“Will we be able to forge a new blade?” General Cotie asked.
“Not likely, we may have to talk to the Gnomes about that. They may be able to make another blade but not the same.” Turi answered quickly.
The Generals shoulders dropped in disappointment.
“But my sword and Rocksell’s mace have the same type of enchantments, could she not use them as well?” Trimble tapped the hilt of his sword.
“Possible. The imbuement of earth you have on your sword and the lightning enchantment on Rocksell’s mace could be used, but they are older weapons and older spells, very unpredictable.” Turi pushed off Bravin to hobble along on his own.
“Don’t worry Rocksell, we won’t take it away from you unless we absolutely need to.” Trimble chuckled at the sad face his partner had on, worried and scared to lose his favorite toy.
“He still can’t speak?” Turi questioned the burly soldier.
“Fortunately.” Trimble laughed as Rocksell scowled back and punched his arm.
The rest of the party laughed at his response and carried on toward the palace.
• • •
“We all will need to talk when Turi gets back.” Mya curled her sister’s hair behind her ear as they placed her on the bed. “With Necrolin’s Cup in our world, the Dragon doesn’t seem so happy.”
“Probably why your sister is having troubles as well, the bargain between Eirolin’s spirit and Necrolin would be failing and he won’t be happy to release our people’s spirits that easy.” The King stood next to her with his arm over his wife’s shoulder.
“How would his cup be in our world anyway? Wouldn’t that open the Bridge and allow creatures from their realm into our world?” Mya looked up at her father.
“Something Turi will need to explain further.” He stretched out his hand toward her. “Let’s give Tharissa some quiet.”
Mya grabbed hold of his hand and was easily lifted from her seat beside her sister. Tharissa lay silent, sleeping against a collection of pillows. The three royalty made their way across the room as quiet as they could, shuffling across the mirror pond rug. The Queen looked back over her shoulder for a final check on her youngest before the door closed in behind them.
• • •
Faer stood on the edge of a circular courtyard, surrounded by pillars that stretched up to the sky and attached to nothing. They stretched up high enough to seem as though they held up the sky itself. The green hue marble stone that made up everything looked wet from the moisture of the melted earlier snow. Some collection of the white flakes could be seen built up in corners and in outer viewing ring.
The courtyard itself wasn’t all that large but still wide enough to get a good speed while running from side to side. The ground carried a white sand that looked soft enough to be silk and never seemed to be disturbed. A young woman with two short swords was battling a stationary wooden combat dummy. Her footprints would fill in as soon as she lifted them from the sand as if she were never there. Any spray from sliding her stance around would drain into itself as if the sand were water and the magic within kept things clean.
“You know the war was outside right?” Faer had a smirk on his face and lifted an eyebrow. The girl stopped her slashing at the dummy and glared his way.
Her face was very familiar, almost a mirror image of Mya. Everything about her looked the same, from height and weight, to the way she carried herself. Her hair was a little longer than Mya’s but black instead of Mya’s dark brown.
She did not look very happy at Faer’s comment, the deep blue of her eyes were like sharp sapphires that wanted to tear through him. She wore thick leather battle attire that held a clean and crisp look, hugging her body in strategic places; calves and upper shoulders that connected to a strap across her chest, shins, and to a corset like stomach guard. Tight black cloth filled in the places that the armour did not but still exposing a lot more skin than battle ready armour would typically cover. The two blades she carried barely reached the ground when she lowered them in rest.
“What would you know what a war is?” Her voice almost identical to Mya’s, if he did not know who she already was, he would have thought she the princess.
“Aside from the massive Darke army outside… Well, likely floating their way down to Necrolis by now, I know what war is. Thank you very much.” His tone didn’t help in his response, he coughed to stop and change the subject. “You are looking more and more like Mya these days.”
Gemini couldn’t hold in her laughter.
