Chapter 19: Girl Trouble
A fair amount of time had passed since Seth and the grungy-looking girl had been locked up in the holding cell, not too far away from the throne room in Murdred's castle. Due to the cold reception she had given him when he first made an attempt to speak with her, Seth had opted to not say anything more for the time being.
Regardless, Seth had many questions for this girl. Who was she? What was her story? What was her name? From what Seth could tell, she had been captured accidentally by the adlets when they had traveled to the mortal world to gather an assortment of immoral humans to use for the elixir that Helwic had spoken of.
That elixir was not something Seth was looking forward to. If Helwic had been speaking the truth, then this elixir supposedly had the power to alter the very way that Seth's brain even worked. If he were to drink it, he'd truly turn evil. This would not be a case of something taking control of his mind externally; it would be actual manipulation.
While it was bad enough that human beings were a primary ingredient for the elixir, its actual purpose was even worse. If he was going to be forced to drink the elixir, would Seth even have the free will to act against its influence and avoid turning evil? Fighting it seemed inevitable, like trying to maintain his normal size after consuming a shrinking potion.
And what would happen if Seth were to drink the elixir and turn evil? According to what he'd been told, Murdred would join forces with him, seize his power and use it to invade the mortal world. Whether anybody had the power or not to stand up to Murdred if he were to enter the moral world was uncertain, but Seth didn't exactly want to find out.
Seth needed to get out of here right away. Even if he couldn't escape from the Demon Domain, at least finding his way out of Murdred's castle would be an improvement. He couldn't contemplate about actually drinking the elixir; Seth would rather commit suicide than stay around and actually drink the brew. If he were to become evil, Seth would then be willing to go along with whatever nefarious plans that Murdred might dream up.
Knowing that escaping from this room was impossible, Seth's only real outlet was this new girl. He knew that if he were to attempt to make conversation with her, she would probably just yell at him, given that she had chosen to remain in the corner the entire time thus far.
Seth got up from the wall he had been sitting against and walked over towards the girl. She noticed that he was approaching her, but kept her head down the entire time. As Seth neared her, he noticed that the girl smelled rather foul, as though she hadn't washed herself in days.
"Can we talk?" asked Seth.
"What do you care?" asked the girl, keeping her head turned down as she spoke.
"I'm just trying to make conversation while we're still alive."
"I really don't care," said the girl in a stubborn voice.
"You don't care about getting eaten by those adlets?" asked Seth.
"Adlets?"
"Um, those bears," said Seth, remembering that the girl had presumably never had any magical milk.
"Let them. I said I don't care."
"Why don't you care?" asked Seth.
"Because my life sucks! So shut up and stop asking me all these stupid questions!"
Seth took in a deep breath, then stomped his foot down on the floor. "Listen to me! We need to get out of here now, or we'll both be as good as dead! So cool it!"
"We're locked in, stupid. If you've got any ideas, I'm open to suggestions."
"Can you at least tell me your name? Mine's Seth."
"It's Ingrid. You happy?"
"Okay, Ingrid," said Seth. "Um, may I ask why you're in such a grumpy mood? It can't just be because you were captured. Seems like there's more to it than that."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Don't you at least want to go home?"
Ingrid cringed.
"Look, your home can't be any worse than this place."
"I don't have a home, all right?" blared Ingrid.
"No home?"
"My parents lost our home when they couldn't pay their mortgage. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
Seth's jaw dropped. "I'm sorry."
"That's what everyone tells me. But do all of those apologies keep me off the streets at night? No!"
"Look, even if you don't have a home, you should at least try to get back to see your parents."
"My parents are dead. If I really did want to see them again, the best way to do that would be to die myself."
"Why don't you live in a foster home or anything?" asked Seth.
"The last thing I need is to be living in some complete stranger's home, putting up with all of their stupid crap."
"Look, I know somebody who lives in a foster home," said Seth, thinking of his friend Lance. "His foster parents and foster brother are actually really nice, and..."
"Would you just shut up? It's none of your damn business!"
"Okay," said Seth, holding up his hands, not wanting to dwell on Ingrid's situation any further. "I think I've heard enough. I'll tell you about myself instead."
"I'm not interested," said Ingrid, turning her head away from Seth.
"Look, home or no home, wherever you're living in the mortal world can't be half as bad as this place."
"What do you mean by mortal world?" asked Ingrid. "I don't know where we are, you can't seriously think that we're on another planet."
"Well, if you'd let me explain everything for moment, I could tell you. Where we are now is essentially another dimension. A world inhabited by monsters known as the Demon Domain."
Ingrid rolled her eyes. "Look, this whole experience has been really screwed up. I mean, talking bears? Demon Domain? You expect me to believe all that crap?"
"Believe what you want to believe," said Seth. "But I'm not telling you any lies. Where we are right now is very real."
"So what's your story? How'd you get locked up in this place?"
