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bitingdrivers · 14 days ago

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part three of the demon keep au! just moving the plot forward. - 2,2k words (part 1 part 2)

For the second time that day Daniel is being awakened by the Keep shaking. But this time, Daniel is ready — he throws on his clothes and runs into the hallway, but falters at the start of the staircase. Something is wrong. He can't feel the telltale tickling sensations of the protection spell.

The air quivers and the stone around shakes and trembles, reverberating in Daniel's bones. He places his palm on the wall as he runs down the stairs, but instead of leaning into him, the brick recoils.

At the bottom of the staircase, Oscar almost runs into him.

"Daniel! What's going on? Are the wyverns back?" he asks, clutching a blade in his hand.

Daniel takes a deep breath, tries to stabilize his breathing. "I don't know, it doesn't feel like the protection spells went off," he says.

"Carlos went to check on the rookies," Oscar adds, looking at the entrance to the dining hall.

Daniel nods. "Good. We shou-"

Suddenly, all the rocks around them tremble and scrape against each other, the doors and shutters in the dining hall bang — a cacophony of sounds, loud and grating on Daniel's already fraying nerves. Beside him, Oscar doubles over, covering his ears.

It feels like the noise is going on forever — everything around them screams and cries — until it all falls silent. The bricks still, the doors fall shut. Complete silence.

The only thing Daniel can hear is the sound of his heart beating in his chest — fast and scared.

"What the fuck was that?" Oscar croaks beside him, lowering his hands.

Daniel can't tear his eyes away from the dining hall. He leans on the brick wall, but it doesn't react to his touch, it feels — dead. The cold stone makes Daniel's skin cover in goosebumps.

"I don't know. We need to-" he trails off, walking towards the archway. He doesn't look back, but he hears Oscar's footsteps follow behind him.

Daniel carefully steps into the dining hall. He scans the room, and his eyes catch on the hearth — it's surrounded by sparks, they dance and melt in the air, their blue color bright in the still darkness of the night.

As the last of the sparks disappear, Daniel can see more of the hearth — the pot is laying overturned beside it, and one side of the wall around it is broken, stray bricks scattered around like viscera.

He moves closer, feet tapping loud in the dead silence, and notices a shape lying inside the hearth. Even shrouded by darkness, the shape looks unnaturally pale. It's unmoving, curled up on itself, surrounded by broken walls of the hearth.

"Is that-" Oscar asks behind him, but Daniel can't make himself look away.

As he moves closer, he realizes with a start that the shape inside the hearth is a body. He can make out arms and legs, a broad back with something drawn along the spine, the back of the head with a flock of hair.

"Daniel," a voice whispers to his left, making Daniel jump.

GP stands by the kitchen door, an orb of light flying above him to illuminate the space.

"GP, what's going on?" Oscar begs. All of them are standing beside the cracked open hearth, peering inside.

Suddenly, there are voices echoing down from the kitchen and soon enough Charles spills into the hall, a blanket wrapped tightly around him, Yuki pushing him forward.

"I don't even have a weapon, why am I going first?" Charles argues, whispering loudly.

"You are the shield," Yuki replies, clutching a hammer in his hand.

They fall silent, noticing everyone else around the hearth. Charles looks them over until his eyes land on the hearth.

He gasps, "Is that a body?" and points at the figure inside the bricks.

"We don't know what- or who- that is," GP tries to placate, "We were woken up by the shaking and went down here to look, same as you."

"And the screaming," Oscar adds, a haunted look in his eyes. "I've never heard anything like it…"

"Yeah…" Daniel agrees quietly, still looking at the body. He thinks it might be moving, but the light from GP's spell is unstable, constantly rippling and moving around.

"What should we do?" Yuki asks, looking at GP.

"We need to check if he's alive," Oscar replies first.

Everyone looks back at the body.

"Who's going to do it?" asks Charles, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself.

"I will," the words leave Daniel's mouth before he had the time to think it through.

