A/N: Been a while. Sorry about that, Life-uh get's in the way. I haven't seen the newest two episodes yet but spoilers have pretty much told me all I really need to know about the plots. Thanks internet, I do enjoy not being able to be surprised anymore. Ugh It's my fault really we're almost at a new episode and that would make me three behind. But hey, next episode is sure to break some hearts given what last episode ended with. Also Belos man, there's some soft mystery we're waiting on for that a-hole to reveal and I can't wait. My teeth are practically shivering in excitement. It's going to be a bit of a bigger chapter so hopefully it helps mitigate the wait between chapters just a bit. I don't know why but this was kind of a hard chapter to write. I like it but I don't know. It's a lot to take in but hopefully it's satisfactory. Enjoy, I'll see you in a new chapter soon.
What hits them first as they stare into the open maw of the prison is a foul stench of rancid filth unlike anything they've experienced before. It is not like the stink of the Elytra pheromones' and wholly different to the maggot-rot of butchered corpses. What emanates from the opened gates is pure filth. It is rot and piss and shit and anything unclean and dirty. It is wet, soggy food stuck to dishes left to aerate for weeks. It is a thousand opened garbage bags left inside the kitchen for many weeks. It is the very antithesis of cleanliness itself.
The air is a poisonous miasma like a physical barrier that none can pass through to enter the prison. The enclosed spaces of the building only compound the filthy air and make it more potent and potentially lethal.
"I don't suppose you have a spell for filtering the air, Eda?" The Owl Lady simply sags and doesn't answer which is all the answer Luz needs. Amity reaches into her bag and pulls out a few length of plain linen. She cuts them into roughly bandana sized squares and passes them around so all four of them have something to cover their noses with. It doesn't remove the stink entirely but it makes it semi-bearable with enough steeled willed.
Eda wishes she brought herbs along to stuff into the bandanas old-fashioned Plague Doctor style but alas she did not.
So they're kinda fucked.
Naturally the lights are half broken and the rest are either flickering or dimmed for a gothic vibe as the sistership passes under the gates and into the oppressive reception and processing hall. A sour taste forms on Lilith's tongue and it's decidedly not from the air.
The entry hall of the Conformatorium, much the same as the design of the building as a whole, was made large and imposing with the intent of intimidation. The entry is over one hundred feet tall with large columns supporting the massive structure of the ceiling and roof. The room stretches back thrice its height and is roughly as wide as it is tall. Between the columns going down the entire length of the massive hall is a series of statues each roughly sixty feet tall dedicated to various founders and famous heroes at the start of Belos' regime. Most are the original heads of the various primary covens although there are a few others Amity recognizes from the (in her opinion) overblown textbooks Witchlings are forced to read through in class.
Naturally all are dead with the exception of the emperor himself and his (now traitor) second in command, Kikimora. Amity and Luz got a real chuckle out of the fact that her statue is less than half the height of its' sister statues.
Lilith hid her smile well but her eyes betrayed her.
"I knew she could smile still. Get over here, ya' old crone!" Eda throws an arm around her sister's neck and pulls her in for a side-hug with surprising strength. Lilith quite literally squawks in indignation but that does nothing to stop her 'force of nature' of a sister.
The good times and giggles couldn't last very long. The oppressive nature of the building and the wretched stench hurried them along soon enough.
Lilith ushers everyone towards the security check-in and processing offices. Inside she explains they'll be able to find a ledger or series of ledgers that will have the cell registry they can use to find where the emperor was sent to. It's a long shot but better to do it and be disappointed first before running around aimlessly in search of the person no one wants to rescue in the first place.
No one's in a good mood.
There was no need to break down the door into the offices as someone large and clearly very strong did that at some point before them. The heavy iron door had been completely ripped out of the wall and much of the area surrounding the frame had been collapsed and broken down to make a hole large enough to fit an elephant through. The guardsman's wing, for lack of a better term, had been thoroughly ransacked, but not looted to any capacity. Lilith finds it to be very intriguing.
The offices and interrogation rooms have been torn apart; papers thrown about, cabinets topples and desks and files scattered, but any weapons even in the opened armory are tossed about but still all accounted for. At first glance it seems like a large and violent fight suddenly erupted, there's still rotten food with utensils stuck in it, but there is no blood or bodies or actual damage to the walls or ceilings to indicate spell usage. It's as though all within the offices went mad and started flinging random shit around like a troop of chimpanzees.
Eda nods appreciatively at the carnage. She's been apart of many instances of this after all.
"Yup, I know what this is." The other three lean in closely ready to absorb her sage wisdom, "It's a classic brawlerbation."
Lilith pinches the bridge of her nose and leaves to search for the ledger(s) amongst the many piles. Amity opens her mouth to question but closes it after a second and wisely returns to assisting Lilith with her hunt. She's dealt with quirky, colorful characters too much in the past few months and has learned roughly eighty-percent of anything out of the Owl Lady's mouth is useless wisdom.
