Escape from Celestial

by Tony Johnson

  “Kari Quinn! Are you challenging me to see who can consume more food?” he asked, intrigued by the potential competition.

  However, before either of them dug into the food, there was a creak made by someone coming down the wooden stairs from one of the upper rooms.

  “I hope you saved some for me,” Steve sniffed, taking in the aroma.

  Kari, Ty, and Mrs. Sep stood up in surprise.

  “We would’ve brought some up to you,” Mrs. Sep advised. “We didn’t think you’d wake up for another four or five hours.”

  “I smelled breakfast. I’ll always be there for breakfast.”

  “Well then, by all means, if you feel up to it, come join us,” Mr. Sep invited the aching warrior as he added another chair.

  “How are you feeling?” Kari asked, concerned.

  “Sore, but better.” He looked at the Seps, “Thank you, both of you, and to you three as well,” he turned to the men from Serendale.

  The three simply nodded with wide-eyes, surprised the Human was up and walking.

  “Eat up,” Mrs. Sep encouraged. “You need to get your strength back. As soon as you’re done you’re going back to bed. You shouldn’t overdo it.”

  Steve promised to comply and, along with everyone else, immediately dug into the food. For the first time since before the siege, he, Ty, and Kari were eating a delicious, home-cooked meal. They devoured everything on their plates and then refilled them for a second time with even more food. It was only Kari who noticed the amazed grins on the faces of the two cooks at the amount the three travelers were eating.

  “If we knew how hungry you were, we would’ve found more for you to eat last night,” Mr. Sep laughed.

  Once the heroes were unable to physically consume anymore and felt like their stomachs were going to burst, Mr. and Mrs. Sep started picking up the dishes, but Steve asked them to sit for a little longer.

  “There’s something we need to tell you.” With a deep breath, he said, “There is no silver lining in the news I’m about to share. It’s as bad as bad can get, so I’m just going to come out and say it. Celestial has fallen. King Zoran is dead. I saw him murdered with my own two eyes, as well as the Supreme Commander, the twelve Guardian Knights, and thousands of civilians.”

  After a speechless moment of shock, a stunned Willis said, “King Zoran dead? You’re kidding!”

  “I wish I was,” Steve said solemnly.

  “What in the world happened?” Mr. Sep asked in disbelief. He was leaning on the back two legs of his chair with his hands on either side of his head.

  “An unidentified man, who we later found out to be Prince Silas’s father organized the attack. He had powers like King Zoran did, total control over all five elements. We call him the Hooded Phantom because his outfit consisted of a black cloak, silver armor, and a mask. His army was at least 20,000 monsters strong.”

  “At least,” Ty emphasized, trying to help them understand the magnitude of the attack.

  “Prince Silas was involved,” Steve continued, his anger visible in his clenched jaw. “The Phantom had the king defeated and could’ve easily killed him himself, but he waited for Silas to come and reveal himself as part of the attack. It was as if the Phantom knew he could hurt Zoran more by having him know his grandson betrayed him.

  “Silas now has the Aurelian Sword and the king’s crown. He is calling himself the ruler of what they are hoping will become a new monster kingdom.”

  “So, Silas Zoran is now the king?” asked Griegan.

  “No,” Steve bitterly answered. “He is not and will never be referred to as king. The title of king constitutes honor and respect, qualities Silas has never shown.”

  “This Hooded Phantom fella,” Mr. Sep interjected, wanting to know more, “you didn’t see who he was, did you?”

  “No, underneath the hood he wore a mask. But,” Steve said, thinking back to the battle in the King’s Tower, “he took it off to show his identity to the king. Zoran seemed shocked at the reveal. He said, ‘I thought I killed you long ago!’ I have no idea who it could have been.”

  “I might have an idea,” theorized Mr. Sep. Everyone at the table perked up with interest. “You are all likely too young to remember, and there are a lot of rumors surrounding this event, but many years ago, there was a warrior who murdered King Zoran’s wife and daughter. No one knows exactly what happened, no one even knows the warrior’s name, but I’ll tell you what I’ve heard repeated most often.

