In the Dampening Dark

By Breaeden Swordwind

Well... I'm back and as I promised there was a massive delay. However, exams are only a few weeks away and hopefully I'll be able to spare more time after that but I can't be certain. As usual send me any comments and questions you may have.


Even as she descended from the cold air of the ground floor to the frozen air of the dungeon she could not believe it. She refused to believe it. She had never really considered herself always on the side of truth, justice, and all that bull, but she had always liked to think that at the end of the day she had done more good than harm, that she was ultimately doing the right thing. However, this latest decision by her higher ups had thrown that entire concept into question. How could she be at least somewhat good when she was bearing along with her a beast of such untold evil?

The dungeon opened wide its cold stone arms in greeting. A desperately hopeful insanity seemed to pervade the very stone and exuded from it slowly and constantly like the stench from a rotting corpse. But Nel could not notice any of this so focused was she on being in disbelief at what she was moving towards.

This was not what she was expecting to have happened when they had gone to Mosel. She was expecting an almost pointless meeting that would say things that were obvious and apparent but first needed to be addressed with a large degree of formality. "We must fight these new attackers" "We need a dragon to reach them and only Aquaria's cannons could damage them!" and so on until they had gradually pieced together the blatant need for an alliance. It was all just supposed to be a bunch of pomp and circumstance.

Of course, Fayt had told Nel it was her responsibility to fill the new girl, Maria, in on what exactly the two nation's ruler's command had meant. What sort of creature it would entail them carrying. She supposed she owed Fayt and them enough for having helped to save the Sacred Orb but still she had been forced to talk about certain issues and certain things she did not like to talk about. The very act of reciting them had made her agitated and had put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Cliff made the poor decision to blame her problems on something he called "PMS" and once she was told what that stood for she had personally punched him in the face.

She still, however, did not see the value of allowing into the ground something so blindly destructive! Something so self-destructive it might well destroy them in an attempt to destroy itself. It would, at best, be a burden to the mission, completely unreliable no matter how much it knew of the Lava Caves.

"What is the captain of the Black Brigade doing down here in the dungeon?" Fayt asked.

"You shall see." Responded Waltar, their guide. He was an old man definitely within the twilight of his life whose experiences and cunning still made him a dangerous opponent if not in the combat sense. He was more of a strategist who could make 100 men into a force capable of crushing whole armies with tactical maneuvers. He had a warriors training and a history of valorous deeds but those were now behind him to be replaced with deeds of sagacity.

Nel had to agree with Fayt's trepidation on this one. She herself was curious as to why they would have to meet Albel in the dungeon… maybe it just got kicks out of beating the life out of prisoners. That didn't seem to out of character for it, in fact it seemed to be the most plausible explanation. That was also probably why it wasn't at the battle. It probably pleasured itself to sounds of people screaming.

They arrived at a door. It was a thick mahogany slab that was padded around it to muffle the screams of those kept with in. This was the door to the room where they tortured captured enemies and Nel knew of its reputation well, she had known subordinates that fell into its clutches… They were never the same again.

There was a legend about this room, both in Airyglyph and Aquaria, that this room was tied directly to the realm of demons and that sometimes the inquisitor would call upon one to aid in the breaking of the latest victim. That Romero was a frequenter of this room and would use it to amuse himself and that such amusement was the only reason demons so rarely attacked the world of humans.

But that was legend, right?

However, even the door lived up to the legend. A trail of blood led away from it that could either be, depending on how on thought at the time, a serpentine tongue or drool. Around the door was a lining of viciously white stones. For some reason these pure unmarked white stones seemed far more menacing for their pristine gleam then all the blood stain floors and dank scents. Maybe it was because they were as teeth. Above the door were two torches that cast their binary light into the gloomed and stare out at the approaching victims hungrily from their sockets. The fires lapped lustily as the person drew near and watched him with expectation until he was through in when, by legend, they would blink out, savoring the taste of the new mortal flesh, and then burn once more.

Even those members of the group that had not known of this legend were trembled visibly, even Cliff teeth could be heard chattering in his empty skull. Everyone was now suspicious as to why Albel Nox would have been thrown into such a prison and Nel herself was beginning to doubt that it was of his own choice.

Waltar smirked mirthlessly and almost tragically as he solemnly intoned, "we are here". He pulled from a pocket an onyx key which was sculpted with barbs that gave it a menacing aura befitting the door it was to open. He slammed the key into the luck with the necessary force to unlock it and as he twisted it the mechanisms screamed mournfully and sadly. They didn't want to loose their meal.

The inside was black, utterly dark and Waltar walked in first, followed almost immediately by Nel and then the rest. Waltar sighed, "The torch here must have gone out again. This room doesn't seem to like having lit torches in here… I'll be right back, I must retrieve a new one."

Nel sighed but was still definitely on her toes. She could hear the blood in her ears more then the slight grumbles of her comrades. She decided to back up against a wall and lean against it while she waited. Leaning back she felt something soft. She froze. It moaned slightly, its voice a cold dead rasp not unlike the chains that now sounded in unison with its rousing "ugh…what the hell?" Nel jumped back and drew her knife point the tip toward the… the thing.

Waltar entered with a torch from down the hall and Nel was standing in the center of the room. Everyone looked at her then at the person that was chained to the wall. It was the creature known as Albel Nox.

