Down in the Dark (Eir)

[Hatoful GM]

The entrance to the site of the trial looked innocuous enough. The front seemed to be the entrance to a ruined temple, nothing immediately marking it as any different from the other ruined temples on the planet. But on second glance, the shadows within the entrance was just a little bit darker. The air was just a little bit colder. Even the smell, the taste of it was just slightly off. And the longer one studied any of these things, the more they would cause a creeping sense of dread. Of fear.

Eir stood before the entrance. Corvin stood with her. The stoic knight seemed even moreso, his expression tight and grim.

[Eir]

Eir took a deep breath and swallowed. One of the most difficult things to do was recognise what you didn’t know, but recognising your fears was a close second. The half-arkanian didn’t know what to expect, the chill seeming to brush her mind, despite the heat of the day.

She looked up at Corvin, finding no reassurance in his expression. Survive, Eir, you know how to do that. There was no sense in delaying, she would never feel ‘ready’. “I’m ready to begin, Knight Corvin.”

[Corvin Zell]

Corvin's expression softened just a little bit. He gave her a slow nod. "I'll be here." He said simply, his voice rough.

[Eir]

Stepping into the cool shadows, Eir jogged the rucksack on her shoulder. Back at the Temple she’d had little need for things, and it was a simple matter to have her datapad and what not about her person all the time. She doubted she’d need the toolkit or rations or firepaste, but the last time she had felt that sensation of in case I don’t come back she had been four or five years old. Now the feeling was stronger than ever, and she resisted the urge to look back at Corvin, forging onwards instead, into the dark.

[Hatoful GM]

Corvin knelt down as Eir passed over the threshold...

A few steps, and Eir found herself in some sort of earthen tunnel. It was dark, but not completely, little bits of light flickering down from who knew where. The entrance quickly faded from view.

A little farther on, and Eir realized she wasn't alone. Corvin's long stride let him catch up quickly, apparently; in a moment, he was striding behind her, his scowl as dark as ever.

[Eir]

Eir's eyes were suited to the dark, and strode forward with purpose, until she realised someone was behind her. Turning, her head cocked slightly to one side, "okay," she breathed. That isn't right, Corvin said he'd wait, she trusted the Knight's word. She waited, letting him approach.

[Hatoful GM]

Corvin scowled, looking down at her. He stopped as well. "What?"

He grimaced. "I know this is supposed to be something you do on your own. But you need my help." His voice was as rough as ever, perhaps rougher.

[Eir]

Uncontrolled shivers went down her spine, if only I was ten years older, she impatiently pushed the thought away. "No, that's stupid. Corvin would never say that," she told what she hoped was a figment of her imagination. She sought refuge in the thing she knew best: logic. "First of all, if Corvin really thought that, he would have come with me from the start, not catch up later. Second, if Corvin was going to break the rules, and he was going to come help me, and he didn't just come with me from the beginning, why would he wait all of three seconds to catch up? I've taken, like, five steps," she protested petulantly. "Third," she added, "Corvin would never say what, he'd just stare at me until I got the gist."

The girl frowned, staring at Not-Corvin, if he's not real, then what is he, though?

[Hatoful GM]

If anything, the scowl darkened. Corvin looked almost frightening.

"This is why you need my help. It takes age and experience to face things in the dark. You have neither." He growled.

He took a step forward, down the corridor. "Now, come on. I'll lead."

[Eir]

Eir shrank slightly from that scowl, but held her ground. Oh, I get it, this is a test, she decided. "No," the girl answered, trying to marshal a sense of confidence she didn't feel. "You want to see if I'll blindly follow orders, but I won't." Her inner fortitude was wavering, however, as she struggled to understand what was going on. Is he real or not? This isn't how I thought the test was supposed to be. She longed for the comfort of the archives, where the answers to most questions were no more than a search away, but there was no study guide for this trial.

[Hatoful GM]

He scowled back at her. "Why should I care if you do what you're told?" He shrugged. "Do what you want. I'm going ahead without you."

He moved forward, as quickly and silently as ever. In a few moments, he was gone, and Eir was alone in the corridor once more.

[Eir]

Eir blinked in confusion, what the heck even was that? That was nothing like Corvin. She shook her head and continued on in the direction not-Corvin had disappeared.

[Hatoful GM]

The way ahead was suddenly lit by a red glow, accompanied by the familiar snap-hiss of a lightsaber. Corvin's familiar form would be seen, his chest pierced by a lightsaber. A moment passed, and his eyes closed. He crumbled to the ground, his attacker withdrawing the lightsaber in a smooth motion. It turned to face Eir, the visage also all too familiar.



"Ah. Eir. I'm so glad you're here. I've been waiting for you, you know." Purple and red light mingled unsettlingly, casting strange shadows in the tunnel.

[Eir]

“No,” the girl cried out. Deep in her heart, she knew that wasn’t Corvin, but the visceral shock of seeing him cut down rocked Eir to the core. For a time, she was frozen, in her short life she had never experienced death up close, and it awakened confused feelings she did not understand.

Frantic thoughts raced through her mind, what would Corvin—the real Corvin—do if he was here? She thought he’d probably scowl a bit and, in the way of absurdity in the face of danger, the thought was oddly comforting. “Lord Destrus,” Eir slowly lowered her rucksack to the floor, “I think it’s past time you told me what you want with me.”

[Hatoful GM]

With another hiss, the red lightsaber extinguished. "You're right, Eir. It's time you knew. It's time you knew everything."

He stepped forward, over the crumpled body still on the ground. "You see, when I say I've been waiting for you, I don't just mean today. I've been waiting for you for a long, long time. Since before you were born." Some excitement could be heard in the artificially flat voice.

"What do you know of your parents?"

[Eir]

Eir felt a little less uneasy with the red lightsaber extinguished, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against a Sith Lord, if it had come to that. “The Masters said you dabble in eugenics. You did something to me, didn’t you? before I was born.”

[Hatoful GM]

"My dear Eir. I did everything to you. Every breath you've taken. Every bite of food you've eaten. Every step. It was all as I arranged, all as I planned. And all as I foresaw."

He went on. "And now those arrangements have finally born fruit, so to speak. You have returned to me."

[Eir]

Eir thought about the cold, hungry nights before Chriala had found her, “why? What do you want with me?”

[Hatoful GM]

The purple light seemed to glow a tiny bit brighter. "I merely want you to fulfill your destiny. The destiny that I made for you."

He reached his hand out. "Join me, Eir."

[Eir]

Eir crossed her arms, tucking her hands into her sleeves, almost as if to hide them from Lord Destrus. “What destiny? You haven’t explained anything.”