westwhere | Stepping into the dark

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Stepping into the dark

WHO: Eleven & Archeval
WHEN: April 12th + 13th
WHERE: Salt Mines
WHAT: An excursion at full strength
WARNINGS: violence

[It's afternoon by the time he's finished with his unexpected errands of the morning and he can't find Xingchen. Which makes sense, really. The man likely has plenty else to be doing, even assuming he hasn't already left.

Eleven mulls it over as he pulls on his armor. There's still time, and he's likely strong enough to go it alone, but.. it would be pretty reckless. Still, he's spent too much coin this morning that he needs to make up for it.

He pulls a cloak over himself to hide the metal shine of his armor, then secures his swords. Perhaps he could ask someone else. If he can't find anyone, then he'll resign himself to enduring a grueling day at the docks.

Eleven casts a thoughtful glance over the servant's quarters, mind trickling through various possibilities, then grins as he spots a likely target]

Archeval. Are you busy today?

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[ Arche is already glancing back over his shoulder as Eleven speaks again, having been watching the other's handiwork; the glowing saber still hums softly in one hand, angled away from his body in a carelessly practiced grip. ]

Better safe than sorry. And anyhow, where would be the fun in that? Not as if these things are going to offer a proper duel.

[ He heads back toward Eleven as he speaks so that he doesn't have to raise his voice too much -- no sense attracting extra attention here, armed or not. The glowing lightsaber blade disappears back up into its hilt as he comes to a stop. ]

Elegant. [ He offers the word with a brief nod toward those dual blades. ]

[His eyes follow Archeval's blade even as it disappears. He shifts to sheathe his own]

I like them. But what is that sword you use? Is that a concentration of pure dark energy given physical form?

Nothing so mysterious. This is just the color that spoke to me. [ He notes this with a dry quirk of one brow. ] It's called a lightsaber. In a pinch you could try using it yourself, but I don't recommend it. Requires a certain set of talents to avoid chopping your arm off.

[ He's craning his neck as he speaks, looking down the path that leads over the cliff and into the mines. Where two of those things lurk, more are sure to follow. ]

[Eleven relaxes a bit to hear it. The last thing he's looking forward to having near his person is another Sword of Shadows. Now that he thinks about it though, he can recall glimpsing the violet color in the handle earlier.]

..I think I'll manage without trying it.

[He can't reattach limbs with magic, after all.

Eleven steps past Archeval to lengthen their line of sight, finding relief when the slope down seems clear. He starts down with a nod]

But if it's not darkness, then what is it made of?

[It's called a 'lightsaber' but.. he's never seen or heard light like that before]

A focused laser beam. [ pausing to take in the look on Eleven's face for a moment, and considering their previous conversations, he continues on very wryly: ] Which is a very dangerous, very hot beam of light, produced by a tiny machine. Cuts through most materials like butter. This one appears dark through some technical trickery with the focusing crystal inside. They come in many different colors, though. Each saber is quite personal to the one who wields it.

[ As they head further into the mine proper, he hefts that empty bag on his back again and lowers his voice further, keeping it to a murmur as he glances around. ]

You are clearly no novice with a blade either. Did you train long?

[It's definitely cause for some surprise. Although, the longer he thinks about it, the more he thinks the beam emitted by a killing machine seems similar. To think that such a power could be controlled..]

Ah, my grandfather taught me when I was a child until he passed away. I practiced on my own until I met my companions, who helped train me further.

[As the mines darken, Eleven unfurls a palmful of fire to see by]

..I only recently started training with two blades.

Handy. [ He murmurs this with a wry look as he glances at that little flame, going quiet entirely for a little while to listen for any trouble. At long last, though, he adds quietly: ]

Perhaps these trips are doubly fruitful for you then. I've always found a real battlefield to be the best teacher.

[He nods, flashing a smile]

I like fighting.

[Though he doesn't enjoy the life-death stakes that often come with it quite as much.

Eleven follows a familiar path toward one of the old campsites, steps slowing as they draw closer. His ears strain in the dark for anything in the open space beyond the cavern]

..If this area is clear, we should be able to get most of what we need.

Take what you're after and load up my bag too, then. I'll keep lookout while you do the grunt work. You're welcome. [ drawling out sardonically again as he peeks his head around dark corners, grip tight against his saber hilt. No ominous sounds yet, but -- he has a bad feeling. ]

[Eleven huffs an amused breath, but accepts Archeval's bag and steps into the open dark. He toes his way around the site, glad he's wearing leather boots rather than metal as he searches for something to light. An old oil lantern glows in the center, casting dim light and long, flickering shadows, but it's enough to free up both of his hands.

