Lies & Labyrinths

The tower was bigger on the inside. Much, much bigger. A structure stood in the center, obsidian, etched with more runes in dead tongues, glowing all the colors of the rainbow. Around it stood hundreds of people, hands clasped tight as magic poured from their foreheads, eyes glowing to match the great aetherial storm that eminated from them. At the corner of the room, piles upon piles of robes lay stacked to the ceiling, nearly covering a flight of stairs that curved up to their left. Atop the obsidian structure, trapped in a prism of light and energy, a large throne stood. A word was carved in it, a name from one of Twixtfeather’s lessons.

Ejud. The Prince of Despair.

Ejud sat on the throne, a beast that was terrifying to behold in its own right. Massive, maybe fifty feet tall, and somehow even larger, as if the massive appearance was just one reflection of him. Jowls that hung like heavy goiters, yellowed flesh and yellowed eyes, with eyelids that sunk heavily to reveal blue and red under-flesh. Long wrinkled hands that had dug into the arms of the throne with blackened decaying nails.

It was awake. Even worse, it seemed to recognize them.

"Ahh… miss Lavoi… and is that… Master Evosin...?”

The very sound of the figure sent waves of depression through the two. The mages that surrounded Ejud all shuddered in unison.

“H-Headmaster…?”

“The one… and… the same…” Ejud said.

Lilith crept forward, transfixed in horror at what she saw.

“How are you here? What is this place?”

“My… prison. Trapped by… magi. Thousands of years ago.” The figure grinned. “A pyrrhic… victory.”

She understood then, watching how the magic trailed up in a cage around The Prince and up into the pyramid which was to house The Feyline Anchor. The first Veilweavers had somehow managed to trap The Prince of Despair, but to what end? At what cost? It was taking all of the energy of the mages to contain him, and his energy was mixing along with theirs all the same as it traveled up. Every headmaster in the last ten thousand years had been nothing but a vessel to contain his form as they sat trapped in the “office” in the material realm. All bound to hold The Prince of Despair, as he sapped their willpower away to nothingness with his ever encroaching power.

Ejud was spreading its energy, even now. Every spell that was cast was adding a bit more despair to the waking world.

“They’re Alphas…” whispered Emily. She was not looking at the beast, but the people. Lilith glanced, noting the people encirling the beast.

This was the true fate of the Alphas, of the best and brightest. Nothing more than components to a great spell of futility.

One of the Alphas stumbled, falling away from the others. They landed on the floor, the figure seeming to age before their eyes in an instant. He reached out to Lilith, growing from a middle aged man, to elderly, to nearing what appeared to be a century old, before he turned into dust altogether. A clod of dirt that had once been his hand cling to her shoe, the man’s robe blowing away from the rush of the wind. Right into the other robes that covered the rest of the impossibly large room.

"You… can… end this.” Ejud spoke. “Your...blade. All you… have… to do… is cut… my prison...open.”

Lilith looked down at the silver dagger in her hand.

“No.” Whispered Lilith.

“Very...well. It… matters...not. Less… students every year. They shall...not… contain me… too… much… longer.”

Four years, if Lilith could guess. Four years until they ran out of victims to feed to keep this devil at bay.

The doors behind Lilith and Emily swung open, The Knave entering, breathing ragged from their battle.

"Ahh...this...is... interesting. I… cannot… see you.”

“But I can see you just fine.” The Knave said.

"That armor… that… cloak. You must be… The Knave.”

"I’ll be back for you someday.” The Knave said, running with a slight limp towards Lilith and Emily. “Come on you two, he’s stalling you both until he can drain you dry. Every minute here is like a day of your life drained. Keep moving."

“You know… so much about me. And I… see so little of you.”

“We’ve met before.”

"I think… I’d remember that.” Ejud wheezed.

“Trust me, I’d never forget it.” Placing both hands on each of Lilith and Emily’s shoulders, she steered them towards the stairs.

“Emily, Lilith, we need to move. I only stunned the beast outside. And I don’t know who I fear more between Ejud and It.”

Lilith still clutched the orb in her arms as she ran up the stairs, certain now that it was not just wobbling, but kicking. She held it tighter, afraid for a brief moment that it would spill and go rolling down the stairs.

“Don’t think on it.” The Knave said to Lilith, seemingly reading her mind. “Don’t think on anything of that room if you can help it. That’s how he’ll see you. Think of anything else. Think of something that will make you happy. Just do not think of Ejud. To think of Ejud is to think of Despair, and to think of Despair is to make him stronger.”

