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The Seven Arts of Death

 
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9/17/2008 16:59:24   
Arthur The Brave One
Member

- Chapter 1: Dire Punishment -


He woke up, feeling a dire pain at his wrists, and slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't immediately see anything, however, as his current location was rather dark. Once his eyes got adjusted to the light, or rather, the lack of it, he gazed up to his arms. It appeared he was hanging from a bunch of chains firmly bound around his wrists, thereby nigh completely blocking the flow of blood into his hands, making them feel kind of... lifeless. It seemed the chains were bound to the ceiling, which was apparently made of sturdy stone bricks, mostly covered in green moss. This moss glowed with a sickening green light, which was the only reason why he was able to see anything at all. As his eyes strolled around his current location, he found out that the room was shaped like a perfect cylinder. It had a terrible odor to it, resembling the smell of rotting corpses.... He'd rather not think about that. Not yet, anyway.

He looked below, and didn't see anything that looked like a bottom, a door, a window, or any possible route to survival. He formed a tiny fireball in his mouth, and spit it towards where the bottom should be. It kept flying until he couldn't even see the bright light it gave off anymore. It wouldn't surprise him if it was a bottomless pit, really. He felt confused. How the hell did he get in here, and why? And more importantly: how would he get out?

Hmmm.... If I somehow figure out a way to remove these chains, I'll fall down, and, most likely, die. If I just keep hanging here, my hands'll eventually fall off from bloodloss, and I'll fall down anyway. It seems luck isn't on my side today.

Gradually, his conscious became aware of a sound that his unconscious was already aware of, and then listened closely and hopefully to this distant sound, as it might be someone who had come to free him from this rather uncomfortable prison. With a shock he realized it was not.

That sounds like... dripping water...?

The dripping turned into a more constant sound, as if the amount of water pouring down was increasing... Suddenly, he felt a tiny drop of water falling on his face.

Huh...?

It appeared the water was falling upwards from the bottom of this pit... Which meant it most likely wasn't bottomless after all. However, water falling upwards isn't really something you see everyday. He felt his hands get a little wet and looked up again. The water was now also dripping from the ceiling down his hands and arms.

The water is both rising and falling? What kind of room is this?

He now also noticed, with a slight bit of nausea, that the water was colored a fluorescent green. The stains of blood on his once perfectly white jeans mingled with the water, forming a dirty shade of brown all over them.

What the...

The slimy, mossy roof was already entirely covered in the green liquid, and the water level was still rising. Or falling, depending on how you look at it. He could also clearly hear that the water falling downwards was now falling on at least a good few centimeters of water.

So I'm getting drowned from both below and above? That must be the most original execution ever... Still, there's got to be a way out of this...

He tried melting his chains with a bit of fire magic, but it appeared they were quite heat-resistant. They didn't even get a little warm. Also, controlling the water in any way appeared impossible as well. He tried breaking the walls with all sorts of magical attacks: breaking the bricks with earth magic, demolishing them with lightning, freezing and breaking them with ice, incinerating them with fire, blowing them away with wind, making them explode with his own secret combination of a few of these... but nothing helped even the slightest bit.
He felt waves of fear passing through him like electricity, a sensation he hadn't felt in a long time...

This is... rather bad. Is death the only option, then?

As he desperately kept searching for a way to get out of this chamber of death, the water constantly rose higher, bringing him closer and closer to his inevitable fate...



Comments Thread

< Message edited by Arthur The Brave One -- 4/24/2009 18:34:24 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 1
9/17/2008 17:01:39   
Arthur The Brave One
Member

- Chapter 2: Perhaps Not... -

While our friend in the strange room was still struggling against his apparently inevitable death, two men were having a mysterious conversation in a dark room...

"How is the project going, Alphonse? Is everything going according to plan?" A deep voice carrying throughout the room originated from a tall man wearing a large black cloak, his words radiating power.

"Yes, master; he is now experiencing the first art. And from the looks of it, he is definitely going to d-," but the other black-cloaked man with the rather raw voice was cut off mid-sentence by the one he called his master.

"Silence! Do you really think he would get killed by the very First Art!? No... He'll live to eventually see all of my magnificent work... all Seven Arts of Death. After all, he was the best student I ever had... and will have. Too bad it'll have to end like this..." and in a slightly softer voice, he continued: "Poor Richard."

"Of course, master, please forgive me my insolence."

