Intervention
My head throbbed as muffled voices drifted around me. I forced my eyes open, pain shooting through my temple. I was chained to an iron chair bolted to the floor.
"No..." I whispered.
My gaze swept across the room, or what looked more like a cage. Dark stone walls. An iron door with a small barred window set into the center. The air smelled damp and rotten. It looked exactly like the dungeons beneath Thornwick.
The Black Hold.
I yanked against the chains, but they didn't budge.
"Oh, great," I muttered under my breath. "I don't have time for this."
"Hey!" I shouted.
The muffled voices outside went silent. A moment later, heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor. A loud clunk sounded from the iron door before it slowly creaked open.
Ascend Darveth stepped inside.
Behind him came another man — the one who had struck me earlier with the mace. He still carried it in one hand.
"You are quite noisy," Darveth said calmly. "Has anyone told you that?"
"Take these chains off me and find out," I spat.
Darveth glanced at the man with the mace beside him. He stepped forward and swung the mace across my face.
Pain exploded through my skull. A cry tore from my throat as blood splattered onto the stone floor.
Gods... that hurt.
"Now," Darveth said, unfazed, "will you be quiet? We have work to do, and we would rather not be distracted."
"Where are my friends?" I croaked.
"Labbot."
The mace slammed into me again.
A tooth hit the floor beside me. Metallic taste flooded my mouth. I spat blood onto the ground and lifted my head. "Why don't you just kill me already?"
Labbot raised the mace again, but Darveth held up a hand.
"That's enough."
He stepped closer and crouched in front of me until we were eye level.
"Oh, dear," he said softly. "You cannot die yet. You are far too important to our mission." A cold smile spread across his face. "And your friends?" His fingers brushed my bloodied cheek. I jerked away instantly. "Don't worry. We're taking very good care of them."
He looked at the blood on his fingertips, then slowly brought them to his mouth.
My stomach turned cold.
"Be a good girl," he said, straightening himself, before turning toward the door.
"I'll kill every one of you," I growled through the blood in my mouth.
Darveth paused, then gave a dry scoff.
"Labbot," he said without turning around, "knock her out."
Labbot stepped in front of me again, lifting the mace, but before he could strike, I screamed.
Power burst out of me, slamming him backward into the iron door hard enough to leave a dent in the metal.
That got Darveth's attention.
He spun around instantly and seized my body with his power. His grip tightening around me and pressed against my mind. The power inside me twisted painfully and locked down before I could channel again.
"You are beginning to irritate me, Dana."
"You're a coward," I snapped. "Release me and fight me properly."
Darveth's expression darkened.
"If you keep misbehaving, I may decide to kill them all." His voice turned deadly calm. "Starting with Doya."
My stomach dropped at the sound of his name. "I swear to the heavens..." I rasped. "If you take them from me, you will regret it."
He scoffed, still pinning me in place with his power. "You are weak. Foolish." A cruel smirk tugged at his lips. "Nothing more than an instrument used to sustain the Cranium."
My pulse stuttered.
"If you die, it goes dormant. So yes, we need you alive." He tilted his head slightly. "Your friends, however, are expendable."
He released his hold on me, and the realisation hit. They needed me alive to keep the Cranium functioning.
"I will kill you." I hissed.
"No," he replied calmly. "You won't." He stepped closer again. "You can fight us and watch him fade..." He paused. "Or you can help us, and we'll keep him alive long enough for you to say goodbye."
My breath hitched. He was talking about Doya.
"Don't touch him." I whispered.
His smile widened slightly. "Behave, and we won't."
He picked up the mace and slammed it across my face. The room tilted. My vision doubled as darkness crept over my sight.
Then I slipped into a trance.
I was standing in darkness and void pressing in from every side. I looked around, but there was nothing to see. I tried to speak, but no sound came out.
I turned around again and behind me, a red door appeared, standing alone in the dark, spilling a thin, sharp light through its edges.
I didn't know where I was. I didn't understand how I had gotten there.
My feet moved, carrying me straight toward the light. The closer I got, the brighter the light became.
I reached it and pushed it open. Then the light swallowed me whole.
And I was somewhere else.
A garden.
Flowers were everywhere with beautiful trees. They moved a little in the wind. In the middle was a stone fountain. Water fell from it in a steady sound, like quiet rain.
Someone was sitting beside it. A man, his back was to me.
I walked closer, unsure of what I was seeing.
Then he turned.
"Hello."
My heart lurched, "Malvorin."
---
"You said you would help me," I muttered.
"You still don't believe in yourself, Dana," he said calmly.
"I do!" I snapped, standing up from the stone. "I believe in myself. I'm just not strong enough."
"You are strong." He gently took my arms and guided me back down. "Stronger than you think."
"But I'm weak," I sighed. "I can't even defeat Darveth. How am I supposed to face Balshak?"
"You don't have to do it alone," he said. "You never did." He placed a steady hand on my shoulders. "Let me help you now."
The garden vanished before I could blink. I was back in the dungeon, pain crashing into me again.
As I tried to steady myself, power burst out of me. The chains snapped apart, clattering across the stone floor as I rose to my feet.
"Ouuuu..." I muttered under my breath, staring down at my hands.
