by Beaux Riley
The Ela'syn army was considered to be the finest military any man had laid eyes on, living or dead. Their organization and style to fight as one unit demanded respect from some of the most hardened generals in Ethra. Taking the forest from monsters and claiming it as their own twenty years ago was considered an insane feat of strength.
As they stood ready at the attention of any orders Illoke would make, they watched their leader retire to a tent that had only recently been set up for the terms of strategy. Illoke quickly entered the privacy of the enclosure and many of his supervisors quickly saluted him. They waited for his nod of approval, allowing them to return to their own business.
Illoke was approached by a female who dressed in simple brown attire, which was loose fitting and revealed much of her figure. Illoke's daughter, Caliya was one of his strongest and most reliable soldiers, as well as a skilled archer.
"Father, you know what's on all our minds. Why do we wait?" Caliya bumped her own forehead against his own, a sign of trust the two shown each other in stressful times. Illoke was a kind King, and his disposition allowed for some relaxation among his most trusted.
"Blood need not be shed if it can be helped. This act of war will be destroying the peace we established. I want to prove we will not stand down to a threat to our people, even if it means we step on others toes." Illoke's words were understandable. Avoiding war was the best option. No one died, but who would answer for the destruction? Caliya considered her father’s wisdom as they proceeded to discuss the invasion effort.
"We can disable them quite easy. There are spells..." Caliya's voice trailed off. The use of magic was since restricted in war for thousands of years, back to Illoke's time of youth. She remembered all the conversations that they had about the Sorcerer's War and how some of the greatest minds in the world were lost. Their teachings were recorded in the library of Ela'syn and guarded. Illoke wanted that knowledge to be limited, which prevented all elves from teaching the skills unless ordered. It was rumored that Illoke only had two or three total magi in his command. Whether that was a good or bad thing was to be dealt with when Caliya would take ownership of her father’s crown.
"We cannot force their surrender. Those dwarves know that they stand no chance, even with only one entrance to their city. I want them to know what they are facing when..." Illoke paused and quickly stood, then walked to the tent's opening flap and moved it. He looked directly towards the giant gates of Stoneholt. A strange force emitted from the mountain city. He could feel it, but saw nothing. The same feeling came at the birth of the elementalists in Vathra. It was significant. Illoke called to his army and the soldiers stood at attention as he forced his way to the front of the ranks of his thousands of soldiers. Illoke had to reason with the dwarves before something terrible happened.
***
The brothers stopped as they came closer to the mountain city. Only a few miles away, they stared down from the west towards the main gates and the bridge connecting it. Looking down they could see there were two major groups, one defending the gates, and the other about to attack it.
"It seems like there is a battle about to go down." Aedrius finally said. "There looks to be something even worse in that city, though." Kimura nodded.
"I felt it too. The same sinking feeling that came with the Char. I think our chase is finally over, don't you?" Kimura was met with silence as Aedrius' disposition seemed serious. "Aed?"
"Let's see if we can get a better look a bit further north of where we are. There is a ridge connecting to the top of that mountain. I assume it’s the dwarven city of Stoneholt. That's what you said we're after, right?" Aedrius' tone was on focus and noticeably serious, even for him. It worried Kimura.
"Are you scared to finally be facing them?" Kimura asked bluntly.
"I am ready to finish this damned chase." Aedrius stated and he kicked his horse's sides and began to make his way further along the hill. It kept descending towards the mountain in a natural path that split one way towards the entrance, and the other towards the mountainside.
Kimura called out to Aedrius to wait as his brother continued to push forward.
"I think we should meet with the dwarves and warn them." Kimura called out as his horse struggled to keep up.
"We need to scout the situation and avoid being casualties." Said Aedrius. Aedrius wasn't wrong. The brothers had been playing the part of spying and scouting this long; a bit longer couldn't hurt them.
