Dark Recesses (Drammor)

It was dark, but his eyes saw just fine in the pitch black of his cell. It was a small one-person cell, on the floor of which he was lying on his side, feeling his body just hurt.

The candles circling him had burned out sometime ago. They had set up a magic circle around him in the stone ground. Set with colorful gems of some kind or another. Runes and mystical symbols he knew nothing of engraved in the ground with silver and other types of metals surrounding him. The smell of burned incense lingered in the dry air.

It was meant to keep physical things in, where he lay in the middle of the six foot wide circle in the cell. They hadn’t bound his hands or other limbs.

He wondered numbly how many of his bones were broken. His head felt battered and broken, a nice bruised skull to go with the full body ach. Pain was something he was used to by now. It all felt the same after a while, but not that it was any less uncomfortable. Of course, that wasn’t important at the moment. He wondered more about why he wasn’t more afraid. Was he afraid of death?

Usually there just seemed to be something more important on his mind. Some goal he needed to achieve, and if he died while trying to do it, it wouldn’t really matter. He didn’t believe in any kind of after life, astral plane, or hell—no other form of being conscious and aware. He believed that all there was left was you, the ground, and worms.

Nothingness.

No pleasure, but at least there was no pain either. Like a dreamless sleep. He found that more comforting than any heaven one could conjure. Besides, even if there was one, he wouldn’t be going to it. He knew exactly where he’d be going if there was anything like that. So maybe he was just the one hoping it was nothingness because it was more comforting.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been in there, but he was very thirsty. His tongue felt so uncomfortable and his lips were cracked and chapped. Of course, he was in the middle of the Desert of Suu. He wasn’t sure if he was hungry. The rest of the pain in his body might have drowned out any hunger aches.

He didn’t wonder if Rontu and Khaz were coming for him. He hoped they wouldn’t. There was no way they’d be able to make it in and out with just the two of them. He wasn’t worth both of their lives.

Then, the door to his small black box opened. Dim orange candle light came in. He was in a dark elf city. They never needed much light. He looked up at the figure standing in the door way just in front of him, his eyes adjusting quickly.

He saw Dito Caminar’s disgusting smile, bright red eyes, and the glow off his white hair. The Scarlet ranked dark elf in his imperial uniform of black and red left the door open and walked in closer to the circle.

He didn’t bother glowering at one of his most hated enemies, like he would waste the energy in that, so he just stared up at him, waiting.

“Ren, Ren …” his voice was the soft disappointed tone of a parent scolding a child. The drow’s face matched his voice, head shaking, a false frown upon his black lips. He stared at Dito, not allowing even this to make him angry. The mockery. He didn’t want to waste his energy on that. “What I have I told you? You’re a tool of the empire. You don’t leave unless you want to die really, really badly. I know you’re smart enough to know your father would catch you someday.”

Ren didn’t say anything to this either, just stared. Maybe blinked a few times. Dito gave him a chance to, but after a few moments continued on. His voice calm, eyes as cool as he always remembered them to be when he didn’t go into his fits of almost joyous rage. It was never really that Dito got mad. Just that he liked to yell and beat on something. Watch them scream and hurt. Ren would know because he used to be Dito’s favorite something.

“Kid, you got two choices here. You be a good little boy and work for daddy again, or … I let Kushin come in here and play.”

Ren narrowed his eyes nice and slowly at him after this. The mockery was getting to him a little, but he didn’t allow for much of it.

Hyde Kushin. The Scarlet Hands. A title he had gained for being gifted in the art of pain. Torture was his specialty other than magic.

Hyde Kushin had tortured one of his dear friends. Ren never forgot Blaze’s ravaged and mutilated form when they had come to save him from it … being very much too late. That’s why someday Ren was gonna “play” with Kushin. Of course, maybe when he wasn’t already trapped and beaten in an enchanted circle. One day Hyde Kushin was going to be very, very dead. That much, Ren knew, because he always believed if he worked hard enough for it that it would happen. He trusted in his own stubborn patience to see him through to that goal. He was young still, but knew he was much stronger than any normal boy his age. Ren loved to think what he could do with his strength that would grow as his body was still maturing. He wasn’t even in his prime yet.

But Ren doubted he would live to see that if Kushin got to “play” with him now. He knew pain. He could take it. But torture was something else. It wasn’t the same as the beatings he took from the Scarlets when he was younger or even from his father now. He was in no hurry to experience whatever Blaze had with Kushin.

But there was no way in hell he’d work for Nottuu again.

“So …?” said Dito, waiting for Ren to answer.

He didn’t. Ren just lowered his eyes away, toward the floor, as if Dito wasn’t even there anymore. The drow waited a long time until he figured out what Ren’s answer was.

“Suit yourself, fool.”

Ren watched the Scarlet’s feet turn him around and walk back through the door, closing it with that whiny squeak of rusted hinges and the metallic bang of the door, leaving him in darkness once more.

How much time did he have? When was Kushin going to come? He didn’t know, which meant he should work as fast as he could. There was a very special reason for him not wasting his energy in getting mad at Dito’s demeaning quips. He needed to focus it on getting out instead.

The biggest obstacle at the moment was getting out of this damn circle.

He would have to break it somehow, though that was difficult because he couldn’t reach or touch anything beyond the first thin silver line that kept him from damaging any of the runes and symbols on the other side.

Ren slumped himself up to his knees, ignoring the sharp pains of broken ribs that seemed to stretch into his lungs. The best he could do was break something. Maybe there was a flaw in the circle. He didn’t know anything about magic really. The best he could do is trying to break all the ground around him that he could reach and hope maybe there was something there by accident that he could expose.

