Chapter 7
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Notes: There are several.
::does a little jig::
There once was a girl who wrote stuff
From action to angsty to fluff
She owned the story
But none of the glory
And prayed that Bullfrog would not call her bluff
Slashiness. Boys liking boys, men liking angels (girls liking girls in this chapter as well, actually), Keepers not being happy, and all that. Consider yourself warned.
Read the first chapter first. If you're here first somehow, it will be too confusing to catch up now. Go back to the first chapter now.
Even though the game is not mine, the story is, and I would appreciate it of you did not use it without my permission. I think that's all, so on with the fic!
More lime in this chapter
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Kaelay
Mortagui and I have started our siege. The coward Chaelar has barricaded himself behind three layers of earth, which would take a while to dig out, if I were a galumphing fool like Mortagui. He's chosen the direct approach, while I choose to be more... subtle.
I found an area behind that is guarded only by a basic door. It shouldn't take me too long to break through it. There may be more rooms between me and the Heart, but that is a mixed blessings. After all, pretty soon there will be many of my rooms between this door and his Heart.
When we started the siege, Mortagui made the request that I let him conquer the Heart chamber. I was rather hesitant at first. The Heart chamber of another Keeper represents a good deal of mana. In the end though, I gave in. I'll have that mana to myself once I crush him, and I have taken away a gem seam already.
The Goblin I dropped is being insolent and not destroying the door as I have directed. I give him a good slap to get him onto the task, and he reluctantly takes to it. For all that Goblins are bred to be fighters, they are remarkable cowards. Now Orcs, there are some fine warriors.
Breakthrough is iminent, and I drop the three Mistresses I hold. After a stunned moment, they go to war on the enemy. I raise the battle flag at the doorway and leave to see how Mortagui is doing. I am confident that my creatures can handle this.
Seiat
I've found Tarkasas again. It's strange how I seem to keep running into him. He looks as bad as ever, honestly. He's sitting against the wall, clay mug in hand, watching Trolls and Vampires gamble away their wages in the green Casino.
I don't say anything at first, preferring to just sit down next to him and keep him company. He takes a long sip of whatever alcohol is in that mug, then stares into it sadly. I think he's more than a little drunk.
"Tarkasas?" I ask quietly. "Are you okay?"
He turns to me, the pain I can see on his face all the sharper staring out of his eyes. I've never really noticed how piercingly blue his eyes are. Then he does something that scares me down to my soul.
He smiles.
It looks vile on his face, like something else is controlling his movements. It's certainly not him who's doing the smiling. I shiver involuntarily.
Still, Tarkasas is my friend, and I'm here to comfort him. I put one of my small hands on his elbow, staying the drink that is halfway to his lips once more.
He stops mid-movement, then lowers his arm and stares at me, more than just a glance this time. Frightened, I take my hand away. He narrows his eyes, then stands up.
It seems like he stands there for an eternity, and when he finally does speak, his voice is hollow and lifeless.
"I know you're just trying to cheer me up Seiat," he says. "Please don't. I don't really want to have to think about anything right now."
And he walks out. Just like that. Something is very very wrong here. If something is bothering Tarkasas this much, then I have to find out, and do something about it. I will do anything for him, as long as it doesn't mean disobeying Keeper.
Could he still be pining over that Angel? No. That's impossible. He was doing that before, and he wasn't this bad. What happened to him?
Tarkasas
I think something shattered inside of me. I'd say it was my heart, except that I don't really have one, not in that sense. All I know is that all of a sudden, something's just... well... gone.
I felt it leave with him when he pushed me away. I don't know what I was expecting really, but after he told me so much about himself, I guess I just thought that maybe...
It's too bad life doesn't work like that. I suppose that's why alcohol was invented.
I walk down the corridor. I shouldn't have been so harsh with Seiat, I know. He was just trying to be my friend, and he is. I just wouldn't be able to talk to him right now.
I reach the end of the hallway and step out onto our own territory. As I do so, I immediately feel the pull of the Battle Flag. On instinct, I head towards it.
I must not have been able to feel it over the beating of the Green Heart. Once you spend some time in the Dungeon and get enough ale into you, you almost don't notice the erratic beating. Now that I'm out however, every fiber in my body is screaming at me, "Kaelay needs you to go! Fight for Her!"
I'll go. I always go. Who knows, maybe I'll get myself killed and be put out of this misery. Maybe I'll be lucky and hit a freeze trap, and stand helplessly while some Bile Demon hacks me to pieces. Of course, I'd never actually go down without a struggle, because that would be betraying Kaelay, and I can't do that. But hey, everyone has bad days, right? Why not spend mine in the middle of a battlefield?
There it is. The Flag. Around it is a scene of carnage that I know all to well. It's mostly the Yellow creatures. Aparantly this Keeper wasn't expecting an attack from behind, because all the corpses here are relatively puny.