"That's alright, Alphonse. No harm was done. But remember, don't underestimate him ever again. I don't want to lose you too, my friend..."

As the two men fell in silence, Richard was starting to really feel the heat in what the two man had called "The First Art of Death". He didn't know its name yet, however, and most likely there were few things he could have possibly been less interested in at the moment. After all, he was still hanging from the ceiling of the stinky, slimy room that was slowly filling with green water.

Damn! Think, Richard, think! There must be something in this completely stuffed head of yours that can save you!

And then it suddenly came to him. It was a flashback of his grandfather, who had been a man of great wisdom. When he was still alive, Richard had been only eleven at that moment, his grandfather had told him that, if he was to ever find himself in a seemingly impossible situation, he had to first think reasonable. Once all reason has been thought of, the unreasonable comes into play. "And what happens if you can't find the answer even in the unreasonable?" Richard had asked. His grandpa had been quiet for a few seconds and then, with a loud laugh, he had answered: "If that ever happens, you're really screwed, Richard!" He had been able to laugh about it back then. Right now, it didn't really amuse him anymore.

Let's start off with the reasonable, then, he thought to himself.

Splash. The green-colored water had now risen to the point where the tips of his dark blond hair got all wet from the splashing water.

It appears that the chains are resisting any kind of spell I throw at them, as do the walls, and I can't control the water either.... Which means no magic on the walls, the chains, or the water.

Splash. The water was now nearing the top of his head.

And thus we have arrived at the unreasonable, he thought with an inner sigh.

Splash. The water was now trying to soak his eyebrows. His hands, which had been in this water for quite some time now, felt a little... strange. This could have been caused by a lack of blood, of course. He couldn't see them and check it though, as looking up would cause the suspicious green water to get into his eyes, something he thought safer if prevented.

If magic on the surroundings doesn’t work, perform magic on yourself! Of course! However... it's going to be quite dangerous... more like suicide, really.... However, even though I might not survive if I use it, if I don’t I’ll die for sure, I guess. Well... Here goes nothing.

He was about to perform one of the hardest magical acts: turning your body temporarily into sheer elemental power. This allows the user to even pass straight through walls, and it actually absorbs other elemental energy used against the user. However, it carries a great risk, because if the elemental energy isn't kept stable, the user will fade away in the blink of an eye - not really something that's good for your health.

Richard now concentrated his energy, and focused all his mind on becoming pure wind. It was a miraculous sight to behold: the young man slowly turned into a concentration of pure air. First, it seemed like his skin got a little grey. Gradually, it turned transparent. After that, his flesh turned grey as well, but it seemed to slowly dissolve into thin air rather than becoming transparent. In the end, he looked pretty much like a human-shaped glass statue containing constantly swirling air. He struggled a bit, and then his arms just slid through the chains without even moving them, as if he wasn’t even there. And then he was free.

However, it appeared he hadn’t performed truly perfect. The green water falling down was now defiled with a small, yet clear stream of red. From the pain in his right foot, he could tell he hadn’t turned his entire body back into flesh. He gave a quick glance, and found out there was a small, perfectly triangular hole in it, going all the way through, as if someone had cut a piece out of his foot with a knife. That, however, wasn’t his greatest concern. Because as he was now no longer tied to the ceiling by the mysterious chains, he was falling down at high speed!

Oh crud… I really screwed up this time, gramps…

< Message edited by Arthur The Brave One -- 6/22/2009 15:49:48 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 2
9/17/2008 17:02:51   
Arthur The Brave One
Member

- Chapter 3: Breaking the Limits -

Falling down the dark shaft, he had to make a split-second decision. He grabbed his two daggers and focused his magical energy through the weapons, enabling them to, well, cut things easier. Then, he used all the strength left in his arms to strike them into the wall. It didn't work, however. The mossy wall appeared to be protected by some sort of magical barrier, blocking both all magical and physical attacks, seeing as the blades were apparently reflected by it.

As he was still falling down, he was reassured of his earlier thought of this shaft being rather deep. And for the first time in his life, Richard was out of ideas. He didn't have enough energy left to perform the elemental shapeshift move again, and couldn't think of any other magic that could possibly save him.

Is this the end?

He must have been falling for about seven to ten seconds. Then, he felt himself slowing down. He couldn't help but feel a slight bit of wonder, because it is obviously impossible to just randomly slow down while falling.

