- Chapter 19 -

 

It was Sshraada who found the opening, a gap in the wall one could only detect if one looked at the wall at a particular angle, with the light from symbols glowing in Raven's immediate presence to illuminate it. Inside, the warriors found that the walls were hollow, and a winding staircase ran up and around the inside.

"A path open only to those powerful enough to light the way", said Mararen thoughtfully as Raven stepped inside, and runes on the floor and walls followed her. "Sshraada carries no magic, and the symbols barely appear. I have my sword, and the Bright Ones' defensive enchantments, and the images under my feet are brighter. Where you walk, Raven, it is almost as bright as day."

Raven did not respond. She did not intend to linger, and perform experiments - she wanted to claim her revenge and leave, as quickly as possible, before The Darkening ate any deeper into her soul.

The staircase was, like the rest of the tower, subject to the same abnormal architecture, but not to such a degree that it proved unusable. The steps were level, but their heights varied from barely an inch to around a foot in height, and no two steps in a row were the same, making it impossible to establish any kind of rhythm for the climb.

"What manner of creature could possibly use these steps regularly?", muttered Sshraada.

"Just shut up and climb", snapped Raven. "Unless you'd rather go back, and not fight your 'sacred spirit'."

Mararen, climbing next to Raven, offered some advice. "Sshraada's people are very straightforward, with no inclination to explore the magical arts or supernatural happenings", he told her. "They often become unsettled by exposure to potent manifestations of forces acting beyond what to them is natural. She'll fight, but don't expect her to be much good for anything else, for as long as she's surrounded by things that are beyond her comprehension."

"I can see what's happening", she replied, coldly. "Help me keep her focussed, will you?"

Mararen nodded, and let himself fall back so that he could climb alongside the Naagian. There was no more of Sshraada's comments, and the climb continued in something approaching silence, for all but Raven, who still heard the unintelligible "voice" of The Darkening. For now, she drew comfort from the fact that she could not understand any of it, for she felt certain that understanding would signify that part of her had become attuned to this unnatural place, and might be unwilling to let her leave.

From time to time, the monster-hunters passed windows, openings they had not seen from the outside. Raven quickly learned to ignore these, for the views from those windows were of other places, different worlds or universes - forests of gigantic, twisted trees, growing under the light of multiple scarlet suns; expanses of starry space, criss-crossed by strands of multi-coloured vapour which stirred and swirled as vast and invisible things took to the wing between worlds; icy plains dotted with cloud-piercing spires of wind-polished black stone, around which gusted winds carrying whispers of alien blasphemies...

Sshraada is right to be uncomfortable here, Raven told herself. There is no place in all the kingdoms of gods and demons that could be as...unthinkable as this. Surely this place is the source of all madness - not gross expressions of insanity, where victims suddenly lose all grip on what's real, but the little nagging hints that all is not as it should be that, as they accumulate over time, drive men out of their minds.

All three visitors to The Darkening breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the top of the stairs. Raven did not count how many steps she took, and so she had no idea how long the climb took. The irregularity of the steps made it equally impossible to work out how far they had climbed, and the windows were of no help, for none of them looked out onto the cavern of the Glones, denying the climbers the opportunity to judge their altitude from what they had seen outside.

The stairs ascended into the centre of a vast chamber, with a ceiling a little too low for anyone's liking, but not low enough to require any of them to stoop or crouch. A faint, misty light surrounded them and allowed them to see for quite a distance, but there was no sign of kind of pillar or other supporting structure. At least it doesn't look alive, Raven thought, and for a moment she felt more at ease.

She savoured the feeling, for she doubted it would last.

"No symbols", observed Mararen, watching Raven pace anxiously around and seeing nothing appear under her high-heeled feet. "What makes this different from the rest of the building?"

"Building? That suggests someone actually constructed all this", Raven remarked. "Almost everything I've seen says this place grew."

"Strange, isn't it?", said a sneering voice the warriors had not heard for what seemed like an age. "The Darkening is almost alive - like a body reacting to infection or disease, this place responds to gatherings of sentient creatures by shaping itself according to the psychic energy they exude. This temple is already reacting to my presence - you did see the carving at the entrance, didn't you?"

"I didn't come here to see the sights", responded Raven angrily. "I came to destroy you."

"What, before I can offer you alternatives?"

The floor shuddered. Mirrors, thin as sheets of paper, suddenly shot up out of the floors, showering anyone standing nearby with reddish chalky dust as the reflective panels slammed into the ceiling. The harsh ringing sound of mirrored metal striking stone echoed for an unnaturally short time, as though even sound did not wish to linger in that place.

"Don't look!", warned Mararen, but whichever way he turned, he could see his reflection. A reflection of a lithe and lusty Dyal - with wings...

Sshraada was taken completely by surprise by the mirrors, and before Mararen's warning could permeate through the cloud of disorientation that had been hanging over her she found herself gazing into one of them. A towering Dravwyrn, wings and scales black as night, gazed back at her, smiling with a suggestion of wicked intent.

