Advent of Eternity - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

They continued down the stairwell, their steps echoing through the darkness. It took them nearly five minutes to reach the base of the stairwell. The wall was covered with a thin layer of greenish water, but it was surprisingly sound.

“I’m surprised it isn’t flooded,” Stix said, looking around the small circular room they’d arrived in. Several corridors snaked away, disappearing into the shadows. “But where to now? Something tells me this place will be like a maze once we get started. How are we going to find a single prisoner that may or may not even be alive?”

“Hello?” Knell yelled at the top of his lungs, causing Stix to curse and flinch back, her eyes darting around the room as she drew both of her daggers. Knell’s voice echoed through the halls, slowly fading away.

“What are you doing?” Stix hissed. “You’ll give us away!”

“To whom?” Knell asked. “You said it yourself. If there’s anyone alive here, it’s Cyll the Unyielding. There isn’t anyone to give our position away to.”

“What if he’s loose?” Stix whispered. “He could come kill us!”

“He would have already left if he was loose,” Knell replied. “He can’t die, remember? He could just walk across the sea floor.”

Stix opened her mouth to reply, but a soft, wheezing noise brushed out of a tunnel to their left. It was impossible to make out any words within it. Stix stiffened.

“Well, there we go,” Knell said, starting down toward the tunnel. He glanced back at Stix. “Keep up. I’m not going to waste time waiting around.”

She cursed again and jogged to catch up with him. Knell’s eyes lit a faint yellow as they walked.

“Aren’t you being a little under cautious?” Stix whispered. A droplet of water dripped from the ceiling and landed on her back, causing the moon elf to flinch. “This place is creepy.”

“It’s just an abandoned fort,” Knell replied.

He motioned for her to cover her ears, which Stix did without hesitation. They continued for several more minutes, passing cells made of metal bars as thick as their forearms. Unlike the rest of the fort, the cells looked to be in perfect condition.

“Could you make another noise? We’re trying to find you,” Knell called out as they turned a corner and reached a fork in the tunnel.

A ragged cough reverberated from the righthand side. It was considerably louder this time. Knell set off and Stix followed after him, her daggers at the ready.

They passed by dozens of other cells, many of which had skeletons in various stages of decay within them. Knell stepped over the hand of a man reaching out of the cell and Stix skirted around it.

“Some of these people must have been pretty strong if their bodies still haven’t started to rot,” Knell observed. “High profile place.”

“Hello?” A voice whispered, dry and ragged from years of disuse. It came from a way down the hall, behind a large, rotted wooden door covered with rune markings. Stix stiffened.

“Hello,” Knell replied, his staff clicking against the stone as he walked up to the door and peered through a crack in it. “Just to be safe, could you please tell me your name?”

“Cyll,” the voice rasped after several moments. “Who are you?”

Knell wedged his staff into a gap in the door and jerked it to the side, shattering the rotted wood. He squeezed through the door and into a large room behind it.

“Wait!” Stix hissed. “What if he’s waiting for us there?”

“I trust he could have broken an old wooden door,” Knell called back. “Besides, I see him.”

A thick metal trapdoor sat before Knell, a tiny viewing hole at its top just large enough for him to squint through. With Stix’s light, he could just barely make out an emancipated figure at the bottom of a pit around fifteen feet deep.

“Who are you?” Cyll repeated. His voice was like a dying winter breeze. “The Ruler’s men, come to squint at the scary prisoner?”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Knell replied. “I’m here of my own volition.”

Cyll turned to look up at him through the view hole. His stark, green eyes were framed by a white beard that ran all the way down to his feet like a cloak.

“Why?”

“To free you, on a few conditions,” Knell replied.

“I’ll agree to just about anything,” Cyll rasped. “What do you want?”

“You,” Knell replied.

Stix and Cyll both snorted at the same time.

“Not like that,” Knell added irritably. “I’m putting a pirate crew together, and I have need of your talent.”

“Done and done,” Cyll said.

“Wait, he could be lying!” Stix hissed. “You can’t just believe him.”

“Of course not,” Knell agreed. “Do you follow any of the Twelve, Cyll?”

“The gods? Depends,” he replied. “Do you want me to?”

“I’ll take that as a no,” Knell said with a smirk. “Then I’ll appeal to your logic. Join me and I’ll give you revenge on the people that betrayed you. Follow my commands for a few measly years – it’s not like you’ve got any shortage of life left in you. Betray me and you’ll end up right back in another hole when they catch you again. And, next time, I doubt you’ll find another person so willing to help anytime soon.”

“I already said yes,” Cyll said with a dry cough. “I’d wash shoes for a hundred years if it got me out of here.”

“Stix, could you leave for a little?” Knell asked. “You’re only a temporary member right now, so unless you want to fully commit to the crew, I’ll need some time alone with my prospective crewmate.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Stix said, glancing at the trapdoor. “You trust him more than me?”

“No. But he’s more desperate than you,” Knell replied.

Stix pursed her lips, then nodded. “I’m going down the hall. If something attacks me, you better get your ass out here to help me fight.”

She turned and headed back past the rotted door. Knell waited until her footsteps faded, then turned back to the trapdoor. He studied it, then placed his staff near the center. The claws at its base twitched as his eyes lit a brilliant yellow.

Knell raised the staff and jabbed it into one of the runes. The claws tightened, digging into the stone and, with a sharp twist, he ripped a small chunk of the stone away. A small puff rose up from the trapdoor as the magic within it was broken. He straightened and jabbed the staff into a thin gap between the trapdoor and the floor, levering it open with a groan.