What the heck? This is new... I remember falling down that cliff last month, but I can't remember slowing down there... or falling this long, actually...

When he finally came to see the water that was at the bottom of the shaft, he was going considerably slow, actually. And then, when he was just about to fall into the water on the bottom, he just stopped falling. At all.

Okay... What's happening here? I mean, really, did God just decide to start ignoring all laws of physics or something? Am I perhaps dreaming this?

After giving himself a tiny slice, he noticed, thanks to jolts of pain shooting from his finger to his head, that he most definitely wasn't dreaming this whole event. But if it wasn't a dream, what kind of twisted reality was he currently located in?

And then, he started falling again. However, this time, he fell towards what he had thought to be the top of the shaft.

How is this possible?! There is no such thing as a spell that alters gravity... And it isn't just a turning room, because if it would be like that, I would have come to land on the walls at a certain moment. Besides, the water falls down to both the top and the bottom. Geez... what kind of weird place is this? I don't remember being sucked into some kind of dimension portal...

Again, it was like a bright flash. 'If you can't find the answer in the reasonable, search for it in the unreasonable.' Of course this wasn't some alternate dimension, and of course the gravity wasn't altered. This was an illusion.

But hell, if it is, this is not just your normal illusion... It'd have to be a mind-body binding illusion. I've never even heard of anyone who could pull this off... let alone such a perfect one. It can't be... can it?

While Richard was still struggling with the fact of whether or not it was possible to perform a real mind-body binding illusion was possible, he was falling down faster than last time, and he knew it. And this time, the point where he completely stopped falling he was already halfway in the water, soaking his pants even more, and dangerously nearing his dark red shirt.

"Dammit! Those clothes are expensive, you damn' water!" His voice now outraged, while it was normally calm and clear, sounded through the dark shaft like a thunderbolt, and it seemed the room actually shivered for a second. It was rather brief and barely noticeable, as to a degree that most people wouldn't have noticed it.

Afterwards he first mentally kicked himself for shouting against water, and secondly, he noticed how the room reacted to his voice. He was now sure about the room being an illusion, as the sudden outburst of his raging voice had apparently weakened it for about a second.

"I refuse to lose to such a pathetic thing as an illusion, you hear me!" He shouted, even louder and vicious than last time. Now, the room was clearly shivering under the sheer power of his voice, which was packed with magical energy in his rage.

He was now falling towards the other side again, but he barely even noticed it. He put his hands together and closed his eyes.

I...

He now began shining with a dim, white luminosity.

Shall...

The light got brighter, revealing the immensity of the shaft. It must have been at least a hundred meters long, and it was filled with a couple meters of water on the top and the bottom.

Not...

The glow got even brighter, and then he suddenly opened his eyes, even though they could not be seen thanks to their blinding brightness.

"LOSE!"

He let out a huge wave of white energy, and the room trembled heavily.

Illusion Breaker: Final Relief he shouted mentally as he let loose another giant energy wave, which made the room flicker and break down in shards of lucidity.

All Richard saw was a bright light, and then.... nothing.

< Message edited by Arthur The Brave One -- 11/20/2008 15:00:38 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 3
11/3/2008 16:27:40   
Arthur The Brave One
Member

-Chapter 4: Awakening-

When he woke up, he couldn’t move a muscle. His arms, his legs, his toes, his eyelids; all of them had become completely useless. The same went for all his senses. It was a very weird state. All he knew was that he was awake. His senses were completely shut down by his immense consuming of magical energy. Just the illusion breaking spell alone would have been enough to completely drain most people to unconsciousness; he had actually used it directly after an Elemental Transformation. It was a miracle that he was still alive, really.

It really started to annoy him now. All he could do was think. He had never felt like this: he had absolutely no idea of what his surroundings looked like, he couldn’t even make sure whether or not he was alive.

After hours, perhaps even days of lying completely motionless, barely capable of breathing, he had finally regained his sense of feel. However, it didn’t help him very much. Now he noticed he was lying down very uncomfortably on something that was really rough, yet slimy, and had spikes coming out of it. Not sharp ones, they just continuously poked into his side and back.

After another couple of hours, he could finally muster up enough energy to open up his eyes. However, his sight was still extremely blurred. He could only guess what the room, or that’s what he thought what it was, looked like:

The first thing he noticed was that the wall was a clear white. Whiter than the whitest snow, and definitely whiter than anything Richard had ever seen before in his life. He could immediately notice that the wall had a very rough texture, even though he was sure it was at least twenty meters away from him. It seemed this room as well was shaped like a giant cylinder. Also, the floor had a very brown color to it.

