Chapter 163: - The Darkness that Faces the Light
The stone pillar reached towards the sky, its bright blue expanse stretching out far beyond the sun and hid the stars behind its blanket. What few clouds there were in the sky hung low to the ground like the mist and fog that was dissipating in the far edges of the valley, chased away by the light of the morning sun.
Lia stood before the wide stone pillar embedded into the stone like it was carved from the rock in a single breath of a vision. The smooth walls, the delicate and vast details of the top, all gave way to the worlds of excellent craftsmanship that made Lia's mind marvel at the sight.
But she wasn't here to gawk at the beauty of the stone pillar- there were dozens more that dotted landscape, some broken and some in piles of rubble with the slight touch of grass that grew from its cracks, while others appeared to stand tall like mountains of stone, spire of the gods that held fast and unaffected by time.
She took one hand and dug her fingers into the stone, watching as the nooks and crannies of the rough cliff side paled in comparison to the smooth surface of the spire. This was her only way up, to repel up the side of the mountain's cliff until she was within reach of the spire.
She didn't hesitate as she climbed higher, her breath thinning as the air did around her, becoming a small gray fog before her eyes at the chilling wind that blew against her side.
All of nature was held back and watching, for no wind blew her down, no sun spilled its warmth over her skin until she was past the shadows and halfway to her destination.
She didn't think, she didn't hesitate, and just as she reached the top, her hands and fingers bare red from the sharp stone and rough climb she had just endured, she jumped towards the darkness of the spire.
The stone was cold beneath her skin as she rolled against the hard ground, past the cobwebs and past the dust that clung to her clothes like termites to wood. She was inside the top peak of the spire now the darkness of the shadows and the hollow wind that blew from the steps that led down into damnation and death.
It was then Lia took a chance, stole a glance at the world before her from the skies, and suddenly she was in love with the skies, the ground, the sun and the stars hidden behind that wide blanket of blue.
The meadows shimmered in the golden hue of light that danced like fire and shadows that moved like people along the instant forest edge. She saw flowers, trees, mountains and rivers, creeks and lakes and…
It was far too beautiful for her to describe as she took a deep breath and sighed, letting the mist form her breath travel along the cold and thin wind that blew her hair to the side, tears brimming in her eyes.
"You know…"
Her voice spoke to know one and up this high it was foreign to the wind, but nature watched and listened as Father Forest cheered her on from afar, past the meadows and into the valley, the mountain drummed her name aloud!
"...If I'm to die, I wouldn't mind if I died to a view like this."
It was a while before Lia realized that she was lost in the tranquility, her eyes tearful from regret and the long stare at the beautiful scenery, the cold wind blowing against her dry eyes.
"Come on Lia, focus."
She wiped her tears away and brushed her long cloak around her, keeping her warm against the beating of the cold wind, shaving slightly, but not from the cold. She took one hand from her blanket of warmth and whispered slightly against the back of her palm as her Rune circle changed to that of a beautiful falcon.
"Florence."
The hooded man was before her in the blink of an eye, his presence appearing like a faded mist that blew in the air, appearing with silence as he kneeled to the ground, his long cloak draping against the dusty floor.
"Watch over the Front Gate. If something goes wrong, if the Dragon appears, make some noise."
She never needed to elaborate on what she meant by "noise." Florence understood, and in some ways, Lia thought she saw a hint of joy in his eyes as he quickly bowed his head, turning back to the world of beauty before him, lost in the tranquility.
She took a deep breath, the cold air filling her lungs for what felt like the last time as she began her descent down the long flight of stairs. Her feet gliding from one step to the next, her hand running along the wall, past the engraved carvings of men of war, women of battle, and the flames of blood and weapons that spilled life back into the deathless grasp of the world.
They wielded spears and swords, axes and bows as they raised into battle with the looks of warriors on their faces, the breadth of war just moments away. Lia despised what her people had done to the Concors so long ago, and now she begged their ghosts and phantom less spirits for help, for their courage to fuel her spirit and give her the bravery she needed.
