Hero of Bowerstone 26
Balance

Mist swirled around the figure in motion as strong legs carried her through broken edifice and unnatural darkness. Without pause or hesitation she moved towards an ominous looking stone structure that loomed out of the damp and dark of the marsh.

Several days of rest and vice in the port of Bloodstone found Sparrow falling into habits she did not want to keep and incidentally ran up a debt owed to Keystone and locals all too willing to 'buy' her a friendly round of alcohol that somehow mysteriously never got paid.

There was something liberating about a town where she could brawl without fear of reprimand or charges, or not get a second glance for carrying cutlass and rifle because everyone carried something that was lethal in nature.

There would always being something of a child of the gutter about Sparrow no matter how high she climbed the social ladder. A piece of the underside of society was an integral part of her being. For all the intense dislike she felt towards the uncontested criminal lord of Bloodstone she understood the workings of his mind better than say, Hannah, who always fell on the right side of good.

While Hannah radiated decency and kindness and always did what was proper (when she was sober), Sparrow did so because she'd seen what wrong was, occasionally wronged herself and only refused to abuse her gifts, not because it was right and decent but because a balance had to be maintained. One Lucien in the world had already unleashed havoc that threatened everything living. Two Luciens would destroy everything.

A suspicion had taken seed in the back of Sparrow's mind about the Pirate King; something about the way he moved, the way he spoke. There was a flat cynical disinterest in the world around him that said he had seen it already, done it, and in some cases had done it twice.

There was something irritatingly smug about Reaver that made Sparrow want to punch him in the face.

The task at hand did not lend much time for meditation, however; Sparrow stood before two large metal doors locked into place set before a strange stone construction. Silence was her only companion on this journey.

Wraithmarsh was dangerous enough even for a Hero so she left Collin at the tavern under instructions that if any harm came to him she would personally carve out the perpetrators liver and serve it to the gulls. It was no idle threat.

The Seal fit perfectly and it was with only a minor shudder Sparrow returned it to her pack. Never had she seen a place so portentous; even the deepest, darkest depths of the Spire did not leave such a chilling feeling of alarm. Her heightened sense of Will could feel the abnormality of her surroundings.

This was not a natural structure.

The shadows crawled as she made her way down steep carved steps, deeper into the mausoleum.

I think I can sense a theme here Sparrow thought to herself.

As she walked through dark corridors she noted the carved out niches were filled with empty coffins. Occasional pieces of bones littered the pathway and she callously kicked them aside.

A soft weeping rose out of the gloomy depths and echoed off stone. Sparrow paused in surprise, having thought she was the only living thing inside this place.

She strained her ears to try and locate the source of the sound but it fell silent again and she was unable to guess where it was coming from.

Dark silhouettes were playing games with her eyes. Flickering torches lent feeble light but were nearly consumed by unnatural darkness and something was moving in the spaces between.

The sword gripped tightly in her hand was reassuring; infused Will glowed resolutely against the shadow. A small light against the darkness.

Her footsteps echoed loudly as Sparrow stepped into a vast, open chamber littered with macabre debris and she thought to herself,

It's far too quiet. Almost as though…

Shadows gathered, strengthened and solidified. Sparrow watched in shock as silhouettes of enemies past and present rose from the floor.

as though THAT was going to happen!

The sword came up as Sparrow studied the threat that surrounded her. Through Will she could sense no life or sentience from these creatures; like the entirety of Wraithmarsh wherever they had come from was the dimension just beyond this one and they were filled with death and malicious intent.

An army of ghostly dark adversaries moved all around her, vaporous as smoke and burning with bloodlust. As Sparrow moved quickly to the side heads turned to follow blindly, she the only living thing in the room and they, intent on feeding on that life.

Eerie red glowing dots burned where eye sockets had been.

The attack was silent and that was the most alarming of all; shadowed claws of a Balverine just missed Sparrow as a lithe turn saved her from having her chest torn open. An automatic reflex brought the cutlass around in an arc and the Will-infused weapon bit into the darkness of the creature. Without so much a scream it fell apart like shredded paper and evaporated.

It was a terrible dance to keep her distance from every creature she had fought on her way here and keeping her footing on a floor littered with broken pieces of stone, coffin and bone.
She rounded a pillar and recoiled with a gasp that choked her throat. The Commandant loomed out of the darkness, burning like a cold fire as he raised a sword.

"Not again!" she hissed and let Will answer the call of fear and rage.

The light and force of the Inferno spell blotted out even the darkest corners of the chamber. For a few moments the only sound was the ragged breathing of Sparrow and falling pieces of stone from the ceiling.
She looked up to an empty chamber that smoked in the aftermath.

Stands to reason doesn't it? she asked herself fire and light to battle darkness and death.

There was a deep clunk sound as something moved beyond another set of great metal doors and they swung open in silent invitation.

Accepting the challenge she walked out of the room without a second glance.

The sound of sobbing rose again, louder, as Sparrow walked through another corridor. Ahead was light and she picked up the pace.

She burst into a vast open space and skidded to a stop as she nearly went over a ledge. A rain of pebbles fell over the side and into a deep dark chasm. Far across from the short ledge she stood on was another ledge set into the great wall of carved stone.

Sparrow's body shivered in response to the dark Will that rose out of the chasm and fogged the area; there was something standing across the way from her but it was difficult to make out.

