Chains of the Void
To those of you who offered helpful advice on how to beat THE Darkest Dungeon (and that one guy who offered less helpful advice) I thank you. I used a party of two highwaymen, a Hellion and a Jester and then just point blanked the boss to death. Then drove the new game plus highwayman insane by talking to the troll ghost. Seriously is there any other point to that ghost other than to fuck with you?
Apologies for not updating in so long, but I hope you enjoy this chapter a few of you have been waiting for. This chapter was going to be much bigger and include a fight scene (you can probably guess which), but I decided to cut it in half. I'm going to upload the next chapter in perhaps a few days, but tell you what. If this story gets say, six more reviews in the first day, I will post the next chapter first thing tomorrow morning.
As for a question about Louise's familiar's age, I won't say right now. The man himself perhaps no longer knows himself, but he is a young man. He likely would look older however. Being branded, chained, chased and tortured, and only then tossed head first into the darkest of dungeons, can really put some years on you, as you would expect. There's also the fact that he seems to have literal pits for eyes.
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
I do not own either Darkest Dungeon or Familiar of Zero. They are each owned by their respective companies. This story is for fun only, no copyright infringements intended.
Her familiar was weird. No, weird was perhaps the wrong word. It would be an understatement, too childish and simple a description. Her familiar was disturbing, strange and perturbing, worryingly so. Those sounded like better words with which she could describe the chain bound man that had become her familiar. She was not sure what to make of him. He had taken her first kiss, which frustrated her. She was not sure why that frustrated her so much, as she knew would have had to do the same at some point to seal the binding contract. Perhaps it was the idea that her own familiar had gotten the upper hand somehow. That it was power play, a commoner getting a one up on a noble. Or more likely a criminal humiliating a noble. For what else could he be? Wrapped in chains, locked and weighted down, with nothing but rags to clothe him. His recent actions however, didn't seem to suggest that. He had been positively docile.
When the fiasco in the summoning court had finally died down, the students had returned to their dorms. Louise, of the two of them had been the first to awaken, after she had fainted. She had been in one of the medical wings hospital beds, her familiar sleeping in another bed beside her. Her teacher, Professor Colbert had been looking over the runes that were visible on her familiar's hand, copying them into a leather bound journal. He had scurried off with a flustered and worried look in his eye, when she questioned what he had been doing.
After a few moments more, her familiar had also awoken. He had been confused at first, asking stupid, frantic questions like where he was and if they were safe. Which Louise found absolutely moronic of him. How did he not even know about Halkeginia, or the Tristain Academy of Magic? Or Tristain for that matter. But of course she had to explain. It was her duty as this familiars master. She spoke about magic, Brimnir and the country, explaining as much as she could to her useless familiar. She must have said something right, as the moment she explained the link between nobles and commoners, as well as of course the bond between master and familiar, he instantly began bowed his head, avoiding eye contact and began adding honourifics. Of course he got most of them wrong. She wasn't a baroness, a Lady-in-waiting nor, Brimnir forbid, the crown princess. Well, not yet anyway. She scolded him immediately, something he flinched away from as though he had been hit. Louise decided that the title Master would best serve for now.
They had returned to her dorm, chains clinking every where they went. It annoyed her to no end, but she decided she would endure for now. A few passersby stared at them, but said nothing. Louise could tell from just the look in their eyes that they wanted to ridicule her for having a commoner familiar, but said familiar looked way too intimidating to laugh at. She guessed that was a plus. But when they had gotten to her room, things had taken a turn for the strange. Or even more strange and disturbing than before.
"This is my private room." Louise spoke with some pride.
The rattle of chains preceded her familiars entrance to the room, and a small gasp followed after. This room was the equivalent to the lord's office back at the mansion! It contained several pieces of furniture that seemed too expensive for just a small girl to possess. A man sized wardrobe, a full set of a table and chairs, a mirrored dresser. Not to mention the four poster bed that dominated the room. He could only imagine the comforts such a velvety looking quilts could bestow upon a person.
