Chapter 160: 160
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Kal's gaze lingers on the deformed halfling, his eyes dulling as he rubs the bracelet on his wrist with a nervous fervour, a far off look overcoming him as though in that moment, he would very much like to disappear and sink away from this decrepit maze entirely. It doesn't take a genius to realise he is holding something back from me, but reigning in my curiosity, I decide to leave it. Heaven knows that boy is under enough pressure as it is.
While I have the excuse of my vampirism to be marginally more careless in this grimy maze of monsters, Kal is not immortal, and would not be spared if one such creature ambled across us by chance. Mortality is a precious thing, and in these moments, Kal seems to be feeling it more than anyone.
Eventually, Kal draws his gaze away from the creature, grimacing. As quickly as we dare, we both start walking off down the maze, away from the creature, anxious to be gone.
"Good to know they can't hear our hearts," Kal laughs anxiously, rubbing his hands together in a vain attempt to get back some warmth and circulation into his fingers. I nod dimly, not really listening to his word.
The atmosphere down here would surely be next to freezing for him- in my old body, I surely would have felt it, but with icy vampire blood in my veins, such a predicament is hardly a problem. But here is Kal, freezing, fearing his demise that could come at any point in these catastrophic chamber of death, and sticking his neck on the line for a problem that I should never have brought him in to in the first place.
Guilt niggles at my insides.
But it's too late to turn back now.
"Yeah, I think we would be pretty dead if they could hear our hearts. These guys seem to decimate every living thing they come across," I mutter, still puzzling over why and how that half dead creature didn't manage to detect us standing right over it. After all, I am certain its eyes were open.
Chewing on the side of my cheek, I continue.
"It's weird though. The halfling is covered in holes, chunks of flesh missing, not to mention it looks like it has been degrading for a good long time. I know they are more fragile than normal vampires, and regeneration takes much longer, but they have no predation down here, they shouldn't have injuries, or anything! It doesn't make any sense," I mutter irritably, running my fingers through my hair, and stifling a cough as a cloud of dust spikes the hair, floating up from a long dead carcass that I crunch my way over. Disgusting.
However, as we continue walking, the darkness offers me no answers, nothing but a cold chill that sleeps into my insides and causes Kal to tremble from the wintry chill.
It is obvious by the time we meet the next junction of the maze that the bones are in considerably large amount more surplus, which could either be taken as a good sign, or an extremely bad one. One the one hand, we are evidently getting closer to something, some colony of these creatures, and the thrum of the bond that runs through me getting stronger with each step I take. But on the other hand…
Well, that is easy enough to figure out by yourself.
"Please don't tell me we need to go that way," Kal begs, pointing in the direction to our right where the cavern splits off into another empty void of darkness. I chew on the inside of my cheek, my heart dropping to my stomach. Oh no.
Desperately, I hope against hope that the muted gurgling noises coming from the dark abyss of tunnels are figments of my imagination, some auditory hallucination that is a product of merely being down in this labyrinth for an hour or so.
"Yeah, that's the way, why?"
Kal gives me a pleading look.
"Please tell me you're joking."
"I wish I could, Kal, but I am really not joking. That's where the bond is pulling me. What's wrong?" I ask insistently, lowering my voice, suddenly fearful of what it is that Kal might be sensing, and equally terrified that my own suspicions will soon be proven right. Kal motions me desperately to be silent, pressing a finger against his lips as he leans in to whisper in a voice that is barely audible:
"Listen."
And so I do, and what I hear next sets my teeth on edge.
There is no denying it this time. Without the ardent footfall of our boots and the heavy crunch and clink of bones straining under our weight, the sounds of the labyrinth become horrifyingly apparent.
Hundreds of grunting, animalistic noises trail from the inside of the cavernous tunnel, ghostly and haunting, and spilling with the promise of death. Skittering and scratching sounds echo from wall to wall, like some gigantic beetle is making its way up the rocks, or a procession of a thousand tiny rats- whichever is deemed worse. Hairs on the back of my neck prickle with a blazing alarm, a cold sweat washing over my body despite the wintry chill of the tunnels. The sound alone is enough to make me want to vomit.
But the worst sound is beneath all those layers of grunting and growling, beneath the skitters and raging snarls, is a sound like fabric being torn apart in one great sheet.
Only it isn't fabric, is it?
