Scene 4 - Cave

Edward was washing his hands in the bathroom when the door was slammed open, breaking the lock. On pure reflex Edward had both his knife and gun out in the blink of an eye. He dove to the tile floor, sliding, turning around to see his attacker and landed in a small puff of dirt on a cave floor. His knife and gun were simply gone from his hands as if they had never been there at all. This was no mirror traveling or any other traveling Edward was familiar with. Edward’s would be attacker seemed equally perplexed by this sudden change in venue. The attacker was standing a few feet away from Edward looking around the cave as if trying to convince himself it was real. Three torches of blue flame were bracketed to the walls of the cave. But there was something strange about them beyond that their flames were the wrong color. It took Edward a moment to realize what it was. The flames were flickering too slowly. It was as if they were in slow motion. They were more like trees gently swaying back and forth in a gentle breeze than flickering flames. 

Edward stood up and brushed himself off, for the moment unworried about the Fairy that had been about to attack him. “I take it you are not responsible for this?” Edward asked just to be sure.

“No,” the Fairy asked, “And neither are you?”

Edward shook his head before asking, “Do you know where we are?”

“I do not, but it appears to be our destiny to be here together. I propose to set aside our differences for the time being.”

“Agreed,” Edward said, glancing around. 

The three strange blue torches were bracketed to the stone walls of the cave by simple iron fixtures. Their slow dance created a pool of wavering blue light which Edward was now standing in the middle of. He could see the dark grey shades of stone walls nearly surrounding the small pool of flickering light. There were only two places where a darker blackness suggested an opening. It was out of one of these dark openings that a long bearded man walked. His beard was a coarse brown and hung down to his large brass belt buckle. Dirt and small pebbles were lodged in the beard’s matted length. His hair was a densely curled brown with the same level of cleanliness as his beard. He wore knee high brown leather boots which were beaten and worn. Their steel toes were dull in the torch light. His nose was broken and oddly large for his face. 

“You’re late!” the dirty man shouted in a gruff voice, “No respect!” 

“Where are we?” Edward asked.

“No matter!” the man shouted before walking up to Edward and unceremoniously kicking him in the shins. The steal toe of the man’s boot connected with an audible crack.

“What can I do for you?” Edward grunted, suppressing the urge to rip the man’s beard out. Whoever was capable of transporting him as well as a Fairy without warning into some cave was not someone to cross lightly.

Before the strange man answered Edward’s question, he walked over to the Fairy and stabbed him before anyone could react. It was a quick and completely unwarned. The man produced a knife from somewhere, it flashed blue in the torch light before piercing the Fairy’s chest. The Fairy burst into ash and before the ashes had settled, the man had secreted away the knife once more.

“Fear not!” the man shouted as if he hadn't just killed someone, “Answer my questions!”

“What questions would those be?” Edward asked, backing to what he hoped was a safe distance away.

“Why you are collecting Changelings!” the man shouted.

“They are a powerful force which I believe I can control,” Edward answered obediently. 

“To what ends!?”

“Why do you wish to know?”

“Answer!” the man shouted. He was suddenly within kicking range again and his steel toe once again connected with Edwards shin. Edward wasn’t entirely sure if the man had moved through the intervening space or if the space simple ceased to exist. It was as if the space that had separated Edward from this man had simply squashed together so that the man could kick Edward once more. 

“I haven’t decided yet,” Edward said, bracing for another kick. But none came. 

“You may continue collecting!”

“Thank you,” Edward said, unsure of where this was heading.

“But not Jack Donnelly!” 

“What? Why?”

Another hard kick to the shins. “Not Jack Donnelly! Not his destiny!”

“Destiny? You sound Fae.”

This time Edward was ready for the kick to his shins, or at least he thought he was. Pain shot up his leg. He could have sworn his leg was broken. Edward fell to one knee on the floor. 

“Your mother expects obedience!”

“Of course,” Edward said with a nod, willing his mind to understand what was going on, “What would she have me do with Jack Donnelly?” If his mother was behind this… what? None of this was making any sense. His mother was of course a powerful player but she had never cared if he interfered with the Courts. Hell, interfering with the Courts was arguably the reason for his existence. What was her goal in this? And why was this new Changeling so important?

