Chapter Twenty
Written: October 2006
Edited: April 29, 2008
Rowen swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat, as he nervously scanned the halls. They had made it to the corridor finally, and begun to walk down it. At the pace they were going, it could have been equaled with crawling.
As the Ronin of Strata continued his trek, the yelling that had before come to his ears came again, and it got louder with each step he took. What startled him was the fact that for some odd reason he knew it was from his memory. A part that had become buried for some reason, and a reason he wasn't sure he could begin to guess at.
The yelling changed, and shattering glass reached his ears next, and he froze completely. The frantic voices he heard now, he recognized immediately. He was reluctant to move forward, to even breathe and had he not been trapped in his own memory he might've realized that the others were suffering from the same thing.
All of a sudden, it ended as quickly as it had started up. Once his vision cleared Rowen was surprised to see Elayne standing in front of them, her back to them. In front of her was a small shield, only visible because it was tied directly to the crystal by some miniscule amount of darkened light.
"Everybody okay?" the girl queried, turning to glance at them over her shoulder.
Ryo rubbed at his forehead, and glanced at his teammates who all nodded, "We're fine."
"Stay behind me," she said before turning back to face the front. "Shinshou's spell is triggering locked memories. I won't read into why right now, all I know is that the crystal can offer you limited protection. We've an hour, hour-and-a-half at most, before the shield it's providing fails."
"Do I even want to know how you figured it out?" Sekhmet queried, his voice held a light note of concern to it.
"Shinshou was thinking about it, when I confronted him," she answered calmly as she started to walk down the hall. "His mind was poorly guarded, only because he did not expect me to be in enough strength to catch on to him."
Any further discussion ended as the warriors turned their attention to the unpleasant walk ahead of them.
Cye paused detecting an underlying presence of negative energy, and tensed whipping his head to his right trying to see if he could locate it. His empathetic abilities were not anywhere as well developed as Sage's, but they were more than what most of the others had.
The Ronin of Torrent could find nothing though, and a glance to the swordsman, who merely shook his head signified the blond couldn't sense anything either.
Cye frowned, the further down this corridor they went; the more negative the energy and the more sorrow and misery he could feel. He was certain these negative emotions had been lingering in this hall for a long time, coupled with that of another emotion which he could not identify.
Sage was able to though, and sent along the simple message of, 'Pain.'
Dais seemed upset over being in this corridor as well; he continually looked around him his one good eye never settling on a spot for more than a minute.
The Seasonal of Summer had been in Talpa's employ, not the longest but he knew all too well of the rumors concerning the older parts of the palace, what they had been used for. Plus, his former life as an assassin made him curious and by nature he wanted to know everything he could about anything, so he knew where they were now and was not that happy about it.
Anubis watched the man out of the corner of his eyes, inquiring, "Something wrong Dais?"
The Summer Seasonal nearly jumped out of his skin, but quickly made his face neutral, "No."
"You're lying," Sekhmet tartly stated, "You know something about this place that we don't, tell us."
Dais gave the man a glare, "I know nothing, except for rumors which can neither be proven true or false."
"Then tell us these rumors then," Cale snapped in annoyance, "We can never be too careful."
The white-haired man scoffed, "You always were overly cautious, Cale."
"Oh will the four of you, ever shut your big-loud mouths?" Kayura demanded in aggravation, "The Ronin don't want to listen to you argue like infants, I know I don't!"
"What rumors do you know of, Dais?" Ryo queried, ignoring the banter taking place. Oh Wildfire's bearer had a hunch or two, but he wasn't sure if this part of the palace had been used in the same was as it had in the past.
The man hesitated, eye having quickly shot to his right, before he answered slowly, "Only a few, the main rumors are that the…" He trailed off, eye focusing on the wall in front of them.
"It's a dead end?" Cye murmured in confusion, "That doesn't make sense."
Kayura frowned and approached it cautiously, she then tapped it with her hand, and frowned, "It's hollow. This isn't a real wall, I mean it isn't part of the original palace, it has to be fifty years-old at least."
Sekhmet eyed it with a grin, "Shall I do the honors? Or does someone else want them?"
Kayura rolled her eyes, stepped to the side and said, "Be my guest."