"This is where you shall be sleeping, Familiar." His master pointed behind the bed to a pile of hay, messily spread out across a small section of the floor.
Louise expected some form of argument from her human familiar, to be given such sleeping arrangements usually allocated to a dog. In fact, she had the perfect comeback lined up, highlighting how her familiar truly was just a dog, inferior to her in every way. Something that would prove her superiority as a noble and assert her dominance. But none of that happened as her familiar only nodded solemnly and proceeded to gather the hay into a tighter bundle and sit himself down upon it. Louise almost allowed her mouth to drop, almost speaking her now unnecessary comeback.
'Was this a test of some sort? Was her familiar calling her bluff? Making her lower her guard?' She thought to herself. 'Well she would show him just how vigilant she will be in her mastery!'
"Familiar!" She shouted, the man instantly standing up, an expression of shock on his sunken face. He diligently looked at her, silently asking for what she wanted. "Undress me!"
He blinked several times in surprise at her order, but slowly walked around the bed to her anyways.
"Yes Master." He said, reaching out for her cape buckle with his one free hand, the other strapped to his chest via chains.
Louise tried staring into his eyes to get a reaction, but his head remained down, almost unnatural shadows turning his eyes into dark pits. It came at a surprise to her that it took only a few seconds for him to unclasp her robe, as well as catch it with the same hand as it fell off her shoulders. He even neatly folded it on her bed, ready to be stored.
"How are you doing that?" She exclaimed, entirely having expected to fail at the first hurdle. She herself always struggled to fasten the cloaks clip, and she had two hands!
"When you are as restricted as one such as I, you learn to do as many things as possible with one hand." He replied, his voice low, as though he did not want to be heard.
"Master." He quickly added, as he continued to follow Louise's orders to the letter.
Louise began to panic now. She hadn't thought this plan through, and now a man was going to see her practically naked. She thought being seen in a nightgown wouldn't bother her, but this was getting a bit too... intimate for her liking. He was unbuttoning her shirt, one button at a time. Perhaps she should call him to stop? But then the whole point of this would be for nothing? She would lose to this... This...
Her thoughts were interrupted as the sound of tearing cloth filled the room. She looked down at her clothes. Her familiars fingers hovered over the third top button of her uniform, the cloth torn and the button missing, rendering that particular fastener useless. Louise's face lit up in triumph.
"Ah ha!" She shouted, batting her familiars fingers away from her and pushing him back. "How dare you damage the noble uniform of the Tristain Magic Academy. You will be punished!"
Louise smirked. And now to assert dominance. This uniform wasn't really anything special. She had dozens more of them in her wardrobe, and could even have this one repaired without much trouble. But he didn't need to know that. Her familiar's face exploded into that of shock, guilt and fear. He could only watch as Louise span around took out a black riding crop from a drawer.
"Kneel dog! Your punishment will be six lashes." She proclaimed, turning around and tapping the crop against her hand in order to instil more fear into her victim.
But her victim did not see this. She looked in surprise at her familiar, who had already turned around, cloak-covered back to her. Louise had expected something. Begging, anger, bribery, fleeing through the window. But not this. Her familiar was patiently waiting for her to dole out her punishment.
"My most sincere apologies Master. I could not control my strength. Please enact any punishment you see fit." He said, kneeling down and beginning to brush aside his cloak with one hand, in order to give Louise a proper target for her whip.
After the initial surprise, Louise's face became red and flustered in anger.
'How dare this Familiar continue torment her! Why hadn't he fought back against her like she had expected? Was he truly just a dog? Did he have no pride as a man? She didn't want just some mindless slave.' Louise's thoughts shouted within her head. 'She would have to whip him into shape. Yes that sounded appropriate. She would whip him and then- Holy Brimnir!"
