4. Cinis

I'm surrounded by rock, but it's not any kind of rock I'm familiar with. My flames burn cold here, ‘here' clearly not being anywhere I recognize nor anywhere I can understand.

All around me are creatures who resemble the creatures in the cavern, except that their ears come to a point and their teeth resemble goblin fangs.

"What is this place?"

I project the question into their minds, but nobody replies. The strange creatures all double over in fear, but I sense a tainted blot on their souls unlike anything I've ever known.

And they give me a bad feeling.

Fires burn on the walls and all around me, but they're nothing like home. I find their steady crackle calms and centers me.

One of the creatures stands to his feet, extending his arm. He looks upon me in both horror and wonder simultaneously.

"It's an honor to make your acquaintance," he says. "We're going to accomplish great things together."

But he can't hide the terror in his eyes. I notice behind him that one of his kind seems to be emanating magic, uttering some kind of incantation. They are all covered in the same flammable material I saw earlier.

Instinctively, I reach up, lifting the creature behind him. Just from touching the creature, I can see the horrors in his soul.

"No," I say, throwing the creature into the ceiling.

His bones crumple on impact, and as I let go of him, discarding him, he falls to the floor.

The creatures grow more fearful, understandably. But their fear does not make me pity them.

Curiously, these creatures seem to speak from their mouths and not from their minds.

"I know we can get along," the creature who spoke earlier says, his voice trembling. "So please stop and think."

"Did you take me from my home?"

I don't intend to hide the rage from my voice.

Another creature behind him starts to conjure another spell, and I unleash a stream of fire, melting the gray skin from his body.

This drives their speaker into a fury.

"You listen to me!" he screams. "We brought you here out of the kindness of our hearts. You have no idea how much we had to sacrifice! You will serve us!"

Then the remaining creatures surrounding me start to produce magic. I see the nature of their spells and know that they will harm me.

So I harm them.

Some I melt, some I break. The more I kill, the more I learn about them.

They have a vulnerability near their heads. When I snap it with my mind, it cracks satisfyingly and they die.

I leave their speaker alive. He seems to be the one responsible for the group. Perhaps he can give me answers.

"Why did you bring me here?"

He looks at the deceased bodies around him, meals for me to enjoy later, and he tries to run in a panic.

I feel frustrated by his refusal to answer me. Then I notice another creature in the corner.

She doesn't have the same tainted soul, and her ears are differently shaped.

She can provide me with information and possibly help me get home.

Without a thought, I kill the last pointy-eared creature in the room. I snap his body quickly, a mercy he doesn't deserve.

The female hunches against a wall behind a broken cell door. She looks equally terrified, but she also carries a pain unlike the others.

I approach her, and she recoils in terror. Unlike the other creatures, she doesn't seem to have any magical capabilities, so she won't be a threat.

"Please don't kill me," she begs.

But I ignore her. Killing her would not benefit me in any sense.

"What is this place?" I ask.

My words enter her mind, and she looks up at me in confusion.

She doesn't seem to understand the question. I repeat it.

"Tower," she stammers.

But I don't know what she means, so I repeat the question again.

"Dark elf tower," she says.

I feel like there might be a linguistic disconnect, even though I can understand all languages by their basic thoughts. I have no idea what a dark elf is.

She can't explain further.

Perhaps I will have to see this realm to understand it.

"Show me where we are," I reply in frustration.

She asks how, and I tell her to guide me.

She stands up, trembling. As she steps over the bodies on the floor, I sense a deep sadness running through her.

The female turns to me, regarding me in confusion and fear. I can't articulate why, but it upsets me that I frighten her.

"Thank you for freeing me," she says.

It's the first explanation I've gotten from her, though it's not one I asked for. I had never planned on freeing her, so I don't accept the gratitude.

"Did they trap you?"

She nods.

So this female was their prey.

We descend a stone incline, and I discover an entirely new realm. Cells line the walls here, and the air is heavy with the scent of iron, though it's accompanied by a musty smell.

