The silent call
Nobody has much to say when dawn breaks- they just break their camp down in silence, each pondering what to do while trapped in their own heads.
Nobody trusting the other. Nobody wanting to make small talk or be merry.
Everyone worried. Everyone wanting nothing more than to be free of their uninvited visitors so that they can get back to their lives.
Itachi’s eyes keep wandering to a large stone wall at the far end of the beach, though he keeps himself silent for the time being.
“Alright then, off we go to see what new horrors await us,” Astarion finally says, after what feels like forever.
“The farther we get from the crash site the better off we’ll be.” Shadowheart agrees.
“You two-” Lae’zel growls. “Why are you dawdling? We need to move.”
Itachi looks over, then back at the stone cliff face, and the inexplicable door embedded in it, somehow enraptured.
“You go ahead. I need to check something out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I just feel like there’s something we need. And that it’s nearby. Go on ahead, I’ll catch up later.”
“Really? Will you be able to find us after that?”
Itachi makes a few symbols with his hands, nodding as he does.
Kisame nods along with him, unable to ignore the same pull Itachi is feeling.
“We’ll check this out then catch back up as soon as we can. Don’t worry about us.”
“...If you’re sure, we can’t stop you.”
“I’m not sure of anything right now. But we’ll figure this out.”
“I’ll tag along,” Gale says. “Let’s have at it then.”
The others exchange baffled glances, wondering what the hell has come over their new companion.
“Suit yourselves. If you get lost or killed, that’s on you,” Orochimaru says.
That earns him a dirty look from Itachi, but no retort.
The rest of them leave the beach and continue their path in the opposite direction of the crash site, Lae’zel muttering about how they’re wasting time, and nobody paying her any attention.
Shadowheart plays with her fingers behind her back, the silence bothering her after too long.
“So Astarion,” she says, giving the man a hopeful sideways glance. “Do you have anyone waiting for you in Baldur’s Gate? A sweetheart maybe?”
Astarion shakes his head with an amused half-smile.
“No, nobody like that, I’m afraid. Although I assure you, Baldur’s Gate is a veritable feast of sweethearts, if you know where to look.”
"Ah, a ladies' man, aren't you?"
"Ladies. Gentlemen. Those in between. Those undecided. A pretty face is a pretty face, my dear- one mustn't limit themselves with trivialities."
“Is that so? What were you up to before all this, then?”
“Aren’t you the curious cat? I’m a magistrate in the city, if you must know- it’s all terribly boring. I won’t trouble you with the tedium- a lot of late nights and paperwork, that sort of thing.”
“Ah, a scholar, eh?”
“If you want to call it that.”
She seems a bit smitten with him, and to be honest Orochimaru can’t blame her. He’s quite a nice looking man. Nice face, winning smile, and there’s something about that cocksure demeanor that's quite endearing.
Not that he seems to notice. Or, if he does, he doesn’t let it show.
“Are we sure the others will be able to find their way back?” Shadowheart asks, looking around warily. “We’ve gone quite a ways-”
“They’ll find us,” Orochimaru says. “Itachi has eyes everywhere.”
“Eh? What do you mean?”
He points upward, toward the branches of the trees above them, where a small fleet of crows is perched, watching intently as they pass. Flitting from one branch to the other to keep them in their sight.
“The birds?”
“Not just any birds- look closer.”
Shadowheart squints, just barely making out the red eyes on each of the birds.
“They’re his friends- he summoned them earlier, you probably didn't notice. You don’t have to worry about him getting lost.”
“Familiars. I should have known.”
Orochimaru isn’t sure what a familiar is, but he decides to save that question for another time.
They walk in silence for maybe ten minutes, before Shadowheart’s curiosity gets the best of her again.
“Well, what about you then?” she asks. “ You’re not from here- what were you up to before you got taken? How do you know the others?”
Honesty is probably not the best policy in this situation. Or at least, not full honesty. But he doesn’t trust his ability to come up with a lie on the spot, so he decides a version of the truth would suit him best.
“Oh I guess one could call me a teacher. I’ve been looking after Itachi’s dear little brother for some time, as a matter of fact.”
“Oh? Parents aren’t in the picture then? Do you know what happened?”
For a moment, Orochimaru weighs how funny it would be to tell his new companions the entire sorry tale against how likely it is that Itachi would turn him inside out for telling.
“...Let’s just say their family- er- isn’t around anymore.”
Shadowheart frowns, maybe pitying them.
“Shame. At least they have each other then.”
“Well-”
Orochimaru takes a deep breath, finding himself embarrassed on Itachi’s behalf even though he has no reason to be.