It is continuous, accompanied by savage hisses and the slash of sharpened claws, a wet slobbering sound, and series of smaller, much quieter rips. It is a sound I have heard many times in the forests of Illistrae, and one I am not too keen to experience again: the sound of a beast tearing apart its prey, ripping meat clean off the bone. I pray to the heavens that whatever those monsters are feasting on has long gone past its expiry.
"Fuck," I groan, touching my fingers to my temples wearily. "We are never going to get past them. I am going to have to blast them all."
"No no," Kal insists, his eyes growing wide. "You mustn't, the others will hear the screams, it will be a blood bath. Leave flaming them to a last resort, I think we might just be able to get through another way."
A little too quickly, I raise my head.
"Another way…?" I question curiously, a feeling of veiled unease settling over my body. Kal nods, tapping the side of his head in an attempted indication of his plan.
"The halflings, I think they are blind. The one we saw back there didn't notice us despite it's eyes being wide open- it didn't even flinch when you stood right over it. We might be able to get around them, especially if they can't see us, we just have to be extremely quiet."
Throwing Kal a hard look, I cross my arms over myself. There are many, many flaws in that plan. More than I can feasibly pronounce. And risking our lives over a half baked theory doesn't sound like the most appropriate of options, after all, I promised to get everyone out of here, and there would be no use fighting Azrael with half my limbs ripped off. Besides, dying on the first tier of this labyrinth would be one hell of a let down.
"I am not going to lie, Kal. I don't have much confidence in that plan. Are you even certain it will work? Who is to say that halfling was not just a one off?"
Apprehensively, Kal bites his lips, clearly holding back his doubts.
"Well, there is nothing really to say it wasn't. But I really don't think they can see- being down here for centuries will surely have degraded their eyesight- it makes sense. I know you don't trust it, but it's that, or attracting a whole horde of halfling when we try to ashen their friends."
"I will take my chances," I say stiffly, beginning to walk down the hallway of bones and dust, towards the source of all the noise, and the rancid smell of rotten flesh. But before I can go two paces, Kal latches onto my arm, his wings pulled tightly around him, face bound with a look of tremulous fear. His fingers grip tightly into my skin, eliciting a wince from me.
"Please, Serena, lets just try this," Kal whispers, his voice cracking a little. Irritably, I suck in my breath.
It's not that I want to be mean to Kal, far from it. But when it comes to halflings whose abilities I barely know the first bit of, I would rather not take my chances with something as flimsy as hoping they cannot see us.
While it is incredibly likely that thousands of years of permanent darkness has degraded their sight to an extent, that is only one factor down, and a million others to go.
Besides, just because the creatures cannot see, does not mean they cannot rip us to shreds if they so cared to do so.
"Fine," I relent at last, gritting my teeth. "But if anything goes wrong, this place is going up in flames, and that is a promise."
Kal nods, relaxing a little. He runs his hand past his hair nervously, dusting off his red imperial jacket and bearing an obviously forced grin of confidence.
"Great.. And I will join you too, if it comes to that, though I sorely hope it won't."
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Kal's gaze lingers on the deformed halfling, his eyes dulling as he rubs the bracelet on his wrist with a nervous fervour, a far off look overcoming him as though in that moment, he would very much like to disappear and sink away from this decrepit maze entirely. It doesn't take a genius to realise he is holding something back from me, but reigning in my curiosity, I decide to leave it. Heaven knows that boy is under enough pressure as it is.
While I have the excuse of my vampirism to be marginally more careless in this grimy maze of monsters, Kal is not immortal, and would not be spared if one such creature ambled across us by chance. Mortality is a precious thing, and in these moments, Kal seems to be feeling it more than anyone.
Eventually, Kal draws his gaze away from the creature, grimacing. As quickly as we dare, we both start walking off down the maze, away from the creature, anxious to be gone.
"Good to know they can't hear our hearts," Kal laughs anxiously, rubbing his hands together in a vain attempt to get back some warmth and circulation into his fingers. I nod dimly, not really listening to his word.
The atmosphere down here would surely be next to freezing for him- in my old body, I surely would have felt it, but with icy vampire blood in my veins, such a predicament is hardly a problem. But here is Kal, freezing, fearing his demise that could come at any point in these catastrophic chamber of death, and sticking his neck on the line for a problem that I should never have brought him in to in the first place.
Guilt niggles at my insides.
But it's too late to turn back now.
