Spectral fists pummelled into her chest. The supernatural force of the guardian's aggressive blow hurled the Rogue from her feet and against the tomb wall in a scatter of dust and grains of granite. Hollow, eerie laughter taunted her as a guardian grasped Blood Raven by her shoulders and lifted her up into the air. She screamed in desperation and helplessness, swinging her fists futilely at her tormentors. The useless shortsword clattered to the floor as she soared across the room and was hoisted into the shaft. Her vision became a blur as the guardians elevated upwards, spinning as they went.
The world swam past in a rush, the passing myriad of burial niches only an indistinct blur of darkness and bones. For a fleeting moment that she once again spotted the flash of white. The vision flashed by spontaneously, but not before its image subconsciously lingered upon her mind. It had vaguely seemed to be a woman garbed in bone, reclining relaxingly within a niche, who had wave her hand in greeting.
The Rogue had no time to ponder upon the bizarre vision in the nauseating rapid ascent. Several hundred metres above, Blood Raven's ghostly captor's ascension paused, and the Rogue finally breathed in, gasping with vertigo.
"Perisssh tressspassser…" the phantom flung her against the tomb wall, slamming her into a stunned daze. She began to fall, screaming as she plummeted. As rows and rows of skeletal remains hurtled past, all she could see were images of death, accompanied by the echoing mocking laughter.
In her panic she barely saw the flash of white again, before its bodily weight collided against her in mid-air. The Rogue involuntarily gripped the new skeletal encounter by the shoulders, and stared bewilderedly at the smiling bone-clad woman who now fell beside her.
"Hello! I'm Trump! This looks like fun! Mind if I join you? What'chya been doing today? What's your name?" the gaunt lady appeared oblivious to the fact that they were falling head-first, their hair whipping, as they hurtled downwards to be dashed upon the stone floor below.
"What! We're falling to our deaths you stupid dimwit! AAAAAH!" Blood Raven batted away the proffered, outstretched hand.
The woman seemed disappointed, almost offended by the Rogue's actions. "I say! Life is short and they say one should always have enough time to make a new friend."
"Do…do something! Save us!" the Rogue yelled at the sulking lady.
Their descent drew closer to its excruciating conclusion, and the violet-lit floor now came rushing towards them.
"Well, if you aren't interested in making a new acquaintance, then I'll do something else." Trumped chirped haughtily. "Such as making sure we can do this again and have so much fun!" She glanced nonchalantly upwards to her feet and then at the scenery rushing by, before reaching backwards with her left hand to rummage through her backpack.
"I know just what will do the trick!" The cheerful woman withdrew a slender object, which was yellow with age, and made several grandly gestures with it.
Blood Raven stared with hysterical dawning hope, but the glimmer in the Rogue's eyes quickly dissipated when she apprehended that the bone-clad woman simply held a human-sized femur bone.
"Not only am I going to be dashed to pieces! I will be standing before the Cause with this madwoman! AAAAAH!" Blood Raven recommenced her terrified screaming realising that all was lost.
"Nonsense!" Trump reproached. She then pronounced mysterious words with growing tremulousity. "Esine…Mabolic…VERATIL!"
Nothing happened. The pair continued their descent at its terrifying speed.
"Drat!" The smile faded but momentarily as the lady jiggled the femur with frustration, before casting it aside. "That isn't what I wanted. Ah! This is however." She clasped Blood Raven around the shoulders tightly whilst she gestured with an intricately carved bone wand. A revolving myriad of translucent bone began to coalesce to surround the pair just as they plummeted past the array of angels and hit the tomb floor.
Blood Raven's world exploded in an impact of crushed bone. The bone barrier revolving around them shattered into an outwards exploding ring of shards, fractured pieces and dried marrow. The painful gist of their fall was mostly absorbed by Trump's protective barrier, and the pair now lay winded upon the floor instead of a mess of mangled, broken bodies.
Trump raised her head with a smug smile, which she maintained upon her face even when she noticed at the tip of the Rogue's blade at her throat.
"Now, now, is that how you show your gratitude to your saviour?" Trump looked with pity at Blood Raven's limp sword-arm and her frame which quivered with exhaustion."
The Rogue was certainly not in the mood for humour. "Get up! Onto your feet now! What is your part in the defilement of this sacred place?" Blood Raven's voice was tense with strong mistrust.
"I assure you, I was just climbing up these niches minding my own business. Just having some fun and seeing the sights." An innocent whistling was added to emphasis her supposed innocence.
"Lies! You are a practitioner of the dark arts. You even wear the dead upon yourself!" The Rogue looked in disgust at the lengthy, curved bone spike which protruded from Trump's skeletal left pauldron.
"Admit it! You are in league with this demonic power! I shall slay you! Tell me, why those corrupted guardians did not harm you?" Blood Raven's blade pressed harder against the skin of Trump's throat.
"Hold on there! If I may with your permission?" The threatened woman gingerly reached to her chest. "This bauble was passed from my great-great-mommy to my great-mommy to my mommy, and then to me, and is supposed to have protective powers. I was told by my good ole' mommy that it is imbued with a blessing of holiness. Somehow it warded the guardians away. Isn't that wonderful!"
Trump slowly withdrew a medallion cradled between her shapely breasts beneath her tunic and paused, staring puzzlingly. A sizeable crack now angrily separated the amulet's face and its two carved inscriptions. The bauble was dull and lacklustre, its power obviously spent and broken.
Blood Raven did not notice the mishap, and at the sight of the inscriptions also in the archaic Rogue lettering she stepped back in startled understanding. The Rogue made a sharp intake of breath and stared up above the arch.
"The last letter is not Blessing!" she whispered exhilaratingly. The Rogue peered more closely to recognise the two distinguishing lines which lashed under the symbol but had been obscured by dust. "Bearer of nature's fury… Within must lie…the Bow!"
"Your wardsss no longer pressservesss your sssoul!" the whistling, rushing approach of the guardians from above confirmed Trump's fears.
"Uh oh! We gotta run! I sorta er…broke the bauble. Run now!" the bone-clad woman moved speedily even seemingly under the heavy weight of the colossal animal ribcage which served as her breastplate.
Trump neatly hooked Blood Raven's arm as she vaulted past, dragging the astounded Rogue with her.
"No! Elsvairel herself might lie on the other side of this arch! And with her Bow!" Blood Raven protested as she frantically resisted. Her eyes widened with fear and let herself be pulled away as the guardians descended once more into the chamber.
"Run! Your bow won't be much use to you if you're dead!" The pair raced backwards towards the dust-filled corridor. "I was only joking when I called you three old geezers broken bone flutes! No hard feelings eh?" the laughing, irritating voice piped back to the pursuing phantoms as the two ladies plunged into the corridor.