Guardians of the Watchtower: North

Chapter 15

Ivy woke up screaming the only light was coming through a small barred window, the sounds of her screams echoing all around her. The stone under her was moist and cold sending a chill deep into her bones as her teeth began to chatter. Looking around in the darkly lit room and crawling slowly across the floor, Ivy's hands scraping across the rough rock until she reached the wall. Feeling upward Ivy practically hugged the wall as she grabbed the metal bars on the window, looking out into the night she tried to figure out where she was, but she saw nothing but bare trees and mountains that cut across the night's sky, like a razor blade across fresh skin splitting it in half. She screamed again as she felt something run across her bare foot and clung tighter to the wall. Her beautiful dress weighed her down, it's soaking wet layers clung to her legs. Ivy grabbed handfuls of the gown and held it up, as she tried to move further into the room. Seeing the large wooden door on the opposite wall, She reached out her shaking hand and went for the metal ring that was the handle and pulled with all her might. Tears fell down her smudged angelic face as she screamed in frustration at the lack of its movement. Grabbing onto the bars in the window with both hands, she pressed her face between as far as she could and began screaming for anyone to come.
"Help me, John, Sylar.....mommy. Oh, Goddess please help me! HELP ME" Ivy slid down the firmness of it to the floor as she began shaking uncontrollably.
"She can't help you here."
"WHO'S THERE !, WHY DID YOU TAKE ME, I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!"
"I didn't take you!, I was taken too."
"Where are you?"
"In a cell just like you."
"How long have you been here? Why can't the goddess help us?"
"Because the Goddess can't see in the wastelands."
"We're in the wastelands???"
"Yeah, we're in Dovarian's castle."
"Who's Dovarian??"
But before the voice could reply a metal door slammed against a wall in the distance from them and footsteps were getting closer. Ivy watched as the light grew brighter and brighter down the hall she was able to see, her heart gripped with fear as she ran to the opposite wall in retreat and cowered in the corner. The clicking of the lock to her cell gave notice that they were coming for her. She started crying and frantically looking for a way out, but it was too late. The door gave way, and two huge figures came in, their faces looked like they had never seen sunlight, their mouths looked like they had been burned off, the flesh in its place was scarred and had holes where rotting teeth showed through. The sight of them pulled a blood-curdling scream from Ivy as they grabbed for her she fought back, kicking and screaming they dragged her from the cell. She stopped fighting as she saw a delicate hand slip back into the darkness from the window of the cell next to her.
The men slammed her into the wooden door of her cell, the blindfold stole her vision, as they bound her arms behind her and led her away dragging her down the halls and up the stairs. Ivy stopped fighting back and listened to what was going on around her. The sound of many voices, male and female, filled her ears. Sounds of metal against metal, the sizzling sound of water scorching and cooling hot metal, of hammering and men grunting. The difference in the heat compared to the cold wet cell, then one door after another opening and slamming behind them was enormous.
They came to a stop. Ivy listened, as wood whined and the sound of chains sliding down on either side of her make her jump a little as what she was sure were locks began unbolting one,two, three,click and another set of doors opened the gasps of women and men surrounded her. People began shouting and screaming profanity Ivy knew it was at her. Someone, trying to hurt her, was ballsy enough to grab her dress. The fabric ripped as Ivy began resist and kicked at whoever it was, only to be jerked hard in the opposite direction by one of the men holding her. He yelled for them to move back into the crowd. She stumbled slightly as they led her up a few stairs, with a blow to the back of her legs she collapsed to her knees, as they ripped the blindfold from her face.
Ivy found herself kneeling in front of a man, who looked similar to the men who had come to her cell, but his face was pale and perfect, with ebony black hair falling around him. Sitting half slumped in an egotistical kinda way, a sneer on his face as he looked her up and down. He was much too pretty for the twisted black throne he sat on. The black armor that he wore was shiny like it was slick with oil but it scraped against itself as he breathed in and out, the large spiked shoulders were the only part that looked like his throne. Ivy looked around to see the entire court filled with what looked like guards and people not from this time, women in cinched tight-waisted dresses with pinched faces and sneers fanning themselves and men in matching male counterparts. All of them looking at Ivy like she was a diseased animal.
"So you have ascended I see."
Ivy turned her attention back to the man on the throne but did not answer. He stood up and walked over to her backhanding her across the face, catching her ear just enough to make the ringing steal part of the cheers that came from the crowd behind her.
"YOU WILL ANSWER ME WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU!"
Ivy regained her hearing, looking up at him, her eyes now glowing green as the skin he had come in contact with began to redden and puff up, the heat from the blood made it throb slightly. Dovarian sneered as he pulled back his leg and kicked her square in the chest, sending her toppling over herself down the stairs where his men picked her up and brought her back to kneel before him again. Coughing harshly as the first trickle of blood slid down the side of her mouth from her cruel landing. Dovarian grabbed Ivy's chin he turned face sideways and licked the blood from her skin. It made her skin crawl as she quivered under his touch, he turned her face back to him.
"HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO BECOME THE GUARDIAN!!???"
Before he got his answer, Ivy, mouth full of blood spat in his face. His face contorted with pure hatred for her as he grabbed her by her hair, pulled her to her feet and backhanded her. Not with his hand but with the brute force of his size, so hard that took her off her feet and sent her flying into the crowd of people cheered at his abuse. The blows were coming from everywhere. The people were stomping, kicking and punching her as she tried to fight back until one of the guards pulled her from the crowd by her hair. Her face was cut and bruised her lip was swollen and busted, blood smeared across half the side of her face. the guards pushed her back down in the kneeling position in front of Dovarian again.
"YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!!! TAKE HER BACK TO HER CELL!! STARVE HER TILL SHE SPEAKS AND IF THAT DOESN'T WORK TAKE HER TO MY TOY ROOM AND CUT THE ANSWERS FROM HER PRECIOUS FLESH!"
The crowd continued to cheer even after the guards had drug her from the room, kicking and screaming. Looking around she tried to find a way out but could only see a sea of men hammering away at unfinished metal swords and axes, making armor and testing their skills against each other, she realized this wasn't a small place this was a place preparing for war. They were going to wage war against their own kind, and humans alike. They were going to slaughter everyone and take the world for themselves. It made Ivy fight harder to get free, but she didn't have a chance against these two huge men.
They tossed her like a ragdoll into the far wall of her cell, slamming and locking the door behind them, they left her in a crumpled pile on the floor gasping for breath. the last thing she heard as they slammed the metal door across the bars of the small window was,
"Your Goddess can't save you here. You're as good as dead."
Ivy curled into a ball on her side, pulled her knees as close to her chest as she could and began to cry. she felt like she was never going to see her mom again, that she was never gonna see the light again, she felt completely alone.
"Hey, hey stop crying, we can help each other!"
"What?" Ivy looked around sniffling, she stopped crying when she noticed a stone had fallen from the wall. Ivy crawled to her feet, feeling the throbbing pain from the attacks as she used the wall to stand up fully. She saw the dark opening where the stone had been. Slowly Ivy grabbed handfuls of the remainder of her ball gown and inched closer to it.
"How can we help each other?"
Out of the opening came the same delicate hand Ivy had seen before, but she turned her palm up and Ivy saw it.......a pentagram that looked like waves. Ivy gasped at the sight and ran to the opening looking into the other cell room. She was beautiful, her hair looked like a mermaid in the moonlight, and her eyes glowed a blue mixture of ice and sapphires with the same triple rings in them of Ivy's own eyes. She was full figured and had curves that could melt any man's heart to match her heart shaped face.
"I'm the Guardian of the West Tower."
"What's your name?"
"I'm Adaliah, but my friends call me Addy."
"I met Dovarian, he's a lovely guy."Without seeing her face, Addy could hear the thick sarcasm in Ivy's comment. It made her laugh a little, having already been exactly in Ivy's position, only difference was her face was already healed, gifts of water.
"How bad is your face?"
"My eye is almost swollen shut and my lip is busted, I think he busted my eardrum cause I can't hear fully and there's blood coming from ear..."
"Step back from the wall a little bit. " Ivy did as asked, Addy's hand came through the hole again.
"Put your face in the palm of my hand."
"Why?"
"Just do it you'll see why!"
Ivy looked at Addy's pentagram long enough to see the waves on her skin move like a living picture but placed her face against Addy's hand. Water trailed up Addy's legs to her arm and across to Ivy's face. The water was healing her wounds. Ivy's eyes opened fully, her lip went back down to its usual size and sealed back up, the water flowed into her mouth and for a second Ivy feared she'd drown, but she could breathe even with it filling her like a cup. Ivy could feel it mend her bruises and the bones that had been damaged the last few drops of water tasted salty.
"Sorry part fresh and part ocean water."
"That would explain the salt." Ivy was feeling her body and face.
"You healed me?!"
"Yeah, part of being water... what can you do?"
"Ummm, I don't know, I just ascended when they took me; I don't even know anything about what we are yet."
"Oh, so you didn't grow up knowing we were moonwalkers?"
"No, not until my party."
"So you haven't even cast your first power circle then?"
"No," Ivy massaged her neck nervously.
"Okay well now is better than never, we're both here, we can help each other escape."
"Okay what do I do?"
"Just watch me."
Ivy pressed her face against the wall, trying to get a clearer view of Adaliah, who had backed away from the wall. Spreading her feet wider and tying her hair up in itself to make a loose bun, Adaliah used both hands next to each other, palms open and began to trace a circle over and over again. She spoke almost too low to understand, but it was clear, and her palms flared to life. It was like someone was moving a sparkler real fast, leaving behind light trails in an unworldly mixer of ice and ocean blues.
"Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtower of the West by the power of water I summon you forth to witness this rite and to guard this circle."
The sound of the ocean crashing against the shores filled Ivy's ears as she ducked thinking it was really coming down on her. Realizing she was still safe and dry, she peered through the hole again, just in time to watch her hands break away from the main circle, a floating light in the air in front of her, like a frame almost. She watched as her hands began forming the five point star that was the center of the pentagram, both hands going in different directions forming the star at once and meeting at the edge together, she moved both hands together like she did when first started casting.The pentagram flipped upwards, as she finished, like someone tossing a gold coin in the air trying to catch it.It expanded as it came down, into a nice ten-foot radius, perfectly around her she was in the center of the pentagram. the outside ring was in the witch's alphabet but it was more ancient than the one she knew. Understanding what it said was very hard, as it spun around Adaliah like a mist floating on the ground.
"Now it's your turn to try, Ivy."
"Okay, so I say the words as I'm making the pentagram with my hands right?"
"Yeah, start with the outside circle and pull your energy into your core, as you say the words will it into your hands to cast the circle."