Fate - First Reply Captured

[Henk]

Henk landed deftly beside Edric, rolling as he landed to lessen the impact, allowing him to spring forward into a run. It was possible that Henk's decision not to outright kill the wall guards may come back to haunt the pair of them, but if it came to that then the Initiate would take the responsibility and finish the job himself. For now, both of them needed to hurry into the Keep before they were spotted by anybody else.

He took Edric's lead now into the halls of the castle. It seemed unsettlingly easy to Henk, how they encountered no further resistance down the first few dimly lit corridors they ran through. It was possible the soldiers were all out dealing with the mess Henk had made at the camp, or that they'd gone out to investigate the disturbance he'd made on their way in, but that sounded far too convenient.

When they reached a corner, Henk stopped Edric, pressing himself against the cold stone wall. "I hear voices, you?" It was barely audible, but Henk knew he wasn't mistaken. "This could be one hell of a trap, but I guess we're too far into it to pull out now."

Edric was up. He'd have a better idea of what they might be up against here. "How do you wanna do this?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

The voices flickered down the hall, just loud enough to be heard.

He strained for a moment, doing his best to try and make out what they were saying. A frown flickered over his features, head shaking as he decided they were still too far. "Hold on."

Edric said quietly, eyes falling close.

A moment fluttered by, then another few seconds, then another. He tried to reach out with his magic, sense those flickers of life. Fingers tightened for a moment into fists, and then he could 'see' them, the pinpricks of life.

Their voices were no louder, but he could see them standing, talking. There was only two of them, no more, and yet...something else lingered within the beyond there. Not life...no, but something else. His eyes slowly fell open.

"Two guards." He told Henk. "We go in fast, take them both down."

Whether it was killing them or knocking them out. "But...be careful, there's something else in there."

Though he had no idea what.

 

[Henk]

Something else...

Well, that was ominous. If Edric said it was so, though, Henk believed him. It was rather difficult to commit to any kind of plan when they couldn't tell exactly what they were up against, but they were trained for the unknown. If they had to go in blazing, they may as well get it over with...

"Fine, let's go..."

He slid past Edric, carefully making his way down to where the room opened up, peeking his head out from around the corner. The light was so dim in this damned keep it was a wonder their own men weren't stumbling about and running into each other. Still, he could see two of the guards, lightly armored with their guards down. Shouldn't be an issue to take them out, but then there was that variable they still weren't sure about.

Hell with it, no time to hesitate; Henk sprang out from the shadows and tackled one guard to the ground from behind, quickly raising his hand and delivering a blow to the back of the guard's exposed neck, with enough force to permanently put him out of action; he stopped struggling before he'd even had a chance to scream.

"Got him. Edric, is our other friend dealt with?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric moved swiftly behind Henk.

His steps surprisingly quiet for how large he actually was. He slipped into the room behind Henk, ripping upward towards the other Guard. The other man's eyes bulged open as he burst into the room, his mouth opening to say something.

Before a single word could leave his lips Edric's fist pressed against his throat.

A choking sound echoed out from the man, and then the Initiate grasped him. An arm whirled around his throat, pressing and dragging him to the floor. The man struggled, tried to push back, and found himself quickly without breath.

The body fell to the floor with a soft thud as Edric let him go.

"He's do-" Before Edric could speak the other thing he had sensed stirred. It did not come from a door, no.

It rose from the shadows. Stepping out of the corner of the room. It looked human enough, save for it's almost translucent pale skin, white hair, crimson eyes, and long canines which rose beyond it's lips. The thing stared at the two Initiates.

"Who might you be?"​

It hissed at them.

 

[Henk]

Something always went wrong.

It wasn't a minute after Henk finally began to feel as though they may have this whole situation under control, that they could be in and out with no issue, that a voice rang through his ears that was decidedly not the voice of an Orc or a guard.

Henk rose slowly from the man he'd taken down, hands at his sides and fingers spread to sling light from his hands at a moments notice. Edric had warned that something else lingered in the room, but Henk had let his guard down when he hadn't seen it right away. Now, looking at the thing, it didn't surprise him they'd missed it. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" The question wasn't spoken, conveyed through a surprised look at Edric.