“Make sure he chooses a Court!”

“By when?”

“Within the week!”

“I obey.” Edward was grasping for a way to gain more information. Yet he knew that the only way he may get information from this man would result in getting kicked yet again.

“Do not fail!”

“I will make sure they take him,” Edward said, “Why does my mother wish him to chose?”

“Not your concern!” Kick. “Of the Seven!” Kick. “Not your concern!” Kick. Edward was laying on the floor now. That last kick had landed in his gut. The man stood over him, looking down. The man cocked his head as if he were here a voice. “Stay here!” the man shouted before kicking Edward one last time - square in the chest - and left Edward laying on the dirt floor of the cave. The sound of the odd man’s footsteps were quickly swallowed up by the darkness of the cave.

Edward lay nursing his wounds in the slowly flickering light of the blue torches until he was suddenly grabbed by the scruff of his neck and hauled to his feet. 

“Get up!” a man shouted into his ear. This was a different man than before. He was similar in nearly every way. He wore knee high, steel toe boots. A brass belt buckle. His hair and long beard were tangled and matted and full of dirt and pebbles. The only major differences were that this new man’s hair was black and that his large nose was unbroken. “Fear not!” the black haired man said releasing his hold on Edward’s neck. 

Edward almost lost his footing and fell over but managed to stay on his feet.

“Follow!” the man shouted and strode off into one of the dark patches which signified a tunnel opening in the cave wall.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Edward said, but followed all the same. The blue light from the torches quickly faltered and the tunnel became pitch black. Edward followed the wall of the cave with his hand so that he didn’t run smack into the wall. The only reason Edward didn’t fall on his face was because the floor was smooth hard pack dirt. Edward could hear the footfalls of the black haired man in front of him but otherwise was completely alone in the darkness of the cave. 

The tunnel twisted and turned causing Edward to lose all sense of direction. The only thing that Edward was reasonably sure about concerning the direction they were going was that they were going deeper down into the cave. 

Edward began counting his steps as a way of keeping time in the darkness. He counted them out silently under his breath. “One, two, three….” When he reached a thousand, he stopped counting. 

Some time after Edward had given up counting, Edward began to make out a light out ahead. He could see the silhouette of the man in front of him in the light. It appeared to be the same flickering blue light as the strange blue torches where Edward had first found himself in the cave. Edward felt like he had just noticed the light up ahead, when they were walking into the pool of blue light. His eyes slowly adjusted to the sudden brightness. A great underground city was laid out in front of him lit by thousands of the blue torches. Edward was standing high above the city and the beginning of a long staircase carved into the wall leading down to the great cavern floor and into the heart of the city. Edward could see the small shapes of men moving through the narrow twisted streets of the city. Hundreds of squat buildings built with a mixture of stone and steel were crowded onto the cavern floor. None of them were more than two floors tall and none of them appeared to be of regular shape. Few of the walls were even vertical and were instead leaning noticeably outwards or inwards. This hodgepodge of buildings was arrayed around a large central tower which rose to heights above where Edward stood. The tower’s base was a misshaped polygon with a few concave corners to go along the the convex ones. The tower’s walls rose from the ground, appearing to bulge slightly in a few places. Small balconies and a smattering of large ones even reached out from the sides of the tower in odd places. Scattered all around the outside of this great central tower were hundreds of the blue torches, lighting its sides revealing them to be made of the same irregular assortment of steel and stone as the small hovels which surrounded it. The most noticeable feature of the tower was the fact that it was leaning to the side. Given the misshapen construction and the apparent instability of the tower, there was no way that the tower should be standing. The tower not falling over into a pile of rubble and dust was an affront to physics. 

“Move!” the man shouted and Edward quickly stopped staring and followed the man down the steep staircase. Edward kept wanting to look at the great city with its magnificent impossible central tower, but the staircase proved treacherous. Edward slipped and nearly tumbled down the long flight of stairs. There was no railing to hold on to and the steps were tall, narrow, and as irregular as the town below. Few of the steps were level and there depth varied from the length of a long stride to barely deep enough for Edward's foot to fit without overhanging the next step.  

