by Marty Myers
“ Wait! Francis cried out. As the Dark Lady flew back deeper into the inky darkness and took off zigzagging before shooting straight into the northern skies. Most of the angels took off immediately in pursuit of her like shooting stars arching across the sky. Clarionides was amongst them. Apostaphus, Francis, Epiphanus, and Anthangelus remained behind though. “ I can not abandon my post here,” Epiphanus said while looking to the north. As much as I would like to be the one to end that great enemy of old I must stay.”
Another of the angels signaled for Apostaphus attention. Anthangelus was a tall studious looking angel who actually had some fine strands of silver at his temples. He said, “ I too must return to my post soon, however, I would speak to you Apotaphus before taking my leave. You are becoming a very polarizing figure amongst us angels,” he said. “ You must be careful in all you say and do from now on.” “ I am not amongst you Anthangelus,” he replied. “ For I have been cast out,” Apostaphus said sadly.
“ Nonetheless many are watching you and what is going on now. We of the lesser host see what is happening here and wonder why it is happening just as you do. Bahramel and the council are acting strangely. Some of us even now approach those in the Houses of the Lords of Light looking for answers to what is happening here. Stay true to the Light always and it shall embrace you brother.”
“ If needed call onto me,” he said as he looked at Francis. “know that I am barred from answering Apostaphus or Clarionides calls due to the ruling, but you have still been recognized as the saint you are and only a Lord of Light himself could say we are not to come if your aid should you call justly upon us.” So saying he shimmered until his form became one with the light which shot away in all directions. Seeing him leave this way Epiphanus said, “ he has always been a keeper of lore most of us have not managed to master. I do not believe anyone else outside of the greater host can travel thusly.”
“ Epiphanus we must leave you now, but I expect we will return, please watch over this land carefully. There is more to the forces of Darkness appearing here than there might seem.” Francis turned to Apostaphus and asked. “ Who is Llywelyn?” Apostaphus sighed and said, “ she was one of the first souls the Darkness currupted and then sacrificed to further his ambitions in creating his hordes of Dark Hosts to overwhelm us all and conquer all of this world. Come Francis we must go after Clarionides and the others before they get too far ahead of us.” He took hold of her and they took off after the other angels.
When they were air born he continued speaking. “ When the Lord Darkness first chose to compete against those of the Light he found his followers too few to stand alone and triumph. He resisted working together with the other Dark Lords that were around in that time. But Instead of yielding or cooperating he searched for more minions and made pacts with demonkind to bolster his minion’s numbers. But still, they fell short of his expectations.
So he searched again until he discovered a terrible ritual process wherein he could bind the souls of others into powering magical dungeons he created and imbue them with many dark and dire powers of their own. He entered into an uneasy peace for a time with the Light while he secretly plotted this treachery and bided his time. The dungeons he created would remain hidden beneath the earth in remote locations and steadily grow in power, number and prowess. Then when the time was right they would burst forth spilling out their uncountable hosts of vile creatures bred in their depths and he and his fallen generals and demons would lead them out onto the contested battlefields alongside their own dark dungeon masters.”
“ As to Llywelyn, when the Darkness first found demon kind he brought many of them to this realm to serve him, but some either broke free once they were here or followed those that were bound to our realm and began attacking our people to sate their own dark urges. Not all demons are the same, some commit untold carnage and death upon innocents while others prefer suffering or even to encourage the base desires of dark deeds to flourish in others and turn them from the Light by their own deeds. Each favors certain of these sins above others.”
“ In any event, after they had been coming to our realm for a while we found that half-breed demon spawn were sometimes being left to grow amongst the people here. Many of these spawn turned out to be much like the demonic invaders who sired them. But some of them learned restraint instead and fought to embrace their mortal kin and the ways of the Light. One of the first to do so was a woman named Llywelyn. She was no saint at the time, but she fought her baser desires and worked to live amongst her mother’s people and eventually grew up as a strong and beautiful woman.”
“ Unfortunately not all who followed the Light in our world thought it was right that some demon spawn were being allowed to live amongst the peoples. Even some of the clergy decried this and made it hard upon the few that had chosen to live like us. One night a group of these people found Llywelyn and her mother’s house and drug them out. They tied them both to a stake piled with kindling and set fire to them. No one else in their community was brave enough to try to rescue her or her mother from the mob. Her demonic heritage prevented her from burning up in the fire, but her mother was not spared this fate.”
“In desperation and to escape the mob Llywelyn embraced her demonic side and sprang out of the fire flying away on newly grown wings up into the night. She flew to the local church and begged for their help against the men who had assaulted her and her mother but was denied entrance by those inside who were frightened by her appearance. It was not long afterward that the Darkness found her and took her into the fold. She begged the Darkness to give her the power to get back at those who had wronged her and he agreed. They formed a demon pact and with his aid, she hunted down all those who had wronged her and anyone else she believed was complicit in her mother’s death.”
“ During this time the Angels clashed with her and she railed against them asking why they came now to intervene when before none had answered her and her mother’s cries in their own time of need. They said to her it was because now there was a demon attacking the mortals while before it was mortals destroying a demon. She has hated us with a passion ever since.”
