Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Fable universe or the characters it contains. The characters you do not recognize belong to me and were created for the purposes of this story. Thank you for reading and for the kind reviews which keep me motivated and keep the chapters coming! I really hope you enjoy the latest chapter, I will try to update as soon as I can – Fallon.

Chapter Ten

Signey had followed Walter into the cave and descended into the shadows with her mentor, but she never would have dared to imagine that the shadow would be given form. Glowing red eyes had materialized from the shadow and long arms reached for her.

She knew of Walter's fear of caves, especially dark ones, and tried to keep him calm as they fought their way past the shadow ghouls. Walter waved the torch out in front of him as he jabbed at the darkness with his sword.

An evil voice chuckled. "You will die in this place! The shadows you crave will claim your souls!"

At first she thought she was the only one to hear it, but a glance over to Walter assured her she was not losing her mind.

Finally the ghouls withdrew, the voice returning to echo throughout the cavern. "The light in your eyes offends us! We will destroy the light inside you...wicked, wicked little lights."

Signey turned to Walter. "Look at me!" She pleaded. "Everything is alright; we're getting out of here Walter."

He didn't seem as convinced, but he followed her nonetheless. They approached a sandy ledge and glanced down, it didn't look too daunting to Signey but she knew Walter was rattled.

He shuddered and turned to her, trying to hide the fact that he was hyperventilating. "You go ahead, don't let me stop you."

She gave him a puzzled look and asked if he was sure.

"Yes, go ahead. I just need a moment to collect myself." He assured her.

She nodded and walked off the ledge, landing safely on the ground below. Icarus soon joined her, sniffing through the sand as Signey looked up to Walter. "It's fine Walter, not too far down."

He rubbed his hands together and took a step back to get a good run at it. Before he had a chance to start his run, he was overcome by a massive shadowy figure. Signey heard him scream and saw the shadow expand before dissipating. She hollered up to him, but didn't get a response.

Icarus whimpered beside her.

She heard a long cackle from the darkness she had jumped into and drew her sword to face it. Icarus growled beside her and began nipping at a shadow pool that was approaching them. Determined to find Walter and get them both out safely, she stepped into the swarm of ghouls that were appearing and blasted them with lightening.

"You left him to the darkness! But you're glad, aren't you? Happy to be rid of the weeping, weak old man..." The voice taunted her as she decapitated a nearby ghoul.

She killed the last of the approaching ghouls. "Where is he?" She demanded of the creature.

"Your kingdom will be ours, the light will be extinguished." The creature roared. "Watch as we fly into your heart!"

Signey blasted a large ball of lightening at the darkened silhouette of the gnarled creature. "Over my dead body!"

It chuckled as Signey pressed onwards. "Oh how I long to see that, for your light is the brightest of all Princess...the children long to smother it!"

She stopped in her tracks, shuddering with anger. Her desire to harm the mysterious creature was reaching a furious boiling point. Pivoting on her heels, she blasted it with a combination of fire and lightning before continuing in her search to find Walter.

Signey jumped down from a high ledge onto a worn tile floor. She looked up to see Walter groaning in agony as the inky darkness threatened to consume him. She ran forward, screaming his name and hoping she wasn't too late to save her mentor.

Just as she neared him, she was tackled by a wave of shadow ghouls. She grunted, regained her balance and began to charge her will. The creature's voice returned and continued to mutter curses. She growled, swinging her blade and blasting lightning at the ghouls as the creature laughed and Walter screamed.

The darkness slithered to the large stone statues that framed the room and a blood-chilling silence filled the room. It didn't last long, as the statues moaned and pulled away from the walls. Signey cursed and renewed her attack, more determined than ever to free Walter, get out of the cave and find Ben.

She thought of him as she killed one statue after another, praying that he hadn't already fallen into their dark, cold hands. Ben, she thought, please be alright my love...

One of the larger statues began to pull itself from the wall. Signey crouched, slicing through the last of the smaller statues to face the massive winged guardian. Thinking quickly, she sent wave after wave of fire and blue lightening at the beast. It stumbled slightly, but continued forward.

The sentinel swung its staff at her, which she barely missed by rolling out of its direct path. It bore down on her, opening a black void in the floor from which ghouls poured out of.

Signey saw Icarus attacking the ghouls and quickly got to her feet. She spotted small cracks covering the sentinel and hurried to charge her will for one final attack. The fire and lightening twisted together in her hands, burning her wrists and the palms of her hands. It was uncomfortable, but it was something she had grown accustomed to and even found comfort in the warmth her will powers gave her.

The blue lines that covered her body began to glow and twist on her skin as the power behind her attack grew. The sentinel limped forward, but he wasn't close enough yet.

