by C S Harrop
“Secondly. Elder Fallon told me to tell you Onyxia has the relic,” feeling an unknowing weight suddenly been lifted once the words left his mouth.
Asha looked at both Valen and Aunt Elora in an expression they all shared. The Great War has begun and the prophecy is nearing its closure, Asha knew the time to face Onyxia will be sooner rather than later. Valen stood facing the masses pulling the gold handle of her silver inscribed elven sword from the sheaf strapped to her back and held it high. For the first time since Asha had set foot on Darkshore she had never once seen anybody with any kind of power, until now. It was rare for a being to be born with the marking what the Elders call the gift, which they believe is a blessing from the gods and should therefore be used to protect the world from darkness and tyranny in which the gods had created. Valen’s palm glowed around the handle forcing the inscriptions to glow a brilliant white until the whole sword emanated a blinding light forcing the crowds to hide their eyes behind their hands and arms. Her arm relaxed lowering the sword the blinding light slowly diminishing giving the crowds of hundreds or even thousands their sight back. A quietness filled the air all attention fixated once again on the half elf half human female with a look of pure determination on her face.
“What this has got to do with us,” stated Valen looking directly at the dwarf. “Is existence! Not for us here who have already tasted life but for those who have yet to experience what a magnificent creation the world has to offer. Everyone here has fought hard to keep it that way above all else,” pointing to the crowds in a horizontal movement. “Now a threat never seen before have the means to open a door to the Dark Isle and unleash hell upon the world.
“What are you asking of us Valen, what is the Shade asking of us?” Asked the Frost Elf pointing at Asha.
“The Elders have sent word to the eastern kingdoms of the appending threat and to form an alliance not seen for an age to meet Onyxia on the battlefield. “Explained Ash. “The fact is if this was just another war we wouldn’t be having this discussion. The reality is Onyxia is going to open the doorway and release every dark blooded soul that will decimate the armies of the alliance. The prophecy states this will happen and there is not one thing anyone can do to stop her opening that doorway. I want to look at Onyxia’s face when she opens that doorway to find me standing there and not her army of Dark Bloods.”
“I understand your reasoning - Shade, but again I ask, what are you asking from us?” Insisted the Frost Elf ready to do battle with Asha if she does not answer her question. With Walker suddenly taken aback suddenly realising whom Asha is.
“You’re the one the Prophecy speaks of,” asked Walker gobsmacked.
“I am,” turning her attention back toward the crowd. “I want to us to go to the Dark Isle and wage war against the Dark Bloods,” replied Asha with an eruption of shock from the crowds even the Frost Elf’s expressionless face looked taken aback.
“You can’t be serious, surely?” Shouted the tall slender man.
“Listen!” Shouted Valen once again getting everyone’s attention. “We are all here now in this place you call Darkshore because you sacrificed yourselves for the greater good or went above and beyond what any normal being would accomplish. We know in our hearts this place, the lands we wander endlessly is not the final stop. It is a stepping-stone to something greater. That world you fought so very hard for is in a peril not seen before since its creation and it needs our help, warrior or not.”
The crowds looked at one another knowing Valen was correct she spoke allowed what most had felt for such a long time. They knew in their hearts what the newcomers would eventually come to know much like Walker, that Darkshore is not what they believed it to be in the living. It is as Valen honestly said a stepping-stone to the next transition.
“If we did what you’ve asked how would we get there?” Asked the gruff voiced Dwarf his opinion swaying. “No one but the Dark Bloods have ever stepped foot on the Dark Isle.
“Asha here as you all know is a Shade, she can travel from the living to the afterlife with just a thought,” highlighted Aunt Elora. “There is no rule mentioning a Shade can’t travel elsewhere like the Dark Isle, it’s just no Shade prior has ever tried that we know of.”
“For a good reason wouldn’t you think,” stated the dwarf now stroking her long ginger beard in contemplation.
