Sorcerer's Destruction

[Morty]

"Don't worry, I'm not an enemy." he said. "We have to go quickly. I put the guards to sleep but they won't be out for long. Please don't kill them like you did the last one." he sighed, waving for them to follow. Nive noticed that their footsteps made no sound, not even to her sharp ears. She followed warily, disc held between herself and the strange, scruffy wizard, keeping her eyes peeled for signs of a trap.
Vitaly led them onwards, past sleeping guards and through siderooms, going ever deeper into the hollowed-out mountain. Nive was rather glad they had decided to led the wizard guide them now; she wasn't sure they're have been able to find their way alone.
At one point he ducked into a sideroom without notice, and Nive was sure this was the trap, so she charged in after him, just in time to see him throw a cloth over a lumpy, dry-sounding object, about as long as her arm. He wound the cloth around it several times before tucking it away into his cloak.
"Hey! What's in the cloth." she barked, her voice echoing around the vast stone room, with a pillar on which the object had stood, and huge, rusty shackles bolted to the ground. Her disc whirred threateningly at his throat.
"An evil thing. It doesn't belong here." he said calmly, and walked past her, leading them on their way. Nive followed grudgingly, letting her hand fall to her side.
It wasn't long before they came to a stop in front of a great iron door, the kind that wouldn't look out of place on a blast furnace. It was here that the thrumming noise was coming from. Vitaly pointed. "Through there. Forgive me for what you might find." he said solemnly, showing them towards the door.

[darkdragon]

"Through there. Forgive me for what you might find." Those words sent an ominous tingle down Shyla's spine, but she ignored it and pushed open the door. They swung in easily, and she gasped. There were about 20 dragons in there, brutally tortured and battered, lying in cages, starved like pathetic animals. She would have burst into tears if she wasn't so focused on finding her adopted father. Shyla ran down the long stone corridor, and she spotted the familiar white scaled figure, lying limp and motionless in the far right hand corner. "Shiran!" she cried, dashing towards the dragon she had loved for all of her life. He had taken care of them like a father, and she would never forget what he did for them. Shiran didn't move when she called his name. Shaking with fright, Shyla unlocked the giant cage and dashed inside. Good, he was breathing... He was sleeping. She collapsed to her knees and sobbed with relief.

[Morty]

Nive stood motionless, her face a mask of shock. She took a step towards to where her sister and Shiran where, hesitant. The sudden presence of a hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her shock and she whirled, growling.
"Sorry." said Vitaly, withdrawing his hand. "I'm sorry you had to see all this..."
"Can you help us get him out?" she asked, looking sidelong to where the old white dragon lay, nearly comatose from exhaustion. Vitaly nodded.
"This was once an old mine. There should be mineshafts large enough for a dragon in the lower levels.. Be warned, what you've seen here is only the tip of the iceberg." he said. Nive lowered her head, biting her lip to stop it from trembling.
"As long as we can get our father out. Let's go." she strode over to Shyla and Shiran and knelt by the dragon, hugging his neck. "We have to go, Shyla." she said shakily, her voice cracking. Her ears pricked suddenly, dragging noises echoing down from the upper levels, followed by a tremendous roar.
"This way!" said Vitaly urgently, dragging open the bay doors that led to the mines. "Hurry!"

[darkdragon]

"But...What about Shiran?" Shyla asked, drying her eyes with the back of her hand. "We can't just leave him here like this, after spending so much time locating him." she said, panic rising in her voice. Was the male trying to get her to leave without her adopted father? She didn't care that there was a roaring noise from somewhere within those mines. "We're not leaving any dragon here. No dragon deserves the fate they're going to get by staying here."

[Morty]

"Stand back, Shy." said Nive, advancing, her disc expanding to overlap her clenched knuckles. She raised the disc, whirring, above her head, and dashed it against Shiran's chains, until they lay in two smoking halves, red-hot from friction. "There." she panted savagely, the disc's whirring slowing to a stop as it receded to the size of a pea once more. "We'll have to carry him." she hazarded, picking up one of the dragon's wasted paws. The fact that he had not eaten in weeks now benefited their cause, thought Nive grimly, as she tried to haul him forward, but her strength alone was not enough. "Help me, Shy!" she cried, throwing all her pitiful weight into her struggle with the dragon's paw. The dragon barely budged. "Grab his other hand-- you can freeze the path in front, to reduce the friction!" she said, drawing inspiration from her bout with the chains. Vitaly beckoned them urgently. He set about shutting the great blast furnace door behind them, to impede the ones above whose racket had made their presence known. The main body of dragonslayers had returned, and with a fresh prize, judging by the furious roars. No doubt they will have found the guards. thought Vitaly. No doubt Wormheart had known where he would go when they parted ways on the ridge but a few hours ago. What troubled Vitaly was that this had not troubled Wormheart. He must have known he was familiar with this place; after all, he had provided the enchantments for it. Why, knowing this, he would let him go unhindered, was a mystery to him. Was Vitaly not a threat? These troubling thoughts passed through his head as he hurried about, closing the door through which they had entered and replacing the enchantments on it. He felt for the bundle inside his cloack pocket. Good, it was still there. It was not only the children for whom he had come. It was something he should have taken care of a long time ago. He grimaced, and turned back to the children, itching to be away.

