following my oh-so graceful fall, and attempted to sit upright, sneezing at the dust that tickled my nose. I rubbed my bruised backside through my armor, grumbling about stupid portals and where I would stick my sword when I found whoever put it there. My scowled faded as my eyes adjusted to the gloom, revealing to me a massive city that littered the floor of an enormous cavern, the ceiling of the cave so high I could barely make it out through the darkness. A thick layer of dust covered everything and terrifyingly large spider webs draped themselves from the corners of stout buildings and tall towers that were decorated with windows and doors of smooth archways. Crimson chimneys poked from steepled roofs and the tips of the towers nearly joined with the enormous stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The portal had dumped me at the top of a small hill, and the city stretched for several miles in every direction. Where in Lore am I? I pondered to myself. I've been all over the place, so how come I've never found THIS place before?
My ears twitched as they picked up the sound of footsteps, unusually loud in the eerie silence of the cavern. My hand went instinctively to the hilt of the sword hanging from my hip and forced myself to remain still, fixing my eyes in the direction of the echoing footsteps. I relaxed only slightly when the footsteps revealed themselves to be human in the form of a young man, most likely in his mid-twenties, mounting the crest of the hill. Still, I knew better than to let my guard down. While I mostly had to worry about getting attacked by ravenous monsters on my many adventures, I knew from experience that a human was more than capable of sticking a knife between my ribs. As he came to a stop before me, I tensed for a speedy retreat, but was stopped when he extended a hand as an offering to help me to my feet. "Well, this is certainly a surprise," he said, his voice low and slightly gruff from lack of use, "but, I must say, it is good to see another human in this dark undercity." I was hesitant to take his hand, seeing the strange gauntlets that encased both of his arms up to his elbows. They were made of a dark blue metal, trimmed with a frostier blue and adorned with a single gleaming gem of a vibrant purple. The gauntlets tipped his fingers with sharp claws. Nonetheless, I was tired of sitting on my ass on the cold ground and grasped his hand firmly with mine. The strength I felt when he hauled me to my feet was evidence enough that this man had been in a tussle or two.
I brushed the dust from my armor and tossed my dark auburn hair over my shoulder, trying to regain some form of dignity in front of this stranger before letting myself get a good look at the face of my new companion. His was a rather unusual look (well, unusual in the human sense of the word). His skin was very pale, even more so beneath the shock of silver hair that spiked in a jumbled mess from his head and the little goatee of the same color on his chin. His eyes were a dark shade of yellow beneath harsh silver eyebrows, and a dark scar crossed between them, curving over the bridge of his nose. The sudden rush of heat to my face surprised me. He was actually kind of…cute.
"Hehe, well, this is embarrassing!" I stuttered, hoping the gloom combined with my swift distraction was enough to hide my red face. "Terribly sorry to drop in here like this, but it wasn't exactly my choice. But, I gotta say, it's nice to have a welcome wagon that isn't gonna try and kill me for once!" I paused, "You're…not gonna try and kill me, are you?" I asked raising an eyebrow in his direction. He answered with a raised eyebrow of his own.
"No" he stated, shoving his hands into the pockets of his long coat.
"Oh, hehe, good" I said, rubbing my arms. I realized that this was going to get really awkward, really fast if I didn't change the subject soon. "Well geez, where are my manners? You can call me Karin, seeing as how my full name is ridiculously long and slightly embarrassing. Whom do I have the pleasure of sharing this incredibly awkward meeting with." I said, holding out my hand. He seemed reluctant to respond to my witty dialogue, but I could still see a shadow a of smile flicker across his features. Check 'make my new friend smile' off of my mental agenda.
"A SoulWeaver on a mission," he said accepting my handshake, "My name is Tomix. I wouldn't happen to be addressing the Heroine of all of Lore, would I?"
"Indeed you are." I said, offering a big grin in return. "And tell me, Tomix, what would you be doing here in this dark hole?"
