Cabal: Siena the Queen Story Teaser Part 2

The momentary coldness of the gate was enough to make me shiver slightly, after the damp humidity of the Mutant Forest, and I was almost grateful for it, rather the cold than that godawful humid heat. My relief was very short-lived, as I emerged from the gate to find the area on the other side even worse than the outside. The first thing that struck me was the smell, a cloying, sickly-sweet stench that made it hard to breathe, and I heard one of my companions gasp as they entered through the gate behind me. The room was eerily silent, not even the slightest rustling or far-off noises that was the constant background sounds of the Mutant Forest.

My eyes took a moment to adapt to the gloom, and it became apparent that I was standing in a large room, rather than a cave, a broken-down, collapsed room, covered with twisted plant-growth and illuminated by whatever the hell was growing on the broken walls, but a room nonetheless.

What happened to the builders? Victims of the Great Destruction... This ruin was supposed to be a temple, but how long ago, and dedicated to what...



"Pleasant-looking place." The big warrior strode past me, his Greatsword unsheathed and casually resting on his shoulder. I did not for one moment make the mistake of thinking that his casual pose reflected his actual attitude. The other four spread out, keeping a wary distance from each other.

We've not even introduced ourselves. As if that matters, here and now, names would just get in the way. I have my orders, and no doubt they have theirs, if I knew the Sage at all.

There was what appeared to be a statue, half-hidden in one overgrown corner. It could be an altar as well, my knowledge of ancient architecture is not sufficient to make an educated guess. What was obvious though was the relatively clean, flat surface about halfway up. It was the only surface in the room not covered with some kind of growth, and it seemed as if someone had taken some pains to clean it.

"Stay sharp." I motioned my Shielder and Archer to take up positions behind me and moved to the altar - and it was an altar, rather than a statue - knocked against the clear spot with the hilt of my blade. I decided to take the risk, reached out and touched the back of my glove to the stone. It was slightly damp, and unpleasantly warm, but nothing else out of the ordinary. Tucked away in one corner was what appeared to be small book of some kind, and I carefully pulled it out from behind the stone where it was half-hidden. The little book appeared to be a journal, and a badly damaged one at that, torn across the back page and with the entire bottom half badly scorched.

"What did you find?" The Capella Wizard glanced at the book in my hand. "Can I see that?"

I paused for a long moment before I handed the book over. We might be here together, but trust was a long way off. Damn political interference, forcing this so-called alliance. I did not understand why we were working with the Capella, and the Sage had obviously seen no point in informing me. I had my orders - I was the appropriate tool for the task, and my place was not to question.

The Wizard had carefully opened the book, and her face was grim. "It seems that our information was accurate, after all." She turned to look at the Warrior. "Siena is in here. Somewhere." He nodded, and turned to face me.

"This is going to get interesting. I hope you are prepared."

"Worry about your own preparations, not mine." My voice was cool. "What's in the book?"

"Confirmation." The Wizard answered.

"Confirmation of what?"

"The threat that Siena poses. This book appears to be the journal of a single man..." Her voice faded, then picked up again. "He entered here, attempted to confront Siena, and failed."

"One man... What could he possibly hope to achieve? The Dark Clan is the only truly sentient one from all the Clans." I wondered what she was not telling me. The Wizard looked at the Warrior, and something passed between them. Surprisingly, it was the Force Blader who spoke next.

"Siena was once human."

"What?" My Shielder laughed scornfully. "That's impossible. What possible source could you have for that claim?"

"Enough." I silenced her. "I don't care. We are not here to discuss genealogy. We have our orders, and whatever is lurking in this place needs to be eliminated."

The Warrior nodded, slowly. "We will of course gather as much information as we can from this place-"

"Do what you want. Just don't get in my way." I had no time for this.

The Warrior met my eyes, and his voice was as cold as mine. "Likewise."

"Over here!" My Archer broke the tension, pointing to the right, past a twisted curtain of roots that had grown through the ceiling. "There appears to be a passage through here."

I looked away from the Capella, and moved over the broken stones towards the Archer. "He's right. There is a corridor opening up past this bit. Seems to be the only way out of here."

