Author's Note: So, I've never been to the bastion of twilight before so I don't really know the inner design of it lol. So just a fair warning in advance, it's probably not the same in this story as it is in the game.
Chapter Six
Warfare
The Bastion of Twilight, Twilight Highlands
The gargled screech of the bone gryphon echoed about the darkened corridors of the bastion. The beast's claws clicked against the obsidian ground once it landed, climbing off it's back the armored figure balanced Sedisa's lifeless body in their arms. The grind of unkempt armor echoed across the halls as the figure walked, strides swift and balanced as they moved to the back chamber. Slowly the large obsidian doors creaked open, the image of a large ogre projected off an object in the center of the room. The ogre was a hideous sight, two heads with eyes all over it's body.
This was the grand leader of the Twilight Cult, Cho'gal. The ogre's image turned, looking to the armor clad elf as she laid the body before him. The two heads looked at the elf, then to the body, a slight smirk coming to the first head's face.
"My my, you have retrieved our little experiment?" The first head chuckled.
"Yes yes! The dragon's back!" The second head laughed.
"My lord, her body is here with us, but her soul is still with the Dragon Queen." The elf spoke in her nearly wispy, metallic voice. Cho grinned, placing his hands together as he looked down at her.
"It does not matter, we do not need her soul to draw out the rest of the magical energy she has. Get her to the extractors. We will have to drain the body dry before her rescue reaches her."
"Rescue sir?"
"Followed, Followed! You were followed!" Gal laughed, his eye rolling in his head as an image of Edmond and Rosette flying on the back of the stonedrake shown in the dark crystal scrying orb. The figure narrowed frosted blue eyes, gritting their teeth as they looked back over their shoulder. Cho'gal looked down at the elf, smirking as his hands lowered back down to his sides.
"I trust you will do well with eliminating them, Nightmyst. Do not let me down now." The image spoke before vanishing, the last words coming from Gal as his taunting voice echoed.
"Kill them! Kill them all!"
"As you wish." The elf bowed her head before leaning down, picking up Sedisa's body and moving out towards a different hallway.
Outside the stonedrake flew closer to the bastion, Rosette looking down over the twisted lands with a small frown on her face. Edmond growled low under his breath, guiding the drake to land on a ledge off to the side, overlooking one of the areas.
"Stay close but don' be seen, go' it?" Edmond spoke to the drake before it flew off, finding a place to remain idle while it's master was busy. Once it was clear he turned and looked to Rosette. "Wot now?"
"We'll have to sneak in to see where they took her. Can you … uh..." Rosette trailed off her words as she looked him over. He sighed, giving a small smirk as his form shifted and shrunk to a more manageable human form.
"Yes I can change at will." He chuckled. He normally wasn't seen in his human form often so his appearance was a little worse for wear. His hair was still long, tied in twin tails that hung over his shoulders to the upper part of his chest. His eyes seemed to keep the same yellow characteristic as his worgen form did however.
"Great, now we just need some disguises." Rosette smiled at him then turned herself to peek over the ledge that they had perched on. Down below she watched as a few of the Twilight Cultists walked along, taking care of their business. Two Twilight Vanquishers were making their way past the area where they were, Rosette motioning to Edmond to follow her as she slipped over the edge. The two slid off the side, feet making contact with the vanquishers' heads as their bodies fell to the ground with a thump. With a satisfied grin Rosette began to remove their helmets, placing one over her own head and grinning behind the plate as she held her thumb up.
"No one will know the difference!" She exclaimed, leaning back down and tossing him a helmet. Edmond fumbled with it before catching it firmly in his hands, placing the purple mask over his head. They removed the rest of the armor and placed it on, the two resembling the Twilight Vanquishers that were roaming about the area. They slipped down towards where they guards were patrolling after hiding the unconscious bodies by the ledge. Rosette silently motioned with her hands for him to follow as they walked past a few cultists.
Rosette had been right, with the mask covering their faces no one knew the difference and assumed the two to be the Twilight Vanquishers. Edmond followed behind her, glancing around the area before he suddenly slammed into her back, nearly toppling them both over. He caught his balance, about to open his mouth to speak but stop when he looked up ahead at the sight that had stopped Rosette dead in her tracks. A small area before them, the bodies of several red dragons laid around. Nearly every one had their wings cut off, along with their horns, claws, and teeth removed. Their tails had been severed from their bodies, the cultists leaving the mutilated bodies discarded out in the open for all to see.
Several other dragons were strung up by their necks, hanging like a piece of meat. They were probably hung there while they were still alive. Rosette couldn't help but stare in shock, her eyes wide behind the small slits that provided sight through the mask. Edmond glanced down at her unmoving body, then back to the gruesome display before them.
"How … how could they do such a thing?" Rosette stuttered out. Edmond shoved her forward with his hands, tearing her eyes away from the sight.
