THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 11 - Change of Heart - Part 3

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

Councilor Quin led Velda down the halls for quite some time, and as they went, she started to see shapes etched into the floor and walls. She moved her red light down and saw that the ground and doors were covered with artful depictions of landscapes and all sorts of creatures from human lore, colored with thin layers of shimmering paint that refracted her light like gemstone shards. It was strangely vibrant for such a dark place. They passed a few dragons, then a herd of unicorns, and finally a lone hydra before reaching a large closed door.

Quin used a key card to unlock the door and his Dark magic pulled her in. They were on the bridge of his ship, which was even more magnificent than Velda had dared to expect. On each side, two iridescent blue wyrms with arched necks and extended claws pointed towards the front window, which was big enough to surround a standard bridge's volume by itself. A few dozen Dark mages were busy in the shadows of the bridge, but two came out of nowhere and flanked her with ruthless precision.

The Gray Continuum starlight that reached the bridge through the window helped Velda to see the room well enough, so she released Titus's magic. All it was doing was sapping her strength. She also noticed a faint, unfamiliar set of auras flaring on and off. They seemed far away, possibly outside the ship, which Velda found quite odd.

She and the Councilor made their way to the edge of the right wall near the window, which was decorated with ornate blue fire coming from one of the wyrms' mouths. It would have been majestic in a better situation. Another mage walked to the screen in front of them and turned it on. It displayed three humanoids standing on the bridge of a similar ship, though its walls featured pegasi. They were also dressed in black cloaks, with the hoods obscuring their faces.

Velda only had a moment to look before Quin shoved her to her knees and she felt a cold blade against the back of her neck. Her hands stayed in place, held straight above her head. "Stop following us," he commanded, "Or I'll kill all of them, starting with the MepQueen's daughter."

A male voice on the other end laughed, with no hint of tension or fear. "Archie, what's gotten into you?" he said. "You can't kill them, anyway!" His voice had a strange trill in it that Velda had never heard before, and she was equally surprised by his friendliness.

"I can just as well make them suffer," Quin retorted, though Velda could tell he had lost ground. She struggled to stand, but he pressed the sword's edge harder against her skin. "Turn around, Trycho. You have no business here."

Trycho chirped, "Tell you what: I'll give you exactly seven seconds to release Velda and clear the bridge." Velda noticed the seven and shrank down in fear. Councilor Quin sniffed adamantly. None of them budged.

Suddenly, Velda heard a sound like a thunderclap, and the entire bridge was full of motion in her peripherals. Quin and the two guards left Velda in a flash, and someone yelled, "How did they get past the shields?"

Another burst of magic appeared at the back of the bridge, and a different voice called, "They've blocked the bridge door!"

She stood up shakily, looking over her shoulder around the bridge in shock. The officers that had previously been minding their own business were running towards another group of Dark mages that had appeared out of nowhere. Councilor Quin charged the lead mage with a fierce battle cry, holding his sword high, and the mage blocked his first flurry of attacks with a seemingly simple wooden staff that slammed against Quin's sword with the sound of steel meeting steel.

The man Quin was fighting wore strangely-shaped silver gauntlets and boots along with his cloak, and he didn't look like a kathumis, but certainly wasn't human either. He was expertly maneuvering his staff with the use of four arms, and Velda saw giant bug-like eyes under the hood of his cloak when he looked up and noticed her. She was standing helplessly nearby with her back to the fight, still held in place by the Councilor's magic.