Sunlight: Part Two: Into the Depths
When she came to, it was into a world of pitch-blackness, lying in cold, moist earth, her hands tied behind her to a stake of some kind. Her feet were also tied together, and she could feel dried blood caked on her face. From the movement of the air, Rua thought it was probably a very small room with a very high ceiling - a pit cell of some kind.
Rua didn't move, and kept her breathing shallow and slow, in case anyone - or anything - was observing her. She closed her eyes again... what was the point of having them open? It would be better for her if she bashed her head until she was unconscious again.
Suddenly she felt hands on her, first her shoulder and then over her mouth, or she probably would have screamed. She struggled to throw them off, kicking with both her legs at where she guessed the owner of the hands might be.
"Easy, chere.. easy - oof - " came the voice as she finally made contact, and the hands fell away. She heard a soft thud as he fell back, and then she heard him scramble to his feet again. "Don' scream. I ain' gonna hurt you. Jus' gonna untie you."
Rua felt the hands on her again, and she fought her instinct to struggle. The rope on her wrist loosened and fell away, and she pushed herself upright. She sensed the Cajun back away a little as she did so, probably afraid of getting kicked again. Rua found the rope around her ankles, but was inwardly too panicked to concentrate on feeling how to untie the not.
"Let me, chere," offered the Cajun. "You jus' take a minute to calm yoahself down, and I'll finish untyin' you. Jus' don' kick Remy in de face, oui?"
She took a deep breath, releasing it as a growl, low in her throat. However, she nodded - not that he could see it. "Alright."
"T'ank you, chere," he said, and he moved towards her, placing a hand gently on her leg at the knee, and then he went to work on the ropes again. In a few second he had them untied, and he backed away again.
"Rua," she growled stretching her legs a little.
"What?"
"My name." she said lowly, "Rua," and then mockingly extended a hand towards him, knowing he couldn't see to take it. She nearly screamed as he shook her hand firmly and said, "Remy." It was then that she noticed she could see his eyes, glowing a dim red. She pulled her hand away. "What are you? You're not human - you're one of them now, aren't you?"
"I'm not human," the red eyes lowered themselves, and his voice was as low in the throat as hers. "But I will kill myself before I become one of... dem." He slid further away from her, and the glow from his eyes disappeared. His eyes were closed. "I was awake when dey t'rew us in. De only way out is up, an' de only way up is wit' a ladder or somet'in'. De walls are smooth an' pretty high."
Rua breathed deeply, trying to calm down so she could think. She did a mental evaluation of herself. No broken bones, just a few bad bruises and whatever had happened to her head. She could remember everything about her past - unfortunately. She slid her hand down to her boots. Her daggers were not there. She gasped a little, and she saw the red eyes on her again. "My daggers..."
The eyes looked at her for a moment, and she looked into them. After a moment, she heard the sound of metal on metal. "Dey t'rew our weapons in with us. I got yoah two daggers by me. Didn' want you to hurt yoahself by stumblin' on dem. Didn' want you to hurt me eit'er. Hold out yoah hand again."
Rua hesitated, but held out her hand. She felt the hilt of one dagger placed into it. She waited for him to let go of the blade and sheathed it in one boot, and then held out her hand again.
"I jus' want to make somet'in' clear, chere. I had de chance to kill you, or rape you, or whatever else yoah're afraid of while you were sleepin'." With that, she felt the other hilt in her hand.
She sighed a little as she sheathed her second dagger. Once she had checked to make sure the third was still concealed under her tunic, she felt her way to the wall. She found the seam where wall met the dirt floor, and followed along it around most of her side of the space. Then she pulled out one of her daggers and began digging in a random spot, throwing the dirt to the side her.
Remy laughed, and she looked towards the sound, seeing the red eyes watching her again. This unnerved her, but she kept digging. It was something to do. Maybe she could dig a way out, maybe not, but it was a mindless task to keep her from thinking.
After a long period filled only with the sound of her heavy breathing and the scraping of dirt, the texture of the dirt changed, and then suddenly, her hand shot downards. She cried out, nearly dropping the blade, and Remy was at her side in an instant.