"We will not find Sedisa if we stand here and examine the graveyard for unfortunate dragons." He sighed as he said that. He was just as disturbed by it as she was, but he couldn't wait around and allow that to happen to Sedisa if they ever figured out how to return her to her dragon form in death. Rosette nodded as she walked along, trying to clear he mind of the images as she looked towards buildings.
"Where do you think they took her?" She asked looking around to all the building around them.
"I may be wrong, there are a lo' o' dead things around here but I caught the person's scent before they flew off. I think they took Sedisa's body up there." He pointed up at a large bundle of twisting obsidian spikes, resting near the top was a kind of warp gate, the opening swirling with dark energies. Rosette stared up where he pointed, frowning as she tried to see where they gate was.
"How are we going to get up there? We can't use your drake, they'll know we're imposters then."
"We'll watch and see how they get up there." Edmond spoke with a nod of his head. After a while of watching they had figured out most got up there by riding a Twilight Drake. Very few seemed to have some sort of transport method they used to get up there.
"I think the drakes would know we were imposters, we should find out how they're transporting up there..." Rosette sighed, watching more closely as one of the Twilight cultists walked towards where the gate hovered over the obsidian spiral.
They seemed to pull some kind of medallion from their possessions, hold it between two fingers and whisper words into it before their bodies vanished and reappeared up at the top. Rosette wondered if they had these coins as well, she searching around the armor's opening to find one. Hands searching the compartments of the disguise, Rosette couldn't find any sort of medallion or coin, they must have dropped them when they stripped the cultists of their clothing. Even Edmond lifted his hands, showing he had nothing as well.
"What do we do now?" said Rosette. Edmond stood still, thinking of what could be done.
"Do manners even count around here?" he asked, looking over to her. Rosette shrugged her shoulders.
"Couldn't hurt to try." she said, understanding slightly what he wanted to do. Edmond gestured her to one of the Twilight Cultists heading towards where they needed to go. She quickly pushed herself forward, rushing to them as fast as the armor would allow.
"Excuse me!" she cried out, stopping just short of collapsing into them.
"Er wut?" the cultist grunted, taking a few steps back.
"Well, um. My friend and I seem to have misplaced our medallions and don't have a way up. Could you possibly take us up with you?"
The cultist looked at her blankly. It seemed like this man had never really experienced the pleasure of manners since he had joined the Twilight's Hammer. He looked between them, Rosette smiling cheerfully behind her mask and Edmond simply glaring behind his own. They were lucky the cultist couldn't see behind them.
"Sure … I guess." the man finally said. He began moving to the transport platform while the two followed behind him, he pulling out his medallion as he walked. They stood on the platform while the man turned the coin in his fingers, muttering something in an old language. Dark energy flowed up around the platform and before they knew it it covered their sight. It was seconds later when they could see again, around them the scene of the inside of the bastion.
"Horray it worked!" shouted Rosette. Edmond clapped a plated hand over the front of his mask, Rosette looking over at him and frowning. "What?"
"What?" said the cultist, turning around to face them but was instead met with Edmond's fist to the face.
"Terribly sorry." he said, watching as the man fell to the ground out cold. Rosette stared down at the unconscious man, letting out a sigh as she lifted the mask off her head.
"Now that we're in, where do we go? I have no idea where anything is..." she said, glancing around at the many corridors. Edmond let out a small grunt lifting his mask up and sniffing the air to try and catch a scent. He could still remember what she smelled like, to anyone else it wasn't a scent at all, but to him, a Worgen, her scent would resemble the smell of perfume, wildflowers, a scent that developed over the time she had spent in his company. His eyes closed as he sifted through the various smells and stenches of death, like a beacon of light the trail of wildflower scent drifted down the right corridor. Without so much as a sound Edmond motioned for Rosette to put the mask back on and follow him.
She did as she was told, placing the mask back on her face she followed after Edmond. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, his stride determined and full of purpose. Their walk took them down odd hallways, sights that Rosette would have rather went on in life without seeing. Various Twilight members walked the halls, carrying boxes of things and some seemed to be in a trance as they did their mindless labor. This whole place made Rosette uneasy, but she made a promise to help get Sedisa back.
The winding hallway soon came to an end as they were blocked by two large doors. Edmond glanced around, looking for a way to get them open, finding the handles and motioning for Rosette to help him pull. The two gripped tight and gave a hard tug, the doors grinding open. They only opened it enough for them to slip through, but first Edmond wanted to see what exactly they were up to in there. Both of them slowly leaned into the doorway, looking in to the chamber.
Dragons were lined up in the room, most were chained up near the ceiling while cultists were draining the magical properties from their corpses. In the middle of the room on a table was Sedisa's body, laid out like she was being prepared for dissection. Two cult members were talking, trying to figure out some kind of method to transform her into her dragon form for extraction.
"What if we do a reverse transaction, fill her up with magic so her body kind of blows up to her dragon form." one said, motioning to a Netherdrake hanging above them.