Louise's eyes widened and she instantly dropped her riding crop at the sight of her familiars back. He had shed his cloak and revealed the pale skin of his back. Skin did not seem the right word for such a tattered and ruinous sight. Barely any of it was visible under the unholy mass of cuts, scars, burns gouges, missing flesh and puncture wounds. Every type of damage Louise could possible imagine there to be to the human body was there and then some. The thin white scars of knives, the crumpled flesh of fire burns, even the scratches of nails. That and more decorated his body, like some twisted corpse used to display anatomy.
Her familiar hesitantly looked over his shoulder at the petrified girl, and a knowing look was in his eyes.
"I'm sorry for my appearance Master, but I'm afraid I cannot do much about it. I hope you can forgive me." He turned back away from her and shifted his stance into a better kneeling position. "I am ready for my punishment, including for that of any addition transgressions I have perpetrated."
Louise stood stock still. She didn't know what to do. She had never been this horrified. That look in her familiars eye told her everything. He had not been playing her. He had not been rebelling. He was simply accepting his circumstance and carried on like it was nothing. He accepted the fact that she was a noble and he, her familiar. He accepted that he would be sleeping, not on a working bed, but on a pile of hay. He accepted that his master wanted to take out petty frustrations upon him for only a minor offense. He allowed all of it to happen because he believed that this was the law of this land. And it had to be obeyed.
Louise threw off the rest of her clothes while he wasn't looking and jumped into her bed. She hid herself under the covers and curled up into a ball.
"Master?" Came a concerned question.
"Just go to sleep! Wake me at dawn!" She screamed through the fabric wrapped around her.
"Yes master."
The sounds of chains moving and rattling around her bed would haunt her for many long sleepless nights to come.
The sparkling light of dawn had never been such a welcome sight for Louise. She had woken so many times, expecting to hear the clatter of chains and their tight embrace around her neck. But it had all just been her head. In the night she had checked upon her familiar who had remained sleeping on his bed of hay. She did not know whether she feared him fleeing or was just fearful of him, but she was surprised at how still and motionless he slept. She had doubted for a few moments that her familiar even breathed. But that no longer mattered.
Dutifully he had woken her from her slumber just as the sun rose over the horizon, helping her out of bed and then standing motionlessly to the side. Awaiting further orders. Louise was tempted to have him dress her to make up for last night, but she hesitated upon looking at his bound hands again. Instead she simply handed him a basket of dirty clothes and told him to go clean them. Her familiar left the room at her order and began walking the halls of the academy.
After he had disappeared and the clinking noise had become quite enough not to be heard, she let out a breath she had not known she had been holding. What was she doing? Afraid of her own familiar, her mother would give her a lecture if she heard of it. But Louise truly did find her familiar scary. He had done everything she had asked. Not answered back, not failed to obey her. There was just something very wrong about him that Louise couldn't pin down. It was in his scarred face and tortured back. It was in how he walked, a slow weighted gait and how the chains chimed and rang as he did so. It was in that noise they made, that made him that much more terrifying. It was in his sunken eyes, that she could still never pinpoint their colour behind the shadow that constantly hid them. He was like something out of a fairy tale, a dark and twisted fairy tale.
Louise suddenly realised with start, that she didn't even know her familiar's own name.
Siesta was a hard working maid. She had to be, to have gotten a position at the Tristain Magic academy. She worked for two reasons. To provide for her burgeoning family in Tarbes, and to prove to the headmaster of the academy that she had been worth recruiting. The headmaster was the one noble she respected entirely. He had been kind and even sympathetic towards her, a mere commoner. Not like the students and some of the teachers here. Those nobles she simply tried to stay away from. She had decided to follow the headmasters example and offer help to anyone who needs it, no matter if they were noble, commoner or anything else. That philosophy would be sorely tested today.
She had just been ready to start cleaning a new set of dirty clothes, when she had turned the corner to see a horrific sight. A man, hunched over and unclothed but for a cloak and ragged trousers, was wandering the school grounds. Entire body bound in chains, he had his back to her and didn't seem to notice her presence. But just seeing him caused Siesta to jump back behind her corner out of sight. She peeked back around the corner ever so slowly to see him just standing there, head twisting this way and that, as though he was searching for something. She ducked back swiftly as his head turned to the right, gaze almost resting on her. But she had still gotten a glimpse at his face. That scarring and the pits he had instead of eyes, burned themselves into her memory.