"Yeah, I think we would be pretty dead if they could hear our hearts. These guys seem to decimate every living thing they come across," I mutter, still puzzling over why and how that half dead creature didn't manage to detect us standing right over it. After all, I am certain its eyes were open.
Chewing on the side of my cheek, I continue.
"It's weird though. The halfling is covered in holes, chunks of flesh missing, not to mention it looks like it has been degrading for a good long time. I know they are more fragile than normal vampires, and regeneration takes much longer, but they have no predation down here, they shouldn't have injuries, or anything! It doesn't make any sense," I mutter irritably, running my fingers through my hair, and stifling a cough as a cloud of dust spikes the hair, floating up from a long dead carcass that I crunch my way over. Disgusting.
However, as we continue walking, the darkness offers me no answers, nothing but a cold chill that sleeps into my insides and causes Kal to tremble from the wintry chill.
It is obvious by the time we meet the next junction of the maze that the bones are in considerably large amount more surplus, which could either be taken as a good sign, or an extremely bad one. One the one hand, we are evidently getting closer to something, some colony of these creatures, and the thrum of the bond that runs through me getting stronger with each step I take. But on the other hand…
Well, that is easy enough to figure out by yourself.
"Please don't tell me we need to go that way," Kal begs, pointing in the direction to our right where the cavern splits off into another empty void of darkness. I chew on the inside of my cheek, my heart dropping to my stomach. Oh no.
Desperately, I hope against hope that the muted gurgling noises coming from the dark abyss of tunnels are figments of my imagination, some auditory hallucination that is a product of merely being down in this labyrinth for an hour or so.
"Yeah, that's the way, why?"
Kal gives me a pleading look.
"Please tell me you're joking."
"I wish I could, Kal, but I am really not joking. That's where the bond is pulling me. What's wrong?" I ask insistently, lowering my voice, suddenly fearful of what it is that Kal might be sensing, and equally terrified that my own suspicions will soon be proven right. Kal motions me desperately to be silent, pressing a finger against his lips as he leans in to whisper in a voice that is barely audible:
"Listen."
And so I do, and what I hear next sets my teeth on edge.
There is no denying it this time. Without the ardent footfall of our boots and the heavy crunch and clink of bones straining under our weight, the sounds of the labyrinth become horrifyingly apparent.
Hundreds of grunting, animalistic noises trail from the inside of the cavernous tunnel, ghostly and haunting, and spilling with the promise of death. Skittering and scratching sounds echo from wall to wall, like some gigantic beetle is making its way up the rocks, or a procession of a thousand tiny rats- whichever is deemed worse. Hairs on the back of my neck prickle with a blazing alarm, a cold sweat washing over my body despite the wintry chill of the tunnels. The sound alone is enough to make me want to vomit.
But the worst sound is beneath all those layers of grunting and growling, beneath the skitters and raging snarls, is a sound like fabric being torn apart in one great sheet.
Only it isn't fabric, is it?
It is continuous, accompanied by savage hisses and the slash of sharpened claws, a wet slobbering sound, and series of smaller, much quieter rips. It is a sound I have heard many times in the forests of Illistrae, and one I am not too keen to experience again: the sound of a beast tearing apart its prey, ripping meat clean off the bone. I pray to the heavens that whatever those monsters are feasting on has long gone past its expiry.
"Fuck," I groan, touching my fingers to my temples wearily. "We are never going to get past them. I am going to have to blast them all."
"No no," Kal insists, his eyes growing wide. "You mustn't, the others will hear the screams, it will be a blood bath. Leave flaming them to a last resort, I think we might just be able to get through another way."
A little too quickly, I raise my head.
"Another way…?" I question curiously, a feeling of veiled unease settling over my body. Kal nods, tapping the side of his head in an attempted indication of his plan.
"The halflings, I think they are blind. The one we saw back there didn't notice us despite it's eyes being wide open- it didn't even flinch when you stood right over it. We might be able to get around them, especially if they can't see us, we just have to be extremely quiet."
Throwing Kal a hard look, I cross my arms over myself. There are many, many flaws in that plan. More than I can feasibly pronounce. And risking our lives over a half baked theory doesn't sound like the most appropriate of options, after all, I promised to get everyone out of here, and there would be no use fighting Azrael with half my limbs ripped off. Besides, dying on the first tier of this labyrinth would be one hell of a let down.
