Four Lines
| Four Lines | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 17 October 2012 |
| Location: | Hollow Bastion |
| Synopsis: | Still brooding in Hollow Bastion, Riku is harassed by Diablo and the two sneak into one of Maleficent's laboratories. Hilarity and plot development ensues. (A part of 'Bitter Welcome' scene series-- towards the middle/end) |
| Cast of Characters: | Riku, Diablo (NPC) |
Wednesday, October 17th—Afternoon
Water trickled down the smooth side of a stalactite to fall from a great height into the pool below. Light was completely absent from this ancient cavern, a large and silent pool consuming most of the space save for a terrace of difficult ‘steps’ laid in a long spiral forming the perimeter.
Riku sat on the very last step staring at the crystal embedded in the pool which trailed a path to the surface where it bloomed into a dark platform with crystalline ‘petals’ curled up at the edges to surround a figure laying on a raised dais in the center. He always thought the whole thing was a little creepy, like the black rose platform was going to come to life and gobble her up at any moment. The fact that there were no heartless here didn’t make him feel any better. Riku stared across the platform where Kairi lay locked in crystal while the rest of her was lost to the universe, in any of a thousand or million stars populating the heavens. At least that was true if the sorceress wasn’t lying again.
He had rested his hopes on Sora. On him somehow finding her, effortlessly stumbling when he could not even find so much as a trace. What was even left to find? The cheerful younger boy who’d been his friend did not quite match up with the rumors he had been hearing, yet he had been afraid to verify them. Now he supposed it was up to him. Perhaps it always had been. Riku sighed as a flutter of wings announced the presence of Diablo, the raven landing two steps up to peer down at him. This time words came along with the scolding squawk.
[I thought I’d find you sulking down here.]
The teenager startles, looking at the raven whose head has tilted to one side. Diablo looked at him sidelong with one beady eye. Riku pulls up one leg, resting a hand on his knee. “You talk.” He throws up a hand in disgust. “Of course you talk. Why wouldn’t you. Magic.” The last word is ground out like a curse. “So. Why can I hear you now?”
Diablo hops down so that only one large and unwieldy spiral step separates them.
[Mistress said to keep an eye on you.]
“Did she now.” Riku narrowed his eyes at the raven, disappearing from the cavern and reappearing somewhere else in the massive expanse of Hollow Bastion. He’s only left alone a few minutes as he moves towards the grand library when he finds Diablo waiting for him around the corner, sitting on a suit of armor.
[That’s not going to work. No matter where you jump, even if I can’t do it myself, I’ll find you eventually. Mistress bound me to this task and I don’t fail the mistress like you do.]
Riku snorts. “Go stuff yourself, Dee.” and displaces to another part of the castle. This turns out to be a less than wise idea as the afternoon light was dazzling in this outdoor location. He spent a few minutes adjusting to the now staggering brightness. He wasn’t surprised when Diablo caught up with him again and ignored the raven as he leaned over the ramparts looking out at the Rising Falls. Diablo perched on one of the ramparts, giving Riku a grumpy chirp as he also looked over the vista.
[Humans. Always so eager to take the shortcuts when the long path will get you there anyways.]
An angry silence continued for a few minutes before Riku’s curiosity gets the better of him. “What?”
[Mistress gave you a task. Find all the ones she wants found and in return, she’ll wake up the girl. ]
Riku snorts, leaning his elbows on the cold stone. “Don’t tell me you actually believe that, Dee.”
Now it is Diablo’s turn to look curious and confused.
[What do you mean? Mistress has always kept her word to me.]
Riku shakes his head. “She likes you. That’s pretty bizarre because otherwise I don’t think it would be possible for her to like anyone. She’s not going to keep her promise, Dee. When I get done with this, I will be given something else to do and something after that.” The raven shuffles their feet, lifting one foot and then the other and looking somewhat disturbed.
[What does that matter? You will be of use to the mistress. That is better than being destroyed. Also better than becoming a mindless thing. If you do not serve the mistress, that is what she tells me will happen to you. ]
Riku looks over at Diablo. He isn’t able to tell if the raven is threatening him or pleading with him. Everything he ‘hears’ from the raven has the absolute ring of certainty to it. If the raven was lying, he was very good at it. Maybe the familiar simply had perfect and unassailable faith in his mistress.
“She’ll cast that spell either way. Complete whatever she’s done when she’s done using me. What does she even need these people for? Why gather them together?”
Diablo shuffles and looks uncomfortable, feathers ruffling and wings flapping several times before resettling.
[What spell?]
Riku figures he isn’t going to get an answer to those later questions but feels like his blood is starting to freeze solid at the honest confusion from the raven and their unexpected question. Obviously the familiar was just trying to continue his mistresses’ earlier taunts.
“You know what I mean. It’s your mistress who made me like this so I’d be useful to her while about on her business. I suppose when I am not useful anymore I’ll-“
[No.] interrupts the familiar with a squeak, his language becoming fractured with his agitation. [Is no spell. Is] “I am not a shadow.” Riku finds himself shouting, the raven dancing backwards out of reach. He points to the heartless lurking in a seething tide through the courtyards and about the castle. “How can I be like them? It’s not possible unless it’s some sort of spell and Maleficent is the only sorceress I know. Who else could it be?”
[Book.]
Diablo has to repeat himself several times to cut across Riku’s ranting. Eventually the teenager calms down just enough to glare at the raven. “What book?” his voice almost a growl as the raven glares back at Riku, feathers puffed up and wings raised.
[Stupid boy. Stupid Riku. I can show you book. I know Mistress. There are no spells to turn people into shadow people. Why would Mistress bother with heartless if could just use spell?]
