Dragon Aster Trilogy

5: LEVEL OF HELL



Sybl woke from the nightmare to something tickling her nose. She lifted up the blanket that covered her and let her blurry vision come into focus. Before she could figure out where she was or what was going on, someone walked over to her and grabbed her hair. They pulled her head back to the point it felt like her neck would snap. She looked then to the small panel the griffin somnus ran over her.

“This isn’t her.”

“How long are we going to have to look for this stupid Caelestis?” another black-armored soldier whined, before the three of them left the docks.

Sybl sat up straight, stunned stupid for a moment. She was alive if she felt pain again. She looked at the Awl next to her as she rubbed the sore roots to her brown, wavy hair. The Awl resembled Damek way to much for her liking. His light brown hair settled in wisps on his shoulders, and his eyes held the same green. She wasn’t sure whether to thank him or take off running for her life while her luck held out.

“That is a rather effective disguise you have,” he said.

“There was nothing to hide,” Sybl replied, and scratched the stained bandages on her arms. Her aeri energy slowly returned to heal her. The Awl likely knew who she was by her energy alone, but her point had been for the dead-like state she was only moments before. Sybl’s hand touched something soft next to where she sat, and she picked up a long, brown feather that could have only belonged to a pluma. “Why did you hide me?”

“Why not? It is far better to be in favor of the caels nowadays, then the lawlessness of the heathens who would assert their imperfect will over us all.”

She handed him back his feather, and it vanished into thin air and under his human-like illusion that hid his true demon appearance. “Who are you?”

“I am Delare.” He walked past her and to some boxes, before picking out one and lifting it onto the same large crate she sat on. He pulled out a new purple cloak, and a white mask that looked like a unicorn. “I do not wish to be rude, but I must ask you to leave. You will draw more attention here than myself and my companion can handle.”

Sybl briefly glanced at the older griffin somnus who he had called a companion, before taking the cloak and draping it around her. Then she looked at the mask. “Do you have a recommendation as to where I should go?”

“There is a tavern east of here, near the center of the Harbor. A phelan somnus named Urio owns it, and he is sympathetic to humans. He will certainly help you.”

“I would advise you stay off the main streets, girl,” the griffin somnus added. “It’s not safe to be an unbranded slave.”

Sybl got off the crate. “Thank you,” she replied, even though she really wanted to kick him. After putting the unicorn mask over her face, she started in the direction Delare had indicated.

It didn’t take long after that for Sybl to get lost, as the Victorian-age buildings, burning coal and estus light of the Atrum’s Aur made it hard to breathe and move in. Everything seemed to have its own estus fog, even the pollution. Whether it was the burning coal or estus energy that assaulted her eyes the most, it was impossible to tell. The somnus who passed her seemed unbothered by the miseries that surrounded them constantly. If anything, they looked to thrive in it all.

She looked up at the dark brick buildings around her, unsure if this was Aster, Earth, or some place torn between. Loki’s castle was the only complex architecture she had seen on the Torian Continent, aside from Toria that she had seen only out of memories and dreams to this point. Maybe she awoke to an Aster hundreds of years in the future, where an industrial age had taken over most of it.

Sybl wanted nothing more than to see Cirrus again, and to have him fly her away from this dreaded place. He had been pushed from the realm of death with her, but all of her thoughts to him went unanswered by his psi. Either he couldn’t come back from the dead, or he had truly forgotten her. All she knew for sure was that the monstrous creature that had attacked them on Earth burned like hell, and had possibly destroyed more than she could get back.

A small voice caught her attention, and she figured that at her rate, it couldn’t hurt to start asking some kids for help. She found the source of the singing on the sill of an open window in an alleyway. It was a little girl, and as she sang, she swung her legs up and down. From her black hair and red eyes, Sybl guessed she was a female phelan somnus.

“You have a strange energy,” the ayame said, looking down at her.

Sybl didn’t have a reply to counter with. “Can you help me?”

“Are you an Awl or just dressed up like one?”

Sybl took off her mask.

“Ew, a human!”

“Shh!” Sybl hissed back.

“What do you want? Where is your owner?” the ayame asked harshly.

“I just need to find Urio’s bar.”

“Unless you have some gold, I can’t help you.”

Sybl touched her neck, trying to remember where she saw her silver chain and golden fairy last. Not that she would trade her only lead to finding Cirrus for anything. She would have to try lying. “My owner is Urio. He will pay you for my return.”

The ayame started laughing at her. “You are a really bad liar. He doesn’t enslave his humans or own any of them. Nice try though.”

A small child crashed into Sybl, taking her out of her thoughts. She looked down in annoyance at the small boy who didn’t seem to have a valid reason for the collision. He quickly apologized, then took off.

Sybl shook her head at the lousy mugger, as she didn’t have anything in her pockets. She didn’t so much as have a sense of direction to steal. As she looked to the now-empty window, giving up seemed easier than continuing to try and find anything.

Sybl sat down in the alleyway and started to rip off the bloodied bandages from her body. She pressed the ones with some white left to her forehead that was drenched in sweat from all her walking. She had to figure out how to escape this level of Hell; a labyrinth with a single tavern lost amongst the dozens in the bustling Harbor. Then she could figure out what she would do next.