Grimm fought to keep consciousness as the Walking Blades dragged her to a carriage. Fainting welcomed the door. An unwavering and absolute entity. Her feet dragged against the sponge-like ground below and her arms held above her head. Some unseeable thing was delivering her to it, but she felt too weak to look. Either way the door demanded attention, its presence nauseating. At the moment she felt like a prisoner being sent to the gallows.
Before reaching the door her eyes snapped open. Greedily gasping for air, fighting the instinctive panic of waking up. After calming down, the pain of the last half hour set in, excruciating in honesty, but being awake felt better than the alternative.
Abruptly halting, Grimm lifted her head at the sound of a lock being undone. She watched as the door to the carriage swung open, and soon after she was tossed in with little regard. Her chin hit the floor first, a grunt escaping as she slid some inches forward. Six Blades followed behind her, scraping her off the ground to secure in a seat, and locking her pillory to a chain connected to the floorboard. After she was secure they tapped the side of the buggy, and off they went.
As the Blade across from her searched in a lock box bolted to the front wall, Grimm stared beyond the prison bar windows. She'd pass citizens trying to feign uninterest, still sneaking glimpses when they could. Merchants seemed preoccupied pitching their wares, but she'd see children overly interested, only being stopped when mothers covered their eyes. A quickly forming sea of grey clouds brought with it, an uneasy feeling in the air. The only thing keeping her mind occupied, rhythmic hooves and chains rattling against the road bumps.
"State your name." The sudden volume of its speech startled her. She shot her gaze to the Blade across from her. Expressionless, focused on the form it held. The only sign she was looking at the right one being its eyes and mouth glowing a light blue, fading slowly the longer it didn't speak.
"Go fuck yourself." The Blade beside her spun its torso delivering a concise and sudden blow to Grimm's gut.
The impact forced a dry heave. She tensed up, making small desperate winces as the restraints kept her from gripping her stomach. Not even being able to comfort herself she uncomfortably contorted around in her seat.
"Further insolence will increase severity of punishment. Two days added to sentence. State your name." It spoke without remorse or emotion. Only swiping a mark on the paper. If anything was to be said about the Walking Blades, they made good soldiers.
"Sentence?" She groaned, "I haven't even been told what I'm being charged with—" another swift blow was dealt in the same spot. She twisted around in one spot like a child throwing a tantrum. Only she was unable to cry.
"Two days added to sentence."
"Grimm! My… My name is Grimm!" She pushed through the spazzes in her lungs to blurt an answer before they swung again.
"State your last name." It asked.
"Tallwolf."
"Orphan?"
"Orphan..." her reply was curt. irritated.
"What information do you have on the underground ring you were arrested in?" It flipped its page and hurriedly scribbled something on top.
"Don't know anything. Never met a lead man, and anyone who ain't a fighter wears a mask."
"We will cross reference your answer. If you are found to be lying, the severity of punishment will increase. Is your previous statement true?" Grimm couldn't tell if it was reading a script on the page or if it had all of this built in. Either way, she was telling the truth.
"Yeah."
"Lastly, do you have appropriate papers to be a Vasilisk outside of the Eastern continent? Are you here with any other Vasilisks, and if so, how many?" The question instantly made her blood boil. The only Vasilisks that were given authority to enter other continents were royals or other important figures, but it's not like she asked to be here.
"Check Scruff And Tuff Boxing Club on South Taylor for my papers. If they don't have them I don't know… and it's just me." She bit her lip, keeping herself from saying something she might regret.
"We will give this report to the dungeon warden. You have an estimated 267 years, one week, and four days jail time."
Grimm looked dumbfounded. Apart from the four days.
"HOW THE HE… Why, is it 267 years?" She looked over to the Blade beside her. It didn't look like the small outburst had set off another response. A wave of relief washed over her.
"Five years minimum for participating in illegal fighting. Seven years minimum for damaging royal property, taking into account the five walking blades you dismantled while resisting arrest that's thirty-five years minimum. If you are found to be lying about your arena testament that will add twenty years minimum. Lastly, until Scruff And Tuff Boxing Club is confirmed to be carrying your citizenship papers, you will be treated as an Eastern Trespasser. The jail time for this offense is 200 years minimum. You will need further interrogation at Sierra castle."
Sierra castle. The Landmark and crown Jewel of the Sierra kingdom. Grimm knew some about the family. The king was respected by most, the queen died some years ago, and only a single son was born by them. Prince Desmond Sierra.
"And the week?"
"One week added for resisting arrest."
"You've gotta be kidding me." she pouted.
The rest of the cart ride was spent without questions. The estimated sentence weighed over her head amongst other things, but the noises of rhythmic hooves and rough roads were still enough to keep her distracted. Adrenaline began to wear and the throbbing of her swollen eye and bruised body set in fully. It ached, but she refused to think about what losing would have felt like.
