by Aaron Oster
It fluctuated wildly, a purple light spreading around the edges burning away the red and slowly creeping around its circumference, stabilizing the portal and causing it to shine ever brighter. Grace felt like her body was on fire from the inside, but she forced herself to remain focused and keep her eyes locked straight ahead.
It seemed that it would take several minutes for the portal to stabilize, and so long as she didn’t falter, they would succeed!
***
Elyssa stared as the portal began to fluctuate, the immense power pouring through her body almost enough to force her to let go. She honestly hadn’t expected the process to be so easy, and yet, here it was, right before her very eyes. She chastised herself then and began concentrating on the spot where she wanted the portal to open.
She could see it clearly in her mind’s eye. The circular area of rainbow-colored stone. The five pavilions, each set for one of the rulers of Faeland. She wanted a portal to open in the exact center, in the place where the new Pantheon had come through to warn them of the incursion over a year ago.
The warping portal began to stabilize as soon as she fixed their destination in her mind, and a bright, violet light began burning away at the edges, replacing the chi with reiki and calming the tempest that was flowing through her.
Elyssa felt more alive than she ever had, wondering if it were somehow possible to keep this marvel once this was all over. If she could store power in this device and pull it out in the middle of a battle, she might even be able to overcome one of the World Beasts!
Her race’s ability to join techniques into one didn’t really work for her, since, as a supermage, she used reiki instead of mana or chi to power her skills. Her own troops weren’t strong enough either, not to make a real difference in a fight against those monsters. However, Elyssa’s hopes for keeping the sphere were dashed as soon as the power began to run out and the portal grew completely stable.
Oh well, she thought, as the sphere slipped from her fingers. It was nice while it lasted.
***
Katherine wasn’t really sure what she should be feeling at the moment. There was a beam of reiki flowing through her stomach and into the portal, slowly stabilizing it for travel. It was an odd sensation, a feeling of overwhelming power but one that she couldn’t quite wrap her head around.
The fact of the matter was that she wasn’t actually using any of it. It wasn’t even technically running through her body but along the activation sequence of her own skill. It was a real head-scratcher, as she’d never even known that a skill functioned in this way. Apparently, invisible threads of chi were flowing out of her core, and those threads of power were what kept the portal open.
The reiki flowing through her was using those exact channels as a conduit, flashing across them to stabilize the portal and hopefully get them to their destination. It took nearly five minutes before the last of the chi was burned away and the portal became stable. However, right before the fluctuations stopped, there was a cry of alarm from Grace.
A flash of purple flew past her left shoulder and came to rest right above the stable portal. Katherine only had a second to recognize the glass sphere, floating above the portal, before two lines of power blasted from either side, flowing down in the shape of an arch around the open portal and slamming into the ground.
Katherine blinked a few times, then reached up to rub at her eyes as both Grace and Elyssa let go of her back.
“Gold, you bastard,” Katherine muttered, staring at the now-stable portal.
“What the hell is that?!” Grace exclaimed, stepping out from behind her and staring at the portal in shock.
“I’m an idiot,” Katherine said, glaring at the very permanent portal that now stood at the center of her palace.
The shining glass sphere stood roughly seven feet in the air, twin streaks of violet extending from both sides and forming an arch. In its center stood a shimmering, purple-edged oval, its surface almost glassy in appearance. It was the most stable portal Katherine had ever seen, and just by looking at it, she knew it wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
“Well, I suppose that peace treaty is now more important than ever,” Elyssa said, stepping out to stand beside her.
“I suppose this would affect your people as much as it would mine,” Katherine said, looking down to the shorter woman.
“At least it gives us a way through,” Elyssa replied, looking up to meet her eyes. “Let us first take care of the traitors who nearly cost us all our lives. Then, we can worry about what to do with this.”
“Agreed,” Katherine said, gesturing forward. “Would you care to go first? You are the guest of honor, after all.”
Elyssa stepped forward, eyes blazing.
“It would be my honor.”
71
“Welcome, one and all, to our very first council of war,” Shedra said, trying his best to hide the wide grin that wanted nothing more than to spread across his face.
He paused to take a look around, making sure to meet each of the current ruler’s eyes. They sat before him, gathered in preparation of this long-awaited day. In the elven pavilion stood Gilderon, his eyes cold and hard. Sitting on the throne beside him was an elf who had long been working with him. His name was Harigama, and he was Elyssa’s third cousin and the successor to the elven throne.
Elyssa had had no family, no children, and no named heirs, so her cousin had taken the throne after her death.
Gilderon didn’t look very happy about that, and had Shedra not already planned on killing them all today, he was sure that the elf would likely have found himself with a knife in his back before the week was out.
In the next pavilion sat Ragnar, King of the Dwarves. Despite the fact that the two weeks of mourning had passed, the dwarf didn’t look as though he was over the death of his surrogate niece quite yet.
Not to worry, Shedra thought. You’ll be joining that bitch soon enough.