Kimura and Aedrius began down the path away from the two armies. They found a ridgeway that forced them to continue on foot. Stopping at the base of the mountain, they dismounted their horses and Kimura patted his brown steed, watching it forage for grass, waiting to leave. The point in which they stopped west of the mountain took them out of the sight of the armies. A natural break in the mountain, what seemed to have been a cave in or a collapse gave view to a path they could travel up. It was thin enough for two to fit through and seemed to be well hidden, just as Midian's pathway was. Kimura immediately got the same idea that Aedrius did, and made their way through it, finding a staircase that led up the mountainside crookedly.
They came upon a door. It was the height of a dwarf, so they assumed it was a hidden way into the city. They attempted to open the door, but were met with opposition. Strange symbols began to glow as they touched it. Aedrius growled in impatience.
"I have no time for this." He raised his hand, a warm glow erupted from it and the Light gathered in his hand and pushed out at the door. The symbols begun again, even stronger. Aedrius placed both his hands on the door and tried again, and then a second time. He looked toward Kimura and spoke.
"Give me the beacon. This door is coming down." Aedrius meant to empower his Light with Zahn's relic. That kind of amplification could possibly take down the entire mountain.
"I don't think..." Kimura began to speak.
"We don't need to think, talk or chat about it. There is something happening here. We have the power to stop it." Aedrius argued, reaching for Kimura's satchel. Kimura stepped back, raising his hand in the same fashion that Aedrius had done towards the door.
"You would fight against ME, your own brother?" Aedrius struggled with Kimura. The two began to fight over his satchel until the beacon fell from it, to the stone floor of the mountain. Aedrius punched his brother hard in the stomach, forcing all the wind from Kimura. Kimura fell to the ground, gasping.
"S-stop..." Kimura reached for his brother, only to be lifted by Aedrius. Aedrius backhanded his brother across the face, knocking Kimura out.
"I am sorry, brother. But I need you to survive this." Aedrius looked down at his brother's unconscious body. He clutched the orb in his hand. The Beacon of Light was an utter mystery to them, and yet, something called out from it. He felt instructed to delve into the depths of the city. "I'll kill them both...but wait..."
Aedrius felt conflicted. A voice continued to call out instruction to him. His thoughts didn't seem to be his own. He dropped to his knees. Aedrius held his head feeling himself begin to have a splitting headache. He pointed his hand at the door and Light erupted violently from his body. It destroyed the doorway and all of the mountain on the side it resided on.
The blast of energy left a wave of dust, partially covering Kimura and slightly blinding Aedrius. He looked down from the now-created ledge. It seemed that the door only lead to a trapdoor to the bottom levels of the city. Aedrius made the attempt to pull himself to the ledge, with the stairwell leading down from the trapdoor revealed to the left of him. Down below, he had caught the attention of both armies.
"That'll be far enough, paladin." A voice called out.
"I know you've been following us." Said Aedrius, palming the orb in his hand. Darkness surrounded Aedrius and he illuminated his left hand. "What do you want?"
"I see you've knocked your brother promptly out. That'll make this easier." Said the voice. "I want exactly what you want, the end of the Char."
Aedrius could not see around hi
m. The darkness consumed everything around him.
"Then why are you stalking-" Aedrius was cut off. He felt something cold piercing his chest, right through his heart. He saw a black spike appear as the darkness around him faded. He gripped the Beacon of Light and reached for the spike. The foreign object in his body faded. Aedrius fell to the ground, onto his knees. The wound in his chest lit up, pouring Light from every orifice in his body.
A wave of blinding white Light erupted from the top of the mountain. A quake shook the foundation of the mountainside. The dwarves retreated towards the gates to Stoneholt, slamming their fists on it, begging to be let in.
A figure stood over the remnants of Aedrius's body as it faded away. The figure wore a mask and stared down at the unconscious Kimura. It knelt down and held out a gloved palm over the place in which Aedrius had blown open the mountain's roof. Light emitted from all around the person and slowly absorbed into the gloved palm.
"Halfway done." The figure stated. The voice of an older man through a face cover echoed. He walked over to the body of Kimura and placed a hand on him. The Light flashed weakly from Kimura's body for a brief moment. "You are not yet ready...I can wait."
