To see a Darkened Sun
chapter 18
It was dusty, like the halls hadn't been swept since the building was made. He wiped his brow as he looked down at all the work he'd done, and then to all the work he still had to do. It was ridiculous really, that a mere duke would be assigning a god for such crude work, there were hundreds of maids in Anor Londo better suited for this.
He remembered Seath's reasoning as he rested, something about resilience and how he had to learn it if he wanted to live up to his father's name, though if that was really the case then wouldn't Gwynevere have gone through the same thing before? No one ever spoke of it though. Maybe it was his path of magic instead of miracles that warranted this. Or maybe nothing warranted it and the Duke was just having a sick joke, watching a god doing maid's work for him. No he wouldn't do such a thing, he was a well respected Duke and his royal teacher, such a thing simply couldn't happen.
His snakes hissed in frustration as he got back to work, they were starting to get restless, and so was he. It felt like hours before he rested again, now he was on the third floor and only had a few more rooms to go. As he rested he noticed a pathway that he hadn't seen before, it looked like a balcony but clearly had a path attached to it.
He glanced at his broom quickly before looking back at the pathway. His curiosity finally got the better of him, but he reasoned with himself that he could use a break and there was nothing that could go wrong, it was a royal archive after all, his father practically owned the place, at least as far as he knew.
He slithered clumsily along on his tired snakes, he was incredibly low to the ground thanks to their tiredness, right now his knees were almost touching the floor and he was even shorter than a human, it would be most embarrassing if someone found him like this. Though he should probably have been more worried about how spread out his snakes were now, as a few slithered off the between railing without his notice and causing him to fall flat on his face as they snagged on the sides of the railing.
He lifted himself up to see blood dripping from his face, he lifted a gloved hand up to his nose, it was numb from the shock still but it would soon sting. He lowered his now blood soaked hand to the ground to stand up, getting blood all over his dress now too.
He knew he'd have to clean that blood up later, and that he couldn't be seen with a blood soaked dress either, such a shame, it was one of his favorites too. He'd figure out what to do about that later, right now he wanted to see what was at the end of this mysterious path.
Slithering along he was now very careful about where his snakes went. Soon he reached a separate building adorned with two ridiculously heavy doors, they were wide open and lead into a gigantic room, books in every direction and... cells? He slithered over the railing and saw how many floors the building had. There were many imprisoned maidens down there, and at the bottom was heaps of scrapped clockwork
His mouth agape as he saw one of the maidens being taken out of a cell by a strange snake-man hybrid, down to a larger cell at the bottom. There were already five in there, and they were shaking in fear, Gwyndolin tried to hide his disgusted expression with a hand, but that only resulted in his nose stinging, causing him to yelp in pain.
A loud thud rang throughout the room as Arias was clumsily tossed into a cold cell. He felt something snap as his already beaten body hit the cement, there was a dull feeling of numbness all over, and soon the pain would strike in full force, then he'd die from bleeding out or just plain trauma.
Until then he just had to wait, there was no way he could be saved in his state, and he was completely out of estus. Then the pain hit him and with it a flash of clarity, he saw a bonfire right next to him, safety. But, no it was futile, as he was he couldn't move even if he tried.
He groaned as his vision blurred, looks like his death had come sooner than expected, as unfortunate as it was at least he wouldn't have to put up with the agony for long.
Soon he opened his eyes, body restored by the fire and only a faint pain in his shoulder remaining. He looked around and was surprised to see he was in the same room, the bonfire was already lit, odd. Getting up he checked his equipment and sighed in relief as he confirmed he still had everything.
Now it was time he got out of the cell, he noticed the guard leaning on the bars right away, mostly because of the glowing silver key hanging on it's garb. Arias quickly unsheathed his greatsword and impaled the guard, grabbing the key and tossing it's corpse to the side.