“-Let’s just say they had a… a little bit of a falling out. They haven’t exactly been on speaking terms in quite some time now.”
“Oh I’ll have to get the sordid details out of him later,” Astarion chortles, leaning in like he’s getting in on some great secret. “I do love a good bit of gossip.”
“Good luck getting it out of him,” Orochimaru warns. “Itachi is the tight-lipped sort.”
“Oh, nothing a bit of wine and persuasion can’t coax out of him, I’m sure. Assuming he doesn’t get himself killed or start sprouting tentacles before we cross paths again.”
Lae’zel is about to chime in with some snide remark or another, but she catches her foot on something and nearly falls into the dirt, apparently too caught up in thought to notice the obstacle.
She curses in her native tongue, prodding at it with her sword and glares.
It’s a carcass. A fairly sizable one at that- a vicious looking wild boar with a set of wicked tusks to match.
Very dead. Very recently dead, at that.
“Eh? Scared of a dead boar?” Shadowheart teases, earning her a withering glare.
“I certainly am not .”
“Odd that it’s out in the open.” Orochimaru points out, walking a circle around it, not noticing any obvious lacerations or teeth marks in its hide. “It doesn’t look injured, does it? If it were old or ill it would have hidden away somewhere safe to die.”
Shadowheart frowns, nudging the boar with her foot.
“Take a look at how pale its skin is- it looks like something sucked all the blood out of this poor thing…”
Astarion pointedly turns his head the other way, shifting his weight from one leg to the other like he’s preparing to run. Tense, face scrunched like he’s in pain.
“Well, look at the wounds in its neck- obviously this is the work of a vampire.”
Sure enough, hidden in the boar’s coarse bristles, barely visible, are a pair of twin puncture marks, laid right over its carotid artery. And, just as Shadowheart had said, not a speck of blood to be seen anywhere on the poor creature.
“A what now?” Orochimaru asks.
“Vile creatures-” Shadowheart says. “Monsters that slink around in the shadows feeding on the blood of the living. Seems like one must be on the loose. Hungry, too.”
“ Tsk'va, ” Lae’zel spits. “You need not worry your pretty little head. If one tries slinking into our camp I will not hesitate to put a stake through its heart.”
“That seems a bit…drastic for someone that’s just out here hunting boar?”
Laezel holds the edge of her blade precariously close to Orochimaru’s chin.
“I would be doing it a kindness.” she hisses, through clenched teeth. Vampires are wretched beasts who only know the hunger for blood. Death is the only mercy they deserve.”
Astarion lets out a harsh laugh; once more his eyes dart around looking for somewhere to hide.
Like a rabbit that’s become aware it’s being hunted.
“Now now, we don’t need to worry about that,” he says, with a forced giggle at the end. “I’ll make sure to keep a lookout tonight so none of you have to fret, alright? You won’t see a vampire wandering about during the day, so for now let’s just get on with our business.”
The subject drops after that; nobody wants to waste precious time poking at a dead boar for too long, after all.
It’s a pleasant day with a pleasant breeze, but an unspoken chill settles over Orochimaru all the same.
He’s well familiar with that look. A look of blind fear. Barely contained panic.
And, through it all, his eyes can’t help but wander to the twin scars on the side of Astarion’s neck- not unlike the ones on the unfortunate boar.
The gears in his brain start turning, piecing together the information he has to try to get a clearer picture.
He must have had an encounter with a vampire before, at some point. So maybe the nervousness is to be expected.
But something doesn’t add up. And he has a feeling that, whatever it is, Astarion is hellbent on keeping it to himself.
As he ponders the situation, intrigue settles over him.
Everything about this man… fascinates him. Piques his interest in a way that few people ever have.
Poor little Astarion. So long as he’s stuck here, he might as well have a bit of fun. Orochimaru has the irresistible urge to try to pick him apart and see what makes him tick., and not much better to do while they try to get rid of the worms in their heads.
He’s drawn out of his thoughts by a ruckus up ahead. They pick up their pace to see what’s going on.
“Open the bloody gate!”
Whoever it is, they sound panicked. Desperate. And so does the person who replies.
“The gate stays closed! Zevlor’s orders!”
“That pack of goblins will be on us any second, you have to let us in!”
“You led goblins back here?! What the nine hells have you- open the gate! Quickly!”
“I’d say this isn’t our quarrel,” Astarion offers. “They haven’t seen us, let’s get out of here before it becomes our problem.”
“They need our help,” Shadowheart argues. “We can help! What trouble is a few goblins and bugbears anyway?!"
“We don’t have time for that!” Lae’zel hisses.
While they argue back and forth, Orochimaru takes in the sight.
As the people on the wrong side of the gate argue, strange, ugly creatures rapidly approach, armed to the teeth.
