Reflections Of Angels

Corruption

"So what's up exactly with this escaped prisoner?" Jayson asked. He was looking around in great interest as they stepped out of the mirror into the caves. The stones around them glowed with a blueish internal light, reflecting fragments of their reflections thousands of times over.

"I'm not telling you that." Alysha scoffed.

"Okay... It just might make it difficult for, you know, actually finding them."

"Just keep a watchful eye out." Alysha sniffed. "Don't let him get you."

"I wasn't planning to."

They wandered through the tunnels, Alysha trailing her hand softly along the wall of stones like greeting an old friend. Jayson shivered; appearing almost small in comparison to the awe of the place.
They squeezed through a small gap and around a sharp corner, and suddenly, they were there. Before them lay the great wall of clay.

"This is it." Jayson gasped. "This is what I dreamed about."

"We all did." Alysha said. "I reckon Nyx did too."

Examining the door, she tilted her head. There, in the door, was a large crack- spreading out spider-like across the door, a large triangle at the bottom missing. From this gap, thick, viscous, black smoke seeped out and along the ground. It hung thickly in place, almost too thickly for vapour. "And that's what I feared."

Very slowly, as if having sensed their presence, the smoke began to crawl its tendrils across the floor towards them. Quickly, Alysha yanked Jayson back out of the way. "Don't touch it!" She looked around. "Quick, back here." She tucked them back behind a shaft of rock, out of the way.

The stone around was stained smoky black, the corruption seeming to have bled deep into the heart of the rock, threaded with veins of dark red; putrid and rancid, like an infection. Alysha looked at it; then experimentally, she poked it. Jayson reacted reflexively, either to stop her or recoil, he wasn't sure. "Don't do that

"The corruption runs deep." Alysha mused, rubbing her fingers together; tips dusted with black dust before she wiped it off. "This is bad."

"What do we do?"

Alysha spoke determinedly, looking over at the crack in the clay wall. "We have to block it up."

Suddenly, they heard the sound of slow footsteps; a strong and constant pounding pace. Something was coming.
Peering around the stone, across the space, Alysha saw a silhouette appear; standing on the other side of the smoke. It had been a person at one point; but as who, they were no longer recognisable, warped and distorted by the rot.

"What's that?" Jayson asked.

"Draugr." Alysha whispered. "They've gotten inside. Run!"