The Eternal War: The Dragon's Valkyrie

Extrication

The door remained immovable despite Saidy's effort. Saidy felt her heart drop into her stomach. This can't happen, the little voice in her head screamed! Saidy wondered why she wanted to live so much. Why had that man's words filled her with so much hope? She pushed again and again, but the result remained indefinite—Dolleta had done her due diligence in locking the door behind her.

"Son of a..." Saidy began to whisper to herself before something pulled her attention beyond the steel door.

A pair of muffled voices reverberated through the door. They were growing louder. Saidy froze, her mind filtering through millions of ideas and scenarios in this very instant. However, she couldn't remain this way, lest her wish of death, that was quickly fading, became truth.

She flew back down the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her. She stumbled for but a moment, still under the influence of her injuries and their aftermath, but eventually she reached the bottom of the flight. There was a small wall just beyond the stairwell that was nearly wide enough for her to stuff herself into between the stone bricks and steel bars.

She waited as the screech of steel echoed down into the dungeon. Saidy feared the volume produced by the pounding of her heart would alert the approaching oni because it certainly rang in deafening volume within her ears.

The conversation the oni were carrying on averted her attention from her panic as she recognized both the voices.

"Levita e' entu va remoria," Morin says.

Morin was the oni that had stolen her brother that fateful day Fourteen years ago. They were speaking in their native tongue, onian, and throughout the years, Saidy had been able to pick up a crude understanding of the language. Morin had commented on how pleased Talik must've been to have acquired Saidy because entu was the word they used when they referred to money, and va was a large sum.

Talik chuckled. "Ei, merias slavena va entu du," he mused.

Talik has now referred to her by slave, slavena, and seemed to be in agreement that Saidy had earned him twice the amount since du was two.

The voices continued to get closer as their conversation carried on.

"Mon, Dante, e'v..." Talik's voice trailed off as Saidy recognized her brother's name being said.

Was Dante still alive, she wondered? The will for life burned fiercer within her soul at the mention of Dante. She no longer wished for death in that instant, but to undergo any peril that would lead to her reunion with her only remaining family.

She shook her head, pushing the memories that tried to surface from her past back. This was no time to reminisce in the few moments of happiness she'd ever known. Her Dolletus and Morin were nearly upon her now.

Ice seared through her veins as the reality of now having to face two oni slammed into her like her Dolletus' foot had her head. Her knuckles grew white as she gripped the remaining piece of broken wood she held. Her eyes flicked over to Dolleta's corpse that laid in the shimmering pool of her own crimson. The moon had angled itself just right as a breeze danced across the blood, lighting the stage that was the wind's dance floor.

Saidy drew in a breath, and without thought, jabbed the broken sword around the corner.

Only the sound of blood spattering onto stone and flesh tearing echoed in the dungeon. Between Saidy's force and Talik's momentum, the broken shard of wood nearly severed his head from his neck. The look of dread frozen on his face as his head dangled from his body for a moment before his body collapsed onto it.