But as the fear crept into her skin like poison along her nerves and blood, she realized that she had already reached the bottom of the stairs.
Before her stretched the endless black tunnel filled with shadows and creeping with the dead, a beast of pure hell and fire sleeping just beyond the faint light of the sun.
The leprechaun was right, and to Lia she knew he deserved more than just a small pouch of gold, even if it was all she had and could give, she thanked him once more silently as she began again. Her feet were quiet, her breath was thin, and thanks to [Hunter's Eyes] she could see clearly in the dark, all the lost and hidden details behind the breath of darkness.
The carvings along the wall were more vivid now, the looks and stares of the warriors filled her with fear as if they were warning her to be gone from the caves before her life ended in the blink of an eye. But she kept going, past the roaring flames in stone, past the sharp axes depicted of cleaving the heads of her people off their shoulders.
Past the appearance of a man wielding a great ax, a demon of red eyes and fire looming over him as he roared into the sky.
Then, a voice came that shattered her spirit and froze her in terror as she silently jumped into the air, holding her breath at the sound of his deep and devilish voice.
"You don't have to do this, you know?"
Lia turned from her fear to stare into the eyes of red fire, the demon of a man hiding within the shadows of a distant pillar just outside the tunnel's grasp.
"You scared me half to death!"
She said in a harsh whisper, careful as she looked around over the widely cut stone walkways and bridges of granite and limestone.
"You could leave. You could run if you wanted to."
His voice was not a whisper, it didn't even sound like he was trying to hide his voice as it echoed through the chamber, but Lia knew that only she could hear him, his presence was for her and her alone.
She stole a glance at him, a strange look of questioning in her eyes as she made her way slowly from the tunnel's dark hallways and into the open air of the fortress.
"And why would I do that?"
"Because you don't really want to die, do you? If you leave now, the sun will still be up and you and your friends can leave the valley."
Lia shook her head again, walking past the dark pillar he hid under as she made her way through the large and towing halls of the fortress, stone tables and chairs holding plates and goblets unused for centuries.
"That Dragon will kill again. He will haunt these lands unless someone deals with him."
"But you have no reason to fight him. You are simply doing this because the chance of the moment appeared before you."
Cain appeared again from atop a large stone staircase, where Lia soon began to follow his image as it appeared in flashes across the chamber. Along the walls, down tunnels, through archways and along bridges, he led her through many a twist and turn that made Lia marvel at the craftsmanship of the Concors.
"I know, but it must be done. If not me, then who? Some innocent person, who has everything to live for?"
He appeared before her as she caught her breath, the empty and dark shadows below the bridge spanning for miles as their voices echoed like drums in the chasm.
"So, you will leave them all behind? Lukali, Rian, your friend, your allies, you'll leave them all to wallow in grief at your death?"
"Stop!"
It was the first time she raised her voice, all the names of her friends and allies beating against her skull like an endless wave of hammers, as her voice echoed through the halls.
"Just…stop. This is my choice, and I'll see to it till the end."
She didn't even look at him as she passed him by, but his voice and questioning stopped her in her tracks, and they stood there above the abyss of shadows, two empty souls amongst the sea of darkness.
"So you will give up your revenge then?"
Lia was quiet, like a thin thread of silence spread between them.
"If you die here, you may never hope to achieve the goals you want. We agreed that day to fulfill each other's wishes. If you die…you may never fill that hole in your heart."
"...But it is filled. My friends, my allies, the people that I love and hold dear. They became family."
Cain stole a glance at her as the sounds of her boots clicked against the stone walkways, for she was now unafraid of any noise she made.
"And your revenge?"
The voice was like a clear hum of a tune.
"I've given up on that."
***
The chamber hall was so large that Lia had trouble navigating through it all, and after her words to Cain were said and done, she had not heard another word from him. She felt it was necessary to tell him that her heart no longer raged for her family any longer, and for a man who enjoyed the relishing of chaos across the world, he was more than likely upset.
However, as she traversed through the many hallways, coming across the occasional skeleton and shattered cobwebs, she failed to realize the red eyed man was watching her.
