Alixx reread the account again and again, sitting in a nearby tree. Julien, Riven, and Valmiro gathered by a fire and spoke softly.
"I knew it was a bad idea to bring her back here," Julien said.
"You said no such thing," Riven shot back. "I didn't here you trying to stop her."
"For what it's worth," Valmiro cut in, "This is her home. And Olra is like a mother to her. Barroch a father."
Julien eyed Valmiro. "I don't like you."
"The feeling is mutual."
"Lets go," Alixx said.
Julien quickly moved in front of her. "It's the middle of the night, my love. Are you sure its safe?"
"It's better to travel at night then it is to stay put," she explained. "We have no traps or any means for alarms. Now lets get moving."
He stepped in front of her again and placed his hand on her stomach. "But you are with child, Alixx. Pray, I wish you not to be hurt."
"You three are the only ones at risk, Julien. Not me and not our son. I'm the only one able to survive this place, so if you all want to get killed then be my guest. But I'm going to keep moving."
She pushed passed him and headed for a door. Riven quickly made it to her side, Valmiro followed close followed her in silence.
"This place use to be so lively with creatures," she said. "Something isn't right here."
"Alixx!" Valmiro called. "You may want to see this."
Valmiro had wondered into an adjoining room. In the middle of the room was a silk black robe and circlet. Alixx's face began to burn. She clutched them tightly.
Julien knelt at her side. "Are they hers?"
Tears ran down her face. "I made them for her." She held up the circlet, "This was cared from the last enchanted tree on the isle. And the robe was spun from the finest silk of the oldest silkworm."
Riven held up another scroll. "Master, look!"
She quickly snatched it from him. "This is Olra's handwriting."
"To serve her master, and be as she commands. To be shaped in her image. That is the part of a pawn. But my master's image is no longer her own. Defeated by the world-steward, she fell into perdition. Having witnessed her fail to achieve her purpose, my breast was filled with regret. Yet amid that darkness, a spark of light, too, took root. Within my soul, a crude and inchoate mirror to the Arisen's own, a new strength emerged, I had awoken to love.
I came to notice the changes within me as his tireless ministrations saw my shattered memory slowly mend. I came to love him. Though his heart was lost, he seemed more alive than ever. He burned with new purpose: to slay the wyrm and avenge Grette. I became his pawn of my own will. I, too, saw in this a new calling. To love him, serve him, and lend him strength. Ultimately, to become as him. It was a fate I welcomed gladly.
Defeat me, or speak your wish and offer up a sacrifice. A second time, I heard the dragon's bargain spoke. Yet I felt a strange reluctance in its tone. As if the ultimatum were given unwilling. And in that moment, I knew it. The wyrm we now faced was my former master transformed. The revelation tore him apart. Whichever his choice, the wages were cruel tragedy. A new and dark desire poured forth from his sundered soul. His wish for power to destroy all existence marked me for death. And yet I never blamed him. For as my life was snuffled out. I held firm to my belief. The day would come, I knew, when he, our master, and I myself would find redemption."
"He?" Alixx repeated. "Who's he? Who is HE?!"
"If Grette was her former master," Riven began, "she killed the dragon, then became the dragon."
"Grette is Grigori," Alixx then realized. "And Grigori is dead."
"Which means what?" Valmiro asked.
"Olra is human."
There was a loud explosion behind them, causing them all to jump. A dark mist hovered over them and Alixx froze. A mysterious enemy appeared before the arisen and her followers, whose face was unknown and always hasten, the form of the Grim Reaper.
"What is that thing?!" Valmiro screamed.
"Death!" Alixx replied. "Run!"
The four quickly headed for the door on the opposite side. Julien and Valmiro turned when they heard Alixx scream. Death had shown a bright purple light, causing Riven to fall asleep. Alixx was running back to him when Julien caught her by her waist. Death had dug his scythe deep into Riven's back, and he disappeared. Julien threw Alixx in the right direction while Valmiro slammed the door shut behind them. Alixx and Julien hunched over to catch their breath. Valmiro gave Alixx a hug.
"I'm sorry about Riven," he consoled. "He was nice, from what I knew of him."
Alixx looked at him and laughed. "Riven isn't dead. Pawns don't die. He was sent back to the rift." She looked around the room. "Let's go, there's got to be another rift stone somewhere in this place."