"What's a brawlerbation?" Dammit, Luz, don't encourage her!
"It's when there's a big celebration for something and everyone gets smashed, then they get rowdy and start beating the shit out of each other-"
"Language." Lilith's warning falls on deaf ears.
"-then everyone passes out, wakes up in the morning and by then everyone's forgotten who threw the first punch. Strange that no one's picked up by now. This is an office for dozens of guards, where'd they all go?"
Eda finds herself suddenly not feeling so well. Even her legendary humor isn't doing squat to lighten the mood any not even for herself. Something about this place is making her skin crawl and the silly story she made up only got a small chuckle out of the human. No one else. What in the world caused an entire platoon of guards to seemingly go bonkers?
The dive through the offices was mostly a bust however Amity did discover a document detailing a section of the prison in the far back used for prisoners with 'no face value'. Lilith knew immediately what was intended by that phrasing; it's the place you hide the people you don't want to be seen anymore. Many influential Wild Witches of the past have 'vanished' within the walls of the Conformatorium and Lilith is willing to bet all of her money they were stuffed into a dark cell away from everything to rot away and be forgotten. Her stomach feels as though she has been stabbed at the thought as she herself was personally responsible for the capture of nearly all of those types of Witches over the past thirty years.
Lilith's freedom under her sister's care has been such a violent eye-opening experience that the older Clawthorne damn well considered taking her own life as some sort of nonsensical attempt at punishment and revenge for all those whose lives she personally destroyed. The timely intervention of her sister, a very long conversation and months of sibling therapy have fought back that dark desire but still... those dark thoughts gnaw at the back of her mind. They're like talons that rip through her brain matter trying to puppet her body into acts of wretched self-mutilation. She can't help but wonder if this is the doing of her own subconscious, a cruel joke by the madgod or if there is even a difference between them at all!
It's positively maddening!
A hand on her shoulder jolts her from the prison that is her own thoughts. Eda shoots her an odd look and Lilith flushes in slight embarrassment.
Oh right. She's the one with the map.
A few light glyphs illuminated their way through the winding corridors but they found no comfort in the cold glow. The bright light seems to only cover the four of them and beyond the reach of it the shadows seem even darker than they would without the light.
Shadows and silhouettes seem to move around every corner and they dance and hide the ghosts of nothing at all yet the fear and anxiety and nerves tingle as though many eyes stare down upon them and the high pitch of silence seems to scream in their very ears. Small sounds seem to scurry about them like the patter of the small feet of children following them yet nothing is revealed by their guardian light. Once Luz thought she saw the outline of a man standing in the void but she blinked and suddenly it was gone (or it might've not existed at all!).
Eda crinkles her nose as the stench remains ever present and proud however there's no sigh of what could be causing it all! There are curious stains in the stone everywhere. It is an off-colored dark grey splotch on the lighter bricks but what they might be she does not know. Whatever it may be it is long dry. Water stains from a leaky roof? Something twists in her gut and she quickly drops the thoughts from her mind.
They cut through a few incarceration blocks following Lilith's map. It takes them to an internal bridge that hangs high over something resembling a deep and narrow ravine. Luz focuses her light to shine down into the artificial chasm. The ravine is actually a proper cell block twelve layers of cells deep and no less than twenty across on either side. The only way up and down the different levels is a single staircase barely wide enough for a man and a half that extends from the very deepest level up to the overlooking bridge.
It's a choke point, something used to funnel bodies and slow crowds down in the event of a break out. And from their vantage point it is clear at least half of the cells are open while the rest remains closed. Perhaps the motors that automatically move the half ton bars are broken?
Lilith swallows a lump in her throat and moves on with her ducklings in tow. She doesn't want to address the fact that many of those closed cells were occupied when she was last through.
But without anyone to provide food and water...
No! She chides herself and forces her mind to focus on her goal. She cannot give in to her emotions and guilt now, not while they're so close to solving the issues that curse them! They carry on. As they pass the bridge back into another long hallway they all hear what sounds like whispers in the wind. Voices so soft they're nonexistent call out to them and beg them not to go and to set them free. The four hurry up just a little bit more. There's nothing living in those cells and whetever the hell is trapped within those cells is not on their side.
As they leave the ravine behind the echo of childish laughter follows their steps, mocking and cursing them as they pass beyond sight. Eda casts a glance over her shoulder but immediately whips back to facing forward with eyes wide and sweat dripping off her brow. She desperately tries to wash the image of a mutilated and rotting body waving her goodbye.
The farther within the belly of the beast they travel the greater the stench and their fears and worries grow.
