The Princess Quest

Demon In White

Arawn

"Oof!"

He tumbled out onto a dark, hardwood floor. He groaned, and slowly sat up looking around. His heart, and head, were pounding. His vision was blurred, but he could just make out a cloudy sky through a dusty window. 

"No, wait," he thought, as his vision cleared. The sky wasn't cloudy, it was just dark grey. That was the color of the actual sky. The ocean blue had been replaced with an ominous black.

"Miraelin," he thought.

He stood up, brushing off his clothes, and took a deep breath. He surveyed the room. Dark hardwood floors, an oak table with three chairs, and dusty kitchen counters in the dark far corner of the room. Faint rays of light beamed through the windows. 

Something was off. Arawn's hand went to his sword...that wasn't there. He silently cursed himself. He had dove through the portal without thinking. He didn't have magical powers like Roya and Calypso. He was weaponless.

Roya. What if he never returned? What if he was imprisoned forever, or what if the Bringer of Darkness killed him? He fought back tears, at the thought of losing her. 

Which brought him to the thought of Damien. He was here too...probably. Arawn looked around again, and saw a door. It was cracked open, and he could vaguely make out the shape of stairs. Advancing slowly towards them, he slowly eased the door open. His heart was pounding in his ears, and he took a few deep breaths to settle down and refocus. 

Arawn concentrated on himself, straining his senses. He couldn't see much, it was too dark, but there was faint music drifting from the bottom of the stairs. Puzzled, he quietly started creeping down the wooden stairs.

When he got to the bottom, he turned into a little room, and gasped.

Floating in the middle of the room was a black orb, with wispy tendrils shooting out of it from all directions. It seemed to be pulsing with power. It looked very, very powerful, and Arawn was afraid of what horrors it could possibly bring. 

It also appeared to be the source of the music. Or rather, what was kneeling below it. Damien was below it, on his knees, chanting in a language that Arawn didn't understand. 

"MajQa' HoS Ian qaStaHvIS jiH 'ej 'oh distribute qo' 'er'In Hop teH HoS, Darkness," Damien chanted. (Author's note, this is an actual language)

"Andrel would probably know it,"  Arawn thought. 

Every time Damien said 'HoS Darkness', the orb would shoot out a cannonball of darkness to the outside world. Damien repeated the phrase, and the orb shot it to a corner of the room. The ball stuck to the wall, and began spreading quickly around it.

"So that's how the infection spreads so quickly," Arawn thought. He watched as it engulfed a plant that was sitting on a nearby table. 

"Whoops!" Damien said cheerfully, and waved his hand. The darkness began smoking, and quietly burned away.

Damien turned around, and saw Arawn. Now that he was standing, Arawn could see that he was wearing an all white suit, with silver sequins. He was a very odd sight. His burned face in contrast to the white suit and his white hair made him look like a demon. 

"Well, well, well," he said, and he sashayed over to Arawn. "What do we have here?"

"Oh my god," Arawn rolled his eyes. "You know I jumped through the portal with you. It's been like, ten minutes. Stop being so dramatic."

Damien gasped, and put a hand to his heart as if Arawn had hit him. "Me, stop being dramatic? Darling, that is the definition of who I am. No wait, I'm the Bringer of Darkness. Then I'm dramatic. I'm the dramatic Bringer of Darkness!"

"Is there a point?" Arawn asked.

"The point is, you have no weapons, and I do. Therefore, I'm just going to do this-," he snapped his fingers and Arawn's hands and feet were bound with manacles. He flicked his wrist, and sent Arawn flying to the other side of the room.

"Does your precious princess know where you are?"

Arawn growled at him from his place on the floor.

"Hmm, didn't think so. I wonder who's feeding them, now that I'm not there."

"Let them go," Arawn said in a stern voice.

Damien contemplated this for a second. "Let's see," he said, pretending to think. "No. I don't see the benefit in it for me."

"Well here's your benefit," Arawn said. "You let them go, and when I get out of these chains, I won't smash your head in. Sound fair?"

Damien chuckled. "Oh, you're adorable thinking you can beat me in a fight. When your friends come...and I don't doubt that they will...I'll be ready."

"Oh you better be ready," Arawn shot back. "We don't like an easy fight. Roya thinks people who make fights easy are mocking us," he looked Damien up and down, and smirked. "So you better step up your game."

Damien roared, and slammed his fist into the wall beside Arawn's head. "Let's see what a couple days down here will do to that ego," he growled. "If you behave, I won't torture you. If you don't behave, I'll have you begging for death by this time tomorrow. That is my bargain."

"Not much of a bargain," Arawn said.

Damien punched him in the face, and the last thing he heard was the click of the lock, as Damien walked out the door.