Story: Tales of Darkness - "Lady of the Night" (chapter 17)

Authors: Rhanar Narra-Jar

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Chapter 17

Title: Chapter XVII - A Gift from a Goddess?!

[Author's notes: WARNING:
Meeting with a deity!

Lady Illirian
The Black Banshee
The One-Eyed Goddess
Dark Goddess of the Dead
Queen of Nardar
Mistress of the Underworld]

“Of all the things I could forget...” Allisia mumbled angrily at herself as she walked down the stairs in her blue kimono; having forgotten her nightgown down in the dungeons, she was, although unknown to her, followed by the ever teasing Chinyi and Siriki, the two troublemakers smirking as they silently hissed about jokes they would pull on Allisia.

Taking the final steps down into the dungeon, Allisia headed straight for the pit, where her clothes lay by its side; however, as she picked them up, she felt that stone floor slightly colder at the exact spot she had placed her clothes in the first place.

“Hmm, what could this be?” Allisia thought, putting her gown aside and feeling; the air was as cold as a winter morning, and the shivering cut to her bones; however, the stone tile appeared to be a bit loose, as Allisia tried and rustle it a bit.


“Come...come hither to me...I bring thou new life; I bring thou power..." a cold, female voice now suddenly spoke as if from all over the room.

“Wh-who is this? Stand and fight, coward!” Allisia yelled out, a low chuckle now heard all over the dungeon, although it was milder and warmer than the fiendishly cold whisper she had heard.

“Fear not, warrior; just find me...and thou power shall become that from which legends are forged...” the voice spoke again, Allisia feeling the ice-cold air vanishing from the stone tile, her fingers warming up again.

“Bah! You take me for a fool? Such power always comes with double the price, in this case, it might well be my soul you want!” she yelled tauntingly out at the voice.


“That’s it; Allisia’s gone nuts!” Siriki smiled, Chinyi making a teasing gesture by rolling her finger around in circles near her head, her eyes looking to the ceiling.

“Heh, go figure; she’s talking to herself; maybe quitting all her honour-stuff has some side-effects...” Chinyi pondered, sounding a little concerned.

“Look, she’s fought in wars; I think she’s kinda strong mentally” Siriki pointed out, Chinyi nodding.


“Do not be foolish, warrior; you have faced the powers of darkness once in the form of Lady Narrisha, and how did the outcome turn out to affect you?” the voice asked Allisia, not waiting for a reply; “you saw through the black veil your training had blinded you with, cast your prejudices aside and found yourself a new friend; you gained more freedom than you could ever dream of as a Dragon Knight of Silvarcira; all I offer is a gift, a sort of reward, for this self-discovery you underwent.”

“So you intend to reward me? What sort of reward?” Allisia spoke, cursing herself for leaving her sword behind just now.

“Look under the tile; beneath lies an old relic my ‘dear’ brother Kun’Ja once had forged; however, I was smart enough to seize it for myself...” the voice now said, a hint of a chuckle in it; however, Allisia froze in fear, terrified as she realised who she was speaking to.

“I...I am speaking to Death Herself?? To the Dark Lady Illirian?!” Allisia asked in near panic, feeling herself shivering.

“Indeed you do, mortal, yet thou time, nor the time for these girls, have yet to come...” Illirian said, sounding amused; “...I have no power within these walls; neither I nor age can truly exist here; it is a sanctuary, in which the concept of time or space does not mean anything.”

“So...what is this relic you speak of?” Allisia asked, forcing herself to believe in the Dark Lady; as she slowly pulled the stone tile from the floor, she could not see anything in the darkness.

“It is Soul-Cleaver, the twin weapon of the Wraith-Blade; just as powerful, if not more” Illirian said, an evil chuckle coming over her voice; ”I grant you this weapon, Lady Knight, to bring justice upon all those with impurity in their hearts, and those who forsake the advice of my dear brother, Lord Tanrisa.”