“Possibly master dwarf but dwelling on such things doesn’t interest me,” scorned Aunt Elora. “But there is one thing going in our favour, Asha has in her possession the Book of Shariel. That is how she can get us all their, by opening a doorway from our world to theirs.”
Word had already spread of a young female mage practising with a book of magic but to know it was the actual Book of Shariel the Watchers had protected gave the whole idea added weight. It did not take long for the crowds of thousands of souls to erupt in waves of agreement in rallying cries. Valen looked at Asha and Aunt Elora with a satisfactory smile she knew in her heart this very moment is what many have longed for, a moment to set themselves free of this stepping stone to the next even if that means waging an highly unwinnable battle against a foe of unknown quantity.
The Sanctuary slowly settled to normal conditions as the crowds dispersed to prepare for battle. Not all were fighters who came to Darkshore many earned their place by other extraordinary deeds of heroism and selflessness, which resulted in these souls being weapon-less on their arrival on the white sands. Some could already be seen gathering wood in preparation for the creation of their weapon of choice, their courage and determination has no less substance then that of the mightiest of warriors with both parties treating each with the utmost respect. After all, they were all in Darkshore for the same reason - selfless acts of the highest standard.
Chapter 21
The Dark Isle
A crowd as far back as Asha could see encompassed the area around the Sanctuary all wielding weapons they had brought with them to Darkshore or had made primitive weapons of wood and rock. Asha stood with Aunt Elora and Founder Valen by the edge of woods looking toward an indent of shattered trees initially caused by Asha in her experimental phase of studying the Book of Shariel.
“Here we go,” Asha said aloud with a long deep breath as she beckoned the book to come from the leather waist holder to her hands without a touch.
With a last look over her shoulder at her fearless army of souls, she concentrated and waved her glowing palm over the book and held it in position. The Book of Shariel twitched followed by a sudden flickering of pages stopping on a page of strange symbols formed into a circle with a paragraph of ancient text underneath. Asha had studied the page many times since receiving the book memorising the text word for word, but this was the first time to see if she could actually cast it correctly and open a portal to the Dark Isle.
Aunt Elora held her staff tight, as did Valen with her sword watching Asha moving her hand in a small circular movement over the pages. Then with a sudden forward arching motion of Asha’s arm aimed towards the clearing pulling the glowing circular symbols of a brilliant blue luminescent light from the book. The page was undamaged as it returned its normal tanned coloured state. Asha looked upon the large glowing circular symbols hovering above the ground taking a quick glimpse of the surrounds people all with their jaws dropped. The symbols slowly disintegrated as a portal appeared in its place revealing a darkened scene of a rocky outcrop that grew into jagged cliffs on both the left and right side as the image focused. Moments later Aunt Elora caught movement by the edge of the portal along with small rocks rolling across the floor just as if they were been kicked. One particular rock came rolling through the portal into Darkshore landing by Asha’s feet.
“They see the portal too,” stated Aunt Elora as the torso of a curious orc in rusty armour came into view.
With a quick thrust of her glowing palm Aunt Elora sent a bolt of energy hitting the orc directly in the chest sending it flying backwards into a boulder, its body turning to ash as its soul dies.
That was the unplanned call for the Darkshore army to attack. Asha sending the book back in its leather holder strapped her waist she ran and leapt with Valen sword already in mid swing through the portal with a hundreds of brave souls following their lead.
They appeared on the unsteady ground of the Dark Isle within what seems a rocky passage of two large cliffs bearing down on them to both side and tapering off behind. Asha and Valen worked in union as a group of orc and goblin descended on them from all sides. Twisting and dodging orc rusty weapons and goblin spears retaliating with blast of energy from Asha’s palms and slicing attacks from Valen’s faintly glowing silver bladed sword, whilst Aunt Elora and Guardian Walker took a defending stance behind. The skirmish was over rather quickly once the six hundred or so allies made up of an array of different races with varying backgrounds bolstered by the warriors who piled through the portal on the front line whilst the Guardians scattered themselves throughout the army creating clouds of evaporating ash as they crushed, stabbed and blasted their way through.