After an eternity the carriage came to a slow stop. Once the doors were unlocked and opened Grimm was unchained from the floor and tossed into gravel. Two Blades picked her up by her arms, dragging her before she had a chance to recover. She scrambled to get a footing on the ground, the Blades not seeming to have an issue if she walked.
They walked down the side of Sierra castle. Not the main focus, but the side still stood elegant, and grand. The architecture alone showcased hundreds of years of knowledge through every piece of chiseled stone. Hundreds more, maybe, in the glass work of the windows. The road she walked led down, below all of it. To a rickety, wooden door illuminated by one torch, constructed into the very bottom of the castle.
A door.
Giving her a nauseating feeling.
'two hundred and sixty-seven years...' she thought.
Grimm quickly grabbed one of the walking blades restraining her by its arm, and pulled it into a headbutt. She had two stumps that hid in her hair, foundations for horns whenever they sprouted.
Even without the horns the foundations made a good weapon. The impact put a dent in the blade, but still it stood.
Divinity was a bitch to punch through.
She quickly put all of her force into one more, and down it went.
She wasted no time pulling herself from the other Blades' grasp. Jumping above the Blade to twist herself with the speed of a freshly thrown spinning top. She rapidly built momentum before swinging down an axe kick at its head. It dropped on the spot. She couldn't waste time fighting the other four, her body still not fully healed.
With a small opening created she dashed for the forest line that separated the Castle from the City. If she could make it to the forest she could hide and-
"Artorius's Spark." Straight through her Grimm watched as a bolt of electricity exited her chest, flying off into the distant forest. She fell to the ground, her muscles tensing sporadically. Not long after a larger Blade walked over, throwing her over its shoulder.
"Four days added to sentence for Destruction of Royal Property, one month added for Attempted Escape. Further insolence will increase severity of--"
"I know!" Grimm screamed.
The entrance to the dungeon dissipated as Grimm was escorted down its cryptic depths. Every floor met with Blades guarding long, damp hallways. Moans and pleas grew the farther down they went. Eight flights down she heard the desperate, soft cries of an older man begging for death.
That was going to be her, and they weren't even stopping at this floor.
An isolated room at the bottom of the crypt was her stop. Just like the carriage the lock was undone, the door swung open, and Grimm was thrown inside with little regard.
She did nothing to fight it. There was no point. There wasn't a reason to struggle anymore. She was surely going to rot here.
Most of her sentence, due to being a Vasilisk.
A myriad of thoughts made their way into her head, no hooves or bumps to wane them. Was Scroff being treated fairly? What of Mr. Baelish? Were they scared? Or hurt? She was never going to see the world like she had dreamed, she was never going to be able to repay Scroff for everything he had done for her. She hadn't really proved anyone wrong, and she never would.
For the first time in a long time, Grimm cried herself to sleep, in a fetal position on the ground.
"Welcome back, child." The voice. The door. The void. The voice. The door. The void. The voice. The voice. The voice. Slow. Husky. Dreadful. Terrible. Awful. Towering. Ancient-
Grimm stared lost for some time, slowly kneeling down to hug her legs, burying her face in her knees as she wept in frustration. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want to be in jail.
She wanted to be home.
"What do you want?" What is with the door, why is it so important to you?!"
"It isn't important to me. It's your door..."
"Then why do you keep bringing me back? I don't want it."
"You would rather rot in a cell until you take your last breath? Don't make me laugh." The voice crackled.
"How the hell would a dream get me out of my cell? Don't make me laugh." She mocked back.
"It would."
"..."
The voice answered, almost annoyed, "If you don't believe me, fine. If this is just a dream, like you keep saying, it would not change a thing to do it. But. Fine. This is the last time I will show it to you. If you wake up without opening this door. You will spend the rest of your days wasting in a cage-"
"..."
"Thankful you refused to open the dream door."
slowly she lifted her head, allowing her eyes to study it. When she looked at it, this rickety, wooden door, she got nauseous. Like staring at something she was never supposed to. Like her eyes wanted to reject its existence, but if it really would save her-- Did she have a choice?
Slowly she stood, clenched her fists, and put one step forward into the squishy ground.
Crack.
Then another,
Crack.
And another...
Crack.
Just a few steps, and she had seemingly walked a mile. Finally standing in front of the door that had been haunting her the past month she took a nervous breath. Whispers of a language forgotten by time intruding on her thoughts. She understood what they were saying, and they were oddly calming. Though she didn't know why.
"S.. So if I open this door, I'll get to go home?"
"You will be able to go, wherever you please, child." It replied.
Grimm swallowed her fear, she couldn't justify being afraid. This was just a dream. It was just a door, and if it was real she'd get to dodge her life sentence.
