Her body lay on two separate floor panels. It was a clean
kill and the nature of the creature had left no traces of blood. Below the
lower half of her torso, the hexagon was green. Xera was a little confused. In
the fight that had ensued he had not seen anything of the sort and so went in
for further inspection. His orange hexagon butted up against the green and then
disappeared as he stood over the corpse. Whatever was causing it had masked his
own. He thought this might be possibly due to her carrying a marker that allowed
her to pass through certain security measures and with his body half turned
away, he reached into her cavity. The insides were still warm but dry and dusty
.Most of the organic material had dried out, leaving her skin as a husk. A
small hard and flat piece of material lay distinct from the rest of her and he immediately withdrew his hand and breathed a sigh of
relief. The card now changed his orange hexagon to green and with this, it also
allowed him to remove the barriers back towards the river.
As Mhaast followed Xera through however, he felt a brief
pulse of energy and heard a rattling coming from the storage room. This clatter
turned into an almighty crash, supported by the hum and buzz of jets. The
dormant machines covered in blood had now woken up and repeated an indecipherable
phrase over and over. Bones, body parts and blood were all soon mopped up and
placed into the shredder on their backs. They quickly analysed the bloodied
body of Mhaast as their next task. Mhaast yelled at Xera to run. The pounding
of feet on the stone echoed in the corridor, both of their hearts now racing. Neither
of them were ready for another fight but that was not their choice. Two
machines blasted forward towards Mhaast. One was quickly dispatched by the
blade of his great axe. The other however, with its scissor like pincers,
lodged themselves in his flesh. Its curved tail wrapped itself around his body
and within a blink of an eye, he was thrown backwards and into the clutches of
two more.
They held him fast trying to dissect him, inject him with
chemicals, clearing the stain of his existence from the laboratories. Xera
prayed that Shatterstone wouldn't kill Mhaast and fired indiscriminately down
the corridor, hoping to damage as many of the machines as possible. One fell
almost immediately, the crystals gumming up the jets that kept it afloat. As it
tried to gain altitude the engines overheated, the clink of debris whirred
inside. They overloaded, sending a shard of crystal at speed towards Mhaast. He
managed to wrestle one of the machines that kept him restrained into the path
of it, allowing him a brief opportunity to free himself and to fight for his
life. It was a battle he barely won. He was now a broken man, his implants
burned in his flesh and sparked in the darkness. His breathing was laboured and
he tried desperately to stem the flow of blood.
Danton for a brief second witnessed where the cape had taken
him. A enormous writhing mass of flesh surrounding a singular orange eye bared
down on him in the dark void. He had no time to react, no time to save himself.
He shut his eyes and braced. There was nothing. When he opened his eyes he was
back in the cavern, a good few feet away from the exit of the tunnel the laser
had created. He called out for Deanna but there was no reply. He bit his lip
and continued onwards alone. He could hear old mechanisms buzzing, the
juddering of a chain against cogs and the roar of water and then there was
silence. She shook his doubt off and searched the room. He found a small metal
disk which he thought had little significance. He rubbed his forehead while
still holding it and it attached itself to him. It was as if he had been struck
over the head with a metal bar. He found himself in a corridor. A stout but
well built man who was carrying books was knocking at the door at the end. He
pleaded for his daughter to let him in. He told her he had brought new books on
fairytales for her. A young girl quickly opened up the door and there was s something
in her eyes that Danton recognised. The man's voice turned sombre before
telling her that she had been found out by the family and like every young
girl, must now marry the man the family had arranged. She cried out and grew
angry before slamming the door and the vision faded from view. He woke up with
a pounding headache and more confused than he had ever been.
He staggered out of the cavern and was about to take the
opening to the right, until he saw a group of tall figures lit by firelight.
Their arms were longer than their legs and their skin was pale. He backed away slowly
down the left passage. Danton soon started to hear voices, Mhaast's and Xera's.
They had obviously crossed the river somehow but he had no idea how or where.
They seemed to be getting along but the conversation was about him. Xera spoke
about how he distrusted Danton and Mhaast said he had good reason to believe
the same. Danton was perplexed. He had
never met Mhaast before today so how could he have reason not to trust him?