He loads up with salt first, as their primary objective is to make coin. It's quieter insofar as collection goes and will do to muffle anything else he piles in, but he doesn't dare to venture far and thus ends up with far less than he'd like. Deciding they can find more later without much issue, Eleven shifts his focus to carefully rifle through a short pile of old, warped tools. He turns one over in his hands with a soft hum. They'd take up less space if he could separate the metal from their poles..]

[ Both of them are professionals, and being careful as they can be, but they didn't exactly bring any stealth experts to this party. Their activities inevitably make at least a little noise, and the things down here surely haven't had the same abundance of prey for a while that they enjoyed before the refugees busted out of here -- it was probably equally inevitable that the undead are desperate, on-edge and acutely attuned to signs of life, just as their wary visitors are.

Arche slips just a bit further down one dim passage as he hears a distant scrabbling, turns a corner to investigate and -- this trio takes only a second to register his presence before they're already barrelling toward him--

The unlit hallway fills with a dull violet glow, and down the way Eleven will hear that strange noise of a lightsaber igniting again as Archeval tangles with the creatures in the dark. ]

There's more coming-- Check they're not cutting off our retreat!!-- [ That's all he has time to shout, his voice echoing down the corridor along with eerie moans. Hopefully the noise doesn't attract further trouble still. ]

[He leaps up from his task, drawing his blades as Archeval's voice echoes back to him. His skin prickles with the uncomfortable awareness of the oppressive dark, its presence seeming everywhere, then finally tears his eyes from the unnatural violet glow to check the direction they'd come in. The way looks clear at first, standing still and breathing in the dark while his ears listen for sounds of distress from his companion.

The undead are upon him in moments, too close and clawing for him. The hand closest to him is severed in swift defense as he retreats backward, but the injury doesn't deter his pursuer. Pursuers, he recognizes in a flash of flame. Two of them. He isn't terribly worried about them, certain he can keep them at sword's length as he works to tear them down, but he is concerned about the open campsite he has his back to, and the numerous directions undead could come in from there.]

Arche--! [His voice cuts off as he's forced to stab one of the undead through as it lunges for him. Eleven grimaces and shoves it off, hoping to make swift work of the second while the first staggers back to its feet] Are you...?

[ From the tunnel where Eleven can still hear noises of battle, abruptly a shriveled undead body comes flying backward in El's direction -- headless. It smacks straight into one of the other creatures, sending them tumbling again, but the still 'living' one is in prime position to swipe at Eleven's feet even as Archeval himself comes sprinting down the corridor with blade in hand-- ]

More on my tail-- [ indeed, another rears up directly behind him as he pauses to spit some stray blood out of his mouth; with a grimace and a swiftly flung hand its limbs seize up under a quick electric shock and Arche gives it a kick straight backwards where it came from. ] You're not done yet, are you? How much do we care about that tunnel?--

Edited 2021-04-14 20:14 (UTC)

We don't.

[Eleven decapitates the fallen undead with a decisive strike, then extinguishes and sheathes one sword to free an arm up for magic. With a swift gesture from his hand, a wall of fire springs to life across the mouth of the tunnel Archeval's pursuers had come from]

That will slow them down at least. We can take what we have and find somewhere else..

[ There's a horrendous screech from behind the fire as one creature can't quite stop its momentum in time and goes barrelling straight through it, dropping to the ground writhing with flames eating up its blackening limbs, even as it continues to try to drag itself forward. Archeval steps forward with a sigh to swipe the head off this one as well, watching several more mass behind Eleven's flickering wall, screeching out their frustration even as they try to crowd close-but-not-too-close to the source of warmth-- ]

Enough of this. [ He scowls as he thrusts out a hand. If he starts collapsing tunnels entirely there's no telling what he could do to the stability of this place, but there's plenty of debris here to work with; so he's going to just start flinging stray boulders and salt and gravel piles straight into the tunnel mouth, sending a few creatures careening backward as he fills it up. ]

Which way next with us--?

[He suppresses the urge to gag as the scent of burnt, rotting flesh becomes far more prominent. His eyes water with it while he rushes to collect their bags in the wake of Archeval's seeming invisible force at work against their pursuers.]

This way. [He steps around severed limbs as they go and runs them a good distance back until he can no longer feel the dark hunger of the undead, then settles to a walk and finally sheathes his second blade. He turns his handful of fire toward his companion for a quick examination]

..Are you injured?

