Eryn trudges behind the Demacians and into the keep. It's well lit with torchlight turning the grey cobblestone a pale orange. The Whitburn family crest is embroidered on large tapestries and hung all over the entry hall. There are a handful of soldiers walking about, some on their way to swap guard posts but most seem to be winding down for the night.
"We can take him from here, soldier. You should get some rest." Mournflame tells her. Eryn nods and watches as they march Draven down a hallway to the west. Eryn waits before quickly heading down the east hallway instead. Katarina had given them a basic layout of the castle before they had set off. She skitters down the halls, trying to not let her anxiety show in her stride. I have to look believable. She echoes to herself, trying to keep her chin up and not look how she feels. Like a lamb locked in a cage with hungry lions.
She passes barrack after barrack, room after room, soldier after soldier, before she thinks she spots what her goal is. Tucked back into the corner is a staircase, not lit by any torches, and only goes down. She's about to begin her descent down them when a voice directly behind her nearly makes her jump out of her skin. "Are you going to the catacombs too?" She spins and sees a young demacian soldier behind her. He has a round face and short brown hair, and there's a look of fear mixed with hope in his eyes. "Sorry didn't mean to spook you… Are you doing the... whatever it's called… The rite of passage?"
She nods slowly. Kat had mentioned that the soldiers here all told ghost stories about the catacombs, of course they would make some sort of hazing game out of it. They did it at Fort Ironwood, she just managed to avoid it during her short time there. "Yeah." She says finally.
"Same here. This might not be so bad with someone else here! I'm Vincent Shepard." He says with a relieved smile.
"Sarah Fletcher." Eryn has to stop herself from swearing out loud. She had been hoping this area would be empty to give her time to find the secret passageways. Now she had a tag along...
They descend into the dark stairway together. Their footsteps echo off the stony walls. He's just a few steps behind her and she can practically feel him quivering behind her. "So has anyone ever actually seen ghosts down here?" She asks.
"My bunkmate Donald heard footsteps when nobody was down here when it was his turn. This was just the other night." Vincent replies, his voice cracking a bit.
They reach the bottom and the darkness encases them, the inky blackness making the air feel thick. Eryn momentarily feels like she can't breathe, as the feeling reminds her of the petricite cave. She nearly reaches for her magic to summon it, to make sure she still can, but stops herself remembering Vincent beside her. She steadies herself against the walls instead as she walks forward. "How long do we have to stay down here for them to be satisfied?"
"Long as we can. Donald says if you manage to make it the whole night, your captain owes you extra drinks." He replies, almost standing directly next to her.
"Are there actual dead bodies down here?"
"They say this level was reserved for servants and guards to the former owners who had earned special burial rights for their service. Favored cooks and such. The actual former Lords and Ladies, nobody can find their bodies. It's why there's rumors there's secret passages down here where the rest are buried." Vincent talks as Eryn presses deeper, her hands running along the cool cobblestone beside her. "W-we don't have to go any deeper than where we were you know!" He calls out as he realizes she's walking away without him.
"I know I just… I'm curious you know?" She says hoping that would be enough to satisfy him.
He laughs nervously. "You're braver than I, maybe you should sign up for the Sentinels when the fighting is done."
Eryn keeps walking, but she pauses when she hears footsteps. "Vincent is that you?" She calls.
"I-I haven't moved an inch, Sarah!" He calls back and from how distant his voice is she knows he's telling the truth.
Eryn's blood runs cold. Someone else really is down there with them. She can hear the footsteps, uneven and almost scraping against the cobblestone flooring. It's distant, but she's definitely not imagining it. She steps forward again, still running her hands along the wall, when her fingers collide with something not made of cobble. The rough feeling is that of an unlit torch. Before she can process that though, it comes alight. Not with the typical orange flames of regular fire, but a bright green that matches the flames of her magic. She winces at the sudden brightness, and the catacombs are awash in green light. She can see hatches where caskets of servants are stored, and the plaques with their names.
Before she can fully take in her surroundings she hears Vincent scream and the sounds of his feet scrambling up the stairs. "PHANTOM!" He cries out as he exits the catacombs in a spectacularly loud fashion. She looks down the hallway, which now every 10 or so feet there's a torch lit with green flames, and at the end of the hall sees a long shadow, cast by someone, but she can't see who.
She feels frozen in place, her breath catching in her throat as fear grips her. Perhaps the rumors are true, it is haunted by the remains of her family. The shadow is shifting, like it's a person getting closer. Then a person turns the corner and Eryn's shoulders slump in relief before remembering these are supposed to be a deadend, and nobody's actually supposed to be down here according to Katarina's information on the place. It's still hard to make out who they are in the dim light, but they seem to be walking with a crutch or a cane, dragging one foot behind them with some difficulty.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be down here." Before the person can even finish speaking, Eryn recognizes the voice. It's one she could not possibly forget. Her brother's. She moves without thinking, running forward and as she does she can make out his features. His broad shoulders, curly messy dark hair, his confused face that slowly contorts into one of shock as she steps into the light where he can see. "Eryn?!"
She practically leaps up enveloping him into a hug. "Claudius you're alive!" Tears are welling up in her eyes and she has to stop herself from sobbing.
"So are you!" He hugs her back, his chin resting on her head as he holds her tightly. "What… What are you doing here? How did you get here? Why are you down here?"
The situation they've found themselves in floods back to her. She's not here to reunite with the brother she hadn't seen since she had thought he died. She's here to save a Noxian. His enemy. She stutters, her voice dying in her throat, as she struggles to come up with an explanation. He pulls back and looks down at her. He studies her face, seeing how her own contorts as she desperately tries to find something to say. "You're here for him." Claudius states simply. His tone turns from affectionate to bitter as he does.