Stepping over the body of a Dark Elf I recognize as one of our own, I enter a small training room. No one's there any more, but a small line of red flames encircling the border tells me that we've already conquered it.
I pass through it, reaching on the other side a Graveyard, and beyond that a Hatchery. All of them are ours, and I wonder how long I've been out of the fight. The next room however, is a bit bigger, and there's one of our Imps trying to claim it. In the middle of the place (it turns out to be a Lair, I see from a glimpse of the carpet) the battle rages, and I am quick to charge into it headlong.
This battle I will probably either go up a level or die. Either way, it's better than thinking about him.
Ramasha
I've probably hurt him, something that I never really intended. It's better though, for him to be hurt this way, then for Mortagui to hurt him instead.
I know what Mortagui would do, but I don't really want to think about it. Not that that's ever stopped my mind from forcing me to imagine all those horrid things anyway. You see, I know exactly what would happen to him. I know because it's happened before.
It was almost a year ago, I think. I've lost track.
Sepia and Pestilus had the kind of relationship that Mortagui approved of. Both of them were in alleigance with him, and both of them were Dark Mistresses. Being Mistresses, of course, they had a very strange and kinky torture relationship going on. Mistresses are like that.
Then Pestilus died.
I think Sepia was told that she died in battle. In truth, she was sacrificed. I don't know if Mortagui really knew what he was doing. That was back in the day that he still had to experiment to see what the Gods would offer him in return, and I think he just grabbed the first creatures to come to hand.
At any rate, Pestilus was killed. Sepia was mortified and heartbroken. For a while she didn't even eat. I was a friend of hers back then, so I made sure that she stayed alive, but it seemed as though she'd never recover.
Almost a month later, a group of Faerie scouts was caught patrolling the lava area around our Dungeon. There were four of them, about medium power levels, and once we ganged up on them they were easily overpowered. Two of the four were brought to the torture chamber for interrogation. Sepia was assigned to carry out the torture of Jarl.
She really was beautiful, in a white sort of way. Together with the odd attraction that torturing had always had for Sepia, it's easy to see why she fell in love. I was never so sure about Jarl, being that the easiest way out of the torture chamber would be to charm her torturer. It's unlikely that she was playing with Sepia though. As a Faerie, and above all a Goodly Hero, I don't think that she would even be able to.
Sepia kept her alive. In fact, she didn't even torture her much except to give pleasure. Mortagui didn't think much of it because Jarl spilled more and more tidbits about her master every day, so he was happy.
I suppose it was inevitable that it would end. Eventually Jarl would have run out of information to pacify Mortagui with. It was a shame it couldn't have lasted a bit longer though.
I have no idea how Mortagui found out, but he did. He was furious, to say the least. Not only was Jarl out of Sepia's species, but on top of that she was a Hero. And Heros could not be tolerated.
In the middle of the night, Mortagui possessed Sepia. Raising the Mistress from her bed, he/she traveled noiselessly down the corridor to the Prison. Jarl was there, and immediately ran to meet her lover at the bars. Without speaking, Mortagui undid the gate and led her to the Torture Chamber. Apparently they had done this before, and Jarl found nothing unusual.
When they got to the Chamber at last, Jarl was layed out upon one of the wheels, and their usual nightly practice was enacted. The sex was not much different from normal, as Mortagui was completely holding back his power. I suppose some must have leaked through, but not enough to be noticeable.
Afterwords, as they lay on the wooden torture device, Mortagui pulled out Sepia's dagger and slowly slit Jarl's throat. It took quite a while, long enough that Jarl was in terror and great pain by the end of it. And all the time, she believed it was Sepia killing her.
After she was dead, Mortagui took Sepia's body back to the Lair and left her. She was like a broken doll, completely beyond the real world, and she practically melted into uncosciousness.
Mortagui gave her a day to stew in the horrible memories that he had given her. She spent most of that day crying on my shoulder and telling me the horrid story of what he had done. I wept with her; even I was surprised that my own Keeper could be so cruel. Of course, I wasn't as incredibly taken aback at his cruelty as she was.
After all, I already knew first hand, didn't I?
I like to think that I helped her keep her sanity that last day. Although, maybe it would have been better for her if she had lost it. That might have made the pain bearable.
He sacrificed her later that evening. I think it might have pleased her to know that her dear Pestilus had gone the same way, if anything could have pleased her at that point.
I couldn't stand doing that to him. If Mortagui found out that Tarkasas might be trying to take me away from him, there's no telling what he would do. I don't think I'd horribly mind death at this point, but I don't want him to hurt Tarkasas.
Never that.
So it's best that I hurt him, I console myself. Because the alternative is much, much worse.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.