Tenebroum

Chapter 77: Well of Darkness

What had just happened was impossible. Even stranger than the fact that the altar had suddenly vanished to some secret basement beneath the temple or that Brother Verdenin had vanished with it was that everyone seemed to listen to the priest’s words. For the better part of the last hour, they’d all stood there raptly, hanging on every word of the ceremony.

No sooner had Brother Verdenin spoken, though, than everyone started to crowd forward, eager to follow the man into the unknown. It was a surreal sight, and for a few seconds, Todd was certain he was still dreaming. It was the only possible reason why everyone wasn’t freaking out as much as he was.

Everyone was laughing and smiling like this was just another part of the normal ceremony as they slowly descended into the earth in a casual, single-file line. It wasn’t just the townspeople either. Everyone descended into the depths, including the visiting priests and the Bishop.

It was only when the room was almost empty that Todd finally figured out what they’d all had in common: every person who’d been anointed by ram’s blood. By the time he’d figured that out, though, only the guards were left, while a few stragglers waited for the stairs to clear enough that they could follow their peers below.

Todd shifted uncomfortably, gripping the hilt of his sword though he did not yet draw it. For reasons he could not fully understand, the widening hole reminded him of the bizarre hole they’d found in the basement of Baron Garvin’s palace all those years ago. It was a chilling thought, and even though that distant memory was a rough-hewn hole drenched in blood instead of a neatly carved set of stone stairs, once he made the connection, he couldn’t unsee it.

He looked from his left to his right and saw that despite sharing his growing apprehension, no one seemed willing to do anything to stop what was happening, so finally, Todd stepped forward and grabbed the closest person by the shoulder.

“You don’t have to follow them, you know,” he said, “I don’t think going down there is a good idea.”

“But without me, how will they push back the darkness?” the man said with an empty look in his eyes. He struggled for a moment in Todd’s grip. Todd was just about to grab him more forcefully and fling him to the ground when the main doors opened, and other people started walking into the room.

At some unseen signal, the people of Blackwater began to stream through the doors and started to descend below just as everyone else had. They even had the same blank look in their eyes despite the fact that they hadn’t been anointed by the ceremony.

“What in the name of the light is going on,” Todd said, abandoning his effort to stop the surge of townspeople from descending two stories into that well of darkness to go talk to the group of now visibly nervous soldiers.

No one knew. No one even had an idea. Suggestions ranged from mass hysteria to some sort of demonic attack to ruin their holy day. Some said they should wait for it to stop on their own, and others said they should send a messenger to Siddrimar, and the more people disappeared without a sound, the more worried Todd became.

“I’m going to bar the doors,” he said finally. “I’m going to keep any more people from giving in to whatever is affecting them, and then I’m going down there to get some answers.”

“But if this is part of the ceremony, won’t we… I mean, get in trouble for interrupting it?” one of the younger warriors asked.

Todd ignored the question and moved to the door. Not because it was stupid but because the lad was probably right. He ignored it because he didn’t care. He’d been here for years. If a second temple had been built underneath the first, that might explain where all the extra expenses had gone, but it wouldn’t explain why Brother Verdenin had never told him about it or why he’d never seen any work taking place there.

As Todd started pushing the heavy wooden doors into place, the people trying to get in pushed back. “Please, let us in!” a man cried out.”

“We need to be saved!” a woman pleaded, “Let us push back the darkness!”

Todd had no idea how or why they had all gone berserk, but he ignored all of them though. After a brief struggle, he overpowered them and barred the door. They continued to pound on the thing and wail after that, but he ignored them.

He was sure that nothing good awaited anyone that went into the darkness, and he would have bodily restrained everyone in there to keep them from moving on if he could. Sadly he lacked rope, but as he wished for some, he suddenly realized that the banners and the bunting would do just as well.

“Help me with this,” he shouted as he moved to the walls and began to rip down the decorations that he’d just spent hours hanging the other day.

“Have you gone mad,” the captain of the Bishops guard asked. “They’ll flog you for defacing a temple, especially on today of all days.”

“I sincerely hope they do,” Todd said, moving to the next banner before he started to shred it with his bare hands. “I truly hope that today ends normally, that this was all some terrible misunderstanding, and that when the Bishop returned to the surface, I am flogged for my insolence.”

