“Stand down! Do not engage them!” Rens roared to the disorganized students and guardsmen that stared in awe from the chamber within. “They are ours!” He glared at Alex. “For heaven's sake, if you have ever loved this school, you will not butcher these students!”
To his mentor's desperate gaze Alex said nothing, the student body ignored, Alex and Malek's only goal to save their companion. Daring not to delay even a moment longer, the hound dashed through the great hallways of the college, dodging past screaming student and fainting servant alike as he made his way at desperate speed for the topmost level of the keep, stopping at last after racing through countless corridors and up massive stairways, his great flanks heaving as they stood but paces away from the stairs leading to the magnificent oaken door that led to the fabled rooftop garden of Highrock.
That most famous and revered nursery for the rarest and most delicate herbs used by mages and alchemists throughout the kingdom. A garden strangely ignored by near the entirety of Highrock's teachers, students, and servitors, and a place of life and almost magical growth that Jess had called home for the last three years.
And before that stairway at the far side of the great hallway stood the imposing countenance of Lady Vaila, the aura of power Alex could sense surrounding her at that moment showing her to be much more than the whimsical head herbalist that had so doted over Jess since her first days at the college. To her right, she was flanked by Eloquin, kitted in cuir bouilli covered in steel blue scales that looked chillingly similar to the exotic dream-forged armaments that the Delvers themselves seemed to favor. He wielded a shimmering longsword of emerald hue, unsheathed and held at the ready, obviously not of any common steel, and Alex wondered with a sudden tingle of awe if Commander Eloquin had also adventured within the realms of Shadow and nightmare, once upon a time.
To Eloquin's right stood Dean Echobart himself. His comfortably worn veneer of benign, bumbling figurehead had been utterly stripped away to reveal the razor-sharp calculating eyes of a master wizard in his prime, and Alex could feel the fearsome power of the warding protecting the trio facing them. To Alex's eye, cursed as it now was with the sporadic ability to see the underlying nature of all things, the wand Echobart held so casually in his left hand crackled with the power of killing magics. Alex was chilled at the sight of that artifact, knowing well just how dangerous such relics could be.
"That will be far enough, one who was once known as Alex de Velice," Dean Echobart said with unshakable gravity.
“Dean, please! You must let us through, Jess is dying!”
Echobart just gazed coldly even as Eloquin, eyes flashing, stepped forward. “Alex, is it? Perhaps you were that boy, once upon a time. What you are now, what dark transformations have shaped and tainted you? that has yet to be seen.”
“Lord Eloquin, please! Jess looked up to you more than any other. Whatever the circumstances of your final bout, she admired you with all her heart! If you ever cared a scrap for her, don't let her die at your feet, yards from succor!”
"Enough!" Lady Vaila's voice cracked like a whip. "Don't try to pull our strings, creature. We all knew and loved Jess. All of us admired her heart and her spirit. But we have already received word that Jess and her friends have perished. They, along with the entire territory of Pomell, were all lost to Shadow!"
Alex gasped, speechless under the cold glares of the three deadly figures before him, crushed to hear aloud what he had already known in his heart. It was true, the sheer horror of it, as much as he had done his best to push it out of mind's eye. An entire town and all its hundreds of inhabitants, forever lost, and he had witnessed firsthand the horrific destruction of that pocket realm as it was torn, ripping and screaming, and sent swirling into darkest Void.
The horror of it was, he hadn't even been sure in those final moments where the Void ended and Jess began.
Lady Vaila's pitiless gaze did not waver, speaking on in a cold, monotone voice. “The echoes of its loss cut through the ether itself, and no master mage worthy of the name couldn't feel the living land scream as a sister fragment was torn free, thrust into Shadow, sent spiraling into the Abyss, consumed by the endless appetite of the Void!” She gave a cold shake of her head. “No one survived that. No one could! No. What we see before us is the same monstrous taint that has started to seep into our land.”
