by Kyle Belote
Meristal closed the distance between them; the hood of her outer robe covered her hair. Why did he think Meristal was Julie? A shuddering whisper beckoned him to follow the thoughts. Madam Raviils was shorter, more petite than Julie, but on both accounts, not by much. The thoughts fled when Meristal spoke.
“Judas. I just came from the Elyfian Enclave. The elyves decided to march against the vampires. I didn’t realize they harbored such ill feelings, but a declaration is miraculous. Perhaps Scodd Yullus’ voice is stronger than we realized. An elyfian Portal Master sent an advance guard, but the vampires subdued the forces. They pulled a victory when a legion of goblins flanked the elyves.” She paused, her eyes falling to the carnage before flickering to a cluster of people nearby.
“So, it has begun,” Judas muttered. He looked off into the distance, northeast, towards the Corridor of Cruelty. “The board is set, and you had your opening volley. The next one is ours.”
“What are you talking about?” Meristal inquired, perturbed.
“Xilor moved against us, and now it is time for our counter strike. Forget about the lower Domains of Marcoalyn and Stratu’Geim. He isn’t worried about dominating them; he doesn’t need to. If he controls Ralloc, he controls the entire Realm and possibly Ermaeyth herself.”
“What about Far Point and the barrier?”
“A ruse. It holds nothing of value or threat to him.”
“How will he obtain Ralloc?”
“Well,” said Judas pulling out his wand and striking the dirt by his feet. The dirt molded into a hasty replica of the Ralloc and Marcoalyn Domains. He pointed to the dirt map. “The elyves marched via a portal from the northeast down to Shadow City, west by southwest. Goblins marched from here,” he said, pointing to the Goblin Forest that lay in the southwest of the Marcoalyn Domain, “through the Corridor and up into Shadow City.”
“Do you realize what you are suggesting, Judas?” asked Meristal.
“Yes. The goblins have an insurrection on their hands. If the Leviathan caste rises against the Palatine caste in Goblin’s Terrace, we could be looking at a Goblin Rebellion. Is there any word from Kellis or Lagelm on such things?” Meristal shook her head. “That is good. Let us hope we don’t entertain a massacre as well as a war. So let’s assume the Leviathan caste circumvented the seat of power in the Terrace. They could hit Far Point, Troll City, or Cape Gythmel along the way. Any news in regards to that?”
“No,” Meristal assured him. “Nothing. No sightings, no skirmishes. All is quiet. Any word on Julie?”
The warlock shook his head. “All is quiet.” He hoped she was safe and not lost, injured, or dead. It would be a great blow to him, as well as to the Realm, if the fairy’s legend proved true. He wasn’t disputing whether it was real or not, but was content to let it play out, if it did at all.
He cleared the phlegm in his throat and continued. “This is a dangerous time. Our strongest fighters, the elyves, were stopped, and goblins are in the Ralloc Domain. Xilor has already obtained a foothold on the upper domain, and he hasn’t even shown himself on the battlefield. But he will come, and I can tell you where, too.”
“Out with it! I still need to warn the Council!” Meristal said tartly.
“At the Corridor, Cape Gythmel to be exact, now that we learned where some of his forces are. Get back to the Ralloc and gather what forces you can muster, even without the help of the Council, if you have to. He will strike soon, and this will not be like the last war, something planned, orchestrated and drawn out. Xilor retains the element of surprise and will plow over us before we can respond. We will make defenses at Cape Gythmel.”
“Then I have good news in regards to Cape Gythmel.” She hesitated, debating on what to say. “Daniel came to see me.” When Judas didn’t respond, she reminded him. “The Heir of Valin.”
“I know who that pompous ass is,” Judas barked harshly, his azure eyes cold. He never liked the man, but he was useful. “Let me guess; he wanted to bed you?”
Meristal ignored this. “He sent a squad of Krey to Cape Gythmel for ‘exercises.’ They should arrive soon and begin fortifying.”