  “Zoran’s wife, Queen Evalyn, gave birth to a baby girl named Kyra. Shortly after Princess Kyra turned eighteen, she fell in love with a warrior. Her parents didn’t trust the man, Zoran especially. They objected to her wanting to get married, which made the princess angry. In rebellion, she eloped against their wishes, moved out of the castle to live with the warrior, and became pregnant. She gave birth to Silvanus Zoran, who we all know as Prince Silas.”

  Everyone at the table was intrigued by the brief lesson in history that was widely unspoken of in Celestial.

  “The next part of the story is somewhat unclear, but, apparently, sometime after the birth of Silas, Kyra reconciled with her parents and moved back into the castle, only she did so without her warrior husband. Then one day, and I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news, word came here to the Den that Queen Evalyn and Princess Kyra had been murdered. Zoran never revealed who did it or what happened. All he said was, ‘The person responsible for their deaths will never hurt anyone again.’ Most people believe the father of Silas is somehow to blame.”

  “That must be who the Hooded Phantom is!” Steve said, excited to know more of the villain’s background. “His experience as a warrior would explain why he was so talented in battle.”

  “It has to be him,” Kari confirmed. “When Silas addressed Celestial, he referred to the Hooded Phantom as his father.”

  “The thing I don’t understand is how the Phantom controlled the elements,” Grizz questioned. “It has always been that a member of the four races could control only one element at a time. Sometimes someone could control all five, as Zoran did, but never has there been two people that could control the same element at the same time. You say the Phantom controlled multiple elements, but that doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know it doesn’t,” Steve agreed. “And to make it even more confusing, there were three people that controlled the water element: Zoran, the Phantom, and Silas.”

  “Maybe Silas inherited the powers genetically, like monsters do,” Willis said. “It sounds like his grandfather and father both had the abilities.”

  Mr. Sep shook his head. “That would make sense, but Zoran’s daughter never inherited any of his powers. I don’t think they’re acquired through genetics. For monsters they are, but for people, they aren’t.”

  “You’re right, it’s not hereditary,” Ty stated. “During Silas’s address, he said the dark god, Zebulon, gave him his powers and that the more he does to serve him, the stronger he will become and the more elements he will gain control over.”

  “That would make sense,” said Mrs. Sep. “In the story of Oliver’s defeat of Draviakhan it is said that after Alazar gave him the five elemental spirits, his powers grew the more he made morally right choices. Maybe it’s the same for Zebulon’s powers. Maybe he gave the Hooded Phantom and Silas their powers and the more evil they do, the stronger they become.”

  “It still doesn’t make sense though. How is Zebulon giving Alazar’s creations elemental abilities?” Griegan wanted to know. “How can he empower something he didn’t create?”

  “Good question,” surmised Mr. Sep. “I don’t know how. I’ve never heard of the good god giving elemental powers to a monster, so I don’t know why Zebulon would give them to a person. Whenever Alazar gives the five elements to his elect, they are always people from the four races.”

  “Elect, what does that mean?” Steve asked.

  “The elect are the o
ne, or ones, Alazar chooses to give the elements to. There is anywhere from between one to five people elected at a time. There’s one for fire, one for wind, one for water, one for electricity, and one for earth. Every once in a while, he will give all five elemental spirits to a single person, which is what he did for King Zoran.

  “Zebulon operates differently, however. His monsters acquire their elemental powers by having it passed down from their parents. The dark god has never been known to have any elect, but if Silas is saying that he and the Hooded Phantom are being empowered by him and will be elementally stronger the more evil they do, that sounds a lot like Zebulon has made them his elect.”

  “Yes, but Griegan’s question remains,” Willis restated it: “How did the dark god give elemental powers to the both of them? That’s five elements for the Hooded Phantom and one for Silas. Zebulon is not limiting himself to five elements at a time like Alazar does for his elect. Who’s to say Zebulon won’t give every person who serves him elemental powers?”