"That could work, I suppose we could try it." said the other. Edmond stared, eyes narrowed as he listened to the conversation. Every word the two spoke caused his anger to rise more and more. They weren't going to experiment on her body if he had anything to say about it.
"Come on, we're no' going to give them the chance to try." growled Edmond.
"W-Wait!" said Rosette, reaching out to stop him. She wasn't fast enough, her hands fumbling as he pushed the door open farther and stepped inside. The two cultists looked up as his hulking figure stormed towards them. Both of them suddenly cringing as he came to a stop.
"W-What's wrong?" asked one of them, shaking as they stood. Edmond glared, raising his sword in the air as he readied to strike them down. He brought his arm down quickly, blinking a little as it was stuck in place. He looked down at Rosette who kept his arm up in the air by holding it with both her hands, seeming to struggle under the force of his arm coming down.
"Yeah sorry!" Rosette said, giving a small nervous laugh as she tossed Edmond's arm off to the side. "This one is a little nutty, his is. Um, orders from the … big boss. We need to take her back to him. Seems he wants to check something out!"
"Oh … okay?" said one of them. Rosette smirked behind her mask, giving them a thumbs up before smacking Edmond in the chest with the back of her hand.
"Come on then, get her and let's go." she said, looking up at him. He looked down at her, then suddenly snapped into it, moving past the two cowering cultists and taking Sedisa's body into his arms. His eyes looked over her lifeless body, the wound he inflicted on her chest was mended with dark magic in order to preserve her body farther. Rosette slapped his arm, motioning for him to get going. He nodded silently and turned, heading to the doorway while she followed after him.
"Well that wasn't too hard." said Rosette. "Now all we have to do is-"
"Make your escape?" said a voice from behind them. Both Rosette and Edmond turned, looking back at the sight of the figure from the kidnapping. The armored elf stood there, glowing blue eyes peering at them from behind the helmet.
"You!" growled Edmond, gritting his teeth.
"The master did not approve of his specimen to leave the bastion." said the elf.
"She's no' yours, she's MINE!" barked Edmond, his voice becoming more harsh as his anger rose.
"Yours is she?" laughed the elf. "I didn't know a mortal could own a dragon as property."
"Leave him alone Ashaldan!" cried out Rosette. The elf suddenly froze, glaring death at her.
"That is not my name..." she growled, hand gripping tight on her runeblade. "My name is Nightmyst."
"Well I don' care who ya' are, yer jus' dead meat to me!" howled out the Worgen. Before she knew it Rosette had Sedisa in her arms as Edmond handed her over, the man shredding the armor of his disguise as his body shifted into the beast. Rosette stood back as the Worgen growled, his yellow eyes set on the elf.
"My master has ordered me to kill you both, I am not one to disappoint." said Nightmyst, raising her blade. Edmond snarled, not wasting a second of the fight as he launched himself at her. The two swords clashed, metal grinding against metal while both pushed against the other. Rosette looked between them both as they fought, one would push the other away and they would charge at each other again. Should she help him or stay back and let him fight his own battle?
Her eyes drifted down to the body in her arms, then back up to the fight. Her hands gripped tightly to the small frame of Sedisa before she bolted down another hallway adjacent to where they were. Nightmyst's eyes darted to where she had run off and moved to follow, but Edmond growled and moved himself in front of her so she was forced to fight him still. The elf shouted out in protest while she began fighting him back with all the force she could find, using her sword to try and push him aside and push past him. With every attempt she made through, Edmond's large frame was there to block her way, allowing Rosette time to get away.
The human's breath was hard as she panted in her retreat. She wasn't out of breath or tired, but her heart was pounding hard in her chest. How was she going to get Sedisa out of here without anyone seeing her? Not to mention she wasn't even sure where she was going, she didn't know much of a way out. She wished this place had windows so maybe she could jump out of it. Rosette turned around the corner of another hallway, looking up ahead at a warp gate that swirled with dark energies. Her eyes widened with hope, she was almost out of here!
I see you, and I see who you are...
"HNGH?" she gasped out, sliding to a stop as she looked around for the source of the voice. It didn't seem to come from anywhere, but rather inside her head.
That is my dragon you are taking away, and I want it back! Away! Away! You won't get away!
Rosette's body was unable to move, no matter how much her mind screamed at her to keep going, she just stood there, shaking at the sound of the voice in her head.
Allow me to show you the visions that nightmares come from... Enjoy your sanity while you can!
"What are you-!" she began to speak, but suddenly visions started to flash through her head. Everywhere around her people were dead, the ground covered in the blood of innocents. Panic filled her senses, her eyes falling upon the people slain at her feet. Audric, Edmond, her son. Sedisa's body hit the ground as Rosette could no longer hold her weight. She reached up, gripping her head and screaming out at the top of her lungs as she tried to push the images out of her head.