The figure disappeared into a blackish smoke that enveloped his entire body. It was as though darkness absorbed the man, and he disappeared without a trace.
The bridge connecting Stoneholt to the opposite mountain ridge was caught in the explosion of Light and began to break. The dwarves couldn't react quickly enough. They believed the bridge built by their King could weather any storm or force in Ethra. What they didn’t expect was what was to come.
The bridge collapsed into the fast moving river nearly a mile beneath the entrance to Stoneholt. The dwarves fell to their deaths all at once. They had tried and failed to open the gates to their city and fell with the bridge they had sworn to protect.
Illoke and the elves watched on in horror as the wave of Light consumed the bridge and the dwarves they had been so adamant on not going to battle with. All had been for naught.
A mass of dust in the shape of Aedrius stood in the aftermath. A small breeze of wind took what remained of Kimura's brother, leaving no corpse or sign Aedrius had ever existed.
***
"What the hell just happened?" Illoke called out as he finished watching the devastation. The dwarves he had approached had immediately retreated to the bridge and began banging on the gates to signal whomever to open it for them. They had all fallen. All of the dwarven army was lost to the chasm they had so proudly built over. Illoke and his people had been exposed to this illuminating magic and immediately he recognized it to be something like the power Zahn had discovered.
"Father." Caliya had snuck up on Illoke. He was momentarily startled. Illoke continued to stare at the entrance to Stoneholt and then his attention was diverted to the top of the mountain, or the lack thereof. The top of the mountain had been completely removed.
Illoke then noticed everyone had been knocked out. His army lay unconscious and even he didn't know how much time had passed since the wave of light and the destruction of the bridge. Their way into Stoneholt was now gone, arousing even more problems to confronting Kaydren.
"Caliya, check with our men. Bring out the smelling salts while I do something about this bridge." Illoke's instructions brought Caliya to scramble to the tent they'd previously been in. Illoke dusted himself off and stretched his shoulders out. He had no need to use sorcery, until now. At the edge of the cliff, Illoke kneeled and placed his hands on the grass. Closing his eyes, he began to feel the energies of the land. The roots of the forest reached out to Illoke. He began to glow a slight green. Illoke raised his hands towards the gates of the mountain and a rumbling from beneath him began to shake violently.
Illoke as a guardian of the forest controlled the means of nature itself. The roots obeyed him and sprouted out of the ground towards the mountain. Illoke's spell crushed rock and affixed hundreds of roots beneath Ethra into the mountain, forming a bridge to the other side.
Illoke fell back, breathing hard. His effort to rebuild a bridge completely tired him out. Illoke cursed quietly at himself for being so rusty at his magic. A spell of that magnitude years ago, would have been the flick of the wrist. He considered this setback and returned to his people.
Caliya had been working with others to revive everyone. Many of the elves had diverted their attention to Illoke's feat. The King of the elves had not performed such magic in several years.
Illoke walked back slowly. He knew he wasn't that old. Six thousand was middle age at best for some of the oldest of the Ela'syn. No one looked to their King until he reached the closest elf to make his way to see what had been distracting them. A man covered in black dust was surrounded by most of the now-awakened elves. Caliya was speaking to this mysterious man until Illoke was within distance to hear the conversation.
"...Kimura? Can you tell us what happened?" Caliya began to interrogate the dirty paladin. She stopped in mid-sentence to turn to her father and stepped aside. "Father, we have answers, from this man here."
"Explain." Illoke said, still regaining his breath. Kimura bowed to Illoke, to have the King wave his hand as a sign of acceptance to Kimura's acknowledgement.
"Where can I start?" Kimura asked, knowing the question referred to a longer story. Illoke made no effort to sit on a stump nearest to them, clearly a victim of the dwarves cutting down the forest to fuel their mining machinations or simply for firewood in the depths of Stoneholt. He gestured for Kimura to do the same, who gladly did sit on the grass.
