"Completely fucked." Edric said in a whisper, his lips thinning as he heard the little girl speak to
Davi. His gaze flickered for a moment as the old man set off down the corridor. He looked to
Henk, then to Dorian.
They should just kill the man and be done with it, but it was foolish. Lips thinned for a brief moment, and he wondered what the others had found.
"Stay behind me."
He told Davi, moving quickly to put himself between the old man and his fellow Initiate. Offering only one quick glance to the girl as they began to walk. He kept Henk and Dorian to his sides, fully intending to never break his step with them.
"It depends on the magic, my boy, and the subject."
The old man seemed more enthused talking about his work.
"Sometimes weeks, sometimes months. A few times there were even years...but well that one was special."
He smiled to himself, clearly more than pleased. Edric felt his stomach churn somewhat, questions reaching the back of his mind as the man continued to speak. The hallway here was well lit, those strange flickering lights illuminating a sterile white corridor. Up ahead he could see another door. This one undecorated.
Edric steeled himself, half reaching towards the blade on the small of his back.
"It goes faster when they're younger, easier...adults don't work...never once."
The old man shook his head.
"Took some time to fi-"
He stopped for a second as Henk asked his question, a frown flickering over his features. He rubbed at his beard for a moment and his hand resting on the door in front of him. There was no small amount of consideration to the question, as if he had to piece things together in his head.
"Fifty years, give or take, and over them...oh there's been so many. A thousand, maybe more!"
There was pride in his voice as he opened the door.
Beyond it was a room much larger than the one the Initiates had lead behind. It held the same sort of atmosphere, sterile, medical, but on one wall there were half a dozen other doors all labeled, and directly opposite them was another set of double doors. To their right was an open corridor from which Edric could see a flickering light.
In the midst of the room stood a man, tall, his shoulders square. There was an age to him, but he wore it far better than the old man who had been guiding Edric and his companion.
"I don't think very many people know what I do, I was first brought here b-"
"I think that's quite enough of a history lesson, Ydrill."
"Gilram!
The old man sounded cheerful, happy.
"The Initiates you sent to fetch the Children are here. Lovely of you to send help, I'm not as spry as you in my old age."
An amused smile flickered over the Archon's features. His eyes, oddly, looked kind. A light blue that could have matched Edric's own. He gazed at the Initiates arrayed behind the old man, staring at each of them in turn as if each of them were some sort of puzzle.
"Is that what I did?"
As the Archon's eyes landed on Edric, something ran along his spine.
Fear.
It wasn't any sort of magic, it wasn't a press on his mind or something evoked by force. It was the confidence which the man held in his gaze. The fact that he
knew something, everything. That very thought sent a chill racing through Edric's entire body.
In that moment, when Edric found himself staring back at the Archon. Noel, Sable, Kristen, and
Eleanor finally stepped out of the corridor. They would see Edric, and his companions standing in the doorway, a young girl clutching Davi's side. They would see an old man shuffling through the room, and in the midst of it all one of the most Powerful
Dreadlords in all of
Vel Anir.
