Fable - Ask In The Rubble[Dreadlords]

[Sable Pembroke]

While Kristen may have initially been confused by the unfamiliar situation the initiates were now confronted with, Noel was quick to set her straight. Then, both Noel and Davi stood in defiance of the archon before them, even as he demanded both Ella and the unfamiliar child that hid behind Davi. Then Edric lashed out. Such courage and tenacity...but the archon was an archon, after all.

There was hardly any time to react to what came next, but Sable already knew what he had to do.
"Get back!" Was all he managed, throwing his arms out and creating a topaz bubble around himself that would force Noel, Kristen, and Eleanor back into the corridor.

He glanced back at them, perhaps to make sure they were safe, perhaps to assure them he'd be fine...even if he didn't really know that himself. That was the last they'd see of Sable before Gilram's magic washed over Sable's barrier, just as it had to Dorian's before him.

...Now what? In the absence of options, it was the hero's duty to press forward. That's what he'd always read in his books. Perhaps that was a foolhardy notion now, but there was nothing else to do. Before long, Gilram's substantial power would surely overwhelm even Sable's shield. With a heavy breath, Sable focused on maintaining his magic, and stepped deeper in.

 

[Eleanor]

Eleanor was pulled from whatever thoughts had her stepping forward to follow the old man when Sable threw his arms out and his barrier burst into the space before them. She looked around the group that was behind the shield with her and blinked slowly. She was one of those kids. She knew something was happening on the other side of the barrier but she had not seen it or heard it. Eleanor looked around at the girls while Sable concentrated on his barrier and the group backed out into the corridor they had entered through.

"What the fuck happened?!" She finally asked and rubbed her forehead.

 

[Henk]

Henk had thought himself mad, speaking back to the Archon with such defiance. It was not his choice to make to defy Gilram and he was acutely aware of that fact. To hear other voices joining him, first Davi, then Noel, made him feel something inside of himself that he couldn't exactly put into words. Camaraderie? Affection? No matter the phrasing, he was proud to stand by the side that wouldn't tolerate such madness.

But there were those amongst them who did not speak. Edric remained silent but seemed to commit to the choice they've made as a group. Kristen looked... well, the poor Pirian was learning the hard way that not all of their elders were those to be respected.

It was Eleanor he was most concerned about though. Henk wasn't entirely sure he'd heard the old man correctly. The way the Archon had addressed her... it sounded as though he dare imply that the scarlet-haired initiate was one of these homonculi that were created here. Henk didn't wish to believe it, but Eleanor looked horrified at the mere notion... He didn't blame her.

It all went to hell in a matter of seconds. Edric charged forward towards the Archon in a flash, Gilram's voice seemed to shake the walls of the room, and then there was an explosion of pitch black, as if liquid night burst forth to cover every inch of the room. He heard shouts from all around him, the sound of barriers being cast. Henk was nowhere near any of the protections...

It was a split second reaction, the only hope he had of avoiding whatever the foul substance was. This would not be his end. He had fought too long, his friends had fought too long. The brimming light underneath his skin grew in an instant, his pores opened wide, flames jetting from his arms in a final attempt to repel the substance.

To no avail, he was not entirely engulfed. but what did meet Henk was enough to send him into the darkness, leaving him floating, astray....

"What...? Where...?"

 

[Davi]

"Run."

He'd sensed the slight shift of Edric's weight, had guessed - correctly it seemed - what the other initiate had planned on doing. The girl didn't even think twice which he was relieved about. She turned and fled and Davi was a second behind her even as the others were engulfed in quick flashes by the inky darkness of the Archon's magic. It only seemed to extend to the room itself for they were back in the original room when Davi turned to glance over his shoulder and realised the darkness had not spread any further. It also hadn't retracted any yet.

To go back and help or keep on running?

His jaw worked as he ground his teeth but his brooding was cut short by the sniffling of the young girl who had crawled back under the table she had been found on.

