Fable - Ask The Tides of Fate

[Kol]

He looked at her for a moment. Kol could not even remember the last time that he had tasted ale, much less been inside of a tavern.

Such things were not common in the lands of his home. Most preferred to do their drinking by the hearth, a great fire in the center of the building. There were no taverns, just festival and feasts dedicated to the Dark Gods.

How strange that their culture had strayed so far. "It would certainly be an experience."

The Sorcerer mused for a moment, glancing at Ruvsa for a moment. It seemed that some of his assumptions about her had been correct, and others not. He was not entirely sure how he felt about that.

Kol knew he did not want to kill Ruvsa, not if he could avoid it.

It was just a question of if he could.

"Aye lass, I heard ye. I'm trying to remember my way through this damned place."

Kol looked down at the dwarf for a moment, studying the expression of consternation on his face. It was clear that he did not like going in this direction, that he would have much preferred leaving and seeing this place as rubble.

"This place has magic in the walls. Not to stop a sense of smell, but...all sense. Sight, sound, even taste. Anything that might help you escape."

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá continued to watch Kol as they walked. She had been honest when she said she'd assume he wasn't out to hurt her, but she was also equally honest when she said she didn't trust him. But he... intrigued her. He had a sense of purpose about him, something that drove him, and she found she envied it. Once, when she was young, becoming a Shield Maiden had been that purpose. But now that she was there... she wasn't sure how long any sense of that purpose would last.

It had started to falter when Jorn Aggar brought her into his household, and then subsequently cut her out of any actual say in the household and town affairs. Especially the ones she was suited to. Like helping with the protection of the town. It had stung, the day she realized that he had brought her into his harem for her looks. She'd never met another Nordenfiir with skin as dark as hers, and while she couldn't blame many for their fascination, it had been frustrating.

Ruvsá scowled lightly at the dwarf's tone, but otherwise didn't react to it. "If it stops all senses, then how can we see and hear now?" she wondered aloud. "And how would taste help one to escape a place like this?"

"I wonder if that is why it seemed like we were only in one long passageway for the most part, before we hit the main prison," she said softly to Kol. "What if there were dozens of side passages that led out that we never even saw?"

 

[Kol]

"That's part of the trick lass. This place is meant to break you, have you walk and wander until you're trapped without ever setting foot in a cell."​

Kol frowned for a moment, wondering why that was the Dark Gods had seemed to amused by this place. The prison was a madhouse, something that seemed pulled from the Great Schemers mind. It was no coincidence that he found himself here.

Lips thinned for a moment, and he glanced over towards the walls. "If what he says is true, then perhaps we already walked by a way out hours ago."

The thought unsettled him.

"When you know the way, you know it. When you don't. You try every way you can to find a path, even tasting the walls."

Kol shook his head slightly in disbelief, wondering briefly if anyone had ever escaped this place. He doubted the dwarf would know, given that he himself had been a prisoner here.

Eventually they turned a corner, then another, then another. Like through a winding maze they walked until they reached another great hall. This one however had no altar, and unlike last time there were torches burning with a pale blue fire.

It was barely enough to illuminate the other side of the Hall; a massive stone gate decorated with a mosaic.

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá shivered. Not from any actual chill she felt, but at the realization they'd been trapped in some ancient magical mind game the whole time. She'd been trained and conditioned to resist torture tactics, but they were useless in a situation where one didn't even realize they were being tortured.

"We must have," Ruvsá replied to Kol. "I wonder if anything we've seen or felt has been reliable since we stepped inside this place... or at least since we made it past the giant."

It was likely futile, but as they walked, Ruvsá tried to memorize the pattern of the path they took. Even if the magic of the place tried to keep you from sensing the different ways, perhaps it wouldn't work quite as well when you were led by someone who did know the paths.

But she also had no point of reference. Yet, it didn't hurt to try.

When they stepped within the hall, her gaze roamed over the whole thing. The strange, pale blue fire made her cautious. Blue flame burns hottest, she thought quietly, making note of a potential weapon if they needed it.

Their footsteps were silent, muffled by the magic, as they approached the stone gate. It was far taller than she, even in her Svalen form, and she couldn't help but marvel a little at the large mosaic spread across it.

"Do you know the story here, Lok'ran?" she asked, curiously investigating the images portrayed. "Or can you decipher it? You at least know the context of it."

 

[Kol]

"Aye Lass, I know the story."

There was no small amount of contempt to the dwarfs tone, though it was obviously not meant Ruvsa herself. Rather the attention was on the stone gateway, a glare coming from the dwarf that spoke volumes.

Kol observed him for a moment more, then regarded the gate himself.

