Darkness… nothing but impenetrable darkness.
That was all the alluring woman known as Beastmaster could perceive at the moment. Her senses were as sharp as a saint. But neither her eyes, ears, nor her nose could tell her any useful information at that moment.
Beside the painful wound on her head and the shallow breaths she took, there was nothing for her to recognize to prove her existence.
A terrible feeling that didn't help the state of her mind at all.
But as a saint, her senses went beyond the physical realm.
Sadly… even those seemed to betray her or at least refuse to obey her. If one was different from the other, it was irrelevant right now. Because for the first time in years… decades even, she felt fear.
Deep, suffocating, gut-wrenching fear. Her mind instantly drifted to the last thing she could remember.
A cold blade at her neck, a voice so dark and full of might she knew it would haunt her dreams for years to come. The battle she fought in hopes of swiftly moving on from after their opponent had been brought to his knees. But instead, it had been her who fell at the hands of a man who was only known as the Lord of Shadows.
The image of a demon mask and the armor of onyx stone burned themselves into her memory. Like a silent threat for what was to come.
Of course, she tried to grasp her anchor in the waking world, or the one in the dream realm. But neither of them seemed to exist. Like she had been cut off from the realms. Wherever she was, she had no way to escape through simple means. And if her mind didn't choose to betray her too, she had an idea of where she must be.
"A goddamn prison."
She whispered bitterly to no one in particular. Yet… her silent whisper seemed to have been heard by someone.
"Bin?"
A delicate voice called out for her, full of hope and desperation. She turned her head towards the voice she instantly recognized as her dear sister.
"Howl? You are alive! Praise the Goddess of Beasts. What… what happened? Where are we?"
She had an idea of what had happened and where they were, of course. But with fear clawing at her mind, all senses were thrown out the window. So she asked questions that didn't need an answer. Furthermore, she knew that her sister would have no answers for her. She doubted their captor had left them, wherever they were exactly, with answers.
"I have no idea, sister. The Lord of Shadows knocked me out clean before bringing us here. I'm just glad we are alive."
Holding back the fear from spilling out into her voice was a fool's errand. Both of them knew perfectly well how the other must feel right now. After all, they had been crushed in a battle one might call one-sided. Only that they stood on the wrong side.
"Is anyone else here? What about Silent? Did she escape?"
Asking the question she didn't want an answer to because she knew what it would be, she turned to glimpse at anything other than darkness. But there was nothing.
"No, Bin, she did not escape. She's right beside me and still unconscious. We seem to have underestimated him. On a much greater scale than we could ever imagine."
Silent did not know how it had come to this. She knew the man was powerful and extremely adaptable. But capturing three royal saints was beyond her understanding.
"Can you use your aspect? Or summon any memory or echo for that matter?"
Bin just shook her head. She had tried, of course. But it was all helpless. In their current state, they weren't any better than a mundane person with immense might. But besides the strength of a saint, they had nothing left.
Instantly, she realized the shackle around her neck must be the cause. But no matter what she tried, it wouldn't budge. Realizing that her sister was still waiting for a verbal answer, she called out.
As expected, she didn't have anything else to report.
An hour later, they were still beside their sister's unconscious form when finally, Silent began to wake up from her slumber.
"What… what happened? Where am I? Am I... dead?"
She mumbled under her breath. To her horror, she couldn't see a thing. But when she could feel her sisters beside her, she threw out the idea of her being dead.
"Oh… you are finally awake. Just to inform you, Howl, it seems like we have been captured. Our aspects and memories are sealed, and we can't access our anchors. We are alive, though; I see that as a plus."
Howl suppressed the urge to growl at her sister's carefree and slightly amused tone. She couldn't believe how Beastmaster had the nerve to joke in such a situation. But she didn't expect anything less from her.
"You seem oddly at ease with the situation. Are you so dense that you can't even understand what we are going to face? He's going to torture us. He will try to pry every little secret out of our minds with that demonic face staring right into our souls."
Bin just scoffed at her blatant accusations of her sister. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that the Lord of Shadows had kept them alive for a reason. He would most likely torture them to get answers. But she didn't have the strength to worry about such things right now. All she could think about was what the others were doing.
"They must be searching for us. Mother must be furious and… heartbroken."
"Yeah, she must be turning the dream realm and the waking world upside down to find us. That's what I hope… at least."