The somber expression returned to his face as he turned and looked out over the dusty city. "I am here because I need to fix a terrible mistake. Something I did that should NEVER be done. I was wrong, and now I have to make it right." His sudden change in mood immediately set off my Hero Senses. At that moment, I committed myself to help Tomix in any way that was physically possible. I crept around to stand beside him with my hands clasped behind my back, leaning forward and gazing up into his face.
"Need help?"
My question seemed to surprise him as we both faced each other again. "It won't be easy," he said slowly, "It won't be safe. We won't have much help."
I cocked my head and gave him a look. "Are you kidding me?" I asked, placing both hands firmly on my hips. "If you've heard about me, you should know that 1) it wouldn't be fun if it was easy, 2) I wouldn't be a hero if things were 'safe', and 3) I'm the only help you're ever going to need."
The ghost of a smile swept across his face again. "I suppose we should get started then. Maybe if we're lucky, my SoulAlly Aspar will assist us from time to time, but I would welcome your help down here."
With that, we began to descend the slope of the hill. The abandoned buildings loomed past, standing like sentinels watching our approach, unseen eyes watching us from their hiding places within their dark doorways. "Speaking of here," I began slowly, feeling slightly paranoid in this strange new place, "Where exactly are we?"
Tomix looked at me out of the corner of his eye, obviously rather familiar with the dusty road we walked upon. "This is Ravenloss, a city under Falconreach, which is a town I imagine you know well." I nodded my understanding. The fact that the city was underground certainly made a lot of sense given the enormous spires of rock dangling from the ceiling. "Ravenloss is occupied by the Chaosweaver spiders, a race of beings which was once just like us," His nose wrinkled in disgust at the statement, "but you will no doubt learn more about those later. It is home now to many species of arachnids, as well as other dark creatures. I suppose it is a good thing that you are here now."
"Wait wait wait," I interrupted, "Did you say Chaosweavers?" Tomix nodded his reply, "Ugh! I hate those bastards! A few years ago, they broke into Falconreach and stole a bag full of dragon eggs! I was cleaning spider webs and bug-guts out of my armor for a month! You know anything about those eight-legged creeps that would give me a good reason to squash 'em again?"
My outburst seemed to amuse Tomix, who smirked and told me, "I know little more than you. The history of the Chaosweavers is known only to the highest members of the School of SoulWeavers, as well as a few specialists. What little knowledge I possess has been enough to keep me alive as I continue my quest."
"I'm just upset that I didn't bring my Squishin' Boots" I said, returning his smirk. He was a tad less amused by my attempt to keep the mood light.
"Anyway," he continued, brushing off my jest, "I haven't explored the town yet; up until now, I have been studying the runes on that gate for clues about the city." He gesture with his chin toward a tall gate that loomed in the distance, higher even than the roofs of the houses nearby. A strange energy seemed to hum around the stone arch and the eight keyholes that marked the sides of it. Jagged runes laced the edges.
"Woah…" I marveled, "Amazing but… what exactly is so important about this gate?" Tomix shook his head slightly.
"To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure myself. The runes on this gate call it the Equilibrium Gate, and it does seem to have some sort of significance. But, its locked." We came to a stop before the gate, blocked from going any further by the wall of purple stone that filled in the space within. Tomix looked up, yellow eyes sweeping over the runes carved deeply into the surface of the gate. "I've had some luck decoding the runes, but I still need to study more to figure out where all the keys are," he continued. His eyes narrowed, giving a look of fierce intensity to his already serious face. "All I know is we're almost certainly going to have to get inside it." He finally turned to me and looked me in the eye with the same intense expression. "Things are always in the last place you look, and we're going to have to go everywhere else before we can get in THERE." He finished, gesturing back at the gate.
The passion of his voice disconcerted me. I started to hope that I hadn't gotten myself in over my head again. C'mon Hero! that reckless part of my brain yelled at me, You can handle this!
Watch yourself Karin, the rational part cautioned me, This guy seems like a loose cannon, you don't know what will happen if you stay down here…
Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of ignoring that little part of my brain.
"Where do we start?"