“We are twins dummy, figured that would have been a given. I take it Shershin was finally able to talk to you? Took you long enough to get here.” Gemini sheathed her weapons in the holds behind her waste so both blades crisscrossed and stuck out from her hips.
“Came as quick as I can, Mya and I just got back.” Gemini started to walk over to him. “Seems she wants us to head to Viewpoint Falls and head up some trails that don’t exist.”
“I’ve heard the request. Ever since I was a child, she has had such vague explanations and stories, always leaves out something important in her attempt to ‘educate’.” She dropped a hip in sarcasm as she quoted with her fingers.
“You would think we would get used to it.”
“Can never get used to it.” She cocked her head and gave Faer a sideways smirk. “We should go get our stuff and get going.”
“Yes. I will need to get a new pack and clean myself up first. Can I meet you back in the throne room in a cycle?” His request was accepted with a kind smiling nod.
“I have a bag already set up, so be quick.” Gemini patted him on the shoulder as she turned and left the training ring.
With a sigh, Faer looked back across the courtyard like he spotted something on the far side. Pausing for a moment in thought, he turned and left the training dummy standing alone, floating in the magical sand.
• • •
Mya sat in one of the thrones that sat on the dais. Her mother pacing back and forth in front of her, a single arm across her stomach and the other resting against while she pinched her top lip with her thumb and forefinger. King Uridine sat on the edge of the stairs, looking towards the large entry doors to the chamber.
“What happened with her up there?” Mya asked, watching her mother pace.
“Everything was going the same as always. If I could be in the room I would be, but you know, the spell would have torn me to pieces.” The Queen’s concern and worry for her daughter showed through her face.
“What would be affecting her then?”
“Rosenn, don’t think about it too hard. I am sure there is a reasonable explanation. Turi will know what the cause is.” The King reached back and caught his wife on one of her passes, gently stopping her with a reassuring rub of her leg.
“Maybe we need to take her to the Sigil and get a ward set up?” Mya questioned and made both her parent give her a stern stare of disapproval.
Standing from her seat at the sounds of the main door opening, she watched as a motley crew walked through the entry with the old librarian leading the way.
“Good, almost everyone is here.” Turi picked up his pace after a brief glance at who was standing at the back of the room.
“Almost everyone?” King Uridine asked.
“We need the other sister and my son.” Turi stopped at the bottom of the dais.
“Gemini should be still training and Faer went up to talk with Shershin.” Rosen answered the implied question.
“They should be here shortly.” Turi stepped up a couple steps and sat down next to the King.
“How are things in the city?” King Uridine looked up at the General as he approached with his lieutenants.
“A lot more casualties this time. Everything will need to get cleaned up outside the walls, but all the enemy will all melt away in the sunshine. I will arrange for burials of our own to take place and begin dismantling the camps. The Darke will be sore from today, Grinn is lost, Mordain is likely dead, the prep to bring more tu
rtles and the Gurge this far south will be tough.” General Cotie rattled off his report in a typical military fashion.
“Might need to send you back to Gurglin, get a new blade from the Gnomes.” King Uridine’s words were met with a saddened look from the General.
“It was a needed loss; do we still have Harmin for the trade?”
“There should be just enough for them to craft a new blade and imbue it.” The King’s words were met with a thankful nod.
“Do I get a set of my own this time?” Gemini cut into the conversation as she walked through one of the side cloth doors.
Everyone turned to her as she came in.
“As always, we can get a second set put together for you when the Harmin is stored enough.” Her father quickly answered.
General Cotie smiled at Gemini when she strutted her way over to him and bumped him with her hip in a friendly hello.
“Where is my son?” Turi turned his head from his seat.
“He should be here soon, just needed to grab a new pack and clean up.” Gemini stepped around the General and patted the old mage on his head which was quickly swatted at.
Turi stood from his seat and stepped to the top of the dais. “We should start, and he can catch up when he gets here.” Turi stood to face the group.