"It's the tale of why and how they imprisoned their King."

So this was his cell, at least the way to it. Kol could have guessed that much just from the decorations. His gaze swept over the wall, following along the mosaic as the Dwarf continued to speak and explain.

As he listened Kol spotted a small slot on one end of the gates. His head turned slightly, and then he began to move towards it.

"He was a Tyrant, or so they claim. Ruled over the tundra for a thousand years. He was a powerful sorcerer, but a cruel one. They united three species to bring him down. Elves, Giants, and man."

Kol was still vaguely listening as he stepped to the side of the gate, observing the marking in the wall and figuring it was some time of key slot.

Quietly he glanced down at the hammer.

 

[Ruvsá]

"Power can twist the intentions of even the kindest people," Ruvsá murmured when the dwarf finished speaking. "Although history is also not kind to the losers. He was either a tyrant of the worst kind, or imprisoned unjustly and slandered."

Her eyes lingered on the mural for a little longer. "If man was involved, then perhaps it was the ancestors of both of our peoples," Ruvsá spoke, turning to Kol.

He was not where she expected him to be, much further away and peering intently at something. With quick strides, she came up beside him, catching his wrist in hand, the one that held the hammer, and pinned him with a firm stare, studying his face. "What exactly do you intend to do?" she finally asked.

Whether she would aid him or hinder him, she would decide after hearing his answer. While she did not believe he intended her any harm, she also had no wish to become collateral damage. It was clear that he was used to working alone. But their best chances of surviving this place were to continue to work together.

 

[Kol]

Kol looked over to Ruvsa as she approached. He mused for a moment, wondering if he should lie or tell the truth. "I intend to open this cell."

The Sorcerer said as he lifted the hammer, though did not yet shift it towards the keyhole.

Ever present as they were, the Dark Gods seemed to loom in silence for once. Their heralding laugher was quiet, almost as if they were waiting for something. Would Ruvsa deny him? Would she try to stop him? It was difficult to tell.

The Dark Gods had their hook in her, that slight thread which ran from her to them.

Yet the Pantheon of the Abyss never controlled. They never tugged those strings. They gave options, impulses, but never controlled. The Dark Gods reveled in their servants doing as they pleased, worshipped the Chaos created by those they had touched. That was how they all were, though only Lol knew it, for only he could hear them all.

"Lad I cannot stress how bad of an idea that is."

The dwarf spoke before the nordenfiir, and Kol half turned his head towards him.

"One cannot step away from the future due to fear of it." Kol stated plainly. "I was brought here, and this is why."

The Sorcerer turned back towards the gate.

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá almost rolled her eyes at Kol's reply--that he intended to open the cell was obvious--but then shot an annoyed glance at Lok'ran when he interrupted her.

"One cannot step away from the future due to fear of it." Kol stated plainly. "I was brought here, and this is why."

"To what end?" Ruvsá asked, stepping between Kol and the keyhole, forcing him to meet her gaze. "Why rush? If he's been locked up there for a few millennia, he's not going anywhere now. We should find out what more the dwarf knows; if it's even possible that elf king has what you want."

She would, in all honesty, prefer to have a plan. Or several plans, in case the first or following few went wrong. But Kol did not seem like the type to strategize. He seemed the type to rely on the teasing hints his dark gods gave him, greedily grabbing at whatever meager crumbs they dropped. While she could not deny their power because she had the use of her hands again, she could doubt their intentions.

She would also not deny her own curiosity. If one wanted to learn, there were two paths among the Nordenfiir--the priesthood, or the path of a Shield Maiden. She was certainly not suited to the former, and while she enjoyed the heat of the battlefield, she also loved knowledge.

But it was time for the strange, cautious dance between them to end.

"I am a Shield Maiden of the Nordenfiir. I was trained in the arts of war and strategy and torture for seven years, and even then the man who chose me as his consort would not use my brains or brawn, and I happily led him to his death in exchange." Her voice took on a note of confidence as she spoke, her eyes sparking with fiery determination, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that she'd forgotten. Not only had she begun to doubt herself, but in the two years she'd been in Aggar's household, she'd forgotten who she truly was.

"Use me," she finished. "Stop hiding your intentions in that secretive head of yours and use my knowledge and my strength, and maybe, just maybe, we'll all come out of this alive."

Use me for the tool that I am, that I was shaped into, she silently pleaded. But I will not be used as a witless sacrifice.

 

[Kol]

Kol looked at the girl for a moment.

There were few people in this world that The Sorcerer shared things with. The Dark Gods were his council, and anyone beyond that was simply a tool to be used. He considered Ruvsa as much the same, a convenient thing that was here and now.

