Like popping a bubble, a crashing wave of tension suddenly burst forth from the man, sending Icarus sprawling across the floor and nearly snapping his neck in the process. Sable careened backwards through the air but gracefully managed to straighten her decent, landing on her feet and crouching as if poised to strike. The man wavered for a moment, his mouth moving silently, and stumbled back before flopping to the ground and cracking his head hard on the stone floor. The glow from his rings faded and finally his breathing slowed to a permanent stop.
A moment of silence passed in the dark, only a few torches remaining lit. Sable rose to her feet, closing on the old man and after glancing at Icarus quickly, turned her back to him before bringing her face down to the man's chest and holding him close, her gleaming hair cascading down over her.
A sick feeling washed over Icarus and he tasted bile in the back of his throat. He didn't need to see to know what was happening. Trying to stand, he wobbled to his feet for a minute before clumsily falling back to the ground, too weak for any more. Sable seemed to have noticed and walked over, dropping to a crouch beside him. Avoiding her gaze at first, he realized her face had returned to its mundane appearance, the red-purple of her eyes gleaming more red than before. The shadows around her eyes darker. Her porcelain skin slightly paler.
He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Any confidence he'd held a moment ago gone entirely. She simply eyed him curiously, then pulled back a long sleeve of her battle robes, brought her wrist up to her teeth and—
Icarus looked away, his stomach lurching.
She's insane. I'm insane. No. No.
He shifted away after her but she clamped down on his shoulder, bringing her arm around to his face. At the wrist, a thin trail of blood marked the points where her teeth—fangs—had bit down. It swelled, as if sensing his gaze.
"Drink," she whispered, her tone soft. A complete divergence from the—creature—he'd seen her become. He shook his head violently. Just who the hells did she think he was? Was this a test? "N-No."
She sighed. Turning his face to look at her with a finger, she locked his eyes to hers. "Drink. Please. Blood of my blood, remember? It will help." He broke away, uncertain of her meaning. Every time she spoke like this, he felt as if he was the last one in on a secret. Something he had no collection of. Could she be lying? Trying to manipulate him? But why? He had nothing to give, he was nothing.
He eyed her wrist, unable to bring himself to fully trust her. Watching him carefully, she noticed his reluctance. An apologetic look crossed her face—and she shoved her arm in his mouth.
Panic took him and he moved to pull his face away, but she held his head firm with her other hand, forcing him down on her wrist and blood smeared on both sides of his lips.
She was trying to kill him!
"Stop...being so...difficult. You're getting it in your nose, idiot!" Her calm tone shattered and something like a vivid memory seemed to quell in the edges of his consciousness. Icarus froze, the itch suddenly frivolous in the back of his mind as he played back her voice in his head. Only more nasally, higher pitched, younger. Recognition washed over him.
He spread his lips to drink.
To his amazement it was sweet, frighteningly so. The metal tang of blood was still prevalent, as it was when he happened to taste his own, but nothing like this. Hers was almost intoxicating, spreading warmth to every inch of his body like alcohol. He was unsure how much time passed, before she ripped him away like misbehaved pet. She shot him a look he couldn't place, rolling her sleeve up and offering him a hand.
He took it, waiting for an ache in his bones that never came. Instead, the warmth continued to blaze within him, reaching his knees to his toes, and back up his arms. He watched, stunned, and the cuts and scrapes along his flesh slowly knit themselves back together. The pain in his feet faded moments later, gone through a similar transformation. It was like when Shrew sliced his hand. This was incredible.
Snapping him back to attention, Sable lifted a fist up to him, turning it over to reveal a single silver trinket in her palm—a ring. "Here, take this and the javelin, now that you have your bearings." Icarus eyed it wearily, recognizing the green gemstone resting in the mouth of a snake. It was the same ring the old man had used when casting his defensive Magick.
Reaching for it, Icarus picked it like it could burst in flames at any second, unsure of how things of this nature worked. He had seen enough things this night alone to lose sleep the next millennia, but to give him such untamed phenomena directly?
Nausea threatened him.
Still, a part of him couldn't help but feel intrigued, and so very slowly, he slid the ring down the base of his middle finger. Nothing happened.
An earsplitting howl like thunder boomed from the floors above, reverberating in his very skull and bringing down clouds of dust over them in disarray. Sable wasted no time and pulled Icarus' arm, the javelin in his other, and led him away towards the large wooden door at the end of the hall, ignoring the sounds of commotion from surrounding rooms.
Together, they swerved out of the way just as a woman in an ashen grey robe bolted out of a neighboring door. She noticed them briefly, paled, and bolted for the door down the hall, slamming it quickly behind her. Before any words were spoken, a large chunk of rock tumbled down from the ceiling above. By the time Icarus noticed, however, Sable's arm was already up, covered in a thick tendril of shadow, and caught the stone before tossing it aside wordlessly.
He simply gawked in amazement, a mix of awe and fear churning in his gut.
"He's coming," Sable murmured, her furrowed gaze back on the staircase behind them. "I can sense his fury. He's picked up our scent."