"Hey, it's okay," he said softly and crouched down. "We're ok aren't we?" she stared up at him with large doe-like eyes filled with tears but nodded. Davi stayed crouched there watching her for a second more then nodded to himself, decision made. First job was to get her somewhere she could hide. Then he'd figure out how to save the rest.

 

[Noel]

Gilram used his magic and Noel's face twisted as she saw the blackness spread over and consume her other classmates. A step backwards was all she took as she tried to evaluate what in the hell was going on.

Her rapid thoughts of proper tactics proved unnecessary as Sable charged into action and pushed her and the other two girls she was clumped with into a corridor outside of the expanding void's grasp. From her perspective all of them were now cut off from the others and charging into that great unknown seemed like a poor decision.

"It has to fade eventually, right?" she asked to the universe as much as she did to Kristen and Ella.

A sympathetic look was cast towards Ella. You'd have to be as dull as Kristen to not pick up on the insinuation father time and the archon had made about Eleanor's origin. Noel wasn't entirely sure how to process any of what was happening but at least she didn't have to wrestle with whatever Eleanor was dealing with. "We should wait, for now."

It wasn't brave but it was likely the most prudent strategy. The blackness would fade eventually or they'd uncover a weakness in the Archon's magic.

 

[Edric]

Edric floated within the dark Abyss, his head swiveling slowly, catching sight of the other who had been wrapped within the darkness. He saw Henk floating there, his eyes wild and wide.

Yet he was the only one.

Had the others made it? Were they dead already? There was no telling, not from within the abyss. His lips thinned, and he tried to speak again. Tried to call out, but found that his voice was utterly silenced and gone.

"Hrm. It seems some of you are faster than others, or smarter."

Gilram's voice rang out like a thunder shock, his expression more amused then anything. Then suddenly he looked a bit confused.

"Oh. Perhaps not."

The Archon said with a smile.

Then Dorian and Sable would feel it. A crushing, overbearing weight. It crashed down onto their respective shields like a mountain falling. Pressure enough to crack Arethil itself. The abyss stabbing through their shields, grasping at them and tearing them into the darkness.

Where they too would float alongside Edric and Henk.

"I never much liked inflicting pain. The lessons never seem to get through."

His hand waved, and then suddenly the students within the Abyss found themselves dragged forward. Their bodies not their own as the Achon pulled them directly in front of himself. His will the only thing that mattered within this world.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

The rapture didn't last long, for Sable's interjection extricated her from the dark and inky Abyss which had plunged the sterile room into midnight.

And Kristen was back in the hall from which they'd come. Back on mundane Arethil.

She blinked, her entire frame of being adjusting, this akin to crossing that perilous dividing line between dreams and wakefulness...only the line was blurred, and she'd yet to discern from which side she had come and to which side she had arrived. Such was the power of the Archon's magic.

Kristen held out a hand and braced herself against the wall, cradling her forehead with her other. Ella spoke, Noel spoke, the three of them all having been spared from being caught within the Abyss.

She looked back up, toward the curtain of black, wherein the fates of their comrades lay and stood currently unknown. Fear permeated her eyes. Fear, and something else.

Longing.

There remained a part of Kristen--deep and quiet and seductively persuasive--which yearned to return into the Abyss. To bask in the power therein.

Noel Eleanor Edric

 

[Sable Pembroke]

Damn it. Damn it all! Such power! In an instant Sable's barrier had collapsed, shattered like glass under the weight of the Archon's magic, darkness flooding in only to pull him through the abyss and directly in front of the enemy. To think that he thought he could protect others...Sable couldn't even protect himself!

"What is it...you want..?" Sable managed through the crushing weight of the all-consuming dark around them. He winced, but glared daggers at the man. Even made to submit, utterly crushed as he'd been so far, Sable would remain defiant.

All that could be done for now was to buy time for the others to do something - anything. It was all he could do now, much as that thought frustrated him.