“The Krey,” Judas grumbled in disgust, his lips frowned.
“You know what?” Meristal snapped as she backed away, calling her magic to teleport. “I would have figured an exile like you would be more compassionate to other outcasts. Stop being so close-minded, Judas.”
Then she was gone.
***
Chapter 52 : The City Of Despair
A city of ruins greeted her. The stately community was a wasteland now. Once, high walls encompassed the grand municipal, but now crumbled, mere rubble, cracked in jagged lines. The prosperity leached, the once impressive entrance all but destroyed. A lone statue of a unicorn stood outside the gate. It stood, unblemished, upon its pedestal, untouched by time.
“What is this place? Where are the mountains?” Julie questioned. With cautious curiosity, she padded closer towards the destroyed remains.
“The City of Despair. Everyone stops here when teleporting. An anomaly similar to the Corridor, sort of.”
“Why is that?”
“It was destroyed by some form of potent magic. Perhaps the backwash of such forces drags you out of your teleport. But you have to be traveling fairly close for it to do that.”
Julie let out a pensive hum, marveling at the unmutilated statue. The cryptic writing at the base ensnared her attention. The writing seemed familiar, similar to the book. The words moved as she stared, bending and rearranging until they made sense to her.
“No one can read it,” Ava explained with mild irritation. Julie ignored her. “You won’t be able to,” Ava said louder, more forcefully, breaking Julie’s concentration.
“You might be surprised,” Julie murmured, turning her attention back to the pedestal.
Once again, the words shifted, unlocking the hidden meaning. “It says, ‘You must understand the lost language, the shield, and key to entering the City of Despair.’”
“Yeah, right,” Ava said, rolling her eyes. “No one can read it, weren’t you listening?”
“We’ll see who’s right,” she maintained. Julie stepped closer. Focusing on the letters in front of her, to speak in Ucoric, Julie spoke. “Hello.”
“What did you say?”
“Hello, I think.”
As she said that, the statue’s head animated and returned the greeting, “Hello.” Without preamble, it returned to its solid state.
“By the One,” Ava muttered, her eyes going wide.
“What happened here?” Julie inquired.
The stone reanimated. “Only the one who did this knows for certain. In one cataclysmic day, the city was destroyed, replaced with what you survey before you. An unfathomable power was released here.”
“What did he say?” Ava demanded. Julie relayed what the unicorn offered. Ava flew up high enough to peer over the wall. “There is hardly anything. Just a dead tree to the far north side, and a temple-like building in the center.” She floated back down to Julie. “Ask him how we get in.”
“How do we get into the City of Despair?” Julie tested the effigy.
“I can take you if you choose to go, but why would you?” the figure asked.
“I don’t know, maybe to check out what’s in that building,” Julie said, peering past the unicorn and through the obliterated gate.
“I shall do as you ask, if you wish.”
She swallowed. “I wish it.”
“Follow me.” The unicorn’s body shifted, the stone falling away, revealing the encased skin beneath. His flesh was not translucent and full of light but a white coat like a horse. He stepped off his pedestal and trotted towards the opening. The mage hurried to keep up, and Ava fluttered down to sit on her shoulder. Julie was pretty sure that the unicorn was not real, but some form of magic; Staell spoke directly to her mind while this one spoke aloud. She did note the magic, the way the masonry faded, revealing his body. It was a neat trick,
one that she’d like to learn.
“What’s in the building ahead?” Julie pried as they passed through the broken gate.
“Inside remains unknown to me.”
“Can you speculate?” Ava chimed in.
Julie and Ava both realized the fairy could understand what was said while she sat on Julie’s shoulder. To test this theory, Ava took flight.
“It was built before the fall of the city, that much we can tell, and assumed that Xilor built the temple.”
“A temple for what?”
“Who can tell but the one who built it? The temple did not cause the destruction, rather, it was the epicenter.”
