Dark Soul - Disrupted

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Daniel lay on the long, soft grass, the warmth of the sun seeping into his body. He felt the energy from the sun flowing in alongside the heat, topping up his reserves of power. Despite the warmth he felt no desire to sleep. He had far too many things to think through, and this was the first chance he’d had in three days to get a break.

With his ability to keep going without sleep he’d kept on pushing through time after time, but finally it had become too much. He’d slipped away from the endless arguments, able to take no more. Once outside he’d spent twenty minutes wandering the streets of Echtberg before stumbling upon a run down house with boarded-up doors and windows, and chains on the gates. The lawn within hadn’t been tended in months if not longer and was growing wild. He’d felt an immediate pull when he saw it, knew it offered the respite from the fierce arguments and the bustling town that he so badly needed.

Of course he’d been outside the locked gates and the walls were twice his height, but that was no great problem. He’d followed the wall until it turned down a quiet alley, had checked no one was looking, then had leapt. Even at twice his height it had been an easy jump for him. Within moments he’d been over the wall and into the garden beyond. He’d spent a couple of minutes finding the best spot then lay down, enjoying the warming glow from the sun.

He kept his mind clear for another few minutes, letting himself relax, then with a sigh allowed his thoughts to run free. He thought back over the endless arguments and disputes, some of which had flared into violence. Nothing major so far, fists rather than weapons, but the arguments were getting worse.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way! Daniel and those with him had freed the town, had destroyed not only Rafael, the vampire leader, but those who’d helped him maintain that control. Other vampires, of course, but also the Bronze Order, a military group that had dedicated themselves to Rafael’s cause.

Daniel and the others had defeated the darkness. They’d expected the townsfolk to be grateful, to be happy. Some were, but most were… well, that was the problem. There was no most. There seemed to be as many conflicting views and concerns as there were people, maybe more, and all of those views were being focused on Daniel and the others who’d freed the town.

Sarah had been the first to snap, taking her young daughter, Mary, and refusing to attend any more of the meetings. Daniel was more surprised that she’d lasted as long as she had than that she had gone, with everything she’d been through. Daniel was almost relieved to see her decide enough was enough and to put Mary and herself first.

Josef, on the other hand, was still sticking it out. He was a senior officer in the Order, a militarised organisation of witch hunters dedicated to driving out darkness, so he was more at home with the political arguments and heated exchanges. His measured approach was helping, but it would have helped a lot more if the townsfolk hadn’t known he belonged to the Order. Despite his assurances that it was nothing like the Bronze Order which had ruled their lives, the similarity was still too much for many.

The funny thing was that the Order would almost certainly throw Josef out once news of his actions reached them. Especially when they learnt of his newly discovered ability to sense flows of power, even though he couldn’t use them.

Daniel knew well that Josef was doubting his own Order, and might well wish to leave it anyway. It didn’t have the rotten heart of the Bronze Order but it had become at best greatly misguided and at worst a spreader of darkness, though with at least the outward veneer of trying to do the right thing.

Then there were Clara and a handful of others who were native to Echtberg. Clara was the leader, but her ability to wield the portion of powers Daniel perceived as white made many doubt that she could be fully trusted. The others who had worked with her and helped Daniel to victory were also suspect precisely because of their association with Clara and Daniel.

Together Josef, Clara and the others who had fought for Echtberg formed one faction in the discussions. Others who would have been part of the council, the richest merchants, town officials and senior officers, were all gone. All had tied themselves too closely to Rafael and his darkness, had taken that darkness into their souls, and so had perished when Rafael was destroyed. Their absence left a power vacuum which far too many people were scrambling to fill.

And then, of course, there was Daniel himself. He was… he was who he had become in the weeks since being attacked by Rafael, since being attacked and left to endure the horrific transformation from a normal man into a darkness-filled vampire. A transformation which no one managed to escape, unless through death, and even then rarely.

A transformation which was inevitable… yet which Daniel had managed to evade. He’d encountered Mary and her parents at his darkest moment, had been about to take Mary’s blood and life as the final step in his transformation, but had somehow managed to snap himself back. In desperation he’d fled, knowing that he would be lost to the darkness again soon. He’d fled through the dark night until he’d escaped from the forest and found himself on a beach. At that moment he’d decided the only way out was death, and that the bright light of dawn would be the way he chose to go.