Henk had studied enough about the dangers of Alliria at the Academy to have some inkling as to what the being was. The pallor skin, red eyes, The teeth, especially the teeth. If Henk had to guess, they'd just stumbled across a Vampire's lair.

It all made sense now; the unusually dark hallways, the constant supply of fresh meat into the castle, and the inactivity during the night hours. Henk took a few steps back, the creature's irritated question more of a demand than anything else.

It didn't seem aggressive yet, but if it did... Henk looked towards Edric. Would his powers even work against a vampire, if that's indeed what they had come to face?

"We are Dreadlords. Here to retrieve our captured comrades." Henk chose to admit. Lying would get them nowhere, and there was a chance this creature wouldn't want to risk a fight if he could avoid it...

Henk

 

[Edric]

Edric had absolutely no fucking idea what this thing was. At least not off the bat. He was no perfect student, and he'd most certainly not spent more time in the library then he'd needed to. Yet an inkling of what this thing was reached even him as they stood there.

The question of whether or not Edric's powers would work on the creature before them was quickly answered; no.

He could gather no sense of life from the thing standing before them. No vitality to drain away, no soul to rip away from it. A flicker of confusion rushed through the young Initiate. He could steal the life of zombies, ghouls, even a lich that he and Noel had encountered upon their trials.

This thing though?

It seemed almost dead to his senses, as though it simply did not exist at all.

Discomfort flickered through him, fingers tightening almost involuntarily. He glanced over to Henk, his voice bold as he called to the creature standing before them. It was a bold play, the truth, but Edric had to admire it. Even if the monster did not.

A loud cackle reached from it's throat.

"Is that so?"​

It hissed, voice echoing through the room. As it spoke the bare candlelight seemed to grow a bit more dim. The oxygen within the room thinning. A pressure building within the mind, like someone was pushing down against them.

"No...No I think not. I think I’ll simply be feasting up-"​

"Henk, fry him." Edric cut in, hoping that the touch of his companion's light would do the trick.

 

[Henk]

Henk wasn't exactly expecting his play to work, but the aggressive reaction from the creature he was now certain was of Vampiric nature was the worst-case scenario. Edric couldn't do anything to this one, and he'd no idea if his light would do much harm either. As the ghoulish figure lurched forward with a sinister hiss, Henk rose his hands, already glowing with a dim light that seemed to jump between his fingers.

A morbid thought ran through his mind: If this Vampire is what the castle held, it wasn't out of the question that the reason the captured people were being brought here was to act as food. If that was the case... it didn't look good for the Initiates they'd come to rescue.

Edric wasn't about to let them be struck first. The room seemed to fall under the pressure of darkness itself, and Henk felt the hairs on his body stand on end. Any second now...

"Henk, fry him."

A blinding flash of white filled the room, every bit of light Henk was storing discharging at once. The flood of brightness only lasted a moment before it was focused into the beams coming out of his hands, one aimed at the ghoul's head, and one at his chest.

The sinister figure reeled back with a screech from the light, hot enough to burn flesh. He did not yield though, remaining on his feet. The damned thing was healing faster than he could burn through it! With a frustrated growl Henk drew back the light until it glowed brightly only within his hands again.

"Vampire. Light hurts him, but his healing factor is so insane in all this darkness, it's like trying to burn a hole through you in a crowded room. We have to take it out in one blow."

Another look to Edric. Henk hoped that his comrade knew what to do. He had faith in Edric's ability to kill, even without his powers.

Henk would just need to keep him busy until Edric could find something to do the trick.

With all the suicidal bravado of any man who saw fit to rush into hand-to-hand combat with a Vampire, Henk flung himself forward, bringing his hand around and throwing a burst of light into his foe's eyes to blind him long enough to land a punch to the monster's gut. The counter-attack was predictable, an aggressive swipe that Henk ducked under before throwing another handful of light followed by a hook to the jaw. It ras rather fitting; this hand to hand technique was the brainchild of his spars with Edric. He'd used the same pattern on the other Initiate the last time they'd fought.

Dodge, Light, Punch. Dodge, Light, Kick. Repeat. It wasn't fancy, but their foe was focused solely on Henk, baring his fangs and jumping in for a bight.

