by Paul Kite
I was even more sympathetic. Wow, what a wife he had... militant and brisk!
“Ok, my dear,” surrendering under the insistent pressuring of his beloved, Ankri agreed with a slight sadness in his voice. “What is required of us?”
“There's a krogan, and it needs to be slowed down, or even better, immobilized.”
“A krogan?” the man asked in surprise, apparently, he knew what kind of animal it was. “But how?”
“Yes, it's their leader.”
“It's gonna be hard, honey,” he turned to Riella. “So,” the man began to think out loud. “It needs to be slowed down. Freezing won't work on him, neither will fire. But we can use earth or wind magic.”
“Ankri, do you remember the young druid who studied with us?” having flung herself into his thoughts, the girl began to slowly bring her plan up.
“In the first year?” the man said with a hint of jealousy. “Yes, I remember.”
“He showed me an interesting spell once…”
“Give me more detail!” Ankri stood in the pose of a hound. “When was this? And where did he show you the spells? You haven't mentioned it before.”
“Well…” the girl hesitated, realizing that she’d said too much. “In the garden behind the University ... and that was before I met you. My darling!” the beauty made innocent eyes at him. “I was just talking to him. He told me…”
“Ahem, ahem!” There was a fight going on behind the tent, and they were resolving family issues. “Riella, you mentioned a spell,” I reminded her.
“Oh, yes,” Rovar's daughter said, and her husband looked at me with displeasure. “I remembered the poisonous vines. In addition to the deterrent effect, the poison is also released from the bark of the plants in the form of spores, which cannot be inhaled in any case. I remember that spell well. The druid explained that every magician who knew the power of the earth well could use that spell.”
“You can do that?” If I’d understood correctly, it was a deceleration spell with a poisoning effect.
“Most likely, yes,” the girl shrugged.
“And I'll try something from my arsenal,” the man added.
Ankri shook his hands, clenching and unclenching them a couple of times, and, like a pianist, ran his fingers over the invisible keys.
“By the way, do you have a mana regeneration potion, just in case?” he asked me. “Six of them would be great.”
“Here you are,” I hastily pulled the specified amount from my inventory and gave them to the man and the girl.
“Riella, are you ready?”
“Yes, my darling.”
“Let's go! Open the canopy!”
I pulled the piece of cloth to the side, the mage took a step forward, saw the krogan, and released an air spell in the form of a small tornado. It gradually began to gain momentum, increasing in size and drawing everything from the ground into itself. Riella and I left the tent after him.
“What took you so long?” Dazrael shouted at us. “I'm not actually immortal!” I noticed a laceration on his shoulder and a big bruise on his face, it was amazing how the elf had continued to dodge around the monkey so smartly.
“Hi Ankri, hi Riella,” the hunter appeared, as if from the ground, with someone's short ax in his hands; his bow was on his back, and the quiver was empty.
“Hello, uncle!” the magician didn’t have much time to speak, but the girl hissed like a snake in response. “Move away so you aren’t caught by the magic,” Riella advised him, although it was plain in her look that she would have happily accepted him remaining in place.
“Riella, start,” the magician said, turning to his wife. “But let the elf move away first.”
“Dazrael!” I screamed. “Get away!”
The Master of Shadows disappeared behind one of the tents. And then, the leader of the werewolves noticed the mages. His mouth issued an angry roar as he realized that the mages had just been released. I thought he knew the hunters and the prey had switched places.
The tornado grew larger and became five yards high, twisting around itself; stabbing, cutting and chopping objects, branches, clothes and other debris, and Ankri sent it with a gesture at the krogan.
Riella has finished casting a Poisonous Vine; she sighed wearily and began to fall to the ground, but Ankri managed to catch her a moment before she fell.
And at the same time, the whole square in front of us was covered with a thick carpet of vines with short, similar to suction cups, spikes. The spells combined into a riot of unpleasantness. And the krogan was in the heart of that riot of plant and tornado elements combining to do him harm.
“How long will the spell last and what kind of poison is it?” the light elf asked sternly, taking out one of the healing potions.
“Twenty minutes,” the girl whispered. “I, unfortunately, know nothing about this poison. Only that it is very dangerous for many living beings.”
“Then let's add this,” Dazrael got out a couple of small jars with a black, gooey substance inside, and threw them as close as possible to the krogan. “He's definitely finished now. But it’s better to wait until the spells end.”
“Can we not wait and just go back?” Ankri suggested. “Riella's tired, she needs peace and quiet. She's so worried.”
“I agree,” Rokshan added. “I'll collect the arrows, the ones that are safe to, anyway.”
“Go, but we won’t be coming with you,” the elf said after a bit thinking.
Uh what? Without us? But what about the mission? And some much needed rest? I looked at the Shadow Master in bewilderment.
“But why?” Riella asked.
“Given the fact that I’d hoped to get horses from your father, in order to reach the mouth of the Valand river faster,” the elf began to explain, “but those damn shapeshifters spoiled everything… What's the point of going back? It's easier for us to keep going.”
“But…”
“Every last shapeshifter is dead, and there are very few wild animals left in the area. No one will attack you. And as for the leader, Kraven and I are going to make sure that it also leaves this world.”