Someone beside her gasped and for the first time Sparrow noticed the only other living thing in the giant mausoleum. It was a peasant girl; no older than seventeen, fitted with much-darned but serviceable clothing and cloth to cover her hair. They stared at one another for a long moment and the girl burst into a fresh set of sobs.

"Please! You have to help me!"

A sinking, foreboding feeling clenched Sparrow's gut as a frown pulled her lips down. She held up a hand to silence the girl's incoherent pleas.

"How on earth did you get in here?"

The girl dabbed her eyes on her apron and avoided Sparrow's eyes.

"Well?"

Looking away from Sparrow the girl muttered,

"Weren't my fault, it was that book!"

"Book?"

The peasant girl gave Sparrow a quick glance from underneath lashes.

"Me and some friends, we found this book. Had all these funny phrases, then there was this bright light and I woke up here!"

Sparrow said nothing not wishing to state the obvious that when one comes across magic books one does not recklessly jump right into them without thinking about consequences.

Hair rose on Sparrow's arms as a surge of Will shook the room and the girl shrieked; the darkness across the chasm lifted and revealed three figures standing on the most sinister platform she had ever seen.
It was like a woodcut from hell; three thrones loomed out of the darkness that were made entirely of bleach-white bones. Each figure stood stock still, human shaped but elongated and was like something that had been cut out of the night sky. Skeletal hands found a resting place against the bone chair, each head was cloaked. Cold power burned off each figure.

They were as though rulers of the Underworld; impassive, powerful and implacable. Sparrow realized she was seeing something that perhaps no other living creature had witnessed and lived.

These are not something I can fight and win. This is beyond me. thought Sparrow as cold sweat trickled down her back.

One held a hand up as a 'voice' echoed through the chamber and her head.

'WELCOME.'

The girl shrieked again and tried to scramble away but the doors that Sparrow had just come through had been shut.

'ONE OF YOU CARRIES THE DARK SEAL BUT THERE ARE TWO. ONLY ONE IS REQUIRED.'

Sparrow's eyes widened in shock as Theresa's voice echoed through her mind, recalling what she had said about the fate of Oakvale.

A reckless young villager made a deal with the forces of Shadow who took the lives of every other resident as payment….

The pieces of the puzzle fit together and cold astonishment kept her frozen to the spot.

What sort of wish would a man make that would require the lives of an entire village? What if that man were still alive? What if that wish were to be KEPT alive?

Fury replaced shock as Sparrow felt her lips pull back into a terrible snarl.

"REAVER! Damn his black soul!"

The furious words bounced off of stone as she realized the sort of task the black-hearted snake had sent her on. The words of the three figures continued on, oblivious to her outburst or anger,

'ONE WILL TRADE THEIR YOUTH AND BEAUTY SO THE KING OF THIEVES MAY RETAIN HIS. THIS IS THE BARGAIN WE HONOR, THE RULES CANNOT BE BROKEN. YOU, WHO CARRIES THE SEAL, CHOOSE.'

Silence followed the pronouncement as the girl turned to look at Sparrow with horror-filled eyes.

Someone was going to have to pay the price.

DAMN HIM! He KNEW, he sent me here on purpose! I'll kill that son of a bitch!

"Hero! Hero, please, you can't! I – I just want to go home!"

Seconds trickled by, each one felt like an eternity. Sparrow looked away from the girl's beseeching eyes and clenched her hands so hard it hurt.

The weight of the world was literally on Sparrow's shoulders; were she to fall here, to allow her what remained of her youth and life to be leeched away, to allow her body to weaken with age what would happen to the fate of Albion?

In quick succession Lucien's face flickered before her mind's eye followed by the last moments of Rose's life.

"Take the girl."

The words fell like stone from her mouth.

A scream tore across the chamber as the girl tried to fling herself at Sparrow, fists raised, choking and sobbing. Instantaneously she was engulfed by inky darkness, momentarily blotting out her figure.

Sparrow watched with detachment as the voice deepened and became weaker. It was done in moments. As the dark cloud disappeared what remained was a bent old woman, grey hair and sagging runny eyes full of shock and terror.

"What have you done!?" she croaked. Sparrow did not answer.

'REAVER HAS AGAIN FULFILLED THE BARGAIN. BUT WHEN THE SACRIFICES STOP WE WILL COME FOR HIM. THIS HE KNOWS.'

The figures began to flicker and melted back into the shadow and Sparrow took the unwitting victim by her now frail arm and dragged her out still sobbing and clawing at the hand that held her.

At the town's edge Sparrow released her and spoke.

"I don't expect you will ever forgive me and that's fine. Hate me with all your might until your last day but know there was a reason."

The old woman's face pulled back into a terrible snarl as she screamed,

"What care I for your reason!? You've killed me, you have! What am I to do now!? I'm old! I'm … "

Sparrow calmly wiped the spit from her face and tossed a bag of gold coins at her feet and walked away from the sobbing woman.

'That was a difficult choice', said Theresa through their link 'but you are alive and strong and that is what matters. Return to Reaver.'

'Rest assured I'm returning to Reaver, I have a few things to say to him after I gut the weasel and nail his hide to the wall.'

'Sparrow, Theresa's voice was unusually stern. 'This is not the time for rash action. You are close to the end of things, to ending Lucien. It cannot be done without Reaver. Stay your temper.'

Sparrow didn't respond but strode angrily through Bloodstone, scattering people right and left with the look of sheer murderous rage on her face.