Immortal Game of Fate

6: Secrets and Deadly Lies

~ Cyra Helia, Umbra ~

Rio leads Elfie and I away from the council chambers. But as the three of us walk into the long corridors of the palace we call home, we run into one of the guards. One of the bodyguards of ours. Aikash Viator, a Mirage.

"Greetings to you, my princesses," she says, fisting her left hand and bowing low. Her curly black hair, tied into an intricate braid, falls over her shoulder, sweeping her chest. Her blue and silver armor is gleaming in the torchlight.

Aikash stands slowly, her hazel eyes flicking between the three of us.

"Aikash," Rio says, her tone dripping with the casual grace only she can achieve. "Care to follow us someplace?"

"Of course, Princess Rio," she says. "May I inquire as to where we are headed tonight?"

Rio smiles at her. "Well, where would be the fun in that, Aikash?"

Aikash narrows her eyes. "Princess Rio, if i am to help you, please tell me where I am going, where we will be heading. I need to know so I may secure your safety. The safety on all of you."

"Well .... like I said, the fun is in not knowing," Rio insists.

Before either Elfie or I can say anything, Rio marches on. So, reluctantly, we follow our sister, Aikash taking up the back of the group, softly muttering about duty.

Aikash is by far the most loyal of the guards. But she can get a bit tired of Rio's "I know better than you do" act. We all do. But regardless, Elfie and I follow her into the bowels of the keep.

When we at last reach the Dim Caves, well below the Keep, I shudder at the cold, my Umbra magick swirling about within the dark corners of the corridors. I sense their words, an unspoken language. They whisper to me, telling me to run. To turn back. That this, whatever we find here, it will not be good. It will not be what we want, nor will it be what Rio herself wants.

Rio tilts her head as we walk into a dimly lit chamber within the caverns, and she raises her hand, a small flame blooming above it. The small flickers of fire float out from the fire, floating above the heads of each of us.

"Where .... are we?" Elfie asks softly.

"Someplace not even the gods can see," Rio whispers. She steps up to a huge, carved door. There are runes etched into the stone, which glow in the firelight. Rio hums, gently tracing the symbols in the door. The symbols glow as she moves free of them to go to the next. She nods to me. "Cyra, please. Help."

"What is it?" I ask her. "How do I help?"

She points to the door. "This is a sacred place, Cyra, Elfie, and Aikash. We can seek out what we need to help us, to help us with the coming wars."

I glance at Aikash, the strong, tall Black woman tensing visibly and shaking her head. "No, Rio. This isn't right. Whatever this place is, it's —"

"No, Aikash," Rio hisses.  "Trust me, we need to see this through, okay?"

"See what through, Rio? Please, enough with the cryptic things. This is a bit .... odd. Please, just tell us what we are doing here! Where we even are!"

Rio sighs, her shoulders slumping. "It will all make sense as soon as Cyra and I open this door."

I tilt my head. What is she planning? What's behind that door? And why does it feel .... off? There is a strange sensation, something that lurks deep within that room beyond the door. Something ancient, primal, something that is all too aware of us being here, as well as our powers.

"Come on, Cyra! We need to open this damn door!"

I groan and step up beside her. I press my hand to the freezing stone, and I feel a strange pulsing energy that thumps through my blood and bones. I feel the strange, shivering feeling. I take a deep breath, and Rio presses her own hand to the door.

There is a heartbeat. Something I can ... I can almost taste the raw energy that pulses all around the four of us. I gasp as the door rumbles deep and low, shuddering hard. I step back, but my hand seems frozen to the door.

"What?" I ask, my own heart somehow thumping in tune with this odd pulsing. I can't feel more than the energies and my heart in sync with that heartbeat.

Elfie steps behind me, but hesitates. "Cyra, are you okay?"

The door trembles, before finally, it starts to slide open. The sound is of stone grating on stone. I yelp as the frozen feeling flees, and I fall back into Elfie's arms. She helps me support myself until I'm standing up again.

"Rio, what the fuck?" Elfie demands.

Aikash gasps, then chuckles as she checks to ensure I'm okay.  "I am one to agree with what Princess Elfie just said."

The door opens, and Rio, who remains silent, casts the flickers of fire into the room beyond. The room is lit by the flickers, and I gasp as I see what is inside it.

The walls are thick, black stone covered in gore, blood, and many other things I don't think I want to identify. The floor is the same black stone, but in the center is a thick grate that appears to have been woven into the stone. I shiver hard as I see the woman laying in the back of the cell.

In this form, she is a skinny, weakened blonde woman. Her hair impossibly long and dirty. Her tan skin is cut to bloody ribbons, her shivering form hunched over on the floor. She looks up at us with pure hatred.

"I have long thought I would go mad in here," she says in an ethereal and silky voice. "I am not your prisoner, Princess Rio of the Wildfire. I will not be caged by the likes of you!"

"And yet, here you are, Druna, the once proud Goddess of the Banshees."