Darkness. The everlasting state of all manner of creation. The state that all must one day meet. Just like the darkness that awaited their souls, the occultists brought Kane and Bauer before a door in a long and dark hallway, before shoving them into a dark room housing countless others that were waiting in line for their sacrifice.
Bauer took a look around, staring at the various faces of those who'd lost all hope, flooded with tears and terror, some even murmuring to themselves, digging their nails into their foreheads as beads of blood poured down their faces. Some ripped out their hairs, some bit their nails, some lightly slammed their heads against the wall.
Fuck, there must be at least a hundred of them! so he thought.
Of course, while they had differing ways of expressing their... unwillingness to be sacrifices, one thing was common amongst them: despair.
Well, that went for all but two, and even then, Kane and Bauer had their different views.
Bauer refused to give up, especially motivated after witnessing such a swift and heartless betrayal that Maleagant pulled off. He especially had no desire to simply lay down his life and accept the idea of being sacrificed in the name of some satanic system of beliefs.
Kane on the other hand was indifferent to the situation, which was something of an intriguing sight itself. What was it? Why were the others so depressed? What was so unwelcoming about death? It was only the next stage in life, after all. Was it not worse to not know when and how one would die?
Yes, on the contrary, that's what it was: knowing when one would die. But why? Because those who feared the grave knew that they'd accomplished nothing honourable or meaningful in their lives when given the opportunity. As a certain somebody once said, regret is an opportunity missed.
The regret, absent in Kane's case, as there was nothing more honourable that he'd accomplished than living an honest life despite the world showering him in its hatred. How many chances did he have to steal? How many chances did he have to hurt people for his gain? Too many, and none were seized.
But of course, there was more to just the idea of living an honourable and meaningful life, which in fact, was the true reason why Kane harboured no despair or emotions altogether.
He simply didn't give a shit.
Could one blame him? He had to struggle just to survive, so why refuse death's invitation anymore when he was being carried, like a king, straight to death's door? Especially when it was an escape from a cruel, harsh life.
"It can't end this way," said Bauer, staring at the black door, or at least, what he assumed was the black door.
He started questioning if it really was dark in the room, or if everything was so black that he was becoming disoriented. After all, he could see everyone perfectly fine, though there was no apparent source of light to begin with. It was as though he had entered the void itself, both full and empty. Full of nothing but an eerie darkness and empty of anything besides it.
He looked to his left at Kane, who simply rested with his back against the wall, finally getting the chance to rest in some place warm, however uncomfortable it may be.
"Kane," he called out, creasing his brows as he questioned why someone would just sit calmly in this situation, "what are you doing?"
Kane sat in silence for a few moments, before sighing. "What does it look like?"
"Looks like you're being a depressed piece of shit." He returned his gaze to the darkness in front of him, pushing against it to get a feel for the door that he could not differentiate from the wall. "Now think about something. We've gotta get out of here."
"What's the point?"
Bauer froze for a second, before slowly panning his head over, lines boldened all across his eyes along with a slackened jaw.
"The fuck you mean what's the point? Who the fuck are you and where's the real Kane?"
"I'm trying to rest if you wouldn't mind."
"Motherfucker, you'll get all the rest you could possibly want, and more if we don't figure a way out of here!"
Kane slowly opened his eyes, blinking at random intervals as he kept his head against the wall. With enough time spent debating if he should even stand up, he decided to do so, seeing as he wasn't going to get any proper rest with Bauer's lamentations.
"Look, Bauer, we can try figuring a way out of here," he said, scratching the back of his head, "but then what? How are we going to fight through the nefandites without weapons? Where do we go? You heard what the bishop said, they'll be coming for Thalamar, and we'll just end up back here again if we go there."
"Here's an idea," Bauer spared him no glance, growing annoyed of the unwillingness to live, "we get the hell out of this room, and then we can decide the rest as we go along?"
"Fuck it, I guess," said Kane, shrugging, the enthusiasm in his voice still absent. Nothing more than proof of his reluctancy to figure something out as he pushed himself off the wall and walked around, stretching his arms. "We die if we fail anyway. Where do we start?"
"We have to find this door, but I can't see or feel it." Bauer continued aimlessly pressing against the wall. "I saw the occultist touch some part of this surface, and then the door opened itself, but I just can't get it."
Kane walked over. "You mean this thing?" he said as he pushed Bauer aside and reached for a grey circle, as small in diameter as a nail head, near his waist level.
A quiet and low rumble followed as the door slowly shifted to the left, revealing the distant light of the another room further down the hall pitch-black that extended far into the distance.
Bauer frowned, blinking rapidly as his jaw hung, before looking at Kane. "How the fuck did you do that?"
He shrugged as he stared down the hall. "I don't know. I was just able to see that..." He looked back at the spot where the circle should have been, finding that it no longer existed, or rather, that he couldn't see it anymore. "The fuck? I just saw it earlier."
"Saw what?"
"A grey circle. It was as small as a nail, but it was so easily recognizable in the wall."
Bauer rubbed his chin as he pondered on it, looking back across the room, still bamboozled by the fact that he could see the prisoners perfectly, and yet, everything else remained dark.
It's like a false darkness was cast on the room, so he thought, closing his eyes as he thought about it.
Kane stared at him blankly for a few minutes. Did he die? he wondered, before flicking his forehead, which promptly opened Bauer's eyes, garnering a frown.
"What was that for?" asked Bauer, rubbing his forehead as he looked around. "Can't let me think about..."
There it was. The grey circle. Hiding along the wall the whole time.
Kane sighed. "So I help you out, and you decide to go full brain shut down?"
"No," he pointed, "I see it."
"Ah, yes. All of the sudden after I solve your issue you see the solution, huh?"
"Yes, but I understand it now."
Kane looked around, noticing the rest of the prisoners still lamenting their fates, formulating a plan for the next phase of their escape. "Yeah? Explain it then," he added in a sarcastic tone.
"It's a simple case of dark vision."
"Okay, but how were we randomly able to see in the dark for a bit?"
"You were resting for a while, and I just had my eyes closed for a bit. Our eyes adapted to the darkness, allowing for more light to enter our eyes. It's basic... eye science or whatever the fuck it's called. Look," he pointed at the other prisoners, "you can see them perfectly, but everything else is pitch black. Why? Because there's a source of light hidden by the darkness, which was cast on the rest of the room. If they didn't put this light source here and hide it, then anyone would've seen that circle and escape."
Kane shook his head as he listened, sighing once he finally got a chance to speak. "Okay, thanks for the lecture, nerd, but while you were busy trying to understand something we no longer needed to, I got an idea for our escape."