Chapter IX
It was night, the sun had retreated and allowed the moon to dominate the dark sky and let the stars shine their far off light and the Grand Duchess of Glyhorn had retired to her personal chambers. Gone was her overly elaborate gown and jewellery, she was dressed in a simple night gown and she had undone the bun in her hair and let it hang down around her shoulders and back. Even in the room's low light her auburn hair, a trademark of her family, still shone. Her family. Thinking about it now brought a sigh to her lips. First her children, then her husband, now her eldest nephew, Anadelias. It almost seemed as if her family was cursed, to be torn away from the world of the living so young or in the prime of their lives. Steeling herself and pushing aside the bleak thoughts, the Grand Duchess sat down at her dressing table and started to brush her hair. Normally she would have one of her handmaidens help her or even do it, but tonight she just wanted to be alone, especially after the recent events of the past two days.
Looking into the mirror, the lines on her face seemed deeper and she could have sworn they had multiplied since last time. The stress of being the Grand Duchess was taking its toll. Soon, she told herself, soon she would...
Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention in the mirror - a slight movement in her tapestry. In one swift motion, she grabbed the small stiletto from her dresser and whirled around to see what had caught her eye.
She watched as a man emerged from behind the tapestry, dressed in dark clothes and a cloak, his face obscured by a hood.
"Name yourself, you who would dare violate my chambers!" The Grand Duchess demanded.
She heard a sigh come from the man before he answered her question.
"It does not matter as much who I am now, but more who I was before." He replied cryptically.
The Grand Duchess gestured with her stiletto. "That does not answer my question. You have one more chance before I summon the guards, who are not as lenient as I am."
There was a few seconds of silence before the man answered. "Once, you had a large family. But over time, fate whittled their number down. Your favourite nephew and heir, Anadelias, was one of the few left alive. But recently, even he went missing. With the information you have been provided you assume him to be dead. In a way, you are correct," the man paused and brought his hands up in plain view and slowly as to not provoke a reaction, and placed them on the hem of his hood, "but in another way, you are also wrong." He pulled back his hood, revealing his face to the candlelight.
Even in the low light of the candles and the fact that half of Dreadsorrow's face was in shadow did not detract from the Grand Duchess recognising him as he crossed the chamber to her. The stiletto fell from her hand and thumped on the floor, her now free hand shook ever so slightly as it reached for Dreadsorrow.
He did not move as her hand crept towards his face, he simply looked her in the eye and waited. Gingerly, her fingers brushed against his cold cheek and the Grand Duchess held them there for what felt like an eternity to Dreadsorrow. He closed his eyes and let his mind take him away. Having dead nerves meant he could not feel her touch on his skin, but his imagination made up for it. Her fingers would be soft and delicate, fingers that would belong to a caring mother cradling an infant or loving wife holding her husband's hand.
Her hand ran down his cheek, feeling his cold skin all the way down and she then placed her hand on the side of his head. Dreadsorrow opened his eyes as her other hand joined the first on the opposite side of his face. He saw the tears run down her cheeks and the expression that one would expect on a mother whose newborn baby had just passed away.
When she spoke his name, his old name, her voice was chocked up with emotion and she barely got the single word out.
Dreadsorrow reached up and gently placed his hands over her wrists and lowered them before taking her hands in his.
"What have they done to you? Who has done this?" She asked, almost not wanting to hear the answers.
Dreadsorrow did not answer straight away. He wanted to tell his aunt the whole story, explain it all and confide his feelings to her, but he could not bring himself to do it. He was at war within himself, of two minds. Ultimately, he chose not to tell her because somehow, deep inside, the time did not feel right. If she truly still cared for him, then she would understand. If not, then he was not averse to doing things the hard way.
"My name is Dreadsorrow now and it would take more time than I have to spare to explain everything." His reply came out slight gruffer than he had wanted.
The Grand Duchess took a step back and withdrew her hand from his. "First you fall in love with the eldest daughter from a rival family and then you run away with her, leaving Glyhorn and your family behind. You grow up, become a paladin and master the ways of the Light and yet never once send me a letter. Then my spies find out you have gone missing, presumed dead. Weeks pass with no trace of you and then you show up here, as a death knight, telling me you have no time to talk. What am I to think, my dear Anadelias?" Her distraught voice stirred something within Dreadsorrow.
"I..." He started, trying his hardest to dampen down whatever was brewing deep within him.
The Grand Duchess did not relent or give him a chance to answer. "And your wife my poor Anadelias, do you know what Elencia -"
"Yes I know about Elencia. Now speak no more of it, I do not wish to dwell on it." Dreadsorrow was curtly reminded of the conversation with Nilas in which he found out that his alleged best friend had killed Elencia. Far from weakening his position, the memory steeled Dreadsorrow and he steered the conversation back on topic.
"I have come to you not to reminisce but for your help. Suffice to say only you can help me, but should you decline I will not hesitate to take what I need by force."
"Then my nephew is truly dead then. Never would he threaten me like you have just done." The Grand Duchess let the tears freely roll down her face again as she fondly remembered Anadelias in his youth. "I will help you if I am able, if only to honour the memory of my dead nephew and to speed along your departure of Glyhorn."
