Void walks

I yawned and got out of bed, wondering why Syllvester keeps trying to kill me. I haven't really done anything to him. I just asked him for a drink one time. I got out of my bed and saw a note on the door

Come to my office

-Syllvester

I left my room and went downstairs and back to Syllvester's office.

"What do you want?"

I asked.

"We have a job"

He replied.

"To do what?"

I said.

"Don't know, something in the sewers. But this one is a direct order from the king"

He answered.

The entire time, he had a lifeless look in his eyes, like he wasn't thinking. Despite his head moving very erratically, his eyes didn't move to follow me but instead stayed locked in place.

He stood up and walked out, I followed him and we went behind the bar and to what looked like a cave with metal walls. I reluctantly followed him in despite the stench.

We were walking for what was, in reality, about a minute but felt like an hour with the silence. Syllvester was moving through the maze-like sewers like he'd lived there his whole life. Eventually, he came to a wall and stopped. He ran his hands over the metal.

"What are you doing?"

I asked.

But I got no response from him. Syllvester eventually managed to find what he was looking for in the wall and pushed it. The wall began sinking into the ground, revealing a large wooden hall with a stage at the end. There was a small crowd of people.

On the stage, there was a tall man dressed in pitch black robes and pointing towards us.

"And here's the sacrifice for today!"

He shouted.

"Sacrifice?!"

I yelled back.

Because I was confused, I didn't notice Syllvester moving behind me and pushing me forward.

I fell into the crowd as they dispersed and surrounded me. One person grabbed me and held me up.

"Hello sacrifice"

The figure said.

My fist sparked and glowed blue as I punched the person holding me up. He fell to the ground and began convulsing. I blinked and the figure appeared in front of me. After getting a closer look, I noticed that the robes were not in fact robes but skin. Pitch black, inky skin all over. Like he was covered in dripping tar. Vaguely in the shape of a person. There were two White stars where his eyes would have been.

I turned to Syllvester, but he wasn't there. When I turned back, the figure had his unconscious body in his arms and was passing it over to one of the people in the crowd.

"Hey! Give that back"

I said.

The figure turned to me and said

"It's Vanta, not Hey and you're a god. Your opinion means less than dirt here."

His voice changed when he spoke to me. From exited and confident to a low and raspy.

His voice changed back

"That's right. The gods are a disease. They go around thinking that they're the best. Causing unnecessary chaos. For what? Well for this god, it's for some sick pleasure."

I clenched my fist, trying to restrain myself.

"But what use do they serve? I'll tell you. They were just a way of testing something. All of them. Test subjects. You could even say that the one who created the Le-"

I punched him into the wall before he could finish.

I stood over him, the others in the room not daring to move. I leant over his body and said

"Name, race, skill"

"I'm not telling you that!"

He replied.

I grabbed his head and forced him to look me in the eyes.

"Say it"

He sighed and changed to the raspy voice again

"What're you going to do to me? Hurt this body? There isn't much to hurt. I'm just a hole. Whatever you see is just what I lead to. It's like punching the air, it won't work."

"How did I just hit you then?"

I asked.

"Now that's what makes no sense. It's the equivalent of trying to punch nothing. The absence of space and yet, you did it."

"All I'm hearing is that you're not as strong as you thought you were"

I laughed.

"Eh, I'll come back later. Vanta Araneae. That's the name."

He said.

His voice changed back.

"That's a wrap guys!"

He shouted to the crowd before melting into a puddle.

I saw Syllvester's unconscious body stand up and look around, panicked. He saw me and made his way through the crowd to me.

"Hey, uh... you got any idea where we are right now?"

He asked.

"The sewers, and you were the one who took us here."

I said, confused.

"No I didn't, I was just with the king discussing plans to murder ya' and..."

"Again, you're doing this again. How did you even get permission to meet the king?"

"I'm real close to one of the royal guards. Phytos was it? I'm apparently a' no threat to the king so they just let me walk in."

"Take me there"

"No why would I do that?"

"Because I could kill you right now"

"Good point"

One of the people in the crowd spoke up

"If you're going into the castle you probably need allies, correct? We have somebody who can give you them."

He pointed to a blue robed man in the corner. He had a long grey beard and started shaking the moment everyone looked at him.

"Why are you on my side now?"