Some are vaguely wolf-like creatures, with gigantic claws and fearsome fangs, snapping and snarling and foaming at the mouth. The bipedal ones that follow them are varied in height and size, but they’re all equally repulsive to look at.
Maybe twenty of them in total- not ideal, but not a fight Orochimaru is uncomfortable with.
Besides that, something inside him itches to pick a fight. To spill blood and vent some of the anger that this blasted predicament has caused him.
“I say we indulge in a little capricious murder,” he says, with a small smile, approaching the vile creatures without a care in the world.
Though Shadowheart and Astarion seem reluctant, they follow along. Lae’zel mutters something, obviously far more eager.
Looks like they’re picking a pointless fight. At least it should be interesting- if nothing else, they deserve to vent some of their frustration for the trouble they've been through.
Kisame kicks the door embedded in the rock wall, regarding it with mild annoyance.
“Seems like it’s locked. Suppose there’s another way in?”
“Give me a minute,” Itachi says, crouching down in front of the lock and pulling out a hairpin to fiddle with it.
After about a minute, there’s a loud click, and the door opens.
“You seem to have a talent for that, don’t you?” Gale asks, folding his arms and looking impressed, if a bit put off.
“I was a nosy child,” Itachi explains. “Sometimes it’s good to know how to get into places you ought not to be.”
“Is that so? What sort of places were you snooping around in?”
“The bits of the library that were locked out for lower ranks, mostly. Although sometimes my parents would lock up sweets they didn’t want us getting our hands on so I’d get into that when they weren’t home.”
Gale can’t help but laugh.
“Sounds about right. Well then, lead on!”
Swinging the door open, the trio step inside.
So they’ve made it in. That’s step one.
What step two is… well, they don’t know.
“You sure this is where we need to be, Itachi-san?”
“No. But I have a weird feeling. Like we need to be here.”
“I feel it too,” Gale says. “Almost like someone’s expecting us.”
“It’s like we’re being watched…” Itachi mumbles.
“Yeah,” Kisame agrees. “It’s creepy…”
They step forward with caution, knowing the odds are good this place is full of traps.
Gale looks around in wonder, like he’s stumbled on a great treasure.
“There’s old magic in this place,” he says. “Very old. I feel like this is someplace sacred.”
“If it was, it’s been neglected for a while,” Kisame remarks. “It seems a bit…dusty.”
“And full of skeletons.” Itachi adds.
“Think they’re the unfortunate fucks that poked around in here before?”
“Maybe.”
Gale keeps quiet, looking around and taking in every last detail in the dim torchlight.
…Torchlight?
For a place that looks like it’s been abandoned for ages, someone’s been lighting the torches.
(Someone. Or some thing .)
“This place is a maze…” Gale complains.
“Protecting something, no doubt. Maybe some kind of treasure or old weapon or something,”
Kisame trips on a loose stair, falling forward and inadvertently smacks a nondescript button laying on the wall.
There’s a bang. A loud hum.
Then, out of seemingly nowhere, the skeletons start to move.
They rise up, picking up swords and spears and bows, empty eye sockets pointed in their direction.
“Well shit.”
Kisame and Itachi turn so they’re back-to-back against each other, trying to count the amount of skeletons now shambling toward them.
“How many?”
“At least a dozen.”
“I like those odds.”
An arrow comes flying at them, grazing Itachi’s arm when he doesn’t quite dodge in time.
“Ow-”
“How are these motherfuckers even moving-”
Before Kisame can finish the thought, he’s hit with a blast so bone-chillingly cold that he finds himself barely able to breathe.
“There’s powerful necromancy at work here,” Gale says. “They aren’t failed explorers, they’re guardians.”
“Seems like someone doesn’t like company.”
“Maybe they just don’t like uninvited company?”
“Either way, they won’t be letting us go without a fight.”
Kisame shrugs, struggling against the cold so that he can think straight enough to fight.
“That’s fine by me. I’ve needed to stretch my wings a bit after being cooped up on that ship.”
Gale grins, putting his hands together and saying a few strange words. Then, he holds his hands up and a burst of white-hot lightning springs forth, jumping from one skeleton to another, sending them jerking about wildly (though surely they can’t feel pain).
The skeletons stagger about, but manage to stay standing- if only barely.
Forming a set of familiar hand seals, Kisame lets loose a burst of water that causes the skeletal warriors to burst into pieces, scattering across the soaking wet floor, still twitching but unable to pull themselves back together.
He looks at his handiwork with a bit of pride as they wade through the mess and move onward.
“Well now I have to see what they’re guarding,” he says.