As Dreadsorrow looked at the tear-streaked face of the Grand Duchess, he went through the motions of taking a deep breath, even though his body no longer needed to breathe and muscle memory alone made it happen.
"I need to become the Grand Duke of Glyhorn."
Dreadsorrow had half assumed an outright no and a possible slap to the face, but the Grand Duchess' response was fairly tame compared to his expectations. She covered her right hand with her left and pressed it close to her chest, slowly shaking her head.
"You?" she asked, completely astonished, "You're not even alive, not really. Why would you even..."
Dreadsorrow recalled one of the conversations he had had with Nilas in the safe house while he waited for his chance talk with the Grand Duchess.
"There is a chamber, one that can only be opened by whoever is the current ruler of the Grand Duchy of Glyhorn. Within that chamber is an artefact of great power. If I was able to use it, I could be Anadelias again and have my wife by my side, just like I used to."
Dreadsorrow could see the indecision wrought on the Grand Duchess' face. Her fears for her people at letting him, this monster, become Grand Duke and the love for her nephew Anadelias and her desire to have him back.
"I...do not think that you..."
"Adelle!" Dreadsorrow hissed sharply, but not loud enough that the guards would hear him and come running.
She glared at him with veritable anger. "You would dare?"
"Yes, I would." Dreadsorrow knew that upon becoming the head of the Grand Duchy the new Grand Duke or Duchess would forfeit their own personal name and be known only by their title and what number in line they were. They did this to show the people of Glyhorn they were not motivated by personal power or glory as their birth and family name would not be recorded, only which consecutive number was assigned to their Grand Duchy. To call the Grand Duke or Duchess by their birth name was a major faux pas of court etiquette and borderline treasonous in the eyes of a native of Glyhorn and Dreadsorrow was aware of this, but it was a chance he was willing to take to make her listen.
Dreadsorrow hung his head slightly and shut his eyes.
"Listen, no one has to know, it will only be temporary, a few days at the most. Just pretend to take ill or something, you will then have an excuse for not seeing anyone and they will be none the wiser, still seeing you as the Grand Duchess for all intents and purposes. When I am done I will return and you will once again be Grand Duchess and you will never see me again."
He lifted his head back up and looked the Grand Duchess right in the eye.
"If the artefact can truly do what it is claimed it can, then perhaps there is even a chance for me to become what I was before. Alive, feeling and able to love again. Would you deny me that chance?"
The Grand Duchess looked back right at Dreadsorrow, her emotions playing quite clearly across her face. She lowered her hands and clasped them in front of her.
"Your name is quite apt. You fill me with a sense of dread, knowing that you could kill me on a mere whim at the slightest grievance or provocation and yet, when I look at you, I feel sorrow within me at the loss of my nephew, Anadelias." As she spoke, she loosened the ornate golden ring from the ring finger of her right hand. "It is for this reason and this one alone that I will help you. For if this artefact actually does what you say it can do, I will have my nephew back."
Taking Dreadsorrow's hand she placed the signet ring into his palm then closed his fingers around it and clasped her hands around his.
"Please, return to me as you were. Even if you choose not to speak to me again, just knowing you are alive and well will be enough."
Dreadsorrow nodded solemnly once and gently withdrew his hand. Taking the small gray stone from his pocket, his used his thumb to rub the blue rune set in the centre, activating the stone. The blue rune flared and then Dreadsorrow disappeared in a wave of light blue energy that cascaded from his head to toes.
Just like that, he was gone, leaving the Grand Duchess alone in her room to ponder what she had just done.
As she lay on the cold stone floor in one of the many cells of the Keep's dungeon, he could not help but remark at how helpless she looked. Her clothes were now ragged and torn from the guards' rough handling and soiled from the dirty cell floor. She stirred as a freezing cold breeze swept down from the mountains and howled through the slit in the wall that served as a window. Trying her hardest to pull her clothes tighter around her and gain some semblance of warmth, she looked pitiful to him and yet, she was still a threat to his plans and would need to be dealt with accordingly.
"Finally, you wake."
Ammet whirled around to see the man in red again. He was in her cell, wearing his flesh disguise, yet he spoke with the demon's voice. It was unsettling to say the least.
"Of all the people to be put in here with me they chose you. Fantastic." She said, heavy on the sarcasm.
Balnazzar gave an unearthly chuckle before answering her. "The fact that you think I am here not by my own choice is rather amusing. No, my little warlock, I am here because I have unfinished business with you, not because some lowly guards put me here."
Ammet narrowed her eyes. "What business?"
A smile grew on the man's face that was much larger than what it should be on a normal human. The needle-like fangs that grew down from his teeth didn't help either. "The business where I trap you in my little prison for all eternity so that you bother me no more, of course."
"Oh, that." Ammet looked perplexed. "So why let me sleep? Why wait until I woke up? Wouldn't it be easier to do it while I was out cold?"
"Questions, questions, questions. You humans are so full of curiosity; it will be the death of you all one day."
