Adelchis looked at the massive doors. He saw the colorful impressions where the keys were to be set. Somewhere behind that formidable barrier, Lily waited for him to rescue her.
Collecting them all was such a daunting task, though. It would take him forever, and he barely had a clue where to find even one of them. He touched his hand gently to the green slot. He could feel the magical energy raising off the lock.
He could also feel the slight give of an unlatched door.
After a moment where he could only stare at the door in stunned silence, Adelchis yanked it open and burst into the room. “So much for 'collecting the 13 Shiny Orbs in order to breech the sanctum,' or whatever he said.”
The Creepy Keep looked empty. It looked like nobody had been through here in a while really. Not quite abandoned, just a little… stale. The room was dark. Not because of a lack of light, sunlight was only slightly obscured by the dirty windows, but because everything was black or a dark shade of purple. Black walls (maybe more of a dark grey?), deep purple carpet. Some of the furniture allowed a little red.
It was quiet. Definitely not a place being actively defended. He kept his sword out all the same. The empty foyer opened onto empty parlors and an empty dining room. But people did live here, he was sure of it. So there must be—yes. A kitchen, which was not empty.
He drew close to statue made of dark stone, a beautiful elf with long hair and eyes made of some kind of sparkly, silvery stone. For a moment, he was distracted from his attempt to eavesdrop on the kitchen staff when the though struck him that he was looking into the reflective surface of an obsidian mirror. But no, he’d been right the first time. A statue, though one that bore a striking resemblance to himself. There was another one on the other side of the room, an elf woman. It resembled his betrothed Lilly, though perhaps not as strongly. He could see the glint of silver in its eyes.
A coincidence? But then he had never known why this villain wanted to capture Lilly in the first place. Capturing damsels was just something villains did. Sure, they usually had some kind of strange reason, but it wasn’t usually important to know what it was. Especially not when they forgot to actually close the seal of their magically locked door!
“Dunno why you go to the trouble.”
“The master still wants meals.”
“He wants two plates dropped off in his workshop, and I think he hardly cares what’s on ’em.”
“Well, I’m still gonna do my job while I’m getting paid. I suppose ‘not botherin’’ is why the place is full of cobwebs?”
“I’ll get to the cleaning! Eventually.”
“Well, after you take these plates. I’m not going down there. That place is creepy!”
“It’s June’s turn!” But despite the protest, the butler pushed through a door, muttering and grumbling.
The good news was that he definitely didn’t spot Adelchis. The bad news was that was because he didn’t come through this door. So he did instead, trying to follow the sounds of the servant’s retreating footsteps. The cook was cleaning knives and didn’t notice him. He found the open door leading down onto stone steps. Not wanting to run into the butler on his way back, he ducked around the corner and waited. It didn’t take long. Once the door closed, he opened it, slipped through, and shut it once more very quietly. Fortunately the butler has slammed it shut very dramatically, so closing it more quietly was very easy.
He had the feeling the staff wouldn’t be this way until at least the next mealtime. “Now I just have to rescue Lilly and clobber this creep!”
The floor here was made of blocks of green stone, or perhaps stone that was stained green. It was a proper villainous lair, simultaneously a dingy dungeon and unnecessarily ostentatious. He could see six marble pillars holding up a 20-foot ceiling, and a pair of gargoyles glaring at him as he reached the basement landing. The lighting was dim, coming from several torch sconces on the wall. The fire was purple.
Adelchis whistled. “Okay, not bad. Should’ve put some of that effort into the front door, though. There were passages leading to the left, the right, and forward. He listened carefully. He could hear small creatures creeping quietly in the dark corners of the room. He could also her ominous chanting punctuated by frustrated swearing coming from ahead, though a long way off. Obviously, that was where he’d need to go last.
Turning to the right, Adelchis saw a creature emerging from the hall. It was about the size of a housecat, but spindly and basically humanoid in shape. It had blue-ish grey skin and red claws, and wings that reminded him of a bat’s though they extended from its back and not from its arms. It was carrying a book bigger than it was, which was perhaps why it was scurrying along the ground and not flying.
When it saw him, it screeched and dropped its book. It took to the air and swooped towards him, extending its claws. As a trained spellsword, Adelchis knew how to channel magic down the length of his blade. He did so now, driving the weapon through the creature and flooding its body with magical energy. It exploded into wisps of shadow.
That was probably overkill. It didn’t seem likely that the little imp would have survived either the stabbing or the spell if he’d just done one. Still, most types of the little demons were venomous. Best to avoid any chance of being cut by their claws, if he could.