His eyes flicked to the centermost pavilion, where Malachi, the King of the Beastmen, sat. Unlike the first two, he was alert, his bright eyes fixed squarely on Shedra, suspicion clearly written in every line of his body. Around him stood several of his wives and warriors, all powerful fighters in their own right, but Shedra had already known that the beastman was suspicious and had prepared accordingly.
Tork was in the next pavilion, surrounded by several powerful trolls, an old, wrinkled shaman, and his wife, Limma, who held his weapon — the massive war club that had won him his current title of Head Chief.
The trolls might be the easiest to take out, right alongside the other gnomes. They weren’t expecting him to attack them. In fact, Shedra planned on trying out a little experiment of his own when the fighting began. Troll chieftains were all supermages, but they were not born with the ability as most others were.
They won their abilities in battle, by crushing the previous chief and stealing the power for themselves. There had been chieftains in the past that had been killed by non-trolls, and the power hadn’t passed to the killers, going instead to someone the ability saw fit, but Shedra had come prepared.
He wasn’t entirely sure if it would work or not, but he had injected himself with a vial of troll’s blood. It would run through his system and be purged in about two hours – he wouldn’t want troll blood infecting him, after all – but he wanted to see if having the blood of one in his veins would grant him the supermage ability if he killed the troll chieftain personally.
All he needed to do before he started with his massacre was get all of the leaders to sign the binding contract, proclaiming the start of the war to eradicate the humans for betraying and killing the elven queen.
“We have gathered to declare our intent to crush the vile human scourge for what they did to the beloved Queen Elyssa,” he continued, after an appropriate pause. “In my hand, I hold a contract, a binding contract, that will see us all join together and crush the humans for what they have done. There is nothing more that needs to be said.
You have each been sent copies of the contract, so all that you need to do now is sign it to seal the fates of the scourge and have them wiped out for good!”
There was no cheering, no clapping, no accolades given. Shedra was annoyed at this. It had taken him several hours to plan that speech and to get no reaction at all hurt his ego.
It doesn’t matter, he told himself as an attendant rushed over to take the contract and bring it over to be signed by the elves. They’ll all soon be dead, and you will rule all of Faeland.
Harigama opened the contract, then looked up to him. Shedra hid a pleased smile as the elf didn’t even bother reading it, holding his hand out for a pen, and with it, sealing his fate!
***
Ragnar sat back on the stone throne, feeling nothing at all. The past two weeks had been hell, complete and utter misery. He hadn’t wanted to believe it at first. He just couldn’t bring himself to believe that Elyssa was dead. It was impossible, after all she’d said and after meeting the human who wanted peace. He’d been sure the gnomes were planning something and that they were lying about Elyssa’s death.
He was also sure that if given enough time, she would show up with the human she was to marry and that they’d proclaim Shedra as a traitor to their kind. Yet no one had come. Day after day had passed, and Elyssa had never shown up. And, with each day that passed, her absence was more keenly felt.
Ragnar couldn’t help but feel as though he’d betrayed his old friend. The late king of the elves had entrusted him with his daughter’s safety and wellbeing, and when he’d died, leaving Elyssa all alone, Ragnar had taken it upon himself to ensure that she still had a family. He had loved her as his own, and now, she was gone.
Going to war wouldn’t change that or fill the hole in his heart. Vengeance never did. Ragnar knew that firsthand.
What still troubled him was the fact that the man he’d met, the one Elyssa trusted and who Ivaldi had crafted a weapon for, would do something so horrible. It made no sense. It was why he’d resisted the idea of her demise so vehemently in the beginning. Even now, with all of the evidence pointing to his betrayal, there was a small part of Ragnar that still couldn’t believe it was true.
Morgan wanted peace as much as his niece did, so why would he do something like this?
“King Ragnar?”
Ragnar looked up and saw a gnome standing before him, holding out the contract that would officially start the war.
He reached out, taking the parchment and staring blankly down at the text, both reading what was contained there, without actually absorbing any of it. His mind was elsewhere. Trying desperately to both fight the grief and deny it at the same time.
“King Ragnar, are you not going to sign?”
Ragnar started and looked up to see Shedra, the Speaker of the Council of Five, staring back at him. The gnome looked all-too-pleased with this arrangement, and just for a moment, Ragnar was tempted to tear the contract in half and simply walk away. He wanted no part in this war, just as his niece hadn’t. If he refused to sign, he knew that Malachi wouldn’t either. The beastmen had already lost more than anyone in this war so far, and he would be eager to see it end.
However, the elves would not back down, and with them backing the trolls and gnomes, they would have to join either way. It was either that or shatter the pact they’d made long ago, joining in peace and preventing wars between the five races of Faeland.
Shedra knew that. It was why he’d had the elves sign first, instead of having the gnomes or trolls do it.
If they had passed the contract the other way, Malachi might have refused. If he did and Ragnar did, Gilderon might have been able to pressure the new elven leader to do the same. Then again, judging by the redness of the elf’s eyes and the way he glared at the new king, he probably wouldn’t have done so either way.