He clung to the shadows like they were a part of his soul and every time she drew near, he would vanish against with the blink of an eye, his fiery embers appearing somewhere else along the trail, careful to keep on her tail.
He knew this place well; in fact, he remembered when this fortress was crawling with flames from torches and roars of laughter as food from the Great Feast of Kings spilled into all the halls of the fortress with joy and compassion.
That feast lasted three days and three nights, and even now Cain could see the faint markings of dishes and goblets he recognized from the table. He even remembered the people who held them in hand as they lauded and cheered for their king.
Finally, Lia came to a large chamber door, old with rotting wood, but thick with strength and metal iron that held the bits and pieces together with power over time. She reached for the latch and in one swing the door slowly creaked open as Lia peered past the darkness of the chamber, an eerie silence creeping around her.
Light spilled from the high windows, the sounds of the thin and calm air traversed realms of fear as Lia began to slowly shuffle her way in, creeping along the walls as she watched for any movement.
Then she heard it.
The Grand Hall was a long rectangular room, pillars of high carved stone reached to the sky farther than Lia thought possible to reach and carve.
The large stone slab that acted as a table for the kings of the clans was dotted with plates and cups, skeletal corpses of the dead long since left to rot by time. There were stair wells that snaked up to wide and dark halls - one of which Lia had just left - as the room shone in a dim glint of the sunlight.
And hidden below the sun that spilled from the open windows of cracked glass and panned iron, within the shadows of death, lay the deep and steady breaths of a Dragon.
She could see the highlights of his scales that glinted slightly in the dim sunlight that spilled into the room. She could hear his deep breaths that reverberated through the hall that made her skin run with goosebumps from fear.
If she ran to him now, she might be able to make it to the Dragon before he had a chance to wake up, but she knew that such a thought was far-fetched. Even if she reached the Dragon before it had fully woken up, she would have to face off against his mighty breath and talons of steel.
She would be dead before she could even leave a mark on him.
'Wait. How can I leave a mark on him?'
As Lia's mind began to reel over the thought of harming the Dragon, she began to lay out her options. She needed to keep the monster busy, but all she had was herself and a sword - a sword that would be more like a toothpick to the beast rather than a threatening weapon.
'Can I even hurt him?'
How could she, a human who meant nothing more than a pest in the eyes of Dragon, keep him busy?
Fear began to creep into Lia's bones as she slid down against the wall, hidden behind a barrier of stone that separated her and the dragon as its rhythmic breaths tore through the open air.
The smell of a human to any beast was clear as day for them, a silent alert that warned them of the danger. But even to monsters, myths, or even the legend that slept before her, she had no way of knowing how longer it would take for her scent to reach him.
Was this really where she would die? Unable to buy her friends that chance they needed to act out their plan, and she was just sitting here, unable to do anything as fear pounded against her heart and skull, her blood running through all her bones.
'What…what do I do?'
Then suddenly, like the shock of a knife stabbing at her heart, the breathing stopped.
Silence crept through the air like a daunting and looming fear that stole Lia's soul from her very body, her eyes wide with a newfound understanding as the presence of a Dragon fully dawned on her.
She now knew what fear was. She now knew what it was like to die inside, as her heart and soul rotted to their cores and her mind screamed at her to run.
But she heard nothing. She could see nothing in the darkness of the hall as her mind and beating heart, her screaming senses and fear that poisoned her body, all vanished into a dull and empty sound of silence.
She needed to look. She needed to see.
So, with a shaking hand and lungs filled with iron and the smell of soot, Lia slowly reached up over the barrier, and tore her head from the shadows to peer out into the darkness around her.
But there was no darkness. There were no shadows that crept through the cracks and hollowed out the eyes of the dead. There was nothing of the darkness that ran from the light.
There was only the sight of her own reflection as it stared back at her, back from the mindlessness that consumes her soul, the fear rattling her bones, like a stilling silence that sliced through her mind only a breath away.
There was no human alive who would ever know what this fear was like.
Like the fire of the eye that stared back at her.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone