Hall of Games [ REWRITE ] | The Varya Chronicles #1

Chapter Twenty-Two

Media: Shadows, anyone?

Music: Unstoppable, E. S Posthumus

Cadence was standing in a deserted hallway. The walls were empty, completely devoid of tapestries, adverse to the Moskavan culture of displaying as many sigils of power as possible. Mists swirled about, curling around her feet and stretching out toward the end of the corridor.

A man had his back against Cadence, his black cloak sweeping in the invisible breeze.

It was a dream, again. There was no sight of burning mansions, people crying or being slaughtered. Feeling braver, she took several steps toward the man. "Hello?"

The man turned around. He was dressed in a dark kubah, so blue, it was almost black. His brown hair was combed back neatly, and he had trimmed his beard into a shadow. In one hand, he clutched a black mask and in the other, a glittering sword.

It was Varis, the man who was burned to death.

Varis regarded Cadence with his hard, brown eyes, like an eagle surveying its prey.

"Why are you in my dreams?" Cadence asked him. "Who are you really?"

The man did not reply. Instead, he walked toward Cadence. He point a finger at Cadence and traced it to the open skies outside the window.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The fog was accumulating in thick clouds. Varis splayed his hands to both side, embracing the fog as it covered him, swallowing him whole.

From the distance, Cadence heard an Ancient roar. It was a full-throated roar of fear. Suddenly the entire corridor was on fire, the smoke turning into skulls which clattered onto the ground. Cadence backed into a wall as two small human skulls, barely larger than both her fists put together rolled toward her feet. Small bones skittered from the fading fog and toward the skull, reattaching themselves to form two small skeletons which stood in front of her.

The perverse clattering of bones increased. Cadence looked back to find a whole army of skeletons reassembling their bones. The skeletons locked gaze with her before they clattered their teeth together and lunged at her.

She screamed, running for the opposite end of the corridor. There was no other side, the corridor kept on stretching. Whenever she reached the end of the corridor, tiles would magically appear, arranging themselves faster than she could run.

It was an endless race. Cadence ran until she felt her lungs burn and her legs scream. If skeletons could snarl, those most certainly did. They gnashed their teeth together and flailed their skeletal limbs at her. The faster ones over-ran the ones at the front. Cadence could hear the cracking and crushing of the bones even with the wind roaring against her ears.