Friendship was not something he could afford, was not something that he would ever truly allow. That simply was not his way.

Not if he wanted to suceed.

Yet there was nothing wrong with the truth, not how he saw it anyway. "I am going to open this door."

There was no question of that.

"Then I am going to kill the man held within..." He slowly looked to the dwarf, then let his eyes fall back towards Ruvsa. "And carve off a piece of his soul."

There it was. Kol knew that he could escape if he wanted, if he willed. The Dwarf had already shown them a way out, but he was interested in more than that. The Dark Gods had brought him here for a reason, and this was it.

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá watched Kol intently as he spoke, and was at last satisfied that he was at least telling the truth for his intended actions. She paid little mind to the dwarf, other than to continue noting where he stood and if he made any sudden movements. She only saw two possible conclusions for the dwarf, if he was truly bound to the prison fortress: he would stay and continue to live a meager existence, or somehow they would destroy both this place and the dwarf would die with it.

And so long as Kol did not intend to set the elf king free to wreak havoc on the tundra... everything else was negotiable.

"There are two things to consider here," Ruvsá said, still standing in front of the keyhole. "I've never heard of an elf living longer than a thousand years. If the king had already ruled for a thousand years before he was locked up here, and he has been here as long as the dwarf, then he is either dead already or his life is bound to this place as well.

"Before you carelessly open this door, we need to know more about the king and this place and both their weaknesses, and any possibility of breaking that bond, otherwise it is suicide. You and I will both be dead and it will once more be the king and dwarf trapped within this fortress until someone else stumbles over this place."

If the dwarf built this place, then surely he knew what lay beyond that door. Whether it was an open cell, or further passageways that led deeper into another cell.

As for what Kol needed a piece of the king's soul for, she had little care, but she couldn't deny that she was curious. "What does one do with a piece of a soul, anyway?" she asked, tilting her head.

 

[Kol]

Kol let his head turn in a roll towards the Dwarf. "Is he connected to this place."

The question was a simple one, and really the only true concern of his. If he killed the man would he bring down the Fortress on top of them? That was the only thing that mattered in his mind, the only thing that would stop him.

"No...but...you can't be serious lad. The man ruled over a whole Empire. He was powerful, strong, even in Chains they feared him. Enough to ke-"

Kol looked back towards Ruvsa. "We know this places weakness."

He motioned towards the dwarf.

"Once we wish to leave, we can end this place with a single slip of the blade." Fingers raised for a moment, but no knife appeared. "But before we do that, I intend to take what I have been brought here to take."

The Sorcerer was not concerned for the man's power, not really. It was another test, another thing laid in his path by the Dark Gods. He would overcome this challenge as he had so many others.

Then there was her last question. A smile flickered over his features. "It depends on the soul."

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá's relief at the dwarf's admission was cut short by Kol blatantly stating that the dwarf's death was the way to escape. That was obvious, but the dwarf still had to be willing, ideally, to lead them back out--at least most of the way--unless they wanted to be buried in the rubble, and she couldn't help the scowl that twisted across her face for a moment.

A smile flickered over his features. "It depends on the soul."

Another riddle. For now, she tucked it away, then turned her attention back to the dwarf.

"Lok'ran, before he interrupted you" --she jerked her head toward Kol-- "you were saying something. That the elf king was feared, even in chains, enough to ke-- what? And do you know what immediately lies beyond this door?"

 

[Kol]

"Enough to keep him in this horror of a place."

The Dwarf finished his sentence, giving Kol a weary glance before he slowly trotted over towards the two of them. Kol did not seem at all bothered by his presence, nor by Ruvsa. He had plenty of time, there was no hurry for him.

Not now.

"A tunnel, another gate, and then his cell. Where he was chained against the wall and gagged. More than that, I do not know. The Elves did not deign to share with me. I only glimpsed him when the doors were closed."

Kol looked towards Ruvsa. "If you are afraid, leave."

He told her simply.

"If I do not meet you by the dawn, then kill the Dwarf and bury this place." That way she would stop any threat me might release.

 

[Ruvsá]

"I will stay," Ruvsá answered stepping aside from where she blocked the keyhole, and directed her gaze to Lok'ran. "You will come as well." Just in case there had been any doubt.

She understood Kol's intent behind telling her to kill the dwarf at dawn, but that was too much time. If their senses were warped and twisted and muted here, then who knew if the passage of time was appearing correctly to them in the depths of the prison. The walk to an exit, and then the wait, could allow ample time for the elven king to kill Kol and escape. If she had to bring the fortress down, she would do it from within, where she knew the king had been trapped in the collapse as well.