"I am not going to lie, Kal. I don't have much confidence in that plan. Are you even certain it will work? Who is to say that halfling was not just a one off?"
Apprehensively, Kal bites his lips, clearly holding back his doubts.
"Well, there is nothing really to say it wasn't. But I really don't think they can see- being down here for centuries will surely have degraded their eyesight- it makes sense. I know you don't trust it, but it's that, or attracting a whole horde of halfling when we try to ashen their friends."
"I will take my chances," I say stiffly, beginning to walk down the hallway of bones and dust, towards the source of all the noise, and the rancid smell of rotten flesh. But before I can go two paces, Kal latches onto my arm, his wings pulled tightly around him, face bound with a look of tremulous fear. His fingers grip tightly into my skin, eliciting a wince from me.
"Please, Serena, lets just try this," Kal whispers, his voice cracking a little. Irritably, I suck in my breath.
It's not that I want to be mean to Kal, far from it. But when it comes to halflings whose abilities I barely know the first bit of, I would rather not take my chances with something as flimsy as hoping they cannot see us.
While it is incredibly likely that thousands of years of permanent darkness has degraded their sight to an extent, that is only one factor down, and a million others to go.
Besides, just because the creatures cannot see, does not mean they cannot rip us to shreds if they so cared to do so.
"Fine," I relent at last, gritting my teeth. "But if anything goes wrong, this place is going up in flames, and that is a promise."
Kal nods, relaxing a little. He runs his hand past his hair nervously, dusting off his red imperial jacket and bearing an obviously forced grin of confidence.
"Great.. And I will join you too, if it comes to that, though I sorely hope it won't."
Kal's gaze lingers on the deformed halfling, his eyes dulling as he rubs the bracelet on his wrist with a nervous fervour, a far off look overcoming him as though in that moment, he would very much like to disappear and sink away from this decrepit maze entirely. It doesn't take a genius to realise he is holding something back from me, but reigning in my curiosity, I decide to leave it. Heaven knows that boy is under enough pressure as it is.While I have the excuse of my vampirism to be marginally more careless in this grimy maze of monsters, Kal is not immortal, and would not be spared if one such creature ambled across us by chance. Mortality is a precious thing, and in these moments, Kal seems to be feeling it more than anyone.Eventually, Kal draws his gaze away from the creature, grimacing. As quickly as we dare, we both start walking off down the maze, away from the creature, anxious to be gone."Good to know they can't hear our hearts," Kal laughs anxiously, rubbing his hands together in a vain attempt to get back some warmth and circulation into his fingers. I nod dimly, not really listening to his word. The atmosphere down here would surely be next to freezing for him- in my old body, I surely would have felt it, but with icy vampire blood in my veins, such a predicament is hardly a problem. But here is Kal, freezing, fearing his demise that could come at any point in these catastrophic chamber of death, and sticking his neck on the line for a problem that I should never have brought him in to in the first place. Guilt niggles at my insides. But it's too late to turn back now."Yeah, I think we would be pretty dead if they could hear our hearts. These guys seem to decimate every living thing they come across," I mutter, still puzzling over why and how that half dead creature didn't manage to detect us standing right over it. After all, I am certain its eyes were open. Chewing on the side of my cheek, I continue."It's weird though. The halfling is covered in holes, chunks of flesh missing, not to mention it looks like it has been degrading for a good long time. I know they are more fragile than normal vampires, and regeneration takes much longer, but they have no predation down here, they shouldn't have injuries, or anything! It doesn't make any sense," I mutter irritably, running my fingers through my hair, and stifling a cough as a cloud of dust spikes the hair, floating up from a long dead carcass that I crunch my way over. Disgusting. However, as we continue walking, the darkness offers me no answers, nothing but a cold chill that sleeps into my insides and causes Kal to tremble from the wintry chill.It is obvious by the time we meet the next junction of the maze that the bones are in considerably large amount more surplus, which could either be taken as a good sign, or an extremely bad one. One the one hand, we are evidently getting closer to something, some colony of these creatures, and the thrum of the bond that runs through me getting stronger with each step I take. But on the other handWell, that is easy enough to figure out by yourself."Please don't tell me we need to go that way," Kal begs, pointing in the direction to our right where the cavern splits off into another empty void of darkness. I chew on the inside of my cheek, my heart dropping to my stomach. Oh no.Desperately, I hope against hope