There is a decided lack of insane inmates and that is very troubling. Thousands of the cursed and wretched insane were dumped into the bowels of the Conformatorium and they haven't come across a single one. They all have simply vanished into thin air
All that there is to suggest Witches even inhabited the ghost prison is the... waste they left behind. The stench of it raises bile in the back of their throats. The acid burns but the very air seems worse. Fumes invisible to the eye permeate every inch of the hallways. There is no relief to be had and what little the linen covering the faces seems to be moot and more than likely totally useless now.
How could such a revolting stench be produced by the body?
Shit and piss and vomit and all other fluids of the natural form have been dumped haphazardly and without order all throughout the innermost tunnels and chambers. It's as though they simply stopped and dropped (Edalyn's words, not Lilith's) then carried on. Months and months of the deranged were left without guidance of any kind. No delegation to toiletries from neither the guards nor the inmates themselves. Hundreds and perhaps even thousands over the course of months have simply relieved themselves wherever convenient.
It is a total degradation of the mind into something sub-animal.
Luz's light shines upon the cold stone walls as she trails behind her companions. Their eyes are hawk-focused forward but the drive of natural human curiosity is too strong and it pulls her eyes to the defaced walls around them. Eyes and symbols and inane ramblings are scratched and marked into the walls either with some sort of disgusting slurry or a chisel of some kind. The words and phrases and gibberish make no sense but there is some sort of logic behind the strange runes that are carved into the walls. It is too... uniform and flawless to be anything but some sort of intelligence.
She studies them from far (she's not getting close to the nastiness thank you very much!) but they must be magic of some kind as staring into the harsh lettering somehow causes her eyes sting.
"What are these runes supposed to be?" She questions aloud, "They don't look anything like mine! They're- I don't know, more complicated? More powerful?"
The glyphs found in the nature of the boiling isles are simply formed with few intricacies. The runes on the walls possess many branches and advanced patterns that would take hours to draw by hand. It is clear whatever affect they might have is far more refined then summoning the classical elements.
Amity examines one from a distance (she's not shoving her face into a shit-rune thank you very much!). It doesn't take her long to recognize certain aspects of the runes. They're daedric! But not any daedric she's seen before. Whatever spells and stories that are marked on the walls are of a completely different level than the runes she used to tear open a portal into the realms of Oblivion and that thought frightens her deeply. Simply floating the concept of magic more powerful than dimensional travel makes her feel so small and helpless.
"We should keep our eyes forward from now on," Amity warns ominously. The other three agree. Whatever language surrounds them is not for their minds to decipher.
"Here we are. This is the inner sanctum."
Lilith gestures to the small hall they find themselves in. There is only twelve cells, six on each side, however each one is small and fit only for a single individual each. There is a bed, a toilet and a small sink for each one; surprisingly luxurious in comparison with the standards for the rest of the prison.
Each cell is void of any light whatsoever. To further break the prisoner they are left in the darkness with no light to see around their cells at all. Small candles of blue flame illuminates above the bars just enough to allow a guard to see where they are going whilst keeping any of that same comfort from the few prisoners that would ever occupy the inner sanctum. Eda stands farthest from the group and calls out to them but no sound travels beyond a range of ten feet from her no matter how loud she screams.
It is one of the cruelest aspects of the 'special cells'; the imprisoned will be near a fellow prisoner yet never be able to speak and only barely see their silhouettes from the opposite walls. To be eternally so close yet so far to the basic right of a conversation would drive one mad with grief.
The stench of the air isn't so foul but the lack of any baths or showers for the imprisoned helps only so much. Lilith can't help but smile viscously at the thought of her tormentor rotting away in his own filth but drops it quickly as she realizes that same stench will infiltrate her home before long.
Poor Hooty. Soon he'll smell like pooty.
"Lily, are you thinking of dumb jokes?"
"No," She lies, "Why do you ask?"
"It's because you have that dumb look on your face whenever you think of a stupid joke."
Lilith blanches in indignation but for the first time in a seeming eternity laughter fills the air once again. It is something small like the dancing fire of a tiny wax candle but the warmth still carries the weight of the sun. And despite being the 'butt of the joke', as Edalyn so crudely puts it, the smile it puts on her sister's face is undeniably worth it.
"Long has it been since anything but the wailing of the damned filled these halls." Everyone stills. That voice so cold and so calculated like a mechanical clock is not one to forget. The Clawthorne sisters remember it well. In the cell to the left of them and within the darkness peers to blue glowing eyes like the fires of spirits of the dead. A heavy weight settles on Lilith's chest like a cursed mara. Her body freezes like a lamb before the starved and mad eyes of the wolf and a chill races down her spine like the ghosts of the Wild Hunt.
Even in her liberation she is not truly free from the cold grasp the Emperor has over her heart.
"Edalyn. Lilith." He addresses. A sound of a groan the clanking of heavy irons and the gentle rustling of a cloak and before they know it there against the steel bars is the fallen Emperor Belos. His golden gauntlets grip the bars but his touch is weak and it seems he can barely stand without shaking like a newborn faun.