She stared down the handle for just a second before throwing her hand to turn it, swinging the door wide open before she could convince herself otherwise. The timeless hinges creaked loudly, echoing against the infinity that was the void. It stopped moving before she looked in past the veil, and lying beyond the frame she had been so scared of was absolutely nothing.
"What the hell?" she questioned.
"Wait for it." It replied.
The ground below began rumbling. A soft motion at first, and then a squawk from some creature. A few screeches, and then the noise of a surging wave.
Grimm snapped her head to see a quickly approaching sea of... monsters?
Her eyes were not deceiving her.
An endless hoard of monsters clawed and fought at each other as they raced for the door. Growing in number as they exploded out of the ground.
She spun to brace herself against the door frame right before the impact. The force would have sent her flying had she not planted both arms and legs against it in time.
"W-WHAT THE HELL?! GET OFF OF ME!" Grimm pushed back the sea, screaming in struggle as the pressure increased.
She'd reach for the door.
Once?
Miss.
Twice?
Miss.
The third time she was able to grab ahold of the edge, fighting against the monsters trying to keep it open.
She stood in an impossible situation, but refused to let up, and despite the uncountable horde...
She started to overpower them, slowly inching the door closer and closer to its latch.
A quarter,
half way-
A significantly louder rumbling, like an army of soldiers sprinting in unison, shot its way to the door.
"No, no, no." it sighed. Grimm's head was being pushed to touch her chin by a monster. She couldn't look at the face of the voice she had been talking to as it lingered right above her gaze.
While struggling at the halfway point, a skeletal-like hand pierced the darkness of her peripheral vision. It reached for Grimm's grip on the door. She'd swat at it, but almost lose her progress in turn.
She was forced to hold her position. Her strength slowly depleting as her grunts and breath weakened.
"I am impressed. You couldn't fathom the volume of Voidborne you are keeping at bay. It's... entertaining. You would make a good vessel." It gave a husky laugh as its hand protruded towards hers once again.
This time it gently landed on her wrist. A shiver raced through her spine against the lack of warmth it had.
"S-stop It."
"You couldn't fathom, the amount of time, I've had to wait to make this happen." It spoke slowly, pulling her wrist lightly. Playing with its prey.
"Let- let go of me." She couldn't yell, she was too out of breath fighting with the door, and at this point she was losing that too.
"Child. Listen... and listen well." He'd start pulling her wrist away with more force. She felt her grip slipping.
"Quit..." She pleaded.
"Whatever happens next." A sudden gust of wind blew her hair in her face as the voice pulled itself to her. Still she couldn't see it, but she knew it hovered near. Its breath, freezing against her neck.
"It's your fault."
She'd soon burst through the door, surfing down an ocean of Voidborne as they all fell into the dark. Rage quickly built as she fell.
"I'm coming back for you damnit! Do you hear me?" She strained her vocal cords making sure her promise reached the heavens. Dream or not she was coming back for it, and it heard her.
"You won't have to wait long." it replied.
When the door disappeared from her view entirely she felt an arm wrap around her waist. The sea of Voidborne trying to pull her into its deadly engulfment.
She didn't have to struggle long, though she did pull that one's arm off. The end of the void drew near. She broke through the bottom front facing, and there was more than nothingness beyond it.
Space, and Istill itself.
She did not know what the world looked like in its entirety, but it absolutely had to be Istill. The Great Barriers' presence alone proved that fact. Yes, the same great, green barrier that she was heading straight into.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh SHIT!" She'd swim in the vacuum of space trying to slow her descent, but nothing worked. Throwing her arms in front of her Grimm finally crashed, shattering the Great Barrier from the outside in.
The piece she collided with stayed intact. Instead of breaking up like the rest around it, it fell straight down through a cloud. The piece large in size, and unless she saw wrong, reddish in the middle.
Spinning around in the air she waited for her momentum to calm.
When she could steady herself a feeling of calm washed over her for just a moment. She was captivated, seeing more of Istill than she could have ever dreamed. The vastness of it, the terrain, how thousands of trees could make a forest, Adam Ships rowing as they sailed across the sky far away from her. The world was larger than she could have ever imagined. It was almost beautiful.
She felt free.
A Voidborne diving closely beside her broke her gaze. Turning her head the other way she'd catch all kinds of them spreading in different directions. Screeching and chaotic.
Then, off in the distance, another part of the Great Barrier shattered.
A flood of Walkers poured from it as well. Heading for what looked like a town.
Then another. They aimed for as far as they could get.
A few more.
They appeared everywhere, she couldn't wrap her head around whatever was going on. Not that she had a lot of time to think about it.
She was rapidly approaching the roof of some building.
She closed her eyes and braced for impact.
And shortly after woke up screaming. Safely in her prison cell.