He wasn’t very hopeful about that. Numb fear shivered through him. If he didn’t get out in time…

No. He had to. He glared down at the ground. This wasn’t how he wanted to die. Not powerless and at the hands of an insane mute.

So Ren balled a fist and slammed it down on the ground the closest he could get to the little silver line. The ground cracked and crumbled. The damage had been deep and wide, and to his utter surprise it had stretched the cracks into the symbols and gems on the other side of the line. Maybe it had been designed to only keep Ren’s specific physical being inside.

His heart pounded in his chest with his excitement. He reached a hand out where an invisible force had once pushed back against him. He felt it again, yet it wasn’t the same. It felt shaky, jumping from full pressure to a weaker one and then back again. He needed to damage the symbols more. He pounded at the same point again. It cracked and grew deeper. He tested the force again; it was much weaker, almost broken, but still there. Ren slammed down once more.

When he did many things happened.

First, the circle broke completely. Second, the floor under him broke and crumbled into a hollow of some kind underneath him that he could not possibly have known was there. Ren tumbled into what seemed to be a tunnel dug out by … well, who knows what or who. It hurt, Ren took a moment to curse and mutter about his ribs and head. He took a moment to look up and down the small tunnel. It was wide enough for him to feel a little comfortable at least. He could stand on his knees with the top an inch or two from his head. He didn’t stay too long to think about it. It seemed to stretch farther down, sloping, doing deeper into the ground.

Ren figured anywhere was better than here where Kushin likes to come and play. So he hurried down the tunnel on his hands and knees.

Aevukepe lay on the ground of a bleak, dark cavern. Around it, there were skeletons and rotting corpses. Further around it were tunnels which led away into the vast network of tunnels and subterranean demesnes that the goblins called Urfghess. Near as the armor could tell, the name meant 'thing of many eyes and legs', which Aevukepe had guessed was what they called spiders.

A scouting party of those same goblins had found Aevukepe in the remains of a destroyed caravan just outside these caverns, many miles up and away. The goblins had found the armor to be especially nice-looking, and were bringing it down to their tribe leader to gain his praise. Passing through the cavern that Aevukepe now inhabited, they were set upon by an alien monster with bright yellow eyes and many tentacles covered in sharp hooks, whose starfish-like body blended well with the cavern walls. Desperately, the armor tried to warn its would-be owners of the danger, but hadn't managed to get any of them to put it on. Apparently, the raw stupidity that floated racially through a goblin's mind made it immune to the armor's compulsion. Their deaths must have happened weeks ago, maybe even months. With so little light down here, and all of it coming from multicolored patches of glowing moss, Aevukepe had no way to keep track of the time.

Internally, Aevukepe sighed and resigned to the idea that it might never be found and worn again. Then again, Aevukepe thought, maybe the thing of many eyes and legs was what killed them. Yeah, maybe that was it. The armor laughed silently to itself, but its attention was grabbed sharply by a sound in one of the tunnels nearby. It sounded like shuffling limbs, like a warrior dragging himself through the battlefield.

From out of one of the nearby tunnels that sloped upward, a battered young man crawled out. As near as Aevukepe could tell, this boy had been in the caves longer than he had. All the color drained out of his skin, and his eyes were red with the sign of the albino, but he was large and strong. An owner at last, the armor thought.

Aevukepe reached out, its power pulling at the wanting in space between spaces, collecting them. It wanted to seen, and it wanted to be seen right now. What's more is it wanted to be worn, to be graced with an owner, and it made this clear through the compulsion of its Wear Me power, pulling at the young man like a tide coming in from the vast ocean.

His tunnel opened up into a bigger cavern. Ren clambered down into it and instantly the smell of death and rot filled his nose. His red eyes darted about quickly. He spotted the corpses of the goblins, somewhat alien to him, but he had heard of such creatures. Yet his eyes quickly found something else around the graveyard. Metal that did not match the rocky terrain around him. Somehow, it was far more interesting than wondering what had killed the goblins there. So he shuffled and hiked over rocks and uneven ground, stepping over a corpse or two, until he came over to the metal he had spotted.

It was armor with a red cape, black iron swords, and chain mail. Ren pulled it up from the rocks to examine more closely. He supposed the goblins had brought it down there. He sat down, still holding the old piece of metal. He wasn’t quite sure what was so fascinating about a bit of armor, but he couldn’t help but keep staring at it. Ren never liked to wear armor. It was uncomfortable and harder to more around in. It could have been from his training with the Drow. They never approved the use of armor. As if it was an excuse not to duck or dodge and move with faster agility. They claimed armor made the person weaker. So Ren had never worn much of it.

Yet … there was a first time for everything. It couldn’t hurt to try it on at least. Sitting still, Ren slipped the armor over his head and around his torso. It was strange, but it seemed to fit perfectly.

The armor changed, suddenly and drastically. Its shape went first, fitting to Ren's form as though it were made just for him. Chain and banded mail took more of its body than plate had a moment ago, offering its new owner better flexibility and lighter protection than plate would. Then, its color went, white armor with red accents along the pauldrons and flanks, with a motif of swirling red flames that could be either spears or axes, equally, although the copper runes on its main plates had not changed at all. Its cape deepened in color, becoming a richer, more shadowy crimson than before, and the wearer's exhaustion melted away like wax before dragon's flame. It changed in no way Ren's injuries, but he felt suddenly rested and very awake, which was godsend enough.