Those blue spheres of fire turn to the youngsters, "Ah, the human-spawn and Odalia's infamous brat. I take it the new 'queen of the castle' isn't what she promised she was cut out to be, hmm? And now the greatest troublemakers this land has ever seen has come crawling back, back to me. How many did it take before your precious freedom became too much to bear? A hundred- a thousand- ten thousand?"
Tears spill down Lilith's cheeks and she turns and marches away back down from where they came. "I need to be alone," Is all she says before the darkness takes her.
Edalyn fights the primal urge to race after her sister. She recognizes that look of defeat and remembers the countless times in her youth her sister would wear that expression. And each and every time she'd come back stronger than ever with a new and unshakeable resolve but her pride is strong. Only Lilith can free herself from herself. It's always been this way.
The Owl Lady trusts her sister not to run away anymore.
"Can it!" She snarls with a quick bash of her fist against the cell bars. Her temper rises as Belos fails to react at all. The damned bastard always knew how to get under her skin. "You're lucky we came here for your sorry ass at all!"
"Truly?" He mocks, "Don't give yourself any more credit than is do. You made a mistake, brought great disparity to our precious realm and are now desperately trying to fix your error. And here you stand as though you were right the entire time. I pity you, Owl Lady, and how twisted your Wild Magics have turned your mind."
"Enough!" A small voice shouts. Faster than the eye can blink the heavy lock holding the emperor in his cell is cut to pieces with no effort. Luz, for all that she is short, seems to be the only one standing tall and with resolve. "Are we going to stand around all day in smelly-ass prison all day arguing like a bunch of teenagers or are we going to put our big boy pants on and do something about what's going on out there?!"
"Oh... wow..." Amity mutters quietly while fanning her face. Is it hot in here or is it just her?
"I mean- c'mon already! This place stinks, Bonesborough is gone-" She inhales a very deep breath, "-and Lilith and Eda are all crazy and I miss my friends and I- and I-!... I miss my mom... "
Her breathing is heavy and audible and her heart pumps like the beating of a racing horse. Deep within the recesses of her mind a hollow voice whispers commands into her very being. Within only moments that whisper grow into furious shouting and soon t̵h̶o̶u̴s̷a̴n̸d̶s̶ of voices ̶̡̒j̴̮̑o̶͈̽i̷̝̒n̶̬̈́ ̶̹́t̵̤̽h̷͔̚e̵̼̕ ̴͔̄c̴̰͒h̵͈̔o̵̰̾r̵̙͊ǔ̶̙ṣ̴́;̷̫̇ ̸͕̀e̵̲͂a̸͕̿c̸̑͜h̵̲̄ ̴̳͐d̴̆͜ĕ̶̡̖̆m̶̫̳͝ä̸͓́̒n̴̪̐d̴̺͂i̵̺͍̋ṅ̵̠͛g̷̟͘ ̶̗̌s̴̰̋͂h̶̖͙͂ḙ̶̎͠ ̷͕̜̈́s̴̯̒̌ͅp̷̜̦̀́ǐ̷̞l̶̮͘l̶̜͑̓s̴̡̾ ̵̗̖͆b̷̮̙̎l̷͚͋o̴͖͗o̶͈̝̒̂d̷̥̊̇ͅ ̶̠͗à̷̜̕n̴͓̺͐̕d̶̨̥̕ ̷̘́̉c̵̹̻̽o̵̧͕̓͝ṅ̵̻͑s̴̱̄̒ȕ̷̆͜ͅm̷̡͍̿è̴͎̯̎s̷͙̈́͌ ̶̨͎̑̃t̶͎͑ĥ̷͚̬̍e̷̜̼̓i̵͙̒͋ř̷͎ ̴̜̅s̸̝̐ò̸͚̲u̴̮̰̒̽l̷̙̥̓s̸͔͍̀.̴̳̓͠ ̷̢͉̎͝A̶̺̔ ̴͍̤̈́l̶̡̇ạ̸́u̸̲͉̓g̸͔̭͒̽h̴̰͗͜i̶̼̚̚ń̴̖͚g̵͖̉ ̵̩͈̈́f̶̞͍̀͊ä̶̗̖́t̸͚̽ ̶̬͐ͅī̷̯ṟ̷̡̆o̶͖̖͆̚n̸̈͊ͅ-̸̹̪̉͂m̸̥̀a̷͔͔͑͠s̶̙̰̐̓k̶̰̈͘͜ë̶͇̻̉d̵̝͆̄ ̵̬̒̚ȃ̸̡̬n̷̥̪̾͝d̵̺͊ ̵̤̚h̵̥̑ö̷̲́̿r̷̗̥̓n̶̯̬͋ė̸̜̱ḓ̴͊͊ ̴̩͋͜b̷͉́͑e̴̲̕ȃ̷̝͂s̸̼̀̿ṱ̸͙̽̃ ̸̜͓̂̌r̶̼͛̓ẹ̷̤̆a̸͎̙͐ċ̷̛͉͉h̸͚̮͑e̸͖̖͂̄s̸̲̺͛ ̴̹͆i̵͎͉͗n̶̲̔t̸̟͔͌̕ǒ̶̞͉ ̵̞͌̈t̷̖̻̆ḧ̷͎́ḛ̴͉̂ ̴̹̱̚v̴̧̙͌̊ȩ̷̅ṡ̷̫̉t̵̞͋i̵̗͑g̷͕͝ẻ̵͉s̷̮̀ ̴̙̒̕o̷͖̊͘ͅf̷͚̣͒ ̷͚̑̓h̸͓̄̉ḛ̴̆r̵̳͍̂ ̵̛͎̟̋m̷̟̞̔í̶̹̣̈n̵̛͘͜d̷̖͚̔ ̷̬͝͝a̵̖̜̅n̸̝͂d̸̛̦͑ ̸͓̏d̵̜̙̅ë̴̪͖́̓m̶͚̐̕ḁ̸͛n̸͚̽͠D̵͉̾͘S̸̗̋̑ ̷̜̈B̶̜̈́L̸̛̘ó̸̮͙O̸̯̤̊D̷̢̹̾ ̸̰́a̸̘̒n̶̙͐͘ḑ̵̽ ̷͉͐Å̸̠N̶͕̞̈̊I̴̭͊̀m̴͓͂Û̸͍S̸̫͙͊̕ ̵̧̦͌͒Ä̵̞̍ṉ̷̱͋͘d̷͉̻̋̓ ̷͓̍̽t̶̩̀͘h̶̖͘È̸͙̦̏ỉ̷͖̭ṙ̷̻͚ ̴̻͉̃̀V̴̲̇É̸̦̕r̸͕̉͝Y̷̙̔
