Twenty One: Departure
::Okay, it may be evident that the Spire part of Fable 2 is not my favorite quest. I admit that usually when playing that part of the game I usually turn on it on mute and get it done as quickly as I can. This is absolutely a section of the story that will havet to be re-written and I realize that. There are untapped depths of misery I can plumb from this part of the story but I don't have the time at the moment. Sorry about that. I hope you like what I have anyway.::
The sheer size of the Spire pretty much guaranteed that the guard once-called Sparrow would not be expected back anytime soon. Down the steep corridors she went. The last that was heard of recruit 367 was that he was patrolling the lowest level for deserters and that was practically in a different country from where the Commandant's quarters were.
If it were possible it was even darker down there than the higher spaces of the Spire. She passed through shadow and inky black darkness until all sounds of work and feeble life above her vanished.
She was near the base level of the Spire when she spotted a dark huddled mass on the floor. It lay inert and she approached cautiously, looking for signs of an attack.
When she bent over the body it became obvious recruit 367 was one of the disciplinary forces; a shining cutlass lay a few feet away along with a clockwork pistol. A cursory search produced a handful of healing potent vials, for all the good they did him. He was clearly stone dead; neck bent at an unnatural angle.
Holding the solid steel length of the cutlass in her hand stirred vague memories of a life someone else had lived. There was freedom, vast open horizons of endless sky, adventure and… faces that meant something to her once. The Commandant had never allowed her to hold steel before. He had found her fist punishment enough to the malnourished prisoners who built the Spire.
She only had a moments warning of the shuffle of feet before she was struck with an invisible force. Gritting teeth, she spun around to face her enemy.
The prisoner! He escaped!
The guard forced herself to move, pain was an old friend now, and gripped the hard steel in a hand. The man held his hands out, a bluish light radiated from them and the collar around her neck started to crackle.
I must attack! I must… but the eyes of the man drew her in, called to her, resonated with something half-forgotten inside her.
"Remember!" he gritted out. "Remember who you are!"
She slowed her steps as the man groaned and let his head drop but pushed with his hands. The light grew intensely until it was blinding and with a terrific display of fireworks and sound the collar shattered.
In an exhilarating, terrifying rush came life! Images, feelings, memories came back as Will rushed in and the woman who lived and died ten lifetimes over in the Spire fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands.
Panting, Garth made a few faltering steps towards her and laid a hand on her shoulder. After the wracking sobs died down he heard,
"I…I am Sparrow. I'm Sparrow!
"Welcome back, Hero."
"It's taken more years than I expected to gather the Will to destroy the collars and take out that guard. I've nothing left to give. We may not make it out."
Shaking, emotion battering the insides of her head, Sparrow gathered the weapons and held up the cutlass so it reflected what little light there was.
How many years has it been!? How many years have I lost to this place?
Sparrow could hardly breathe around the terrible influx of emotions.
The things I have done! And Rose, I had forgotten Rose!
Her heart slowed and terrible guilt burned in her gut. This place, Lucien, the Spire ,had made her out to be a monster. She had been one of them and it was a stain she could never wash away. There was, however, something she could do now.
"We're leaving. And pity the bastards who get in my way."
Garth nodded grimly and said, "When the fighting starts it's up to you. The only way out of the Spire is through the Commandant's chamber. Ready yourself, Hero, and let's move."
A few faulty steps and Sparrow regained the strength in her legs. Her mind may be a mess of colliding emotion but there was one crystal clear motive; vengeance.
It didn't take long for other guards to investigate the commotion that destroying the collar must have caused. As Sparrow and Garth rounded a corner two more disciplinary guards stopped and gaped in shock when they saw Garth.
"Ere' that's the Will user!"
"He ain't wearing the collar! Get him!"
Before they had moved two steps Sparrow was on them. So great was the pent up rage of repressed Heroic instinct they went down like a pair of hares beneath the onslaught of a rabid wolf. The second guard barely had time to raise his sword before Sparrow simply batted it aside and slammed a fist into his neck. This new, darker part of Sparrow writhed in pleasure as the broken body fell limp to the ground and screamed for more.
The two Heroes raced along corridors, quickly devouring levels and steps. Garth notably was far behind Sparrow, unable to keep up with the unstoppable force she had become. The carnage that followed Sparrow would have put the Crucible to shame. There was no mercy in her and the fury of her blade was relentless. She left a trail of butchery that took mere moments to create.
Garth was silent; either agreeing with the punishment or wise enough not to comment.