In Ren's mind, there was a voice, "I thank you, owner. Time and one thousand, else I would have rusted in this dank place. My name is Aevukepe, and I am in your debt." There was a pause, but the voice picked up again shortly, "I see you are a half-dragon, capable of change. And there's something el... impressive." The voice had gone quickly from analysis to awe and admiration, there was no doubt of it.

Aevukepe left time for its Stamina power to take full effect on its new wearer, then spoke again, "I understand that they may be after you, soon. You should move quickly, I will watch your back for you and warn you if I should see something. If you need it, there is a throwing knife hidden in my right flank."

Aevukepe was glad to be worn and wished to tell its owner more, but had its priorities. It must protect its owner, and this was somehow made clear in the connection to the half-dragon's mind, though the armor had not voiced it. As it turned its attention to ensuring that it continued to have an owner, the fascination of the armor died out, and there was no more unnatural drive to wear it.

It happened so fast, and Aevukepe had spoken so quickly. But the melting away of all his exhaustion was heavenly. He almost didn’t care for a moment that there was something talking to him inside his head. His ribs still hurt, his whole body actually, and his head. But … he wasn’t thirsty or hungry or tired anymore, which made all the injuries a little more tolerable. After a couple of quiet moments, in which Aevukepe had given him the time to understand what had happened, Ren looked down, saw that the armor had changed. There was a voice inside his head.

Huh.

Okay ... so you just speak to me like this now, eh? He stared down at the armor, which only seemed appropriate since he was “speaking” to it. This was so weird.

“Speak is not the best description. You're the only person who can hear me.” The armor replied.

Ren stuffed away the sudden urge to rip it off right then, throw it to the ground, and stomp on it. Of course he already knew that it wasn’t really speech. Stupid freakin’ armor … Instead an angry little sneer ripped through the side of his face. But if I take you off it stops, right?

“Yes, it stops if you are unwise enough to remove me. But that's not a mistake you can afford to make right now. You need my protection, the wakefulness at the very least.”

Well … Ren did like the refreshing quality the bit of metal had brought him. It was so nice and tempting. If he took Aevukepe off, most likely, that would go with it. So Ren had to think a little longer on that, but it eventually came back to the same point. It’s generally not good to have voices in one’s head, despite how attractive they make it. Ren, for one, could not stand it. The armor had stated so much about his situation. How much more could it know about him? What else could it see in there?

Ren made a face.

Listen, I don't need anyone's protection, and no one, armor or not, gets to be in my head with me. Ren started to pull his arm back through the armor’s opening.

“No, I must insist that you not remove me. Stop it. Stop it this instant! It's not even practical to remove armor at this moment, or has it not occurred to you there are more dangers than drow down here? Did you think of what might have killed these goblins? It's not like the dark elves are lollygaggers, anyway.”

He did have to stop and think about that one. Strange, how he hadn’t thought of that before. The hunk of metal had distracted him from it to begin with. So it just occurred to him. He was in the middle of escaping from the empire. If they had found his cell empty with a strange hole leading down into these tunnels … well … He’d be short on time. Also, that while escaping one danger he stumbled into another. Whatever it was that had killed the goblins. Plus, anything else that lived down here.

But come on. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to handle himself. He didn’t need a parent to hold this hand through this. Especially not one inside his head. That was probably worst kind one could have.

... Hey, if anyone knows drow, it's me. And thanks to you I just wasted a lot of time and I'm not going to waste anymore of it. This is longer than I am ever comfortable having a conversation with a voice inside my head. He snarled back at the chunk of steel. And if there's something else down here I'll just kill it. I don't need you to do that.

He started pulling his arms back through.

And suddenly he wasn’t. There was a huge thing and it mercilessly charged down wailing goblins, garbling their alien speech, but one did not need to know it to hear the fear and utter terror and pain as it got each one of them. More images followed of this dark treacherous hole, tunnels, and carven he had managed to find his way into. There had been more of them even before they went down into it and before they were attacked. They had lost some along the way to others. Things he wouldn’t have minded not knowing or wished he could just forget as quickly.

“If you must remove me, cannot you wait until we're out of that kind of territory? Besides, I know the tunnels that lead out.”

Ren had been forced to stop due to the sudden images, his arms in the armor with him next to his chest. His scarlet eyes just staring for that moment, a little more widely than usual. Once having snapped out of it—this stupid armor had just forced images into his head! He scowled, eyes narrowing dangerously, and ignored what it had said and started pulling him up and over his head.

“You think I've got a choice for means of communication? I'm armor. I hear it's a miracle I even have a soul.”

He almost stopped again. He had been found by the stupid little creatures and brought down, to only leave him again after they were slain. He waited and waited. Completely alone in a dark little cavern. Who would ever find him there? He couldn’t move without someone else. He needed them, completely dependent on others. Ah, finally someone had come for him. The boy put him on at last! But wait, no; he was taking him off again—

No! Ren ripped the armor up over his head and threw it violently to the rocky ground in front of him.

“Armor don’t have souls!” he yelled at it, having the last word simply because it could not speak.

Aevukepe lay on the ground, lifeless. Yet it did not change back to its normal colors, shape, and size. Actually, Ren watched it change just slightly. It added details to the fiery shapes in the motif, changing to better fit the half-dragon's temper, creating an intimidating mural.

Ren scowled heatedly at it still. It read his mind, forced images into his head, and then memories and feelings that were not his own. This was exactly why he didn’t want to wear the damn thing. Nothing will ever be allowed to have that kind of influence on him. No one should be allowed to make him feel things.

No one.

Not even speechless armor.