[darkdragon]

Shyla stood up, wiping away her tears. She used her powers to do as Nive asked, freezing a path in front of them, in between the two blast doors. The sounds of the dragonslayers above caused her to panic, but together she and Nive managed to tug Shiran behind the blast doors, and then watched as the man continued to shut them. The voices were getting steadily closer, but the blast doors would've been closed by then. She turned and looked ahead, into the abandoned mine tunnels ahead of them that were used as transport. It looked dark and dank, but not in danger of collapsing. "We should get moving." Shyla said, forgeting her tears.

[Morty]

"Yes, we do not want to be near when they discover their goods are missing." said Vitaly, summoning a mage light that hovered a few paces ahead of him.
Nive dropped Shiran's paw and wiped her brow of sweat. "Now where exactly are we going, wizard?" she panted, looking around at the blank walls of the tunnel. The air was stale down here.
"There is a lift, if I remember, at the next left turn... Then it's down, through the deep tunnels, and out through the auxiliary exit.."
Nive looked at her sister dubiously. "What did you mean when you said this was just the tip of the iceberg?" she inquired.
"This place was made with many traps. Not all of them are inanimate. Just stay behind me and it should be fine." he said, waving for them to follow.

[darkdragon]

Shyla snorted at the wizard's words, some of her scorn coming back. "Me and my sister are well aquainted with traps of all sorts, wizard. It's in our line of work." she said, not mentioning that she and Nive were both assassins. They had been responsible for most mysterious deaths surrounding officials associated with dragons, and Shyla did not need someone who knew their faces and names to connect the dots and blab. She would silence him if he got word out, no matter what. She used her magic to make another ice slide, expanding it slowly as the party moved down the dark tunnel. "Might want to walk on the ice path, wizard. There's a false floor right ahead." Shyla said, pointing ahead at a patch of ground. She created the ice path mere inches off of the false ground, frozen solid but firm.

[Morty]

"I understand. Still, I can assure you I am the best equipped for dealing with traps of a magical nature. I'd know, I oversaw their making. " said Vitaly simply, leaping lightly over the trap floor, and stopping two pillars of earth from crushing him as he alighted on the other side. "We're almost there." he said, pointing to a fork in the paths. Nive kept advancing cautiously, puffing under the burden of the emaciated dragon. They turned left at the road and amost immediately came upon a huge square scaffold; an elevator with a lift large enough to accomodate even a very large dragon.

[darkdragon]

Shyla eased Shiran onto the lift, breathing a sigh of relief as the dragon was safely deposited onto the metal lift. She did not trust the wizard, but still, he was helping them escape with their adopted father, one they had been searching for a long time. Suddenly, the great dragon stirred and opened one of his deep burgandy eyes. "Shiran!" Shyla called, immediately crouching next to her adopted father, tears coming to her eyes again. "Shyla? Is that you? Or am I just dreaming again?" the dragon said in his deep, gentle voice. Shyla nodded and wrapped her arms around Shiran's head, crying again. "It's me, I'm really here! And so is Nive, father! See?" she said, pointing to her sister. The lift was carrying them upwards.

[Morty]

"I'm here." Nive said, kneeling next to Shya, her cheek pressed against the injured dragon's clawed hand. "Rest, father. We're going to bring you home." she said, trying not to betray her voice to the childlike sob rising in her throat.
"Don't let your guards down." Vitaly warned quietly, his eyes politely turned away from the scene. His hand hovered over the break lever. The lift continued to fall through the darkness, scenes of barely-illuminated horror flying past them, similar to the one they had just left, with creatures chained in darkness, some already unmoving and hollow. Vitaly let his magelight dim so that the sights were obscured for him. Luckily, the children were distracted by their emotion. He was regretful to have let them see what they had seen.

[Kauria]

Haleth alighted on the rim of the crater, shifting seamlessly into his human form even as he slid down the rocky curve. He slowed at the bottom, uncharacteristic cautiousness prompted by some unfamiliar sense.
And probably also by the body in the bushes.
Either someone had forgotten to tell him something again, or something was wrong.
Haleth shrugged and stood. That was enough carefulness for the day.
He strode into the clearing, ignored the newly-posted dragonslayer guards, and faced the massive black door.
The warlock lifted his right hand, palm skywards, and smiled to feel the sting of magic at his fingertips.