She spun eventually, much too slowly for her liking, and felt the sting of something piercing her arm. Aliana slapped the tip of it away, only succeeding in bloodying her fingers on what looked to be a dark blade-like protrusion. She was too slow, much too slow. How had this thing dampened her own sense of survival? Fire burned through her flesh and her arm immediately went numb in response. She staggered back several steps, unfurling her wings and then dimly remembering their damage as a faint throb upon her back, then she twisted and fell onto the hard floor of the barrens.
She struggled to get up, but her body would not comply, as if tethered to the ground by unseen ropes that pressed into her and bound her into inaction.
The darkness stood over her now, patient and indeterminable in her periphery. She tried to rise her head, to gain a glance at her captor but nothing happened. She called upon her power to reach out and spoil the enchantment she was held under but nothing came. The shadowy figure slowly receded into the darkness of unconsciousness, and Aliana knew no more.
El-Vador felt it even as he knew that it was too far to do anything about. A semblance of power on a strange register had him scrambling for his weapon before he realised that it came from a distance. He cast his net out, and only then sensed the warning signs of others closing on his position. Apparently they had been sent to waylay him so that he could not return to Aliana. There was no doubt in his mind that it was an attack upon the Pixie. It also confirmed his suspicions that Anacletus had betrayed him. The assassin had promised he would keep her safe in his absence, that he would provide her with protection whilst El-Vador saw to Salvarius. Now he had been found wanting a second time in spite of the Elf's warnings and threats, a matter he would have to attend to later should he survive that long.
The approach of the creatures was one of utter silence. He could not see them in spite of the flat plain of the barrens but he knew that they were there, he felt their energies as they prepared to spring the trap. That he was being hunted El-Vador did not doubt. That meant that Aliana had undoubtedly been kidnapped by similar forces. To do anything to help her, he must first survive, and kill his enemies as quickly as possible.
Their confidence in their lack of detection betrayed them. One dark figure materialised behind him and readied a strike, El-Vador responded by stabbing his sword up and back. The point dug deeply into the sternum of the creature and left it motionless upon the floor.
The other figures appeared directly before him, knowing that the Elf was now aware of their presence. One ducked low, the other leaped upon high, so that any cut El-Vador intended to make could only impact upon one of them.
El-Vador extended his palm and the darkness surged forth in a ball of concentrated energy. His other hand swept the sword out and beheaded the second charging figure, returning both of them to the dirt in a chalky memory.
Another of the dark figures appeared before him, slashing toward the left, its bladed appendage slicing at the Elf's sternum. Though that warning cut had not tasted flesh, the figure began to shift so the return would take El-Vador's head off cleanly.
El-Vador shifted his sword in turn from right hand to left and blocked the cut at his middle. He sent another stream of dark tendrils racing out, clasping what would have been the creature's throat and raising it from the ground. The figure slowly lost colour and crumbled into white powdery nothingness before the grinding grip of the darkness that ensnared it, but the Elf knew that the diversion had been enough. There was no way he was going to be able to get back in time to save Aliana from abduction.
That Salvarius had taken Aliana had been obvious, there were no other living souls out here in the barrens. All he could do was press on, continue searching for the ruins that Salvarius was attempting to pry the artefact from and stop him from achieving his ultimate goal. He knew that the Pixie would be carried in that general direction by her captors, his only hope now was to outpace them.
They left no tracks to announce from whence they had come, and their scattered powdery remains yielded no clue as to what they were. El-Vador simply had to continue onward and hope that the ruins were evident when he came into proximity with them.
Turning his back to the dusty remnants, he headed further into the endless barrens.
LXXII
The pieces started to fall into place, the reality began to take its form and it was a gruesome one indeed. A cannibalistic boil that needed to be lanced before its swellings devoured all that surrounded it. If I had known the portents of my every action in my youth I may have trod carefully and with more circumspection. It matters not now.
Aliana spun dizzily as the dark figures carried her across the plain. Whatever these things had done to her had rendered her largely senseless and docile during their journey. Her head was a blur of nothingness and attempts to call up her powers were muted. She must have passed out eventually, because the blurring traversal of the lands had finally ceased. Even as she lay upon the cold stone floor she felt as if she was still travelling endlessly, being drawn onward with a force that exceeded all her previous desires.
There were four of them as far as she could recall, that brought her paralysed form forth into the ruins that undoubtedly held both the artefact and Salvarius. The hallways were vast and the ceilings barely visible, making her feel dwarfed in stature and stating the immensity of the situation she found herself dragged into. She couldn't begin to imagine what creatures constructed such grandiose monuments, nor why they would need such space in order to flourish. The floors and pillars were worse for wear, but they still spoke of an artifice of intricacy unimaginable.
Ahead of her a vaguely feminine figure moved through the hallway with confident grace. She raised a hand as she came to massive stone doors, and they swung open before her without any visible means of doing so.