“Right now, I am giving you an order, though,” he said as he tackled the closest person to the mysterious stairs. “Help me restrain these people for their own good before it’s too late.”

They moved slowly as they looked at each other uncertainly, but eventually, whether it was the urgency of his tone that convinced the rest of the men or the certainty that they could blame whatever happened next on him, they all complied and working together they trussed up the last eight people that hadn’t quite made it down to the stairs.

Once that was done, Todd walked to the edge of the hole in the temple’s floor. It was almost two stories down, and from where he stood, he could see the last person that had made the trip down exiting through a single arched doorway. Because of the angle of the sun, everything else was lost in shadow, and he could make out no details. Still, there was something about it, even from this distance, that was unnatural. He tried to focus on it, but just as he was resolving it, someone addressed him, breaking his concentration.

“Well,” what do we do now? “The captain of the Bishop’s guard asked, forcing Todd to look away from the darkness.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” Todd said, looking around the group, disappointed to see just how few of them had steel left in their spine, considering the fight hadn’t even started yet.

“Well, maybe we should send for help first,” one of the men said nervously. Todd noted that it was the same man who’d been complaining about how he wanted to get back into the fray instead of babysitting dignitaries between important events and rolled his eyes.

“Don’t you understand? We are the help. The only ones that are coming to save those people are us. The question you need to ask yourself is, is that armor just for show?” Todd asked, drawing his sword, “Or are you coming with me?”

Todd focused hard for a minute, offering a silent prayer to Siddrim as he squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, he was pleased to find his sword was gently glowing as it became an undeniable symbol of righteous power. He still didn’t have a tenth of the power that Brother Faerbar did, but even if his sight had weakened, the strength of his devotion was growing, and though he could not yet heal the sick or wounded with Siddrim’s love, he was now trusted to wield his god’s light as he charged into battle.

“While we are servants of the church, this is really beginning to look like a job for The Order of Purgative Flame; I think that perhaps we should seal this building and wait for…” The warrior’s words died in his throat as Todd’s sword began to glow with the deep white light of the divine.

“We are the light,” Todd said with one last look before he turned and went down the stairs. “And the light reveals all traces of cowardice and despair. We will send your youngest warrior back to Siddrimar to warn the powers that be of what happened should the worst befall us, but everyone else fights. Do you understand?”

Shamed by his example, they all agreed. Some were more enthusiastic than others, but every man that stood there eventually nodded or said some word of assent.

After that, they faced the challenge of opening the door wide enough to let young Mardem out without letting the manic townspeople back in the temple, but with twelve strong warriors, they managed easily enough.

“You understand,” Todd said to their messenger. “To Siddrimar straight away. If you keep a good pace, you should be able to reach it in five days. Go straight to the Templars if none of the priests will see you, and tell them everything you saw.”

He promised that he would, and with that, they slammed the door shut again and then turned and descended into the depths. Even though Todd went first, and his sword lit the way, most of those that accompanied him were afraid, and none of them were certain of what they would find in the dark.

The stairs circled the rim of the well completely twice before they reached the bottom. Todd had imagined he would find a slaughterhouse down here on par with the scene from the Garvin Palace ballroom, but instead, he found the ritual implements of the alter sitting just where they’d been left, the undisturbed bowl of blood, and an empty doorway leading further into the dark.

“Are you sure this isn’t just more of the temple?” the Bishop’s guard captain asked as his men formed up with Todd at the bottom of the well. “It looks like someone has put a lot of work into this place.”

“They have,” Todd agreed, eyeing the walls with concern. These were not the same rough-hewn walls that he’d found beneath Fallravea. Someone has spent a great deal of time and care creating whatever this was. These were polished smooth, and inlaid with gold and precious stones. Beyond the doorway, he could see the hints of murals painted on both of the walls.

It was clear this had been a project that had been worked on for at least as long as the temple that loomed above them, but it had one more thing that would never be found in a temple of Siddrim: darkness.

Not the sort that made it hard to see. The kind that radiated in evil places. It flowed like a river down this unknown hallway, and Todd was so desperately afraid of what he would find at the end of that torrent of evil that, for a moment, he went weak in the knees.