Sorey had seen such a style of architecture before, but he could not put his finger on where; even though worn away by time, the massive structure remained in decent condition. Brickwork and masonry were eroded, yet a deeper layer hid underneath; whatever this installation had once been, it was built right into the rock. That was his first real clue; human hands could not create such buildings easily.
"I think seraphim built this place," he shared his observation with the group, receiving nods from his spiritual friends and a shrug from Rose, who was busy poking a badly rusted spear with her foot. The contact made it crack, at which she quickly retreated. Sorey sighed, knowing that the redhead was bored out of her mind ever since they boarded the ship; the way she found herself distractions at least made the sailors happy. And admittedly, Sorey started to understand why she was so fascinated with sex after she slept with him, too.
...but he really should not ponder this right now. The barely identifiable pieces of armour and weapons they found were more interesting; everything they found was white with golden trims that, combined with the clear signs of combat everywhere, painted the picture of a horrible assault. He did not know who once lived in this place, but they must have fought like people possessed.
The worst part was the last hall on the ground floor; it opened onto the backside dock, but the devastation inside gave them all pause. "What the hell?" Rose muttered next to him with wide eyes. Sorey could not help but stare, too; the stone railing was cracked and broken, giving them a clear view of the torn floor beneath. Several spots were molten and reformed into jagged edges, elsewhere gleaming splinters of metal shone in their torchlight. Parts of the wall were smashed out, allowing natural light in; a glance through the hole revealed that it went through several metres of rock.
The scholars were excited, of course; Sorey just wondered what kind of power it would take to create such devastation. This place had been built to last, reinforced to unnecessary levels in his opinion. That same opinion changed when they ventured lower and found the cells. Heavy iron bars had rusted away to dust, only a scant few remaining to tell of their past; the traces of Malevolence felt earlier were stronger here. "This was a prison," Mikleo voiced what Sorey also thought. The others nodded, clearly having made the same connection. "So the signs of battle may have been a riot?"
"But most of those weapons were enchanted," Sorey argued back after a moment. "And with how they lie around, it looks like the prisoners won. It doesn't add up. Something is weird about this."
He continued to ponder just why this entire place still felt off as they went deeper, to the deepest cell. It was little more than a hole in the ground, though curiously the most pristine area they found so far. Zaveid and Edna kept strangely quiet, but they jumped down with everyone regardless. Rose shuddered moments after landing, looking around at the bare walls. "Brrr, what's with this place?" she moaned. "It gives me the creeps!" Sorey empathised, feling little better.
Before he could get used to the atmosphere however, his vision shifted. A soft gasp escaped him when the glow of his torch was suddenly gone, his only source of light behind the trapdoor far above. It took Sorey a moment to realise this was his mind's eye seeing and he quickly told the others. Dust swirled in the faint rays and he curiously stared upward; the trapdoor confirmed his previous thought that this was a cell. It could have been meant to store a waste heap, too.
"...Sorey? What's that in the shadows?" Rose sounded uncharacteristically timid when asking that; his attention shifted immediately, finding her by his side. He strained his eyes to find whatever she pointed at, but was distracted by a loud clap of metal hitting stone. A second later, he started when a werewolf landed right in front of Edna, who flinched back. The meaty thwap of its impact had something disgusting about it.
"What the-?!"
Sorey's exclamation was cut off when the hellion rose; he made to guard himself before remembering that this was a past event. The werewolf stared straight at them without reaction as it looked around; Edna cautiously stepped forward and poked it with her umbrella, only to pass right through it. Sorey was intrigued, but also mightily confused. "This is different from the iris gem. What are we seeing?"
The only response he received was the thing in the shadows stepping forward, revealing itself to be a woman; a ragged, torn, snarling woman whose appearance reminded Sorey of someone, but he could not figure out who. Her pitch black hair was disheveled and barely held by improvised bands of cloth, reaching all the way to her feet.
The werewolf had seen her too, flinching back and falling over. "Please, mercy!" he pleaded almost desperately, but the woman charged forward without hesitation. Her arm deformed into a giant, crimson claw that tore the hellion's chest open in one swing. Sorey stood completely still as specks of purple blood flew right through him, his stomach revolting at the sight of even a beast so brutalised.
Before he could get himself back together, the woman pressed her claw onto the dying werewolf; her entire arm began to contract with grinding and sloshing noises, the hellion quickly pulled into her palm.
"Wait," Rose interrupted the gruesome scene, "is she eating that werewolf?"
Sorey could not help but nod, horrified. "She's venomising herself," he muttered, then glanced up and back down, realising there was nothing else for food down here. "This place was like a crucible!"