He’d managed to stay there despite the darkness inside, darkness which tried to force him to seek shelter. As the sun rose he’d been bathed in agony as it blazed into him, searing him to his core.

He hadn’t perished, though. The darkness had been burnt away, but having not made a kill meant his own soul remained mostly free of that darkness. It was driven from him… but something amazing was left behind. The ability to draw on powers he could never have imagined before. Powers driven by the natural world. Powers totally unlike the dark magic that had filled him as he was transformed into a vampire.

But who was he? He had no idea. His memories from before were gone, wiped out by his partial transformation, or by the brutal beating he’d taken from bandits a few hours before Rafael attacked. Whichever it was, the memories were gone. Most of them, at least. One had broken through, a memory of his sister when she was around Mary’s age. That memory had saved both Mary and Daniel. Mary had been saved from being attacked by him, and he had been saved because it was the trigger to seek death… which led him back to the light again.

Since then he’d learnt a few things about his previous life, but not from his own memories. Josef had recognised him as a member of the Order, as someone Josef had had dealings with in the past. That news had been particularly unwelcome. Daniel’s powers marked him out as the type that witch hunters sought, and meant he’d be on the receiving end of what he might once have dealt out.

Thoughts of his time as a witch hunter made him uncomfortable. The fact he didn’t remember made it worse. He’d seen the Order first hand, had been on the receiving end of their fear of any form of magic, and had seen the extremes they would go to. Who knew what dark acts lay in his own past? Who knew what he had done to innocent people wielding magic that wasn’t even slightly touched by darkness? Or had he been even worse? Had he been one of those who saw darkness everywhere, even in those who had no magic?

Without his memories he had no way of knowing. Sarah insisted that his core self, his core being, wouldn’t have changed and so at worst he would have been misguided. He wasn’t so sure. With no memories at all to anchor him, how could he be sure he was anything like his old self?

Daniel let out a grunt of annoyance. He needed to be thinking about the present, not worrying about the past. He forced his attention back to the factions and their arguments, trying to find new insights now he was no longer being bombarded with questions and demands.

He cleared his mind, seeking peace within the warmth and energy of the sun before starting. He had barely cleared his mind when his thoughts were interrupted again, but this time the source was a noise from far too near. The metallic rasp of swords being drawn. Daniel surged to his feet, drawing his own blade just in time to meet the charge of three burly men. Even with his enhanced speed Daniel was only just fast enough to block the first swing.

For a moment he wondered how the men had gotten so close, then the other two reached him, and fighting for his life drove out all other concerns.

Josef stepped into the small room, closed the door, then leaned heavily against it. After a moment he let out a long sigh. Clara, the only other person in the room, chuckled, but there was no mirth in the sound. Josef shook his head and dragged himself over to the table where Clara sat, pulling out a chair and collapsing into it.

“Tell me again,” he said. “What exactly am I supposed to be doing?”

“I thought the aim of these meetings was extremely clear,” she replied, a twinkle in her eye. “We are here to decide how Echtberg should be ruled, managed and protected, now the oppressors are dead.”

Josef massaged his temples, but the pounding pain refused to leave.

“Oh, is that all? I can plan that out for you easily. Just give me an hour.”

Now it was Clara’s turn to sigh. “I could, too, but I forgot to add that the solution has to be acceptable to all the representatives.”

“Ah yes. Them. All of them! I’m not sure any two groups agree on anything.”

“Well, they all agree that they disagree!”

“I’m not sure they can even manage to be that clear! Damn it, why exactly are we having to play referee?”

“Because we’re the heroes who saved Echtberg.”

“Like hell! Some of those groups are convinced we’ve doomed the town. Some of them are even questioning whether Rafael and the others were really evil, whether we’ve just portrayed them that way in order to legitimise our own coup!”

“What? How dare they!”

The half-smile was gone now, replaced by blazing anger. Clara was small and looked younger than her age most of the time, easily passing for a child if she wished, but now her true age shone through.