[ After a moment, the violet glow in the darkness vanishes again, Archeval's lightsaber returned to its spot on his belt. The flickering firelight reveals a little bruising and a trickle of blood out of Arche's nose and mouth, perhaps the imprint of a fingernail, but honestly he looks more annoyed than seriously hurt. ]

Just a little swipe to the face, nothing exciting. Turned around and one of them was right behind me-- [ sighing with a rueful grimace as he tries to quiet his voice more ] Embarrassing. The bigger concern will be getting the smell of burning corpse out of our clothes... I'd just about trade a few capital ships for a proper laundry right now--

[ He reaches up to carefully start prodding at his own face with another small grimace, seeming unfazed by the stench or the moment of excitement. To be expected of a Dark Lord, perhaps. ]

[He nods, relieved Archeval is relatively unharmed. It's on the tip of his tongue to offer to heal it, but isn't serious enough to warrant navigating the man's pride. Or perhaps he's simply spent too much time with Lan Wangji this morning. In either case, he resumes their careful trek through the mine on the lookout for both healthy deposits of salt and unwanted shadows]

..I've never seen someone move things without touching them before. It seems your Force can do a lot of things.

[ Nobody could blame Eleven for not offering given Archeval's prickly attitude, but fortunately it seems he doesn't need to. There's a sudden, noticeable surge of dark energy directly next to him, but -- while Eleven might look over in startlement, the only thing there is to see is Arche wiping dried blood away from his face with another irritable frown, the bruises vanished entirely from his cheek. ]

One who masters it is capable of a great deal. There are a very small handful I'd even call close to being gods in their own right... [ he pauses for a second at this, sighing quietly in the dark, but it's hard to see what kind of look that is on is face. ]

...Though oddly enough, I've never known a Sith or a Jedi who could make fire. [ he glances over El's way sounding a little bit amused. ]

[He jumps, the surge of dark energy far too close for comfort, then settles with a careful breath. Eleven takes in the healed effect with some surprise, both curious and not about whether that healing could extend to others. He imagines it wouldn't be a pleasant sensation.]

..Fire magic is somewhat common in my world. The curious thing about you is that lightning is very rare, and considered holy in Erdrea.

Holy---

[ Arche's immediate snort of startled laughter is a little imprudently loud, and he freezes for a second after he's done it to glance up and down the hall again in the dark, utterly silent; but anything he might have attracted seems to remain a ways off for now. ]

...Well, that's a riot. [ he goes on more quietly this time, but equally sardonic ] The Jedi consider Force lightning a sign of someone they can kill on sight, for they can only be the most evil of Sith.

[ he has not at any point seemed to care about working too hard to convince Eleven that he's not secretly evil, and he continues the trend now, moving right along with no disclaimers on that statement as they trek deeper into the mine. ]

Fire is common, though? I suppose you did mention your 'magic' can be accessed by many. [ it's curious -- a whole planet of low-level Force-sensitives perhaps? Or instead, one fantastically saturated in Force energy, a whole world like the Temple on Yavin? Or, well -- perhaps, as Mingyu speculated, some different phenomenon entirely is happening with all these otherworldly visitors. But that still seems awfully unlikely to contemplate.

Lost in thought, he almost misses some of the details of the dim terrain around them-- ]

Hm-- This turn looks familiar.

Edited 2021-04-15 01:28 (UTC)

[The thought both beliefs could be correct holds his attention for a moment. Really, he should be more wary of a man capable of dark healing magic. For a certainty, there are marked differences between them. He's even sure that if they'd both had their powers when they first met, the man would have unnerved him enough to shy from his company without question.

But evil would have left him to freeze to death in the snowfield, not haul him into town on its shoulder for hours. Much less-

He stops, lifting his flame to peer at their surroundings. They do seem familiar]

..We aren't lost. [Or well, they might be a little- temporarily] I've been through here enough I'm sure I'll be able to find our way back out..

Been doing half Sa-Hareth's salt mining for them, have you? [ his voice is low and wry again as he continues to absently glance around, resisting the urge to draw his saber for more light -- they don't need the extra noise right now ] Who was it that stood you up today anyhow?

[ For Arche's part, what exactly he thinks of Eleven doesn't seem strictly clear. But apparently he sees some merit in sticking around the other young man, or -- perhaps the local hero has just proven a useful resource in their mutual efforts to leave this place. The real truth remains to be seen. ]

[He grins, feeling that wry tone strike home as he glances around for a familiar path]

I stood him up, I think. Xingchen. I spent the morning helping Lan Wangji attempt to lay souls to rest. ..I'm still not sure we succeeded. But don't let Haltham hear you say I'm looting too much of the mine.

Xingchen. [ he repeats it slowly ] Doesn't ring a bell. [ of course, he probably ought to better know those who came up out of the mines, but given the conditions he hadn't exactly stopped to talk to everyone ]

And I imagine Haltham will live. [ scoffing sardonically a little as he continues to plod along in the dark ] He can think of all the salt as the ransom he's paid for a clean conscience.

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