'Had he seen me? Who is this man? A commoner from around the Academy? Was he a thief? An escaped criminal?' Siesta wondered, as she heard the man beginning to walk away, metallic knocking always about him.
Against all other instincts screaming at her to flee, begging to do anything else, Seista decided to follow this stranger. She did this on the sole notion that this man, if he was found by a noble would get punished for trespassing. She moved as silently as she could, the basket of clothes clutched tightly in her hands. She saw his green cloak disappear past another corner and she hurried to catch up. Unfortunately, she underestimated the weight of the clothes in her hands and before she could stop, she had already ran out behind the corner into the middle of the next corridor. And straight in front of the stranger.
Siesta looked straight into the eyes of this chained man and felt as though her life was over. He was facing her, looking at her with no surprise in his features. An intense feeling of inevitable doom washed over her as she looked into the black nothingness of his eyes. She screamed in fright and threw her basket up into the air, clothes scattering everywhere. Siesta stumbled back and slipped landing hard on her backside. She looked up to see a shadow pass over her and she raised her hands to pathetically try to protect herself. But it was unneeded.
"Are you ok?"
Siesta slowly realised that she wasn't dead. The feeling of dread had subsided and she was left feeling severely embarrassed for herself. She opened her eyes to see the same man standing above her. Still covered in chains and still terrifying, but instead of the glaring darkness from his eyes bearing down on her, there was just a sad smile on his face. He was reaching down for with his single free hand.
"I do apologise if my appearance scared you. It is something you must forgive me for my lady." He spoke politely and Siesta blushed at being called such fanciful names.
She took his hand anyway, his grip rough and firm, but not excessively so, and was hoisted up back to her feet.
"What are you doing here? You shouldn't be wandering, if a noble sees you..." Siesta insinuated, the multitude of what felt like infinite methods of punishment a noble could dish out, rushing through her head.
Siesta only now noticed the bundle of clothes tucked under his left arm, held close to his chest. The man's face quickly changed to one of confusion and then fear in realisation of something. He fell to the floor, kneeling so fast, Siesta grimaced as she heard his knee crack against the organised stone brickwork of the Academy.
"Forgive me my lady. I did not mean to enter a forbidden area. I am unfamiliar with this castle's layout and have become lost in it's maze like structure." The bowing man rambled. "I was searching for an area to clean these clothes for my master."
"Your master...?"
Siesta was taken aback by this display. Calling her such a noble title, heeding and fearing her words, bowing to her like a monarch. She briefly felt some vestige of power flow through her. It felt like she had control of this man, and he would do exactly what she said.
'Perhaps this was the feeling all nobles have on ordering a commoner.' Siesta wondered, but she quickly threw off this stupid notion and tried to bring the chained man back to his feet. "No please don't act in such a way. I am only a peasant, there's no need for you to treat me like a superior."
Pulling the man to his feet was harder than it looked. The weight of chains and lean muscle was too heavy for Siesta.
"But you are, my lady." He disagreed, looking up at her. "I am but a familiar. If you are the servant of my master, then you are still my better."
"Then please get up!" Siesta shouted with a mote of panic in her voice. Any second now a real noble would see someone bowing to her and take offence.
Not a second after she had uttered this words, the man rose to his full height again. Siesta was knocked back and would have tumbled to the floor again, if the man hadn't of grabbed hold of her again and righted her.
"Sorry." The man bowed his head again.
"No need to apologise. You said you were a familiar right? You wouldn't happen to be Miss Louise Vallière's familiar would you?"
"Yes I believe that was my Master's name. She ordered me to wash her clothes. I have so far been unable to find a place to do so however."
For the first time since she had encountered this man, Siesta smiled. Things were finally back on track. With work came a focus, and things made sense again.
"Don't worry. There's a fountain nearby which I can wash them. I wash many of the nobles clothes." Siesta explained.