“Dear,” Ankri hastened to stop his wife when she looked like she wanted to say something to oppose the elf's words, “they have a long way to go, let's not delay them. Especially as your father is very worried. So, let's just get home quickly.”
The girl nodded, no longer arguing. Ankri asked the elf for a couple of potions to restore his wife's strength and life, and then they left the camp with the hunter.
The monster, being strangled by the vines and hidden by a cloud of poisonous spores, has already calmed down; I was hoping it was dead. The tornado lost the control of the magician and began to gradually lose its strength and soon completely disappeared into the air, dropping everything that it'd gained on the way to the target-weapons, debris, branches and leaves. Five minutes later, the vines pulled back into the ground.
“The spore cloud has dissipated, let's check the krogan,” the elf suggested.
And we went over to the body of the four-armed monkey.
“Ugh,” I instantly retreated a few steps back, when the body of the monster was suddenly obscured with mist, and then slowly began to acquire quite a human appearance. “Yuck,” I turned away, unable to observe the reverse transformation of the shapeshifters' leader. “But why did it start turning into a man?” I asked the elf; after all, this was strange, werewolves usually remained in their animal guise after they died.
“I don't know,” Dazrael replied calmly, the changes that were happening to the body didn’t bother him. “So, what's this amulet?”
I turned back and saw the elf come up to the dead man, who had already taken a normal human form, and bent over him, looking at something.
“How did it stay on him?” I also went to the body and, looking over the shoulder of the elf, stared at the amulet in the form of an exact copy of a monkey with the snout of a crocodile, the one into which the leader had transformed. “It's
just a thing!”
In most cases, shifters lost all their clothes during the transformation. They were simply torn if the size of the new appearance was larger than the human one, and if it was smaller, they just fell off. In this case, the chain of the amulet was designed for the neck of an ordinary person, but not a huge monster.
Most likely, this amulet was enchanted. This man had been turning into a krogan using it. And for the same reason, the amulet had remained on him, safe and sound.
I wondered what kind of new magic this was.
It was my first time seeing it. Again, I was encountering an unknown phenomenon. And I was absolutely sure that the creators of the game hadn’t programed such options.
“Unfortunately, I can't answer your question,” I wasn’t surprised by his words. “Perhaps we should take it with us, to examine it,” Dazrael pulled the blade from its sheath and picked up the chain, removing the amulet from the neck of the leader; then he got a small box from his inventory and dropped the small figure of a krogan in there. “Let's go. Don't forget to upgrade your night vision,” the Master of Shadow reminded me.
The camp was left far behind and, according to the map, the river wasn’t that far away, it was at a distance of approximately two hours on foot, if we were to go by the shortest route, and then we had to go downstream, to get to the sea.
“So where do we have to go?” I asked Dazrael, walking through the thick bushes that blocked our way.
“There’s a small fishing village on the bank of the river, by the sea; the ship will be waiting for us near the village,” the elf replied. “As soon as we arrive, I'll give them a signal. They'll send a boat for you, and then the captain will hand you a paper which will let you stay on Harith-Hodor island. He'll take you there. I'll go back to Noar-Rahor.”
“Is it a real paper?”
“Of course! The spell is on it, and the King of Nazhar's signature is also real. You don't have to worry.”
We travelled a long way in almost complete silence and without any incidents. We were only attacked once by a group of small animals, similar to a hybrid of squirrels and foxes. After losing a dozen of their relatives, they retreated into the surrounding vegetation and we never saw them again.
“The boat must be here,” the elf descended the gentle slope, to a river densely overgrown with reeds, while I was waiting for him on the footpath. “I've found it! Kraven, come down here!”
Dazrael dipped a hand into the water, found a rope and drew it to himself.
“Help me!”
We both quickly pulled a small, wooden, flat-bottomed boat to the shore.
“I hope it's not leaky,” I said doubtfully, getting into the boat. “And we won't drown in the middle of the river.”
“Can you row?” the elf asked after joining me.
“No,” I answered honestly.
“Okay, then you can steer it as soon as I take the boat out of the reeds,” Dazrael lifted a long pole from the bottom of the boat and pushed it from the shore. “The current is not strong here.”
The boat noisily made its way through the reeds, pushing them apart.
“Here you go,” the elf handed me a pole. “I'll take the oars.”
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“The bottom of the river is right here, so your job is to push the boat with the pole. If I tell you to lift it up, you do. The main thing is to avoid running into small islands. The river is wide, but there's enough of the tiny islands here to be an issue. So keep your eyes open, in case I don't notice them.”
The elf started to row and the boat began to gain speed.
“Get the pole out of the water,” Dazrael said, trying not to splash the oars too loudly in the water. “We may run into the guards.”
“It's quiet,” I said staring at the approaching shore.
“I see. As soon as we get closer, we should slow down and go along the shore.”
Ten minutes later, we were in the territory of the Kingdom of Nazhar. The boat was moored to the shore and the elf made it to land quickly.
“Give me the pole,” Dazrael told me, when I was about to get off the boat. “Now help me push it back.”