The ice reaches his heart, his thoughts seizing and rage chilled as Riku listens again to that absolute certainty. He had to see it for himself. He had to know. “Show me.” The teenager extends his hand, the raven grumbling and clicking as he climbs up to Riku’s shoulder.
=
This part of the castle Riku hadn’t seen before. There was another set of runes carved into the entranceway and Diablo warned him not to enter before he had been told to. So he waited outside while the raven familiar fluttered onto a table cluttered with magical paraphernalia. A swirling crystal globe of mist sat with potion bottles and drying plants and bottles of things best left indescribable. Diablo nudged a trio of small figurines out of alignment, a feeling of pressure that causes Riku’s ears to pop passing through him before the raven calls for him to enter.
Doubt starts to creep back into his mind as he looks around at the sorcerous laboratory. The raven could be telling him anything and he knew so little about magic he could never know whether it was true or not. The sorceress could even be lying to her familiar. Riku found only a little comfort in trying to convince himself of this when they came upon a giant black book being propped up on a stand. It was also clamped shut by thick thornvines and distinctly unhappy about it, twitching and shuddering on the stand.
Riku swallowed. “Why is it doing that?” Diablo let out a little squawking laugh in response.
[Magic book does not like being contained. Still want to read it? It may only try to eat your hand.]
“You could be lying. Maleficent could have a hundred books, or a thousand or none at all. This is just another trick.” Diablo clicks several times, a sort of negligent avian version of ‘tsk tsk’
[Go back. Maybe it is better.]
Riku stands there for a long minute, staring around at the surroundings and the thrashing book until Diablo prompts him again.
[You will not like it if Mistress catches you here.]
Riku approaches the book slowly. The thornvines shrank back as Diablo attacked them, gnawing on the thick vines and then fluttering to get out of range of the book that slammed open with a jarring ‘thud’ that sounded far too loud in this small space. The pages rustled fitfully and Riku noticed the edges of the leather binding were serrated and entirely too much like teeth. He picked up a candle snuffer from the table, flipping it around and using the long piece of metal to turn the pages experimentally. As expected the book slammed shut on what it believed was a tasty target—but when the strike appears to miss, it reopens again with a rustling noise that sounded vaguely frustrated.
Diablo sat on a comfortable perch set up behind the book, peering at the pages occasionally as Riku turned them. It was written in a flowing and only marginally comprehensible script with strange and terrifying illustrations scrawled across the pages. The familiar answered his questions but after the first two, which were nauseatingly straight forwards and delivered with obvious glee, he stopped asking.
Riku stopped turning pages when he recognized one of the pictures. It was a distorted image of a black rose, the petals turned upwards like a cage to contain something within. Diablo looks at the script on the pages then back to Riku.
“What is this?”
Diablo looks at the script then back to Riku, shuffling on the perch.
[..is a spell.]
Riku glares at the raven but Diablo doesn’t seem to be more forthcoming than that. “What kind of spell?”
[Is a real spell and not shadow people spell because spell is not there. Mistress will notice if room is not locked up again.]
Riku’s glare is cut by something like panic and a little more like desperation. He takes in a deep breath, steadying himself as he asks quietly. “Dee. Please?” the raven just stares at him, low on the perch with feathers ruffled up. He looks down at the book and grumbles.
[Is ‘A sound which calls back the lost’ spell. Mistress uses spell to wake up girl once Riku is done finding the ones she wants found.]
“Still holding to that line huh?” Riku snorts faintly but Diablo doesn’t respond. He tries to decipher what the spell says but can’t make anything out. “How does she read this? It’s just—“ he pauses, and then glares at Diablo. “Dee.”
[What?] is the not so innocent reply.
“Fix it.”
Riku continues to glare at Diablo until the raven laughs softly to himself. [Maybe boy not as stupid as Mistress thinks sometimes.] and with that backhanded compliment, leans down and bites into the spine of the book. Something screams causing Riku to jump backwards from the book in surprise. A curl of smoke rises and when it clears, the writing is weathered but easily legible. The teenager peers at the spell, following the scrawl of text that surrounds the familiar picture. It had been condensed down to four simple lines. Riku looks up at the raven. “That’s it?”
This prompts another laugh from the familiar.
[Magic is wanting and taking. Real magic like Mistress’s not need many words, if any at all.]
Four lines.
A rose to keep the sleeping lost.
A shard to light the path.
An echo to course round the void.
A thorn to seal the way.
Riku reads and re-reads the lines, each with their own picture. The black rose platform. A distorted image that may be a keyhole. A highly stylized tattoo that vaguely looks like one of the heartless, but not quite—and a twisted thornvine, like several the sorceress grows in her gardens. He engraves each to memory and continues to turn pages. His attention and will to continue drains with every page. The last pages turn, and he taps the book with a finger and tricks it into closing on thin air again. “..Let’s go, Dee. Before I get caught.”
He uses the candle snuffer to pick up the thorn vines, dropping them onto the book which thrashes and heaves as they curl around it again. [You don’t want to keep looking for shadow people spell? This is only one book.] Riku pauses, his own words turned again them, and finally shakes his head. “No. It’s not important anyways.. but thank you.” Diablo hops onto the table, waiting until Riku has left to nose the figurines back into position.
Riku stares back into the laboratory as Diablo comes back out and settles down on his shoulder. “I’m going to go practice, Dee.” He says abstractly, not really expecting a response. “I’ve… got a lot to think about.” Diablo makes a low ‘churrr’ of smug contentment as Riku turns away and makes his way back through the castle.