"Well, Murdred wants to use me to increase his power and take over our world. I declined his offer, so he locked me up."
"And how could you possibly increase his power?" asked Ingrid.
"Because I'm a shadow charmer," said Seth.
"Shadow charmer? What the hell is a shadow charmer? You aren't exactly charming me right now."
"As long as we're doomed anyway, I'll tell you. I have limited control over darkness."
Ingrid snorted. "Sure you do."
"Oh yeah?" asked Seth. He then closed his eyes partway and focused upon his powers, causing the windowless room, that was no doubt being illuminated by way of magic, to suddenly plunge into pure darkness.
"Whoa!" gasped Ingrid. "How'd you do that? This is a trick, isn't it?"
Seth focused, allowing a small amount of light to return to the room. He could see that Ingrid was looking around the room, trying to locate Seth.
"Hey, where'd you go?"
"I'm right here," said Seth, knowing full well that he was currently invisible to Ingrid.
Seth then reached his hand forward and tapped Ingrid on her shoulder.
"Hey!" gasped Ingrid, reaching for Seth's invisible hand, missing it just as he pulled away. Seth then took a few soft steps over to the side.
"Now I'm over here!" said Seth, drawing Ingrid's attention to his new location.
"How are you doing this?"
"I told you," said Seth, allowing light to fully return to the room, rendering himself visible again, "I'm a shadow charmer. Or do you still not believe me?"
"Okay!" gasped Ingrid. "I believe you! Wow! But, if you're so powerful, why can't you get us out of this room?"
"My power doesn't work that way," said Seth. "I didn't want to reveal it to you like that, but you wouldn't listen to reason."
"I'm sorry," said Ingrid. "But you've done nothing to improve our situation."
"Look, I just want to get out of this room, find Sarah and get out of here."
"Sarah?" asked Ingrid. "Who's she?"
"Another shadow charmer."
"I see... Look, if escaping from here is impossible, why should we even bother?"
"Because, no matter how bad things might be, you can't give up hope," said Seth.
"I gave up on hope a long time ago," said Ingrid. "Waste of time and effort is all it is."
A moment later, the door to the room suddenly swung open.
"No!" gasped Seth, who was too afraid to be able to concentrate and use his power to darken the room.
"Excuse me," said Sarah, who was standing in the doorway. "But I thought you'd be a little more enthusiastic to see me."
"Sarah!" gasped Seth, running up to the fellow shadow charmer and giving her a hug. "Oh, I am so happy to see you! How'd you get up here anyway?"
"I'll tell you everything," said Sarah, "but let's just get out of this place right now. A sentry might spot us!"
"Okay," said Seth. "You come too, Ingrid."
"Who is she?" asked Sarah, looking over at Ingrid, who was still squatting against the wall.
"I could ask the same about you," said Ingrid.
"Never mind that," said Seth. "Sarah's giving us the chance to get out of this place! You can stay here if you insist, but I'm leaving!"
"Fine," muttered Ingrid, following Seth and Sarah out into the hallway.
"How'd you get out of the dungeon?" asked Seth, as he and Ingrid followed Sarah's lead down the hallway.
"Not so loud," said Sarah in a near whisper. "Murdred or his followers might hear us. But to answer your question, Xeero came to my cell earlier to check on me. Since he was alone, I was able to use my power against him, and I used him to escape. But I wasn't going to leave you behind, wherever you were. I ditched Xeero to be safe, and went looking for you."
The group made it to the staircase that lead down to the lower floors of the castle. Looking around, Seth, Sarah, and Ingrid could not make heads or tails of any guards within the vicinity.
"It's a miracle you didn't get caught," said Seth, as the group proceeded down the stairs. "How'd you get the door to our room open, anyway?"
"Well," replied Sarah, "I didn't know where you could've been, so I was left with no choice but to explore the castle on my own, trying to find you. At one point I found this,"
Sarah then held up what looked like a silver rod, roughly the size of a ruler.
"I've seen that before," said Seth. "Demoric used it to open a portal to the mortal world."
"Exactly," said Sarah. "It must belong to either Helwic or Demoric. With this thing, the negafae have been able to breach our world. It seems to have other powers as well."
"So, use it to get us out of here already," said Ingrid.
"I'm not really sure how it works," said Sarah, observing the wand in her hands. "I'm no magician, so it took quite a few attempts for me to even get it to open the door to your room."
"Try anything!" said Seth, as they continued to march down the stairs.
"Let's just get away from Murdred first," said Sarah. "The last thing we need is for him or one of his followers to catch us, just because we were sitting around trying to figure out a way to get out of this place."
"Wait," said Seth. "How are we supposed to get out of here, anyway? Remember, Sarah? There's a sentry guarding the front door to this place!"
Sarah stopped to think. "If he's alone, hopefully I can take him. I mean, I was still able to take control of Xeero when he came down for me, since he was alone that time. Thankfully, the dungeon sentry allowed Xeero to escort me out of there. If he hadn't been so foolish, I might not have even had the power to get out of the dungeon."
