Prologue: Part 3


Billy never really lost control.


***


Rocco landed so loudly and with such force that the rest of them in the hallway barely heard the crashing of the portcullis at the top of the stairwell; or the clanging of the portcullises that blocked two other exits in the chamber on either side of the mural; or the gears and chains that had were engaged somewhere behind the walls rotating the stairs and turning the stairwell into a 60 foot long 45 degree ramp of polished marble; or the sound of stone grinding against stone as the mural suddenly sank into the ground revealing a secret room behind it. 
What they could all hear quite clearly were the screams issuing forth from the formerly secret room, screams which caused them all a great deal of physical pain. 
Pain was not my idea; it was Gaea’s.  I just provide the raw materials.  She works out all the details.  To this day she insists a life without pain is not worth living and that such discipline alone is what teaches and elevates the races she places in the spaces she places them. I think our heroes would disagree but I have long since given up arguing with Mother Nature.  Instead, I simply insisted that if she is to use my stuff to build beings that suffer so she must also sew into their souls an equal capacity for pleasure.
She looked at me when I said this and asked, “Even the mortal ones?”
And I answered, “Of course!  Especially the mortal ones!”
She replied, “You think you’re helping them don’t you?”
And I answered, “Of course!”
And she replied, “You are cruel.  For if they learn of pleasure, they will desire.  And that will be the true root of all their suffering.”
I’m still thinking about that conversation.
Also causing great pain to Billy, Sammy, and Dudley, and Ar-Raguel behind them all, was the fact that they were sliding quickly, and some clumsily, down the former stairwell, now a slide, towards a fallen Rocco (and beyond him, the source of those ear-piercing screams).
Val was trapped on the other side of the portcullis upstairs in the mausoleum having been the only one to actually follow their original plan. 
If you want to make the Gods laugh, just tell us about your plans.
“Guys?”  Val impotently called out as he watched everyone slide away from him.  Sammy and then Ar-Raguel crashed into Rocco, who was just beginning to get back up but now again had his legs taken out from under him. 
Dudley, accustomed to all manners of threatening tunnels, controlled his slide better and landed fairly gently - for a dwarf - on the last step which he noticed had been pressed down several inches into the floor under Rocco’s great bulk – the trigger they were looking for.
Billy never really lost control. 
She slid on her feet the whole way down, hit the last step, noticed its odd position, and immediately rolled into a low defensive posture, sword drawn and lying in front of her, the bow and arrow back in her hands and pointed at the chamber of screams.  The roars issuing forth from it were possessed simultaneously of a seizure-inducing screech so high-pitched as to make one violently dizzy, and also of a low rumbling so deep that its vibrations made one nauseous and almost involuntarily defecate.  She shivered and her teeth chattered violently as she struggled against her body’s revulsion to the cacophony.  She was for the moment the only one capable of defending herself – of defending all of them. 
To her great relief, the shrieks reached a quick crescendo and sank to low growls. 
The relief was very short-lived however as she saw long shadows stirring in the newly exposed chamber. 
Rocco was finally getting to his feet, looking in her direction, his hands covering his ears.  “What the hell?” 
She raised the aim of her bow higher and screamed angrily at him, “The fruit of your labors!”  Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slowly as she caught a glimpse of the source of the disorienting bellows and screeches.  “Really big loud fruit.”  She whispered to no one.
And that’s when the torches all went out.


womp womp.



original clipart image @ http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/69800/69819/69819_portcullis.htm



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