Henrietta The Half-dead

I tried to convey as much as possible about the contraption holding back Sen and my encounter with the guardian. Everything I said was vague and partial, incoherent babbling at best, but the wolf paid full attention. He looked down at me without moving an inch, listening to every silly word that came out of my mouth.

"Well, that sounds complicated," the wolf said. "But now that the old guardian of this place is a splatter on my wall, you should be able to see what really resides beyond the door at the top of the steps. You might find a workshop or something like it; a way to deal with the machine."

"If that was indeed the only guardian," I replied.

"I would watch what you promise to a puppeteer. They can manipulate and distort nearly everything."

"But only if they can see it, I suspect."

With an exchange of knowing glances, I left the wolf king and returned to the hall. The dust on the floor was disturbed where the entity had dropped and smashed its sword. My little footsteps scrambled in the dirt but there were none belonging to the guardian.

Seeing the handle to the door was broken off just as I recalled, I picked up the discarded sword handle. Some of the ruined blade remained and it was just light enough for me to carry, although it was still much too large for me. Slipping the broken weapon between the wood and stone, the door came open with a few good prying attempts.

Instead of the false darkness from earlier, the open door revealed a normal hallway. Fashioned to look like the inside of a castle, as was probably going to be the norm from that point on, it stretched a good distance away from me to another door. The walls were tiled and held more torches, but there were no other doors or crossing paths. The simple hall was probably a choke point to keep the prisoners buried should a breakout occur. It must have been larger at some point to allow the wolf king to pass through.

The next door was made of iron. It was much more difficult to push open but it wasn't locked and I made it through to the other side with plenty of effort. I found myself in yet another grand hall like the one that held the prisoners, but this one had seen much more violence. The entirety of the room had been damaged. Large cuts and gashes covered the pillars, walls, and floor. It was difficult to guess what could have caused such markings, but I was sure it was related to the prisoner cave-ins.

There were four doors behind the pillars to explore, and at the other end of the hall there was a strange empty door frame set against the wall. It appeared I had come to a dead end if the other rooms offered no new paths. One of the four rooms needed to contain a way to free the wolf or the puppeteer, but I had the additional problem of getting the old giant anywhere but the hall.

If I could free Sen, I may not need the wolf king to escape, but the puppeteer didn't seem to be physically capable. I needed the wolf in case any creatures would attack me, such as the black guardian. Sen would be able to handle any magickal situations such as the paper seals. There was no questioning that I needed them both.