Smack!
"Ow, sunova gun!" Luz rubs her sore cheek and glares at the offender. Eda, hand on hip and single eyebrow raised high, returns the look with an unimpressed one of her own. Amity awkwardly shuffles off to the side and even the great and tyrannical dethroned lord of the isles is bemused by the peculiar antics.
"Eda, what the hay! That really hurt!"
"Sorry, kiddo, but you were going all pre-sanguinary, spiraling into murdery maddness there and I don't fancy getting chopped up by your sword there."
Luz lowers her eyes to the hilt of the sword in her grasp. She hasn't realized until not how tightly her grip is on the handle. Her hand shakes all on its own almost as though something else fights for command of her hand. Faintly she hears sinuous laughter in the back of her brain and she can't help but feel a thousand spiders crawl under her skin.
Such loss of control, even only for a mere moment, makes her want to hurl. Is she becoming a monster; will she have another episode and kill someone close to her? Will it be Eda, or Lilith or Amity?
...Would she slay her own mother? Her inability to answer definitively frightens her greatly. Damn this sword and damn the madgod who jaywalked into her life and turned every fantasy she loved around on its head and dumped her in the trashfire left in his wake!
Something warm and soft grabs her free hand and somehow all the dark and lachrymose thoughts seem to melt away. She looks up and meets the careful gaze of her closest friend. Amity's own eyes are hard and clearly changed from the last time they had a moment like this. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul and what is the soul if not a reflection of a person's cumulative experience?
The Blight has been through a lot and seen and caused much pain and her eyes somehow show that. But they also reflect something that drives away Luz's quivering anxiety; they show empathy. They show that Amity has gone through something much the same and that Luz has someone to be with her through the coming trials. Out of all the people who have come and gone; all the people who would call her a lost cause and try and shoot her fake smiles while driving the hammer of 'normalcy' into her skull only Amity, the best person in all the worlds, understands her.
...Not even her own mother can say the same.
A gentle smile accompanies their faces like a reflection in a mirror. It is something so simple yet it speaks a thousand words.
It's sweet enough to make a man sick.
"Okay-okay," The Clawthorne cuts in before the gay becomes infectious, "That's real sweet and all but we need to skedaddle our butts on out of here before something goes wrong! Lily, hurry it on up, we're leaving!"
"Silence you fool!" Belos hisses, "You'll attract the warden's ire! Only luck and silence will release us from these dark chambers and your uncouth harping is threatening that!"
"Wow, okay, I only understood half that but I know when someone's talking smack and let me tell you, momma smacks back!" To send her point across, the Owl Lady unscrews her hand and poshly backhands him it before returning it to its rightful (literally) place.
The emperor is completely aghast.
"I don't know why you're so caught up on old Wrath. The guys a chump! A pushover! Heck, Luz has beaten him before! Ugh where is that stuck up- Lily, hurry your ass up already!"