It’s probably a rock floor… he thought to himself.

It took him a whole hour to regain his sight completely. After that, everything suddenly went very fast. As his eyes de-blurred, he realized it wasn’t rocks he was lying on. Oh boy, it wasn’t. He was lying on a giant pile of bodies. If he hadn’t been to weak to do so, he’d have thrown up for sure.

However, the horror didn’t end there. When his sense of smell returned as well, he finally noticed the room’s terrible stench. It was the one thing that apparently had not been from the illusion: the awful smell of rotting corpses.

When he finally came to peace with the thought that he was lying on a mountain consisting entirely of dead people, not a very easy task, mind you, he started studying the walls some more. It appeared their ‘roughness’ before had been caused by the fact that they were completely made of pipelines. However, some of those pipes were bent inwards into the room and suddenly ended about at about a meter from the wall. When he concentrated on one of those, he noticed the fact that there was a tiny stream of a multi-colored liquid flowing out of those loose ends.
With a shock he realized that this ‘liquid’ was actually magical energy!

So that’s how they kept such a powerful illusion up without having to be there themselves… technology really is a wonderful thing.

After another few hours his body would finally start moving again. Still, it took him just as much strength as doing fifty push-ups to only move about half a meter. And he wasn’t that much of a muscle-power guy anyway.

I have to get out of here… I’m going to die if I don’t.

As he regained his full strength bit by bit, he was capable of moving about ten meters per hour. However, the room was gargantuan: the wall would have to be at least another six hundred yards away from him. It seemed to be quite the hopeless case. However, as his strength began to return, he was able to crawl on his knees after what his watch told him were six hours after the moment he’d started heading towards the wall.

C’mon, I’m almost there…

Then, he felt something wet fall on his neck. It was icy, yet at the same time steaming hot. But more importantly, his powers returned faster than he’d ever have thought possible. Dazed from by the sudden change, he stood up and looked upwards. It appeared one of the longer pipes’ ending was located just above his head, and he had absorbed the magical energy it leaked!

Impossible…

Dazed by both this incredible finding and his sudden full recovery, he didn’t really watch where he was walking. He noticed he tripped over a bone, when it was too late. He fell backwards, landed on his butt and bounced off again, tumbling down what appeared to be the side of this mountain of corpses. Unfortunately, this ‘side’ was rather steep, and as such he fell down fast, hard and painfully. However, when he thought this nightmare was finally over, he wasn’t entirely correct.

At the exact moment his head hit the wall, it disappeared. It just vanished gradually, starting at the bottom, and working it’s way upwards. All Richard was left with was a neverending darkness in front of him, and he knew he didn’t mind not going there. However, as he noticed the tip of the room disappeared in a little flicker of light, he heard another, distant sound.

Is that the sound of roaring water? Again?!

He wasn’t quite right this time. The 'roaring water' was actually the sound the corpses made as they fell into a bottomless pit, created by the disappearing of the floor!

He saw the mountain of bodies shrink, and before he could do as much as blink an eye, he was tumbling down into the pit of darkness.

“Hahaha! I knew it!”, spoke the ‘Master’, “I knew he’d defeat my first art!”

“Yes master, I must acknowledge I was wrong. He quite exceeded my expectations…”

“Ah, don’t worry, I have no doubt he’ll fail somewhere along the way… Most likely against you, ha!”

“Don’t you worry about that, master… I won't fail to meet up to your expectations.”

“As loyal as always, Alphons…” the man spoke his last words, a grin hidden underneath his hood. His plans were far greater than any puny human could possibly even begin to comprehend…
But the question is… will he eat the apple?



With a nauseating smack he landed on some invisible platform in this darkness, that had by now started to form stars in it’s emptiness. The flickering little orbs glowed like fireflies in a dark night.

What now? Why can’t it all just end? he thought both hopeless and scared.

Then, a vague shape appeared in the air, just out of his range. He stood up, reached out for it, and felt himself moving through this plane of nothingness. Even in his current state of fear, he couldn’t help but be amazed by his current location, that was quite a sight, nonetheless. When he grabbed the shape, he felt it turn bulbous instantly. When he opened up his hand, there appeared to be a normal sized apple in it. The only difference with normal apples was that this one was blue and purple, and shone and felt like it was made of metal.