The room was a cluttered mass of antiquity, sprawling out from the centre as more of the shadow creatures arrived with additional heaps of old pottery and indiscernible devices. Large statues of huge winged creatures stared grotesquely down upon the scene, mute in their appraisal but ominous in their looming. At the centre of this stood the armoured form of what was presumably Salvarius, clawing his way through shattered pieces of debris and consulting a tablet that lay nearby.
She was thrown prostrate to the ground, as if she were but a lump of meat being offered up to a vulture.
'Master, the final attempt succeeded, my twin has arrived.'
Salvarius seemed to ignore the comment, as if such matters were beneath him. Instead he continued to scour the piles for the artefact he sought, his movements almost feverish in their intensity. He eventually stood and strode across the floor, his eyes raking her form as he smiled. There was no warmth behind that smile, it was one of determined calculation, one of a hunter that has finally caught wind of its prey.
He dropped to a knee and took Aliana's jaw in his hand. He turned her face left and then right. 'So you are the twin then. The resemblance is striking I must say. At least now the bonding part of my quest can be concluded.'
Aliana tried to fight the touch of the man, but her body remained paralysed.
'I can see why the wings sprouted now, Mina. It would appear that our captive isn't entirely human, most interesting.'
The woman called Mina stroked the side of Aliana's neck with a cool caress, revelling in her ability to place her hands on her twin without struggle. She withdrew after a time, but with some difficulty. Apparently whatever bond had entwined them was as difficult for her to resist as it had been for Aliana.
Salvarius continued his search, ignoring the two women now that their business with him was largely concluded.
Mina's face dropped down to Aliana's ear, whispering into it quietly. 'Soon we will be one, you and I. Together we shall infuse a new dawn for the Brotherhood by turning the very power of the opposition against them. It will be glorious to behold, but in the bonding to come I assure you that it will be the last memory you create.'
'I've found it
!' Salvarius roared, scattering away all the other fragments he had been digging through. 'As you claimed Mina, it is entirely intact.'
Mina hissed in Aliana's ear. 'Once the master has learned the secrets of the artefact, our bonding shall begin.'
Salvarius stared at the device in momentary confusion that was soon dispelled, transfixed by the pristine and untouched nature of the ancient artefact that he held. 'You may begin the bonding, Mina. The use of this artefact is evident.'
Anacletus drifted through the darkened alleys of the small town, at one with the shadow and all but undetectable. It was a bad night to be wandering astray from the main road, unless you were the most dangerous thing the night had to offer. Those he did allow glimpses of him were soon to turn the other direction, it was his presence rather than the cloak that warded off any scrutiny. Those who studied him knew that, at best, attacking him would be a lethal exercise that promised little return for their efforts.
The assassin rapped patiently on the back door of a gambling den that few knew of. There was no doubt in his mind that the man he sought would be here. He knew how the encounter in the barrens was going to play out and he knew exactly what he had to do to avoid it from happening. It would be a close call, and much was riding on his decision to abandon the Pixie. He knew that the Elf would certainly be problematic should he discover that particular betrayal. It wasn't one that he could afford not to make, he had been placed in a corner by recent actions beyond the ether and a more immediate approach was required. His endless trekking through the barrens would serve no purpose but to doom them all.
The door opened and he palmed the guard a substantial offering of coin for his compliance, after that he made his way through the poorly lit labyrinth of tables and shadows.
The assassin did not immediately see his target, but he was not concerned by the absence. His information was correct, there was no cause for concern.
He made for another man in the room directly, undoubtedly stirring up any number of venomous warning glances from those surrounding him. There were none that could touch him, he had assessed the place the moment he had set foot in it. None would be piercing his shadow through force of arms this night.
Reaching the man's table, he interrupted the conversation in a brisk and abrasive fashion. 'I am looking for a thief.'
'That's nice.' the plain-spoken man said dismissively, a calm voice that betrayed no fears. 'Why are you telling me this?'
The assassin offered him an easy smile. 'I seek Judicael.'
The men about the table burst into laughter, as if he had just muttered a ribald jest.
'Why?' the quiet one in their midst asked, his voice somehow cutting through the belly laughs.
Tendrils of smoke whipped out and caressed the throats of every man seated. Anacletus did not raise his voice, he simply repeated the statement.
The man's eyes goggled at the dark smoke that was slowly strangling the life from him.
He could hear the sounds of weapons being drawn, more out of caution than any desire from the fellow occupants to help this particular set of scoundrels.
'I am here. You need not kill them, unless you really want to that is.' Judicael appeared from a darkened doorway to the right.
The tendrils relinquished their grasp as Judicael made his way to the table. 'This is Anacletus. Had you defied him any further you'd all be dead,' he nodded with a smile toward the other occupants that had foolishly drawn their weapons, 'all of you, dead.'
He turned to Anacletus and his tone became more business-like. 'You seek my services?'
The assassin nodded. 'You owe a favour to El-Vador of the mountains. There has been a miscalculation on my part, unless you repay that debt immediately his life is forfeit.'
Judicael raised an eyebrow. 'Cleaning up after your mistakes once again, am I?'
'The stakes have changed since our younger days, Judicael.'
