Chương 39: 38. Sepulcher Desecrated

Lady Tiren stood defiantly, facing Tavian. His mind was back in the tunnels. He stood in a stairwell, blackness everywhere. He clawed and scratched at the walls, feeling his fingernails chipping on hard stone. The space seemed familiar. He'd… seen it once before, during the great traditional remembrance ceremony. Kusa's sepulcher had been opened, and they went in to pay their respects. There the sarcophagus lay, in shadow, up ahead. A force of ghouls pushed the lid open, and the bones inside sat up and stretched.

Tavian snapped back to his own body. He hadn't fallen to the floor this time, but Braun was staring at him. The ground rumbled beneath their feet. The screams of ghouls echoed around them, seeming to rise out of the very floor.

"It's too late," he said.

"They're already inside." His volume increased as he spoke louder.

"There are ghouls in the sepulcher already. Kusa's grave is desecrated. There is nothing left to fight for!" Valliroth pushed Tavian back, drawing his sword. Lady Tiren turned on Tavian, fire in her eyes.

"How do you know?"

"I have seen a vision," Tavian growled.

"You consort with the darkness," Lady Tiren shot back.

"You allow it to influence your mind, and you believe what it shows you."

"I'm in control," Tavian shot back.

"I'm using it like a tool. Carefully."

"It is a disease," Lady Tiren snapped.

"You know a man's craft by his tools. Miasma is the essence of death."

"Believe what you want," Tavian snapped. Braun approached, a troop of green liveried men following him.

"There is nothing left here to protect," Tavian said, offering the stubborn house Tiren one last chance.

"Come with us." Valliroth sneered at him. Lady Tiren held her head high.

"No," she said.

"We will do our duty." Tavian looked at the chaos around him, and something in his soul stirred at the bravery of the men and women in House Tiren, fighting for what they believed in. He needed them. He needed them to join him. But if he let them stay here and fight to the death, Anarvia would seize everything within the temple grounds. The scrolls, the books, the relics, the ornamentation. Even the stained glass, the frescos, and the mosaics.

Everything that Tavian was currently stripping from the fortress was found here sixfold; it would provide Anarvia with a serious essence boost. The temple, the library… everything that could not be held needed to be burned. The Tirens would fight him to the death if he tried that. Anella stood beside Braun, looking torn. She might go with them yet.

"Braun," Tavian said. He was no longer trying to persuade people who were not interested.

"Call your men. We're getting out of here. And we're not letting Anarvia get his hands anything more to sift." He leaned in, hissing his last words.

"If he sifts the library, he'll get enough essence to claim this whole city." Braun looked at Anella, who immediately looked to her mother.

"We stay and defend the sepulcher of Kusa," Lady Tiren said, folding her arms.

"Each of us contributes what we can, but we do not abandon our post. If Ishtoran wills our House to burn, then I will burn. Someone bring me a sword." Anella flinched, then moved. She walked away from Braun, and stood beside her mother.

"What would you have me do, mother?" she asked. Tavian grabbed Braun, dragging him away. His brother seemed dazed.

"Braun," Tavian said.

"Get our men and let's get out of here. We'll burn the library on the way out. They're lost."

"But Anella," Braun said.

"She doesn't know what she's doing."

"We'll bring her too," Tavian said. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"She'll hate me," Braun protested.

"She can't hate you if she's dead." Braun clenched his jaw.

"We'll bring her," he agreed.

"She'll forgive me." Tavian wasn't so sure. Betrayal left a deep wound. Tavian waved his men forward. He gestured to Braun, then drew his own sword.

"I'm sorry it's come to this, Valliroth," Tavian said. Braun grabbed Anella, and dragged her screaming into the midst of his men. Valliroth's face reddened with rage, and he charged at Tavian, sword slashing.

"I'm not your enemy!" Tavian cried out. He let Valliroth attack him, the man hacking with his blade in the aggressive pattern of Flame stance. Tavian slipped naturally into the Earth forms, the natural weakness of Flame. He didn't want to hurt Valliroth. He was a brave man, with a noble heart.

"You leave my sister alone, child of darkness!" Priests died. The splintering of wood and the snarling of ghouls rang out as the antechamber was breached. Tavian quickly activated his system interface, and located Valliroth. The man still had the [Fortify II] class that Tavian had granted him.

"I'm sorry," Tavian breathed, deflecting a withering blow of attacks from the man. Tavian's eyes flicked back and forth from the man to the system; Valliroth was good with his blade, and Tavian wasn't sure he could manage both. Valliroth pivoted into Air, an unstable match against Tavian's Earth forms, forcing Tavian to direct all his attention to the fight for a moment, before he could shift into Stone, a strong, defensive posture, which easily deflected the light, rapid attacks of Air.