that the muted gurgling noises coming from the dark abyss of tunnels are figments of my imagination, some auditory hallucination that is a product of merely being down in this labyrinth for an hour or so."Yeah, that's the way, why?"Kal gives me a pleading look."Please tell me you're joking.""I wish I could, Kal, but I am really not joking. That's where the bond is pulling me. What's wrong?" I ask insistently, lowering my voice, suddenly fearful of what it is that Kal might be sensing, and equally terrified that my own suspicions will soon be proven right. Kal motions me desperately to be silent, pressing a finger against his lips as he leans in to whisper in a voice that is barely audible:"Listen."And so I do, and what I hear next sets my teeth on edge.There is no denying it this time. Without the ardent footfall of our boots and the heavy crunch and clink of bones straining under our weight, the sounds of the labyrinth become horrifyingly apparent.Hundreds of grunting, animalistic noises trail from the inside of the cavernous tunnel, ghostly and haunting, and spilling with the promise of death. Skittering and scratching sounds echo from wall to wall, like some gigantic beetle is making its way up the rocks, or a procession of a thousand tiny rats- whichever is deemed worse. Hairs on the back of my neck prickle with a blazing alarm, a cold sweat washing over my body despite the wintry chill of the tunnels. The sound alone is enough to make me want to vomit.But the worst sound is beneath all those layers of grunting and growling, beneath the skitters and raging snarls, is a sound like fabric being torn apart in one great sheet. Only it isn't fabric, is it?It is continuous, accompanied by savage hisses and the slash of sharpened claws, a wet slobbering sound, and series of smaller, much quieter rips. It is a sound I have heard many times in the forests of Illistrae, and one I am not too keen to experience again: the sound of a beast tearing apart its prey, ripping meat clean off the bone. I pray to the heavens that whatever those monsters are feasting on has long gone past its expiry."Fuck," I groan, touching my fingers to my temples wearily. "We are never going to get past them. I am going to have to blast them all.""No no," Kal insists, his eyes growing wide. "You mustn't, the others will hear the screams, it will be a blood bath. Leave flaming them to a last resort, I think we might just be able to get through another way."A little too quickly, I raise my head."Another way?" I question curiously, a feeling of veiled unease settling over my body. Kal nods, tapping the side of his head in an attempted indication of his plan."The halflings, I think they are blind. The one we saw back there didn't notice us despite it's eyes being wide open- it didn't even flinch when you stood right over it. We might be able to get around them, especially if they can't see us, we just have to be extremely quiet."Throwing Kal a hard look, I cross my arms over myself. There are many, many flaws in that plan. More than I can feasibly pronounce. And risking our lives over a half baked theory doesn't sound like the most appropriate of options, after all, I promised to get everyone out of here, and there would be no use fighting Azrael with half my limbs ripped off. Besides, dying on the first tier of this labyrinth would be one hell of a let down."I am not going to lie, Kal. I don't have much confidence in that plan. Are you even certain it will work? Who is to say that halfling was not just a one off?"Apprehensively, Kal bites his lips, clearly holding back his doubts."Well, there is nothing really to say it wasn't. But I really don't think they can see- being down here for centuries will surely have degraded their eyesight- it makes sense. I know you don't trust it, but it's that, or attracting a whole horde of halfling when we try to ashen their friends.""I will take my chances," I say stiffly, beginning to walk down the hallway of bones and dust, towards the source of all the noise, and the rancid smell of rotten flesh. But before I can go two paces, Kal latches onto my arm, his wings pulled tightly around him, face bound with a look of tremulous fear. His fingers grip tightly into my skin, eliciting a wince from me."Please, Serena, lets just try this," Kal whispers, his voice cracking a little. Irritably, I suck in my breath. It's not that I want to be mean to Kal, far from it. But when it comes to halflings whose abilities I barely know the first bit of, I would rather not take my chances with something as flimsy as hoping they cannot see us. While it is incredibly likely that thousands of years of permanent darkness has degraded their sight to an extent, that is only one factor down, and a million others to go.Besides, just because the creatures cannot see, does not mean they cannot rip us to shreds if they so cared to do so."Fine," I relent at last, gritting my teeth. "But if anything goes wrong, this place is going up in flames, and that is a promise."Kal nods, relaxing a little. He runs his hand past his hair nervously, dusting off his red imperial jacket and bearing an obviously forced grin of confidence."Great.. And I will join you too, if it comes to that, though I sorely hope it won't."