GP nods. "We will cover you," he says and steps back.

Daniel walks closer and crouches in front of the broken hearth. GP's spell shines on the back of the stranger, illuminating the ridge of the vertebras and the small freckles dotted around. The light catches on the same lines Daniel saw earlier. An intricate pattern follows the curve of the stranger's spine, up from his neck and down to the tailbone. It's hard to describe what the markings are — they are too pale to be tattoos like Daniel has, and too clean and neat to be scars. The symbols glimmer in the light, sometimes completely disappearing at the right angle.

Daniel reaches inside, but his fingertips barely brush the pale skin before the man recoils from the touch. Suddenly, the bricks of the hearth surge up, startling Daniel backwards, and cover the body like a shell protecting its pearl.

"No, please," a weak scratchy voice pleads from the inside.

"It's alright, we won't hurt you," GP placates beside Daniel, raising his hands in front of himself. The others exchange glances and hide their weapons behind their backs.

"Yeah, uh, I didn't mean to scare you, sorry. Just wanted to make sure you're not hurt," Daniel says, rising to his feet.

The stranger is silent inside the hearth.

"It's alright, we want to help," Oscar tries, but the stranger still doesn't reply.

"What is your name?" Charles asks, stepping behind Daniel.

"…Max," comes from behind the bricks.

"That's nice," Charles says softly, as if trying calm a frightened animal. "I'm Charles."

Max coughs, clearing his throat. "I know," he notes quietly.

"You know?" Daniel asks, looking at the stone of the hearth.

Suddenly, a few bricks move, creating a little peephole. From inside, two blue eyes meet Daniel's. They are unnaturally bright in the darkness of the room. The pupils are big, before Max looks at the light orb of GP's spell; he squints, pupils turning into two narrow slits.

"Yes," Max says, looking at Charles now. "You are afraid of thunder. I close the windows when it rains," he explains, his voice rough.

"You close them?" Charles mumbles, confused.

GP hums, stepping closer to the heart too. "Do you know all of us?" he asks, looking in Max's eyes.

Max looks down. "Yes. You are GP, Daniel is on the left with Oscar. Over there is Charles and Yuki," Max lists, glancing briefly at each of them. He has some kind of accent — Daniel notices — it curls strangely around his name, making it sound like Danyul.

"And," GP pauses, "Do you help us too?" he asks carefully.

Max pauses, looking down. "Yes," he nods briefly. "And others too, Pierre and Carlos and the younglings."

Daniel furrows his brows and looks back at GP. Everyone else is looking too, equal expressions of shock and confusion on their faces.

"Does that mean…" Oscar starts, but a shuddering breath from the inside of the hearth interrupts him.

"I think so, but I will need to make sure," GP says quietly. "But first, Max, maybe we can take you somewhere more comfortable? It's really cold here, isn't it?"

Daniel realizes he’s cold too. He rubs his arms, trying to make the goosebumps go away.

Max is silent for a second, but he agrees, making a soft noise. The bricks slowly move away, trembling slightly. The stones reveal Max, sitting with his knees drawn up. He brings his hand up to shield his eyes from the bright light of the spell floating around GP's head.

"Here," Charles says, taking the blanket from his shoulders and kneeling next to Max to wrap it around him.

Max clutches at the material clumsily, looking at Charles with big eyes. "Thank you," he mumbles. Charles just smiles in reply.

Max rises unsteadily on his legs, trying to balance with hands still gripping the blanket. Charles tries to steady him with a hand on his elbow, but Max suddenly jerks away from the touch, barely catching himself on wobbling feet — like a fawn learning how to walk.

"Sorry," Max mumbles once he's standing straight. "It feels…too much," he says, gesturing at himself.

"It's alright," Charles smiles. He steps away from Max, but still keeps a closer look in case he stumbles again.

GP clears his throat. "We have a lot of empty rooms, you can probably take one of them," he notes, looking at the archways that lead to different wings.