Lady Vaila's face was a grim mask of concentration. An exhausted Alex felt himself pinned by her pain-filled gaze, wondering if perhaps she was not the deadliest of the three before them. "It doesn't matter if the very nature of Shadow and dream means that tomorrow these insights will seem but a passing fancy, Pomell forgotten as if it had never been. Now, at this moment, we know. Even now the bards scribe madly so that none forget the truth of it, for all that it will seem but a lost tale when next it is read. Right now, we know. Upon this eve, we know the nature of the enemy we face, and we stand ready! After centuries of remittance, the old tales turn true again. Creatures ill and foul use the forms of men once more to bring us all closer to final destruction!"
"That's not true!" Alex cried helplessly. "We know what was causing it! Infernalists had used their wiles and influence to arrange for the theft of our wand as well as a cursed chalice, using them in concert to summon an ancient queen of Hell! But Jess and Malek, they somehow stopped the ritual! Even facing down a demonlord that was fusing the spirits of demons to the bodies of men. It was using the Wand of Dreams tied to an artifact linked to the Void! Jess broke the connection! She did it! Don't you understand?" Alex shivered under the weight of their terrible stares, well aware that his voice had turned plaintive, a man desperately pleading to be spared the noose, even as he faced the most pitiless of judges. "She retrieved the Wand and the Mithril Blade. She and Malek both emerged from their quest, victorious!"
“And where is the wand now?” Echobart's voice snapped out, cold as his gaze.
“Or this chalice? For if it is the chalice you dare to suggest, I would see proof of your claims this very instant!” Eloquin roared.
Alex swallowed, his throat utterly parched, knowing their cause was doomed. “We don't have the wand. Or the chalice. The Guild intercepted us on the way out. We had sought council with them in Krona when we began to perceive just how dire the threat was, how vital to Erovering it was that we pooled our resources to stop the threat! Ironically, they did not arrive in time to save that town or us, but they still managed to intercept and challenge us, declaring that artifact in play."
Alex shook his head in bitter frustration. "As to the Chalice, we know not its whereabouts, we saw no trace of it. But Master Eloquin, Dean Echobart, please understand, we still discharged our most sacred duty as citizens of Erovering! We stopped it, we broke the connection those vile monsters had, using the artifact to pull ever more of our land into Shadow. Do you not see the blade Jess carries? Mithril! We entered and returned from the Dreamrealms, sir! That is no lie, I swear it!"
This time Eloquin chuckled his contempt, harsh and cold. "What stories you tell, demon get. No mortal could perform such a feat without being obliterated! And you're saying Lady Jess of Calenbry just happened to pull an item tied by inhuman magics to the very Netherhells free?"
His short bark of disbelief told Alex all he needed to know, that Eloquin would never be convinced of their good intentions.
Lord Eloquin then turned to the dean. "There you have it, Echobart. The fallacy is revealed within their lies. No mortal could touch such an artifact and pull it free, let alone survive its proximity. They are either lying when they have no cause to, and thus are compromised, or they are actually telling the truth, in which case Jess herself is a creature of Hell. Either way, they must not be allowed to pass."
“What madness is this that you would butcher us, students of Highrock, who only want to save our friend?” Jera demanded. “We are just trying to save Jess! We are not hurting anyone! Jess worked in those gardens since the day I met her. She loved them! Why won't you let her pass?”
Echobart's measuri
ng gaze felt like a weight on Alex's soul, and his expression was inscrutable. Alex knew not what he thought. He was almost apologetic as he slowly shook his head. "I am sorry. I grieve for those brave children we sent upon a mad fool's errand. For either they were lost to us then, or, tragedy among tragedies, they must die before us now. For there is no way we can trust the words that come from your lips, as much as we would love to."
The dean sighed. "If only you had waited at the gates. Shown peaceful intentions there, maybe we could have taken the chance. Now? We must end this, I'm afraid." He gazed down the hall, and despite himself, Alex glanced back at the grim-faced countenances of the king's own crossbowmen, and Alex felt a cold shiver of terror at the massive double armed crossbows wielded by some of the very few men in the kingdom allowed to use such weapons; Commander Eloquin's students, and the royal army itself.
“We are just trying to save Jess's life!” Alex cried out desperately. “Why won't you believe us? Why are you now dead set on killing us?”