The vision faded out on his last word, as if on cue. They were back in the dilapidated, now somewhat more illuminated cell. No one had any words for what they just witnessed; this was when Sorey understood the true horror of this place, and what felt so odd about the cells above. "They held hellions in those cells, like, like cattle to feed her." Silence answered his words, everyone trying to come to terms with what they found.
"Okay," Rose began slowly after a while, "Okay. Edna, Zaveid? You two are older than us, do you have any idea what just happened? And I don't mean, you know, that," she clarified while waving at the room's center, "I mean that we saw it at all."
The two seraphim exchanged glances while everyone else watched them. Zaveid shrugged at Edna, who rolled eyes and umbrella. "Assuming that this was the Earthen Historia, I can make a guess."
Before she got to explain, another vision overlayed the room and everyone seized up; the woman was back, her outline barely visible along the wall. This time however, no hellion fell, no. It was another woman, clad in pristine white and blue with hair of flaming red. Her eyes were covered by a white and golden mask. She landed as gracefully as all of them had earlier.
Sorey turned away after a second; he could not bear seeing her get eaten, too. Mikleo did similarly and they both heard the fast slap-slap of bare feet on stone, followed by the impact of body against body... and then body against wall. The crackling of flames followed, which drew his attention back despite himself; when he saw the redhead pressed against the wall by her assailant, whose arm burned to no reaction, he could not help but watch in morbid curiousity. The newcomer was thrown into the room's center and the trapped hellion shook her flames off with contempt.
"Where is he?" she snarled. Her voice was cracked and hoarse, yet full of anger; Sorey still failed to place where he heard it before. They watched a short exchange and a combat test of sorts, but any useful information was cut off by the woman claiming she did not care for details. That was when it faded out, leaving them with little to work on.
"She said Artorius was involved in this somehow," Sorey mused afterward. He had no idea how the pieces fit together yet. Rose still grumbled about having learned nothing. They waited for a while to see if anything else happened, but nothing did and so the group ascended; they found nothing of real use for the scholars yet.
Walking behind the others, Zaveid side-eyed Edna. "Recognised her, didn't ya?" A wall of protective winds kept his voice from carrying, their conversation private. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Of course I did. Velvet is pretty distinct once you know her."
"Heh, agreed. So my bet is that Maotelus shows us pieces of the past, but I can't figure out why."
"It might be the silver flame," Edna mused. "He recognises someone wielding his power, so he wants to help."
The suggestion earned her a chuckle. "Sounds just like him," Zaveid agreed.
Their conversation ceased after that and the winds dispersed; Zaveid knew that Dezel noticed what he did, but the other seraph usually kept these kinds of things to himself.
The remainder of that first day yielded little else of interest; no great finds, no more visions. Camp was made in the dock-facing hall, almost everyone arguing about one thing or another; Sorey kept theorising while Rose asked questions once in a while, though neither Zaveid nor Edna spoke up. Mikleo noticed, but said nothing. He could only shake his head when Sorey asked his opinion; while the water seraph had some theories, they all relied on knowledge he was oathbound to withhold from the unknowing.
The following day consisted of further exploration, though the shepherd's group remained near their charges this time. After learning that hellions were held here, they decided not to risk one having lived through an age and run rampant.
Just as someone asked Sorey's opinion on the abundant destruction however, another vision layered itself over their eyes. Men and women in white-golden armour raced through the corridor, gleaming in crude armati and striking out against the same dark-haired woman they saw before; this time however, she was not alone. Mayvin fought by her side, as did four others; a woman wearing a blue and white dress with flaming red hair, two broad-shouldered men, and a blond boy. The boxer reminded Mikleo of someone, but it took glancing at Edna to realise whom he likely saw. The other man wielded two daggers like Rose and moved similarly, one of his eyes gleaming red. The child threw paper and all kinds of elemental artes, forming the group's rearguard while the adults rampaged ahead.
The armatised warriors were killed slowly but surely; stray strikes from both sides tore walls and ground apart, forming almost the exact traces they themselves saw. While his human companions gasped and watched eagerly however, he actually looked; what he saw was several people dropping and turning to dust without ever being hit.
"Is something wrong?"
As if disrupted by the woman's voice, their vision faded before the battle concluded. Sorey slowly shook his head, wide eyes flitting between everyone. "No, no. Just... didn't you see?" When the scholars shook their heads, he tried to explain: "I don't know why, but something keeps showing us moments of the past. There was fighting right in this corridor, but I can't say what about. Seraphim were involved."
"O...kay?" The woman who initially asked made a valiant attempt to hide her alienation; Mikleo noticed, but doubted that his brother did. She slowly shook her head then and produced parchment. "I guess that's the gentle shepherd for you. Would you mind describing what you saw, in detail?"
"Oh, sure."