The book was perhaps a vital clue, or it might have been if it had been written in a language Adelchis understood. As it was, he didn’t even recognize the script. He tucked it into his bag anyway. Maybe Lilly could read it.
Hurrying down the passage, he found where the book had come from. It was a little library, though “library” was generous. There were stacks of books and scrolls on the tables, but not even one proper bookshelf. He looked over the titles, but he couldn’t read most of them and nothing jumped out at him.
The corridor continued on, and so did he. He passed through a narrow chamber lined with spikes along the walls, forcing him to pass between several large stone coffins. Now this looked like proper dungeon defenses. Still, nothing jumped out at him. The spikes didn’t emerge from the walls to skewer him, nor did the coffins open to emit horrid decaying skeletons with eyes aglow with the malice of unlife. It was very easy, but almost disappointing. He did see a humanoid skull impaled on one of the spikes, though he couldn’t imagine how it had gotten there. At first glance, it looked like a goblin skull. At second glance, it looked like a prop carved from wood. Really now.
He did encounter several more imps, but he didn’t bother using magic as he sliced them apart with his sword.
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Finally, he reached the end of the passage, which was a cell. It had the bars and the lock and everything, but here the villainous lair décor had really gone quite awry. There was a plush green carpet, decent furnishings including a large bed that looked fresh, and brightly lit torches that danced with the usual orange flames. There was even a vase of flowers on the armoire that gave the room a pleasant smell.
Perhaps the master of the manor made this his room while he was working down here? The cell was empty and the door was unlocked, so Adelchis went to open it to poke around. He was a little wary of willingly entering a room intended to lock people in, though, so he stood at the entrance with his hand on the key—the key? Yes! It was true. The key stood in the lock. He took it out, and noticed a plaque on the wall next to it. “Adelchis’s Room.”
This was the first he’d heard of Blackwing wanting to capture him as well. At least the accommodations were nice? But he wouldn’t be using them. With nothing else to see here, he hurried back to check the wing on the other side of the basement.
As he passed through the central room, he heard swearing again from further on. Something clearly wasn’t going well, which meant things were going well!
Assuming the layout was mirrored but that the purpose of the rooms likely wasn’t, he peered into the room opposite the library. He was entirely correct. The shape was the same, but the contents of the room were very different. There were more of the decorative marble pillars in here, and a kind of moat around the walls filling an area where the floor dropped off. There were two altars, set with large green orbs of some kind. One was dark and dull, but the other glowed with an internal light.
Ah, classic dungeon stuff. Keeping an eye out for imps, Adelchis sheathed his sword and approached the altar with the glowing stone. He laid his palm on it. The light went out, and the one behind him lit up instead. He turned around and strode to the other altar, repeating his attempt. The light went out, and the one behind him lit up instead. “Hm.” He touched the dull sphere again. It lit up, and the one behind him went out. Turning back and approaching the first one, he touched it again. It lit up, and the one behind him went out.
“Hm.” Whichever one he touched, lit or dull, left or right, the light switched sides. There was no pattern here to figure out. Nothing was happening. He glanced back at the corridor. The passage leading deeper stood open, inviting… well, not inviting, but open anyway. “It doesn’t do anything,” he said quietly to himself, “it’s clearly a puzzle, but it’s like it was never finished.”
A little disconcerted, he moved on. He passed through a small room with a chair, a table, and a book laying on the table. This book was of less academic interest, a tawdry romance novel about an ogre and a mermaid. Though Adelchis had never seen an ogre built quite like that.
But around the corner from there, he found a cell. “Eeugh. I guess they haven’t gotten to remodeling this one yet.”
“That voice—Adelchis?”
“Lilly!” She came to the cell door and peered out. She looked remarkably un-disheveled for someone in a tiny, dingy cell, but then she hadn’t been there for very long. Her pale pink gown still looked relatively clean, and her lavender hair still had that neat braid. At least she hadn’t been hurt.
“Adelchis! I was not expecting to see you any time soon. What happened with the Mystical Crystals?”
“To break the seal on the manor’s door? I didn’t need them; it wasn’t locked.”
“Seriously?”
“Yup.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting you to rescue me quite yet, but make with the key already!”
“On it!” Adelchis slipped the key he’d collected from the other cell door into the lock. The two cells probably had different locks, so this wasn’t likely to—it clicked.
He pulled the cell door open, and Lilly almost ran him over getting out. “Cool,” she said, “Let’s go confront that guy.”