Edric

 

[Edric]

How in the fuck did you kill something that could heal itself faster than you could do damage to it?

It was a question that likely many had asked themselves when fighting Edric. The irony was entirely lost on him of course, Henk launching himself forward into the Vampire. Fists flew, claws flickered through the air, and Edric stood like a useless lump.

His magic couldn't touch the damned thing.

His sword was probably useless, and...

Fingers flickered over towards the fire within the corner of the room. His lips thinning as he suddenly darted to the left. A foot kicked out, smashing against the heavy metal grate and freeing the flame. A rash of embers burst outward.

Edric took half a step back, and then quickly moved around the room. His figure was a blur as he rushed to the other side of his companion and their foe. "Henk!"

The word was short terse, a flickering warning.

Edric raced up behind his fellow Initiate. The weight of his body slamming into the Vampire as he pushed it to the side and forced it backward.

"Get it into the fire!" He hissed, beseeching his companions help.

 

[Henk]

Henk could hear Edric's footsteps as he set about coming up with a plan to take this thing down. The sooner the better; Henk was holding his own against the Vampire, but the clever abomination was getting wise to his patterns. Henk had to mix up his blows, and change when he flashed the light at him. Even then the dark figure's claws found his flesh more than once, searing pain shooting through his body.

The claws hurt like hell. but they weren't his primary concern; the fangs that kept lunging for his neck were getting harder and harder to dodge, and Henk had a bad feeling that one bite was something he wouldn't come back from. He'd read stories about what the bite of vampirism could do to you, and it wasn't something he had any desire to experience.

Angry hisses, and seething snarls rained down on him as he placed both hands together and aimed a burst at his foe's face, causing him to stumble back.

"Henk!"

The voice of his comrade pierced his focus, and Henk saw the roar of the flames behind the figure staggering back from him. Quickly Henk took a step back, just in time for Edric to slam into the Vampire with all his weight, send him even closer to the flame.

It was the opening Henk needed. "I'll do you one better."

Outstretching his arms, Henk let go of any light he had left. He wasn't aiming at his opponent, however, but to the fire behind him, causing it to surge forth as though an explosive had been planted inside, the infernal tendrils of the blaze reaching out to ensnare the bloodsucker, sending him to the ground with a horrific shriek as his skin melted from the bone, the floor around him igniting with him.

Edric

 

[Edric]

Fire touched his flesh.

Melted away his skin, muscle. It lapped over his bone, grasping and tearing away at whatever life they could find. Henk's magic reached and hurtled over the two wrestling figures. Lapping at the vampire and scalding over his fellow Initiate.

Only one of them screamed though.

Edric's jaws snapped shut.

His lips sealed shut as fire washed over the two of them. Burning away at what it could touch, scorching flesh and bone all the same. The Vampire screeched, it's voice echoing and breaking through the castle in under panic as life was burned away from it's very soul.

The screeching cry of pain reached through the castle, bouncing from wall to wall.

The sound was painstaking, Aching. Yet Edric held the creature in place. His arm wrestled around it's throat. His hand pinning it's face even as it melted away to the skull. He felt his flesh peel away, his muscle scalded and burned.

All of it melting away until the Vampire turned to nothing less than ash.

It was only then that he turned back towards Henk. That Edric shifted as little more than a standing corpse. His face a skeletal mask of human remains. "Well done."

The corpse complement, even as flesh began to grow across it's features.

 

[Henk]

He'd used too much.

The fire had only been meant to ensnare the Vampire, but Edric had to keep close in order to stop the creature from fleeing, and Henk was no pyromancer-- While the ability to create flames through the heat of his light was possible, he lacked the talent to control them in the way that someone like Zael would be able to.

Henk could do nothing but watch as Edric burned alongside their foe, the scarfaced Initiate's expression twisting at the macabre scene. The pain must have been unimaginable, and the terrified screams of death threatened to shake the keep down to it's very foundation.

Even so. Edric refused to give the bloodsucker any quarter whatsoever, allowing himself to be bathed in the searing tongues of flame until there was nothing left of their foe but ash.