'Very well then.' Judicael replied, swiping a goblet from the table and quenching his thirst. 'What needs done?'
Anacletus smiled, and laid the details of the plan out to his associate.
Mina stared on impatiently as her servants held Aliana in place, their shadowy forms spreading her out upon the floor. She stared down upon the naked form of her captive and then upon her own, the resemblance was uncanny but not yet total.
Mina advanced on the struggling creature and grasped the arms of one of her servants, willing her mind to mutate the darkness to her purpose and feeling her stomach lurch at such an askance of power. It was required though, she couldn't have the joining disrupted.
The blackened protrusion solidified into a sharpened blade that she snapped off, and gently pricked the feverish skin of her twin with.
It took but a moment for her to go rigid, the effects of the blade more potent given that she had already been infected before. Now she was entirely under her control, and there was nothing from this side of the ether or beyond that could break it. When the body was poisoned beyond a certain point, no amount of will be it the individual or an intrusion could force it to be otherwise. A safeguard lest the others attempt to take matters into their own hands.
She approached now that her target had stilled, drawing herself closer to the climactic point of giddy acceptance, teasing herself with the inevitability as the power she had installed goaded her on.
The darkened shadows that served her melted away and she felt release, it was her and the twin alone with no other worldly intrusions.
She didn't even know the silent creature's name as she bore down upon her, she neither wanted nor required it, the being that inhabited was a waste product of the merging, discarded and overpowered through the will of the strong.
Their conversation was not of the physical realm, their mouths need not open and the words need not be spoken, their very thoughts were so attuned from the desire of the joining that they need only convey them as such.
'You are a vessel, that is all you are to me. We will merge and your power will be greeted by mine. The augmentation of the teachings of the Brotherhood you betrayed with my own powers will drive the artefact, and from there the ether shall be split and the Brotherhood shall rush through. There will be nothing that the opposition can do to quell them, and Salvarius will be the figurehead to reign over all.'
The powerful opposition to her sentiment was registered in her mind. 'I will not let you.'
'You have no choice.'
The chamber door opened and Salvarius entered. A smile on his face and confidence in his stride.
'I see that the bonding ceremony is under way.'
Mina turned toward him with a tired smile playing upon her lips. 'She is not being very cooperative, master. It tires me to keep having to push against her.'
'She will cooperate eventually, Mina. Of this you have already assured me, it is simply a matter of time. For now we must use what remaining power has been gifted to you and return to the burrow. At least there your pursuit cannot harm our plans.'
'Yes master.' Mina replied docilely, tiredness touching her eyes. 'I shall work harder upon the twin, she will submit to my will eventually. I would feel much more comfortable doing this while heavily guarded, my own defences have weakened substantially.'
Salvarius offered her an appraising look. 'Good. I expect it to be so, do not disappoint me Mina.'
He reached out for her with his hand, running it gently across her cheek. 'You shall have the protection you require, fear not. Soon the merging shall be complete and your power will imbue this artefact. After that, nothing shall stop us.'
With that they left the dusty confines of the final ruin and with Aliana in tow they returned to the burrow in a haze of pulsating power.
LXXIII
What they did to her and just how much it cost her over the ensuing years is something that frightens even one such as I. In a way it makes me thankful for the darkness I have within me, there can only be room for one such corner of the mind.
He sensed the Elf long
before he was spotted, and knew as he traversed the cloud of darkness that this was a pivotal point in the already strained alliance he had held together.
Judicael had been his usual reluctant self when it came to power and it had taken a great number of threats to convince him to come on this journey. There was no other option left for the assassin, if they had set out on foot or even mounted the swiftest of steeds they would not have reached El-Vador in time.
The surge of power had upset the dynamic that Anacletus carefully monitored between the two forces, it was clear now that Salvarius and his benefactor had returned to the burrow to initiate the bonding. Meaning that the Elf was travelling in entirely the wrong direction.
He could feel the continuous complaints from the thief permeate his every thought but resisted batting them down, there was no sense in making the man frantic by suppressing him. Instead he continued to focus on just what to say to El-Vador, knowing that by losing the Pixie he had most likely forfeited his chance at a civil conversation.
The smoke slowly subsided from his vision to reveal the Elf with weapon drawn, outlined by the harsh glare of the sun-streaked barrens. This wasn't going to be easy to explain.
'You.' his target hissed, advancing upon the assassin with darkness pulsing from a clenched fist. 'I told you to guard Aliana, now she has been taken!'
This stopped Anacletus in his tracks, he had not expected the Elf to know of her ensnarement. At least he need not explain that it had occurred now, which was one small saving grace when dealing with an angry and lethal foe.
Judicael's appearance out of the smoke was enough to catch El-Vador off guard, and Anacletus used the momentary hesitation to his advantage, keeping his hands firmly by his sides and speaking in a clear voice. 'The forces that seek to prevent us from destroying Sarvacts did their utmost to waylay me, as a result I was taken away from the Pixie for a time and unable to prevent her capture. They could not risk holding me any further without causing an imbalance in the ether, so I return to you with aid.'
El-Vador's Travels Page 45