"Are you thinking of your loved ones? Are you thinking about how you will never see them again?"

The fire climbed up her arms and twisted over her will lines. "Come here you son of a bitch..." She growled under her breath.

Finally, the sentinel was close enough. She targeted him and the fire overcame her before lashing outwards. It connected with the stone body of the creature, creating a blast of white light before shattering into a million tiny pieces.

Signey leapt over its remains and approached Walter, whom the darkness had released. Careful not to hurt him further, she touched his shoulder before helping him to his feet. She gasped as she got a good look at him. The shadows had sunk into his skin, leaving ink like stains on his hands and face.

"I-I can't see!" Walter sobbed. "That thing...It blinded me!"

Signey tried to look him in the eyes, only to discover that they had been blackened out, overcome by the force of the darkness. "It's alright Walter, I'm here!"

He shook. "W-We have to get out of here! Lead me into the light, please Signey!"

She assured him that she would and took his hand, leading him toward the exit that was bursting with the light of freedom.

She dragged a half conscious Walter up the stone stairs and fell to her knees as the stepped onto the platform. She looked up to try to determine where they were. Sand covered the earth, with huge dunes jutting out of the flat landscape. In the distance she could faintly see a gigantic statue but she had no idea what it was or how long it would take to get there.

Walter groaned. "What do you see?"

She continued to search the landscape and sighed. "Sand and a lot of it. I can see a statue in the distance, but not much else. It's a wasteland."

"How far away?" He asked, too exhausted to even lift up his head.

"A few hours at least." She admitted. "But we can do this Walter! Together I know we can!"

Walter struggled to breath with the hot sun bearing down on them and the sandy air hurting his lungs. "I-I can't do it...I'm too weak."

She shook him. "Don't say that Walter!"

"It's true." He exhaled slowly. "I can't see, I can barely stand...I won't just slow you down, I'll get you killed. The darkness weakened you too, don't think I can't tell."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "Walter, you know me so well..."

He smiled. "I'm so proud of you Signey, and your father would be too. Please, leave me behind and find help, find Ben and be happy."

She fought back tears. "I'm not leaving you!"

"You're the daughter I never had...please, go!" He demanded in a tired voice.

She shook her head and heaved him to his feet, hurrying him down the next set of stairs. Walter slumped and fell to his knees. She tried to lift him up, but he was dead weight. Resigned to his fate, Walter allowed himself to fall to the sandy stone floor. Signey knelt beside him, weeping as she looked down on her doomed friend.

"Please get up Walter!" She begged. "I need you!"

Walter coughed and managed to shake his head. "You are the Queen Albion needs, and with Ben you found the happiness I know you longed for..." He struggled to clear his throat. "Go now, find him...save Albion."

"Walter..." She sobbed.

"Y-You've made me proud..." He muttered before passing out cold.

Signey brushed her sandy tears aside and stood to look out over the wasteland. She was alone, completely and totally for the first time in her life. Icarus pushed his wet nose to her leg and she smiled; she wasn't completely alone.

"For Albion..." She whispered to herself before running and jumping off the ledge and landing in the sandy dune below. Icarus happily followed her and they sprinted across the dunes toward the statue she had seen earlier.

"You cannot outrun the darkness!"

In the blink of an eye the sun was blocked out by the shadows and the creature continued its taunts. She struggled to weave past the thick darkness and find her way forward. All she could hear was Icarus's whining and the faint taunts of the creature she thought she had left behind in the cave.

She felt like she did when she was twelve and snuck into Walter's liquor chest in the castle. Jasper had caught her and had spent the rest of the night holding her head up from the bin. The only thing that differed from that moment was that Signey didn't have the scent of alcohol on her breath or the hazy memories of drinking the potent liquid.

Ahead of her, Walter appeared and cried out to her for help.

"Did the Blind Seeress not tell you about us? Did she not warn you that we would come?"The creature laughed and taunted as he tried to play with Signey's mind.

Signey pushed past the dark-Walter and stumbled in the sand as the darkness stained her hands.

"You let him die. You let us take him. But you're glad, are you not? You wished him pain. You wished him undone, unthreaded, unliving!"The dark thing muttered from the shadows that surrounded Signey.

She saw stairs and forced herself forward, hoping to find relief from the darkness that was trying to cloud her mind. Thoughts of her father raced through her panicking mind. She remembered sitting in her bed with Logan as their father read to them or told them stories of his adventures. Logan, she wept inwardly, I don't want to hate you brother.

Elliot, Major Swift, Logan, Walter...Ben.

Her eyes were now completely covered over by the darkness's assault. The darkness clung to her eyes and coated them like a thick ink. She fell down and waited for the end.

"But you too wish for the black void. You tire of your travels, your burdens, the cries of the helpless, and the cries of your dead. You too will be swallowed."