Belos sighs in complete reserved belief that they'll all die before seeing sunlight once again. "You misunderstand the situation we find ourselves in, Witch. Warden Wrath is not the same beast he was before. He has been changed much like all who fester within these rotten cells, become stronger and more dangerous. This prison has been possessed and cursed by the mad, a result of my own actions unfortunately. Surely you've heard their ravings and cries? The damned Oracles?"
"No, I haven't." Eda answers honestly, "This place has been nothing but silent the whole time, but let me tell you it reeks as bad as my toilet after Luz here tries making dinner!"
"Eda!"
"Hmm," Belos continues while avoiding acknowledging Eda's abhorrent behavior, "Then we are in greater danger than I originally anticipated. It seems Wrath has finally ran out of food. He has failed to try and force putrescent flesh down my gullet for many weeks. I recommend we make haste and flee. I have little doubt the good warden has sensed our presence."
Amity tugs on Eda's skirt and points to something looming at the entrance, "Um... I think it's-"
"Too late."
"Oh Lilith, you can be such a fool sometimes!" The older Clawthorne curses herself once again as she wanders through the dark hallways trying to find her way back to the cells.
In her weakness and compromised emotional state she wandered away for silence to reconfigure herself only to realize far too late that she is lost. And due to the unique enchantments housed within the stone walls all shouting is muted and reaches half as far as it should at most.
Something squishes beneath her heel and it takes every ounce of her admittedly high willpower not to rip every last strand of hair out of her scalp and punch the walls with them. She releases a stress-filled huff and uses a simple telekinesis spell to remove as much of the shit from her boot as possible.
"Ugh, can this get any worse?"
"...ith?"
Her foot stops midstep. She could've sworn she heard a voice, a posh and pathetic voice that could only belong to...
"Hello?" She questions loudly. She holds her breath and focuses... "..th!"
It's nearby! Lilith hurries herself and searches for any nearby cellblocks. She rounds a corner and finds herself on a different bridge overlooking another ravine. Like the last one most of the cells are opened however near the bottom level most still remain locked tight.
"Hello, is there anyone down there?!"
"Yes! Thank the Titan's bones, Lilith it's me! Alador!"
She almost stumbles in surprise. The Blight patriarch? Here? Perhaps the rest of his spawn are here as well? Lilith finds a relatively large portion of herself simply wanting to turn around and leave the man to rot. It's no secret to herself and anyone with a logical brain that the machine that is the Blight family is the cause of much discourse within the society of Witches and Demons of the Boiling Isles.
Crude tactics, labor exploitation, 'Fixers' and several mysterious accidents that never seemed to be investigated by the authorities despite her own insistence for them.
The Blight machine acted more like a mob than a business but then again all of the upper class families acted as such. It is part of the 'glorious' system the emperor encouraged and while it did possess benefits in terms of wealth it still cause such untold damage to the very spirits of nearly all those not born in a fortunate family.
For as much as the old emperor touted his 'order' the regime was founded by blood and maintained by even more of it.
Lilith once again finds herself sighing and makes her way down the winding stairs to Alador's cell. Despite her genuine hatred for the Blight patrician's (their children are sweethearts despite being little shits) she'd never be able to look her pupil in the eye again if she left her father (and potentially her siblings) to starve and rot in some dark abyss like maggots.
Within moments she finds herself standing in front of their cell. And what a sight it is to behold the pathetic forms of a family who once stood atop the world.
Sure enough there is four (debatable how desirable) alive bodies huddled by the cold bars.
Their faces are gaunt, their pale skin is grimy and filthy and their eyes are no different from that of a leper. Their clothes are ripped and stained and sullied just like the madness smeared on the wall. Their eyes are begging and the skin around the bones of their fingers is unnaturally taught. Before she can raise her voice a visceral form slams into the bars and she has to leap back from two grasping arms.
Smashed between the bars is the vestige of Odalia and the sorry sight that she is makes Lilith want to wretch.
Her eyes are gone. The lids are puffy and swollen with quivering pus caked where the upper and lower ones meet. Dried blood is stained around the raw and pink flesh, almost as though she clawed her own eyes out, and a horrid stench emanates from her direction. It takes Lilith mere moments to recognize a terrible infection is blighting the Blight.
"She's here!" Odalia's voice is raw and pitches between several emotions at once. It is anger, sadness, happiness and worry all rolled into one. It is truly the voice of a madwoman. "Yesyesyes, bring her to meeee~! Gobbing little curr, I must see my little worm hmmmmm~! BRING. HER. TO. ME. I know you brought her, Amity! She is here-so near!"
"Odalia!" Her husbands voice is harsh and commanding. Three sets of hands grab the struggling woman and drag her away. The eyes of her children shine with an intense fear but the bravery of their father rallies them and they help wrestle the worm down. Alador holds the mother in a tight embrace and the mad thrashing settles dies down into a fit of quiet weeping and murmuring. So Odalia herself has fallen to the infection of madness? A part of Lilith finds it fitting for the shrew to be reduced from a cold and calculated woman into a quivering mess of gibberish. Though the obsession with Amity Odalia holds, even before she was driven to madness, worries Lilith greatly.