Reaching carefully into the small hole under which the tile had sat, Allisia felt something cold and sharp touching her fingers; finally finding what felt as a hilt, she pulled out the weapon:

It was made of pure adamantine, and was silvered around the hand guard’s edges and in the blade’s middle, shin’saras letters running down the blade and glowing in an eerie, purple light of Dark Magic; the skull in the hand guard’s middle had the same, glowing eyes as Allisia had imagined for a relic of dark power, and the hilt of the sword were long enough to be held in two and a half hand, black leather trims swung around it like snakes and giving a good grip.

“For...for an item of Dark Magic...” Allisia said, surprised at how light the sword was; “...it surely is light...”

“Indeed; it is a blade which has seen many battles, and lived up to its name on thousands of occasions...” Illirian explained; “...all I ask of you, is to send these souls to me in Nardar, where their final judgement will be decided.”

“So I will only have to fight as I always have?” Allisia asked.

“Indeed, but a knight needs armour along with the weapon to make a whole” Illirian spoke; suddenly, in a flash of dark-purple light, Allisia saw a black and silvery fluid run out of the eyes of the skull, and in the next second, she felt somewhat heavier:

She were now clad in a heavy suit of adamantine armour with silvery steel trims around the edges, spiked skulls forming her shoulder plates and knee plates, while the rest of the armour basically formed a human skeleton; behind it flew a pitch-black cloak, its inside having a dark-purple colour rather than black.

“Both sword and armour? I thank thee for this, Dark Lady” Allisia said and kneeled down, although she was shocked as she heard her voice echo around the room; discovering her head to be inside a helmet, she easily took it off, examining it:

Made of adamantine and trimmed with silvery steel like the armour, it had small thorns running along the forehead, two larger ones at the mouth, and it basically were designed as a salade-form of helmet, although the ghastly face of a human skull meet her eyes, the eye sockets of the skull matching her own eyesight perfectly.

“For now, I shall bid you farewell, Lady Knight; may you choose the path of life you see yourself fit...” Illirian’s voice now disappeared, Allisia feeling the cold slowly wane away.


“Holy Heaven! You saw that, Siriki??” Chinyi whispered, pointing over and over at Allisia, standing not ten meters from them.

“Of course I did! Gods, she were just ‘blessed’ by Death Herself??” Siriki asked herself, going over her recorded video again and again for clues; however, the rattling of heavy armour brought her back to reality as Allisia walked up towards them, the stairs no challenge for the Warrior Girl.

“Well, well, well; two little pranksters on the prowl...” Allisia said, caressing the Soul-Cleaver’s blade, her echoing voice making the hair on Chinyi and Siriki’s necks hair stir; “...still, remember this, my little silly cuties...”

Allisia now leaned slightly down, holding the Soul-Cleaver’s blade downwards, hammering it into the stone floor and removed her helmet, smiling at the girls; “...my new armour might be awe-inspiring and cruel-looking, but it’s still me, not some sort of ancient evil.”

Hearing that, Siriki chuckled nervously, while Chinyi looked more closely at the Soul-Cleaver; the dark sword no longer had the cold feeling of evil about it, which Chinyi would not wait a second to bet, was because of Allisia being its new wielder.

“Allisia, I gotta admit you look badass!” Siriki commented, her camera clicking as she took one picture after another as Allisia all but smiled; she felt herself quite comfortable in her new armour, which lacked the creaking and tightness that her steel platemail armour had.

“Girls, I say we turn in, now; we can explain this to the others in the morning” Allisia said, grabbing the hilt of the Soul-Cleaver, pulling it up and holding the blade up towards the roof; not a second later, the same, dark-purple flash of light flashed in the skull’s eyes, Allisia’s armour vanishing in a black and white mix of light and fluids streaming into the eyes once again, leaving her naked.

“I dunno; I kinda like this better, Allisia…” Chinyi joked and flirted, Allisia chuckling as she held her nightgown under her arm, asking Chinyi to carry the Soul-Cleaver, which she happily did as they went upstairs.

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