They'd won, but Henk loathed the lengths he'd had to take to do it. Edric would be fine; it wasn't the first time he'd seen the man burned alive, but that didn't make it any easier to look upon what he'd done. He averted his gaze from the congratulations in turn.

"He certainly won't be a problem anymore. Sorry about your... everything." A pause, then he continued, moving to look for any other exits to the room. "I'd be willing to bet the captives were food for that one, that being the case they'd be held nearby. We can complete our mission and get the hell out of here."

That was assuming any captives were alive.

"Quick thinking with the fireplace, by the way. I was starting to get really exhausted. Saved my hide."

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric's flesh slowly began to drawn back over his bare skull. Muscle filling out skin, eyes setting into bare sockets. Within mere flickering heartbeats Edric's face began to fall into place once more, hair regrowing as though it had never gone.

His jaw moved back and forth, as though he were trying to soothe an ache within newly formed tendons. "Think nothing of it. We both played our parts."

In truth. Edric wasn't entirely sure he could have killed the thing on his own. It was the first time he had ever encountered a Vampire, and it's lack of...vitality had come as a disturbing surprise. There had been nothing to steal, nothing to take.

Nothing to survive off of.

A protracted fight would have seen him lose, he was sure of it.

"Let's go find the others, yeah?" Edric remarked, offering one weary look back towards the fireplace. Half of him almost expecting the creature to crawl back out from the flames.

The frown lingered on his face, and then he began to move towards the door.

 

[Henk]

Edric was right, of course. He'd known exactly what he was doing when he took their enemy down into the flames. Henk didn't have time to be sorry, not while they were still in the belly of hostile territory. Henk nods, shaking the doubts from his mind. "You think there's anything left to find? If that think was skulking around in here, I don't love their chances..."

To say their own battle with the Vampire was a close shave would have been generous. Edric was one of, if not the most powerful Initiate of them all in terms of raw power, and he wouldn't have been able to scratch the cursed thing alone. These initiates they were here to save were of a younger class...

Henk watched as Edric moved towards the door in the back of the room, before he turned towards the fireplace, dragging his boot along the ground and kicking whatever ashes remain strewed about into the hungry blaze. Better safe than sorry, right? Henk wasn't an expert either, by any means. Satisfied he'd cleaned up all that he could, he caught up to Edric at the next door.

"You feel any signs of them? If they're initiates, you'd figure they'd have a stronger presence than the guards. I assume, at least. You're the expert on that." Henk spun his hands around, weaving another ball of light for them to use as a lantern, in case more darkness was waiting to bathe them beyond the next passage.

Edric

 

[Edric]

Ironically, it had been Henk who had ‘taught’ Edric how to find flickers of life with his magic.

It had been unintentional of course, but during one of their bouts the other Initiate had managed to blind Edric. He’d needed to use his magic in a new way then, and since that day he had only taught himself more of the ability.

A handy thing now. ”Hold on.”

Edric said quietly, closing his eyes as he attempted to concentrate.

A slow breath drew into his lungs, he tried to map out the castle in his mind…and then slowly began to extend his magics. Small flickering blips of life appeared all around him within his mind. The Guards patrolling the walls, visitors sleeping in their beds, and then finally a mass of them deep within the castle.

”Dungeon.” Edric said with a scoff. ”Should have probably guessed that one.”

He said with a shake of his head. ”Dozens or so guards between us and there, though.”

Not that they would present much of an issue. Though, what Edric left unsaid was the fact that if there were any more of those things lurking in this castle…he’d had no way to find them.

 

[Henk]

Edric could feel them? That was... pleasantly surprising. "If you can still sense them, not only are they alive, they haven't been turned into... more of them." Henk wasn't an expert on the nature of Vampirism, but he'd heard stories of people being turned. The worst case in Henk's opinion would have been finding the trainees only to find a gaggle of bloodsuckers in their place.

Guards wouldn't be any issue, of course. The two of them were more than strong enough to discourage any curious souls wandering in their path. He could feel the concern under Edric's voice though, his partner didn't want to say it, but he worried about the prospects of another round with a Vampire. Henk didn't blame him, of course.

