Finding The Keys

Chapter 56

One by one everyone else fell asleep for the night and I silently gathered my things. I look around what would soon be my room right now it just contained a desk and small cot for me to sleep on.

I place my key ring on my belt loop, shut my door, and then open my window slowly, my room was on the first floor so I slowly hopped out the window. My feet made a soft crunch in the snow and I carefully shut the window, Raven was in Thomas's room with BlueEyes making sure she didn't get scared if she woke up. I walk carefully into the forest a decent ways before lighting my hair up. I didn't want to alert the wolves that I was outside. I continued to walk, keeping on hand on my keys and the other in the general area of a tiny coin pouch which stored my present from my dad and Aunt Hecate. Soon I stop, the slow blowing wind whirling around me, there is a hooded figure ten feet from me.
"Hello there" the figure states softly in a raspy voice. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes" I say, dimming my hair slowly, redrawing the energy in as much as I can.
A hole in the snow appears between us, its inky black color is oddly inviting. The figure stepped towards the hole, prompting me to do so as well. As I walk towards the hole it changes color, growing lighter and lighter towards a white. The figure seems surprised by this but continues anyways, stopping at the end of the hole, I stop as well.
"In we go" the figure says offering their hand to me, I am hesitant to take it, but this person has done not wrong to me yet so I take their hand and jump, disappearing into the hole in the ground.
Next thing I know I am standing alone in a large room. The floors and walls are concrete, the ceiling is steel grid plating, showing to a darkened room above.
There is a door infront of me, I walk towards it reaching for the handle to see if it is unlocked, which to my surprise it is. I open the door and walk out, closing it behind me. This walkway was lined with other doors behind some of which I heard silent chatting, there were things behind the doors could hear me. The hall ended in a gigantic room in which stood a humanoid figure in a mask.
"Well well, the little princess is here" the figure says aggressively.
"I am not a princess," I sat bluntly, pulling my left foot back behind my right, "where is Mysol."
"Stright to the point are we?" The masked figure say their voice laced with agitation of how I showed little to no interest in their joke.
"Yes."
"Be careful Misstress. That person is very strong and that not the person who called you" Puppet said, "their voices don't match up. The person you met in the woods is also no where to be seen"
"Yes be careful..."
'I will guys, don't you worry' I rensure them sliently, taking a quick glance around the room.
"Well," the masked figure says clearing their throat, "This won't take long but I'll let you see them before your demise..." The figure snaped their fingers and three parts of the wall behind the figure vanished leaving the blue shimmering walls of magic. Behind the biggest magic wall laid a black dragon, silvery chains covered the dragons body pulling it to the ground. The room was larger than the one I started in but much smaller than the one I was in now. The dragon was bundled tightly in the room, it's tail wraped around its body, almost touching its face again.
In the next magic window was a room similar in size to the one I started in. In this room, a gray haired figure was chained to the wall by four restraints on their arms and legs, two red and grey doll like creatures were chained beside the figure. In the smallest room, about a quarter of the size I started in, sat a little girl, only about nine or ten years of age, she was help to the wall by a single arm chain giver her the most movement of the three.
"Mysol, Delior, Cerna....." I spoke softly, Mysol opened her eyes quickly after hearing me speak her name, but Delior and Cerna did not move.
Mysol tried to stand but after an aggressive rattle of chains she gave up, unable to move.
"Well now, I see you have two keys on you. Would you like to hand then over before I force you too?" The figure said eyeing the key ring on my belt.
"No way" I say placing my hand protectively over my key ring. "I told you, I am not giving them up" I reach into my coin pouch and pull out my coin. I hold it in in my fingers ready to activate it.
"Alright then," the figure said taking a step towards me. The air pressure suddenly increases and it imeadtly becomes hard to breathe. "How long will the little flame last with out air?"
I take a few steps forward only to smack into the side of a glass barrier. "What?" I say quickly trying to conserve my oxygen.
"Just a little glass chamber for you darling." The figure said their eyes in their mask glowing red.
"Use heat!" Rosefang shouts, "Heat up the air! It will cause it to expand! You heating it up enough will cause the glass to break!"
I nod slightly knowing that they can see my body movements. I start heating up my torso, it took less enery to heat areas closer to the flame source than farther away. The masked figure watched as I took a step back from the wall and kneeled down to fake fatigue.
"Yes there you go darling. Go on. Die out now. Let your flame die out." The masked figure said smiling slightly.
