Fable - Ask The World Unseen

[Aisling Weiroon]

At the gesture from Arva the Anirian relinquished her grasp upon the kivren. She moved a gloved hand against the cheek of the crouched creature to wipe one of the falling tears away. A warm smile followed a simple nod as she rose to her feet.

"The three of us are getting out of here." Verdant eyes looked towards Bastian. "You have my word."

They needed to continue inwards. Whatever else lied in this cave just had to be their ticket out of here and the feeling in her gut compelled her to press onwards. If all they needed was a bit of luck she'd make sure the trio found it. And, if there happened to be an additional passageway out to the surface, they'd find it and get back to the sea.

But this entire situation was very much outside of the norm. "Bastian?" She waited for his attention to be drawn in until she spoke further. "We should press forward, do you agree?"

This was still her command but she knew as little about what they faced as he did. And, it was likely, that whatever had caused Arva to breakdown could try it again. There didn't seem to be any good options for them at this point. If they returned to the shore those beasts would slay them. If they stayed still those beasts might find them. If they kept pressing forwards there was no telling what horrific fate this island had instore for them at the core of this cavern.

While the unknown was terrifying, Aisling had assumed the unknown would be better than certain death.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian hesitated a moment when Aisling asked her question. His lips thinned and he glanced back in the direction they had come. His eyes lingered on the tunnel, the subtle light that still held there. Then after a few seconds more he turned back to his Captain.

His head dipped in a nod. "Aye."

What was waiting for them back there except death and monsters? His fingers wrapped around the hilt of his sword once more and he pushed himself to his feet. Eyes closing as he dragged in whatever courage he had left.

"I'll take point." Bastian said quietly.

Slowly he stepped forward, giving the other two enough time to fall in behind him before they once again made their way further and further into the cavern.

No more whispers came to Arva, but that dark foreboding never left. It became more powerful, a pulse, the beat of a heart that echoed loud enough that even Bastian began to hear it. Slowly the cavern around them began to open up, a narrow tunnel turning into a great hall.

There he saw it.

Surrounded by a narrow moat of water, a stone that could have been mistaken for a simple boulder were it not for the thin veins of red that ran through it. The altar pulsed with the beat of a heart, a pressure building in Bastian's ears. "Uhhh."

He said as he peered at the stone.

"That's..." Bastian glanced at Aisling. "That's not normal."

 

[Arva]

Arva flinched, startled, when I-slin wiped one of her tears away, but otherwise barely moved as the woman and black-hair spoke with each other. Then black-hair was stepping deeper into the cave, and though everything within Arva protested the thought of going further... they also could not go back.

So she rose to her feet again, arms crossed over her torso with fists clenched and tucked into her elbows, and followed behind black-hair.

As they progressed further, the cavern seemed to... become something living around them. But not life like the ocean teemed, rather... something unnatural. Forced.

The hall opened up into a cavern, and Arva fought every instinct to turn and flee. It was quite a show of strength, really, considering that the creatures of the sea were, first and foremost, creatures of instinct.

She found herself shrinking back behind I-slin and black-hair, even as she craned her neck to see the stone.

A shudder rippled through her. The pulsing beat thrummed through the earth and air around them.

And she didn't even have the words needed to plead with her hapless companions to turn back.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

"Excellent," she said in reply to Bastian's consent. The corsair wasn't above asking her subordinates for advice, particularly in a situation as dire as this one, and when they agreed with her own assessment she felt it particularly important to respond with positive reinforcement.

It was strange how the familiar steps of military logic continued to dictate behaviors in such complex situations. Maybe that was why the training she'd undergone was so... invasive.

Once they progressed far enough that the cave went from being, well, a cave, into what could only be described as a horror freak show... Aisling shuddered. It was brief but certainly noticeable. She saw Arva have the same reaction as the kivren slunk behind the blonde captain.

She offered her new found ally a reassuring smile though she assumed it offered as much relief as an empty promise.

In a strained voice the noblewoman offered, "not normal at all." This was the card they'd been dealt. Where their options were to stay put and die from starvation, exit the cave and be brutally mutilated by abominations, or interact with some strange pulsating rock. Her ear drums felt full of liquid after just a few seconds in the strange object's presence.

While channeling as much luck as her magical ability provided her she stepped forward and reached a hand outwards. "Bastian. If this doesn't work, please get the civilian to safety." She drew in a breath and pressed her palm unto the boulder. Already feeling exhausted from how much of her luck magic she focused.