LILLY JOINED THE PARTY
Adelchis looked into the cell. It wasn’t smaller than the other one, but the torches burned with the cursed purple flame he saw throughout the dungeon, and they didn’t cast much light. The water source was a hole in the ground, the bedclothes were ragged and dirty, and there were cobwebs everywhere. “Yuck.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t expecting you so soon, but I am not complaining.”
Adelchis briefly considered telling her about the nicer cell, but he didn’t see that it would serve any purpose other than making her angrier.
They set off. “You’ve never really used your spellsinging in a real fight, have you?”
“No. But I do also have this.” Lilly produced a thin dagger. “I know how to handle it okay. I wasn’t about to fight them by myself, but I can back you up.”
“Where were you hiding that?”
“Concealed sheath in my boot.”
“They didn’t search you at all?”
“This Blackwing guy has good production values, but I’m beginning to think he’s not a very serious villain. Little embarrassed I got captured by them.”
“Ah well. If nobody ever gets into trouble, us dashing heroes don’t have much to do.”
They encountered another imp. It tried to flee from them, crying out “Master! Intru—” but Lilly jumped at it and struck with her dagger. The imp stung her arm, but Adelchis stepped up and finished it off.
"Couldn’t have it running off to warn him.”
“Well, uh…” There was a dining table here with place settings for eight people. The plates were dusty and had obviously been sitting there for a while. Adelchis indicated one of the chairs, and Lilly sat as he tended her wound with an antivenom salve. “We were heading right for him, so it wouldn’t have been much of a warning. If anything he might have more of a warning now, if he heard that.”
“Oh. Maybe I’m not a very good adventurer.”
“You’re just inexperienced. Can you use a spellsong to make me stronger instead of fighting directly?”
“I can try it.”
Past the dining area was what looked like a ritual room. There was a human in there, one with dark purple robes and an elaborate hat that cast a shadow over his eyes. “Takes himself seriously as a villain, anyway,” mused Lilly.
There was a glowing magical circle on one side of the room, but the villain was facing a circle that was inked on the floor but didn’t seem to be doing anything. He was, Adelchis realized, chanting very softly. The circle blazed with a blue glow. “Good!” He continued incanting, and the light fizzled out as the circle started smoking. “You distracted me!” he shouted, turning to face them, “I told you imps to stay out of—oh.”
For a moment, they just looked at each other. “You!?” he said, “But… I—how did you even get… ?”
“The door was unlocked.”
“I don’t suppose I can convince you to go collect some Mystical Crystals and come back in a year or so?”
“You suppose correctly!”
“I worked hard hiding those distractions! I’m only ready for one silver-eyed elf!”
“Are you ready… for a fight?”
“Uh… rain check?”
“No! this ends—”
“Waitasec,” cut in Lilly, “What about our eyes? Silver eyes are nigh unheard of among elves.”
“Which means you’re either moon or sun bloodline. You two are one of each, I’m certain.”
“Oh. Oh! Of course… that explains—that explains everything! I see.”
“If you two are ready,” snapped Adelchis irritably, raising his blade.
Lilly was somewhere else entirely. “Oh—oh, right.” She started singing softly, but her voice was shaky and disjointed. Adelchis did not feel any effect.
Two more imps rose up from the spellsmoke to flank Ian Blackwing as he began to work a spell of his own. Well. Adelchis had plenty of experience with imps at this point. And he’d thought of a new technique he could try, a spin with a little twist.
His blade sliced through both imps and cut into the sorcerer.
“Ouch.”
“You’re done here!” said Lilly. Her intonations became more consistent, carrying more power as the magic surged through the ritual room.
“Argh!” shouted Ian as her spell ripped through him, his body disappearing into shadow and smoke.
“Wow. I didn’t know you could disintegrate people.”
“Uh.. teleport, I think. I’m not sure. I think my magic and his circle kind of reverberated off of each other, there.”
“Well, glad that whole mess is behind us either way. Let’s go home.”
Adelchis turned to leave, but he only made it a few steps before realizing Lilly had stopped, examining the burnt-out magic circle. He came over to her and she smiled. Touching a hand to his chin, she looked deeply into his eyes. “Y’know, that Blackbird was right about one thing. You really do have such pretty silver eyes.”
He leaned forward to kiss her, but she started to sing. It was a slow, sad song, and he didn’t like it at all. He leaned away from her, but wobbled on his feet, dropping to one knee. Her song felt familiar; it carried the venom from the imp’s stinger.
“Ach. Lilly, what—”
She held a note, and the floor rushed up at him.
“How’s that supposed to go?” said Lilly, as she tried her first villainous cackle, “’Mwah hehehe’?”