“Do you really think we are so foolish?” Lady Vaila snapped, all pretense of civility gone. “Do you truly think we don't know what lies within our midst after all this time? You know damn well it is no ordinary garden that you approach, and we know its secret, just as you do! You will not be allowed access to a shoot of the Sacred Tree, not so long as we have a breath in our bodies!" With that Lady Vaila, eyes blazing, jutted the oaken staff suddenly in her hands forward and began to chant, low guttural words that seemed to resonate through the very ether. Eloquin fluidly raised his masterwork blade in Ochs Stance, its razor sharp point aimed squarely at Alex's eyes and slowly began to circle them even as Malek's low guttural growl rumbled through the hallway, his shimmering crimson orbs streaking through the air with a high-pitched whine.
Alex closed his eyes, holding back bitter tears of fury, even as Jess uttered what sounded like a final deep sigh.
And then, almost like magic, the terrible tension building up to an explosive crescendo stopped.
Lord Echobart appeared startled, Lady Vaila swallowed her chant in instant surprise, and Lord Eloquin, always ready, kept his sword upraised but slowed his deadly advance.
For with Jess's sigh, the most powerfully warded door in all of Erovering slowly swung open of its own accord, its exquisite relief seeming almost alive, carved leaves gently fluttering as it opened, and the stairway was flooded with the light of a midsummer's day, for all that the hour was well past nightfall.
“By the gods!” Lady Vaila whispered breathlessly, all of them flowing up the staircase and past the warmly glowing doorway as if lost within a waking dream, looking in awe at the wondrous tree deep within the garden, against the very face of the mountainside, at that moment gently waving in the brilliant light of the noonday sun.
Alex was instantly captivated by how it sparkled, as if the light of life itself, shining with a golden brilliance, bathed them all in the warm rays of redemption.
The garden entire was blanketed in that gentle warm light, even as the surrounding hillsides were pitched in utter darkness.
Lord Echobart's gaze moved wordlessly from the exhausted youths near death's door to the wondrous garden bathed in a miracle of sunlight. He bowed his head solemnly. “Noble adventurers, heroes of Highrock, you may pass. May you heal yourselves by the grace of the Sacred Tree.”
Even Eloquin nodded acquiescence and moved aside to let them pass, his blade ever ready though, as befit the master armsman of the school. Malek almost leaped ahead, panting with weariness, his graceful lope having fallen to a stumbling lurch, and Alex gently lifted a near lifeless Jess from the great beast's back before he collapsed to the ground, shuddering in exhaustion himself.
Without knowing how he knew, Alex understood what he must do. Gently, reverently, with a shared glance to his beloved, he and Jera carried Jess to the trunk of the Sacred Tree, what he realized to his awe and reverence was nothing less than an offshoot of the legendary Tree of Life itself, from which all existence was said to have sprung forth.
Alex shook with wonder, his growing gifts at piercing the veil at last favoring him with a glimpse of sacred beauty, in utter contrast to the horrors separated from their fragile world by only the thinnest of membranes.
With desperate care, Alex and Jera laid Jess down, her head pillowed by the soft loamy moss at the tree's roots. They then stepped back, watching in reverent awe as gentle light seemed to wash over her skin and Jess gasped of a sudden, sharp and deep, eyes opening wide, blazing a brilliant red, before she gently fell under the sweet cloak of sleep once more, the tree's many roots slowly covering her like a protective blanket, much as they covered the exhausted sleeping form of the docile hound just a few feet away.
Now, at last, Jess's breathing was full and deep.
The relief washing over Alex made him giddy even as he heard Lady Vaila suddenly sob, crying out that she remembered what was forgotten, and Alex gazed in loving awe into Jera's twinkling eyes and held her closely, kissing her tenderly and deep, even as he felt the sweet siren call of exhaustion at last, sinking him to his knees, falling under its gentle lull even as he held Jera close, wanting only to slip away with her in his arms.
“I love you,” were the last words he remembered saying, his lover's beautiful smile a vision he could die in contentment having caught one last glimpse of, even as he sunk deeply into the land of dreams.