The last remaining orc turn to dust as Walker and Asha finished it off with two bolts of orange and blue coloured energy released from each of their palms. Warrior dwarfs quickly became irate wanting more orc bodies to butcher feeling as if they have missed most of the killing. Groups of Frost Elves moved closer to Valen in a respect for the half elf watching her single handily kill multiple of Dark Bloods with ease gliding through the horde with mastery and skill.
Asha gathered her army warning all to keep the volume down to a minimum with disgruntled moans from the dwarfs. She knew a surprise attack would be advantageous to them on their next assault. With a wave of her hand, the portal closed. Asha took the lead down the dark rocky corridor noticing for the first time the looming dark clouds above with an outline of red emanating from the sun or moon hidden behind creating a kind of tinted red aura.
“This place has certainly got a Mordrath feel about it,” stated Walker sticking to Asha’s side.
They came to stop where the cliffs ended looking out across a similar lifeless rocky landscape of hills and dying trees with groups of mud and rock hovels scattered around. Asha thought looking out towards the horizon that death himself had walked these lands taking out every hint of life and colour except for the red aura looming in the air.
“Over there!” Pointed Aunt Elora towards a large hill to the northeast, assuming they were facing north.
“That must be it, that must be the tree Elder Jorik mentioned,” stated Asha looking at the huge twisting tree in the distance that seemed twice the size of any normal sized tree not taking into account the trees from The Great Forest.
“As soon as we leave the covering of these rocks we will be in the open, there is no place for a sneak attack,” said Walker.
“We didn’t come here for a sneak attack Walker, we have come here to wreak havoc on the Dark Bloods hopefully giving our allies a fighting chance against Onyxia when she decides to open the portal connecting the trees,” replied Asha her tone much darker.
“Asha is correct,” Valen agreed. “I can see only one option though. We need to surround the tree in a defensive position letting no Dark Blooded filth get through no matter what.”
“How do you suggest we get there? It looks a great distance and we don’t know how many Dark bloods are out there either?” Asked the ginger haired faced dwarf in a gruff voice stepping forward wearing his full body armour with pride and wielding a double-edged axe with both hands and a smaller one tucked into his belt.
“The commotion we caused here doesn’t seemed to of stirred up any activity master dwarf which suggests a surprise attack could still be in our favour,” Asha said negotiating the terrain. “It’s a slight downward incline then levels off towards the foot of the hill. I suggest we charge at speed taking a route around the large boulders over there to the west giving us cover. Then make our way down and around to the hill defeating any enemy that gets in our way.”
“Hmm. Yes I like it, let’s go out in a blaze of glory and show these dirty Dark Bloods what honour truly is,” said the dwarf rotating his axe in his hands getting all worked up.
“But you forget one thing Asha,” Aunt Elora said placing a hand on her shoulder. “We are the souls we don’t breathe as we used to or feel fatigue. You on the other hand my dear are still very much alive and you could not possibly make that distance at speed. I barely think you would reach half way before your lungs gave in.”
“Don’t worry about me Aunt Elora I have it covered,” winked Asha.
Riven camped on the grassy verge just off the shoreline for the night waiting for Willow and Kailan to make an appearance. By first light, Angarian soldiers had already began to prepare food on a small campfires with some already packing up there makeshift tents of wooden oars and thick material similar to the ones used by sails on their ships. Riven waited until the sun became fully whole over the horizon, with a watchful eye towards the sky they set out with agreement from Angarian Commander Bolmer a hard faced man with a deep scar across his left eye covered by a worn leather patch.
They marched a full day towards the northeast in fully armoured gear laden with spears and shields. With many also laden down with carrying supplies draped over oars they took from the rowing boats resting over their shoulders. The rolling green hills seemed never ending, summiting one long stretched out hill to navigate yet another. The orange sun dropped low over the horizon as evening approached creating an orange tint to the surrounding landscape. Commander Bolmer gave the order to camp over the next hill with relief of the soldiers as their stomachs were empty and their legs fatigued. The hill became a more of a long minimal gradient blending in with the surrounding area not the tall mound at first sight. Taking the lead, the large sabre-tooth cat crested the hill first. A gentle breeze swept across the landscape moving Riven’s fur in waves of blues and blacks as he stood looking before him a large flattened area of green with a sea of shining metal glaring back amongst the many tents and campfires.