"Dozens?" Henk smiled, raising an eyebrow at his appraisal of their opposition. "It's almost even then, isn't it?" He laughed. "I've done enough streaking for one mission. I'll let you take charge on this one, Edric." By saying that, Henk knew he was likely condemning many of these guards to death, but by harboring Vampires with the intent to feed them with Anirians, the Initiate felt perhaps they'd earned Edric's wrath.

Opening the large door ahead of them into another dark hallway, (Though not nearly as dark as the Vampire's chambers had been kept, which bode well.) Henk stepped forward, holding the light out in front of him. "How far then? Are we rushing this or taking it slow?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

Their progress was slow, measured.

A part of Edric wasn't even sure if they could do this. The greater whole of him carried a measure of paranoia. He expected those creatures, things to jump out. Every shadow, every flickering flame carried the creature that he and Henk had killed.

Edric knew it was a hidden terror. Knew there was something unreasonable about the thought.

Those things, whatever they had been. Could not have been numerous enough.

They were a mark of something else. A sliver of being that no Dreadlord could have predicted. Something that even the best Initiates could not predict. "Slow."

Edric answered finally.

"We're being..." He trailed off as he felt a pulse through the Aeth. A signal that seemed to ring through the castle. "Cautious."

Edric said with a frown. "There's someone down below. They feel us...me.[/color[

Though he had no idea who it was.

 

[Henk]

Henk had already begun moving forward, eager to complete the task set before them and return home where they didn't have to worry about bloodsucking monsters. It was when he didn't hear Edric following that he became worried, turning back just as he finally responded to his question with a wary "Slow."

There were few things one didn't see as a Dreadlord. Henk had thought that aside from a selection of particularly horrifying beasts, he'd seen much that the world had to offer. As Edric slowly looked around, speaking almost as though he were in a trance, as if speaking too loud would bring more of them to the pair, Henk realized he'd never seen this.

He'd never seen Edric act outwardly frightened.

That made this whole thing feel a lot more dangerous if he was being honest. Their strongest man, in terms of brute force at least, was double-checking every corner. Henk stopped, before taking a couple of steps back towards Edric. He knew better than to try comforting him, but at the same time, having backup went a long way.

"Cautious it is then, but..." Henk waved the ball of light out in front of them, the hallway empty for now. Any guards stumbling into their path wouldn't have much of a chance, not unless it was the whole gaggle of them at once. "Worrying about those things isn't going to change the chances of running into them, Edric. I understand your apprehension, but the faster we get out of here, the better our odds of not staring down another pair of fangs."

Henk nodded him to follow, "Get it together man. They cant' stop us as long as we watch each other's backs." With that final affirmation, he began to set off proper down the first long hallway. If Edric wanted to go slow, this would be a bit of a trip.

The sounds of pained yells and loud voices did indeed grow louder the farther they went, especially when they descended a small staircase taking them to a sublevel. They ran into a few guards here and there, but they seemed to be in pairs, and the two Initiates made short work of them. Though audible, the sounds were still muffled, buried beneath stone and dirt. They would need to go lower.

"You said somebody 'feels' you earlier. What do you mean?" It had been nagging at Henk, that ominous observation he'd made. "If you can sense them, it can't be another vampire then. Magical being, maybe?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

A stiffenes ran through him as Henk quietly pointed out his failings.

Edric knew that it wasn't on purpose. Knew that he wasn't attacking or trying to provoke a fight. The other Initiate knew him enough not to try something like that. Yet the words were enough to pull up his hackles. Lips thinning, fingers curling into fists.

He wanted to offer a biting retort. Something that would insult the other Initiate and cut the conversation before it even began.

Before he could offer that though he remembered what Henk had done this mission. The utility that he had offered. Lips thinned. His grip tightening to knuckles growing white. "It might be."

He admitted hesitantly.

"They don't strike me as creatures of cooperation." Edric said as they continued down the stairs. "That thing wanted power."

Edric reminded Henk. "It'd be a miracle if it wanted to share."

As they continued down into the dungeons Edric began to hear sounds of moaning, pain. The echoed of captures students reaching the two Initiates.