“How dare they say that!” she continued. “Don’t they know how many of us died? Don’t they remember how things were? How can they possibly have forgotten so quickly? None of them said anything like that to me!”

“They wouldn’t. You belong here. I’m an outsider. That’s loosening their tongues, in lots of interesting ways.”

“I should… I should… damn it, I don’t know what to do with them! I almost wish they were right. At least then I could have them killed or thrown in a dungeon!”

“It’s not too late to take control you know…”

She stared at him in shock at the suggestion. He managed to keep a straight face for a few heartbeats but he didn’t dare breathe. Even then he couldn’t keep it up, the look on her face sent him over the edge and he started laughing, loud and long.

For a moment Clara looked as if she wanted to throw something at him, then a smile broke through and she joined his laughter. They kept going for several minutes, each time one or the other started to ease off they’d catch the other’s eye and would be lost again. Finally, and cautiously, they managed to regain some control.

“Damn, but I needed that,” Clara said. “If this carries on I might make a list of who should go and in what order. Not for real, of course, just to save me actually putting an axe in someone’s head.”

“I’ll help you, but don’t write it down. When I was an initiate in the Order one of the other initiates did exactly that, listing which instructors he felt needed to go and how to do it. He wasn’t unique in thinking that, far from it, but he wrote it down. Then he showed it to people… and soon after that the instructors found out. They weren’t happy!”

He paused, thinking back to that time.

“What did they do?” asked Clara.

“I don’t know, not exactly. I know they declared him unfit to join the Order and there was talk of there being darkness within him. The last time I saw him he was being dragged away by some troopers and an instructor. No one heard of him after that. We expected them to make an example of him, but instead he simply ceased to be as far as we were concerned. Looking back, I think that was a better lesson than any public display.”

“You never found out what happened to him?”

“No. I suspect going digging would have been a good way to have found out first hand what happened to him.”

“I can see how…”

She was interrupted by a sudden hammering at the door.

“What do they damn well want now?” snapped Josef, dragging himself up.

“No rest for the wicked,” Clara replied. “Or for the good, apparently.”

Josef reached the door and grasped the handle. He’d just turned it and started to open the door when Clara yelled from behind him.

“It’s a trap! Get back!”

Josef had started to turn towards Clara as she yelled. At the same time the door was shoved inwards. Even as Clara’s words sank in, Josef sensed something pulsing with darkness being thrust towards him.

He twisted, shoving at the door and trying to move backwards, but he was too slow. Time slowed for him. His eyes were locked on the long knife rapidly approaching his stomach. With normal eyes it seemed innocuous enough, at least as far as any weapon could be when you were on the receiving end, but he could sense dark power dripping off of it, pulsing and flowing around the blade.

There was no time to draw his own sword and parry. There was no time to move clear, though he was trying his best. He increased the pressure on the door but it wasn’t enough to deflect the knife, which continued to close quickly despite the world having slowed around him.

Josef tensed as the knife struck his stomach, preparing to fight off both the physical damage and the corruption he was sure would accompany it. He felt a brief, bright burst of heat which was gone as quickly as it had come, but not before he took a blow which felt like the kick of a mule.

He was forced back several steps, but the small man holding the dagger was thrown even further back in the opposite direction, through the half-open doorway and into the far corridor wall. Josef glanced at his side, fearing the worst, but there was no wound.

For a moment he didn’t understand, then he sensed power flowing back into the protective items he wore, items he had reclaimed from members of the Order who had fallen in the final fight against Rafael. Out of habit he’d attached some to his own clothes, repeating the action he’d taken nearly every day since starting the quest. Now that habit had undoubtedly saved his life.

It was only a temporary reprieve, though. Another man was pushing into the room, and at least one more waited outside. With a grim smile Josef drew his own sword and charged forward, determined to keep the attackers, however many there were, clustered together by the doorway.

Sarah sat on the bench, watching Mary playing tag with four other children who were roughly the same age. They were in a small, well kept, park. Sarah had decided the day was too nice to spend indoors, and Mary seemed to thrive when she had the chance to get outside and play with others.