Albel blinked a few times, his eyes were taking time to adjust to the light after having been left in darkness for so long. Nel and everyone else just stared at it. Much of its body was scarred and a few wounds were still bleeding. It was obvious that it had been one of the people who Romero was summoned against. It was emaciated and starved but the muscle was still there. Physically, she had never seen a creature in so low a state. Every part of it seemed to be broken and its head was slumped forward, causing the strands of his two-tone hair to cover its face. Its claw had been left on his arm but was now beginning to rust over after being in the dank dungeon as long as it had been with out being clean. Seeing the rust covering the formally arrogantly gleaming surface of the claw seemed like such a tragedy. Something had never before been laid so low as to have gone from the symbol of death on a thousand battle fields to be rusting in the basement of a snow-locked castle.

Then she noticed the wall. Not only was it covered with blood that seemed to be Albel's but where the chain were attached to the wall cracks were forming from having been pulled on. Albel must have been pulling the entire time in order to form such fissures, especially the one attached to his living wrist which seemed about to snap from the wall. Sure, enough its living wrist was nothing but blood, the skin long stripped away from the pulling against the chian.

Albel's head rose groggily and he smirked… "more hallucinations? Whatever, I can't be bothered with real maggots why should I be bothered by fake ones?" But gradually the smirked faded, "no you are real! Woman!" it shouted and lunged its living hand out to grab her. The chain flew from the wall, carrying with it a small chunk of stone, giving Albel extra reach and for a moment she could imagine that it could feel her breath. She looked it in the eye and were its eyes not that distinctive shade of blood she would not have thought him the same person. They still seemed weak but now seemed to have a faint glimmer in their ruby depths, a faint light that shone all the brighter because there was nothing around it but darkness. Eventually Albel's knees broke and it fell only to be stopped part of the way above the ground by the chain attached to its claw arm.

Albel was breathing heavily and painfully, hanging limply from a chain like some rag doll that had fallen into the hands of boys with that childish malevolence that was uniquely theirs. But still it managed to smirk arrogantly, "What are you maggots doing here? Waltar! Do you not know they are the Enemy?"

"Things have changed, but suffice it to say Airyglyph and Aquaria are currently observing a truce." Waltar spoke, pouring all his dignity and experience power into his words so that Albel would be at least some what placated.

"Ha! With Vox alive that is not a possibility. Unless… Vox is dead?" As Albel's lips moved his eyes began to glow with something between intense hope and virulent disappointment.

"Indeed, boy, the warmonger is dead, it was these people who fought in battle against him on the plains of battle but the killing blow had been struck by another…" Waltar kept his statements suitably ambiguous, probably more out of habit then because there was any real need to do so.

"And I'm to suppose from that statement that you won't tell me who exactly did kill him until you get something out of me? You're getting too easy to predict old man." Albel's lip curled up in a vile smirk.

Waltar sighed put off that his purpose had been smoked out so soon into the conversation with Albel but continued on regardless, "Be that as it may, The king has asked you to guide these warriors to the Urlssa Lava Caves so that they may try to enlist the aid of the Marquis against the new enemy which has revealed itself too us. Of course, you freedom will be granted to you upon the completion of this task."

The clawed bastard lips opened even more into a smile that showed too many teeth, a wolf's smile. "I'm not sure I want to leave, fool… this place has taught me many things." As it spoke on of the scabs near its mouth opened and it began to bleed once more, "but it will be nice to be getting stronger once more… been so long since last I fought. But you must answer me this, who is this new foe and how powerful are they?"

"We are not certain who exactly the enemy is, but this young man," Waltar made a motion of his hand toward Fayt, "calls them Vendini and I assure you they are very powerful."

"Hm… so be it. I shall lend my blade to you worms, for now. But I'm not doing this because I want to help or because I was told, I merely wish to see the just how strong this enemy is"

"As you will." Waltar looked toward the others that had been standing in rigid attention as the exchange had been going on, Albel's very nature and demeanor putting them ill at ease. "He is strong, you will not have to worry about him burdening you, however I will admit that his… social skills are lacking in their polish. But within Airyglyph I can assure you there is no man stronger." Seeing a faint nod from Fayt and even an grim acknowledgement from Nel, he turned back to, "And Albel, though it has been many years and no doubt little remains, if you see your brother's corpse I would like you to bring it back. No soldier deserves to have his body left upon the field of battle."

Albel nodded grimly.

Without ceremony, Albel began to leave the room not even bothering to notice the others. Nel had backed up, over the course of the conversation, to the door and was now leaning beside it. Just as Albel began to pass she whispered, "I don't like this any more then you do Albel."

Ever so gently Albel placed its claw on her stomach, "Maggot, I will be strong, no matter how much you may believe otherwise. You will see. Tch…" After he had spoken he began to walk once more and dragged his claw along her stomach leaving cuts in her armor that exposed strips of her side and stomach to the frigid air of death. However, the cuts did not make their way to her skin in even the slightest way.

Albel forcefully opened the door to the hallway and walked out. The door groaned sadly as its meal was snatched from its bowels. Albel's leg had a slight limp as he walked down the hallway but it managed to walk with a sense of pride and dignity that Nel had not previously thought it capable of. It walked with an obvious weight but also with a willingness to bear that weight which would make the gods ashamed of themselves.