 

[Bastian]

"If what doesn't work?" Bastian said, not meaning to countermand her orders once more but simply not being able to help his confusion.

The Sailor did not know much...anything at all about magic.

His concept of such things came from rumors, stories, and tall tales that were spun within the ethos of the Taverns he'd been raised in. To his mind, the only magic in Vel Anir was to be found among the Dreadlords. Men and women who could kill him with a snap of the finger.

He would never in a million years have guessed that Aisling was capable of such thing, nor would he have guessed that he himself was.

Yet as Aisling reached out and touched the rock something happened.

The pulsing seemed to stop in an instant. The world echoed, and then suddenly a stalactite directly hanging above the stone altar seemed to shift. It was fate. Luck. Aisling's touch. Her will made manifest through the hand of some ancient goddess.

A crack echoed through the open hall, and then the stalactite fell from the ceiling. It tumbled down and smashed onto the altar, crushing into the rock. A crack formed where the stone fell onto the altar, and then another and then another.

Suddenly a screech echoed through the cave, and from the altar poured a black mist which filled the room.

Bastian let out a series of curses, jumping towards Arva and pushing her to the ground to climb ontop of her in a protective stance.

 

[Arva]

More speaking, but Arva didn't bother to try and parse out the words--not that she could understand them anyway--over the invasive, thrumming pulse pressing into her ears and every part of her being.

Her eyes widened, an involuntary cry escaping her, as I-slin approached the pulsing altar and laid her hand against it.

She nearly stumbled, then, relief washing through her as the pulsing beat just... stopped. Had I-slin done that?

Then a moment later it hardly seemed to matter as the cavern itself threatened to come down on their heads--started to, really--followed by an enraged screech echoing around them. I-slin disappeared from her sight, both because of the black mist that swallowed up the room, and because black-hair knocked her down to the ground.

Arva caught herself on her hands, but the floor was smooth and slick like cave floors were wont to be, and she slipped and slammed onto a shoulder, barely managing to twist her face aside. Black-hair hovered over her, his face frantic and eyes darting around.

She reached out and gently set a hand on his arm.

She wasn't sure what she could do. Some Kivren were gifted with water magic, but Arva mostly only had her siren voice, and there wasn't really any water here that she could have used anyway.

She didn't know if her song would help anything, and she didn't want to ensnare I-slin, and she had no way to warn the woman if she were to let her voice loose. If her voice would work at all.

So for the moment, she waited and watched to see if I-slin would emerge from the mist.

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Perfect, the corsair thought to herself as the pulsating rock slowed to a sudden halt. Aisling had expected that nothing would happen when she touched the stone while fearing the absolute worst. But now that it had been done she felt satisfied. Smug, even.

In a cheery tone she began to say, "seems like we're going to," but her words were interrupted by the cavern's angry retort.

Stalactites fell like rainfall and her arms rushed to cover her head right as Bastian crashed into Arva. The Weiroon noble dropped to her knees and pulled her body into a taut ball. This couldn't be happening, they couldn't have come this far and faltered in the final hour. The warning of this place dying with them as the cave itself collapsed on top of them.

Aisling tried to summon her luck, tried to spread it to her two accomplices, but it came out in rough waves.

She'd exhausted herself by the sheer force of fortune she'd used when touching the stone. Now they were at the mercy of fate itself without her magic to help tip the scales. The rumbling continued but she stood after some of the debris seemed to trail off. With a mighty voice she shouted, "we have to get out of here!" As loud as her lungs could muster she still wasn't sure if her voice would carry over the sounds of gyrating earth.

Eyes scanned the misted room for any sign of her lone surviving crew member and the civilian kivren.

 

[Bastian]

Bastian didn't know, didn't understand that it was his magic which cloaked himself and Arva so well.

They were hidden within the mists. Tucked away in the shadows so that not even an eagle would have noticed them among the rocks. That odd black mist spread over them, surging through the room as the entirety of the island seemed to shake.

Chaos took hold upon the land, and as Aisling's voice rang out Bastian's head shot up.

A frown flickered over the runaways face, his eyes settling on the mermaid below him as he frowned, and then quietly whispered. "Follow me."

He tried to enunciate as much as he could. Spell out each word so that she would understand what he was saying. His hand wrapped around hers, and with a solid tug he pulled her up and off the floor. The ground quaked beneath his feet, groaned as more stone fell.