Julien and Valmiro followed closely behind her. She seemed to know the place rather well.
"How are you able to get around this place so easy?" Julien asked. "You said Olra never let you near here?"
"She didn't." Alixx didn't take her eyes off of the isle floors. "But back in Gran Soren, Barnaby had asked me to investigate the Everfall in the Pawn guild during my off hours from my castle knight duties. This place is similar to the Everfall in terms of style of layout; tight corners and dark places. There are many giant halls and open spaces as well. There is an underlying system of death here. When we killed a monster, be it goblin or dragon, they all leave a bloody and rotting corpse behind that does not disappear. As a corpse rots the stench is carried through the halls and could attract any hungry creature, but it doesn't. Deep exploration in Bitterblack Isle makes the air heavier and the smell travels in the halls faster and farther, which would attract even more monsters. But it doesn't."
"From you've told me, and from what I've seen," Julien started, "the outside of this island seems far more dangerous of the outside then in here."
Alixx peeked her head around the corner. "You spoke to soon."
A pack of giant wolves sat in the corridor ahead.
"What are those things?" Valmiro whispered.
Alixx scanned ahead. "Garms. They are huge, wolf-like quadrupedal beasts that hunt in packs. They're guarding a rift stone, look over there."
Alixx unsheathed her bow and nooked two arrows. She shot one at the garms feet, causing them to panic as oil spread all over the floor, then released the second one. It burst into fames in midair and stuck the oil, igniting it. The garms quickly caught fire and ran for dear life, clearing the corridor.
"Bullseye," she smiled heading for the stone.
"How did you know that would work?" Valmiro asked.
"Garms are extremely common in the outside wood or the isle. Thus how I know that they always travel in packs and what they are afraid of." She held up an arrow and smiled evilly. "Fire."
She placed her hand on the rift stone and a dark cloud appeared. Riven yelled as he fell out of the cloud and tumbled on top of his master. His face turned red when he pushed himself up to look at her, and she laughed.
"Welcome back Riven." She pushed him off.
"I do not like it there. I don't want to go back. Ever."
She laughed again.
"Where is there?" Julien asked.
"He's referring to the rift." Julien helped her up. "This is the first time Riven has ever been forfitted."
"Master." Riven looked half scared to death. "When Death put me to sleep, I heard a voice. As if it came from the Void."
"A voice left in the Void? What did say?"
"Let me show you."
Riven placed his hand on Alixx's head and her vision went black. A soft voice rang through her head.
"Silent-hearted, dragonforged. With hair of gold and will of tempered steel. You ransomed me from a village burnt to Ash, instilled life, and fight. Dearest mentor, I commend you now to rest eternal. Your servant, bereft of master and memory, I keep now at my side. She lives on, your mirror in soul and body both, and I will not lose her as we have lost you. This I swear before your empty grave.
"Now, choose. Stand against me, or speak your wish. Offer your beloved in forfeit, and I shall see your will done. Choose? How am I to choose? No matter my answer, the price is death. A hollow choice… Who am I to stand as arbiter of two lives? …Of two loves. What would you have me do? You brought me here. You… If this be the will of the gods… the order of the world… Then damn the lot of them! I'll tear the whole of it asunder! Very well… If that be your wish, I shall claim my price. Stop! NOOOOOO!
"'You have been chosen.' So saying, the wyrm prised the heart from my breast,
I was made Arisen: known to the dragon, and bound to hunt it. It is a fate I embrace. What use have I for a heart left hollow? In a world without sweet Grette; my mentor, my mother, my beloved. I live only to see the dragon that claimed her slain. I will see its scaly hide stripped from bone by my hands ere I rest.
"…Arisen. Bearer of the dragon's mark. Undying corpse, enjoined to make your will manifest. If my voice reaches you, heed me well. The Arisen, the Seneschal, the whole cursed world… All is but an illusion. A meaningless refrain. A hollow echo… What sense is there in giving one's life for these falsehoods? I damn them all. And I will not cease in my destruction until the last senseless cycle is broken, the last bond rest to dust."
Alixx was brought back to the real world. Julien caught her as she began to collapsed to her knees, crying.
"What is the matter my love?"
"The love for Grette. I can feel it. It's like it's living through me because of the bond we share. We need to find her. I have to protect her."
"We will," Valmiro said. "We will find her, and bring her home."
