Lord of the Mysteries - Fountain of Blood (Fanfic)

Lex trudged through the damp, cold cave, the narrow passageways stretching on endlessly. The air was thick with moisture, pressing against her skin as she moved, her every step echoing off the stone walls. Time seemed to lose all meaning as she navigated the twisting corridors, the darkness swallowing her at every turn. The deeper she went, the heavier the silence became, as if the cave itself was trying to smother her thoughts. The weight of it was oppressive, the air was heavy with the stench of decay and stagnant water.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Lex reached the end of the cave. She looked up to see a metal sewer cover above her. Lex pushed up with all of her might and popped it out if position. She stumbled out of the shadowed stone into the cold, harsh light of the surface, her breath escaping in white puffs. The world around her was unfamiliar—distant, foreign. The stark chill of the snow-laden streets stung her face. She blinked and squinted against the biting cold, trying to make sense of where she was. This wasn't right.

The city stretched out before her, a cold, lifeless place. Snow blanketed the streets, and nobles in lavish carriages passed by, their faces obscured behind masks of indifference. The contrast was sharp—noblemen and women gliding through the streets in their finery, while gaunt, hungry children stared at them with hollow eyes, their bodies thin and frail. Lex felt the unease rise in her chest. This isn't where I was. Her mind was foggy, as though something was trying to block her thoughts.

She scanned the scene, taking in the unfamiliar architecture, the bleakness of the place. The sense of alienation was suffocating. Her clothes, still damp from the caves and sewers she had just emerged from, clung to her body, the smell of filth overpowering.

There was no time to dwell on that. A small movement caught her eye—a girl, standing near a lamppost, clutching a bundle of newspapers. She was thin, her clothes threadbare, but her presence in the street was striking in its normalcy. Lex stepped forward, the instinct to approach her pulling at something deep inside.

As she drew closer, Lex saw that the girl was holding a sign, but the words were a jumble of unfamiliar characters. She tried to focus, but her mind felt sluggish, heavy, as if there was a veil over her thoughts. The letters seemed close to something she should recognize, but they slipped just out of reach. Lex cleared her throat, forcing a smile, trying to bridge the gap.

"Hi, how much for a paper?" she asked, her voice sounding strange in her own ears. She tried to muster warmth, offering a smile that was more out of instinct than anything else.

The girl looked at her, a frown tugging at her lips, confusion clouding her expression. She spoke in a hurried, rapid stream of words. Lex caught only a few isolated sounds—some words were familiar, but they didn't fully make sense. It was as if the language itself were slipping through her fingers, like sand in the wind.

"Sorry," Lex said slowly, trying to piece together something coherent. "My... Loenese is lacking. I am not from here."

The girl paused, eyes narrowing slightly. She tied her brown hair into a messy ponytail, her gaze still locked on Lex. The girl didn't seem hostile, just confused, perhaps a little put off by the way Lex smelled—like the sewer she had just crawled out of.

"This is Backlund," the girl said with a puzzled tilt of her head. "Capital of the Loen Kingdom. How didn't you know that, miss?"

The name hit Lex with the force of a distant memory—a name she should have known, should have understood. But it felt as if someone had carved a piece of her past away, leaving her grasping for something just beyond her reach. Backlund... Loenese... She felt dizzy for a moment, the dissonance between what she knew and what she didn't grasp pulling at her sanity.

She tried to steady herself, blinking rapidly, but the moment of confusion passed. The girl continued to stare at her, a slight frown still on her face.

"Three pence for a paper. Or you have to leave," the girl said firmly, crossing her arms.

But before Lex could respond, a sudden, overwhelming darkness engulfed her vision.

It was as though the world itself had been snuffed out. No warning. No gradual fade. Just nothing. Her heart slammed against her chest as she gasped, disoriented, trying to understand what was happening. The cold, biting air vanished. The street, the snow, the girl—all of it was consumed by an oppressive, suffocating blackness.

The silence was deafening.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek cut through the darkness, the sound so shrill and desperate that it almost felt like it was ripping her mind apart. It was the girl. Lex could hear her scream as if it were inside her skull. What the hell is happening? She clawed at her head, clutching her temples as the sound grew louder, more frantic. It was unbearable. The pain—sharp, raw—gnawed at her thoughts. She couldn't escape it.

And then, just as quickly as it had come, it stopped.

Lex's vision returned with a jolt, the street snapping back into focus. She blinked, trying to clear the disorientation, but her head throbbed with a maddening ache. Her hands shook, and for a moment, she couldn't place what was real anymore. The crowd that had gathered around her was like a shifting mass of fear and suspicion, their eyes wide, their breaths shallow. The little girl stood at the front, pointing directly at Lex with trembling fingers.

The girl's mouth moved, but the words felt like a punch to Lex's chest.

"M-Miss... Y-Your eyes... T-They turned fully black."

The words rang in Lex's ears, but it wasn't just her ears—her eyes. Something had changed. Something was wrong. She could feel the weight of it, the unnatural darkness pressing in behind her pupils. Her breath caught in her throat as the crowd shifted uneasily, their expressions full of terror.

A part of Lex wanted to deny it, to scream that it wasn't possible, that she wasn't like this, but deep inside, she felt the change. The madness that had been quietly festering within her. She felt it now.

Her eyes were black. Fully, completely black.

The crowd's whispers and gasps washed over her like waves, distant and muffled, but their fear was palpable. What's happening to me? Lex thought, but even the question itself seemed to fade into something she couldn't quite grasp.

For the first time, she felt something other than confusion. The horror in the people's faces, the way they recoiled from her—Lex could almost taste it. Something twisted deep within her, some instinct pulling her toward this moment, toward this revelation.

And in that instant, the world seemed to crack open in a way she couldn't understand, but somehow, she knew it was only just beginning.