Daniel hums. "The room next to mine is empty," he points out. It used to belong to Nico, but the man left last year to live with his wife somewhere farther South. Not a lot of people know about this place, and even less are ready to hike up the mountains to get here, so most of the rooms have been empty from the start.

"Yes, that will do," GP nods. "You can walk Max there. I need to go to the library, look for any notes about the Keep," he says, turning to walk towards the kitchen.

"I will go with you," Yuki adds. Everyone looks at him with arched eyebrows. "To the kitchen, not to the library. I'm hungry." Daniel chuckles, shaking his head. GP nods and both of them walk away.

Oscar shuffles behind Daniel, looking sheepish. "I should probably go and check on Carlos and the rookies. They will want to know what's going on," he explains.

"Alright," Daniel says as Charles nods. Oscar shoots them a small smile and walks towards the West wing.

"Just the three of us, then," Daniel says, turning to smile at Charles and Max. The latter quickly glances back at him and Charles yawns.

They walk to the North wing, careful to not stumble in the darkness. Daniel thinks he or Charles were supposed to lead the way, but Max stepped before them and confidently made his way down the hallway to the stairs. He walks slowly, brushing his hands along the brick walls around them.

Daniel presses his palms to the stone too and is happy to feel the familiar thrum of magic beneath. Ahead of them, Max shudders.

"Are you okay?" Charles asks him, carefully stepping on the stairs.

Max just hums in reply, hands back to clutching the blanket on his shoulders.

Charles' room is first in the hallway. He says goodnight, opening the door to his room, but Max stops him.

"Do you want this back?" he asks, gesturing to the blanket.

"Oh, no. You can keep it. I have a lot more," Charles smiles, nodding to his bedroom.

"Actually, this reminds me. Wait here," he adds and quickly disappears inside.

A few moments later, Charles emerges from the room with a bundle of clothes in his hands. "Here, this should be enough for now, but I will look for more clothes tomorrow," he says, handing the bundle to Max.

"Thank you," Max croaks, trying to hold onto the clothes and keep the blanket in place at the same time. Charles wishes goodnight to them one more time and closes the door.

Once they reach the room Max is supposed to stay in, Daniel busies himself with tidying up and starting the fire. This part of the Keep is on the sunny side of the mountain, so the rooms don't get too cold, even during the night. Max just gingerly sits on the bed, running his hands on the clothes Charles gave him.

"Alright," Daniel says once he's done with the fire. "Just give me a minute to run to my room to grab some stuff and we'll be good for the night."

Max looks at the fire, his pupils narrow from the light. "I think," he starts, nervously clutching at the blanket, "I think I want to stay alone tonight. If I can?"

"Uh," Daniel stumbles, taken aback. Is it safe to leave Max alone? They have no idea what he is, and despite Daniel being mostly sure Max is not going to kill them all in their sleep, he is still a stranger who shouldn't be trusted this easily.

"You can close the door from the outside, if you want. I will not go anywhere," Max offers, sensing Daniel's hesitation.

Daniel takes a deep breath. He doubts he will get much sleep anyway, still keyed up from everything that has happened so far, so he supposes if Max does leave the room, Daniel will be able to hear it.

"Fine," he breathes out. "I will be in the next room if you need anything," Daniel offers and walks towards the door.

He throws one last glance at Max — he is still sitting on the bed, running his hands on the blanket covering his lap. The warm light from the fire outlines his features, the side profile of his nose, the planes of his cheekbones. Max looks like a statue, seemingly transfixed by the flames of the fire.

"Goodnight," Daniel whispers and closes the door after himself.

#the crazy part about writing a big structure with lots of hallways and corridors is the fact that i now need to keep track of everything #had to draw a “map” of the Keep #if at some point you think “huh this architecture doesn't make sense” its because. magic. fantasy. skill issue (mine or yuors)#demon keep au #f1 fic #my writing #“the plot” i say as if this is a real story and not just bits and pieces of things i think of before falling asleep

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