40
Even as the youths slept, mortal injuries and damaged souls finding succor under the golden light of the Sacred Tree, there was another who kept careful watch over them. One who was carefully observing the three most powerful instructors of Highrock gazing in awe upon the scene that had just played out.
Somehow, the small feline noted with smug satisfaction, they knew. For all their assumed power and presumption, they understood that on this night, they were to come no closer. That on this night, the tree's blessing was for the heroes sleeping among its nurturing roots alone. He smiled at their gazes of reverence and puzzlement, even as they stared onward in awed disbelief.
"By Justice, I remember now. The price Jessica herself paid, saving my daughter and me from absolute horror. And here I was, ready to strike her down even as she lay helpless, a welcome supplicant, sacred to the Great Tree itself." Lady Vaila's expression was humbled, her voice barely a whisper.
Eloquin nodded slowly. "You and I owe her more than we can ever repay, for all that I was compelled to hone her into the sharpest of blades, and you to nurture her other gifts, readying her for a war we all know is coming. And all along, the true danger lay hidden, a dire threat averted by those four alone."
Lord Echobart gave a sad shake of his head. "they did naught to us, save plead their cause. And so close we came to killing them, heroes of our realm." He gave an embarrassed cough. "There is a bitter irony here, and a lesson we three would do well to learn, for all that we did our best to defend the college against doppelgangers we had just cause to fear, after reports from the capital conveyed the direst of warnings.”
Eloquin nodded. “Yes. The incident. The one we sent these children to face; two adventurers still new to the nightmare realms, and two others greener still, children who had no business at all being involved in matters this grim. Pawns we so willingly made use of, with no true appreciation as to what we were sending them against. And so little credit did we give them as the reports grew increasingly grave, that we assumed they were Fallen the moment they did show up at our doorstep, more than ready to strike them down. Even as, against all odds, they made it through.”
Eloquin shook his head and sighed. “What fine protectors we turned out to be.”
Lady Vaila closed her eyes, weary with regret and exhaustion. “You are right, Eloquin. Somehow, we should have known. By Justice, that girl saved our daughter! And only now do I remember. Only now.”
Eloquin's gaze looked oddly haunted, his naked hand stroking Lady Vaila's cheek but once, softly, before falling to his side, as if an invisible weight bore down upon
him. With a sigh, he stepped away. The dean, ever the diplomat, paid their words no mind.
Echobart gave a weak smile. "Perhaps it all ends well, after all. The children yet live, and will hopefully make a full recovery. Alex did say they had rescued the wand, after all, and far better the questionable politics of the Guild and the wand safe from abyssal influences, than our students dead, and the wand still in the possession of our greatest foes."
"Indeed," Eloquin concurred. "Though we must assume that the Chalice of Absolution is still in hands most foul, our enemies having ferreted out even diOnni's safe-house, and the gods above know what cost these children will pay in scars of mind and body when they awaken, if they awaken at all."
Lady Vaila just sighed, gazing at the glorious tree, leaves sparkling with dew and warm golden light. "It is a miracle." She turned to Eloquin, smiling softly. "And now it is time for me to look after my own little miracle." She paused, bowing her head shyly, her words little more than a whisper. "I know we have had our differences, but if there was ever a night for a fresh start, well, I hope you will stop by. I know Louise would love to see her favorite instructor about in the morning, once more. She misses your lessons, you know."
A gentle stroke of soft fingers against the general's rough cheek. His haunted eyes looking back as Lady Vaila slowly made her way to her own quarters, so very close to the heart of the garden.
Echobart smiled contemplatively, blissfully obtuse to the poignant words exchanged by his two peers. "It is a great blessing indeed, this miracle that has saved our beloved students. Come, Eloquin. Let our heroes rest. Time enough for explanations another day, assuming our dear adventurers remember a thing upon waking. We shall inform Master Rens and our stalwart guardsmen that the danger is past, that it was all a test of sorts, and that everyone did exceptionally well."
Echobart turned to bow toward a figure approaching the doorway. “I trust that will suit us well enough, my Prince?”
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