Leliana listened to Sigrfried's story with rapt attention. She was enthralled by it; a small group of people investigating a castle, their encounter with horrible monsters, the bodily and mental torture that Ser Isaac of Clarke was forced to endure while trying to find a loved one and escape with his life. The fear inspired in her had her glancing around as the shadows played with the dimming light of her lantern. The story was a long one, if she had to guess she had been listening for about an hour. Sigrfried had heard this story for seventy years, and it showed in the way he told it. It was like he had lived it.
"And then, as the castle came crumbling down around him, Ser Isaac ran as fast as he could, clearing the entrance. When the dead castle had fallen to pieces, Ser Isaac removed his helmet for the first time in what seemed like ages. Still in possesion of the journal with the final hours of his dead lover, Nicole, recorded in it, Ser Isaac walked off into the night."
"What happened after that?" Leliana asked.
"Who knows?" Sigrfried stated.
"What do you mean?"
"Ser Isaac, was never seen again."
"You're speaking as if this story is real."
A slight smirk spread across Sigfried's lips and he reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a rolled up piece of paper and gave it too her. Curiously, Leliana unfolded it and found an odd picture scrawled on it, obviously old given the worn details. The picture depicted what looked like two tentacles, or horns, that wrapped around each other once. The finer details were impressive in their own right; being legible so clearly. Grooves or lines were etched into it, all along the object, and odd symbols plastered it. The picture made her uneasy.
"What is this?" Leliana asked.
"I know I told you that Ser Isaac was never seen again, but he must have met with someone before he disappeared from the world because this symbol is associated with that story. My great, great, great grandfather, maybe add one more great I'm not sure, anyway, he apparently drew this during the apex of his madness. It's been in my family ever since."
"Your insane ancestor drew this?"
"According to details passed down through my family, and that's a lot of quacks let me tell you, he believed that it was showing him all of it."
"All of what?"
"His visions, his thoughts. Whatever it was made him lose his marbles, especially when he was among a lot of people. It made the time he spent in this fort absolute torture for him and anybody near him, dangerous even."
Leliana looked at the picture again and then offered it back to Siegfried. He just held up his hand in denial.
"You can keep it." He told her.
"But its been in your family for so long." Leliana insisted.
"Bout time we got rid of it then eh? My family ends with me, no sense in hoarding 'treasures' anymore." He said and he stood up from the table.
"Where are you going?"
"Believe it or not, even underground I can tell when it's well into the night. I sleep in a small house not terribly far here."
"Would you like me to walk you there?" Leliana asked, standing now as well.
"Your sweet to offer young lady, but I'll be fine. Thank you for humoring an old man Leliana."
"Thank you for scaring me out of my wits." Leliana said appreciatively.
Siegfried chuckled as he stepped towards the door.
"Sleep well, if you can." He said before exiting the tavern.
Noticing how suffocating the darkness of the tavern was for the first time since sitting down to listen to the scary story, Leliana quickly grabbed her lantern, now a little more than a firefly worth of light, and started walking back towards the rooms. She peered into the room where Dagon, Secoria, and Voltimand stayed. Dagon's hopes of sharing a bed with Secoria hadn't come true; they both were sleeping in a separate bed. Curiously, she moved in a little more to see where Voltimand was. She saw him sitting in a chair next to the dead fireplace. He looked to be sleeping, with his head propped up on his fist. Aside from his helmet, he still wore his armor, oddly. Leliana pulled her head out before she woke somebody up and went into her room. Cassandra lay in bed, sleeping soundly. Leliana quietly crawled into her own bed and opened the lid on the lantern, intending to blow it out. Details of the story made her hesitate, and she decided instead to close the lid and let the warm light comfort her. She took out the paper with the strange and disturbing image and looked at it once more. It must have been the close proximity of the light, because the once very worn looking image now looked like it had been drawn moments ago. She folded it up and placed it in her shirt. She hoped that sleep came to her soon. The storm must have been terrible indeed, she could hear a slight rumbling even underground. It had to be thunder, what else could it have been?
"Can't the healer do anymore?" Malik asked.
"This isn't a cut, Malik. Your leg is broken, your knee shattered. The healer told you that you need to rest and let it heal, and that is what you are going to do." Francois told him.