As she waited for Kol to attempt to open this first gate, she drew one of her knives. "Do you know if there are any of these guards within, Lok'ran? The ones you mentioned being tethered to this place?"

 

[Kol]

The dwarf muttered something about madness, shaking his head as Ruvsa stepped aside and away from Kol.

A second passed before the Sorcerer stepped forward, though not due to any hesitation. He knew what he had to do, knew why he had been brought to this place. For him the decision was already made, he just has to listen to those who made it for him.

"I don't know lass, magic is finite. There is a time limit to how long it lasts."

As the dwarf spoke the hammer seemed to change once again in Kol's hand. It shifted, and as he lifted it seemed to form perfectly to the keyslot besides the door. There was a slight rumble, a click, and then the whole fortress seemed to shiver for a moment.

The dwarf looked around for a moment, no small amount of paranoia clinging to him.

"The only reason I'm still here is because the magic tied me to this place."

He explained as the ground quaked.

Kol stood patiently, waiting as the earth continued to shake. Then suddenly it stopped. A stillness fell over the whole prison. A breath filled his lungs, then the massive mosaic began to part.

A hallway was revealed, dozens of corpses strewn throughout it.

 

[Ruvsá]

There is a time limit to how long it lasts... the dwarf's words tumbled around in Ruvsá's mind. Would the fortress have even still stood if they'd encountered each other on this island a month later? Of course, based on Kol's words so far, his gods had brought him here, even at the cost of his ship's crew, so if the fortress hadn't been here she would have probably never encountered him.

It was an interesting thought to contemplate.

As Kol used the hammer--which once again transformed itself--to unlock the gate, she felt the ground tremble and shake beneath her feet, unsure if it was because of magic or simply because the gates before them had remained unmoved for millennia. Then it stopped, and everything fell hushed, and the gates parted.

Ruvsá gripped her knife in hand as the hall opened up before them.

It appeared to be full of corpses.

Ruvsá looked from side to side, and as far ahead as she could see in the hall, then slowly stepped through the gate to check the nearest corpse, carefully poking at it with the point of her knife. Any other situation, and she would have been comfortable assuming that they were just corpses. Here, though... for all she knew, they magic of the place might reanimate them. It would be better to know now, while they still had open space behind them, than when they were surrounded and caught by surprise.

 

[Kol]

Kol pulled the hammer free, or rather, half the hammer.

The only thing that moved when he yanked on the weapon was the haft. A frown touched his features, but as he looked over towards the Dwarf he received a short nod that showed just it was intended. A frown touched his lips, and then he slowly followed after Ruvsa.

He watched quietly as she bent by one of the corpses, head tilting for a moment. "Elves."

The corpses were desiccated, broken and ancient husks that had likely passed millenia ago. Unlike the Frost Giant they had fought, these seemed almost to have frozen solid within the cold air. Guardians perhaps, at one point.

Or something more.

Slowly Kol gazed up at the door, noticing the small sheen of ice that covered the heavy stone.

"Is that normal?" Kol asked the Dwarf, who responded with a shake of his head.

"No..."​

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá nodded at Kol's statement, catching sight of pointed ears on the dried and shriveled corpses. She looked up when Kol asked if something was normal, and caught sight of the ice on the door.

"It's like what we saw when we first came in," Ruvsá stated. "Until we reached the prison cells, there was ice and frost almost everywhere, to some degree."

She looked around the hall again, shivering as the chill of the air seemed to work through her clothes. Nordenfiir were rarely ever bothered by the cold, and this far underground...

"We should be quite a distance below the frostline now, even in the tundra," Ruvsá commented. "There should not be ice here, and the air should not be this cold."

Working on instinct now, she took out her other knife, and offered it to Kol. "We should decapitate and dismember the corpses, just to be certain they won't rise and fight us to defend their king."

 

[Kol]

For a brief few seconds Kol looked at her, then he shrugged.

"Alright." He was not entirely sure if these things would raise themselves, but the caution was one that he could understand. Slowly he stood over one of the creatures, his fingers once again curling.

From the blackness came the rune Knife.

It pieced itself together from dozens upon dozens of specks of black, as if summoned from the very abyss itself. Kol leaned down, still clutching the haft of the hammer. His blade slipped through necks, shoulders, thighs.

He set about the grim work with the same manner as an executioner, as though the work were no great toll for him.

Kol did not speak as he did the butchers work, simply working meticulously, like he had done all of this a thousand times before.

