Fall of Arx Mortis

[Nikolas Faselli]

(credit: Lost-in-Hogwarts)​

This was it.

It seemed to be the end.

The former Witch of Arx Mortis sat on her throne in the throne room for the last time. All of her slaves had formed a perfect formation, line behind a line and so on. They were ready for whatever their lady is going to do next.

The Witch sat on her throne and looked over her loyal servants.

"My humble servants... For so many years you have all served me well, your loyalty has been remarkable and my frequent periods of true anger have not made you lose your peaceful, calm attitude. Thank you for that!" she spoke loud enough for the whole room, which was definitely not small.

Then she rose up from her throne, wearing a black Jedi robe, and Confectrix's hilt being in her hand, not in her ruling staff. Indeed, the wooden staff she had was on the ground, broken into two nearly equal pieces. She had taken it out of her staff. Out of her ruling staff.

"The Citadel of Arx Mortis is one of the most powerful creations on this planet. It could be considered equal with the Markhareim City's castle, nearly as beautiful as Crystal Caves, and definitely more refined than the Crystal Forest. But it cannot stay this way."

People were surprised, maybe even shocked. Most of her slaves started panicking, not knowing what's going to happen or what they should do.

"But fear not. Arx Mortis was meant to be my father's gift to me, which it was, in order to get me out of my seemingly eternal depression. Now comes the day..." She stopped talking. The lines of slaves started mutating, they were no longer perfectly straight.

Maria raised her hand and the main door to the throne room closed with a loud bump. The lock moved, and the door was closed. The only other way out would have been past the throne, but the slaves did not know one thing.

Just in front of the throne, a footstep away from Maria, was a line drawn on the floor. Just with a single handswipe of Maria's, the whole line was covered in flames and the slaves couldn't get through.

"This is the day when Arx Mortis is destroyed. The legacy of Maria Natalja Zambrano ends even before it was able to begin. I made a decision. It is impossible to take it back now. There is no Maria Zambrano anymore, I abandon my last name in order to stay away from my family. Arx Mortis only keeps me locked in one place, I am not able to do anything else. But now it will change."

Then she turned around and the door ten metres away from the throne opened. It was a glass door, leading to the Balcony of Hope. There was a way out from there, to the ground. The throne room itself was on the third floor, but a staircase led to the ground from there.

Maria turned around once again.

"With this, I declare...

Arx Mortis

is

no

more!"

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Memories of Isaac

That day was awful. After she left the building, the glass door shattered into millions of tiny pieces. Of course we all tried to get out, but it was impossible. Only a bit before we reached the place where the door had been, a metallic one replaced the glass door, and we couldn't get out. The metal door fell from the ceiling and blocked the passage. There were no other ways out of the room.

Other slaves, my brothers and a few sisters, had destroyed the flames before, but... there was no use of it. The whole Arx Mortis soon burst into flames. We were trapped. All windows, all doors were blocked by fire and even our knowledge of Fire Shaping didn't help us at all as it was seen in the case of Josiah. Yes, the flame seemed to be eternal and there was no way to get out. Whenever we extinguished the fire, it came back, and not just. It was a lot more powerful every time it came back. We decided to leave it like it is, and our only hope was the dungeons beneath the powerful citadel which was ought to be destroyed then. The dungeons were made to be safe from all kinds of explosions, fire, whatever else. It was a bunker made just for the queen, the lady, the Witch of Arx Mortis. But the problem was... only she had the key to the bunker.

Truly unfortunate.

We remembered that only after we had reached the dungeons. The Witch of Arx Mortis, however, as I have heard, had destroyed the key and melted into the powerful lock which held the front door of the whole building locked. The lock was unbreakable, maybe even enchanted by the Force, and there was no way to open the door, even though it was made out of purely wood, so it should have been easy to destroy. But once again, the lock may have made the door more durable than it would have actually been.

I remember that day. It was painful, it was hard.

We lost many people.

Nearly all of them were destroyed, died in the flames.

They were like brothers and sisters to me.

Truly unfortunate.

Yes, I had never thought our lady would do something so selfish and stupid.

I hope these lost souls are forever on her heart. I hope she dies.

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Josiah the Selfless

It was Josiah who had decided to help others rather than himself. He had been the most loyal slave to the Witch of Arx Mortisshe had helped her so much at training, he had been the best of them. But she treated him like that, without any respect. It was selfish. Yet he knew what it was like to be serving a selfish being. Her heart hurt, his morality had gotten hurt by such disrespect. Why? Why did Maria have to do something like that?