Suddenly there was a strange wailing sound, and as he opened the door he saw two other snake guards run past him, they quickly climbed a ladder and tried to open a heavy door at the top, but it was locked. Arias ran over to the railing to inspect his surroundings and saw another group of snake guards by a machine that seemed to be the source of the sound. They must have the key.
Quickly he turned and sprinted down the staircase, it didn't take long for him to notice something coming up the stairs towards him, soon he saw them, a strange group of monsters, though he didn't pay them any mind and simply sliced through them on his way down. He managed to get to the ground floor unharmed, though there was a large gathering of the strange abominations blocking his passage. He readied his sword to take them on but then noticed a ladder in the corner of his eye.
When one of the monsters lunged at him, he dodged, positioning himself so that he had an opening to sprint past them all. Quickly, he got up and ran, nimbly avoiding any tentacles that would otherwise trip him up. Once he was past the monsters, he grabbed onto the ladder and started climbing, only to be greeted by a foot coming towards his face as he reached the top. He tried to dodge it but failed and almost fell.
Luckily he was quick enough to grab back onto the ladder before he went all the way down, carefully climbing back up. When he popped his head up a foot was already coming his way again, though this time he was able t dodge it perfectly, as the foot passed him, he grabbed it and yanked the snake guard off the platform, sending it down to the bottom floor with all the monsters.
He climbed up and drew his sword, just in time to block an attack with it. What looked to be a large, curved butcher's knife struck his greatsword, but the guard hadn't expected Arias to block so quickly, and stumbled as the blades clashed. Arias made use of this window, striking the blade out of the snake's hands and quickly decapitating it.
With the serpent's head and lifeless body falling to the floor, there was only one enemy left. Arias turned to get a quick glimpse of the lightning bolt that was about to hit him. But for once, he didn't have enough time to react, now suddenly he was on the floor, teeth clenched as sharp electricity coursed throughout his body.
And just as quick as it hit him, the pain subsided, leaving him on the floor dazed. He didn't remember it hurting so much. Arias struggled to get to his feet, all his energy completely sapped from his body.
Another ball of lightning was sent his way, but he hurled himself to the left, just enough to dodge it. He was able to notice that now he was behind a pillar, so he took this brief moment to drink his estus. Suddenly everything was restored, all of his energy and strength was back and he was able to go on.
Arias readied his sword, he was certainly not going to be charging head first into another one of those lightning attacks any time soon.
He could hear the footsteps to his left, and as soon as he saw the figure of the guard, he lunged forward with a diagonal swipe and cut the snake open. It's entrails began to fall out and it screeched in agony, feebly swinging it's swords at him in a last ditch effort to kill him, though it was too weak to even dent his armor anymore. Just to be safe, Arias lifted his sword and brought it down, cleaving the snake clean in half.
He sighed in relief as he sheathed his sword. He was starting to miss his shield. Walking over to the strange machine, Arias pulled a lever and the wailing stopped, much to his relief. He looked around, wondering where the key for that large door could be.
Luckily it wasn't exactly well hidden, it was in the hands of a long dead corpse at the other edge of the platform. With this he could continue.
Gwyndolin felt sick to the stomach, his nose was stinging worse now and he saw as strange six eyed wizards conducted experiments on the women, most of them turning into strange purple beasts with tentacles, while all the others simply died. He wanted to look away, but for some reason his eyes refused to move.
"It would be wise to avert thine gaze. Thou mayst not recover from what thou'rt to see." An imposing, deep voice spoke behind him. He turned around quickly to see a smooth, pale dragon staring back at him, it's red eyes trained on him like prey.
"S-Seath!" Gwyndolin stuttered, dropping his hand and letting his nose bleed freely again.
"Thou wouldst do well to be more careful, many a maid has gotten lost here. Curiosity, may be useful in study but in a true to life situation it can be a very deadly quality. Keep it on a leash or it may lead thee astray." The dragon spoke again, it's jaw twisting unnaturally and it's eyes occasionally darting away before targeting Gwyndolin again.