He had suffered a great loss as well. Elyssa had been his responsibility, and in the mind of her caretaker, her death was on his head. As bad as Ragnar felt, he knew that Gilderon had to be feeling about a hundred times worse.
“King Ragnar?” Shedra said, speaking a little louder this time. “The contract.”
Ragnar glared up at the gnome. His impetuous voice made the still-grieving king consider tearing it in two once again, but Ragnar held himself back, as he knew the gnomes probably had copies.
So, instead, he held his hand out to his son, taking the proffered pen.
“I don’t like this,” he said as he handed it over.
“Neither do I,” Ragnar said, not turning to look at him. “But what choice do we have?”
Ragnar lowered the pen to sign his name next to the elven king’s signature, and suddenly, the light vanished. He started, looking up in alarm as gasps and cries of panic sounded throughout the clearing.
“What the hell is going on?” he heard Harigama ask from the next pavilion over, but Ragnar already knew.
“We need to leave! Now!” he said, already rising from his throne, contract forgotten. “There’s a World Beast on the way. We must leave. We can reconvene at a later date!”
“No!” Shedra yelled, his careful composure slipping. “We can still sign the contract if we move quickly enough. This is just the trailing edge of the World Beast. We still have time!”
“You might,” Ragnar said, already starting to move for the perimeter, “but I refuse to stay here, out in the open and exposed!”
Unlike the others, he had seen the devastation a World Beast could wreak and had witnessed the change in the world as one approached. He had seen the death it had left in its wake. The massive serpent would have changed the world in a different way on its approach, but this one was all-too-familiar to him. After all, this World Beast had been slumbering within his very borders for over a thousand years.
“No!” Shedra yelled. “You can’t leave! I will not allow it!”
Everyone froze at that. Malachi, who was also in the process of leaving, wise to the destruction of the World Beasts from the stories passed down through the generations, stood in place. Harigama, who was cowering in his throne while Gilderon tried to get him to move, was glued to the seat. Tork, who had risen from his throne and was looking at the full moon now hanging in the sky above, froze at Ragnar’s voice, as did the other Councilors, who were already being loaded back into their palanquins.
“Excuse me?” Ragnar said, turning to face the hotheaded gnome. “You will not allow it?! Last I checked, gnome, you only had a fifth of the power of a real ruler. You do not command anyone! Breaker is on his way, and I, for one, will not wait around for his arrival!”
He turned from the seething gnome, expecting the conversation to be at its end. But apparently, the gnome had other ideas.
“No!” he yelled. “None of you are going anywhere! Men, surround them!”
Ragnar turned back to see Shedra holding a small communication orb in his hand. For just a few moments, he didn’t understand what the gnome was trying to accomplish. Then, soldiers began to appear. There were only a few dozen at first, coming out of the forest and flanking the circular meeting area. Soon, though, dozens more joined, moving to block off any escape, keeping all those foolish enough to come here from running.
Ragnar ground his teeth as Shedra finally allowed the ugly mask he’d been hiding to show through. He smiled a smile that made the dwarf’s stomach turn. He knew that there was little any of them could do, though he inwardly berated himself for not seeing something like this coming. Someone like Shedra would never be happy with being a simple Councilor. He would want to rule. And what was the fastest way to do that? Eliminate the competition.
Shedra took a single step forward, the smug grin plastered on his face as the other leaders looked on in shock. Before he could say so much as a word, however, a blazing violet light appeared in the air at the very center of the meeting area.
They all flinched back, squinting against the sudden brightness as two lines traced down from the center of the purple light, tracing the outline of an arch
way in midair.
“It seems that I’m a bit late to the party,” said a very familiar-sounding voice that seemed to echo through the portal. “I was planning on bursting in and letting everyone know what a slimeball Shedra was, but it seems he’s already beaten me to it.”
Ragnar’s eyes widened as a figure appeared in the portal, striding purposefully through, her body silhouetted in the doorway.
He felt tears begin to form at the corners of his eyes, even as a wide grin stretched across his face.
“I knew you were still alive!” he bellowed, running for the portal.
The woman stepped through, finally revealing the features of his niece. Elyssa, Queen of the Elves, was still alive, just as he’d known she was!
72
Elyssa stepped through the portal and right into the middle of a disaster, which was the worst possible timing. The sky above was dark, a full moon hanging in the air and illuminating a scene right out of her worst nightmares.
All of the leaders of Faeland were gathered at the meeting point, which in turn, was surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of enemy troops. It seemed that the gnomes had planned a massive coupe. Or, more likely, it had been Shedra himself so that he could assume the mantle of leadership over the entirety of Faeland.
Worse, judging by the darkness they’d walked into, there was something even more dangerous on the way. Elyssa remembered well the green haze that had spread across the sky, announcing the arrival of the World Beast Strangler.
The sun itself had turned from a brilliant star in the sky, to a sickly acidic green. The air had changed, becoming thin, and breathing had become harder.
This was different, though. The sky had changed from day to night, which heralded the arrival of another World Beast, though she didn’t know which one it was.