In response the man frowned and shook his head.
"That won't do. Allow me to assist you. It is the least I can do."
"Ok then." Siesta hesitated, but agreed.
The two began picking up the scattered clothes from the floor and depositing them in Siesta's basket. She noticed how despite having only one arm free, the familiar worked twice as fast to keep up with her, gathering and folding clothes effortlessly.
"How are you doing that?" She questioned, and the man only chuckled.
"When you are as restricted as one such as I, you learn to do as many things as possible with one hand."
Soon Siesta had led him to a nearby fountain, something he had completely missed several times wandering the school. But as they had walked, she saw that the man was memorising the school's layout, staring at anything that could be considered a landmark in the academy's vast halls. They had both started to place dirtied clothes by the fountain and begun to wash them, noble clothes for the maid and Louise's clothes for her familiar. But immediately Siesta had seen a problem with this.
"Wait!" Siesta cried in warning.
The man immediately froze, his right hand half in the fountains water, the first article of clothes the same, flat against the stone edge.
"You shouldn't be cleaning a noble's clothes with dirty hands! Wash them please." She pleaded, seeing the familiar's hands caked in old dirt, grime and a curious red substance she couldn't pinpoint.
Understanding passed through her companion's face and he nodded. However this did not relieve Siesta's worries as she watched him simply dip his hand fully into the water and wave it about.
"No, no, no! You need to thoroughly clean you hands, make sure there's nothing on your hands. Especially make sure you clean in between your fingers." Siesta instructed, remembering a lesson taught to her by her mother back from her childhood.
The familiar remained still for a moment, and his hand shivered and twitched, not knowing what to do.
"I... I can't." He replied, his left chained hand pulling at its restraints to prove his point.
Siesta suddenly realised her mistake and put her hands to her mouth.
"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot- I mean, I didn't mean to offend, I mean-" She started to gibber and spout nonsense.
"It is alright." He interrupted. "I'll see if I can find a cloth or-"
"No! It's my fault for not realising." She replied firmly, before grabbing his hand. "I'll clean it for you."
The man's face widened in surprise and awe at her actions, as she thrust his hand back into the water and began rubbing dirt from his hands herself. He tried to pull his hands back, but after she glared at him, he remained still and silent. It took a while for all of the old muck and blood to be cleaned from his hand, but in that time, he observed this maid's face. She remained focused on her task, not meeting his gaze but noticing his attentions, a blush of red running across his face. Finally she released his hand.
"Are you a saint?" He suddenly asked, as he looked at his now spotless skin, the pale colouration now untouched by the dark of a dungeon.
"Wha- no! Why would I be a saint?" Siesta gasped in both surprise and mirth.
"There is a story that I enjoyed when I was... Young. I barely remember it now, but it was about a man cursed to rot away. He spent his whole life living with the curse, his body turning against him. But one day a holy woman met with him. Despite his protests and the chance of the curse spreading to her, she took the man's hands and she washed them. They parted ways the day after, the holy woman now Saint of Healing, the cursed man now just a man, free to pursue his dreams."
Siesta blinked, the impromptu story suddenly coming to an end. She didn't know how much time had passed, but it had captivated her. But what broke her heart was the look on the story tellers face. It told of having his own curse, his own woes. She shrugged back the tears she didn't even know had been welling in her eyes and stuck out her hand towards the man. He turned to her and raised an eyebrow.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Siesta." She smiled at him.
The man hesitated for a moment but slowly grabbed her hand for a gentle handshake.
"Familiar." He replied.
"That can't be your real name." Siesta frowned.
"That's what I am." He simply said.
"I know, but what do your friends call you? From before you came here?"
He hesitated again.
"My... Former comrades called me Abomination."
"That's horrible!" Siesta cried. "That can't be your real name either!"
"It's what I am." Abomination cryptically replied.