She led him up to the large wooden door, her face a mask of calm, but the tremble was evident in her breaths. She paused with a hand on the knob, stiffening as she noticing something. A couple seconds passed and she swiveled back to Icarus, her mask of calm slipping as she met his eyes.
"There's five—no, six guards stationed inside this chamber," she bit her lip uncertainly. "This wouldn't normally be an issue, except they don't appear to be normal, their auras are...sturdy. Does this make any sense to you?" Her eyes searched into the blankness of his own. Scouring, desperate, all to no avail.
She cursed.
"Gods, what have they done to you Icarus? You were so different, so kind and cunning, and—" Her voice trailed off, the melodic clarity of it nowhere to be seen. Now left raw, raspy.
He wished he had an answer. He truly did. Watching her agonize over the fact he hadn't the faintest clue who she was in the slightest, it was heartbreaking for anyone to watch. The more time he spent with her, the sadder it made him. What if he wasn't the person she thought him to be? Surely, she would know by now, if it weren't really the case. All this time tortured at the hands of these strangers, it wasn't impossible to think he had a life before any of this. A life stolen from him.
He watched her, unblinking.
What was it she had said? Blood of my blood? As in family? Was she his family? The wild display of her abilities was enough to shoot that prospect down. But people could change, right? He was proof of that. So maybe she had changed since then too. Maybe she was his sister. His family. The thought of it brought a small flicker of warmth to his hollowed heart. He liked it.
He decided then, he would be her family.
Bringing himself back to reality, he rested a hand over hers, feeling it tremble beneath his own. It was soft, cool, yet small compared to his. She jumped in surprise, matching his gaze with a mix of sadness and curiosity.
"Icarus?"
"F-Family. We are family right?"
His voice was quiet, almost alien to him. But he needed to know. He needed to know if he could be who she wanted him to be. To matter to someone else.
Her breath caught in her throat, and her fingers locked through his, a sad longing in her expression. She looked afraid, tired even.
"O-Of course. Since we were little. It was you, me and Gavin. You two were my Anchor, as we were yours. Through the torture, the experiments, everything. They killed the others, one by one, but by the time they got to us—"
A mountain of stone tumbled down the stairwell behind them, crumbling the rock and splitting the earth. Loud scratching began to echo down the corridor as something large, something hulking was trying to dig its way down.
The Beast.
They were out of time.
Realizing it as well, Sable jerked them to the door, her hand back on the knob. "I'm sorry, I'll explain everything later. But first," reaching for his arm, she tightened his grasp on the silver javelin, readying him. "Listen, there is going to be a cluster of guards from here to the wayshrine. No matter what, do not let them stop you. You are to stay behind me so that I may open a path. When I give the word, you will simply rest your hand upon the shrine. Do nothing else, understood?"
Icarus reeled after a double take.
"Wayshrine?"
The turmoil of emotions must have been evident on his face as Sable sighed a bit too loudly, squeezing his arm reassuringly.
"I know this all probably sounds insane to you if you really have no recollection, but I need you to trust me. We only have one shot at this, and there's no guarantee we will be safe once we cross, so we must make sure we do so together."
"Cross? But where—?"
A tearing sound like twisting metal echoed behind them, and they both swiveled just in time to see a hulking arm the length of Icarus clamp down on the ceiling of their floor, its pitch black claws stained with blood.
Sable pulled him away.
"No time. Ready yourself."
With a firm grip on the knob, she closed her eyes. Icarus felt the temperature around them suddenly drop. A shudder ran through him and as he opened his mouth to speak, her eyes flew open—glowing and pulsing with an otherworldly light. She muttered to herself quickly, the words distorting in her lips before he could understand, and without wasting any more time, Sable wrenched the door open, beckoning him to follow.
What happened next became a blur.
They were met with a thick wall of fog, so pale and obscuring Icarus first thought it to be outdoors if not for the stone walls and ceiling above them. The sounds of panicked cries reverberated through the chamber, and immediately, a shrill woman's voice cried from its depths.
"The door, it's open! Stop them! The boy cannot leave, kill him if you must!"
The shouts of men and clanking of metal echoed the room and almost immediately, a maelstrom of flaming arrows and colorful beams shot through mist. Icarus flinched but Sable remained unblinking, muttering to herself just as a long thin sheet of ice quickly crystallized before them, catching the attacks.
Waving her arm, the sheet dropped to the floor, shattering quickly before dissolving back into the mist, much to Icarus' amazement.
Lunging into the fray, Sable kept her word and pushed a path forward, long razor sharp icicles hovering around her. Icarus trailed a few steps behind. He heard the clashes of battle, saw streaks of blinding red and blue lights, and trembled as the rampaging roar of the Beast thundered behind them.
Icarus stumbled through the chaos, desperate to reach the shrine she'd spoke of, but was unsure of what to look for.
The mist was slowly fading, and he soon saw bodies strewn on the floor. Limbs and the smoldering of fire littered the chamber, sending panic into every fiber of his being. It took all he had to keep himself from shriveling into a ball, the image of Sable's steeled, determined eyes driving him forward. His only light after an unending dark.