My body kept moving on its own, already acting before I could think, like the decision had been made a second too early for me to question it.
My hand lifted toward the iron door, and the next second, it ripped off its hinges and crashed into the corridor.
A sharp breath caught in my throat.
I hadn't meant to do that.
I stepped out slowly, and the first strike hit me — but I pushed back.
The Forsaken rushed in, all of them throwing their powers at me at once. I summoned a shield instinctively. Or rather, Malvorin did. His presence was steady inside me as we met them head-on and forced them back.
They started to break under us.
I caught one by the collar and lifted him off the ground.
"Where is Darveth?"
"You will not succeed," he smirked, staring straight at me. "Balshak is c—"
Before he could finish, I snapped his neck. His body went limp and hit the floor.
I didn't stop.
I moved through the corridor, and then I heard a loud bang from inside one of the cages. I slowed and looked through the bars.
It was a High Bound. Darveth had kept the rest of the High Bound who hadn't aligned with him locked here.
I opened the door from the outside.
"Dana..." His eyes lit up the moment he saw me.
He was chained to the wall, an iron collar locked around his neck.
Before I could think about it, my hands moved up, breaking the chains apart. A word slipped out of my mouth, and it felt certain the moment it left me.
The spell to break the collar.
I didn't remember learning it, but right then, I knew it. Maybe Malvorin did.
The collar gave way and dropped to the floor.
I backed away again without a word and kept walking.
I left the underground floors and reached the upper level where the interrogation chambers were. The open space ahead was already filled with the traitorous Bound — more than forty of them, forming a loose circle that blocked every exit.
Fire gathered in my palms as I stepped in.
The first one rushed me. My body moved before I could think, and the fire left my hand, hitting him in the chest.
"Allow me," a voice said inside my head.
A blast surged out of me in a wave of blue light, hitting all of them at once. The force knocked them back before they could even react.
They didn't get the chance to show what they could do.
A faint breath escaped me, that's when I realized I was smiling.
Ah, that was amazing.
Then I saw Darveth step out from the corner, clapping slowly.
"Impressive," he muttered.
My gaze went cold as it settled on him.
He moved first. The air snapped as his power hit, pushing forward. I raised a shield, but it cracked on impact and I was forced back a step.
Malvorin didn't hesitate within me. My hands moved fast meeting his second strike mid-air, breaking it apart in a sharp burst of light that filled the space. The ground shook under the force of it, dust rising between us as neither of us gave ground.
Darveth smiled like it was nothing. He pushed harder with extra force that caught me fully and threw me back hard.
I hit the wall, the force driving me through it. Stone broke around me as pain rang through my head.
"Stand up, Dana," Malvorin's voice came through the haze. "Stand up."
I tried to breathe, but my body couldn't move.
Darveth stepped forward.
"Still trying?" he said, raising his hand again.
Before he could strike, something slammed into him from the side.
I strained my eyes to see clearly.
The High Bound — The one I had freed earlier. He drove Darveth back just enough to stop the attack, locking him in place with a surge of his own power. Darveth turned sharply, anger flashing for the first time.
"Damn you!" the High Bound shouted, as he came down hard on Darveth.
I forced myself up.
My legs shook, but I didn't stop. Malvorin steadied me as I pushed forward.
As the High Bound kept Darveth pinned, I summoned a mace into my hand and brought it down across his face.
Serves him right.
His blood spilled to the floor.
I hit him again.
And again.
Harder each time until something in me snapped and I was just swinging without thinking. The sound of it filled the open space. I didn't stop until he finally slumped under the blows.
Then he let out a broken laugh.
"I think..." he rasped, coughing blood. "I think I hit a nerve."
He spat onto the floor.
"Take this," the High Bound said beside me.
I turned slightly. I had almost forgotten he was still there.
He handed me an iron collar.
I took it and stepped forward, clasping it around Darveth's neck. It locked shut.
Darveth's hand shot up, trying to tear it off, but the metal tightened, biting into his skin, choking him, and burning as it sealed tighter around his throat.
"Enjoy that?" I asked, smirking as I wiped blood from my face.
"This is just the beginning, Dana." He said coughing out blood.
"Doesn't look like you'll be around to see the end," I responded proudly.
I turned to the High Bound. "What's your name?"
"Dorasmus," he answered.
"High Bound Dorasmus, please take him to one of the dungeons and keep him restrained there." I ordered.
Dorasmus did not hesitate, he hauled Darveth up, even as Darveth struggled to stand, and dragged him across the floor.
"Wait." I said, stopping him. "First, I would need his blood. Could you help me get a container?" I asked.
"Yes, guardian." Dorasmus replied and exited the space.
"You want to save your lover?" Darveth asked weakly, leaning against the wall.
I didn't answer him. Instead, I reach into myself and Malvorin's presence answered. I asked for the spell to bind the iron collar to my blood.
The spell came to me without effort, speaking into my mind. I stepped forward and placed my hand over the collar. The magic settled into it, binding it to my blood.
Darveth's eyes narrowed as I finished. The collar would not come off unless I allowed it.
Dorasmus returned with a container. I drew Darveth's blood into it. A large amount of it.
When I was done, Dorasmus dragged him away.