I did not wait for my companions, they could join me or not, as they liked. Once past the mess of roots that had blocked the way the corridor that appeared was in much better condition than the first room we found. The floor was smooth, and the walls were covered in strange engravings, twisting spirals and symbols that I could not recognise. I heard my companions behind me, moving cautiously. Apparently they had decided that this was the only possible direction for us to move in, and I smiled without any humour. Sometimes there was only one option, and there was no need to stand around discussing it.

The attack came without warning, a squirming mass of plant-infected reptiles rising from the floor.

"Mushid!" I called out a warning as I rolled to the side, came up with my blades extended, binding force and channeling it, moving my weapons in the set positions that I've repeated so many times in the past it was pure instinct. Shaped and directed Force punched out in front of me, shaped to flow through and disrupt the nervous system of whatever it encounters. The Mushid stopped dead, and I got a clear look at them. These were much bigger than the common vermin that infested parts of the Mutant Forest, and they appeared to be stronger.

No matter.

The first one died while it was still stunned, as did the second, scaled skin and bone no defence against razor-sharp Mithril. The third and fourth I cut apart as well, two horizontal slashes that I used as momentum to launch my next attack. I heard fighting behind me as the others arrived, explosions as elemental Force was unleashed by the Wizard and Archer, the familiar dull roar of a shield spinning through the air. Within seconds it was over.

"Too easy."

"Don't get overconfident. We may just have alerted whatever is deeper inside here."

The corridor was a mess, splashes of blood and worse, black burn marks against the brown stone, and the smell in the air was even worse than when we entered.

"I guess we can expect an attack at any time, from here on in." I moved further, past the wreckage of our battle. No one appeared to be injured, and I would have been surprised if these Mushid has managed to even scratch any of us. They were bigger than usual, but vermin is vermin.

"Wait!" I stopped, looked back. The Force Blader was pointing at some words scratched into the stone, on top of the carved patterns. I swore softly - how had I missed those? - and moved back to the group.

"Anything useful? Or just some random rubbish?" I was irritated at myself, because I should have noticed this.

"Well, nothing that I can grasp any meaning of." The Force Blader moved his fingers across the writing. "Regeneration. The bond must be cut at the same time." His eyes narrowed slightly. "I wonder what this refers to? The script seems similar to what we saw in that notebook, perhaps this is a warning of some sort?"

I nodded, reluctantly. Stupid to disregard any kind of warning, because we were essentially blind in here. I turned, and started moving down the corridor again, only to find a deep end around the very next corner, a pile of rubble and plant-growth blocking the way.

"Well, this is it for whatever that clue meant."

"Not yet." The Warrior moved past me, and studied the blockage for a moment, then reached up and with a massive heave pulled protruding stone block from the top of the pile. We jumped back as this triggered a small landslide of stones and thick clots of mud past us. There was no dust, at least, it was way too damp for that. I looked at the size of the stone block the Warrior had pulled from the top of the pile, and tried to hide my surprise - the block was massive, much larger than what it had appeared at first. This guy had some serious power, that was very obvious. I wondered what it would be like to meet him in battle, if there was some skill behind that strength...

There was now a gap near the ceiling, and it appeared big enough to squeeze through. I made my way to the top, balancing on a piece of rubble. On the other side of rubble I could make out some movement, but it was too dark to see anything else. Nothing doing then... I pulled myself through the gap, jumped down-

-right into the middle of another pack of Mushid. There were even more roots and vines here, and almost no light, and it was much narrower than the corridor we came from. There was almost no space to move, to fight properly. This time however the Warrior was right behind me, his Greatsword slashing almost effortlessly through vines around us, not even slowing as he cut through a Mushid, making space for himself to move in. I jumped past him, finding enough space to go through the movements, gathering and focusing force on my blades before releasing it by slashing down in front of me. The power was visibly in the air, a crackling arc of Force that cut through the air, cutting a patch through the crawling Mushid.

"Don't you ever stop to think?" The Warrior asked. "You are not alone here, and rushing is going to get you killed, slowing us down."

"So move faster then." The other four had also made their way past the obstacle into the suddenly crowded passage. Up ahead I could see something big, standing motionless.

"What is that?"

"Be careful." The Force Blader spoke again. "There was something in that message back there..."

I ignored him, took the lead once more. As I moved closer I started to make out more details. The figure appeared to be an... Armap? Here? It looked like an normal Armap, but there was a very strange pulsing vine tangled around its feet and legs, giving it the appearance of something growing out of the ground. The vine stretched over the ground, disappearing into the gloom beyond the Armap.