Valliroth pulled back, shifting stance again, and Tavian took advantage of the moment. ⬣ Valliroth Tiren [Fortify II] ⬣ ⬣ Class Revoked: [Fortify II] ⬣ ⬣ Evicted from kingdom: Valliroth Tiren ⬣ It was only two constitution points, but the effect of the revocation hit Valliroth hard. He stumbled, a hand going to his injured side. He looked up at Tavian, shocked and surprised. Fresh blood leaked through his bandaged arrow wounds. Tavian advanced, trying to disarm Valliroth.

As Braun's men hauled the struggling Anella out of the temple, his men fended off confused priests wielding their maces. Tavian's men moved in, starting to surround Valliroth. The man called for aid, and a few priests joined the struggle. The fighting had to end now. Tavian needed to prevent this from turning into a bloodbath. At that moment, a tremendous crack thundered through the room, like the thunder of a lightning strike.

The heavy stone of the sepulcher door had split, and fragments crumbled to the ground as ghouls within fought their way into the temple of Ishtoran. Tavian cursed, and Valliroth cried out in anguish as he saw.

"No," Valliroth cried out, his sword drooping. A skeletal ghoul—reainmated by dark miasma—gripped the frame of the door. It wore, on its shoulders, a familiar griffin rider cloak, tattered and stained by great age.

"Valliroth," Tavian said.

"Come with us. It's over!" Valliroth let his sword tip drop down to the ground. Anella screamed, and the fight returned to Valliroth's eyes. He started back toward Tavian. Tavian blasted him in the sword arm with an elemental [Projectile]. Valliroth's sword flew from his hand, skittering across the floor. Tavian stepped in and clubbed him on the head with his hilt. The man fainted. Two of Tavian's men grabbed Valliroth and followed him.

They left the monks, priests, and priestesses to struggle with the undead intruders. Glass shattered and fires sprang up behind them. Tavian seized a torch and crossed the grounds toward the temple. A few priests were cowering inside the library, a long, low building, filled with books and scrolls. Finely worked, collected over decades, and containing generations of knowledge, the library would be a wealth of essence if Anarvia were allowed to sift it.

"Secure the library," Tavian ordered, and his men quickly dragged confused, unarmed priests out into the courtyard. The men and women hiding here were not interested in fighting. Smoke now billowed from the oculus of the temple like a blacksmith's chimney. Orange flames glowed from within, and Tavian caught a glimpse of the noble Lady Tiren still fighting to the last, silhouetted against the fire. The temple had fallen, and the pentagon would likely be claimed now by Anarvia.

If the sepulcher had been doing something… well, it was gone now. Tavian would deal with the consequences of that if it came to it. He walked into the library. He smelled the dry parchment in the air, the leather bindings of the books. This had been his sanctuary, for many long hours, as a child. He'd hoped one day to read every story contained in these walls, and knew it would take more than a lifetime to accomplish. It would be impossible now.

These books were going to be destroyed, either by his enemy, extracting all their Essence, or by him. Tavian pushed through to the portion of the library where they kept the rare books chained up. He quickly located the red bound volume which Calli had suggested might help with translating the tomes he'd found in the dungeon. He used his sword to hack the chain in two, then pulled the book from the shelf. He would save more, if he could, but this would have to do.

Tavian brought the flames of the torch to the shelves, and watched as the fire blackened the parchment, taking hold. It quickly devoured the dry paper. He set the shelves alight in several places, then tossed the torch deeper inside the building. By the time he emerged, an inferno blazed behind him, singing the hair on his arms and neck. A priestess cried out in horror as she saw what was happening.

"Come with us if you want to live," Tavian told her. He looked at the burning library.

"Forget these. They're just books." Books that he would never get the chance to read. He gathered his soldiers. A small group of priests and priestesses, bearing bundles, gathered with him. The men and women unwilling to fight and die here. Tavian met Braun at the wall. Anella had stopped struggling, but two soldiers still firmly gripped her arms. Her eyes were red, from tears or from smoke, Tavian couldn't tell. Valliroth's unconscious form lay slumped, held up by two stout soldiers.

Tavian prayed that he hadn't killed the man. Not everyone woke up from a blow to the head like that.

"It's going to be okay," Braun was trying to reassure Anella, but she was ignoring him. Instead, she glared at Tavian, her pretty face distorted by a white hot anger.