“How intriguing… A metal apple?” he thought out loud.

Then, however, he was startled by the fact that the apple appeared to be carved by an invisible knife while he was holding it. He dropped it, and it fell all the way down into endlessness.

“No!” he yelled, as he jumped for the apple. His platform appeared to move accordingly, as he experienced a second facedown with it at the end of his fall, where it had apparently neatly caught the mysterious apple for him, and was holding it up at eye level. Moaning a bit, he stood up once again, and cautiously picked up the apple. He then turned it to try and read what had been written on it. He was shocked with what he found:

“I am the fruit of your destiny. One bite will shape your world. Two bites will change it. Three bites will ravage it. Four bites will destroy it. Swallow your fear, and eat.”

“Swallow my fear, huh? Well, here goes nothing.”

He took a small bite from the apple. It didn’t feel any different from breathing air.
This is it? He wondered after eating the apple. However, mere seconds later another shapeless object appeared in front of him.

Huh?

This one expanded rather fast into what seemed to be a miniature earth. He ate another piece of the apple, and noticed that his miniature planet started spinning, and changing.

Marvelous…

But then he started wondering about the latter 2 parts. He didn’t really feel much for ravaging or destroying it. Suddenly a group of clouds drifted before him, forming the words: “how much time do you think there is, fool?”

“Calling me a fool, eh? We’ll see about that.”

He took another bite, and suddenly, a dragon like creature approached his planet, breathing fire from his nostrils. With one giant breath it destroyed about half of everything that was on the planets surface. For some reason, he felt really sad all of a sudden.

“What did you do that for?” Was the clouds next message. “Can’t you read?!”

Read…?

Than, he suddenly thought of something: the words “swallow your fear.”

What if… What if this apple represents my fear?

“But what if something awful happens?” The clouds comment came.

“Hmph. Like I care. Like I’d let myself be distracted by a bunch of clouds!”

“Oh yeah?” Came their answer. However, this time they reshaped themselves after they had formed the words, into the form of the very same dragon that had ravaged an entire planet just now. It let out a burst of it’s scorching breath. Richard had no time to think. He swallowed the apple, and suddenly, the whole dimension froze in it’s tracks. Richard floated upwards slightly, and then shot out for his little planet with an unbelievable speed. He saw the planet coming closer, closer, closer… Until he hit the floor once again. With a feeling like had broken his jaw twice, he rose up, to find himself in a room with a size of about a square meter, that had only one door in it. He tumbled through it, and found himself in a hallway.

The hallway appeared to be part of a rather old-styled house. The walls were made entirely of wood, but it didn’t seem to be in any state of neglect: it looked like it had been enameled last week, rather. The floor consisted entirely of neat, marble tiles from about fifty by fifty. Wondering about where the hell ‘here’ was this time, he heard a whooshing sound, like a raging wind, behind him. It appeared the door had been replaced by a giant stone tablet.

He walked up to it to read it’s inscription:

“Hail stranger.
Hail Friend.
You’ve done well.
Yet, this is not the end.

Seven arts are we;
Seven arts of death.
From nowhere we arose.
Who created us? Who knows?

Six more challenges await,
Only the superior shall prevail.
Your greatest fears we shall create,
So you’d better not be frail.

In the end, you’re doomed.
No matter how you look at it!
So have fun, enjoy your time here,
Because once entered, you cannot quit.”

He didn’t feel the slightest bit afraid. Challenges he could handle.

Besides, worse than that it can’t possibly get.

However, he noticed another message that was carved into the rock. Not in the same large, neat, curvy handwriting, but rather jotted down by an uncaring bypasser that happened to be in a destructive mood. It read:

“So, you think you have the guts to look death in the face? I most sincerely doubt it.”

“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that…”

“Ahah, a newcomer!” he suddenly heard from behind. He quickly turned around. His hunch had been right, it had been a woman. With a sneering smile, she said: “well, welcome to the Residence of the Damned!”

< Message edited by Arthur The Brave One -- 11/19/2008 15:41:30 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 4
11/6/2008 16:17:10   
Arthur The Brave One
Member

-Chapter 5: New Quarters-


“Residence of the Damned?”