Raven looked too, but not by accident. She was daring the Dravwyrn to test her, letting his games unfold before her until she saw a way to lure him into making the mistake that would kill him.

Her mirror was blank. There was nothing but blackness - not even a reflection of the seemingly endless chamber. Raven peered deeper into the darkness, sensing something even the absence of light could not hide from her...

- and then there were eyes looking back at her. Four eyes...red on amber, all real.

Raven's winged self stepped out of the darkness into full view, and the dancer shuddered. The reflection's skin was a deeper red than Raven herself had ever manifested, and that skin ran with streams of blood, originating from a mouth lined with wicked fangs. She recognised none of herself in that image - she was looking at a stranger, wearing her body and twisting it into something that was not Raven...

"Why fight, when so much can be gained by peaceful means?", said the monster. The Dravwyrn was still hidden, but Raven sensed he was closer, his emotions clearly discernable, a bright beacon in the sea of uncertainty and mental disorganisation surrounding her.

"You yearn for wings, brave warrior", the monster said, his voice suddenly coming from directly above Mararen. "It is not right for one such as you to be denied the glory of flight. Set aside your sword, and forget the misguided ways you follow, without any sign of reward for your deeds. My Blessing will give you new wings, and let you soar above those who tore the gift of flight from you..."

"If I fly again, it will not be because I surrendered to you, foul one", growled the Waeribane, eyes jammed shut to block out the reflection that mocked him. "You seek to tamper with emotions you cannot begin to understand...and you will regret it."

The voice of the monster moved to address Sshraada. "You do not want to destroy me, do you, sister? I am grateful for your faith, so grateful in fact that I would gladly offer you a position of great prestige and influence at my side. The honoured Naagian race would benefit greatly from my good favour, and you could help them to see that."

"It is because of you that I am here, trapped in this place that defies the Ways of Things", the serpentine warrior-woman hissed. "That is reason enough to slay you. No Ancestor would subject a child of The Nest to...to all this!"

"It saddens me to hear such words, when I know your heart is not truly behind them", the monster replied, with a genuine air of dismay. That dismay was short-lived, for the previous confidence returned as his attention shifted to Raven.

"Another one whose heart is uncertain", remarked the Dravwyrn. "A heart lost in a sea of souls, and none of them sing the same song as you. You are unique, and you do not understand why. Where can you turn? Who can you ask for guidance...? No-one - for when they see the truth, they will fear you, blinded by the same kind of superstition that makes demons of all Dravwyrn. I understand you, for I am far more like you than any of those who say they are your friends. Friends who will desert you when they find out what you are..."

"You profess to be an expert on hearts and souls, yet you surround yourself with soulless creatures of your own making, bereft of any and all free will", retorted Raven. "I think I'll take advice on friends and relationships from a more knowledgeable source - some beggar in the gutter behind a run-down warehouse in the back-streets of the Trading Quarter of Freeport, perhaps. A far more worthy soul than all your race put together, I think you'll find."

The Dravwyrn did not respond immediately, but Raven could feel a storm of emotion brewing somewhere in the distance. When he chose to speak, the monster assumed a tone that was low and emotionless, yet the dancer expected him to erupt with rage at any moment. "Warriors, your companion has not denied that she does not truly know herself", he said. "Trust is everything on the battle-field, yet she asks you to trust...what? A 'person' built from feelings and thoughts harvested from those around her, thrown together to create a convenient 'whole' that does not truly exist.

"There is no 'Raven'", the Dravwyrn declared. "There is only the child of a mortal and a demon, strayed from the world that nurtured her and stained forever by that heritage. When the scattered pieces of her puzzle fall into place, you will all see that I am right."

Raven felt the storm of emotion move so close she could almost touch it. She could feel his hot, humid breath against her skin, reeking of partly-digested flesh...

"You have lived your whole life in darkness, so that is all you can see", she said, before that foul breath could be shaped into words. "If I - Raven - am made from the colours that have shone so brightly around me, then I am far more than you could ever be..."

Raven's wings shrank, some of their black mass shifting to another part of her body. A lightning-swift flash of blackness exploded from the underside of the girl's left wrist, tearing through her glove and punching a hole in the centre of the mirror that showed her dark reflection. The silvered metal shattered...and the rest of the chamber followed, breaking into pieces and dissolving into a whole different reality.

A dark chamber, with panels of semi-transparent black set into the now familiar red stone of the tower's walls, with the majority of the darkness focussed at the centre of the room, concentrated into the crouching form of the Dravwyrn.

"All my hard work - wasted", sneered the monster, unwinding powerful limbs and a wickedly barbed tail from the main mass of his huge body. "I was prepared to be so accommodating - I would have let you live, at the very least. We could have shared such great and terrible secrets, but not now. I must, sadly, destroy you now...and when that is done, your dear friend will become the extension of my rage, making all who knew you wish you had never darkened their lives. Just before they die."

"All that is just a dream, monster", snarled Raven, "the last dream you will ever know. You said it yourself - my friends are what made me who I am today, and you dare threaten them? Folly - sheer folly..."

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