With blind luck he stepped forward towards Aisling.

"Captain!" He called out to her within the darkness. "We have to ge-"

His voice suddenly died as the stones ceased their falling, as the Island stopped it's quaking.

The sound that echoed was far worse.

It was a screech. Like a lambs throat being cut the sound echoed through the very stone itself. It reverberated through the walls, broke through the air. The black smog drew in open the shattered altar, snapping back towards it in an instant.

The black smoke formed together above the altar into a skull, a skull with eight arms. It seemed to peer towards the three intruder, and then a voice echoed through the cavern.

MY CHILDREN CALL. AND I SHALL ANSWER. THROUGH BLOOD I AM BORN. THROUGH DEATH I COME. ALTAR OR NO!

IF NOT BY ONE SHIP. THEN BY THREE!​

 

[Arva]

I-slin. Arva heard her, and was relieved that the woman hadn't been crushed by falling stone. She looked at black-hair, could guess at the intent of his words as he took her hand and pulled her back up. He took a step toward I-slin, calling out to her, but then everything stopped.

It was an unnatural stillness. Life was motion after all, and Arva was used to the constant movement of the sea.

Then that awful echoing screech that reverberated through the cavern, and then through Arva's skull, and she gave a wordless cry, hunching over in pain and clutching her head with her free hand.

She glanced up when the voice began speaking, one she could understand again, but she suspected that each of them could understand it, somehow. Arva clutched Bastian's hand a little tighter, tucking herself behind him as much as she could, and wishing she'd never come to this island. She should have just gone straight back to her pod after leaving Ti'Ciuda.

How were the three of them supposed to stop any of this--or, Kiva willing, even escape--when she couldn't understand them, and they still didn't know what they were dealing with?

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Aisling emerged from the mist to the sight of her last surviving crew and the mermaid that had accompanied them. A sigh of relief escaped her lips to see them both unharmed. To feel the movements of the cavern and the island cease. To know that it was all finally over.

Until it wasn't over.

The voice that rang out was filled with fury and rage. It was one of the most hateful sounds she had ever heard, which was saying a lot for someone who grew up under the hold of her father. Without even the context the sound of the voice alone was enough to petrify her.

She looked at Bastian and Arva, face awash with fear, and her mouth hung open. "We need to get far, far, away from here."

If not by one ship, then by three? Did that mean it was enacting its cruel wrath on the rest of the Anirian expeditionary fleet? How would they ever escape if the additional ships were capsized from these strange amalgamations?

No time to dwell on that, for now they just had to be gone. They needed to leave.

 

[Bastian]

Oh dear fuck.

What was going on? Bastian heard the thundering racket of the voice thrum through his skull, the sound loud enough that it made his teeth chatter. Arva's fingers dug into him, but he didn't even notice as he suddenly found himself rising up to his full height and shifting to turn his back on the odd coalesced smoke.

He didn't even give Aisling enough time to finish her sentence.

The mermaid was practically dragged along with as Bastian simply decided to say 'fuck it' and book it up the way they had come. Those monsters had been bad, but at least theyd been able to fight them with a sword.

This thing?

This thing he didn't even know what the hell it was, much less how he was supposed to take it head on.

Bastian dashed up the corridor, glancing behind him to ensure that Aisling was right on the trail. When he saw her he felt a small amount of relief, though he had no idea why. His steps carried him quickly, and before long they broke from the mouth of the cave Into that strange clearing. Behind them laughter echoes.

"Captain!" He called, pointing to the sky.

It was not the odd roiling mass of black clouds that appeared as tendrils which he pointed to however, no. It was a bright yellow glowing ball that hovered just beneath; an Anirian flare.

 

[Arva]

The fear on I-slin's face was obvious as she spoke, but before Arva could even think of what the woman might have said, she found herself being dragged along as black-hair turned on his heel and ran. She stumbled behind him for a few paces before she found her footing, but was eventually able to keep up.

When they broke out of the cave again, and into the vegetation-filled clearing, she could still hear laughter echoing from the passageway behind them. She heard black-hair call out a word. Captain. Despite the urgency of the moment, she mouthed it, tucked it away. Clearly, he meant I-slin, but she didn't know what the word meant.

Then she looked up at where black-hair pointed, and gasped at the glowing ball of light in the sky. It wasn't the sun, but contrasting the overwhelming darkness around them, it might as well have been.