 

[Henk]

If Henk had been acting as Edric had just a moment ago, Ed would have done the exact same thing to straighten him out. Obviously, it was slightly out of character for Henk to be so brazen with his words, but he knew that Edric could handle a little slap on the wrist; He was far thicker-skinned than that.

Edric glared at him for a moment, before reluctantly agreeing. The two of them continued down yet another staircase as this place began to sound more and more like Hell with stone walls. Some of the sounds were simply... grotesque. Even Henk had to twist his face in disgust at some of the wails and screams floating up.

They were alive though, at least some of them. The two of them would have to act fast if they wanted to keep it that way, though.

"You're right. I doubt there's reason to be anymore, especially given their solitary nature. Our focus should be on freeing the captives and getting back to the city as soon as possible."

Henk was notoriously against unnecessary violence, but as they neared closer to the clustered group of life at the deepest part of the keep, he felt his teeth gritting with every mournful groan. These people would find no mercy for him for what they'd done. It was reprehensible, and he would not tolerate it.

Soon enough the two of them could hear everything as clear as day, the voices of Guards, the pleas of prisoners, and the shouts that followed. The hall was almost as dark as it had been shortly before their first Vampire encounter, but this was not supernatural darkness. No, there were simply no torches, as if they hoped to create the most oppressive atmosphere possible, they'd been removed from the holders on the walls.

Luckily, they had a light.

Henk tried to keep it somewhat dim, so as not to give them away; weaving a ball more akin to candlelight than torchlight. It would have to do, and he held it in front of them, slowing his pace as he looked towards Edric. "I'm the light, you're the compass. Where are we headed? They should be very close now..."

Edric

 

[Edric]

For a brief moment Edric didn't answer. His head swiveled left, and then slowly right. He seemed to consider the halls around them, and then finally he pointed his fingers downward. "Directly below us."

He said calmly.

Edric was sure they could find a way below. That they could move through the twisting tunnels of this palace and find those they needed, but the time it would waste would certainly bring more guards upon them. So he motioned for Henk to step back.

Power flowed into him.

Then without a word of warning he struck the cobbles beneath their feet. The stone crunched, thundered, echoed. Dust filled the air, and then Edric struck again, and again, and then again. Blood spilled from his knuckles, but he paid the pain no mind.

He struck with the strength of a bull, and cracks began to form. By the tenth strike the cobbles began to tumble, falling in upon themselves and giving way. A hole formed within the ground. Presenting the dark abyss of a dungeon. "Light first."

Edric gestured with a mangled hand.

 

[Henk]

Below? Henk was certain this was the lowest level of this wretched place, based sheerly on the number of staircases they'd just spent all that time descending. How deep did it go? Looking down, he felt his lips twist into a frown. "Why so deep? It seems like far too much of an inconvenience..." Certainly, there was no reason they would need to keep Initiates buried underground just to torture them. Something else was afoot, and Henk wasn't sure he wanted to know what that was.

Edric knew as well as Henk that they couldn't waste any more time looking for stairs and hoping they would take them far down enough to hit their mark. This called for a shortcut, and Edric was the man for the job. Stepping back, Henk smirked and spread his arms as though he was giving him the floor. Of course, he was, rather literally.

His partner began to smash his fists against the floor with the strength of a horse's hind legs, chips of stone, and clumps of dirt flying violently into the air with every swing of his fury against the ground. Henk had been on the receiving end of that type of punch before. He was extremely lucky it hadn't scarred the other side of his face, too.

While Edric did his part, Henk had already begun channeling what stored light he had left through to his hands, spinning his palms in the air to shape the light into a bright, glowing orb. One he'd finished one, he let it float to the side and began another, repeating until there were three orbs lighting up the hall they were in as though it were daylight.

Sure enough, those hellish sounds were as clear as day once Ed opened up the floor, though they soon stopped once they realized something was boring through the roof to get to them.

Sending his orbs down through the hole first to light the room below, Henk jumped.

Edric

 

[Edric]

Almost as soon as Henk landed the light cast all around him.

Surrounding the young Initiate were dozens upon dozens of faces. Some of them were gaunt, thin, others more fattened though beaten and bruised. They looked at him with a mixture of hesitation, fear, and some even excitement.

