In the dark corners of the fortress, mice scurried around endlessly. Shadows loomed at every turn. Distant whispers filled the otherwise silent tunnels.
Four children of the war god were dressed in peasant tunics. Three confused at what one was doing there.
Lucy glared at Riley.
"We didn't need your help."
Riley shrugged and continued forward.
"Maybe not, but I'm your leader."
Lucy grumbled under her breath making Yara giggle. She thought back to her days as a trainee teacher before the news agency. How kids would bicker endlessly.
Dari decided to chime in too.
"Four is a party, right?"
Lucy shot him a glare too.
Her chest tightened thinking back to the scene from the night before. Riley's words began feeling more like suggestions than commands.
Their walk came to an end and they equipped black leather masks. The complex opened before them. Every path was bustling with peasants, none armed.
'This is unexpected. Am I wrong?'
Their drawbridge was held up by rotted timber, and only a handful of archers lined the walls. But most strange of all was the blatant display of resources that sat in the centre of the courtyard.
From the outside, everything appeared shadowed. It made Riley, who is the master of veils, feel like an amateur.
Their walk was brief before being stopped by one of the archers.
"State your business."
Riley leaned forward, his mask biting into his scalp.
"We were just walking around."
The archer's brow lifted.
"Beside the archer tower?"
"Why not? It isn't forbidden, is it?"
"I guess not."
The archer let them pass, not without a side eye.
The walls were hollowed out. From the outside they looked as sturdy as a mountain. From the inside, the situation looked much brighter for the war children.
Riley's mask betrayed no emotions, but he smiled underneath.
'Winning the battle might be easy. But that's not the true goal of this nightmare.'
In reality, simply carrying out the history that the nightmare was a fragment of would not suffice. Some anomalies had already presented themselves, yet none pieced it together.
His gaze lingered on a far window. Two archers were positioned there, and faintly he could see it.
'They know the lord's tent!'
A terrible chill ran across his body and one person came to mind. The person who had been stuck to his side. He was not surprised, she was far clingier than a concubine should be.
'Execution. That'll be the end of her.'
He shook his head.
'Wait. Haste makes waste.'
Despite her eerie attraction to him, nothing exactly screamed that she was a spy. Even less that she wanted him dead. There were many chances for his demise.
The tunnel had brought them out near the entrance of the castle.
Apart from three guards with halberds, no one stood watch.
Riley activated his veil and they crept inside. Nothing precious was lost, just some memories of their campfire meals on the forgotten shore. Still, Riley stirred.
The long corridors were clad with shadowy obsidian. Torches sparsely decorated the walls, enough for them not to fall over.
'This really is Shadow God's fortress.'
Every step they took, the shadows moved along with them. Shadows were not alive, yet they had a mind of their own.
Yara whispered a prayer quietly. Dari patted her on the back.
Lucy still didn't look in Riley's direction. Instead, she let her mind wander on the paintings strung loosely across the glassy walls.
One depicted an eight armed demon. Another, a tree with a magnificent apple. Even one with a man whose beauty could not be captured on a mere canvas.
Riley's eyes were drawn toward the mosaics on the floor. There were countless steps that reached forward around the bend at the end of the corridor. Each foot too big for a human, and something emanating a Will tainted the colourful stones.
Around the bend was a large door. That was it.
'A strange design for a castle.'
He wanted to dwell on the thought longer, but their time was limited.
The large doors parted and an enormous room came into view. There were no windows, just walls with crudely painted portraits.
"Guys. I think we might be in trouble."
Dari was the first to break off, scurrying around the room to get a better look at the paintings. His smile curled down as he pointed at a portrait of himself.
Yara was quick to find one that matched her. And Lucy managed to spot hers beside Lydia's.
Riley was not far either, beside a beautiful man with sharp features. A small butterfly clung to its frame before fluttering off into the darkness.
But one thing was abundantly clear to Riley.
"They know our identities."
Lucy summoned her spear and instantly straightened her shoulders.
"We strike now, or else we might be snuffed out by an assassin."
Riley's eyes twitched.
'How have I not considered that? Am I an idiot?'
He exhaled and tried calming his typhoon of thoughts.
Having their identities didn't mean they had the means to pull something off like that. While he was uncertain about Lydia earlier, and he still is, her presence acted as a sort of vanguard for him.
Lucy, Yara and Dari on the other hand had no such luxury. They were not protected by an army of knights and an enigmatic beauty.
Footsteps crept in the distant hallway. They grew closer and screams rang between beats.
"WHO GOES THERE?"