I feel the air pressure rise more from the heating of the air. I keep my breathing slow and steady just like I did in practice to learn my magic. All it takes a little bit of time and I have my breathing back under control. Now with a steadier source of oxygen I expand the heating of my body out to my elbows and knees.
'Almost there...'I say to myself as I notice the glass begin to flex and warp to the heat of the area inside.
"You would think they would use heat resistant glass" Puppet says shaking her head with a slight laugh.
"Do it!" Rosefang squeaks, "I am ready to fight!"
'Fine.... Fine.... Here we go!' I say to them, I move from a kneel to a lunge. The figure is watching me now, seemingly a bit taken back. I feel a pulse of pride ding off in my heart and I smile.
Drawing my coin from the pouch once again I whisper a single word.
"Scythe."
Flipping the coin into the air it dissappers, my scythe taking its place. I catch the beautiful weapon in my hand.
The figure, still seems confused by my motions, takes a step back toward a table behind them that I had not noticed before. On it sits a celestical bronze sword and a similar dagger. This figure was currently unarmed but has access to the weapons to hurt me.
I lunge forward, holding the scythe sideways, using the blade to stab the slightly molten glass bubble around me. Once the glass was punctured, there was a mass blast of air.
Throwing the figure back and me forward, the air redistributes in the room. As the figure regains their footing I regain my breath and run at them, my scythe coiled to strike. The figure, how has regained their footing, runs to the table grabbing the sword and dagger.
"Flame Armor..." I mutter, fire bursting out of my clothes and transforming into a breastplate and protection for my legs. The figure took a fighting stance and awaited my charge. I swing my scythe only for it to met the harsh crash with the celestial bronze sword. Pulling back my scythe I quickly take a few steps back to avoid getting hit. The figure charges after me their sword pulled back expertly, I lower my scythe and prepare to strike their legs hopefully knocking them off their feet. I keep my eyes on their blade, suddenly they were behind me, bringing the blade down on my back. I grunt and throw my arm with my scythe behind me, hoping to strike them in the legs. But the sering pain in my left shoulder blade stops it from helping much. I spin around to face my attacker simultaneously throwing a ball of fire onto my wound, charring it shut to stop the bleeding.
"Well, there's another scar to not tell Dem about" Puppet sighs in my head.
'Yeah, that one isn't going to heal soon either, this one will take longer.'
My attacker readjusted their mask and stood about ten feet away from me their sword primed and ready to strike, showing high interest in how I patched my wound.
I raise my scythe again using mainly my right arm, my left arm was slightly numb and no where near as strong as it was before the blade cut into my shoulder blade. I needed to get the cloak off this figure to looked to only be a simple material so lighting it on fire should work. I hold my scythe tightly channelling my magic into the blade. The red veins of metal in the scythe began to glow. The figure charged, I just had to touch them, that's all I had to do.
The figure swings, but to early, it clashes harmlessly off my breastplate. I swing my scythe and catch the figure in the side. I watch as the blade makes contacts with the cloak and ignites into flames. Following threw with my swing, I hit their side and back with the blade, sending them stumbling forwards towards me. I raise my scythe and jump backwards as they scuffle their footing back together. My left arm is still in emense pain but the adrenaline is helping numb it for now. The figure drops the sword and pulls the dagger from their belt.
Running forward they have failed to notice that their cloak is slowly burning away. The tiny line of flames slowly creeping up the cloak at such a low heat that it seem that they were unable to feel it.
"You need to die!" The figure screams, charging a bit recklessly towards me. The small dagger in hand.
The reckless charge caused me to see something, the cloak was finally beginning to fall off, I caught a glimpse of the tone of their skin, an all to fimilar grey and the tips of two wings poked out behind their shoulders. This was a fury, the first one I had fought alone knowing what was going on. Besides that, its features where very androgynous, their thin frail looking body covered entirely in dark blue clothing. Despite being part fury I lacked a fury form, mother never knew why I did but I didn't care, I was focused on this fury's current advance. They were getting reckless, their form was slopply and not timed well. I raise my scythe again and prepare to hit them again along with building engery up just below my skin on my back.
I move two steps back as they advance, once they are within range I swing my scythe again, I hit them in the stomach with the dull side of my scythe, causing them to fold over holding their stomach.
"You are going to have to kill them" Puppet says, "there is no way we can talk them down out of this."
"Killing them is not an option, that person is a fury. They will be back."