He stood up, staring down at it, still glowering his great dislike for what it had done. He was tired again, but it didn’t matter. He was fine with that as long as he didn’t have to put up with that armor anymore. The one time he tried on armor and it talked in his head. Ren should have figured he’d have such luck. It wasted a lot of his time. Surely Dito and Kushin had come for him by now?

He turned to walk away from it, but then his gut twisted, nagging at him. His steps faltered. It was true … It wasn’t really its fault. No mouth, no legs. What else was it supposed to do in a situation such as this?

Ren turned his head back over his shoulder, looking at it. He didn’t look very pleased, but the hardened expression was softening at his red eyes. He forced his head back around. Come on! It didn’t really have a soul or anything. It was freakin’ armor! Just because it could communicate and feel … things …

His shoulders slumped in defeat.

Damn it.

Ren turned around and walked back over to Aevukepe. He pulled him up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes with a sullen look on his face, as if doing this against his own will. He started walking again with the armor.

“Look,” he said. “I won’t put you on. Even if you know how to get out of here. I’ll get us out on my own, and then I’ll find you someone who doesn’t mind your form of communicating … I know, I bet you think I’m just gonna die like the rest of your owners.”

Of course, Aevukepe said nothing in return. He hiked through the rocky cavern, stopping a moment to eye the other tunnels. Damn … which way? He picked a random one and continued on. It was completely dark, but that never really stopped him from seeing like other people. Ren supposed it was just his dragon blood. He couldn’t understand how normal people just couldn’t see so well in the dark.

“Don’t think I’m doing this because I pity you or anything,” he added sharply as they traveled together. “I just think it’d be a waste for you to rust down here.”

Nothing. Just quiet tunnel.

Or was it? His ears picked up the sound quickly … running water? Ren continued on for a while, the sound getting louder the farther along he went. When the tunnel opened up again, he came to its source.

An underground waterfall. Ren stood on a ledge that opened up to another immense cavern. In front of him clear water poured from another gaping opening from farther up. It went down to a pool and river many, many feet below them. The water roared its beautiful might in his ears. He stood quietly on the rocky ledge, staring at it.

The hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end. Ren whipped around.

Standing just outside of the opening Ren had just come out of was the narrow and towering form of an abnormally tall elf. He was no elf though. Lean and lanky, he had to hunch a little, for he stretched up to seven feet at full posture and the rocky and sloping cavern was not that high. His skin was paler than Ren’s, smooth and perfect like porcelain, but utterly inhuman. His hair was short, layered, straight, and milk white like Ren’s. His eyes were just like the rest of him, white. There were no pupils, no iris. Just blank whites. The features around them were limp and relaxed; no emotion to pull at the muscles there as he stared at the boy. His clothing was the opposite, ink black and making his pallid features even more shocking. They were simple with no complex designs and patterns in them. He held a thick rod of silver in his hand.

Damn. His father.

It wasn’t always that Ren never had any fear. Just that he never thought fear was a good enough reason to keep him from achieving his goal. Some could call that courage.

More people called it stupidity.

His father, Nottuu, wasn’t the scariest thing he knew, but he came close. Of course, having lived with him long enough one does get somewhat accustomed to it. His eyes were always unsettling when they were upon you. It just makes the skin crawl. At the moment, this really wasn’t the place or time he wanted to be caught and cornered by the white dragon. He was weak and tired from his first beating. He also wasn’t very sure what his father would do.

Ren took a few steps back but then remembered the ledge very close by and all the water maybe a hundred feet down below. He still held Aevukepe on his back. His right hand went to his weapons that were still on his person. He gripped Akane, his Red Dragon Victory.

They stared at each other for a few moments. Ren glared, eyebrows hardened together.

“The last time,” Nottuu said with his voice completely even, flat, soft, and yet there was an odd unsettling beauty to his perfect voice. Like an ancient fairy noble. “You can come or you can die.”

Ren stared, eyebrows furrowed still, but not so confident. He would kill him right there. He knew that. He knew him. His father would slay him without blinking those white eyes. They always said he had no soul. Ren had never doubted either.

Oh god, was he afraid of death? Was he? He hadn’t done everything he wanted to yet. He still had people to kill, people to save, people to protect, people to love. That didn’t matter. It wouldn’t keep him from dying now. There was one thing he knew without really thinking about it.

He’d rather die than live his old life.

He didn’t even want to pretend to just to survive this. Just to get away. There would be no real escape. He would be even more trapped than he was now. Everything in him rejected the thought. He just couldn’t. Oddly, he thought of Aevukepe on his back. If he died now, it would have no one. Nottuu would never show interest in it. He would leave it here with Ren’s corpse.

So how did he want to die?

Fighting.

He gripped Akane, but never got to pull him lose.

A long silver spike-like lance pierced straight through his chest and out his back. His father’s hand was vacant now. Ren’s eyes stayed wide, mouth slightly open still. Nottuu’s face hadn’t changed at all. His blank eyes more empty than Aevukepe. The silver pulled out of him.

He fell back.

Dead before he hit the water.

The armor fell from its owner's grasp, falling against the ground with a clatter. It was too dark here to see what had really happened, but someone had spoken to his owner just a moment ago. Then, there was the sound of a weapon rending flesh, and that was it. The armor heard footsteps leaving the scene. It had failed another owner, in the only way that armor can truly fail. It hated when this happened, which was entirely too often. Well, it was good while it lasted, Aevukepe thought to itself, and with any luck, intelligent things could come to drink from this water nearby, soon. Hm... relative to my luck recently.