“And what would be the desired agenda at this epicenter instead of somewhere else?”
“That is unclear.”
“What did he say?” Ava asked, settling on Julie’s right shoulder. Julie explained as they waded deeper into the city, drawing closer to the building. “Doesn’t sound like much help if you ask me,” Ava replied upon hearing.
“I agree. Perhaps we will find more answers once inside.”
“You’re more likely to find answers here than in the Melodic Mountains,” the fairy said offhandedly.
“What do you mean?”
“I have never been to Fife’s place, but I’m acquainted with it. Once Fife left, the place vanished, and no one has returned, probably obliterated by Xilor’s army.
“It has to be there,” Julie reassured herself.
“I will, of course, do as you ask.”
They reached the monument without further conversation; the guide stopped shy of the stairs leading up to the front door. “I’ll await your return,” it offered with a dip of its head.
“Thank you.” She made the same gesture before moving past him and up the stairs. Reaching the top, in place of a door, a void of impenetrable shadow veiled the secrets inside, no light or gaze pierced the horizon.
“What is this?” Julie awed.
“I don’t know.”
Julie stepped forward, testing the substance, a light caressing of her fingers. A jarring wave ripped through her, not of power for protection, but an emotional one, an impact of memories and emotions.
What happened here? Julie wondered.
“Are you alright?”
Julie instinctively put her hand on her forehead, hurt from the emotional surge. She reassured her companion. “Yes, I am fine. I don’t know. I got a sense of what happened here like all the memories repressed and pushed into my mind … I can’t describe it.”
“Let me try,” Ava said, pushing off Julie’s shoulders and flying right for the blackness. Before Julie could react, the void swallowed Ava.
“No!”
Almost immediately, the fairy returned. “Mistress, you must come and see this!”
“What’s in there?”
“You will see,” she coyly answered. “Come.”
Julie reached back out, letting the memories and emotions course through her. She stepped into the void.
Her breath rushed out of her in a gasp on the other side. A fleeting cold like ice flickered, evaporating from her skin as she passed the pall. Ava floated in front of her.
A circular room greeted her; in the center, a round podium made of honed granite sat on a tiled floor of sunburst-orange clay. On the podium were six shapes cut out of the stone and arranged in a circular pattern, each different from the last. A seventh carving sat in the innermost.
In addition to the podium, the building boasted two other entrances. Julie noticed that these openings were the same distance from each other. The room was perfectly symmetrical; the temple crafted to mathematical perfection.
With cautious steps, she crept to the center of the room. Closing on the dais, she noted small, acute markings near each carving, each inlay colored to match a different stone: garnet, pearl, aquamarine, ruby, diamond, amethyst, and topaz surrounded the centerpiece.
“This is interesting,” said Julie, bending closer.
“What is?” Ava solicited as she fluttered over towards Julie.
“These markings are nearly identical to the ones in my book. There are slight differences, perhaps for pronunciation.”
“Maybe the same language, just a different dialect,” Ava submitted.
“What is this place?” Julie voiced, more to herself than her companion.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” the other’s voice dripped with exhaustion.
“You might be right,” Julie concurred, glancing at Ava. A frown formed on Julie’s face.
Ava’s voice sounded empty and hollow in the vast open area, but the mage could still hear the slight sound of chimes as she spoke and the hollow whistle that followed the tiny creature. The hairs on the back of Julie’s neck stood on end and goosebumps raced down her skin. A presence watched her. The feeling was familiar, akin to the Corridor, but the room remained vacant. A creeping shudder crawled up her back.
Movement caught Julie’s eye, drawing her back to Ava, who glided towards the floor, not in a graceful manner but unpredictable, sporadic. She wasn’t falling at a rate that would injure her, but her wings beat slower as she progressed to the floor.
“Are you alright?” Julie prompt.