Edward breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the bottom. He could still see the tower, rising high above the other buildings. The blue torches bracketed to its sides revealed many of its balconies to be completely unsupported beneath. It was as if the law of gravity and the rest of physics had forgotten this place.

“Follow!” the black haired man shouted without turning to look back at Edward as he led the way into the city. 

The two of them passed many other men who all shared the similar qualities as the two Edward had already seen. Long dirty beards hanging to a brass belt buckles, steel toed boots, large noses. The hovels they passed had windows which were little more than holes in the walls. There was no glass, shutters, or curtains of any kind on any of the windows. The streets were all the same hard packed dirt.

“Enter!” the man Edward had been following said without stopping. He only pointed his finger at one of the many hovels without even looking and strode off into the city. 

“Thanks,” Edward said exasperated towards the man’s back and walked inside. The inside of the hovel was a strange contrast to the city. The floor wasn’t the packed dirt Edward expected. It was hard wood floor, oak if Edward’s guess was right. Instead of the strange blue torches, there were several candles around the room set in brass holders. There were two leather armchairs with a wooden end table between them. A man was sitting comfortably in one reading a book and sipping out of a glass. 

“Ah, you’re here,” the man said, looking up from his reading, “Come in, come in. Please, sit.” The man motioned towards the other arm chair. His hair was a lustrous brown, pulled back into a short ponytail. His face was clean shaven and he wore a black suit with a bright red tie. But the thing that stuck out was his eyes. His eyes were like those of a cat’s. His pupil was a small sliver of black surrounded by a brilliant gold iris the color of the sun. He had an olive complexion.  

Edward brushed his feet off on the welcome mat and walked in. 

“Would you care for something to drink?” the man offered, “I’m afraid scotch is all I have, but it’s good. I’m not sure how old it is, but it’s pretty good.”

“No, thank you,” Edward said, cautiously sitting down, “Where am I?”

“Very well,” the man said, ignoring Edward’s question, “To business then. I take it you got your message?”

“I guess you could say that,” Edward said, hopeful he might finally be getting some real information, “I was rather confused as to the reason though.”

“Ah, yes,” the man said, “Perhaps I should clarify that I am… not supposed to clarify.” The man laughed rather loudly at his own joke.

Edward gave him a little smile. “Then what are you here for?”

“I am here to hire your services on a separate matter,” the man said. Edward noticed that the man’s tongue was forked, like a snake’s.

“And what matter is that?” 

“I need you to kill someone for me,” the man said. 

“I’m not an assassin,” Edward answered.

“No, you’re not,” the man said, “but I am.”

“Then why don’t you kill them?” 

“I’m afraid I cannot kill this particular individual,” the man said dismissively, “The reason for that is unimportant.” Edward saw the flash of rows of needle like teeth. He could have sworn this strange man’s teeth had been normal before.

“Just for curiosity’s sake, who do you want me to kill?” Edward asked.

“I believe you know him as Jonathan,” the man said before carefully taking a sip from his glass. The ice clinked in the silence that followed.

“Why would I kill Jonathan?” Edward asked.

“Because if you don’t,” the man explained in an easy tone, “I will kill the rest of your little collection. I think I would start with Emily. Always pick off the weak ones first. And then I would kill Tom or maybe I would let him suffer through his wife’s death for awhile first.”

“Fine, I get it,” Edward said, standing from his chair. Before he headed for the door he asked, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you want Jonathan dead?” 

“Oh, I don’t care,” the man said, “But my employer does and before you ask, I don’t even know who my employer is let alone their reason for wanting your little Changeling dead.”

“Great,” Edward said. He had just been told he was going to lose two of his Changelings. He already thought of Jack as one of his. Edward was confident that hook had been firmly set. 

“You may leave,” the man said. Edward noticed that the man’s fingernails were slowly growing longer, curving into claws. It was as if an animal was clawing its way out of this man. Edward saw a muscle on the mans arm ripple and suddenly bulge, the muscle growing. Scale began to sprout out of the man’s arm. 

That was when Edward decided it was time to leave. He quickly walked to the door and walked through. 

And found himself in the farmhouse.

Continue with Act II