  With no one able to explain Zebulon’s elements, Steve questioned who the good god’s current elect were.

  “So right now, since Zoran is dead, Alazar’s elements are unaccounted for? You’re saying there is someone in this world who should be able to control the five elements like Zoran did?” Steve asked.

  “Yes,” Mr. Sep explained, “anywhere between one to five people. I’m sure Alazar has his elect already picked out. Ever since creation, someone has always had one of the elements and when that person died, it would get passed on to someone else. Some of Alazar’s elect you know as heroes of legend. The man who invented the warriors, Atomis, was one. There’s also the Honorable Warrior. There are many of them, and their great deeds are etched throughout history.”

  Everyone sat there, imagining someone somewhere on Element inheriting the elemental powers, defeating the Hooded Phantom, and setting everything back to normal. It was Griegan who interrupted their thoughts and changed the subject when he asked in a somewhat accusatory tone, “How did you three make it out of Celestial?”

  “We escaped through the sewers and exited into the farmlands,” said Steve. “We don’t know if any others managed to make it out, but it looked doubtful.”

  “It was bad,” said Ty. “Really bad.”

  “The Tournaments. All those people,” Mrs. Sep lamented, then paused, grieving at the thought. “What’s going to happen to the ones who survived?”

  “They’re being enslaved,” answered Kari. “The Hooded Phantom believes that the members of the four races are inferior to the monsters and that our purpose is to serve them.”

  “It seemed like more than just the idea of the weak serving the strong,” added Ty. “The Phantom seemed like he hated the four races. When he spoke, there was so much anger and disgust in his voice. It was as if he had a personal vendetta against every person in Celestial.”

  “Not only Celestial,” argued Steve. “They’re not stopping with the enslavement of the capital. They want total control over the kingdom. Part of their army left yesterday morning with plans to march to Misengard.”

  Willis stood up and ripped a world map off a nearby wall. The map’s edges were worn and its ink was somewhat faded. In the center was Misengard because it was an older map from many years ago, before Celestial was built, during a time when Misengard was considered the capital city of the kingdom.

  “If the Phantom is sending his forces to Misengard, they’ll likely be heading northwest out of Celestial,” the warrior explained, pointing to the empty spot on the eastside of the prairie where the unmarked Celestial would be if they were looking at a modern-day map. “They won’t cut across Lake Azure on ships because monsters don’t know how to use ships. Even if they did force Celestial slaves to guide them, if this army is as big as you say it is, it will take forever to obtain enough ships to accommodate them all.”

  “Right,” Griegan agreed. “So land is how they will march. Since the Valpyrio Mountain Range is a nearly impossible terrain to lead an army through, they will probably follow the coast around Lake Azure.”

  Grizz pointed out two cities on the map. “Almiria and Casanovia are in danger. They’re right in the army’s path. So are these places,” he said, pointing to six different unmarked establishments.

  “I did hear the prince say they would take over any town and village along the way,” Steve remembered. “We have to get word to them. Especially those Primary Cities.”

  “There’s no time,” said Grizz, “If you say they started yesterday morning and if they’re heading in the direction Willis expects, then they’ll be in Almiria before any of us has a chance to warn them.”

  “He’s right,” Willis admitted. “The fastest way we can hope to warn them would be to sprint all the way back to Serendale and send one of our flying monsters to Almiria with a rider, but even that wouldn’t be soon enough.”

  “It’s not even a realistic option anyway,” stated Griegan. “We sent out our fastest flying monster to the capital yesterday morning.”

  “A phoenix?” asked Ty.

  “Yes, named Moltar,” Griegan said. “How did you know?”

  “We saw it flying overhead on our way here, and I’m sorry to say it, but that monster and its rider are as good as dead. Enemy flying monsters in Celestial would have spotted him long before he had a chance to escape.”

  So not only is Celestial gone, so is Almiria, one of the most populated cities in Element. The people have no idea what’s coming. They’re going to experience all the horrors we saw in Celestial and we have no way to warn them!

