Work Text:
Free!
To finally be able to move again. Ah, there was nothing like it. Lord Withermoore paced a few steps in front of the wall he'd been stuck to for so long. It felt good to move. To walk. That first step had been the most marvelous thing he'd ever experienced.
The little one wasn't quite as useless as he'd thought, having brought actual help to introduce him to. (And, if he was honest, Mody was not that bad company. Time had begun to erode what standards he held, it seemed. A child. Honestly. He'd never considered them much different to pets people kept, intellectually speaking.)
But now he was able to move and that 'adventurer' who'd freed him had also promised to destroy his Soul Jar when he came across it. Good. Good. He hoped that'd be soon.
But. Hm. Moving was great – but he was still inside that same small part of a cave he'd been in for … far too long. Thousands of years. Goodness.
But mayhap. Mayhap.
He didn't have to spent his remaining time inside this small (spacious enough, to be fair, but still enclosed) space, did he? He could … leave this cave behind and walk the outside world?
Mody had mentioned something about this being a Sourcerer prison but –
He had not seen the sky in so long. Surely … surely he could at least step outside the caves and see the sky again before the end? (Mody expected him to leave, hadn't he?)
Only.
Only what if this was all just a dream of his tired mind and he was still stuck against that wall?
Was he truly freed?
He stopped pacing, frozen.
His gaze darted around.
No. No, this cave part looked different than he remembered. (Did he remember this part of his prison even?)
Well.
Only one way to find out!
Bracing himself, Withermoore took a hesitant step forward and then another and another until he reached the ladder leading upward toward – freedom? The sky? He didn't know.
But he had spent long enough stuck in this space, he would not voluntarily spend any more time still down here after he was no longer forced to.
Finding himself in another, bigger part of the cave system was a bit of a disappointment but at least there were more beings around. People that looked a bit startled to see him emerge but ultimately left him to his own devices.
Light.
Oh, Seven.
He could see light through the entrance of the cave.
Not torchlight; daylight.
His new goal firmly in sight, Withermoore reverently made his way over and stepped outside. Taking a deep breath (so to speak considering his living condition or rather lack thereof) he tilted his head up and caught his first glimpse of the sky in millenia.