“Yeah, that’s what it’s called.” she replied. He quickly took note of her appearance: her long, red-brown hair slightly wavered around, and was kept out of her face by a green headband: the same color as her bright eyes. She was clad in nothing but blue: blue jeans, rather wide ones for easy movement, and a light-blue shirt as well. She also carried an obscenely large sword around, even though she didn't appear as muscular.

How the hell does do you even use a sword that large? he thought to himself.

“…r name?”

“Excuse me?”

“I asked for your name, silly. Keep your mind at it, will you?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he said with a grin, “the name’s Richard. Yours?”

“Michelle.”

“Sounds French.”

“I know,” she said, her mouth curving a bit into a smile.

“So, Richard, got anything on you?” she asked, finally removing the hand she had had on the hilt of her sword all this time.

“What?”

“Geez, do I have to explain everything?” she said with sigh, “I meant to say: do you have any gadgets with you? Phone, wallet, anything?”

“Let’s see,” he replied while sticking his hands into his pockets, “I’ve got a wallet, a phone, and… that’s it.”

“Can I have your phone for a moment? I’ve got something you’ll need.”

“Sure,” he said, handing over the phone.

She opened the back of his phone, and slid a little flat plate in it.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“That’s the only way you will be able to actually use your phone here. You won’t be able to make a call to anywhere outside the castle anyway, but with the ReCoder you’ll be able to call me whenever you need to.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait! You said we’re in a castle?”

“Yeah. I didn’t tell you yet, but this place is a real fortress. It’s so huge even I am still getting lost here, if I travel too far.”

“I still don’t get it. How the hell did I end up in a friggin’ castle?”

“Well, nobody knows how. Or at least, nobody remembers. The last thing they remember is always their waking up in the first art. No exceptions.”

“And has anyone ever gotten out?”

Her smile faded. “Never. In my two months here, I’ve seen people get as high as the fifth one, but that was one guy, and he was amazingly strong. Other than beating all arts, there is the door in the hallway, but… you’ll see for yourself why we can’t get out that way later.”

“And how far have you come?”

“I have only completed the first art. Not a single one of the doors would let me through," she said, a slightly annoyed look on her face.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you enter an art by finding its door: you can tell by a huge number burned into them. However, they’re only at the same place for about an hour or so, and this place is huge. However, even if you’ve found the door to, say, the second art, it might not even let you through.”

“Why not?”

“No clue. It appears to be random.”

“Hmm…”

They both fell silent for a moment, until they heard another voice. A man’s this time.

“Michelle, Michelle! Dinner's here!”

“Who’s that?” Richard asked.

“Hm? Oh yeah, that’s Olaf.”

Immediately afterwards, a huge Viking, at least eight feet tall, stormed into the hallway. His clothing looked like it was all made of semi-frozen pelts, and he had a large brown beard. Richard thought he looked more like a bear walking on two feet than a human. However, opposed to his intimidating posture, he had very lively, cold blue eyes, almost sparkling.

“Oh-ho!” his loud, bass-tuned voice rumbled through the hallway, “it appears we have a new one!”

“I assume you’re Olaf?” Richard said, still slightly shaking.

“Jup, that’s me!”

“Olaf, for Pete’s sake, lower your voice a bit!” Michelle shouted. “We’re all going to go deaf if you continue like this!

“Sorry,” he mumbled through his beard.

“Good. Now, Richard, come along with me, and we’ll show you your room."

They strolled down the hallway, Michelle and Olaf were whispering to each other a bit, and Richard just followed them, hoping the ringing in his ears would eventually stop. After a couple of turns, they arrived in what appeared to be the hall of the castle: a huge plateau with a twenty meter tall double door to their left, and countless stairs and hallways in all other directions. When he looked up he couldn’t even see the roof: it was that high. The walls here were made completely out of solid rock, and he could hear everyone’s shoes clacking on the ground, echoing countless times in the giant structure of stairs and corridors. Other than that, there was not a single sound to be heard: even Olaf and Michelle had fallen silent. It created a really weird sense of vulnerability, as if the hall itself was alive, ready to devour them any moment. It took him some time to notice it was fairly hard to breathe, as if the air itself was affected by the atmosphere.

He studied the doors some more. They had a most remarkable decoration on them: thousands of golden bars, running all over them, like a golden spider’s web, yet different, harsher.

However, that pressing feeling disappeared immediately after they had crossed the hall and had entered the corridor. In this part it appeared that the walls were made of just your usual red and white plastered bricks, in opposition to the wood back where he had arrived.