Then, there was the ultimate confirmation. It was ownerless again, for its shape had changed into the commander's armor. A wave of shame and frustration swept over Aevukepe, followed by a flash of anger. There was really nothing that the armor could have done to save the half-dragon. He abhorred the notion of things being in his mind, and that was part and parcel to Aevukepe's means to protect a wearer. It had failed its owner entirely on the basis of being armor that had to be worn. Wasn't there a way that armor could protect its owner without being worn? Of course not!

Furious, Aevukepe slammed his fist against the stony wall of the cave, then registered several things in his mind all at once. The very first thing was pain. Many warriors had tried to explain this sensation to the armor, but it had never really understood what it was like until this very moment. The second thing he realized was that he could not yelp in pain, for fear of attracting unwanted attention, so he gritted his teeth, instead.

Aevukepe took a moment, for this was a very strange happening. A moment ago, he could barely see a thing at all in the darkness of the cavern, now it was like standing in a lamplit room. He took stock of himself. As far as Aevukepe could tell, he was something like a fair-skinned human. His height was average and he had a very strong build, like many of the warriors who had worn him throughout his life. He was clean-shaven and had straight black hair that fell down to his past his chin, but not as far as his shoulders. He patted himself down, checking for anything he might be carrying. Humility in stock, he hoped he wasn't nude.

On Aevukepe's left hip, a small, steel plated shield was attached to his armor by means of chain links and a spring-loaded mechanical device. He could detach the shield from the armor quickly, secure it to his arm, and then take it off and reattach it to the armor, which he practiced a few times. The shield seemed light enough, yet was made of the same sturdy steel as his original plates, and was adorned with one of the runes that had been lost when the first smith had repaired him. And he hadn't just gained a shield. He wore a set of vambraces, bracers and armored gloves that didn't quite qualify for gauntlets, but were designed to be locked to his shield. Each plate of the arm and hand armor had also been ornamented with a polished copper rune. Everywhere else on his body that mattered, he wore light, supple leather armor.

Strapped to his shoulders and attached to his fauld, Aevukepe wore a tough leather traveler's pack. It was big enough to hold his arm guards plus a number of other small things, but only reached up as far as the middle of his back. He detached it from his armor (which he supposed was also still himself) and rummaged around inside it. There was a medicine kit in there, three days of dry foods and a skin of water. There was also a soft cloth, a jar of polish, and a whetstone, a small brass hammer, a pair of pliers, a bag of spare chainmail links, and a cotton cloth for wiping away blood. Finally, he found a length of sturdy rope, the supplies to set up a small tent, and climbing gear. Aevukepe nodded, thinking of how he had lamented that many of his owners over the years were missing different pieces of this warrior's set. He reattached the traveler's pack to his armor and turned to head out of the cave. This was certainly the last place he wanted to be.

As he reached the tunnel that led back to the room of dead goblins, Aevukepe stopped walking and thought of the warrior who had owned him only briefly. "Damn it," he said. His voice deep and yet smooth, but did not echo off the cavern walls. A blessing, that. He slumped his shoulders and turned back to the ledge. In the water down there was a man who tried to spare him from rusting in obscurity. He could at least give the man a decent grave.

He anchored a piton into the stone, fed his length of rope through it and descended down the rocky face. On his right, the waterfall roared in his ears and gave him something to think about while he climbed. When he reached the bottom, he turned about and prepared to jump in the water, but hesitated instead. There was a person standing there.

She was tall, slim and fair-skinned, with bright aqua-hued eyes and silken blonde hair that descended as far as her ankles. She was dressed only in a wet, diaphanous gown and her very skin shed a soft light. Tiny lights like golden fairies floated near her, as though they were attracted to her beauty, and her every movement was one of a grace which no mortal man could hope to achieve.

This impossibly beautiful woman knelt down, where the drenched half-dragon lay cold and dead, and kissed him softly on the forehead. As she did, the colors of Aevukepe's armor suddenly changed -- white with red accents along the pauldrons and flanks, with a motif of swirling red flames that could be either spears or axes, with details that gave it a very intimidating appearance. The woman spoke in a voice of unearthly beauty, addressing Aevukepe, "It was not yet his time." Despite the roar of the waterfall, he could hear her perfectly.

The woman stood up gracefully and turned around. She walked away into the pool of water, and dissolved into its depths.

He was cold.

Very cold.

Ren hated being cold. He also hated being wet when he was cold. He also never much liked water. He would bath but never in anything too deep to drown in. He could swim … just not very well. And the water always was so cold in rivers and lakes and the like. He preferred hot water but it came with the wait to heat some water up for it. So it was never really convenient for travel to always demand hot water.

It was around then when he realized he was thinking. Conscious and aware.

Huh.

Groggily the half dragon opened his eyes. Little twinkling gold lights just passed by his eyes that were a little blurred as he refocused them. He turned his head around to look. He was in a dark cave, there was the sound of loud running water, and he saw a man standing nearby just staring at him on the ground. The man’s copper eyes were a little widely exposed with something he would have to guess was surprise.

Ren stared back a little vacantly; trying to remember why he was there and why there was a man staring at him. The bits came slowly back together.

His father.

Silver lance through his chest.

Falling back.

Darkness.

His scarlet eyes widened. He sat up on his elbow, a hand going to his chest where he had been stabbed through. His shirt was torn where it happened, but all the blood was gone, washed away, and there was no wound. Just his normal skin. He also noticed all the injuries he had before were gone. No broken ribs, no battered body, no bruised skull.

And then—“Aevukepe …!” he gasped, jumping up and then wobbling a little. He looked around hurriedly. He didn’t fall with him in the water, did he? Ren really hated swimming. Diving even less, since it was more likely he’d drown.