Ammet just stood silently, staring at the fleshy puppet having its strings pulled by the demon, refusing to look away.
Balnazzar narrowed his eyes. "If you really must know human, I let you sleep as a concession. There is no day or night in the crystal prison, it simply is. As such, there is no sleep and I thought you would like to get the most of it whilst you were still able."
"And the catch is?"
"The transference from the corporeal to the prison is incredibly painful. I wanted you to be fully awake and conscious for it. Otherwise, what's the point?" The demon gave Ammet a malicious smile, revealing his vestigial fangs again.
"Of course it is." Ammet sighed, rolling her eyes. "You wouldn't be a demon if it wasn't."
Balnazzar raised his hand and summoned the fel crystal prison. It hovered in front his hand, glowing a sickly dull green as it waited for the command to entrap its next victim. Balnazzar spoke the demonic words to activate it and watched as it flew towards Ammet. It hit her in the chest and stuck steadfast to her sternum.
The screams of pain and woe that came from her mouth were nothing unusual in the Keep dungeon and they went unnoticed, even as they reached a crescendo then stopped altogether.
Balnazzar held out his hand and the tiny prison flew into his palm. It was now glowing significantly brighter than when first summoned. He dismissed it back to the void where it would wait until summoned by him again.
It was jarring to say the least. One second he was in the private chambers of the Grand Duchess, then the next he was somewhere else in the blink of an eye. It took Dreadsorrow a few seconds to recover from the disorientating experience and assess his surroundings.
"Ahh, you are back quicker than I thought you would be – and not covered in blood either. I suspect things went well then?" Nilas inquired.
"It was...productive." Dreadsorrow replied to Nilas' question as he looked around.
He appeared to be at the edge of a large field, some type of wheat or something. Definitely one of the outlying farms, as he could see the capital in the distant, shining like a Sin'dorei flame-gem in the darkness. The small stone-built farming cottage was completely unremarkable and looked like any other building one would expect to see in a small rural farming community. Yet this one obviously had some type of significance, otherwise he and Nilas would not be here. Nilas too seemed different, Dreadsorrow thought, but he could not place what was different. A darker shade of black or brighter orb-eyes maybe. Or it could just be the low lighting. Dreadsorrow dismissed it and brought his mind back to the here and now.
"Good." The shade said in an oily voice, more so than usual, "Time is of the essence, let us proceed." He turned and pointed at one of the stones that made up the door frame of the cottage. "Place the hearthstone there."
Dreadsorrow looked at the stonework Nilas had pointed out, finding a small depression that turned out to be a perfect fit for the small rune-etched hearthstone he carried. As he slid the hearthstone into place, Nilas gestured towards the door.
"After you, your Grace." He said with mild amusement.
Dreadsorrow ignored the shade's quip as he opened the door and preceded into the stone cottage with Nilas following close behind him. The inside was empty save for an old table and two chairs in one corner that had collected a significant amount of dust and cobwebs.
Dreadsorrow frowned. "No one has been here for years, decades even."
"You were expecting a grand announcement of this place? Royal Guards out the front and crystal chandeliers inside?" Nilas floated over to the table and ran a ghostly finger along the top. If his finger were corporeal, it would have accumulated a thick dollop of dust on the end. "No, death knight, the best way to hide a place such as this is in plain sight."
Dreadsorrow grunted. "Well, it seems to have worked so far. What now?"
Nilas floated over and thrust a finger at him. "If we are to go any further, you must put on the ring of the Grand Duchy and become the Grand Duke of Glyhorn. Only then can you open the way."
Dreadsorrow took the ornate gold ring from his pocket and held it up so he could get a clear look at it. Even in the dank, almost non-existent light of the cottage, it still gleamed with a brilliance almost unmatched.
Tentatively he placed the ring between his index finger and thumb on his left hand and slowly placed it over his right hand's ring finger. Sliding the ring on fully, Dreadsorrow felt no different than he did before. Apparently becoming Grand Duke didn't bestow any feelings of grandeur in him or cause lightning to suddenly break forth from the heavens. He was the same death knight as before, but now with a fancy ring on one of his fingers.
"Your Grace." Nilas intoned, somewhere between genuine and mocking, as he gave a bow. As he came back up, he continued. "Now, all you have to do is speak the following words; 'I, the Grand Duke of Glyhorn, demand the way be open!'"
Dreadsorrow raised an eyebrow, but nonetheless cleared his throat and put as much command into his voice as he could muster and repeated what Nilas had said.
As soon as he had finished the sentence, a section of the cottage wall began to shimmer. It stayed like that for a couple of seconds before vanishing entirely, leaving a gaping black maw in its wake.
"Most interesting indeed." After staring into the black nothingness, Nilas concluded that it must be a portal of some description, probably two-way.
"Probably two-way?" Dreadsorrow asked, more than a little incredulous.
"Well, we'll find out when we reach the other side, won't we?" Nilas replied with a hint of amusement.
Frowning, Dreadsorrow walked up the blackness and gave it a quick once over before stepping through.
Nilas let out a small chuckle before following the death knight into the black abyss.