"That said, this was foolish even for thee, mine apprentice. I was a fool to trust thee with such freedom. I shalt be more careful in the future. For now thou shouldst go home and take care of that nose of yours, I'm sure thou're aware of the sorcery?" He asked, though at times it was like he forgot he was there. Gwyndolin nodded, he opened his mouth to speak the name of the sorcery but Seath interrupted him.
"Good, there will be no need for words then. Now hurry and leave, and be sure not to speak of what thine eyes hast seen here. If there so much as a rumor spreads I shalt ensure thine father hears of that 'mishap' from last month" He threatened.
Gwyndolin knew well what he was talking about, and shivered at the thought. He simply nodded again and slithered away, wanting badly to forget of what happened. By the time he left the building, the moon was already rising, though it was masked by clouds. He was still shivering, and it wasn't just the cold causing it.
He cast an invisibility spell and then teleported home, it would take him a while to fix himself up and clean his dress, but that didn't matter, no one cared about him enough to visit anyway.
He shivered as he remembered it all, what those channellers did to the women, despicable. Gwyndolin was ever so thankful that Arias would soon rid the world of that manipulative Paledrake, he only wished he could see him do it.
Then his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps, he turned around quickly to see a knight approaching him, a very familiar knight.
"Arias?"
Arias felt like he was going to be sick, he kept getting vertigo every time he looked down and didn't see anything under his feet. And not only that but he was starting to feel anxious. Did this invisible bridge just end at some point? How would he know? Where was his destination even?
No one could answer his questions and he knew that, he'd just have to figure out an answer on his own. No there wasn't time for that, at this point he just had to keep moving and hope for the best. He closed his eyes and steeled himself, carefully placing one foot in front of the other.
It was quiet, there was only the sound of his footsteps and his armor clanking as he walked, though his mind was loud, so many fears that he forced himself to ignore, right now there was only the urgency, the need to keep moving.
And then he heard a crunch under his feet, opening his eyes he saw, he'd made it. He didn't know exactly where but there was visible, solid ground under his feet again, composing of many small crystals, like crystalized sand, it crunched softly under his boots.
Sighing in relief he kneeled over for a minute, sifting through the crystal, just happy to see what he's touching again. Though he didn't take long, and soon he was on his feet and moving forward again, his eyes trained on the hazy fog door in the distance, though he didn't notice the clams and just walked straight past them by accident, though luckily they didn't notice him either.
"Well I must say, thou was much faster than I'd expected." Gwyndolin complimented him.
"Dost thou have the lord's soul then?" He asked. The figure of the knight didn't move, it just stood still and stared at him.
"Arias?... Art thou well?" Gwyndolin was starting to feel nervous, this wasn't like Arias, not at all.
Then the knight lunged at him, unsheathing his greatsword and bringing it to his throat. Gwyndolin couldn't react, he simply couldn't. It was worse than a nightmare, the only one he trusted, the only one who cared for him. Now with that familiar sword to his throat, the knight moved behind him and held him in place. All was still for a time, there was a tense dread in the air, it was as if any moment he would slice his throat open and end it.
Then a unit of silver knights entered the room and surrounded them, they readied their weapons but didn't attack, the more Gwyndolin looked around the more he noticed that their swords were pointed at him, not the knight. They clearly weren't here to defend him then, no they were like the two in the hall a week ago, traitors.
I looked like this had all been pre-arranged, like a sick game of chess. Everyone had their place here, all with intention of killing him. Damn traitors. He didn't even want to fight back anymore, the one person that he felt was there for him, was just an elaborate scheme to make him vulnerable. How perfect of them.
A/N Sorry it's been a while with no new chapter, I've been having a little trouble thinking of how I'm gonna connect certain plot points I've been thinking of, hell I made a drastic change to a very important moment in this chapter just in the final edit. But I think I'm getting a hold of the ideas now, just gotta wrap them all up neatly in the next few chapters. See you then!