She isn't so sure she wants to free the family anymore.
Next to the bars is Edric, Amity's older brother, "Please, miss Lilith, we need to get out of this place! It's-It's-! They... they make us.. eat... oh Titan!"
The boy falls to the ground possessed by bout of sobbing. Emira, the twin sister, kneels down by his side to embrace him. She stare up at the Clawthorne and the look in her hollow eyes makes the older Witch wish to cry herself.
"Please! I know- I know what people say, but you can't leave us like this! Miss Lilith, he's been feeding us people. He turned us into cannibals like him. I know- I know we're not good people but please! Please have pity..."
Realization. Wretched and regretful realization. A prison cut-off from the rest of the world and presided over by madmen who long ago abandoned anything close to simple morality. And now that same place, lost at the edge of the world, is empty. It is a starving wolf locked in a pen full of lambs. It is a mothering fox plucking from an unprotected chicken coup.
"Oh my god, they all ate each other."
Their father refuses to meet Lilith in the eye. His shame holds the answer.
Eda slams into the wall. The burnt and writhing tentacle wrapped around her torso does not release its hold and squeezes tightly. Something of wheeze and a scream flies from her bloody lips as she feels many cracks within her chest. Warden Wrath, unmasked and unhinged and free from humility and decency, looks upon his captive with a hungry gaze. Eda recognizes the look. Many lecherous men in seedy bars with slippery fingers and weaponized pills have held the same look towards her.
Wrath was always an idiot and he still is but the emperor's warning suddenly makes a lot more sense now.
His physical strength alone has doubled and, he either ignores it or can no longer feel pain. His arms morph into fleshy tentacles, near a dozen on each shoulder, and each of those tendrils can shift into a spear or an axe or some facsimile of a sword (and Odalia says she doesn't know any smart words!).
A slash of black cleaves through the flesh of the tendril and Eda finds herself able to breathe once more. The Warden stares down at the human, his face and fanged lips twitching like a rabid animal. His form is looming like a mountain of muscle. Sheer physical power seems to radiate in fiber of his muscles. The human is undaunted. Eda tries to reach out and tell her to run but only choked blood comes out. Why won't the brat take off?! It's supposed to be Eda's job to keep Luz safe not the other way around!
She underestimates her apprentice.
Luz dodges, parries and ripostes her way around the many slashing blades. Umbra is a deadly force in the form of a sword. For the terrible cost that is a loss of sanity the blade offers a great boon; each holder of Umbra is gifted with incredible martial ability with a sword within a matter of weeks. Anyone from a lowly beggar to a simple farmer, with Umbra in their hand, will have the skill of a master. For each shallow cut she receives she imparts terrible slashes deep to the bone and the greater the rage possessing the Warden grows. His movements become wider and more telegraphed. Soon she can... there! An opportunity!
Her biting blade lashes out and slashes the Warden's right arm off at the shoulder. The blood spews forth as a waterfall and Wrath finds himself collapsing to the knees while clutching the stump. His essence spills from between his fingers as he vainly tries to hold the torrent back. And despite being larger even kneeled Luz stands above the Warden. Defeated, Wrath tucks his chin to his chest and slumps down. Only his massive and weighty bulk keeps him upright.
The human makes a mistake and turns around to treat her mentor.
"Eda!" She's at her side with Umbra carefully sheathed to prevent any further possession. Amity, who was guarding Belos, comes to the Elder Witch's side as well. Eda huffs, annoyed with herself for getting sucker-punched out of the fight, but finds a small portion of herself happy to be so loved by her kids.
"Eda, oh god it's bad. Amity, you've got a healing spell, right?!" Her voice cracks from her pleading. Amity bites the inside of her painfully cheek and looks away unable to meet Luz in the eye. The human's fragile heart breaks.
Scraaaaape. Chains rattle and fabric folds. Kneeled down by the dying Owl Lady is her greatest enemy and most reluctant savior. Emperor Belos, sworn enemy of all Wild Witches, casts his hands over the Witch and heals her wounds. The ribs stabbing her lungs are oulled back and set into position and the tender flesh within her chest is knit neatly back to shape.
Eda's life is saved but she is far from being at her best. Belos is still weak from his long and nutritionless imprisonment and the sudden and violent separation from the Titan's soul has wounded his magic just as thoroughly. He has done his best but the healing spell was still weak and unrefined. Eda's still just as useless as he.
Luz stares at the fallen dictator with wide eyes filled with contradicting emotions.
"Save your breath, human, if we are to restore order then we'll need the Owl Woman's power."
"Aaaaagh!"
A scream is not an appropriate answer, not that Luz could've known what the emperor just said, as a crushing force rips her from her feet and yanks her high into the air.