"What's worse is that I still need to see to it that Murdred gets destroyed," said Seth. "Which means I'll have to come back here again, with an even better plan."
"Who cares about Murdred?" asked Ingrid. "If we even do get out of this place, you couldn't pay me to come back here."
"Look, it's complicated," said Seth, as they at last reached the first floor of the castle. "But this whole thing is my problem."
"Somebody say something about problems?" asked a raspy voice.
Seth, Sarah and Ingrid all turned around and looked back up the stairs, where they saw Xipp, Xeero and Xillch standing at the top of the nearest landing.
"No!" gasped Seth.
"What are you brats doing out of your cells?" asked Xillch.
"Sarah!" said Seth. "Do something. Anything!"
Sarah held up the wand she was holding and aimed it at the adlets. Her entire arm trembling with fear, she managed to shoot a bolt of red lightning out of the wand and zapped all three adlets with it. The impact of the bolt knocked the adlets off of their hind feet and onto the floor of the landing.
"What was that?" asked Ingrid, as the adlets began to climb up onto their four feet.
"I don't know," squealed Sarah. "But whatever it was... run for it!"
Seth, Sarah and Ingrid and proceeded to run through the vast entry hall and towards the pair of front doors to the castle. Once they reached the closed door, Seth glanced back in time to see the adlets leaping down the first flight of stairs, landing gracefully upon the floor.
"It won't budge" muttered Seth, attempting to push one of the doors.
"Hold on," said Sarah, using the power of the wand to shoot the other door with another energy bolt.
"You can't escape!" said Xeero, as he and Xipp and Xillch darted towards the group.
Sarah, Seth and Ingrid all stood in front of one door, just as the other door that Sarah had zapped immediately flung open, smacking itself directly into Xipp, Xeero and Xillch. They could now see outside the castle, where the bridge that spanned the moat could be seen.
"Hey, what's going on here?" asked the front door sentry, once Seth, Sarah and Ingrid ran through the front door and right past him, onto the bridge.
"Stop them!" growled Xipp. A moment later, Xeero and Xillch bounded their way across the long bridge, then turned around and faced Seth, Sarah and Ingrid, blocking their way off.
"End of the line!" said Xeero, as he and Xillch raised their extended claws into the air.
"Sarah!" exclaimed Seth. "We need a portal! Right now!"
"I'm trying," said Sarah, attempting to conjure something up with the wand she was holding. Xeero and Xillch slowly proceeded to march up towards the group, until Sarah aimed the wand at them, prompting them to back away.
"You too!" said Seth, looking back the other way at Xipp and the sentry. "Everyone back away, and nobody will get hurt!"
"No one orders us around except for Lord Murdred!" snapped Xipp.
"Now, Sarah!" said Seth. "Conjure up a portal now before it's too late!"
"But I told you that I don't know how!" uttered Sarah.
"You surrender now or we'll break this bridge!" blared Xillch. "Now put down the wand!"
"We are not surrendering!" said Seth.
"Get the negafae," said Xipp. The sentry next to him then ran inside the castle.
"If you guys break this bridge," said Sarah, "then the shadow charmers that Murdred wanted so badly will die!"
"We'll just say that you accidentally destroyed it with that stolen wand, Sarah!" retorted Xeero. "All we have to do is loosen a few key stones and this whole thing will come down!"
"What Murdred doesn't know won't hurt us," said Xillch, as he and Xeero began jumping up and down on the end of the bridge, causing it to quake heavily. Looking back, Seth could see that Xipp was jumping around on the other end of the bridge.
"Stop!" screamed Ingrid. "This bridge will break!"
"That's a shame," said Xipp. "I was looking real forward to eating you instead."
"I'm not going down without a fight!" said Seth, as he darted across the trembling bridge towards where Xeero and Xillch were jumping. One adlet on its own was larger and stronger than Seth. Two were worse, but Seth didn't care. He couldn't just give up.
Sarah and Ingrid both ran after Seth. Before any of them could reach the far side, the bridge suddenly gave way, as individual stones began to crumble into the chasm beneath them. More and more stones fell out of place, until the very ground that Seth, Sarah and Ingrid had been standing on collapsed beneath them.
The adlets leaped off their respective ends of the bridge just in time to avoid falling. Seth looked down at the chasm below, and saw that the moat of the castle was actually a vast lava pit. He, Sarah and Ingrid had all started to fall down towards the lava, which was roughly two-hundred feet beneath them with seemingly no way of avoiding it.
Ingrid screamed in horror as Seth grabbed her right wrist with his left hand, then Sarah's left wrist with his right hand.
"Please work!" shrieked Sarah, as she aimed the wand below the group in mid-fall. As the lava below started to come closer, another bolt of energy shot out of the wand and produced a black portal beneath the group. Sarah then dove into the portal, pulling Seth through with her, along with Ingrid.