Character Notes: Tor Audio (Patreon)

Obstructionum 2:

"Once a vision, only dreams, 

In eyes darkened, and pulse rushed, 

Voice without thought, high decrees, 

Till unchecked greed: fevered schemes, 

Wonders, but with worries hushed, 

Of fear, of fire that can't freeze, 

But gold couldn't stop our screams."

A single light flickered sporadically in the center of the hall, hanging by only a few electrical chords, like fabric ready to tear in two, save for the final few strands. The white, pale light that extended from the failing fixture did not spread far, before it was engulfed by the empty blackness on all sides. The floor illuminated beneath looked as if it were a single rock, the only foothold, in a vast, silent lake on a night with no moon. Each flicker gave off a buzz, as if it were a fly which had exerted its last energy, and was fighting to escape. It was the only sound she could hear, save for the gasping of her breath, and the pounding of her heart.

The chaos, the explosions of noise, the wave of voices, had all vanished, and had she known otherwise, she may have thought that she was alone. She may have thought while she was lost, she was also safe. Perhaps for a moment, the silence convinced her. Had it stayed, so too would that belief. But the silence did not stay.

Somewhere behind her, lost in the abyss, came a faint noise, a drop of water, echoing off from the metal walls to either side. Then came another, quickly followed by even more, rhythmic in their succession, with such a force and ring behind each impact that they began to sound more and more like half a dozen knives being driven into the ceiling, and not at all like a calming rain.

The sound stopped, and as brief as it was, the silence that flooded back in to fill the emptiness took her, and carried her focus for what felt like hours, until but only a few seconds later, the low, grating growl came rebounding towards her. Then, the beast detached itself from where it had laid in waiting on the ceiling far above her, and struck the ground with such force that the floor threatened to give out below her, the alloys groaning in response.

The growl morphed into what could have been a disturbing laugh, and though her eyes could barely catch it, the shadows betrayed a massive shape, odd in its form, throwing itself across the ground, flying towards her at a speed that she could not dream to out pace.