Chapter 2: Asylum pt.2
Quick Silver stared long into his reflection, time seemed to stand still, but eventually forced himself away out of the pool and sat at the rather convenient bonfire raising a hoof to caress the blade igniting the cinder pile. His injured head healed, and the dried blood disappearing.
‘It seems that this curse has some benefits after all’ Quick Silver mused before getting to his hooves and leaving the room.
“Gah!” he shouted as an arrow flew down the opened hallway into his left forelimb. Quickly he ducked into a nearby cell tripping over a leather shield lying in the entryway. He snapped off the shaft of the arrow and with the new-found shield in hand charged down the hallway towards the archer. The undead attacker fled down the next corridor dropping a familiar weapon that stopped Quick Silver in his tracks.
“Is that? . . . It is! I’d recognize you anywhere!” There before him lay the weapon he had long favored years ago before his incarceration in this prison, back when he offered his services to the lords of Saddle Arabia. This treasured scimitar’s blade swept upward along the shape of his wing and a special harness to attach and detach from the wing’s length at a moment’s notice. So caught up was Quick Silver in equipping his weapon’s harness that he was caught unawares by another arrow that slammed into his barrel.
“Sonuva. . .Come here!” Quick Silver launched himself at the mindless undead and slew it in but a brutal slash of his now weaponized wing. He kicked the corpse and jumped as a cloud of what looked to be fog whipped into him from the corpse. ‘What was that?’ Quick Silver mused as he returned to kicking the corpse,’ whatever it was I feel stronger now. Fascinating.’
With one last spiteful kick Quick Silver entered the stairwell and came to a doorway filled with what appeared to be thick fog, solid yet malleable, and when pressed upon his hoof sunk into. ‘Here goes nothing.’ A shuddered breath and Quick Silver stepped through the white veil and saw that he was not above the courtyard of the bonfire he had rested at previously. He considered hopping the railing before he shook his head and turned right down the walkway and left up the flight of stairs. Hearing a rumbling Quick Silver dodged to the side and down a flight of stairs as a heavy metal ball barreled past him. He lay crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, pained, but mostly unharmed. Spying the courtyard’s bonfire through the doorway at the bottom of the stairs he lay he turned right and opened the door limping over to sit down at the bonfire. Quick Silver sighed in contentment as his wounds washed away in the fire’s warmth.
He walked back to and up the stairs to see a hole in the wall where the boulder must have smashed through and saw the armored pony from before laying in a pile of rubble.
“Hey buddy,” Quick Silver moved to the knight, “you hanging on?”
The cough of a dying stallion answered his query. “Oh you…the one I freed. You’re no hollow. Help me out will you?” the coughs wracked his frame.
“…I owe you my freedom. I’ll hear you out at least.”
“Best I can ask for I suppose.” Quick Silver could feel the smirk behind that helm.” My family has a saying. ‘Thou who are undead, art chosen… in thine exodus from the Undead Asylum from the Undead Asylum, maketh the pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords… When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know.”
“A hell of a saying. Bit mouthy.” Quick Silver drily noted which the knight chuckled in agreement.
“It is that. I didn’t say it was a good saying now did I?” He began to cough again his wounds catching up quickly. “But it is. . .was my mission.” The Knight weakly clasped onto Quick Silver.
“I beg you. Take up my mission. Make pilgrimage to Canterlot…and ring the Bell of Awakening.”
Quick Silver clasped the knight’s hoof in turn,” …You have given my freedom. I shall take this pilgrimage. I owe you that much at least.”
The knight laughed and handed Quick Silver a stone flask filled with glowing yellow liquid. “You will need this. Drink the estus from this flask and your wounds shall heal.” He shook his head as Quick Silver moved to remove his helmet. “It is too late for me. Were I undead…No. It is too late.”
Quick Silver stopped his efforts at this,”…I can make it quick if you wish. You need not suffer.”
“No. My death will not be at your hand.” The crushed knight denied.
“May I know your name?” Quick Silver requested of the dying knight.