It did not take long to summarise the important details Sorey took from the fight, though he did not mention the people around Mayvin or the Historian herself at all. He was then asked to let them know of other visions and nodded along, but Zaveid clapped a hand on his shoulder the moment they had some distance. "Don't," he advised the confused shepherd curtly. "This place looks like it'd be better left forgotten."
"You sound like you know more than you admit," Dezel added before Mikleo could decide whether he wanted to prod the older seraph. Attention quickly went to Zaveid, who shrugged.
"I know a bit. Never been here during that time we just saw, but I've paid the place a visit a few years after all of it happened. This is Titania, a prison made for hellions. Didn't work out so well for them when-"
Another memory overlayed itself in that moment, showing the same group of six they saw fighting earlier. Except that this time, they were passing through the corridor leading downward in much less of a hurry.
"But what could lead to such a riot?" the redheaded lancer asked, only to draw a little grin from the hellion swordsman clad in purple robes of a sort.
"Ah, right, you don't know. This place is where they held Velvet, Magilou, and me. Velvet caused the riot to escape in the confusion."
"She did what?!"
The dark-haired woman, Velvet, turned to her companion nonchalantly. "Did you really expect anything else from me at this point?" she inquired like another would ask about the weather. That was all they saw however, as the vision faded right after Velvet's comment. Mikleo's eyes were wide as he realised why that person appeared familiar; going by the faces all around, he was not the only one. They all stared at where a woman they met not that long ago had spoken so carelessly of lives lost.
"Yeah, that."
All eyes were on Zaveid when he broke the befuddled silence. In these moments however, Mikleo formed further connections. A woman imprisoned, a hellion, the casual disregard for others, the mention of Artorius the previous day. Zenrus' words almost echoed in his head, but Mikleo's tongue was tied. Everything made sense now and the truth was horrifying. He stared at Zaveid, willing the other man to meet his gaze and tell him it was not so.
Unaware of his brother's mental turmoil, Sorey forged ahead with his own question: "You knew she was a hellion this whole time?"
Zaveid merely shrugged. "Yeah, so what? Not like you could have done anything about it besides getting yourself killed. That's one woman you don't mess with, buddy." When Sorey opened his mouth to protest, the other man cut him off: "I mean it. If you go and confront her, she either won't listen or beat you up, depending on how long you bother her."
Sorey harrumphed, more or less pouting about being disregarded like this for a long while. Mikleo followed everyone around absently after that, trying to understand just what Velvet Crowe was planning. Into these thoughts however, they stumbled into another scene right next to their camp as it suddenly vanished; other accomodations took its place, with rougher men and women at work all around. In their midst played a little girl hellion, green and black bark having replaced her skin. Two long but thin horns poked out of leaf green hair like antennae, that same hair fusing into a tentacle which ended in a tiny suction cup.
They all watched the child build a tower of sticks, only to throw it back over with a playful roar; the adults snickered over her antics. Once in a while, someone would pass by her and administer a headpat; the sight drew a smile from Mikleo despite himself. This child appeared happy despite her lot in life.
"That was weirdly wholesome," Rose mused when the vision faded. Everyone else agreed with her, though the curious glances to Zaveid merely earned a shrug; he did not know who that girl was.
They saw several more scenes of that girl, either playing or running around; sometimes other familiar faces featured, from Eizen to the unknown redhead. Once she hid herself within the hollow of a living armour's body while playing hide and seek with a lizardman.
As they entered one of the central rooms however, another scene began to reveal itself; Mikleo immediately knew it would be more important. The redhead and the child were there, but so was yet another woman. Another hellion, her eyes discoloured and skin partly covered in scales. The three of them were watching Velvet talk to that blond seraph boy Mikleo had seen before. Except that after something he said, Velvet ruffled his hair affectionately.
"One certainly wouldn't expect the Lord of Calamity to be like this on her off-time," the reptilean woman mused, which prompted a nod from the redhead.
"You have a point there," she agreed, ignoring the dark-haired swordsman's approach. The girl's gaze went from the scene they watched to the adults with her.
"But why does she always look so mean? I'd like her more if she's nice!"
Mikleo barely suppressed a huff and Rose actually giggled about the comment. The redhead did neither, rather taking the question at face value: "I'm not sure, to be honest. It feels like she goes out of her way to not be kind, but sometimes it slips through and she pretends it's for some other reason."
"But why? I don't get it, Eleanor!" A gasp sounded from Sorey while Mikleo's eyes widened; that name could not be a coincidence, but it felt impossible for this to be the one he thought of. It was the right time for certain, but so close to Velvet?
They could not ask the past for clarification, however. The swordsman came up next to the child and patted her head. "That's because that's how she is, simple as that. Velvet doesn't care what you think of her, or what anyone thinks. She has her goal and that's it."
"I got a similar impression," the snake woman responded warily, "but that doesn't explain why she is that way when she is kind at heart... apparently." She merely received a shrug in response.