"You allright?" he asked. Rua pulled her hand out slowly, and a gentle cool draft of air came from the hole. The red eyes narrowed, and he laughed again. "If dat's not impressive, I don' know what is...."
In the process of digging she had encountered a few sizeable pebbles. She held her breath and dropped one, and after a few seconds, she heard a splash. "There's water down there. A way out..." She started digging frantically again, but he put a hand on her wrist, stopping her. She growled at him.
"Let me for a while, chere. You rest. Yoah're bleedin' again."
Rua put a hand to her head, discovering that what she thought was sweat was actually sticky. He was right - she needed a break. She switched her grip on her dagger and held it out to him. "Don't drop it."
"Don' worry. I won'," he replied, taking it, and he started digging, trying to widen the hole.
She slid out of his way, leaning against the wall. Rua untangled the scarf that was knotted in her hair, and wrapped it tightly again, both over her hair and the wound. "How... well can you see?"
"Well enough to get around in de dark. I can' see down dere, t'ough. But I t'ink I can fix dat. We'll see." He laughed at the pun, and then dug for a while in silence.
They took turns, resting and digging for what had to be several hours. As each minute went by, they became more and more afraid that Necromel would come for them. However, finally, Rua decided that the hole was big enough - for them both. She sat on the edge of it, and was about to slide through, but Remy stopped her. "Wait," he said, "and close yoah eyes." She felt him move away, but his red eyes looked at her again. He came back, and she heard the sound of his staff in the dirt. The red eyes moved downward, and he put his hand on her shoulder. He was crouching across the hole from her. "Close dem, chere. Jus' for a minute. Trust Remy - you ain' gonna want dem open."
She breathed in deeply again, and closed her eyes.
"Good girl," he said, and then she was blinded by light. She had to throw her arm up over her eyes, even though they were closed, to block it out. It probably wasn't as bright as it seemed, just a stark contrast from the blackness she had gotten used to. After a second the light diminished a lot, and then she heard a splash. She opened her eyes. She could see his face, dimly in the light coming up from the whole. He was looking at her, smiling. "Dere. Now we can maybe see a little, non?"
She looked down into the hole without speaking. The staff floated on an underground lake about fifty meters below them. The light caused a good part of the lake around it to glow, and she could see that it was very deep. Rua tried not to think about what might lurk in those depths, and from the look on Remy's face, he was doing the same.
"Well... here goes..." he said, pushing himself through. She watched him twist himself in the air as he fell, diving gracefully into the water, and quickly resurfacing. She took a deep breath, gathering her nerve. She had swam often when she was younger, but she had been terrified of the water ever since... She pushed the thought from her mind. The possibility of drowning was, though, far better than the idea of becoming Necromel's next bride. Checking to make sure all of her daggers were secure in their sheathes, she pushed herself off, folding her self up into the tightest ball she could. She had seen people do this - hitting the water like a cannonball. She panicked as soon as she felt the water and she lost all of her air. Rua struggled to pull herself to the surface - it seemed to take an eternity, and when she got there, nothing she would do would keep her there. Images flashed in her mind - a pearl, storm clouds, waves, lightening, Jorash...
Remy saw her trouble and swam to her aid, but her floundering about kept pulling him under as well. "Calm down - damn you - stop - strugglin'-" he said in between dunkings. However, he himself had to hold back panic when he saw something moving in the water towards them. A fin, then a smooth head, then two large eyes emerged from the water. The creature stopped about ten feet away and watched him struggle with her. The next time they emerged, three more had joined it, and they formed a circle around Rua and Remy. Two of them moved in, and grabbed Rua by the arms, pulling her away from Remy. She screamed, and fought, but they were very strong and had the advantage. One of the others took charge of Remy's staff, and the last swam towards Remy, looking at him. Something passed between them in the silence, and Remy nodded. It, and the one with the staff turned and swam, and Remy followed. The other two drug Rua along. Seeing the Cajun's reaction, she stopped struggling, just glad to be afloat.