"We came here, my brother and I, to scout for two people, the Char. But now…he’s gone." Said Kimura.
"Vallen had more than himself imbued with that curse, it seems." Illoke clearly knew who the Char were, as Kimura noticed.
"There were two women that possessed his power. Our leader, Zahn Kaeott killed him in Vathra only months ago." Kimura's eyes began to recall the news their leader had brought with victory over their sworn enemy. "What we didn't know about, was the army that worshipped and followed the Char as gods. They slaughtered so many potential paladins and many of my closest friends."
"You came chasing after the two remaining Char, I take it."
"Yes, exactly that." Kimura nodded. "If I may, how do you know them?"
"I supplied the means for them to survive their curse." Illoke stated bluntly. Kimura's eyes widened in disbelief. He didn't know if the Ela'syn were allies to the Char, or not.
Chapter 3- The Zirris
"Quit being a drunk and take ownership of your responsibilities, Teravin." The heavily armored soldier had been jabbing at Teravin, irritating the shorter man with every single poke. The two met eyes and through a full metal helmet, the soldier could feel Teravin's hazy piercing gaze.
"I've no reason to go back." Teravin said between gulps of whatever the contents his large cup had once contained. The liquid was brown and frothy and smelled of hay. Teravin was a man of decent height, his build was not muscular nor fat. He stood a little under six feet in height when not slouching or drinking himself into a river. His eyes changed colors, as many noticed, sometimes to a beautiful green. Teravin's brownish black hair was normally cleanly cut, though now it was long and unkempt.
Stratus Omni, the leader of the Zirris, a private army directly working for the King in times of need, sat beside Teravin and sighed deeply.
"You have the ability to rally your people and return Saebel to its rightful leader." Stratus said removing his helm. Stratus's hair had long since gone gray. The stress of working in a position of military police took its toll on his aging. Stratus had blue eyes, which were rare for Saebellians, and it made him stand out. He was a tall man, even taller than Teravin and was bulky and muscular, to the direct opposite of his drunk friend.
"You'd make a better leader than I ever could, Omni. I wasn't there when my father died, what kind of King can I be?" Teravin's negativity was not encouraging. Stratus knew that Teravin was an exceptional man.
The depression he was facing was understandable. The beloved King Grand Secorim died mysteriously and the steward, now Lord Keth had taken up the thrown while the nation was looking for Teravin to take his seat as King. The longer Teravin waited, however, could mean that Lord Keth would contest Teravin's ownership of Saebel.
Teravin had travelled abroad for many years, neglecting any ties to the kingdom and even going as far as to go unescorted to the seediest places in all of Ethra. He was incredibly smart for being nearly thirty years old. Though people such as Stratus did question his morals.
"I think you should appoint someone else if you feel so strongly. But we need you to be the one to do it. You are the only one who can contest Lord Keth. He is changing laws, Teravin. Most of your father's supporters have gone missing or have been removed from their power to help the people of Saebel." Stratus rubbed his temple, occasionally palming the hilt of his officer's blade that was sitting in his lap. "Even the Zirris have been dismissed until further notice. I can tell you now, even before I joined them, the Zirris had existed since Saebel's erecting. He has no right."
"It sounds like you have a lot on your plate." Teravin said, being coy.
"Want a bite or two?" Stratus replied sarcastically. Teravin took one last drink, feeling through Stratus's constant stare, which he'd never leave the former prince alone.
"I've had a feast before you came in, thanks." Teravin returned the sarcasm.
"What if I told you that we have good word that your father was murdered, not anywhere near the death that the steward claimed it to be?" Stratus finally said, rousing Teravin's drunken eyes into complete attention to Stratus.
"...What proof do you have? I need proof." Teravin pushed his drink away and had his hands on Stratus' chest. Stratus gripped Teravin's hands meaningfully and motioned to a soldier watching the tavern that they had been in for the past while. Teravin let go of Stratus and sat down. The Zirris leader sat a cup of water for Teravin to drink as both took their seats.
