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Note: Memories of a Lord is, put simply, how I would do the Meridell plot.
Not that the Neopets Team is doing it wrong, but it's just fun to go out and
give it a shot. This is a sequel to Memories of a Lord: Darigan's Awakening
and Memories of a Lord: The Siege of Meri Acres.
There was nothing but darkness surrounding him, nothing
to see but a stretch of sweeping blackness. His ears, the slender and sensitive
known only to a Korbat, could hear not but his own breaths echoing along the
cement walls of the cell.
Every muscle of his ached, every bone wracked
with pain. Sedated and dragged across the planes of Meridell. Claimed as a naysayer
to the army, no doubt, and detained without trial in the deep of Meridell Castle.
The injustice of it all welled up inside him. They thought he was a villain!
Are they wrong?
Those words pierced through his head, causing
him to flinch. Of all the times, this would be the worst to harp on about the
issues of his past. He had discovered through an eavesdropped conversation that
he was Lord Darigan. He had awoken in a canyon, unconscious, and moved to Meridell,
where the infamous Lord Kass had unintentionally informed him that he was Lord
Darigan. It had been the farmland of Meri Acres where Master Vex, intent on
finding the fallen lord before Kass could, had not believed the pleas that he
was Darigan and ordered him be taken to Meridell Castle. They must've made the
journey rough, though, or else he wouldn't be wracked with this pain he was
at that moment.
But that was the simple truth of how he had gotten
to where he was. He hadn't even the memory of his name; the name Shard fit,
he thought.
Light! Glorious light penetrated the darkness,
casting light upon the dungeon. It was no more than Shard had supposed it to
be; stone walls were on every side, adorned with grime and missing pieces. Shard
tilted his head to see the source of the light, and came close to gasping when
he did. A Draik, scarlet-maned, azure-scaled, and fire-eyed, sat against the
far wall. A steady stream of orange flames curled down from his nostrils, illuminating
the cell. As soon as the fire had appeared, it stopped, plunging the room back
into the darkness.
Shard was left to gape in the blackness. He opened
his mouth to speak, but silence came. He swallowed, tried to control the quaver,
and said, "Who are you?"
No answer; the Draik stayed quiet for nearly
a full minute. At last, his breathing changed, and he cleared his mouth to speak.
"They call me Valrigard. Called me, rather. I haven't been called by my name
by anyone but myself for months." The Draik paused. Shard didn't know what to
say; he remained silent as he waited for the Draik to continue. And from the
darkness, the Draik's voice came. "Miles above this dungeon is a layer of solid
stone. No sound can penetrate that rock. No sound. Silence. It's the silence
that breaks you, eventually. Talking aloud to no one is the only way to spare
your mind, they say. But the darkness... the darkness steals your voice. The
solitary sense of being alone, without any light or company. Those fools...
they didn't take into account my flames, did they? With flames, I have light.
With light, I have my voice. With my voice... I have my sanity."
The last words came out as a whisper, barely
audible. This Draik's mad, Shard thought. But he's my only hope for
escape. To do that, he'd have to gain his trust.
"How did you get here?" Shard inquired, adding
as much of a casual tone to the question as he could.
The Draik didn't answer. Total quiet was all
that Shard could sense, but then sounds of the Draik rustling could be heard,
perhaps even him standing up. "It was the peak days of the Meridell War, when
fighting had been going on for a long time, and fighting would for continue
for the same. The planes of this land were plagued with beasts, scaled, mutated,
and as vicious as they come. To know of Meridell's defeat would not have been
a premonition. It was all to clear. That didn't dampen our hopes, however. Darigan
made a proposition to all Meridellian warriors of the rewards they'd receive
if they'd change sides to Meridell. The traitors were fools to believe such
a thing, which is why I stool firm with my decision. Darigan's army was given
the same proposition, only this time, from Meridellian officials." Genuine anger
rose in Valrigard's voice. He seem disgusted by the whole traitorous ordeal.
"Suffice to say, the minions of Lord Darigan who switched weren't treated the
same as us loyal soldiers. And traitors who were taken prisoner were given crueler
sentences than the ones who had remained loyal to Darigan throughout the war.
That's how it came to be when my sword slipped, and an ally of mine was slightly
injured, causing them to succumb to their Drackonack combatant. Without even
being given the chance to give my defense, I was named as a traitor, cornered,
and detained here in the dungeon."
A sudden burst of frames illumined the room again,
and Valrigard's gaunt face peered back at Shard. It appeared as if he wanted
to get a strong look at Shard before stemming the flow of fire from his snout
and vanishing.
Shard cleared his throat. He opened his mouth
to say something, when he was thrown against the side of the dungeon wall. Valrigard
must've been wrong about the cell being soundproof, because frightened shouts
penetrated the stone ceiling. Valrigard's light returned, revealing a large
crack that seemed to perforate the ceiling.
"What's happening?" a faint shout from above
sounded.
Valrigard's face, ashen from the shock, began
to turn back to its regular blue as a smile curved across his face. "Korbat.
That crack should be wide enough for us to escape. Shall we?" he asked.
"My wings are useless. I wouldn't be able to
reach the ceiling let alone fly through," Shard replied.
The Draik hastily nodded. "You'd better bite
down onto my tail, then, because we're getting out of here." He hopped into
the air, clumsily beating his wings; he was out of practice, Shard could see.
Nevertheless, the Korbat crawled over and fastened his mouth around his spiked
tail.