By the time they arrived at the level before the Commandant's quarters the alarm had already been sounded but it didn't deter Sparrow. Fueled by years of disuse the Will within her was wild and almost uncontrollable; several corridors lay completely destroyed by a well-placed Inferno spell.
Sparrow paused as they stumbled upon the prison cells; the emaciated faces of the damned stared out in shock and hope. Realizing what the sounds meant they stretched out hands and pleaded to Sparrow to help them, to free them.
Garth put a firm hand on her arm and pulled her along.
"There is nothing you can do now. The only way to help them is to finish this."
Gritting her teeth Sparrow raced down corridor and barely paused as she put a boot through the locked doors of the Commandant's room, shattering them without effort.
The room was empty and silent. Holding her bloodied sword at the ready she quickly scanned the area and followed Garth as he limped his way towards the windows that overlooked the docking area.
"We're not leaving until the Commandant is dead."
"I agree."
"I know what you're thinking but it's not revenge; that's just a fortunate by-product. Look here-"
Sparrow stood beside Garth at the window. Far below was the tiny figure of a ship just coming in to port.
"A load of new recruits is being brought in. Now we need to find the Comman- arrrgh!"
Garth gave out a strangled scream as a force bolt of magic bent his body backwards and threw him to the ground.
Sparrow whipped around to see the very man they had been looking for.
"Still giving me trouble after all these years, recruit 273? This will not go unpunished!"
Behind the Commandant half a dozen soldiers filed out and filled the room.
"I have been patient," he said silkily, walking towards her "and I have been obedient. I am obedient to Lord Lucien. Yes, that is why I will die; for he demands obedience and I have failed him. However, before that I will finish you."
"You'll forgive me if I shove that 'obedience' straight down your throat!"
Sparrow felt no fear even though with all her instincts and Will back online she knew the Commandant was a tough bastard and wouldn't fall easily. Blood red filled her vision; all she could feel was the weight of misery, the loss of self she had suffered at the hands of this creature. Everything stripped away from her until she was nearly an animal to be used and thrown away.
How many have suffered? How many more will die? Because this won't end today.
She reveled in the terror in the guards faces. They fell upon her in a wave, perhaps figuring safety in numbers, but her new terrible strength and hardened body was beyond the capacity of any normal human being now. It was with shocking ease that she guided the cold metal through flesh and bone, with frightful accuracy and speed that her bullets tore out vitals.
With a wordless snarl she gathered a wild bolt of lightning and sent it crackling towards the Commandant with speed barely visible to the normal eye.
He casually deflected the bolt away with a wordless smile and the flick of his hand.
Sparrow returned the mirthless grin and felt wild laughter bubble in her throat.
"A battle of Lucien's manufactured Hero against a real one?" she asked.
The Commandant's face changed ever so subtly.
"There are no Heroes and you will die here."
With ferocious speed the cutlass whistled through air and was brought down with shattering force towards the Commandant's armored chest. It was met with thin air and Sparrow felt the spell that moved the Commandant from one space to another instantaneously and thought,
Two can play at that game.
The Will that surged through her told her it was a short range trajectory and she managed to change the force of the swing so that she was able to bring a fist around just as the Commandant came out of the quick-move spell directly behind her.
There was an immensely satisfying crunch as gloved fist met the shocked face of her enemy. The body of the Commandant was flung backwards and skidded across the room. There was momentary stunned silence as the Commandant raised a hand to his broken and bleeding face.
In another lifetime the look and the burning power coming off of the Commandant may have sent fear coursing through Sparrow but years of confinement and near hysterical anger fueled her as she merely let the laughter rise from her throat and threw herself again into deadly battle with an enraged monster.
It quickly became a conflict of Will; one adversary would fling a devastating force of power while the other used Will to block or send the deadly energy to one side, effectively destroying the surrounding area.
Seeing Will wasn't going to give any upper hand they fell on each other with blades ready. Sparrow took wounds and wasn't able to avoid every blow of the Commandant's magically amplified blade but it didn't dissuade her onslaught. One moment of too-slow reflex and the tip of the Commandant's blade ripped through cheek, eye and forehead; blood decorated his too-close face but Sparrow did not falter. Close to the ragged edge of berserker rage she could hear the mad laughter coming from her throat and it spurred her on to hit harder, move faster and was finally rewarded with an opening.
With one good eye she saw the Commandant's defenses weakening slightly and reveled in the growing shock and fear in his face. While the years spent in the Spire may have taken its toll on him Sparrow had been young to begin with and had only grown in strength as her Heroic blood was pushed to its limits.