'Alright' I say taking a deep breath, I slowly raise my scythe and approach the fury. They are kneeling to the ground, the cloak falling into shambles around them. Blood dotted their upper lip and they looked up at me with a saddened look in their eyes. I froze, "Rosefang. Will you." I say audibly, looking at the figure.
A maroon haired figure appers beside me, carefully taking the scythe from my hands. I go over to the cages and try to figure out the way to get them out as Rosefang finishes the fury off. As the adrenaline begings to wear off I began to feel lightheaded, I dispelled the flame armor and leaned against the wall.
Mysol is watching me carefully, her eyes glancing down to my stomach, I look down myself, a large gash has made its home there.
I slide down the wall onto the floor, the hit to my breastplate actually did some damage. I couldn't afford a burn there. I wouldn't be able to fight well as the burn would limit my movement. After finishing off the Fury, Rosefang saw me on the ground and rushed to my side, putting the scythe back into its coin form. She laid me back onto her lap and began to assess the gash across my stomach.
"The wound is not very deep Mistress," she says looking up at Cerna's cage, "if we get Cerna out this will be healed in a jiffy."
"Okay" I say softly as Rosefang moves ny hand to put pressure on the wound.
"I am going to switch with Puppet now Mistress, Puppet will be to handle this better."
I nod slightly, Rosefang lowers my head down to the ground and disappears, a few seconds later she is replaced with Puppet.
"You okay Mistress? Are you feeling light headed?" She says observing my wound, and feeling my head.
"A little bit" I say, "Rosefang said Cerna could fix this?"
"Yes, she can heal you, we just have to get her out, she hasn't moved at all since we got here correct?"
"No"
"Then she is probably unable to hear or see us," Puppet looked up and down the walls, "there are pretty ancient Runes, I have never seen them before."
"Mysol can hear and see us" I say looking towards the large cage with the dragon, "right Mysol?"
Mysol responded with a violent shake of her chains, she staired at Puppet for a few seconds before looking to the top left of her cage where there was a large vent, large enough for a human to fit threw. I look up as we and see the vent leading into this room.
"I could get up there" I say trying to sit up, "I would just need to use my wings"
"Yes you could, but you shouldn't Mistress, your wound is far to unstable right now along with the gash on your shoulder, your wings will most likely rip it open."
"I know," I say refusing to laying back down on the ground, "how do you propose getting up there?"
"Your bow." She says simply, "may I see it?"
I hand her my coin and she transforms it into its bow form. Conjuring an arrow from her magic, Puppet attaches a magic string to the arrow and nocks it. Puppet and I practiced archery a lot together after getting to coin as I had little to no experience with a bow or any weapon besides the scythe which felt oddly natural when I first picked it up.
Puppet shot the arrow just above the vent and grabbed onto the string and tugged to make sure it was secure. The arrow stuck into the wall and didn't budge.
"I still don't understand how the magic string works" I say as Puppet turns the bow back into a coin and hands it to me.
"Its pretty simple I belive, you attach the string to something and it becomes as strong as the creature that created it needs it to be. But it only lasts for an hour."
"But it's called a soul string," I say coughing slightly from the floor, "does something bad happen if it breaks?"
"Not now," Puppet says begin to climb the rope, "just rest Mistress, to much movement right now will hurt you."
I scanned the room again, the figures body who attacked me carefully tucked away in a corner their still burning cloak covering their frail body carefully, the flames slowly eating away at the fabric of the cloak.
The tall ceiling made room for minor flying for a human or humanoid but no where near as big as for Mysol to stretch her wings to their full extent.
This room was made to contain large creatures, but not large enough to contain them comfortably. I watched as Puppet climbed the wall towards the vent and I contuined to hold pressure on my stomach wound. Luckily the blood is only light red in color, not a dark crimson which would show major damage. I staggered up to my feet and leaned against the wall, getting most of my support from it. I looked at Mysol who was watching me intensely, I am guessing because she was worried about my wound.
"I am alright Mysol," I say softly. "Everything will be okay."
Puppet slides into the vent leaving its cover dangling by a single bolt, who knows how she unscrewed it . The light began to flicker and a low pitched wails echoed through the hall I came from originally, likely from the creatures in the cages. I stared down the hallway as its lights go dark. I grab my coin transforming it into a bow, I dock an arrow and wait. The soft thud of foot steps echo towards me, I aim down the hallway. One of every four of the foot steps seemed to be dragged across the cement floor.