Her hand still clutched to Bastian's, and she found herself shrinking behind him again.

Who had the power to create a mini sun in this darkness?

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Aisling heaved in fresh oxygen once they emerged from the cave. The journey out had felt like an eternity as she rushed to keep up with the breakneck pace being set by Bastian and Arva. Now, though, she could take in a few breaths of fresh air. If only for a second.

And it was only seconds as the last sailor from the Bloody Rose called out.

Bastian’s pointing finger was hardly necessary as she caught the object and stared at it like it was some sort of messianic omen. Amber flickered against the backdrop of clouds like a shout in the darkness. Her green eyes threatened to fill with tears of joy whilst her chin quivered. The flare represented the hope she’d just about given up on.

Two more seconds passed as she composed herself, as her brain processed what was happening, and then a sleeve wiped at her face. With a voice that almost didn’t crack she managed to call back, ”we make it to the coast, cut a path if we have to.” Based on the direction the flare had come from she guessed it was The Ethereal, one of the other Anirian ships that had set sail at the start of their expedition.

At this point though she just wanted to have her feet aboard a naval vessel. Wrap herself in a blanket and sleep for a very, very, long time. If they had to slaughter a few dozen amalgamations from hell she’d do it.

Another fresh dose of the night air, feet shuffling forward through the sand, the captain stared out at the beacon of light being cast from high above the rippling waves of the sea.

”We should proceed swiftly but stay together,” she offered as she drew her blade and braced herself for what lay ahead.

 

[Bastian]

Proceed swiftly but stay together.

Those were just about the most milk toast words that Aisling could have said, but for whatever reason they spurned Bastian onward. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword, and quickly he moved behind Arva and took up the rear once more.

The sky above them roiled in anger. Thunder arched, but it did not lance towards the ground nor the sea, instead it seemed to roll across the clouds in a great tide. The crackle of it was disturbing, but the sound, the sound was what caused Bastian to falter in his step.

It was as if the sky itself exploded.

A thunderclap the likes of which no sailor had ever heard ripped through the air in an instant. It shouted, tearing across the skies and striking the island down below. Earth shook beneath the three stragglers, sand roiling and stones around them beginning to fall as they rushed into the cavern.

Then the skies changed once more.

A face crept from within the roiling mass, a huge skeletal thing, the dark tendrils coming over it in a strange almost octopus like manner. A figure reminiscent of the abominations they had fought.

 

[Arva]

If Arva never stepped foot on land again, it would be too soon. This was... a hell she could have never imagined. I-slin said things, but she was panting for breath and her words were broken and hard to catch. Black-hair, it seemed, understood, and he urged her to keep moving as I-slin took the lead.

But moments later, Arva was dropping to her knees, clapping her hands over her ears as she crouched down in pain. The crack of thunder was unlike anything she'd ever heard. Storms were weathered in safe caves beneath the sea's surface. Not... exposed on land. Sure, she'd seen lightning arcing across the sky from beneath the waves, heard a distant rumble... but she'd never imagined a ear-shattering noise like this.

Then the very earth itself was trembling, and when Arva could once more brave a look up, she flinched at the face with its dark tendrils.

Almost unbidden, the clicking and whistling noises that made up the language of the Kivren beneath the waves poured out of her mouth.

What do you want? she pleaded. Why are you doing this? Who are you?

 

[Aisling Weiroon]

Boots sank into the sand as Aisling tried to wrestle for footing. She wanted to run from this place where even the call of gulls felt hundreds of miles away. It had only been hours since she last glanced upon the sun but seeing the darkening of the clouds, the shift into night in the midst of the afternoon, made the warmth of day feel like a lifetime ago.

What is happening?

She practically swallowed her lower lip as the thought repeated in her mind over and over again.

When the clouds parted she wasn't greeted by welcoming rays, instead it was a new horror altogether. A massive face from nightmares emerged and the Weiroon corsair shuddered in terror. She had believed that things couldn't get worse and now... now she wanted to curl up and cry somewhere. Abandon the mantle of leadership, if only for a fleeting moment, so that she could return to a life of Great House shelter.

Cautiously she gripped at Bastian and Arva both gently but tightly, the feel of touch the only respite from this abominable fright. "We're going to be ok," she whispered as much to herself as to the others. She had planned to say more until the sound of the mermaid's clicks and whistles interrupted.

Aisling stood, stunned between the sudden outburst from the siren and the appearance of the face in the clouds.