“Heh…back home I was known as Filthy. Filthy Rich of Astora.”
“…Quick Silver. I shall remember you Filthy.”
“Rich. Filthy Rich.” The Knight asserted strongly.
“…Filthy Rich.” Quick Silver nodded, tied the estus flask to his belt, and turned to leave only halting as Filthy Rich’s final words hit him,
“Thank you.”
Quick Silver turned back around and saw his savior’s last breath leave him. He sighed and left the chamber and up the stairs. An Undead mare attacked at the top of the stairs only to meet a preemptive strike. ‘You’ll need to do better than that.’ He mocked the hollowed undead before opening a door onto a pathway overlooking large mountains under a shadowed sky. Taking a moment Quick Silver imagined himself back up there in the sky soaring at speeds unknown to those born to the ground. His wings ached, the torn membrane reminding him of the freedom forever lost to him because of his employer and this prison.
Several guttural hisses broke his reverie as two hollowed undead slammed into him broken swords clenched in their muzzles slashing wildly at the stunned wanderer as an arrow broke against the wall beside him. Quick Silver smacked at the two hollows with his bare wing, knocking them away from him, and leapt back slashing at the flailing attackers, one falling from his retaliation as the other grabbed ahold of the thestral as two arrows pierced his coat nicking his rib cage. Growling in anger he twisted his hooves to turn the one holding him into the path of the incoming arrows. After it stilled he dropped the pincushion and charged down the balcony and heavily swung upwards at the archer deflecting its final flown arrow with a twist of his wing. The hollow fell to the ground, it’s bow split in twain.
Quick Silver pulled out the arrows stuck in his coat and took a swig of the flask Filthy Rich had given him. Instantly he felt his wounds knit together. “By the gods you would have been useful back when!” Now he stood in front of another fog door and strode through the fog finding that he now stood above the demon that attacked him before who now stared up at him. Quick Silver saw his chance for retribution and with a feral grin and laugh dove off the balcony impaling his beloved scimitar deep into the hulking demon. “Vendetta!” he snarled.
The demon threw off the enraged pony and swung at the falling stallion with its hefty club smashing into a nearby pillar. Quick Silver’s hooves dances as he got his groove back. “You think that you can keep me here?” The pride and fury dripped from his snarled tone “I have slain timber wolves far bigger than the likes of you! You are nothing!”
He charged at the demon dodging left to avoid the smash of the demon’s club and jumped off its corpulent belly upwards to rip his impaled sword out of the demon’s shoulder. He sliced at the demon as he leapt off the demon over it’s arm. Quick Silver dodged right to avoid a smash of its club and left to avoid another. The demon lost its balance and seeing his opportunity the thestral rolled past another swing to slash at the demon’s ankles causing it to fall to its knees leaving a target wide open. Taking this chance Quick Silver’s wings spread out and flashed forward and twice struck powerfully at the beast, scimitar clenched in his mouth, across the belly and throat, wings billowing out to scratch at its eyes. The Asylum’s corpus demon fell, hate lingering in its dead eyes, and exploded into a stream of fog that flew into Quick Silver.
“Nothing will keep me in this hell.” Quick Silver growled out in victory, scimitar drenched in demon blood and ichor. A feral smirk of satisfaction remained on his face as he moved towards the doors below the balcony he leapt down from, slowly pushing them open.
“No. Nononono!” Quick Silver tried to deny what he saw but he could not deny reality.” Who digs graves into a mountain top!?” Before him was a jutting cliff that looked as if it had once belonged to something greater but had been torn away leaving but the graveyard attached to the Asylum. Quick Silver raced up the broken cobbled path to its highest peak that overlooked an endless sea of snowy grey mountains. “I... I... Maybe I can glide down? I think I see a road down there. . .maybe. I refuse to stay here. I cannot!” Quick Silver peered over the edge of the cliff and heard a deafening shriek. He jumped back and looked up to see a massive raven swooping down talons outstretched towards him.
“Oh, come on!”