She shrinks down in fear at the sight of another pointy-eared creature.

"Stop where you are," the creature shouts.

I catch the material he wears on fire, unleashing a jet of flames in his direction.

He tries to run away but falls down on the floor, the smell of his burning flesh more unpleasant than at home.

"Thank you," she says, running over to the body.

She finds a key on him and picks it up. It's still hot, and she nearly drops it.

"Now to do what we came here for."

Her fear is lessening, much to my relief.

She walks over to the cells and begins unlocking each door individually, removing the imprisoned creatures from a strange magical device that connects them all. They are weak and almost cannot move.

The display puzzles me. Where I come from, if a creature is weak, they cannot survive and should be killed as a mercy.

What use do these creatures serve her?

"Can you do me a favor?" she asks me.

I say nothing in response.

"These people are badly hurt, and they will need to recover here," she says. "Can you check the other floors of the tower and make sure it's safe for them?"

I still don't know what a tower is, but I figure that if I help her, maybe she will help me later.

Below us, I find many more pointy-eared creatures who all respond with hostility.

I decide that they need to die, but many objects in one of the areas catch fire while I kill the creatures. Seemingly, entire shelves of flammable objects line the area.

I don't understand the logic of it. Why would you fill an area with objects that easily catch fire?

That's when I discover a hole inside the structure. I move outside it, discovering an entire realm even beyond this one.

Just when I thought I was starting to understand my environment, it reveals an entirely new layer.

The world out here is black, and a strange white moisture that chills my flames falls from the ceiling. There are cliffs in the distance, but they don't stretch infinitely upward toward the ceiling.

I turn around and note the strange black structure I exited. More of them dot the horizon, accompanied by green and brown objects that move in the wind.

"What is this place?" I ask aloud, as though it might give me insight I didn't already have.

I return inside the structure, which I've now concluded must be the ‘tower' she described. Perhaps it's a more elaborate version of what I found back home, a functional shelter of some kind.

"Can you check upstairs, too?" she asks when I return to her. "There should be other elves and other people that need our help."

"What will you do for me in return?"

She looks around the room, surprised by the question.

"Well, if there are other dark elves here, they might kill me," she replies. "And I'm your only source of information right now. So that would be bad."

I sigh, fire exhaling from my form. She ducks out of the way of the flame, but it still partially scorches her.

The creature looks at me in confusion.

"You burned me," she says.

I say nothing.

"Why didn't it hurt me when you burned me?"

"I don't know," I reply simply.

I have no time for frivolous questions.

"I will check the other floors of this ‘tower' for you," I say, deciding I have nothing else worth doing.

"Thank you."

She is still detaching prisoners delicately from the device that connects them. There's something eerily beautiful about the way her body moves, and I find myself intrigued by her.

I find no signs of the portal that brought me here on the floor above us. As I ascend the stone incline beyond that floor, I can immediately notice a similar chill.

And as I reach the highest floor, I note several holes in the wall, like the hole I exited earlier. Only these seem much less intentional.

Several cells line the walls, too, but they all seem to have been blown open.

There are no other creatures here, ‘dark elves' or otherwise.

"That's impossible," she says upon my return as she detaches the final prisoner. "I heard them earlier. They have to be here."

"You can check for yourself if you like."

She shakes her head. "I believe you," she says.

She comforts the prisoners, talking to them and making sure they're going to be okay.

Something about the display entices me. Mere moments ago, she was terrified, almost unable to speak. Now, she offers strength to those who cannot help themselves and who feel the same fear.

What is this feeling?

We return to the exit on the bottom floor, and she stares out at the world beyond this one. She hesitates.

"Well, thank you for your help," she tells me. "I guess I need to be going."

Rage fills my mind as she walks away. She would seriously ignore her promises after I made the effort of helping her?

I grab her, freezing her body in place with my mind. The fear I sensed earlier returns.

"Did you forget our deal?" I ask. "I'm not leaving you until you give me the answers I need."