Looking around he finally was reminded of the man standing nearby. He looked at him. Who the hell was this and what was he doing here of all places? Of course … Ren didn’t know why he was alive at the moment either. He should have drowned anyway, being unconscious for so long and not remembering dragging himself out of the water. What exactly had just happened?

Ren quickly realized that this man was wearing Aevukepe, yet the armor still matched the design it had taken for him.

The expression on the man's face changed when the half-dragon sat up, called out the armor's name, and jumped to his feet. "Well," he began, "you seem well enough to stand, and I can understand if you want to start a fire to dry off, but I've got no way to do that with the mist of the falls, here." He looked Ren up and down, and then shook his head at the boy, "Shouldn't you be more concerned about whether whatever killed you is still around or not?"

Ren blinked and slowly a look of great annoyance flickered over his features. He never much liked anyone telling him what to do. Not only that but this person had referenced the whole "killing" thing that he still didn't understand much. “Hey, bud. Before you starting tellin’ people what to do, maybe you should do a little explainin’ first. Like, who the hell are you? Where the hell did you get that armor? How the hell do you about…” He looked up, taking a step back, and trying to see where his father had been on the ledge. He knew the dragon would have gone shortly after he was sure Ren was dead, which meant everyone in the empire thought he was dead, too. The half-dragon sneered, the expression ripping through the side of his face.

“I'm not telling anyone to do anything. I'm looking out for your health,” Aevukepe said. He looked at the rope hanging from the cliff, to his right, then up to the cliff's edge. “You're a little on the heavy side, but I'm almost certain that whatever it was that killed you is gone now. You should already know who I am, and 'this armor' was lying on the ground up there –” He jerked his thumb, gesturing up the rope, “– on the other hand, if you haven't figured it out by now, then let me tell you a story, but I'm getting away from these haunted waters, either way.” He paused, and then commented, “No matter of your weight, the rope's strong enough. But, if you go with me, let's go one at a time, shall we?”

When the man wearing Aevukepe had started talking, Ren's attention went to him and the victorious sneer faded quickly. He folded his arms across his chest, giving him a level stare. “Yeah, and just trust this random guy down here in the caves with me? Sounds great. You better explain now, quickly, if it bugs you to be around this water.”

Aevukepe shrugged, "I'm not so random. I came down here to pull you out of the water." He turned, and began to climb the rope upward, anchoring additional pitons to the stone as he rose, to compensate for the boy's weight.

Ren stared, level glare vanishing as he thought about that. His eyes widened at the possibility that occurred to him. He looked up where Aevukepe was starting to climb. "Wait a minute! You're ...?!" Ren exclaimed with astonishment.

“I'm what?” the armor interrupted, “About to tell you a story? Yes. ...A long time ago,” he began, rising his voice as he got slowly got further from the young warrior, making sure that he could continue to be heard over the roar of the waterfall, “there was a young man by the name of Redg Tanner. He was an ambitious soldier serving his city, but an impulsive boy who could not be told when enough was enough, no matter if he was training or just goofing around.” Aevukepe took another piton out of his pack and secured it to the wall. “One day, a friend of his, who was the town's armorsmith, gave him a gift. It was a piece of masterwork armor meant to protect him from harm during raids on the city. He wore it over the course of several raids, and it kept him well protected. Over time, he grew cocky, becoming too sure of his own abilities. Then, one day…” Aevukepe climbed over the edge of the cliff, and then motioned for Ren to follow him up. He took tinder, flint and steel out of his pack, and began to build a fire.

Ren narrowed his eyes a little when Aevukepe started speaking again. That wasn't what he meant, but he listened to the story anyway and when Aevukepe motioned for him to come, Ren walked up, took the rope, and started following him up, until he reached the top, climbing over the edge to join him.

Aevukepe built a little hat of tinders and kindlings, stuck a bit of paper and an oiled cloth beneath it, and lit it quickly, with the patience and practice of a very old man. He glanced up at the boy as his fire grew. “You're not really interested in my story, are you?” He took a couple of small logs out of his pack and set them near the fire, getting ready for when he would need them.

Bluntly, Ren snorted in response. “Should I be? What's the point of it?” He sat on the ground on the other side of Aevukepe's building site.

The manifested armor shrugged again. “Have it your way, but I thought I owed you an explanation, and since it would be safer for the two of us to band together on our way out of here, I thought it might be nice if we got to know each other a bit.” He positioned the logs on either side of the growing fire; they caught quickly, and he pushed them closer together. Momentarily, the fire sustained itself. “Are you hungry, friend?” Aevukepe reached back into his pack, withdrawing from it a meal of traveler's rations.

“Yeah well, I was a little more interested in the fact you got a body and can talk to me outside my head now. Oh yeah, and I was pretty sure I had a nice big hole in my chest that's missing now.” Ren scowled, eyes narrowed as he spoke, and ignored the question about his hunger.

Aevukepe grinned, chuckling quietly in the fire-lit cave. “Nice hole, huh? What, do you really miss it? I was trying to explain that first part to you, you know, but I'm not sure exactly how it happened, myself. You should eat, I'm not hungry anyway, and if you're hungry, you'll make for a poor ally when trouble shows up.”

Ren made a face. “Jeez, Aevukepe, don't you know what sarcasm is?” He started, but he smiled a little to himself.

Aevukepe nodded, smiling too. “So, what's your name, anyway?”

“Funny, I thought you would have known that when you were in my head,” the boy practically spat back at the armor.

Aevukepe responded evenly, expecting that kind of hostility, “I only made it far enough to learn that you dislike having your mind delved into. This reminds me, I think I can help you with that, but it will be unpleasant for a while.”