“ When at last his half of the bargain was accomplished she gave herself fully to the Darkness as she had sworn to do. He experimented on her with the dungeon ritual. He kept his word and gave her great power, but at a great cost to her. She lost control of her physical body and was forever bound into the new dungeon deep beneath the mountain. He made her into his new stronghold, calling her the Dark Citadel from which the Lord Darkness ruled his northern kingdom for millennia. He even bound her to a mighty demon so that they might mate and sire a dungeon born horde of demon spawn to serve him.”
“ For a long time she threw herself into accomplishing the Dark’s clever schemes. She expanded her dungeon to many times the size deep under the mountain until she had filled it entirely and bred all sorts of minions to make an uncountable horde with which to conquer the peoples of the Realm and the overthrow Light. She even found that as unlikely as it was, the match the Darkness had made between her and the demon he bound her to suited them both and they raised up a remarkable number of children to fight for the Darkness’ cause.”
“ It is said that in time she and her mate even discovered that they could breed more pure dungeon souls by mingling their essence in a special way. They bred many of these souls which they gave to the Darkness as new seeds to secretly implant in the far-flung corners of the realm. These pure-souled dungeon seeds sped up the Darkness own scheme dramatically as using the dungeon ritual was a long and power hungry process that even he was loath to repeat too often. Instead, these baby dungeons would begin small and slowly grow into power themselves feeding upon death and dark essences in the realm around them until eventually maturing into fully functional full-sized dungeons to serve as outposts and footholds for the Lord of Darkness.”
“ Without him having to exert himself in their creation or growth the Darkness was able to apply himself t
o other endeavors. In addition, starting them out as babies the Darkness could more easily manipulate and warp their minds and talents just as he desired. In those days the Darkness often bound them to their demon siblings or to a favored minion who had pleased him. Many truly monstrous dungeons were spawned in those times when we knew nothing of their origins. Eventually, they were revealed and the truth of the process of breeding them was discovered.”
“ Determined to stop them a great Host of the Light attacked the Dark Citadel. During the heaviest fighting, Llywelyn lost her demon husband to a mighty war band that penetrated deep into her interior. This decided the second great war when he was slain alongside the Dark Prince whom he served in the final battle which ended that war.”
“ After the second Great War being dungeon born too fell under the bans and the Darkness could once more only use the original complex and costly ritual to create them. Thus Llywelyn is the mother of these monsters, The Dark Lady of the Citadel, the First Dungeon. She is one of the rare few among half-breed hellspawn that the full demons recognize as being their equal. She is recognized as a Queen of the Dark Host because she has managed to kill angels in combat. That is the story of Llywelyn.”
They flew on for a time while Francis thought about his story. After a while, Apostaphus broke the silence and said, “ I don’t understand what is going on here Francis. Having her involved with whats going on here somehow only makes the situation worse than I thought.” Francis was shaken by what Apostaphus had just told her. The imp they were looking for almost certainly served a greater master. Could he have been sent by this Llywelyn character? She didn’t know but she was determined to find out and to find Hank no matter what.
As Apostaphus had been explaining all this they had sped far across the skies trailing after the other angels as they pursued Llywellyn’s Dark form. They finally flew over the vast blasted icy northern plains spotting a few small nomadic tents amid the lonely rugged landscape and at last flew up to a snow covered mountain range. Here towering over every other mountain was a vast Black imposing mountain where almost no snow lay. Smoke billowed from its top where flickering firelight painted the belies of the black clouds red.
As they flew closer to the Mountain it became apparent just how big it really was. A high rocky black plateau stood off to one side of the volcano which they flew over to land upon. Here the ruins of a once mighty fortress jutted out from the mountain. Even as damaged as it was it still was intimidating to behold as it loomed over them with its broken towers and breached walls.
Francis looked up from here to see the mountain as it rose above the walls far above its neighboring mountains. “ That’s the Dark Citadel,” Francis said while staring at the menacing mountainside. “ How can Llywellyn’s dungeon be carved out inside of that? That is an active volcano,” she said. “ Doesn’t it erupt? Isn’t the inside full of lava?” Apostaphus tried spotting the other angels but they had apparently already found an entrance and went inside of the fortified mountain. “ Yes to all of your questions Francis,” Apostaphus said. “ Llywelyn has mastered the fires of the mountain long ago and tamed them to her demands.”
“ She is descended from demons and has amassed a host of them at her command as well. Their hellish realms are filled with terrain just like this and there they regularly inhabit volcanoes and volcanically active sites. Most of them are almost entirely immune to fire, heat, and fumes. They often mystically master the elements of fire and stone and some even air and build in their own realm by manipulating molten lava into shapes of their choosing before letting it cool and harden.”
“ Llywelyn has undoubtedly channeled the lava flows exactly how she wants them here and controls their flow completely. We will need to be very careful as many of her traps involve using the heat, fire, lava, steam or deadly built up gasses from the interior of the volcano to kill her enemies.” “ Thank you for your kind words detailing my hard work, but why try out my traps at all, when we can converse like civilized beings instead,” a soft voice spoke to them from nearby.