“Kind of hard to do” Lilith said, all but forced up the stairs with The Knave still holding a hand on each of their shoulders. It seemed the stairs would never end, looping up and higher around the structure, past towers of piles of robes stacked to match the impossible heights. Ten thousand years of robes, so many lives come and gone.

But the stairs did end, leading to a set of doors at the very top. The Knave extended a hand, the double doors swinging open as if pushed by some invisible object. There was a great rush of wind as the prison of Ejud become depressurized, the three being yanked off their feet and sucked up and out, deposited into the next chamber.

This was where they were supposed to have gone. This was the ceremonial room, the one that all were supposed to witness. This was The Sable Loom. The Veil itself could be seen in the sky above them now, growing like the Aurora Borealis from atop of a large pyramid, surrounded on all sides by massive pillars made of bronze, with fires of orange and red, blue and green. There was no sight of the two wizards that Inam had mentioned, no other students.

Only bloody smears covering the bridge towards the Library. Something had gotten here first, and it looked as if it had taken no survivors.

The doors swung closed behind them, sealing as they did to hide into the side of the pyramid the dark and terrible secret that waited below.

“We have to get out, to warn the others!” Emily said as she climbed to her feet. “If we place the orb at the top, it’ll be over.”

“She’s right. At the top of the steps is the teleporter out of here, and an altar to place the orb in. It’ll draw all the power that the orb has collected and keep the school going. Emily, lead the way.” The Knave said.

Emily nodded, keeping her staff drawn as she climbed the steps first. Sunlight was rising now, magnificent shades of colors unfathomable to those limited by mortal bodies. The moment was ruined however by the approach of the creature that had been stalking them for some time. Below came another roar, and over the edge of the floating island, a massive set of claws dragged up, followed by another, and then the horned visage of a creature more terrifying than Ejud.

“What is it!?” Lilith screamed, quickening her pace to start climbing up the pyramid.

“The Red Death.” Whispered The Knave, their voice wavering in either sorrow or horror, potentially both. “Go.”

Up they clambered, each stone five feet high, forcing them to have to hoist themselves up. The Red Death lumbered to follow, muscle and sinew visible, as well as the sight of a manacle on one arm. To it was shackled a human arm, severed and hanging. Some poor fool had attempted to bind themselves to the beast, for what reason unknown, but clearly it had been futile. It roared once more as it pulled the entirety of its body up, slowly starting the climb up the pyramid.

“It’s going to get us!” Emily sobbed.

“Not if you don’t stop to stare at it!” The Knave snapped, placing a hand on Emily’s bottom and shoving her up to the next step. “CLIMB, GIRL!”

Adrenaline coursed through their veins as the three climbed, the creature beginning to build a tempo as it began to climb up the side of the structure after them. After what seemed an antagonizing eternity they reached the top, the bright lights of the aurora illuminating the altar and the teleporter, a spherical relief carved in to stone to hold the orb.

Emily reached the top first, turning to Lilith.

“Come on! Just place it in here and we’re done!” she said as she stepped on the stone. The Knave was right behind her. They turned, extending their hand.

“Give me the orb Lilith!”

Lilith handed it over without a second thought, trying to keep pace while climbing a few stones behind.

And then, at the top of the steps, The Knave did something most perplexing: They hugged Emily, saying softly “It was so good to see you again. I miss you.”

“What?” Emily said, confused.

“And I’m sorry.” The Knave said, touching the teleporter. With a flash, Emily was gone.

Lilith screamed, hurrying her pursuit, realizing that she had been tricked. The Knave had no plans to put the Anchor in the socket. They were going to take it, she understood then, take the orb and let the school’s primary source of energy fall apart. That would certainly hasten the end times.

“NO!” Lilith screamed, watching as The Knave drew out their gizmo with the strange violet crystal, opening the watch face and twisting a knob. The watch began to spin rapidly, set to some spring for a particular setting.

They were going to leave now, leave her with The Red Death close behind. Leave her to be eaten. Her life flashed by her eyes in an instant, including the briefest recollection of the man with the strange world-shaped birthmark whose name was The Veil, mentioned some hundred or so pages before.

Without another thought, Lilith dove forward into The Knave just as the teleporter began to glow a matching violet. The Red Death rose up then, towering over the top of the pyramid, looking down at them. Massive wings spread from its back, and a mouth full of rows upon rows of teeth opened up to reveal an abyssal inside that sparkled with the light of a thousand dead stars. It roared, and moved to swallow them whole.

But they were gone, far far away from that terrible place in an instant, just as those terrible teeth clamped down on absolutely nothing at all.