Ren narrowed his eyes, arching a brow. “Help me with what?” he asked slowly.

“Resisting that kind of invasion.”

Ren’s eyes seemed to relax and he looked interested. “Oh…”

The expression on Aevukepe's face softened. He recognized that tone of voice. It was the same as every other wearer's, when they finally realized that the armor was, in fact, there to help them. "Friend, I am armor, whether you know it or not. It is of my nature that I protect my owner, in every right way I can. I am sorry for reaching into your mind, but I had no other way to learn about you at the time, and I had no way of knowing ahead of time that you'd be opposed. Not everyone who picks up mail has the thought to tell it they don't want it reading their minds, you know."

Ren looked down half-smiling.”Yeah, right…” It seemed he was starting to feel more comfortable around Aevukepe, for he scooted closer to the fire, lifting his hands to be warmed but it. Closer than normal. It wasn't like it burned him anyway. “Besides that, it's nothing personal. I tend to distrust everyone. The name's Ren Aka Nevisu.”

"Mine's Aevukepe." Ren knew that already, but there was a formality that needed to be attended. He paused for a moment, then started speaking again, "After a few months, many of the bandit clans around Redg's hometown banded together, and launched a great siege-raid on the city. Donning his armor again, Redg went out to fight them back. By the passing of the sun, he fought for more than five hours without rest. The armor, which had a voice of its own, counseled him to withdraw into the city and get his strength back, but the boy ignored the armor's advice, telling it that he wouldn't need all his strength to fight back this horde. For two hours, the armor pleaded the boy to return to the city at every chance it got, but Redg was stubborn and had made it a point of his pride to prove to the armor that he was stronger than it knew. Redg Tanner never returned to the city at all, but the armor was taken up by the bandit lord who conquered that city."

Ren looked up at Aevukepe, listening more intently this time as he warmed himself by the fire.

"Over the next month, the armor saw battle time and again. Nearby cities, owning more potent militia than Elun, Tanner's erstwhile home, did not take kindly to it being owned by mere thieves and highway men. They stormed the city time and again, and for that first month, it held under the clan lord's banner. His name was Went, and he fought with the fury of a storm for upwards of half a day without tiring. Near that month's end, though, another man came to take up the brightly decorated armor, for the fortune of a well-aimed arbalest which pinned Went to the southern gate of Elun, just moments before his death."

Aevukepe looked at the half-dragon, and then placed the meal of rations on the ground between the two of them. Clearly, he was done with his story.

Ren picked up some rations and chewed in silence, thinking about the story. Figured he didn't like mere thieves and highway men. A darker thought swept icily in his mind – that if he had gotten to know what he'd done, then Aevukepe probably wouldn't like him much either. He swallowed with some difficultly on that thought.

The manifested armor sat across the fire from Ren, waiting while he ate. After the other was half finished with his meal, Aevukepe turned the logs so that they would continue to burn brightly. "Has it occurred to you why I might be sitting here, now?"

Ren looked up. “…uh, no?” he said, obviously lost.

Aevukepe nodded and idly unlatched his shield from the device which held it to the armor, "After Redg, my first owner died failing to prove that he could fight for longer than I thought, Went took me up and never tired in battle again..."

“Right…”

The ancient warrior looked across the fire at Ren, waiting for the idea to reach the boy. When it failed, he went on, "Went died a month later, when a lucky bolt from an arbalest pierced the plates of my protection and his heart. Five weeks later, I found myself repaired and being bestowed upon a young noble who was training for knighthood in another city. Almost half a year after he became my owner, his home was laid siege to, and a large catapult stone landed atop him from the sky, slamming him against the hard earth beneath his feet. He suffered many bruises and a few broken bones, but I was completely undented, and he survived. It was a tiring thing to do, but I managed to resist the weight of the stone, and it bounded off him, where it could hurt him no more."

It seemed Ren was starting to understand the pattern, understanding more of what exactly the point of his story was. “Oh, you like… evolve or something?” he asked.

Aevukepe made a face at the younger warrior, "I'm sorry... I'm not familiar with that term."

“Um, change, adapt.”

“Oh, yes. I do. I'm no wizard, but I'm near certain it's from the way my owners die. I've had plenty die of old age, though, and none of them have ever become immortal.”

Ren smiled a little, but then thought for a moment. “So I guess I really died…”

“And the spirit of that pool down there brought you back. I have to say, I've seen magic in my years, but I've never seen any of what she did. You were already on shore when I got down the rope, and she just said it wasn't your time before she left. How did you die, anyway? I couldn't see in the dark when it happened.”

Ren furrowed his eyebrows. "…not my time? Funny, then why did it happen anyway?" He shook his head, knowing that it wasn't something that could really be answered.

Half-coldly, half-facetiously, Aevukepe replied to Ren's question without missing a beat, "Maybe I needed a body."

The half-dragon looked at him, not really insulted, which was obvious by his smirk. "Yeah, maybe that's it."

"Are you done eating, yet?" Aevukepe asked with mocked impatience. "I don't want to stick around for the Urfghess to come back."

The boy quickly stuffed the rest of the rations in his mouth, eating unusually fast, but hey, they hadn’t given him any food while he had been stuck in that cell for a few days.

Aevukepe raised a brow, waiting for Ren to finish. When he did, the armor said, "So, we're going to leave urfghess territory and head for the surface. That means going back to the cave where you found me, and taking the tunnel to the right of this one, following it along until we come to a ridge that overlooks a boneyard with three horse skulls in it. From there, we turn right to the wall, and climb up into a rock chimney that climbs for another fifty feet or so, and comes out in the side of a lava rock tunnel. Sound good to you?"