All it took was one good kick from the man before the wall caved completely.
"Wasn't a very strong wall," the Fall Seasonal now frowned, "They put it up hastily then."
"I wonder why?" Anubis murmured, and felt a sudden chill crawl down his spine, he turned to the Summer Seasonal, "Dais, you were going to explain what you had heard; I'd do it, before we continue any further."
The white-haired man seemed agitated, and it was plain to see that he was very tense, "Rumor has it that the old dungeons were down this way. But the pain and sorrow left lingering in the walls, made it unbearable for any but the Nether Spirits to travel down it. Talpa had the corridor sealed off, finding the older methods did not work as well as the newer ones."
Kento shuddered remembering all too well the torture he had endured, and if that had been the newer, he would have hated to endure the older.
"Do I dare ask, what was wrong with the older methods?" The Strata Ronin hesitantly inquired.
Dais frowned, tried to speak and thought better of it; no he wasn't even going to go there. He continued walking on with the others, but never once stopped scanning for movement.
"The victims rarely survived," Elayne answered, for the most part she had been quiet during this trip down the long, never ending corridor, only speaking when she had to.
Cye winced at her revelation, "Poor souls."
"You know of these 'rumors' as well?" Cale asked her sharply.
She scoffed at him, "You're forgetting something very important my beloved Winter Seasonal I've been here before. On more occasions than I'd like to mention or recall."
He went silent, thinking of a retort but finding none to get her with.
Kayura frowned ever so slightly; she was starting to think that the girl hadn't heard the rumors at all, but in fact had first hand knowledge instead.
Ryo had kept his eyes straight in front of him for the entire time, ever since Elayne had thrown up the shield; he had refused to take his eyes off her. The further they went down the corridor, he could see that her skin-tone had become paler and paler; obviously the shield didn't protect her from the mental-attacks like it was doing for them.
Now, another wall came into view, and he came to a complete stop, his armor telling him not to move another step.
The Hardrock Ronin walked up to the wall, fully prepared to deal with the obstacle.
"No Kento, get back!"
He abruptly stopped moving a cast a look at Elayne, not failing to note the look on her face and not missing the panic that had been in her voice. Yet, she did nothing to explain herself as she walked past him, halting at the wall.
"No one move an inch," her tone was stern, yet at the same time strained.
Rowen wanted to know where this girl got off at, giving orders as though they were too naïve to know how to handle themselves. The Ronin immediately berated himself, he knew better than that; it was obvious Elayne could sense things about this place that they could not.
She let out a nervous breath, muttering to herself in a low tone, "Now where is it?"
Her violet eyes scanned the walls, and the harder she looked the more she saw, until she finally found what she was looking for. She took her left hand, pushed on the stone there, then the one above her head, and then the one on her right.
The girl then quickly leapt back, just as spikes sprung up from the floor that would have skewered them all as they would have tried to enter the door that had appeared upon their approach.
"Ken…Kento," Cye began quietly, eyes widened in horror, "You would've been…"
"A Hardrock shish kabob ya," he gave a nod of his ash-purple head in agreement.
Elayne was silent as she checked the energy level of the area, before walking forward, "Come on, and watch your step while you're at it."
Those that had brushed off this warning, found themselves on their knees unprepared for the sudden drop off.
Elayne rolled her eyes having heard the collective thud from behind her, and turned around hauling Anubis to his feet.
"An abrupt drop," the Spring Seasonal remarked somewhat sheepishly.
Rowen nodded in agreement rubbing his now sore knee, hoping that it wouldn't turn black and blue on him, "You're not joking."
Ryo looked up at the door, which was two to three feet above them, "Ya, the other floor just ends there. That's more than just a little unusual."
"Talpa was a nutter," Kayura dismissively stated, as it more or less explained everything.
"Guess we'll be jumping out," Sekhmet mumbled out.
The girl snorted at the way the comment was stated, and turned to the front again a shiver going down her spine.
Her eyes flickered around the dimly lit room nervously, as though she were expecting to be attacked at any moment.
"There are shackles all over the walls," Cale remarked in distaste.
The Ronin of Halo looked pale and as though he was going to be sick. He could see the table not too far ahead of them, where heavy bindings were laid and it was apparent that the iron was heated while the victim was being tortured.