Silent had no idea what their mother must be doing right now. Did she even know that they were still alive? She couldn't possibly reach out to her. Tell her that they were still alive and well… as well as someone who's sitting in a pitch-black room could be, of course.
They had not been idle in the time they waited for Silent to wake up. They had traced every inch of the room with their hands. But there was nothing. Just a big round door that felt like a safe door. But opening it, they could not. Whether it was too heavy or simply locked was irrelevant. They knew they had no way out, and that filled them with dread.
"When do you guys think he will come get us? Do you think we can overpower him? Maybe catch him off guard?"
Silent asked in a whisper. She didn't know why she tried to keep quiet. But it felt only right. She didn't know if the man would jump out of the shadows at any moment. But she hoped that he wouldn't.
Not just because they would have to face the man completely unarmed. But because they had no clothes on. After all, without essence, they had no armor to wear. Now that they found themselves in such a predicament, they hoped to wear more than just underwear beside the layers of their armors.
But it was better than nothing. That… would have been truly embarrassing.
"Are you joking? He beat us seven to one. And that was with our aspects. How are we supposed to fight that thing when we can't even summon a weapon? Let alone use our aspects."
Beastmaster seemed weirdly amused by the situation, but people who knew her well enough knew that she was just as stressed. The shackle around her neck didn't help one bit. While tracing it with her delicate fingers, she found out how he managed to seal away their aspects. Runic sorcery is a specialty of the Valor Clan. So it was easy to deduce where he had gotten them from.
The only question was if they were just prisoners of the Lord of Shadows or if they were in the hands of the entire Clan Valor. After all, the Lord of Shadows is a hired blade, a mercenary, who didn't have any orders to follow. Only what he is paid for.
No matter what it was, she hoped for the first option. She didn't know what the Lord of Shadows might do to them. But she damn well knew what Clan Valor would do. They wouldn't waste even a second to send Song of the Fallen after them.
Beastmaster regretted not killing the seer when she had the chance.
"What's the point of asking what could be? Let's just hope that we will survive this ordeal. Hope is everything we have left after all."
Howl's usual calm and collected voice didn't sound as easy as it used to. She too had been battling with her mind. The thought of ripping the shackle from her neck came to mind. But there was no escaping it. Whatever had been placed on them would only come off if they cut their heads off.
And what crazy bastard would do something like that?
They sat in silence, just hoping for anything to happen. After hours in the cell, they could feel the boredom growing inside them.
As if their silent prayers had been heard, the door to the cell began to move. It swung wide open. Slow and steady, it released a tide of dim blue light into the pitch-black room.
All three of them stirred. They slowly rose from where they were seated and moved to see what was outside. After hours of no visual input at all, they were glad to finally be able to see at least something. Although what they saw didn't help to calm them down one bit.
A giant throne room with pillars reaching so high they couldn't see the end of them behind the veil of deep shadows. Only illuminated by the ghostly blue flames of the torches that hung on the walls.
What they did see, though, was a table; on it lay different pieces of clothing. The only similarity between the items was their color, or rather the lack of it.
Black, pitch black to be exact.
"He left clothes for us? That's… nice?"
Eubin scoffed again, not that she didn't feel grateful. At least he was kind enough to let them keep their dignity. But the lack of colors was disappointing.
"Yeah, I guess he's not that bad. But only black? More so, he only left shirts, shorts, and sweatpants. That's no attire for a princess!"
Howl whined before walking up to the table and grabbing a set of clothes. She decided to wear the shorts over the sweatpants along with the black shirt.
It took the other two no more than a second to choose some clothes too. Silent chose to take the shorts and a shirt while Beastmaster took the sweatpants, intending to leave the shirt.
"Are you not planning on putting on a shirt? You can't be serious."
Howl gave her sister a dubious look while Bin just raised an eyebrow and smirked at her.
"Why? I like to show what I have. Of course, you wouldn't understand with the lack of volume you have up there."
"You…"
In the blink of an eye, Howl lunged at her. Rolling on the ground, the two engaged in a furious battle before Silent finally managed to separate them.
"Have you two lost your minds? We are only the dead gods know where and are essentially prisoners. And you two have nothing better to do than to jump at each other's throats?"
Panting heavily, the two stood back up, giving each other a brief glance. Beastmaster wore a triumphant smile on her lips, which almost made Howl claw at her throat again.
But in the next second, they heard heavy rhythmic footsteps approaching them.