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá shrugged and slipped her second knife back into its sheath as Kol brought out his own, then joined him in silence as they worked. While sufficiently sharp, her knife did not slip through dried skin and sinew and bone quite as easily as Kol's did. They still made quick work of the gruesome task though, and Ruvsá did not gag or flinch, nor did her stomach turn. There was no blood or fluids to deal with anyway. Just... dried husks of flesh.

She was a warrior, and at heart, she was a bear. This was far from the most distasteful task she'd ever performed.

When she finished, Ruvsá looked back at the open, looming gate they'd come through.

"Do you think, if it's closed, we can open it again from the inside?" she murmured. "It would be best to limit the access this imprisoned king has to the rest of the compound, should... things go wrong."

But she wasn't sure which option she found more loathsome--to allow the chance of the elven king running free in the compound, potentially even with the dwarf to guide him out, or to be trapped here for the rest of her life. However short it might be.

 

[Kol]

Kol looked up at the door. "I do not know."

The same thought that flickered through Ruvsa's mind drifted through his, though death was nothing to fear for the Sorcerer. Death was not be a reward, there was no heaven waiting for him, no, but it would be the end of a weight on his shoulders.

In a way it would reprieve. A way to stop the endless struggle that the Dark Gods had set him upon all those years ago.

They would rip him apart in their abyss, tear at his soul and consume him piece by piece...but that did not matter. He would not longer have to carry the responsibility, would no longer have to drag his people from their Exile.

After a moment more of considering he stepped towards the door.

"Perhaps it is time to find out." He told her. "Neither of our people live in fear, now is not the time to start."

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá nodded at Kol's words, and felt a small surge of pride in herself as she recalled earlier, when they'd first been trapped in this place, and she'd panicked. Sometimes the greatest fears were the ones you had not yet faced, and while she certainly had no desire to die here, if it was her fate, then she would meet it with a strong heart. "It is not," she agreed, knife still in hand at her side.

She looked over to where the dwarf lingered and returned to him, encouraging him to step through the gate and join them in the hall. She did not trust the dwarf to remain outside and try to free them, but if Kol wanted to leave him outside, he would say so. Ruvsá thought it better to have the dwarf with them, though. That way, if they did become trapped, whether they defeated the elf king or not, they would not have to languish in the prison indefinitely.

"Will these gates open from within with the proper keys?" Ruvsá asked Lok'ran as Kol approached the gates. "And how can we close them?"

 

[Kol]

"There is no way out from within, not is there a way to close them from in there."​

Kol looked back at the Dwarf as he slowly walked towards what he assumed was the second key-hole in the wall. It was a slim thing, slight, but more than noticeable with the strange carvings that seemed to surround it's face.

"It would be best..."​

The sorcerer glanced back.

"If someone stayed outside."​

A small smile touched Kol's lips. "And I suppose you think this should be you?"

No word came in answer, only a slight nod.

 

[Ruvsá]

Ruvsá arched a brow, and threw a skeptical glance at Kol as the dwarf spoke. She saw the second key-hole, and if hinges swung one direction, then they would swing back into place. They just had to figure out how to trigger them.

"Lies," she whispered quietly, stepping in front of the dwarf and raising the point of her knife under his chin, forcing him to look up and into her eyes. Despite slicing through all the corpses, the blade was still sharp enough to shorten his beard and pierce his skin, though she drove it no deeper than that for the moment.

"You have every reason to want us to believe that you must remain on the other side of this gate, but to what end? You will still be bound to this place, even if we are slain, until the magic fades. Will that be minutes, days from now, or another millennia? But at least if you are in here, I can release you from those bonds."

Ruvsá's mouth twisted into a hard smile. "It's not like you have anything to live for out there," she murmured. "Anyone you knew--anyone you loved--has long died and turned to dust."

 

[Kol]

"You think I want to die?"

The dwarf hissed. Kol glanced back at the two of them, his eyebrow raising as he noticed the altercation. Lips thinned for a brief moment, but he did not feel the need to remind Ruvsa that killing the Dwarf would likely end their lives too.

She could make her own decisions, and he would not step in.

"I am old. Ancient. My family is gone, but I yearn for death as much as you. I want to live, even if it is within these cursed walls."

The words were half a hiss, a declaration. Lips pulled back in a snarl, and it was clear the Dwarf was ready to all but pounce on Ruvsa. Kol took half a step back, ready to slaughter the little man in case he went wild upon his companion.

"I'm not a fighter. I'm a builder. I no more want to see that fucking King than a snowman wants to meet the sun. I just want to survive."

"Pathetic." Kol stated plainly.

His head shook.

"I can see why they chose you." The Nordwiir stated. "A cowardly little puppet to maintain their prison. Nothing more."