What made it all the worse, was the fact he could all too easily detect the pain and agony left behind as well as the screams of those who had suffered here. He wasn't the only one not taking it well. Being here only a few minutes now, had managed to visibly upset Kayura.
Undoubtedly her being part of the Ancient's clan made her vulnerable to these emotions that had imprinted themselves into the walls of this part of the palace.
She was paler than normal as well, and her breathing had abruptly gone short. All in all she was very uneasy.
Dais put an arm around the young woman, "Calm yourself, we'll try to get through here and quickly."
She could only give a nod of her head in response, involuntarily shuddering as a chill swept through her.
"We need to move on," Anubis said gravely, "Lest any tortured souls linger here and try to harm us."
"I…" Sage began, as Rowen helped him to his feet, "Can't sense any, or see any either."
"You won't," the Secondary Guardian responded quietly, "There aren't any left. I tended to the matter long ago. They rest now."
She could sense their alarm, and chuckled at it, "Oh please, I didn't become such an agile mover, and good fighter without experience. Why else do you think over half my synapses are shot? I've endured enough pain and torture, more than any of you could even dream about, so let's not start on the 'oh I'm sorry' lines; besides I'm the one who signed on for this anyway."
"That doesn't make it,…" Cye began with a frown.
"What, 'all right'? Nothing will ever make it 'okay' Shin, and nothing will erase what has happened, but that's not why we're here. We are here to throw a rather large wrench in Shinshou's plan, now let's go before the shield falls apart," the girl said sternly.
The Ronin of Wildfire shot Torrent a glare that said not to push the matter, knowing full well that the other man would do so, and stepped forward now in sub-armor.
The others followed his lead, quickly calling up their powers as to offer them a bit more protection, physical as well as mental.
This allowed the girl to lower how much energy she was using for the mental shield, and gave her a small reprieve, just enough to keep her walking forward. Not more than five minutes later she halted, her violet eyes snapping immediately to her left.
The Ronin of Strength studied the wall, noting how the air directly in front of it seemed to be rippling like water; he could sense an odd amount of energy coming from it, and inquired, "So this is it then?"
Cale nodded avidly, "Yes, it's a cusalta."
"Great, now how do we close it?" Strata's bearer inquired, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Kayura gave a snort and ridiculed him, "Stop being so pissy Rowen."
"He's just hurt that you haven't had any alone time," Cye jibbed, chortling when the archer glared at him. The Ronin of Water quickly stepped away from the Lady Ancient evading her punch to his shoulder that might have occurred.
"Save it you guys," the Wildfire Ronin told them, before looking to the four Seasonals. Not surprising the other Elemental Ronin and Kayura did the same. For an answer they received shrugs in response.
"You have got to be kidding," Sage's tone clearly signified he was not impressed, "You mean to tell me that you dragged us all the way out here, and don't know how to seal this thing?"
"We didn't expect to actually find one!" The Fall Seasonal protested, "Whenever they occurred before Talpa had the Spirits seal them."
"Just shut up you guys," Elayne said tartly, rubbing the point in between her temples failing to fight off the migraine that was creeping up on her.
Ryo put a hand on her shoulder, "You okay?"
She shook her head, "No, I can't hold this shield for too much longer, I can give you another twenty minutes, but that's it. As far as closing it goes, close your eyes, clear your thoughts and focus on the task at hand."
The girl took a step or two away from the Wildfire Ronin, before the dark flames lapped at her form quickly overtaking her, leaving the Scout in her place.
"Your powers will be enough to close it, and I'll keep watch out here to make sure Shinshou doesn't pull anything," Universe said in a calm tone. "I know he will though. Do what you can to start to make it close, and if you can't do anymore than that, I'll seal it."
The Ronin Leader avidly shook his head, "No way, you don't have the kind of power to pull it off without harming yourself more than you already have. We'll get it closed just keep the ghost off our cases." He turned his attention to the others, "Like she said, clear your thoughts, focus, and let's get this damn thing shut so we can leave."
Kayura gave a snort at hearing this, but withdrew her weapons, planning to keep watch with Universe, to make sure nothing happened. Unfortunately, it was already too late.