“With the omen markers I have found and now with the knowledge that Necrolin’s Cup is actually in our world, the Chain of Necrolis will be weakened. Necrolin himself will be able to enter our realm and feed on the spirits of this world freely if we don’t’ do something.”
“The cup was his container, a guide if you will, for those who perished in this world and be able to find their way to the tower in the world of the dead. This allows Necrolin to ‘drink’ their life force and provide him a restrained power to keep the realm of the dead in order. This power, the power to balance the world of the dead with the world of the living is needed to be kept in check. The relic has a connection to the chains; it feeds them our spirit energy as we die. This energy keeps the gate to tower closed. Without the cup, Necrolin will become starved and the chains will not have enough power to hold back the dead, hold back himself from his thirst of our realm.”
“If the chains break, the Dragon will be able to take true form in our world and engorge his gluttony without check.” Turi took a second to let things settle with the group. “We need to gather all of the other relics that connect our world to the Dragon realm and get them back to their palace to reset the connections.”
“What relics are we needing?” King Uridine questioned.
“Necrolin’s cup is obvious, but we will need the Wing of Incinolin, the Mask of Freyolin, and the Spiri relic of the Mother.”
“And then what?” Mya cut in.
“The cup must be brought back to the Tower of the Dead and the other two Dragon pieces are needed to be held to allow the bearer of the cup to walk freely in their realms. The Spiri relic is the only unknown for location and what it is for, no one has ever seen it, no one even knows what it looks like. From what I have been told by Thron-din, the Iceclaw Shaman, the Spiri relic is absolutely needed for anything being done with the Dragon Realm.” Turi took a long breath.
“So you’re saying we need to find these relics that no one has ever seen before, from somewhere that no one knows of where they are, to a place that children are told about in scary bedtime stories, and use them in a way that no one knows of with another item that is so unknown, that we don’t even have a starting point?” Mya carried a sarcastic tone in her voice.
“Pretty much.” Turi shrugged.
“And how do you know all this?” Gemini asked.
“We have very little written in our library, but the Iceclaws have been the guardians for most of these kinds of relics and texts for thousands of years. They were nice enough to educate me through the years. The Sigil has also allowed me to read a few of their volumes about the Spiri, but nothing about their relic or their relation to the Dragon’s.”
“So all we have to do is find three more relics and then a gate to the realm of the dead? Sounds awfully cliché adventure to me.” Mya sat back down on her throne in a huff.
The room fell silent.
“Gemini are you…” Faer walked through the side cloth door looking down at the glove he was pulling on and stopped in his tracks as everyone turned to him.
“Excellent, you’re here.” Turi ushered him to come closer to the group. “I take it Shershin has spoken with you?”
Faer nodded.
“We were just about to leave to the falls.”
“Good, good. Then Mya must head to Colde and get passage through the Stone Giant Forest to talk with the Iceclaws about the relics.” Turi turned to Mya who was sitting hunched over her knees with her chin on her hands.
“And what has happened to Tharissa?” The King cut through the silence.
“I am not fully sure but likely with her energy being sapped away to pull our spirits back from the Necrolin’s grasp. It seems that during one of those spells, a returning soul took the cup and escaped with it years ago.” Turi took a long breath.
“Tharissa’s soul would need to travel to the realm of the dead to parlay with Necrolin to stop the funneling of their energy into the chains and be able to come back to our world. With her there, she herself is likely to be susceptible to the Dragon’s touch, which likely is the cause and decaying her soul.”
The Queen caught her breath and sat on the other throne next to Mya in hearing Turi’s words.
“What can we do?” Mya looked up from her hands. “We also ran into some shadowy lizard like figure in the basement passages.” The room fell silent and both King Uridine and Turi’s head snapped to her with stares of concern.
“When?” Her father urgently asked.
“While Faer and I were coming through the lake passage to the library.”
