I beheld a vast chamber of dull red stone, the gold like metal we stood upon fading just outside of the arch, the chamber was circular with tiered rows of what appeared to be balconies and at each of them there were people, thousands of people. One the balconies nearest us I was able to see them in detail and I regretted it, many dressed in some of the most obscene things I had ever seen, garish clashing colors hurt the eyes, miasmic patterns among others that made me feel a lost of equilibrium before I had to look away to maintain my balance. Every site I stared upon seemed somehow worse then the last.
A giant hole in the ceiling was filled with hundreds of dangling chains, most of which had hooks on the end, some of which hung what could only be bodies. Casting my view away from them I looked upon the center of the chamber and found myself staring upon what looked like floating isles of rock and stone, somehow held aloft in the air, a great deal of them all throughout the chamber. I realized where the drumming sound was coming from, hundreds of people were rhythmically hammering on drums on each of these floating isles, all in perfect unison. I removed my helmet and gently took the Energetic Crystalis from Zehal and peered through it. As I suspected vast amounts of energy was literally flowing throughout the huge room but unlike what I had believed would be the case the isles of rock were not being directly supported by these currents, rather they were simply floating on them like ships on rivers. The people not only pounding on the drums but in the balconies were unsurprisingly wreathed in dark energies, normally I would have viewed a great deal of living energy, especially in a group this size, but they were all hollow, empty, husks willingly giving up the best of themselves for whatever empty promises the dark kyn had whispered in into their minds.
As I continued to examine the floating islands of rock and earth I noticed one in the center, by far smaller it was more like a small pillar of stone of the darkest obsidian. It held but one individual, hands held high into the air, a dark noxious cloud of vile energies swirling about it. The pillar was rotating so the figure currently had its back to me, I waited for the moment to tick until its face came into view and I almost hissed as I recognized him.
I lowered the Energetic Crystalis. "We've got a problem." I said.
"Oh just one?" Zehal said, turning me as she raised an eyebrow. "Well that's good because I thought we had a lot of problems but since there is just one that makes the problem manageable, right?"
"Sort of." I said, shaking my head. "The problem is that the dark kyn are not just involved with this, they are directly orchestrating it."
"What do you mean?" She asked. I handed her the Energetic Crystalis and told her to look toward the center of the chamber, to look for the single rotating pillar of rock. As she did so I saw her slowly stiffen. "What am I seeing?" She asked.
"Sagrith Olk." I spat the name. "He is a long standing enemy of the Order and in much older times he used to be one of us."
"One of you?" Zehal said, looking at me with a startled expression."
"Even the mightiest can fall." I said. "Sagrith was one of the founders of our Order when we came to these lands, a brother, our kyn or so we thought. His betrayal has cost us much. If the Order had known he was here they would have sent an army. He has much to answer for."
Zehal looked back through the Energetic Crystalis. "Why isn't he wearing armor?" She asked.
"It was destroyed." I said. "Some time after his initial betrayal which cost the lives of many in and out of the Order."
"So, if he is here..." She trailed off.
"Then whatever is happening is far, far more dire than we'd thought." I said. "And whatever it is, it is happening now."
"It could have something to do with the corruption of the standing army of Alfarok." She said,
"Oh it definitely has something to do with it, whatever this is it is far greater than the small army that would afford them, no I think that's just added security for this."
"Hmm." Zehal said. I looked back at her to find her staring through the Energetic Crystalis again, her neck craned up, a frown on her face.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I think I see a focal point of energy." She said,
"Let me see." I said. She handed the Crystalis to me and I peered through it at Sagrith, narrowing my eyes I saw the tiniest, most subtle hint of a channeling of energy around him, I tracked it all the way above him to the hole in the ceiling where I could see it no longer. "You have sharp eyes Zehal." I said, whistling. "That's near impossible to spot unless you know to look for it. How did you find it?" I asked, looking over at her.
"Well he's holding his hands in the air, I figured there had to be a reason for that so I just started looking and there it was." She shrugged. "Didn't seem that hard."
"Indeed." I said, smiling at her modesty. "Well now that we've spotted that I've got a rather bad feeling that I know exactly what they are doing." I said, looking back around at the chamber.
"That being?" Zehal asked.
"When I came here I spotted the form of an ethereal dragon bound to the castle." I said.
"Dragon?" Zehal said, blinking rapidly. "Giant, fire breathing, winged monster dragons that, if they ever were real, died a long time ago and are now mere myth..."
"Myth or not this was is quite real, bound in some ancient way I do not understand it is upon the fortress above us, its presence alone should be a nullifier for negative energy for some ways around it yet it bleeds energy and seems to be using its own to hold its coherency. This I could not fathom till just now."
"What are they doing to it?" Zehal whispered, piecing together my mindset.
"If I had to weather a guess I would say they are weakening it, purposely hurting it and once they are done they will attempt to tempt it to corruption and at its weakest it may just succumb."
"If it doesn't?" Zehal asked.
"Then killing it would provide a bountiful wealth of focused energy in the expulsion of its death that will more then make up for what they've expended from themselves and... forcefully expended from others." Zehal's jaw clenched at my last but with a look from me she breathed deeply again, relaxing herself. I nodded. "Don't give them victory." She nodded.
"Question though." Zehal asked. "If you saw its ethereal form on the fortress, where is the dragon itself? Its body I mean?"
"Probably long dead." I replied. "Whatever ancient power bound the dragon's ethereal essence to the Castle would have had to create an incredibly vast wealth of energy to keep the dragon's body alive over all these years which, if they did, would be arguably more impressive then binding the dragon here as even in hibernation, they need a great deal of energy to survive over such long periods of time. It's more likely that over the long years, the dragon's body died."
I turned my attention back to Sagrith. "They believe themselves protected here, they believe no threat has encroached upon them. Sagrith knows that if we learned of his location that we wouldn't just send a team after him this time, we'd send an army, so he's not looking for just two of us which would explain why there weren't more sentries, why there weren't more traps, he didn't believe they'd be necessary given the army he has protecting him above."
"So what do we do?" She asked. "I don't think we can get to him."
"We don't need to." I said. "We just need to thwart his plans, that will put a thorn in his side that will make him bleed for awhile."
"How do we do that?" Zehal asked.
"By doing something completely insane." I said with a smile.
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