Dungeon Runner

Stepping Up, Chapter 46

"You need to be more careful," a deep, soothing voice said as strong hands straightened him.

"Where am I?" Tibs looked around, disoriented by more than the total lack of anything to see. His hunger was gone, too. "Am I dead?"

Had he failed so utterly?

"No, you are alive, for the moment. How long that lasts? Well, I have never had a say in that matter. Did you think that treating your body so poorly would endear you to me?"

Why would he... "I'm fine."

"Now and here, that is true."

Here, only there was nothing, only the voice. He wished there was light for him to see who... "You're Darkness." He focused on the speaker, trying to make him out.

"I am." The voice moved as if they were now crouched before Tibs, putting them at eye level, if there had been light to see by. "Tell me, child of human, are you one of those who believe that I hold dominion over the life and death of your kind? I do not. If you are here for me to undo the damage you have caused your body, I am afraid that you will be disappointed."

"That isn't why I'm here." Why couldn't he see them? With the others, there was always some form for him to see, if he focused hard enough. And why did they sound familiar?

"I am pleased to hear this. So many come to me only to meet disappointment. Tell me, Child of human, what do you seek to hide?"

"I'm not hiding anything." Tibs worried. If he couldn't make out Darkness's form, how was he going to see the shadow of the element within them?"

The chuckle spread around him. "Oh, you do. It is in the nature of your kind to hide so much. It is why I enjoy you. Few of the living are as fond of their secrets as the humans."

Khumdar. That was who Darkness sounded like. Water had sounded like Mama. The others hadn't sounded like anyone he recognized. Corruption said they took the words from his mind. Did some of them also take a sense of people he knew?

"A secret?" Tibs forced himself to relax. Maybe he was trying too hard. "Is that the price I need to pay?"

"No. You are not seeking that type of connection with me." The following silence felt profound without someone to look at as he waited. "Consider it a courtesy from one... friend to another."

Tibs frowned at the choice of words. Only corruption had said they were friends. "I don't have any secrets."

"There is no need to lie," Darkness said, a chuckle spreading. "Are you not keeping what you can do a secret from those around you? From the Guild?"

"But you know about that, so it can't count, can it?"

He sighed. Even without focusing, he couldn't make out Darkness's form from anything around him, or that of the shadow.

"You are correct," they answered. "But if you keep one from them, there must be others, some even I would not know about."

"But you're taking the words from my mind, can't you take any secrets there that you want? Or you can just ask me. I'll answer you honestly."

"That... is not how I am. I do not take or interrogate. It is why my... disciples are precious. They are not bound by the rules governing me. I accept secrets told to me. I open my arms and welcome them, and those seeking to say them in darkness.

Arms.

Tibs still felt Darkness's hands on his arms. "Then I don't know how to tell what's a secret; other than the one you already know." He looked at where the hand was on his arm and tried to make it out.