We moved the boat back into the water with the pole, and then the elf got knee-deep into the river and pushed it even further, and then threw the pole away.
“Come on,” the Shadow Master commanded me. “They live nearby, practically a step away.”
After a bit of walking, we saw a low palisade of flat, rough-hewn boards. Behind the fence, we could see wooden shacks, poles hammered into the ground with nets stretched over them, boats, and a few people sitting near a fire.
“We won't go into the village,” the elf said, walking ahead of me. “They already know we're here.”
“But how?”
“A shaman lives here; he's placed some guard spirits in the area. Even a mouse couldn't slip past them.”
It was my first time seeing the sea in the game. A black, infinite and quiet expanse of water that went all the way to the horizon and merged with the same black sky.
The village stood in a large bay that went deep into the shore of the mainland; the delta of the river went to the left, through a small stretch of land and mountains that I could see to the right.
“A fortress would be good here,” I noticed.
“There was one,” the elf said and sat down right on the shore, “three hundred years ago. But it was destroyed completely by the magic coming from the river. Now, don't distract me,” the elf took out and unrolled a scroll.
He cast one short spell and the paper flashed with cold fire.
“Now we wait,” the Master of Shadows reclined comfortably on the sand.
I decided to walk along the shore. I felt a nice, fresh wind and soft sand under my feet; it was great weather.
“Just don't go too far,” the elf warned me.
I picked up a shell which was slowly creeping along the shore. It angrily snapped at me and released a stream of smelly, blue liquid. What a bitch! Trying not to breathe, I threw it into the sea and moved away.
“Oh, crabs!” I noticed large creatures crawling ashore; they were of the size of a dog and their claws were four times larger than my palm. “I better get out of here!”
“You came back quite quickly,” the elf said with a soft chuckle, without turning his head.
“There are unfriendly inhabitants here,” I waved it away. “I'd rather sit here.”
“Look, am I just going to the island?”
“You'll get everything on the ship. Don't worry!”
“But…”
I was interrupted by the loud slaps of oars in the water. A large boat from a ship was quickly approaching the shore. There were three oars on each side. A man stood on the bow of the boat; he was dressed in a black linen shirt and wide black pants of the same fabric, and a dark red bandana was on his head.
“Who is Dazrael?” the man asked as he approached, after jumping onto the sand and leaving deep footprints in it with his high, almost knee-length boots.
“I am,” the elf stood up.
“Captain Arkenrid asked me to tell you that the departure is tomorrow morning. We need to wait for the third passenger.”
‘Arkenrid? Did I hear that correctly? He's the very pirate that sold me to Alatkhdor!’ I though.
“That! Wasn't! The deal!” saying the words one at a time, Dazrael expressed his indignation.
“If you want, I can take you to the ship, and you can talk to the captain personally?” the man suggested.
“No, thank you.”
“Then let me take you inside.”
The people, among whom there were several elves, had pulled the boat to shore and tied a rope to it, driving a stake further into the solid land.
“Something's wrong?” I asked Dazrael, when we were left alone in a small house.
“Yes!” the elf cried out angrily. “You were supposed to be the only passenger on the ship”.
�
�Did you know that Arkenrid was the one who brought me to Alathdor?”
“Of course! I just didn't tell you who was going to be taking you to Harith-Hodor. Don't try to kill him. I can see it in your eyes, you'd be happy to stab him.”
“Wouldn't you try to get revenge?”
“Almost all the people who made me feel that way are dead,” the elf responded, highlighting the first four words with his intonation. “So, yes, I would have tried. When you decide to kill him, hit him in the back,” the Master of Shadows earnestly advised. “Don't engage in direct combat. But…” he cheerfully smiled, “it’s better to implement your plan for revenge another time. I mean, you kill him and what happens next? You can't handle the rest of the crew. They’ll quickly send you off to be the sea creatures’ lunch. And because you're immortal, you'll be reborn somewhere in Saradan. Zorkhan will be very angry with you!”
“You talked me into it,” I jokingly replied. “I'll remember your advice! If the opportunity comes, I'll avenge myself, and if not, then it's fine, let him live. The most important thing for me is to get rid of this damn collar!”
Chapter 20
F inally, before we sailed from the shore, Dazrael said that we would either meet by chance or by order of master Zorkhan. After all, at the moment, his work was finished. He’d brought me to the ship. And besides the unexpected delay in connection with Rovar’s request and the lack of horses, the journey, in general, had ended quite quickly. He’d also saved my life. And now captain Arkenrid was once again responsible for me. And I would now either return back to the mainland with Lsaeros, through the most common portal in Fadlas, or, otherwise, I'd better stay there forever.
The elf didn't even say goodbye, just silently turned around and walked away from the boat. And when we moved away from the shore, I saw that Dazrael was looking somewhere into the distance, as if thinking about something. He was holding a small object and spinning it distractedly, I couldn’t make out what it was, from that distance. But then, nodding at a decision he’d made, the light elf swung and tossed the thing far out to sea.
The boat swayed on the waves, I got distracted, and when I looked back at the shore, Dazrael was no longer there.