Some of them wore uniforms, others nothing but rags. They looked to Henk, shielding themselves from the light as slightly more than half a dozen figures were revealed all around Henk.

"Who?"

"Who are you?"​

It was two voices that asked the question. Not in tandem, but almost scrambling over one another as they called out for rescue. Edric heard it, frowning slightly as he looked down into the hole he had smashed into the floor.

"Henk?"​

The voice that asked was quiet, meek, but familiar.

It came from a small girl in the corner of the room. A fellow Dreadlord Initiate two years behind Edric and Henk. Her name was Minnie, or at least that was what everyone called her. She had been one of the first to disappear.

 

[Henk]

When his boots hit the ground, Henk had been half-expecting a fight. So when there were no blades or bows drawn to meet his arrival, it somehow made him even more nervous than before. Henk held out the light to illuminate the faces of the missing Initiates, beaten, bruised, and frightened as they gravitated towards the first thing they must have seen in weeks that didn't aim to hurt them.

The small squeak of his name from the crowd caught his attention, and his gaze found the demure Initiate staring up at him, one he'd met while doing sparring sessions with a younger class a few months ago. "Minnie?" She was still alive? That seemed to confirm that they weren't killing any of their captives. Henk stepped forwad and dropped to a knee in front of Minnie, who took a wary step back.

"Are you alright? What have they been doing to you all?"

As he asked the question, he took a quick sweeping look around the room. It looked to be a large holding chamber, with stone walls, no torches to light the room, piles of rags and cloth on the floor, assumedly to sleep on, and two massive metal doors that appeared to be chained shut.

It wouldn't hold a Dreadlord of Henk or Edric's caliber, but to scared children who hadn't yet mastered their powers, he could imagine this place being quite hellish.

Henk waved Edric down. He was going to need his help to get that door open and get them all out of here.

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric frowned for a brief moment, and then grabbed the edge of the cobbled stone he had wrenched away. With a quick slip of his bulky form the Initiate dropped down into the cell below, landing with a quiet thud just besides Henk.

A flicker of light rushed over his eyes.

Magic from his reserve ran through him, and the darkness of the cell illuminate just enough for him to see a few of the faces surrounding them. Minnie was the only one that he recognized. She was an initiate a year or two behind them, a strong one.

He couldn't remember what her magic was, but knew it was powerful.

"They've been taking our blood. Holding us here, just coming with...with these chains that take away our magic."​

She shifted slightly, and then lifted her arms. Metal clinked against metal, and then ancient runemarked steel showed itself as she let the two initiates observe. Edric frowned slightly, glancing over towards Henk. Silently wondering if he'd seen something like this before.

"I'll get the door." He told his companion. "Get them ready to go."

 

[Henk]

The frown resting on Henk's face deepened at Minnie's words. It was as he'd suspected; they'd been using the Initiates to feed the Vampire. While one question was answered, though, several more arrived. They'd only seen one Vampire... there were at least half a dozen Initiates here.

Henk shakes his head, moving closer to inspect the chains holding Minnie in place. "How much do they take? How often?" His questions were quick and insistent, but his voice was soft, warm as he kept one eye trained on the poor girl. Not for long though; as soon as his hands neared the metal wrapped around her arms, he felt a tugging sensation, something intangible seeping from his skin in response to the presence of the runes marked on each link

He drew back, taking a quick glance at his hands. Turning back to Edric, he gave a small shake of his head. "Powerful runes. If Alistair or Ralene were here they wouldn't likely be an issue, but as it stands nobody with significant magical energy can release the chains without getting seriously hurt." Made sense enough; the people here had to make sure they could still work with the chains, and few of them if any would have much in the way of magic.

It did give him an idea though.

Once Edric had the door loose, Henk called back to him, having gone around and calmed the captives and taken stock of injuries. Nothing serious on anybody, remarkably, but they definitely were all in need of more water and food than they were being given.

"Edric. I have a plan to get these chains out of the way. I want you to drain me, just enough so that I don't have much 'oomf' left in me, so to speak. Once I'm weakened, I should be able to free them and we can get the hell out of here."

Edric