Just one more time, she wanted to see the sunlight. But more than that she wanted to see Ben. A sob caught in her throat and her chin trembled. "Ben..." She muttered just before lulling off into a dark limbo.

It was cold and lonely.

She wanted to wake up, but the darkness kept trying to push her down and she was so, so tired of fighting it alone.

She had failed her father, Walter and Ben...hell, she had failed Albion herself. She was too weak to rule, too weak to fight and live. She saw her dreams being pulled away by the darkness, pulled away and cruelly torn apart.

"Fight it! Don't let the darkness win Signey!"

She tried to open her eyes, her fathers' voice echoing in her head. At first she thought it was the darkness, but her heart told her otherwise.

"Get up sweetheart!" The familiar voice begged. "You can do this!"

Signey inhaled sharply and felt her will powers flicker inside of her. The fire from her gauntlets ran up her arms and covered her in its warm, bright embrace. She sighed; it always made her feel right in her own skin. The approaching darkness screeched as the fire around her strengthened. Her fire ate away the darkness, freeing her from its suffocating weight. She could breathe again.

"Fight!"

"Breathe!"

She gasped, sucking air into her lungs and smiling at how good it felt.

Ben saw her lying on the steps leading toward the Auroran city and leapt over the railing to get to her. Kneeling beside her, he grabbed her hand and brushed her hair out of her face. The unusual dark circles around her eyes worried him, but he could see her chest rising and falling so he at least knew she was alive.

Kalin knelt on the other side of Signey and opened her eyes gently with her fingers. "Look at me Princess." She gently asked, her accent floating through the air like a beautiful scent.

"Signey, come on love, it's me!" Ben said, trying to encourage her to wake up from her 'sleep'.

Life and awareness flicked to her eyes when she heard his deep voice and felt his calloused hand over hers'. Her throat was as dry as the sand she was laying on. "B-Ben?"

Overcome with joy, Ben kissed her hand. "It's me love, you're alright."

She tried to get up, only for Kalin to insist that she not. She looked desperately to Ben. "Walter!"

He shushed her, his heart aching as her chin trembled while she looked at him. Kalin quickly assured Ben that they would find the old soldier and hurried off to join the main search party up ahead. Ben gently scooped her into his arms and stood. Signey's eye lids grew heavy and she quickly passed out, her head resting on his shoulder.

He followed the Aurorans back into the city, weaving around the piles of debris and the dead bodies that littered the streets. They led him back to the old temple and rushed him into the small healing room where the priestess was waiting.

The elderly woman urged Ben to place Signey on the bed in front of her and he reluctantly put her down. The woman introduced herself as Mara and began to wave her hands around Signey. Ben knelt beside her, waiting for the priestess's magic to take effect and for Signey to come back to him.

Kalin returned with her scouts carrying Walter. More healers approached the unconscious man and began to try to bring him back from the brink. Ben looked to Mara. "Is she going to make it?"

The old woman nodded but didn't look up from the princess. "She is young, she will survive. I must tend to the other one, the Princess must do the remaining fighting on her own." She hurried over to Walter before Ben could pester her with more questions, leaving him alone with Signey.

He held her hand and placed a firm kiss on the back it. Icarus approached his slumbering mistress and flopped down at Ben's feet. He looked down at the mutt and forced a smile. "You tired boy?"

Icarus's tail wagged.

Ben sighed. "You protected her boy, fought at her side. I want to protect her, but I just keep mucking it up."

Icarus tilted his head at Ben in a curious manner and for a split second, Ben could have sworn the dog knew what he was saying.

"But I can't protect her, can I? She's a hero and has to fight her battles without any help from me." He hung his head, looking up only when a tanned hand touched his shoulder.

"I do not know the Princess, but I would guess that she does indeed require your aid Ben Finn." Kalin said calmly, like a confident and all-knowing mother.

"How could she?" He huffed. "I can't protect her Kalin; and everything I know tells me it's a man's' job to defend the woman he would do anything for."

She thought for a moment. "Our cultures are different Ben Finn, but what I know for certain is that if there are dangers ahead of her, she will need someone by her side that is there, not because of duty or pride, but love."

"And if I'm not good enough..." He whispered so only the Auroran leader could hear.

Kalin squeezed his shoulder as they both looked at the princess. "See beyond the hero and the princess Ben Finn; there is more to a woman than flashy titles. If she is as goodly as you said, she will love you for facing those dangers at her side and not expect you to take them on yourself."

Ben considered what Kalin had said and smiled. "She's saved me, you know? In all this darkness, she became my light. I can't lose her Kalin..."

The Auroran leader smiled and bowed. "In Aurora we call that love."