  Steve slammed his fist onto the map. Knowing another city was about to be ruthlessly overtaken felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. A silence filled the room, as everyone realized how helpless the situation was.

  It was Ty who broke the silence when he asked the Serendale captain, “Why did you send Moltar to Celestial?”

  Griegan sighed deeply. “That’s where we get into our story...”

  It took him no more than five minutes to explain to the heroes about the string of recent attacks in the Evergreen Forest, leading up to the death of Dart’s brother outside the very Den they were sitting in. He described the battle with the direwolves and the death of Captain Doyle and a fellow warrior the previous night, then filled them in on what had been happening since.

  “Grizz stayed up all night waiting for the other group to come back, but the six never appeared. So early yesterday morning, we sent a warrior name Galvus, another injured warrior, and the two bodies back to Serendale with all the people in the tavern, except for the owners here,” he gestured to Mr. and Mrs. Sep. “We lent our horses to the group since most are unaccustomed to traveling such a distance on foot. They should be arriving back in Serendale soon.”

  “Captain,” said Steve wincingly, “those six warriors, I believe the three of us came upon them this morning. I’m sorry to tell you this, but they were all dead.”

  Griegan clenched his fists, Willis dropped his head, and Grizz stared ahead, void of emotion. So not only did Dart lose his little brother, his cousin was in that group, the Dwarf remembered. So was Captain Westfield and four other good men.

  “What is this monster you’re hunting?” asked Ty, amazed at the chaos it had caused.

  Grizz answered because Griegan and Willis were too upset about their warrior brothers dying. “The reports we’ve heard make it out to be like a huge direboar, but if six warriors were killed, it’s surely more than that. No one knows what it is. Everyone who has seen it up close has died.” He glanced at Griegan angrily, not caring that the captain was mourning his lost brethren. If you would’ve listened to me and had us go out together in a group, eight men might still be alive and two might not be injured.

  Ty and Kari looked at Steve. The three had simultaneously reached the same conclusion: the monster is probably Sabertooth. He considered sharing his Warrior Training experience with the two warriors and the Dwa
rf, but Steve decided, Not now, we’ll leave them to remember their fallen brothers.

  Mr. Sep picked up on the gloomy mood and stood up. “Well, that’s enough bad news for one day. Honey,” he took his wife’s hand and pulled her up, “let’s get this food put away and get these dishes clean.”

  “I’ll help,” Kari offered, but Mrs. Sep shook her head.

  “Thank you, but you’re our guest and you need your rest. Especially you,” she pointed to Steve.

  Everyone got up from the table, except for Grizz who stayed to study the map.

  Steve allowed Ty and Kari to go upstairs before him. As he began to follow them, Griegan stopped the limping warrior. “When do you think you’ll be ready for travel?”

  Mrs. Sep paused before entering the kitchen, overhearing the conversation. She turned back and glared at the captain, noticing Griegan was rushing the nineteen-year-old warrior.

  “He’s in no condition to leave,” she called. “I won’t allow it.” Turning to Steve, she scolded, “The level of danger is too high and you’re recovering from a severe cut. It will be many days before you begin to feel better, maybe even weeks.”

  “I have to go,” Steve said calmly, hoping this would not lead to a motherly lecture from the co-owner of the Den. “We are the only ones able to warn the rest of the kingdom. If we can’t get the word out about what’s to come, the kingdom will be just as unprepared as Celestial was. I can’t let that happen.”

  Knowing it was an argument she couldn’t win, Mrs. Sep nodded and went into the kitchen without another word.

  “We should leave soon, Captain. Maybe the army was delayed somehow in route to Almiria. If we hurry, we might be able to save them. We shouldn’t automatically expect the worst.”

  “Your optimism is inspiring, but you are holding onto false hope. Almiria is gone. We need to focus on the mission at hand, not what’s already lost. Our priority is to make it to Serendale alive. If not, there is no one to warn the kingdom about the Phantom’s Army. Once we get back home, we’ll make plans on how to protect the towns and cities beyond Almiria. That’s the best we can do.