After Maria had left the building and it burst into flames, he was the one who wanted all others to be safe. He was clearly depressed as he thought his life doesn't have a meaning anymore. He had been the lady's very first slave, after all, and had been taken into the citadel many-many years ago. He didn't remember being completely free anymore. His life revolved around serving her queen. But now it was clear that all of them would either have to die or get out and become free again.

His decision was to die, but let everybody else get out of Arx Mortis as fast as possible. The flames had started taking rooms in an order, room by room, floor by floor, and so the whole building would be destroyed.

The front door was locked, yes, but there had to be many emergency doors which were sealed by the power of the Force. Only Maria was able to open such doors as the citadel was made purely for her and none of her slaves shouldn't have mattered at all. But Josiah knew he is strong enough to destroy the seal and get out. The sealed doors weren't supposed to be in flames, so...

"People, listen up! We'll have to find the sealed doors really quickly! Split up into groups of three, and try to find all sealed doors. Focus, use the Force on them to break them and get out! With three of you in every group, you should be able to do that!" he spoke to all of the other slaves.

But the point was, that... the whole mass of slaves couldn't be divided with three. Yes, groups were formed, but only one person remained alone, without any group.

He was Josiah.

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

The Tale of Mikael

Mikael was one of the bravest slaves Maria had ever had. And truly, just as the lady was leaving the citadel, he was the first one to follow her, but not because he wanted to follow her to prosperity and freedom, but he wanted to catch her before it is too late. He was not able to use the Force like some other slaves around Arx Mortis, but he was definitely a lot braver than many others, including Josiah and Isaac, who were known as the unofficial leaders of the Arx Mortis slaves. Mikael had been allowed the place of a leader many times, but he had declined for the reason that 'bravery doesn't conclude leadership skills'. He had been right, even.

Now being the first one to stand up against Maria, he had been quick enough to leave the building before the metal door falls in place of the former glass one. Others had to stay inside while Mikael was the only person able to actually follow Maria.

"Stop! Where are you going, karking schutta, leaving all of us behind?" he yelled. Clearly he was really infuriated by the lady's actions and wanted to bring her back to the citadel to meet the same fate her slaves did.

Maria was already about a hundred metres away, but turned to her loyal slave, lowered her head a bit, tilted it on her right, and raised her left eyebrow. "You don't know what it is to be chased. I, unlike you, were meant to be free. You are but slaves! Most of you don't even know how to live a life of freedom anymore! You should be thankful that I am letting you die rather than get into the cruel world!"

She started walking a bit closer to the man, step by step. Mikael, however, stood still on his place, breathing heavily and ready to start a fight with her former lady.

"You are unbelievable! I have never seen such a sculag before!" he yelled as an answer, almost crying at the same time.

Maria then stopped.

"You are right! I did something really wrong. I should kill all of them faster. I am giving you the order to set the building on fire," Maria spoke. No matter how hard the slaves would have wanted to work against Maria, they all had a wristband on their right hands which didn't allow them to stand against the slaver.

Mikael had to do exactly as Maria ordered.

Tears flowing down his cheeks and then dropping on the ground, Mikael walked towards the building.

He had to do that.

Soon, Maria, who now stood in the distance, saw the first flames rising above the treetops which separated her from Arx Mortis.

It was truly the fall of Arx Mortis.

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Lucien's Diary

It is me, Lucien, again. We are standing in front of one of the emergency exits of a beautiful citadel which happens to stand tall on the planet of Crystalsong. Indeed, I am talking about Arx Mortis, the citadel where I am still a slave. Kind of. The whole building seems to be burning, and me and my two friends are trying to unseal the powerful fourth emergency exit. We all split up into groups of three and all groups started looking for exits like that. I have heard that Josiah didn't manage to find one, though, and that he has already died in flames. Sad.

Isaac told me he is writing everything down to be used when we all get free, you know, against our 'noble' lady in the court. However, I believe there is still so much loyalty in him that he would never do anything like that. And we don't have any kind of proof that she set the castle in flames. She doesn't have any surveillance cameras over here. And even if she did, they would all be destroyed in flames. Even if we got out.

Oh, I heard now that my fellows have managed to unseal the door or something. I am glad.

I really hope everybody else gets out, too.