Julien joined Alixx on a cliff overlooking an underground river. He placed her hands in his.
"Where are we going to go after we find her Julien? I don't want to stay here, and I'm not going back to Gransys. We need to find a safe place for us and our son."
"We will find somewhere, I promise."
He kissed her softly and then jumped at a loud roar. Alixx pulled Julien away from the edge and peered over. Anther pack of Garms had picked up on their sent. Alixx pointed to a corner near the back.
"Something is glowing over there. Lets get closer."
Alixx took an arrow and tied a rope to the end and aimed for a low hanging rock on the other side. Releasing the arrow she handed the otherend to Julien and she climbed onto the rope, inching her way over. She hung by her knees as she tied another rope to the end another arrow and slammed it into the same wall. Alixx quietly slid down the rope to to the glowing artifact, trying not to be seen by the garms. As soon as she touched the glowing object, it flew in midair then disappeared into the walls. She quickly shimmied her way back up the rope and over to Julien.
"We have to get to the epitaph," she said quickly.
"Why?"
Alixx pointed to where the light disappeared. "Look." Bright white letters had appeared on the wall behind them. "It's a message from Grette."
"To know the unknown—that was my dream. To walk new frontiers and ancient halls alike, and to see all that this world holds. I was prepared to overcome any obstacle that barred my wandering.
And so, when the dragon plucked the heart from my breast, I knew only joy. With new power and ageless life, I was free. I knew no greater treasure than freedom. No higher virtue, And yet… What drove me, then, to take him with me? What ought have seemed a fetter became my greatest joy. My greatest love. And now… I haven't even the freedom of my own will. I followed the Arisen's path, past the wyrm and to the halls of the world-steward… And there, my path ended. In defeat, I was remade a dragon.
From the moment I donned a dragon's skin, I was controlled by a single, driving, urge— To serve the Seneschal. This one thought consumed me, its pull inexorable. It was a hunger. An instinctual need. I burned for one who would defeat me. Who would succeed where I had fallen. I craved a new Arisen.
It is man's will that animates him. Can a being devoid of will truly be said to live? Am I alive, as I am now? The will that drives this cursed form to seek the Arisen is not my own. My will, my love, and all I am is crushed beneath its weight. Its force does not allow me even the luxury of regret. I am near drunk with it, though I war against it still with every shred of what I was, In my final act as a thinking being, I chose him for my destroyer.
The question fell from my lips unbidden— What was your choice? Were it his wish, I would welcome death at his hands. Nay, I desired it. But his wavering gave voice to a new wish. That the world, its gods, and he himself be damned. My role was set. My actions bound. I existed in that moment solely to give his wishes form. And so I did. I answered his desire, his cry of despair… And his love, my former shadow, was the price.
My dreams have died, unfulfilled. Though I have neither the means to change that fact nor the free will to mourn them, perhaps… Perhaps what has transpired will serve some greater use. Let it be as a wedge struck into the chains that bind our endless, hollow, world, that those to follow may shatter them. I failed in my quest to explore the unknown. But if it serve some use in ending this cruel cycle, I can believe my life held meaning."
"Even in death, she's challenging me," Alixx said. "She wants me to unlock the isles secrets. It's all starting to make sense. Now we have to go."
When Alixx and Julien made it back to Val and Riven, Riven handed her a shining stone.
"I found this, master," he said. "I'm not to sure what it is."
Valmiro took it from her. "It's a Lifestone. I these were only myths."
"Whats a Lifestone?" Alixx asked.
Val laughed, "Finally, something you don't know. I read about these. They are rare stones that are in a way a form of transportation. In
Gransys they're called Ferrystones. Here, try it."
Alixx took the stone and sighed. "Here goes nothing."
She tossed it in the air and they were all surrounded in a bright yellow light and they found themselves back in front of the isle entrance.
"So that's how Barroch did it," Alixx smiled making her way over to the epitaph. "Wait, this isn't right."
"What is it master?"
"It's... wyrm speak. But it's different then what I read when I was sixteen."
"What does it say?" Valmiro asked.
"A name. Daemone."
"And that means?" Julien put in.
"Daimon, which means Demon."
"What does that mean then?"
Alixx turned and looked at them. "This is who Olra was kidnaped by. We have to fight the king of hell himself.. The devil."