Francis spun around to see Llywelyn standing all but hidden within the shadow thrown by a rocky outcropping. “ What have you done with the other angels,” Apostaphus said. “ Not too much as of yet,” Llywelyn said. “ They have all rushed headlong into my mountain halls and scattered like brainless louts heedless of the danger and lacking the sensible caution you seem to have. They are almost all a bit lost in my mazes currently.”
Apostaphus drew forth his angelic blade but instead of fire, it appeared to be formed entirely of light this time driving off the shadows in which Llywelyn stood. “ See, I knew that you were much smarter than your brethren,” she said, “ But wait oh faithful servant of the Light and let us converse for as I said I would have civil words with thee and thine lady.” Francis laid a hand upon Apostaphus’ arm and he slowly lowered his sword. “ What is it you wish to speak of,” he grudgingly said.
Llywelyn drew upon the memories Hank had shared with her of Francis and his time together and strolled out from where she had stood and sauntered closer to the pair. “ It has been so very long since a woman has been allowed to enter the service of the Light in any position that many have begun whispering the Light no longer excepts the fairer half at all. They begin to distrust us womenfolk as unworthy of the Light and its grace and they persecute us for it, calling some of us witches and succubus in disguise if we displease them. They accuse the powerless without merit and the fires are once more alight in the nights burning those they drag from their midst to punish for our supposed sins. And I personally know what that is like.”
“ So I thought I would like to have a chance to speak to your lady fair to see how she comes to be so inordinately favored to be by your side. To spread the word of her origins and deeds across the realm. You see I would not wish more of our sisters to become disillusioned or to be harmed by those zealots so blinded by the Light that they claim to serve. Those villains behavior that your kind excuse so often and continue to let into your church.”
“ I thought instead this baseless rumor should be quashed since I know very well that the Light’s clerics still have washerwomen and cooks toiling away behind your places of worship. It is only positions of power or influence that they regularly deny to our sisters. They are happy enough to let us serve them in what they consider appropriate ways more fitting to our lowly menial selves.”
“ So you sweet young girl, from whence do you come into your new and lofty perch? Where you perhaps a washerwoman or scullery maid for the church or the nobility? No, you seem far too sure of yourself to have been beaten and cowed by years of the lash of servitude. Perhaps some minor nobles doted upon daughter? Hmm, you have the looks for it, but not the snobby aristocratic bearing or posture. Do tell me truly about your origins dear. It is for a good cause. After all the Darkness shouldn’t be the only one to accept women as equally as men.”
Francis was momentarily stunned by the woman’s words as she worked out all that they implied. She Looked over at Apostaphus who had an angry look upon his face. “ Llywelyn you must know we regret what happened to you all those years ago,” he said. But your words twist the truth of things to try to poison others to the Light which I can not abide.” “ Well then,” she said, “ if I have twisted the truth please feel free to untwist it then and name for your companion all those wise women in this wide world who hold positions in the church of Light equal to that of men?”
Apostaphus sighed and said, “ you know that I cannot. No angel, nor even the Lords of Light directly commands the churches or clerics. They choose their own leaders which I admit is currently bereft of ladies to my knowledge.” “ To say currently is I fear a bit of truth-twisting of your own Light One,” she said. “ That implies that this is just a recent development. I can not recall a time when women were ever equal in your church, you are an eternal, perhaps you can correct me with your longer recollection of how things were when you established the church. When was it that woman were
held in the same esteem in the church as men are?” Apostaphus could say nothing positive so he remained silent.
“ Since you can not defend the mortal’s church founded in your Lords name let us turn instead to the angels, their Heavens and the houses of Lords of Light where presumably you and your Lords do make the decisions. You may have noticed that all the angels are male. Have you perhaps shared with this young lady that she is almost entirely unique being only the second-ever woman to be sainted by the light? Dozens of saints you have had amongst the hosts and yet she is only the second woman ever to be so chosen. The Fallen Angels of the Darkness although far fewer in number have chosen nearly evenly split between choosing men and women for their companions, but not you and your brethren of the Light, only men are deemed worthy of that.”
“ In fact the only other time it happened that a woman was chosen, the angel had fallen in love with the woman and sainted her to keep her by his side. He was almost cast out over his choice as I recall. But his brethren finally relented and allowed him to stay amongst them despite it. I think it was because she was so easily cowed into doing whatever her supposed betters among the angels told her to do. Perhaps it is that you are in another such love match?”
“ I should also point out that there are only Lords of Light here in this realm, no Ladies of Light whatsoever.” “ Well, there are no Ladies of Darkness here either,” Apostaphus said interrupting her. “ True,” Llywelyn said, “ but once long ago there were females amongst the peerage of the Great Lords of Light and Darkness, but mysteriously none managed to make the journey to this realm or survive, all fell away or disappeared before your arrival here to this world.” Apostaphus was shocked. “ How how do you know that,” he said. “ The Darkness once confided in me that long ago, that before the division and dissent among the Lords he had a sister who disappeared from amongst them under mysterious circumstances and that his questioning of the other Lords about her disappearance was one of the reasons for the strife which led to the separation of the Lords of Light and Dark that we have today.”