I asked.

"Because that's how we work. You killed the old leader, that makes you the new leader"

A woman said from behind me.

"Thanks"

"No problem, I'm Beatrice. That stereotypical wizard over there is merlin and the one who sold him out was Judas."

"How is that Merlin guy supposed to give us allies though?"

I asked.

"He can summon people. No matter where they are. So long as you have one of their possessions."

She replied.

"How does that work?"

"Dunno, just throw it into that hole over there"

She pointed towards a small hole in the ground.

I thought for a minute. The only people I knew in this dimension was Syllvester and Brachii. I thought about using Alice's dice to summon her but that didn't make much sense. She also wouldn't be willing to help.

"Give me a second"

I said.

I walked away and thought again. After a minute or two I reached into my pocket and pulled out the dice Alice gave me.

"Possession of somebody I know"

I said, putting mana into it.

The dice glowed blue and rolled around in my hand. It landed on seven. The dice dissappeared into smoke and... nothing appeared.

"What was that?"

Beatrice asked.

"A failure is what it is"

I replied.

"Any of you hear that"

Somebody in the crowd said.

I listened closely. A very quiet whistling sound was getting closer. And closer. And closer. Until an arrow burst through the wall and hit me square in the arm.

The arrow had a note attached to it.

---

Dear Solas

I told you that my arrows never miss. They will follow you through dimensions if they have to. So please, accept your fate and die.

His gracious self, Robin

---

"What is that"

Beatrice asked again.

I turned and threw the arrow into the pit.

"What now"

I asked.

"Now we wait"

Merlin said.

"How long?"

"Dunno, depends how far away they are. Might take a bit. If you have anything else, just put it in. They'll all appear at the same time."

"Cool'

I retraced my steps back up into the town and found myself surfacing in a place called 'clockwork street'. Though my thoughts were stopped in their tracks by a familiar phrase.

"Cyclamen, Hyacinth, aster, geranium, tulip, sunflower"

A voice said.

I was entranced, it kept repeating in my head. I lost control of my actions and walked aimlessly down the street. I eventually came to a building with many unpleasant sounds coming from it.

I snapped out of the trance, not questioning it. It seemed normal to me at the time.

As I entered the building, I saw what looked like a large writhing ball of flesh. I closed the door and the wind made it slam, alerting the moaning mass. It collapsed and what seemed to be hundreds of people poured out.

After the crowd had left, The only remaining person didn't seem human. But it could've just been my eyes. That was until he rose from the ground, revealing his true form. The upper body, full human. The only difference was that he had a few too many eyes. But from the waist down, he was a massive spider.

He looked at me

"Oh, a customer, hi"

"What... was that?"

"What? Am I not allowed to entertain myself?"

"But... that's going a bit too-"

"Oh come on, they're not people anyway. Me and magnesia tried checking if they were actual people. They aren't. Just illusions"

"So... who made them?"

"We presumed it was the owner of the only other named shop here. That Hastur fellow."

"And who is Hastur?"

"I think... she's the king in y-"

"Yeah, yeah. King of who-cares. Look, Solas, what is this doing to get us anywhere. You're just getting exposition at this point."

Syllvester interupted.

"You... were here?"

I asked.

"Of course I was! Barely. The moment we got out of that sewer you just ran off. Nearly passed out trying to follow you."

He answered.

"Sorry, I just... recognised someth-"

"Okay, we're done with that."

He interupted again.

He turned to the spider

"Listen, uhh"

"Rachnera"

"Thanks. Listen, Rachnera, get us into the castle the king is in. Right now!"

"Why do you think I could do that?"

"You're a spider. Spider's sneak into places all the time"

"I'll have you know that's an offensive stereotype!"

"So is right now good or?"

"Yeah, right now is fine."

That spider did, in fact, have a way to get into the castle. He led us behind the counter and down into his basement. In hindsight, it wasn't the smartest idea but it was good enough.

I didn't know where we were going, nor could I see past the Rachnera's enormous spider half. But what I could hear, was fighting. Coming from above.

We finally reached the door. Rachnera opened it and pushed us through.

Outside was a large cathedral. A throne in the centre. Though, nobody was on the throne.

As I looked around, I saw Clams standing next to a person I didn't recognise.

Before his head came flying off.