The Abyss

Corruption

Ingrid knelt in the rippling dark red liquid she had been brought to clean, the darkness flickering off of it was illuminated by a single torch, warning her of the guards she was surrounded by.

Tomorrow.

Over and over she repeated the sign from her Priestess, kindled hope blazing inside her as she recalled the image of her miracle. Only outside of the dreamscape she had received it in, the extinguishing wind was more threatening. Yet there was no doubt inside her for she knew in one day's time that she would be free, they all would. The dark age would be over, and when Ingrid sees the rings in the sky led back by the Priestess, she would follow her back to the glory humans had previously achieved. Ingrid knew she had been chosen, and it was something she would not take lightly.

"Throw her in the Abyss." A voice scratched the walls bouncing around the room until it finally latched itself onto Ingrid's ears. "It'll teach the other humans a lesson."

Ingrid's eyes widened slightly as she resumed the task set before her, not realizing she had stopped in the first place. Memories flashed through her mind of the consequences she had received years ago for similar mistakes. Her arms continued to rotate in circling motions; the cloth was so soaked in blood it only served to spread the congealing liquid across the floor.

Minutes passed and Ingrid finally braced herself against her knees, slowly rising upwards. Trembling slightly, she expected a curved humanoid claw to stab her in the back and drag her into the Abyss, to the very thing her enemies had been born of. Eyes focused downward she was the perfect picture of human compliance, except for her toe desperately trying to smudge away the thin line of red she had only just noticed nestled up against her foot. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth for in a moment she would be all but forgotten.

"Such an inferior species." Another voice rumbled across the room, crackling inside Ingrid's eardrums. "There's no surprise they were conquered so easily."

Tomorrow, Ingrid thought, just survive one more day.

With her head hung downwards supported by bony shoulders and topped with a crown of stringy hair, Ingrid's fingers dug into her palm desperately trying to hold back her emotions. It didn't matter. After today nothing would matter anymore, she just had to live to see it.

"Human, you've missed a spot." For a singular second she stopped breathing and her body knew before her mind did, just who had spoken to her. Darkness bended inwards, drowning all sound, all sight, pardoning only the beating of her racing heart. She knew now why Primaris was called the First. As it had escaped the Abyss, Primaris seemed to have torn something from it for itself, a souvenir of some sort. A piece that had grown to topple civilizations.

None too gracefully Ingrid dropped to the floor in a make-shift kneel, ignoring the pain blossoming across the knee she had just crunched. Wiping at the small ringed shape the un-noticed blood had formed against the ground, she urgently tried to repair the minor infraction that for some reason had her on the hanging block . And as she continued to repeat the same thing she had been for hours. It was the only barrier keeping her pool of rage, and fear, from flooding over. One more day. I hear you, Priestess.

With wobbly knees Ingrid stood, her feet moving slowly to the exit. But when all light fled the room, Ingrid knew she faced death, since as her eyes snapped upwards she locked eyes with the one thing no one has ever lived to remember, Primaris. And for a fragile moment pain exploded upwards into her head as a seemingly tangible strand of darkness escaped from its body, striking against her, sending her flying against a dark throne, slicing her arm open on a stray blade dotted with a congealed black substance.

"You dare human," I'm sorry Priestess, I tried. "You are dismissed when I choose for you to be, you are nothing compared to me, nevertheless you choose to think of yourself as an equal." She refused to look up, focusing instead on stopping the profuse bleeding from her arm being sliced open, and not the mask of death peering over her. For she knew that one who sees Primaris' true face is not one who tends to live long. "I have slaughtered thousands of your pathetic species, so busy fighting amongst yourselves that they didn't notice until it was too late. We are anything but equals."

Thick darkness began to climb over her face as Ingrid knelt in a pile on the floor, smothering the image of Primaris stalking towards her. She had no idea if the thin scratches now scattered on her forehead was caused by Primaris or herself trying to tear it off.

Ingrid's mouth opened, sound forcing its way out of her body trying to escape as she wished she could, before being shoved back down by an indomitable force. Through the ocean rising in her mind, drowning out all elements of life, a wave slammed her façade of half-formed hope into a million pitiful drops.

Though Ingrid could see nothing, though she could only feel half her face, and though no air was allowed into her body. She knew her pool of blood would soon join the memory of the one she had just cleaned up. The scent of brimstone clouded the only senses she was allowed to have, staining chapped lips with death and inhaling it into her very soul. Hands lowering in acceptance, Ingrid tried drawing herself inwards. But time after time she was pushed back out, forced to face the ever growing throbbing of her cut arm, and the darkness attacking her. Primaris almost knew she was trying to escape, but neither a physical or spiritual one would be allowed.

Forgive me.

Ingrid's face turned a deep magenta, almost matching the shade of darkness that was pummeling her body's imprint into the cracked stone beneath her. "Primaris." Silence exploded inside her mind as its attention diverted, an abrupt contrast to the waves of noise she had experienced, "There's been a, development. It seems that, Moros', death has brought some ah, temper, from your other offspring."

All muscles in Ingrid's body were clenched, intent on seeming to shrink down into nothing, and when she pressed down on her hand, trying to stop the bleeding, the pain exploded throughout her body. Causing her visionless eyes to search for an escape but she knew none would be given.

Silence.

"You will not make such a grave mistake again, for my hesitation will come to an end. As would you." Primaris' voice slithered over and under the folds of darkness still wrapped around Ingrid's entire being this time leaving a burning sensation on her skin.

Needles nicked her arms and she would rather have welcomed a harsh death than this torment. Survive, just one more day. Ingrid continued to lay there as they left, her arm now freely bleeding all over the stones she had just cleaned. Still at the foot of Primaris' throne, she couldn't even chuckle at the irony, that she would likely die here just a single day before they all would be free.

And finally in one single moment, as the last blanket of Primaris' power was ripped off her being, all feeling returned to her body bringing with it a stabbing fire. Only retaining consciousness for a moment, the scream Ingrid had begun to let out was enough to shatter metal.