She had a feeling they were both right in their own way: They could not go around blindly killing any and everything they came into contact with. Yet Lull had reached for her gauntlet; that could not be denied. The creature had known something about the true nature of her arm, even before she activated it.
If the creature was right and they did see it again—perhaps if they were forced to double back—then Helesys would not let her guard down. But she would also try to get every bit of information out of the pitiful Lull that she could.
~
The faint sound of their bootsteps on rusted metal was overshadowed by sounds of water and screeching. They saw faint torchlight through the twisted cages—fixed and unmoving—and for the first time, Helesys found herself wary of the light.
The rows of cages of the rusted prison became intermittent. Larger. Helesys looked upon the new rows with wonder. Some were twice the height of Taunauk, then three times. The further they walked the larger they grew, the less rust appeared on their surfaces and the less mangled the bars were.
Helesys wondered if any of these new cells were in use. The elf did not have to wonder long.
In the gloom of the torchlight, a serpent-like creature paced idly in a three-wide cell. It coiled around on itself, for even in the large cell the creature was as wide around as a man and thrice as long. Five pairs of legs lined its middle and marched in unison. The beast was covered in scales of a deep purple that seemed to shimmer in the gloom. The serpent’s head was both short snouted and tall, and it had two pairs of red eyes. One pair to the front and one pair high on the back of the head.
Though the serpent was clearly confined, they had no desire to pass close to it and risk calling another mass of blind-squid—or worse—upon their position. After a minute of searching, Helesys found another passageway through some of the last Terran-sized cells.
This time, a small cell was occupied with a gaunt-looking fishman. It was huddled in the back corner of the cell, limbs wrapped around itself. Its scales were dry and cracked, oozing black ichor. Its arms were pitifully thin compared to the fishmen the elf and human had fought before.
As they passed, the fishman’s gaze followed them with half-closed eyes. Its mouth was still and closed, teeth hidden from view.
Helesys and Taunauk stopped near the bars of the cage and looked upon the fishman. “Do you think it is a punishment?” she whispered.
“No. Fishmen bleed red. It is diseased.”
In the gloom of the torchlight, Helesys saw faint movement from other cells. At least half a dozen fishmen were kept in this portion of the prison, isolated and starving.
“It seems a cruelty.”
“The fishmen are not stupid. There is a reason. Come.”
That Helesys admitted. She pitied the dying fishmen for some reason that she could not say. It might have been because they were diseased or dying, or merely alone. The reason was as lost to her as the rest of her memories. Yet her pity was a small thing, a childish thing. Even she had some vague memory that diseases must be isolated.
As the elf and the human turned to leave, the fishman hissed. This hiss was weak and low, and rattled as if the creature’s insides were shaking. Then the mouth of the diseased fishman opened—no, the face of the fishman opened—splitting in four as if an X had been cut into its face. The four corners peeled back, revealing a writhing flesh beneath.
The weak hiss grew only a little louder as the other diseased fishmen joined the horrid song, their voices rising in unison.
Something different than a simple disease festered within the bodies of the fishmen. Something that made Helesys step back. Her wand-arm hummed and her stomach dropped. Something unspeakable.
Helesys and Taunauk spared no more time for them and they did not speak of what they saw.
With any luck they would have found a way out of this hellish place by morning.
~ ~ ~
Ziggurat
They reached the end of the prison—or so they thought. The torchlight grew and only specks of rust remained. They had come to the final cage.
The bars of this cage were as wide as Taunauk and this single massive cell stretched from the cave floor to the full height of the cavern above. The cage was nearly the width of the rusted prison as well. It almost ran all the way to the cave wall on the right, leaving only small walkways between the cage and the cavern wall. Those thin platforms were the only way out of the prison.
In their traversing of the rusted prison and climbing up and down stairs, they had ended up on the third floor. They walked to the edge where the prison ended and the giant bars marked the last cage. Then they peered over and took in the sight. Enormous shackles sat on the cage floor, each one nearly the size of a single prison cell and must have weighed over one hundred stone.
Worse, the bottom of the cage was damp and smeared with shit.
Helesys looked further, past the final, giant cage out into the even more massive cavern beyond. The rusted prison sat at the top of a ziggurat—a stone-step pyramid. Helesys could just see some of the stones descending beyond the ledge. Past that, the sound of chattering filled the air—fishmen—the sound of dozens or even hundreds of them. Helesys imagined that the ziggurat’s large stone steps were covered by fishmen.
Helesys and Taunauk ducked away from the edge of the overlook as two pairs of fishmen rose over
