by Cecile 1st March 2019, 8:49 am
Darkness came in many forms. Sometimes it was the night that covered the lands in a peaceful shroud of slumber. Or as a nightmare, lurking in the depths of the mind only to come out at when you are at your most vulnerable. And sometimes it was a power so strong that it manifested itself in a raw and unrelenting force of magic. Many have claimed such a power, and many more have been claimed by it.
'Tenebris... Darkness' spoke Cecile out loud. In front of her a large ominous entrance, with a carved text hanging above it. It was mostly vague, withered by age and the only word she could clearly read was just as ominous as the eerie opening in front of her. 'Well, It surely seems I am in the right place' said her inner thoughts, while staring down the pitch black entrance trying to see even slightest of form inside. Naturally, she couldn't see anything, the curtain of black was as good as impenetrable.
She couldn't help but sigh and think about her late father. He was good at this kind of stuff, he was a powerful mage proficient with dark magic. In fact, he used darkness as an actual element and could probably see as clear as day in this tomb. Cecile, not so much. Sure she inherited the same power, but she wasn't as nearly as skilled as he was. Plus the fact she only got the know him around three years ago, it didn't give much time for training. So now she could only rely on the many books, manuscripts, and scrolls he had left behind. All research on magic, locations of power and magical beings, with the majority focussed on lost and dark magic.
One of his papers had led her here, a lost tomb, forgotten by society rumored to house powerful dark magic. Or so she hoped because if she had, to be honest, she was at a loss. Most of the spells his father researched were too hard to comprehend, or she didn't have to power to wield them. Most ruins and tombs were too far away or were nothing but some vague scribble. With this one being the only exception! So she had no choice but to come here, hoping to find.... well something, anything really.
She decided to lit a small torch and held it in front of the dark entrance. It didn't do much except lighting the ground before her feet and cast a playful display of shadows on the suffocating walls. For a moment she doubted her decision, she didn't like this. The darkness ate away at the light and she couldn't help but to feel sick as she tried to peer further into the tomb. Something was seriously messed up with this place, she could feel it in her guts. She heaved another sigh 'Fortune favors the bold' she thought to herself right before she stepped through the opening and let the darkness swallow her whole.
Cecile didn't know how long she had been walking, it felt like forever. But in reality it could also only been a couple of hours. At one point she was sure she was walking in circles. If there ever was an intersection or a corner where she could make a turn, she was sure she missed it. The darkness made sure she would, in fact it felt as if it started to creep up at her even more. But then there was a solace, she reached a larger room, she saw that she passed through the contours of yet another opening and she could feel the change of air that she had walked into a new, and much larger area. She trailed the wall to her left, walking close by it and by letting her slide over it. That we should feel the room was round. At some point she reached an opening in the ground, a staircase that trailed in the same manner all the way down. Looking down Cecile got the same feeling she had from before, something was there, she knew it!
The steps were long and steep, god knows how deep she went. But when she finally reached the bottom she new she was far underneath the ground. It was cold down here. No sunlight would ever reach this forgotten realm. Slowly Cecile swung her torch around, trying to see were she was now. It was an entirely different hallway, it was narrow and small. Nothing like the grand room from before. But something was amiss, as she made her way through the darkness she saw an old contraption. Some sort of spear wall, but it wasn't pointed towards her. Instead it pointed at the only other direction, inwards. 'This isn't for keeping people out... but rather...' she didn't even finished her sentence, the very idea of something stowed away here frightened her. 'Heh, impossible anything here is long dead. No way something is still breathing!' How wrong she was.
At the end of the tunnel, she enter another room. Her light activated some sort of mechanism, as light all around the walls started to lit up and illuminate the entire room with a vague blue glow. But there was more, at the very end of the room. Chained to a wall with her arms spread, there was someone, a girl with velvet green hair!