“Minions of the Gate Keeper, servants of shadow and assassins of Necrolin from the Dragon realm. Furhdrae.” King Uridine lowered his head in thought.
“With the chains being weakened, it is likely they are able to enter our world and search for the relics. Their goal to remove anyone who will block their master in coming to our world in his true form.” Turi spoke.
“That’s what they look like.” Mya whispered under her breath.
“They will make things more difficult, everyone should be on their guard from here on out.” Turi spoke over Mya’s whispers. “As for Tharissa, all we can do is make her comfortable as she becomes weaker and until we can get Necrolin to remove his grasp of her. Thron-din will know what to do with this, sadly it is beyond my healing ability.”
“Then we should probably get on with it.” Mya slammed her feet against the stone floor as she stood. “I will need to change my clothes and get a new pack together but if you two can wait another hour, I can meet you down at the gates and we can all leave together.”
“It will be nice to travel together with you again.” Gemini smiled at her.
Mya spun on her heels towards the back entry.
“Hold up, I will come with you to pack. Speed things up a bit.” Gemini followed Mya through the back doorway and both disappeared beyond.
“General, you will need to head to Gurglin and get a new blade, Rocksell and Trimble can lead the cleanup with Bravin.” The king’s orders were met with strong nods all around salutes from the three soldiers. “Bravin, make sure those two don’t get too carried away.”
Bravin gave a gentle bow and ushered the two lieutenants back towards the large doors. With a heavy thunk of the hinges, they were gone. General Cotie gave another salute with his fist against his chest and exited the throne room by a side entry near the main door, his footsteps echoing with each strike of metal on stone.
Faer looked back to the door where the twins left with a sigh. “Suppose I have to wait.”
“Be thankful that they are going with you boy. It will teach you more than just a book.” Turi grumbled his way.
“T
here is so much more here that I should be keeping an eye on though.”
“Like what?” Turi gave him a suspicious look.
“Someone has to protect the palace.” Faer trailed off. “The library and my studies.” Faer dropped his head slightly.
Turi gave him another suspicious look and smiled. “It will be good for you to spend some time out of the palace.”
“That’s what you said last time.” Faer dropped his head further in protest and made his way to the front entry, disappearing with a solid bang like Bravin’s party.
“I will never understand that boy, he gets odder every day.” Turi spoke to himself as he vanished behind one of the side cloth doors.
Both King and Queen watched as their throne room slowly diminished down to just the two of them. Left together in the silence of the stone.
“We should go check on Tharissa.” The Queen stood from her chair and lightly grabbed King Uridines forearm.
Looking down at her, he smiled and nodded.
• • •
“Did you find anything fun this time?” Gemini trotted up beside Mya in the back-palace corridor.
“We did find Necrolin’s Cup on Mount Guul. And then there was an odd rune by Mirror Lake that I was hoping to ask Turi about. There were a few other findings, but nothing terribly extravagant.” Mya gave Gemini a gentle shoulder bump as she caught up.
“Can I see the rune?”
“It is in my book that’s in my bag at the entry to the palace. I will need to grab it before we leave, so I can show you then.” Mya stopped just outside a set of elegantly detailed doors.
Lifting a latch near the middle of the door, Mya pushed gently against it, slowing swinging it into the room. The bedroom was clean and a well-kept. The far side carried a massive set of windows that overlooked a beautiful courtyard full of flowers and blossoming trees.
The mountain range behind the palace could be seen within the courtyard, making part of the defensive wall for the palace that stretched up beyond. A large fluffy looking bed made up with green blankets sat off to the left side wall with a large stone fireplace across from it. Charred marks from years of use blackened the hearth and inside. Nothing but a small cactus looking plant sat on the mantle and a large portrait of the royal family rested above. A small sitting area in front of the fireplace neighbored a movable cloth separating wall that blocked the view of a stone tub. The big basin wedged itself into the corner of the room but had candles and a wooden table next to it that made it very welcoming.
Age of Souls Page 9