He normally didn’t do things like this.

The joining of forces. It required a certain amount of trust. Something that Zelda said the Drow Empire had tried to squish out of him during his short years there. But this wasn’t really a normal situation either. He didn’t trust men or women or even children easily. However, the way he saw it, Aevukepe didn’t really count. Sure, he probably had something like a soul, and even though he now had a body and a gender, it wasn’t like the souls of man or elves. Or at least that was his theory so far. He was risking it, really. He really didn’t know what the soul of Aevukepe was really about. Whether it was devious, cunning, and manipulative or innocent, honest, perhaps even kind. The latter was the face the manifested armor was showing now, but Ren knew too well the masks that people could wear. And he was magic armor, not all magic could be trusted.

Of course, he supposed the suspicious and paranoid ways of the drow had maybe rubbed off on him. Though, really, the drow soldiers weren’t the ones that broke his willingness to trust. It hadn’t been drow who betrayed him. He had always expected treachery from them. They had never been his allies or friends.

It was pale faces that he distrusted even less. At least with the drow he always could depend on them being disgusting, conniving, back-stabbing, treacherous demon elves. It was the others, the paler faced ones, men and elves that made him uneasy. He found it ironic that they called the drow demons void of real emotion. He always thought it was because the drow were openly what they were secretly. He guessed that was even more reason for their hatred. Perhaps they saw their shadows in these black faced creatures. For Ren had met and became his shadow with them.

The pale faced ones were mixed. He never knew when to believe that their kindness was true or just a show, a mask. And that was even more dangerous than the predictable drow.

However, people had continued to surprise him. Such as Rontu, the rogue drow, the very few Ren had seen to abandon his people and society. Even more shocking, he had shown kindness to him that so far had proved honest, despite being delivered in rough and tactless manner. Of course, Ren himself wasn’t one for much tact or subtleties either. Over the past year or two, he even found himself calling the dark elf friend. Comrades. He always felt that Rontu understood him in a way the others couldn’t. Rontu had been part of the empire as well. Not only that, but he had been a Scarlet warrior.

Those who were graced with the name and color of Scarlet were the cruelest, most skilled, cunning, and, often, malicious of the imperial soldiers. No, they were not soldiers, but the true warriors of the empire. Their best. The Scarlets were the ones that had survived all the deceit and backstabbing of the lower ranks of the empire. Of course, the life span of Scarlets were mostly very short. For the fight for status and power never ended. The Scarlets are known to fight, often indirectly and discreetly, amongst themselves for power and glory and the praise of the spider goddess they feared and worshipped.

Rontu had survived it, and was also very young. One could say a prodigy of the sword. Ren supposed that was why Rontu was the way he was. He had been raised in that kind of world. Ren had been blessed with peace for the first ten years of his life. They had much they shared, but then much that they did not. If Zelda said Ren was like fire, then Rontu was like ice. Cold and often unresponsive. There were dark times in the past when Ren would say the drow’s eyes had reminded him of his father’s.

Blank and empty.

Rontu’s rage was cold. Ren’s was hot. Always so hot. His grandfather would say that he was in the red stage of manhood. Full of aggression and heated air. Of course, it helped to have a messed up life too. He was sure Rontu had very rare happy memories to look back on as well. Even less than he. And they probably only made it hurt more.

Bitter sweet and poisonous.

He could only imagine. Rontu never really talked about himself. Ren didn’t blame him for that or badger him about it. When all you had to look back on and share was rotten, ugly, and full of shame and despair … who would want to talk about it? Who would want to hear it?

No, the pale faced ones didn’t like the shadow things. The ugly things. They liked the sun and beauty. They pretend the shadow isn’t there. Ignore it and maybe it would just go away.

Ren wished but knew better.

He also wished he knew better than to join up with newly manifested armor whose intentions he couldn’t be sure of. Rontu had been a great surprise, so maybe it wasn’t too bad to risk it. It wasn’t like he had a lot of options anyway. Aevukepe knew the way out … and he had also said he had come down to the water to get him. He wasn’t sure why Aevukepe would do that. To his knowledge before descending, he had been dead. Why not just turn around and walk out of here when he finally manifested a pair of legs?

It could also be a lie, but that could be the drow thoughts speaking.

However, Aevukepe did just tell him the way out. Ren could leave on his own, but they both heading in the same direction anyway. If Aevukepe was true about his memories, then there was quite a bit of nasty down here. It’d make getting out easier to have someone else to work with.

So here he was, traveling back through the dark tunnel with Aevukepe. Now that all the explaining was done, it was pretty quiet between them. It was better not to talk anyway. Their voices could gather unwanted attention from whatever lurked in these undergrounds. Ren was relieved. He really didn’t want to do the small talk thing. It was annoying and stupid. He had a feeling Aevukepe wasn’t much of a small-talk guy as well.

They both walked lightly, avoiding making as much sound as possible. They made it to the cave where he had first found Aevukepe. But something seemed off about it immediately. For one, it was darker in the cave than it was before. There had been patches of glowing fungus. These now seemed blotted out by black shadows. It took him only a second to realize what these were. When they entered the cave, thousands of pairs of black gleaming beady eyes looked toward them. His ears were filled with the rustling and clicking of their pointy legs on the rocks and stone. They were all about the size of a small shield. Some were bigger.

And the ceiling of the cave was darkened with all their black little bodies.

He didn’t have much time to wonder what had attracted so many of them to the one cave. His hands went quickly for his chain and mace.

Of course.

It could never be easy.