Despite the sight, a cold sliver was lodged in Sarah’s heart and refused to budge. The time between Mary being taken and being rescued had seemed like long years to Sarah, years where slim threads of hope had been the only things keeping her from despair. In the end those strands had proven to be justified, but she still lived in constant fear of something happening to Mary, of someone else taking her.

Even when Sarah managed to put those fears aside, when the sheer joy on Mary’s face washed away those concerns, Sarah’s heart still felt like breaking. Those were the times when she longed to turn to Jon, to see the love in his eyes as he watched their daughter. Seeing Mary play reminded her that Jon would never see his daughter again, reminded Sarah that she would never see her husband’s smile again, would never hear him laugh, and would never feel his touch.

At those times it was only the sight of Mary that kept her going. That, and the knowledge that Jon would never have had it any other way. She knew she would happily do the same, that she would lay her life down to save Mary’s any day of the week. She knew Jon would be happy to have made the sacrifice seeing as it helped lead to Mary’s rescue, but that didn’t stop Sarah’s heart feeling like it was being torn.

It didn’t help that he hadn’t been buried. His body still lay where he’d died, or anything the scavengers had left did. How could he possibly find final rest? Now that Mary was safe, Sarah felt guilt every time she thought of Jon and his unburied body.

She wanted to return to it, to provide him with that peace. Mary would have to come, of course. She thought Daniel would accompany them, too. There was a keep they’d visited which wasn’t too far from where Jon had died, one that Daniel had talked of returning to several times. If she gave him reason to head in that direction she was sure he would come.

It would be so easy… if it wasn’t for the cursed folk of Echtberg! They’d badgered and dragged Daniel, Josef and her into forming a form of council to avoid a power vacuum, then immediately set about arguing with and undermining everything the three of them suggested.

She’d quickly grown tired of it, but her snapping point had come when a sweaty, overweight merchant had dismissed her views. ‘Really, my dear,’ he had said. ‘There’s no way you can understand what we’re discussing here so please be quiet. There’s a good woman.’

Daniel’s lightning fast reflexes had allowed him to catch Sarah’s hand before she broke the merchant’s nose and sent him sprawling to the floor, but the movement and the look in her eyes had been enough to send the man scurrying backwards. After a moment Daniel had released her arm, and she had stormed out of the chamber. At the time she hated Daniel for stopping her, but later she realised he had probably done her a favour, no matter how satisfying crushing the bloated merchant’s nose would have been.

She’d seen Daniel a few times since but he always looked harassed and never had time to talk for long. That was a problem. While he felt honour-bound to help the town she knew he wouldn’t agree to accompany her and Mary if they left.

Sarah’s dark brooding was broken as Mary ran up and leapt onto her lap, hugging her tightly. Her mood dropped again when Mary spoke.

“I don’t like those men, Mama. Make them go away. Please!”

Mary’s ordeal had left scars on her. One was a distrust of men she didn’t know. The same scene played itself out several times each day, and every time it happened Sarah’s heart ached. She glanced up, ready to reassure Mary that there was nothing to worry about… but the words froze in her throat. Three men were approaching, all wearing dark armour and with their hands on their swords.

This couldn’t be good. Sarah stood, pushing Mary behind her and reaching for her sword… which wasn’t there. The townsfolk didn’t approve of women wearing swords. All Mary had with her was the stout walking staff, enough to batter a head with but a staff against armoured men armed with swords wasn’t a good situation. Judging by the smiles on the men’s faces they thought the same.

Sarah quickly looked around. She and Mary were against a wall and there was no easy way out. The other children, and their parents, had either scattered already or were now rushing away. There was no escape and no chance of help, not soon enough to make a difference. It was down to Sarah.

“Stay behind me, Mary,” she said, and grasped the staff firmly, feeling the killing rage building within but knowing she would have to fight it this time. Losing control, going berserk, would greatly increase her chances of winning… but would almost certainly leave Mary undefended. Sarah couldn’t risk that.

The men spread out slightly, drew their swords then rushed forwards, yelling as they came. Mary screamed. Sarah yelled in defiance and leapt to meet them.