"I'll check this out." Surprisingly, it was the Shielder that spoke. She raised her shield, glowing with the reinforced lattice of Force strengthening it, and moved past us. I always wondered how they did that, focused enough of their concentration to keep something as solid as a shield materialised and still managed to pay enough attention to do anything else. Same for the Archers.

The Armap roared, suddenly, shockingly loud, as the Shielder came close to it. It attacked, throwing a projectile that the Shielder easily deflected. The Wizard suddenly appeared next to the Shielder, unleashing a storm of power that burned into the Armap.

"There's TWO of these!" The Shielder shouted back, above the roaring of the huge Armap. "Another one, up ahead, and they are connected with this vine!"

More Mushid appeared out of the darkness ahead as she yelled, and just as suddenly we were in a very nasty fight in that narrow, crowded corridor, with barely any room to move our weapons. Elemental power flowed out around the Wizard, ripping Mushid apart as she moved through them. My Archer unleashed a constant stream of power into the stationary Armap, with no apparent effect.

"Kill them both, at the same time!" The Force Blader shouted, loud enough to be heard above the battle. "That's what it meant, that message!"

I could see the Archer and Wizard looking at each other, before the Archer nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"Keep them off me."

He started to run, increased his movement speed as he blurred past the first Armap, then stopped right where the Wizard was standing. I could see the Force gathering around him, a sudden bright illumination that lit up the entire passage, clearly showing the second Armap, the vine between the two, and a large gate beyond them, with the same pulsating vine snaking its way across and through the gate. The light faded, returning the passage to the darkness, but not before I saw the two weapons the Archer was holding in place of his summoned bow. I knew those weapons very well, they served as focus points for an incredibly rapid release of power, but there was a limit to how long they could be kept summoned. The Archer stood calmly in the middle of that dark passage, weapons pointing upwards, ignoring everything around him, apparently trusting in the Wizard to keep the Mushid away from him. His arms moved, a blur in the darkness, one weapon pointed at the Armap that I could see, and the other into the darkness. The release of his power was audible over the roar of the Armap. Pure Force slammed into the Armap, ripping through it, cutting it down, and it slowly collapsed in front of us.

"Let's move!" The Wizard called out. "The gate has collapsed as well, when he killed these two."

The Warrior nodded as he moved past the Archer, still standing in the same spot with his bow visible once more, and I could see him breathing heavily. "Well done."

I followed, waiting for the Archer to start moving before I did, bringing up the rear of the party this time. We entered past the collapsed gate, and it was obvious that we were 'inside' once again. We were in a large room, overgrown with plants, but quite obviously a room, with that same strange light coming from the walls providing enough illumination. We must have somehow moved outside the temple, and now we've come inside again, but what the purpose was of the two Armaps outside... Were they guards, of some sort? I did not like the fact that nothing happened when they died, not at all. Something was wrong here.

"This is not right." The Force Blader spoke, looking around him. "Those Armap, outside, they were there for a purpose. We could be walking directly into a trap here."


...Maku Sha...


I looked up sharply. That voice was not that of one of my companions, and even though it was faint it seemed to come from everywhere around me at once. It sounded female, but alien at the same time.


...Sha...


All of us were looking around now, weapons ready.


...Maku... Remove these vermin from my temple, at once.


"At once, my Queen." A voice rumbled, like distant thunder, chewing through the words as if the mouth behind it was never intended for speech. I spun in the direction the second voice had come from. The first one was vague, but the second one seemed much, much closer.

The owner appeared at the far side of the room, a huge, shambling figure twice as tall as a human, clutching a double-headed axe that was bigger than I was. The beast was roughly human in shape, but grotesquely muscled, huge and round, with a thick tail that dragged across the ground behind it. This was going to be nasty.

I glanced at my Archer, saw that he was still not completely recovered after that fight in the dark passage behind us. "Hang back at first, cover us if needed." His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, and nodded curtly.

"Speech indicates intelligence. Our report was most likely correct, this is just further confirmation." The Warrior motioned the Wizard back as well, looked at me. "Do you believe now?"

"Does it matter?"

Maku Sha bellowed, swinging that massive axe wildly through the air, and charged towards us.


Credits: Cabal EU