Amity and Belos are knocked back by a mighty blow and in an instant the Warden has reclaimed the upper footing.
"Warden, stand down! I order you to release us at once!"
"I don't take orders from you! Kiki gives me plenty of meat to keep you here. Oooooh~! Savory and salty, I'm always so hungry!" His distant eyes stare down upon the Witches, "Grrr, I need meat! Give me your meat!"
Poor Luz becomes an unfortunate makeshift club wielded to great effect in the tentacles (get your mind out of the gutter) of Warden Wrath. Luz is swing around wildly as a living weapon and Amity, the last Witch able to fight, is reluctant to use any of her spells on the Warden for fear of hitting. Even her weakest of spells could kill a human even with a glancing blow! Amity was given no opportunity to find a way to save her (girl)friend. One swipe of the Luz-baton sends Amity into the far wall with great force. The back of her skull smacks against the cold stone and she's knocked out cold.
Amity! Is what Luz tries to shout followed by a I'm sorry!. However the force in which Wrath wields her entire body with as well as the confusion it causes her brain makes the words sound closer to something along the lines of; "AAAaaaASSSsss!"
"Ass? Is that some kind of human code?" His question is responded with my the heavy skull of Luz colliding with his chest at around three hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. While Luz can't quite tell how damaged her body is, what with the constant spinning of her whole body, the ridiculous pain in her neck and back really doesn't seem to be a good sign of health.
Belos is thrown aground and is out of the fight. Only Eda and Luz remain and given their states, one being swung around like an idiot with their first pair of nun-chucks and the other isn't quite at death's door but are one bad fall aware from being there, the situation is fairly dire.
Warden Wrath swings Luz overhead and looms over the still prone form of Eda. The Owl Lady tries to cast a spell, any spell at all, but her body won't respond. The healing spell only saved her from death, not restored her to function. She shuts her eyes tight and hopes beyond hope that her kids will at least painlessly.
A sharp whistle pierces through the air and a blast of heat fills the air. Sticky yellow fire washes over the deranged warden's back and in his panic he drops the human to the floor. Luz groans in a rather unpleasant combination of dizziness and terrible pain. She's pretty certain her back broke at some point and being dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes might've broken her arm. Ugh, this has been a really terrible day.
"Luz!" Shouts the absolutely divine voice of Lilith, "Are you unharmed?! We felt the vibrations of battle and found our way back!"
The human raises a single thumb into the air with the arm that works. Wait a second- she said 'we'. Who's the we?
"...Okay, good! Alador and I shall take care of the warden! Oh, Amity will just absolutely adore me when she finds out I rescued her family!"
"We will take care of the Warden?" Questions the Blight father unhappily. "And shouldn't we worry about the others? I can't help but notice that they look like they're... dying."
Lilith shoots him a venomous glare and the father zips the snark right up.
"I-I mean of course we will! It is the duty of us elders to safeguard the bodies of the younger generations!"
"G-groomer."
Edric and Emira choke. Odalia doesn't laugh as she had already foresaw the joke weeks ago and laughed at her hubby's misfortune back then.
Alador, with pink on his cheeks, summons a few lesser-abominations to rescue the downed punching bags. Wrath turns to the older Witches with a fierce and sharp mask of fury. Lilith meets his challenge by conjuring her staff and Alador reluctantly follows by conjuring a mass of abomination goo that swallows him and assumes the vague form of an octopus. It is smaller than the twins remember which worries them. He was weakened after his fight with the Amity's captor months ago and he's grown even weaker, they all have, in their imprisonment.
"Terror-twins," Lilith shouts, "Take everyone back to Eda's shack! This is a duel between us elders!"
They don't need to be told twice. The Warden is blasted back by a wave of force and the tiny Abominations, under the useful and highly important supervision of the Blight twins, gather all the wounded with as much grace as a sentient pile of goo can and carry them away from the raging battle.
Their mother's prediction of Amity was correct and they can't help but feel a painful gasp escape them as their wounded baby Mittens is dragged by them towards safety. A loud explosion followed by the terrible cracking of fallen stone shakes them from their stupor and they break for an escape.
Carried backwards by an Abomination Eda is given a full view of the final fight against the warden that slowly vanishes from view the further she's carried. An arm reaches out weakly as the clashing quakes grow more fierce and desperate. She tries to scream out a warning; any kind at all to tell her idiot of a sister to run away! She tries to scream that Wrath fights too dirty and will take advantage of Lilith's pity but no sound reaches her sisters ears. The blood in her throat and lungs burns too much and only choking coughs and gags fly from her lips.
The curtain of darkness comes down upon her and in her last desperate and fleeting moments of consciousness she prays to anything that is listening to let her sister come back home. Awareness fades away before she can regret her choice but it is too late. Fate has already been written and it is a cruel, mocking thing. Nothing ever asked for is given as expected.