“How come this part is made of different material compared to back there?”

“Huh, what?” Michelle asked, looking like he had disturbed her most peaceful sleeping.

“He means the walls.” Olaf said. Then, directing himself at Richard, he said: “Well, this castle is divided in four... eh… divisions. You’ve got wood, stone, ice and metal.”

“Ice?” Richard asked.

“Yeah.” Michelle replied. “However, the ice and metal divisions are pretty far from here: they lie behind the wood and brick departments, and they are the only places where you can find the last of the four arts, I’ve been told.”

“Ahah.”

Suddenly, remembering something, he asked: “Olaf, what arts have you completed?”

“Eh?” he said. “I guess that’d be one and two.”

“So you can tell us about the second one, then?”

“Nope, no can do.”

“Why not?”

“Well, because… Oh, see for yourself. .”

“Huh?” Richard replied as, obviously, Olaf had proved unable to make a sound, while he was most certainly moving his lips.

“Well, that’s what happens when you try to talk about the arts with others. There’s a magical censure on it.”

“And yes, before you ask, we have tried dispelling that.” Michelle added to it.

They took another turn, and came into a hallway that looked exactly similar to the last one, except for the fact that the both walls appeared to be almost completely filled with doors.

“Well, welcome to the Quarters. Every room has a television, a fridge, a closet with clothes, and a bed. Clocks and everything are provided.”

"Woah, the what?

"The Quarters. The place where we sleep and eat, y'know. We've got just your casual lodges, but there are a few special ones.
For example, every night there appears dinner in the Gathering room at seven o’clock. Make sure to be back by then, as it disappears at seven-thirty.”

"It disappears?"

"Yeah, just like, poof, and it's gone."

“Also, about that calling… what if I run out of credit?”

“You won’t.” Olaf replied, “calling using the ReCoder doesn’t cost you any money. Also, you don’t use any phone numbers. You just say the name of the one you want to call, and if he or she has got a ReCoder too, their phone will beep. Simple as that.”

He wanted to go take a peek in the room to his right, but Michelle was unrelenting: she just took his arm and practically dragged him to another door.

“This,” she said, “is the kitchen. If you’ve ever got something in your fridge you want for breakfast and needs warming, you go here. There,” she said, while pointing to the opposing door, “Is bathroom one. The three doors to the right are two, three and four, but I don’t think we’ll have to use ‘em that often. Only difference is that one and two have a bathtub and showers, while three and four don’t. Got it?”

He nodded, and she dragged him along further along the hall. They now came to the first door that had some sort of decoration on it: two golden dragons, intertwined.

“This,” Michelle continued, “is what we call the Gathering. It’s basically just the room where we come together if and when we need to. Also, as I’ve told you before, dinner gets served her every night at seven. Don’t forget that, or you’re gonna starve.”

“Right, got it.”

“Just as a side note, Olaf’s in room fifteen, that’s further down the hall, and I’m in room one, the very first one. Yours is seven.”

“Why does it specifically have to be room seven? Why can’t I just go to another room?”

She sighed once more, and replied: “because that’s the only other open room. You see, whenever someone new enters the first art, a room gets unlocked. So every morning, we check whether or not there’s a new open door, and if there is one we just go check on the Tablet, the big stone poem where we met, every once in a while. Now, let’s go eat, before dinner disappears again.”

They then all walked into the Gathering room, the interior of which seemed to be perfect for it’s purpose: there was a huge, oval table, with quite comfortable, black chairs all around it. On the table was, for now, a buffet like he’d never seen before. And all of that for just three people. Or, that was what he thought at first, but then he noticed there were two other people already in the room: a man in a tuxedo, and a cloaked woman.

Why is he wearing a tuxedo? I mean, it's not really the best outfit for battle.

"Oh yeah," Michelle said, "Richard: Dave and Charlotte. Dave and Charlotte: Richard."

Charlotte smiled and replied with a friendly "hi," Dave simply nodded, his eyes obscured by the sunglasses he wore.

The three of them took a seat at the table, and everyone ate.

After dinner, he decided it had been a long enough day, wished everyone a good night, and went to sleep. Tomorrow was probably going to be a long day. He had to get out of here. He had goals that needed completion.

< Message edited by Arthur The Brave One -- 6/21/2009 8:17:57 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 5
Page:   [1]
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