The lake began to narrow, and she could feel it get shallow as well. The creatures released her when she felt her feet finally touch bottom, and she staggered to shore. Remy and the first two creatures were already there, watching her in silence. She glared at them as she fell to her knees on shore. Remy walked to her, and kneeled, looking at her. "You should have told me you couldn' swim, chere."
She said nothing, glaring at him, and when he stood, offering her a hand up, she slapped it away. Remy turned and looked at the creature that held the staff, and Rua, slowly standing, finally got her first good look at them. They were amphibians, having both gills and the ability to breathe out of water. They were covered in green scales, and they looked human shaped, except they had large flippers instead of feet.
"T'ank you," Remy said to the creature, bowing slightly. It bowed back, and gestured towards a pathway leading out of the cave. It then took a few steps, and gestured that they should follow. Rua looked up at Remy, and he forced a smile. "Don' got much choice, non?"
Rua nodded reluctantly, and she followed Remy behind the amphibians. Noticing that she had hair in her eyes, she put a hand to her damp head, feeling for her scarf. It had gotten knotted into her hair again or else she likely would have lost it by now. She spent the entire walk fighting to get it undone. She hated her hair when it was wet.
The amphibians led them to a smaller chamber, with many more of the creatures in it. The walls were filled with small caves, probably rooms of some sort for the creatures to live in. In the center of the chamber was a shallow pond, which had an island in the middle of it. And on that island - both Rua and Remy gasped at the sight - was a gigantic glowing crystal, at least as tall as she was, and as thick as an old oak tree.
She combed her fingers absentmindedly through her wet hair, staring at the crystal. The amphibian with Remy's staff stepped closer to them holding the staff out, indicating it. It then pointed at the crystal, and looked back at Remy meaningfully.
"It want' me to do somet'in', I jus' don' know what," he said. Just then the crystal flickered, and went out, leaving the cave lit only by the light of the staff. Rua, who happened to be looking at Remy's face at the time, saw it twist with pain.
"What's wrong?"
"I can feel 'em - all of 'em," he said slowly. "Dat crystal is deir life - it's dyin', and so are dey."
"You can feel them?" she raised an eyebrow at him again, and he just looked at her, his eyes full of misery. She could tell her response to this would affect him a lot. She looked at the crystal, which was starting to glow dimly again, letting her awe hopefully hide her fear. He was an empath. Was he a mind-reader as well? "What do they want from you?"
"I t'ink - dat dey t'ink - dat I can make deir crystal glow - like I made my staff glow."
"Can you?"
"I don' know, chere," he said, looking down at his hands.
Rua, who stood behind him, put her hands on his shoulders reassuringly. "When we get out of this, Remy, you're going to have to tell me what you are," she said, as lightly as she could make it.
He pulled away from her touch and turned towards her, looking into her eyes. His eyes, in the shadows, were glowing dimly with red. "You don' want to know," he said, and it was only just barely not a command.
She frowned, sinking back into her anger. "Don't tell me what I can and cannot want, Cajun," she snapped.
Remy turned away, and walked towards the pond. He stood on the edge for a moment, and then stepped into it. The amphibians stood, watching him, as he waded across the pond towards the crystal. He stood facing it, but he was still looking down at his hands. Slowly, he reached toward the crystal, palms outward. Rua gasped as his hands started to glow. Remy lowered his head, and thrust his hands against the crystal. He screamed - a scream as inhuman and disturbing as Necromel's had been in the tavern - but this scream was one of agony. The crystal pulsed, went out, and then glowed again, gaining brightness. Rua had to look away. It was like looking into the sun. After a few moments more, the light had peaked and receded to a constant glow. She looked across the pond.
The amphibians, slowly lowering their arms from in front of their eyes, were silent. Remy stood, a few steps away from the crystal, looking down at his hands again. It seemed like an eternity before his knees gave out from under him and he splashed into the pond.
This broke the spell on the cave, and the amphibians started moving around. Two of the amphibians waded into the pond and carried the Cajun out. Nothing they, or Rua, could do would get him to respond. A kelp bed was arranged in one of the smaller caves, and he was laid on this. The rest of the amphibians bustled around, it seemed to Rua, preparing a celebration.