Perhaps it was Silas' influence but Silas didn't know Danton would even be
here, or did he? He interrupted them before their defamation could go any
further and he found them soaked from head to toe. They explained that as they
tried to cross the river, laugher filled the air and a flood of water surged
through, washing them downstream to this opening. However they quickly turned
their attentions back onto Danton, questioning why he was alone, and how he could
have lost both of his compatriots.
Danton tried to explain himself but they wouldn't listen.
They blamed him for Raneaux's and Deanna's disappearance and demanded to know
what happened. As he opened his mouth to defend himself, his jaw unhinged and
split apart, his fangs protruded and his serpentine tongue hissed. Both Xera
and Mhaast took a step backwards while Danton tried to push his jaw back to
where it should be, his hands were shaking. There was no time for an explanation,
a song now drifted in the air. A female voice coming from further down the cave
system. Danton tried to defuse the situation by telling them to follow him and
soon the source of the voice was found. It was Deanna, trapped behind a thick
wall of metal that spanned the entire width of the cave. They could see she had
already started to try to melt the metal with her beams of light but the
process was slow. Aided by the three of them, she was quickly set free and
Danton rushed to her side. She was exhausted, dirty and scared of the pale men
that abducted her from the cave. The floor lay littered with broken toys. She tried to find out where Danton had disappeared
to, to which both Mhaast and Xera raised an eyebrow but he again shifted the conversation
over to another topic, this time Lina. He told them he had seen the creatures
that took Deanna further back and told them to prepare for a fight.
As they approached however, they heard the giggling of Lina
and Raneaux. The pale figures parted, revealing that Raneaux and Lina were
playing with toys on the floor next to a fire. Danton gently asked her if she was okay and
that her Uncle had been worried about her. He tried to convince her that Silas
had come all the way from Auspar to see her, to which she coldly replied he did
not. She was different now, her age belied something older, more powerful. Her
voice was stern with an edge of disgust but it was still the voice of a child.
She bluntly told Danton that Silas had not been in Auspar, he had in fact been
in Qi for quite some time with Mhaast. A flood of desperate and panicked
thoughts flooded his mind. He asked Mhaast why he was in Qi, and why he had
associated himself with Silas. Mhaast's posture rose, his tail scratching the
floor. He told Danton he had heard rumours of what he had done in Qi after he had
escaped from Danton's clutches.
He told Danton that he
was Tahmas Marish, the man that he had had kidnapped for extra traction in the
city of Qi against his family. He had returned to find his name written on a tombstone
and his family were against his reinstatement. He was told to seek a new name and
told him to alter his appearance, resulting in his metallic state. Danton may
not have killed him but he had taken his life. He turned to Xera and told him
that Danton had had him captured on way to meet a woman he was betrothed to,
although both of them had known they did not love each other. Deanna started to
cry but it was not for Mhaast. She was angry and insisted that Willow had loved
him and demanded to know why he didn't love her. He took two steps back before
his jaw opened wide. She nodded in recognition of his realisation and confirmed
she was Willow. All eyes now fell upon Danton. Down in the dark underneath
Darkperch, his legacy was now in front of him. The sins he had committed
against these two now laid bare. Mhaast admitted that he expected Danton to be
worse, ruthless, uncaring but that was not what he had seen. He had his doubts about
what he should do and asked Danton what he would do if the positions were
reversed. He swallowed his pride and bowed his head for execution.
Lina then started to laugh. It pierced the tension and
brought the focus back to her. She told them all how funny they were with their
petty conflicts and told them they needed to play more. She offered a place to
sit with Raneaux which sent shivers down their spines. Raneaux had not said a
word, she had not moved and perhaps not even blinked. Her expression was blank
and her movements repetitive. She batted a ball between her hands on the floor
while never taking her eyes off the wall behind the group. Danton tried to reason
with Lina but she was in control. He asked her to return to the surface to see
her uncle and she agreed, only if she could keep Raneaux. They had no room to
argue. He asked about the control of the village, to which she said she hated
the idea. All she wanted to do was play with her friends down here. If he sought
to take ownership he could, in fact she gave the responsibility of the safety
of the village to all of them and in turn would suffer if Darkperch was to
fall.