Despite being dead weight, she'd refused to leave him. She'd called him family. Her anchor. He couldn't let her down, and he refused to go back to the cell. He couldn't bear it.
"Keep moving!" she called, her voice barely audible over the din. "The shrine—it's just up ahead!"
He caught sight of a large battle axe swinging for her leg, but in one swift movement, Sable caught it between the lengths of her two long daggers of ice. Snapping himself back to reality, Icarus followed quickly, his steps faltering.
Then it came.
The ground trembled beneath them and a deep chill coursed up his back as all his senses roared in alarm, like a primal instinct screaming at him to suddenly flee. The air stopped in his lungs and Icarus stumbled, suddenly lost in the daze as a suffocating weight clamped down on him.
Sable disappeared within the fog, occupied amidst battle. Mind swimming, Icarus swiveled around, heart seizing in his chest.
The hulking, furred beast—the size of a small house, its eyes glowing like embers with fur coated in dried blood—lunged toward them from the doorway, smashing through the wall like sand and crumbling the stone around it like nothing. Its jaws were wide, its teeth glistening. Any semblance of hope left Icarus in an instant.
Tumbling back, his shoulder hit something hard and Icarus fumbled on his feet to stand back up, realizing where he was. He'd reached a large, smooth pedestal behind an archway. Dark markings covered its length and a tall, swirling flame of fluorescent blue rested atop a brazier, its light casting eerie shadows across the ceiling.
Is this the shrine?
It had to be, but then where was Sable?
Another roar bellowed, and he turned to see the beast—the abomination—leaping across the room with a terrifying speed. The earth trembled beneath its weight as it trampled against the earth—no, a person—crumpled on the floor drenched in crimson.
It was Sable.
A blood-curdling horror overcame Icarus and his mind went blank with shock, stunned.
The furred shape began to pommel her with one paw after another as she curled into a ball, the ground cracking and trembling beneath the force into a crater. Icarus tried his hardest to scream. To distract. To beg it to stop its assault on his savior.
Something in his chest began to crack.
"No!"
The word finally tore from his throat, coming raw and desperate. The beast finally turned, its gaze locking onto him. A gleaming red eye filled with malice and hunger met his gaze, piercing into his very soul, and he was too stunned to speak. They were crimson, but far from Shrews' similar red. These were wicked, grotesque, bathed sadistically in blood. Icarus trembled, and he could just barely keep himself upright.
It wasn't just the size of the creature that riddled him with fear; it was the sheer malice that emanated from its presence, a deep, primal hunger that gnawed on his very soul. The creature watched him closely. And with a cold, wicked chuckle, something too intelligent to ignore—
It grinned.
Fanged teeth soaked in horrific crimson.
Suddenly, the crumpled shape of Sable lifted both hands to the monster's chest, and an arcing ball of light began to dance between her fingers.
"Propulso!"
With the deafening boom of an explosion and a crackling of light, the animal careened across the air and smashed against the walls of the chamber in the blink of an eye.
Sable let out an audible gasp, her body trembling.
Her eyes met Icarus, filled with agony, yet brimming with resolve. A weary mix of relief and exhaustion were evident in her grimace. "G-Go. Take the wayshrine. Flee this place." Shaking his head, Icarus moved to step toward her but she lifted a bloodied palm.
"Go!" she screamed, her once hypnotic voice now breaking. "Please! I cannot run and you have no time. Flee, Icarus!"
A tremor raced up his back as a loud, heavy growling soon filled the room. The hulking shape began to rise from the floor with disheveled and furious eyes. The beast's fur bristled, its red eyes glowing with an unearthly fire, and with a roar that shook the very foundation of the chamber, it lunged toward Sable with terrifying speed. Intent clear in its path.
"No!" Icarus screamed, his voice breaking with desperation. But it was too late. The creature's massive paw swung down with the crushing force of a mountain.
In that split second, Icarus saw Sable's face contort with determination, with sadness, and her eyes locked onto his one last time. With a sudden, sharp gesture, she thrust her hand in his direction and whispered a single word.
A pulse of energy erupted from her fingers, and a barrier of shimmering light enveloped him, pushing him backward until he collided with the pedestal.
The shrine began to glow, its pearlescent flames intensifying as the pedestal beneath him started to tremble. Icarus reached out instinctively, his fingers brushing against the cold stone just as the beast's paw came crashing down onto Sable in a burst of red.
The world exploded in light and sound. The pedestal behind him shattered with a deafening crack, and Icarus was swallowed by a bright torrent of raw energy. The air was sucked from his lungs, and the ground disappeared beneath his feet.
For a brief moment, he felt as if he were being torn apart and shredded into fragments, his very being pulled in a hundred different directions.
Something was horribly wrong.
Despite everything, he tried to scream for Sable, to cry out for his stupid mistake, to curse at the hulking monster, but his lungs would not obey.
Then came the void, and his vision was no more.
...