With a howl of fury she put everything she had behind the final blow; every horror she experienced, every year of her life lost, every moment she wished righteous vengeance for those lost to the Spire's terrible construction was put behind the 20 inch blade of steel.
There was a terrible silence as the Commandant bent his shocked face to look at the blade that skewered him to the wall and the warrior that had the full force of her weight on the hilt.
There was a gurgling sound as he tried to say something, then he fell to the ground as Sparrow yanked the blade from the wall, breathing hard and smearing blood out of her eye. Several of the healing potents has already been used, but with the Commandant dead hopefully there would be no need for more.
As life fled the Commandant something strange happened; the Will trapped inside his body glowed fiercely momentarily then bled out into the room. The Commandants body shriveled and caved into itself, like a desiccated mummy.
Sparrow watched in awe, one hand pressed tightly against one of the more serious wounds, as the energy floated then was sucked towards the Hero of Will. The light convalesced around him, drawing into Garth, growing brighter and brighter until the lines that marked him a Will user wound around limbs and burned brightly.
Garth threw back his head and let an animalistic roar vibrate through his chest as his power was restored. Stretching his arms and checking healed injuries he flashed Sparrow a grim smile.
"Well done, Hero. I think it's safe to say you needn't protect me any longer. Do you require aid?"
But Sparrow already had the last of the healing potents out and swallowed its contents, sighing in relief as it took effect. She allowed Garth to remove her hand from her injured eye and let him assess the damage.
"You may yet keep the sight in your eye but there will always be a scar. One last 'gift' from our gracious Commandant, you might say. As is that sword."
Sparrow looked down in surprise to see Garth was correct; the cutlass she had taken from the dead recruit was now glowing faintly. Lines of delicate Will script was etched into the blade. Whatever had happened between her and the Commandant had forged a new and powerful weapon.
"How-?"
Garth studied the blade for a moment then replied,
"The ways of Will are hard to comprehend. Sometimes when a union of great emotion and Will are combined they can…warp things. It can bind itself to inanimate objects and living creatures. You are proficient at Will, even if you are untrained; you desired to be strong so Will granted you that wish."
Stepping back from Sparrow Garth placed himself in the center of the room and said,
"Stand back; I'm going to activate the gate that will take us to the docks."
Arms glowing brightly Garth sent a wave of Will directly into the Cullis Gate at the far end of the Commandant's quarters. Garth made mystic symbols Sparrow didn't recognize and raised his hands. The gate sprung to life with the familiar blue glow and for the first time in what seemed like a century Sparrow thought,
I'm going home.
"Come. There still is some fighting to be done; let's get to the docks and get out of here!"
The newest recruits huddled in a mass just off the ship that brought them to the Spire. Before them, guarding or preventing escape, were a number of Spire soldiers. It was obvious something had gone wrong at the moment of their arrival; over the rhythmic pulsing of the darks walls a consistent wail sounded the alarm for an attack, so by the sharp end of a blade the recruits were gathered in one spot while the soldiers went to find out the reason for the alarm.
Far above there had been some sort of light show, an exciting one it was at that. Lightning forked across the dark endless ceiling of the Spire, then some sort of explosion. All had been quiet now for some minutes except-
"What's that!?" one of the recruits shouted.
There had been a flash of blue light at the far end of the dock where the base of the Spire met the water of the ocean and now sounds of altercation could be heard.
It sounded like a battle but it couldn't be! This place had some of the strongest forces in Albion! There were great flashes of light, and thunder and the clash of steel and screams of men. And it was coming towards them!
"Blimey, is that magic?"
It was. In mere moments all the soldiers on the dock had been magically knocked over the side of the dock, skewered with swords of flame or gutted, shot or pummeled by the monstrous soldier with the glowing cutlass.
The dark-skinned man with glowing lines etched into his body stopped before the recruits and held up his hands in an attempt to calm them.
"Listen to me! You must leave this place at once, if you want to live!"
"Ere' now, who the bloody hell d'you think you are, eh!? We gets paid to be a guard here, you think we're going to leave a job like that?"
The second figure, the larger one that had sent most of the guards flying into watery graves, stepped from behind the magic man and the recruits gaped.
It was a woman! A giant Amazon that looked as though she had stepped out of Armageddon; her face was a flat mask of concentrated malice, the guard uniform ripped and splattered in crimson. The half-healed livid wound that went across her left eye fueled the eerie blood-thirsty aura that she exuded.
"What about our money?" one of them wavered.
Casually, she back-handed the unfortunate questioner and pulled back her lips into a snarl.
"Get on the damned ship!"