The rush! Valrigard, apparently not wanting to
waste any time, shot up through the crevice at an unbelievable speed! He's
not lacking as much practice as I thought. Despite the speed, though, Meridell
was still miles above. There wasn't any light coming from above, and Shard couldn't
have been unconscious for--
They soared out of the crevasse into a darkened
castle that was illumined by nothing save for the moon's feeble glow drifting
through the stained glass windows. The crevice extended the length of the hall,
which was saying something indeed, as the hall would probably take a full thirty
seconds to cross.
Shard was gently returned to the ground by Valrigard.
His feet touched down on the marble floor, only inches from the chasm. "Any
idea as to how this could've happened?" Shard inquired, staring into the depths.
"I can remember a time," Valrigard mused, "when
I had to opportunity to converse with one of the castle's architects. It was
when the ballroom was being built, I believe. He told me of how the castle was
centuries old, but not nearly as old as the marble-floored rooms. This marble
beneath us is older than all the inhabitants of the castle combines, so it isn't
surprised it broke. I suppose it would take something rather large crashing
to the ground to cause it to break."
Immediately Kass' Citadel came to mind. An image
of the great stone fortress plummeting to the ground, crumbling into black dust
flitted through Shard's mind. Imagination, he could tell, not memory. So why
did that disappoint him?
"If we were smart, we'd leave. The sentries abandoned
their post to observe what happened, but we don't know if they'll be sent back,"
he murmured.
Shard raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that
sentries guard this hall?"
The water-scaled Draik turned, a ghostly smirk
appearing on his face. "You'd best follow me than ask silly questions that could
put you in dangerous situations." He ran down the hall, leaving Shard only to
ponder his answer before running after him.
The corridor twisted into other ones, and they
led to more yet. Shard stumbled through the darkness after him. Running was
not a Korbat's friend, especially with feet that small and awkward wings offsetting
their balance. Shard had no options but trusting Valrigard was taking him out.
His knowledge of the castle was immense, but suspicious nevertheless. If the
Draik was in his right mind, he was playing a far too cruel joke by pretending
to be otherwise. And if he wasn't... Valrigard was his only hope, dangerous
or not.
Valrigard pushed open a door to reveal an antechamber,
adorned with banners symbolizing victories for Meridell. He flew the last several
steps, while Shard followed across the maroon carpet. The large double-doors
burst open at Valrigard's push.
Winter's chill nipped at Shard's ears as he and
the Draik exited the castle. A sea of stars blanketed the velveteen sky above
them. Drifts of snow were scattered across the Meridellian plane, and provided
to only variation besides the tree-line off in the distance.
Snippets of conversations caught the Korbat's
ears, each of them carrying the same sense of fright and worry. Shard and Valrigard
followed them. He rounded the castle's wide corner, half-expecting to find the
Citadel ruins along the grass. They gasped. Meridell Castle, easily the tallest
structure in the country, had been attacked. An entire turret was left in ruins,
leaving crumbled cobblestones and the mess about. The damage could've easily
been worse, Shard could see, but it wasn't enough to put the rest of the castle
in any danger. So why did that disappoint Shard?
He two approached the throng of pets inspecting
the damage. Guards, lords, peasants, and the like, had crowded around.
"What happened?" asked an Elephante, her simple
wool dress frayed at the edges.
An armoured Draik guard, his firebrick face marred
with age, said, "A Nova. It fell from the heavens above, and destroyed the turret
I was guarding. It was only with pure luck that I noticed it and was able to
forsake my post."
Shard turned to Valrigard, and said in a whisper,
"How could a Nova hit the castle?" He was sure to keep his voice low; he didn't
want to be discovered.
The Draik laughed, much louder than Shard had
expected. "Illusen might've been practicing some spell, or some foolish battlers
might've been practicing too close to the castle. I wouldn't put it past Kass
to attack the castle from his Citadel either." Valrigard laughed even louder.
Shard failed to see the joke.
"You, there!" yelled a voice from the throng.
The Green Knight, a high-ranking Chia in the Meridell army, pointed to the two.
"I locked you up this afternoon with him! Escaped prisoners! They escaped!"
Heads of the crowd turned, their eyes fixed on the Korbat and the Draik.
Valrigard let out a silent laugh. "Well, Korbat.
You've been a fine accomplice, I must say, but I fear our friendship must come
to a sudden end. Not that you haven't served your purpose. I don't doubt the
Nova was linked with your appearance. Maybe our paths will cross again, one
day?" Valrigard said, his voice gaining a connotation of arrogance. He turned,
bounded into the air, and soared off over the distant line of trees.
"You'd better hope they don't," Shard threatened
under his breath. He turned to the charging guards, each of them armed with
a pike and a grimace of determination. Shard turned to flee, but stumbled far
too easily, landing in one of the sparse drifts of snow. He forced himself to
his feet and batted his wings, bracing himself. The pain struck him with unbelievable
force; his screams rang out into the night. His mind knew nothing but pain.
His vision burned with invisible flames. He fell to the ground once more, barely
clinging to consciousness.
The crowd, a mass of coloured blurs, was only
a few steps away from him, he realized. Suddenly, they stopped. A voice, indistinguishable
between male and female, droned on in slurs to Shard's swimming mind. A bright
flash of light, and the crowd fled.
It was several minutes before Shard could stand
up, and another few before he could walk. Whoever had saved him had left before
he could thank them. He stumbled across the plane to a haystack, looking quite
solitary in the middle of the steppe. To Shard's weary delight, the two large
Lemon Squashes were sitting next to it. Midnight picnickers, he supposed; he
had barely given them any thought before wolfing them down.
Yawning, he climbed up onto the stack. His eyelids
became lead and his head became stone. He drifted off into the first real sleep
he'd had in far too long.
The End
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