"Claudius…"
"I should have known. I didn't think you'd stoop to this, but I should have. Eryn this is beyond treasonous."
She takes a step back, brushing his hand off of her as she does as rage is stoked in her like fire. "You think I don't know that already? That I made it this far without knowing exactly what I'm doing?"
"Do you? Do you know the price of what you're doing? They'll kill you Eryn! You're throwing your life away for some Noxian! Do you not see how foolish that is? We could have turned him in, together. We could've been heroes Eryn. Do you even know what your actions are causing? They think I'm a traitor! I'm going to have my title stripped, I might end up in the same dungeons he's in, because of you!"
His words strike her harder than he ever could with a warhammer. She feels off kilter as he shouts at her, the tears that had built up in her eyes spill down her cheeks, pooling along her jaw as she grits her teeth. When he finishes shouting she clenches her fists and stares him down directly, her voice quivering with anger. "You might end up in a dungeon? Claudius, I've had to fear that for my life for years! These people want mages like me to burn at the stake! I could never be their hero. It was never going to work Claudius! I'm never going to be accepted here! When are you going to realize this?" Her chest is heaving as her voice raises, she watches him flinch backwards, like he hadn't expected her to lash out
"I could never betray Darius, after he's saved my life from these Demacians. I can't sit here and see a man who saved me rot in a dungeon! I can't go back to my farm life knowing it cost him his freedom. I can't go back wondering about all the mages who are killed for their mere existence. I can't live here anymore! I can't support that! I can't let that happen to anyone else! How do you not get that? How can you be my brother all these years and not understand why I'd be doing this?"
Claudius isn't making eye contact with her. He's staring at his feet like a scolded child. His one arm is in a sling and she notices the crutch under his arm, and for a moment he looks pathetic, and it hurts to see him like that. The anger leaves her body and is replaced with despair. It fills her heart like lead. She approaches him again, her hands lighting up with green flames that she presses to his face. His eyes flick up to meet hers as the magic envelops him, mending his broken arm and hurt leg. He leans down pressing his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry." His voice is cracking and tears run down his cheeks as well. "I wanted to change things for us so badly. I thought this would be it. I was so sure..." His tone is defeated.
She pulls him into another hug, she holds him tightly against her, letting more tears swell and drip down her face. "I know. I know you did. I wanted it to be just like the fairy tales dad used to tell us. But it's not." She pulls away. "I need to go to him. Please don't try to stop me."
He laughs but through the tears it's a sad sound. Almost pained. "I don't think I could if I tried…" He breathes deeply, wiping the tears away. "I'll show you the way to him. That's all I'll do to help." She looks up at him curiously. "I've spent some of my time here… exploring. This place was owed to us after all. And when I heard the rumors of passageways that only those with the blood of the founders could enter… I couldn't resist."
"That sounds like something I would do, not you." Her tone is slightly teasing now that the argument has ended. It's easy to fall back into their sibling banter.
"You're rubbing off on me after all these years." He jests back and begins to walk down the halls. "I used them to go talk to him tonight. I was supposed to interrogate him under supervision tomorrow, but I knew he'd never talk to me if they were there. And I had some personal questions to ask him…"
"You're really starting to sound like me now. Maybe I can convince you to come with us to Noxus..."
"My place is still here. I can't give up on Demacia. I want to make it better." His eyes are serious, and she wants to try to convince him that this place is too far gone. The cancer of hatred in this nation is too strong. But she doesn't want to argue with him anymore. She's lucky her stubborn brother is willing to help at all. "The Whitburns have been withholding information from me. About you. I was desperate. So I went behind their backs, yes."
They turn a corner and they're met with a dead end. The cobblestone wall has a passage carved into it. Only blood of the founders may gain entry. The stones are scuffed, like people have tried to damage the walls before.
Claudius holds his hand to the wall, and it erupts into green flames, dissolving into ash in front of them like it had been made of wood and not stone. "Follow this to the end and it'll take you to the dungeons. One of these offshoots leads you out of the castle as well but I'm not sure which." Beyond them the tunnel continues as if the wall had never been there. Eryn steps over the pile of ash tentatively.
"Thank you." She whispers. "I hope to see you again one day. Not as enemies."
He smiles and it's a sad one. "I think it is you now who is believing in Dad's fairy tale endings." Moments later the ash reforms, rebuilding the wall between them brick by brick until its completely reconstructed.
She sighs shakily before jogging down the corridor, leaving the wall and her brother behind.
Her feet pound against the hard stone floors, her legs aching as she carries on through the catacombs. Green torch after green torch passes by her and it feels like eternity before she reaches what she hopes is the dungeon exit. She presses her hand just as Claudius did to the dead end. She feels it hum beneath her fingers before catching alight and turning to ash in front of her.
Eryn steps forward into the golden glow of regular torch light. She's standing in the middle of the dungeon. There's empty cells to her left and right and she slowly begins to make her way through the halls, glancing tentatively into each cell. They're dimly lit and hard to see all the way into the back of, so she stumbles when she finally passes one with a slumped figure in it. Her heart is nearly beating out of her chest as she peers inside, recognizing the broad shoulders and raven black hair of Darius. He's chained to the wall, his head is lolled back and he appears to be sleeping.
She wants to call out to him, to run to him and break him free of the shackles, but the heavy sound of a steel door scraping against cobblestone makes her ice run cold. Footsteps, several pairs, are approaching the cells. Eryn quickly scurries back and ducks into an open holding cell. She presses her back against the cold stone walls and tries to still her breathing as what sounds like several men enter the dungeons.
"Noxian wake up!" She hears a familiar pompus voice demand as the steel bars of Darius's holding cell shake. Whitburn. "It's time for you to talk. And we have some… incentive for you this time."