Louise sighed. Again. Her familiar was weird. He had brought back her laundry all clean just as she had asked for and hadn't said a word since. He just stood outside of her door like a human statue. Waiting for what she assumed were her orders. Luckily that allowed her to dress herself in a new, undamaged student uniform in private, as well as not embarrass herself by letting him see how she struggled to clasp her own cloak.
"Follow me." Louise finally spoke to him as she strode out of her room.
The tell tale clatter of chain links followed her everywhere she went. Down the corridors, down the stairs, all the way to the dining hall. They passed several students who stared at them for a few moments, and then averted their gaze. Louise considered this an improvement to the usual whispers and snide giggles of the past. One particularly fat noble began to speak any one of the numerous monikers she had gathered over her time at the academy, and he raised a finger to point. But that was instantly quashed as Louise heard a large crash of chains behind her and the boy scurried off with a look of pure fear on his face.
Louise turned to her familiar and saw that the noise had been caused by him dropping a large length of loose chain to the ground at his feet, clutched in a tight grip. He bowed his head to her, eyes to the floor. She almost swore that she saw a part of his skin change from crimson to the usual white. But she dismissed the idea. She nodded back her thanks and continued walking. No words were exchanged as they entered the dining hall. No words were spoken as the room went silent and yet more stares were levelled at them. And immediately ignored. Louise chuckled inwardly. Perhaps having such a tall strange and terrifying familiar wasn't such a bad thing. She felt stronger just knowing that her familiar was behind her. The only one not judging her and ready to back her at a moment's notice.
Louise chose an empty table and went to sit. With a but a quick glance behind her, she felt the air displace, a single cold chain link dragging across her arm. Her familiar pulled out her chair and she gratefully took it. But once again, no emotion or speech was exchanged. After pushing in the chair, he remained standing just behind her, off to the side. A couple of servants came round to their table, one holding a dinner platter full of salads, meats and other wondrous treats from the renowned academy chefs. Louise could almost hear her familiar smacking his lips and his eyes widening. The other simply placed a battered old looking plate on the floor, a tough piece of barley bread it's only contents.
There was a moment of pause, where neither Louise nor Familiar moved. Louise dared not eat, as she suddenly realised how this difference in food painfully highlighted the titanic class difference between them. Any person grew jealous knowing that another had more than what they had, but it was a different matter entirely when another's benefits and station was so blatantly shoved in front of their face. This was the moment where her familiar was most likely to revolt against her and Louise had never felt so vulnerable, so small. She could sense her familiar looming over her, his shadow seemingly growing and swallowing her whole. But that all disappeared as she heard her familiar collapse to the floor, chains falling with him, and take a small bite out of his meagre meal. Not a second look was directed at her or her food.
Louise turned slowly to watch him slowly finish that one piece of bread. She turned to her own meal and the guilt began to gnaw at her. Could she really just ignore her familiar? Let him watch as she feasted upon such a delicious bounty of food, while this man was reduced to a dog content with scraps. That piece of bread represented just a mere fraction of what could have been provided to him and Louise knew that. Perhaps if this familiar had been disobedient and rebellious she could have. Ignored his rumbling stomach and watering lips. Turned a blind eye to how much food a human being needed to survive. But consciously knowing that he had done nothing to disobey her? That she would never finish all on her plate? That she could not do.
'Providing for a commoner when she has much to spare is the duty of a noble.' She told herself.
The final crumb of dark bread had just been scrapped from his plate, when three chicken drumsticks landed in its place. Her familiar flinched away from them momentarily before looking up at her, questioning, suspecting a mistake. She didn't look down at him and started on her own, reduced, but plentiful meal.
"Just eat." Louise grumbled, her noble pride and cherished Rule of Steel not allowing any perceived weakness to show.
"Thank you master." Her familiar replied bowing his head and tucking into his replenished meal.
Louise couldn't help but let a small smile pass across her lips. Despite how small the gesture was, she felt like she had done the right thing. Hopefully her familiar would take this gesture and keep out of trouble for his master.
Reviews and criticism are welcome.
Signed by Imperial Decree
BluePanedGasMask
