Overwhelmed by a strange calm, I gripped the tomb's doors and heaved. They creaked and squealed, but held fast. Around my head, the chattering voices clamored in fear, buzzing empty threats into my brain. Again, I yanked. Again, the charred, iron doors remained closed. I tried forcing the doors to yield to my will, thinking of "opening" in the same manner I had with the scroll. Slowly, the doors began to open an inch at a time, then, with a hollow roar, they clanged shut. Wincing, I rubbed my shoulder, which felt like it had almost been ripped apart.
With a sigh, I steadied myself.
"What is wrong?"
"Is he too strong?"
I ignored the voices, and smiled a little as they shrieked and wailed in neglect. Magicka welled into my palm, a great surge unlike any before or since.
"Even if you open the door..."
"Your body will decorate his floor!"
"Why have you brought me to this place?"
"Life! Life! Strife! Get it away from us!"
"You should know," I whispered, looking to the spriggan beside me.
"This is a place of death. Unnatural death. I don't like it. Send me back!"
"No. This place has no right to exist. How can I let my friend's soul be desecrated here? Or anyone's, for that matter."
The spriggan was silent for a moment, her glowing eyes following the path of floating leaves around me. She sighed, bowing her great, antlered head. "This must be why Y'ffre sent me to you. Why he opened the portal in this unholy place." Her wooden lips pursed into a thin line. "What would you have me do?"
"Help me open this door for starters."
Together, we grabbed the door handles, the rough metal burning under our touch. Gritting and grunting, we pulled, yanking the door open with protesting screams. As they allowed increasing amounts of dead, gray light filter into the tomb's interior, a guttural growl bellowed through the opening. A force heaved against ours, fighting to keep the tomb shrouded in darkness.
Suddenly, just as my hands were blistering and arms burning enough that I was sure my fingers would slip, the force on the doors shriveled away. The portal opened. A darkness deeper than any I'd ever seen greeted me, and I shivered at the malice in it. I almost felt as if the shadow was reaching out at me.
"Padomay," hissed the spriggan, stiffening.
"What?"
But the spriggan didn't respond. Instead, she quivered in place, the light inside her flickering sporadically. This isn't a good sign. I swallowed and wiped my hands on my thighs. Thinking of Derkeethus and the lost look on his face before he disappeared only made me more nervous. Shuffling on the threshold, I peered into the gloom as the evil within shifted in nature. All at once, it beckoned like the darkness of sleep. And I was so very tired.
Valindor's face flashed in my head, and my courage galvanized. I stood taller, and taking the spriggan's clawed hand in mine, walked forward into the tomb. The shadows hissed in anger and withdrew to reveal a short hallway lined with candles. Still, the spriggan trembled next to me. "It's all right. I'm here. We'll destroy this thing together."
"It is Padomay. He's here! How? Oh, Lord Y'ffre, how?"
"Shhh. He's not here. Padomay can't be only in one place. You know that. Now keep your voice down, it'll hear you," I hushed, though the spirit continued to shiver and moan like and old tree. I had no choice but to drag her along behind me.
The entryway opened to a tall room whose walls fell away into pitch black. My only comfort lay in the small candles, dispensing such a feeble glow that I was lucky I could see my own feet. I stood at the very edge of that tiny pool of light, and taking a deep breath, plunged into the shadow. Behind me, the spriggan gasped and creaked lowly.
Squinting, I felt my way forward, feeling bones roll and pop under my feet. Around me, the leaves produced just enough illumination to light the ground a few feet in front of me. Several paces forward lay an altar. The top of it contained a rectangular hole. There was no bottom.
Idly, I shuffled the soulgem fragments in my other hand, fragments which remained frightfully cold. I peered into the hole. An offering? I dropped the pieces down the shaft. They made a dull clunk as they bounced off the sides. A moment passed in relative silence--even the spriggan stilled to observe the room.
Just as she began to sigh in relief, the altar shuddered and rattled. The air buzzed violently as power gathered, and from the shaft, the gems floated into the air on a beam of violet light. My hair stood on end as the first bolt of lightning arced to the far end of the chamber. It struck the back wall in a blinding flash.
From the echoes of the resulting thunder came a deep growl that cut through the space, erupting into a gloating laugh. A figure slithered from between the bricks, leaking through the cracks like a dark liquid. It puddled on the floor as sparks continually arced from the altar into the substance. Holding my hands to my eyes, I tried to mitigate the flashes of light assaulting my brain. Instead, I watched the bones in my hands flex and creak with each lightning strike. Nearby, the spriggan hissed in a feral warning, the buzzing of her leaves only just audible in the booming crashes.
Blinking incessantly, I stared at the puddle, which slowly rose into a skeletal figure clothed in darkness. Horrible light pulsed about its form. A final flash blazed into its sockets, burning them with an awful red that took the place of real eyes. They swiveled around slowly until they locked with mine. With a chuckle, the thing raised an enormous axe that felt to scale with the looming demon before me. In hearing that laugh, I knew The Reaper had finally come for me.
"Look out!" cried the spriggan, shoving me to the side and wrapping its ankles in roots. They snapped easily, torn out of the ground like young grass shoots.
"Look there! Don't you see?
"Our master has come at last!"
"He is free."
The voices now had ghostly dark shapes: thin, black skeletons that shuffled gleefully about, their eyes glowing like soulgems. They wielded ancient swords and axes, slinging them in a careless way as their teeth chattered. Alarmed, I sent blasts of leaves at the things, watching as they pattered against the skeletons to no effect. I summoned roots from the ground, tearing into their joints with plant matter, but the plants only withered as soon as they touched those rotting bones.
All the while, the demon advanced slowly, chuckling all the while. It spoke, at last, in a language I didn't understand.
"Get back! Get back!" I cried. The thing's mouth curved into a fanged grin. "I said get back!"
"Or what?" came the garbled answer from everywhere.
"Y'ffre will not stand for this abomination!" With a reedy cry, the spriggan charged, her claws flashing a bright, poisoning green in the darkness. Leaping into the air, she clutched at the demon's hood, trying to scrabble her way into its skull. The Reaper lazily plucked her away like an insect and flung her to the ground.
"No!" I rushed to her side, blasting back the skeletons with as much force as I could muster. They were hindered, slowed, confused, and I used the bones littered on the ground to act as a shield for the roots that stabbed at bit at their joints.
"You trespass in my house. Your little god has no power here," it bellowed, bringing lightning down about us. We backed away into a corner, and I tripped over a skull that rolled under my heel. "Look at me." The growl morphed into a low command. Averting my eyes, I scrambled backwards over endless bones, half-burying myself in the remains and covering my ears.
"Don't look! Whatever you do, don't--" Her cries were ended by an axe breaking into her earthy body. Caught off-guard, she collapsed, staring at me as the light passed from her eyes and form shattered into a faint mist of green. The mist dissipated into nothing, and the spriggan was gone from that place. My mouth flapped open and closed uselessly. I was now alone to fight this horror.
I can't kill this thing alone... Who am I kidding?
"Look at me."
I couldn't resist. The pull of that voice was too strong. Shaking, I looked into its glowing red eyes.
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