“It seems we’re heading in right direction,” Riven said in his deep voice as Commander Bolmer came up behind.
“Dwarfs!” Commander Bolmer stated with a slight disdain as it left his mouth.
“They are our allies,” reminded Riven.
“War hungry and over confident is what they are,” replied Commander Bolmer not looking impressed.
“There is truth in what you say but I suggest biting your lip Commander, we need the alliance to win this war. If that mean joining with the elves, Woodland Folk or the Dwarfs we all need to work together.”
A gleam of metal gradually came towards them as Riven headed towards the Dwarfs camp followed at a distance by legions of Angarian soldiers. The orange gleam of light materialised into an armoured dwarf riding a large lightly brown coloured ram with two enormous spiralling horns nearly matching the size of Riven. Behind him, two flag bearers followed on foot waving the emblems of two crossed hammers. The dwarf’s facial features gained detail as they moved closer towards each other with Riven recognising the rider instantly by the dwarf’s battle scarred face and long beard wearing a Guardian cloak draped over his chainmail armour whist rotating the double-headed axe he wielded in one hand.
“Glad you have come to watch the might of the dwarven army lay waste to Onyxia and her hordes,” spoke Elder Warrick allowed.
“We didn’t want to you to have all the fun, so we thought we would crash your party,” humoured Riven.
“Ha! From what I’m told there will be enough Dark Bloods to kill for us all many times over, and how could I resist watching the might of the Angarian legions in battle. No need to crash the party Riven fellow Guardians are always welcome and so is your companion here, the door is open.”
“I am Commander Bolmer of Anger, pleasure to meet your acquaintance Elder Warrick,” Commander Bolmer said with a slight sarcastic tone attached that only Riven seemed to have noticed.
“The pleasure is all mine Commander, bring you legions dow
n to my camp and we shall fill our stomachs with food and ale before we set out for the battle field tomorrow,” Elder Warrick said gesturing towards his camp.
“And where is the battlefield located,” asked Riven knowing the location will be the staging area of a great war that will decides the fate of the world and beyond.
“It seems you have been out of the information loop for some time, we have a lot to discuss master Riven. But to your question the location is Hares Valley.”
The Book of Shariel now firmly gripped in Asha’s hand, she stood at the front of her invading army looking down towards the first point in their decent, the towering boulders. She knew the distance was too great to run at full pace for any living person and especially trying to keep up with rest of her allies who do not have worry about such things as lungs capacity and fitness. Asha had already passed the word around not to hold back if they see her slowing, they have one mission and that is to get to the tree and create a defensive perimeter stopping any Dark Blood attempt to enter when Onyxia opens the doorway. She knew however, Aunt Elora would never leave her side no matter what. Her loving motherly instinct was too great more so in the after-world of the Dark Isle.
“May the gods be with us,” shouted Asha dropping her raised hand for the signal to go. Asha, Aunt Elora, Valen and Walker emerged from the passageway of the surrounding high jagged rock faces followed by six hundred souls all picking up speed as the descended north-westerly down and across the barren landscape. They reached just over half way to the towering boulders when the ground started levelling off changing from loose rock to hard dry dirt. Asha had dropped towards the rear at this point her lungs unable to work any harder but she kept going and kept hanging on to the last group of men and women. Of course, Aunt Elora never left her side for a minute as expected. It was the lack of any visible sighting of the enemy that worried Asha the most. Thick dark clouds had surrounded the landscape in shade creating naturally perfect hiding places for an ambush, which so far had not sprung. The thought had crossed her mind that the low light conditions may have actually helped hide their decent but in reality Asha knew orc and goblins had eyes that were perfectly accustomed for this low light environment.