“Yes, mistress,” she slurred. The mage knelt to catch her, but the fairy reached the floor, her legs trembling, folding beneath her. Her head touched the floor, and she lay peacefully. With careful fingers, she touched her.
What in the Shades of the Underworld happened? She looks so fragile.
“As do you,” a voice called out.
Bolting for her feet, the awareness of eyes gazing upon her returned again, stronger than before. “Who are you?” she called out, looking wildly about without seeing no one.
“I am a voice from the past and a guide to the present.”
“What do you want from me? What did you do to my friend?” Julie’s voiced, anxious.
“To bequeath what I have learned. To teach.”
“Seems like everyone is offering that lately,” she countered. Her hand slid to her wand, and she pulled it, the wood reassuring in her grasp.
“As should be expected. It’s not every day you meet a Nephiliam.”
“You got the wrong person. I am not a Nephiliam. I’m not from here. I’m a Wcic.”
The voice laughed, raspy, oily, but not cruel. “That is just a cover. You are not Wcic.”
“Yes, I am, they told me.”
“Who? The people who have been closest to you? It was a lie!” the voice said tartly.
“How do you know that?” she remarked flippantly. While she did not believe the accuracy of his words, there was a cold, creeping chill of truth to them. It was more felt rather than known.
“Because to be a Wcic, you can’t be born in this Realm … and you were.”
***
Chapter 53 : Xilor
Xilor entered the hidden, vacant room. The voice had goaded him into returning, foretelling his impending doom. Of all the atrocities he committed along his path to a better future, for the good of Ermaeyth, his doom was to be beaten by some wretch? The notion was ludicrous. The brazen and bizarre thought managed to elicit a laugh from Xilor, but the more he thought about the unlikelihood, the more it galled him. If the voice foretold of Judas destroying him, Xilor would worry. Judas had nearly defeated him before. But a child? Prodigy or not, she was untrained. Power was nothing without proper training.
Xilor stepped through the door and closed it quietly behind him. He crossed over to the one article in the room, a cabinet. It had been a long time since he opened the bureau, but he was still inside. He opened the doors, and a cubical mirror-like object sat undisturbed but mired in dust. With a few strokes of his fingers, he wiped the motes of dust away. The object did not reflect his image. Instead, it reflected the face of his old master. Though he could have killed him, he placed him in this prison, his eternal prison.
“I have returned, as you knew I would,” Xilor whispered softly.
&nbs
p; The image turned to face him. “What do you want, to see me this time as I prattle on about your fate some more? Fine, you are doomed! Or did you come to gloat about your latest accomplishment again, to cheat death?” the former master said. “There is no cheating the Lord of the Underworld; eventually, you will find that out.”
“You thought it impossible. What a small mind you possess,” Xilor sneered. He paused, cocking his head to the side. “I believe the Lord of the Underworld and I reached an understanding.”
“You haven’t cheated death, only escaped its clutches. There won’t be a second.” the other snorted.
“I did not escape death. You cannot cheat what you are,” Xilor preened.
“That is something you never seem to understand. You cannot change who you are; it is your destiny. Destiny will have its way.”
“I am not trying to change who I am, but becoming what I’m supposed to be.”
“An abomination?” Hadius countered. “All things will be corrected in the end, whether you succeed or not. That is the way of the Time Wardens. Your stupidity will awaken them!”
“You have always been a fool! No wonder I destroyed you when I had the chance! Time Wardens?” he scoffed. “Who can fathom what kind of path I would have taken under your prolonged tutelage. I would be a weak coward, a servant or slave. You were an incompetent old man then, and you fear motivates you now, coward.”
“Fear drives everyone!” Hadius Lacove spat back.
“I fear nothing!”
Hadius was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet, controlled. “Then, you are a bigger fool than I imagined. Those with power can be broken. That is why you sought a solution to mortality.”
The words echoed in Xilor’s ears. It was a drumming, pounding sensation. Everything seemed to stop. Nothing mattered.