"But I can stand, it only hurts a little..." Malik said stubbornly, trying to get up.
"Oh no you don't." Bryom said, forcing him to lay down again.
Malik grumbled to himself and conceded to remaining in bed.
"Well I don't need you two watching over me like I'm a child." Malik told them.
"Well you have been acting like one." Francois told him with a smile.
Byrom yawned heavily, and it didn't go unnoticed.
"Please, the two of you go sleep. It won't do our group any good if we have three crippled men." Malik said.
"Fine, but so help me if the healer tells us you've been trying to walk we are coming back here and tying you down. Come on Byrom." Francois said, and they left.
Malik adjusted uncomfortably in his bed, his leg being stiff as wood. He hated being stuck in one place, he felt so useless. He heard a scuffling sound, and he turned to it quickly. Aside from one torch on the wall, there was no other light source, the healer having put the rest out when she left. This left the room very dark. Whatever was scurrying about was staying in the shadows. A sudden crash of metal made him jump. A metal mug rolled into the light, something had knocked down a tray of silverware.
"Rats, I hate goddamn rats." Malik said as he turned over and tried to sleep again, doing his best to ignore the sounds of movement.
"I tell you, I don't trust them." Marlin said, taking another bite out of his chunk of meat.
"Why? What's wrong with them?" Arthur, the other guard on duty, asked him.
"They were armed! The only armed people out here are guards, soldiers, and bandits. All the guards for the farms and towns are here, the soldiers are away, so what does that leave us?" Marlin asked rhetorically.
"But look at them, they don't look like any bandits I've seen."
"And how many bandits have you encountered boy?" Marlin asked with his mouth full of another chunk of slightly under cooked meat.
"I.."
"None! And if you did, then I bet it wouldn't have been a group smart enough to loot armor from fallen enemies. And get this; one of them tried to get religious on me; "In the name of the Divine!" He said in a lady like voice.
"If you ask me, they're some fanatics coming here to cause trouble. Anyway I'm packing it in for the night."
"But Caron said.."
Marlin tossed his leg of meat, still with a generous amount of flesh on it, into Arthur's hands.
"Caron can shove it! Just watch the door, you owe me for covering your shift last time."
Arthur watched Marlin leave around the corner, leaving to guard the door alone. The leg meat seemed very unappetizing, with hints of raw flesh and Marlin's teeth marks. He opened the large doors and tossed it into the rain. Before he could close it, he noticed something in the distance. He squinted against the rain and stepped outside, closing the door behind him, shutting in the light. It looked like a person, though standing oddly, like they were injured.
"Hello!" He had to shout over the wind and thunder.
The person moved a little bit closer, they walked with an odd gait. They had to be injured.
"Please come, we have food and shelter and medicine!" Arthur stated with an outstretched hand.
A great flash of lightning illuminated them for the briefest of moments. Arthur reached for his sword but was suddenly covered by a disgusting, wretched liquid. His eyes burned, he coughed uncontrollably, and his skin felt like it was melting off. Something fell on him and wrestled him to the ground as more of the corrosive liquid was spewed onto him following the burping and snarls of the creature on top of him. His screams were lost among the thunder and wind.
Leliana awoke to Cassandra frantically putting her armor back on. She was groggy, her sleep had been plagued by nightmares. It seems the story got to her more than she thought.
"Come on Leliana." Cassandra said sternly.
"What's wrong?" Leliana asked groggily.
"Malik's gone."
"What? What do you mean gone?"
"I mean the healer came in to check on him and all she found was blood."
Leliana practically jumped out of bed and went to gather her own armor.
"There's no trace of him at all?"
"None, and there is something else. Caron sent word for us to meet him near the fort entrance."
"Why?"
"I don't know, the messenger was already white as snow and looked like he was ready to throw up."
Cassandra got her last boot on and left the room. Leliana took of her shirt to put on her cuirass. She noticed something fall to the ground, a piece of paper. She picked it up and realized it was the image that Siegfried had given to her last night. Upon looking at the picture, her nightmares came back to her suddenly.
"Leliana!" Cassandra shouted from the hallway.
Shaking her head, Leliana put the picture into her pocket and left with Cassandra.
It has been a very longtime since I looked at this story, but I wanted to continue it. Please read it, enjoy it, and tell me what you think, good or bad.