"I have some guesses, but I don't think she'd like me to share them."
"What? No fair, tell us! Tell us, come on!"
While he chuckled over the child's antics at first, the swordsman indulged her and by extension Mikleo: "Let's say someone hurt her bad before. I figure she only cares about hurting them back now." The younger hellion backed down, more confused than Mikleo was by now; he pieced most of it together already, after all.
The redhead's expression had softened, however; her gaze lay on the ground as she thought. "Still, to act against your own nature must not be easy on her."
"Well, she is a daemon."
"...a fair point."
"I still think she'd be nicer if she smiled more."
The child had crossed her arms after the last statement, clearly convinced of her own opinion; the lady hellion huffed together with Rose and Zaveid. Mikleo took note of Velvet approaching the group while the swordsman responded thoughtfully: "I'm not sure I agree. Don't you think it would be more unsettling to have Velvet smile at you before she kills and eats you? I'd rather have a scowling end."
"H-Huh? Velvet isn't gonna eat me, is she?"
"I don't think so," the woman in question answered, immediately drawing everyone's attention to herself. She gave the distraught girl a kind smile. "You're too small to make a good meal, anyway." Her reassurance only made the child shake.
"Y-You'reRightShe'sScarierThatWayAaaaaaaa"
A befuddled Velvet stared after the fleeing girl, likely unaware of the disapproving stares leveled at her from both remaining women. The scene faded out at this point, leaving them on their own; Zaveid chuckled, but Mikleo saw how pale everyone but him and Edna had become. They obviously noticed.
"That woman just called her 'Lord of Calamity'," Sorey began slowly, widened eyes still focussed on the empty room. "She, she was right there this whole time? How didn't we notice anything?"
"Holy shit, I hit on a Lord of Calamity!"
The entire discussion stopped dead, five pairs of eyes incredulously focussing on Rose. Edna was the first to turn away, huffing. "Sounds just like you," she quipped. The others quietly agreed, though Mikleo could not help but grin mirthlessly.
"Imma stop you right there," Zaveid then chimed in again; his arms were crossed now, the serious glare not affecting Sorey in any way. "You still shouldn't get involved. Velvet put down that title a long time ago, she won't make trouble unless you push her. Leave her be." His warning reminded Mikleo once again of what Zenrus taught months ago, so he could appreciate it; his brother could not, he merely clenched his teeth and fists.
"I can't just overlook this, Zaveid," Sorey ground out. "Present or former Lord of Calamity, I need to sort this out."
"Hold on, maybe we have the wrong person," Rose chimed in while rubbing her head. Mikleo glanced her way out of curiousity. "I'm pretty sure she has a bonded seraph. And if she's, you know, a hellion, that wouldn't work. Right?"
"I never sensed a trace of Malevolence from her either," Dezel supplied thoughtfully. "Though she always felt a little off to my winds."
"So in the best case," Mikleo summarised warily, "we have a woman who shares the name and appearance of the first Lord of Calamity. In the worst case, she is that very same being, has survived the battle with Shepherd Artorius, and had a thousand years to grow even more powerful." He hated having to do this, but spelling out the situation clearly gave his brother pause; he could not risk Sorey fighting this woman. "So we should move with care either way." Zaveid opened his mouth, but a stern look kept him silent; when Mikleo next glanced down at Edna, she arched an eyebrow at him. At least those two clearly understood that Mikleo knew yet played this game regardless.
"I'll think about it," Sorey ultimately decided. "We need to do something, but Mikleo is right."
"Let's talk to her once we get back," Rose suggested right after.
Despite his relief, Mikleo found the mood thoroughly subdued after this conversation; Velvet Crowe, a woman who had her hand in their fate and journey, was a former Lord of Calamity.
Little did he know that this same woman was beset by assassins as they spoke.
Blades gleamed in the dark of night and blood splattered as bodies were cut apart; the dying attempted too flee but lost too much blood already, crawling for their lives. A metal-plated boot punctured yet another throat and cracked the mask protecting it.
The twister of red and black came to a standstill soon after, pristine; surrounding her were eleven broken bodies. One more was still on his legs, fleeing as if death itself were on his heels. Velvet let him, knowing how organised the Scattered Bones assassin guild was; they would know where their team got waylaid either way, so she threw back one of their bones. A witness would make abundantly clear not to come at her again.
Considering her surroundings, Velvet decided not to waste food so freely given; she could not afford the bodies being found either way. As her claw grew out once more, she pondered what to tell her brother; they would have to run damage control and depending on how their fellow shadow guild reacted to this, it could range from being benign to utter annihilation. She hoped it was the former, but if the latter was called for, well... the loud crunch of bones being shredded underlined her thoughts.