After wandering into the next room, they see an ornate golden sarcophagus, laying on a sturdy stone slab.
Waiting. For who knows how long.
Again, still following that irresistible impulse, Itachi lays his hands against the lid and starts to push.
“Hold on- should we really be opening this up?”
“Dunno,” Itachi says, trying to heave the lid off the golden sarcophagus.
It doesn’t quite budge, so Kisame takes the other end, and together they manage to prise it open.
They stagger backward as something- or, rather, some one- rises up out of the coffin.
Clothed in fine robes and draped in gold, the figure climbs out of the sarcophagus with a great effort.
The figure is little more than a paper-thin layer of skin stretched over his skeleton, but his eyes are sharp , and take them in intently.
The man(?) speaks, in a hoarse voice that echoes a thousandfold off the stone walls.
“So he has spoken. And so thou standest before me- right, as always.”
“He…?”
The man (skeleton? corpse?) does not answer, staring straight at Itachi, like he’s trying to see straight through to his soul. He does not acknowledge the question.
“What a curious way to awaken. I ask of thee a question-”
Kisame and Itachi look at each other with confusion. The strange figure continues to speak, just as calm as ever.
“-What is the worth of a single mortal life?”
It’s a strange question, but they figure it’s best to not leave it unanswered in this sort of situation.
“...I don’t think there’s a correct way to answer that question,” Itachi says, after pondering the matter for probably too long.
The skeletal man tilts his head, rubbing his chin in intrigue.
“And what makes thee say such a thing?”
Itachi chooses his words carefully, the anxiety about what might happen if he answers wrong gnawing at the back of his mind.
“I suppose the ‘moral’ answer to a question like that would be to say all lives are equal without question. But to me that’s always felt like pretty words people tell themselves to feel better. The truth to me is that people’s worth mostly seems determined by circumstance, and the only thing we’re all truly equal in is death.”
The skeletal man watches him with curiosity as he speaks, remaining stonily silent, nodding to urge Itachi to continue. Gale holds his breath in anticipation, grabbing Kisame’s shoulder unconsciously.
“Wiser men than me have spent their entire lifetime agonizing over the question and haven’t come up with a true answer, so my answer to you is that it isn’t for any one mortal to decide the worth of another.”
He feels Kisame staring at him, maybe wondering whether they might be smote down right there.
However, the skeletal man, clothed in fine silks and gold, does his best impression of a smile.
“Perhaps that is so. Very well- I am satisfied.”
Really? That’s all? No riddles or impossible feats to prove themselves?
A single question?
They’re not so sure what they were expecting when they opened the sarcophagus, but they didn’t expect it to be so…agreeable.
“We have met. And I know thy faces. We shall meet again, when the time and place is right. Farewell”
With that, the man shambles off with slow, shuffling steps, leaving the two of them behind.
“...So,” Kisame says. “What the fuck just happened?”
Itachi looks around the dusty crypt, puzzled.
“I couldn’t tell you.”
Gale frowns, the gears in his head whirling frantically.
“...He must be a god’s Chosen,” he says, under his breath.
“A what?”
“People chosen by their god to receive incredible power. I’ve never had the pleasure to meet one in person so I can't be sure, but I don’t know what else he could be.”
They stand around feeling foolish for a few precious moments, before Kisame takes a deep breath and speaks.
“Well, it looks like you were right about there being some useful things in here. I don’t think old bag-of-bones over there will mind if we borrow some, so let’s grab that and fuck off.”
“...Right.”
They grab what they can, knowing that there’s going to be more than a couple more fights ahead of them, and whatever happens they need to be ready.
“Think there’s any more of those skeleton fuckers around? Or would they have fucked off after we let that guy loose?"
“I don’t think so. But stay close just in case.”
Gale is positively giddy as they look around, now blissfully undisturbed.
“You know, I haven’t really gotten out much lately,” he says, as casual as anything. “It’s terribly exciting. Well, uninvited guests aside, it's quite the adventure!"
Itachi might smile at the enthusiasm, if he had the energy.
(How he still has this much energy is anyone’s guess.)
“Well we should probably tell the others about our little friend, eh? Since he’s going to crop up again sometime?”
“Probably a good bet. Let’s get out of here- it smells like bandages and old cheese down here,” Kisame says.
“Right you are, my fine azure friend. Let’s take our leave, shall we? Now uh-”
Gale looks around, brow furrowed, scratching at his beard.
“How the bloody hells do you reckon we get out of here?”
“I think I saw daylight this way,” Kisame answers, jerking his head in the indicated direction. “Let’s go before the others think we’ve croaked.”
They stick close together as they find their way out, already bracing for the blinding daylight that's waiting outside the crypt.